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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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All right. Last day of the week. We've made it all the way to the sixth verse of Philippians, chapter one. Paul says this, and I am sure of this. The NIV says, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Oh, there's a lot here that Paul is confident that for anybody that has put their faith in Jesus Christ, that that person will be saved. This is called the assurance of salvation. Sometimes people will ask me, can a Christian lose their salvation? That's the wrong question. The right question is, can Jesus lose one of the people that he's saved? The answer is no. Can God lose one of his children? The answer is no. Now, the reality is, is that there are many times in my life. I mean, I got saved when I was a teenager in high school. And for sure, you could look at the evidence of my life at any snapshot along the way, and you could make a case that I was not a follower of Jesus because I wasn't acting like it. But what Paul would say is, you're not looking at this thing right. This is a journ. You gotta take the long game here, not just a snapshot. Because the reality is that we all check the sanctification boxes in different orders and that it is God that began the good work in you. You did not begin the good work in you. Your salvation is not yours to lose. And there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. See the end of Romans chapter 8. Why? Because we were saved by grace through faith. And the faith that we have is a gift from him, so we can't even brag about that. The reality is, is that perseverance is the evidence of saving faith. It's not a prerequisite to it. And so John Calvin would basically say the faith that fizzles was never fake to begin with. So if you have put your faith in Jesus, I got good news. You can be confident of this, that Jesus who began that good work in you, he will bring it to completion at the day when Jesus Christ returns. And a part of the reason I wanna share this with you is sometimes you gotta let yourself off the mat a little bit. In fact, the conviction of Sin that you have in your life is actually evidence of the spirit of God working in your life to mold you in order for you to be more like Jesus. In our friend Matt Chandler's newest book, Becoming Like Jesus, one of the examples that he used that every parent understands is, do you remember when your kid first starting to walk? Okay. And Chandler's hilarious about it. The way he talks about it, I can't remember which kid he talking about. He talks about how his kid had like an extra large head and the kid began to climb up. We've all experienced this as parents. Your kid begins to climb up and they're not trying to walk, they're just kind of standing. They begin to let go of whatever they climbed up on. And then their head begins to lean in a certain direction. And one of two things can happen. I mean, momentum just kind of takes over. Inertia begins to happen. And they can either head plant on the floor or in order to prevent the face plant, they stick their foot out and another foot out and another foot out. And when parents are watching this before the kid falls, what do they do? They scream. They exclaim. They get so excited that the baby is walking, that the kid just took a first step. And a part of the reason he shares it is because verses like this, I am confident of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Is that heaven? Cheers every time we take a step forward in our discipleship journey with Jesus Christ. Now, too many times the church, we beat each other up every time we fall down. But I think heaven rejoices at every step of obedience that we take that God. Imagine this. God is cheering you on with every step you take. First John 4:10. One of my favorite verses says this in this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the propitiation for our sins. If you've ever heard me preach, you've probably heard this. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies that when Jesus Christ died on the cross and he says it is finished, he fully and finally satisfied the law of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God. Which means this. Here's how this matters in my life and your life. If you are in Christ and Christ is a propitiation for your sin, Christ is the payment that satisfies. That means that God is not dissatisfied in you. You see, a lot of times as parents, we think that God is disappointed in us and the reason we get disappointed with people like take our kids is because we expect one thing and we experience something else. You see, there's a bit of a surprise of unmet expectations there. God is not disappointed in you because he knew every sin that you were gonna commit. And when he purchased you and called you and paid for that, he knew what he was paying for. So he is not caught off guard. Now listen, this is not an excuse to sin. This is freedom from sin. And so a note to parents of teenagers, by the way, hang in there. It's a journey. It's not a snapshot. Play the long game. It's going to be okay. And if your kids or you have put your faith in Jesus, may we be able to say what Paul says. I am confident of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.

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