John 8 chapter or verses 12 through 30.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying I am the light of the
world. Whoever follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.
So the Pharisee said to him, You are bearing witness about
yourself. Your testimony is not true.
Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my
testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am
going. But you do not know where I come
from or where I am going. You judge according to the
flesh. I judge no one.
Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not
I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.
In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is
true. I am the one who bears witness
about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.
They said to him, Therefore where is your Father?
Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my Father.
If you knew me, you would know my Father also.
These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the
temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet
come. So he said to them again, I'm
going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your
sin. Where I am going you cannot
come. So the Jews said, will he kill
himself? Since he says, where I am going,
you cannot come. He said to them, You are from
below, I am from above, You are of this world, I am not of this
world. I told you that you would die in
your sin, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in
your sins. So they said to him, Who are
you? Jesus said to them, just what
I've been telling you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent
me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from
Him. They did not understand that He
had been speaking to them about the Father.
So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own
authority, but speak just as the Father taught me, and he who
sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I
always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.
Amen. Good morning.
Real quickly, you know, most of you probably will never know the
the complete amount of Labor that went into building a
spacecraft or some of the other things around the campus getting
ready for these camps. And so I just for just a moment
for those of you that have worked tirelessly over the last
few weeks doing things that most people in the church are never
going to see, maybe doing things that no one will ever actually
know of. First of all, thank you.
Whether or not you are affirmed or appreciated by this body or
by other people in this lifetime, I can't tell you.
But I can tell you this. There'll be a day where you
stand in front of Christ and you'll get to know the full
knowledge of the impact that you had on lives for the Kingdom,
for eternal purposes that you may never know in this lifetime.
And so be encouraged that there is a day coming where everything
you do for Christ will be made known.
And so I appreciate it. I appreciate you very much.
If you've been toiling in anonymity, know that the Father
knows and there's a day where it is all coming to light.
I, I introduced myself earlier. If you're new here, welcome.
My name is Daniel. I'm one of the lead pastors here
at Res Church. And a little bit about me, I got
saved in college and in college when Jesus saved me, I can tell
you quite frankly that I wanted nothing to do with Jesus.
I didn't want God. I wasn't searching for God.
I didn't think I needed God. And I still remember a day
walking across the street. There's a super busy
intersection right across just just north of the SC campus
where all the students would go back and forth to housing.
And I'm walking across the street and God is, is vocal with
me in that moment. And that was the beginning
standing for me of God getting my attention of God beginning to
open my eyes and to save me. And I can tell you, not only did
I not want God to save me, I was God's enemy.
I was fighting God as he was saving me.
And so in that moment, as God begins to open my eyes to
spiritual things and I'm fighting him the whole way, that
is a, that is a very appropriate beginning because that's really
what we're going to read about today as we pick up our our
passage. We're in John 8 again.
We were there last week. We're just reading through the
book of John. And in John 8, we're going to
look at Jesus once again, explaining some truth about
himself to a people who want nothing to do with his
authority. They want nothing to do with his
sovereign sovereignty at all. And I'm just going to tell you
right now, brother, I can relate quite well to money.
Nothing to do with Jesus and yet he saves you anyways.
It's amazing that Jesus didn't even have to ask my permission.
If you leave with only one thing today, if you if you just just
one thing and that's all you remember about the the sermon, I
want you to remember this one thing.
I didn't pick sight, but I can practice life in the light.
I didn't I didn't choose site, but I can practice life in the
light. To set the stage for the
interaction of these passages, John 812 to 30, we we look at
verse 20 tells us that Jesus was in the temple teaching.
In fact, he was in a specific area called the treasury.
Now the treasury is in the court of women.
That's an outer court of the temple and it's during a
festival called the Feast of Tabernacles in Hebrew.
That's sukut. So he's in this.
There's a big festival, big religious holiday going on.
And, and it's very specific. And I want you to understand why
this is so specific that in the court of women during the
holiday, only during the holiday they erected these giant
lampstands that were so tall that they needed ladders to get
up to light them. And they're filled with just
gallons and gallons of oil. OK, Very appropriate that they
erected giant lights. No.
