Walk as Children of Light

October 18, 2026

Scripture referenced 12 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Ephesians 5:8 core verse: 'you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light'

8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,

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Ephesians 2:1-3

dead in trespasses and sin, walking according to the ways of the world, children of wrath

1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,

2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;

3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

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Ephesians 2:4-7

'but God, being rich in mercy' made us alive with Christ, raised and seated with him to show immeasurable riches of grace

4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;

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Philippians 3

Paul counts his former gains as rubbish and loss, only Christ's work counts as gain

1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

4 though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

6 concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

7 However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

8 Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

11 if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

13 Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

16 Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

17 Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

18 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

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Philippians 2:6-11

hymn of Christ: humbled himself, took form of a slave, died on a cross, God highly exalted him, every knee will bow

6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Colossians 1:15-20

image of the invisible God, all things created through and for him, reconciling all things through his death

15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.

17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;

20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

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Galatians 2

crucified with Christ, no longer I who live but God who lives in me, live by faith in the Son of God

1 Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.

2 I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.

3 But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

4 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;

5 to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you.

6 But from those who were reputed to be important (whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man)—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me,

7 but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcised

8 (for he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles);

9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision.

10 They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned.

12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy; so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

14 But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?

15 “We, being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners,

16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.

17 But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!

18 For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

19 For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

21 I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

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2 Corinthians 5:9

it is our aim to please God

9 Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.

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Hebrews 11:6

without faith it is impossible to please God

6 Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

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Colossians 1:9-10

praying to be filled with knowledge of his will, to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, bearing fruit

9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

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1 John 1:5-7

God is light, no darkness in him; if we walk in darkness we lie; if we walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin

5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

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Ephesians 5:9-14

fruit of light is goodness, righteousness, truth; testing what pleases the Lord; 'get up sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you'

9 for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,

10 proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.

11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.

12 For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.

13 But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.

14 Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

This message walked through Ephesians 5:8, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." The three parts of that verse shaped the whole sermon: what we were, what we have been made, and how that changes the way we live. It was a call to take the reality of rescue from darkness seriously enough to let it show in the way we walk every day.

What was said

The sermon opened by sitting with the uncomfortable truth of what darkness actually means. Every person starts there, hostile toward God, empty, filling life with things that cannot satisfy, and without Christ headed toward eternal separation from Him. The preacher was honest that the pull of the flesh does not simply disappear after conversion, offering a personal example of confessing envy and covetousness to the staff earlier in the week. The point was that darkness is not just a past condition; the flesh keeps dragging toward it.

Then came the turn. Ephesians 2 was read, describing people dead in trespasses and sin, and then those two words, "but God." The rescue is entirely God's work. Philippians 2 and Colossians 1 were both brought in to show the weight of who did the rescuing: the one through whom all things were created, who humbled Himself to death on a cross, rose, and now holds everything together. That is the one who pulls people out of darkness and into light. A testimony from someone in the room, a person who had recently experienced real, tangible rescue from spiritual darkness, was mentioned as a current-day picture of exactly this.

Because the rescue is real, the walk that follows is real too. Walking as children of light is not passive. Colossians 1:9-10 was read as a picture of what it looks like: being filled with the knowledge of God's will, growing in wisdom, bearing fruit. The flesh and the Spirit are in constant opposition, as Paul describes in Galatians, so walking in the light requires daily dependence on the Spirit rather than personal effort or strength.

The sermon pushed against the tendency to settle for the temporary. Using an illustration about a child given a million dollars and spending it on a truckload of suckers, the preacher named how easily people trade eternal investment for trivial things. Time, money, and gifts can go toward the gospel, toward the oppressed, toward discipling others. The question pressed was whether those things are being wasted on what is trivial instead.

First John 1 was read as a sobering check: if someone claims fellowship with God while walking in darkness, they are lying. But the same passage holds out the promise that walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing through the blood of Jesus. This is not a self-improvement message. The Spirit is the only power that makes any of it possible.

The closing movement was built around a hiking illustration. On a long trail, you have to focus on your feet to move fast, which means sometimes stopping to look up and take in what is around you. Walking with God can look the same: intentional, relational, and occasionally paused to see what has been given. Philip's invitation to Nathaniel, "come and see," was held up as the model for how children of light talk to people who are still in darkness. No seminary required. Just an invitation.

