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Now let's take a look at the Bible there in Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, and we're not going through Lamentations 5, okay, we'll look at Matthew 5. I'll save Lamentations for another day, just because we are kind of celebrating our three-year anniversary. Don't forget, we've not celebrated our second-year anniversary yet, so that's coming around January sometime, alright? We're just going backwards in time. We'll celebrate whatever we can celebrate. And just because we've been in lockdown, we haven't been together at church, whatever reason we can come up with for fellowship, let's just do it, huh? But Matthew chapter 5, I wanted to just do a sermon that kind of ties in a little bit more with an anniversary-style sermon. And if we look at Matthew 5, 14, the words of Christ, it says about us, Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The title for the sermon this morning is, Shine the Light of Jesus. Shine the Light of Jesus. You know, we are the light of this world, and just before that, Christ says that we're the salt of this earth. And so, you know, we've been given this responsibility, we're meant to be this light that shines the glory of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to quickly read to you from John 8, 12, it says, Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And so when we talk about ourselves being the light of this world, first and foremost, that light comes from Jesus Christ. And Christ says that we are to follow him in his light. And you know what I want for Blessed Hope Baptist Church, I want to make sure that we shine as a light to this community, to the city of Fairfield, and to the city of Sydney, that we would be the salt of the earth, that we would be this light of the world that Christ has given us. But we don't just think of, you know, what is that light? Like, we need to make sure that we see the examples of Jesus Christ, we see how he's shined as a light, and then we just copy after the Savior. We just keep following what the Savior has done, and we shine that light of Jesus Christ. And so as I said, the title for the sermon this morning is, Shine the Light of Jesus. And what we're going to be doing is we're just going to do a quick study through the book of Matthew chapter by chapter, well not every chapter, but we're going to go through many chapters in the book of Matthew. We're just going to look at some examples of how Christ shone his light, and then we're going to see how can we do that ourselves. How can we follow after the steps of the Savior? So let's start in Matthew chapter 3, let's go back a couple of chapters. Matthew chapter 3 and verse number 16. Matthew chapter 3 and verse number 16. It gives me great joy that we'll be doing some baptisms after the service, because here in Matthew 3, 16 it says, And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lightning upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So the first thing that we see when Christ begins his ministry, what's the very first thing he does? He gets baptized, he gets water baptized. And brethren, let me just make it very clear that salvation is not based on any water baptism. Salvation is based on finished work of Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection, which is what baptism pictures, going into the water, standing out of the water, the death, going into the water, the burial, coming out of the water, the resurrection. That's what baptism represents, okay? And just like Jesus Christ, did Jesus Christ need to be saved? He's a saviour! He has no sin! But you know what? He set an example of baptism. As he set up to start his ministry, to start his work, he got baptized. And you know what, brethren? That's the commandment for us as well. Not to be saved, salvation going to heaven is faith from the finished work of Christ, but as a symbol, as a public declaration, God has given us this beautiful ordinance of baptism, where we will take a believer in Jesus Christ, someone who is already saved, and we baptize him. We'll be doing that straight after the service, okay? Sister Dai and Sister Carol will be getting baptized, and I hope as many of you can come and be a witness of that. Hey, but it's a public declaration. We're called to be the light of the world. We're shining in the light of Jesus Christ. And that's what baptism is. Sometimes people say to me, oh, can I just get baptized privately? Because I don't want to, but here's the thing, it's part of shining in the light of Christ. The more public it is, the better, okay? The more people can see and say, why are these people getting dunked under water? Well, I'll tell you why, because we're identifying ourselves with the death, burial, and resurrection, that we're trusting that in order to be saved. Now, let's keep going. We're going to go through these chapters fast, okay? Let's go to Matthew 4, Matthew 4 and verse number 1. Matthew 4 and verse number 1. It says here, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And the devil, one of the titles for the devil is the tempter, okay? And you know what? We all go through temptations. We all suffer this difficulty of being tempted to sin. And unfortunately, every time you sin, you've given in to that temptation. And the devil came to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse number 2, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward in hunger. