Light into the Darkness

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.319 To be see, to be seated, but if you would like to stand 2 00:00:03.319 --> 00:00:08.349 for God's word, please stand. This is God's word. In the beginning 3 00:00:08.990 --> 00:00:13.669 was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was 4 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:18.149 God, and he was in the beginning with God. All things were made 5 00:00:18.190 --> 00:00:24.059 through him and without him was not anything made. That was made in him 6 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:28.620 was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines 7 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:34.259 in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man 8 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:38.810 sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to 9 00:00:38.969 --> 00:00:44.289 bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not 10 00:00:44.409 --> 00:00:49.049 the light that came to bear witness about the light. The True Light, 11 00:00:49.090 --> 00:00:54.119 which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in 12 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:59.159 the world and the world has was made through him. Yet the world did 13 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:02.320 not know him. He came to his own in his own people did not 14 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:07.230 receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his 15 00:01:07.349 --> 00:01:11.909 name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born 16 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:15.790 not of blood, nor the will of the flesh or the will of man, 17 00:01:15.510 --> 00:01:22.299 but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and 18 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:26.579 we have seen as glory, glory as the only son from the father are 19 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:30.819 full of grace and truth. The grass withers and the flower fades, but 20 00:01:30.939 --> 00:01:53.120 the word of our God will stand forever. You may be seated. Have 21 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:57.799 you been to pepper sauce cave? Of the any of you been to pepper 22 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:00.909 sauce cave? I have one hand. Do you the anybody else know what 23 00:02:00.989 --> 00:02:06.150 pepper sauce cave is? Hey, good, more hands. So you should 24 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:09.669 take a field trip as covenant press to Pepper Sauce Cave. Pepper Sauce Cave 25 00:02:09.909 --> 00:02:15.469 is this mild deep cave on the other side of Mount Lemon. Last Spring 26 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:20.219 Jonah and penny and I took our jeep Cherokee over the top of Mount Lemon, 27 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:22.699 which apparently you're supposed to go the other way because it's less bumpy, 28 00:02:23.099 --> 00:02:28.539 and parked on Mount Lemon highway, which is a dirt road, along with 29 00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:31.569 a bunch of other cars. Got Out of our car and went down into 30 00:02:31.569 --> 00:02:38.210 a ravine past a local film club for a Pima Community college finishing up a 31 00:02:38.250 --> 00:02:45.039 film shoot, and then scurried our way up the dirt and rock and bankment 32 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:52.039 over some tree roots to the mouth of pepper sauce cave and we stepped into 33 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:55.800 the mouth of pepper sauce cave, where it was dimly lit because the sunlight 34 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:02.389 still filtered in to that opening Narthex of a room. But they're in front 35 00:03:02.430 --> 00:03:10.270 of US stood this hole that was about this big into a tunnel that was 36 00:03:10.349 --> 00:03:14.900 very dark, and so we got down are in our hands and knees and 37 00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:17.740 I got down onto my belly as well. We turned on our flashlights and 38 00:03:17.819 --> 00:03:25.900 headlamps and belly crawled into the first real room of the cave and I convinced 39 00:03:27.099 --> 00:03:31.810 my children, maybe as a grumpy adult, to turn off our flashlights. 40 00:03:32.849 --> 00:03:38.689 Jona remind me to me this morning that in that moment we prayed, because 41 00:03:38.729 --> 00:03:45.840 what felt like five minutes was actually probably only about five seconds. The darkness 42 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:51.960 is overwhelming. It's simultaneously heightens our senses and it feels like we can hear 43 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:57.469 sounds from far away, but it tricks our senses, making us feel like 44 00:03:57.710 --> 00:04:02.430 we're going to bump our heads on anything, even though likely it's somewhere far 45 00:04:02.509 --> 00:04:09.389 away. A friend of mine who's in his mid twenties and super adventurous and 46 00:04:09.590 --> 00:04:13.819 recently moved out of Tucson when he found out that we went to pepper sauce 47 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:16.300 cave. Said when you go into the darkness of a cave for the first 48 00:04:16.379 --> 00:04:24.730 time it's weirdly emotional and overwhelming. All of the darkness. You don't know 49 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:28.930 what to do with it. You and I don't like to admit it, 50 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:34.649 but we get overwhelmed, we get