How to Have a Great Workout - Part B

The New Living Translation translates this verse, put into action God's saving work in your lives. Think of it spiritually now. God has done all the work. He is the one that brings salvation. It's from God, but it takes energy to grow as a believer. If you're going to grow, you can't just let go and let God. You have to get in the race. You have to get in the game. You need to pump some iron. The Apostle Paul wrote to believers, urging them to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

But what does that mean? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares biblical tips to help you maintain your spiritual health. But first, here's Skip to tell you about another great way you can hear these uplifting teachings. I want to invite you to follow my podcast so you can get even more inspiring teachings. Just search Skip Heitzig, that's Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. And don't forget to follow the podcast so you know when a new teaching is available. Thanks, Skip.

Now, we're in Philippians Chapter 2 as we dive into the teaching with Skip Heitzig. In ancient times, this word, workout, hatter gods of mine, was used for working a mine or working a field. So let's take that first example, working a mine. Let's say you own a silver mine. Let's say it has even been given to you by your parents. They give you the title deed, you own this silver mine. There's silver or gold in them bar hills, and you have it. Now, is that silver going to work its way out toward you and just land in your hand?

No, you have to go in and work it out. It's yours. In fact, it's been given to you as a gift, but you got to work it out if you're going to enjoy it. Okay, now think of a field, owning a field. You have a field. Produce, a little bit might grow on its own, but not much. You have to go work out the produce by plowing and planting and watering and fertilizing and maintaining.

You have to work it out. Let's take a more modern example, a different example. Let's say you are a musician and you have been handed by a composer a composition. He puts it or she puts it in your hand. Now, the composer has done it all. It's the composer that has thought of the melody. He has written the score.

He has provided the timing and all of the notations, and now you have it, and your task is to work it out. Make it sound good. Put it to music. Apply your skill and give it the melody that has been given to you.

Work it out. Another example, you go to a doctor. Doctor looks at you, does an exam, go, you got problems. So he gives you a diagnosis. He says you need surgery, takes you into the surgical room, performs an operation. After the operation, you wake up in recovery, and he says you're going to need rehab and you're going to need medication. So effectively, the doctor has done it all. He's given you the diagnosis, performed the operation, given you the meds and the rehab schedule.

At this point, you need to work it out. You need to show up for rehab. You need to go through those exercises. You need to take that medication and follow orders.

So there must be a cooperation with the doctor's operation. You get the drift. The New Living Translation translates this verse, put into action God's saving work in your lives. Think of it spiritually now. God has done all the work. He is the one that brings salvation. It's from God, but it takes energy to grow as a believer. If you're going to grow, you can't just let go and let God. You have to get in the race. You have to get in the game.

You need to pump some iron. Now I hope this is not a new revelation to you because it's written about all over the Bible. This is one of those instances, but another one that I think is just as poignant, if not more, comes to us from 2 Peter 1. Listen to what Peter says. He says, therefore, his divine power has given us all things, all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us, whereby are given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you may be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

So far, so good. God's provided it all. God's made all the promises. God's done it all, but listen to what he says after that. Therefore, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance.

You get it? Spiritual growth is not accidental. You don't wake up one day, look in the mirror and go, oh my goodness, I'm so mature.

How did I get this way? Spiritual growth is intentional, not accidental. Spiritual maturity is the human cooperation with the divine operation. You are never told in the Bible, lounge in the spirit. You'll never find a verse, look it up, lounge, lounge, lounge in the, you'll never find it. Lounge ye in the spirit. You'll never find something that says, veg out in the spirit. No, it says walk in the spirit. That means you actually have to cooperate by putting one foot in front of the other and engage in the process of working out something that has been worked in. So key to a great workout, get a good trainer, pump some iron. Third choice you need to make, follow a personal plan. You'll notice what it says, Paul writes, work out your own salvation. I love that he's put that there.

Work out your own salvation. Now if you go to a personal trainer at a gym, that trainer is not going to pull out a one-size-fits-all training schedule for you. He's going to tailor it. He's going to ask, or she's going to ask you some questions. They're going to say, okay, what are your goals? Do you do this a lot?

Have you done it before? When you work out, how long can you commit to the workout? How many days a week do you want to do it? Do you do cardio along with weight training or whatever that person's training you for? He's going to find, or she's going to find out those things, and then tailor-make a routine specifically fit for you. So work out your own salvation. You have your own relationship with the Lord. Don't be a cheap imitation of somebody else. Don't copy somebody else's routine.

Follow a personal plan. Just as no two snowflakes are exactly alike, no two flowers are identical, what makes you think you can get two Christians that are exactly alike? That's the beautiful variety of our God. You are unique, so work out your own salvation. It's interesting that Paul in 2 Corinthians 10 speaks about people among them who were bragging, boasting, and he said, and Paul writes, when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. So follow God's plan for your life, the gifts He has given to you personally. Be like Christ, but be yourself in Christ. Be your best self in Christ. Now, let me take that truth and turn it around.

