You Are the Light: Shining in a Dark World

[Music] so friends we're living in extraordinary times some would say we're living in the most turbulent times some would say these are tough times and it's not just in one part of the world it's not in some other country or some other place right in our own hearts we're going through some stuff i look around our community in which i

live and my heart is infuriated every time another pedophile is caught prosecuted and imprisoned is happening right in our own community something happening in the darkness has been exposed and it's happening right here it's it's happening when i hear stories of racism that exists right in our own community just this past week hate crimes in new york ten people dead because of hatred because of evil and unless we think because we don't see it it doesn't exist it's because it's in darkness there are white students in our community calling students of color the n word and then people tell me no this doesn't

exist in our community addiction abounds in our community it's consuming lives it takes people to places they don't want to go they hit rock bottom they lose it all pornography is destroying an entire generation with no prejudice to age from the young to the old it's a reality that has slipped into every device into every home into schools suicides are higher than they've ever been before they're at epidemic levels college students high school students middle school students elementary students are committing suicide as the way out to what they're

feeling and experiencing there's so much habits like this the storms are brewing and it's dark you know storms are not light they they they're dark they're you don't see what's coming next it's this dark place that we live in and all over the place we see this and paul an author wrote to timothy nearly 2 000 years ago he says in the last days in the end times he said for people will be lovers of self they'll be lovers of money they'll be proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy people will be heartless unappeasable slanderous without self-control they'll

be brutal not loving good think about that not loving good in fact good will be called evil evil will be called good they'll be treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god i just want to stop there doesn't that sound like today that was written 2 000 years ago we need a solution to what's happening not only in our hearts but in our homes and in our communities in our nation and around the world and that solution is found in the person jesus christ we're studying the life of jesus through the book of mark one of 66 books you find in the bible and mark wants us to know that jesus is no ordinary man he is the hope of the world he is the salvation of our souls

jesus changes everything not some things everything and what mark does is he races quickly through the life of jesus and he tells us about the deeds of jesus what does jesus do if you really want to get to know someone look at what they do what do they spend their time on who do they hang out with where do they go and mark forces the reader to look at the life of jesus to quickly race through jesus life and to see who would he talk to who would he hang out with and we see his priorities and mark does not focus so much on jesus teaching as he does on the life of jesus

and we pick up today if you brought a bible turn to mark chapter four mark chapter four and although mark primarily focuses on the works of jesus if you want to learn more about the teachings of jesus turn to a book like john he does have two sections of this book where he spends a little more time on the teachings of jesus and it's in the section we're looking at today mark chapter 4 and also in mark chapter 13. and we start off in mark chapter 4 verse 1 it says and again he that's jesus began to teach beside the sea jesus loves the water i love anybody that loves the water there's something about the water he constantly found himself on the water didn't matter when it was or where it was he he was beside the sea and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he got

into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land i want you to gather the scene jesus gets in a boat he goes out just a little bit from shore there's a large crowd on the shore listening to jesus who's in the boat they want to hear what he has to say mark tells us in verse 2 and jesus was teaching them many things in parables parables are often short stories these are fictional stories that jesus would use to teach people an an ordinary lesson in life he was speaking to the common man of his day he didn't speak over their heads he didn't speak around them he wanted to make sure that those who were hearing him would understand what he was teaching so he used these parables these

fictional stories to to point to a spiritual truth and in these parables he he wants the listener to find themselves in the story and it's in this place the mark tells us he's teaching them many things in parables and in his teachings he said to them listen everyone shall listen listen what do you think jesus wants them to do come on listen now you only state the obvious truth when you don't think someone's going to listen how many wives have said to their husband listen i wish that wasn't true but we can get relentlessly real church how many parents have said to their kids listen jesus god is in the flesh and

he knows that what he's about to say you're going to miss it he knows that the hearers may miss something so simple he's not going to speak in profound terms he's going to bring it down to a level in which we can learn and he says listen and he starts off this lesson this the sermon starts with the word behold everyone shall behold behold that's one of the favorite words used in all the bible behold a sower went out to sow jesus captures our attention and whenever you use the word behold you want to hear to understand what's about to be said is big this is big b hold that word is found in the first chapter of the bible and is found in the last

