480: God Finishes What He Starts | Dave Sloop

Good morning everyone, wonderful to see you today. We are in our third week in our series on the book of Philippians, which means of course that we are starting today in verse one of chapter one. This is what it's like to do a series with Tim. We're eventually going to get through this book—I'm just teasing.

Now this is good. We just want to remind you that three weeks ago we kicked off this series with an introduction and Tim gave us a high level view: the origin of the church from Acts chapter 16, some of its early converts—Lydia, the jailer, if you remember those stories. And then last week Tim took us to Philippians chapter two, verses one through eleven, where we looked at what will be and is the central, undeniable central theme of his entire letter.

Let me remind you what he says. He says:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, any tenderness and compassion—in other words, are you somebody that has been impacted by Christ in any way? If you are, he says, make my joy complete by having the same love, by being like-minded, by being one in spirit and purpose.

This is one of the themes. He's after their unity—this is the church that is struggling with unity. He says, "Make my joy complete by being one because you are." Then he says this:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

And then remember this:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But he humbled himself. He took on the very nature of a servant, being found in human likeness. He was made as a man. And he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This is the shape of Jesus' life—this J curve. And the point of the book of Philippians is that we are to pattern our life after his. He is the one who laid down his life for us. And Paul is telling them—he's coming after them. He's saying you need to do this for each other. This is what it means to be in community. He's going to tell them explicitly: "Live lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ." He's going to say, "This is how I live. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. For I consider nothing compares to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things that I might gain Christ."

This is how Paul lives. Paul is going to say this is how Timothy lives. This is how Epaphroditus lives. This is how you are to live. And today in chapter one, beginning in verse three, we're going to see Paul's prayer for the Philippian church, that they too would be like this.

Paul's Prayer for the Church

Let's look starting in verse three. Here is what Paul says:

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.

The first thing—there are a couple of observations about this. First of all, notice that he prays for them all. Five times in eight verses, he's going to say, "I'm praying for you all. I love you all. I feel this way about you all. You're all partakers with me of grace. How I yearn for you all." Paul, primarily, he's not writing to an individual. He's writing to a community, and he wants to remind them of their oneness. He wants them to be one. That's the first thing we notice: he prays for them all.

Secondly, he prays for them always. Did you hear that? "In all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer"—he is constantly praying for this particular church. There's something about them that causes him to pray. He's going to tell us specifically what he prays, starting in verse nine, but just know for now that he is constantly, incessantly, every time he thinks of them, praying for this particular group of people.

And then third, notice the emotion of his prayer. It's that he prays for them and he makes his prayer with joy. It says, "He thanks God in all his remembrance of them." When he thinks of the church at Philippi and the faces that they represent, his heart is just full. He feels gratitude.

And he's going to tell you why, starting in verse five. Listen to what he says:

I make my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Paul feels joy for this particular group of people because of their partnership in the gospel. How were they partners in the gospel? Well, for one, they were absolutely his greatest financial partners.

Their love for Christ turned into generosity, and he's going to tell them at the end in Philippians 4 that he doesn't have anybody else like them—the way that they support and give their money so that the gospel will spread. That's the first thing. This is also a letter of gratitude. It's a thank you letter that he's writing to them because they have sent one of their very own, Epaphroditus, who came with a care package to tend to Paul's needs while he was in prison, where he was writing this letter from. He is expressing gratitude for their partnership in tangible ways. They were partners in the gospel. But he has something else in mind about what it means—what he means by partnership in the gospel—by what he says next. Look at what he says in verse 6:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. — Philippians 1:6

Paul says, "There's a good work that I need to talk to you about." And it's not the works that are coming through you, but the things that you've done on my behalf. I am grateful for those, but there's something else about your partnership, and it has to do with the work in you. He said, "There's a good work in you." What is that good work? What is he talking about?