The message ended with a quiet exercise. People were asked to write down names, long-term relationships, shorter-season ones, and chance encounters, specifically people who do not know Jesus. The point was to move from thinking about walking in the light to actually naming the people you are walking near who need to be invited to come and see the one who rescued you.

Touch points

Things you could actually do this week.

Write down the name of one person in your long-term life who does not know Jesus and commit to inviting them to come and see who He is.
Write down the name of someone you work with or see regularly this season who is not following Jesus, and pray for an opportunity to speak with them.
If you thought of someone you ran into recently and wished you had said something, write their name down and pray that God gives you the words when you see them again.
Ask a fellow believer sitting near you to hold you accountable to the names you wrote down this week.
When your flesh pulls you toward darkness this week, pause and confess it to God, trusting that He welcomes you back and promises to wash you clean.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

The message opened with the reality that we were once in total darkness, hostile toward God and without hope. What does it mean to you personally that your starting point was darkness, not just imperfection?
The preacher confessed envy during a meeting that week, and said he noticed he had not been putting scripture on the situation to see it clearly. What role does scripture play in helping you recognize sin you might otherwise justify?

and 3 more questions in the guide

Open the study guide

Resumen en español

El mensaje resumido, en español.

El mensaje partió de Efesios 5:8: "Porque en otro tiempo erais tinieblas, mas ahora sois luz en el Señor; andad como hijos de luz." Se exploró primero la realidad de lo que éramos sin Cristo: personas muertas en pecado, enemigas de Dios, sin esperanza de salvarnos por nuestras propias obras. Ninguna religión de esfuerzo humano puede lograrlo. Solo Dios, rico en misericordia, nos sacó de esa oscuridad y nos dio vida junto con Cristo, no por lo que hicimos, sino por gracia.

Luego se habló de lo que significa caminar como hijos de luz ahora que hemos sido rescatados. Seguimos cargando nuestra naturaleza carnal, que nos jala hacia la oscuridad, pero tenemos al Espíritu Santo para vencerla día a día. El llamado es a no desperdiciar lo que se nos ha dado invirtiendo solo en lo temporal, sino a vivir con la mirada puesta en lo eterno, con gratitud, confesión honesta y comunión real con Dios.

Al final, el mensaje invitó a cada persona a pensar en nombres concretos: alguien cercano a largo plazo, alguien en esta temporada de vida, o alguien con quien se cruzan seguido, que aún no conoce a Jesús. La invitación es sencilla, como la de Felipe a Natanael: "Ven y ve." No hace falta tener todas las respuestas; basta con compartir lo que Cristo ha hecho y abrir la puerta.

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Pasajes bíblicos usados:

Efesios 5:8
Efesios 2:1-3
Efesios 2:4-7
Efesios 5:9-14
Filipenses 3 (las ganancias contadas como pérdida)
Colosenses 1:15-20
Colosenses 1:9-10
Gálatas 2 (crucificado con Cristo)
2 Corintios 5:9
Hebreos 11:6
1 Juan 1:5-7
Juan 1 (Felipe y Natanael)

Read the full transcript 4,511 words

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0:00 Hike and we're verbally preparing and talking through the message for that Wednesday night and Ray was like, wow, that was great, man and he usually doesn't give me a lot of feedback. He's like, you know, great job or I don't get a lot of feedback from Ray on the messages but for whatever reason, he just loved it. He even when he was driving away, he rolled his window down and I went over to him like, are you everything good? And he was like, you just gotta keep your notes. Like, that was so good and I was like, thank you.

0:31 Wow and and then couple weeks ago, we we were talking about this message and he was like, just take that one and then, you know, we've got Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians that we've been in, you know, the past few months and just all all the places that Paul talks about walking with God and and just just just do this with it and I was like, yeah. Awesome. I, if I did that, I, guys, like, you would be here a long time. I don't know if you, like, if you just read flip through those three epistles, there is so much about walking with God in there. It was really overwhelming and it was either Thursday morning or Friday morning.

