Light of the World

Open up with me in your Bibles to John chapter 8, John chapter 8.

A couple weeks ago we started laying out the plans for our group's ministry for this fall.

All of the ministries begin this week, so if you are involved with children, the Awana

program kicks off this week.

We're excited to have Gina in place and excited to see what God's going to do through our

children's program on Wednesday evening, Boca Kids.

We're also excited about our student ministries, our adult ministries that are all starting

up this Wednesday night.

So if you are a person, that would include most of us, there is something for you Wednesday

night and we would love for you to join us starting at 6.30 and that's all starting this

coming Wednesday night.

You've heard us talk too about some of the great things we're doing and seeing in the

in our Boca Students ministry.

You know, we've had a Boca Students middle school and high school ministry for some time.

This week we're launching a Boca Students college ministry.

You may say, well, we've been dealing with young adults for a long time.

A lot of those young adults are now either out of college or they're grown.

We don't have anything specific for college students, but we're starting that this Friday

night so you can be praying for Pedro and his team as they're starting that new ministry.

We are so close to multiple universities.

It seems like...

It seems like we should be ministering to them, right?

So that begins this week.

We're excited about that.

Be praying for that.

A couple of months ago I mentioned I wanted to be praying specifically, excuse me, I wanted

to challenge you to be not just praying for five minutes more, but be praying with somebody.

Hopefully you've been thinking about that.

As we come into September now and as we start looking towards not only the Christmas season

but beyond, particularly next year when we'll celebrate.

We'll celebrate our 75th anniversary as a church.

What I want us to do for this month, and we might let it bleed over into October, I want

you to pray specifically that God would give us vision.

Moment of honesty, not, well, there's a lot of honesty coming off of this, but this is

just one particular personal honesty.

If we are celebrating 75 years, we are one of the staple pieces of early Boca history.

There is no reason why we should not be the most influential and life-changing church

congregation in the city.

And we're not.

Other congregations have grown up and grown and expanded around us.

And I ask myself, why?

Why are we not the most influential church in South Florida?

We should be, and I think we can be.

But one thing I want us to do is pray about what God has in store for us as we step into

into the 75th year. We launch into whatever God has for us over the next 25 years. I want us to

be praying specifically about God giving us a clarity as to what he wants us to do. And I'm

praying that as the elders gather, as the congregation prays, as we begin thinking this

out, that the Lord will open our eyes to see what he wants us to be, not just what we want to be.

So we can all draft really cool plans, but unless the Lord is supporting that, we are working

in vain, correct? You believe that, right? Unless the Lord builds it, it is in vain that we build

what we're building. So let's be praying about that through the month of September, and we'll

see what the Lord does in response to those prayers. We're in John chapter 8. We're going to

look beginning in verse 12 this morning. And you remember the backdrop for this entire portion of

the gospel is the Feast of Booths. We call it the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a time dedicated

in a fall to remember what God has done, particularly through the wilderness wandering

times. We've seen this in multiple ways over the last several weeks. That's the general context to

where we are this morning as Jesus speaks again, John tells us in verse 12. Reminder, last week we

looked at that disputed passage that we know as the woman at the well, or excuse me, the woman

caught in adultery. I made the point that I don't think historically it fits there. There's

some question as to whether or not John wrote it anyways. But if that is not historically where it

should be, then this week's passage actually comes at the tail end of verse 52 of chapter 7,

which is a continuation of what Jesus had been speaking that last day on that week at the

Feast of Booths. You remember early in chapter 7, back in early verses, his brothers had been

chiding him about going public with his ministry, that it was a shame that

a man with his prestige and his influence and his power and his calling would kind of keep

himself cubbyholed in Galilee. Why not go to the big city and let everybody know who you are? And

they went off to worship. Jesus said, no, I'm not going to go. But remember, he went up later

privately. And then middle of the week, he begins preaching. Saw that three weeks ago. Then at the

end of the week, he begins this dissertation, this speaking, this ministry that we're in the middle

of right now.

If you remember, it was back in verse 37 of chapter 7. It says, on the last day of the feast,

Jesus stood up. If anybody thirsts, come to me. And from him will grow up fountains of living water.

We talked about that satisfaction and that longing that we have for Christ.

As the Pharisees were disputing, now Jesus carries on with that same conversation. And he doesn't

talk about water this time. He talks about light in a passage that we're very, very familiar with.

As I look through this text, I see that there's a lot of people who are in the middle of the week.

