How to Be a Light in Dark Places || Pastor Adam Mesa

If you guys are ready, let's dig into the word today. We're in

a series for the summer call walk it Out. As my wife shared.

As we're talking about walk it out, what it means to walk our faith

out. Pastor Diego shared the first week about what it means to walk in

love. We had an incredible guest speaker, our friend Pastor Andre from South

Africa last week talking about failure. But really we were leaning into walking it

out in leadership because great leaders they fail, but they don't fail backwards,

they fail forwards. And really Pastor Andre broke that down for us on Father's

Day, and today we're going to talk about what it means to walk in

light? To walk in light, what does it mean to actually be the

light of Jesus not only in the church, but outside of the four walls

of the church. So if you'd like to participate with us by reading reading

the Bible with us, you could turn to John chapter eight. That's what

we'll be at today. If you have a physical Bible. If you don't,

that's okay. We will have it up on the screen and when you're

ready. We stand for the honor of reading God's words, So we give

our attention to the Bible, so that we're not flicking through our phone or

anything like that. At this point when we read the scriptures, we want

to give God our full attention and just be patient with me. We're gonna

read a few verses, so you might be on your feet for just a

little bit, but that's okay. We'll get through it together. John chapter

eight, verse twelve says again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am

the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life. Amen, you may be seated.

There we go. It's a short one today, it's an easy one.

Some of you got a little nervous, All right, throw it up for

me one more time. We'll read it one more time. But really,

that's one verse today. That's why. That's how powerful of a statement this

is that we're gonna read if normally I'm reading eight to twenty verses, but

today just one. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying I am It was

there, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not

walk in darkness, but will have have the light of life. Let's talk

about that today. When Jesus shares that he is the light of the world,

what does that mean? I mean, I think simply for many of

us, we think to ourselves, it's pretty simple. Right, you go

into a dark room. What's the first thing you do? If the room

is dark, you turn the lights on? Okay, you go in the

backyard and you got to get something done. And maybe the area of your

blackyard doesn't have electricity, so you either flick the flashlight button on your phone

or you bring a flashlight light with you. And so it's pretty simple that

we recognize that when spaces are dark, we like light. I mean,

so when Jesus says I'm the light of the world, I mean, we

could simply go okay, makes sense, But that's not what Jesus was just

speaking to. Jesus was actually saying something incredibly profound and incredibly significant, even

so much so if you continue to read in chapter eight, you'll see that

people are actually mad that he just said that. They're angry, they're upset

that Jesus would have the audacity to say something so ludicrous as he is the

light of the world. But here's where it's powerful. Because Jesus is one

of the greatest teachers. He is the greatest teacher that existed. But he's

one of the greatest storytellers in the sense that he would always picture something that

people saw in their eyes in front of them. And so in Israel's day

they had the temple where they would all worship. It was in Jerusalem.

It was in the center at the top of the mountain is where they built

the temple, and in there there was a courtyard and it was called the

Court of Women. The temple had three distinct phases inside of it. The

first phase was the Women's Court, and that's kind of where everyone could hang

out, women, children, men, And then there was the second court

called the men's Court, so that would go only where men would go now

and can worship. And then there was the third which was actually inside the

temple where only the priest could go. And then further inside the temple there

was a great curtain where the Holy of Holies was and only the chief priests

could go in there once a year. And it's in that area where God's

physical presence dwelt with the arc of the Covenant. And so in the women's

quarter you'll see there are four distinct candelabras that stick high in the air.

They were above seventy feet tall. And amongst these candelabras were four kind of

petitioned bowls that circumferenced each of them. And so every night, when the

sun would set in Israel, the priest would climb up a ladder and these

things were massive, seventy feet tall in the air. And these lights were

massive in size, almost the size each one was almost the size of a

small vehicle car. And it held oil where they would now light it.

And at night it was said that it would light the entire city of Jerusalem,

and these candles would pierce the walls up the temple. And the saying

or the belief was, no matter where you were in Jerusalem, all you

had to do is scan the horizon and look for the piercing candles outside the

wall, and you would always know where God's presence was in the city.

