let your light shine 5-21-23

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome the Blessings in Christ. I'mScott Roberts. Blessings in Christ is also
the Church of Christ preaching the gospelof our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Of he that believeth and is baptizedshall be saved. The Church Christ's
scriptural name Roman sixteen sixteen, Scriptureand Origin Colossians one eighteen, Scripture and

(00:21):
doctrine, First Timothy four sixteen,and Scripture and practice James one and twenty
two. Our lesson today is letyour light shine. You know, there
is so much darkness and evil inthe world. If there were ever a
time for a Christian to truly lettheir light shine, it would be now.

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And of course it is not ourlight, but it is the light
of Jesus Christ. We read inMatthew five Jesus said in Matthew five fourteen,
you are the light of the world. A city that is set on
a hill cannot be hid. Neitherdo men light a candle and put it
under a bushel, but on acandlestick, and it giveth light unto all

(01:03):
that are in the house. Letyour light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works andglorify your Father. Which is in Heaven.
So the question this morning for everysingle Christian listening to this podcast is
are we letting our light shine?As Jesus commanded? We are to let
our lights shine by living a holyChristian life, bringing glory to the name

(01:26):
of Jesus Christ. We must showothers that Jesus Christ is living in us,
being in an example of the believersin all manner of holy Christian life,
being a good influence on others,drawing people to Christ, the glorious
Gospel and his glorious Church. Didyou know that mankind was put here on

(01:47):
this order to serve and glorify God. How do we do that by becoming
close to the image of God thatwe possibly can, denying sin, denying
self. After Bay in the Gospelwe begin as a pure babe in Christ.
We must grow into that image bystudying God's word and denying himself.

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So once again, our lesson todayis let your light shine. We hope
that you enjoy the lesson and pleaselike us on Facebook. Thank you.
Let's go ahead and begin that ourlesson today is on let your light shine.
If you remember the last two timesI've had the privilege and honor to
be with my family. Here.We've looked at the church, if you

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remember, we looked at the workof the church, which, of course,
of the Lord's Church is in thebusiness of saving souls, contending for
the faith, glorifying God individually asChristians and also as the Church. And
of course we worship God in spiritand in truth john Ford verse twenty four.

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God is a spirit and he mustbe worshiped in spirit and in truth.
But our lesson today is let yourlight shine. And you know,
there is so much in the worldtoday. It seems like there is evil,
wickedness and false doctrine and just aboutevery corner of the world, not
only the countries, the states,but even the cities. And it just

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seems like in the larger cities,and perhaps that's because of the population,
a lot of the population goes there. But you look at the problems that
we see in a lot of thecities today, the big cities, and
you have a lot of people involvedin drugs. There's so much homelessness because

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the high cost of living, whichaffects all of us. So there's a
lot of problems in the world.And you know, if there was ever
a time to where a Christian couldtruly shine the light of Jesus Christ,
it would be now. And that'swhat I wanted to look at today.
So let's begin in Matthew five tenthrough sixteen, where Jesus told us,

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not only are we to let alight shine which is truly His light,
the light of Jesus Christ, butwe are also to be the soul of
the earth. And Matthew five tenthrough sixteen, Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirsis the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are
ye When men shall revile you andpersecute you, and shall say all manner

(04:20):
of evil against you falsely for mysake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted the prophets which were
before you. Let's stop there fora second. You know, when we
live at Christian life, we're goingto be suffering persecution. And but the

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Bible, Jesus says here that weare blessed because we are His home.
We're not of the world, andwe look at Romans chapter twelve. We're
not conformed to this world, butwe are the lords you be, you
transformed through the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect of God. We must be different, and we

(05:02):
will be persecuted if we do liveat Christian life. Continue it on.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt had lost his
savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is that's worth good for nothing
but to be cast out and troddenunder the foot. Amend, Let's stop
there. The salt of the earth. Salt actually adds flavor. And you

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could say salt is a spice thatwhen we eat, salt actually brings life
to the food. It actually whenthe food nourishes our body. Salt brings
life or meaning to the food,just as a Christian adds meaning to life
because we reflect Jesus Christ in ourlife. Also, salt has a saving

