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Pastor Thom Keller: When a Christian falls, what’s the cause? They all give the same reason as a genesis for their fall. All of them said, "It began when I let my spiritual life, my devotional life, start to fall." Can it be that simple? It is that simple. Remember what I said about the default. That’s where you’re going to go. That’s where your mind's going to go. This is what holds our wheels to the tracks. You get away from this book, you will come off the rails.

Guest (Male): Pastor Thom Keller continues his verse-by-verse study through the book of Philippians here on Study the Word, the radio outreach of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. When thinking about the relationship between parents and children, what does it look like? Is a child striving to earn the love of the parent? Of course not. Parents are supposed to love their children unconditionally.

The model for this ideal relationship is the love God has for us, His children. Pastor Thom warns of the dangers of a performance-based relationship with God. It will only get you more and more discouraged. With the second half of his study from Philippians 1, verses 3 through 11, here is Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: God is protecting you by His power until you receive the salvation which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. It says He will complete this work. In Greek, the word is epiteleó. It means to bring to an end, to finish, to accomplish, to perfect, to execute, to complete. He will bring your salvation to completion.

Why does Paul, and really, why does God want you to be fully persuaded that God will complete your salvation on the day you depart Earth? Because until you are fully persuaded of the fact that your salvation is entirely based on what Jesus did rather than on what you did for Jesus, you will only ever experience conditional acceptance from God, leading to doubts of salvation.

If your salvation is based upon your performance, doubts will always abound. Whenever performance enters a relationship, that relationship becomes conditional. Husband-wife, child-son, mother-daughter, whenever performance enters a relationship, that relationship becomes conditional. You don't want a conditional relationship with the Lord.

Now, some use this verse to say that Paul is making a case for sanctification, that God promises to keep watching us, to clean us up, to sanctify us right up until our dying breath. You could make an application of that, but I'm not sure it's the primary point. Although we know that this is His will and plan for us, sanctification requires our cooperation. The truth is some don't cooperate with His sanctification process.

What makes sanctification not probably Paul's intended point here is that sanctification will not be completed by the time your earthly life is over, which it says here it is. It will not be completed by the time you leave this earth, for that would require you to reach perfection right before you leave. That’s not what it says. The Greek says to finish, to bring to an end, to accomplish, to execute, to complete, to perfect. You're not going to be perfected the day before you leave this earth as far as sanctification goes. Salvation? Yes.

Moving on to verse seven, it says, "It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness how I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus."

Paul held the Philippian church in a very special place in his heart relative to the other churches because these saints in Philippi shared in Paul's trials and because they also supported him materially when he was in prison. Philippians 4:15, moving ahead four chapters, says, "As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the good news and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this."

Verse seven says, "Both in my bonds and in the defense of the gospel." Most believe that he's referring to help that they gave him while he was in Rome awaiting trial before Nero. Going on to verses 9 through 11, "I pray that your love will overflow more and more and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return."

"May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, for this will bring much glory and praise to God." What a beautiful prayer this is, and for our church too. That our love as a church would overflow more and more and that we would keep growing in our knowledge and understanding. Some of your translations say knowledge and insight, most say knowledge and discernment. This echoes Paul's prayer to the church in Colossae.

As a pastor, this is my life verse as a pastor of this church, Colossians 2:2-3. "I want them, I want you to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want you to have complete confidence that you understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ Himself. In Him, in Christ, lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

In Christ lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The older I get, the more I realize what was said about the Apostle John. When he got old and couldn't walk, they carried him around on a stretcher from church to church. What he would say over and over when he got to the churches was this simple statement: "My little children, love one another. My little children, love one another. My little children, love one another."

Three years with Jesus, the apostle that lived longer than any of the other apostles, the only one that wasn't martyred. As he distilled his ministry and theology down to one sentence, "My little children, love one another." You distill all this down and this is what it comes down to. This is the essence of life. It’s all about Jesus, and Jesus is all about love.

If you get that right, people say that's a mushy love. No, love includes discipline. It's mushy love that doesn't discipline, but true love, when needed, disciplines. That’s a part of that equation. But listen to it again. It’s all about Jesus, and Jesus is all about love. If you get that right in your marriage, in your family, in the work setting, you’re going to have a lot right.

You know that God answers prayers prayed with pure motives and right hearts. He just does. I say most every Sunday that our prayer would be on a Sunday morning that you would sense the love of Jesus in this place, the love that He has for you and the love that the body has for one another. I know that God has answered that prayer. That’s why I pray it every Sunday. It’s such an incredibly important, significant prayer.

How do I know that He’s answered that prayer? Because I have so many people come to the back of the church and tell me, "When I first came to this church, I felt such a sense of love when I came in and sat down." Here’s the truth: in a world where genuine unconditional love has become an increasingly rare commodity, the love of our fellowship on a Sunday morning feels like heaven to someone who lives in a loveless existence.

Think of all the settings where there are loveless existences. In some couples, that’s the case. In some families, that’s the case. In some work settings, it's nothing but conflict, envy, and self-seeking. They may not get that love anywhere until they come in here and sense that love. It’s so critically important that this be what we're about.

