Study 1 - Walking In The Light
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SUMMARY: This episode explores the call to “Walk In The Light,” drawing from 1 John, Ephesians 5, to reveal how believers are meant to live in daily fellowship with God. Emphasizing that “God is light” and that there is no darkness in Him, the discussion highlights the importance of spiritual authenticity, holiness, and truth in the Christian walk. Listeners will learn how walking in the light transforms conduct, exposes sin, and produces spiritual fruit such as righteousness, goodness, and truth. The episode also unpacks practical ways to reflect Christ’s light in everyday life—through obedience, time in God’s Word, and separation from darkness—challenging believers to live transparently, shine in a dark world, and experience the fullness of joy found in a close relationship with Jesus Christ.
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPTION: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore he says, awake, you who sleep arise from the dead, and Christ will give you life. As we begin in our thoughts together, it's important to realize the very nature of our God is that he is light. And this is no new revelation. We find these exact words walk in the light. Actually, in the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah. In chapter two, we find that it's almost verbatim a quote from Isaiah and there to God's earthly people, Israel, and they are being reminded of the very nature of their God that God is light and that they are to walk in light. And here we find us both here in, in, uh, first John one and in first John four. The nature of God is that God is light and God is love. And it's sort of striking that it does appear that in that order, in Scripture that we're reminded first that God is light. Uh, we're told that he dwells in unapproachable light. In first Timothy, uh, when we realize this nature of God, uh, we need to begin there. Um, also, John tells us that God is spirit in John chapter four. But we need to begin with this idea that God is light. In other words, God is pure. And those that are in Christ, those that have been brought to this position of being in fellowship with God. And we might just underline that the book of First John is really reminding us that our fellowship is with the father and with the son, and the possibility of that fellowship is given to us in the first four verses. And the the reason for that fellowship is that our joy might be overflowing. God desires to have fellowship with his people. And then as we're enjoying that fellowship, there's this matter of the fact that we could have started in Ephesians first and then reminded in in the book of Ephesians in chapter five that we are in the light. That's our position. And that's really the position we work from. We are in the light because we're in Christ, and he is the light of the world, and we're in Christ. But here we've talked, we've started with these verses that are going to remind us, because God is light and in him is no darkness at all. This is his nature. This is his character. And if we say that we have this fellowship with him, then we in an outward way, do not walk in darkness. He says in verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. And so what John is looking for is reality. And we might just say that in the. The Epistle of John. John writes with a very emphatically. John writes black and white. There's no middle ground with John as he's writing here in this epistle. So he's looking for true reality in our Christian walk in our life. We said this last night. Maybe it's it's it's worth repeating. When we're talking about our walk, we need to understand that it's talking about our conduct, our behavior, our outward manner of life. The way in which we go about actually the word itself means to walk around. And so it's talking about the way in which we walk around and the testimony that we carry with us. And so we might think of walking this way. So it's a matter of carrying the testimony of Jesus Christ with us. And in here in this text, we're looking at this manner of walking in the light. So, um, I think the first thing that comes to mind here is when it says God is light. We, we think of the properties of light. And what does light do? It displaces darkness. There can be nothing hidden before God. And if he exposes all the things that are deep down in our heart. And this is something that is. It's crucial for us because he's not exposing it for himself. He's exposing it for us to see so that we can judge ourselves and take those steps to. As you mentioned, God is pure. We, we start to, um, progress toward purity, toward holiness. It's a constant progression. We'll never arrive there while we're here on earth. But this is where we begin. And this is what God has for us. He is light, no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, which is hopefully what we are saying, we have fellowship with God, but we walk in darkness or we're being contradictory. We're as he says here, you lie. He doesn't. He doesn't say, well, you know, you're mistaken to put a nice spin on things. He just says plainly, you lie and do not practice the truth. We need to be practicing the truth. That's what. That's what the lock is practicing the truth. That's the lock of the believer practicing the truth of God. It's not my truth or your truth, because truth is not relative. Truth is absolute. There's either it's true or it's not. As