YOUR LIGHT HAS COME (1st PSJ)

Good morning Church! My name is Ryan… I’m a good friend of Pastor Chris and I am one of the pastors at Georgianna Church, just down the road.

It’s so good to be with you in worship today…

[MENTION LIVE STREAM]

Very humbled and grateful to be asked to fill in while Chris and his family our on vacation.

I know he works so hard for this church, so I hope that you will celebrate this time away for them and that you will pray for a restful time away.

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So around Georgianna we just wrapped up an incredibly full week with Vacation Bible School… and I know you all had a bunch of kids and volunteers doing the same thing a few weeks right?

Isn’t it awesome to come together for something like that?

This is one of my favorite times of the year.

I love that we get to teach kids about Jesus...

And I also love that it’s basically “all hands on deck.”

I think the amount of effort and volunteers that VBS takes makes a strong statement about the priority of kids and families in the mission of a church!

And it’s more than just the FUTURE mission of a church… it’s more than just making sure the church continues years down the road… it’s also about the present reality of the church… Kids are the church of tomorrow AND the church of today! Amen?

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Much like you all, our VBS had a consistent theme throughout the week… and since that has been freshly drilled into my head all week… that’s what we’re going to focused on today...

So just for one week, we’re going to take a departure from your sermon series about Philippians… and let’s head to the writings of the prophet Isaiah in the OT.

Turn to Isaiah 60 (BIbles, phones…)

ALL WEEK LONG… our theme scripture came from right here.

Isaiah 60:1

“Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD’s glory has shone upon you.”

LET’S SAY THAT TOGETHER...

Isaiah 60:1

“Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD’s glory has shone upon you.”

OPENING PRAYER

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight… O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

ME

This is not an uncommon theme throughout scripture…Arise! Shine! Your light has come;

We’re going to focus on a couple of passages today… this one from Isaiah, another from Ephesians… but you can find statements of hope like this throughout most of the Bible.

So how come it doesn’t always feel like it?

Like I know that redemption is found in Jesus… and I KNOW that His resurrection allows me to trade in my old ways to be a new creation… and, maybe even more basic than that… I know that God loves me.

But why doesn’t that just fix everything right?

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There’s a word for this… It’s called “cognitive dissonance.”

(I took Intro to Psych my freshman year of college, so I’m kind of an expert.)

Cognitive dissonance is when your beliefs tell you one thing… but your reality looks like something different.

So my beliefs tell me that the Light has come and God’s glory has shown on us… My beliefs say that Jesus’ ministry on earth was actually an inauguration of God’s eternal Kingdom...

But my reality tells me that this world is still broken.

WE

Have you experienced cognitive dissonance before?

How about this one… my faith tells me that Jesus followers should be more like Him… you know, loving their neighbors and all that...

But I have consistently heard that waiters and waitresses hate the Sunday afternoon shift because church people are rude and bad tippers...

Cognitive dissonance.

Or how about this… NO ONE wants Daylight Saving Time… but here we are...

Cognitive dissonance.

This occasion has a name, not only because it exists, but also because of the discomfort that it causes.

Because on these occasions your brain is going to beg you to answer this question: “What do you do with that?”

Your brain loves categories and labels… and when things don’t match up… it has a hard time dealing with that.

It just can’t even… as the kids say.

You have this conflict of belief and reality… or of thoughts and behavior… what do you do with that?

Church people don’t ALWAYS act like Jesus… what do you do with that?

This world doesn’t ALWAYS feel like God is in charge… what do you do with that?

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This reminds me of an old song by John Mayer.

Honestly I have a hard time calling it old, because I remember when it was new… and I checked, it was 2006… which, I thought was like 3 years ago…

Turns out it was 16... Isn’t that ridiculous?

John Mayer released a song called “Waiting on the World to Change”

It was all about how he knew that things just weren’t right with the world… We all believe the world could and should be better… but the reality is something different.

Cognitive dissonance. What do you do with that?

Your brain is going to want you to find an answer as to why this is the case.

John Mayer’s answer is in the song.