And it was said that if you were lost, all you had to do

was look up search for the candelabras, and you would know where to worship

God. And so this was a significant place. And once a year there

was a holiday called Shakout in Jerusalem, and what they would do once a

year is during sunset, all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem would gather in the

Women's Quarter and they would have a lighting ceremony where they would play tambourines and

trumpets and they would dance. It's like an old school barbecue, is what

they would do. They would cook up food, they would sing songs,

and they would celebrate once a year, the priest going up the ladders to

light these candles. And during this holiday, it represented two things when they

lit the candle. The first thing it represented is when the children of Israel

were wandering in the desert for forty years, God at night he would have

this pillar of fire, this light that would guide the children of Israel through

the desert. And so when they would light it, they would celebrate that

God was guiding them every step of the way. The second thing that the

light represented is one day God will send the lights of the Messiah, who

will brighten all dark spaces in the world. And so this was a commonly

thing known that this area was held to represent God's presence, God's life,

light in darkness, God's leading, God's faithfulness in people's life. And so

with that in mind, look at John chapter eight one more time, and

imagine that Jesus is pointing to that part of the city, pointing to those

candles, and Jesus says something as crazy as this. He says, I

am the light of the world. He says, not those four candles,

not those four lights that pierce the city walls. And everyone knows where God's

presence is. Jesus says, he is God's presence. Some people say that

Jesus never claimed that he was God in this very statement right here, because

those candles. People were mad because they know the significance of what Jesus just

said. He said, He's the way towards peace. He's the way that

can light the dark areas of your life. He's the one that if you

receive him, you can experience the physical manifestation of God's presence in life.

So he says to John, ay, I am the light of the world.

And he says, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but

will have the light of life. Jesus shares with everyone, you don't have

to scan the city and look for these four candles if you're lost. All

he says is you have to scan and look for him. And you will

no longer be lost. That's a powerful statement. When Jesus says he is

light, it's no longer like what we thought were you just flick a light

switch. Jesus is saying he is the fulfillment of everything they were looking for.

That's what would get some people angry. But when we recognize Thomas Edison,

you know, the inventor of the light bulb, he says this,

we will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles. That

was Thomas Edison's goal, that he would make electricity so cheap and so available

that only the rich will burn candles. I don't know if you've ever been

to a candle store before, you've been to norse Strums or Bloomingdale's. You're

like, oh, this is a nice candle, and then you flip the

candle over. I took a screen capture of a website that's a seven hundred

dollars candle. It's fifteen pounds for most of us, that's about four to

five months worth of electricity, or maybe July in the summer. But regardless,

regardless it's this big and it's seven hundred dollars, it costs more today

to light your whole house with candles every day than it would to put electricity

in your house. You see, Thomas Edison did fulfill that goal in many

ways, but in the same way. I'd imagine that as Jesus was talking

to the audience and he was saying how he was the light, what Jesus

was saying was is that he was gonna bring salvation and make it so available

to everyone that to actually stay in darkness or live in darkness, that's what

would be expensive today. It's expensive to live in the darkness. It could

cost a lot of things. It could cost your peace, it could cost

your marriage, it could cost a relationship, it could cost your purpose.

It is expensive to walk in darkness. But it is not expensive to receive

Jesus. To see Jesus in your life, active and available that you could

say yes to today, and the only thing that it'll cost is giving up

your old self to receive the news self that God wants to give you.

That's walking in life. But it would be amazing if Jesus just put it

on himself. That would make the Christian life very easy. If Jesus said

all you had to do was point to Jesus every time someone asked. But

Jesus adds to that later on, which most of us, when we really

think about it, I don't like that Jesus adds to that statement that he's

the world, that he's the light of the world, because what he does

in Matthew chapter five is then he puts the ball in your court. So

he passes the ball to you. It's like, Jesus, the SHOT's yours.

Take it. He's like, no, I'm gonna give you this shot.

