From Dark to Light

1 John 1:5-10

I wanted to start with a question today. What is it that holds the most value to you personally?

Is it your wife?

Your husband?

Your kids

Your cars

Your money

Maybe Your relationship with God?

Hold that thought.

Keep it there cause we are going to come back to it.

You know when I was inquiring to become a chaplain

I remember that one requirement

2 years ministry experience

I believe at the time I had like 13 years ACTIVE

So I was racking my brain and I

Decided I would try to gain an internship

Local church while going to seminary

So the first church I went to I got a great response.

The pastor was very open to the idea

In fact he already had one intern helping him

Was very excited to take me on

So I told him i’d be back in two weeks.

Susan and I were going to California to show off little Sydney to grandma

So we set a start date

Well as soon as I got back I noticed things had changed.

The church had a new pastor

And the entire deal was off.

See what had happened was the pastors wife was caught cheating with the pastors best friend.

It was heart breaking.

Keep in mind this is a pastor

So everything is very public

Plus it was a small town

Everyone knew

I mean it was incredibly embarrassing for both parties

I mean what a way to potentially discourage me

Now what was truly unique about this story

What was life changing for me

Was the fact that this pastor forgave his wife and accepted her back as if nothing happened.

I mean he had every right to just drop her.

First off he’s a pastor so this was very very public.

It wasn’t a big town so you can imagine the news spread fast.

I mean talk about embarrassment.

But the one thing I really remember about this scenario was what that pastor told me.

I remember we were sitting down for a breakfast together

He was apologizing for not being able to carry on with the internship

Obviously this was the last thing on my mind

But Remember asking him, where do you go from here?

He said he was going to stay with his wife

That he was going to forgive his wife

I was baffled,

How is this even possible

I mean he lost his career

His friends

He eventually had move

His entire life was collapsing before my eyes

You know what he told me

He said if Christ can forgive me, then I can forgive my wife.

I’ll tell you. That hit me.

To understand what true forgiveness is.

And that’s what this passage is about.

The forgiveness of God,

That relationship with God

You see you can’t be at one with God

When you’re filled with hatred and anger

When you’re filled with sin

And that’s what I want to talk about today.

Understanding our relationship with God

Understanding what keeps us from gaining that peace that so many pastors talk about

And finally understanding what forgiveness truly is.

1 John 1:5–10 NLT

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. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

Lets open in prayer

John opens up here with a statement

That’s not only powerful

Not only life changing

But the message you’re about to hear

Comes from THE ONE

Confirmed and validated by THE ONE

That He is so excited about

This messiah

This individual they had been waiting thousand of years for

This is coming from Him

Rather than just ignoring the validation piece that John is giving

Let’s acknowledge something here

What John saying

You can Trust

In what is being said here

You can be confident

That John is about to express

absolute truth

And why is that so important?

Because every where we go

People attack the authenticity of the Bible

In fact every major religion

Every world view

Every major belief

Attacks the Bible

The authority and the claims of the Bible

Once you start questioning the Bible

Once you lose trust in its truth

In its authority

You start to see your faith dwindle

You start to question

Everything about the faith

AM I wrong?

You even begin to negotiate your own sin

Your own behaviors

Your own habits

You start to tell yourself

I can do this particular sin just this once,

God won’t mind,

no ones paying attention

I’m not bothering anyone

Or how about your salvation?

You realize a recent study showed

70% of supposed born again Christian

Believe that Jesus is NOT the only way to God

That the truth of the Bible isn’t 100%

That there are multiple paths to God

And’s thats why Johns first statement here is so vital

Johns states here

1 John 1:5 (NLT)

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.

See John is exposing something to us

Something about the character of God

John is saying that

God is perfect

He is holy

He is righteous

He is everything we are not

But thats a major issue though

Because once we start negotiating

Once we start questioning Biblical truth

We lose this mindset

We lose the mentality that God is in charge

And this my friends is the heart of our problem

The root of many of our issues

We have no fear of God

We have no understanding of our position

We feel as though we own the ticket to eternal life

And for no other reason

than just because

I hear it all the time, I’m not Adolf Hitler

I’m not Joseph Stalin

I haven’t done anything to anyone

You know how many people have told me

God will accept me for who I am,

doesn’t matter what I do

God has to accept me

God will accept me

And do you know how confident they are in that statement!