Paul is talking about their salvation, their regeneration, their new life that they have experienced in Christ. In other words, part of what it means to be a partner in the gospel is to be someone who has been personally impacted by the gospel. And that is what salvation is, by the way. It is something that happens in you. It is not a moral code that we follow. There are things that we're supposed to do, but that's not what it means to be a follower of Christ, to be in Christ. It is not just a set of beliefs to which we ascribe. We do have some beliefs, but that's not what it means. To truly be one of his means that something has happened in you.

Paul would put it this way in 2 Corinthians: he says, "If anybody's in Christ, he is a new creation. Old is gone, new has come." There's something different about you—new life. Jesus would say, "It's kind of like being born again, a second birth—that something is birthed in you." It's new life.

What is this life? Where does it come from? Maybe the clearest expression of this is in Ezekiel 36:26-27, which is the new covenant promised in the Old Testament through the prophet Ezekiel. Listen to what he says:

I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. — Ezekiel 36:26-27

This new life that happens inside of you—it changes everything. It actually changes the fact that you want to obey. You used to not want to. You used to love your sin. Now you want to obey. He changes your affect. This is what it means to be in Christ, to be a Christian. It's to be someone—not just who says, "Yeah, I believe in God"—but to someone who has experienced this new life inside.

And then here's something else he says. He says, "I am sure of this, that he who began the good work in you will bring it to completion." What's the first thing he wants us to know? This work, this good work in you—he began it. He started it from the first day until now. It's his work. He is the first mover in our salvation. He's inviting them to remember the day—that first day. Do you remember yours? I would suspect that some of us here, maybe some of us had more dramatic conversions than others, but I would imagine for many of us we remember that day. And perhaps there's still some others of us here that aren't quite sure what we believe or where we stand with Christ. But for those of you who can remember that day, what was that like for you?

I want to show you a picture. This is me back in 1991, the day before that day. Me and those studs there from Harrisonburg. This is the summer before—let's zoom in. I'll show you which one I was, if you couldn't tell. Not the one on the right, by the way. I'm the one on the left with my finger up in the air. That's probably a 14-year-old Dave Sloop, 1991, at Windy Gap in Weaverville, North Carolina. My first experience at Young Life Camp. And I was there as a rising freshman, and it looks like I was a confident kid, though I was embarrassingly skinny at the time. I was so insecure. I was a mess. It actually had been a pretty rough year for me socially. And I didn't know who I was. I was desperate for the approval of others. I don't know how many of you went through school feeling that way.

And I sat there that week, and I listened to a man named Scott Roberts open this book and talk about Jesus like he was a real person that he knew. Now listen, I was a preacher's kid. I wasn't hearing new information that week, but it was new that week. Do you know what I mean?

It landed differently when I heard it that week. And I'll never forget this night, after one of his talks, he gave us time—15 minutes to go sit somewhere on camp, quiet, look up at the stars in beautiful North Carolina. And I remember praying and saying, God, I want what he was talking about. And I received the message. I prayed the prayer. He invited us to pray. If you want this to be in your life, he said, just pray this prayer. And God will answer it. And I did it. And everything changed for me that day.

Do you have a story like that? You know what I think Paul would say to me? God did that. And I might say back to Paul, well, Paul, my parents paid for the trip. I got on the bus. I was sitting in the room listening. I chose where to sit on camp. I opened my mouth to pray. It was my decision. I chose him, and Paul would say, God did that too.

See, God begins the work. Even your belief is a gift. It's all over the scriptures. Ephesians chapter two, eight through 10:

It is by grace you have been saved, undeserved, unmerited, and through faith. That's your belief. And then he says this crazy thing. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God so that no one could boast. — Ephesians 2:8-10

Even your belief was given to you as a gift. Do you know why? Ephesians two also says:

Because as for you, you were dead in your transgressions. — Ephesians 2

There was nothing in you that could choose him. You were dead. Dead people can't reach for help. You needed to be revived. And that is precisely what your conversion was. It was God reaching into your heart, reaching into my heart in Weaverville, North Carolina, opening my heart so that I wanted him. He did that. He began the work.

