How To Shine As Lights

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We live in a world where people are gonna frustrate us and they're gonna disappoint us, and tough things are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen, and we've got an option of either I get bitter about it or I get better, or either I, I actually have a root of bitterness, or I take that out and I say, "God, give me a root of grace."

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This morning, we're gonna be looking at a wonderful passage, a unique passage, Philippians chapter 2, verses 14 through 18.

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We're gonna spend most of our time in verses 14 through 16.

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Uh, if you have a Bible, I'd invite you to open it up, keep it open throughout our time.

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Again, it's a very unique passage, um, you know, that at first you

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it doesn't seem like a big deal, but we're gonna see it is.

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And let me start by reading the, the verses we're gonna be looking at, Philippians 2, starting in verse 14.

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"Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, amongst whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in labor, or ru- run in vain or labor in vain.

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Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

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Likewise, you should also be glad and rejoice with me."

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May God bless the reading of His word.

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Father, thank you so much again now for the chance to be able to dive into Your Word.

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Thank you for what you're teaching me.

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And Father, I pray that You would speak through me and in spite of me.

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Father, help us to hear Your heart in this message this morning.

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I pray Your blessing in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Well, let me start this morning's message by asking several questions just to kinda get us thinking and, and to kinda set us up for this.

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The first question is this: Is it possible to do the right thing with a wrong motive or the wrong attitude?

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For ex- for example, is it possible to do something that seems very loving and other-centered, but it's actually really done from a heart of selfishness, not to serve or love the other person, but kind of like, "Okay, well, I'm doing this to manipulate you, because that's the way that I wanna get from you what I expect"?

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Or is it possible for a child to do the right thing, to obey, yet to do so with an attitude of resentment and even rebellion?

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And throughout the m- the morning's message, I'm actually gonna use numerous illustrations talking about young children, even my kids when they were younger, spe- specifically for the reason that when we talk about this issue of right attitude with wrong motive

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Um, adults can be pretty good at faking wrong motives.

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Kids, not so well, you know?

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Pre- usually pretty easy to read.

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And, uh, so any of us, for example, who are parent

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been parents at times can relate to times that it's pretty obvious that your children are just giving, you know, kind of that reluctant obedience.

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You know, they get in a fight with their sibling, and you tell them to apologize, and they come, "I'm sorry," you know, and you can just tell.

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Or you, you know, you tell them, "Okay, well, I want you to go clean your room."

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And they argue and they say, "Okay," and they, they obey, but they stomp up the stairs, slam the door, and, okay, the heart's not there, right?

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Right, right behavior, wrong attitude.

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You know, I'm reminded of the little boy who was told to sit down or else he'd be punished, and he responded, "On the outside, I'm sitting down, but in the inside, I'm standing up."

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That's the problem that we have.

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Well, so that's the first question.

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The second question, if, if we can do the right thing with the wrong attitude, is God primarily concerned with just our behavior, or is He concerned with our heart and the attitude?

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You see, that's actually a very important question, and it s- confuses people.

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And I think the reason is that a lot of people mistake the spirit of religion with true biblical Christianity, the teaching of the Bible.

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The spirit of religion tends to focus on the external behavior, doing the right things, keeping the right rules, and according to the spirit of religion, people would think that, "Well, what God is concerned about are you doing the right things, are you in conformity with the right rules."

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And it's not focused on the heart, you see, but the Bible teaches that God is primarily concerned not with external conformity, but with our heart, because what He wants is relationship with us, and relationship is e- expression of the heart, not just the behavior.

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Now, let me go back to the example that I used a few minutes ago.

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We talk about kids and they, you know, they're s- fight

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uh, fighting with their siblings.

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And again, any of us who have more than one child, we can relate to this.

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And, uh, so they're fighting and you get involved as a parent, you try to deal with the underlying issue and you, you kinda resolve it, and then you say, "Okay, well, I want you to, I want you to apologize to your brother."

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And, and next thing you know, they, they go out and they say, "I'm sorry," and the brother reaches out their hand, they hit their hand, then they walk away.

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You know, we can relate to that.

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Now, now should my response to that be, as a parent, be, "I'm really proud of them.

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Their obedience makes me happy."

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Have they obeyed?

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Yeah.

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They did the right thing, but I'm not proud of them because it's obvious that their attitude is wrong.

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No, you know, I don't

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you know, I don't want them just to go through the motions.

