 Amen. Matthew chapter five looking at verses 14 through 16, the title of this message is light shining in darkness, light shining in darkness. I don't have to tell you how dark it is out there. This world is dark and it's getting darker. It's just been some fooling around over in London, folks getting in vans and mowing people over and stabbing folks. It's just madness. Isis is going around and chopping heads off and killing folks. And, you know, it reminds me of what Jesus said, men's hearts fell in them for fear. And this is what we're seeing right now. But here's the thing. I don't blame the world. The world is the world. I don't even blame Satan. Because maybe you want to, you know, the devil, the devil. I don't even blame Satan. Satan is doing what Satan is supposed to do. He came to steal, kill and destroy. So this is what he's doing. I don't blame him. I don't blame him. I don't blame the world for the darkness. I don't blame any of those things. You know what I blame for the darkness? I blame the church. I blame the church. I blame us. We need a mirror in front of us. Last time I checked, the Bible says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then, I hear from heaven, I forgive their sin and do what? Heal their land. We want to see our land healed. It's not coming from the White House. You understand that, don't you? It's God's house. It's when God's people humble themselves and pray and seek His face and watch this and turn from their wicked ways. God said then and only then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. If we want to see our land healed, it starts here. And the reason why I blame the church is because of these verses we're looking at here. This is why I blame the church. Because the world is dark and it's getting darker. And we are supposed to be something. Jesus is telling us there is something about us that's supposed to eliminate the darkness, so to speak. And this is what these verses are saying here. Let's look at verses 14 through 16. I'm gonna read them and we're gonna come back and dissect them one verse at a time. Notice it says, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand that it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your life so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Because you're so well taught and because, you know, Pastor David is in the book of Matthew towards the end of it, you already been taught these verses, but many of you don't remember them because we forget 75% of what we hear after three days. So you don't remember them anyway. So let me just remind you. Jesus is in the Sermon of the Mount, the greatest sermon ever given in mankind. Chapters five through seven, tremendous sermon, incredible sermon. And he's in the midst of this and now he is telling us something that we're called to do. Notice he says, you are the light of the world. This is why I blame the church for the reason why things are as dark as they are because Jesus told us that we're the light of the world. But here's the thing, here's an amazing thing. The amazing thing is Jesus said in John 812, he says, I am the light of the world. We know first John 1.5 says, God is light and then him is no darkness at all. But Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. But then right here he says, you are the light of the world. Oh, the you is, in the Greek is humus, it's synthetic in the Greek language, means you are right now as my followers are the only light of the world. R is the verb in this present tense, meaning that you are right now at this present moment. The light of the world. So if Jesus is the light, and he says right here, we're the light. Okay, which is it, is it Jesus or is it us? Oh, watch this. Jesus is like the sun, S-U-N, and we're like the moon. You understand the moon doesn't have its own light. It reflects the light of the sun. And the only time that the moon doesn't reflect the light of the sun is during an eclipse. An eclipse occurs when the earth gets in between the sun and the moon and keeps the light and keeps the moon from shining this light. There's a darkness there. So an eclipse has taken place. Here's the problem. Many of us are experiencing an eclipse in our lives. This is why we're not reflecting the sun as O-N, because we're experiencing an eclipse. He told us that we're the light of the world. Light in the Greek is false. It's the root of where we get photo or photograph. Jesus is saying we're supposed to be a photograph of who he is to this world. But many of us are not the photograph. The world isn't seeing a picture of Jesus because we're experiencing a spiritual eclipse in our lives. It's the main thing that word false is an incredible word. We're supposed to be a photograph, a picture of Jesus. But how many people say, well, what does the light look like? It looks like Jesus. For those of you who are my age or older, you remember this. You remember the Polaroid camera? And then you fan in it like this, trying to give it some air and you look down this fuzzy, fuzzy towel, I need to fan it some more. Then it started coming in clear. Many of you have a distorted picture of who Jesus is. And the world can't see who Jesus is because you're giving off a distorted picture. It's not until the wind of the Holy Spirit come upon your life is when the picture of Jesus will become clear to this world. When that wind, when that wind of God's Spirit hit your life, the picture that will come clear. Let me go back to the eclipse thing because many of you are experiencing an eclipse and you don't even realize what's happening to you. You know, Jesus says something in Mark chapter four. You remember the parable of the sore. And he said, when the seed of the word of God fell among the thorns, he said in Mark 419, he said, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things