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Let Your Light Shine
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

HOW TO LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE
BY YOUR DEEDS AND WITH YOUR MONEY

Matt. 5:14-16

INTRO: The last message on this text dealt with "How to Let Your Light Shine by What You Say". The particular point made was that you can, and ought to let your language, or conversation, be a shining testimony of the presence of God in your life.

This message is designed to show you two other ways to let your light shine.

I. LET US FIRST CONSIDER THE FACT THAT YOU CAN LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE BY THE DEEDS YOU DO:

A. Deeds refer to your outward acts and involvements:

1. This is not a matter of thinking or contemplating, or of good intentions. We are dealing here with what a child of God does: what actually goes on his work record.

2. Jesus particularly specified this as a way of letting your light shine as he spoke in Matt. 5:16. He mentioned our "good works". According to James Strong, the Greek word for "works" is "ergon", meaning, "toil". By implication, he says it means "an act, deed, doing, labor".

B. Works or deeds, is the very thing that has established the shining testimonies of so many of the saints of God:

1. It was the act of pouring the precious ointment upon Jesus that established before men that Mary was just before God. In view of her act, Jesus said, "She hath wrought a good work on me", Mark 14:6. He continued in Vs. 8, "She hath done what she could". Note well the words, "She hath done".

2. It was the voluminous good works that Dorcas performed that made her such a bright Christian light in her day, and even until ours. Acts 9:36 says of Dorcas, "This woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did. " When Peter came to her town, Joppa, at her death, "All the widows stood by him weeping, and shouing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them", Acts 9:39. Folks, we are talking about deeds; and about how they let your light shine. In fact, this very section of scripture gives another illustration of a man's light shining by his deed. Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (a miraculous apostolic deed, which none of us have the power to perform), Acts 9:40-41. The result of this deed, is seen in Vs. 42, "And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord".

3. Col. 1:20 teaches that we "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. " Heb. 11 is a whole chapter of people, who took that literally, like all of us should. What established that there was light in the life of Abel (Vs. 4), Enoch [ Vs. 5], Noah [ Vs. 7], Abraham [ Vs. 8], Sarah [ Vs. 11 ], Isaac [Vs. 20], Jacob [Vs. 21], Joseph [Vs. 22], Moses [Vs. 23], or the host of others, both named and unnamed, in Vs. 30-40? The answer is, "their works, or deeds".

C. In fact, the Bible is very careful to make the point that your works ought to be in harmony with, and in confirmation of, what you say:

1 . James commanded, "So speak ye, and so do", James 2:12. The truth is that your deeds ought to confirm your words.

2. Here's how the same truth is stated in I Jno. 3.18, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

3. One of the most thorough passages on the issue in God's word, is James 2:14-20. Here James is dealing with Christian justification before other men (not God) - He is making vivid the point that they will only know we are God's, and that there is Christian light in us if our works confirm our words. People will conclude there is no light in us, if we have no works. Even if we say we do, but works are absent from us, they will conclude there is no light in us, for our works will have contradicted our words, thus rendering them neutral, or void. It takes a spontaneous and continual flow of works in us that harmonize with our talk about love for God, in order to prove before men that there is light in us.

4. If your works do not harmonize with, and confirm your words of Christian dedication, you will find yourself in the condition of Lot, in Gen. 19:14. He had not diligently worked to honor God in Sodom, even though he was a righteous man. Though he spoke of the Lord, he had no active flow of good works to substantiate his claims. Thus, when he spoke unto his sons-in-law about coming divine judgment, "he seemed as one that mocketh unto his sons-in-law. "

D. It is no wonder then, that God's word calls on us to let our lights shine by our deeds, or outward acts and involvements:

1. I Thess. 4:11 tells us to "work",- and Jno. 6:27 says, "Labor".

2. Gal. 5:13 says, "By love, serve one another". Serving involves working.

3. Heb. 9:14 teaches us to "serve the living God",- and Heb. 12:28 says, "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably. " Psa. 100:2, goes so far as to instruct us to "serve the Lord with gladness".

4. James 1:22 is the passage telling us to be "doers of the word" '

5. Wise Solomon warns, "In all labor there is profit; but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury", Prov. 14:23.

6. Establishing a Christian testimony, or light, involves deeds: right, good deeds; and lots of them. Things like regular attendance in Church, consistent giving of your money, efforts to help backslidden Christians, soul winning, and active part in a ministry of the Church, acts of kindness to others, training your children in the paths of righteousness, doing your best as an employee, and thousands of other deeds can be a beautiful and effective way of letting your Christian light shine, thus pointing men to Jesus. It will help us to be like Moses, which Acts 7:22 says, "was mighty in words and in deeds".

