Valley Church Clinton
The Journey of Salvation | March 1st, 2026

      • Philippians 2:12-14CSB

      • Philippians 2:15-16CSB

      • Philippians 2:17-18CSB

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  • Make Room
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  • Rock Of Ages
  • So, this photo is of my wife and I at the Grand Canyon.
    And this trip started in a town you may know, which is Las Vegas, Nevada.
    Now, pay no mind to a pastor telling you a story about him going to Vegas, okay? No judgement my way.
    Because the only reason our journey to explore the west started in Vegas is because we’re extremely cheap. I think we flew out there for around $50 and stayed at a hotel for less than $100. It was cheap.
    So, Vegas became our central hub. It wasn’t the reason we went, because we aren’t at all interested in gambling or partying, I mean even in my 20s I went to bed at 8pm. That’s right, I’ve had this grandpa energy my whole life.
    But, our interest was really outside Vegas. We went on lots of hikes through the desert, saw the Pawn Stars location, it was awesome.
    And eventually, we made our way to the Grand Canyon. So, it’s 3 or 4am, we get up, and we drive through the early morning to hit our hike down into the Canyon.
    And my goodness, the pictures don’t do it justice. It is utterly amazing. We hiked a couple miles down, and let me tell you, the Colorado River down there doesn’t look super far away, but you never feel like you get any closer even though you’re walking straight down a cliff to it.
    And I assumed this would be the pinnacle of the trip. Because how can you beat it? The Grand Canyon.
    But, never the less, we had to head back before nightfall, so we hiked out, grabbed some dinner, grabbed the car, and started back home. Mind you, it was nearly midnight at this point. And driving from Arizona to Nevada, in the middle of the desert, no other cars, it was kind of surreal.
    Emily is next to me, asleep from a hard day of hiking. And I look up out my window, and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
    In the middle of nowhere in the desert, no lights, no buildings, was the most amazing night sky I’ve ever witnessed.
    Stars I’m sure I’ve never seen, and probably won’t ever again. The Milky Way on full display.
    I literally stopped the car, pulled over, and got out to look.
    This moment absolutely made the trip.
    And it’s something I never could have imagined or planned, but because we went on the trip, on this westward journey, I got to experience it.
    And it came from hard work, it wasn’t easy, I was tired from being up for almost 24 hours at this point, but it was so worth it.
    Hook into body (seam)
    See, I think we have a big problem in the church today with how we view salvation. I think we often view it as a one time transactional piece of Jesus that gets us the cushy life into heaven.
    We look at our decision to follow Christ as what saves us, our decision to believe becomes our salvation, our saving factor. Our rescue.
    So naturally, if that’s true, we try to get as many people to make that decision as possible, because after all, we want everyone to experience this great joy of a this saving decision, right?
    But I think this is what Diedrich Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace.
    “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
    Cheap grace, cheap salvation, is I think what we often ride our faith journeys on, which leaves us frustrated, burnt out, and alone.
    We know there’s something more to our salvation, but we feel bad even saying that. We know there’s experiences like the Grand Canyon, like the simple joy of looking up at a night sky full of stars, but we feel stuck in Vegas.
    See, I think our salvation looks a whole lot less like a one time gift, and a whole lot more like a journey.
    And it’s a journey together. It’s a journey of friendship, of enemies, of wins, of losses.
    It’s a journey where you will experience the most mundane things while being followed by life changing ones.
    And while our decision to follow Christ and accept salvation may be the central hub of our faith, it’s certainly not the entire purpose of our salvation, which Paul says we should work out with fear and trembling.
    So, that’s where we’ll start our passage today, in our first verse, Philippians 2:12
    Philippians 2:12 CSB
    12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
    Right off the bat here, we encounter something that may be unsettling, or at least confusing, that we need to define. And thats…

