A Life That Shines

All right, Destination Church, we having a good week. >> Are you doing good. Hopefully, it changes this upcoming week because that was just a couple of woos. But we had a we had a really good start to our last week, specifically my 5-year-old daughter, who is getting into dance for her first time.

She gets this punch card at the end of each of her dance days. Each time she shows up, she gets the little star and then at the end she gets a prize. This was her first prize, okay. And so it's like this small. It's like a little stuffy, but she was so proud of it and she's like just showing it off all over the place to all of us.

And I don't know about you, but when I see something like this, it kind of gives me a little bit of PTSD. Cuz did any of you guys have these kind of charts in like elementary school. Do you remember these. So, we had these in elementary school and it looks something like this. You know, anytime that you can use a Spongebob reference and it's a gospel- centered message, it's going to be a good one.

But it looks something like this. And it had everybody's like name in the class down there and then the stars. And the thing is is with Ji's stars, my daughter's stars, she could just merely like show up and she gets a star.

But for me, like that wasn't the case, okay. Like we had to do like so many different things to earn the stars. And not only that, but you could get the stars taken away in our class, okay. And so guess who was, you know, a little bit of a disruptor in class. Guess who did not have any stars the entire year.

And so when I remember looking at this board and I remember looking at all the names and finding Josh Meyers and looking and seeing that there's no stars and the top of the board said this phrase that said shine like a star and I'm like dang I guess I'm hidden by the clouds because I'm not shining like a star. And I think that this is unfortunately where a lot of us view a life of following Jesus. We think Christian faith is all about trying to earn God's love like a gold star instead of what we're going to learn today is shining like a star, like an actual star in a dark world, in a dark sky.

And so today in Philippians chapter 2, Paul is going to kind of paint for us this picture of what it looks like to shine like a star in the sky. He's going to show us a life that doesn't seek to earn God's love, but instead responds to it. So, we're going to look at Philippians chapter 2, , and and talk about how to have a life that shines.

It's on page 1,12. , by the way, as you're pulling out your Bibles, we pull out our Bibles every single week here at Destination. And if you don't have a Bible, please take this one home with you.

Read Philippians this week. It's only like four chapters and it'll be done in about 15 minutes and there's so much good stuff in there. , additionally, take out a notebook if you don't have one. We have them at our welcome table. We'd love to give one to you and and just have you have an opportunity to write down how God is speaking to you this morning.

, but we're about halfway through the book of Philippians. And we've been looking at this book and we have a bunch of resources on our website for how to read this book and how to dive into it. But in short, it's wrote by the Apostle Paul and he's writing from in prison to a church that he planted about 10 years ago in Philippi.

And so he's writing to the Philippians. And we're going to start today in verse 12. And starting in verse 12, what's the first word there.

It says, "Therefore," we're going to stop here. I typically do not stop after one word of the verse, but we need to stop here just for a second because here's here's your little free Bible study tip for this morning. Anytime you see these phrases, therefore, because, or so that, while you're reading your Bible, stop because most of the time there is a either positive or negative cause and effect that happens.

And so, , something happens so that something happened and because of that, something happened. Therefore, the way that you could remember this in in preacher terms is every time you see the word therefore, you have to ask what it's there for. And so, let's go back for a second because we need to see what this is there for.

And I want to go back to verse five. This is where we kind of left off with last week. And so, context is crucial when we're kind of studying a book of the Bible and we have some time in between here.

And so Paul has been talking about relationships. He's been talking about partnership in the gospel through serving, through sharing life together. And then he kind of breaks into this this poetic worshipesque kind of moment where he's so moved by partnership in the gospel that he relates that to the goodness of God. So verse 5, it says, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.

And found in appearance as man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. Therefore, what's it. Therefore, God exalted him, that is Jesus, to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.

That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, every in heaven and in earth and under earth, and every tongue shall acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of our father. Therefore, okay, so what is this therefore. That's starts out in verse 12.

Therefore, it is therefore showing us why we have a life that shines. We have a life that shines because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. A life that shines. A life that truly understands the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus for you and I. Bows in reverence and respect and admiration and glorification to all that God has done, is doing, and has yet to do.

And when you lose your why, when you lose that that reason for why you open your Bible, why you show up to church, why you are diving into a relationship with God, when you lose this picture that Paul is telling you, when you lose this whole idea of of God leaving heaven coming in the form of a baby and coming and dying for each and every one of you so that we could be freed. This is good news, by the way. We can smile about this and get excited. This is the why that we get to carry with us. This is the why that drives us the good and finished work of Jesus.

