Josh Laack explores why the Christian life must be lived out by believing what God has revealed, and obeying His commands for our lives. Good morning, Calvary. My name is Josh Laack, and I have the joy and honor of serving as your elder board chair. And I also have the joy of being a part of the preaching team here at Calvary. And over the last little bit here this summer, we’ve been going through together this series in First John called Walk in the Light. When you hear the phrase walk in the light, what comes to your mind? For me, I think of the long journey that I took in my own life, toward becoming a born-again believer in Jesus, one who walks in the light. And I’ll be honest with you, this has not been a straight path in my life, nor an easy one. I see times in my life where I was trying to do one or the other of these pieces, either trying to be in the light or trying to walk, but I did not know how to put them together. What do I mean by that? Well, as a teen and into my early 20s, I spent a great deal of time walking all over the place. And by that I don’t mean getting exercise. I was trying to do a lot of things for and with people, but I was not motivated by the right things. I felt this powerful need to be seen and recognized and desired by those around me. But some of the people that I put around me were not people that I should want to be praised and recognized as doing what they wanted me to be doing. I wanted to be thought of as cool, accepted, part of the in-crowd. And so I behaved, I walked, in the way that I thought that they would want me to. This resulted in me joining in and swearing and watching movies and TV shows and listening to music, things that did not increase the light of Christ in my heart and my life. But I did these things because I wanted these people to think that I was somebody worth something, that I was somebody good. In fact, I even went so far as to do nice things for people, to do good things for people, but again, not for the right reasons. I would hold open doors or say nice things because I wanted the other person to recognize me, to say thank you, or to say, wow, that’s a really good guy, that Joshua. Unfortunately, this wasn’t just in the secular world that this played out. It happened for me at church too. Because at this point, even though I went to church on Sundays, I wasn’t even a Sunday Christian. I went to church, and I did it, and I said the things that I knew would get the recognition of Christians around me that I wanted to impress. I knew the right words. I knew what to say and how to say it. I knew when to pray. But it wasn’t something that was coming from my heart. It was something that was coming from my desire to be thought well of, to be recognized. During this time, I actually came to know many true things about Christianity, including even the knowledge that Jesus was probably who he claimed to be. I allowed that knowledge, that light, to enter my mind, but it did not affect my walk. Instead, I used the knowledge to continue to seek my own personal gain by having better things to share with those Christians around me. Better things to say. It took the Holy Spirit, a lot of trials and a lot of time for God to finally bring my heart around to a real desire to let that knowledge change how I walked. To become a Christian who genuinely served and walked in the light. This series, Walk in the Light, is John describing something genuine, something that begins with the light, the knowledge and truth of who Jesus is and what he’s done. And that light shining into the darkness of our lives. But it continues. It continues with that light altering who we are, what we know and believe, and then how we live our lives. We cannot just have knowledge, and we cannot just stand still or walk in our own strength. My point for us today is this: the Christian life must be lived out by believing what God has revealed and obeying his commands for our lives. You know, it actually makes a great deal of sense why it took me so long to get to that point in my life. Because the light does something that most of us don’t like at first. It reveals the hidden truths about who we really are. Things that we would much rather keep hidden from those around us. And it’s why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:20 that was read for us everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. You know, I was avoiding truly living in the light because I thought I wanted to have both. I thought I wanted to keep the things of my old life, the things that felt good in the moment. I thought I wanted those things, too. And so I tried to have the light, but I tried to keep it at a distance so that I could keep on the other side these things that I wanted in the shadows. And I tried to hide those things even from my Lord, only really fooling myself. Of course, it never works that way. The way we deceive ...
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