The Family Business - Part B

You see, holiness is not a light switch. It's not like you come to Christ and He flips the switch and it's like, I'm perfect.

We all know that's not true. The Christian life is not a sprint. It is a marathon. Put in your time. You go through the paces. So it's God's work. It's a gradual work. But notice more carefully in verse six, it's a growing work. That is, it has to do with your spiritual growth inside of you. We're all going to stumble in life, but you can trust that God will never give up on you.

He'll always be there to pick you up. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shows you that whatever God starts, He finishes, including the work He's accomplishing in you. But first, Skip wants to share about another way you can hear these encouraging Bible messages. Now, I just want to let you know how we can stay connected on my YouTube channel. Just search for Skip Heitzig, that's Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. You'll find in-depth Bible teachings and insightful interviews. And don't forget to subscribe.

Thanks, Skip. Right now, we want to share about a resource that can help you become more familiar with the Holy Spirit and how He helps you live in victory. Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, Helper. These are some of the names for the Holy Spirit found in the Bible. The Holy Spirit isn't a warm, fuzzy feeling or a vague cosmic force. He's a person who loves you, cares for you, and wants to empower you to be everything God calls you to be.

Here's Skip Heitzig. I think there's a lot of Christians who have heard the term Holy Spirit, obviously, but they have a very vague idea of who the Spirit of God is and what He's supposed to do in their lives. We want to help you better understand the Holy Spirit by sending you Expound, Holy Spirit, a DVD study from Pastor Skip. And for a limited time, we'll also send you a booklet by Lenya Heitzig called Empower, Discover Your Spiritual Gifts. Both resources are our way to say thanks for your gift of $25 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting you to God's life-changing truth.

Call now to request your copies of these resources, 800-922-1888, or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, we're in Philippians chapter one as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. I read an article, I found an article this week about your attitude, and it was all about the right kind of attitude in life, and it was found in, of all places, the Huffington Post. And the article was called Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude. The article spoke about how your attitude affects your ability to enjoy your life. It affects your ability to be grateful for blessings, to note that these things are blessings to me. And the article went on to say it's the reason it's so important to hang out with the right kind of people who will influence your attitude.

You know, there's an awful lot of people, even Christian people, who look like basset hounds. You know, they're on their way to heaven, but you'd never know it. And it's important to be with those people, like Paul, who can look back and go, ah, but look, filter through it, notice how God was at work. I have joy because of that.

I rejoice in that. My mind could go back as I go through my catalog of memories. I could think about the hardships when we started, the trials and the tears that we experienced, the betrayals I've had in ministry. But as I look back, honestly, so much has been deleted. I remember things happen, but I don't remember the particulars. And I thank God for that selective memory disorder.

I think it's from Him. I think back to changed lives and churches planted and souls saved, and for that I rejoice. I'm thankful for God's work collectively.

Here's a second partnership principle. Not only be thankful for God's work collectively, be confident in God's work personally. And that's what He draws our attention to in verse 6.

Being confident of this very thing. That He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now allow me to unpack this little verse.

There's a lot in it. This personal work was begun by God. It's God's work.

Notice what it says, being confident that He who has begun this good work. Paul is not referring to what the Philippians did. He's not saying, kudos to you guys, you did such a great work at Philippi.

You planned, you strategized, you took demographic studies of the greater Philippian region. Nor is Paul talking about himself. He's not talking about or bragging about the work that he and Silas and Timothy did.

Because frankly, he just showed up. And God did the work. Now you might hear that and go, Skip, you're not giving Paul enough credit.

He did more than just show up. He spoke the word to Lydia. Yeah, but Luke, who was with him, put it this way, the Lord opened up her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. So who did the work, Paul or God? Well, Paul spoke, but he spoke sort of because he was there. And the Lord opened her heart. The Lord did that. Then Paul was put in prison. And his back was covered with welts and he's in stocks and it's midnight so he turns to his buddy and goes, Hey, let's sing. So they start singing hymns.

And what happened? An earthquake happened. An earthquake shook the prison and opened the doors and the chains fell off. Did Paul do that? That wasn't Paul's work, that was God's work.

Paul showed up, the Lord opened people's hearts, an earthquake happened. It is God's work that he was doing. I love that verse in Ephesians 2, for we are his workmanship, his poema, his work of art. God is the master artist, skillful artist, always looking to express himself. It's his work. Not only is it God's work, notice more carefully in the verse, it's a gradual work.

It says, He who has begun a good work, now that word begun implies it's still going on. Think for a moment of the good work that God has begun in you. Think of the first time you heard the gospel. Maybe you heard it and parts of you said, Yeah, I'm sort of touched by that.

But then you heard it a second time, and your heart softened, and a third time. Maybe it took several times until you finally said, I give up, I surrender my life to Christ. At that moment, on that day, God began a work.

He initiated a task. It's an ongoing work. I bring this up because some of you that I'm talking to feel very discouraged as you look at your own life. There are problems in your life. There are imperfections in your life. And you're tempted to look at yourself and say, this is God's masterpiece? This is the workmanship? This is the poema, the great work of art?