Let me just illustrate this for a second. I was meeting with two people in our church. You might know them.

Jeremy Watson, who was our setup and tearown lead, and Todd Olsen. And we were talking about this new trailer that we're going to get. And we're talking about all of these different things that we're going to do to to make sure that it's well put together.

Talking about rubber mats and all of these different things, right. And at the end of the conversation, I said to them, I I just want to thank you guys. This is so great for me and and I just want to thank you for all of your help. And Todd looks at me and says, "Thanks. We don't do it for you.

" it and it's true. And then Jeremy followed it up with we do it for your boss. Which is also true. And I'm glad that they do that that they take that kind of attitude. See, I did spin it in a positive way.

Okay guys, I'm glad that they take that attitude because that is the attitude that we should all be taking because too often we can fall into following Jesus for something or for someone for the approval of some kind of parent, grandparent, spiritual mentor, somebody that has been in our life. Or maybe we fall in it for some of the wrong reasons. Like maybe God answered some prayers for a little while, but then all of a sudden it feels like he falls silent and so we just kind of drop off with the relationship and we've lost the why.

We've lost why we are why we need to shine in such a dark world. And so this is what this is there for. Back to that.

This is there to remind us that there is a finished work in Jesus on the cross and it counted for you. It counted for each and every one of us. But in our sinful nature, what can happen is we can easily walk towards that why found in Jesus and be led astray. And so let's continue reading. I'll get more than one word.

Therefore, verse 12. Therefore, my dear friends, as many of you have always obeyed, not so much in my presence, but much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and act in order to fulfill his good purpose. And so Paul says, since you have this amazing faith and since you have this amazing savior that I'm talking about here, then your life should shine a little bit brighter.

Okay, let's keep using this dark and light contrast for a little while. We live in a dark world, right. And and it's hard to admit, but sometimes when you look out there and you look in certain places, it looks like it's getting darker. And what Paul is trying to say here is, let's be different. Let's be set apart.

Let's be a light that shines a little bit brighter. So, I want to show you what I mean. Meeting in like a elementary school gym, we're constantly trying to work on lighting. And I got these like light bars that we have up here each week.

, and what's cool is on my phone, I can control the brightness or the dimness of these lights. So, I can bring these lights all the way down to basically ignore that one. He's a He's He never works.

, or maybe that's like the saint of the lights. I don't know. But I want you to pretend that this represents your life when you give your life to Jesus. That you have a light in you that shines in the dark places.

And so every place that you go, you carry the cross. You carry Jesus into that place. Now what Paul is saying is be careful not to live a life that dims into the darkness but instead continues to grow in brightness. You see what I did there. And so that's what Paul is talking about.

But how do you do that. How do you have a life that shines brighter. Paul gives us three describing words here to show us what it means to have a brighter life.

He says, "First have obedience. And this seems like a harsh word because in us there's kind of like this rebellion that doesn't want to obey. We think of obedience kind of as as a negative thing.

But throughout scripture, we see so many instances of God saying obedience to his commandments actually sets you free. And we see even in first John that John says this is love to keep God's commandments and his commandments are not what burdensome. They shouldn't be burdensome for you to stay obedient to Jesus.

Think about it like this. You obey the rules of the road for the most part, right. And you wouldn't like start driving your car on the opposite side of the road into oncoming traffic.

Because that puts your safety at risk. That puts other people's safety at risk. So, in order to have your license, to get your license, to keep your license, you need to be obedient to the rules of the road, right. And so Paul is saying, be obedient to the things that God has given you. And they're not burdensome commands.

They're not burdensome things. And then when you have those things, continue to work them out to get brighter, to work out your faith. We call this word, this is a a churchy word, we call this word sanctification. And sanctification really is just another word for saying holy or set apart.

And so what it means is like by like bringing a light into a dark place that is set apart. It is different. It is there is something different about you. And then Paul says and then follow God's work in you.

That means that we can get this obedience part wrong. That means we can get this work working out our faith wrong and still be forgiven and still be led by God. And so for us, we lean into that leading from God. And that's what Paul is trying to trying to explain here that you're not doing this. You're not trying to get brighter in a dark world alone.

