Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:05] Hey, everybody, I'm Pastor Chuck Allen, and I want to thank you for joining me on this Friday for a weekday podcast where we're talking about how we're still becoming, how we're just not there yet. You know, when I was a kid, I was like every other kid on the planet. You get in the car and no matter where you're going or how long the drive is, you always ask the question, are we there yet?
[00:00:28] I still do that. I. I try to beat my time everywhere I go. It's like everything is a NASCAR race and I'm out there trying to, you know, get the pole position.
[00:00:39] The thing is, we're still becoming. This is part of how the Bible wired us. And I'm really glad you're with me today, but I want to start today with this confession. I'm not everything I'm supposed to be yet, and my guess is neither are you.
[00:00:58] We're still becoming. We're still growing, we're still in flux. We're not where God desires us to be yet.
[00:01:05] Now, that might sound discouraging if you're wired to get things right or finish the race now, or you just have an abundance of control issues.
[00:01:15] I say that because I'm kind of close to a mirror where I'm recording this and I can see me.
[00:01:21] But what if that's actually the whole point? What if unfinished is the shape of how God describes grace?
[00:01:29] Because all through the scripture, God keeps working with people who aren't finished yet.
[00:01:36] He works in process, not in perfection, because, let's face it, he knows how imperfect we are.
[00:01:46] Let me read this to you because we talked about it earlier this week on the podcast and I can't get away. Way from Philippians 1:6 recently, where the text says, I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, key word here within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Did you catch that? God began something in you. He got it started and he hasn't finished yet.
[00:02:19] And he won't be finished until you have joined him in heaven or he comes to get you. You see, I think we need to wrap our head around this. All of us that are control freaks and wanting life to be ideal. Today, one of the best things we can do is settle in our soul that it's not and it's not going to be this is that awkward in between part of life. Your doubts, your half baked faith, your daily struggles to forgive or stay patient or stay hope, they all count. They are not wasted space. They're the material of transformation. They are literally woven by the hands of God into what he's making us as we continue to grow, as we're growing more toward Him. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in his second letter to the Corinthians. In chapter three, verse 18, he said, the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. I love that phrase more and more. It's movement, progress. It's grace and motion. You and I are not static, y'. All. We're not static beings. We are dynamic. We are quite literally spiritual construction zone, constantly on a renovation. And God isn't in a hurry because love doesn't rush.
[00:03:44] Love shapes slowly, thoroughly, thoughtfully, tenderly.
[00:03:51] Sometimes we get so frustrated with ourselves, or I know I do.
[00:03:56] Why can't I stop worrying? Why can't I be more disciplined? Why can't I be more faithful? Why can't I be more peaceful?
[00:04:03] But spiritual growth doesn't happen like downloading a new app. It's more like growing an oak tree. You don't notice it changing day by day, but one day you realize the branches stretch further, the roots dig deeper, and the storms don't shake it like they used to.
[00:04:20] I mean, Paul says that we're to let God transform us into a new person by the changing the way we think. Paul doesn't say, hey, you go figure it out on your own. He says, let God do it. It's an invitation to allow growth.
[00:04:35] Now listen, I want you to get this. It's an invitation to allow growth, not manufacture it. To cooperate, not control.
[00:04:43] Maybe you're standing in one of those not yet seasons in your life or not, where you thought you'd be, not with person you'd hoped you'd become. And if that's. You hear this. God has not stopped working. The story is not anywhere near done. And he doesn't see you as a failure in progress. He sees you as a work in progress, a masterpiece in stages.
[00:05:05] You hear me?
[00:05:07] A masterpiece. Because Paul also wrote to the church in Ephesus in chapter 2, verse 10. For we are God's masterpiece.
[00:05:15] He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
[00:05:21] Get that? A masterpiece in progress.
[00:05:25] So maybe today, instead of beating yourself up for what you're not yet, you could thank God for what he's still shaping, because he's still at it. The work in you has not been abandoned. It's just becoming.
[00:05:39] And sometimes the most faithful prayer that we can pray is, God, keep molding me.
[00:05:44] I'll stay on the wheel. Keep shaping me. Keep making me more like you.
[00:05:49] Thanks for joining me today, friends. Keep breathing, keep growing. Keep trusting that God is doing something beautiful right where you are. I'll see you next time on the weekday podcast. God bless you. Bye now.
