I want to continue speaking to you today about what I have felt is more light and encouraging topics. And I’m going to base my sermon today off of one quick verse. So if you want to follow along, you can turn with me to Philippians 1.
Here, as many of his epistles, Paul is introducing this letter to the Philippian church with a greeting and with thankfulness for the church that he is addressing. A little bit of a hint, I’ll be using this chapter for next week’s sermon; and I’ve already used a passage from this chapter a couple of times in sermons recently, not as a basis of the sermon but to make a small point. When we discussed “the valley of the shadow of death,” we mentioned how even going to be with the Lord is victory, and Paul teetered between the two. Should I die and be with the Lord or should I live and be with you?
So what are we going to talk about today? Let’s take a look at that. Philippians 1:6.
Scripture: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
That is a great verse to remember, and it’s one to file in your memory for times when we struggle with our imperfections and having to forgive ourselves. You know, it’s sometimes hard to forgive others, and it can be even harder sometimes to forgive ourselves.
But this verse also goes to show us that not only will God forgive us, but continue to work in us. It’s not something where we can look at and say, “Well, I messed up. God isn’t going to forgive me, let alone have anything to do with me anymore.”
No, God will continue His work in us. We mess up––that’s only an indication that God is not done with us yet.
We also can’t boast and say, “Well, I think I’m done! Look at me; I’m perfect!”
And I think it’s that way so that God can keep us humble.
God is always working in us, on us and through us, as we allow him.
I want to address a small oddity with the phrasing of how this begins. For most of us, our translation will probably begin this verse with the phrase, “being confident of this…”
In our way of reading or understanding, it may seem as if he’s talking about something previously. Being confident of what? Being confident of what he just said? In other words, is this a ‘therefore’ statement? Therefore, since I am confident of that, my hope is in this––that he who began a good work in you…
But I just want to clarify that the translation should probably say, as some do, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you…”
So it may seem like semantics, or splitting hairs, regarding pointing this detail out, but it’s important. This is what Paul is confident of. This isn’t just a wish or a prayer or a hope.
He is confident that God did begin a good work in each one of the members of the church. Asbury Bible Commentary uses the phrase: inaugurated holiness. It means the start or beginning or launching of our holiness. And Paul is also confident that God will continue his holiness or good work in them, and that it will––with our willingness as disciples––be completed in us as well on the day we see Him in Paradise.
Notice I used the phrase disciples. We’re somewhere in the middle of Season 2 in The Chosen series, and it didn’t take long for us to realize that these disciples weren’t perfect. They weren’t perfect in the beginning when Jesus chose them, and I’ll give you a spoiler, they’re not going to be perfect at the end of this series. Even Jesus’ chosen disciples weren’t perfect until they met Jesus in Paradise.
Also, notice in Paul’s greeting that this is not well-wishing. This is not, like I said, a prayer or a hope. Paul is so confident that this passage has become not just a part of scripture but it has become a promise that we cling to. Paul is so confident of this, that it becomes a promise to the Philippian church and it has become a promise to The Whole Church––the worldwide body of Christ––for all time.
We can be so confident in people and things, can’t we? But when it comes to God, whom we can’t see or hear or touch, it becomes difficult.
It’s easy to place something in the hands of a mechanic that you trust; or a carpenter or plumber. I can place my trust in my earthly father to do what he said. And if he can’t do what he said, I can place my trust in that he’ll call and say that he can’t.
Sometimes we place confidence in ourselves––too much confidence. How many times have you heard about placing confidence in yourself? Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, and we should encourage others to do that so we can see others succeed, but sometimes we flub things up, don’t we?
John McKay, of the NFL, tells a story illustrating the supreme confidence of University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant: “We were out shooting ducks, and finally, after about three hours, here comes one lonely duck. The Bear fires. And that duck is still flying today. But Bear watched the duck flap away, looked at me and said, ‘John, you are witnessing a genuine miracle. There flies a dead duck!’”
James Dobson tells of a friend of his during their days in medical school. One day this man was walking across campus laden with books and briefcase. He passed by a fast food stand, and ordered something to eat and a milkshake to wash it down. He balanced it all on top of his briefcase and began looking for an empty table at which to sit. While looking, the milkshake got the better of him, and he bent down without looking in order to take a sip from the straw. The straw missed his mouth and ended up in his nose. Embarrassed, but not at a loss, he thought that if he straightened up the straw would stay in the shake. But when he lifted his head, the straw came out of the shake and remained in his nose, dripping the milkshake down the front of his suit. In a moment, all his confidence evaporated.