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I want them to have a true attitude and heart of grace and forgiveness towards each other.

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Now, again, as s- I said a few moments ago that part of the problem with this is adults, we're better at hiding things.

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Kids, it's a little more obvious.

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But here's even a question that we've gotta realize.

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We may be able to fool our, our, you know

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fool other people.

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We can't ever fool God.

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But in that, if we can fool other people, is it possible that we can fool ourselves?

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Is it possible that, um, you know, that, that we can actually do the right things and, and I can even think that I'm

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because I'm doing it, I think that I'm

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my heart's right, but my attitude is actually wrong?

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And if it's possible to do the right thing with the wrong motive, then how can we tell if we have the wrong heart or attitude behind our actions?

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How can we tell if we're just, you know, we're going through the motions, we're doing the right thing?

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How can we tell if it's just external conformity or if we really have the right heart before God?

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Now, this morning, we're gonna see this passage addresses these questions, and we're gonna especially come back to this last one, because we can lie to ourselves.

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How do we know?

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And then what do we do?

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How do we respond?Well, we're go-- as we dive into this, we're gonna see the, the whole passage is really calling us to an applied faith.

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The idea that it's not just certain things that we know, but that we actually live out our faith.

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We actually take the things that the Bible teaches, and we, we put them into practice in the way that we live.

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2 weeks ago, we looked at verses 12 and 13 of Philippians 2, and we saw, right even there, this call to w- work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to, to work it out, to actually apply it, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work according to His good pleasure.

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Now, when he called us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we saw he's not calling us to somehow try to accomplish our salvation through our good works and then, and then be fearful whether we've made it or not.

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No, his point is not that we're called to try to produce our own salvation, but to work out the salvation that we possess through God's grace.

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Throughout the Bible, it's clear that salvation is not something that we accomplish through our own good deeds.

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It is a gift of God accepted through faith.

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For example, Ephesians 2, "For by grace you have been saved through faith.

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This is not of your own doing.

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It is a gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one can boast."

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So when he comes into Philippians 2:12, and he says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," what he's calling us to do is to work out in the practice of our life the salvation that God has worked in through His grace.

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You see, because as believers, it's in the everyday life that our salvation is worked out.

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It's at the workplace, or it's at school, where we learn to apply our faith into the challenges that we face every day.

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It's in our home, where we learn to, what it means to love and to forgive and to be gracious to family members.

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It's in our entertainment choices and, and what we look at in the computer, what we post on social media.

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It's in all the issues of everyday life.

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Now, while there are many areas whe- where God calls us to work out to salvation, when we look at the context here in Philippians 2, he, he's calling us specifically to focus in on living with humility and other-centered love that is exemplified through Jesus Christ.

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It's what's described for us in the beginning of chapter 2.

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In fact, if we go back up to Philippians 2, verses 3 and 4, look what it says.

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"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others."

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And so then, if you wanna know what that looks like in practice, he said, "Okay, look to Jesus Christ.

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He's the ultimate example of this.

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Have this mind amongst yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself."

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And then he continues to explain how he emptied himself, taking on human flesh and, and ultimately taking death upon the cross for our sins.

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Now, let me point out one other thing that's easy to miss in these verses.

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When we look at this, verse 5 calls us to have the same mind amongst ourself as Jesus Christ, to have the same attitude of Jesus, not just the same actions.

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Why?

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Because it's possible for us to do things that seem other-centered, that seem humble, that really aren't driven by a, a loving, humble heart.

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You know, we all do things that at times that, that seem loving that, but are really driven by selfish motives.

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And God doesn't just, again, want external conformity.

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He wants relationship with us that is a matter of the heart.

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So if that's the case, then how do we change our heart?

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You see, if we were talking about religion and per- performance, you see, through self-discipline and, or effort, I can somehow try to change my, my, my, my behavior.

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Through discipline, I can try to beha- a- act differently.

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But how do I change my heart?

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I can't do that.

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Well, that's where we go back to verses 12 and 13, which we looked at a few weeks ago.

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These verses call us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

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We're called to do something.

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We're called to, uh, you know, to, to seek to work this, you know, what God has worked in, we're called to work out into our life, but we can only do it through His grace.

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"For it is God who works in you both to will and to work according to His good pleasure."

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It is God who gives us the ability to work out our salvation, not by our trying to change our behavior, but by admitting our need and asking God to change us from the inside out, asking God to do the miracle, and, and then we go to God's means of grace.