OK, No one else with the I just it was convenient and it lined
up. I thought you'd like that.
OK. And it only happened for the
festival. And So what would happen is
every night of the festival, they would light these giant
torches on fire, just blazing torches.
And they did it because the festival was actually a specific
religious holiday in which those torches represented the pillar
of fire that led the Israelite people out of Egypt, out of
slavery and into the promised land.
And so that's what they they would represent.
So So Jesus, when he says this verse 12, he's standing there
between these huge torches and he's saying, you think that's
impressive? I am the light of the world.
It's me. And so, so in that moment where
he says that he is both fulfilling an ancient prophecy
from about 1000 years earlier. And he's trying to captivate the
imagination, grab the attention of the people to get through
this message of truth. And so all the way back 1000
years earlier in in the book of Isaiah, there's a prophet named
Isaiah in 49. So chapter 49, verse six, he
makes this prophecy about Jesus. It says this, I will make you as
a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end
of the earth. So Jesus here, he's standing in
between these massive lamp stands and he's basically
saying, remember that promise it's me and I'm here.
And he's also trying to capture their attention.
There's a religious holiday kind of based around there were this
holiday represented 2 things in in Deuteronomy 6, it said that
you'll have a festival to thank God for the harvest.
But also in Leviticus 23, they did these specific things so
that they can remember God removing them from slavery,
removing them from bondage. They were commanded to do this,
this religious holiday, because there's this story in Exodus 13
where a million Israelites are released from captivity out of
Egypt, and they're supposed to go to the promised land, and
they don't know how to get there.
They don't even know where they're going.
And so God during the day guides them with a cloud, and at night,
he guides them with a pillar of fire.
And there's so much symbolism here.
God is essentially in those moments saying, listen, you
don't have to know where you're going.
You don't have to know the exact destination.
You don't have to have a map. What you need is to know where I
am and follow me. You need to know where I am and
you need to follow me. And so, so when Jesus says I am
the light of the world, he's taking them all the way back
like 2000 years earlier to this story coming out of Egypt.
And he said, listen, you celebrate a holiday where we're
trying to remember that God was with you.
All of the comfort and the security of God leading you.
That was me. That was me leading you.
You, you're in the wilderness. And yet you weren't alone
because that was because I was there.
I was the one that guided you as to where to go.
I was I was the one that would filled envelope the Tabernacle
when you built it. I'm the one that when Solomon
built the temple, Jesus presence came down in such an
overpowering way. It says the priests couldn't
even worship that he filled the temple with his Shekinah glory.
That's the claim he's making. He's standing in their temple
during their religious holiday and going it's me.
He's trying to get their attention.
And so when I was reading and research, you know, the last
couple weeks like this, it kind of made me chuckle because like,
here's Jesus, right? Like we, we put lights up today,
but he's standing between probably one of the best ancient
pyrotechnic shows in the world, like Bakersfield likes their
fireworks. But I mean, this is some stuff.
And he's standing in between this when he makes his claim,
trying to here's the thing that was amazing about Jesus.
He loves stories and illustrations and, and sermon
props, right. If you go back to John 7, we
covered that a couple months ago.
There is another religious holiday.
And at the end of that holiday, the priest gets up and, and
takes this big jar of water and ceremonially pours it out.
And Jesus waits until that moment happens.
And when he, when that happens, he looks at the crowd and says,
if anyone thirsts, let him come after me and drink.
And now he waits for this holiday.
And he's standing between the, the, the, the, these lanterns
and he's, what is he trying to do?
He he's trying to find any way to reach men and women with the
truth and, and, and and if we, if you read Jesus enough, you
realize he was incredibly creative with how he did this.
He told stories and he used cultural references and holidays
and religious how he used props and man he why am I pointing
this out? Listen, I can guarantee you that
in this moment, there's some people that that that probably
weren't very happy that Jesus was using a religious holiday to
make these claims. Like why do preachers get up
here and, and use stories and use humor and use props and, and
and use camps and outer space and go Kart tracks and ministry?
