The Light Has Dawned

Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.

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Thanks for joining us. OK, so if you can get your your

phone out and turn your flashlight on, who uses that

feature regularly on their phone, right, man, you're like

quickly, like, and you're like, you could get it on fast, right?

Brad's over here going, he's practicing.

He's like, I think I could do this.

I think I could have won. I didn't know there was a gift

card, but but you know, like you could pretty quick.

You can get that phone on, get that light on.

How many of you like you use it regularly?

Let me see again. OK, how many of you just learned

that your phone will do that? OK, good.

I did this in 2016 and about 1/3 of the room raised their hand.

They just learned that their phone will do that.

So we are advancing as a people. This is good to hear.

Why are we so quick at getting our flashlight on on our on our

why are we so quick at that? I'm not even quick.

I'm like, I turned my camera on. What am I, 50?

I still, I really cannot do it anyway.

My cameras are like, I'm going to put this away anyway.

So The thing is, it's like, why are we so quick at being able to

get our flashlight on? Why, why does that?

Why does that happen? Why are we able to do that?

Because we know how to do it and we need it.

We use it like if you're in a situation where you're like, and

you know, I don't even, I can't even tell you where flashlights

are in my house. Like just hey, go get a

flashlight. Be like, bro here, it's in my

phone. Like you need a flashlight.

Like I bet the flashlight sales numbers have just collapsed over

the last 10 years, you know? And so the reason that we are

all good at getting our flashlight out on our phone is

because light is better than darkness.

It's just very simple. Light is better than darkness.

Light dispels darkness. It makes it where you can see

things, you can solve problems, you can accomplish tasks, all

because of a little light on the back of your phone.

Here's the thing. This is true for our lives as

well. You and I need light for our

lives. No matter how much I encourage

you or inspire you or challenge you, no matter how many

encouraging books you read or self help books you read, no

matter how much you try to muster up the courage to face

your life. The fact of the matter is, is

you and I, to move in life and to function in life, we need

light. We need light and the word

light. Words are going to see today in

our text. It stands in for things like

hope, for peace, for a belief in the future.

You need to believe that you have light.

And Christmas is the celebration of a God who ushered in light

for us, for you, a God who ushered in light powerful enough

to dispel the darkness, the darkness in our world.

Now follow me, The darkness in our world and the darkness

inside of our hearts. This is hard because we don't

want to believe there's darkness inside of our hearts.

We want to believe that other people have darkness inside of

their hearts. But when you look at my heart,

mine is good. I was texting with a friend this

week and we were talking about particular case, something that

happened in culture. And she was somehow she wanted

to hurt this person who had done this terrible thing.

And she said, I don't know if that makes me a bad person or

not, but I I would hurt them. And I wrote them back and I

said, you are a bad person and so am I.

Like you didn't know that like I am a bad person.

My heart is dark. Jeremiah says the heart is

deceitful above all things. Who can understand it?

Jesus said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to

your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give

you? In other words, like there's

there's evil in our world, there's darkness in our world,

but there's also darkness in my heart.

And God at Christmas time, what we're focusing on is that God,

in his infinite wisdom and his kindness and grace, he sent the

light to dispel both those darknesses.

And we're going to use a text this morning.

Maybe you know what? Isaiah Chapter 9 verses one

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

through 7, Isaiah 9, one through 7.

Now this is written by a guy named Isaiah.

It's a major prophet in the Old Testament.

And Isaiah is writing these words to a nation, the nation of

Judah, and primarily to the city of Jerusalem.

And this city is has compromised faith.

It's surrounded in fear. It's surrounded in darkness and

moral failure. It's uncertain about its future,

as it should be because it will be dominated by another nation

here very soon. It is in the darkness.

And to this darkness Isaiah speaks, this nation in darkness.

And Isaiah doesn't give them instructions.

He doesn't tell them what they need to do to make it better.

He doesn't do any of that. He actually gives them news of

something that's going to happen, news about a child that

will make everything different for this nation and for you and

I. Now, this is the character of

God. What we're going to read in

Isaiah Chapter 9. As we read this, I want you to

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

think about this is the character of God.

We choose darkness. I choose darkness, but God does

not abandon me in my choice of darkness.

In other words, he doesn't do to me what I'm prone to do to my

children. And what you, I think is good

parenting, right? You make stupid choices.

You lay in stupid beds. Anybody want that's good, right?

That's a good lesson to teach your children.

