Preparing For A Decade of Destiny III, Knowing the True Light

John's Gospel. We have a shortened message this morning so that we'll allow time for Holy Communion. But I want to talk with us this morning in John's Gospel, chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. Next week that's the message, the witness to the light. But this week it's the true light that gives light to every man who is coming into the world. The dark can be very strange, and many strange things happen in the dark. I told this story once a few years ago, and many of you weren't here then, so I'll tell it again. About ten years ago, when I was a youth pastor, I had a very raucous youth group, much like I see here at North Way. And in the early part of the winter season, three or four of my strong, young, mighty warrior type men, juniors or so in high school, decided that it was time for the pastor to know how much they loved him. So, in the middle of the night, they devised a scheme. My wife and I had gone to bed, and I think we had two children at that time. And every husband here knows when your wife hears things and you think, come on, go back to bed. My wife poked me about two in the morning and said, I hear something. Go back to sleep. Well, we laid down again, and she poked me again and said, I hear something. And so I sat up, and lo and behold, I heard something. And it was definitely not, you know, just the wind blowing or the cat jumping, and my heart started racing. I mean, you know, when you sense the presence of danger or fear, well, we sat up and listened, and we could tell that whatever that sound was, it was out on the little covered porch that was affixed to our house. And I, you know, I've had some training in the military and all that, and so I went across the wall, because I knew you didn't just go walking out, you know, like a big idiot, in case this guy had a weapon or something. You know, I looked around, and I didn't see or sense anyone that was coming up the steps. And when you walked out of our bedroom, you looked right out this window onto this little porch, if you can see, and then the stairwell went down just in front of that. And I looked around there, and I didn't see anyone come to the steps. And by this time, you know, Carol was picking up the phone and calling the Shaylor Township Police. I mean, it was serious stuff. We thought it was going to be, you know, the end here, because we knew someone was out there. By this time, it was not, you know, it was not just a myth. And I looked out, and my eye went out the window right into the face of this giant plastic snowman. Fear and all these emotions and all this, you know, this protection impulse that I had was, you know, in a flash, all channeled into one thing. I just praised the Lord, you know. I was so mad. I mean, I just got really, I was relieved on the inside. I mean, I was, because at that point, I knew what was happening. I mean, I knew that somebody that loved me was showing how much they did. Well, at that moment, when they, when the lights went on in the house, these young guys jumped off the roof. And, you know, it was this big commotion. At the same time as they were getting into their car, the police pulled up. And you have to know that I was standing out in front of my little porch, not dressed appropriately for wintertime. And the police officer came up, and he said, well, what's the problem? I, you know, then I was really stuck, because I pointed up to the roof with the snowman. And at that juncture, it was serious excuse-making and feeling foolish and all the rest. Well, I learned some things about the dark at that juncture. And I also learned that if you're not careful, the dark can really surprise you and deceive you. And it doesn't just, that's not just 10 years ago. This week, in a very dark morning, I fumbled out of bed. I mean, the way the blinds drawn, the moon wasn't out. I fumbled out of bed. First thing I did was a step on the dog. The first thing I did. And groped my way across to the bathroom. And I went in to get a cup of water. I knocked over four or five things. You know how you do that? And just shaving cream and everything else. Turned around to walk out and walked right into the side of the door, because I hadn't opened it far enough, you know? Three things that happened in the dark, all right? Three things. I don't have an overhead, but three things. Number one, you lose your direction. I was fumbled. Number two, I was confused. I was knocking things over. We don't have an overhead for this. You're right. You're okay, Kelly. You're doing a great job. You don't have an overhead for this. All right? And number three, there's danger out there. There's lots of things in the dark that are dangerous, that wouldn't be a problem in the light. Loss of direction, sense of confusion, and the reality of danger. And as funny as those couple things were in my life, and none of them caused me any harm, I want you to know those are also very real things. People who walk in the dark without the light of life find those three things happening all the time. They don't have a direction for their life. Events and circumstances and situations are often very confusing. And dear ones, many of them live in a constant sense of danger, an awareness that something or someone or some circumstance is there to undermine their peace and their security. I want to talk about the light of life today, and I want to talk about it just for a few minutes in reference to your personal walk with God. And the Bible says this morning that He is the true light. Verse 9, look at it in your Bible so you know I'm not just making it up. He's the true light. There are many false lights out there that people are going after. And you and I know that folks are very happy to jump on any bandwagon that comes down the line. Did you know that 67% of Americans believe in the supernatural? Most people do believe it. 40 some percent of American people believe that they have contacted someone who was once dead. Did you know that? They've made contact on the other side and those kinds of things. People are looking for some kind of insight into the darkness that seems to be out in front of them when it comes to eternity and their own life