June 8, 2025

Blisters develop, right, over time as you're digging. Anybody? Anybody? can relate to that, right? So we did Mission NAC this week. We had the privilege of working on another pastor, Zion Hill Baptist Church. Pastor Don Lacey worked on their parsonage this week, putting up a fence for them. And then we were able to put up a fence for our parsonage as well.

And so the nice new fence that you see, I want to say a special thank you to all the detailed ladies that were on our crew because their eye was very good so that we didn't have slanted boards like this now there may be some slants elsewhere but we made sure they did not show in the parking lot okay we put our finest crew on the front okay but now I

want to say thank you to them And all who helped serve during Mission NAC, thank you to Tiki and the whole Mission NAC organization that basically spreads out across the city for four days and do a lot of different good works, physical works, but also telling the good news of Jesus Christ to all the homeowners that they work with.

And so it's a really cool thing to see all the churches come together. That's a really beautiful thing. And so... We've been privileged to host them at University Coffee for the last five years, which has been wonderful. So it's been a great partnership. Just so that you know kind of what goes on, they basically headquarter during the four days.

It's a four-day work event, and they headquarter in our coffee house. They bring the lunches, and that's the distribution point and the go-to point for the week.

And so you have a part in that at University Church because at University Church, owns University Coffeehouse and as a result of that you have a partnership in that and a partnership in the most local mission that we do here which is a beautiful thing and so It was just really neat to see all the churches come together, the pastors come together.

NAC Night of Worship was a previous Monday hosted at NAC Nazarene on the south side of town, and I was privileged to be a part of that and be able to share the word. So that was really sweet, good time. So tired is a good way to describe today. We did a lot of digging the last few days.

coincide that with the fact that we've been working on the parsonage for the last six weeks. So I want you to kind of get the full appreciation of the context. We juxtapose that against that as well. And so there's a song called Weary Traveler. right? That's on the radio right now. That may be a few of us for sure.

But the thing that we had to do last weekend, I think I told you, was we tied in the septic. It's not glamorous. It's not exciting to get two clean outs in the front yard. No one's just like, yay, let me put some more clean outs in. But we got clean outs in the front. We tied the septic into the front over there.

And then the water got tied in this week as well. So praise God, all utilities are connected. All the utilities. Yeah, all utilities because they said, well, it could be six weeks and it could be six months. We don't know. So it was awesome to see the city of Knack construction trucks show up. And so that was really cool.

But what we started to do, I have a plumber friend and my son happens to be working for him this summer. And he thought it would be a good idea to dig the hole manually. to tie into the septic. Now here's what the city told us. The city said it's somewhere between here and over here. Somewhere in that area is where we detect it should be, right?

Now this septic goes back to the 50s or 60s, okay? And somewhere in there is a tap for you to tap into. And so my friend proceeds to tell my son, somewhere in this four foot by four foot hole, And he said, it could be anywhere from four foot deep to eight foot deep.

Yeah. And he said, of course we look at him like, okay, you know, well, there's the shovels, let's get started. So we start by hand over the course of multiple days. God blessed us with some rain to help soften that clay, which really doesn't work. It is red clay out there, folks, red clay.

And we tried and tried and tried, and I think we got to four, four and a half foot deep. No luck, nothing. And then somebody said, well, how about you go rent a Mini-X? I said, well, that's a wonderful idea. Why didn't we do that at the beginning? Because I wanted you to learn the appreciation of how to dig a hole properly. That was the response.

So I wanted you to, you know like the old Sunday school song, deep and wide? Deep and wide, deep and wide. That's what he wanted, deep and wide, because he was trying to also teach a lesson here of how to properly dig a hole because my friend has had a hole cave in on him as well for improperly dug hole.

Who would have thought there's great science to digging a proper hole? Correct? Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Right? Paul today is, where am I going with this? Here's where I'm going. Paul today is talking about digging a hole. You're like, wait a second. I read Philippians 2. There's no, I don't, digging holes. What are we talking about?

