Submitted to the Light

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

May God bless the reading of His word. Would you pray with me? Lord, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word. I pray that you would help us to listen to you, to understand what you're calling us to, how you want us to live, the next step you want us to take, how you want us to just come before you. It's your name that we pray. Amen. We are continuing in our series, Life Submitted, and we're gonna be, in our series of Life Submitted, we're gonna be in Ephesians five and Ephesians six. And so we're just kind of moving slowly through these verses. And last week we did Ephesians five, one through seven. And the first two verses in that Ephesians five and six kind of mishmash that whole thing. The first two verses really do set off what the rest of the chapters are about. Ephesians five, one and two says, therefore be imitators of God, if you love children and walk in love

as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. So last week we discussed how our lives submitted to the Lord, it means that, it means two things. It means that we play an integral role in other people coming to God. It doesn't mean that we bring people to God, okay? We don't have that power. But it means that as we are submitted to God, as we kind of sacrifice, that word sacrifice to God is a literal sacrifice by fire. So as we do that, as we climb on the altar, as we are a living sacrifice like Romans 12, one and two says, it means that we, part of that is that we play an integral role in people coming to God, that God blesses that in some capacity. It's not something that we control us on a valve, we turn on and off, but it is something that just as we are faithful and obedient to submit to the Lord, that He will bring people to Himself.

And that's exciting, that's actually really, really cool. Sometimes we get overworked about how we're gonna evangelize a certain way, how we're gonna show the gospel a certain way. And that's good, like let's be trained, let's understand how to do that. But in the end, we can rest on God's desire to bring people to Himself, right? In the end, we don't control what people believe or don't believe. In the end, we can sacrifice in faith, knowing that God will be faithful to do what God's gonna do. So it means that we play an integral role, it also means that there are things in our lives that need to burn away, okay? There are things in our lives that need to burn away. Last week we talked about sexual perversion, kind of generally, that's what verses three through seven are about, just this idea that's gonna really hurt you. It's really gonna take you down. And if you're interested in that,

you can look at our sermons. We have our sermons on Spotify. We have them through our website. It's worth a listen to kind of talk about it. Especially if you were not here last week and you have young sons, it would just be real helpful for you, I think. Especially moms, even dads, it would just be helpful for you to kind of listen, hear that, walk that through before the Lord, okay? This week we're gonna see both of these working again as scripture, now in verses seven through, I think it's through 15, seven through 14. We are, we're gonna be kind of working through scripture describing a life in Christ that strains toward goodness and it strains toward transparency. Okay, so kind of these dual strains going on. It says, it describes this life that is submitted before the Lord and that that life includes a straining toward goodness, we'll explain that in a minute,

and a straining toward transparency, okay? And the metaphor that it uses, it describes this life as light. Light, it says that our lives are light. Let's just let scripture talk here. Ephesians five, eight, and nine. It says, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. Normally, in scripture, we don't see this. Normally in scripture, we hear something about walking in darkness or walking in light, okay? In Ephesians two, walking in darkness. First John one, walking in the light. So here, it's talking about how we are, it's saying that the substance, our substance is light in the Lord, which is weird, and that should throw us off just a little bit, but it is not incorrect, right? Actually, we believe scripture's true.

And so what is it saying? It's saying that following Jesus actually changes our DNA to make us good, okay? There are three problems with that that I wanna just hit very quickly, and you can kinda see them in the scriptures. The three problems with that is that we don't feel good, okay? We don't feel like we're hitting tens every day, okay? We don't feel good. So then how is Jesus changing our spiritual DNA to make us good when we don't feel good? Also, it moves very slowly, so it's not something that we can kind of keep up with like week to week, like, oh, I'm better this week than I was last week, okay? So it's hard, it feels like this, okay? So we don't feel good, we're not hitting tens, and some weeks we're hitting eights, and some weeks we're hitting twos, or some weeks we're at nines, you know. Sometimes you get bad weeks, okay, it happens.

