I Am - The Light of the World

well good morning listen let me just reiterate the two big invites I hope you plan on coming Friday nights to the recum I hope you plan on inviting somebody and then turn around Sunday morning invite somebody for our first ever sweet Sunday and you may be going I want a little bit more specific clarification what does sweet entail here's the rumors of what's going to be out in the lobby in between the two services so at 11 o'cl you want to come a little bit early to make sure there's some sweets there for you cotton candy you cannot eatting C eat cotton candy without a smile coming on your face okay so cotton candy there's cookies there'll be cake balls there's going to be a chocolate fountain there'll be like six different spots that you can stop and just fill your bellies full now notice I say bellies not Tupperware okay this is not a to go take it home and eat it later okay this is bring somebody with you and we'll all enjoy it there but I think it's just going to be a great great day of just inviting friends inviting neighbors and just as Dawson said just it's all the purpose of so we can share the gospel with different people so hope you plan on coming for that you know if you're here this week this is our third week of the I am series and if you know much about the I AMS when that phrase is said in the New Testament Jesus used this phrase I am seven different times and every time he said I am he would fill in the blank with something else and really what he was doing within this context of him using these I am statements is he was not only clarifying who he was but he was also recognizing that he is God himself because it was God and when he dealt with Moses in the wilderness in the Old Testament that he said I am and so Jesus is just following up on that but the interesting thing when Jesus uses these phrases I am in the New Testament what helps us really understand what he's trying to say is the context of where he was when he said it what was going on when he said it and even who was there when he said it and today's I am is a very unique one it's one that to really understand what Jesus was saying you do need to understand the place where is at so let me see if I can describe it for you go back 2,000 plus years in your mind um you're at a celebration in Jerusalem it would have been one of the biggest celebrations entire um nation of Israel that the Jewish people would have celebrated in fact people would have came from all over to celebrate in this particular occasion and it was called the Feast of Tabernacles if you do much studying in the Old Testament there was a number of feast that God set out in the Old Testament that people were to follow in the New Testament to remember the faithfulness of of God and so this particular time that Jesus was about to reveal the second I am it was the Feast of Tabernacles like I said people would have came from all over the place the town would have been full of people it would have been a party atmosphere there would have been parades there would have been dancing in the streets at nights people would pull out their torches and dance in the streets to signify the light that God gave them but it would have all culminated each night within the outer outer area of the temple or the outer courts of the temple in the outer courts there would have been this place that they would have all gathered and I say the outer courts this particular one probably would have been as large as our Auditorium is here so you can imagine just full of people because that's the culmination of all that's going on and at the climactic point there would been two big candal labras and I say big maybe I should say really big candal abas and at the culmination of this Feast of this festivities of this celebration would have been the lighting of these candle laas they would have been so big as the candles were lit it would have lit up the entire outer courts of the temple area in fact these candle lobers would have been so big that if you'd been on some of the surrounding streets of the temple you could have saw the glowing of these candles as they sat on the outer courts of of this of this Temple and so that was what was going on that was the piece of it and here here's really what the celebration was all about it is to remind people of God's faithfulness he set it up in the book of Deuteronomy to celebrate this Feast but these candle lobers were added because it reminded reminded the people of their forefathers the nation of Israel when they were wandering in the wilderness it was to remind them had go how God was their guiding force he was their Guiding Light you go back to the Old Testament remember when they were wandering in the wilderness it said this that God was a pillar fire every night and he would light the way for them and give them ways to see and so each night as those candles were lit the people's minds their emotions their thoughts went back to the stories of their grandfathers and their great-grandfathers and all the way back telling the story story of how God was the light of the Jewish nation and he was their provision and he was faithful throughout all these years so that's a setting imagine it's a party it's a celebration and they're waiting for these candles to be lit and the Bible lets us know when these candles were lit there was this moment we're not exactly sure when but when the candles were lit Jesus stepped up and he delivered his second I am statement and he delivered in such a way that I think in modern day terms we would call it a mic drop moment it would have been one of those moments that nobody expected what he said some even had a hard difficult time understanding what he meant what he said but it was this moment that Jesus in his very presence and