LIGHT IS POWERFUL

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

Father, that is our prayer this morning.

That what a joy.

Surrender is not a burden, it is a joy to take any crown that we have and to lay it at your feet.

And God, we just this morning want to join with the 10,000 times 10,000, 100 million angels in heaven and declare holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

And Lord, what a joy it is to join in that choir this morning, little taste of it to declare how good you are.

So, Father, we ask that you would speak to us this morning.

Oh God, any pretense we come in here with, erase it and give us an encounter with you.

We want nothing less than an encounter with the living God.

So come, Holy Spirit, fill this place in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, you can take a seat.

Well, it's great to be with you this morning, Grand Parkway.

My name's Tyler.

And uh, as Neil said, I'm a pastor out in Katie area at uh Grace Fellowship Church, which you did us dirty calling us Methodist Church.

We're like the least Methodist you can get.

Uh but uh man, it's good to be with you.

I think we have a picture of my family who they're over at that Methodist church right now.

Uh that's my wife, Jen, and then our oldest is Emery.

We call her Emery Kay.

Uh on the side to the right there is Ty.

We call him Ty Tai.

And then uh my wife's holding Malachi.

We call him the Malachi Kalachi, okay?

And uh, but I love that crew.

They wish they could be here, um, but maybe you can meet them one day.

And uh, and I've just loved, loved, loved getting to know your church.

Uh, the past two fall retreats, I've gotten to hang out with your students, and I tell Ian every time, I'm like, bro, I I get to speak at different student events, and sometimes that first night you're like, come on, like, let's release the sugar and press into Jesus.

I'm like, this, I don't know if you've ever been to a fall retreat at Grand Parkway.

No lights, no games, no, no, it's just Jesus, you know, and the students love it.

They're not like trying to pull them in.

I'm like, dude, there's no group quite like the one you have here.

I mean, it's it's awesome.

And I've loved getting to know Ian Kendall, Annie, Barkley, and uh, and I've really enjoyed getting to know Neil, okay?

And uh there is no one like Neil McClendon that I've ever met in my life.

In fact, I went, I was like, I better listen to last week's message just to, you know, just to see where he went.

I don't know how many of you were here last week, but he tells some story about meeting a dude in the airport that's been married seven times and all this.

I'm like, where do you meet these people?

I mean, that's just crazy.

Uh and on top of that, though, incredibly generous, loves Jesus, loves his word, loves you.

And so to be invited to come and speak to you this morning, I just it's a real, real treat uh for me.

Hey, if you have your Bible, uh, we're gonna be in it this morning.

Go to John chapter one.

Me in John chapter one, looking at a familiar passage, uh, but hopefully in a new way.

Uh, as you're turning there, I want to tell you about something that happened a couple years ago.

I was invited to join some church planners out in San Francisco.

Any of you been to San Francisco before?

Any of you been within like the last five years?

Okay, some of us have been to San Francisco in the past, but man, that city has really taken a deep dive.

It's a beautiful city, but it's just dark.

It's dark.

And so we spent a few days in San Francisco and we're uh hearing about, you know, despite everything that's happening there, what God's doing in the church in San Francisco and amazing things, like the sparks of revival are happening in San Francisco.

And uh on the last day, uh, the elders of this church that we were at, they gathered us together and they said, Hey, we're gonna do one last thing today.

He said, We're gonna take you guys into the heart of the city.

We're gonna go into the tenderloin district.

And they said, Let us tell you about the tenderloin district.

The tenderloin district is the most populated area of homeless people in the whole United States.

And uh half of San Francisco's homeless population, which is a lot, live in this couple mile little uh block there in San Francisco.

And they gave us this pep talk.

They said, All right, when we step in there, you're gonna see things you've never seen before.

Like, okay.

They're like, you're gonna see needles on the ground, you're gonna see people shooting up, you're gonna get yelled at, cussed out.

And then they said this they said, the demonic presence is thick in the tenderloin district.

So a bunch of us suburban, you know, Houston people are going, oh what?

You know, and then this guy Rob, this elder, he stood up, he goes, Hey, listen, look at me.

He said, as we enter the tenderloin district, you need to know.

He said, the darkness shakes when the light of Christ walks in.

He said, we carry with us the presence of the Spirit of God.

