From the Series Authentic

But if We Walk in the Light…

I’m sort of a terrible mom in the fact that I don’t really know what lice is and, in the fact, that I allowed my two girls to walk around with it way longer than I should have. And after seeing them itch tirelessly I sat them down on stools in our dimly lit kitchen with dark grey cabinets and came to brilliant conclusion I thought it was dandruff so I carried myself off to Walgreens which has sort of monopolized the east side of town (like really how do you have three of them within a mile of each other, they are really wanting to sell drugs to you family whether you want them to or not) and we did that for like two nights.

Nothing. 

So, we are sitting in a Café of Hope (yes Hope Café) for lunch the next day and its full of fluorescent light, really bright and I decide to look in their hair again and then you see it wasn’t a couple of piece of dandruff, it was multiple pieces that when we google searched it may or may not have now looked like lice.

But I wasn’t quite convinced so when I get home we go back to the same dimly lit kitchen and pull out one of our bright LED lights that we bought for El Salvador and immediately EVERYTHING is exposed. 

The light exposed what the darkness had covered up, a head full of that dreaded word.  LICE.  And for the next week our nights, mornings, lunch time consisted of bringing light to a very dark (lice filled) situation. 

Because that is what Light does.  Look at 1 John.

1 John 1:5 – 2:11

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him (from Jesus)and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

David writes from the Psalms “For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56:13).

And John writes in his Gospel “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). 

What is the main value of light?

1. It helps you avoid danger. When you walk in the darkness, you may stumble over a log, or step on a rattlesnake, or fall off a cliff, or hit your head on a low-hanging branch.

To "walk in the light" means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light. 

Ex. (Walking to the Prayer Tower in El Salvador in the guidance of Light)

2. It helps you reach what you are after. Darkness is full of threat. It frustrates your ability to attain your goal. But light changes all that. It exposes dangers and frees you from their lurking power. It opens the way to your goal. It is full of hope and promises the glad attainment of your goal.

So, it is good to Walk in Light but what if you are not? 

⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 

And John even pens down ways that we stumble, an example of how we walk away from the Light and the truth of the Gospel.  In fact, in the 2^ndChapter in verse 7-11John gives us an example of one of the ways we don’t walk in the light and chose instead to walk in darkness

⁷ Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸ At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because^[a]the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. (there is an even greater reason to not live in sin and darkness because of Jesus which surpasses the old way of the old testament)⁹ Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brotheris still in darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him^[b]there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹ But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

When we walk in the light of Jesus Christ, we don’t stumble into sinful choices like hating our brother, sister, boss, enemy, wife, husband, or any other person, or hold on to bitterness, jealousy, fits of rage, or envy, or lust, or anger, or any other thing.

We are compelled by the light to Recognize and Resist thetemptationsof the flesh.

We recognize and resist the danger and we are focused on the goal!!  Our decisions to walk away or to walk towards sins will have an effect on the brightness of the light in our lives.

John 3:19, “The light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

This is the very opposite of what it means to have fellowship with God. Fellowship with God means that you see things the way he sees them and have the same desires he has. If we are controlled by desires for the world instead of desires for God, it doesn’t matter whether we say we have fellowship with God or not; we don’t have it. Instead we walk in darkness. “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not live according to the truth.”

The light is being broken because of the darkness.  It is losing its affect.

You know what this is like. You have a friend — perhaps even a spouse — you have in common the same desires for God. You are both living in the light of his surpassing value. You’re both devoted to his cause. You both hope in his promises and avoid sin by the light of his word.

Then something happens.

You discover one day that your friend seems strangely fascinated by some trend, strangely preoccupied with a book or a movie or a fashion or a singer or a career or a piece of lake property or some sin. Then you notice that the topic of God is avoided. Prayer is missing or perfunctory. There are no more comments about the sweet hour in the word of God. The wartime zeal for the global cause of Christ has shriveled up to a me-centered pursuit of two-second pleasures. And the old fellowship is over. Not because you want it to be, but because it is impossible unless we both walk in the light.

So, verse 7 of Chapter 1 teaches that the only way to preserve the precious jewel of deep unity with God and with other believersis to walk in the light — to see things in the light of God, to let God be your bright pathway to joy.

Walking in darkness causes our fellowship with God and Believers to be broken.

⁷ But if we walk in the light,as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

But if we walk in the light, the other thing that accompanies walking in the light in verse 7 is cleansing from sin. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

I think the implication is that one essential part of walking in the light is confessing known sin. Walking in the light does not mean perfection, for then verse 7 would make no sense at all — “if we walk in the light, we are cleansed from sin!” If walking in the light meant perfection, there would be no need for cleansing. Besides, verse 8 warns against claiming to be sinless while you walk in the light.

Walking in the light means seeing things the way God sees them and responding the way he does. We walk in the light when we hate the sin we fall into and name it for the ugly thing it is and agree with God about it and turn from it. So confessing sin is a crucial part of walking in the light. And verse 9 makes forgiveness of sin dependent on walking in the light. Therefore, we are warranted in taking the cleansing of verse 7 to refer to forgiveness and not just to sanctification.

Psalm 90 verse 8 — “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.”

That's why we walk in the light.

John's gospel in John 1 says this — “The light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”

Psalm 27 verse 1 — “The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?”

1 Timothy 6:16 — “Who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light whom no one has seen or can see.”

God's light shines and you are to walk in it!!

Why is my fellowship with God so bad at times?

Because you are not walking in the Light!!

Because if we don't walk in the light we are pseudos, is the language, we are fakes; we are hypocrites, we are not authentic. 

We refuse to accept the light that God has given in the revelation of the Scriptures.

We prefer the darkness of our own way.

Today would you stand if you would want to walk in the Light!!

You are tired of doing it your way.

You are ready to avoid danger and reach the goals that God has for you.

You are ready to have your fellowship reconnected both with God and others.

Let’s Pray.

A prayer of faith and encouragement in 1 John 2

I am writing to you, little children,
    because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

Today walk in the Light.

Today walk in His Light.