Arise! Shine!
I’m going to share to you our Church Vision. I believe that this must be the vision for every church. They might say it different but it must be the same message!. In fact it must be the vision for every Child of God.
Are you ready let’s go!
Isaiah 60:1-5
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
[2] For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
[3] And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
[4] Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
[5] Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
We know that the Bible has been inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Men like Isaiah were writing down the instructions given to them by the Holy Spirit.
Here in Is 60 he’s just doing that.
We find two direct commands here.
The first one is:
Arise! Means to get up from where you are!
Sometimes, maybe today there might be people here
who need to hear this.
You might be feeling down and out – God says Arise!
Listen. Winners are those people who stand up one
more time after being struck down.
Winning doesn’t mean you never fail, it
rather means you never quit!
The second command is:
Shine! The question is; How can one shine?
I mean people, sometimes, say that my head shines,
but that is only because I haven’t got a lot of hair
left.
How can one shine?
Go with me to
Ephes. 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
We find part of the answer here:
Christ shall give thee light.
We all know about the mosaic glass in the old cathedrals. At first, when you look at them, they don’t look great. It is only when the sun shines through them that you get the full colour effect. And everybody goes OOOOH. AAAAAH. We must be like that glass, when must allow the real Son to shine through us, and then only will you reach your full potential.
Let me teach you something here!
Ephes 5:14 says Christ shall give you light
What is he talking about?, What is this light?
John talks about us being this light, and that the light should not be put under a bucket.
Go to
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
So what was the light?
The life was the light!
What is John talking here about?
Jesus died on the cross and died.
Does that mean that the light died as well?
Have we lost the light?
This is what Satan was hoping for. But the answer is NO 1000 times No!
Go with me to
1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son.
God gave us eternal life!
This life is in his Son
Listen, by going to the cross, He gave us eternal life! Hallelujah!
But you need to ARISE and Shine!
You must do what John 3:7 says to get this light.
Now this opens Isaiah 60 a little more.
The light is like a moth flying closer and closer to the light.
This light pulls people.
It’s not your brilliance, it’s the light!
Look at Is 60: 1 again "for thy light is come"
Compare that with
John 1:9 That was the true Light, which light every man that cometh into the world.
Read
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Not only that! He repeats Isaiah 60:1
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Can you see the comparisons?
Back to Isaiah 60:2
[2] For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Darkness in scripture show towards sin, or death!
So now you’ve got Eternal life and Death
Light and Darkness
Who do you think will win?
Light and life of course!
Jesus was the victor at Calvary. He said “It is finished”
Read with me
1 John 1:5-7 This then is the message, which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
[6] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and
do not the truth:
[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
God is light, there is no darkness in Him.
IS 60:2 but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
[3] And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
What shall be seen on thee? His Glory!
That will pull people to you!
His power and might not ours.
We don’t need more programs we need more God,
We don’t need more people we need more God
So
Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they
come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
[5] Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be
enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the
forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
We need to lift our eyes up, and see.
For the Lord will do great things amongst us.
Turn with met to our vision statement in your pamphlet!
Our Vision is to To build old wate places by imparting the Word of God and raise up foundations of many generations, preaching Christ crucified and resurrected. Isaiah 58:12
We will achieve this by:
Sharing our Bread with the hungry - Preaching about the Bread of life
Bringing to our House the poor and cast out - Fellowship like church of Acts
By covering the naked - Proclaiming the Good News that Jesus saves.
Is 58:7,10.
My work is to impart the Word into you so that you may be able to build up the waste places.
We’re already doing that.
We’re also raising up foundations. There might be many backslidden people out there who need to be raised up for God.
I want our church to focus more on the needy, Physical and spiritual, people out there. We need to go out into the world. Let’s see if we can find someone to share our Bread with, our light.
Let’s fellowship like the church of Acts.
Let’s cover the naked (sin makes you naked – ask Adam about it) with the Blood of Christ.
Amen
