Shine Different

In this message from Philippians 2:12–18, Matt shares what it looks like to shine different in a world that desperately needs to see Jesus. Following Jesus isn’t just about what we believe. It changes the way we live.

We are called to work out what God is working in, stop grumbling and start trusting, and pour our lives out for something that matters. As we follow Jesus, He becomes visible in the way we live, and our lives become a light that points others to Him.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

One more time. Good morning, Church. I am happy to be here. I'm sure you're excited as well. It's uh been an exciting process. I think tomorrow Just and I were looking at the calendar. Tomorrow is like our uh two-month birthday since we uh like came up with the idea of wanting to do something like this, uh, which is crazy. We've been doing it in the theater now here for uh I think this is week nine. So it's just so exciting to see the growth and the people returning and and just continuing to build a church and God doing the work within us. And we do have a couple seats right in front of me here. If anyone walks in, I'm not sure. Naomi, maybe you can move up. She wouldn't mind. Would you mind that? She shouldn't mind that. She's my wife. My uh my name is Matt. If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I'd love to do so after service. Um, but before we get started today, we're we're continuing this work in progress message series, but before I go any further, uh, I would just like to take a moment to pray. Um, and I would like to ask you to take a moment to pray as well. Uh if you could just take 30 seconds to first of all pray for me, um, that uh my words would be clear uh for you today. Pray for yourself, that you'd be receptive of God's word without distractions, uh, and pray for our church. Pray that we would continue to grow, we would be united, uh, and that we would do this all according to God's blessing in our life. I'll do the same thing uh and pray for those three things, and then uh I will pray for all of us, and then we'll get started, okay? Uh let's do it. God, we just thank you for this opportunity to be in this place at this time. God help us not to take the blessing lightly, but help us to truly recognize how amazing it is to be your church in this theater. And God, I just pray for each of us today that we'd be receptive to your word. We would be able to apply this to our lives, and that we'd be able to walk away from here a little more like Jesus than when we came in. Amen. Uh, we're getting started here with this uh next message in the series, Work in Progress. I'm gonna be looking through Philippians 2, uh 12 through 18. The title of this talk is Shine Different, but I noticed as I was processing this uh even this morning, the grammar's incorrect. So you can thank Justin for that. He picks the titles of the message. Uh for those of you that know your English, we're not gonna blame him for where he's from or where he went to school. But for those of you that know your English, different in this case is an adverb, which means it needs an L Y. So technically this should be Shine Differently, um, which uh my understanding is they ought to fix that in first service. So Shine Differently is the title of this talk coming from Philippians 2, 12 through 18. I'm gonna go ahead and read the scripture. Uh, and if you know anything about me, I'll have a few points to go with the scripture today. I think I have three total. Uh the second one's the heaviest out of the three, so if you're counting, um, and then we'll uh we'll apply this to our lives uh and really allow God to work through us and how we can shine differently uh through Philippians 2, 12 through 18. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn there now, follow along on the screen as well. Verse 12. Uh therefore, my beloved, uh, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 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, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be poured, or I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain, even if I am to be now poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith. I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Amen. Uh so as we're continuing this uh message series in Philippians, we're always reminded that this is one of the good letters that Paul wrote, one of the positive ones uh in terms of what he was uh doing in the in the Bible and what he wrote to the different churches. But he is talking to this church in Philippians, this Philippian church, saying that you need to be different than the world. You need to act different, think different, uh, shine differently in the world. And really think about this question or this idea as we're getting started here today. Do you shine differently? Is there something that people can notice about you and your glow uh that is different from the world? Is there something about you that shines differently? Uh and as we go through this scripture with these three points, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully you can identify