And as we look through it today, I want to draw out four characteristics of Christ, particularly.

And again, the overarching theme of the Gospel of John is what? Know this Jesus, believe in this

Jesus, and by believing in him, you might have life. And we are believing specifically that he

is the Christ, the Son of the living God. So within the context of all of that,

we jump into this passage. Pick up with me in John chapter 8 and verse 12.

Again, Jesus spoke to the Pharisees. He said, I want to draw out four characteristics of Christ,

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

but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, you are bearing witness about

yourself. Your testimony is not true. And Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself,

my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know

where I came from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.

Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true. For it is not I alone who judge,

but I and the Father who sent me. In your law, it's written that the testimony of two people is

true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.

They said to him, therefore, where is your father? And Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my

father. If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasure as he

taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.

So he said to them again, I'm going away and you will seek me,

and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.

So the Jews said, will he kill himself since he says, where I am going, you cannot come?

And he said to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world,

I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I

am he, you will die in your sins. So they said to him, who are you? Jesus said to them,

just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and

much to judge.

But he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.

They did not understand what he had been speaking, that he had been speaking to them about the

father. So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know

that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but I speak just as the father taught

me. And he who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone. I love that. And he who sent me

is with me, he has not left me alone. I love that. And he who sent me is with me, he has not left me

alone for I always do the things that are pleasing to him and he was saying these things as he was

saying these things many people believed in him it's the first time we've seen fruit from Jesus's

ministry in this way people actually believing in the words that he has said there's there's

traction here as Jesus is moving forward interesting that there's traction with people

coming to faith but there's also traction with regards to the opposition if you remember we're

six months to the end of Jesus's earthly life so everything's getting ratcheted up to the point

where in six months he's going to be standing before Pilate beaten nearly half dead only to

be hung on the cross to die here Jesus is continuing to wrestle with the religious leaders

the audience in this passage continues to be the religious leaders it's going to be the case

until the end of this chapter at least and the intensity

keeps getting rampant

ratcheted up too. We'll see that over the course of the next two weeks.

As Jesus continues to speak, he continues to say things that sound divine. He says,

I am a lot in there. Now, it's not an exact statement of what God did introducing himself

to Moses at the burning bush, but it's a hint at that. So the religious leaders are getting a

little bit excited because this man who has been causing such a stir in the culture is now making

statements that sound like he's divine. And so they begin questioning him. But there's four

things I want to draw out and just, again, focusing on Jesus himself. The first is Jesus

is the light. I want to touch on it briefly here because I'm going to come back to it at the end

of our time together this morning just because I think this picture of Jesus as the light of

the world is one of the more significant, one of the more impactful pictures of Jesus.

With regards to our walk with him on a daily basis. Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Let me digress for

just a minute. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Nehemiah chapter nine. Anybody go back and read

Nehemiah chapter nine? While I'm thinking about reading, there's more homework. You've been

reading chapters five to eight. We're almost done with eight. Now we're in the homestretch.

Begin reading chapters nine to 12. We're going to cover chapters nine to 12 between now and the

beginning of Advent season, which is in December. So read chapters nine to 12 as many times every

week as you possibly can. I've heard from some of you that it's been beneficial. I encourage you to

keep doing it because it will always bear fruit in your life if you're actually reading and listening

to the word of God. Where was I? Nehemiah chapter nine. If you remember, it's in that passage of

chapter nine.

The last books in the Hebrew Bible, it's at the very tail end of Old Testament history as we know

it. The temple is being reconstructed. The city is being reconstructed. The temple worship is being

reinstituted. And in chapter nine, Nehemiah is praying at one of the feasts, the Feast of Booths.

And as he's retelling Israel's history, and as he's confessing his sins publicly, and the nation's

sins publicly to the Lord, he brings up these points in it where he says, God, you are faithful

throughout the wilderness to provide water, manna, your spirit, and light. Those things.

Manna, water, manna, your spirit, and light. I say that with emphasis because those are the

four things that Jesus has been touching on in his public ministry so far. He is the bread of life.

Anyone who eats will be satisfied. He is the living,

water. And as we saw at the end of chapter seven, the living water, he who drinks fully

from the living water will have springs of water flowing out from him. And John makes the comment,

Jesus said this because the spirit would come later. Bread, water, spirit. This morning,

it's light. Now, I think it's not only interesting that Jesus satisfies these four things. I think

it's incredibly significant because it was...

