Light of the World - 01/08/23

The speaker is preparing for a sermon about the importance of light in the Bible. They mention different passages where Jesus talks about light and use flashlights as a demonstration. They emphasize that Jesus is the true light and believers are called to be lights in the world. The speaker encourages listeners to let their light shine through their good works so that others may see and glorify God. I'm going to ask Mark and Caleb to help me out tonight. You turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, verse 15 to start with, and we'll read the verses of Scripture together here in a moment. Alright boys, come help me. Now, there are 23 people here, and I've got 20, and I've got one for myself, so if you can give Phillip and Caitlin two instead of one, if you can give Misha and me and Jude just two instead of three, and then don't give one to Mom, Mark, you just keep one for yourself. Go ahead and give me and Henry, I mean, me and Jude. No, we'll get two for y'all, that's fine. I'm just figuring that folks with kids, yeah, I know that was going to happen. It's okay. We figured we'd just leave Caitlin and Laura and Misha out for right now. Since they've got the most out of Pew with them. It'll still be two lights over there, two lights here, two lights over there. Alright. I see y'all not taking them like that, that's alright. Caleb, how many you got? You got three left over? Well then go give Misha one. Yeah, we're live, aren't we? We're already on here? Hey folks, we're live. Alright. You can shot it, make shots, I mean, if it works, yeah. Alright. Cassidy, you up on two? Alright. Alright. Cool. Alright. Now that we are that far along, everyone has their flashlight. We figured this would be safer. I thought about having a candlelight service with Tarmac Light of the World, but you pass out candles, don't know exactly because I've never preached this before, and you don't want wax all over the place or somebody getting burned or somebody dropping a candle. So I figured we're going to look at these parables here in a minute in three different places. Mark chapter 5 and then in Matthew chapter 5 and Luke chapter 4 and then Luke chapter 18 and then again in Luke 11, Jesus uses this parable three times. Again, like I mentioned this morning, three times about salt, different times in the Bible and three specific different occasions about light and the importance of it. And I just thought if he was here, he might not be talking about a candlestick in a house. He's talking about if the house is dark, you light a candle, which we still do sometimes when you can't find batteries and can't find a flashlight. But maybe if it was 21st century, Jesus would be teaching about parables with a flashlight. I don't know. But if you can, I'll go ahead and I can almost not read it as much. Stand with me and we'll look together. Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 and 15. You are the light of the world. Who is that you that he's referring to? The same beatitude people that we mentioned this morning. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. If you're driving the interstate at night and it's dark, when you approach Atlanta, it can't be hid. Not with all those lights or New York or even from flying and looking down above. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it gives light unto all them that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Second place of scripture. Just turn to Mark's gospel, chapter 4. Mark's gospel, chapter 4 and Luke's gospel, chapter 8. As soon as he's talking about the parable of the sower, he immediately changes it to the parable about the candle again. Mark chapter 4, verse 21. And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid, Jesus adds this, it's different, which shall not be manifested. Neither that would he think secret, but that should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. That's found in Luke chapter 8, but then in Luke chapter 11, he mentions it one more time. Luke chapter 11, verse 33. After he talks about one greater than Jonah is here. After he talks about one greater than Solomon is here. He said, No man, when he lights a candle, puts it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come may see the light. The light of the body is the eye. Now this is different when Jesus says it this time. Therefore, when your eye is single, thy whole body is full of light. But when your eyes are evil, your body is full of darkness. Take heed, therefore, that the light that is inside you or in you be not darkness. If your whole body, therefore, be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give you light. There are many, many more verses about light in the Bible. We're not going to have time to share with all of them. But we may have a few. But we need the Lord's help, as always, as we're preaching. So, Brother Marlon, can you lead us in prayer this evening? Amen. Amen. Dad has done candlelight services many a time at the New Year's Eve service. But this is going to be a little different. And that's okay. I'm not exactly sure how it's going to go. When you cut off all the lights and you know how dark it gets in the house and you're concerned about kids maybe getting scared of the dark. That's why I figured if they have a flashlight beside them, it might be a lot easier playing with a flashlight than it would be holding a candle still. But we all remember what it's like to be in a house when the power goes out. And you're hoping you remember where you left the flashlight. And if you find it in the dark, or we use our phones so often for everything now, but you know your phone battery is not going to last and you don't want the light to shine on your phone and your battery to be dead and you have no way to charge it. So you're not going to use your phone as a flashlight unless you absolutely have to. And then we'll go to a drawer. So we're going to hope that we can find the flashlight in the dark if we remember where it is. And after we find it, we hope that there's batteries in there and that the batteries work. Now we'll light a candle. We'll light a lantern, especially if we have to leave it in the house. But there's something about like if you're in the woods, if you're camping, if you're in your car and you need one, the car lights go out inside, the interior lights. I mean