Transcription
Introduction
Well, good evening. Yeah, I want to thank all of you tonight, the guys who’ve done what you’ve done and just knowing that there’s a part to put into that and the preparation that goes into that and some of you who did things more extensively and just put the time in faithfully and honoring God in the way of which you did and allowing us to serve alongside that is thank you just knowing what it is that we’re here to do and for you being faithful to the task. I appreciate that and acknowledge that and encourage you to just continue in the work because it’s certainly providing. And as you have heard well tonight, our topic light.
It’s been all month. Some of you might be thinking, let’s get to September. But isn’t it amazing to see how much the Bible speaks of light? Tonight we had a plethora of verses just to see that brought again and again to our attention.
And so this month we’ve done the theme come and see Jesus. I preached that. There have been Bible classes that just naturally fit right into the groove of this discussion and theme of the light. And so hopefully there’s been some provision.
Hopefully you’ve found some sense of feasting in that regard. But it’s not over. There’s one more that I’m going to provide tonight. And as you can kind of think with the way we’ve gone through this month, Jesus being the light.
We’ve prayed it tonight. We’ve spoken of it often. We’ve talked and sung and thought often about walking in the light. And of course, , being a light.
And so now let’s kind of go off the same tree of thought but on a different branch and talk about what happens when life gets dark. We’ve not done that yet. But yet the song that we sang so interestingly that Tad led how long till the morning I have sung that song countless times and I’ve never read it with the words until coming here and now seeing it and being a part of just how that comes together. It’s weird how you can sing but don’t think of the words and then when it’s in front of you it lands differently.
But that’s every bit of what we’re going to think about now is because there’s not a person in this room who doesn’t get so sick and tired of the darkness that you just cry out for the light to come. And if you love the darkness, you’re not one who lives in the light and doesn’t know the light. And in fact, if you hide in the darkness, you’re a sinner and you do not want to come to the light because you love being in sin. And John tells us that.
Jesus makes that very clear in the Gospel of John. So, this is one of those that speaks well to all of us if we’re here yearning for our God to hear our cry and save us and heal us from these moments of affliction that are found in darkness on this side of eternity. So, how long till the morning? His mercy is new every morning, the psalmist says.
So, that’s a promise I think often and reflect on on the times that I know that the day has been long, the night is drawing near, but guess what’s coming whenever I wake up? A morning with the sunrise that promises a new that God’s mercy has come. That’s what I think about all the time. And so I know you yearned for that.
Now you may have heard it said that two things can be true at the same time. Give you a few examples. You can be confident in what you choose about the decision that is in front of you. but also still feel nervous about what’s about to come next.
Give you another one. You can be grateful, thankful for everything that’s going on right here, right now, but still be grieving. Joy and grief can exist at the same time. You can be excited about what’s ahead and just longing for what’s to come and still really be sad about what you’re leaving behind.
1. Darkness Can Be Real, God Still at Work
So, you see those two can be true. And that idea is what I wanted to run with tonight because scripture gives us another truth like that and it’s the fact that darkness can be very real and God can still be at work. Esther is a book that we just got done reading in our daily Bible reading. And I hovered in that for several weeks.
Borrowed a book from Jeff, wrote some notes, never preached on it. Well, actually, I might have. I can’t even remember now, but definitely talked a lot about it. And it’s going to fit into now where we’re going in this discussion.
And if you don’t know the story of Esther, I encourage you to read it. It’s 10 chapters long. It’s wonderful. But I’m going to list some characters that if you don’t know the story, it may just be over the head, but try to clue in to really the big idea of what’s being presented here.
Because Esther shows us how dark life can truly become for God’s people. There was a man by the name of Hmon who was not a Jew. In fact, he was racist and he wanted all of the Jews exterminated. Esther and her uncle Mori were pretty much the only well the two Jews that we hear about in this entire story.
So Hmon, this Jew hater, we read at the very beginning of the story in about this decree that he gets since he’s the second in command. He gets this decree set to destroy. It says to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews in one day. There are 127 provinces across this span of territory going from the Mediterranean all the way to the east of Asia.
And this is all going to be done in one day’s time. Now imagine, imagine that. You talk about a moment of darkness and yeah, we don’t feel it because that was thousands of years ago and it’s another time and another place, but understandably so, it happened. And that’s no different than the darkness that existed on the day that Pharaoh decided and then put forward the act of killing all of the newborn boys of Israel.
And many of them were killed. That was dark. And so this scene at the beginning of Esther, an entire people were living under a sentence of death. So think about that.
