I believe that was a blessing to many of us this morning.
Would you take the Word of God with me and turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5?
We're beginning our last chapter in 1 Thessalonians as we've been on this book going through for
several months and, well, last couple of months anyway.
And, Lord willing, this Sunday and the next, we will finish up Paul's first letter to the
church in Thessalonica.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we'll read beginning in verse 1 in just a moment.
Before I get into that, I want to share two verses from Luke chapter 12.
Luke chapter 12, you don't have to turn there, stay in 1 Thessalonians unless you want to
flip over quickly, but Luke chapter 12, verse 2, there is nothing covered that won't be uncovered.
Nothing hidden that won't be made known.
Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light.
And what you have whispered in an ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
Let's go over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 in verse 1.
About the times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord, remember that phrase, will come
just like a thief in the night.
When they say peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains
on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, watch this, are not in the dark for this day to surprise you like a thief.
For you are all children of light and children of the day.
We do not belong to the night or the darkness.
So then, let us not sleep like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled.
For those who sleep, sleep at night.
And those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled.
And put on the armor of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation.
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us.
So that whether we are awake or asleep, speaking of whether we live or die,
we may live together with him.
Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.
Would you pray with me?
Lord Jesus, I thank you for your word that pierces to the heart.
I pray that you would shine your light into the dark places.
That you would remind us that we belong to the day.
And it's in Jesus' name we ask it.
Amen.
That's the theme this morning.
We belong to the day.
Taken straight from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 1.
The takeaway I hope that we can all walk out of here with this morning.
The challenge to carry into our week is to let Jesus light up the darkness in and around us.
Let Jesus light up the darkness in and around us.
Back in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, down there in verse 2, it talks about the day of the Lord.
So what does it mean when it says the day of the Lord?
What is the day of the Lord?
The day of the Lord is God's future plan of His return, His rapture, His reign, and reckoning.
So what do we mean by that?
We don't know exactly the order or the timing of when these events will take place with certainty.
And if you ask different theologians or different pastors exactly how that's all going to play out,
you'll get a different answer every time just about.
There are all kinds of different views on the millennium, God's thousand-year reign here on earth.
There are all kinds of views, viewpoints on the tribulation time that the Bible says will be happening here on earth.
And even Christians may or may not go through the tribulation time, the church here.
And there's all different kinds of views of what events and at what point of that event is the rapture,
God bringing the church home to heaven.
We don't know exactly when with certainty, but we know it will happen.
God will return.
He will rapture His church.
He will reign.
And there will be a day of reckoning.
There will be a day of judgment.
So that's what it's talking about.
Generally speaking, the day of the Lord.
Malachi chapter 4 and verse 1 references the day of the Lord.
It says, look, the day of the Lord is coming, burning like a furnace when all the arrogant and everyone, watch this,
who commits wickedness will become stubble.
The coming day will consume them, says the Lord of armies, not leaving them root or branches.
You think God hates wickedness?
You think God hates darkness?
You think God hates sin?
Oftentimes, we love to cling to the parts of God that are most appealing and attractive to us.
But just like we have to take the whole counsel of this book,
every page, every word inspired by God and given to us for direct application to our life,
we must also take the entire scope of what we read about our God.
You can't pick and choose and cherry pick the parts of God that you like and the parts you don't like.
God hates wickedness.
And in the end, God will judge the wicked.
But then in verse 2 of Malachi chapter 4,
But to you who fear my name,
to you who fear my name,
the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.
Who's he talking about when he says the son of righteousness?
Talk back to me, church.
Jesus.
Thank you.
Whoever said that.
I think it was Aubrey.
There you go.
Good job.
That's right.
The son of righteousness is Jesus.
And he will arise with healing in his wings.
For those who what?
Fear my name.
So the challenge this morning,
walk in the light.
Walk in the light.
Would you turn with me over?
We don't have it on the screens,
and that's intentional.
Would you turn with me over to 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5.
If you didn't bring a Bible with you,
there's one in the pew back in front of you.
1 John chapter 1 and verse 5.
Let's read 1 John 1, 5,
down through verse 7 together.
