Light, Dark and Eternal Life

Intro

Last week we talked about Abraham Interceding for Sodom and Gomorra. We talked about how we need to be interceding for those who are lost and rejecting God. We do this by standing in the gap between God and People, caring the people the people to God in Prayer and representing God to the people. We ended last week by standing and lifting our loved ones to God asking for yet another chance for our loved ones to hear and believe.

But what about representing Christ to our loved ones? This morning what I would like to do is start a series on Helping the lost overcome obstacles to faith. The # 1 reason Christian people give for not sharing their faith is they are scared they will not know what to say or do. Now we believe God will give us the words, but as a church we also want to do our part by to equip each believer with the tools and skills they will need to help the lost overcome the obstacles to faith.

In order to do that we need to understand the obstacles that keep people from coming to faith. So for the next few weeks we will look at some of these obstacles and talk about how we might dismantle them for those who are on the cusp of believing in Christ.

The first obstacle we are going to look at is actually very common among those who are right on the edge of faith. These are the people who have already overcome some of the other obstacles we will look at and they believe in God but for some reason still choose to remain apart from Christ.

When talking to these people about God, salvation and having a relationship with Him the obstacle they will often identify is a fear of leaving the darkness or more simply put a fear of the light. Now they won’t say I can’t come to Christ because I’m afraid of leaving the darkness. What they will say are things like, “God requires us to give up too much” or they will list things they are not willing to give up or, they will say, “If God loves me why does He want to Change me”

Are you getting the pattern. The barrier they are facing is a fear of the change that comes from accepting Christ. The truth is an adult on the cusp of faith has lived their life in the darkness, figuratively speaking. It is all they know, and they have learned to find some joy and pleasure in the darkness, and the idea of giving that up scares them, because to this point it is the only joy and pleasure they have known.

So how do you overcome a barrier like that? That is the question I want to try and answer. To do this I want to look at possible the most famous bible verse in the world, which is , but not just that verse I also want to look at verses 17-21 as well.

So while you are turning in your bibles to let me catch you up in the conversation. A man named Nicodemus a teacher of the law has come to Jesus in the night. Jesus is trying to explain to him what it means to be saved. He explains being born again, basically telling him it is like starting life over and living a different life. Nicodemus seemed to be having a hard time with this and so Jesus continues. We are going to start at verse 16.

John 3:16–21 NLT

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

The question is.

How can we help others overcome the obstacle of fearing the light?

Represent the Light

Me: I love a bright clear night. Looking up at the moon and stars breaking up the darkness. Have you ever been out on a dark rainy night where the clouds and all but covered the sky blocking out all the light. The moon and stars are beautiful and they make the night less scary. Now stars are burning balls of gas and their light can travel many lightyears through space that we might benefit from their light. The moon on the other hand is nothing more than a big mirror so to speak. No it is not shiny but the light produced by the moon is actually a reflection from the sun. The source of the light we see is actually the sun.

We: likewise when people look at us, what do they see? Do they see miserable people living a miserable existence waiting for their miserable lives to be over, or do they see the light of the Son Jesus Christ reflecting off of us bring joy, life and purpose for living? When we come to Christ our harts are set on fire and we burn like a star, and when we stand in the presence of Christ we reflect His light like the moon. In order for those who are struggling with this barrier they need to see that being in the light is good.

God: Look at this passage. Jesus represents the light in fact in we are told that God is light. So Light entered the darkness through Jesus, but people had fallen in love with the darkness. They liked their sinful ways. They were not willing to give up their sinful ways in fact they, knowing that what they were doing was wrong would avoid the light out of fear it would expose their sin. Because if what you are doing that is wrong is exposed you are forced to give it up of publicly choose to do what you know is wrong....

You: You are a light representative. Do you represent it as good or bad.

We: God’s way is the best way and when people examine our lives they should see that.

Next Step: Shine