Little Lights Can Shine Bright | Philippians 2:14-30

Takeaway Verse: Philippians 2:16

Hold firmly to the word of life…

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Transcription:

Purposely. Your life. God’s purpose. Listen at onpurposely.com.

Welcome to The Bible For Busy People. I’m Erica Parkerson. This is the place where we meet up to read half a chapter of God’s word together and remember how loved we are. Jesus extends an amazing invitation to us in the Bible. He says, come to me and I will give you rest. This is us RSVPing, “Yes” to that invitation. So, take a deep breath and let’s get started.

Erica Parkerson: Today’s episode is called, Little Lights Can Shine Bright. Have you ever been in a movie theater, and someone picks up their cell phone and all of a sudden they start texting or they’re scrolling through Instagram? That’s the brightest light you’ve ever seen. Right? Everybody is drawn to that light. No matter what kind of circumstances, you find yourself in, no matter how dark it is, you can still shine. I can still shine. Look at the apostle Paul. He’s writing to the Philippians who are going through so much. This is a letter that we’re reading.

We’re gonna be covering the second half of chapter two today. And Paul is in jail himself. He is shining his light right there in the darkness of his prison cell, so that the people in Philippi, who are going through all sorts of things can absorb that light and in turn, spread it. It’s beautiful. Plus, Paul is sharing light and love with us, thousands of years after he wrote it. So, join me in a word of prayer before we dive in to the second half of Philippians chapter two. Father, in Jesus name, we pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts today to understand and see what you would have us to understand and see in your word today. In Jesus name, amen.

All right, let’s dive in. Here we go in everything you do stay away from complaining and arguing so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean innocent lives as children of God in a dark world, full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them. Here comes our takeaway verse, Hold tightly to the word of life. I love that. So, that when Christ returns, I will be proud that I did not lose the race, and that my work was not useless. But even if my life is to be poured out like a drink offering, to complete the sacrifice of your faithful service, that is if I am to die for you, I will rejoice. And I want to share my joy with all of you. And you should be happy about this and rejoice with me. If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon. Then when he comes back, he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along. I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves, and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. But you know how Timothy has proved himself like a son with his father, he has helped me in preaching the good news. I hope to send him to you just as soon as I find out what is going to happen to me here. And I have confidence from the Lord that I myself will come to see you soon. Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother. A faithful worker and a courageous soldier, and he was your messenger to help me in my need. Now I am sending him home again for he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill, and he surely was ill. In fact, he almost died, but God had mercy on him, and also on me so that I would not have such unbearable sorrow. So, I am all the more anxious to send him back to you for I know you will be glad to see him and that will lighten all my cares. Welcome him with Christian Love and with great joy and be sure to honor people like him, for he risked his life for the work of Christ. He was at the point of death while trying to do for me, the things you couldn’t do, because you were far away.

Paul’s words are so encouraging. He’s telling us to shine brightly. And how do we do it? Going back to our takeaway verse 16, Hold tightly to the word of life. When my children were little, and we went to the ocean, and we got in those waves, maybe up to our ankles, I’m talking when my kids were two and four, I held their hands so tightly. Because I didn’t want them to get away from me and have a wave, you know, pull them out to sea. I held so tightly.

That is how tightly you and I are supposed to hold to the word of life. How can we shine in this dark world unless we’re holding onto him tightly? He is the light of the world. CS Lewis puts it this way. If you wanna get warm, get close to the fire. So, if we want to spread light, we’ve got to get close to the light. We’ve gotta hold tightly to the light. The light has a name. His name is Jesus. All right, I can’t wait to meet up with you tomorrow. We’re gonna be diving into Philippians chapter three. Until then, remember you are really loved.

Thank you so much for listening to The Bible For Busy People. If you need prayer or you’re ready to go a little deeper in your faith, we’ve posted some resources for you in our show notes. We’d love for you to share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review. It helps us reach even more people with the hope of Jesus. This podcast is part of Purposely, a podcast network designed with practical podcast, to help you find and live in God’s purpose for your life. Find more podcasts that will recharge you at onpurposely.com.