Our Guiding Light

Sermon Summary:

In this powerful message, we’re reminded that periods of darkness are inevitable in our spiritual journey. The prophet Isaiah’s words in chapter 50 resonate deeply, showing us that even the most faithful can experience seasons of darkness. But here’s the beautiful truth: our God can see in the dark. Just as He guided Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego through the fiery furnace, He walks with us through our darkest moments. The key is to resist the temptation to light our own fires and instead trust in the name of the Lord. This message challenges us to lean on God’s strength, not our own, when we can’t see the way forward. It’s a call to embrace the ‘Jesus way’ of living, recognizing that He is our guiding light in times of uncertainty. As we navigate our own dark seasons, let’s remember that God often uses these moments to show His glory and deepen our faith in ways we never imagined possible.

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Sermon Points:

TRUTH: Periods of darkness are inevitable.

We live by promises, not explanations.
-Warren Wiersbe

TEMPTATION: When we find ourselves in a time of darkness, our temptation is to provide our own light.

TRUST: In periods of darkness, we learn to trust and rely on God more fully.

You may never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.
-Corrie ten Boom

Glorifying God by Following The Jesus Way!

Key Takeaways:

• Periods of darkness are inevitable in a believer’s life
• There’s a temptation to provide our own light during dark times
• We must trust and rely on God more fully during periods of darkness
• God can see in the dark and is never limited by our circumstances
• Following the “Jesus way” is the path to true flourishing and glorifying God

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Scripture References:

• Isaiah 50:10-11

Stories:

• Abraham and Sarah’s impatience leading to the birth of Ishmael
• Moses killing the Egyptian and fleeing to Midian
• The Hebrew spies’ lack of faith in entering the Promised Land
• Simon Peter cutting off the soldier’s ear during Jesus’ arrest
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace
• Jehoshaphat’s battle where God fought for him (2 Chronicles 19)
• Pastor’s personal story of a dark time in ministry and learning to trust God

Transcript

Now, if we were at my home church in Alabama, Miss Helen Macon would have stood up and said, I dare you to sing it one more time. And sometimes they did, much to the pastor’s chagrin. But anyway, wow, thank you so much, Choir Orchestra, Cammie Jo. We are grateful. We’ve been blessed today, haven’t we? And we’re grateful you’re here. If you’re a guest today, I forgot to welcome you, didn’t I? Did I welcome the guests? I got thrown off on the sermon comment, Aaron.

Guests, welcome. We’re glad you’re here. And we’ll help you get connected hopefully today. And we’re grateful that you’ve chosen to come and be a part of our time together. Next Sunday, we’ll be back to our normal schedule, 8.30, our classic worship service at 9.45 Bible study and 11 o’clock, our contemporary worship. Well, let me share with you just a brief word about what’s on the horizon for us. Just a glimpse ahead. In fact, we’re launching a three-year journey. And our theme is going to be flourishing together. The first year, flourishing together, rooted in Christ. And most of you are aware already, but for those of you that might be a little newer to us, we have gotten connected to this global flourishing study that’s being led by the flourishing program at Harvard University and also the Institute for the Studies of Religion at Baylor University. Tyler Vanderwill is a very dedicated, committed Christian who leads the flourishing program at Harvard. And Byron Johnson leads the Institute for the Studies of Religion at Baylor. And they have together just launched the largest sociological study of its kind in history and received this right at $45 million grant from the Templeton Foundation where they are studying what it means to flourish as a human being. And the research is being conducted with about 225,000 people in over 20 countries. And they are evaluating how people find their way to human flourishing. And if you think about it, flourishing is God’s desire. It’s actually God’s intention for His creation. He designed His creation to flourish. He filled it with life. It’s teeming with life, with energy. If you take the most powerful, powerful telescope that we have available to us, we discover the incredible bursting examples of energy in the vast expanse of the universe. But if you take a microscope and evaluate just some of the smallest things that you can look at on a microscope, you find it will be teeming with life and energy. You know, recently we had to have a company come and trim the trees in our backyard around our pool and all of that. Why?