Stay with me. Okay? He talks about digging holes when you look at the actual word that he's talking about with working out your salvation with fear and trembling. And we will get to that in just a minute. So we are going to talk about digging hole today. Our passage today is Philippians 2, verse 12 through 18.

And so, if you will go ahead and turn there, and we're going to go ahead and stand and read the Word of God today. If you'll stand and honor the reading of the Word, Philippians 2, 12 through 18.

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to His good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing."

So that you may be blameless and pure children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the word of life.

Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing, but even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you in the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for our time together today.

We come to you in the name and through your Son, Jesus Christ, and we do pray that today you would enlighten our minds, God. We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would quicken a word, that you would help us to receive all that you want to give us today, O God. And we pray that we'd be empowered by your Spirit as well.

Father, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. So this Paul saying that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, actually the Greek word there really means to explore the depths, to dig down, to explore the depths.

And the concept that Paul is talking about here is to dig deep and discover greater depths, which involves your effort in God's grace. Amen? So you don't draw closer to the Lord alone. by just sitting there, right? What we have to do is apply the word of God in our lives. And as we do that, we see that we draw closer to him.

He says, if you love me, you will obey me, our Lord Jesus said. And so when we are, Dallas Willard put it this way. He says that grace is, hold on one second. I actually have the quote. It didn't make it into my final edit. Hold on. Grace is opposed to earning, not effort. Let me say that again. Grace is opposed to earning. You cannot earn grace.

There is nothing that you and I can do to earn grace, but that doesn't negate the effort to draw close to the Lord and walk in close fellowship with Him. Amen? And that's one of my favorite quotes. Maybe that's why I remembered it, right? Don't worry about the notes. Just go with it, right?

Yeah. But the point here is this, that as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and we're going to deep dive into what that means, but the overall concept is that we dig down deep, and as we explore the depths of God, as we walk in greater fellowship with Him, it does require effort.

Just like digging a hole requires effort, I can't just stand there and say, as Isaiah and I were looking at the hole, boy, we wish that hole would just get deeper on its own. Wouldn't that be great? Lord, could a meteor just fall and let's just see six foot right now, right? It just doesn't happen.

And he actually learned that last week too, because he said, dad, I had to dig two graves. He said, yeah, I had to dig two six-foot holes last week. But you can't just wish it to happen. It requires effort, doesn't it? We have to put our hand to the plow, so to speak. We have to put our hand to the shovel, right?

And we see this, and that's why that quote is so critical, in that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Another My binder's falling apart. Another quote was, we are to work out what God has worked in. We are to flesh out and work out what God has worked in us.

And so that is the concept or the backdrop that we're going to be looking at today. The first thing that Paul, that we can take note of today is this, that we are to have a healthy fear of God. A healthy fear of God, because he says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That seems weird, right?

It seems like, oh, I should, you know, okay, so should I be scared of God? Well, I didn't use the word scared, did I? No, I said what Paul says, that we should work it out with fear and trembling. in trembling. There should be an awe and respect of God. And this is something that has gotten perverted.

This is something that, you know, because we hear the word fear. We're afraid of spiders. We're afraid of closed-in spaces. We're afraid of elevators. We're afraid of heights, right? These are all different things, you know, all these phobias. And we've kind of gotten a different version of what fear is in the human sense.

But the healthy fear of God is something that is taught in Scripture from the very beginning of time. That we should have a reverence and awe or respect for who God is in his position. And that doesn't mean that he doesn't love us. In fact, we get a greater appreciation of the love of God when we have a healthy fear of God.

And he says, Philippians 2.12 To fear God is to take God seriously. That's kind of a really good definition. To fear God is to take him seriously, not flippantly, not like, yeah, he's there, but oh, well. No. In fact, James says this. James says, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. God is God. He remains on his throne, whether you acknowledge it or not.

And Apostle Paul said, as we studied last week, it said that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord of all. Whether you acknowledge it now or not, he is Lord of all. And so we are to take God seriously.

