The sermon 'Precious Stones All Lit Up' by Scott Brown focuses on Revelation 21, where the church in heaven is depicted as the Lamb's wife, a radiant city adorned with precious stones. The speaker draws parallels between the heavenly church and the church on earth, encouraging believers to see themselves as God's treasures, living stones reflecting His light. The sermon explores various Biblical metaphors for God's people, contrasting them with descriptions of those who do not follow God. The speaker calls on believers to live as lights in the world, replicating heavenly beauty on earth and being aware of the spiritual battle against counterfeit beauty. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding God's Word, walking in the light, and bringing heavenly culture into earthly lives, fostering a culture of light and righteousness in families, churches, and communities.

Yes, please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 21. We'll begin our reading in verse 9. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. Verse 9. Then, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying come I will show you the bride the Lamb's wife And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me a great the great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.

Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. The construction of its wall was of jasper, this is verse 18. The construction of its wall was of jasper, this is verse 18. The construction of its wall was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones.

The first foundation was Jasper, the second, Sapphire, the third, Chalcedony, the fourth, Emerald, the fifth, Sardonyx, the sixth, Sardius, the seventh, Chrysalite, the eighth, Beryl, the ninth, Topaz, the tenth Chrysophrase, the eleventh Jacinth, and the twelfth Amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each individual gate was of one pearl and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. Let's pray. Father come and open our eyes that we might observe wonderful things from your law. Teach us, lead us into truth, keep us from error, help us to understand the way things really are in the world from this great vision of heaven.

Thank you, O Lord, that heaven is a is the perfection of all that we have here. Amen. Please be seated. So in in Revelation 21, 9 through 11 and 18 through 21, John So in Revelation 21, 9-11 and 18-21, John is continuing to show us the Lamb's wife. This is the church in heaven.

This picture of the church in heaven, the people of God are his treasures they are his jewels They are his precious stones. They are full of light. They're full of beauty on earth they are also precious stones And they are reflecting the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, we as God's precious stones in the world, we bear a dim reflection of these perfected stones in heaven, but God regards us as his jewels, as his precious stones. And remember, Revelation is a letter, it's an epistle to seven churches, seven churches who are persecuted.

They were living in a highly sexualized societies like our own, they were living under persecution. We learned from those seven letters that some were losing their employment, not able to work because of their faith. They wouldn't do the things that the emperor wanted them to do. And so this is really a book to declare the victory of Jesus Christ, to encourage them, to come to them and help them know who they are, to help them to understand what God is doing in the world. And we've walked through these various cycles of history in the book of Revelation and now we're here at the end in Revelation 21 and 22.

It's the it's the most compact description of heaven in the entire Bible and you've we've encountered many many metaphors of the kingdom of God here in this book. And here we're at the metaphor of God's precious stones. And we'll spend the whole time talking about that. But God has many terms, many metaphors for his children. He calls them his bride, his flock, a household, a daughter of Zion, holy nation, holy city, a body, a family, chickens, a vine, vineyard, my children, my son, daughter of Zion, chosen race, royal priesthood, a people for God's own possession, and people no longer forsaken.

And at the same time the Bible describes those who are not his own, who don't follow him, who don't love his laws and follow his son. He calls them goats and strangers, cowardly, abominable, wolves, beasts, harlots, daughters of the Philistines, forsaken, outcasts, he even calls them darkness. So you have these metaphors that describe the two kinds of people that exist in the world, and there really are only two. But in the Bible, in such a dramatic contrast to what he says about those who don't know him and don't love him. He uses inanimate objects to describe his people.

Inanimate sort of. He calls them living stones. He calls them my jewels. He calls them sapphires and jasper and topaz and gold. And that's what we find actually throughout the Bible.

And so jewels have meaning, they've They've always had meaning and they have meaning to all of us. Many of you actually have precious stones on your fingers today and they're very beautiful. In the 1980s, there were rumors that Iran was selling off her national treasures because at that time she was in a war with Iraq. And reporters were all over the story and they were trying to find out what was really happening. So to dispel the rumors, the government opened up a vault underneath a bank in Tehran.