And the other problem with this, the last problem with this, is that it must come through discernment or through testing, which is frustrating. And honestly, it takes a little bit of reworking of kind of the way that we normally all experience life as 21st century American people in Berlus in Texas, okay? We are not used to having to rummage through things, having to search, having to wait. We are used to the algorithms knowing all of our preferences and putting them before us, even before we think of them. I was speaking to my wife yesterday about,

I said, you know, if you want Christmas algorithm, right, if you want your phone to start showing you things that you really want for Christmas, you need to like have this really overt conversation with everybody that you know about all these things that you want for Christmas, so that your phone, which is listening, can then give you the algorithm that you want and give you the Christmas presents that, so it's like hacking your phone's algorithm, okay? We're not used to discernment, we're not used to taking out the shovel and having to dig and having to work, okay? That's not what we're used to. Three problems. We don't feel good, it moves slowly, and it works through discernment, okay? So let's work through all of these. Even though we are good, okay, we are light and Lord. If you have said yes to following the Lord, if you walk with the Lord, it doesn't mean you're perfect,

doesn't mean you're obedient all the time, doesn't mean, but if you are a Christian, if you have said yes to following the Lord and you are working toward that endeavor, okay, then what Scripture is telling you right here and many other places is that you already are light. You already are good, which is weird because we don't feel it, okay? What you see in Scripture, and we really don't have time to go all the way into this, but what you see in Scripture is what is called in theology circles the already not yet tension, okay? The already not yet tension. In other words, you are already good, but you are not yet good. It's weird, okay? Both are true, both are true. So in Christ, we are good, but we are also becoming good. In Christ, we are finally free, but we are becoming free also. We are fully born again, and we are still growing into that new life. Martin Luther captured this extremely well

in his letters to the Galatians, lectures on Galatians, excuse me. Here's the quote, it says, this life is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not, excuse me, all does not gleam with glory, but all is being purified. This is what Martin Luther is talking about is maybe the kind of the big thrust, one of the big thrusts in the book of Galatians, and we also see it here in Ephesians whenever it says that we are light, unqualified. In the process, in this process of becoming what we are, even though we don't feel it, it is something that is happening to us. We don't feel good, but good is being grown in us. How, you might ask, well that's where the slowly comes in. It is not quick, it is not,

spiritual growth is not just like up and to the right. Spiritual growth is just this winding path. I mean, it is fraught with trouble and beyondering and frustration, I mean like the children of Israel in the wilderness is most of our spiritual life and development, okay? It's not something that just follows ordered steps all the way through, okay? And I know some of you type A's, you're really annoyed that I just said all that, but it's totally true. I'm not trying to just annoy you. It is completely true. We slowly become these things. If you look at verse nine, it says, it says, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. So we are slowly becoming, as we are light, it's weird, but now we're talking about fruit of light. Which is strange. All that's trying to describe is the fact that we are light and we grow things. By being light, we grow things.

Because we already are what we are. We are light, we are good. Then the fruit of that life is gonna be things that are good and right and true, okay? So how does this happen? And it keeps coming up in the book of Ephesians. We talked about this in two, Ephesians two. We talked about that in Ephesians four. We talked about it several times. It's putting off the old and it's putting on the new. It's putting off the old, putting on the new. And where you get before God and you ask him to renew your mind consistently. And some days, your mind does not feel renewed. And some days, your mind feels totally renewed, okay? But it's not based on how you feel. It's the Lord being faithful. Whenever you get before him, putting off the old, putting on the new, you serve, you sacrifice, you pray, you listen, you do all these things in submission to God and in that process,

in that process, mysteriously somehow, you become good and right and true. Good is just to give small definitions here. If we're gonna talk about being good, this is just positively benefiting other people. That's what it means to be good. You're positively benefiting others. To be right, if you are right, you have upstanding moral character, okay? If you are true, you are in accordance. You say and do things in accordance with the way things are, you are true. We could summarize this at our lives, in effect, to become more noble or more honoring, right? We're just gonna go with good at this point, but there's a lot of synonyms that kinda water up here as we're talking about what kind of life that is. And so when we say we become more noble, when we say like in Christ, you are light, but you're also becoming more good, right, and true, it means that we want to be because we know

that God will use those things to benefit other people. Let me, that was a little confusing. Let me say it again. Your desire to become more noble, right, more good, right, and true, more noble, more honoring, your desire will be because you know that God is going to use that in other people's lives. There is a way to try to be good, right, and true to simply shame other people, okay? God does not honor that process. If all you're trying to do is be better than or writer than or truer than, that's not what the Lord's going for. That's not what he's gonna build in you, okay? I understand the tidal wave that I'm up against when I say those things because, man, you can look online, you can have a conversation with a coworker, you can do, so much effort goes into looking better than or writer than, okay? When you watch political video X and they talk about your opponents,

