Willow Ridge Sermons

Sunday, August 28th • Beau Bradberry

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." — Philippians 2:3

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Show Notes

August 28th, 2022 • "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." — Philippians 2:3

–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch

Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

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Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

Man, there's a lot going on around here, right?

Normally, I walk out, and it's like I got like a minute to get stuff ready.

And so I walked out, sat down, and I was like, oh, about three and a half.

I'm going to go over here.

But there's a lot of exciting stuff going on at Willow Ridge Church, and there's something

for everyone here.

And so maybe something grabs your attention on that announcements.

Maybe getting connected with a small group with Dave is what you want to do.

But we would love to have you join us in the life of this congregation as we grow closer

together and closer to the Lord.

I am excited about tonight, all right?

So I don't know about you, but maybe some people are excited about bingo, and some people are

not excited about bingo.

Here's what I'll tell you.

This ain't your great-grandmama's bingo that we're going to play here tonight, all right?

All I'm going to say is, Mike sees like I'm ready for this, right?

This is bingo Willow Ridge style.

So that's all I'm going to say about it.

So we'd like to have you come back tonight as we have a whole lot of fun with a whole

lot of food with our church family tonight.

And so we'll spend time doing that together.

Also, next Sunday, we're going to conclude our series on discipleship by looking at discipleship

and the family.

So very specific.

You guys know, we'll talk about this in a minute.

We've been working through some topics with discipleship.

So it'll be discipleship in the family.

And so what we're going to do next Sunday is we're going to have a time of family worship

in our service next week, which is a little bit different than what we normally do.

So let's kind of talk about what this looks like a little bit.

So next week in the worship service with us, we're going to have threes and up with us.

So three-year-olds and up with us in our service, all right?

Babies to twos, they'll still have their rooms here in building one, but threes and older

will be here.

So what does this mean?

All right, we're going to shorten things up with what we do, I promise, all right?

Especially my teaching.

I'm only going to preach for 51, not 53 minutes next week, all right?

So we're going to tighten that up a little bit so that parents, you can help kind of keep

their attention.

No, we're going to shorten things down.

We're going to, if you've been with us on a Christmas Eve service before, kind of think

what that looks like because we want to have an opportunity to engage your whole family

in that, right?

While still being faithful to God's word and God's worship that he's called us to.

All right?

Next Sunday, with everybody in here, we will partake in the Lord's Supper together.

Now, Dawn and her team have done a wonderful job of putting together a resource, parents,

that's available to you.

She emailed it out this week.

It's available on Facebook.

And you can also pick up a copy at a check-in station about talking with your kids about

the Lord's Supper, what that is and what that means so that you are ready as a family with

all those questions asked about what that looks like next week for y'all.

If you have any questions, please contact us this week and we would love to answer those.

So let's go ahead and get this out on the table.

All right?

Here's what it means.

Next week is going to be a little louder.

All right?

Next week is going to be a little bit more movement in the room.

It's going to be a little bit of chaos.

And that is absolutely okay.

It's absolutely okay.

Here is the goal next week.

Parents, Willow Ridge Church members, grandparents, our kids need to not just know that we go

to worship, but our kids need to know that we worship and they need to worship with us.

All right?

So from my heart, right, to yours, next week, this is not a reason to take Sunday off.

It's not.

It might be a little bit of inconvenience for some of us, but it's not a reason to take

it off.

It's part of discipleship and we're excited about what the Lord's doing.

And so please, please join us for this.

So as we continue on in our discipleship series, right, we've been largely looking for the last

three weeks as discipleship in the context of the local body of believers.

And so we've looked at Willow Ridge Church specifically in this, in the application.

So we talked about discipleship and church membership, like there's a level of value of commitment

and what we're doing and what we want, an acknowledgement from you of, yes, we're part of this flock.

We're part of this body.

We're committed into the vision, into the leadership of where we're going.

And we're committed into all of us as a body of believers saying we're investing in this

as a church family.

And then the week after that, we talked about discipleship in the community and community.

And we looked at that in Acts chapter two of what did the early church, what were their

behaviors, what were their practices and how did that build in among them some disciplines

to help them grow closer, not only to each other, but closer to the Lord.

As the Lord gives us one another and a beautiful relationship to come alongside, to help, to encourage

and push each other toward more being like Christ.

And then last week we talked about discipleship and serving, that we're a part of the body of

Christ and that the local congregation is a reflection of that.

