Shining Like Stars

She's a standout. He's a standout. Do you know people who you would describe as standouts?

In character, in loving warmth, in long-suffering, in humility, in generosity, in wisdom, in servant-heartedness. Do you know anyone like that? Well, we should know people like that, because that's what the Apostle Paul expects Christians to be like.

Paul's writing a letter of encouragement to this church at Philippi, a church he planted some years before, and he says to them, You will shine among the people you live with like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.

Paul says, your Christian witness in the city of Philippi should stand out like stars on a dark night, looking up, they should pop.

And he's not just talking to the Christians back in the first century, he's saying to us today, if you are a follower of Jesus, a Christian, we are called to shine like stars in our sphere of influence. Who's feeling a little bit overwhelmed?

But that is the calling. That's what we're coming under today, this idea that we would make a difference. We would, in Christ, stand out.

You and I, as followers of Jesus, are destined to live standout lives. Not necessarily loud lives, certainly not proud lives, but standout lives of humility, love, justice, worship and service.

Paul says that standout lives are lives which are, verse 15, blameless and pure. Verse 13, a work of God. Blameless and pure, a work of God.

For us to be blameless and pure, there are at least two things that we should be doing and at least two things to avoid. So, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That's a tick.

Grumbling and arguing, that's a no can do crack jack. That's a big cross. Hold firmly to the word of life.

Tick. Labour in vain. Nah, that's a cross.

We want to make our lives count. So we start with work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Verse 12, therefore, 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, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to

fulfil his good purpose. Paul is probably in prison in Rome, and he says to these people at Philippi, I expect you to obey. To obey who? He's expecting them to obey him.

He's called by Jesus to represent God, to speak the words Jesus has given him. And in a very different way to Bible teachers today, he is without knowing it, he's writing the Bible inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So he's expecting them with the authority God has given him to speak in such a way that he would be obeyed. Of course, we come under the same words and are called to obey as well.

Paul writes, therefore, and we know, we ask the question, why is the therefore, therefore, the beginning of these verses, verse 12, he says, therefore, because he has just spoken about in chapter two, five to 11, we read it out at communion and Ben

preached on it last week. I can only encourage you to listen to that sermon online.

Paul is saying, therefore, because of the epitome that I have just spoken of, the epitome of obedience, of humble obedience to the Father's will, seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, because of that obedience, may we too follow Christ's example and obey,

wholly and completely the Father's will. Paul says, continue, this is what obedience looks like. Paul says, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It's always a weird statement, isn't it?

How does he, what does he mean? Because he can't mean work for your salvation, can he? Salvation is a gift.

Sola gratia is the Latin reformer's language to say, by grace alone, through sola fide, faith alone. Sola gratia, by grace, sola fide, faith alone. By grace, through faith, we are saved.

It is a gift of God. So where does this work piece come in? Well, it's, I think, important to clarify the subtle, yet significant difference, theologically, between justification and sanctification.

They sound the same, but they're not quite exactly the same. Justification has a legal implication. Romans 5.1 says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Justification is the eternal judge, God himself, his gavel, his hammer comes down. And when we put faith in Christ, there is a declaration over our lives, not guilty. Hallelujah.

And that is what it is to become a Christian. We put our faith in Christ. And because of that, grace through faith, all because of what Christ has done on the cross for us, God says, you are not guilty.

Christ has paid for your sin. That's a little different to salvation. Salvation, Paul talks about salvation past, present and future.

An example of the past is Romans 8.24. For in this hope, we were saved. Past tense, and often he talks about present tense.

More typically, he talks about salvation as a future event. Romans 5.9 is an example. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him, through Christ?

Jesus himself says in Matthew 24.13, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. There's this working out the salvation until the end.

Hebrews 3 says, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Salvation requires a living faith till the end or till the return of Christ.

To work out our salvation is to appropriate fully what Christ has won for us.

It is to apply appropriate effort to unpack the gift of justification and right standing with God so that we become more and more like Christ with a new heart and a new spirit.

And we remember our series we did on spiritual formation where we talked about grace is not opposed to effort but opposed to earning.

We can never earn our salvation, but there is effort, work to be put in, which is the not so subtle hint when Jesus says, come, I'm going to give you a yoke. Take my yoke upon you.

It's a yoke of work, but Christ is going to do the work with us because he has done all the work before in the cross and resurrection. What is this all saying?

Paul is saying to the Philippians, salvation is a gift, justification is a gift, but you need to work the truth like yeast. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast working through dough.

You need to take grace, the truth of justification and need it through all of life. There will be habits which by the power of the spirit, we will need to break and stop. Amen.

