To Live: Shine Series

TEXT: Philippians 2:12-18

TITLE: To LIVE - SHINE

SERIES: To Live

TOPIC: live a life of holiness

OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church July 12, 2009

PROP.: It’s important to let others see how you live your life so that they may be won and that you may live blameless…

INTRODUCTION: Good morning! Thanks for being here today! We are exactly half way through a sermon series where we are studying through the New Testament book of Philippians.

What we’re doing is we’re trying to figure out how to live life. In fact, we entitled our series: TO LIVE. And so we’re journeying through the book of Philippians (which was written by the Apostle Paul as he sits in prison) and there are some key things that Paul is telling us we need to experience in order to live life to it’s maximum potential.

Now it seems as though society is fixated on celebrities. There are TV shows that are famous because they give us an inside glimpse of their lives. There are magazines that are popular because they give us the juicy details of the lives of the rich and famous. And there are books written by celebrities that tell us even more details about their life. Why are all of these things so popular today?

Because we want to know how to live life well. We think that the rich…the famous…the popular…the privileged…THOSE are the people who are doing life right because look at them…they have EVERYTHING they ever wanted.

But is that right? What do we see in the lives of many celebrities?

1. We see relationships that fail. We see how many times celebrities are married and then re-married! We see kids who don’t know who mom or dad are.

2. We see people that struggle with addictions. It seems like alcohol and drug re-hab is just part of the journey if you’re a celebrity.

3. We see pain in their lives. We see a lot of depression in their lives. We see suicide. We see murder.

All of this in the lives of the people our society tells us are living lives that are to be enjoyed!

We are led to believe that these people have it all!!!! And that we should be living just like they are living.

But the question I have is: Do they have joy?

You see, we are studying the book of Philippians that is written by a prisoner and we’re learning how to live life. And what makes Paul an authority on how to live life is that he has JOY! He doesn’t have wealth…he isn’t popular…but what he does have is joy! He has meaning. He has purpose!

And so Paul is writing this letter to you and to me and he’s telling us there are certain things we need to have in order to have JOY in our life! There are things that we need to experience if we are truly going to be living this life to the full!

So far, Paul has told us:

Week #1 - GRACE & PEACE. We need to become slaves of Jesus Christ and once we are sold out and serving Christ unconditionally, Christ grants us grace and peace!

Week #2 - GROW. We learned that God is working in your life. God wants you to grow into the person He desires you to be. He is using all the good stuff that has happened to you in this life and all the bad stuff that has happened to you in life to mould you and shape you into the person He would have you become!

Week #3 - DELIVERANCE. We also learned that we need to understand about God’s deliverance. That if we want to experience everything that this life has to offer, understand that you will be delivered from your suffering and pain. Either the suffering and pain will come to an end…or you will…but either way, you will be delivered and life will be good!!!

Week #4 - HUMILITY. And last week we learned that if we want to have joy in this life then we are going to seek to get along with others around us…that includes those you go to church with. And so you must experience humility. You must 1 - see the big picture. 2 - you must lay pride aside…and you must 3 - move from “me” to “we”. Be concerned about the needs of others.

So what are we going to learn about life this week from Paul?

Let’s read and find out.

Our text is Philippians 2:12-18

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.