choked the word and you become unfruitful or you experience a spiritual eclipse. For some of you, it's the cares of this world. The word cares there is an amazing word, merymna in the Greek language. It's an amazing word. I've saw several definitions. It means the worries, the anxieties. It speaks of the dividing or distracted, being distracted by some of your, your divided, your attention is divided and therefore you're distracted. When I think of distracted, I think of Martha. You know, you all received the story. You are mary and Martha. You know, mary was the worshiper. She was at his feet and Martha was just busy serving. You missed something. In Luke 10 verse 39, it said that Martha also sat at his feet, but she was distracted. And many of you are distracted. You're not reflecting Jesus. You're not a picture of who he is. It's a fuzzy picture because you're distracted by the cares of this world, the worries, the concerns of this world. Oh ladies, this is where you come in. You worried about everything. Some of you came here early because you were worried somebody might get your seat. You were here, you know, first service wasn't even out yet. You're in your seat. Worries, the worries, the cares of this world. And because you're worried, because you're concerned, because you're distracted with this, it has caused you to experience a spiritual eclipse in your life. Maybe that's not you. Maybe it's not the cares of this world. Maybe it's the deceitfulness of riches. Notice Jesus said the deceitfulness of riches. Why? Because riches deceive us into thinking the more we have, the happier we'll be. And you're constantly chasing jobs. There's a job you're leaving because, you know, hey, God has used you on that job, but you're leaving it because this job over here promised to pay you a nickel more an hour. And because you got dollar signs in your eyes, then you run and chasing after that and riches have deceived you. They deceived you. We have you thinking if I can make a nickel more an hour, if I can make a dollar more an hour, oh, then I will be happy. Why? Because then I can buy this and buy that and I can keep up with my neighbor or my coworker who has just the latest thing. And you're deceived by it. And because you got deceived by the deceitfulness of riches, you're now experiencing a spiritual eclipse. Maybe that's not you, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. Watch this, the third thing, the desire for other things. Maybe it's not the cares of this world. Maybe it's not the deceitfulness of riches, but you just now just, you know, where have you been lately? Oh, I've just been into some other things. And that's you. And because of that, you're experiencing a spiritual eclipse in your life. You just enter other things and gadgets and things and chasing relationships and chasing. And you just enter some other things when your heart used to long for God and the word of God and you couldn't wait to the doors open, you took notes and you were right there. And now you sit either with your arms folded with your arm on the back of the thing. And now you just enter some other things. Now there's people with their arms folded. These things can cause us to experience a spiritual eclipse. It causes us to choke the word of God out of our lives. The word of the Lord that we used to love. We used to love to get into, used to long for now, we just, you know, you can go a day or two or a week, no longer in the word. It's because you're experiencing a spiritual eclipse and you've just choked the word of God out of your life. And it's an amazing thing. And this is why we don't, this is why we're not a good picture of Jesus Christ to this world. We're not being the light. If we're not being the light, then who is? If we're not being the light and we're experiencing a spiritual eclipse where there is a darkness in our lives, this is why the world is getting darker because we're not shining the light. We're the only light. You notice he says, you, in the first part of verse 14, it's in the Greek, it's emphatic. You are right now the only light of the world. So if we, as the only light of the world, aren't shining our lights, then there's nothing but darkness. And then we sit back in our little holy huddles and we say, oh, how dark the world is. And we don't realize we're contributing to the darkness because we, as God's people, haven't humbled ourselves in pray and sought his face and turned from our wicked ways. We're doing what they're doing. There's no difference between the person who called himself a believer and the person who's in the world. There's no difference. There are so many people shocked right now. If you were to go to your job tomorrow and just say, guess what? I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. They'd be like, who? Who, you? Surely it can be done about you. A lot of them will be shocked because we experience any spiritual eclipse. Notice he says, you're the light of the world. The Greek word is cosmos. It's where we get our English word cosmetic from. It speaks of the orderly arranging of things. Oh, ladies, you understood that. You took your makeup and your cosmetics and you orderly arranged it all over your face today. That's what you did. You understand the word now. Now you got a vivid picture of it now. That's what you did today. You orderly arranged it all over your face. So the world is not the trees and the rivers and streams and mountains. The world that's spoken of here is the world system. It's that satanically organized system of beliefs that opposes all that is godly and exalts all that is ungodly. This is, we're called to be a picture, a light. Of Jesus to this world. Notice he says, a city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Well, that's a very true