Speaker 1: People said amen, amen, john 8,.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: Maybe a better question is when aren't we overwhelmed?
Speaker 1: Right, for some of us, can we just all agree life can be overwhelming.
Speaker 1: If you agree life can be overwhelming, can you give me an amen on three, one, two, three, amen.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we are not alone.
Speaker 1: We are in this thing together.
Speaker 1: Life can be overwhelming.
Speaker 1: We have health challenges, we have family challenges, we got all these financial things, you just name it.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And today we're going to see a really, really, really, really, really important part of living in freedom, and it's well.
Speaker 1: It's by doing four words walking in the light.
Speaker 1: Can we all say that together, ready?
Speaker 1: Let's say it together, ready, walking in the light.
Speaker 1: What does that even mean?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're like that sounds really churchy.
Speaker 1: Here's what walking in the light is.
Speaker 1: Walking in the light means living in alignment with God's truth, god's character and God's presence.
Speaker 1: Now can we just be honest and say this is difficult, especially the world that we live in?
Speaker 1: In fact, here's a trivia question for you.
Speaker 1: I think we'll all get 100% the world that we live in.
Speaker 1: Is there more light in this world or is there more darkness in this world?
Speaker 1: There is more, and if you're a follower of Jesus, you can feel this where you want to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Maybe we feel a pull from people, maybe we feel a pull just from the world in general.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: There's something in me that's like this happened to you Go, get them back, they deserve that.
Speaker 1: There's like something in me where it's almost like there's this like internal battle at times.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys can relate to that.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: This takes us to John, chapter 8, and I want to show you guys a picture to help understand the context of John 8.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: They would put it right in the temple.
Speaker 1: It was actually a lot bigger than this.
Speaker 1: The one they would have was like 75 to 85 feet tall, the smart scholar people say.
Speaker 1: And what they would do at the Feast of Tabernacles is they would light this thing every night.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, this 75-foot menorah brought light to everything and everybody around it.
Speaker 1: You say, why in the world would they do that?
Speaker 1: That's just weird.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: You say why wouldn't they light it on the last night?
Speaker 1: Because on the last night everybody's packing up and going home.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: Light of the world.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: It says you will never walk in darkness.
Speaker 1: Now here's what this doesn't mean.
Speaker 1: This doesn't mean that you won't mess up.
Speaker 1: In fact, how many of you have ever messed up at least one time in your life?
Speaker 1: Raise your hand, keep your hand up.
Speaker 1: If you messed up last week, keep your hand.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Now, let's think about this for a second.
Speaker 1: It says that we'll walk in light.
Speaker 1: Let's think about this.
Speaker 1: There's a couple questions I want us to ask this morning.
Speaker 1: And here's the first one, as we think about light, what does light do?
Speaker 1: And I actually want to hear from you guys you think about light.
Speaker 1: What does light do?
Speaker 1: What's that up there somebody?
Speaker 1: It shows everything.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: It shows things.
Speaker 1: So light reveals.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what would happen if, at the end of the service, we said all right, you're dismissed, service is over.
Speaker 1: Dads are running for the snack pack station.
Speaker 1: They didn't realize it.
Speaker 1: And there's the bottled Cokes too.
Speaker 1: Those are the good ones.
Speaker 1: And I say OK.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, the media people.
Speaker 1: They just want to mess with us.
Speaker 1: So they just turn all the lights out and it goes dark.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine the mayhem that would happen?
Speaker 1: We'd be running to people.
Speaker 1: I'd be like falling off the stage and break my neck.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: It allows us to see reality.
Speaker 1: That's what light does.
Speaker 1: Somebody else, what does light do?
Speaker 1: Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1: It dispels darkness, that's so good.
Speaker 1: So it's like this light dispels the darkness, the darkness goes away.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 1: Somebody else, what does light do?
Speaker 1: Shows the way.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: It lights the path.
Speaker 1: It shows us where to go.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 1: Somebody else, what about light?
Speaker 1: What does light do?
Speaker 1: You guys are like Pastor Nate.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to be doing all the talking and the thinking.
Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to be doing the thinking this morning.
Speaker 1: It wakes you up in the morning.
Speaker 1: It gives energy.
Speaker 1: It grows things.
Speaker 1: Y'all know.
Speaker 1: You know this.
Speaker 1: Nothing can grow in the darkness.
