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Guest (Male): Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're so glad you tuned in today. At Connect with Skip, our passion is to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus through solid, verse-by-verse Bible teaching that's both clear and practical. Every message you hear is designed to strengthen your faith and help you live out God's truth wherever he's placed you.

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Skip Heitzig: 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. 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 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.

But what happened on Monday, that eclipse, must never happen with us. We must never block the glory of the Son, 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.

Something else about light: light, to be effective, 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 worshipping 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. It's like this: here's my flashlight. 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 I was 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." 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. Have you noticed that light reveals what darkness hides? There's something about turning on a light that is very revelatory, or taking an object out into the sun and examining it. It's very amazing, the difference.

I had a rug until this week in my study. It's out for cleaning. It's an old thing that we got at a pawn shop. It's a nice rug, but it was pretty dirty, so we took it out to get it cleaned. And when we lifted it off, it's a dark floor, and when I exposed it to the bright lights, I was amazed how much dirt was under that rug. It's not like we're slobs, we vacuum and clean and stuff, but it concealed a lot and it really showed it when the lights were turned on. The bright light revealed what the darkness was hiding.

Which is why we need to be careful when we share our faith with unbelievers. Because when you share truth, which is revealing, and people who are living in darkness hear those things, certain things in their lives get exposed and it hurts. They'll wince. They don't like that. And you don't have to be obnoxious. You don't have to shine the flashlight and go, "Hey, do you like hell? Because you're going there." You don't have to be obnoxious. You can be winsome and warm and lovely and deferential and sweet and at the same time, just speaking truth will be enough to convict people who don't want to budge from their darkness that they will flee.

Jesus said it this way: "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." And something else about light: as I mentioned previously, it shows people the way out of darkness. It doesn't just expose the darkness, it's really helpful when it leads or directs somebody out.

We all know that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." That's what he said about himself. We know that. But listen to the context of it. Here's what he said. Here's the full sentence: "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Now, Jesus, last time I checked, left this world. He ascended into heaven. He was here, he left, and he gave his Holy Spirit to us. So he said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," but he turned to his disciples and he said, "you are the light of the world."

So think of it as the sun and the moon. The moon reflects the sun, shouldn't obscure the sun, should reflect the sun. So, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," but now to you and I, "you are the light of the world." So don't block the sun, don't eclipse it, reflect the sun. How do we do that? Well, the short answer is we have to get close to the one who is shining. When we talk about glow-in-the-dark products, if you have a watch that has a dial that glows like I do, those phosphorescent toys or objects have a phosphor embedded into them.

And a phosphor reacts to a light source. So you hold it up to a light like the sun or a light bulb and it charges. That's what they call it, there's a charge that takes place. The phosphor gets excited by the light source and then it continues to shine, and that's called persistence. Now, the persistence of the object that is glowing is directly relational to the radiance at the source. So the longer or more intense the source, the more persistence it's going to have.

And so it is with us. For us to glow, we need to go close to Jesus, grow in him and in fellowship with him, in proximity to him. Getting all of that warmth and glow, then our persistence will be more impactful. And I want to show you that and show you exactly how.

This takes us to verses 14 through 16. I want you to look at it because I'm going to show you how to glow. And this is what we're called to do. This is our vocation to the world. "Do all things without complaining and disputing, 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."

I'm going to sum that up. There's two ways to glow: attitude and action. You need the right attitude, you need the right action. The right attitude is verse 14. "Do all things without complaining." Guess what? This isn't going to help perhaps, but it says do all things. I made a discovery: all things actually means all things.

We'd love to say, "Yeah, but in the Greek, all things really means some things." No, actually means all things. It's sort of like Romans 8:28: "we know that all things work together for good to those who love God." Here's another all things: "do all things without complaining and disputing." You know what it means to complain? Who doesn't?

Let me tell you what this word means. The word here for complaining literally means to mutter in a low voice, a low tone, an undertone. The word means under your breath. You're not really vocalizing it to somebody else, you're just ticked off at something and you've just got a bad attitude.

So what's the context here? You're shining as a light in a crooked world. The world is watching you. How attractive is a Christian who does this all the time? Is that effective in winning people? Is a complaining, grumbling, disputing believer going to bring people out of darkness into the light? No, it won't.