And so we don't have a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.

And we were like, all right, let's do it.

So we get in the vans, we start going to the tenderloin district, and we're just praying.

I mean, it felt like we were going into war.

We're just praying.

We get out of the vans, we look at the district, and sure enough, it's just crazy.

It's everything that they described.

Right as we get out of the van, this dude comes yelling at us, and we watch Rob, one of the elders, go, in the name of Jesus, stop.

And the dude just coward, started walking away.

I'm like, I've never seen anything like this in my life.

And we just started walking, kind of following this guy, Rob, but just walking in the power of the light and the presence of God.

And uh as we did, I saw things I had never seen.

I saw people get delivered of demonic oppression.

I'm not hyper, hyper, you know, that way.

I just hadn't seen it.

But as I I'm watching that, that happened in the tenderloin district.

We we shared the gospel with people with boldness, like I had never done before.

And I left with such a just ready to go.

Where's the darkest places in in Houston, in my city?

Where are the darkest places?

I want to go there because I know, like I'm convinced, the power of God, the presence of God can shine in the midst of that darkness.

Now, why do I tell you that to start this morning?

Because I think as we look around our country, as we look around our city, as we look around at just the landscape, even of the church, there in many cases it's very dark today.

And I think a lot of us have gone into kind of a mindset of we need to protect ourselves from the darkness that's out there.

So as far as we can get away from that, that's where we will find Jesus most.

And I'm just telling you, based on the authority of the Bible and the passage we're looking at today, the presence of God goes into the darkness.

And not just tenderloin district, I mean the darkness in here, in us.

So let's look at John chapter one.

We're gonna start in verse one.

Again, popular passage, but let's just let's read it with this in mind.

So it says John 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

It says, In the beginning was the word capitalized, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Verse 4.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

All right, we'll stop there.

Okay, there's a million things to unpack in these short little passages that we read, but it it starts, John chapter 1, verse 1 starts very familiar.

John 1:1

In the beginning.

Where have we heard that before?

If you know the Bible, yeah, Genesis 1, 1, right?

And so the Jewish readers are going, oh, we know how this story goes.

But then John changes it.

He says, in the beginning was the word capitalized.

And the word is actually in in Greek is the word logos or Lagos.

And now you got the Greeks all freaking out because they go, oh, we know about the Lagos.

See, the Greek philosophers would sit around all day and they would pontificate and deliberate about the meaning of life, the Lagos, the thing that brought order into the chaos of the world.

And they would go, ooh, what was it?

What was it?

So you got the Jews going in the beginning, oh, we know where the story's going.

You got the Greeks going, the Lagos, the meaning of life, and John says, Hey, that which you have deliberated and taught and thought about, I know the origin of it.

And the meaning of life, not only was it a person, but the meaning of life is God.

The meaning of life, he'll say in verse 14, to put on flesh, dwelt among us, and the the meaning of life has come to you.

In the person of Jesus, bringing life in the form of light.

So this is where the Bible is just amazing to me.

Because John is saying, I want to blow your mind in the reality that the meaning of life that you talk about is actually a person, and he's come, and he's bringing life and light to that which is dark.

Not only is this profound, but it hits at the core of our being.

I want to think about light for a second.

We we as Christians, we talk about light a lot, but but think about what light does.

There's really, really two things about light.

Not overly profound, but really important.

The first thing about light is that light is powerful.

Okay, light's powerful.

Think about if all the lights were out in this room and I had a tiny little flashlight, you know?

No matter how dark this room got, if I turn on that flashlight, that light will pierce through however dark the darkness is.

It's not the opposite.

Like, it doesn't matter how dark it is, if that little light, if I turn it on, the darkness isn't gonna go and drown out the light.

Ever.

The light always wins.

Just yesterday, I was up uh in the Dallas area with my brother, and uh, we're there's a state park out in Cedar Hill where he is, and he's like, hey man, we're gonna do something fun.

We're gonna run, we're gonna do trail run in the dark.

I'm like, why?

Like for fun, you know.

He's like, oh, it's so great, man.

It's gonna be awesome.

Like it's it's gonna be pitch black dark, and we're gonna run through trail.

People normally go slow, it'll be awesome.

I'm like, that makes no sense to me, you know.