Because if you leave them alone, they’ll just take over. You know why? Because God’s creation flourishes. It’s just the way God designed it. And these leaders of this study, it’s fascinating to me. It’s been embraced by the scientific community, but the leaders of this study are dynamic and dedicated Christians. And here’s how they see flourishing. Living life as God intended. That’s really what flourishing is. Living your life as God intended. And they have isolated what they refer to as domains. Domains that they can actually study. And if you can find flourishing in these domains enough and bring them together, then perhaps you can experience flourishing as a human being. So here are the domains they’re studying. Happiness and life satisfaction. Also, meaning and purpose. Character and virtue. Mental and physical health. Financial and mental stability. Or financial and…

Material stability. And the last one is close social relationships. So if you put all those together, and you can evaluate how well you’re doing. So here’s what we’re going to do as a church. We’re connecting to this journey. And we’re doing it intentionally as a church. Because it’s our desire to help you build your faith. It’s our desire as leaders in this church and shepherds to help you grow in your faith. Because it’s our desire to help you grow in your faith. Because that’s what’s supposed to happen. That’s a part of human flourishing. And so we’re going to be looking at these domains throughout these next three years. We’re going to start in the winter. And so we’ll begin next Sunday morning. And we’re going to begin with that first domain. Happiness and life satisfaction. And so our theme for the first liturgical season of the year is happiness is. And I’m going to challenge us to rethink our understanding of happiness. Because we’re going to be looking at these domains. Because I’ve always thought and somewhat been taught that there’s a difference between happiness and joy. And in common parlance, that’s true. But when you actually do a biblical analysis from the textual evidence, and you study these semantic domains, that’s what scholars refer to them as, and you look at the semantics that are used textually in the scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament, you will discover that happiness, and cheer, and gladness, and joy are actually used interchangeably textually in the scripture. But that’s next week’s sermon, so I don’t want to get too far into that, okay? But also, I want you to mark your calendar for our launch weekend. Flourishing Together launch weekend is January 24th, 25th, and 26th of 2025. And we’re going to gather as an entire church. We want you to be here that Friday night, and Saturday, and then on Sunday morning. And we’re going to launch our journey together. We’ve invited Scott Hare to come and lead us for that retreat. Scott is one of the non-resident fellows that’s working with Baylor and Harvard in this flourishing journey. He lives in San Antonio. He’s a Methodist minister. Just an incredible person, and you’re going to love him. The researchers have actually created what they call a flourishing measure. And so we’re going to ask you at that retreat to measure your own flourishing. And then we’re going over the course of the next three years, continue to reevaluate ourselves and just see in what areas are we flourishing the most, and in what areas are we flourishing the least, and how can we find our way to flourishing as the people of God? Because what’s happened is there are those within this research group that have basically said there is a role for the church to play. And so Baylor has produced, a document that many of us have reviewed. It’s called Flourishing in the Church. And it’s really the connection that churches can make to this journey. I’ve prepared a document for our staff. I’ve written about a 20-page document on my take on the understanding of flourishing, laid out the whole year for us and the next three years, actually. And as I said, it’s going to be an intentional journey. Kurt Grice on our staff is going to help shepherd the journey for us from a content perspective and oversight. And I just want you to know I’m incredibly excited about it. And I’m looking forward to this journey with you as we learn what it means to flourish as the people of God in every season of life. So with that said, let’s finish this series. Y’all know our theme for this year has been together. We’ve spent every liturgical season looking at various facets of what it means to be together. We started with together in Christ Jesus. Our Lenten season, together in ascent, together for God’s glory in the spring, together in the gospel this summer, together in August, together for the future in the fall, together to the people and our annual missions emphasis. But here during the Advent season, our theme is together in the light. And we have been studying the book of Isaiah in this Advent season. Now let me remind you, if you have a copy of the Old Testament, let’s just look at it. I’ve entitled the message, Our Guiding Light. And it’s found, the text is, found in Isaiah 50. After I actually prepared that, I thought, is that the name of a soap opera? Is it? I was trying to remember. Is a guiding light, isn’t that a soap opera? Okay, I was thinking that. All right, well, sorry about that. I thought it was original to me. I felt really good about it. And like so many things I found somewhere else. But in Isaiah, remember we’re 700 years before Christ. God has given Isaiah this vision as he speaks, first of all, to his own generation. Remember the prophet had a primary role. That was to foretell, to tell something to his own generation. But a prophet also often had that unique ability that God gave them to foretell, to cast something into the future, for their eyes to scan the horizon and see beyond their own lifetime and the lifetime of those around them. And Isaiah had that gift. And so the Lord gave him a vision beyond his own era. In fact, one of the ways Isaiah does that is he writes a book called, he writes these poems. There are four of them. They’re called Servant Songs. And it’s in those songs that he paints a composite portrait of the coming Messiah. We’ve looked at some of those songs already. In fact, last Sunday, we looked at the last one from Isaiah 53. This is the third Servant Song found in Isaiah. And it’s on the 50th page. So if you have your copy of the Scripture, there it is. We’re not going to read the whole thing because here’s what happens typically when Isaiah writes one of these poems. He has an addendum to it. In other words, he has some kind of application because he’s shared this song with you and his readers and now he’s offering something to conjure up in your own mind as you try to respond to it, as you reflect upon what does this really mean as we reflect upon what the prophet has said. And that’s what we’re going to look at today. He’s given us the take on the servant. And if you look at verse 10, here’s the response. Here’s the application. And it says this, Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go walk in the light of your own fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand. You will lie down, in torment. So in this application from Isaiah, oh, hey, y’all, I didn’t know y’all were back there. Sorry.