afraid and get emotional in the dark, 51 00:04:36.050 --> 00:04:40.839 and for many of us this is what it's been like for the last twenty 52 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:46.879 months, even as we have become more public out of quarantine. That I 53 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:51.439 think we're mostly fully out of quarantine, but the residual effects of all of 54 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:59.269 that isolation, where we felt cut off. Even now still feel isolated or 55 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:04.189 lonely, over overwhelmed in the darkness of anxiety, depression and loneliness and other 56 00:05:04.269 --> 00:05:10.540 ailments. For others of us, the holiday season feels this way as we 57 00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:14.779 remember loved ones that we've lost over the past year or in past years. 58 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:20.649 Others of US come into this joyful season and watch other people celebrate and experience 59 00:05:20.769 --> 00:05:26.370 joy, but we've been experiencing depression or anxiety over the last four months and 60 00:05:27.889 --> 00:05:30.529 we feel even more alone. And then the dark because we can't experience we 61 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:36.040 feel like we can't experience the joy that other people are experiencing. We feel 62 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:43.199 overwhelmed. Others of US feel trapped in some addiction and we feel the shame 63 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:47.439 weighing down on us, pushing US deeper into the darkness, afraid that if 64 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:54.189 we show ourselves to other people, the darkness will overwhelm us. We feel 65 00:05:54.230 --> 00:05:59.069 like we cannot escape. It's in the midst of these overwhelming states that we 66 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:03.300 struggle to feel a sense of hope, a sense of seeing clearly that we 67 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:08.540 will be okay because God is with us and God will take care of us. 68 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:13.259 We feel like we're in the dark, unable to see, lonely, 69 00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:20.769 isolated, overwhelmed. This is what the Bible describes as the human experience, 70 00:06:23.129 --> 00:06:28.129 people walking around in darkness, unable to see, not only because of their 71 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:31.170 own sin, but because of the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of 72 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:36.920 ourselves following post the fall. It's not just that our vision is cloudy or 73 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:41.920 blurry and we just need to get into focus and see clearly and find the 74 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:45.879 right thing. It's like being in the back of pepper sauce cave, which 75 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.550 is a mile back, without any light. But according to the Bible as 76 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:59.029 well. Human beings weren't made to walk in the darkness. We were made 77 00:06:59.069 --> 00:07:02.019 to know and understand things, to clearly make sense of the world. So 78 00:07:02.139 --> 00:07:09.660 we walk around with our whole lives looking for all sorts of things to help 79 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:15.139 us see clearly and the world and make sense and make hope in our lives. 80 00:07:16.329 --> 00:07:19.769 Other voices promised to give us light and make sense of the darkness around 81 00:07:19.769 --> 00:07:26.970 us. For some of us we hear the promise of intellects that if only 82 00:07:27.170 --> 00:07:30.480 studied a little bit more new a little bit more in my field or in 83 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:34.600 my topic or in this particular topic, then life would make more sense and 84 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:42.079 the darkness would feel less overwhelming. Others of us it's a promise of relational 85 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:46.470 connection or physical connection that if we only found the right person to marry or 86 00:07:46.589 --> 00:07:54.230 to date or to be friends with or to spend one night with, then 87 00:07:54.269 --> 00:08:01.459 we wouldn't feel so loneliness in the dark would not feel so overwhelming. Or 88 00:08:01.540 --> 00:08:05.339 promise of careers success that if we could only meet a certain metric or produce 89 00:08:05.699 --> 00:08:11.860 certain numbers, then we would feel like we are worth something in the darkness 90 00:08:11.889 --> 00:08:18.370 wouldn't feel so overwhelming or people pleasing that if we could only do something to 91 00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:24.730 make that certain person of those certain people happy with us, then we could 92 00:08:24.730 --> 00:08:28.720 see clearly the world around us and would feel less overwhelmed in the darkness. 