So, on a Sunday morning before you come to church, as you walk to work, as you drive to church, may I encourage you to pray a prayer something like this: "Father God, I choose to love others today. Please help me to move outside of my comfort zone, push me beyond what I'm comfortable with, and reach out and express Christian love to others, to many today, even to those who are hard to love." Because there are some people that are hard to love.

My grandfather died when he was 49 in 1949, before I was born. I have heard so many stories about him, an amazing man, a man of faith, a godly man. When I ran the dealership, I had people come to me who used to work for him. They were old, of course, but they were younger then, and they came to me and said, "I still have dreams about your grandfather. He so impacted my life. I still dream about him."

Where do you hear stories like that? A godly man. Years after I got into the dealership, I was given my grandfather’s Bible, and an uncle gave it to me and said, "I want you to have this." Inside the Bible, I found this note. It says, "Prayer. Show me ways of being friendly to lonely people, God. Help me to show others how to be friendly too." Talk about the essence of life. I think Grandpa had it.

Show me ways of being friendly to lonely people, God. Help me to show others how to be friendly too. That’s what we’re to be about. Showing love to lonely people and then helping other people to do that same thing to others as well. Paul's second request is that the Philippian church would continue to grow in knowledge and understanding.

Knowledge in Greek means precise and correct knowledge. Understanding in Greek means perception and discernment. The church is to grow in perception and discernment. I think this is an area where the church is so lacking today. We so lack discernment. We get schnookered into so many things. Schnookered means tricked, trapped, conned into believing things are of God but they’re really not of God.

I'll give an example: being slain in the spirit. I do not believe that slain in the spirit is of God. When someone is slain in the spirit, they lose control of their faculties, and the Holy Spirit will never make you a robot. The Holy Spirit will never take away your faculties, your ability to choice and to free will. Never. He's a gentleman; He won't do that.

Satan, on the other hand, wants to make a robot out of you and will try to force you and make you do certain things. But when you talk to someone who was slain in the spirit, this is always a response. I'll say, "Well, do you think there's any possibility that wasn't God?" and they'll say, "Oh no, that was God. I know it." I'll say, "How do you know it?" and they say, "Because it felt so good."

That's our level of discernment? We discern things being of God, the test is: did it feel good? You don't think Satan can make you feel good? Really? That's our level of discernment. So, there are people that go to church services and there's holy laughter, and they start laughing like crazy and they say it's of God. Why? It felt so good.

There are people that start clucking like chickens. You know that goes on? They go around clucking like chickens on the floor and they say this is of the Holy Spirit. There are people that get twitches like this, and they can't stop doing it, and they say it's of God. You say, "How you know it's God?" "Oh, it feels really good." Really? Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, feels really good. And that's of God.

Jessie Penn-Lewis said this, speaking of discernment: "How little many believers understand what is spirit and how many live in the soul or sensual realm and call it spirit. There are experiences in the soul life which appear to be spiritual but are sensuous and wholly in the realm of the body. The counterfeits of today are generally wrought on the soul life of believers who have not yet learned to distinguish between soul and spirit. The church is not only carnal, fleshly, but it is calling soulish things spiritual. The deceiving spirits work upon this ignorance."

She ends by saying, "Nothing supernatural should be felt by the senses, but by the spirit. Let the Lord's children ask Him to teach them to know what is spirit and what is soul in their inner lives." This level of discernment. So, how do we grow in knowledge and understanding? How do we grow in perception and discernment? By studying this book. That’s it. Studying this book.

There are people that have perfect pitch. I looked this up one time; I think it's less than 1% of people have perfect pitch. That means if you say that you’re playing an A-sharp and you play an A-flat, they'll say, "No, that's not an A-sharp, that's an A-flat." They can know. I don’t know that. But that’s how it is when you study the Bible.

People say, "I read the Bible and I don’t remember much out of it," but I tell them this: everything you’ve ever seen and read is on the tapes in your brain. It's all there. You may not have ready access to it, but it's all on the tapes. That means that when you have a decision to make, all that is on those tapes are a part of that decision. You’re not consciously aware of where you’re drawing that data from on the tapes, but it’s coming from the tapes.

The more you put this into your mind, the more you’re flooding those tapes with the Word of God. Here’s my application: the more time you spend in this book on the area of discernment, someone’s going to come up to you someday and say, "This is of God," and you're going to say, "That’s not of God." They’re saying it’s an A-sharp and you're saying that ain't an A-sharp.

They say, "Well, quote chapter and verse." You're going to say, "I can't quote chapter and verse. All I know is that’s not from God." That's what happens when you study this book. Your spirit becomes sensitive to what’s in this book, and your spirit will say, "That’s not of God. I can’t quote chapter and verse, but I’m telling you, that’s not God." And that's the discernment that we need.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I will never apologize for encouraging you over and over to spend time in this book. You and I must discipline ourselves to make this a regular part of our daily study. I’ve said this many times, but the world is our natural default. The billboards, the ads, all that makes sense when we're in the world. The only thing that breaks that default, the only thing, is this book.