his statement overshadowed the very candles of the light the lights of the candles that were behind him and so let's look at it together today it's going to be found in John chapter 8 we'll put it up on the screen it's in your hand out there but John chapter 8 and we will start in verse 12 as we look at the second I am statement that Jesus delivers and here's what he said there in verse 12 Jesus spoke to the people once more and he said this I am the light of the world Now understand that when he took this sinner stage he was doing much more than just saying hey I'm here and I'm bringing you the message of God he was literally saying to them I am God because the Jewish people listening to it would have always reconciled and corresponded light with God and so when he places himself in that blank I am the light of the world he is declaring himself God now understand this that when he delivered it during this ritual during this tradition of the Feast of Tabernacles and the lighting of the candal laas he wasn't stepping up and trying to negate all that was going on he wasn't here going hey I'm Jesus I'm on the scene now so any of these Traditions I'm about to Trump your traditions he wasn't standing up going hey I'm Jesus and I'm here and I'm the Son of God and I'm going to to just negate your religious rituals he wasn't trying to do that he wasn't trying to step in and going there're no more these Traditions that you that you experience and I'm now the best thing he's just stepping in front going I'm the main thing and this is really important for us to understand as we keep studying this passage because some may think that Jesus was saying is wrong in our walk and our spirit spiritual journey to have traditions and religious rituals that's not at all what he was saying there but here's what we have to understand that when our religious rituals replace our faith they become negative in our worship of God but when our religious rituals engage our faith they become a positive form of worship let me say that again when our religious rituals let me pause there what are religious rituals there anything that we add to our religion that we do on a regular basis um later in our service we're going to have communion that's a religious ritual in this Old Testament or this new testament story when they were lighting the candles that's a religious ritual I remember years ago that a friend of mine I'd never gone to Catholic Church I grew a Baptist and she invited me to go to Ash Wednesday and I had never done anything like walking up and having the ashes put on my head it was a religious ritual but it freaked me out the first time I did it the next week I took her to our Baptist church and we had the time that we doing our service with you turn and meet somebody I think the greeting the guest freaked her out as much as the ashes on my head because she wasn't used to it every church service you go to will have some kind of religious ritual in there whether it is a specific thing that we do or just an order of service but all of these religious rituals these Traditions that we experience as long as they're used in a way to engage our faith they are very positive in our worship but when they replace our faith they become negative in our worship and so as Jesus stood before the crowd and he may be standing in front of this candle lobber that's glowing bright with the lights the candles burning there and he says I am the light of the world what he was trying to do is get the people's eyes off the religious ritual and put them on a relationship with him because that's why Jesus came he came to be in a relationship with us he came to offer us intimacy he came to offer us a personal relationship that might replace anybody that was hanging on to just old religious tradition and so he says I'm here and I am God I am the light of the world look what he says next as he's talking about moving them towards religious ritual and moving them towards a relationship because the next thing he says there he says if you follow me remember he says I am the light of the world if you follow me you won't have to walk in darkness when he used that phrase if you follow me that's where he's moving their whole conversation that's where he's moving his declaration into being relationship oriented and not religion oriented because anytime you follow somebody or something there's a relationship that happens with it um many of you I'm sure on Tik Tok every single day of your life and you're probably just spending hours and hours and hours on Tik talk right okay maybe that was the earlier crowd I should have done that with not the later crowd here right but Tik Tok one of those social media things that your grandkids are doing there's one particular person on there that has 160 million followers and you can talk to most followers of somebody on social media they feel like they have a relationship with this individual that all they do is she she short videos on there but because they're following them they feel like it's a relationship there's another type of followship relationship that's taking place between now and April the 5th and that's called March Madness okay there are some of you in this room let's go ahead and confess right now there are some of you in this room that are watching the score so diligently that's all you can keep up with but in the following there's a relationship with who you're following I'm sure if you're following a team it's because you're Alma modern not because you put a lot of money on that particular team but you're following that particular team because of a relationship in that with them so following creates relationship I remember when I first met my wife before she was my wife before she was my girlfriend I followed her some might call it