Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 445 | Throwback - You Are the Lightbulb
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:07Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
- 0:11where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
- 0:18Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
- 0:21Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
- 0:25or on our website at watwm.org,
- 0:28we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
- 0:33about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
- 0:38Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
- 0:38Music.
- 0:48She's a happy girl.
- 1:02The world is a dark place. Satan, the prince of darkness, rules it.
- 1:07You have the light of life within you and it shines through,
- 1:11dispelling the darkness.
- 1:13No matter how dark the room is, even the weakest light is seen.
- 1:18Therefore, it is your godly duty to let your light shine before men.
- 1:22You must be a strong witness to all who come into your presence.
- 1:27To see you also should be to see the Father.
- 1:31Join us in this program, You Are the Light Bulb, as Kim Miller of Women at the
- 1:36Well Ministries takes us through Matthew 5.14, which says, Ye are the light of the world.
- 1:43Hello and welcome to this broadcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
- 1:47And there's a thought I would like for us to start out with that I want us to
- 1:52keep in the forefront of our mind,
- 1:54not just for the few moments that we are together, but for all the time that
- 1:59we are here on this earth. And that is this.
- 2:03In light of the verse that we just read, you are the light of the world,
- 2:08I want you to never doubt the power of your godly influence to change another person's life.
- 2:15You know, we think sometimes that, what can I do? I'm just one person.
- 2:21But what you can do is what God has called you to do, and that is to let your
- 2:25light so shine before men that your good works would glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
- 2:32We have an opportunity to bring God into every situation that we find ourselves in.
- 2:40And I'm afraid that many of us oftentimes miss the opportunity to bring God in.
- 2:48You see as a christian christ
- 2:51dwells inside of us as a
- 2:53christian by definition we are
- 2:56to be christ like as a
- 2:59christian we have placed our faith in an almighty god and we are developing
- 3:03daily a closer walk with him and we are studying his word and we are spending
- 3:10time with him in prayer And the time we spend with God imprints upon our heart many things.
- 3:18And it leaves a lasting impression upon us.
- 3:23And it motivates us and inspires us to go out and show others what God has given to us.
- 3:31You don't have to be a pastor.
- 3:34You don't have to be a Sunday school teacher to tell others about God and to
- 3:39influence them towards him.
- 3:42Your everyday life reaches people.
- 3:47And it either reaches them and turns them towards Christ, or it turns them away from Christ.
- 3:55Because if you're not moving someone closer to the Lord, then you're missing an opportunity.
- 4:01And I'm not asking you to, you know, go out and and constantly,
- 4:07you know, nag and harp and all these different things on somebody who doesn't
- 4:11go to church. That's not going to work.
- 4:13I'm asking you to live consistently by the standards of the Word of God.
- 4:19You will be amazed at the impact your life has on somebody when they know they
- 4:26can account on you to be consistent with the Word of God.
- 4:32If you say you love the Lord, then your life should follow the example that
- 4:39Christ has given you to follow.
- 4:41They should be able to see the love of God in you.
- 4:45They shouldn't have to ask about what your morals are because they see you live
- 4:51out a godly moral life every day in front of them.
- 4:55They see that you serve the Lord. They know that you go to church.
- 4:59They know that you stand for the principles of God by the way you conduct your
- 5:04life in business and in your personal life.
- 5:08The way that you reach out to others and
- 5:11help them when they're in need the way you will give sacrificially
- 5:15and the way that you live a life against
- 5:18a set of standards the standards of the word of god you see if you won't stand
- 5:23for something you will fall for anything and a christian should stand upon the
- 5:29word of god upholding its principles and their life should be a living testimony
- 5:34of the work of God in them.
- 5:36And in no way does that mean that I expect you where I'm telling you or expect
- 5:41myself or telling myself to be perfect.
- 5:44What I'm telling myself is that as Paul said, that we are to strive towards
- 5:49the prize of the high mark of the calling of Christ in our life.
- 5:54And we can do that as he supplies our every need and as he strengthens us when
- 5:59we live in the center of his will by understanding what he wants each of us
- 6:03to do because we spend time in fellowship with Christ.
- 6:08And I want to tell you that if you have time with people around you who also
- 6:15are like-minded in Christ, they will strengthen you, they will help you,
- 6:20and they will hold you accountable.
- 6:22And you will find that if you spend your time with godly people,
- 6:26you too will become more godly.
- 6:29And so when you're out in the world, they will see your light a little brighter,
- 6:34and you will be like a light bulb in a world that is dark. Do you realize that
- 6:40a teeny bit of light can be seen in the darkest of night?
- 6:44You can introduce a match in a completely huge dark auditorium.
- 6:51And from every place in the dark, large, huge auditorium, they'll see the small
- 6:58flame of the little match.
- 7:01And sometimes you may feel like a little match. And when you do,
- 7:05I want you to just say, yay me.
