Canceled Darkness

And I want to do a little illustration , and I'm going to use one of our leaders tonight and I've been deciding man , who do I want to pick to do this illustration , because we're not going to not that we're going to embarrass them , but this is going to be interesting to see what happens .

And so I have three leaders in my head that I want to pick , but I don't want to pick them . I want you guys to pick them . So I'm going to call those three leaders out and then you guys are going to tell me which one should do it . And so the first leader that we're going to might use is Mr Austin Shown . Austin , would you stand up ?

Please just stand up right where you're at . This is Austin . Everybody say hi , austin . The second leader that we might use is Mr Jeffrey . Jeffrey , can you stand up right where you're at ? Everybody say hi , jeffrey . And then the third leader that I want to use is Pastor Sam . Sam , stand up for me in the back . Say hi , pastor Sam .

All right , so here's how we're going to vote for this . If you , I'm going to call each guy leader that's standing . If you think they should be the one to do this illustration , I'm not going to tell you what it is , but if you think they should do it , I need you to just scream .

All right , the loudest scream we get , for the leader will do this illustration , all right . So if you think Mr Austin should do it , I need you to scream Sam's screaming as loud as he can , all right , that was easy . If you think Jeffrey should do it , give me a scream . All right , we all knew what was going to happen here .

If you think Pastor Sam should do it , give me a scream . All right , pastor Sam , come on up here . Sorry , other guys , I kind of knew that was going to happen . So you both are welcome . So there we go . Come on , sam , get up here . Oh , this is going to be good . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah . We need to do that one more time .

I need you to put this on so you can't see . Put it on as tight as you can . I don't want you to be able to see a darn thing . Ok , yeah , give me some pull to the channel , all right . So what we're going to do to Pastor Sam . Can you see me ? How many fingers am I holding up ? I'm not holding up any , so we're good , all right .

So , basically , what we're going to do is I'm going to slide you over this way , ok .

Ok , jess , I need you to stay right where you're at , ok , when I'm going to do a little demonstration , I'm going to spin you first and when I say go , I need you to find Ms Jess in the room , ok , and I need you to go to her and she might say her name , she might call your name out , she might give you a little word to tell you in general where

she is , but I need you to find your direction to her . Ok , all right , there we go . Don't go yet . Can I just spin you a couple times ? Wait , all right , go find Jess . Don't call her . No , not even I need you to walk to Jess . Don't help him . Nobody help him . Nobody help him . I'm just going to be honest . This was not planned Exactly With Sam .

You never know what's going to happen For everybody that's standing up . Sam is currently blindfolded and looking for someone , and so as soon as he tries to find said person will be very interesting . Jess , why don't you just kind of give him a word of where you're at ? Oh OK , there we go . There we go , let's see what . That is not Jess .

I'm just going to be real honest with you . That is not her . That is definitely not Jess . You want to try this ? You're perfect at it . All right , he found Jess . Everybody . Give Sam a big round of applause . Good job , sam . No , sam , you can keep my blindfold . You can hold onto that . Enjoy it .

I hope everybody in this section right here just enjoyed what happened there , because that was just amazing . Great job , sam . You did that . Perfect for me . That good , do it , post him , he'll love it . All right , so back to the message .

So I did this for a reason , ok , not just because we wanted to laugh at whoever did it and see what would have happened and see if they would have fallen and tripped and whatever . But I did this because we're talking about darkness tonight and Sam , when he had his blindfold across his eyes , he couldn't see right .

He had no idea what was in front of him . He had no idea what was around him when I was spinning him . He had no idea where he was at right . He had no idea . He was in complete darkness . And today we're going to talk about this idea of canceling darkness because I think for a lot of us in this room , we are walking through some darkness .

And what do I mean by darkness ? I just mean maybe there's something in your life that you are walking through that is maybe difficult . Maybe you're going through a season right now with maybe some friends at school that they are just annoying . Maybe you're going through a season at home with your parents and they are annoying .

Maybe you got a season with a boyfriend and girlfriend I don't know if you're all dating right now , but maybe you just got some seasons going on and we got some darkness that we're going to talk about . And so I did this with Pastor Sam .

