Shining Christ’s Light Together in a Dark World

God had been declaring through his creation, through these stars, the majesty and the awe of the world and universe around us. We know of sailors who would navigate oceans watching the rising and the setting of the lights God had put above us. They memorized them. They trusted them. Kings looked to them for the seasons. Shepherds slept beneath them. [00:04:32] (24 seconds)  #GuidedByTheStars

God has always used his heavens to preach. And when we get to the New Testament and the church and the message of the church, we hear about that time where the apostle, well, before he was apostle, he was the persecutor, Saul. Going around persecuting, arresting, even witnessing the martyrdom of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. And Saul, who was proclaiming murderous threats against the church, meets the resurrected and glorified Jesus on the road to Damascus. A glory that causes him to be blind. [00:05:27] (35 seconds)  #RoadToDamascus

Sometimes, though, we're not the biggest and the brightest lights. Sometimes, we're like the guy, and I won't ask you to raise your hands if you've ever found yourself doing this. Driving at night, your dashboard lights are on but your headlights are off. And you don't realize it because of the light pollution around you. And eventually, somebody comes towards you and starts flashing their lights and honking their horns. And you realize that for the last 20 miles, you've been driving with your headlights off. And you didn't even know it. You are a hazard, not just to other people but to yourselves. And that's sometimes what sin does to us. It is a hazard. [00:09:38] (37 seconds)  #HeadlightsOnFaith

You see, friends, by the nature of your baptism, you've been washed in the water and the word of that baptism, and you have received the light of Christ. It's like we get to be that light of Christ that reflects not our own light, but the light we've received inside of us through Christ by nature of that water and the word that we've been claimed as. [00:11:05] (21 seconds)  #BaptizedInLight

Sometimes the world can obscure the light. Sometimes we can obscure that light we've been given to shine with our own self, with our own pursuit of pleasure, with our confusion over our politics, with our obsession with our fears and our worries and our self-importance. We do, as Paul said earlier in there, we grumble, we argue, we gossip, we divide. We major in the minor things, making a big deal out of nothing in comparison to God's grand design of desiring all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. [00:13:03] (38 seconds)  #StayInTheGame

This world knows darkness. It knows darkness and itself. And think of when Jesus hung on the cross. Matthew tells us that one of the things that happened when Jesus hung on the cross there dying for the sins of the world, that in the middle of the afternoon there was absolute darkness. How scary that must have been for those people. When the Lord of the universe hung on a tree that he created, paying for the sins and the wages of sin with his own death. But we know that death doesn't get the final say. Darkness doesn't win. [00:14:17] (33 seconds)  #ShineTogether

When individual lights come together, they guide people home. One star, one star can draw your eye, but a consolation can guide you. Even here, with all of the city lights at night, if the sky is clear, you can still look up and say, those three stars, I can see Orion's belt. And their pattern tells a story. And that's what the church is. Not just scattered lights, but a constellation placed intentionally by God. [00:15:23] (34 seconds)  #UnitedInLight

Alone we might be faint, but together we shine brightly. Because your faith and my faith isn't just about you and Jesus. It's about you and me, collective, together as the body of Christ, as Christ Jesus, shining together in this world. Helping people find their way in the midst of the darkness. To not just life, but to eternal life. [00:16:14] (22 seconds)  #TakeHeartJesus

Together we let Christ's light shine. And it's a beautiful thing to see. We live in a crooked and twisted generation. So we are not surprised or worried or overwhelmed nor shocked or discouraged or downhearted when the world is like the world. No surprise there. But the good news is we follow the one who says in this world you will have trouble. But you can take heart, Jesus says. Because I've overcome the world. [00:17:26] (31 seconds)  #ConstellationOfHope

But until that day, in the midst of the darkness and the crooked and perverted generation, we get to shine like stars in the world. Holding firm to the word of life that is Christ alone. But to shine that light, that hope, that forgiveness, that mercy we have. So let's do it, church. Let's do it right where we're positioned individually. And let's do it together as the body of Christ, holding forth that word of truth and life in Christ alone. [00:23:07] (33 seconds)