If you're our guest, I'm Brian Leed Pastor. We're studying Ephesians, so you can turn there. There's a Bible in front of you, probably, and one of the racks of the chairs if you don't have one. And if you don't own a Bible for any reason, just keep it. I want to make sure you have a copy.
It's important that you do. And if you're looking on your phone, go ahead and go to Ephesians and don't play some dumb game while I'm up here talking. All right. There. I'll tell you a story from when I was in college.
I can only tell certain ones. Um Okay. I had two I had a bunch of really close buddies, but this was my, I think it was the end of my freshman year, and I had two buddies that I was really, really close with. I ended up, I was best man at both their weddings. And we Had a, each of us had our own room, but we decided to make it into like a three-bedroom apartment.
So we all slept in one, we all had our study in another, which basically means that no one ever went in there. And then we had another room that was like the social, played cards, did our stuff, and hung out. And so the floor of the dorm that we lived on, we sort of made that our own personal playground. And there was a guy who was a few doors down from me who always had a friend of his who came and stayed overnight, but he didn't go to college there. It was weird.
And it was kind of annoying, because I'm like, this guy's not paying to live here, but he like lives here. And he would come and he would sleep on the floor every night.
So one night Well, in the dark. They would always get up, and this is like old school rough college where each floor had its own corporate shower and corporate restrooms, okay?
So they get up and they go down. to go into the bathroom. And so we go into the room in the dark. Yeah. And two of us slide under the bed and one guy gets in the closet.
And these rooms are small. Yeah. And we're real, real quiet. And there's a pad on the floor where there's one guy sleeping next to the bed. Sheet comes down, right?
And so two of us are under the bed, and one is in the. In the closet, and they come back from the bathroom and they settle down for the night. And we're just being real quiet. I can hear the guy breathing on the other side of the sheet. I'm holding my bra like.
And we're waiting and we waited for about 20 minutes. Under the bed. Until they were just about asleep. And then all at once we picked up his bed and flipped him up in the air and started yelling. It was such fun.
It was great.
Now, why do I tell you that? Because. You can do stupid stuff in the dark. Stupid st we could never do that in the light. But you can do stupid stuff in the dark.
Stuff that is mindless and useless. and stuff that is far worse. You can do stuff that's immoral. in the dark, but you rarely do it in the light. You rarely do it in the presence of somebody else.
Yeah. If you do do it in the presence of somebody else, it's because you've cultivated a kind of person in the dark. that doesn't care anymore. And you actually are wanting to take darkness into light.
some ways. This morning's message is about darkness and light. And light sheds, like light brings to life things. that we didn't even know were there in different ways. I came on this article.
this week. As we think about walking as light, I came upon this article this week of. these explorers who do a census of the deep sea. And so in 2024, they did a census of the Arctic Sea. To see if there was anything new that they discovered down in the Arctic Sea.
And as they went down, there are certain creatures that are bioluminescent. and that they were able to discover and some that they could photograph that are red with red light in particular. And red light often in the depths of the ocean gets sort of frayed out and so red light tends to blend in with the black. But I wanted to show you these pictures. I just thought they were extraordinary.
These were nine brand new creatures that we didn't even know existed. I don't know how we live on an earth where we find yearly things we didn't even know existed. But these creatures were discovered. We didn't even know they existed. And we discovered them down in the dark, adapting to life in the cold and in the dark.
And through bioluminescence, we're able to now have them come to life, and we discern now them over against the dark. The world that we live in, it sounds cliche to say that it's darkness because I sometimes hear like these like pundits and they almost overplay the hand of things. This happened a lot politically. It was like how dark can we possibly make everything feel so that whatever we say has relevance? Um But we really are in a dark world.
It is a really jaded place. It is a place that is not friendly. to the church. on the whole. And I don't mean that in terms of just some kind of overt political thing.
I actually mean it at kind of a groundswell more than anything. And and I mean it because darkness emanates not from a large corporate structure. The moment we talk that way, we're sort of missing the point. A large corporate structure is just the accumulation of human hearts working together. Yeah.
