When I Feel Down

Let's jump into what we're gonna talk about today.

We are wrapping up a series that we have been in for the last month called When I Feel.

When I feel.

Really excited about this.

I like the little emoji things there.

Is that what they're called?

Are those emojis?

I don't know.

Something like that.

I just noticed that, actually.

Just noticed that in the graphic.

How cool is that?

Um sometimes I'm like the most oblivious person in the world.

When I feel.

So here's what we're talking about if you're just jumping in.

We're talking about those deep feelings, those deep emotions that decide so much of how our life goes.

We're not talking about the surface level stuff.

We all fight that negative, surface level emotional stuff where you're just frustrated, disappointed, upset, offended.

And the answer to 90% of that stuff is just ignore it, get over it, big deal, move on.

But there are deeper feelings that can be pervasive, that stick with you, and you just can't seem to shake them.

Sometimes they don't even make sense.

You can be in a place in life where you might say to yourself, logically, I should be on cloud nine.

Logically, right now, I should be in the best place I've ever been.

I should be full of excitement and joy and wonder.

My life is amazing, but something is off.

Sometimes we have these deep feelings that we we struggle to shake, and either we deal with them or they deal with us, and they do not deal with us kindly.

So we're exploring what is that, what is it like to deal with those?

And last week we shared this verse, 2 Peter 1.3.

It says, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

So when we deal with these things, when we struggle with these things, we can know that our God, He's not phased by any of it.

That our God, it's not like He's gonna look at us and go, Man, I've never encountered a person dealing with what you're dealing with.

He loves us, He loves you.

And He will equip us to handle whatever life throws our way.

And oftentimes the biggest struggles we have aren't the things happening around us, they're the things happening within us.

And so we've talked about when we feel empty.

And we talked about when we feel afraid, and the last few weeks we talked about what we do when we feel stuck.

And today I want to talk about what we do when we just feel down.

When we feel down our culture, 100%, this is not even disputable, has a real problem with happiness.

Statistically speaking, we are living in one of the most depressed cultures in human history.

And it shouldn't be like that.

We have we have more at our fingertips than almost any culture ever.

We have a higher quality of life in all the normal ways people measure quality of life than most cultures in human history, and yet we struggle the hardest to find any sense of happiness.

Statistically speaking, we we have depression rates that are through the roof, and you know what's interesting, they were really bad prior to COVID, and I don't know if you know this or not, COVID didn't solve it.

Like in 2018, so a few years before all that craziness happened, um, 30 something percent of first-year college students admitted to having some form of severe mental illness in terms of depression.

That they just they depressed couldn't seem to shake it.

Last year, there was a study that came out that says 51% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 report constantly, consistently feeling down, depressed, and hopeless.

Those were the three words.

Down, depressed, and hopeless.

51%.

That means more than not.

And it's kind of a mystery to the culture at large as to what we do about it, because for a long time we believed that the answer for depression, for negative feelings, it had to be something like medical, for example.

And I'm not saying, by the way, if you've ever been diagnosed with depression and and you've had medication that that's wrong.

But it was it was settled science just a few years ago that the reason that people struggle with depression is because of chemical imbalances in the brain and low serotonin levels, and so let's come at it medically.

The problem, though, is that we became the most medic we became the most medicated society on the planet in history, especially when it comes to like antidepressants, and then like depression numbers didn't go down.

So if there's more depression medication, there should be less depression, right?

That's like basic logical truth, I feel like.

But yet didn't have any effect at all.

And then just a few weeks ago in July, this bombshell study came out.

And it sent shockwaves to the medical community because what this study has shown, and it's not some fringe study, this is a major medical group, and this is a deep, deep study over years and years.

We're talking thousands of examples, is now they've gone back and said, you know what, we're not really sure if there is even a chemical imbalance reason for depression.

And so all that medication, well, we hope it it worked, but maybe that's not even the issue.

So we have this culture that struggles so much with just constantly being down, depressed, and hopeless, and now even the medical community is like, ah, we're kind of back to square one.