- 7:07Because that means that you have spent your time and energy in a dark place,
- 7:13but you have been light, and they have seen the light of God,
- 7:18even if it was just a short, small light from you.
- 7:22You see, you can introduce light into darkness every time, but you can put a
- 7:27little bit of darkness in a great big light room by just closing something up,
- 7:31and it doesn't really affect.
- 7:32But light would dispel darkness every single time.
- 7:39So when you are that small match in that big room,
- 7:43you are making a difference, and your works are being seen, and you are glorifying
- 7:52your Father, and He will take care of the rest.
- 7:55Your job is not to necessarily win the lost.
- 8:00Your job is to witness to the loss so that the Lord can bring in the harvest.
- 8:07But you need to plant the seed, and we plant it with how we live our life.
- 8:11We sit and watch the evening news, and it's so hard for me realizing that Solomon
- 8:18said there's nothing new under the sun because it seems as if my world that
- 8:23I live in gets darker and darker and darker.
- 8:27And I stop and I wonder, how is it? I go to a church with three or four hundred people in it.
- 8:34I have churches on every corner.
- 8:37I know of churches that have thousands of people in it.
- 8:41How is it that so many Christians with such a light are having so much trouble
- 8:49dispelling the darkness?
- 8:51Yes, it's the end times, but I also think that we as Christians have given up the good fight.
- 8:59I think some of us has forgotten when he said in Galatians, be not weary in well-doing.
- 9:05I think we forgot that he said, ye are my witnesses.
- 9:09I think we forgot that he tells us that we are to be the light of the world.
- 9:16I think sometimes we've forgotten that our works demonstrate our love and commitment to Christ.
- 9:24There is no way that we can work our way into heaven.
- 9:27The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
- 9:30It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
- 9:36But James tells us that, show me your works and I'll show you my face.
- 9:41You see, we have an incredible impact on the people's lives around us if we
- 9:47are consistent day in and day out.
- 9:50And I promise you, you'll see that in your own life because when they have a
- 9:54problem or they get in trouble,
- 9:56they may not have spoken to you in a long time because you have convicted them
- 10:01with your life and they don't want anything to do with you because you're weird
- 10:04and you're one of those Christian types and you don't do this,
- 10:07you don't drink, you don't smoke,
- 10:08you don't cheat on your wife, you don't have sex outside of marriage,
- 10:12you don't do all these things and so they just think you're crazy.
- 10:15But the moment they have a problem, they'll come running to you because your
- 10:20consistency has given them hope.
- 10:24Because your words are in alignment with your actions.
- 10:28And they're in alignment with the principles of God so they can see the love of God in you.
- 10:34They may not be able to name what it is they see, but they know they can depend
- 10:38on you to help them no matter what they've done to you because you understand
- 10:42the love of God and how he forgives you daily.
- 10:46And so because of his love for you and his work in you and through the enabling of the Holy Spirit,
- 10:54you can be a light to that person who may have done nothing but irritate and
- 11:00hurt you because you can see beyond their faults.
- 11:05And supply the need of Jesus in their life. You've just got to keep setting
- 11:11the table before your enemies with the feast of the love of God,
- 11:15and eventually they'll take a bite, and then God will do all the rest.
- 11:23Your job is to be a witness.
- 11:26Your job is to show Christ to others.
- 11:30Your job is to be separate from the world.
- 11:33Your job is to be seen in the darkness as a place in a ray of hope.
- 11:39A light will shine the way, and that's what people in darkness need.
- 11:44And the stronger your commitment to Christ, the more devoted you are to his
- 11:49word and their time in prayer, the brighter your little light bulb will be.
- 11:55And no matter how dark the world, no matter how big the place,
- 12:00that slight that you give is enough to give a glimmer of hope,
- 12:07because it will show Jesus to a lost and dying world.
- 12:10As Christians, it's time we understood to not be weary in well-doing.
- 12:14It's time that we come back to the Bible to get our feast, that we desire the
- 12:19sincere milk of the Word, and that we have gone beyond milk and it's now meat,
- 12:24and we're deep in the understanding of what God has in our lives.
- 12:27But we're more committed to increasing our faith because our love and devotion
- 12:34to Christ gets stronger each and every day as we see the blessings of God upon our lives.
- 12:40You're the light of the world, and a candle isn't hidden under a bushel,
- 12:44but it's set on the hillside so that all can see.
- 12:47Jesus loves me, this I know, and I pray you know it too.
- 12:52Music.
- 13:00Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
- 13:05quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
- 13:08We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
- 13:12our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
- 13:15You can find our app by searching for Women at the Well Ministries in your app
- 13:19store or through our website at watwm.org. We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash W-A-T-W-M.
- 13:27If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
- 13:31a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
- 13:36Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
- 13:41And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
- 13:47To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our.
- 13:50Website. Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
- 13:56We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
- 14:01Remember that God loves you.
- 14:03Music.