The Absence of Light
The Absence of Light
Sermon Summary:
As we embark on the Advent season, we’re invited to reflect on the profound contrast between darkness and light in our spiritual journey. The book of Isaiah, written some 700 years before Christ, paints a vivid picture of a world shrouded in darkness due to rebellion and spiritual apathy. Yet, amidst this gloom, Isaiah offers a glimpse of hope – a call to ‘walk in the light of the Lord.’ This powerful imagery reminds us that while darkness may seem overwhelming, it’s ultimately powerless against the light of God. As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, let’s consider: Where do we see darkness in our world and in our own lives? How can we actively choose to walk in God’s light, even when surrounded by shadows? Remember, just as a single strand of Christmas lights can brighten an entire neighborhood, our small acts of faith and love can illuminate the world around us.
Sermon Points:
Darkness has its place in our lives. There is a natural cycle of light and dark woven into the fabric of God’s creation.
Darkness captivates, baffles, and appalls us. It’s a shifty thing of many textures, many moods, a state of fascination and of horror, an absence and a presence, solace and threat, a beginning and an end.
-Jacqueline Yallop
CONTEXT: Isaiah opens his book of prophecy with a poetic and symbolic representation of the brokenness of the nation of Judah. Because of the rebellion and spiritual apathy of God’s people, the times were dark.
In the Scripture, darkness represents the very absence of God. It represents the power of sin, evil, brokenness, rebellion, and unbelief in this world.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
-John 3:19
Darkness can be both a corporate reality and/or and individual experience.
Darkness is my closest friend.
-Psalm 88:18
The answer to the power and presence of darkness in this world is the power and presence of God! God is light!
God’s light can overcome the personal darkness in your own life!
Key Takeaways:
- Darkness has its place in God’s creation, but prolonged spiritual darkness represents the absence of God
- Isaiah’s prophecy opens with a stark depiction of Judah’s spiritual darkness and rebellion
- The contrast between light and darkness is a recurring theme in Isaiah and throughout Scripture
- God is light, and Jesus is the light of the world, offering hope and redemption
- Believers are called to live in God’s light and share it with others, especially during the Advent season
Scripture References:
- Isaiah 1:1-9
- John 1:1-5
- 1 John 1:5
- Colossians 1 (reference to transferring from darkness to light)
Stories:
- Dr. Dennis Wiles childhood fear of the dark and taking out the trash
- The story of Matt Riggs and his neighbor Kim Morton in Rogers Forge, Maryland, where Christmas lights were strung between houses to show support and unity during a difficult time
Transcript
Well, this morning we are going to begin with a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. So when you made your way in this morning, if you are a follower of Jesus, we invite you to participate with us in the Lord’s Supper today. A little bit different today. When you came in, you should have taken one of these. It’s a disposable cup for the Lord’s Supper. If you didn’t get one of those, if you’re a church member or if you’re a follower of Jesus who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, raise your hand, and our deacons are around. They have those. Just keep your hand up, and they’ll get them to you in just a second. And like I said, if you know the Lord and have been baptized, we invite you to participate with us. You don’t have to be a member of First Baptist Arlington, okay? we’re going to be using the book of Isaiah to guide us through this Advent season. Isaiah is an ancient book, and it’s a prophet who wrote some 700 years before Christ. And he was very powerful. He was a very powerful theologian. In fact, his prophecy that he has penned is the most quoted prophetic book in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, it’s actually hard to tell, in all honesty, how many times Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament because sometimes there are just allusions to the book of Isaiah. And the theology of Isaiah is so embedded in the imagination of New Testament theologians, that sometimes they’ll allude to Isaiah without us even hardly noticing that that’s what’s happened. So it’s difficult to come up with an accurate count. But many of the books in the New Testament allude to or quote Isaiah. And Isaiah was given this powerful word to his generation. But he was also given by God a glimpse of the future. And so let me just share this text with you today from Isaiah. Think about this text was written. It was written a little over 700 years before Jesus. And if you go to the 65th chapter of Isaiah, the text says this, See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I will create Jerusalem to be a delight, and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard. And it will be heard in it no more. And so Isaiah is given this glimpse of actually the consummation of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God was actually established by Jesus. Jesus tells us even in the institution of the Lord’s Supper that this cup, he said, is the blood of the new covenant, which is the establishment and the recognition of the presence of the new kingdom. Then Jesus said, I’m not going to partake of this again until I dine with you in that consummated kingdom, when the new earth and the new heaven are actually a reality. And yet he invites us to participate in it. And so today we’re going to