When You Can't See the Light | Crossroads Church

You know, there's a lot of opinions, assumptions, and ideas out there about who Jesus is. Culture has opinions. Religion has opinions. Even people who don't follow him usually still have some kind of perspective on him. My name is Miko, the prison director here at Crossroads Church, and over the next several weeks, we're going to take a deeper look at the I Am statements of Jesus. The moments where Jesus, out of his own mouth, tells us exactly who he is. And I'm going to be up front with you. He said what he said. These aren't just inspirational sayings or vague religious metaphors. These are bold, personal, and at times controversial, claims about the identity of Jesus and the kind of life he's inviting us into. The people hearing them, at the time, they understood the weight of what he was claiming. Some were drawn in. Others were offended by it. Some were just confused. Some worshipped him because of it. Others wanted him killed because of it. No matter where you're coming from spiritually, our hope is that you wouldn't just react to these statements. That you actually wrestle with them. Sit with them. Ask honest questions about them. Because the truth of the matter is, his words are not without consequence for any of us. Whether you believe Jesus was the son of God, a wise teacher, a prophet, or you're still just figuring it out. There's no denying that his words have shaped human history unlike anyone else's in the world and continue to confront, challenge, and draw people in today. Why? Maybe there's a deeper question. Maybe the question isn't, what did Jesus say? Maybe it's, what did Jesus mean by what he said? What did the people, the culture of his time, understand him? Does that still mean who you are today?

That's lock in. Where are we in the Bible? We're in the New Testament, in the gospel, according to John. This is a first-hand biography of Jesus by one of his closest friends. In it, John records seven iconic, I am statements that Jesus made. Seven metaphors. Seven self-portraits of the living God. This week, Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Here's how it goes in the book of John, chapters seven and eight. Now, the Jews' feast of booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. Jesus said to them, you go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, he is a good man. Others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 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. Hey everybody, I'm Allie. It's great to be with you this weekend here at Crossroads.

Yes, we have been exploring Jesus in the context of these statements that he made about himself, but we've been doing it in the setting of a museum. Do you notice the museum behind me? And I don't know how you go through museums, but I'm just going to admit when the creative team brought up the museum idea, it was a little bit of a head scratch for me because I'm the one who jogs through the museum in 30 minutes and hits the gift shop on the way out. You know what I'm saying? So I go like, that's beautiful, amazing, so unbelievable. And I'm done. And can we go now? You know, so when they talked about a museum, I was like, okay, connect the dots here for me. And the whole idea behind this series is that these statements, which some of them were pretty familiar with, like the one we're going to do today, they're actually worth preserving, worth coming and seeing. Is there still something in here for me? Is there life in here? Can I receive something again and again and again and the best museums preserve the things that do that. And people still come over and over and over to get the life that is in that place still today. So today we jump into I Am. The light of the world, that's one of the statements Jesus said about himself in John chapter eight. And before we get started, let me just pray that we would get the life that is still in that name for us today, Lord. That's what I pray you would do here. I pray that you would help me

to communicate your word clearly and just open our minds and hearts to receive the life that you have for us in that name. And it's in Jesus' great name that I pray, amen. Well, light is kind of an interesting thing. Light can be a million different things. As a matter of fact, I went downtown on Friday night because after the Reds baseball games, they do Friday night fireworks. I love fireworks. One of my favorite kinds of light displays. And I got a treat, a kind of light I'd never really seen before. Have you guys seen drone shows? Okay, I didn't even know this was a thing until Friday night, hundreds of drones in different lights, choreographed in the sky, making different shapes over the stadium. It was crazy. It truly was amazing. I've never, I was, that day was the first day of my life I knew there was something called a drone show. You're laughing, but light, light can, we come up with new ways and new expressions of light all the time. And so we're really looking for what is the one Jesus meant when he said this? And we think about light a lot here at Crossroads. If you are gathered with us in one of our spaces today, some of you are watching online,

