Confidence in God’s Transforming Power [B]

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Transcript:

Well, if you would turn in your Bibles back to where we were this morning in, what don’t you know? You all looked at me. Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians chapter 1. We started talking about, or I started talking this morning about transformation and how it is a slow process often. Sometimes painfully slow.

Not that the process itself is painful, although it may be, but sometimes just waiting for it to happen and thinking, when am I going to get there? Is anything really taking place? Is any change really taking place?

Because it looks like it just did a minute ago. Transformation can drive us nuts when we don’t see the immediate results that we’ve come to come to count on. I mean, we live in a world where you can, okay, it absolutely disgusts me and I don’t eat it, but you can make macaroni and cheese in the microwave in three minutes.

And that’s not even fast enough for my kids. They like the stuff. Yeah, I don’t.

But you can make it in three minutes, and then, heaven forbid, it takes three minutes to cook, and then you have to let it cool. You know, we’ve gotten conditioned to where everything is available instantly. And so we expect transformation to take place instantly.

I’m a very curious person by nature. And by that, I mean, I like to know things, not, oh, he’s kind of curious. I like to know things.

And I remember when I was a kid doing an experiment where I got all of our ice out of the freezer. I shouldn’t have done this. But got all of our ice out and put it in a stock pot.

Because, you know, water has different forms. It has the solid form, which is ice. It has the liquid form, which is water. And it has the gas form, which is steam.

And knew it went through that transformation process. I wondered how long it would take a stock pot full of ice to boil away. to transform all of that from the solid state to the gas state.

All you’re doing is transforming the water from one state to another. You know what? Just because you brought the fire up to 212 degrees where water boils doesn’t mean that the ice melts instantly.

Matter of fact, even with one cube of ice, it takes a little while. A whole stockpot full of ice, it’s going to take a while for that even to melt into water, and then you’ve got to bring it up to a boil, and you’ve got to boil all that out of there. and just standing there watching it, I mean, it’s no different than if you just put a pot of water on the boil.

You’re going to cook pasta. You stand there and watch it. Is anything, was that a bubble?

No, that wasn’t a bubble. Did I see anything? If you take a snapshot of it in time and you’re just standing there looking, it looks like no change is taking place.

And yet, make no mistake, as long as that transformative power there is going on, in that case, it’s the fire. As long as that transformative power is there, Something’s going on whether we see it in that instant or not. And that’s sort of what we began talking about this morning with the transforming power of God.

And the example I gave you was dropping pounds. It doesn’t happen immediately or automatically. I wish it did.

But it took years and years of Whataburger and Chick-fil-A to get this figure. And it’s not going away just overnight. No matter how good I am.

You know what, folks? the transforming power of God is so much more important, so much more important to our lives than any other kind of transformation we could undertake. Therefore, it’s so much more important we don’t give up on it.

And yet it’s in many ways the same way. We can look at our lives as just a snapshot and say, I’m looking at this moment and I don’t see any change. I don’t see any transformation.

I still have this problem. I still have this struggle. You know what, God, I’m still falling into the same sin trap that I fell into 20 years ago.

And it’s been going on all this time. What’s happening here? Is there no change?

Is there no transformation? I told you this morning about not feeling Wednesday like I could pray, God, help me love this person. And it’s not that I don’t love that person or don’t believe the need to love that person.

But praying, God, help me love this person the way you love this person. Every time I pray something like that, they do something that makes it hard for me to love them. And so I can’t do that.

And it was enough to make me think, okay, God, have I learned nothing? Have you changed nothing in my heart at all? And then I think about the way I have demonstrated love toward that person when it’s been difficult.

Not just one person in particular. I guess there are any number of people that I look back 10 years ago and say, oh, if you did that or said that to me 10 years ago, how would I have reacted? It’s very different from how I react to things today.

I can look back and see, you know, from day to day, I don’t see a whole lot of change in my heart and in my life. But as I look back over the long term, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, I mean, we’re getting close to now 25 years of being a believer. It’s a big percentage of my life.

Day by day, it doesn’t seem like much change, but I can look and see where God has changed things over time. Transformation takes time. The caterpillar doesn’t go into the chrysalis and emerge as a butterfly in an hour.

The important things take time, don’t they? And so we talked this morning about the power of God to transform us and how important it is that God has this power to transform us and the fact that we can be confident. Remember, don’t forget that word confidence means a conviction that what we believe is actually true.

It’s not just I believe it, I think it, it’s what I was taught. I know as surely as I know my own existence that this is true. And because of that, certain other things are true and certain other things are required.