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So what's the next thing? How else can we shine the light of Jesus? You know what we do? We overcome temptation. When the tempter comes, when temptation comes, when that desire to sin comes upon your brethren, we need to fight that, okay? We need to try to live a holy and righteous life. We've fallen off the steps of Christ. Christ never committed a single sin. You know, if Christ came to this world as a sinner, we would have no saviour. We would have no way of salvation, and we would still be dead in our sins on our way to hell. You know, cleaning up your life and overcoming sin, again, that's not a requirement for salvation, okay? But it is something that pleases the Lord. The more we walk in his ways, the greater fellowship we can have in the light of our Lord God. And you know what? The devil will come. The devil will come with temptations. How do we overcome those temptations? What did Christ say? It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is why we're an every word church. We teach every word that is in this King James Bible, okay? We don't skip passages. We don't just preach that which is nice. Hey, we'll preach that what is maybe negative sometimes. Those things that might feel a little depressing sometimes. We need to preach every word of God in order for us to overcome the temptations that come in our lives. Brethren, if you're struggling with sins, and we all struggle with sins, but you know, sometimes there are certain sins that are just so difficult to overcome, you commit them every day, and you almost maybe don't even have a desire to overcome those sins. You know what the answer is? Every word of God. Memorize scriptures. When the devil came to Jesus Christ, what did Christ do? He quoted scriptures. He's quoting Old Testament scriptures. If you're struggling with a sin, memorize some scriptures about that sin. And when you're tempted to sin, start quoting that scripture. I'm telling you, it's going to do an amazing change in your life, okay? It strengthens the new man. It casts down the flesh that wants to sin. And you'll have greater success overcoming sins in your life if you memorize scriptures and quote them when you're being tempted. Okay, let's keep going. In verse number 18, same chapter, Matthew chapter 4, verse number 18. How else can we shine the light of Jesus Christ? Matthew chapter 4 and verse number 18. And of course, that's what we've been doing this past week with the soul-winning mega marathon week. Praise God for that. Listen, brethren, this is our instruction. This is our command. This is why we're still on this earth. This is why, you know, we didn't just get saved and go to heaven the next day. God has a work for us to be a fish of the sea. And we're going to be saved. And we're going to be saved. And we're going to be saved. And we're going to be saved. And we're going to be saved. And we're going to be saved. And the next day, God has a work for us to be a fisher of men, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to do it, brethren. This is one of the greatest ways that you can shine the light of Jesus Christ. You know, praise God for those of you that have been going soul-winning this past week. Hey, on what day did we start? Wednesday, was it? Wednesday. Wednesday, I can't remember how many soul-winners. I think we had six soul-winners. That's preachers and silent partners. And we had three saved. I think it was three saved. On day number two, we had eight soul-winners. We had one saved. On day number three, we had... I'm starting to lose track. Maybe it was six soul-winners again. And we had four saved. Yeah, we had four saved. Yesterday, we had seven soul-winners and nine saved. Praise God. More souls saved than how many went out there fishing for them. Hey, praise God for that. That's a great way to shine the light of Jesus Christ. And let me tell you, it was a hot day. Brethren, my neck here, it's all red, it's all sunburnt. My wife looked that up this morning. Whoa, you're really burnt. Yeah, but you know what? These people would have burnt in hell if we didn't get out there and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And how many of those faces, how many times did they light up with joy, knowing, well, now I know I can be going to heaven. Praise God for that. Praise God for the souls that we see saved. This is probably the primary job, primary role that we have to shine the light of Jesus Christ, to not only go soul-winning, but, hey, I will make you fishers of men. Hey, we come out as soul partners. Hey, we'll make you fishers of men. We'll teach you. We'll guide you, instruct you how to preach the gospel. We want every person to be a fisher of men. Amen? Let's keep going there. Matthew chapter 5. Let's go to Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 1. Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 1. This is a quick one here. Matthew chapter 5, verse number 1. And so the next thing that we are to do to proclaim and to be a light of this world is to teach God's Word, to teach the commandments of Jesus Christ, to teach the Old Testament and the New Testament, the whole counsel of God. I already covered this, right? We've got to teach it all, Brevin. We're not trying to skip parts. We need to hear it all. Yes, to overcome temptation, but to grow in wisdom. You know, we shouldn't be people that are just, well, I'm saved, you know, praise God, I don't know anything else about the Bible, I'm going to heaven. Hey, it's good for you. But God wants us to grow in wisdom and knowledge. The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, the Bible says. We start with fear in God and we want to know what God's Word has to say. Brevin, this world is brainwashing us. The media is brainwashing us. The alternative media is brainwashing us. I don't know where to turn to, Brevin. There's lies everywhere, except for God's Word. Hey, you want 100% truth? You come to church, you hear the preaching of God's Word, you spend time with the Holy Spirit of God every day, give five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes to read the Bible and ask God to lead you in truth. It's beautiful, God's Word is beautiful. You know, the more you know it, the more you just love it. Hey, and the more you know it, the more you realize, I don't know, because the God's Word is so deep. There are so many layers. You've read it once, you read it again, you're going to be like, I can't even remember that part. You know, there are great things in the Bible that it just, it touches every aspect of our life. Whether we lived in the time of Christ or whether we live in 2021 or 2022, God's Word is still as relevant to you today as it's ever been. And it always will be. You know, I truly believe we're going to be in heaven, still learning God's Word for all eternity. That's how deep God's Word is. And so the next thing, brethren, for us to be the light of this world is to teach and to learn God's Word. Let's go to the next chapter now. Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six and verse number nine. Matthew chapter six and verse number nine. Matthew chapter six and verse number nine. The words of Christ, The next thing I've got for you, brethren, to be a light of this world, we need to be a people that pray, a people that pray. And you know what? And I'm saying this because you're like me. We're made from the same flesh and blood, okay? When you're starting to get a little discouraged, when you're starting to feel a little bit far from the Lord, one of the first things that's going to fall off your plates is your prayer life. You know, yeah, I say, oh no, I keep, you know what? Yeah, okay, you're two second. God, please bless this meal for me before I eat. You know what? We need to be a praying people. There are so many problems. There are so many struggles. There are so many people, you know, having hardships, right? We need God's leading. And the only way we can go before the Lord is in prayer. The Bible says here, our father, which art in heaven. You know what, brethren? I'm a father of 11 children. If one of my children needed something, if they were in danger, if they had troubles, I would want them to come to dad and let me know what that trouble is so I could help them out. You know what? That's our father. He wants to hear us come to him, to bring our petitions, to bring our requests, to come to him for help. We need to be a praying people. That's a great way to shine the light of Jesus Christ, to pray for people. You know, as I was going out door to door, someone in a few times, you know, I was asked, I didn't get anyone saved at these doors, but they asked, look, I'm going through this hardship. Do you mind praying for me right now? Praise God. You know, that doesn't usually happen. So of course I'll pray for you. You know, we came across one family and the mother was Lebanese and the father was from Jordan and they told me they go to an Orthodox church. So I'm like, okay, these guys aren't saved. And then as I'm speaking to them about the gospel and I asked them what church they go to, they are, sometimes we go to the Orthodox church. Sometimes we go to the Catholic church. Sometimes we go to the Anglican church. Sometimes we go to the Baptist church. I'm like, definitely these guys are not saved. But when I asked them, what do you have to do to go to heaven? They knew it was on the finished work of Christ. Faith alone. I said, okay, surely not. Okay, so can you do anything to lose it? Of course not, Jesus did it all. My God, someone in their family, you know, presented the gospel, they got saved, but unfortunately their eldest daughter is in Liverpool hospital with advanced cancer. And I said, look, can you come in as a pastor and just pray for my, our daughter, pray for her that God will heal her? Of course. Of course we're praying people. And so even though this family was already saved, though they need a good church, amen, hope they come here. Hope you're listening online, you come here. But you know what, they need a prayer. And we need to be a praying people, not just praying in our closet, but listen, if we have people that we know, that we love, that are going through hardships, let them know that you're praying for them. Let them know that you're top of their mind and that you're bringing their needs before an almighty God, your Father. We need to be a people that pray and shine the light of Jesus Christ. Let's go to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, please. Matthew chapter 11, verse number two. Matthew chapter 11, verse number two. You know, the Christian life can be a life of discouragement. Even the most mature Christians, even if you've been serving the Lord for a long time, you know, even if you're considered a religious leader, you can go through discouragements. You can go through times of doubt in your spiritual life. And we see here in Matthew chapter 11, verse number two. What a question. John the Baptist baptized Jesus, all right? He heard the voice of the