your political opponents, and all they do is just dunk on them the whole time, talk about how stupid they are, talk about, you know, just how could anybody believe, blah, blah, blah, okay? That, that's not good for your soul. You wanna feast on that? Okay, but you know who's gonna be really horrible to be around? You, because you're gonna be dunking on so many other people, right? You're just gonna be waiting for them to be wrong and showing how dumb they are, and you're like, oh, oh, you believe that? Oh, that's stupid, and here's why, you should totally know that, you should totally, okay, listen, it is, it's so addictive to feel right,

to feel justified, it is so addictive to be morally superior to other people, to have that feeling. You talk about dopamine, I mean, that is a rush. When you feel morally superior to other people because they're dumb and you're not, because you have this exclusive information and they do not, that feels great. Listen, the effect on your soul is the same as like going to murder somebody. The effect on your soul is the same as having an affair. The effect on your soul is that it is rot, and it will eat you from the inside out, and when you, before you realize what's happening, it'll be too late. There is a way to try to be good, simply to shame other people, and this slow process is difficult to grasp, especially at first. Look, if you've been walking with the Lord for less than a year, okay, I mean, this is just for you, everybody else can listen, but this is just for you, it is difficult to grasp.

This slow process is difficult to grasp, especially at first because when people begin following the Lord, there's this thing in their head, and it's fine, there's this thing in their head that there's gonna be some jumpstart, some jolt, some like immediate pole vaulting over all of their previous problems, and you know what, initially, yeah, I mean, it feels great, dude, it feels great. I've spoken to many people, you know, like first week of following the Lord, it's like, how you feel, I feel great, you know, they're just so, yeah, take on hell with a water pistol, yeah, okay, they're just, they're excited, and that's good, that's good.

However, sooner or later, what you end up dealing with are all of these old life consequences that are coming home to roost. All these choices that you've put off, all this deferred maintenance, right, on your life, and when that happens, that's such a big bump, that's such a big jolt back, because not only are you having to deal with the fact that you thought everything was gonna be great and you can pole vault all that stuff, that you never had to worry about it again, that it was never gonna affect you, not only are you having to deal with that kind of setback emotionally and spiritually and mentally, but now you're also having to deal with the problem itself, and that is, that's a rude awakening, that is painful for people. If you know somebody who's just starting to walk with the Lord and they go through a process like that, I would just say, handle them with kid gloves.

They're gonna say and do things they don't mean, they're gonna be really frustrated. They're gonna think that God was supposed to work a certain way and he's not working that way, and they're gonna say things like, this wasn't supposed to be how it's supposed to be, and I mean, it's going to be frustrating. And so if you were walking with somebody through that, I would just say, man, just be ready, because they're gonna be annoyed, on a very deep level, and they're gonna think they're owed something and they're not getting it, okay?

That is a huge problem whenever Jesus is changing our DNA, whenever he is making us good, whenever he says that we are good, we are like, it's going to feel like God's plan for us is dumb, and that he's delaying. It is not that, but it will feel that way, okay? So three problems, it doesn't feel good, sorry, we don't feel good. It is a slow process, and there's one more part about discernment that we can look in verse 10.

Ephesians 5, 10, we're talking about walking as children of light, so walk as children of light and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. So we become good and true and right, we become good as we discover, as we take the shovel out and dig, as we rummage through those things, and that phrase there is interesting, try to discern. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's not a dare, so if it sounds like a dare, maybe it's not exactly what it sounds like, but it is to say, yeah, attempt it, figure it out. Go forward without knowing what exactly you're going to find, try to discern what the will of the Lord is. Romans 12, too, actually speaks to this pretty well. It says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. This is a lot of stuff that we've been talking about here.

And that by testing, you may discern, or test, or try, or figure out what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect, okay? Try to discern what the will of the Lord is. Now, when you try to map this whole thing out, I mean, I don't know if any of you are a fan of process maps. This guy, listen, I love me a good old process map. Some of you HR people are like, yes. Everybody else, you're like, what? A process map is just this way that just puts you through, you know, like, you know, it brings you to a decision. If it's yes, it goes one way. Sometimes it's called the decision tree, okay? To build that whole thing out is virtually impossible. However, I do wanna help you with some practical discernment. I told you last week Ephesians five and six is super practical, and so I will continue in on that. Okay, let's talk about discernment. How do we discern, okay?