We don't know why.

But see, God does.

God does know why.

And while he did not come, I love what James said during Lord's Supper, like he came for serious business.

He didn't come just to make us all happy.

I didn't like come to hand us cupcakes and go, yay, have a good day.

Like, we all love cupcakes, but that's not what Jesus came to do.

He came to free us from something deeply, deeply wrong.

But we still live in a world that's struggling to find the joy that Jesus promises.

And so today we're gonna talk about what do we do when we're down?

What do we do when we call it depression, call it just being down, call it hopelessness, cynicism, whatever it is, when we have this pervasive sense of just I don't have motivation, I don't like people, I don't like me.

I'd just rather not.

Like I have a joke with the the tech team and some of the people that that are on staff.

Sometimes, like like I did it to Joshua this morning who's running sound, it came up to him at 9.58 and I said, Hey Joshua, it's 9.58.

What if we just didn't this morning?

Can we just, is it too late?

Let's can we just say no?

As a joke, of course we're not gonna do that.

But do you ever feel like that in life?

Do you ever like have a day where you're like, maybe I just won't today?

Or maybe I just can't.

So what do we do with that?

Well, God's word, scripture, speaks to so much of the deep truths of life.

Like God knows us so well, better than we know ourselves.

And so scripture talks a lot about this very sort of thing.

In fact, one of the things I love about scripture is it gives us sort of a blanket term to deal with this.

Because again, like some of us would say, Oh, I know exactly what it's like to struggle with depression.

Some of us might be saying, I've never wouldn't say I've been depressed, but I know what it feels like to be down.

I don't know if I'm at that level or not, but scripture gives us this sort of umbrella term to help us understand all of this, and it's it's the term darkness.

Darkness.

Now, this is something that's seeped into our language and our culture.

Like we have phrases where we say, Man, that was a dark season in my life.

Those were dark days.

Those were dark times.

Or maybe you've heard the phrase that it's like we have a black cloud hanging over us.

Everywhere we go, there's just darkness.

The Hebrew word for darkness doesn't just mean physical darkness, this ancient word also means gloom.

This overwhelming sense of gloom.

And so scripture actually speaks a lot about the idea of darkness.

Ephesians 5.11 says, Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness.

Instead, expose them.

In John 8.12, Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world.

If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.

John 3, 18 through 21, a lot of people are very familiar with John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he came, right?

He gave his one and only son.

I almost messed up John 3.16, losing all credibility as a pastor.

It's okay, don't worry about it.

But we all know that verse, right?

He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

But then a few verses later, Jesus goes on, he says, There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him, meaning Jesus.

But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.

And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world.

But people love the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

And all who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

Scripture talks so much about light and darkness.

It's actually a very constant motif in the New Testament, especially.

And darkness comes to mean sort of the way of this world.

It's kind of the standard mode of the world that we live in.

We live in a dark world.

And I'm not saying this in a cynical way.

We just we live in a dark world.

And so feeling down, feeling depressed, feeling cynical, feeling hopeless, feeling just dark, that is by default what's going to happen in almost every person's lives if they're just part of this world.

It's just what happens.

And what Jesus says essentially, and what the New Testament tells us, is that Jesus is the light of the world, and he came into this world and he defeated the darkness in his own life.

He defeated that, he extends that victory to us, and he's called us out of that darkness.

And by following Jesus, we actually have a way out of it.

We have a light that shines in the darkest places, and it's up to us to choose whether or not we're gonna follow that light.

But even if we do, even as believers who love the Lord, we're not impervious to being affected by the darkness.

It can still affect us, and so we've got to sort of know how to navigate it when it comes.

And maybe this message is completely worthless today because every single one of you are perfectly happy all the time.

If so, I can just cut it, we can pray, have an early morning.

No, right?

It's it's it's tough.

So I want to look at two really simple ideas that help us navigate life when we feel down, when we feel depressed, when we feel hopeless, that help bring us out of the darkness.

