Luke chapter number 11 in our series in the Gospel of Luke, walking where Jesus did, Jesus and His mission.
! What does it look like? How does how He lived affect how we live today?
! Because if we're following Christ, we should be living like Him as well.
And we're going to see that here today.
We're in chapter number 11, verse number 29, and the Bible says this.
And when the people were gathered thick together, He began to say,
This is an evil generation.
They seek a sign, and there shall be no sign given it but the sign of Jonas, or Jonah the prophet.
For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation.
The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation,
talking about the Queen of Sheba,
and condemn them, for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it,
for they repented at the preaching of Jonas.
And behold, there is a greater than Jonas is here.
No man, when he lighteth a candle, putteth in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
that they which come in may see the light.
The light of the body is the eye, and therefore when thine eye be single, thy whole body is also full of light.
But when thine eye be evil, the body is also full of darkness.
Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
If thy whole body, therefore, be full of light, having no part dark,
the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.
So Jesus is kind of building upon what we've looked at the last few weeks.
That he has shown his power clearly.
And the light has been revealed.
And they're still saying, I'm not sure about that.
I need a little bit more evidence.
Hey, why don't you give us just a little bit more proof?
But Jesus is reminding him, reminding the crowd, and he's reminding us today,
the proof is standing right in front of them.
And this is a bright light for dark hearts.
The question isn't, is the light right?
The question is, where is our heart?
How does our heart receive the light that has been revealed?
And that's what we're going to look at this morning.
But let's have a word of prayer and ask him to bless our time together.
Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for the word of God.
And thank you for allowing us to have a copy in our hand.
That we might have a guide for our life.
That we might have the truth.
And Lord, that we might know you.
Lord, I pray that as we open it up here this morning.
And we expound on what you've given us, Lord.
I pray that you would just help me.
Help me to say the things that need to be said.
And those that shouldn't, Lord, that wouldn't be.
And I pray if there's somebody here today that does not know you as their Savior, Lord.
That they would see the light of the glorious gospel.
And they would come to it.
And Lord, for those that do know you as their Savior, Lord.
We'd be reminded that we don't need to be just used to the light.
That we need to be sharing it.
We need to be on mission just like you are.
And I pray you'd be with us now as we move into the service.
And we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen.
Thank you so much for standing.
You may be seated.
Who here has ever used a GPS to get somewhere?
Yeah.
You know, we have to these days.
You know, I applaud some of you that grew up without GPS's.
Like, how did you get anywhere?
Like, how did you, you know, I've seen, every once in a while, I'll see somebody pulled over
the side of the road with a Rand McNally map open.
I'm like, what are they doing over there?
But we trust our GPS somewhat.
When you really think about it, you know, I put it in there.
I've never been there.
But I'm pretty sure I know better than the GPS.
Anybody like that?
But we start driving there.
We're like, this doesn't look right.
And it says, turn left in 500 feet.
And we, this is at least what's going on in my mind.
Does it really mean that?
All right.
Are we sure it's 500 feet?
You know, like, when did we become experts in measuring distances, by the way?
You know, the GPS, turn left in 1,475 feet.
We're like, how far is that?
And we begin to think.
We maybe slow down.
You start looking around.
You always know you're behind somebody that's listening to their GPS.
Because they're going and all of a sudden they slow down.
They're like, they're looking around.
And we're looking around.
We're seeing for the destination.
And then the GPS says, turn left now.
And you're thinking, no, I'm not sure about this.
If this is really the turn, I'm going to pass it.
And then it will reroute me.
Then I'll know I'm in the right place.
I mean, some of you won't turn left until it says it three times, see the sign, and see somebody else that you kind of think is going to the same place turn into the same place.
I'm sure some of you have gotten lost because you've fallen somebody that thought they were going where you were going.
And you're like, where are we?
We're in some abandoned parking lot.
We're going to get jumped out here.
And then we get mad at the GPS.
Why didn't it warn me better?
