Glow in the Dark - Part A

The world is watching. And the world, as they're watching our lives, we must therefore not blend in to them, but stand out from them.

Be different enough that they appreciate that difference. That it does something for them. It leads them out of darkness. You shine as light.

Live in a dark world full of lost people. But as a believer, you've been called to lead those around you out of darkness. Connect with Skip Heitzig today, as he shows you how you can shine the light and truth of Jesus in a dark culture.

Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you even more in your walk with God. You know those times you hear a sermon that really speaks to you? It's almost as if the pastor knows what you're personally going through, and he teaches a message like you're the only one listening. Well, it's not that the pastor knows you personally. It's that God knows you personally. Here's Skip Heitzig. In nearly 40 years of expository teaching, I still love hearing that one of my messages spoke to someone personally, that it urged them on to know God better or become more like him.

But that's not because of me. That's just the power of the Word of God doing the work of God in the hearts of the people of God. Get to know the God who knows you with Pastor Skip's Picks, a collection of some of Pastor Skip's most memorable teachings, including Is the Rapture Real? and Overcoming an Anxious Mind. This four-DVD collection is our thanks for your gift of $25 or more to help keep this ministry connecting more people to Jesus.

Call now to request your copy of Pastor Skip's Picks, 800-922-1888, or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, as we join Skip Heitzig for today's teaching, we're in Philippians chapter 2. Light is essential to our existence on the earth. Most of us know that. Light is needed for the process of photosynthesis for plants. We need it to navigate through our lives.

There are objects in front of us, and we need to know what to do with them, make decisions to go around them or to engage with them. But also, light is important to our emotional makeup. Experts tell us that every year when it gets to be wintertime, that a significant base of the population gets SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. That is, when the days become shorter, there's less light, it affects their mood.

They become depressed sometimes. Now, for most of human history, whenever the sun went down, the world got dark. Cities would shut down, there were no lights to speak of, people would light candles in homes, armies would stop marching, they would set up campfires and they would pause for the night. Ships could not navigate into harbors unless, of course, there was a torch that was lit in a lighthouse. But we live in a modern era, where those days are gone, we have artificial lighting, so you can go into a room, flip a switch, and light it up, or light a stadium up, for that matter.

And you know what it's like when you fly at night and you look down at our country and you see those islands of lights that represent cities. And some of you right now are even following along in your Bibles on a screen that is lit up, backlit. And so you are reading the scriptures, but you are depending on the light that is emitted from those diodes for you to be able to engage and read. So we have lights all around us and we need them, frankly, for life. When I was a kid, I loved lights. My dad was a builder and he showed me how lighting a building can affect the mood and even the way you enjoy a facility. But I always remember Christmas time in our house and I loved it when my mom and dad would put lights on the tree, turn off all the lights at night, and that warm glow, multicolored glow of those lights.

I still love that. My other favorite lighting event is 4th of July fireworks. I always love seeing them go off, streak across the sky. How cool was our stadium event this year when 1,500 people gave their lives to Christ and we got to celebrate with fireworks afterwards.

There's something enlivening about them, something patriotic about them. But let me just say that next time you're at a fireworks show and you're looking up at the sky, keep your head in that direction. And keep looking when the fireworks subside. When they burn out, keep looking and you'll notice something else up there that is glowing, the stars. They've been there long before the fireworks went off and they're going to be there a long time glowing in the future. Those stars just kind of steadily shine their light, emit their light.

And when you go out in the country and you lose the light pollution of the city, it's even better. With that in mind, listen to the words of Daniel. It sets us up perfectly for this text. Daniel chapter 12 says, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. I want to talk to you today about shining your light. You and I are called to be light bearers, to shine our light.

That's going to be in our text. So I want to talk about how to glow in the dark. You know, as Christians, there's a number of ways we can shine our lights. Let me just show you a little demonstration here. I hope I don't get in trouble by that.

I hope there's no fire marshal here. Okay, so this is a cool little candle lantern. So that's kind of nice and it's fun and the candles about out. So it's good.

Like if you're in a tent and you need a single source of light and you don't have any electricity, this will work. And it's warm. It's attractive. If it was really dark, it would really look cool. But there are some Christians and this is how they shine their light. They just kind of have a nice little warm glow off over here to themselves, just sort of glowing and I'm enjoying what's going on, period. So that's one way you can do it. And that's okay, but it's not the best way. Here's another way that you can shine your light. Here's a little flashlight.

Now watch what happens. Is that pleasant? Is that nice?

Does that feel good? It's horrible, isn't it? So some of us are like this, unfortunately. You just walk up to people and go, Hey, sinner. Listen. So it works, but not very well.

So a better way than just glowing on your own in a little warm environment for yourself or doing this in somebody's face is to actually take a light source and be a flashlight believer that shines the way out of darkness, helps them get out of the darkness that they're in. That's a better approach. And so with that in mind, let's look at our text. Hold on.

