Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / This Little Light Is It Really Mine Msg 1826 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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This Little Light Is It Really Mine Msg 1826 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Paul called believers light in the Lord in Ephesians 5,
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  Speaker 1: verse 8. And then he went on to tell them
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  Speaker 1: to walk as children of light. Now, some of you
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  Speaker 1: may wonder what in the world that means. So we're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about that today as we study Ephesians 5,
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  Speaker 1: verses 6 through 14. When God created the world, he
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  Speaker 1: began by calling light into existence. Remember that? And he
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  Speaker 1: then separated the light from the darkness, creating an opposition
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  Speaker 1: that exists throughout the Scriptures, light and dark. This opposition
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  Speaker 1: means that light indicates purity and holiness, while darkness stands
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  Speaker 1: for sin and wickedness. In a world that seeks to
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  Speaker 1: complicate the boundaries between various groups and entities, Seeing the
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  Speaker 1: difference between living in the light and living in the
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  Speaker 1: darkness can and should propel us toward the kind of
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  Speaker 1: transformation in our lives God wants for His people. For some,
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  Speaker 1: this may seem a little complicated, and so today I
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  Speaker 1: want to read this passage of Scripture from the message.
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  Speaker 1: Eugene Peterson has a very unique way of making common
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  Speaker 1: sense out of complicated passages. And this is a good
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  Speaker 1: case in point. So we're reading Ephesians 5, verses 6
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  Speaker 1: through 14 from the message. Don't let yourselves get taken
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  Speaker 1: in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people
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  Speaker 1: who are full of religious sales talk, but want nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do with Him. Don't even hang around people like that.
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  Speaker 1: You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer.
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  Speaker 1: You're out in the open now. The bright light of
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  Speaker 1: Christ makes your way plain. So, no more stumbling around.
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  Speaker 1: Get on with it. The good, the right, the true.
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  Speaker 1: These are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out
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  Speaker 1: what will please Christ, and then do it. Don't waste
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  Speaker 1: your time on useless work, mere busy work, the barren
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  Speaker 1: pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are.
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  Speaker 1: It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things
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  Speaker 1: they must do in the darkness where no one will see.
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  Speaker 1: Rip the cover off those frauds and See how attractive
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  Speaker 1: they look in the light of Christ. Wake up from
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  Speaker 1: your sleep. Climb out of your coffins. Christ will show
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  Speaker 1: you the light. So watch your step. Use your head.
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  Speaker 1: Make the most of every chance you get. These are
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  Speaker 1: desperate times. Our Father, we would not stand before anyone
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  Speaker 1: and sing praises and give glory to anybody on this earth,
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  Speaker 1: but with you, there is a vast exception. And we
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  Speaker 1: are learning in this journey from earth to heaven that
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  Speaker 1: that's how it ought to be. While we may respect
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  Speaker 1: and admire others about us, there is no adoration and
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  Speaker 1: there certainly is no worship of them. And so, Father,
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  Speaker 1: in this trek that is so full of obstacles and
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  Speaker 1: surprises along the way, I pray that you would find
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  Speaker 1: us faithful, not flashy, not glitzy, not necessarily impressive, but
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  Speaker 1: faithful at the stuff you call us to do. And
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  Speaker 1: may we do it well. And may we do it
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  Speaker 1: regularly may we do it for the right reasons like
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  Speaker 1: this offering you keep giving to us and we keep
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  Speaker 1: taking and we thank you for that and so we're
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  Speaker 1: learning from your generosity what it is to be like
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  Speaker 1: that in return so help us to imitate your style
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  Speaker 1: here we do it gratefully and we do it joyfully
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  Speaker 1: we do it generously Find us faithful even in this, Father.
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  Speaker 1: For we ask it in the name of our ever-faithful
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  Speaker 1: God and Savior, Jesus. And everybody said, Amen. The number
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  Speaker 1: one television show today has a question for a title.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, the whole show is about answering questions the
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  Speaker 1: right way, and they're all multiple-choice questions. The one who
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  Speaker 1: answers all of them correctly finally is a millionaire. Now
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  Speaker 1: you act like you haven't looked at it, but I
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  Speaker 1: know you have. And I've looked at it a few
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  Speaker 1: times and I've always thought, why doesn't he know that answer?
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  Speaker 1: And so the obvious answer will come up and I
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  Speaker 1: will yell it out and he never seems to hear me.
