A Heart for God Part 3 The Light of God 02 01 26

He said, I came because we were working into the wee hours of the night. We we had some late shift. We got up at, two in the morning or something like that. Nobody was around. There was no clock to punch. We just had to write on a piece of paper our hours that we came in and that we left. And he said, I came to your bible study because I noticed that you put the exact time that we left every single night, and I didn't know why you would do that when nobody else was watching. [00:26:07] (37 seconds)  #IntegrityInAction

So it's not about the work, it's about the love. But when we don't work, that is evidence of what we love because we always work for what we care about. So it's about the care, not so much about the work because the two are inextricably linked. So if we are going to work out our salvation, if we're gonna partner with God, obviously, we can't do it without God. By God's grace and through faith, this happens, but it's a partnership of our work and cooperation, and it's not a physical and natural work. It is a spiritual work to employ what Jesus has given us as instructions so that we can be transformed over time, over the journey, over the marathon of Christian living that we might mature into beacons of light in a dark world. [00:13:37] (60 seconds)  #PartnerWithGod

That the world will fill us with so many distractions that we're not even aware of what we don't have. So he says, first, it's an awareness of your spiritual poverty. Then he says, then you have to acquire an appetite to fill it with the things of God. So we start off with an awareness of our spiritual poverty, which takes effort because it means you gotta strip away all of the distraction. Then when you have a craving and an appetite for the things of God, that means that you become hungry for this word. That means you start to spend time with God because we spend time with people we love, because we spend time and effort working on things that matter to us. [00:15:22] (53 seconds)  #SpiritualHunger

And when God's light is you is shining in you, God is the one getting the glory, not you. So how do we make ourselves vessels of the light of God and the salt of God in this world where God gets the credit, and when God gets the glory, he comes and blesses you in ways that nobody else might know. But you know what you'll have? You'll have that joy. You will have that peace. You will have that happiness, and you will have that purpose in your life that so many people are seeking. [00:21:55] (34 seconds)  #LiveForGodsGlory

You see, people are always watching us, and we shine our light by what we do. Even when I'm at the grocery store, I'm at the checkout, I can see a person there working and she's getting frustrated maybe because she's got a lot of stuff. Just saying a kind uplifting word to that person can change their day. When another person might have an issue and they they they they wanna share something, we can choose we can say we're too busy, we gotta run, or we can turn it around and decide to listen. God will put us in positions to have interactions with people that can be an expression of the virtue, the kind of virtue that brings light into this world. [00:26:44] (53 seconds)  #EverydayLight

It's saying that if we follow these directions given by Jesus, we not only get closer to God, but we also bring heaven down to earth where we are. Now I want to let you know that having this life that God and Jesus promised to us requires work. In fact, requires work to accomplish most anything. And some people will argue about this. They'll say, what do you mean? You're not saved by your works? What do you mean? That's that's that's that's not Christian to say that you're saved by your works, but that's not what I'm saying. [00:11:06] (52 seconds)  #BringHeavenToEarth

What I'm saying is this, I believe my beloved and I do love you, so I'm telling you what I believe is right and true. That the enemy captures many souls who have fallen into the of thinking that because they said some salvation statement that was twenty seconds long, they don't have to do any work anymore. But you see, the beatitudes are counterintuitive. They tell you to do things that you would not naturally choose to do. And therefore, since there is this dichotomy, since this is this polarity, since there is this tension, that means that it requires some spiritual work to do what God would have you do that is counter to what your natural instinct might be. [00:11:58] (53 seconds)  #FaithRequiresWork

But at the same time with God being the master and creator of the universe, he's a personal God who knows us individually. He knows every hair on our head. When a sparrow drops, God knows it. And so I would suggest to you that the scripture that was read is that foundation. It's boot camp one zero one for Christianity. If you're gonna get your heart into shape, you need to look at the beatitudes. And they really are keys to not only cultivating a heart for God, but also the instructions of having a happy life. [00:09:36] (49 seconds)  #BeatitudesBootcamp