Called Out Of Darkness Into Light

Another example is the idea of adultery. Do not commit adultery. I think most people know that it is not a good idea to commit adultery. They do it anyway but it’s not generally a good idea to do it. But what does that mean? Some people can’t figure out when they are beginning to cross the line. When they are beginning to proceed from what would almost be seen as a deed of light over to a deed of darkness. For instance, is it okay for a married man to have lunch with an attractive lady from the office? I do it all the time with Debbie but I am talking about somebody besides your spouse. Is that okay to have lunch with an unmarried person from your office and he or she is very attractive? Some would say as long as it is done in the light. As long as it is done in the day at McDonald’s or somewhere like that then it is perfectly fine. Let’s say it wasn’t done at McDonald’s. It was done at your favorite little restaurant over in Shadyside a few miles away from here where nobody can see you. What if it wasn’t a lunch but it was a dinner date and out in Monroeville or even out of town? Is that okay? What if it wasn’t a dinner but a late-night drink with someone from the opposite sex? When you are caught up and especially if you have marital issues going on in your life, you can easily make the transition or do the slow fade from light into darkness. Many of you know what I am talking about. It is very easy to do especially if you have no community of support to run it by. It is so easy to mess up like that unless you have people that can come alongside you and help you make those decisions and help you figure out what it is that pleases the Lord. You can’t be objective enough.

It is a dark, dark world out there. It is a crazy mixed-up world. If you don’t believe it, read the newspaper, walk down the street, talk to people. You know that everybody’s morals have flip-flopped. Everything is crazy going on out there. There is a dark entity or whatever you want to call it, but there is something out there that is trying to destroy your family, destroy your home, destroy your finances, and destroy your life. I did a funeral for a man several weeks ago. He was 50 years old and drank himself to death. Somebody is out there trying to destroy you. There really is. Call it evil. Call it whatever you want, but there is a destructive force out there. We have to be the church. God has given us, ordained, or called the church to be the instrument to go out there as the light of life, as the light of Christ and go out there with our penetrating light and penetrate those dark areas to expose those dark areas.

As a pastor who has been called, what I do, just like what Paul had to do, I remind each of you of your call. I remind each of you that you have been called out of darkness. You have been called into light. You have been called into the church. Consequently, you have the authority and the responsibility to be as a child of light. You would partner with God as he goes out there into the world and He begins to penetrate that darkness and you get to come alongside Him. You are actually the vehicle that he is going to do it through individually and collectively. You are the one that is going to bring light to that dark world because you are the light because you follow the one who said that “I am the light of this world. If anybody follows me, he will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.” So I remind you of your special call. I would appeal to you like Paul to live according to that call. To remember who you are. To put away those sinful, dumb, fruitless deeds of your past. To have nothing to do with them. To open up God’s words in the context of a collective community and figure it out. If you don’t know, figure out how you should respond and how you should act in certain circumstances and that you would then be the one who would go into the world and then expose the dark. People, you are a people with a special call. You are the people who have been called out from darkness into light so what I ask and I pray of you is that you would live as children of the light. Let us pray.