Why do we do all of this to try to reach people with the gospel?
Because we saw Jesus do it. Because we saw Jesus do it.
I will do anything to reach people with the gospel of Jesus.
And my point that I want you to see here, it's just that Jesus
has such a heart for you and me that he never valued human
tradition over the souls of the lost.
Jesus never valued human religious tradition over the
souls of the lost. Because I guarantee you there's
people in the crowd in the temple right then when Jesus
says this and they're like, and they're offended.
They're offended. It's so inappropriate Jesus,
that you would, you would stand in the temple during this
holiday for God and you'd make this about you.
In fact, verse 12, he makes the claim.
The next 17 verses are all people rejecting Jesus in
various ways. They're stages of rejection for
17 verses in your in your bulletin handout on the
Backpage, I printed a diagram that came from Chuck Swindoll.
Charles Swindoll actually detailed out that the book of
chapter 8 of the book of John is essentially people just
rejecting Jesus, rejecting Jesus, rejecting Jesus.
I mean, it's, it's contradiction, cynicism,
insults. They're categorically rejecting
and denying Jesus in his claim. So, So what is this claim that
is so offensive that this crowd would would react this way?
Here's the claim verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them
saying I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life. Now this single claim is so
important, so, so radical that they're going to argue and
insult him for the next, really the rest of the chapter.
And So what I want to do is I want to look at like, what what
is this claim? What is he actually saying when
he says I'm the light of the world?
And the best way to just in general, the best way to
interpret the Bible is with the Bible.
So if you're not sure about something, read the Bible.
You're going to find a lot of cross referencing in the Bible
where it will interpret itself for you.
And so we're going to do that. We're going to look at some
other passages today that talk about this idea being light of
the world. The same author, the apostle
John, who wrote the book that we're reading here in in in
chapter 8, started this book with a claim about Jesus being
the light. And so let's look at that in
John one, it says this in the beginning was the word.
That's Jesus. And the word was with God and
the word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through him
and without him was not anything made that was made in him was
life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not
overcome it. So.
So this entire book from the apostle John starts with a claim
that Jesus existed before creation, that Jesus was with
God, that Jesus is God, that Jesus made everything, that
Jesus represents life, and that Jesus is the light in the
darkness. Now that can't be literal.
Like we light in the dark, like, like not, not the we know the
sun is a star, right? That's not Jesus.
So what is it? There's clearly some sort of
symbolism going on here that we're supposed to catch when it
talks about light and dark. What what is that?
Well, the, the whole story arc of the Bible.
If you're new to the Bible, if you're new here, if you, if
maybe Christianity is not even your thing, all of the Bible,
all 66 books of the Bible is 1 big giant story arc that starts
with a problem in the 3rd chapter of the very first book.
And in that that that very beginning, there's a problem
that must be solved. And the Bible essentially is
telling a story about spiritual darkness, about spiritual
blindness and how that problem has to be overcome.
And it's summarized in in the book of Ephesians.
There's a couple verses here in chapter 2 I want to read you.
And this kind of summarizes the problem if you're new to it.
So let me read this to you. It says this and you say me,
we're dead in the trespasses and sins in once in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince
of the power of the air. That's Satan, the spirit that is
now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all.
That's in Greek, but in but in English that would be all.
Everyone of us once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying
out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, the story of the Bible is that we were all spiritually
blind. But God, what that passage is
trying to explain about the story of the Bible is this.
When humanity first rebelled against God, in the very
beginning of the story, we broke relationship with God.
Sin caused a curse that every one of us, you and I, were born
underneath. And so as a result, you and I
were born spiritually dead. We were born spiritually blind.
And here's the thing about being born blind is we don't even know
what what blindness is. We don't even know what sight
is. We've never experienced it.
That that's what the Bible says. So you don't even know what you
don't know. You ever been you ever feel
dumb, man? Do I feel dumb sometimes?
You know, when I feel really dumb is when I don't even know
what I don't know. Like I don't even know how dumb
I am. Like this could get bad.
