Preached at Glennville Methodist Church on All Saints Day, November 1, 2026.

AI Disclosure: This sermon was transcribed from the worship livestream and lightly edited with the assistance of artificial intelligence for grammar, punctuation, readability, and formatting. The message, illustrations, and theological reflections are my own. This is an edited transcript rather than a word-for-word manuscript.

Introduction: Continuing Through Philippians

Well, we have been in Philippians, going through this verse by verse.

I was talking with a student here today who came to a Bible study I led with Luke toward the end of his fifth-grade year, I think it was at the elementary school.

So let me catch you up on what we’ve been doing.

You would love this letter because this isn’t just a letter instructing people in the church, but this was written by a guy in prison. He is writing from jail.

And he said something wild last week.

He told the church that he’s writing to, “This is what would make my joy complete.”

It wasn’t a cake with a file in it so he could break out of jail. It wasn’t even a get-out-of-jail-free card.

But instead, he is saying, “What would make my joy complete is to hear that the Christian community in Philippi would get along.”

And then he even told them this poem or this hymn. We don’t know if he wrote it or if it was something in the early church, but he put that in there that reflected on Christ, how he is God, but also how God the Father has raised him up and how Jesus was obedient to death, even the shameful death on the cross.

And so, he is instructing them to be humble.

Now, today, I’m going to try to read through the whole passage. It’s Communion Sunday.

What we’re going to read, he’s still in prison. He’s still writing to them, and he is going to give them general instruction for the church.

And just a second ago, we prayed, “Lord, speak to our whole church, but also speak to us individually.”

And so, he’s going to say, “This is what y’all need to do collectively.”

But then he’s going to give examples of two different people. And one of them, I’m pretty sure I’m going to mess up their name.

So, we have the general instruction for the church, but these individual examples.

Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:12–30

Hear these words from Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 12 all the way through verse 30.

Paul says this:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now 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 without fault in a warped and crooked generation. 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 run or labor in vain.

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.

For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.

I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, coworker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.

For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed, he was ill and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.

Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.

So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.

May God add his blessing to the reading of his Word.

What Does It Mean to Work Out Our Salvation?

Well, the title of the sermon is “Work Out.”

How do we do what we hear in this first verse?

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Well, we hear the big general command to the church, but also we have these beautiful, specific examples that I think apply to our lives today, especially on All Saints Day.

So, when we hear this, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” we need to consider: What does this mean?

Does it mean we have to earn our own salvation?

Well, no, that’s not what Paul is saying here.

He’s very clear in other parts of the Bible. And then also, the verse right after this says:

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

This is an echo of the beginning of Paul’s letter, the verse that we are trying to memorize:

“Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ.”

When we work out our salvation, the New Living Translation says, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation.”

It’s not an idea, once again, that it is about our own striving or trying, of how we earn our own salvation.

But in the same way, we have a role to play.

God doesn’t just snap his fingers and command us to accept his gift of salvation. God doesn’t just turn us into robots to do what he wants us to do.

But instead, he has an invitation to each one of us.

An invitation that we respond to daily.

Will we follow God or not?

And this invitation is for us to get along, to do everything without arguing so that we may become blameless and pure.

This is all flowing out of his general command of saying, “This is what would make my joy complete if my church would get along.”

The Church Is Called to Unity

Now, we have to figure out, when we’re reading a letter, what is he hearing from this church? What is he trying to address? What concerns does he have?

And it seems like he was worried that the Philippian church—there was no big threat happening, but there was this underlying tension that things could go wrong.

And what would be some of the things he would be worried about?

It seems like harmony in the church would be one of them.

We talked about during the children’s sermon, Luke and I went and saw arguably the most important theologian in Christianity right now, N. T. Wright. He was speaking on St. Simons.

And they did a Q&A with him, and you had to text in your questions. We didn’t text any in.

But one of the questions they said was, “Hey, if the Apostle Paul were to walk into the church right now, what would you ask him?”

And so the theologian said, “Well, I would ask him, what are some of the things that surprise you about the modern church and what we do?”

And he said, “Here’s what I think he would say.”

He would be surprised at all the divisions in the church.

And he talked about different denominations.

He said he probably wouldn’t be surprised with the divisions, but he would be surprised at our apathy about the divisions.

So he wasn’t saying, “Oh, you Protestants breaking away from the Catholics, and the Methodists breaking into Global and United.”

He probably wouldn’t say that’s bad, but he’d be surprised how much we are not sad about the divisions.

I was like, “Ooh, that’ll preach.”

Paul is saying that this church, with no red-light warning flashing, one of the things they need to do is to consider: How can I be humble?

Shining Like Stars

I love how he describes it.

He says:

“Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.”

Again, this isn’t about individuals shining like stars, but collectively, when we are the body of Christ, that’s when we shine the brightest.

That’s when we make the biggest difference in the world.

When we are on the same page.

Not that we don’t ever make each other mad. Not that we don’t ever get mad with people in our family or in our church family.

But that we learn how to be humble and shine because of Christ shining in us.

Being Poured Out as an Offering

He talks about how there’s a sacrifice element here, too.

He says, “I’m being poured out like a drink offering.”

Now, there were drink offerings in the Old Testament, but this is an area that’s not really heavily Jewish.

