Tyler Lynde: So we're in our third week in our Christmas sermon series called Reflection.
Tyler Lynde: The first week, scott did a great job of answering the question what would this world be like if Jesus had never come?
Tyler Lynde: And how many of you realize it's a dark place without Jesus, right?
Tyler Lynde: And then last week Derek followed that up by talking about why it matters that Jesus came into this world and did an awesome job with that.
Tyler Lynde: And so today my task is to kind of look at and answer the question how does the light of Jesus continue to shine on earth until his glorious return?
Tyler Lynde: And so I get to kind of finish this thing up with that thought.
Tyler Lynde: So the title of my message is Shine the Light.
Tyler Lynde: And if you're following along in your Bible, look at, Turn to Isaiah 60, verses 1 through 3, and we'll start with that.
Tyler Lynde: If you don't have your Bible, please look up on the screen and you can follow there.
Tyler Lynde: So it says in Isaiah 60, I rise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Tyler Lynde: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples.
Tyler Lynde: But the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Tyler Lynde: Let's pray, father.
Tyler Lynde: We thank you for your word.
Tyler Lynde: Your word is powerful and quick and does its work, and we ask that things would be no different this morning, that you would take these words of yours and that you would cause me to be able to speak these things, to explain these things, to put flesh on these bones, lord God, so that those who hear these words will be able to live them out in their everyday lives.
Tyler Lynde: Father, we pray for those who are in darkness this morning.
Tyler Lynde: We ask that the light of Jesus would shine brightly and that they would see for the very first time how great he is and that they would put their faith and confidence and hope in Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: For those of us who have the light of Jesus and yet were reluctant at times to let that shine, we pray that you would change our hearts and that we would recognize that that's why we're here, lord God, that you've put us in this place.
Tyler Lynde: And for those who are serving you fullheartedly and letting the light shine brightly, we pray that you watch over them, protect them, keep them and help them to continue to do what you've called them to do in everyday life.
Tyler Lynde: In Jesus' name, we pray amen, amen.
Tyler Lynde: So I was born on a Sunday in September in 1972, and I was born into a ranching family.
Tyler Lynde: My dad managed an 80,000 acre ranch in Montana, and on that ranch in Montana we had wild mustang horses, we had Texas longhorns, which I don't know how they wandered all the way from Texas to Montana, but somehow we had Texas longhorns and we had buffalo that we raised, and so that was the life that I was born into.
Tyler Lynde: Now, not a lot of that was passed down to me and to my generation, but that's what I was born into.
Tyler Lynde: And my dad's dad and his dad before him and probably his dad before him, were shepherds who watched over sheep.
Tyler Lynde: That was their occupation, that's what they did, and when they homesteaded in Wyoming, that's what they were doing until they found up from the ground came a bubbling crew oil, that is oil.
Tyler Lynde: They found oil on the property and all of a sudden they were no longer shepherds, they were oil men.
Tyler Lynde: So that's kind of the story of my family and I'm, in a way I'm carrying on that tradition.
Tyler Lynde: Right, I don't have any pets, I don't have any livestock, I'm not an actual shepherd out in the fields, and yet God's called me to be one of the pastors here at Trinity Community Church.
Tyler Lynde: And another word for pastor is shepherd.
Tyler Lynde: And as you read the scriptures you discover that God has a lot to say about shepherds, doesn't he?
Tyler Lynde: The Lord is my shepherd.
Tyler Lynde: I shall not want.
Tyler Lynde: And another place in the New Testament it says that Jesus is the what the good shepherd right.
Tyler Lynde: And so that tradition of shepherding is found throughout the scriptures.
Tyler Lynde: And as we examine these powerful words of prophecy given by Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Jesus in the town of Bethlehem, I'm going to use the shepherds from the Nativity story as an example to kind of illustrate the points that we're going to build out from Isaiah, chapter 60.
Tyler Lynde: So are you ready for that?
Tyler Lynde: Let's do this together.
Tyler Lynde: But first let me give you a little explanation.
Tyler Lynde: When you're reading the Old Testament, especially when you're reading prophetic books, how many of you have discovered there's a pattern in most of the Old Testament prophetic books.
Tyler Lynde: What is the pattern?
Tyler Lynde: God is God and he has a people.
Tyler Lynde: The people of God don't follow God.
Tyler Lynde: And so, because they don't follow God, what is the prophecy that comes?
Tyler Lynde: There will be judgment, there will be captivity, there will be oppression that will come, and yet God is merciful and faithful and loving, kind and has loving kindness, and he shows that towards his people, and so there will be a time or times of deliverance that will come for his people.