My point is that every single one of us, according to the
Bible, was Born This Way. We were born like, I don't even
know what I don't know. How could we?
How could you understand blindness and sight when you
were born blind? How can you understand God?
How can you understand your need for him?
How can you understand your own moral depravity when all you
were born into is spiritual blindness?
There there's a phenomenal story.
Some of you may have read this in school long ago.
There was a woman named Helen Keller.
Anyone heard of her? OK, a few people.
Helen Keller was born in 1880. And get this, she was born blind
and deaf. I just think about how bad one
of those is. But to be born both.
And so all attempts to communicate with her in her life
failed because she couldn't see and she couldn't hear.
And she basically grew as a as an individual through childhood
and adolescence in her own personal prison of her mind,
completely in isolation and disconnected from all community,
all communication, everything. You know what I mean?
Talk about just pure isolation, unable to communicate until one
day there was a really stubborn, faithful teacher named Anne
Sullivan, and she had a breakthrough.
She took her to this water pump, this well, and she started
pumping water onto her hands. And as the water flowed all over
her hands, she spelled the letters for water.
And it finally clicked for her. And that was the moment when she
began to realize someone was trying to communicate with her.
And she learned letters and she learned language and she began
to communicate. But it But up until that moment,
she didn't even know what she didn't know.
What I'm trying to tell you is the Bible says that this is you
and I. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul
says that the things of God are actually not hard to figure out
at all. In fact, they're incredibly
obvious. Romans one says they're clearly
perceived by everyone. The problem isn't that God is
hiding from us. The problem is that we don't
even realize we're blind. If you've never used your eyes,
how do you know what blindness is?
And until God awakens us from spiritual death to spiritual
life, from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight, we we don't
even know. That's what Ephesians 4 that we
just read is telling us. We're stumbling around in the
darkness, but God, when I was in college, I wasn't looking for
God. I didn't want God.
I didn't think I needed God. I'm stumbling around in the
darkness, but God. I didn't choose sight, but by
the grace of God, he saved me. Not of my own works.
I didn't pick sight, but I can practice life in the light.
So you might be thinking if you're, if you're hearing the
story, you're going well, God, if God has to awaken you, if God
has to cure your spiritual blindness or you can't even
consider these things. Then then how come in that
passage we read, Jesus seems so frustrated with them?
Doesn't that seem a little weird?
Like, like if you're really pragmatic, and I get accused of
that sometimes, if you're really pragmatic, you go look, if it's
God's decision, why is he frustrated?
Here's the truth. I hope you take it.
Let's go. But he's not, is he?
I mean, you can hear the frustration in his voice that he
wants them to see the truth. Why?
Because he loves them. When you love someone who's
hurting themselves and you know that there's there's a specific
solution or there's one thing that can help and they keep
rejecting it and they keep rejecting it, like that breaks
your heart. And that's Jesus in this moment.
I know that as a pastor holding the office of pastor, that there
are going to be people that I serve for years, maybe some for
decades, who never actually surrender to Jesus.
No matter how much I do, no matter how hard I preach or how
hard I serve, that they will reject Jesus.
They will die and go to an eternal hell.
But the moment that doesn't bother me, the moment that
doesn't shock me, the moment that doesn't break my heart.
I am not qualified to be your pastor.
Let me ask you this. Some of you have gone through
this or are going through this right now.
If you have a child living in rebellion to God.
Hating God and you know that you can't change her heart, that God
has to do it, that you're powerless.
Does that mean you stop caring? Does that mean it stops
bothering you? I have that child in my life
right now and I'm not over it. I'm not OK with it, even though
I'm powerless in that moment. Jesus loves them so much,
wanting them to be saved. Maybe.
Maybe you're here today and you don't really believe much of
this Jesus stuff. For you, all religions are the
same or they're all fake or they're all not real.
And what what I'm trying to tell you is that according to the
Bible, you were born not able to see it.
But the fact that you're here listening to this message or or
listening to it online is not an accident.
It wasn't even by your choice, though maybe you think it was.
I would you just consider for a moment that perhaps God is
leading you to the water pump like Helen Keller today to teach
you something that you have been blind to.
