The Light of Christ // The Light of the World (part 1) // Pastor Drew

Heat. Heat.

Good morning. How we doing, collective?

>> Doing all right. Let's go. Thank you

guys for joining in. Man, what powerful

worship. Uh I I I'm just overjoyed to be

together today. I just feel it. I am

because I think a couple different

things we are getting to highlight and

getting to celebrate uh that we

officially met our faith offering goal

of $35,000.

But we're not done because the reality

is is that then we started right after

that we started a foster uh a foster

kids gift drive Christmas present drive

and we talked to release ministries and

we talked to Boytown right beside us

here

and we didn't we didn't ask for a

specific number. We didn't say hey we

think we can cover this much. We said,

"We want to help. We want to cover your

needs. What are the needs that you

have?" And 300

gifts, 300 kids is what they said. And

we're like, I'm thinking right after

faith offering, um, what the heck are we

going to be doing? Right? Like we're

going to get 25 gifts and that is it.

And so now first of all faith offering

gave 75 gifts because of your guys'

generosity. So through that we already

started 75 gifts ahead. But right now as

of this morning we are already over 250

gifts for these foster kids.

So many of them have never received a

Christmas present and all of them this

is their Christmas present.

Thank you guys.

Thank you for being hope, for being

life, for being generosity. Thank you

guys for being a the the fingerprint on

a gift that they are never going to know

your name. They're never going to know

your face. They're never going to know

uh the the the gift, the sacrifice that

it took for you to be able to do that.

But

it's because of that generosity.

I am so grateful to be a part of a

church that's bigger than us. And now it

is officially for those of you who are

the the the like let's go all out with

Christmas season. It's officially

Christmas season, right? We're after

Thanksgiving. It's officially December.

If you don't have your Christmas lights

up like me, you are officially a

slacker. Uh it is not good. So, merry

Christmas. We're in that season. I'm

going to start greeting everybody with

that all the time. Uh the downside of

this is that in this season, it is also

the darkest

time of year. Literally, physically, it

is the we get less light right now than

we ever do, right? It is it's terrible.

If you work a job that is like 7:30 to

5:30 or 7:30 to 5 or something like then

you just don't see the sun.

It's terrible. And there's something

that light does for us. There's

something that light does in us. There's

seasonal depression that begins to get

brought in when we aren't around and

receiving light. And this is why for

this Christmas season, we're talking

about the light of the world.

And today I want to if you guys want to

open up your Bibles to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

John chapter 1 starting in verse one. Uh

John 1 · chapter mention

this is

what I think is the most beautiful,

powerful, deep prologue introduction to

any book that's ever been written in the

Bible or not.

The first part of John, the first really

the first 18 verses. We're only talking

about the first five today, but we're

going to continue to dive into this.

There is so much gold inside of here,

and it is one of the most powerful. If

you are not if if you're not familiar

with the word of God, if you are not in

your Bible very often, and then you open

this up and this is where you start,

it's just like this as the first time

you read it, it's like mysterious. And

then the more that you get into it, the

more you're like, "This is magical. This

is amazing." And this is so I want to I

want to read through this. And I want

this is this is something that I used to

do growing up. And I want to actually

encourage us into this today just to

honor the word of God. Can we stand? Can

we stand in honor of the word of God?

And this passage is not specifically

more word of God than other passages. I

just want to make sure that we do this

today. So, if you're able to join with

me, uh, in the beginning was the word,

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 not anything was made that

was made.

In him was life, and that life was the

light of men.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

Amen. Amen. Come on, praise the Lord.

Let's give a hand for the word of God.

You can be seated.

Oh, man. And so I want to I want to walk

through this, but this is there's so

much depth inside of this. If you

notice, this is the gospel of John is

written by John the apostle. John the

disciple of Jesus. So this is not a

story. The difference between the

letters of Paul when Paul writes about

Jesus, he writes about his experience

that he had. He had one experience with

Jesus himself on getting knocked off his

donkey. Uh the light comes. He doesn't

see Jesus. He sees him through a light.