begin the Advent season, not just with this celebration of all of our children and youth, but also in the presence of the Lord symbolically and figuratively around this table. Where we have just had the Advent candle lit. And the imagery is, of course, we’re moving from dark to light. And so each successive Sunday, we will light another candle until finally we come to Christmas Eve and we’ll light the Christ candle. And the imagery is the closer we get to the reality of the Advent of the Lord Jesus, the closer we come to the light coming into the world. And so the Lord’s Supper for us. Challenges us to look in the past, to be grateful for the Advent of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. It also is a celebration of our current reality. We actually are living in the kingdom of God right now. We’re not waiting for it. It’s already a part of our existence. But we also peer into the future with hope because one day the kingdom is going to be fully consummated. And Isaiah saw that many years before Christ, that one day there’d be a new heaven and a new earth. And of course, that type of idea or that vision was actually captured also by the Apostle John in the book of Revelation. So as we begin the Advent season, I want to invite you to participate in the Lord’s Supper. And there are a couple of different types of disposable cups. Some of you have some that have the bread on one side and the juice on the other. Some of you have the bread on the top. So I’ll guide you through that here in just a second. But let us pray. And let’s just ask God’s blessing upon this. This particular time of worship as we come into his presence and receive this bread and this juice that symbolizes the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. So let’s pray together. Lord, we are grateful this day for this season of the year. We join hands with Christians all over the world today and begin the season of Advent. And it is a time of joy for us. And we’re grateful for it. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord, that our lives are built around these special and holy days, this season as we embark on this journey where we commemorate the birth of our Lord, the gift of your Son, the miracle of the incarnation. Our hearts are filled with gratitude. We’re grateful that you’ve chosen to speak into the darkness of this world through the light of your Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. And Lord, as we receive these elements today, we’re mindful that this bread for us symbolizes the very body of the Lord Jesus in which he lived a perfect life and through which he was an example to us. And he taught us how to live in the kingdom. And then it was in that very body that he offered up himself as a sacrifice for our sin. And it was through that sacrifice that he shed his blood. Amen. Amen. Amen. And he was forgiven and redeemed. And then in that very body, he was gloriously bodily resurrected from the dead to never die again, offering us hope for the future. And so today, Lord, as we receive this bread and this juice for us, we ask your blessings upon them. We’re mindful of the body and blood of our Lord today. We’re also mindful, Lord, of the life you’ve given us and the hope you’ve placed in our hearts. and so as we begin this season we begin in humility acknowledging our need for a savior we thank you that you’ve spoken directly to that need through your son and it’s in his name we pray amen so I invite you to find the bread wherever it is located in your disposable cup it may be on the top or it may be on the bottom and let’s take the bread for us we believe that this bread symbolizes the very body of our Lord so take and eat and then if you’ll open the container that has the juice
Jesus said this cup is the new covenant in his blood drink it and God’s people said amen amen as we launch into this season it’s appropriate for us to be gathered symbolically around this table together since our theme for this year has been together we began the winter season in January this year and our theme was together in Christ Jesus and then for the Easter season we gathered around the theme of together in ascent for the spring together for God’s glory this summer we shared the theme together in the gospel in August we studied the book of Ephesians and our theme was together and then in the fall we learned some valuable lessons from Nehemiah and Ezra together for the future and we’ve just finished the missions emphasis at our church together to the people so our theme for the fall I mean for the Advent season rather is together in the light and perhaps when you came in today or you found across our campus you found the devotional guide for Advent I’d encourage you to get one of these if you haven’t gotten one our staff has put it together has our together in word readings every week from the book of Isaiah is going to guide us we have all kinds of readings for the Advent season and we also have the suggestions for life application and together in deed and I would encourage you to get one of those you can find it online at fbca.org word and deed so with that said let’s begin with the first lesson for Advent and I’ve entitled the message the absence of light and the text is found on the very first page of Isaiah so if you’ve got your copy of the Old Testament let’s look at Isaiah 1 and we’ll just look at the opening few verses of Isaiah as we think about this theme of darkness and light here’s what the text says the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah all kings of Judah hear me you heavens listen earth for the Lord has spoken I reared children and brought them up but they rebelled against me the ox knows