James Meehan - How To Get Out of The Dark
- Watch
- Audio
- Get involved
As a little kid, I was terrified, horrified, and petrified of the dark. I cannot tell you how many nights I would lie there paralyzed in bed with my Batman covers all the way up to my chin, staring at that tiny little crack in the closet door that was much too small for a grown adult to walk through but probably the perfect size for some monstrous creature to pull my childlike body through and to never return. Now, here's what's interesting. I was so afraid that I wasn't even willing to get out of bed to go turn on the light. Like, I knew that if I got out of bed and turned on the light switch or closed the closet door, that the fear would go away and I would be able to sleep soundly. But I was too afraid to do any of that.
And some nights, thankfully, one of my parents would come in to check on me. And as soon as they stepped in the room, as soon as they turned on the light, this peace and calm came over me because when they were there or when the light was on, the dark wasn't scary anymore. And maybe you were just super brave and abnormal as a child and were never afraid of the dark or you were smart enough to ask for a nightlight. And so, you didn't have to deal with all of that that I just described but it's just kind of funny to think about the things that scare us when we're little and how often those things change or even stay the same when we're older. Because as a kid I was terrified of the dark but specifically I was afraid of the dark out there, like out in the world.
Now as a 28-year-old man who's been married, I got a kid, I've been on this Earth for a little bit longer than I had before, I'm not afraid of the dark out there. What scares me and keeps me up at night is the darkness that has many of you trapped in it because honestly, you're just stuck. You are living in a generation where there's a lot of difficult things that you've gotta navigate. And because I know you, some of you personally by name and what you've gone through, I've heard the stories that you've had to try to navigate, struggles with addictions, with abusive relationships, with dysfunctional families, with poor mental health, with different kinds of things that make life way harder than we want it to be.
And thankfully, many of you have made it out of the darkness. But tragically, there are still some of you that are stuck there and you don't really know how to get out. That's what I want to talk about today. This idea that all of us would probably agree that life is so much better when we live it in the light. So, why are so many of us still stuck in the dark? That's the question that I want us to answer. Why do so many of us stay stuck in the dark when we know that being in the light is so much better? I think for some of us, the main reason why we stay stuck in the dark is because we've been in the dark for so long that our eyes have adjusted to it, right? Like you know that thing where when you first turn off the lights and you can see nothing but if you're in the dark long enough, as your eyes begin to adjust, you can start to see things a little bit more clearly.
You can navigate around the room to make sure as you're walking, you don't trip on your dresser or whatever that thing might be. I think sadly the same is true of us when we're living in the darkness of our lives, that we've been in it for so long that we've just gotten used to it and maybe we've forgotten that there's a better way to do life. Maybe for you, you have been so trapped in a cycle of destructive habits that you've forgotten that there is a way to live with freedom from those things or maybe for you, you've never even seen an example of a life well-lived. All you've seen is dysfunction and messed up outcomes, and that's all that you can even see or imagine for yourself. And that's really, really tragic because there is a better way. It is possible to live in the light and experience the peace and joy that comes from that.
But what can be a little bit difficult is when we first step into the darkness, it's really hard to see because our eyes haven't adjusted. But the same is also true when we first step into the light. It can be blinding, it can be uncomfortable, and sometimes we actually wish the lights wouldn't have come on so strongly or quickly because it's a little bit uncomfortable. Why do we stay stuck in the dark? For some of us, it's because we've been in the dark for so long that our eyes have adjusted. For others of us, it's because doing something feels scarier than doing nothing, right? Like when I was a kid, I knew that if I got out of bed and closed the closet door or flipped on the light or went to my parents and asked for help, that the fear would go away. But doing that would require me to leave the comfort and safety of my Batman comforter, right?
And there are some of you that you are just stuck with this addiction that you need freedom from or maybe it's shame from decisions you've made or things that you've done, or maybe there's something that you're struggling with that you know you need to tell the truth to somebody about but you're so afraid that if people saw what was going on with you, that they wouldn't love you or accept you. You know you need to do something but it just feels too scary, too big, and you're not sure if it would actually bring you the outcome you're hoping for. Another reason why I think some of us stay stuck in the dark is because we don't actually know how to find our way back to the light. And maybe that's where some of you are today, right? Like you want out of the darkness, you know that the darkness is empty and that it leaves you feeling empty and you want something different for your life. You just aren't sure what to do or how to get it. But there is light and there is hope that is available for you.