Hears him through a light. And that's

his experience. John gets to minister

beside Jesus for years.

And it's amazing that the people that

knew Jesus best are all declaring the

same thing about him.

that he was not just a mere man.

See, familiarity breeds contempt.

the more I get to know you, the less

amazing

and myster the more the mystery

dissolves and and it's like getting to

know if you've ever gotten to know a

celebrity or someone that you've seen on

TV or someone that you've just admired

so much and then you're like they're

like just a person that's weird, right?

like they always kind of walked on like

above the ground to me and they're just

very much a human. And this is that's

what happens

as you as they would be getting to

minister with and alongside Jesus. Yet

constantly the more they're around him,

the holier he gets, the mightier he

gets, the greater he becomes in their

eyes, and the more they get the deep

revelation of who he is. So John

witnesses the life and ministry of Jesus

and he begins to write down the gospel,

the good news of Jesus.

And this is how he introduces

the son of God.

And it's in the beginning. Before we get

to this the before we dive into the

Greek and get all nerdy on us here, I

want to highlight in the beginning.

Where else have you heard that? My Bible

scholars in the room. Where is that?

>> Genesis 1:1, baby. Right. These are the

Genesis 1:1

first three words of the Bible. It's the

first language. It's actually the exact

same words that's used in the Greek

translation of the Old Testament as

well. In the beginning, John is

intending to call back to Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1

But what he's doing is he is refraraming

this whole story

that he is saying in Genesis in in

Genesis 1 and two, there's a couple

different times when God is speaking and

he creates and he says then he speaks

and says, "Let us make man in our own

image." And it's like, "What? Hold on.

Where's this plural coming from? What's

going on?" And the reality is is that he

is saying Jesus was there.

The father, the son, and the spirit were

all together in community as one

creating the entire universe. And we

need to don't don't just build this in

the same way that you've heard this

story

before.

Thank you. Thank you. uh don't we need

to we need to reframe the way that we've

seen all of creation because John's

saying you and I we have walked beside

the creator of the universe

in the beginning in the same way see

here here's the problem the more we look

at the world the more we stare we just

talked about this about more than me the

more we look at the world the more we

see the evil and the more we see the

darkness and the more we get questions

about what what's up with all the

sinfulness and the and the tragedies and

the terrible things that are happening

in this world and the more we look at

that we we see darkness but here's the

reality

John is saying I want you to reframe the

way that you're seeing the way that

you're reading the word of God I want

you to reframe the way that you're

looking into the past

because for some of you I like God's

saying to you right now. He's saying you

cannot continue to claim these old past

issues, your old sins, the sins done

against you, the old weaknesses, the old

problems. You can't continue to claim

THAT AS BAD, AS PROBLEMATIC, as evil, as

dark, as sin. Because he wants to

reframe that and SAY, "GUESS WHAT? JESUS

WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME.

Jesus is in IT JUST AS FEI TALKED ABOUT

AS HE WALKS YOU through it. I don't have

to look back at it and go, "That was the

that was the darkness time. That was the

bad time. That was the time without

Jesus. Now I have time with Jesus."

Guess what? He's there. And don't let

the enemy take possession of parts of

your story. When I can give that to God,

when I can reframe, when I can go back

AND SAY, "BUT WHAT IF God wants to use

even the worst parts of my story, and if

I put it as his feet,

it's going to become

very good.

It's going to become

divine. It's going to there's going to

be purpose inside of it. The wound is

going to heal. It's going to leave a

scar that tells a story. And I'm going

to be able to give out my story in the

best parts and the worst parts of the

story that you that of your past, of

your history. Reframe it, recognizing

that Jesus was there the whole time in

the beginning.

He still can work through all of it.

Don't let the enemy take parts of your

story.