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  Speaker 1: You know you're getting old when you talk to television set.
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  Speaker 1: I was thinking while watching it the other day that
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  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to choose
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  Speaker 1: a subject From the Bible. Wouldn't that be an interesting
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  Speaker 1: set of questions to ask a contestant and see how
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  Speaker 1: they do? For example, for $ 100, name the first book
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible. I'm not here. I'm not talking about here. A,
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  Speaker 1: Jungle Book. B, Generations. C, Geritol. D, Genesis. And the
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  Speaker 1: answer is? Genesis, of course, you want $ 100. Then you
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  Speaker 1: get up higher and higher and you reach about the $ 250, 000 level.
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  Speaker 1: For $ 250, 000, name the person who wrote the first book
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible. A, Peter. B, Paul. C, Mary. D, Moses.
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  Speaker 1: And he just sits there. Not that you klutz. Answer D.
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  Speaker 1: It's obvious. And he'll say, he says, Moses. Okay, we
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  Speaker 1: finally get to one million dollars. You've answered correctly all
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  Speaker 1: the way through. Now that we're at the top level.
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  Speaker 1: What are the first recorded words of God in the
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  Speaker 1: book of Genesis? And you think? And you think, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not talking about the first words in the book of Genesis.
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  Speaker 1: God's first statement in the book of Genesis. Some of
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  Speaker 1: you are looking. I am seeing you. Let there be light.
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  Speaker 1: And there was light. In fact, the Hebrew is even
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  Speaker 1: more succinct. Let light be and light was. Now, isn't
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  Speaker 1: that an amazing thing? The first thought you have when
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  Speaker 1: you hear those words is, boy, he already had the
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  Speaker 1: sun in place and it's burning down on the earth. Wait, wait, wait.
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  Speaker 1: If I read the book correctly, it hasn't even made
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  Speaker 1: the sun. In fact, here's a million and a half
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  Speaker 1: dollar question. On what day did he make the sun?
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  Speaker 1: It was the fourth day. So for three full creative
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  Speaker 1: days or eras of days, however you might handle that,
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  Speaker 1: For three solid periods of time, there was light, but
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  Speaker 1: there was no sun. And then you get to verse 16,
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  Speaker 1: and all around that section, you find that he made
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  Speaker 1: the greater light to govern the day and the lesser
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  Speaker 1: light to govern the night. You know what those are,
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  Speaker 1: the greater light. The sun. And the lesser light? The moon.
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  Speaker 1: And you realize then, at that point, there was the
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  Speaker 1: cycle of time and life that got set up and
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  Speaker 1: God continued to do his creative work. But what's interesting
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  Speaker 1: to me is that the light that came upon this
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  Speaker 1: earth for a period of who knows how long did
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  Speaker 1: not come from the sun. Where did it come from? Well,
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  Speaker 1: 1 John chapter 1 verse 5 says that God is
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  Speaker 1: light and in him is no darkness at all. Psalm
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  Speaker 1: 104 verse 2 says that God clothes himself in light.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, when you get into the tabernacle and it's
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  Speaker 1: got everything but light, God's presence is poured over the
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  Speaker 1: tabernacle right down into the holiest place of all. It's
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  Speaker 1: called the Shekinah. Isn't that a great word? Shekinah. What's that?
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  Speaker 1: That's light. When God presents himself, when God makes his
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  Speaker 1: presence known, it is often through light. Bright, burning, brilliant light.
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  Speaker 1: Lights up everything around it. God is light. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: surprised then that Paul says to the Ephesians, When he
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  Speaker 1: tells us to imitate God, he says... live like children
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  Speaker 1: of light. Live like children of light. Light has two
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  Speaker 1: purposes as I think about it. First, it is to
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  Speaker 1: dispel darkness from And second, it is to attract attention.
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  Speaker 1: Always does that. In fact, the thicker the darkness and
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  Speaker 1: the brighter the light, the greater the attention. Back when
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  Speaker 1: I was just getting out of high school, my family
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  Speaker 1: and I took a trip to Carlsbad Caverns. They didn't
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  Speaker 1: have theme parks back then, so you kind of did
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  Speaker 1: your own theme park when you went to Carlsbad Caverns.
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  Speaker 1: The whole thing is in e-tickets. little tiny narrow path.
