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[0:00] We're going to jump back into Philippians tonight. Let's see. For those of you who haven't really been with us throughout the study,! Just to tell you where we've been in chapter 2.

[0:15] Paul begins chapter 2 by exhorting the Philippians to not do things out of selfishness or rivalry, but rather be united in love and humility towards one another.

[0:27] And love and humility are the two things that actually hold the church together, keeps them from dividing. And then after verse 4, he gives you the ultimate example of sacrificial love and humility in the person of Christ and how Christ left the glory of heaven and came as a man and lived a perfect life of obedience and then died the most horrendous death on the cross.

[0:52] And then God exalted him as a result. But then last week, we talked about the mystery of how it is God who is at work in us, supposed to work and will for his good pleasure, and the mystery of our responsibility and how we're supposed to step forward and be obedient and to labor and fight and strive.

[1:14] But the whole time, it is God's power that works within us. We learned about that mystery last week. So with all this stuff in mind, with all this heavy doctrinal truth that we just read, obviously Paul has in mind that there's application for life after this.

[1:33] Remember that like no theology, no doctrine, all theology is practical and all theology actually plays out into our lives. It's not like we have the really easy theology that's like live this way and act that way, and then we have the upper level thinking.

[1:49] It all plays into how we live. All of it does. All of it. And this is where we're going to go. So in light of what they discussed in the previous verses, Paul says live this way, how we're to work out our salvation, not work for our salvation, but rather to press into the fullness of what is ours in Christ.

[2:12] So we get to verse 14, and we're going to jump around a little bit, but first of all, I want to just talk about the world that we live in, okay, the world that we live in.

[2:29] And there's two things from this passage that we can note about the world that we live in. The first one is, can be seen in verse 15, we live in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, or a crooked and perverse generation.

[2:44] And definitely was true of Paul's days, but it's definitely true of our day. So we need to kind of address this.

[2:56] And the word crooked here, it means like scoliosis. It means like something that is like bent out of shape, and it's deviated from the intended path. It's twisted and perverted, and it kind of sums up the lost world around us.

[3:12] And so perverse, the other picture there, being twisted, it just means that we have taken the truth of God, what is meant to be good and beautiful and right, and we've twisted that and perverted that.

[3:27] And even the good things that we have, that's what we've done to them. We've made them into ultimate things, giving our lives to them and worshiping them, that only God deserves our worship.

[3:38] And so that we live in a society, though, that doesn't just do evil, but they actually like encourage each other to do evil, and they give hearty approval to the ones who are acting in evil.

[3:53] That's Romans 1.32. It says they don't only do these evil things, they give approval to those who practice them. Proverbs 2.14 says this, It kind of sums up this idea of how things are not the way they ought to be.

[4:21] They're twisted and they're crooked. A mess like the world that we live in is a perversion of what God had. And so that's something first to note, is we live in a crooked and perverse generation.

[4:34] Now, this is probably where we're going to be spending most of our time. But something else to note, as you see in verse 15, it says that we're shining as lights in the world, and light implies that darkness.

[4:52] And it is a characteristic of the lost world around us that it's also a generation that lives in darkness. The world dwells in darkness. And it's a characteristic of a sinful lost world.

[5:06] And many dictionaries, just English dictionaries, if you look at it and you actually look up darkness, guess what it says? Like absence of light, where there's no light. That's like what it says.

[5:18] The best definition of what darkness really is, is an absence of light. However, like God is not ever talking about physical darkness. Like turn the lights off in here.

[5:29] He's talking about a spiritual darkness that haunts the souls of men that lives in us, that lives in the lost world around us. And an oppressive spiritual darkness that crushes us.

[5:44] And the people that live in darkness currently, some of you might, if you're without Christ, that you still dwell in darkness. They're aware of it.

[5:55] They know like something's not right. I knew that I did. I knew that something was not right in my life. I didn't really know what. But I felt like I had darkness.

[6:05] And so the people that we live around, they feel that way. And elsewhere in the world, you see darkness in a variety of forms. You see it like in a miscarriage of justice, corrupted governments, corrupted legal officials, and how they use their power to starve their people and to abuse their people.

[6:30] We see so many things. We see sex trafficking. We see that warlords seize the food that's meant to feed the starving people. We see all kinds of stuff, a darkness that just prevails over the world.