stalking but I followed her because I wanted a relationship with her right following creates this relationship so as Jesus is talking with them what he's saying is this one if you follow me and as we study this particular passage the key word in there is if just because he's the light does not mandate a relationship with us he leaves it up to us if we follow him him he will create the light but then he says the third thing if you follow me if you follow me you won't have to walk in darkness and then he says because you will have the light that leads to life it's not just any light it's not light that you find on a candle that may be behind him it's not some light that you might put in your house so you can see where you're going it is the light of life and here's what Jesus is trying to portray that he's not a temporary light he's not an Earthly light but he's an eternal Heavenly light because he is God himself in fact here's a few ways if you're taking notes you can write this down a few ways that Jesus brings us light in our life when we follow him first if following Jesus provides Direction when we choose to follow Jesus in the light that he brings as the Son of God he will bring us direction to our life um Isaiah 42:16 I love the way the message puts this puts it here what it says he says but I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way and this is God speaking but I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way who can't see where they're going anybody ever been in a season of life that you have no idea where you're going no idea where you're going in a relationship no idea where you're going vocationally no idea where you're going just in life and God says if you will walk with me I'll take you by the hand I'll be a personal guide to them directing them through unknown country I'll be right here to show them what roads to take and make sure they don't fall into the ditch these are the things I'll be doing for them sticking with them not leaving them for a moment and so as we choose to make Jesus our light the light of the world what he promises to do is he promises to give us Direction and in that direction he will never ever leave us but there's a second thing he does as we follow him following Jesus also provides Clarity in our life follow in Jesus provides Clarity in our life John 12:46 Jesus says this later on in this book I have come as a light to shine in the Dark World so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark God says this I will be with you because I'm going to give you Direction but when I'm with you I will give you Clarity so you won't be in the dark what he's promising right there is you're just not walking around stumbling whether it's relationally vocationally personally whatever the area area is he's not just going to have you fumble in the dark but he's going to give you clarity now here's what I've understand about God so many times sometimes his Clarity is in front of us and sometimes his Clarity is behind us I've shared the story with y'all several times before that when Denise and I were moving from California and trying to figure out the next place God's going to lead us and land us and what to do we were driving from California to Texas and we drove through Colorado and we're like you know what we really want to get to Texas but I guess if we can't get to to Texas Colorado would be the second best thing that was just what we kind of said and jokingly prayed but we like God's going to take us to col to Texas we got to Texas about a three weeks before I started interviewing for this job a church in the Hill Country which is like the best place in Texas to live called and it was this amazing church I'm like oh my goodness God if I could ever be the pastor there and I found out I made the short list and we're just going God all of our dreams and hopes everything you've always shared with us is right there and I began interviewing with them about the same time I started interviewing here at South sub Church well a couple of weeks into it the church in Texas said no thank you but South sub is still moving forward can I be real honest with you we were crushed because Texas was close to grandkids Texas was close to my aging mother Texas was close to family Texas is close to the Dallas Cowboys so we were crushed when that whole thing happened and I remember the day after that happened somebody called said I'm just checking on you and I remember saying this I'm giving myself a couple of days to grieve because it was such a dream that was out there going this God this is so good to be true I really had to take a couple of days to grieve now you're going oh so we're second best no no no South sub church was first best Keith just didn't have the clarity in front sight to know what God was doing in my life I look back now going had I'd gone to that church in Texas I would have been miserable I'm not even sure to being in ministry right now because it would have just fried me so much just because of everything that was going on at that church but God knew exactly where he wanted me and it was right here at South sub church so many times the light that God brings us through Jesus Christ is Clarity Clarity sometimes he gives us so we'll know what direction to take but sometimes he'll wait and give us Clarity looking back going whooo God I'm glad you're in charge and not me anybody ever prayed that before yeah I'm glad God that you were in charge and not me cuz I would have messed that thing up Roy y so Jesus as we follow Jesus he become the light of the world as we follow him in relationship he gives us Direction he gives us Clarity but here's the third thing he gives us following Jesus gives us hope following Jesus gives us hope now I don't know about you but sometimes I get on my