How the Church Started in Philippi

Do you know that's how the church started in Philippi? Do you remember the story? Paul was actually trying to take the gospel somewhere else in Asia, and he said the Holy Spirit prevented him from going there. And then he went to sleep, and he had a dream. And here's what happened in that dream. He saw a man from Macedonia saying please come over here to help us. God said there's some people in Macedonia that need you, Paul. And so he went.

And when he got there, he went down by the river because he thought that's where people would gather to pray, which was often the case in a place where there weren't enough people to have a temple. They would meet by the river. And he went down there and he began to preach to some of the women there because apparently back then only women came to prayer meetings.

He says he began to preach to the women, and then he said this: but one of them named Lydia was there. And listen to the language used. It says the Lord opened her heart to receive the message. There was a bunch of women there. How come Lydia opened her heart? It was because God reached in and he said, it's time for you to believe because faith is a gift. He opened her heart. He breathed the life into her and she was baptized. And her life would never be the same.

See, he is the author of our salvation. He opens hearts. That's what he does. He doesn't just begin the work. He commences the work, but he also continues the work. See that next part of the verse? He who began a work in you will bring it on to completion. I love the way that the NIV says this. It says he will carry it on to completion, until when, until the day of Jesus Christ, that day, the culmination of all things where those who have rejected Christ will be judged. And those who are truly his will be rewarded and rescued. That day, he will take you to that day. He will carry you there. He doesn't just commence the work. He continues the work.

God's Work in Every Circumstance

What does that mean? Let me tell you what it means. It means that now you can look at every single circumstance of your life and you can recognize God is doing something here. This is part of his completing work in my life. He is perfecting me. In the triumphs of my life, in the joys of my life, God is doing something in me. He's changing me. In the hardships of my life, in the trials, he's changing me. He's doing something. He's perfecting me. He's carrying me on. The difficult people that God allows in my life—he's doing something. Every ounce of suffering that God allows in my life is for my benefit. He is doing something. He's perfecting and completing always.

One of my favorite verses for this is Romans 8:28:

For we know that all things. God is working together for the good of those who loved him and are called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28

All things. That's a broad scope. Everything that happens in my life, God is working in it for my good because I'm called according to his purpose. And here's a less familiar verse. Verse 29 says this:

For those that he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. — Romans 8:29

This is what it means, the continuing work.

In everything that happens in my life, he is conforming me to be more like his son. He commences the work. Let me just back up here. Can I tell you why him starting the work matters, at least why it matters to me?

The day that this reality, this truth became real for me was the moment it became personal for me. My conversion to Christ was not just incidental. It was intentional. Jesus had to go to Samaria. Why? There was a woman there that belonged to him and he went to get her. See, Paul had to go to the river's edge in Philippi. Why? Because Lydia was there. And God in a dream said, Paul, you better get over there. Scott Roberts had to go preach in Weaverville, North Carolina. Why? Because Dave Sloop was there. He came to get me. It became personal for me. I didn't just respond to some arbitrary invitation. He came to me. It was personal.

God Commences, Continues, and Completes

See, God commences the work. He continues the work. And here's the third thing: he will complete the work. He will bring you to that day. It isn't up to you. He's going to do it. If he started the work, he will finish. God doesn't have unfinished projects. He's not like me with the dishes. He finishes the work. He finishes what he starts. And those that he calls, he gets into their life and he changes them if they're truly his. And he will bring them to that day.

Do you know what kind of confidence this produces? What kind of peace? It's not up to us that we can rest in a work that he promises to not only begin but to complete.

Paul talks about this. In fact, in that same book, Romans 8, towards the end of that chapter, maybe this passage of Scripture is familiar to you:

What shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Do you know this passage? What can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword? No. In all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. — Romans 8

Where does Paul's confidence spring from? Do you know? What gives him such a sense of surety that this is going to happen? We already started it.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. In those whom he predestined, he also called. In those whom he called, he also justified. In those he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say then about these things? If God is for us, who could be against us? — Romans 8:29-31

God commences, continues, and completes the work. The fact that he commences the work means that it's personal. He came after me. The fact that he continues the work gives me perspective. All things in my life are for my perfection. And the fact that he completes the work gives me peace. I rest. It's not me. It's him in me.