uh something that you need to do better to shine more for God. The first point is this from Philippians 2, 12 through 13. Work out what God is working in. Work out what God is working in. Paul says, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but also in my absence, work out your salvation. For God works it in you, and your responsibility is to work it out. Now, Paul does not say work for your salvation, he says work out your salvation. There's a huge difference between the two. We are not saved by what we do, and this makes the difference between Christianity and every other religion of the world. We are not saved by what we do, we are saved by what Jesus has done. Thank you. Amen. This is classroom participation. We like amens at Harbor Community Church. We are saved by what Jesus has done. We don't work for salvation, we work from salvation. It's not something that we achieve, it's something that we receive. See, you stand before God as if you were Christ. You stand before God as if you were Christ because Christ stood before God as if he were you. And Paul says, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence. In other words, Paul is saying, don't just follow Jesus when people are watching. There's been a big sacrifice made here. Something major has happened to put you in this position. Don't just follow Jesus when people are watching. We cannot be Christians just at church or in our small groups or around other Christians. We cannot be Christian, we cannot follow Jesus only when we are around other believers that may be like this. We must follow Jesus at all times and in all circumstances. See, who you are in private matters just as much as who you are in public. Now we've heard the phrase put on our Sunday best. It's not as normal today in the contemporary culture that we live in, but it's easy to put on our Sunday best. It's easy to walk into this theater and to show people something about us that's not really us. But as I reminded you last week, God sees you. God sees the real you. And here's the good news: God loves the real you. See, Christianity, it's not pretending that you've arrived. It's about allowing God to keep changing you. We're taking steps towards heaven, and sometimes we move quickly, sometimes and more often we move slowly, but we're simply taking steps where God is doing the work in us and we're working it out. And he's doing that work, but we have this responsibility to respond to what he is doing. Paul says, work it out, don't stop halfway. I think about my kids when they do their laundry. They stop halfway. Thaddeus, in particular, will throw his clothes in the washer, he'll put in the detergent, he'll click the button, and then he leaves. No, seriously, out the door leaving. And we're like, we needed to do something, we needed to do our laundry. He leaves them sitting there. Technically, he did the laundry, he just didn't follow through. But sometimes that's how we treat Jesus. Right? We'll put the laundry in of our lives and we'll hit the cycle, we'll have the detergent in there. We think that that's good enough, and then we believe we start and then we walk away. It's like that fame, uh it's a famous song right now out there, I think Elevation Rhythm. We get washed in the water, washed in the blood. You guys didn't get the pun. Washed? We get washed in the water, washed in the and then what do we do with that though? What how do we respond to that? Do we actually follow through? Do we act like we've been washed? Do we act like we've been clean? Do we follow through with what God has put in us and the way that He has changed us? Is there something different about us that we are out in the world being different than what we were before? See, our follow needs a follow through. When life is good, be thankful. A lot of times we forget about God when life is good, but we should be thankful and thanking God as often as we can to when we experience the good, but when life is hard to be faithful. See, when people are watching, as Paul's talking about, obey. When people are not watching, obey. A great illustration of this is you've seen the the videos that maybe on YouTube where they put a cookie or a chocolate in front of a child and then they walk away to see what the child's gonna do. Have you seen this? Are you aware of this? We've never done that for my kids. Uh, I know for a fact Thaddeus would not eat the chocolate, so he doesn't get laundry done very well, but he would not be disobedient towards that. But I'll tell you who might be, and that's Noah. And see, here's the thing: you really find out who your kids are and how obedient they are when they leave the room. Every year when the boys were little, we would say, Don't get out of bed at Christmas. Don't get out of bed Christmas Day, stay in bed. You don't want to catch Santa Claus or whatever it may be. Don't get out of bed, stay in bed. And every year at 2:30 in the morning, Noah would be down looking at the Christmas presents with a flashlight. His friends are loving this right now. Someone told me last service, Matt, why do you have a camera in your house like this? And I have an explanation for that, but not right now. But Noah, every year, I think he was four years old in that photo in that video or photo, and looking at the Christmas presents, seeing what he got. And here's the thing: obedience isn't about who's watching you, it's about who you're following. It doesn't matter if God is watching you, it does matter, but it matters more about who you're following and how you're following him. Spiritually, it matters. And nobody modeled obedience better than Jesus. Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience that we could never live. And what did Jesus do? He willingly went to the cross to accomplish the mission the Father had given him. Romans 3.23 says, We have all fallen short. We have sinned and fallen short, but we are justified freely by God's grace through Jesus Christ. See, our righteousness will never be enough. Jesus lived the life that we couldn't live. Jesus died the death that we deserved. Jesus paid the debt that we couldn't pay. And our access to God is completely because of Jesus. See, again, you stand before God as if you were Christ because Christ stood before God as if he were you. God puts his spirit in us, God changes our desires, God gives us the power to live differently. Paul says, work out your salvation because God works it in you. The flesh says, make this about me. And the spirit says, the Bible says, make this about Jesus. It's less of me, more of you. Jesus. The question becomes then, are you storing up treasures in heaven or are you trying to add to your trophy shelf on earth? Is it spiritual treasure you're after? Or is it this flesh trophy that you want to display on a shelf? And I'll be honest with you today, and I'll admit it as the first person in this room, but we planted a church before Naomi and I and a group of people in Orlando years ago. And during our first church plant, I'll tell you the honest to God truth, when we started this church, I desired to be a rock star preacher. That was my goal. I wanted to be a celebrity. I wanted people to come in to hear me preach and to have an Instagram following of a million people. That's what I cared about. It was me making it about me. But in the midst of that, God started fixing it in me. And it started specifically on a date I can remember very clearly, March 13, 2020. That's when Florida decided to shut down the schools. And we had no place to meet as a church. And now we had a growth, we had great growth up until this point. We were a year and a half old at this point, and it just shut down. And I started to get worked on by God in a very way, very much a way that I wanted nothing to do with. But God worked through that situation and that series of events, and he worked through my heart to bring a humbling to me, a softening to me, where now I can stand before you today and say, honestly, I really only care if four people know and follow Jesus. Those are my four children. And then after that, it's everybody else. But my four kids are first, my wife is first, my family is first. And God worked that into me and I had to work it out. And honestly, it's why when I moved to Hilton Head Island, I went back to student ministry after five years of a lead pastor. I went back to student ministry to have that opportunity to work side by side with my kids. Thankfully, I can continue to do that through Harbor Community Church as well. See, every day we make a choice. We make a choice to allow God to become visible through us. And are you allowing God to work out what he has worked in? So leads me to my second point. Stop grumbling and start trusting. Paul says, Do all things without grumbling. And uh we would probably prefer Paul to say here, do some things without grumbling, right? See, we could clear the bar on good days, or at least some of them, uh, but Paul doesn't say some things. Paul says, all things. That's a much higher bar that he's created. And maybe you're sitting there thinking right now, we all grumble, or maybe you're looking to your neighbor and say, Well, you grumble, and you act like maybe that's not such a big sin, but apparently to God and the way Paul has written this letter, Paul, God and Paul take grumbling seriously. Now, the Greek word, you probably already know this, but I'm gonna bring you up to speed or remind you. But the Greek word for grumbling comes from the an automonopoeia, which when is when a s uh the sound is made by murmuring or muttering in this low and indistinct voice with the idea of complaint, it goes like this gongoosmos, gongoosmos. Okay, try it, gongoosmos. It's not very fun to say. But Justin he said, me need to include more Greek words. So there it is, gongoos moss. It's when it's when you're dealing with a situation, it's when you're dealing with an experience, and you're like, I can't believe this. Right? Under your breath, I can't believe this. Why do I have to do this? Or the famous, this is ridiculous. Right? Now, as most of you would imagine, you you probably think that, well, Matt probably never complains or grumbles. And for the most part, some of you are laughing. For the most part, you know, no, I'm kidding. I