Speaker 1: Like plants, they can't grow at dark.
Speaker 1: Here's something.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And you think about all the things we're saying that light does.
Speaker 1: This is what Jesus did.
Speaker 1: Jesus got up.
Speaker 1: He said hey, I am the light of the world.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty strong claim.
Speaker 1: I am the light of the world, I do all of these things.
Speaker 1: There were some Pharisees nearby, really kind of stuck up religious people, and this is what they said about this.
Speaker 1: Verse 13.
Speaker 1: They said to him verse 13, you are testifying about yourself.
Speaker 1: Your testimony is not valid, even if I testify about myself.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: You are judging based on the standards of the day.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying Like I am not judging based on these.
Speaker 1: This is what everybody else does.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Even in your law it's written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.
Speaker 1: I am the one who testifies about myself and the Father who sent me testifies about me.
Speaker 1: Jesus is testifying, he's teaching about himself.
Speaker 1: This is what is the difference between Jesus and every other religious teacher, or Jesus and every other religion out there.
Speaker 1: Christianity is that Christianity is based on the person of Jesus, not on teachings of a religious leader.
Speaker 1: This is why Jesus was testifying about himself.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: That's what Christianity is.
Speaker 1: It's not Jesus plus these things over here, it's Jesus plus nothing.
Speaker 1: It's Jesus plus nothing else.
Speaker 1: It is only Jesus.
Speaker 1: And if I were to ask you a question, if I were to say, when you think of Christianity, what comes to your mind?
Speaker 1: If it's anything less than Jesus or anything more than Jesus, then your view of Christianity has been distorted.
Speaker 1: Here's the challenge with that.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: We're like what we hear this happen.
Speaker 1: We're like that's Christianity, guys?
Speaker 1: No, it's not what Christianity is.
Speaker 1: It is the person of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And it could be that the things, the obstacles keeping you from Christianity aren't even Christianity at all.
Speaker 1: It is the person of Jesus, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
Speaker 1: Can somebody say amen, amen, that's Christianity.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: And I was like no, you can't talk to me at all.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just kidding, I didn't say that.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you really asking me this right now, bro?
Speaker 1: Like let's go right now.
Speaker 1: In the backyard by the pool I was like, dude, it's Jesus, it's Jesus.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Guys, jesus testified about himself, because Christianity is about Jesus.
Speaker 1: And verse 19,.
Speaker 1: Here's what these people asked him.
Speaker 1: They asked him where's your father?
Speaker 1: You know neither me nor my father.
Speaker 1: Jesus answered If you knew me, you would also know my father.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying hey, I'm the Messiah.
Speaker 1: The way to know God the Father is through me.
Speaker 1: If you know me, you know the Father.
Speaker 1: Y'all don't know me, so y'all don't know the Father.
Speaker 1: Two people that were super religious Verse 20,.
Speaker 1: He gets a little more in their skin.
Speaker 1: Check this out.
Speaker 1: He spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple.
Speaker 1: Nobody sees them, because his hour had not yet come.
Speaker 1: Then he said to them again I'm going away, you will look for me and you will die in your sin.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: He says where I'm going, you can't come.
Speaker 1: The Jews verse 22,.
Speaker 1: They said again he won't kill himself, will he, since he says where I'm going, you cannot come.
Speaker 1: Verse 23,.
Speaker 1: You are from below, I am from above.
Speaker 1: You are of this world, I am not of this world.
Speaker 1: Verse 24,.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: He tells them that three times over a period of four verses.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: What do you do?
Speaker 1: You compare yourself to somebody worse than you.
Speaker 1: Right, you can be a good person, however you define it.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: They were super righteous on the outward, but they did not believe, they did not trust.
Speaker 1: It takes faith in Christ for us to be saved.
Speaker 1: Faith in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone.
Speaker 1: Titus, chapter two, tells us we're not saved by our righteousness, but by grace.
Speaker 1: So, verse 25, they ask him this who are you?
Speaker 1: And he says this.
Speaker 1: I wonder if he was exasperated when he says this.
Speaker 1: Exactly what I've been telling you from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: Have your kids ever asked you something?
Speaker 1: And you're like man.
Speaker 1: I told you this five times already.
Speaker 1: He's like I've been telling you who I am.
Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 1: I'm the Messiah, I'm the Son of God.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: He's telling these people this is who I am.