chapter of the bible the word behold is used more than a thousand times throughout the bible genesis chapter 1 verse 29 we read and god said behold i have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food behold our god is a great giver we have a god who gives behold he's gonna give you every tree that has fruit with seeds he's a multiplying god that's my god he doesn't give you some he gives you in multiplication oh just think about the potential of one seed what can come from

one seed many trees what can come from many trees much fruit you might only see a seed but god says be hold i've given it to you i'm not giving you some i'm not giving you a few i'm giving you all behold our god is a gift-giver that wants to multiply fruit in your life now you fast forward to the last chapter of the bible and we read out of jesus own mouth he says be hold i am coming soon jesus says that phrase three times in the last chapter of the bible what do you think he wants us to hear he's coming soon not someday not a day to sleep nor slumber jesus keeps his promise and anytime you see three in the bible it's the number of

perfection the number of completion he is coming soon he always keeps his promises lest we get distracted and deceived on the things of this day jesus wants us to know behold i'm coming soon bringing recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done god himself knows everything he's omniscient which means he knows everything about you and one day when you come before god he's going to say what did you do with what i gave you what did you do with the multiplying seeds that i gave you what did you do with with all that i've done for you what did you do with the gifts i've given you what'd you do with the story i gave you what did you do behold and jesus goes on and he he tells a

story about a sower with seeds now now gardening doesn't sound like a behold story does it it's like your grandma your aunt says behold let me tell you about planting seeds it doesn't sound so exciting but jesus already prefaced this story by saying listen i know you may not think this is exciting i know you may not think you need this but listen behold a sower went out with seeds and he's talking about this garden it's got all these seeds and he says these seeds don't fall on the same soil there are different surfaces and he goes on to explain the different surfaces there's a hard surface that the seed falls onto some seed falls but never gets to take root because the bird comes and snatches the seed before it ever goes into the soil then he talks about some

seed that falls among the thorns these are the weeds that you don't even want to pull because they have thorns on them and so by the time they start growing they get choked out before they bear fruit but then some see jesus as falls on good soil and jesus goes on to explain this he's not just talking about farming or gardening he goes on to explain the seeds are the word of god so the word has gone out and the bible says that faith comes from hearing so the word goes out and if you want to have faith in god you need to hear the word of god the word of god has gone out but not every heart will receive it the same way the surface in the story is reflective of our hearts jesus wants you to find yourself in this story where is your heart today some hearts are hard like a rock and

when that seed falls on the hard rock it can it can take root but it doesn't go very deep because of the hardness of what's in the heart and when the sun comes out it scorches the plant before it ever gets to bear fruit jesus tells us that a bird comes and snatches the seed the seed is the word of god jesus says the bird is satan satan does not want the word of god to go in your heart the devil is real and anytime god speaks to you he wants to steal what god's doing in your life he wants to rob you of the opportunity to become who god wants you to be satan is a thief he wants to steal god's word before ever even takes root in your life still jesus says some seeds take root and it looks like they're doing good

until the weeds start choking it out he says that's the worries of this world anybody got something they could worry about today i mean the economy the housing market forget about that worldwide pandemic we all just been through you got something to worry about anybody got family that's enough to worry about i just there's plenty to worry about jesus said if you allow those worries to come into your life they're going to choke you you're you're going to miss the potential of the fruit in your life if you allow worries to be greater than god and then he says there's this other soil and that soil is good soil that seed not only takes root but it bears

fruit now jesus uses numbers and i've never been good at numbers but these are simple numbers 30 60 a hundred fold the potential it looks so small oh but the potential of breaking forth through the dark ground getting out of that dirt because you weren't buried you were planted and all of a sudden when you realize your purpose and you see that sun you thought you were in darkness but god was doing something greater and all of a sudden you grow and there's some growing pains and there's some things coming out of your life but those are branches and those branches are going to bear fruit god's doing something greater 30 60 100

