Being A Light In A Very Dark World

Introduction

All right, good evening. Hope you had a good day. If not, we’re going to make it better now. All right, I promise. I want to begin with something that is kind of a little flashback, but this crowd will get it. Many of you remember me in my news days, all right? That former life I had. Yes, I was one of those idiots who would stand out in the hurricane. If you’ll remember those days specifically, I never, ever, ever told you not to go outside, right? I wasn’t one of those, now you don’t go outside because I’m a professional. I can stand out and say, no, I didn’t do that. In fact, really, I was like, this is great. Y’all ought to get out here. Just make sure you go to the beach if you’re going to do it.

Don’t go inland, and that’s how you get hurt. Debris coming off buildings. Go out to the beach. Only thing that’s going to hit you there, wind, waves, maybe a stray pelican, but you’re really pretty good in a hurricane out on the beach. Well, one thing that always happened when I was in the news business, and it didn’t matter where I went, whether I was with a church crowd or just running into people on the street and they get to know you and want to talk a little bit. You always got this question. It was the same question, no matter who it was, where it was, the same question. And the question was this. Why is all the news bad? Well, why do y’all only report bad news?

You ever thought that? Yeah, all right. Why is it always bad? Can’t you report good news too? Well, I want to stop right there, and I just want you to think about that. Would you watch it?

Welcome to Channel Night Eyewitness news at 11 o’clock. We’re going to go out to our speat reporter, Phil Robertson, Barbara County. Phil, what’s going on there? Oh, guys, you’re not going to believe it. There’s been a church group that they all got together and they declected a lot of food, and they’re going to take it out and give it to needy children, and all the women have been needing blankets for the single mothers and their kids at church. It’s just great. How long would you watch that? How long would you watch if it was, oh, and we’re going to go over here, we’re going to talk to the Walcott family? Oh, are they not a great family? Look, all their kids now, live shot, they’re all obeying their parents.

Is that not great? No. No, you wouldn’t watch that. And in fact, you would say, that’s not news. For example, when you get up in the morning and you watch the traffic report, do you want to hear the traffic reporter just say, hey, don’t worry about it. Just don’t worry about it. Oh, we got some bad things going on out there, but you don’t want to hear all that. Don’t worry about it. You’re going to go, wait, no, no, no, no. I want to know where the wreck is. I want to know where the tractor trailers turned over. I want to know where the lights aren’t working. I need to know what’s going on because I’ve got to get around that. I need to know where it’s bad.

If you’ve got money, you’re wanting to know what. Well, I need to know where invested, and I need to know where it’s pumped, it’s going down and tanking. I want to know those things. And the fact of the matter is that we’re really, really, really honest with ourselves. Most of the time, when we’re in a conversation, or we’re seeking to learn, or we’re reading, or we’re searching, or we’re scrolling, what grabs our attention more than anything else is what? Well, the bad news. The bad news. Let me kind of amp this up a little bit for us. All right. Let’s say your buddy calls you over and they go, Hey, come here, come here, come here. I got something to tell you. You got to hear this.

You’ve got to hear this. And you kind of lean over there and they go, you know those Whitman ladies? And you go, oh. And they go, they are so sweet. And you go, tell me something I don’t know. You don’t have anything good. No, they’re just always so nice and doing so much work for the church. You’re like, but if you were to hear, hey, you know that preacher? Did you hear what he, oh. He hasn’t. Oh. Then you want to know, right? If it’s a little juicy, that draws us in. If we’re all honest with ourselves, we struggle with that. We struggle with it. And there’s a very good reason why we struggle with it. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 that every single one of us, every single one of us have been captured.

We’ve been captured by the prince of this world. And every single one of us are enticed by things that are dark. In fact, every single one of us had been captured by the darkness. And every single one of us, if we’re really honest with ourselves, struggle with an appetite for darkness. We struggle with an appetite for things that we know are ungodly. We struggle with these things. And that’s why very often in our life we’ll feel guilt, we’ll feel shame, because we know if we’re really, really honest with ourselves, at times it’s the bad news, it’s the darkness, it’s the things that we know aren’t good or the things that are enticing for us. Well, tonight, I don’t want to talk about any of those things.