Going back to my analogy, the whole reason that my plumber friend wanted my son to dig this hole was so he would have a healthy fear of gravity. that he would have a healthy fear of what could happen of that hole caving in on him. And so that's the reason that he went through that. You and I need to have a healthy fear of God and who he is.

Listen, you can try to deny God, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't exist. You may try to deny him with your lips. You may try to live as though he doesn't exist. I believe a lot of people live as functional atheists. What do you mean by that? The way they function and the way they live is as if there is no God.

That's the way they, it's like, let me put it this way. If the only time that you ever talk about God or ever worship God is this hour on a Sunday morning, would you not be classified as a functional atheist? I mean, think about it.

If you never give him credit, never seek him, never seek his face, never desire to worship him apart from one hour on Sunday, it's like living the rest of the week as if he doesn't exist. And we know that that's not the truth.

So I want to push against this and even get you to ask the question of, yes, maybe I say it with my lips, but the rest of the week or Monday through Saturday, am I living as if he doesn't exist? Do I honor Him? Do I respect Him? Do I view His name as holy and not to be degraded?

To work out your salvation with fear and trembling is to understand and appreciate the depths of His grace while respecting and honoring Him. You take your walk with Him seriously. And last week I hinted at what we would be kind of centering on. Philippians 2.14 says, And apparently I told people to get this tatted on their forearms.

I mean, it got quoted back to me. So, I mean, you've got to go back and listen to the podcast to see if that was true. But apparently I was told, you told us to get that tatted on our forearms. Okay. What I'm trying to say is Philippians 2.14 is so important that you need to memorize that.

Do not, I'm not saying go get a tad of Philippians 2.14 right here, okay? Sharpie marker, maybe. But anyway, here was the whole point. The whole point was this. We focus on the not No, don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. Don't complain. Don't grumble. Don't complain. Don't grumble. You know what the funny thing about this?

The more that you focus on that, it seems like the more it happens.

The premise is that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling, that we should work out what grace has worked into us. We should work that out and live that out and live in harmony with brothers and sisters, right? And that we should not grumble and complain when we view God with a healthy fear.

When you have a healthy respect and fear of God, you realize this, you are not entitled to anything. I'll say it one more time. When you have a healthy fear of God, you realize you are not entitled to anything, yet grace and mercy has visited you. And you realize that you are not in a position to grumble.

See, the people of Israel had to learn this the hard way in the wilderness, didn't they? Remember that? Over and over, they would come to Moses. We're hungry. We're hungry. In Egypt, we had, hey, we may have been beaten on our backs, but we had food at the end of the day. We could go to the dinner table, right?

We didn't have to worry about where we'd get water. The Nile was there. We could go draw water from the Nile, right? And it was just on and on. And in case you forget how grumbling they were, let's remind everybody today, Exodus 17. The entire Israelite community left the wilderness of sin. Moving from one place to the next according to the Lord's command.

They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So the people complained to Moses, give us water to drink. Did y'all hear a please in that? I don't hear a please. Anyway, okay. Why are you complaining to me, Moses replied. Why are you testing the Lord?

How many of you know a lot of it's the attitude with which we come with our request? Right? Right? Any parent knows this, right? And I think I've told this story before. My children have had to learn this kind of the hard way. When I come home, do you think I want to hear, Daddy, I want this. Daddy, I want that.

Daddy, I need to go to the store and get this. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. Or how about, Dad, how was your day? Hey, David, how was your day? Hey, let's talk. Let's interact a little bit, right? Not just go straight to the want-to gimme's. Right? God's the same way. He wants to interact with us. He wants to talk with us.

Not just hit right off the bat with, God, I need this. God, I need this. God, I need this. God, I need this. Right? Same thing. They just come to Moses. Give us water to drink. Why are you complaining to me? Verse 3. But the people thirsted there for water and grumbled against Moses.

They said, why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me. That's not an exaggeration.

Verse 5 of 17 says, the Lord answered Moses, go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. Now I want you to notice something. There's very key detail in here. Notice the staff that Moses uses.