its master the donkey its owner’s manager but Israel does not know my people do not understand woe to the sinful nation a people whose guilt is great a brood of evil doers children given to corruption they have forsaken the Lord they’ve spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him why should you be beaten anymore why do you persist in rebellion your whole head is injured your whole heart afflicted from the sole of your foot to the top of your head there’s no soundness only wounds and welts and open sores not cleansed or bandaged are soothed with olive oil your country is desolate your cities burn with fire your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you laid waste to the people of Israel that’s when overthrown by strangers daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard like a hut in a cucumber field like a city under siege unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors we would have become like Sodom we would have been like Gomorrah I thought I would just launch the Advent season with some light reading this morning if that’s okay with y’all just some sweet Christmas imagery some of your favorite Christmas carols have been drawn from this very day page in the scripture it’s actually somewhat of a harsh word from Isaiah where Isaiah is acknowledging the reality of darkness so I want you to think with me this morning for just a moment about darkness in fact I would argue that darkness has its place in our lives there’s a natural cycle of light and dark that’s woven into the fabric of God’s creation it’s a part of his creative design our theme for Advent is together in the light but darkness does have its place in fact the Bible opens in darkness the Bible says the spirit of God hovered above the darkness of the deep and so there was darkness if you will in the very beginning and yet God chose to separate light from dark day and night and so he has actually placed in the very design of his creation the balance of light and dark darkness has its place for most of the world you know right now our son Josiah and his wife Adrienne they had a hot water heater that exploded and leaked and so they’ve been spending a few days with us and little Gideon our little two year old grandson he marks when it gets dark outside and he’ll say it you can trust him he’ll look outside and say Poppy it’s dark outside well that signals something to him the day is coming to a close there’s a certain rhythm when it comes to darkness it’s just a part of our reality you know when I was a little boy that’s one of the things I was most afraid of the dark it’s a little bit of an irrational fear you know y’all all know that I was afraid of clowns which is a much more rational fear obviously I mean I get that but but my brother Tommy and I we shared chores at our home growing up my brother Emerson was off to college and so we did the dishes and one of my jobs was to take the trash out to the trash bin our house had an alley in the back of the end of the yard and that’s where the trash cans were that’s where the trash men came if you will the trash truck and so whenever it was time to take the trash out at night after supper our back was full of trash cans our back porch had one light bulb and my daddy hated all the insects being drawn to the light so we had those special insect proof light bulbs any of y’all remember those? yeah the only problem with them was they just didn’t put out any light but regardless so when it came time to take the trash out my brother Tommy knew how scared I was of the dark so as soon as I went out the back door he had locked the back door turned the light out and but what y’all don’t know is I was the first person to take the trash out the fastest trash deliverer in the state of Alabama I could get out there and back quick so it was it was something I was fearful of darkness is it’s just a part of life you know some people I don’t know how y’all are I could go to sleep with the lights on just like this right here doesn’t bother me a bit some people like I’m married to a little girl that that’s not how it is but I’m married to a little girl with her if there’s one little just pin light off of a device it has to go for my wife to sleep it has to be like we’d say in Alabama it has to be pitch dark for Cindy to go to sleep doesn’t bother me a bit but for some people they need that dark well if you think about it darkness is just a part of life it’s a part of our everyday reality it helps continue to to bless a certain rhythm the Lord has put in us so it has its place I came across across this quote when I was researching a few months ago getting ready for this sermon series let me just read it to you it’s from Jacqueline Yallop she says darkness captivates it baffles and appalls us it’s a shifty thing of many textures many moods a state of fascination and of horror an absence and a presence solace and a threat a beginning and an end and so I I would contend that that darkness has its place however if you dwell in it though it can strike a much more ominous tone in your life and so let’s think about Isaiah so if we could go backwards in history to the time of Jesus that’s some 2,000 years from today then if you could back up 700 more years then you enter into the world of Isaiah so so some 2,700 years ago Isaiah opens this book of prophecy and he does it in what many scholars say with a poetic and symbolic representation of the brokenness of the nation of Judah and because of the rebellion and the spiritual apathy of God’s people Isaiah’s early ministry was a time of darkness the times as you might say were dark Isaiah was this brilliant prophet as I’ve mentioned quoted more often than any other