Light of the World | What's in a Name?

I forgot the bumper video, sorry bro.

That's the bumper video.

That was it, okay.

All right, I re-bumped.

So excited, thank you Jim and Carrie

and church just to have me come.

Just so honoring in Jimmy's heart and passion.

So it's not just a family thing, it's a passion for souls.

And so as we look at today, just the light of the world,

the heartbeat of this church

and as I've shared with the actor house,

we have a relationship with them

through Highland Christian School.

My son had gone there, my daughter went there one year.

And just the heartbeat, I remember talking with Doug

and just the heartbeat of mission and outreach

has been incredible with the church here.

So I'm no deep theologian.

I use the KISS method.

Keep it simple, Scott.

You didn't know the acronym actually had my name in it.

Cause Jim said that we don't,

and my wife tries to counsel me is

you don't say stupid in the CRC.

You don't, but honestly Jim probably has said

worse words maybe.

Just a little.

All been forgiven.

Yeah, okay, good.

So he jokes with me and digs at me all the time.

So I get to do this publicly.

So I just had to take advantage.

I'm sorry, I took advantage of that one.

And for the benediction.

Right, right.

So some call me a goofy administrator

and that's affectionately

because I have this evangelistic call

but then the gift of administration.

And so with that, those two together,

combined to intermission.

My mission statement for my life,

I did this 27 years ago,

was to take a person from surviving to thriving

is our mission of intermission,

but was to put people and ministries in place

for the kingdom of God.

That's my mission statement.

To put people and ministries in place

for the kingdom of God.

And hence intermission.

And 25 years ago or so I became the executive director

of intermission and so we've been walking this journey

and we talked about that.

We'll talk about more.

But intermission is its own 501c3,

separate from the church, symbiotic with the church,

but that we work together.

And so it's been an incredible partnership.

So today we're talking about Jesus, the light of the world.

You know, and really I told Jim that I got a great,

man you don't believe the title of the sermon.

The title of the sermon is the mysterious God of heaven.

Right, it's not a good title.

The mysterious God of heaven.

But you gotta go God of heaven.

Or else it doesn't have any meaning.

But as we walk through life,

so I told my wife if I go to too many dad jokes,

just start going like this and I'll stop.

But as we walk through,

our focus today is Jesus, the light of the world

who revealed the mysterious God of heaven.

We rub shoulders every day

with people that have no clue who God is.

In your workplace, in your family maybe,

in your neighborhood, in your community,

we engage people that have no clue.

They literally think, and maybe someone here,

who is this mysterious God in heaven?

Who is this God?

We walk through our situations,

we walk through our circumstance,

we walk through life, and we rub shoulders.

What I miss most about being in quote unquote

in the secular world is rubbing more shoulders

with people that don't know who God is.

Because you and I are the church.

This church is an incredible church,

but this isn't the church.

Everyone sitting in this auditorium is the church.

Wherever you go, the church goes.

So wherever we walk, the church walks.

Jesus walks with us, amen?

The Father.

So Jesus here is the light of the world.

He is the light of the world,

shining light on this mysterious God of heaven.

He calls him the Father.

So even saying the word Father this morning

triggers, I guarantee, several individuals here.

And I say that the word Father, it triggers many things.

Some good, some bad, some horrible.

And when we have and we rub shoulders with the world

and we say the Father, and we communicate Jesus

and the Father, man, the triggers that go off,

the individuals that we work with,

you know, you know what, we're all in need

one way or another.

I think the sooner we realize

that we're all in need one way or another,

it gets rid of the us and them.

We, the great hope.

Now we carry the hope, we carry Jesus with us,

but you know what, he is the hope.

And we have to partner and build relationship

and walk with people.

So as we see social media, the news, fatherlessness,

the lack of relationship, the horrible relationships

that are within this world,

and the Christians and even Christian church

walking away from the truth of the gospel at times.

No wonder society doesn't know God.

They look at as this mysterious God of heaven.

So as we look at the scriptures we see,

and we're gonna move into John in a minute here,

John chapter eight, but as we look at that,

we see the scriptures, the Pharisees

and the leaders of the day thought they knew God,

but they didn't.

And Jesus pointed that out.

So the Pharisees did not know God,

and then the people around the Jewish community

was so confused because of the mixed messages

in the holier than thou and the public prayer

and all of a sudden Jesus said you're going

to whitewash temples, that they look religious,

but then steal from the widows.