Father, said, this is my beloved Son. He saw the Holy Spirit bodily descend upon the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist himself pointed to Christ saying, this is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Why is he doubting? Because he's in prison. He's been arrested. John the Baptist is going through a hard time. And boy, this guy's a religious leader. He had thousands coming to him to get baptized. He pointed them to Christ. He must increase and I must decrease. Well, the words of John the Baptist, and you see him now being discouraged. Verse number four. And show John again, those things which ye do here and see. The blind receive their sights and the lame walk and lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Listen, Christ is encouraging John. He says, look at the great works that Jesus Christ is doing, brethren. And you know what? When you're going through a time of discouragement, you just need to turn to Christ and remind yourself of the great things that Christ has done for you. His salvation, that his legend, that he's taught you God's word. But most of all, we're talking about shining the light of Christ here. You know what? When we find brethren that are discouraged, when we find brethren that are backslidden, when we find brethren that don't wanna come to church anymore for whatever reason, brethren, we should come alongside them and encourage them in Jesus Christ. Not to kick people down, you know. That's what people like to do sometimes, right? Someone's down, let's start kicking that person even more. No, that's the wrong attitude. That's not shining the light of Jesus Christ. So encourage the brethren, you know. Encourage them in the Lord. Remind them of what Christ has done for us and what he's still yet to do for us. You know, Christ has given us mansions in heaven. He's promised us a home in heaven. We've got the kingdom of Christ, 1,000 years on this earth to rule and reign with him. And then we have the new heavens and the new earth. New resurrected bodies, bodies that will never sin. Praise God for the great blessings that Christ has given us. But the next thing, brethren, in order for us to shine the light of Christ is to encourage the discouraged. Encourage the discouraged. And let's go to the next chapter, Matthew chapter 12, Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 38. Now this is for the soul winners. Those of you that have been going out this week or you plan to, or you want to get onto it now and get out there and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me just encourage those that desire to preach God's word, you know, the gospel message, not to be distracted. Like don't waste your time arguing at the door. All right, people that don't want to hear or they just want to talk to you. And you're like, oh, they're talking to us. Maybe we should hang around. Yeah, but if you're not going for the gospel, move on. You've got to move on. You'll notice this in Matthew 12, 38. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered saying, master, we would see a sign from thee. They're like, Jesus, show us a miracle. Show us a sign. We want to believe in you, Jesus. What does Jesus say? And he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What's the sign to an adulterous and wicked generation? The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the sign, brethren. You know, we go and preach the gospel. That's our focus. We want to shine the light of Jesus Christ. We need to focus on the gospel. But don't focus on end times. You know, don't worry about, you know, telling people about the anti-Christ. You know, I once went soul winning with what was supposed to be an experienced soul winner. We got to the door and, you know, he was trying to give him the gospel and then he's like, you know, you got to get saved. You know, he hasn't even given him the gospel. He hasn't even explained that Christ has died on the cross and rose again from the dead. He just says, look, you got to get saved. Otherwise the anti-Christ is going to turn up and you're going to take the mark of the beast and it'll be too late for you. It's like, what in the world? Don't worry about that. That might have even been our lifetime. You know, focus on the sign of Jonas, the death, the burial, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, brethren, we got to shine the lights. You need to keep focused. All right? It's so easy to become, to lose focus. You know, the devil plants people as we go door to door soul winning, okay? And they've got big smiles, they got big hearts, and they just want to have a chat with you. Listen, they'll keep you there for an hour and you're not going to go anywhere. They want to talk to you about every little issue and if they don't want to hear the sign of Jonas, okay, move on to the next house, okay? Because it is a wicked and adulterous generation. Move on. There's someone down the road that wants to hear the gospel. Focus on them. Focus on the gospel. Let's be lights to Jesus Christ. Otherwise these people are going to hamper that light and we're not going to be used effectively as we do our ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15 and verse number one. Matthew chapter 15 and verse number one. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, there they are again, anyway, which were of Jerusalem saying, disciples transgress the tradition of the elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. Now, brethren, I recommend that you wash your hands. We're going to Rachets later on for lunch. I'd recommend you wash your hands, all right? But you know what? It's not a doctrine of this church. Well, if you look up our core doctrines, we haven't got, you better wash your hands before you eat, otherwise you're not right with God or something like that. Okay, but this is what the scribes and Pharisees had done. They had elevated their traditions, which weren't bad traditions, but they had elevated it as a commandment of God. What does Christ say in verse number three? And he answered and said unto them, why do you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Brethren, in order for us to be light of this world, we need to set apart the traditions of men from the commandments of God. You know, we're a church that teaches the commandments of God, all right? We want to hear from God's word. Now look, we do have certain traditions, even in our church, right? We start with our hymn. We have a time of prayer. We're singing a couple of other hymns. And this is all tradition, right? We're just doing the same thing. But is there anything wrong with that tradition? No. Like if we decided to change it up, change the way we do things, is it wrong, is it sinful? Of course not, all right? But you know, there are some people that elevate their traditions, elevate their preferences, elevate their opinions as the word of God, and we live in a world where they're trying to hide God's word amongst all kinds of traditions, all kinds of opinions that are the opinions of men. In order for us to be able to differentiate, again, is to know God's word. If we read the Bible and you come to church, then you'll be able to differentiate whether this pastor or some other preacher is preaching to you the commandments of God or the traditions of men. Listen, if we want to be a light to this world, all right, the other churches, they teach the traditions of men. The other churches, they don't teach the commandments of God, but this church will. This church will teach you about hell. This church will teach you about sin, okay, to cause you to overcome and change your heart about those things. This church will teach you God's word. We're not gonna avoid anything, brethren. We need to be in a place, in a church, that teaches the commandments of God. When Christ came, he taught the commandments of God and they said about him that he taught as one having authority. Where did his authority come from? From God's word. This is the authority of our lives, the commandments of God, not the traditions of men. Look at verse number six, same chapter. Matthew 15, verse six. It says, You know what? There are many churches these days that are bringing in the homosexuals. They're bringing in the LGBT community and then they think it's wonderful. Listen, they're making it of none effect the commandments of God. All right, we're here to be God's people, save people that love Jesus Christ, that love his word, that love his commandments. We don't love this word, brethren. You say, but Pastor Kevin is the part of me that, yeah, that's the flesh. All right, but when you come to church, you come in the new man, you come in the spirit of God, you come here in God's word, we wanna hear the commandments of God. We're not going to change our church after the traditions, after society, after the way this world changes, brethren. So we wanna be a light, the light of Jesus Christ. There are too many churches that are just like the world. Too many churches going down the toilet with the rest of this world. If we just stand on God's word, we'll be a light. Doesn't matter how big our church is, we're gonna be small, okay? But if we stand on God's word, we teach the commandments, we'll be a light and we are blind in light. People won't like us because man likes darkness. They don't like it when light shines on darkness. Let's keep going. Matthew chapter 18, please. Matthew chapter 18. Yeah, Matthew chapter 18, verse number 20. Matthew chapter 18 and verse number 20. As I said to you, brethren, we're gonna shine the light of Jesus Christ. Again, the light has to come from Christ, okay? The light has to come from Christ. And it says in Matthew 18, verse 20, the context of this, if you look at it later, look at previous verses, it's about the church, all right? And it says, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. I'm not sure how many of us are here this morning. I'd guess about 45, roughly, all right? Some people might say, well, this is a small church. Yeah, but look, we're more than two or three. You know what Christ promises? That if we go to church and there's only two or three of us, but we come for the name of Christ, he's going to be in the midst of us. If we're gonna shine the light of Christ, then we need Christ's presence. Brethren, if we're gonna be that light, we need to be in the place where Christ is. And Christ is here this morning. Church is important. Please make church a priority in your life. You know, the fact that you're here this morning tells you, you do make it a priority, okay? And the more we wanna be a light for this world, the more we need to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. You say, but Pastor Kevin, I can be at home and I can fellowship with the Lord. Yes, you can. You can fellowship with the Lord on your drive to work, okay? But there's a special place, a special place in God's heart. You know what the church is called? The body of Christ. You know, when Christ came to this