Running to the Light: Together!

Well, we are continuing our series on / / Running to the Light: A better way to be Free!

Week 1 we looked at the / / desire of God for you to see who you really are. I think this is one of the greatest ways to honor God - to truly become who He created us to be. If you think about it, as a parent I constantly am hoping that Kaylee not only sees, but reaches her potential. How much more does our heavenly Father want each of us to truly know who we are and to live out of that truth?

She had state testing on Friday and again tomorrow, and on Thursday evening she was a little worried. “I’m going to do horrible!” she says. Oh man, that breaks my heart. And I can just see the heart of God our Father feeling the exact same way every time one of us says, “I’m no good at this.” or “I just can’t do it.” or “I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know how to be me.” And you might think. That’s a bit much, isn’t it? But the reality is, most of us, maybe not in every area of our lives, but in some areas, in some ways, are not living to our full potential.

We live with what we would call limiting beliefs. Or, beliefs that we believe to be true, but aren’t God’s truth. We live with things that / / limit our potential because we don’t believe the things that define potential. I set a goal line that is much closer than God knows I can achieve, because I don’t believe I can achieve the further goal line. So God is standing there saying, “Go for Gold” and I’m like, “ya, I’ll settle for bronze.” Gold is too lofty a pursuit, I don’t need that much. I was in a business conference once and they said that the reason people don’t truly succeed in business as entrepreneurs is because they have been so conditioned at a certain salary level that they don’t know how to stick to the goals needed to achieve greater numbers. They think, “ok, if the average salary is 40k”, or whatever the case may be for their region or their understanding, as soon as they hit that, it’s like hitting a ceiling, they don’t think they deserve more. So, they limit their potential, because of limiting beliefs about their potential.

We need to shift. We need to allow the light of Christ to begin to illuminate His truth, and to shine on the lies we believe. The lies we believe about ourselves. the lies we believe about the world around us. The Lies we believe about others. Even the lies we believe about God. Ya, that’s true too. If you think of the infinite power, infinite love, infinite provision and desire of God to meet our needs and see us live a healthy, whole life, and yet I know that I don’t live like that all the time. Oh sure, some days I get it, and have tons of faith and believe that God is going to meet all my needs. But I’m on a journey, right? I NEED the light of Jesus Christ to shine into my heart and life and show me where those limiting beliefs are trying to hide so that I can root them out with HIS truth that sets me free.

Jesus said in John 8:31-32, / / You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The people he was talking to said to him, “What do you mean free? We’ve never been slaves to anyone.”

And Jesus responds by saying, / / And yet some of you are trying to kill me because there’s no room in your hearts for my message. Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me!

And he explains that they’ve been corrupted by the devil and his lies, that he is a murderer and hates the truth because there is no truth in him, that his very character is to lie. And Jesus says in vs 44, a famous verse, “for he is a liar and the father of lies.” / / So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me!

And this whole passage of scripture starts with, Jesus said to the people who believed in him. The people who believed in him still have this struggle with listening to the lies of the devil? Welcome to life my friends! Yes, Jesus came that we might have life, and Yes, the enemy is still out to steal, kill, and destroy!

That’s why last week we jumped in to, ok, so if Jesus wants to highlight his truth for my life, then I also want to ask, / / are there areas of my life that I am actively trying to hide? There may be truths that I don’t yet believe because I haven’t seen them yet, but what in my life do I actually WANT to hide from God because I’m afraid or ashamed of it?

In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus said, / / You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

This is a hard scripture to hear, because we live in a society that would much prefer easy. Of course we do. Who doesn’t? Seriously. We all want quick, easy, inexpensive, great results, don’t we?

So, in the New Living Translation the scripture says, the highway to HELL is broad, and its gate is wide. The ESV and many other translations use the word destruction, and that’s because the original greek word means / / ruin or loss, on a physical, spiritual OR eternal level. So Jesus, in saying this is really giving an all encompassing instruction for your life. He’s not just saying this is a matter of heaven or hell, although the road to heaven is incredibly narrow, because there is only one way to heaven, we know that it is through the free gift of His grace BY our Faith in Jesus Christ. But he is also talking about our immediate spiritual and physical life.

