The Witness of the Kingdom (2)

The speaker is discussing the concept of light in Matthew chapter 5. They explain that light is mysterious and miraculous, and that without light, we would be in total darkness. The purpose of light is to divide darkness, make things grow, and provide heat and warmth. The speaker emphasizes that light is a powerful and essential aspect of our world. Amen, if you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5 this morning. We have been looking at Matthew chapter 5 and last week we come to the witness part of Matthew chapter 5 and what is our responsibility if we've come to Jesus Christ and we are filled with Jesus Christ and we are in Christ, what's going to be happening? And so I've entitled the message today is that you are the light of the world, so therefore we should radiate globally, and he says there in verse 13, he says, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all 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. Last week we looked at salt. I wanted to do salt and light together, but there was absolutely no way that I was going to cover all of that in two different deals, but we have two illustrations that Jesus Christ uses, two things that was very common in that particular day and time that are still pretty common today. One is salt and the other is light, and we need both. Both of them need to be prevalent in order for us to live. We saw last week that salt actually permeates, and salt has to do with locality, with closeness, because we found out that salt, as it relates to our character, salt only affects that it touches. It has to come in contact with something in order for salt to be effective. The light, on the other hand, has to do with our conduct. It has to do outwardly. Salt is inwardly. Light is outwardly. And it has to do with the effectiveness of our witness, and so those that we come into contact with. And so light, really where salt is kind of local, light is more global in the instance that we have here that Jesus Christ used. And so this morning I would like to talk about three things that He lays out here in this passage of Scripture. The power, the place, and the purpose of light. And so as we look at this power of light, it was kind of amazing, and I love dictionaries. Any of you use dictionaries anymore? I use them constantly because I don't know all the words. And so I'm constantly having to look up what does this mean and what does it do. So one of the first things when I find a major word in my Serm study and everything, I look it up. And this is amazing because when you go to the dictionary and you look up the word light, the first thing that it told me was that it was a noun. That's pretty good. And it says, something that makes things visible or affords illumination. And it gave me a sentence that it actually used, all colors depend on light. Now, does that tell me anything about what light is? Absolutely. You know, I love these definitions that say a whole lot of stuff, but they don't tell me what the word is or what it means. So it goes on down and you keep on reading because it's got to get better than this, right? So it goes in and now it's getting really over my head because the very next thing in the dictionary that I was using, it says physics. And so I knew I probably shouldn't even go on to that anyway, but it says it's also called luminous energy or radiant energy, electromagnetic radiation through which the organs of sight react, ranging in wavelength from about 400 to 700 nanometers and propagated at the speed of 186,282 miles per second, considered variously as a wave or a stream of particles or a quantum phenomenon. Now, you explain all that to me, right, because I have no idea. Sister Lori, she's into science, so we give her all of the physics and all of that in Sunday school class. So you can go talk to her and she will explain what all that means, but that does not give me any idea of what light is supposed to be. So it just keeps going on and getting worse from there. It says a similar form of radiant energy that does not affect the retina as ultraviolet or infrared rays. The illuminating agents are sourced as the sun, a light, or a beacon. And I'm going to skip some of these because, I mean, it just keeps getting worse. The last one it gave was the state of being visible, exposed to view, or revealed to public notice or knowledge. And that has to do with being in the limelight, right? And so then I look at all of this and absolutely none of these definitions, and there's a ton of them, none of them tell me exactly what light is. And so as I begin to look at this light, and I begin to look at Jesus Christ said, You are the light of the world, and how can I be something that I don't know what it is, right? And so, man, I had to really dig deep this week and start studying because what we find out is light is mysterious, but it's also miraculous. Nobody has a clue what light is. Nobody whatsoever. So when I couldn't find out what it was in the dictionary, I went to the encyclopedia. And I thought, well, maybe the encyclopedia will help me out, right? Because everybody knows that light exists, but we don't know what light is. So when I went to the Britannica.com, I looked up light, and it said, There is no single answer to the question, What is light? All right, so what is light? It satisfies the many contexts in which light is experienced, explored, and exploited. The