You know, what I do to my GPS is I just mute it because I'm tired of it telling me at the next destination, at the next stoplight, at the next turn left, like, be quiet.
And then I'm just driving.
I'm like, why is the GPS not talking to me?
Well, because I got tired of it.
And I muted it.
And we can all laugh sometimes at the lack of our trust in our GPS.
But as we come to our text today, I think we're kind of reminded how often we can do that spiritually in our life.
We can come to church on a Sunday.
We can open our own copy of God's Word at our house.
And God gives clear direction.
And we're thinking, does he really mean that?
I don't know.
Does that really apply to me?
I need a little bit more confirmation.
We turn into Gideon.
We're throwing fleeces out all over the place.
He gives truth and we ask time and time again for another sign.
And I think if we're just going to be real honest, it's not because we don't hear him.
It's not because we're not listening to the sermon.
It's not because we're not listening to the Word of God when we're reading it ourselves.
I think many times it's simply because we're not ready to turn quite yet.
We kind of are comfortable on the road that we are.
We kind of like where our life is.
And Lord, if I take that turn, where does that lead me?
I'm not sure I'm going to necessarily like the destination.
And I think that's kind of what's happening here in Luke chapter 11.
That Jesus has shown his power.
It's been very evident.
He has revealed who he is.
They were there.
If you remember, if you were here last week in verse number 14, he heals this man that was possessed by a demon.
This demon had caused this man to not have a voice.
And he was a mute and everybody knew it.
In these small villages, it wouldn't have been like some random person.
They didn't.
Everybody knew who this man was most likely.
And Jesus shows up and he casts the demon out and this man can speak.
And the miracle was very clear.
It wasn't like, well, I'm not sure what happened here.
No, it was Jesus constantly showing himself who he was.
Miracle after miracle after miracle.
We've seen it already through our journey in Luke's gospel.
And yet, instead of responding, the crowd keeps saying, well, we need another sign.
I know this was a pretty big deal, but we're just not sure.
We need something.
But really, it wasn't because of their understanding.
It was because their hearts were not ready to surrender.
And sometimes I think if you're like me, I read my Bible and I think, man, what are these people's problems?
I'm the only person reading my Bible like that.
I mean, I'm in the book of Exodus right now in my own Bible reading plan.
And I just think to myself, man, these children of Israel are the worst.
Have you ever read that?
And you're like, I mean, they're complaining.
I mean, they set up camp, water comes out of a rock, and they're so thankful.
They go a few days later, and they're like, we don't have any.
I'm like, do you not remember?
Do you not remember what God did in Egypt?
Do you not remember crossing the Red Sea?
Do you not remember?
It's raining bread from heaven.
And you're like, oh, we don't like this.
We need something else.
But I think when we read the Word of God, whether it's the Old Testament or in these,
I think we can see ourselves a lot in it if we really just look.
We don't want to admit it, but we give them a hard time saying,
well, if I was there, I would believe instantly.
I don't know about that.
Because I think it shows the condition of our heart.
I think it shows where we tend to find ourselves.
And I would submit to you this morning that we still live in a world that's always wanting more proof,
whether it's spiritual things or just everyday life things.
You know, we think one answer is never enough.
I don't know if you're like me, but when I'm going to buy something,
I'm going to research and read every review.
I mean, you go on Amazon, it's like 4.9 stars, 7,000 reviews.
I'm going to find that one review that's like, this is the worst toaster.
It ruined my life.
I'm like, definitely not buying that toaster.
Even though it's got 4,996 good reviews, we just want one more.
One confirmation is not enough.
One sign never really satisfies us.
We may not say it verbally, but sometimes we say things like,
well, once God shows me again, then I'll believe.
Once God fixes this, once God gives me this raise, once God does this in my family,
once he does that, then I'll trust him a little bit more.
Once life settles down, then I'll get real serious about serving God.
But I don't see that in Scripture.
That's not how Jesus operates.
That's not how the Word of God calls us to.
