Sermon

Made to Display - Kingdom Righteousness - Part 2 with Pastor Marci Glisson

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

  2. from St. Augustine, FL.

  3. Now enjoy this message. Well, you know, Pastor

  4. ministered was it last Sunday on May to display and he's talked

  5. about Kingdom righteousness, right?

  6. About the fact that we are supposed to be displaying

  7. righteousness to the world. We are a representative of the

  8. Kingdom of God in the world. Amen.

  9. We are what Paul says, ambassadors for Christ, right?

  10. And we have a position to live before the world.

  11. Well, I want to piggyback off of that.

  12. And he called it made to display.

  13. So I want to say made to display part two or two point O whatever

  14. you want to say Amen. I want to read.

  15. First and foremost, this is going to be our text that I want

  16. to work walk through today as far as we can get out of

  17. Ephesians Chapter 5, Ephesians Chapter 5, one through 21.

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  18. OK, yes, we love the word here. OK, all 21 verses, OK, all are

  19. imperative for us walking out our righteousness today and what

  20. we must do and I believe is a part of just as the prophetic

  21. word came or the tongue and interpretation came from Audrey.

  22. That when we walk into a room, people are going to know the

  23. Kingdom is here. They're going to know it.

  24. And we want to make sure that we are being imitators of Him and

  25. his righteousness and the way that he tells us that we need to

  26. walk in this last day, so in verse one.

  27. Of Ephesians chapter 5, it says this.

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  28. Therefore, be imitators of God. Say I'm an imitator as beloved

  29. children, and walk in love. Say walk in love, just as Christ

  30. also loved you and gave himself up for you as an offering and a

  31. sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

  32. But immorality? Or any impurity or greed must

  33. not even be named among you. We know Ephesians is talking to

  34. the church believers, the Ephesian church, and talking to

  35. us. It says as is proper among the

  36. Saints and there must be no filthiness and silly talk or

  37. coarse gesturing. I could break all of this down

  38. because you know what's sad is I hear so many Christians talking.

  39. The way they shouldn't be talking.

  40. But anyway I got to move on because I want to focus on some

  41. other things, coarse, gesturing, which are not fitting but rather

  42. giving thanks. For this you know with certainly

  43. with certainty, sorry, that no immoral or impure person or

  44. covetous man who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the

  45. Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with

  46. empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God

  47. comes upon the sons of disobedience.

  48. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

  49. For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the

  50. Lord. Walk as children in the light.

  51. For the fruit of the light or the Spirit, consists in all

  52. goodness, righteousness, and truth, trying to learn what is

  53. pleasing to the Lord. Are you actually trying to learn

  54. what is pleasing to the Lord and what displeases him?

  55. Because, you know, coarse, gesturing and all this kind of

  56. talk is not pleasing to him. It's not pleasing.

  57. You know, all these little jokes, starting to get into

  58. carnality and all kinds of things that you just carry on

  59. and laugh about and think it's funny?

  60. And he says we ought to not be doing it.

  61. It's not pleasing to him. But he's telling us we need to

  62. learn what is pleasing. It says do not participate in

  63. the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even

  64. expose them, expose them, expose.

  65. People that are still saying they're believers, but acting

  66. like the world, talking like the world, joking like the world,

  67. doing all kinds of things like the world.

  68. You're supposed to, as a believer, as a sister and

  69. brother in Christ, expose these things and say that's not light,

  70. that's not light, that's not what righteousness is.

  71. Right. We have a responsibility.

  72. We're going to see expose them. For it is even disgraceful even

  73. to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

  74. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the

  75. light. They're exposed by the light,

  76. for everything that becomes visible is light.

  77. For this reason, it says awake. Sleeper and arise from the dead,

  78. and Christ will shine on you. Therefore say therefore, be

  79. careful how you walk. Be careful how you walk, not as

  80. unwise man, not as an unwise man or woman, but as wise.

  81. Making the most of your time because the days are evil.

  82. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the

  83. Lord is. See this.

  84. Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit

  85. speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms,

  86. singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

  87. Always giving thanks for the things in the name of the Lord

  88. Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be submitted 1 to

  89. another in the fear of the Lord, in the fear of the Lord.

  90. A lot of powerful things right here, so I want to break some

  91. things down for you through this scripture.

