Put on Light

Actually, when he first asked me, I said, no, you preach the message.

I'll just like to listen to you.

But I am promising, we are in Romans 13, but I will not talk about politics.

I'm not going to mention President Biden.

I'm not going to mention Ukraine.

I'm not going to mention taxes or the cost of gas.

Oh, I guess I already mentioned that, didn't I?

And what's remarkable is after Paul, in this epic book called His Letter to the Romans, he goes through this whole business of politics and our relationship with the government.

He ends where he ends.

And that's what we're going to look at today.

He talks about, he shifts the focus and then challenges us about love.

And then he goes on and talks about light.

So I invite you to turn with me to Romans 13, where we've been for these last weeks.

And I want to pick up at verse 11, which is what Justin and I were talking about on Thursday.

He says, Besides this, you know the time.

The hour has come for you to wake up from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

The night is far gone, the day is at hand.

So let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

I find it fascinating that of all the images that Paul could use as he moves us back away from government and all those issues to our walk with God, he uses the image of light to put on light.

Let me just remind you, light is one of the most common images throughout the Word of God.

In fact, think about it.

In the beginning, God, Genesis 1, and he said, Let there be light.

We go all the way back, hundreds of references to light, and we got all the way to the very last chapter in the book.

Revelation chapter 22.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

And we're told this there is no need for the lamp of light or for the sun, because the Lord God Himself is our light, and we will reign forever and ever.

Now, what I get really excited about in that verse is that one translation of that Greek is that we don't need any other external light because the Lord God Himself is our light within.

That his light is shining through us.

That's why we don't need any other light.

But as I said, throughout the whole Bible, there's these images of light that help us to understand this mystery of walking with God or not walking with God.

And light is always that image in the Word of God that has to do with God and Jesus and faith and us.

It has to do with the Bible and about making wise choices, about choices of faith and truth and love, where darkness is, of course, as we know.

Darkness is all about evil, Satan, emptiness, shame, guilt, sin, all that stuff of self.

So, you know, I know I'm here, I'm preaching to the choir, I know that.

You all know this already.

Fortunately, Justin gave me a very easy message to share today, just talking about y'all.

You see, you just have the opportunity to kind of look here at me, and the light probably isn't dazzling at all.

But I'm looking at all of you.

And I know you well enough now after the time we've been at his hands that I need some help.

So I'm gonna change just a little bit because the brightness of your presence is just so great.

Because the light is within you.

There's no question.

There is no question.

I see that light.

So I'm gonna keep these on the whole time just to remind you of who you already know you are.

Now let me remind you about some of these scripture passages that mean so much to us.

If you go all the way back to the book of Psalms, the song book of the Hebrew Temple, we have that wonderful Psalm, Psalm 119, that talks about the wonder of the Bible.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light upon my path.

That's what the word of God is.

Or you get to the prophet Isaiah.

I mean, we have to pause.

If we're going to understand light and the mystery and the wonder, the amazing nature of light, we have to pause at Isaiah.

For example, Isaiah 42.

Now, now, please, I do invite you to consider Isaiah 42 with me for a moment.

A couple reasons.

First, the prophet Isaiah talked more about the coming of the Messiah than any other prophet, though his words are recorded over 500 years before Jesus came.

Many believe that Jesus not only did quote the prophet Isaiah more than any other, but that he used the prophet Isaiah as his handbook to know how to live his life as our Savior.

But a verse that has caught my attention a lot through the years, Isaiah 42, verse 16.

Isaiah 42:16

I will lead the blind in a way they do not know, in paths they have not known, I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

Do you hear that?

Now, one of the reasons I get stuck with that verse when I consider light is throughout my over 40 years of ministry, every time that I found myself in a tough place, either what I was wrestling with inside, what other people were wrestling with, what we were dealing with, all the rest, I'd go to the Lord.

The most common verse in the entire Bible that the Lord would remind me of is this one.

This is what he's doing.