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  Speaker 1: And boy, we were having a great time. My sister
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  Speaker 1: and I were there and brother was there and mom
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  Speaker 1: and dad, we were walking along those tiny little paths
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  Speaker 1: down into the bowels of this cavern, bats blowing around.
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  Speaker 1: And you, well, I was loving it. I was messing
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  Speaker 1: around with my sister in the back of the line.
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  Speaker 1: And we got to these holes that were, you ever
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  Speaker 1: been there? I mean, I don't know if it's stalactite
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  Speaker 1: or stalagmite. I never did learn the difference, but the
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  Speaker 1: thing drops and you watch it go. It's a long
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  Speaker 1: ways down that sucker. I was tempted to push my
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  Speaker 1: brother in a time or two while we were there,
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  Speaker 1: as I remember. Anyway, we get down to the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the cavern and when we're down there, our guide
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  Speaker 1: does something that we didn't expect. Turns out all the lights.
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  Speaker 1: My first thought is, I hope she has good health
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  Speaker 1: If she doesn't, we'll be down here until Jesus comes back.
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  Speaker 1: We'll never find our way out of here. And we're
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  Speaker 1: sitting there. And I remember doing this. I remember putting
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  Speaker 1: my hand so close to my face. I could feel
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  Speaker 1: the heat from the palm of my hand, but I
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  Speaker 1: couldn't see my fingers. I couldn't see anybody sitting around me.
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  Speaker 1: It was dark. There's an old black gospel album called
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  Speaker 1: God's Trombone. It has a great line in it. It
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  Speaker 1: says it was blacker than a thousand midnights in a
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  Speaker 1: cypress swamp. That's how dark it was down in the
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  Speaker 1: belly of the Carlsbad Cavern. And then, unexpectedly, she lights
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  Speaker 1: a little match. A little paper match she lights and
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  Speaker 1: You could see the faces around you. One little tiny flame.
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  Speaker 1: The caverns lit up and you looked around and you
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  Speaker 1: could not not look at the light. It dispelled the
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  Speaker 1: darkness and it attracted attention. Every eye in the place
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  Speaker 1: was on that match. Travel back with me another 2,000
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  Speaker 1: years and you'll come to a hillside, not a cavern.
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  Speaker 1: And sitting on that hillside is a revolutionary teacher who's
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  Speaker 1: just getting underway with his ministry. The officials are standing
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  Speaker 1: in the distance, sneering and frowning, and he's sitting there
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  Speaker 1: calmly teaching a sermon that will never be forgotten, the
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  Speaker 1: most significant sermon ever preached, the immortal sermon on the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: On the north shore of the Sea of Galilee is
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  Speaker 1: probably the place where he sat. And of his disciples,
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  Speaker 1: his followers were sitting out in front of him, and
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  Speaker 1: he began with a series of beatitudes. The sermon begins with,
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  Speaker 1: blessed are you, blessed are you, and blessed are you.
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  Speaker 1: Eight times he says that. And with each one of
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  Speaker 1: the blessings, he promises a reward if you live like
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  Speaker 1: the blessing describes. Most Christians know this, but most of
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  Speaker 1: us have a hard time remembering what follows on the
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  Speaker 1: heels of the blessings. It's another good question for our
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  Speaker 1: game we talked about. What word pictures did Jesus use
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  Speaker 1: to drive home the point he wanted to make about
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  Speaker 1: letting his message out? I'll give you the first one
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  Speaker 1: and you'll guess the second. You are the salt of
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  Speaker 1: the earth and you are the light of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't that interesting? Left with any word picture he could
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  Speaker 1: have used, he talks about salt and light. Now, you
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  Speaker 1: don't dump a pile of salt on something to make
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  Speaker 1: it tasty. You sprinkle a little. Doctors don't even want
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  Speaker 1: you to do that. But since when do they know
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  Speaker 1: what tastes good? You know, you sprinkle a little salt
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  Speaker 1: and a little. Luis Palau has the greatest line. He says,
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  Speaker 1: Christians are like manure. You pile them up in one place,
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  Speaker 1: they don't do any good. They just stink. But you
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  Speaker 1: spread them out, they do a lot of good. Stuff
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  Speaker 1: grows all over the place. Isn't that great? It's the
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  Speaker 1: way it is with salt. You sprinkle a little salt
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  Speaker 1: and oh, it's tasty. And this old bland, tasteless earth
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  Speaker 1: suddenly finds there's something worth living for. As you spread
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  Speaker 1: the salt. But how about the light? How about the light?