  92. We are to be imitators of Christ.

  93. It says. First and foremost, we were made

  94. to display an image. And what is that image the one

  95. of Christ? What is that image that we are

  96. to be imitating? Are we to be imitating the image

  97. of the world? Hollywood superstars, You know

  98. all these other things? Are we to be imitating Christ?

  99. Our Heavenly Father, right We are to imitate Him.

  100. We are to An image is a what? Reflection.

  101. An image of him is a reflection. And when people see us, they

  102. should see the reflection of the Kingdom of God in our life.

  103. They should see the reflection of Jesus Christ in our life.

  104. They should see the reflection of righteousness.

  105. Amen. They should see it on display.

  106. So that when people see you, they see the Kingdom.

  107. When people come into your presence, they just came into

  108. the presence of the Kingdom of God.

  109. Amen. Genesis one, we know this so

  110. very well in this house. And verse 26 through 28.

  111. It all began right here. God has not changed his mind

  112. just because there was the fall of man.

  113. We know that he sent his Son so that we could be put back into

  114. Christ or back into the image of the very one that he designed

  115. for man to be from the first place.

  116. In Genesis 126 and 28 it says this.

  117. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our

  118. likeness. One translation and you can

  119. actually look it up. It means a carbon copy.

  120. A carbon copy exactly like him. That's what he created man to be

  121. one just like him. A carbon copy.

  122. And let them rule. And we know on and on and on.

  123. And they were to rule over the earth, over all the

  124. circumstances of the earth. Over all the earth, right?

  125. In his image, in his likeness. And once we get born again, now

  126. we can begin to rule and have dominion in the earth, just like

  127. he said we could. Adam could.

  128. Amen. But we are to look just like him

  129. in the earth. It look and imitate.

  130. Him. And that means the greatest way

  131. we're going to reflect or have the image of him, or walk in his

  132. likeness, right, or be that carbon copy is going to come

  133. from the reflection of the word, right?

  134. We know in Corinthians it says we behold the word as a mirror.

  135. So this is that reflection when we read the word.

  136. It's that mirror to us of what we are to be reflecting to the

  137. Earth. Everything within the word.

  138. We don't get to pick and choose and decide what part of the word

  139. we want to reflect or what we don't want to reflect.

  140. But many people still do. No.

  141. There's one reflection. There's one image.

  142. There's one look that he wants each and every one of his

  143. children to look like. We're all individuals.

  144. We all have our own makeup. But the image that we are to

  145. reflect is in Christ and in His word.

  146. What is His word? Say as a believer we are to

  147. reflect to the world and the thing about it is, is there's

  148. all kinds of mixed up images. Right.

  149. It's almost like going to the fair, you know, or the carnivals

  150. or whatever. I haven't been what to one and

  151. Lord knows how long? Over 20 years, probably.

  152. But anyway, you go into that room and there's all kind of

  153. distorted mirrors. Has anybody ever went in one of

  154. those? The fun house?

  155. Yes, that's what it's called. Thank you.

  156. Thank you for helping me, the funhouse.

  157. And you go in and you looked all wonky like the walkie donkey.

  158. Have y'all ever heard that song? Anyway, you look all wonky and

  159. all distorted and all messed up, and so many believers still look

  160. that way because they're not looking at the right image.

  161. They're not looking at the right mirror.

  162. That's supposed to reflect Christ in every area of our

  163. life. We don't get to withhold 1 area

  164. of our life from the Lord. He tells us we are to love him

  165. with all of our heart, with all of our strength, with all of our

  166. soul, with everything that is within us.

  167. We don't get to decide we're not going to let him have that part

  168. of our life. Because when we don't let him

  169. have that part of our life, we mess up the image, We mess up

  170. the reflection because it's going to still look walkie.

  171. And distorted. Yeah, all along you're trying in

  172. the mirror. It's reflecting you, right?

  173. But there's still a messed up image.

  174. So it's still you're in Christ, but you're still not reflecting

  175. the right image. And so, as a believer, our

  176. number one desire should be. That we reflect His image

  177. completely and honestly and exactly the way the word says

  178. that we are to project it and reflect it.