I think when you really study Scripture out, you find that it consistently shows us that a desire for more proof
is often just an attempt to replace true repentance.
Just to kind of keep us on our path.
And it's not that we're saying no.
We're just saying, not right now, Lord.
This is, you know, this is not really kind of on my calendar.
And as we come to this text this morning, Luke has placed it perfectly right after Jesus' display of this power.
It's there, and this man is speaking, and his power is revealed.
And instead of surrendering, they accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan, we saw last week.
They say, well, you know, he's got to be doing this through Beelzebub.
This has got to be the power of Satan.
And what Jesus does is he kind of starts reasoning with them.
He's like, hey, guys, put your thinking cap on.
That makes no sense.
A kingdom divided is not going to stand.
And he kind of goes to logic, and he begins to warn them, and he's appealing to their hearts.
But as we come into the verses we read this morning, the crowds are continuing to gather.
I love how the Bible says that, when the people were gathered thick together.
I mean, this was crowded.
But this was a, there's no personal space here.
And they're sign-seeking, and they're coming after him.
He lets them know they don't need more signs to believe.
That's not the issue.
What needed to happen is they needed to respond to the truth that had already been presented,
and the light that had already been revealed.
Because here's the main thought of our text this morning.
That when God reveals his light, either hearts receive it or resist it.
That's what's taking place right here.
They didn't need to see another miracle.
They've seen plenty of miracles, most likely, by this point.
And even if they saw just this one, it was a proof of who he was.
And so what Jesus immediately shows us, he shows this truth by pointing us to a group of people
who had more light than they knew what to do with, and yet they still rejected it.
That's what we see in verse 29 and 30.
We see a sign for hard hearts.
I mean, Jesus looks at this group of people, and he says,
This is an evil generation.
They seek a sign.
That's a great opening to a message, isn't it?
Remember what I got here, y'all got here this morning?
Hey, y'all bunch of wicked evil people.
Whoa.
I mean, Jesus, that seems a little harsh.
I mean, I thought you were supposed to love everybody, Jesus.
Listen, he's not trying to hurt their feelings.
He's not trying to be mean.
He's not just ramming the truth down their throat, so to speak.
Here's what he's doing, because this crowd has been following.
They've been sign-seeking.
He is simply exposing their resistance.
They wanted to have all the fun.
They wanted to see all the miracles.
They wanted all the bread and loaves and fish to be in their belly,
but they didn't really want to go all in.
But you know what Jesus is telling us all the time?
Come unto me.
Follow me.
All in.
They had heard the truth.
They had witnessed deliverance right in front of their own eyes,
and yet they still wanted more proof.
You say, preacher, what's wrong with that?
See, they weren't looking for a sign to believe.
They were just delaying and delaying and delaying,
because repentance wasn't what they wanted.
You know, we're professionals at delaying, aren't we?
You know, if your kids need to pick up their room,
they can find everything in the world to do except pick up their room.
You know, they're going to vacuum the front room.
Like, what are you vacuuming up here for?
I just want to be a blessing.
Go clean your room.
Stop delaying the inevitable.
You know, we learn it from a young age,
but we carry it really throughout our life.
And that's what they're doing here.
And Jesus kind of gathers them around.
He says, listen, you don't need another sign.
You've got plenty.
And really what he's going to do here is he's going to kind of,
they're going to be irritated,
because he's going to give two examples
of when Gentiles responded to just the Word of God.
Just an opportunity to hear the wisdom of God's Word.
And yet they're standing here in front of the Creator of all things,
and they've seen miracle after miracle,
and they say, well, we just don't have enough proof.
So in verse 29 and 30,
he begins to tell a story
that they all would have learned in Sabbath school.
Jonah.
Jonah and the fish.
And he begins to explain it,
and no doubt their mind would have ran there,
and they would have thought that,
hey, I remember when Jonah got the call from God,
and God said, hey, Jonah, I got a job for you.
And Jonah's like, all right, I'm ready to go.