Just consider this. How do you know that you're
missing something you've never experienced?
It's Jesus frustration in the moment and this, this
illustration that he's using of lightness, light and darkness.
It does. It doesn't actually end simply
with the idea of, of, of becoming spiritually alive or,
or, or curing spiritual blindness.
It actually continues as the example or the illustration of
how to go ahead and live the Christian life, how to follow
Jesus. This analogy will continue to be
used throughout the New Testament.
It becomes a perfect example of what it's supposed to look like
to follow Jesus. So it's more than just the
moment of salvation. It's actually the ongoing,
normal, everyday Christian life. This is the perfect
illustration, and here's why. The moment that Jesus opens your
eyes, the moment that God begins to save you and you begin to see
spiritual things, you're awakening to spiritual things.
You're going to see two things to fundamental universal truths
about this world. And they are the pillars by
which all of the Christian faith is built on.
So if you're new and you're not sure what Christianity about,
it's about these two things that you see the moment God is saving
you. And here's the first one.
Man, Jesus is awesome. Man Jesus is, He is so good.
He is so amazing, He's so miraculous, He's so incredible.
And he died for me. That doesn't just floor you when
you get saved. And I've been saved for many
years and I am still not over it.
In fact, the more you think about it, the better it gets.
That's truth number one. Here's truth #2 that you, you
see, the moment you get saved, it begins to dawn on you.
Here's this is the worst part, baby, of being saved.
I am way worse than I thought I was.
Like way worse than I thought I was.
Because when I lived in the dark, I could justify how I
lived. And you know, I'm not, maybe I'm
not perfect, but I'm not that bad.
I mean, we all know somebody that's that bad.
We, you know, And so you can be like, I'm not great, but I mean,
I'm not not I'm not Gary. I'm sorry, Gary, if there's one
out here. But when the but but when you
become alive to spiritual things, you can't treat, you're
going like, Oh, no, I'm way. Oh, in fact, the first few years
after coming to Christ, I'm like, oh, have you ever, have
you ever, have you ever thought your kitchen was clean because
you hadn't turned the lights on? Do you know what I mean, dog?
You're like, looks pretty good. My kids do this all the time.
Hey, it's kitchen clean. Yeah, it's pretty clean.
Turn the lights on. Turn the lights on and you turn
the lights on, you go like like 200 Watt blood just right and
all of a sudden you're like, this place is disgusting.
It's like a Petri dish in here. Like what what what's happened
in here? Like it's easy to deceive
yourself in the dark, but when all the lights come on, it's
like now in that moment, we all have a choice.
OK, here's the choice. Start working on the mess.
Or like my kids love to do what mess looks great, but you and I
do that in our lives. Jesus saves us and all of a
sudden we're like, oh, and our choice is to step into the light
and open our eyes and let God get a hold of that mess and
start wading through it. Or Nah, I'm good.
At least I'm not Gary. When I got saved, I thought I
was actually pretty good, man. Those first few years as God's
working on me, the lights keep getting brighter and brighter
and brighter and I'm like, can we stomp this?
And I have to have that same choice.
I still have that choice. That choice is not any different
now years after I came to Christ.
It's still the same. I either as those lights come on
brighter and the Holy Spirit continues to press towards
holiness, I can either step into that or I can close my eyes and
live in denial. And sometimes, you know, denial
is not just a river in Egypt. It's a dad joke for you.
He'll get it later. OK, in the, in the letters to
the early churches, they're very consistent, actually pressing
toward holiness. And this is exact, they use this
illustration over and over again.
And so there's a church in Ephesus in the 1st century.
And Paul writes this exact thing to them, trying to, trying to
encourage them to step into the light and, and to live in
holiness. And it says this in Ephesians
5-6 through 8. It says let no one deceive you
with empty words. So don't, don't, don't let
anyone tell you that you don't need to do this, OK?
