 We're in chapter 11 here in the Gospel of Luke and so what we'll do is we'll begin reading together here in Luke chapter 11 at verse 27. I'll read verses 27 and 28 and then move on into verse 29 and we'll conclude with verse 36 tonight. So let's begin reading here in Luke chapter 11 at verse 27. We'll read verses 27 and 28 and get into our study. Luke writes, It happened as he spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you. But he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Now as Jesus is speaking here and we've been recently going through the things that he has to say and all and as he's speaking with such power and such authority, there's a woman in the crowd who's listening to him speak and she in a moment of exuberant praise raises up her voice and cries out a blessing. And it would seem obvious that this woman is thinking of how great Jesus Christ is and what an honor it would be to be his mother. Now on one level, her recognition of how blessed Mary was is obviously understandable. I mean when you look in the Gospel of Luke in chapter one and you remind yourself how that when Mary went to go see her cousin Elizabeth and you remember the greeting that her cousin Elizabeth gave her, it can give you some insight into how you can understand why this woman would say, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you. Because in Luke chapter one, verse 42, the Bible tells us that Elizabeth spoke out with a loud voice and this is what her cousin Elizabeth said to her, said to Mary, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And so what this woman is saying here in this crowd when she says blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you is something that had earlier been stated by Mary's own cousin to a similar degree all the way back in the first chapter of Luke. And remember with me in chapter one, verse 48, Mary's response, because Mary at that point said, God my Savior has regarded the lowly state of his maid servant for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. And so this woman on one level in crying out blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you is basically simply going along with what had been done before and something that Mary had said herself. Mary had recognized that she had been given the greatest blessing imaginable. So it's understandable, it's understandable that the woman in the crowd would say this. Yet I want you to see something, I want you to see verse 28, I want you to see that Jesus corrects this woman. And why would Jesus correct her? Because notice he says in verse 28, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Now why would he bring a word of correction? Because that's what it is. Jesus brings a word of correction because though what she says is true, there's a wrong emphasis. He corrects her because she has placed the emphasis on the wrong person. What she is doing is emphasizing Mary's blessedness, but she is de-emphasizing Jesus' ministry. And the second thing is that she is failing to consider the fact that Jesus came to bless not just his mother, but Jesus Christ came to bless all people. And there's a theological thing I want to point out to you that is very important that I think wraps this up. Because on top of this, and you might want to note this, on top of this, Jesus was not about to receive praise through his mother. He was not about to receive praise through his mother in doing so. If you were to receive praise through his mother, that would depreciate him, and it would direct praise to the wrong person. And the Bible tells us in Isaiah 42 verse 8, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my praise I will give to no one else, neither my glory to graven images. I do not allow anybody to receive praise that is rightfully mine. And so if he were to receive praise through the mother, then that would be taking praise from him. And so that would emphasize her blessedness, but it would de-emphasize his ministry. So he's not going to allow any confusion to come when it comes to praise and honor, because he's the one who receives all of it. He's the one who's to receive it all. Now, as I say that, sometimes people will say, well, this is the problem I have with you, or with Protestants, because you don't give honor to Mary. You don't give her the kind of honor that she deserves. I find it interesting, and I want you to see this with me. I find it interesting how that Jesus related to his mom turned with me for a moment to John's Gospel chapter 2. I want to develop this with you. See, the question is, well, do you honor Mary? And the answer is yes. We regard her. We especially regard her counsel. We regard her counsel in John's Gospel chapter 2, the first gospel to your right, chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. Notice something with me. John chapter 2, beginning with verse 1, the Bible says there, on the third day, there was a wedding in Canaan of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now, both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding, and when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. And I want you to see that for a moment. And so in the midst of all the celebration of a wedding, and Jesus's presence there demonstrating his blessing on that particular institution, as well as personally on that wedding, as Jesus is there in Canaan of Galilee, his mother approaches him and says, there's a need here. And I want you to see how Jesus responds. He simply says, what has your concern got to do with me? Now, when he says, woman, that isn't a disrespectful thing. I mean, sometimes you might read that and you might say, it sounds to me as if the Lord Jesus Christ is disrespecting his mother. Woman is actually a term of honor. It's not something that is used lightly at all. And Jesus himself was using it in an honorable and respectful