Darkness emanates from human hearts. And so what happens is that we set up things that sometimes even masquerade as light. good things that end up being self-deifying enterprises that amount to making humanity out to be captain of its own ship in different ways. And in God's economy, that in and of itself is a kind of darkness.
So The message this morning is deeply important because it's about what light would look like. In and over against darkness, what would radiate out against the darkness? What new thing might be seen? in your workplace. What new thing might come to light at the family reunion?
What new thing might pop up? at home. What new thing? might come to life. At the bowling alley.
If You are a particular kind of person. If you're a particular kind of person. Because you might be the only available opportunity that many people you interact with have to see that. And so it's a really important text for us to look at.
So I'm going to invite you to look with me. And as we do, we'll see, we're going to kind of work through seven words that Kind of come out of this text. They're not words that are particularly or precisely found in the text, but more summaries. But I want them sort of ingrained in your mind as we're thinking about this passage. And I'd like us to start in verse 5, if we could, of Ephesians 5, because the last two verses are an important context for what 7 through 14 are going to say to us.
So we read in verse five For you may be sure of this. That everyone is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous. That is, an idolater. has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. And God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God. comes upon the sums Of disobedience.
So you see right away in these two verses, right? That if you are A person who is characterized in your habituated life by evil, then you're not the kind of person who will be an inheritor of God's kingdom. Not because you've worked your way out of it or you didn't work your way into it. We established that when I got up and made those remarks at the beginning of our time together in communion and talked about 2 Timothy chapter 1. But rather because your life Does not have the forensic Evidence of a life that the gospel has exploded in.
Because the gospel is not without consequence. It is a grenade that has shrapnel that destroys the flesh. That's how you should think of it. And if the flesh is not destroyed or being destroyed, and that is evident, then the pin has not been pulled. The pin has not been pulled on the grenade of the gospel.
Because it has an effect.
So he's saying, if your life's characterized by things, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. In fact, in verse 6, the judgment of God is still, the wrath of God is still subsisting on you, because you're a son or a daughter of disobedience. Then we get this word in verse 7. Therefore. And that has to be understood in light of verse 5 and 6.
So, in lieu of the fact, with the backdrop of the fact that we're existing as the church. among people Outside the church. but also at times within the church, Who are living lives that do not look like. Even maybe contrary to words that are confessed, that don't look at all like the grenade of the gospel has gone off in their life. There's some things that we are to take into account.
And so the first one is, therefore, do not, it's an imperative, do not become. partners with them. Our first word is participation. Partner here is not a word that means association. Uh if The idea is not that you don't have friends who are unbelievers.
That's not the point of the passage. The point of the passage is not that you insulate yourself. In an entirely Christian world, there's actually been a movement that direction by Christian authors. that sort of the Christian culture should kind of hunker down. Wait out the world.
Let the world kind of go over top of them. And make sure that you sort of take care of your kids, kind of like a Mike and a mechanic, silent running in spiritual life. If you ever remember that song from the 80s, and if you don't like 80s music, shame on you, you're not a Christian. But anyway. This kind of idea that you're going to hunker down and just have the holy huddle.
Books written on that. these days. That's not the way to live as Christians. You're to go out into the world, you're to make associations and connections. Friendships.
And you are to engage non-believers. But you are to do so Never Never Ever partnering or partaking. In any act that is contrary, to the will of God. Ever. And if you need to do that for the sake of friendship, that's not a friendship you should have.
You have to be authentic the authentic Christian self. Right?
So the word here is sim metikoi. We used to call our women's ministry metikoi. And we took that from Hebrews 3, 1 and 3.14. Not just those passages, but really the use of the term in Greek. And the term in those passages is about being a sharer in, one verse says a heavenly calling, and the other says a sharer in Christ.
you're a participant with. A partner in the sense of like a partner in a firm with. Where it's beyond a friendship, but you're actually doing something in the world together. You're on mission in some way together. acting out in the same enterprises.
