Sermon Transcript

Matthew 11, verse 28.

We've been in this series called Easy.

It comes from this passage.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Let's pray.

Father, we just pray in the name of your son, Jesus.

And we just ask that your Holy Spirit would meet us here today, that you would walk in the midst of your people.

God, we already know that we are temples of your presence.

But when we gather, where two or more are gathered, there you are in the midst of us.

And so I just believe today you're here, that you want to speak, that you want to move, that you want to draw our hearts to just our attention to something.

that you want to reveal something to us.

God, any place where we've let darkness in, help us to remember that light and darkness have nothing to do with each other.

God, I pray that we would be temples filled with your holy light and that darkness would flee in Jesus' name.

And so, God, I just pray today that you would guide me, that you would lead me

God, any place where I've missed you, I pray that you would correct me.

Any place where I'm saying something that's not from you, I pray that you would guide me back into alignment with you before I even get to that place today.

That everything I say would be from you, that I'd be carried along by your Holy Spirit, that we would receive your word today and know that your word is anointed, that you have a word for each and every one of us in here today.

So God, we just submit to you

We honor you.

And nobody came to hear me.

They just came to hear you.

So I just pray that you would speak today, Lord.

I just want to hear you.

Yeah, we just want to give you space.

listen and obey.

Just let us be people that listen and obey, that we don't separate the two, that we understand that you can't listen without obedience.

God, teach us to be sons and daughters that listen and obey.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Isaiah 59.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God."

And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.

Some of us, we're having a hard time hearing him.

We're having a hard time coming into his presence.

And we've taken it for granted.

That's why we practice communion.

That's why every week we take communion together.

It's a chance to look inward, to ask the Lord, Lord, is there anything you want to reveal to me?

Is there anything you want to show me today?

God, is there any unclean place within me that you want to set me free from?

That's what our iniquities are.

What do our iniquities do?

They separate us from God.

So if we feel far from God today, what are the iniquities?

What are the sins that you've hidden?

Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.

You feel like when you pray, there's just a closed door and nothing gets through to him.

Just ask him, God, is there anything unclean within me?

Is there anything that I've not dealt with?

And that's why it feels like you're so far that you won't hear me.

Verse three, for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity.

Your lips have spoken lies.

Your tongue has muttered perversity.

No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth.

They trust in empty words and speak lies.

They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

They hatch viper's eggs and weave the spider's web.

He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed, a viper breaks out.

Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works.

Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Go back, verse 5.

They hatch viper's eggs and weave the spider's web.

They hatch viper's eggs and weave the spider's web.

He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed, a viper breaks out.

Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works.

Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

I just was walking this morning and just praying and trying to hear him, trying to hear his voice.

And I said this at huddle this morning, but there's times where, like, I kind of got an idea of what I want to hear from God.

And I think it needs to be this certain thing and this big thing.

And I need to see a sign and I need to hear something.

And I...

And so I'm just praying and I'm looking for all these things over here.

But then I notice all of a sudden as I'm walking, he just keeps whispering something to me.

And I was kind of ignoring it because I was listening for something else.

Like, are you ever just, you're looking for something and you're missing what he's whispering.

You're looking for something else and you're missing what he's whispering.

And it occurred to me, oh, he is speaking right now.

He's just not speaking what I wanted to hear him speak today.

Like, I had other things I wanted to hear today.

I had other things I was looking for.

And what was he saying?

He just kept saying the same phrase over and over to me.

What does light have to do with dark?

What does light have to do with dark?

What does light have to do with dark?

And he just kept whispering it and whispering it.

And I just kept looking and looking out here and trying to listen over here.

And he was right there whispering.

And finally, I started to hear him.

I was like, oh, what does light have to do with dark?

And he's just like, I'm a little slow sometimes.

But I finally caught it.

Like, oh, that's him.

Like, I was looking for what I wanted.

And I was looking over here.

And I was missing it.

And all of a sudden, I got my eyes set on him.

What does light have to do with dark?

What does light have to do with dark?

And I just keep thinking about it.

I keep thinking about that passage.

And I'm walking.

And I'm walking.

It's 5 a.m.

I'm walking in the dark.

And I'm walking.

And I'm walking.

And I'm on the sidewalk.

And all of a sudden, I turn down this street.

And I'm walking.

And it's a beautiful morning.

It's great.

And all of a sudden, I walk into a freaking spider web.

Like, I'm sorry for my harsh language.