  179. Amen. But see here in Ephesians

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  180. chapter 5 and verses one through 21, we read that, but I want to

  181. just focus on one through 7 right now.

  182. The first thing that we're going to have to do if we're going to

  183. continue to be. Those that walk in righteousness

  184. and are made to display his righteousness in the Kingdom, we

  185. are going to have to first and foremost display love.

  186. And we see that here it says walk.

  187. In love as Christ also has loved us and given himself up for us

  188. and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

  189. So the first thing that people should see in our life if we're

  190. going to reflect and display the proper image of Christ is that

  191. we walk in love. We walk in love.

  192. And this is not what the world says.

  193. Love is. Love is love.

  194. This is not what the world says love is.

  195. This is not lust. This is not, you know, the new

  196. kind of love they say there is today?

  197. No, this is agape love. This is God, God's love.

  198. He said God is love, God is love.

  199. And so this is the image that we want to display.

  200. The real kind of love, God kind of love the way that he says we

  201. are to love. Because without it we can't

  202. love, right? We won't love, right?

  203. We can only be those as believers that are going to walk

  204. in the real kind of love which is agape.

  205. Amen. So we must first and foremost

  206. display the love of God. Now let's look at a couple of

  207. scriptures concerning the love of God.

  208. John 1334 through 35 says this a new commandment I give to you

  209. that you love one another. Another thing I like to say here

  210. just. As this we're reading the

  211. scriptures, you can see that this love was not just for you.

  212. Well, he loved me. It's just me and Jesus and we

  213. have our personal relationship. It was never meant to be that.

  214. No, we've distorted and got unbalanced with that.

  215. His love has to give of itself. It can't just be about you.

  216. That's American indoctrination. It's all about me.

  217. Yolo, you know, it's all good. Love is love the way I want to

  218. love. It's all about me.

  219. I'm not harming anybody. All these things.

  220. This is the world's philosophy, and it's the pit of hell.

  221. It's doctrines of demons. Because this love was his love

  222. was never meant to be selfish. It was never meant to be just

  223. about you. When you're actually walking in

  224. the God kind of love, it says a new commandment.

  225. I give unto you that you love what one another.

  226. And This is why I say that it was always about one another,

  227. always about one another, as I have loved you, that you also

  228. love one another. Amen.

  229. And by this all will know that you are truly one translation,

  230. says my disciples. So how is the world going to

  231. know that we are truly his disciples?

  232. How's the world going to know and and see the display of

  233. Christ in the earth? Is it when we actually walk in

  234. love with one another? That means we don't get offended

  235. with one another. We don't take on offense with

  236. one another. We don't look at one another as

  237. as individuals that are trying to, you know, do this or do that

  238. know. Our attitude towards one another

  239. is that we're going to believe the best in everyone.

  240. I am going to believe the best that it.

  241. Towards everyone, even though I know they aren't saying the best

  242. and doing the best towards me. That's called walking in love.

  243. That's called walking in love. Amen.

  244. When you know that people aren't saying things right about you

  245. and people aren't doing things towards you, that's right.

  246. When you actually put on the God kind of love, that means, you

  247. know what? I'm going to love him no matter

  248. what. I can love him Now.

  249. That don't mean I have to hang out with them.

  250. And I don't have to be their best friend.

  251. I can love them, bless them, Amen.

  252. Pray for them. And not that they would, you

  253. know, not do that to me anymore. Pray for them.

  254. Just that God will just bless them.

  255. Because that's between them and God.

  256. That's walking in love, that's letting things go and the world

  257. is going to know it. That we're truly His disciples.

  258. Because we have love for one another and we love each other

  259. and we forgive each other and we believe the best in each other

  260. and we let things go and we don't hold account of a suffered

  261. wrong towards one another. Marriages.

  262. No matter what, I'm not keeping a record of wrong.

  263. I'm letting it go and giving it to God and trusting him.

  264. For he is my avenger. He is my defender.

  265. Amen. First John 323 says this.

  266. This is his commandment. That we believe in the name of

  267. the Son of Jesus Christ and we love one another just as He

  268. commanded us. Again, so many scriptures.

  269. I don't even have time to read them all to you concerning how

  270. this was about us loving one another.

  271. And if we are going to display the proper image of Christ and

  272. his Kingdom to the world, then love is going to have to be the

  273. first thing that we recognize in our life that we need to do.