So to be a complaining believer is bad advertising for the kingdom. Would you agree with that? It's bad advertising because why would an unbeliever listening to you grumble and complain want to do what you're doing as a follower of Christ? Because you're saying, "you need to come to Christ, peace and joy and love and greatness and awesomeness." They're going, "really? You're always grumbling, so your God doesn't treat you very well, so why should I follow him?" Do all things without complaining and disputing.

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. When you give to this ministry, you're helping reach thousands of people every day with God's life-changing truth, encouraging them to know him and grow in his word. And to thank you for your support this month, we'll send you The Making of a Biblical Leader, a practical guide to leading others, by Robert L. Furrow. This practical guide, featuring chapters by Skip and Lenya Heitzig, offers biblical wisdom to help you lead yourself and others with Christ-like integrity. Your gift today helps equip believers around the world to walk in truth and share the hope of Jesus. Request your copy when you give $50 or more to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: It's like the family at breakfast and the father began the breakfast by a very pious prayer. "Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you this day for all the food and all the goodness that you provide." And then afterward started complaining about the coffee being too weak and his wife making the eggs run and being late for this or that. So little daughter is listening at the table and says, "Hey, Daddy, did God hear you thank him in your prayer?" "Well, of course, God always hears our prayers." "And Daddy, did God hear you complaining against Mom and the eggs and the coffee?" And he got nervous now. "Yeah, I guess God did hear me say that." And she innocently said, "Well then, Daddy, which one does God believe?"

Which one does God believe? Now, an unbeliever looking at us, which one are they to believe? The complaining you, or the "you ought to follow God because he's awesome" you? Do all things, that's the attitude. That's how you glow. The more you complain, the more you diminish the glow.

So that's the first part. Now look at the next word: "do all things without complaining and disputing." Different word. Disputing is when you take it from under your breath and it's in a dialogue. Now you're telling everybody what's wrong with everything.

That's different than complaining, now you're disputing. Think of the woman in the car when she rolls her window down and shares those choice words and gives that gesture. That's the disputing part. And it's disputing what her bumper actually said she believed in. You remember that Jesus said be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Doves are pretty harmless. And a serpent was considered shrewd. Why is it that we as Christians think that we should reverse that and be about as wise as a dove and about as harmless as a serpent? Does no one any good, does it?

What animal in the Bible does Jesus say we are most like? Sheep. Everybody ever been scared by a sheep? Ever seen a sign, "Beware of Lamb"? Lambo is here. Watch out. This is my guard sheep. Jesus said, "I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves." Not wolves in the midst of sheep, you are sheep, that's your temperament, in the midst of wolves. So first is the attitude, all important is attitude. Do all things without complaining and disputing. Second is the action. Here's how you glow, not only your attitude but your action.

Verse 16: "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." Now, when you think of holding something fast, what do you think of? Gripping it, holding it firmly. So I'm holding my Bible fast, I have a good grip on it. So Paul could mean you need to have a good grip on the truth of the gospel because that's what he means when he says "holding the word of life." That's a synonym for the gospel message. So it could simply mean get a firm grasp on the message that brings eternal life.

However, this word is a little ambiguous and some translations put it this way: not holding fast, but holding forth the word of life. And I think that's a better idea. Don't just hold it fast so you know stuff, hold it forth so that you show stuff, so that you are telling others the message. He's speaking here of sharing your faith with people, preaching the gospel.

Not just knowing it but showing it, sharing it, speaking it, evangelizing with it. So we glow in the dark by living our lives differently, we glow in the dark by speaking the truth accurately. What we exemplify with our life must be amplified by our lips.

So if you're one of those believers who say, "well, I like to live a silent witness, I like to live my witness." Well, that's okay that you are living your witness, but that's sort of like this little guy. So I'm going to light it and I'm going to put it over here and it's got a nice little warm glow, and isn't it awesome? And it is.

But if you never actually tell people why you are so awesome and why you are so warm and why you've got this cool little glow going on in your life, if they never know how that happened, they're not going to know how to get out of darkness themselves. So at some point, we actually need to put words to our life and tell people how we got out of darkness and came to the light and how they can too. We have to share the gospel with our lips.

