Shining in a Dark World

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

What a great day.

Welcome, Access Church.

How many of you glad to be a part of a great church?

I mean, come on.

This is a phenomenal church, if you're wondering, uh, and haven't already decided that.

And it is led by two amazing pastors, and Pastor Jason and Liz Burns, and they are gifts from God to this house.

Amazing gifts from God to this house.

Yeah.

Why don't you give it up for your pastors?

They will be back in the next couple of weeks.

In fact, I caught a sneak peek that you might be able to see them next week.

Just might be able to see them.

You might not hear from them, but you're going to see them.

But at any rate, they are incredible.

I have known them for years.

Literally, I have known Pastor Jason since he was a teenager.

That's a while ago.

And I have been connected with this church since its inception.

And what a great church.

If you're wondering why I'm I've been crying at worship this morning.

I just was deeply touched.

But you guys have an amazing, amazing church with incredible leaders.

And it's always this privilege.

I was here when you opened this facility, and here now you've already gone to three services.

I mean, church is growing, God is adding people.

And the reason he's doing that is because you've got integrous, godly, Jesus-centered leaders who love you and are building a culture where everybody is loved and accepted, can come here and experience the presence and the power of God.

I'll tell you, the accountability and the finances, we never question what's going on here as the oversight team.

We know we we get reports, and again and again, the reports currently are better than the last, which are better than the last, because God keeps blessing this house.

So you all are a part of an amazing, amazing church.

And don't you begin to wonder what God has in store for Access Church?

I'm telling you what, the future has blessing upon blessing in it.

And um, but it's a delight for my wife and I to be here today.

My wife Sandy is sitting down here on the front row.

Honey, stand up.

I actually met her right here in Lakeland.

I met her in Lakeland.

I was going to Southeastern and I met her.

Someone invited me to go over to a church, and she was involved in leadership there, and I met her and I said, hmm-mm-hmm.

Yes.

And from that point forward, I cast my vision.

And uh, well, I believe Jeremiah 29, 11, that the Lord has good plans for us.

I was just wanting to walk them out, live them out.

And uh we have been married now for a while and have uh four grown sons and 17 grandchildren.

Yeah, yeah.

And we feel really, really blessed.

And uh, but it's good to be back in Lakeland.

I want to speak to you today on the subject of shining in a dark world.

Shining in the dark world.

Have any of you noticed that this world is a little whacked out?

It's like, I don't know, they they they said that COVID could affect a number of things, but I never realized that COVID would have made the whole world go crazy.

But it's like everything has been turned on its head, turned on its head.

And uh, I mean, you name it, and but that's the world we're living in right now, and yet, right in the middle of all of the darkness of this world, Jesus gives to us instructions.

Jesus makes this statement in Matthew's gospel.

You are the light of the world.

In Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

You are the light of the world.

In other words, no matter how dark the world has gotten, there is a solution to the darkness.

You see, you don't curse the darkness, we don't come against the darkness.

That's not the solution.

What's the solution?

Turn on the light.

You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill can't be hidden.

Also, people, do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

As much as we are grateful for the opportunity to be in this building together, how many of you know the church is not meant for a building?

The church is meant for the world.

You and I are meant for this community.

It's we are meant to shine our light outside.

If it only happens in the building, that's lighting a candle and putting it under a bowl.

But men don't do that.

But put it on a stand.

Instead, they put it on its stand.

Then it gives light to everyone.

That means those that know God, those that don't know God, to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine so others can see it.

You see, this is the instruction to you and I today.

That we would be instruments of God's light in the world.

You see, when people wander around in darkness, they find themselves involved in things they never planned on.

They find themselves falling in ditches, they find themselves trapped in things that they never thought.

Yet when the lights on, people can see what to do.

They can see how to live.

And so we don't condemn the world when the world is living the only way they know how to live.

We love the world and shine the light.

And that's what I want to talk to you today about.

And I want you just to bow your heads with me right now.

We're going to pray and ask the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher, to teach and instruct us.

Father, we thank you today for your word of truth.

And I pray right now, over these next few minutes, that there would be an amazing sense of your presence in this room.

Lord, even as we've already experienced in the worship where you were glorified, Lord Jesus, you were exalted.

Now I ask you, Father, that over these next few minutes, as we seek to delve into the pages of your word, your scripture, I ask you to make it come alive.

Give us, Lord God, instruction that we can live our life in a way that will please you and honor you.

