Light and dark (Rescue)

Lets pray:

How many of y’all have a basement?

Is it finished? Is it unfinished?

While I grew up with a unfinished basement, that was basically a glorified storage unit

There’s a lot of stuff down there sometimes it was a bit of a mess

But growing up if we wanted to leave the basement after hanging out or doing stuff downstairs me and my siblings we would have to turn off the lights

And something I used to do was I’d go to the other side of the basement where the last light which was and instead of Leaving the other lights on near the stairs I turned those off first

Then I went across the basement, turned off the last light, and I would try to make my way back to the stairs in the dark

My goal was to memorize the layout and try to figure it out to show that I had a really good memory and really just be cool

But the reality was when I tried that I’d randomly kick something walk into something or trip over something

And if I tried to do it too fast, I would fall and risk breaking something or myself

It’s hard to walk or even run in darkness

Now I also remember a time where I went to Tennessee and went to this cave that had a lake underneath the ground, which was really cool

And an exercise they would do is they would turn off all the lights in the cave

Complete and total darkness like imagine the Darkest darkness, you could imagine

No flashlights, no lanterns no phone nothing

And when I was in the darkness, I was trying to think of how could I survive?

If the lights really were off forever, how would I survive in the darkness?

Because in my basement, I could barely make it to the stairs. How could I find my way out of a cave?

And the answer of the tour guide is you wouldn’t be able to

You would need to be rescued

And tonight we’re gonna look at some scripture that tells us that we need to be rescued.

John 3:19–20 ESV

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Why do people love the dark more than the light?

Because they knew they were evil

This is not reality where if we know we’re evil we don’t wanna be seen as evil

If I went through a horrible car accident and was terribly disfigured, I would probably not wanna be out in the light because I’m ashamed of who I am

With sin with us who live in sin, we don’t want to be in the light

We don’t want our sin to be exposed or brought up or dealt with

We want to be ignorant… We want to deceive ourselves… We want to be in the dark.

But there’s a problem with staying in the dark… The problem is when you’re in the dark it’s easy to fall off a cliff and impossible to live life.

1 John 1:5–7 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

See the problem is if we are walking in darkness, we are not walking with Christ.

And if I’m not walking with Christ, if I do not have fellowship with Christ, I do not have salvation from my sins

Each and everyone of us have sinned

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

And because of that, we need Jesus

Because the punishment for sin is death

And relationship with Jesus is life

But it’s marked by us walking in the light…

Walking in the light doesn’t mean perfection it means relationship

It means that we seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus

It means that we do not love our sin, but we fear our sin and try to run from sin

Because we want to earn salvation, but because we love, Jesus

And when you walk in the light with the light, you stay far from darkness…

Stay far you stay far from your old habits… Old sins and old patterns… If you find yourself struggling with sin, I really want to know if you read scripture every day pray everyday seek after Jesus every single day

Because this is what scripture says about the light

John 8:12 ESV

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.”

If we are his children, we will walk in the light with our father

Because if we know, Jesus, we will pursue him and the only way to be in the light is to draw near to the light

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

When we drawn near to the light, we do not walk in darkness

This doesn’t make us perfect…

But it does mean we are being made perfect

We become more and more like him until one day we enter into eternity with him

So my main question for us tonight is have we been rescued

Has Jesus taking you out of this cave of darkness into the light?

Or are you still in your darkness and do you need to know him as your savior?

Talk to a leader talk to me pray to God ask him for forgiveness and salvation

Repent and believe

But if you’re in this room and you have been rescued, are you concerned to go and rescue other others?

Are you concerned to seek to share the gospel with others?

Are you concerned about those who are still in darkness running around tripping over everything they see

Do you pray for them?

Do you reach out to them?

Do you try to be friends with them?

Because if we have been saved, we will desire to save others through the power of Jesus.

So as we go to Growth communities… Ask yourself if you have a relationship with Jesus… And if you do, ask yourself who you can bring the gospel to

Let’s pray