[6:42] And then just even in our own lives, we feel like the darkness of separation and loneliness and broken relationships and sickness, death, a big uncertainty.

[6:59] One of the major characteristics about darkness is you can't see where you're going. And you have to think of that way spiritually. All of you at one time, and myself included, and many of you know now, they have no hope and no peace and no joy about the future at all.

[7:17] They have no idea like what the future holds for them. And that's why they only can live in the moment, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. They don't know like what the future holds.

[7:27] And so they, it's very scary. Knowing that, knowing what I know now, knowing that God is sovereign over my life and He has a direction for my life and that He only intends good and the best for me, that brings a peace that the world doesn't know.

[7:48] Their lives are headed towards chaos. And ultimately, it will lead to spiritual death, ultimate spiritual death and separation from God.

[7:59] Proverbs 4, 19 says, the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know where they are going and they stumble. And that's what the wicked live in.

[8:12] They live in sheer darkness, hopelessness, and loneliness. I know what this is like. And the, I had a, when I was, my first, I think it was sophomore year in college, freshman, sophomore year in college, I lived in Gwinnett County and I was just, at that time, I was probably early Christian and I just had like a lot of zeal but not like a lot of channeling and right thinking and what I was doing but had good motives.

[8:43] And I was a part of my old youth ministry, just kind of being like a youth worker and there was a kid who was 13 named Tyler and Tyler grew up very, very lonely like teenager.

[8:59] His parents hated his guts. He lived with his aunt and in school he was picked on a lot when he started middle school.

[9:10] He came around every Wednesday and we always tried to hang out with him and he was a fun guy to be around but he also did some very crazy things just to get attention.

[9:21] That's all he wanted was like somebody to be like, hey, just to look at him. One time he actually drove his bike like down a hill through like a major intersection just hoping that he didn't get like hit by the cars.

[9:33] He was just trying to get attention from all his buddies. Just very, very lonely, feeling unwanted. just darkness in his eyes. No hope.

[9:45] And I remember actually being in the hospital getting a call from a friend of mine that said that he had hung himself the previous night and that was the first time I had experienced something like that and had to work with all his friends, all his middle school buddies who just didn't understand like what happened.

[10:02] Just sheer darkness and this is what it leads to. The apex of that is just wanting not to go on living. So, a story that I mentioned I think last year, a story of a girl called Judy Bucknell and she lived in California, San Francisco Bay.

[10:27] She worked really hard. She exercised. She was really well respected in the community. She was never in jail. She never got in trouble with the law.

[10:38] And she, but she was miserable. She hosted parties and designer clothes and in 1980, at the age of 38, she became homicide victim 106 in Miami.

[10:53] And she was murdered on a summer evening and stabbed several times and strangled. And she kept a diary of a very lonely life.

[11:05] And this is something that she wrote at the age of 38. At the age of 38, I'm alone and I want to share something with somebody. Where are the men with the flowers and the champagne and the music?

[11:18] Where are the men who call and ask for a genuine, actual date? Where are the men who like to share more than my bed and my food? I would like to have in my life once before I pass through, before I pass on, the kind of sexual relationship which is a part of a loving relationship.

[11:39] I see people together and I'm so jealous and I want to throw up. What about me? What about me? Who is going to love Judy Bucknell? I feel so old, unloved, unwanted, abandoned, used up, and I want to cry in my sleep forever.

[11:58] A picture of loneliness. This girl's heart had actually died way before she died. And Jesus said in Matthew 6, the eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

[12:15] But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light is in you, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?

[12:26] There's something about that. We can, you look in someone's eyes and you're just emptiness. I mean, I know what that looks like. And so, two characteristics about the loss of what we live in.

[12:38] It's crooked, it's perverse, and it's, it lives in darkness. And I've, been there, and I hope that if you have been there, that you don't forget what it was like and to remind yourself and it's surrounding you every day with your friends and family.

[12:56] So, in this text, we're going to look at five verbs that are going to change into present participles. You know what that is? Too bad if you don't.

[13:09] Come on, North Georgia English. Okay. And, and how we're to live in the midst of a world like this. And, number one, there's five. Number one, our doing.

[13:23] Our doing. And it comes from verse 14 where it says, do all things without grumbling or questioning. And, the focus there is on the manner in which things are to be done.

[13:37] Not just in the doing, but like the spirit behind the doing. And, without complaining, without grumbling, or without questioning. So, it's a call to be obedient, the spirit of joy and gladness and not a grudging kind of obedience.