values and so on. 29% of Americans believe in reincarnation. And people are searching and they're buying into the thing. Now, in our culture, the folks that we rub shoulders with, they don't just, you know, put it in religious terms. They don't, you know, say that they're Hindus or that they're reincarnationists and all that stuff. They buy a lot of this false light because it's nicely dressed and neatly packaged. You watch some of the cable programs and see some of the things that they sell people of self-help and psychic kinds of things. It gets people really hyped. C.S. Lewis wrote this. The greatest evil is not done in these sordid dens of crime that Charles Dickens loved to paint. It is conceived and moved and seconded and carried and minuted in clean, carpeted, warm, and well-lighted offices by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. People are buying false light just because it's nicely packed. And there's only one true light, church. I don't think the Bible wasted a word there when it said the true light. There's so many false lights. There's one beer company that's made a major hit, haven't they? You know? The guy says, give me a light, and all these, you know, lasers go on and torches. And I wish in a way that when we saw a false light, something went off in us. You know, just bells would ring, wait a minute, that's not from the Lord. And then we could show people that many of the lights that they're pursuing are not from God. If you package it in scientific terminology, it doesn't mean it's the light. Do you know how many people find their light from the horoscope? Do you know how many people find their light by putting 50 cents into a little machine down at the mall and getting a little scroll that they read? Do you know how many people try to find their light by sitting in a dead church and having no sense of awareness? Or the presence of God. And many people find light that it really is darkness. And Jesus said, when the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? How great is the darkness? When you think you have the real light and you don't. It's the true light that came into the world. It's the light of life. And people are just falling for it left and right. The other night, we got home late, turned on the television, watched the news, and then Johnny Carson came on. And Danny DeVito, you know, funny little Danny DeVito, real cute, I don't know if you saw that. He was talking about all these things that happened to him. And he was talking about how wonderful it is, you know, this movie they made about divorce. And all these people think it's so exciting. And he said something. He said, well, my wife and I have been together 19 years. And people applaud. That's pretty significant in this culture. He said, and married for eight. And it was just sort of this, and he said it kind of like, no big deal. Something just pierced into my heart, you know. The people are buying into anything at all. Any compromise of values because they don't have the true light. The light of life. When we read about the light, the true light, dear ones, we're talking about all that is good, all that is right, all that is pure and caring and loving and healing. You know, without Jesus, none of this would be here. We'd be in darkness. And darkness is sickness and disease and hate and death. Darkness is the despair I saw etched in the face of those Hindu priests who walked around in a daze of demonic oppression. Despair. Those are the things that life will result in without the light, the true light. The light of the world. Jesus came and said that he was also the light of life or number two, the living light. The living light. He's the true light, but he's also the living light. He's the light of life. The other great thing that people seem to struggle with, one is the false light. The other one is, they see the light as a compartment in their life. Kind of like, well, my light is, you know, right here. It's a little beam that I shoot in when I need it. There is more compartmentalized religion in America than any other country. Did you know that? It's like people have a section of their lives they call religious. And you can do anything else, you know, in all the other parts of your life. The business part and the relational part and the sports part, but religion is kept. And in our country, it's almost illegal to get it out of the religious compartment. And religion is for church. Don't bring it into the marketplace or into the schools or into the places of sports or whatever. Down in Georgia, for years, for decades, they prayed before football games. Did you know that? And now they're saying, you can't do that anymore because you're bringing religion into sports. Religion is for church. That is a great lie. And if we buy that lie, we are putting our light back under a bushel, folks. Jesus said, I'm the light of life, the living light. Everything about me permeates all of life, not just a little compartment. Not just a little section of what I'm about. How many of you know that Christ is the hub? He's not just a spoke. He's at the center. He's the hub of the wheel, not just one of the many parts that make it go round. This summer, I had a study break, as many of you know, and I spent a wonderful time with the Lord. One of the things that has impressed me so strongly was this truth. It was almost a revelation to me. We think of salvation. We think of the light. We think of all those things as a point in time. You know, we get saved. Back then, we get healed. Back then, we get delivered. Back then, you know. And the Lord made it so clear to me that no, salvation, forgiveness, healing, deliverance, all those things are an ongoing, continuous experience. I don't know, you're not saved until you're there. You are being saved. Now, at a point in time, you entered into it. But folks, salvation is a life. The light is a life. It's not just an experience. It is an experience that we enter in, but then we live it day by day in the fullness of who we are. I begin to just meditate on what all that might mean. Jesus said, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. He won't walk in darkness because he'll have the light of life. That is, wherever he goes, he's