prophet in the New Testament Isaiah’s incredible ability to capture the vision of God with these written words and spoken words was powerful and he served in the nation of Judah when Isaiah was alive Judah and Israel had separated into two different nations and he served the southern kingdom Jerusalem was the capital one of the things that distinguishes Isaiah is he was a prophet to the kings he didn’t just speak to the people he did that but he had audience with the kings there were four of them that are mentioned in the scripture and Isaiah says God gave me these visions and I’ve shared these visions in this book some 66 pages worth and it’s powerful testimony but he opens his prophecy by painting a scene for you so if you still have your Bibles open if you look back at verse 2 here’s what Isaiah is doing he’s inviting you in in the early part of his prophecy to a courtroom he’s the prosecuting attorney and he’s called in the heavens and the earth to be the jury so he says listen heavens listen earth here’s the evidence I’m going to describe to you just how dark it is in Judah and he begins his treatment of the evidence of the situation by saying there’s just rebellion among these people notice what he says I reared them as my own children and now look at them verse 3 he said even an ox knows its master even a donkey knows its manager but my people from God’s perspective they don’t even know the Lord any longer they’ve rebelled against him for so long they are now guilty they’ve abandoned the Lord and they’re consumed with guilt discipline doesn’t work anymore he says I mean why would we keep disciplining you look at verse 5 why would we beat you anymore in other words why would we discipline you nothing works with you as a matter of fact he says it’s so bad had God not intervened had we not experienced the goodness of God we would end up like Sodom and Gomorrah if you know anything about the history of the Jews and the theological imagination of the Jews there’s very little you could say more biting than that than to say to the people of God you might just end up like Sodom and Gomorrah in other words the profound judgment of God now he’s going to invite them out of the darkness in fact again if you’ve got your Bible still open you flip over to page 2 of Isaiah that’s what he says in verse 5 he says come Jacob’s children come with me and let’s walk in the light of the Lord let’s remove ourselves from the darkness of this era of this season of this rebellious time and let’s learn how to walk in the light that God actually has offered us now that contrast is very important in Isaiah Isaiah is a book that’s filled with contrast that’s how he chooses to share this vision he has granted themes in the book of Isaiah things like judgment and hope he talks about the servant Lord and the kingdom of God the trust in God the rebellion of the people the arrogance of the people the humility of following the Lord he paints a picture of the messianic hope in the book of Isaiah but one of the contrasts in Isaiah is light and dark and you’ll find it over and over and so if you just want to read through the book of Isaiah during the Advent season you’ll find that imagery and so if you just want to read but here’s what I would point out to us this morning when it comes to darkness in the scripture more often than not in the scripture darkness represents the very absence of God it represents the power of sin and evil and brokenness and rebellion and unbelief that exists in this world and so darkness has a spiritual meaning in the scripture it typically represents or symbolizes God’s absence because God is light to Bibles and you may say now wait a minute preacher God’s everywhere how can you how can you say that darkness is the absence of God well what I mean by that is is darkness symbolizes those places where God is not acknowledged where God is not accepted where God’s not embraced those places where human beings decide that their way is superior to God’s way where human beings decide that their insight is greater than God’s insight when human beings decide that their will is superior to God’s will and they choose to go their own way and when they do they end up in places characterized by sin and evil and brokenness and rebellion and unbelief and you put all that together and it contributes to darkness so here’s what Isaiah does Isaiah is going to challenge the people of God to reflect upon the general ungodliness of God that exists in the nation and he is going to say to them in effect you are the people of God you should live like the people of God you should not live like those who dwell in darkness out of God’s way if you will now we shouldn’t be surprised that there’s so much darkness in the world because we heard already in our Advent reading in the lighting of the Advent candle John 3 19 which says this this is the verdict this is the verdict light has come into the world but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil well Isaiah assessed his culture he said as I look at it it’s dark let me ask you most of us in this room are living our lives in the American context primarily we have many families in our church who are from other places in the world but for the sake of this brief comment think about life here in America would y’all agree with me that there is a good deal of darkness across our land today spiritual darkness think about our society and what takes place on a daily basis across our land think about the drug abuse and the lives that are fueled by the entire drug industry if you will prostitutes at work so many of them are trapped in human trafficking and they’re desperately impoverished and they see no way out