Where do you want me to go?
Nineveh.
And Jonah said, not going.
And that's basically the first three verses of the book of Jonah.
And he said, whoa, man, I got some money in here.
I'm going to get on a boat and go as far away as possible.
And he got on a ship heading toward Tarshish,
and he's there,
and he does not want to go preach to the Ninevites.
And if we really dig into it,
we probably understand why.
The Ninevites were a wicked, brutal people.
They'd have been like the Romans before the Romans.
They were interested in conquering the world and just brutalizing everybody they did that to.
And Jonah said, they don't deserve the word of God.
And I'm going to get on a boat, and I'm not going to preach.
And he gets on the boat, and if you know the story well,
he's there, and this big giant storm comes up,
just out of coincidence.
Not out of coincidence.
And all the mariners on the boat,
all the mariners are thinking, what is going on?
I mean, some god is mad at us,
and they start throwing everything overboard,
and they start praying to their gods,
and they said, hey, there's a guy sleeping down in the bottom of the boat.
Why don't we wake him up and see if he knows anything?
And they wake Jonah up.
He said, yeah, I know what's going on.
I serve the Lord of heaven and earth,
and I'm kind of running from him.
And these pagan sailors are thinking,
what?
You know God, and you're running from him?
How dumb are you?
This is kind of a real quick overview of the book of Jonah.
And it doesn't exactly say it like this.
It's the Tyler version.
But this is what's going on.
And instead of repenting at that moment when he realized,
well, I guess I can't outrun God,
Jonah said, well, there's only one thing to do.
Throw me overboard.
Jonah would rather die than preach to the Ninevites.
That's where his heart was.
That's kind of his mindset.
So he thinks in some weird way, I can just envision this.
Maybe it's not how it happened.
But as he's thinking, he's kind of smiling and thinking,
well, at least I didn't have to go to Nineveh.
Well, the Bible says the Lord prepared a great fish.
Swallowed Jonah.
You think, well, I don't know about that.
Well, the word of God said it.
Jesus confirmed it.
If he created everything by his word,
I think he can handle a fish swallowing a man.
And so Jonah's sitting there in the belly of this fish.
And he does cry out in chapter number two.
And chapter two is kind of a prayer.
And he's asking for deliverance.
And I love what the Bible says.
And so the fish just vomited him out on the beach.
I bet Jonah smelt great.
And reluctantly, he goes to Nineveh.
And he preaches.
He didn't come with all these miracles.
I mean, I can just imagine, you just think some crusty old preacher.
That's Jonah.
Don't think too hard.
I don't want you to get in the flesh.
Hopefully you're not thinking about me.
I mean, I just, I don't think he wanted to be there.
Would you agree with that?
But you know what he did?
He preached the word of God.
And guess what?
It changed lives.
When you read the book of Jonah, he preaches,
just tells them what God said.
And hey, you need to repent.
God is not happy with what's going on.
You shouldn't be doing this.
Hey, God loves you.
And these aren't Jews.
These are the most wicked Gentiles on the planet at this time.
And they repent.
From the king all the way down.
And they put sackcloth and ashes on.
And it shows repentance in the Old Testament especially.
And they begin to pray.
And they ask God for forgiveness.
And Jonah's still mad about it.
And he sets up a little booth outside of the town.
Because he wants to watch God destroy Nineveh.
But he doesn't.
Why?
Because they heard the word of God preached.
And they said, if that's true, we need to change our life.
And that's what he tells them.
No miracles.
Jonah didn't show up doing miracles.
He didn't show up causing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the dead to live again.
No, he just preached a message he didn't even want to preach.
And Jesus is saying, listen, you're asking for another sign?
You're asking for more light?
Why don't you think about Nineveh?
Jonah.
They had a preacher that didn't even want to be there.
And he just said what God told them to.
And everybody repented.
They repented with far less light.
And we saw earlier, he said, there's one greater than Jonah standing here.
This would have been a story they would have told their children of how great Jonah was.