I actually have steps for you, okay? I don't have some of you just got super jazzed. We get steps. Okay, practical discernment, here's what to do. And we're gonna list them here, and they're gonna be in order, and it's all that, if you wait till the end, you can take a picture of it, it's fine. If you wanna write it, go ahead, it's cool, whatever. Okay, this is not groundbreaking stuff, by the way. This is not some secret knowledge. This is just out of scripture. I'm just trying to process it with you for you, some practical discernment. In prayer, first step, in prayer, ask. I know that seems real dumb, but it is often overlooked. If you need to figure out a problem, you should ask for wisdom. If you can't see around an issue, you should ask for perspective, right? I know that sounds way dumb, but it often goes overlooked. When people are frustrated with stuff,

and sometimes I just talk them through it, and I'm saying, okay, what have you prayed about? Well, I've just asked God to fix it. Just kind of general scream at the sky, don't do this, this bad, I want good life. Like something, some kind of rudimentary prayer like that. Okay, what Jesus is calling us to in the midst of that is to begin a conversation, to begin a dialogue over this. And I tell people this all the time, your problem that you're going through, whatever mound problem, mountain problem, whatever that is, in your head, what you think that you need is the solution to that problem. I'll give you an example. My wife and I, we just bought a car, okay? Big deal, we bought another car, we needed another car, we bought another car.

Well, let's just say, let's just for the sake of argument, let's just say we were really fretting over that, right? And we really couldn't agree, and we were really kind of, oh, I don't know what to do, and it's just back and forth for weeks, you know, just killing us a little bit. Well, in that struggle, in that struggle, my mentality can become, God, I need you to solve that problem.

I need a new car, well, new to me, okay? We've got to use cars, it's fine. I need a car, okay? I need a car. And in my head, in my prayer, in my spirit, everything, everything that I'm kind of visioning right there is just car. All I can see, car. Fixed problem, God, need car, okay? Seriously, that's how I'm, right? That's how you can pray, right? You get so, but look, God is using the car to bring you closer to himself, to bring you more to be a blessing to other people, to bring you into his plan. Because God sees past the car, right? Like, hopefully, I can't see past the car, but God can see past the car. And that car is a way for me to grow in my relationship with him, to trust him more, to be more effective in his kingdom, to meet people that don't know the Lord, to be brought into a new phase of whatever the Lord is calling me into, that as I am kind of working through this discernment

of should I buy this car or that car, and all this, that I don't get tunnel vision on car. For you, it's not a car, it might be something different. And for you, all you can see is that. All you can see is need a different job. All you can see is need this conflict to resolve. All you can see is need a career. All you can see is need whatever. Whatever that thing is, whatever you got tunnel vision on, it's not bad that you're praying about it, obviously. Please pray about it. But there's so much more there than just the thing you're praying for. As you pray, ask. Ask for discernment to see what the Lord sees. Ask for perspective, ask for wisdom. And James says you have not because you ask not. Ask in prayer, ask, step one. Step two, in receiving, identify the voice. In receiving, identify the voice. When you pray, and even when you don't pray, you're gonna hear voices inside your soul.

Now that, some people bristle at that thing. Me saying that, that being true, that, it's fine. What we know from scripture is that the Lord speaks to us. Audibly, not, it's fine. Sometimes audibly, most times not. But that the Lord isn't the only one speaking to us. Right, there's a couple of different voices to kind of weave through. So, here's just a couple of telltale signs. If that voice is accusing you, name calling, then that voice is the enemy, okay? We got three voices, by the way. First voice, enemy. So, if the voice says something like, I can't believe you did this again.

Probably the enemy. I mean, it's kind of a dead giveaway. If you got a name calling in there, like loser, liar, idiot, you got anything in there like that, probably the enemy. God's not really in the name calling, honestly. That's just not kind of how he vibes. If that voice in the accusation, it points you to like other people with disapproving, like look, they're laughing at you. Look, they're disapproving of you. That's the enemy, that's the enemy, okay? So, identify the voice. Second thing, it could also be your flesh, okay? If that voice is completely self-soothing, that's your flesh. Because you know what your flesh wants? Comfort, okay? Your flesh wants so much comfort, so your flesh is gonna tell me, like tell you like, I'm valuable, I'm worth it. They don't know what they're missing out on. I got this. Look, self-talk is fine, it's fine, but it can't save you.

