Light of the World
Notes
Transcript
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
The sun will no longer be your light by day,
and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
The Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your splendor.
Your sun will no longer set,
and your moon will not fade;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and the days of your sorrow will be over.
Isaiah
The sun will no longer be your light by day,
and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
The Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your splendor.
Your sun will no longer set,
and your moon will not fade;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and the days of your sorrow will be over.
All your people will be righteous;
they will possess the land forever;
they are the branch I planted,
the work of my hands,
so that I may be glorified.
The least will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
I will accomplish it quickly in its time.
What does light do?
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
Rev 21
Keeps you from falling in the dark
Reveals things you didn’t see in the dark
Keeps you from fear in the dark
When you get home from a retreat, it’s really easy to slip back into your routine.
Routine’s aren’t always bad, but so often bad habits, poor choices, and destructive behaviors make their way into our routines.
That’s why retreats are powerful. You get away from your phone, get away from your normal weekend routine, and you make spending time with God a priority in your life. So often, retreats become a place of healing, of breaking chains, of honesty, of life change...
But if we’re not careful, retreats can become mountain top experiences for us.
When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to get the 10 Commandments, he met face to face with God. When he came down off the mountain his face literally shone brightly with the glory of the lord, but the glow eventually faded.
When we went to Trout Lake last weekend, many of you had encounters with God. You spent intentional time with him and I could tell on Sunday morning that God had been doing work in your life! You probably felt it. The closeness with God that comes from spending time with him.
But how many of you only three days after coming home have fallen right back into the same sins, the same patterns. You came down off the mountain and your face has already stopped glowing!
So tonight, let’s press into the truth of God’s Word. Let’s allow it to change us.
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.”
Light and darkness is a recurring theme in the scriptures. It pops up again and again all over the bible.
So tonight with the time we’ve got, I want to look at three things that light does to the darkness.
The first thing is this:
The light keeps you from falling in the dark.
The light keeps you from falling in the dark.
For four months while I was in college, I lived in Israel. I was studying the bible in the land where it was written. Literally the coolest thing I’ve ever done.
As a part of the classes I was taking, we would travel to different regions of the country and spend a few days there studying. One of the trips we made, we drove to southern Israel where it’s hot, dry, and the only plants that really grow are stubby little bushes that only make good food for goats.
We were staying in this youth hostel and our professor told us there was a cool art installation piece not too far away. Basically it was a huge playground looking structure made out of concrete. Our professor said it was close by, but we really had no idea how far away it was, but we were down for an adventure.
So we set off walking, and we knew that we had to get to the other side of the town we were in, then turn onto the Israel Trail which is a hiking trail that goes North to South all the way through the country, and we’d have to walk a part of the trail to find this thing we were looking for!
We started walking and as we got to the end of the town we were in called Arad, the last street light behind us, we realized that it was going to be pitch black out there on the trail. But we were all college students and you all definitely know this, sometimes when you’re in a group you make decisions that are unwise. So even though it was pitch black, no lights, we went anyways. As we started walking we noticed it got a little bit brighter outside. The moon peeked out from behind a cloud and gave us just enough light to see where we were going.
It took us about half an hour from the edge of town to find this thing we were looking for. It honestly wan’t that cool, but we adventured out and found this thing we were looking for. We climbed up on it, hung out for a little bit, talked about stuff, and then we left and made our way back to the hostel.
In the morning, our bus took us along a road that ran parallel to the hiking trail. We were able to see where we had been walking the night before. And what we realized in that moment was how close we were to death. On either side of the trail we were walking was a sheer cliff side. One wrong step and we would have fallen 50 feet at least. The moon had given us just enough light to keep us from falling.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
Darkness is a metaphor for what life looks like apart from Jesus.
The darkness holds all kinds of ways that can trip us up and make us fall.
You might have friends that trip you up and make you fall
There might be places you go, environments you put yourself in, that trip you up and make you fall
You might be making decisions or giving in to habits that are constantly tripping you up and making you fall
These things are able to trip you up because you’re not shining any light on them!
But Jesus is the light of the world. When we have the light, we are able to keep from falling.
The second thing that light does to the darkness is this:
The light reveals things you didn’t see in the dark.
The light reveals things you didn’t see in the dark.
It’s weird how things look so different in the dark.
Remember Friday night at the retreat? I gave you guys instructions on how to get to the place where we were going to play blacklight dodgeball. But nobody got there because it was night and the marks I told you to look for looked different at night. Everybody turned back and I had to re-explain how we were all going to get to Blacklight dodgeball.
But on Saturday during free time, it was so easy to get down to the Barn and play laser tag or blacklight dodgeball or broomball because you were able to see the signs you missed in the dark. The light revealed the things you couldn’t see in the dark.
Some of the worst moments in our lives can be described as darkness.
When I’ve battled depression - the only way I could describe those feelings is darkness.
When I’ve been heartbroken after a break up - it’s like I was in darkness
When I’ve been giving in to the sins in my life - it’s walking in darkness
But the second I let Jesus into my mess, into my pain. The moment I give him control over my life instead of me trying to fix myself under my own power.
When the light of the world shines in my life, I see things I had been missing before.
The depression in my life wasn’t clinical. I didn’t have a chemical imbalance in my brain, I didn’t need medication. My depression was spiritual. I was believing lies from the Enemy about my own worth, about not ever being good enough, about not being deserving of love.
In the dark the lies seemed true, but in the light I saw them for what they really were.
In the light I saw that my heartbreak wouldn ‘t last forever. I saw that God was in control and that his timing and his plan was better than my own.
In the light I saw how it was my sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. And every time I sinned against God it was like I was spitting in the face of Jesus.
All these things I was missing in the darkness, but in the light, the light of life was revealing the things i was missing.
So the light keeps us from falling in the dark.
the light reveals things we didn’t see in the dark.
And lastly,
the light means we don’t have to be afraid of the dark.
the light means we don’t have to be afraid of the dark.
When I was little I was so afraid of the dark. I had to have a night light in my room and even that little amount of light was enough to keep me from being afraid.
All too often our fears get multiplied in the dark. The noise you hear that’s just your furnace turning on, all of a suddenly becomes a monster in the dark.
The creeks and groans of your house become burglars breaking in.
If your human, you have fears.
Your fears might not be monsters or burglars.
Your fears might be not being good enough.
Your fears might be not being accepted and loved.
Your fears might be not accomplishing the things you want to in life.
Your fears might be not getting into the college you’ve always wanted
Your fears might be never getting married...
We all have fears.
But we become afraid when we forget the promises of God. We become afraid when we obsess over the darkness and forget about the light.
I heard a quote once that I absolutely love:
“Don’t forget in the darkness what you learned in the light.”
It’s crazy how often God has to remind his people to remember him! Remember when I brought you out of Egypt. Remember when I parted the sea for you to walk on. Remember when I saved you. Remember, remember, remember!
God has to remind us to remember because we are people who forget. When we walk in the darkness we forget what it was like to be in the light.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When we remember God, we don’t have to be afraid anymore.
Jesus says, I Am the light of the world.
So to close:
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.”
The light keeps us from falling in the darkness.
The light reveals the things we didn’t see in the dark.
The lights means we don’t have to be afraid of the dark.