wow W wagon and I'm like life is unfair God this is not the way it supposed to work out w w w w and when I start thinking that I realize I'm about as biblical as they come because it says this in Ecclesiastes 11:8 when people live to very old let them rejoice in every day of life but let them also remember there will be many dark days I'm not going to ask you if you're very old but I'm going to ask you this anybody ever had a dark day in here yeah you don't have to be very old to have a dark day so when we have our woww days God this is not the way it's supposed to work out he's going yeah I could have told you that is in my Bible it doesn't always work out life is not always fair if you think life is fair just ask the spouse who' never wanted to divorce but they go to sleep at home by themselves at night if you think life is not unfair just ask the parent who goes to sleep or tries to go to sleep at night and can't go to sleep because they're so worried about their grown child's choices they're making or what about the person who's living day by day by day with some kind of mental illness and can't seem to get a grasp of it if if you think life is fair all the time look at the person at next to you and just say is that true life can be so unfair but here's what we know as unfair as life is through Jesus Christ we still have hope Psalms 23 that that chapter in Psalms that we know so so well says this the Lord is my shepherd I lack nothing he makes me lie down in Green P Ur he leads me beside Quiet Waters he refreshes my soul he guides me along the right paths for his name's sake and even though I walk even though I walk through the darkest Valley maybe we could read word that even though I think life is unfair even though I don't like this hand that's been dealt to me even though I walk through the darkest Valley I will fear no evil for you are with me here's what I know that the hope hope that Jesus Christ brings us the light that he brings us may not always change my circumstances in the way I want them changed but I will always be walking through those circumstances with him he promises to never ever leave me and so here's Jesus he's standing before all this crowd on in in this Outer Outer area of the temple going I am the light of the world if anyone chooses to follow me I will give them light for the rest of their life a living light and you would think if you could transport yourself but I could go back 2,000 years ago everybody's going amen preach it Jesus we've been waiting on you for years and years and years preach it this is awesome when you're here this is awesome you would think the celebration they were having for this big festive week would have up that four or five notches because they're like man this is the real deal right here but it didn't turn out that way Jesus's words that I am the light of the world was met with skepticism and it wasn't skep I ISM from The Outsiders it wasn't skepticism from the non-religious people it wasn't skepticism from the pagans of the day that didn't even believe in God or know who God was the skepticism came from the Pharisees the skepticism came from the religious leaders in fact look with me in verse 13 as how they responded to him and the Pharisees replied you are making those claims about yourself such test testimony is not even valid Jesus like they look at him in front of everybody going M don't believe it it's not true quit saying it if you keep reading and I encourage you this afternoon to go and read this whole chapter eight to really see the context and the depth of all of it here's kind of the conversation that took place she says I'm the light of the world Pharisees the religious leaders go no you can't be the light of the world because you don't even have anybody to testify you see in those days if someone made a claim they legally had to one or two other people to make the same claim to say it's true someone just making a claim themselves just wouldn't work and so the FES the religious leaders looked at him going Jesus you can't say that that's not true because you got no one else to testify to claim to to back you up on your claim and Jesus looks at him goes yes I do they're like who Jesus we don't see anybody around here stepping up for you his response my father my father makes the same claim that I am the light of the world you know how they responded next your dad where's he at you see they're looking for like an Earthly father Jesus is talking spiritual Heavenly Realms that the heavenly father the God in heaven Yahweh would back him up and they begin this little tit for Tad you's like you know here's the deal I could talk about this more but you guys aren't going to get it like you haven't been listening to my father all these years you're not going to listen to me so we might as well stop this whole discussion here because this is just not going anywhere my father said it I said it that's all the that matters but you're not going to believe it so we're done with it and the Pharisees the religious leaders met him with such skepticism such doubt that it was squelched right there not the truth of what he was saying but them receiving the truth of what he was saying you know why they were so skeptical because in their own minds they had predetermined who and what Jesus would look like like they belied the Messiah was coming they they they believed all the prophets they were saying someone will come and redeem our our our nation of Israel they were looking for to that day but in their minds they had created who and what Jesus would look like so here's what they did in their own minds they had created a God in their own image you follow me because in my mind in their mind God's going to look Jesus going to look like this he's going to do this he's going to respond this way so they had created their own little God and Jesus didn't match what they had created in their mind to be God the Son of God the Messiah and therefore they rejected him with great skepticism wow can you imagine that that type of skepticism that type of self-centered ego that they would create their own image of who God was they were more satisfied from worshiping religious rituals behind them the big candles than the Son of God right there in front of

