How to Be a Light in a World That’s Losing Its Way

well Rob and I are getting together again man we enjoyed our conversation here on the Facebook last week and just decided it would be fun to get together and have on continued conversations live so if you happen to be on here and we're in the middle of conversing or something pops up please don't hesitate to leave a comment and we'll jump in and answer some of that answer some of the questions around the stuff that we're discussing on and on rob you hit me with a verse on for the for our conversation out of First John chapter two do you want to jump into that real quick and give some context and we'll just see where the conversation goes from there yeah it's it's funny Justin because like I want to share that verse first but I think it's more fitting if I share Philippians chapter 2 first and so man Paul is describing some pretty intense stuff to the Church of Philippi and I think lately I've been in a place of trying to understand what it really means to be an image bearer of God right like I think I've played a great role at showing the typical Christianity point of view through my actions and verbiage if you will but I really want to like live out the gospel till its fullest entirety and I know I won't be perfect at it but I strive to be perfect at that and so how does the light respond to Darkness and what is the difference between the light and the Darkness and so I think Paul touches on something that I believe that we're presently undergoing in today's culture and starting at verse 14 guys says do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourself to be blameless and innocent children above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among you among whom you appear as light in the world holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to Glory because I did not run in vain or a toil in vain right and so going from there and just stay with me guys going from there and then jumping into John 1 Chapter 2. I love what John says because starting at verse 9 it says the one who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now the one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him yeah and so light is obviously a key verse or key word in these both of these passages and so I want to challenge some people today and ask them to think about how have they been the light right like how can we be the light in this world Justin right because there's so many things that are going on whether it's critical race Theory whether there's the homosexuality that you see whether there's the transgender influence kids are constantly being influenced and so like we constantly want to look at it from a perspective of oh man like let us tell them everything that they're doing wrong but I think there's a way to illuminate the darkness that they're living in from a Biblical perspective that has better Effectiveness than the mere words that we have to offer to them yeah absolutely I think we spent so much time cursing the darkness like and Paul even reading in Paul like crooked like being blameless in a crooked and perverse generation it's almost like this whole idea of the word of God being Timeless is true right like sin has been sin no matter what generation it's in and so like I struggle with that a lot man because I see like living in this living in the culture that we live in today and trying to be intentional of like living as a follower of Christ and letting my life shine but then also like protecting my kids in the middle of all of this right it's like man I want to shine and I get so frustrated at some of the stuff that I see and I think sometimes we can get so caught up in what the world's doing that to just like stand firm as the scripture encourages us to man it's it's definitely a challenging on yeah my brains are short for a second but no it's okay man but I think the thing is that we have to look at the darkness as opportunity right because the darkness was intended for a particular reason it's it doesn't go without purpose and I think often at times we look at it we're just like oh man like I can't wait for God to come back which I too agree I can't wait for him to return but I think we just want everything to be perfect now and God has established things in a manner through his sovereignty and through his Divine nature to bring forth this type of Darkness in a sense to allow his children the opportunity to bring forth his kingdom right like it's you can't if everything was already illuminated that if there was light to everything already then what would be the purpose or anything in and of itself right like we wouldn't need the Savior we wouldn't need any of those things and I think there's there's like it's just amazing how God is Man like he set it up exactly like this on purpose because he wanted to shed light first on us on our Darkness and so I think the thing is man is that we have to allow the light to be shining shown in us first like God illuminate the areas of my wickedness of my darkness so that I could understand the grace that you showed in my life so that I can offer it to others yeah because we're yeah go ahead I was just gonna say I preached on Pentecost on Acts 2 4 on Sunday and when the Holy Spirit came to the earth and the very first thing that happened the Holy Spirit fell in the church and then Paul Peter preached this exam Evangelistic message and a bunch of people came to Christ but and as I was wrapping the message up I really was just praying I'm like look the holy spirit's here to convict us of sin number one guide us in the truth but Empower us to be witnesses to empower us to shine our light effectively in this dark in this wicked world and I think sometimes like I think we're missing out like it's so easy to focus on the darkness when we're not walking in power