I hate walking into spider webs.

I mean, does anybody in here like it?

Like, does anybody, is anybody in here like, I love walking into a spider web.

We'll pray for you after.

Like, that's weird.

I walk right into this huge web and it's in a place it shouldn't have been.

Like, it's on a busy sidewalk.

There's like hardly any trees around.

There's like this one street sign and then this long branch and this

very diligent spider had somehow created this massive web, and I guess nobody had walked in that path and disrupted it.

And tell me, and tell me.

And I'm just like, I mean, you ever walk in a web, and you're just like, ugh.

And you're like, I bet the spider's on me right now.

It's crawling down my shirt, and I'm dead.

Like, it is going to kill me.

That's where I was this morning.

I'm in the dark walking.

And then all of a sudden he hits me with, remember what happened yesterday?

Here's what happened yesterday.

It must be spider season.

I'm going to let my dog out of our back sliding door.

And I'm about to walk out with her.

And all of a sudden I see, oh, a freaking big spider has built a web in front of our door.

Like at face level.

And I almost walked into it.

But I didn't because I was in the light.

Oh, that's good, right?

That's good, right?

I was in the light.

So I didn't hit it.

I didn't hit it.

You know what I did?

I hit that web.

I went and got a stick and I knocked that web down.

You're not living here.

You're not living here.

Some of you, you let the spider build a home and you let it live near you and it's around you and you keep walking into the web.

Don't let it live there anymore.

Walk in the light, not in the dark.

Come on now.

I'm trying to grow grass in our backyard right now.

I tell all these weird stories.

These are parables, I think.

I think this is how... I'm trying to grow grass, and I got all this seed laid down, and I got everything ready, and I'm going, and I'm kind of watering, and I'm watering, and I start walking back to the back corner, and what do I see?

Another one.

Another one of those

And it's huge.

It's even bigger than the other one that his cousin built in front of my door.

Like, they're just moving in.

And so I got my hose because I'm watering the seed.

And I'm like, I'm going to knock this thing down.

And I just keep spraying it and spraying it.

And like, it was like, this was a tough web.

This was heavy duty.

And if anybody was watching me, I kept thinking, I was like, my wife is probably like, why is he wasting water out there spraying the fence?

Like she couldn't, from where she would have been, she couldn't have seen the web.

But when you get up close, you start to see it, okay?

I got up close, and I saw what he was building.

I was in the light.

I could see it.

And it was massive, and it was disgusting.

And I saw him, and he was big.

It wasn't like a small, little, like, oh, friendly spider.

It was like a big, nasty...

If that thing lands on you, you better run.

And so I start spraying it.

And it's just, I'm getting part of it, but it's not all coming down.

And I'm kind of mad.

And so I just go, and my kid's got a sandbox right there.

And I grabbed the biggest sand bucket I could, and I just chuck it right through the heart of his home.

And I tore that thing down.

Tear it down.

Tear it down.

Some of you, you've just been walking in the dark and you haven't seen it.

You're here today and all of a sudden you just got the revelation.

Oh, the devil's built some spider webs in my life and I keep walking into them.

I keep walking into them.

You keep wondering, why do I keep going through the same trials and the same thing?

Everything just keeps going wrong all around me.

Why do I keep going through the same heartbreak and the same?

Because there's certain areas of your heart

that you haven't given over to Jesus, that you haven't let the light in, and you've kind of kept some dark corners in your heart because you thought, oh, I can't give that up.

I can't give that up.

I've kind of noticed that lately.

I've kind of had some things come up, and I'm like, well, why is that going wrong?

Why is this going wrong?

Why is this going wrong?

And sometimes I don't always seek the Lord.

I'm just like, well, I'm sure it'll get better.

I'm sure it'll get better.

If things are starting to go wrong and you start to notice, just start to seek the Lord and ask him because guess what?

He'll shine light on it.

He'll show you where the spider webs are.

He'll show you where the devil is getting access into your life and you're getting caught in the web.

You don't want to live in the web.

You want to get free from the web.

And so I'm just asking him finally, I'm like, Lord, what is going on?

Why is this happening?

And he's like,

Like, for me, for everybody, it's different.

Okay?

Everybody's different.

Like, we all have different things we go to during hard seasons.

And so, for me, like, I keep, like, I've been in this hard season, you know, whatever, but I'm like, I'm coming out on the other side, but I, you know, there's still days where it's like, oh, a little hard or a little bit of emotion, and I don't really want to deal with the emotion.

