WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.141 People said amen, amen, john 8,. 00:00:03.141 --> 00:00:12.830 I want to open up by asking y'all a really simple question with a super obvious answer how many of you have ever been overwhelmed before in life? 00:00:12.830 --> 00:00:17.567 Maybe a better question is when aren't we overwhelmed? 00:00:17.567 --> 00:00:22.589 Right, for some of us, can we just all agree life can be overwhelming. 00:00:22.589 --> 00:00:27.259 If you agree life can be overwhelming, can you give me an amen on three, one, two, three, amen. 00:00:27.259 --> 00:00:29.166 Okay, so we are not alone. 00:00:29.166 --> 00:00:30.724 We are in this thing together. 00:00:30.724 --> 00:00:32.429 Life can be overwhelming. 00:00:32.429 --> 00:00:39.789 We have health challenges, we have family challenges, we got all these financial things, you just name it. 00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:50.171 There's a bunch of stuff, and this is actually part of the reason why we started this brand new series last week called Freedom, breaking Chains, living Free. 00:00:50.171 --> 00:01:01.966 And what we're doing is we're just walking through a passage of scripture John chapter 8, and we're just seeing how it's actually possible for you to live your life freedom. 00:01:01.966 --> 00:01:09.790 And today we're going to see a really, really, really, really, really important part of living in freedom, and it's well. 00:01:09.790 --> 00:01:15.864 It's by doing four words walking in the light. 00:01:15.864 --> 00:01:19.992 Can we all say that together, ready? 00:01:19.992 --> 00:01:23.265 Let's say it together, ready, walking in the light. 00:01:23.265 --> 00:01:25.590 What does that even mean? 00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:28.745 Maybe you're like that sounds really churchy. 00:01:28.745 --> 00:01:29.688 Here's what walking in the light is. 00:01:29.688 --> 00:01:40.394 Walking in the light means living in alignment with God's truth, god's character and God's presence. 00:01:40.394 --> 00:01:49.859 Now can we just be honest and say this is difficult, especially the world that we live in? 00:01:49.859 --> 00:01:51.784 In fact, here's a trivia question for you. 00:01:51.784 --> 00:01:54.719 I think we'll all get 100% the world that we live in. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:58.069 Is there more light in this world or is there more darkness in this world? 00:01:58.069 --> 00:02:05.231 There is more, and if you're a follower of Jesus, you can feel this where you want to walk in the light. 00:02:05.231 --> 00:02:21.420 But it's almost like there's this tension of something influencing or maybe even pulling you to walk in darkness, and maybe not completely in darkness, but maybe just in certain places in our life. 00:02:21.420 --> 00:02:28.222 Maybe we feel a pull from people, maybe we feel a pull just from the world in general. 00:02:28.222 --> 00:02:37.469 Maybe we feel a pull, maybe you're like me and you feel a pull from your flesh, like there's just something in me that does not want to walk in the light at times. 00:02:37.469 --> 00:02:45.213 There's something in me that's like this happened to you Go, get them back, they deserve that. 00:02:45.213 --> 00:02:50.649 There's like something in me where it's almost like there's this like internal battle at times. 00:02:50.649 --> 00:02:52.546 I don't know if you guys can relate to that. 00:02:52.546 --> 00:03:27.213 And even though there's this internal battle, and even though we live in a dark world, here's the truth that you have to grasp this morning if you're gonna live in freedom is that freedom is found by walking in the light, and you can live your whole life searching for freedom, but it's found when we walk in the light, and until we walk in the light, we'll never experience freedom. 00:03:27.213 --> 00:03:32.538 This takes us to John, chapter 8, and I want to show you guys a picture to help understand the context of John 8. 00:03:32.538 --> 00:03:39.449 Where we're at In John chapter 8, there was something called the Feast of the Tabernacles and they would have a menorah, this big old menorah. 00:03:39.751 --> 00:03:41.037 They would put it right in the temple. 00:03:41.037 --> 00:03:42.802 It was actually a lot bigger than this. 00:03:42.802 --> 00:03:48.574 The one they would have was like 75 to 85 feet tall, the smart scholar people say. 00:03:48.574 --> 00:03:52.425 And what they would do at the Feast of Tabernacles is they would light this thing every night. 00:03:52.425 --> 00:03:58.264 As you can imagine, this 75-foot menorah brought light to everything and everybody around it. 00:03:58.264 --> 00:04:00.510 You say, why in the world would they do that? 00:04:00.510 --> 00:04:01.441 That's just weird. 