And he says, in light of the fact that the things that the world is characterized by is over against the things that characterize the kingdom of God. Of course you're going to live in the world. You should. That's the only way you could be light in the world. But don't act like them.
And you have to be honest about that. You have to, in your mind this morning, you need to go through your friendships. And you need to think. This is a verse for the water cooler. What do I mean?
It's the kind of verse that lands like, when people are saying things unholy at the water cooler, am I on the other side laughing? If so, you're participating. Am I somebody who sort of engages in the crassness? If I do, I'm participating. Am I somebody who joins in talking negatively about the boss?
If so, you're participating. You're supposed to be different, and when people act in darkness, they're supposed to feel awkward around you. If they don't feel awkward around you, a light bulb should go off in your head. And you should ask why. You should ask why.
Why do they feel free to do that with me?
Something they misunderstand about me and my nature. How did they get that? Do they get it from your silence? I mean, it's possible they got it from your silence. Maybe they got it from your action.
Maybe they got it from your past participation. Maybe they got it because you used to participate and while you've had a change in your life, you never are adequately articulated that change to them.
So we want to think about that. He says, therefore. Don't be a public. participant. with them.
Verse 8. For at one time You were Darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
So What I would expect this to say, if I were just kind of thinking about Paul and the way he's used terms and things like that, I would kind of expect to read verse 8 as, For at one time you were in darkness, but now you are in the light in the Lord. But do you notice that he doesn't Prepare. give like a preposition. On this thing. There's not a sense in which He, um makes the light the kind of thing that you step into.
Instead, he makes the light the kind of thing that steps into you. That is, that you actually become Light yourselves. He's teaching our restore ministry. a number of, about a month and a half ago, and talked with our leadership training on Friday night with about 40 of our leaders. And I talked with them a little bit about, we were talking actually about addiction, and we were giving some kind of a theological and philosophical understanding of addiction.
And as we were talking about that, one of the things I wanted to emphasize was that. The ark of God's story is an ark of the restoration of order.
So when you read your Bible and you open it up, in the first verse it says what? In the beginning, God. Right?
And then it says, he created the heavens and the earth.
Now, whatever your views are of creation, I don't really care, to be honest with you, as long as you think God created. But if you hold a young earth view, an old earth view, a theistic evolution view, creation, whatever, as long as you think God created, that's the key part. But what I do want you to see is that when the literature itself develops, There is something in the literature that is clearly being communicated. And it goes like this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
That's a heading statement, and the rest of chapter 1 is basically what's underneath that heading. And now it is as though the author is going to say, let me tell you about how the heavens and the earth were created, or give you some more context for it.
So then we get the days of creation. But before we get into it, the next verse says what? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was... Formless and void, Darkness. was over it all.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The portrait you get right at the beginning. is not one of order. You actually get a portrait of disorder. You could use the word chaos.
But you get the idea at the very least of things that don't have borders. are formless. And void. And then verse 3 says, And God What? Set.
That's really important. A theme throughout the entire scripture. That the Word of God is an ordering entity. And God said, Let there be Light. Let there be light.
Just take your Bibles for a sec. Flip over, keep your finger in Ephesians, you flip over to John chapter 1. John chapter one. You're a Jew. In the first century.
You know the Old Testament. And somebody in an assembly gets up. that you started to attend a little house gathering. And they're going to read. to you.
from a document. Maybe it's the second century, the first part of the second century. And they're going to read to you from a document. And that document begins. In the beginning.
Where's your mind go? Oh man, Genesis 1. Better believe it. In the beginning was The word. And the word was with God, and the word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Do you see that? In the beginning was... The speech of God and the speech of God.
brought forth creation. Boy, this sounds a lot like John might have Genesis 1 in his mind. In him was life, and the life was the Light of men. Let there be light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Skip down to verse 9. The true light, which gives light to everyone. was coming into the world. What's happening in John is a really important. Beginning.
Because what's happening is Creation in the narrative of Genesis moves from disorder. to order. by the speech of God that invokes light. Are you with me? John begins and says, this thing's gotten disordered.