Is that okay? I want to talk about good news. And I want to talk about good news in this bubble of a world in which we know there is so much bad news out there. How in the world can I get excited, get up every day, feel I have a life of great purpose when I live in a world that is consumed with so much bad news. I hope you have the Heavenly Library with you, because I want you to take down the Gospel of John. And I want you to go to John chapter 8. And I just want to give you a little heads up. Two things. Number one. Number one, this is more than likely a story that you’ve heard before. Alright? Even people, even people who maybe have no history with Christianity, maybe haven’t ever been to church.

There is a line in this story that they have heard and maybe have even quoted by Jesus, alright? Because you’re going to see in this story, and you’re going to hear in this story that very famous line He who’s without sin, let him be first to throw the first stone. Alright? The whole world knows that line. So my point is this. This is probably a story you’ve heard before, but I want you to fight the urge of thinking you’ve heard this story before. Alright? The second thing is this. You’ll notice I don’t have PowerPoint tonight. All right? We’re going old school. Okay. I want the power point to be in your mind. And I want you to do the best that you possibly can to allow your mind to go to this scene.

Here’s the setting. It is going to be an extremely challenging day for our Lord. And what’s interesting, at the very beginning of the chapter, you’ll see he’s already gone to the Mount of Olives. And why did he generally go to the Mount of Olives? He went there to pray. He went there to be alone. He needed his alone time with the Lord, and he is definitely going to be glad that he had that time for this day. For he’s going to get up and he’s going to go back into Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem, there is a huge, I mean, a huge multitude there. More than just the normal population in Jerusalem. You see, there’s a feast going on. And this feast has drawn in the tens of thousands into the city.

So all the people are there, and the streets are packed. And our Lord is going to make his way back up into the temple complex, which is where he has been, and he has been teaching before. He was just there, and he’s gone back there again on this morning. And our Lord is really surrounded by all the people. They saw Jesus, they knew Jesus, they’re excited about Jesus, and Jesus is teaching once again. So I want you to see this scene. You have a huge multitude of people, and they’re all packing in to listen to Jesus. And you might say our Lord is maybe just sitting down, maybe, maybe near a wall or sitting down on a little stool, and all the people have gathered around to hear him.

And they’re all there for the festival, so they’re in a good mood. This was this is one of those good mood festivals. It’s a festival of harvest. It’s a festival of celebrating what God has given to you. It’s a festival that celebrates what God did for them in the wilderness and their wonderful history with the Lord and how he led them. He led them through the wilderness and provided for them. So you have everybody pretty much in a great mood, and Jesus is there and they’re all excited. Until all of a sudden. Some men interrupt our Lord’s teaching. And it’s quite the commotion. Because these men that interrupt the teaching are religious leaders and they’re kind of pomp, arrogant way. They make their way in. And they’ve got someone with them.

And the person who’s with them doesn’t want to be there at all. It’s obvious. Because she’s hiding her face. She’s cowering. She’s scared. And she’s crying. And they force her into the middle of this crowd, and now everybody is looking at her, looking at them, looking at Jesus, looking at her, looking at them, looking at Jesus. And they say, Jesus. You know who this woman is? She’s an adulteress. That’s who she is. In fact, we caught her in the very act. And the crowd goes, whoa. Maybe some of the women in the crowd kind of recognize her, and they’re already getting a little upset. Those who are religious and seeking purity in their life or standing back, don’t want to get near this person. And then they say to Jesus, you know what the law says, don’t you?

The law says a person like this should be stoned. They are worthy of death. What do you say? So now it’s turned from just a person caught in sin in an awkward moment. Now it’s a trial. It’s a trial. Can you see the scene? Have you got yourself there? John chapter 8. I’ll begin reading now in verse 7. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up. And he said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and he wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

And Jesus stood up and he said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Go. And from now on, since more.