And Paul, by the way, is confident that this is going to happen. The first reason that he's confident is his theology. He knows who God is. It's not up to me. It's up to God. And this is what God does. He finishes what he starts.

But there's another reason that he's confident. And he's going to tell you that in verse 7 and 8. He says this:

It is right for me to feel this way. — Philippians 1:7

That word "right" means just. It's a just verdict. It's a legal word. In other words, I've examined the evidence and I have determined. At the beginning of verse 6, he says "I'm persuaded. I'm convinced based on something." Not just the character of God, but listen to this. He said:

It is right for me to feel this way because I hold you in my heart. I know you. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. — Philippians 1:7-8

Let me tell you what he means by this. He said earlier already, "You're partners in the gospel. You've supported my ministry." You know what he's saying here? He uses a slightly different word. It still has the same root word, "coina nia," which means fellowship in the Greek. It's a word that is translated partakers, fellow participants. You're not just a partner, he's saying.

When he says that you are partakers of grace in my imprisonment and my defense and confirmation of the gospel, what he's saying is, "The way that I'm suffering, you are suffering." The way that I contend for the gospel and stand for the gospel, you're doing the same thing in Philippi. In fact, in verses 29 and 30 of chapter 1, he says:

For it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you not only believe in him but suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. — Philippians 1:29-30

Who's to know that there aren't some people he's writing to in Philippi that aren't in prison in Philippi like he is in Rome? You know what he's saying to them? He's saying, "It's right for me to feel this way because I know you. I've watched this work be fleshed out in your life. You're not just writing checks, sending me a text saying, 'Praying for you, bro.' You're off the bench. You're on the field. You're in the game. You're down in the trenches. Your heart beats for what God's heart beats for. Your heart beats the same way God's heart beats. That's what he means. You're the real deal."

He continues in verse 8:

For God is my witness how I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 1:8

There's another reason he's confident because he says, "The love that I feel for you, I've become convinced that it is God's love for you flowing through me." Paul was so one with Christ that his love for them was the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul's Prayer for the Philippians

Now, with the last five minutes, verses 9 through 11, this is Paul's prayer for them. Remember in verse 3 what he said? He said, "I've been praying for you incessantly." This is the prayer. He's been praying for them incessantly, starting in verse 9. Here's what it says:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. — Philippians 1:9-11

I want to say to you again, verse 6. See if you hear something similar. He says:

I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. — Philippians 1:6

In verses 9 and 10, what does he say?

And this is my prayer for you that your love would abound more and more in knowledge and discernment so that you would be able to attest and approve what God's will is so that you be pure and blameless when for the day of Jesus Christ. — Philippians 1:9-10

See, verses 9 and 10 are Paul's explanation in real time of what verse 6 is going to look like in your life. Here's what he says: "My prayer for you is that your love would abound more and more. When this work is real in your life, here's what it means. You become a person who is more loving over time, that your love would abound." That word for abound, it means super abound, super abundance. It also means superfluous excess, more than you need. It's the same exact word that's used at the end of the feeding of the 5,000 when they had 12 basketfuls left over—excess overflow. It's when his love, like Paul just expressed, is so full in your life it spills out into the lives of other people. That's what it means, that your love would abound.

But he doesn't just tell you what it's supposed to look like. He actually tells you how it's going to happen. He says that your love would abound more and more, and then he says with knowledge and discernment. Now, sometimes Paul pits knowledge and love against each other. I believe it's in First Corinthians where he says to them:

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. — 1 Corinthians 8:1

There's a kind of pursuing knowledge that makes you arrogant, feel real good about what you know. But that's not the kind of knowledge that he's talking about here. In fact, it's a different word. The Greek word is "epinosis." It always refers to a kind of divine knowledge. Paul is talking about knowing Christ, that we would abound in love because of our pursuit of knowing Christ.

