God Who is at Work, Philippians, 2:12-13

Good morning. We will be moving into Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Boy, this is just, I think, just a marvelous couple of verses. I look at it and I just, oh wow, the depth of riches that's in here. Just a little correction on your footer. We have it as 11 and 12, so you'll want to correct that. But 12 and 13 is where we're at. And so Paul is writing, and he says, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Sounds simple enough, right? But it does raise some questions, doesn't it? Obeyed. Uh-oh. Does that mean we're under the law? Isn't obeying just for children? Or, what does he mean by that? There's a good question. Raise the question. We need to answer it, don't we? I think we will. Do you think we should? I think we ought to.

Working out. Now you see that. Now that may cause some real fear and trembling in you. Maybe you're thinking of this. Okay? No? Well, we'll get into that. Okay? But anyway, just a real question. What is it he's talking about here? This working out. Certainly there wasn't any ballets and 24-hour fitnesses around, so what does he mean? Salvation. Do I have to work for it? Okay? What if I stop working? What happens then? Or, what then?

Fear and trembling. Now there's a puzzler. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Does that mean I've got to look like this guy? Does that mean when you put it all together that I have to be scared about earthquakes? What is this thing? What is fear and trembling all about? So we have some questions here, don't we? I think we'd better answer them, don't you? You think we ought to? I think it's a good idea. It's good to keep in mind, Paul is addressing the saints at Philippi about their need to strive together.

Remember that? From verses 127 through 24, he's talking about being single-minded, and he keeps using this word proneo, minded, again and again. He keeps communicating that to them, this singularity that they're to have. And he underscores that again and again in that passage.

He has given them, in what we saw in the last couple of weeks, the example of Christ. He says, alright, you need to understand humility. Let me explain to you what humility looks like. Let's put some flesh and blood on it. Here is Christ. And so he describes what happens with Christ coming to earth, living as a man, and going even to the point of death on a cross, which, as we discovered, was a horribly humiliating death. a death so horrible that people in the Roman Empire and polite company wouldn't even use the word crucifixion or crux, the cross. So what is presented in Philippians 2, 12 and 13? It's intended to further that same message. So what we're looking at isn't just some isolated thought, and we need to keep the flow of thought in context. He is trying to continue that idea in mind.

Here is the example of Christ and we're addressing that issue of disunity among you. Apparently, there was a disunity problem. Otherwise, why keep harping on it? He's addressing that issue of disunity. So as we look at this passage, it's important to keep that in mind. Fix that in your head.

So as we go through this passage, we're going to be looking at specific words, these that we have underlined. And just as a matter of curiosity, here's Paul in the Forum in Rome, and here's the Forum in Philippi. So, middle of town for each. So here's Paul writing at some distance, but he's trying to get at a very critical issue among the saints at Philippi, these people whom he loves. There are some key words we'll want to look at here, and a good one.

Here's this word, beloved, agapetas. It's one's love with an agape love. This agape love is a special kind of love, and as we made a point of before, It's not just the general kind of love like we use the word. I'll say I love the Lord, I love my wife, and I love hot dogs, and use the same word. The Greeks had a specific word, and so they used this word agape to communicate, in most contexts, this idea that self-sacrificial love is a love that gives without expectation of return, and God is the source. This is the way it is used most often in Christian writing, particularly among Paul's writings.

It's important to note here, Paul didn't just have some warm, fuzzy feeling. He didn't say, boy, those people kind of give me the gushies or something. It wasn't just a, you know, I have a fondness for you. But he cared about them with a love that was self-sacrificial. He cared about them with a love that had God as its source. He cared about them with a love that sought their good, whether or not that was what they were asking for. That's the love he's communicating to them.

So when he says beloved, it isn't beloved maybe as we might tend to think of it. This is an incredible love. This is an amazing love that he's using with them. It is not the word that would ordinarily be used by somebody writing a letter and calling someone their beloved. This is a different word. Paul was telling the believers at Philippi that he had an agape love for them.