He’s saying, listen, wide and easy, that’s going to get you loss of life, destruction. But if you’re willing to commit yourself to the process, if you’re willing to commit yourself to being led down a different path, you’re gonna find life. Real....Good....Life.

See, for some reason we think that because restriction removes option, that removal of option means LESS life. And there is something psychological about having choices, and / / we feel more powerful the more choices we have. Why? Because having choices makes us feel like / / we are in control.

Don’t just trust me on this. It’s been documented by behavioral psychologists. The basic instinct is that / / Choices = Control = Survival.

I read an article that ended with this statement, / / “We want to feel that we are powerful and that we have choices. If you want people to do stuff, give them options.” And I was like, “Oh My Goodness. We even use this as a parenting technique”.

This is completely true with our daughter. Give her two options, and she picks one and does it. Tell her to do something, and she stands there like, “uhh.... i don’t want to.” What is it about the power of choice?

AND, the reality is this is actually a test of our commitment.

See, when we read in the bible that Jesus says, Choose this = life, choose this = death. To us, that’s not enough.... we are like, “no no, more options please.” Why? We don’t like being told what to do, and being given a choice between life and death doesn’t feel like a choice at all.

But here’s the thing, Jesus didn’t say, “ok, the road to life has 3 different options, just like the ski hill you’ve got the easy path, but it takes longer, you have the intermediate path, a few obstacles, some narrow spots, some trees to avoid, but for the most part, pretty tolerable, you shouldn’t have any problems there, and you’ll get to the prize a bit quicker. But if you really wanna zoom through this thing, the fastest, most direct route is the black diamond, BUT, it’s got mogols, turns, dips, gaps, but you’ll be there quicker.

NO, he says, “The road is easy and wide that leads to destruction. But if you want life, it’s narrow, meaning, no choices.”

This is what we started with, You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.

I’m sorry, I wish there was another way, but there isn’t, the path to life is forsaking all else and being absolutely devoted, committed, faithful to the path of Jesus Christ.

I shared with you last week a bit of my new-found journey, this realization that this addiction to food & sugar had a hold on my life, and that it wasn’t just something to deal with for a moment, but it was something I had been trying to deal with on my own. When I realized that this was one area that I, for whatever reason, felt incapable of handing over to God, it made so much sense to me why I had always failed. Over and over and over again I tried to do this in my own strength. Time and time again I tried for success, bypassing the very power of God because I thought I HAD to do this on my own. And to hide it, to keep it safe, I had to actively remove God from it. I’m sorry, I don’t want you in this area of my life, I’m dealing with it myself. I don’t want or need your help.

Oh Sure, I trust God with the very salvation of my soul. But I couldn’t trust him with this. In fact, I was living under the lie that He didn’t even WANT to be involved in this area of my life. Not for one second did I think that God was standing there saying, “Let me help you.” And do you want to know why?

I was so bought into the lies of the enemy that I was unable to hear the truth of God. But this wasn’t for every area of my life. I listen and very clearly hear God often, I have no doubt of that. I have no doubt of my relationship with God. But in this one area I was EXACTLY like the “believers” Jesus was talking to in John 8. Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! Because you’ve got your eyes closed and your ears plugged sitting in the dark.

When I’m living with an area of my life in the dark, it means having to actively remove the light, because I don’t want these things to be exposed.

In John chapter 3, we have the most famous scripture ever written. vs 16 For God so loved the world that He gave his only son, that whoever believes in him wouldn’t have to perish, but would have eternal life. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. And memorized from a very early age for any of us that grew up in the church. But as I’ve grown in my faith and read more than just the ‘key verses’, I’ve seen the unbelievable beauty of the following verses.

vs 17-21 hold such power.

/ / God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgement against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing God’s one and only Son. And the judgement 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.

/ / God’s light came into the world

Why? NOT to judge. God sent his Son into the world NOT to judge the world, but to SAVE the world through him.

When the light shows up it’s not to judge, it’s not to punish, it’s not to condemn, it is to reveal! To heal, to set free, to bring LIFE!

/ / People loved the darkness

Darkness for some reason makes us feel safe.

