The Light of Choctaw

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it, as is the Lord our God, whenever we call on him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today. And so I repeat, Moses says to the people, Your careful obedience will be as a light in the darkness of the pagan world that you are entering. See, the pagans were slaves to their appetites, and their religion was violent, and it was vile, and and their gods were beasts and creeping things. Their total religious experience If you read books about ancient religions and ancient pagan religions, you find out that the experience of religion by these people was filled with uncertainty and fear, and superstition, and ignorance.

Their religion wasn't about joy, it wasn't about peace, it wasn't about those things. It was all about fear. It was all about superstition. Moses says, that if you obey the Lord and you follow his word carefully, 3 things are going to happen to you and the nations around whom you will live. First of all, he says, You will be seen as a great and enlightened people.

You see, following God's commands affects your lifestyle, affects your thinking, your attitude, your total outlook on life. And that is very, very different than that of unbelievers. And in the day of Moses, and the day when they were going into Canaan, boy, it was very, very different than the pagan nations, that they were entering into. Moses says that if if you live by God's word, it will not only show, it will set you apart from these pagans. Moses says that it will not only set you apart from these pagan nations, he says it will elevate you above these pagan nations.

Secondly, he says to them, if you follow God's command, your God will be seen as superior to the gods that the pagans worship. See, obedience maintains God's presence and blessings. These manifestations will show the pagans that the God of Israel is a God who has power to provide and to protect in a dynamic way. Now these pagans, they had no assurance that their gods were even there. I mean, they didn't even know if their gods were around.

But they could see God's presence. And they could see God's power in the everyday lives of the Jews. And that would impress them in a very personal way. You know, in those days, if you had a war, it was your god against their god. Whoever won, they used to take all the idols and bring them into their temples because their god beat your god.

Moses says, If you conduct yourselves properly, if you live according to my word, you won't have to fight. People will automatically see that your God is powerful enough to give you everything you need, and you will be elevated among the people, and your God will be proven to be better and superior than all of the other gods. And then the third thing he says to him is this, God's way, God's word will be held in esteem by unbelievers. Moses says that not only will the pagans be impressed by the Jews and their God, they'll begin to value the word of the Jewish God as the instrument to guide them into wisdom, and insight, and blessings. In other words, Hey, if their God's word does that for them, maybe their God's word will do that for us.

And that respect could lead to their own belief in salvation because we will fast forward to the New Testament. What does Paul say? Romans 10, faith comes by hearing. Well, that wasn't just in the New Testament, it was the Old Testament too. Perhaps the pagan nations, impressed by the conduct of the Jews and the power of their God, would themselves be persuaded to listen and to obey the words that this God had spoken to his chosen people, and themselves obey it and be saved by it.

Now, if we continue to read beyond Deuteronomy into the book of Kings, you know, during the reign of Solomon, you know, the Jews go in, they possess the land, you know, and they have leaders, judges, prophets, kings, and then you get all the way to Solomon, the last king of the Jews, the last king of the United Kingdom, of the Jews. If we read all the way into Solomon's time, we see that the Jewish nation did have a great impact on the nations around them. They grew and prospered to become one of the greatest nations of that era. They were envied because of the many blessings that their God, Jehovah, had prospered them with. And the impact of God's laws was felt on other nations as many people were converted to Judaism and began worshiping the God of the Jews.

So, a lot of the things that Moses said happened. No other nation could match their wealth, their success, their power, the beauty and the depth of their religion. No other nation could match them in those days. This not only set them apart, but it also made them the nation from whom a light, as Isaiah would say in Isaiah 92, a light would come eventually to chase away the darkness of pagan ignorance and disbelief for all time. Now, the light that was ignited in the hearts and the souls of the Jewish nation, and kept alive through the providence of God finally came into full glow with the arrival of Jesus Christ.

You see what I'm getting at here? You see what I'm trying to say? Moses had the light given to him and through obedience, the Jewish people were a light among the darkness of the pagans. And then eventually that light became the brightest that it ever was with the arrival of Jesus Christ. He was the light that the Jews reflected in their obedience and conduct.

He was the one that impressed the pagans, even if they didn't understand quite what was going on. He was the light that Isaiah spoke of many years before his arrival. And when Jesus finally came, Simeon, a prophet of the Lord, held the baby Jesus in his arms and listen to what he said. He said, My eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. Luke chapter 2 verse 30 to 32.

John the Apostle said of Jesus and the messenger that was sent before him the following. He said, There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through Him. He was not the light, but He came to testify about the light. John chapter 1, verse 6 to 8.

Even Jesus himself referred to himself as the light. He said in John 8 12, I am the light of the world. Well, what the Jews did in a very limited way, that is shining the light of God in the darkness of the pagan world of Canaan, Jesus did in a perfect and spectacular way. He obeyed perfectly all the laws. He spoke only and accurately God's word of truth, and he revealed the Father perfectly in his action.

He was the brightest of all lights. Now, because of Jesus' appearance, and his ministry, and his death and resurrection, the light of God was fully revealed here on earth during his time. And that brings us full circle. 1000 of years ago now, you know, this has all been an introduction. You've yeah.

I know you're sitting there saying, where is he going? Where are the three points? There are no three points. You have to pay attention now. You don't have pieces of paper.

You actually have to pay attention. Thousands of Listen, I'm going to repeat it. 1000 of years ago, Moses brought the light of God to the world in various ways. Moses did. The great miracles that were done through him, that brought the light.

And he brought the commandments of God to the Jews, that brought more light. And he spoke with God face to face, and his own face would shine as a bright light because of the experience. And he charged the Jewish nation to keep that light burning by obeying God's commands and living faithfully until the true light would come. And then 1000 of years after Moses, Jesus, the great light appeared, and he shone brightly for a while and he charged his disciples with the same command. He said, You are the light of the world.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 and 16. Alright. Here's the full circle idea. The responsibility to maintain that light that started with Moses, and through the people, and through Jesus, and through the apostles, and through the Jews, and through the disciples of Jesus, has landed squarely with who do you think?