He says, “It’s not that we don’t care… we just know that the fight ain’t fair… so we’re waiting on the world to change.”

He says we can’t beat the system… so we’ll just wait on the world to change.

I remember hearing that and thinking, “Yeah… that’s the problem… the cards are stacked against us. It’s unfair!”

I think the fact that I liked the song… and it was probably his best album for that matter...

But I think the fact that the song was “cool” kept me from realizing… that’s a pretty sorry excuse.

The problem here is that if you’re sitting back waiting on the world to change… then you’ve given up.

GOD

Isaiah was writing to Israelites who were experiencing cognitive dissonance.

Isaiah was a prophet in the OT… which is not the same as what we think a prophet is today… they weren’t really fortune tellers.

They were people who spoke for God… they had a message from God.

And so the prophetic books of the Old Testament really just contain the message of God to His people through these particular prophets.

Now, prophets weren’t usually popular people.

God’s people, the Israelites, weren’t really nailing it when it came to living in a way that honored Him.

And so when God is speaking to His disobedient children in the Old Testament… you get the idea that the message is rarely going to be positive.

And the sight of a prophet was not always a welcome one.

I can imagine the leaders of the people just living it up in debauchery and scandal… and then a prophet shows up and they’re like...

“Oh shoot… God was watching.”

It’s not always a message they wanted to hear!

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But as you move through Isaiah you always find these glimpses of hope.

You see, historically, God’s people had been conquered and taken over by other kingdoms.

And they were hauled off in exile… away from their promised land.

But many scholars believe the second half of Isaiah was written once they were finally able to return.

So the people who were returning had heard stories of Jerusalem and its breathtaking temple.

They had heard the promises of restoration, but not just that… even future prosperity.

And while they’re grateful to be out of exile… the return is not quite all that they had hoped.

Cognitive Dissonance. What do they do with that?

PASSAGE

And it’s to these people… who are struggling to make sense of their reality… that God speaks through the prophet Isaiah… and he says:

Isaiah 60:1–3 (NIV)

1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

2 See, darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

and his glory appears over you.

3 Nations will come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

REFLECTIONS

Church… what do you do when it feels like “darkness covers the earth”?

What do you do when hope is hard to come by… when things are not as you KNOW they should be?

Sometimes you get sucked in right? Sometimes you can totally buy into it… you, yourself, can become that voice of doom and gloom. You start to believe it!

I’ve seen some church traditions that are like this… Oh they wouldn’t say they are hopeless… but they have this escapist theology...

One day Jesus will return and whisk them away to heaven and they’ll escape this broken old world.

They’re NOT hopeless… but their only hope is in this miraculous rescue… so they’re just going to wait on it.

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Maybe you’ve met someone like this… they find themselves in dark time I’m their life… sometimes in a pit of their own making.

And they’re sucked in and discouraged… and it’s overwhelming… and I GET IT! Dark times feel like they’ll pull you under…

and so their hope is not anything that they’re capable of doing themselves… they may feel too far gone for that.

Their only hope is in some miraculous rescue… so they’re just going to wait on that.

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John Mayer is “waiting on the world to change”

In the song his only hope is that “One day...”

Which, side note… if you’re waiting for “one day” to get to work… then you’ll never get to work.

But his hope is that “One day our generation is going to rule the population… so we’re waiting on the world to change.”

The hope is that there is this arbitrary time in the future when things will just miraculously turn around.

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But on the contrary... to a people whose actual reality is not what they thought it should be… Isaiah says, “Arise!”

He doesn’t say to wait on a rescue… or to wait until we rule the population.

He says, “Get up!” He says, “Your light has come!” You have what you need… now.

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Later on in the NT the apostle Paul says:

Ephesians 5:14 (NIV)

“Wake up, sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

It’s so close to Isaiah 60 that many people think he may be quoting a hymn of the day, based on Isaiah’s words.

You see there is a difference between Waiting on a rescue or waiting on the world to change… and saying Arise Shine… Wake up sleeper....

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There’s a couple of different ways to look at the darkness… or the things that are wrong with the world.

You can see “thick darkness” as evidence of just how far gone we are… how hopeless things are...