I just want to get numb.

And we all have something we go to to get numb.

And so for me, like I went back to a place that I hadn't been in a long time, and it's audio books.

And to some of you, you're like, audio books, that's not a sin.

Like I was like, yeah, Josh Laughlin would say you need to, it's not reading unless it's a real book.

Like he'd say audio books, that's a sin.

Like don't.

No, no.

I mean, but for me, it was just, it was getting lost in a story because I didn't want to deal with reality.

And so for you, it might be something, it might be Netflix.

It might be your fantasy football team.

And you're already 0-2.

I mean, you know, it's like, you know, like...

You played Josh Allen on Thursday, and you know this weekend's over.

So one fantasy football fan in here got that.

That was a very niche joke, all right?

That was good.

Nobody liked it.

But listen, you're right there, and you're like, I don't want to deal with this.

And so you go to these things.

And for other people, it starts to get a little more serious.

But I want to tell you something.

It doesn't matter.

Whatever the Lord is, whatever he's revealing to you in this season, what that thing is, like, trust him.

And if he says, hey, you need to put this to the side, you need to get rid of this for a season because it's distracting you from hearing my voice, trust him.

Even if you're like, well, that, like for me, like I sit there and I'm like, it doesn't say in the 10 commandments thou shall not listen to audio books.

But he starts telling me this morning, what does light have to do with dark?

And he reminds me, what's in some of those books?

A lot of violence, a lot of action.

It's a lot of action.

It's a lot of murder and death.

And all of a sudden, he's kind of like...

Yeah.

Yeah, Alex.

What's light have to do with dark right now?

And for everyone, you're going to be in a different place.

Like, I'm not going to put on you the same thing he's convicted me of.

Like, if it's outside of the word, but I know he's told me in the spirit, that's for me.

And so if he's told you something in the spirit, like, hey, this is not for you for this season.

Like for somebody in here, I'll go back to fantasy football.

He might be saying, listen, that's become an idol to you.

That's become a God.

Is fantasy football a sin?

No.

It can be fun.

It can be great.

It can be a great way to relate to your friends, have fun, stay connected.

But for some people, it can become an idol.

And that's all you care about.

That's all you think about.

And that's all you do.

That used to be me.

This is confession time.

I would sit there on a Sunday morning in church.

This is six years ago.

This is pre-revival.

I'd be studying my fantasy football lineups.

I'd be studying, oh, I need this.

I better change this.

I cared more about that than I did the things of the Lord.

For everyone in here, it might be something different right now that he is shining the light on.

It might be books.

It might be videos.

It might be movies.

It might be alcohol.

Is it a sin to drink?

No.

But maybe for you, it's become a sin.

Maybe it's become something where it's like, man, I just need to take the edge off.

I just need to take the edge off.

I just need to take... You need the Holy Spirit.

You need to turn to him.

Let him be your healer.

Wine won't heal you.

It'll just make you forget or take your mind off it for a few hours.

But eventually, when you sober up, when you come back to reality, what was going on is still there.

What was under the surface is still there.

You're still caught in the web.

For many, it's sex, it's pornography.

You're like, well, it's just a little bit.

You know, it's just a little bit.

It's not all the time.

It's just sometimes when I don't feel good, when I'm mad, when I'm sad.

Ask the Lord, Lord, is there something that you want to reveal to me?

Is there a web that I keep getting caught up in?

For some, it might be gossip.

It feels good, right?

When everything's going wrong in your life, it feels good to hear how bad it's going in other people's lives, right?

Because then you don't feel so bad.

You're like, oh, it could be worse.

I could be Tanisha or Jane.

There's Jane again.

They hatch a viper's eggs and weave the spider's web.

He who eats of their eggs dies alive.

And from that which is crushed, a viper breaks out.

Their webs will not become garments.

If you've ever walked through a spider web, do you want to wear that all day?

Are you just like, hmm, this feels nice?

No.

Like, you just keep, oh, and oh, and just, oh.

Like, you just, you feel like, no.

Even when you think you finally got it off, all of a sudden, like, the wind blows, and you're like, oh, it's still there.

Oh, my gosh.

Ah.

It's the worst.

Their webs are not garments.

They're useless.

But they want to attach themselves to you.

They want to stay on you.

That's what demons want to do.

Demons want you caught in their webs.

They want you thinking their thoughts.

They want you going through it.

