Poured Out: An Offering - Audio
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So we're continuing our series poured out a life of work and worship and for the last couple of weeks we've been looking at work like, you know, what we do for a job, what we do to make a living, how we administer our family, stuff like that. But there's more to the biblical vision of work and we're going to see that today. And so let's let's take a look. This is the text from which the series title comes. So let's take a look at it, dig in deep and see what God has for us. This is Paul. He's in prison. He's writing to a church that he loves, but he can't visit. He wants to be with him, but he can't. And so he's telling him, how are we going to operate when I can't be there to tell you what's up? He says this, "Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now since I'm in prison, much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure. Children of God who without fault in a warped and crooked generation and then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not labor, work, and vain, but even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering on a sacrifice and service coming for your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with all of you so you too should be glad and rejoice with me." Let's jump in a little part of the issue with this passage. It has one of the most misunderstood texts in the Bible and so I want to be very clear about what Paul's not saying. So let's, Jerry, Jerry had ice surge around Friday and he's here. Thanks for coming man, I'm proud of this guy, all right. I wouldn't come if I just had surgery, I'd take a week. All right, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. This sounds a lot to us like what we need to do is in order to be saved to go to heaven is to work really hard and we got to be scared because God is mean and we better be trembling and fear because we might do it wrong. That's how it sounds to us but that's because we don't use the word salvation very much in our culture. In fact, pretty much the only time we use the word salvation is to talk about getting saved from hell. That's about it, getting to go to heaven. No one walks around and talks about any type of other type of salvation but that's not the case in the ancient world. That word's so tear to save really just means rescued. It means pulled out, bailed out and it can mean salvation to get to go to heaven but it honestly doesn't mean that very often. For the most part when Paul talks about being saved, he's talking about, we'll just look at a little bit below, pulling pulled out of a warped and crooked generation. The idea is that when God sends Jesus, what he's doing is he's like, I'm going to make sure that you're no longer identified with a part of stuck in the evil and the wickedness, the warpedness around you. You have an escape plan from that and what's good about that is that when you do escape,
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What does Paul mean by "work out your salvation with fear and trembling"?