Speaker 1: You can walk in the light.
Speaker 1: This is who I am.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Here's what's easier to do.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Everybody else is doing that over there.
Speaker 1: It's not really a big deal.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: I know I do this over here, but it's all good, friend.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: This isn't a like.
Speaker 1: This is light in my life.
Speaker 1: This is darkness in my life.
Speaker 1: No, it's like we have to walk fully in the light, but it's hard.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a story Back in 1989, there was a fence that separated some things.
Speaker 1: It separated Czechoslovakia, czech Republic from Germany, and it had been there for decades because of communism.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, this was an electric fence.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, nobody crossed over this electric fence Because if you did, you got electrocuted.
Speaker 1: So nobody did it.
Speaker 1: But in 1989, communism fell there and this fence came down and then this became an open field.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And they didn't think that the deer would initially migrate because they were so used to this little place.
Speaker 1: But they assumed that, over a period of time, that they were going to migrate and do what they normally had done.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: So, 25 years later, they went and revisited the same group of deer in 2014.
Speaker 1: To their surprise, this new generation it was like second generation from the time that this fence was taken down, none of them migrated.
Speaker 1: None of them would go anywhere, but this one little place.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And this is the conclusion that they came to these deer were just doing what they had always seen done.
Speaker 1: These deer were just doing what they had always seen done.
Speaker 1: These deer were just doing what they had always done.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And I wonder how many of us live that way.
Speaker 1: We just do what we've always seen our friends do we just do what we've always seen our family?
Speaker 1: Do we just do what we always see the world do?
Speaker 1: And we have come to accept it, even though Jesus invites us to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: So you can experience freedom.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: It feels risky.
Speaker 1: It's like why would I actually do that?
Speaker 1: Why would I come to God about this?
Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, why would I come to God about my pride?
Speaker 1: I'm just right all the time.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, why would I come to God about my problem with gossip?
Speaker 1: I'm not gossiping, I'm just sharing prayer requests with people.
Speaker 1: I'm sharing prayer.
Speaker 1: Oh, why would I do this?
Speaker 1: And here's what's what I really believe.
Speaker 1: I really believe this that if we will understand how God views us, it actually will give us freedom to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: It's like this.
Speaker 1: This was like game changing for me.
Speaker 1: I want to show you this verse.
Speaker 1: It's in first John, chapter one.
Speaker 1: It says if we walk in the light as he himself was in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
Speaker 1: And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from what's that word?
Speaker 1: It cleanses us from sin.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: So think about this.
Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians talks about this that now we have the righteousness of Christ on us.
Speaker 1: When you come to Christ by faith, you have been given here's the fancy theological word you've been given imputed righteousness.
Speaker 1: It is you on you.
Speaker 1: So when God, the Father, looks at you, he doesn't see your sin, he sees the righteousness of Jesus on your life.
Speaker 1: So now I know that the Father doesn't define me by those things that I've messed up on.
Speaker 1: The Father doesn't define me by those pockets of darkness.
Speaker 1: He sees me like he sees his son, me like he sees his son.
Speaker 1: So now it allows me to have the freedom because I know he accepts me to bring these things into the light.
Speaker 1: Think about this, guys.
Speaker 1: Edgar last week gave a good message about the woman that was caught in adultery.
Speaker 1: Jesus freed her to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: But in the text there was this step that happened.
Speaker 1: Notice what the verse says in John 8.
Speaker 1: Jesus said neither do I condemn you.
Speaker 1: Go and from now on do not sin anymore.
Speaker 1: He told her I don't condemn you, I accept you.
Speaker 1: So go and from now on don't sin.
Speaker 1: Go and walk in the light.
Speaker 1: Notice the order I accept you Now.
Speaker 1: Walk in the light.
Speaker 1: Notice the order I accept you Now.
Speaker 1: Walk in light.
Speaker 1: Acceptance, then life change and God's power.
Speaker 1: God's acceptance is the power that frees us to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: It's not the reward for doing so.
Speaker 1: Some of us think, man, if I just walk in the light, then God's going to accept me.
Speaker 1: No, god's acceptance is the power that frees us to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: It is not the reward for doing so.
Speaker 1: I want to end with a story that's going to show us why it's actually possible to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: We say things here like the gospel doesn't just save us.
Speaker 1: It shapes us, strengthens us and guides us, and what we mean by that is in the gospel.