No, the book of Jonah is not about Jonah, and it's not about a fish.
It's about God.
And God changes lives.
And he's reminding them now, listen, I am standing in front of you, not preaching the word.
I am the word.
And the word was made flesh, and he dwelt among them as the only begotten of the Father.
And he's standing there, and he's speaking the truth, and he's performing miracle after miracle.
And they still resisted.
And the idea is this, is more signs don't soften hard hearts.
Repentance does.
That's what makes the difference.
I mean, you think about these Jews at this time period, these first century Jews.
They're seeing all these things.
You know, they're saying, we need something else.
We need just a little bit more.
I mean, if anybody would have repented and changed their life, I think Pharaoh could have been on that list.
Think of all the things he saw God do.
Because God was the one that led them out of Egypt.
Everybody understood that.
Because this wasn't Moses.
This wasn't Aaron.
No, this was by the hand of God they left Egypt.
And even the Egyptians realized, we don't know how to do this, Pharaoh.
This is the finger of God doing this work.
And yet, Pharaoh's heart kept getting harder and harder and harder.
Sign after sign after sign.
We'll say, preacher, how does this apply to us today?
I think sometimes it just happens in quieter ways.
Listen, God still works in lives.
God's still doing things.
God's still making himself known.
He's given us the complete revelation of his word.
He's given us the Holy Spirit if we know him as our Savior.
And if we don't know him as Savior, he gives us that spirit to draw us to himself.
But we say things like this.
Like, well, if God will fix my marriage, then I'll get serious about church.
Once I understand everything about the Bible, then I'll obey.
You're never going to understand everything about the Bible.
We're still, we're always constantly learning.
Hey, once life slows down, then I'll do what God wants me to do.
Once I feel ready, then I'll surrender.
But yet, God has given you a sign of this.
And God is working in your marriage.
And God is calling you here.
And God is doing these things.
And he's asking you to be a witness at work.
And he's saying, Lord, I can't do that.
What we're really doing is we're doing the same thing they're doing here.
We're just postponing obedience.
It's not that we aren't waiting on God.
We're protecting what we don't want to change.
That includes this preacher right here.
Because there's things that God's going to say, hey, you don't need to be doing that.
But I like doing this.
Here's what he's saying.
Turn left.
We're thinking, ah, does he really mean that?
No, he really does mean that.
James tells us like this.
And we don't maybe like this verse.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not.
To him, it is sin.
God is calling us all the time.
God has a job for us to do.
God has a plan for our life.
And many times you think, well, what is it, preacher?
I bet you know what it is.
You got kids, here's what it is.
Raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
You got a job with other people?
Be a light.
Be a witness.
You got friends at school?
Share the gospel.
Many times we think, well, I'm not sure.
No, we know what it is.
We're just kind of postponing it under the guise of, well, I'll do it at some point.
But my mama used to tell me all the time, the late obedience is still disobedience.
And I pass that on to my children.
They love when I say that.
But I need to be reminded in my own life that that's true as well.
Listen, you can come to church every Sunday, every Wednesday.
You can be involved in every ministry and still be disobedient because God is working on your heart.
And you're saying, well, if God really wants me to do that, then I need another sign.
Listen, step back and think of all the things God has done in your life and how he's working in your life.
And so now Jesus strengthens this truth with another example from history.
We see it there in verse number 31.
We see this number two, that a greater light brings greater responsibility.
So Jesus brings up another Gentile from history that responded to the wisdom of God and the word of God.
This story takes place in 1 Kings chapter number 10.
And the queen of Sheba, she would have traveled a great distance.
Many scholars believe that the kingdom would have been down in the southern part of Saudi Arabia, kind of Yemen area, that area.
And you think, man, crossing a desert is difficult.
And Jesus makes the case of that.
This trip, when she traveled to Jerusalem, when she traveled to Israel to see Solomon, it would have been dangerous.
It would have been difficult.