You spend time in this book, this becomes primary truth, and the lies of the world start to be evident to you. But the less time you spend in this book, you will drift back to the natural default, and the world will all start making sense again. If you study this book, it will pay dividends throughout your life in every area of your life. It just will.

I’ve said this before, but when I was 30 and gave my life to Christ, I started reading this book in earnest. God revealed lies to me that the world had told me, the world had taught me, that I believed about myself. He started revealing truth to me out of this book. I was just blown away by the power in this book.

I remember thinking almost every time I’d be reading my Bible, "This is so profound." I thought every Sunday morning, every pastor, every Sunday school teacher, every Sunday morning should hold this book up and say, "This book changed my life. It will change yours." Because it will, because it does. Some of you can testify to that truth. This book will change your life.

Are you feeling spiritual stagnant? When my wife and I were youth advisors, young people would come to us and say, "I’m not where I ought to be spiritually. There was a time when my faith was more vibrant, I’m just not there." When we first were put in that position, I’d start digging into that person’s life. What’s going on with your parents, what’s going on at school, are you fighting with your siblings, are you being bullied?

I found out quickly that I didn't need to ask any of those questions. All I needed to ask was this question: how’s your devotional life? And their answer was always the same. They'd say, "It’s not good, but that’s not it. It’s more than that." No, it’s not more than that. Can it really be that simple that if I spend time in this book, it’s going to change my life in those practical ways that they were able to quantify there? Yes, it will.

When I meet with men in counseling, a lot of it is getting them into the Word. I went to a Calvary Chapel pastors' conference and they had all the senior pastors in a room by themselves. They talked about a pastor there who’s retired from the pastorate and now goes around the country working with men who’ve fallen into sexual sin and have been put out of their church.

He said, "As I interview men who’ve fallen into sexual sin, they all give the same reason as a genesis for their fall. All of them said, 'It began when I let my spiritual life, my devotional life, start to fall.'" Can it be that simple? It is that simple. Remember what I said about the default. That’s where you’re going to go. That’s where your mind's going to go.

This is what holds our wheels to the tracks. You get away from this book, you will come off the rails. There's another set of rails that has a place to take you that does not have a pleasant ending. You know that place. I don't mean hell; I mean the devastation getting away from this book, where that place can lead you.

So, does it make that big a difference? It does. Here’s your homework: purpose with every ounce of commitment you have to spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day reading your Bible for a minimum of five days a week over the next four weeks. 15 minutes a day, five days a week for the next four weeks.

If you say, "I don’t know what to read, this is all kind of new to me," I suggest you read Proverbs. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Read the chapter that matches the date. Start with that, and then add to that to get to your 15 minutes, either Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, the Gospels.

Or if you’re a seasoned believer and you really have those down really well, then I’d suggest you read Proverbs and then go to Romans and just work your way through Romans. Try that for the month and see how differently you will view your life at the end of that month, how differently you view your station in life, your contentment with your station in life, your spiritual stagnation, struggles in your life related to pornography, or alcohol or drugs.

Or, as they say, feelings of loneliness or anger issues. Do you have anger issues? See what it does. Marriage and family relationships. I didn't think about this earlier, but it’s almost like antibiotics. If they give you a two-week regimen and you stop eight days in, guess what? Nothing happens. It’s the same kind of thing here.

You read three days a week, you think, "Well, I got more than half for my week." No, you need the whole dose. Anger issues, marriage, family relationships, suicide ideation. Listen, a recent study listed that 26% of 18-to-24-year-olds have considered suicide over the last 30 days. Most of those studies say, "Have you considered suicide in the last two years?" A quarter have considered suicide in the last 30 days.

We don't need this to help us through life? See if that doesn't make a difference. Could reading this book really affect that? Absolutely. We need an infusion of truth, and here it is. This is a vaccination against stagnation that has been field-tested. This is the book.

So, this is your homework: four weeks, a minimum five days a week, 15 minutes a day, and see the difference that it makes. God isn't up in heaven saying, "Oh, Gabriel, Michael, come over here. What am I going to do? Keller’s making these big promises down there. I can't deliver. Oh, some of the people I can, but man, I got this guy and this girl, they got real problems. I can't fix that."

Do you think He’s saying that? No way. Look, give Him a chance. He says, "Test Me, try Me, see if I won't." Put Him to the test. But you have to do your part. Not two days a week, not three minutes. You can't forget and go off and think it’s not going to matter. It will matter. Give it a good 30 days. Once in your life, give it a good, solid 30 days. Commit your life to this in earnest and see what the Lord does. I pray that the difference will be so profound after 30 days that you will realize you cannot go through life without doing what you did those 30 days. You don't want to go through life without that.

Guest (Male): That’s Pastor Thom Keller on Study the Word, and he’s in a study of Philippians right now. Would you like to give this a second listen? Either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Simply subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and there you can watch our services live or on demand.

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