way as he spoke to Mom. But he said, woman, what is your concern have to do with me? I want you to see something because I have had people say, don't you honor Mary? And I say especially, yes, I do. Of course I do. She is the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. She was blessed amongst all women. Obviously, a scripture points to her as being a woman who has been blessed tremendously to be the mother of Jesus Christ. And of course I do honor the reality of that. But I like to take her advice. And so the advice that she gives is something that we the church ought to listen to because notice what it says in verse 5 when it says, his mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it. Now that's the whole key, isn't it? She doesn't say, whatever I say to you, do it. She says, whatever he says to you, do it. Now, what is it that Jesus says that we ought to honor? And now you can get a whole theology of salvation through that. What is it that Jesus said, a man must be born again to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Over and over again you can take the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and follow the advice of Mary, his mother, and you're going to be walking straight with the Lord because she didn't take honor from him and she didn't draw it to herself. She pointed it to him and she said, whatever he says to you, that is what you are to do. And so as a Christian, as an individual who wants to be biblical, of course, I see her as blessed and all. But turning back to Luke chapter 11, I take Jesus's words with greater emphasis and his word is more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. In other words, my family is much larger than you think. Loving obedience to my word will bring you into my family. You need to have a relationship with me. It's not something that is just, you're not going to become a member of my family by being related to me. You can become a member of my family by being the word of God. In Mark in chapter 3 verses 32 through 35, Mark writes a multitude was sitting around him and they said to him, behold, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. But he answered them, saying, who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about him and he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and my mother. He becomes, she becomes a member of my family. And so when he says more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it, you're hearing him as he commands and as he calls us to have a relationship with him. We're following his mother's advice when she says whatever he says to you do it and we receive him as our Lord and our Savior and we become people who not only hear God's word, but we, as he says, we keep it also. So the one who is going to be blessed is not simply the person who's listening, it's the person who listens and acts on the things that God has to say. In James in chapter one verses 22 through 25 James said it this way, he said, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone's a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does. And so we get up in the morning, we start getting ourselves ready to go to work or wherever it is that we're going, we spend a considerable amount of time looking into that mirror, looking at ourselves and then we go about the house doing a few things before we leave and then inevitably we walk back to that same mirror and look at it one more time, we just can't get enough of us as we do so and we look one more time at that mirror and then we climb in our car and then sometimes as we're driving wherever it is and we've already spent a good amount of time smiling at us. We've already done that more than once in the house. Now we're in the car and as we're in the car we pull that rear view mirror down and just smile that winning smile one more time and that's what we do. Then when we get to where we're going and if we happen to walk by a reflective glass or a mirror what is it that we do again? Hey, we do that, we look at ourselves one more time. We forget what manner of person we are and so what Jesus would be teaching us and what James is simply saying is this, don't be a forgetful hearer. Be a doer. Be somebody who keeps a constant awareness of who you are and all you look in a mirror and you walk away forgetting what you are but listen what you do is if you keep the word of God you're actually being transitioned, you're being transformed, you're being changed by that and as a result of that then you're growing more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. So if I look into a mirror at myself the word can also be a mirror. So I look at the mirror of the word so that it reveals to me my imperfections and flaws and I can actually change. Some of us know what it's like to have one of those mirrors with the various settings, you know the lights and everything that you can get. You can have a mirror that has night light and you can have full day light and everything in between and I've discovered that I'm beautiful at three o'clock in the morning in the dark. But in the full light of day there's a little bit of a difference you know when you have the full light of day you can see those imperfections and all of that and that's just the way it is you know and some lights are of such nature that they can reveal imperfections that you've tried to hide. I can still remember when I was a young hippie back in the 60s and all we had what we're called black lights and some of you know that that comes and goes it still comes and goes you know and we used to take murine and we would spray it all over ourselves make artwork on us, murine it dries and you get underneath the black light and you've got all your artwork and people would go oh wow cool cool you know and and and so we would put peace signs on us and you know and spray or something. Now