He had the blindfold on because as he was walking , as you could tell , when he first started right here , the first thing he did was this Because he didn't know what was in front of him right , he had to double check , right . I did this on my own while I was practicing to see if it worked , and I closed my eyes .

I ran into my countertop , so that was fun . But he didn't know what was in front of him right , and then he just started being weird and he just started climbing over seats , like he knew he was in the seats right by that point , but he was stumbling , all right .

He didn't know what was in front of him , so he had to put his hand out to protect himself . You know , there was times where he was stumbling over the chairs . He was stumbling over the people . People were getting out of your way , sam , just so you know they're like , I'm not about to have him step on me right now .

People were scattering and so he was stumbling over people , over chairs , and I think that this is a realization and a visual for maybe how some of us feel on the inside . We're living our life in today's day and age and instead of walking with confidence in the light and knowing where we're going , we're actually just like man . Should I do that ?

Should I trust this person ? Should I walk with confidence into this relationship ? Should I walk with confidence into the basketball court for trial ? And we're not walking with confidence and we're stumbling and we're maybe scared to take the next step because we don't know what's in front of us . And here I want to ask you a question .

Maybe write this down if you want to Do . You feel like you are stumbling your way through life . I want you to mentally think about that in your own head . Do I feel like I am stumbling my way through life ? And here's even another question Do you feel like you are walking in darkness ?

Do you feel like you'd have no sense of direction right now , that you're confused , that you don't know where you're going , you don't know what's happening around you ? See , what if I told you that you don't have to do those things ? What if I told you you don't have to do this every time that you want to take a step ?

What if I told you you don't have to be stumbling over things in front of you ? See , the amazing thing is that we don't have to walk in darkness . See , there's a scripture verse in John 8 .

God encourage you to take a picture of this , write this down , go back to it later , because in John 8.12 it says this again Jesus spoke to them saying I am the light of the world . Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness , but will have the light of life .

Josiah , just keep that up there for the next few minutes , because I love this scripture verse and let's just break it down . Jesus is speaking to people , right ? He's speaking to a group of people that are around him and he's saying I am the light of the world , right , whoever follows me will not walk in darkness . What does that mean ?

So if we follow after Jesus , if we make our life about Jesus , if we invite Jesus in and we truly follow him and truly make our life about him , can I tell you he says whoever follows me will not walk in darkness . Whoever listens to my commandments will not walk in darkness . Whoever reads my word will not walk in darkness .

Let's put it this way , I'll make it real for you Whoever listens while I am talking will not walk in darkness because , guess what ? You will hear the words that God wants to speak to you tonight . See , if we follow Jesus , we are following the light of the world . We will not walk in darkness your life . You will not walk in darkness in your life .

Jesus will lead you through every single thing in your life . See , it's funny , because I read this scripture verse and it's easy to look at this scripture verse and say man , that's really easy . Actually , it's super easy to not walk in darkness . All we have to do is follow Jesus . Right , it's super easy .

But as I read this scripture verse and thought about how easy it was , the first thing that came to my mind is is if it's so easy , then why do so many of us choose to walk in darkness ? I don't know about you , but the last thing I wanna do is not know how to walk . No offense , I never wanna be like Sam in this moment .

I never wanna be like Sam with a blindfold . Could you imagine every day walking around with a blindfold on Going to school with a blindfold on Going to basketball with a blindfold on ? Could you imagine going to band practice with a blindfold on ? Nah , none of us would wanna walk around with a blindfold on our face . 24 , seven .

We would be having broken bones and falling down staircases , running into walls , face planning , breaking nose , like we would be done all right , our life would be over because we would just be broken into pieces . But so many of us that is the life that we are living with just a blindfold on our face , constantly just walking around in darkness .

But yet it's so easy to not walk in darkness , it's so easy to choose a different way . And see , as I was thinking about this idea of why it's so hard and why it's so easy at the same time is it's because we have not allowed ourself to be open to the reality of God . I don't wanna break that down for you .