Hidden feels more comfortable. We’re more used to it.

/ / …and refuse to go near it [light] for fear their sins will be exposed.

I said this last week, none of us want to be exposed. Feeling vulnerable and naked is the worst feeling ever. I don’t want to feel it, and I never want someone else to feel it because I’ve felt it, it’s horrible.

Like I said last week, from 1 John 4:18, / / Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

So, the key to being willing to allow God’s light to expose the dark places of our hearts and lives is to understand that he’s not doing it to find something and punish us for it, he’s doing it so that we can be FREE…BECAUSE HE LOVES US!

/ / …come to the light so others can see that [you] are doing what God wants.

This is where we’re continuing the story today. Running to the light: Together. Sure, everyone is hash-tagging #bettertogether right now, but they’re absolutely right.

1 John 1:5-7 says, / / This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

/ / God is light

This is the whole point of this series, right? God is light, we are looking to Him, we are focused on him. He is the source, the power, the substance needed to free us from darkness.

Remember, darkness is not a substance. Darkness is not something you can take from one place and bring it to another place. Darkness can only be produced by removing the light. Equally, LIGHT is not a substance. Light has a SOURCE. You remove the source of light, you remove the light itself. Darkness has no SOURCE, it is simply the absence of the SOURCE of light. Reintroduce the source, and the darkness MUST go.

I think, if all we got out of this series was that one simple truth, we would be well on our way to the life Jesus wants for us. It’s simple, but it’s profound.

Any time we feel discouraged.

Any time we feel disconnected.

Any time we feel frustrated.

Any time we feel like life is getting away from us.

WHERE have I not been inviting the light of Jesus Christ, the SOURCE, to shine in my life?

Could be totally by accident, didn’t think about it, wasn’t paying attention, just let it slip.....and there it is, I went on living in this area of my life not inviting Jesus there, in a sense, removing him from this area of my life, allowing a shadow to form.

See, when I place Jesus behind me, because I think I can walk the road without him, be that consciously or sub-consciously, What happens? What happens when the light is behind you? It casts a shadow on what you’re looking at…it does not go through you, YOU become the stopping point!

Saint Patrick is quoted famously as saying:

/ / Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

A prayer of complete surrender to the light of Jesus Christ.

Have access to EVERY part of me! Be in front of me, above me, behind me, beneath me, on my left, on my right, in me, on me, through me, let your light so penetrate my soul that there is no place for shadow!

/ / Fellowship with God

This verse says we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not practicing the truth.

Of course we WANT fellowship with God, and any area we are wanting to hide, maintain a sense of darkness, is blocking that relationship from growing!

The word fellowship is / / koinonia, it means communion, communication, association, participation.

With darkness in our lives we sacrifice so much....And I want you to hear me on this because this has been my experience. I don’t believe it’s God who blocks us off, I think, by our actions we limit his access to our lives which in turn limits our access to HIS life. / / Jesus gave everything so we could gain everything, but in order to do so we must give our everything, so we can gain his everything.

There’s a transaction that takes place, isn’t there? Jesus said, / / If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

The transaction… His life for my life.... my life for his life.

/ / Where I was destined for death, JESUS took MY death. Where I could not receive life, JESUS gave me HIS life.

/ / Fellowship with Each Other

Interesting thought here. First he says if there’s darkness we don’t have fellowship with God, but then changes it and says, But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship...with each other.

Running to the light: A better way to be a Free.... is to be free together. To walk together. To do life together.

The greatest lie of the enemy is isolation. That you need to be alone, that no one will understand, that you have to hide in order to survive. It’s a lie and it’s been killing people since the day this world was created.

Look at how many people suffer to the tragedy of suicide and it’s not until after that it all comes out, they weren’t as happy as we thought. They weren’t as excited about life as they showed us on their Instagram feed. They were sad, depressed, addicted, struggling, scared, alone… And hiddenness doesn’t care how popular, rich, or successful you are. It happens to the kids in high school, we’ve seen it happen to pastors of large churches who have taken their lives in the last few years, to celebrities like Robin Williams.

I realized something yesterday that I don’t think I had ever seen before.