93 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:37.200 Various voices make promises, so we try all these various voices so we can 94 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:41.830 see clearly in the darkness. But all these things that we do, even 95 00:08:41.870 --> 00:08:46.830 in the holiday season, all they do is function like changing prescriptions on our 96 00:08:46.870 --> 00:08:52.669 glasses as we're standing in the back of pepper sauce cave. Even a good 97 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:58.740 set of prescription lens as that fit our eyes perfectly cannot help us see in 98 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:05.940 the darkness. John Proposes that the God who made the heavens and the earth, 99 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:11.330 the God who made all the subject matters that inform every work field that 100 00:09:11.409 --> 00:09:15.090 you're in, every field of study that you're studying right now, that made 101 00:09:15.210 --> 00:09:20.009 all the relationships in this room and all the relationships that you have outside of 102 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:26.879 this room, that made all of the joyful, delightful foods and sensory experiences 103 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:37.440 that we enjoy in the holiday season. That God became a human being, 104 00:09:37.750 --> 00:09:43.029 the God who keeps the World Spinning and yours in my life intact, enter 105 00:09:43.230 --> 00:09:52.269 creation as a human being to bring light to the darkness. When we stop 106 00:09:52.389 --> 00:09:54.899 to think about it, and really stop to think about it, this is 107 00:09:56.019 --> 00:10:01.539 mind blowing. God looks like you and me. The second person of the 108 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.139 Trinity looked like you and me. He wouldn't stand out in this room of 109 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:11.210 seventy people. He was a human mammal who ate food, who breathe are, 110 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:16.970 who gave hugs, who went to worship, who studied a trade, 111 00:10:16.889 --> 00:10:20.759 who had to learn the Bible, who had to learn to read, who 112 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:30.480 learned to speak Aramaic, who also learned other languages as well, who breathes 113 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:35.559 oxygen like the rest of us. He came because God wants a relationship with 114 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:39.350 people. This is what you and I were made for, to live and 115 00:10:39.509 --> 00:10:43.990 relationship with the person who is light. This is what we long for. 116 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:50.259 But according also to the Christian Understanding from the Bible is that human beings are 117 00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:58.059 born into darkness because our first parents rebelled against God and we're plunged into darkness, 118 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:03.019 unable to see rightly the world were God and the world that the rest 119 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:05.889 of us live in, and they brought the rest of US human beings into 120 00:11:05.929 --> 00:11:11.450 that same darkness. It says if our parents hikes into the back of pepper 121 00:11:11.490 --> 00:11:15.049 sauce cave, smashed their lights and gave birth to us. In the back 122 00:11:15.370 --> 00:11:18.799 of pepper sauce cave. We were born into darkness, unable to see, 123 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:24.960 never able to see. But God didn't stop and let human beings hang out 124 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.639 in the darkness. He promised to come, and then he came. Intentionally 125 00:11:28.679 --> 00:11:33.950 entered creation as a human bring to bring light into the darkness. God's plan 126 00:11:35.110 --> 00:11:43.230 and his action was to make rebels into daughters and sons. That's what verses 127 00:11:43.309 --> 00:11:46.899 twelve and thirteen speak to when John says to all who did receive him, 128 00:11:46.899 --> 00:11:50.059 who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 129 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:54.059 who are born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, 130 00:11:54.419 --> 00:11:58.779 nor the will of man, but of God, the only thing that can 131 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:03.690 give light to yours and my darkness and help you and me see our lives 132 00:12:03.809 --> 00:12:09.929 and the world around us as receiving the true light. But also, according 133 00:12:09.929 --> 00:12:13.850 to this morning's passage, we don't easily receive the light. We don't only 134 00:12:13.929 --> 00:12:20.039 live in the darkness, we keep our eyes shut. Not only are we 135 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:24.480 born in the back of a cave, we put our hands over closed eyes 136 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:28.600 or put a blindfold on. John puts it this way. In verse eleven. 137 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:31.389 He says he came to his own as own people did not receive them. 138 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:39.909 But mysteriously, receiving this light becomes something that God does to us. 139 00:12:39.669 --> 00:12:45.019 He came into the back of the cave looking for us, to find us, 140 00:12:46.139 --> 00:12:48.580 and as soon as he gets to our part of the cave we can't 141 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:52.460 help but see the light. Our eyes are drawn to it. John uses 142 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:58.460 the metaphor of childbirth here. In what ways to baby's assists in their own 143 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:03.409 birth? They don't write. There's no amount of saying I'm going to make 144 00:13:03.490 --> 00:13:05.610 sure, I'm going to help my mom out. There's no amount of pulling 145 