We pray this now in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

A dark world, a world that is not knowing which way to go, a world that is confused and perplexed and even seeing what's happening.

And I want to tell you, first of all, that this is not a shock to God.

All right?

What we're walking through and been walking through is not a shock.

This is not a surprise.

In fact, the scripture actually says these things are going to happen.

It gives us prophetic instruction that these kind of days would happen.

And yet Jesus is saying that you and I have a responsibility, and that responsibility is to shine for the glory of God.

So the question today is not whether you are a light, but whether or not you are shining.

And I want to just take apart a passage of scripture in the book of Philippians, and I'm going to give you some practical steps today in order to live a life that can shine for the glory of God.

Now look with me at this passage of Scripture.

In Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Now, let me give you some context here.

Paul is writing to the church at Philippi.

And this church was going through horrific persecution and a lot of pressure.

It wasn't very much different than it is for you and I.

Although the causes of it may have been different, the reality was that they were living in dark times.

And if you look at the book of Philippians, there's no more important, instructive book on how to live in a dark time than the book of Philippians.

It's amazing.

In fact, even in the middle of all that the Philippian church was going through, Paul says to them again and again, rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord.

In fact, that book references the word rejoice and joy more than any other book in the New Testament.

And yet it was in the middle of an incredibly difficult, pressurized time, just like you and I are living in.

And Paul gives them these instructions in Philippians 2, verses 12 through 16.

Philippians 2:12–16

My dear friends, you have always obeyed God.

You obeyed him while I was with you, and you have obeyed him even more while I am not with you.

So continue to work out your own salvation.

Do it with fear and trembling.

When he uses those words, fear and trembling, it's not a cowering, cringing fear, but it's reverence.

It's a sense of amazement and awe with reverence and with trembling.

God is working in you.

He wants your plans and your acts to be in keeping with his good purpose.

Do everything without finding fault or arguing.

Then you will be pure and without blame.

You will be children of God without fault in a sinful and evil world.

Among the people of the world, listen, you shine like the stars of heaven.

There it is.

You shine as you hold out to them the word of life.

So I can brag about you on the day Christ returns.

I can be happy that I didn't run or work for nothing.

So Paul is giving some real practical, down-to-earth guidance about how the church should live in a dark world.

How do we handle life?

Do we get caught up in the same activities that the rest of the world is in?

Do we behave the same way?

Are we going down the same path?

Are we sounding the same and looking the same and acting the same?

Or is there a difference to us?

So I raise that question.

How is your life today?

Are you living your life shining for the glory of God?

Now, Paul gives these practical instructions.

So today I want to just unpack that passage of Scripture and talk about four practical principles that you and I should embody in our life if we want to be instruments of God's light and shining in this world that we're living in.

First of all, I want you to see that he addresses this issue in verse 12 of Jesus, of God.

My dear friends, you've always obeyed God.

You obeyed him while I was with you.

You've obeyed him even more while I'm not with you.

So continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

How many of you remember when you got saved?

When you gave your life to Christ.

Oh, what an amazing transformation.

The Bible says this: if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old is gone and the new is come.

All this is from God.

We were singing about it today.

I loved it as we were singing about it.

Speak the name of Jesus.

How many of you speak the name of Jesus over your family?

Speak the name of Jesus over sickness and disease.

Speak the name of Jesus.

How many of you know there's power in the name of Jesus?

There's amazing power in the name of Jesus.

I never tire of seeing people come to know Jesus Christ.

And so Paul directs people back to this place where they experience salvation.

And so the first instruction is this to make sure your life is calibrated to Jesus Christ.

You want to shine for God, then make sure your life is calibrated to Jesus.

He says, you're the, he gives the instruction, you're the light of the world, but you're the only, the only way we're lights of the world is if we are connected to the one who brings salvation.

Oh, I tell you, I love it.

Week after week after week, and we'll give people an opportunity at the end of this service, as we did at the end of the first service.

If you don't know Christ, you can give your life to Jesus.

I tell you, we have a number of churches in the churches that I provide covering for, and one church network of churches.

And I was just in one of them just a couple of weeks ago, and I I watched that this one church, one called One Fire, and they have this whole host, they're kind of a raw church, really raw.

In fact, the majority of people there were filled with addictions and all kinds of bondages in their life.

And week after week after week, people are getting saved.

They have this big horse trough in front, and it's emblazed on the side of it from death to life.

And there's not a week that goes by that they're not seeing people come to know Christ and are baptizing.