That's what it is to work out our salvation. Other habits, we need to begin on this way of salvation. All the time, not earning God's favour, but demonstrating we have received it by faith and becoming the people He has called us to be.

And in case you think this is all just hard work, Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And this is this wonderful verse. It's worth a highlight in our Bibles.

It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. Isn't that a good verse? It is God who works in you to will.

God wants to shape our will and give us the capacity to make the good choices. It's God who works in you to act. He's gonna take that will and if we will just give him a smidgen of obedience, he's gonna help us act.

It is God who works in you to fulfill. Whose good purpose? His good purpose.

Trust God. That's what the takeaway is. Trust God.

But he wants us to become more like Jesus than we do. Amen? That's something important to realise.

He wants us to become more and more like his son Jesus, more than we do. And so all this happens, this transformation into a Jesus-like person, it happens in a posture of obedience, coming out of fear and trembling. In other words, reverential awe.

So, we are in a 75-week habit-forming season as a church. We called it C23. We asked the question, it was back in July, 75 weeks time will be the end of 2023, Lord willing.

We all get there. And we've asked the question, what do you see in your life, your life looking? What do you see in NorthernLife, if you can be around at that time?

What is our church going to be like come New Year's Eve, Sunday night, 2023? And so we thought, well, let's engage in four keystone habits that might help shape our lives into the likeness of Christ or by grace.

Sub-Salt Scripture Sunday, a four keystone habits. And using these habits, we're trying to work salvation in. We're trying to get habits that are helpful for us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

So we started with sup, and that's just hanging out. Christ wants to sup with us. So the more we hang out with the Lord Jesus by His Spirit, the more we get to know His heart for us and the world.

And I think the more we realise His greatness and goodness, the gravity of His calling on our lives, and it fosters reverential awe. It puts things in perspective. Salt, we're asking the question each week, how can I be salty?

How can I make a difference or be the difference maker by Your grace? Scripture, we believe that if we are saturated in the Word of God, we're going to be more and more like Christ.

And we've talked about, and I look around here and see a great turnout, so praise God, we're putting into practice this idea of Sundays being an important rhythm of our daily lives. Hebrews says, don't give up meeting together. Why?

Because we need it. Amen. We need to be spurred on to love and good works by hanging out with people who want to worship Jesus seven days a week for all of our lives.

So we've talked about some of these aspects of working salvation out. And I hope you can be on board with that. Paul says there's also some stuff to avoid, grumbling and arguing.

That is a cross. Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. That's a rhetorical question.

But who's good at grumbling? Oh, look, the hands came up anyway. More power to you for your transparency.

Wouldn't you agree that Aussies have a way of finding the negative? Like we're great, like, battlers. But it's like we keep the negative in view.

For example, someone might say, how much did you pay for it? We don't say, oh, great price, folks, you're on the positive. It's always close to the net, not cheap.

Not cheap. How are you going? Not bad.

How hard is it? Oh, it's not easy. How was it?

Not fun. How did it go? Not good.

I was out fishing. And I think we can easily fall into this Aussie banter way of becoming a winder without knowing it. I'm out on Port Hacking River.

It's a beautiful night. The moon's out. And I'm out with a mate.

We're out in his boat. We're driving around different parts of the river. And we've got all night.

We've got hours. Who could whinge? I could whinge.

Because we've got different baits for different spots, and we've tried. This is about the fifth spot we've gone to. We can't catch a fish.

And I'm just having a bit of a whinge. I'm just sort of saying, what fish wouldn't eat that presented to them? This last time we were here, we had six nice brim.

Like, where are the fish tonight? And Cam out of the blue just said, Shanks, would you shut up? You are a whinger.

Mate, we've won the lottery of life. Look at this beautiful night. We're out for a fish.

Would you shut up? So, I went quiet. But that has stayed with me.

Whenever I think of whinging, I think, you can do that. It's easy. So, let me ask you, are you a whinger, a whiner, a grumbler?

You see the problem and you are ready to share your thoughts with whoever will listen. It's a bad habit. The church at Philippi are a great church.

They're full of generosity and joy, but they are battling disunity. And the disunity is actually, the source of it is in two women, Euodia and Syntyche.

And Paul is saying, like, guys, Euodia and Syntyche, you need to work this out because it's putting out jeopardy the unity of the whole church.

Because grumbling and arguing can really fester and turn into that cousin slander, which is no good at all. Philippi didn't have a synagogue.

Most, if you travel around Mediterranean, you'll find an ancient synagogue in most cities you go to, but not Philippi. It was a Roman colony.