Neither do I condemn you. So from now on, you go and sin more. Generally, when we’re sharing this story, we stop right there. In fact, if your Bible’s like mine, it’s got kind of a break in it, a new title, and we stop right there. But I want to suggest to you tonight that the story didn’t end there. In fact, what the very next verse says is that after Jesus talks to her, and you can see Jesus in his compassionate but yet authoritative way, going up to the woman and saying, All right, I’m not condemning you. Although the law says you should be stoned, you’re really kind of getting off on a technicality here, and nobody now is left to condemn you. This is great, but listen to me, listen to me.

Please hear me, go and sin no more.

And then he says this. Now here’s how John records it. It says, and again Jesus spoke to them. Now he’s turned back to the crowd where he was originally teaching before. The commotion is already over. The accusers who interrupted this wonderful lesson that he was sharing have now walked away. And Jesus speaks to now to the crowd, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I want you to just stop right here and grasp exactly what is taking place. I hope, I hope, and it is my feeling that this woman was still there because this is the reason Jesus is sharing this message. And this is why he’s turned to this point.

And I hope that she heard what he said, because I believe he was speaking to her. But Jesus makes one of the great I am statements. I am the light of the world. But not only does he make a great I am statement, he now speaks to her and to the rest of the crowd. He says, I am the one that you will follow. Because whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. And then he makes this great statement, but they will have. They will have something great, the light of life. I want you to see three things in this verse. Those of you that are my note takers and I’m driving you crazy because I don’t have PowerPoint. Here’s your PowerPoint lines, alright? Jesus makes a great powerful statement in one of those great I am statements, I am the light of the world.

1. I Am the Light of the World

He makes a personification. He personifies light here. I am the light of the world, personification. The second thing is he offers a path. I will lead you out of darkness. I will lead you to what is good, a path. And then the third thing he does is he makes a promise. A promise to every single one of us that live in this dark world. A promise to every single one of us that have been captured by the darkness. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all been captured. And the promise is this. You will have the light of life. Let’s begin with this first statement. Jesus in his personification, the I am statement. He says, I am the light of the world. Well, I want you to grasp right off the bat that when he said this, those Pharisees that were left around, they were left hanging around, they knew exactly what he was saying.

Because what Jesus was actually saying with that statement is he was claiming to be the Messiah. In Isaiah chapter 49 and in verse 6, Isaiah 49, 6, the scripture tells us, speaking of this one that would come, he says, I will give you as a light to the Gentiles. That you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. The Messiah was always referred to in many places as being this light, as being one to lead. But when Jesus said he was going to be the light, it was more than just being the Messiah. He’s saying, I do what I do what light does. I expose darkness. I expose it. Because I am truth. Psalms 43, verse 3. Send out your light and your truth.

Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling place. What would John say at the very beginning of the gospel in John 1 and in verse 9? The true light. Why? Because he gives light to all the world. And as John will also say in John 1 and in verse 4, in him was life, and his life was the light of men. In other words, he’s truth. He is truth. He is the embodiment of the truth of God. And here’s what Jesus was doing with this. He was using something that they would all understand at that moment. Here’s what’s very cool about Jesus’ teaching. You ever wondered why he used some of these personification statements? Why would he all of a sudden in this crowd talk about light?

Right? Well, it it if you’ll go back to chapter 7, all right.

And that was water. And in verse 37, he’s going to talk about being one who can provide living water. I can give you living water. What’s interesting about the feast, this harvest feast. Well, what one of the things that the Jews would do during the feast is all the priests would go and they would take pictures of water, or they would take empty pitchers, and they would go dip them in the pool of Siloam, and they would kind of parade through the city and make their way through the city, and they would take them over to the temple complex. And it was a it was simply a reference of getting water from the rock in the wilderness, getting water that was provided by God, and so they would celebrate the provisions of God.

