LET HIS LIGHT SHINE

Philippians 2:14-16 Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain.

In Part A we looked at the first part of this verse and talked about what comes out of our mouth. At some point we all have complained and even participated in disputing, yet there is a simple remedy: "Before we speak filter our words through the Holy Spirit and ask ourselves these questions:

1. Does it edify?

2. Does it encourage?

3. Does it inspire?

4. Does it lead others to Christ?

Number 4 is the focus of today's session. The verse above says "among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life". Too often we find Christians, pastors, and ministries shining a spotlight on themselves and what they are doing rather than letting the light of Christ shine in them for others to see Jesus not them. We are not the source of the light nor can we produce the true light without the Holy Spirit within us. Yet, the coming Light that would come and be reflected through all of God's people was prophesied by Isaiah.

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine ; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.

Where the light of Christ is the darkness of the world must flee. Let us look in the book of John

John 1:4-5 in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:7-9 This man (John the Baptist) came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

Let us take a moment to understand that the world and its value system is based on darkness. The ruler of this darkness is called by many names, Jesus at one point called him "the ruler of this world" in John 14:30, yet we call this ruler Satan. Once we also walked in this darkness under the influence of the world and its ruler, but then came that day when we turned from that darkness in repentance and turned to the Light in faith, from 1 Peter 2:9. Now each day we go out into the world, a world filled with darkness among people who walk in this darkness; now here is the question for each of us to ask ourselves: "When the people walking in darkness meet us do they see the Light of Christ reflecting through us, or do we look just like them?" Jesus said that if we, His church, would lift Him up He would draw all men to Himself. It is His light shining through His people that draws. Jesus gave this instruction for us:

Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

When the word speaks of us being the light of the world it is speaking of our behavior as seen by others around us. My pastor recently preached a message about the light put under the basket,"when the enemy (Satan) brings oppression over our minds it is as if a basket has been placed over our light."  Our enemy desires to steal our joy, destroy our faith and kill the light within us; because Satan wants the people of this world to stay in his darkness and keep the light of Christ from shining through us and from drawing the lost to Jesus.

 We must hold fast the word of life,  persevering, remaining steadfast, not allowing the world, our flesh, or the devil hinder our walk in the light. There are times we must ask the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts and reveal our daily walk to show areas that His light in us has become dim by shining the spotlight on ourselves, or being oppressed that our light is been his under a basket, ask the Lord does my behavior that others see reflect You, do others see me different from the rest of the world? Ask Lord show me what do others see when they watch me at work, at home, shopping, playing and yes at church? Part of our transformation is seeing the truth in ourselves and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us. This transformation will bear His fruit and by His fruit in us we will lead others to Christ.

WHAT AM I SAYING !!

This will be a part A and part B session.

Philippians 2:14-16 Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain.

"Do all things within complaining and disputing, or we could say murmuring and arguing". How often do we find ourselves doing exactly this. Even at times towards God. Especially when something does not go the way we expected it to go our way or we think we have been treated unfairly. But how does God view our murmuring, complain, and arguing?

Going back to Moses; it was time for the children of Israel to enter the promised land, so they sent out 12 spies to check out the land, 10 came back in fear of the people of the land and sowed discord among the people, only Caleb and Joshua came back saying with God we can do this. But listen to the people:

Deuteronomy 1:26-27 Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you complained in your tents and said, because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the land of the Amorites, to destroy us.

Now listen to God's response:

Deuteronomy 1:34-35 And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath saying, Surely not one of these men (except Caleb and Joshua) of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, 

Does our complaining and disobedience please God?

Here in the book of Jude verse 16 it talks about the apostates who in their ungodliness have turned from the church and the truth of God's word:

Jude 1:16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

When we find ourselves continually complaining in church; "It's too cold, it's too hot, the music is too loud, they sing to long, I like the old hymn books, will they ever stop praying, enough preaching I'm hungry". Hmmm is that worship God hears? Or at work; "the boss never does their share, so and so is always on her phone, are they going on break again, I'm tired of having all the work dumped on me". Is God pleased when He hears our words about others? Do people, including unbeliever's, enjoy our company or does our words cause them to look forward to our leaving? These are all questions we must ask ourselves, because just as the early church lived in a crooked and perverse generation, so do we. People are seeing and listening to us, other Christians and those of unbelief, what do we sound like to them? Are we giving them reason to find fault with us? The scripture in Philippians says: "that we should become blameless, harmless, without fault." So this is who we are to be and the opposite is one who complains and disputes.

1 Peter 3:10 For "He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit."

Psalm 39:1 I said "I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will refrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me."

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 & 18 we are told to rejoice always and in everything be thankful. When we find ourselves complaining and stirring up discord among the brethren we are doing the work of our enemy, pawns in his hands. Before we can go to Part B we must understand that if we are to be the light we must guard the words of our lips. In fact Isaiah said how could he speak the words of God when he was a man of unclean lips. As a Christian we should want others to see Jesus in us and not allow the words we speak dim the light of Christ in us.