So, no matter which of those three reasons or maybe some of all of those reasons have you still stuck in the dark, I want you to know that there is good news. Because when Jesus steps into the room, the lights come on because he is the light of the world. We talked about this last week in week one of our series, that he is eternal life and he's inviting us to be a part of his family. And when we are a part of his family, he invites us to live in the light of God's love because Jesus, when he walks in the room, the light comes on. When Jesus is near, we have the courage to do things that seem scary when we're on our own. And Jesus actually can show us how to live in a way where we can escape the dark and truly be in the light. That's what we're gonna talk about today. Because when Jesus enters the room, the light comes with him. And he wants you to experience life in the light of God's love.
We're in part two of a message series called He First Loved Us. And in this message series we are walking through the book of 1 John. This is a book found in the Bible where a disciple of Jesus named John, a guy who spent three years walking with Jesus, learning from Jesus, he watched Jesus die and rise from the grave, he became a leader in the early church and several decades into the life of the early church, he wrote this letter to help people understand just how much God loves them and what it looks like to live in the light of his love. And we are in a series where we are studying this letter to see the wisdom that's found within it, so that we can apply it to our lives today, to live as children of God, to live as people moved by love in the light that he invites us into.
So, last week we started with the introduction to that letter in chapter one. This week we're going to read the rest of chapter one and the first few verses of chapter two. And as we do, we're gonna get to learn how we as people living in the modern world can take this ancient wisdom and apply it, so that we can truly live in the light, that we can find freedom from the darkness. So, in 1 John, I want to give you the big idea before we dive in. The big idea that John wants us to know in this passage is that God is light and he's inviting us out of the darkness. God is light and he is inviting us out of the darkness. And as we read this passage starting in 1 John 1:5, And as we read this passage starting in 1 John 1:5, reading all the way through chapter 2:2, I want you to keep that in mind, that God is light and he's inviting you out of the darkness. Starting in verse five, here's what John tells us.
He says, "This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins and not only our sins but the sins of all the world".
God, we ask that you will speak to us today, that you will help us see the things that have us trapped in the dark, that we would say yes to your invitation to step into the light. God, show us how to live, teach us what it means to follow you and give us the courage to do what we have to to truly live in the light of your love. It's in your name we pray, amen. Amen.
One of the things that we believe very strongly is that the Bible is no ordinary book, just like Jesus is no ordinary person. You see, the Bible is a collection of writings written across generations that were all inspired by the Spirit of God to lead us to Jesus and show us how to live like Jesus. And so, as we read that passage and we're gonna go through it one little piece at a time, what we want to do is really read it in a way where we can discover more and more about the love that God has for us and how we can respond to it, so that we can actually be transformed by that love and share it with others. Because following Jesus isn't just about having positive feelings or believing all the right things. It's actually letting Jesus lead us every step and every decision every single day. It's not just part of us, it's actually about all of us.
So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna walk us through that passage we just read starting in verse five. And hopefully as we're going through this together, you can be paying attention to what it is that God might be speaking to you because there might be something in here that actually has the power to help you escape the darkness and live in the light. 1 John chapter 1 verse 5. John tells us that, "This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all". John's telling us that what Jesus shows us about God is that he is light, that there is no darkness in him at all. That means he's pure, he's good, he is true through and through. There is no deception, manipulation or selfishness in him, that God is truly loving and good.
Can you imagine somebody like that? Can you imagine being in the presence of somebody who only wants what's best for you and isn't trying to use you to get ahead or to make themselves feel better but genuinely wants a relationship with you, genuinely wants you to be full of joy and to live a life of meaning. That's what Jesus shows us about God. And it's important to note that John isn't just like some dude theorizing about these things on Reddit, right? He is a dude who literally spent time with Jesus. He saw him face-to-face, he lived with him, he ate with him, like they probably as they were traveling on the roads, like slept in the same tent, like this dude knew Jesus personally. And Jesus shows us that God is light. He's love, he's good, and he's pure. And because of that, we can bring our darkness to him and he can free us from it.