Well, what Jesus does is he uses these pictures to teach greater lessons. He says, I offer you water. Yeah, I offer you living water. Just like he did the woman at the well in John chapter 4. You want to talk about water? You drink my water, you’re never going to thirst again. He loved to use those situations. Well, where’d the light come from? Well, what’s interesting during this feast, in a way to celebrate how God led them through the wilderness, especially at night with the flames of fire, the Jews had these huge candle displays that would hang in the city and around the temple complex. And so more than likely our Lord, maybe underneath one of these grand displays, or maybe pointing at it off in the distance, will say, You want to talk about light?

I’m your light. I’m your light. And they knew he was referring to himself as being God. Again, what happens in the very next verse is you’ll find that the Pharisees that were hanging around were going, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. Where’s all this coming from? Who’s the witness? And Jesus says, hey, I don’t need witnesses. I’m enough witness of myself. But the point was, and he was saying it not only to the crowd and to the Pharisees, but hopefully even to this woman. I’m your light. I want you to think for just a moment about this woman. Why did she do what she did? You ever tried to slow down and just go, why? Why?

Was she just a vile evil woman that just liked to run around on her husband or anybody else and maybe his reputation? Maybe. Maybe. Well, what if her husband was abusive? What if he never held her? What if he never treated her with respect? What if he never loved her like she wanted to be loved and therefore she was she was susceptible for looking for somebody else because her relationship was so bad. Does it change the sin? Not necessarily, but you know what’s really sad? We don’t know what led her to it. But here’s what we do know. Men were using her and using her in a very malicious way to treat Jesus. They were wanting to test him, and somehow, some way, they caught a woman in the very act.

That should be one of those things that makes you go. Hmm. How’d that happen? And hmm. Where’s the man? See, she’s being used. And and if you’re in this crowd and you’re kind of figuring it out, and these are the people that you look up to, these are your religious leaders, there’s going to be a part of you going, Oh. Even them. Well, what kind of a world is it when your spiritual advisors are caught up in the evil of this world? It gets pretty dark. Who can you turn to? Who can you trust? That’s why Jesus is saying to her and to everybody else, trust me. Trust me. For the first time, maybe in a long time, there is a man who truly loves her.

2. A Path: I Can Lead You Out of Darkness

And Jesus says, I’m not just any man. I am the light of this world, and I’m not only God, but I’m going to provide for you a path. And so here’s where he takes this statement. He says, I can lead you out of darkness. Have you ever been in a place in your life, and if we’re really honest with ourselves, we’ve all been here at one time or another. We’ve been caught in a situation where we go, I can’t get out of this. Maybe like what we talked about Sunday morning. I don’t know what to do. I need some direction. I need some guidance. I need just somebody to lead me. Jesus says, I’m the one. I’m the one. Who can I trust? Who will give me the right answer?

Who will give me always what I need? Jesus says, I’m the one. And I will lead you out of darkness. I want you to consider just real quickly. How often Scripture speaks of our Lord and especially our Lord’s Spirit in His Word as being a light to us. In Psalms 119 and in verse 105, the psalmist says, Your word is a lamp to my feet. It is a light to my path. Well, what is the psalmist saying? He’s saying, You lead me. I don’t know where to go at times. I don’t know how to conduct life at times. I don’t know how to live at times. But your light leads me. Well, how does it lead me? Well, it leads me in four ways. He’s leading me out of darkness in four ways.

Number one, what does light always do? Well, the first thing that light does is it exposes darkness. You ever thought about it like that? When you turn on the light, what does the light do? It scares away all the darkness. Darkness just scatters. Darkness is eliminated. Why? The light’s on. The light’s on. And so what it does is it shows us something.

One of the coolest stories I ever did. Other than the space shuttle, which was really cool. All right. But over in Brevard County, they had an aviation unit. Alright? So they had their helicopter that could fly at night and help them track down criminals or this, that, and the other. And one of the coolest toys they got was an infrared camera. Right? And it was so neat because every now and then the guys in the aviation unit they would call me and say, hey, Phil, you’ve got to come over here. We’ve got a good one for you. And it just happened one day. They said, Phil, you’re not going to believe this one. You’ve got to get over here now. You’re going to love this. This is a good one.