1:16 I think it was Friday morning. I I don't these notes are not those notes. I just wrote out the this sermon from all of that and the key verse is Ephesians five eight. We could pick a lot of ones, a lot but I don't I'm already distracting you. This is the focus.

1:37 For you were once darkness but now, you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for all that you give us in your word.

1:52 We are so thankful for your spirit working in us to open our eyes to what you have to say through scripture. Please help me to speak clearly and to deliver what you want to be said this morning for us. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. So, there's like three components there.

2:16 You were once darkness. Now, you're light. So, walk like it. Super simple. I have taken that and made it very simple for us this morning.

2:25 For you were once darkness. We normally don't hang out with this on Sunday morning but I want to a little bit. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, right? Whether you're a Christian today or not, we all started in this darkness, in this hopeless condition. We were hostile towards God.

2:54 Enemies, we had no purpose in this world. We constantly try to fill ourselves with stuff in the world and it to no avail, right? Even even now, like our flesh drags us back. It's trying to drag us back in the darkness. In our staff meeting Thursday, I I wanted to start out our meeting with confession and because I needed to confess.

3:26 My sin of conceit. Wednesday, I had a few different meetings and one was in an airplane hangar and I'm like, wow, nice. You know, and just like, I was envious of my brothers and I had to confess it and I was interesting about this specific sin that I was dealing with Wednesday was that I didn't have scripture. I was not putting scripture on the situation to to show me the sin and I was trying to justify how I can grow my wealth which is silly. What are you talking about, Van?

4:10 And so anyway, we still deal with the darkness, but when without Christ, it's not only misery here on Earth, there's an eternal suffering that you're headed towards. Without Jesus, you're hopeless, right? Eternal separation from God. There's no hope. The only work you can do will never add up to anything.

4:38 We can't outwork our bad works. Like the the Muslim faith is all about, you know, working hard so your good works outweigh your bad. Most religions are that way. You've gotta just keep trying to do better and better and better to outweigh maybe. When you die, you'll figure out if you succeeded.

4:59 You can live in the most beautiful place. I mean, you can walk around and it just looks like bright but we you can be in total darkness without knowing the one who made it. And and when you're in that darkness and you can surround yourself with other people that are in the dark and they can try and encourage you or each other to focus on the temporary joys that you can get from the world. The vain pursuits that ultimately leave you empty. Right?

5:38 Ephesians two one through three says, you were dead in your trespass and sin that you previously walked. According to the ways of the world, living according to our fleshly desires. We all, all of us previously lived among them in our fleshly desires carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and we're by nature children of wrath. We are not done talking though. But if the clicker doesn't work, you'll have to close your eyes while I continue.

6:16 There it is. But God, alright? Like, that's it. I I wanted to just sit there in the darkness and just just think about where we were and where we would be without Jesus but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, when we were in darkness.

6:45 He made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. He raises up with him. He seated us with him so that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace. It's not works, right? Immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ.

7:05 It doesn't say, you were dead in sin but man, you did so many good works. You're good. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say you were born in sin but you're born into the right family. So, like your status has you where you need to be.

7:19 Doesn't say that. Doesn't say you were born in sin but you're so talented. No. Our works can never save us. Even Paul's works couldn't save him, right?

7:30 He in Philippians three, he recounts all those gains and he counts them all as rubbish. Counted as loss. It's only the work of God that's counted as gain. Only he has graciously made a way for us to salvation through faith in him who loved us and gave himself for us. In exchange for our sin, our failure, our misery that's put on the cross, he gives us his righteousness.

8:04 If you declare Jesus is lord and believe in your heart in the resurrection, in the gospel, you're saved. So, if you have done that, now, you are light in the Lord. It's our next point. Your darkness, now you're light. Only because of Jesus.

8:26 Only because of the work of Jesus. There's a couple scriptures. One, the hymn of Christ that just so mightily exalts his work, right? Who is in the form of God but he didn't count equality with God, a thing to be taken advantage of or grasped. But He chose to humble Himself and come down here, smelly earth, and take on the form of man, take on the form of a slave, and then be obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

9:00 And then he folded those grave clothes and left him there in the tomb and he just walked out. Right? And therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name. So that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, essentially all creation for all of time. Past, present, future, at His name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is lord.