And the first one is really simple.

Well, actually, both are really simple.

They're just not easy.

It's a difference between being simple and easy.

But it's simple.

The first is this live in the light of Jesus.

Live in the light of Jesus.

Now, every morning when I wake up, I have I have like a mission that I have to accomplish in the first 15 minutes of me being awake.

So I've got four kids, talk about this all the time.

I'm responsible in the morning for getting my youngest two boys up.

But the challenge that I have is that their school starts at different times.

So Judah, he's my third, and he gets on the bus at like 6.50 or something like that.

It's super, it's so early.

It's so early.

I'm just gonna say that.

If you work for the schools, is there a way?

Is there just a way?

Like 7:30 would be amazing, but probably not.

Whatever.

So, six something in the morning.

Eli, my youngest, he doesn't start school.

He's in preschool, and so he's got like an hour gap.

So here's what I try to accomplish every morning: I try to wake Judah up without waking Eli up.

Because I've I've I don't know if I did something to to upset God, if he's judging me.

Because I am the only morning person in my home.

Like I wake up.

Is anyone a morning person?

I want to know who you are.

Yeah.

Like you wake up and you're like, let's go.

Let's do this.

And you got stuff on your mind, and you're like, woohoo! And when people wake up, you're like, hey, like you're nice to him.

Okay?

Like again, morning people, where are you at?

Like, you're my people.

Yes, I'm a morning person.

And I live in a house with five not morning people.

And and like Megan, totally not a morning person, she's got this excuse, like, I haven't had my coffee yet, which is such a dumb, like, you can't do that.

You can't say I don't get I don't have to be nice until I have my favorite drink.

But it's like that just doesn't work.

But she does.

And I keep waiting for one of my children to become a morning person.

Megan, it's too late for Megan.

She's a lost cause.

But like, just one.

And so far, clearly, none of them are.

And it's frustrating.

So, like Judah, right?

He's the one I gotta get up.

I don't know if you guys have ever had kids like this.

Judah wakes up.

If you wake him up suddenly, it is like what I imagine the middle of an exorcism to look like.

Like I've never, I've seen the movie.

If, if, so like tonight we're gonna we're gonna go home after church, and he's gonna fall asleep in the car.

He does it every single Sunday.

And I try, I look in the rearview mirror and I start talking to him when I see his eyes heavy, like, hey Judah, hey, what do you want to do today?

I'm just trying to keep him awake because if he falls asleep in the car, and then we park and you shake Judah, he just instant like screaming.

Instantly, he just starts going, no, no, no, no! And my neighbors like all think I'm I'm like torturing a child.

I'm just waking him up.

That's all I'm trying to do.

So if Judah wakes up like that, he's gonna wake Eli up in the morning.

And Eli doesn't wake up that intensely, but he's he's in a bad mood for a long time if he wakes up.

Judah, it's acute.

It's like screams and then he snaps out of it.

Eli, it's just an hour and a half of him being a horrible person.

And so I've got it figured out, right?

So here's what I do.

This has a point, I promise.

So what I do is I I've found that I go up in their room, I open the door, because they share a room, open the door that it has a bathtub in it, I start the bath.

And and something about that sound, it like wakes Judah up enough, but not enough to scream, and I just go pick him up.

And I carry him to the bath, and and he stays quiet, like it doesn't wake him up.

And then he gets in the bathroom and he's starting to kind of be groggy, and something about putting him down in the water, he's fine with that.

Like it just works, but I can't wake Eli up.

Eli, it's not so much sound, I found that it's light.

If like the wrong light is turned on, Eli wakes up and it's just he's miserable.

So I found that there's this one light, this one light in their room, that if I turn it on, it's enough light to see, to put Judah in the bathtub and for Judah to be able to see something a little bit, but it's not enough light to wake Eli up, it's in the right spot.

And so my whole morning depends on that light, right?

And just the roll of the dice that Judah doesn't scream at the top of his lungs.

And lately it's it's been working.