  274. Ephesians 317. That Christ may dwell in your

  275. heart by faith, that you would be rooted and grounded in love.

  276. Rooted and grounded in love. And this is God's love.

  277. Amen. Ephesians 4/2 And then Ephesians

  278. 4/2 and then verse 15. With all lowliness and meekness,

  279. with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.

  280. That means we're going to have to for bear some things with

  281. people in love. Amen.

  282. We're going to have to have some long-suffering with people in

  283. love. Hallelujah.

  284. That means you're going to suffer.

  285. It's not going to be easy. You're going to suffer.

  286. It's going to be painful, right? To be able to forgive people and

  287. walk in love towards people and be long-suffering towards

  288. people. But he says we are commanded to

  289. do it as believers. And if we want the world, if we

  290. want to, for the world to see the great display of the Kingdom

  291. of God, then they must first see love in our lives, and us

  292. walking in it every day. First Peter. 122 Since you have

  293. an obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a

  294. sincere love of the brethren. Fervently love one another from

  295. the heart. You see how it's connected to

  296. one another always. It wasn't fervently love me.

  297. Now, he does say that in Scripture, but he also says

  298. this, so we cannot separate the fact that he lets us know that

  299. our relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ

  300. are just as important as our relationship with the Lord.

  301. Just as important, and I'm going to tell you you are not loving

  302. the Lord, I will straight up tell you you are not loving the

  303. Lord if you are not loving your brother.

  304. He actually says you're a liar. I didn't put that scripture

  305. down. I was thinking I would hold

  306. myself back from that, from calling people a liar.

  307. But he called him, not me. He called him out.

  308. He calls you a liar if you say that you love him, but you have

  309. something against your brother. OK, we got to get people set

  310. free. I'm going to tell you, we need

  311. to recognize the time that we're living in, and we need to make

  312. sure we're getting our self in alignment.

  313. Every area of our life. Every area of our life.

  314. Hallelujah, Colossians, Chapter 3, verse 14.

    Colossians 3:14

  315. But on all these things. Say put on, say put on.

  316. Every morning when you get up, you stand in the mirror, you see

  317. a reflection. I didn't know what I wanted to

  318. wear today, and I changed clothes a couple of times.

  319. I saw a reflection. I didn't know if I was liking

  320. the reflection or not. And then I just said forget

  321. about it. And we have a choice every

  322. morning when we stand in the mirror to put on, to put on

  323. whatever clothes we're supposed to wear, right?

  324. Well, you know what? It's the same context where he

  325. says put on love every morning. When you get up, you are

  326. supposed to be a person that's I'm going to put on love.

  327. I'm going to put on love. I had to put on love this

  328. weekend. I didn't want to put on love.

  329. I didn't want to grab that out of the closet and put that on

  330. for a split second and I didn't want to put on love.

  331. And I said, well, OK, Lord, I'll do that if I can say this.

  332. And he said, no, you can't say that.

  333. Well, what if I do this? No, just put on love and don't

  334. say a word. Put on love and don't say a word

  335. because it doesn't matter anyway.

  336. Every day you have a choice that you're going to have to make the

  337. decision. If you are going to reflect the

  338. image of Christ properly, you're going to have to make the

  339. decision to put on the love of God.

  340. And that should be the first thing that people see within

  341. your life. Amen.

  342. The love of God. First Corinthians 16.

  343. Oh no, let me finish that. Colossians 314.

  344. Because I like the rest of that said, beyond all things, put on

  345. love. What?

  346. Which is the perfect bond of unity.

  347. You see that? When we begin to put on love,

  348. what does it do? It unifies.

  349. It will unify your marriage. It will unify your

  350. relationships. Come on.

  351. It will unify the body of Christ.

  352. When we decide we're all just going to love one another.

  353. Yeah, that's what he says. We are going to be people that

  354. are known by our love. We're going to choose to put it

  355. on. And when we do that, that will

  356. bring a unity. Because God is always about

  357. unity. He is not about division.

  358. He's not about strife. He's not about discord.

  359. He's always about unity and building the body up, unified

  360. with one another in our differences.