So as we look at this, we see that this missed message,

but Jesus is the light of the world to show

that God is a good, good father.

That God is a good, good father.

And this, as you can say that, it's healing to me.

I had a great father, but I don't always recognize

that God is a good, good father.

How many got stuck in the rules and regulations?

And although the Ten Commandments,

we want to follow those definitely,

but without relationship, without the mercy,

without the grace of God, they become rules and regulations.

And then we don't want to come to God,

we want to walk away.

But if we humble ourselves before the Father,

He can show us the goodness

and His kindness brings us to repentance.

Amen?

Do we say amen to the church and the CRC?

Do we say amen?

All right, yeah, come, yeah, I'm not even going to go there,

damn it, I'm going to go.

I'm not going there.

Trying to find this mysterious God of heaven.

Debbie and I were able to go to Rome in 2006.

And we went through the 16th Chapel.

Beautiful, going through the hallways,

and there's these huge, beautiful tapestries.

But then something weird,

and I'm not coming against Catholic religion,

but John the Baptist looked like a Catholic cardinal.

The disciples looked like priests.

And like, I think camel hair, eating locusts,

that's who John the Baptist was, right?

But the dark ages brought in,

couldn't even recognize who God was.

Dark ages.

So throughout time in history,

we see that this mysterious God of heaven has been a mixed message.

As we look at the disciples and all, as we get into this,

we see that who really is God.

Then the Reformation.

And the CRC said amen, the Reformation.

I was speculating something like hoofs and hollers or something

when I said Reformation.

Amen?

The Reformation really brought light out of darkness.

It wasn't so much the Reformation church,

it was the bringing of God's Word, the truth.

That it's by grace we are saved, not by work so no one can boast.

That Martin Luther didn't have to walk on his,

crawl up the stairs on his knees and beat himself to get God's attention.

But it's by grace we've been saved, right?

The mercies of God.

So as we see this, we thank God for what we need

and what we're talking about today, a relationship that actually brings a great awakening.

We are in need of a great awakening because the CRC, the AG, the Catholic Church,

the Baptist Church down the street,

we better come together as the body of Christ

and pray and intercede together for a great awakening

because no one comes to the Father unless he is drawn by the Holy Spirit.

So as we look at this, we see this mysterious God of Heaven

and we see the masses of people that still feel that he's mysterious and they don't know him.

Then Jesus shines the light on God the Father, the mysterious God of Heaven.

So as you have your Bibles there, pull them out if you have them.

So John chapter 8 verses 12 through 19, I'm just going to read that.

John 8:12–19

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said,

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life.

The Pharisees challenged him, who are, who you, here you are appearing as your own witness.

Your testimony is not valid.

Jesus answered, even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid,

for I know where I come from and where I'm going,

but you have no idea where I come from or where I'm going.

You judge by human standards. I pass judgment on no one,

but if I do judge, my decisions are true because I am not alone.

I stand with the Father who has sent me.

In your own law, it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true,

and I am the one who testifies for myself and my other witness is the Father who sent me.

And then they asked him, where is your Father?

You do not know me or my Father, Jesus replied.

If you knew me, you would know my Father also.

So Jesus draws, he was incredible at just drawing you in,

to go below the surface and really question, not in a condemning way,

but in a heartfelt, like as Jim just did, a heartfelt drawing to God's Word to prepare for communion.

But they was drawing upon their hearts, and the term Father was a trigger,

like for them, who are you talking about?

So even the disciples, as the disciples, and we'll move a little bit into the scriptures of John 14,

so the disciples walking and talking and eating and ministering with Jesus,

then Philip comes up with this, and it's going on down to chapter 14, verse 8 and 9, it says,

Philip says, Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.

Jesus answered, don't you know me?

Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father? Jesus' whole ministry was to reveal and give glory to the Father

and reconcile you and I to him.

That was his ministry, to show us the Father.

Imagine this world without light.

Just yesterday, I'm going to put the dog in his cage, and I'm going through a dark room and smack my foot.

I didn't say stupid. I didn't say that.

Under my breath, I might have said something else, but I didn't say stupid.

Man, I said that too much in the CRC.

Okay. But how many, how many, when you go to a hotel and you're going out on a trip or a hotel,

one of your, you or your spouse or you or an individual can't sleep with any light in the room.

Is there anyone?

Where you ran? Okay.

