Shine Bright!.

If these verses caught you, I want to read them again from Philippians:

Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life then, on the day of Christ's return. I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain, and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice, even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God and I want all of you to share that joy. Yes you should rejoice and I will share your joy.

Philippians 2:14-18

These verses have been the most quoted in households. There was even a song, an upbeat one. Do everything without complaining. As I was thinking about this message all week, I realized this could be a whole sing along. If there was a title for this message, it would be shine bright. And you think of diamonds. So all week I've had different songs in my head, but now you can remember it. The title of this message is shine bright. We're going to talk today about light.

The power of light in darkness

Light is something that we obviously need in our lives. When the light leaves, the world literally shuts down. Now in the world that we live today, it's hard to put it in perspective because even in a city like Madison, there's always some sort of light everywhere you look. Street lights, Capitol lights, city lights. We see it constantly. But these are all artificial lights. But there came a point in time when the lights went off, when the sun went down, and there was no more light. The world just shut down.

But we know we need light to see in our life, that we need light to know where to go. We need light to live. Growing up outside of Chicago, to find which direction we were in, my mom would always point to the orange sky. When the city lit up, the sky would turn orange. I have a couple photos. The smaller one is the orange sky. I can always picture my mom saying, we know where the city is when we look at the orange sky because of all the lights lighting it up.

But what I think is so powerful when you look at a city at night, and if you've ever flown above a city at night and you see all the lights, you see that if it was just one building and one light, it would be okay. It would still be something. You probably wouldn't be able to see it from very far away. But when you see all the lights shining together on all those buildings, it lights up the entire sky. When we read these scriptures and it talks about us shining bright, about us being the light, I want us to think and be reminded that yes, it's powerful for us on our own to be a light for Jesus. But it's even more powerful for all of us to come together and shine bright in a way that lights up a sky.

Later in life, whenever I would be coming home from school in Minnesota, and I would know I was getting close to Chicago, I was getting close to home, when I would start to see the orange sky and the light, I knew that home was coming. It was part of the thing that would guide me and bring me home. Light directs us, and light leads us home to our Father. We were created as children of light to shine bright into the darkness.

So our message today is this: you're a child of God who was created to shine bright in the darkness. And now what do we do with that? Stay in the light.

Understanding the scriptures verse by verse

We're going to go through really quick verse by verse because I want to break some of this down. Starting in verse 12, it says, Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I'm away, it's even more important. Work hard to show the results for your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

Now this is what stood out to me in this verse. He's saying friends. He's talking plural. We need all of you to shine your lights. We need all of you to get on board with this. That's what is going to be powerful: when all of you start to shine and work together.

In verse 13, it says, For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Now, these are some of the verses in scripture that you may hear in different forms. We talk about this a lot. God gives you the desires of your heart. And what I think can be confusing about this verse and verses like this is sometimes we think that means whatever I want in life, God's just going to give me. When I follow Jesus, he's just going to give me what I want. Like, I want this job, he's going to give me that job. Right?

But what it really means is that as we start to follow Jesus, as we enter into the process of becoming like him, that he is going to give us desires. That he is going to start to place godly desires in our lives. You're going to notice that the things you craved before, you're not going to crave anymore. That the things that you desire before, you're not going to desire anymore. Instead you're going to desire the things of Jesus. You're going to crave the way of Jesus. And it's powerful for us to understand that God gives us desires and the power to do what pleases him. Not whatever we desire, but he gives us desires and the power to please him.

If you're in a place today where you're finding yourself craving things you know are not of God, I challenge you to pray and say, God, come change my desires. Come shift my desires. God, give me desires and give me the power to please you. That's what he wants to do for us.

In verse 14, it says, Do everything without complaining and arguing. This is a part of us shining bright together, learning to not complain, learning to not argue with one another. This is the type of thing when people are looking and saying, how do I follow the way of Jesus? And we want to be a community where they look at the way we live together and they see Jesus in it.

In verse 15, it says, So that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. When I read this, the word crooked stood out to me. Crooked means the bending of like a spine, essentially that it cannot bear the weight and support itself so it becomes crooked. I thought that was profound when it comes to sometimes our lives. Without even realizing it, we can start to become crooked and perverse, which means twisted, when we try to bear the weight of things we were not created to bear on our own. When we try to do things we don't really have the system to support on our own instead of letting Jesus bear that weight, instead of letting Jesus support us.

It's saying to live clean and innocent lives so that no one can criticize you. But here's what I want to point out. Our responsibility is to live in that way. However, it doesn't result in people not criticizing you. Sometimes we think, well, if I live perfectly, if I do all these things right, then nobody's ever going to have anything bad to say about me. And if they do, then something must be wrong. That's not what the verse is saying.

It's saying live in a way that is holy, that is pure, that is upright. Live innocent lives. Shine your light bright in this world. However, in a way that no one would criticize you. But at times people still might criticize you for the way that you live. But constantly remember that you are a child of God, created from the creator of life and light himself, and you were created to shine in this world of darkness.