It can't heal you. It can't do any of that. It might help you like, I don't know, get over the yips in like your golf game or something, but it's not gonna be something that's gonna heal you. It's just your flesh talking to you. It's just like looking in a mirror, trying to tell yourself that you're great, okay? It's kind of hollow, actually. So we got the enemy, we got the flesh, we got God. If the voice is reminding you of the truth, if as you pray, you are reminded of scripture, that's a good sign, if you're reminded that God has a plan, God has a plan for you, and that you're not trusting it, repent. That's where people get tripped up a lot, is that accusation and conviction can sound really similar. So accusation is, you're an idiot, conviction is, you did something wrong. Those aren't the same thing. They feel similar, but they're not the same thing, okay?

This thing of like, you're dumb, you're never gonna amount to anything, can't believe you did it again, but that's all accusation. But over here, it's, hey, God has a plan for you, you messed up, it's time to repent, it's time to come back, that's the Lord. Those are two different things. The Spirit wants to speak in this situation, so listen, the Lord is gonna say things like, like, Jesus has promised that I'm gonna have trouble and that there's gonna be a way out, right? That when the Lord speaks to you in the middle of you trying to discern something, you are going to, as you dig, you are going to dig up rocks of hope. You're gonna dig up kind of ancient truth and you're gonna remember what's true. It's like rediscovering something all over again. You're gonna unearth that and you're gonna say, oh, okay, okay. That's what I'm not believing right now, I need to believe that, okay?

So in prayer asked, in receiving, identify the voice third, in action trust. You need to listen to what's true and you need to act on it knowing that God has got it. Knowing that God has got it, discernment is not just knowing, it's acting on what is true. It's not just knowing, it's acting on what is true. And this last one, it might be the most ignored and or important part, this last one, in community, listen and review. Listen, if you feel like,

if you feel like you're, I don't know, second string, third string Christian, right, like if you feel like you're just like, ah, I don't know if I got this, you know. First of all, that's normal, everybody feels that way. Second, the people that have been feeling that longer are pretty valuable to you because they can tell you things like, I felt like that for 50 years and here's what I do with it, right? I got some of you great saints, you're nodding your head, bless you, you're doing it. That's good, there are people, there are people in our church that have been walking with the Lord for decades and you've been walking with the Lord for not decades. It would be helpful for you to ask their advice, to listen to what they tell you, right? It would be helpful for you to be in some kind of community where you can hear honest opinions about something that you feel, right?

How often does that happen? You say, I feel this way, right? And you're kind of trying to interpret what's happening and you have a friend that comes and tells you, oh hey, remember this, remember what's true? And you're like, oh yeah. And you know what, like in that moment, don't cry that they're not validating your feelings, okay? Your feelings are great, they're fine. In fact, your feelings are like an alarm system. Your feelings can tell you when something's off. That's great, nothing wrong with that alarm system. The alarm system can't fix a darn thing. It can't stop an intruder. Alarm systems just signal something's wrong and sometimes they're not super clear. But when you feel that, right, you need to remember things that are true that you're not believing. You need to dig, you need to go to the Lord in prayer and say, I need some perspective on this.

In community, you can listen and you can review. This is what it means to try to discern what the will of the Lord is. It doesn't mean that God is holding out on you. Rather, it means that He is inviting you to pick up a shovel and discover things that you have forgotten or things that you didn't know in the first place. And all these things that you consider obstacles, that I consider obstacles, getting a new car, getting a new job, helping us with our children, like helping us with our spouse, helping our marriage, helping our, look, I've been through all those things, right? I'm probably gonna go through all those things again in some capacity.

All of those are occasions to bring to the Lord. They're not just problems to solve. God's not in it for you to have an efficient life. God's in it for you to look more like Him, to bless other people, to be a part of His kingdom. Those are two different paths. And so when we discuss straining toward goodness, this is not, again, this is not gritting our teeth and trying really hard. It means that we sit with the Lord and we ask and we listen and we discover and we discern and we talk with community and we ask. And in this process, putting off and putting on, we become what we are, which is good. Our heart's desires are slowly changed. This is straining toward goodness and this is how God interacts with us. This is what prayer is like, trying, searching, asking, poking, yelling if you have to. Now we need to see straining toward transparency. I don't have a ton of time, so I'm gonna move quickly.