You have the spirit of God within you. Now, when you look at these kind of things, go back to that list for a second. When you look at those kind of things, the the obedience, working out your faith, following God's work in you, when you look at those, the world kind of has a contrary message, doesn't it.

It it's almost like darkness and light, right. While God's word calls us to be obedient to God, the world says just make your own rules. Just make it up.

When God's word says to work out your faith, to continue to be set apart, the world says you're too busy to do that. You're too busy to open up the word. You're too busy to to connect with other people.

You're too busy to spend time in God's presence. While God's word says to follow God's work in you, the world says follow your feelings. Some false teachers will even say that's the Holy Spirit. But it's not because we find the Holy Spirit. We find God's voice through God's word and God's truth.

And so we look to that. And this world can so easily become this almost discouraging place. And when we let our lights dim and become part of the darkness, it usually happens just by a very small simple thing first.

And Paul speaks to it. He speaks to it here in verse 14. Look at verse 14.

He says, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing. " I'm just going to look at the parents with teenagers. Do everything without grumbling or arguing. That says everything, by the way.

Oh, I This is one for your kids, man. But it's also one for you, right. Do everything without grumbling and arguing. So that 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 as you hold firmly to the word of life. So here is the big theme verse. Paul has been comparing a life in Christ to a life that shines in the dark.

And so a life that shines really does shine in the dark. Not only does it get brighter, but it seeks out the dark places and tries to be a light in those places. You see, most of the time what happens is using this same light analogy is we'll come to church on Sundays and we'll let our light shine so everybody can see our faith, right.

But then what happens on Monday. What happens on Tuesday. What happens on Friday night. We so easily can become part of the darkness that's around us. And Paul says the way that it starts to happen is by grumbling and arguing.

Now, Christians, we're we're we're too good for this, right. We don't grumble and argue. We don't do that, right. We just call it complaining and ranting. It's the same thing.

It is the same thing. And Paul says that man, all you have to do to be set apart, all you have to do to be a little bit different, ready for the whole room to be convicted. I'm going to be convicted, too.

All you have to do is stop grumbling and arguing. That's all you have to do. People think that we need to have some kind of PhD in theology.

I need to be able to answer somebody on like did Noah like really bring every single species on the ark to in order to share my faith. No, you don't. You just need to not grumble and argue a little bit. And so what that means, let me show you practically what that means. Ready for the whole room to get convicted.

I am just by reading these. The next time that you and your spouse start an argument, look at them and instead of engaging in that argument, say, "I hear you. Let's work this out before it goes any further.

" The next time your co-workers, because everybody has this co-orker, right. Every time the co-worker starts to complain about the boss, about the higherups, about the company, what if you took a different avenue, and just said, "Yeah, isn't it great though that we have a place to work, a place that we get to do the things that we do, and that they pay us to do it. " Isn't that awesome.

It's set apart. Feel convicted yet. Let's do one more. , the next time the next time you get some bad news, whether it's in your life personally or you watched the news or you saw it on social media, the next time instead of reacting and interacting, instead respond in faith. God's in control.

God's got this. God, I I know who holds the world and so I know that things are going to be okay. Imagine a world of Christians that responded like that in a warped and crooked generation as Paul says. And you see when we are able to do this, this is when families change. This is when hearts are moved.

This is when people find and follow Jesus is when that light and darkness meet and we become that light. And let me tell you that Paul is not coming up with this idea for himself. Okay, he's actually just repeating some teachings from Jesus in Matthew chapter 5.

Okay, it's on the sermon on the mount. Jesus says this. He says, "You are.

" All right, every introvert loves when I do this. Look at your neighbor and say, "You are okay. This is like you are you are I'll do it loud. You are each person in here. You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. Okay, this makes sense to us.

You put the light on the ceiling, not on the floor. That's what Jesus is saying. And then he says in verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.

You see, please hear me when I say this. If you have a relationship with Jesus, people should see that there is something different about you. That you are carrying something, some kind of hope that this world so desperately needs. And if you're in here and and you don't know that hope yet, you don't know that light yet, I was right there, too, okay, in in my faith journey. And I'm here to tell you that Jesus wants to meet with you today.

And he wants to make your life brighter in this way. And is shining in a dark world difficult. Yeah, it's really easy just to dim ourselves into the world and just to go with the ways of the world, whether it be the American dream, whether it be grumbling and complaining, whatever it is.

And so, where's the joy in it. I love how Paul ends this. Look at verse 16.