It's a good thing, you know, you want your children to feel the

weight of their dumb decisions. God, we choose darkness, we

choose rebellion. And God doesn't abandoned us in

those places. He actually comes and rescues us

with the light of his Son Jesus. That's what we're going to see.

He comes into the darkness as the light.

So Isaiah Chapter 9 verses one through 7.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

This is what the text says. You ready Isaiah writing?

He says, nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those

who were in distress in the past.

He humbled the land of Zebulun, the land of Nephili, but in the

future he will honor Galilee of the nations by way of the sea

beyond the Jordan. Now isn't it interesting that

it's Galilee of the nations that will be honored?

Jesus is a Galilean. Remember that this is this is a

prophetic text. Isaiah's talking about the

coming future, the coming hope for Judah, for the city of

Jerusalem, Verse 2. Now this is a poem, right?

So he starts. It's poetry, verse 2.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those

living in the land of deep darkness.

A light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and

increased their joy. They rejoice before you as

people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when

dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's

defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar

across their shoulders and the rod of their oppressor.

Every warriors boot used in battle and every garment rolled

in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the

fire. And this is all like what he's

done up through verse 5 so far is like, this is how things are

going to be different. This is how things are going to

change. Oppression is going to end,

burdens are going to be removed, and then verse 5, war will come

to an end. He says that basically the

garments that are rolled in blood and the boots that are

used in battle, they will no longer be useful.

They will be burned. In other words, the world is the

world is going to completely and totally be different because a

light has now dawned on people living in the darkness.

Well, how has this light dawned? Verse 64 To us a child is born,

to us a son is given, and the government will be on his

shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God,

everlasting Father and Prince of peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will

be no end. And he will reign on David's

throne and over his Kingdom, establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever

the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Now if you're a note taker, this is called a messianic prophecy.

This is a prophecy thousands of years before Jesus birth saying

hey, this is going to happen, Jesus will come and he will be

the light. So to this Dark World, to this

dark nation, Isaiah promises that God is not going to leave

them where they are. He's going to send a light.

He's going to rescue them. Now, our world is not completely

all that different than Judah and Jerusalem's world.

Now we are more technologically advanced.

I mean, we have cell phones with flashlights on them.

That's pretty cool. I don't think they could have

imagined even such a thing, much less electricity.

But even though we're technologically more advanced,

we are similar to the city of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of

Judah. We're very, very similar to the

people in that time. So today, here's the main idea.

I want you to know as we start this message as the thing I want

you to get as we, as we are here today.

I, I want you to write this down.

If you're a rope taker, This is the main idea.

Hope does not rise from inside us.

Hope does not rise from inside us.

Hope dawns upon us. Hope does not rise from inside

of us. Hope dawns upon us.

Hope, And this text is like a stand in for hope and for

promises of a future. And here's the thing about hope

that you need to know. You cannot generate your own

hope. You cannot stand in the mirror

long enough. You cannot lay in the bed long

enough in the mornings. You cannot get up early enough

and go for a run long enough. You cannot generate your own

hope. You cannot convince yourself to

be hopeful. If you were going to be a person

with hope, that hope must come to you from outside of you.

This is what this text is teaching.

Hope comes to us from outside of us.

It dawns on us. It is not self generated.

And there are two implications from this text for you, note

takers, there's two implications.

I'm going to walk through #1 the world is darker than we like to

admit. We're going to walk through

that. The world is darker than we like

to admit #1 #2 hope comes from outside of us.

Hope comes from outside of us. We're going to walk through that

implication, what that means. So the world is darker than we

like to admit, and hope comes from outside of us.

Now let's talk about this idea of the world being darker than

we like to admit #1 the world is darker than we like to admit.

The Bible uses darkness as a metaphorical motif throughout

the Scriptures, and it uses it to describe two types of

darkness dark. One type of darkness is the

darkness of evil. There's evil actions and evil

things, evil people. And then it uses another,

another idea of darkness as ignorance.

Their minds are darkened. So you have two ways that the

Bible uses darkness, evil or evil actions, and then minds

that are darkened, ignorance, minds that do not understand.

So let's unpack this idea of #1 of what we would call the

external darkness. You know, the evil, the idea of

darkness being an external darkness.

So let's let's unpack that. So the world is darker than we

like to admit. And underneath that we have an

external darkness. And the fact that there's an

external darkness in our world is obvious to most people.