It was the Lord God who provided these things for his people for how many years?

Forty years. God provided daily bread and water, his spirit and his light to guide his people for

40 years every day. And Jesus is now pulling all these things together to himself in a sense saying,

I am the one that provides every single day. Long for me.

Look to me. And in this passage, follow me. The Lord Jesus is the hub of all things for us.

So going back to the task last week, we should have a posture of stopping sinning. Why? Because

we want to follow after Jesus. We want to be like him. Why? Because he is the provider of all things.

Jesus is the light. I want to make two quick points, one negative, one positive,

and then we'll move on to the second characteristic.

If you follow,

there's a condition there. Whoever follows, there's an invitation to many,

but not all will follow. If you follow negatively, you will not walk in darkness.

When you turn a light on in the darkness, what happens?

The dark, yeah, you see, the darkness goes away. Is there ever a moment where light thinks,

maybe the darkness will win this time. Maybe if I just turn it on, the light will come on,

but darkness,

actually overwhelm it. It never happens, does it? Why? Because light dispels darkness. If you walk

around in the darkness, you're not seeing any of the potential hazards around you. Steps, changes

of carpet to tile, toys, other dangerous things. I remember for the last 10 years, I was working

in home care. And in home care, you spend some time talking about safety issues with the clients

as you're starting cases. And the conversation goes right to light. Do you have a nightlight

around? Do you have nightlights throughout your house? Do you have a light within an arm's length

of your bed? Do you have the ability to see things? Are there obstacles? Are there trip hazards?

We're worried about all these things. Why? Because in darkness, you trip and fall. You stumble. You

twist your ankle. You step on something dangerous. I remember when Jan and I first got married, we

were living in Tucson. And I was walking through the house.

One night, just making sure all the doors were closed. It was dark. And I was just kind of

strolling through. And I saw something on the ground. And I was about to step on it. And then

I'm like, no, I'll just step over. I walk over. And I'm like, let me go back and look at that.

So I go turn the light on. I look. It's a scorpion. Exactly. That's what I said, too. I gasped. I

probably squealed like a little child. But sure enough, there was a scorpion. And it was a small

scorpion. And I would have just stepped on it without even a thought. Why? Because it was

dark. It was dark. It was dark. It was dark. It was dark. It was dark. It was dark. It was dark.

And that would have been stupid. And it would have hurt. And it might have killed me, because

those little scorpions are actually more dangerous than the big scorpions, because they don't know

how to control their poison. If you follow after Jesus, whoever follows after Jesus will not walk

in darkness. The world is overwhelmed by darkness. But we have a light. And to follow

after the Lord Jesus is to not walk in darkness. It's a negative statement. The positive is, but you

will have the light of life. And I call it the light life, hyphenated because they're intimately

attached to each other. Remember in John chapter 1 in the prologue, remember I said as we're looking

through the prologue, it kind of hints at the rest of the book. In the beginning was the what?

The Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God. And the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being that have come into being through

Him. And He was, what was He? Light. And the light was the, life was the light, right? It ties this

life and this light together. John chapter 1 verses 1 to 5. If we follow Jesus, we do not walk

in darkness, but rather we have the light life within us. We have this light that radiates out

of us so that we can see the pitfalls of the world. Let's move on to the next. We'll come back

to that a little bit later as we come to the task and the ask. Second truth we see here is about

Jesus. Not only is He light, but He is true. Twice in this next section, as they're asking Him who He

is and what He's doing, they're questioning His authority. He goes back to two true statements. He

says, I, my testimony is true. And then He says, my judgment is true.

In both cases, it's immediately followed by the word for. Now, I like the word for. I usually

circle it in my Bible because it's a reason, right? My testimony is true. Why? My judgments are true.

Why? For, and in both cases, Jesus immediately goes to the Father. One, I'm true because I know

my Father. I know where I've come from. Two, my judgments are true because the Father judges with

me. I do everything that pleases Him. I speak the things that He's told me to speak. We've

seen these themes already in the gospel so far. I love the fact that Jesus' confidence is not

depicted as resident within Himself, but rather in the Father. And I think for us, for our kids,

for our lives as we're growing into mature big people, our confidence should not be self-confidence,

but should always be God-confidence. We are because God is.

We are, we exist, we do. Why? Because God is. And our focus should be Godward all the time.

