Sermon Journal Notes: Trust GOD’s Light
You know we live in a world where trust is not easily come by, a world where people can say one thing but mean another and have no problem arguing you down about it….Those folks that try to make the bad things they’re doing be seen as innocent and truth while the good in the world is crowded out by foolishness, we live in that world, in fact we always have. Throughout history since the fall of man we have seen the serpents of life, twisting and conniving trying to twist GOD’s words into confusion…..BUT we, children of the most high GOD have to stand for HIS truth and BE His light….to not be moved by our own understanding, our own comfort levels but to stand for the light of GOD regardless….which reminds me, I was reading several articles on my phone one day and I came across a “this day in history” it was about a woman named Alberta Odell Jones, this “day in history” told the story of the beautiful face of the young woman smiling back at me. She seemed young, unusually young to have accomplished so much in her life. She in 1965 was appointed as the first woman prosecutor in Louisville. The attorney that helped negotiate the 1st contract for Cassius Clay AKA Muhammed Ali. Ms. Jones graduated 3rd and 4th in her undergraduate and graduate classes. And as a member of prominent civil right organizations Ms. Jones was indeed a force to be dealt with, she started the independent Voters Association …she even rented voting machines to help teach / prepare African Americans to vote. This beautiful African American woman only in her early and mid 30’s when she had the choice to either share or hide GOD’s light. You see that’s how it happens, you are faced with a choice, the easier route of staying under “radar” “going along to get along” Or allowing GOD’s light to shine and operate in this otherwise darken world. The light of GOD exposes, empowers, encourages and encamps…We have to decide for ourselves if we’re willing to let HIS light be our guide……We need to indeed “trust The Light”. To be light Ms Jones willing to stand up against the evils of this world. It was said she was ostracized, talked about left out by many of her peers, but that didn’t stop her, she continued her crusade to shine God’s light, you know that time when folks wanted to gauge another’s worth based on their skin color, a time when well doesn’t seem quite so far in the past or unfamiliar but a time when policies and authorities worked hand in hand to keep some folks terrified and terrorized them to submission. You know those folks who walk in darkness and are so determined for you to walk with them in darkness…BUT GOD!!! Trusting HIS light always, for everything..
Have you ever gone through something; I mean really gone through some things. Maybe you’re going through something right now. You’re looking here and looking there…but nothing seems to work, fumbling and bumbling through darkness grasping hold to this, and trying to make due with that……you just keep doing the same thing over and over again, trying to fix it yourself…you say you’re giving it to GOD but before long you’re pondering and planning…yet the harder you try the darker it seems to get. But again, we have to remember…..just trust the light, trust Jesus. That means trusting Jesus when you don’t have a clue what’s about to happen next, trusting GOD to “order the steps” ( Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way;”)Trusting GOD when the outcome is different than you expected …GOD will work things for your good ( Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
And you know what we can keep that encouraging word in mind today, just as Jesus spoke to the disciples in Matthew 10:22 I believe that word is for us. Cause truth be told sometimes folks might come against you because you’re a Christian, because you choose to live in the light of GOD and not get lost in darkness and guess what folks may not like you.. might even wanna talk bad about you….but don’t worry about it, no weapon formed against you will prosper…and every lying tongue is silenced by you at least that’s what the word says in Isaiah 54:17..i don’t know about you but I choose to believe it, I choose to trust the light, trust Jesus. Can you begin to see the importance of trusting the light of GOD?
Even in John 16:33 Jesus reminded the Disciples that troubles can come in the world, but to be courageous because Jesus has overcome the world. That’s a word for us today. As God’s children, we must remind ourselves the victory is already won, you keep looking to your own hands, your own mind to conjure up a light of victory but all we got to do is trust Jesus. When we trust him, we remember that He has all power on earth…according to Matthew 28:18 “ he said I have been given authority in heaven and on earth. “ and with that we know That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11) well, I don’t know about you, I’d rather trust the light…but some of yall? Mmm mmm, not you…… you want to be like them Israelites, led out of captivity. Saw first hand……. witnesses to the power of GOD, saw the lord perform many miracles, do many things that no one was ever able to do…yet…they had some in the group that chose doubt, complaining, fear and confusion….yet they saw the Lord divide the Red Sea, they knew the Lord had heard their cry and promised to keep them, to be their God and they HIS people. With Manna and quail falling from the sky, water from stone…covenant promises made and kept, yet they looked for something they could put in their hand, rather than looking to God…..the GOD that provided “cloud by day and fire by night” they looked to own their hands…. took the very provision the Lord gave them and shaped them into an idol, with hope with a plan to shine a little light on the situation…...