9:33 That's our savior. That's who'd rescued us from the grim condition we sat in for a few minutes that felt way too long. This is our God and then, Colossians has another. Ray did a great job unpacking the preeminence of Christ. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

9:56 By Him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. All things were created through him and for him. He's before all things and he holds it all together. He's the head of this church. In him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things.

10:25 That's good news for us. Right? He... Okay. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind in the darkness, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

10:48 It's his work that brings us into this light covering us by his blood. This is our God who brings us from that darkness to light. Who... We had a former walk, the way of the world, and now we have a new walk, a different way of walking. We die to our old self because he died, we can die to our old self and raised to walk in newness of life.

11:21 We... I got to hear this past week a story of somebody in the room who recently was in just the most tangible spiritual darkness. And it was it was enticing this person to stay in the darkness. And when this person was in a... Was called to just buy a Bible and start reading the Bible, the the darkness was was pulling her away from it physically.

11:52 And then she got to this point where total rescue and freedom from the darkness and is living in the light and it is incredible and I know there's so many stories in the room but just being able to hear that afresh story and be excited about the reality of this. It's not just something that we're talking about but it's real, right? From darkness to light. In Galatians two, Paul says that that that we've been crucified with Christ. The old self, the darkness, our flesh is is killed.

12:35 It is no longer us who live but it is God who lives in us. The life that we now live in the flesh that we're still dragging around our flesh like we just talked about confession. We live by faith in the son of God who loves us and gave himself for us. Later in Galatians, Paul talks about how our flesh is opposed to the spirit. So, we get to this next section of walking in the light.

13:05 There's a constant battle like a daily struggle between our old walk and and the new walk. It's the last part of the verse. Walk as children of light. That you are. That's who you are.

13:19 If you follow Christ. Enoch walked with him and was taken up and he pleased God by his faith and the manner of life that that was an outflow of his faith. Enoch is probably not an attainable goal for us. Like, don't expect that you're just gonna get taken up like he did. He never died.

13:42 But it's encouraging to look at that level of faith and that level of faithfully pleasing God in the way that he walked and so we see this connection between pleasing God and walking with God. In second Corinthians five nine, Paul says, it's our aim to please God. Hebrews eleven six says, you can't please God without faith. So, we by faith, those who follow Jesus, we don't walk to like we used to. We want to please God, not the world.

14:17 Colossians one nine and ten brings a lot of this together. We are praying that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So, walking with him is intentional. It's learning about who he is and praying for wisdom, praying for understanding, praying for the spirit every day to remind us of the darkness that we used to be in, the light that we're in, and how to move forward continually fighting our flesh and putting our faith in him as we walk with him. So, like we mentioned, we're still dragging the flesh around.

15:11 We're dealing with temptation. We're fighting sin. We're desiring what's not aligned with God's desires, justifying things we see in the world around us, this enticing and it lures us, right? We're prone to wander from the unseen, most loving, wonderful, amazing God to settle for trinkets. There's analogy in youth a long time ago.

15:38 Somebody had used in about how the flesh is like a child who you give a million dollars and they buy an 18 wheeler load full of suckers. Which I Googled to see how like legit this analogy is. You you could spend $400.00 on a truckload of suckers. That is so silly, right? Like, of course, we see the the ridiculousness in that.

16:07 We have the same problem. We have opportunities to invest in the eternal but we often invest in the temporal more than the eternal. We can invest our time and money into bringing the gospel to the lost. If Baxter was in here, I'd call him to ask what the statistic was. Over a million house churches were planted around the world through the run ministry this year.

16:37 You can invest in that. You can invest in praying for, helping the oppressed in this community, discipling others that whether you are part of or lead a small group, investing your time and money in that. Investing in in this group of believers in the work of ministry, caring for widows and orphans, inviting our our unloved neighbors into our homes, somebody had mentioned earlier or Thursday about the how they don't want to be like the one who is given the one talent and buried it. And we don't want to waste our life, right? We have been given something.