It was full of jewels and they weren't for sale. And they displayed the crown of the Reza Shah, which had 3, 380 diamonds with sapphires and pearls and large emeralds. And they showed the world an 18th century coronation stone that was studded with diamonds and then they showed this blinding seven foot tall throne that was covered with 26, 000 gems And to top it off there was the globe of jewels and it depicted it depicted the world it was a literal globe and it sat on a four foot tall solid gold stand and there were around 55, 000 precious stones on this globe of jewels. The seas were in emerald and most of the land was in rubies, except Iran. Iran was done in, you guessed it, diamonds, and the most valuable people in the world.

That's what the government of Iran was trying to say, was that it was the Iranians that were the most valuable people in the world. Well God does the same thing for his people. And he talks about them as precious jewels in this passage. And really all over the Bible. And while we're talking about precious stones, I don't know if you noticed that two of the latest babies born into this church had precious stones in their names.

Ellie Jade Burke and Opal Calloway, short. Jade and Opal, precious stones. Yes they are. Now let's go into the text here. Revelation 21, look at verse nine.

What you find here is that the children, God's children are described as precious jewels, the Lamb's wife being on display. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. So this whole discussion is about what God is doing with his church. This is the bride, this is the lamb's wife. And then the city is another metaphor here in verse 10.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain We talked about that last week the entire Sermon was about the mountains in the Bible. What does a mountain mean A great and high mountain and he showed me the great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God Having the glory of God her light Was like a most precious stone like Jasper stone clear as crystal And what's very clear here in the text is that the city is the church, it's a people. And the church is lit up like a most precious stone, like jasper clear as crystal, like no other jasper you've ever seen. And it's most precious. The Greek dictionary definition of the word indicates something that's very dear, honorable, esteemed and valuable, that's the language here.

And then you have the walls of the city in verses 18 through 21, And the construction of the wall was of Jasper and the city was of pure gold now remember The city is the church its people the walls are also the people in the imagery that's here And then you have the foundations of the city in verse 19. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper, the second Sapphire, the third Chalcedony, the fourth Emerald, the fifth Sardonyx, the sixth Sardius, the seventh Chrysolite, the eighth barrel, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysophrase, the eleventh jason, the twelfth amethyst, the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each individual gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. And all of these things, the cities, the walls, the brides, everything, these are symbolic of the Church of Jesus Christ. They are descriptions of the church rescued throughout all of history.

And so let's talk a little bit just about sort of the interpretive methodology of what I plan to do today, because I plan to give you a bit of a biblical theology of precious stones in the Bible to help us to understand what is here. Now, we've said a number of times that in Revelation 21, 22 is a collection of many of the metaphors in the Bible fulfilled here in heaven. The things that are happening on earth are fulfilled in heaven. And so it's like a traffic jam of metaphors in Revelation. And we're walking through some of them in detail as we are this morning.

And of course metaphors, you know what is a metaphor? Your children should all know what metaphors are. A metaphor is actually a gift of God to a limited people because God speaks, he sort of speaks our baby talk, he uses human language to describe glorious, beautiful things. And so a metaphor is an earthly thing that you can see and that you can relate to, but it's meant to point to something greater, a transcendent reality, something that is far superior to the earthly thing that you see, and it's a figure that illustrates something greater. That's what a metaphor is.

And so that's why you have in all throughout the Bible a bride and a city and a mountain. And you have stones and you have trees and water and light and all these things, all these things are meant to be earthly handles on heavenly things. And so God has created a world where you can't look anywhere without seeing some manifestation of his glory. I'm so thankful for that. Everywhere you look, he's pointing you.

He's pointing you to heaven. Now, this morning I wanna do what theologians call a biblical theology. It's kind of a biblical theology, a flyover on precious stones. Biblical theology is different than systematic theology. In systematic theology, you try to synthesize and summarize what the Bible teaches on a topic and then you find all those places and then you make conclusions about it.

In biblical theology it's a historical treatment. You start in Genesis and go through Revelation and you see how a doctrine was developed throughout biblical history. That's biblical theology. And so you have a development of a doctrine. And typically you have the first occasion, the first mention of that doctrine.

