Walking with Christ in a Stressful World: Week 3

Welcome to Church of the Carlson. My name is James,

and if you are a guest here today, we are

so honored that you are with us today. We're gonna

start out a little bit different today and we're continuing

our series. This is the last week of the series

that Michael Thickpin designed and I hope that you've been

enjoying those devotionals. I have, and I've had some really

good times with the Lord, and it's also been helping

me reminding me to pray throughout the day, and so

that's been very good for me in the last few weeks.

But let's pray and then let's jump in. God, we

give you praise today. Lord, I pray that you will

challenge us, God, that you will teach us, and most

of all, that our hearts will be shaped.

In obedience in Jesus' name. Amen.

Do you guys still remember a lot of the songs

we sang when we were a little children. I know

almost everybody sung this really messed up song historically, Ring

around the Rosie. Do you remember that? Yeah, Well, let's

sing that together right now. Okay, here we go. Don't

let me be the only one singing. Ready, here we go, ring,

go round, the rosy pocket full of posies, ashes ashes,

we all fall down, and we would literally fall down.

Remember that. Now there is another famous children's song. It's

a classic. It's incredibly profound, The wheels on the bus.

So once you sing that with me for a second.

Here we go. The wheels on the bus go round

and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels

on the bus go round and round all through the town,

not just parts of the town, all the way through

the town. And now, my favorite song growing up when

I was this little Eaty Boy, was a church song

that I learned in Sunday school. And I love to

sing this catchy song at home or when I was

out in my family. It didn't matter. I just love

this song. And you might remember it. It was called

This Little Light of Mine, and I loved it because

it had hand gestures. Do you guys remember the hand gestures?

All right, let's sing this song together. Here we go,

This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine,

this little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine,

this little light of mind. I'm gonna let it shine,

Let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, Hide

it under a bushel. I'm gonna let it shine. Don't

let Satan blow it out. Let's try that again. Don't

let Satan blow it out. I'm gonna let it shine. Okay,

So you guys get it all right. So, now, before

I knew any theology about Satan, I already disliked him.

He wanted to blow my light out, and that was

not okay with me. I didn't understand what was his problem.

I didn't do anything to him. Now, I've never claimed

to be the brightest bulb in the room, so I

think it's safe you can say that I was a

little confused as a young child. It was around that time,

a couple of years before that, that Steven Spielberg's Et

came out. If you remember, ET had a little light

on his finger, and so in my head, you know,

I thought, you know, when Jesus would come looking for us,

he would need to be able to see this little

light of mine just in order to find me. Now,

obviously that was not the meaning of the song. So

my first you know, musical and theological interpretation was an

epic failure.

But that's okay.

See the actual meaning of the song, this little light

of mind originates from the passage that we're gonna look

at today. Now, Matthew has a version of it. Luke

has a version of it. Now what does that mean

When we see multiple versions of the same parable are

story in the gospels, It basically just means this Jesus

taught it a lot, and so one disciple will record it.

For instance, Matthew put it in whenever Jesus talked about

it with the Sermon.

On the Mount.

Now, Luke, the one we're gonna be looking at today.

It's really interesting. Jesus taught the parable of the sewer,

and then kind of as the action point, he taught

on the parable of the lamb the light that's your shin.

Very fascinating because Jesus uses the passage that we're gonna

look at today as an action point for the parable

of the sewer. We'll look at that here in a

few mo So Jesus again he's given this teaching on

the light that just shine as basically explaining to people,

here's how different people are going to respond differently to

the gospel. Okay, so we'll dive into all that and

we'll explain all that here to the next few moments.

But here's what we do today. We begin with the

choice that every single one of us in this room

ask and here's a choice. Okay, we have the choice

to either reflect the light or hide the light. You

can either reflect the light with your life or hide

the light with your life. Now, let's look at this, Luke.

Chapter eight says, and this is Jesus talk. And he says,

no one light's a lamp and then hides it in

clay jars or puts it under a bed instead. What

do they do? They put it on a stand so

that those who come in can see the light. Now,

let's just talk about some and sense here. So Jesus

gives us parable where basically says, hey, no one hides

they're light when they light a lamp. You don't put

it under a bed. You don't put it in a jar.

