SHINE ON!

Sermon By Ps. Seth Asare OfeiBadu

Main Passages: Numbers 13: 17-20; 26-29; 14:1-4, 10, Philippians 2:12-15

God’s Plan of Salvation is to win the hearts of the fallen through the shining testimonies of those who have tasted His salvation. He begins with one or a few and makes them the shining light that will draw others to Him. It is the best way to set people free from the deceptive nature of the wickedness and condemnation of sin. Jehovah set the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt, paying for them (albeit symbolically with the firstborns of Egypt and the Passover lamb), and was in their midst Himself as the Pillar for Cloud and Fire. He groomed them with many interventions in the desert, but when their time came to shine, they failed to shine! We must take a lesson from their failure and shine in our time.

BORN TO SHINE!

Born again, we are in the image of God and we are expected, required and enabled (empowered) to walk as children of God, with the understanding that we have been:

1.      Expected because we have been set free from a life of slavery to sin and worthlessness whose ultimate consequence would have been destruction and condemnation (see Galatians 5:19 – 21, to see the things we exchanged at our water baptism for the pledge of living for Christ);

2.      Required because we have been bought by Jesus’ blood, and so we are no longer our own. He owns us 1Corinthians 19:20);

3.      Enabled because we have been given the Holy Spirit to empower us to live to glorify God (Acts 1:8, Galatians 5:16)

WHY SOME DID NOT SHINE

The Israelites were discouraged by the fact that they felt they did not have the strength to possess Canaan which they had come face to face with; they were tempted to go back to the slavery but safe life of Egypt; they felt threatened by the stature of the inhabitants of Canaan which they had to take.

In this new life, we will come face to face with:

1.      Discouragements (When we appear not to be excelling, or natural challenges such as sicknesses and sundry disasters befall us) – John 16:33 ! God is aware of the circumstances of our lives, and sometimes He uses them to trim us, as the wick of a lamp that must shine brighter is trimmed.

2.      Temptations (When the lifestyles and objectives we have abandoned call to us once more) James 1:13,14

3.      Threats and Attacks (When the wolves among whom we are sent growl and bare their teeth) Matthew 10:16

NB. The Promised Land metaphor in this case is not the lands and possessions of the people who are not with us, but rather their souls that we must bring to Christ to rule over. The giants and fortifications represent their seemingly unyielding and belligerent character.

But in all this we have only one remit, to SHINE ON!

HOW TO SHINE

1.      Keep running away from and resisting the temptation to sin, and choosing to walk in righteousness, certain that the alternative life is no longer ours (See 2Timothy:2:22);

2.      Walking and Serving by faith with all our hearts at all times and under all circumstances, persevering and growing without shame in  

a.      Worship: actively declaring our love for Him, as we would do to no other, and will not fail to do (1Peter 3:15, Psalm 103)

b.      Preaching or teaching the Word as an occupation and a lifestyle (Mark 16:15,16; Ephesians 6:15)

c.       Giving or supplying the needs of others (Romans 12:13)

d.      Providing for the Ministry of the Church

3.      Availing ourselves of all the promises of God to be with us through

a.      Prayer and Fasting (Isaiah 40:27-31)

b.      Fellowship (Acts 2:42; Hebrews 10:25)

c.       Time with the Word (1 Timothy 4:13)

d.      Meditation (Psalm 1: 2)

In these exercises, we avail ourselves of the power of the Holy Spirit to do what God expects of us with ease, as he wells up love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22) – Those who fail to wait on the Lord in these exercises are still required to live in the service of God, but they tend to labor and grumble through. Note that God was in the midst of the Israelites, but it is only those who chose to attend on Him regularly like Joshua and Caleb that were found with His Spirit in the day of testing.

THE NEED TO SHINE, AGAIN
Why does God need us to shine? Because it is His way of dealing with the darkness in the world: The testimony of our shining life dispels the darkness of wickedness and covers the earth with the glory of God.

Wickedness of

·        False Religion/Doctrines

·        Murders and Wars

·        Factions, etc.

In acting against darkness in the world with our human experience, we are tempted to:

1.      Complain or protest against them

2.      Take sides with lesser evils to persecute the so-called greater evils or enemies

3.      Consult with the wicked for their mercy and favor (i.e., if you can’t beat them…)

4.      Run away, stating away completely from the world, and not seeking its salvation.

But none of the above is able to deal with the darkness, because none of them constitutes shining!

We are born again (saved, bought, and empowered) to shine, and we will not do otherwise. An eagle is born to fly, but when it finds itself among chicken as we children of God find ourselves in a crooked generation, sometimes exercising our birthright and spiritual nature is out of step with what surrounds us as Moses, Joshua and Caleb found out, but the other life is not for us. We must soar, we must rise far above, and we must shine! So we must exercise our wings more constantly. In our shining, the perfect will of God is done in our lives, and the testimony brings souls to Christ.

Proclaiming the death of Christ until He comes!