right when we're not walking in our god-given Authority and we miss the purpose that God's put us here for like the world is going to fade away and right in the meantime our job is to bring as many people into the kingdom as we can and I find that when I focus inwardly too much and I'm not considering bringing other people along with me then that's when I get all jumbled up and I'm just so like every news clip every Grammy show that pops up like Sam Smith and his devil outfit like man the church got so caught up and frustrated over that like oh there's demons on stage well they may be on stage now but the demons have been out there forever like yeah like Paul was talking about this stuff in this book that's Timeless and so often it's like well I wish they'd stop doing that I wish they'd stop being in perversion and putting this stuff out and publicly and like but our mandate is to change that by evangelizing and winning the lost and bringing people over one person at a time we can't affect change in the entirety of culture overnight but demonic activity is always but we can start to influence that change one person at a time Cheapo said we are the light and whatever concept we find ourselves in by his grace yeah that's good we well the thing is that when you look at David writing the Psalms that David says in the Psalms your word is a lamp unto my feet a light onto my path right and so I think David was a man after God's Own Heart according to the scriptures and it's amazing to me that David had a desire for God to illuminate his path yeah and so to understand where God is leading you must first understand what his word says about you and so when you understand what God's will is for your life and not will in the sense of oh you're you're called to be a pastor you're called to work at at the the gym no like maybe that is a fulfillment or a desire of yours that God is leading you towards but God's will for your life is clearly found in the Great Commission that's right what and so like I think we I remember when I was in Teen Challenge I was like man I just want to know what God's will is for my life I want to know what God's room is tomorrow I want to know what God's Village and it's pretty plain and simple but I think we haven't accepted it because it doesn't line up with what we want and until we die to ourselves we're gonna live in some darkness and constantly stumble over these roadblocks these obstacles these distractions in our lives because it's taking us away from the path that God has designed for us and so you only will know what that path is if we allow the light to be illuminated for us and allow us to see clearly the way that God sees things yeah that binds up chippo just said like whatever context we find ourselves in that's right like it's not it we're not hunting for this like extra purpose like the great perfect and all of it I did a sermon on this a year a little over a year ago I did a sermon series on Vision at our church and late trying to lay out the vision for the church and whatnot and I remember the very first sermon I I refuse to give our catchy statement out I just gave the Great Commission right and it was the whole thing was like we're gonna Define the vision of our church but I'm not giving you our slogan I'm not giving you some cashy statement because this Great Commission is the Baseline first that is the global purpose of every church and every believer and like you said it's not just those who are in vocational Ministry and I think that's part of the problem where like we look at on we look at the church as a whole and I'm not hard on the church but I think some of the struggle has been like we're expecting those are in vocational Ministry to be the ones that shine the most light if I can just get and hear the pastor if I could just get them to hear evangelist XYZ whoever's popular in the day and so we've seeded ground for the enemy because the everyday believer is not just Shining Light in that contact and it's like well I got to get him in a building I love our church building I love all the church buildings but like man light goes into the darkness what I'm saying like right that's where you need like you need light and dark places I don't print a flashlight in the middle of the day I go to where the darkness is and I turn that light on yeah that's that's really good dude I and just to like switch gears a little bit I think it's amazing what did she say here wow so true there is darkness in the world we really need our passive otherwise we get lost so help us Lord that's right amen I think what's really amazing though is I love scripture because scripture just speaks for itself and Paul says in Philippians 2 verse 13 just right above before he says do all things without grumbling and disputing he says for it is God who is at work and you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure for our good pleasure but for his good pleasure and he's saying all this in the context too because of who Christ was and how he says that we need to be like-minded like Christ right in the sense that he says make my joy complete by being of the same mind maintaining the Same Love United intent on one purpose do nothing from selfish or empty conceitful with humility of mine regard one another as more important than yourselves do not look merely at your own personal interest but also for the interest of others yeah that's good have this attitude in yourself with which was also in Christ Jesus yeah so like it's it's amazing man he's like look I need you to stop focusing on developing others until you learn how to develop you because when we become established in our relationship with God it's like we're it's almost like in marriage right like you're you're you're secure in your marriage right you're not like oh my wife went out on a date with her