  361. Amen. Hallelujah, 1st Corinthians 1614

  362. says, Let all that you do, say all that I do right Be done in

  363. love. That means everything, no matter

  364. what. Everything that you do, let it

  365. be done in love. Let it be done in love.

  366. I teach this in my Kingdom Institute class.

  367. That love is the foundation of the Kingdom, and love should be

  368. the motivation of everything that we are doing in the earth.

  369. I'm not doing anything because of you.

  370. I'm doing everything because of the love of the Father.

  371. That is my #1 motivation because of his love and what he has done

  372. for me and for us. The motivating factor of my

  373. heart is because of the love of God, and I want it to permeate

  374. right in everything that I'm doing.

  375. If I'm getting up to serve or whatever, I'm doing it because

  376. of the love of God. The love of God compels me.

  377. The scripture, I didn't read it, but there is a scripture that

  378. said let the love of God compel you.

  379. Let it be your guiding point. Let it be the thing that's going

  380. to set your course love. So in everything that you're

  381. doing, you're doing it by the motivation of the love of God.

  382. Not from selfishness, not from a selfish desire, not because of

  383. tit for tat. You do this for me and I do that

  384. for you. There's no selfishness in it.

  385. It's just because he is love and I'm going to follow and emanate

  386. his love and I'm going to put it on and I'm going to do it no

  387. matter what. In everything.

  388. Everything and all of my serving and everything I'm doing.

  389. The fact that I go to my job is because I'm just love him.

  390. Everything should be motivated by the love of God.

  391. You getting up and serving your husband, serving your wife,

  392. serving your children, doing things for your friend.

  393. Listen, it ought to be because of the motivation of love.

  394. And where there is love, there's no selfishness.

  395. So it doesn't matter if they say thank you.

  396. It doesn't matter if they don't appreciate that you made them

  397. this meal and brought it to their house when they were sick

  398. and you would think you would be able to.

  399. None of that matters if it's motivated by one thing, which is

  400. the love of God. If you never heard another thank

  401. you, would it still? Would you still do it?

  402. Because he said to do it? Come on.

  403. Everything, everything you do should be motivated by the love

  404. of God. Hallelujah.

  405. Glory to God. Not because they're your best

  406. friend, I'm just saying. Not because they're your best

  407. friend. No, the world does that for

  408. their friends. It's because of the love of God

  409. that should be the compel, compelling factor within your

  410. heart. I'm going to do what I do

  411. because of the love of God. And when you stay focused on

  412. that, you won't loud flesh and that selfish desire to creep in,

  413. you'll put it under. You'll say no, shut up.

  414. I don't care if they never tell me.

  415. Thank you again for the rest of my life.

  416. Because that's not why I'm doing it.

  417. I'm not doing it for thank you. I'm not doing it for you're the

  418. best. I'm not doing it for any guilt

  419. trip or form a manipulation out of a selfish desire.

  420. I'm doing it because of the love of God and the love of God of

  421. all alone. That compels me.

  422. You see that? So it says this and Proverbs 79

  423. He who conceals A transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a

  424. matter separates intimate friends.

  425. Man, man, O man, O man, O man. We and the body of Christ need

  426. to just keep our mouths shut about people in our body because

  427. it's nobody's business that's loving.

  428. I don't have a right to go around and just talk about other

  429. people's business and what's going on in their life and what

  430. I think about it. I don't go around talking about

  431. your life and what's going on in your life.

  432. So what gives people the right to think that they can go around

  433. and talk about other people in the body and things they may be

  434. dealing with or things they may be growing through or not even

  435. that you just have an opinion about this person and you've

  436. shared that opinion with someone else.

  437. And you know what that is? It's called gossip.

  438. It's called gossip. But we've made it like, oh, I'm

  439. just concerned. You're not concerned.

  440. You just want to be in everybody's business and you

  441. want to have your opinion about everybody and you want to talk

  442. about everybody. It's not right.

  443. It's not right. It's not right.

  444. It's not right. Say it again.

  445. We need to learn to just keep our mouth shut.

  446. I I understand why. You know, one of the things they

  447. said about Brother Hagan was that he never talked.

  448. He never talked. You know that I bet there was a

  449. lot that he could talk about, a lot of things he saw and dealt

  450. with and went through and still people on Google talking about

  451. him today and he's been in the grave over 20 years.

