God’s Part and My Part in

Changing Me
Philippians 2:12-13 God’s Part and My Part in
Changing Me is a sermon in the series on
“Matters of the Heart.”
Do you feel like you are in a spiritual rut? Do
you wonder why you haven’t grown spiritually?
Are you covering the same ground in your
Christian walk? Do you wonder why though
you are learning about Jesus, you are not
living like him? Are you saying to yourself, “I’ve
been a Christian for years, but I don’t feel any
closer to Christ today than I did years ago?”
The Bible talks about life transformation and
we hear others tell how their lives have
changed. For many of us we desperately want
to change. But we see so little of it personally.
Why? Perhaps part of the problem is some
faulty assumptions.
MYTHS REGARDING LIFE CHANGE
Life change happens at salvation.
Comedian Yakov Smirnoff says that when he
first came to the United States from Russia, he
wasn’t prepared for the incredible variety of
instant products available in American grocery
stores. He says, “On my first shopping trip, I
saw powdered milk—you just add water, and
you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange
juice—you just add water, and you get orange
juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I
thought to myself, What a country!”
One of the most basic assumptions made
about life change is that it happens instantly at
salvation. People come to Christ and think that
by being a Christian their habits, attitudes, and
character will change immediately. Since
Christ alters a person’s eternal destiny at
salvation, so immediate life change is not only
assumed; it is expected.
Life change continues naturally over time.
Here the assumption is that being a Christian
will translate automatically into becoming a
Christian. Therefore, a five-year-old Christian
will have five years’ worth of spiritual maturity,
a ten-year-old Christian will have ten years’
worth of spiritual maturity, and so on. The
assumption is that faith cannot help but grow
with time, and it is time alone that is required.
When you look at someone, you can generally
tell how old a person naturally is. Sure, they
may wear make-up and they look younger or
older for their age, but you can tell an
approximation of their natural or physical age.
You can’t do this with someone’s spirituality.
You can’t look at a person and determine their
spiritual age. You can only judge someone’s
faith age by the way they act.
Life change is achieved largely by an act of
the will.
The idea is that what doesn’t happen naturally
over time takes place by trying. The harder we
try the more we will grow. If we decide to live a
certain way and really focus our internal juices
a determined behavior will result. This simply
isn’t true. One of the reasons is because we
need each other. This leads me to the next
myth.
Life change is best accomplished alone.
A personal relationship with Christ has
become synonymous with a private
relationship with Christ. Just get alone with
God, have personal devotions, and private
retreats and one’s life will automatically
change. The fact is that we need each other.
Because we can’t tell someone’s spiritual age,
because we don’t grow spiritually the same
way we grow naturally, and because we can’t
grow by willpower, we need help from others.
The strong need to help the weak. The older
need to teach the younger. We need
community – that is what the church is
designed for.
THE RIGHT FORMULA FOR LIFE CHANGE
A better way exists. The correct way. The
apostle Paul outlines it in Philippians 2:12-13.
Paul explains that the Christian life is not a
series of ups and downs. It is a process of ins
and outs. God works in us while we work out.
It is a partnership involving God, the individual
believer, teachers, and fellow believers. It is a
process where God works in, we work out,
teachers work with, and believers work
together. It can be stated in a sentence: Life
change begins with God, is about training (not
trying), requires teaching, and is a team effort.
Life change begins with God (Philippians
2:13).
“For it is God who is working in you, enabling
you both to desire and to work out His good
purpose.” (Philippians 2:13, HCSB)
God has a role in the life change process. We
partner with God. God is always at work in us.
“For we are His creation—created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared
ahead of time so that we should walk in them”
(Ephesians 2:10).
God works in us before he can work through
us. Our English word energy comes from the
word translated work (energia) in verse 13. It
is God’s divine energy at work in us and
through us.
When we give our life to Christ, our eternal
destiny is altered, there is a radical
reorientation of priorities, there is a new life
purpose, and there is the indwelling Holy
Spirit. Rather than instant liberation from every
bad habit or character flaw we’ve ever
possessed, however, what takes place is more
like the landing of an army on a beach and the
routing out of the enemy as the army makes
its way inland. At salvation God establishes a
beachhead. Total occupation will come in time
as the other parts of the formula are
implemented.
Here’s another way of looking at it. The event
of salvation is best seen as the beginning of a
journey as God begins his work in us that will
lead to life change. Just as there was a
process that led up to our conversion, so is
there a process that moves us toward life
change.
As God begins his work in us, he uses three
tools in the process.
THREE TOOLS GOD USES TO WORK IN US
“So then, my dear friends, just as you have
always obeyed, not only in my presence, but
now even more in my absence, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling.”
(Philippians 2:12, HCSB)
1. God uses the Bible to bring about life
change.
Through his Word he teaches us how to live.
A converted cannibal in the South Sea islands
was sitting by a large pot reading his Bible
when an anthropologist wearing a pith helmet
approached him and asked, “What are you
doing?”
The native replied, “I’m reading the Bible.”
The anthropologist scoffed and said, “Don’t
you know that modern, civilized man had
rejected that book? It’s nothing but a pack of
lies. You shouldn’t waste your time reading it.”
The cannibal looked him over from head to toe
and slowly replied, “Sir, if it weren’t for this
book, you’d be in that pot.” The Word of God
had changed his life, and his appetite.
If you are serious about changing your life,
you’re going to have to live according to the
Bible. You will need to read it, study it,
memorize it, meditate on it, and apply it.
James 1:22 says to be “doers” of the Word,
and not just hearers only.” The fact is that God
gave us His Word to teach us. The Bible can
teach me about life and how to live life better
than I did before I met Jesus.

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2. God uses the Holy Spirit to change us.