girlfriends like oh and she comes home late at night you're not like oh man I wonder if she cheated on me like I did this happen did that happen it's like no you don't have to think like that because you become established firm and going back to last week and your identity like who are you like what is your identity who are you in Christ like when you can testify about who Christ is who God is so on and so forth and so yeah I just want it to like switch gears on that but to ask the question like how do we as Believers if we're to share our light and if we're to be of the same mind of Christ as Christ in this regard how holding the same attitudes and what have you how do we display that in our workplace how do we display that in well content on it right it talks about do nothing out of selfish ambition but in love this in mind let each esteem others better than himself right not only looking out for the his own interests but also the interest of others we were on we were at a prayer meeting I went to North Carolina a few weeks ago with the Republican the church and it was like a men's prayer Gathering where a bunch of guys were getting together it was about 50 60 dudes and the whole purpose was just to go after God together and the the pastor that was leading that up he kept saying something consistently from the stage that just it was really I've heard it before but it really caught my attention because he kept paying over and over refer your brother before yourself before you go to your prayer Pray for somebody else first and it's just this idea right Jesus even said it they will know you are my disciples by your love for one another and so like if we're going to lead people to A Jesus that is compassionate that is yet wants to forgive people of their sins lead them to this place of repentance will ultimately they can live a lifestyle of Holiness and all that stuff like we've got a show compassion right we've got to look out for the interest of others first and that's that's the difficult part right that's where the rubber meets the road on this thing because Paul goes on to talk about this like pouring yourself out as a drink offering later on like that's like completely empty of yourself like nothing left and that's been something I've been wrestling with Rob this may be a on a rabbit Trail but the last couple weeks I've been wrestling a lot with that like what is the price that the Lord is calling me to pay and the sake of his kingdom I was listening to on David Wilkerson Furman on this and the sermon was called the cost of the anointing he was 75 years old when he was preaching this message and he talked about how at every season of ministry we would go before the Lord and say Lord I feel like this is what I'm supposed to do and I'm paraphrasing him of course and the Lord would respond and say well David what it's going to cost and that cost is intimacy closeness with the Lord right and the being willing to pour himself out for that next level of ministry happening all the way up until he's 70 before they start doing their work in Africa and like I just I heard that message and it just really caused me to reflect and it's like Lord am I willing to pay the price for the thing that you want me to do and that's not just going to far other worlds I'm sorry I'll stop in a second but that's also paying the price for my family right I've been called to love my wife as Christ loved the church that means being willing to pour myself out as a sacrifice on their behalf giving my blood if you will for my family and trusting that the Lord is going to use that well you I'm glad that you actually went on that if you will Robert Trail because Paul says to the galatian church he says he labors in vain till Christ be formed in them and so when you talk about David Wilkerson and coming before the Lord and asking the Lord like this is what I want to do and then God replying to him and saying hey look like you better like count the cost well there's a cost in Salvation yeah it's it's even though Jesus did what he it's it's not free right it's not free because there was a cost he had to pay his life yep but not only in him paying his life and giving us this free gift of Grace if you will there still is an exchange of dying to sell yep and so as we remove Darkness from us we inhabit more light yeah and I think the thing is man is that like we're unwilling at times and I'm guilty of this of removing our desires so that we can take hold of God's desires it's like that illustration that you see of the little girl where she has the the bear be in her hand and God Jesus is kneeling down and he asked to take the bear from her and he has a bigger bear behind her back and she's unwilling to let it go and it's like we think the pleasures of the darkness that we that we confide in or the idols that we have in our lives that we're unwilling to burn is going to give us greater purpose than what God has in store for us yeah and as we learn to let these things go and realize that the idols that we built whether it may be pornography whether it may be your children your wife your spouse right like I'm just touching home with some personal stuff your job money what I don't know what your idol is but if you hold on to that more than you hold on to God you're not going to be able to see clearly what it is that God is trying to point out to you therefore you're going to do exactly what John says you're going to stumble you're going to hate people because they've crossed your path and have stopped you from fulfilling your purpose when all along it was God trying to be a detour for you to bring you back to himself yeah and God has positioned people in our lives that ruffle our feathers if you will and often at times we take it the wrong way and then we display this hate we display this hatred towards this