They want you replaying everything in your mind over and over and over.

They want their webs all around you and in you.

So that's all you think about.

And you're not thinking about him.

You're not thinking about what he wants, what he has for you.

He wants to bring you out of the dark and into the light.

Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.

Wasting and destruction are in their paths.

The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways.

They've made themselves crooked paths.

They made their own path."

And, like, sometimes we hear this and we're like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's my neighbor Frank.

He's the worst.

Like, but sometimes it's that lady in church that you're friends with or that guy or it's, like, there's believers that are making crooked paths.

Like, they, by name, would say, oh, I'm a Christian.

I'm a believer.

I follow Jesus.

Which Jesus do you follow?

They compromise his word.

What do you do?

When you begin to compromise on God's word, what are you doing?

You're making a crooked path.

You're making a crooked path.

You're making your own way.

And so we encourage people, hey, listen.

We walk in the light.

We walk in the truth.

We don't compromise on his word.

We don't move to the right or to the left.

What happens when you do that?

You start to make a crooked path.

And then what happens?

Somebody following along behind you sees, oh, there's a new way to go.

Oh, this is great.

I can just go this way.

I've told this story before, but it's been a while.

I'll tell it again.

In high school, me and my little brother, we were on this trip with our parents to Colorado.

We were doing a hike up the mountains.

And, you know, in high school and middle school, you know, your parents always want to take you hiking.

But at that age, you're like, that's boring.

It's just walking.

Like, we're just walking.

Big deal.

You know, we miss the joy of hiking.

You know, we're, I don't know, arrogant kids.

And so we go on this big hike up this mountain, and we do all these switchbacks, switchbacks, switchbacks.

And we're like, wow, this is a long hike.

And on the way down, we're like, hey, we're going to go on ahead because we'd kind of figured out, we talked about it.

We're like, if we just cut through the middle of these switchbacks, we can get down a lot quicker.

And so we cut down, we tread our own path.

We made our own path and we cut down what we thought was the middle.

And when we got to the bottom, we're like, I don't see the parking lot.

I don't see our car.

Somewhere along the way, we just thought, oh, we're still following the path.

We're still on the path.

We're just taking a shortcut down the path.

And that's what people keep doing with Jesus.

That's what people keep doing with the Word.

Well, I'm mostly on the path.

I can see the path from where I'm at.

Like I can see it over there and I'm close to people that are walking the path because in the beginning you are.

Like your parents, you know, your siblings are just right back behind you.

You're cutting down your own way and you can kind of look back.

Oh yeah, they're back there.

We're making way better time than them.

They're doing this dumb switchback thing.

And eventually we look back and we're like, I don't see anybody anymore.

And eventually we get to this road and it's a highway and we're like, well, I'm pretty sure the parking lot's that way.

And so we start following the highway and we go a long way and we're like, nope, it must be the other way.

So we go back a long way and then we go a long way the other way and we're like, we don't know where we're at.

Somewhere along the way we got lost because we got off the path.

We made a crooked path.

Now, eventually we just completely gave up trying to walk because we were tired.

And we hitchhiked.

Like this little old lady, like we're kind of looking and eyeballing.

We're like, okay, that looks like an old lady.

Let's hitchhike with her.

Not a murderer, not a serial killer.

Let's do this.

And she's like, oh, yeah, hop in.

I know exactly where you need to go.

She takes us up.

And, I mean, we're like, oh, man, our parents are going to kill us.

And we actually, she pulls us into the parking lot.

And our parents and our sister, like they're not back yet.

And we're like, this is great.

So we go stand by the car and we just act like, yeah, we made it.

Our path worked.

Years later, we told them like, hey, we had to hitchhike with an old lady.

And they're like, what?

But that's what we keep doing as believers.

We keep trying to make a crooked.

And you got friends like that right now.

And they're just, oh, it's not that big of a deal.

It's just a little thing.

It's just a little thing.

What does dark have to do with light?

Nothing.

Have nothing to do with it.

We keep making compromises in our friendships, in our relationships.

I'm telling you, I was really, when I was seeking the Lord for today, when I was out walking, I was like, Lord, I'm going to preach today.

So I just want to know that I got a good word for your people today.

But then I'm also going to do a wedding sermon for Pastor Stone and his future wife in about, what, three hours?

Callie.

So yeah, they're getting married this afternoon.

And...

And I'm like, Lord, I got a lot to do today.

I need some good words and some wisdom.

And so what was I doing?