Maybe you have not allowed yourself to be open to the reality of who God can be in your life , and I maybe want you to think about that for a second . Some of you , you come to church a lot . Some of you maybe have never been to church and you're hearing about God for the very first time , but maybe you have not allowed God to really speak to you .

Maybe you've come into this building , you've taken it as a joke , maybe you've just decided I don't want to know about God , I don't want to understand Him , I don't want to follow Him , and I think you've not allowed yourself to be open to who he is and who he can be in your life .

And who he can be in your life is somebody that will light your path and light your life and show you where you should go if you choose to follow Him . See , so many of you know Jesus . So many of you in here maybe heard about Jesus . Maybe you don't know Him , but maybe you've heard about Him . Maybe you haven't even heard about Him .

Maybe you've read about Jesus , but you haven't entered , you haven't brought Him in , you haven't made your life about Him .

I want to tell you a story about a man in the Bible named Saul . Anybody ever heard of Saul in the Bible ? Okay , let me ask you this have you ever heard of Paul ? Have you ever heard of the name Paul ? All right , then , you know who Saul is , because Paul used to be Saul . I want to read you the Scripture verse in Acts 9 , 1-9 .

All right , bear with me on the story . It's real short , it's not long . It's a good story , I promise you . It says this , but Saul , still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord , went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus so that he found , if he found , anyone belonging to the way .

I'll pause there for a second . Belonging to the way means anybody that followed Jesus , anybody that believed in Jesus , anybody who followed Him , anybody who went wherever he went . That's what he means here . Belonging to the way . Let me find my path . Blowing to the way . Men or women he might bring them . Bound to Jerusalem . Now , as he went on his way .

He approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him . Falling to the ground , he heard a voice saying to him Saul , saul , why are you persecuting me ? And he said to the voice who are you , lord ?

And he said I am Jesus , whom you are persecuting , but rise , enter the city you are going to and you will be told what you are going to do . The men who were traveling with him stood speechless , hearing the voice but seeing no one . Saul rose from the ground that day and , although his eyes were open , he saw nothing . He was in complete darkness .

So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank . See , I love this story because Saul , multiple times , multiple times Saul was a character who killed people who believed in Jesus . Can I tell you this ?

I'll make it into terms today Because Saul were to walk through those doors and he was still the person that he was before Jesus got his attention . Let's just be honest , this is kind of scary . He would kill us because we believe in Jesus and because we're following Jesus and because we're in church . That's the reality of what Saul did .

He would do those things to people who believed in Jesus . And so Saul was this person . He knew who Jesus was . Right , he knew who he was . Saul probably heard stories about Jesus because Jesus died on the cross and rose again and then Saul was after Jesus . So Saul knew and heard about Jesus . He probably read about Jesus .

But can I tell you , in this story at the beginning , saul was not making his life about Jesus . He was actually doing the exact opposite . And if we're even real tonight , I know some of you all wouldn't murder other Christians .

But if we take the murder out of it and maybe put hate in there , many of you in here you're probably hating on the reality of maybe accepting Jesus into your heart . Maybe you're hating on the idea of church , maybe you're hating on the idea of what God can do in your life , and Saul was that character .

But the beauty of this story is that Jesus entered into the story and he grabbed Saul's attention . He grabbed Saul's attention . He shook him awake . He made it so he couldn't see . He was like Pastor Sam made him blind , put on the darkness , made him blind so he could not see anything that was in front of him . And for three days , three days .

He went without drinking or eating . Has anybody ever gone three days without drinking or eating in this room ? Yes , nothing . No water , no liquids , no food , no nothing . No snacks , no peppermints , no gum , no , nothing . That's impressive . Good for you , but I'm sure a lot of us . It would be hard to walk without sight .

I'm sure it would be hard for us to not eat or drink . See so Saul . He knew who Jesus was , he had heard about Jesus , he had read about Jesus . But Saul was not making his life about Jesus . Instead , he was doing the exact opposite and he was killing Christians . He was getting rid of Christians who did ?

He did not want them here , he did not want them around and see Jesus . Like I said , he had to grab Saul's attention . He had to make Saul aware of what he was doing and the gravity of what he was doing . Because , see , can I tell you this , jesus had a plan and a purpose for Saul's life . See later .