And so each one of us plays an important and vital role in there as we form the body so that

the body can be as efficient as God has created it to be, to see more and more men, women, and

children hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then grow

in their relationship with Christ.

And so we need all of us get in the game, all right?

It's what Paul, it's what scripture calls us to.

And every week we've gone through this though, because when we hear of discipleship, our tendency

can oftentimes be in our hearts to think that discipleship is a program, that discipleship

is something that I go to, that discipleship is a night of the week or a morning, and I can

check that box and move on from it.

And so we want to build in through this, that discipleship is not that.

It's not that.

Going to a small group does not check the box of discipleship and you're done.

Signing up for a class does not check the box of discipleship and then you're done.

That's not at all what we see with Jesus.

Jesus comes up to his early first disciples and he says, follow me, not to a building to

take a class, but follow me in every aspect, in every part of your life so that you can become

more and more like Jesus.

And he says, I'm going to make you fishers of men.

I'm going to produce something in you so that you live on mission for the Lord of what he's

called you and created you to be.

And that's what discipleship is.

So discipleship for us should weave into every aspect of our life.

So is small group an avenue to help us in the discipleship process?

Yes.

Is are these classes a piece to help us in that?

Yes.

Is what we're doing on Sunday morning a piece of that?

Yes.

Is what Joel does up in this room on Sunday morning with our students a part of that?

Yes.

Is what Don does with our kids over there and that?

Yes.

But there's so much more.

And so discipleship is about van rides.

When you drop your kids off at school, it's about lunches with your coworkers that are fellow

believers in Christ.

That discipleship is the conversation between you and your spouse as you challenge each other.

That discipleship is all of this.

So what we find in Christian discipleship, it's both the formal and the informal process that

we go through to become more like Christ, more invested in his mission, in every aspect of

his life.

So I'm not just a disciple when I'm at church.

I'm a disciple in every avenue, in every season, in every stage of life that where God places me.

And so largely we've looked at discipleship in the context of the local body.

But today we're going to take a step closer into, not farther up to see more, but we're

going to take a step closer in this and we're going to look at discipleship and personal

responsibility.

And here's what I mean by personal responsibility.

God is a wonderful gift and he's gracious to us as he gives us the Holy Spirit when we're

saved, who works in us to produce in us, right, the fruit of the Spirit that we talked about

this summer and to help us make us more into the likeness of Christ.

God gives us his Spirit who dwells inside of us.

It's what we see happen on Pentecost and it's what happens at salvation for all believers.

And this is what God gives us.

But God also gives us the community of fellow believers, right?

What we've been talking about who surround us to encourage us and to walk through this.

But with all of that, you and I individually need to take responsibility for growing in our

faith.

Here's what I mean by that.

We say all the time we don't like excuses and we don't.

But how many times have we used the excuse about where we are in our immaturity in Christ and

blaming it on someone else?

I have to take responsibility for my growth and my commitment in Christ.

But here's the deal.

We're going to begin with this and then we're going to work through.

But oftentimes I think there can be the misconception that as we say we're going to take responsibility

for growing in and maturing in our relationship with Christ, that that's easy, right?

That it just happens.

That we just can wake up every morning and spiritually speaking become a couch potato and just grow

in our relationship with the Lord.

But that's not the case.

And you know that if you're honest with yourself about your walk with the Lord.

And what we see is what scripture points to us.

So before we get to Philippians, I want to read a couple different passages in 2 Timothy 2,

starting in verse 3.

It'll be up on the screen.

Paul writes and he says,

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

So Paul writes here and he says like here is some comparisons in the life of a believer of what it means to follow the Lord.

He said it's a soldier.

It's a soldier.

I don't know.

I have the utmost respect for the men and women who sign up to be a part of our armed forces and what they go through and what they prepare for.

Because what they're preparing for day in and day out is a violent battle.

That's what they're preparing for.

And most of us were unwilling to sign up for what they signed up for.

And Paul says that as we think through what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, it's like a soldier, right?

He gives the picture of an athlete, right?

An athlete does not hang out on the couch.

An athlete works to prepare their body through vigorous training so that they can compete, so that they can follow the rules to not have to skim by into what they have to do.

He describes it as a farmer who works against forces beyond what they can control in order to produce something in a crop that is at its core very frail.

And so Paul says, being a follower of Jesus is this, a soldier, an athlete, a farmer, not easy.

In 1 Corinthians 9, he says this starting in verse 24.

He says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

So I do not run aimlessly.

I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control.

Lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.

And so Paul says within here, within this difficulty of this journey, he gives two descriptions of what must be done.