you could not see that under normal lighting but you go under a black light and it all shows up and so we'd freak each other out that way but I also discovered something there's something called clearasil some of you know what that is under a black light clearasil shows up and I had a friend of mine named Mike and and uh and you could connect the dots with him now you you didn't you didn't see the clearasil under normal lighting but one day there he was under the black light and I looked at him it looked like he had chickenpox and what he had done is he had been putting clearasil all over his ugly little face you know the light has a tendency of revealing imperfections if we want to walk in a way that reflects Christ then we're to be doers of the word not forgetful hearers and so Jesus is emphasizing that here in Luke chapter 11 at verse 28 yes it is true my mother is blessed from the very beginning as the Lord God gave to her this communication that she would be the mother of messiah she is blessed and yes all people from henceforth will call her blessed but do not emphasize my mother to the point where other people are negated yes mama is blessed of course she heard and obeyed but if you hear and obey you are blessed too and you are part of my family through faith now verse 29 while the crowds were thickly gathered together he began to say this is an evil generation it seeks a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet for as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites so also the son of man will be to this generation the queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here and so as Jesus is now speaking concerning eternal things inevitably some desire to argue now Matthew tells us in his gospel in chapter 12 verse 38 that the ones who bring up this argument are our scribes and Pharisees and they are actually asking Jesus for a sign it could be that these scribes and these Pharisees made up a special investigating committee but the demand that they're making here in this passage reveals their hardened hearts they're not interested in the truth they're not trying to engage Jesus in a discussion to help them to come to a knowledge of God they simply want a quarrel now during this time the scribes were the legal experts they were experts on the religious law of Moses in order to be a scribe you needed to be some 30 years of age and you needed to have spent many years intensely studying the scriptures especially the law of Moses and the scribes had memorized the traditions that had been set forth by the elders over the centuries that's why when you read on the scribes in the gospels you will see that they will quote the authorities they don't offer their own understanding but will quote somebody else so when Jesus began his ministry as it's recorded in Matthew chapter 7 verse 29 it would amaze them because he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes the scribes would quote a former rabbi so what's the scribes who are saying to him show us a sign obviously unbelievers demand signs and Christians don't but what they're doing here is they're demanding proof of his claim to be in their Messiah now this is very common amongst the Jews during that day because Paul makes reference in 1st Corinthians 1 22 when he says Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom now in asking for a sign I find it interesting because signs are part of the validation of the ministry of Jesus Christ you might find this interesting but in the fifth chapter of the gospel of John John actually cites four testimonies of Jesus's ministry credentials Jesus tells them in John chapter 5 the things that point to him so for example in John chapter 5 verse 33 he says you have sent to John he has testified to the truth so John the Baptist was one who validated my ministry in John 5 37 he says the father who sent me has himself testified concerning me in John 5 39 he says you diligently studied the scriptures you think that in them you possess eternal life and the scriptures testify about me so you have the testimony of John the testimony of the father the testimony of scripture but he also includes in John 5 36 miraculous signs because he says I have testimony way dear than that of John the work that the father has given me to finish and which I am doing testifies that the father has sent me and so signs were part of the way God validates the ministry of Jesus Christ so his father validates the scripture validates John the Baptist validates and signs will validate now the problem is is they're making a request for a sign but with insincerity they are not seeking him but are looking to dishonor him and that's why Jesus speaks in the way that he does notice how he speaks concerning them in verse 29 when he speaks of them as being an evil generation the reason he says you're an evil generation is because you have no sincerity what you're trying to do is tempt me that word evil just reflects the fact that they are constantly tempting God and Matthew 4 7 says you shall not tempt the Lord your God so he calls them evil he calls them evil because if they were faithfully following the word of God they would have accepted him because his the word of God pointed directly to him in John chapter 5 verses 46 and 47 if you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote about me but since you do not believe what he wrote how are you going to believe what I say and so if they would have been honestly following Moses these scribes who were the experts of the law they would have seen Jesus in the pages of the Old Testament and become his followers but seeing that they refused to hear what Moses had to say they were refusing to receive their own Messiah it's God's word always that draws you to a relationship with him and when the word of God is rightly divided and proclaimed God uses this word to