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factor. Did you know that ifyou put salt or salt water on a
wound, it can actually pull toxinsfrom that wound. So salt actually has
a saving factor. Also, justas a Christian can share the gospel with
all those that are around it,You are the light of the world.
A city that is set on ahill cannot be hit. Neither do man

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light a candle and put it undera bushel, but on a candlestick,
and it giveth light unto all thatare in the house. Let your light
shine before men, that they maysee your good works and glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. So weknow that truly that the light of
Jesus Christ is present with all Christians. And of course we need to be

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living a Christian life. We needto bring glory to Jesus Christ and glory
to the Church, because we arereflecting the light of Jesus Christ. And
John one, verse six through ten, we see that the John the Baptist

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was actually came to bear witness ofthe light of Christ. John one six
to ten. There was a mansent from God whose name was John.
The same came for a witness tobear witness of the light that all men
through him might believe. He wasnot that light, but he was sent
to bear witness of that light.And of course we know that Jesus is

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the true light. Was that wasthe true light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. He wasin the world, and the world was
made by him, and the worldknew him, not we too bear witness
of the light, bear witness ofJesus Christ. So in our Christian life,
we are commanded by Christ not onlyto bear witness of Christ, but

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also to let the light of JesusChrist shine from us on others. Did
you know that there are some thingsthat were created only to reflect light?
Now think about it, and Ilove a strong I mean, when you
look at the moons that are inthe universe. The Earth has one moon,

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Venus does not have any moons,Mars actually has two moons, and
I think Saturn has over thirty moons, and I think the few of the
other planets have even more moons.But a moon will never have its own

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light. It was created to merelyreflect light that was from the Sun,
and it will never A moon willnever ever be able to generate light on
its own. Its an entire purpose. It was created to reflect light.
And that's the way a Christian is. It's not our light. We are

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were created to bear witness or toreflect the light of Jesus Christ. Now
we're going to have a demonstration here. Did you know that there are two
types of light? If you getup in the middle of the night and
I've got a flashlight here, andthis could be a strong beam. Actually
this one is not too strong,but it only reflects light in one direction.

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If you notice, I've got theflashlight on now, it is putting
light in the back wall of thebuilding, but there's no light to the
side, there's no light behind theflashlight. It only shows light in one
direction. And the question that wehave in our Christian life are we only

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a one way Christian? Are weonly a Christian on Sundays? Or are
we a Christian every single day ofour life sharing the light of Christ with
our neighbors, our friends, ourfriends, our loved ones, our kids,
our families. Whoever, are weobeying all the commandments that God has

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given us? Are we? Arewe obeying all of the commandments that are
giving us? So therefore, there'sanother type of light, which is called
a lantern. When you light alantern, if you notice there's light in
all directions? So are we thetype of light that is only one direction?

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Are we the type of light thathas a lantern that actually lights all
directions? And something else about lights, there are different wattages. You can
go from bright to less bright tohardly bright at all. What type of
light are we generating? And brotheror brother Chris and Kim gave me the

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idea of camping, and Chandra willrecognize this analogy. It seems like when
you go camping, there's always thecampers that have the perfect fire. When
I've taken Landing with me, there'sgoing to be a perfect fire. He
is the king of fires. Butsometimes, bless their hearts, there's campers
that, no matter what they do, they can't generate a good fire.

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Maybe they're not putting enough wood onthe fire. And as a brother,
Chris pointed out, he said,if you're going to have a good camp
fire, you got to keep feedingit, you know. And a boy,
a lot of times what we liketo stay up late when we go
camping and you put that good woodon it, and you think you have
all the wood in the world,and the next morning you gotta go and

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buy more wood because Landing's been feedingthat fire all night. And that's the
way our Christian life is. Wegot to keep feeding that fire, you
know, Study to show yourself approvedunto God, pray without ceasing living that
Christian life, loving our brothers andsisters in Christ. Do we put God
first? You know, if you'rea camping that one of the most important

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things would be you've got to keepwood on that fire or you're not going
to have a very good camp tripat all. So loving God and putting
him first above everything else, feedthat fire reflect the light of Jesus Christ.
You wereated just like a moon,to reflect the light of Jesus Christ.

