GOD WILL FINISH WHAT HE’S STARTED IN YOU!
“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.” – Phip. 1:6
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: THE END OF THE WORLD
1. Jewish scientists are famous for coming up with new innovations.
2. Someone imagined that, if the polar icecaps melted because of climate change, and 70% of the world’s population was to drown within four days, how would the world’s religious leaders respond?
3. To comfort the people of the world, the Pope, the Dalai Lama and the Chief Rabbi of Israel decided to appear on TV.
4. The Pope would say, "My children, there is still time to accept Jesus as your savior."
5. The Dalai Lama would say, "I ask all of you to follow Buddhist teachings, so that you may find inner peace in the midst of disaster."
6. The Chief Rabbi would say, "My people, we have four days to learn how to live underwater!"
B. TEXT
1Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: 2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phip. 1:1-6, NKJV
C. THESIS
1. Looking back over our spiritual walks, we all probably have satisfaction about some periods of our lives where we made spiritual advancements, and disappointments about other areas where we seemed to fall off the wagon.
2. Even if our efforts seem like they flopped, the Apostle Paul has given us words of encouragement to inspire/ us not to trust in our own efforts, but in God, Who alone can accomplish His work in us.
3. Because there are many dangers which accompany the spiritual life, the life of a Christian is a series of miracles. The Christian frequently finds him/ herself surrounded with opposition or assaults by the enemy which threaten to capsize our faith, to overwhelm us with troubles, or at least to make us ineffective for the Kingdom.
4. The Christian may feel like we’re in a battle that we can’t win but Paul here gives assurance that God’s will be accomplished in our lives.
5. Let’s look at 3 things Paul tells us about God’s work in our lives:
I. REMEMBER GOD’S GREAT LOVE FOR YOU
Paul said, “Being confident of this very thing…” What gave Paul such “confidence”? Because he knew that God is faithful & loves us!
A. GOD LOOKS FOR SOMETHING VALUABLE
1. In Luke 15:8-9, Jesus tells a Parable to describe the Father’s Love for you; “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.”
2. Jesus told this parable to relate God’s joy in finding you.
B. GOD’S SEARCH
1. God spared nothing in His search for you. He gathered the greatest search party that has ever been formed in order to find you. He sent His Son, His Spirit, and His Angels after you. As they searched, He had his people pray for you, you will never fully know how deep, how thorough, and how costly His search was.
2. You do not belong to Him today because of chance, or accident, or a stroke of fate; You are His because He never gave up His search until He found You.
3. Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”
C. THE DEEP JOY OF GOD
1. Did you know that God rejoices because you’re His?
2. How many of you parents have ever walked into your children’s bedrooms at night and just looked at them, all quiet, peaceful? They’re SO SWEET!
3. Do you remember your heart just “jumping with joy” because you love them so much. How much MORE does God love you, His Child? Remember God rejoices over you......not based on how good you are, but because of who you are to Him.
II. GOD IS WORKING IN YOU
A. OUR PROBLEM ACCEPTING PARTIAL COMPLETIONS
1. How many of you will only do one project at a time, and won’t start another one until the first one is finished? If this describes you, I would guess that unfinished projects kind of bother you until they’re done, right?
2. Then there’s the other side, how many of you can have two or three projects kind of lying around, all of them about half-way done, and your attitude is kind of like, “I’ll get to them when I get a chance?”
3. Now if you put these two different types of people working on the same project, can you understand why there’s conflict? But you can also understand why they compliment each other and make for a good blend, if done properly.
B. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE CHANGE
1. Paul’s reference to a “good work” God is doing in us refers to the work of grace in the soul which is of the operation of the Holy Ghost. When God created the universe, He looked at His work and pronounced it “good.” Here again God looks at His work and calls it “good.”
2. Our salvation has its root in the divine life of the God, Who planted the nature of His Son in our souls, causing the new believer to become “born again.”
C. ONLY THE MIRACULOUS COULD ACCOMPLISH THIS
1. If the Niagara River were to flow backwards and jump up the Niagara Falls, that would be no greater miracle than when our twisted, fallen natures are turned from sin to God!
2. Your Conversion is a work comparable to the creating of a new universe or a resurrection from the dead. It is a tremendous upheaval.
D. NOT A NATURAL DEVELOPMENT
1. Some conceive of conversion as turning over a new leaf or a decision to become religious. Others think of it as the development of the hidden graces within the human soul. IS THAT SO?
2. Mankind doesn’t need “renovation,” but a death and a resurrection! Only the eradication of the old nature and the implantation of the new nature will avail. Justification is an instantaneous work, while sanctification – the gradual change of a person into the image of Jesus – takes place over a lifetime.