So we show up, it's dark, and he gives me this tiny little headlamp, you know, and he's like, it this will help you see.

I'm like, I don't know, you know, and but sure enough, because it was so dark, that little lamp, you know, I could see everything.

I could see it all until my headlamp went out.

And then uh I had to use his.

I'm following behind, you know, as he's gone.

But but it was true.

As dark as the forest was, that little headlamp, as long as mine worked, uh, provided light.

Light is powerful.

But here's the more important thing about light light is revealing.

Light is revealing.

Light reveals what the darkness is trying to hide.

And uh I shared this with the students the last time I was there, but I had a great picture of this happen in my life recently.

Uh, I I I went out about a year ago, I went out to my backyard and I saw there was just trash everywhere.

And I'm like, oh, my kids, you know, taking trash and just putting it everywhere.

And and now I'm like, no, I don't know if it's the trash can't too high.

Maybe it's my dog, my dog's doing it.

And I'm going back and forth.

Is it the kids?

Is it the dog?

Is it a possum?

Is it a rad?

What could it be?

So I just went overly suburban dad and I set up a motion light and a camera, you know, at my at my uh trash cans.

And so I set it all up, I go to bed, and then the next morning I wake up to all these notifications and I see this on my phone.

What is that?

Yeah, raccoon, right?

Look at him, and not only that, but he brings his buddy.

Yeah.

And so I see this the first day, and I'm like, oh, it's raccoons.

Like, what do I do?

I'm new to this world.

Uh, out in Cinco Ranch, Texas.

I didn't think I'd have to deal with this.

And uh, so I'm I'm starting to think that night I go to sleep, I see more notifications, open up my phone, and then this is what I see the next day.

Let's see if we have this.

Yeah, how many are there?

Can you see?

Yeah, there's four of them.

They brought their buddies.

It's like uh it's like a couple that, you know, they were out on a late night escapade and then they brought their double date.

You know, they're like, you gotta check out this trash can.

So I'm like, I got an issue here, you know?

And so I call up the Fort Bend Animal Services.

I'm like, look, I'm I'm in the suburbs, I don't know what to do, I can't really shoot them, you know.

So what do I do?

And they're like, come get a trap and you can just trap it and we'll come get it for you.

Like, really?

I don't know.

I just never thought when we bought this house, I'd be trapping wild animals.

But uh, but I go to animal services, go get it.

They said, put a little peanut butter in the cage and you'll get one.

I'm like, all right.

So I put it out there, go to sleep, more notifications.

Wake up in the morning and I see this in my backyard.

Look at that right there.

Yeah.

You know, and at first, you can keep it up.

At first, I'm like, I got one.

This is all I'm I'm great.

And then I thought, oh, I feel bad, you know, like that guy, he was cold.

So I go over to him.

I'm like, hey, buddy, you know, you doing all right in there.

And he does the thing that raccoons do.

Ah, you know, he does the evil demon thing.

So I'm like, all right, I tried.

I was gonna be nice, but uh, you're toast, buddy.

I call them and they came and get him.

But but keep this picture up because here's why I say this.

Some of us in our life, you know, we put on the Christian face, we look good when we get in church, get our coffee, sit down, sing the songs.

Deep down, what the darkness is hiding is we are actually a lot like this raccoon right now.

Whether it's your marriage right now, again, right?

In church, we're good.

But this is actually where you're at.

Some of you, the the sin that you have reveled in this week, the things that you looked at this weekend, the the people that you flirted with that you knew you shouldn't, the the words that you use towards your kids or your friends or your spouse or your boss are a lot like this.

The anxiety that you feel managing everyone's opinion of you is a lot like this raccoon where we're just feasting in the trash in the dark.

So here's the thing when John chapter one says, in the beginning God existed, and God brings life through bringing light through into the darkness.

Or in John chapter 8, when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, it's so nice, it seems so sweet, but the reality of light is it's powerful and it's revealing.

John 8 · chapter mention

And some of us, our worst fear is having the light, God's powerful, all-consuming, sovereign, all-knowing, omniscient light to see everything that we're doing in the dark.

That's actually our worst fear.

Some of you actually kind of hope God's not real.

You're singing the song, it's great for your kids, but you really hope judgment day that we just say, I'm gonna come cast my crowns before you, you go, I know what judgment day will reveal to me.