[13:54] So, it's possible for us to do the right thing but do it in such a way to where it deprives us of the joy and angers everyone around us. Very possible to do that.

[14:05] an example. So, you can, well, some of you probably could say this now. You're home and your parents give you a task to do.

[14:17] Clean something up. Go mow the yard. Go rake the leaves. Clean the house. Whatever. And, they're interrupting your chilled out day and your entertainment that you want.

[14:29] And, it leads you just to grumble. And, this word for grumbling here, it means like muttering under like a low voice. This is a grumble in your spirit and it leads to a questioning which is, why do I got to do this now?

[14:47] Why do I got to do that today? Why can't I do it my way and not your way? It leads to this where you're questioning and you're grumbling about a specific task that's been given to you.

[15:00] So, it's intellectual and emotional and so it it gets to the point where your your parents are just like, look, just put the rake down just go in your room I'll do the dishes.

[15:15] I'd rather do it myself than to watch your mean-spirited attempt at obedience. Ever had that happen? Like, just forget about it. Just get out of my sight. I'm so tired of hearing this gruntled spirit in you.

[15:28] and it gets to that point. So, if that's true for our earthly parents, our earthly father, how much more our heavenly father? Paul probably has in mind Exodus 15, turn there.

[15:45] This is, keep your hand in Philippians. Excuse me, Exodus 16, I was going to mention verse 15, chapter 15. Exodus 16 and go to verse 6.

[15:59] But just to give you a context, Israel has come through the Red Sea. They've been delivered from the hands of the Egyptians. And in verse, excuse me, chapter 15, you have the song of Moses.

[16:14] He's praising God for what God has done. And you have his sister Miriam going to town on the tambourine, kind of going, you know, going nuts to the tambourine.

[16:25] And then, you get to chapter 16. And just think about what just happened. They just were delivered, taken through the Red Sea, delivered out of bondage in Egypt. And God, and they begin to grumble.

[16:39] They begin to grumble at the beginning of the chapter. They're basically like, we have more meat in Egypt. We have more stuff to eat in general in Egypt. And they're kind of grumbling and moaning.

[16:50] And then God, graciously, provides them manna and quail to eat. And Moses makes it clear, though, their complaint is not against him, but against God.

[17:03] And so we get to chapter 16, verse 6. We'll just read some of this. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

[17:18] And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. And it says, For what are we that you grumble against us?

[17:32] And Moses said, When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him, what are we?

[17:45] Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord. And then Moses said to Aaron, Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, Come near before the Lord for he has heard your grumbling.

[17:58] So of all people, we're really quick to do this when we study the Old Testament and study the people of Israel. You'd think, they're crazy.

[18:08] This got delivered out of slavery in Egypt and seen these awesome miracles and they're grumbling. We're really quick to kind of point their finger at them. You'd think, they of all people should be joyful and glad to be delivered.

[18:22] And we are very guilty ourselves. Like you need to turn like right around and like point to yourself. They experienced a worldly deliverance from physical slavery but we have experienced even greater deliverance from our spiritual death through what Christ has done and we still grumble.

[18:44] we still grumble. And you can say like God, you know, why have you stuck me in this place in my life? Why does everybody else kind of seem to get what they want and I don't?

[19:00] Why is this thing happening this way? If you just gave me this then I would be happy. We just grumble and we complain and we argue. Even in our service to God, we argue and we grumble.

[19:12] I remember being in Puerto Rico I think when I might have been like 21 years old and we were doing some work on the streets and doing street work painting curbs and cleaning up things as a means to share the gospel with the people that were coming around us and there was a lady on my team that, man, I just, the prophet in me just started coming out towards the end of that trip but she was just grumbling like the whole time like, it's so hot out here, why do we have to do this right now?

[19:50] Very, every little thing you can think of and like, I can't wait to go to the beach on this day and just very, it made me really sad and angry all at the same time.

[20:03] Just a persistent grumbling the whole time and just began to rob people like the joy that was there and so, if we persist in long term grumbling and questioning God, He'll discipline us, He will, like He'll say like, I've had enough of this and He'll like kindly just knock us down a little bit and turn to Lamentations right after Jeremiah and I'll show you an example of this.