For sake of time, I'm going to go ahead and read.
This is the message we have heard from him
and declare to you,
God is light.
And there is absolutely no darkness in him.
If we say we have fellowship with him,
and I think just about everybody in this room
would say I have fellowship with God.
You would lump yourself into that category.
So if we say we have fellowship with God,
and yet we walk in darkness,
we are lying.
And are not practicing the truth.
If we walk in the light,
as he himself is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another.
Folks, we cannot have fellowship with one another
if some of us are walking in the light,
and some of us are walking in darkness.
I didn't make that up.
It's in the Bible.
We must be united
in striving every day
to walk in the light of fellowship with God.
And abhor the darkness.
Run from the darkness.
Flee the devil and his wickedness.
Then we have fellowship with one another.
And at the end of verse 7,
the blood of Jesus Christ,
the blood of Jesus his son,
cleanses us from all sin.
That's what cleanses us.
Y'all, we're not talking about living as perfect people.
That will never happen.
As long, and we talked about it last week,
as long as we are wrapped in this sinful flesh,
there will constantly be a struggle
between this flesh and what this flesh wants,
and the spirit inside of us,
and what he wants.
And the key is to win more battles for the spirit
than you lose.
The key is to continue on striving
to listen to the spirit
and not walk in the darkness.
It doesn't mean that sometimes
the darkness isn't going to creep in.
It doesn't mean that sometimes
the darkness isn't going to overwhelm us,
and we have to then turn back
to the spirit.
Every one of us will fall,
but the righteous man falls seven times
and does what?
Rises again.
Gets back up.
You don't walk in the darkness.
You don't live there.
You don't stay there.
You get back in the light
because we belong to the light.
We belong to the day.
God saved us from the darkness.
He saved us from the wickedness.
You aren't trapped by that anymore.
Unless you still are.
Unless you still are trapped by that,
and you're playing church.
You're playing Christian.
You're putting on this front.
You're trying to act like
you're one of God's people,
and you're not.
And you're not hurting anybody
except you.
God loves you.
He wants you.
The invitation is stretched out to you,
and all you have to do
is give up and say yes.
We are to walk in the light.
There's a pastor that I read frequently
from time to time.
He's written some encouraging books,
especially on the Christian life and walk.
And he says,
walking in the light means
we pursue obedience
and are honest
about our remaining darkness.
darkness.
I think that's a great way to put it.
We are not perfect.
There will still be darkness
that creeps in,
but we are honest
about our struggles.
We are honest
about our frailties,
about our weaknesses.
We open up.
We're vulnerable.
And we get one another's help
and God's help
in dealing with it.
Walking in the light
means we pursue God.
We pursue obedience to Him.
And we're honest
about where we fall.
And when we fall,
we can lift each other up.
I might need you to lift me up.
You might need me to lift you up.
You might need one another
to help lift you up.
And fight back
against the darkness.
We're all prone to it.
We're all weak.
But we don't live there.
We don't walk in it.
We don't continue on.
Back in 1 Thessalonians 5,
you, brothers and sisters,
are not in the dark.
You are all children of light,
children of the day.
We do not belong to the night
or the darkness.
Number two,
wake up from sleep.
Walk in the light
and wake up from sleep.
Over in Romans chapter 13.
And again,
I'd ask you to turn there
if you would.
Romans chapter 13
and verse 11.
We've got a few verses
to read in Romans chapter 13.
This is the prime soteriological book
of the Bible.
That just means it has to do
with the doctrine of salvation,
how to be saved.
Romans lays it out for us
that we are wicked,
but God loves us anyway.
He sent his son Jesus
to die for us.
And because of the sacrifice
that Jesus made on the cross for us,
you and I can be saved.
We just have to turn to him,
turn away from our sin,
ask God for forgiveness,
and put all of our faith
that he will save us.
Then,
we can be saved.
And that's what Romans
spends a good deal of time
talking about.
So in chapter 13,
down in verse 11,
besides this,
since you know the time,
it is already the hour
for you to wake up
from sleep.