I know what kind of things I'm hiding in the darkness.

See, the light that the New Testament talks about, that Jesus talks about, that we sing and talk about is often not as exciting and not as nice because it reveals what's happening in the dark.

So, with the rest of our time, I really think there are two responses to when what's revealed in the dark or what's happening in the dark gets revealed, there's two things that we can do.

And the first is this the first thing that we can do is we can hide.

So when the when the darkness, when what happens in the darkness is revealed, there's two ways to respond.

The first is we can hide.

If you have your Bible, uh turn over in your Bible a couple pages to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Look at John chapter 3, and we're gonna look at another familiar passage, but we're gonna keep reading.

John 3 · chapter mention

John 3, starting in verse 16.

John chapter 3, starting in verse 16.

John 3 · chapter mention

If you've been in church, done VBS, you'll know this verse.

All right, John 3, 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Amen.

Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

Come on.

Verse 17.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Amen, hallelujah, somebody.

Verse 18.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, woo-hoo, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Verse 19.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

Verse 20.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.

Do you know that verse was in the Bible?

We all know verse 16.

We love verse 16.

So verse 17 is pretty good too.

Verse 18 gets a little weird.

Verse 19 hurts.

Verse 19 hurts.

This is the judgment.

God says, God sent his son not to condemn the world, but to save the world.

And yet the judgment has come.

Why?

Because we love the darkness rather than the light.

When revelation, when revealing comes, we run from it.

Reminds me of a story a couple years ago when my daughter was young.

Uh, my friend Kevin came out of, came in town.

He lives out of town.

And and my wife, you know, he's there.

My wife goes, I'm gonna go run some errands.

You just watch Emery, watch Emory K, our oldest.

And uh, and we're like, okay, we got it, we got it.

So she's, you know, doing whatever, she's a toddler, and and Kevin and I are talking, and it gets deep, you know, and you're really talking, we're we're like unpacking each other's world and we're we're unearthing some deep things.

And then all of a sudden, my loud toddler goes silent.

And the only thing worse than a loud, chaotic toddler is a silent toddler because you don't know what they're doing.

And it hit us after a few minutes.

Uh-oh, we lost her, you know.

And so we go looking, we go look in her room, nothing.

We go look in the guest room, nothing.

We go look in the bathroom, nothing.

Then we go into the master, and uh, as I go in there, I see she's in there, and she holds up a Sharpie marker and she goes, uh, hey daddy.

And she had written all over her legs, I think you can see, and all over the ground, like all over our wood floor.

And so I'm like, Kevin, come here, you know, and he comes over and we're just looking, I mean, it's just two guys looking at Sharpie marker all over the ground.

And Kevin goes, you know, I think a rug will cover that.

I'm like, yeah.

And then as he says it, we hear over near the garage, a rug will cover what, Kevin?

From my wife.

Like, oh, we got caught, you know?

And you know, you just think about that as we you can take the picture of Sharpie down, yeah.

As a, you know, as we think about that, oftentimes that's what happens, right?

What was being done in the dark gets revealed, and we think, oh, yikes! Like, okay, I think a rug can cover this.

I I think I can find a way to kind of make this okay without having to fully come clean.

I met with a guy this week, this week who his marriage just blew up because he was having an affair.

Not just one, multiple affairs.

He's telling me in tears, he's like, Man, you know, this first kind of came out a few months ago.

And I just, right when my wife got suspicious, I just I had something.

I was ready.

She saw a Facebook message, and I said, Oh, that's just someone from work.

And then uh, and it was good.

There's a rug on it, and then something else came out, and I put another rug, and then eventually it's just tears, it unraveled.

And I'm just watching this man broken in the midst of his sin being exposed.

And oftentimes for us, if we're honest, early on when we get caught digging in the trash, we do what David did and we hide our sin.

Remember, David with Bathsheba.

Remember, he sees Bathsheba and she's bathing on the roof.

And he goes and brings her to him, sleeps with her, then has her husband Uriah killed, and then hides it for a year until Nathan comes and calls him out.

And in the midst of that, David says in Psalm 32, he says, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

When we project to live one way, but we're actually living another, it's exhausting.

It physically tears away.