full time but you could imagine but that's when the word of god meets some good soil unless you miss it again listen behold the soil is your heart so jesus transitions from the illustration of seeds and soil and verse 21 he he transitions and he and he said to them is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand for nothing hidden except to be nothing is hidden except to be made manifest nor is anything secret except to come to light if anyone has ears to hear let him hear and jesus said to them pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use it will be measured to you and still more will be

added to you for to the one who has more will be given and from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away now isn't this just jesus he can transition stories like he wants to he's the master storyteller there are seeds and there's a lamp how do those things connect will one multiply and one shines when you have the word of god it's going to be multiplied in your life and you're no longer going to be the same it may look like a dark world but now you have purpose you are to be a lamp you you are to produce light mark 4 21 and jesus said to them is a lamp brought in to be under be put under a basket or under a bed nope it's meant to go on a stand none of y'all buy a lamp and put it

under your bed because you know what's under your bed as either dust bunnies or the boogie monster one of the two some of us put stuff in there like nobody's ever gonna see but god knows everything that's not the place you put a lamb nobody wants to see what's under your bed you buy a lamp to bring light now the purpose of light is to dispel darkness it's that simple light always triumphs over darkness every time light is victorious over darkness there's yet to be invented a lamp that you can bring into a light room to make it dark it cannot happen no one's ever done it but when you bring a lamp into the room it can get rid of darkness are you

tracking with me here it's really clear the purpose of a lamp is to produce light but jesus warns us that some lamps are not doing what they ought to be doing the lamp here represents your life but some lamps they have a basket over them i mean maybe it looks like the basket should be there the basket represents your business a basket is what you would carry home what you bought from the store a basket is what you would you would carry in your business to go from one place to another a basket represents business so for year you it could be your career for you it could be your home for you it could be your school this represents your business and for many people they put their business above the light we live in an age where

so many have not professed their faith in their workplace because they're worried about how others would receive it i've heard it said and maybe you've even said in your heart or out loud listen listen i i'm a christian but i know that this could be offensive to some so i don't want to offend anyone at work so you put a basket over the light of your life i don't want to offend anyone i i know today that many people aren't christians and so i don't know if i say i'm a christian and i say that there's an exclusive way to heaven i'm i don't know how that's going to come across i might not be loved i might be hated i don't know what that's going to look like so we put the basket over the light of our lives now the problem is when there's a basket over the light we don't even know

there's a light there it just looks like a basket you have been defined by what you do not what god's done in you and jesus said is that the point of a basket is that the point of your life are you meant to be defined by what you do in life should you be defined by your school by your business or what you do in your life maybe you're meant for more than that so the basket represents your business the bed represents we know what we do in a bed we sleep it represents sleep laziness apathy in the scriptures sleep is often associated with dead with death

so there are many people that claim to be christians but you're spiritually dead you could say one thing you could say you've got the light but the light's under your bed and that's not where the light belongs you're not meant to be apathetic or lazy or spiritually dead you're meant to shine so when we when we take this basket off we look and we say well there's a bulb there but it's not on and jesus said is isn't the light meant to is it meant to shine isn't it meant to illuminate isn't it meant to show us what was already there light is meant to to do what needs to be done i mean how many all have hit

something in the middle of the night when you go to go to the restroom the older you get the more often this happens come on am i the only one come on men over 40 help me out here you see if there was light there if you if it was some illumination you wouldn't stub your toe you wouldn't hit the wall you wouldn't you wouldn't bump into things it would be different if you could only see what was already there but for for so many in our generation and the generations before us we've compartmentalized christianity we've made it a culture and we've said well you can have jesus on sundays you can have jesus when you do church events but listen we can't bring jesus into politics we can't bring jesus into the workplace we certainly can't bring jesus into the schools oh let's see where else can't we bring jesus maybe into our friendships let's not bring jesus into