I mean, they they they may not even have planned on getting baptized, but they're wet when they leave because they've gotten baptized.

And God meets with them.

Let me tell you the story of a guy named Mike.

Mike, Mike was brought down.

My oldest son knew Mike years ago in Virginia.

And he heard he talked to one of his friends, and he found out that Mike, Mike, his life had been off the rails for a number of years.

Mike was an addict.

He was living in someone's shed in their backyard.

His physical health had failed.

He literally was dying.

Young man who had had so much promise and so much potential, yet his life was an absolute wreck.

You know, the Bible says this that the thief comes not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

But Jesus said, I came that you might have life and you might have it to the full.

And so my son got a heart for his heart for Mike, and he he flew Mike down.

He said, Mike, you need to come.

You need to come.

We had some friends we put him with.

In fact, he's a part of, he's going to One Fire, the church.

After about two or three weeks there, he put his faith in Jesus Christ.

Here he is.

For years had been addicted to drugs and addicted to alcohol.

His physical body racked with the ravages of that kind of lifestyle.

Living in a shed, no money.

Even his own mother had given up on.

How many of you know it's a bad day when your mama gives up on you?

I mean, mamas just don't give up.

Mamas are the same all over the world, and they just don't seem to quit.

But his mama just said, I'm just done.

I've done all I can do.

I can't do anymore.

And he comes.

But a few weeks ago, this is now about seven weeks ago, eight weeks ago, he gave his life to Jesus.

Just what we were singing about.

I speak Jesus.

I speak Jesus over anxiety.

I speak Jesus over depression.

I speak Jesus over addiction.

Hallelujah.

He gave his life to Jesus, and the power of God broke the addiction off of Mike.

And I tell you, yeah, give Jesus a hand clap of thanks.

Broke the addiction off of Mike.

Not only did it break the addiction off of Mike, it put a hope within him, it put a confidence within him.

You see, Jesus has that abundant life for every single person that puts their faith in him.

He was delivered.

His body, as I said, had been racked with the ravages of addiction and he was sick.

Guess what happened?

Jesus healed him.

Where he couldn't gain weight before, he began to put on weight.

And he began to, his body began to heal, and he right now is healthy and strong.

Why?

Because Jesus broke into his life and Jesus broke the chains of addiction and crushed the works of darkness off of Mike's life.

Mike didn't have a job, and one of our guys in the church gave him a job.

Mike, now you ought to see him.

He comes on the job, he's smiling from ear to ear.

His whole life has been turned around.

You see, Jesus makes a difference.

And when if you want to shine for God in a dark world, the starting point is this: you calibrate your life to Jesus Christ.

If you've never given your life to Christ, you give it to him.

But even if you have given your life to Christ, how many of you know it's not one and done?

You keep going back to Jesus.

You stay connected to Jesus.

Every single day you need Jesus in your life.

There's not a day that passes that my wife and I.

The first thing that happens in the morning when we get up is we'll grab a cup of coffee and we'll go sit down and open up the Word of God and then spend time in prayer.

Why?

Because we want to stay connected to Jesus.

You calibrate your life to Jesus.

The word calibrate means to measure according to a prescribed or preset standard.

How many of you know this?

That living for God, the standard is Jesus.

We want to live our life for the glory of God.

The word Christian literally means little Christ.

So if you want to be a light for the glory of God, the starting point is to make sure that you're in continual connection with Jesus, that He is the standard.

That means, practically speaking, that every single day you need to revisit the good news.

Every day you need to revisit the good news.

I'm the original news junkie.

Okay, I love to watch the news.

But I found something happening to me during COVID.

I'd turn on the news, and about halfway through the news, I'd find myself tight.

Nervous.

I couldn't even tell you why.

But every time I turned on the news, I started seeing it.

I'll tell you why.

I began to analyze it.

It was filled with fear.

It was filled with things that make you anxious.

All the reports, I mean, they usually spend 29, if it's a 30-minute program, it's 29 minutes, it's probably a little different than that, but 29 minutes on that, and then they cap it off with some good story.

I mean, you just spend nearly a half an hour loading me down with fear, loading me down with how whacked out the world is.

And by the way, you know, we got some nice human interest story at the end.

Like that's going to help you after you've just been completely obliterated by fear.

You see, the reason God has called us to stay in connection to Him, when you're walking in connection with Jesus, you're hearing the good news.

The good news, the good news is this.

The good news is not some legalistic report.