He's leading blind in the way they don't know, in paths they have not known.

He will guide us, he will turn the darkness before us into light.

These are the things he will do.

He won't forsake us.

See, so often in life we find ourselves in a dark place.

But we don't have to run away.

We don't have to panic.

Because the darkness doesn't define us anymore, does it?

Oh, don't get me wrong, if we haven't given our lives to Christ, we are in a dark place.

Because whether we like it or not, we're giving ourselves over to feelings or thoughts or behaviors or whatever that are not light.

We are in a dark place.

But if we've given ourselves over to the Lord, if we've accepted that he is the light of our lives, if we have welcomed him in, as we celebrate so often on baptisms, if we've welcomed him in, then we are on a path with him.

And the darkness no longer defines us.

Oh, sure, we may be in a dark place.

We may be wrestling with personal issues, things that cause us discomfort or shame or guilt, maybe addictions that we haven't yet feel like have been conquered in us.

Maybe there are issues with family members or friends that are in a dark place and it's kind of dragging us down, or even some of those issues we talked about the last three weeks that just make us feel wearied and worn out and anxious and troubled, and but they don't define us anymore.

They may be opportunities we have to walk through, but they don't define us.

Just like in Psalm 23, death no longer has control over us, does it?

We may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but we death doesn't define us.

Does it, church?

No.

See, so so yeah, there's a lot of times when dark.

This is a training ground.

And we've got to go through a lot of darkness to really increasingly own the light and walk in the light and bring the light into the darkness.

But but remember, even in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

But what's amazing is as he's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, he says, You are the light of the world.

Do you know that's the only image in the entire Bible that just describes Jesus, but also describes us.

We are the light of the world.

How can that be?

We know ourselves well enough, don't we?

We all still wrestle with darkness.

But he is our light.

And the more we walk with him, the more that light shines.

Doesn't it?

The light kind of comes out of us.

Often we don't even know how.

Peter, in his in his um letter, put it this way, about this business of light.

He said, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Wow.

He's called us out of lives which is only defined by ourselves and what we want into marvelous light.

It changes our very nature.

Isn't that awesome?

So, you know, we shouldn't be surprised when Paul, who wants to have us turn our attention away from all the stuff in the first part of this chapter, turn our attention back to the Lord and to our walk with him, he says, put on the armor of light.

But I want to point out another reality about the Apostle Paul.

Light became a big issue for him on the road to Damascus.

In Acts chapter 26, he is it is described that he is standing before King Agrippa.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

He has already been arrested, he is under Roman authority at this point, he has already made his appeal to Caesar, and now he has to make his defense before King Agrippa in Caesarea.

Now, just picture this for a moment.

Your entire life is now on trial before the authorities, and King Agrippa has the authority to send him to Caesar, release him against those invitations, or kill him.

And what does Paul say?

He gives his testimony.

He says, King Agrippa, I was just on the road to Damascus one day.

That's all that I that's all.

And and there was a bright light that came upon me.

And I said, Who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

And Jesus went on and said, Now I tell you, Acts chapter 26, stand on your feet.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

And I am sending you to open people's eyes.

Did you hear that?

That is his purpose in life.

He's sharing his testimony before this king, and he says, I was just called to open people's eyes.

Obviously, not these eyes.

But the eyes of our lives, the eyes of our heart, we often say.

To turn from ourselves to God and to others, to turn from Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

And Paul says, So I've just been doing that.

And the king turns to the others and says, He doesn't deserve death, but he's appealed to Caesar, we'll just send him to Caesar.

The whole definition of his life was he came to realize, as maybe we are increasingly coming to realize that that's the call on our lives, too.

We're just meant to open people's eyes.

Our kids, grandkids, friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, strangers, people on the other side of the planet.

We're just there to open people's eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, Satan to God, that they may know forgiveness and know what it is to be sanctified.

That is, to grow up and live more and more in the light.