physicist, there's that word again, is interested in the physical properties of light. The artist, in an aesthetic appreciation of the visual world. Through the sense of sight, light is a primary tool for perceiving the world and communicating within it. Now, hey, I kind of like that, right? That's kind of getting me a little bit closer. So without light, there's no way that we can perceive or communicate within this world that we live in. Then it says, light from the sun warms the earth, drives global weather patterns, and initiates the life-sustaining process of photosynthesis. And so as I was reading all of that, nobody still can tell us what light is. We know what it does. We know about its attributes according to that definition long ago. We even know the speed of light, right? How fast it can travel. But we do not know what light is. And it still remains one of the most mysterious entities in our universe today. But not only is it mysterious, but it's also miraculous. Because see, when I got through with the dictionary and I got through with the encyclopedia, I said, well, none of these are going to define light for me. So I need to go to the Bible, right? The pastor always should go to the Bible last. Now, I should have went there first and ignored the dictionary, ignored the encyclopedia, but when you go to the Bible, guess where light appears? In Genesis 1, very beginning of the Bible in verse 3, God said, Let there be light. And guess what? It says there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from darkness. Now, in physics, it has become the new absolute, and all of you have probably heard of this famous equation E equals MC squared. You ever heard of E equals MC squared? I've heard it all my life. I don't understand it. But here's what it stands for. Energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. So in other words, in order to have energy, there has to be light, right? You cannot have energy without light. And when we discovered E equals MC squared, all of a sudden, it ushered in this atomic age that we live in today. And so, man, all of this energy we have going around the world, and man, now energy is everywhere. We can use it. We can control it. We can divide it. We can shrink it. We can reproduce it. We can do everything, but we don't know what light is or where it really comes from. But we know that it came from God, and God said it, and God said it was good, and God divided it from darkness and made darkness and light. So what is the purpose or function of light? When we think about light, God divided the light from the darkness. Do you realize that unless light existed, unless light was divided from darkness, the earth would be in total darkness? It would be completely black. There would be no seeing. There would be no enjoying all of the beauties. As a matter of fact, as I looked at light, I found out without light, you cannot have any colors or anything. Colors only exist in light. And so, man, you know, all of the beautiful stuff that we're seeing right now, the starting of the change of coloring of the leaves and stuff. Oh, my favorite time to look at all the beauty of the leaves and stuff. We wouldn't be able to enjoy without light. If the earth had no sun, the earth would be engulfed in darkness. But understand, the sun did not come along until day four. So there was three days that there was light. It was able to see, able to do, but there was not yet a sun. So the sun is not our light. There was light before the sun. If the earth was still covered by this dense fog, these clouds, or this mist, the earth would be blanketed in total darkness. And so, as I begin to study, light basically has five functions or purposes. When you look at light, light divides darkness. That's what God, the reason that He started light, the reason that He created light, was in order to divide the darkness to give some light to this earth and this universe. We also know that light makes things grow, right? All plants and algae has to have light, and they do a thing called photosynthesis, right, that makes them grow. And if the plants grow, then guess what? We eat the plants and we grow, right? And so, all of this kind of works together and it happens because of light. Light also gives heat and warmth. Sometimes I watch, coming out the back door, and some of you that are cold here in the auditorium, you step out on that front porch and the first thing that happens is the sun hits you. And you go, oh, this feels good, right? Because the light gives us warmth and heat. But light also gives us color. It's what gives us all of the beautiful things that we see and explore. Light also enables man and animals to see. In other words, light exposes things. And when we come to the Bible, we come to 2 Peter 1, verse 19, and we find that light also not only divides darkness, but light also dispels darkness. It tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. That word dark there is an interesting word, that the light shineth in a dark place. And that word dark is a place that has absolutely no light, that is gloomy, it is murky. Our world thinks that it is enlightened. But our world is not enlightened. We call ourselves the enlightened age, as a matter of fact. And without the injunction, or without the declaration of God, the world would be dark, it would be gloomy, it would be a murky place, and cannot even define what God did. Even though