Tyler Lynde: And then we recognize what the next chapter says.
Tyler Lynde: And then again God's people, and on and on and on.
Tyler Lynde: So we see this kind of cyclical example in the Old Testament and we look back at those people and say, well, that was those people all that time ago.
Tyler Lynde: Well, are we that different?
Tyler Lynde: If we're being honest, not necessarily.
Tyler Lynde: Thankfully, we have an answer to the problem and we're going to be talking about that this morning.
Tyler Lynde: But as you look at the Old Testament, there's kind of three dimensions that you need to consider.
Tyler Lynde: And, as we're preparing messages from the Old Testament, this is what we look at.
Tyler Lynde: So the number one thing is and the question you answer is what did the prophecy mean for the original hearers?
Tyler Lynde: So, in the book of Isaiah, isaiah was a prophet to the kingdom of Judah, where Israel had divided into two different nations, basically.
Tyler Lynde: So you had the people of the north, which was called Israel, and the people of the south, which was called Judah.
Tyler Lynde: Why is Judah significant to the whole Christmas story, because out of Judah, out of David's line, out of Judah, there would come the Messiah, the savior of the world.
Tyler Lynde: So Jesus was born in the line of Judah.
Tyler Lynde: So it's really important, right?
Tyler Lynde: And Isaiah speaks a lot about this Messiah that would come.
Tyler Lynde: So what does the prophecy mean for the original hearers?
Tyler Lynde: The second question is how can it be applied to our context today?
Tyler Lynde: How can we apply it?
Tyler Lynde: The principles that we see in Old Testament prophecy, how can we apply them to our context in 2023, almost 2024?
Tyler Lynde: For those of us who have a little age on us, it's hard to believe, because we were just thinking that 2000 was an impossible thing to happen, like for it to change, the millennium to change.
Tyler Lynde: And now we're a quarter way through this century, already 2023, almost 2024, it's kind of hard to imagine.
Tyler Lynde: But how can we apply these timeless truths in our present scenario?
Tyler Lynde: And then the third question is what implications, if any, does this prophecy have about the future, right?
Tyler Lynde: So let me give you a little example of this found from Isaiah 60.
Tyler Lynde: The first thing is the nation of Israel slash Judah.
Tyler Lynde: So when they heard these words, a rise shined, for your light has come.
Tyler Lynde: What did it mean to them originally?
Tyler Lynde: Well, it meant because they understood that Isaiah was prophesying that they were going to be captured by the Assyrians.
Tyler Lynde: They were going to be captured by the Babylonians.
Tyler Lynde: They were going to be taken out of their land, placed into captivity.
Tyler Lynde: Their land was going to be destroyed in a lot of ways.
Tyler Lynde: All the temple and all of the different things that they held close to were going to be just ramsect.
Tyler Lynde: But then there would be a time and there would be a day, and actually Isaiah again.
Tyler Lynde: Hundreds of years before this occurred, he actually used the name Cyrus, speaking of a Persian king in the future that would give the Israeli people a chance to come back to their homeland and to rebuild and to be a nation again.
Tyler Lynde: So to them, when they heard these words, a rise shined.
Tyler Lynde: They were thinking about the victory that God would provide to them in their context, in their time.
Tyler Lynde: Does that make sense?
Tyler Lynde: Okay, so jump forward to the church.
Tyler Lynde: Do these words mean anything for the church, which is us?
Tyler Lynde: We are the church.
Tyler Lynde: I believe that it means that God will bring light into the dark world through Jesus, coming to this earth as a lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.
Tyler Lynde: Are you thankful for that this morning?
Tyler Lynde: Yes, the lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world, and he would also establish his church.
Tyler Lynde: And his church would consist of what Jewish people and Gentile people and the Gentiles in the room say praise God, thank God that God made a way for all of us and in fact even promised in Abraham and many other times in the Old Testament that Gentiles would come to the light of Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: And we're so grateful that God made a way for us.
Tyler Lynde: And so he also intends for the church to be an agent of light in the earth.
Tyler Lynde: And we find ourselves in that window of time.
Tyler Lynde: So you have passed what God was speaking to people in the past through this prophecy, what he's speaking to us through this prophecy in the present, and also in this case, there's a future element to it as well.
Tyler Lynde: What is the future?
Tyler Lynde: The return of Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: The return of Jesus Christ, the culmination of all prophecy ever written, will be the second coming of Christ, where he will rid the world of darkness once and for all and he will reign forever and ever as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Tyler Lynde: And we say come quickly, lord Jesus, amen.