[20:34] God actually did this to Judah and Jeremiah who wrote Lamentations recognized this. Lamentations chapter 3 verse 37 There's just a few other places for you to turn tonight.

[20:54] Getting used to flipping that Bible. Lamentations chapter 3 verse 37 He says, Who has spoken and has come to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?

[21:10] Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? So, He recognizes right here in this first verse that God's sovereign hand is what brings good and allows evil.

[21:26] He does both. Like it doesn't just God is in control of all things. Things don't just happen even when even when Satan acts is because God has sovereignly allowed him to act and he only operates in the parameters in which God has set.

[21:39] Then it goes on and he says, Why should a living man complain a man about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord.

[21:53] Let us lift up our hearts and hands to the God of heaven. Why should we complain and why should we be grumbling? If we have been delivered from our sin and now we actually continue to sin against the Lord and God disciplines us, why should we grumble?

[22:09] Like what's the he's saying like obviously God would discipline us and let us examine our ways and return to the Lord. So, that's the first thing is in our doing we're to live in such a way without grumbling or complaining.

[22:27] The second thing, the second part of the civil year, look at, go back to Philippians, sorry. Philippians, it's going to be in verse 15, in our becoming, our becoming, and in verse 15, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

[22:56] That's verse 15. So, in our becoming, we're to, that you may be, I'm just kind of adding that on, becoming, be, becoming, children of God.

[23:08] Not by physical birth, but as it says in John 1, by the power of God, by the spirit of regeneration the Holy Spirit gives to us, being born again. So, pure here is not just an external activity, it has to do with the fact that, that like, precious metals that are free of all the alloys that actually would bring harm to it, a purity.

[23:32] Purity is what paves the way for our intimacy with God. If we give ourselves and adulterate ourselves out to a thousand different things, we don't have the purity to actually enjoy the Lord as we could enjoy the Lord.

[23:46] So, that's what carves that out and purity is a shocking thing to anybody in the world we live in, in any situation. It's like we actually would keep ourselves pure for something.

[24:00] It's mind-boggling to the world. It transcends into the spiritual world. And notice how it says in their midst. We're to be in their midst, not separating ourselves from the world, but actually being in it.

[24:17] And while we're in the midst of it, to be blameless. And that just means living without fault. Not perfect, but not in such a way to where they're constantly pointing out to us the gap between our mouths and the way we actually live.

[24:33] We're to show people that this is real and that we believe with our hearts and our minds that it goes into our actions and to live upright and clean.

[24:47] Two other places to turn. This is one. Titus chapter 2. Flip there and I'm going to show you something here. We don't want any gaps to exist between what we say or what we claim to believe and then actually our actions.

[25:05] We want them to be one. Nothing brings harm to the gospel like people who talk a lot but don't really walk that way at all.

[25:18] And remember not perfectly but we're going to look at Titus chapter 2 verse 7 and Paul writes to them, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity and dignity, sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

[25:46] There's another example of that. Listen to this. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters and everything. They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith.

[26:03] And why? Why all this? Why? The last part. So that in everything that may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

[26:14] So when we live in that way, it adorns Christ. It makes Christ look beautiful and magnificent and glorious like He really is. And that's the purpose.

[26:25] It's not just to live that way, just to live that way. It's to show people this is where our life comes from, where our joy comes from. And so they would have nothing really evil to say about us unless they're lying.

[26:37] We would have a clean conscience about how we live. So that's the second one, our becoming. The third one, back in Philippians in verse 15, our shining, our shining.

[26:54] And verse 15, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

[27:05] And we've talked a lot about the darkness that exists in the world before we actually dove into this. So remember that Christ is the light of the world.

[27:20] He said in John, I'm the light of the world. whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. So this is the light that Christ brought to the world.

[27:34] And so now that Christ is gone, through Christ we become children of the light. We have to have Christ in our life and we become children of the light.

[27:45] Once we're born again, his light is given to us and it dwells in us. And it's not a light that we produce or put out on our own.

[27:56] We have no light in and of ourselves to give anybody. It's a light that completely comes by knowing Christ. And in Ephesians 5 verse 8, this is something Paul says, For at one time you were darkness, but now you are the light in the Lord.

[28:17] Walk as children of light. So we have in this present life, joy and direction for our lives because we have that light. And we're to shine in a dark world.

[28:31] And think about this, like the moon, you ever heard like the light of the moon? The moon doesn't have any light, you know that? Like it doesn't actually put out light.