And yet she was willing to go just to hear of the wisdom of Solomon.
Now, she didn't understand where the wisdom came from.
But when she got there, she realized it's from God.
Hey, there's the only one explanation for this.
And she exerted great effort with great personal cost to see and to hear from the greatest, wisest man that ever lived.
And they would have in this crowd would have said, yeah, who's the wisest man ever?
Jeopardy.
Who is Solomon?
That's what they would have said.
And Jesus said, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
That she was willing to go to hear.
And what Jesus is making the point, yes, Solomon possessed great wisdom, but Jesus is wisdom.
That all the truth about God and about salvation and about life and about eternity and about anything else you want to find is found in Jesus.
He is the way.
He is the truth.
He is the life.
And Scripture tells us in Colossians chapter 2 that in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom.
Listen, you know where you need to run to?
You need to run to Jesus when you don't have the answers.
Listen, the queen of Sheba was trying to find it, and she found out it's not Solomon.
He's getting it from somebody else.
That the God of Israel is real.
And the God of Israel does give this wisdom.
And just to make sure they're kind of understanding what he's saying, he goes back to the men of Nineveh in verse 32.
And reminds them once again, both of these situations, they change their life based on just hearing the word of God.
See, it's not a miracle that changes lives, so to speak.
But it's how one responds to the truth they've been given.
You know, it would have been a lot easier about growing up if Jesus would have just wrote in the clouds,
Tyler, you need to be saved.
But you know what?
I would have said, did he really write that?
Or was that an airplane?
Is that the government chemtrails?
Whatever you want to believe about all these things.
But wouldn't we try to explain it away?
Wouldn't we try to do that?
But God gave us something that we can't explain away.
Thy word is settled forever in heaven.
See, it's not a miracle that changed your life.
If you know the Lord is your Savior, here's what changed your life.
You realize the truth of the word of God, and you realize you're a sinner.
And that there's a debt to be paid.
And you couldn't pay it.
But Jesus came and he lived a life that we could not live.
He died a death that we could not die.
And he rose again that we could not do.
Why?
Because he loves us.
And he paid the debt.
And even while we were his enemies, he did this.
And then he asks us and tells us and commands us that if we call on him for salvation, he'll give it to us.
That that's where it's found.
And the principle is clear in these verses.
The more light God gives, the greater responsibility we have to respond.
Listen, you have the responsibility to respond to the word of God because you're here this morning.
And I'm trying to make it as clear as possible that the gospel is not some fairy tale.
No, it is the facts based on the word of God.
And you must respond to that.
Jesus came so that we would have hope.
That we would have a chance to respond.
That he could have just left us in our sins.
But praise the Lord, he didn't.
He gave us a way out.
We're going to see in a couple chapters, Jesus says,
Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.
Listen, spiritual privilege can quietly become a very serious danger in your life.
I mean, think about growing up in church but never surrendering to Christ.
Listen, church membership doesn't save your life.
Do I think you should be involved and plugged into a local New Testament church?
100%.
I know a good one.
But that's not going to, you're not going to get to heaven and say,
Well, I'm on the roll at Central Baptist Church.
No, that's not what changes a life.
Listen, you can hear sermon after sermon but never change habits or priorities.
The word of God was not given so you have a bunch of information.
It was given to transform your life.
It was given to conform you to the image of his dear son.
Listen, you can know all the Bible verses in the world
but refuse to forgive and repent and obey.
It's not about what we know.
It's about who we know.
Listen, you can be so close to the truth
and yet not be transformed by it.
That's why James commands us,
Be ye doers of the word.
Not just hearers only.
Deceiving your own selves.
Listen, I know it sounds weird
but sometimes the most dangerous place you can be
is just in a church.
Just around the things of God.
Because if that's all we do and we don't respond to it
and we don't apply it to our life
then we just think, hey, I'm okay.
No, no, but we've been given a light
and we have a responsibility to respond to it.
Listen, it's not a lack of knowledge that hardens hearts.