Because of sin. How will it get reordered? by the speech of God. That brings light. He's recapitulating the same argument to show that recreation will happen, similar to creation.
It's a beautiful. Beautiful structure. that begins to weave together the word of God and what he is doing calling people out of darkness. How does this relate to the fact that you are light? Because when you watch the theme of light begin to build, you go from a text like we just read, John 1:9, that Jesus is the true light.
You get a little deeper in John's Gospel. And we read in John 8, 12, again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have. The light of life. The light is something that they will possess in that way.
They'll be received as children of God, John chapter 1. But then Jesus will talk like this. You are. The light. That is, it's so gotten over your character.
That now that which was Intrinsic to Jesus as God That established the reordering from disorder is now in you. And now becomes part of your intrinsic nature. If you went through your daily life. In Jesus' name. Who is with you?
But let's just say, literally walked in his body alongside you, literally. He was right there in your three-legged racing with Jesus for a day. Would it change? The way you speak. What you look at Would it change the tone of your voice?
Would it at the very least make you pause and go Uh Half second delay has now become a three second delay. And I'm going to think deeper. My guess is it would.
Okay? What I want to ask you is this. Does your presence do that? To people in your life? Not because they're afraid of some judgment.
But just because you're light You look so different from them. And they love you because of your light. They love you because of it. And they don't want to act that way in your presence. Or do they not give a second thought to it?
You are light. You are light. With that being said, We read in the second part of verse 8. One time you're darkness. But now your light in the Lord.
Walk. as children of light.
So, if you are this, this is Paul. This is his theology all the time. I say it a million times here. The theology of Paul is: you are this, so do this. Right?
You are this, so do this. You don't do to become. God makes you something, so then you act out of that. You're light!
So live like it. It's the metaphor, walk. And it's continual in the Greek. It's just this present active idea. Per imperative.
Keep. Keep walking, keep walking, keep walking. But it's hard because people don't, I know they don't like it sometimes. But keep walking. They'll respect you for it eventually.
Or maybe not. But you keep walking. We'll see in a little while that you're not living for them anyway.
So you keep walking. A little bit, if you let your eyes go back up to verse 1 of chapter 5, we saw this earlier. It says, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved. children, walk as children of light. See that?
The idea is live your life. in the security of a father who is light. Who you want to look like. And you're happy living in the security of a life looking like your daddy. That you're happy being identified by your father.
You're proud of him as your father. And you don't really care what the other boys and girls on the bus say. They can say whatever they'd like to. Do you understand? How our lack of courage is so like a junior high popularity contest.
I mean, i even as I say that about the bus You're like, well, that's kind of silly. I know, it's silly. Because that's the way we live. We live like the way that people think about us and criticize us if we're trying to live a righteous life set apart, and we look like we have nine heads to them that somehow we should give a care. Um why?
Why? Because the boy on the bus who makes fun of you for being your daddy's child. Is supposed to change your life. It's supposed to make you feel sheepish. It's supposed to make you second guess.
It's supposed to make you feel insecure. It's supposed to make you feel envious. Because you want to be a part of their party? Right?
Okay. No. And we get lost in this kind of little... infantile. Immature.
kind of realm. Uh 3 John 11, beloved, do not imitate. evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good's from God Whoever does evil has not seen God. It's not rocket science.
Right?
Just do righteousness because you're light. Habituate it. Verse 9. For the fruit of light He's found in all that is, and he gives... Three terms here, and I can spend a lot of time on this, but this is the characterization.
This is about ethics. It's found in all that's good.
So all that squares With something that is acting in the intentionality for which it was made. That's something that's good. When a hammer hits a nail, that's good. When it hits a teacup, that's bad. It's not intended for that.
Right?
When saw Cuts. A log, that's good. And when it's your forearm. It's bad. Unless it's a surgeon.
Right?
Unless it's a surgeon. But for the most part, there's an intentionality to something, and the right use of that thing is what makes it good. Good. It's right use.
So you are not your own. You are bought at a price. Therefore glorify God. In your members. That's good.