And I’m going to do those even if they cost me. Well, the power of God to transform us is one of these things that the Bible teaches we are supposed to have confidence in. But what if I can’t see it?

It doesn’t matter. We know it to be true. We know it to be true from God’s word that he has the power to transform us.

What if I don’t feel it? Your feelings are going to lie to you every time. And if you don’t know that that’s true, then you’ve never been a teenager.

If you don’t remember that far back to being a teenager, think about the teenagers, you know what, young people, kids, whatever, that you know now today, they’re confused by their feelings. Teenagers, I’m generalizing here, I’m speaking of a few that I know, okay, you may have been the exception to this. Oh, you’re my best friend, oh, I hate you, oh, you’re my best friend, oh, I hate you.

Yeah, that kind of stuff went on. That stuff happens with my four-year-old. You’re my best friend.

I don’t like it here. You’re my best friend. I don’t like it here.

And it changes based on whether or not you give in to the latest demand or request. We as human beings, by our nature, are confused by our feelings. Half the time, we don’t know what we want. Because we can be so dead set that God says this, but I want this, and then it’s not ten minutes later and our want changes on a dime.

Don’t base your spirituality. Don’t base your understanding or your belief on God’s Word on your feelings. Because there are going to be days where it just doesn’t feel true.

Some things are true whether you feel them or not. Some things are true whether you feel them or not. You can go into, I want to make sure I get this right, you can go into low earth orbit and feel weightless.

That’d be kind of neat. What’s going on is in the orbit, the craft is constantly in a state of free fall, and I won’t go into all the mechanics of it, but because of the orbit going around the Earth, it’s being flung in one direction, and it’s sort of like free fall, but it keeps going on a trajectory where it doesn’t go straight down toward the Earth. And so you feel, you’re not really feeling the lack of gravity, you’re feeling weightlessness because you’re in free fall.

I feel like there’s no gravity. You know what, gravity’s still there whether you feel it or not. Some things are true whether we feel them or not.

So what if I don’t feel like God’s changing me? You know what? If you’re not in active rebellion to Him and His Word, He’s working on you.

And you know what? I tend to think you can be in active rebellion to Him and He’s still working on you. It just may not be as pleasant as you would have liked it to be.

Folks, He’s working on us whether we see it or not. Whether or not I get up today and I feel the same as I did tomorrow, He’s working. It’s a gradual process.

that song that I learned as a child in vacation Bible school he’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be took him just a week to make the moon and the stars the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars how loving and patient he must be he’s still working on me folks it’s a simple children’s song but there’s biblical truth right in there God in six days created the universe in all its splendor and he’s still working on us to make us exactly what we need to be. Because what He’s doing is making believers to conform to the image of His Son. He’s making us to be like Christ. And that’s a more glorious thing to be like than Jupiter and Mars.

So we looked at this passage this morning. We started looking at it in Philippians chapter 1 where it talks about Paul’s confidence as he’s praying for the church at Philippi. There are these certain things that we started talking about with love this morning.

There are these things that he says he’s praying for God to grow them and change them and transform them in. But when he does that, when he prays these things, he says, I have confidence that these things are so. We’re going to look at this passage again and go on with the things that God transforms us in, at least from this passage.

Starting in verse 3, it says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work and you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And so he says, I think back every time I remember you, I think of your fellowship that we’ve had together in the gospel, this unity in Christ, this unity in ministry and serving Christ together. And I’m thankful for you and I pray for you and I ask God to bless you.

And he said, and even as I pray these things, I am confident of this very thing that He, meaning God, who began this good work in you, this good work of transforming you into what you need to be, will be faithful to bring it to completion when you stand before Jesus Christ. He said, there’s no doubt in my mind that God started this effort and God will complete it. And as I said this morning, that’s not only true for the believers at Philippi 2,000 years ago, that’s true for us as well today. That the same God who begins the process of transformation, the same God, we talk about sanctification, where he sets us apart and says, you’re mine, and then he begins to make us act like it.

The same God who pronounced us sanctified at the moment of conversion and began that process is the same God who works on us and makes us act sanctified, who transforms us from the inside out. And God is faithful to finish what he started, is what Paul says. There’s no doubt in my mind, Paul says, that the God who started this process will finish what he started.

And so because of that, he says in verse 7, even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of my grace. He says it’s fitting, it’s only right for me to think this of you. And he says in verse 8, for God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. He said, in our words, God knows in my heart how strongly I long for you all to be blessed in these ways.