Now that makes a lot of sense. Think about First

of all, it took a lot of work to light

a little fire. Back then they didn't have matches, so

it took a little while put the oil in and

get it going. So it would be kind of, you know,

a huge waste of effort to then cover it up

with a jar and wash the flame extinguish. Also, you

would not put a lamp under your bed, why, because

your bed was made of straw. You would burn your

bed up and burn your whole house down. Okay, So

at first we understand, and we all understand this, a

light is first and foremost something that is meant to

be what seen. The houses in Palestine during this time

are very dark, almost pitch black. By fact, they would

often just have one circular window that was about eighteen

inches wide, okay, and so at night it would be

pitch black. And so you needed this light so that

if anyone else came in to your house they could see.

And so what you would do is you would actually

have where this phrase came from, a lamp stand. You

had a lamp stand, or you had your lamp put

up on a shelf on the wall, so that way,

if people came in, that was the only way they

were going to be able to see if they visited

you at night. So, okay, this is very simple. Parable

what is Jesus getting at. It's almost like, here's some

common sense. What's the point that he's trying to make. Well,

we have to understand first of all that this phrase

that Jesus used was a famous expression. So the listeners,

the Jewish listeners would have thought of at least two

different things. One, when Jesus talked about, you know, letting

your light shine, well, the first thing that they would

have thought about is he talking about Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem

was considered a city on the hill. They would also

be called a light to the gentiles. So a is

Jesus talking about how we are a light to the

gentiles or and this is the one that interpreters believe

that he was pointing at. Often a rabbi, a teacher

was called a lamp of Israel, and so Jesus here

was referring to himself. And what Jesus was saying is

that you don't hide me, You don't storm me away,

You don't cover up your relationship with me. When your

friends come over to your house, you don't act like

we're not in a relationship. When you go to work,

you don't set me aside or hide me when you're

around your family are your best friends. You don't put

me away. No no, no, no, no no no no.

You'll let me.

Shine and as I shine, you will reflect me. All right,

So that's very very very easy to understand Jesus saying

I'm the light, and you should let my light shine

brightly in your life so that your friends and your

family will know that you reflect my light. All right,

So we could be done today. Okay, I just interpreted

that parable quite wonderfully, by the way, Or we can

go another step and we could talk about the dark

reality that is tied up of this parable.

Actually it's pretty dark.

The dark reality was that Jesus wasn't simply asking those

in his audience to be willing to tell someone about Jesus.

He wasn't asking his audience.

To pass out gospel parchments at the local grocery store. No, no, no.

He was letting them know.

That if you let my light shine and you reflect

me in your life, it could possibly in the future

cost you your life. This is what he was saying

to those who were listening to him this day. Now

think about this. During World War Two, the German bombers

they would cross the English Channel and in order for

them to know where to drop the bombs, uh, they

would look for what lights. And so the call was

given to all those who were in London, Hey make

sure that you blow out your candles you have no

lights in your house. Matter of fact, they even had to,

you know, cover the windows they had their head lights. Actually,

they had this stain that would cover their head lights,

that would have just one little slit on it, just

so barely, just a little bit of light could come

through it. The stores that needed to remain open, they

would maybe put things over their shades just so it

was a very dim light. Because just the faintest crack

of light could be seen from the sky, one small

candle would draw enemy fire. So light was dangerous. It

revealed a target. So Jesus knew what this meant for

his followers. If you shine in the dark, people are

gonna notice, and everyone who notices.

Is not going to be happy.

Now, just like in wartime London, shining a light draws attention.

It attracted the enemy. Those who lived in England knew

that they uncovered their lamps, the bombers would find them.

And Jesus knows.

That those of us who reflect his light, persecution is

going to come. But here's a choice. Okay, you can

hide your ly, you can let it fear, or you

can let it shine and bring hope to others. The

blackout in London. Yeah, it would stop the bombings at night.

But would it win the war.