sports let's just take jesus out of those things so what we're going to do is we're going to put a basket over this and maybe maybe some light will shine through just a little bit maybe the world will see what's inside of me maybe but really what the world sees is the basket they don't get to see the light and meanwhile what the whole world is doing is the world is shaping what we do the world is shaping who we are the world is shaping what morality is the world is defining what truth is the world is saying what we should put our hope in the world is saying what what you're made for but in reality the light comes from the light you don't get this light because of the family you're born into you don't get this light because you do enough you don't get this light from going to church

you get this light from jesus christ and meanwhile for decades and generations the church stands back and we hide underneath the bed and we put a basket over our faith and the world comes out and says i'm coming out of the closet i'm defining who i am and after a while there's no more coming out of the closet because it's normal and we teach our kids what normal is and it works its way into the workplace and the government legislates morality and it goes out into the entertainment industry and jesus says listen it's time for you to step out of the closet it's time for you to come out on from underneath the bed it's time for you to remove that basket and bring this light to the world that what you have is the truth oh but some would say i still am worried

i'm going to offend someone i'm not sure i want to engage in that here and you have reasons you will offend when you say there's one way to heaven you will offend when you say there's one truth you will offend someone will say pastor here's the problem i don't know enough about the bible this is a big book and if i shine my light someone's going to ask me questions i don't know and i just encourage you today one of the best theological answers you could say is i don't know but god's big enough let's learn together you don't have to hide the light and we're going to see that in just a moment but there's a warning of jesus later in the book of mark chapter 8 verse 38 he says for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and

sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels god is real we have bought into the lie of the darkness that somehow darkness prevails this is the lot of life that god just gave me this and this i just got to deal with this i've got to put up with this i was born into this family this is the generation in which i live this is how it's always going to be and jesus speaks through his word and says that's not true you were born for such a time as this there is no accidents it might look tough out there but these are extraordinary times to shine your light jesus is real

and he is the commander of angel's armies and one day you're going to see how real god is and one day when you say you know what i believe in you more than anything else god's gonna say well done you've been faithful with little i'm gonna entrust you with much but there are people that are playing games and jesus warns us in matthew chapter 25 they're going to church they're doing things in jesus name and one day jesus said i don't know you you know what jesus wants from you to know you he's not asking for duties he's not asking for religion he's asking for a living relationship that his life would be inside you jesus said in john 8 12

he spoke to them saying i am the light of the world not some parts of the world but for the world whoever follows me jesus said will not walk in darkness but will have the light of light so if you have jesus you have the light now jesus says in the same chapter while i'm in the world the light is in the world but one day he's leaving the world so where does that light go he gives it to you that by believing in him you have god himself the holy spirit the light is inside of you and it might just look like a spark right now it might look small right now but jesus says even if it's small it can be multiplied you just get some other lights with some other lights and you know what happens

it gets brighter you're not meant to do this alone you're not meant to go into the dark world all by yourself good luck you're going to do this solo now you're not meant to do that we're meant to do this together and if jesus is the light now the holy spirit is inside of us and we have the power to do what needs to be done jesus expounds on this idea and what's been called the sermon on the mountain starts in matthew chapter 5 and after going through all these blessings jesus says you're the salt and then he says in verse 14 you are the light of the world a city on a hill cannot be hit him now when you're driving in the middle of the night and you're in timbuktu you know like you're on i-5 in california driving for three four hours and you just think man this is like there's nothing for nowhere and then all of a sudden you come up against the city you all know what i'm talking about

okay maybe eastern oregon you drive in eastern oregon just feels like you're in the middle of nowhere and out of nowhere you start to see some lights out there what are those lights those are street lamps out in the streets those are lights that are on houses those are lights that are on businesses and jesus says listen you can't hide a city in the middle of the night that light's there and there's nothing you can do about it jesus says if you are the light of the world i need you to be in the streets even in the dark i need you to be in your homes even if it's dark i need you to be in the businesses even when it's dark you will not be hidden he goes on to say this nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to the whole house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your what good works and

give glory to your father who is in heaven this is war but you do not fight like the enemy you fight like the light of life so the enemy comes in with anger you shine with kindness the enemy offends you you shine with forgiveness oh the enemy says look at all the bad things that are happening on this earth oh you shine and say god gave the church to be the solution for the hope of the world for the hungry for the thirsty for those who are in prison shine jesus shine through your church let the world at your work say what's different about you i don't you don't talk like everybody else you don't make jokes like everybody else they all tell you why because you