He says in verse 9, and this I pray. Here’s what he’s praying for them on every remembrance. Knowing, believing, being absolutely convinced that God is already in the process of granting these things.

That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. that ye may approve the things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Okay, we started talking this morning about love.

He said he prayed that they would abound more and more in love. And that’s one thing, that’s one important area where God has the power to transform us. You think, well, I don’t feel as loving as I ought to as a believer.

You know, there are certain people, There are certain Christians we look at and say, they just love everybody. I don’t know how they do it. And I think on some level we know I’m supposed to do the same thing, but I don’t know how.

Maybe they’re just more spiritual than me. Maybe that’s not my lot in life, to be that loving. Ridiculous.

If God is conforming us to the image of His Son, if He’s making us to be more like Christ, one aspect of that is love. And Paul prayed that your love may abound yet more and more. We don’t start out being able to love the way God loves.

I’ve been a believer for almost 25 years, and I still don’t have this down about loving the way that God loves, but I feel like I’m a whole lot closer than I was all those years ago. I feel like, especially in the last 10 years, I’m a whole lot closer than I was when I was in high school and college. Folks, He is able to give us a capacity to love that we would not otherwise have.

So much so that a believer can look with love and compassion on someone who has treated them like dirt. And the world takes notice of that and says, how is it possible? How is it possible for you to respond that way?

Because God has a way of making our love abound more and more. I am not saying, folks, that a follower of another religion can’t love people. I’m not saying that.

I’m not saying an atheist can’t love people. I’ve known plenty of atheists who are very nice people. but I’m saying to love the way God loves.

To love in the sacrificial way that God loves. Human beings are incapable of doing it unless we are empowered to do so by God. And so Paul prayed that their love would abound more and more.

He prayed that in confidence knowing that God could transform us into people who love the way He loves. Not only the believers at Philippi but us today. That’s one thing that you can be confident in is the fact that God can give you the capacity to love in a way that you otherwise could not.

When you go through your daily life and you think, how do I deal with this person? How do I respond in a Christ-like way to this person? My mother showed me a picture the other day of a kid with this grin, this sort of smiling, sort of angry grin on his face and said, that moment when you want to punch somebody in the throat but you’re trying to get right with the Lord.

I have felt that. Not a lot, but I felt that. Folks, you may have kept.

. . Is that okay to admit that?

I’ve never ever acted on it. We all have those moments where we think, I’m supposed to do the Christ-like thing, but I don’t want to. How do I respond to this person in a Christ-like way?

You know what? We can’t on our own. But He sure can give us the capacity to do it.

And you can be confident that God can give you the capacity to love someone. We need to rely on Him in that. We need to ask Him for that.

I was wrong not to ask him for that Wednesday. But I didn’t ask him for that because I didn’t think he could. I just didn’t ask him because I didn’t want to have to use it.

But folks, when you think, how do I get through this situation? How can I possibly respond in a loving Christ-like manner? Have confidence that he can do it for you, that he can do it through you.

He can transform us in that way. Second of all, God enables us. God transforms us and enables us to discern truth.

You know, we are not born knowing spiritual truth. We’re just not. As much as some in the world would like to say, well, I just feel my way through these things, again with the feelings.

Here we are again with the feelings. The Bible says the natural man does not understand spiritual things because he’s not spiritual. He’s natural. That’s our natural state. I’m not talking about the world outside.

I’m talking about us too without Christ. We don’t understand spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2 says, So what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God.

Okay, he’s saying men know the things that men know because they’re men. People. People don’t know and comprehend and understand the things of God except the spirit of God.

The spirit of God knows these things because he is God. People, apart from the spirit of God, do not know the things of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. It is the spirit of God that helps us to understand spiritual truth about God.

As human beings, we are sort of in a spiritual state of groping around blind in the darkness, looking for something and don’t even understand what it is. And it’s God who’s revealed himself to us. It’s God who said, here I am.

It’s God who said, this is what I’m like. It’s God who said, this is what I expect. We didn’t figure that out through human intellect.

As a matter of fact, when human intellect comes up against the gospel, a lot of times it’s not comprehended. The Bible says it’s a stumbling block and it’s foolishness to the wisdom of this world. Now that’s not to say that the gospel, that Christian teaching is illogical. That’s to say you can’t totally just wrap your mind around it apart from the Spirit of God.

And so a lot of times we’ll try to figure out for ourselves what’s the truth. Well, what’s right or wrong in this situation? You know, sometimes we can figure it out just because of what we were taught in some circumstances.