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  Speaker 1: Nobody takes a light and puts it under a bushel basket.
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  Speaker 1: He puts it on a hill so that everybody can
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  Speaker 1: see it because it's going to dispel the darkness and
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  Speaker 1: it's going to attract attention. Let's go back to the original.
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  Speaker 1: The sun, the moon. The sun took up the light
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  Speaker 1: of God. By the way, there's just a little ending
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  Speaker 1: to the verse in verse 16 in Genesis 1 that
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  Speaker 1: I just always smile when I get to. It says
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  Speaker 1: he made the greater light to rule the day and
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  Speaker 1: the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.
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  Speaker 1: Does that ever grab you? Oh, and the stars. Multiple,
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  Speaker 1: multiple trillions and quadzillions of stars. And it just takes
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  Speaker 1: a couple of Hebrew words. And stars also. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: before I forget. Now, while making moon and sun and stars,
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  Speaker 1: God puts his light and he releases his light to
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  Speaker 1: some of these incredible planets. Some are light giving and
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  Speaker 1: some are light receiving. The moon has no light of
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  Speaker 1: its own. Without the sun, it's always in darkness. It
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  Speaker 1: lives in darkness. But with the light of the sun, hmm.
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  Speaker 1: It begins to shine. We have a saying called moonlight,
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  Speaker 1: a term for it. There's no moonlight. It's reflected sunlight.
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  Speaker 1: Mark Twain was right. We're all like the moon. We
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  Speaker 1: have a dark side. We don't want anybody to see.
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  Speaker 1: But the sun has no dark side like God. All
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  Speaker 1: the light that comes to the moon and from the
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  Speaker 1: moon is reflected light. It seems to me that what
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  Speaker 1: we needed was a simple little object lesson. That's what
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  Speaker 1: I look at every time I preach. See there? It's
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  Speaker 1: a lot better than this. Oh, let's stay here. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: If this room were dark and it were midnight, black
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  Speaker 1: as a thousand midnights in a cypress swamp and we're
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  Speaker 1: together and all I've got is a mirror, I don't
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  Speaker 1: offer any help because that mirror doesn't do any good
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  Speaker 1: without my light. There you are. She's almost asleep. Let
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  Speaker 1: me get her awake. I should do this every Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: I've never tried this before. There's my son back there.
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  Speaker 1: He's in it. Okay. Anyway, here's the light. This mirror suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: what's this? And a light's facing this way, but because
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  Speaker 1: of the mirror, I mean, I could spend 15 minutes
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  Speaker 1: doing this, but I won't. Anyway, the only good this
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  Speaker 1: mirror does is to reflect. You are the mirror. God
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  Speaker 1: is the light. Without the light, there's nothing to shine.
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  Speaker 1: But with the light, let it shine. Let it shine. Remember?
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  Speaker 1: Remember the old chorus? This little light of mine, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to let it shine. I thought, that's not good theology.
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  Speaker 1: Leave it to a preacher to mess up a song.
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  Speaker 1: I don't have any light. So I thought, these are
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  Speaker 1: the right words. This great light of God... it's going
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  Speaker 1: to shine off my bod. That'll work. That's great theology. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it probably won't be sung very often, but it's true.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a little light, it's a great light, and
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  Speaker 1: it's the light of God shining on us who would
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  Speaker 1: be not only dark, but smeared and smudgy vessels at best.
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  Speaker 1: And then Christ invades the life, and with him, like
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of the sun, he offers light and life,
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  Speaker 1: of course. Now, it's that great word picture that Paul,
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  Speaker 1: in Ephesians chapter 5, And once you get the picture
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  Speaker 1: in your mind, you don't need much help with anything else.
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  Speaker 1: He starts with darkness and he moves to light. In
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  Speaker 1: verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words
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  Speaker 1: for because of these things the wrath of God comes
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  Speaker 1: on the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 5 verse 6. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: don't be a partner with them. What are you, this bright,
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  Speaker 1: shining mirror, what are you doing running around in dark caves?