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We, we study the Word, we, we pray, we, we come to church, we're involved in small groups, and those are things that God then through His power, changes us from the inside out.

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But then the question is, how can we tell if that's really happening in our life?

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How can we tell if, if, if we're just external conformity or if we're truly being transformed from the inside out?

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And the answer is right here in verses 14 and 15.

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See, because it's not just a question of whether we're doing humble, other-centered activities, but what's the attitude in which we do it?

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Now, if you have your Bibles open, look with me again at verses 14 and 15.

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It says: Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, amongst whom you shine as lights in the world.

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See, when I do something may, that may appear humble, that may appear loving or other-centered, but I do it with a wrong heart attitude, with a wrong motive, when the real motivation isn't to serve the other person but it's selfish, what I'm doing then is I'm actually doing that not as an act of servant hood toward them, I'm doing it as a investment.

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Here, let me do this for you because I think that I'm going to get something back.

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Or remember, maybe I'm doing it because I want recognition from a third party.

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But when I'm doing the right thing with the wrong motive, eventually it's gonna make itself evident in my grumbling, my complaining, my arguing.

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Why?

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Because when I have impure motives, I always expect something back, and sooner or later, somebody's not going to give back to me what I expect of them, and then what happens?

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I get frustrated.

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I get upset with them.

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I, it's grumble, I complain, uh, I dispute.

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Our grumbling and complaining and conflict all re- reveals that we don't have the attitude of Jesus, where he emptied himself selflessly.

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It's the same idea that Jesus talked about in Matthew 5, when he said, "I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

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And then he continued to say, "For if you love those who l- love you, what reward do you have?

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Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

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And if you greet only your brothers, what, what more are you doing than others?

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Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"

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And it's basically saying, the tax collectors were like the worst of our their time, the gang members, the, you know, the, the worst people, and the Gentiles, the unbelievers.

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And he's saying, "The worst people in our culture do loving things, do things that look loving, that look humble to their friends."

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Because they expect something back.

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We all do that.

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You know, we all do things that look good because we expect something back.

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We want a return.

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It's an investment.

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What should set us apart as follower of Jesus is that we seek to have the attitude of Jesus, where we now love those who have nothing to offer us in return, or even we're able to love our enemy, somebody who doesn't not only pay us back, but they may pay us back evil for good.

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You see, it's that attitude that reveals that we, we have the heart of Jesus.

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But it's grumbling that shows us that we do not.

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Think about it.

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Why do I con- complain?

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Why do I grumble?

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Because my expectations aren't met.

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I have expectations of, of how things should turn ou- turn out, what God should do for me, what other people should do for me, and, and because they don't.

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I, I love them, I did this for them, and, and they treated me wrongly, and, and so what happens?

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I grumble.

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I'm discontent.

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And the key thing to realize is that it's all grumbling, all complaining is rooted in discontentment because somebody didn't meet my expectations.

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I expected them to do something, to serve me, and, and they failed, and so therefore I grumble.

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Now, on the other hand, when my focus is on being a servant, not on other people serving me, you see, when I see a problem, I'm gonna step up and I'm gonna say, "How do I, how do, how am I part to fix it?"

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And, and, but if I expect them to fix it, I'm, see, I'm not being a servant.

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I'm c- I'm grumbling.

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Why aren't they doing that?

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I, I deserve better.

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See, when we grumble and complain, our focus is on ourselves.

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I'm at the center and I'm upset because other people haven't met my needs.

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They haven't done what I expect of them.

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But if I learn to have the attitude of Christ, of emptying myself seeking to serve others, let me ask you, what possible ground is there for grumbling or complaining?

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Think about it.

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Did Jesus complain?

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Could you imagine Jesus around the fireplace complaining about, "I don't like this food.

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I don't"

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Can you imagine him complaining?

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No.

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Did he have reason to complain?

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Yeah, more than any other person ever alive.

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And so, why didn't he complain?

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Well, because he took the attitude of a servant.

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He didn't see how other people let him down, but he let go of his own rights, in a sense, of his own ego, and, and his, and the expectations, and he defined himself not by how other people served him and what he deserved, but how he served others.

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And my friends, when people, any of us take the role of Jesus, when we take that role of a servant, what will we ever grumble about?Now the fact is, as I say this, it's, it's a very difficult, convicting, and uncomfortable concept, because you know what?