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:11.049 their selves up by their bare feet, there's no amount of self help, 146 00:13:11.169 --> 00:13:16.559 there's no amount that helps them be born. They are just born and mysteriously 147 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.840 and graciously and weirdly, this is how God makes his children as well. 148 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:26.909 He causes our hearts to open for us to receive him or, to use 149 00:13:26.990 --> 00:13:31.830 the light metaphor, he opens our eyes and shines the dark into the shines 150 00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:37.590 the light into our darkness. We can't help but receive him. And for 151 00:13:37.669 --> 00:13:39.629 those of us who are calvinists in the room, which is most of us 152 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:43.539 in a Presbyterian setting, but probably not all of us. So when you're 153 00:13:43.580 --> 00:13:46.980 like I have no idea what that means, we believe this with our heads, 154 00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:52.340 but it's something to begin to believe it in our hearts that God is 155 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:56.330 so gracious that he speaks into our darkness and pulls us out of the darkness 156 00:13:56.610 --> 00:14:01.690 into His light. So what do we do with this, this claim that 157 00:14:01.769 --> 00:14:07.769 the Bible by the Bible, that God entered creation as the light? I 158 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:13.120 want to propose that we do three different things. We receive the lights, 159 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:18.519 we rest in the lights and we begin to reflect the light as witnesses to 160 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:24.230 the rest of the world. So first we receive the light. God's invitation 161 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:28.789 to us this morning is to receive the reality that you are born and beloved 162 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:33.389 by God. You were made to become God's daughter or son, or you 163 00:14:33.509 --> 00:14:39.179 already are God's daughter or son as a Christian, to be in loving relationship 164 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:43.299 with him. Receive the truth that you are forgiven of the darkness that you 165 00:14:43.419 --> 00:14:48.299 have brought into the world, into your own life and into the lives of 166 00:14:48.379 --> 00:14:52.970 other people, because of sin that you have committed or sin that's in your 167 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:58.889 heart. Some of US know this. We say that we received Christ when 168 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:01.929 we were six, or sixteen or last year. Some of us say that 169 00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:05.970 we never knew a day that we didn't know Jesus, and these are all 170 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:11.519 true. But just like we don't open our eyes once and peppersauce cave when 171 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:18.919 we see the light and then look away, we continually look to Christ to 172 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:22.470 see him shining through the scriptures of where God is at work in His grace 173 00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:28.429 for us. We start to follow after him and trust him, just like 174 00:15:28.629 --> 00:15:31.470 the person holding the flashed light in the cave who helps us locate ourselves, 175 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:37.539 to see ourselves more clearly, to see the bumps that we want a dodge 176 00:15:37.659 --> 00:15:41.940 on the way out and to see that we are okay because he is with 177 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:48.940 us with the lights. Some of US perhaps received Christ and became Christian years 178 00:15:50.210 --> 00:15:54.289 go, but we've put him on the back burner of our life and we 179 00:15:54.529 --> 00:15:56.850 have come to church today, or maybe come to church in the last several 180 00:15:56.889 --> 00:16:02.649 months, curious to engage again, but we feel this sense of shame that 181 00:16:02.769 --> 00:16:04.360 I should have had my life together, I should have kept coming, I 182 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:08.840 should have been bringing my family all along. But just like a rescue worker 183 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:12.960 who comes to the back of the cave looking for somebody who is lost. 184 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:18.070 Doesn't shame the person who has lost. Neither does Christ say shame you. 185 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:23.029 He comes to find you and welcome you and embrace you and say welcome home. 186 00:16:26.029 --> 00:16:30.230 Come expectant to worship for God to show up. When you read or 187 00:16:30.309 --> 00:16:33.860 seeing the scriptures, look for the light of God's truth in His grace for 188 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:40.139 you, not just abstractly, but for you as well. When you're seeing 189 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:42.940 Christmas lights as you drive by, I don't know what you think of them 190 00:16:42.980 --> 00:16:48.289 or not, let the Holy Spirit use that common grace of people being drawn 191 00:16:48.330 --> 00:16:55.049 to the light to stir in your heart this idea that Christ came to bring 192 00:16:55.090 --> 00:17:02.080 light to your darkness because he loves you. Some others of us in the 193 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:07.000 room aren't Christians, but we know that we live in a dark world, 194 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.519 but we haven't been able to figure out the light that shines and make sense 195 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.759 of the world around us with a darkness inside of us. And might I 196 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.990 invite you to believe, or at least consider, that Jesus is the light 197 00:17:19.750 --> 00:17:23.710 that you're longing for who helps you make sense of the darkness of the world? 