No. To win the war, it took courage in the

life of day. And in the same way, those of

us who are called to shine for Jesus Christ, despite

the risk, we bring hope to this world, to those

who are lost in darkness. Now, many people who heard

this message on that day, they were in this audience. Okay,

so I want you to think about this. He tells

the parable of the sower. Here's how people respond to

the gospel. And then he simply tells this story of

the you know, the lamps shining their life for Jesus.

Those who were in that audience today understood on that day.

What it meant. And let me tell you what.

Many of those who heard this sermon on this day,

let me tell you what happened to them as a

result of them shining their light. Tradition teaches us that

Matthew was killed by a sword in Ethiopia, Mark died

after being dragged by horses through to the streets of

Alexandria Egypt. James's son of Ebedee was beheaded by Herod

Agrippa in Jerusalem.

Bartholomew was beaten to death in Turkey.

Andrew was crucified on an ex shaped cross in Greece.

Thomas was reportedly stabbed to death in India, Jude was

killed by arrows.

Matthias, who was a successor of.

Judas, was stoned and then beheaded, reflecting the light of

Christ will have its consequences, and things, by the way,

only grew worse from that point on. Let's talk about

the Emperor Rome at this time, this first generation of Christians.

The ruler who was in charge of a guy named

Zo Sicko Wacko, but most importantly to us today, hated Christians.

He despised them, hated everything about them. And he said

he tried to snuff out Christianity. First of all, he said,

all right, let's just make it illegal. And the people,

by the way, the people of Rome and the Roman Empire,

they worked too far.

Off from you know, Neuro's sentiments.

Let's look at what one historian wrote just a few

years after the Church started talking about the Christians and

what they did. It says machery of every sort was

added to their deaths, covered with skins of beasts. They

were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to

the crosses or were doomed to the flames and burnt

to serve as nightly illumination. Nero offered his gardens for

this spectacle. So on top of these discussing things they

would do to Christians, Nero okay, he even had our

apostle Paul beheaded in Rome. The apostle Peter was crucified

upside down. They made sport of Christians. They would bring

them into the cause of them and they would have

wild animals rip them apart in front of everybody. The women,

by the way. They would often take the women. They

would bring them into the brothels and force them into

prostitution before they would kill them, just to humiliate the

Christian women.

What was their only crime?

They reflected the light of Jesus and they chose not

to hide it away. No, what did the people have

to say about this early group of Christians. Well, there

were some complaints by the Romans. They didn't like how

the Christians lived their life. One person said One historians

said this on the complaint of the Romans.

It says, you do not.

Attend our shows, you take no part in our processions,

You were not present at our public banquets. You abhor

the sacred gladatorial games. In other words, we like to

do life like this, but you Christians aren't living life

like us. You're living it differently, and we don't like it.

You make us kind of feel bad for the things

that we do. So it continued this long history of persecution.

Even our apostle John, who by the way, is the

only apostle.

We think that was not martyred.

He had a disciple named Polycarp. Now Polycarp was again

like his direct disciple. Eventually they grabbed a hold of Polycarp.

They brought him in before the city and they said

to him, bow down to the genius of Caesar and

deny Christ, or we're going to kill you.

And here's what Polycarp.

Said, eighty and six years have I served him and

he never did me any injury? How can I blasphem

my king in my Savior. And before the day was

over he was burned at a steak. Bandina maybe the

most courageous woman that we have in the first couple

of centuries.

Blandina. They kept trying to kill her and they couldn't.

They'd bring her into the arena. At one point they

brought lions in. The lions wouldn't mess with her. Another

time they brought her in and one of the lions bitter,

but it didn't kill her.

And then they put her.

In a net and some of the bulls would push

her around, and they just kept trying to kill her,

and they couldn't kill her. They even stripped her of

her clothes, and they had this hot metal chair heated

up and they would make her sit on it, and

every time she got a chance, she would yell out

to the audience, keep the faith, Keep the faith. And

eventually they got tired of her, and so they stabbed

her to death. See, in these early days of persecutions,

the implers would would have their guards come into the

communities and they would line the Christians up and they

would say, all right, either bow the seizure ca You're

gonna be put to death, or you could lose your

job or your property can be confiscated. Okay, So if

you don't bow down to Caesar, you're gonna lose a lot.