them I'm sorry let me make sure I clarify this are we talking about the religious leaders 2,000 years ago are we talking about us

today sometimes I heard this old expression if you can't say Amen you say ouch because aren't we all so guilty at times of forming Jesus in our own image Jesus we want this part of you and we want this part of you and can you do this part of you and can we do this part of you and we form him in our own image and we get disappointed we get frustrated and sometimes we even turn to skepticism because he's not who we think he should be in our lives and you know what we do next as Christians as followers of God we don't want to give up right so what do we do we rely on our traditions and rituals that we find in religion more than an intimate relationship we find with Jesus now let me say again what I said in the beginning there is nothing wrong with Traditions every Church in America has some kind of tradition we have Traditions there's nothing wrong with religious ritual that those all if as long as they're enhancing the worship and activating your faith they are good but when those things replace our faith when we use our rituals when we use our tradition and we we just check off the box of our faith but we don't really engage in the faith and we miss the relationship with Jesus we miss the light of the world and Jesus says if you follow me if you engage with him we will experience the light of the world in a way that we can never ever imagine so it's about the relationship not the religion it's about intimacy not tradition so here's the question I have how do we keep it towards intimacy how do we stay focused on the relationship because can we all agree it's just easier to check out the box of religious stuff than it is to pursue a relationship with Jesus because if I just pursue religious stuff it's just I did this I did this I didn't do this I didn't do this it's just easier so how do we as followers of Jesus how do we make sure that we're pursuing the relationship allowing the rituals allowing the tradition to engage our faith but never replace our faith how do we make the relationship with Jesus how do we make following Jesus the priority of our lives so here's what I want to do I want to give you this simplest foundational step I believe a person whether they've been following Jesus for one day or they've been following Jesus for 50 years the most found foundational step that we all need to be taking and and I want to give that to you and I believe this step is what leads us to the relationship I believe this step is what leads us and helps us not to put on automatic pilot but we're every day seeking new the intimacy of Jesus this one step I'm going to warn you before I give it to you it's going to seem so simple you're going really that's what we pay you for that's all you can bring to the table Keith because it is going to seem so so basic so so Elementary what I'm about to tell you but I truly believe whether you've been following Jesus one day or 50 years it doesn't change as far as the foundation of our ministry as far as the foundation of our intimacy intimacy with Jesus so the question how do you how do you P get past your preconceived ideas your skepticism and even your own struggles to follow Jesus in the step the answer I feel like we need to have a drum roll or something right like everybody's waiting on your like I had to wake the first service up they're all just sitting back I'm going this is the part of the service you're supposed to be sitting on the edge of your seat okay so you guys are doing a whole lot better I'm really worried next week once you get all that sugar in you from sweet Sunday you may just be bouncing off the walls like a bunch of children in here here here's what it is commit to reading the Bible 10 minutes a day you going really I told you it doesn't sound profound does it commit to reading the Bible 10 minutes a day now let me explain why I think this is so foundational because it is the word of God that we find God when we move the word of God to the side that's when begin taking our hands and making God in our own image but when we keep the word of God in our hands we allow the word of God to make God an image that he chooses to be but it goes beyond that when we are reading the word of God while it may be P words on a piece of paper words in a book it is like having a real life personal conversation with Jesus it's his love letter to us and so it's never just a book it's a person it's never just words on a piece of paper it's his words of intimacy to us you say well 10 minutes a day Keith that doesn't seem like very much like couldn't I like to do two or three hours or you can do more than 10 minutes but here's the mistake people make they wait and they focus on God's word one time a week and it's usually when they come to church you go to a Bible study now let me give you this illustration if I went to n or Denise to improve our relationship we have two options I can take you on a two or three hour date once a week or we can just make sure that we stop all of life and spend 10 or 15 minutes just talking to one another each day which one do you think she's going to take both anyway which one if she had to choose one which one do she's going to take which will bring us more Intimacy in our relationship taking 