It's been working, but it all comes down ultimately to that single light that I choose to turn on.

I think life is actually a lot like that.

So much of your life and the way you feel and experience life is going to depend on what light you turn on.

What I mean by that is this.

We often say something like, Well, in light of this, I am doing X, Y, or Z.

Or in light of that happening, here's how I'm responding.

And so we we can choose what to live in light of.

We don't choose what happens to us.

Really good things happen to us, really bad things happen to us.

And we don't get to choose all that.

Some of it's the result of our choices, but not all of it.

We can't choose what happens to us, but we can choose what we decide to live in light of.

So you can choose, for example, to live in light of your worst moments.

Many do.

We actually live in a culture right now that for some reason celebrates people feeling like victims.

Like that's like, in some ways, the best thing you can be is a victim.

And so people choose to live life in light of the worst things that have happened to them, to let the worst parts of their life define who they are.

And if you choose to live life in light of your biggest failures or the greatest injustices that have befallen you, you will be miserable, you will be hopeless, you will be angry, you will be bitter, your life will be dark.

But you know what's interesting, the same is true if you choose to live your life simply in light of the best things that have happened to you.

Because if you choose to live your life in light of your achievements, like your victories, well, hold on tight to those because that's like a light that fades fast.

You know?

It's like a light that just doesn't stay on for very long.

Because eventually those achievements lose their luster, those victories, they just don't last forever.

And if you choose to live your life in light of only your best moments, and it's those things that give you value, it's those things that keep you going, then man, you better never have a mistake, you better never mess up.

Like, don't break your streak because all of a sudden those achievements aren't there anymore.

That stuff can it can go away so fast.

And you go from being someone that everyone celebrates to everyone turns their back on.

So don't live your life in light of those.

You can choose to live your life in light of what's happening in the world around you.

I don't recommend that at all.

If you say, you know what, I'm gonna live my life in light of our current political climate in America, then just I don't know, punch yourself a few times, and it's kind of the same thing, you know.

But but honestly, and I know not everyone here, not everyone listening, has decided to follow Jesus, but for those of you who have, what would actually happen if you chose, intentionally chose to live every single day in light of Jesus?

Like actually said, I'm going to look at everything that happens in my life through the lens of what Jesus Christ has done for me.

Like honestly.

That I'm gonna choose to live my life in light of not that bad thing that just happened, not that jerk that just cut me off in traffic, not that person that I can't stand, not that Facebook post that drives me nuts because I know what you're trying to do.

Like, you know, like those, like, you're in great shape.

We all get it.

Stop taking pictures of yourself.

Like, stop it.

You're fine.

Just enjoy it.

Like those things, right?

What if what if instead of focusing on all of that, we just made this conscious decision to say, I'm going to live my life in light of Jesus?

That he is the king of the universe, that he came to this earth to save me from my sin, to forgive me completely of all my failures, all my mistakes.

And so even if I mess up, even if I have this massive failure in my life and I let a lot of people down, it's like, yeah, but I'm forgiven.

Yeah, I I he still loves me, he's still okay with me.

I actually believe that's like the secret to uh to not being consumed by what people think about you is to just care more what he thinks about you.

You know, because his opinion is the one that matters the most.

It really does.

Other people's opinions matter a little bit, but I'm actually at a place in life where I'm not trying to jinx myself, but I do think I'm finally at a place in life where someone could come to me and say, hey, you really messed up, and I could look at them and say, probably.

And I'm sorry, please forgive me.

But that's not what defines me.

Because I actually mess up a lot.

But if you choose to live your life in light of Jesus and what he's done for you, sure, it is.

It's powerful.

It's it takes everything, it takes all the pressure off.

So it's like me in the morning having to choose what light I'm gonna turn on in my house to wake my kids up.

Well, choose what light you're gonna turn on today.

What are you gonna live in light of?

I say live in light of Jesus.

Now, connected to that, I will say is this very important idea that if you're gonna live your life in light of Jesus, there's just gonna be some things you need to stay away from.

