Sunday, August 18, 2024-Apostle BILLEY
Ephesians 5.8
Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
In the past, we were in darkness, when we did not know the Lord. And now that we have accepted Jesus, we have become light. We characterize light.
We are born light, in the image of God, and it is sin that has caused us to become darkness.
And Jesus came as the Light to resurrect us in God’s way.
That’s why we shouldn’t play around with our Christian lives. We don’t have to be on both sides.
What is walking?
It means taking steps from one place to another.
In spirit, walking is all the work we do on this earth.
It’s not the physical walk but the spiritual walk because we are spirit.
He didn’t tell the animals to walk in the light because they don’t have minds. But men are created in God’s image, so we must walk as God walks.
There must be a difference between our past and our present.
Before we were in nightclubs, now we have to live in the places of Jesus, i.e. the secret place, the place of prayer, the place of adoration, of praise……
Eph5.9 For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
It doesn’t say that works of light are all light bulbs.
We are not light bulbs but light is spiritual, so it consists of all kinds of goodness: generosity, kindness, compassion, self-giving, love; justice, clarity …
All these groups are part of the light, as is the truth group.
The Christian must walk through all this.
Our behavior, our actions, our thinking, our decisions and even our thoughts must be in line with the light.
Jesus is coming back, and this is the kind of person He’s going to take with Him. The rest will stay.
But we have to be one of those people.
We must glorify God as children of light.
Eph5.10 Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
We must examine every day, every moment, what is pleasing to the Lord. Not what we like.
Why be pleasing to God and not to man?
Because we belong to God, he has redeemed us. 1 Corinthians 6.20.
He’s our owner, and we owe him everything.
Anger must not be in us, it is not pleasing to him. It’s for pagans, but you’re a child of God.
What’s in it for him?
Since Jesus is the light, everything I do must be in the light in order to please him.
If I do works of darkness, he’s not going to receive that.
There are 3 places: heaven, earth and hell.
** In heaven, it’s the heaven of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And they are Light.
Heaven is glorious because God built it. And the beauty of the sky characterizes it.
When we say a house is beautiful, it’s not the house that’s beautiful, it’s the person who built it, who has that beauty within him.
In heaven, there is love, joy, peace, no sickness, no confusion…
Why? Because everyone there receives the nature of God. Their priority is God.
** In hell, it’s darkness, it’s everything that’s evil, for example jealousy, envy, unforgiveness, witchcraft, everything that’s not worthy of God, of Light.
So you can’t have light in hell;
In the same way, we can’t see the darkness in heaven.
For heaven and hell are opposites.
** And in the midst of the two, there is the earth.
And on the earth, there is darkness and light.
And we are on earth. We are invaded by darkness and by light.
It’s a choice we have to make every day.
Darkness does everything it can, to recruit humanity every day for hell.
So the child of God must know what is darkness, and what is light; so that he can walk according to the latter and overcome the darkness.
Some don’t maintain their Christian life; they come to church as if it were for the pastor or some people.
No, it shouldn’t be that way.
You must come for your deliverance, your salvation, to save your soul, for your transformation, so that you may be enlightened, to know what is good from what is not good, what is just or unjust…
When the pastor or the brothers call you, they are showing their compassion, their light, their love for you.
We must not compromise ourselves.
There are a lot of people in hell.
Those who are there, they know they are darkness and can’t go to heaven, so their desire is to return to earth for a second chance.
Because in hell, suffering is extreme; there isn’t even any water.
But when they were on earth, they did what they wanted, they didn’t listen to God.
But now they have seen the truth, and the earth has become their paradise.
Indeed, the sufferings in hell are not even comparable to all the difficulties on earth.
Yet Christians on earth don’t run to God, they put problems on their heads, they spend their time looking for money and don’t give time to prayer or meditation…
It is written in Matthew 16.26 And what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul?
Or, what would a man give in exchange for his soul?
What does it profit a man to win the world, houses… and lose his soul?
Let’s be wise and not allow ourselves to be contaminated by darkness.
If your neighbor, your colleague, your brother … is not light, contaminate him with your light, but don’t let yourself be contaminated.
Some Christians spend their time complaining morning, noon and night, saying: Lord, since I’ve been praying, I don’t have any children yet, I’m not married yet, I don’t have any money or a car, I’m sick…
Now, some are bound in darkness, to the point where they can no longer even see the gospel, because of the desires of their hearts.
