God Will Finish the Good Work in You

Sep 27, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Coach Who Sees Your Final Form

A hockey coach sees potential in a groggy 9-year-old long before the child sees it themselves. God works the same way – He envisions the completed masterpiece of your life even when you feel unformed. His commitment isn’t based on your current performance but on His promise to shape you into Christ’s likeness. Every drill, every stumble, is part of His intentional training. You’re not responsible for your own transformation, only for showing up to the rink. Rest in the Coach’s expertise. [25:14]

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
(Philippians 1:6, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been straining to “coach yourself” spiritually instead of trusting God’s patient work? What specific area of growth feels too slow – can you release it to His timing?

Day 2: Chains That Become Microphones

Paul preached to prison guards while shackled, turning confinement into a pulpit. Our difficult seasons aren’t interruptions to God’s plan but amplifiers of His grace. Unemployment, grief, or chronic pain become classrooms where we learn God’s sufficiency. Like ice shaping a skate blade’s edge, friction polishes our capacity to love. What looks like a dead end to us is God’s backroad route to deeper dependence. [39:09]

“But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.’”
(Acts 9:15, ESV)

Reflection: What “chain” in your life have you resented as useless? How might God repurpose it as a tool to demonstrate His strength?

Day 3: Love Melts the Ice of Fear

Sin roots itself in fear – fear of lack, rejection, or inadequacy. But perfect love thaws these frozen places, just as spring sun softens hardened ice. The prodigal feared his father’s rejection but found embrace. God’s relentless affection exposes our performative masks, not to shame us but to free us. Holiness grows not through white-knuckled effort but through warming ourselves at His unconditional love. [42:28]

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
(1 John 4:18, ESV)

Reflection: What specific fear (of failure, obscurity, etc.) currently drives your actions? How would receiving God’s “running embrace” today change that pattern?

Day 4: The Drill Nobody Likes

The coach assigns tedious edgework drills, not glamorous slapshots, to build championship form. Spiritual exercises like prayer journalling or serving difficult people feel similarly unremarkable. Yet these repetitions shape our capacity to receive and reflect love. Growth happens in the grind of showing up, not in sporadic bursts of inspiration. Trust the Coach’s playbook even when progress feels invisible. [51:23]

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.”
(Zechariah 4:10, ESV)

Reflection: What faithful “drill” have you neglected because it feels ineffective? How can you approach it this week as partnership with God’s long-term plan?

Day 5: The Zamboni of Grace

After a hard game, the Zamboni resurfaces torn-up ice. God’s grace does this for our souls – smoothing scars, filling ruts of regret, making fresh starts possible. His promise to complete us means failure isn’t final. Every confession, every return to Scripture, is another pass of the resurfacer. The ice will gleam again. [44:03]

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
(Revelation 21:4, ESV)

Reflection: What old “rut” in your soul needs God’s resurfacing today? How does His promise of completion change how you view this wound?

Sermon Summary

Paul’s confidence in Philippians rests on a promise that can carry a whole life: “He will finish it.” God began the good work, God gave faith to believe, and God will bring that work all the way to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. This confidence is not positive thinking or a little religious optimism. This is God’s promise to people who belong to Christ.

Paul writes from a prison cell, chained to an imperial guard, yet thanksgiving and joy rise in him when he remembers the Philippian church. The Philippians had partnered with him in the gospel when others did not. God’s grace had formed a real partnership between them, and Paul sees that partnership as evidence that God is still at work.

The coach image helps put the pressure in the right place. God is the coach, not the nine-year-old trying to figure out how to become a great player alone. God sees what his children can become, shows up day after day, calls it out of them, and takes responsibility for their transformation. God is not making slightly improved people with a few rough edges still hanging on. God is making people fully alive, fully human, and finally like Christ, with hearts pure and blameless.

Paul prays that love would abound more and more with knowledge and full insight. God grows love by opening eyes to see his greatness, his presence, and his unconditional love. Trials often become the hard places where that knowledge gets real. God meets people in unemployment, grief, weakness, and situations that cannot simply be escaped. God’s abundance comes into human emptiness, and God’s strength shows up where performance has run out.