Alright, now next word. This one obeyed. Oh boy, here's the one we were looking at. Remember, this is a question mark. Now, something else that comes up. Do you notice something in here? Do you see this? Do you see that? See that little squiggle? What does that do?

Okay, if you haven't been with us before, remember, okay? Left arm goes up. It goes like this. The hand curls, okay? And you go, ha! Okay? The H sound, okay? That's that. It has an H sound, so it makes the H sound at the beginning. Hupakulo is the word, okay? And this hupakulo means to under-listen, or we would reverse it in English, listen under. Now, very important we get the point here because Paul is not telling them, hey, I want external obedience. Think about that. Listen under. This has to do with listening and the way that you listen. You see that? So what he's talking about here, it has the idea to listen attentively or with intensity.

Not just an external compliance. It's not just, okay, I did the right thing on the outside, aren't you happy? But it's listening attentively. That's at the core of the word. The idea of obeying, of carrying it out, is implied, but that's not the main point of the Word. It has to do with the way one is listening. And obviously, if someone is listening attentively, they are going to follow through on it. That's the idea. So that, in great part, answers our question about obeying, doesn't it? It has a different significance.

Now look, in 1 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul writes about the Thessalonians actively receiving what he taught. not just passively accepting it. He says, you have received it, but he uses the active mood there, and so what he's saying is, you actively received it. You didn't just say, okay, Paul, give it to me, I'll write it down and we'll see what we can do about it. Instead, he comes across and they are listening.

We would say at the edge of our chair. They were listening and saying, all right, what do you got? We're ready for it. Give it to us. That's what he described, and that conveys the idea of what he's describing here of the Philippians, too. It isn't just, okay, what's the stuff to do, we'll do it, checklist, we got it done. It's the way in which things are received. That's what Paul is putting the attention on here.

The next word, he uses a word pair that is similar to the English. We have this idea of presence, absence. It also has a similar sound there. Parousia and apousia, those two words, and they're basically paired up, alongside presence and from presence, is the idea. The parousia is a coming, and it's often used as the idea of a special coming.

It's not just, hey, I happened to drop by, and that sort of thing, but it's a special coming, it's intentional, and it has significance. He's used it before in Philippians, in chapter 126 there. Apousia means to, it doesn't mean I'm not there, explicitly, it means you're having come away from that previous presence, which is assumed to be special. So it's not just not there, it is having come away from where he's at. Here's the bottom line, I think, from what we're looking at here. The time that Paul had spent with the believers—and remember, he went with Timothy and Dr. Luke and some others there—those were times that were essential. Those were critical. They were important times.

They needed to be equipped. The Philippian saints needed to be equipped. If we look at Ephesians 4, 11-16, it describes that equipping process well. It says those who are equipped are ready to serve. It says that they are no longer whipped and tossed around by different waves of doctrine. And it says they are united as a body, joined with one another. That's that character being equipped. They needed to be taught so that that could take place among them. That was necessary. But his point, he wants them to get a hold of this truth, to grab a hold of it here, but he doesn't want it to depend on him being present. See the difference there? He doesn't want it to depend upon him being present.

For 40 years, I had an uncle that was a missionary in Honduras, and he worked in this little town called Santa Cruz de Guayape. In Santa Cruz de Guayape, was a very backwards, backwoods town. You had to drive along a dry creek bed for miles to get there. Very out-of-the-way place.

But he worked with this little village for 40 years. He even showed them how to make a water wheel, because there was a river running through the village. And how to make a water wheel that would pump water up into their fields. Because every time they'd go through a dry season, they would lose the crops. But what he found was... Oh, one more thing. There was one farmer who actually had a spring up above his field and all he had to do was to route the water down through the crops. And he would get water through the crops and water the crops automatically. Not even any pumping. What he found is when he went on vacation and came back, all come apart.