there's a lot of uses. But the main theme is the same. You're in the dark and you need a light to shine. We're going to demonstrate that tonight. I may just preach in the dark. It's all right. We'll just try it. We'll see how it goes. Caleb, can you go back there and turn off some lights? And Mark, you've got one that you need to turn off over here. Now if you all flip the same switches, you're going to be flipping the lights on and off. There we go. Catch that one, Mark. Oh man, yeah. There we go. Take it off back there, Caleb. Man, yeah. I didn't know how dark it might be. And Mark? Did you forget your light? Okay. That's what happens in the dark. You do your best, right? You can turn your lights on. It's all right. My goodness. When you find yourself, I don't even know how this is going to come on camera, but it's okay. It's for us more than it is for folks online. You're glad you have a light. Don't know how that even looks, trying to preach to you all with a light underneath me. Maybe I'll preach it from the floor. If you can remember this message. Take this little flashlight home as a souvenir. Picked these up for a dollar a piece at Walmart. Didn't know how. I thought we might pass out flashlights or you use your phone. But the Bible says we are the light of the world. Jesus was the light. I'll say this now. I don't know about preaching about bells just yet. Jesus says in the Gospel of John that he is the light of the world. Now, you don't have to shine it at me, Mia. I can shine it back. Jesus says in John's Gospel, I am the light of the world. That is one of the seven I am's in the book of John. It is the only title of Christ that we share. Just talk about that for a minute. The Bible calls Jesus the Savior. We are always a sinner and then a saint. We are never a savior to anyone else. Only Jesus is. He is the creator. We are always the creature. He is the shepherd. We are always the sheep. He is the provider. He is the door. He is the guide. It is only in that one title where we are called the light of the world. It is the title of Christ that we share. I emphasize the importance of that because what Jesus was, that in darkness there came a great light and the darkness comprehended it not. And then Peter says that we shine as lights in a dark place. There is a verse in Ephesians, I've got it written down here. We won't even turn on our phones or in our Bibles. This is He's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That we were children of the darkness and now we are children of the light. It talks about how we walk. Romans says that we wear in Romans chapter 13 the armor of light. You know that armor from Ephesians chapter 16? It talks about our whole warfare is one of light. That our walk is one of light. And in that verse that we read in Matthew it says, So they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. That is our witness, our works. That people can see and we can talk about how our light shines so people can see Jesus the true light. We are living in a spiritually dark world. And you may think I'm just one person. But Jesus gives an example of a candle on a candlestick. And He talks about a light, a city on a hill. Turn off all your lights for a moment. The only way that we can even get around this sanctuary right now is the street lights shining through the windows. The monitor up there in the sanctuary. The monitor in the vestibule giving off a little bit of light. And even now it's difficult to see your neighbor. I can't see. Misha is over there with me and Jude. I know I can see their silhouettes from the light shining in. But I can't see them all that well. I can hear the baby. I can see the silhouettes over there. I know where people are sitting from earlier from memory. But it's still dark in here. You can turn your lights back on. Whoa, what a difference it makes. Whether you're shining it in the ceiling, or you're shining it on the floor, or you're shining it at each other. And I know it's a bright light to be shining in people's face. Man, it makes a difference. Jesus uses a simple parable and says, you are the light of the world. And when you light your light, you don't put it under the furniture. You don't put it under a bushel. You don't hide it under a bed. You don't turn it off because, again, if the light's turned off, it's not any good. But when you have light, you can shine. Like the Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. The Word of God can show us right where we are, and show us right where we need to go. We're just as much this hallway that I need to go. So I can see y'all. Hey, Lily. Crazy pastor preaching about light. Has that been you shining it on me all this time, back here, Sister Laura? No, no. You sure? Okay, she's shining the cross. Alright. It'd be a lot harder. I might trip over this right here if I was in the dark. No, it's okay. I'm just saying. Because you can't see where you are, and you can't see where you're going. There's no light. The Word of God can show us. But the Bible says, first of all, in Matthew, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We sing that song, just through the light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Shine all over Cartersville. Shine all over Adairsville. Shine all over Rome. I'm going to let it shine. We have the kids get a song like today. We think of it as a kid's song. Oh, it is so true. Because we shine as lights in a dark place, and people can see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. We don't shine the light on ourselves, but we shine the light on Him. The Bible talks about that we walk as children in the light. We don't walk in darkness. Have you ever walked in darkness before? That's where bad people do bad things is in the dark. That's when evil and wickedness lurk in the dark. There's danger in the dark. What happened to those four students in Idaho happened in the dark, in the middle of the night, because that's when people do their wicked, evil deeds because they want to do them in secret. They don't want to get caught. They don't want their prey to see what's coming. It's in the dark when the animals are out at night devouring their prey. More at night than at day. You go out in the woods, there's danger. They close the state parks. They close the national parks at dark because of the danger of hurting yourself or being hurt by others. And