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And you know you can count onthat moon if it's not cloudy,
and you can look up and seethat moon, and it's there every single
night because it's doing its job ofreflecting the light. What about us not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together onthe first day of the week, the
disciples met to break bread. Dowe put God first? Deuteronomy six and

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verse five, And that shall lovethe Lord thy God with all thy heart,
all thy soul, and with allthy might. First Corinthians two in
verse nine shows that you were createdto bear witness of Christ forever and ever.
But as it is written, Ihave not seen nor ear heard,

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neither have entered into the heart ofman the things which God have prepared for
them that love Him. And thenext question, once again, are we
just a one way Christian? Dowe just pick and choose what commandments that
we want to do that are okaywith us. Are we obeying all of

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the Bible what the Bible has says. Are we a Christian just on the
first day of the week or arewe a Christian every single day? We
want to be the light like thislantern that shows light in all directions.
Once again, camping, if youjust take a little flashlight and you have
to go find something, it's notgoing to be very easy. But if
you have a lantern. Now,I know Coleman makes some good landards.

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I remember Bobby Honda. We usedto go camping with him and he was
the king of lanterns. I thinkhe had one hundred dollars lanard once that
worked off with some kind of guys. And I'll tell you when he lit
that, it lit up the wholecampsite. And I thought, where'd you
get that lantern? And he hada really, really nice lanard. And
I know now when you buy theselanterns, they can be the led And

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I've got one at home that Ithink it has fifty LEDs in it,
and I'll tell you what it's bright. So are we a bright light for
our Lord? And Savior, JesusChrist. Are we obeying all of the
commandments of God and being a faithfulChristian First John two three through six.
And we know that we know himif we keep his commandments. He that

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saith I know Him and keepeth nothis commandments is a liar. And the
truth is not in him. Butwhosoever keepeth his word in him, verily
is the love of God perfected.Hereby we know that we are in him.
He that saith he abideth in himalso to walk, even as he

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walked. So you notice there thatjust as Jesus walked, we need to
walk the life that Jesus Christ walked, and of course that was in fellowship
with the Father, God the Father. Can we live that Christian life?
And in doing so, can wereflect the light of Christ in us and

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shine that light in all directions likethis lantern does. We are to let
our lights shine by being holy,by being a holy people. We need
to bring glory to the name ofJesus Christ. We must show others that
Jesus Christ is living in us,being an example of the believers in all

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manner of holy conversation, being agood influence and on others drawing people to
Christ, the glorious Gospel, andespecially his glorious perfect Church, his body
without spot, without wrinkle, TheChurch of Christ. Mankind was put on
this earth to be a reflected light. You were never created to have your

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own light. You were created toreflect the light. Are our mirrors clean?
Do we have purity in our life? How many times? And Mom
growing up would always have that mirrorin her purse, and if it got
makeup on it, or if itgot something in a purse, you couldn't

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hardly see it. And how manytimes with our mirrors on our car do
they get dirty? You know,and you're not able to see what's behind
you. You've got to keep themirrors clean, and you got to keep
it a line in the right place. So therefore we need purity. A
dirty light is no good And youknow, the lights on your car can

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get dirty, your windshield can getdirty, and you're going to have trouble
navigating on that road if you've gota dirty windshield or dirty lights. We
need to be purer or we're notgoing to be a good light at all.
First Timothy four twelve through sixteen,Paul telling Timothy here let no man
despise thy youth, but be anexample of the believers in word and conversation.

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That conversation means, how do youlive in charity? That's love,
that's true, fervent love, andspirit, and that means that we live
according to the Holy Spirit, livingwith us fruit of the Spirit, in
faith impurity. So once again Paultelling Timothy, let no man despise thy

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youth, would be an example thebelievers in word, conversation, charity,
spirit, in faith impurity. UntilI come give attendance to reading, to
exhortation, to doctrine and the wordexhortation. There is a call to be
holy. You know, people aredrawn to the light. And you go
back to Matthew chapter five, andI love that where it says that others

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may see our good works and glorifyGod. But the verse above that,
in Matthews five, they're in versefifteen. He says, neither do men
light a candle and put it undera bushel, but on a candlestick,
and it giveth light unto all thatare in the house. Did you know
you cannot mistake a Christian. Aperson that is truly living a Christian life

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will not talk like the rest ofthe world, you know, using all
of the profanity and all of thedirty talking that you see in the world
today. It's a shame. Youknow. Even we see our our president
and you know, will use profanityfrom time to time. And it didn't
used to be like that when Iwhen I was younger. When you go
to a public place, it's verycommonplace to hear people not only using profanity,