The Holy Spirit provides the power, the

conviction, and the direction for life change.
The Holy Spirit acts like an internal warning
system when we begin to make wrong steps
and like an applauding crowd when we take
the right steps toward becoming like Jesus.
God’s number purpose in life is to make us like
Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God uses the Word
of God to make the child of God more like the
Son of God.
3. God uses circumstances to change us.
The circumstances are the problems,
pressures, heartaches, difficulties, and stress
of life. Suffering gets our attention. C. S. Lewis
said that God whispers to us in our pleasure,
but shouts to us in our pain. The painful
circumstances—whether we bring them on
ourselves, or other people cause them, or the
Devil incites them—are used by God to help
us grow in likeness to his son.
Life change is about training not trying
(Philippians 2:12).
Notice that Paul doesn’t say, “Work for your
salvation.” To work for something means to
earn it, to deserve it, to merit it. The Bible
clearly teaches that salvation is not something
we have to work for. It is a free gift of God’s
grace. So Paul is not implying that we devise
our own plan of salvation or that we work into
a right relationship with God by our own
efforts.
The verb “work out” carries the meaning of
“work to full completion,” such as working out
a problem in mathematics. In Paul’s day it was
also used for “working a mine,” that is, getting
out of the mine all the valuable ore possible.
The word was also used for “working a field”
so as to get the greatest harvest possible.
Today, we use the word to describe to
physical exercise so as to get in the best
possible shape. So, when Paul says, “Work
out your salvation,” he is talking about a
“spiritual workout” or “spiritual training.”
Life change is not about trying; it’s about
training. Merely trying to experience life
change can never bring about life change. I
can try very hard to bench press three
hundred pounds, but that isn’t what will enable
me to do it. I will only be able to bench press
three hundred pounds by training to bench
press three hundred pounds.
Training requires discipline. To truly live a
Christ-like life, we have to order our lives
around those activities, disciplines, and
practices that were modeled by Christ. The
disciplines or prayer, solitude, worship, giving,
tithing, serving, and others are essential to
accomplish the life change that we desire.
Life change requires teaching (Philippians
2:12).
Change rarely happens in a vacuum. Often we
need the advice and wisdom of others. For
Christian growth, God’s plan includes the
counsel and guidance of teachers. Paul was a
teacher to the Philippians. He had modeled for
them and instructed them in the Christ-like life.
He was the teacher; they were the students.
He was faithful to his calling; they were
obedient to his instructions.
Optimal growth occurs when we fall under
someone who knows something we don’t or
has experience in an area we don’t and is
willing to share this knowledge with us. That is
the role of the teacher and the learner.
Openness to the thought and insight and
direction of a teacher is a sure sign of maturity.
The quality of teachableness is necessary for
life change.
John Wooden, the great basketball coach,
said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all
that counts.”
One of the great tragedies of the people of
God, both biblically and historically, has been
their instance on not following their appointed,
installed, and ordained leaders.
The responsibility of the teacher is to prepare
and to present the truth; the learner’s
responsibility to accept and to apply the truth.
The teacher is responsible to the learner, but
the teacher is not responsible for the learner.
Life change is a team effort (Philippians
2:12).
Whenever you see therefore, you must ask
what is it there for? Therefore is a hinge word.
God expressed his therefore in verse 9. The
therefore in verse 12 is our therefore. And it
makes sense doesn’t it? Understanding what
God has done for us through the death and
resurrection of Jesus, we, therefore, engage in
spiritual growth and vitality in gratitude for that
sacrifice.
And we engage in spiritual growth in
relationship with other believers. Just as we
have a relationship with Christ, we are to have
a relationship with like-minded believers who
are pursuing this intimate relationship with
Christ seeking to become more and more like
him.
Life change is highly relational.
Take Alcoholics Anonymous for example. This
group has a startling record for authentic life
change. Lives devastated and controlled by
the abuse of alcohol discover radical
transformation through AA’s program. Many
would say that the secret is the buddy system.
If a member feels an urge to drink, that person
is supposed to call someone who will support
his or her effort not to do it. Every aspect of
Alcoholics Anonymous is saturated with the
relational element. Participants meet weekly
as a group for sharing and support, there are
small groups, and individual meetings. AA
capitalizes on the important relational
component of true transformation.
Business people and athletes talk about the
power of a team. In life, we all need support—
and when we get it; it brings about the change
we are desperate for. Spiritual growth was
never intended to be a solo event. It was
always intended to be a team sport. In the
context of relationships with other believers,
we receive accountability, challenge,
encouragement, and personal support. That is
why Sunday School and Bible study classes
are so critical to our spiritual growth and
development. Life change happens best in the
context of relationships.
Life change is a partnership.
God has a part; we have a part; teachers have
a part; and fellow believers have a part. God
works in; we work out; teachers work with; and
the believers work together.
Do you feel like you are in a spiritual rut? Do
you wonder why you haven’t grown spiritually?
Are you covering the same ground in your
Christian walk? Do you wonder why though
you are learning about Jesus, you are not
living like him? Are you saying to yourself, “I’ve
been a Christian for years, but I don’t feel any
closer to him today than I did years ago?”
If you are struggling with spiritual growth and
little life change is occurring, then where is the
breakdown? Are you in partnership with God?
Are you allowing God to use his tools of the
Bible, the Holy Spirit, and circumstances? Are
you in training? Are you engaged in a spiritual
work out by employing spiritual disciplines?
Are you submitting to teachers for instruction
and guidance? Are you engaged with other
believers to hold you accountable, challenge,
encourage, and support your life change?1
1 Rick Ezell, Pastor’s Extra 2 March 2008,
Proclaim Online, LifeWay Christian
Resources,