And so I got over there and I said, What happened? What happened? They said, just watch. I said, You’re not going to tell me. No, no, no, no, no. Just watch.

And so you see this television screen, come on. Everything’s black. And I’m like, okay, okay, okay. And then all of a sudden you saw this guy running. You can just barely make him out. He’s just like these little light figures.

And then you saw all the cops kind of walking behind him. The guys running, they’re all walking. And I’m like, why are they walking? Shouldn’t they be running? You know? You see, some of them got dogs, you know, they’re holding that thing. It’s like what’s going on going on here. And then you saw this guy. He came up to one of those electrical transformer station things, you know. And so you see the little guy, the little figure go up and over the fence. All the cops stopped right there. And you see this guy kind of look around. Like he’s oh, I got away. And he starts running through this, you know, all these little transformer things. And as he was running through, he got out to the middle of it, and all of a sudden you see the whole television just went white.

Wong. And then the next thing you see is this little body on the ground shaking and it’s still glowing real big. And then it would get quieter and quieter and quieter. You’re like, oh man, that guy just got shocked good. And then you see his little body kind of get up and it staggers. And then he starts running again, and all of a sudden, whoa. It was the funniest thing ever. And here was the deal. You can’t run from infrared. Especially if you’ve electrified yourself in some electrical transformer line. You’re going to light up real good. Well, isn’t that how God’s word works? It lights us up. It shows us. Whoa, no, no, no. That is wrong. That is bad. We may all be questioning and turn, well, I don’t know.

I don’t know. I don’t know. But God’s word says, no. That is wrong because that’s what it does. It exposes darkness. It shows us what is wrong. In fact, in Jeremiah 23, 29, Jeremiah says, Is not, speaking for God, is not my word like a fire? And it’s also like a hammer that it breaks the rock into pieces. Why? Because light exposes darkness. The second thing that fire does, and light does is it’s penetrating. It goes any and everywhere it wants to go. There isn’t a crevice that it can’t find that it can’t sneak into. And that’s exactly what God’s word does. In fact, God’s word is described as a two-edged sword. It can pierce both ways. On the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, what was it said of the people when they were hit with the message of God?

It says it cut down to the heart. That’s how it works. That’s what light does. It is penetrating. That’s how it leads us. But not only is it penetrating, but light purifies. Fire has always been a purifying element. In fact, it is used even today to heat metals, so to purify them. Because it cleanses and it purifies and it purges all the unwanted products. Jesus says, this is what my word does for you. In John 15 3, you’re clean. Why? Because of the word that I have spoken to you in Ephesians 5. Paul will use the same terminology when it says Jesus washes his church. How? By water and the word. It is water from the word of God. Because that’s what light does. That’s what fire does.

It purifies. And the fourth thing, and this is how God leads us on this wonderful path, is light gives us security. It gives us security. We always feel more comfortable in the light, right? What’s the first thing when you get off and you’re in, quote, survival training? What’s the very first thing you got to do? You got to build a what? A fire. There’s an element of protection there. There’s an element of comfort there. If you go over to the revelation and you see how the way God is described, and God, how he leans toward his church and he brings his church to himself in Revelation 22. It speaks of him as being a light, but not the sun, not the moon. No, the Lord Himself is their light.

Because that’s what he provides. Imagine what it was like for this woman. What’s she going to do now? Everybody knows you’re an adulterer. Everybody.

Jesus, stay with me. I’m going to lead you. I can get you out of this. That’s what I do. That’s what I am.

3. A Promise: You Will Have the Light of Life

I am your answer. I am your path. Just follow my light. But our Lord doesn’t stop there. Now here’s where it gets extremely powerful. He says, not only will I lead you, but you have this assurance. You have this promise.