For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons
of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners
with them. For at one time you were in
darkness, say me, at one time you were in darkness, you were
spiritually blind, but now you are the light, you are light in
the Lord. So walk as children of the
light, encouraging them. They don't close your eyes to
this. Don't try to go back to the
dark. These there's a bunch of
passages like this in the New Testament to churches, and
they're essentially reinforcing something that Jesus says at the
end of our passage today. In verse 29, Jesus says this
about the Father. He says that he, God who sent me
is with me. He's not left me alone, for I
always do the things that are pleasing to him.
Let me tell you what's pleasing to God, and this is the part I
think of Christianity that we kind of love and hate.
OK, what's pleasing to God is to live life in the light.
What we want to do, what human nature wants to do is say, I
know how I please God. It's these five check boxes.
I just got to do this. We're going to put a tie on and
read the bubble rag. And if I do these five things
and God is happy, in fact, if we're, if we actually are being
really honest, if I do these five things, then God owes me
and he'll have to do what I want because he owes me one, because
I did the five things. That's not what the Bible says.
What's pleasing to God is stepping into the light and
allowing the Holy Spirit to to start turning those lights up
brighter and brighter and brighter and us go, oh, OK, OK.
And I'm going to show you that that's actually here.
OK. I'm going to show you exactly
how that works because we have stories of it working in the
Bible and in our lives In Acts chapter 19, the same church, the
Church of Ephesus that we just read from Ephesians, that same
church, Paul is there. There's some revival going on
and there's a crazy story, OK, in Acts 19, I swear this is in
your Bible. You can turn there later in Acts
19. Seven Jewish exorcists.
Never thought you'd start a sentence that way.
Try to exorcise a demon out of a demon possessed man.
But they're not Christians and it doesn't go well.
And the demon speaks to them and then beats them naked.
See you guys thought your Bible was boring.
I'm just telling y'all read your Bible.
There's some spicy stuff in there.
OK, Caliente, OK, beats them naked seven guys.
And then let's pick up what happens in the story Acts 19
verse 17 that gets out. And this this story became known
to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear
fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was extolled. It was praised.
And then look at the result of what happened.
Also, many of those who were now believers say me came confessing
and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had
practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned
them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of
them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord continued to increase and
prevail mightily. Christians in the church well to
do got my Sunday best on singing praises, lifting my hands to
Jesus or hiding sin and and it is only it is only catch it at
the moment they begin to confess and divulge hidden sin.
That stuff starts to get real and there's so many of them
hiding this that the pile of witchcraft books that they're
hiding. I don't know why Harry Potter
was so big back then that the pile of books is 50,000 silver
pieces. Think about how many Christians
that is then and the result of that confession of dragging it
into the light. So the word of the Lord
continued to increase and prevail mightily.
Listen, you can fake Christianity if you want, but
don't think that you're going to fake it and actually experience
the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
So they get serious about it and all of a sudden it's real.
Now you're like, that was the 1st century, OK, a few months
ago. We do supercharged and it's a,
it's a leadership development once a month.
We do it on a Sunday night once a month.
So we had about like 65 people in the Chapel at these little
round tables. And I had heard a podcast from 2
pastors, Sam Albury and, and, and Ray Orlin Junior.
And they had told this really cool story about a men's thing
where like there's some guy gotten up in this men's event
and he said, I want y'all to break into to pairs to like,
like, to two people. And I want you to spend the next
20 minutes sharing with one another the worst thing you've
ever done. And he said it was like super
powerful. So I'm listening to them.
That's so good. So I, I not all ideas are good
ideas. So I go to, I go to
superchargers and I'm like, listen, I'm not going to make
you do this, this, this sounds awful.
I just want you to consider, just just consider if I asked
you to turn to your neighbor and share the worst things you've
ever done, if you could, could you live in the light?
Could you live with that level of confession and transparency
and vulnerability? Could you do that?
How does that make you feel right?
I just want you to to feel how closed off we get, how fake we
live right? And so I'm very proud of myself
until I sit down at the first table with the eight people and
the first next to me goes, how about you, pastor?
I'm sorry, what? What will you share with us?
The worst thing you've ever done?
I have miscalculated this substantially.