And so he says, you are the light of the world. Come

on, no, Jesus, no, Jesus, you you He said,

no, no, no, he said, we recognize who he is.

But then he passes it and he said, just remember, guys, you're

the light of the world. You're a city on a hill that cannot be

hidden. Remember that the temple where they would worship it was at the highest

point of the city, and so it was a temple on the top of

the hill of the city. And so Jesus puts the ball in the court

and says, you are at the top of the city. You are a

light in the city. And he says, nor do people put a light

in the lamp stand. He's talked under a lamp what he says, and

under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all

in the house. Jesus says, you don't get the opportunity to follow him

and then hide your faith. You don't get the opportunity to do that.

He says. If you receive him as the light, then he passes that

light to you, and then there becomes personal responsibility. Day you have to

actually walk in this thing. It means you actually start repri zetting Jesus.

Man. That's tough. Edith Wharton said this, there are two ways of

spreading light, to be the candle or be the mirror that reflects it.

Jesus is the candle. We're the mirror that reflects it. But Jesus puts

this responsibility to us because we can aim at all. The end, Jesus,

you're the light. Light up dark areas. Satan trembles at your name,

Demons flee at your name, and then Jesus is looking at us.

No, no, no, no no. When you receive me, I

passed that light to you. You're supposed to light up dark areas on his

behalf. You're supposed to speak the name of Jesus so that demons flee,

so that so he puts this fund responsibility on us to possess this light and

pass it, to pass it. You know. Uh, Curtis Junior,

can I use you real quick? You didn't know that I was gonna use

you, Okay, So I just want to make that clear, and I'm

sorry for what's about to happen. Okay, I just want to make that,

make that clear. I need you to do me a favorite hobbies right

there. I need you to go to the back with him. And then

when I call you out, you're just gonna come out. Okay, just

gonna walk out, all right. We'll find out what happens. Oh,

we have the Olympics coming up at the end of July, coming up real

soon. And if you're like me, I love watching the Olympics. What's

become really famous about the Olympics is these Olympians kick off the Olympic race by

what running with a torch and then they passed the torch. It's a relay

and I'll talk about in a second. And then what they do is it's

been part of the opening ceremony of the Games. And then they light up

all of these lights, and it represents that the games are ready. Well,

they've taken that from the ancient Greeks. What the ancient Greeks would do

is they had what was called a parabolic mirror, which was almost like a

big bull and then what they would do is they would put a little bit

of dry grass in the bowl and they would paint. They would point the

parabolic mirror towards the sun. And if you ever did this as a kid,

where you took the magnifying glass and you aimed it towards the ants or

anything like that, this is essentially the same theory. Is they pointed to

the sun. The heat of the sun and the bastion of the bowl it

catches the grass on fire. And then they would take some type of vestibule

and they would pass it into it. It would light on fire, and

then they would run it to the where the games were. And so it

started in the temple. They would light the torch and then they would run

to play the games, and that's what would kick it off. So it

would first start by pointing to the sun. The grass would catch on fire.

They would light the torch, and then they would pass the torch,

and then what happens is in nineteen thirty six, the commissioner of the Olympic

Games at that time thought what would be a great idea would bring that custom

back after thousands of years to the Olympics, which is what we do now

every four years. And when he brought it back in nineteen thirty six,

they did the same thing that they did with the ancient Greeks. They would

use this mirror, parabolic mirror. They still do it to this day.

They pointed to the sun, they let the heat of the sun catch the

grass on fire, and then they take the torch, they light it on

fire, and then they do what's called a relay, and people from all

types of countries they have a torch, and then what they do is they

go a certain amount of miles. The first time it ever happened in nineteen

thirty six was it started in Greece and it ended in Germany. And so

they take their torches and one guy has an unlit torch and as the marathon

runner, the relays runner comes, he comes and he lights someone else's torch,

and then the next person runs and then they like someone else's torch,

and then the next person comes, and then they like someone else's torch,

and the next person comes and they light the person's torch all the way till

the last person runs into the ceremony of the games and lights it all up

so that everyone can celebrate and see. You see, when Jesus calls us

to be the light, he is looking for you to pass this torch,

pass this light to someone else. And just because you light someone else's faith

up, that does not diminish yours. You're not giving up something, you're

not losing something. Why would I light your torch? This is my light,

This is my flame. This is what God did in my life.