Ephesians five, 11 through 12. So this is kind of the other part about being light here. It says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret. If you're a light in the Lord, part of your calling is exposing darkness. Now, to be exposed feels way more like a threat than a comfort, okay? Like if somebody tells you, hey, I'm gonna expose you.

Okay, not going to bed well that night. That's not gonna be fun, like what do they have on me? It just sounds a lot like a threat, okay? And part of the reason that we don't wanna be exposed, because we're sinners, I mean, we're all sinners. Congratulations, and we don't always want that sin exposed. The reality is that hiding sin is deadly. Hiding sin is deadly, it'd be like hiding a black mold in a house, right? The inspection's coming, right? You can't do it. Some people, I don't know if you've ever seen these videos, they're amazing, there's a whole beehive in their attic. Do you see that before? Oh, it's nuts, dude, they're like pulling out like the siding on the house, and it's just, I mean, like 15 square feet of honeycomb, and there's all these bees in there, and it's nuts, okay? Now everybody's gonna go check their homestyle, okay. You can try to hide that, but the bees are gonna buzz.

You can try to hide that, but somebody's gonna get tuberculosis, right, like hiding black mold's not a great thing, okay? Sin is going to rot us from the inside out, like we were talking about before, and eventually exposing sin is a deep comfort, actually. Exposing sin is a deep comfort. Straining toward transparency actually brings light into a dark place so that healing can begin, okay?

If you're gonna rid a house of black mold, you need to air it out, right? It actually can't stay wet and damp and dark, because that's where mold grows, right? It must be exposed to the light to dry out, right? To turn to something impotent, to just be swept away, or removed by a hazmat crew, I don't know. It is something that, it's similar to an intervention, okay? If you've got an addict, if you've ever been an addict, met an addict, or anything, my dad was an alcoholic for years,

and he's now been sober for like 37, 36 years. When you are in an intervention with somebody, if you call somebody over for an intervention, so they walk into your house, and you and three of your best friends are sitting there, and all, you're in the circle of chairs and everything, and you're just staring at the friend, and the friend walks in, they know, in that moment they're like, ah, this is an intervention, I'm screwed. So, maybe they think about walking, they think about turning around and walking away, right? But at some point, maybe, maybe, the hope is, at least, that they walk in, they sit down, and they just listen.

People that go through an intervention successfully, even if it's the most successful intervention in history, nobody loves that in the moment. Nobody's like, ah, finally, I'm, they're intervening on my life against my will, joy. Like, nobody thinks that in the moment, right? Nobody loves that. One time I had a good conversation with a friend of mine, and I was, man, I was dead wrong, I was mad at my boss, and this other guy was just listening to me talk, and I just, you know, he shouldn't have made this decision, and he shouldn't have, you know, just griping about your boss. Not super helpful, but very common, okay? And so, I'm griping about my boss, and the guy across from me, Christian Guy, lovely guy, actually, and he just looks me square in the face, he says, hey, man,

I just don't think you have the authority to make that call, to make those decisions, to carry that weight, like, it's just not your place. I don't know if this is gonna be super helpful. And I quit talking, and I leaned back in my chair like somebody punched me in the gut, and I just kinda exhaled, like, you're right. And that was the fastest I've ever turned on a dime from being mad at somebody to repenting, and shutting up, and figuring out that I didn't need to do that. I've had a couple moments like that, sadly, in my life where I was all about, whatever I was all about, and I was dead wrong. There are people that have things dead wrong, and they don't think they're dead wrong, right? But ultimately, ultimately, when darkness is exposed by light, there's joy. This is the optimism that we see in the next two verses, verses 13 and 14. It says, but when anything is exposed by the light,

it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light, therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Taken together, all these verses, 11 through 14, we can see that even darkness can become light, right? It's saying, if you've got some in darkness, and you're pulling it into the light, it becomes visible. It becomes apparent. It becomes obvious. It becomes lit. Even darkness can become light. Here's our hope in that. Even our darkest secret, when exposed, can eventually become encouragement. Even the things that we are most ashamed of, when we begin to confess it or discuss it openly, it can become a great testimony. Every great testimony that you've ever heard started as a sin that was hidden. Every single one, or not hidden, I mean, either way. It started a sin, and at least there was a temptation to hide it.

