Practical messages that will encourage you and help you grow in your faith.
Last week, we ended the service with the reality that the totality of God’s will is for us to know Him. Not just to know about Him through His word, teachings, and the testimonies of others, but to know Him through a personal relationship.
The more that you get to know Him, the more that you want to get to know Him more!
The more that you get to know Him, the more that you will want to be like Him.
The more that you get to know Him, the easier time you will have recognizing sin.
The more that you get to know Him, the less that you will want sin in your life.
The more that you get to know God, the better He gets and the better your life will be as well.
The more that you get to know Him, the more that you will want to tell others about Him.
God is so magnificent and vast that we could spend the entirety of our lifetime seeking and pursuing Him and still never fully know Him. Even if hourly, He were to reveal to us another attribute of who He is, there would still be more to learn and know and understand about Him!
In fact, the more that we get to know God the less we value the things of this world and even the elementary things that were once revealed to us that we left us in awe of God at that time. Even after experiencing a personal encounter with Jesus that transformed His life so dramatically that he was renamed from Saul to Paul, even after experiencing signs, wonders, and miracles that few of us have experienced firsthand, he still wrote and said:
Philippians 3:7-12
7 whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Philippians 3:7-12 (TPT)
7 Yet all of the accomplishments that I once took credit for, I’ve now forsaken them and I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ as my Lord! 8 To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now, so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness.
9 My passion is to be consumed with him and not cling to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My only “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – the very righteousness that comes from God. 10 And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me. I will be one with him in his sufferings and become like him in his death. 11 Only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with him in his resurrection from the realm of death.
12 I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own.
We haven’t reached our goal yet, we haven’t acquired the fullness that we’re pursuing, but we’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good and that leaves us hungering and thirsting for more! It keeps us pressing into the Lord and pressing on in life always expecting an even greater future encounter with God.
He also wrote:
Ephesians 1:17-23
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Knowing God better and to be filled with the fullness of Christ in everything and in every way! What a goal to press on toward!
This morning, we turn to a song written by a man who knew God well; David. He was far from a perfect person, which he was upfront and honest about. Samuel described him as a man after God’s own heart and David proved this time and time again.
From this song, we can more fully get to know God even as David did. He wrote:
Psalm 27
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation –
whom shall I fear?
Just this simple phrase unlocks more revelation than we have time to go over this morning; “The Lord is my light.”
Light was the very first thing that God created along with a separation from light calling them day and night.
Light is what guides our paths and enables us to walk with confidence and see what comes our way.
On the fourth day, God created the stars as well as our sun and moon. God said that they were to mark sacred times and days and years. Of course, we know that they were created so carefully and intentionally that we can even use them to navigate across the oceans in ships!
When light is absent, we have only darkness. Darkness causes uncertainty and even fear. Darkness covers and shrouds even what is well known and very familiar to us.
Most of us are familiar with our homes. We’ve walked through them countless times. However, when the power goes out and nighttime falls, we navigate through them with arms flailing around groping for walls as we stub toes and miss steps. We look like someone who has never once walked through our home!
We may have driven down a highway hundreds of thousands of times, but try driving that same path on an overcast night with no headlights. That highway wouldn’t be so familiar, would it? We certainly would not drive it with confidence!
When the Lord is our light, even when dark times come our way, we can still navigate through them with confidence. We can take walk firmly and not be moved and not be shaken because we’re walking not by our own knowledge and understanding, but by the truth of the Lord!
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Only the Lord can guide and direct our paths and the way that we can walk because in Him alone, there is no darkness or anything unknown!
Did you ever wonder, like me, how there could be day and night on the first day of creation and again on the second day of creation and again on the third day of creation, but there was no sun or moon until the fourth day? Well, John was taken into Heaven and explains how this could be the case. After all, in Heaven:
Revelation 21:23
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Revelation 22:5
They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
God’s Presence is more than just a symbolic reference to being our light; He literally is the light. His glory shines in a literal sense! When Moses met with the Lord on Mount Sinai, he didn’t know that God’s glory had transfigured him.
Exodus 34:29-35
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.
33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.
If Moses literally beamed with glory just because he had spent time in God’s Presence, how much more should we beam God’s glory when we are filled with His Presence?!?
2 Corinthians 3:12-18
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.
16 whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Light not only guides and directs our paths, it also brings revelation.
After praying and crying out to God to reveal a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had and the interpretation, God did it and caused Daniel to praise the Lord and say:
Daniel 2:21-22
21 He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
Several times, Jesus told His disciples that there is nothing hidden that He will not make known. Paul warned us to:
1 Corinthians 4:5
judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
God’s light reveals truth. Not only what we can see from outward appearances, but His light also reveals hidden things such as thoughts and attitudes and motives.
Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
This should not cause us to fear, but rather cause us to desire to live in the light of the Lord with nothing hidden. It should inspire us to live righteous lives free from the shackles of sin. No secret agendas or hidden motives, just desiring to know God and to make Him known!
Isaiah prophesied about the birth of Jesus and described that:
Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
John said about Jesus that in Him was life and that life was the light of all mankind; a light that shines into darkness and that no darkness could ever overcome it. Jesus is the light of the world and Jesus declared that we, who represent Him, are now that same light in this dark world.
Jesus also said:
John 3:19-21
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
If the Lord is our light, what then shall we fear?
David was a man well familiar with troubling and dark times, but he chose to leave his life in the hands of the Lord and as a result, was able to make next statement as well, “The Lord is my salvation.”
The word salvation used here is the Hebrew word yēšaʿ meaning rescuer, deliverer, safety, prosperity, and victory.
David was not just using this word in a figurative and solely spiritual sense, he meant it also in a literal and physical sense. David encountered and experienced the salvation of the Lord time after time after time.
Saved from bears and lions and given the ability to gain victory over them as a child tending sheep.
Saved from a giant named Goliath whom every soldier and even them as a group of the Israeli army was fearful of. Not only was his life not taken by the giant, but David was granted victory over him.
Saved from a wicked and rejected king named Saul who had one of the greatest forces on the face of the earth and was determined to take David’s life.
Saved from his own self after choosing to sin against the Lord so many times.
Like David, when we choose to turn to the Lord, His salvation is ours for the receiving! Even when we have turned away from Him in sin, if we confess our sin and repent of it, the Lord is faithful and true and will forgive our sin and heal us from all of our unrighteousness! He is a faithful savior!
The Lord is our salvation, what then shall we fear?
He went on to write:
The Lord is the stronghold of my life –
of whom shall I be afraid?
The word stronghold is the Hebrew māʿôz meaning a place of safety, protection, refuge, and strength.
When troubles come our way, when life gets tough, there are many places to which we can run. Friends, family, bars, drugs, even just running away from it all to escape it. However, none of those places are a stronghold and an escape like our God!
Why not make Him our dwelling place; our stronghold; our refuge?
Psalm 91
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
Why will the Lord rescue us?
Not because of all of our good works!
Not because of the lack of sin in our lives!
Because we love Him…
Because we acknowledge His name…
The Lord is our stronghold, whom then shall we fear?
Alright, now on to verse 2!
Actually, perhaps another time.
Right now, whatever you may be going through, whatever you may go through in the future, wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord. You WILL see the goodness of the Lord here in the land of the living! You will make it through safe in His Presence!
Allow the Lord to be your light, your salvation, and your stronghold; there is no better place to abide and dwell in life!
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