bring people through the power of the Holy Spirit to a place of conviction so they can have a relationship with him but Jesus is saying you don't want to have anything to do with me so he goes on in verse 30 and he says as Jonah became assigned in the Ninevites so also the son of man will be to this generation now Jonah he uses Jonah what is it that's going to be the sign that he's referring to well what it will be will be his resurrection Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites because he's an individual who had been swallowed by a great fish should have been dead was spit up on the shore and ultimately came and preached a message of repentance and was assigned he had the appearance of being dead and coming back to life now remember Jonah Jonah was commissioned to preach in the great Assyrian city of Nineveh the bible in Jonah chapter one verses two and three says that God said go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish he went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port after paying the fare he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord you know the story of Jonah and during his escape he thought he was escaping from God a storm arose and and Jonah after the people began to question why is this storm happening well Jonah reveals well I'm a prophet of the most high God and he and it's my fault in in order to quell the storm you might as well just throw me overboard in a way he's once again saying look at if I'm throwing overboard then I die and I don't have to go to to Nineveh and I'll be free from that but what is it that the Lord does well all the time that Jonah had been running climbing into that boat going down to the bottom and just kind of like floating you almost hear you know him as he's going the sound of the of the ship as it's there on on the on the sea and all in the wind blowing them well there's you know someplace else there's a giant fish that's very very slowly but surely just you know making his way very slowly intersecting with the ship just very slowly you know boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom you know that kind of thing they throw him over and there's the fish perfect timing in the way of the Lord the Bible tells us in Jonah 117 the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights now think about that for just a moment if you have claustrophobia that would have been phobia that would have been a killer but he had plenty of time to think the Bible says in Jonah chapter 2 verse 1 from inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God and in Jonah 2 7 and 10 7 through 10 and this is what he says when my life was ebbing away I remembered you Lord and my prayer rose to you to your holy temple those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs but I with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good salvation comes from the Lord and the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land what an interesting way to put it fish opens his mouth and as he came out you know he's got seaweed wrapped around him the digestive juices undoubtedly have made him look like a little prune he probably smells pretty bad I'd assume that he did because he's been laying in there with all of these fish that have been being digested must have been a wonderful sight to see and as he climbs out of that that fish he walks to to Nineveh walks in and when they see this guy coming you know yet 40 days and the Lord's going to destroy you what do we have to do you know we'll get saved right now a tremendous ministry but I wouldn't necessarily want it the resurrection though is what Jesus is referring to and his resurrection is going to be the greatest sign of who he is even as Jonah was in the body of that in the in the belly of that great fish for three days even so Jesus himself would be in the belly of the earth for three days it's a picture of his resurrection and so that's the point he's making so in Romans chapter 1 verse 4 Paul would say Jesus through the spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the son of God by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord and so that's what he's speaking about as Jonah became assigned to the Ninevites so also the son of man will be to this generation verse 31 the queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here and so now he speaks concerning the queen of the south rising up with the judgment rising up in the judgment with the men of this of this generation the queen of the south is a reference to the queen of sheba and she had traveled many miles to hear the wisdom of one named Solomon in first kings in chapter 10 verses 6 through 9 the bible tells us that she said to Solomon it was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom however I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes and indeed the half was not told me your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard happy are your men and happy are these your servants who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom and then she went on to say blessed be the lord your god who delighted in you said in you on the throne of Israel because the lord has loved Israel forever therefore he made you king to do justice and righteousness now he says she's going to rise up in the judgment as a witness to the greatness of god and Solomon's wisdom the point Jesus is making though is my message is greater I not only am exercising wisdom but salvation from sin is the result of my message and so Jesus came proclaiming a message that could save people if people would only hear what he had to say if people would embrace this message they could be saved now we're in the Christmas season now and and the debate's already beginning and some of you watch news and all and I do on a daily basis I'll watch the news and I look for the culture wars to see