I was looking over here like, give me, give me, give me.

Come on, Lord, give me something.

And he was like, what does light have to do with dark?

What does light have to do with dark?

Shh, shh.

I'm looking for the Lord.

I'm looking for the Lord.

Like, you ever do that?

You just shush the Lord.

You're shushing the Lord.

Like, you're over here thinking he's here and he's going to give you something right here.

And he's right here.

He's in a whisper.

He's in a whisper.

And you keep looking in the noise and the mountains and the fire and you keep looking for the miracles and you're missing him in the whisper.

And finally, I went back to the whisper.

And then I ran into a web.

Like there's things when you begin to listen to him, he'll show you things.

And you'll hate it for a second.

I hated running into that web.

But when he showed it to me, and he showed me the difference between walking in the light and the dark, I was thankful after.

I was like, Lord, I wish there was a better way you could have taught me that.

I wish I didn't have to walk through that.

But some of you, you've walked through some webs and he's taught you something and you're a little mad and a little angry and a little bitter at him right now.

You're like, that kind of sucked.

That was pretty hard, Lord.

Did I really have to go through that?

Let me tell you something.

He wants to level you up in this season.

Like what you've been through, what you've gone through in this past season, now you can minister to those who are going through it and who are walking behind you on the path.

But you got to stay on the path.

Don't make a crooked path.

Don't move off to the right or to the left.

Don't think that you can cut through the switchbacks.

There's no shortcuts.

Stay on his path.

And then you can help lead people.

No matter who you are in here today, I'm telling you, there is somebody behind you walking on the path, and they are looking at you as a leader.

Every Christ follower is a leader.

And some of you, you've never believed it your whole life.

You're like, I've never been a leader.

I'm a nobody.

I'm a B teamer.

I'm not an A teamer.

Like, the devil's been whispering that to some people, by the way.

He's been telling you, oh, you're just the B team.

You're the B team.

You don't matter.

You don't matter.

Like, he was telling me that the other day.

Like, I was feeling that lie from the devil, you know, just like, you're the B team.

You're the B team.

And like, I was kind of starting to believe it a little bit.

I was like, yeah, maybe I'm not.

Like, maybe I'm not who I thought I was.

Maybe I'm not doing what... Maybe I missed it.

Maybe I, like...

Maybe I'm falling short of what I was supposed to do.

And then all of a sudden, like, he reminds me of David who was anointed to be king and who was playing worship music in the palace for King Saul.

And all of a sudden, Saul throws a spear at him and he has to go on the run and he's hiding out in a cave.

This is what the Lord reminded me of yesterday.

And God sends him, like he was anointed to be king.

But instead of a kingdom, he was given a cave.

And instead of warriors and an army and citizens, you know who it says in the Bible that God sent him?

All those who were in debt, distressed, and discontented.

He gave him the B team.

He gave him the D team.

That's the D team.

They're not even the B team.

They're the D team.

In middle school, we had middle school basketball, and you wanted to be on the A team.

They had A, B, and C. They didn't even have a D team.

But that's who God gave David.

He gave him those who were in debt, in distress, and discontented.

And David could have sat there and been like, I thought I was supposed to be this.

He could have been looking at God over here and saying, God, where are you?

Where are you?

You anointed me.

You sent your prophet to anoint me.

I'm supposed to be the king.

I'm supposed to be over a kingdom.

And instead, I'm in a cave with the D team.

But instead, he listened to the whisper.

And God said...

Take care of what I've given you.

Take care of what I've given you.

Trust in every season that whatever I've given you is exactly what you're supposed to be in charge of.

And so some of you in here, you feel like you're the B team, the D team, the C team.

You're anything but the A team.

That's an old movie, old show.

You don't want to be the A team.

You want to be on God's team.

Let me tell you something.

Like,

at some point you're going to look around and you're just going to realize, my goodness, I didn't think I had much, but God is doing a good work with what I have.

Like those people that everyone else looked at and said, oh, they're in debt, they're in distress, they're discontent, they're bitter, like they're mad and they're angry and everything's going wrong in their life.

They're just living in the spider webs 24-7.

Who did those people become?

David's mighty men, who they tell great stories about.

You can go through and you can read about David's mighty men in the Old Testament.

You can read about the battles they won, the enemies they conquered.

And sometimes we're like, oh man, that's who I want.

You look at those guys and you're like, that's who I want on my team.

That's who I want to lead at work.

