Getting Used To The Dark - Levi Baer

Bring you greetings in the name of Christ this morning. M H. I've

enjoyed the Sunday School discussion, and so far the service seemed like a lively

discussion and some good thoughts are appreciate John for taking someone's place there in filling

in. I always enjoy that. So if you were coming here and expecting

a Mother's Day sermon, I'm you may be disappointed, but I don't.

I want to at least acknowledge the mothers here this morning and not overlook them.

I think that my desire is not to overlook the mother's here. So

and I actually tried to get out of preaching otherwise, but it seemed like

the Lord had other things in mind. There's something that's been kind of on

my mind, on my heart for quite a while that I felt like,

would he would have had me speak on The saying goes that a hundred men

may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home.

I think that's true. There's also an old Chinese proverb that says a dog

won't forsake his master because of poverty, and also his son never deserts his

mother because of her homely appearance. Hopefully that don't hurt anyone's feelings. And

I don't think any of your homely, but we get the IDEA proverb says

that who can find a virtuess woman or price as far above rubies? And

I know of at least one virtuess woman here this morning, And I know

there's others as well, but I do know of one, and I'm thankful

for that. A mother has a lot, a lot of sway in the

life of a child. It's been said that a child's life is like a

piece of paper, and everyone that everyone that passes by this child leaves a

mark on that paper. I think that can be true for all of us

in thinking about how we impact children that would come in contact with all.

Right enough on that, the title the message this morning is getting Used to

the Dark. That title's not original with me, but it's I felt like

it fit so well with what I would like to look at here Getting Used

to the Dark. I'm going to read about six or eight passages of scripture

here before we go into the message. If you care, you can turn

to them. And I'm just on some highlights here, which mostly are found

in John in his Gospel, and also his epistols. That's one of the

one of the first places we think of when you think of light and darkness

and that comparison, and there's many other places as well. Start off in

John chapter three, verses nineteen through twenty one, and you can just page

through here with me as we read some verses that discuss this. John chapter

three, verse nineteen. It says the woman saith unto him, Sir,

I perceive that thou sorry, I'm in verse chapter four, and this is

a condemnation that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather

than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the

light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be

manifests that they are wrought in God. John chapter eight, verse twelve says,

then spake Jesus unto them, saying I am the light of the world.

He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the

light of life. John chapter eleven, verse ten. Jesus says, but

if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth because there's no light in

him. John chapter twelve, verse thirty five. Then Jesus said, unto

them, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you

have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in

darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. First John one, verse five, five

through seven. It says, this, then is the message which we have

heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and

in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship

with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

we have fellowship one with another, And the blood of Jesus Christ, his

son cleanseth us from all sin. And one more First John chapter two,

verse nine through eleven. He that saith he is in the light, and

hateth his brother is in darkness. Even until now, he that loveth his

brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness,

and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Have you ever thought about how I'm sure you have. We've all noticed

it. But just think about when we walk from a bright room into a

dark room, how dark that room seems for a while. In fact,

even on a bright day like this, just walking through these doors into a

relatively well lit building takes us just a little bit for our eyes to adjust

to that light. And sometimes that can happen in our spiritual life. There's

there's some things that happen in our eyes, and I'm I'm not going to

take the time to go through that whole scientific explanation of how that works.

But as far as what we can see on the outside, we have the

pupil that dilates as it needs to gather more light. So the pupil gets

large in the dark and small in the light, and that allows so much

light to enter the retina. The eyeball and behind that pupil are what we

call cones and rods, and they have their ways of trans translating that light

into making it useful to us so we can see. So there's a lot

of the eyeballs quite a unique creation. I can think back to when when

I was younger, and it's very very normal for young children to be afraid

of the dark. That is a common I can think back many times in

my life, whether it was in my own familiar bedroom where there was all

of a sudden monsters that weren't there when the light was on, and all

of a sudden, there they are. I've thought of different times over the

years, walking to my deer stand or through the woods before daylight, how

the woods they just don't seem friendly at all. At night, there is

so many things that seem to be there to get you. But then in

the daylight, when you walk back out that same trail with the sunshining,

it's you can whistle a tune and you're not worried about anything. So just

the perspective we have of darkness, we shy away from darkness. But as

we walk into a dark dark room from a bright room, it over time,

slowly our eyes adjust to that darkness. It takes it can take quite

a bit of time. Scientists said that it can take up to twenty or

thirty minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to that darkness, and of course

they never adjust as well as an animal that can see in the dark.