You know what. To pass this and light someone else on fire, it

does not diminish what God did in your life. It doesn't diminish what God

has called you to. It doesn't put that flm. In fact, the

light grows brighter as more people say yes to Jesus, as more people walk

in the light. But there are times that it will be uncomfortable for you

to pass this on. There are times where you're gonna be a little embarrassed

to walk in the light. There's gonna be times you're gonna be a little

uncomfortable to walk in the light. And that's where Jesus encourages us in Matthew

five. Don't hide under a basket, don't go in the closet, don't

run away, don't try to extinguish your flame. Burn bright for God,

burn bright for Jesus. You need to walk in light. And so there

are times, and it should be when you walk in a room, you

should burn bright. That should happen. People should recognize you as different.

People should the Bob says, you are not of this world. People should

say that you're a little bit weird. You're a little bit strange. You're

a little bit too hopeful, you're a little too faith filled. You're a

little too grace giving. You're a little too forgiving, You're a little too

kind, you're a little too convicted. What do you mean you have morals?

What do you mean you have ethics? People don't have those today.

I do. God holds me. So there are times you're gonna stand out

and you're cold to stand out and not blended. You're called to stand out,

just like my friend brother Curtis. You can come on out here,

Curtis Junior. You are called to stand out you're cold. Are you uncomfortable?

Right now? Would you do a Starbucks run in this right now?

Would you go to the movies in this right now? Would you go on

a date in this right now? Would you go anywhere in this right now?

No? But that's how God's called us. You should feel like this

when you go to a grocery store. You should feel like this. When

you go home and you see your spouse, you should feel like this.

You should feel like everybody's gonna look at me, and everybody's gonna weigh my

words off of my faith, and everyone's gonna see a loving Jesus based off

how I react in this. And you should every when you go to the

restaurant, you should know that people are gonna recognize you and see you.

You should know that people are gonna see that you're different and you're unique.

And there are times we want to hide this light. There's times that I'm

sure Curtis Jeter is thinking to himself, I'll never say yes to another pastor

out of illustration again. And there are time in your faith it's gonna feel

like this, and it's gonna look like this, and it ought to because

we should not think that we can just go into a space and just blend

in, just keep quiet, just not let anyone know what our faith is.

Not anyone know you follow Jesus. You should go into a place and

people go home, Man, this something different about the way you look.

You go meet up with your old college friends, they should be like,

oh, there's the dog. That's our dog right there, all that stuff.

They should be like, man, it's something different about you. Bro.

I don't know if I like it, but it's maybe I like it,

maybe I don't, but I don't know. And then now you start

to let that light burn, so people see there's something different about you.

Can we give Curtis Junior and thank you my friend. You're a good sport.

You can't take that home, Okay, you're not allowed to take that

home. You see. Yeah, I remember when you go out there,

it should be a little uncomfortable. At times. You should think to yourself

that they may know that I'm a person of faith. So therefore how I

respond will allow people to see either Jesus in me or it'll hurt the Jesus.

They'll see it and be like, how is this person say they follow

Jesus have this light? But yet they don't talk that way, they don't

act that way, they don't lead that way. People are gonna be confused

because you can't hide your light, so your light's there, so they're gonna

think to themselves, it doesn't match, doesn't match. You know, I

grew up we did. If you remember in elementary school you did the DARE

program talking about drug and alcohol and stuff like that, and you would share

and do presentation stuff like that. Well that was a version of a PSA,

a public service announcement talking about DARE don't do drugs. Well, I

want to share with you as we walk in the light. God has a

PSA for us, a public service announcement, so that you recognize when you

leave this room, or even when you're in this room, or even when

you're in the courtyard or wherever you're at, that you remember that God is

doing something in your life as the light. There is a public service now,

so you're taking notes. I'm gonna share these really fast. Here's the

PSAs of what it means to walk in the light. And if you remember

these PSAs, you'll remember everywhere that you go you are representing Jesus and it's

not under your own might. So the first thing is the first PSA is

that you got to recognize that there's power behind following Jesus. You're not alone.

