How to Stop What's Stopping You

Because the one thing that we're walking with today is this, our lives move forward when we bring our sin to the light. And, we often don't intend to keep the stuff that we struggle with in the dark. It happens with a little denial at a time. Just a little bit. But, the best solution to that denial is light. And, God is light. And, Jesus brought that light into the world so that by following him, our lives are in the light and things will start changing. [00:54:51] (29 seconds)  #BringItToLight

The first is this, you need to see your struggle for what it is. Don't minimize it. Don't deny it. Stop saying the statements that just creates a new reality that makes you just feel better about it. When there's sin, when there's struggle, when there's things getting in the way from stopping you from how God is calling you to live your life or the hopes that you have in your life, see your struggle for what it is. [00:53:03] (22 seconds)  #SeeYourStruggle

And so, the idea of confessing sin to each other instantly takes us back to, oh, that's when you do something bad and it makes you feel shameful, makes you feel guilty and that is not what the light does. The light calls us out to confess to each other so we can deal with this, so we can heal from these things. Our sins are something to be dealt with, but God designed us to be in community. So, the beauty of what God's community is is we should be calling out our sins and confessing it to each other. [00:48:38] (28 seconds)  #ConfessToHeal

But if we walk in the light, we follow Jesus into following God and God is light, it's gonna show us what's going on. We'll have that connection with each other. And what happens is because we're in the light, light is the best disinfectant, and so God is gonna use that to to cleanse us through Jesus, through his blood, through his sacrifice of our sin and our brokenness. To get us out of denial, we have to be into the light. And, when we're in the light, we can't lie to ourselves. [00:45:22] (30 seconds)  #LightHealsUs

He's saying, listen, you claim to know and follow Jesus, but you live your life in the dark. You're lying to yourself. You're letting the things that are stopping you continue to stop you. You're not dealing with the things that are stopping you because what's happening is you're saying I know and follow Jesus, but your life is showing you're living in the dark. [00:42:25] (18 seconds)  #LiveWhatYouClaim

It's not that that to walk in light that we have to live perfectly. It's that by walking in the light, it allows our struggles to be seen, admitted to, and dealt with. And this is the beauty of sanctification that comes with following Jesus. So we're truly following Jesus every day of our life. What happens is we continue to grow, we continue to deal with the stuff that's holding us back and hurting us ourselves and other people around us, and we become more and more like what what Christ is calling us to live out. [00:47:03] (29 seconds)  #SanctificationJourney

There's things that maybe you're struggling with or things that you want to deal with, and what you do is you create this different reality and then you're saying your future self can eventually deal with this later on. The problem is when you let future self deal with it, that means yourself now and everybody else around you is dealing with the problem that you keep denying. [00:34:08] (16 seconds)  #DealNowNotLater

If we walk in the light of God by following Jesus, we have fellowship with him, with one another. And, in that community, in that purpose and mission, in that koinonia, we put ourselves in a situation where life can change. And this is what I'm getting at. And this is what John is saying. When we sit in the darkness, the things that stop us, the things that hurt us, the things that keep us broken, they're gonna remain the same. [00:44:56] (25 seconds)  #CommunityTransforms