What’s the truth in this? well, I feel like I should do this. Well, what’s the right thing to do here?

Well, it feels like this is right. The Bible also says there’s a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. I know I keep coming back to this, but it’s all.

. . I didn’t start this.

It’s all over every place in our society right now. Homosexuality. Same-sex marriage.

Well, what’s the right thing to do here? Well, I feel like it’s not fair to let some people get married and not other people. Okay.

Feeling it and it being true are not the same thing. And it’s because God said so that we as believers say, no, this is not right. I don’t want to take anybody’s rights away.

I don’t want the government persecuting anybody for what they do. I’m just saying we as believers take the stand that this is against God. And we plead with people to be reconciled to God in a loving way.

But the world outside says, I don’t understand how you can think this is wrong. And we look at the world outside and say, I don’t understand how you can’t see this is wrong. Because we’re operating from two different sets of discernment of truth.

The world uses man’s wisdom. And man’s wisdom can help you find a lot of things. Man’s wisdom is great for math and science and a lot of other things.

Man’s wisdom helped build the Empire State Building. Man’s wisdom came up with the internet. I’m not knocking that.

There are some great things. But when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to spiritual truth, man’s wisdom can’t get you there. See, we’re operating from what the Spirit of God tells us.

The Bible says those things are not compatible. And sometimes we’ll start out as believers. And you may have experienced this too when you started out as a believer.

That you just went off the assumption that something was okay. Or you went off the assumption that something was wrong. You had an assumption.

As you went further along, the Holy Spirit, though, began to work in your heart. And through conviction of the Holy Spirit, through the reading and studying and preaching of God’s Word, realize, wait, God says on this yes or no, and it’s different from what I thought it was. You know what?

Because we’re not born with the discernment to know spiritual truth until it’s revealed to us. And we can look at young believers. We can look at new believers and say, well, they’re just never going to get this right because they’re still doing this, this.

You know what? There are certain things you need to, we need to help people. We need to teach them.

We need to train them and teach them what God expects of them. But old habits die hard, ladies and gentlemen. And I’m just telling you, we need to exhibit some grace.

We can look at somebody and say, I can’t believe you’re still using that word. You’ve been a believer for a week. You shouldn’t use that word.

But we’re going to love you anyway. We teach people what God’s word says. We model by example what a Christian life is supposed to be.

We also trust that the transforming power of God is doing its work in His time. I’m not saying we have no standards, we let all behavior go. I’m just saying we trust that there is transforming power still there at work.

It takes time. It may not move any faster in other people than it moves in us. It might not move to our expectations in other people any more than it moves to our expectations of time in us.

But God is at work. Sometimes He uses us to help other people along in that. But we can think, I don’t understand this.

I don’t understand this from God’s Word. I don’t understand this. Give it time.

Keep doing what you know to do. Keep doing what you already understand that God wants you to do. And trust. Same for us, same for other believers that sometimes may frustrate us because they’re not as far along as we are.

You know what? We’re not as far along as other people are either. Just keep doing what you know God’s Word expects of you.

And we trust that He’ll transform us and grow us in our discernment of the truth as time goes on. Every time I open this book, I feel like I learned something that I’ve not seen there before. I’ve been a believer for most of my life.

I think I was reading this book before I became a believer. I was raised in a Christian home. I was partially taught to read by reading the Bible, following along in Sunday school, that sort of thing.

Been familiar with this book, but I still read it and learn new things every time. It’s because God didn’t give me full discernment when I first came to Him. He grows us in it.

And it’s in Philippians 1, 9 and 10 that he says, not only that your love may abound yet more and more, but he says, in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve the things that are excellent. He says, I want you to grow in knowledge and judgment as well. God can grow us in discernment.

God can transform us from blind men groping around in the darkness to discerning believers who can hear the Spirit of God and understand what he says in his word. But it takes time. don’t give up just because I don’t understand everything right now.

God will give you discernment. That’s part of this transformation that takes place. And God will grow your discernment.

Third of all tonight, God enables us to be genuine as believers. He transforms us. Folks, this is an incredible transformation that takes place.

He doesn’t just transform us from non-believers into believers. That’s incredible enough. But it’s not just changing our beliefs when I say he transforms us into genuine believers.

The Bible says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Enmity is not a word we use much anymore, but it’s the state of being God’s enemy. And that’s not God who did that.

We did that. We declared war on God. We opened fire here.