And let me tell you something.

It was during this era of persecution that the Christians

look back on the parable of the Sower that Jesus

links with the parable of the Lamp, and it takes

a dark twist. And here's what I'm gonna do right now,

I'm gonna reread the parable of the Sower that is

taught right before the Parable of the Lamp. I promise

you this, you will never read the Parable of the

Sower the same way again. Now read the Parable of

the Sower in light of first generation Christianity.

Here we go.

Jesus talking, says those who basically are receiving the gospel.

Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive

the Word with joy when they hear it. But they

don't have a root. Okay, they believe for a while,

but in the time of testing.

They fall away.

Now the literal Greek translation for fall away means to

not stand. In other words, a time of testing is

when to come, and they won't stand up for Jesus.

So here's Jesus. He's looking into the future and when

the day would come where his people who followed him,

those who reflected the light, well, they were going to

face persecution and they would either have to bow their

need to the Roman gods or stand up for Jesus.

It was a literal test of the faith, and he says,

many people are not going to be able to do

the part that they're called to. They will not stand,

and therefore they will walk away. And then we go

on to cotinue to read the parable of the sobers.

Is the seed talking about the gospel that fell among

thorns stands for those who hear. But as they go

on their way, they are choked out by life's worries,

riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. Now we

have to understand that, all right, okay, how would their

faith be choked out by worry?

Well, it's very simple.

When they would come to the towns and they would say,

choose Caesar or Jesus.

The people had to choose one. You can lose your life.

But even more, if you were not a follower of Caesar,

you're probably gonna lose your job.

If you lost your job, back then you lost your money.

If you lost your money, you lost your property, you

lost your influence, you lost your status. And so people

would have to make a decision between their status and

their wealth or reflecting the light of Jesus. Okay, and

so you would understand how this parable of the sower

just means something so.

Much more in a lie of the first century. And

it was during this stage of history that those who

would bow their knee to Caesar they got a nickname.

They called them the bread Christians. What's a bread Christian? Well,

they were hearkening back to when Jesus did the miracle

of the Fish and the Woes, And basically they were saying,

those of you who would not stand up for Jesus, well,

you're a bread Christian. In other words, you only followed

Jesus for what he can give you. You only want

Jesus for how he blesses you or takes care of you.

But you're not willing to stand up for Jesus.

And so this was a real thing back then, and

it goes along with this teaching. And so we understand

the parable of the soword a different light. Now let

me continue the parable of the lamp. He goes on

to say this, for there is nothing hidden that will

not be disclosed, nothing cancealed that will not be known

or brought out into the open. So here's the thing

Jesus is pointing to the day that his hears well,

their faith is either going to be made known to

everybody or their lack of faith was going to be

made known to everybody. Some people would have their faith

revealed in the crowd when the Roman soldiers came. Other

people would have their faith or their lack of faith

revealed that day. But maybe there's a lot of those

who like us. We don't have to worry about Roman

guards coming in here today. We don't have to worry

about someone telling us to make a choice between Jesus

and our job. But Jesus was looking into the future

of the day of judgment, and on the day of judgment,

God knows our hearts and who we are. And if

we escape our life with people thinking that we're followers

of Christ, we might not escape judgment day if our

faith is not true. Jesus says, hey, at some point,

everything's gonna be brought to light. Everything's gonna be concealed,

or excuse me, revealed instead of being concealed. So here's

a big question today we look two thousand years later.

Here's a big question for all of us here today.

What are you gonna do with Jesus? And what are

you doing with Jesus? Are you reflecting his light? Are

you ashamed of him at work? Do you act different

around your friends, your coworkers, or are you reflecting the

light of Jesus in all aspects.

Of your life?