00:04:01.441 --> 00:04:09.473 This is why the children of Israel would have certain feasts and celebrations every year to remember things that God had done for them in the past. 00:04:09.473 --> 00:04:24.312 So the Feast of the Tabernacles was simply to remember where God led the nation of Israel in the book of Exodus, through the wilderness, and at night there would be a pillar of fire that would guide them, and this represented the glory of God on the nation of Israel. 00:04:24.312 --> 00:04:33.821 So what they would do is every single night of this seven-day feast is they would light this and everybody could see, except on the last night. 00:04:33.821 --> 00:04:35.766 You say why wouldn't they light it on the last night? 00:04:35.766 --> 00:04:38.064 Because on the last night everybody's packing up and going home. 00:04:38.064 --> 00:04:43.904 People traveled to Jerusalem to go to the feast and now they're going home, so they didn't light it on the last night. 00:04:44.747 --> 00:04:55.812 On the last day of the feast, what Jesus did and we know this from later on in the passage is Jesus went right to the exact same place where this crazy bright light was lit every night. 00:04:55.812 --> 00:05:10.454 He walked up to this place and in verse number 12 of John 8, this is what he told them the people understanding the context of this light, jesus spoke to them and said I am the what are those next four words? 00:05:10.454 --> 00:05:12.920 Light of the world. 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:23.141 They had just seen this really bright light and now Jesus steps right where this was and says hey guys, hey guys, hey guys, I am the light of the world. 00:05:23.141 --> 00:05:31.355 Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. 00:05:31.355 --> 00:05:38.447 Now the word follow here it's not referring to somebody that's kind of in the crowd, that's just kind of learning, but it's actually a committed follower of Jesus. 00:05:38.447 --> 00:05:40.526 It says you will never walk in darkness. 00:05:40.565 --> 00:05:41.529 Now here's what this doesn't mean. 00:05:41.529 --> 00:05:43.483 This doesn't mean that you won't mess up. 00:05:43.483 --> 00:05:47.651 In fact, how many of you have ever messed up at least one time in your life? 00:05:47.651 --> 00:05:54.567 Raise your hand, keep your hand up. 00:05:54.567 --> 00:05:55.572 If you messed up last week, keep your hand. 00:05:55.572 --> 00:06:03.769 If you messed up this morning, okay, you can put your hands down, all right, okay, point at somebody if they're lying, Just kidding, all right, we all mess up. 00:06:03.769 --> 00:06:18.834 What this is saying it's not that we're never going to mess up, but it's saying that we're going to live our lives with this desire to walk in the light, this desire to live in alignment with God's truth, god's character and God's presence. 00:06:18.834 --> 00:06:21.223 Now, let's think about this for a second. 00:06:21.223 --> 00:06:22.387 It says that we'll walk in light. 00:06:22.387 --> 00:06:23.110 Let's think about this. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.386 There's a couple questions I want us to ask this morning. 00:06:25.386 --> 00:06:28.788 And here's the first one, as we think about light, what does light do? 00:06:28.788 --> 00:06:32.269 And I actually want to hear from you guys you think about light. 00:06:32.269 --> 00:06:36.225 What does light do? 00:06:36.225 --> 00:06:39.130 What's that up there somebody? 00:06:39.130 --> 00:06:40.934 It shows everything. 00:06:40.934 --> 00:06:41.334 That's right. 00:06:41.334 --> 00:06:42.985 It shows things. 00:06:42.985 --> 00:06:44.565 So light reveals. 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:50.492 Can you imagine what would happen if, at the end of the service, we said all right, you're dismissed, service is over. 00:06:50.492 --> 00:06:52.384 Dads are running for the snack pack station. 00:06:52.384 --> 00:06:53.790 They didn't realize it. 00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:55.485 And there's the bottled Cokes too. 00:06:55.485 --> 00:06:56.127 Those are the good ones. 00:06:56.127 --> 00:06:58.906 And I say OK. 00:06:58.906 --> 00:07:00.781 And all of a sudden, the media people. 00:07:00.781 --> 00:07:01.583 They just want to mess with us. 00:07:01.583 --> 00:07:03.526 So they just turn all the lights out and it goes dark. 00:07:03.526 --> 00:07:06.612 Can you imagine the mayhem that would happen? 00:07:06.612 --> 00:07:08.435 We'd be running to people. 00:07:08.435 --> 00:07:10.504 I'd be like falling off the stage and break my neck. 00:07:10.504 --> 00:07:20.654 I got somebody to visit me in the hospital and make me food, because I just, you know what light does is light exposes things. 00:07:20.654 --> 00:07:23.882 It allows us to see reality. 00:07:23.882 --> 00:07:25.406 That's what light does. 00:07:25.767 --> 00:07:27.764 Somebody else, what does light do? 00:07:27.764 --> 00:07:28.867 Oh, that's right. 