individual or this light towards this individual as if it's like them trying to like attack you when the reality is it's like bro man maybe God is just positioned this person in your life to show you something bigger yeah we used to call them fruit testers right yeah absolutely I've got a few of those in my life right yeah you're testing my spiritual fruit right now and well what's funny right my biggest fruit tester is my wife [Music] [Music] [Music] that's my biggest fruit tester and like whether you watch this babe or you don't watch this just know that I love you and I'll tell it to your faith because that but yeah that's my biggest fruit tester my wife are my children we were talking about that Naran actually and I do a Devo together and we're doing a diva right now on marriage and we were talking about that this morning that the the single biggest person that's going to contribute to your sanctification in your life is your spouse if you're married the spouse is going to be the person that's going to contribute the most to your sanctification that's why it's important to Marry a follower of Christ and find somebody that's why the Bible gives us that warning not to be unequally yoked because like you're either going to be going to the Cross toward the cross together you're going to be pulling each other away from it I don't know that it's difficult to try to do that and that's not really the topic of our discussion but that fruit testing man that sanctification process it comes through our spouses more than not I'm I know I'm actually his biggest fruit tester there's no question anybody that spent more than 10 minutes with me outside of public setting knows that I'm very right absolutely but I think in its entirety man like when you look at it all just like that I don't remember the lady's name that made the comment but all of it points back to the light man or the light of the world and I want to be more intentional I think that's the word that Danielle and I've been using a lot lately is being more intentional having an intentionality and purpose behind everything that we do even this call right now like what's the intention of this call right like and are my fleshly desires like man I want to help this podcast launch this Facebook page launch and like you get tons of views right for like if we when we just reach one person and they hear our words today like I feel like that's a bigger accomplishment right than just having a thousand likes and no transformation right because that's what we were purpose here for to see people transformed and So like where I've been struggling and I love your transparency man like feel like my I've been doing others a disservice by not taking quality time away with the Lord and so I know when I'm short with people I know when and it's like man now I just I have this label of Christianity it's like I'm wearing the shirt yeah I'm on the team but I'm not really playing well that's a trash team I can't I'm not even forced to wear this one anymore this one's been canceled right oh yeah you've been canceled but it's just it's one of those things where it's like it's great we want the we want to be labeled and identified as Christians yeah you don't want to do the work and the will of the Lord yeah no I posted about this on my personal page a few weeks ago just the journey that the Lord's taking me on the last several months of like taking me to these different places where like he's spoken to me and these are fellowship and events with other people and right and life is busy and it's hard to take that time to set aside but it's like if I want my lamp to continue to burn I have to keep putting oil into it and that's that part where we were talking about earlier the cost right the cost what's the cost of leaving my family well my oil has got to be full I've got to be able to burn in front of them and on What's That Old statement we set ourselves on fire and people come to watch us burn and but that burning comes at a pride and if it's not built in a place of prayer an authentic connection with the Lord then it's not burning for Jesus and it's burning for our pride and we're burning from purposes and so that goes back to that part of like man what is the car and am I willing to pay it and am I sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit to hear when God's saying hey draw back a little bit and get close to me and let me reset know you so that you can do your life in your ministry your family everything out of the Overflow and not out of a place a deficit right that's good dude yeah and it's easier said than done like I know when we said this last week like it's easy to get on here and just talk and say very declarative and challenging statements but for anybody that watching that jumps on like we battle like we're but that's that's part of having these Godly friendships there's like we're encouraging each other in the fight constantly and it's like I think rob you and I had a season for like three weeks we were calling each other just venting back and forth like right not stuff going on and then one week he called me and said hey let's talk about something positive can we talk about where we're going and right but that's just real life is yeah this whole process like we want the what's up Andrew country I can't call you Andrew what am I doing country that's my buddy but but man like we want the compassion and the love and the grace Jesus and I'm so grateful for that because it's not a workspace salvation but there is a sanctification process there is a dying to self on the other side of it and my prayer constantly is Lord allow me to be able to see that and see the call stupid like we said salvation wasn't free there was a price Jesus Paid it thank God but like my response my reasonable active Service as Paul said is offering my body up