Philippians - Unfinished
With four girls, we have many toys that I never played with as a child. One Christmas, among the typical toys, an unusual and sometimes offensive creature waited for Sofia to open it.
Furby.
This little guy can be fed, showered, use the bathroom, and lay eggs through an app on our phone. He talks and uses his own language, which is mixed with English. He’s a rather silly toy. One of the unusual things about Furby is that the designers of that particular model designed him so that his personality is shaped by the way he is treated. The designers shaped him to learn and adapt constantly, and his personality was shaped by the attention he received.
When Sofia received Furby, she was six years old, a snuggler, and a lover. She would cup Furby in her hands, nuzzle their nose, pet him lovingly, and treat him sweetly. For the first few days, he cooed and ooh-ed and said things like, “Me like that. Me love you.” Furby’s personality was warm, loving, and caring…until our two-year-old, Violet, got a hold of him.
On Day 3, while Sofia was occupied with something else, Violet carried Furby around the house by his foot, sometimes by his ear, banging him against the wall, the stairs, and her toys. He tumbled down the stairs and was dropped on his head a few times…then she sat him down and walked away. Later, when Sofia picked him up to snuggle with him, the Furby yelled, “No likey!” He made all kinds of odd shrieks because Violet had shaped Furby’s personality, too.
Most toys that came into our house were finished products, but the Furby remains unfinished, even today.
He, like us, is unfinished.
If you are a follower of Jesus, take a moment and reflect upon who you were the day before you surrendered to Jesus as your savior. What did you find pleasure in? What did you want to do with your life? If you had any, what were your goals and objectives? Hopes and aspirations? Desires?
Now, fast forward one day to the moment after you surrendered your life to Jesus. You experienced the life-changing power of the Spirit of the Living God and were made brand new. What did you find pleasure in? Who did you want to become like? What were your hopes and aspirations? Desires?
And now, fast forward to this moment. This worship service. This sermon. Are you any different from the moment you were saved? Have you changed? Perhaps you have become stronger in your faith. More disciplined. More joyful. More seasoned.
Or perhaps your journey from that day to this has been riddled with ups and downs. Two steps forward, one step back. Perhaps you have backslidden several times yet still cling to your hope in Jesus Christ. Or perhaps you are not as joy-filled as you once were. Perhaps you feel empty on the inside…shallow. Not a deep trust and closeness with Jesus, but a hesitant faith.
Today, we will look at Philippians 1:6. You will be encouraged. Regardless of where you are on your journey…Christ is not finished with you.
Let’s read:
Philippians 1:6 (NLT2)
6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
In describing to others the moment we surrendered our lives to Jesus, we may at times use language like:
“I trusted in Christ.”
“I surrendered my life to Christ.”
“I was saved.”
“God saved me.”
But…
GOD BEGAN THE GOOD WORK.
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you.”
It is interesting that the Greek word Paul chose for “began” is only used once other time in the New Testament.
Enarchomai: to make a beginning
The use of this verb communicates that it indeed was God who BEGAN salvation in our hearts.
“God made the beginning.”
He is the initiator. We did not initiate our salvation – if we did, it would be considered a “work.”
And, we understand we are not saved by works but by Grace.
By using the verb enarchomai (en-ark-home-eye), Paul reminds the Philippians that God began the work in their hearts. And, the very first time Paul visited Philippi in Acts 16, we see a perfect example of God initiating salvation in someone’s heart.
Acts 16:13-14 (NLT2)
13 On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. 14 One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.
The Lord opening the heart of Lydia is the perfect picture of God making a beginning in a person’s heart. Lydia listened to the same message we preach every weekend.
She heard Paul tell her that God loves her.
As humans, we sinned and rebelled against our creator God. We chose sin and rebellion rather than obedience. But God’s love never changed. We sinned, and the punishment for sin was death. Yet, God loved us, so Jesus voluntarily came to the earth to pay our punishment for sin. Then, he rose from the dead, returned to heaven, and will one day return. As Lydia listened to the Good News, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted Jesus as her Savior.
That is what happened to me. I heard that Jesus paid the price for sin through dying on the cross. While I listened, the Lord opened my heart to trust Christ as my Savior.
It wasn’t a WORK I began.
It wasn’t a journey I began.
It was a supernatural encounter with the Living and Holy God who loved me and gave up his Son for me. Then, Paul uses another word to teach us that:
GOD WILL CONTINUE THE GOOD WORK
Paul used the word Ergon for the word work.
Ergon: that which one undertakes to do, undertaking …
Paul used this word to communicate God is presently working in your life. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, God will continue to work! It is an ongoing undertaking of God for each of us who have surrendered to Him. We can find great confidence and inner strength when we understand He not only initiated our salvation, but he has been working in our hearts since then as well! From the moment you trusted in Christ – God has been working in your heart.
The seasons of hard you endured.
The brokenness.
The moments you almost walked away from your faith in Jesus.
When you experienced the miscarriage.
The diagnosis.
The betrayal.
The divorce.
God is taking all the pain, heartache, and crud that living in a fallen world brings and is PRESENTLY using it to craft your character so that you become more like Jesus. All of the good. All of the bad. He uses those things to cut away the parts of you that do not reflect Jesus so you continue to LIVE more like Jesus and reflect Jesus to people in need of a Savior.
He is working on the foundation he laid! From the moment you surrendered, God has been working in your heart. Whether you have wandered far from Christ or not – He has been working in your heart.
None of us are finished.
God has not stopped working in our hearts.
But…why?
Have we not been made NEW? Is not the old gone, but the new here? What work is there to do within our hearts if we have already been made right with God? If we have already been perfected through the blood of Christ, what work could He possibly do? After all, Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 6:11 (NLT2)
11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If we have already been made right with God, why would God continue to work in our hearts? A few paragraphs later, Paul speaks about the ongoing work of the Lord in the hearts of the believers…and this time, he tells them…
Philippians 2:13 (NLT)
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
God continues to work in our hearts to give us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him!
This October, our staff and leadership will have an annual planning meeting. Each ministry will come prepared to share its Goals and Objectives for 2025, centered around our Mission to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus.
I will not dictate their goals; they will develop them because I have learned that when it comes to following Jesus, it is impossible to accomplish goals if you lack desire. Without desire, we will not finish goals that require hard work. And you can trust that:
GOD WILL FINISH THE GOOD WORK
God began the good work in your life and continues to work in your life, giving you the godly desire to do what pleases him. God will finish the good work in your life.
He began it.
He will continue it.
He will finish it.
Paul described what the finished Christian would look like as the Lord continued to work inside them.
Paul said in Acts 20:24:
Acts 20:24 (NLT2)
24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
The unfinished goal for followers of Jesus is to invite others to experience a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Are you inviting others to Jesus? Invite them to church, to lunch with you afterward, to a relationship with Jesus simply by inviting them to experience worship here at Beach Church. Paul’s attitude was so strong that he could write, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the TRUTH that his life was worth nothing to him unless he used it to finish the work of telling others. Even though God had used Paul in the past to tell countless others about Jesus – unless he was used in the future, it meant nothing to him. He wanted to finish the unfinished work.
Do you?
Do you sense the desire and compelling tug of the Spirit of God to tell others about Jesus and finish the work?
Listen to the words of Paul written about ten years later to Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:7 (NLT2)
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.
Paul wrote to the Philippians from a prison cell and told them to finish...roughly ten years later, he sat in another prison and wrote to Timothy that he had finished the race. Paul finished the work that had been assigned to him. Let’s strive to finish our assignment and lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus by inviting them to worship with us.