Tyler Lynde: In the book of Revelation, in the last chapter in the book, jesus himself said that we should say these words come Lord Jesus, come Lord Jesus, and we wait for his coming, but we don't wait as people who don't have hope, and we don't wait with no job to do in the meantime, right?
Tyler Lynde: So when we preach at TCC, we primarily focus on the church era, the time that we find ourselves living in right now.
Tyler Lynde: Right, because that's where we again, that's where we're living, that's where we get up every day and breathe and move and do all of the things that God's asking us to do.
Tyler Lynde: By the way, god hasn't changed at all through any of it Past, present, future.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Tyler Lynde: Right, and that's something that we can hold on to, even when times change and seasons change and people, you know, the world changes.
Tyler Lynde: We can hold on to that truth.
Tyler Lynde: So, understanding this backdrop, let's look at this chapter more closely.
Tyler Lynde: First of all, the verses present a problem.
Tyler Lynde: The problem is sin separates us from God.
Tyler Lynde: What is sin?
Tyler Lynde: If you had to define sin, what is it?
Tyler Lynde: It's disobeying God.
Tyler Lynde: It's being disobedient to God.
Tyler Lynde: It's being in rebellion to God's will and His way of doing things.
Tyler Lynde: That's what sin is.
Tyler Lynde: How many of you know that sin is in the world today?
Tyler Lynde: In fact, we all, no matter how good you are in this life, we all struggle daily to resist temptation and sin.
Tyler Lynde: Right, that's how real it is.
Tyler Lynde: And in the chapter Isaiah 60, it said this for behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people.
Tyler Lynde: That is a result of sin.
Tyler Lynde: That is the result of sin, is that darkness will overshadow the land and will overshadow the people.
Tyler Lynde: Right, and we spend a lot of time a couple of weeks ago, focusing in on this.
Tyler Lynde: But I just want to remind you from Isaiah 59, this is some of the things that it says that will characterize the darkness in the earth.
Tyler Lynde: One, it says that there will be works of iniquity, there will be deeds of violence, no justice, no honesty, hands defiled with blood, tongues full of lies, feet swift to shed innocent blood.
Tyler Lynde: Truth has stumbled in the public squares.
Tyler Lynde: All their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity and there is no one to intercede.
Tyler Lynde: Not, we're thankful that that was just speaking about a time far gone.
Tyler Lynde: That's not applying we cannot apply this at all to our current situation.
Tyler Lynde: Absolutely wrong.
Tyler Lynde: We find these truths still to be evident, and it's because darkness, this is the life that darkness produces.
Tyler Lynde: This is the type of living that walking in darkness naturally produces.
Tyler Lynde: Right, this world was and is subject to abject darkness, desolation and desperation.
Tyler Lynde: Without Jesus Christ, we live in a devastated state.
Tyler Lynde: Outside of Jesus, if we were to get what we deserve and I mean what we deserve we would all be separated from God for eternity in hell.
Tyler Lynde: That's what we deserve.
Tyler Lynde: That's what the darkness wants to produce in people's lives.
Tyler Lynde: Imagine with me what it must have been like for the shepherds, the Bethlehem shepherds, who more than likely would have been keeping watch over the very sheep that were used in temple sacrifice.
Tyler Lynde: So here we have these shepherds doing their job loving the sheep, taking care of them, keeping them, you know, making sure that those that are without spot and without blemish are ready to be sacrificed for the sins of the people.
Tyler Lynde: And even though they're doing this extremely important job, their work made them ceremonially unclean.
Tyler Lynde: And because they were unclean and they couldn't get to the temple very often, because they were constantly watching over the sheep, people looked down on them.
Tyler Lynde: People considered them to be less than they considered them to be, people that were not worth paying attention to.
Tyler Lynde: They were unclean.
Tyler Lynde: They considered them to be unclean according to the law.
Tyler Lynde: I have a question Aren't you glad that God chooses the least among us?
Tyler Lynde: Aren't you glad that God doesn't view people the same way that we view people?
Tyler Lynde: Aren't you glad that he chooses to confound the wise by choosing the foolish to do his work?
Tyler Lynde: I can qualify for that category.
Tyler Lynde: Right so, but for 400 years God had remained silent.
Tyler Lynde: These shepherds are out in the field watching over their flock.
Tyler Lynde: 400 years of silence.
Tyler Lynde: Rome now occupies the land, so no longer are they under Assyrian or Babylonian rule, but now they have a new occupation and instead of removing the Israelites out of the land, they have come in and overtaken the land and they are oppressing them as they live within their own land.
Tyler Lynde: These shepherds are going about their duty on this most regular of dark nights.
Tyler Lynde: Just envision that, and just envision that and picture it as we move beyond the problem to the answer.