You need to get saved because Jesus is the light of the world.

So the other spouse, and I'm not saying which one of, my wife or I, I'm not saying that,

but you go through this dark room that you're unfamiliar with, and then you stub your toe.

You're like, and then you knock over the ice bucket and it just crashes on the floor.

And then you, you're like, how are you sleeping now? Do you like it?

Are you awake yet?

And you need some light in your life, right? We need some light.

I remember the other day, other time we were in a hotel, it's like there's a mirror in the bathroom.

So how many get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom? You're old like me? Okay.

And I think both of us did this. We just walked smack into the mirror

because you're thinking the bathroom was further than it was.

We need light. Amen.

We need light. You and I need light. The world needs light. Revealing the Father to a lost world.

So how is God perceived in this world? Ask yourself that.

How is God perceived in this world?

Usually it's filtered by your own circumstances. Maybe you're in the spot of the rules and regulations.

Most of the time it's filtered through our belief and God has filtered through our parents,

how they raised us, deeply religious, irreligious, religion gone sour.

People not having a dad growing up or an abusive parent.

So their filtering becomes God hates me or God is not for me.

Then tragedy strikes, leaving us feeling abandoned by God, a person left thinking, really?

Is there really a God in heaven?

So we grow up in church, right? I dare say probably have grown up in church.

But there's a lot of people that don't grow up in church.

You and I are the church. It's not this building. It's not our denomination.

But Jesus, Jesus revealed the Father. Jesus wants to reveal the Father between you and I,

ministering to this world and then enter Jesus walking close, loving relationship,

walking alongside, allowing people to come and thrive in life.

So we enter Jesus, John 1, 14, it says, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory in the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

In the scriptures above that John 8, 1 through 11, we see the woman caught in adultery.

So as these Pharisees and Sadducees dragged this woman in and caught her in the act of adultery

and threw her down in front of Jesus, the real work had to start first with them.

He who is without sin cast the first stone.

They were not showing her the heart of the Father.

They were not showing her the compassion and mercy and forgiveness with accountability

that Jesus showed us and that the Father showed us, that Jesus showing us who the Father is.

They were not showing her the Father.

They had no clue who this Father is, his temperament, his demeanor.

They just knew who they thought he was.

So then the stones drop from the oldest to the youngest.

The stones drop and they walk away.

Jesus has a good way of revealing our hearts.

So they dropped realizing and Jesus was showing them the heart of the Father.

So then he says, woman, who condemns you?

She's like, no one, no one's around.

And Jesus says, neither do I.

Go and sin no more.

Jesus shows us the heart of the Father.

Amen?

Jesus shows us the heart of the Father.

So as we see, Jesus reveals in action healings.

In reaction and emotion the passion in the temple overturning the tables.

His conversation with Nicodemus answering his questions and his doubts and his fears.

Jesus made people feel seen.

It's a big thing right now to be seen.

Some are good, some are bad.

But he saw the woman with the issue of blood even though she did not want to be seen.

He saw her.

The Father sees us, wants to have conversation and give us answers to our doubts and our fears.

And the Father takes action in our hurt and in our pain.

You may be here today thinking, oh, there's others that have hurt and pain.

What about your hurt?

What about your pain?

Are you just swallowing it?

Are you just letting it go by the wayside?

Or are you communicating it to the Father?

Then are you communicating it in relationship to others?

So there can be healing.

There can be restoration.

That we may each other know in our families the Father.

And reveal that so that we can have a profession of faith.

We have a restoration of relationship that draws them, doesn't repel them from the Father.

So as we look at this, we're reminded, I love the chosen.

And I cleared it with Jimmy before.

There's no controversy over chosen.

But we're not preaching the chosen.

So I'm reminded of Jesus in one of the scenes and coming back from the whole day of healing people,

delivering people, exhausted, just falling out in his tent.

It reminds me then of the scriptures in Matthew, Matthew 9, 35, from 37 through 37.

It says, Jesus went through all the towns and the villages, teaching in the synagogues,

proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.

Because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,

that they said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into this harvest field.

Where there's a world harassed, where there's a world tore apart,

there's a world without compassion and mercy and accountability

that draws them to the heart of the Father.

The workers are few.

This harvest field that Bethany talked about, that Munster Church is involved in,

let's be workers in that harvest field.

Jesus showed the heart of the Father.