So when Paul went there, instead of doing what his normal practice was, going to the synagogue where the Jews were, the people that were open to God, they were monotheists, he had to go down to the river and find some outdoor God-fearers at Philippi.

So he started the church with Lydia there. Nevertheless, Paul cites in this part of the world that you don't find many Old Testament loving Jews.

He quotes the Old Testament when he says, do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.

And he's basically quoting Moses from Numbers and Deuteronomy. And it's a reference to the discipline God gave the people while they were in the desert for 40 years. You might remember passages like this, Numbers 11.1.

Now the people complained about their hardship in the hearing of the Lord. And when he heard them, his anger was aroused. God doesn't really appreciate whinging and grumbling.

Or Numbers 14. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They've been taken through the Red Sea.

They've been given liberty from their captives. 400 years of captivity under Egypt. But no, they say, if only we had died in Egypt, can't we go back to Egypt?

What a bunch of whingers, complainers. When Moses says that the Philippians should be without fault, he's quoting Moses in Deuteronomy when Paul says... Moses?

I wrote the wrong person. When Paul says that, when Paul says that, he's quoting Deuteronomy 32, 4 and 5. God is our rock, he's upright and just, but the people, they are corrupt and are not his children.

To their shame, they are a warped and crooked generation. Paul is letting the Philippians know, and us, the Old Testament still matters, right? Why would he quote the Old Testament unless he was trying to say to them, it still matters?

And what's important to remember is, when Israel were wandering in the desert, it started with idolatry, they made that golden calf. But what was their main issue of sin in those 40 years? Complaining, grumbling.

So, I wonder who of us needs to feel convicted about grumbling and complaining. It's not godly. It's not godly.

It comes easy, maybe, to us in Australia, maybe. But as I said before, slander and sin is right there next to grumbling and complaining. James says in his book, anyone who can control their tongue is perfect, teleos.

The tongue and how we use it, very important. So, Paul is saying to his beloved church of Philippi, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That's a tic.

Grumbling and arguing, that is a cross. Hold firmly to the word of life. That's a tic.

Then you will shine among them, he writes, like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. The word of life means the logos of Zoe. Zoe, we looked at a few months ago.

It's life and logos is Jesus. So it's basically saying, hold on to the Jesus life. Hold on to the Jesus life.

And what does that mean? Well, you're not going to hold on to the Jesus life very well without holding on to the word of life, the Bible. So we need to be in the word.

This idea of shining like stars, it is nothing short of what Christianity is. The life of God in the soul of a person. That is Christianity.

So what Paul is saying is, clean the outside of the lens. Get the muck off it so that the light of Christ in you can shine out. Yes, that's what this whole work of our soul and our lives is all about.

Get rid of the bad habits that needs to be brought into the light of Christ and His grace so that His light can shine through. Hold firmly, Philippians, to the word of life.

I wonder if any of you are doing the Bible read through from the online data. Not many of us are doing 6260, but that's okay because lots of us have done it before.

Many more of us are doing the shorter reading, which is the Sermon on the Mount, and that's really encouraging. I'm doing the 6260 New Testament read through.

Just every time you do those four chapters a day read throughs, you have to catch your breath a bit. Does anyone remember doing it? It's like a learned process.

At the start, it's like nothing is going in here, but then over time, you're picking up the themes and the motifs. And it's actually very powerful to do this sort of helicopter overview. But I think that's what life is like.

Some of us have worked through rehab, and I haven't had to, but people like Dennis, we were hearing about Dennis' story after a stroke and this incredible tenacity and help with the right physios, etc., to learn how to function again in the very

practical and simple ways we take for granted. Some of us have had to learn how to walk. All of a sudden, there are these phase shifts, aren't there? Where you'll, oh, the brain says, I've got this.

I now understand what's going on. It's the same in so many other things. Maybe you're a klutz at cooking, but you persevere.

And then all of a sudden, people are telling you, you know, this food's pretty good. And exercise movements are the same. Like you can't do it.

You feel a bit uncoordinated. But over time, it starts to click. And there's this same thing that happens with learning a musical instrument.

At the start, you're doing these scales. It's not working. My brain, my, maybe my wind instrument, my, my, my breath, my embouchure, my fingers, nothing's working.

And then all of a sudden, it sort of clicks. I would put it to you that this holding on to the firmly, to the word of life, shining like stars is a bit like that, working grace through your life so that belief isn't so hard, comes with exposure.