Tyler Lynde: Isaiah 60 says clearly we take from it the fact that Jesus is the light of the world.
Tyler Lynde: You say that with me.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus is the light of the world.
Tyler Lynde: That is the answer to the problem of darkness.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus Christ is the light of the world that came to dispel, destroy and remove the darkness from people's eyes, remove the blinders so that we could see the truth and follow after him.
Tyler Lynde: Last week, derek again focused on this fact that Jesus would come to save the world.
Tyler Lynde: And Isaiah 59, it says he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede.
Tyler Lynde: Then his own arm brought him salvation and his righteousness upheld him.
Tyler Lynde: And a Redeemer will come to Zion.
Tyler Lynde: To those who, in Jacob, who turned from transgression, declares the Lord.
Tyler Lynde: That's a great promise.
Tyler Lynde: The Redeemer will come.
Tyler Lynde: The Redeemer will come, my friends.
Tyler Lynde: The Redeemer has come and Jesus is his name.
Tyler Lynde: The incarnation is the single greatest event in human history.
Tyler Lynde: Why?
Tyler Lynde: Because God removed himself from his place of glory and took upon himself flesh and bone and moved into our neighborhood.
Tyler Lynde: He moved in to live with us and eventually to live in us by his spirit.
Tyler Lynde: It's a great miracle, it's the greatest miracle of all.
Tyler Lynde: He did this so that he could provide a means for sin to be atoned for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which opened the door for mankind to once again walk in right relationship with God.
Tyler Lynde: We, of all people, should be very thankful for this good thing that God has done.
Tyler Lynde: How do we participate in this light and in this life?
Tyler Lynde: How do we walk in this relationship with God that's been renewed because of Jesus Christ?
Tyler Lynde: Well, we must repent of our sins.
Tyler Lynde: What does that mean to repent Scott did a great job of illustrating this where the wall of sin was built between the person and God and the person was moving away from God, even though God was not moving at all.
Tyler Lynde: And what needed to happen?
Tyler Lynde: A very simple thing Person that was walking away from God needed to stop and turn around and come back toward God.
Tyler Lynde: And guess what?
Tyler Lynde: God was the one who kicked the barrier of sin out of the way.
Tyler Lynde: And that's what Jesus came to do to remove the barrier that kept us separated from God.
Tyler Lynde: So if we will repent and turn away from our sin and put our trust, hope and faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says that we will be saved.
Tyler Lynde: And then we're called to walk out that salvation in fear and trembling.
Tyler Lynde: It's those who endure to the end that will truly be saved.
Tyler Lynde: Let's not be those who are just flashing the pan.
Tyler Lynde: People who see the light, acknowledge the light and even make some progress and change.
Tyler Lynde: Let's be of those who endure to the very end.
Tyler Lynde: Those are the ones who we know for sure are chosen by God and have been born again.
Tyler Lynde: John 8, verse 12,.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus said of himself I am the light of the world.
Tyler Lynde: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus is the light of the world.
Tyler Lynde: Because of this, we who are His should be eternally grateful.
Tyler Lynde: Listen to this passage in Colossians 1, 12 through 14.
Tyler Lynde: Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Tyler Lynde: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Tyler Lynde: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.
Tyler Lynde: What an awesome thing that God has, that God has done for us.
Tyler Lynde: This should be normative for us.
Tyler Lynde: God created mankind to walk in the light, to be in the light.
Tyler Lynde: Adam and Eve experienced this at all times as the beginning of creation.
Tyler Lynde: They walked and talked with God in the cool of the day.
Tyler Lynde: They had open dialogue and expression.
Tyler Lynde: There was no shame, there was no guilt, there was no condemnation, there was no fear, there were no mosquitoes.
Tyler Lynde: I can't prove that, but I'm just saying things were vastly different in that time, in that place.
Tyler Lynde: And yet, because they disobeyed and rebelled against God, we know that Adam and all of his descendants, including us, were born dead to God, born in our sin and trespasses.
Tyler Lynde: And the only way for that to change is for us to be made alive by God, to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit because we have repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: So this word glory is used in this passage.
Tyler Lynde: What is the glory of God?
Tyler Lynde: Many people greater than me, with greater minds than me, have tried to define this.
Tyler Lynde: I found this definition on the Gospel Coalition website.
Tyler Lynde: It says the glory of God is the magnificence, worth loveliness and grandeur of His many perfections which he displays in His creative and redemptive acts in order to make His glory known to those in His presence, the essence of who he is, which can't help but come out in what he does and then to affect those who experience His great work.
Tyler Lynde: The glory of God.