It doesn't look very good to me. But what you're looking at is what a visitor to a great artist's studio would see if you walked in and there is that artist with that white canvas spread out on a beautiful frame. And the visitor notices a splotch of orange and yellow and green. And the visitor thinks, I could do that. That's not art. I can throw paint at a canvas and put color on it.

And that visitor might even say, excuse me, Mr. Famous Artist, but that doesn't look like a great piece of art to me. And the artist would say, that's because you're looking at a work in progress. I have something in my mind.

I have a goal for this. But you are just seeing it at its early stages. Just like you are seeing you in the middle of the job. You see, holiness is not a light switch. It's not like you come to Christ and he flips the switch and it's like, I'm perfect.

We all know that's not true. The Christian life is not a sprint. It is a marathon. Put in your time. You go through the paces. So it's God's work. It's a gradual work. But notice more carefully in verse 6, it's a growing work. That is, it has to do with your spiritual growth inside of you. Notice it says, he who has begun a good work, where? In you. You see, God's work is always an inside job. Before it's ever an outside job. God works in you before he works through you. It's sad really, but most of our concerns in life are outward concerns.

Most people, their focus, their concern is about outward things. How do I look? Do you like my hair?

Do you like this dress on me? Do I look too fat? Am I too thin? Am I too wrinkled?

Am I too pale? It's usually outward stuff that we are preoccupied with. How's the weather? How's the temperature? How do I feel? It's all outward stuff.

Rarely do people really get concerned about the inside work. I was in a furniture store a while back and my eye was drawn. It was a used furniture, a consignment place, you know, where people bring in their stuff to sell. And my eye was drawn to this beautiful antique refurbished piano.

I love musical instruments so I walked over to it immediately. It was dark walnut, all redone, the casing. And what struck me about this piano is looking in it. You know what was in it? Nothing. It was a piano casing, redone. There was no good work in it.

There were just outsides, no insides. Now compare that to a modern Steinway piano. Ever look at a price tag of a Steinway piano, $120,000? You think, what? Let me go back to that consignment store.

But there's no good work in it. Now, what the amazing thing about a Steinway piano, it doesn't just look good. What's in it is amazing. What's in it are 12,500 different components assembled by 200 different craftspeople. Who meticulously put that together and then after it's done, the Steinway piano is taken to a special room they call the pounder room.

That doesn't sound very good, does it? The pounder room is the place where every key gets pounded 10,000 times. But with all that work and all that pounding, there's a good work inside that piano.

And eventually, a master musician sits down at those keys, moves the fingers around, and the beautiful music is played and enjoyed. That's God's intention to do through you. He wants to make his music through you. Before he works through you, he's got to work in you.

And sometimes you feel, I'm in the pounder room over and over and over and over and over again. So it's God's work, it's a gradual work, it's a growing work. Now let me just bring this up because you might ask, well, what are the kinds of things God would do in me?

Well, let me give you a few suggestions. The first work God does in you that's a good work is he makes you guilty. You say, that's good?

That doesn't sound like a good work. I live in a culture, Skip, that tells me guilt is bad and I should do everything I can to get rid of guilt. No, God makes you guilty and that's a good work. See, he makes you and I aware of our lost condition.

And in our awareness of a lost condition, that's what drives us to seek salvation. So the first work he does, he makes you guilty. The second work he does, he makes you hungry.

You long for something different, you long and hunger and thirst for a different kind of life. Third thing he does in you is he makes you happy. Once you come to Christ, he puts the joy of a forgiven life. He puts that joy inside of you.

You're now forgiven. Fourth thing he does, he makes you holy. And let me tell you, that's a lifelong, that's where the pounder room comes in. He makes you holy, that is, he takes off the rough edges of your life. You got any rough edges?

Mine are still coming off. That's the good work he does in you. So it's God's work, a gradual work, a growing work, but I got to say this because it's in the verse, it's a guaranteed work. It says, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will, what? He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. One translation says he'll bring it to a flourishing finish. Whatever God starts, God finishes. He who has begun will complete. How many of you here have unfinished projects at home?

Come on, be honest. God bless you, I see that hand, God bless you. I have a running list of unfinished projects. The other day I noticed, I looked out my window of my study and I noticed in the front yard, there's a project, I won't tell you what it is, but it has been on my docket for five years.

Now I started it and I walked away from it and now I look at it as an unfinished project. Aren't you glad that God Almighty is not like Skip Heitzig? He is the author and the finisher of our faith, what he begins, he completes. Now, he's going to keep working on you, you know until when? I'll tell you when, it says so in the verse. He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God won't stop working on you until Jesus shows up. Now that's commitment.

The day of Jesus Christ is referring to the day when we are in his presence with glorified resurrected bodies. God will never give up on you, he will never stop working on you until you're like Jesus. God never says of any of you, I quit. He never goes, no way, I'm done. You're so lame. I mean I work hard in you and nothing really changes so I'm done.