Then in verse 6, John says that, "we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness". If that's the case, guess what? We are not practicing the truth. John's saying that if you tell people you're a part of God's family but in reality you're just doing whatever the heck you want to do, guess what? You're a liar and a fake. Harsh words but give him a chance because I think what John is saying is actually really helpful because that's where some of you are today. You say you're a Christian, right? Maybe you go to Switch regularly, maybe you go to church with your family on the weekend. Maybe you even read your Bible occasionally. But when you get invited to that party where things are gonna happen that you know you shouldn't be involved with, you go and you participate. Or maybe when some friends are gossiping about somebody else, just saying some really rude things, you don't stop it; you join in.
Maybe for you, you're somebody who claims to follow Jesus and believe the truth of the scriptures but you're getting all of your views on who you are and what you're meant to do and how you're meant to live from somebody on TikTok that you don't even know. Or maybe for you, you go home and just are a complete jerk to your parents. You don't honor them, you don't respect them, you don't even really love 'em. You see, maybe for some of you, you say that you're living in the light but in reality you're still stuck in the darkness. And like I said, while these words from John might sound harsh, I think what he's doing is just telling us the truth that we need to hear because he wants us to wake up to the way things really are.
Let me illustrate it this way. If the lights are off but I tell you the lights are on, it doesn't matter how loudly or passionately or consistently I tell you "The lights are on! See? Look, we can all see everything that's happening"! That doesn't change the fact that the lights are off. And if you say you follow Jesus but you're not actually following Jesus, guess what? You're not following Jesus. To live in the light means we have to step out of the darkness and into the light. So, that the lights really come on. And instead of just being stuck in spiritual darkness, we let the light of God's love shine over every part of our lives because God is light and he's inviting you out of the darkness. And I'm telling you when the lights come on, that changes everything for the better because instead of being fakers and liars, we get to live in the truth of God's love.
And this doesn't mean that we're gonna be perfect or we're never gonna mess up. We're all gonna mess up and God knows it and God's gonna meet us with his mercy. The next verse. John continues by telling us that "if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin". The translation is, when you live in the light, when you're a part of God's family, you're gonna have help. There's gonna be other believers to pick you up when you fall, the blood of Jesus will clean you up when you sin. And this isn't just from some sin, this is from all sin. So, those things that you are beating yourself up about that you just can't seem to get past, even those sins are not too big or ugly or nasty for the grace of God and the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from because his forgiveness covers all of it.
And John goes on to tell us in verse eight that "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and we are not living in the truth". Basically what he's saying is, "Hey, how about instead of a wasting time pretending you've got it all together and looking like a bunch of fools in the process, we just save ourselves the trouble. We admit that we're flawed". Because being flawed, it does not mean you are not loved. And then in verse nine, John tells us what we do instead. He says, "But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness". If we claimed we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. But if we confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just to forgive us.
So, what do we do? How do we find freedom from the darkness and truly live in the light? We confess. Well, what does that mean? Well, confession means agreeing with God about what we've done. Like literally the word confess. "Con" means with and "fess" means to say, to speak or to tell. And so, what we are doing is we are agreeing with God with our words about the things that we have done and what it looks like is telling the truth about what we've done. That's what confession looks like in practice, telling the truth about what we've done, right? It means agreeing with God and it looks like telling the truth because if we just keep it all locked up inside, if we just keep it hidden in the darkness, then we're not actually inviting the light of God's love to heal us.
And so, we start by agreeing with God about what we've done. We agree with him about the ugliness of our sin and we agree with him about the beauty of grace because confession doesn't just take away our guilt, it heals our bodies and our souls. And we do it by telling the truth about what we've done to ourselves, others, and God. We get brutally honest. We don't try to hide it or cover it up because we don't need to get cleaned up before we come to God. He's gonna receive us just as we are. He would rather you be honest than pretend that you're perfect. And maybe for you what that's gonna look like is taking time today in prayer to brutally tell God the truth about what you've done. To not hide it, to not sugarcoat it but just to be honest. Because when you do, he's gonna forgive you.