So we shouldn't be surprised when he's writing this epic book, Romans chapter 13, that he says, so put on the armor of light.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Now I'm fascinated by that.

Because putting on armor doesn't strike me as a very comfortable thing to do.

I think if I were writing, I'd say, so put on the robe of light.

Put on your comfort clothes.

He doesn't.

He says, put on the armor.

And when I think of that, I'm going, that's got to be one of the most uncomfortable things you can possibly put on.

And then I was reminded of what I had to put on back in my former career.

You see, before I heard my call to serve the Lord, I was an aviator.

I was a back seater in Navy carrier-based aircraft.

And what I had to put on for every flight after I got the flight suit on, which I really thought was cool, and we loved walking around with our flight suit, and I loved showing off to Jill that I had the zipper down here and look at me, I'm cool.

But then to get in the plane, we had to put on a torso harness.

And it was as uncomfortable to put on as you can imagine, because you had to kind of step into it without the straps catching, and they always did.

And then you had to step in the other side, and that was always hard.

And you know, it just it's it's not all that comfortable.

And and guys, I want to tell you, it um it really is hard to get into.

You have to really struggle.

And uh, yeah, this was my torso harness.

This is what I wore.

And guys, to be honest with you, I'll just say this quietly, it it holds more than your torso.

It's real uncomfortable.

And you've got to get into it, and then whoops, just lost my mic.

Oh boy, it's hard.

Wearing a mic with a torso harness, I tell you.

And then, oops, wrong strap.

See, there it is again.

And then you get this torso harness and you pull it tighter and tighter and tighter.

And those of you F3, my my chest has grown a little bit, so I can't tighten it anymore.

It's only been 40 years.

But you know, the worst thing was once you got it on, you got it tight, you realize walking was really hard.

Because you you walk more like a duck than you do this stud, you know?

And but the purpose of it was not to strut around like a peacock, it was to sit in an ejection seat, and everything else was attached to it.

Putting on armor isn't comfortable.

Because the comfort we often find in our fallen nature is our darkness, isn't it?

We choose things that make us feel good.

We don't choose things that are a challenge.

When he says put on the armor, he really is talking, it the language in the Greek is change your clothes.

Get out of the things that are comfortable, and get into the things that matter to God.

It's hard sometimes.

And if you've been living in darkness for a long time, it's really hard to make that first choice.

Some of you may know the story of when I first made that decision, or at least began pursuing reality.

Uh I was raised in the church.

I should have known better.

But in my 20s, I thought I was pretty cool.

Naval aviator, got my high school sweetheart as my wife, on the path for the astronaut program.

Flying carrier-based aircraft, really cool.

Until that one flight.

Off the southern coast of California, 300 miles out to sea.

I was a backseater in S-3s, they were anti-submarine aircraft.

We dropped sonobooys, which were long tubes of listening devices, we shot out of the aircraft, out of the back of the aircraft, into the water.

They dropped hydrophones and we listened for sounds.

And we believed we were trucking a Soviet missile submarine off the coast of California.

We thought that was really important.

Until our windshield cracked.

And then all of a sudden, the submarine didn't matter at all.

What mattered was what's going to happen next.

As a radio operator, I began crying, May Day, May Day, November Gulf 703, May Day, May Day.

But we were what's called over the horizon.

There was no radio contact with anyone.

It was a secret mission.

We hadn't filed a flight plan.

We're 300 miles out to sea.

I had the co-pilot check the radar.

There were no ships anywhere.

We're over shark-infested waters.

The survival rate of our ejection seat in our type of aircraft was not very good.

And we began climbing to altitude as the pilot says to me, Fred, if this glass implodes, that is, if the glass comes in, get you and the senso out.

That is, he's given me permission to eject.

And I'm still calling out, Mayday, Mayday.

Nothing.

Eventually we got to altitude and we did get radio contact.

As I cried out, Mayday, Mayday, I heard a voice on the other end say, We've got you, November Golf.