00:07:28.867 --> 00:07:30.333 It dispels darkness, that's so good. 00:07:30.333 --> 00:07:33.923 So it's like this light dispels the darkness, the darkness goes away. 00:07:33.923 --> 00:07:34.384 That's good. 00:07:34.384 --> 00:07:35.887 Somebody else, what does light do? 00:07:35.887 --> 00:07:37.872 Shows the way. 00:07:37.872 --> 00:07:38.560 That's right. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:39.862 It lights the path. 00:07:39.862 --> 00:07:41.505 It shows us where to go. 00:07:41.505 --> 00:07:42.047 That's good. 00:07:42.548 --> 00:07:44.350 Somebody else, what about light? 00:07:44.350 --> 00:07:45.233 What does light do? 00:07:45.233 --> 00:07:48.521 You guys are like Pastor Nate. 00:07:48.521 --> 00:07:50.291 You're supposed to be doing all the talking and the thinking. 00:07:50.291 --> 00:07:51.579 I'm not supposed to be doing the thinking this morning. 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:53.386 It wakes you up in the morning. 00:07:53.386 --> 00:07:53.987 It gives energy. 00:07:53.987 --> 00:07:54.642 It gives energy. 00:07:54.642 --> 00:07:55.386 It grows things. 00:07:55.386 --> 00:07:56.901 Y'all know. 00:07:56.901 --> 00:07:57.625 You know this. 00:07:57.625 --> 00:07:59.507 Nothing can grow in the darkness. 00:07:59.507 --> 00:08:01.728 Like plants, they can't grow at dark. 00:08:01.728 --> 00:08:03.120 Here's something. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:18.103 So those really smart scientist people, they'll go down to the South Pole or up to the North Pole where it's literally dark for weeks at a time, zero sun. 00:08:18.103 --> 00:08:35.162 A lot of them have mental breakdowns or fall into despair and they actually try to limit the amount of time they're in those places because the darkness after a while is overwhelming to them and they have to bring them into the light because light brings joy. 00:08:35.162 --> 00:08:38.969 And you think about all the things we're saying that light does. 00:08:38.969 --> 00:08:40.418 This is what Jesus did. 00:08:40.418 --> 00:08:41.038 Jesus got up. 00:08:41.038 --> 00:08:45.168 He said hey, I am the light of the world. 00:08:45.168 --> 00:08:49.476 That's a pretty strong claim. 00:08:49.476 --> 00:08:54.828 I am the light of the world, I do all of these things. 00:08:55.674 --> 00:09:00.897 There were some Pharisees nearby, really kind of stuck up religious people, and this is what they said about this. 00:09:00.897 --> 00:09:01.418 Verse 13. 00:09:01.418 --> 00:09:04.647 They said to him verse 13, you are testifying about yourself. 00:09:04.647 --> 00:09:12.244 Your testimony is not valid, even if I testify about myself. 00:09:12.244 --> 00:09:23.727 Jesus replied my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I'm going, but you don't know where I come from or where I'm going. 00:09:23.727 --> 00:09:27.386 You are judging based on the standards of the day. 00:09:27.386 --> 00:09:30.416 Jesus is saying Like I am not judging based on these. 00:09:30.416 --> 00:09:32.159 This is what everybody else does. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:42.481 Verse 16, if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it's not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me. 00:09:42.481 --> 00:09:47.480 Even in your law it's written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 00:09:47.480 --> 00:10:00.509 I am the one who testifies about myself and the Father who sent me testifies about me. 00:10:00.509 --> 00:10:05.740 Jesus is testifying, he's teaching about himself. 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:15.076 This is what is the difference between Jesus and every other religious teacher, or Jesus and every other religion out there. 00:10:15.216 --> 00:10:22.620 Christianity is that Christianity is based on the person of Jesus, not on teachings of a religious leader. 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:26.528 This is why Jesus was testifying about himself. 00:10:26.528 --> 00:10:37.677 This is why the Father was testifying about him, because it is based on the person of Jesus, about him, because it is based on the person of Jesus. 00:10:37.677 --> 00:10:38.279 That's what Christianity is. 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:40.326 It's not Jesus plus these things over here, it's Jesus plus nothing. 00:10:40.326 --> 00:10:42.049 It's Jesus plus nothing else. 00:10:42.049 --> 00:10:43.576 It is only Jesus. 00:10:43.937 --> 00:10:48.337 And if I were to ask you a question, if I were to say, when you think of Christianity, what comes to your mind? 00:10:48.337 --> 00:10:54.504 If it's anything less than Jesus or anything more than Jesus, then your view of Christianity has been distorted. 00:10:54.504 --> 00:10:56.321 Here's the challenge with that. 00:10:56.321 --> 00:11:04.860 The challenge with that is we live in a broken world where Christians disappoint us and church leaders, pastors, mega church pastors, small church pastors, everywhere in between, they do this. 