The Father wants to heal and show compassion and help the harassed and the helpless.

You and I, the humanity that doesn't know where to turn, we're all in need one way or another.

And the sooner we figure that out, that we are in need also, the better.

And Jesus' word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

And God made His dwelling and showed us the Father.

He humbled Himself in Philippians 2, 6, and 7.

Who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God

something to be used or owned for His own advantage.

Rather, He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

We all need to humble ourselves.

We're not Jesus.

We're not going to go out and be the perfect one.

But the world's not looking for perfect.

They're looking for light at the end of the tunnel.

And that you and I, Jesus said, you and I are the light of the world.

He said that we would do works like Him and even greater works in masses and numbers

because He's with us.

He's Emmanuel, God with us, dwelling by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

That we can have the power and the ability to share the light

and show a lost and dying world, the Father.

The good, good Father.

Guess what?

You're the light of the world.

I didn't say it, Jesus did.

You and I are the light of the world.

Let Jesus shine through our hearts and showing us the Father's,

let Him showing us the Father's compassion and forgiveness

and accountability with our own lives

and then walking with humanity to show them the mysterious God of heaven

who loves them, shining some light on the dark spots in the world,

forgives them and reconciles them to Himself.

A thriving life.

A powerful thing I've learned is this,

that we're not to do for people what they can do for themselves.

We're to partner alongside individuals

like Jesus came and partnered with His disciples,

partnered, came and walked alongside individuals

and shined light on some dark spots

and gave them tools and abilities to overcome the darkness.

That may take on the form of budgeting.

That may take on the form of being reconciled to a Father

that they feel is, where's this God of heaven?

So as we look at this, we see, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Jesus healed the masses.

Jesus taught the masses.

Jesus fed the masses.

I'm not Jesus in good English.

I ain't Jesus.

I'm just one person.

Yes, Jesus healed and fed and taught the masses,

but He spent His time discipling the twelve

and probably more closely the three.

How about you and I just spend time with the one?

If we spent time with the one,

this congregation would double in size.

And it's not about getting them in church.

It's about you being the church, me being the church,

in relationship and drawing them to Christ.

And if they become a part of my church, great.

If they become a part of your church, awesome.

That's the next step, right?

But the first step is showing them the heart of the Father,

that He loves them, He forgives them,

He has compassion, and He has accountability, right?

That we all need to be reconciled unto God.

Are we willing to enter into relationship with others,

show the Father, allowing Jesus through the Holy Spirit

to work through us and work in an incredible way

that changes hearts and lives?

Jesus brought the light and walked alongside humanity,

showing them, partnering with them,

displaying a close personal relationship, taking time,

sacrifice, a willingness to enter in

and find out the real need underneath the surface.

Because if we just touch surface all day,

Jesus had a beautiful way and a bold way

of going beyond the surface level

to what was actually the problem.

Then as we're walking through this life,

we want to show the heart of the Father,

but it's not just to share those just material things,

but to share the heart of the Father, our heart.

Not just heart of Father, but your and my heart,

coming alongside and maybe getting a text at midnight

and answering it.

Maybe walking through a situation,

taking somebody to where they need to be.

We'll go into that later.

There's more questions I know you'll have.

But as we look at this, we see the heart of God walking alongside.

And the heart of poverty is, as Debbie said,

the heart of poverty is not the lack of material things.

That's part of it.

But the heart of poverty is a lack of loving, caring,

willing to walk alongside relationships.

That's the heart, poverty of relationship, poverty of mind,

poverty of spiritual poverty of relating to who this God of heaven is.

That's your job, my job, to show them the heart of the Father.

This is what intermission is endeavoring to do.

It's a mission.

It's all of our mission to take a person from surviving to thriving.

Do you in here know this mysterious God of heaven?

Do you know Jesus?

If not, there's so many in this church,

eldership and deacons can show you the heart of the Father.

So my challenge this morning is this.

Find out from this mysterious God of heaven what he's calling you to do.

What is he calling me to do?

He's prepared works in advance.

Before we were born, there was a book written.

Jesus wrote a book, God the Father wrote a book about what he wants you to do.

But many of us don't ever open up that book.

It's full of plan A.

But I know for myself, I probably already ran into plan Z

because I missed all the letters in between.

But the Father's heart is for you.

So then go find the one you can share Jesus with

and show them the heart of the Father. Amen?

Father, we thank you so much for your time.