What are your intentions?

And I said, we just want to get home.

As he gave us the vectors to get back to San Diego, my hands were released from the primary ejection harness down to the secondary one between my legs.

It freed one hand up to go inside my torso harness into my flight suit.

In my breast pocket was a little book I'd been given from the Gideons.

I'd never opened it up, but I knew enough about it where I needed to go.

Psalm 23.

I read, The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

I realized at that moment the next face I was going to see was probably the face of Jesus.

And I knew I was not ready to see the light.

I lived my life in darkness.

This was all about me.

Do you get it?

We have a choice, a big choice.

And yes, most everybody in this room is has made that choice.

Most everybody.

And hopefully we're showing enough light that others, if you haven't made that choice, made the choice.

Changes everything.

Because once you make the choice and the light comes, whether it comes in a very slow, gradual way, or like it did with me some months later, lightning bolt reduced to the ground, weeping, and colors came alive, and I knew I was not going to be in the Navy much longer.

Years, but not much longer.

I'm gonna take this off so we can be a little more comfortable walking around.

But let the image remain with you.

Putting on the armor, even for someone who's been walking with the Lord a long time, can be very, very painful.

Because it's not our customary clothes.

Of our nature.

So, what I'd like to do is share with you five images, five perspectives of what it is that light really does for us.

And when we get serious about the armor of God, let's see, it's oh no, it's not that.

Hold it, hold it, hold it.

There's something else.

I invite you to consider that we use the language of light to talk about our burdens.

Heavy with burdens?

Or are we light?

When I was first trained in prayer ministry, I was told not to close my eyes, but to keep my eyes open as I prayed over people, because you can see the burdens in the shoulders.

And yes, I saw some of you come in this morning heavy with burdens.

And when we put on the armor of light, then we can help others become light as well.

Remember, Jesus even said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

For my yoke is easy and my burden light.

The more we keep snuggling up to the Lord Jesus, the more we ask him to be present, the more we seek to follow him, then burdens become lighter and lighter because he's bearing them with us.

He's bearing them, he's holding them with us as we then do.

So when Paul writes these profound words, so put on the armor of light.

Is that what we should be thinking about?

That rather than being so preoccupied with the burdens that we've got, maybe we're supposed to turn those over to Jesus so we can carry the burdens of others.

You think?

Is that what separates us from everybody else who doesn't walk with Jesus?

That the Holy Spirit comes along and says, Here I've got that from you.

Don't you carry that by yourself, and now you carry somebody else's?

That's why we pray so much.

There's a lot of people that are have big burdens, and they need our help.

Don't you think?

So is this what when he talks about that we have to put on the armor of light, does it mean we just keep picking up the burdens of others?

Could be.

Could be.

But light does something else as well.

It does more than just remove burdens.

Light actually reveals truth, doesn't it?

You know, we use language all the time.

Oh, I finally see it.

I finally understand.

I've often looked at someone and said, I don't understand what you're talking about.

I don't see it yet.

So they'd approach it in a different way.

And I go, oh, I get it.

You see, we use light like that all the time, don't we?

I don't quite see it yet.

I'm still in darkness.

And it's just the business of understanding.

How much more is that with Jesus?

Think about the disciples.

Is it crazy or what that they took them two and a half years to even figure it out?

And when Jesus went to the cross, they still didn't get it?

They began to see the light was beginning to be revealed to them, but they still weren't there yet.

And often as we journey in faith, it's little things that we don't get.

Even the darkness that's within.

I was coming over here Wednesday night, coming over a bit earlier than the group that I'm with, and guys who were working through the loss of loved ones.

I thought, well, I'll get there early, enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and I was just in Lala Land, driving down East Cherokee to turn right, to come down towards Woodstock and come down to his hands.

When East Cherokee meets Route 5, the two lanes of turning turn into one.

I was rather calm.

I was in the second lane.

The car next to me slowed down.

I pulled right over, everything was fine.