See, when we flub up, or someone we trust makes an error, it becomes hard to place our trust in our Heavenly Father, who can do all things. Why? Well, I mentioned this not too long ago, but because we’re so used to imperfection, and when we can’t see or hear God, when he doesn’t come through on our ‘drive-thru’ timetable, we become impatient.
We need to remember that even though humans fail us and we fail ourselves, we can be confident in God, even though we can’t call him on the phone or text and ask the status of that situation. We can ask, maybe we can even receive a little something in our spirit as confirmation, but it’s still hard sometimes because that confirmation wanes after a few days.
A.W. Tozer said, “God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.”
Going back to our verse, what does it mean when it comes to God accomplishing the “good work in us?” It’s something that a lot of people try to do themselves, but only God can do it. It is the impossible. Possibly the ultimate impossible. And because it’s the impossible, and because only God can do this work of righteousness in us, we must also be confident of this: that He “who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
I want to reference another verse, Ephesians 2:10. This is a similar statement that Paul gave to the church in Ephesus, but think about how it is worded: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Now, this can easily be used as a different sermon topic since it focuses on doing good works, but it is relatively the same, since righteousness or holiness and good works pretty much go hand in hand. Good works are a result or a fruit of our righteousness.
Jesus said that “43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Got Questions said: If you want to know what is on the inside of a person, you simply watch his actions; listen to what comes out of his mouth on a regular basis. This is not being judgmental; this is being realistic. It went on to say that doing so is, again, not meant to be done judgmentally but as a “fruit inspector.” And to do so is wise as far as whom we trust and let into our lives and so on.
Not to bounce back and forth too much on this, but going back to Ephesians 2, we see that we are meant to do good works. We are meant to bear good fruit, and this is the result of God’s handiwork within us.
Bibleref.com says: God calls us His workmanship or His artwork, from the Greek word poiēma. We are something crafted, with skill and a purpose, by God, for His purposes. Specifically, we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Good works do not give us salvation, but they are absolutely meant to be the result of salvation.
Diana and I have been watching a show on Tubi called “Strange Inheritance.” It’s a neat show about regular people who have inherited irregular things. Sometimes they’ve inherited a million dollar baseball or comic book collection; or a roadside attraction that their father or grandfather started; or a classic car collection…and other times, they inherited hundreds or thousands of things their father or grandfather hand-crafted. Next thing you know, these hand-crafted items are worth a lot of money because they’re so well-made, or this person made a name for themselves in this particular community of “whatever society of handcrafted train-track assembly pieces…”
And this stuff ends up in a museum.
And you see, these children and grandchildren, they never thought this stuff was worth so much to so many people. They just thought, “well, dad just liked spending time on his hobby. And he was a little crazy.”
And you see photos where he’s building things or in his workshop or in the garage puttering with things, rebuilding or refurbishing that old rusty car or whatever it might be.
That’s how God works with us.
I remember I used to have a T-shirt with a ‘57 Chevy on it that said, “Restored.” It had a Bible verse on it, and if I remember correctly, I believe it was from Revelation 21: which says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
That verse in Revelation refers to the end of time as we know it, and the beginning of a new time after The Second Coming and The Millennium. Notice how that comes back around again to our set of verses in Philippians.
Jesus will carry on this good work, this masterful craftsmanship––which is us. This carpenter that will make us. Think of Gepetto in Pinocchio in his shop making this living, breathing puppet in the image of a real boy. I suppose that’s a little overboard, but God crafts us into his image. We’re already physically in his image; he wants to craft our hearts and minds into his image, too.
This is pretty long, but worth reading.
Paul Van Gorder said:
Occasionally when I walk along the beach in Florida, I see the remains of partially built sand castles. Apparently the sculptors got distracted or bored and left their castles unfinished. There is something sad about these ruins. Like the unfinished painting, the half-built house, or the incomplete manuscript, they are a haunting reminder of our human tendency to leave things undone.
[God] always finishes what He has started. All of His masterpieces, planned in eternity past and begun in time, will be brought to fulfillment in eternity future. That’s when each believer will be completely conformed to His image.
