The Problem Of Our Dark Side Series

The problem of our dark side

Text: 1 John 1:5-2:6

Topic: How to cope with our dark side

Big idea: We grope around in darkness but God has a way out of the darkness into His light.

Intro:

A fly was buzzing along one morning when he saw a lawn

mower someone had left out in their front yard. He flew

over and sat on the handle, watching the children going

down the sidewalk on their way to school.

One little boy tripped on a crack and fell, spilling his

lunch on the sidewalk. He picked himself up, put his

lunch back in the bag and went on. But he missed a piece

of bologna. The fly had not eaten that morning and he sure

was hungry. So he flew down and started eating the

bologna. In fact he ate so much that he could not fly, so

he waddled across the sidewalk, across the lawn, up the

wheel of the lawn mower, up the handle, and sat there

resting and watching the children.

There was still some bologna laying there on the sidewalk.

He was really stuffed, but that baloney sure did look

good.

Finally temptation got the best of him and he jumped off

the handle of the lawn mower to fly over to the baloney.

But alas he was too full to fly and he went splat!!,

killing him instantly.

The moral of the story: Don’t fly off the handle when you

are full of baloney.

There’s a dark side to us, that’s as reckless as the fly. It does not matter what the costs are, you just got to have it. Humanity is like that, so full of baloney, they can’t see it and they fly off the handle, thinking they can handle it all, and be satisfied only to end up splat.

In CHICAGO Tues. July 30, 2002 - Two men, Anthony Stuckey, 49, and Jack Moore, 62, both of Chicago, died from multiple injuries and blunt trauma. Apparently, their van jumped a curb and crashed into pedestrians. They died after an angry mob pulled them out and beat them with bricks, witnesses and police said.

Again more suicide bombings… both stories people who perpetrated these acts of violence, would probably feel justified, perhaps feel that justice is done…

The mob, the suicide bombers – their lives now can now be summed in one word –splat!

In the same way, many believers afflicted with problem of their dark side emerging. Many experience it as tension, pressure, frustration, turmoil … Expressed by Paul in Rom 7:19-22 (NLT) :

“19When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it. 21It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22I love God’s law with all my heart.”

One word – splat! What’s the answer? Isn’t Christian life suppose to be peaceful? As hard as many try they fail or they fall and some fall pretty hard. Is that game over then? What has God’s Word gotta say to this?

First, …

A. God is light.

1. No dark side in Him (v.5) God is in no way like us… there is no darkness in Him. Reason we have tension cuz intuitively we know we built to be with God.

2. Implication: Christians – must exhibit no dark side to coexist with God (v.6)

Light cannot coexist with darkness. Illus. Light dispels darkness. Cave experience in the Mammoth Caves National Park. When Tour guide switched off the flashlight. Pure darkness. One flashlight comes on – relief! Light destroys darkness. Light makes darkness disappear. Light comforts. Light lights the way, you can know where you are going, light helps avoid danger!

So light is good for us…

Oct. 2001 edition of the National Geographic had an article on the “Power of

Light”. The article’s introduction:

”Light reveals the world to us. Body and soul crave it. Light sets our biological clocks. It triggers in our brains the sensations of color. Light feeds us, supplying the energy of plants to grow. It inspires us with special effects like rainbows and sunsets. Light gives us life- changing tools, from incandescent bulbs to lasers and fibre optics. Scientists don’t fully understand what light is or what it can do. They just know that it will illuminate our future”.

3. Summons to walk in light (v.7)

Though we may not comprehend God fully, He will give us a great future… trusting this light guarantees we won’t end up - splat!

His light is good for us.