How bright does your light shine?
Notes
Transcript
Philippians 2:14-18 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 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, 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. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”
Tonight I want to share with you these few verses in Philippians. No matter how long you’ve been a Christian, these words in the verses we are about to read will be a very practical reminder for all of us.
I want to give some context for these verses before we jump off into it. These words are coming from Paul writing a letter to this church that he helped plant. So, these are pastoral words coming from Paul. You’ll find that in all of Paul’s letters he has a great mix of doctrine with pastoral wisdom. He never gives a doctrinal statement without applying it to the people.
So, back up a couple of verses and we will read 12-13 and I’ll show you the doctrine that Paul gives, and then these verses this evening are the practical outworking of that doctrine.
Philippians 2:12-13 “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, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
I won’t spend too much time here, but Paul says in these verses that we are to “work out our own salvation”. Note that he does not say work “FOR” your salvation, He says work “OUT”. You ask what does that mean? How do we work OUT our salvation? Well, I‘m glad you asked.
v. 14) “Do all things without grumbling or arguing”
to “grumble” - onomatopoeia. Where a word carries the same meaning as it sounds.
Yosemite Sam was a constant grumbler. Your version of the Bible might say “murmur”. But that’s what it means - to constantly murmur under the breath and gripe.
Now someone might say “well, we know that there is grumbling in the family, grumbling in the workplace, we know there is grumbling in the social establishments, we know there is grumbling in the school, but certainly that can’t be the case in the church. Surely those church people aren’t grumblers and complainers...
Well, Exodus tells us very clearly that God’s chosen people grumbled. Exodus gives us 14 different accounts where the people “grumbled”. And that was when they grumbled collectively, that wasn’t each specific instance where a person grumbled.
Grumbling before arguing (order)
Grumbling (murmuring) on the inside always comes before arguing on the outside. The grumbling is an internal attitude that manifests itself in complaining, arguing, and disputing. The order of these words is important.
What is there to grumble about? How do we apply this and live this out?
What did the children of Israel grumble about?
Well, they didn’t trust God to take care of them. They complained because they didn’t have food or water and so what did God do? He gave them food and water, but let’s not assume that it was the squeaky wheel that was getting the grease. God was going to provide for them anyway. Do we really think that God rescued them from bondage in Egypt just to let them die of hunger & thirst in the wilderness? Do we think God will do the same with us? The same logic applies to our life there for sure!
So they complained that they had no food & water, now God gives them food & water and what do they do? They grumble and complain about it! It wasn’t good enough! Doesn’t that sound like an ungrateful 3 year old, or 9 year old, or 12 year old? But the same logic applies to us today! How often are we ungrateful adults, we just seem to wrap it up a little different than a child does - but it still has the same ring in God’s ears...
They complained and got impatient about how long Moses took on the mountain when he was receiving the 10 commandments.
They complained about their leadership.
They complained about the journey.
They were constant complainers!
Now back to the grumbling in the church thing
I know for a fact that this isn’t an issue in this church (I mean that), but it can become an issue easily. I’ll bet within the ranks in the camp of the Israelites there were just a few that started murmuring and complaining - and then it spread to the whole group. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
What does the majority of the grumbling in the church today consist of?
OK - had enough about that? Me too, let’s move on.
v. 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”
I want to show you that the main idea about this verse is how we are seen in the world around us.
This connects with verse 14 - basically it’s saying that one of the evidences that you are a Christian is that you aren’t a constant grumbler, complainer, that you aren’t constantly argumentative.
This verse uses words like “blameless, innocent, without blemish”. Now we know that we aren’t going to be perfect people. There was only one perfect human, and you aren’t it just in case you were wondering LOL.
We aren’t perfect, but we can make an effort to be more Christlike in all that we do. God’s goal in this life is to make us LIKE CHRIST!
What effect does it have when we are more like Christ?
Look at the second half of the verse here. It says we live in the “midst of a crooked and twisted generation”. Can anyone deny that? Can anyone deny that we are “rollin downhill like a snowball headed for hell”??? You didn’t know Merle Haggard was a theologian did you? I wish coke was still cola and a joint was a bad place to be. But it isn’t! The snowball is growing and it’s gaining speed!
It truly is a crooked and twisted world. The sewage that the world puts out used to be underground and somewhat concealed, but now it’s flowing in the streets and everybody loves it.
So what do we do about it? Do we build a bunker and hide in it? Do we move to a remote mountain and live by ourselves to get away from it all?
Let’s keep reading our verse...
v. 15) “among whom you shine as lights in the world”
We are the agents of change in this crooked and twisted world. We have the message of hope and true transformation. Only Jesus can give the type of peace and hope that people are searching for today in all the wrong places!
