day no. 12,890: lightsaber: thoughts from "Be Light" by Joel Vint on Ephesians 5:7-21‏

I was serving in the 3 and 4 year old room at Candeo this past week so I had to listen to Joel Vint’s sermon on Ephesians 5:7-21 titled “Be Light” on-line. I would highly recommend you do the same.

 

Here are a few highlights I grabbed on to and tucked away for future use.

 

We should not be partners with people who are like we once were. We were dark. In Christ, we are now light. What partnership does light have with darkness? None. Wherever light is, dark isn’t. Wherever dark is, light isn’t. They cannot partner. They can only contrast. We should be light that shines into darkness. There is no partnering with it without becoming it.

 

We are not merely improved. We are made new: the opposite of dark. We are not better darkness or a lighter darkness. There is no such thing. God will not tolerate darkness. In Jesus, we are completely light. Without Him, we are completely dark.

 

In response to God’s goodness, we should now be who we are, not who we were.
 

God is not a distant, cold Deity. He can be pleased and grieved because He’s close and

He’s in it with us.

 

We must go beyond merely not participating in sin. We must expose sin. It’s not enough to retreat and avoid dark. We must go into darkness with light to expose the darkness for what it is.

 

If we are light by God’s grace in Christ, we know all too well how dark we were before. We know the lifestyle, the signs and symptoms of the disease.

 

C.S. Lewis said it this way,

“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.” — from Mere Christianity

 

Since we know, we need to share. If we don’t, it’s usually because either we:

 

1 - Fear the verdict of men

2 – Do not think the Light is all that great.

 

We have no power in ourselves to live this out. We are utterly and totally deficient. We cannot imitate God without His Holy Spirit.

 

Every believer has ALL of the Holy Spirit.

 

Does the Holy Spirit have all of you?

 

We are under the control of God both passively and actively.

 

1 - Passive – it is done to you day by day, moment by moment (YIELD)

2 - Active – putting in the work to know, to read, to listen to God.

 

I love the Bible.

 

I love my church for preaching it.

 

I love my pastors for living it out.