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:06.505 We're like what we hear this happen. 00:11:06.505 --> 00:11:07.955 We're like that's Christianity, guys? 00:11:07.955 --> 00:11:10.018 No, it's not what Christianity is. 00:11:10.018 --> 00:11:12.162 It is the person of Jesus. 00:11:12.162 --> 00:11:17.809 And it could be that the things, the obstacles keeping you from Christianity aren't even Christianity at all. 00:11:17.809 --> 00:11:21.802 It is the person of Jesus, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. 00:11:21.802 --> 00:11:24.708 Can somebody say amen, amen, that's Christianity. 00:11:25.034 --> 00:11:32.177 I was talking to somebody last night, like a barbecue party thing, and they came to me and they were like man, I'm on like this spiritual journey, like can I talk to you? 00:11:32.177 --> 00:11:33.802 And I was like no, you can't talk to me at all. 00:11:33.802 --> 00:11:34.825 No, I'm just kidding, I didn't say that. 00:11:34.825 --> 00:11:50.341 And we were talking and they said like I've spent like my whole life like thinking I have to like do this and do that, and I have this shame and I have this guilt and I have like I can this all about? 00:11:50.341 --> 00:11:52.563 I'm like, are you really asking me this right now, bro? 00:11:52.563 --> 00:11:53.725 Like let's go right now. 00:11:53.725 --> 00:12:00.230 In the backyard by the pool I was like, dude, it's Jesus, it's Jesus. 00:12:00.230 --> 00:12:11.363 He did everything for you, and to see the light in his eyes start to shine a little bit, it's like wow, like there's actually hope. 00:12:11.363 --> 00:12:17.123 Guys, jesus testified about himself, because Christianity is about Jesus. 00:12:18.125 --> 00:12:18.806 And verse 19,. 00:12:18.806 --> 00:12:19.908 Here's what these people asked him. 00:12:19.908 --> 00:12:22.298 They asked him where's your father? 00:12:22.298 --> 00:12:25.626 You know neither me nor my father. 00:12:25.626 --> 00:12:30.380 Jesus answered If you knew me, you would also know my father. 00:12:30.380 --> 00:12:34.807 Jesus is saying hey, I'm the Messiah. 00:12:34.807 --> 00:12:37.317 The way to know God the Father is through me. 00:12:37.317 --> 00:12:41.148 If you know me, you know the Father. 00:12:41.148 --> 00:12:44.296 Y'all don't know me, so y'all don't know the Father. 00:12:45.258 --> 00:12:48.485 Two people that were super religious Verse 20,. 00:12:48.485 --> 00:12:49.995 He gets a little more in their skin. 00:12:49.995 --> 00:12:50.557 Check this out. 00:12:50.557 --> 00:12:53.423 He spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple. 00:12:53.423 --> 00:12:56.028 Nobody sees them, because his hour had not yet come. 00:12:56.028 --> 00:13:02.668 Then he said to them again I'm going away, you will look for me and you will die in your sin. 00:13:02.668 --> 00:13:11.096 He's going to tell them that again, and he's going to just because I guess the first time it didn't take hold on. 00:13:11.096 --> 00:13:13.177 He says where I'm going, you can't come. 00:13:13.498 --> 00:13:14.678 The Jews verse 22,. 00:13:14.678 --> 00:13:20.825 They said again he won't kill himself, will he, since he says where I'm going, you cannot come. 00:13:20.825 --> 00:13:22.245 Verse 23,. 00:13:22.245 --> 00:13:25.950 You are from below, I am from above. 00:13:25.950 --> 00:13:37.854 You are of this world, I am not of this world. 00:13:37.854 --> 00:13:42.696 Verse 24,. 00:13:42.696 --> 00:13:52.116 Therefore, I told you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am he, if you don't trust that I'm the Messiah, you will die in your sins. 00:13:52.116 --> 00:13:55.186 He tells them that three times over a period of four verses. 00:13:56.836 --> 00:14:10.994 This shows something very humbling that you can be the most righteous person in the world by however you define righteousness, which, let's just be honest, when we define righteousness, it's always on a moving scale, right, it's like I'm a good person, you're a good person. 00:14:10.994 --> 00:14:11.355 What do you do? 00:14:11.355 --> 00:14:13.178 You compare yourself to somebody worse than you. 00:14:13.178 --> 00:14:18.788 Right, you can be a good person, however you define it. 00:14:18.788 --> 00:14:26.364 You can be righteous however you define it, and you can still die in your sin, according to Jesus, because the people he's talking to, they had books of the Bible memorized. 00:14:26.364 --> 00:14:30.921 They were super righteous on the outward, but they did not believe, they did not trust. 00:14:30.921 --> 00:14:35.889 It takes faith in Christ for us to be saved. 00:14:35.889 --> 00:14:39.426 Faith in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone. 00:14:40.235 --> 00:14:44.644 Titus, chapter two, tells us we're not saved by our righteousness, but by grace. 