But over time shapes appear and we can see a lot better than when we

first enter the room. So it's a gradual adjusting to the dark. I

don't know if you've ever went into a restaurant where it feels like they expect

you to eat a lot more by faith than sight. And as your eyes

adjust to the light, you realize the surroundings become a little more clear.

That's it reminds me of that as well. It's not a fast process.

It's not an immediate thing. So we have this thing of light and dark,

and they're both represented in the physical world, but I believe that they're

they're both testimonies to the spiritual world as well, spiritual truth. And all

of us probably understand that one of the overarching themes of Scripture is the ageless

battle between light and darkness. It's a constant, ageless battle. So what

is darkness this morning? Maybe one of you could tell me what darkness is

in the physical sense, anyone, that's exactly right. It's really simple.

It's the absence of light. And that holds true in the spiritual sense as

well, when we recognize light for things that lead to God and darkness leads

away from God. It's really that simple as well. There is no gray,

and that's the part that we really would like to fit in, or

at least we appear that way sometimes, like we would like to fit in

a gray area, and we're either in light or we're in darkness. It's

that simple. The foundation of truth in the Bibles that light is always truth

and darkness lies and deception. Darkness is bad. Light is good. You

know, if you think way back there in Genesis the way Moses would have

put it there, that before light came, the earth was without form and

void. Have you ever thought about that? That means nothing? There was

nothing, There was without form and void. But then God came and he

said, let there be light, and there was light. And what he

said about that light that it was good. Light is good. And I

realized this is in the physical sense. But this morning, Sindy lights in

darkness. That's very much a theme of scripture, that Sindy lights in darkness.

Job speaks of the condition of those in spiritual darkness in chapter twenty four

if you want to turn to that Job twenty four thirteen through seventeen. Here

he says, they are of those that rebel against the light. They know

not the ways thereof nor abide in the paths. Thereof the murderer, rising

with the light, killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is

as a thief. The eye of the eye. Also of the adulter adulterer

waiteth for the twilight, saying no eye shall see me, and disguiseth his

face. In the dark they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves.

In the daytime, they know not the light, for the morning is

to them even as the shadows of death. If one know them, they

are in the terrors of the shadow of death. So here we have the

condition of sinful man, a world that is, a world that is lost

in a shroud of darkness. This is how they operate deep darkness and bondage

to sin. You know, there's a there's an aspect to where many people

today have made peace with darkness, peace with darkness in the same sense they've

made friends with the terrors of darkness. They lived in darkness so long that

they become desensitized to darkness. They become comfortable with evil and immorality. I

read in John chapter three to begin with, and started at nineteen, you

know, but before that it talks about for God's so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not

perish, but have everlasting life. But here John says, and then in

the following I read about the light and darkness. John said that man had

become so acclimated to darkness that even though God sent his only son as a

light to the world, they did not accept him as such. Even though

the light came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, it says,

they loved darkness rather than Jesus Christ, rather than the light. So

this is a condition of the world that we live in in the kingdom of

darkness, you know. And it's easy for us to talk about all that

that represents the world and darkness, the kingdom of darkness. But what about

us? Where do we stand when it comes to this thought of getting used

to the dark? What about our churches? Our church? Do we stand

as individuals first, but as a church? Do we stand in stark contrast

to darkness? Or do we see how much of the world, how much

of darkness, we can be a part of and still call ourselves Christians.

Maybe we have form but no power. Maybe we have neither form nor power

you know, that's always a reality too most of the time. And if

you notice when we read the scriptures on light and darkness, the theme of

that is that most of the time men do not realize that they're in darkness

or that they're getting used to the darkness. And that's maybe the main point

I would like to drive home, is that maybe we are getting used to

the darkness and we don't realize it. We said, what darkness is,

it's anything that leads away from God and things of light. There's many people

that don't realize that their life has taken on shades of gray, if you

want to say it that way. There's many people that will not realize it

until they die and are inhale, like the rich Man and Lazarus, until

they realize that they had gotten used to the dark. They won't realize it

until then. If you think of Lot, they're in the wicked city of

Sodom, cities of Sodom and Gomorrow. You know, if Lot would have

understood the impact that that would have had on his family to be in that

city, even though he thought, you know, maybe he could have a

be a light to the city. I'm not sure what all was going through

his mind there, but he raised his family under very wicked conditions. If

Lot would have realized that it would allow his family to get used of the

dark, he would have moved long before or and he ended up losing many

of his family, including his wife. I just think it's very easy,

and I'm talking to myself that we can get desensitized to darkness, very very

easy and just not realize what darkness really really is. It's a very tragic

thing when that is us, when we are getting used to it. When

you think back over your life and I think back over my life from the

day that you were converted, your conversion experience, are there things that you