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but being negative. You know,the way they talk. That's not
the way that a Christian should be. A Christian it has love one for
another, is always sharing the loveof Jesus Christ. And you know,
you cannot mistake a Christian. Youknow, we don't dress like the rest
of the world, we don't talklike the rest of the world. We

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worship on the first day of theweek. You can truly see Christian and
a Christian family. You know,Jesus is the light, but we are
the lesser lights, meaning we merelyreflect Jesus Christ. But we can be
the best light we can be.You know, when the lights go out

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at home, and actually where Ilive, even though I live in a
very old neighborhood, the electric's doinga lot better. But there have been
times in the past where we lostpower. And you notice you always know
where you keep a flashlight, andI have probably seven or eight flashlights,
but I always go to my favoritelight because I know I can count on

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it and it's going to work.Can God count on us for being that
bright light and to show the lightof Christ in all directions and people will
not be confused, and people willbe edified and encouraged by us shining the
light of Christ. In Philippians twoin verse fifteen, that you may be

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blameless and hard us the sons ofGod without rebuke, in the midst of
a crooked and perverse nation, inwhom ye shine as lights in the world.
So Jesus said to let your lightshine. But Paul said in Philippians
two in verse fifteen, that weneed to shine as lights in the world.

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So here's another interesting concept that wecan be one single light. But
here Paul tells the Philippian Church thatye are lights. So another wonderful benefit
of shining the light of Christ.Just as Saturn has over thirty moons and
Mars has two moons, Christians cancome together. And when we come together

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as a unit the church, wecan shine more light than we ever could
by ourselfs. So we come togetheras a holy family with a purpose to
glorify God. We're going to glorifyGod as much as we can. So
we shine as lights in the worldby shining for the Jesus Christ in our

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life, sharing the Gospel of Christon all those around us. Are we
just shining the gospel on one person? Are we shining the gospel and everyone
that is around us? I waspicking out Mother's Day cards the other day
and this lady just walked up tome and we just start laughing, and

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I said, I've got all kindsof adopted moms everywhere. I said,
I gotta buy by these cards andwe just start talking before well, you
know it. I would share theGospel with her. I told her I
was a Christian, you know,so you never know when we can try
to share the Gospel with others.The light of Jesus Christ and the glorious
gospel. He gives us his law, and it is a lamp to our

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feet. We will fall without atrue light, especially when it starts Saw
one nineteen and one o five.Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path.Jesus said that we are lights in the
world Matthew five or verse fourteen.Jesus is the true light. We are
only reflecting his life. Christians arethe lesser lights of the spiritual world.

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We are always very dim in comparisonwith the shining light of Christ. But
we still need to live a Christianlife. And how can we do that?
Once again by living to Christian life. You never know who you might
influence by living to Christian life firstPeter three, Versus ten through sixteen.

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And this is once again talking aboutliving to Christian life. First Peter three,
verse ten. For he that willlove life and see good days,
let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no
guile. Once again, the powerof what we say verse Peter three and

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verse ten. You know, Ialways not to put him above anybody else,
but I remember when James Mills waspreaching Barbara's funeral and the way that
he shared the gospel, and hesaid something that was just so powerful in
my mind. The most beautiful partof his sermon was he said that Barbara
had been preparing for this day sincethe day she was born, or not

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or the day she was baptized.And what a powerful statement and the way
that he preached that funeral. Ithink that was a great encouragement and really
brought honor to Barbara and Doug.And then he also shared the Gospel with
others verse eleven. Let him astoo evil and do good, and let
him seek peace and ensue it.For the eyes of the Lord over the

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righteous and his prayer. His earsare open into their prayers. But the
face of the Lord is against themthat do evil, And who will will
be that harm you? If yoube followers of that which is good?
So that is Christians, we followthat which is good. Now we're going
to go to my favorite part ofthis sermon. Let's turn over to Philippians

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two and verse seventeen once again.Another way we can let our lights shine,
And that's what this sermon is about, and that is holding forth the
Word of life. We need toshine the light not only of Jesus but
also of the Gospel. So notonly do we shine light reflect it.

