John 8 (Part 2) :12-30 • Jesus, the Light of Life

Here on Sunday morning, we're going through the book of John. We're in John chapter 8. Open your Bible there please, John Chapter 8, and we did the first 11 verses of the chapter last week. That means we're picking it up in verse 12, John 8:12. Follow along with me as I read. We're going to go down through about verse 30.

Let's stop there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we go into Your Word this morning, we pray for Your Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds. And Father, I want to specifically pray today for those who are hurting, for those who are seeking answers, for those who are just longing for insight, direction, and don't know where to turn. I thank You, Father that they're here. I thank You that their hearts are open, and I pray that You'd speak to each heart according to the greatest need. I pray that You'd meet those needs this morning. We ask it in Jesus' precious name, amen. Amen. One of the things that's frankly, kind of challenging about this section of scripture that we're taking here this morning is this somewhat lengthy conversation that's going on between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders, where he's talking and they're not listening, and they're not just…they're not hearing, they're not hearing what he's saying. That is so frustrating. I'll never forget a few years back, I got a call from a guy who wanted to come in and chat with me, or he wanted to talk to a “Pastor." He didn't go to church here, in fact, he didn't go to church anywhere, but he was very sick with cancer and probably, according to what he told me, wasn't going to be around long and so, he wanted to talk to a Pastor. So, I thought, okay, and I walked into this with assumptions. I thought, well, he probably wants to get right with God. I mean, isn't that what you probably would think? So, he wants to hear the gospel. He wants to get right with the Lord. All right. I can do that. You know, we can… So, we sat down and after some kind of brief, meaningless small talk, I thought, “Well, I'm going to get into this here.” So, I started…I just kind of jumped in with both feet, you know. So, I said to him, “Do you know where you're going, after you die?” And I started sharing the gospel and what Jesus came to do on the cross and how he needs to receive Christ as his Savior and open his heart to that sacrifice on the cross, and that…and I'm hitting this thing, you know. ---

And so, I finally got to the place where I felt like, “Okay, I think I've communicated the essence of what it means, you know, to be a believer.” And so I just stopped, and he looked at me and he looked right at me. And then he said, “Anyway, I had this car one time…” and he just started talking about…It was like, I didn't say a word, about Jesus or anything. And I remember finishing that conversation almost dumbfounded. I mean, and greatly disappointed too, because he walked out of that room and he never engaged me at all, on the gospel or what I had shared. And I feel like that's a little bit about what Jesus is kind of dealing with here as He's talking to the religious leaders. He's talking, but they're not listening. And I think even one of the key verses related to that is verse 27 where, you know, the first 4 words are, “27 They did not understand…” In this case, it's saying they didn't understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. But that's indicative of really that kind of whole conversation. They didn't understand, they didn't get it. In verses 13 through 18, you can see that they're kind of accusing Jesus of being His own witness. They said, “You can't do that. You can't witness about yourself.” Which is ridiculous you can. In a court of law, we let somebody get up on the stand and be their own witness. It doesn't mean that's the only witness that we accept, we let somebody speak for themself and that's not illegitimate. But you know, so they're having this conversation in which Jesus finally tells them that they're judging incorrectly because they judge according to the flesh, which is to say, you're judging by human standards. Man, could we talk about that for a while? We all do that. We judge by human standards all the time. But Jesus went on to say that the Father was also one of His witnesses, referring to the signs and the miracles that He had been performing and so on and so on. And then in verse 19, Jesus accused them of not knowing God. He says (paraphrased), “You don't know me or my father.” And that was probably enough for them to want to arrest Him, but we are told there that they didn't do that because it wasn't His time. Verses 21 through 24, another kind of a section here, where there's this frustrating conversation, but He says to them here, He says “21…I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” And they don't hear what He's saying.