That's why I asked you if you knew who Paul was , because Saul Jesus ended up changing his name to Paul , and Paul was a dude that preached to thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people , telling them about Jesus . So the dude that went from killing Christians and killing people who believed in Jesus .

He then turned around because Jesus grabbed his attention and now he preached to thousands of people . He saved thousands of people . He led thousands of people to Jesus . And not only that . He wrote like the majority of the New Testament . So in the Bible , when you read anything in the New Testament , I guarantee you the majority of it was written by Paul .

So God had a purpose for Paul's life . He had a reason that he needed to grab Paul's attention . He needed him to do something for him . We saw , went on to be Paul and he did all of those amazing things and he began to make his life about Jesus . He made his life about

Jesus . Can I tell you just a real quick tidbit there might be some of you in this space and maybe you're listening , maybe you're not but there are some of you in this space that you think you've done too much , you've said too much , you've seen too much and you think you can't be used by God . You think you can't have a relationship with him .

You think you can't , god won't love you . You think all of those things , can I tell you ? I'm pretty sure none of you have killed people for what they believed in . If you did , we need to have a conversation . Okay , because that's scary , but I'm sure none of you have done that , so you are fine .

If God can use Saul , who was killing Christians and he turned him around and turned his life around and used him for his glory to write the majority of the New Testament to preach to thousands of people , can I tell you that God wants to use you too . God wants to use you for what he has to do for you and what your life needs to him .

And tonight we're going to wrap this up real quick , because the reason I want to is because I want to give time for some small groups after this , but also I want to let the end what we're going to do at the end kind of just speak to us .

And tonight I feel like there's some of you here that Jesus just wants to grab your attention , and if you're on your phone and you're not taking notes , I want you to put away , because I know there's a lot of you in here that are doing that and I see you all because you've been staring down way too long .

All right , I haven't had that many notes , all right , so you shouldn't be staring down that long , but I want you to lean in with me for just five minutes , all right . I believe there's some of you that let's just be real honest . You need to stop messing around , thank you , and I think you need to take some of this seriously .

I've shared this over and over again that I never took this seriously and I wasted so much of my life , and I never . You think me just saying don't be on your phones is just , oh , the pastor saying don't be on his phone ? Oh , my gosh , like that's annoying . I'm gonna do it anyway . No , I'm saying it because I want you to lean in .

Can I tell you , if you're on your phone , you've probably heard nothing that I've said tonight . I guarantee you , if I were to ask you right now , hey , if I went to these people that were on their phone , I said , hey , what did I just talk about ? I guarantee you couldn't even tell me .

It's because you're distracted , and that's exactly kind of what I'm talking about is you are allowing yourself to be distracted from what God wants to do in your life . Some of you all think you're just students and you have no potential . You have nothing you could add to this world . Yet Can I tell , you guys have everything to add to this world .

You have everything to give to this world . But I think this generation , I think so many adults , they mock your generation because they look at y'all and they just say , oh , they just care about their phones , they just care about Snapchat and social media and they don't care about nothing else .

They don't care about the world , they don't care about being there for people . Can I tell you , I see the exact opposite in y'all's generation , and anytime I have somebody come up to me and say , man , this generation , they all do care about their social media , can I tell ?

I literally say straight to the face yeah , that's not true , because you guys have so much more to add to this world than maybe what you think you're giving .

And so I tell you not to sit on your phones during this time because I want you to lean in with me so you can hear about , maybe , what God can do in your life , because I know , for a matter of fact , your life is not perfect . Y'all got some stuff going on .

Maybe it's family stuff , maybe it's school drama , maybe it's relationship drama , maybe it's your past . Maybe you got something going on in your past that you don't wanna talk about to nobody . Maybe somebody did something to you , can I tell you . Maybe some of y'all are addicted to some things you don't wanna be addicted to .

Maybe you're looking at some stuff on the internet that you shouldn't be looking at . Maybe you're texting some people in some DMs that you shouldn't be texting . Maybe you got an inappropriate relationship going on that you should not be talking to that girl or you should not be talking to that boy .