He says, practice self-control.

At the core, denying yourself.

He says, practice discipline.

Discipline means pushing oneself to something that isn't what the flesh desires, right?

It's not hard.

I'll pick on me, all right?

It's not hard at the buffet to say, you know what?

I'm going to be disciplined.

Three bowls of ice cream today, right?

That's not discipline.

Discipline, let's begin, says I'm not going to go to the buffet, right?

But if I do, there's restraint, there's discipline, denying of what the flesh wants.

So we see these, and Jesus, in his own words, in Luke chapter 14, he says, if you're going to be a disciple, if you're going to be one of my followers, then here's what you need to do.

You need to count the costs.

Because at the core of what Jesus is calling us to, there's no gotchas.

There's no gotchas.

Have you ever signed up for a deal that you're like, this deal is too good to be true?

I found in my life, if I ever think this is too good to be true, guess what?

It's too good to be true, and it's not true, right?

And at some point in time, there's the gotcha.

You didn't know what you were signing up for.

And Jesus says, I want you to understand in following me, there is no gotchas.

There is no bait and switch.

There is no, this is going to be easy, right?

Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me.

That's what the gospel demands from us.

So as we look at what it means to be a disciple of Christ, right?

We got to understand it's difficult.

Yesterday, I was meeting with a group of people and talking to them

about sharing their testimony, right?

How to build your story in Christ and tell your story to those who are far from God

or don't know God.

And we walk through this.

It's really at its core, what you've got to get past is the layer of being uncomfortable.

What you've got to work past is your level of shyness,

because it's not difficult at all to share your story.

Yes, arguing scripture and apologetics may be difficult, but sharing your story is really

only answering four questions.

Number one, what was your life like before Jesus?

Right?

We can all describe that really well.

You know what your life was like before you got saved.

Question number two, how did Jesus grab your attention?

Right?

Was it at a youth conference when you were a kid?

Was it a conversation with your parent?

Was it a conversation with a coworker?

Was it coming to a worship service?

What did God do to grab your attention?

Number three, how did you respond?

Did you fill out a card?

Did you say a prayer?

Was it a conversation?

Was it a commitment?

What did that look like for you?

But question number four is where we seem to land on the most.

It was this, what has your life been like since?

And here's the deal.

Our temptation oftentimes is to say, well, since being saved, my life has been perfect and

easy because Christ is in it.

Now I'm going to ask you this.

How many of you could raise your hand and say, right now your life is perfect and easy?

None of us.

It isn't true because Paul later on in 2 Timothy 4, he says, here's what his life is looking

like as it ends, as it heads toward the end.

He says, I fought the fight.

I finished the race.

I kept the faith.

Right?

The perseverance of the faithfulness of the Lord.

So if you came here today hoping to hear us say, hey man, sign up to love Jesus and everything's

just going to magically work out.

I'm sorry.

That's not the gospel.

That's not what scripture teaches us.

It's not easy.

And if you and I are saying yes to growing as disciples of Christ, then we have to understand

that spiritually speaking, it's not a day at the spa.

But it's, it's grueling work that he calls us to.

But here's the deal.

It's so worth it.

It's so worth it to watch the beauty of what he's done.

When a runner finishes the race, they never regret that they ran it.

They'll acknowledge how difficult it is, but how beautiful it was to cross the finish.

And brother and sister in Christ, as you're going through and facing what you're going through,

here's the bit of encouragement.

As we run, it is difficult.

But when we cross that finish line, amen, it is worth it.

It's so, so worth it.

So let's start.

Let's look at Philippians 2, let's look at verses 1 through 4.

So Paul writes to the church at Philippi.

He says, starting in verse 1, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love,

any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love,

being in full accord of one and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,

but in humility count others more significant than yourself.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest,

but also to the interest of others.

So what I want us to see, what we begin to grasp from this,

is that the gospel demands difficult growth.

Not easy growth, difficult growth.

Paul's writing this to the church.

And his audience that he's appealing to is believers.

Look back at verse 1.

So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love,

any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy.

So his call is not for all people in some universal ethical modification

where the whole world gathers together and holds hands

and talks about how much we love each other.

That's not it.

It's a command of Christ for the church.

If you've experienced the encouragement and the love of Christ,

if you've felt the work of the Spirit of God in your life,

if you know the love of God and the grace he gives,

then here's what he's got for you.

Here's the demands that Paul's going to lay out for you in doing this.

So church, if you're here and you say, I'm a follower of Jesus,

then you don't get to say, but this doesn't apply to me.