You're not doing this alone. You're not doing this off of your own

strength. You're not fighting for you off your own strength. You're not praying

under your own strength. It's God's power behind you. In the same way

that I don't like turn on the lights of my house and think, oh,

man, I must be creating electricity every single day. No, it's

coming from Edicine. That's where it's coming from. I'd be haughty if Edison

one day came and said, oh, we're gonna cut off your power,

and I go, I own this house. You can't cut off my power.

That electricity is mine. No, it's being powered by someone. Someone's

got to pay that bill. Jesus paid the bill, so therefore he is

powering you. He's not expecting you to power yourself because you didn't pay the

bill. He paid the bill, So therefore we have to recognize he's the

one. So he says this in Acts chapter one eight. But you will

receive power when the Holy Spirit comes you. You are powered by the Holy

Spirit, by the presence of God. He powers you every single day when

you say yes to Jesus and choose to reflect that light. God says,

I will power you, I will give you strength. That's God who's doing

that for you, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he says,

and you'll be my witnesses. You being this light, you will witness

to all of Jerusalem, all of Judea, all of Samerian, all the

ends of the earth that Jesus is real, his death and resurrection is real,

the Spirit of God is real. You are the witness to that.

You can't turn that light off, you can't turn that light down. We

are God's witnesses of his goodness and his mercy. The second thing we have

to recognize is there is safety, their safety being the light of Jesus.

You know, as we see that we're safety. We have the slight up

there. Plato the philosopher said this, we can easily forgive a child who

is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy is life. Life is when

men are afraid of the light. And there's a lot of people today that

are afraid of the light. Because when you say yes to Jesus and you

allow him to illuminate your heart. What happens is darkness can't reside in there

anymore. And sometimes we like holding onto those dark things. We like embracing

those dark things. We like following those dark things, we like choosing those

dark things. But as God begins to shine a bright light into your heart,

you got to recognize that you can trust him with areas of your life,

that you are safe in God's care. You are safe in God's hand.

You don't have to do this by yourself. And also you have to

allow people to know that as you walk this life, that they can trust

their lives in God's hand. People should see that through your countenance, through

your accepting of God's word in your life, through your obedience towards Jesus.

They say, Man, I want to give my life to Christ because I

seem like it would be safe to follow Jesus. Not that Jesus doesn't make

you uncomfortable. He does, because when he shines lights in dark areas,

it's gonna be uncomfortable, but is safe. He's safe. I wouldn't go

to a back alley to get surgery, but I'll go to a surgeon's office

to do surgery. Either way, you're gonna have surgery performed. You can

allow the world to do surgery on you, or you can allow Jesus to

do surgery. If you allow Jesus to do surgery, it's safe. He's

safe. And we're called by our conduct and our standards for people to see

that God is safe, that you're a safe place to go to, not

like one of those like safe spaces in school or something like that, that

they know that if they come to you or they come to Jesus, they

could take their mask off and show God their true self so that he can

radically transform their life. You and I represent that to so many people,

so many people. There was a time when I was in my early twenties,

I served at a church. I lived in Los Angeles going to Bible

School, and I was serving at a church and I worked in the first

time visitor center. And so as I worked in the first time visitor center,

I had a pastor that was over me at the first time visitor center,

and it was many of you heard it before, it was one of

my jobs was to watch the donuts, make sure only first time visitors got

the donuts. So for two years I was a donut watcher, and so

I'd just stand by the donuts and I'd ask them if they had their first

time visitor you know, welcome pack, and if they did, they could

have a donut. If they were a staff or a volunteer, they couldn't

have their donut. So that was my job. And so I'm standing by

the donuts, and then all the people who talked to the first time visitors

were busy, and so this small Hispanic older woman in her mid to late

seventies, she walks up to me. She has very broken English, and

so she asked me if I speak Spanish, and I told her, you

know, not really minimally, I can kind of understand it if you speak

it, and I'll try my best, or I can go and find someone

whom I speak Spanish. And she was like, no, it's okay.