Their fear that was real. The grief that was real. The thought of what is actually going to happen was just like the danger that they experienced in Egypt. But here’s the part that it gets to that I want us to make sure we don’t misunderstand is that in light of all of this well and as this is going on there is light that is present.
Esther and Mori Esther who was a Jewish woman who was an orphan by the way was already queen when we get midway through the book. Morai, her uncle, prior to this, had saved the king’s life by giving him a message that would soon come back to pay off. So Morortei had saved the king’s life. The deed that he had done was recorded in the history books for the king.
Bear with me. So you have these events taking place, but still there’s this looming cloud of darkness that God’s people are about to be killed. We get to the middle of this book. All of this has happened and you get to and it says that the king could not sleep.
In fact, the word is on that night the king could not sleep. So, he arose and what did the king decide to do? The king decided to get to work. He had some business to take care of.
So, what he wanted to have done is have the decrees, all of the things that had been happening in the business lately. Let’s read it to me and let’s kind of catch up on the news. And one thing that he hears is about the Mori incident. How Mori had done what he had did to spare the king’s life.
And so the story began to turn because the king couldn’t sleep and just so happened to choose to hear the news about what Mordei had done. And so here in this moment when darkness is over, Hmon is looking powerful. this decree existed that the people were about to be slaughtered within a moment, but it wasn’t final. And so, as things start to kind of disseminate from there, we get to the end of the book and we read in Esther chapter 8, this is whenever Hmon is found out, Hmon gets well, he gets killed by the king, executed, and then Mori gets to take Hmon’s place.
And this guy, think about that. He’s second in command over all of Persia, the ruling empire of the world at the time. And so, you can see how God does this. And here’s what’s really wow factoring.
If you didn’t know this already, God’s name is never mentioned in this book one time, but his fingerprint is everywhere with what I’m talking about here in . Check out the wording of this. This is whenever you see Mori get to power and God’s people get spared. The 127 provinces get the news about this.
And it says in that the Jews had light. The wording of that is incredible. The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor, which means that they were in darkness and they had no hope. And so you start to see that rivet all throughout this text that the people had no hope, but God is in the middle of all of it bringing it together.
2. Darkness Changes What We Can See
And here’s the thing about darkness. Darkness changes what we can see. It can distort our perception. Have you ever been scared by a shadow in a dark room?
I have. I think we all have, but maybe that’s an overstatement. I can tell you whenever I was little, specifically, light barely came into my bedroom when I was going to sleep. I’m a little boy.
Hanging on my closet door is a backpack, but also a set of headphones draped over the door knob. Now, I didn’t know this at the time, but looking at that, it was frightening, fearful, not even willing to put my hands outside of my covers because I was just afraid of what would be next. But knowing that that thing looked like this monkey looking monster, it was real to me. And then somehow someway, I come to find out what the truth really was.
That it wasn’t in fact something terrifying. It was just all in the mind. I could not see clearly because there wasn’t enough light. And here’s the thing about that is that dark seasons can do the same thing spiritually.
We begin interpreting everything according to what we presently see. Even if it’s distorted, even if there is not enough light brought into that circumstance for us to see it clearly. Paul says these words in , “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” In other words, we do not let what we can pres presently see become the final measure of what’s true.
Sight will say, “I don’t see a way forward. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this. This seems impossible.” Faith says God still sees what I can’t.
God knows what I don’t. Therefore, I trust him. So, you see, sight reacts to the darkness. Faith keeps moving because it knows the light has not changed.
3. Darkness Doesn’t Change Truth
David is the one that says these words in the perfect psalm for any moment of despair that you’re caught in darkness. Psalm 23, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. There it is, the word shadow. That’s darkness.
This this idea of constant fear and shifting of all the things going on in your day. And he says in verse four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and staff, they comfort me. So you see, darkness doesn’t change truth.
Esther reminds us that we can’t that what we can’t see may still be completely true. Again, God’s name is never mentioned anywhere in this text, but he was still there whenever his people couldn’t see the way forward. God is still God. God is still good.
He’s on his throne. He is sovereign. And that will never change. His promises are still true.
His love is still steadfast. His mercies are still new every morning. And his presence is constantly real. And that’ll never change.
Paul could say Christians in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, this is verse 10. Paul could say here that Christians are sorrowful. You see, that’s fine. It’s okay to be downtrodden and sad and having this emotional sense of I need help.
That’s normal. But he says Christians are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. We can grieve and still hope. There’s not a person in this room who can be in pain and have this hurt but still trust and know that it’s going to be okay.
That’s because two things can be true at the same time. So when life gets dark, just think about this for a moment. Think about walking into a dark room and flipping on the light. Nothing in the room has moved.