If Jesus said to you, “You're going to die in your sin.” Wouldn't you kind of go, “Okay, tell me more about that because I don't want that to happen?” And He makes that statement, and their response is (paraphrased), “Well, is He going to kill himself? I don't get it.” And that's all they got out of that, is that somehow, He is like, “Is He talking about suicide?” Yeah, you know? Jesus said in verse 23, He says “23…You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world.” And then He makes this gutsy statement. “24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” You got to…I don't know. I think that's pretty clear. When somebody…when Jesus comes out and says, “Listen, unless you believe that I am, He, you will die in your sin.” And so, and they're just kind of like, they're not getting it. If you skip down to then verse 28, another pretty incredible statement, Jesus says there, “28…When you have lifted up the Son of Man…” And that is a prophetic statement concerning the way that He would be executed on the cross. He says, “28…When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” and then you know, then you'll know. There's another interesting statement. “28…When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he,…” by the way, two references there when He says, “24…unless you believe that I am he…” and “28…then you will know that I am he…” The word “he” is not in the original Greek. It's put there by the English translators to kind of help you and me connect with what's being said. But essentially, what Jesus said to them was (paraphrased) “24…unless you believe that I Am (he)…”, right? “24…unless you believe that I Am (he)…” which is… that's the divine name, Ego eimi, in the Greek. I Am. (Paraphrased) “24…unless you believe that I Am (he)…” And “28…When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am (he)…” I always… I read that, and I thought to myself, “Wow, that's pretty interesting.” You will… Jesus says, “28…you will know...” Does that mean these guys are going to get saved? No, it just means they're going to know. It means they're going to know. And so, you ask yourself the question, “How are they going to know?” Well, they're going to know because of several reasons. They're going to know because when Jesus gave up His spirit on the cross, we're told that there was an earthquake, we're told that it actually opened up some tombs, and they're going to know because they're going to hear about the fact that some people, came out of their tombs and lived again after the death of Jesus. They're going to know because there was an unexplainable darkness while Jesus hung on that cross. There was absolutely no reason why the sun would not shine for three hours while Jesus hung there, and yet it went dark in the middle of the day and they're going to know because of that. They're going to also know because somebody's going to walk over into the Holy Place and they're going to see, probably to their horror, that the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place had been torn in two, from top to bottom, and they're going to know because of that. And most of all, they're going to know because they're going to find out that the tomb was empty. And even though they're going to come up with an alternate explanation, which never would have held up in a court of law, they're going to know. Have you ever stopped to think about the excuse they gave? “While we slept the disciples came and took his body.” “Really? While you slept? And so, you know that how? You were sleeping.” “Well, you know…” That would've gotten kicked out of court, right? No, they're going to know. It doesn't mean they're going to get saved. It's incredible to me and this is really kind of a lot of what this passage is about. It's incredible to me that there can be hearts that are so hard, they can know, they can see, and they can still refuse to accept, and they can just say, “No, I'm not going to believe. I will not believe.” Even in the face of evidence. Listen, this shouldn't surprise any of us. It's happening all around us every day about so many things, not just about who Jesus is, what He came to do, and how He died and rose again. Those things are…those things can be known. There's eyewitness testimony that's given to us in the Word of God. There’s so many other things. There's the reality of just simply the existence of God. And the Bible tells us in the book of Romans, and we've talked about this, (referring to Romans 1:19-20 ESV paraphrased) that it's plain because God has made it plain. That He exists. In fact, His eternal attributes are plain. The Bible says in Romans 1, being shown through the creation.

So, all man has to do is look at creation and he knows that there is a designer. He knows it. He knows it. And yet, what do evolutionists say? “Nope, no designer. Nope. It all just came in by random chance.” See, this is…this is what we do, when we humans, when we decide in our hearts, “I'm not going to believe it. I simply will not believe it.” Then it doesn't matter. It's like, “Don't confuse me with the truth. My mind is made up.” And this is what's going on here. So, this is…there's a lot of hard hearts that are being thrown around in these conversations and so forth. But I want to focus this morning on something that's a little less, negative I guess, and that's what we read in verse 12. Would you look with me again? It's the very first verse that we read. Verse 12 says,