John writes, absolutes black and white, as Tim was saying, and God wants us to walk in truth and in fellowship with him. So it's a little bit of what Brother Tim brought before us earlier. When we speak about God, we speak about his essence, his core nature. He is light and he is love. It's not attributes or characteristics of God. This is his nature. And under each of these nature it comes characteristics. For example, when we say God is light, then out of that he is holy. He is righteous. And when we say God is love, he is kind. He's merciful. It comes under this. But when we say, the Lord said to the Samaritan woman in John four, God is a spirit that is nature in contrast to us that we. We have flesh. We have body. God is a spirit. And when we say God is spirit, it's not the Holy Spirit there, but it's the nature of God. Because we cannot say God is a spirit. When it's the Holy Spirit, we say, God is the Holy Spirit, the father and the son. But we can't say God is just the Holy Spirit. But then, um, here we have an eye witness earlier in the chapter we read about John when he said that, uh, in verse two, the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declared it to you. Here is someone was walking with the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus. We read earlier in John chapter eight, said about himself, I am the light of the world. So here is an eye witness. And the Lord Jesus said to Philip, who, who saw me? So the father. And then in verse five, we see this is the foundation. God is light. And then in verse six and seven we see the application. Verse six is in the negative way that we don't follow. We don't walk in darkness. And then in verse seven, it's the positive way. If we walk in the light, not walk in darkness, but walk in the light. And then later we see the clarification. While as Glenn just mentioned, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. I think that we will get benefit more than when we know the aim of writing these verses from the Apostle John that his aim to. We as believers have a fellowship with a. With a disciple, and the requirement of this fellowship that we know that God is love and God is all love, kindness as we. Here. But love is light means he is holy. He has no darkness at all that. That's why we are called to. To be holy like him in the Old Testament. We speak to the nation of Israel before deviation. Be a kingdom of priests. Be holy life because I am holy. In the New Testament we have the same sin. We cannot. Say that we have a fellowship with the Lord and we live in darkness and we cannot have fellowship with him without knowing his nature. But one thing encourage us that the word love, God is. Love comes twice in the epistle of John, and God is holy comes once. Don't be afraid when you know that God is holy, but he is love. By his love he can change our nature, our thoughts, which was wrong, and he bring us to himself to be holy like him. We cannot be holy, and we cannot love each one another without. Have a fellowship with the one who is the source of all lights and the source of all holiness. This is my idea of this. I think. Just to add to what brother was saying earlier, um, I want to just borrow from John's Gospel chapter one, uh, where we read in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. And then here's the verse verses in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And so this life, one thing that light does is that light brings life. If you take a plant and you put it in darkness, eventually most plants will die because they need light. And what? The same is true for us, that life is the light of men. And then we read, uh. And the light shines in darkness. In verse five, the light shines in darkness. And the darkness did not comprehend it. Or better put, the darkness did not apprehend it. And there was a man sent from John. And now he's going to tell us about John the Baptist. Verse seven this man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not the light, but he was sent to bear witness of the light, and that the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. And then he came to his own, to Israel, and his own received him not. But the verses we had last night. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right the authority, the power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name and honour. But I just wanted to underline this manner of this light. We read John chapter eight, verse twelve. We said that the Lord Jesus Christ declared of himself that he is the light of the world. We could also read John chapter nine where he declares it again. Uh, but what we find is that if God is light When the Lord Jesus came into the world, he revealed to us what God or who God is and what God is like. The very nature of God Himself is been manifested to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why the Lord Jesus would later say, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. And, and, and unless you go through the Lord Jesus, who would declare of himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father except through me. And so this light, this light was the. This life that was manifested was the light of men. And at the same time, in other words, he brings light to the heart of. To the darkness of man's heart. When we accept Christ as our Savior, then that light, he quickens us. He gives us life. And now we're in the light and we can enjoy light and everything that comes along with