17:23 I don't know if it's two or three, four, five talents, whatever it is, but you have been given a gift and skill and time. How are we using it to invest? Another silly illustration that I wasn't planning on but at at a camp I'd worked at, they did this thing called the mayonnaise skit. So gross and these people stand up there and they do different things with mayonnaise. They use it to brush their teeth and they say, don't waste it and then they spit it into this other thing and they use it as a lotion.

17:56 It's so gross but just the, don't waste it. Don't waste it and I just, it was just every week like that was the thing which is it's really nasty but it grabs your attention kind of but like, don't waste your life. Don't waste what you've been given. Don't invest in the temporal. Don't get lured and enticed by your own desire, right?

18:15 Don't waste your life. Walk not in the darkness but but the light. Walk in the light. First John one five through seven is very convicting about this. God is light in him.

18:27 There is no darkness. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, I think some of us have probably been in that situation before. I know I have. We lie. 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.

18:52 This is not a pull up your bootstraps sort of message either. This there is only one thing, one being that can help us with this. It's not our own strength, right? It's only by the power of the spirit that that will allow us to walk in this manner. Those next verses after our core verse, Ephesians five eight, says, for the fruit of light consist of all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

19:26 Testing what is pleasing to the Lord. Get up, sleeper, and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. We need the spirit to defeat our flesh daily that's trying to get us into the darkness. Do y'all remember the the illustration that I shared about the rich man who was in the wagon and he's going on the way to receive this huge inheritance, right? And when his wagon breaks and he's on the side of the road and it's hot and he's sweating, covered in dust, and he's got a smile on his face.

20:01 Because he's headed to something so much greater. He has a hope. He has perspective on the situation. Jesus gives us the knowledge and perspective that's critical for walking with him. If while that guy was on the side of the road walking forgets that about the inheritance, then does his demeanor change?

20:25 Is he all of a sudden complaining about being on the side of the road? Probably. But he has his mind on the inheritance and and this for us, this is not just looking to the eternal inheritance. I think a lot of us can just only find comfort in our eternity when things are so grand. Well, one day, everything will be made right.

20:49 Yes. A 100% true. Focus on that but it's it's today also, right? We are free from the anxieties in this world. We are free from obsession with wanting just a little bit more.

21:04 Another toy camper behind me. Another business idea. We are free from those things. We are free from the bondage of sin. We are forgiven people.

21:19 Today and every day, we have access to God because of Jesus. Walking with him and talking with him like we're just saying. We can have fellowship with Him because of the work that Jesus did for us. Right? We can confess to Him how we have wandered astray, and He welcomes us with open arms.

21:42 He promises to wash us clean after we confess our sin. We're no longer slaves to this world or sin. We are free to walk with Christ. When when Chris and I were hiking, I see where you are now. I thought you're over there earlier.

22:01 On this 19 mile hike, it was like HD amazing views the whole time. Up paintbrush and down cascade. And we were thinking about what are all the analogies, you know, that we can use with hiking and walking with God and there are a lot but one just we kind of mentioned earlier with creation like as a person that's in the light, walking in the light, when you look at creation, you see the fingerprints of God and you worship the creator unlike the person who's just worshiping a rock or a crystal. When we were walking, we noticed like the trail often to move fast. You had to really focus on the trail.

22:42 You know, you're just hiking, hiking, focusing on the trail and you couldn't really look much at how all the beautiful views and so every once in a while, just stopped and just to look around and thank God for where we are. And I think for the... For our walk in the light, sometimes we've got to slow down and just take a breath and stop and look around at what God has given us in Christ. In the last two little analogies, one is our long term conversation. We walk together the whole time.

23:23 What does that relationship look like? As children of light or or we had some random encounters. One, you know, that it was just really quick. Hey, how's it going? Blah blah blah.

23:34 But one, the people were like interested mainly in him. I mean, look at him. And and they wanted to chat and ask questions. Oh, you're locals. It's like, hell, he's a local really.

23:46 I'm just living here. I'm local now maybe. Game and fish says I gotta wait a year. So anyway, how does that apply to our walk? We have people that we're on this journey with in the...

23:59 For the long haul. Lot of you are sitting right next to that person. And some of the some people that you know is a shorter term thing. And sometimes it's just a random encounter. But we meet people.