See Jesus asked, are you gonna reflect my light to

the world or are you gonna hide it and fall

away for the fear of man. Now there's a second

choice we have in verse seventeen, and the choice is

simply this, to reveal or conceal our faith. Now, this

revealer conceal is a real thing. I remember when I

first moved here, moving from Pittsburgh, I didn't have any friends.

And so anytime you move and a lot of us

here we've moved, you know how lonely you are. It's

like a weird feeling. But you're lonely because you had

a group of friends. But now you don't have a

group of friends, and so you want friends. And so

when you're making new friends, you always have that choice

to reveal or conceal whether or not you're a follower

of Christ, because a lot of people will not be

your friend if they find out you're a follower of Christ,

and even more if they find out you're a pastor.

And I've always enjoyed having friends in my neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

We all got to know each other on the block

and we were good friends. And I wanted that same

thing when I got here, and so as I started

to become friends with about three guys, I had to

make that decision about reveal or conceal. And sure enough,

as I I reveal that you know, I'm a pastor,

which I always get two responses, either a really weird

theological question or just that's it. The friendship's over and

we'll just wave at each other for the rest of

our existence and it's not going to move forward. Probably

just now. Just one of them. We still talk on

a regular basis, But two of them just were like,

all right, it's.

Nice to know.

See, whenever you make the choice to reveal or conceal,

it's going to have consequences, okay. And and by the way,

this is something that just doesn't go for pastors. It

goes for all of us. So Jesus says this. He

goes on to continue his parable, He says, therefore, consider

carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more,

Whoever does not have, even what they think they have,

will be taken from them. Does that sound like a

riddle from the Lord of the Rings. I often think

Jesus like, I'm like what I think I'm gonna have

to read a commentary? Therefore, consider carefully now. It says

consider carefully now when we look into the Greek, the

Greek gives us actually wonderful insight into that phrase.

Consider carefully, okay.

It means when you consider something carefully, you listen with.

The future in mind.

And by the way, you listen much differently when you're

listening with the future in mind. When you listen with

the future of mind, you're thinking about what could possibly happen,

what can the outcome.

And this is.

Exactly what Jesus was what he is here is to

do when they consider following him and reflecting, it's like

listen with the future in mind. When Caitlin was little,

uh gena and I went to a parenting class, and

I'm a softie.

My staff will tell you I'm a softy. My daughter

will tell you I'm a big softie.

And uh as so I would almost have to be

thoroughly convicted by the Lord to punish my child.

And you have to do something like.

Really bad, like really really bad, and so we're in

this parenting class, and they said, let's talk about why

it's really important that your child obeys your commands immediately.

They do need to have some fear and they do

need to know that what you say, that's how it's

going to go. And they said, all right, now, imagine this.

You're playing around in your house or in your yard.

You tell your kids stop no, but then your kid

still runs around the house and they laugh and they

don't take you seriously. You're like, okay, all right, not

big consequence, it's just annoying. You go to the grocery

store and you tell your kids stop no, and your

kid laughs at you.

And they start running around the grocery store. What do

you do?

You just show their name and you're embarrassed, and then

you'd find it. By the time you catch up with

your kid, you're looking at other moms like you know,

and we know we're talking about He says, okay, okay,

well that's not too big of a consequence. But now

let's take it to another level. He goes, you're in

the parking lot that day and there's cars coming, and

now your kid starts to run around the parking lot.

He says, when you tell your kid to stop, or

you tell your kid no, that's when it makes a

difference whether or not they will obey you. And I

remember sitting there going, I am going to a parent differently.

That's all it took. And I you know why, because

I listened carefully with the future in mind. And so

Jesus says he's telling these parables and he's talking about

reflecting his light. He's like, I need you to listen

with the future of mind because I'm telling you something

right now. This stuff is real. You might be persecuted.

There really is a judgment day. What I'm talking about,

it's not just a poetic book that's gonna be written

down someday. I'm talking about life and death. And see,

Jesus wanted us to understand and think about things with

the future of mind. See Jesus wanted his listeners to

think in terms of either two things, fruit and finality. Okay, so,

first of all, those of us who reflect the light

of Jesus, we're gonna produce more fruit and our life

on this earth. We're gonna have more of God's blessings

on our life when we die. However we die, we

will receive the fruit of eternal life of Jesus. But

he also wanted us to think about finality because on

the flip side, and here's what I want to do, Okay,

I want to go back to page a few pages

before and reread this scripture. Therefore, consider carefully how you listen,

whoever has been given more whatever, whoever does not have?