Don't let the enemy take ownership of of

the of of his role and and he continues

to possess

part of who you are. When I give it to

God, he reshapes it. He redeems it. He

restores it. I believe that God wants to

do that today. Amen. Amen. So this is

this is and as as we get in so in the

beginning we're like three words into

this guys. There's so much we're just I

I I wish I could dive deeper. So in the

beginning was the word. As we look at

the word word the word word is a very

important word

with me. Okay. Here we go. The word is

actually logos.

is the Greek word that represents this

is this is where it starts to get really

deep because there's so much that comes

behind both the meaning and the

application of this word in in scripture

and in the context of their culture.

Right? Then what it means is it

literally just means a word or a

message, an idea that's being given. But

in philosophy in in Greek Greco Roman

philosophy at this time and as they're

trying they would use this word they'd

use logos as this concept of this

everexisting what happened in creation

how did everything come to be it's this

mysterious just it something was spoken

something existed there is a truth there

is a sense And they would use this word

as this impersonal

non-person

power spirit

entity thing

that must have initiated

all things

that must have initiated matter. It's

very similar to today when people refer

to this same concept as the universe.

right? Or karma or things like that.

That's just like this the the the good

vibes, right? The whatever it may be,

the juju, I don't know what you want to

call it, right? This it's this idea of

this impersonal, I don't know, there

just seems to be some power out there

that's beyond. But also at the same

time,

the the word is referred to throughout

all of scripture as the word of God. And

logos logos usually refers to this word

of God, which is the revelation

of God.

Yes, it's a revelation of the divine.

It's this picture of like, how do I know

who God is? Right here, I've got this

word. And it what they were reading is

they had the Torah. They had the first

five books of the the Bible. They had

the Old Testament. They have all this

stuff. And they're going, "I know.

I know about who God is. I've gotten a

revelation because of the logos,

because of the word, because of the word

of God."

And yet, here's what's crazy.

John is taking this and he's building

upon it and he's deepening this

revelation. Can we pull back up verses

1-5? John 1 1-5. And he says, "And the

word was with God."

So Jesus with and the word was God is

God.

And so what's highlighting here is that

the word the logos is not this

impersonable impersonable non-person

entity power that the universe just like

there's actual a personhood. There is

actually a divinity behind this. There

is actually a desire and a relationship

and a and like all of this begins to

open up because

it's not just us trying to figure out

the universe and the the laws and the

way that things work in this spiritual

realm. There is actually a divine holy

God, a person looking down at you right

now that sees you. In the beginning was

the word and the word was with God and

the word was God. Now the word is now

he. He was in the beginning with God. We

see this personhood. We see this

revelation and we see

all things were made through him.

Without him not anything was made that

was made.

Why does it say it like that?

That may like and you read that and

you're like that's a little redundant.

Here's the reality. What he's

highlighting is that there are things

that have not been made.

The Trinity, Yahweh,

there is no who made God. Have you ever

been asked that question before? It's

one of the things that I one of the

questions that atheists, it's one of the

questions that a lot of cult members

will will start to ask you these

questions about where did God come from?

Who made God? The reality is is that e

if if someone there there's no god out

there that's going to go I'm going to

make a god that's going to make a god

that's going to make a god that's going

to make a god that's then going to make

everything and the rest of us are just

there for being the the generational

like the reality is is there is an

almighty supernatural high god that

created ALL THINGS.

THERE IS NO GOD WAS MADE. There is no

beginning to him. There is no end to

him. There is FOREVER AND ALWAYS WAS AND

ALWAYS will be.

SO ANYTHING THAT HAS been made that can

be made, all the angels, ALL THE

DARKNESS, ALL THE STARS, ALL THE MATTER,

ALL THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, ALL OF YOU AND

ALL OF ME, ALL OF OUR SOULS, ALL OF IT,

anything that can be made, that has been

made was made by the thing, by the

person, by God who was never made.

It's this. Oh my goodness. Are you

getting to see the depth in this of like

I'm rewriting all of history, all of all

everything that you've known, everything

that you've seen. The depth of this

passage is so powerful.