Others are into fornication, impure sexuality, pornography…
This is darkness, this is the road to hell.
That’s why a person can be converted for 10, 20 years and still not know where Matthew or Jonah are in the Bible;
He doesn’t know the difference between the New and Old Testaments. Nor can they even lead a prayer.
In 3 years, Jesus trained spiritual “monsters” in the faith, firm in the faith, so that they would be able to help others come to the light.
Here’s a testimonial:
A young girl in high school, while out with friends, had an accident.
A young pupil was crossing the road when he was run over completely, resulting in his death.
The school was deeply distressed.
Years later, she falls into a coma and dies.
She finds herself in hell, and the first person she meets there is this young man.
And from a distance, she recognized him, although she couldn’t get any closer.
She called out to him, and he said, “I’m really suffering.
From where she stood, she asked him: “What are you suffering from?
Because,” she said, “when you had your accident, we all cried because of your pain and suffering.
And he replied: I much prefer this suffering to the one I’m experiencing here in hell.
What happened to this young man?
In his youth on earth, he had turned his back on God, smoking and polluting God’s temple.
He had nothing to do with God.
Thus, this sister had the opportunity to be challenged by the Lord, making her see hell, so that she could repent, turn away from the way of the world and henceforth live according to God’s way.
Brothers, we must live the life of light, we must not live a double life.
You have to forgive those who have offended you, those who have betrayed you. Live a life of prayer.
John 3.19 And this judgment is that when light came into the world, men preferred darkness to light, because their deeds were evil.
Who is the light?
It’s Jesus.
Who are these men?
Those who are on earth and choose the works of darkness
John3. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be revealed;
He who does evil hates the light; he hates Jesus…
We must examine ourselves, judge ourselves, in order to remove all kinds of evil from ourselves.
From the moment we choose Jesus, we must walk in the light. It’s not just about coming to church.
The devil transforms himself into an angel of light to deceive mankind.
In other words, he presents something that’s wrong as if it were right.
Someone who is in darkness will find it hard to accept Jesus.
We can only come to the light by stripping ourselves of darkness, repenting, renouncing and accepting the light wholeheartedly.
John 3.21 but he who acts according to the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest, because they are made in God.
We need to understand all this, and really know where we’re going.
Define the efforts we have to make every day, to resist the darkness and walk in the light. There is no neutral zone.
John 8.12 Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Those on earth have the opportunity to choose eternal life, the light.
Ps 33.5 He loves justice and righteousness; The goodness of the Lord fills the earth.
The earth is filled with the goodness of the Lord. We must open our eyes and see these goodnesses.
We must take advantage, while we are on earth, to seek his bounties.
The body is for the Holy Spirit, to be reserved for God.
Repentance is on earth, it’s part of God’s goodness.
When a person is weak, he can ask for God’s strength, and he will receive it, that’s God’s goodness.
If she’s sick, if she asks for healing, she’ll get it, and that’s God’s goodness on earth too.
The earth, trees, fruit, water, air…also speak of God’s goodness.
When we talk about consecration, we mean it.
Those in the world must not influence us.
We must not dress like them, we must not model ourselves on them.
The priority of God’s children is to please the Lord, to consecrate themselves.
How can you copy the things of the world and bring them to church? Why doesn’t the world copy the church? All this has to change.
It’s time to get serious with God, Jesus is coming back soon.
Let us remove all darkness from our lives. Jesus is the way of life.
The devil is the road to death.
John 14
1 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 There are many mansions in my Father’s house.
If it were not so, I would have told you.
I’ll prepare a place for you.
3 And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come back and take you with me, so that where I am you will be there too.
There’s confusion on earth, trouble, problems, but Jesus is there to rescue us.
We have to live in relation to heaven, that’s how we have peace, joy….
Whoever accepts Jesus will go to heaven.
The way is the Word of God.
Don’t let the darkness cover you.
LET US PRAY →
Lord Jesus, let your light shine in my spirit.
Let your light shine in my soul.
May all darkness attached to my life be removed and destroyed.
Lord, I surrender my soul to you,
In this dark world, I must shine.
My light must shine.
I must shine in Jesus’ name.
Thank you Father God, Thank you Lord Jesus, Thank you Holy Spirit.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.