statement. I'm sure as Jesus been on the Mount of Olives, I'm sure he was looking up and saw the city of safe, which is a city that was 2,650 feet above sea level. I'm sure as he was teaching, he was pointing to that city. It's true, a city set on the hill cannot be hidden. You have a vivid picture of this out here living out in California. When I was going through boot camp in San Diego in the Marine Corps, one of the things that fascinated me were the homes and buildings up in the hills down there. And in the daytime, we can see all the homes up there in the hills. And then at nighttime, we can see them as well because the lights coming through the windows of the buildings and homes. So whether it's at night or whether it's in the day, a city set on the hill cannot be hidden. The word hidden there is krypta in the Greek language. It means that which is secret or hidden. When I was in the Marine Corps, I dealt with crypto equipment. It was, because I was a radio operator and I had to transmit sensitive cryptic material over the airwaves. And so I had to have a certain clearance and all that kind of stuff. But it means that which is hidden, that which is secret. So he says, the city set on the hill cannot be hidden. How many believers are hidden? Like I mentioned, if I would go to your job and say, did you know they were a Christian over there? Would they be shocked? Are you undercover from the Lord? Secret agent, Christian. Nobody's to know that you're a believer. Do your neighbors know that you're walking with God? He says, the city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Whether it's in the daytime or nighttime, you can't hide a city on a hill. But how many Christians are trying to hide that they are Christian? How many of them are trying to be secret? And Satan has designed things in such a way to shut Christians up, to shut us up. You mentioned something about Jesus. Oh, you're going to be called into the boss's office. Now you understand, you're there to do a job. You're not the company chaplain. You're not that. However, you're on that job to reach them for Jesus Christ. You have to be wise as serpent, as harmless as does. And that's got to open up doors for you to talk to him. But because all these things, they've scared us into silence, where no one knows where Christians were before we were bold. You know, when I got saved 30 plus years ago, you know, it was all about, you know, you got to let everybody know you're a Christian. Yeah, I'm walking with God, and you know, and now, now it's a little different. We've been scared into silence. And this verse would read, a city on the hill can be hidden, because that's what many of us are doing. We hide in our light. But notice what it says in how it starts out verse 15, nor, now you got to understand there, for you English majors, nor is a conjunction and an adverb used to introduce a further negative statement. For example, the first negative statement is the city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they like, here's the second negative statement, nor do they like a lamp and put it under a basket. The word basket there is modios in the Greek. It means it can be translated as a bowl or basket, something that covers up. So it says, no do they like a lamp and put it under a basket. Oh, unconfessed sin causes a bowl or basket to come over our lives and to hide the light. Habitual sin in our lives will cause a bowl to come over us and hide the light. And when we're involved in those kind of things, we can't be the light God wants us to be. When we are involved in those kind of things, we will not be the light. When we're dealing with unconfessed sin and habitual sin, I guarantee you, you're not sharing about Jesus Christ. I can guarantee you. Show me a person that is dealing with unconfessed sin or sin in their lives. And then they turn around and say, I'm a great evangelist for the Lord. The devil's a liar. No, you're not because you can't. Because when we're dealing with unconfessed sin and habitual sin, it acts as a bowl and covers up the light. And this is why he says, no, do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand to be seen. We're put on a lamp stand to be seen. We're supposed to be, we used to say this all the time 30 years ago, we're trophies of God's grace. Poema, we're his workmanship in Ephesians 2.10. We're his workmanship, poema, we're his poem, we're his work of art, displaying the grace of God to this world. So we're put on a lamp stand and notice and it gives light to all who are in the house. Ah, Jesus is telling us something here. He said, before we can even think about being a light to this world, the light that is in us first need to be seen by those in the house. We have to see it in the house. Our families, our wives, our children, they have to see the light first. It has to be seen by those in the house. Those, the qualifications of a pastor in 1st Timothy 3.5, it says if a man can't take care of his own house, how can he take care of the house of God? It's a rhetorical question, meaning that he can't. Meaning that he must first be a pastor at home before he even think about being a pastor at the church. The light need to be seen by all of those in the house. It has to be seen at home first. Men, we have to be men of God at home first. Before we even think about being a man of God at the job or out at the gym or at the golf course or wherever it is you go. It's got to be first seen at the house before, and then especially need to be seen, I can tell this to you guys, it especially need to be seen by the other drivers in the cars out there on these freeway. I don't know how y'all do it. I be mad every day. Every day I'm just mad, I get to the job mad. I don't know how y'all do it. And then you know how you do it. You don't use, I don't