but if you're in one of our buildings, it is dark where you're sitting and that is done very purposefully. At Crossroads, we have thought over the years that people appreciate a space where they can seek God at their own pace, where they don't feel like they're on display, where you can be exactly the way that you are. If you're, maybe you're like me in the first five times you came here, you sat in the back row, you cried, and then you left before anyone saw you. That's the safety to seek God that we want to create with a lack of light. But this is what makes Jesus's statement so interesting. Right? Same place, same people, same setting, same service, totally different reality. Like some of us are looking around going, dang, I didn't know that person was here. Light can kind of connect us. It shows us things we weren't gonna see. And some of you are like, all right, enough. Anyone want, okay, yeah, have mercy on these people. We can turn the lights out again. Yeah, we get used to the kind of light that we've experienced. And so it's really fascinating to consider what is the meaning of light in this particular context? And to get at the meaning of that,

we need more than just the verse where it was said, but let's start there. John 8, 12, when Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. When Jesus said those words, I said, we need more than just those words to understand the meaning of light. Because in John chapter seven, and what you just heard in the reading for today is that Jesus was in the city of Jerusalem during a time where people gathered for something called the Feast of Booths. Now that's kind of an odd name to us, but it was a regular festival for them. And they came to the city of Jerusalem, all the Jewish people, and they would gather there to celebrate a time in the nation's history after God had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. And he led them through the wilderness for an entire generation when they were essentially homeless. And this feast of booths or tabernacles, same feast, references the temporary shelters, the booths or tabernacles that they lived in for an entire generation while God sustained them as a people. And so one of the things that they would do

during this feast is they would actually leave their houses and live in temporary tents and dwellings to remember the whole generation where this God has sustained them when they had no home, they had no food, they had no resources, and God provided those things. So that's the festival that's going on in Jerusalem. And it wasn't just the happenings in the wilderness, the provisions that God gave them, it was very specifically the form, the way that they experienced God himself. So I wanna read that to you out of the book of Exodus because it's gonna add a layer to the meaning of light. Exodus 13, this is straight from the time where this happened in the wilderness. It says, by day, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way. And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left. its place in front of the people. This is their experience of God during that time. The generation that God sustained in the wilderness experienced him, how? As light.

So just imagine this for a moment, think about this. When Israel was homeless, who was the light? When Israel had the sun in the desert beating on them over and over and over again, who filtered the light? When it was pitch black and they couldn't see their hand in front of their face, who was the fire that gave them light? When they wondered, big picture, what are we doing here, God? It's been years now, who was the constant light of presence? It was God himself. So this feast of Booth, it wasn't just recognizing what God did for them, it was recognizing and remembering and celebrating the God who came to them as light. And so a key feature of this feast, really interestingly, was these massive pillars of fire. So there was a central temple where they would all gather for different parts of the feast. And in the courtyards, the entire week long, there were these massive torches. The only thing I have in our modern world that I liken it to would be like that massive Olympic torch that kind of gets lit up at the opening ceremonies or something. Think of those all over the courtyard. And these things are to scale. I mean, this was like, if I stood by this, this is about right. These are massive pillars of light.

And during the festival, they would stay lit the entire week and I know you know this, but I just feel like I have to say it out loud, in a city without electricity. So torches of light, literally a blessing for the whole city, for an entire week, a constant presence of light, remembering the God whose glory appeared to them as light. Just imagine this festival, recalling the pillar of fire, telling all the stories about what God had done when he appeared to his people like this. Do you see what Jesus meant a little bit more by these words? This wasn't just a nice metaphor. He was actually declaring his identity. He was standing in front of them saying, that God you're celebrating, the one you're remembering, the one who was a present light, the one who filtered it and guided you and appeared as a fire and never left you, I am him, I'm the light of the world. This was a declaration of his identity in the middle of a city that was wondering, who is this guy? His own brothers, if you were listening to the very beginning of that reading, his own brothers were like, if you're really somebody important, you better tell everybody. And the Pharisees had already decided he's from Satan,