that, including knowing what God the Father is like. And this is why. Coming back to brother Nabeel's point in verse three, John says these things we write to you in verse four, these things we write to you that your joy might be full. And what the Lord, what the Spirit of God desires for us today, is to know that our Christian life is not just we're saved, we're going to heaven, and that's it. No, our Christian life is so much more than that. He didn't just come to give us life. He says in John ten, yes, I have come to give them life. But to give it to them abundantly. And part of that is this manner of light revealing to us light reveals his brother Glenn said. And this light reveals to us who the father is. Brings us into this intimate relationship with God as our father, in which the Spirit of God cries out within us, ABBA, father. And now we can enjoy this relationship. And now we can emulate this relationship in our daily lives. And that's where it is. Don't walk in darkness, but be manifestations of the light just as he is the light. We are to be lights in this world. As he says in in Matthew chapter five, he says this in regards to the kingdom, but in the book of Philippians, maybe I can just read that verse, uh, in the book of Philippians. And I think it's in chapter two, Philippians chapter two and verse fourteen, I believe it is. And he says to us there. Sorry. Verse fifteen, he. Verse fourteen, he says, do all things without complaining and disputing, in order that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. He is the light. I remember years ago, I heard Chuck Swindoll once say, it's okay to quote him, right? Okay. I remember hearing brother Chuck Swindoll say that, you know, the Sunday School song that we often sing, this little light of mine. I'm going to let it shine. And he made the point. It's not my life that I let shine because I don't have any light in myself. But the light that I let shine is the light of Christ. And that's what John is encouraging us to let our light shine, to walk not in darkness, but to walk in light as he is in the light. We have in the book of John, verse nine. Uh, verse ten, he was in the world, and the world was made through him. And also we read that he is the true light. He is a true light. But we are in our own nature, living in darkness, and we are at dark ages. We cannot only reflect the light as the sun comes in the face to face the moon. The moon in in in in its nature is not light. But he can reflect the light. And this one meaning of the practical fellowship we must set beforehand. Talk to him, listen to him, and he. His light can reflect it upon our nature. To be a light for the people who surround us, I can reflect the light of the Lord. When. Side my family members inside my local assembly and also as atmosphere of my job. We can reflect his light because he loves us to be in fellowship with him. We cannot disconnected with the fellowship with him and the exhibits that we can become light. It is a it is a something wrong. That's why we are. All of us are called to be near the Lord, to reflect his light. As we reflect the light of the Lord, we have. That the reference in John eight as it says. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. This brings life. It's not a just a light to lighten up the dark spots. But as Tim was reminding us, it gives life. This is what. What Christ who Christ is. He is light. According to Colossians three, he is our life and we live through him because we walk Not in darkness. We have the light of life. We need to demonstrate light as well. It needs to be manifested in our walk, in our attitudes and our the way that we conduct our lives. The life of Christ should be shining through us. For our. Maybe for our young people. God is concerned about how we walk. God is concerned about how we walk and we might think of Paul's exhortation to the saints in Thessalonica that they. How they ought to walk and to please God. there is. And what will please God. Well, when he sees Christ in us. When he sees the light. You know, just a practical example. We sit in this room and there are many lights in here. The believers back in this day, they didn't have any of that. It was very much a picture of daytime, very light, very bright. When it became night, it was very dark. Yes, there were candles. Yes, there were lamps. But as we think about light, very different. And once as a young person, I was walking, I was in Jamaica with my cousin. We were at my grandmother's farm and we were going to walk to my uncle, which was a couple of hundred yards away. The next house and it was night time. We had no flashlights. We decided that we were going to walk. So we got onto the dirt road. We started to walk the middle of the night or late at night, I should say. And as we were walking in the darkness, we heard footsteps coming from the other direction and we had no idea who it was or if there was danger, what was going to happen. But we kept on walking in this darkness, and probably about five feet in front of us, all of a sudden appeared. An older man said hello and he kept on walking. But can you think about that for yourself and your life? If you decide to walk in darkness, you have no idea the dangers that may come. Brother mentioned that he is. We have no light in ourselves, but we reflect. We reflect the light of the Lord Jesus. And that's true, actually, because, uh, in our sense. In our service, we don't have this light, but we reflect the light