We’re just going to have to wait until the world changes...

Or you can see the thick darkness as evidence of just how BAD the world needs YOU!

Just how bad the world needs the church to Arise… to Wake Up

Isaiah tells us what we already know… He says:

darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

AND THEN HE CONTINUES… AND DON’T MISS HOW IMPORTANT THIS NEXT PART IS… HE SAYS:

but the Lord rises upon YOU

and his glory appears over YOU.

3 Nations will come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

After Paul quotes the hymn, he continues as well… he says:

Ephesians 5:14–16 (NIV)

“Wake up, sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

It is UNMISTAKEABLE in scripture that beCAUSE the days are evil… beCAUSE thick darkness covers the earth… that right there is the reason for the church to arise.

It’s not our excuse to give up… to wait on things to turn around one day.

NO...

IT. IS. OUR. WAKE. UP. CALL.

The cognitive dissonance that we experience when we KNOW that the world is NOT as it should be… means it is time for the church to get to work.

APPLICATIONS

How do you cope with a broken world?

What do you do with the thick darkness?

*2 weeks ago someone shot up a July 4th parade

*There is continuing unrest regarding the Roe vs. Wade decision

*Inflation is still crippling industries and individuals

*Russia is still at war with Ukraine

What do you do with all of this?

Are you waiting on the world to change? Are you waiting for an escape, because your only hope is to be rescued?

***Church are you waiting on God? Or is God waiting on you?

When you experience the dissonance… when your brain is wrestling with what in the world to do with the reality that we experience… THIS is the question we may want to ask ourselves:

Are you waiting on God… or is God waiting on you?

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I think the mistake we sometimes make is to think that God’s good promises are reserved for later.

Like we talk about the afterlife right… as in “after this life”

And so the promises of heaven and eternal life and God’s Kingdom and all these good things… they all apply later.

And so we’ll wait… and someday we’ll get rescued and someday we’ll experience that.

But are you waiting on God… or is God waiting on you?

We’ve gotten this idea of “eternal life” as if it begins after you die… but is that true?

One of Jesus’ followers named John wrote 3 short letters towards the end of the NT

And in these letters he writes that eternal life is in Jesus… and that God has given it to us… as in it has already happened.

What if your eternal life… and your life in God’s Kingdom has already begun?

And what if God is waiting on you?

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Here is what I mean by that....

Jesus coming to earth changed everything… it is this hinge point in history.

He announces that God’s Kingdom is at hand… but we don’t yet see it in its fullness.

We don’t see that final victory.

We are caught in the in between… where the kingdom of this world is hanging on, even while the Kingdom of God is coming.

Theologians call this the “already and not yet” period of time...

And some people and some churches will simply choose to wait it out… to wait on things to change.

But if you really want to be the church…

And you really want to do the stuff that the church is called to do...

Then you can start living like eternity is happening now…

We can start living like the Kingdom is here.

We can live out the Lord’s prayer that says His Kingdom is coming on earth as it is in Heaven.

In the in between time… each and every church can become these little outposts of God’s Kingdom where eternity is happening now.

Are you waiting on God… or is God waiting on you?

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We talk about the darkness that we see… and the brokenness of this world… but I want you to hear my heart on this…

I really don’t want this to sound like doom and gloom and judgment…

This world is going to hell in a handbasket and all that.

I know that preachers have a voice sometimes… Sometimes there is a literal preacher voice where they suddenly sound totally different than when you were talking to them a minute ago.

I hope that’s not me.

But I think some preachers also have a tone or a heart with which they communicate things.

And some DO talk about the world… like its going to hell in a handbasket.

Stay away because it’s evil and full of vice and sin.

That’s not what I want you to hear today.

I’ve talked about Isaiah and I’ve talked about Paul… let me wrap up with a quick story about Jesus.

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The familiar story that we hear the week before Easter has to do with Palm Sunday. It’s when Jesus enters into this Holy City… the heartbeat of this ancient promised land.

It may not have lived up to the splendor that the returning Israelites desired, but it was still the religious hub of their descendants.