    Work Out Your Salvation

    Remember, Paul is addressing his friends, who according to him, have always obeyed. He says “just as you have always obeyed”.
    Not only is Paul addressing his friends, they’re his believing friends, brothers in Christ.
    So whatever comes next is a natural continuation of their discipleship. Of their growth in the Lord.
    And their obedience is not a matter of whether Paul is there or not, because Paul is telling them to continue doing this whether in his presence or his absence.
    He’s kind of pushing his fledglings out of the nest. They’re all grown, and although Paul would love to see them, their faith doesn’t rely on his presence, or even whether Paul is alive or not.
    They are to continue pushing on with or without him.
    And in this state, Paul says: work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation.
    So it’s clear Paul isn’t talking about salvation in the terms of one-time conversation, or their initial conversion into Christianity. It’s something deeper.
    Now, remember, the Jewish view of salvation and the Greek wording of that, which fundamentally is rescue. And rescue is happening right now, and in the future.
    We are simultaneously here in earth rescued, and we will be rescued in heaven, but we’re wandering in the wilderness waiting on Jesus’ return. It’s a both and situation.
    In fact, Jesus had this view on salvation. The Kingdom of God was at the same time here, and coming. Salvation was here and available, yet fully realized in the day of the Lord.
    Because salvation wasn’t only a future hope, it was also right now. It was a full reliance on the Father, being in complete obedience and accordance to Him.
    And it was also a life change, because it signified how we treated and loved other people.
    A great story where this is apparent is in the story of Zacchaeus. Remember him?
    The wee little man? Climbed a tree? You know the story.
    Jesus said hey, come down, I’m coming to your house.
    And remember, Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, and a Jew, which meant he was hated and was seen as a traitor to his God and his people because he was employed by the Roman government.
    And after Zacchaeus encounters Jesus, his perspective completely changes and he totally repents.
    And this is what Jesus says in response:
    Luke 19:9–10 CSB
    9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
    This is salvation. A saving from being lost.
    And although Zacchaeus hadn’t done anything yet, he found a totally new life, a rescue from his old life, through Jesus Christ.
    This wasn’t a one-time thing - Zacchaeus was a new man. His life was radically different.
    This is salvation, rescue from darkness.
    In a way, Zacchaeus worked out his salvation.
    Now, the Greek behind this word is defined as follows:
    To cause a state or condition, to bring about, produce, or create.
    It’s actually the same word that’s used in 2 Corinthians 7:10…
    2 Corinthians 7:10 CSB
    10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.
    Look, in all these passages that talk about salvation, it’s a process. Notice: godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation.
    And guess what? Paul isn’t writing to unbelievers here.
    No no, he’s writing to his churches. He’s writing to those professing Christ.
    It’s the same thing with Zacchaeus - Paul is saying there’s some component to salvation, right now, that we do. Or things we do that can lead to our salvation.
    And it really seems like this “working out”, this salvation thing, it’s done in and for community. It’s not an individualistic thing.
    See, God has always, and will likely continue, to work through a people. Does he use individuals? Yes, absolutely.
    But the individual is never the point, nor are they ever alone. I don’t think anyone’s conversion story ever happened alone - even Paul was led to other people.
    I must really be on the German theologian kick, because in his book Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes this:
    He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.
    And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together”
    Paul isn’t concerned here with each of the individual Philippian’s eternal state of being, whether they’ll make it into heaven or not.
    This is Paul urging the community to return to being God’s people. Together, working out their salvation.
    We just spent an entire section where Paul says things like: adopt the same attitude of Christ, do nothing out of selfish ambition or envy, consider others as more important than yourselves”.
    It makes no sense that he would switch it up at this point and start talking about everyone being concerned about their own eternal well-being.
    No, what Paul is urging to his church here, is to come together, and journey together.
    Peter addresses this head on. God isn’t trying to make a bunch of individual Christian robots that do his bidding, he’s making a people.
    1 Peter 2:9 CSB
    9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
    We need togetherness to bring about salvation, because our rescue is as a people of God. And together, we do that with fear and trembling, because this is our response to standing in front of a mighty God with nothing of significance, nothing but filthy rags, to offer.
    So, Paul stops right there in verse 12 and wraps it up with a bow.
    We work for our salvation, we can do it ourselves, as long as we have fear and trembling.
    Of course that’s not right. Paul makes a very important distinction in verse 13:
    Philippians 2:13 CSB
    13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
    Paul can’t leave this a cliffhanger, no, he makes it abundantly please that,