Romans chapter 10, verse 14, Paul says, "How can they believe in one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without somebody preaching to them?" So listen, if you think you can be a secret agent Christian, I'm encouraging you this morning, blow your cover.

Let the state secret out. Let the kingdom secret be known. Tell them what really the skinny is and tell them what heaven's all about and tell them how you got changed. So how do we glow? Right attitude, right action.

Now, I want to close with the last two verses and there's something here I never really noticed until this reading of Philippians in verse 17 and 18. He says, "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, I didn't see this before, but Paul here is linking his suffering.

And their sacrifice, he's putting them together and saying, "I want you guys to start seeing this as worship. It's part of your worship to God." So see where Paul says, "if I'm being poured out as a drink offering." Now, that's a picture they would be familiar with. You and I aren't, but in ancient times, pagan cultures had a thing called a libation where they would take a vessel, a glass, maybe with wine in it, and they would pour it on top of a sacrifice that was being made.

And it was symbolic of going all in. I'm pouring everything into this. I'm withholding it from myself and I'm pouring it out. Even in Judaism in the Old Testament, there was something called a drink offering. It was poured out. Paul sees his life that way. He's in jail, he's suffering and he says, "you know, I may not make it out of here alive. I'm incarcerated but I might have to pour my whole life out and be killed."

By the way, that's how Paul used it in the very last letter he ever wrote, 2 Timothy. He said in his writing, "I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my death is at hand." So here's what he's saying: even if this means I'm being poured out on—did you notice it?—on the sacrifice and the service of your faith. So it's their sacrifice and his offering poured on top of it. That's the word picture.

Do you see the word service? It literally means worship service. It's leitourgia. We get the term liturgy from that, a ceremony, a liturgical ceremony, a service of worship. So listen, let me tie it all together as we close. Paul is saying all of our glowing, all of our light-bearing, all of our gospel preaching, all of our attitude adjusting, you need to see that as part of your worship to God. Because that takes it to a whole new level.

That gives us a whole new reason to adjust our attitude. Gives us a whole new reason to share the gospel. Gives us a whole new reason to let our light be seen because it's part of our worship to God. Romans chapter 12, verse 1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is"—NIV says—"your spiritual act of worship." Your spiritual act of worship.

So let's glow in the dark. Let's leave the place where we're all shining so brightly and go out into the dark, crooked, and perverse world and glow in the dark, lest the darkness overshadow our glow.

I want to close with a crazy question, but I want an honest answer. How many of you drink Coke products? You're Coke people, raise your hand if you like—wait a minute, let me rephrase that. Coca-Cola. Not Coke, not—Coca-Cola. Okay, you're Coca-Cola people, raise your hand. I won't ask the other question because I might be surprised by the answer.

Okay, so these are Coca-Cola people. How many Pepsi people, raise your hand? Okay, once more, Coca-Cola people, raise your hand. Okay, so I got to tell you, Coke wins. And I think I know why. Want to know why Coke wins? Because a few years back, years ago, they had a stated goal of Coca-Cola Corporation. They said, "our goal is we want every person on earth to at least taste Coca-Cola." Every person. That's our goal. That's a pretty lofty goal, to say, "I want everybody in the world to taste Coca-Cola."

This is how they've done. As of today, 97% of the world has heard of Coke. 72% of the world has seen a Coke product. 51% of the world has tasted Coca-Cola. Over half. You say, "well, that's only over half, it's not 100%." Yeah, but you know how long Coca-Cola's been around? Only 100 years. In 100 years, they've been around, over half the world's population has tasted Coke.

Now, you know how long we've been around? The Christian community's been around 2,000 years the gospel message has been around. I know things go better with Coke, but things go way better with Jesus. So we can't boast of those numbers. We can't boast of the same numbers of the Coca-Cola Corporation. So I think you would agree: it's time for us to glow. To get in the game, so to glow we have to go to Jesus and grow in him so that persistent glow comes forth from our life.

Guest (Male): We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, remember that as our thanks for your gift of support today, we'll send you The Making of a Biblical Leader, a practical guide to leading others, by Robert L. Furrow, featuring chapters by Skip and Lenya Heitzig. This resource will encourage you to grow in faith and lead others with wisdom and grace. When you give, you help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people with the truth of God's word and the hope found in Jesus. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resource when you do. See you next time.

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