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When I grumble, I wanna blame somebody else.

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I wanna say, "Look what they did!

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And it's their fault that I'm unhappy!"

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And I, I don't wanna look at it myself.

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But that's where God points me.

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Let me ask you, what have you complained about this week?

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I- if you had the heart and attitude of Jesus Christ and emptied himself and taken the servant, would you have still complained?

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Let me ask it another way.

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If Jesus was living your life this past week, would He have cr- complained?

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Would He have grumbled?

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Well, let's go deeper.

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W- well, what is it that he's calling us not to do?

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When he says, "Okay, do all things without grumbling or disputing," practically what does this look like?

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It's actually a very countercultural demand, because grumbling and complaining, disputing, conflict, they're all m- part of a normal part of everyday conversation.

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In fact, I, I think if you were to go into most offices, if you were to go into most schools, and if you were to remove all complaining, all grumbling, all arguing, disputing, some people wouldn't have anything left to say.

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I mean, that's, that's, you know, that's a huge percentage of most people's, you know, discussion.

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That's what we do.

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That's, that's normal in our culture.

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And so, Paul gives us this seemingly simple command, but he says it, it's so countercultural, it will make us stand out in a distinctive way.

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Look what he says again, verse 14.

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"Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent."

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So if, if we don't dispute, grumble or dispute, we're blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, amongst whom you shine as lights in the world.

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If we just do that one thing, we don't grumble and complaint, we will s- be so distinctive in our culture that we will shine as lights that can't be ignored.

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That's significant.

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I'm gonna come back to that at the end of that picture.

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But, but when we look at this, what is the problem of grumbling that he's calling us to?

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Well, grumbling is, th- the definition of the word here, it's low-toned discontent mutterings.

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Um, it's not the loud, public complaints.

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It's usually the kind of quiet complaining.

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It, it's actually, grumbling is an, an English word.

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They call it an onomatopoeia, which is a kind of really unique thing.

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There are certain words that sound like what they are.

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So think about when people grumble.

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You know, they're kind of quietly, "I don't like this.

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I don't like"

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You know, it sounds like, "Grumble, grumble, grumble."

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Or murder, mum, um, you know, um, you know, we talk about murmuring and that same thing, you know?

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Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur, mur- you know, just this kind of quiet thing.

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It's what happens in the hallways at work or at school.

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You're standing around, you're complaining about what's going on, and the boss walks up and you don't tell him, you just, everyone's quiet.

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You know, 'cause it's, it's that quiet murmuring, quiet grumbling.

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Again, I, I talked about in the beginning using some illustrations with our young children.

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So if I go back to when my kids were young, um, you know, at times, you know, we had them do jobs around the house.

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And so we would times tell them, "Okay, well, well, okay, I want you to do this job."

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And I know this might be surprising to you, but they didn't always respond with, "Yes, I would be blessed to contribute to the needs of our family."

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I mean, it's just, I mean, no, our kids didn't always respond.

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In fact, I don't think they ever responded that way.

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Usually, they grumbled, they murmured.

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And, and, you know, for example, we'd tell them, "Well, tonight's your ni- time to do the, you know, dishes."

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"Well, well, you know, my sibling did them last night, and last night we just had hamburgers and we just had 6 dishes, and tonight Mom cooked spaghetti and they've got all these pasta, you know, or dishes and pots and pans, and it's not fair!

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I've gotta do all the dishes."

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And, grumble, murmur.

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They're not happy.

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And so when you think about it, I was even reflecting back in, in my years of parenting, it's, how many times did we hear, "Uh, it's not fair."

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H- have, have any of you

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Maybe this is just me, but I can't think of a time that my kids ever said, you know, "Dad, it's not fair.

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I had less work this week than my sister.

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God, it's not fair that, you know, I got more Christmas presents than they did."

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Or, you know, "I've got

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Dad, it's not fair.

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I think you overpaid me for the work I did."

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Has anybody ever had that?

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I mean, that would be nice when

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You know, they, they, they never complain when it's unfair to their benefit, but they're quick to see when they perceive that it's unfair to their, you know, to their cost.

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"It's not fair!

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I expect better."

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And because I expect and my dis-, you know, my

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may- I'm disappointed, I grumble, I complain.

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But look, the command isn't just to not grumble.

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It also calls us to do all things without grumbling and disputing.