he needs to go. The people couldn't decide. Some of the crowd thought he was a good guy, some not. Some thought he was a prophet, others a teacher, some the Messiah. And so Jesus was speaking into the context of this feast and this city who was trying to figure out, who is this guy? And he stood up in front of them as a man named Jesus and he said, I am him. I am the light of the world. Now as a teacher, I got to appreciate the setting, right? I mean, what better place to do it than a festival of light with torches of light in front of all the light. The only problem is that's actually not quite what happened. Later in John chapter seven, verse 37, we learned it was the last day of the feast. Now this is really important to understand more, one more layer of meaning of what exactly is Jesus saying here? Because yes, he was telling them I am that God and he was also doing it on the last day of the feast where something really interesting happened. All that light that had been present the whole week got extinguished on the final day. They had celebrated the God who could be light, but the last day of the feast was a recognition of their present reality. The nation of Israel hadn't heard from this God,

hadn't seen this God in any form for 400 years. And the last day, every year, they would extinguish the light and they would wrestle with this persistent darkness, with the absence of this God. And they remembered the God who could be light, who they were. He celebrated as a light and then they went, but he just isn't. And this was the moment that Jesus stepped up and announced who he was. He came into the moment of darkness to tell everyone, I am the light of the world. If you will follow me, you won't walk in darkness. If anything, he's using the darkness as the object lesson, not the blazing torches of light. And I'm gonna tell you the truth. I wrestle with this because Israel was in this moment where they were having to admit to themselves that God is absent. And Jesus picked the moment when they were most aware of their present darkness to step up and announce it. And you'd think that was good, but it's also the moment that it would be the hardest for them to believe. I was thinking about this because we all have these places of darkness in our life. I'll bet you can, if you gave it a little bit of thought, maybe yours is right on the surface. You can think of a place where you too believe that in theory, God could be light there. Maybe it's even a place where God has been light.

And for whatever reason, he just isn't right now. As I think about my own life, I can actually think of more than one place, I guess, unfortunately, but for me, one of those places is in a relationship with one of my brothers. I don't really discuss this very often. And mostly it's because it's a great example of this, of the kind of darkness that persists. And you're just like, I don't have anything else to say about this. It's just how it is. That's how Israel would have felt in this relationship. I don't know if you have one of these with somebody in your family, but like the darkness crept in as kids, like before we even knew what was happening. Just darkness and dysfunction, and then long periods of absence in our young adulthood where we just didn't talk to each other, didn't have access to each other, lived far apart from each other, just no foundation of much there. And I was driving here this morning and I was thinking, how do you explain the kind of place where you just lost hope a long time ago that you could ever really have anything good there? And so put that together with just constant interactions where you feel like you're just in the dark, walking into a wall that you didn't see coming.

That's how I felt for a long time. And then our final communication, I can't say some of the words out loud that he called me and insulted my faith and my family. And I just thought, I can't, I don't know how to do this. I'm not mad exactly, it's just dark. That's what Jesus was speaking into, that kind of place, the place that you don't even pray about anymore. You don't even think about God coming because he's been gone so long there. What are you gonna do? It just is what it is. Now, I want you to imagine Jesus standing in front of you, wherever that place is in your life, whatever you're thinking about. And I want you to imagine him pointing, he's with you. And he points right at that place. And he says, you know, I can be light there. If you'll follow me, there's life. How would you react to that? It'd be pretty hard to believe him. Cause you have a lot of very, very actual lived experience that's going to tell you something else. That's what the nation of Israel was dealing with. Jesus stood up and he said, I'm the light of the world. If you'll follow me. And they knew what he was saying. They knew the declaration he was making. And when you're in that space, in that dark,

the question very quickly becomes, do you believe? Do you actually believe him? Because Jesus claimed to be the light of the world, the great I am, but he picked this moment. He couldn't have picked a moment or a place or a people that would have had a harder time believing him. And that's what he does with us sometimes too. He points right there and he goes, I have more for you. I can be light there. First instinct is what, yeah, sure you can, or why weren't you, or I can't risk it, I'm not even going to try again, I can't risk hoping again. You know the Gospel of John, it was written to ask that question, do you believe? Not just about this statement, but about all the things that Jesus was saying about himself. John chapter 20, gosh I wish every Bible book had a verse like this in it, says exactly why this book was written, let me read it to you. John 20, 31 says, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. Where's the life? In His name. And he said, these are written, what does he mean these? The whole Gospel of John is organized around seven signs and seven declarations of who Jesus is. These things that John preserved, these ideas that he wrote down, these are written that we might believe and by believing that we might find life in that name. The light of the world, John recorded just after this, by the way, he recorded a miracle of healing of sight. John recorded miracles to support these declarations to ask us the question that the crowd was wrestling with, do you believe? And this particular one was asked at a particularly hard moment, and I think John knew that. He knew the crowds were wrestling with it, he knew the Pharisees had wrestled with it,