They usually go out and sit down. Okay. There’s nowhere for y’all to sit. I’m sorry about that. Okay. All right. Okay. We got you. So let’s look at this text. And here’s where I want us to start. Let’s start with the truth. And that is this. Periods of darkness are inevitable.

You know, I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve watched a lot of families and individuals. And I’ve been living this life for a long time. And here’s what I’ve discovered. There are periods of darkness that are just inevitable in our lives. Now, Isaiah, we’ve already learned this. Isaiah has a lot to say about dark and light. And those contrasts, there’s a lot of contrasts in the book of Isaiah. Darkness and light is one of them. Normally, when you see darkness from a spiritual perspective, in the spirit, in the scripture, it refers to the absence of God’s presence. That’s typically what it refers to. You’re spiritually separated from God. That’s the normal meaning of darkness in the scripture. That’s not the meaning here, though. That’s not what this is referring to. This is a different kind of darkness. This is the kind of darkness that’s referred to that has to do with a person who is faithful to God, who is godly in their relationship, is connected to God, has faith in God, has done nothing wrong. They’re not being punished, but yet they’re in a season of darkness. Can you identify with that? Not because of anything you’ve done, but you just find yourself in a dark place. That’s really what this text is about. Y’all may have heard that story about the little boy that was a little kid helping his mama cook in the kitchen and she was standing at the stove and they had a big pantry. She said, son, run over there, go in the pantry and get me a can of tomato soup. And he said, I’m not tolerating that. It’s not cool enough to reach the light. It’s dark in the pantry. She said, well, you know where the soup is. Get me some soup. And he said, I don’t want to go in there by myself. She said, Jesus will be with you. So she said, he goes over to the pantry and he says, hey, Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me a can of tomato soup? that’s kind of how it is sometimes. That’s how I feel about the dark. I’ve told y’all before, my take on darkness. Darkness can be foreboding. But what I would tell you is, just in honesty, as your pastor in your journey, at some point along the way, it’s inevitable. You’re going to find yourself in a dark place. And there are times when we wonder, why am I here? Why is this happening to me right now? Why does God seem to be so quiet? There are times I would tell you where you can actually just feel the darkness. As a matter of fact, that’s what this text is referring to. Look back, if you still have your Bible, look back at verse 10. Let the one who walks in the dark. In other words, this season may last a little while and you may have to walk in it for a while. You know, Warren Wiersbe, kind of a preacher of another generation, he was known for saying, we live by promises, not explanations. You know, sometimes, the Lord’s not going to explain to us why we’re where we are. We’re just going to have to experience it. You know, Abraham, he was 75 years old and God gave him a promise. Remember, he told him, I’m going to make your name great. He said, as a matter of fact, I’m going to give you descendants, innumerable descendants. I’m going to make you into a great nation. And so Abraham began that journey of faith with the Lord. And y’all, he walked for 24 years without that being answered. So I want you to think about that. Where were you 24 years ago?