PRESSING FORWARD PART B

Ecclesiastes 7:10 Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

The second point we want to look at is "fear of God". Now I can with certainty tell you there is a healthy fear of God, which will draw you to Him and there is an unhealthy fear of God which will cause you to run from Him.

A healthy fear sees the Awesomeness of God, sees His power, His grace, His mercy, His love and seeing ourselves compared to Him we realize how much we fall short and how much we need Him, for we are nothing without Him. This fear will produce a reverence for God and a love an adoration for who He is, it will produce a desire to learn more of Him, to seek His presence, a desire to please Him and move us to worship.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever. 

But what about an unhealthy fear? This of God foes not see His grace, His mercy or His love; it can only see He is a holy and just God who will bring judgment on the wicked. They cannot see hope for themselves because tormenting fear has paralyzed them from seeing God as He truly is. Jesus spoke a parable about talents read for yourselves Matthew 25:14-30 I am going to write only two verses. In the parable a man traveled to a far country and as he left he gave talents to his servants. Let stop here a moment this is not about money it is about each of us are born with God given talents and abilities,  these are not spiritual gifts but what He has given us to use to bring Him glory and to help us to fulfill the purpose He has for us. In the parable each servant used and multiplied their talents except one servant. This servant was given one talent and buried it away and did not use it. Here is his reason for burying his talent.

Matthew 25:24-25 Then he who had received the one talent came and said, "Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours."

Do you see the unhealthy fear? Another example is from my own story. When I was 9 years old my father died. Not understanding death, God, or heaven, I became angry and fearful, refusing to go back to church and saying "I hate God, because He killed my daddy and I was afraid He was going to kill me." And so this not understanding and no one explaining kept me terrified of God and running from Him until I was 27 years old. I am thankful that though I have run from God more than once in my life I now run to Him.

One more word Trembling, when I looked up the meaning it said to shake with fear or shake with excitement. 

There is a balance in everything, yes we through Jesus Christ, have the confidence to come boldly before His throne of grace, we have been called friends of God not based on our performance but based on what Jesus did for us, we have access through prayer to talk to God and listen to His still small voice speaking with us, we can talk to Him about everything and we can sob with Him over our circumstances but in all of this we must never forget He is a sovereign God, all knowing, all powerful, ever present God. To take our relationship so casually would be very foolish. A casual relationship says I can go my own way and visit as it pleases me. But we are in an intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe, a God who desires to be in every aspect of our lives, not just on Sunday perhaps Wednesday or when trouble comes. He is with us through the good and the bad times, He is God and He never changes. Think about the awesomeness of God and the power He holds, then remember He loves you, He holds onto you and He will not leave you nor forsake you. What a God we serve.

Planning to finish up chapter 2 next week. Hope you enjoy the new blog format it is simple and will be easy to use.

PRESSING FORWARD

Today we look in chapter 2 picking up in verse 12:

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but how 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 do His good pleasure.

Lets really look at these two verses and see what God is saying to us. First of all what it is not saying, 

1. It is not saying salvation is by works

2. Nor are we to be afraid of God.

I like how Paul words the first part that they always obeyed and not just when he was around. What did they obey?

According to Acts 2:42 they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. True and sound doctrine, teaches that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, lived a sinless life, went to the cross to satisfy the wrath of God for sin and reconcile man with God, that on the third day He rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for His bride, teaches He is the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but by Him, and just as He left He is coming again. This is doctrinal truth of what the church is founded on, that Jesus Christ is both the head of the church and the Chief Cornerstone. From this we are to have sound teaching that keeps us aligned with who Jesus is, who God the Father is and who the Holy Spirit is.

I like how Paul says they obeyed even in his absence. Some people are great people pleasers, they have an appearance of worship and are right there with the Amen yet it is only when certain pastors and teachers are around. In reality they are not genuine and act one way in church service and another way when they leave. As followers of Christ we are to wholly follow Christ everywhere we go and with whoever we are around. We can not wear Jesus at church and put Him in the closet when we go to work, go for recreation, go shopping or go to vote., Jesus Christ should be with us always in all things, we should be allowing the Holy Spirit within us to guide us in our words and our actions.

Work out our own salvation ; if it is not salvation by works then what is it? Lets look at a few more verses in Philippians to help us see this.

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching toward those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

PRESS: to advance forward vigorously, to apply pressure.

Paul begins to say that though he ( and we) has not reached the place he pressing forward for, he continues moving forward forgetting the past and reaching forward to those things that are ahead. This growing with Christ, called sanctification, it not allowing our past dictate our present nor allow us not to move forward to what Jesus has for us. Allowing ourselves to regret the past, or hold on to what use to be will hinder our walk with Jesus. This walk is working out our own salvation