It depended on my uncle being there. What Paul is telling the saints at Philippi is, don't be like these people at Santo Cruz de Guayape. You don't want to be in a position where you're absolutely dependent upon Paul's presence. He says, you need to be interdependently dependent upon the Lord, independent of me.

That's what he's pointing at here. Application is better than pure academia. We're not going through these Greek words so that we can just learn Greek just for fun. But we're looking at it because application of what the Lord has in mind. The Lord wants it to be put into motion and put into play. Now we're ready for the really good part. Are you ready for the really good part? Okay. Really good part. The word here is work out. And now, just to put your minds at ease, see these guys?

Forget that. This is not what he's talking about. This working out your own salvation doesn't have anything to do with ballets or 24-hour fitness. Don't let him bring up this verse to you when you go to talk to the salesman down at 24-hour fitness or ballets. This doesn't apply. That's not what he's talking about.

You can put your minds at ease. Now, what is he talking about? Here's this word, haragatsumai. I'm not sneezing. This word here has the idea of carry out to the goal or carry on to the finishing point. Now that's important insight, isn't it? It's important to see what the word means and also what it is not. It isn't just exercise. It's not getting the weights out. It's not doing aerobics and those kinds of things.

It's also not working for anything. Notice that significance there. It's not working for something. You are not earning your salvation. It's not a matter of saying, OK, here's your salvation. It's out there, but you've got to work for it. That's not what he's saying. And it's very important that we know that that's not what he's saying. There's no earning something here. It's not something that's out there, and boy, you've got to do it. He's laid it out real clearly here. This word is carrying something to the goal, to the point of completion, to finish it. That's the idea.

It's also not the idea of having this inward salvation and trying to work it outside. That isn't the idea. It isn't like, okay, you've got this salvation, it's inside you, go and try to see if you can come up with some fruit. That's not the idea. We're not trying to crank something up here. It's not that. It's taking our salvation to its logical conclusion.

Paul has given the life of Christ as an example to the believers. Remember that when we went through the verses before? He's given the example of the life of Christ to the believers in chapter 2, 5 through 11 there, and told them first about how Christ came down to earth and even humbled himself to the point of death on the cross, and then was given all glory, he's given them that example of Christ himself. Not as an example in this way, okay, here's the example, give it your best, try to be like him. Okay?

That's not the point. The point that he makes, excuse me, the point that he makes, he's now pleading for the reality of Christ's life and the believers of Philippi. That's what he's asking for. Okay? He's looking for that reality. He's looking for that to be worked out in their very lives. He wants that. Why?

It's not that just being one is the primary goal, but that if they have and live the life of Christ as believers, by the life of Christ as believers, then this unity issue will take care of itself. That's what he's getting them to look to, to aim at. That's the point. Now, let's look at this work out your own salvation. Here's what Paul is looking at here.

We have on the one end, we're united with Christ, or we would also say we've been identified with Christ. We've been identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. So we've been identified with Christ in those things. And then, at the other end, we have this being raptured.

And by the way, all believers will be raptured. It's not just those who are around when the Lord takes us up. Because remember, it's those who are dead in Christ who will rise first. And then those who are alive. So all believers will be raptured. Don't worry about being left behind if you're a believer. All believers are raptured. Every one of us. You got this point when you've been united with Christ, identified with Christ, at the point of belief. You're there? Okay.

And then at the other end, we're raptured. What happens in between? We're just kind of waiting around? Sort of Christian twiddling of thumbs? Is that what it is? Are we just sort of treading water while we're waiting? Okay, Lord, anytime. I'm getting tired. Okay? Is that the idea? No. What he is saying here He's talking about this period of time in between.

That's just working out your salvation. The salvation has begun here. What he is looking for is, since you already have this position in Christ, this is your own, and notice that this your own, what does that tell you? You already got it. You have the salvation. You have this position in Christ already. Carry that position in Christ to its logical conclusion in your condition, from the starting point to the finish.