earth 2,000 years ago, his body was here, but now his body's ascended up to heaven. But you know what, his body is still here. And for Fairfield East, it's blessed up at this church, the body of Christ. Christ is the head of this church. And you know what? As Christ was the light of this world, so too are you guys, each one of you. The light of Jesus Christ, so long as you're saved, so long as you're here for Jesus Christ's sake, you can shine the light of Christ, but you must be in church, brethren. You know, you guys know me. I'm not this like dictator, right? Like if you miss out on church, I'm not ringing you the next day. Like, where were you guys? You know what, if you're not church, you must have a good reason for it, and that's it. You know, it's between you and the Lord, okay? I don't have like a roster here, making sure everyone's turned up, and who hasn't turned up this week, and watching the offering, who hasn't put offering in this week. I don't care about those things. Those things are between you and the Lord. But we come to church to receive some of the light of Christ, so then we can go out throughout the week and shine a light. Brethren, if you go entire week without church, this world is going to make you dark. You know, it's just, you either take the light of Jesus Christ, or you take the darkness that's in this world, and it's going to hinder your light. Brethren, church is important. Please make it a priority in your life. Let's keep going. Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20, please. Matthew chapter 20 and verse number 26. Matthew chapter 20 and verse number 26. What are some other words from Christ? It says here in Matthew 20, 26, but it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. You know how else we can be a light for Jesus Christ? By serving one another, by serving the brethren. This is why church is so good, because this is where we come together to meet the brethren. And this gives us the opportunities to fellowship together, to serve one another, and if you find out that a brother is struggling, hey, praying for that person, let him know that you love them, let him know that you're thinking about them, it's going to encourage that brother. Just greeting one another, or saying, see you next week, brother. It encourages the brethren. We can serve each other. My role, you might say, you got the office? Yeah, I got the office, but what does it say here? It says, what did it say? And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Yeah, I've got authority in the church, but really, I'm your servant. The reason you're here in preaching today is because I'm here to serve you. I'm here to serve you, the words of Jesus Christ. I'm not here to just proclaim my goodness and proclaim my wisdom, because brethren, I have none. My wisdom, my goodness comes from Jesus Christ, because he's the light of the world, and we're just reflecting that light that he's given us. It's all about Jesus Christ, and what's beautiful about coming to church and serving the brethren, Christ tells us that as we serve one another, we're serving him. We're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what? Sometimes we come to church and we don't get along with everybody. That's life. Do you get along with everybody in your family? It doesn't, you know, we don't always get along. We don't always make best friends in the church. You know what? There might even be people in your church that irritate you. You know what? But you have the mindset, if I serve this person, if I lower myself and give that person importance, and I show them love, I'm showing that importance, I'm showing that service, I'm showing that love to our Lord Jesus Christ, and he's going to reward you. He's going to give you great rewards in heaven simply for being a faithful member of church that loves the brethren, that serves the brethren. And so brethren, a great opportunity to shine the light of Christ is to serve one another. This church, we haven't got a lot of activities, we haven't got a lot of things on this program, partly because we haven't got that full-time pastor. I'm divided between two churches. But you know, any area that you see in this church that you can serve in, just do it. You know what? A piece of paper on the floor, you see some rubbish on the floor, you pick it up, throw it in the bin. Brethren, that's serving the church. You go to the toilet and the toilet paper's not there, or it's gumming, you know, whatever. Change it, fix it. You know, this is your house. This is your church, this is your brethren. This is where God wants you to come and serve. And again, you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever little thing it is, brethren, like I said last Thursday, even just giving, giving a child a cup of water is serving the Lord, is serving the Lord. And you're not going to lose your reward. The Lord's going to reward you. All right, let's keep going. Matthew chapter 23, Matthew chapter 23 and verse number 13. Matthew chapter 23 and verse number 13. Matthew 23 and verse number 13. We're coming now into the week when Christ would be crucified. You may recall that he came riding on the donkey, right, into Jerusalem. And then that last week would be the week that he would be crucified. But in this week, it says here in Matthew 23, 13, what is, who is he speaking to? But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye come past sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Hey, what else is Christ doing? As