As we struggle now to be more Christlike, we can be confident that one day we will reach that goal. God is molding us into trophies of grace, fashioned like His Son. He leaves nothing undone.
The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment;
The growth of a saint is the work of a lifetime.
He went on to say this as well:
Every workman takes pride in a project completed and well-done. I thought of this recently when I visited the site of a new house my friend was building. The foundation had been laid, the walls erected, and the wiring and plumbing installed, but the structure still wasn’t a house. It needed the finishers. Without the woodworkers, the cabinetmakers, the carpet layers, and the painters, the building was incomplete.
We as Christians need a “finisher” too. The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which began at conversion, must continue until the One who began the transformation finishes it. And that can happen only by trusting and obeying Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith,” the One to whom we are being conformed.
God is not the architect of incompleteness.
Numbers 23:19 says:
“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
We may look at God and say, “What’s the trouble? Hurry up!” And sometimes God says, “Well, look at what I have to work with!”
Now, that might be kinda funny, but guess what? It’s true.
I used the illustration of a carpenter or Gepetto. How about a doctor? Ever go to a doctor’s office or dentist and not want to open your mouth or whatever? You know they’ll stick that thing in your mouth and make you gag, right?
Sometimes the dentist has a job to do, and they need your cooperation no matter how much it hurts or makes you feel uncomfortable. It’s like I said a while ago, you may have to bite the bullet, it might hurt.
God can only finish what He started if we let him. God can only act in concert with us. When Diana and Evelyn learn how to ride a horse, or how to train a horse or do some kind of dressage routine, there has to be a relationship with the horse and rider. There has to be some give and take. You can’t just make the horse do something, there has to be trust and it takes time.
Horses are not robots. Usually. Horses are not computers. They can’t be programmed to just do something.
Humans are that way, too. I wish Albany realized that when they make their regulations…but that’s a whole other story.
God, thankfully, understands his creation. We are like horses. We have to have a relationship with God. We must have a ‘give and take’ kind of relationship where we give God the room to do what he wants. We have to be obedient and willing to let God do his thing––to have a good training session, so to speak.
Going back to the idea of a carpenter, we have to be pliable. We have to have that sort of give and take to be molded, crafted and shaped into something, and that something, again, is His image.
God wants to work with us in that way––in a pliable way, not in a malleable way. In other words, pliable suggests something easily flexible. The wood for an acoustic guitar has to be pliable to be shaped the way it is. Malleable applies to what may be pressed or beaten into shape.
God doesn’t want to beat us into shape. He wants a relationship where He is given permission to do His work in us, in much the same way we have to sit in that dentist chair and let that dentist work on our teeth; or let that coach give us that pitching lesson; or let that instructor give us that guitar lesson.
We have to be willing to cooperate and let God work.
And if we make a habit of being a life-long disciple, surrendering ourselves to being like a horse training for a dressage or a boxer being trained for the ring, we can have a lifelong experience of God working in our lives, producing better and better fruit; making us able to do these good works that I think most of us want to do––living a better, more righteous, more holy life that I think most of us want to live. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.
If we didn’t want more of God working actively in our lives in one way or another, we wouldn’t be here. So let’s hold fast to the promise that if we let Him, God will continually work in our lives.
I used the example of a carpenter, a trainer, a doctor. How about an artist? More specifically, a potter.
From Jeremiah 18
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.
And we can replace the name Israel with our own name.
One more story before we close:
This is from David Roper, an author and pastor, who said:
Some friends gave us a piece of Raku pottery. “Each pot is hand-formed,” the tag explained, “a process that allows the spirit of the artist to speak through the finished work with particular directness and intimacy.”
Once the clay has been shaped by the potter it is fired in a kiln. Then, glowing red hot, it is thrust into a smoldering sawdust pile where it remains until finished. The result is a unique product—”one of a kind,” the tag on our piece insists.
So it is with us. We bear the imprint of the Potter’s hand. He too has spoken through His work “with particular directness and intimacy.” Each of us is formed in a unique way for a unique work: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10-note).
But though we are created for good works, we’re not yet finished. We must experience the kiln of affliction. Aching hearts, weary spirits, aging bodies are the processes God uses to finish the work He has begun.
Don’t fear the furnace that surrounds you. Be “patient in tribulation” and await the finished product. “Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:4-note).—David H. Roper
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Ralf Kunze from Pixabay
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