controlled by evil human beings think about the desperate poverty that exists in our society the brokenness that we see in homes, neighborhoods, families schools, communities think about how dark our society is but it’s not just in the U.S. think about the world how many people across the world today woke up this morning in fear not sure whether or not they would live out the day because they have a real fear bombs evil around them the wars that exist on our planet get out of here can y’all believe this is 2024 can y’all believe we still can’t get along with each other are you as shocked by that as I am think about all the technological advances the incredible human achievement to me it’s sometimes the unbelievable resiliency of the human spirit and yet for some reason we still choose to fight each other and we declare war on each other and whenever the war actually begins guess who suffers the marginalized the poor those who are most desperate in the society fueled often by the ambition and the anger and the greed of those in power now if that’s not darkness I don’t know what is and it’s 2024 after all these years and not only that you know sometimes individual people live in darkness of their own choosing because darkness can be both a corporate reality and or an individual experience in other words you can find yourself in a dark place as an individual we all can you can choose darkness now you may not think you’re choosing darkness but because of choices that we make we find ourselves in dark places we can make willful decisions rooted in our own sinfulness and rebellion and those sinful choices where we choose to ignore God live life according to our own power our own ingenuity our own will our own wisdom walk in our own light and if you do that long enough unfortunately we find ourselves in some dark places and it can be really challenging you know the Psalms have been used by God for centuries to voice the things that we all experience that’s one of the reasons the Psalms are so endearing to us they’re not just beautiful poetry they are but they also reflect the human experience and so you can find Psalms expressing almost anything you experience as a human being the Psalms of lament are very powerful I don’t know when’s the last time you looked at Psalm 88 but Psalm 88 is one of those really challenging Psalms it’s a Psalm that came from the sons of Korah in fact the author’s name a guy named Haman Haman lived during the time of David and Solomon Psalm 88 is a it’s a hard one he talks about the desperation of darkness and what it’s like to live in it he never resolves it it’s one of those Psalms that ends without resolution as a matter of fact the last phrase in Psalm 88 verse 18 you know what he says darkness is my closest friend wow what a statement you know the poet laureate of the 1960s was Paul Simon I just made that up that’s what I call him I don’t know that anybody’s ever said that but that’s what I think Paul Simon 1964 released a song that begins with this sentence hello darkness my old friend I’ve come to talk to you again remember that song isn’t it crazy that song became incredibly popular through the 60s and 70s they still sing it today in fact it’s been placed into the record book Rock and Roll Hall of Fame it’s one of the most profound rock and roll songs of all time and it communicates a familiarity with darkness and actually calls darkness my old friend turns out it didn’t originate with Paul Simon it goes all the way back to Haman Psalm 88 darkness my closest friend is that you? is that where you are right now? darkness is your closest friend somebody you know do you know who he is? do you know somebody who’s in a dark place right now? we all do don’t we? we all know somebody they’re in a place right now where it’s tragic it’s cold it’s hard it’s hard to be in a dark place and you know what I’ve learned about darkness it’s hard to accomplish anything of note in the dark you ever notice that? it’s just hard darkness is powerful it can be very challenging and here’s what I’d say to us when you’re in a dark place when you and I find ourselves in dark places we need to be careful who we listen to because people can speak into our lives and they can speak incorrectly in our lives one of my favorite verses in the Bible is in the book of Job might tell you something about me when you think about Job but there’s a powerful passage at the end of Job where Job and his buddies have tried to answer what’s happened why has all this happened? and then God speaks in Job 38 verse 2 one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament God says this who darkens my counsel without knowledge I want you to think about that question you know when some people you talk to some people and you say man I love to talk to that person because she always sheds light on the subject y’all know what that means she sheds light on the subject some people shed dark on the subject that’s what he’s talking about God says some of y’all the more you talk the darker it gets you’re not bringing any light you’re bringing counsel but without knowledge and when you choose to do that all you’re doing is adding dark to the subject so I would say to you and me when we find ourselves in dark places be careful you don’t want to listen to somebody who sheds more darkness on the subject but that can happen so here’s the answer it’s Christmas y’all I mean seriously it’s Christmas and so what are we celebrating? here’s what here’s the answer the answer to that the answer to the power and the presence of darkness in this world is the power and the presence of God because God is light is that not what the Bible says? in 1 John 1 verse 5 the Bible says God