Until that black Cadillac came along.

You know what I mean.

And I'm really sorry if you drive a black Cadillac.

Especially if you were coming to his hands on Wednesday night because it might be talking about you.

So forgive me, but I had to work hard because that black caddy scooted around me on the right side, and then saw that there was no place to go, so decided just to pull over into my space.

Had to slam on my brakes, even cross over the double yellow line.

And my first thoughts at that moment were not about light.

I wanted to flick something, but it was not my high beams.

I wanted to use my hand, but it was not the sign of the cross.

And then it hit me, what is wrong with me?

How is it that I can so easily slip into darkness?

And I found in the next few moments, still driving here, that I had to pray more for myself than for the driver at that Cadillac.

Why do we so slip into the darkness?

Is it easy?

Do we think it's safe to give into our feelings or what makes us feel better, or we're justified?

Boy, I'm glad Jesus doesn't do that with us.

You know what I mean?

To reveal truth is not just the truth of understanding something or even growing deeper in the truth of Jesus.

It's the truth about ourselves.

How desperately we need a redeemer every day.

Often it's the little things.

But it's the big things too.

Is that what he means when he says, put on the armor of light?

He even says, put on Jesus.

It's hard sometimes, isn't it?

It's hard even if you've been walking with the Lord a long time, because we don't feel like it.

We don't understand and see what he means for us.

And we have to go to a deeper place still of faith and say, oh God, forgive me.

I know not what I do.

Help me in my unbelief.

Or to pray for others, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do.

But maybe it's something more than even revealing truth.

Maybe when Jesus talks about light, he's really inviting us to understand that light provides warmth and growth.

That is, light gives life.

My wife Jill has an amazing garden.

I'm not her gardener.

I help her after she pulls off the weeds sometimes to throw them away, like I did yesterday.

But I find what's interesting about the garden that she has herbs and blueberries and vegetables and flowers and berries and all sorts of things.

But often there's times where she just wants to transplant something.

Now she wants to transplant a rather big bush that we've had in the same place for about 15 years, and she wants it moved to another place.

Guess who she wants to do it?

And I'm willing, I'll do what I'm told.

But what I find interesting is she's doing it because it's going to be healthier moved.

Where the sunlight can give growth, the sunlight can give warmth, the sunlight can give life to the plants.

So she's the small ones she moves around, the big ones she asks me to move around.

Because you want to get in the light, don't you?

See, that's one of the reasons we do need to pray often, more often than we ever do.

And that we have to read the word of God frequently.

As I heard a pastor friend of mine say just recently, if you think you're going to get a word from God and don't open the word of God to read it, it's like wanting a text on your phone, but you haven't turned it on.

Do you get it?

I guess not.

Let me repeat it.

If you're going to get a word of the Lord and grow in the Lord and hear him speak to you in here, and you don't open the Bible to look, it's like trying to get a text message and yet your phone's not on.

See, the more we go to the Word that is life and light, the more the light of Christ can shine with us and within us and direct our paths.

Again, not easy, but important, don't you think?

Is that why he says it's armor that we have to put on to face what we have to face in life?

To get into the places where the light can shine?

Let's admit for a moment, don't we all feel a whole lot better after we leave church service than when we got here?

I mean, sometimes we have a little fight in the car, especially with the kids.

We're desperate to get them in the children's program.

And then we're here for a while and we leave, and everything is wonderful, at least for a moment.

That's the mystery.

That we're with when we're with others with light.

Ooh, there's warmth, there's growth, there's life.

But there's something else as well that light does.

I want to raise with you a fourth perspective that we ought to consider today.

Light defeats darkness.

We know that, don't we?

Light always defeats darkness.

It just takes a little bit of light, and the darkness has to flee.

And what I found fascinating is that's not just in the physical, that's in the spiritual.

Let's have a little example.

Aiden, how about cutting out the lights?

Ooh, scary.