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Now, what's the connection between grumbling and disputing?

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Think about it.

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The primary reason we argue with each other is because we first felt the reason to complain about the other person.

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They let me down in some way.

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They've disappointed me in some way.

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They failed to serve me in a way that I expected.

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And because I now become frustrated with them, it leads to an argument.

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Again, I can think about how this plays out in marriage.

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I mean, it's at times of

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You know, my, if my, my wife comes and she does something very loving and she does something expected and shows love to me, hey, man, our relationship is great.

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I

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At least on my part.

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But what happens that, that there are times that it's like if I feel like she, she didn't meet my needs, if I felt like I did this and she hasn't done this, and, and I feel like she hasn't done that, suddenly, there's, there's grumbling and it leads to conflict, right?

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Because all grumbling, all conflict ultimately is rooted in the sense that I believe she's failed to serve me adequately.

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And, and her conflict when she's with me, it's because she feels like I haven't served her adequately.

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In 35 years of being a pastor, and I think about all the times that I've met with people about marriage, pretty much all the comments come in and you say, "What's the issue?"

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And it's rooted back to this whole thing that one or both parties are coming and saying, "This person has failed me in some way.

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They're not meeting my needs.

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I'm

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You know, they're, they're not meeting my expectations."

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Grumbling leads to conflict.

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I've, I've yet to have a marriage where a couple come in, and they come in and I say, "What's the issue today?"

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"Well, you know, I just wanna learn to love my spouse better.

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I'm not doing a good enough job."

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"Well, how about you?"

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"Well, I wanna learn to love them better."

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That doesn't happen

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I, I think those couples might exist, but they don't go to marriage counseling 'cause they got a really good marriage.

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Right?

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Because our conflict comes from discontentment.

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It comes from grumbling.

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See, we need to see the root of the problem is that it's ultimately our selfishness.

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Our expectations aren't met.

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I expect certain things of people.

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Again, that this whole teaching about grumbling and complaining is rooted in the couple verses beforehand where we're called to, "Who followed the example of Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant."

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That's our example.

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But when we grumble and we complain, our focus is on ourselves.

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I'm at the center.

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I'm upset because people aren't meeting my expectation.

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Ultimately, if we look at this, it not only reveals the fact that I don't have the other-centeredness of Jesus, but Jesus's other-centeredness is rooted in humility.

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It's rooted in love.

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It shows that ultimately, grumbling and complaining is an expression of pride and selfishness.

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Again, none of us want to admit this.

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I don't wanna admit it.

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I mean, the fact is, when I think about what I grumble about, what I argue about other people, it's about them.

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"They did that.

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They let me down.

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They"

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You know, it's

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I

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In fact, I justify, I think that my grumbling is a justified response, a reasonable response, to their failure.

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But the Bible looks at it and says, "No, it's never about them.

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It's always about you."

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It's always about my selfishness.

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It's always about my pride.

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And, and ultimately then, the only challenge is for God to change me.

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Not just change my behavior, change my heart.

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Now, how important is this?

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Again, we can look at this and say, "Oh, grumbling.

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It's not a big deal."

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But look at what it says here about the importance of this and the impact of how we respond.

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The command is to do all things without grumbling and disputing.

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Now, consider first of all the impact in our own lives.

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Look at verse 14 and 4, 15.

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"Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent children without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, amongst whom you shine as lights in the world."

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See, the question is- isn't whether you like everything that's going on, whether everything, you know, there's anything to grumble or complain about.

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The question is, do you really believe that God is in charge?

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The question is, how do you view yourself?

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Is it what you deserve, or are you following the example of Jesus, who emptied himself and said, "Okay, how do I serve?"

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See, I think about this, and I know people in the past that, man, seemed to have the sweetest spirit, that seemed to just be loving and reflect God's grace, and then they have conflict with someone.

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Someone disappoints them, someone

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And they're unwilling to deal with it, and they have this grumbling that leads to, you know, to, to, to disputing, to conflict.

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And suddenly, that person who used to be so gracious now becomes judgmental.

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Suddenly, that person that used to be so optimistic and, and so quick to celebrate the good that God was doing suddenly questions other people's motives, is quick to point out a fault.

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And when, when he says, "Don't have any grumbling or computing," it's don't let the root of this start.

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Uh, it reminds me of what it says in Hebrews 15.

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"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled."

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And what it's saying here is when we go through conflict, we get a root of bitterness and we miss the grace of God.