Would anyone agree? This exposure to the word of God, but also learning responses to life's challenges based out of reverential law, made out of this conscious belief in the plausibility of the kingdom of God.

That this, what we celebrated, Philippians 2, Christ coming to earth and dying on a cross and rising from the grave, that's not a bunch of religious whatever. That's the most real thing in the universe.

And when we give ourselves to these beliefs that are the core of our world view, it is what is true truth. Gratitude and worship and obedience and fruitfulness and servanthood and unity and generosity, they sort of start to flow.

There is something that seems a little bit effortless, even though there's effort in Christianity. You are destined in Christ to shine like the stars in your Christian witness. So stay the course in Jesus' name.

Work out your salvation in everyday life by preaching the gospel to yourself. You and I are unworthily worthy because of the gospel. And revelation comes over time as we are exposed to truth.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, reverential law, grumbling and arguing. Avoid that by God's grace. Hold firmly to the word of life, which will involve some effort being in the word of the Bible, the word of God.

And finally, Paul says, don't labour in vain. He writes, and then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain.

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you, so you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Paul has no plans to run his race in vain.

He has no plans to waste his life, which means he has decided beforehand, I'm not chasing my glory, because every time I chase my glory, God says, all yours, all yours, you want to chase your glory? You want the praise of men and women and kids?

You want humans to give you glory? All yours, I'm not touching it. There will be no supernatural power behind that life.

If you want it, all for your glory. But Paul is saying, no, that's not it. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

He's like, I'm not going to live in such a way that's unworthy of the gospel, because that would be a life in vain. I don't want that.

And you can't help but think of 1 Corinthians 15, 58, where the same guy, Paul writes, therefore, my dear brothers, talking to the church at Corinth, stand firm, let nothing move.

You always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. Not in vain is our goal.

To allow disunity to fester, and grumbling, complaining, and arguing to spread, could jeopardise the work and cause his work to be in vain. So in this regard, there's a great sense of interdependence for us.

A lot of what we're going to do that's worth while will be together as a church. Not everything. We're all working for the Lord all week long, but there's a lot that we're going to do together.

So we need each other so that our witness is not in vain. Amen? We need each other.

So we are interdependent. And that's good. Also a challenge.

And yet, there is also a sense that no matter what for Paul, the Church of Philippi could let him down, but he has decided whether you do what's right or not, I am going to run the race like an athlete.

I have fixed my sights on the audience of one Jesus. I'm looking for his approval. So there's this mixture, isn't there?

We need each other, but no matter what, we can live our lives so they are not in vain. Hallelujah. Our lives can count because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

If we lift up Jesus, with our lives, he's going to draw people under himself. When the woman poured out that expensive perfume on Christ, are you familiar with that story?

And at the end, Jesus says, wherever the Gospel is preached, this story will be told.

He is, I think at this stage, he's in a Pharisee's house, and she comes in, this woman, and pours out more than a year's worth of costing wages, more enormously expensive perfume on Christ's head.

Other times it's on his feet in the different translations, different Gospel accounts. But the disciples were like, hey, don't waste the perfume. That was a really dumb thing to say, guys, in heaven.

Because Jesus says, what are you calling a waste? She has poured out all this on me. And he says, wherever the Gospel is preached, that story will be told.

Why? Because the Gospel feels like it's being poured out. And sometimes no one is watching, but God is.

And if it is for the glory of Jesus, as we pour our life out, it is not in vain. So what are you doing with your life that no one knows about, but God does? That's all that matters.

Amen. This is what ministry is all about. When no one's watching, we serve the King.

We give our best so that he would receive the glory. We are destined to shine like stars in the night, making the difference in the name of Jesus as a standout in Christ tomorrow morning. You okay with that?

When I think of my life, I think, I hope no one looks at my life, Lord. I feel very normal. But that's the calling, right?

Wherever you are, and many of us are at home, others have huge numbers of people that we interact with weekly. It doesn't matter. Wherever we are, we are called to shine the light of Christ through our lives.

And with our simple testimony of faith, through word and deed, we point people to a Saviour. We're like that star that took the Magi to Christ. Shine.

Stand out. As you work out your salvation with fear and trembling. As you say no to grumbling and arguing.

As you hold firmly to the word of life. And labour for the glory of Christ and his gospel, which can never be in vain. Lord Jesus, it's our prayer that we would shine brightly for your glory.

I thank you that your grace is sufficient for every one of us for tomorrow morning. And for this afternoon. And for six months time.

Whatever season we find ourselves in now, your grace is sufficient for us to shine like stars in the sky for your glory. And we are so grateful of that. In your name.

Amen.