00:14:44.644 --> 00:14:49.206 So, verse 25, they ask him this who are you? 00:14:49.206 --> 00:14:52.818 And he says this. 00:14:52.818 --> 00:14:54.585 I wonder if he was exasperated when he says this. 00:14:54.585 --> 00:14:58.124 Exactly what I've been telling you from the very beginning. 00:14:58.124 --> 00:15:02.600 Have your kids ever asked you something? 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:03.644 And you're like man. 00:15:03.644 --> 00:15:07.760 I told you this five times already. 00:15:07.760 --> 00:15:09.825 He's like I've been telling you who I am. 00:15:09.825 --> 00:15:10.145 Guys. 00:15:10.145 --> 00:15:11.629 I'm the Messiah, I'm the Son of God. 00:15:11.936 --> 00:15:23.966 Verse 26, I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me, the Father, is true and what I have heard from him, these things I tell the world. 00:15:23.966 --> 00:15:31.168 He's telling these people this is who I am. 00:15:31.168 --> 00:15:33.120 You can walk in the light. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:38.111 This is who I am. 00:15:38.111 --> 00:15:47.943 You can walk in the light, but there are some things that prevented them from walking in the light, and I think there are some things that prevents us from walking in the light, which is the second question I want to ask us this morning you think about verse 24. 00:15:47.943 --> 00:15:55.163 He says, therefore I told you that you will die in your sins, but if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. 00:15:55.163 --> 00:16:08.504 Here's what prevented them from walking in the light, from them confronting the fact in their lives that they did not believe and then confronting the fact in their life that they needed Jesus. 00:16:10.975 --> 00:16:24.284 And what sometimes prevents us from walking in the light is there are going to be places in our life that are in darkness, and what we have to do is we have to confront those places in our life that are in darkness, and that's really hard to do. 00:16:24.284 --> 00:16:27.374 Here's what's easier to do. 00:16:27.374 --> 00:16:38.384 What's easier to do is knowing in our life there's some pockets of darkness in our life and justifying those places away and excusing those things and thinking, hey, I'm not really hurting anybody. 00:16:38.384 --> 00:16:42.482 Everybody else is doing that over there. 00:16:42.482 --> 00:16:46.081 It's not really a big deal. 00:16:46.081 --> 00:16:58.442 I just do this over here, like my porn is not going to hurt anybody, man, you know, I know I drink a little too much, but it's not really hurting anybody. 00:16:58.442 --> 00:17:00.815 I know I do this over here, but it's all good, friend. 00:17:00.815 --> 00:17:11.323 Here's what you need to know is you can only experience freedom by walking in the light and you can only experience true freedom by walking fully in the light. 00:17:11.323 --> 00:17:13.527 This isn't a like. 00:17:13.527 --> 00:17:14.736 This is light in my life. 00:17:14.736 --> 00:17:16.018 This is darkness in my life. 00:17:16.018 --> 00:17:20.288 No, it's like we have to walk fully in the light, but it's hard. 00:17:20.288 --> 00:17:33.548 It reminds me of a story Back in 1989, there was a fence that separated some things. 00:17:38.361 --> 00:17:44.468 It separated Czechoslovakia, czech Republic from Germany, and it had been there for decades because of communism. 00:17:44.468 --> 00:17:48.088 As you can imagine, this was an electric fence. 00:17:48.088 --> 00:17:53.009 As you can imagine, nobody crossed over this electric fence Because if you did, you got electrocuted. 00:17:53.009 --> 00:17:55.785 So nobody did it. 00:17:55.785 --> 00:18:02.644 But in 1989, communism fell there and this fence came down and then this became an open field. 00:18:02.644 --> 00:18:04.651 It's amazing. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:19.826 Interestingly enough, there was some deer that lived in this area and the deer had not migrated, literally for decades, for generations, because they were confined to this little area because of the electric fence. 00:18:19.826 --> 00:18:35.531 So the animal nerds I mean the animal experts they wanted to study and they wanted to see are the deer, are they going to migrate, like they're supposed to migrate and experience the full life and everything the deer's supposed to do? 00:18:35.531 --> 00:18:38.374 And they didn't think that the deer would initially migrate because they're supposed to migrate and experience the full life and everything the deer is supposed to do. 00:18:38.374 --> 00:18:41.468 And they didn't think that the deer would initially migrate because they were so used to this little place. 00:18:41.468 --> 00:18:46.306 But they assumed that, over a period of time, that they were going to migrate and do what they normally had done. 00:18:46.306 --> 00:18:52.721 So they thought, once this generation of deer dies a deer lives about 15 years then the next generation will kind of pick up what they should do. 00:18:53.743 --> 00:18:59.105 So, 25 years later, they went and revisited the same group of deer in 2014. 