And then you can often trace that doctrine all the way through redemptive history, all the way to the end. And that's what you have here in Revelation, particularly in this matter of precious stones and many, many other things that we'll continue to talk about over the weeks. So in biblical theology, you start in Genesis, or at least you start at the beginning. You start where it was first mentioned, and then you trace it. Now, another thing I just wanna remind us of is everything you see in Revelation 21 that exists in heaven, you've already seen it here on earth.

And that's because God is giving us a foretaste of heaven. He's giving us pictures of heaven here in the trees and the clouds and the seas and everything and all these things appear in Revelation 21 and 22 and they summarize so much of what God has been trying to tell his people. And that's what heaven has to do with earth, and that's what earth has to do with heaven. And what God has called his people to do is replicate what they see in heaven on earth and that's why the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What the people of God do is they're always bringing heaven down.

They're always looking to heaven. They're always looking to the author and the perfecter of their faith and bringing his ways and his will down. Like the Apostle Paul commanded the church in Colossae to keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Because you fix your eyes in heaven, you learn how to live on the earth. And that's the connection between heaven and earth.

There's no such thing as a person who's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good. The most heavenly minded will always be the most earthly good because They're always looking at the beauty. They're always looking at the perfection. And then wanting to replicate it on earth. That's what the church does.

It replicates what God has ordained for all eternity in heaven. It's such a wonderful, wonderful work. We just sang a song that talked about celestial fruits here below. That's what this earth is. It's celestial fruit here to point us to heaven.

So, you know, heaven is like a magnet to draw us there, and earth is like a fortes of heaven to prepare us for there. You know as we go through this you know if there's anybody here who is not a not a believer or not sure the The question I want you to ask is, are you one of these stones? Do you want to, would you like to be one of these stones? Would you like to be one of God's precious stones? Because That's what God has said about his own people, whom he loves.

So these jewels, these precious stones, are all over scripture. So I'm gonna walk you through 17 of them that I've chosen in scripture. And by the way, you know, you who are gonna celebrate Thanksgiving, I'm gonna give you 17 reasons to give thanks to God if you love Him and are called according to His purpose. So the first, the first of the 17 is that God placed precious metals and stones in Eden. Genesis 2 verse 10, Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden.

And from there it parted and became four river heads. The name of the first was Pishon. It is the one which skirts the whole land of Havillah where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Delium and onyx stone are there.

Adam and Eve are in the garden and there around them is gold and precious stones and it says the gold is good. Perhaps even Adam and Eve were mining for gold. It was beautiful and it was good. And then you have this bedelium. It's hard to know exactly what this is.

In Numbers 11.7, we learned that it was the color of manna. It's a semi-transparent, either stone or some kind of gum or transparent gum from a tree, we're not sure. It could have been some kind of medicine. And then you have onyx. It's hard to understand exactly what the onyx was.

The words in the Bible for stones can tend to refer to all kinds of different stones. If you study it, it's like Chalcedony, it's like Agate. These are kind of similar stones. They come in many colors, white, clear, red, black. These were stones that were in Genesis.

And then second, the precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest, Exodus 28 verses 17 to 21. The high priest had a breastplate of 12 stones, one for each of the families of Israel, the tribes of Israel. And he wears the breastplate as he goes into the temple. He goes into the Holy of Holies. He literally takes the children of Israel upon his heart and takes them into the Holy of holies symbolically and he intercedes for them.

They're precious. To the priests, the people were precious. They were like precious stones and he had a breastplate to remind himself. Well Let's read about it in verse 17, Exodus 28. And you shall put settings of stones in it, four rows of stones.

The first row shall be Sardius, a topaz, and an emerald. This shall be the first row. The second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond, the third row adjacent, an agate, and an amethyst, and the fourth row a barrel, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings, and the stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel 12 according to their names like the engravings of a signet each one with its own name they shall be according to the twelve tribes." You know, some of the Jews thought that the different stones even represented some of the different qualities of the different families, the different tribes of Israel, but I think you know the heart of the matter is that the stones were close to the heart of the high priest as he went in. Let's look at the third, the third occasion in Ezekiel chapter one, Verse 26, and you see here that God and his brightness in heaven are like precious stones.