And now I I I want to highlight there's

a lot of this this passage is often used

by cults

uh that that you will see where they

will say the word if you dive into the

Greek and you see that it says that

there's missing this this participle and

what it is and and it says the the

actual translation should be the word

was a god and what it does is it

introduces you into this idea that you

can become a god that eventually that's

where they they want to take you. And

what happens is that I recognize that if

I am the end of my story, then guess

what? I it's it's pretty hollow. If my

goal in life is to become God or a God,

then actually that is it becomes this

self-defeating thing. And where is my

selflessness in that? Where is the

reality that everything within me cries?

Is the more I focus on me, the less

healthy I actually become. The more I

recognize and I live for others, the

more I become who I'm created to be, the

more I worship him. We just talked about

this in the series, right? The more it's

about him, the more I find who he's

created me to be. And so there's this it

is not if you look into it, there's

there's so much lie into the the that

interpretation. You'd have to totally

reframe the entire Bible if you want to

phrase that one the way that the Greeks

phrased right there. If you want to take

that and apply it accurately everywhere

else, the entire not there's passages

literally in the same chapter that now

would no longer make any sense. So the

reality do not listen. There's so many

lies going around and we have to

recognize the reason I'm highlighting

this is because

as we look at what does it mean that

Jesus is the light of the world. In him

was life and that life was the light of

men. There's a lot of different things

that this represents, right? There's

something that light does for us to us.

One of the things first of all that the

light of Christ does is it reveals

truth.

So, it reveals truth just like a light.

When I need when I need to be able to

see where I'm going, if it's pitch

black, I've got me

a flashlight. There you go. Right. And I

can now see where I'm going because I've

got the light. Right. I've got the light

reveals

things THAT I COULD NOT HAVE seen

otherwise. Right? This is the light.

This is light reveals truth. And this is

when I talk about truth.

Uh sorry. John 8:12 says this says Jesus

John 8:12

spoke to them saying I am the light of

the world. Whoever follows me will not

walk in darkness in blindness but will

have the light of life. Your word,

Psalms 119 says, "Your word is a lamp

unto my feet and a light to my path."

That there is a revelation that I get.

It reveals truth.

But I have to recognize

when I talk about truth,

this is not your truth as opposed to my

truth as opposed to that other truth as

opposed to whatever find the best truth.

Right? If there's if we have to

recognize that if there is a truth that

someone carries

better than another truth. I don't know

anybody that says, "Oh, I I think that

they have a better truth than me." I

think right. Everybody goes, "Oh, my

truth you you do your truth, right?"

Whatever your truth is, but my my truth

is better. My truth is right. My truth.

If there are better truths out there, my

truth is that

if I'm feeling a little funky, I can

like throat chop you, right? Like that's

just that's how I feel. That's what I'm

doing, right? THAT'S A BAD THAT'S A BAD

WAY TO LIVE. THAT'S A BAD what this word

truth usually is is world view. What the

way that I view the world around me,

that's a terrible one. And so there are

better truths out there. And so

therefore, there must be an ultimate

absolute truth that I can follow. And

I'll tell you what, that truth is

already revealed right here in the word

of God. Because truth must come from the

way that things were created to operate

and be followed in is created by the

creator himself. And so truth is found

in him. If Jesus was at creation, then

truth is in Christ and nothing and

nowhere else. I need us to understand

this.

When I step in, when I when I'M PURSUING

CHRIST, IF I see anything in this world

that is not glorifying Jesus, that is

not pointing me towards him or making me

more like him or guiding me guiding me

towards his heart and towards who he is.

Not trying to make him affirm what I

believe, but trying to get me to guide

towards him. If it is not doing that,

it's a lie. No matter how good it feels.

I will tell you guys, there is no truth

found in atheism.

There is no hope found in Islam.

There is no peace and fulfillment that

happens in karma and eastern religions.

There is there is nothing that you will

that will actually SATISFY YOU FROM THE

American dream.

THESE ARE NOT THE THINGS WE SHOULD BE

PURSUING. I PURSUE CHRIST AND CHRIST

alone because he is the word. He is the

truth and he reveals that. He reveals I

will only discover it through pursuing

him. And when I pursue him, I pursue

life. I pursue truth. I pursue hope. I

find purpose. All of that is only found

in Christ himself.