he knew his own family was wrestling with it, and he knew that each one of us was going to have to decide, I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. The question is in there too. Because of the words, whoever follows me. You know what we don't do if we don't believe? We don't follow. We don't move. We don't actually do anything about it. This chair, if I don't think it'll hold me, please God let it hold me. If I don't think it'll hold me, I'm not going to sit on it. That would be crazy. If I look at something and I don't believe it, I'm not going to do something consistent with that belief. I'm not going to do that. And that's why I said the question is embedded in Jesus' words because he's saying, whoever follows me, I will reveal myself as light. I am the light of the world. So he's asking again, do you believe? Will you follow me? Because those that will follow will discover I am the light of the world. You know, the Bible depicts faith like that, much more like the stool than like a mental agreement. We tend to think of faith as statements of truth that we either believe or disbelieve in our minds. The Bible actually represents faith slightly differently. As truths that you're willing to behave, act, move, follow as though they are true. So let me say this another way. Will you take a step toward Jesus when you're still completely in the dark? That's the question being posed.

That's what Jesus' declaration of I am the light of the world would have hit everybody in the face with. Will you believe me when you've been in the dark for 400 years? Will you follow me and find out? I want you to hear a story right now. It's a man named Josh. He is in our community. I actually worked with him just last weekend. He was running sound at the Ignite conference. And I want you to hear his story because it's a story of somebody who actually wrestled with that same question of finding God in the dark. Now his story is, it's pretty raw. It's pretty intense. And I think you'll agree after we view it together that it's also very filled with hope. My brother, my older brother died. He was 17. I was 13. And that's when my understanding of God that there was no God, or if there was a God, he was just not to be trusted. When I was making music, I didn't think as much. I didn't like spending time with myself. People around me who love me are like, I think you're drinking too much. And I would just kind of avoid those people. And at this point, the more I was drinking, the less I had to keep quieting any thought of God, any thought of a moral compass. And I hated thinking about my behavior. I was consumed. I'm consumed with darkness. And then I met my current wife. I was sober almost a year when I met her.

That was like the first time I started to feel somewhat hopeful and happy. Guy I used to tour with calls me. My wife was like, he said that touring and traveling was a struggle. I'm like, it's perfectly fine, I'm good. But as soon as they sent me my flight details, I started plotting. I can drink as long as I'm not around her. I can drink as long as I'm not, I can't hurt people if I'm not drinking in front of them. That led to a full blown relapse to where my wife for the very first time saw me drinking. It's like she finally got to see that part of me that I'd been hiding. She's like, okay, I don't want you intoxicated around the kids. That was the day that I took my work knife and cut my wrist. So when I got back from the hospital, it was like, you have assault charges on police. It's a felony. And I'm like, what? Felonies are for like bad people. I found out that charges were filed against me for assaulting police as they were putting, as the firefighters were putting a tourniquet on my arm. I wasn't even happy I woke up. I woke up and immediately just started thinking about how ashamed I was, but fantasized about, I just need to get into a place

where I could go back to drinking inside of a hotel room by myself. It'll all be fine. My wife was like, you have to go into a rehab. If you don't go into rehab, we just can't. This can't be, you're killing yourself. I was supposed to go into treatment on March 8th. So March 7th, I came home and was like, I'm just gonna have to go. I came home and was like, I'm just gonna have one last hoorah of drinking. I blacked out. And then I woke up in jail again. I was pissed because I'm supposed to be at rehab. Now I have another disorderly conduct. And then they told me that I had assaulted my wife. And that, that was like the, I didn't care if I hurted, hurt myself. I didn't care if I died, but to know that I hurt her. So I was in jail, pled guilty to domestic violence. They put me in another drug and alcohol program. During that time I was in that program, I went to trial for the assault on police. So then they sent me to prison. The time in jail, into prison, I started reading the Bible for the first time. I wasn't reading for any other reason other than to know him. Why did you make me?