It says that he used the exact same staff that he used in Egypt when he turned the Nile into blood. What should that have done? What it should have done was remind the people of Israel, oh yeah, that's the same God that brought the plagues that delivered and rescued us out of Egypt into what will be the promised land.

We need to remember who he is and what he has done. There's a reason that that's put in there because it's the very same staff that was used to perform that miracle is now used to perform this miracle. Why? It's an identifier. And we need to remember what God has done for us.

They needed to have a healthy fear of who God was to remember that if this God is the same God that could turn the Nile upside one of the greatest rivers in the world, into blood like that, then who are we to think that he can't turn the rock into water? That he can't turn anything and produce what he wants to produce for his people. Amen?

that should have served as a reminder. How quickly we forget the blessing of the Lord in the past. That's why you and I need to take an aerial view. Sometimes we just need to back up and take an aerial view of what God has done in our life. Amen? Take back and look at that. It's not just what is going on right now.

Let's remember what He's done in the past. And that will help us for today. It will help us have a healthy fear of Him. Secondly, God does the work. Going back to our core text, Philippians 2.13. It is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. God does the work, but he does it through you. He chooses to use you.

Now, I can't explain this plan. It's a crazy plan. He, a perfect man, infallible God is going to use fallible fallen men and women to carry out His plan to extend His kingdom here on earth. Crazy, right? But that's what He chooses to do the work through you and through me.

And so when we work out this salvation with fear and trembling, when we dig the depths of God's grace and we do the work of digging, and drawing closer to Him and living together in harmony, when we do that, we realize that it is God who does the work. It is God that changes my heart. It is God that changes my mind.

God must work in us before He can work through us. He must do a work in us before he can work through us. The same Holy Spirit who empowered Christ when he was ministering on earth can empower us as well. It is his power that transforms us. So God does the work. And I want to say it again as I started at the beginning.

Grace, right, is not opposed, it's opposed to earning, but not to effort. That is so important for us to remember. Let me just give you a quick reminder. We went through a whole Drawing Near series last year. What was the premise? Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, right? I've got a newsflash. You're not just gonna memorize scripture.

It's not just gonna happen. It's not just gonna be, I know some of you think that, like you can study for exams and put it under your pillow and it's just osmosis, right? right, or the phone and all, it's just going to come right from right into there, okay? Some other things might be coming in there, but it's not going to be that, right?

We have to take the effort to memorize Scripture. We have to take the effort to be in the Word. And so it's very clear that God says that we do our part, certainly, but God does the transforming work, but it truly is a teamwork, right? Right? And He does what we cannot do. And He honors the effort. I've always said that. God honors your effort. He does.

He honors the effort. So remember that God does the work. Verse 13. And so, also, what do we see as well? We see that we are to be steadfast with the Word. Steadfast Verse 16 says that, So again, this is a very personal message.

So he says, Paul gives us this, probably the earliest hymn that we know in the previous section that we preached on last week, Philippians 2, 5 through 11, right? That's the one where he emptied himself. He became, you know, humbled himself as a man, all those things, obedient to the cross. And then he goes into this really personal section.

And he actually says at the very beginning, he says, to my dearest friends. And he's talking, and then he's going to talk about Timothy, his closest worker that he wants to send to the church at Philippi, and to Epaphroditus, who he is sending with this scroll that they're reading in the church. And so he has a very personal section here that he's talking about.

And we believe the reason that he's doing this, and why is he talking about humility, is because the Philippians can't get along. They can't get along with one another. There's controversy in the church. You know, brothers arguing with brother, sisters arguing with sister. I mean, it's just, you know, there's this kind of stuff going on. There's undercurrent going on.

Surprise, surprise, right? But Paul, that's why he's addressing the humility that is needed and that Christ gives us the example of humility. And he says, but here's the key. You need to hold firm to the word of life. You need to be steadfast in the word. Has anybody ever seen the movie Twister? or twisters, you ever seen that, right?

