Becoming More Like Christ

You know I do not know if anyone else has had this problem or not but has anyone ever been hurt by the (big C) church?

Unfortunately if I had to guess almost every person here would have there hand raised for a time where they have felt either the church as an institution or maybe a specific group of Christians has caused harm when it was supposed to be a people that give life.

One name you might be familiar with is Van Gough who was a famous dutch painter in the 1800s.

He was a man who is known for his famous painting “The starry night”

He is also known for his constant struggle with mental health.

But one thing not a lot of people know is the Van Gouh was actually a deeply religous person that actually once wanted to be a missionary, however after experiancing hurt from the church, he later could not stand the church

This was so often the case that he would even reflect it in his art.

Because in this famous painting "The Starry Night” one of the first thing you notice is obviusly the beautiful starry sky, however one part that is interesting is one of the darkest places of the painting (you might not be able to tell in this picture) but its the church.

I love what Sky Jethani commentates about this painting, Because He says:

“Every home in the village is illuminated with the same yellow warmth of God’s love. But there is one building in the imaginary village with no light, no divine presence—the church. It was van Gogh’s way of depicting the institutional church of his day which he said was full of “icy coldness.” Like so many today, Vincent believed the world was full of God’s presence and love (represented in the sky and homes) but he struggled to find it in the institutions that claimed Christ’s name.”

You know I think of stories like Van Goghs but also stories of people today where there experiance with the people of God is very different then who God is Himself.

And I cannot help but ask why in a world that is full of so many things, is the church so often known as one of the coldest places?

So today what we are going to do is look at Philippians 2:12-18 and if you were with us last week we began this conversation of what we want our lives to look like 5 years from now.

And we saw how we talked about community shaping us and this week we will be looking at our aattitude, because while big goals are great, it is amazing how God shapes us through the small choices we make every day.

And so Paul starts this passage by giving us the foundation. So we will be starting in the first two verses. It says this:

Philippians 2:12–13 (NIV)

Do Everything Without Grumbling

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.

So I want you to notice the first word I read because its the word therefore.

Because right before this Paul had just finished tellling them all that Christ had done for them,

And really He is laying down the foundation for this church.

Because a foundation is important isn’t it?

Imagine this is your house? at first glance it is a beautiful home. It might be worth hundreds of thousands, but when you look closley you can start to see all the issues that the house actually has.

Because there are cracks all over the house, the roof is probably leaking and not just that but probably the biggest concern is the house could collapse.

And its all because of the structural problem where the foundation is bad.

And the truth is in our lives the thing we make the foundation of our life is so important, because it determines how every other part functions.

And we can make it our job, or a relationship but the truth is those things can go bad, and if we want a foundation that last we need to by our faith, our foundation.

And in a sense Paul is saying “therefore” because you have made this your foundation, continue to work out your salvation

And its a little easy to hear that and go wait a minute I thought the whole “entering a relationship with Jesus thing” was its a gift? Its not something that we can earn?

And you are right. because Paul is not saying you need to do things,

But a lot of scholars say the word “work” is better translated as energize.

So its not this you need to do this if you want to be in a relationship with God, but its more of a picture of a fire.

Anyone live fires? (maybe some of you a little to much…)

Heres the thing, when it comes to a fire, you can build the logs, you can find kindling, you can drench the logs in lighter fluid.

But ultimatley if you do not have a way to light the fire its just a pile of wood.

And once its lit, you begin to feed the fire or else it will die pretty fast right?

And really Paul is going God is the one who lights it, and really He is the reason it grows, but we are responsible for feeding the fire that God has given us.

Because to often we get to this place where we go sweet we have a fire, but over the course of weeks or years we do a really bad job at feeding what God has given us.

And I think when this happens instead of the church looking like this light, it begins to look dark.

I mean it is so vital that we feed the fire God has given us.

In fact we did not read this but John Wesley part of the service we read had everyone committing to spending time alone with God, maaking the intentional choice to say yes to where He is calling you, and other things.

But we need to ask ourselves what are the things that are shaaping my life, because we aare being shaped regardless, but we have to decide what is shaping us.

And lets move on to the next section of scripture. Because Paul begins to address some of the issues that were occuring because of them not beging shaped by God. Look at verses 14-18 it says this:

Philippians 2:14–18 NIV

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

So one of the first things he brings up is grumbling and arguing. And what is interesting is a lot of scholors believe that this is a little bit of a refrence to the Old Testement.

Because whenever the Isralites would face a challenge is placed them in a spot where they grumbled against God but also each-other.

And we talked about this last week but I felt like I needed to hamer the idea in with a ladder, because this type of arguing (that is not just a disagreement) but it is a type that causes so much division.

And what happens is when we place division between us and the people around us.

Whether its because of a dispute in the community

Whether its because of political issues that we disagree with

Maybe its because we just cannot stand that person,

whatever it is…

God created us to be together so when we seperate from others we grow further from God.

But whats neat is we can have disagreements or things where we might not be on the same page, but as we pursue God, we grow closer to Him, but also we grow closer to the person on the other side of the seperation.

And Paul says a few other things, but I want to focus on what he continues to say in verse 15, because He says that we are becoming blameless and and pure among the crooked generation

You know Paul is not nesasarily saying make sure you never mess up, but He is saying look there should be a notacible difference from when the world sees people in a walk with God.

One thing I love that people who analyze one of the reason the early church grew so quickly was obviusly God’s presece,

But people would be amazed at this group of people that got together, shared meals, who had huge differences,

Different social classes, races, people who that had different thought processes, Jews, Gentiles, and the world looked at them going thats different…

And then they lived a way that was so different when compared to the cutlure at this time.

They took care of the poor, they did not do things that were not where God called them, they did lived these lives where people turned there heads in amazement and went there is something so different.

And I love what Paul says about them because he says then you will shine among them like the starts.

And Paul is not saying this so we go look how great we are, but He is saying this so we stand in awe and go “wow look how amazing our God is”

And as we close I want us to finish by looking at the picture “The Starry Night”

I think to often people look at the church and even look at the individual lives of those who follow Christ

And they see this cold place, they see judgemental glances, they see clicks and gossi, they see people more discipled from a political party then from Christ, people that se a difference and make that person the villain

What would it look like as Paul puts it to shine among the world as the stars shine in the darkness,

What does it look like to be the brightest part of the painting.

Because after this song we will be receiving communion and we will talking a little more about it after the song, but really this super represented Jesus (the light of the world coming down), and dying for us

And because of him doing this, we can shine his light to every-person around us.

And so as we sing I will be up front serving communion and I would just invite you to come forward when you are ready (and this is something everyone is welcome to participate in).

Will you pray with me?