Aug 2 2026
Primary Scripture: Matthew 5:16 (KJV)
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, as I open Your Word today, I ask You to open my heart and the hearts of those who hear it. Help me not simply to speak about Your light, but to walk in it. Help each of us examine our own walk, not somebody else’s. And when this message is finished, may the glory belong entirely to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
As I prepared this message, I began thinking about my own life.
I tried to remember a particular moment when somebody had shown me what the Christian walk looked like—not by what they said, but by what they did.
And I could remember kindness.
I could remember people who helped me.
I could remember people who showed patience when they did not have to. People who saw a need and stepped forward. People who did something good for me without expecting anything in return.
But I ran into a problem.
In many of those moments, I cannot tell you whether the person who helped me was a Christian.
I knew they were kind.
I knew what they did mattered.
I knew I appreciated it.
But I cannot honestly stand here and tell you that their kindness came from their faith in Jesus Christ, because I simply do not know.
And that realization caused me to stop asking a question about them and start asking a question about myself.
If somebody met me without knowing that I was a preacher, without knowing anything about Pathway of Faith, without hearing me quote a verse of Scripture, and without me telling them that I am a Christian, what would they see?
Would they simply see another person trying to be decent?
Or would there be something about my walk that eventually pointed them beyond me toward Jesus Christ?
That question brought me right back to the words of Jesus:
“Let your light so shine before men…”
Notice that Jesus said to let it shine.
He did not tell me merely to talk about the light.
He did not tell me to wear a sign announcing that I had the light.
He said:
“Let your light so shine before men…”
There ought to be something visible in the way I live.
But I also need to be careful here.
Kindness alone does not prove that somebody is a Christian.
I have met kind people who never professed Christ.
I have met helpful people whose faith I knew nothing about.
An unbeliever can feed somebody who is hungry.
An unbeliever can help a neighbor.
An unbeliever can stop beside the road and help a stranger.
An unbeliever can show patience and generosity.
So what makes my Christian walk different?
Jesus answers that in the rest of our text:
“…that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
There it is.
Jesus does not stop with people seeing what I do.
The light is supposed to point somewhere.
It points beyond me.
If somebody walks away from an encounter with me thinking only, “Jim is a pretty good fellow,” then they have seen Jim.
But Jesus said:
“…glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
My walk ought to point beyond me toward Him.
And that immediately raises another question.
Where does this light come from?
Jesus answered that in John 8:12:
“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
I am not the source of the light.
Jesus is.
I do not manufacture Christian light by trying harder to look religious.
I follow Christ.
And the closer I walk with Him, the more His presence should begin affecting the way I live.
That brings me right back to our text:
“Let your light so shine before men…”
His light.
Shining through my life.
Now that is different from religious performance.
Performance says, “Look what I did.”
Faith says, “Look what Christ is doing in me.”
Performance wants somebody to notice.
Love notices somebody else.
Performance behaves differently when somebody is watching.
Faithfulness keeps walking with Christ when nobody is watching.
And I want to make something absolutely clear.
I am not talking about earning salvation.
I cannot earn salvation with kindness.
I cannot earn salvation by helping enough people.
I cannot earn salvation by forgiving somebody.
I cannot earn salvation by attending church, giving money, serving my neighbor, or doing a lifetime of good deeds.
Jesus Christ has already done what I could never do for myself.
I am saved by grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:8–9 says:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
But Scripture does not stop there.
Verse 10 says:
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…”
There is an important order there.
I do not do good works so Christ will save me.
Christ saves me, changes me, works within me—and then something should begin happening in the way I walk.
That is why Jesus can say:
“…that they may see your good works…”
We have spent time considering Agape—the love of God.
I have preached about a God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
I have talked about a Savior who loved us while we were yet sinners.
I have talked about a love we could never earn.
But now I have to ask myself:
Having received that love, has it changed anything about the way I walk?
If Christ has forgiven me, does forgiveness show up anywhere in my life?
If Christ has shown compassion toward me, am I becoming more compassionate?
If Christ has given me hope, what comes out of my mouth when everything around me seems hopeless?
If my Savior humbled Himself and served, what happens when somebody needs my help and there is absolutely nothing in it for me?
That is where this sermon leaves Sunday morning and walks into Monday.
And once again I hear Jesus:
“Let your light so shine before men…”
Where?
Not only inside the church.
At the grocery store.
In traffic.
At home.
With my family.
With the neighbor who gets on my nerves.
With the person who disagrees with me.
With the person who cannot do anything for me in return.
What happens when the cashier is taking too long and I am already frustrated?
What happens when somebody cuts me off in traffic?
What happens when somebody speaks harshly to me?
What happens when somebody needs help at an inconvenient time?
What happens when everybody around me is complaining?
What happens when nobody will ever know whether I helped?
What happens when forgiveness costs me something?
That is where my walk starts talking.
And sometimes it talks louder than anything I could ever preach from a pulpit.
Psalm 119:105 says:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
God has not left me stumbling around trying to invent the Christian life.
He gave me His Word.
And I love the picture of a lamp unto my feet.
A lamp does not necessarily illuminate every mile of the road ahead.
It shows me where to put my foot next.
Sometimes I become so concerned about what God wants me to do tomorrow that I overlook what His Word is showing me to do today.
Maybe today’s step is kindness.
Maybe today’s step is forgiveness.
Maybe today’s step is controlling my tongue.
Maybe today’s step is making a telephone call.
Maybe today’s step is helping somebody without announcing that I helped them.
Maybe today’s step is sitting beside somebody who is hurting when I do not have the words to make their pain disappear.
Maybe today’s step is simply refusing to add another voice of despair to a world already overflowing with it.
One step.
Then another.
And that brings me back again:
“Let your light so shine before men…”
First John 1:7 says:
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another…”
Walk.