would have stood for that you no longer stand for. I'm not saying that

we can't change in life, but which direction is the change? Is it

towards darkness or is it towards light. I think many times in our society

today and in our churches, it feels like we gain so much comfort in

the numbers of people that have become desensitized to darkness, and it makes us

feel safe even though we know that something might not be quite right, it

might be a little bit of a shade of gray but there's so many people

that are moving along that current that we don't we don't we don't realize that

the impact that it's having. And it feels good because we're in the company

of many other people, even thousands of years ago. King David and Salm

eighty two, verse five. Just read that verse. He recognize that we

can be blind to darkness. Palm eighty two five says they know not neither

will they understand they walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth

are out of course, that was a long time ago, and David recognize

that we as humans we get off course, we get used to darkness.

But he also says that they know not neither will they understand. Is there

a chance that we could be deceived and on a path that is shady not

completely light. This is not the easiest thing to say, but church leaders

have a great responsibility in leading a church and keeping them on a path to

light and not darkness, and not allowing a church as a whole to get

used to the dark. Now. I realize that we all have our responsibility

as individuals, but there also is a great responsibility on leaders. You know,

we can only lean against that which resist. We can only lean against

that which resists. And this thing of getting used to the dark happens very

very gradually, little by little. That's why we don't see it happening in

our life. This last Friday, my wife and I had the opportunity to

go with the school to the zoo in Portland. Had an enjoyable time there,

beautiful warm weather. But as I observed the people there, and maybe

I do tootch of that, I couldn't help but think some of the time

frames I'd heard there was in nineteen fifty eight some things that had started.

So think back. That's you know, almost sixty around sixty years ago.

But just think about fifty years ago if you would have walked through that same

zoo, Think how different people would have looked, just in their attire is

what I'm mainly talking about. There's there's things that people wear in public now

that would have made us blush to go to bed in them close fifty years

ago. What happened? How does that happen? Did it happen overnight?

I don't think so. I think it's a gradual getting use to the dark.

And for some reason or another, it seems like modesty is one of

the first things that goes when it comes to this thing of getting used to

the dark. I don't understand how all that works, but it seems like

the lions get blurred so quickly when it comes to modesty. I'd just like

to look at seven seven different aspects here of maybe things that come close to

home for us that could be a sign of getting used to the dark.

And many of these things are not sin in themselves. It's rather things that

lead to spiritual darkness. I think one thing that happens is prayer is not

prioritized. It's just not the main thing we do when we need an answer

from God. Prayer is not prioritized. I think that is a sign when

we're using human reasoning over prayer, I think we're getting used to the dark.

The second one is confession and repentance, and I'm not sure what all

to say about that, and testimonies go in with that as well. Just

the way we view confession and repentance overall, is it something that in the

back of our mind that we can almost I'm not sure what the right word

is, but we can almost look down on someone that is willing to confess

sin and confession is one thing, but true repentance. Do we hold people

accountable that when they repent, that that means a change of life, a

change in direction. And maybe this is just things that I am confused on.

I'm not sure, but it feels like, you know, over time,

as the years have gone by, when I just think back to my

twenty five years ago, and maybe there was too much focus on confession and

repentance. I'm not sure, but I'm just not sure where I would be

without churches that focused on that and made it very important. And how all

that you know, the details of all that and what should be said in

public and whatnot. That's not what I'm necessarily here to decide, But I

just think we should have a setting that confession is encouraged, and how we

react to people confession, confessing and repenting from sin goes a long ways with

how they feel about bringing things out and putting them in the light, revealing

things. The third thing is we talked about how people the world likes to

do things under the cover of darkness. They like things to stay hidden,

and do we promote an atmosphere that there's secrets to our lives and the way

we live our lives, the things that we do, the places we visit,

even as families. Maybe it's where we go on vacation. We would

just as soon nobody find out where that was. What does that reveal about

our heart? As far as living in the light, maybe our hobbies can

fit in there. Being accountable to each other. I feel like that's something

that over time in my life is it's something that can be watered down very

easily in a brotherhood, and that's where we live individualistic lives, and in

the meantime there's lonely people because they're not involved in some of these activities.