David says, at our bones.

And scientists have come and said, Yeah, it's true.

When you're living with a bunch of secrets, when you're not living in an authentic way, then uh it actually affects your ability to sleep, your ability to eat, and your ability, your well-being.

And so the Bible's right again.

When we hide, it affects all of us.

And this is darkness.

The irony of when our darkness gets exposed, when we hide, it leads to more darkness.

So the first option we can do when the light comes is hide.

The second option, though, is we can confess.

We can confess.

Keep reading in John chapter 3, look at verse 21, the last verse here.

John 3 · chapter mention

John chapter 3, verse 21 says, But whoever does what is true comes to the light.

John 3:21

Notice that's not passive.

That's active.

Comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

John is going to continue to talk on this.

He says, you know, there's those who hide, but then there's those who come to the light that their works can be clearly seen.

He's going to keep talking in 1 John chapter 1, starting in verse 5, and I think we have it on the screen.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Um I'll just read this.

1 John 1, 5 says, This is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Verse 7, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But, verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

So what is 1 John 1 saying?

Light and darkness cannot coexist together.

When the light comes, darkness has to flee.

And it says, No one's perfect.

Do you catch what it said in 1 John 1?

If anyone says he is without sin, he's a liar and the truth of God is not in him.

So when we come into a place like this and portray perfection, then 1 John is calling us out, saying, No, you're a liar and the truth of God is not in you.

That all of us are struggling, all of us have darkness, all of us have issues.

And and 1 John 1 9, if we confess, it's the moment God goes, I am faithful to not only forgive that sin, forgive all sin.

I'm not waiting to find you out so I can spite you.

I'm waiting for you to come to the light so I can forgive you.

But everything in our flesh goes, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.

It's too much pain, it's too difficult.

And oftentimes we think, okay, young believers, new believers, they're the ones who have to confess a bunch of sin.

And then when you get mature, when you get old, you don't really have to confess anymore.

And yet the reality is some of you know, the deeper you go with Jesus, the more light gets shown in every aspect of your life, such that you're confessing all the time.

I love what Matt Chandler says.

He says, any acceptance of the gospel that does not lead to a life of ongoing confession and repentance is not actually a belief in the gospel.

To be 99% known and 1% unknown is to be completely unknown.

If you choose to live your life that way, you'll never experience love.

You'll never be able to receive it because you're convinced that if the 1% was found out, they would reject you.

Did you notice in verse 7?

So 1 John 1, 7, it says that uh if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship.

It doesn't say with God, it says with one another.

And the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

There's something about confession that actually enables us to have real community.

Some of us have been in small groups or community where it's just superficial.

It's just boom, right here, right?

Oh man, how about that weather this week?

That was great, wasn't it?

Oh man, you think the chiefs are gonna three Pete?

That's great.

And we just stay right here.

But then some of us go into groups where we actually go, man, I'm really struggling with anxiety.

Man, my marriage is just every day I have to fight to love my spouse.

All of a sudden, those groups you have a real community.

I remember my freshman year of college at God's school at Texas AM.

Uh thank you.

Uh but for all you whoopers, I'll say my first semester was so bad.

It was so bad because I was so lonely.

School of 50,000 students.

Let's be honest, I had a great high school experience.

I was like, college is gonna be amazing.

First semester, I was so lonely.

And I remember joining this organization of kind of student government, you know, freshmen, and they were all go-getters.

I thought I was a go-getter.

They were way more go-getter than me.

And I'd get in that group, and uh, and everyone's like, I'm doing this, and this is what's happening, and I reached this many, you know, I raised this much money, I did this.

I'm like, I am a loser.

I'm a loser.

I remember going back to my dorm and just feeling so isolated and alone.

I remember the second semester getting breakfast tacos with one of the leaders in the group, one of the most extroverted, most well known.

And I'm eating with him, and and finally I just went so I'm like, man, can I be honest with you?

Like, I feel so lonely in this huge school.

I feel so lonely, like my bones ache.

And I just kind of look down.

And I remember this guy that I'm having breakfast with.

I remember him putting his breakfast taco down, looking him, looking me in the eyes and going, Tyler, me too.

I was like, You, you too.

You're you're the most popular, you're the most extroverted.

