GOD WILL COMPLETE WHAT HE’S STARTED IN YOU
Phip. 1:6
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: UNCHANGED?
1. A parable is told of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church one Sunday to hear their duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.
2. “With these wings, there’s nowhere we ducks can’t go! With these wings we no longer need WALK through life, we can SOAR high in the sky!” Shouts of Amen were quacked. The duck preacher concluded his message by shouting, “With our wings WE......CAN.....FLY!¨ They all quacked loud AMENS!
3. All the ducks loved the service and commented on what a convicting message they’d heard....and THEN THEY LEFT THE CHURCH AND WADDLED ALL THE WAY HOME.
4. APPLICATION. Too often we waddle AWAY from worship the same way we waddled IN....UNCHANGED!
B. TEXT
“3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” Phip. 1:3-6.
C. TITLE
The title of this message is “God Will Complete What He’s Started in You.”
I. GOD IS DOING A GOOD WORK INSIDE CHRISTIANS
A. WHAT HAS GOD STARTED?
1. HE’S REDEEMED US. He pulled us from the fire, as a brand from the burning! Took us from the lowest place to the highest place. He took a worthless piece of clay and made it into a priceless piece of porcelain. He took what was defiled and desecrated and changed it into perfection fit for Heaven!
2. A NEW CREATION – just like His original creative action – He makes us into something not originating from this fallen universe, but destined for the new heavens & the new earth.
3. WE’RE ADOPTED into the Royal Family of Heaven: Sons & Daughters of God! King’s Kids, with Royal Blood flowing in our veins! We have the divine nature and lineage of Jesus Himself!
4. This is our destiny and promised future. But are we living like it?
B. IT’S COMMON WE DON’T SEE THE GOOD IN US
1. “Pastor, I don’t see much good going on in my life! How can I be sure God will do such a work in my life?”
2. We know it’s a good work because a GOOD GOD began it! He’s set out the good plan He has in mind for us -- He’s creating, developing, training, pruning, purging, & building us up.
3. You may not see it yet because it’s at its beginning! The biggest weight-lifter in the world started off as a helpless baby. Only after years of training did he begin to resemble the man he would become. We too, are slowly, almost imperceptibly changing to be more like Jesus.
4. ILLUS. We had one wall in our house where we had all of our kids & grandkids stand against and, year after year, we marked their growth. Each year we’d make a mark on the wall, with name & date. It was always a quarter-inch or an inch higher. But when those kids looked in a mirror each day, they couldn’t see the change, because it was so gradual. It’s the same with you; you don’t see the change, but you’re very definitely maturing into Christ!
C. LET GOD’S GREAT LOVE ENCOURAGE YOU
1. In Luke 15:8-9, Jesus tells a Parable describing the Father’s Love for you; “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.”
2. God spared nothing in His search for you. He gathered the greatest search party that has ever been formed, to find you. He sent His Son, His Spirit, and His Angels after you. He had his people pray for you. You will never fully know how deep, how thorough, and how costly His search was.
3. You don’t belong to Him today because of chance, or accident, or a stroke of fate; You’re His because He never gave up His search until He found You.
4. Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Remember God rejoices over you...not based on how good you are, but because of who you are to Him.
II. GOD’S BEGINNING, IS GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING HE WILL COMPLETE IT
A. DO YOU WONDER IF GOD CAN CHANGE YOU?
1. The life of the Christian is a series of miracles! It begins by a new creation. God is transforming us from the equivalent of grub worms into butterflies; from vile sinners into holy saints!
2. How can we be sure God will complete our transformation?
a. ...because His resources are Inexhaustible!
b. ...because His faithfulness is unfailing! And...
c. ... because God’s track record is 100% fulfilment! Do you flatter yourself that you will be the lone exception? No! You too will be changed!
3. WILL GOD REALLY PERFECT US? Adoniram Judson labored diligently for six years in Burma before he baptized one convert. At the end of three years he was asked what evidence he had of ultimate success. He replied, “As much as there is a God who will fulfill all His promises.” A hundred churches and thousands of converts answered his faith.
4. Think: If God went to all the pain & trouble of having Jesus Christ birthed into this world and suffer an unspeakable death for you on the Cross – do you really think God will fail to complete your salvation? NO! Not a chance!