this world is in darkness because that's when the devil does his best work in the dark. That's when there's more danger in the dark. That's when people that do their wicked deeds in secret and they don't want to get caught is in the dark. Not just in the natural, but in the spiritual as well. Because nobody can see where they're going. Nobody knows where they're leading. We'll go to a verse in another parable about the blind leading the blind, and they'll both fall in a pit in a few weeks. But here, if you don't have light and you're in the dark, you're at risk of getting lost. You're at risk of getting disoriented. You're at risk of hurting yourself or hurting others. And you just can't wait. We sing that old hymn when the electricity goes out. Oh Lord, send the power just now. Baptize everyone. We can't wait for the power to come back on. We can't wait to have light. And Jesus says, Let our light shine. It's something that if you light the candle, it doesn't go out until you blow it out. If you turn on the flashlight, it won't go out unless you turn it off or unless the batteries run out. We've got Christians in this world today, so-called Christians, that they want to shine as lights when they're at church and everybody else has their light. And they want to be a light around somebody else who already has a light. But when they go to church, they want to shine bright. They want to shine on the stage. They want to testify. They want to give their prayer requests. They want to give in their offering. They want to pat the pastor on the back about a good sermon. They want to sing their songs. They want to teach in Sunday school. It's one thing. And then, when they go to work on Monday, they want to turn their light out. When they go to school on Monday, they want to turn their light out. You can't do that if you're light, because light just shines. And Jesus says, let them see your good works. It goes in conjunction with the above parable about being salt of the earth and it being in you. It's your character. But a light has more to do with your conduct and your works. Say it another way. We go through those parables, and if you are meek on the inside, it's going to shine on the outside in how you think about yourself and how you think and how you treat about others. If you really do have mercy on the inside, it's going to shine in merciful how you treat people on the outside. If you are pure in heart on the inside, you're going to show people what that purity is by the things of you doing the righteous acts and not the wicked deeds by shining as light. If you're a peacemaker and you love peace on the inside, people are going to see you making peace with your brothers and sisters on the outside. Blessed are them that mourn. If you have a tender heart for other people's troubles and burdens, they're going to see your good works by what you do when you're moved with compassion. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness and you have a hunger in your heart for the Lord, they will see how you prioritize your life and you do things for Jesus. And the time that you spend in His Word or in prayer or what you do for Him, just saying if it's salt on the inside, it's going to be light on the outside. Because you're going to show people that it's impossible for you not to show people who you are by the things that you do. The Bible says we will know what's in your heart by the words that come out of your mouth. The Bible says they will know that we are a good tree or a bad tree by the fruit that we bear. That the world will know we are the salt of the earth by shining as the light of the world. It's just as simple as that. Jesus wants us to shine everywhere we go. Christianity is not something you can just turn off like a switch. Loving the Lord and serving Jesus isn't something like a candle that you can blow out. It's something that we shine everywhere we go. Caleb, can you turn the lights on in the back? Mark, can you turn the lights on up front? Eyes have to get adjusted to the light, don't we? We've been in a little bit of darkness. Everybody's squinting, me included. Because if you're in the dark too long, you'll get adjusted to it. Because if you're in the dark too long, you'll get adjusted to it. Oh, it's not that bad. I can manage. I can get around. I'll be okay. I'll do alright. We're not made to be nocturnal. God didn't make us to be a coyote or an owl. Or an insect that does their work at night. Christians aren't to be in the night either. Children of the day. Not children of the night. Fifty times in the Bible, there's 55 different verses in the Bible have light versus darkness. Even in today with Star Wars, they talk about the dark side. The dark and evil one. The kingdom of light versus the kingdom of darkness. Evil in dark places and goodness and righteousness in light. Heaven is described as a place where there is no darkness there. And no need of light for the Lamb to be the light of that city. Seven times brighter. There's that verse in Romans that talks about the armor of light. It has reference to the armor of the Lord. In Ephesians. We fight against principalities and powers and wickedness in high places and in dark places. This ain't a picnic. This isn't an experiment. This isn't a live your best life. This is a warfare. And darkness is the absence of light. Darkness can't overcome the light. Light always overcomes the darkness. The light has to be extinguished. The light has to be extinguished. The light has to be absent in order for darkness to come. The night doesn't come because it overtakes the sun. Darkness comes because the sun is gone before the sun breaks through and comes back again and the darkness has to flee. It just takes one flashlight to make all the difference. It just takes one candle to make all the difference. There's those other verses that we read about the things that are secret will be exposed. How light exposes darkness. Light overcomes darkness. The Bible's speaking there at the verses that we read in Luke about a candle on a candlestick. The world that we are living in even in America that Ronald Reagan called a city on a hill is getting darker and darker by the day. Not just talking about spiritual blindness but spiritual darkness. That if you send your little girl to public school you have to worry about violence with school shootings. You have