He goes, Man, I know I'm a mile wide in terms of friendships, but an inch deep.

Nobody knows what I'm actually going through.

And I was like, tell me more, you know, and and he started pouring himself out about how lonely he feels.

And I was like, wow, we're bonding over the fact that we feel alone.

This is crazy.

So we went back into the group, the the big everybody go get her group, and we're like, we feel alone.

And all of a sudden it was like revival of loneliness.

We're like, me, me, me, we are, we're like, we're lonely together, you know?

And we it it like through this organization, real life change began to spread because we got honest with where we were actually at.

And true community began to form.

I I love what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says.

Best name ever, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

But he says this he said, in confession, the breakthrough to community takes place.

Sin demands to have a man by himself, it withdraws him from the community.

The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him.

And the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.

Sin wants to remain unknown, it shuns the light.

In the darkness of the unexpressed, it poisons the whole being of a person.

And this can happen even in the midst of pious or godly community.

But in confession, the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart.

The sin must be brought into the light.

The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged.

All that is secret and hidden is made manifest.

It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted, but God breaks the gates of brass and the bars of iron, quoting Psalm 107.

Some of you coming into church this morning, you feel kind of like me, my freshman year of college.

You feel isolated and alone, even in a full room.

So some of you have small groups, you have community, you're gonna watch the Super Bowl with people, but you still don't feel like you have people who really know you.

And I am on the authority of the Bible, I'm begging that I bet that some of you, it's because you haven't taken the first step of going.

Can I be honest about where I'm actually at?

And that is a very hard struggle, like Bonhoeffer says, until the light breaks through.

Some of you, it's gonna take your life blowing up in order for you to finally get real.

And that's gonna be God's severe grace in your life.

But others of you, the light bulb's on now.

You go, I don't want to wait till my life blows up.

I wanna do that now.

I want to do that now.

And the beauty of 1 John 1 9 is you can.

You can.

I want to end with one last story, then we'll wrap up.

A couple months ago, after the election, I'm just I was reading statistics of who came out and voted in this last election, which is a spicy topic to talk about.

But I just I'm looking at it.

And it was fascinating to me.

The number one demographic that went out and voted, but specifically voted for Donald Trump, was young men.

Like it was, they were more galvanized towards that than anything else.

And it hit me, I was like, regardless of what you think about politics, I was just looking at it and going, man, politicians and podcasters have done a better job reaching out to young men than the church.

And that is sad.

So a couple weeks later, I stood up in front of our church and I was like, all right, here's the reality.

Like, if you're a young man, I the the these polls and this data just revealed that you're you're wanting to be galvanized, you're wanting to be put to use.

The church has dropped the ball.

And so here's the deal: no more excuses.

If you want to be a discipled and you're a young man, email me.

Email me.

Telling 3,000 people, email me.

Here's my email, shoot me an email.

Not your mom, okay?

Not your girlfriend or your wife.

I'm talking you.

Email me, and I promise you, we will disciple you.

And 15 guys emailed me.

I'm like, all right.

And I met with every single one of those guys, everyone.

And it started with this.

I'm like, all right, no more messing around.

Tell me your story, the real one.

And I watched these 15 young guys start and go, oh, yeah, football and this and this, every single one of them, tears in their eyes, brokenness in their past, getting honest for the first time in their life.

And after, you know, seven or eight of those, I'm like, what are we doing?

How come this isn't normal?

How come we don't do this all the time?

Of Joe and just tell me your story.

Like Neil was saying at the beginning.

Just tell me what's actually going on in your life.

So for now, for these 15 guys, I plugged them into different things, but I'm like, I'm texting you every single day now.

We're reading the Bible together and we're gonna text each other.

We'll see how long this lasts, we'll see who the hungry ones are, we'll see, you know, the word, the seed that goes out, how many of them bear 30, 60, 100fold, but we're not dropping the ball on young men anymore.

And and I realized though, I for every demographic, it starts with is there anyone in your life who knows your real story?

Who knows you?

And is there anyone that you're asking, hey, can we go get past the superficial?

Can we just get into what's actually going on in your life?

What is actually going on?

This is safe, man.

I'm not trying to share a bunch of your secrets.

I just want you to be free.

Jesus came to shine light into that which is dark.

And I love what Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14 says.