Speaker 1: We're fully accepted by God.
Speaker 1: So it shapes how we view the world.
Speaker 1: It shapes the fact that we can be honest with God.
Speaker 1: It shapes that we can bring places in darkness that are in darkness out into the light.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: This person spent years walking in darkness.
Speaker 1: They went to church from time to time.
Speaker 1: They knew some things about God, but they made this decision to step into the light.
Speaker 1: This person's name and again I shared it with permission is Rick DeShazo Rick into the light.
Speaker 1: This person's name and again I shared it with permission is Rick DeShazos Rick.
Speaker 1: Rick in the back, rick, raise your hand, let's clap it up for Rick.
Speaker 1: I want to share his story real quick.
Speaker 1: 22 years ago he made this decision.
Speaker 1: In fact, he made a social media post this week about this decision.
Speaker 1: He said today is 22 years, no drugs or alcohol.
Speaker 1: Just can't believe.
Speaker 1: God took that away.
Speaker 1: Lived for partying.
Speaker 1: God is good man.
Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 1: If that won't excite you, I'm like that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And here's what happened.
Speaker 1: He knew some things about God.
Speaker 1: He knew some things about church.
Speaker 1: He knew some different things, but he made this hard decision.
Speaker 1: He said, hey, I'm gonna bring this into the light.
Speaker 1: He got honest before God.
Speaker 1: He got honest with himself.
Speaker 1: He humbled himself and he got some help from other people who had overcome similar struggles.
Speaker 1: He got committed to a life-giving church and built community within that church.
Speaker 1: He started serving others and now, 22 years later, what he's doing is he's filled with joy and positivity and hope.
Speaker 1: He's a welcome team coordinator, leading our welcome tent.
Speaker 1: When that welcome tent doesn't fly away, it's out there.
Speaker 1: And now God is using him to help others walk in the light because he made the hard decision to walk in the light.
Speaker 1: And here's what I encourage you to do, here's what I challenge you to do.
Speaker 1: I challenge you to take a step today to say I wanna walk in the light.
Speaker 1: I unapologetically come before you and say make a decision to walk in the light, because this decision can transform your entire life.
Speaker 1: This decision can be the thing that will give you joy and hope and meaning.
Speaker 1: This is the thing that can use you to change lives.
Speaker 1: This is the very thing that can be the difference in the lives of your family and your friends and generations to come.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to minimize this struggle I have with lust.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to minimize the struggle I have with gossip or alcohol or porn or drugs or whatever.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to choose to walk in the light, and this is what.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Today can be your day.
Speaker 1: You say, pastor Nate, how do I do this?
Speaker 1: Because it's not lost to me.
Speaker 1: I'm asking you to do something hard.
Speaker 1: This stuff, this ain't easy.
Speaker 1: This is where it starts.
Speaker 1: It starts with us being honest with ourself.
Speaker 1: Where's the place of darkness?
Speaker 1: Where's the struggle that we have?
Speaker 1: Nobody's judging nobody here, but we got to be honest.
Speaker 1: Number two talk to God and or a trusted person about this.
Speaker 1: Having self-awareness and being honest with our ourselves will get us to the place where we realize we need the light.
Speaker 1: But opening ourself up to others will allow us to begin to experience the light.
Speaker 1: Here's a cool thing about this church family here at FCC.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm the pastor, but honestly, I just see myself as part of the family here.
Speaker 1: This church has so many incredible people, godly people that you can just talk to.
Speaker 1: I know that because I have done this and I do this regularly.
Speaker 1: Where it's like, there are people that we can talk to.
Speaker 1: This is what the family of God is all about.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Guys, talk to somebody.
Speaker 1: And then, number three, take a step of growth.
Speaker 1: Here's what a step of growth might look like.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell somebody that I struggle with this.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask them.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Here's a step of growth.
Speaker 1: It might be.
Speaker 1: In my life there's this dark, there's this dark pocket of bitterness.
Speaker 1: Here's my step of growth.
Speaker 1: I'm going to forgive.
Speaker 1: I have this place over here in my life, that man I know.
Speaker 1: When I hang out with those people or I hang out in that place, these types of stuff happen.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take a step of growth.
Speaker 1: I just can't do it anymore.
Speaker 1: Friend, you can walk in the light, and when you walk in the light, you will experience freedom.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because Jesus is the light of the world.
Speaker 1: Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.