Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Live in the Light - John 8:12-30

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Live in the Light - John 8:12-30 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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John 8 chapter or verses 12 through 30.
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Again Jesus spoke to them, saying I am the light of the
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world. Whoever follows me will not walk
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in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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So the Pharisee said to him, You are bearing witness about
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yourself. Your testimony is not true.
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Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my
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testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am
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going. But you do not know where I come
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from or where I am going. You judge according to the
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flesh. I judge no one.
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Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not
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I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.
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In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is
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true. I am the one who bears witness
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about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.
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They said to him, Therefore where is your Father?
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Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my Father.
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If you knew me, you would know my Father also.
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These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the
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temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet
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come. So he said to them again, I'm
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going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your
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sin. Where I am going you cannot
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come. So the Jews said, will he kill
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himself? Since he says, where I am going,
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you cannot come. He said to them, You are from
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below, I am from above, You are of this world, I am not of this
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world. I told you that you would die in
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your sin, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in
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your sins. So they said to him, Who are
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you? Jesus said to them, just what
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I've been telling you from the beginning.
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I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent
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me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from
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Him. They did not understand that He
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had been speaking to them about the Father.
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So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
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then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own
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authority, but speak just as the Father taught me, and he who
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sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I
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always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
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As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.
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Amen. Good morning.
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Real quickly, you know, most of you probably will never know the
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the complete amount of Labor that went into building a
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spacecraft or some of the other things around the campus getting
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ready for these camps. And so I just for just a moment
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for those of you that have worked tirelessly over the last
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few weeks doing things that most people in the church are never
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going to see, maybe doing things that no one will ever actually
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know of. First of all, thank you.
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Whether or not you are affirmed or appreciated by this body or
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by other people in this lifetime, I can't tell you.
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But I can tell you this. There'll be a day where you
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stand in front of Christ and you'll get to know the full
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knowledge of the impact that you had on lives for the Kingdom,
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for eternal purposes that you may never know in this lifetime.
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And so be encouraged that there is a day coming where everything
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you do for Christ will be made known.
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And so I appreciate it. I appreciate you very much.
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If you've been toiling in anonymity, know that the Father
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knows and there's a day where it is all coming to light.
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I, I introduced myself earlier. If you're new here, welcome.
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My name is Daniel. I'm one of the lead pastors here
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at Res Church. And a little bit about me, I got
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saved in college and in college when Jesus saved me, I can tell
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you quite frankly that I wanted nothing to do with Jesus.
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I didn't want God. I wasn't searching for God.
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I didn't think I needed God. And I still remember a day
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walking across the street. There's a super busy
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intersection right across just just north of the SC campus
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where all the students would go back and forth to housing.
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And I'm walking across the street and God is, is vocal with
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me in that moment. And that was the beginning
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standing for me of God getting my attention of God beginning to
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open my eyes and to save me. And I can tell you, not only did
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I not want God to save me, I was God's enemy.
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I was fighting God as he was saving me.
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And so in that moment, as God begins to open my eyes to
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spiritual things and I'm fighting him the whole way, that
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is a, that is a very appropriate beginning because that's really
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what we're going to read about today as we pick up our our
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passage. We're in John 8 again.
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We were there last week. We're just reading through the
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book of John. And in John 8, we're going to
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look at Jesus once again, explaining some truth about
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himself to a people who want nothing to do with his
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authority. They want nothing to do with his
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sovereign sovereignty at all. And I'm just going to tell you
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right now, brother, I can relate quite well to money.
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Nothing to do with Jesus and yet he saves you anyways.
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It's amazing that Jesus didn't even have to ask my permission.
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If you leave with only one thing today, if you if you just just
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one thing and that's all you remember about the the sermon, I
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want you to remember this one thing.
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I didn't pick sight, but I can practice life in the light.
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I didn't I didn't choose site, but I can practice life in the
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light. To set the stage for the
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interaction of these passages, John 812 to 30, we we look at
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verse 20 tells us that Jesus was in the temple teaching.
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In fact, he was in a specific area called the treasury.
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Now the treasury is in the court of women.
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That's an outer court of the temple and it's during a
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festival called the Feast of Tabernacles in Hebrew.
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That's sukut. So he's in this.
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There's a big festival, big religious holiday going on.
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And, and it's very specific. And I want you to understand why
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this is so specific that in the court of women during the
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holiday, only during the holiday they erected these giant
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lampstands that were so tall that they needed ladders to get
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up to light them. And they're filled with just
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gallons and gallons of oil. OK, Very appropriate that they
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erected giant lights. No.
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OK, No one else with the I just it was convenient and it lined
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up. I thought you'd like that.