198 00:17:25.029 --> 00:17:29.269 Or might a at least invite you into further conversations, to open your 199 00:17:29.269 --> 00:17:34.259 mind to that possibility, to continue the conversation with somebody else in this room. 200 00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:37.660 There's people in this room that would love to get commerce. They get 201 00:17:37.019 --> 00:17:41.779 coffee with you, pastor Chelpka or the elders, would love to read the 202 00:17:41.859 --> 00:17:45.609 Bible with you or be in a small group with you, to open God's 203 00:17:45.609 --> 00:17:52.609 scriptures together and wrestle towards the truth so that we together, as human beings 204 00:17:53.130 --> 00:18:00.720 made in God's image, might look to the light together. Not only do 205 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:03.640 we receive the light, we also are called to rest in the light. 206 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:08.160 Particularly those of us who are Christians in the room. I want to encourage 207 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:15.470 you to rest in the light, take a deep breath, a deep breath 208 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.910 of faith. According to this passage and the rest of the Christian scriptures, 209 00:18:19.430 --> 00:18:27.220 the darkness will not and cannot win. It cannot overwhelm you. You might 210 00:18:27.259 --> 00:18:32.099 be tempted to be afraid in the back of the cave, but Jesus, 211 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:37.740 the light will never let you go. The darkness cannot overcome him. Your 212 00:18:37.819 --> 00:18:42.329 darkness cannot overcome him. The darkness of the world cannot over come him. 213 00:18:42.329 --> 00:18:48.849 Jesus will never leave you, nor abandon you in the darkness. We feel 214 00:18:48.890 --> 00:18:52.410 the anxiety and the loneliness in the depression, especially this time of year, 215 00:18:52.569 --> 00:19:00.480 as festivities are high and we feel torn between the two. But lean in, 216 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:08.680 take a deep breath and know that, Jesus, the light will never 217 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:15.109 leave you. If you're feeling pulled down and weighed down by the darkness, 218 00:19:15.990 --> 00:19:18.150 take a small step of courage, call a friend in the room or friends 219 00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:26.619 somewhere else and ask them to remind you of God's grace and truth. They 220 00:19:26.779 --> 00:19:33.180 not rest in the light. We need each other as you make mistakes and 221 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:37.180 you do things that you're ashamed of. He promises to never abandon you. 222 00:19:38.609 --> 00:19:42.529 Those of you who are not Christians, this is what Christianity invites you to, 223 00:19:44.089 --> 00:19:49.049 the secure place, the secure, existential, true real place of being 224 00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:52.160 a daughter or son of the Living God who will never let you go. 225 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:59.640 Take a deep breath of faith. Be reminded that you can rest in God's 226 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.240 love and that nothing else will help you see more clearly in the world. 227 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:10.630 Reflect the light. John the Baptist, a John the disciple, talks about 228 00:20:10.630 --> 00:20:15.750 another John in this passage, John The baptist. John the Baptist was a 229 00:20:15.789 --> 00:20:18.509 witness to the light that says that he pointed people to Jesus. Later on, 230 00:20:19.029 --> 00:20:23.460 he admits personally, but it meets here, that he himself was not 231 00:20:23.579 --> 00:20:27.900 the light. He admitted that he could not rescue people out of the darkness. 232 00:20:29.859 --> 00:20:33.220 He took them by the hand and invited them to look for the true 233 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:37.369 light who would rescue them and help them make sense of the world and put 234 00:20:37.410 --> 00:20:41.890 them into right relationship with God. And just like John The baptist, when 235 00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:45.289 we become daughters, are son of the Living God. When we become Christians, 236 00:20:45.930 --> 00:20:49.119 God invites us, as his children, to invite other people to know 237 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:55.319 and receive the light so that others put can become children of God as well. 238 00:20:55.400 --> 00:21:03.279 We do this in tangilbill ways, through undeserved compassion and kindness. We 239 00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:07.190 also do it through conversation and listening and friendship with non Christian neighbors, inviting 240 00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:14.230 them to places where they can hear God's Truth and grace. We also reflect 241 00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:17.950 it to each other's Christians, because we need each other. This is why 242 00:21:18.069 --> 00:21:26.099 covenant prayers has a whole host of calendar events throughout the year, parties and 243 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:30.819 picnics, filled TRIPS, game nights. This is why Pastor Chopka and the 244 00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:37.369 elders want you spending time together in discipleship and mentorship and friendship, reflecting Christ's 245 00:21:37.369 --> 00:21:41.410 light to each other, not to shame each other, not to outdo each 246 00:21:41.450 --> 00:21:45.410 other, but to remind each other of God's grace and truth, of his 247 00:21:45.490 --> 00:21:52.039 lights, helping us see each other in God's glory all the more clearly. 