No. It's as if when you came to Christ he hung a sign over your life that says under construction. You're under construction and he won't take that sign down until you're glorified. So until the day of Christ. It's God's work, a gradual work, a growing work and it is a guaranteed work. So be thankful.

That's the first partnership principle. Be thankful for God's work collectively. Be confident in God's work personally.

And here's a third and we'll close with this partnership principle. Be aware of God's work practically. Verse 7, he says, Just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of me with grace. For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

Now that's a confusing statement the way it's written for us but let me just sort of sum it up for you. This is a tender statement of Paul the apostle saying you have a special place in my heart. A very unique and tender place in my heart. Paul saying I feel linked together with you whether I'm in prison or I'm out on the streets preaching the gospel. I feel we are linked together.

Why? Well I want you to notice a word in verse 7. Look at the word partakers. Look at the word partakers. And if you have the freedom to write in your Bibles, not all of you feel you have that freedom, I do, you may want to circle partakers and circle fellowship in verse 5 and run a line to them because they are related words. Remember what I told you the word fellowship, koinonia, also translated partnership? The word partakers is related to that word fellowship. But it's not koinonia. The word in verse 7 is sukkoinanas. Sukkoinanas.

It means a joint fellowship or a joint partnership. And it's translated here, partakers. Now let me be practical. How can you be sure, how can you be sure that God is really working in you? Are there signs that show, yeah, God is at work in me?

Yes there are. There are two signs mentioned in verse 7. It's when you stand up for the gospel and it's when you spread the gospel.

Those two signs show that you are serious about the family business. You believe the product. So much so that you stand up for the gospel and you spread the gospel. I want you to see it in verse 7. It's right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart, special place in my heart, in as much as both in my chains and in the, watch this, defense, defense is when you stand up for something, and confirmation of the gospel.

You are partakers with me of grace. Now that word, defense, is apologia. We get the term apologetics from it. It's a defense of the faith. So whenever you hear somebody ridicule the gospel or mock the Jesus that you love, you stand up and you defend it. You say, excuse me, you're speaking about somebody that I love.

That Jesus you just used in that cuss word, that's somebody that I love. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't do that. You stand up for it. You try to answer people's questions. You try to explain your faith. You stand up for the truth.

You do what Peter said to do in 1 Peter chapter 3. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that lies in you. Now, if you didn't love God, you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't care less what people say about Jesus or the Christian faith or anything.

The fact that you stand up for it is a sign or a proof that it matters to you, that you love him, that he's a work in you, because you stand up for it. You make a defense. Second is you spread the gospel. And that's the word right after that, the confirmation of the gospel. Now, that is a word that was a legal term used in giving legal testimony.

It means to tell, to speak, and it's to confirm a fact used in legal testimony. So here's how it works. Every time the gospel is preached and received, it's confirmed. Every time you see somebody respond to the gospel, whether you give it or I give it, when that gospel is given out and received, it confirms the gospel. You're going, look, it works.

It happened again. That same old message still changes lives. It confirms it, the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. The practical proof that you are part of the family business is that you believe in the product. You believe in it so much is that you stand up for it and you spread it around.

If you don't stand up for it and you don't spread it around, it's good to ask, do you really believe the product? That makes sense, right? Now, this task, this is what I want to underscore as I close. This task is a family task. Remember, it's a family business.

I must be about my father's business. Jesus passed that on to his disciples. His disciples passed that on to the next generation. Now it's our turn. The baton of the gospel is in our hands.

We are always, Christianity is always one generation from extinction. We pass it on to the next. All of us are involved. It's a family partnership. An article I read said this, the kingdom of God is not meant to be a loose confederation of island individuals, but rather a unified group that is committed to the welfare of each other.

The only cell in the human body that does its own thing is the cancer cell. Paul's letter to the Philippians teaches us that fellowship is vital in the Christian life. Christian life in the United States is something like American football, where you have 11 men out on the field in desperate need of rest and 50,000 people in the stadium in desperate need of exercise.

In a similar way, too many churches, in too many churches, the pastor and a small band of helpers are exhausted while most of the congregation sits and takes it all in. That is not a New Testament church. A New Testament church is a joint partnership together in the family business.

And we're all about doing our part wherever we are. Now that's the family business, but you've got to be in the family to be in the business. And how do you get in the family? You've got to be born into it, right? Jesus said you must be born again, a spiritual birth.

A spiritual birth. Or you will not see his words. You will not see the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Unless you are born again, you will not get to heaven. You need a spiritual birth, a spiritual awakening to go to heaven. So yeah, he wants to work through you, but first he's got to work in you.

And the first work in you is to make you realize you need him. That wraps up Skip Heisig's message from the series Technicolor Joy. Right now, Skip is planning his next tour, and you can be on it.

Here's the invitation from Skip. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. Now, I've been to Israel a number of times over the years, and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship.

The Bible will come alive to you in a way it never has before. I hope you'll join Lenny and me on what is always an unforgettable trip. I can't wait to see you in Israel. This dream can come true for you. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heitzig. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. That's inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig explains the priority that love should have in your life and how your love can be abounding. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.