00:18:59.105 --> 00:19:10.113 To their surprise, this new generation it was like second generation from the time that this fence was taken down, none of them migrated. 00:19:10.113 --> 00:19:16.609 None of them would go anywhere, but this one little place. 00:19:16.609 --> 00:19:27.770 The experts genuinely were puzzled, so they spent lots of money, like these researchers do, and they tried to figure out how come they will not migrate. 00:19:27.770 --> 00:19:35.372 And this is the conclusion that they came to these deer were just doing what they had always seen done. 00:19:35.372 --> 00:19:40.140 These deer were just doing what they had always seen done. 00:19:40.140 --> 00:19:45.660 These deer were just doing what they had always done. 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:53.200 And now, generationally, they are not open or willing to go to a place where they can experience freedom, because they're just doing what they've always seen and what they've always done. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:56.328 And I wonder how many of us live that way. 00:19:56.328 --> 00:20:02.551 We just do what we've always seen our friends do we just do what we've always seen our family? 00:20:02.551 --> 00:20:05.047 Do we just do what we always see the world do? 00:20:05.047 --> 00:20:10.682 And we have come to accept it, even though Jesus invites us to walk in the light. 00:20:10.682 --> 00:20:11.063 Why? 00:20:11.063 --> 00:20:13.906 So you can experience freedom. 00:20:13.906 --> 00:20:45.461 Now here's this like it's like this weird ironic thing about having darkness in our life and maybe some pockets of darkness is it's almost comfortable to have this, because when we have these areas, there's like this sense of control, that we have this sense of familiarity, this sense of well, like I can always go and run back to that over there and bringing something into the light and being open with God. 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:46.323 It feels risky. 00:20:46.323 --> 00:20:50.134 It's like why would I actually do that? 00:20:50.134 --> 00:20:52.861 Why would I come to God about this? 00:20:52.861 --> 00:20:54.586 It doesn't make sense. 00:20:54.586 --> 00:20:57.080 I mean, why would I come to God about my pride? 00:20:57.080 --> 00:20:58.503 I'm just right all the time. 00:20:58.503 --> 00:21:02.780 I mean, come on, why would I come to God about my problem with gossip? 00:21:02.780 --> 00:21:06.631 I'm not gossiping, I'm just sharing prayer requests with people. 00:21:06.631 --> 00:21:07.291 I'm sharing prayer. 00:21:07.291 --> 00:21:13.646 Oh, why would I do this? 00:21:13.646 --> 00:21:16.551 And here's what's what I really believe. 00:21:16.551 --> 00:21:27.174 I really believe this that if we will understand how God views us, it actually will give us freedom to walk in the light. 00:21:27.174 --> 00:21:29.705 It's like this. 00:21:29.705 --> 00:21:31.088 This was like game changing for me. 00:21:31.108 --> 00:21:32.070 I want to show you this verse. 00:21:32.070 --> 00:21:33.621 It's in first John, chapter one. 00:21:33.621 --> 00:21:38.829 It says if we walk in the light as he himself was in the light, we have fellowship with one another. 00:21:38.829 --> 00:21:44.483 And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from what's that word? 00:21:44.483 --> 00:21:47.209 It cleanses us from sin. 00:21:47.209 --> 00:22:01.881 So if you've trusted Jesus as your savior, when he died on the cross and he shed his blood, you are forgiven of all of your sin past, present, future. 00:22:01.881 --> 00:22:25.269 So this allows me to say Lord, if you have forgiven me, if you accept me in spite of the dark places, I don't have to live in denial, I don't have to live in struggle, because you don't see me by my feelings, you don't see me by my mishaps, but you see the blood of Jesus and his righteousness on my life. 00:22:25.269 --> 00:22:36.209 And something that's so important to know is that God's view of you is not based on your performance, but on the blood of Christ. 00:22:36.209 --> 00:22:42.102 So think about this. 00:22:42.102 --> 00:22:47.863 2 Corinthians talks about this that now we have the righteousness of Christ on us. 00:22:47.863 --> 00:22:53.403 When you come to Christ by faith, you have been given here's the fancy theological word you've been given imputed righteousness. 00:22:53.403 --> 00:22:54.684 It is you on you. 00:22:54.684 --> 00:23:01.394 So when God, the Father, looks at you, he doesn't see your sin, he sees the righteousness of Jesus on your life. 00:23:01.394 --> 00:23:06.571 So now I know that the Father doesn't define me by those things that I've messed up on. 00:23:06.571 --> 00:23:09.666 The Father doesn't define me by those pockets of darkness. 