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  Speaker 1: That's not your habitat. That's not what life is about
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  Speaker 1: for you. You're about reflecting. You're about shining. Do not
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  Speaker 1: be partners with them, for you were formerly darkness. See,
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  Speaker 1: that keeps you from feeling proud. The sun could never
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  Speaker 1: be proud. It got its light from God. The moon
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  Speaker 1: certainly can't be proud. All of the light it gets
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  Speaker 1: is from the sun. He says to us here, you
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  Speaker 1: were formerly darkness, but now that's where the cross comes. Before,
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  Speaker 1: you didn't even have anything to reflect. There was nothing
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  Speaker 1: in which God could work. And you realize that in
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  Speaker 1: the cross... of Christ, there was a sufficient payment for
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  Speaker 1: sin offered once for all. And if you'd come to
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  Speaker 1: him for your righteousness and shining, he could transform your life.
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  Speaker 1: And so he turned you, a dark and miserable person
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  Speaker 1: of evil, into a shining reflection. Still just a slab
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  Speaker 1: of glass and a smear of mercury, but with him there,
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  Speaker 1: can make all the difference in the world. So don't
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  Speaker 1: be a partner with those in darkness. You were formerly
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  Speaker 1: in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: And so walk as children of light. Isn't that great?
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  Speaker 1: We're children of light. What's it like in the darkness? Well,
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  Speaker 1: stop and remember. Remember. You and I were ignorant. We
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  Speaker 1: didn't know the way out, say nothing of the way through.
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  Speaker 1: We were shallow, superficial. We were selfish. Our world revolved around.
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  Speaker 2: Us.
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  Speaker 1: We wanted our way and demanded it, expected it. In secrecy,
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  Speaker 1: we did a number of things we were shamed of,
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  Speaker 1: disappointed in ourselves as we think back. But we didn't
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  Speaker 1: have any power to change it. No matter how many
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: New Year's resolutions we stated, it didn't take but a
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  Speaker 1: few hours, we were already breaking them. We couldn't change.
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  Speaker 1: We were powerless. We were helpless. We were hopeless. Lost.
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  Speaker 2: Lost.
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  Speaker 1: And then Christ came. And He turned this darkness into
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  Speaker 1: a reflection. Something that would reflect to other people living
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  Speaker 1: in the cave that there's another way to live. And
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  Speaker 1: the difference now, verse 9, is goodness and righteousness and truth.
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  Speaker 1: That's not the fruit of me. That's the fruit of
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  Speaker 1: the light. That's what the light provides. By reflecting off
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  Speaker 1: of my person, there is, for the grace of God,
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  Speaker 1: goodness in place of badness, righteousness... in place of emptiness
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  Speaker 1: and self-will and truth, in place of dishonesty, secrecy, as
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  Speaker 1: we try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. So,
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  Speaker 1: he says, don't be a partner, verse 7. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he says in verse 11, don't even participate in the
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  Speaker 1: unfruitful deeds of darkness. Please observe, he's coming down on
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  Speaker 1: deeds of darkness, not doers of darkness. Note that. Don't
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  Speaker 1: spend your life participating in the deeds of darkness, but
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  Speaker 1: you've got to spend your time with the people of
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: darkness or you're totally out of touch. Useless. What good
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: is a Christian living in a walled up building away
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: from the real world? Get out there. The light belongs
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: on the hill. Let it shine. Let it shine. But
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: don't participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. After all,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: good night. It gets confusing to people in the cave
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: when they see that you live just like them. But
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: when they see the shining, they see that there's hope.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: There's a way to get out. I like the way
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: one man describes this. These are the ethics of light.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: When the light of Jesus is refracted through the prisms
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of our lives, there will be sanctifying shades of life
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: for others to see. Isn't that good? Sanctifying shades of light,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: of life for others to see. Now that's the negative.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Don't do that. Here's the positive. Instead, verse 11 closes,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: expose them. Expose them. I can just hear some people say, oh,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that's all I needed. Boy, am I going to preach
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: in that cave. I'm going to expose all that stuff
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: that's going on because they shouldn't be doing it. Don't
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: talk like that. Don't live like that. Don't smoke that stuff.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Don't take that dope. Don't sleep around. Don't do that.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Quit it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Stop.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Stop. And we expose it. Is that what expose means?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Can this mirror talk? You wonder what life is like? Look.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: It reveals. It shines. Doesn't yell. Just shines. Shines.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: You shine, shine, shine.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Turn on the light. I mentioned being raised in Houston.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: We lived in Houston so long, I thought everybody's shoes mildewed. Really,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I did. Houston back then was a place where men
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: sweat and women had huge hair and roaches had big wings.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: They were really big. My mother, who was as clean
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: as she could be, Never believed we had roaches in
