FCA - 9/29 Message

Introduction

How many of you have ever been asked the question, “What do you want to be whenever you grow up?” This is a question that I thought of a lot whenever I was your guys’ age. When I was 15, 16, and 17, I wanted to be a Neurosurgeon and work on peoples brains, make about half a million dollars a year, live in a nice house, and retire whenever I wanted to. That sounded like a nice plan and part of the reason that I wanted to be a doctor was because I had people that I looked up to who were doctors… It’s normal for us to look up to people in this life. We look up to parents, teachers, coaches, pastors, doctors, the list goes on… But if you’re a Christian, who should you look up to the most? JESUS!

I trust that some of you are here and you are not a born again follower of Jesus Christ, you’re still searching for answers or maybe you go to church and play the game, but you’re not a genuine follower of Jesus and my prayer for you is that you’d see how He can change you and give you a permanent hope. If you are a follower of Jesus, the Bible tells us that we’re supposed to actually follow Him and what His Word says.

This morning we’re going to look in Philippians chapter 2 at what Jesus calls on us to do. How He commands us to let our light shine and to live a changed life that encourages and influences other people to look to Jesus. If you are a Christian, this morning I pray that you’re reminded of your purpose: To glorify God and make disciples. To point others to Jesus with all that we say and all that we do.

Philippians 2:12–18 CSB

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

The Person Who Gives Us Light: God (12-13)

How many of us struggle a little bit with being patient? We’re all a bit guilty here! Sometimes we have to wait and it gets on our nerves. We get frustrated whenever someone doesn’t message us back right away or whenever we have to wait on someone else or when the microwave takes too long. Since we struggle with patience at times and want immediate results, it can be frustrating whenever things don’t happen overnight. What we see in life, though, is that it takes time for something to change. Change usually doesn’t happen overnight. Do you know how long it takes to make something a habit in our life? It varies, but 66 days is a solid average… that’s 2 months! That’s a long time. The Bible tells us that life is a long race - it’s a marathon. You won’t figure everything out in 11 seconds, 11 minutes, or 11 hours. Your responsibility as a Believer is to simply run after Jesus and stand on His Word. To grow to be more like Him each and every day. This is what our passage tells us this morning

In Philippians 2:12 Paul encourages his friends to continue to listen/obey as they have been doing faithfully. This isn’t about obeying or listening so much to Paul but it’s about listening/obeying Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul puts it like this to the church in Corinth

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

Ultimately, our Christian lives are supposed to be about imitating Jesus Christ. If you look right above our passage in Philippians 2, you’ll see a few verses that tell us what Jesus did for us. Someone with a Bible, what did Jesus do for us in Philippians 2:5-11? He humbled Himself, lived a perfect life, and died for our sins on the cross. This is what Paul is saying here - to obey Jesus and work out what God is doing inside of us.

Think through this together - we talk about the word saved or salvation a lot… but what does it mean to be saved? How are we saved?

NOT by works - by grace through faith in Christ. Think of Philippians 2:13-14 like this: I work out, because God works within. If you are a Christian, you are supposed to work out what Jesus has done with fear and trembling. This doesn’t mean that we’re afraid of something bad happening to us, but we understand how amazing and powerful and holy our God is and how sinful we are.

How serious is our sin in the eyes of a holy God?

Kind of serious

Not really serious

Extremely serious

It’s extremely serious - in fact, we see in the Bible that sin is what separates us from God. We’ve all sinned. We’re all guilty. So what do we need to happen? We can’t be saved through our works. We’re separated from God. So what do we need? We need God to save us since we can’t save ourselves! This is what Philippians 1:6 tells us God does

Philippians 1:6 CSB

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God saves us and God keeps us and He sustains us and He gives us hope. He doesn’t let us go! He helps us to grow and become more and more like Him. He helps us to accomplish His purpose for us -again to glorify Him and share the Gospel and make disciples. What are some ways that we can practically do this? If this is God’s purpose for us, how can we do it?

By remembering our identity in Jesus

By realizing that time is a gift and we must take advantage of it

By

Jesus gives us light - let’s look to verses 14-15 to see what we should do with it.

The Purpose of Our Light: Shine (14-16)

As Christians who are saved and given the Holy Spirit, we look different than the world around us. Paul shows some of the ways that Christians stand out in the remainder of this passage. Think about what makes a Christian different from a non-Christian. Sure, there are some noticeable differences on the outside: Christians belong to the local church and act differently and talk differently. The biggest difference between a Christian and non-Christian though is underneath. A Christian has the Holy Spirit and is adopted into God’s family. This internal change impacts everything else in the life of the Christian, including our actions. See, as a Christian you don’t do nice things in order to save yourself or to make yourself look good, you work because you are saved. In other words, good works are not the root that saves you, good works are the fruit of being saved by Jesus Christ! If you are saved, you will naturally do things differently than others around you who don’t follow Jesus.

Paul gives us several such differences in these verses:

No grumbling or arguing

Shine like stars

Hold firm to the Word of God

Let’s look at how we work out our salvation in these specific areas! Is it easy or hard to complain and argue? It’s easy - we all do it. Why do you think the Bible would tell us to not do this? Because Jesus didn’t complain. He didn’t argue - after all He was sinless.