And it's incredibly exclusive because

you can either be right or you can be

wrong.

If there's infinite numbers, then

there's infinity minus one wrong answers

to 2 plus two.

There's one right answer.

That is it. And if I'm I'm I'm I can be

close but I may not be on it. I'm

telling you guys truth. Who he is. Jesus

is the light of the world and he reveals

truth. But here's here's the reality. If

I come to Jesus and he gives me hope,

gives me purpose, gives me life, gives

me joy, gives me satisfaction, gives me

fulfillment, and and and everything is

better in him. Amen. Can I get a

witness? Anybody? Hallelujah. IT'S SO

MUCH BETTER. IT'S NOT EASIER, but it's

so much better in him. If that's the

case, why is the whole world not just

constantly running towards Jesus?

Because light does more than just reveal

truth.

John 3:20

John 3:20

says, "For everyone who does wicked

things hates the light

and does not come to the light, or else

his works will be exposed.

Whoever

does what is true comes to the light so

that it may be clearly seen that his

works have been carried out not in me.

Not because of me, not because of my

strength, not because of my ability, not

because I'm just good enough, but

carried out only in him.

See, here's here's this this powerful

revelation

that when I'm when I don't want to come

to Jesus because I'm afraid,

it's usually because I'm afraid I'm

about to get exposed.

I know what's going to happen. I know

he's going to I know he sees me. He sees

me all the time. And I just I don't want

to I I don't want to make eye contact.

I don't want I don't want to see that

he's seeing me. me. I don't want him to

see me looking at him because I'm

ashamed of this. I can't. When the

reality is is that when I come, when I

step into the light, it exposes

all of my blemishes, all of my mess, all

of my stains, all of my sin, all the

parts of me that I'm ashamed of, all the

parts of my story I hate, all of it.

It can be a little bit frightening to

step into the light,

but I'll tell you what, it's the only

place that we will find truly find hope.

And so

this is and this this is I don't even

know if you you got this back there. Uh

John chapter nine begins to Jesus talks

about

I am the light of the world again and

then he he it's right after he heals a

blind man and they're coming to him the

Pharisees and the religious leaders are

going like hold on why'd you do this and

what's his problem was he a sinner why

why is this happening and they go on

this whole issue and the blind man is is

like making these reports of he's like I

don't know what to tell you I I was

blind now I see I couldn't tell you who

healed me cuz I was blind. He told me to

go. I'm now I'm healed. And and so like

I don't know. I don't know where he is.

I don't know what he looks like. I can't

tell you, right? Like I just know that

this man healed me. And they know who he

is. They know what's going on. So they

go and confront Jesus later in verse uh

39.

And it says John 9:39. And it says,

John 9:39

"Jesus told them, I entered this world

to render judgment, to give sight to the

blind and to show those who think that

they see that they are actually blind."

So the Pharisees were standing there

said, "Are you saying we're blind?" He

says, "If you were blind, you wouldn't

be guilty. But be but you remain guilty

because you think that you can see.

Because you claim that you can see. If

you say, "I got it.

I've got it figured out. I already I I

know it. I'm understanding of the

mysteries of God. I I I'VE GOT this

thing figured out. Come to me for all

the answers.

As soon as you claim, I've got it. I can

see it. I know it. The reality is is

that light not only reveals truth and

not only exposes sin, but it also blinds

pride. Right. That's terrible. Y'all are

blind for like the next three minutes

here, right? This is It blinds pride

when I'm when I look into a light for

too long. It's it I can't see. Squat. I

am blinded because I am trying. I I

think I'm seeing something that I don't

see. So if you feel like you are blind

right now, good.

Good.

It is coming to him and saying, "I can't

see." It's coming to him in humility

that allows for the revelation of where

is your light, Christ? Where is your

light in my story? Where is the hope

that I've been looking for? Where is the

restoration of what you're doing in me?