3. Once implanted, the nature of Christ begins to work irresistibly like yeast, until its influence spreads through the whole batch of dough.
E. YOU ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS
1. In our passage, Paul talks about a Good Work that has been started, specifically, it’s God living in you – changing you, molding you, using you for His good pleasure.
2. You are a work in progress. God is performing a top-to-bottom renovation of your life and you will not be complete until Christ comes back.
F. IT’S A COOPERATIVE EFFORT: GIVING UP RIGHTS
1. Let me give you the key: Allowing God to change you, to mold you, and to use you many times is painful, many times it’s hard, but it’s always rewarding and fulfilling.
2. But we have to give up our rights, die to ourselves, and let God take control. If we do, He will chisel away at the dross, convicting, disciplining me, but transforming us into the image of Christ.
3. Let’s don’t be one of those Christians who allow coldness, stagnation, disobedience, and often, sin. Don’t lose your willingness to grow beyond your salvation experience.
4. There’s no such thing as camping right inside the pearly gates. When you get saved you must continue on your spiritual journey; if you don’t keep climbing, then you will eventually fall away.
5. God Will Finish What He Has Started IN You, but remember that God needs our cooperation! Then He can produce Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and self-control in our lives.
III. THE CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL COMPLETION
A. WHAT GOD STARTS, HE FINISHES
1. The Bible says, “He who BEGAN a good work in you will CARRY IT ON to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. God is not a God of half measures; He finishes what He starts.
2. Jesus spoke of a man who started to build and wasn’t able to finish. God won’t ever do that!
B. DATE OF THE COMPLETION
1. Notice the time mentioned in the text - the good work is to be perfected in the day of Christ; by which Paul meant the Second Coming of our Lord.
2. So at least by the time of the Rapture, when we’re “caught up” together to be with the Lord – if we’re not finished being sanctified – at that moment the job will be completed!
3. The Greek word translated “caught up” in 1 Thess. 4:17 is the word “harpadzo” which means,
a. “To take something forcefully”
b. “To steal,” “To capture in war”
It is used of what thieves steal or valuables soldiers capture in wartime.
4. People have often expressed doubts that they would be found worthy to be caught up at the time of the Rapture. They felt as if their being raptured were dependent on them.
5. The wonderful news is that the Greek word used for rapture contradicts this notion. If we are God’s kids, we WILL be taken. We do not have to have any power in ourselves to rise. The action of grasping and taking away is completely God’s action.
6. That’s why our work is completed at the Rapture; the work going on in us is God’s work anyway and He’s going to complete it. WE DON’T HAVE TO! THAT’S WHY IT’S NOT UP TO US.
7. We don’t have our own righteousness anyway, but the righteousness of Christ. Listen to Paul in Philippians 3:8-9’ “I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
8. God’s in the business of getting people INTO heaven, not keeping them out. That’s why the Father went to such great lengths to send His Son to die and rise again. The thief on the cross next to Jesus was told he would go to paradise – when he had no works and only momentary faith in Christ as Savior.
9. In conclusion, Paul’s encouragement in Phip. 1:6 is to tell us that no matter how imperfect we feel as Christians, and no matter how unworthy we feel to get to go to heaven, it was Christ’s grace that started us on this journey and it will be God’s grace that completes the job and gets us to our heavenly destination. And when we get there, we will find ourselves perfected in Christ!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. There was once a farmer who went to town to purchase seeds for his farm. As he was returning home one of the squash seeds he had purchased fell from his pocket onto the ground.
2. It happened that within a few feet was another seed of a different type. The place where the two seeds lay was rather fertile, and miraculously they took root.
3. After about a week the squash seed showed signs of growth. The second seed showed none. After two weeks the squash began to sprout leaves. The second seed showed none.
4. After seven weeks the squash began to show fruit. The second seed still showed no progress. Four more weeks came and gone.
5. The squash plant reached the end of its life bearing much fruit in that time, but the other seed finally began to slowly grow.
6. Many years later the squash was all but forgotten, but the other tiny seed, an acorn, had grown into a mighty oak tree. Many people want their faith to be like the squash; they want to fully developed in a month, but God wants the strength of something that will last all eternity!
B. ALTAR CALL
1. How many need forgiveness for falling short of God’s glory? Let’s pray for forgiveness through the blood of Jesus.
2. How many of you need to make a new commitment to make improvements in your life as the Spirit leads? How many haven’t been cooperating with the Holy Spirit as carefully as we need to be? Let’s pray about that now.
[This message incorporates many thoughts by Charles Spurgeon on the same passage.]