I complain and grumble a lot if you know me, but it was hard to come up with a personal illustration for this until this morning. And I'm not kidding, it happens every day. I have the I'm just gonna lay it out for you here, and you can decide if I should be grumbling or not. But I think we all in a situation like this may grumble. But I have this little food grabber thing that I use every single morning. Someone earlier told me it's tongs. Thank you. I have this little food grabber thing, and every day of my life, seriously, every single day of my life, I wake up and I make a bagel, I put it in an air fryer that's right on top of a drawer that I use every single day. Air fryer bagel, it's a hero bagel, it's not a real one. 20 grams of protein, 20 grams of fiber. They're at Publix, but don't get them because they always sell out, then I'll run out. I won't be able to get them. Every day I make this bagel. Every day I take the air fryer and I put it on top of the, I put it on top of the counter there, and I make this bagel bagel, and every day I go into the drawer that is directly underneath the the air fryer to open it up to get my tongs, to take the bagel out of the out of the air fryer, and every day it's gone. Every single day it has been moved. It's gone. Naomi has moved it. And and then the then the gongoose moss, it starts, and I'm like, why does she keep moving it? I use this, I literally use this every single day. Why can't it just stay where I put it? And I'm not the only one that experiences this. I had a lot of people after church for a service say, Matt, I feel you. But if you spill, if you feel right now spiritually inclined to say something to her about this after church, gangus moss, low-level muttering and complaining under my breath, under under your breath. Um when it comes to the kitchen, I do not have ownership. I have visitation rights, I guess. But I digress. But here's the point. Here's my point. This is important. Persistent grumbling, it eventually reveals something deeper than our circumstances. It reveals what we believe about God. Because here's what happens: grumbling becomes a trust issue. Do I trust God when I don't understand what God is doing? See, the first rule of Faith Club is he's God and we're not. The second rule of Faith Club is he's God and we're not. And we can go on and on. He's God and we're not. What we focus on determines what we fill our minds. And if we focus on our problems, eventually our problems are all that we can see. So no wonder we complain so often because we don't have a focus on Jesus the way that we should. Because if we focus on Jesus, we see our problems in the light of eternity, and we understand that God is in the future as much as he's in the present, as much as he's in the past, and we have this temporary viewpoint from the earth, from the world, that we focus on these things and we want God to work according to our timetable. We want God to work according to our plans. But trust says trust says, I don't understand what God is doing, but I trust who God is. See, we need to be careful because complaining can become a habit until you become someone who sees something wrong with everything. See, Paul knew his Old Testament. See, Israel, which is a great application, illustration here, Israel becomes an example of what happens when grumbling becomes a way of life. And if you don't know about the Israelites and their exit from Egypt, take a look at Exodus for homework after church today. But here's the gist, here's the rundown. God delivers the Israelites from slavery, from literal slavery, God is delivering these people. God parts the Red Sea. God provided manna from heaven. God provided quail when they wanted meat. God provided water from a rock. God guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. God protected them from their enemies. God sustained their clothing in sandals so they did not wear out. God stayed present with them throughout their entire journey. And somehow these Israelites found something to complain about. Look at the scripture here in Exodus 14. The Israelites, they said to Moses, think now listen, think think about it. Think about where they have come from, to where they are at this point in their lives. Think about what they've experienced, the miraculous departure from Egypt that they've experienced. And they're gonna go to Moses with the audacity to say, is it because there's no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to bring us out of Egypt? Think about what they're saying here. We are better off in Egypt. We're going to die. They just experienced deliverance, but their current problems made them forget the faithfulness of God. How much deliverance do you have to experience to remember God's faithfulness, church? Because every person in this room has been delivered from something. We're all experiencing deliverance on a day-to-day date basis, but we do the same exact thing because grumbling has a short memory. We forget what God has done. We forget what God has done because we're frustrated with what God hasn't done yet. You see, God took Israel's grumble. Grumbling