That's what he's aiming at. Right here, right now, he's telling us believers in this context, he wants to see that condition consistent with our position. He wants us to live daily from our position, so that that condition is lived out moment by moment. based on our position. All right, let's look at a key phrase.

This is another one that sort of caught us to thinking here. Fear and trembling. This fear and trembling, phobos kai tromo. Phobos means respect and regard. That's the idea. It doesn't mean, oh no, I'm a Christian. It doesn't mean, oh no, now I'm saved. Boy, isn't that scary, eh? It means respect and regard. He puts those together. Kai is and. Trumaut, here is profound reverence.

What he's trying to get at here is, do you have a sense of what this position that you have in Christ means? Has it grabbed you? Has it hit you? Has it hit home? Saying Philippians, the ones whom I love, has it hit you the immensity of what the Lord has done? Has it struck you what God has accomplished in your life? What that salvation means?

That's what he's saying. That's why he writes to the church at Ephesus and he gets writing in the first chapter there, and after he says, Hi, I'm Paul, and he tells him he's been blessed with every spiritual blessing, his pen just takes off in turbo mode, okay? All the way down to verse 14 is one sentence in the Greek.

And then he gets into verse 18, and he's saying, I desire that the eyes of your hearts be opened. You see, we think of these things, and of course, sometimes I've got to help them, right? I've got these things. He's saying, in our hearts we have eyes too. And he says, those eyes I want to see. Those are the eyes that count.

Because I want you to see how the Lord has blessed you. I want you to see all the ways and the full depth and dimension of how you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He is pointing out here to the Philippians, he doesn't want to have them sit there and shiver and shake. That's not the point. The idea is he wants them to have a full sense of the awesome position they have in Christ and who Christ is. That's his point. Several years back, I had to redo the roof on our house in Carson City. And it's a two-story house. And so, you know, you've got various people working on the roof, helping them, friends coming over, and that was very helpful.

But the one thing is, you know, there's this thing called the edge, you know. And if you look down, you'll notice there's quite a ways down there. It's amazing, it looks more when you're on top looking down than when you're down looking up. So you've got this thing on the edge. Now, at the one hand, you could get locked up by the fear of this edge and not get anything done. On the other hand, if you don't have a proper respect for that edge, being casual is not a good idea about this thing. That edge is really a serious edge. So he's wanting them to get a realistic understanding of what's going on. Not so they get so afraid they can't do anything. Not so that they're so shaken up they're just locked up. But he also says, don't take the salvation so casually that you... Yes, it's free. Yes, you have freedom in Christ. And it is a marvelous thing. But understand the awesomeness of the Lord and what He has done for you. Get that. Get the point. That's what he's wanting to get across to them.

Paul wants them to have a realistic understanding of who God is. He wants them to have a realistic understanding of what God has done in the believer's life. We spent basically six months in the elective before, Who You Are in Christ, going over all those things of what the Lord has done in the believer's life, and we just hit the high spots in six months. He wants them to have an understanding, this is kind of the edge principle, of the consequences of letting the sinful nature call the shots. And in the end, the bottom line is he wants them to have an awesome understanding of the glory of Christ, the one whom we behold.

All right, let's look at this work word here. God is the one who is working. And look at their The Greek is energeo. Sound familiar? It's where we get the word energy. It means effectively at work. I'll use the word energizing here because I think it's a good one to get the point across. Actively providing the resources for the outcome. That's the point of that word.

Paul doesn't say that they should be working real hard to impress God out of their own energies. Well, I'm going to work really hard for God. Some churches will have a service in which they'll ask people to come up and re-dedicate their lives. Some people will go off to some camp or some retreat and they'll come back and, boy, I'm really ready to go for the gusto.

And he says, no, that's not what we're looking for. This isn't a matter of impressing God with how jazzed I am. rather they're to carry out the salvation that they already have in Christ to a conclusion because God is the one energizing it. It's not theirs to do. Get that? It's not theirs to do. That's what he's telling them. He says, work out your own salvation, but let me tell you the context. God is the one who does the working. He's the one who does the energizing. God is at work. Simple statement.