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But here's my favorite part of thesermon, we also need to carry the
light. You see, we shinelight, but we also have something to
do. We carry the light ofthe Gospel. And the light of Jesus
Christ Philippians two, in verse sixteen, holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the dayof Christ. That I have not run

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in vain, neither labored in vain. The Word of life is the Gospel.
A lot of people would say,oh, the richest person on earth
is you know, you know differentpeople, or maybe Trump, or you
know the head of Microsoft, SteveJobs, or some of these people.

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And they may have a lot ofmaterial wealth. But the richest people in
this world are people are Christians thathave the treasure of the Gospel. Because
our treasure, our riches, willnot go away when we die. We
will have them forever, spiritual riches. The Word of life is the Gospel,

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the message of salvation set forth inChrist. Flesh prophets nothing, but
the Spirit gives life through Jesus Christand the Gospel. It is the word
of life, the Word of Jesus, the words of the Gospel that can
save your soul. John six andverse sixty three. It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak with you,

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they are spirit and they are life. The same when some disciples had
left Jesus. Jesus asked the remainingones, will you also go away?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? For
thou hast the words of eternal life. We must carry the Gospel, holding

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forth the word of life. Andhere's my favorite part of the sermon.
Do you how many of us haveseen the Olympics? And the Olympics could
not take place without the carrying ofthe torch. And the torch was lit
in is Olympia or Olympus, Greece, and in the same flame as passed
by probably hundreds of people, andthey pass that live towards that flame never

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goes out, and then they lightthe torch of the Olympic Games. And
you know what's interesting is maybe you'llrecognize the person that lights the torch at
the games, but those hundreds ofpeople that have carried that light, you
really don't know who they are.And it doesn't matter because the important part
is the the torch is what youremember. I'm no showing on the news

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and they're carrying that torch. That'sa Christian. It doesn't matter who carries
the gospel. We need to carrythe gospel message. People don't need to
see Scott. They don't need tosee James Mills. They need to see
the truth. They need to seethe light. So hence we reflect the
light of Jesus Christ and our Christianlife. But we hold forth just as

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that Olympic torch, and we don'tstart in Olympia, Greece. We start
the day we obeyed the plane ofsalvation, when we repented of sins,
confess our faith in Jesus Christ,and we're baptized. So we carry that
precious gospel that it's going to saveour soul and others that will obey it.

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John six and verse sixty eight.Then Simon Peter and answered and said,
Lord, to whom shall we go, for thou hast the words of
eternal life. Many years later,John opened First John one by talking about
the Word of light. He says, a First John one, that which
was from the beginning, which wehave heard, which we have seen with

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our eyes, which we have lookedupon, our hands have handled, the
Word of life. It is thegospel, the good news about Jesus Christ,
and the teachings to those as theywere moved by the breath of God,
by God himself, the Holy Spirit. So the energy. The life

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of this light is not batteries.It's not the alkaline batteries or the rechargeable
batteries. It is by God himself. The Holy Spirit lights this light second
Peter one of verse twenty one.For the prophecy came not an old time
by the will of man, butholy men spake as they were moved by

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the Holy Ghost. Christians must dotwo things with the perfect Gospel. To
hold by it and to hold itout when people see us. They should
see this light anywhere we go.And you know it's not difficult, but
we must share the Gospel, shareour Christian life. So we have light
reflecting off us in our Christian life, and we are holding forth the light

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of the Gospel. In order togive light, there must be life.
Christian life depends on having it inthe Word of Life. And it is
quick and powerful, which is ableto dwell in us richly in all wisdom
and understanding. Now there's a thirdtype of light. And how many of

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us have actually seen a laser alaser beat? And I remember at Miguel
Hill a lot of times we wouldhave special books given to charity that we
would burn into the cover of thisis just a sample, because people might
sell it and try to make moneywhat it's supposed to be a sample.
So laser beam is so powerful itactually can burn and it can cut things.

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So the word of God is strongerthan any laser because it is quick
and powerful and able to actually toconvince the center that they are falling short
of God's will, that they mustobey the gospel. So it is quick
and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of

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the soul, the spirit that joinsin tomorrow, and it is the only
way to penetrate the center's heart tocall them next. How much light must
we have? The Bible tells usthat we need to be covered in white
or to have the light in usritually watch