I mean no fear of God whatsoever

Do you have any idea how stupid that statement actually is

I’m telling you

Here’s where the line in the sand is truly drawn

Because I firmly believe

And I can back it up with Scripture

That the greatest lie ever told

Is that you’re a good person

That God needs you

So he will accept you no matter what

Folks that’s heresy

The Bible says something entirely different

Romans 3:23 NKJV

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

and in

Genesis 6:5 NKJV

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

There is a difference between us and God

It’s as if we are plagued by a disease

A disease called in sin

Sin that requires us to have a savior

But at the same time

The Bible also gives an answer to this disease

An answer to our pain

An answer to our problems

An answer to our sin!

And that answer is Jesus

1 John 1:5 (NLT)

....God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

Jesus is our standard

He is our way to be with the father

The only means getting into heaven

That’s why he is our savior.

Remember the last sermon

Why was John so excited

Why was he literally screaming in the text

I saw him

I touched him

Its because John knew

Jesus is the answer to everything

He is the way to the father

He is the answer to our sin

He is the only means of achieving God’s standard!

John is making this perfectly clear

God is perfect

And you cannot be with a perfect God

When you’re tainted by the very thing He hates,

and that is sin

You cannot be in the presence of a holy God

You cannot be in the presence of perfection

While you are tainted with the very thing

That separated us from God in the Garden

Look Adam and Eve

They didn’t do anything crazy

That had a bite of an apple

And from that point on everything went down hill

And yet for some reason

We live in a society that feels as though

They are justified in claiming

They have the rights to heaven

They have deed the promise to heaven

Simply because they feel as though they are good

They deserve heaven

And that’s just it

Its a satanic lie

Look if you never realize you’re a sinner

If you never realize the truth of Romans 3:23

If you never realize the truth of verse 5

You’ll never realize your need for a savior

Your own sin is THE point of the cross

He died on that cross for you sin

So that you could be with the father

In eternity

That’s the Gospel

Thats how He saved you

Thats how He saved me

If you don’t get that

Verse 6 here says

You’re walking in spiritual darkness

A blindness to our own sin

A blindness to the ways of God

TO THE SEPARATION FROM GOD

TO THE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

1 John 1:6 NLT

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.