00:23:09.666 --> 00:23:20.901 He sees me like he sees his son, me like he sees his son. 00:23:20.901 --> 00:23:23.827 So now it allows me to have the freedom because I know he accepts me to bring these things into the light. 00:23:23.827 --> 00:23:24.269 Think about this, guys. 00:23:24.750 --> 00:23:28.224 Edgar last week gave a good message about the woman that was caught in adultery. 00:23:28.224 --> 00:23:30.872 Jesus freed her to walk in the light. 00:23:30.872 --> 00:23:36.692 But in the text there was this step that happened. 00:23:36.692 --> 00:23:38.066 Notice what the verse says in John 8. 00:23:38.066 --> 00:23:40.086 Jesus said neither do I condemn you. 00:23:40.086 --> 00:23:43.690 Go and from now on do not sin anymore. 00:23:43.690 --> 00:23:46.828 He told her I don't condemn you, I accept you. 00:23:46.828 --> 00:23:51.150 So go and from now on don't sin. 00:23:51.150 --> 00:23:53.105 Go and walk in the light. 00:23:53.105 --> 00:23:56.241 Notice the order I accept you Now. 00:23:56.241 --> 00:23:56.986 Walk in the light. 00:23:56.986 --> 00:23:59.477 Notice the order I accept you Now. 00:23:59.477 --> 00:23:59.900 Walk in light. 00:24:00.460 --> 00:24:03.987 Acceptance, then life change and God's power. 00:24:03.987 --> 00:24:08.281 God's acceptance is the power that frees us to walk in the light. 00:24:08.281 --> 00:24:10.145 It's not the reward for doing so. 00:24:10.145 --> 00:24:14.304 Some of us think, man, if I just walk in the light, then God's going to accept me. 00:24:14.304 --> 00:24:18.720 No, god's acceptance is the power that frees us to walk in the light. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.391 It is not the reward for doing so. 00:24:24.401 --> 00:24:33.434 I want to end with a story that's going to show us why it's actually possible to walk in the light. 00:24:33.434 --> 00:24:37.128 We say things here like the gospel doesn't just save us. 00:24:37.128 --> 00:24:43.643 It shapes us, strengthens us and guides us, and what we mean by that is in the gospel. 00:24:43.643 --> 00:24:44.945 We're fully accepted by God. 00:24:44.945 --> 00:24:46.602 So it shapes how we view the world. 00:24:46.602 --> 00:24:49.044 It shapes the fact that we can be honest with God. 00:24:49.044 --> 00:24:53.926 It shapes that we can bring places in darkness that are in darkness out into the light. 00:24:53.926 --> 00:25:08.482 And there's somebody in our church that has experienced the light and the freedom of walking in the light, and I share this story with permission. 00:25:08.482 --> 00:25:14.202 This person spent years walking in darkness. 00:25:14.202 --> 00:25:18.502 They went to church from time to time. 00:25:18.502 --> 00:25:22.383 They knew some things about God, but they made this decision to step into the light. 00:25:22.383 --> 00:25:27.277 This person's name and again I shared it with permission is Rick DeShazo Rick into the light. 00:25:27.277 --> 00:25:29.202 This person's name and again I shared it with permission is Rick DeShazos Rick. 00:25:29.202 --> 00:25:31.048 Rick in the back, rick, raise your hand, let's clap it up for Rick. 00:25:32.915 --> 00:25:34.502 I want to share his story real quick. 00:25:34.502 --> 00:25:40.603 22 years ago he made this decision. 00:25:40.603 --> 00:25:44.218 In fact, he made a social media post this week about this decision. 00:25:44.218 --> 00:25:48.607 He said today is 22 years, no drugs or alcohol. 00:25:48.607 --> 00:25:50.298 Just can't believe. 00:25:50.298 --> 00:25:51.482 God took that away. 00:25:51.482 --> 00:25:53.359 Lived for partying. 00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:56.375 God is good man. 00:25:56.375 --> 00:25:56.676 Guys. 00:25:56.676 --> 00:25:59.806 If that won't excite you, I'm like that's amazing. 00:25:59.806 --> 00:26:03.520 And here's what happened. 00:26:05.474 --> 00:26:06.061 He knew some things about God. 00:26:06.061 --> 00:26:07.074 He knew some things about God. 00:26:07.074 --> 00:26:08.579 He knew some things about church. 00:26:08.579 --> 00:26:10.840 He knew some different things, but he made this hard decision. 00:26:10.840 --> 00:26:13.624 He said, hey, I'm gonna bring this into the light. 00:26:13.624 --> 00:26:16.882 He got honest before God. 00:26:16.882 --> 00:26:18.079 He got honest with himself. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:24.184 He humbled himself and he got some help from other people who had overcome similar struggles. 00:26:24.184 --> 00:26:31.741 He got committed to a life-giving church and built community within that church. 00:26:31.741 --> 00:26:51.594 He started serving others and now, 22 years later, what he's doing is he's filled with joy and positivity and hope. 00:26:51.594 --> 00:26:54.423 He's a welcome team coordinator, leading our welcome tent. 00:26:54.423 --> 00:26:56.702 When that welcome tent doesn't fly away, it's out there. 