of Lord Jesus. Uh, the question here that, uh, how we can walk in the light. This is the practical thing that we have to think about it. What he asked us to do, as we mentioned before, before the war. And the men around us will see nobody can see the Lord Jesus now and himself, but he is a people around us. And the men can see our working and our action and our what we reflects. Uh, the first thing is that I found in the Word of God that helps us to walk in, in the light it mentioned in Ephesians chapter five. And we can read it in Ephesians chapter five, verse eleven. It said that. And then and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. This is everything. Okay. Uh, the first thing is that I say that the fellowship with unfruitful works and of darkness. We have to. If we stop this Photoshop, we will get not give a chance to separate such things, but we reflect the light of the Lord Jesus. This is number one. I think that mentioned in Psalm one nineteen and verse one oh five, to be close to the Word of God, which teaches us, as mentioned in Psalm one nineteen. One oh five it says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. So here is the two things not fellowship with the unfruitful works. And the second thing to be close to the Word of God that helps us to reflect and to show the light of the Lord Jesus in our daily life. We have a great example in the sense of man is completely odd. By looking up into the stars, into the skies. And we speak of a full moon, for example. That's a great example of the reflection from the sun to the moon. And the moon sometimes is so very great. And how may that be that we ourselves can think of? What kind of reflection are we giving on? Are we giving off darkness? Are we giving off brightness? And so rather than others, of course we are to look at ourselves and remember that that where that light comes from, not from inside of ourselves, but tying into or plugging into that directly. So I think just to connect this, then going back to Ephesians chapter five, where brother Samir. Um, brought us to you. I want to just back up to verse eight. He says, for you once were darkness. It doesn't say you were in darkness. You were darkness. That's what we were outside of our relationship with Christ. We were darkness. But then he says, but now. So there's been a transition. There's been a change. There's been a new creation. But now, um, and you are as in parentheses, so that we understand the statement, but this is, uh, it's referring back to the you are in the first part of the verse. For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. We are light in the Lord. Uh, it now that we're connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world, now that we're connected to God who is light. You are light in the Lord. And as we surrender to the lordship of Christ, and that's evident in our life, and we're following up the Lord Jesus. Uh, then he says, you are light. And so then he gives an imperative, a command. He says, walk as children of light. So this is now a command. And, uh, it's, it's in when you look at it in the Greek, it's an imperative. It's something that we are to do. We are to walk because we are light in the Lord. Now we're to walk as children of light. And how do we do that? He puts a little parenthesis here in verse nine, and he says, for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. He lays out these three things. Maybe another brother will build on those three things and tell us what they are. But he lays out these three things. We are going to look more specifically at the fruit of the spirit in a later study. Now walking in the spirit. Uh, but he says, uh, as we are living out the fruit of the spirit in our life, we're able to find out what it is that's acceptable to the Lord. You know, the Spirit of God within us. He convicts us, he convicts our consciences, and he convicts our hearts and he tells us, have you ever. I'm sure you have. I know I'm not the only one that has experienced it where, um, I know and my attitude Aw, I know the thought that that was a wrong thought. What was the wrong attitude? And the Spirit of God convicts me and brings me to this place because now I'm out of sync. Spiritually speaking, I'm out of sync. To put it in spiritual language, I'm out of fellowship with the father and with the son, and something's not right. And so the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit convicts me and brings me back to this place once I confess my sin. We don't want to get too far away from First John, where it says that we confess our sin and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is how we find what is acceptable to the Lord. And what our brother Samir said about thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. How important. If you're a Christian who's not reading your Bible, you're a Christian that's out of fellowship with the Lord. It's that simple. And you're a Christian who will end up. Having fellowship with darkness. This is how important that lamp to my feet and light to my path is in our Christian life. And if we want to find out what's acceptable to the Lord, where are we going to find that? We're going to find it in his book, in the Word of God. And we're going to be able then to know, uh, what it is to have this fellowship. And I asked, brother, um, you have to read, uh, all the way down to verse fourteen, because in verse fourteen, he mentions, uh, I'm not going to mention the verses in