Now pay attention is whoever does not have, even what

they think they have, will be taken from them. Read

that again, whoever does not have, even what they think

they have, will be taken from them. And so Jesus saying,

listen carefully think about the future. And then he's talking

about people who think they have something, but then they're

going to realize someday that they never really had it,

and so that thing that they think that they had

is going to be taken from them. Now you're like

James stops talking in riddles. Here's what he's talking about.

A lot of people who grew up, they go to church,

they hang out in the church community, but they're like,

does not reflect Jesus, and their life is not given

totally to Jesus. He's saying, at the end of time

and judgment, day, they will come into judgment day thinking

that they have eternity wrapped up, that they have eternal

life in the bag. But he says, even those who

think they have eternity coming in heaven, it's going to

be taken from them and they won't have it. And

so you hear this parable in a different light. You're

saying that if we don't reflect Christ, if we don't

reflect Christ, even those of us who who think we

have salvation, who think that we have eternity wrapped up,

that will be taken from us. And so here's what

I want to do today. I want to wrap up

because Jesus closes out this teaching with one more lesson.

Check this out.

It says that now jesus mothers and brothers came to

see him, but they were not able to get near

him because of the crowd. Someone told him, your mother

and brothers are standing outside waiting to see you, and

then Jesus replied, my mother and brothers are those who

hear God's wor and put them into practice. Now, it

kind of sounds like he's dis in mom and his brothers,

But let me tell him. He loved his mom and

he loved his brothers. Here's what Jesus was doing. He

was taking this opportunity to make his message come home.

What he was saying, okay, was he was expanding those

who could be in a deep close.

Relationship with him.

It didn't matter what your background is that Jesus. It

doesn't matter what your pedigree is to Jesus, doesn't matter.

If you're in a right social group of Jesus, doesn't matter,

if you're rich, doesn't matter if you're poor. What matters

that Jesus is simply this. Do you call him your

Lord and savior and do you reflect his light? That's

what brings you into a close relationship with Jesus. And

this group who listened to him, what did they do

with his teachings. He's interesting thing this group that heard

those teachings that day.

Immediately many of them were killed.

Rtullian, one of our early church fathers, says that the

blood of the martyrs is the seat of the church.

The church had five thousand members when it first started

in Acts. Three hundred years later, by the time Constantine

made Christianity legal, say that there was ten million Christians.

We grew from five thousand to ten million in the

midst of.

Horrific, horrific persecution, horrific persecution. See, God did something with

those who decided to let their light shine before men.

As I close out today, I got a couple thoughts.

One is, I want you to think about light for

a moment. Okay, Light is the fastest thing any universe.

It travels one hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second,

matter of fact, and one second light can travel around

this earth seven times.

When you walk.

Outside today, if you happen to see the sun today,

the sun, that little heat that hits your face, it

took about eight minutes to actually get from the sun

to your face. That's how fast light travels. And that's

how quickly light overcomes darkness. And spiritually, when whenever we

let shine through is it will travel faster and further

than you could ever imagine. A word of encouragement, a

public stand for your faith is spreads rapidly, and you

have no idea what God will do with you and

the light that you reflect. You have no idea the

people's lives that it will change. Okay, And that's leads

us to our bottom line statement. Today we are all

called to be contagious, to live a contagious life that

reflects the life.

And the teachings of Jesus.

So how can we do that? All right?

Number one, we could share a faith.

So let me just tell you people that I look

forward to share my faith with. They are almost always

in new phases of life. Job, new baby, new house,

the news to the area. They're finishing school, they're newly married,

maybe they're divorced recently. Maybe some of them are dealing

with the effects of sin in their life for the

first time. Maybe some of them are sick. This is

the perfect time to reach somebody for Christ. This person

is a perfect person for you to share a lot

of Christ with. And remember you have no idea what

your testimony and your light can do. It can change generations.

