September 26, 2010
Sermon #855
Be In The Light As He Is In The Light
Child Humor –
A little boy once heard his Sunday school teacher say Jesus was the light of the world. He took her remark quite literally. After class, the boy said to the teacher. If Jesus was really the light of the world, I wish he would hang out in my alley. It is awful dark where I live.
One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm, a mother was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a tremor in his voice, 'Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?' His mother smiled and gave him a big reassuring hug, 'I cannot dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room.' A long silence was broken at last by his little voice – 'the big sissy.'
Another time, there was a summer evening violent thunderstorm after Mom had tucked her little girl in for the night. Mom was downstairs watching TV when the thunder started crackling and the lightning was flashing so bad the TV went out. She went to check on her little girl. When she looked into her room, the little girl was sitting on the windowsill. Mom was shocked and said, 'what in the world are you doing up there?' The little girl looked at her with a little smirk and said, 'God is taking my picture.'
Rev. D.L. Moody
He put out a book called Daily Gems. One of his gems on light is: A blind man in a great city was found sitting at a street corner with a lantern beside him. Someone went up to him and asked why he had the lantern beside him. You cannot tell the darkness from the light anyways. The blind man simply replied "So that no will stumble over me."
Not all of us who have Jesus, of course are blind. But like that man, we too must be providing light so that those who are lost can find their way to heaven. Without the light of Jesus shining through us, many will, in their search for truth, stumble in darkness and miss heaven.
Today we are looking at God's Word concerning all light coming from him being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our God's very being is light and love. His light is his love and his love is his light. When there is light and no love, it is not His light.
2 Corinthians 11:14
False followers of Jesus pretend to be a light and Satan can transform into an angel of light. But with no love the light is counterfeit -- to trap and deceive.
St. John 1:1
In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...
He was with God in the beginning.
The Lord Jesus Christ has always existed, and He has no beginning and no end. He is Eternal.
John 1:4
In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it. When God breathed his life into Adam, the light entered into human beings for the first time.
Revelation 1:8
Jesus said, "I am the Alpha an Omega The Beginning and the End. Who was, who is and who is to come. "
He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus is the past, present and future.
The light has always existed in heaven. The light has always existed in the spirit realm. The light is his glory that shines out of his very being. His glory, life, light, and love are the substance that God is.
Galactic Light VS. Miraculous Light
We see God is light in the natural realm or the dimension we live in for the first time in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 1: 2-3
The earth was formed first at God's command, but the earth was nothing until He said, "Let there be light."
Some people say, "I sure would like to have been there to see it happen." The light shot out of his mouth at 186,000 miles per second. That must have been like an explosion or a big bang.
If God's voice sounds like thunder to you, then the sound and the explosion must have been like a trillion atom bombs going off. You would not have wanted to have been there.
All of a sudden the light pierced the darkness. That was the first day God started the development of the universe. Light traveling this fast can go around the earth seven times in one second.
Genesis 1:14
On the fourth day, God put the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky. All the awesome galaxies were distributed all over the universe just to show off His light in the dimension we live.
Isaiah 40:12
God holds the universe, which scientists measure at 13 billion light years wide but fits in the span of his hand.
Hubble Telescope – has a function called the ultra deep field. It will focus on an area the size of the moon; when it does it will view about 100,000 galaxies. The light given off by these stars comes from their thermo-nuclear, nuclear fusion, and electro-magnetic activity. The brightest stars are the novas and the quasars, but they are the exploding and imploding stars.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is 100,000 light years across, and our solar system is at one of the outer bands of the Milky Way.
Our planet was given a light by day called our sun. The sun takes up 98% of all the mass in our solar system and is 109 times larger than the earth.
I think that is why we have seen so many cultures over the centuries worship the sun as a god.
They have looked at the sun as the source of their very existence. They have looked at the sun as their source of all fertility and natural resources, including the light and heat that comes from the sun. Many even sacrificed their children and some their enemies. They worshipped the creation not the Creator.
St. Patrick of Ireland –
English merchant's son who was captured by Irish slave traders and sold to an Irish tribal king. He escaped supernaturally back to England.
God called him back to Ireland to be a light to that supersites dark heathen land.
Many of the tribes there worshipped the sun god. Patrick used their heathen customs in leading them to the true Son. The Irish cross has the symbol of the Sun built in it.
Quote: From the writing of St. Patrick
The sun is that which we see rising daily at His command. But it will never reign, nor will its splendor last forever, and those who worship it will be subject to grievous punishments.
We, however, worship the True Son, Christ, who will never perish. If you go to Ireland, today you will see the cross at the top. It looks like a victory wreath.
Basil the Great – A Bishop in the early Christian church around 400 AD
He said, "Interpreting the word of God's will revealed in Holy Scriptures, observes that the Old Testament, and especially the Law, was only a lantern, lamp, or candle because an artificial light, imperfectly illuminating the darkness, whereas the Gospel , given by the Lord Jesus Himself, is a light of the Son of Righteousness giving brightness to all things."
1 John 1:5-9 - Open up your Bibles
Walking In the Light - The Lord Jesus Christ is the Light of the World
Song: Hank Williams "I Saw the Light"
Song on an old thick '78 records my Grandfather gave my dad…
I remember when I was in high school taking an English class in poetry. I wrote a poem called Mirror, Mirror. I wrote the poem from my experience staring at myself and seeing darkness.