what's going on and and whether or not the words Merry Christmas will be banned once again this year or whether people actually will remember the holiday and what it stands for and so I'm watching the news yesterday and and there's a woman who's saying don't make a big deal out of this and she's presenting herself as as a representative of Christian faith and all and she's saying you ought not to be making a big deal about this you know the real message is that we need to really just learn to get along is that the message of the gospel is that the message you know you know as much as lies within you live at peace with all men yes that is something that Paul teaches us to do the scripture teaches us that we're not to be belligerent we're not to be hostile and all of that yes we ought to do everything within us to be able to get along with with people undoubtedly is that the message of Christmas no I mean from the beginning unto you this day is born a savior is what the scripture says I mean when you're when you're looking at Jesus Christ you're not looking at the birth of an ordinary child what you're looking at is a miracle birth with a purpose and that purpose is that Jesus Christ might come and save people from their sins that's what he is he's a messiah he is the anointed one of God who's been sent by God in order that he might bring a message to draw people to himself in order that they might be saved that's why he said if I be lifted up I will draw all men into myself he was pointing to the cross because he was making it very clear that when I am crucified people will be drawn by the message of the cross and why I died and that's Christianity and so anything that denies the reality of who Jesus Christ is as savior of the world anybody who says that Christmas is something that can be celebrated without Christ in it and his whole purpose is sadly mistaken and yet we hear that constantly Jesus Christ spoke a message that is very powerful and very divisive it's a very divisive message I mean if you embrace it fully then you really believe that without him you can't go to heaven if you really believe his message you're going to believe that you have to tell people about Christ so that they might be saved if you really believe his message then you're going to be somebody who comes from Spain goes to school and goes back to tell these people that they need Jesus Christ that's how that works that's what causes us to do the work that we do we actually believe that message yes Solomon has incredible incredible wisdom he gave hundreds into the thousands of proverbs he wrote many songs and you can see that in scripture he wrote books three different books that are attributed to him this is a man with incredible wisdom yes he was so rich and so prosperous that gold was like dust during his day yes he had a throne that was made with pure ivory and it was overlaid with gold and it was incredible he ate on golden plates and drank from golden goblets and yeah he had incredible wisdom and people from all around would come to hear the wisdom of Solomon it was proverbial to this day and the queen of Sheba who came said I haven't heard the half of it you are incredible all that you have and God has blessed the nation of Israel by giving this nation such a mighty and wise king absolutely but Jesus is saying Solomon is nothing compared to who I am that's what he's saying think about that for a minute Solomon is nothing compared to who I am he brought you wisdom yes in his message but when you see the salvation inference is there that's because he's pointing you to the one who brings salvation he's pointing you to me that's what he's saying when he says in verse 31 the queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here so the men of Nineveh who repented at the message of destruction will ultimately through their salvation be the judges of these people in Jonah three five and six it says the Ninevites believed God they declared a fast and all of them from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth and when the news reached the king in Nineveh he rose from his throne took off his royal robes covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust they accepted the message of repentance they in their salvation through that belief will be a judge to you as you rejected he goes on in verse 33 and says no one when he has lit a lamp puts it in a secret place or under a basket but on a lamp stand that those who come in may see the light God's people are to reveal God's light to those who are living in darkness we are the light of Christ and we give off the light when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ now not all people like us for that but that's what happens some people like the darkness and they don't like their evil deeds being revealed we know that those of us who used to party and all we know that there were many times when I was a kid and I'd be in a room and the lights were all off and and we'd be in that room and all and and doing things we ought not to be doing and if somebody walks in and turns the light on what's the first thing that we would say well people like me would say turn the light off why because with the light you can see what I'm doing I prefer the darkness because I can hide my deeds in the dark but when when the lights on then I'm going to be restricted from doing the evil I want to do and that's just a fact guys and and when you and I when we begin to actually take the word of God seriously like Jesus said not only hearing the word of God and keeping it when we actually are serious about being Christians when we actually care and and we live in such a way that our lives are different and they see that we're serious well yeah some people will say thank you for bringing the truth to me and others will say I don't like hearing a word you're saying and Jesus in John 