That's what I want my kids to look like.

And you're like, you're looking at somebody's finished product and you're missing where they began.

You didn't see the cave.

You didn't see what David saw.

But what did David do?

David spoke life over them, and he kept preaching to them.

David was a king and a prophet.

He kept prophesying over them, and he kept saying, listen, I know what the world says you are, but I know what God is going to turn you into, a mighty army.

And I'm telling you right now, I know what the world keeps saying you are, and the devil keeps whispering to you because he's whispering it to me too.

But I know what God is doing, and he's doing a good work, and he's not finished yet.

Keep following him.

He's got something for you today.

In the name of Jesus, give him praise.

Give him praise right there if you want that.

If you want that.

If you're looking right now at your situation and you don't like it, just speak life over it.

Speak life over the dry bones.

That's what the prophets do.

You're called to prophesy over the dry bones.

And some of you in here are like, well, I'm not a prophet.

I'm just a regular guy.

I'm just a regular girl.

I'm just sitting in church.

You're called to more than just sitting in church.

You have a gift on your life.

This is an apostolic church.

We are a sending and equipping church.

This is what we do.

We were called and we were sent to establish an apostolic church.

What's an apostolic church do?

They build up and equip.

They don't just sit.

They don't entertain.

They don't have, man, my goodness, like we don't just sit here and we're not going to put on a good performance every week.

No, no, no.

We equip.

That's what we do.

That's why we do freedom.

We got freedom coming up.

It starts next Sunday.

If you've never taken freedom, or even if you have, take it.

Take it again.

because it's so good.

And what happens?

There's an equipping there.

There's a healing there.

There's a transformation, and you get set up to be sent out.

You've been called, and you've been equipped, and you're called to something greater than to just sit.

Stop sitting.

Stop settling for sitting.

Stop believing the lie that you're the B team, that you're the C team, that you're the D team.

You might have came in the D team, but he's calling you and equipping you and he's sending you out a mighty warrior.

That's what he does.

He takes you in the darkest season.

He takes you in the cave.

He takes you out of the darkness and into the light.

That's what he does.

That's who our God is.

So you just keep following him.

Their feet run to evil to make haste to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.

Wasting and destruction are in their paths.

That's verse 7.

Verse 8.

This is Isaiah 59 still.

The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways.

They've made themselves crooked paths.

Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

You shall not know peace.

Peace.

There's an easy path.

It's his path.

Therefore, justice is far from us.

Some of you are like, there's no justice.

There's no justice.

I mean, look at the wicked.

Like, they're prospering.

Look at everything that's going on in this world.

Justice is far from those who make their own path.

There's no peace for them.

Keep trusting that the Lord will bring justice.

He's our vengeance.

Let him, vengeance is the Lord's.

Like some of you are so set on like your enemies and what they've done and like you got all these plans, how to make it right.

Like the Lord will take vengeance.

Pray for your enemies.

Pray that God would bless them and that he would open their eyes, that they would step out of the darkness and into the light.

We look for light, but there is darkness.

For brightness, but we walk in blackness.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes.

We stumble at noonday as at twilight.

We are as dead men, if you're blind, you're dead, in desolate places.

We all growl like bears and moan sadly like doves.

We look for justice, but there is none for salvation, but it's far from us.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us.

For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them.

Then transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

Once again, like we just think like, well, I don't murder anybody.

I'm not living in the dark.

Are you speaking words that are false?

I can't tell you how many years I lived believing I was a Christian, but I was so okay with lying.

In fact, I almost, for a season, I prided myself.

I was like, man, I'd be a good lawyer.

Like, I could lie.

Like, I'm like, I'm good at it.

I got all these people over here believing I'm one thing, and all these people over here believing I'm another.

Like, because we grow, like, we live in my world, like, growing up especially, like, deception is praised, right?

It's just praised.

politicians, lawyers, all these athletes living double lives, celebrities living double lives.

We praised deception.

And so I was proud of it.

I was living in falsehood.

I wasn't living in the truth.

If you're not living in the truth, you're not living in the light.

I thought I was living in the light.

I was living in the dark.

But he just kept slowly revealing.

Like he is so patient and kind.

Like he is patient and kind.

And he's going to be patient and kind with you.

And so he is revealing to each and every one of us in the right season.

You need to understand this.

It's the right season.

It's always the right season to repent.

Learn to live life with no lies.

Learn to live.

That's the most free thing you can do.