I mean to share this with you.

A Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball led D. L.

Moody to Christ.

D L.

Moody become one of the greatest evangelists of the nineteenth century.

D L. Moody all right, it was under his ministry

that Jay Wilbert Chapman was converted. And then he influenced

Billy Sunday, who was this famous baseball player, and then

Billy Sunday's preaching led a guy named Mordecai Ham to Christ.

And then Mordecai Ham was preaching a revival that led

Billy Graham to Christ.

Do you see that.

Started with somebody who with a shoemaker and worked at

a shoe store. Share the gospel, by the way with

a young little boy.

How many of you have influence over our ch and

our teens.

You have no idea the influence that you might have

over the next few generations.

So ask God to empower you as you share. I've

always asked God to empower me.

One time, there's this guy I really wanted to lead

it to Christ who was one of my high school friends,

and I finally got to hang out with him, and

I'm like, man.

Let's just hang out.

La la la la la, And he says, all right,

if you want to hang out, let's go paintballing. Do

I look like a paintballer? And so we went paintballing

and we're out there in this field and there's these

insane human beings out there who have like machine gun

level paintballs, and I'm running from these guys. I don't

even know these guys, and they shot me about fifteen

times in my back before my face could go into

the mud.

I the pain was searing. I felt like my back

was on fire.

And I remember that I was there trying to win

my friend to Christ, and is my face laid in

the mud and my back was on fire.

I remember saying to.

God, Satan can have him.

Not everything's gonna work out with people. So as you share,

what do you do? You share your testimony? You share

the Gospel Revelation twelve eleven, one of my favorite scriptures,

says this. They triumphed over him talking about Satan by

the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

And they did not love their lives so much as

to shrink from death. This passage in Revelation was pointing

to the early Christians who did it. John wrote this,

in the midst of horrific persecution, I'll never forget the words.

You can come by my house anytime my light is on.

My youth.

Pastor who led me to Christ knew that I was

abandoning a world and a lot of dark friends. And

I would get off work as a waiter pretty late

at night, around eight thirty or nine o'clock, and as

I would drive home, I would just keep thinking, Oh, man,

let his light beyond, let his light be on, Let

us light be on. And almost every night he left

his light on and I would come in and we

would just talk talk about scripture. He would pray with me,

and he did this for many months until I went

off to Bible College. I am so thankful that someone

left their light on for me. The question today is

who are you leaving your light on for? Let's pray.

What I want you to do now is, first of all,

ask the Holy Spirit the simple question, am I hiding

my light or reflecting my light in my workplace, at

home and in life? Let him speak to you. And secondly,

today is there someone that is you either work with

or that's in your family or as a friend that

you need to reflect Jesus' light around them? But then

also move past the point of not being ashamed of

him and telling them about why you follow Jesus. Let

the Lord reveal that person to you right now, and

I'm pretty sure he did so. The question is now

will you do it? Jesus?

We trust you today we want to reflect your light.

To bring you glory and honor in Jesus name.

Amen.

A lot of times you come in on Sunday morning

and the message is almost like sending you back out

into war and saying, go out there, fight. But I

know that as you go out there, and if you

live out the words that we teach here, you know.

You're gonna have some wounds.

A couple of things that the church does is that

the Church does send people out into this war zone

that we call our world. But when we get back together,

this is a place of healing, and this is a

place of love and encouragement.

And so now we're going to move into a time

of anointing.

And maybe you know it's a financial thing, maybe it's

a job thing, maybe it's an illness thing, whatever you

want to bring before the Lord. We want to show

you more of God's love today and we want to

be a better community today and just love on you

and join with you and the thing that's deep upon

your heart.

So let us.

Stand, and we would just ask that you would kind

of exit from the sides, come down here towards the middle,

and Andrew will direct you to which prayer partner to

go to. But we're going to take a little while

seeing a song or two. But let's just go ahead

and take some time together with our brothers and sisters

and pray and seek the Lord.