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What Does It Mean To Live as a Christian?

Louie Giglio

8 Days

Shine Light

Day 4

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On day four, we learn that we are to lives that constantly reflect God's glory to those around us. Our salvation was never meant for just us, it is meant to be lived out in public so that others may see the love that God has lavished upon us and is available to them.

Until Jesus returns, there will always be darkness in the world, but we will learn that we can shine like stars.

Summary

To live as a Christian means to shine light. Light only matters if there is darkness. John 3:19 assures us that people love the darkness, and sometimes we do too. We feed our flesh. However, you can walk with God in such a way that the light of God shines through you. You reflect Christ.

Our salvation is not a private thing.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

See Philippians 2:12-16 as well. Verse 15 says that we will shine like stars in the heavens. Stars are seen. Stars are bright and memorizing. By grace, God put salvation in us, and He will work in us to will and to do the things that fulfill His will. By doing this, we shine like stars. God wants us to be in a relationship with Him so that we are constantly reflecting the face of God.

The world doesn't want light until they are stumbling in the darkness, and then they become desperate for it. That's when they'll remember seeing light in you.

What's next?

Do you have areas in your life where you are walking in darkness? Areas where you allow your flesh to be fed and you return to consistently? There is good news! Light drives out the dark!

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6.

Through Jesus, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to wrestle with our flesh and come out victorious. We can live our lives in such a way that we shine as bright as the stars in the heavens.

Read Matthew 5:14-16 and Philippians 2:12-16, how are lives in Christ supposed to be on display?
When people look at your life, would they say you shine or is there so little difference between you and the world that they wouldn't notice a difference?

Scripture References

20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

11For the

Lord

God is a sun and shield;

the

Lord

bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

from those whose walk is blameless.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

13for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

14Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

15so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky

16as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

He said to them,

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

18Then Jesus came to them and said,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.