is light in him there is no darkness at all I love Genesis 1 I love the let there be’s in Genesis 1 isn’t it awesome to serve that God when God just says let there be something y’all it just happens if y’all noticed it it doesn’t matter what’s laying around to draw from he doesn’t have to draw from anything he just does it and what does he say in the very beginning of the book of Genesis his spirit is hovering over the surface of the deep darkness covers the face of the deep and all of a sudden God says let there be light and guess what there was light because that’s who God is I love the book of Exodus as well we’ve been studying that on Wednesdays and in Exodus we read the story of Moses will spend some time in the presence of God and when he comes out of God’s presence his face is aglow and the people can’t even look at him he has to put a veil over his face because he’s just glowing there’s so much light it’s just rubbed off on him it’s powerful because God is pure light he’s holy what is the answer to the darkness of our world light and so what has God done he has sent his son who’s the light of the world come on y’all John let me read to you how John says it in John 1 y’all know this but in the beginning was the word the word was with God the word was God he was with God in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made that’s been made in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it this morning driving to church Ada and I were talking about dark how much dark does it take to overcome light turns out we don’t know because it can’t but it doesn’t take much light to overcome darkness does it and God is light what am I celebrating at Christmas the light of the world has come I don’t have to live in my darkness anymore and neither do you and so here’s the thing God’s light can overcome the personal darkness in your own life hallelujah you don’t have to stay in the dark there’s an answer for you not just for the world there is an answer for the world it’s Jesus but he’s not just the answer for the world he’s your answer and when you invite Jesus in when you choose to receive this gift that God gives you which is his son the Bible says in Colossians 1 that God takes you and he transfers you from the domain the kingdom of darkness and he puts you into the kingdom of light hallelujah you don’t have to live in darkness anymore and you can find your way through those dark episodes in your life in your life because of what Jesus has done for you I was reading a story a while back about we’re coming out of the pandemic and it’s November of 2020 coming out of Thanksgiving and this happened in a little community called Rogers Forge just outside of Baltimore, Maryland there’s a guy named Matt Riggs and Matt told his family that he was worried about their neighbor their neighbor was his name Kim Morton she was grieving and having a hard time recovering she was anxious about her future and had fallen into a state of despondency so Matt Riggs and his family were talking about it and it was time to start decorating for Christmas and so Matt and his family had an idea so they took the first strand of their Christmas lights and attached them to Matt to his home and he stretched them across the street and attached them to Kim’s house without asking her permission so that night Kim gets a text from Matt seeing her daughter watching a movie eating pizza and he says hey Kim look outside call me back so she and her daughter get up and look outside and there’s a strand of Christmas lights across the roof of Matt’s house and it reaches over to her house and she calls him and he says hey just want you to know we’re all in this together well the neighbors got talking about it y’all can google it and read about it guess what happened one of the neighbors said you know we ought to we ought to connect our houses and show that this light and another neighbor said you know what we ought to do and another neighbor said you know guess what happened that whole neighborhood they just strung all the lights over the neighborhood shared them to everybody’s house reaching across the street some of the guys went out and just put anchors in everybody’s bricks so it would be easier to attach them and they just lit up the whole neighborhood it didn’t just light up the neighborhood it lit up Kim come on y’all what does the Bible say let your light so shine you know when I was a little boy growing up in the little church in Birmingham Alabama we used to sing about it did y’all this little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine this little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine this little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine let it shine let it shine let it shine come on y’all that’s what we’re doing we’re not just hanging Christmas lights what we’re doing is we are glowing on the inside because of who Jesus is and we’re all in this together turns out and I don’t know who in your neighborhood or who in your family or who at your office needs to be reminded of the light of Jesus and for them to know we’re all in this together but for all I know you’re the very one to say that to them and so let’s live in the light of Jesus and let’s share that light this Christmas season may it be so let’s pray together
Lord we’re grateful today we’re grateful for this light that we have found in Jesus and the fact that this light dispels darkness and we have seen you work in our own lives and our world needs to see you and right now within the sound of my voice there may be folks in a really dark place maybe of their own doing maybe they’ve been victimized but regardless it’s dark they need to know there’s life light