Hold your place here and go back to Malachi. Malachi chapter 4, verses 1 to 2. One of those prophetic verses that we find in the Old Testament. Here’s what the prophet says. Malachi 4, verse 1. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. When all the arrogant and evil doers will be stubble. When you think about it, that’s going to be a great day, as long as you’re not one of those people. But there’s a day coming when all the arrogant and the evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts. See, that’s what fire does. That’s what light does. So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you. But for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.

And you’ll go out like calves from the stall. I want you to go back and see this point in context. You see, when Jesus makes this promise, he’s simply talking about himself. I bring joy. I bring purpose. I bring path, and I bring you life. I’m going to assume at that moment. Even though Jesus told this woman, you’re good. Go and sin no more. She probably didn’t go, hey, that’s great. That’s great. Hey, everybody. Good to see you. I’m doing real good. Let’s go have some fun. You think? No. No.

There’s still a big hole in her heart. Her shame still is immense. Her guilt is still overwhelming. But Jesus says, I’m making a promise. You’re going to have life. And the light of life. I’ve known many people in my life who I’ve been blessed to be around who are now a light of life. But there was a time they thought that day would never come. I have a good friend right now back home who’s struggled so much with alcoholism that he lost a marriage, lost his kids, he’s lost so much. And now he’s beginning to experience joy again. He’s found the Lord, he’s found purpose, he’s found a path, and he’s now beginning to find a relationship once again with his family. I know many who, even like this woman caught in adultery, have given themselves over to the lust of the world.

Thinking they would never have any purpose, they would never have any place even among the Lord’s people, but now they realize they have great purpose, they have great value, and they are great counselors to those who have struggled with the same challenges.

You think a man like Paul, a murderer, a misguided religious zealot. What did he become? He became a light to the world. Simon, a true zealot, a sympathizer of terror. A man who lived by the sword, not only became our Lord’s disciple, but would die for our Lord. Matthew, a selfish tax collector, Simon, a sorcerer. And we could go on and on and on.

You see, in this courtyard where Jesus was, people were rejoicing. They were enjoying life. It was a great festival of celebration, and they were around Jesus, but this woman didn’t experience any of that joy. Because she was so aware of her sin. And so as Jesus spoke to her and to the rest of the crowd, he says.

Secular history tells us that she went on to become a very integral part of Jesus’ ministry. Secular history. I would love to think that, but I don’t know.

But I know what I hope. It’s the same hope that I have for people that I meet all the time that are struggling with sin, that are struggling with guilt, that are struggling with shame. Listen to what Jesus is saying. He is your light.

And his path is clear if you will follow it. And not only will he lead you out of darkness, but he will give you great purpose. I want everybody here. I want everybody here to merely meditate on the following verses. And the reason I say that is I want to build on a point that we talked about last night, and that is the idea of being more spiritually minded. You know these verses, but I want you to meditate on the power of our Lord’s truth. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. You ever thought about that?

That you mean. That we can be the light to a dark world. What’s Jesus telling us?

Because this world needs a light. You ever turn on a flashlight? Y’all do this when the hurricane came around. Anybody else go around and check every flashlight you had in light? Anybody else do that? And did any of you like me? You were in a well-lit room and you’re turning it on, going, I have no idea. What’s the deal here? And you’ll put it into your hand. I really, ooh, you know. And then you go, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, it’s working. It’s working. Because if you turn on a light in a well lit room, what? I don’t know.

Well, that’s doing a lot of good. Thank you.

But you use that same light and you turn it on in a dark room. It changes everything, doesn’t it?

That light now has incredible value. Because it shows a path. It has expelled darkness. And it has purpose. Here’s my point. I’m thrilled you’re here tonight. I am thrilled you are here tonight. But you’re not that bright in here. No offense. This is a good place to be. And yeah, you’re illuminating. You look good. Yeah, most of you really look good. But when you go out there, you have purpose. You have value. And it doesn’t matter who you are, what your background is, what your challenges may be, what your what your temptations are, when you’re following the path of the Lord, you have great value. And the world needs your light. It needs you to shine in the school. It needs you to shine at the work.