I don't know how many of you have ever put that verse on your refrigerator. But it's a good one. And the reason it's a good one and people like it is because it's a promise. It's right there. We're given a promise in the Word of God. But, you know whenever you see a promise in the scripture, it's always a good idea to investigate it and understand it. And one of the first things you always want to ask whenever you hear a promise, and I'm not talking about necessarily a promise now from the Word, but a promise from anybody. When you hear somebody make a promise, the very first thing you always want to ask yourself is, “Who is making it? Who's speaking?” And the reason you want to ask that is because a promise is only as good as the person who's doing the promising, right? I mean, we obviously know this is Jesus making the promise in this situation. But again, a promise is only as good as the person who's making the promise. If I make you a promise, I may or may not be able to make good on that promise, because as a limited human being I'm not in control of my circumstances, I'm not in control of my surroundings, and any number of things could happen that could keep me from keeping that promise. You know, when I was…when I had kids at home, I made promises to my kids from time to time about things we'd do on our family day or whatever, and sometimes I couldn't make good on those promises because something came up here at the church or whatever. And I had to say, “I'm sorry, we can't do what I said we were going to do because this came up,” and so forth. It's just the same with anyone. So, you know, the rule is “All promises are subject to the limitations of the person making the promise. Okay?” So, keep that in mind whenever somebody makes you a promise. If it's a person just like you, just know this, it could happen, it might not. But once again, this promise that we've read here in verse 12 is made by Jesus, and that actually should get us fairly excited, because Jesus made some…not only some wonderful promises but also some great claims, about Himself. Let me show you one on the screen from Matthew chapter 28. It says,

Man, alive. I wish I could say that. I can't even come close, but Jesus said it. He meant it. It's true. And so, you can see how that would affect a promise that He would make to you. So, He makes a promise, and then He tells you, “Oh, by the way, I have all authority, both in heaven and on earth.” So, is there anything that's going to keep Him from making good on that promise, right? Well, no, I would say that's probably a pretty good, you know, a pretty good thing. Now, also when we see a promise in the Word of God, the other thing you have to pay attention to is this, “Is there a condition attached to the promise?” In other words, is there a requirement of something that I need to do in order to lay hold of that promise? Because not every promise in the Bible is without condition, and this one has a condition, if you look at it again, He introduces the condition right at the very beginning. “12…Whoever follows me...” Okay, that's the condition. There's a wonderful promise at the end of that verse, but you got to deal with the condition. You can't just say, “Hey, God made me a promise. I'm never going to walk in darkness. I'm always going to have the light of life. Praise the Lord. It's the way it's going to be.” Wait a minute…Wait a minute…There's a condition that goes along with that. “12…Whoever follows me...(repeats)…Whoever follows me...” The condition is you got to be a follower of Jesus.

You say, “Well, that's easy. I'm a born-again Christian.” May I suggest to you? That it is possible to be a born-again Christian and not be following Jesus. And that might tweak your theology a little bit, but just let that kind of simmer for a second because I think that there, there's some truth to that. It is possible to come to Christ recognizing, A.) I am a sinner. B.) He is a savior. C.) He died for me on the cross. I need to accept what He did on the cross. I do, I accept that. I accept all those things. I'm a sinner. He's the Savior. I accept what He did. But not make the decision necessarily to follow Him, at least not right away. I don't know about you, but my early Christian life was not always a very good example of following Jesus. Because the word follow…(Speaking to the staff “Anna, I still need to be up a little bit more.”) The word follow in the Bible, interestingly enough, means to be on the same path. And when I look back at my early Christian life, I recognize that I wasn't always on the same path as Jesus, even though I was saved. I mean, I truly believe I was born again, the spirit of God living within me. But I know…that I know…that I know there were times in my early Christian life, and it still happens today where I would opt instead for the path of the world. Sometimes I would opt for the path of following my feelings, not the Lord, and sometimes I would opt for the path of my own human understanding. The Bible says, (referring to Proverbs 3:5 NIV) “5…lean not on your own understanding,” Well, in my early Christian life, I did a lot of that. A lot of leaning on my own understanding. A lot of following...you know you come to the Lord, I don't know how old you were when you came to Christ. I was about 25…24…about 24. Well, I'm not really sure. I think I was 15 when I really embraced the Gospel. I didn't start walking with the Lord till I was about 24 years old. And I learned in that, even in just 24 years, I learned a lot of worldliness and a lot of worldly ways. I mean, I learned how to do things according to the world, you know, the world's wisdom.