This isn't what I'm about.

Well, I'm not ready for this yet.

No, this is the call.

And as Paul writes, he says, and this is going to be on surface level.

This is beyond just cleaning up the outside of what's there.

This is a deep rooted work in you.

He says, look, be of the same mind.

Be of the same love.

Find yourself in full accord.

What he means is without dissension amongst you, right?

That's hard enough to work out with two people.

And Paul throws this out to this body of believers.

And then in verses three and four,

he gives us what I believe are some of the most difficult verses in the Bible for us to try to fake.

He says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,

but in humility, count others more significant than yourself.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

So this is how the gospel, right, demands difficult growth.

It's involved in humility.

It's involved in setting other things aside.

I got to think about this this morning.

How easy would Christianity be if it was a list of five or six things that we make sure we do every day?

Like how easy would Christianity be if what we have to do is, hey, every day, wake up and say these five prayers?

How easy would Christianity be if it said every day, make sure you do three nice things for three different people?

How easy would Christianity be if it was wake up every morning and read your Bible 20 minutes a day?

Nothing more, nothing less.

That's easy.

That's routine.

That's checking boxes.

But here's what Paul says.

You do nothing from selfish ambition, even if you feel justified for it.

Even if it's your core, you know and you feel that you're right, and everyone else says that you're right,

and it's going to profit you, search your heart, and if it's of selfish ambition, you don't do it.

Paul says count others, others here is all others, more significant than yourself.

Whew.

Right?

All others.

You mean just 20 minutes a day or all others?

No, all others.

And then understand that at your core, your actions affect others,

and so always, always consider them.

So I remember, right after I got married, Aaron and I got married,

I had the realization, I can't just think about me anymore.

Right?

And then years later, God said, I'm going to ramp that up a little bit more in your life, right?

You don't get one kid, you get two, you know?

And so now I can't.

There's not mine.

There's not me.

There's not I.

There is us.

And we are together.

And Paul says, and this is how we think of all others, in every aspect of who we are.

And so the gospel demands difficult growth.

It doesn't suggest it.

It doesn't say when it's convenient for us, this is how we're to be.

It doesn't say, as you get more established in your life, that this is what you're to embody.

Paul says, if you have partaken in the encouragement and the love of Christ, then this is for you.

So 13-year-olds, this is for you.

33-year-olds, this is for you.

77-year-olds, this is for you.

If you are here, if you're a follower of Jesus, this is for us.

And it hits the pastor in the gut just as much as it hits you in the gut.

Not suggestions, but the demands.

And then he continues on.

Philippians 2, starting in verse 5.

Have this mind amongst yourselves, Paul writes, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men,

and being found in human form, he humbled himself by coming obedient to the point of death,

even death on the cross.

Verse 9, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So Paul doesn't roll out a verse 4 and say, discuss this amongst yourselves and elect from yourselves

someone to set at the standard, who's getting this right.

He comes back in verse 5.

Now, the early church would take this passage of Scripture.

This is just a side piece right there, but it was so valuable and important to them

that these verses that we just read is one of the early hymns that the early church would sing.

He says, I'm going to give you this picture of having this in mind,

and what Paul displays before them is the obedience of Jesus.

And so here in this, Jesus is the model, Jesus is the standard, Jesus is the goal.

So there can be nothing more because he's Jesus.

And anything else compared is drastically, right, less.

And he says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

So yes, others may exemplify a life with Christ, but he is the standard.

And so Paul does in these few verses, walks through and outlines a lot of the life of Jesus here on this earth.

And he says, what we see from Christ, that we're to embody, that we're to become, that we're to see working out in us,

is some of the most difficult things as he embodied that in perfection, and you and I are battling through this in our lives.

We see the humility of Christ, that Christ being fully God, but also fully man, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped.

Was he God, yes, yes, but his embodiment of humility in his ministry as he came to do the will of the Father.

So we see the humility of Christ as our standard.

We see the sacrifice of Christ.

He emptied himself, the form of a servant, the likeness of man.

Oftentimes, we think of the sacrifice of Jesus, and we think only of the cross.

And I don't mean only as minimizing it.

It's the most beautiful work ever been done.

As he died and paid for the sins of all of mankind so that life could be found in him.

But in every aspect of his life, was there a form of sacrifice?

He is royalty, and he took on the form of a servant.

He is God, and he took on the likeness of man, the sacrifice of Christ.

Every moment from the manger to the cross is a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus in everything that he did.

