Today we’re going to talk about being a star or a light in the world. Again if we look at the language being used in this passage, It seems like Paul is speaking directly for Jesus straight from the Holy Spirit. We could easily transpose Paul’s words here with those of Jesus. I also found a couple of quotes that could have very easily come from Paul’s mouth in terms of what success is. I think they are very relevant to being a successful Christian especially:
“This is success. To be able to carry money without spending it; to be able to bear an injustice without retaliating; to be able to keep on the job until it is finished; to be able to do one’s duty even when one is not being watched; to be able to accept criticism without letting it whip you.”
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
You will see as we talk that Paul says basically the same things.
What is the difference between a star athlete and a no name teammate? Or the difference between a movie star and a starving extra? Where do stars stand out the most, when they are surrounded by mediocrity. This is the message today, that we as Christians should stand out as stars in a world that Paul says is crooked and twisted. But we should not stand out for our own glory, but to please Christ.
Much of what stars do to be great is behind the scenes through practice, dedication, and attitude. The world cares about what we do when others are watching, but we are to be even more obedient and excellent when nobody is watching. A star is still a star even when they perform when nobody is watching them. A Christian may especially be a Christian in their hearts and in private.
I. Stars Work Hard (vv 12-13)
A. They are Obedient
A great athlete must be obedient to specific fundamentals and ways of training that will cause success in their sport. They must dedicate themselves to practice and learning throughout their careers. As they get older, they may have to modify how they train and learn to adjust to their limitations. Tiger Woods is notorious for this, he is always adjusting his swing and looking to be better than he was, in spite of his amazing success. He wants to be the best for a long time, something that is very difficult to do.
Living as a Christian is no different. If we are going to have a fruitful, growing faith we have to dedicate ourselves to practice and learning. We want to have a lasting faith that grows and adapts as life, and the world changes. Consider your spiritual disciplines like you would the 5:30 am hockey practice, you don’t want to get out of bed, it’s not convenient, but you go because that is the only chance you have. In the same way God may only give us certain opportunities to be obedient, so we need to take them.
I have spoken previously about what some of the basic fundamentals of our faith are. Reading God’s word, prayer, attending church and doing service work. But verse 13 gives us relief by saying that it is God that works through us to both will and work. By faithfully doing the fundamentals and desiring a deepening relationship with Him, the Spirit inside us will cause us to want to do what he wants us to do to please him. God gives us the desire, and the power to accomplish when we abide in Him.
What is “working out your salvation?” “Work out” means to bring to conclusion, or achieve. In other words achieve your full salvation. Are we not already fully saved by Christ? This is very important and difficult to come to terms with. We are to obey and work out our own salvation, but not in our own effort. Yes we need to try our best, but we must also let God work in us so that we can work outwardly in a way pleasing to Him. It is more important to cultivate our relationship with God through his word and prayer, than to do any outer work or service on our own efforts. As it has been said, God is more interested in the worker than the work.
It seems Christians throughout the centuries have looked at this as either/or. We are either to be completely obedient to a tee in a legalistic way, or it doesn’t matter what we do. It is both, what we do matters very much, but what we do must come from what we have in us, which is the nature of God. Cultivate the nature of God in your mind and heart and your actions will be pleasing to him.
For the Christian, the danger is that Satan and the temptations of the world will overtake us and we may find ourselves far from God. When Paul says, with “fear and trembling” we often get stuck believing this means the threat of punishment if we don’t obey. Let me quote A. McLaren: “Scripture does tell us that the believing man’s salvation is certain since he believes. And your faith can be worth nothing unless it has trembling distrust of your own power, which is the companion of all thankful and faithful reception of God’s mercy. Let, then, all fear and trembling be yours as a human; let all confidence and calm trust be yours as a child of God. Turn your confidence and your fears alike into prayer.”
We are again talking about submission and humility here. I like what William Hendricksen said, “When grace changes the heart, submission out of fear changes to submission out of love, and true humility is born.”