You don’t have to be a genius to know

Something is off in this world

You really don’t

This world is messed up

It’s as if the influence

The desire to do good

Is gone

It’s missing

You know as a Chaplain

I get to hear all the good and the bad

Of what goes on in this world

Of what goes on around tower barracks

The pain

The suffering

The depression

Frustration

We are drowning in

Alcoholism

Divorce

Domestic abuse

Drug use

Something is off

But that’s what John is calling us to

An awakening

A Call to open our eyes to a new way of life

To a life that isn’t spiritually blind

A life that is focused on Good

Focused on serving others

Focused on the values of God

The morals of God

The ways of God

A life that is not spiritual blind

But a life that is in fellowship with God

Focused on love

A life in Fellowship with Him

A life surrounded

by peace

by kindness

by caring

A life filled with Hope

Its so heart breaking to watch Soldiers

To watch family members

Friends

But thats just it,

You cannot wake up

You cannot become spiritually awake

Without realizing

In Him is goodness

In him is perfection

In him is everything you have ever wanted

Its all right there

He must become your first love

Come to him

Call on him

Desire him

So many of us desire things

We feel are going to help

We feel are going to give us what we are missing

But end up at the exact same depressing

Hopeless

Miserable state

I see it

Every day

I see it

Just this past week

I was contacted by a friend of mine

This friend has a history of drug abuse

But I remember

When I first met her she was in horrible shape

Began to teach her the word of God

And as she grew in Christ

I watched her life change

I watched her motivations change

I watched her relationships

Her desires

Her habits change

Its truly amazing how easy it is to

fall back into that destructive life style

Very recently this same person

she lost a friend,

A good friend of mine as well

Lost him to gang violence

Drive by shooting

Through her grief

She has since fallen back into the very life style

That she worked so hard to overcome

You always have to be on guard

You always have to be yearning

Reaching for christ

In every situation

She just messaged me the other day begging again for help

Begging to get back into the light

Begging to help her get out of the darkness

The evil

The pure sickness that is so prevalent in this world

You see she knows the answer

She knows what she needs to do

But at times its so desperately hard

That’s what John is referring to

The fellowship

Fellowship with pure goodness

Pure love

In Him is light

everything you want!!!

Peace

Calm

Serenity

Family

Friends

The reality of what John is saying here

You cannot live a life of sin

And expect the benefits of the faith

You cannot live a life of sin

And expect to be in perfect harmony with God

Look what

Galatians 5:22–23 NLT

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Once commentator put it like this

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (1:7)

Thus true communion with God is living in the sphere where ones daily life is illumined, is shadowed, is overcome by the truth of what God is. It is to live open in full acceptance and a determined approach to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ in other-words a life focused on becoming more like our Savior...this entails believers’ acknowledging whatever the light reveals is wrong in their lives.

But this requires an acknowledgment of our own sin

A turning away from ourselves

And thats the issue

We are in love with our sin

Look what John says in

John 3:20 NLT

All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

So many of us are in love with our sin

So many of us aren’t ready to give up our ways

To give up what is causing us so much pain

And I get it I really do.

Its so easy to fall into that destructive lifestyle

But the opposite is so good

It’s so worth it

I’ve seen lives completely changed

Futures once thought destroyed

Now filled with joy and love

My own family has seen this

My brother is a prime example

Dedicated his life to everything destructive,

Drugs

Alcohol

Burglary

He was the bottom of society

I watched him go from all that

To becoming a slave for Christ

To becoming a new person

A new creation

Now he owns his own business

Married

Adopted his daughter

Is living a life more productive

More secure

Than any of us could have ever imagined

All after he surrendered to Christ

After he surrendered to the light

After he begged God for help

Repented of his sins

And came into full relationship with Jesus

I remember one day

I was getting ready to go to work

He was staying with us on vacation

He was up at 0430 in the morning

Reading his bible

praying to God

I asked him how he does it,

How he finds the motivation

I remember him saying

Are you kidding me?! I get to spend time alone with my savior!

My brother is just one example of a life changed by Christ.

And this leads me to my final point

As a matter of fact this is perhaps one of my favorites passages

In the entire Bible

1 John 1:9 NLT

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

The hope we have in Jesus

Many of us here today

May be feeling worthless

May be suffering from a past sin

May be struggling with an addiction

May be feeling as though they are invaluable

Unforgivable

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

Many of you know

I was a counselor

Through a program called Celebrate recovery

I remember quoting this passage along with the serenity prayer

I remember the hope that this passage brought

The joy that this passage brought

Not only because it gives us a chance

But because it tells us we have a loving God

A caring God

One that knows your faults

One that knows your secrets

One that knows why you stay up at night crying

Why you feel so abandoned

Why you behave so destructively

This passage tells me that God loves me to

If you just surrender to love

Surrender to God

What I am saying is that God in the person of Jesus

Provided a way out

A new way of life

A new look on things

Come to Him

Gain that peace that surpasses all understanding

Gain a new perspective

And start to live awake

Eyes open

Start to ask that question

What is it that most valuable to you?

Is it sin

or is it redemption

eternal life

is it Jesus?!?!

I urge you today,

Take that next step in your relationship with God

Take that journey

press in

open the Word daily

Develop that relationship with Christ

Make that the most valuable thing in your life

I promise you, you won’t regret it

One last quote, and I’ll leave you with this

Billy Graham once said, I’ve net met a man who regretted his choice to follow Christ.

Neither will you.

Lets close in prayer