Week 10 Is the Storm Really Gone?
When life has been rocky it is sometimes hard to accept the good times
“Salvation is not a prayer you pray in a one-time ceremony and then move on from; salvation is a posture of repentance and faith that you begin in a moment and maintain for the rest of your life.”
J.D. Greear
Passage
12So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
14Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
15so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
16holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.
Philippians 2:12–16 (NASB95)
Background
Quote-James David "J.D." Greear (born May 1, 1973) is an American Baptist pastor. He is the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina. Greear has authored several books, including 12 Truths & a Lie (2023), Essential Christianity (2023), Just Ask (2021), What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (2020), Above All (2019), Not God Enough (2018), Gaining by Losing (2015), Gospel (2011), Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart (2013), Jesus, Continued… (2014), and others. He also hosts Summit Life, a 30-minute daily radio broadcast and weekly TV program. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition,[4] and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 to 2021.
Passage-The book of Philippians is a Prison Epistle (letter written while in prison). Paul wrote it about 62 A.D. as he anticipated his release from prison. The key personalities are the Apostle Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, Euodia, and Syntyche. It was written to show his appreciation and love to the Philippians in a thank-you letter for their continued help and support, and also to encourage their growth.
Opening Statement
What does it mean to be saved? We should know, or at least have a working idea of what it means to us as individuals.
Ask: What is “salvation?”
Point: Please see the Definitions page
Ask: Are we at risk of being “destroyed” or “lost?”
Point: Yes. Please read the following:
26“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27“The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
Matthew 7:26–27 (NASB95)
Ask: “I thought the storm had gone by. How are we at risk of being lost?”
Point: Because we have not “worked out our salvation with fear and trembling.”
Ask: What does that even mean?
Point: Please see the Definitions page for Posture, items 4 & 5.
Ask: How does a mental and spiritual attitude as perceived by the public work out my salvation with fear and trembling?
Point: Human beings worry greatly about outward appearances. What we are willing to let people who might criticize us see shows the courage of our convictions.
Ask: If God knows the truth of my heart why do I need to let people see it?
Point: Please read the following:
25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
26“You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
Matthew 23:25–26 (NASB95)
Ask: Isn’t that all about outward appearances being bad?
Point: No. It is about the outward appearance not matching the inward change.
Ask: So, if the outer appearance is supposed to match the inner heart, how do we do that?
Point: Please see the Definitions page for Repentance and read the following:
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8“Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;
9and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.
10“The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:7–10 (NASB95)
Ask: Where is working out my salvation in making my heart and outward appearance match?
Point: It is the seed of our faith in our hearts that grows into the vine that bears fruit seen by all.
Ask: How can we best make sure the seed in our heart manifests on the outside as fruit God is pleased by?
Point: Obedience. Please read the following:
9For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:9–14 (NASB95)
Closing Statement
Is the storm really gone? We live in the flesh, so the storm matters to the flesh, but to the spirit only Jesus matters. It is from Christ we have the seed of faith planted in our heart that we wish to obey. The Holy Spirit tends that seed, waters it, and nurtures it. From time to time, He points out weeds in our lives, things we do or say, habits, and other less obvious things that try to choke out that seed. Our repentance from those things indicated by the Spirit moves our lives away from these things in tangible ways people can see. Thus, they see us living out our faith. They witness the daily act of us working out our own salvation as we fear the storm and tremble at the consequences of getting Life “wrong.”
Questions for the Week
Question 1 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Question 2 Write down a statement, as long or as short as you are led to write, of what your salvation is and means to you.
Question 3 Contemplate what the outward manifestation looks like of the inward change you just wrote down.
Question 4 Consider three steps that would manifest fruit in the world around you rooted in the changes you’ve been inwardly considering.
Definitions
salvation
sal-vey-shuhn
noun
1. the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc.
2. the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.
3. a source, cause, or means of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.
4. Theology. deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.
posture
pos-cher
noun
1. the relative disposition of the parts of something.
2. the position of the limbs or the carriage of the body as a whole: poor posture; a sitting posture.
3. an affected or unnatural attitude: He struck a comic posture.
4. a mental or spiritual attitude: His ideas reveal a defensive posture.
5. one's image or policy as perceived by the public, other nations, etc.: The company wants to develop a more aggressive marketing posture.
6. position, condition, or state, as of affairs.
repentance
ri-pen-tns, -pen-tuhns
noun
1. deep sorrow, compunction, or contrition for a past sin, wrongdoing, or the like.
2. regret for any past action.
faith
feyth
noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing:faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof:He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion:the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.:to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief:the Christian faith;the Jewish faith.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.:Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.:He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.
obey
oh-bey
verb (used with object)
1. to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of:to obey one's parents.
2. to comply with or follow (a command, restriction, wish, instruction, etc.).
3. (of things) to respond conformably in action to:The car obeyed the slightest touch of the steering wheel.
4. to submit or conform in action to (some guiding principle, impulse, one's conscience, etc.).