seriously because their grumbling revealed their distrust. Their mouths were complaining because their hearts weren't trusting. And a grumbling spirit, it's the opposite of a joyful spirit, but we are good at complaining. We walk into our small group time or the church or we walk to publics or to dinner or breakfast. What do we hear? People complaining about the government, the economy, the taxes that we have to pay, the weather. We hear people complaining in church. The sermon is too long. Not me though. I'm on time. Too dry. Not enough scripture. I had someone tell me years ago, Matt, you used too much scripture. Too much scripture. Crazy. The church is too big, it's too small, it's too cold, it's too loud. We can find something wrong with almost anything. But here's the thing: if Christians spend as much time praying as they do grumbling, they would have less to grumble about. Complain less, praise more, glorify God. And Paul says, do these things so you'll be blameless. No legitimate accusations stick. Pure, what you see is what you get. Without blemish, a life set apart for God. Look at what grumbling grumbling gives you. Look at what it creates in you. And then Paul gives us this picture shine as lights in the world. That's the entire idea of shine differently. The world complains, we trust. The world argues we pursue peace. The world sees darkness. We shine the light of Jesus. Think about a dirty light bulb. The bulb may still work, but enough dirt can accumulate that the light doesn't shine as clearly. See, sin does the same thing in our lives. And that's why we have communion every week, church. We are deliberate. It's not just to do it, it's just not because we think it's cool, or we got to fill the time. We have communion every week for a deliberate time of confession and repentance to keep the light clean. We want to keep the light clean. It removes what is getting in the way of the light. See, Harbor will make an impact in this community only when Jesus is visible in the way that we live. It's not because we're louder, it's not because we're better, it's not because our music is something else, it's only because Jesus is visible. See, the greatest advertisement for Harbor Community Church is not going to be a sign, which we don't even have any, or a social media post or a Google review, but feel free. It will be people who live lives that are changed by Jesus the righteous. How do we keep shining in a world that is constantly pulling us towards the darkness? Paul tells us to hold fast to the word of life. We shine differently when we hold tightly to God's word. Do you even have God's word in your hand to hold tightly in the first place? You cannot shine the light of Christ without while letting go. Let me start that over. You cannot shine the light of Christ while letting go of the word of Christ. Paul says to hold fast to the word of life. Every Christian is telling the world something about God by the way we live. Our lives are communicating. I believe it's one or two ways here. We're communing one or two things. God matters to me, or God doesn't matter to me. It's really that simple. Not much middle ground. Paul says to hold fast, hold firmly, pay attention, refuse to let go. Does God's word, does God's word shape the way you think and the way that you live? Whatever you're facing, don't let go of the word of life. Paul says, hold fast. See, we don't need a world where Christians simply know the Bible. We need a world where Christians have been changed by the Bible. Paul says he doesn't want to look back on his ministry and think that it was run in vain. He wanted his the faith of the people who were listening to him to last. He wanted people not to just start following Jesus. He wanted people who kept following Jesus. And that's why point three, he says, even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. See, Paul is telling the church to pour your life out for something that matters. Pour your life out for something that matters. Paul gives us this picture of his life being poured out as an offering to God. He's essentially saying, if following Jesus cost me my life, it was worth it. Nothing about your life right now. Are you willing to lose it for Jesus? That's the opposite of casual Christianity, a Christianity we experience so often in our culture. Let me just show up and check the box. One thing to appreciate the good news of the gospel, it's another thing to give your life to the cause of the gospel. And Jesus never hid the cost. Please understand the cost, church, of what it is to follow Jesus. And Luke 9, 23 says, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. See, Jesus never called us to admire him, Jesus called us to follow him. See, you can admire Jesus from a distance. From a distance, you can see and admire Jesus, but following Jesus, it requires surrender. Following Jesus requires nearness. Following Jesus is gonna cost you something. It's gonna cost you your time, your comfort, your preferences, your reputation, your plans. See, following Jesus will cost you something because following Jesus, eventually, church, listen, requires you