God calls us to strain toward transparency, where we are open and honest with what's going on in our lives. On this point, in the same way we strain toward goodness, we do it the same way. We don't grit our teeth, and we're like, I'm gonna be transparent, I don't care. We sit with the Lord. We ask, we listen, we pray, we discern, we discover, we talk with the Christian community. And as we do that, we become more like Him. We become more transparent with others. We become more used to saying things like, hey, I know this is hard to hear, but this is my honest intention. This is kinda where I'm going with this.

You're gonna have to get used to not controlling what people think about you. It's hard, right? If you think about it, God's actually super transparent. I don't know if any of you are thinking about writing a whole book about your entire life and your interaction with history and just letting people read it and make their own conclusions. That's pretty daunting, actually. God actually wants to be known.

I know the last book is called Revelation, but the entire Bible is a revelation, is a revealing of who God is. His whole character's laid out there. All the things that are difficult to understand, all the things that are puzzling to us, all the things that are there, nobody's hiding it. That's why whenever anybody gets on TikTok and is like, I've discovered the secret that the church has missed for over 2,000 years, I'm like, man, shut up. No, you haven't. There's no way. Way smarter people than you have looked at this Bible in its original language and in lots of other languages. They haven't found that. Nothing's unlocking for you, buddy. Promise, actually. I promise. Because the hard thing about scripture is not that there's all these parts we just can't see. The hardest thing about scripture is that God is very plain about who he is and who we are in light of that.

And that's just not fun to think about. It's way better to think of God as a philosophy instead of somebody that I need to bow to. Way, way better. That'll get you way more hits on TikTok. What if God's just an idea? It's not, God's not just an idea. God's a person. God wants a relationship with you. God calls you out personally. God knows your life. He knows your hairs on your head. He knows your life from beginning to end. He knows your history, your context. He knows all about you more than you know about you. And he still loves you. And he's calling you into a relationship with him. You got choices to make on that. But whenever those choices become uncomfortable to talk about, then you wanna put God in the idea box. That we don't get to do that. God's pretty plain. God's pretty transparent about who he is. I wanna give you another four things, just practical on being transparent

because sometimes we can take transparency a little too far. Or not far enough. So four things, be open with God. As we strain toward transparency, as we're going toward, so be open with God. Pray honestly. People have a tough time with this. They wanna like flower their language up. Like some people, they totally talk normal. But then when they start praying, it's in King James. I don't know where that happens or why. Bless you, I don't think it's evil or weird or anything. But maybe, maybe you're not that comfortable talking with God like you talk with people. And I think what we see in scripture is that God wants us to talk with him like we talk with people. And so, you know, if you feel like you gotta like tidy up everything and then come to God, man, don't do that. Just come to God.

You think God didn't see the mess before you started tidying? Like you think he doesn't know how you talk at work? You think he doesn't know what you think about? Come on, man. God's not worried about all that. God wants you to talk to him. He's gonna get to all that. That's fine. But let's take a step and just be honest with who we are before God. You mad at God? Say so. You question his motives? Say so. Everything we see in scripture is that whenever people were honest with God, he was honest with them. He appreciates it, actually. He commends it. It is a much worse thing to come to God with pretenses

than to let a cuss word slip as you're frustrated with whatever God's doing if we're making those choices. Be open with God. Second, be open with others. Look, this is why we have home groups and life groups, guys, this is why we have them. Because if anybody wants to stand up right this second and start talking about how, start confessing their sins, start being open about whatever's going on, I would just say, hey, love you, super excited, glad you wanna share that with somebody. Let's get somebody you can trust and go in a room and talk this out in a way that is, like in a platform, in a position that is appropriate. Okay, Sunday morning, in this moment right here, is not appropriate for somebody to just stand up and start listing all their sins out, okay? Mainly because, not because it's uncomfortable for you, because it would be, but because that's not a real way to get help.