So I know y'all got something going on , and every time I say those things , I see people looking and pointing fingers and going , hey , that person does Listen , your pointing fingers . I know you're the one that's got something going on too , but I'm saying we all got stuff . Listen , I got my own stuff . I got my life going on too .

Can I tell you my life is not perfect . My life is not roses and sunshine nah , not even close . So I know y'all got stuff going on . And see , this room , this space , is an opportunity for you to work on those things . Okay , cause , like , can I tell you those things ? Maybe you're dealing with some pain from your past .

No offense , I don't want you to deal with that pain forever . Do you want to ? You wanna deal with that trauma forever ? See , this is a space where God wants to maybe lift those things . This is a space where God wants to maybe remove the blindfold from your life and walk with you through some of the stuff that you're dealing with .

But here's one little thing that is interesting about those things is that the stuff that you go through cannot be healed , cannot be fixed , if you don't take a moment here and open yourself up for a second and just allow God to do some surgery on your heart and allow Him to speak to you . I want to do something real quick . Keep your eyes on me .

They'll pop up on the screen and you can take a picture when I'm done . But I want to read these four statements . Maybe these four statements will speak to you , but just for a second , bear with me . You have a destiny outside of your darkness . Your darkness you're walking through .

Can I tell you that when you get to the other side , the destiny that you have , the story that God wants to write , is amazing . Second one you have a future outside of your failures . Some of you tonight . You failed . I don't know what you failed at , but you failed . Maybe it was a test . Maybe it was failing to get on the basketball team .

Maybe it was failing at a homework assignment . Maybe it was failing at being a good brother or good sister . Can I tell you that God has so much more for you past that failure . So much more . The third one is you have a purpose outside of your pain .

I think a lot of times we like to believe that the pain that I've endured in my past , the pain that I've endured today , tomorrow , yesterday , whatever we think I can't be used because that pain is too strong , that pain is too great , that pain is not good enough . I can't be used by anybody .

I can't do anything with my life , man , my life means nothing because I have all that junk in the past . Can I tell you you have purpose outside of the pain that you're walking through ? And last one , you have salvation outside of your sin . Now you can take a picture of it , because they're all up there . You have salvation outside of your sin .

What do I mean by that ? Salvation is a word that we use in church to say that you could get saved . It's a word that we use to say that God Jesus is going to enter into your life . You invite him in and he's going to save you from the sin that you have committed , the stuff that you have done .

So you have salvation outside of your sin , and I don't know what one of these four statements has spoken to you , but I know that in a room this size with this many students , I know there's some of you in here that are going through something , and if you allow your life to be filled with Jesus , he will begin to do something new inside of you .

I want to give this little illustration , and I'm going to give credit to Justin Lane . I wasn't going to say this , but he spoke this to me on Tuesday and it was amazing . He watched a video . There you go . There's a video of a guy .

I'm not even going to say it , right , but the illustration is all that matters he watched the video and during this illustration I wish I could do it . I should have brought a whiteboard out here . This pastor came up to this atheist . If you don't know , an atheist , an atheist is somebody who does not believe in God . There's no God Right .

We believe in God , atheists . They don't believe in any God . Right , this pastor came up to this atheist . He drew a big circle on a whiteboard . Okay , this guy was really smart . This man , really smart dude , knew a lot of stuff .

The pastor told this guy hey , I want you to draw a line , a percentage of this circle , of what you think you know about everything that could be known in the earth . And that's a big question . Right , there's a lot of stuff to be known , a lot of subjects to be known , right ? So the guy came up to atheists .

He drew a line and he marked it about 30% . He thinks he knows 30% of everything that could be possibly known . That's a big number , 30% . I would put mine at like 0.00000001% because I know nothing . He put 30% . This guy did not believe in God . So then the pastor asked him it's a big number , right .

Now , what if , in the rest of that 70% , the answer to God is in there and you just haven't found him yet ?