Fear sits underneath so much sin. Fear lies, clings to money, controls people, performs for approval, and hides behind costumes. God’s perfect love is the only thing that can get fear out of a person. The father running toward the prodigal son shows how love transforms the one who expects rejection. God’s love will not let his children go, even through dry seasons, failure, weakness, and fear.

Paul’s confidence also includes the church. God forms growth through a partnership of grace, where people share what God is doing, see one another as unfinished but deeply loved, and give grace to difficult people. God’s invitation calls people to relax, return to the hard places with new eyes, and seek his transforming love together.

Key Takeaways

1. God finishes what God begins
God does not begin the work of grace and then leave people to carry it alone. God gives faith, sustains faith, and completes the transformation into Christlikeness. This promise does not excuse passivity, but it removes the crushing burden of self-salvation. [30:47]
2. Love drives fear from the heart
Fear often hides beneath control, dishonesty, performance, and grasping for security. God’s love does not merely demand better behavior from fearful people. God meets exposed fear with covenant love, and that love slowly makes holiness possible. [41:21]
3. Hard places can deepen knowledge of God
God does not waste the places that feel like chains. Suffering can become the place where God’s presence grows more real, compassion becomes deeper, and weakness exposes the limits of performance. God’s grace often becomes clearest when strength has run out. [37:43]
4. Grace changes how people see others
God is still working on the person who feels impossible to love. Present frustration does not get the final word over another person’s future. Grace gives the church imagination to see people not only as they are, but as God is making them. [47:20]
5. Growth happens in partnership of grace
God does not ordinarily form mature disciples in isolation. Shared Scripture, honest conversation, prayer, and witness strengthen confidence in God’s work. Love abounds when God’s people tell the truth about where his grace is showing up. [49:42]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[23:17] - He Will Finish It
[25:14] - The Coach and the Young Player
[27:22] - God Begins the Good Work
[28:44] - Paul’s Joy From Prison
[30:47] - Confidence in God’s Completion
[34:24] - Relax, God Is Still Working
[35:03] - Love Abounding With Knowledge
[37:43] - God’s Presence in Hard Places
[40:56] - Fear, Sin, and Perfect Love
[45:16] - Grace for Dry and Exhausted Souls
[47:00] - Seeing Difficult People Differently
[49:25] - Partnership of God’s Grace
[50:40] - A Forty-Day Journey Through Philippians

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Philippians 1:6
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” [30:47]

1 John 4:18
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” [41:21]

Philippians 1:9
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,” [35:03]

Observation questions

In Philippians 1:6, who begins the good work in believers, and who is responsible for bringing it to completion? [30:47]
What situation was Paul in when he wrote to the Philippian church, and what feelings did he express when he remembered them? [28:44]
According to Philippians 1:9, what two things does Paul connect with love growing “more and more”? [35:03]
What examples show how fear can shape sinful choices, such as lying, holding tightly to money, controlling others, or performing for approval? [41:21]

Interpretation questions

If God begins and completes the good work in his people, how does that reshape the difference between trusting God for transformation and simply becoming passive about sin? [32:41]
Paul’s joy is connected to the Philippians’ partnership in the gospel. What does their partnership reveal about how God often strengthens believers through the church rather than through isolation? [49:25]
Paul prays for love to grow alongside knowledge and insight. Why might a deeper knowledge of God lead to a more loving life, especially in difficult circumstances? [37:17]
First John 4:18 says that perfect love drives out fear. Why is it important to address the fear beneath sinful actions rather than only trying to correct the outward behavior? [42:21]