The connection Paul makes is that if you don’t do this then you will be blameless and shine like stars. This doesn’t mean that you’re perfect, but it does mean that you stand out! Our purpose in life isn’t to prove to everyone else that we are right - our purpose is to glorify our God (1 Cor 10:31) and one of the ways that we glorify Him is by not acting like the world around us. Back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about how we are to be salt and light and how we must not lose our saltiness in Matthew 5:13-16. Whenever we forget our purpose or whenever we act just like the world around us, we are like a lamp that covers its light. We are like salt that is no longer salty. We’re useless and ineffective! That’s not what Jesus wants for His Church - He calls to stand out in the middle of a crooked generation. This letter is nearly 2000 years old and those outside the church were called a crooked and perverted generation… Do you think things have changed much over 2000 years? Not really! We are living in the middle of a crooked generation and we are saved by God and given a light with the purpose of letting it shine!

What was the purpose of us receiving light in the first place? Jesus tells us this in Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16 CSB

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Whenever you and I act differently, other people see a distinction and God gets all of the glory! Paul says that we shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the Word of life. Stars stand out in the evening because the world is dark… Stars provide light. As a Christian, you will stand out by holding firm to what the Bible says. Whenever you have a crowd of people telling you you that bullying is acceptable because everyone is doing it or whenever a crowd of people say that the Bible is a bunch of fairy tales that are made up and you say that bullying is sinful and that the Bible is the Word of God, you will stand out - I promise you! Whenever you have people living out an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” approach to their lives and you say that the Bible tells us to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us, you’re going to stand out! Guys, the only way that you and I can shine like stars is to stand unashamedly upon the Word of God. The only hope we have to grow to be more like Jesus is to know Jesus more and more. This all starts with holding form to His Word.

Paul keeps his eyes fixed on Christ’s return… Whenever the end is secured, you can go through difficult situations today. Whenever I know that the Cardinals win game 7 of the 2011 world series, I can watch game 7 of the 2011 world series with hope even though it looks like they’re about to lose the game multiple times. I know the end… So I have hope in the beginning and middle parts. You and I can have hope today because we know the end. We know that we have a purpose today: Our purpose in life isn’t to get popular… Our purpose is to proclaim the Gospel. My prayer for each one of us here is that we would let our light shine and be faithful to Jesus and that as we do this, that people would see something different in us and ask some questions and that others would come to know Jesus as well.

The Power of Our Light: Joy (17-18)

Jesus doesn’t just kind of change us… Jesus changes everything for us as Christians! Jesus turns broken graves into beautiful gardens. Jesus turns weeping into rejoicing. Jesus turns grumbling into giving thanks. Jesus turns condemnation into celebration. Jesus changes the way that we think and the things that we do. I know this because Jesus has changed my life and I hope that He has changed your life as well! For Paul, though he is in jail and in prison, he rejoices because God has saved him. He rejoices because God isn’t yet done with him. He rejoices because this church is growing in their walk with the Lord. He rejoices because God is on His throne. Paul is more concerned with the growth of this church and their faithfulness to Jesus than He is about His personal comforts. Paul says that he is being poured out as a drink offering for this church but he isn’t complaining… He rejoices.

The idea of Paul being a drink offering carries with it Old Testament significance and is also found in 2 Timothy 4:6 as Paul says this

2 Timothy 4:6 CSB

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.

Paul is talking about his death here. Being poured out as an offering for these believers and for sharing the Gospel with others. Paul is saying this: Even if I die for proclaiming the Gospel and encouraging you all, I am glad and I will rejoice! The power of Jesus Christ in your life is that you know the end. You know that Jesus wins. You know your God who promises to provide for you each step of the way. You know that you can always rejoice because Christ is always with you! Paul’s exhortation and imperative command in verse 18 is that these Christians would be glad and rejoice as well.

So I ask you simply this: Are you glad and rejoicing today? It can be weird to rejoice in bad times or in times of disaster… Is Joy the same as Happiness? NOPE! Christian joy isn’t a feeling that comes and goes. Joy in suffering doesn’t mean that you simply are happy at all times and you wear a mask and fake it till you make it. There are times to weep, after all, Jesus did! But what suffering cannot rob you of is your joy. Suffering can rob you of your health. Suffering can rob you of your time. It can rob you of your “friends.” But suffering cannot take your joy away as a born again follower of Christ. Even if you can’t rejoice in your circumstances, you can always rejoice in your Lord. We can always rejoice in who our God is and what He has done for us. Do you remember where Paul was whenever he wrote this letter? PRISON! Following Jesus isn’t easy… it’s hard. If Paul could have joy in Jesus in jail, what is our excuse today? If you’re here and you aren’t currently following Jesus, I’d encourage you to talk to someone about what that looks like and to read the book of John in the Bible to see what Jesus can do in your life. If you are following Jesus but you’re wanting to grow in your walk with Him, here are 5 things to keep in mind

Meditate on the Word of God More than you Meditate on Social Media (Psalm 1:2)

Spend more time in Prayer than you Spend Complaining (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Worship Regularly, not Rarely, with God’s People (Hebrews 10:25)

Trust in the Lord Alone, not in your Sinful Heart (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Glorify Christ in All you Do, not Just When it’s Easy (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Our destination is secured in Christ alone. Our hope is founded in Christ alone. He has given us a light and our world needs to see the light of Christ. Notice, Paul doesn’t give us instructions on how to “be” stars in our world… He says that Christians “are” stars in the world. We need to learn to be the light. We all need to learn how to rejoice in difficult times and how to not be people who grumble and argue like our world… Instead, we are saved to reflect God’s grace, love, and nature to those around us. The ultimate power and presence of His light in us is that we can choose joy at any and every time in our lives.