If all I was gonna do is become nothing. I started listening and I started hearing God speak to me. And I wasn't afraid. I still had shame, but I didn't feel shamed by him. And I had peace for the first time since I was a kid. I left prison, went to a halfway house, which is way worse than prison. We were all out back and this guy walked up and came up and he had a water bottle full of vodka. He was like, here bro, you want a drink? And I said, no, I'm good. And I said, no, I'm good. Even though I want, my whole body was like, no, this is yours. I was like, no, I'm good. And then I went to bed and I woke up the next day. The self-sabotage voice was gone. The voice of, but look what you've done. Look at all the destruction that you've created your entire, it's gone. I trusted him just by refusing what my body wanted. And my marriage has been healed from that time. I have peace because I'm not fighting anymore. And it's great. I love waking up every day. I love going to sleep every day and I no longer have an obsession. My obsession is just looking around me and realizing what God has blessed me with.

I do sound at Eastside Crossroads. That passion, my love for sound that I had came back to life. Now I get to do what I've always loved. There was a darkness, but now there's light. That's an incredible story, right? It's incredible. And every time I listen to it, I hear new things in it. And I've listened to it multiple times. And I don't want you to miss the critical moment He said it so simply, he was at the darkest and lowest point that he ever was and he was in prison and he said, I read the Bible. So simply. It was this really small moment and I promise you when he did that, he took his question, what did he say, why did you make me if I was just going to be nothing? It was this almost angry question to God. And I promise you whatever he read that day, maybe he understood it, maybe he didn't. I don't know what his history with the Bible was before that. But I know he closed the Bible that day and he didn't feel very much light. And I wonder though if someday God will point at that moment and go right there, that's where it broke in. Do you know that the human eye in the natural, we can only take in 0.0035% of the full spectrum of light that's actually here? What if that's true spiritually? What if God points at that moment, it goes right there, the light broke in. Right there it all changed and you were just walking more and more into the light. Did you catch the other little moment? I heard that really loudly this time. I haven't really thought about it the other times I've heard this story but he had another moment where he said, all I did was refuse the bottle of vodka and he woke up the next

morning and something was different. Such a small moment, right? There's these little moments where a tiny sliver of light breaks in and we have no idea we've just changed the trajectory of our entire life because the light of the world just walked into the room. Oh my goodness, what if we knew, what would you do if you thought that was actually true? Do you believe? And if you did, what might you actually take the risk of doing? We're going to look at some more words of John here because I think he gives us a little bit more of a clue as to how do we do that? How do we actually walk out of the darkness? These words come from a short letter written by the same guy, John. He wrote three little letters that got preserved in the Bible, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. Same guy. In the first chapter of 1 John, he says this, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. First John 1, the first thing we have to do is admit the darkness. Admit the darkness. There's places in our life where we have, we've just gotten so used to it. You know, we don't, it's just the way it is. We don't even think about it anymore. Maybe, maybe it's been a long time, maybe it's only been a short time but it's like our eyes adjust to the dark a little bit and it starts to seem like, oh, this is fine, this is just how it is. But John says, if we say we have fellowship with him, with God, while we walk in darkness, we lie.