Our fear should be about trusting ourselves instead of the Lord. We can still use the athlete metaphor here. The star athlete, especially a golfer, when performing will usually try to get his or her own mind out of the way, and trust the training they did previously, so that they can let go and just let their body perform.
It reminds me of the centipede who was asked how it could possibly coordinate all those legs in order to walk. As soon as the centipede thought about this, he was no longer able to move. Trust God for your salvation with confidence, but be wary of your own efforts to gain God’s grace.
B. They are Serious About Their Calling
To be a star you have to have a sense of reverence for what you are doing. Maybe a better way to put it is that you have to love what you are doing. You rarely see a star complaining about what they have to do to be good at what they do. The calling they have is the main priority in their lives. Seriousness here could be restated as dedication.
If a Christian is to be a true disciple, the call to the Christian life must also be their top priority above all else. When Paul says to work out your own salvation he is talking about the fact that neither he nor anyone else is able to do this for you except God. He is not talking about salvation by works here. Rather, this is an exhortation to continue working on your faith to bring it to fruition in your life. In other words, like Tiger Woods, never rest in contentment about the past. If he did, others would surely surpass him.
This doesn’t mean there is no room for fun and relaxation, but these things are things we do to refresh ourselves and have experiences so that we can be at our best for the primary purpose of our life. It may also mean limiting or completely abstaining from certain things you enjoy. When I was young I was not allowed to ski, because of the possibility of injury which would jeopardize my hockey. This didn’t bother me because I could see the importance.
The same thing would obviously hold true for drugs, alcohol, and many other things that increase the possibility of not achieving our ultimate purpose. This is all very important, because unless we have found a love for the Lord and his Word and mission, we are unlikely to pursue our faith with the dedication required.
II. Stars are Visible (vv 14-16a)
A. They Stand Out
“Do all things without grumbling or questioning” Paul is referring directly here to the Israelites of the Exodus. However, it is very common amoung us today. We use our intellect to question God, we complain about what we have to do and therefore choose our own way. God says we will stand out if we don’t question and complain.
How many of us can say we are blameless and innocent in the eyes of God? Don’t worry, He already sees us this way because of Christ, but we are to Act like the Children of God that we are, to the best of our ability. He wants us to shine like lights in the world, and folks, because the world is crooked and twisted, it really shouldn’t take much to stand out like this.
This just emphasizes how much us Christians have been incorporated into this culture. Little things can make us stand out and be a witness.
I said at the beginning that stars stand out because of the contrast to their environment. Stars in the sky stand out because of the darkness of the night sky. Star athletes stand out where there is mediocrity, and Christians should stand out because the people in the world, who operate from a sinful nature hostile to God, are all around us.
B. They Persevere
There is one more point here at the beginning of verse 16. My translation says “holding fast to the word of Life.” This is clearly exhorting us to persevere in the Gospel. A better translation is probably to “hold out” or “hold forth” the Gospel meaning that we continually present the Gospel through our actions, and by proclaiming it.
Very few stars ever had a smooth ride to the top. Read biographies of some of the most successful people, and very often their journey had many bumps along the way. Often the stars are the ones who continued in spite of difficulties and set backs. The road to the top is seldom smooth and problem free. As we talked last week, the Christian walk is littered with landmines, and the closer we get to God the tougher it gets. Many will stay where they are and stop progressing because of this, and ride the bench while others experience the wonders of God working through them. There is nothing really wrong with this in terms of our salvation, and God will love you as part of His team, but you will never be a star.
Antidepressant #5
Both of the last two points make up our next antidepressant from Philippians. Two principles: 1. Do everything without grumbling and questioning, and 2. Don’t give up.
Many depressed people will find something wrong with every suggestion you make to try and help them. Often when they finally do something they will find something wrong and look at everything they do negatively. One of the ways out of depression is to simply shut up and do stuff without thinking about it.