Our world is a dark place. People do evil things to each

other. Did you guys hear about the

horrific attack in Forsyth Park this week of a woman walking in

the park and having a corrosive acid poured over her body, over

the top of her head? And this is mind boggling to me

that another human being would do this to another human being.

It blows my mind. Well, why does it blow my mind?

Because I have a sense in me that such things are evil.

And it's not that crazy to think that someone else would look at

such a an act and think, well, I'm just going to do it because

I want to because it makes me happy.

Or for whatever reason, the the reality is, is that the world is

full of evil and evil actions. Darkness is all around us.

It's terrible and nothing. Another thing that's happening

in our culture is more and more, especially among younger people,

Gen. Z and younger millennials,

whenever and whenever violence happens, instead of them quickly

condemning violence, younger people more and more, not all of

them, not even the majority, but more and more younger people,

instead of condemning the violence, are asking, well, why

did the violence happen in the first place?

Now, my generation, we're never taught that.

We were never taught to ask why the violence is happening.

We were taught to condemn the violence.

The violence is to be condemned no matter what.

But there is a younger generation coming behind us that

before the condemnation of violence, they want to get the

the why behind the violence because maybe the why, if they

hear it, will justify the violence that's happening.

That's, that's, that's that storm is brewing in our culture.

It, it's not so much that these younger people are, you know,

the Chinese Red Guard running around and and killing people or

taking over cities. That's not the case at all yet.

But the storm is brewing to where, well, violence might be

justified. Let me hear the reason that this

person poured acid over this young lady.

Now that that seems crazy to us, but that's the evidence of the

fact that there is darkness in our world.

Now here's the thing about dark, the external darkness of our

world. Most people who are not even

believers in Jesus Christ, they don't believe in God even they

might even be atheistic, they will agree that the world is a

dark and evil place. Even if they're not believers in

God, they will believe that. Like maybe you're sitting here

right now, you're listening to this podcast and you're like, I

don't even believe in God. Somebody's making me do this,

making me cum today. Well, here's the thing.

You, even though you don't believe in God, you will still

use terms like that was evil or that was bad or this, this

world's a dark place. Even if you're not a believer,

you will use terms like that. This past spring, my son and I

Aller we went offshore fishing. A friend of ours paid for us to

go out in the the Gulf. We were down in the Keys and he

paid for us to go out in the Gulf and go fishing.

And Adler got brutally sick. It was, I laugh about it, but it

wasn't funny. It was a little funny.

And when we're out in the Gulf and this, this man we're with is

a very interesting man. He's retired Marine intelligence

officer, so he knows things that he cannot share with me.

Do you know what I mean? Like, and it's and it's from

like, you know, he's about 20 years older me.

So it was like from my maybe I'm 15 years older me.

So it's kind of like the Cold War era.

He was active in the Cold War era, which I just so badly

wanted to just sit down and be like, man, can I ask you all

these questions? And but as we, as we talked and

we had some conversation, you know, just sitting fishing in

the boat, I discovered that number 1, he was not a believer.

He didn't believe in God. And so that that that helps, you

know, that creates a lot of conversation for me when

somebody tells me they don't believe in God, they're atheist.

So I'm like, my wheels are turning.

We're having conversation. And at some point of the

conversation, he says to me, I asked him, like, do you do you

believe there's a don't you want there to be an ultimate judge?

Like, don't you want there to be like, like an ultimate say at

the end? That's that there's judgement.

I said, otherwise if there's not judgement, then we got to get

even. Like we have to continuously get

even. And he said he goes, I don't

know, man. There sure is a lot of evil in

the world. After what I've seen.

This is what he said. So interesting, he said.

After what I've seen governments do to their own people, and then

that stuck on me. What what what I've seen

governments do to their own people.

I said, but you don't believe he goes.

It's hard for me to believe there's a God with this kind of

evil happening in the world. Now, can you see the cognitive

dissonance that he has going on? OK, this is this is like a

little, you guys hang with me. We're going, we're going to step

down a little bit. To say you believe in evil is a

faith claim. Do I not tell you this all the

time? Isn't it exhausting to hear me

say it all the time? It's because my, this guy who

took us fishing, he can hold that cognitive dissonance in his

hand quite easily. He can believe in something like

evil governments do evil things to their people.

He can believe in that and not acknowledge that's a faith claim

while at the same time denying there's a God.

To believe that is such thing as evil exists and that governments

do evil things to their people is to believe that right exist

and righteous exist. It's in other words, to believe

that there is a moral standard that's a faith claim.