Now, I realize some of y’all weren’t. I get that. Trust me, I know. 24 years is a long time. If you’ve gotten a promise from God and it just doesn’t come to fruition. Abraham walked in the dark for a long time. One of my favorite characters in the scriptures, Hannah, great name for a little girl, don’t you think? Hannah prayed. You ever read 1 Samuel? She prayed. She prayed so hard, in fact, the priest thought she was drunk. You remember? And he got on, her husband said, you shouldn’t let your drunk wife show up here at church. And she said, I’m not drunk. She said, I’m grieving. I’ve been praying. My womb is closed. I’ve been asking God year after year after year. She had walked in darkness for so long. So I don’t know where you are right now, but maybe that’s where you are. Maybe you’re in a dark season. I’m not sure what’s brought it on. Maybe the prayer seemed to be unanswered. It feels heavy. Maybe you feel disconnected. You know, oftentimes it’s a, it’s a tragedy that leads us into those dark places. Maybe it’s grief. Maybe it’s some bad news that you’ve received that has profound impact upon you. And now you find yourself walking in the dark. It could be that it’s not even anything circumstantial. It’s just, it’s just a sense of somewhat disconnectedness. I guess I just want to encourage you. I believe those seasons are inevitable. Now, with that said, I also want to alert you to what, what Isaiah alerts us to. There’s a great temptation when you’re walking in the dark. We all face it. When we find ourselves in a time of darkness, our temptation is to provide our own light. It’s almost like we can’t help ourselves. That’s exactly what Isaiah says. Look at verse 11. He says, Now, all of you who light fires, provide yourselves with flaming torches. You go ahead and walk in the light of your own fires. Go ahead and walk in your own path, the ones that, the torches that you’ve, you’ve set ablaze. In other words, there’s just a real temptation when you’re in a dark place to just start relying on your own strength, your own ingenuity. And sometimes you go ahead, you and I, we just go ahead and we just start taking action without even trying to figure out what God is saying to us. Because our goal is to what? Just get out of the dark. And so, sometimes we demonstrate our self-reliance and we look at God and we say, I look at the Lord and say, I got this. You know, I don’t need you to help. And I’m not going to wait on it. Because obviously, you’re not on my calendar. So, I’m going to go ahead and do this. And you just do it your way. We all do it. I think we’re, so often times, I think we’re just so tempted to not trust in God, but just, and not wait on Him, not lean on Him. There are just so many examples. Abraham and Sarah, I just mentioned them. They get this word, they get this word from God. You’re going to be a great nation. I’m going to give you a son of promise. And what did they do? Do you remember? They finally said, well, obviously, God is waiting on us to do whatever we want to do to answer this ourselves. And so, all of a sudden, the next thing, you know, Abraham and Hagar, the handmaid, have a baby, Ishmael. Not Isaac, Ishmael. And guess what happened? It wasn’t the son of promise. They created a family squabble that lives on to this, that lives on to this very day. Fascinating.

Moses. You know, Moses, obviously, was reared in the courts of Pharaoh. But you remember, his mama nursed him, and he heard these stories, I’m sure, as a little kid from his mom. He knew he was a Hebrew. He knew that. And then the Bible tells us that one day, Moses was watching one of the Egyptians mistreat a Hebrew slave. You remember that story? And instead of waiting and trying to figure out what God’s plan was for him, remember what he did? He rose up and he killed that Egyptian. It cost him 40 years. 40 more years of waiting to see what God’s plan was. I have no idea what God would have done had he stayed right there in Egypt. I don’t know. I’ve seen Prince of Egypt, have y’all, so I kind of know how it plays out. Trust me, it’s Gideon’s favorite show, so we’ve seen it plenty. What about the Hebrew spies? Remember that story in the book of Numbers when God tells them, let’s go in and… Here’s what I want you to do. He said, Moses, I want you to get one person from every tribe and go look at the land I’m giving you. That’s what he said, I’m giving you. The 12 spies went in the land, surveyed, it was awesome. They came back with a glory report. They brought all the goods. They just said, you’re not going to believe it. It’s the land full of milk and honey. And you had two of the spies who said, let’s go. The Lord’s put it in our hands. Remember who they were? What were their names? Joshua and Caleb, that’s right. What were the other 10 guys’ names?

