THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
“We can Work it Out”
Philippians 2:12-18
One of the most difficult things in life to maintain it to keep all things where they are all supposed to be at all times…. It’s called balance. Sometimes we feel like a clown at the circus who is trying to keep all the plates spinning at once. You have seen this before. He starts at one end, starts them spinning, works his way down to the last one but as soon as he gets there he looks back and the first one is falling so he rushes back down the line to restart one and goes through the sequence again and by the time he gets to the end, it’s time to run back again and sometimes he doesn’t make it and the plate crashes.
Balance is critical in the Christian life. One passage that has given me a lot of direction and purpose in life is Luke 2:52. This verse follows the story of when Jesus was lost or separated from Mary and Joseph for three days. When they finally located him, Jesus was in the temple sitting among some of the great teachers of the day, asking questions. And they were asking him questions as well and the Scripture says that the teachers were amazed at his understanding... After all he was only 12 years of age at the time. The Bible is silent for about the next 18 years of his life. We don’t know exactly what happened during that time but we do have this one verse as a summary of those years and it simply says this... Jesus increased with wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. So what we know is that his life was filled with balance...
• he grew in wisdom... Intellectually
• he grew in stature... Physically
• he grew in favor with God... Spiritually
• he grew in favor with man... Socially
And if we want to live as Jesus did, we have to learn to do the same. Because they all matter and when our life is in balance we are happier. When it’s out of balance we are miserable. And it is one of the most difficult things in life to maintain. So Paul reminds us today of three areas where we must maintain balance.
1. There must be a balance between purpose and power. Verses 12-13. To understand what he is saying here we need to first understand what he is NOT saying. This phrase “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is greatly misunderstood. Paul is not telling us that we must do something to earn our salvation. He is not telling us that we have to work to be saved. It was Paul who wrote to the church in Ephesus and said in Ephesians 2:8-9. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. We cannot be saved by works. In fact Paul says it is not by works.
So to understand what Paul is saying here, we must bear in mind that he is writing to the church, to believers so his words have nothing to do with how to come to Christ. These people were in the church; they already knew Christ. So this phrase “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is referring to how we live out our faith. The word for “work out” in the Greek NT means to work to full completion. And it refers to working in a mine or in a field where you’re constantly digging and cultivating until that mine or that field reaches its fullest potential.
So here’s a question all of us must stop and ask at various places in life. Am I reaching for my full potential in life or am I just settling for average? What is my level of obedience to Christ? You see, once we acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that becomes our purpose in life--- to obey him in absolutely everything. Think of it this way. When we get sick we go to the doctor. He diagnoses our condition and tells us what we need to do. He hands us a small slip of paper and on that he has written the correct prescription. We then take that slip of paper to the pharmacist who fills the prescription and gives us the medication. Now up to that point, everything has been done for us. A diagnosis... A prescription... We have received the medication. Now it is our responsibility to do something and here it is-follow the doctor’s orders. Work out the process and if we do we will hopefully get well. We will recover.
This is also true on a spiritual level. And here is our goal... Paul tells us clearly in verse 13 that God works in us to fulfill his purpose. And he describes that purpose as being good. You see whether you know it or not, God wants the best for you-he wants you to find happiness and contentment not only in the next life but also in this one. You see there won’t be anything to work out in the next life—it will all be taken care of but in this one there is. There are things to work out. And we can.
Now when Paul speaks of God “working in you” in v. 13 the word there is the English word energizing. Now I can’t help but my mind goes immediately to the Energizer Bunny. He keeps going and going and going. For this microphone I use to work we must put two fresh batteries in it every Sunday. And even when it is not turned on that battery is still working, okay? There’s a positive side and a negative side and once they are placed in there they are hooked up to an electrical circuit and the electrons build up and there’s power. And there’s power there whether we turn it on or not. There’s power in every electrical outlet in this building. If you don’t believe me, stick your finger in one of them and find out. But it is not all being used for something. Some of the outlets are empty. It’s our job to plug into this power to allow God to use us. But too often we just choose to sit and watch everyone else do the work.
Someone has said there are three types of people in this world….
