Walk in the Light, Not Your Own Small Fire

In one paragraph

Ted Raven, a missionary who has worked in Tanzania for twenty-five years, brought the morning message as part of First B's missions emphasis. He preached from Isaiah 50, Genesis, First Peter, and John 3, pressing on the question of human identity and what we turn to in place of God. The sermon carried a single, persistent thread: people were made to live in God's light, and the fires we light for...

Read together

1. Isaiah 50:10-11 opening text about walking in God's light versus lighting your own fires
2. 1 Peter 1:18-19 redemption not by silver and gold but by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish
3. Genesis 2:7 God forming man from dust and breathing the breath of life into his nostrils
4. Genesis 2:16-17 God's command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will surely die
5. John 3:14 Moses lifting up the snake in the desert as a picture of the Son of Man being lifted up for eternal life

Talk about it

1. Ted described two very different ways people try to make sense of life: the Western tendency toward individualistic materialism and the African tendency toward collectivistic animism. Where do you see the pull of your own inherited 'empty way of life' showing up in how you think about money, identity or control?
2. Ted asked the congregation, 'Who am I?' and pointed out that most of our usual answers, our name, our job, our race, describe what we do or where we come from rather than who we actually are. How do you typically answer that question, and how satisfying do you find that answer?
3. Using Isaiah 50, Ted talked about the temptation to light small fires instead of walking in God's light. What is a 'small fire' you are aware of in your own life right now, something you look to for identity or comfort that competes with God?
4. Ted said that trying to answer the question 'Who am I?' without God as a reference point is like a sailor trying to find his position in the ocean without a sextant. What does it actually look like, day to day, to use God as that reference point rather than yourself?
5. Ted drew a parallel between the dying Israelites who looked at the bronze serpent and people today who need to recognize the poison of sin before they will genuinely cry out to Christ. He asked, 'Do you know you are sick?' How does a person hold onto that awareness once the initial crisis of coming to faith has passed?