He says, "Hold to the word of life. " And then he says, "And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not labor in vain. But even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. " Now, I want you to remember as we're reading this passage, this is Paul. He's writing from prison. He doesn't know if he's going to live or die in this moment.

And he says this phrase, "Rejoice. " He says, "I'm glad. I'm rejoicing. And you should rejoice with me. " And I think that this is just what we're going to see all throughout this book of of Philippians.

We're going to see Paul finding joy in all of these different circumstances. Now, maybe you're sitting here and you're thinking, "Joy really isn't for me. " Like, it's not part of my personality.

Like, maybe you're you know, cautiously pessimistic or whatever it is. And like joy is just not something that is just natural to you or naturally happening from you, right. And here's the good news is that Paul would have been in the same boat because Paul is imprisoned.

He's always wrongly mistreated. He has circumstances beyond his control. Yet, he's saying right here, "I'm glad. I'm full of joy.

Rejoice with me. " And how is he able to do that. Because joy comes from our savior, not our situation.

And so for each and every one of us, that should show us something. That should bring us all the way back to this first point of this message that if we are diving into a life that is really glorifying and and admiring the good work of Jesus finished on the cross. If we are working out that salvation, if we are being set apart, if we are shining brighter, then that means that joy it starts to leak out of us in a way that everybody starts to notice because it is based on our savior, not our situation. And so Paul is so thankful for Jesus. He's so thankful for what Jesus has done, is doing, and has yet to do.

And he's so excited about it and excited about other people being a light that he says this phrase, even though I'm being poured out like a drink offering. Now, let me tell you what that means. A drink offering was choice wine. It was like the best of wine that was poured out alongside of the sacrifice.

And Paul said, "Even though my life is being poured out in sacrifice, even though my life is being poured out like a drink offering, he is happy to do it because Jesus did it for him. " You see, he's not getting this picture from himself. He's getting this picture from Jesus's finished work on the cross.

He's getting this picture of Jesus dying a a sinner's criminal's death on a cross being bled out. And when you think about this this idea of this drink offering, even Jesus kind of taught us about this when Jesus taught us about communion. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he had all of his disciples together and he he took the bread and he said, "This is my body that's broken for you. Then he took the cup and he said, "This cup is is a representation of the new covenant of my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

" And so each time we take communion together, we remember that the light the the life that we have was because of Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. And that's what Paul is saying here. He's saying, I am pouring all of this out for you.

I'm pouring out this life for you. And so when I talked about those stars in the beginning, right. Talked about earning God's love and it talked about the difference between shining as a star and earning God's love.

This is the difference here. The difference is that no matter where you've been, what you've done, what you're doing, where wherever you're at, Jesus died for you. And he wants a relationship with you.

He wants you to look towards him for his why. He wants you to shine in the midst of this dark world. And so, here's how we're going to respond.

I'm going to invite the worship team up. And I just want to just invite you to just bow your heads, close your eyes for a second. It's not me meant to be anything weird. It's just like a time where you can just shut off some noise.

There's very little quiet that we get in this world. And so maybe it's just a time to reflect. And I think out of this message, there are two types of actions that we can take. First of all, if you are a follower of Jesus, I want you to come to this table, this table of communion, and remember Jesus's sacrifice. Remember that his blood, his body was given for you so that you could be a light in the dark places.

Jesus made that sacrifice for you. So going back to the scripture from the very beginning, remember that God was obedient to that death on the cross that he humbly took that place and that we give him the name above every name. He is so worthy of praise and honor and glory.

And if you're here and you're still not sure, you don't need to come up and take communion. But here's my invitation to you. Allow Jesus to meet you in this moment. Even if even if you have a relationship with Jesus, allow Jesus to speak to you.

Because maybe some of you have been trying to earn God's love like a gold star. Maybe some of you have darkness all around you. But whatever it is, don't let today pass by without trying Jesus, without looking towards his finished work on the cross. And so here's what's going to happen.

I'm going to pray and then you're invited forward to the table to come and get communion. We have gluten-free. We have regular.

You can bring it back to your seats and take it as you feel led and just kind of take some time to ask Jesus, "How can I be a light. How can I look towards you as the light of life. " Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for your presence in this place. God, we thank you so much that we can look to you without grumbling and arguing and we can look to you as the truth, the way and the life. And that joy comes not from our savior or not from our situation, but from you God, our savior. And so we praise you, we worship you, we thank you for your sacrifice in Jesus name.