shine jesus doesn't say i want you to be dull and hide your life under a basket you show the creativity of the creator it's time for the church to rise up you don't have to be afraid of humor just use godly humor you don't have to be afraid of adjectives just use godly adjectives you all know what i'm talking about construction workers i'm just i'm just saying we have the potential is that too much judgment lawyers how about that listen listen right here right here watching online watching wherever you are right here in this room think about this in hospitals

schools coffee shops grocery stores construction sites all over the world right here in this room we could shine light do you see this potential your co-workers may not come to church but they they will look at you and they will wonder what's inside of you why are you why are you changing now jesus makes a statement here after he's already told us to listen verse 23 says if anyone has ears to hear let him hear just by a scientific pull how many of y'all have ears just you got here you were born with them and jesus has proven a point like listen i know i've been talking about gardening i know now i'm talking about lamps i know some of y'all are getting distracted

because i know in about 2000 years there's going to be the most distracted society ever in history who will not even be able to receive such simple things like a lamp so it's like he's asking you just a gut check here are you checking your instagram you're on your facebook right now twitter your mind starting to think about what you're gonna have for lunch she said you got ears to hear hear this this is really important this is what you're made for anyone who has ears to hear let him hear because there's a warning jesus is making it clear in his teaching you will be responsible when jesus writes to the church he warns them in revelation chapter 2 verse 4 i have this against you he's going to hold this against the church that you've abandoned the love you had at first he doesn't hold against them it's not

that you're not doing enough it's not that you're not going to church enough i just want you to love me jesus said that's the greatest commandment of all the commandments love the lord is what god wants you to prioritize your life to do love god because he loves you and jesus said remember therefore where you have fallen remember this isn't what it's about it's not about doing church it's not about being christian it's about knowing jesus so he says repent change your thinking turn to me and do the works you did at first if not jesus said i will come to you and i will remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent if you're not loving god you're not fulfilling your purpose and god says i don't want lamps like that out there lamps that say they represent me but they're not shining

so church if we're not if we're not loving god that means we're not being loved by god he removes the lamp stand and jesus said again in verse 24 and he said to them pay attention to what you hear oh jesus knew how distracted we would be he knew that there would be students listening to me today saying ah this preacher's preaching too long it's not about the preacher it's about the word of god pay attention to what you hear remember he already said listen he already said to the one who has ears to hear let him hear but now he says pay attention to what you hear here's here's why it's so important this is the principle of multiplication with the measure you use it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you not because

you've done something good but now you've heard the word of god the word of god is multiplying in your life so the more time you spend with jesus and you love the lord the more time you hear the word of god let me tell you you cannot stay the same you are changed i'm not just talking about being born again i'm talking about being transformed and becoming more like jesus and the more you have that the more you want it and today i just beg you to know that i'm not asking you to do more i'm asking you to be in the presence of jesus that you want more of jesus so that he can multiply in your life because the reality is if you don't take jesus seriously for the one who has moral be given but for the one who has not even what he has will be taken away my friends god chose you

to represent him today that's a high calling he didn't say someone else will be the light he said you are the light and i know this world is dark i know it can be discouraging but we have everything we need to be the light of the world today listen this is not new just go to the bible remember pharaoh anybody remember pharaoh pharaoh pharaoh come on pharaoh was a bad dude but for every pharaoh god's going to rise up of moses to deliver that generation you remember goliath you all remember goliath he was a big dude he was a giant that's darkness imagine goliath shadow

ain't nobody want to go against little goliath but i'll tell you who did the underdog it was a young person that said i believe in the lord god almighty i'm not going to allow that giant to intimidate my generation so for every goliath we got to know god's going to raise up an underdog he's going to raise up a young person and say i'm standing against evil because my god is for me and if he's for me who can be against me does anybody know who jezebel is oh she was a wicked woman she wanted to kill babies she says babies don't matter get rid of them you don't want you can have all the sex you want but we don't want to have all the babies we want jezebel was a wicked woman and for every jezebel we need an elijah to stand up call forth lightning from heaven and say there is a truth babies matter to god