Verse 16 says, Hold firmly to the word of life then. On the day of Christ's return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. I will be proud that my work was not useless. When you hold fast in this race, that is life following Jesus, it will not be in vain. It'll be worth it in the end.

But sometimes we put all the work into the wrong places and we don't follow the instructions and that's when we get ourselves in trouble. We realize I just worked hard and now I'm exhausted, but I didn't follow the instructions and I didn't pay attention and so it was for nothing.

My example was the first time I took my ACT. On the test you have little bubbles you're supposed to fill in. I didn't pay attention to the instructions. For some reason, I started on the wrong page and I was halfway through my ACT, nervous as all get out, and I realized I didn't pay attention. I did all the work and all the problems and all the things, but I filled in the bubbles incorrectly. The second half was me panicking, like, what do I do? Do I try to transfer them all over perfectly? Do I redo the work? What do I do? Well, I ended up having to take the ACT again because it didn't go so well.

Those moments when we don't slow down to pay attention and we just start running and we're putting in the work, we realize that we weren't doing the right thing to begin with. We didn't pay attention to the instructions. Then it becomes something we did in vain.

Finally, verse 17 says, But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. These are verses you're like, okay, Paul, we're listening. We're listening. Even if I lose my life, I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to pour it out like a liquid offering to God. Then he says, I want you to share in this.

Like sharing what? Like losing our lives? Sharing and pouring ourselves out? That's what he's saying. He's making it sound like it's a good thing. Paul was ready to lose his life. He was ready to pour it all out. He thought of it as something so beautiful, so special, that he wanted everyone to experience it. That tells me something about Paul. It tells me he knew Jesus in a way that he thought it was worth it. He knew Jesus in a way that he was willing to give everything so other people could know Jesus that way.

When we start to pour ourselves out for God, when we go above and beyond and sacrifice for him and lose ourselves for the sake of the gospel and people knowing him, we're making room for him to come and fill us and be our sustainer and provider. When we empty ourselves of ourselves, we're making room for him to come.

In verse 18, he says it again, Yes, you should rejoice and I will share in your joy. He's saying you're going to rejoice and I'm going to rejoice with you. We're going to keep rejoicing.

Shining bright in the darkness

From all of this, we see that these are instructions for us to be children of the light. So you're a child of God who is created to shine bright in the darkness. Now what does that look like for us to shine bright in the darkness?

I'm going to illustrate this. I'm going to turn my flashlight on. I put it on. For many of us, this is what we do. We step into the light with Jesus and then we say, okay, I'm going to shine bright. I'm going to go and I'm going to give everything for you. But we stay in a room like this where it's lit. We stay in places where it's lit. Now this light isn't really shining bright in the darkness. It's just shining light in the light.

But if you turn off the lights, now the flashlight is shining in the darkness. It's going to now make way. It's now shining in the darkness. Okay, now we can see it very well, but the flashlight, now that it's dark, it's going to now make way. It's going to now be shining in the darkness.

The other thing we sometimes do is we say, okay, I'm in a dark setting. I'm going to go. I'm going to live for Jesus. I'm going to share the good news. I'm going to do all these things. And we walk up to people and we shine the light right in their face. Is that fun? Do you want more of that?

Instead, what we should be doing is taking people and shining the light and making way for them to step in and walk with us. We should be shining a path for them, not just showing up right in their face saying Jesus loves you. Yes, he does. But that's not something people want more of. That's not something people are attracted to. That's not really what the Bible tells us to do when it says to shine bright into the darkness.

There are some of us here where maybe as we're going through this message, you're thinking to yourself, okay, maybe I know how to shine, but I'm not doing it in the right place. For some of us, it might be, okay, I'm shining, but maybe I'm doing it in the wrong way. The way we live our lives can help guide people out of darkness. The way we live can help people be aware of what's happening.

In Daniel chapter 12, it says, Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of heavens. It's a wise thing for us to do, to want to shine our lights. But it is to lead them out of darkness. It's supposed to help people be drawn home to the Father. When we show up in situations and we're just right in people's face, it's not something that's attractive. But if instead we did what Jesus did and walked alongside them and every step of the way we shined that light and showed them where the next step was, and the next step was, and the next step was, that's how we're going to draw people home into relationship.

How to shine your light

So how do we shine our light? How do we live as children of the light? We have to stay in the light. Three things we're going to talk about: stay in the word, follow the way, and watch what you watch.

First, stay in the word. Psalm 119:105 says, Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. The word shows us where to go. When we stay in scripture, it helps tell us where to go. It tells us what to do. It gives us those standards. It shows us God's desire for our life to live.

The next thing is to follow the way of Jesus. When Jesus spoke to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus came to be the light, to be the way. If you feel lost, if you feel confused, look to scripture, to the life of Jesus. He will show you how to live. He will show you what it looks like to live in the light and be a light to other people.