It needs you to shine wherever you can. It needs light.

You know what I like to think about this woman? This is just my own personal thought. This is first fill in the Bible. It’s a great book. If you ever want to read it, it’s filled with wonderful, great opinions.

I like to think that a few years later, this same woman became part of a local family in Christ.

And she regained her confidence. She regained her hope. And she stood on the foundation of the Lord, and she became a pillar of strength to all who encountered her. And with the family that maybe she worked with or in the community that she was involved with, when there would be people who were caught in those same kind of challenges, they said, I know just the person you need to go to. And she would say, Come here.

And I know exactly what you need to hear right now. Because I get it. And she became a light. She went from the darkest abyss you could imagine. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the whole city knowing your sin? It’s not just any sin, it’s been sin.

That’s why I believe Jesus preached what he preached immediately after he said those words.

I’m the light of the world. Follow me, I will lead you out of darkness, and I will help you become a light. A light with purpose. One of the most challenging things that Cheryl and I have ever had to endure as a preacher in a preacher’s life.

When we got a call in the middle of the night from a deputy. And anytime you get called by the police in the middle of the night, it’s not good. And the deputy said, Do you know the bonners? And I was like, Yes. What’s happened? They said, You need to get over here right now. Their son’s been killed in an automobile accident. I immediately woke up Cheryl. We jumped in the car and we took off and we went to their house. That’s all we knew. That’s all we knew. And when we walked in that door, I heard crying like I’ve never heard before. And for the next couple of hours, we just sat there with this family who had lost their 19-year-old son in an automobile accident.

And we began to learn throughout the evening exactly what happened. It was a drunk driver. A drunk driver had killed their son.

There was a funeral. But then about a year after the funeral, there was a trial.

And we went with them every single day and sat there through the trial of this woman who had killed their son. And she was convicted. The evidence was overwhelming. And then came the day of the sentencing. And Brian Bonner got up to represent the family at the sentencing. And he sat there in that stand. And the judge just simply said, What would you like to say? And he goes, Micah was my son. And he was a wonderful boy. And then he turned to this woman. And he said, I want you to know that I forgive you. In fact, I forgave you a long time ago.

But I want you to do something for me. I want you to forgive yourself. And more than that, I want you to learn about his hope. And nothing would bring me greater joy than to hear one day that you were baptized into Christ and you became a child of God yourself and you became what he would have you to be. When I heard that, I couldn’t help but think of this passage. That is the light of the world right there. My friend Brian is reflecting the love of Jesus Christ to somebody in darkness.

Folks, that’s what we get to be. That’s what we get to be.

Conclusion

Every single one of us are sinners. Quit denying it. Quit saying, well, that was her, not me. Quit it. Quit. Quit. You’re only lying to yourself. Jesus saying, I can use the humble. I can make you a light. I can lead you out of darkness. But you got to want to follow this path. Love me. Serve me. Follow me. I will give you greater light than you’ve ever imagined. Because that’s what I’m saying. See, that was a very dark day, that day in Jerusalem. It just doesn’t get darker than that. But Jesus turned the light on. He said, It’s me.

Follow me. And I’m going to make you a light. A reflection of me. Tonight I got one question for you before we sing a song. Who’s your light? Who’s your light? Have you got a light? Jesus says he’s the true light. And through his word, he has shown us the path. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done. If there’s anything this story shows us, you cannot use the excuse. No, but you don’t understand. You don’t understand what I’ve done. You can’t use that excuse anymore. Not after this story.

There’s hope for you. And his word says, if you’ll come to him, he’ll not only offer you rest, he’ll offer you a cleansing like no other, because that’s what light does. It purifies, it cleanses, it molds. And then it leads. So who’s your light? Who’s your light? We offer you tonight the light, Jesus Christ. For he is the light of the world. And if you would like to follow him tonight, we invite you to come while we stand and sing.