Introduction

How Many Christians Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb? Well if you’re Baptists, At least 15 - One to change the light bulb, and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad and fried chicken.

Let us take a short break from Ephesians and center our thoughts on LIGHT.

The central passage for this morning is Philippians 2:14-15.

Do all things without complaining and disputing, {15} 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,

What a beautiful thought

Do all things without complaining and disputing.

As I have shared with you before, I spent 26 years in the US Army and I retired as a Sergeant Major

I have had to direct people to accomplish a mission

Many times I have been confronted with complaining, with disputing, and with outright mutiny

I will never forget one fellow, big man, he was so angry with me that he was about to go after me with a tire iron. I said to him, Smith, I’ll make a deal with you if you hit me with the tire iron, if you visit me in the hospital, I’ll visit you in jail. I don’t like to have to deal with people in that manner.

I had my orders from the commander, I had given him his orders to accomplish what the commander wanted done.

Pretty simple

In the church we have to deal with people all the time

Some accept the enviable

Others will argue, even when they know they’re wrong.

There are those who complain

In the Army, its usually about the chow

I was as guilty as anybody else in that department

But, it was mostly just to let off steam

But in the church there are those who complain about what ever, and there are those who take action to fix the things that are wrong

Believe me, I appreciate Kenneth, Joyce, Maedine and Jeana for their contribution to our worship experience every Sunday morning

I appreciate Kenneth and Carie and the replacement of the light bulbs in the AWANA room

And I appreciate Don for working on other problems with the lights in the AWANA room.

No words of complaint, just seeing a job to do and doing it.

Others have done as much in the past, and if I took time to name them all, well we would be here a little while longer, because we would not like to leave anybody out and we would have to name just about every individual that calls Grace Baptist their church home

But, all these people have proven to glorify God by shining as light in this darkened world

Please turn with me to Genesis chapter 1

Body

Light in the beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. {2} The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. {3} Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. {4} And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. {5} God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

God said, Let there be light; he willed it, and at once there was light.

Let me share with you the words of Matthew Henry, again, such profound thoughts concerning the first product of God’s genius in His creative process, light.

Oh, the power of the word of God!

And in the new creation, the first thing that is wrought in the soul is light: the blessed Spirit works upon the will and affections by enlightening the understanding.

Those who by sin were darkness, by grace become light in the Lord.

Darkness would have been always upon fallen man, if the Son of God had not come and given us understanding.

At this point Matthew Henry references 1 John 5:20, so lets pause and read that verse together, 1 John 5:20

And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, (enlightenment) that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Now, lets continue Matthew’s thoughts

The light which God willed, he approved of.

God divided the light from the darkness; for what fellowship has light with darkness?

In heaven there is perfect light, and no darkness at all; in hell, utter darkness, and no gleam of light.

The day and the night are the Lord's; let us use both to his honor, by working for him every day, and resting in him every night, meditating in his law both day and night.

Many of these thoughts you can easily identify with the Scripture passage to which Matthew alludes

One of the very first things God created was light

And God saw the light, that it was good

And He separated the light from the darkness

What was God’s view of the darkness?

In Exodus 10:21-23 Darkness was the 9^th plague God brought upon Egypt, literal darkness

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt." {22} So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. {23} They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

In Psalm 88:4-6 darkness is expressed along with death, weakness, those in the grave, those in hell

I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength, {5} Adrift among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And who are cut off from Your hand. {6} You have laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the depths.

In 1 John 1:6 darkness is equated with separation from God lying, lack of truth

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

As a metaphor for sin and degradation darkness is a fitting illustration

The very first thing God created in His program of creation, He created light and He said that it was good.

From that point light is the illustration of good

And darkness is an illustration of sin and evil

Lets look again at our Philippian passage

Do all things without complaining and disputing, {15} 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,

What then is this light?

Apparently, our light is not about thinking, its about doing or in the first case, not doing

Do all things without complaining and disputing

I guess this passage seems so simple that many commentators simply pass it over

But I want to draw your attention to the first word in this passage DO

The passage is about light and the passage is about DOING

Do all things

All things

Work

Play

Relate

Love

Learn

All things

Do all things without complaining

I remember at Deer Valley Baptist we had a siege of complaints about people leaving dirty cups in the sink and of course Pastor Don and his wife were on the receiving end of the complaints until one Sunday morning during the announcements Pastor Don said two things: If you dirty a cup, clean it, don’t leave it for someone else to clean. If you see a dirty cup in the sink, don’t complain to me or Deanna about it, wash it, dry it and put it away.

Do all things without complaining.