    God is the Source of the Work

    It would be really silly of me to stand up here and say we’re rescued by our own accord, because that just isn’t true.
    Paul says God is working in you, both to will and to work.
    This can also be phrased and translated as desire and effort.
    The desire to to obey, the desire to be loyal, the desire to work out your salvation, it comes from God.
    Forget the actual work and effort for a second, you mean I don’t have to muster up some motivation from deep within me? You mean that comes from God too?
    Yep. The desire to do good, to produce fruit, it must come from God, or else our motivations become man-made and therefore corrupted.
    The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience (forbearance), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…
    Aren’t you glad it says fruits of the Spirit, not fruits of your labors? Fruits of your goodness. Fruits that you must squeeze out of you.
    No, everything good comes from God. And often we desire good, but we try to muster it up from within.
    Psalm 37:4 CSB
    4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
    Our desires, when aligned with God’s desires, which can only come from the Spirit within us, only then can we produce good work.
    Because this is how we were designed. To be co laborers with God. To tend the Garden of Eden with God, who lived with us.
    So, when someone asks - is it our work or God’s? Are we supposed to let God work, or are we supposed to work?
    And the answer to that question, is yes. Both.
    We are supposed to work, and God is supposed to work, because that’s how He designed creation.
    1 Corinthians 3:9 CSB
    9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
    Ephesians 2:10 CSB
    10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
    Why must we continually pit our work against God’s, when we have the ability through Jesus Christ in us to work alongside God to accomplish the work He’s done and had set out for us.
    We aren’t presenting our work to a god who deems it good or bad, or enough of not enough and therefore we get in the afterlife. No!
    We are willing and working according to His good purpose. Because we so desire to fulfill the good creation and good purpose that was originally intended.
    The reason we get so worked up about works, and the reason we feel this tension, is because we’ve dug into our own desire, and have therefore used our own efforts to reverse the fall that happened in the Garden.
    We ironically try to reverse the original sin, which was trying to be like God, by, your guessed it, trying to be like God, trying to work our way out of our hole and fix ourselves.
    But that’s just not possible. Because that isn’t God’s good purpose.
    But we try, and try, and we try to work out our own salvation.
    We even mimic the Christian life, sometimes for years, thinking we’ve “accepted Jesus into our hearts”, but if were honest, it’s without feeling this sense of salvation, or rescue.
    And I’m going to give you a pass this morning, if you’re out there, and you’re doubting your faith, and maybe your salvation, that’s normal and you aren’t alone.
    Because guess what, this is real life. We’re talking about real, honest, tough, sucky at times, life.
    And again if we’re honest, I know every believer in this room, every person that confesses Christ, I know you’ve doubted your salvation.
    At some point, you weren’t sure. At some point, you’ve heard someone talk about doubting once-saved, always saved.
    You start playing back your own story in your head, you relive your testimony, you look at every encounter and wonder “Is this really me? Is my faith even real? It seems like everyone else around me is connected with God, they have it all figured out, why do I feel like this?”
    It’s because we’ve bought into the lie of Satan that we need to make this big, personal, one-time choice to follow Christ.
    And don’t get me wrong, that’s probably a very needed step in everyone’s walk,
    But at what point do we start putting our hope and faith into our personal choice, and we start resting our salvation on our own change in will.
    And that’s just not what God seems to have for us.
    And I think that’s because:

    Salvation is not only something we receive, it’s what we do

    One of my recent literary endeavors is a classic book called Pilgrim’s Progress which was written by John Bunyan in 1678.
    It follows the main character, named Christian, who discovers this horrible burden he’s never noticed, which is allegorically sin, and he meets this other character, named Evangelist, who sets him on the path to the Celestial City (heaven).
    And Christian, he goes through all kinds of various trials and paths. He meets friends, enemies, experiences death of loved ones, he goes through all of this after being set on the path by Evangelist. It’s a wonderful tale of Christians journey as a pilgrim though this life to heaven.
    Now, Christian is not, well, a christian. He’s identified as such not because if his status, or his belief, but because of his path. Because of the journey he sets out on.
    And unfortunately, our path often stops at evangelist and we pay no attention to the rest of our lives as Christians.
    All of this Christian life and faith is riding on that on moment where Evangelist shares the good news with us, but instead of journeying onward, we set up camp.
    See Christian, he was on the wonderful journey of salvation. Of final rescue.
    This is what Paul is talking about - our journey into and onward though, salvation.
    You’ll notice Paul says to “do everything without grumbling and arguing”, and this is an allusion to how the Israelites handled being rescued out of Egypt in the Exodus.
    Exodus 16:2–3 CSB
    2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”
    See, their rescue was quite literally a journey, it was a journey to a promised land that was ahead of them, but they were too short sighted to see the goodness of salvation ahead of them.
    Instead, they would rather be dead or still enslaved.
    And this seems crazy to us reading back on what happened, but this is exactly how we treat our salvation.
    It’s a journey to something better, as we work through life, trusting that God will bless the end of the journey.
    Our salvation is just as much a response to the goodness of our God as it is a gift from God, it’s something you do, it’s something you’re a part of.
    And I know this may seem like semantics, but let me tell you, it changes your identity.
    Too often I think we look at salvation as selling everlasting life. We think of salvation as trying to direct someone from a far, yelling at them to go this way or that way, trying to find the right words to convince them,
    Otherwise, if I can’t convince them, it’s my fault they’re going to hell.
    But what salvation should be, is a welcome home.
    It’s kind of like those old Motel 6 commercials: “We’ll leave the light on for ya”. Remember those?
    As a body of believers, as the church, we should be welcoming people into a community.
    We aren’t urging and pleading with them to please make a decision right now, no, we’re opening the door and saying “Welcome home, come on in, Let me show you to your room.”
    This is why in verses 14-16
    Philippians 2:14–16 CSB
    14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.
    It goes right along with:
    Matthew 5:14 CSB
    14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
    Jesus Christ, the Rock, He has built his church, his people, as a light to the world.
    And if we’re professing a finicky one-time decision as hope, we’ve missed it. Our job is to journey.
    Our salvation is to journey onward. And then, when we are journeying, those who are lost can join us. They can become fellow travellers on our journey to salvation.
    They can become fellow nomads in the wilderness, and at the end of that wilderness, they can look back and see their journey of salvation,
    We can all start to see God’s will and work, His desire and effort, all over our lives.
    We can face our challenges without doubt, and although our faith may backslide, although our sin will be abundant, although we will fail and hurt others and hurt God,
    Our salvation is assured because we have one another, and our faith rests in the person of Jesus Christ who is our only hope in life and in death, who is the way, the truth and the life, who is the Word, as was, and is to come,
    Who existing in the form of God didn’t exploit it, who humbled himself to the point of death on a cross…
    Who one day, under his name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.
    This is the one we place our faith in for rescue. Not ourselves, our our will, or our works,
    But the one who completed the work for us.
    Suddenly, it doesn’t matter who blocks our journey. It doesn’t matter what we experience in this life.
    It doesn’t matter what the world throws in our way, it doesn’t matter what obstacles we face on our journey.
    The beauty of salvation being now, is that the real promise of God’s new creation is ever true and ever present.
    We know the end of the story. The good guy wins.
    1 Peter 1:8–9 CSB
    8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
    So, my friends, I want to encourage you this morning,