Because Paul once wrote this, he said, What fellowship does darkness have with light?

And so, you know, John 8, 12, Jesus spoke to the people, we read this earlier, he said, I'm the light of the world.

If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, for you will have the light that leads to life.

So we're not supposed to walk in darkness if we're living in light of Jesus.

1 John chapter 1, verses 5 through 10, in the very first part of chapter 2 puts it this way.

1 John 1:5–10

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God, but go on living in spiritual darkness.

We're not practicing the truth.

But if we're living in the light as God is in the light, then we do have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

Now, if we claim we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves.

We're not living in the truth.

We all have sin.

But if we confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness.

If we claim we have not sinned, we're calling God a liar.

Showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

And then chapter 2 continues by saying, My dear children, I'm writing this to you so you will not sin.

But if anyone does, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins, and not only our sins, but the sins of all the world, very much like what James was sharing during Lord's Supper this morning.

And so if we're going to be people who want to live in light of Jesus, just understand that there's going to be a lot of darkness in the world that you just need to look at and say, I want no part of that.

It might be enticing, it might be tempted, it might be normal.

It might be normal.

It might be like what everyone else is into.

And I'm not talking about legalism where we're going to create a long list of rules where it's like bad, good, bad, good, bad, good.

Usually it's pretty obvious.

And just know that if it's if it's darkness, if it's darkness and you go along with it, don't be surprised when you feel dark.

You know, you gotta be really careful with darkness because you can get used to it.

You can get so used to darkness that light bothers you.

You know?

Like growing up as a kid, I had a basement uh bedroom, and it was not like it didn't have any windows, it was like a basement.

It was kind of a dungeon would be a good word to describe it.

I'm just joking.

It was not.

My mom and dad are gonna listen to this and be like, you said we raised you in a dungeon?

No, it was just a basement bedroom.

But it had no windows, and I got used to that.

And I got used to sleeping in like a level of darkness that was complete.

And then we moved, and and I lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and I had a house where my my bedroom was now on the second floor, and there was a big window, and there was a street light like right outside the window.

And it it was basically like it was insane.

Like for a few weeks I was I just I couldn't sleep at all.

I'd gotten so used to the darkness that the light bothered me.

If you're gonna live in the light of Jesus, do not do not dwell in darkness.

And if there's things in your life and you know it's dark, it might be hard to break free from it.

Maybe it's become a habit in your life, maybe it's even an addiction.

Look, we have an amazing prayer team of people every Sunday who will talk to you, who will pray through that with you.

We have a lot of support here at the church that you can reach out and we'll help you do whatever we can to help give you freedom in that part of your life.

But just know that if you're living in light of Jesus, you can't dwell in darkness.

Because light and darkness, they don't mix.

So live in light of Jesus.

Number two.

Live as the light of Jesus.

Now, there's a really interesting scripture.

Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

This is part of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount.

That's what we've called it over the years.

It's not what Jesus called it.

He would have had a much better name than that.

Um it's one of the most important teachings we have of Jesus.

In fact, if you really want to know Jesus and what he's all about, like as fast as possible, read the Sermon on the Mount early in Matthew, it's three chapters or so, and then read the last four or five chapters of the book of John, which is the conversation he has with his disciples at the Last Supper.

And so you kind of get Jesus' orientation speech, which is what the Sermon on the Mount is, and then his closing remarks, and you'll learn a lot about who he is.

But he says something very interesting in Matthew 5.

He says, You are the light of the world, like a sitting on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father.

He's the light of the world, now he calls us the light of the world.

And then he goes on in Matthew 6 to say this, and this is one of these teachings of Jesus that a lot of people scratch their heads at.

It's it's it seems odd.

He says, Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body.

When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness.

And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is.

Now, this is a bit of an odd one.

And a lot of it has to do with understanding the Jewish culture at that time.

And Jesus is actually using a phrase that was very common in Jewish days at his point in time.

Okay, and it's the phrase having a bad eye or having a good eye.