Tyler Lynde: You notice the chief end of man and women, mankind to bring glory to God.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus made a way for us to be able to do that again and we are eternally grateful for that.
Tyler Lynde: So again, back to the shepherds.
Tyler Lynde: They're experiencing this glory powerfully when suddenly an angel from heaven, a messenger from heaven again, the Lord not speaking for hundreds of years and an angel, appears in the dark Bethlehem sky and the radiance of the glory of God surrounded them.
Tyler Lynde: And they were afraid, wouldn't you be?
Tyler Lynde: That's a normal response and reaction to the glory of God.
Tyler Lynde: They were afraid.
Tyler Lynde: And yet what must have gone through their minds in this split second that probably seemed like an eternity.
Tyler Lynde: I can't even imagine Probably pinching themselves or looking at each other like are you seeing this?
Tyler Lynde: Is it just me?
Tyler Lynde: What did we just eat?
Tyler Lynde: Did we eat pizza?
Tyler Lynde: What did we drink?
Tyler Lynde: What is going on right now?
Tyler Lynde: What are we experiencing?
Tyler Lynde: And yet they couldn't even find the words to speak because they were so enthralled with what they were experiencing.
Tyler Lynde: Luke 2, 10 through 14, describes this.
Tyler Lynde: And the angel said to them fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all of the people, for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior who is Christ, the Lord, and this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in, swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
Tyler Lynde: And suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.
Tyler Lynde: Can you imagine how in tune, how perfectly pitched, how beautifully orchestrated and sung, with instrumentation that's beyond compare, the heavenly choir must have sounded like on that dark Bethlehem night?
Tyler Lynde: Can you hear it?
Tyler Lynde: If you listen real deeply, can you hear it?
Tyler Lynde: Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to men.
Tyler Lynde: This is the declaration, the exclamation of the whole purpose of Jesus coming to restore right relationship with God.
Tyler Lynde: Don't mistake it, friends.
Tyler Lynde: Jesus was born to die and what To be raised again to new life, having defeated death, hell and the grave and darkness of every kind, every type, every shadow, every element that tries to hide the truth from mankind.
Tyler Lynde: When I think about the glory of God, I think about the story of Mary Magdalene.
Tyler Lynde: Imagine how fearful she must have been.
Tyler Lynde: Along with the rest of the disciples, she shows up at the tomb of Jesus, where they had just laid him to rest, rolled a stone in front of it, and when she arrives there, the stone is rolled away and she peeks her head in and Jesus is not there.
Tyler Lynde: And then Jesus is not there.
Tyler Lynde: And Jesus is not there, broken hearted, I can just imagine the tears that must have fallen from her eyes and she just put buries, her head in her hands and the air gets mingled in with her tears.
Tyler Lynde: And she sees somebody there and assumes that it's the gardener coming to take care of flowers and the trees and things.
Tyler Lynde: And he speaks to her, but she doesn't recognize him.
Tyler Lynde: And he says Mary, what a glorious moment.
Tyler Lynde: God of the universe, the Messiah, born in Bethlehem as a baby, has now died and taken the sins of the world, including Mary Magdalene's, on his shoulders.
Tyler Lynde: And now he's risen from the grave and his glory is shining upon her.
Tyler Lynde: And she runs back to tell the rest of the disciples and, of course, men of faith, as they were.
Tyler Lynde: What did they say?
Tyler Lynde: No way, you're seeing things, mary.
Tyler Lynde: Yes, I'm seeing things, I saw Jesus.
Tyler Lynde: And so Jesus and his loving kindness, what does he do?
Tyler Lynde: He appears to all of them.
Tyler Lynde: And we could go on and on.
Tyler Lynde: Are you, mary Magdalene?
Tyler Lynde: Have you seen Jesus for who he truly is, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
Tyler Lynde: So this leads to the command from Isaiah 60.
Tyler Lynde: Christ's followers will shine the light of Jesus Christ, not that we might or that we may.
Tyler Lynde: This is will.
Tyler Lynde: This is a direct result of having Jesus, the light of Jesus, enter our lives and intersect our lives and transform our lives.
Tyler Lynde: There is no other option or alternative.
Tyler Lynde: We are called to be bearers of the light of Jesus Christ and we find that again in the words arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Tyler Lynde: I wanna say to you the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Tyler Lynde: I wanna say to this church and to the church of Jesus Christ as a whole wake up, wake up, throw off your slumber.
Tyler Lynde: We aren't supposed to hide in caves and behind closed doors.
Tyler Lynde: In moments like this, it's time to shine.
Tyler Lynde: Those who believe in Jesus should be so influenced and infiltrated by His light that it is natural.