To do something different is not good. It says here, good. And then it says, and the right. This is ethical righteousness. This is not primarily focused on some type of judicial declarative righteousness justification here, although that's how you ultimately have any opportunity to do good or to be right.
But here it's concerned with the idea of sanctification, that you're actually living a right kind of life. And true, you're acting as though reality is defined by God. Not. by culture.
So you're not really listening to how culture talks. For the purpose of guidance. You're listening to how culture talks for the purpose of engagement. You want to be able to understand the way in which you can speak life into a culture. That's important.
But not in terms of guidance. You're not finding it there. They can have their way. But you're finding it someplace else. You're finding it in the Word of God.
You're finding it through the Spirit of God. You're finding the discussion in the community of God because you're characterized by good, right, and true. Verse 10. and try to discern The word dokamatso, it means like. A little more than discern here.
Uh something like test. Test.
So I use this term, examine. The idea is you have a sense of what righteousness is. And so you're putting it through a filter. And a grid. I'm going to teach a class in the spring.
For Spurgeon College with our partnership. Rob's teaching a great class in a second part of the Old Testament now. I'm going to teach a class on world view through the spring for 10 weeks here. And It's an important class because it helps us understand how both to see but how also to practice engagement with the world, how to habituate ourselves in the world rightly. But if you don't have the right way of seeing the world, then the world can become a very confusing place.
For you. Here he's saying you've got to be able to test and sort of put through a filter. What's the filter? And try to discern. What's pleasing to the Lord?
What's pleasing to the Lord? You exist at the pleasure of God. I had a QA last night with our merge group at our home. And so they were asking theological and biblical questions and some life questions, and it was a wonderful, it was a really fun time. If someone asked me what keeps me up at night and what gets me up in the morning, it was a great question.
And I said, what keeps me up at night is, let me see. Um yeah, Geor no, not George. What keeps me up at night, I mentioned are is uh some of the anxieties and tensions of life in different ways, but what gets you up in the morning? And it was interesting for me to think about what is it that gets me up in the morning? And I realized even as I was kind of processing that answer with them, That it was that what gets me up in the morning It's to know that I didn't die at night.
And that may sound dumb. But let me explain. What gets me up in the morning is that God is sovereign over all things and he decided that I shouldn't die last night. And that begs the question, why? Not particularly essential for the world to go on.
If I die tonight, the world's gonna still go on without me. But he has decided to keep me going. And so that gets me up in the morning because I need to know why. There's something for today. There's something that my worship and my fellowship will be sweeter in heaven, but he thought.
That since mission sort of isn't really the kind of thing that happens in glory. It's already one. He thought I should keep breathing for some reason. And now I have to find out, to what effect? Right?
To what effect? Is that supposed to happen? Because my job is to live at his pleasure. And he wakes me up at his pleasure. He wakes you up at his pleasure.
And that's the only reason he wakes you up. Otherwise you'd be dead. You should ask. In the morning, What is it that would please you today? And you should pause at lunch and think: what is it that would please him now?
And when you're headed home and you're exhausted, what is it that would please God? as I had home. You've been home all day with the kids. What is it that would please God as my endurance is running really low? And I'm feeling myself on edge.
What is it that would bring pleasure? to God. You're not asking what is it that would please. Person A. B, C, or D.
You notice that? Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you'll have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. I want to note something. The next verse. After this, starts this way.
Thus when you give to the needy. Why does it say thus when you give to the needy? Because the idea is when you give to the needy, Don't be looking over your shoulder going, I hope everybody's seeing that I'm doing really good here. When you give to the needy, Don't go blah.
Well, I wasn't going to give it, but there's good news. It's a tax write-off. I don't know if I can give that because I don't know if that'll be able to be written off on my taxes. You ever had that pause for a moment? How carnal of a pause is that Really?
Yeah. Three verses later. And when you pray. The and when is building on this.
So when you pray It's not so, you say, well, the other day I just want you to know, Joe, I was praying for you for the last 30 minutes and just pouring my heart out to God for you.
So Joe goes, Oh my God.