All right. And so here's a guy and so many

people like this are, oh man, I'm telling you, this is this is

prevalent. There is this movement now to

where the culture at large knows there's a moral right and that

you need to be morally right. But there's no standard

underneath their claim to what's morally right.

There's no, there's no foundation to it, there's no

basis to it. There's nothing underneath it.

It's just, it's just you have to be morally right according to

their definition. The problem with this is that

humans are not good at generating our own light.

Whenever humans have tried to morally purify their own

societies, they bring way more destruction to those societies

than anything good. And here's the reality.

If you believe that there's an evil, that means you believe

there's a good. That means that you're grasping

for this good. You want to find it.

You want to know what it is you're trying to figure it out.

And what I'm telling you is that in this Dark World, the light

cannot come from within yourself, no matter how hard you

try, no matter how determined you are.

So there is an external darkness, number one.

And then under how our dark, our world is number 2, there is an

internal darkness. So we have an external darkness

like those people are evil. That's easy to say.

Here's the hard part. This, this heart is dark.

This heart is prone to evil. Now the internal darkness can be

a lot less obvious, but no less nefarious.

You see? Have you ever wanted to change

and be more loving and be more kind?

But then that person showed up at work again.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Am I preaching too close to some of you?

Right? Have you ever wanted to forgive

and offer restoration, but you just could not let go of the

resentment for what they did to you?

Like you knew that the resentment and the lack of

forgiveness was a prison that you were locking yourself in.

You knew that and you want to change.

You wanted to change so badly, but you just could not let go.

Have you ever wanted to feel peace in your life but you just

continuously feel anxious? You ever want to be selfless?

This is me all the time. You ever want to be selfless,

but you end up protecting yourself in an effort to be

selfless. It takes some self-awareness to

realize this, but sometimes our our attempts to be selfless are

actually just backdoor ways to protect ourselves.

The reality is, is that the darkness of our world that is

more prevalent than we realize is not just external, it's

internal. And what this means is that you

and I, because the world is dark, but also I'm prone to

darkness, what that means is I cannot produce my own light.

I cannot make up my own hope. I can't come up with my own

solutions. So going back to the point I

just made, whenever societies have tried to say, well, let's

all get together and let's improve the condition of human

beings and let's make the nature of man different.

Whenever societies have attempted to do that, it's like

putting a lot of darkness into one room and saying, well, if

all of us try really hard, all of our darkness could generate a

light. And what has happened

historically when humans have tried to do this?

I mean, it's the Chinese revolution, it's the Russian

Revolution, it's the Cambodian Revolution, right over and over

and over again. When you see, if you don't know

what I'm talking about, Google those things over and over and

over again. When you see humans decide what

we're going to. The world's dark.

There's darkness out there. You know, whatever the evil is,

whether it's, you know, capitalism or, you know, you

know, socialism, whatever the evil is out there, we're going

to get together. We're going to solve it, and

then we're going to go fix it out there.

Those people in the circle try to come up with the solutions.

They are just as dark as the world it is.

They're trying to go out and solve.

So what happens is millions, 10s of millions of people die

because a group of people think they have the light within them

to take into The Dark World. No, it's bad.

And I, I don't want to, I'm not trying to like be this

doomsdayer, but it's bad. It's easy for us to sit and go.

Those terrible people, they do those things.

You know what's that you know we we might be 3 mils away from

doing some of those same terrible things ourselves.

You missed 3-4 meals, you can't get food.

You may realize how evil you are as well.

Like it's in me as well. That's the that's the hard thing

to be honest about. You see, if the problem, if the

problem were only ignorance, and this is what society tells us,

if the problem were only ignorance, then education would

fix it. But the problem runs deeper than

than that. It isn't just that I need more

education or I need more training.

Now. It's a hard issue.

It's a spiritual issue. Darkness is inside of us, and

that's why salvation has to come to us from outside of us.

And this is what Isaiah says. He says to the people living in

darkness, to the people walking in darkness, that's you and me.

A light has dawned. That's what he says.

See, hope does not rise from inside of us.

Hope dawns upon us. The light must come from outside

of us. Listen to verse.

Look at verse 2 again. Look at what verse 2 again says,

if I can find it here. Verse 2 says the people walking

in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the

land of deep darkness. A light has dawned.

So how does the light come to us?

So the light dawns on us, How does it come to us?

Verse 6 says for to us a child is born, to us a son is given.

