Hey, everybody. We’re gonna respond to somebody’s question. It’s a good one, and it’s a rarity.
We don’t have to do it. But this one demands a response. Here we go.
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Now open your hearts to what god’s word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Jack Hibas podcast in listen, you could always encourage us and help us out by leaving us a review.
It really matters. It encourages the entire team.
Talking about the entire team, I have to tell you straight up that I do not read, um, comments made by people.
I don’t have the time. I just don’t have the time. And I’m not joking.
I had a 21 hour day yesterday for real, and I’m trying to recover from that.
I don’t have the time to peruse social media.
Uh, but you might say, well, my gosh, you’re posting all the time.
I am posting all the time on, uh, the various platforms, but I walk away from those posts.
I post it and then I walk away.
Uh, but, uh, number 1, that’s that’s one of the ways, uh, how I keep so happy and, uh, lighthearted.
Is because I don’t get bogged down in in what people are, you know, saying about, uh, whatever.
But we have a team that reads the responses from people and So one of the things is we’re we I don’t think we’ve ever done this before, but this is really good.
So Colleen, I’m gonna say if you’re Colleen who left us uh, a message, Colleen.
I’m gonna say Colleen, uh, c.
I’m not gonna give your whole handle because That’s probably not fair to you.
But calling C, you know who I’m talking about? Uh, you asked a question, and it’s awesome.
And it goes something like this.
That you were listening to a message recently that I was giving and that I had made the comment uh, which was actually a statement quote from the Bible that I said that you need to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Uh, and your great question was is I thought our salvation was purchased in Jesus and we had it and that it’s not by works, but it’s just by faith in him alone.
So can I address that? First of all, you are absolutely correct. You are 100% correct, Colleen.
Number 1 is that our salvation is solely fixed upon the absolute and the, uh, exhaustive to the point of sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross.
In other words, what Jesus did for us at the cross satisfied the righteousness of god, which has been revealed to us in the law.
Christ came and met all the demands of the law thereby think of it this way.
Thereby, when the law examined Jesus Christ in passion week. Think about that.
The Old Testament law examined the life in the ministry of Jesus Christ and could not bring anything against him.
When the law was satisfied, the next part of his redemptive act for us is that he then having been perfected before the law of Christi’s god.
He was always perfect. But he lived out that perfection in human flesh, which is amazing because was Jesus really tempted not only was he really tempted, he was tempted far beyond what you and I can be tempted because He’s pure like you and I would have never known.
We will know in the future will be as pure as Jesus in eternity. In heaven. Imagine that.
Read first John. It’ll blow your mind. But having said that, Colleen, um, yep, it’s all by Jesus.
And so your next come back is, well, then what about working out your own salvation with fear and trembling?
What do I do? Didn’t sound doesn’t sound very thrilling.
Philippians chapter 2, always friends, always never build a theology off of a verse. Ever.
That’s what cults do, by the way. You wanna be a cult?
Build your theology off of a verse.
And if you want to be, uh, you know, like a like a a global cult, then build your theology off of random verses from old and new testament that have no correlation whatsoever together and are more importantly read out of context.
Context is everything, and and it shouldn’t surprise you. Okay? So here in Southern California.
The context is everything. If I’m hungry, right?
And I want a hamburger, right, in California.
I don’t know if you know this or not, but this is where hamburgers are born.
All the big ones in in America are born here. Don’t tell me about 5 guys. It’s not even funny.
Um, I’m talking about real hamburgers that come from California.
So if I want a hamburger, I’m gonna go listen to the context.
I’m gonna go to in and out burger. That’s where that’s where god would eat.
First of all, everything has got verses on it. To Christian company.
And I’m and I’ve got a burger, but in the context, I have to have the fries and the milkshake together.
The context of this together gives you a well rounded experience of how great an in and out burger can be an in and out double double animal style is what you want.
And that context then affords you freedom, like, to dip your fries in your milkshake before you eat it.
Okay? So I I digress kind of. Context dictates everything. So listen to this. Philippians.
Paul is writing to the believers in Philip. These are, uh, Roman believers. They are Europeans.
They’re not Jews. They are in the region of what would probably be those that are closer to, uh, Macedonians But be that as it may, they are residing in Philippi, and he writes to the church of Filipi, and the people who live there are called Philippians.
Okay? And in chapter 2, you quoted it, Colleen.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling verse 13 for it is god who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Now that’s just a hint of the context. Do you see all of a sudden? Oh, wait a minute.
Verse 13 says it’s god who’s working it out in me. Yes. So what does it mean?
Let’s go back to verse 12.
What does it mean for us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling? You ready?
Here it is. To work out our own salvation simply means this because we’re saved.
We work out our own salvation from the fact that we are saved.
Not that we get saved by working for our salvation.
That’s not how we that’s not how it works. Our salvation is a gift that’s given.
Now that you’re saved, What does it mean?
It means watch discipline your life in such a way that will advance the entire process of your relationship with Jesus Christ now.
In Salvation and sanctification and being called and your ultimate glorification in Christ Jesus.
Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 8, uh, versus, uh, 28 to 30 one.
So you wanna check that out. But here’s the deal. God is at work within you.
God is at work verse 13. You can even read it backwards. God’s at work within you.
He’s going to work so that you can work out your own salvation with reverence and with awe.
That’s what those words mean. Not to be terrified and be flinching when god speaks. No.