as a Living Sacrifice and when I do that it's crazy I this is one of my favorite statements forever he didn't call that radical we call that reasonable he could have said your radical Act of service right is being a Living Sacrifice but Paul said no this is just reasonable this is just a bare minimum for the faith right that's not radical and right it's in that place of living Our Lives poured out that's where we shine that's where you begin to see us and I love that you just brought that up man because I think what's scary right like especially the older generations and sorry if I offend anybody here but I'm trying to be very I'm part of that generation yeah I'm trying to be very cautious of how I say this I'm a boomer in a millennial's body ah right well I think the thing is that like the Gen Z the younger people they're they're evolving right they're growing but I think there's a way that people can get tied into their traditions and begin to judge or I wouldn't even say judge but they'll look upon the individual through the lens of their upbringing missing the opportunity to bridge the gap to reach them to meet them where they're at right and so like now I was listening to a podcast today Southside Rabbi shout out to KB awesome podcast but they were talking about how our children are now being influenced by influencers that's how people are being reached and so how do we reach these individuals that are living in this dark world right but don't really know how to drunken jive with the traditions of church how can we be a light to them in this world like does it have to do what do do we have to compromise no I don't think we have to compromise but I think there's a level and a way of being creative as I mentioned on the podcast to help Reach people that are lost because at the end of the day that's what it's about reconciling man Paul says that he has given us the gift of reconciliation so if we're to reconcile people back into relationship with God I think we should be like Paul we should be a Jew to the Jew a gentile to the what it's like I know not in its entirety like I'm not going to try to take that scripture out of context right it's a lot deeper than that but in theory man like how are we allowing our life to shine in somebody else's life to allow them to understand that they are living in darkness yeah that's why I've always been one of those people that like I know that Christian celebrity culture is a thing right and there is on there is some challenges that with that and the the whole idea of platforms getting so big and people are Egos and heads getting inflated and all of that but you just made the comment people are influenced by influencers right and so I think part of that is like even the like you said earlier putting these podcasts out like we're doing and even if it's just one person right that we reach and we impact then all for the glory of God and I think for me that's part of like okay where is the darkness and where do I need to shine my light the most I can criticize social media all day but it doesn't change the fact that it's a part of how we're going to be doing life for years right this whole internet thing's not going away so how do we no absolutely how does our lights show up in those environments to where we can connect and reach folks who are well they calling them now digital natives right I grew up way back in the day before there was social media right like I my first social media page was a MySpace account and that was early high school and so I remember life without the internet like we had internet but it wasn't like it is today and now I know what life is like with all of this with the internet yeah it's such a different world but think about it Jesus was the best influencer until to this day he has the most followers but what distincts what makes him different than many of the followers and influencers of people today is that his followers actually are living out the words in which he spoke right and so it goes back to like what are you saying to individuals are you crippling them are you paralyzing them and keeping them subjected to you or are you calling them higher than you and to reach more yeah and so that's what the light does the light has the power to influence those that are in darkness bring them in to their presence and call them out to do more and that's what Jesus did man like his model his the way that he set himself up he didn't have to reach everybody he just he was called to 12 man yeah yeah and he reached those 12 in a way that they caught his vision they caught his purpose in life he has to deny themselves to pick up their cross and to follow him and so I think in the end man it's like man where do we have to deny ourselves today yeah where where is it that we need to deny ourselves that we've as I mentioned earlier held on to that and so I know we had a couple comments man I didn't get to read them yeah no I popped a couple of them up Cheapo said it's very true being intentional about every step we take word weekly choices and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit guiding us and then of course country popped in my dudes keep shining doing what God has called you to do your life to many and that's when I called him out and he said I love you brother oh nice yeah that's my boy man we were Teen Challenge homies from way back like we were in TC together we were roommates oh wow yeah years ago and so man I'm gonna ask you the question again that I did last week what is on I think this is where my heart has been recently what is God doing in you right now I'll answer it yeah that's a really good question I think what God is doing it means he's helping me get my home in order as I mentioned earlier he's called me to be more intentional about how I pour into my marriage my children and to stop