between, but in verse fourteen, he mentions this. Oh wait. Oh wait. Who's this written to? It's a quote from the Old Testament, but who's written to here? It's written to Christians, and he's telling Christians don't get lulled to sleep by the works of this dark of darkness. Don't get lulled to sleep. Don't don't let the enemy rock you to sleep. He says, awake. You who sleep arise from the dead. What is he saying? That they're lost? No, he's saying that right now. There's no fruit of righteousness being displayed in their life. There's no evidence. Because if you're sleeping, it looks like you're dead. And how's the world going to know that? Your testimony for Christ. How's the world going to know that you're a light to shine in this dark place? And so he says, awake you who sleep, uh, rise from the dead. And Christ will give you light, but you are children of light. You are light in the Lord. But he says, if you want this light to shine, if you want to demonstrate it in your life, if you want to display it in your life, you don't want, as this little song says, to hide your light under a bush. You want to let it shine. And so he says, Christ will give you light. And so these things, as Brother Samir began to help us understand what it is that will help us be these lights. Uh, we have to understand also, brothers and sisters, we have an enemy, and that enemy wants to lull us to sleep. He wants to keep us being inactive and ineffective. For Jesus Christ in this world. But we want to awake. We want not to be dead, spiritually speaking. We want to be alive, and we want to be able to shine for the Lord. Just going back to verse eight, for we were once darkness. As was mentioned, we are reflecting the light. But also remember that this light, not even in you before you were darkness. And when we speak about darkness, there are at least four aspects of the darkness. We can find it in the Word of God. For example, in the same epistle, chapter four and verse eighteen, and this is the natural darkness that we have, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance. And then we have the moral darkness in our in John three nineteen, that the people walked in darkness because their deeds were evil. And then here in Ephesians chapter six and verse twelve. We have also the spiritual darkness against the rulers of darkness of this age. And then the eternal darkness that mentioned in Matthew eight and verse twelve. But then as he said, you are not walking in darkness, but you are darkness now. After accepting the Lord, you are not only walking in light, but you start your life. This is the new nature. This is the privilege that you have. And then spells out of this privilege that you have. Then you walk as children of light. You walk before him. Remember the Lord in. In Genesis chapter fifteen told Abraham, walk before me, Lord, as you are walking, remember that I am seeing you. I'm looking at you. Walk in the light of me being there. Walk in the light of my my presence. And then out of that, for the fruit of the spirit and other translations like Darby translation, ESV, some CSB, others. For the fruit of the of the light, it says. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, and goodness. One of the meaning of it. It is love in action. When we walk in the light, it doesn't mean always what we hear. Walk in the light. It first thing come to our mind that we walk in holiness and righteousness, which is true. That's true. But what? Walking in the light has many other practical aspects. For example, when I backstab my brother, when I talk behind my brother or my sister, I'm not walking in the light. So walking in the light has a lot of practical meanings in our daily life. And then out of that, as we walk in the light, it comes goodness, love and action. It's not just something we have, but it is translated into action, righteousness, and truth. The imagery is helpful. The imagery is helpful in flipping. It is actually helpful. So walking in darkness. Paul mentioned this example of what happened to him. I walk in darkness all the time and you probably have two at night. I go to the cat into the garage. I kind of know where I'm going, but I don't turn on the light or anything. So you picture yourself in these times where you've done that, or you just, you know, get up from your bed and go to a different room, you know. So when you do that, you see those different aspects of what happens. When you walk in darkness, you don't know where you're going. So spiritually, we can lose sight of where we're going. That hope, that destination, that's that's really a big one. Then we don't see the obstacles. If you're walking in the dark, in some places, you might step in a hole and a small hole or in a big hole. You just don't know. You don't see it. You may step on a venomous snake somewhere. I have a fear of snakes. Everybody knows in my family to joke about it all the time. But in the darkness you could. So you don't see the obstacles. And, um. Spiritually, when we walk in the light, we see the. We see these things, we can walk away. Walk around. The Lord is guiding us. When you walk in darkness, you don't see people either. And so spiritually, you know, if I'm smiling, doing things that are dark, things, I don't see, people I don't my heart is not seeing the needs of, of people that don't have the Lord or my brethren that are in need. And then when you walk in darkness, people don't see you. And so as believers virtually, we are a light and