Now, here's this Greek word, N. Now, you might be thinking, Vern, how come you're taking up a whole slide for a little tiny word like this? Well, in this case it's important. We're not going to let it go. We'll ignore this guy, though. We have this idea here. Here's this Greek word, and he uses this word N, and it means entirely within. And he's speaking to you, plural. God is at work in you, plural. So we'll put that in there. God is at work entirely within you, all of you. That's his point. God isn't working and you happen to be incidental. We aren't just letting it say, Hey God! Hey God, remember me? It's not that at all. God is at work in you. Statement of fact. Here's the next one that comes up there, this word will. to have in mind is intent and purpose.

When the Lord energizes us, it isn't just sort of accidental. It isn't kind of like lightning and it strikes somewhere and it happens to zap a few other things. Lightning is one of these things that there's such power that a lot of times other incidental things will get hit that are nearby. That isn't what we're looking for. God's energizing of us is not something incidental, accidental, or peripheral. It is central to what God is doing. Imagine this, what it's saying is God is intentionally, with intent and purpose, energizing you. Now, the next word that comes out here, here's this word work again. In the King James it says do, but it's actually the same word again. When Paul repeats a word, what is he doing?

He is emphasizing. He's bringing this point home. He wants there to be no uncertain understanding in their minds. He wants them to understand it is God who is at work. He is the one doing the willing with intent, with purpose. And he focuses again on this word, energeo. He is effectively at work. It is God who does the work to produce the outcome.

It is, there is no gain in our saying, boy, I can crank it up, Lord. Lord, I can do it. I know I've failed before, but boy, this time I'm serious. Okay? That is not what he has in mind. Okay? He's not saying, now you're going to really crank it up. But instead, God is the one who does the energizing. It is his. Period.

There isn't the least expectation that we are to do the work from our own resources. final statement. Now let's look at this phrase, to will and to work. This is on the back side of your handout there. The Greek words behind will and work, phalo and intergal, each have a definite article in front of them. And a lot of you will have those blue Greek interlinears, and you can check that out if you'd like. The definite articles in front of each of those words, and so Each of those words, thalo and energe, are also present infinitives.

So let's put that together. What does that mean? The idea that Paul's trying to get across to us in this phrase is it's the continual willing and the continual energizing. So how about that? It isn't just God's doing it and isn't that nice, but it's specific.

And it's ongoing. Have you ever had a problem with your car where you kind of put the gas on, and all of a sudden it just goes, and then it stops, and then it goes again, and then it stops? I see some puzzled looks. It's happened to me. Anyway, the car is not demon-possessed, but it's having some kind of mechanical problem, right? And so it's this kind of sputter, you know, stop-start thing.

The reality is that the Lord is not looking to do that in us, okay? We're not doing the stop, start, stutter, jerk, you know, thing. That's not the way the Lord energizes us. That's not the Lord's will for us to do. The Lord is looking at this being continual.

And it is specific. It isn't incidental. And so he puts the definite articles there. The continual willing and the continual energizing. God is very intent on that. If you're sitting here this morning, God is not leaving you out of this picture. He says, the continual willing, the continual energizing, for you. That's right, you. I won't list all the names, but I mean each one of you.

It's specific, it's unique, and it's ongoing. Good pleasure. This is an interesting one. We've actually seen it before, earlier in the first chapter. Eudokia, good intent, benevolence is the idea. God has eternally good intent for us and what he does in us as he energizes us. Now that's a good thing, isn't it? That's a really good thing.

This can't be said of the sinful nature. Does the sinful nature have good intent for you? Does the sinful nature have a purpose? And something planned out? No. The sinful nature has no such thing in mind. Sinful nature is not going to carry this out.