The teachings that flank this thing about your eye being a lamp, they're both about financial giving.

Right before he teaches this, he says, hey, when you see people in need, help them out, basically, like give to people in need.

And then right after this, he says, you cannot love God and be enslaved to money.

And so sandwich between that is this whole your eye is a lamp and light and darkness, and what's that all about?

Well, in the Jewish culture, people, if they had a bad eye, it meant that they lived in a stingy, selfish, self-serving way.

They would say, Oh, you have a bad eye.

That was a phrase they had.

But to have a good eye meant that you lived as someone who looked out for the needs of others, who was trying to do everything you could do to bless other people.

So all of it's connected.

Jesus is talking about generosity, not being a slave to money, and living life with a good eye.

And he equates that good eye to light and the bad eye to darkness.

When we feel down, not all the time, this isn't about blame, but it's it's something I've recognized in my life.

When I feel down, maybe I'll say that.

When I have those moments and those seasons where I'm just really in a fun, it's amazing how self-focused I am in those times.

There's a deep connection between a lot of focus on self and a lot of feeling down, depressed, and hopeless.

Because when you focus on yourself, you have a tendency to see yourself as a victim, to become very aware of all the things other people have done or not done to let you down, or to see yourself as a failure, to become very aware of all the things you have done or you haven't done that you should have.

And so that that focus on self has a tendency, it's just we like cave in.

And the only joy we feel is the joy that happens directly to us because we're only focused on ourselves.

And so we just get kind of dark.

We have a bad eye.

No light can get in.

But when you live your life with a good eye, when you live your life trying to be the light that Jesus called us to be, saying, you know what?

I'm gonna do everything I can to spread joy and encouragement and love to everybody around me.

Not in some cheesy way, but like actually, like I how who can I encourage?

Like who can I help?

Like, pray that.

God, who could use some help today?

That's a dangerous thing to pray.

Because if you pray that, you better mean it because he will show you someone.

Someone will come to your mind and you you need to call them, you need to reach out to them.

Jesus called you to be the light of the world, and he actually said, I'm not gonna hide this light.

I don't want to hide this light.

We have a lot of people in our culture that are the light of the world, they're just the light that stays hidden.

But if you live your life not just in the light of Jesus, but as the light of Jesus, you will begin to feel a kind of joy and happiness that you cannot have otherwise because it's a joy that multiplies, it's a joy that shares in the joy of others.

Like, have you ever had something happen to someone else that's better than something that's happened to you and you felt genuine joy?

That's awesome, right?

Now we have to be honest, like, human nature does have that tendency to see something really awesome happen to someone else and you're not really happy about it.

Your first thought is, why not me?

But if you if you learn to live as the light of Jesus, and you're gonna need his help for that because it's not your light, so it's it's simple.

If you learn to live as the light of Jesus, focused and committed to pouring out any good thing that he gives to you to everyone else around you, you find yourself in this place where your joy, it's just, it's multiplied more than it's ever been before because you're excited about what's happening to that person, you're excited about what's happening to that person.

And your faith tends to grow because you become much more aware of all that God is doing and just how active God is.

Anyone who ever tells me that they just don't see God at work is generally someone who's only focused on what God is working on in them.

But if you turn that focus outward, you start to see all the prayers that God is answering all day long, and you realize God is doing something.

God is at work, He's always working, you just don't always see it.

But if you live as the light of Jesus, if you take this mission, this call seriously, oh my goodness, it's like hard to be depressed.

Like it's hard to be unhappy when you're a light.

Like if lights could talk, I doubt you would say, hey, how are you doing today?

Sad.

I don't know, lights, I just can't see a light saying.

If you want to experience freedom and real victory from feeling down, from being hopeless, from dealing with all of these things, live in the light of Jesus and live as the light of Jesus.

Do not dwell in darkness, live in the light, and then be light to people around you.

Now, I want to finish with this, and worship team, you guys can actually make your way back out.

I actually really want to finish with worship this morning.