I have experienced utter Spiritual darkness and utter physical darkness.
In the summer of 1986, I was attending the meetings of Dr. Ed Cole and Marilyn Hickey. They were at the Niagara Falls Convention Center. I was in charge of the prayer room helping people receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. I came home that Friday night late. It was about 1:00 AM and I had just gotten ready to hop in bed when there was a knocking at my door.
It was a man who lived in the dorm room upstairs of the house I was renting. As I let him in, I could see demonic tattoos all over his body and dozens of needle marks in both arms. He said he noticed me going in and out of the place many times with a bible. He told me he was a Jew. He went on to tell me of his graphic evil things he did while he served his six months tour of duty in Vietnam. He then when on to tell me of his experience murdering a man who he heard was beating his ex-wife.
Then all of a sudden, he starting twisting like a snake and in a deep weird voice he said I am going to kill you. Man, I stepped back about five feet and pointed my finger in his possessed eyes and shouted 'I bind and rebuke you spirit of murder in the name of Jesus. I bind you spirit of murder.'
All of a sudden he fell back to the floor and was about to puke on my just-cleaned clothes. I told him, 'You will not manifest in my house.' He straightened right out and told me he wanted to know about Jesus. I led him to the Lord. I had a brand new Messianic Bible in my library and gave it to him.
The next day I saw him, he told me that there was a big person behind me, and when I pointed to him, a flash like lightning hit him and he felt like he was knocked out. He went to church the next Sunday carrying that blue Messianic Bible.
I just happen to have a Messianic Jewish pastor named Pastor Paul Shank. I just also happen to be attending Jewish Sabbath services on Friday nights, called Brith Hadasha, the New Testament.
The darkest natural experience I had was total darkness in many caves I have visited in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. They shut off all the lights and tell you to hold up your hand in front of you and try to see it. They say if you spend more than a couple of weeks in total darkness, you will be permanently blind.
People walk blind in this dark world. The god of this world, Satan, works to keep people that way. He wants us to fall over and trip over God-given opportunities of salvation, peace, forgiveness, destiny, eternal life—God's promises.
2 Corinthians 4:4-6 – Read
Ephesians 5:8-14 – Read
God meant us to be lighthouses that shine out in the darkness to expose the rocks that are traps and lies and deception to cause people to ship wreck their lives and sink into the dark deep Abyss.
The light that we allow to shine through us will burn the blinders off people's eyes as we continue to expose them to the light shining through us.
We have to strive to constantly be fanning the fire that glows inside us. We have to keep in communion with the Holy Spirit.
We must push in to know Him to draw close to our heavenly Father.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 - Read
He loves it when we have relationship with him daily. Casting all our cares on Him and declaring His Word is more important to us than anybody else's word. Jesus is the Word that became flesh.
When His Word is in our heart and on our lips, the light will shine out of our lighthouses.
Many iconic pictures of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, heroes of the faith, martyrs, and their pictures are painted to show a holy glow over their heads. Halos.
Moses, who was allowed to look only at the backside of God came down from the mountain with his face glowing.
Hebrews 11:1-39 records a list of the Holy people of God.
Brother William Branham-
He was a minister and prophet during the healing revivals of the 1940s and 1950s.
Jesus appeared as a bright light when he was a child. When he got up to preach, many times light would appear over his head just as you turned on a switch.
God appeared many times in the Bible as a fire. In the desert, the fire guided them by night and appeared in the burning bush to Moses. At the day of Pentecost, he appeared over the heads of those praying in the upper room.
Our God is an all-consuming fire. The sun to Him is like a little spark.
Psalm 119: 105 - Read
His Word is a lamp or light that guides our life and shines light on our path in life every day.
Charles Spurgeon - It is true the head needs illumination, but even more the feet need direction else head and feet may both fall into the sewer.
How many of us have opened the door and let His word in? After a while it seems like He is not there.
We become so complacent that we forget about His Word; we forget about Him. We become so absorbed by the things of this world and darkness surrounds us. We shut the door on the one we let in to light up our lives.
Now the door to our inner being, the door to our spirit seems closed. We start stumbling and falling into darkness once again.
However, there is a key to open up the door once again. This blindness turns us into desperate people.
This desperation and crying out to God once again is the KEY to opening up the door and letting him in to rule, reign, and shine in our lives.
1 John 2: 9-10 –Read
Matthew 5:14 - Read
Says you are the light in this dark world. He shines His light through you.
So is your light shining? Are you turning on the switch and there is no light illuminating your life and the sphere of life where you have influence and relationships? Are your fuses blown out and your breakers out?
Did your transformer have a blowout? Are you running on DC power, Devil –Control power? Are you ready to switch over to AC power, All – Christ power?
Well, let us switch currents. Let the light of His glory rule, reign, and shine from the inside out.
Your glow will let people know there is a God in Heaven. In addition, you will walk in the beauty of His light.
This big light inside, I'm gonna let Him shine.
This big light inside, I'm gonna let Him shine.
Let Him shine, Let Him shine.
Hallelujah, Praise God!