Jesus is true. His testimonies are true. His judgments are true. Why? Because the Father is

with Him. The second truth about Jesus is Jesus is true. Because that trustworthy, reliable,

we can listen to His words. We can read it as truth. We can follow it knowing that it's good

guidance. We can believe it. We can believe it. We can believe it. We can believe it. We can believe

in Him. Why? Because He secured our forgiveness on the cross.

Third, Jesus is here for now. Jesus says again, He said this at the end of chapter 7, He said again,

I'm not going to be here with you much longer. I'm going to go away and you're going to try to

find me, but you won't find me. And then He says three times, you're going to die in your sin.

Now, that's a pretty pointed thing. Why dying in sin connected to,

I'm going away and you can't find me. First is He says, I'm going home. I go back to my Father.

My Father sent me. From the beginning, Jesus has been saying, I'm from heaven. I've been sent by

heaven. God the Father sent me. I'm here because He sent me and I'm going to go back up to Him.

But you can't come with me. And even if you try to find me, you won't be able to find me.

Remember before He said this and the religious leader said, is He going to go to those Greeks?

Is He going to go to the Samaritans? Is He going to go out there to the people that we don't,

that we don't hobnob with, where we can't find Him? Here they say, is Jesus going to take His own

life? Where would He go that we can't find Him? Does He not know who we are?

The point is that Jesus is going home, but they are already home. They can't go anywhere else

because this is their home. We're going to see it more clearly next week. Their Father is the devil.

His Father is the creator of all things. There's such a huge contrast

between the two systems that they're coming from. One is Godward, one is worldward. God is,

or Jesus is going back home to His Father. They are already here and they're not, they're going

to die in their sins. And that statement in the middle is for all of us. Unless you believe in

Jesus Christ, you also will die in your sins. So many people fear death. The thing we should fear

is spiritual death. The decay that so much of the world is suffering from is spiritual death.

The world is locked into right now. Darkness.

Thirdly, Jesus, or fourthly rather, Jesus is the Son.

They finally ask the question, who are you?

And Jesus goes in to a similar theme that we saw back in chapter 3.

Now, notice I keep referencing back.

It's because we've been reading and rereading, thinking through this. It's all tied together

because it's one story, right? In John chapter 3, He's talking with who? Who visited Him in chapter

3? Nicodemus. At the very end of the interaction with Nicodemus, Jesus says, as Moses lifted up

the serpent in the wilderness and all who looked at the serpent were healed, so the Son of Man is

going to be lifted up. And we talked about back in that study that the reference was to Jesus up on

the cross, but it's also referenced.

We're referencing a prophecy of Daniel in chapter 7. Jesus is doing the same thing again here.

He is referencing not just the fact that He will be lifted up,

but that He is connecting Himself with the prophecies of Daniel. Now,

significant for them more for us because they understand it. They were looking forward to the

fulfillment of Daniel. We're looking back and saying, isn't it amazing that our Lord Jesus

satisfied all of those prophecies? Jesus is the Son. He will be lifted up.

He will be lifted up. And when they see Him lifted up, they will know.

When they see Him lifted up, they will know. Know what? Jesus says, you will know that I am He.

Who is He? He is the Son of Man from Daniel chapter 7. He is the one sent from the Father.

He is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He is the Son of God. He is the Anointed One. He is everything

that He has been claiming to be, and He is everything that we are believing Him to be.

But He says,

there's another thing that I love, and I paused when I was reading it earlier.

Not just that He'd be lifted up, but that He would be never left alone. It's interesting that Jesus

knows that no matter where He goes in this world, His Father is with Him.

And it's that sense of confidence that He has just being in the presence of His Father.

He sees His Father's face. He feels His Father's support and strength.

I always do. Sorry. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,

for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. Now, I spent some time this week reflecting

on the Father's relationship with the Son, not earthly Father-Son. I'm talking about God the

Father, God the Son. The Lord Jesus always did the things His Father said. He followed Him closely.

He followed Him closely. What the Father said, Jesus spoke. What the Father did, Jesus did.

There was a perfect mirror between the two. That is the picture of what our relationship with Jesus

Christ should be. What the Lord Jesus says, we do. What the Lord Jesus prays, we pray. What Jesus

thinks, how He responds, that's how we do. Why? Because we're following after Him. Why? Because

He is the light of the world. And whoever follows Him, he is the light of the world.

And whoever follows after me will not walk in darkness, but rather will have the light of life.