So I did. Over the next 10 or 20 minutes,
I shared the worst things I've ever done in my life.
And people started crying. And I was like, Oh no.
And then I realized they were crying because they needed to
confess some stuff. And person by person, people
started sobbing and spilling their guts.
And each one of them said, I've never told anyone this.
All the way around the table, every person had hidden sin that
they'd never confessed to anyone.
And then I looked up and everyone in the room was crying
because at every table, people had started to live life in the
light. And it began to change
everything in the room. It wasn't just in the 1st
century that the Holy Spirit works in this way.
The Word of God is eternal and timeless.
It's still this way. I didn't pick sight, but I can
practice life in the light. So our first takeaways as we
wrap this service up, here's what I want you to think about
in your own life. Are you practicing living life
in the light? Not, not hiding your mess, not
hiding your mistakes, not hiding your sin, but actively
confessing your sins to one another and helping each other
live life in the light. But this is the whole reason we
talk over and over and over again about how the Christian
life is meant to be done in community with other Christians.
Because you need someone that you can confess to and confesses
to you and that you can encourage and can encourage you.
And look, if we're being really honest, the reason it is so hard
to confess a sin is not that you're that prideful.
The problem is that you know that the moment you confess it,
there's a there's a probability that other person's going to ask
you about it again. So that means I got to be
serious about wanting to chase holiness.
And that's uncomfortable. Amen.
Real uncomfortable. But, but, but it is the best
part of the Christian life too, because God doesn't leave us
where we're at in our moral depravity, in our mess.
He doesn't just turn up the lights so you can see the mess
and lament. He doesn't leave you in the
mess, He puts his spirit inside you to convict you and encourage
you to pursue holiness with one another.
But it's going to feel at times like a fight.
Now, every time we talk about fighting, let me be very clear,
I don't mean fight other Christians.
It's not like Christian celebrity deathmatch.
I don't mean argue with people online.
Y'all do enough of that? I'm scared.
Don't do that. I mean, fight the actual enemies
of God, your fleshly nature, Satan and a fallen world.
Those are our enemies. When we become part of God's
family, those become our enemies too because they're God's
enemies. And it's a fight that there's a
pastor born in JC. Rob was born in 1816.
So this is 1800s and he's going to talk about something in the
1800s. He might as well be talking
about 2025. Like he said, I love reading
church fathers and historical church fathers and and old
sermons because you beat them and you're God.
Dude, this guy could be talking about right now and what?
Here's what that encourages you. It, it tells you that this is
the timeless eternal truth across all cultures.
And so he was, he was, he lamented.
I mean, he, he wrote a sermon called the Fight for Holiness.
And, and he lamented the fact that it seemed like Christians
would come to Christ and then not care to pursue holiness at
all and just live this shallow life.
And it was driving him nuts. And here's what he says.
True Christianity is a fight. The true Christian is called to
be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his
conversion to the day of his death.
He's not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and
security. He must never imagine for a
moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven,
like 1 travelling in an easy carriage.
If he takes his standard of Christianity from the children
of this world. He may be content with such
notions, but he will find no countenance for them in the word
of God. He must fight.
We it's going to be hard to open your eyes and realize the mess
and not close your eyes again. But but imagine being healed of
blindness only to go about life with your eyes closed.
You were cured. You can see.
I don't want to see. I can't.
That sounds so silly, but we as Christians do this all the time
because opening our eyes means dealing with the hard stuff
instead of denial. Step into the light and open
your eyes. God didn't save you so that you
could impress him with how holy you were in the dark.
Trust me, he didn't think you were holy.
You're not. He saved you so that you can be
encouraged that He is pulling you toward holiness.
And it is so amazingly liberating and freeing to live
in the light. It may be a little bit scary,
but listen, it is. It is freeing.
Life is sweet in the light. I need God's truth and His
spirit and I need it with other believers that, that that's what
I'm trying to tell you. And, and, and there, there are
practical ways to do this. We, we keep talking about
getting in a group or, or, or serving on a team or, or getting
into mentorship or, or all these community oriented things are
being known because we want you to build relationships where,
where you're willing to take the risk of living vulnerably.
