all right good morning. So, uh, my dad would say if a worship service like that doesn't light your fire, your wood's wet.
Worship team, thank you so much for being faithful to your calling. Thank you so much for being who you are.
Um, I don't think I've ever actually told any of you guys this, uh, worship team, but we, Taylor and I, have been lucky that throughout our time in ministry, we've had pastors and their wives that we've gotten to be close to. Our pastor at our last church and his wife, we're still close to, and I was talking to her one day a while back, and she was telling me about how she was actually calling to make fun of me doing my welcomes because she said she always gets on her live stream to watch my welcome so she can make fun of me.
Um, so we were close. Um, but she also told me that there are some different things about different churches she always checks out week to week, and one of the things she always likes to do is come see what Waymark's worship is doing for the week because she enjoys our worship so much.
So it's really cool to be a part of a church with a worship team that's this talented. When we were looking for Joe's replacement, I kept saying over and over again, look, we really don't have to find anybody that talented. We've got plenty of talent; we just need somebody that can lead the talent we have. Luckily for us, we found a leader that is also talented. So thank you for hanging out with us, Caleb; we appreciate you.
I know he was like, man, Mike is about to crack on me right now; this is where this is going. But no, we were lucky enough to find somebody that can actually do both. So thank you, worship team, for all that you do. I thoroughly enjoy worshiping with you, whether anybody else does or not.
Um, so today I would like to call myself John Smoltz. John Smoltz, the greatest closer of all time, right, from the Atlanta Braves, back before I watched them lose enough games to where I stopped following them as a fan. Right? John Smoltz, though, he had this really cool entrance with, like, flames all on the screens and stuff. It was crazy. I thought about, like, man, I need some flames; like, I'm the closer today. But I figured that'd be kind of corny, especially since I can't throw a baseball 100 miles an hour, so it doesn't really work the same for me.
So today we are closing out our series, Fireflies. So it's our fourth week, our last week together in Fireflies, and this series has been fun, I think, just because of all the different cool illustrations that God has given both to Robert and me that we've gotten to see throughout the series and all the really cool connecting points from God's word to our lives and what that actually looks like.
So I want to jump right in this morning. Our series foundational point is this: Darkness cannot be driven out by more darkness; only light can drive out darkness. Darkness, in and of itself, is the absence of light. So darkness can only exist where light allows it to.
We've looked at the foundation of light in the Bible. We've looked at how light was created. We have seen how the light that is in us when we are saved is something that we really need not to hide. We need to not put this under a basket; it's something that we need to share.
Then we talked about our calling to walk in light and nailing down the reality of salvation and our relationships with Christ. And then last week, we talked about why we can't help but live differently because when Jesus becomes a part of our lives, it changes everything. There's nothing you can do but live differently.
So now this week, in this wrap-up, I want to talk about what happens when you do that. What happens when you don't hide your light under a basket? What happens when you are different? Once everything changes, what are the outward things that are affected by the light that is in you?
So we're going to be in Isaiah chapter 60 this morning if you want to go ahead and flip there. And, uh, let's go ahead and jump into our pledge.
This is my Bible, God's holy word. It is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. May we read it, honor it, obey it, and portray it in all we do.
All right, Isaiah chapter 60, verses 1-5:
"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you; all assemble and come to you. Your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip. Then you will look and be radiant; your heart will throb and swell with joy. The wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come."
So these are the words of God from the prophet Isaiah. And first, I want to look at where this text is telling us we're headed. I want to kind of start at the end and then come back to the beginning and work to it.
And when we see in verse five that we will look and be radiant, we will be full of joy; riches will come for us, right? That sounds pretty good. I think we all can agree that we're on board for that kind of life, right? We're all on board for joy; we're all on board for riches, right? But what is it that makes us feel this way? That's where I want to get to. What is it that makes us feel this way? What is it that brings that joy to us?