And in that, thinking of others, death on the cross.

And then this is the standard.

This is the model.

This is the example that is you and I take personal responsibility for what God is calling us to,

where God is setting us, that Jesus is the standard.

So let's just go ahead and deal with some of the obvious, right?

You and I, we can't die for the sins of the world.

We can't do it.

We can't live perfectly.

But we haven't been called to.

But you and I, what he is calling us to, can find ourselves humbly before the Lord and in all things seeking to do his will.

We can find ourselves and understand that in every day, in every moment, that God is calling us to live not a life of indulgence, but in a life of sacrifice.

Sacrificing for him and sacrificing for others.

And that just as Christ put the needs of others before the needs of himself, that we can do the exact same thing.

To view ourselves humbly.

To see ourselves as the servant.

And to embody that.

That's not easy.

It's difficult.

Look at verses 12 through 13.

Paul says,

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So here's the point, and we'll get to explaining this.

Work out what is working in you.

Again, Paul says to this church, he's looking for obedience to the Lord.

And Paul says this, he says, you know, you've obeyed.

I've seen this.

I've experienced this.

I know the depth of that.

But Paul says, don't let it end there.

How much more you're called to obey, not only in my presence, but also in my absence of when I'm gone.

And so Paul's saying to them, let this permeate and work toward every single aspect of your life.

Like business owner, you should be a Christian business owner.

Teacher, you should be a Christian teacher.

Doctor, you should be a Christian doctor.

And what you do does not solely come out of what you've been trained in your knowledge and in your school to do that.

But it comes from who you are in Christ.

So can I unethically get ahead?

No.

Why not?

Because it's who you are in Christ.

How do I manage those who work under me as you would, as you understand that you are under Christ?

That in every aspect of our lives, that Jesus is who comes from us.

Not in the presence of those who are solely saints found in Christ, but for those who aren't as well.

And that this is who we are.

That yes and amen, there's no difference in who we are when we walk in here, when we walk into our small group, and when we walk onto the ball field or the office place.

It's who we are in Jesus.

So Paul says, it's obedience with me.

It's obedience without me.

But then there's two phrases that I want to look at, and we're going to wrap up with these.

Paul says, first he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

I want to say this before we get into this.

Working out your salvation is not working for salvation.

Right?

If you're here, and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, he did the work.

He didn't do it partially.

He did it fully.

And no part of Christianity demands the work that you must do in order to inherit the grace that he gives you.

Working out your salvation is not working for salvation.

But being saved, being regenerated, brings you and I into a covenant relationship with the Lord, and there are expectations and demands that come from that.

And your Christian life, as a result, is to be authentically demonstrated to others, because this is who I am.

Paul says, work it out.

Right?

Work it out.

And it's done.

It's done with fear and trembling.

Right?

What that means is in joy and reverence before the Lord.

It's the call of how we're to view him of who he is.

So work out your salvation.

Right?

There's expectations.

There's demands that God has given us.

And we, as Christians, who have partaken in the encouragement, partaken in the comfort, partaken in the love, partaken in the affection, partaken in the sympathy.

We want to work this out so that it is visible.

That it's visible.

Right?

Think about your...

Think about muscles.

Right?

We all got muscles.

But some of them, on some of us, are easier to be seen than some of us on others.

Right?

I've got muscles.

I just keep them insulated.

Right?

I want to keep them warm and protected.

Right?

It's a layer of insurance over everything.

Right?

I got that.

But, like, when you see someone, right, and they're like, that's my impression of somebody with muscles.

Right?

Here's what they do.

They do this crazy, insane thing.

Right?

It's called working out.

Right?

That's what they do.

And when they get done working out, after a consistent time of working out, you can look at them and then not have to tell you, oh, I bet they work out.

Right?

Why?

Because what they're doing and who they're becoming can be visible and can be seen.

And so the Bible calls all of us to work out our salvation so that it can be visible, that it can be seen, that it's who we are.

And then he says this, God who works in you, he continues, God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

God has done and is doing, God has done and is doing a work in every one of us who's a believer.

Through the power of his spirit, he is transforming us.

Scripture tells us that he gives us a new heart, that he gives us a new mind, that we in Christ, we begin to feel differently.

We begin to think differently.

We begin to hear things differently.

We begin to see things differently.

That God is working in us to do this.

I remember the day after I got saved.

The day after I got saved.

A thought came to my mind that I'd had so many times in my life.

This thought came.

And immediately, a thought easily a thousand times in my life.