24:12 And if we're walking as children of light, what does that look like? For for we see we see a few examples in scripture. Before the resurrection, Philip meets Jesus And he found Nathaniel and he said, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and so did the prophets, Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth and he... Nathaniel says, what good can come from Nazareth? And he says, come and see.

24:48 We talked about this in small grid. I'm like, that's going in the sermon. Come and see. He's excited about Jesus and then when he does meet Jesus, Nathaniel does. He says, Rabbi, you are the son of God.

25:02 You are the king of Israel. And notice like that, what does Philip say? He doesn't, Philip didn't go to seminary. He didn't unpack a lot of stuff. He just said, come and see.

25:16 For the example from this week of that testimony, come and see my life. It's totally different now. Come and see. A few weeks ago, Tim Dalton in middle school class, he asked the question to the to the kids in the room. When you think of God, what do you think of?

25:40 And I was like, wow, that's a really good question. He was like, yeah, it's probably the most important question, right? What do you see? A lot of people like so if you're just in the context of come and see, if your view of God is, you know, like distant and like, how are you living your life? You know, like, that's not a come and see.

25:59 That's a come and run. He will judge one day, right? But but Jesus has with open arms welcomed us to fellowship with him. Isaiah 62, it talks about how God looks at us with the same view that the same way of looking like a a groom would look at the bride walking down the aisle. When I looked at Lauren walking down the aisle ten years ago almost exactly.

26:29 I like couldn't control myself. I was so overwhelmed with love and like, I can't believe I tricked her. You know, and I was just like, I was crying and I I felt like my face looked like this but in the video, it didn't look that bad but it was just, I just couldn't. I I was so in love with her and I still am. Like, it's just every day.

26:51 I'm like, you are so amazing. Somebody she met with somebody earlier this week and they're like, you really outkicked your coverage. I was like, I know. I look at her like that. Oh, the only one that I look at like that.

27:05 Jesus looks at us like that. Come and see him. Right? Like, that's who we want to see. So I want to do this.

27:16 This this is not super normal, but... And the band can go ahead and come back up. We're gonna be a little bit early, it looks like. Whatever you're... You take notes with, which I don't think most of you take notes, but if you have a thing to take notes with, if you use a phone and a notes app, I want you to think.

27:37 For the last eight minutes, who do you walk with in the long term? The whole hike. And how are you walking as a child of light in that relationship? And who in that who in those in that category? And I wrote I wrote this down for myself too.

28:01 Long term that doesn't know Jesus. And are you inviting them to come and see him? Write a name there. And then in the in the short term, maybe somebody you work with that's probably short term relatively to your whole life. Write a name.

28:23 Who is not following the Lord that you are with regularly in this season that that God's given you favor with in relationship that you need to invite to come and see right that name now. Maybe the random interactions, you just keep running into this one person or there's somebody that you ran into last week and you're like, man, I wish I shared something. Write that name down and pray that the Lord would give you the words to speak to these people. Write the name so that you can be intentional and commit that you will go talk to this person. If we believe in the darkness that is the reality that we were in, that that is the reality and that people who don't know Jesus are stuck there and can't work.

29:18 There's nothing that they can do to get out except put their faith and hope in Jesus. All we have to do is invite them to come and see. That's all we have to do. Come and see the one who rescued me from darkness. Come and see.

29:40 Walk with me. Look at the evidence of our creator. Walk with me. Come and see. Let's confess our need for the blood of Jesus to wash us clean.

29:59 Walk with me. Slow down. Maybe pause on the trail and gaze at our savior. Walk with God who loves us so much immeasurably more than we can comprehend and enjoy him forever. I invite you to to to stand as we close and worship and if you're with someone that is a believer that's in that long term, ask them to hold you accountable to who those people are in your life.

30:44 If we all share with one person in the town, what would that do? It's amazing to think about. Lord, we thank. No. Yes.

31:09 Gosh. Lord, we pray that you give us the joy because of the reality that you have rescued us from darkness into light. And if and if one of us is in the room that has not experienced that, Lord, we pray that you would draw that person to you into a life that is infinitely better today and for eternity. In Jesus name, amen.

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Darkness To Light Fighting Sin Saved By Grace Sharing Your Faith Walking With God Wasting Your Life

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