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And we may deny that we have the root of bitterness, and most of us go, "I don't have that."

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Well, that's where he says, "Okay, well, look at your speech.

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Have you grumbled this week?"

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Or, "Are you

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Do you have problems with conflict with people?"

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The fact is, is that reveals there's a root of bitterness.

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And then we're all gonna struggle with this.

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You know why?

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Because we live in a fallen world, and we live in a world where people are gonna frustrate us and they're gonna disappoint us, and tough things are gonna happen, bad things are gonna happen, and we've got an option of either I get bitter about it or I get better.

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Either I actually have a root of bitterness or I take that out and I say, "God give me a root of grace."And if I have that root of bitterness, it's the grumbling and the complaining that's gonna reveal it.

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But it not only changes us, it changes our testimony to the world.

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Look at again in verses 14 and 6- through 16.

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"Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and tr- twisted generation, amongst whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life."

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Now when he says that you shine as lights in the world because we hold fast to the word of life, how do we shine as lights in the world?

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It's not by holding the word of life.

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We would think that.

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Here's the truth of the Bible.

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That's a light to the world.

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But that's not what he's saying.

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What makes us shine is our lack of complaining and grumbling and disputing.

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And it is because we're distinctively different, we have this countercultural trait of living life without grumbling and disputing that sets us apart in a world in such a way that it gives power to our world, to our words.

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So people see our actions.

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They see a different attitude, and they see someone who's not, you know, beat down by circumstances, that's not about just using other people, but they see this perspective that's so radically different that they're drawn to it, and then they see the word of life that we're holding on.

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But it's, it's that spirit that sets us apart.

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Now, let me just ask a couple questions just in closing.

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When you think about this

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So, let me give you just a couple reflection, all self-reflection questions.

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The first one is this.

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In the past week, have you spent time grumbling or complaining about anything?

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I, I won't do a show of hands.

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Okay.

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Now I won't do, 'cause I, you know, 'cause I think it's all of us.

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It's like

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Okay, let me ask you, if we have spent time grumbling or complaining, what does that say about us?

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What does that say about me?

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Because if all grumbling and complaining is ultimately an expression of pride and self-centeredness, is God trying to show me something?

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And second question, because it's not only grumbling and complaining, but also disputing.

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In the past week, have you spent time arguing with anyone, even if it's only in your mind?

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I don't know about you, that's where most of my arguments happen.

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I always win 'em all.

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You know, it's just like

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You know, and how much are we, "Man, I just wanna tell him that, and I, you know, I don't

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Do you have anyone that you just can't get along with, you can't forgive?

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And again, when it says do all things without grumbling and disputing, if I've got that disputing going on, and it's ultimately rooted in s- pride and selfishness, what does that say about me?

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What does it say about you?

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And the third question is this.

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If ultimately all grumbling and disputing is, is ultimately an expression of pride and selfishness, is there pride and selfishness in your life that God is trying to expose?

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And when I say that He's trying to expose, it's not that He's exposing it to make you feel guilty, to beat you down, to get you discouraged.

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No, because God is a, is a loving physician, and He comes to expose things to say, "Okay, here's a sickness in you.

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Here's something that I wanna deal with.

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Here's some, here's something that I wanna do the heart surgery."

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And, and if He's trying to expose it, are you going to let Him?

378

00:29:30,467 --> 00:29:39,952

Are you going to say, "Okay, God, I realize, I, I admit this, and, and, and I, I've, I've gotta admit that what this is, I need to confess, and I need to ask you to change me"?

379

00:29:41,287 --> 00:29:43,056

Are you willing to let Him change you?

380

00:29:43,706.9999999997672 --> 00:29:48,127

To let that expose you so that you say, "God, I wanna have the heart and attitude of Jesus Christ.

381

00:29:48,127 --> 00:29:53,424

Not just even the actions, not just going through the motion, but I wanna have what's true and what's real"?

382

00:29:54,567 --> 00:29:55,447

And how do we do that?

383

00:29:55,447 --> 00:29:57,687

It's not by trying harder, not by doing

384

00:29:57,687 --> 00:30:04,272

It's by admitting our need, asking for His forgiveness, and asking Him to give us strength that we do not have.

385

00:30:05,287 --> 00:30:14,206.99999999976717

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, because it's God who will work in you, to, to will and to have the strength to do what He calls you to do.