people should see us because if they see us spiritually, they see the Lord. Little Christ's and Christ in us. We had some just the imagery is really helpful to kind of convey some I have good news for the future. When we read from the Gospel of Matthew, verse chapter thirteen and verse forty three, then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Is that good news? But now, while we live in this world, we have a great responsibility. I think that one of the meaning of living in the light means transparency. Not a double minded, not a double life. Before the president, I live in a manner like I am a saint, and I am subjecting myself to the Word of God, but away from the president, I left. I left the like the the the the middle of the world. This is never mind. But that is a verse from the book of Philippians, chapter two. I want to use the. Chapter two verse fourteen. That's maybe in front of some of us. But the the. The apostle said in verse fourteen, do all things without complaining and disputing. Most of us are disputing. but this thing is covered. The light covered the lights. We. All of us. Even the happy people or people. We must take care of our complaining. When we complain that the sin by which the Lord was angry about the people of Israel. Then complaining, they complaining. They said they complaining against Moses and Aaron. But the Lord said to Moses, they are not complaining against you but against me. That's why we must be careful from disputing and complaining. Why? Verse fifteen that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. We are not called to shine in the midst of the meeting, but in the midst of the world. The Lord asks us to shine between them, not above them, but in the midst of them. We are not a source of light, but we can reflect the light when we walk in meekness and in and without, uh, uh. Something that I am a big man. I am a good man. I am a righteous man. No, this kind of life is not suitable for the children of light. That's why we are called all of us young people or older people to reflect the light of our Lord Jesus Christ in all aspects of our life In first Peter. Uh, just to follow that up. For them to be in first Peter chapter two, he tells us that we're holy priests and we like to focus on that as holy priests. We like to gather together with other priests, and we like to offer up the sacrifice of praise to the Lord. And this is what you were alluding to. And but then a little bit later in that same chapter, he says, you're not only holy priests, but you're royal priest. And as a royal priest, you wear that royalty out to the dark world that that you've been pulled out of, and you're to display that royalty that you belong and to whom you belong to. He says in verse nine, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, in order that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are a people of God. God is light. You're a people of God. Your children of light. And he says, once you were not a people, but now you are a people who have not obtained, who have not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy. And so as such, then we're to let this light shine. And. And how is it? Is it by me doing something? Is it by me, um, deciding, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to let my light shine. Um, I would like to suggest that it's in this matter of fellowship that we were talking about before. It's enjoying the presence of the Lord in our lives. It's getting into His Word and allowing His Word to get into me, and then living that out and allowing that to change me. And there's a verse that I think is appropriate for what we're talking about in Second Peter chapter one. Uh, and it's this verse in verse nineteen, second Peter two one nineteen, he says, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. That's the key, brothers and sisters, that the Morning Star, the Lord Jesus would rise up into our hearts and that we would have fresh affection for him and long for his blessed return. But that's the whole purpose. And we can tell if we're walking in light as children of light, or if we're walking in darkness. By the, uh. How fresh is that blessed hope and that glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in my own heart. And I have to tell you, just to be transparent, there are times in all of our lives and in my life that, uh, this freshness isn't there. And how do we get it back? We get it back by getting into the word. We get it back by getting on our knees and in prayer with the Lord. Commune with the Lord and and crying out to him. And so this manner of being A light isn't just so that we can let our light shine, but it's that others would see the Lord Jesus in me. And to see how much, uh, I am in love with them and to let that that relationship shine forth. I think of a couple of things. Firstly, in the Old Testament, when Moses came down from the mountain, he had to cover his face because he had been in the presence of the Lord, and his face shone. In the book of acts of the apostles. Uh, stood before the Council and said they took note of them that they had been with Jesus. And then Stephen says they saw his face like the face of an angel. This is reflecting the glories of the Lord, letting the Lord shine through us. It's not something that that we produce or that we put effort into. It's simply living Christ shine out of our lives. The very real danger for us today as we continue in Ephesians five verse eleven