Text: I John 1:5-2:6
Title: What do you do with the lights go out
Dominant Thought: God’s light cause us to have fellowship with him and others.
Objectives: For the people to understand that God is light which lights our path.
-For the people to realize that sin is dangerous and can cause us to be on the outside of the body of Christ.
-For the people to decide that confessions is a key factor of staying in his company.
Manuscript outline
Introduction
(Turn out the lights leave cross light on)
One of my friends from college still sleeps with a light on in her closet because of the movie ET. Small kids have nightlights. Some people have panic attacks if they are alone in the dark.
I think one reason that people are afraid of the dark is because the darkness can play tricks on us. I’m sure this has happened to you at sometime. You hear something move and your first response is it a wild animal or something worse. Storms at night scare people because they can’t see them coming. Stat say, that 23% of people have a fear of the dark. I at first thought that was a very high percentage of people afraid of the dark. So that got my brain to working. I wondered how many people are afraid of the light. To my surprise the percentage of people afraid of the light is higher. Some of you might be thinking that is impossible, if that is true why do so many people refuse to see the light that Jesus gives. In fact, the Bible in John 3:19-21 says, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.”
Read I John 1:5-2:6
God’s light causes us to examine ourselves
In vs. 1-5, John is giving us a little first hand information that he has seen and has heard and has touch Jesus. In vs. 6, he gets down to the main reason he decided to write the book in the first place. He is wanted to let his audience and us know how to be true shining light of Jesus and how to fellowship with other believers. He wanted to do this because some new Christian had a misunderstanding if what a true Christian was they believed once you believed in Jesus that sin doesn’t effects our fellowship w/God.
To combat this false teaching John begins with a very clear statement: God is light. But what type of light is he? (Sunlight, flashlight, candle, stoplight, nightlight, neon light, strobe lights, Christmas lights, blinking light.) I’ll give you a hint it will be a light that will never go out for all eternity. So why do you think people are afraid of the light? The Bible gives us our answer: but men love darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.” Also in John 3:21 says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. The first reason we don’t like the light is because we are afraid of what God will see us doing something against him or someone else.
(Story by Max Lucado)
Just a little insight he already does know everything that we are doing. In I John 1:5 it says, “God is light: in him there is no darkness. Darkness is equal to sin in the Bible time. In vs. 6 it says that if we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in sin or darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Truth in this sentence means we lie and do not live by Jesus. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
When we meet the creator of the universe and of use it has to cause us to examine ourselves in the light of Jesus. When we do that we realize that the only position we can be in once we see the light is on our knees.
God’s light causes us to be able to have fellowship with him.
Vs. 7, it starts as a contrast of what the false teachers believe with the simple word but. John’s contrast is that we can have true fellowship only when we walk in the light as he is in the light. So how do we walk in the light of Jesus? Jesus said that the greatest commandments are “Love God, Love your neighbor”. If we want to walk as Jesus walked we must do as Jesus did.
When we begin to walk in the Light, we begin to be able to have fellowship with others that we may not have been able to have fellowship for a long time. And not only will we begin to have fellowship with other, but even better with Jesus. Because no matter how much fellowship we have with others, only Jesus’ blood can purify us. If you want our church to be healthy and living, we daily have to be fellowshipping in God’s light.
God’s light causes us to examine Christ Death
Mocking someone in our society has become has common as taking a drink of water. Kids see this at school from a bully and adults get from their bosses when they make a mistake. But have you ever tried to mock God by saying that you are without sin? This group of people believed that you could claim to be without sin and that sin did not effect your salvation after you were covered in Jesus blood. This is totally wrong, people sin is dangerous it is like a cancer that eats you to the very center of your heart.
(snake story)
Please don’t play games with God and with sin. The reason we don’t mock and play games with God is because we have Jesus standing in our defense when we sin. Because of Jesus Death and resurrection we have to examine and worship, not mock God be continually sinning. The Bible makes it pretty clear all we have to do is confess our sins. Confession means that you admit and are shameful for you action. If you just admit, and are not shameful you will do it again.