So I want to go back to this light as we wrap up. Walking as light livers. Now, I'm not talking

about internal organs here. And I was tempted to change the name, but I'm just going to stick with

it. Walking as light livers. I see the idea of light and life just pressed together in this passage.

If we are in darkness, we are dead. Whether it's spiritual or metaphorical or literal.

We're in the darkness. We can't see. We can't exist. We stumble through life.

But as soon as the Lord Jesus works in our heart to make us alive, Apostle Paul says that we were

dead and alive. We are blind. Now we see. We were deaf. Now we hear. There's a change that

happens when the Lord Jesus comes upon us. Jesus says it in a different way here. He says,

if you walk after me, if you follow me, you will not walk in darkness, but rather you will have

the light of life. He doesn't say you will walk in the light of life. You will have the light of

life. So I say our goal as Christians is to be light livers. The Lord Jesus possesses life.

The Lord Jesus gives life. The Lord Jesus is light. And the Lord Jesus gives light

to anyone who follows. Two things, or three things maybe. See how excited I get this morning.

First, we must follow. As is true with so many other things in Scripture, there's a condition

here. Yes, there's an invitation to all. All are welcome to follow Jesus, but not everyone will

follow Jesus. There's a condition here. Yes, there's an invitation to all. All are welcome to follow Jesus, but not everyone will follow Jesus.

Right? Many are those that go on the path to destruction, right? But few are those who go

through the narrow gate to find it. In fact, as we learn in Scripture, the narrow gate is really

single file behind one person. It's Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, if you follow after me,

you will not walk in darkness. The question is, are you following?

Are you following?

I wonder,

how many of you made it to after lunch last Sunday without sinning?

Talked to some people this week, and it was a hard sell getting all the way to the end of Sunday.

But I hope that you picked up that task throughout the week. I'd say, you know what? The task is stop

sinning. So when I come upon a sinful choice, I'm remembering what God's Word says, which is,

go and sin no more. And I'm turning my eyes to the Lord.

I'm turning my attention from that.

We must follow the light. We must follow the light if we want to be in the light.

Right? We must go after Him. We must obey Him. And what does following mean in this context?

I think it means being watchful and aware of Jesus around you. I've talked about this many times

because it's something that I think I and we fail at.

have a general awareness of God as we go through our day. We may think of Him in these moments. We

may be moved by it, but when we get out there in the real world, we forget that God is there.

We need to live with a sense of God awareness. We need to live by faith, and we need to obey.

Why? That's what following Jesus looks like. When the disciples were waking up on those mornings

after Jesus had told them to follow Him, they had to be up. When He was up, they needed to follow

Him wherever He was going. If He was going to go teach here or going to go do this or go that,

they were right behind Him walking, literally following Him. And you and I need to follow

the Lord Jesus. We need to have a sense of awareness. We also need to have a sense of

submission, which is not our favorite word. And when we realize that He's going this way and we're

going this way, we have to be the one to change.

Not Him. We need to follow after Jesus. If we follow after Jesus and we do that faithfully,

do that consistently, we will have light to see. When you think about Jesus being light,

what type of light do you think of? Do you think of a nightlight? Now, I liked nightlights as a

kid. I had a cool Star Wars themes nightlight. It would give good light to the room. I could

see where the toys were. When I was trying to get from my bed out the bedroom to the hallway

because the boogeyman was under my bed, I could see well enough in the nightlight

to get out the door in one launch. You're laughing like you never did that. Did you ever do that?

But when you think of nightlight, you think of like a real soft, dim light that kind of gives

a sense of the room, but not the light. You think of a light that kind of gives a sense of the room,

but not the light. You think of a light that kind of gives a sense of the room, but not the light.

Not total clarity. Or do you see in your mind a flashlight? You think of a dark room and you've

got a flashlight and it's a small light, but you can kind of direct and guide it where it goes.

Some of you might be thinking flash or a spotlight, you know, like in this room. If

the room was pitch black and there was one bright light beaming down on me, it'd be dark everywhere,

but it'd be really, really light right here. And the spotlight operator could move it around.

If they wanted, but it was a narrow focus space. Is that the Jesus for you that, yeah,

he'll give you specific help there, but he's really, he doesn't have a broad range of helpfulness.

Obviously they did not have nightlights or flashlights or spotlights in the first century.

They probably had in mind a lamp or maybe a large torch, or it could be that they were thinking of

the pillar of fire in the wilderness.

And I think about what that would have been like. For 40 years, the Lord God showed up in a column

of smoke or cloud during the day and a column of fire at night. Now you've seen a fire blazing off.