Application questions

Where have you been carrying the pressure to fix yourself, prove yourself, or make spiritual progress on your own? What might it look like to rest in God’s promise that he will finish what he began in you? [34:24]
Is there a hard place you are facing right now—loss, weakness, uncertainty, conflict, or disappointment? How might you ask God to help you see his presence and his transforming work in that place? [48:32]
Which fear most often shows up beneath your struggles: fear of rejection, not having enough, losing control, being exposed, or not being enough? How could receiving God’s steady love change one concrete response this week? [41:34]
Think of someone you currently find difficult to love. What would it mean to see that person not only as they are today, but also as someone God is still working on? [47:20]
Where have you noticed even a small sign of God’s grace at work in your life recently? How could sharing that with another believer strengthen both of you? [50:17]
What simple rhythm could help you grow in knowledge of God and love for others this week—reading Philippians, praying honestly, meeting with another believer, or noticing God’s work in a hard situation? [50:40]

Sermon Clips

44s

#GodFinishesWhatHeStarts

“It's it's our fears that cause sin. But when we encounter God and his love for us despite our sin, that that he's made this covenant, that what he started in us, he's gonna complete even despite us. We have every reason why God should give up on us, don't we? And God says, no, you're mine. I'm your coach. I've got this. We've got this. I'm getting you through.”

43s

#FullyAliveInChrist

“You're not the coach of your own goal. You're not standing at the boards assessing your own progress and deciding whether to keep investing. It is God who's making the investment in you. God saw what you could be, and he's calling that out. He's showing up in the dark day in and day out, helping you. And and and it will happen at the day of Christ, the finished thing. Not just a slightly better version of who you are, rough edges and all. No. No. Fully human, fully alive, finally yourself.”

48s

#TrustGodsProcess

“and when he starts something like this, God will finish it. What God starts, he finishes. which means that you can take pressure off yourself. Right? Like like, God's got this. He's the coach. It's not this nine year old who's gotta figure it out on a... On how to be a good hockey player. It's the coach who takes responsibility to coach him into a great player. And so, God is saying, I'm coaching you. I'm gonna coach you into being this new creation. You'll look just like my son, Jesus Christ, by the time I'm finished with you. And and the coach is taking responsibility for our transformation. And that's what God is is doing with each one of us.”

62s

#LoveOvercomesFear

“There's this sea of fear sewn into our hearts, and, it's almost like we're wearing a costume. The thing is you can't discipline fear of someone. The only way to get fear out of a person is through love. It's it's it's to love them when that fear is exposed. It's the prodigal son who comes home, who's fearing the the response of the father. Before he can even step down the laneway home, the father's running after him with love, embraced. And we see in that moment that the whole heart of the prodigal is transformed.”

42s

#MasterpieceOfGrace

“It was god who did it, and god makes a promise that he will finish it. God is doing... What god is doing is he sowed the seed of his son within you when he gave you the faith to believe, even that is a gift from God. And then God is watering that life within you, transforming bit by bit by bit with the promise that he will finish it. He will complete each one of us as masterpieces of his grace and glory.”

33s

#GodsPresenceInGrief

“Mean, it's often in those places that we actually draw near to God. Right? It's when when we look across the table and our partner's not there anymore. And and we're filled with tears and we wonder, god, are you there? Do you love me? Have you abandoned me? And often in those very tender moments, we find an incredible presence of God saying, I'm with you. And there's something that deepens in us and and then deeper compassion for all those that are grieving that we never had before.”

51s

#KnowGodsLove

“Sometimes in the church, we have people that are just, like, white knuckled, exhausted. You try to be good on your own strength, and and and that is a fear. Right? You're doing it out of fear that god will not love you unless you do all this work, unless you have all this stuff, you know, on the credit of you. And it's like for you, just... Paul's prayers that don't try harder. He's praying that God's love would... That God would... His love would abound in you, that that you're working on the wrong equation. One of the prayers I pray very often is, God help me to know the love that you have for me and for others. Like, make me aware of that.”

53s

#GraceToLetGo

“Who's this for? What about the person that you find impossible to love? You know what? There's always a person in the church that you look at and you go, I find that person hard to take. You know what I'm talking about? I'm not looking at anyone in this moment. But there are some people that are hard to take. Right? And so how this message applies to them is, you know what? Don't let that current version of them get locked in you. God's working on them too, and and God is gonna work them into a much better version. So can you just ask God for the grace to just let it go”

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