to choose him over something else. So think about what you're pouring your life into. You could be pouring your life into anxiety, worry, or bitterness today. You could be choosing those things over trusting Jesus or more uh applicable things such as career or sports, money, success. The world is chasing after these things. You could be pouring it into your kids or your image or your comfort. And I'm not gonna say that any of these things are necessarily bad things, but none of them are worthy of becoming the ultimate thing. See, church, you only have so much time, you only have so much energy, you get one life to live, and that life goes quickly. So, what are you pouring it into? What does your heart beat for today? Paul says, I'm pouring mine out for Jesus. And the crazy thing about this is he doesn't sound miserable. There's no grumbling about this statement. He is saying, I'm glad and rejoice with you all. Don't miss that. Paul is talking about sacrifice. He's talking about sacrifice in the same sentence, he's talking about joy. He's talking about being poured out. He's rejoicing because Paul found joy in giving his life to something that mattered eternally. See, what you pour your life into reveals what matters most to you. Let me say that again, church. What you pour your life into reveals what matters most to you. Eventually, your priorities become visible. If you know Christ, then your actions should be to make Christ known. Spend your life on something that will outlive your life. And church, as Harbor Community Church, Justin and I have talked about the 100-year plan, not just the five and ten-year. We want Harbor Community Church to outlive all of us. We're planting trees under whose shade we will not sit. Because one day careers end, trophies collect dust, money gets spent, the applause disappears, and honestly, the Bible tells us everything's burning, it's all going away. But what we have for God and what we do for the kingdom of God, it has eternal significance. Jesus wants all or nothing. In 1 John 2, 6, it says, Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. That is a high bar. Whoever claimed to live in him must live as Jesus did. We have a goal to reach. And following Jesus means increasingly living like Jesus. Now that doesn't mean you have to have it all figured out today. You don't have to sprint towards heaven. For some of us, for most of us, it's a slow walk, one step at a time, one simple step forward with a humble dependence on the Holy Spirit. And remember how Paul started this. He said, I am glad and rejoice with you all. He's being poured out, but he still has joy, Christian joy, joy in the blessings, and joy in the burdens. Joy found only in Christ. So, church, as you think about this and respond, maybe for you today that means confessing something you've been hiding. Maybe that means stopping the constant grumbling and choosing to trust God. Maybe that means opening God's word again, getting out a physical, actual Bible and holding tightly to it. Maybe it means finally obeying God in areas where you have been resisting. Church, whatever it is, we have an opportunity this morning, and one of the reasons that we meet every Sunday is to take the next right step, to confess sin, to depend on the Holy Spirit. See you don't know how much time you have. Don't wait for tomorrow to make a decision to follow Jesus and don't waste precious time on impermanent things. Pour it into Jesus, pour it into people, pour it into the gospel. And when people look at your life, let them see the difference Jesus makes. Shine differently. Amen. Would you pray with me? God, we just thank you for your word. We thank you for the power behind your word. And God, as we all come in here from different places and different areas, I would just pray that each one of us can walk away from here a little more like Jesus than when we walked in. That you would do a work in us that we could work out into the world and that we can shine, God, we can shine, we can have this illuminating illustration of Jesus everywhere that we go. We can glow in a dark world where people would look at us and say there's something different about them. They shine differently. And where as a result of our shining, as a result of our glowing, that you would build this church, that you would bring people into our circle, into our ecosystem, God, that we could talk about Jesus with them, that we could be a change in the world, God. That you would bring revival into our hearts and revival into this community, that you would allow Harbor Community Church to grow, and that we would live as a church sent into the world as the light. In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

So you made away across the great divide, left behind as throw build it here inside, and there at the cross. Freed my soul for the first time I have. Thank you, Jesus. You have shaved eye. Brought me from the darkness took my place. You were buried for three days. No death has no sea. I have been transformed. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. You have sick. Brought me from the darkness into glorious life.