At a minimum, we're lying to ourselves, at a minimum. If we say we have fellowship with the light but we're walking in darkness, we're not telling the truth. The first thing we have to do is just admit where we've decided to walk with the darkness a little bit. I was thinking again about my life. I told you, unfortunately, I can find more than one place. Maybe you too. And I realized that maybe a year or so ago, the light started to dim in a place where I've slowly just started to walk in a sense of darkness that I, I think it just got dim slow enough that I didn't notice. I don't know if that makes sense but about a year or so ago, there were a couple opportunities that I really had my eye on professionally. I really like to write. There were some writing opportunities that were out in front of me and they just kind of got wiped away. And okay, you know, I think of myself as a pretty resilient person, alright, okay, fine. And then a couple other things got wiped away. And suddenly the, the kind of far out path was looking a little blurry and I, I started falling into just some discouragement. And suddenly during the prep for this message, I'll tell you, you preach a message on something and God is like, and you right there, you know. I just realized, I think somewhere along the, the line, I started walking in a little bit of hopelessness. Like maybe the truth is that God doesn't have anything out there for me. And it was really weird because again, I think of myself as a pretty positive person, or at least, you know, I can keep going. And I didn't even realize. I think I've started to agree with that. I think I've just started to walk along with this sense of discouragement, maybe hopelessness

that's over my future. Like today's okay, but I think that's it for me. I'm not really sure what else God might have. Maybe nothing. And just sort of accept that. How odd, right? I just decided to walk in that darkness, and I adjusted to it, and I started to feel according to it. We all do that with some things, and the question is, where is that? We have to recognize it. We have to admit it if we actually want to walk out of it. The second thing, once we see it, is to expose that on purpose to the light. He says, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us. Now if we choose to expose this place, we might be able to connect with somebody else. We have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us. The light of the world starts to cleanse. You know that light actually does do that. I remember this from eighth grade science class. That might be about all I remember from eighth grade science class. That light has cleansing properties, and that the opposite is also true. The question here is, what's been growing in the dark? We actually grew mold in our desks to prove this point. When you sprinkle some water on bread and seal it in a baggie and put it in your desk for three weeks, there's some really nasty stuff that grows on it. Some of you have kids with gym bags, and you've discovered that same thing. Some pretty gross stuff that's growing on those cleats they never took out after their sweaty feet were in them. Some nasty stuff grows in the dark until we start to expose it to light. Scientists say, people who know what they're talking about, about science things, say that

light boosts immunity and mood. It kills bacteria. It does all kinds of things that can't be done in the dark. I had this idea, I told you God will put his finger on something for you once you start admitting this. So this last Monday, I did a thing because I just had this idea I couldn't get rid of. And after I did it, I thought, oh, I think that's what I just did by accident. I had this idea that I should write down all the places professionally that I thought had been wiped away. One after the next, and it ended in discouragement. I got the sense that God was like, hey, write those down. I was like, you know what, I think I have better things to do than write a list of missed opportunities and failures. Of stuff that's not going to happen for me. That's a great idea. Sounds real fun, but you know, maybe not. But on Monday, I actually did it, and the funny thing happens. You know, Psalm 139 says that darkness is as light to God. He's not the one who can't see. I am. You are. When we expose this thing to the light, we start to see it a little bit differently. When I had to put words around some of these discouragements, some of these disappointments, I found a few of them just fell away. And I had to try to explain them and put them into an actual word. It was almost like just yucky stuff that was bouncing around in the dark that I couldn't even really justify. I was like, oh, that's not, I guess, really one. Or that's pretty easy to understand. And that one actually sounds kind of silly when I try to put words to it.

A few of them just, you know, fell through my fingers. They just sort of dissolved right in front of my face. Now a few are real. I'm still wrestling with God over those. It's not like that solved the problem. But when I exposed that to the light, there's some things that got cleansed. There's some things that got lifted. And I would just encourage you, whatever that place is, whatever it looks like to expose it, maybe it's telling someone. Maybe it's writing it on a list. Maybe it's praying again for the first time about it. Maybe it's making a phone call. I don't know what that looks like. But if you will purposely expose it, light will begin to do what light naturally does. And the last thing, I think, will be the natural result. But if not, we can do the third thing. Walk in the light. That's what John says. If we walk, if we move, if we act like his words are actually true, he says if we walk in darkness, we're lying. If we walk in light, we're walking consistent with what Jesus says is true. We have to move while we're in the dark. So let me ask you this. If you believed him, let's just say you did. I will lower the bar and say, what if you decided you were gonna practice believing him? That's how I think about it sometimes. So I don't feel like I have to sign in blood. I'm not totally sure I believe you,