[28:43] It reflects the light off the sun, does it not? And that's what we see. So we're to position our lives in such a way to where we reflect the glory of the sun onto the world around us.

[28:57] And people can tell that the light's not coming from us but from something else. And that's being the light of the world. And stars, if we're to walk outside, probably around here, you see the stars.

[29:12] Out in the country you can see the stars. stars in the ancient times were navigational tools. They didn't have a lot of the GPS stuff we have now. Like they had the sailors and mariners, they had to decide where to go based on where the stars were.

[29:30] And they serve as a guide. And so our lives are to serve as a navigational guide to the people who are lost in darkness. We're to show them this is where the light is.

[29:42] This is how you should live. This is where to go and we're to point to Christ because he's the source of the light and he's the source of life. And I think this is the last place.

[29:54] I'm going to have you turn, but look at Matthew 5. Awesome. You can't really skip over this. Matthew 5, Summer on the Mount, verse 14. Many people around us do not know the way to go and they need the light of Christ.

[30:14] So, yeah, Matthew 5, verse 14, Jesus says this, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

[30:35] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Lights, by nature, shine.

[30:47] They don't do any other thing. That's what they do. They illuminate. Light means like illumination. It means purity, clarity. In a lot of ways, it means like goodness.

[30:58] That's what light means. It's the opposite of darkness. And when we leave buildings like this, to put our light away, does the world no good. It doesn't do us any good either.

[31:10] and notice how he doesn't command them to shine. He's like basically saying, you do shine.

[31:21] If Christ is in you, this is what will happen. You will shine. His light's in the world. It doesn't say, get out there and shine. It's not a commandment. He's saying that you shine. Because they possess Christ, the light of the world.

[31:35] So it's not a commandment. It's something that dwells in us that comes out. So we're to shine in the world. The fourth thing is our holding out.

[31:45] This is in verse 16 back in Philippians. Holding fast to the word of life. So a good rendering of that would be to hold forth, to hand something out that way to someone.

[32:01] And so the word of God that is the lamp unto our feet, the light unto our paths, that gives us direction. We're to hold it out. We're to hold the gospel out to others.

[32:13] And that's it. You can't save the person. You can't change the person. We're to be offering it out to them. Here is life. Here is the word of life that will bring you salvation.

[32:25] It's only found in Christ. So that's what we're to do. God enables them to lay hold of it. That one's pretty fast. Could go on that forever.

[32:35] But fifthly and lastly, our rejoicing. Our rejoicing. This is in verse 16. Paul says, So that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I do not run in vain or labor in vain.

[32:50] Even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and I rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

[33:02] You know, like in a lot of relays, what they call fault starts, and the person can run a long, long way, and I think they're doing good, and get to the end, be like, sorry, fault start, you didn't actually make this happen.

[33:16] Paul wants no fault start. He wants to be able to look at the Philippians and be able to say, you know, this was done right, and I can rejoice because of that, and I want you to rejoice with me when we get to that finish line, and to share in that joy, a drink offering, Paul calls himself a drink offering, to, in the Old Testament, like, wine was a very valuable, rare commodity, and it was poured out on the altar where animals were sacrificed, and it was, it would create this really nice smelling aroma, and it was symbolic of somebody's devotion and commitment to God.

[33:59] That's what the wine offering was, the drink offering, and Paul is saying that I want my life to be this way, I want it to be poured out as a drink offering, that's pleasing to God, and that the Philippians would be there as a sign of that, and they would share in that joy that existed.

[34:21] So, this is a life we're to live in the midst of a dark and crooked, perverse generation. all these things will help us.

[34:32] And lastly, this is just more of an exhortation than anything. If you're without Christ tonight, hear this directly like out of the mouth of Jesus himself, and let this be something that spurs us on as people who know Christ to go after and to seek the loss around us.

[34:59] John 12, just go ahead and turn there, we're done after this. John 12, this is right out of the mouth of Christ. John 12, verse 35.

[35:19] John 12, verse 35, says, So Jesus said to them, The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.

[35:34] The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of the light.

[35:46] And Jesus is saying that like I'm here right now, I'm the light of the world, believe in me while I'm here. And it carries a certain tone as if like the light will not be around forever for people to lay hold of and to come out of their darkness.