Because now,
our salvation is nearer
than when we first believed.
The night is nearly over,
and the day is near.
So let us discard,
watch this,
discard the deeds of darkness,
and put on the armor of light.
Let us walk with decency,
as in the daytime,
not in carousing and drunkenness,
not in sexual impurity
and promiscuity,
not in quarreling and jealousy,
but put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and don't make plans
to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Don't make plans
to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Walk with decency,
as in the daytime.
Discard the deeds of darkness.
Put on, arm yourself,
protect yourself
with the armor of light.
We are equipped
with everything we need
to fight back
against the darkness
that surrounds us.
You walk out of this church,
and the truth is,
you look around inside this church,
and there is darkness.
You walk out in the world around us,
we are bombarded constantly
with darkness,
with wickedness,
with all those things
that we just read about
in Romans 13.
The sexual impurity,
the promiscuity,
the carousing and drunkenness,
quarreling and jealousy,
it finds its way
into the church,
and it's sure enough
outside the church.
It's everywhere.
So how in the world
can we,
who are surrounded
by so much darkness,
live in light?
But we have to arm ourselves.
Put on the whole armor of God
that you can be able
to stand in the evil day.
When all the darts
come against you,
all the temptations
come against you,
you are strong enough
to withstand
if you arm yourself
with the armor of light.
Otherwise,
you're a sitting duck.
You can't fight back
against the powers of darkness,
but with the power of light
inside of you,
it is strong enough.
It is stronger than anything.
Where sin abounded,
grace much more abounded.
God is stronger than the devil.
The spirit is stronger
than your flesh.
But you have to give in
to the spirit.
You have to stop
giving in to the flesh.
You have to say no to yourself.
We all do.
Time and time again,
we will face this battle.
I wish I could say
it's all going to get easier
from here.
But until we get home
to heaven someday,
that's why we look
with such great anticipation
to see our Jesus,
to see our Savior,
to see His second coming
and rapture us home to heaven.
It's going to be wonderful
and finally the battle
will be over.
Finally,
we'll quit losing
these battles.
Finally,
He'll bring us home
to heaven someday.
But until that day,
He did not leave us alone.
He did not leave us abandoned.
He left us with everything
we need.
His Holy Spirit.
His Word,
which contains every instruction
we need for life.
It's there.
What are we going to do with it?
Wake up from sleep.
Walk in the light.
Wake up from your sleep.
Maybe there's people
in here this morning
who are living in the dark.
You're walking in the dark.
Maybe there's people
who are asleep
and it's time to wake up.
It's time to put on
the armor of light.
It's time to walk
in the light
that Jesus gives.
You know who you are.
You know what you've done.
You know whatever it is.
There's no possible way
that I could know
everything that's going on
in your life,
in your heart.
But you do.
And God does.
And He's calling to you
this morning.
He's saying,
I can shine my light
into the dark areas.
Let me do it.
Folks, if you're walking
in darkness,
you know what you're going
to produce?
The fruits of darkness.
If you're walking
in the light,
you're going to produce
the fruit of God's light.
So what are the action steps?
Number one,
find self-control
by daily surrender
to spirit control.
It's a continual battle.
We're always going to face it.
Paul wrote about it
in the book of Romans.
He said,
the things I want to do,
I find myself not doing.
The things I don't want to do,
that's what I find myself doing.
We will all continually
struggle with this,
but it's about giving in
to the Spirit
and surrendering self-control.
You will get yourself
in trouble.
I will get myself in trouble.
The Holy Spirit
is the only one
that will keep me
from being ashamed.
Paul said in Romans 1.16,
I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ.
There was plenty other things
in Paul's life
that he had to be ashamed of.
He killed Christians,
for goodness sakes.
I really hope
there's nobody in here
who's killed Christians.
Otherwise,
we've got another problem.
We've got a security team,
though,
so just so you're aware.
Paul had done
terrible,
despicable things
that he was ashamed of,
but he said,
I found one thing
that I'm not ashamed of,
and it's the gospel of Jesus.
And so if you stay
in the light
and you walk in the light,
then you will not
be shamed by that.