Tyler Lynde: It is natural for us to shine His light to those who still find themselves in darkness.
Tyler Lynde: It should matter to us that we pass co-workers and neighbors and people at school and people in the grocery store that are dying and going to hell without Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: It should matter to us, and we should be of those who open up as wide as we possibly can to allow, by God's grace, the light of Jesus Christ to shine forth, to give everybody a chance to respond to His light.
Tyler Lynde: It's His light that he gives us to reflect.
Tyler Lynde: We are called to be a reflection of His.
Tyler Lynde: That's the whole purpose of this series.
Tyler Lynde: The whole title of the series, reflection, is because that's what we're called to do.
Tyler Lynde: We're called for the light to affect us and then beam out from us, hit us and beam out from us.
Tyler Lynde: But that cannot happen unless it has first hit us and changed us.
Tyler Lynde: It should be our great pleasure to do this.
Tyler Lynde: Until he returns.
Tyler Lynde: Matthew 5, 14 through 16,.
Tyler Lynde: The same Jesus who said I am the light of the world now turns to his disciples and he says to them you are the light of the world.
Tyler Lynde: A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Tyler Lynde: Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket.
Tyler Lynde: You can hear the old song in your head right, won't let Satan get out, I'm gonna let it shine.
Tyler Lynde: Hide it under a bushel, no, I'm gonna let it shine.
Tyler Lynde: That's what this verse is saying.
Tyler Lynde: Put it on, don't hide it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house In the same way.
Tyler Lynde: Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father, who is in heaven.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light, be the light First.
Tyler Lynde: Peter 2, 9 says it in another way.
Tyler Lynde: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness.
Tyler Lynde: Are we so far removed from that that we forget what it was like to live in the pit of despair and anguish and death and destruction and devastation, with no hope, without God in this world?
Tyler Lynde: I don't care if you were born into a Christian family.
Tyler Lynde: Your family only listened to Christian music.
Tyler Lynde: You drank milk from a Christian cow.
Tyler Lynde: All of us, regardless of where we came up, still were in darkness and needed a great light to shine, dispelling the darkness in our hearts.
Tyler Lynde: Behavior modification can be trained into individuals, but only God can change the heart, and so I was thinking about how to give an example of this.
Tyler Lynde: So I thought of many different people that I could call out in this church that are those who shine the light of Jesus in great ways every day.
Tyler Lynde: Then I thought about my wife.
Tyler Lynde: My wife, as a teenager, had been a Christian and I was a Christian, but I was a Christian and I was a Christian and I was a Christian major had had a lot of life experience up to that point.
Tyler Lynde: She grew up in a home that was religious but never really learned about Jesus, never learned about the cross or the Savior, never learned about forgiveness, about all of the things that we hold so dear.
Tyler Lynde: She never heard those things and she was involved in different areas in her life, just like all of us in sin.
Tyler Lynde: But all of a sudden, one summer I think she was about 15 or 16 years old, the light of Jesus broke through to her and she became a new creation.
Tyler Lynde: Old things were passed away and all things had become new.
Tyler Lynde: She came home and she said to her parents, my in-laws, with whom I love very deeply and if they're watching right now, I love you more than you can ever imagine and that's true.
Tyler Lynde: But I can only imagine what it must have been like for their daughter to come home and say to them Jesus has changed my life.
Tyler Lynde: I can't even stay in the school that I was a part of, because I know that there's too much temptation there.
Tyler Lynde: I wanna go to a Christian school.
Tyler Lynde: And so her parents scraped together whatever they could and they sent her to a Christian school.
Tyler Lynde: And while she was at that Christian school, god continued to shape and form her.
Tyler Lynde: And then, after she graduated, she went to YWIM Youth with a Mission and she traveled to Nicaragua.
Tyler Lynde: And then she spent a month in Guyana during the hottest part of the year, for a month shining the light of Jesus Christ in all the time, continuing to minister to her parents as well, just shining the light, not preaching at them or trying to convince them in some kind of earthly way, just being the light of Jesus that she is.
Tyler Lynde: And then she came home and went to college and she had a feeling that God wanted her to travel to the New Life Drama Company, which is a result of a lot of prayers on my part.
Tyler Lynde: I was praying that God would bring the right person into my life and she was praying the same thing.
Tyler Lynde: And so what did God do?
Tyler Lynde: He brought us together in Cleveland, tennessee, and he made us a family.
Tyler Lynde: And she's continued to shine the light in my life as an example.
Tyler Lynde: Our children, most of them, have come to know Jesus as their savior.
Tyler Lynde: Under her tutelage and under her care, she has continued to be an example to her parents.
