It Your Time To Shine

I want to preach one more sermon in this series: Rooted For A New Season

We are holding in view Jeremiah 17.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and fails to bear fruit.

The reason God wants you rooted is so that you can continue to bear fruit no matter what season of life you find yourself in.

My wife and I were recently in Georgia, doing some speaking and some hanging out.

And as we drove along the highway at night, we could see these wooded areas…lots of trees.

And we began to discuss what it must have been like for our ancestors to have to navigate that terrain with nothing to guide them except the moon and the stars.

That is the image that God puts before the church at Philipi…

and it is the image that I believe the Lord want to put before us today.

God wants us to shine like the moon and stars in the sky.

But, here’s the thing: Everybody wants to shine, but nobody wants the process that brings the glow.

Beloved we are in the process that brings the glow.

Because I want to see Chicago City Life Center shine!

So let’s open to Philippians chapter 2 and read verses 12-16 together.

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

The title of the sermon this morning is: Its Your Time To Shine!

PRAYER

Beloved, if we are going to shine, we have to Pastor Our Own Souls.

Paul tells the Philippians, “work out your own soul’s salvation”.

Can I tell you something about Spiritual Formation?

No one can actually form your soul for you.

At most we can guide you and support you in the formation of your own soul.

Now this sounds very individualistic. But, there is something in the Greek that is not obvious in the English translation … the verb here is plural.

We should use the word “y’all”

It could be translated “work out y’all’s soul salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord”

Each one of must take responsibility for our own soul, but formation in Christlikeness is not a solo project.

You need fellow travelers.

Prov. 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

Ecclesiastes 4 - Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

Beloved, we need Accountability…Encouragement…Fellowship…Prayer

But even if we all participate, we don’t have what it takes to grow and be formed in Christlikeness…at least not in our own strength.

Paul makes clear that the reason you can “work out” your salvation is because God is WORKING IN YOU both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

The thing that you are working out is the thing God has already worked in.

Our family has a thing when we see a police officer or a military person, to say “thank you for your service”.

Yesterday we were out to dinner and two officers came into the restaurant where we were eating. And before I could get the words out, my 4-year-old son waved and said, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE”

He was working out what had already been worked into him.

Beloved, this is why we ready our bibles, and study, and pray, and listen to preaching, and hangout with saints…These are the means through which GOD works His truth and His life and His light into us so that we can work it out in our lives.

Secondly, If we want to shine, we have to Work Hard To Stay United.

Now unity is easy if you don’t do anything.

I grew up in a big family and we used to fight constantly over who would sit in the front seat.

My mom had a great solution…we just won’t go.

If you don’t do anything… you don’t have to worry about who goes first,

If you don’t go anywhere…you’ll never argue about who sets the direction,

If you never accomplish anything…you never have to worry about who gets the credit.

But, doing nothing is not an option for the church.

We are the primary agents through which the Kingdom of God breaks into this world and into people's lives.

We have to do stuff…and we have to figure out how to stay together as we do it.

If you look for the word “unity” in this passage, you won’t find it. But will find the word “obey”.

We don’t like that word.

But, obedience drives unity

Now if we are called to obey, the obvious question is “who must we obey”

And it can seem as if, Paul does not answer that important question…

But the silence is the answer.

He doesn't name a person, because obedience here isn't something imposed through a chain of command.

It's a direction that all of us need to go.

Obedience is the word Paul uses to describe Jesus’ work on the cross

Phil 2:8.

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus didn't put anybody under Him to demonstrate obedience.

He went under, himself. Even though He didn’t have to.

That kind of Obedience is what it takes to prevent us from making a critical error.

The text says to do everything without “grumbling” and “complaining”

My Bible scholars will hear the echo of Exodus in those words.

When Israel was in the wilderness, we are told that they grumbled and complained against Moses.

Paul is putting us in that story.

It was that grumbling and complaining people that God called “a crooked and twisted generation”

And Paul is saying, “Don’t let it be that way today”…

He takes that label “crooked and twisted” and gives it to the sinful culture

They are crooked and twisted…

They are so bent out of shape that they cannot find their way.

And they got that way because they were constantly trying to put Moses in his place.

Pauls says, “the church cannot be that way”.

If we spend our energies trying to put other people under us…trying to “put them in their place”, we will end up crooked and twisted.

And you can’t guide anyone if you are crooked and twisted.

Just look at this hanger.

Which way is it pointing?

We can’t tell because it is crooked and twisted.

But if we follow Paul’s instruction in verse 4 of this chapter “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

We will not be crooked and twisted.

We will be straight and true.

Which way is this hanger pointing?

That’s due north…and you know it because the thing is straight.

We choose the humility of obedience in order to accomplish the work of God.

It is not always easy, but under God, I’ve learned to obey my own children when they are right

If they say “Don’t say that daddy”…and I know I should not have said it, I have to get low enough to obey…

Beloved, if we do these things: Pastor Our Own Souls and Stay United Through Mutual we will begin to shine like the moon and the stars.

Not a flashlight or candle…like luminaries…fixed and steady.

People will be able to navigate life simply by orienting themselves to the church.

Just like those ancestors that Aziza and I imagined as we drove through Georgia…

Escaping the chains of slavery

Following that “drinking gourd”… The Big Dipper pointing to Polaris

People will begin to navigate to freedom in Christ by looking at us.

And that’s what we want people to know about our church. Not how big and awesome we are, but…

People go there and get off drugs.

People go there and their marriage gets better.

Their career improves. Their joy increases. They finally finish school.

CCLC — IT'S OUR TIME TO SHINE.

What God is doing here, I believe with all my heart, is what God is doing throughout the entire body of Christ…

This change is not about Pastor Charles Moodie and it is not about Pastor Chris Butler

It is about a community of people, mutually committed to Christlikeness and mutually committed to one another.

IT IS ABOUT GOD CAUSING US TO SHINE IN THIS DARK GENERATION.

SO, SHINE ON, BELOVED

I want to open the altar for prayer.

Maybe you need to begin the inner work.

You can’t work out what God is not working in you.

AND YOU HAVE NOT INVITED JESUS INTO YOUR HEART AND LIFE, HE IS NOT WORKING IN YOU.

If you want to invite Jesus into your heart today, please come.

Maybe you have been grumbling and complaining

Repent today.

If you have to, make it right this week.

Maybe you are ready to say yes to where God is taking this house.

I’m not going to grumble and complain.

I’m going to be obedient…I’m going to do my part in this process of seeking the will of God together and growing in Christlikeness together.

Come to the altar as a sign of your “yes”