The church that belongs to Jesus Christ. You see, in 1998, we are the light. We are the ones responsible for shedding the light of Christ in this dark world. That's the point I'm trying to make. That's why I went all the way back to Deuteronomy to show you where the light started to shine.

I could've gone further back but I only have 25 minutes, so I figured I'd start with Moses. I could have started with Adam, but I started with Moses to cut down on some of the time. That light has always been there, and it's been handed from generation to generation in different ways. Today, we're that light. To be more specific, we here in this building are the light of Choctaw.

That's what we've been charged to be. And you know what? We do it in pretty much the same way and for the same reasons as the Jews did it, except we have more wattage power than they did. Here's how we do it. We light up Choctaw with our obedience.

What sets us apart and what sheds light in this community is that we obey God in all that we do. Whether it be in our worship service, whether it be the way we are a wife or husband, the way we act as an employer, the way we act as an employee, the way we conduct ourselves as people, we shed light. We obey with our language, we obey with our attitude, we obey with our actions. And the more perfect our obedience, and the more people among us who strive to obey God's word, the brighter the light shines in Choctaw. Secondly, if you're looking for points, we also light up Choctaw by revealing Christ to our community.

I often think, why do you think people come to us with prayer requests, who don't go to church here, who don't even go to church at all? I think it's because for some reason or other, they recognized there's something different about us. That Christ really does dwell within us. He is the light within us and the more he takes over our lives, the more people will see of him and less they will see of us. Jesus speaking our words, Jesus keeping us strong during trials, Jesus serving other people, Jesus returning good for evil.

You see, brothers and sisters, with all due respect, everybody is working on the building thing, people do not come to our services to see our building, they come to see Jesus. He's the attraction, He must be the attraction. Nothing wrong with having a suitable facility to do our work, we want to do that, and that's important. But let's never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is the attraction. He's the one that attracts people.

People come to hear about Jesus, learn about Jesus, see Jesus Christ in action in our lives. That's what they're coming for. The light that draws unbelievers and sinners, and those in religious error, is the Lord Jesus Christ. The more of Him and the less of us equals the more light. If we want to make this place a bright and shining place, more of Christ has to show within us and less of us has to be apparent.

And then finally, we light up Choctaw by proclaiming God's word. You know, I am so anxious. I know Dave is anxious to be through with the drawings and all the hassles of the legal work. You can't believe all the work that goes into preparing a construction project. I thought I knew because I'd been involved in a couple, but, boy, after seeing the plans, and the hassles, and the dozens of meetings, you can't believe how much hassle there is.

Well, I am anxious for all of this to be over. Not because I'll have a bathroom within 1 mile of my office, which is the least of the matters. I'm anxious to finish so we can devote a whole lot more energy and resources into going into our community and sharing Christ with our neighbors. Now, for now we are constrained. Meanwhile the Jews were in the desert, they had pool their resources and it took months and even years to build the tabernacle and all that thing, so that they could worship God.

And they were constrained for a time. We are constrained for a time, for another year or so, we are constrained. Our finances are constrained, and our resources are constrained, and our energy is constrained because of this massive project that we're doing. But I'm anxious for this to be over. As it was 4000 years ago, it is today.

They must hear God's word in order to see the light. In other words, without hearing there is no seeing. And our job here is to preach the word so the light can reach every part of Choctaw and the surrounding area. And, oh, how my soul is anxious for that day to come. You know, the Jews carried the light until the great light, Jesus, came into the world.

Our task and our goal is a little different. We are to maintain the light of Christ until Jesus returns so that we can become the light just as he is the light. You see the difference? John explains this idea in Revelation, chapter 22, verse 5. He says, And there will no longer be any night, and they will not have need of the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them, and they will reign forever and ever.

You see, on this earth, the light is outside shining on us. But in heaven, the light will be inside shining through us. And that is the goal. We are to shed the light until the light comes so we can become light as he is light. Now I ask you just a couple of questions this morning, 2, and the lesson is yours.

Are you carrying the light of Christ within you? You know, you're not if you have not confessed Christ as Lord, if you've not repented of your sins, if you've not been immersed in the water to remove your guilt and your sin? You don't have the Holy Spirit within you if you've not done that. And the Holy Spirit is what gives you light. The second question I ask is this, If you do have that light, what kind of light are you?

Are you like our old parking lot lights? Remember our old parking lot lights, we had 3 poles out there kind of strung together, and those old parking lot lights shed just enough light to get around, but they left so many dark corners in our parking lot and in our building. Is that the kind of light that you are? Or are you like our fabulous new lighting system that surrounds the entire building? And when it'll all be turned, there's still a couple of poles to go up here, but we can't do it now because there's still concrete to break.

But when all those poles are in, and all those lights are on, they will surround the entire building. Did you know that? And did you know that the way David designed the outside of the building, there will be lights on the building so that this building will be the most brightly lit structure in this area? You'll be able to see it for miles. Are you like that?

Are you so bright? Are you so filled with light that it can't be missed who you are and what you are? Brothers and sisters, we've been called to be the light of Choctaw. Let's do whatever it takes so that those who are in the darkness will see the light, come to the light, live in the light, and when Jesus returns, become the light. If you need God to ignite the light of Christ within you, come and confess Jesus, repenting of your sins, be baptized in his name.

And if your light has not shined so well lately, then maybe you need to be restored as one of his bright and shining lights. Either way, we encourage you to do what you need to do this morning as we stand and as we sing our songs of encouragement. God bless.