we are so enlightened, nobody can give the answer for what light is. And so I contend that the world is actually confused. Amen? We see that being played out in our society today. We have adults that are confused, which leads to young people that are confused, right? And so we've got this world that is confused. Why? Because we live in a dark place. The absence of light is going to be dark. And God is the one that came from light. Now, theologically, we know that if only God existed, and God has always existed, right? Then that light had to come from God. And it had to be a part of God when He instituted it. And so we have more knowledge, more information than any generation that has ever lived. We have a lot of people that know a lot about everything without knowing anything. Amen? Do you know we cannot have life without light? See, life is only available because of light. And this is also not only true physically, but it's also true spiritually. See, when Jesus stepped onto the scene and started preaching His Sermon on the Mount, He wasn't talking about physical stuff. He's talking about spiritual stuff. And He says, blessed are the poor in spirit. What? Those that recognize their self as spiritually bankrupt. He said, they shall see God. Blessed are they that mourn. It's not a physical mourning. It is a spiritual mourning. And He goes down through this spiritual stuff. If we get the inside right and we get our spirit right, and we become pure in heart, right? Then what's going to happen? Then we're going to be salt. We're not literally salt. None of you this week turned into little granules or a block. No, we're talking about that spiritually. That if we are who we are and what we are spiritually, then guess what? We are going to permeate to those that are around us. We're going to affect the lives of others. Do you realize that even as enlightened and as smart as our world is, and our society is, do you realize that our society cannot answer four basic questions of life? You know what the four basic questions of life, and it's surprising because even a lot of Christians are confused when it comes to the four basic questions of life. The four basic questions of life is first of all, where did I come from? Where did you come from? I came from my mom and dad. Yeah, but where did they come from, right? And go back. And what is the world doing today? Today is we want to know where we came from, right? We want to do... I mean, right now the big booming thing is these genealogies and all of that, because we want to know something about us. We want to know where we came from. Where we originated from. And so where did I come from? The second major question in life is where am I going, right? What does the future hold? Why am I here? And so that leads us to the third question. If I know where I'm from and I know where I'm going, then I need to know why I'm here, right? What is my place in this moment right now? What is my purpose in this moment? Why do I exist? Why does God allow me to live on this earth? Which leads to the fourth question, is where are we going to spend an eternity? Where are we going to spend an eternity? And you know, unfortunately, when we look at the world and we look at the society that we ask, and we ask, where did you come from? They came from this green slime, right? We started out as this atom deal that broke and done and turned into this sludge of stuff, and we have slowly, over millions and billions of years, we have evolved into who we are today. And so we came from absolutely junk. How many of you like to play in slime? No. I want my water clean, right? My pool. We bought a swimming pool this year and I was gone two weeks and I let the green take over. Nobody wanted to get into the pool. So finally I said, you know what? It's close enough to winter. Let's drain the pool and we'll start over next year. Why? Nobody wants to get in that green nasty stuff. And so look, the whole world believes that we started from this green nasty stuff. If you ask the world, where did we come from? They say this green slime. If you ask the world, where are we going? They'll tell you we're going to either go back to dirt, or we're going to turn into a dog, or we're going to come back as some other animal or something along that line. If you ask why we are here, we don't have a clue why we're here. We're just going through life, right? We're just trying to exist. And so who knows why we're here? So here's the mystery. You'll never find the answers to these basic questions in the world. You're not going to find them in the dictionary. You're not going to find them in an encyclopedia. So how can we find the answers to these basic questions of life? Just like I had to discover about light. We go to the Bible. We go to Jesus Christ. And in John 14 and verse 6, a verse that many of us are very, very familiar with, because Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. And so notice He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. We find life in Jesus Christ. In the Beatitudes. And I want to show this, and it hit me as I was studying and praying this week and looking at this, and I kept going back over this way, truth, and life. And if you go back to the Beatitudes, you remember all of the Beatitudes are attitudes, are character deals that we should have as we come to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, I am the way. All of the Beatitudes