There's our sermon foundational point: the light of the glory of our Lord has come to us through Jesus Christ and now will work through us to draw those in darkness. Verse five tells us that we will look and be filled with joy; we'll be full of joy; riches will come. But the key word here in verse five, the key word that I want to really kind of focus on the whole time this morning, is the word "then." The word "then."
So we will feel radiant and full of joy because we get to see others see Christ through us. That is where that joy comes from. That fullness of joy is through seeing others see the light in us and it then becoming a light in them.
Now let's go back and look at how all this plays out with that kind of in mind, all right? With it in mind that it's others seeing the light in us that brings this joy to us.
So one really cool thing I think that we find in this text is that we're given two specific instructions at the very beginning, right? So if you ever kind of had that feeling where, like, man, I just wish God would just come out and tell me what to do. I wish he would just come to me in a dream like he did to Mary and just say, "Hey, you're having a baby; here's what you're going to name him," right? Like, just be straightforward with me; don't make me have to figure it out.
Well, this is why if you have people in your life that are spirit-led and you go to them for advice, they're always going to push you back to checking with God's word. They're always going to push you back to actually reading your Bible. Why? Because sometimes it does just straight up tell you what to do. Sometimes that does actually exist. The problem is we don't read it, right? So we're going, "Oh God, what? What? Just tell me what to do." He's like, "I did already; you just won't open the letter."
Right? So verse one tells us to arise and shine. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
Point number one: we cannot display the light of the goodness of God in a world of darkness until His righteousness rises upon us.
All right, so here's what's really unique. Here's what I found super unique about these two actions, these two commands that we're directly given to do: arise and shine. Here's what's cool: these actions are actually not actions; these actions are reactions, right? Why do we rise? Why do we shine? This is where it's the smallest words in the Bible that have the biggest thump, right? And this word "for" right here has a lot of thump.
"Arise and shine for..." So rise and shine because, essentially, what this is saying here, your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. God is calling us to get up and be a light. But here's the cool part about that: when we hear that, please don't get like, man, this is a lot of responsibility here. No, this is easy. God's saying the light is in you; the light has come upon you; you just have to do what it does in you.
Kind of like the lightning bug just kind of does what it does with its glowing butt, right? Rachel asked me earlier, "How many body parts are you going to talk about today?" I said, "I don't know; I hadn't counted them yet, but I know I'll say butt at least once." So here we go. If you don't want your kids to hear me say butt, send them to K-Life. There we go; there's the deal. If you don't want them to hear that and I'm saying it, I'm really sorry. I know that people can be weird about your parenting style, but my daughter will probably say fart one day, so it's just kind of what it is.
So here's what's cool about a lightning bug. Ask you a question: has anybody ever seen a lightning bug light his butt up during the daytime? Nope, doesn't happen. Because the lightning bug lights up as a reaction to the dark. When they see that it's dark, matter of fact, I don't know that I've ever even seen a lightning bug in the day, period, much less light up, right? I really don't know that I ever have, which maybe I have, and I just didn't know that's what it was because it wasn't lighting up. I don't know. But either way, the lightning bug reacts; the firefly just shines in the dark. It's instinctual; it is something that's just in them, right?
So like we talked about last week, the same is true for us. It's something that's just in us that we do because of the thing that is in us.
So in verse two, we're given another command to see. And what is it that we are to see? See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the people. But there's another one of those small words with a lot of bang: but the Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you.
As we arise and shine in reaction to God's light in us, we can see the darkness around us through the lens of the reality that His light is in us. You see the change there and how that works? This verse has given us; it's not denying darkness's existence; it's just saying that, hey, don't worry about it, though. I'm reminding you that the darkness is there, but God's light is in you and has you covered. He is with us.
Throughout this whole series, we've talked about that light in us, but make sure that I want to reiterate this again: make sure that you realize the reality. The Bible does not ever promise you that darkness will not exist. It doesn't. In fact, Jesus even very clearly promised the exact opposite: they hate me; they're going to hate you. They're going to hate you because of me. Buckle up.