And so, when I came to Christ, all that worldly wisdom didn't just go away. All those worldly ways didn't just fly out of my heart and mind. They were still very much there. And I found myself stuttering, you know, in my walk with Jesus. Can you guys relate? Can anybody in this room relate? You guys are dead. Can anybody in this room relate? Thank you very much. I was starting to worry. So, I believe that it is possible to be a born-again Christian and not necessarily a follower. So don't sit back and say, “Oh, okay, I'm a follower of Jesus because I'm a Christian.” Well, maybe…maybe not. Remember what Jesus accused the Jewish religious leaders of doing? Judging by worldly standards. He says, “15 You judge according to the flesh,” and again, that's just another way of saying, “You judge according to the way the world judges things.” I did a lot of that. I still can fall into that same trap of thinking that way. So, I understand a little bit more about the person who made the promise. He's able to make good on it. I understand the condition that is attached to this promise. Now let's look at the promise itself. Okay? Once again, Jesus said, “12…Whoever follows me...and here's the promise. Will A.) not walk in darkness and B.) but will have the light of life.” And obviously, those are like two sides of the same coin. So that's the promise He gives you. The question we have to ask ourselves is, “What does it mean?” When Jesus says to you (paraphrasing John 8:12 ESV), “Follow me, be on the same path, and you will not walk in darkness, and you will have (possess) the light of life.” What are we talking about here? How exactly is that…What's it going to look like in my life? What's it going to look like in your life? Well, you know light and darkness, these are obviously very very common and very favorite metaphors that are used throughout the course of the Bible. Light is often used as just a symbol or representation of God himself. Let me show you a passage from 1 John chapter 1. John writes,

So, He says, “God is…” so he's making that connection, that metaphoric connection, between the person and the nature of God as being that represented by light. You guys remember when Isaiah was prophesying the coming of Messiah? He said that (paraphrasing Isaiah 9:2 ESV) “The people walking (living) in darkness had seen a great light,” So this is part of, you know, who God is. Now darkness, on the other hand, has a much more negative connotation. Darkness is associated, metaphorically, with things like death, and ignorance, and sin, and separation from God. But when Jesus promises you and me that there will be no darkness and we will have the light of life. Once again, we ask “What is He promising?” Well, I want to bring up just a couple of things that I think the Bible talks about when it says that we will have the light of life. And the first thing that I believe that having the light of life means is that you will now have the ability to have spiritual discovery. And what I mean by that is probably expressed well in a passage from the book of Daniel. Let me show it to you, Daniel chapter 2. He says,

But did you notice what that verse essentially says? It says that God reveals deep and hidden things. That's part of what it means to have the light of life. God is going to speak to you about things that are deep and hidden and that you wouldn't have the ability to know apart from Him. But as you follow Him, as you walk on the same path, as you follow after Him, with all of your heart, diving into His word, opening your heart to understanding. He's going to open up your mind and your understanding to things which would otherwise be hidden, and you're going to see them and you're going to be made aware of these things, and God is going to be the one who's going to show them to you because He is the source of all knowledge and information and understanding, and that's part of what it means to walk or to have, I guess, the light of life. And the closer you get, the more He will reveal. In fact, He will keep revealing. You might get to the point where you think, “I don't know if I can get any…He can reveal any more.” Oh, yes, He can. There's always something more for Him to speak to you about, but I have to warn you about this thing about God revealing things. Some of the things He reveals to you are not going to be very fun to see, or to learn about, because one of the things that He reveals, one of those issues, one of those deep things, is He's constantly speaking to us about our sin. Not that He is condemning us, not that He's holding it over our heads, but He is exposing.

And the closer you get with Jesus, the more He will expose the dark areas of your heart. Now, it's not something you need to be afraid of because the closer you get to Jesus, the more you're going to understand His great love for you as well. And so, you know why He's doing it. He's doing it to set you free from those areas of darkness, not to point them out or to point the bony finger and go, “Look what you're all about.” That's not what He's doing. His heart is to reveal the truth so that you can bring it to Him. Let me show you a couple of verses from 1 John, once again. John writes and he says,