focusing on trying to build everything else outside of my home first we'll build everything in my home first yeah and then everything else will come and so there's a big inventory that I've been taking God has really just been stripping me of limited beliefs stripping me of past hurts pain from the absence of a father and so it's scary because my kids are getting older and the blink of an eye my oldest is going to be seven next week and so yeah that's pretty intense and so it's like man like where has time gone but I was reminded earlier today which was awesome because I used to write on my mirror in my living room where we were staying or about to move out of I am statements and what we're grateful for every single morning with my kids and I went on like this Hiatus and stopped doing it for a while just had a bad routine in my own mind I'm like defeated because of my own personal sins I'm like oh man I don't I'm not worthy enough to even do these things anymore and my son posted questions to Dad why aren't we doing this like we haven't been doing our I am to our great our what we're grateful for every morning so this morning we're sitting down we're making breakfast and he gets the Expo marker himself and he says Dad I'm gonna do I AMS and start writing them down yeah that's good and he's like I am brave he's like I am truthful I am and just starts writing them down and like he's like Dad what's yours what's your eye in and then he asked me what am I grateful for and so like even though we make the mistakes that we make as individuals our light is still shining Even in our Darkness God's light is still shining that's really but just imagine how much more it will shine if we learn to be obedient to his voice yeah that's really good what and so like I didn't realize how much I've been impacting him because like there's been resistance with him in our parenting lately and it's been annoying and it's been really taking a toll on both Danielle and I but then you have moments like that and God just like reminds us and he's just like I'm doing it through you so stop trying to focus on it being about you yeah it's not about you but it's about you establishing these principles that's right and these standards within your home that will bring about the fruit that needs to come in due season yeah and so yeah that's where God has me I heard somebody say a long time ago what we do in moderation our kids will do in excess and and I thought and again I know that's there's probably a lot of nuance to that statement but I heard it one time in past it and it's always stuck with me like wow good and bad that could go either direction it's like it's terrifying yeah tell me about it I think for me right now man I'm like at this place where I'm like I'm trying to get clarity the verse that's been on my heart is on Ephesians 5 16 where he talks about making the most of your time and you're taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence because the days are filled with evil and on yeah I've been on this past man with this editing business pastoring doing a little bit of the podcasting doing a little bit of everything and I think I'm I'm really just trying to find out like where's the Lord in each of those places and how can I make the most of my purpose my core purpose like we were talking about loving witnessing and bringing people to Christ in the middle of every single one of those but then also like for me personally making sure my family is not sacrificed on the altar of ministry or my business opportunities like that's been a big one for me constantly like holding those boundaries up and on making sure that they are growing they're being loved they're being discipled and raised up and they're they're not just constantly in my world right that I'm slowing down enough to see their worlds and see where they're at and on yeah so thank you sorry yeah I was my property manager she's like you hungry yeah yes no that's good dude it's like thank you for sharing that man I think it's really important just as you said don't don't offer up your family I think my wife always said this and I've heard this from many other people but your first Ministry if you guys have kids children you're married is your home yeah that's your first Ministry and I think we as a people we want recognition we want to be seen we want to be noticed we want the label right like that's what Society has instilled within us right but don't let the world be a light in your life let God be a light in your life yeah that's good yeah I heard Primrose say on the podcast a few weeks ago he was talking about that we have two things to give blood and oil right and our blood our sacrifice belongs to our family and our oil belongs to the church and he said the problem is that a lot of times we flip those we've given our blood to the church we're bleeding for Jesus's bride but Jesus didn't cost to believe for his bride he caught us the bleed for ours and he said and then we bring the oil our gifting our callings home and our family doesn't know what to do with that because we should be sacrificing and laying our lives down for them and I probably just butchered his statement but you get the context and that was right it's pretty powerful on I enjoy listening to that guy talk man well Rabbi I won't hold you much longer bro I know you're busy today I appreciate you jumping on anyways even though you're like you're in the middle of the movie like yeah man at any time dude have a conversation with you bro yeah man it's awesome yeah I look forward to doing these things weekly once again guys I'm gonna share my two piece but please share comments like whatever even topic suggestions we would love that today was like on a whim we didn't even know what we were going to talk about today but the spirit LED and so that's cool it's awesome so