Yet everything about the room feels completely different because now you can see what’s really there. The chair is still the chair. The door leading to the hallway is still the door. And the backpack on the door knob with the head headphones hanging over is still the backpack with the headphones.
Nothing’s changed. The light didn’t change the room. It simply changed what darkness was able to make us believe about it. So trust the light.
4. Trust the Light
Now, most of us all struggle here to see what God is doing. Bewilderment does happen. It’s a great word, Greg. Look it up.
Bewilderment. It’s basically living in wilderness in the mind. It’s just this sense of discomfort because there’s disorientation. You don’t know what’s next.
It’s almost perplexion. You’re puzzled because it’s just confusion. That’s the idea. And so, bewilderment does happen to us.
We get confused. So what do we do? We trust the light in those moments. We keep praying.
We keep on obeying. We keep walking by faith and not by sight. In other words, do not let a dark season determine what you believe about God. go back to what the disciples had experienced to the darkest moment of their entire life or at least with what we read in the gospels whenever Jesus had no longer when he died and he was no longer with them for that period of time and darkness is over the land and then Jesus returns spends his time with them and what’s interesting is whenever they get he gets back with them in Matthew chap 28 this is in verse 17 you see that they they reconnect with Jesus And it says that they worship him, but then you read in verse 17 that some still doubted.
So they all worshiped him, but then some still doubted. Here’s the thing about this. Darkness may not completely be removed from our mind, at least in light of what the effect of that was. We might still have that sense of fear and trepidation.
Disciples experience darkness often, but whenever light comes back to life and we begin to worship, notice that all of these disciples showed up that day, they all still came to see Jesus and they all still chose to worship him. Even though they had some things within them that doubted, they still honored him faithfully. They were still with their peers who did believe. So even if you find yourself in a little bit of that shadowy darkness, that sense of I’m not so sure, keep close, keep worshiping, keep trusting, keep obeying.
5. Whenever Life Gets Dark, Shine
And whenever life gets dark, shine. Mori told Esther, and this is the famous words of the story, at least from what I’ve come to understand, in chapter 4:14, her uncle had told her as she was queen, trying to prod her to go and speak to the king, even though that might have come with some gravely consequences. He said these words to her, “Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Like, who knows?
In other words, besides God, isn’t that something to just think about? Because every one of us have those moments, too. Darkness in your family may come up, and you’re going to have to be faithful in a time that’s most difficult. And who’s to say that you weren’t called for such a time as that?
Or how about darkness that tends to overshadow at work, leaving you to be the only person standing who might be honest and willing to stand up and speak, for you might be made for such a time as that? Or how about whenever darkness surrounds you and your friends and something happens to where everyone finds this opposition and you’re the only one who has the sense of being compassionate, who’s to say that that wasn’t for you in such a time as that? And so you see, darkness creeps us all. It comes in constantly.
Conclusion
It might be looming in mind as I’m speaking right now. Though the light is all around us with joy, peace, love, and kindness, you might still feel the effects of darkness. So, have you ever had yourself realize that two things can be true at once? You might wake up before the sunrise and start to see that it’s absolutely dark outside.
And then you can begin to look where you know the sun is going to come up, but it’s not there yet. And there’s never a moment in your mind that you are doubting, will that sun ever come up? You’re just waiting knowing that it will. Now, if you can be so sure that that sun will eventually hit that horizon and light up the day and then bring about this sense of seeing and you’re sure about that, why can’t you be so certain about the God who promises the very same thing about your life?
Darkness will always be here. But from the moment that we begin to realize that light is on the horizon and light does enter, you know something is changing. You know morning is coming. And once the light breaks through my friend, that is the moment that darkness loses its hold.
And that’s when we know that light has come to the world. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” And we’ve heard all of the different ways of which that’s brought into mind through song, through prayer, through God’s word. And maybe you’re beginning to recognize that that’s something in your life you have been needing to recognize more than anything else is that Jesus Christ is the light of the world and he is our only hope.
And he’s the only one that you know that you need because everything that you’ve been attempting to do to bring light into your life has fallen again and again. And I’m here to tell you that it will always fall short. If you need the hope of redemption, which is Christ our Lord, the light of the world in your dark life, I encourage you to seek it out with all your heart. It don’t stop until you’ve come to him fully.
If you have a need in light of what we’ve talked about tonight and you’re tired of hiding in the darkness, but you’re ready to have yourself come in fullness to him and repent, turn your life, and give it all to him. Though you may not know everything yet, but you know that you can worship because that’s the right thing to do. Then let us know if we can assist you in regards to any of those decisions as we stand and sing.