Blow that out so I really don't get in trouble. And look at Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 14. You'll see how Paul has a theme with this. Do all things without complaining and disputing. Some of you already feel convicted right there. 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 or labored in vain.

Yes. And if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me. Now let me catch up to speed a little bit on this epistle and kind of put it together. So Paul writes a letter to the Philippian church and they're worried that Christians in Philippi are worried about Paul. Paul's in prison. He's been arrested. He's in jail. So our biggest stalwart example of Christian leadership is gone. He's in jail.

We don't know what's going to happen to him. And they're confused by these circumstances. So Paul writes him a letter and he says, first of all, we're partners in the gospel. So I'm in jail but you're not. And I want you to know that my incarceration, my circumstances, what has happened to me has actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. I'm incarcerated. The gospel is not. It's being furthered. Roman guards, Praetorian guards, members of Caesar's household are hearing the truth.

So there's people who could never hear the truth in any other way than this are hearing it. And then he says, I'm in jail but you're there and while you're there, here's how I want you to act. I want you to be humble.

I want you to be loving. I want you to serve each other. And the greatest example of that is Jesus himself who left heaven, came to earth, took on a human body.

And he humbled himself to the point of death and God exalted him. So do that. Be like that.

That's what we have come through so far. Now Paul tells us why. Now he tells us why we ought to live that way and here it is in a nutshell. Because the world is watching. And the world as they're watching our lives, we must therefore not blend in to them but stand out from them.

Be different enough that they appreciate that difference. That it does something for them. It leads them out of darkness.

You shine as light. There was a man driving his car. A woman was driving behind him in another vehicle. They were at a stop light. When the light turned green, the man in the lead car did not look up. He was looking down maybe at his phone.

But he didn't go. It's green but his car didn't go. The lady in the car behind him did see it and she let him know that she saw it by honking the horn. She honked her horn but the guy in the lead car didn't budge, didn't move, didn't look up. So she honked it again. She's getting a little mad at this time. Rolled down her window and yelled.

Nothing happened. But just when the light turned yellow, right before it turned red, he looked up, noticed it and zoomed through the intersection. Leaving the woman to go through a whole other light cycle. Well now she's fuming. And she rolls her window down, puts her arm out and gives a certain gesture.

I don't need to go any further than that. She yells some very choice words, ranting, raving, pounding the steering wheel. And just then she noticed a police officer with a gun pointed.

Saying, ma'am, I want to see both hands. I'm going to open the car door with your hands up. I want you to get out of the vehicle. So she gets out of the vehicle. The police puts her arms behind her, puts her in handcuffs and takes her to jail. She's in a cell for two hours.

After two hours, that same police officer lets her out and says, ma'am, I'm very sorry for the misunderstanding. But you just have to know that as I was listening to the words you were saying and I was watching the gesture you were making. And I was watching you ranting and raving and going through those contortions. And I had also noticed on the back of your vehicle, the what would Jesus do bumper sticker and the little chrome fish that's on your trunk. And the follow me to Sunday school license plate holder. Naturally, I assumed that you had stolen the car.

Fair enough, right? The message on the back of the car was very different from the message coming from inside the car. So as the world is watching us, what are they naturally assuming?

So I want to share about how to glow in the dark. And what I'd like to do in looking at the text that we just read is, is give you a fourfold strategy. And first, you have to understand what kind of world we live in. What is the condition of our world? I want you to notice in verse 15 that Paul describes it as a crooked and perverse generation. Do you think those words describe the world that you live in? As you look around your world, would you say this is a crooked, now this is 2000 years ago. Do you think that we have gotten better or worse than that? Are we still in a crooked and perverse generation?

I would say so. In fact, look at the word crooked. It's a word that some of you will be familiar with. It's the word scolios. We get the word scoliosis from that.

A medical condition of the bending of the spine so that a person can't support the weight that you were designed to support. So, by using the word, what Paul is saying is the world we live in is morally bent, spiritually deformed, and unable to support the weight of life. Very strong word. A crooked world. Then notice the second word, perverse.

That's sort of the same thing but a little bit different. It means to twist and to turn. We live in a twisted, morally contorted world.

Perverse. If that language surprises you, it shouldn't because the Lord Jesus even said, oh faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? So, as Christian people, we need to view our world plainly, we need to view our world spiritually, and we need to view our world ultimately.

Now let me explain that statement. There's something about just a plain, honest look at the condition of the world. When you turn on the news, or you read a newspaper, or you get it on your pad and you see the cover stories, I know it gets old. I mean, how many of us love to be informed on the latest terror attack in the world?

It gets pretty bad. And some of us get so tired of looking at the news. Some of us want to fast from any information. But we need to see what kind of a world we live in. We're not getting brighter, the world isn't getting less bent, it's getting darker. Consider this, in the past century, the last 100 years, 123 million people, 123 million people have been killed in wars in just the last century. That's more than any and all of the centuries that preceded the last century.