I remember in Tucson, when the mountains would catch fire, you could actually see the flames

burning across the mountains above the city. It's like a red line in the sky.

When Jesus says, I am the light of the world within the context of the world,

the feast of booths, he's talking about the pillar of fire. And how did the people follow

the pillar of fire? God's word says that the Lord would descend upon the camp and that means they

had to pack up and they go. So they had to pack up everything and then the column would go and

they would all start marching on a million or more people. And the column would stop and they would

set up tent and then the column would go. So literally they were looking for the fire and

they were literally walking. Why? Because the fire was dropping.

them to the promised land. It was leading the way for them.

I want

to spend more time reflecting on this even in my own life. Because if Jesus

is the light of the world in that he is the column in front of us, he's the pillar of

fire, he is the one leading us to the promised

land. He is the one that is

lighting the way around us so that we can see it, but we're going after him.

According to God's purposes.

It's interesting how many times in scripture that light and

life are connected to God and his work through time.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth

was dark. The spirit moved upon the surface

of the deep and then God spoke and what did he do?

What did he do in day one? God said, let there be light.

So immediately the darkness was

dispelled by light. As you go through time you see these

pictures of God's light coming into darkness. You see it

in the prophets Isaiah particularly. But if you look

all the way at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation

when everything that we see is gone and there's a new

world that God has made for us. He has restored

and he's redeemed for us. It says that God's

presence will be with his people.

And there will be no sun and there will be no moon and there will be no

stars. Why? Because God is the light.

Whereas today we're looking

at a fiery column which is

Jesus. In that day the Lord God will be the sun.

And there won't be darkness anywhere. Why? Because his glory

will radiate so that we see everything.

Why?

Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light

of life.

I don't want to be one that walks in darkness.

I don't want others to see me as a guy

that walks in darkness. I don't want other people

to see our church as a church that's just wandering around in darkness.

We wander in darkness. We're tripping over each other. We're knocking into each other. We're stepping on

scorpions. We're doing crazy things. Why? Because we can't see.

But following Jesus we have light

and we have life and it radiates out of us like the sun.

The task and the ask. The task is

walk after Jesus. It requires that you have

a sense of watchfulness for what Jesus is doing.

You ought to be reading God's words so that you know him.

It doesn't matter how good or bad my sermons are.

I am not giving you enough for you to know Jesus.

You have to be in the word. You have to get to know him for yourself.

So that you know where he is. You know what he's doing. You know how he's

living. You know how he wants you to live and you're following after him in submissive living.

Why? Because we are life livers. No, light livers.

We are light livers is what we are. Walk after Jesus.

Walk after him. The ask

and again the task is what we do. The ask is what we're praying this week in particular.

Father light my path.

It is well and good that we have a light but if it doesn't

shine any light or it doesn't help us at all it's of no use, right?

Some of us are holding the light of the gospel.

But we're not allowing it to bring any benefit to our life. Why?

Because we have it bundled up in a satchel.

A man purse. Let's

allow God's presence to flow out of us and God

light my path that I can see what to do. That I know where to step.

That I know where not to step.

Walk after Jesus.

Light my path.

Let's pray.

Father we need you desperately.

I thank you that Jesus is all that we need. He is our bread.

He is our water. He is our spirit. He is our light.

I thank you Father that he is the satisfaction of

all that you have for us.

I thank you for this opportunity we've had this morning to reflect on the table.

The bread. The drink.

I thank you Father that we've been able to reflect on Jesus being the light.

I pray for those in the room this morning that are in darkness right now. They know it.

I pray that your spirit would move in them that they can see for the first time.

That the lights turn on of faith.

And that they believe.

I pray that you would draw them to yourself.

For us Father that are earnest in our love for you.

Our seeking of you.

Our pursuit of you.

I pray that you would help us to follow after Jesus.

That in those moments of time this week where we can choose to do others.

I pray that we would submit ourselves to you.

And that we would follow.

Lord God we know that you are light.

You're light whether we admit it or not.

I pray that your light would radiate out of us.

Around us.

Through us.

As a congregation Father even in South Florida.

That we would be.

A source of light.

In this dark dark place.

I pray that you would go before us in this Lord.

I pray that your glory would radiate like the sun.

And that we would give honor to that as we go.

Lord you are worthy.

You are worthy.

We pray this in our light's name.

The Lord Jesus.

Amen.