Lynn Hall, from Worland, WY. In Today's Christian Woman wrote, "One afternoon, our 5-year-old daughter, Katie, was singing a Scripture song we had recently learned. While my husband and I listened proudly, she came to a verse about becoming blameless. Katie confidently sang out, "Do everything without arguing, that you may become brainless and pure, children of God"

This passage also says, do all things without disputing

Many years ago now, there was one letter to Ann Landers in which a woman complained about her husband leaving the seat to the bathroom throne up. That started a torrent of similar letters, if you believe Ann Landers, numbering in the thousands. I can’t help but wonder how many hard feelings were initiated by that first letter of complaint, women who had never thought about it before. One day I read Ann Landers and she said something like this: On the subject of the toilet seat, the following will be the last letter that will appear in my column. In this letter the woman wrote something like this: I need the toilet seat down and my husband needs the toilet seat up. I should leave the seat up for him and he should leave the seat down for me.

In another place I read something like this: You’re a big girl now, if the seat is up, put it down.

How many domestic disputes began with that first letter.

Another letter to Ann Landers started another round of complaints and disputes. This was about whether the bathroom tissue should come down in front of behind the roll.

How many marriages were destroyed or badly crippled by these petty squabbles

At Deer Valley we had a treasurer who spoke doom and gloom, we can’t afford to do this or that. The perfect treasurer, he made every one think about a project and then to decide whether to give a little more to see the project through

This is not disputing. This was his job. It was to make people think.

I was voted into the position of associate pastor and was paid a part time salary. During one business meeting Pastor Don suggested that I receive a raise. One fellow jumped up and began to argue with the pastor and the congregation saying that I was unnecessary and I should not be paid. The treasurer stood up and told the congregation that the church could well afford to pay me a little more and that I had a vital ministry. The first fellow was angry at the pastor, jealous that Pastor Don had another friend.

Nothing was brought up by Pastor Don that he did not argue about.

Eventually the man repented and once again peace reigned in the church

If you’re on the job and your boss tells you to do something, just do it and do it to the best of your ability

That you may shine as lights in the world

Christian action is not of ourselves; it is the spirit of Christ operating in our lives.

As I said not too many weeks ago, we are wicks, the Holy Spirit is the oil and the spark that we might shine

George Eliot lived from 1819 to 1880. He wrote this little poem

If you sit down at set of sun And count the acts that you have done, And, counting, find one self-denying deed, one word That eased the heart of him who heard- One glance most kind, that fell like sunshine where it went- Then you may count that day well spent.

Our passage is about doing and becoming

Do all things without complaining and disputing, {15} 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,

Live in this world without complaining and disputing so that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault

If I don’t complain or argue I can become blameless and harmless?

A child of God without fault?

But, how can this be?

If we turn to Proverbs 16:3 we will see this promise

Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.

Let me start by giving you this natty little saying

The Lord has given us two ends, They have a common link; For with the bottom end we sit, And with the other end we think. Success in life depends upon Which end you choose to use, You'll discover this, my friend, Heads you win, and tails you lose!

Which is more important?

Doing?

Or Becoming?

Easily said as Paul has shown, we do to become

Everything we do, we do without complaining or disputing, we do with honesty, we do with integrity, we do to the very best of our ability

In so doing we have God’s promise that if we commit our works to the LORD, then our thoughts will be established

In other words, if we commit what we do to our Lord, without complaining or disputing, God the Holy Spirit will work to bring our mind and attitudes into line with God’s design, His will, and His law.

In closing I would like to share with you an excerpt from Dr Laura Schlessinger’s book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands. This is not a marital sermon, but this excerpt is a perfect example of the poison of complaining and disputing. Dr Laura wrote, "Wendi, a listener, wrote to me that during the fourth year of her tumultuous marriage, her husband suggested that she participate in their church's Wednesday-morning "Moms Group." Now, this is me, I want you write down some place, "their church's Wednesday-morning ‘Moms Group,’ take specific notice that this was a Wednesday church group. We continue, Once she'd done so, her husband noticed changes in her on Wednesday evenings, but they weren't the good ones they'd both hoped for. "The women's group was not the help I'd been hoping for. Instead of finding practical ways to become a better mother, the group was a gripe session for women to vent about their husbands' idiosyncrasies, bad attitudes, and failures in general and in specific. I was becoming trained to complain and whine about real or imagined behavior and look for sympathy from other women. I discontinued participation. My husband and I sought real counsel from a godly couple, our pastor and his wife of over fifty years. They taught us to respect one another, our family, and our privacy. It was important for both of us to be fed from the same trough so that we could work together. "

What was she becoming?

Not light

She was becoming a child of the darkness

When she stopped walking in the darkness of Wednesday morning and began walking in the light, with her husband, she became light

Complaining and disputing is a contagious poison.

Do all things without complaining and disputing and become light in this dark world.