You will not hang
your head in shame
when it's revealed
what you've done
in the light.
But how many times
have you and I,
you don't need to raise your hand,
how many times
have you and I
been ashamed
of what we did in the dark?
So we must find
self-control by how?
Man, you say,
you figured out
the secret to self-control?
That's great, man.
You should go make
a billion dollars
and sell a bunch of books
and speak at a bunch
of conferences.
It's by surrendering
to spirit control.
I'm sorry,
I wish there was
an easier answer,
but there's not.
For you or for me,
we must surrender
to the Holy Spirit
and give up self.
Secondly,
find an accountability partner.
That's where it gets sticky.
You can't fight
this battle alone.
God never intended
for you to fight
this battle alone.
You've got darkness
that's overwhelming you.
It's beating you up.
You can't seem
to shake it.
You can't seem
to find the light.
You need help.
This church
is here to help.
We're not a trophy club.
We're a hospital.
But sometimes we act
more like a trophy club.
There are people
all throughout this church
who would love
to help you
bear your burden.
Keep it confident.
Keep it quiet.
Deal with it only
in the circles
it needs to be dealt with.
But we,
as the body of Christ,
are here to help
and are called
to help one another.
If you're ignoring
that help,
that's on you.
It's not on us.
Find self-control
by daily surrender
to spirit control.
Find an accountability
partner.
I'd be happy to do it.
I'd be happy
to help you
find someone else.
Someone you love.
Someone you trust.
Someone who you know
and loves you.
Cares about you.
So the takeaway is
let Jesus
light up
the darkness
in and around you.
It's a hard sermon
to preach
but we're preaching
the text
as it comes up.
We are not
children of the dark.
So let us not
walk in the darkness.
Let us not live
publicly
or privately
like those
without Christ.
let Jesus
shine his light
because God
wants to do
incredible things.
Bear incredible
fruit
of his light
in your life.
We belong
to the day.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus
I don't know
what's on every heart
this morning.
I know what's on mine.
I just ask
that you would
convict us
God
as only
you are able
shine your light
into the dark
places.
In our hearts
around us
there's people
who want to share
the gospel
with others
in their
neighborhood
in their
community
at their
workplace
and it just
seems like
they're surrounded
by darkness.
Every time
we wake up
in this world
it seems like
there's so little
light
but your light
is more powerful
than the darkness.
Remind us of that.
Let us not be
overcome
by the darkness.
Let us not
be overwhelmed
by the night.
Joy comes
in the morning.
You do
incredible things
with sunrises
if we study
the scriptures.
You can make
a sunrise
in our day.
we claim
the healing
from the
sun of
righteousness
that you
mentioned
in Malachi.
God I ask
that you would
convict hearts
convict my heart
shine your light
into the darkest
areas of our
hearts
illuminate it
and then help
us to take
the steps
needed.
Daily go to
the word
daily go to
you in prayer.
Find an
accountability
partner
and daily
go to
seek spirit
control over
self-control.
Lord we need
it.
This town
doesn't need
any more
fruits of
darkness.
Our families
don't need
any more
fruits of
darkness.
This church
sure doesn't
need any
more fruits
of darkness.
Shine the
light God.
There's
somebody here
who says
God has
never
shined his
light into
my heart.
prayer.
I need to
ask him to
forgive my
sins.
Put my
faith in
him to
save me.
Would you
slip your
hand up
right now?
Nobody's
looking around
but I'd
like to see
you and
pray for
you.
Would you
slip your
hand up
right now?
I need
to ask
Jesus to
forgive me
of my
sins.
Put all
my faith
in him
as my
savior.
Thank you.
You can put
your hands
down.
God,
I mean if
you would
say I
need prayer.
I'm not
going to
get specific
of what
it is but
I need
prayer.
Would you
slip your
hand up
this morning?
Thank you.
God,
you know
every heart
and you know
every situation.
Just ask
that you
would convict
us through
your scriptures.
Let us
walk in the
light God.
it's in
Jesus'
name we
ask it.
Amen.
Brother
Gray.