There's a difference between transparency and vulnerability.
Transparency is telling people everything about your life.
Vulnerability is taking risk and it is risky to be vulnerable.
And yeah, that's, that's actually what we're called to,
to be open and honest about struggles.
You don't go to a group to impress them.
I hope you're not going to a group to impress them.
My my small group that I've had now for a couple years, even as
it's changed and had different guys, we always split into guys
and girls. And we, we go sit on this couch
in my office and we spill our guts.
We just, we just confess the struggles and the difficulties
and listen over the last few years, we've tackled every
problem that you're you're suffering from right now.
All I'll sit on a couch, porn, lust, sexual purity, money, lack
of faith, anxiety, marriage problems, stress, anger.
We just drag it into the light and we start encouraging one
another and praying for each other.
I was listening to these two pastors talk about an
accountability group and one guy asked the other guy, he says,
how do you decide what to share in your accountability group?
He goes, well, when I'm driving over to the accountability group
on Monday night, I just think, man, what do I really not want
to talk about? And whatever that is, that's the
thing I know I need to talk about.
You think it's frightening, but it's actually freeing.
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
You're scared of living in the light.
And I'm telling you that if you would do it, it'll change the
way you pursue Jesus. And here's my second thing for
just application. I just have a question for you,
for you to consider, and that's this.
Have you, have you met the light of the world?
Have you met him? Do you know him?
This whole story in John 8 is Jesus trying to introduce
salvation to people. And so I would just ask you, how
about you? Maybe you're not sure what's
been happening in you over the course of last week or even
during the course of this service or listening to the
sermon online, like something's happening.
You're not sure what that is. And all I'm asking you is to
consider that maybe what you're feeling is the undeniable call
of God to your soul, to be saved, to pull you into the
light, to put your faith in Jesus.
And I want to give you the opportunity to respond to the
gospel of Jesus Christ today. The Bible says you must put
place your faith in Jesus in Romans 10/9 and 10 it says this,
if you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. Or with a heart 1 believes and
is justified, and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
Jesus died and was raised three days later to offer you freedom
from sin and shame, to offer you a new relationship, to be
adopted into his family. And so if you would like to take
that step and surrender your life and your will to God today,
I want to give you that chance. In the moments we have
remaining, will you close your eyes and bow your head and we
will pray. And if you're willing to ask him
for forgiveness and salvation with every eye closed, with
every head bowed, I just want you to to quietly or even
silently repeat this prayer after me.
Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I can't save myself.
I want you to save me and adopt me into your family.
I surrender everything to you and I receive your promises of
forgiveness, of adoption, and of eternal life.
Be my Lord, please Jesus, if you said that prayer for the very
first time, will you be brave and raise your hand for me to
see. Thank you, thank you.
Put your hands down in Jesus name, Amen.
Look up here real quick, we're almost done.
Jesus loves you more than you actually can imagine, more than
you comprehend, more than you believe right now.
He loves you. And if you said that prayer
moments ago, even if you didn't raise your hand, welcome to the
family. The Bible says that all of
heaven rejoices when a single person turns to Christ.
And so just a moment, we're going to stand and sing and
close our service. And there are tables in the bag
to say I raised my hand. If you said that prayer, even
you didn't raise your hand. If you committed your life to
Christ, we want you to go back there so we can celebrate with
you. We have a gift for you.
We're going to talk about what a next step looks like to pursue
Jesus. Will you stand with me?
We're going to close in our song today in a hymn.
Our prayer team is going to come up here to the front man.
We will pray with you for any reason.
We love praying for you and with you.
If you need to confess something and you haven't found somebody
to do that with, you can come grab a prayer team member and
spill your guts if you want. Bible says that if you're hurt
or sick and in need of healing that you should come and ask for
prayer. So do so.
If you need encouragement and prayer for yourself or a loved
one, come and be prayed for. It is not weird to come and get
prayer. It's weird to come to church and
think you don't need prayer. So we would love to pray with
you. You move as the Lord leads.
We're going to sing this song. We love you, Church.