Where is the truth that I'm seeking

right now for where I'm at? And I'm not

going to look anywhere else. I'm not

going to AI. I'm not going to anyone

else. I'm going to Jesus. And I'm

seeking him. And in the light I will

find hope in his. Can we stand up in

here? And so what I want to do

Psalm 139:23 says, "Search my heart, oh

Psalms 139:23

God. Know my anxious thoughts." It's a

will. It's a humbleness. It's a

willingness. God,

look to me. I'm going to take a second

right here and I'm going to step into

the lights.

And if that's you, if you need to step

into the light, maybe for a bunch of

different reasons. Maybe you go, I need

God to reframe my story.

I need to start back in the beginning. I

need to see Jesus throughout all of it,

and I need to step into the light. Maybe

you're going, I don't feel like I got

clarity on where I'm supposed to be, on

what I'm supposed to be doing, on how

I'm supposed to my direction. What is

truth? Where is that? Where how am I

supposed to function? What's my purpose?

What's my calling? Maybe you need to

step into the light to be able to see

truth. Maybe you need to step into the

light

to expose

all your mess. And you need to come to

him humble, broken, fully, exactly,

authentically as you are. Not just

wearing a mask, not coming dressed in

your best church gear like this is I'm

I'm coming to you broken. I'm coming to

you hollow. I'm coming to you in need.

And then

maybe there's some of you as well who

need to go, hey, I I need a I just need

a dose of humility. I need the light.

I thought I thought I could see and I

need to step in and I need to come and I

need to go. I'm blind and I need you. I

need you to guide me. I need you to walk

with me because I can do nothing good on

my own. The light of Christ is there for

you. If you want, if that's you, if any

of those is you, would you step into the

light? We got right up here at the

altar. Would you take a second, just

step up into the light? If you're going,

I need God to expose my mess. I need to

seek him in truth. I need to rewrite my

story. I need to reframe my mess. I need

to just step into the truth of God. If

you want to step into the light of

Christ, come on up. Come on up. And I

want to pray into this because I believe

I believe that we should be a church

that's always drawing into the light of

Christ. Amen. Come on. As I pray, you

can come on up. Heavenly Father, I pray

in the name of Jesus,

we draw near to you.

You say, "Draw near to me." And you will

draw near to us. So, Father God, I pray

as we come,

we come saying, "Here's my mess.

Here's the unknown. Here's what I don't

understand. Here is my pride. Here is my

dysfunction. Here is my past. Here is my

trauma. Here is my my sin. Here are my

issues. Here are my addictions. I'm

coming to you with all of it, God. Lord,

I pray in the mighty name of Jesus.

Would your light bring healing? Would

your light bring life? Would your light

reveal truth?

Would your light reveal the false lies

of all the other false truths out there

that we can come to you and you alone.

Father God, I thank you that you are

restoring right here. You are doing new

things right here. You are bringing

about new life right here. In the mighty

name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Come on. I

want to stay here for a second. I

believe that God has God has something

that he's doing in here.

If you are, as we're stepping into this

next song, if you are going, man, I need

to step into the light of Christ for the

first time ever, for the first time in a

long time, what I want to do is I want

to meet you up front here. I'm going to

come right up front, right over by this

banner. Would you come and meet me right

over there so that we can I want to pray

with you. I don't want you to do this

alone. Come find me because this is the

greatest step you will ever find. There

is more hope and purpose and life and

fulfillment in the truth of Jesus. I

promised you. Would you come and meet me

right up here if you're dedicating your

life or you're giving your life to him

for the first time? Amen.

>> Hey, thanks so much for watching today's

message. Our prayer is more than the

words that were spoken in the message

that you would remember the things that

God spoke to your heart.

>> Yeah. And no matter what it was that God

spoke to you, I know that part of your

journey is other people being in a

community because we are better

together. So if you made a decision to

follow Jesus today, would you click the

link below and fill out the form? This

is going to help us so that we can

celebrate with you and equip you with

some tools so that your next steps are

great steps.

>> Yeah. Thanks so much for watching. We're

praying for you. We're cheering you on.

We believe that the best days are ahead

of you.