But God is promising something here in the same way that Jesus did. We can see this darkness but still rise because He has overcome. I think that God was very intentional about putting this line in here about the existence of darkness because He wanted to make sure not to give us an out, right?
Arise and shine. Let me make sure you don't forget darkness will exist. That doesn't mean that just because there's darkness you don't have to arise and shine anymore. You're still commanded to do the same thing because of me in you.
And that brings me to point number two. And as we get into this point, I want to pose these questions: number one, does a light shine in the woods if nobody is around to see it? It's kind of like, does a tree fall in the woods if nobody's around to hear it fall, right? Does a light shine in the woods if nobody's around to see it? And what good is the light if it doesn't reach anyone, right?
So you may be like letting your light shine when you're in the truck by yourself, and you blare your, I don't know what the—I think it's 89.7 is the Christian radio station here. I have to listen to two of them because depending on where you are in town determines which one's going to be fuzzy and which one's not. Thanks, Missouri.
Um, but nonetheless, you get in your truck, and you turn the radio on, and you're a Jesus freak, right? But then you get out and go to the gas station, and you're a jerk, right? So is there actually a light if it's just happening somewhere where nobody can see it?
So who does the light in us reach? Verse number three: nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Point number two: the light of the goodness of God is meant for more than those in your immediate circle; it is meant for more than those in your inner circle. The light that is in you is for all of the people that you come in contact with throughout your day.
If I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times: if you work the cash register at Casey's, you have every bit of responsibility to reach people for Christ as I do standing on this platform. We are all called to go therefore, right? That was Jesus's last command, as a matter of fact, to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? That wasn't something He said, "Hey, pastors are called to go into all nations, missionaries are." No, you are the missionary at Casey's behind the cash register or in your school that you work in or the construction company you work for, etc., etc.
So if you live out your faith only for yourself, is that really living out your faith? If living out your faith is just something of self-righteousness to where you can say you've done it, is that really living out your faith?
We used to do this thing in the late '90s and early 2000s that a lot of, um, what's the church talking heads talk about a lot, and it's a cultural thing for Millennials. But, uh, we used to have these little sheets you'd get when you come into Sunday school with checkboxes on them, right? Sometimes your Sunday school teacher would do it while they were checking rolls; sometimes they would give you the sheet. If you grew up in church, you know what I'm talking about. If you've been around for a while, it would be like, did you bring your Bible today? Did you come on Wednesday night? Were you here for Sunday school? Are you going to be here for big church? Did you memorize your verse of the week? Right? It was a checkbox.
And what that created in us is checkbox Christianity, where we go, "All right, I'm going to show up to church; I'm going to show up to Sunday school; I'm going to take my Bible with me; I'm going to take my notes; I'm going to use all six of my highlighters to make it look really pretty," right? But then we walk out of here, and we go, "All right, I filled out my sheet," and fold that up and put it in my pocket, and now I'm going to continue living my life like none of that ever happened.
As I was thinking about this, I was thinking about if me and Wagon and I went on a duck hunt, right? And we get out in the boat, and we're going to head across the lake, and it's dark, which that's how that works, by the way. And I'm sitting on the front of the boat, and Wagon's driving. He's like, "Hey, you see any stumps?" which those are bad juju, by the way; you don't know that. Ouchie.
Where he's like, "Hey, you see that point that we're trying to get to? You see it yet?" I'm like, "Nope." He's like, "Why not? It's dark." But where's your spotlight? It's in the truck. What good is it there?
And then I'm like, "Well, I turned it on; it's on; it's just in the truck." Right? So we look back across the lake, and there sits the boat ramp, and all of Wagon's lights, windows are just glowing because the spotlight's on; it's just in the truck. What good is the light in the truck? What is good is the light if we just were like, "Well, I've got it on, kind of, you know, I went to church; I did the things."