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. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (He could actually reverse that and say, the light is not in us, because that's what the light does. It reveals our sin. He says,) But if we walk in the light, (Right?) as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” I don't know if you noticed on that slide that I actually reversed verses 7 and 8. I gave you verse 8 first and then verse 7, because I thought it made more sense from what we were talking about because walking in the light, as John is speaking of it here in 1 John, is not about walking in perfection or purity. Walking in the light means, walking in the revelation of your sinful condition, and that's part of what walking in the light and living in the light and having the light of life is all about. It's walking in the reality of who I am, as a sinner, so that I can bring those things to the Lord. In fact, I remember as a new Christian, I wasn't always very thrilled with the fact that God was showing up my sin. I thought, “This is not very, this isn't fun at all. He's just always telling me, you know, showing me things, worldly darkness.” But you know what? It's critical. That light gets shown in those areas of our heart that we would otherwise not want to look at because when God reveals our sin, we come to the cross. And when we come to the cross, we find forgiveness. And when we walk in forgiveness, we have greater intimate fellowship with God. That's important to remember. If you're feeling distance from God, it's not because He's pulled back. It's because our sin will do that. Our sin will cause us to feel a distance, but all we got to do is bring it to Him, confess it, ask Him to forgive us. What does the Bible say? There's another promise. (1 John 1:9 ESV)

Well, what's the result of that? It's closer intimacy. You see? So, the more He reveals these areas of sin in our lives by opening us up to the light of life, the greater the intimacy is that we have with the Father. He's literally opening the door to a deeper relationship with you by showing you the areas of your life that you need to repent of. He's saying, “I want you to come closer, but these things are in the way, and so I'm showing them to you. That you would confess it, bring it to Me, and I can cleanse you, and then we can no longer let that be a barrier that doesn't have to be in between you and Me.” God says to us. Another thing that comes from having the light of life is seen in 2 Corinthians 4 up on the screen. 2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

Paul writes this, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give (us, and here it is) the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (but we see it) in the face of Jesus Christ.” But so, one of the blessings or one of the benefits, if you will, of having the light of life is that we will grow in the glory or the, if you will, the knowledge of the glory of God, which we see in the face of Christ. Are you growing in the knowledge of the glory of God? That's a question I want to put to you, and I want you to think it through. Are you growing in the knowledge of the glory of God? Is His glory becoming more real, understandable, tangible in your life? It is one of the results. It's one of the things that happens when we walk on the same path, with our Lord, when we follow Him. And then finally, one other aspect of what it means to have the light of life is seen in, what I'm sure is a very well-known passage from the Psalms, Psalm 119. The Psalmist says,

Psalm 119:105 (ESV)

And to me, this is one of the most practical elements of what it means to have the light of life. To follow the Lord. To be on the path of the Lord is to literally, to have your path or your roadway illuminated by Him, and through His Word. He literally illuminates the path before us. And this is so important because we are living in a world that is so dark, and because it's dark, there are dangerous things on the roadway, on the path. And if you don't see them, you're going to trip over them. I know…I know you've probably experienced what that is to walk into a dark room, not see something in your path, and then fall over it, trip over it. Well, spiritually speaking, that happens all the time to Christians who are not following closely with Jesus on the same path. They may be born again, saved, but they're not following closely. They don't have the light of life because they're not spending time in His Word, like they should, and the path is therefore not illuminated, and they stumble, and then they're laying on their back, looking up to the sky, thinking “What in the world just happened?” Oh, the light is so important. You know back in early 21 Sue bought a car. She bought a Toyota Camry, and I was so impressed with her LED lights because, we were driving around at night and she flip on those lights, like, “Whoa!” and I realized my pickup doesn't do nearly that good. So, I did a…I did an upgrade. I upgraded my lights to LED lights on my F-150. And man, I tell you, it's just like night and day. In fact, our son, our youngest son, Tim, who has the exact same pickup I have, same year and everything, just different color, he picked us up from the airport when we came back from Minnesota, and it was nighttime by the time we flew into Boise, and so we're getting, just getting on the freeway and I'm sitting in the front, and I said to Tim, “Dude, do you have your lights on?” He goes, “Yeah, they're just not very bright.” I'd gotten so used to my LED lights on my pickup. His didn't even look like they were on, and it was just really something, you know. And I just, I thought, “Wow, that'll preach…you know?” Because the light is so vitally important that it would illuminate our path so we can see what's coming, what's in front of us, and we can avoid the obstacles and the pitfalls and the dangers that are ahead of us and so forth.

