Sunday message · I Dare You To Move series
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Message Summary
In the final message of the I Dare You To Move series, Pastor Phillip Santillan turns to Philippians 1 to show that Christianity is an inside-out faith. He opens with an awkward picture: a first date where the young man’s only life goals are keeping his job and not repeating his worst mistakes.
The series has asked how we break the unhealthy circles we run in our relationships. We drift into them, and the way out begins with Jesus’ call to repent (Matthew 4:17), a change of mind and a change of direction. But talking about practical steps carries a danger: believing that who we become flows from what we do. No one keeps God’s standards every day, and when identity rests on performance we either give up or lower the bar, like that date, until the Christian life means little more than staying out of trouble. It is much better than that, Phil says.
Paul, who once hunted down Christians, planted the church in Philippi and years later wrote to it from prison in Rome under Nero. In verses 3–5 he thanks God for their partnership in the gospel, and Phil pauses to thank the church for three and a half years of partnership. His notes from 2013, when about ten adults gathered in his living room to dream of a church for people who don’t go to church, voice the conviction he still holds: when people are hurting, desperate or in transition, they look for God. As the church prepares to move, he believes the best is yet to come, because the church is people, not a building.
Verse 6 is the heart of the message: God, who began the good work within you, will continue it until it is finally finished on the day Christ Jesus returns. We ask God to fix things now, but Jesus says follow me, and following is a process. You can cram for an exam, but not for maturity. Christianity is not behavior modification, a list of things to start and stop; God renews our hearts and minds so that change works its way out. Becoming what God intends takes a long obedience in the same direction, and God is not trying to keep us from something but to finish something he began in us.
In verses 9–10 Paul does not pray that the Philippians would stay out of trouble. He prays that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Phil asks, “What do you pray when you pray for you?” Our prayers are often small and fearful, and little prayers bring little results. God is not making us better at behaving but better at loving people, and maturity shows when we can love someone who is hard to love. We may not become better rule keepers right away, but we will become better spouses, parents, coworkers and friends.
Phil invites everyone to make one line their prayer this week, and prays it with them: “Heavenly Father, finish the work you’ve begun in me.”