So she kind of alternated between English and Spanish and I understood majority of it.

And what she had told me was that week she had got diagnosed with

stage four cancer and she had been given ninety days to live, and she's

profusely crimed. She I mean, she is just beside herself. She's scared,

she's afraid, and so she says you know, I'm a Christian,

but I don't really go to church. And I says, what's very common

in the Hispanic community. You know, I grew up Catholic, so I

identify as a Catholic. But she says, but I don't really go to

church, but I believe I'm a Christian. And so I'm talking to her,

and she goes my daughter who lives out of state. She told me

to find a church and ask the pastors to pray for me that I might

be healed. And so I said, yes, ma'am, I love to

I love to pray and believe God for your healing. And she's just like

she's beside herself. She's broken. She says, none of my kids live

anywhere, and my husband encouraged me to come today. And so she walks

in and she's doing that as I'm speaking, and all the other pastor hears

me say, is I'd love to pray that you're healed. So he jumps

in and he says, oh, what's the problem, Like what's going on?

And I was like, Oh, she got diagnosed with stage four cancer.

She was given three ninety days to live, and she's just praying and

asking if we can come into agreement with her and pray for healing. And

so at this point he doesn't look at me anymore, and he looks at

the woman and he says, ma'am, we don't believe in miraculous healing.

That is between you and God if he decides he wants to heal you or

not. And so I can't pray for that because we don't have any power

to ask for that. So the verse you're talking about in is James chapter

blank. And that's not what we that's not what we do here. And

so therefore you can go to church, and you can you know, you're

just gonna have to go to God and just see whatever God's will. What

happened. And I look at this guy, and I have never wanted to

punch someone so hard in my life. I was furious. Even if I

don't agree that's theologically correct what he said, Even if that was, that

was not the place to do it. That was not Even if your theology

says God doesn't heal maracting. This woman is broken, she's scared, she's

afraid, she's clearly crying, she's hurting, And your response is God doesn't

do that. Your response is to do a great Bible study with her,

how dare you? And so I looked at him, and I was only

twenty years old, and I thought, I've never wanted to punch a pastor

in my life till right now, and I did it. I had to

ask God to work on my heart for how I felt in that moment.

But even the church fails, Christians fail, and you, I'm not to

remember. You don't represent you, You don't represent your theology, you don't

represent your passions. You represent the Savior, you represent the King. And

people if they come to you or they step in church, they're saying,

I think you're safe to bring you my baggage. I think the church is

safe to bring you your baggage. It is not there. The first thing

we do, we start railing how they dress or how they look or what

they said was wrong. And what we begin to do is to receive them.

And then the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Now

we can help them discuss what faith looks like. Now we can help them

discuss what healing looks like. Now we can discuss what deliverance and freedom looks

like. But Jesus says, whoever is thirsty, let them come and drink.

It's our job to pass the bottle of water. If they're thirsty.

It's not our job to say, oh, well, you know this water,

this is a you know this is distilled water. There's nothing healthy of

this. This is a smart water, and you know you need mineral water.

You can you only be quiet, give him some water. You don't

care about your water education water. Educate later when they've calmed out, when

they're able to hear you clearly. But in this one, if you're thirsty,

here you go. Or you need me to pray for you, yeah,

I'll pray for you right now. And then as God moves in your

life, we're gonna start to have some serious conversations. But right now you

need a safe savior. That's what you need right now. And then we'll

get in there and we'll do some surgery, but right now, and so

in that moment, I had to have God. Eventually I ended up stepping

away from that church and actually coming back here. That was one of the

moments that made me go, I gotta go back to my home church because

my dad would never talk to a broken woman like that. And so I

thought to myself I gotta I gotta go back to my roots. I gotta

go where I grew up. That was one of the moments that really solidified

for me, like, oh, I don't know. And so there are

times where your light may not represent Jesus's life. You gotta always check yourself

in my life with what Jesus is saying. My alignment with the heart of

the Savior, not the heart of Adam, not the opinion about it.