Obviously, giving up or quitting is another common cause, and symptom of depression. So often people try something and if it doesn’t go right from the start all the way through, they give up and become hopeless and helpless. Often you will hear something like, “I tried that and it didn’t work, nothing ever works for me.” Most of the time it is because they quit before they had a chance to succeed, and of course they lose complete faith in themselves and eventually don’t want to try anything for fear of failure.
Paul says just do what you gotta do without thinking or grumbling about it, and keep going toward your purpose even when things are not going the way you want them to.
III. Stars Make Others Feel Good (vv 16b-18)
A. They Make Others Proud
Coaches and teachers work hard. Parents pray for their children and dedicate their lives to making sure their children are successful. When one of the coach’s pupils, or a parent’s child becomes a star, they can’t help but be proud of them. Yes, perhaps our pride is often invested in how it makes us look, but I think when we take it in Paul’s terms here, it is more about feeling the sense of accomplishment that the work we do through our lives has some meaning and produces fruit for others.
Nobody wants to work, or live their whole lives believing it was in vain. But let’s look at Christ here for a minute. Like I said, Paul is really speaking from the mind of Christ, and perhaps it will sink in a little more if we look at the idea of Christ’s death being in vain. I am sure not one believer would like to hear Jesus say to them, “My coming down from heaven, to live and die for you was a waste of time based on how you lived your Christian life”. I wouldn’t want to hear that.
But you know, given the bluntness he used in the Bible, and the fact that his next duty is to judge us, I think many of us could hear something like that. Yes we will be in heaven where there is no sorrow, but I wonder what an experience like this would be like. Don’t you want Him to be proud of you?
B. They Bring Others Joy
In the last two verses Paul is essentially talking about his death and yet twice he talks about rejoicing and being glad. Let’s get back to Tiger Woods. His dad was dying, and the last time we saw them together publicly, Tiger was embracing him with tears in his eyes after winning the Masters. So many times I have heard star athletes say that they wished their mom or dad could have witnessed their success, but passed away before they could.
What a better gift to give someone on their death bed than the joy of knowing that their life contributed to someone becoming a star. For the Christian this could easily look like someone you have discipled and prayed for coming to Christ, or being healed, or overcoming their addiction. Those will be the things that matter, and they mattered to Paul.
You don’t have to look very far to see that movie stars, star athletes etc. bring many people joy. Perhaps for the wrong reasons sometimes, but nevertheless stars bring people joy. To some degree, it is their sacrifice, to get good, to be willing to sacrifice their privacy, that brings us the joy because though we are getting joy from their performance, those things had to take place for their performance to get to that point.
Paul rejoices in the opportunity to be a martyr, but he will be the drink offering that is poured on the offering of their faith (representing the animal or grain sacrifice) according to the priestly law. In this offering it is interesting that the drink offering is basically evaporated and the gas goes up to heaven unseen. Paul again shows his humility by desiring to be the unseen offering that gives the burnt offering a pleasing aroma to God. He sees the Philippians faith as sacrificial. He sees their sacrifice as superior to his own as the drink offering is complimentary to the burnt offering. You can see that in Numbers 15:1-10. If they follow the mind of Christ which he describes earlier, they are presenting themselves as in Romans 12:1 as living sacrifices. Paul wants to complete their offering and make it acceptable to God.
Paul says our faith should be a sacrificial offering. The only thing that makes our offering acceptable today is that Christ is in us. We can now offer ourselves for each other as Paul did, and therefore fulfill the greatest thing one can do for a friend, to give up one’s life. Does that sound like our faith?
Are you a star, a light in this world of darkness. You know darkness can’t overcome light, but light always overcomes darkness. Wherever there is darkness if you put a light in it, it chases the darkness away. But if you have light you can’t bring darkness into the light unless you turn off the light.
Obedience, dedication, a positive attitude, perseverance, making others feel good, sacrifice. These are the things Paul says will make us be stars in this world. The question isn’t whether we have the ability to be a star, God gives us the will and the power if we claim it. The question is, do we want to be a star for God?