According to the FBI, there is a murder every 35 minutes in our country, a rape every 6 minutes, and a burglary every 14 seconds. That's the plain look at your world. That's the world we live in. However, we need to see it not just plainly, but spiritually. You know when Jesus looked at a crowd?

He looked at a crowd very differently than Skip Heitzig looks at a crowd. I don't like crowds. I don't like lines. I don't like traffic. I've told you this before, and I bet I'm echoing your sentiments. Now we really don't have traffic to speak of.

I'm sorry, but you're talking to an L.A. boy here. It's like, this is good. But I don't like lines. I don't like traffic, and I just get agitated.

Somebody's actually in front of me on the freeway. How dare them? That's just human nature.

Sorry, that's how I feel. But Jesus, when he looked at crowds, he looked at them differently. It says that he saw the crowd, the multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. And I think, boy, if I could learn to see people like that. And here's the challenge. Let's start viewing people, not as clients, not as potential business, but as eternal souls. Eternally, spiritually. So we ought to view them plainly, spiritually, and that does lead to the third, eternally. Because the truth is, those who are in that moral and spiritual darkness, if that is unchecked and unchanged, they have eternal consequences, which should drive me to be compassionate for them.

Our Lord Jesus talked about outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's how we need to start viewing our world. So we need to begin with, if we're going to glow, we need to understand the kind of world we're in.

Second, we need to understand our position in this world. You'll notice with me, verse 15, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Now look at this phrase, zero in on it, among whom you shine as lights in the world. That word here, lights, is typically in Scripture reserved for starlight. Think of looking past the fireworks and seeing the starlight, the continual shine of starlight.

Now here's how I look at it. The world is bent, dark, contorted, all that Paul described it as. Which means, the conditions for us to shine have never been better than they are now. Because the darker it gets, the brighter our light can shine. And so we complain, man, the world's getting dark. Yep, so shine brighter. You've heard the saying, don't curse the darkness, turn on the light.

So it's getting darker, so shine brighter. Now we know some things about light. I don't know much about light, but there's a few things I do retain from my education. I know that light is electromagnetic energy.

I studied the electromagnetic spectrum. I understand that light travels at 186,000 miles a second. When it's not in a vacuum, that's how fast it goes. 186,000 miles a second means that sunlight takes eight minutes to get from the sun to the earth.

Because it's 93 million miles away from the earth. So the light that you enjoy left the sun eight minutes ago. But something happened this week, if you saw it on Monday, called an eclipse.

Where we could even see it. We could see that an object much, much, much smaller than the sun could actually block the earth from the rays of the sun. So it passed between the earth and the sun, blocking the rays. And in some places, it was a total eclipse.

It would have been marvelous to see that. Now what happened on Monday, that eclipse, must never happen with us. We must never block the glory of the sun, S-O-N.

The son of God. In all of his radiance and glory. We, by our lives, must never diminish that glow, but we should reflect that glow. Now something else about light. Light, to be effective, has to be seen. Light has to be seen. Please notice that Paul says, Among whom you shine as lights in the world. For you and I to be effective, we have to be around people who are in darkness.

For the light to be noticeable and for it to work. If all we do is shine among other people who are shining, we're not doing a lot of good. So here we are Sunday morning.

It's great. We're worshiping God. We need to do that.

We understand what the Bible says about getting together. However, if this is the only place we're shining, we're not doing the world any good. Here I am. I'm in church. I'm shining. This little light of mine, I'm letting it shine.

That's cool. But we have to leave this place and go out. You know what it's like? It's like this. So here's my flashlight.

Remember? Okay, so what would it be like if I walked out in the sun right now with my flashlight so I could see where I was going? If you saw that, you'd say, really lame. You don't need the flashlight to see where you're going. The sun's brighter than your flashlight, so you don't need to do that. So that's what it's like when Christians only shine around other Christians.

We need to be in the darkness for the light to really be of value and for it to work. That's why Jesus said, So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. You see, there's no such thing as secret discipleship. Because the discipleship will destroy the secrecy. Or the secrecy will destroy the discipleship. So among whom you shine, the light has to be seen.

That's Skip Heitzig with a message from his series Technicolor Joy. Right now, reading the stories of the Bible is a very good thing. Walking where these stories took place is at a whole other level. Skip Heitzig is planning his next tour, and you can be on it.

Here's the invitation from Skip. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. Now, I've been to Israel a number of times over the years, and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship.

The Bible will come alive to you in a way it never has before. I hope you'll join Lenny and me on what is always an unforgettable trip. I can't wait to see you in Israel. This dream can come true for you. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heitzig. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q.

That's inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how your life can be a beacon of hope that attracts people to Christ. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.