[36:05] So Christ is all that we need to live this life. And so we're to live in the world and all we do will be without grumbling, we're to be becoming children of God, laying hold of what's ours in Christ, and to be shining in a dark world.

[36:28] This is, I feel so convicted when I think about this. I'm not doing this as often as I ought, but people need to be able to look at our lives and see something is not quite right, something is different about how we live.

[36:42] We have been given the greatest thing to have hope and to have joy in. And if we just look like the rest of the world, there's still something that's not right. We're either in sin, we're rebelling against our Father, or we don't have the light at all.

[37:00] It says that you must shine. If Christ is in you, it has to come out somehow. doesn't just, he just said a city on a hill, it shines that light. And that's what we want to be for people.

[37:13] And it, to those who God is working in, when they actually see that light, such freedom and such joy overtakes them.

[37:25] I remember just a temporal experience of this. when I was hiking in Scotland this summer, it was getting late.

[37:36] It was really, really dark outside. And it was raining and I was really hungry. I had no food on me at the time. And I just didn't know where we were on the trail.

[37:50] I just knew we were on the trail. And I was just praying like we got to the next town really quick. and just wanted to get a nice shower and go get some food. That kind of feeling.

[38:03] I'm huffing and puffing with my lungs going up this last hill. I didn't know how far we had to go. And we finally got up there. I could see the town down that way.

[38:15] It was this big bright light. I was like, yes! I could just brought so much freedom and joy. I felt like I was going to make it out for a second. And we just kind of kept going.

[38:27] And when we got there, just went to the hostel, threw our stuff down, got on a nice shower, put some dry clothes on, went to the pub and had some good pub grub. And while I was there, you're in a room with several other guys that are all on bunk beds, other hikers, and guys from all over the place.

[38:48] We had been sharing the gospel that day with a guy from France, from Paris, and he just, kind of wasn't having it. We talked for like 15 miles about stuff, and he was kind of borderline agnostic, I guess you could probably say, but he got to talking about women and just how he, you know, liked that stuff.

[39:12] and he, it just kind of was, kind of began to make me like really, really sad, because this is what this guy worshiped, this is where he found his life, and you could tell that it was just like all he wanted and all that he could look for, were, and so when we got to this hostel, there was another guy that was sleeping underneath me, and he was from Scotland, he actually was in the military, and so my friend Mark and I were talking about this guy, and just how bad we felt for him, because we were holding out the word of life to him, and just didn't want it, and just kind of spat on it, and we were just kind of talking about how we felt sorry for him, and how he doesn't really know that real joy exists, and we didn't say Christ, we didn't say anything while we were just standing there, and this guy kind of popped out of his bed, underneath me, the guy from Scotland, his name was Paul, and he said, are you a

[40:19] Christian? And I was like, oh man, what's about to come next? Like, I hate Christians, or something, I didn't know what's about to come, but I kind of said, yeah man, just a follower of Christ, lover of Christ, that's us, and he's like, me too, and he said, I could tell, and I was like, really?

[40:42] I began to ask him, and he said that you were talking about having joy that the world doesn't know, and having peace that the world doesn't know, and he was like, so I just assumed that's who you guys were, and so we invited him to come out to eat with us, and we had a good time, but like, the joy that seeing the light brings in a temporal experience like that is just nothing compared to having like, your chains fall off from bondage and sin, and having light come into your life, the light of the world, Christ, and so this is what we're to be doing, we have to stand out, Christ is in us, and he has to pour out of us, so that's our sermon tonight, let's just pray, and we'll, Alex and Lauren, you probably can just come back up, and we're going to respond, just with some singing, and we'll break out in groups, Father,

[41:42] I pray that you would help us just to reverence you, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as we've read in Philippians, and that we would seek to live in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation that lives in darkness, and I pray that we wouldn't forget the darkness that we once lived in, and Lord, that that would break our hearts and lead us to shine in the darkness, to point others to Christ, to hold out the word of life, Lord, to do all things that we do without grumbling, complaining, but in a spirit of joy and gladness that we actually can do all things, even eating and drinking to your glory, and Father, that we can see you change lives, you can destroy the darkness that's around us, and the lives of people that all of us in here, all of us know who those people are right now.

[42:57] God, so help us to shine, help us to step out and to love them and to lay our lives down for them.

[43:09]  God, they will be freed from sin, be saved for your glory. Father, we love you and just give you praise in Christ's name. Amen.