know what y'all call them blinkers. We call them turn signals. You know, and all of a sudden, you know, you're driving, then you see this person merging over and you're like, hey, and you want to give him half of a peace sign. I see why y'all so angry around here. It's nuts here, it's nutty. Wow. But it needs to be seen by those in the house. I knew I was going to get on that traffic pretty soon. Wow. And then, you know, you see a clearing and you're like, boom, boom, you're just nutty. Then got hit to breaks real hard because the traffic stopped, it didn't slow it up. This is nuts. I'll be, why being a loony band if I lived out here. Now don't go sending me, you know, notes. Well, I have some people with mental problems. Stop. You know what I meant by that. I want to hear that. But y'all nuts out here. I'm going to tell you that. Cars are just traffic, oh. But it needs to be seen by those in the house. Notice in verse 16, it starts out with let. You understand you English major, that's a verb. It means not to prevent, not to forbid, but allow. Notice it says, let your light so shine. Sometimes we don't want to let it shine. You know why? Because we want to stay in our sin a little longer. And we want to let our light shine. You remember what Jesus said? Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Have you noticed that the parties isn't happening to as dark? And it's really, the party is really fooling around after midnight when it's good and dark. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Notice it says, let your light just don't let it shine, but let it so shine. Oh, you understand that adverb means to such a great extent. Because this adverb is used in strategic places throughout the scripture. In John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he just didn't love it, but he so loved the world. Meaning that love wasn't a word that can describe how he feels about this world. So the adverb so is placed to give love a little more punch to it. He just didn't love the world, but he so loved the world. Said the same thing because if we're to be like Christ in the home, it says husbands in Ephesians 5, so love your wives. Don't just love them, but so love them. As Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. So it says, let your light so shine. God so loved the world. Please keep that in mind the next time you get so upset with the world, you get so upset with ISIS. You get so upset with terrorists and you get so upset with the evil and sex trafficking and drug abuse and all kind of. Next time you get so upset that you all of a sudden become self-righteous, your nose get a little bit up in the air and you say, this world is so cruel. Oh, the God always reminds me and say, hey, but Tony, I love this world. I love this world so much that I sent my son down here to die for it. Oh, I used to, the Marine used to always come out whenever I see some terrorist kind of attack. I'm like, you know, I just wanna get that uniform back on even though I can only get one leg up, you know. And then the shirt, you know, it won't button. It won't even come together. Put some rubber bands or something to it. And the Lord always says, hey, I love the world. I just don't love it. I so love the world. So it says, let your light so shine before men. Oh, so this means that our light needs to shine beyond the church. We all can let our light shine in here. It's good and bright in here. We can let our light shine in here. We say, amen, praise the Lord, hallelujah. But it needs to so shine before men out there. Why? That they may see your good works. Oh, that they may see. Oh, they need to see Jesus. They need to see him. They need to see a true picture of who Jesus is. They need to see a true representation. Hey, you have a reminder. Every time you come to church, we would see Jesus. They need to see him. I'm reminded of seeing Jesus. I'm reminded of Matthew 17. You remember the amount of transfiguration? Pastor David did that a few, probably a few weeks, months ago. You know, Jesus took James and John on top of the mountain. And the Bible said he was transfigured before them. It meant that his deity was shining forth through his humanity. That word transfigured is an incredible word. You're gonna recognize it from his English equivalent. The Greek word is metamorpho. It's where we get our English word metamorphosis, that process by which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. We need a metamorpho, where Jesus who is in us is shining forth through our humanity that when people see us, they will see Jesus. And we need to be transfigured before the people. So they don't see us. They see Jesus. And it's amazing. It says, let your life so shine before men that they may see, see what? Our good works. Oh, the word good, there are callows in the Greek and it's an amazing word. It means attractiveness, a beautiful appearance. See, this is why they need to see Jesus. Our works will reflect Jesus is in us because it's our good works. This is good to me because they need to see our good works. Watch this. They can't see our faith. That is internal, but they can see our good works which is external. See, people walking around or driving on the freeway or going to the store or whatever. You don't know who has faith and who doesn't. But you can tell by their good works. This is why we need to let our light shine that they may share good works and do what? And glorify doxazo, that Greek word for glorify means honor or to make glorious, to glorify who your father in heaven. If you would notice every time Jesus did something, they always glorify the father. This is how you know that you're not doing things that when you do them, people look to you. This is how you know when you do it, they glorify God. That's how you know your works are good. And not that your works are selfish, self-centered. Now, don't watch this. Let's not get weird. There's nothing wrong with an atta boy, pat on the back, a high five, I appreciate you. Thank you for doing that for me. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem is, you guys get weird out here. You just get weird. You're super spiritual ones. When someone say, you know what? I appreciate you helping me the other day. Man, that really meant a lot, man. You took a load off, man, I appreciate that. Oh, don't look to me, don't look to me. Look to the Lord, look to Jesus. Stop. You're acting weird. Just say thank you. I appreciate that. Keep me in your prayers. God bless you. And you just, you keep it moving. You make people feel weird when you know, so you want it to job, you help somebody carry something, you know, a box or something. They say, oh, man, I appreciate that. Oh, don't look to me, look to the Lord, look to Jesus. And he's walking away like, we can come off weird. Because all in the name of trying to be super spiritual, you come off weird. Just be normal. Y'all know how to be normal? I know Hollywood is right up the road and y'all trying to act and, you know. You come off weird. Just say thank you. Somebody say, oh, you know what? Man, I appreciate the message. You know, God bless. I just say, hey, God bless, man. Keep me in your prayers, amen. And keep it moving. So this is how you know whether your works are good or not. They'll glorify your Father in heaven. Now, let me wrap it up with this. We're called, we're called to be the light of the world. We've been scared into silence. We've been scared into closing our mouths and not speaking for Jesus. Because of sin in our lives is, we have this bowl or basket over us. The world is dark because many of us are experiencing a spiritual eclipse with either the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches or just a desire for other things. I'm not into it that deep anymore. And maybe you're saying that because of some prayer, God didn't answer for you, but he wants you to be what he's called you to be. You know what I find amazing? There's a statistic that I read that has rocked my world. I read it, I was listening to an audio book because my car, my car, this can help somebody. Oh, I'm about to help somebody. I'm about to lay some gold at your feet. My car is automobile university. In my car, I've listened to several audio books, several theology courses, several leadership classes, leadership courses. I've gone through the Bible with Pastor Chuck and I've all in my car. Maybe something you need to do that. You know, you won't be in the flesh so much when you're in the car. All in my car. I'm not listening to some stupid talk radio or listen to some boomity-boomp-boomp music. I'm not boomity-boomp-boompin. I'm going through books and courses. I've been through several leadership, theology, all kind of courses in my car. And the thing is that has really helped me. But here's something I want us to take with us. Many of you, let me go back to the statistic. I didn't see where I was going with that. The statistic is that I read or listened to in my car. 50%, this blew me away. 50% of everyone who attend churches across this nation, 50% of them are not saved, are not believers. 50%, they think they are. Because they come and sit in a pew or a chair. But you're not saved. And you say, well, how do you know you're judging me? Yeah, I am judging you, right in your face. I'm judging you, yeah, yeah. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16, he who is spiritual judges all things. And you know how I can know that you're not saved? Your life doesn't reflect it. Because when the Holy Spirit, oh, don't miss this point, don't miss this. When the Holy Spirit comes in our lives, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy. And when you are not holy, when your life doesn't reflect that the Spirit of God is in you, you're not saved. And I'm saying this with all the compassion that I can. You're not saved. You're deceived into thinking because you come sit in a chair and come sit in a pew that you're right with God. You're not right with God. Many of you have, you know what you have? You have what is called convenient Christianity. Your Christianity only kicks in when it's convenient for you. You only come to church when it's convenient. I was watching you. You know, I'm a Marine, so I don't do, I don't do late. If you're on time, you late. I just watch you. Many of you didn't get here until after the, how can you miss the coutinas? Now I know where the easy scapegoat is, the traffic. I know you can scapegoat the traffic. If I knew the coutinas was gonna be here and I had to be here at 1045, I'd have left at eight. And God here, that's just, it's only convenient when it's convenient. And I believe that a lot of convenient Christianity is out here, you know why? You don't have to worry about the weather. You can plan anything and you just know it's gonna be sunny, sunny California. Every day I was here, we had a little, you know, it was June 1st when we got here. So a little June gloom, you know, it was like, every day since then it's been sunny and hot. I just, we can't plan anything in Virginia, outside. No, might get a snow storm or something. But here's the thing, some of you need to get serious with God today. That's why the Bible says today, if you hear his voice, don't heart in your heart. This is why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Yesterday is gone. We had a great day with the men yesterday, but you know what? That's gone. Tomorrow is in promise. I know you said, well, tomorrow we're gonna get up and we're gonna go and after work, we're gonna go to the park and we're gonna, you don't know if you're gonna be alive tomorrow. You have right now.