he shines the light of his word. Hey, he's exposing the false prophets, exposing the false prophets, exposing false doctrine. Hey, that's another great way that we can be a light to this world. You know, sometimes I come across Christians that are recently saved, and you know what's number one on their mind? Exposing some false prophet. Exposing some false doctrine. Hey, it's fine. That's a great way to shine the light of Jesus Christ. But I'm just trying to show you there are other things as well. It's not just about that. You know, my mind, my focus, I'm not there listening to heretics. I'm not there listening to false prophets all the time. It's a waste of my time. I'd much rather spend my time in the truth of God's word than listening to some false prophet so I can just debunk him afterwards. But Brevin, I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm saying there's a time and place for that. And that is one sure way that we can shine the light of Jesus Christ by exposing false prophets. But the best way to expose false prophets and false doctrine is to preach the truth, to know the truth. That's the best way. And you know what? Again, as a church, we're not gonna shy away from that. You know, if we have some false prophet interrupting us or trying to make our life difficult, or you know what, we find out some churches. You know, praise God, the JWs are not out soul winning. It's not soul winning. They're not out soul damning anymore. They're not making twofold more a child of hell than themselves anymore during this whole COVID thing. Praise God for that. Praise God. Have you guys seen anybody going out door to door preaching anything? I think it's just the Baptist right now. Praise God for that. Okay, but you know what? That's our job to make sure that this community receives the truth of God's word. There are too many people, there are too many scribes and Pharisees that think they know God's word and are teaching false doctrines, teaching false gospels. And brethren, it's our job to combat that. Again, one of the best ways we ever spoke about is going soul winning. Like clearing up people's confusion. Do they understand salvation is solely on Christ and not on their good works, not on their church, not on stopping sinning or something like that, but solely on what Christ has done. And that is our job to expose false prophets, false doctrines. Once again, the only way you can do it brethren is to know the truth of God's word. So this is a great way, yeah, do it. If you want to be a light of Jesus Christ, do it. Make sure you do it all. All these things that we're going through chapter by chapter. Can you please go to Matthew 24 now? Please go to Matthew 24. And a lot of us are familiar with Matthew 24 because it's the chapter about the end times, okay? Future events to come. And in Matthew 24 verse 44, Christ says, therefore be you also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh. So how else can we shine the light of Christ? By looking forward to the coming of Christ. I hope you're looking forward to seeing Christ. I hope you're looking forward to seeing face to face. And brethren, you know, there are many passions of this world, many objectives that we want to, you know, make ourselves into something, a mass wealth, a mass, you know, a name for ourselves in this world. And sometimes, you know, I find that some Christians aren't really looking forward to Christ because they just got too much on this world to live for. But it's not eternal things. They're temporary things. And brethren, when you think about looking forward to the coming of Christ, it's not so much that, you know, I'm here, when's the mark of the beast gonna turn up? Like, you know, did you know this happened in Europe now? And now things are changing and the nations are dividing and I think we're coming closer. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about having our eyes set on eternity. You know, not having our eyes set on temporary things and carnal things of this earth. Listen, yeah, part of our attention has to be on these things because we have to live a life. We still have to live a life. We still have to go to work. We still have to have families. We still need to raise children, raise the next generation. Of course, you know, part of ourselves are gonna be upon this earth, but I hope your desire is that you would use the carnal things that you have on this earth for eternal purposes. You know, I'm raising my kids because I want them to love Jesus. I want them to continue on soldiering for the Lord Jesus Christ. They would be the next soul winners. You know, that's my desire for the next generation. They would be the soul winners going out, preaching God's word. And I'm gonna do everything I can to provide as best as I can, to give my kids the best education. They would be able to read this Bible. They would have good doctrine in their minds. They would grow up loving the Lord Jesus Christ. And then with that platform, with those things that are more carnal, they're gonna be able to use that to serve God in the future. And so brethren, I'm not saying just disregard the world. We live in this world. You know, Christ has not removed us from this world, but our eyes have to be upon eternity. Looking forward to the coming of Jesus Christ. Brethren, we're coming back to this earth for a thousand years, okay? Don't forget that. Yeah, okay, we get 70 years here, 80 years, 90, 100 years, if you're lucky, but you got a thousand years coming