says, do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness that's all around us. We're walking in this darkness. Pardon me, I don't want to contradict what's being said, but in this world, as we go through life, everything around us is darkness. Does my face display the glory of the Lord? He says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Is this, um, some action that I have to take to expose them? Do I call attention to them? Not at all. If my life is being. If I'm walking in the presence of the Lord and as we say, reflecting his light, his light will expose them. His light will will bring to light all of these unfruitful works of darkness. What is all around us. We talk about walking in the darkness in the night. Because the sun is not shining. If the moon is bright, you can see almost like daylight tension. I've been in situations like that. A full moon and no other light around. But you can see. You don't see. Maybe necessarily in full color, but you can see all of the objects and obstacles and pitfalls in front of you. And this is how we are to be in this world. Christ is in us. He should be shining out of us. And this would expose the unfruitful works of darkness. There's a just making a comment that it's. We all walk that though Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. And of course, we don't assume that everyone in the room knows Jesus Christ. So we encourage you to trust him right now as your Lord and Savior if you haven't before. But if you're a Christian, you're born again. Then, as we saw in first John one five, you walk in the light. We all walk in the light that are believers. Uh, it's a question then of how we walk, and that's what has been discussed. But we want to make sure we understand the difference. We all that are believers are in the light. Hallelujah. But then it's a question of how we walk and what kinds of things can interfere with our walk? And that light of Christ being reflected. Now remember, there's no color in anything. Color is in light. So when light shines on anything, it reflects some particular color of light. So each one of us here, who is in the light, who is a Christian, then reflects the light, some aspect of God, some aspect of Christ, some part of his character, one of his beauties, one of his glories. That's what a Christian is. It's not what he does, it's what he is. But there are things, as has been mentioned in Brother Tim mentioned, one that can interfere with that light being seen by others, by that reflection of whatever color you might be. Every one of us is distinct, right? And there's beauty in each one of our lives that are distinct from one another. And yet those can be hidden. And one of the things we find in First Corinthians five, Brother Tim mentioned was a bushel. You don't hide your light under a bushel. And the other Luke, I'm not sure what chapter, but it says hide it under a bed. And the Bible says to seek first the kingdom of God. So if we are going to allow that special reflection of God's light, that color that he wants to see in our lives to be reflected, then we cannot hide our light under a bushel. Whether it's our work, whether it's our school, whatever it might be that our sports, sports that is important to us, we, each one of us, is to seek first the kingdom of God. And so that's a challenge because we don't want just to assume that because I'm a Christian and maybe I carry a track in my pocket or talk about Jesus occasionally that I'm seeking first, God's kingdom. God's kingdom is to be sought first in our lives. Not our job, not our education, not our, uh, thoughts about future marriage as we all are and not we all. But as some of you might be thinking about, it's it's seeking first God's life. So we don't want to let work school, anything. Um, hide that the reflection, the reflection of that beautiful light that God wants to be seen in each one of our lives. And so we might altogether be a rainbow here today as God looks down upon us. And so we want to make sure that we understand that we're not striving. As Brother Clinton Glenn mentioned, striving to be something. It's what we are. We walk in the light, and so how we walk in the light is the challenge that we all have. Amen. Thank you for that. Amen. Um, just wanted to mention so far wonderful ministry with comments encouraging regarding us mainly as individuals walking in the light. Just wanted to also, you know, for us to include, I don't know if it's on a schedule. I haven't seen the schedule if it's planned for later as, as an assembly, as a group, as the church. Also walking in the light. And one of the passages that speaks of this is Second Corinthians chapter six. And. Of course, individual and group for everything. But verse fourteen, he says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what concord has Christ with the light. And what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, ye group separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. I think this is a profound thing of why we as brethren have regarded the table unlike the rest of Christendom, not the only reason we regard the table. It's probably a sensitive topic to discuss, but it's good to know that this is one of the reasons young. Especially for the young adults among us. They get exposed to friends outside and see different churches. I'm not saying that these churches are darkness, but in order to maintain that walk and be separate from among them, this is part of why we are who we are.