I keep coming back to that word.
Walking means movement.
Walking means continuing.
Walking means putting one foot in front of another.
I am not standing before anyone today claiming that I have walked every step perfectly.
I haven’t.
There have been times when I stumbled.
There have been times when I took a wrong step.
There have been times when my attitude did not reflect Christ the way it should have.
There have been times when the light was there, but I allowed too much of Jim to get in its way.
And I suspect I am not alone.
But when I stumble, I return to Christ.
I return to His Word.
I let the lamp show me the next step.
And I start walking again.
Not because walking earns my salvation.
Because I belong to the One I am following.
And as I follow Him, something ought to become visible.
Paul says in Philippians 2:15:
“…among whom ye shine as lights in the world;”
Look at the world around us.
There is plenty of darkness.
There is anger.
There is bitterness.
There is division.
There is fear.
There is discouragement.
There is despair.
People seem increasingly willing to tear one another apart over almost anything.
And I have to ask myself:
What am I adding to it?
Am I carrying more anger into an angry world?
Am I carrying more bitterness into a bitter world?
Am I carrying more despair into a discouraged world?
Or am I carrying light?
Jesus said:
“Let your light so shine before men…”
Darkness does not need more darkness from me.
Despair does not need me standing beside it saying, “You’re right. There is no hope.”
Hatred does not need me learning how to hate better than everybody else.
I have something different to carry.
I have hope.
Not because everything in my life always goes the way I want.
It doesn’t.
Not because Christians never get sick.
We do.
Not because Christians never lose somebody they love.
We do.
Not because Christians never struggle.
We do.
Not because I always know what tomorrow will bring.
I don’t.
My hope is not built upon favorable circumstances.
My hope has a name.
His name is Jesus.
And because my hope is in Christ, I can hurt and still have hope.
I can grieve and still have hope.
I can face uncertainty and still have hope.
I can stand beside somebody whose world is falling apart and admit, “I cannot fix this.”
But I can also say:
“I will stand here with you.”
Sometimes that may be one of the brightest ways I ever let His light shine.
No sermon.
No lecture.
No easy answer.
Just love.
Just compassion.
Just refusing to leave somebody alone in their darkness.
And once again:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works…”
Maybe somebody will remember that I helped.
Maybe somebody will remember that I forgave.
Maybe somebody will remember that when everyone else walked away, I stayed.
Maybe somebody will remember that when everything seemed hopeless, I still had hope.
And perhaps someday they will ask me why.
Then I have the opportunity to point beyond myself.
Not:
“Look what a wonderful Christian I am.”
But:
“Let me tell you about Jesus.”
Let me tell you about the One who loved me when I could not earn His love.
Let me tell you about the One who forgave me.
Let me tell you about the One who died for my sins.
Let me tell you about the One who rose again.
Let me tell you about the One who gave me hope.
Let me tell you about the One whose light I am still learning to walk in every day.
Now we have arrived at the whole verse:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
There is the destination.
Not my glory.
His.
Not my reputation.
His name.
Not people being impressed with my goodness.
People seeing something in my life that causes them to look toward my Father in heaven.
So today I am asking myself the same question I asked when I began this message:
What does somebody see when they look at my walk?
And I am asking you to ask it with me.
What do people see when they look at ours?
Do they see constant anger?
Do they hear constant complaining?
Do they see bitterness?
Do they see somebody so consumed with the darkness that we have forgotten the Light?
Or every now and then, do they catch a glimpse of Jesus?
I did not say perfection.
I said a glimpse of Jesus.
A willing heart.
A helpful hand.
A forgiving spirit.
Kindness when kindness is not deserved.
Compassion when it would be easier to walk away.
Hope when circumstances give us every reason to despair.
Faith when we cannot see what waits around the next corner.
And a life that quietly says:
“I know where my light comes from.”
“Let your light so shine before men…”
Maybe somebody listening today knows that your light has grown dim.
You still believe.
You still belong to Christ.
But disappointment came.
Weariness came.
Anger came.
Life happened.
And somewhere along the journey, you stopped walking as closely with Him as you once did.
Come closer again.
Open His Word.
Let the lamp illuminate your feet.
You do not have to see the whole road today.
Take the next step.
And perhaps somebody listening has never known the Light I have been preaching about.
You cannot reflect a Savior you have never received.
Christianity does not begin with learning how to act like a Christian.
It begins with Christ.
Jesus said:
“I am the light of the world.”
He died for our sins.
He rose again.
And He offers salvation freely to those who will come to Him.
Romans 10:9 says:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
You do not earn it.
You receive Him by faith.
And when Christ enters your life, a new walk begins.
If the Lord is speaking to your heart today, do not ignore Him.
If you need Christ, come.
If you already belong to Christ but know you have wandered away from the light, come closer again.
If bitterness has taken hold, bring it to Him.
If forgiveness seems impossible, ask Him for the strength you do not have on your own.
If despair has begun drowning out your hope, remember where your hope is found.
The altar is still open.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.
Thank You that I do not have to earn Your love and that salvation does not depend upon accumulating enough good works. Thank You for grace.
Now, Lord, because You have loved us, teach us to walk in Your light.
When anger comes, give us grace.
When somebody is hurting, give us compassion.
When there is a need before us, give us willing hearts.
When forgiveness is difficult, remind us how greatly we have been forgiven.
When darkness surrounds us, remind us that our hope is Jesus Christ.
And Father, when somebody sees something good in us, do not let us keep the glory.
Let our lives point toward You.
Let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven.
In Jesus’ precious name,
Amen.
Church, as we leave this place today, let’s not leave the Lord behind. Take Him with you into your homes, into your families, into your work, and into your quiet places. Until we gather again, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Amen.