And the third thing is to pay careful attention to what you watch. Luke 11:34-35 says, Your eye is a lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it then that the light within you is not darkness. It's with our eyes that we see. Our eyes then tell our feet where to go. It's safe to walk here. We need our eyes to live. When your eyes are healthy and looking in a healthy direction, your whole body will go in that direction and be healthy. What you watch matters. What you look at matters. Where you fix your gaze and your attention matters.

Psalm 18:28 says, You, Lord, keep my lamp burning. My God turns my darkness into light. You, Lord, keep my lamp burning and turn darkness into light.

To shine bright into the darkness, we need to stay in the light. We need to stay in the word. We have to continue to look at the way of Jesus, the light of the world. Because the reality is that all around us, there are people walking out without hope, and we have that hope to give them. There are people feeling broken, and we have that restoration to give them. People feeling sick and weary, and we have the healing to give them.

And so we can either choose to just shine our light in the light, which yes, we need to stay in the light with other people. We can choose to just stay put there. Or we can choose to step out in the darkness and not start blinding people, but instead show them, here's the next step. This is what it looks like to walk in the way of the light. Show them moment by moment by the way we live, by the way we love them, by the way we fight to not argue or complain. By the way we continue to do things in the community with each other as friends. By the way we continue to live pure and holy lives.

These scriptures are giving us instructions for how we can go into our workplaces, our classrooms, our neighborhoods and live as people of the light. We can light a path for them to come home. When they start to see the light, they are drawn closer to our Father.

But again in verse 16, where it says to hold firm to the word of life, he's warning us in a way, like there's going to be times where you're going to want to let go. There's going to be times where you want to walk away, but continue to hold firm to that. If you do that, it's not going to be in vain.

In the scripture, he says it's not going to be in vain if you do all these things. Then he goes, I'm going to rejoice as I lose my life. I'm going to rejoice as I pour my life out. And you're going to do it too. And I can't wait for you to share in this. And we hear those and think, oh, okay, yeah, I guess I'm going to have to hold firm because maybe you don't always feel like you want to pour your life out. Maybe you don't always feel like you want to sacrifice.

But think about those daily things that people get to watch you do. Think about those daily choices people get to watch you make. The way they get to observe your speech and your life. Every moment is a moment for you to be light in the darkness, to shine bright and make a way for people to come back into relationship with their heavenly father.

It truly can be as simple as staying steady and holding fast to your convictions, not complaining, arguing, gossiping, living set apart, rejoicing. Because that's the thing. When a light does shine in the darkness, it's seen. It's visible. People see it. They notice it.

The things I want us to process today are two questions. Number one: How do I need to stay in the light? Are there areas where you think, man, I just need to be in my word more? Do I need to find a friend and say, hey, can we read through scripture together? Maybe it's reading through Philippians and doing a few verses a day as we walk through this.

Are there ways you're saying, okay, I need to be in the word? Is it going back and saying, yeah, of course I know Jesus, but I really need to start studying more the way that he lived his life, how he spent his time, who he spent his time with? Do I need to follow the way of Jesus? Is it paying attention to that input, paying attention to where your eyes are fixed, where your gaze is set? If the eye is that important to us, if the eye is the lamp to our body, and if your eyes are healthy, your whole body is healthy, are there ways we have to pay attention to the things we're looking at and where we're setting our gaze?

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. God, I just pray for anyone here today that maybe they themselves have felt like they are in a dark spot. Lord, even right now, would you begin to speak to them? Would you highlight words or things that were spoken to show them that you love them, that you care about them? That you sent Jesus to die on the cross to be the light of the world, to pay the price for their sins so that they could be drawn back into relationship with their heavenly father?

God, would you remind them that they were created in your image and that you have purpose for them to continue to shine and help others receive that same relationship? And God, I pray for those of us here today that maybe we're recognizing that there's ways we've been shining but there's more places that you want us to go out and be that bright light. Would you even now in only a way that you can put faces or names in our mind of people we need to go to and be present with and shine a light to?

God, would you begin to put situations or places on our hearts or minds? If there are questions we have of what it looks like, God, would you come and answer those? Would you speak to us in these moments? Lord, we thank you that not only did you create us in your image, that you gave us purpose and that you empower us to go and carry out your mission to be the light, to go and shine bright and lead people into relationship with you. And so we ask just for these next few moments when you come, when you meet us here, would you speak to us?

Would you do what only you can do, God? God, we thank you today that you are the way maker, that you are the one that went first, that went before us, that you made a way for us to follow, to step in, to see that example. We thank you for coming and being that light and giving us that way. And Lord, I just pray for us as we go throughout our weeks, would you continue to help us to find ways to not only stay in your light, but to be that light and bring that light into dark situations, into hopeless situations, into broken situations, knowing that there is power, Jesus, in the light that you bring.

And so God, we thank you for empowering us to join you on this mission of helping people find hope in you. We ask all this in your name. Amen.