Tyler Lynde: Her parents came to know Jesus as their Lord and savior and she, during COVID, got to baptize her parents in water in a pool.
Tyler Lynde: I think it was during COVID, right before COVID.
Tyler Lynde: Yeah, she baptized them in water in a swimming pool.
Tyler Lynde: Their lives were changed.
Tyler Lynde: My kids' lives have been changed.
Tyler Lynde: Everywhere that she goes, she's a testimony to people around her.
Tyler Lynde: I have found myself in the grocery store in Walmart looking for my wife, only to find her talking to somebody that's tucked away somewhere, just sharing the life of Jesus with them in such special ways that never makes them feel like she's talking down to them.
Tyler Lynde: She's talking to them about the light of Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: This is an example to me, a conviction to me of how I need to live my life shining the light.
Tyler Lynde: She's not a person that typically likes to get up in front of a bunch of people, or even likes crowds very much, but, man, you put her one-on-one in scenarios and situations where people are in desperate need of help or somebody to listen to them, and she's there, all in.
Tyler Lynde: And now God's using her with the next generation as she meets with young mothers in our church and outside of our church, some of them saved, some of them unsaved still, but the light of Jesus is shining in her life and through her example to those young ladies who are then shining the light to their children and the next generation through her and hundreds of other hers and hymns, shining the light of Jesus into these young lives.
Tyler Lynde: This gospel of Jesus Christ will continue to be preached in all of the world until the Lord returns.
Tyler Lynde: Be the light.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light by loving your wives, as Christ loves the church, and honoring your husbands.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light by training your children in the way that they should go.
Tyler Lynde: The scripture tells us that in the end they will not depart from it.
Tyler Lynde: Hold on to that truth.
Tyler Lynde: It doesn't matter currently what that looks like or how your children are behaving.
Tyler Lynde: God is in control.
Tyler Lynde: Continue to stand and believe.
Tyler Lynde: 2024 or even the end of this year could be the time that your prodigal returns home to the Lord.
Tyler Lynde: Do not give up.
Tyler Lynde: Continue to shine the light of Jesus.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light by attending school board meetings and being involved in your community.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light at your place of work, whether you're an employer or an employee.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light at school in the face of persecution.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light at the grocery store or the restaurant.
Tyler Lynde: Please, I beg of you, use the name of Jesus.
Tyler Lynde: Everybody can say God bless you, but very few will say Jesus loves you.
Tyler Lynde: We have the power that's found in the name of Jesus to break bondages and destroy corruption.
Tyler Lynde: It is not the name of God, it is the name of Jesus, who is the epitome of God.
Tyler Lynde: Use his name.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light at the grocery store or restaurant.
Tyler Lynde: Shine the light in your conversations and through social media.
Tyler Lynde: Moving on, shine the light, shine the light, shine the light.
Tyler Lynde: You know, one of my favorite Christmas songs is go tell it on the mountain, about these shepherd boys who saw the great light and they couldn't hold back, they couldn't keep themselves from sharing it with others.
Tyler Lynde: And we read that in Luke, chapter two, verses 15 through 20.
Tyler Lynde: When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Tyler Lynde: And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.
Tyler Lynde: Notice, joseph and Mary didn't put them out, even though they were the outcasts of Israel.
Tyler Lynde: When they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
Tyler Lynde: They couldn't help themselves.
Tyler Lynde: They couldn't hold it back.
Tyler Lynde: It was on the tip of their tongues and everybody that they encountered got to hear a piece of the story of something that had just happened.
Tyler Lynde: That was great, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
Tyler Lynde: But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart, and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Tyler Lynde: What a great example to the rest of us of what it means to shine the light of Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde: What's the result of all of this?
Tyler Lynde: Isaiah tells us that those who are lost will turn to Jesus.
Tyler Lynde: That is the promise that we hold onto.
Tyler Lynde: That is the truth that we proclaim and believe.
Tyler Lynde: It says in Isaiah 60, a nation shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Tyler Lynde: Isn't it beautiful how?
Tyler Lynde: The culmination of the Christmas story, even though it was sometime after the birth of Jesus.
Tyler Lynde: What do we have?
Tyler Lynde: Wise men from a distant land who were lost and looking in the skies for answers.
Tyler Lynde: And all of a sudden they saw a star that was pointed toward Bethlehem.
Tyler Lynde: And so they loaded up and they headed to Bethlehem.
Tyler Lynde: And what did they do?
Tyler Lynde: They brought gifts of worship and adoration to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Tyler Lynde: They brought gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Tyler Lynde: These men, who were lost and searching the skies for answers, were drawn by the light to be transformed by a small child who is now King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Tyler Lynde: Let me finish this morning with this exhortation to all of us it is not our job to do the saving, it is not our job to save anyone.