show us how to get to Jesus Christ. We have to start what? Pour in the Spirit. We have to mourn. We have to be meek. These are things that we do in order to get to Jesus Christ. Then last week, we looked at the salt of the earth. We see that's the truth. Remember, salt has two capabilities. Salt either adds flavor to what is there, or it also does what? It also purifies. Either way, it deals with the truth. You've got to have truth. You cannot weaken down or water down the truth and make it work. A lot of churches and a lot of Christians are coming to that realization now that they've finally figured out that guess what? We cannot water down the truth. We may get a big crowd. We may draw lots of people, but when we water down the truth of the Word of God, it is not sustainable. And what we're seeing and starting to see right now is an influx of people that are leaving the bigger churches wanting to find churches that are true to the Word of God, that stick to the truth. Not what we want to hear, but what does God say? And how does that relate to me? The third thing, he says, I am life. In the light, we see the life of Jesus Christ. And it's really cool at how this worked out because next week, Lord willing, I get back from Texas and everything this week, and everything works out good. Next week, we are going to look at how through Jesus Christ does this Old Testament and this New Testament merge and field in the very next passage that he talks about. But right now, we're getting to Jesus Christ. And we're talking about how do we share Jesus Christ. And so notice that this is also not only mysterious, it's not only miraculous, but it's also metaphorical. In other words, in John 1, John begins his letters by saying, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things are made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was what? Life. Underline that. In who? Jesus Christ is who we're talking about. The Word, right? The Word that came to give life. And look at what he says. He says, and the life was what? The light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not the light. John the Baptist is not the light. Jesus Christ is the light. But he was sent to bear witness of that light that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe what? On His name. Now we're starting to understand. Jesus Christ is the light. He is there to give life, right? And what? John the Baptist who was a witness of Jesus Christ, who was a forerunner of Jesus Christ, who had the authority of God from Jesus Christ, John the Baptist was what? He was not the light. He was just to bear witness of the light. You go over to John 3, verse 17-16, we all know, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but what? Shall have everlasting life. How can we have everlasting life? Because Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He is what's going to give us life. He gives us life both physically, but He also gives us life spiritually. And then it picks up in verse 17 that we usually don't memorize. And it says, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. Here's what condemns man to hell. That light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light. That is, deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. You see what's happening here? Jesus Christ did not come to condemn the world, but the world wants to reject Jesus Christ because their deeds are evil. And that's the whole battle, and we're going to talk about that tonight in World Views on how to deal with the lost. And so I'll encourage you, if you go back and listen to last week's lesson, come back tonight because we're going to look at these World Views. Because it all boils down to this. If they reject Jesus Christ because they want to live the way they want to live. If they say that we came from God, that we didn't come from green slime, if they know that we're going to have an eternity, and if God is real and we came from God, and we're going to return to God when we die, then guess what? The Bible is true when it says all men shall be judged by God. And so the easiest way for me not to have to deal with the judgment of God is to do what? To reject that there is a God. I'm going to live my life how I want to. I'm my judge. Don't judge me, right? I'll judge myself. Well, guess what? You judge yourself, you're going to come up inadequate. And that's what we're going to see in the entire Old Testament. Is what? Man tried to judge themselves against the standard. And God said that is just a standard. Nobody can even keep up the very basics of the standard. And what is Jesus Christ fixing to do here in the Sermon on the Mount? He's saying you have heard what the Old Testament said, but let me tell you something. See, that was the low point, but God expects so much more from us. And so it comes back to what? How do I fit into that? How am I holy? How am I salt and light? Well, I have to go back to being poor in spirit. I have to go back and mourn. I have to go back and become meat. Basically, I have to repent. But here's what's interesting, because in John, you skip on over to John 8 and verse 12, Jesus again said unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So what does He say? Jesus declares, I am the light of the world. If Jesus declares to be light, and John the Baptist says that He is not the light, He is just to bear witness of the light, then how do we understand that