but I'm going to practice like I believe you. What would I do if I wanted to practice believing you in this way? You might come up with a tiny little thing that you are willing to do. Like Josh, when he picked up his Bible and he said to God, why did you even make me? And he made the move. I had one this week with mine. Didn't mean to find it, found me. God's funny like that. You start this process, he'll probably just serve one up for you on a platter. I was reading in our Bible in a year plan inside the Crossroads app. And early in the week, there were some Proverbs, a couple of chapters of the book of Proverbs. And you know how it goes. Like you're reading the Proverbs. If you've ever been in that book, they just kind of one wise saying after the next, after the next. A lot of them are even disconnected in certain sections of the book. You're like this and this and this. And you know, you can just kind of keep reading them, not really maybe fully taking them in. And one of them stopped me. Here's what it says. Actually, I'll do it from memory

because my little move was memorizing this verse. The heart of a man makes plans. I'm getting this wrong. The heart of a man makes some plans and the Lord establishes his steps. Hold on. The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes the steps. I told God, I'm gonna memorize that. Clearly I did a terrible job. The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. I memorized that and I just, it was my tiny little way of saying to God, okay, I had my heart set on some things, but I still believe that you're planning my steps. I get it. I don't like some of this, but I'm going to practice believing every time I say that verse, which I will be saying a lot more often, that you're still planning my steps. You still know where I'm going. Even when my heart was set on some of my plans, you have some steps for me and you're still at work. So what's yours? What's the little thing? Picking up the Bible. Is it calling someone? Is it memorizing verse?

What is it? It's the little thing that you're willing to do in the dark. It's the way that you're willing to reach out to God and go like, I can at least practice believing you doing this. And I'm telling you, that's the moment. That'll be the moment in your story, just like Josh's, where he points back and goes, all the light, all the light of the world just showed up around you. And all you had to do was keep walking because Proverbs 4, 18, a longtime favorite of mine, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. It gives us this picture that when we call on the name of Jesus as the light of the world, what we've just done is thrust ourself onto the path that grows brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter until we experience the fullness of the light of the world all around us. That is what we do when we will reach out in the dark and any life, any issue, anything that's brought before the light of the world gets to join in the final picture that we get in the Bible in Revelation 21, 23, where we live from now into eternity like this. It says the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it its light and its lamp is the lamb, Jesus, the lamb of God, the son of God, the Messiah sent by God to save us.

The light of the world is asking you, do you believe? And if you do believe, will you take a step even in the dark knowing that's where it's all going in the end? John started his gospel with these words, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Whatever you're sitting here trying to handle, trying to wrestle with, trying to deal with God's persistent darkness in your life, I promise you one move in the dark and the light overcomes it. Let me pray for you. Lord, we believe you and we're. Help us to receive the life that is in believing that you are the light of the world. That's what we want. We are just stumbling around in the dark. Will you help us understand how to walk into the light this week. I pray for every issue, every darkness, every light, every life that is in this place. I ask that you would lead us out of the dark into your glorious light. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Listen, I hope this message has blessed you. I hope it's challenged you. I hope it's helped you to grow deeper in your faith, closer in your relationship with Jesus. I want to encourage you, everybody, everybody watching on Pando, don't just passively listen to this message.

Wrestle with it. Sit with it. Open the scriptures for yourself. Have the conversations. Ask the hard questions. Because if Jesus really is the light of the world, ask the hard questions. Because if Jesus really is who he says he is, that changes everything. We genuinely love to hear from God. If there's topics you'd like me to cover on future episodes of Mornings with Nico or questions you're wrestling with, content you'd like to see more of, a prayer request, or even feedback on this I Am message today, write us, let us know. What's been standing out to you? What's God been revealing to you? What is he pressed on your heart? The testimonies are coming out of this seal. What are you wrestling with right now? Write us at prisonsatcrossroad.net. One of the things we love most about this community is hearing how God is moving in your lives from all across the country. So hear me when I say this, please reach out to us. We genuinely want to hear from God. We love y'all. We're praying for y'all. I'll see y'all next week on Mornings with Nico.