And yeah, he said, let's at least be a little sensitive and we'll leave a little light on.

But isn't it amazing that if we had to, this little light, every one of us could safely get out of this room.

We wouldn't trip over any chairs.

We'd get out safely with one little light.

Because darkness always has to flee.

Okay, everybody else, let's do this.

I've never done this before in any setting.

Let's take out your phones, turn on your light.

Come on, like I'm singing, but I won't wouldn't do that.

Just just come on, come on, lights, lights, lights.

Look at the transformation that happens when we all are willing to just bear the light.

Isn't it phenomenal?

It's more than just pretty.

We can move anywhere.

Okay, thanks.

Don't don't drop don't drive your battery.

Can we have the lights back on?

The big lights, yeah.

Thanks.

It is that way in life.

It is that way in the spirit world.

Darkness cannot stand the presence of light.

It's why crimes are committed in the darkness.

Do you ever think about that?

Where people think they can hide?

Light.

That's the whole purpose of lighthouses, isn't it?

To convince the sailors that are out there in the darkness and the storms that there's a light and they'll get home.

Or how about this one?

You know about the light ships that we used to have in the United States back 160 years ago?

The Navy built ships that had a portable lighthouse in the center of the ship.

And these crazy crews would leave the safety of home, get in those ships, and go out in the storms and risk their lives just to get those who didn't know where the light was to follow the light and get back safely.

Huh.

I think that's what we're supposed to do.

Go into the darkness, go into the panic of someone else's life, and just bring the light.

Doesn't mean we have the answers.

Doesn't mean we understand what they're going through.

It just means we have light.

And we listen and we let the light shine.

And perhaps they'll find their way home.

Is that what Paul means when he says put on the armor of light?

He just wants to go about defeating darkness wherever it is.

And sure we'll fail.

Of course we will.

It's not about success or failure, it's about a journey of faith.

Bringing Jesus into the present environment.

But there's one more in this amazing letter, and there's one more image that we have recently discovered in our own lifetime.

In the Word of God, there are realities that are still finding new understanding.

And we now know that light recharges.

How about the web satellite thing that's up there?

Looking billions of years, I guess in the past, finding things that nobody has ever seen as it looks at light.

It's charged by the light.

Is that what Paul means?

When he says, put on the armor of light.

Put on Jesus.

And let him recharge you.

Let him fill up your empty batteries.

Let him fill it up when your tank's half empty.

And don't worry about the darkness.

He's got that conquered.

Just get recharged so you can bear the light.

And so I can bear the light.

And that we can do it together.

Now obviously we could go on and on with this.

With over 200 references in scripture, we could be here for a couple days.

But I hope that what you've heard through this is what God might be saying to you.

If there's darkness in your life, invite Jesus to come in and reveal it.

Yeah, it's going to be painful.

Okay.

It's not going to be easy.

You're not to put on a robe, you put on armor.

But it's the armor that's Jesus Himself.

And you've been, if you've been trying to wear that armor for many years, maybe, maybe like me, you'll you'll remove other people's burdens as you re as you let the Lord remove your own.

Or maybe you'll invite him to reveal some truth that you need to understand about yourself or about others.

Or maybe that light will give growth to you or to others, to me, as you shine your light.

And uh just maybe it'll drive the darkness away, because darkness never lights to be around light.

And maybe it's as simple as inviting someone to join us on Easter, you know?

Maybe it is.

So they can experience the light of Christ.

The light that you all already bear.

Or maybe it's just to get recharged.

So we go out in the world and we're unafraid.

Because we put on the light, and the light is Jesus.

Shall we pray?

Let's bow our heads.

Blessed and holy Father, we thank you that you have a plan and purpose for us from the dawn of creation.

Through the time you call us home in a new heaven and a new earth.

That reality is that we are to put on light, the light of Christ, and be light to others.

Help us, Lord.

We don't want to be overwhelmed.

We just want to take the next step.

Help us, Lord, to be your light.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.