now Jesus Christ in this sermon says, You are the light of the world. If John the Baptist couldn't be light, then how in the world do we have any chance of being light? Let me explain, because Matthew 5 and verse 14 says, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. In John chapter 9 and verse 5, Jesus Christ makes this statement, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Now let me ask you a question right now. Is Jesus Christ here in the world? The world universe He is, but this world that we live in today here on earth, Jesus Christ is not here, is He? Not according to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, He was standing there with His disciples and all these others, and where did He go? He ascended from this world, this earth, this place that we dwell. Remember, we talk about the world as being within this population. And so Jesus Christ said, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. But He is no longer in this world, because the Bible says when John looked up in Revelation, and he's prophesying about Jesus Christ, he said immediately He was brought up to heaven, where he saw who? Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. So Jesus Christ is not here physically right now. He is gone. Jesus Christ told us that was going to happen in John 14, 15, and 16, right? He said, I have to leave in order that I might send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to be with you, because physically He could only be in one place at one time. But if He sends the Spirit, He can be everywhere. So His Spirit is what controls and dominates this world today. You tracking with me? So if Jesus Christ is not here, then guess what? He says, I am the light of the world as long as I'm here. But He is not here. So who did He leave to be His light in this world? The church. The Christians. We are the light of the world. We're not the light. We're not Jesus Christ, but we're just like John. We're to bear witness of that light. The same exact way... Do you realize the moon? Anybody see the supermoon and how bright it's been the last few nights? This is one of them supermoons. And I finally figured out and learned just this last month what a supermoon is. I thought these were just amazing moons. They're just closer than they normally are. And so they look huge, but they're the same moon. They're the same size. The only thing that makes them super is closer up they get bigger. So really, I'm a super preacher. The closer you get to me, the bigger I get, right? So anyway, but the moon has absolutely no light in it. It has no light in it. Where does the moon get its light? From the sun. And as the sun is rotating and the earth is rotating and the moon is rotating, what happens? The moon goes from full to absolutely no light down to quarter size, half moon, and back around again, right? And it does that every 30 days. But it's all getting its light based upon the sun. The sun. So when we think about this illustration, what Jesus Christ is saying, I am the light, but if I am in you and you have accepted these beatitudes, now you are the salt of the earth. You are to permeate locally. But you are also the light of the world. In my absence, you are to radiate globally. You are to go out into all the world. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, He tells us what this light is actually meaning. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. See, Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He is the only One that can give life, right? But by Him, we are what? We have been reconciled. What have we been reconciled to? The ministry of reconciliation. What Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary, we are to duplicate in our lives in order that the entire world might have life and life everlasting. He said, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their sins, their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. See, it is our job, our responsibility, your purpose here on earth as a child of God, is to reconcile. Guess what? I've never died for nobody. If you believe in me, you're going to die and go to hell. So guess what? I'm not the light. I'm not the One that made the reconciliation. But you know what I am? I am a preacher of Jesus Christ. What I do do is point you to Jesus Christ. And as I point you to Jesus Christ, He gives you life. And He makes reconciliation. And so that's what He's talking about. That's our responsibility. That is our duty. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, it says, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so look, Philippians 2.15 says that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God. Remember John 1? The sons of God. How do we become a son of God? By accepting the light, Jesus Christ. And we are given life and we become a son of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked, perverse, confused nation. Among whom you shine as lights in the world. Ephesians 5 that I read this morning, For you were sometimes darkness, but now are you the light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Walk as children of light. See, you once were in darkness. You once was alienated from God. You was once separated from God. But listen, when you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you recognized your sinfulness. You recognized the holiness and the purity of Jesus Christ. And you said, I want that in my life. I want to be well-pleasing to the Father. Jesus Christ comes into your heart. He saves you. And when He saves you, look what happens. He now makes you a minister of reconciliation to all the world. You are now reflecting Jesus Christ. What a miracle! It's a miracle! How can Jesus Christ take something that is dark, evil, and wicked, and now turn me into something that is light, beneficial, and used for reconciliation? But that's what He did. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So notice He goes on and He gives us, now that we understand this light a little bit more, and I contend to you that in Genesis 1-3 when God said, let there be light, I contend that Jesus Christ at that moment stepped into this world. And Jesus Christ divided the darkness. And Jesus Christ was there at the very beginning because that's what John said. He was there at the beginning. All things were made by Him. All things were made through Him, right? Nothing else could have worked. None of the rest of the creation could happen without light, without Jesus Christ. And here's what supports this. You go all the way over to Revelation and you read about the new heaven and the new earth. And in the new heaven and the new earth, guess what? We don't need a sun or a moon because it says we have Jesus Christ whose glory will fill the entire world. So much so that guess what? There will be no division of light and dark because He said there's not even going to be any shadows. Jesus Christ is going to fill and permeate all of eternity. Wow! That's some good stuff right there. That'll preach right there in itself. But notice what He says. We've got to get back to us in the reality. We can't look to the future because He says right now, you are the light of the world, right? And notice what He says. He gives us a place for these lights. He says, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it gives a light unto all that are in the house. Now, you've known me long enough now as your pastor. I read and I study and I look at the Word of God. Every single word is important. And notice how Jesus Christ starts out and He refers first of all to a city. But then He comes right back down and He gives us a negative. Neither. He says, a city that is set up on a hill cannot be hid. Neither. This is a contradiction here. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it gives a light unto all that are where? In the house. And so notice what's happening here. Notice the words that He's doing. First of all, He says that we are to be light publicly. A city. Do you realize what happens when you walk out of here on Sunday morning after the morning worship service and you say, good job, Brother Donny. Boy, the Holy Spirit spoke to me today. I'm going to go out and I'm going to be a light in this world. You know what begins to happen? As you leave out of here, guess what? All of you walk out of here as lights. You are a reflection of Jesus Christ. What Jesus Christ has done in and through you during this service this morning, you are to walk out and to reflect. Do you remember what happened to Moses when he went up on the mountain and received the law of God? When he got close to God, you know what began to happen? Not only was he changed spiritually, but Moses was also changed physically. Because you see, when he walked down off the mountain, the people were afraid. Because why? Moses glowed. Now that would freak me out just a little bit, right? If all of a sudden, this man went up on this mountain for 40 days. Now he comes down and he is glowing. You know what Moses had to do? This is interesting. This is interesting. Moses had to from that point on, he wore a veil. Because what caused him to glow? The fact that he had been with God. He had been in the presence of God. And what begins to happen when he stays out of the presence of God? He begins to not glow. But he's the leader of all of the people, right? He is speaking on the behalf of God, right? He is leading these people to the promised land. So what in the world, how are they going to trust Him and believe Him if He's not in the presence of God? You see what happens with the beatitudes now? We have got to constantly stay close to Jesus Christ. We've got to constantly... These beatitudes is not something that you do once and you're through with. Salvation is not this choice that you made once in a lifetime, and now you don't have to make that choice anymore. No, Jesus Christ said, if you are My disciple, if you want to be My disciple, you deny yourself, you take up your cross daily, and you follow Me. In other words, every single morning when you get up, you ought to go right back to Matthew 5, beginning in verse 3, it says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Look at yourself and begin to take inventory and start your day if you are not like Jesus Christ. By the time you get through reading through the beatitudes and you pray these beatitudes and you pray, God puts you in Me, then guess what? By the end of these beatitudes, you ought to be soft and light because you ought to be just like Jesus Christ. It's something we've got to do every day. And that's what happens with Christianity. The salvation, when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart right here on this side of the church building in Central Missionary Baptist Church in the spring of 1979 when I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, that