i don't care if you go do whatever you want with sex but i'll tell you god had a plan and a purpose there's no mistakes with god god is for the underdog listen listen you are alive for such a time as this to be the life you're not meant to hide you're not meant to shrink back you're not meant to hold these things back this has been god's plan from the beginning in the first book of the bible the first chapter in the opening lines genesis chapter 1 verse 3 and god said let there be light and there was darkness no no no come on come on if god said it you can believe it because when god says it it happens when god said light there was light this is amazing because when the lord

says you are the light come on you've got to receive it you've got to believe it that what god said is still true today in the psalms in psalm 119 verse 105 it says your word is a lamp unto my feet it's a light for my path now this is before jesus was born so before jesus was born what they did is they they took the word of god and said god you direct us not the gods of these other nations not our emotions not the things that other people are doing god we want you to direct us we want you to be our life but now that we have jesus it's not just the word that lights the way the the light is in your heart it's in your life now god didn't get rid of the word because according to john 1 1 in the beginning was the word that was jesus so this entire bible actually points us to jesus the

light this is why you got to get in this book the devil does not want you to be in the bible if you're wondering why is it so hard to get in the bible why is it so hard to say the bible because the devil does not want you to get to know this book but the more you study it the more you pray and say god would you speak to me through this would you teach me would you show me the application for my life would you show me who you are we start praying those prayers when you read the bible all of a sudden things that never made sense make sense like they've never been before i've been following jesus 28 years i'll read the same story and all of a sudden it illuminates it's like a light and i'm like i've read this before but now it's got deeper meaning i mean i've preached this before but now it's got deeper meaning and all of a sudden i see that god wants to work in my life but i know there's there's some still

here saying man pastor you're not being realistic i'm going through some trials it could be cancer it could be family problem it could be divorce it could still be addiction it could be still something in your life and i'm here to tell you what the word of god says even though i go through the valley of the shadow of death some translation so even though i go through the valley of the shadow of darkness valleys are dark because the mountains put a shadow in the valley and here's what david says even though i'm in this valley even though i should fear i will fear no evil why do i fear no evil in the darkness because you are with me and even though i might go astray even though i might start to freak out your rod and your staff they comfort me that's because god's gonna discipline you and at first it's gonna hurt

but then you realize god is for me and if he's for me who can be against me because david says just a few verses later he says surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and i shall dwell in the house of the lord for how long come on forever dave is saying this one day i won't be in the valley one day there'll be no darkness one day where i used to fear looking over my shoulder one day where i used to look for my enemy now i look i see goodness chasing me now i look this way and it's mercy chasing me now i look this way it's still goodness behind me now i try to run and mercy's still chasing me because one day i get to be in god's house and god's house not like any other house because according to the bible god's house listen to this in revelation 21 23 it's like a city some of you all say i moved away from the city that's why i moved to oregon i don't like graffiti i don't like gangs

i don't like traffic i'll tell you the city of god has no bad things in it it's nothing but good it's going to be great there's going to be lots of people and there's no need for sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of god gives it light and it's lamp do you know what the lamp is in heaven it's the lamb that's a beautiful picture of jesus christ it's a picture of jesus as a sacrifice that he did what needed to be done so you can go to heaven he was the last and great sacrifice he died once and for all for all sin because that's exactly what sin is is darkness and the devil wants you to keep darkness in your heart but when you believe in jesus christ that light eradicates darkness it forgives all your sins in revelation 22 verse 5 we read a night we'll be no more in heaven there'll be no shadow no darkness anywhere there'll

be no need for light or lamp or even the sun for the lord god will be their light and they will reign forever and ever i know we're not there yet this journey will be difficult and there there will be some dark days you know what happens next in this story a storm when you have jesus in your life it does not mean the absence of storms it just means the storm won't last forever jesus is going to get you through the storm we're in some storms right now this is no time to shrink back this is no time to hold back from growing in your faith this is time to shine this is time to take action this is time for the students at their school when they hear racism to stand up and do what's right