In the book of Genesis, the story of Adam & Eve in the garden. When the serpent comes to them and deceives them, convinces them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it opens their eyes and sin enters the world for the first time. I had not made the connection to WHO convinced them to hide when they heard God.

But listen to what happens in this story. Genesis 3:6-14, / / The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and is fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

“Who told you that you were naked?” The Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you don?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the serpent...

WHOA. Not only did they let the serpent deceive them, but in their shame they let him stick around and keep giving them his lies. He was still right there. After they realized they were naked, took time to make a few cover-ups… Who do you think suggested they hide when God came walking through???

And how often do we do this? We allow one moment to separate us, one moment to get wedged in, but when we realize what we’ve done, when the shame of the situation hits us, that revealing, the nakedness that Adam & Eve felt, we don’t turn to God, we don’t turn to those people around us that can help us, what do we do? We HIDE with the very lies that betrayed us in the first place!

/ / The enemy will always try to get you to isolate, to hide, to give in to the shame of what you are feeling.

I am telling you today, the person next to you, the person you haven’t told yet, the person that needs to hear your story is most likely the GREATEST ASSET YOU have.

The New Testament church understood this better than anyone. Why? Because they were in the fight of their lives and they knew it. There was opportunity at every turn to abandon their new reality. This new “church”, this thing they called, The Way. Following Jesus. It was not easy, it was the narrow, hard road!

They had ample opportunity to walk away, because they were literally being threatened with death if they didn’t. As we read through the book of Acts in our Daily Bible Reading..wow! Everyone wanted to kill Paul. Stephen was stoned to death. Others imprisoned, tortured, beaten.

And you might think, sure, if I was facing that too.... no no no. We may not be facing the kind of persecution that they did. We may not be facing the kind of struggle that God’s church is facing in other parts of the world even today. But that doesn’t mean you’re not facing it. That doesn’t mean the enemy isn’t trying to cause you to isolate in darkness. The tactics are just a little different.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 / / So encourage each other and build each other up...

Ephesians 4:29 / / Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. vs 32 be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another...

Hebrews 10:24-25 / / Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together...

Hebrews 3:13 / / You must warn [encourage] each other every day, while it is still “today”, so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

Galatians 6:2-3 / / Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

I’m going to end with this scripture this morning, from the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, who the bible records as the wisest man in the world who ever lived and will ever live.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 / / Two people are better than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

/ / We were designed to Run to the light TOGETHER!

God designed us to need each other. To not just survive, but thrive together. Running to the light is necessary by yourself, but God designed us to do it together. But that takes work.

I’m not saying you need to start sharing your deepest darkest secrets with just anyone and everyone. But what I am saying, you need to start really getting to know people, not just surface level stuff, and not just anyone. People who are running to the light, like you are running to the light, to build real relationship, real fellowship, because if we’re not confident enough to walk together in the small stuff, when the big stuff comes, we’ll run for the hills and hide, isolate and suffer alone. And that is definitely not God’s intention.

Our key verse for this series, John 8:12, Jesus said, / / I am the light of the world. If you follow me you won’t have to walk in darkness.

But in Matthew 5:14 he says, / / YOU are the light of the world...

Have you ever taken two matches, and lit them both, and then put them together? What happens? The flame gets brighter.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last 3 months of my journey with Food Addiction is that trying to do this alone I am doomed to fail. The key to success is the people in my life knowing what I’m going through, and those on the same journey. The Key to success is being honest with the reality of my struggle. The key to being honest is not allowing a single moment of darkness in. I can’t hide. As soon as I hide, I have removed God from the equation and I am destined to fail. SO I continually invite the light of Christ, and I continually invite the light of my friends and family. Shine bright next to me so I don’t want to hide. And I hope my light is a comfort to you when you want to hide. That you realize you don’t need to hide, that the light isn’t here to expose, to punish, but to reveal and heal.

See, the more we realize that the light of Jesus is about healing, and not punishment, the more we’ll realize that we were never intended to expose people either, but that we are part of the journey of healing in their lives!

Yes, sometimes stepping in to the light is a difficult thing to do. But once you’re in the light it’s the most freeing place you’ll ever be. There is no greater place than walking free of hiddenness and we’re meant to walk together!