slide by Judy Lee

This is a sermon I preached at J-Gen in blog form. I thought it might be helpful to some, especially myself! If you don’t want to read the whole thing, just check out the video at the end.

14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life — in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. [Philippians 2:14-16]

I love this imagery the Bible uses to describe what Christians ought to be like–shining stars. Stars shine at night, which is fitting because there is certainly a lot of darkness in our world today.

Some say we must shine by engaging the world—be relevant. After all, Jesus Christ was very relevant, indiscriminately reaching out to the riffraff of society. The danger, of course, is slipping into compromise.

Some look at it from a different angle. With all the moral and spiritual chaos around us, this view says one can shine the brightest by detaching oneself from the world and seeking holiness. It’s a modern day monastic model. Churches like this throw out a truth grenade once in a while but overall lack the sensitivity and authenticity needed for true effectiveness.

Both camps have a valid point, but combining them would produce a synergetic shining effect to the world around us. We should be both distinctly different (holy) yet lovingly relevant (love) with the world. The result is the Light of Jesus shining to the whole world.

DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT | HOLY

14 Do everything without complaining or arguing

Pulling no punches, Paul goes straight for the jugular when he tells the Philippian church not to “argue” or “complain”. Attitude is everything! Of the many things the aged apostle could’ve addressed, he directs his punch at seemingly domestic issues. Why not talk about something worthwhile, like dying for Jesus? Because if one can’t live for Jesus with a right attitude, he can’t die for him with one either.

Paul understood that a bad attitude is like AIDS of the heart. Don’t argue (an inward argument with God because we want to get our own way) and don’t complain (an outward expression of the internal argument we have with God). Why? Because a complaint filled heart has no room for Jesus.

15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy 32 when he says ”a crooked and perverse generation.” It’s a reference to the Israelites who made complaining and grumbling their full time occupation. On the heels of the greatest redemption to date, with the Red Sea splitting and all, the Israelites were masters at complaining. No meat, no water, etc. They were so focused on what they didn’t have, that they didn’t see what they did have – a great God who rescued them in a great way. The Egyptians couldn’t keep them enslaved, the Anakites couldn’t demolish them, but grumbling and complaining killed the nation of Israel.

At the core of complaining and arguing are these two basic sentiments: I’m not getting what I need and I’m not getting what I deserve. This kind of whiny attitude reduces God to an impotent deity who does not know what we need nor has the power to help us. Furthermore, we’ve bought into this American dream that says life is supposed to be good and there is something wrong when things don’t go our way. We need to redefine our need and deserve.

Need. We confuse our need with our want. What we want is comfort, ease, material success, etc. But Jesus knows our greatest need is HIM.

Deserve. No matter what we think we deserve or feel entitled to, the Bible says the only thing we deserve is hell. But, Jesus died for us and gave us heaven!

Be distinctly different! Where it’s natural to complain, shine by giving thanks! The child of God is to be radically different from the world in our outlook! If we grumble and complain, we not only lose our shine but become part of the darkness.

ENGAGINGLY RELEVANT | LOVE

I like the way the ESV states 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” Note the words “in the midst” and “among”. There is an undeniable fact – stars shine at night. There has to be loving and wise engagement with the world.

But what is this world we are to engage? What is its nature? Look again at v. 15, a “crooked and depraved generation”. “Crooked” denotes a warp in every human heart without Christ. Like a water-logged wooden floor, the bulge of the human heart wants what it wants and will not stay even with the rest of the floor. “Depraved” is literally corruption. In this darkness, the question begs us…

What difference can I make?

Remember the light of Jesus. God said, “Let there be light” in Genesis 1 and it was so. Darkness was no more. In this vein, God repeatedly called his people to shine as well. However, the sad reality was that the flickering light of Israel failed repeatedly, often times preferring the darkness around them. In fact, at a point in Israel’s history, it seemed like the light had truly been snuffed out. The idolatries and lack of justice among Gods people made them indistinguishable from the darkness of the surrounding nations. The antithesis between the light and darkness had been erased.  God’s judgement was to simply announce the darkness among them. Its almost as if God gave them over to the darkenss that they seemed to prefer. To make it official, the Assyrians from the north destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel and humiliated the southern kingdom of Judah to captivity.

It was not over though. The everlasting, never-failing Light of the World was preparing the a greater more awesome light to come into the very nation of Assyria and Israel. Isaiah 9:2 says, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” This is THE light that shines in the darkness (John 1:5). The Light of Jesus is not satisfied until it has invaded the whole world. How? Through the stars of Jesus who depend on Christ.

Any star, no matter how little, can still penetrate the darkness!

Here’s a great illustration of someone who shone the light of Jesus by showing both distinct differentness but also loving relevance. It’s from the classic book, Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World by Rebecca Pippert:

I frequently hear that the call to be holy and the call to demonstrate love to sinners are mutually exclusive. (As if love is the antithesis to holiness!) Jesus welcomed and loved sinners; he did not drive them away by too much affectation of righteousness. He showed genuine compassion for people, but he was also direct and uncompromising in denouncing sin. Jesus had compassion, but there was also toughness in his love. He won them without sacrificing the purity of this life.

The paradox of agape love is that we accept our neighbor unconditionally and with open arms and at the same time desire moral purity for their lives. If Jesus is our Lord, our compassion will be shaped by his moral absolutes. Christ both was merciful and made judgments. Some things, he said, were immoral and destructive, but he never ceased to love. Indeed, it was his love that prompted his judgment. The enemy of our age is our desire to be tolerant and open-minded. But the problem with being too open-minded is that our brains fall out.

I know a Christian woman who has cared deeply for a non-Christian woman who has had every variety of sexual experience. One day the non-Christian woman said to the Christian, “It’s funny, my non-Christian friends accept me. They say it doesn’t matter what I do. I’m free. But it’s only with you that I feel loved, that I know I could always come to you. But it’s also only when I’m with you that I feel shame and remorse for what I’m doing.”

That is holiness. It never abandons; it identifies deeply with individual people. But it brings the reality of God’s presence, the purity of his holiness. It is not intimidated by nor does it flee from crisis; neither does it deny the reality of existence.

credit http://www.therebelution.com

If you’ve made it this far, check out this youtube clip of Brittany McComb, avaledictorian at her high school. During her speech at graduation, she started to share about how Christ has made a difference in her life, at which point the school admin cut her off. When that happens, the overwhelming feeling is that the student body likes her. They are cheering for her and booing the school administration. My point is simply this… she had a relationship with her peers. Even though she was uncompromising in her expression of faith, she was also real and relevant. She was the kind of person who rubbed shoulders with others. Sounds like a star to me.