So thankful for Brian. He's super spiritual and he always lifts me up. Man, I can really count on him. Hmm. Faithful friend.
I just do it because I'm with God. 11 verses later. And when you fast, It's all building off of that still. What's the point? The point of Jesus is when you live life in his kingdom, can you just live With an eye to the king.
That's it. That's it. Discern, test what's Pleasing to the Lord, not everybody else. How liberating and how hard. How hard.
But that's part of being light. Take no part. in the unfruitful works of darkness. Take no apart is a word that is sort of a parallel word for not becoming partners with.
So, meta-koi. means partnership or partaker. Koinenia is the word for fellowship. The first word was sim metakoi, with. Sim is the with, right?
If you have sympathy. You have pathos or passion with someone. You're suffering with someone. This is sim quenenia. It's the idea of fellowship with, you say, don't don't do that.
Don't have fellowship with them. Again, this is not about an association. This is about rallying around the fire of sin and iniquity and roasting your marshmallows together over it. Hey, don't do that. Don't set down sinful things and make it the celebration time together.
You're supposed to be distinct. The unfruitful works Of Darkness. I love this verse in Romans 6. I wanted to read it to you. Romans 6, 21.
But what, Paul asks, but what fruit were you getting at that time? Talking about when you were enslaved to sin. What fruit were you getting? at that time from the things of which you're now ashamed. For the end of those things is death.
You need to ask yourself: when you were lost, how fruitful was your life?
So why would you want to go back there? Instead, separation is a word. And then we have a final word. I should mention, if you go down to verse 20. It says, take no part in the fruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret.
It's again separating yourself even from, this goes back to what was said back in verses 3 and 4, but the idea of just foolish, filthy talk and crassness and crudeness, the things in secret are things, the word is related to the English, we get an English word from it, the crypt. In the crypt, in the grave, in the hidden place. Kind of don't don't talk about things in the crypt is the idea. Get out of there. It's shameful even to do that.
So guard your tongue, guard your speech, live separate, but not just live separate. And now it gets hard. This is the hard part of light. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness.
Okay. but instead expose them. This is something that it means to be light.
Now, let me be clear. This is not a witch hunt. This is not you becoming a sin-sniffing dog. I know some sin-sniffing dogs in human form, and they're super annoying. They're hunting.
I was waiting for somebody to mess up. Saw what you. Did you really say that? Um Don't be annoying. But Here's the idea.
The idea is that your life as light. If properly lived among people, Exposes. Mm-hmm. It exposes them. Um There are times That overt sin needs to be addressed.
And it needs to be addressed, not talking to this person about this person. It needs to be addressed talking to this person. The person who is in it. And just having an honest, careful, concerned. loving brokenhearted pleading conversation.
Not an angry, condescending, yelling, frustrated. conversation. But Not one that shows you're at the end of your rope because of their unrighteousness. By the way, if you are, that's a you problem. But like You're just called to be light and darkness.
You're not called to be light that flickers and strobes. You're called to just be a consistent light. And you expose, and the word expose here is, I think. It's an okay translation. As long as we understand what exposure means, we have to think about it.
Because I think sometimes we think exposure just means. Show it. Right?
Show it. It was hidden.
Now What's there? But the word isn't quite used that way. um as much in the Greek text.
So the word has two primary uses in Greek. One in the New Testament. One is conviction. And the other is rebuke. It kinda has to do with what it's exposed for.
Almost like what the results of being exposed. R.
Now, here it's an imperative. It's a present active imperative. Why does that matter?
Well, because when you look at that form in its use, and you just look at that particular verb form and how that's used in the New Testament, it is all three other times used and translated appropriately, rebuke. Rebuke. I'll give you one of them. Uh 1 Timothy 5.20. Paul writes to Timothy and says, As for those who persist in sin, rebuke, it's the same word here.
Rebuke them in the presence of all.
So that the rest may stand in fear. That's a hard verse. Call somebody out. in the presence of other people. That seems really harsh.
So I want to mention some reasons why we would expose. Sen.
