Give You As a Light 1.18.2026

Epiphany, the season of Epiphany keeps putting a question before us week after week. What do we do with the light we've been given? Not just how we admire it or talk about it, but how do we live it? How do we embody it? In Isaiah 49, it opens with a voice that knows its calling. [00:32:50] (27 seconds)  #LiveTheLight

Anybody been there? You've worked so hard. You've done everything you thought you were supposed to do or you knew you were supposed to do, and yet and yet, it didn't seem like it was enough. Something still fell apart, something still felt lost that just didn't seem like enough. Now if you haven't experienced a feeling like that, you're probably a new Christian that just hasn't been on the journey long enough. You will. Many of us know what it feels like to do the right thing and feel invisible, to show up, to speak truth, to act with compassion, and wonder if anything is changing [00:34:33] (57 seconds)  #FaithWhenYouFeelInvisible

It's meant to be shared passed on and passed on and passed on through relationship. That's what evangelism is, sharing the good news with another person. That's what it is. It's about entering into a relationship with somebody else even if you don't understand their customs, and you don't understand their language, and you don't understand the way they live, the most important thing to a believer, a child of God, is that they tell another person that it's not about getting a checklist right. It's not about fire insurance to stay out of hell when you die. It's not. [00:44:21] (51 seconds)  #FaithThroughRelationship

And what the scripture this morning is asking us to do is not let the light end with us. As if as long as we get to heaven, everything's fine. We are to reflect and refract and multiply that light and pass it on so that it spreads through the world to the end of the earth. [00:45:39] (29 seconds)  #MultiplyTheLight

Doctor King understood that light is not private spirituality. It must be lived out in community, and that community must be brave enough and courageous enough to stand up to the powers that be when they are wrong. It might mean your death. It might mean extreme discomfort. But we're about the business of joining God in the salvation of the world and everyone in it. [00:46:26] (41 seconds)  #CourageousCommunity

God is still saying to the church today, it is not enough. It is not enough. Since you are my servant, it is not enough to keep quiet faith. It is not enough to separate worship from justice, worship from the things that are happening in the world right outside the doors. [00:54:12] (27 seconds)  #FaithAndJustice

``It is not enough to shine only when it feels safe. Sometimes when it is the most dangerous time is when the world really needs to hear the truth of God's love and light. So remember that you are given, you are appointed as a light to the world, not because you are perfect, but because Christ is present in you. [00:54:39] (33 seconds)  #ShineWhenUnsafe

So today, I want us to remember doctor King. And like doctor King, remember that you are called to believe that God's dream is bigger than any fears that we have about our lives, about our nation's life, about our world's life. We are invited to come and see the light so that we are empowered to go and be the light. [00:57:23] (34 seconds)  #BelieveGodsBiggerDream