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OK. And it only happened for the
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festival. And So what would happen is
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every night of the festival, they would light these giant
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torches on fire, just blazing torches.
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And they did it because the festival was actually a specific
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religious holiday in which those torches represented the pillar
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of fire that led the Israelite people out of Egypt, out of
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slavery and into the promised land.
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And so that's what they they would represent.
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So So Jesus, when he says this verse 12, he's standing there
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between these huge torches and he's saying, you think that's
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impressive? I am the light of the world.
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It's me. And so, so in that moment where
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he says that he is both fulfilling an ancient prophecy
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from about 1000 years earlier. And he's trying to captivate the
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imagination, grab the attention of the people to get through
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this message of truth. And so all the way back 1000
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years earlier in in the book of Isaiah, there's a prophet named
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Isaiah in 49. So chapter 49, verse six, he
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makes this prophecy about Jesus. It says this, I will make you as
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a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end
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of the earth. So Jesus here, he's standing in
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between these massive lamp stands and he's basically
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saying, remember that promise it's me and I'm here.
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And he's also trying to capture their attention.
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There's a religious holiday kind of based around there were this
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holiday represented 2 things in in Deuteronomy 6, it said that
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you'll have a festival to thank God for the harvest.
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But also in Leviticus 23, they did these specific things so
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that they can remember God removing them from slavery,
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removing them from bondage. They were commanded to do this,
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this religious holiday, because there's this story in Exodus 13
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where a million Israelites are released from captivity out of
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Egypt, and they're supposed to go to the promised land, and
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they don't know how to get there.
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They don't even know where they're going.
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And so God during the day guides them with a cloud, and at night,
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he guides them with a pillar of fire.
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And there's so much symbolism here.
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God is essentially in those moments saying, listen, you
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don't have to know where you're going.
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You don't have to know the exact destination.
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You don't have to have a map. What you need is to know where I
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am and follow me. You need to know where I am and
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you need to follow me. And so, so when Jesus says I am
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the light of the world, he's taking them all the way back
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like 2000 years earlier to this story coming out of Egypt.
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And he said, listen, you celebrate a holiday where we're
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trying to remember that God was with you.
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All of the comfort and the security of God leading you.
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That was me. That was me leading you.
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You, you're in the wilderness. And yet you weren't alone
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because that was because I was there.
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I was the one that guided you as to where to go.
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I was I was the one that would filled envelope the Tabernacle
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when you built it. I'm the one that when Solomon
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built the temple, Jesus presence came down in such an
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overpowering way. It says the priests couldn't
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even worship that he filled the temple with his Shekinah glory.
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That's the claim he's making. He's standing in their temple
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during their religious holiday and going it's me.
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He's trying to get their attention.
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And so when I was reading and research, you know, the last
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couple weeks like this, it kind of made me chuckle because like,
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here's Jesus, right? Like we, we put lights up today,
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but he's standing between probably one of the best ancient
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pyrotechnic shows in the world, like Bakersfield likes their
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fireworks. But I mean, this is some stuff.
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And he's standing in between this when he makes his claim,
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trying to here's the thing that was amazing about Jesus.
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He loves stories and illustrations and, and sermon
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props, right. If you go back to John 7, we
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covered that a couple months ago.
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There is another religious holiday.
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And at the end of that holiday, the priest gets up and, and
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takes this big jar of water and ceremonially pours it out.
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And Jesus waits until that moment happens.
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And when he, when that happens, he looks at the crowd and says,
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if anyone thirsts, let him come after me and drink.
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And now he waits for this holiday.
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And he's standing between the, the, the, the, these lanterns
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and he's, what is he trying to do?
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He he's trying to find any way to reach men and women with the
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truth and, and, and and if we, if you read Jesus enough, you
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realize he was incredibly creative with how he did this.
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He told stories and he used cultural references and holidays
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and religious how he used props and man he why am I pointing
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this out? Listen, I can guarantee you that
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in this moment, there's some people that that that probably
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weren't very happy that Jesus was using a religious holiday to
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make these claims. Like why do preachers get up
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here and, and use stories and use humor and use props and, and
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and use camps and outer space and go Kart tracks and ministry?
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Why do we do all of this to try to reach people with the gospel?
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Because we saw Jesus do it. Because we saw Jesus do it.
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I will do anything to reach people with the gospel of Jesus.
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And my point that I want you to see here, it's just that Jesus
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has such a heart for you and me that he never valued human
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tradition over the souls of the lost.
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Jesus never valued human religious tradition over the
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souls of the lost. Because I guarantee you there's
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people in the crowd in the temple right then when Jesus
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says this and they're like, and they're offended.
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They're offended. It's so inappropriate Jesus,
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that you would, you would stand in the temple during this
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holiday for God and you'd make this about you.