II. THE THIRD WAY YOU CAN LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE IS WITH YOUR MONEY:

A. Your money enables you to reach beyond your own personal limitations, and do a work for God:

1. Through your own personal, first hand efforts, you can only do a limited number of works:

a. We all suffer human limitations.

b. Regardless of how dedicated you are, you can only speak to so many, and be in so many places, and do so much work.

2. But, with your money, you can enable others to go, speak, and carry on the whole spectrum of God's work:

a. The Philippian believers, through their giving, enabled the apostle Paul to go and do work in their stead, or in their place. Phil. 4:14-16 says, "Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. " They actually sent material goods to enable this great missionary to continue the work of God, in which he was directly involved. Their giving enabled him to continue.

b. By your giving, you can enable a preacher to go out and talk to men about their souls, and to spend his entire energies studying, preparing to preach, and doing a large number of Godly works that honor God. By your giving, you can enable a missionary to go across the world to win men to Christ, and to establish Bible believing, New Testament churches. By your giving, you can keep a fleet of buses rolling, to reach souls. By your giving, you can be helping win men to Christ in Japan, in Germany, in England, in Alaska, and in Brazil, all at the same time.

c. Many things, through your monetary support can be done that you couldn't do, even if you were there, simply because you do not possess the talent to do so. Yet, by your giving, the work gets done. You enable others to go and do the work, who do have the talent, when you give your money.

3. And, a beautiful truth is the fact that when another, whom you support with your money, does the work, you have a hand in that work. You are a partaker in his activities:

a. As the light of that person's ministry shines, it is a little bit of your light.

b. Paul indicates that,by praying for, and supporting others with our material goods, we become a partner, or "Partaker" in the other person's labors. He mentions that possibility in II Tim. 1:8. II Cor. 8:4 explains how we become a partaker in another man's labor by our monetary giving. In discussing the Macedonian believers, the apostle Paul says that they gave of their monetary goods to enable him to continue to preach the gospel. By so doing, the divine logic concludes that they became partners in Paul's labors. This verse says, "Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints." Note as well that there was a common bond of partnership and fellowship between the person doing the preaching, and those, who by their monetary giving, made it possible. They truly became "laborers together", I Cor. 3.9.

c. After having acknowledged the money received from the Philippians, in Phil. 4:14-16, Paul then said the work he did was "fruit" abounding to their "account", Phil. 4:17.

4. So with your money, you are able to do a work bigger than self; bigger than you alone, at best, could ever do:

a. You are able to preach, pray, sing, win souls, build churches in many places, all at the same time, by your monetary support. Paul said of those Macedonians, who gave to enable him to continue, "for to their power, I bear them record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves", II Cor. 8:3. Notice well that Paul says, they did a work beyond their power. It would have been impossible for them to each have gone to all the places and accomplished all the things that Paul did; but by their monetary support, they were able to reach out and do a work bigger than they alone could have ever done. That men, through giving, can reach out and do a work bigger than themselves is also suggested in I Tim. 6.17-19, where the apostle Paul said, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they may do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. "

b. By your giving, your light can continue shining, even while you sleep.

c. No wonder, then that Solomon said in Eccl. 4:9, "Two are better than one."

B. But, it should be well remembered that without monetary support, the light of God's work can't long survive and shine:

1. God's plan is that his work be supported by the tithes and offerings of his people:

a. In Mal. 3:10 he said, bring in the "tithes, that there may be meat in mine house"

b. He said in I Cor. 9:14, "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. "

c. It is a fact of life that it takes money to build churches, to pay utility bills, to buy insurance, to do printing work, for preachers and missionaries to live, just as it does to sustain the activities and lives of those in other facets of life.

2. When the money is not given, all these lights must, and will, go out:

a. Churches will close, missionaries will come home, preachers will be forced into secular occupations, buses will be sold, and all other good works will cease.

b. This is made so very clear in Neh. 13:10-11. Nehemiah said, "And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work were fled every one to his field. " Sure, they had fled every one to his field, because the money was not given so that they could continue to do the work of the Lord Thus, the conclusion that is seen in Vs. 11, was that the "house of God" was forsaken. That same sort of thing will happen in any era of time, including today, once God's people cease to let their lights shine with their money.

3. How we need to realize that if the light is to continue to shine, we must bring our money into God's treasury. That is certainly an excellent way for us to let our lights to shine before men. It is one of the three major ways we can do so. It, along with proper use of our language, and by our good deeds, becomes a powerful way of letting our light shine before men.

 

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"