Am I in line with the Savior. And then the last point is this

is am I representing Jesus's authority correctly. He has power, he has safety.

And the last thing is Jesus has authority. You see Matthew chapter twenty

eight, verse eighteen to twenty says, in Jesus came and said to them,

all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go

therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to reserve all that I have

commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the

age. Jesus says, all authority has been given to him, and we

see that he shares with us that as you receive him, as his power

fills you. That means that as you exercise his name, as you exercise

his presence, there is authority to the point that devils flee. Say in

trembles at the very name and authority of Jesus. And so do not walk

in your own power or your own mind. Walk in Jesus's authority. Pray

in Jesus's authority. Believe in Jesus, not your own. Someone says,

Pastor Adam, you need to help me. There is nothing I could do

to help you, but I know who can. That's the answer. Oh,

Adam, give me some time. I know just talking to you it'll

change my life. There's nothing I can say that could change your life.

But I can tell you what God's word says, and that can change that.

I can guarantee it. I can't guarantee you if my opinion will fix

your marriage, but I can guarantee you that God's word can do that.

I can't tell you my opinion is gonna get your daughter on track or your

son on track, but I know who can do that. There's nothing I

can say. There's no chance I can create. There's no candle I can

like that can get your prayers answered. But I know the one who has

the authority that can answer prayers. I know the one that holds the will

of the Father and can pass that can give that to you, can bless

you with that because Jesus holds the authority. I have a dog now,

and he's a protection dog. He's a Doberman, and he's trained to protect

me and my family. That's what he's trained to do. And so he

went through a year of protection school and this during that year, they taught

him commands, they taught him protection, they taught him all these training methods.

And so when I got him, they said, hey, it's crucial

for the first six months that you and him create a bond so that he

recognizes your voice above anybody else's. And so I took that really serious.

Rooster, his name's Rooster. He's a dog named Rooster, and so I

like top Gun Maverick, So his name's Rooster, and so I took it

very serious. So they said, hey, you want to feed Rooster by

hand every single time for the first ninety days. He's not allowed to eat

in a bowl. When you give him water, you got to hold the

cup of water kind of like in your presence so that he smells you while

he's drinking water. You know. They said, you can't let anyone else

issue a command except for you or your wife for the first ninety days,

and all these things like that, and they had all these routines. You

have to wrestle with him, you have to play with him, you got

to go in the backyard so that he builds this bond with you. Well,

I had did a check up on the phone, and they were like

asking me like how his habits were and what he was doing and all that

kind of stuff like that. And the trainer goes, man, this is

really odd, like by the way that you're explaining him, he's like obsessed

with you, you know, because they're like the way he's exhibiting stuff like

that's not normal for that fast to happen. So even to the point that

today, if we are in the room and Rooster was there, you may

know all of his commands the sit, the circle, spin, all that

kind of stuff like that, But when I'm in the room, he won't

listen to none, y'all, even if you know his words. And so

the moment I leave the room, you might if you had food, you

might be able to get him. But even it's questionable. Even then it's

questionable. And so it even frustrates my wife because if I'm in the room

and she wants him to do something, she's like, rooster come, or

rooster eats your food. All he does is look at me, and he's

like, is she right? Can I do that? You know, people

will be there and they'll walk in. They'll be like, oh, hi,

rooster, sit rooster, and he just looks at me, like what's

the word. And then if I'm in the room and you say sit,

and he looks at me and I go, it's okay. You could sit.

If you say, oh, lay down and I go, it's okay,

you could lay down. After a few minutes, he might pick up.

Oh Adam trust this person, so therefore I can listen to this person.