There's a light that's there, but I'm just kind of leaving it. Let me tell you something: you want to talk about me getting ragged out emotionally, Wagon would drag me the rest of that hunt over how dumb I was for leaving my light in the truck—in a loving way.
Yeah, I have left my dog at home before; we're not going to talk about that. What good is a light that's not reaching anything?
And then, of course, I have to ask the question of you: do you even have your light with you? You have to first have the light with you before we can talk about how far your light will reach. How far does your light shine?
And verse three tells you how far your light could shine. It says that nations and kings will come to your light. Guys, our faith is not a little flashlight from Walmart; it's not. That's not what our faith is. My spotlight, when I say it would make his truck glow, I mean it. My spotlight will turn on the sunshine on any bank within 100 yards, right? It will do that because it is powered by a lithium battery.
You could get a little double-A battery rubber button on the back that barely works flashlight from Walmart; it's not going to be as bright as my spotlight. I mean, mine's even got a pistol grip on it, so when I got my big old clumpy gloves on, I can still push the button, right?
Our faith is powered by something big, and we look at these lights. What's powering your light? Is it a lithium battery or double-A's? Because if you've got a faith that's powered by something big, by that lithium battery, it's going to be bright.
The effectiveness and range of your light will always be determined by what powers it. And if the power of God is in you, the power of the Holy Spirit, the same God that raised Jesus from the dead, the same God that raised Lazarus from the dead, that healed the sick and the blind and did all the crazy things, and by the way, spoke stars into existence lives in you, then guess what? Kings and nations all around this world can be reached by you.
But I want to look at it from an angle that's a little more, a little easier for us to connect with. The word "nations" in verse three tells us that people all the way in the uttermost parts of the world are reachable for us because they'll be drawn to our light. If that is true, don't you think that your lost friend at work is reachable? Don't you think the person that you encounter in your family is reachable?
By the way, I'm preaching to myself too because this is difficult. It's hard when you're around somebody every day, and you know that this person is lost, and they don't get it, and maybe they're even abrasive towards the idea of Christ. But don't think for a second that—by the way, if you don't know this already—you can't save them anyway; only Christ can.
So of course, they can't be saved by you, but if there is that light in you that's this powerful, they can be reached. The word "kings" in verse three tells us that leaders and people with influence are reachable for us because they will be drawn to our light.
And we can look at examples from culture, which, by the way, if any of these people I'm about to mention you don't like, that's fine; maybe I may or may not like them either, all right? Just stick with me on the examples, okay?
You may think Donald Trump was the dumbest president of all time; that's fine; I'm not mad at you. But there was one thing that took place a lot in the office, and that was prayer. But that was actually something that was influenced by Mike Pence, who is lower in influence than the president, right? But he influenced that behavior.
There's this dude that I love; his name is Mark Richt. I don't know if you know this guy; he was the head coach of Georgia for a really long time. Go Dawgs! And Mark Richt was a man of faith, and he did daily Bible lessons with his players at the University of Georgia, many of which went on to be in the NFL and now exceeded him in influence.
Tim Tebow is a personal favorite of mine. Not only is he a really cool dude, but he's also handsome and got big muscles, right? Tim Tebow, again, is somebody that has had an influence on world missions. He was a football player in, like, 2003. Tim Tebow's like in the seventh grade playing football, going to a church like this, and he was homeschooled, so his team probably was awful at football; let's be honest, right?
Our light has the potential to reach those who will in turn reach others in greater realms of influence. And that leads us perfectly into point number three, my personal favorite.
Point number three is that the light of the goodness of God is meant for the ministry of your family, right? So our light is for people far outside of our circle of influence, of our little inner circle, but it's also for our inner circle. It's also for the ministry of our family.
And y'all, ministering to our families is fun. I mean, I look so much forward to just aggravating the slop out of my kids. I already do it now; if you don't know that, it's a favorite of mine.