Okay. The issue that's at stake is this term. Illumination. Not for the sake of an intellectual enlightenment, but for the sake of an ethical awareness. To that end we expose.
We expose. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed.
So we hide in the dark. We do dumb stuff in the dark. What does exposing sin do? Number one. It clearly delineates how light and darkness differ.
The first thing it does is it draws. and unequivocal. Distinction. Between A And B. And it's evident.
It's evident. If dwelt upon, the fruits of it are also. evident.
So exposing it is intended to draw its distinction. Secondly, It shows that holiness matters. by shedding light on the ugliness and sinfulness of sin. What it does is it goes, wow, that's really dark. I remember years ago I took a bunch of youth on a trip when I was a youth pastor and we went up a missions trip in West Virginia and we went into southern Pennsylvania and we went spelunking.
You know what that is, where you go down into a cave. In this particular cave, you were able to go down, and I can't remember the distance, it was a long ways down, but the cave calde-sact. way down, and we got down to the cul-de-sac. And we had the lights on. And our God said, everybody turn off their lights.
And we turned them off. I got to tell you, I thought, what happens if everybody's battery fails? We're dead.
Okay. Yeah. So the lights go off. And it was the darkest. blackness I have ever experience and then the light comes on and you're like When light comes on in abject darkness, you begin to realize how really dark it was.
How really dark it was. But if you stay in darkness long enough, what happens? Your eyes start to adjust.
Okay. You start to think you see. But you don't see clearly. You mistake shapes for things. You can get in accidents.
You need the light. Because it shows you just how dark the darkness is. It serves as a warning of judgment to people remaining in sin. It says to people. There is a distinction here.
And that thing that you think is not darkness is really dark, and judgment awaits, and we're not your friends if we don't say that. We're not your friends. We're not the kind of people who are content to live and watch you go into eternal damnation. because we were afraid of what you would say on the junior high school bus. It places a fork in the road for people.
In our midst who might be hiding sin. It raises the awareness that sin is a deal. And it'll destroy lives and it will wreck you. And it'll come out one way or another. And you can choose humility or you can choose humiliation, the first on your terms, the second not.
First is always better than the second. And then finally, it creates the opportunity for awakening, for resurrection life. Look at your text. Verse 12, it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light.
Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper. Arise from the dead. And Christ will shine on you. You see that, what's it alluding to? It has this kind of resurrection feel, doesn't it?
You're dead in sin. Wake up! And the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:6 will shine. On Yeah. And it'll be a brand new day.
Brand new day. You ever go down and wake up a teenager? It's its own adventure. Tell you that. You go downstairs, say, hey, it's time to get up.
Mm-hmm. No, you really got to get up. It's a school going on. Got to get after it. Yeah, just give me uh just give me a couple more minutes so.
Okay. Give them a couple more minutes. Come back again. Get up! Let's go.
Please don't yell and raise your voice like that. It's hard when I'm asleep. No, so Point is, you're supposed to get up. I know, but when you wake me up, it's so rude and mean. You don't have to do that.
Well, I tried to be nice, but now you've sort of forcing my hand. Yeah. Teenager finally opens their eyes. bleary-eyed to the world. From What is important sleep?
But what is, in terms of human productivity, in terms of activity, largely unproductive? It's good to restore you, I know that biologically, but you're not accomplishing a whole lot. in sleep. And you wake up. And you rub your eyes, and it's a whole new.
Day. That's what the gospel does. The gospel wakes you up from uselessness. It wakes you up from frivolity. It wakes you up from sloth.
It wakes you up from dormancy. To breathe the breath. of missional life as light.
So I want to encourage you this week. Be light. Be light. Because you're with a lot of people who are sleeping. And they need They need the reality that God has made you light.
And the moment you start looking like darkness, that light's diminished. Do not let it get diminished for the glory of God. Father, help us. To be people who would honor and glorify your name and live as light in this world and offer ourselves to that end. In Jesus' name, we commit ourselves to you and pray.
that you would help us. To walk in righteousness in Jesus' name, amen.