I say that because first , when I heard it , it kind of blew my mind , and I think that's an interesting way to put it , because I think there's some of you in here that maybe don't believe in God , maybe you don't believe in who he is , and maybe you're tonight you're just coming for the first time , or maybe you've been coming for a while and you've said

to yourself I don't believe in a God . Maybe you just haven't found him yet , maybe you just haven't found the answers to him yet , and maybe tonight you just need to open yourself up to the possibility of what God can do in your life . And so what we're going to do is we're going to sing this song and I love the song that we chose for tonight .

I think it's a good song and tonight I'm going to encourage you to open yourself up to the possibility of maybe , just maybe , of what God can do in your life . And I'll tell you this what does it hurt to try ?

What is it hurt to come up to a leader that stands up here because I wanna invite the leaders up in a second what is it hurt to come up to a leader and say to them hey , this is what I'm walking through . Can you pray for me ?

What is it hurt that after tonight , when you go home and you go to school tomorrow , and the very thing that you're thinking about right now , that you don't wanna do after tonight and you go to school , or maybe you go home . Maybe you just try not to do those things .

Maybe you just try not to look at stuff on the internet you're not supposed to look at . You know you want to , but maybe we just try not to . Maybe we let God speak to us instead .

Maybe , instead of going to school tomorrow and making fun of your friends or making fun of other people , maybe we just say to ourselves you know what , I'm gonna try not to do that tomorrow .

Maybe you go to school tomorrow and you just say maybe I just try not to do anything , that I know , if I were to be in the room with my parents or in the room with the teacher , I wouldn't do those things . Maybe we just try not to do those things .

And I say that because if you try and put some effort in , can I tell you God will begin to work in your life . And I say that because this is what I've learned about Christians . This is what I've learned about following Jesus .

Is that in a moment like this , you can go up to a leader , ask for prayer about something that you're going through , and then turn around and you go home and it's still there . Maybe you ask for freedom from an addiction . But then you go home and then you get addicted to whatever it is you ask for freedom from , and that addiction is still there .

And then you get addicted again and you do what you don't wanna do and then you're like , well , god obviously isn't there , so I'm just gonna give up . Can I tell you the thing that God wants you to do ? God is never going to get rid of something . That's hard .

I did an addiction to something for a very , very , very , very , very , very long time , something that ruined my life for a long time , and for about half the time that I dealt with it , I was probably bringing it to God every day , but then every day I would still do the very thing that I didn't wanna do .

But can I tell you , when I got to the other side of that addiction , I was so strong on the other side because every single day I was fighting for my life to be different . And so , for a few minutes , we're gonna just in this space . The leaders are gonna come up to the front and I encourage you , take this moment seriously and just go .

Maybe what if ? Hey , what if I try it Just for five minutes , that we sing this song . Just what if ? And so I'm gonna invite my leaders up . If you're a leader in the room , come on up . If you're not a leader , just stand where you're at , just in your seat . All students just stand up , go ahead . You can stand up , don't be afraid .

I know you're tired . I put you to sleep , it's fine , but just for this moment . For the next , however long this song goes for , just ask yourself what if ? I feel like . I say what if a lot , because I want you to , just I want you to feel it and I want you to experience it . And so I'm gonna pray . The team's gonna lead us in this

song . If you want to worship , worship . You want to raise your hands , raise your hand . If you want to sing , sing . If you want to sit in your seat and just pray , if you want to find a seat in the room , go for it . If you want to come up and get prayer , go for it . If you want to just look at the lyrics on the screen , go for it .

Whatever you want to do , that's comfortable . But I say this every time we're not going to distract somebody else , so you're gonna put your phones away and , just for five , six minutes . Just soak this moment up and just see what God wants to do .

Lord , I just thank you for tonight , I just thank you for the opportunity to be in this room and so , god , I ask right now that you would speak to every student in this room .

Lord , I pray that you would just invade their life , like you did Saul's God , that you would just shine a light in their life and maybe show them what they need to change , show them what they're doing wrong , show them how they can live a better life , show them how they can change , maybe , who they are , to be better and to follow you with everything that

they have . So , god , in this moment , we just pray that you have your way . God , lead us , strengthen us and do what only you can do right here , right now , in this moment , and in Jesus' name , we pray Amen .