But I want to tell you about this kid named Timmy. Timmy was in church on a Sunday morning, and the offering plate comes by Timmy, and he's got some money. He just didn't want to put the money in the plate; didn't want to put it in the plate. So his mom, full of wisdom, leans over to Timmy and was like, "Quick, drop it in the plate; the money's tainted."
So he does; he's kind of freaked out. Okay, so a few minutes later, he whispers to his mom, "What was wrong with the money? Was that money dirty or something?" She said, "No, it wasn't dirty; it just taint yours, and it taint mine; it's God's."
And I can't wait till I have those moments because if Timmy had any sense whatsoever, let's be honest, he probably was like, "Bro, for real? I was going to buy some bubble gum with that," right?
So we're called to arise and shine because God's light is in us. We can see the darkness around us for what it is through the lens of that understanding. And as we let our light shine, others will be drawn to it, and we should seek to share the light with them.
And it feels pretty cool to think that through our faithfulness to God, He could reveal Himself to someone who has some crazy amount of influence in the world, right? Far beyond us. It's a cool thing to think about; it's a cool feeling, a cool idea.
But don't overlook the people that have the greatest potential to be just that, that God has placed right under your nose. You may not ever meet a Mark Richt or Tim Tebow; you may never get to witness to someone like that. But you do get to raise people who have more potential than anybody currently on this planet.
You do realize that anybody that is currently an adult automatically has less potential than someone who is a child that's still in their process? You get to raise people that have more potential for the work of the Kingdom than any of those people.
Parents, please don't miss this: there is absolutely no one on this planet that you have bigger influence on, nor is there anyone who can impact the kingdom in a bigger way because of your influence than your children. Nobody.
Verse four: "Lift up your eyes and look about you; all assemble and come to you. Your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip."
Let me flash back real quick to the previous point. Verse number three told us that nations and kings will come to your light. And when I start talking about these different crazy places on the uttermost parts of the world, or I talk about these people that have a wild amount of influence, some of you automatically, naturally, which I understand, are like, "Yeah, right." You kind of raise an eyebrow to that.
And even when I talk about the idea of the power of the light and all these things, you're still like, "That's cool, but whatever." How is this possible? God's called me to serve to impact the world in Monett, Missouri. Tim Tebow ain't coming here, right? Unless he's got some gig with Jack Henry, maybe he'll come in then, right? Otherwise, not going to happen.
But let me tell you what should be the most obvious answer for you: it's your kids. You could right now currently be raising the next Billy Graham. You could right now be raising the next crazy impactful ministry, a missionary to Kenya or Ireland or Middle Georgia.
Here's the thing: when we look at our kids, if you lay in bed at night and you dream of all the things that your kids are going to accomplish and all the influence they will have and the salaries that they'll make, fame and honor that they could potentially receive, but you don't dream specifically about what God has for them, how God wants them to serve His kingdom, you're missing out.
And you've set yourself up for missing out throughout their entire upbringing. You and them both are missing out on so much that God has for them. Because again, I ask you the same question that I asked you last week: do we actually believe what we say we believe? Seriously.
Because these are the times where that starts to play out. And if you think seeing your kid grow up, go off to college, get married, make six figures, have some kids, retire, and die—if you think seeing that happen is going to bring you more joy than seeing them get on some plane, fly across the world to some crazy country, and baptize somebody who's never heard the gospel before in some river full of anacondas—if you think that will, the American dream, if you will, will bring you more joy than seeing your kid do something like that for the kingdom, you're wrong.
How many of us actually sit down and think, "My child could be a missionary one day. My child could be a pastor one day, a Sunday school teacher one day." And when you start to think about those things, again, it changes everything.
I would bet that everybody in this room, especially everybody over the age of 25, I'm sure there's some exceptions, but everybody in this room over the age of 25 would definitely agree that life is not all about the money you make. And if you believe it is, it's because you hadn't had a sucky job where you made good money yet. But they exist.
I had one that was called the United States Navy; it sucked. I made good money, though. Here's the part about that that's crazy, though: we know that as a fact; we agree with that. But then we send our kids off to school every day just to learn how to make money, get in the best college; that's all it's about.