And then maybe what you're gonna do is go one step further and not just be honest with God but actually be honest with others. To tell other people about the things that you've done. Because when we do that, the Bible tells us that we won't just be forgiven, we'll also be healed. And that's exactly what God wants for you: to experience forgiveness and to be made whole. And what we're gonna do as a Switch movement over the course of the next several weeks is actually make this not just something we do once but a habit that we live daily. We put together a Bible plan called Becoming Like Jesus, Confession and Repentance. And this is meant to be a step-by-step guide to help you take these habits and practices and make them a part of your life. To take these habits and make them your habits, so that this life of living in the light isn't just something that we try to do but we actually train ourselves to do it on a daily basis.
I think one of the best things that you can do is invite other people to do it with you because this life of following Jesus, this life in the light, is never something you're meant to do on your own. So what I would encourage you to do is confess, agree with God about what you've done and tell the truth about what you've done to him, to others, and even to yourself. Because when you do, you'll find forgiveness and you'll find freedom. At the end of this passage that we read, John tells us in chapter 2:1. "My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins and not only our sins but the sins of all the world".
This is what Jesus did for you and what he did for me. He entered the mess of this world and he met it with his mercy. He became a sacrifice on the cross, dying in our place, so that our relationship with God could be repaired, that our friendship with God could be fixed, so that we could be adopted into his family as sons and daughters truly living in the light of his love. That's what God wants for you because God is light and he is inviting you out of the darkness. But the thing is, he's not gonna force you but he absolutely will invite you. And even though right now you may feel stuck in the dark, I want to remind you that when Jesus shows up, when he steps into the room, the light comes on. He gives us courage to do the things we're afraid of and he shows us what it looks like to live as people shaped by the love of God in the light. So confess, agree with God, and tell the truth. And when you do, you're gonna find freedom and forgiveness for all of your sins.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the fact that we get to come before you on a regular basis and worship together in community because we know that none of this is meant to be done on our own but you want us to be a family knitted together by your love and you want us to experience life in the light. And so, God, I pray that we would respond to your invitation to live in the light, that we would bring our darkness to you through confession, and that as we do, we would experience the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness that you have made available to us through your son Jesus. It's in His name we pray, amen.
Still in an attitude of prayer, there's others of you that as you are watching this message, all of that sounds really good but you're not even sure that it's real and you're not even sure that that it's for you. And this is where faith steps in because let me be very clear that we have good reasons to believe that Jesus actually lived, that he actually died, that he actually rose from the grave. But I can tell you about it all day. Until you respond to it, nothing is gonna change for you. Until you say yes to the invitation that God has, you're gonna stay stuck in the dark and God wants you to experience life and light and love.
And that's why Jesus showed up so long ago to bring that for you. This is why the Christian message is called good news. It's good because it changes everything for the better. It's news because it actually happened. You see, as human beings, all of us have been trapped in spiritual darkness because of our sin, the things that we've done to disobey God and hurt others but that is not the way things are meant to be. We are meant to live in relationship with God and with others in the light of his love.
And in order to bring us back into the light, to free us from the darkness, God became one of us, so that we could become one with him that was made possible through Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead on the first Easter Sunday. And because of that moment, from now on, anybody who puts their trust in him can be saved. They can be forgiven; they can be made new; they can be welcomed into God's family. And maybe that's why you're here today: to step out of the darkness and into the light by saying yes to Jesus. If that's you, as you're watching this message, wherever you are in person or online, lift your hand right now saying yes to Jesus. Jesus, I want a relationship with you.
If you're watching it on YouTube, type it in the comments saying, "Jesus, today I give you my life". And as people are making that decision to step out of the darkness and into the light, we're gonna pray with you because there is no better choice you could ever make than that one right there because now you are not alone and in the dark but you are in God's family and you have his love. And so, as I pray this prayer out loud, I want to invite you to pray it out loud with me and those that are making this decision for the first time. So, repeat after me:
Heavenly Father, forgive me. I'm a sinner and I need you to save me. I'm stepping out of the dark and into the light. Thank you for Jesus. Everything I am, I give to you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen and amen!