Live As Children Of Light

INTRO.- Live as children.

ILL.- It was at the end of the school year, and a kindergarten teacher was receiving gifts from her pupils.

The florist’s son handed her a gift. She shook it, held it overhead, and said, "I bet I know what it is. Some flowers."

"That’s right" the boy said, "but how did you know?" "Oh, just a wild guess," she said.

The next pupil was the candy shop owner’s daughter.

The teacher held her gift overhead, shook it, and said, "I bet I can guess what it is. A box of sweets."

"That’s right, but how did you know?" asked the girl. "Oh, just a wild guess," said the teacher.

The next gift was from the son of the liquor store owner. The teacher held the package overhead, but it was leaking. She touched a drop of the leakage with her finger and touched it to her tongue.

"Is it wine?" she asked. "No," the boy replied, with some excitement.

The teacher repeated the process, taking a larger drop of the leakage to her tongue.

"Is it champagne?" she asked.

"No," the boy replied, with more excitement. The teacher took one more taste before declaring, "I give up, what is it?" With great glee, the boy replied, "It’s a puppy!"

Live as children.

Sometimes don’t you wish you could go back to your childhood days when it seemed like your life was much more worry free? Or carefree? You simply trusted mom and dad take care of you and guide you in life. WE HAD IT MADE AND DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT! Instead, we wanted to grow up and do our own thing! And my goodness, we had no idea what was waiting for us in this world! WHAT A CRUEL WORLD WE LIVE IN!

Live as children of light. Instead of living as mere children in this world we are to live as children OF LIGHT! This world needs some light, wouldn’t you agree? It needs light shed on it. It needs the light of God. It needs Jesus who is the light of the world. It needs Christians to live as children of light.

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." Matthew 5:14 How could we be the light of the world when Jesus is the true light of the world? I’ve heard it said that we are the reflection of the light of Jesus. I believe this is true. We are His reps in this world. We are His salespeople. We are His advertising in the world.

What are you advertising with your life? What’s the dominant thing or theme in your life? What do you live for? Or whom do you live for? What do people see in you?

PROP.- In our text, Paul tells us how to live as children of the light or how to live as children who belong to Jesus.

1- Seek to the please the Lord

2- Have nothing to do with darkness

3- Make the most of every opportunity

4- Be filled with the Spirit

I. SEEK TO PLEASE THE LORD

Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10and find out what pleases the Lord.

ILL.- Do you ever watch or did you ever watch the DISCOVERY channel on TV? They have all kinds of interesting subjects that they discover and show us.

They cover subject such as: animals, space, technology, history, planet earth, etc. And all are interesting.

For example, one show was entitled, "Boys Will Be Boys, Even Among Monkeys." A team of scientists of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia decided to offer typical "male" and "female" toys to rhesus monkeys to see if preferences aligned with sex.

Much to their surprise, they did. The 11 male monkeys headed straight for the wheeled toys, such as dump trucks, leaving the plush toys more-or-less unmolested. The 23 females were more curious, and played with both. BOYS WILL BE BOYS, EVEN AMONG MONKEYS.

Now, while all this information is interesting, it carries no eternal value other than making us appreciate our Creator even more! And it should! We must always remember to worship the Creator rather than His creation!

Paul said, "find out what pleases the Lord." If we are going to live as children of light in this world we must find out what pleases the Lord and then seek to please Him!

ILL.- How long have you been married? I bet you have learned some things to do and some thing not to do in your marriage in order to appease or perhaps PLEASE your mate! TRUE? And surely, you want to please your mate, at least to some degree?

Surely, you realize that if you scratch her back she’ll scratch your back?! Or vice versa! Or what you dish out is what you will get in return!