    Journey On, and Own Your Journey

    Keep pressing on. I know it’s not fun sometimes, but keep up with your journey of salvation.
    Because it’s not over till it’s over.
    Recently I’ve taken up 2 hobbies - chess and Spanish. Yeah, if you ever want to feel humbled, and incredibly stupid all the time, take up chess and learning a language…
    But anyway, to learn Spanish, I have this free app called Language Transfer.
    And this app is essentially a podcast between a teacher and a student, and you listen to it like a fly on the wall. It’s really cool, it really helps with immersion.
    But one thing that’s kind of a core tenet to this program is learning the language, not memorizing it. The goal is to be fluent, not to memorize all the things and verbs.
    And in one episode, the student was getting really frustrated with the teacher, she basically said “you’re telling me I have to remember all these words, but keep saying don’t memorize them”. Fair point.
    Then, the teacher said this great line, he said: “When you memorize a language, your borrow it. But when you learn a language, you own it”.
    I’m wondering how many of us are borrowing our salvation. We’re not on our own journey, we’re watching someone else's and trying to copy it.
    We’re memorizing the language of salvation without owning it. We look good on the outside, but we don’t believe it on the inside. We’ve stopped our journey because were tired, we want to mail it in.
    We’ve been hurt.
    We’ve suffered.
    We’re worn out, jealous, bitter.
    God wants you to get up.
    Psalm 37:24 CSB
    24 Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord supports him with his hand.
    Listen, I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know if you’re on this journey and you’ve hit a huge stumbling block. Maybe you’ve never made the first step of this salvation journey.
    But let me tell you, there is not enough power in the world to stop God from getting to you. There is not enough evil power in all of history to stop your journey.
    Romans 8:38–39 CSB
    38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    There is nothing that can stop you, not you, not your sin, not suffering, not even death, that can keep you from the love of Jesus.
    So get up, and start journeying. Because you aren’t alone, we’re all in this together.
    The path is your’s, but no one is going to force you on the path to God.
    He’s laid it out for you by faith alone, by profession that Jesus is Lord, and following Him as a disciple.
    Church, let’s journey onward together.
    Let’s pray.

      • Philippians 2:12CSB

      • Luke 19:9–10CSB

      • 2 Corinthians 7:10CSB

      • 1 Peter 2:9CSB

      • Philippians 2:13CSB

      • Psalm 37:4CSB

      • 1 Corinthians 3:9CSB

      • Ephesians 2:10CSB

      • Exodus 16:2–3CSB

      • Philippians 2:14–16CSB

      • Matthew 5:14CSB

      • 1 Peter 1:8–9CSB

      • Psalm 37:24CSB

      • Romans 8:38–39CSB

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  • Here's My Heart
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Valley Church Clinton
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