It’s funny, we don’t remember them, do we? They carried the day. Remember what they said? They said, we look like grasshoppers in our own eyes. We can’t do it. It cost them 40 years. They took that report in their own hands. Simon Peter. Remember Simon Peter? He’s one of my favorite characters in the scripture. I love Simon Peter. John 18, he’s with Jesus the night Jesus is arrested. And all of a sudden, these soldiers show up and guards show up and Simon Peter pulls out a sword and takes a swipe at one of them. Y’all remember that story? When I was a little kid, you know, that image of him cutting a soldier’s ear off. Y’all remember that story? I used to imagine in my mind that he just walked up to a soldier and went, hey man, and no, he did this. The guy just ducked. That’s all that happened. And all he got was an ear. Peter was gonna kill him. But that wasn’t the way of Jesus. Jesus wasn’t the path of the sword. That was the path of Caesar Augustus. That’s not the path of Jesus. You can’t take things into your own hands. You can. You know, I’ve told y’all before, this illustration, some of you maybe haven’t heard it, but you know, sometimes Cindy’s dainty necklaces get all messed up, you know what I mean? When we’re moving or traveling or whatever. And she’ll ask me to get the knots out of them, you know? And I’ve told y’all before, I love to do that. I like to lay them out on the counter, you know, and get my tweezers and my needles, you know? And I had somebody come up to me last Sunday and said they needed to bring me one. Bring it, I’m happy. I love to try to do it, okay? So you just, you know, it takes a while. You gotta be careful, but you know, sometimes when I’m doing that, I make it worse. And the knot gets worse. And then you just have to throw it away. Okay, so the analogy breaks down there, but nevertheless, here’s what I’d say. There was a time in my life, years ago, before I ever became your pastor, where I was in a dark season. It was one of the darkest times of my life as a pastor. And when it first began to happen and unfold in front of me, I realized it. And I just felt pressed on every side. And so, my initial reaction was to do what I knew to do. And that was to use the force of my personality, which I happen to like, actually, you know? I think I’m a likable person. And so, I thought, I will use this to undo this. And y’all, the more I did that, the worse it got. Every time I tried to somehow finesse it, it just made it worse and got darker. And I finally came to the place where I realized the Lord was saying to me, stop. You’re not helping. And so, I had to stop. It was one of the hardest things I ever did. But I learned one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned. And so, let me just say this to you. As you find yourself in these dark places, I would offer you a word from the scripture, and that’s the word trust. In periods of darkness, we learn to rely and trust and rely on God more fully. That’s exactly what the text says. If you look again at verse 10, who among you fears the Lord? In other words, you’re walking faithfully. You’re obeying the word of the Lord. Then you find yourself in the dark, and here’s what the prophet says. Trust in the name of the Lord. Trust Him. And then he says, rely on Him. Trusting means to have faith. It doesn’t just mean you believe in God. It means that you trust God with your life. It means you trust Him with everything you have. You trust Him with your eternity. You trust Him with whatever it is that you have in your hand. And then he says this, rely on Him. Interesting little word in Hebrew. In fact, the noun form of that word is found in Psalm 23, verse 4, when the Bible says that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not be afraid because your rod and your staff are there, he says. That’s the noun version of this word. Same word. You lean on a staff, right? So this text is saying lean on God, just like you would lean on a staff when you needed it. Lean on a staff or protection. So we trust. Isaiah 12, verse 2, I will trust in the Lord. Psalm 62, verse 8, trust in Him at all times. Proverbs 18, 10, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. Here’s what I would say to you today if you’re in that dark place. Keep trusting. Keep leaning. Keep relying on Him. Resist the temptation to outrun God. Let Him show you who He is. You know, that text that we, many of us who grew up in the church, we all memorized it, right? Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge Him and He’ll direct your paths. That’s just the truth. It’s not just a verse to memorize. It’s something to live by because here’s what I had to learn about God. God can see in the dark. That’s really good news, y’all. Can I just read it to you? Psalm 139. Here’s what David says in verse 7. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you’re there. If I make my bed in the depths, you’re there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely, the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. Hallelujah. Our God can see in the dark. Aren’t you glad? He never wanders around in the dark like me and you. God does not stumble. That’s not who God is. God sees everywhere. God’s comfortable in the dark. The Bible opens in darkness. And the Spirit of God’s hovering over the surface of the deep. I just want to encourage you. You can trust Him. You can in the dark place.

Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. Three great Hebrew men. Amen. Most of us don’t know them by their Hebrew names. We know them by the names given to them by the Babylonians.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When you run into them in heaven, do not call them by their Babylonian names. They won’t recognize it. They won’t respond to them. It’s Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. These are Hebrews. Those are their Jewish names. Those three boys, you know, we just got through studying Nehemiah and Ezra about that time in the exile. Well, that’s when they lived. They were in the exile. They were in Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar builds this giant image and makes everybody bow down and worship. But they won’t do it. I love that story in Daniel 3. He finally calls them in. And he says, guys. He loves them. He has a relationship with them. He says, guys, come on, dudes. Look, just do what everybody says and you’re going to be okay. Do what I tell you. Bow down. They look at him and they said, king. No. And he said, who’s going to deliver you from me? Who? And those boys look at him and say, well, our God will deliver us. He is able. If he doesn’t, we’re still not going to bow down to you. And they didn’t. Made Nebuchadnezzar so mad. You don’t want to make a king mad. You know what I mean? Made him mad. You know what he did? He said, all right. That furnace, stoke it seven times hotter than normal. He said, okay. He said, now tie these boys up so they can’t go anywhere. So they tie them up. And the Bible says they got on all their full clothes. And the king says, throw them in there. Well, the guys that had them, the fire was so intense. The Bible says they threw those three men into the flames. And they threw them in there. And the heat was so intense, it killed all the soldiers. And then Nebuchadnezzar starts looking in there. And he says, hey, how many boys did y’all put in there? Three. Well, why is there four in there? We don’t know. Well, that fourth one looks like a son of God. And I thought y’all tied them up. Which I’m thinking, don’t flames burn up rope? I don’t know. I’ve never been in a fiery furnace. But regardless, they’re just walking around. He says, get them out of there. Y’all remember this story? They come out. And they’re fine. The Bible says they’re close. The loaves were not even singed. Isn’t that crazy? You know what else the Bible says? They didn’t even smell like smoke. Now, come on, God. You’re just showing out now, right? I mean, that’s like, I mean, seriously. Like a little signature written across it, right? I mean, some friends of ours bought us a green egg for my 20th anniversary here at the church. I love it. But I’m going to tell y’all, when I cook on it, I smell like smoke. You don’t have to wonder where I’ve been. They didn’t even smell like smoke. In other words, God delivered them out of their darkness. Darkness. he can, and I believe he will, deliver you. Now, he may not do it the way you want him to do it. I don’t know about y’all. Had I been one of those guys, I might have said, hey, Lord, you know, you don’t have to put us in there to show us how awesome you are. You know? I mean, why don’t you let us just put our hand over the fire and put the fire out? I think that would be great. No, sometimes, if you want God to show out, you’ve got to let him. They did. We’re still telling their story. Thank you.

So, let me go back to, you know, I’m not sure that Corrie Ten Boom was the first one to ever say this, but I’m giving her credit. You may never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

So, for me, my situation, I was in that season. It was hard. It was dark. I tried everything I knew. It only got worse. I finally quit. And then one day, the Lord gave me a passage of Scripture, 2 Chronicles 19. It’s the story of Jehoshaphat. King of Judah. And he was besieged on all sides. And he gathered up his army as a king would in those days. And Jehoshaphat’s preparing to fight, but he knew he didn’t have quite what he needed. And 2 Chronicles 19, God sent a messenger to Jehoshaphat and said, I tell you what, you show up for the battle, but don’t fight. Let me fight. And you stand and watch me. And let me show you how I can deliver you.