This one thought came into my mind.

And for the first time in my 22 years, the next thought that came with it, that's sin.

No one had ever told me that that thought was sin.

But the spirit of the Lord inside of me says, you're mine now.

And I'm transforming you.

That which is in you is changing.

And that is sin.

And, Bo, you need to remove that.

You need to remove that.

And so we begin to think.

We begin to feel.

We begin to see things differently.

And all of these transformations are for a purpose.

Right?

To both work and will for his good pleasure.

To live for his name of what he calls us to.

So when we take these two statements that Paul gives the church at Philippi, when we take these two statements and we put them together, here's the conclusion that we come to.

Right?

God does not demand of us what we are not capable of doing when we are found in him.

He is calling us to a life that he, through the power of his spirit, that's embodied within us, is empowering us to do this.

Right?

So when we take what God is doing in us, here's what working it out means.

We work it to the surface.

We take the heart of humility that he's given that this is what working out our salvation looks like, is I'm no longer going to wrestle with, God, should I obey you or should I not?

It's God, yes, in your power and in your grace, Lord, give me the power and the strength to do this.

And God says, you've got it in the spirit in you and go and do it.

So I've got two questions.

And we're going to close.

Question number one.

What is God doing in you?

Where is that rumble in your being of the sin that is in your life that through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is convicting you for?

What is God doing in you?

If the answer to that question is nothing, I'm going to ask this question.

Is the spirit of God in you?

And my fear is there's so many of us that have fallen into a pattern of cultural Christianity, but we've never experienced rebirth in Christ.

And our Christian walk has been filled with checking the external boxes of our life, but we've never experienced the internal work of the spirit that marks us as a believer.

So what is God doing in you?

And when you answer that, pursue it.

Pursue what God's doing in you.

And if you can't answer that, then today could it be the day that you fall down before him.

To repent of your sin.

To acknowledge who he is.

And to confess him as Lord and Savior.

And I want to ask this last question.

Not only is what is God doing in you, this matters.

What can others see from you?

Do they know you're a Christian because you've got a really cool coffee mug that sits on your desk and says that you're a Christian?

Do they know you're a Christian because you'll drop a note on Facebook, on Instagram, on something about the fact that you have a Bible verse?

Do they know that we're a Christian because we slap a bumper sticker on our car?

Or do they know that we are a Christian because of the evidence of the Spirit of God working in us?

The more that I wrestle with this within myself, the more I come to the realization of how much I need to repent and confess every day.

Amen?

The more that I begin to understand of what God is doing in me, the more it brings me to my knees before him.

So this isn't a message of how we've all got it figured out or how I've got it all figured out.

But it's a message for all of us to say, you know what?

I need to take responsibility for me.

And I need today to choose to grow in Christ.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, we thank you so much for today.

We thank you, Lord, for this time that we could be here together.

Lord, I thank you for the conviction and the drawing of your word.

I thank you for the work of your Spirit in us.

Lord, I pray that everyone in here could answer the question of what you're doing in their life.

I pray that they could acknowledge the sin that they're working through under the guidance and conviction of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, I thank you for the conviction that you're giving me, not only this week, but today and in this moment of the sin that's in my life.

And, Lord, I thank you in your grace and your kindness, what you do in your love is you bring us to the sweet spot of confession and repentance before you,

where you forgive us over and over and over again.

Lord, give us the boldness and the strength to work out our salvation.

Lord, may people see the evidence of the Spirit of God in our lives, and they might not understand why we are the way they are,

but, Lord, they know that it's something different.

And it's not through some man-made moral compass, but it's through the Holy Spirit of God that indwells and that lives inside of us.

And so, Lord, may it transform us.

May you transform us in every aspect, in every part of our life.

May you transform us in every part of our life.

That what we partake in.

When we acknowledge.

When we recognize as you as Lord and Savior.

When we confess our sin and repent.

When we surrender before you, Lord.

That the tomb, the grave is not the end for us.

But it's the finish line.

And what awaits for us is the crown of righteousness.

That makes every bump and bruise and scar.

That we face on this earth worth it.

Makes it worth it.

It makes every point of persecution.

Every point of criticism worth it.

It makes every arrow of hatred.

Every moment of mocking worth it.

Worth it.

That it makes every moment of our lives worth it.

Because Jesus, you're worth it.

Because every tongue in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Will confess that Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ alone is Lord.

So Lord, I don't like the bumps and the bruises.

But amen.

It's worth it.

It's in Jesus name we pray.

Jesus, we pray.

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