When you step out of the darkness and into the light, when you say, I'm going to live life with no lies, and I'm going to bring it all out of the dark and into the light, guess what?

You got nothing to be afraid of anymore.

You don't have to live looking over your shoulder like, oh, I wonder if they're going to tell my secret.

I wonder if they're going to reveal what's been going on in my life.

I wonder if that person's going to reveal what's been going on.

I hope they don't tell.

I

There's a lot of stress and a lot of pressure if you're living in the dark all the time.

But there's a lot of freedom when you start living in the light.

You start to find, oh my goodness, it's a little bit easier every day.

And you don't crave the things of the dark anymore.

You begin to crave the things of the light because you stepped out of the dark and into the light.

In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off.

For truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter.

So truth fails and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

By the way, this is written thousands of years ago.

That's the word of God.

As you listen to this, you're like, that could be for today.

That's for right now.

You see that right now.

Truth fails.

He who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

Well, if I move away from evil, if I move away from the gossip, if I move away from the slander, I make myself a prey.

When you begin to remove yourself from the dark, what's the dark do?

They lash out.

They start talking bad about you.

Like when you don't participate in the works of darkness anymore, what's the dark do?

Like they start talking bad about you.

They start bashing on you.

They start hating on you.

All of a sudden, those people that you were close with, that you were friends with, they lose your number.

They want nothing to do with you anymore.

They don't call you.

They don't invite you anymore.

And some of you, you're kind of a little hurt and a little sad and a little wounded by that.

Let me tell you something.

God is separating you for a good reason.

What does light have to do with dark?

What does light have to do with dark?

So it might hurt, but trust him that there's a separation for a reason.

And eventually, I do believe that there's going to be those that think that they've been living in the light, but they've actually been in the dark.

They're going to finally look and get the revelation from your life.

And they're going to see there's something different on you.

That's the Holy Spirit.

That's the Holy Ghost.

There's something different that separates you from the darkness.

He's led you out of the dark and into the light.

Keep trusting him.

Keep listening for his voice.

Learn to adjust where you're listening.

I think that's something we all need to learn.

Sometimes you keep looking for him to speak because he spoke over here one time and you're missing him over here.

In this season, look around.

If you feel like he's not speaking, look around and say, Lord, where am I missing you?

And all of a sudden, he's going to reveal himself.

All of a sudden, you're going to see him.

Like Moses was just walking along, and then all of a sudden, he just noticed, oh, there's a bush over there not burning up.

He still had to make the choice to draw near to the bush.

He was going somewhere.

He had something to do.

But all of a sudden, he noticed it.

And he drew near.

Just look around.

See what you begin to notice.

See where you notice him, where you hear his voice.

The Lord, he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor.

Therefore, his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness, it sustained him.

For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.

He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

According to their deeds accordingly, he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies.

The coastlands he will fully repay.

So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

The Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord.

As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them, my spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says the Lord, from this time and forevermore.

In Jesus' name.

Yeah.

Come on.

Come on.

Worship team, you can come up as we get ready to close.

So look at this in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14.

I kept hearing, what does light have to do with dark?

What does light have to do with dark?

Don't team up or don't be yoked with those who are unbelievers.

How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?

That's the NLT version, if you're wondering.

Don't team up.

Don't be yoked with those who are unbelievers.

How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?

How can light live with darkness?

What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil?

How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?

And what union can there be between God's temple and idols?

For we are the temple of the living God.

As God said, I will live in them and walk among them.

I will be their God and they will be my people.

Therefore, come out from among unbelievers.

and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.

Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

What does light have to do with dark?

Thank you.

Don't team up with those who are unbelievers.

Don't be yoked with.

They would yoke the oxen together.

They'd be in teams.

They wanted them equally yoked.

I told you it was funny, like,

You know, here I was looking for God over here and looking for a wedding message and all this stuff.

And he just kept whispering, what does light have to do with dark?

And then I finally went to that passage and I forgot that that was the passage that talked about being equally yoked.

And so in our huddle today, you know, I told Pastor Stone this.

I said, I still remember being in a high school small group, and our youth pastor was, you know, doing a Bible study with us, and he had us watch this old video.

And it was this preacher, and, you know, we kind of thought, man, who's this old guy?

It's an old VHS tape.

Like, what are we doing watching this?

But I remember this revelation he shared, and I've never forgotten it.

And he said, like someday when you're looking for who you're going to marry, what you want to do, if you're looking for who you're going to marry someday, we're running a race.