00:26:56.702 --> 00:27:06.424 And now God is using him to help others walk in the light because he made the hard decision to walk in the light. 00:27:06.454 --> 00:27:09.781 And here's what I encourage you to do, here's what I challenge you to do. 00:27:09.781 --> 00:27:13.980 I challenge you to take a step today to say I wanna walk in the light. 00:27:13.980 --> 00:27:23.404 I unapologetically come before you and say make a decision to walk in the light, because this decision can transform your entire life. 00:27:23.404 --> 00:27:27.422 This decision can be the thing that will give you joy and hope and meaning. 00:27:27.422 --> 00:27:30.391 This is the thing that can use you to change lives. 00:27:30.391 --> 00:27:35.967 This is the very thing that can be the difference in the lives of your family and your friends and generations to come. 00:27:35.967 --> 00:27:42.378 And it starts on a Father's Day in 2025, where we say hey, I'm going to come out of darkness and I'm going to walk in the light. 00:27:42.378 --> 00:27:44.846 I'm not going to minimize this struggle I have with lust. 00:27:44.846 --> 00:27:48.442 I'm not going to minimize this struggle I have with lust. 00:27:48.442 --> 00:27:50.413 I'm not going to minimize the struggle I have with gossip or alcohol or porn or drugs or whatever. 00:27:50.413 --> 00:27:50.595 No, no, no. 00:27:50.595 --> 00:27:56.038 Today, I'm going to choose to walk in the light, and this is what. 00:27:56.038 --> 00:28:05.905 I believe that there can be many, many, many more stories, and there are stories in our church family that are coming up and coming up, seemingly week after week, of people choosing to walk in the light. 00:28:05.905 --> 00:28:07.935 Today can be your day. 00:28:07.935 --> 00:28:09.940 Today can be your day. 00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:11.423 You say, pastor Nate, how do I do this? 00:28:11.423 --> 00:28:13.488 Because it's not lost to me. 00:28:13.488 --> 00:28:14.597 I'm asking you to do something hard. 00:28:14.597 --> 00:28:17.527 This stuff, this ain't easy. 00:28:17.527 --> 00:28:19.693 This is where it starts. 00:28:19.693 --> 00:28:21.156 It starts with us being honest with ourself. 00:28:21.156 --> 00:28:27.488 Where's the place of darkness? 00:28:27.488 --> 00:28:29.551 Where's the struggle that we have? 00:28:29.551 --> 00:28:33.819 Nobody's judging nobody here, but we got to be honest. 00:28:34.861 --> 00:28:39.189 Number two talk to God and or a trusted person about this. 00:28:39.189 --> 00:28:47.788 Having self-awareness and being honest with our ourselves will get us to the place where we realize we need the light. 00:28:47.788 --> 00:28:52.503 But opening ourself up to others will allow us to begin to experience the light. 00:28:52.503 --> 00:28:57.365 Here's a cool thing about this church family here at FCC. 00:28:57.365 --> 00:29:02.903 Yeah, I'm the pastor, but honestly, I just see myself as part of the family here. 00:29:02.903 --> 00:29:07.881 This church has so many incredible people, godly people that you can just talk to. 00:29:07.881 --> 00:29:10.780 I know that because I have done this and I do this regularly. 00:29:10.780 --> 00:29:13.702 Where it's like, there are people that we can talk to. 00:29:13.702 --> 00:29:15.742 This is what the family of God is all about. 00:29:15.742 --> 00:29:21.281 We can just talk to people and love each other and pray for people and not judge one another and just say, hey, let's talk about this. 00:29:21.281 --> 00:29:27.537 Guys, talk to somebody. 00:29:27.557 --> 00:29:29.001 And then, number three, take a step of growth. 00:29:29.001 --> 00:29:30.226 Here's what a step of growth might look like. 00:29:30.226 --> 00:29:32.433 I'm going to tell somebody that I struggle with this. 00:29:32.433 --> 00:29:33.297 I'm going to ask them. 00:29:33.297 --> 00:29:37.135 I'm not just going to tell them this, but I'm going to ask them to keep me accountable by asking me about this. 00:29:37.135 --> 00:29:39.500 Here's a step of growth. 00:29:39.500 --> 00:29:39.961 It might be. 00:29:39.961 --> 00:29:43.657 In my life there's this dark, there's this dark pocket of bitterness. 00:29:43.657 --> 00:29:44.641 Here's my step of growth. 00:29:44.641 --> 00:29:51.079 I'm going to forgive. 00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:53.784 I have this place over here in my life, that man I know. 00:29:53.784 --> 00:29:57.608 When I hang out with those people or I hang out in that place, these types of stuff happen. 00:29:57.608 --> 00:30:01.492 I'm going to take a step of growth. 00:30:01.492 --> 00:30:03.797 I just can't do it anymore. 00:30:03.797 --> 00:30:12.468 Friend, you can walk in the light, and when you walk in the light, you will experience freedom. 00:30:12.468 --> 00:30:13.969 Why? 00:30:13.969 --> 00:30:16.672 Because Jesus is the light of the world. 00:30:16.672 --> 00:30:19.115 Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.