The good news is this that Jesus Christ paid the price for you and for me so that we could have an abundant life.

How many of you are grateful for that?

That's the good news.

Yeah, we may have a dark, whacked out world.

But the good news is that Jesus died for you and for me, and we put our faith and our trust in him.

So I'm not going to fill my life with fear.

I'm going to fill my life with faith.

The place for that is to meditate on the good news.

Secondly, you stay in the presence of God.

Listen, why is it important?

Because in his presence, the Bible says his fullness of joy.

At his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Why is it we come in to a gathering such as this and we spend a few moments right on the front end worshiping God?

We don't just do it because it's perfunctory religious duty.

We don't do that just so, you know, we're gonna warm up the crowd with music.

No.

We do it because we step into the presence of God.

And you begin to sing to God, about God, and suddenly the presence of God fills the room.

I leaned over to Ryan during the worship.

I said, man, there's such a sense of the presence of God in this room.

I was just weeping.

Just weeping in the presence of God.

How many of you know that cleanses your soul?

You need the presence of God.

We want to calibrate our life to Jesus.

We do so by meditating on the good news, and we do so by living our life continually in the presence of God.

And then a third practical way that you and I calibrate our life to Jesus Christ is to seek to obey the commands of Christ.

Now, it's interesting.

There's a verse of scripture, and you've heard it, and come unto me, all you who are weary and are heavy laden, or weary and troubled, and you'll find rest for your soul.

Then he says this.

He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly.

Take my yoke upon.

I'm like, well, a yoke's something you put on an ox or a cow or something.

A yoke sounds like, oh my goodness, man, I'm pressured enough with what's going on in the world.

Now I'm going to have to put a yoke on.

No, that's not what he's referencing.

What he's referencing is what would be referred to as the rabbinic yoke.

The rabbinic yoke was this.

In that day and time in which Jesus was teaching his disciples, there were many rabbis.

Many of them.

And all of them had a form or pattern of teaching and instruction.

And their form and pattern of teaching and instruction was referred to as the yoke.

Their disciples would follow their form, their pattern of teaching.

In fact, there was it was even said, some of them, that if their rabbi limped, that all their disciples would walk behind them the same way.

It was the pattern.

And what Jesus is saying is this take my yoke upon you, learn it, for I'm meek and lowly, and you find rest for your soul.

You want to find rest, you want to find peace?

Then learn what it is to follow what Jesus told us to do.

You see, the commands of Jesus, in fact, the Bible says this, the commands of Jesus are not burdensome, they're liberating.

When Jesus gives us instruction, Jesus gives us instruction to bring us to a place of freedom and liberty in Christ.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2.

Hebrews 12:2

The writer of Hebrews says this let us keep looking to Jesus.

He is the author of our faith.

He also makes it perfect.

Let me tell you something.

The starting point.

If you want to shine for the glory of God, just to keep your life calibrated to Jesus.

We find a lot of people today talking about deconstructing their faith.

How many have heard that phrase before?

Deconstructing their faith.

Why do they feel the need to deconstruct their faith?

Because they put their faith in the wrong place.

You put your faith in religious exercise, religious duty, you will need to deconstruct it.

You put your faith in Jesus Christ, you'll never want to deconstruct it.

You love Jesus, you'll fall more and more in love with Him.

It's about the person of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, look at verse 13.

How do we shine for God in a dark world?

Secondly, keep a healthy outlook on life.

Keep a healthy outlook on life.

So vitally important.

Look at verse 13 says, God is working in you.

He wants your plans and your acts to be in keeping with his good purpose.

Yes, we're living in a crazy world.

Yes, we're living in a dark world.

And part of what, the result of that, is it is affecting people's mental health.

My good friend Jim Kochenberger is sitting right here.

He's a counselor, longtime friend.

He firsthand knows and sees and experiences us on a daily basis.

And there are people, no doubt, even in this room, that are troubled, troubled, and experiencing difficulty in mental health.

And let me tell you something.

When you walk through that, it's not like something is wrong with you.

You're just qualified as a human being, okay?

And we human beings have areas of weakness, and it's no different than physical sickness.

But you need to understand how to bring an answer.

God doesn't want you to experience anxiety all the time and depression all the time and always feeling like that you're weighted down.

No, you can come into a place of real freedom and experience freedom in Christ.

So you keep a healthy outlook on life.

Do you realize that 20% of the population is experiencing mental illness in some shape or form today, in the past two years?