Isaiah is saying that all of us need light both internally and

externally. And then he says a child is

born, a son is given. John chapter 8 verse 12 records

John 8:12

Jesus's words for us. When Jesus says this, I am the

light of the world. Whoever follows me will never

walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Now think, put, put it together. You don't have to be a Bible

scholar to put this together right now, Isaiah said to the

people walking in darkness, Light has dawned now light has

changed everything. It's from outside of us.

And then Jesus said in John eight, I am that light.

Jesus is appropriating the Isaiah text to himself.

Jesus is saying I am that child that was born.

I am that baby that came. So Jesus is the light that has

come to dispel the darkness, Not only the darkness that's

external, but the darkness that's internal.

Jesus has come to dispel all the darkness.

Now here's the deal. Well, Steven, the darkness, the

external darkness is still very much here.

You even mentioned it like these things are still happening all

since the the time of Christ. You're right, the darkness of

this world has not been ultimately dispelled.

It has not been ultimately dispelled.

It has not happened, but you and I, the Bible says, are light

bearers. We bear the light of Christ.

Jesus not only claimed to be the light of the world, then he said

about us what he said you are the light of the world.

In other words, Jesus said he's the light of the world and then

he said we're the light of the world.

Like how is that both both. How are both of those things

true? Well, in the Gospel

understanding is that when I come to know Christ, I surrender

my life to him. I'm taking on the Christ King

inside of me. Now Christ leads my life.

If Christ is the light of the world, then I'm the light of the

world. Now follow me.

OK, Well, Stephen, how, how are we dispelling darkness in the

world? Well, little ways, the people of

God, the people of of Jesus followers are dispelling the

darkness. Think about this.

When you gathered up those Christmas presents, did y'all

see the lobby? Just crazy.

Did you see our post this week on Facebook or us taking?

Yeah, you can clap. It's good.

It's good. So you, you take you take those

you we took those presents over to the Salvation Army and there

was a huge gym full of presents. And the lady said to me, she

goes, yeah, we just had a truck come from some company, I won't

say the company. And they had they brought 300

angels. And this is a massive company.

It's the second biggest employer in Savannah.

And and they, they had 300 angels.

And I was like, bro, that big company only had 300 angels.

Our little church over in Savannah has 75 like like we

just brought like we had 75. Like my goodness, like we

probably could have done, you know, another 50 because easily

people came to I didn't get an Angel.

Can I get an Angel? I was like, bro, I don't want to

tell you move quicker. Everybody here is super

generous. Like you got to you want an

Angel, get 1. And so the point is, is that

that you when you when you put together those gifts and you

delivered those gifts, you were bringing some light into some

darkness. Do you see how that works?

It was like a pin of light into some darkness.

Every child that will open one of your gifts from that Angel

tree will experience the light of Christ that now here's here's

nothing. Please hear me.

I don't have enough. I don't have enough time to

completely unpack this. But if you believe that you did

that, like you bought gifts for an Angel for the Angel tree

because you're somehow good, then you're missing the gospel.

You need to go back to what Mallory said, start preaching

the gospel more regularly to yourself.

But if you know the only reason I'm prone to be generous, the

only reason I'm prone to not look out for myself is because

Jesus Christ surrendered himself for me.

He is the light that is pushing the darkness out of my life.

If you know that, then you realize, OK, the only reason I'm

doing anything good for anyone or ever trying to do good deeds

is because life, The light of Christ is inside of me,

dispelling the darkness of my heart.

And then I'm dispelling the darkness.

Christ through me is dispelling the darkness of this world.

Christ offers us hope and light today.

And if you're someone who follows Jesus, you can stand up

and say, Stephen, I know how much Christ has changed my life.

He's dramatically changed things for me.

You could stand up and and share that.

And this is how he changes things for us.

Isaiah 4 lists out four names of this, this baby, this child, and

this is how this baby changes your life.

This is in verse 6. It says that number one, he's a

wonderful counselor. In other words, Jesus knows what

to do when you don't. Anybody ever felt like they

don't know what to do. He knows what to do when you

don't. He understands your suffering

because he himself has suffered. He's he, you come to see me.

I've counseled many people that were walking through something

I've never walked through. I'm not a wonderful counselor,

capable counselor, but I'm not wonderful.

What makes Christ wonderful is there's nothing you haven't

walked through that He himself has not experienced and

understand. He's a wonderful counselor.

He knows what to do when you don't.

He changes your life because He's a wonderful counselor #2 He

changes your life because Jesus is the mighty God.