It's resisting what we already know is right.
That's what Jesus is teaching right here.
And we'll hasten to a close here.
Because Jesus moves from historic examples
to the condition of the heart itself.
Number three, we see this.
The heart determines how light is received.
Jesus uses a simple illustration
that we would understand.
They would definitely understand then.
Light is meant to shine.
He says, who lights a candle and hides it?
No, you light a candle so it lights the house.
That's what it does.
It's there to help those that are in the house.
It's there to be a guide.
It's there to make life better, to make life easier.
That's why, you know, when I get up in the middle of the night
to go get a midnight snack,
I don't turn the lights on because I don't want to wake up.
But guess what?
It's dangerous without lights.
When kids leave things out, when I leave my own shoes out.
But if I turn the light on, I'd be able to see those things.
Light is simply there to help us.
And then he tells us in verse number 34
that the eye is the light of the body.
What is he meaning here?
Here's what Jesus is saying.
The eye doesn't create light.
It lets it in.
That's where he's at.
A healthy eye receives the light.
A damaged eye blocks it.
If we, those that are able to see, we can see all this light.
But people that do not have that ability, that are blind,
it doesn't matter how bright the lights are, they can't see it.
It's damaged.
They can't receive it.
See, when Jesus came, he came to shine bright light into dark hearts.
And here's what he's teaching.
That a humble heart welcomes the truth.
Sometimes the truth is still hard even if we love the Lord.
But we're willing to welcome it.
But a hard heart says, no thanks, I'm good.
Hey, give me another sign and I'll think about it.
You know, we do that in our own life sometimes.
We say, if you give me the truth, show me something else I believe.
Knowing good and well, we're just trying to push that person down the road.
We're trying to move it on.
See, it's the same light Jesus is saying, but different responses.
That's why verse 35 is a warning.
He says, be careful, lest the light you think you have is darkness.
If you're just trusting in yourself.
In other words, here's what Jesus is saying as we bring it all to a close.
Examine your heart.
You want to know how you're receiving the truth?
Take a look at your heart.
Because we can look real good on the outside.
We can look real Christian.
We can say the real Christian.
We can use all the Christian language, but be dead on the inside.
That's the way David said this.
Search me, oh God.
And try me.
And know my heart.
And see if there be any wicked way in me.
And lead me into the way everlasting.
And it just reminds us, the problem is never God's revelation.
It's our reception to it.
And I don't want you to leave this place wondering if the light works or not.
No, the light is good.
Because he is the light.
But the question is, how are we responding to it?
Because it shows up every day.
One person can hear the word of God and be convicted and repent.
Others can make excuses.
One person can obey quickly and another delays indefinitely.
One person can forgive when another person holds grudges for years.
One person can change priorities while another just stays comfortable.
And it's not that there's different light.
No, same truth, different heart.
Maybe it's, Lord, help my heart.
Soften my heart to your truth.
Because truth and light always reveal what we love most.
You know, when a bright light comes on, it exposes things.
That's why in the morning when you turn the light on in the bathroom, you're like, oh.
Well, it's what it is.
It's exposing what's there.
You know why sometimes we run from the word of God when it says turn?
Because we don't like what it exposed.
We don't like that.
We're like, I don't want to turn left.
I'm just going to keep going and pretend like it didn't say that.
That's a dangerous place to live.
Because here in Luke 11, Jesus has revealed his power, his truth, his kingdom, his light.
And some still resisted.
Not because the light wasn't bright enough.
The truth wasn't good enough.
It's because their heart was hard.
Are you waiting on another sign?
Are you saying, God, I just need this.
Have you heard the truth maybe without responding?
Is your heart open to God's light?
Or are you just defending what you don't want to surrender?
Say, that's tough, preacher.
That's kind of where Jesus met him.
Jesus loves us enough to tell us the truth.
But he loves us even more to lead us to where he wants us to go.
Would we respond to his truth today?
Would you stand with your heads bowed, with your eyes closed?