Colossians 1:13

It says, He, God, has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The reality is for all of us, if we sat down and someone said, Tell me your real story, there's brokenness in that story.

There just is.

None of us are perfect, not even one.

Romans 3.

And so the reality of finally becoming free and this becoming a safe place to go, man, I don't have it all together.

I'm pretty broken, actually, is the place where redemption becomes not only a gift, but becomes something we're longing for.

And the gospel, the good news of light coming is not something we go, oh, I don't want to come to the light.

It's the thing that we're drawn to, going, I want to be exposed because it's only in that place that I'm not canceled.

Someone was already canceled on my behalf.

And so I when I come to the light of Jesus, I'm not shunning the light.

I'm going, there's forgiveness here, there's freedom.

Is there consequence for my sin?

Absolutely.

Is God gonna deal with it?

Absolutely.

But 2,000 years ago, it was dealt with on a bloody cross.

And so if the world cancels me, let them cancel me.

But I can find healing, hope, forgiveness, redemption in Jesus.

And so we, the church, can be free to be real of all the places on the planet, more than bars, more than uh, you know, workrooms in work.

The church should be the safest place to be real.

Oh, I'm longing for the next revival to be a revival of we're broken, but Jesus is good and we're here.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, I'm gonna pray for us, and then there's gonna be some questions on the screen.

And this is a great opportunity to not let uh this moment pass us by and go, wow, wow, wow, and not deal with what's actually going on in our heart.

Let me pray for us and then spend some time just dwelling uh on these questions together.

Father, we repent that as a church, not just this church, not just a church, but uh the church in America and and throughout the West, Lord, we've gotten so good at creating an image of ourselves that's not real.

And you know, like you know every aspect of who we are, and you died not for the future version of us, not for the cleaned up version, but for the messed up one.

And God, we just we just want to be the leper who comes back and says, Thank you, wow, thank you, God.

We didn't have to clean ourselves up, and then you fill us with your spirit, and we can say no to ungodliness and worldly passions now and live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives as we wait for the day when we will be fully free.

God, would you help sanctify in us a passion for you, a purity for you, and then a freedom to not have to put on some image, but to be who we actually are, redeemed by Jesus, uh, in your presence in your glory.

We love you, God, we love you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Father, we're grateful today that the language that you use is accessible language to us.

You say to everyone in this room, everyone who hears this online and ever hears this, Ali Ali and free.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

Not only come out from wherever you are, but come as you are.

We don't have to take a shower to take a bath.

We cannot make ourselves presentable to you.

On our best day, we are not presentable to you.

But because of what Christ has done on the cross, we're acceptable, we're presentable, we're loved.

While we're kind of trying to remember the speech like the prodigal son, the father is running.

We're trying to remember, and the father is running to get us before we forget and think, I just another thing, I screwed up.

So, Lord, we take comfort today in the fact that you're the God who sees us while we're a long way off and comes after us in case we might change our mind on the way back home.

Pray for anyone today, Lord, that they in this room that they're holding the beach ball under the water, hoping it never breaks the surface.

Pray that that that that thing will get loose and come to the light so people can be set free.

Well, this is our prayer.

Make it our experience, we ask in Jesus' name.

What everyone said.

Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome here.

If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard this morning, some of our pastors will be down front.

I'm gonna ask Tyler if he would make himself available.

Uh and so we'd love to pray with you, answer any questions you may have.

Uh, but if you're our guest, all we ask of you is if you just text the word welcome.

That number on the screen behind me that gives us a record of your visit.

We'll shoot you a text back.

We just want to help you take the next step, okay?

We don't want you to live in fear, we want you to live in freedom.

All right.

There's always things going on in the life of our church.

We make you aware of those by way of our video announcements.

So check the screens for this week's announcements.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

The varsity is happening on February 13th for all adults 60 and older.

Join us in the gathering room from 10 30 a.m.

to 12 o'clock p.m.

for a great time of fellowship, fun, and community.

Cost is$10 per person.

Men, mark your calendars.

Join us for the men's golf scramble on March 20th at the golf club at Tinker Ranch starting at 11 o'clock a.m.

Whether you're a pro or just in for the fun, it's a great chance to bond, enjoy community, and play a round of golf.

