Jesus - Light In A Dark World

Let's stand together.

Please Pick your Bibles up Hope you brought them, cause we like to get into the Word.

Jesus is the Word, isn't he the Word made flesh.

Let's wave those Bibles around.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to celebrate the birth of my Savior, my Lord.

I'm so glad he's still alive today and he's seated at the right hand of the Father.

He ever lives to make intercession for me.

I'm never alone because he sent me the Holy Ghost who lives and abides with me and in me forever, and I thank you for that.

In Jesus' name, you can be seated.

I'm gonna read to you out of Matthew chapter four and I'm gonna read it in the message Bible, but you can follow along in whatever Bible you have.

Matthew chapter four.

I just like the message.

I know it's not a translation, but it's useful.

I believe it conveys the thought very well in most cases.

We'll read it here in verse 16.

Over Jordan, galilee, crossroads for the nations, people sitting out their lives in the dark saw a huge light.

Sitting in that dark country of death, they watched the sun come up.

Isn't that precious?

Sitting in that dark country of death, they watched the sun come up, and so tonight I just wanted to share a simple message.

Jesus lied in a dark world and when I read that in the message and when I read it in the King James, it just reminds me of America right now.

We've turned into a nation of miracles, we've turned into a nation of darkness.

It's a shame.

It's a shame that I have a president that can't even mention Jesus' name during his Christmas and that's shame on you, president.

I'm ashamed that you're the president of this country.

You don't deserve it.

We can talk about how you got there, but you don't deserve it regardless.

And none of the people that want to deny the Lord.

I mean this is one nation under God.

I don't know who they think God is, but it's not them.

I met the Lord and he is not them.

But you know I don't want to dwell on the negative because, as dark as it was then just look at what Jesus did and His church is here now.

I said His church is here right now to make a difference.

So the birth of Jesus was all about the renewing of that light.

You know it started off with a lot of light and then it just, you know, when Adam's sin, darkness fell and man was separated from God's presence.

His bright presence left and then God began to operate His plan of redemption and it just seemed like it was eons and long periods of time went by, but he was always working behind the scenes.

He had Jesus, was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.

He had this, as it were, in His vest pocket, ready to pull out at the right time, at the proper time and at the proper time, when everything lined up in God's timing.

Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin and you know, everything about His birth was about the light, light and the darkness.

Think about the angels.

They appeared to the shepherds.

Just the normal, everyday working man.

I think Congress has forgotten about the common, everyday working man.

They prefer the immigrant, especially the, you know, the criminal element of the immigrants, and it's just terrible.

The working man, the one that goes to work and works and works and works, you know, is forgotten by His government.

But God didn't forget Him.

I mean, he appeared to the shepherds.

The angels appeared and it was all you know.

Glory to God in the highest.

They began to sing in a light shone all around those shepherds man.

They started looking for the Christ child.

We've got to hurry up and find Him.

And then, of course, the wise men followed the star again, light.

Light led them to where Jesus was and they pursued that light.

And so, when you think about His birth, it was all about the light and of course, the darkness wanted to snuff out that light.

What was the darkness?

Well, herod represented darkness.

He was the king.

He had heard about this king gonna be born.

He's king.

He didn't want any competition and so he tried to snuff out the light.

He failed.

He couldn't stop.

Listen, nothing can snuff out the light of God, nothing.

Nothing can snuff out the church.

The church is the light of the world and we are the church, amen.

So we have a candlelight service.

You know we're about to light candles and we're gonna have that ceremony to symbolize some things, and I just wanted to give you three things to be thinking about while we're worshiping God.

We're gonna light the candles and worship God with another song, and as we do, I want you to think about three things.

Number one and I especially think about this maybe our little children.

They don't relate to this one as much as adults do, but at one time we lived in darkness.

I still remember the darkness I lived in.

I still remember growing up in church and yet lost, separated from the bright presence of the Lord, even though I was an altar boy, even though I went to church lots and lots.

You know, as an altar boy, I mean you know I'd go, you know, seven days in a row and then skip a week and go another seven days in a row.

And you know, I mean, since I was a good one, they scheduled me a lot.

Since I was dependable, they schedule.

I remember riding my bicycle across Refurio, texas, to go to the church.

We lived on one end of town, the church was on the other end and unless it was cold, like this morning, my parents let me ride my bike.

If it was really cold and bad and raining, well then they'd take me.

But I was still lost.

Religion couldn't save me and I remember how distant God was.

Oh, hallelujah, thank God, we received Jesus and light came into us in the person of the Holy Ghost.

We believed the good news and saw the sun come up in us.

So he's in there in the person of the Holy Ghost.

See, they're one and the same, they're three and one.

Sometimes we get all mixed up.

Well, is it Jesus in there in the Holy Ghost?

Well, it doesn't really make any difference, they're all the same.

Father, son and Holy Ghost are all the same.

I mean, they're three but they're one.

But the actual one that lives in us is the third person that God had, the Holy Spirit.

And so simultaneously, at the moment we were born again, the moment that the sun came up in us, god implanted his love in us, supernatural agape, the God kind of love.

Man doesn't have any idea about the God kind of love.

All that man is capable of human beings, flesh beings is filial love.

That kind of love is conditional.

That love is I love you as long as you love me back.

I love you as long as you're acceptable.

I love you as long as you do what I want you to do.

I love you.

If you don't do what I want you to do, then I won't love you.

Well, that's filial love and that's all we're capable of until we get saved.

And now the agape love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and we're capable of loving people without any condition.

We don't have to have people be acceptable, we don't have to have people's behavior be acceptable, to love them.

We can love the sinner now.

We can love the sinner now the way that Jesus loves the sinner.

He doesn't approve of their actions, he doesn't say it's okay, but he loves them, for God so loved the world and so because he so loved us, even while we were yet sinners, yet Christ died for us, then we can also love others.

We can love people with that a God-paid love.

What an amazing privilege it is to be able to get into that that part of love.

We can set aside the phileo side, that's, the flesh side, and we can decide to love people with a God-kind of love.

When you have a marriage built on the God-kind of love, you have a fortress, you have something that can't be separated.

That was God's plans to have two act as one.

The Bible says two are better than one.

So why is that?

Because of a God-paid the agreement, and so God's burning love for us, toward us, is actually able to move through us to a lost and dying world.

That is why we do what we do for Malawi and for Haiti, and for our missions and for anything that we do to help people with food, drives and so forth.

I mean we don't do it to score points.

We do it because we love, because we've been loved, hallelujah.

And so God's love and light, the last thing I want to think about as we write these candles God's love and God's light, those two things I'm talking about, are the reasons why, no matter how dark the world gets, there's still hope.

That's why I say that God's not through with America, because the church is still in America.

You know, the church is in America, let's not get confused, but the church is in America.

We live here and so much of the church, as citizens of America.

Yes, we have that covenant, but the covenant we have with God is superior to the one that we have as Americans, and so we can love other Americans that are not really voting correctly, they're not acting correctly.

We can love people that are unlovable, and we can shine the love of God and the light of God toward them as God's representatives.

Jesus came the first time, he is coming the second time.

He's coming again, and I want to be found doing what he created me to do when he comes.