5% are experiencing severe or debilitating mental illness.

We're living in a pressurized world.

In fact, the Bible says this that in the last days men's hearts would fail them for fear, for seeing the things coming on the earth.

According to recent statistics, more than 50% of the population will experience some form of mental illness or being diagnosed with a mental disorder during their lifetime.

How much more is it necessary for us and needful for us to shine for the glory of God?

Paul says this in Philippians 4, verse 4 through 9.

Philippians 4:4–9

Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord.

I will say it again.

Be joyful.

That's an instruction.

Can I tell you this?

I won't read the rest of that passage of scripture, but I want to just let you know this.

When the Word of God gives us an instruction, it's because He's already given us the empowerment to carry it out.

You have the power to be joyful.

Now, joy is not based on your circumstances.

That's called happiness.

All right?

Happiness is tied to happenings.

Joy is tied to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

You can be joyful when you receive more of the Holy Spirit.

It manifests in your life.

Third, I want you to look at verse 14 and 15.

Do everything without finding fault or arguing.

Then you will be pure and without blame.

You will be children of God without fault in a sinful and evil world.

Among the people of the world you shine like the stars of the heaven.

The third is this: you be the change that you're seeking.

You be the change that you're seeking.

God is not called us just to give the instruction to the world.

God has called us to set the temperature for the world.

In other words, we're the thermostat, not the thermometer.

Boy, if we begin to act that out on social media, that in itself would change.

He goes on to make clear to us that we can live our life in this place where we're not arguing or fault finding.

Do everything without finding fault or arguing.

Then you will be pure and without blame.

You will be children of God without fault in a sinful and evil world.

Among the people you of the world you shine like the stars of the heaven.

In other words, this when we shut down a lot of the rhetoric that we find online, we shut down a lot of the social media stuff.

And we turn our attention to living out and being the people that God has called us to be.

I want you to keep this in mind.

You're the voice of faith in a world of doubt and fear.

You are it.

You're the light of the world, you're the voice of faith in a world of doubt and fear.

You are the voice of reason.

Boy, if we don't need that today.

The voice of reason in a world of craziness and insanity.

You are the voice of peace in a world of turmoil and distress.

God has called us to this.

I don't know who it was that convinced us that the world needed to know our opinion on everything.

But somebody somewhere convinced us that we need to let the world know our opinion.

You know, it's kind of arrogant to think that the world really wants to know what I think.

Let me let you in on a secret.

They don't care.

They don't care.

They only want to voice their own.

And number four, look at verse 16.

You shine as you hold out to them the word of life.

So I can brag about you on the day Christ returns.

I can be happy that I didn't run or work for nothing.

You see, we look for opportunities to serve others.

Every single day of your life, you have been given a unique opportunity to serve somebody else.

Your attitude, your smile, your kind words, your kind actions towards somebody demonstrates in a practical, tangible way the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Peter said it this way: God's gifts of grace come in many forms.

Each of you has received a gift in order to serve others.

You should use it faithfully.

You see, the Lord gives us those opportunities.

Are we seizing advantage of them?

Are we taking advantage of them?

While the worship team comes forward, I want to close with the same passage of scripture that I opened up with a few minutes ago.

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.

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.

All over this room, I'm gonna ask you just to bow your heads with me.

I'm gonna pray with you.

Maybe you've come into this place today and you've never given your life to Jesus Christ.

As I opened up this message, I talked about the importance of calibrating your life to Jesus Christ.

I want to tell you something.

God loves you.

Jesus died for you so that you could experience his grace in your life.

It's not hard to receive him.

All you do, the Bible says this, that if you will confess with your mouth, believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, those are two things.

Believe that Jesus was really who he said he was, the Son of God, and then literally confess it with your mouth.

Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and Savior.

Whether you're in this room or watching online right now, I want to give you this opportunity.

I want us to pray.

In church, I want us all to pray this prayer together with me out loud.

Dear Lord Jesus, come on out loud.

Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you now.

I receive you as my Lord and my Savior.

I ask you, Jesus, to forgive me of my sin, come into my life, and save me.

I believe that you're who you said you were.

You're the Son of God, that you died for me and rose the third day.

And today you're seated at the right hand of your Father in heaven.

I receive you as my Lord and Savior.

In Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

Now come on, church.

I think we need to give God thanks.

For those who prayed that prayer today, I want to tell you something.

God loves you, you are the light of the world, so let's shine for the glory of God.

God bless your access, church.