You know what, people might laugh at you for being clean cut as a man.
People might laugh at you for being straight laced.
People might laugh at you for abstaining from alcohol.
People might laugh at you for abstaining from drugs.
People might laugh at you for being a virgin and abstaining from that relationship until
you get married.
People might laugh at you as a lady for addressing modestly or wearing a dress.
They might laugh at you as a man for not getting caught up in every weird style that comes
down the pike and they might laugh at you because you don't have any tattoos or piercings
or anything like that.
But let me tell you something though, on the inside, they're not laughing.
On the inside, they envy you and they hate you because they ain't you.
That's why they hate you.
Because I'm telling you, you can put a tattoo on your body anytime you want, but you can't
take it off whenever you want.
You can lose your virginity anytime you want, but you can't get it back anytime you want.
You know what I mean?
You can go out and get drunk and get in a car accident anytime you want, but you can't
undo the drunk driving accidents anytime you want.
You can go get a DUI whenever you want, but you can't get the DUI off your record whenever
you want.
You can go father a kid out of that wedlock anytime you want, but you can't undo it anytime
you want.
Look at John chapter 17 verse 14, "I've given them my word, and the world hath hated them
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil."
So God does not want us to exit this world.
He doesn't want us to be taken out of the world.
He just wants us to be kept from the evil.
So look, I don't believe in withdrawing from society.
That's why we're right here in the middle of Tempe, Arizona.
One of the biggest cities in America here is Phoenix, Arizona, and it's growing fast.
I heard somebody say that there are like 100,000 people moving here every year, and it's just
increasing and ramping up.
I mean, since I've lived here, almost a million people have been added to this county in the
last 15 years.
I mean, this is a big metropolis in the greater Phoenix area.
Don't quote me on this, but I want to say, what is it, like 4.6 million people, I want
to say, in this county, Maricopa County, or in this greater Phoenix area, something like
that.
But it's an incredible amount of people.
This is a great big city.
We're right in the heart of a giant big city.
We've got giant university 10 minutes from here, downtown 10 minutes from here, downtown
Phoenix, downtown Tempe.
We're in this great metropolis.
Look, we're not exiting this world living on some plantation or reservation or some kind
of a commune or compound somewhere, right?
And look, we interact with this world.
We interact with our neighbors.
We interact with our coworkers.
We interact at school or wherever else we find ourselves.
We are in this world.
I don't believe God wants us to go hide somewhere and be a monk in a monastery.
I think he wants us to interact with this world.
You know, we go to the stores.
We go to the restaurants.
We talk to the people.
We go to the events.
We're in this world, but we are not of this world.
We're not of this world.
He wants us to be here.
He wants us to be in the group, but he wants us to stand out and be a shining light for
the gospel where people would look at us and see our good works and glorify our father
which is in heaven.
And he says, "Look, do men light a candle and put it under a bushel?
Is that what they do?"
Like, "All right, everybody, the power just went out.
Here, let's go ahead and light a candle.
All right, now let's put a bushel over it."
Now a bushel is like a basket, right?
Some kind of a container.
So imagine like, "All right, we just lit a candle.
We just lit a light.
Now let's just cover it up with a basket.
Let's just put something over it."
That'd be stupid and meaningless because why are you wasting fuel?
Why are you burning a candle if you're not gonna let the light shine?
If you're gonna block the light, it's not gonna do anything.
So he says, "No.
When you light a candle, you put it on a candlestick, right?
What is the point of a candlestick?
The point of a candlestick is to elevate the candle higher.
Because if you can get it higher, then it can shine the light."
Does everybody understand?
If we put it down really low, it's not gonna illuminate the room as well.
That's why lights are typically on the ceiling, or they'll be on some kind of a lamp stand.
You know, like you go to Ikea and get those lamps that are like that, they're like eight
bucks or something, right?
And so we've lit with those many times.
And those kind of lights, they're elevating the light.
They're shining the light up high so that it gives light unto all that are in the house.
And so what God's saying is, you know, don't take the light of the gospel and debase it.
And don't get low with it.
Don't see how low you can go with it.
Because you can go all the way down.
You can't lose your salvation.
You can go as low as you want to go.
But you know what?
I want to give light unto all that are in the house.
And so I'm going to put it on a candlestick.
I want to elevate it.
I want to get it up high above obstacles.
You know, because if it's down low, it might be blocked.
The light can't shine as well.
Get it up high where there's no furniture, where there's no obstacles, where it can just
kind of shine freely through the house.
God is saying don't hide your good works.
Don't hide your good deeds.
Don't hide your Christianity.
Don't hide your testimony.
You know, let it shine.
You don't light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and give it
light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father.
The Bible says a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
We are to be a city on a hill, not down in a valley where nobody can find us.
We're to be up on a mountain top, the shining city on a hill that everybody sees and glorifies
God.