Tyler Lynde: It is our job to do the shining.
Tyler Lynde: That's what we get to do.
Tyler Lynde: That's our part in the equation.
Tyler Lynde: God does the great work of saving all by himself.
Tyler Lynde: We can't duplicate it, we can't replicate it, we can't make it happen.
Tyler Lynde: And if we try to force somebody into it, it won't work.
Tyler Lynde: It won't remain, the fruit will not remain.
Tyler Lynde: Only God can save a sinner who is lost.
Tyler Lynde: But we get to shine the light in the darkness.
Tyler Lynde: Only he can breathe on dry bones and make them live again.
Tyler Lynde: He is the one who gives the gift of faith to those who would repent and follow after him.
Tyler Lynde: He saves us, keeps us, transforms us and will one day glorify us.
Tyler Lynde: I said it and you can believe it there will be a day when the trumpet will sound and when Jesus himself will appear in the sky and those who are dead in Christ will rise to meet him in the air, and the rest of us who remain will join them as well, and we will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye and we will be made like him, and he will return to this earth.
Tyler Lynde: He will eradicate all darkness, all sin, all shame, all guilt, all condemnation, sending it to the pit of hell forever and ever, and he will rule and reign forever and ever.
Tyler Lynde: Shout it from the rooftops, let's sing it in this beautiful Tennessee valley.
Tyler Lynde: Let's let the world know that Jesus Christ is born and he is Lord, amen.
Tyler Lynde: If you're ready to shine the light of Jesus in a greater way than you have been, let's stand to our feet together and let's pray together.
Tyler Lynde: Let's ask the Lord for help in doing this.
Tyler Lynde: We cannot accomplish this without him, but through him.
Tyler Lynde: Remember Philippians 4, 13,.
Tyler Lynde: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Tyler Lynde: So let's just start for a minute, just your heart and God's heart, just talk to him and just say, hey, let's be honest, father.
Tyler Lynde: I confess this is me, tyler, speaking.
Tyler Lynde: I confess, lord, that there have been times when I have resisted shining the light because of circumstance or situation.
Tyler Lynde: I was tired or I was focused in on my own darkness, my own areas of need.
Tyler Lynde: I just didn't want to be bothered, I didn't care enough, my compassion level wasn't where it needed to be.
Tyler Lynde: Forgive me, lord, for those times when I have failed to shine the light in the way that you deserve for it to be shown.
Tyler Lynde: And, father, we thank you that with repentance comes a new beginning, and so we ask you for your grace right now to transform us, lord, god, to change our hearts and minds, that our desires would line up with your desires and that we would fully embrace the light of Jesus that has impacted our lives and that through that light, we would reflect and shine that light to the world around us in ever increasing ways.
Tyler Lynde: And, father, we pray result of the church doing this as a whole around the world, as that you will be raised up very high and that those who look to you, will be drawn to you, will be transformed and changed from the inside out.
Tyler Lynde: The work that only you can do, father, I pray specifically for our own families, friends, coworkers and those that we encounter on a daily basis.
Tyler Lynde: Lord, would you move?
Tyler Lynde: Even this Christmas, lord, would you give you've already given the gift of your son, lord, would you give a gift of repentance, change and just now, if you wanna just call out the names of the people in your life that you're believing in or believing God for either first time salvation or for them to return to the Lord just begin to speak those names before the Lord.
Tyler Lynde: I thank you, lord, for my uncle, joe, my dad, father, I pray for my neighbors.
Tyler Lynde: Pray for Joe, especially my neighborhood, lord.
Tyler Lynde: I pray for all of those, lord, that find themselves surrounded by darkness, with no hope.
Tyler Lynde: Pray for persecutors.
Tyler Lynde: We pray for those who are involved in wicked and evil things, lord, god, we pray for those in the prisons, lord.
Tyler Lynde: We pray for those who are, who find themselves in places of drug addiction and many other things.
Tyler Lynde: Lord, we just ask help us to shine the light and do the work that you can only do in their lives, father, and we do pray the prayer that you've asked us to pray, and we ask come quickly, lord Jesus, but not until you accomplish the task of saving all of those who you've chosen to be a part of your family.
Tyler Lynde: Help us to be busy about your business this Christmas, and always.
Tyler Lynde: In Jesus' name, and may the Lord bless you and keep you.
Tyler Lynde: May he cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
Tyler Lynde: May he lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace in Jesus' mighty name.
Tyler Lynde: Amen, amen.
Tyler Lynde: Merry Christmas everybody.