up, okay? And you're gonna be serving Christ. So get ready for it. Start knowing what God wants you to do. Start knowing His word so you can be a better service to Jesus Christ when He returns. We're looking forward to the coming of Christ. Can you please go to Matthew 27? Verse number 22. Matthew chapter 27 and verse number 22. And of course, when you think about the light of Christ, we think about the pinnacle of His ministry, okay? And you know, I love Christmas. I mean, I don't really, we don't really do too much. Like we don't really put, Isabel like really wants to put lights around the house. We drive down the streets and so many houses are decorated. We don't really do that kind of stuff. You know, for me, I'm not too much into the decorations of Christmas and all that. It's not wrong though. None of that's wrong. But you know, we think of Christmas and it's a big holiday. We think about the birth of Christ. Oh, we think about the birth of Christ and not Santa Claus and all these kinds of things. But you know, the pinnacle, the climax of Christ's ministry was His death. You know, was His buried, was His resurrection. This is the gospel. This is why He came. He came to die for the sins of the world. And it says in Matthew 27, 22, Pilate says unto them, what shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say unto Him, let Him be crucified. Let Him be crucified. You know what? Christ came to be the light of this world. And part of that light is that He crucified His flesh. His body was nailed to that cross, brethren. And we know we look at that. We look at what Christ has done. You know, I'm not saying that, you know, we have to be crucified in that sense because none of us can die for anyone's sins. The only one that could have died for our sins, of course, is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. But with that example that He's given us, the suffering that He went through, we have Galatians 5, 24, which I'll just read to you. Galatians 5, 24, which says, and they that are Christ's, are you Christ's? Are you saved? That's you then. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Listen, our lusts, our earthly affections, brethren, we have to crucify that, all right? Christ came, He crucified Himself for our sins. He's paid our punishment. God's anger, God's wrath, God's curse was put on Christ. And we receive the blessings. We receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed upon us. And that's an example. Then what do we do? Well, we ought to crucify ourselves as well, to crucify the affections, the lusts, the things that this flesh desires, brethren. And God wants us to live holy, righteous lives that serve Him, that honor Him, that He can look down and see a spiritual nation that loves Him, that He receives the praise of men, that He receives the worship of His children. God has given us that responsibility as well, brethren. And the more you crucify the flesh, the more you give up on this worldly lifestyle, you're going to be weird in the eyes of the world. But you know what that weirdness is? It's the light of Jesus Christ, okay? And so many people, I've come across so many people that have said to me, you're different. You do things differently. You think differently. Why? It's because I'm a Christian. That's why. Because I love Jesus Christ. That's why. Because I'm saved and I'm trying to serve Him. But you know what, brethren? Even if we are Christ's, we can unfortunately still give into the affections, the lusts of this world. And you can just look like anybody else. Like you can just be as worldly, as carnal, as anybody else, and that light will be dim and nobody will even know. But that's not the purpose of this sermon today, of course. Listen, and if you do that and you're Christ, you're still going to pass away and go to heaven when you die. Praise God for that. Praise God that you've got the foundation of Christ. But you know what? We ought to be more than that, right? We ought to be people that crucify the affections, the lusts of this world, and give ourselves wholly to Jesus Christ. Not to be saved, but that we will please Him. That God will use this body, blessed up Baptist Church, to be a body of Christ, to be a salt of this earth, to be the light that shines, the glorious words, the glorious message that He's given us. His death, His burial, His resurrection. He saved us from our sins. He saved us from hell. He's given us the promise of eternal life in heaven. Now, what can we do for Christ? You know, that's the end of the sermon this morning, brethren. I'm sure there are certain things that you are doing. I'm sure there are certain ways that you are shining the light of Christ. But I'm sure there are other things that are on this list that you're not doing. And I pray that you consider this. I pray that you'd be challenged. I pray that you desire to be a greater light for the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, this world is getting worse and worse. In fact, someone at the door said to me, this world is getting worse and worse. And he's right, he's 100% correct. You know what? The worse this world gets, the darker it gets, the more we can shine. The more we need to shine, brethren. Because there aren't many people that want to shine the light of Christ. And I'm looking forward to the coming of Christ. You know, we need to ensure that our eyes are set on eternity and not upon the carnality and the temporary things of this world. All right, let's have a word of prayer.