We're sending them off to accomplish the very thing that we know isn't really worth it. It makes no sense. And again, it raises the question of do we actually believe what we say we believe?
I'm so thankful, and I thank God every night for the way that Huntley brings joy to the people around her. And I ask God every night to make that a part of who she is, to help her to continue to be that brightening light in people's day as she grows and that changes and forms the way she pulls that off.
Because I believe that my daughter and son are going to do something incredible. I believe in them. And when I say something incredible, I promise you it ain't got squat to do with the salary they'll make or the college that they attend; nothing.
Because it's not about that. The joy I want to see them experience is that of them seeing others experience Christ through their walks with Christ.
Which brings me to my closing point: when we become the light reflecting externally He who lives internally, our lives will be radiant; our hearts will be full and filled with joy.
"Then you will look and be radiant; your heart will throb and swell with joy. The wealth on the seas will be brought to you; to you, the riches of the nations will come."
So we have this term in American church culture that I don't really love. I don't hate it; I think it applies in the right settings, but I don't love it. That term is rededication. Rededication.
We go to a camp or an event or revival, or you come to some impactful church service, and we feel like we need to rededicate our lives to Christ. It happens a lot; we see it in student ministry a lot. But in my years of student ministry, there's something that I've kind of picked up on and noticed: a lot of the times when students get saved and baptized, we celebrate, and then that's kind of it.
We take our picture with our little board that says, "I got baptized at Waymark Church," and then that's just kind of it. So if a 10-year-old, for example, comes to me and wants to follow Jesus and be saved, all right, I'm looking for some pretty simple concepts that they understand to be cool with leading them to Christ and then dunking their head in the water because they're 10.
I need them to know they're a sinner, Jesus died for their sin, they believe in Him and His resurrection, they don't want to sin anymore, and they want to follow Him. Sweet, sounds pretty good, right? That's not too hard to wrap your mind around. I can see a 10-year-old getting that. Cool, that's the basics; that's the Romans Road: 3:23, 6:23, Romans 10:9.
Their brain is only developed so much, but here's what happens next. And they turn 11 and 12; next thing you know, 15, and then 16. Then their brain has developed a ton by the point from 10 to 16. In school, they've taken on a lot bigger challenges, right?
Things have gone from 5 plus 5 to y equals mx plus b. Things have gone from, "Hey, I traced my hand and turned it into a turkey; mama, look at my turkey hand. We talked about the pilgrims and the Indians; mama, I made a turkey on my hand. My science fair project is a cup of dirt," right?
But then that turns into studying the complexities of the tragedy of the Trail of Tears and all the things that went in with that, right? Their brain has changed a lot from cup of dirt to Trail of Tears, from 5 plus 5 to y equals mx plus b.
But then I ask them about Jesus, and what do they say at 16 years old? "I'm a sinner; Jesus died for my sin; I believe in Him and His resurrection; I don't want to do that anymore; I want to follow Him." That's it; they're in the same place they were at when they were 10.
And then they go to a camp or something where they finally are faced with the realities of things like eternal life, things like Jesus as a man and God at the same time, being 100% God and 100% man at the same time, and how the heck does that work out? And I start throwing around words like propitiation, and they're like, "Wait, what? I believe in Jesus," right?
And all of a sudden, they go, "Hold up; I don't know if I'm really saved. I don't know if I really understood that when I was 10 like I do now." Well, here's the truth: they didn't understand it when they were 10 in the way that they do now, which, by the way, is fine.
But here's the problem: the problem is that they respond negatively to that reality because they feel left behind. It doesn't make sense. I can do calculus now, but all I know is I believe in Jesus. It doesn't make any sense in their mind.
There's this layer of almost like an identity crisis, there's a confusion and a questioning. So what do they do? "I need to rededicate my life." Okay, what does that mean? Well, I believe in...
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on Mar 04, 2024