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In fact, verse 12, he makes the claim.
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The next 17 verses are all people rejecting Jesus in
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various ways. They're stages of rejection for
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17 verses in your in your bulletin handout on the
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Backpage, I printed a diagram that came from Chuck Swindoll.
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Charles Swindoll actually detailed out that the book of
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chapter 8 of the book of John is essentially people just
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rejecting Jesus, rejecting Jesus, rejecting Jesus.
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I mean, it's, it's contradiction, cynicism,
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insults. They're categorically rejecting
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and denying Jesus in his claim. So, So what is this claim that
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is so offensive that this crowd would would react this way?
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Here's the claim verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them
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saying I am the light of the world.
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Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
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light of life. Now this single claim is so
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important, so, so radical that they're going to argue and
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insult him for the next, really the rest of the chapter.
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And So what I want to do is I want to look at like, what what
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is this claim? What is he actually saying when
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he says I'm the light of the world?
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And the best way to just in general, the best way to
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interpret the Bible is with the Bible.
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So if you're not sure about something, read the Bible.
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You're going to find a lot of cross referencing in the Bible
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where it will interpret itself for you.
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And so we're going to do that. We're going to look at some
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other passages today that talk about this idea being light of
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the world. The same author, the apostle
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John, who wrote the book that we're reading here in in in
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chapter 8, started this book with a claim about Jesus being
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the light. And so let's look at that in
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John one, it says this in the beginning was the word.
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That's Jesus. And the word was with God and
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the word was God. He was in the beginning with
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God. All things were made through him
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and without him was not anything made that was made in him was
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life, and the life was the light of men.
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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not
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overcome it. So.
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So this entire book from the apostle John starts with a claim
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that Jesus existed before creation, that Jesus was with
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God, that Jesus is God, that Jesus made everything, that
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Jesus represents life, and that Jesus is the light in the
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darkness. Now that can't be literal.
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Like we light in the dark, like, like not, not the we know the
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sun is a star, right? That's not Jesus.
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So what is it? There's clearly some sort of
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symbolism going on here that we're supposed to catch when it
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talks about light and dark. What what is that?
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Well, the, the whole story arc of the Bible.
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If you're new to the Bible, if you're new here, if you, if
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maybe Christianity is not even your thing, all of the Bible,
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all 66 books of the Bible is 1 big giant story arc that starts
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with a problem in the 3rd chapter of the very first book.
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And in that that that very beginning, there's a problem
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that must be solved. And the Bible essentially is
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telling a story about spiritual darkness, about spiritual
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blindness and how that problem has to be overcome.
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And it's summarized in in the book of Ephesians.
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There's a couple verses here in chapter 2 I want to read you.
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And this kind of summarizes the problem if you're new to it.
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So let me read this to you. It says this and you say me,
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we're dead in the trespasses and sins in once in which you once
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walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince
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of the power of the air. That's Satan, the spirit that is
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now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all.
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That's in Greek, but in but in English that would be all.
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Everyone of us once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying
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out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature
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children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
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But God, the story of the Bible is that we were all spiritually
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blind. But God, what that passage is
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trying to explain about the story of the Bible is this.
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When humanity first rebelled against God, in the very
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beginning of the story, we broke relationship with God.
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Sin caused a curse that every one of us, you and I, were born
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underneath. And so as a result, you and I
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were born spiritually dead. We were born spiritually blind.
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And here's the thing about being born blind is we don't even know
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what what blindness is. We don't even know what sight
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is. We've never experienced it.
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That that's what the Bible says. So you don't even know what you
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don't know. You ever been you ever feel
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dumb, man? Do I feel dumb sometimes?
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You know, when I feel really dumb is when I don't even know
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what I don't know. Like I don't even know how dumb
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I am. Like this could get bad.
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My point is that every single one of us, according to the
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Bible, was Born This Way. We were born like, I don't even
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know what I don't know. How could we?
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How could you understand blindness and sight when you
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were born blind? How can you understand God?
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How can you understand your need for him?
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How can you understand your own moral depravity when all you
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were born into is spiritual blindness?
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There there's a phenomenal story.
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Some of you may have read this in school long ago.
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There was a woman named Helen Keller.
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Anyone heard of her? OK, a few people.
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Helen Keller was born in 1880. And get this, she was born blind
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and deaf. I just think about how bad one
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of those is. But to be born both.
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And so all attempts to communicate with her in her life
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failed because she couldn't see and she couldn't hear.
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And she basically grew as a as an individual through childhood
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and adolescence in her own personal prison of her mind,
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completely in isolation and disconnected from all community,
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all communication, everything. You know what I mean?