  452. But he never said not one thing about anybody, wouldn't even

  453. share his opinion about what he thought.

  454. When are we going to get to that?

  455. You know why we're not? Because we're Americanized.

  456. Because it's, you know, what's what's on the next tabloid.

  457. Let's talk about everything going on like we just can openly

  458. talk about it and it's no big deal.

  459. No, it's talking about people's lives.

  460. It's talking about people, joking about people, what you

  461. think about them. And it's coarse, gesturing, all

  462. those things. It's not right.

  463. It's not the love of God, Because the love of God will

  464. conceal, it will protect, it will cover.

  465. We have no right talking about other people's business.

  466. Amen. But he who repeats a matter

  467. separates friends. You know, people, Friends get

  468. mad at each other. People in the body get mad at

  469. each other because they heard so and so said this about them.

  470. It separates, friends separates. It brings what Division.

  471. It brings division. So we ought to, we need to just

  472. take a little break from our mouths and just say, I don't

  473. have an opinion on the matter and I don't want to hear it.

  474. Can we ever start getting to that?

  475. That would be maturity. I don't want to hear this move

  476. along, right. Can we ever get to that?

  477. I believe we can because we must.

  478. Because it's wrong. It brings strife, It brings

  479. division. It's gossip and it's not right.

  480. It's not right before God and it and it hurts people's lives.

  481. So let's move on. The next thing that we're going

  482. to have to display, and it starts in verse eight.

  483. It says we're going to have to display light.

  484. For you were once in darkness, This is Ephesians 5, verse

  485. eight, you were once in darkness, but now you are light

  486. in the Lord. Walk as children in the light.

  487. Walk as children in the light. So #1 if we're going to display

  488. Christ, we're going to have to walk in love. #2 if we're going

  489. to display him properly, people ought to see us walking in the

  490. light. That means there is no longer

  491. any any shadow of darkness in my life.

  492. No darkness within my life. Only light.

  493. There's no shadows in me. That means who I am, you see

  494. every day. That's who I am.

  495. There's nothing being done in secret.

  496. But do you know, if it's not in secret, even the light will

  497. expose it. So we are to walk in light.

  498. We were made to display and permeate the light of God.

  499. Amen. It says walk as children of

  500. light. And what is the light consist of

  501. the fruit of the Spirit. It consists of goodness,

  502. righteousness. There's that word righteousness

  503. that Pastor talked about and the truth.

  504. We will not walk as children of the light or in the light.

  505. If we are not in the word, the truth of God's word.

  506. We won't, we won't be able to walk it out.

  507. We'll begin to have that warped image as well.

  508. That reflection will look warped.

  509. If you're not gaining your the by the Holy Spirit, the truth of

  510. God's word, you're not going to be able to permeate that light

  511. correctly. It says finding out what is

  512. acceptable to the Lord. We have a responsibility to find

  513. out what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not.

  514. And the way we do that is through His truth, through the

  515. Word of God, and letting the light and the revelation and the

  516. illumination of His Word come to our Spirit and our mind.

  517. Amen, it says. And have no fellowship with the

  518. unfruitful works of darkness. Amen.

  519. So we should not be participating in any forms of

  520. darkness, any forms of darkness, but rather expose them, rather

  521. exposed them. And there are all kinds of forms

  522. of darkness that believers still want to dabble in.

  523. One of them is crystals, This new rage of crystals that is

  524. witchcraft. And there is darkness there, and

  525. we should not be dabbling in them.

  526. Amen. So I it says, but rather expose

  527. it so I'm exposing it. Don't be messing around with

  528. crystals, OK, so he says, expose them.

  529. For it is shameful even to speak of those which are done by them

  530. in secret. But all things that are exposed

  531. are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest, for

  532. whatever makes manifest, is light.

  533. Therefore, he says, awake You who sleep arise from the dead.

  534. Christ will give you what light when he says to walk in love,

  535. when he says to walk in the light.

  536. That word, walk, means to regulate one's life, to conduct

  537. one's life, to make one's progress and to be occupied.

  538. To be occupied. We should be occupied by the

  539. love of God. We should be occupied by the

  540. light of God. We should be walking in it every

  541. day, every day. We should allow the light and

  542. the love of God to regulate our lives.