There were probably some Jewish people in the church, but this is a lot of people who were pagans or Gentiles coming to Christ.

So maybe they’re thinking about a wine offering that would be offered to the gods.

But it has this idea of almost like blood being poured out.

That’s the sacrifice that he is saying, “I’m doing, but I’m going to be glad and rejoice because I’m being poured out so that y’all can have unity.”

Two Examples of Faithful Christian Living

And so what does this look like?

Well, he gives us two examples here.

And I love that he gives us some concrete examples. He takes it from just, “Hey, these are some high concepts,” but here are two people for us to consider.

Timothy: Who Are You Pouring Into?

The first one is Timothy.

Timothy was Paul’s traveling partner.

The book of Acts talks about Timothy and how they met up and started traveling together.

He says, “Hey, I was going to send Timothy to you first, but he’s not coming right now. But I want to tell you how excited I am when he comes because he serves like a son learning from the father.”

He’s holding out this model that if we want to be people who follow Jesus, there’s this apprenticeship model that we talked about a little bit in the series.

But I also want to challenge you, too.

I think this is about us trying to say, “Okay, we want to be like Timothy. We want to follow Paul. We want to follow good leaders.”

We really want to just follow the Scriptures. That’s our ultimate leader, God speaking to us through the Scriptures.

But also, this is a challenge, too.

Who is the Timothy in your life that you need to pour into?

Because I see a lot of mature Christians out here, a lot of wisdom out here that doesn’t need to just stay with you, but needs to be poured into somebody else.

Who is that Timothy that you can be sharing with?

Epaphroditus: Honoring Those Who Serve

So Timothy, he says he’s not coming, though.

And y’all know, have you ever heard somebody say, “What’s the tea?”

Like, what’s the gossip going on here?

Well, there seems to be some type of controversy here because this other guy was supposed to go first.

Epaphroditus was supposed to come second. Timothy was supposed to come first.

He’s like, “Hey, I’m switching up the order, and I need to explain what’s happening.”

Y’all’s boy Epaphroditus, he almost died.

So here’s what we know about this guy.

This is the only time he’s mentioned. There’s somebody with a similar name mentioned in another part of the Bible, and some people say maybe that’s him, maybe not. But I think this is the only time he’s mentioned in the Bible.

And here’s what he was.

He was somebody from this church.

And the church, it seems like they took up a collection, and then he was the one who brought it to Paul and was going to hang out, minister, learn, and then come back after Timothy and give a report.

But it seems like the tea is that he’s coming first.

Well, what’s the reason he’s coming first?

So Paul says, “Here’s why he’s coming first. Brother almost died.”

He got really sick, and God was gracious and spared him.

And so he is going to come back first, but also my situation has changed.

But he says, “Here’s what I want you to do.”

“Welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, and he risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.”

So he brought the help that they couldn’t directly give and made that sacrifice.

So he’s saying, “Hey, I know this isn’t the order. I know you wanted Timothy to come first, but this guy’s coming. He did something great for God, and I want you to welcome and honor him.”

Now, sometimes we think, “Well, I don’t know what’s the great thing I’m supposed to do for God.”

Well, a lot of times the great things are just a bunch of little, tiny things.

That’s what makes up a great life for God.

All Saints Day: Remembering Lives of Faithfulness

I love that we have these examples here in the Bible, but also it is All Saints Day.

We have these powerful examples of names that we have read.

Now, I don’t have time to go through everybody, but I do want to just highlight three people.

Alice Bianco: Faithfulness in the Little Things

Alice Bianco. The hole in our church is still felt.

The 2027 Evangelism Committee is going to start meeting this week because we’re still trying to figure out and remember all the stuff Miss Alice did.

She was this extrovert in the way that she did anything and everything the church needed.

It was something she was excited to do that brought her life and brought her joy.

But again, it was just tons and tons of little things that she would do almost daily for the church.

Jerry Burkhalter: Faith Through Challenges

We have Mr. Jerry Burkhalter.

I think of somebody who worked out his salvation with fear and trembling.

Part of the story we shared at his funeral was about his journals.

They said they can go back and see how he would talk about his diagnosis and his challenges with it, but also his faith that worked through it.

So you have this extrovert. You have this other person, Mr. Jerry, who would process his faith in his journal.

Clyde Woolard: The Fruit of a Faithful Life

And then you have Mr. Clyde, too.

Mr. Clyde Woolard, a very important member of this community.

And Mr. Clyde was getting older in age as I’ve been his pastor and he was always real nice when I went and talked with him.

But the way that I saw the fruit in his life was through his family.

It was one of the most powerful moments when I went out to their house.

I walked in, and I felt the presence of God as they played Christian music, as they came and carried his body out.

It was one of the thickest and most tangible ways I felt the presence of God.

Not necessarily through something he had done, but through his family and their presence and their gratitude there.

Conclusion: Letting God Work in Us

This call from Paul in Philippians, is not about being perfect.

But it is about remembering that there are little things that we can do.

There are little things that we can be open to God doing in us.

God partnering in us.

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

Again, there is this element that we are part of this process, but ultimately it is God who does the heavy lifting.

We have to let God do it for us.

Thanks be to God.