• Those who make things happen
• those who sit and watch things happen
• those who wonder what’s happening
God wants us to be in the first group. God is at work in us to do his good purpose. This is a balance of power and purpose. As he pours his power into us we do the things that bring him pleasure. Now Paul wants us to see something here...
• It is his pleasure (not ours)
• it is his will (not ours)
• it is his glory (not ours)
This is what makes life meaningful. But there’s a potential conflict right there since most of us prefer to have things go our way. And that’s because of our attitude. So Paul tells us there is a second area where we need balance.
2. There must be a balance of attitude and action. Verses 14-16. And to accomplish this Paul gives us a negative and a positive. Because that is how we get balance. On the negative side here Paul says to all of us-you need to watch your attitude. There are two things Paul mentions that show our bad attitude. (1) One of these we do usually when we are alone-grumbling. Are you a grumbler? Grumbling is not usually loud. It’s a low tone, negative, complaining, whining and one thing it will do for sure is steal your joy... It just comes natural for some of us. We try to resist but we just pass it around. Grumblers can find something wrong with everything at once and when they find it that’s what they focus on.
PPT. BOUGAINVILLEA. It’s beautiful. We see them all over this area. Have you ever picked one of these flowers? If you have you know you have to be careful. Because they’re covered with these-thorns. And when many people look at this Bush all they see are the thorns to the point that they cannot even enjoy the flower. The reason is perspective. It’s attitude. Paul said that you and I as believers need to prove that we are different by our actions. He said prove that you are blameless and innocent that you are a child of God and in the midst of a very dark world you and I are told to bring light to the situation. We should brighten up the place. It’s okay to sing the song this little light of mine, and then let it shine but we are never referred to in Scripture as little lights... Here Paul refers to us as stars... There are no small stars... The smallest star in our universe is basically the size of the planet Saturn... By the way, this is how Saturn compares to the earth... It’s 95 times the size of Earth. The smallest star is even larger. The word here means luminaries. Luminaries are surrounded by darkness and that’s why they stand out. Jesus told us, let your light shine so that people can see your good works and through that glory will be given to God the father.
No need to shout or scream, no need for drama. Just shine. The negative he gives us here—don’t grumble. The positive—just shine! Get your attitudes and actions in balance. Then Paul describes a third area we need to balance.
3. There must be a balance between being serious and being joyful. Versus 17-18. Now this is an amazing word picture that’s worth looking at for a moment. Paul says we are “being poured out as a drink offering.” Unbelievers, pagans had a practice in that day that before and after every meal they would take 2 cups of wine—they would pour one out on the ground before every meal and would then eat and then they would pour another one out after every meal in honor of the God they worshiped. The purpose was to gain the favor of the gods.
Paul speaks of the possibility of being poured out as a drink offering. Now this is a very serious thought. He is saying I may never get out of the situation alive... Remember he is in prison facing execution at any moment. But even if I don’t make it out he says it will all be worth it.
You know if you have ever face the possibility of your own death—it will make you think really serious. You can think some really serious thoughts. Paul was imagining here that he might be living his final days, the single most serious thought a person can have and yet he was still able to rejoice. He refused to focus on the dark side. He refused to let even the possibility of his immediate death steal his joy. Then he says to us-you need to rejoice in the same way.
Every day find something to be happy about; every day find something you can laugh about. Take a day off, take a long walk, watch a movie, play a round of golf... Do something that takes you away from all the seriousness of life. Give yourself permission to enjoy the day.
The Flying Wallendas are known as perhaps the greatest group of tight wire walkers in history. Karl Wallenda had the amazing ability to keep his focus, to concentrate and to of course keep his balance. He did it for decades until that night when he fell to his death. He was crossing a tight wire strung between two sets of high rise apartments in San Juan Puerto Rico. Later his wife said that for as long as she had known him he always focused walking the tightrope but on that night she said for some reason he kept focusing on the possibility of falling. Worried to the point that he even supervised the installing of the guide wires which he had never done before. And that night he fell to his death. Often the difference in success and failure is losing your balance and looking in the wrong direction.
The scripture tells us that we are to keep our eyes focuses on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The Psalmist says don’t look to the right and don’t look to the left. Just keep your eyes on the heavenly Father.