And with this story you usually hear of Jesus humbly riding in on a donkey and people praising Him and waving palm branches.

It’s a bittersweet scene… especially when you know what is coming in the next few days.

But the part of the story you don’t often hear is this little sorrowful moment that Jesus has when He thinks of Jerusalem.

Luke 19:41–42 (NIV)

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

When I read this you know I hear most? It’s not really judgment… or condemnation…

It’s Sadness.

Jesus doesn’t seem satisfied or content about any of this. He’s heartbroken.

They had been waiting on their world to change…

They thought they were waiting on God… but He was waiting on them.

Jesus WANTED this for Israel.

I believe that God WANTED this for His people.

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This is the voice that I want you to hear. This is the preacher voice I want to have.

I’m not here to judge or condemn… but I know that things aren’t right...

And I KNOW that there is something better.

And I WANT this for us. I WANT this for you… and for this world.

Church you have something that the world NEEDS!

I KNOW that I have found this profound thing that gives my life meaning and purpose… and I WANT that for my community and my family and my friends.

And I WANT that for my Starbucks cashier… and I WANT that for my daughter’s teachers in school… and police officers (especially the ones that pull me over… let’s see some of that grace right?)

There is this thing that I have found that I WANT for the homeless guy on the street or for the drug dealer in the bad neighborhood… or the adulterer who lives in the million dollar neighborhood.

I WANT this for this world…

And it’s heart-breaking when we find ourselves still in brokenness.

I don’t want to gloat and be satisfied that Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior… and wait for His rescue… while the world lies in ruin.

I don’t want to sit in a seat of judgment and say I told you so when bad things happen.

People do that! They did it with 9/11… they did it with Katrina…

But this is not about judgement and condemnation…

Church WE are the bearers of the something that the world NEEDS.

Isaiah says

the Lord rises upon YOU

and his glory appears over YOU.

Paul talks about this faith like it is a treasure… we have a treasure that this world desperately needs.

Do you WANT that for this world?

Are you waiting on God… or is He waiting on you?

WE

6 years later John Mayer wrote another song...

I feel bad… I feel like I need to redeem him a little bit.

He wrote a song called “Love Is A Verb”… all about how love was something you had to actually DO.

Maybe he spent 6 years waiting on the world to change… and realized that maybe it was waiting on him… who knows?

There is a familiar quote that I’m sure you’ve heard… It says to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

It is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi… even though he didn’t say it.

As is often the case with internet quotes :)

It’s probably a shortened form of something he wrote:

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change… This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.

While we certainly might disagree on the actual divine mystery… among other things… I DO love Gandhi’s insistence that “We need not wait...”

Are you waiting on God? Or is He waiting on you?

What does it look like for you to live like your eternity starts today?

How would your life change if you could start living like God’s Kingdom was right now?

How can you live like our future reality can be present right here in Brevard County?

At a church in Port St. John?

At a church in Merritt Island called Georgianna?

And hopefully at several other Kingdom outposts in between?

*Maybe it’s serving right here in your church… helping to grow your own Kids ministry? How do you keep the excitement from VBS going all year round?

*Maybe it’s serving in your local schools? I did some research before I got here, I know you’re already involved in several places

*Maybe you can leave a generous tip at lunch today?

*Maybe we can abolish Daylight Savings Time… cause that certainly won’t exist in Heaven.

One thing I’m sure of… God’s Kingdom is for those who receive it like a child… Jesus says that…

So I got the privilege of being a part of God’s Kingdom all this past week at Georgianna.

And you had the privilege of being a part of it a few weeks ago right here.

And eternity and the Kingdom can continue to be your reality.

All it takes is just for the church to be the church.

No need to wait… Actually just the opposite…

Right now… you can…

Isaiah 60:1

“ [Rise]! Shine! Your light has come; the LORD’s glory has shone upon you.”

CLOSING PRAYER

Who You are, who we are, who You’ve called us to be…

BENEDICTION

once again I am Grateful to Chris for trusting me this awesome church… and thank you for your hospitality.

Church the promises of God are not just for a far off future. Or at least they don’t have to be.

God might just be waiting on us…