Just kind of one quick jump back into something we sang earlier and sort of declare out to God that He is the light and that we can we can put our trust in Him.

I think it's good if we do that from time to time.

But but as we do that, I do want to say this.

Two people I want to talk to.

John and John, I'm just saying, wouldn't it be funny if I called out specific people?

You're like, not me, don't say my name.

Um, no, no.

Two types of people that often that I find in situations very often.

Number one, you might be someone who is living in the light of Jesus.

To the best that you can, we all make mistakes.

And you might be someone who's trying the best you can to be light, but you live in a dark place.

You live, maybe, maybe your office environment where you work is really dark.

And you're trying to be a light in there, but it's like a very pervasive darkness.

And it's hard.

Maybe maybe it's your home, maybe it's your marriage.

And and home is just dark, and you're trying to be light, but you're one light, and that other person is not committed to being light, and it's hard for you to overcome that darkness, or maybe it's even your kids.

Kids are exposed to so much darkness.

So much of it.

It is like funneled and channeled directly at them.

That's why, as parents, look, we've got to be so careful about what we allow our kids to be exposed to because you don't know the depth of the darkness that they often are.

But here's the thing: let's not forget for a second, if that's you and you're saying, I'm trying, I'm trying to be light, I'm trying to live in the light, but sometimes it just feels like the darkness is winning.

Let's remember for a second what light is.

John 1, 4 through 5.

The word gave life to everything that was created.

And his life brought light to everyone.

This light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

You know, light does not struggle with darkness.

Like when you go at home and you're home and it's dark and you turn a light on, there's never like this tension that develops where it's like, which one's gonna win?

You know?

But we can feel like that in our lives.

And sometimes we can we can feel like we're this very dim light in a very dark place.

But feelings are not the same as reality, and I I want you to know, I think the Lord needs you to know that the light you have from Him, there is no such thing as a darkness that can extinguish that light.

And so shine.

Like, don't be discouraged, be committed to it.

Whether it's at school or it's at work or it's at home, like just be light.

Dig in, have courage.

Don't be tempted to hide that light because you're afraid of what the people around you might think.

No, be light, shine light, and let the chips fall where they may.

Those of you who have homes, look, parents, husbands, wives, you have authority in your home.

Like God's given you authority there.

So take that authority and say, no, our house is going to be a house filled with light.

It's gonna be light.

And you know, if you make your kids mad because you put in some like rule or something like that that they don't understand, but it's it's all about not you being afraid and trying to control them, but you being like, no, in this home, we're gonna celebrate light.

We're just gonna not let darkness in.

Then let them be mad at you.

Take authority, pray.

And just pray that, Lord, give me the strength to keep shining.

Give me the strength, God, to keep being the light that you've called me to be.

Even if even if all I'm getting is pushback and resistance, help me believe that the light that is in me is a light that no darkness can extinguish.

Because darkness doesn't defeat light, it just doesn't, it can't.

So if you're living in a dark situation, in a dark place, and you're trying, I just want to encourage you do not stop, do not quit.

The light of Jesus, it will win out, it will.

Final person.

If you don't know Jesus, you need him.

You need him.

Go back to John 8 12.

We've already read it twice.

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world.

If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you'll have the light that leads to life.

I'm not saying this in a judgmental way.

If you've never been here before, you just have to take my word on it.

But this is not how I typically speak.

If you do not know Jesus, you are walking in darkness.

I'm not saying you're like some dark, evil, horrible person.

But I'm saying you're walking in darkness without the light that you need.

And you might be able to navigate the darkness for a while, but eventually it catches up with you.

Several years ago, I was here at the building and it was late at night, and all the lights were off.

And I was meeting up with someone, we were gonna go do something at the building, go work on something, and I just had this moment of like stupid pride.

You ever have this?

I think men are more susceptible to this than women, where you get proud, you get like prideful about something that no one cares about.

And so for me, I'm walking in the coffee shop, and this person's following me, and they're like, hey, do you want to turn the light on?