And Romans chapter 5 says we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. We were at war with God. We had declared war on God, said we’re in rebellion. we don’t want to do what you want to do, we don’t want to follow you, anything you would say to a king you’re rebelling against. And God can take us from that and transform us into people who are genuinely in love with him, genuinely believe what he says, genuinely desire to follow him.

That’s what I mean to be a genuine believer. Christianity is not one of those things where they say fake it until you make it. I’ve heard people say that about different things.

You know, you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s all right. Fake your way through it until you figure it out.

You know, I started, I started teaching this last school year. I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t feel like I really knew what I was doing.

I was just, I was just beginning to get where I understood a little of what I was doing. But it’s sort of one of those things that you walk into a classroom and you’re the teacher and you can’t let them sense weakness. And I’m going to pretend that I know what’s going on until I figure out what’s going on.

Sometimes that’s okay. Christianity is not something where I’m going to pretend that I’m godly and I’m going to pretend that I’m spiritual and just hope that eventually it catches. No, we can’t pretend to be genuine.

Do you see where that could be a problem? I’m going to fake being real with people. No, Paul prayed for them that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent.

He says that ye may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. He says I don’t want you to just be going through the motions in your Christianity. I don’t want you to just be putting on a church face on Sunday morning. I want you to be genuinely in love with Jesus Christ, have a genuine desire to follow Him, to be sincere about the things you’re doing.

And that’s something that God gives us because He’s the only one who can make us genuine in our love for Christ, genuine in our desire to follow Him. Sincerity and being without offense. He gives that to us.

Now there may be times where you say, well, I’m going to do this because it’s what’s expected of me. God, why do I still feel like I’m doing this because it’s what’s expected of me? Am I always going to feel like I’m just doing this because it’s what’s expected of me?

Folks, don’t give up on God’s power to transform us. This is not an issue of us being hypocrites. This is just an issue of our hearts really in the relationship the way they’re supposed to be.

Are we sincere in our love for Christ? You know what? I love Jesus Christ. I don’t necessarily feel like every day I love him the way he deserves to be loved.

I think that’s true for any of us. He deserves so much more than I could ever presume to give him. Is it always sincere?

Is it always sincerely where it needs to be? Is everything I do done out of a heart of love for Jesus Christ? Or am I just sometimes doing it because that’s what’s expected?

Folks, God can transform our hearts even here. He can transform our hearts even here. He can give us a love.

He can grow our love for Christ. He can give us a love for serving. He can give us a love for ministry. He can give us a love for doing the right thing.

Folks, He can change our hearts. How many times have I said I’ve prayed about a situation and instead of God changing the situation, He’s changed my heart about it. Boy, that happens a lot.

God, I’m here doing this ministry and I don’t mean any ministry in particular, but there have been things in the past that I’ve thought I don’t want to do this. This got dumped in my lap at church. I don’t want to do this.

It needs to be done, so I’ll do it because I’m, if not me, who? I don’t feel like that’s the sincerity that God wants from us. But you know what?

We pray about it and we continue to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. And trust, ladies and gentlemen, that God can transform us, that God can change our hearts about it and give us a sincere desire to serve wherever he calls us to serve. Fourth of all, and finally tonight, God can transform us into people who live right.

Now I realize there’s some overlap here with some of the other things we’ve talked about. It says in verse 11 that he prayed for them that they would be filled with the fruits of righteousness. Again, not have just a smattering here and there of the fruits of righteousness.

Oh, look, I see a grape there. Oh, there’s a banana on that tree. Folks, that we would be filled with the fruits of righteousness.

We’d be overloaded with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ. Again, those righteousness, the fruits of that righteousness are not our own. The righteousness isn’t mine, and the fruit of the righteousness isn’t mine. By the way, fruits means what you’re producing, what you’re bearing.

Are you producing good works as a believer? Well, the righteousness isn’t mine, and what comes from it isn’t mine. It’s by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God.

He says, I am praying for you that you will be filled with the fruits of righteousness. And again, I’ve said this so many times throughout this message and this morning, not wishful thinking, not speculation, not I hope this happens, but I am convinced, I am confident of this very thing. All of these things that he prays about in verses 9 through 11, go back to verse 6 where he’s talking about his confidence as he prays for them.

He’s confident that God will make them to be filled with the fruits of righteousness. I don’t feel like I’m really accomplishing anything for God. I don’t feel like my life is all that exemplary.

I don’t feel like I’m really all that good a person. Well, first of all, there’s something to be said for the closer we get to God, the less we’re going to feel like good people. That’s why sometimes people like to go to fancy