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Talk about just pure isolation, unable to communicate until one
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day there was a really stubborn, faithful teacher named Anne
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Sullivan, and she had a breakthrough.
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She took her to this water pump, this well, and she started
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pumping water onto her hands. And as the water flowed all over
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her hands, she spelled the letters for water.
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And it finally clicked for her. And that was the moment when she
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began to realize someone was trying to communicate with her.
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And she learned letters and she learned language and she began
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to communicate. But it But up until that moment,
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she didn't even know what she didn't know.
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What I'm trying to tell you is the Bible says that this is you
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and I. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul
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says that the things of God are actually not hard to figure out
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at all. In fact, they're incredibly
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obvious. Romans one says they're clearly
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perceived by everyone. The problem isn't that God is
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hiding from us. The problem is that we don't
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even realize we're blind. If you've never used your eyes,
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how do you know what blindness is?
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And until God awakens us from spiritual death to spiritual
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life, from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight, we we don't
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even know. That's what Ephesians 4 that we
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just read is telling us. We're stumbling around in the
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darkness, but God, when I was in college, I wasn't looking for
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God. I didn't want God.
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I didn't think I needed God. I'm stumbling around in the
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darkness, but God. I didn't choose sight, but by
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the grace of God, he saved me. Not of my own works.
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I didn't pick sight, but I can practice life in the light.
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So you might be thinking if you're, if you're hearing the
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story, you're going well, God, if God has to awaken you, if God
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has to cure your spiritual blindness or you can't even
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consider these things. Then then how come in that
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passage we read, Jesus seems so frustrated with them?
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Doesn't that seem a little weird?
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Like, like if you're really pragmatic, and I get accused of
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that sometimes, if you're really pragmatic, you go look, if it's
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God's decision, why is he frustrated?
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Here's the truth. I hope you take it.
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Let's go. But he's not, is he?
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I mean, you can hear the frustration in his voice that he
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wants them to see the truth. Why?
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Because he loves them. When you love someone who's
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hurting themselves and you know that there's there's a specific
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solution or there's one thing that can help and they keep
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rejecting it and they keep rejecting it, like that breaks
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your heart. And that's Jesus in this moment.
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I know that as a pastor holding the office of pastor, that there
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are going to be people that I serve for years, maybe some for
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decades, who never actually surrender to Jesus.
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No matter how much I do, no matter how hard I preach or how
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hard I serve, that they will reject Jesus.
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They will die and go to an eternal hell.
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But the moment that doesn't bother me, the moment that
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doesn't shock me, the moment that doesn't break my heart.
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I am not qualified to be your pastor.
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Let me ask you this. Some of you have gone through
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this or are going through this right now.
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If you have a child living in rebellion to God.
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Hating God and you know that you can't change her heart, that God
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has to do it, that you're powerless.
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Does that mean you stop caring? Does that mean it stops
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bothering you? I have that child in my life
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right now and I'm not over it. I'm not OK with it, even though
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I'm powerless in that moment. Jesus loves them so much,
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wanting them to be saved. Maybe.
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Maybe you're here today and you don't really believe much of
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this Jesus stuff. For you, all religions are the
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same or they're all fake or they're all not real.
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And what what I'm trying to tell you is that according to the
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Bible, you were born not able to see it.
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But the fact that you're here listening to this message or or
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listening to it online is not an accident.
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It wasn't even by your choice, though maybe you think it was.
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I would you just consider for a moment that perhaps God is
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leading you to the water pump like Helen Keller today to teach
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you something that you have been blind to.
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Just consider this. How do you know that you're
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missing something you've never experienced?
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It's Jesus frustration in the moment and this, this
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illustration that he's using of lightness, light and darkness.
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It does. It doesn't actually end simply
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with the idea of, of, of becoming spiritually alive or,
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or, or curing spiritual blindness.
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It actually continues as the example or the illustration of
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how to go ahead and live the Christian life, how to follow
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Jesus. This analogy will continue to be
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used throughout the New Testament.
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It becomes a perfect example of what it's supposed to look like
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to follow Jesus. So it's more than just the
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moment of salvation. It's actually the ongoing,
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normal, everyday Christian life. This is the perfect
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illustration, and here's why. The moment that Jesus opens your
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eyes, the moment that God begins to save you and you begin to see
24:24
spiritual things, you're awakening to spiritual things.
24:27
You're going to see two things to fundamental universal truths
24:32
about this world. And they are the pillars by
24:35
which all of the Christian faith is built on.
24:37
So if you're new and you're not sure what Christianity about,
24:39
it's about these two things that you see the moment God is saving
24:43
you. And here's the first one.
24:44
Man, Jesus is awesome. Man Jesus is, He is so good.
24:52
He is so amazing, He's so miraculous, He's so incredible.