  543. That means when I am, whatever I'm doing through the day.

  544. I'm regulating whatever decisions I'm making through the

  545. day. However it is, Whatever is going

  546. on in my life, I'm going to regulate my life, make those

  547. decisions for my life, govern my life by the light of God's Word

  548. and the love of God. Period.

  549. Those need to be. I don't do anything if the Word

  550. doesn't say it. I'm not going to participate in

  551. anything that the Word says not to participate in.

  552. That's how I regulate my life. If it is not appropriate with

  553. God, then it's not appropriate for me to be engaged in it.

  554. Amen. That's how I regulate my life.

  555. It's not just that I come to church.

  556. I regulate my life by the word of God.

  557. I walk in the love of God. I walk in the light of God.

  558. I walk by the word of God regulating my life.

  559. Amen. First John One, First John 1537.

  560. It says this. This is the message we have

  561. heard from him and announced to you that God is light, and in

  562. him there is no darkness at all. So we should not be

  563. participating with dark deeds. Amen, It says.

  564. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk

  565. in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

  566. Let's say you're not born again. It just says you don't practice

  567. the truth. You don't regulate your life by

  568. the word. There's plenty of believers that

  569. do not regulate their life by the truth of God's word.

  570. They don't live for the word of God and by the live of by the

  571. word of God. They don't live by it.

  572. They don't walk by it. They just are religious.

  573. They they think they got saved and they're good to go so that

  574. one day when they die, they go to heaven.

  575. Yet they don't regulate their life by the word, by the truth

  576. of God's word. So therefore they still

  577. participate in deeds of darkness.

  578. You see that? But he goes on to say what?

  579. What verse was I in? Verse six.

  580. So if we say we're partakers together and enjoy fellowship

  581. with him, when we live and move and are walking about in

  582. darkness, we are both speaking falsely and do not live and

  583. practice the truth which the gospel presents, which the

  584. gospel presents. You live in your own truth,

  585. thinking you going to die and go to heaven, but that's not the

  586. truth the gospel presents. You see that?

  587. And then he goes on to say. But if we are really living and

  588. walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we have

  589. true and unbroken fellowship. I'm reading Out of the Amplified

  590. with One another and the blood of Christ his Son cleanses and

  591. removes us from all sin and guilt and keeps us cleansed from

  592. sin in all it forms and manifestation in all its forms

  593. and manifestation. So we are to walk in the light.

  594. Amen. This is important because in

  595. Matthew there's several other scriptures, but I'm going to

  596. move on because of our time. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 14

    Matthew 5:14

  597. concerning the light, Jesus says this that you are the light of

  598. the world. You're the light of the world, a

  599. city that is set on a hill that cannot be hidden.

  600. So if we are going to display the true image of God, then

  601. we're going to have to let his light shine before the world

  602. come on and have no shadows of darkness within our lives, he

  603. says. You are the light of the world.

  604. That means people should see you and see the light.

  605. Listen, people ought to be drawn to you, just like bugs are drawn

  606. to the light. Absolutely.

  607. You turn off, turn on the light at night, and what happens?

  608. All the mosquitoes are out, All the bugs are flying.

  609. The flies, the gnats, whatever. And what are they doing?

  610. They're coming to the light. All the bugs, all the creeps,

  611. all the things in this world. They ought to be drawn to you by

  612. the light. They should see the light of God

  613. within you, so bright shining that people are just drawn to

  614. you. Amen.

  615. They just want to come be around you.

  616. There's something about you that is illuminating the life of God

  617. and the light of God. And they.

  618. I'm telling you, we've have people all the time.

  619. And now we've made like, this little.

  620. I don't know, I guess we're just like the pastors of this

  621. restaurant that we go to all the time.

  622. And one little girl was a waitress in there, and she's

  623. been a waitress for a while. And every time she's like, why'd

  624. you come in and didn't tell them that I wanted to be your waiter,

  625. you know, waitress. And anyway, so we've been

  626. sharing with her and loving on her and and all this stuff and

  627. ministering to her and they just love to come.

  628. I mean, the owner of the restaurant calls us Pastor Earl,

  629. You know, he knows we're pastors.

  630. And so anyway, we were sitting there minding our business,

  631. having lunch, but they can't not stop and come to the table.