248 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:56.759 So might I encourage you to text or text message or call someone this week 249 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:03.029 who you know might be having a hard week as they face the holidays, 250 00:22:04.190 --> 00:22:11.789 to encourage them with friendship, to encourage them with the truth of God's grace, 251 00:22:11.869 --> 00:22:17.500 to perhaps even invite someone to your festivities who might be experiencing the darkness 252 00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:25.339 of loneliness. That way, the they might experience the light of God's love 253 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:30.410 through your hospitality. Just like we share the light of our flashlight in a 254 00:22:30.569 --> 00:22:36.730 cave in the back with other people whose lights have burned out through whose lights 255 00:22:37.289 --> 00:22:41.609 are getting dim or feeling dim, we do this to other people in the 256 00:22:41.650 --> 00:22:48.559 world because we have light. We've seen the light. Last spring for maybe 257 00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:56.839 five seconds, my children and I sat in a real physical darkness and it 258 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:02.990 was overwhelming, but we were able to turn on our flash lights and follow 259 00:23:03.069 --> 00:23:10.150 the lights out of the darkness. So often in Christianity, even as Christians 260 00:23:10.390 --> 00:23:15.099 and even at Christmas time, as we are getting consumed by the anxiety of 261 00:23:15.180 --> 00:23:18.700 the times, were tempted to think of Jesus as the light that guides us 262 00:23:19.259 --> 00:23:23.140 out of the darkness, whether it's in our behavior or in our ethics, 263 00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:30.130 or in our policies or in our theologies, that if we only can follow 264 00:23:30.210 --> 00:23:34.369 the light, that will be okay. The sisters and brothers, that's not 265 00:23:34.569 --> 00:23:40.289 the good news of Christianity. If we start to believe that Jesus lights our 266 00:23:40.369 --> 00:23:45.640 way out of the darkness, that we will cleickly despair and get overwhelmed by 267 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:52.000 the darkness of our own efforts. The true good news and the hope of 268 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:59.509 Christianity and Christmas is that the word came to dwell with us. He is 269 00:23:59.589 --> 00:24:02.150 not just some light that helps us see the way out. He is the 270 00:24:02.150 --> 00:24:04.829 light who is with us, shining in the darkness. He is God who 271 00:24:04.869 --> 00:24:11.660 became flesh to be with us. And then this perfect light lived a perfect 272 00:24:11.980 --> 00:24:15.980 life and face the darkness of God's Wrath on the Cross. For us. 273 00:24:18.099 --> 00:24:22.140 He became overwhelmed in the darkness. For us, for our sin, he 274 00:24:22.380 --> 00:24:27.769 entered into the darkness of death for you and for me. But the arkness 275 00:24:27.809 --> 00:24:33.809 of death could not overcome him. He rose from the grave, destroying the 276 00:24:33.930 --> 00:24:40.119 darkness, the ultimate darkness forever. He then ascended to reign at God's right 277 00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:45.680 hand and sent his spirit to be with us. The fact that he is 278 00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:49.640 with us means that we are going to be okay. The spirit of Jesus 279 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:55.670 helps us see that we're not in some claustrophobic cave constantly about to bump our 280 00:24:55.750 --> 00:25:00.589 head, but the we're in a wide open world where he is bringing the 281 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:04.670 light of his truth. As he reigns over all things, you and I 282 00:25:06.069 --> 00:25:11.180 can have courage in the face of everything that we face. That's unknown, 283 00:25:11.339 --> 00:25:17.539 that's UN this scary because if you're a Christian, the darkness cannot overcome you. 284 00:25:18.259 --> 00:25:22.210 It might scare you, it might tempt you or even cause you to 285 00:25:22.329 --> 00:25:26.690 close your eyes for a time, but Jesus is with you and will never 286 00:25:26.769 --> 00:25:30.089 leave you and will never forsake you, and he has made you his daughter 287 00:25:30.170 --> 00:25:37.559 or his son of the Living God and the father, and one day he 288 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:41.720 promises to come in all of his glory to bring light to all of our 289 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:48.160 darkness and dwell with us. Forever and ever. Amen. Will you pray 290 00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:52.109 with me? Father, help us to believe this