Heavenly Sunlight Series

This is our final hymn in the series Hymns You Love

Heavenly Sunlight is an amazing hymn that brings us joy

Joy in the fact that as we bask in the light from heaven we can truly be blessed with joy beyond measure

This sunlight floods our soul with glory divine

Hallelujah I am rejoicing, singing His praises, Jesus is mine

You will notice there is a common thread among all four of these hymns we have studied

How Great Thou Art, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, The Old Rugged Cross, and Heavenly Sunlight

That common thread is Jesus

He is the basis for all we believe

He is the central truth throughout our faint

And throughout the entire Scriptures

I John 1:1-10

I read a story about a group of friends that used to play a game they called manhunt

They played at night and one night there was no moonlight or stars to light their way

Once they left the lights of the houses and found the good hiding places it was pitch black

He said, My team was doing the chasing first and we quickly found someone from the other team

So we began to run in that direction then all of a sudden “WHACK” we heard something hit a tree

When we got closer we saw that the guy hiding had run square into a tree with his face and was all cut up and bruised

The point, it helps to have light (Coby- running through a forest)

It helps to have light

This morning we are focusing on that light, Heavenly Sunlight

We need to be walking in light

First John was written by John on of Jesus’ original 12 apostles

It is believed he was the one referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”

John, along with Peter and James had a special relationship with Jesus

Often called the inner circle

So John had an intimate knowledge of what it meant to walk in the light

As he walked closely with Jesus during His ministry

This is what John is speaking of in these first four verses

John opens his letter to the churched similarly to how he began his Gospel

Emphasizing that Christ “the Word of Life” is eternal

That God came into the world as a human

That he, John, was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life and that Jesus brings light and life

He says that which was from the beginning

Meaning Jesus is eternal

He say we have heard Him, seen Him, and touched Him

We proclaim Him to be the Word of Life

And why is he proclaiming this fact?

So that you also can experience it along with us

As an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry John was qualified to teach the truth about Him

The readers of this letter, including us, had not seen or heard Jesus themselves

But they could trust that what John wrote was accurate

I believe the main focus of this first chapter is the phrase “God is light”

We need light just like we need God

Do you realize there is a physical disorder caused by lack of light?

It is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) and it effects 1 in 5 of us

It is caused by lack of exposure to sunlight, which in turn alters a person’s brain chemistry

During the fall and winter months when the hours of daylight are shorter, less light passes through the eyes

Which inhibits the release of an important brain chemical, serotonin

When serotonin is not released in sufficient quantities, symptoms of depression may occur

Melatonin, which regulates our sleep cycle is released in greater quantities, adding to the depressive state

How is S.A.D. treated? The standard treatment is light therapy

The principle behind light therapy is that by increasing a person’s exposure to bright light, the chemicals in a person’s brain can be brought back to normal levels and lesson or remove the symptoms

We need light

I want us to share some of the functions of light

We will look at five functions of light

And how God performs each in our lives

L – Light gives life

One of the first things God created was light

Gen 1:3 God said let there be light

I John teaches us that life comes from God

And eternal life comes through Jesus Christ

Apart from Him there is no life

Me and my father-in-law used to have a project we liked to work on together

It was with chickens

On several occasions we incubated some eggs

He had an incubator and I would care for it while the eggs were “cooking”

One of the key elements in hatching those eggs was temperature control

If the temp. didn’t remain fairly constant we wouldn’t have good results