I can't see a thing, and I'm like, nah.

I've been in this building so many times, I know where every single piece of it, and then I completely flipped over a piece of furniture.

Um, like it was in mid-sentence.

I'm like, nah, it's good.

I've been here so many times, I know exactly where and like I was moving, I was walking fast, and it like it was painful.

What it happened is someone had moved something and it wasn't where it normally was, and I just full speed flipped over it, and the person was like, Are you okay?

And I'm like, Yeah, there's a light switch over there.

Would you mind?

Turn that on.

I love it when God humbles me fast.

That's fun.

If you don't know Jesus, that's what you're doing.

You're you're navigating the dark, and maybe you've gotten used to it, and so right now, it feels like you're navigating it okay.

But one day, one day, things are gonna get moved around, and you won't be able to navigate anymore.

If you don't know Jesus, you are you are you're trying really hard to navigate darkness, and it just never works for long.

But if you have Jesus, you have a light inside of you, and I've experienced it, I've experienced what it's like to try to go through life without Him, trying to ignore Him, do it my own way, and I love the way He puts it because that's what it is.

It's it's walking in darkness, and it's unnecessary, and it's often painful.

But if you have Jesus, it's like the light comes on, and things make sense.

You see them in a different light, and all of a sudden, you have the ability, especially as you grow and mature in that, you have the ability to navigate really difficult situations.

You you've got it.

It's not easy, it's not like it's just painless all the time, but it's it's manageable, it's doable.

So if you don't have Jesus in your life, I just I want to encourage you.

Invite him in.

Like we have all kinds of language for that.

Invite him into your heart and get saved, and and I don't even care what language you use, just it's the recognition that I need help.

I need help.

Jesus, I I need your help.

Will you please be the light in my darkness?

And he will not say no, he will never turn you away.

And it's really simple.

You put your faith in him, you surrender to him, you confess.

Hey, I've I've messed up, and big deal, everyone has.

I've messed up.

I'm sorry that I've I've tried to do this my way, it's not working.

I need your help.

Will you please join with me?

And I'm telling you, he will light up your life.

It's what he does, it's what Tui is.

He is the light of the world.

And you don't have to walk in darkness.

So if you want to do that, all you gotta do is pray.

There's no there's no ceremony you need to go through.

You can do that right now.

You can just pray, Lord, I need you.

I would encourage you if you do that, talk to someone about it.

Go to the prayer room, talk to someone about it.

Come find me in the lobby, talk to me about it.

Sign up to get baptized.

Like, go all in.

You know how sometimes you get into a relationship with someone, but you can move too fast.

You can't do that with Jesus.

There's no such thing as he's not gonna be like, hey, you're moving a little fast for me.

A little freaked out, so I'm I'm gonna go.

Okay?

Doesn't happen with Jesus.

No, like go all in.

Get baptized, give your life to him, and let that light shine.

I'm telling you, it'll happen.

With that said, let's pray and then let's let's wrap up with just a little bit more worship this morning, declaring out the light that our God is and asking him to light up our lives.

So, Father, we love you, we thank you so much for who you are.

God, sometimes we just feel down, sometimes we feel hopeless, sometimes we feel depressed.

Whatever words we want to use, Lord, it can feel like we're in dark seasons.

But you are the light of the world.

And light does not just expose darkness.

I've heard this said before, Jesus, it extinguishes it.

So we're asking right now, Lord, for all of us who would say, Yes, I'm in kind of a dark season, we're asking that your light come into our lives in maybe a way it never has before.

And we're asking, Lord, that your light would lead the way, would shine in the darkness, and we would trust it, and we would experience relief and deliverance from darkness.

Lord, those of us who are following you, give us the courage to just shine proudly, to be the light of this world, to show the world that there is a better way.

And it's you, Jesus.

It's all about you.

It's not some moral code, it's not some way of life, it's it's deep connection and faith following you.

We love you.

Fill us with your spirit, shine through the darkness and give us that hope.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus, amen.