  632. And so she came. She said, I just want to let you

  633. know, like she want to let me know that she wasn't going to be

  634. working there anymore, that she got a new job and told me where

  635. her new job was going to be and all this stuff and, you know,

  636. asked us to just be, you know, pray with her and that she would

  637. do good at this new job. She's stepping out.

  638. She had been in the restaurant business for over 20 something

  639. years. I mean, she's a young girl, so

  640. she started when she was 15. And so anyway, you know, and I

  641. thought, wow, this is really cool that they want to come up

  642. and tell us they're no longer going to be here seeing us.

  643. And she said, I'm going to miss seeing y'all because you always

  644. so happy when you come in, you know, But I just want to let you

  645. know I'm going to be going over here.

  646. I'm not getting fired or anything.

  647. I'm, you know, taking another position.

  648. And I thought, wow, you know what?

  649. They see the light of God. They see the life of God.

  650. They they want to come and talk and they know there's something

  651. and one day they're going to know.

  652. They're going to know there is something, right?

  653. But Matthew 516, it says this let your light show shine before

  654. men that they may see your good works and glorify your father.

  655. So what happens when you are letting your light shine?

  656. They're going to see. I mean, this guy that owns the

  657. restaurant that we go to, he's always coming and talking to

  658. Pastor Earl about what we're doing in the mall when she's

  659. never even been. But he sees everything that is

  660. going on and he's building a new restaurant.

  661. And so him and pastor are talking about building and

  662. permits and all kinds of stuff and relating to him and sharing

  663. with him and to where now every time we come in, it's Pastor

  664. Earl and he makes sure we have a table and all these things.

  665. And I'm thinking, you know what our light is being shown?

  666. And do you know what it is? So that they can see the good

  667. works. People can see the works that

  668. you're doing for the Kingdom of God.

  669. They see the things taking place in your life and the

  670. demonstration of what God is doing through your life to

  671. advance the Kingdom of God. And that will bring glory to

  672. God. Even though they're lost.

  673. They'll see this thing must really work, and that is great.

  674. That should be our desire is that people see, hey, we're a

  675. part of a Kingdom that really works in the earth.

  676. And if you'll just watch, you'll see right the manifestation and

  677. the demonstrations of the glory of God and the power of God.

  678. So much so that when people look upon the city, they'll see God,

  679. they'll see his glory, and they won't be able to deny it.

  680. They won't be able to deny it. Amen.

  681. So it brings glory to him when you actually are producing

  682. things in the Kingdom of God. Proverbs 418 it says.

  683. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that

  684. shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

  685. Hallelujah, it shines brighter and brighter.

  686. We don't have to worry about it. We're just going to be shine and

  687. brighter because the world is going to be so dark, right?

  688. If this room pastor said this before, if we cut off all the

  689. lights in this room and we just struck one match, what would it

  690. do? It would lie.

  691. It would drive out darkness and light up this whole room. 1

  692. little match and that's what it is.

  693. One little person that has the light of God going in and out

  694. through our community letting it shine.

  695. It is pushing back darkness and people can see the light of God.

  696. Amen. Hallelujah.

  697. Now let me read Philippians 215 real quick.

  698. I want to close, it says so that you will prove yourselves to be

  699. blameless and innocent children of God above reproach.

  700. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom

  701. you appear as lights in the world, in a perverse and wicked

  702. generation, you appear lights to the world.

  703. We need to just keep letting our light shine, shining before all

  704. men. Amen.

  705. He is light, and in him there is no darkness.

  706. And therefore we are going to be full of light, full of love,

  707. displaying what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God so

  708. that the world will be drawn to us.

  709. Amen. And the Third Point, which I

  710. won't be able to get to, is that we say it's in verse 15 of

  711. Ephesians 5. See then that you walk

  712. circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time

  713. because the days are evil. Again, three things that we are

  714. supposed to display Love, light and wisdom.

  715. Wisdom to the world. We are not to walk like fools,

  716. but we are to recognize what time it is that we are living in

  717. and walk in the wisdom of the Word of the Lord.

  718. In the midst of this crooked, perverse generation, we're to

  719. have wisdom. Wisdom.

  720. Thank you so much for listening to this message.

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