Verse 25 of Ezekiel, I'll start in verse 25, in Ezekiel 1, and above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne in appearance like a sapphire stone on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it And from the appearance of his waist and upward I saw as it were the color of amber and with the appearance of fire all around within and within within it and from the appearance of his waist downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire with brightness all around like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day so as the appearance of the brightness all around it this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So it's the glory of God is shining out of the throne, it's shining out of the person of God, and I think that when you get to Revelation, it's that light that's illuminating the stones, It's the light of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ because his stones are so precious. Fourth, Psalm 102 verses 12 through 16, God's people in heaven Take pleasure in God's stones.

Here the metaphor shifts a little bit. Verse 12, but you, O Lord, shall endure forever and the remembrance of your name to all generations. You will arise and have mercy on Zion for the time to favor her. Yes, the time set has come for your servants take pleasure in her stones and show favor to her dust. This is a picture of the living stones of God giving thanks, appreciating the other living stones.

Fifth, in 1st Chronicles 29, precious stones in the building of the temple reflected David's affection. The stones reflected affection for the people. And of course, you know, David is a picture of Christ and his affection toward the people, and David is involved in adorning his house with precious stones. David said to the assembly skipping to verse 2, now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might gold for things made of gold silver for things of silver bronze for things of bronze iron for things of iron wood for things of wood onyx stones stones to be set glistening stones of various colors all kinds of precious stones and marble slabs in abundance Because I have set my affection on the house of my God I have given to the house of my God over and over and above all that I have prepared for my holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver, three thousand talents of gold, the gold of Ophir, and 7, 000 talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the houses, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be done by the craftsmen." and then skipping down to verse eight.

And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord. And here we find that David. Studded the his house with stuff with precious stones because of his affection for the people. It was his affection and his love for the people that caused him to gather up all these precious stones and put them in his house. Sixth, I think this is interesting.

You might throw this one out, but I wanted to include it. The excellent wife is like a precious stone. In Proverbs 31 verse 10, an excellent wife is compared to jewels better than rubies. Of course, we are talking about a wife. And in Revelation, we are talking about what, who?

The Lamb's wife, the Lamb's wife, the Lord, the Church of Jesus Christ. Who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her. The excellent wife is like a precious stone. And of course, she should be treated as such.

Seventh. In Isaiah 54-12, a restored people are as rubies, as crystal, as precious stones. And this is a prophecy of Jerusalem's future establishment there in Isaiah 54. And And this is the integration of the stones of Exodus 28, of the breastplate. And also maybe in terms of the context, Isaiah 54 is the last of the servant songs.

Isaiah 53 is the second to the last, but there are songs of the servant, of the suffering servant of Jesus Christ. And the very last song of the servant is in Isaiah 54. And it really is about a woman, a city, beautified with treasures. Verse 12 in Isaiah 54, I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, all your walls of precious stones, all your children shall be taught of the Lord, and grace shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established, you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear.

Your walls are as precious stones, just like in Revelation chapter 21. It's a foretaste, it's a prophecy. It's a prophecy of the perfected, brilliantly lit stones that are in heaven. Eighth, Isaiah 61, 10 and 11. Here you have a bridegroom and the bride are adorned with precious stones.

Verse 10 of Isaiah 61, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and As a bride adorns herself with jewels for as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. And this is talking about the power of the gospel and really the beauty of the bride and the bridegroom. This beautification process that God starts in the heart when he regenerates, when he breaks the power of sin and death, and he fills with the Spirit and begins to restore and regenerate. And this is what the New Heavens and the New Earth are.

It's a regenerated earth. It's a picture of the regeneration of the soul, only in perfection. Ninth, Isaiah 54, 11 through 16. Again, this last of the servant songs, and God promises to take his afflicted saints the ones who have been despised and rejected in the world his church which was underestimated in the world verse 11 Isaiah 54 oh you afflicted one tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay your stones with colorful gems and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies your gates of crystal and your walls of precious stones All your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children All of these things happen on earth and they progress forward until finally they're fulfilled completely in heaven.

Tenth, Isaiah 62, 10th, Isaiah 62, verse 3. Here in Isaiah 62, verse 3, the saints are precious stones. But notice in this, they are in the Lord's hand. I love this one. They are precious stones in the Lord's hand.