Is mission work Number four? Mission work? Is it strongly promoted in our

church. I'm not going to say much more about that. I think it

goes without saying that it should be in the right way. That's not saying

that just going to the mission field fixes our problems, but I think it

should be a priority, whether that's at home or abroad. The fifth one

is I'll just call it high living. I don't know what comes to your

mind when you think of that, but most of us we have to admit

that we probably live above the average person, even in our county. Lynn

County. And I'm not sure where this fits in with I think about it

a lot, and thinking about things doesn't necessarily change and I realize, but

it does kind of bother me how Because most of us live let's just say

that we have more money to help us live a high life than most of

the people that we come in contact with, it's very hard to connect sometimes.

And along with that, I think is where politics can somehow weave their

way into church depending on where we're at on that ladder, and that is

not good. I think that is a sign of getting used to the dark.

Something that goes with the high living thing is the focus on food that

we have. And I realized, maybe it's easier for me to say because

I'm not a foodie necessarily, I do like good food, but some of

the things that how much we focus on food and how that draws us is

maybe a sign of getting used to the dark. It's not wrong in itself,

but what is under what is what drives that? Six one is technology

and I'm not going to say a whole lot about that, but maybe the

main thing is that we embrace it without a second thought and take everything on

that we can possibly get our hands on and not realize what is happening.

I would just say about that that we be very careful and not view it

lightly using sound judgment. The other thing that happens sometimes, and I'm speaking

to myself here as well as in our preaching, not just not here necessarily,

but across America in our preaching, that maybe we shy away from naming

the sin that we're discussing in our preaching, and maybe we just generalize everything.

I'm not sure where I would be today. I know I wouldn't be

here if preaching would have been generalized. Throughout my growing up years, it's

pretty easy to hear that there's sin among us and walk out the door if

it's not named and never change anything. And I'm not saying that we need

to be harsh and say things we shouldn't, but just to be clear that

the devil and getting used to the dark and the works of darkness would have

us not call things out the way they are. Just to be clear on

that, and back to leaders again. It's so it's so easy to fall

into that trap of pleasing people, and that's me again. And to relieve

the pressure of our church, of our members to keep them from leaving.

There's a pressure there, and so we we move our stands. We allow

another step, if you want to say it that way, But hardly any

time passes before the pressure is right there again. It really didn't change anything.

It just put us on another step, on another level, and the

pressure is right there again. That is called human humanism. And which step

would we rather stop on? What would we rather argue about? Would it

be sleeve length or what color our hair has dyed? Or how many piercings

we want on our body? That is happening at churches that are down the

stairs. Every denomination is to choose which step we just picked the battle?

What would you rather that battle be? I would rather the battle be how

many people that were trying to help and they were stumbling over each other in

that aspect instead of sleeve length. Don't get me wrong, but some of

these things are just their life, and that sleeve length thing is just a

term. I don't know any problems there. But the enemy of vision at

night is light, a bright light. Think about that. Jesus said that

ye are the light of the world, that is us, We as the

light of the world, will stand in contrast to darkness. And if we're

our light is dim and we're getting used to the dark slowly, you know,

to the to the mediocre, mediocrity appears great. To the mediocre,

mediocrity, mediocrity appears great. M So, just to think back over some

of the things we talked about today, right here, we are all making

choices that are either getting used to the dark or we're moving towards the light,

one or the other. It can't be in between. We have one

one life to get it right. We can never enter into the same river

twice. Which is it for you? Which is it for me? In

closing, let's turn to First Peter Chapter two. First Peter Chapter two,

versus nine says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and

holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of Him

who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What I would

see from that verse, and I am so thankful that we have that avenue

for myself. I don't know where I would be without that avenue of coming

out of darkness into his marvelous light. And that's the thing I would like

to leave as an encouragement if we if we have found ourselves and I have

in many ways getting used to the dark, that we would go through that

avenue, that light which is Jesus Christ, and come into his marvelous light.

May God bless you, and I thank you for your attention and wast

for a song at this time