Paul says, we're running a race.

And you want to look to your right and to your left, and you want to see who's running the race with you.

who's running the same speed, who's running the same direction.

That's how you get equally yoked.

You want to find somebody that you can run with.

And that just stuck with me.

And so some of you young people in here today, you might be close to looking.

You might be, maybe it's someday, maybe it's a long way off.

But let me tell you something, keep looking to your right and to your left and find somebody that's going the same direction.

Because too many believers keep looking to their right and to their left and they see somebody going this way, but they're pretty attractive.

And so you kind of think like, maybe we could get yoked together and eventually you'll come this way.

No, no, no, eventually they're going to pull you back that way.

Like find somebody that's going the same direction.

Find somebody that you can run the race with, that you can run that same speed.

And that just stuck with me.

And it stuck with me for so long because I kept, like high school and college, I mean, I dated a lot of oxen, all right?

And I dated a lot of oxen going a different direction than me.

And I just kept, I kept looking and I kept looking and I kept looking.

And there was just this one girl, right?

that I knew, like, okay, I'm not sure about everybody else, but I know what direction she's going.

And I know she's not way back there, and I'd have to drag her along.

Like, in fact, if anything, she might have to drag me along for a little bit until I figure it out, if she'll take me.

But I knew.

There was nobody else I wanted to run the race with.

When I kept thinking about the race, I just kept thinking, there's nobody else that's going to run like her.

I've dated a lot of girls going the other direction.

I've dated some that I felt like I had to drag.

I mean, I just knew, like, this is somebody I could run the race with.

And for some crazy reason, she was like, yeah, sure, I guess I'll run with you.

And it's been good.

Like, Pastor Stone, you found somebody to run the race with.

You're equally yoked.

You're equally yoked.

Like, young people that are not married, you still got time.

You might be about to yoke yourself with somebody, and I'm telling you, the Lord has given you a chance to say no.

Unless we're going to run the same direction, and we're going to go the same speed, and we're going to go together, like, this is done.

Don't waste your time, young people.

Now, some of you in here, you're already yoked together, and you're like, oh, my goodness.

I'm going this way, and they're going that way.

Don't give up.

It says the unbelieving spouse will be won to the faith by their spouse that believes.

Keep running the race.

Stay on the path that he has called you to.

And keep doing what he has said to do.

Keep doing what you know he has said to do.

Walk in the light as he's in the light.

And eventually one of these days you're going to see, oh.

There they are.

They're running with me now.

They're running the same direction.

There they are.

I'm just believing that for some of you in here today.

You've been discouraged.

You feel like you're running alone.

You're going to wake up someday and you're going to realize, oh, we're running together now.

Because he's the God who takes you from the D team to his mighty team.

Like he takes you and he transforms you.

He renews you.

He restores.

And what's he do as he does that?

He restores everyone around you.

Because the Holy Spirit, he's oil.

And the oil just begins.

What's oil do?

If you spill oil, it just spreads and it goes everywhere.

The oil of his spirit, his presence is going to spill out of your life and it's going to spread.

And he's contagious.

And so those around you, they're going to want what you have.

They're going to want the oil.

Keep following him.

Keep chasing him.

Yeah.

Don't team up with those who are unbelievers.

How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?

How can light live with darkness?

What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil?

He's the living God.

And he says in verse 18, I will be your father and you will be my sons and daughters.

Let's pray.

Father God, we thank you today.

Thank you for your word, which never returns void.

God, I pray that your word would be a seed today in our lives, that our lives would be changed forever.

God, that there's something that you've spoken to each and every one of us in here, that it will just grow and it will change us and transform us from the inside out.

I pray that we would submit to you, that we would hear you, that we would listen and obey what you have for us today.

God, I pray that you would restore marriages, that you would restore relationships, that you would cut off relationships that are meant to be cut off.

If there's anybody walking in darkness that we've yoked ourselves with, God, I pray that we would break that off in Jesus' name, that we would walk with you and with your people

God, I pray that you would bless marriages that may have started out unequally yoked, but I pray that you would equally yoke them, that you would set husband and wife in alignment with you and with your word and with your presence.

God, marriage is easy in your presence.

I pray that we would get back to being in your presence today, that our marriages would get back to a place of easiness today as we step back into saying yes to you and what you have for us.

God, I pray that you would make a hard marriage easy today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Hey, let's stand and worship him today.