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: our house. I used to get more fun out of that.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: One Friday night, I said, Mom, come here. Come here.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: We went into the kitchen, and I go. Looked like
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a Fort Worth rodeo. We had roaches going everywhere. She said,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: turn the light off. Turn the light off. Don't do that.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Okay. She kind of thought the light brought them out.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: The light just exposed them. It just exposed them. So finally,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: before I left home, I finally got her to admit
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: maybe on Friday nights we had roaches in our home.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: You know, they were there all the time. They were
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: there before we got there. But the light exposed them.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: When you live honestly, you expose dishonesty to a point
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: of uncomfortability. When you live with integrity, you shock the
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: person who pads his expense account because you don't pad yours.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: You don't announce it. You don't walk around the big
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: sandwich board saying I'm the only honest person in the company.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: You don't pass around little tracts that talk about how
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: pious and great you are. You expose dishonesty. The darkness
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: by shining the light. I mean, this isn't rocket science,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: is it? We make it complicated. You say, well, you
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: mean you never talk? Don't go there.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Don't use never.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: You will sometime have a marvelous opportunity and they'll be
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: laid right at your doors. This is your moment. Talk.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: But you don't have to beat the door down I've
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: never known anybody who lost a fight and said, I
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: therefore gave my life to Christ. He beat the snot
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: out of me and I just gave my life to Jesus.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: It was just, I just couldn't fight it any longer.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Just such an attractive life. I just had to turn
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: my life over. You know, when you were one, you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: were won by the goodness and righteousness and truth. You
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: were won by the grace that was demonstrated to you.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: You know what? I'm surprised everybody doesn't cuss worse than
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: they cuss. I'm surprised everybody isn't sleeping around who's living
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: in the cave. I'm surprised everybody doesn't communicate in the gutter.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised everybody doesn't cheat. That's the way it is
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: in the cave.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: They can't help it. They can't change it. They need
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: your shining.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: They need to know by the reflection that there's another
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: way to live. There's light. There's a way. There's a
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: way out of this cave. I can get out. I
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: can get out. I can make it. Look at that light.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Eugene Peterson rendering part of the Sermon on the Mount
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: does a wonderful job. God is not a secret to
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: be kept secret. We're going public with this. As public
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: as a city on a hill. If I make you
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: light bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: light stand. Now that I've put you up there, shine.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Keep open house. Be generous with your lives. By opening
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: up to others, you will prompt people to open up
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: with God, our gracious Father in heaven. Isn't that grand?
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Open up your life. Let it shine. Let it shine.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: And when they start to give you the credit, you
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: have the perfect opportunity to say, you know what, I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: don't get any of this credit. But I can tell
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: you how to get the light. And I'll tell you
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: how you can get your mirror shined. But I can't
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: give you light. That's God's job. All things become visible
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: when they're exposed by the light. For this reason it says.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I like the way that reads. I've looked all over.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: to see where it says this. The closest I can
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: get is about four or five verses from four or
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: five chapters out of Isaiah. I think it was in
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: first century chorus of worship. I think it grew from
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a statement that Isaiah the prophet had penned back in
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: chapter 51 or 52 or 60 or one of those
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: where a similar statement is made, but it is probably
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a well-known chorus of like this little light of mine today. Awake, sleeper.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: That's the way the chorus begins. Wake up, you who
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: buried your light under the bushel because you're not ordained,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: because you're not a mature Christian, you who think that
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: because you don't know all there is to know from
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the Bible and decided to just forget the whole thing,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: to leave it to the preacher. Awake, sleeper. You who
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: have allowed the darkness to invade and begin to emulate
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: that life you once lived, arise from the dead. I
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: would say, get out of the coffin. You don't belong
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: in there. You're alive. Shine. Shine. Christ, in fact, will
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: shine on you. He can't shine on you if you're
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: down there in the place of the dead. There was
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: nothing that would shine if there was no light in
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the caverns, even if I was surrounded by mirrors. I
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: had to have light from another source. And let me
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: give you a little piece of comforting advice. Those you
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: don't reach and can't reach, God will reach through someone
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: else after you. If they're reachable, he'll reach them. Before
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Alexander Solzhenitsyn died, became a household word in many homes
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: around the world. Before he became a mirror, his world