You see, sometimes will take the very sound mind the Lord has promised us, right the words from 2 Timothy 1:7 and instead of walking without fear we take our minds and scheme and contrive, looking for a better way, we get to leaning on our own imagination rather than trusting the Lord……We know that GOD has provided for us, we have many testimonies we can share about how good He’s been…. how faithful He is…. we’ve got the memories of the “show up show out GOD” that made a way out of no way, showed mercy when things seemed hopeless and heard us in our every cry. Healed and delivered…set free indeed!! Yet we forget……………when trouble comes in we close our eyes and begin to fumble, we see the dark and forget……we forget that GOD said HE will be our Sheppard and we will not want … we forget to seek God first and trusting HIM to provide our every need according to Philippians 4:1 we forget that “nothing can separate us from God’s love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:38)
We gotta trust Jesus, trust the Light from God…..the God of Abraham , Isaac & Jacob, the very GOD that kept HIS word with them will keep HIS word with you…the only thing HIS word can’t do is come back void….so when you find yourself trying to do it yourself… trust the light…..I want to remind you again about Jesus the one who said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
So when trouble attempts to overwhelm you with darkness and heaviness that you forget you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you…call on him...remember the words of Zechariah in Luke 1:67-79 comes to mind when John the Baptist’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us. He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered His holy covenant — the oath that He swore to our father Abraham. He has given us the privilege, since we have been rescued from our enemies’ clutches, to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness in His presence all our days. And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. “ Amen! Don’t you know God has kept HIS word, and continues to keep HIS word? get your self together and get up out those dark places, you know what God has said to you about your situation , you hold on to God’s unchanging hand and let Him do it, sometimes we so busy being distracted by the mess we forget the fact we’re blessed, we forget Deuteronomy 28, that if we fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity--in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground--in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.
The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
We must listen to GOD, read and study HIS word, let HIM guide you out of those dark places, stop trying to fix it yourself, stop trying to stand in the dark and walk with your eyes closed. Open up your mouth and call on Him, God says in Psalm 91:15 “when He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him” amen, so trust the light…trust Jesus…
its like those situations that seem to pop up in our lives, those times when things just seem to be going wrong and you’re looking for peace, trying to find relief….but if you’re not looking to God you’re looking in the wrong place.
See, all too often we You keep trying to find your way out of what GOD has already worked out through the Cross. You see there will be some times in this world….according to the Gospel John chapter 16 things happen in this world, but Jesus has overcome this world. I’m telling you today just as Jesus told His disciples then, we can have peace in Jesus. But you know what too many times we’re trying to find peace in the world around us……BUT GOD is that answer, not you, not them, not those opinions but GOD’s trust…Trust GOD’s Light.
Don’t allow the so called cards stacked against you to discourage you, stand so firm on GOD’s truth, HIS light, HE’ll do the rest…when you’ve done all you can do ; through Christ, STAND…like the words of those that came before us, the encouragement from Joseph who told his brothers “what you meant for evil against me, GOD used it for good” let GOD use HIS will and all your life’s circumstances for good…..when Albert Odell Jones became the first female prosecutor in Louisville in 1965, she told the Louisville Courier-Journal that people would tell her, "You've got two strikes against you. You're a woman and you're a Negro," to which she responded: "Yeah, but I've got one strike left, and I've seen people get home runs when all they've got left is one strike." What will you allow GOD’s light to do in you? Like little David faced with his giant, will you put your trust so deep in GOD that you allow HIS light to shine despite your circumstances, beyond your fears, beyond what folks would say…Trust GOD’s Light….amen, amen