It's true, it happens. If I'm in the room, Hey,

it's okay. Then you can start giving some commands and he'll listen sometimes because

he's registered. Oh Adam's not threatened by this person. He trusts this person.

They can issue me some commands. You know, what we have to

do is we have to start recognizing. Then when you're out in the world

and you hear things and you things. First, you need to look to

the Lord. You gotta look to God first to say, hey, hey,

do I give this person authority to speak this in my life? Do

I give this situation authority to sit in my heart? You look at God

and say, do I listen to this? Do I sit for this person?

Do I drink water? Oh? No, I don't. Okay,

See, I don't know who you are. You're not my authority, You're

not my master. I don't listen to you. Who are you? Who

are you to sit with me? Who are you to talk to me?

Who are you to tell me how to think? Who are you to tell

me what to believe? Who are you telling me how to live? I

am under authority and his name is Jesus. That's the authority that I listen

to. That's the authority that speaks in in my life. And so sometimes

we all need to be a little bit more like rooster. When you're out

in them streets. You gotta first look to God. Hey, God,

what's the word on this person? What's the word on this situation? Okay,

I can't bark, I can't bite, all right, I want it.

Can I they smell God, want to bite this person. I want

to bark at this briand God says no, let it go, okay,

reoster train people. Sometimes people are afraid. They're like, is he gonna

bite me? And I'm like, not unless I tell them, So you're

good. I'm not gonna tell them. And we gotta look at that with

God. But other people, they don't know if you're trained or not.

We out there biting and barking at everybody, even when you have authority and

you don't. You're using your faith, you're using your knowledge of scripture.

Just bite up on people, bark up on people. You're biting and barking

on your spouse. You're buying and barking all your kids, you're buying,

You're buying and barking all your coworkers. God didn't call us to that.

He didn't call us that. He called us to be under his authority.

And when you're under his authority, then you can shine bright under his presence,

under his candle. So in closing, you and I are not called

to be the candle. We are called to mirror the candle. And in

the same way that those individuals they point the mirror towards the sun to catch

a flame. You and I are meant to point to the sun to be

on the floor. We're meant to point to Jesus and look to Jesus as

the Son of God, to light our hearts on fire. So when we

leave this place, we are called to be that light. And if you're

here today and you have never received the light of Jesus in your life,

to open up those dark areas that are the areas that you would never give

anybody, the areas that you would never trust to another human. But I'll

tell you this, you can trust to God. That brokenness you can trust

to God. That unforgiveness you could trust to God. That sin you can

trust to God. That addiction you can trust to God. May not be

able to give it to anyone else, you can give it to Jesus.

So if you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus Christ,

you've never rested your faith on the work of Jesus that he would die on

the cross and he would raise three days later, then I encourage you today

in this place to be the place that you affirm your walk with Jesus.

Today, allow the Holy Spirit to radically move in your heart today all the

dark areas God to shed a beautiful light on His purpose for your life.

May mean that we have to let him get in our business a little bit.

He may have to do some surgery. You may have to leave some

things behind. But I'll tell you this, saying yes to Jesus and following

Jesus is the greatest decision you'll ever make in your life. To experience the

presence and the peace of the Holy Spirit, nothing comes close to it.

It doesn't mean that life is fixed after this. It doesn't mean that life

is perfect, but it does mean you're no longer doing it under your own

power and your unauthority. It means that God is walking alongside of you every

step of the way. So I encourage you with every head bowed and every

eye closed today, even if you're in the courtyard, wherever you're at any

of our campuses, just bow your head and close your eyes. And if

you're here today and you want to receive Jesus, either for the first time

or you want to rededicate your life to him, maybe at one point you

said yes to Jesus, but you haven't quite followed him like you had expected,

and you're saying I need to rededicate my life to follow him today.

Whether it's your first time or you're rededicating, I encourage all of us to

encourage them by affirming this prayer and saying this out loud. Would you join

me in saying this, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I confess

my sins. I believe in my heart that you died on the cross and

you rose three days later, and from this day forward, I commit to

following you for the rest of my days. In Jesus' name, A man