24:58
And he died for me. That doesn't just floor you when
25:05
you get saved. And I've been saved for many
25:09
years and I am still not over it.
25:12
In fact, the more you think about it, the better it gets.
25:16
That's truth number one. Here's truth #2 that you, you
25:19
see, the moment you get saved, it begins to dawn on you.
25:21
Here's this is the worst part, baby, of being saved.
25:25
I am way worse than I thought I was.
25:30
Like way worse than I thought I was.
25:38
Because when I lived in the dark, I could justify how I
25:44
lived. And you know, I'm not, maybe I'm
25:46
not perfect, but I'm not that bad.
25:48
I mean, we all know somebody that's that bad.
25:51
We, you know, And so you can be like, I'm not great, but I mean,
25:54
I'm not not I'm not Gary. I'm sorry, Gary, if there's one
25:59
out here. But when the but but when you
26:05
become alive to spiritual things, you can't treat, you're
26:08
going like, Oh, no, I'm way. Oh, in fact, the first few years
26:15
after coming to Christ, I'm like, oh, have you ever, have
26:22
you ever, have you ever thought your kitchen was clean because
26:26
you hadn't turned the lights on? Do you know what I mean, dog?
26:30
You're like, looks pretty good. My kids do this all the time.
26:34
Hey, it's kitchen clean. Yeah, it's pretty clean.
26:35
Turn the lights on. Turn the lights on and you turn
26:40
the lights on, you go like like 200 Watt blood just right and
26:44
all of a sudden you're like, this place is disgusting.
26:46
It's like a Petri dish in here. Like what what what's happened
26:53
in here? Like it's easy to deceive
26:55
yourself in the dark, but when all the lights come on, it's
26:59
like now in that moment, we all have a choice.
27:06
OK, here's the choice. Start working on the mess.
27:10
Or like my kids love to do what mess looks great, but you and I
27:22
do that in our lives. Jesus saves us and all of a
27:26
sudden we're like, oh, and our choice is to step into the light
27:30
and open our eyes and let God get a hold of that mess and
27:32
start wading through it. Or Nah, I'm good.
27:39
At least I'm not Gary. When I got saved, I thought I
27:51
was actually pretty good, man. Those first few years as God's
27:56
working on me, the lights keep getting brighter and brighter
27:59
and brighter and I'm like, can we stomp this?
28:04
And I have to have that same choice.
28:05
I still have that choice. That choice is not any different
28:08
now years after I came to Christ.
28:11
It's still the same. I either as those lights come on
28:13
brighter and the Holy Spirit continues to press towards
28:17
holiness, I can either step into that or I can close my eyes and
28:22
live in denial. And sometimes, you know, denial
28:25
is not just a river in Egypt. It's a dad joke for you.
28:31
He'll get it later. OK, in the, in the letters to
28:35
the early churches, they're very consistent, actually pressing
28:38
toward holiness. And this is exact, they use this
28:40
illustration over and over again.
28:41
And so there's a church in Ephesus in the 1st century.
28:44
And Paul writes this exact thing to them, trying to, trying to
28:47
encourage them to step into the light and, and to live in
28:50
holiness. And it says this in Ephesians
28:52
5-6 through 8. It says let no one deceive you
28:55
with empty words. So don't, don't, don't let
28:57
anyone tell you that you don't need to do this, OK?
29:00
For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons
29:03
of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners
29:08
with them. For at one time you were in
29:11
darkness, say me, at one time you were in darkness, you were
29:16
spiritually blind, but now you are the light, you are light in
29:22
the Lord. So walk as children of the
29:25
light, encouraging them. They don't close your eyes to
29:29
this. Don't try to go back to the
29:31
dark. These there's a bunch of
29:37
passages like this in the New Testament to churches, and
29:39
they're essentially reinforcing something that Jesus says at the
29:42
end of our passage today. In verse 29, Jesus says this
29:45
about the Father. He says that he, God who sent me
29:47
is with me. He's not left me alone, for I
29:50
always do the things that are pleasing to him.
29:53
Let me tell you what's pleasing to God, and this is the part I
29:57
think of Christianity that we kind of love and hate.
29:59
OK, what's pleasing to God is to live life in the light.
30:04
What we want to do, what human nature wants to do is say, I
30:06
know how I please God. It's these five check boxes.
30:09
I just got to do this. We're going to put a tie on and
30:11
read the bubble rag. And if I do these five things
30:13
and God is happy, in fact, if we're, if we actually are being
30:16
really honest, if I do these five things, then God owes me
30:22
and he'll have to do what I want because he owes me one, because
30:25
I did the five things. That's not what the Bible says.