See, there's a kind of coming to this book, knowing about this book, knowing about God, but not knowing its author. I was a religion major. James, you had a lot of professors that were that way. They knew a lot about this book, maybe even more than I did. They didn't know the one who wrote it. See, you can learn about God and not know him, and you will not abound in love if that's what it's like for you.

It means coming to this book and recognizing that when you open it, I'm engaging with the one who wrote it. I'm not just reading, I'm not just collecting data. I'm engaging with the person, the person of this book. And what happens is that when you read this book in that way, when you connect with this person, you gain discernment. It's sequential.

You abound in love when you pursue this kind of knowledge, and it leads to discernment. This is moral instinct. And then it leads to this, that you'd be able to approve what is excellent. When you pour it and let this run through you, you develop discernment, and then you start understanding. You have instincts about what to choose. You start thinking like God thinks, and you start loving what God loves.

This is what happens at your conversion, as he's continuing the work. There are things you used to love to do that you now hate doing. And even when you sometimes stumble into those things, you're grieved. He's changing you. This is what it means.

Now, some of you who are smart might be saying, wait a minute. Why does Paul pray for this thing to happen that he just said in verse 6 was guaranteed to happen? What is that all about? Didn't he say it was a guaranteed outcome and that God was going to do it? Don't I just need to sit back and wait for it to happen? And Paul would say, no, that's not how it works. You need to expend effort. And you might say, wait a minute, doesn't that sound like it contradicts?

Here's what Paul would say to you. In fact, he's going to say it explicitly in Philippians 2, verse 12:

Work out your salvation. He doesn't say work for it. He says, work it out. In other words, something has been put in you. It's real. Now, you need to work it out. And the way you do that is by expending energy. And then he tells you why to do it. He says, work out your salvation for it is he who works in you, both the will and to act according to his good pleasure. — Philippians 2:12

I thought I chose Christ, but when I look back with hindsight, the theological underpinning that Paul is giving to me is this: he was working in me to choose him. Here's the deal. Your sanctification is going to feel like effort. It is a grind. But here's the deal. When you do it, when you expend the energy, you begin to experience that power that he put in you.

The theological underpinning of your sanctification is this: it is Christ in you working in you. The key to accessing that divine power is your effort. In fact, your effort is the evidence that Christ is there. Do you know why? Because if you are truly born of God, you will want to. You will want to know him more. You will expend the energy and the effort.

Application and Closing

I wonder what you might have needed to hear today. Perhaps for some of us, we needed to be reminded of our divine assurance that we cannot lose our salvation because we didn't find it to begin with. He put it in us and you can't lose something that he started in you. He won't let go.

In fact, one of my favorite verses, Jesus actually says this:

All that the Father gives to me will come to me and I will lose none. No one can come to the Father except through me. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. — John 6:37

He's saying you're going to finish the race. He's not going to lose anyone.

Maybe you need to be reminded that even your failures are part of God's perfecting work in your life. Maybe there are some of you here today that need to be reminded that you have to expend energy. You have to put forth effort to experience Christ, to be perfected, to engage with him in this cooperative process of becoming like him.

And perhaps some of you today, even as I'm speaking, are sensing a stirring in your heart. Can I tell you what I think that is? I think that's God opening your heart. Maybe you're realizing at this moment that you're not here by accident. Just like the woman at the well didn't go to the well that day by accident. Just like Lydia didn't go to the river that day by accident, and just like I didn't show up in Weaverville, North Carolina by mistake, perhaps God has brought you here today for this very reason: that you might respond to the one who is calling you. Who will commence a work in you that he will continue to complete until the day of Jesus Christ.

Would you respond?

Let's pray. Father, thank you for this word that is true. God, wherever each of us individually is in the hearing of it, I pray that it would take effect because this is the word of life. It is living and active in Christ's name.