to worry about predators of coaches and staff and faculty. Or you have to worry about her competing against another boy that calls himself a girl in sports. Public school is one of the most dangerous places for a little girl to grow up. The streets of the city that we're afraid to go at at night. The laws that are passing. And darkness is just the absence of light. How can we turn this country around? How can we turn our family around? How can we turn the church around? How can we turn the church on? How can we turn our family around? How can we turn the church around? By shining those lights in a dark place. Individually, Jesus says, we're like candles in a house. There's a whole lot of things outside of my control. I'm not the president. I'm not on Wall Street. I'm not in Hollywood. I'm not in Nashville. I'm not in D.C. I'm not even in the capital in Atlanta. I'm not the CEO of some company. I can't make changes in every area of life that I'd like to make changes where I see they're being wrong to make right. But as a man of my house, as a husband at my home, as a father to my children, I can determine the darkness in my own house and the light in my own house where I am like a candle in my house shining for things for my boys to see, shining things for my wife to see that in our house, we won't watch this. In our house, we won't listen to this. In our house, we won't talk like this. In our house, we won't go to these places. Not because I said so. Not because your mother said so. Not because I said so. Not because your mother said so. Not because the church said so. But because the Word of God says so. Because Jesus is the light of the world and we're called to be the light of the world. And like a candle in a home, control the controllable. I'm not going to act that way in my car. I'm not going to listen to that in my car. We're not going to act that way in my house. We're not going to be that way in my yard. I can't help what everybody else is doing at school, but I'm going to do this at school. I can't help what everybody else is doing at work, but I'm not going to curse and profane at work. I'm not going to laugh at those inappropriate jokes. I'm not going to go to those places. Do what you want to do, but I'm going to choose what I'm going to do. Individually, we are candles in a house that we should never put it under a bushel, or put it under a bed, or put it under furniture, Jesus says, and turn it off to let our spouses, or our children, or our friends, or our family do whatever they think about doing. Collectively, Jesus says, we're a city on a hill. This world can have spiritual darkness everywhere else, but it shouldn't be in the church. When people come to church, when people see the church, we should be a city on a hill that the Bible says cannot be hid. When you go against God's definition of marriage, when you say that life is not inside the womb, when you say it's okay to gamble and steal and commit adultery and fornication, when folks tell them they can live any way they want to, when people can go contrary to God's Word, let them go if they choose to go, but there's nothing but death and destruction and darkness that way. We will still shine as light in a dark place as examples not to just condemn people for their lifestyle and for their choices, but to shine as light saying, over here, here's the way to go. Because they'll see a father as God intended it in Scripture versus a mother or father away from the Scriptures, or children who are obeying their parents versus children who are rebellious. A home that's godly and holy versus a home that's ungodly and holy. And let them make the comparisons and let them see the comparisons because we are a city that cannot be hid. And God's Word is always true and light always shines. And the Christian life is still today not just the best way, but the only way. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It is only God's Word that can be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Only God's Word is going to show me who I really am and show me what I need to do next and go next. It's only Jesus. He is the light of the world that came into darkness and the darkness comprehended not and the darkness didn't want anything to do with Him because they loved their deeds and darkness greater than light, the Bible says. And then Jesus is about to leave this world in John. And when He leaves, the light of the world leaves. And He says, But you are the light of the world. I get to shine in the 21st century in Georgia. I get the privilege to shine because Jesus shined in A.D. 30 in Galilee in Israel. Because we have this treasure in earthen vessels, the Bible says, and the whole reason is why we shine. Laura, if you can come to the piano. We sing that song, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. And it's not just a song for kids to sing in children's church. I want to shine for Jesus. I want to shine for the Savior. I want to make a difference. I want to be a light in a dark place. I want people to see me see me, see Jesus. I want them to realize that there's nothing different about me except Jesus. That there's nothing special about me except Jesus. I once was in darkness, but now the Bible says we've stepped into His marvelous light. It's what I want for each one of us. For when Will's at work, when the boys are at school, when Phillip and Caitlin, there's a lot of people that are applying for foster care. There's a lot of foster parents out there. I want them to meet Phillip and Caitlin and say there's something special and something different about them. When they're looking for work and for employment and everybody can hire all these applicants and there's a lot of people wanting that position, I want them to say there's something different about them. If the boys are at school or wherever we go, Evan, if it's at Burger King getting a hamburger, I want them to know that there's something different in us. That they see our good works. They see the Beatitudes in us. And they know that there's not something different with us, but someone different that lives inside. That Jesus has changed us. And we say, I know they were one way, but they were different because they met Jesus. And now we shine as light in a dark place. I'm guessing they got ready to sing. So I guess if she sings, let's, I guess we can sing with her, huh?