10 or 15 minutes every single day just talking now nothing wrong with a date you need dates sometimes nothing wrong with Bible studies nothing wrong with church we need those but the only time that we pursue Jesus following him and getting to know intimately is one time a week at some kind of official study or one time a week at a church service then we're missing the intimacy and it's 10 minutes a day 10 minutes a day and I look around the room and I'm sure many of y'all spent 10 15 minutes every single day you're like HEI there's really no new part of the Bible that I can read that I haven't already read listen I've been married 30 plus years I keep saying there's nothing new about my wife that I don't know but she teaches me something new every single day but it's that personal time even if it's nothing new it's that time with her so here's my challenge to you to us the church first service second service it doesn't matter how we choose to worship it doesn't matter what style of worship it's all the same step can we commit as we approach Easter 10 minutes a day 10 minutes a day anybody in it with me 10 minutes a day and we're putting a plan for you and in fact what we've done as you've heard us talk about it for a couple of weeks here we're going to read together I'm challenging the whole church we're going to read together the Book of John here's the cool thing about the Book of John there's 21 chapters so we're going to start this reading plan now I hope you can read some other stuff before then but our John plan we're going to start on April the 1st on April the 1st our challenges take 10 minutes and read John chapter 1 on April the 2nd guess what the challenge is read John Chapter 2 for all of you really sharp people out there on the third day of April what chapter you think we're going to read John chapter 3 here's the cool thing about it if we read for 20 starting April 1st one chapter day when we get to the 20th which April the 20th is Easter this year we will read together before we ever come to worship together we will read together on our own the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus I can't think of a better way to prepare our hearts for worship to celebrating Resurrection than walking that together and so that is my challenge to us now you can read it many of you have your own Bible you can read it there some of you read it on your iPad that's where I usually read mine but we have again bought if you want it out in the foury year out there there's just the Gospel of John in little black just the book by itself I'm going to change just for the month of April doing this just to kind of change sometimes if I change up my reading habits it helps kind of stir them even deeper and the cool thing about the little $5 Bible that you can buy there's a place that you can write notes and journal in there so it's just a good little thing again not required that one but if you want that to get the Gospel of John and I'll carry it around with me and that's what I'll be reading the month of April so that's our challenge together who's in who's in okay and the purpose the purpose is not to create another tradition it is to know the person of Jesus Christ and we add our Traditions that engage our faith with us in the personal relationship with Jesus that's where we meet God the very very best let me close with this story a little boy um was in that season of Life seven years old that he was scared to death of the dark I mean just when he turned the lights off to go to bed he did like many of us did his children he did a flying jump to his bed because he had no idea what was lurking underneath the bed when the lights went out he was just hate of the dark scared to death and so one day he was in the kitchen with his mom it was dark outside and his mom said can you step out on the back patio and get the broom for me little boy pulled the curtains back and saw how dark it was and he said Mom it's dark outside I don't want to go outside she goes oh but the broom is just a few feet away would you get it and he said Mom it's dark outside I'm scared of the dark and she said oh honey remember Jesus is always with you Jesus will be on the porch when you go get that broom there's nothing to be afraid of Jesus is on the porch just go get the broom he said ' Mom are you sure Jesus is on the porch right now she goes oh yes he's on the porch honey little boy opened the door said Jesus could you bring the broom in my mom needs it right

now now here's what I love about this story I love that child's boldness Jesus can you bring the broom if Jesus was on that porch I bet he would have said I'm right here to you cuz here you go if you got that kind of boldness I'll be that Jesus for you now my prayer for us is not that we ask Jesus to bring the broom in but here's my prayer that we will be so bold and say Jesus will you reveal yourself to me I think that's a bold prayer that God is waiting to answer just like that as I open your word will you reveal yourself that I can follow you the light of the world will you pray with me father thank you for your

word I'm glad that 2,000 years later you're as bright of a light as you were when Jesus you said this on this Earth so Jesus I pray this that we would walk in your light that we would walk in the light of a relationship a personal intimate relationship with you and we confess as sometimes that grows cold sometimes we get too much on autopilot sometimes we rely more on behavior modification than just an imp personal encounter with you and so Jesus in these days to come may I be so bold to ask you will you reveal yourself to us through your word and we will know who you are and we will follow you and we pray this in in your Holy Name Jesus amen I'm going to ask our elders to come forward