Pleasing God isn't simply a matter of our doing the right thing, but of His ongoing willing and His energizing of us. What situation have you got? Have you got a tight spot at work? That's the situation where He is doing the willing and the energizing. Tough time at home? Same thing. Your body not cooperating? Same thing, okay? He is doing the willing and the energizing. It's his intent in each of those situations. Every single circumstance we get into.

Not just here at church on a Sunday morning. Let's take a look at something here. I think there's something that kind of escapes us in terms of how radical a statement Paul is making to the people. Here is the plan of the center of town of Philippi. Notice here, look at all these pagan temples. And here's the forum, which I keep showing shots of. There's a temple here, and a temple there, and there's a temple there, and another one here, and there's one there, and by the way, there's some others that aren't in the picture. There's another one over by the theater, and there's another one on top of the hill, and a whole bunch of other little monuments elsewhere.

They were painfully, constantly afraid of not pleasing the gods. It was so severe, you read in Acts 17, Paul even goes to a a related culture, the culture at Athens, and they've got an altar to the unknown god, just in case they miss one. So they're making sure they don't miss one. The pagan people were constantly fearful they might miss somebody or offend one. Because the gods were capricious, and the gods were all over the place, and you might be in the middle of a conflict between two of the gods.

And that was a horrible thing to get caught in the middle of. Here's the thought they had. We have our English word enthusiasm. It's based on the Greek word entheos. That means that God is in you, okay? And here's the examples of the way they looked at it. Dionysius, okay? Dionysius had this kind of a God in you idea, and that is they would get drunk.

That's what Ephesians 5.18 is addressing, by the way. They would get drunk, very drunk, And if you had the God in you, it would express itself by people getting together and tearing live animals apart with their hands. That's what it was like to have God in you. But the God came and went, obviously, when you got over being drunk and had the hangover, then the God was gone. And you had to get the God in you again. Or, here's another one. Here's Athena. Athena, you see this? Shield. Sword. Athena was the goddess of war.

So the soldiers wanted to make sure they didn't offend the goddess Athena, so they got to cover that base too. And so if you were a soldier, you wanted to have enthusiasm, you wanted to have the god in you when you're out there battling. But the next time you had to do another sacrifice because the god went away. They were constantly afraid of the god coming and going, and the god somehow being offended. They had to appease the gods, and constantly plead for the gods to come back.

So here we look at the Forum at Philippi, and here's some of these temple ruins in the foreground here. It was very central to where they were at. If you walked the town, if you went to the theater, you're going to go by these temples. You're going to see them. They were very central to the people's thinking.

They were constantly fearful of offending one of these gods and not covering the bases, so to speak. So what Paul was telling them was unique in the context of their culture, These Greek and Roman people would look to their gods to energize them in a specific way, because the gods only had specific powers.

Athena could only help you if you were in war. And they had another god that would handle the case of dealing with your crops, and another god for fertility, and another god for something else. And they had different gods for different things. And the god might get offended, and you had to do various things to appease the god.

There was always a threat that god might be mad. They were constantly fearful. And so here, what Paul is saying, these pagan gods were thought not only to energize, they were thought to only energize a person for a specific time. So these Greek and Roman gods were not benevolent in their intent. So here's what Paul is saying about the God, not just one of them, the God. He is what the pagan gods were not, always willing and energizing for all purposes and always with benevolent intent.

That is something that they had never seen before. They said, wow, you're kidding. Wow, that's phenomenal. That's wonderful. This is a God like we've never seen. Now, you might say, well, that's great, but we don't have those here. But guess what? Our modern culture tells us to depend upon gods that are exactly the same way. Gods that are temporal, things that come and go. Our modern culture tells us to depend upon things that are uncertain about on things that only have effect in certain areas. So we're getting that message from our culture all the time. And it may look different, but it's really not. Our culture is telling us the same thing. This is ever as much good news now as it was then. Ever as much.