Some of us need to learn. I learned the lesson of Jehoshaphat. I learned an unforgettable lesson during that season in my life. I watched the Lord untangle a mess in a way that I could have never done myself. What I want to tell y’all is, I’m here to tell you right now, he showed out in my life. And I’ll never forget it. And so, I’m not just telling you something that I believe is in the Scripture, because I believe that. I’m telling you something that’s happened in my own life. So, let me just close with this. You know what we like to say around here at first? Are y’all still with me? Okay. Okay. Let me tell y’all what we like to say around here at First Baptist Arlington. It’s a tagline. You see it on our emails, sometimes on our website, whatever. Glorifying God by following the Jesus way. And what I want y’all to know is, that’s not just a tagline. That’s not something we just put on an email. It’s actually the summary of our theology. It encapsulates what we really believe about all of this. Because here’s what we believe. We believe that God designed you for His glory. Isaiah 43, verse 7. My people whom I created for my glory. We believe that God has designed us to glorify Him. That’s our reason for existence. To bear His image in this world and reflect His glory. But here’s what we believe. We believe that we’re unable to do that effectively. In fact, we believe there’s only one person who’s ever done it fully. And that’s Jesus. The Bible says that when the Word became flesh, we beheld His glory. The glory of the one and only. We fall short. We’re just not able to reflect the glory of God like we’re supposed to. Romans 3, verse 23. Everybody has sinned and fallen short of what? The glory of God. Because we can’t do it. There’s brokenness in our lives. And so if we want to glorify God, we can’t glorify God by following the Dennis Wiles way. You can’t. Put your name in the blank. You can’t glorify God by just following your own way. That’s not how it works. What did Jesus say? It’s Himself saying. John 14. Jesus said, I am the way. He said, I’m the truth. God sent the truth to us. His Son. He sent life to us through His Son. And He sent us the way. Jesus isn’t just the way to heaven, y’all. Jesus is the way everywhere. Jesus is the way to bring heaven on this earth. Jesus is the way to show how the kingdom of God works. We are to live the Jesus way every single day of our lives. Because it’s the right way. He’s the light of the world. In Him. There is no other way. There is no darkness. So, if you want to find your way out of darkness, follow His way. His way is the truth. His way will lead to life. Not just eternally, but it will. His way will lead to an abundant life. In Greek, that word zoe, which means the fullness of life. Not just bios. Not just a physical life. But the fullness of life. Jesus came so that you might live. So that you might flourish as His child. So that when His people gather together, we may learn how to flourish. So we can show a desperate world how life is meant to be lived. Let’s you and I be the people of God in 2025. And let’s follow the Jesus way even in the dark. May it be so. Let me pray for us.

Father, we love you. And we thank you for loving us. And Lord, we know that it’s not always easy to live this life. I get it. can be challenging. It seems like there’s always something. And so right now, there are those within the sound of my voice, Lord, who are in a dark place. And so we pray for them right now, Lord. We offer them up to you. Some of them are right here in this room.

Some of them are joining us today online. And maybe later when they’re watching this. And so, Lord, just as a shepherd, as a pastor, I just place them all into your hands in front of you right now. And ask you, Lord. To give them hope in the midst of their hopelessness. I ask you to infuse them with joy. Lord, that you’ll help them to recognize that even though it’s dark right now, you’re with them. And we can trust you. And that you’re paying attention. And that you’ve never one time been late. Not one time. And may you show up just on time. And God, we know you don’t do it all the time. We know you don’t. But every once in a while, you just show out. So, Lord, for those who need it. And I just ask you to just show out. Put your signature on something. That we’ll all stand in awe of. And give testimony to your glory and your power. And your love. So, wrap those today that need it up in your love. And may they sense your presence in a powerful way. That’s our prayer today. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Let’s stand together. We’re going to sing a song of invitation. And Katie and Ryan are here at the front. And if you need to respond to the Lord today, join our church. Give your life. Give your life to Christ. We want to give you the chance to do that. But it just may be, while we sing this song of commitment, it just could be in your own heart. This is a time for the Lord to just work in you. And help you make your way through this time of darkness in your life. So, maybe that’s what you need to do. Or maybe you just need to pray for somebody that you know is in a season of darkness. We can do that while we sing together. Aaron.