just started my salvation and my life for Him. Every single day is a new commitment and a new purifying and a new walk with Jesus Christ. And so, man, when we are all doing that and we walk out of this church, guess what? Our community begins to notice. The city of Benton begins to notice. If you walk out of here acting and looking and living like Jesus Christ, do you think people at your jobs want to notice? When they looked at the disciples, they said, these are unlearned and uneducated men according to Acts. But here's what they took note of. They took note of, even though they were ignorant, even though they were uneducated and unlearned, they had been with Jesus. They had been with Jesus. Because guess what? If Jesus is real in our heart, Jesus is going to be real in our actions. And that's what He's talking about here. If you've got light within you, you cannot help but light come out from you. And so as we are committed and submitted to Jesus Christ, then guess what? We begin to go. And how many of you have ever been traveling at night and come up onto a city? What do you see? Man, there is nothing around here that's even close to it. I forget what the population of Monterrey is down in Mexico, but we always get to Monterrey. Get to Monterrey. It's usually about 9 or 10 o'clock at night. It's pitch dark. Monterrey has a population of over 3 million people. Just about what the population of Arkansas is. All shoved into this one valley. And the minute you top the hill, we get excited because we know we only have an hour and a half from Monterrey. The only problem is, is to get from off the top of that mountain to the other side of the valley over the other mountain. It takes us nearly an hour to an hour and a half to go through this. And for this entire time, all we're doing is looking at all of these lights. And Monterrey is growing tremendously. And every time we go, there's more and more lights and more and more things. And in Israel where Jesus Christ was actually delivering this sermon, Jerusalem is a little bit different in their setup. Because in Jerusalem, if you go to Israel, you will find out that they don't dig down to the foundation and begin to build their houses and everything. No, there's a long, many years, almost 6,000 years of history right there at Jerusalem. And you know what they would do when something would come in and war would destroy their place? You know what they did? They packed it down and they firmed it up and they just built on top of it. That's why when you go to Israel, the first time I went to Israel, the only time I went to Israel, I was amazed because I'm going to see these places of Jesus and where Jesus walked and where Jesus talked. And 90% of the stuff that we saw where Jesus was at, we was underground. Because they would take us down and they would show us the walls of the old city and the cities would just be built upon. And so what began to happen was as they began to build these tales, these mounds, and so as these people began to build on top of cities, build on top of cities, build on top of cities, then all of a sudden, they winded up here at the top and all around this area, remember just a few miles down the road is the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on earth. And then just right up from it, just Jordan, the Sea of Galilee. There's this mountain right beside where Jesus Christ was teaching that's got this city set up on top of this hill. And all the way at night, from all the way anywhere on the Sea of Galilee, anywhere on the Jordan River, you can look up and see the lights of that city up on that hill. See, when we're doing what all we're supposed to be doing and we're acting like we're supposed to, then guess what? All of a sudden, we've become massive and we begin to do the will of the Father. And so he says publicly on a hill, but listen, we can't get publicly on a hill if we don't personally start in the house. He says your goal is to be global. Your goal is to be a shining light everywhere. But he says, neither you cannot have light shining as a city if your light's not shining in your house. See, if everybody in Monterey, when we come over that mountain, had their lights out, we wouldn't even realize that there was a city there at night. Right? And he said, neither do men light a candle. One light in their house. They didn't have power and electricity. They sat there. They read. They had one light and they would have that candle and they would have it set up. And he said, you don't walk into a dark house at night and light your one candle and then put a bushel over the top of it. Cover it up. No, you know what you do when electricity goes off? You light a candle. You light multiple candles, right? We want a lot of candles in our house so that we can walk around our house. We can see. And what do we do? We don't put it in the lowest place of the house. Where do we put it? We put it up high. Because the higher it is, the more light it produces. We do this every year at Christmas Eve. We'll do it again this year at Christmas Eve with our candlelight service and exhibit how much greater the light is when you hold it up as opposed to when you just hide it and just come to church on Sunday. And you're supposed to be a city on a hill, but you're not even a candle in your house. And so you'll never be a city on a hill if you're not, first of all, a candle in your house. So what is our purpose? Look at what he says in v. 16. Now I'm fixing to close. "...Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Are you living in a dark world? Yeah, we're living. Can you imagine what this world would be like if there wasn't a single church or a single Christian? Can you imagine what this world would be like Can you imagine how evil this world would be? But just the fact that there are some of us, guess what? It's taking this world and repelling some of this darkness. It's pushing it away that is there. And so we notice what he says. "...Let your light..." Now, are we the light? No, who's the light? Jesus Christ. So let Jesus Christ that is in you shine. You are just a radiator. You are just a reflector of the light. And you are to do what? So they can see how wonderful you are in your church and they can praise your church and say, well, aren't they a great church? No, because guess what? Every one of us here are sinners, right? And so don't look at me if you're looking for the light. Because guess what? I'm going to mess up. I'm going to make mistakes. But here's what I am going to do. When I get where I'm not shining like a light, I'm going to trim my wick. I'm going to go back to the Beatitudes and I'm going to say, God, I messed up. God, I'm not near as holy as I thought I was. And I'm going to mourn. I'm sorry I broke your heart, God. I know I was supposed to be light. But God, I really messed up in that situation. And I'm going to humble myself. And I'm going to become pure in heart. And guess what? I'm trimming my wick. I'm working things out so that Jesus Christ can get all of this filthiness and all of this excess out of my life in order that what? I may shine brighter. Brighter. Not so that I get the glory, because I can't take in any glory in what I do. Everything that happens good in my life is because of Jesus Christ. And so when people see good in me, when they see me loving those that really don't deserve my love, when I'm kind to those that really don't deserve my kindness, then guess what? I am being a minister of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came and hung out with some wicked people. Did He not? But was He ever turned by their wickedness? No. He said, I'm not going to spook to you. I'm not going to put my light under a bushel. I'm going to shine like I'm supposed to shine. And either you're going to get away from me, or you're going to be drawn closer to me. And when I think about that, it reminds me as a church, are we pushing people away? Are we drawing people to us? And if for questions as a church, then what about us as individuals? Are we pushing people away? I'm not talking about by not standing on the truth. But a lot of us are pushing people away because we're not shining with Jesus Christ. We're trying to glorify ourself, or we're trying to glorify our church, or we're trying to glorify a program or a position. We're not glorifying Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if I will be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me. And so as we stand, we have a verse of invitation. How are you doing at radiating light into a confused world? How are you doing radiating light? When people see you, do they respond like they responded to Jesus? Oh man, I'm a sinner. You know, really, if we're getting... You know, the strange thing happening is I wasn't a real good guy. When I was in high school, I got to be rebellious after I was saved. I was a preacher's son. God was calling me to preach. And I was doing everything to show God that I was not worthy of being a preacher. I was not worthy. I didn't want the position. I didn't want it, Jim. And so I was doing everything that I could to prove to God that you don't want me to be your minister. But you know what? When I finally got things right and I finally accepted my purpose in life, that I am to be a minister of reconciliation, and God called me not only to be a preacher, but to be a pastor, to lead people, to guide people, you know what I began to find out? Them guys that I hung out with in high school, they don't really want to hang out with me today. Because I'm not the same guy that I was back then. I'm not doing the same things. You see, when Jesus Christ changed me, He not only changed me inside, but He also changed me outwardly. And so guess what? I have some friends that came to Jesus Christ and we still talk and we hang out and we do things. But you know, a lot of the people that I hung out with that we wasn't doing things right, that have never came to Jesus Christ, they don't want anything to do with a preacher. Because why? I don't even have to say anything. Just the fact that they know I am committed to Christ and I'm a pastor. They know that their deeds and what they're thinking and what they're doing is evil. And they don't even want to be in my presence. So man, we need to give people Jesus Christ. People are not going to have life without Jesus Christ. And listen, you are the life giver. Not you, but we're to give Jesus Christ. And that's what we're to do is to take Jesus Christ everywhere that we go. And that's why He says we are a light. But first, we have to permeate locally. We have to deal with individuals. And when we deal with individuals, then guess what? We begin to shine globally. So that's why Jesus used two different examples. And so, you can't be one without the other. They have to have both. As we sing, let Him...