Let's take a look at what this passage looks like when we put the parts and pieces together here. And you have this on the backside of your handout at the end there. So then, so he's making a logical statement, it's based on the things that are in the verses from before. The ones whom I love with a love having God as its origin, and I actually shortened that because we could expand that, a love having God as its origin, a love that is sacrificial, a love that is not looking for anything in return. Okay? Isn't that what's being said there? Those are the things that he's bringing across.

Just as you have always, and I replaced the word obeying, to listen attentively to what I have taught with the intent of application. That makes it deeper than just, okay, checklist, outside, did this. Not only with my special presence alongside you, this is a Parousia word, special presence alongside you, but now much more in my absence. and that absence not being just a never having been there, but having come away from that special presence.

You must, and this is an imperative, he gives an imperative, but we have to understand the imperative. The imperative is not a command with some sort of a sword hanging over you, with a hammer over your head, but the imperative says it is a logical consequence.

You must, as a logical conclusion, spring from your position of salvation, which you already have. That's why it says, your salvation. It's one you've already got. Take it to its conclusion in your present condition with respect and profound reverence. Take it to its conclusion. You have this position, take it to its conclusion. That's what he's telling you. For it is God who is constantly, actively energizing in you, through both the having in mind for his purpose and the actively energizing all under the benevolent intent of him. Looking at this passage, it is wonderful to look at it.

It isn't about working out. Don't mind if you do, but it's not what it's about. It's not working for something. It is not, okay, now really get serious and crank this up because you've got to put it out, you know. It's not that. It is not asking the Lord, okay Lord, you know, fall afresh on me. It's not asking that.

It's saying it is God's benevolent intent to be continuously and constantly energizing you, that is His will, He says, I want you to understand that, so that from the time when you became a believer and were united with Christ, up until the time where the rapture takes place and you go to be with Him, you're constantly in your condition, living from your position. Have you been seated in the heavenlies? Live there. That's what he's saying.

One of the other things to look at, he brings out the point of his will. And you know, a lot of believers, I've talked to a lot of believers over the years, and a lot of them will really struggle over the issue of God's will. People will think about, should I buy this house? Should I get married to this person? Should we move here? You know, those kinds of decisions. And people will get just really racked trying to figure that one out. And what they're tending to look for is the yellow brick road. They're looking for the golden path.

If I am on this golden path, that's the primary content of God's will. But do you see what God's will is really all about? It's not pick the right path, primarily. Instead, God's will is... First of all, we know it's benevolent. But God's will for you is that He energize you, that He be the one Now that you're a believer and have been saved, you have that union with Christ, that being united with Him. Now that you're a believer, God's primary will has to do with His life in you and that being lived out, not what, you know, where is the yellow brick road.

One of the things you notice as you go through the book of Acts, there are very few instances, and that was a rather miraculous period of time, right? Here's the apostles, and the Lord was doing miracles through them, you see very few instances of a miraculous do this, not that.

Instead, here is Paul who constantly had issues of, should I go to this church or that one? Should I stay here or go there? And what you see Paul telling the people is not, okay, pick this route, not that one. He keeps coming back to God's willing has to do with his life and you.

That's his will. If you're looking for God's will, start there. The rest of it is easy. An interesting point, you do not see the apostles torturing over trying to figure out where's that yellow brick road, where's the golden path. Instead, they're focusing upon beholding the Lord Jesus Christ and His life in them.

Let's pray. We thank you. As we look at this passage, we started off with some questions. And yet, Lord, we see the answers come through loud and clear. Our salvation, it is ours. And there is nothing of that to work for. But Lord, as we look at this, we do pray that the eyes of our hearts might be opened, that we might see what indeed it is that you have done in our lives and how you are how you have blessed us and that it is your continuous intent to energize us and to be the very life of us.

And not just each of us individually, but us corporately. And Lord, we give you thanks for that marvelous thing. May we learn that even as we come towards the end of our time here this morning, as we gather together afterwards and go different ways. It is your intent that you energize and be the life among all of us, individually and corporately. And Lord, what a marvelous thing that is. We pray that we might see it increasingly, moment by moment, as we behold you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.