B. BUT THIS WORK CAN ONLY BE COMPLETED IF WE CO-OPERATE
1. ILLUS. The Key Called Promise
a. In Bunyan’s great allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian decides to leave the Main Highway and follow another Path which seemed easier. But he is captured by Giant Despair and put in the dungeon of Doubting Castle. He is advised by Despair to kill himself.
b. For a time, it seems as if Despair has really conquered Christian, but then, Hope, Christian’s cellmate, reminds him of his previous victories. At midnight they began to pray, and prayed until almost morning.
c. Coming out of his deceptive fog, Christian exclaims, “What a fool am I to lie in this stinking Dungeon, when I may as well be at liberty. I have a Key in my bosom called Promise that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.” Hope encourages him to try and the prison gates flew open!
d. What a great story. Some of you may be in Doubting Castle dungeon. Remember God has given you a key called PROMISE that can set you free!
2. God has done everything ON HIS SIDE to make us successful, but He still needs us to “choose whom we will serve.” Our transformation is a divine-human cooperation. That’s why some bring forth 30%, others 60% and others 100% (Mt. 13:8). Let’s don’t be one of those Christians who, 10 years later, still look the same. Let’s bow up, sow up, blow up, grow up and go up!
III. THE TIME OF COMPLETION
“He... will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you” 1:6, AMP.
A. THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPECTANCY IN YOUR TRANSFORMATION
1. Notice the time mentioned in the text - the good work is to be perfected in the day of Christ, by which Paul meant the Second Coming of Jesus.
2. ANTICIPATION OF HOPE
a. A mother, from the instant that she knows she has a child growing inside her, lives her every moment in anticipation of the coming child. She can’t take a step, make a move, or think a thought without connecting it to her future child. In France they tell expectant mothers, "I congratulate you on your hope!"
b. Just as a mother relates everything to her growing hope, so the believer should look to their future with that same growing hope, anticipating when they’ll be fully like the Lord Jesus Christ!
3. ILLUS. When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article compared him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, "I don’t want to be like Paul...or any mere man. I want to be like Christ...I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints...Oh, to be more like Christ!"
4. ILLUS.: A great ARTIST once told his friend that ‘he had lost everything.’ His friend said, “I don’t see anything that’s changed about your circumstances; how is it that you have lost everything?” He answered, "Because I've lost any hope of improvement in my painting skills!" Just as he must believe he can improve, so must we must believe God is still improving us!
5. If God’s perfecting work isn’t finished earlier, it will be brought to completion at the Rapture. WE DON’T HAVE TO WORK ABOUT PERFECTION; THAT’S GOD’S BUSINESS, NOT US. We will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ!
B. GOD DOESN’T SEE FAILURE WHEN HE LOOKS AT YOU
1. We like to keep score. We’re always rating our failure or success. That’s all right in natural things, but not in the spiritual. We don’t see from Heaven’s perspective.
2. We apply unrealistic standards to ourselves - for success or failure. The liberating news is, that when the Father sees you, He looks through the filter of GRACE! He looking NOT at your report card, your paycheck stub, your social credit score -- but at your heart!
3. We will all fail. It’s calculated that Michael Jordan missed 12,345 shots, yet he’s considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, because he didn’t let his failures stop him from pressing for success!
4. Our responsibility is to keep growing, to seek forgiveness for our failures, and to remember that GOD DOESN’T SEE FAILURE WHEN HE LOOKS AT YOU! He will perfect us on the Day of Christ!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Safe in the Ark
1. Noah heard a voice from heaven tell him, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation” Gen. 7:1.
2. So there was one moment when Noah was OUTSIDE the ark, and another when he was INSIDE, and by being inside he was saved. As long as he was outside of the ark he was exposed to the wrath of God, just like the rest of the world; he would have been swept away with them.
3. It wasn’t his righteousness, or his faith, or his works that saved him; it was being in the ark. And friends, God has provided an ark for us. The question is: Are you inside or outside His ark of safety – Jesus Christ?
B. ALTAR CALL
1. How many need forgiveness for falling short of God’s glory? Let’s pray for forgiveness through the blood of Jesus.
2. How many of you need to make a new commitment to make improvements in your life as the Spirit leads?
3. How many haven’t been cooperating with the Holy Spirit as carefully as we need to be? Let’s PRAY about that now.