Not only be what God made you, but don't worry about, don't meddle in, don't concern yourself with God's plan for everybody else. That becomes a problem with some. They're so worried about what everyone else is doing and are they as good as I am?

Are they doing as much as I am? And you can't win any competition or race that way in the sporting arena. So there's somebody in the Bible that was like this. His name was Peter. Peter blew it.

He denied Jesus three times. You know the story. After the resurrection, Jesus has a personal gathering with Peter on the shores of Galilee and restores the old boy back to service. He says, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you. Feed my sheep.

Does that three times. You know the story. But then Jesus begins to tell Peter what Peter can expect when he gets older and how he's going to die. He just gives him a little hint of his future. And Peter's listening. Here's Peter being restored to service, but Peter starts noticing that his buddy John is standing around. The apostle John. And Peter leans in and says to Jesus, what about him? What about this man?

And I love Jesus' response. He said, if I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? Follow me.

You get that? Don't follow him. Follow me. I've got a plan for you. This is my plan for you. Follow me.

Don't worry about him. He's going to follow me too. You follow me. Don't follow him. Follow me. Got it, Peter?

Okay. Now most of our problems come not when we're looking ahead. Most of our problems come when we're looking around. And so we're told in Hebrews 12 that we should run a race.

And he said, looking unto, finish it out, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Look to him. Hey, do you think if you're running a race, if you're going in this direction, but you're looking in that direction, what's going to happen to you?

Any clue? You will fall. It's just physics. If you're concentrating on something else that is not in where you're going, you will fall. If you're in a gym working out and you're looking at everybody else working out, you're going to get hurt. So work out your own salvation. Follow a personal plan. There's a fourth choice you need to make in your spiritual workout. Don't flex in the mirror. Don't flex in the mirror.

Look how Paul puts it. Work out your own salvation with what? Fear and trembling. Don't get cocky.

Do it with fear and trembling. You know there's always that guy in the gym who loves the mirror. He's in love with the mirror, especially when he's in it. And he gets close enough, not just to make sure he's doing it right, but just to see how that muscle flexes when he's doing it right. And then kind of looking around and see if you're seeing his muscle flex when he's doing it right.

He just like loves that whole physique thing that he's got going on. So don't do that. Don't flex in the mirror. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, or one translation says it this way, with deep reverence.

You see, you might be a great spiritual athlete, but you need some humility. Have a tender conscience toward God with fear and trembling. Now some people think that's strong language. What does that language have anything to do with the Christian life? Fear and trembling.

Those words are out in this culture. Well JB Lightfoot, who is quite a scholar in language, calls this a nervous and trembling anxiety to do right. Listen to that, a nervous and trembling anxiety to do right.

I just want to do what's right. Now if you start thinking, well God's not into trembling, you need to read Isaiah 62 where God himself says, on this one will I look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. In other words, God notices people that have the fear of the Lord, that reverential awe, not based on reprisal, but based on relationship, a holy apprehension. I want to make sure it's pleasing to the Lord, that I'm not hurting his heart. That's how I live my life in that fear of the Lord. It's like a child, a good child, who would be afraid of hurting mom or dad by doing something wrong.

That's the thought. The example I found of this comes from 1830, and no I wasn't around at the time. 1830, in London, England, a little girl was being trained, tutored, private tutor, and the lesson that day was the royal family. So this little girl's listening and they start bringing out the genealogical records of the royal family of England, and they start going through the names, and as they start going down the names, down the genealogical records, she starts recognizing some of the names. Like, I know who that is.

I'm related to that person. Well, that's my grandfather, and then she notices, they point out to her, Victoria, her name. It was little Victoria who would become Queen Victoria, and they wanted her to know in that fashion her genealogical background, and suddenly it started dawning on her what they were teaching her. She is next in line for the throne of England, and when the weight of that realization dawned on her, she got up to her feet and sort of with this shy sincerity said, I will be good. I will be good.

It's like knowing this now stepped her up to that desire to live at a higher level. See, that's the idea of with fear and with trembling. So don't flex in the mirror. I'm spiritual.

The Bible says, he who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. So get a good trainer, pump some iron, follow a personal plan. Don't flex in the mirror. Fifth choice, final choice in your spiritual workout, use power supplements. Yep, you need some power supplements here.

Verse 13, for it is God who works in you both to do or both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Often athletes will use supplements. I don't mean drugs.

I mean legitimate supplements to give them the energy to work through a routine, and it may be protein at the end to stabilize the muscles, and it just maximizes their efforts. You can't work something out from you that God hasn't first worked in you. So this idea of work out what God has worked in is a very important relationship.

You might put it this way. Work hard and obey and serve God because he is energizing your work. Apply your energy and God will energize your energy. God will work for your work.

That's the idea. He will, in fact, the word work, it says God works, it's the word Energon, the Greek word Energon. We get our word energy from Energon. God energizes you. He'll energize your work. It's his divine energy at work in us.

