GOD IS WORKING IN YOU!

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13)

When I was into golf I greatly admired Jack Nicholas. I wanted to play golf like him so much that I bought his video called Golf My Way. Religiously I would watch it over and over again. I would run it in slow motion, stop action, and attempt to mimic every aspect of Jack Nicholas’s sweet swing. After frequent viewings, confidence would be high and then I would go on to the course and anticipate 300 yard drives, great shots with my woods and irons, having a great balance with my long game, short game, and the ability to sink the most difficult of putts. Frequently, I would watch it right before I played a round of golf hoping that like magic in a bottle, I would catch something that would transfer to the golf course. But something happened when I’d get to the golf course and set out to play. As I’d step up to the tee my game rapidly deteriorated. My will and mind and body could not seem to work together and my game was more like Bill Robison than Jack Nicholas. Golf My Way wasn’t golf my way.

Mark Twain once wrote, “Few things are harder to put up with up with than the annoyance of a good example.” Perhaps the most annoying thing about a good example is the inability to accomplish the same achievements in our own lives. Admiration for someone great can inspire us, but it cannot enable us. Unless a person can enter into our own lives and share his skills, we cannot attain the heights of accomplishment. It takes more than an example on the outside; it takes transformation and power in the inside.

The beauty of the Christian life is that it too is a life of admiration. God created the whole universe with the design of admiring His glory which is supremely admirable. That is to say, God's design is that the whole duty of man is to see the glory of God in order to admire the glory of God so as to magnify, proclaim and live for the glory of God, and show the glory of God.

But how can we fulfill that duty on our own? That is the root of our problem isn't it? Trying to imitate Christ and show His supreme worth on my own is like me trying to imitate Jack Nicholas! The good news is that God doesn't just inspire us with admiration of His glory; He enables us to live for his glory by transformation and power in the inside.

The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” Paul is saying that God is the decisive worker in your life! We work, but we work by and through and because of His working in us. It would be like me going out on the golf course and playing golf with God doing a work inside of me that begins causing me to play like Jack Nicholas!

There are two great needs in every Christian life. First, there is the desire to do God's will and the second is the ability to do His will. Paul tells us that God not only creates the desire but provides the ability. But I would add that even before that the sovereign God first opens our eyes to see His supreme admirableness and worth; to see and perceive His design for my life; and then to see and perceive and treasure my duty towards Him. h

God does more than merely strengthen our willing and doing. it is not synergistic where God adds a little help so that I can partner with Him. It is monergistic. Paul's explanation goes deeper. "God himself is working in us both to will and to act: He works in us at the level of our wills and at the level of our doing God works in us, not merely with us. It is not the thought that my work plus God's work gets it done.

Augustine wrote, "Our deeds are our own, because of the free will producing them, and they are also God's, because of his grace causing our free will to produce them." And he says elsewhere, "God makes us do what he pleases by making us desire what we might not desire."' And finally he says, "Give me the grace [O Lord] to do as you command, and command me to do what you will! . . . O holy God . . . when your commands are obeyed, it is from you that we receive the power to obey them."

Take the following texts as encouragements from God that He will help you fulfill His purposes for your life.

Jeremiah 31:31 33, `Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.

Deuteronomy 30.6, "The LORD your God will circum­cise your heart...so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. "

Ezekiel 11:19–20, A new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them."

Ezekiel 36:26-27, `I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.

Second Thessalonians 1:11-12, "To this end we always pray for you, that our God may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you.”

Hebrews 13:20-21, `Now may the God of peace. equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

1 Corinthians 15:10, “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

Romans 15:18, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.”

First Peter 4:11, "Whoever serves" is to do so `as one who serves by the strength which God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 3:12. "May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another "

God is working now at this very moment! Even when we are most actively working out for God, we are still the recipients of His working in us. God is always there to work for us and in us every moment that we enter. Not only that, He doesn’t stop and wait for you to get working rather He is now and always working The God who in the past worked and changed you is the same God who is at work in you now to change you.

And let me tell you, that truth keeps me from despair, because one of the great realities that I live with every waking moment is that I know that I am not what I ought to be. And the Apostle Paul is simply saying to you here, ‘Child of God, He’s not finished with you yet. He is at work with you, in you, for you, for His pleasure and glory.’ And I cannot imagine a more comforting and encouraging thing to know in the pursuit of godliness in the Christian life than that my God is not done yet. It keeps me from going over the edge. It keeps me from the brink of despair.

It is the promise (God will work in you!) that sustains and gives hope to the willpower (work out your salvation). Take heart. God will not leave you to yourself. John Newton once wrote: I am not what I want to be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I should be, but by the grace of God, I am what I am.”

Can anything be more radical than this? It means every good desire; every Christ-like thought, attitude, decision, and aspiration which I have is something which has been produced in me by God. God controls my willing, it is God who is energizing my very desires and hopes and aspirations and thoughts. He stimulates it all!” It means God understands our weakness and is committed to helping us. It means we are not left to simply work to muster more of our strength but we are invited to tap into His. It means we don't have to worry about falling away in the end because God is working on our desires and appetites so that we won't want to drift away. It means that the victories and accomplishments we have in the spiritual realm should be acknowledged as coming from the Lord and we should give Him the glory. It means that we can live the Christian life. AMEN!

Pastor Bill