going to take the light in. When you go into the prison, you're taking the light in. In fact, you're glowing in the light. When you go into the schoolroom, you're not just bringing out the Bible and saying, well, this is the light. No, you are the light. Jesus said, you are the light. There's such a difference between that and seeing the light as just something that we experience someplace in our life. I don't know, I guess I feel like sometimes we're out there searching for something that God said, hey, it's in you right now. Someone told me they were making a major decision, major career change in their life. I saw them after the service last week, and I said, well, what happened? And he said, it's like a light went on inside me. And I thought to myself, well, you know, it probably did. It was probably there all the time, and you just didn't know, and the Lord hit the switch again, and on it came. One of the women in our church, I don't know, somebody here in this service, just went through a very painful and serious operation to replace her whole knee joint. And I talked to her on the phone this week to find out how she was doing. And she said, you know, I was in a hospital room with another woman, I guess had a similar operation for 10 days. And she didn't know Christ, and I didn't. And she said, for 10 days, I had a chance to talk to her in the midst of my pain about Christ. And she said, and the Lord just opened up things between us. And at the end of our hospital stay, she prayed with me to receive the Lord. She said, I got to be a light in my hospital room. The light of life. And the final thing I want us to see is that Jesus said this light has not been overcome by the darkness. It's a victorious light. Let me attest to you, folks, that if you're like me, darkness is still seeking to swallow up my light. Do you face that? Now, there are days when you think, you know, this light of yours is just about to go out. Do you ever feel that? Or is it just me? I had someone tell me recently, he said, Jay, I'm not even sure if I'm a Christian anymore. Everything seems dark around me. My family's rejecting the Lord. I'm about to give up on them. My job is terrible. My health, for the first time in my life, is going down the drain. And I don't even know where God is. And I feel like darkness is everywhere. You know, if you've ever studied astronomy, there's things called a black hole. You know what that is? It's a place that supposedly, astronomers tell us, literally like a sponge, consumes stars, and in some cases, whole galaxies. And they're enormous, the vacuum of energy that they are. They swallow it up. And some of us sometimes feel like Satan's trying to pull us into the black hole of his torment in our lives. I want you to know something the Bible tells us. It says that the light shines in darkness. Look at it with me in verse 5. And the darkness has not overcome it. Now, sometime you may feel that you're losing it, that your light's flickering. You know, it's like a battery in a flashlight that starts going down and you know it's going to go out. And if that's happening to you today, the Lord brought you here to tell you something. Don't give up because the darkness will not overcome your light. You say, well, how do you know what I'm going through? How can you stand up there and say, you don't know about my marriage. You don't know about my job. You don't know about my situation at work or whatever. I know this much. 2,000 years ago, the light came into the world and it shone brightly for a season and men were drawn to it. Some ran from it. But at the end of 30 years, the Bible says that the powers of darkness amassed one final assault to put out the light. And with all the fury of rebels from hell, demon powers surrounded the light of life. And when they had Him raised to that cross, they thought that they had put out the light. And when Jesus died, even His disciples said, that's the end. It was as though someone had extinguished the wick of the light of life. And I thought about that image. I imagine what those disciples felt. And I ask you to forgive this puny illustration. But just like those little birthday candles that you can buy, you blow them out. For a couple seconds, you know, the smoke just comes up and everyone claps and cheers. And then all of a sudden what happens? Our Lord, for three days, was just a smoldering wick in the grave. And then the Holy Spirit breathed afresh on Him. And with resurrection power, He came out of the grave and His light came on. And it was such a glorious light that hundreds of people saw Him. And that light has never gone out. The Bible says that it will grow brighter and brighter all through eternity. That's why we read last week in Revelation that when Jesus appeared to John, His face was as brilliant as the sun. Now, I woke up this morning about four o'clock and looked out over the valley behind my house. And I saw deep darkness. And we may forget when we sit in this beautiful auditorium and see the Christmas lights and celebrate His presence. We may forget, Church, listen to me, that most of the world is going into utter darkness. The Bible says that hell is a place of deep darkness. And we have the privilege of holding forth the light of life. A light that cannot be overcome no matter how dark things may seem to get. I want to ask you today, as I looked over that valley, I said, Lord, what can we do? What can we do to raise up the true light? What can we do to tell people that the light is a life? It's not just a truth or not just an idea or a concept or a religion. It's a life. What can we do, Lord, to tell people that once they open to that light, they'll never ever be extinguished? I just want to say to you this morning, the only way that people are going to be drawn to the light is through your light. It's the only way. And if you're here today and your candle is about out and folks, there's more of us that are there than you think. You know, our lights flickering. There's maybe just a little smoke coming. The Lord gave me a verse for you. It's Matthew 12 and verse 20. He said, a bruised reed you will not break and the smoking wick you will not extinguish. Would you open your heart today and receive that? That the Lord.