It’s a joyous union, and it’s thrilling because salvation is not by our sweat. It’s not by our efforts.
It’s not by our deeds. It is truly this.
Because I’m saved, I’m going to make sure I set my alarm earlier to get up with god to spend time with him.
See, I don’t have to do that, but I want to grow. So I’m going to do that.
So work out your own salvation with with a reverential awe would be that I’m gonna go to church and find out how I can be used.
I wanna I wanna put my faith into action. What does god wanna do with me?
Now you can stay home and you’re gonna go to heaven, but it’s best to invest in your relationship with god.
And so when it’s working out, it’s just let me rephrase it. Let the salvation that is yours.
Let it go. Release it.
In your life and find out what god wants to do with you and as he uses you.
Just remember maintain that with a reverential awe and thankfulness toward god because he’s the one doing it all.
He’s the one that’s at work in you.
So it’s 2 verses of absolute liberty absolute freedom, absolute joy, and absolute assurance because why?
Because I’m gonna walk the straight and narrow with Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit’s gonna give me the power to do that and the wanta.
He’s gonna give me the wanna to do it. I’m gonna want to do this.
So it’s not any works of righteousness on your own.
To do this is to yield to the work of god and letting him do what he wants you to do.
And I hope calling that this liberates you and that it also brings an answer to your question.
You know, think of a a glove. Right? You can see a glove.
You can go to a your local hardware store, and there’s a glove. You can buy gloves.
And they they’re all just gloves.
Um, and they’re basically meaningless until your hand slips inside the glove.
And by the way, you’ll try on a few gloves until you find one that fits or fits the application for which you need it.
Okay? Are you gonna be handling acids?
Then you need a certain kind of a rubber, uh, polypropylene type of a glove, a glove that can handle tucksons and poisons and You would use that glove for gardening.
You would use a gardener’s glove.
Do your they usually have a little bit of rubber grip and their their their cloth on the top.
Well, maybe what if you you’re gonna do hard yard work. You’re gonna cut down some trees.
You’re gonna use your chainsaw or you’re going to dig fence posts.
You know, you’re gonna deal with barbed wire and stuff like that for your for your, uh, land or for your property, you’d use leather gloves, Mike, because they can take it.
You use the glove in the application for which it was created for.
Know this, the Bible says, Coleen, that you were created by god to live out your life and serve him.
And those things that you’re to be doing are actual works that god has given you before the foundation of the world was ever laid.
These are works that god has given each of us as believers to live out.
Now listen, some of you might be saying, oh my goodness, really?
I’m a Christian pastor Jack, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. You better find out.
That’s your purpose in life. And if you listen.
If you think you’ve been having fun so far as a Christian, you ain’t seen nothing yet because when you yield yourself to what god wants to do, And listen, sometimes that comes by presenting yourself and lots of trial and error.
What I mean by that is I wanna serve god.
I wanna find out what my gifting is and you sign for the parking lot ministry, traffic ministry, ushering ministry, children’s ministry.
You might go to 7 different ministries until you find one that it’s like, oh my gosh. I love this.
And the reason why you’re gonna love it is because God has put that love in your heart for it before the world was ever created before you ever born.
You were designed for that. And guess what’s gonna happen?
You are gonna work your tail off doing it and people are gonna say, you need to take a break and you go, man, I can’t take a break.
This is the best. Where do you get your energy from? Where do you get your motivation from?
From god? Why? You were built to do that. That’s why god called you to do that.
And so while other people who are not called to what you’re doing are all pooped out and tired and thrashed, You would be just as thrashed if you’re trying to do what they do.
What they do is incredibly powerful to the advancement of the gospel. Listen.
The church that I pastor, I’m surrounded by people, literally, who have incredible callings and giftings in the area to advance the gospel via technologies or a writing or graphics or, uh, audio or, you know, logistics.
It’s amazing. Just today, I found out. I’m sorry.
I didn’t even know this, um, about when people order books, how does that happen? What’s the process?
Where on the property does that take place? Who’s doing this? How how are book orders processed?
I can’t even wrap my brain around that. Um, I don’t have to.
I’m not called to do that. I wouldn’t even I’d blow it all up. I’d mess it up.
So listen, Colleen, find out what God wants you to do do with all of your heart, and you’re gonna find out that you discipline in your life, which is a joy, to draw closer to Jesus, which is part of being a disciple.
It turns out that you wind up fulfilling The full purpose as to why god gave you eternal life in the first place.
He gave you life for a purpose. Don’t just wait around to get to heaven.
What you wanna do is be busy about our father’s business and that when time comes to go to heaven, You are going to heaven having accomplished your race as Paul put it.
You have finished your course. You’ve kept the faith and you can lay your head down at night, uh, satisfied and thankful for all that god gave you for that day.
So I hope that is an answer to you. I hope that, uh, brings some consolation to you.
It’s a great question. Uh, but remember everybody, Read the entire context of what’s before you.
Don’t just eat the fries. Okay. There’s more to it. Don’t just read that verse.
Read it in the chapter. Read it in its paragraph.
As you read it, unpack the the word meanings, and you’ll grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
So you guys listen, As always, we would love to have you subscribe.
That really helps us, uh, in the social media world. I don’t understand it. Beautiful people behind these cameras.
They understand that, but it helps us in that social world.
But as always, it’s time for us to live out what we believe in. It’s time for real life.
So go out there and live the life that god has called you to live. God bless you.
See you next time.
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