30:30
What's pleasing to God is stepping into the light and
30:34
allowing the Holy Spirit to to start turning those lights up
30:37
brighter and brighter and brighter and us go, oh, OK, OK.
30:45
And I'm going to show you that that's actually here.
30:47
OK. I'm going to show you exactly
30:48
how that works because we have stories of it working in the
30:50
Bible and in our lives In Acts chapter 19, the same church, the
30:55
Church of Ephesus that we just read from Ephesians, that same
30:58
church, Paul is there. There's some revival going on
31:01
and there's a crazy story, OK, in Acts 19, I swear this is in
31:06
your Bible. You can turn there later in Acts
31:09
19. Seven Jewish exorcists.
31:12
Never thought you'd start a sentence that way.
31:14
Try to exorcise a demon out of a demon possessed man.
31:17
But they're not Christians and it doesn't go well.
31:22
And the demon speaks to them and then beats them naked.
31:30
See you guys thought your Bible was boring.
31:34
I'm just telling y'all read your Bible.
31:36
There's some spicy stuff in there.
31:37
OK, Caliente, OK, beats them naked seven guys.
31:46
And then let's pick up what happens in the story Acts 19
31:50
verse 17 that gets out. And this this story became known
31:55
to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear
31:58
fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
32:04
was extolled. It was praised.
32:07
And then look at the result of what happened.
32:10
Also, many of those who were now believers say me came confessing
32:19
and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had
32:23
practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned
32:26
them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of
32:30
them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.
32:37
So the word of the Lord continued to increase and
32:40
prevail mightily. Christians in the church well to
32:44
do got my Sunday best on singing praises, lifting my hands to
32:48
Jesus or hiding sin and and it is only it is only catch it at
33:00
the moment they begin to confess and divulge hidden sin.
33:05
That stuff starts to get real and there's so many of them
33:10
hiding this that the pile of witchcraft books that they're
33:15
hiding. I don't know why Harry Potter
33:16
was so big back then that the pile of books is 50,000 silver
33:24
pieces. Think about how many Christians
33:26
that is then and the result of that confession of dragging it
33:31
into the light. So the word of the Lord
33:35
continued to increase and prevail mightily.
33:39
Listen, you can fake Christianity if you want, but
33:41
don't think that you're going to fake it and actually experience
33:44
the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.
33:49
So they get serious about it and all of a sudden it's real.
33:52
Now you're like, that was the 1st century, OK, a few months
33:56
ago. We do supercharged and it's a,
33:59
it's a leadership development once a month.
34:00
We do it on a Sunday night once a month.
34:02
So we had about like 65 people in the Chapel at these little
34:06
round tables. And I had heard a podcast from 2
34:10
pastors, Sam Albury and, and, and Ray Orlin Junior.
34:13
And they had told this really cool story about a men's thing
34:15
where like there's some guy gotten up in this men's event
34:17
and he said, I want y'all to break into to pairs to like,
34:20
like, to two people. And I want you to spend the next
34:22
20 minutes sharing with one another the worst thing you've
34:25
ever done. And he said it was like super
34:32
powerful. So I'm listening to them.
34:34
That's so good. So I, I not all ideas are good
34:38
ideas. So I go to, I go to
34:41
superchargers and I'm like, listen, I'm not going to make
34:43
you do this, this, this sounds awful.
34:45
I just want you to consider, just just consider if I asked
34:51
you to turn to your neighbor and share the worst things you've
34:56
ever done, if you could, could you live in the light?
35:00
Could you live with that level of confession and transparency
35:02
and vulnerability? Could you do that?
35:04
How does that make you feel right?
35:05
I just want you to to feel how closed off we get, how fake we
35:08
live right? And so I'm very proud of myself
35:10
until I sit down at the first table with the eight people and
35:14
the first next to me goes, how about you, pastor?
35:20
I'm sorry, what? What will you share with us?
35:24
The worst thing you've ever done?
35:30
I have miscalculated this substantially.
35:36
So I did. Over the next 10 or 20 minutes,
35:40
I shared the worst things I've ever done in my life.
35:43
And people started crying. And I was like, Oh no.
35:50
And then I realized they were crying because they needed to
35:52
confess some stuff. And person by person, people
35:56
started sobbing and spilling their guts.
35:59
And each one of them said, I've never told anyone this.
36:04
All the way around the table, every person had hidden sin that
36:08
they'd never confessed to anyone.
36:12
And then I looked up and everyone in the room was crying
36:15
because at every table, people had started to live life in the
36:19
light. And it began to change
36:23
everything in the room. It wasn't just in the 1st
36:26
century that the Holy Spirit works in this way.
36:29
The Word of God is eternal and timeless.