812 said I'm the light of the world he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life so this light is intended to bring light in dark places and what do you do with it well you put it on a lamp stand so that the house may be illuminated that's what the body of Christ is to do well in verse 34 he says the lamp of the body is the eye therefore when your eye is good your whole body is also is full of light but when your eye is bad your body is full of darkness therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness if if then your whole body is full of light having no dark part well the whole body would be full of light as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light so when he speaks of the lamp of the body being the eye this speaks of singleness of vision singleness of vision produces singleness of priorities that's what he's saying here if your eye is good meaning single or devoted you're going to have God's light leading you but if your eye is evil or bad that means unhealthy or or unfocused you will walk in spiritual blindness and so what we need is spiritual illumination we need the light of the spirit within us the light of the word of God which lightens our pathway in order that we might live lives that are pleasing to God so what is my priority that's what he's speaking about when he speaks concerning your your eye whether it's good or bad what is my priority what are the things that I focus on do I focus on the right things well that's the challenges in it the challenge is to keep my eyes on the prize keep my eyes on Jesus Christ keep my eyes on the right kind of thing like Job said making a covenant with my eyes so that I might not look on like he says so that I might not look at a maiden in other words keeping my eyes on the right things so that I'm not corrupted with wrong desires keep your eyes on the prize guys you know I realize that the world we're living in is is more and more difficult I realize that I I know that but I also have discovered something I've discovered that the darker it gets the brighter the light is you know my watch here that my watch has a feature on it if I push a little button here it has one of those illuminated dials you know and a little light will go on and I have actually used this light when I've been in in very dark places as a flashlight I can use it as a flashlight because the light it doesn't take an awful lot of light to dispel darkness it just takes a little bit especially if it's really dark so I have used this in very dark places before just to help me to get from place to place I have a phone my phone you you turn the phone on and it has a light that goes on immediately illuminates so I can you know make my call and all I use that at my house because when I'm climbing up the stairways I'll be honest with you I have I'm night blind and so I can actually trip and it's not hard for me to do so I actually use my phone so that it's like a little flashlight and at night if I have to get up I have my phone next to me I actually can use that as a flashlight and I walk through the house with that until I get to one of the switches and all of that just this morning I wanted to wake Marie up and it was dark so I turned my phone on and I put the light right in her face you know I said awaken to the light thou that sleepest you know so the light of Christ will shine upon thee she didn't appreciate that but I thought it was spiritual we just need to have spiritual light we were walking in the darkness long enough and when you accept Christ then he enlightens your darkness if we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness John says we lie and do not live by the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin walk in the light as he is in the light and so when you have spiritual priorities you walk in the light of life the word of God is a lamp and a light to your path and your feet you get into the into God's word you walk in his spirit you obey him God illuminates you people will see your good works and glorify your father who's in heaven or they may get upset because you are bringing a conviction to their life because you reveal what they're all about but the fact is God is moving through all of this some people will receive Christ because of that light that is shining in you that is going to be explained through the through the declaration of the gospel so then people say what is it that makes you the way you are you can say well you know what anything if you see anything good in me at all it's the work of the spirit God has done something in my life he's forgiven me of my sins and and I appreciate that you can even see a little evidence of that but that's what it's all about well you mean I thought Christians were weird and different and all in and you're not a weird person well you know I am weird you just don't know me very well but there are certain things about me that maybe God is fine-tuned and you can see that is his presence and that's how you do it you just share yeah this is what the Lord is all about he's changed my life he's given me a new direction and and I'm just trying to follow after him and and I read his bible and his bible teaches me his ways and I want to live in a way that pleases him it's just that simple that's how I do it I've had so many opportunities in simple conversations just to share those very basic things it's the Lord he does work so all I want to do is make sure that I walk in the light and so that's what Jesus is speaking about those without the Lord walk in darkness the gospel is veiled and they're blind but when you receive Christ that veil is removed you see him clearly you begin to live for him and your life reflects the reality of that and that's what Jesus is saying are you walking in darkness or are you walking in light if you're walking in light then you indeed belong to him