He has power when you don't. He has the power to sustain you,

to help you through whatever you're facing.

You are not saved because you're strong enough.

This is a very anti American I know.

You're not saved because you're strong enough.

You're not right with God, because you're determined

enough. You are right and saved and

correct with God. Everything's good between you

and God because God himself and his power did it on your behalf.

Mighty God #3 Isaiah tells us he's called the everlasting

Father and this is beautiful to me.

This baby born is our everlasting Father.

You belong to Him, even we even when you feel alone.

His care for you does not ever expire.

And the number four, he calls him the Prince of peace.

This is important ready. Write this down if you write

stuff down. Jesus does not offer peace to

the world. He establishes peace in the

world. There's a difference.

In other words, Jesus is not a helpless king going, well, I

hope we can have peace in this world.

No, he's established that there is and there will be peace.

Peace has been established. Peace is not calm feelings like

everything's OK. Peace is an awareness that

wholeness has been restored. So here's the deal.

If Jesus is who Isaiah says he is, he cannot just be your

religious mascot. He must either be bowed down to

or completely rejected. He doesn't really allow any

indifference. And today that's why you need to

know that your hope is not dependent upon your effort to

self improve or your effort to be better.

Your hope depends on Jesus Christ, knowing Him, being

connected to Him. Hope does not rise inside of us.

Hope dawns on us. And think about the dawn as we

wrap up today. The literal dawn.

When the sun comes up, the dawn does not happen with a lot of

fanfare, does it? The sun does not come up and say

I'm here, I want everybody to know I'm here.

Slowly but surely, the sun rises and it takes over the land.

And slowly but surely, the darkness is pushed back and the

shadows are eradicated. And slowly the sun rises and

more and more the darkness is removed.

The same is true for you and your heart.

And the word that you need to know is the word surrender.

We sang about it today. I'm surrendered to you,

abandoned this idea of surrender.

This is how the dawn takes over your heart slowly but surely.

You say, Jesus, I'm surrender to you this day.

So you wake up tomorrow morning and you say, Jesus, I'm

surrender to you this day. Let the dawn rise in my life.

Whatever difficulty you're facing, a challenging thing

you're walking through, Jesus, I'm surrender to you this day.

Some of you feel like you're fumbling with your phone in your

life, right? You're just trying to get your

flashlight on to live your life. And what I'm telling you is a

little time with Jesus, a little time with Jesus.

I mean, just a little. There's like a massive spotlight

in your heart begins to push the darkness away and it changes

your life. And there's people you're

surrounded by right now who could testify and tell you that

that just believing in Jesus, just trusting that Jesus is real

and listening for his voice has radically changed your life.

So let me challenge you. If you've never been a person

who prays, let me just challenge you to put an alarm on your

phone. You know that thing that's a

flashlight. Put an alarm on your phone that

says pray. Pick a time that you're most

likely to do it. And then let your prayer be this

Jesus, I need your light. I surrender to you.

Is that a big fancy religious prayer?

Jesus, I need your light. I'm acknowledging I have dark

heart. I need your light.

I surrender to you. Super simple, right?

Christmas is the story that we are a people walking in

darkness. This is hard who have dark

hearts. But God did not leave us in that

place. He sent his Son Jesus as the

light of the world to dispel the darkness, to dispel it in our

hearts. 1st and ultimately, friend, a new day is coming, or

there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and all the

darkness of this earth and all the darkness of the world will

be dispelled for good. Christmas is that promise.

Will you stand with me? So we pray together.

God, thank you that you did not tell us to try harder to get it

together to, you know, figure it out.

Thank you that you had said, call us to surrender, to

surrender to the King, to surrender to you, to daily

invite you in to be the light of our lives.

Dispel the darkness of our own hearts, the darkness of our

greed, the darkness of our fear, the darkness of our anxiety, the

darkness of our despondency, the darkness of our resentment.

And then, Lord, as you do that work inside of us, then we in

turn become a light to this world.

As we surrender to you, your light shots through us.

What a gift. We cannot generate our own

light, we cannot generate our own hope, we cannot generate our

own belief in the future You. It is a gift from you.

And thank you for the ultimate future, Father, that one day the

darkness of this world will be dispelled completely and death

will be no more. Grave shall be conquered,

illness, sickness be gone through and we shall be as we

were always intended. Thank you for the promise this

Christmas season. The light is dawn on us.

Christ name we pray, Amen. Love you friends, have a blessed

week and a wonderful day.