36:32
It's still this way. I didn't pick sight, but I can
36:40
practice life in the light. So our first takeaways as we
36:45
wrap this service up, here's what I want you to think about
36:47
in your own life. Are you practicing living life
36:51
in the light? Not, not hiding your mess, not
36:56
hiding your mistakes, not hiding your sin, but actively
36:59
confessing your sins to one another and helping each other
37:02
live life in the light. But this is the whole reason we
37:05
talk over and over and over again about how the Christian
37:08
life is meant to be done in community with other Christians.
37:11
Because you need someone that you can confess to and confesses
37:13
to you and that you can encourage and can encourage you.
37:16
And look, if we're being really honest, the reason it is so hard
37:19
to confess a sin is not that you're that prideful.
37:22
The problem is that you know that the moment you confess it,
37:24
there's a there's a probability that other person's going to ask
37:27
you about it again. So that means I got to be
37:33
serious about wanting to chase holiness.
37:37
And that's uncomfortable. Amen.
37:40
Real uncomfortable. But, but, but it is the best
37:47
part of the Christian life too, because God doesn't leave us
37:52
where we're at in our moral depravity, in our mess.
37:54
He doesn't just turn up the lights so you can see the mess
37:56
and lament. He doesn't leave you in the
38:00
mess, He puts his spirit inside you to convict you and encourage
38:05
you to pursue holiness with one another.
38:07
But it's going to feel at times like a fight.
38:11
Now, every time we talk about fighting, let me be very clear,
38:14
I don't mean fight other Christians.
38:17
It's not like Christian celebrity deathmatch.
38:22
I don't mean argue with people online.
38:24
Y'all do enough of that? I'm scared.
38:25
Don't do that. I mean, fight the actual enemies
38:28
of God, your fleshly nature, Satan and a fallen world.
38:32
Those are our enemies. When we become part of God's
38:35
family, those become our enemies too because they're God's
38:36
enemies. And it's a fight that there's a
38:39
pastor born in JC. Rob was born in 1816.
38:43
So this is 1800s and he's going to talk about something in the
38:47
1800s. He might as well be talking
38:49
about 2025. Like he said, I love reading
38:51
church fathers and historical church fathers and and old
38:54
sermons because you beat them and you're God.
38:55
Dude, this guy could be talking about right now and what?
38:58
Here's what that encourages you. It, it tells you that this is
39:01
the timeless eternal truth across all cultures.
39:05
And so he was, he was, he lamented.
39:07
I mean, he, he wrote a sermon called the Fight for Holiness.
39:09
And, and he lamented the fact that it seemed like Christians
39:12
would come to Christ and then not care to pursue holiness at
39:15
all and just live this shallow life.
39:17
And it was driving him nuts. And here's what he says.
39:19
True Christianity is a fight. The true Christian is called to
39:24
be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his
39:28
conversion to the day of his death.
39:30
He's not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and
39:35
security. He must never imagine for a
39:37
moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven,
39:41
like 1 travelling in an easy carriage.
39:45
If he takes his standard of Christianity from the children
39:47
of this world. He may be content with such
39:50
notions, but he will find no countenance for them in the word
39:54
of God. He must fight.
40:01
We it's going to be hard to open your eyes and realize the mess
40:10
and not close your eyes again. But but imagine being healed of
40:15
blindness only to go about life with your eyes closed.
40:21
You were cured. You can see.
40:23
I don't want to see. I can't.
40:30
That sounds so silly, but we as Christians do this all the time
40:33
because opening our eyes means dealing with the hard stuff
40:37
instead of denial. Step into the light and open
40:40
your eyes. God didn't save you so that you
40:44
could impress him with how holy you were in the dark.
40:48
Trust me, he didn't think you were holy.
40:50
You're not. He saved you so that you can be
40:56
encouraged that He is pulling you toward holiness.
41:01
And it is so amazingly liberating and freeing to live
41:05
in the light. It may be a little bit scary,
41:07
but listen, it is. It is freeing.
41:11
Life is sweet in the light. I need God's truth and His
41:18
spirit and I need it with other believers that, that that's what
41:20
I'm trying to tell you. And, and, and there, there are
41:23
practical ways to do this. We, we keep talking about
41:25
getting in a group or, or, or serving on a team or, or getting
41:28
into mentorship or, or all these community oriented things are
41:31
being known because we want you to build relationships where,
41:34
where you're willing to take the risk of living vulnerably.
41:37
There's a difference between transparency and vulnerability.
41:39
Transparency is telling people everything about your life.
41:41
Vulnerability is taking risk and it is risky to be vulnerable.
41:47
And yeah, that's, that's actually what we're called to,
41:50
to be open and honest about struggles.
41:52
You don't go to a group to impress them.