Okay, now they have a remake of it, a newer one, right? And the whole concept is these folks, these scientists that chase the storms, right? And they want to try to predict when the storms, and even I think the new version, they're trying to like, how can they bust the storms up? How can they prevent such tragedy from happening?

It's horrible in the Midwest and in the Plains and Oklahoma and all that, right? And if you grew up in that area, you know a lot about it, and we get some up here in this way. Alto experienced it, I think, in the last a couple years ago. Sometimes it's without warning.

Sometimes it's boom, maybe a cell system and a tornado hits and it knocks out a school like it did with Alto or it knocks out homes and various things like that. But in the movie, there's what is very common is storm shelters, right? And when you hear the sirens or when you get the weather alerts, right, you're supposed to go down to the storm shelter.

It should be concrete. It should be, and you may even do this here, right? You're told you get the beep, beep, right, the emergency broadcast system, and it comes on the radio and all those things, and you're supposed to go into an interior room, right, a solid, no windows, right?

And so we go down to our downstairs, and Jody's always asking me, when should we go down? When should we go down? I don't know. I don't know when we should go down. I don't want to go down and sleep on the floor in the hallway all night. I mean, just being honest, right? I mean, what a bonding time. But I don't want to do that.

But she keeps asking me, and I'm like, every time there's a cell system. So if it comes tonight, just know Jodi will ask me, is it time to go? Is it time to go? Know that she's asking me in real time, right?

And I'm like, I don't know when it's time to go, but But we go down, our downstairs has an interior and it's all, in fact, it's concrete, cinder block wall on one side. And so we go down to that down there, that way nothing can get us, right? You want to be safe. And to ensure, we also have a spiral staircase that is concreted in.

So if nothing else, we will all hold on to that spiral staircase. If the storm comes, right, and the top of our house blows off, we're gonna hold on to that spiral staircase, which is concrete. And so I'm saying this because Paul is giving this imagery that you should cling to, hold fast to the word.

Like when the storms are coming, when stuff is raging, when brother can't get along with brother in the church, when sister can't get along with sister, when families can't get along with one another, hold fast to the word of God. Hold fast to the word of life. Cling to it when the tornadoes are going.

As Peter said, Because Jesus, and there was this one interaction, and I think it was after the feeding of the 5,000 or the 4,000, and it's recorded in the Gospel of John, and they start to turn away because Jesus is not feeding them, because all they want is a buffet, and he wants to give them the words of life.

And he looks to Peter, and he looks at the disciples, and he says, would you go too? Are you going to leave like they left? And he says, Lord, where would we go? You alone have the words of life. And when you realize that he alone has the words of life, you realize that you should cling to that because that's all you've got.

I mean, at the end of the day, what do we have? We have the promises of God. We have the promises of His Word that we will live with Him forever. For those that have believed and trusted in Him, they will live with Him forever and commune with Him forever. Amen? We have that promise.

We have the promise that affliction and suffering will only last for a season, right? But joy comes in the morning. We have... The promise that His mercies are new every morning, that you don't have to be defined by what you did yesterday, but that you have His hope and His mercy, that He gives you a brand new day, a brand new resurrection every single morning.

And that's beautiful. That's what we cling to. These are the words of life that we cling to. We are to hold steadfast in the Word. Then he says, then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing.

Paul's being a little self-reflective here and he's saying, look, I don't want my effort in my ministry that I poured out for you to be in vain. I don't want y'all to be backbiting one another when I have laid out my life and indeed I'm in chains in Rome for the cause of Christ. He says, don't do that. I plead with you to cling to the words of life.

Remember what binds you together as the family of Jesus and work out your salvation with fear and with trembling. So do you have a healthy fear of the Lord? Do you respect the Lord? Do you honor the Lord? Or are you living as a functional atheist?

Do you recognize that it is not in your striving, It is His grace that is enough for you, and you walk in that grace, and what He has worked in you, you work out. And I'm just going to say it, that if you are not steadfast in the Word, it's going to be very hard to rely 100% on the Lord. Because His Word is life to us.

Father, we thank you for today.