That's just you kinda being an exhibitionist. So a real way to get help is finding people that you can trust, that you know, that can listen to you, that you feel comfortable around, that they feel comfortable with you, they know you. That happens in a home group. Relationships can start on Sunday morning. I mean, God bless you, let's do it, let's shake some hands, let's get to know people, that's awesome. But if you wanna start talking about, like, what's really going on, that you need to jump into a home group, man. And there's ways to jump into a home group, immediately out those doors and to the left, on your left. There's something you can fill out easy. Home groups are always open, and there's new ones that start every season. We do take some time off, but I think we have four weeks left, four weeks left on this. We do them at eight weeks spurts, so we're only halfway through.

It's fine if you come late. Jump into a home group. And we also have life groups that's a little bit more intensive, and that's like an 18 month commitment. It's kind of a longer form. Start with a home group. If you're already in a home group, maybe we can talk about a life group, right? We all need space to be honest about what's going on. And honestly, no one thinks that you have it all together. It's the best, worst kept secret ever. Nobody thinks that you have it all together. Nobody. You're not fooling anybody, okay? And if you think, no, no, they totally know that I, no, no, they don't stop it. They don't know. They don't think that about you. They think you're as dumb as them. In fact, if we're gonna be real honest, most people think they're smarter than other people.

So if anything, they think you're dumber than them. Okay, so nobody thinks that you have it all together, okay? I'm not trying to insult everybody all at once, although I think I'm succeeding. If you wanna open up about struggles, you need to do it with people that you know, you need to do it without pretenses, you need to bring darkness into light. Third, calling others out to be open, okay? If you're gonna call others out to be open, you need to make space for that, okay? Do not, do not make it a mission to make everybody be honest with you. You can't handle that. You can. You're not the Holy Spirit. You're not God. You can't handle that, okay? And honestly, there's a way to be super self-righteous about being the person who can get other people to be honest with them. Don't do that. It takes humility to call others out to be open, and it takes trust and relationship.

If you just randomly know people for 10 minutes and you're like, be honest with me, and you start guessing their sins or something, man, kiss that relationship goodbye. That's not happening. They're not trusting you ever, okay? I do not know that from personal experience. It's just a guess, but don't do that. Lastly, naming hidden sin to help others, be careful.

Be very careful when you do this. You need to think three times, three times. It needs to occur to you three different times before you help somebody without being asked, okay? They better be falling off a cliff, okay? They better be in trouble if you're gonna help somebody without them asking you. And yes, yes, let's protect the vulnerable, yes. But let's make sure, even the vulnerable, let's make sure they want you to say something at all.

If you go around trying to be everybody's savior, if you're like, I protect the underdog, okay, all right, calm down, superhero. Take the cape off for just a half second, okay? A lot of us are underdogs. Depending on the situation, a lot of us are marginalized in some capacity. Right, we're not all the same, and it is intoxicating to be someone else's righteous avenger, and if you don't believe me, just look online, okay? It is more realistic to turn that lens on yourself and say, how do I step on people? How do I create situations where people aren't included? How do I do that? It's much more difficult, actually, to take responsibility than it is to see how somebody else is doing, and like, call them out. Speaking truth to power. Okay, man, you speak truth to power, but make sure you speak to yourself, too. Make sure you let the Lord speak into your own life. Make sure there's some humility there.

It's a lot harder to do. Look, I wanna end just by inviting you guys to think about this. I want you to think about where is a situation where you need some discernment? Is there something you got kind of, you know, blinders on for us, or something you need to kind of figure out, something you need to, and if it's, if all you can see is that thing, right, if that's just dominating your vision, my encouragement to you, begin to pray for a bigger field of vision. Begin to pray for the Lord's perspective on your life.

Right? And look, I'm not saying what you're going through is small. I'm saying that what you're going through is not as big as the Lord Jesus Christ, and his plan for your life, and what he has for you, and that whenever you make things way bigger than what the Lord is, you start to believe that the Lord can't handle it. Focus in on that. As we sing, I want you to, I want you to just think about kind of what that is, and begin to give that over to the Lord, even as we sing. Let me pray for us. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all these things, these little things that can feel like big things, that you want us to see for what they are. You want to change our vision. You want to change how we see even our own lives, much more our own problems. You want us to see it like you see it. I pray that you would help us to see it like you see it. I pray that you help us to just chip away at our old life,

at our, just the old habits that we have, and that we put on the new, that we would come before you for the things that we cannot provide ourselves. So we pray, amen.