So, so incredibly important. What a difference the light of life means to a believer. I have literally seen 2 believers standing side by side, one who's walking in the light of life and one who is not, and the sad condition of the one who is not, who is constantly stumbling over things they can't see in front of them. I want to end this morning with just a couple of references related to, the kind of, this whole idea of having the light of life, because I want to remind you this morning, that the light of life is something that is more than just a benefit for you. You've also been given the light of life to benefit others, because right after Jesus said about Himself, I am the light of the world. He said something about you, who come to Him and are given the light of life. Do you remember what He said about you? Let me put it on the screen. Matthew chapter 5. It's from the Sermon on the Mount. He said,

“You are the light of the world. (And then He goes on to say,) A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, (Instead they…What do they do? They put it) but on a stand. (So,) and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, (Okay, this is important. This is for you and me. In the same way,) let your light shine before (men or before) others, so that they may see your good works and (then pat you on the back and say, “You're really a cool person.” Doesn't say that does it? No. So that they may see your good works and) give glory to your Father (because you see you're just reflecting the light. That is Him. Your Father) who is in heaven.” So, you see this whole thing about walking in the light of life is more than just a blessing for you. It's a blessing for others that you might illuminate the path for people to see the way to come to Jesus because they're stumbling around in the darkness. The people of the world are literally stumbling around in the darkness, and you are that LED flashlight in their life, who can help illuminate their path to Christ. And so, we'll end with just one more. The Apostle Paul gives some practical suggestions for those of us who are walking in the light of life. As for walking it out, he says, first of all,

--- Phillipians 2:14-16(ESV)

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, (and that's quarreling. Why is Paul starting off that way? He's saying, “You know what? You've been made the light of the Lord, but you're going to dim that light if you go around grumbling and arguing all the time, so don't do that. Why am I telling you this?”) that you may be blameless (He says) and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, (Look at this) among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast (you guys, holding fast. Not just hanging out, not just reading your Bible once a month, but holding fast) to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” Isn’t this great, this is just a great exhortation. Paul says, “All right, listen, be careful, be watchful, about all those things that are going to dim your light. Because you have the light of life as you're walking with Jesus, following Him, following the path, He's given you that light. You have that light illuminating you. It's illuminating the path for you. It's keeping you safe. It's doing all these…it's revealing your sin so that you can come and be closer to God. It's helping you to understand more about His glory. There's all these things that He's doing by giving you the light of life, but it's not just for you, it's for others.” Do you remember when somebody shared Christ with you? Do you remember when somebody lived their Christian life in front of you, so that you could see it, and you were drawn to the Savior by the light that they showed? Do you remember that? I remember. I remember hearing people talking about Jesus or even just living that kind of life that was so different from the life of the world. These people were shining their light in my life. And I didn't really understand it at first, but I knew there was something different, and that's what people often say when they are around a Christian. I don't know what's going on in your life and there's something different. There's something different about you. I don't know what it is, but I like it. I mean, they're either going to say that or they're going to kill you, one of the two.

So, you just get used to it, right? They're either going to say, “I don't like your light, I want to put your light out.” Or they're going to go, “I'm attracted to this.” And that's the risk we run, of course. But as we live our lives, we need to just be watchful of all those things that could potentially knock you down, so many lumens, because we want to shine as bright as we can for the glory of God. So, they may see your good deeds or your good works and give glory to your Father. Give glory to God. Amen. Let's stand together. If you need prayer this morning, come on down front. We'd love to pray with you. Father, thank You for the light that You promise to us, as a result of following after You. Thank You for all of the benefits that the light produces in our lives. The illumination, the safety from places of danger, running into traps of the enemy. Thank You, Lord, for giving us knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for all the…even the ways You reveal our own sinful conditions so that we can bring those things to You and remove any barriers to intimacy. Thank You for forgiving us when we confess our sin. We know that You always will. But I pray also, Father God, that we would walk out that light in a dark world, that others might see that light, be drawn to Jesus because of the light that we shine. Help us, Lord, to be mindful of the things that knock our light down, keep us from shining. Help us to live the way we ought to live. We thank You and praise You for all these reminders. We ask You to be with us in Jesus' precious name and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your Sunday. ---