Cost is$85.

Finally, do you want to grow deeper in God's Word while building meaningful connections?

Join us at Grand Parkway for a Sunday adult Bible study.

Our classes are designed for different ages and life stages, meeting at both 9 a.m.

and 1030 a.m.

Each season, we explore the grand story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, unpacking God's incredible rescue plan for his people.

Take the next step in following Christ by joining a class as a place for you here.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Some of you may be wondering here about adult Bible studies on Sunday morning.

There's two that take place at this hour and the next hour.

There's three that take place in the adult building.

It's the building right there across the parking lot, our old sanctuary, the one with the green roof.

It's small groups of people that gather uh around a shared curriculum and it's by ages and start from the 20s all the way up to people old like me.

So if you've never been a part of that, we'd love for you to be a part of that.

Ask anybody, any of our uh our pastors, any of our ushers on the fit team.

We'd love to help you find your way into that, okay?

I have just a couple things that were not in the announcement that I want to make you aware of uh by way of pictures.

First of all, you know that we have a missional partnership in Romania, uh, and we're helping build the church, and they're they're to the point now they're buying stuff.

A video, our our our pastor over there sent us the stuff, and I said, You don't have to send me pictures of you buying.

I believe you buy it.

I want you, I want to be above board, Pastor.

Okay, you paid for this.

Uh, this is uh a church building, they call it a gathering room, and uh and they're gonna be discipling men in this in this space.

Uh, and so I told a video, I said, You guys love title in Romania.

Uh uh, but anyway, he is so proud.

He is over the moon.

And so that's a video in the front, and that's a man in the village that he's helping.

Uh, instead of Americans going over and plunking it down, we said, we'll send you money and you use people out there to kind of help the depressed economy.

He said, That would be great.

And so you made that happen.

And so, if you're new to our church, we're fixing to expand our children's building uh starting uh later this uh spring, but we're also uh building a church in Romania and it's it's complete.

They're gonna start meeting in it in the next couple of weeks uh as soon as they get it all set up.

One other thing I want to make you aware of that we're doing around here on our campus is this.

If you know, down at our children's our student ministry building, they have sand volleyball courts.

Uh they get used a little bit.

Uh so what we're doing is we're scooping out some of the sand.

We're gonna pour this is the view.

If you're standing, go back to the first one, please.

If you're standing on the back porch of the warehouse, what we're gonna do is install three pickleball courts and then basketball.

Easy, easy.

Don't email me.

You cannot reserve it yet.

Uh, there's three pickleball courts and then basketball on the end down there.

The brown pot where the basketball is where the pond is, a detention pond.

Now you can go to the next slide.

There you go.

And we'll have a, we probably won't do a fence.

What we're probably looking at doing is we're gonna plant like a row of Confederate jasmine or something so it's green and native and beautiful and blooms.

Uh and so they've already started removing sand, uh, and we're gonna lay out the the electrical and everything.

Uh, and we when we make a decision like this, we want to have multiple wins.

And so here's the multiple wins for us as elders.

Number one, it gives our students uh a more a space that'll get more utilized, but also on this concrete uh surface, when the weather's uh good, Ian can say, because sometimes they get overcrowded out there, hey, uh eighth and ninth grade guys and girls, get chairs, you're gonna sit in small circles out on the slab.

And so it kind of creates space for them.

Uh, also a space for them, as students to to use on Wednesdays and Sundays, but also community groups can say, hey, we want to reserve that.

We're gonna have a community group there.

We're gonna utilize the warehouse, pickleball, and basketball.

And so we think it's a it's a three-tiered win for our church, and we'll go from a space that gets used kind of sort of some of the time to one that'll be used all the time.

All right.

Uh, and and so you have any questions about that, ask anybody uh who doesn't know and they'll they'll stumble through it, okay?

No, ask me.

I'm overseeing this project.

Uh, and and so just want you to know this is what's happening, this is what you make possible.

Uh so if you have any questions, we would love to answer that, okay?

All right, we'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So if you would stand to your feet and hold your hands out.

There's nothing about you that surprises God.

He knows, he's always known, and he will always know.

The greatest day of your life is when you walk in light of what God knows instead of what you fear and nobody else knows.

Depart now and walk in this beautiful place of freedom in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.