There's another place in Isaiah where God says, I hold you in the palm of my hand. I'll skip through this section. In verse one it says, for Zion I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns so then verse 3 you shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God you shall no longer be termed forsaken nor shall your land any more be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hepsaba and your land Beulah, for the Lord delights in you. Your land shall be married, For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." You know, so much of this language is in Revelation 21 and 22.

But here you have the precious stones in the hand of the Lord. A royal diadem, you know, a diadem is like a crown or a turban or a band around the head. And a diadem has many, many stones in it. And so here the picture is the Lord is holding the diadem the stones the many stones of his church You know, I don't know if you remember in Esther Mordecai rode through the city on the king's horse and remember what the king's horse was wearing a diadem But you know we sing that song all hail the power of Jesus name bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. Here the Lord is holding the diadem of the church, the stones, this jewel encrusted Crown is being held in the hand of God.

Eleventh. God's flock is like jewels in a crown. In Zechariah nine, verse 16. You know, God raises up the prophet Zechariah in a really discouraging dark time in the history of Israel. The people had returned to the land after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.

They came back, and it was so hard to rebuild everything, and there was so much opposition. And finally they finished the temple, but it was nothing like the original temple. And so many of them looked and said, oh, it's just nothing like what we had before. So God raises up Zechariah, and Zechariah over and over again is saying don't give up look what's gonna happen don't give up look what I'm doing don't give up this is all gonna turn out really great that's what Zechariah does and he does it in some of the most magnificent riveting figurative language that it's hard to understand but he's trying to encourage the people that they shouldn't give up what they have looks so small looks so frail looks like it's going to be stamped out but it's not That's what Zechariah is saying to the people through the entire prophecy of Zechariah. In Zechariah 9 16 he says, "'The Lord their God will save them in that day "'as the flock of his people, "'for they shall be like the jewels of a crown lifted like a banner over his head for how Great is its goodness and how great is its beauty.

Grain shall make the young men thrive and new wine the young women. 12th, God's people are like jewels owned, owned by God. In Malachi chapter three, verses 16 and 17. "'They shall be mine, ' says the Lord of hosts, "'on the day that I make them my jewels, "'and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. They are mine.

They are my jewels. 13th, God himself is like a brilliant precious stone in Revelation chapter four verses one through 11. We went through this passage, it's so stunning. In its beauty, And here we learn that God is like Jasper, God is like Sardis. God is not Jasper, God is not Sardis, he's like it.

When you read Revelation, and there's a sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus, you don't say There's a sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus. He's like he's like a sword Coming out of his mouth. It's not what he looks like is what he is like now. I think the imagery Probably includes both what it looks like and what it is like, but it's hard to separate all that. But God has the appearance of Jasper in Revelation 4 verse 2 and he who sat there was like Jasper and a sardius stone in appearance and then verse 4 skipping down and the 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes they had crowns of gold on their heads and before the throne was a sea of glass like crystal in verse 6 and it's so God is so beautiful they just can't get over him all they can do is give thanks and say holy is the Lord they just can't get over how beautiful and good God and his kingdom are.

And he himself is like a precious stone. God makes people like himself, That's what he does. This is what the likeness of Jesus Christ points to. You become like him. You become one with him and then you become like him.

Even in his radiance, you become like him. 14th. There's also a satanic counterfeit of imitations. We read about this in Revelation 13, where you had the beast, and he had crowns on his head and in Revelation chapter 17 you have the harlot the woman and she's arrayed in purple and scarlet adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations of the filthiness of her fornication. Well that's because the beauty of God is always under the assault of the devil to fabricate, to make a counterfeit, to make an imitation of God's beauty.

That's what the world is always trying to do. It creates an imitation of beauty, but it uses the same materials of precious stones and gold. There's nothing wrong with the gold. There's nothing wrong with the precious stones. It just depends on who and why it's being used.

I added this from Lamentations 4, 1 and 2. Idolaters are dimmed and scattered stones. Idolaters are dimmed and scattered stones. How the gold has become dim. How changed the fine gold.

The stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion valuable as fine gold, how they are regarded as clay pots, the work of the hands of the potter. Let's turn to the New Testament here. In 1 Peter chapter two, verse four, God's chosen people are living stones. They are living stones in his building, in his house, in his temple.

We studied this when we did our series on the church a while back. And Peter talks about God's people coming to him, this is 1 Peter 2, 4, coming to him as a living stone rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, here, precious stones God's people are precious stones Just like the Bible has always said from the beginning are being built up into a spiritual house, living stones, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then, of course, in that same passage, the Lord says, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. Well, we'll get to the foundation stones of the building on another Sunday, but Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the foundation stone of the foundation that is the Church of Jesus Christ in heaven. And all of all of this in verse 9 and there in Peter, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So the church is composed of stones, living stones illuminated by God and have come out of darkness into his marvelous light so that his marvelous light is reflected through the beautiful stones. That's the logic of Scripture. And then 17th and finally we loop back to Revelation 21 where in heaven the saints are precious stones and they are illuminated by Jesus Christ. How do we apply this? Well, Christians are living stones illuminated by Jesus Christ.

And that's why the Lord Jesus Christ said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. That's why the Apostle Paul when he was instructing the church in Philippi, in Philippians 2, he told the church that they were like lights in their culture in Philippi. Philippi was the center of the superheroes that still exist today. Philippians 2 verse 14, do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. You know, there are many, many ways that we are like living stones.

We walk in the light as he is in the light. Paul told the Ephesian church, "'For you were once darkness, "'but now you are light in the Lord. "'Walk as children of light, "'for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, "'righteousness, and truth, "'finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.'" That's what it means to walk in the light, find out what is acceptable to the Lord. That's what it means to walk in the light, find out what is acceptable to the Lord. Find out the things that he loves.

Do only the things that he loves. Look at only the things that he loves. Listen to only the things that he loves." And then he says, "...and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it's shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. Whatever makes manifest is light.

And he's saying Christians are supposed to be shining the light in the darkness to make the darkness flee. And he says, awake you who sleep, he's assuming some are asleep about this, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. The church walks in the world as a light to the world. The church has something to say to the world.

The church should have a prophetic voice in the world and we walk together as a church to create a culture of light. What's so important what happens in a local church that you create a culture of light. It's the light of Jesus Christ and And that light shines brighter and brighter, and the living stones are even more and more illuminated as time goes on because they're turning away from sin. They're turning toward God. They're walking in the light, and they become more and more like Jesus Christ because they're living stones and they're precious and they're held in the hand of God.

That's why Paul told the Thessalonian Church, he said, you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness." So what do we say about all of this? To the church, to a local church, God uses his word to shepherd his church. I think God is shepherding this church to just be so aware of light shining in darkness, to be so aware, not to dim, Don't let anything dim, don't let anything cloud the light. Don't let anything get in between the light of Jesus Christ and your soul and turn away from every form of darkness and keep building the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Keep praying, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, in your heart, in your family, in this church, on earth, bringing heaven down, bringing the celestial city down into heaven. And keep beautifying the earth with the beauties of heaven. You know, I've been saying to us, stop saying this earth is not my home. Say this earth is my home right now. And it's the home that God gave me, and it's the home that I'm supposed to bring heaven down.

And then I have another home in heaven, and everything will be put right there. But until then, I'm gonna make a home like heaven. I'm gonna give my family a little piece of heaven. I'm gonna give my church a little piece of heaven. I'm gonna give my community a picture of a little piece of heaven that exists in the world.

Because everything that God created on earth is a prototype of heaven. And everything in heaven is meant to come down. Isn't that amazing? That God would give such a perspective to a people to bring such beautiful things into the world. I was talking to somebody the other day, they said, oh I would never bring a child into this world.

I said no, bring a child into this world and bring heaven down because you can do that. Praise the Lord. Would you pray with me? Lord, you've given us such vivid, remarkable images. And I pray, Lord, that you would give us such desire to walk in the light, that there be no darkness at all.

And oh Lord, that you would also give the culture of our families and the culture of this church, the culture of our hearts, the culture of heaven, that the world could see how good you are. They could see what God can do within animate objects and make them precious stones in your hands. Amen.