this is time for us to acknowledge in our workplace what evil is and what righteousness is if you lose your job for i want you to know i know the one that can give you a new job uh nowhere in the bible did it say this life will be easy following jesus may i just proclaim today if you follow jesus it's going to be hard we don't say that enough we bought into this myth that if you follow jesus his favor is going to pour so much upon you you're going to have no struggles everything's wide open doors you're going to get more money we we we think that god's going to multiply comfort but let me tell you comfort is often not where you grow you know where you grow don't you it's through some pains

it's through some struggles it's through some valleys one day though it's gonna be over and god is gonna make all things right and we get to be with him forever until then the last scripture i want to share with you is paul writing to the church and he says for one time you were darkness but now you are light in the lord so walk that's a principle for live as children of light listen whoever you are today if you have darkness in your heart it could be sin it could be depression it could be something generational that was passed on to you from your parents if you have that we're going to deal with that right now for some of you you need to surrender your life to jesus christ you need to fully say yes to jesus

you've heard about jesus but you have not been walking with jesus and it's time for you to say my life is no longer my own i want the light of life if that's you today i'm going to ask you to be bold right where you are with every eye open i'm just going to ask you you put your hand up right now and just say i'm surrendering it to jesus i don't care about the people around me i'm getting rid of this darkness i want the light i'm just saying yes to jesus right now would you just raise your hand right where you are i want you to be bold praise god so proud of you anyone else bold today you're saying i need jesus praise god there's no age limit to this you don't have to be born into the right family it doesn't matter how young or old you are is there anyone else here today you say yes to god this is a posture of surrender you're saying yes yes i need the light in my heart right now i need jesus i'm done living in darkness

i'm done being hopeless today you're going to get hope in jesus christ anyone else just be bold and just throw a hand up right now see it's not your hand raised it saves you it's jesus and you're saying yes to jesus anyone else praise god praise god he loves you so much he always has and he always will anyone else see we often think that in the darkness there's the absence of of light which which is true but the reality is what jesus has done is to do the supernatural the light stepped into the world so that we would know you would no longer live in helplessness or hopelessness so right where you are would you pray with me lord i give you my life i surrender my all i no longer want to

live in darkness i give you everything every area of my heart i give to you there are no secrets with you god everything will be made manifest you will make it all known and today we claim the promise of your word there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus we receive that today that god when you expose what was already there you get rid of it and you replace it so today we say remove bitterness and replace it with joy we say remove anger and replace it with patience oh god we say remove unforgiveness and replace it with your love that forgives us so that we can forgive others god we just say have your way in our lives i pray for revival in this room that god

all it takes is one may we step forward and be brave may we be courageous may we be willing in a generation of darkness to say no our god is the light may we point people to the way the truth and the life lord help us in gentleness and kindness to be more like you jesus help us to to bring down racial barriers help us to bring down gender barriers help us to not allow the devil to define those things in this world but lord i just pray today in the mighty name of jesus you would do that through your church so that when you come we would be like a bride that's ready to be with you forever oh god may we be a light this is shining bright filled with oil a picture of your holy spirit holy spirit fill your church today i pray oh holy spirit we can't do this without

you we fill us up lord baptize us today make us more like you i pray in jesus name amen amen well friends this this is this is what it's all about if you made a decision to follow jesus you don't do this alone let us know if you made that decision there are cards in the seat backs fill out one of those you take those cards and you put it in a box by the exits there's going to be a prayer team right over here if you're experiencing anything that needs prayer medically relationally financially maybe today you made that decision to surrender you all to jesus go over and get some prayer today that prayer team will link their faith with yours and i believe that god answers prayer

but you've got to ask for it we're going to respond to god through one song if you're able would you stand to your feet don't rush out of here give your heart to god lord we thank you we give you our hearts we sing to you we say lord you be the king of our heart you be the light of our hearts lord you take your rightful place in jesus name amen