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: was a cave, dark and barren and lonely and broken.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: He was an atheistic mathematician, socialist to the core. In fact,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: a captain in the artillery of the Russian army on
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: the front lines in World War II. Following the war,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: he continued to think more like a philosopher than a mathematician,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: and he began to probe the depths of the socialist
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: world in which he lived. And in one piece of
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: personal correspondence, he wrote a sentence, one sentence against Joseph Stalin,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: whom he criticized. Remember that line, one sentence. When the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: KGB was presented with this sentence, they immediately imprisoned him
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: in an Arctic wasteland for eight years, living where even
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: rats could hardly survive. His world got even darker. His
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: parents were dead. His wife now divorced him. But the
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: redemptive effect of this barren place began to work its
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: way out. The once embittered victim of mistreatment existing in
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the darkness of the gulag came face to face with
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: eternal issues. The Lord began to work on his heart
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: through an interesting chain of events I don't have time
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to go into. But suddenly, there was light in the cave.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Instead of growing in resentment, He began to realize all
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the good reasons why he should have been imprisoned. Putting
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: to death his vanity, his superficial, selfish existence, the man
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: finally condemned himself with far more conviction than the KGB
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: ever could have. Broken, forgotten, alone, the Lord reached him.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Solzhenitsyn began appreciating the marvelous effect this living hell was
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: having on him. Listen to this true story. That's why
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: he would often say when referring to it, bless you
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: prison for having been in my life. I love that line.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: He began to shine the reflection of God's handiwork on
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: in a marvelous display of grace toward fellow prisoners, even
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: toward his guards. But there would be one final blow
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: before his term, his sentence would end. Right there in
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: that house of horrors, he discovered through medical advice that
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: he had terminal cancer. Rather than raging against this final misfortune,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: he decided even this is part of God's plan. And
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: even if I'm gone, God's work will continue on through
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the reflection of others. Like A.W. Tozer puts it, when
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: a man of God dies, nothing of God dies. Released,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: you know, he began to write about Did he write? Interestingly,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: dating all the way back to his conversion in 1971,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: of all places, Vogue magazine in America got hold of
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a prayer that he wrote at the time of his conversion.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: It's one of the greatest prayers you could hear. Listen. Listen.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: How simple for me to live with you, O Lord.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: How easy to believe in you. When in confusion my
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: soul bears itself or bends, when the most wise can
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: see no further than this night and do not know
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: what the moral brings, you fill me with the clear
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: certainty that you exist and that you watch to see
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: that all the paths of righteousness be not closed. From
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: the heights of worldly glory, I am astonished by the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: path through despair you have provided me. This path from
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: which I have been worthy enough to reflect your radiance
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: to me. All that I will yet reflect, you will
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: grant me. And for that which I will not succeed
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: in reflecting, you have appointed others.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Amen. May we bow our heads together. God has built
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: into our system a way to illustrate darkness. Just close
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: your eyes. The eyelids work. They close out the light.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: If it's been so long since you were there in
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the cave, try to imagine what it's like to live
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: in that blind darkness. In a world that's lost its way,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Awaking every morning, hoping for light and finding nothing. And
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: you will realize the power of your life shining light.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Just in the shining, there is an exposing of the
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: things done in secret. While you're sitting there, I want
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: to make sure that you know the way out. It's
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: not through your mother or dad or a Christian friend
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: or relative. Remember, they don't have the light in themselves.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: The light giver is the life giver. He does it
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: through Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: once for all, paid in full. The only thing that
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: keeps you in the darkness is your own determination to resist,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: to refuse, to take the light. The choice is yours.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: All my pleading won't make it happen. This is now
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: God's work. I leave it with him. Come today. Do
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: what's smart. Follow the light. Today. Our Father and our God,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: thank you for your grace in finding us. We weren't
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: even looking. We didn't even care. We thought that the
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: cave was a great place to live because everybody around
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: us seemed to find a way to make it. But
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: down deep inside, there was emptiness and ignorance. There was
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: anger and resentment. There was lust and greed. And we
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: hated it. Our own gulag That's where we were. And
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: you lit the light. And you won us over. Thank you.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, This Little Light, Is It Really Mine?
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.