41:54
I hope you're not going to a group to impress them.
41:57
My my small group that I've had now for a couple years, even as
42:00
it's changed and had different guys, we always split into guys
42:02
and girls. And we, we go sit on this couch
42:05
in my office and we spill our guts.
42:09
We just, we just confess the struggles and the difficulties
42:13
and listen over the last few years, we've tackled every
42:16
problem that you're you're suffering from right now.
42:19
All I'll sit on a couch, porn, lust, sexual purity, money, lack
42:23
of faith, anxiety, marriage problems, stress, anger.
42:27
We just drag it into the light and we start encouraging one
42:31
another and praying for each other.
42:33
I was listening to these two pastors talk about an
42:35
accountability group and one guy asked the other guy, he says,
42:38
how do you decide what to share in your accountability group?
42:40
He goes, well, when I'm driving over to the accountability group
42:43
on Monday night, I just think, man, what do I really not want
42:45
to talk about? And whatever that is, that's the
42:51
thing I know I need to talk about.
42:57
You think it's frightening, but it's actually freeing.
43:01
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
43:05
You're scared of living in the light.
43:06
And I'm telling you that if you would do it, it'll change the
43:10
way you pursue Jesus. And here's my second thing for
43:14
just application. I just have a question for you,
43:17
for you to consider, and that's this.
43:19
Have you, have you met the light of the world?
43:23
Have you met him? Do you know him?
43:25
This whole story in John 8 is Jesus trying to introduce
43:29
salvation to people. And so I would just ask you, how
43:34
about you? Maybe you're not sure what's
43:40
been happening in you over the course of last week or even
43:43
during the course of this service or listening to the
43:45
sermon online, like something's happening.
43:47
You're not sure what that is. And all I'm asking you is to
43:50
consider that maybe what you're feeling is the undeniable call
43:53
of God to your soul, to be saved, to pull you into the
43:59
light, to put your faith in Jesus.
44:02
And I want to give you the opportunity to respond to the
44:07
gospel of Jesus Christ today. The Bible says you must put
44:11
place your faith in Jesus in Romans 10/9 and 10 it says this,
44:15
if you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
44:18
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
44:21
will be saved. Or with a heart 1 believes and
44:24
is justified, and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
44:29
Jesus died and was raised three days later to offer you freedom
44:33
from sin and shame, to offer you a new relationship, to be
44:37
adopted into his family. And so if you would like to take
44:41
that step and surrender your life and your will to God today,
44:44
I want to give you that chance. In the moments we have
44:46
remaining, will you close your eyes and bow your head and we
44:48
will pray. And if you're willing to ask him
44:51
for forgiveness and salvation with every eye closed, with
44:55
every head bowed, I just want you to to quietly or even
44:57
silently repeat this prayer after me.
45:01
Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I can't save myself.
45:11
I want you to save me and adopt me into your family.
45:17
I surrender everything to you and I receive your promises of
45:25
forgiveness, of adoption, and of eternal life.
45:32
Be my Lord, please Jesus, if you said that prayer for the very
45:40
first time, will you be brave and raise your hand for me to
45:43
see. Thank you, thank you.
45:48
Put your hands down in Jesus name, Amen.
45:52
Look up here real quick, we're almost done.
45:57
Jesus loves you more than you actually can imagine, more than
46:01
you comprehend, more than you believe right now.
46:03
He loves you. And if you said that prayer
46:05
moments ago, even if you didn't raise your hand, welcome to the
46:09
family. The Bible says that all of
46:16
heaven rejoices when a single person turns to Christ.
46:20
And so just a moment, we're going to stand and sing and
46:21
close our service. And there are tables in the bag
46:23
to say I raised my hand. If you said that prayer, even
46:25
you didn't raise your hand. If you committed your life to
46:27
Christ, we want you to go back there so we can celebrate with
46:29
you. We have a gift for you.
46:30
We're going to talk about what a next step looks like to pursue
46:33
Jesus. Will you stand with me?
46:35
We're going to close in our song today in a hymn.
46:40
Our prayer team is going to come up here to the front man.
46:43
We will pray with you for any reason.
46:45
We love praying for you and with you.
46:46
If you need to confess something and you haven't found somebody
46:49
to do that with, you can come grab a prayer team member and
46:51
spill your guts if you want. Bible says that if you're hurt
46:54
or sick and in need of healing that you should come and ask for
46:57
prayer. So do so.
46:58
If you need encouragement and prayer for yourself or a loved
47:01
one, come and be prayed for. It is not weird to come and get
47:04
prayer. It's weird to come to church and
47:05
think you don't need prayer. So we would love to pray with
47:09
you. You move as the Lord leads.
47:11
We're going to sing this song. We love you, Church.