12. 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, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

This time I want to tell you the most important principle in our spiritual life through today's message. The principle is that the most precious and valuable things in our lives can be easily lost and all the valueless and useless things, and all the evil and bad things in our lives can easily come into our lives without making any effort. Any way let us open the book of Philippians chapter 2 ver 12-13 and read together with a loud voice.

In verse 12 apostle Paul asked to the Philippian church to continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. In this verse we can find the words 'work out'. The meaning of these two words together is realizing something after making an efforts on it. Then the meaning of this verse is that the saints in the church at Philippi should make an every effort to realize their salvation in their lives with fear and trembling. 

You know already your salvation have been completed only by God Himself. You don't need to do something more for your salvation. By Jesus' death on the cross our salvation have been totally completed. Anybody who accept Jesus Christ in their mind and believe in Him then shall be saved. That's all.

Then why did apostle Paul ask Philippian church to work out salvation? At this point many people misunderstand. They think they have something to do for their own salvation. They think not only God but also they have something to do to complete their salvation. But the work for our salvation is totally belong to God Himself. It's not our part. I mean it's none of our business. But the work for realizing the life of the saved is belong to us even though God himself works in us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose as written in v.13. Therefore Apostle Paul wanted the saints in the church at Philippi to testify to their christianity by working out their salvation. Therefore working out their salvation shows the fact that they are saved.

And another expression in this verse is 'with fear and trembling'. the words 'with fear and trembling' means that we should do something very carefully in order not to fail. If you do something very important in your life, then you would be afraid of and trembled at the thought of failure. If you fail in doing something very important in your life then you have to pay the price and some times it can be a fatal in your life. So you must do very carefully in order not to fail. So doing something with fear and trembling is making every effort no to fail.

By the way do you know the more valuable thing can be easily lost? Yes! The most valuable, precious, useful thing in your life can be easily lost. Actually the principle of controlling this world is same. For example, if you want to have a good body line you have to do body building everyday 1-2 hours and only after 6 months later you can have the body line you wanted. And it is more difficult for you to maintain the body line you got after you had been regularly exercising for long time. If you stop your exercising two days or three days you will begin losing your body line soon or later. Likewise if you want to reap good vegetables or good fruits, then you need to cultivate and fertilize your farm well. Otherwise your farm can be easily desolated and filled with all kinds of weeds. You know the weeds propagate themselves rapidly without any human help. Likewise we should make every effort to get a good habit. But to get a bad habit we don't need any effort. Without doing anything bad habits come into our lives. You don't teach your children how to tell a lie, but they can tell a lie naturally as they are growing up. You don't teach your children how to tell bad things, but they begin to tell bad things naturally as they are growing up. Why can these things be happened? All these things can be happened because of satan. Satan tempt us and enables us to do all these bad things easily. Because of this principle apostle Paul asked to the church at Philippi to continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

By the way what is the results from the working out our salvation? We can point out many things. Living a holy life, a honest life, a dedicated life, God centered life... All these lives come from us if we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

And finally what I want to tell you is that all valuable thing in your life can be easily lost unless you treat it with fear and trembling. So when you live a christian life you should do everything with fear and trembling in order not to admit satan to work in us. Then you will fulfill God's good purpose in your lives. Let' us pray.   

[Pray after Preaching]

Heavenly Father we thank you for telling us the most important principle in our spiritual life through today's message. We become to know that the most precious and valuable things in our lives can be easily lost and all the valueless and useless things, and all the evil and bad things in our lives can easily come into our lives without making any effort. Heavenly Father help us do with fear and trembling as we are working out our salvation. So we may fulfill your good purpose for us. Jesus' name we pray. A-men.