So they work together. This might help. It helped me.

It helped me understand it. I was late for a flight, so here's the deal. I was flying in an airplane, going to Phoenix, catching a connecting flight. My plane, I think it was out of here or I was coming back, I forget which, was late. It was late taking off and it was late landing in Phoenix. So I'm wondering, I'm not gonna make my connecting flight.

I'm just gonna have to wait for another one. And what made it worse is when the plane landed, it landed in the terminal at Phoenix, way over here on this terminal, and the plane, my connecting flight, was on the complete exact opposite farthest away terminal out of the same airport. I go, there's just no way. But in Phoenix, if you've been there, you know they have these cool moving walkways.

There's like flat escalators. And so you can just sort of walk like this and you will like zoom past people walking on the regular part. So I get on this walkway and I start running.

Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, because I want to catch this flight. So that little gizmo, that walkway, helped me run faster and longer than I could ever do it on my own strength. The combination of my running and the walkway moving propelled me.

That's this thought. Work out your own salvation because God is working in you. I was working, but I was really cooperating with a greater power that enabled me to reach my goal. Now these supplements that I'm talking about, this spiritual power, God's power, it begins in the will and then it ends in the action. But it always affects our will first.

Please notice how he puts it. It is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. You know what that means? It means God will give you the desire to do his will. Anybody here ever desire a deeper walk with the Lord?

Anybody? Honestly raise your hand if you ever have wanted a deeper walk with the Lord. Ever thought, man I don't pray enough, I want a deeper, better prayer life. Ever thought I want to get involved, I'm not as involved. Ever had those desires?

Guess where they come from? God plants them in you. You see in Psalm 37 it says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. And I've seen that misinterpreted as, well I'm gonna think good thoughts about God and he'll give me whatever my little heart desires. So my little heart desires this, so God has to give that to me. No he doesn't.

It doesn't mean that. It means delight yourself in the Lord, seek first the kingdom of God and God will actually plant in your heart a desire that is the right desire. He'll give you that desire.

He plants a longing in you. You know before I was saved and I was growing up, I had no desire to read the Bible. If somebody who said, Skip you ought to read the Bible.

I said, why? What does that have to do with life? Certainly my life has nothing to do with Bible stuff. I never wanted to read the Bible. I had no desire, no longing.

I never had a desire or a longing to pray. I certainly didn't have a longing and a desire to be a preacher. If somebody would have said, in days ahead you're gonna become a preacher.

I would have probably slugged them. I didn't want that, but here I am. I read the Bible, I pray and I'm a preacher.

You know why? God put the desire in me. He put the longing in me to do that. So every now and then I'll meet people, Christians, they're frustrated and I love it.

I love when they're frustrated over this reason. They go, man I just want to serve the Lord, but I'm frustrated because I don't know what to do next. I don't know what he wants me to do exactly and I love that. I smile when I hear that because I know they couldn't even have that desire unless God was working in them. So if he's given him that desire, he's gonna now do what he has willed to do, what he has put in their heart to do. And there's a reason that God begins with the will before he works on our actions and it's a beautiful reason.

The reason he gives you the will first is so that you'll enjoy it when you do it. So you're not gonna walk around go, I have to serve God. We don't want you serving God like that.

You certainly don't want you doing it around here. And I never get into the pulpit going, I have to crank out another Sherman. I've got to preach.

I love this. I was having a conversation with the vice president of Campus Crusade for Christ and we're talking about our callings and he said to me, I could never do what you do. I love missions.

I could never do what you do, being in one place over a long period of time, seeing people, preaching. And so he said, well, and he was trying to figure out a nice way to say, he goes, so do you like to study? I mean do you like that?

Do you enjoy studying? I said, I love it. I love it. I love, and even with my ADD, I love to hyper focus for a period of time and drill down into a text and dig out what it means and find out what God is saying and tell others what God is saying. I love that. And God gives us those desires. So let God work in you his desires and then he'll work through you his plan and his purpose.

I love this truth. There was a young boy selling cookies to raise money and the man, a man walked by and asked him, what are you gonna do with all the money you make? You know, not expecting the answer he was gonna get. What are you gonna do with all the money you make? And the little boy said, I want to raise a million dollars for famine relief. And the older man said, really? You want to raise a million dollars for famine relief? Do you think you can raise that much by yourself? And the little boy not missing a beat said, oh no, my little brother's gonna help me. First of all, I applaud the vision of that young boy setting his sights so high saying, I'm gonna raise a million dollars for famine relief.

Good on you. But then he realized, I need help. I can't do this alone.

I need my little brother to help me. So maybe his strategy wasn't perfect. But you can have a great workout, but you can't do it by yourself. You can only work out what God works in you. And God gives you desires. Then he gives you the power to pull it off.

That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Technicolor Joy. Now we want to share about a special resource that will increase your knowledge of God's Word even more. Reading the Bible can lead to asking some serious questions like, is the rapture real?

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