A Ray of Light in a Dark World

We read a story this week that I hadn’t read in a long time about a dog that walked into a saloon. And he kind of bellies up to the bar and he looks at the bartender and he says, “I like a root beer.” The bartender looked at him and said, “We don’t serve dogs in this saloon.” And he said, “Well, my money is as good as any man’s money.” He says, “And I want my root beer.” And the bartender said, “That ain’t going to happen. Get out.” He said, “I won’t get out.” So they said the story is the bartender took his shotgun, pulled it out over the counter, and shot the dog right there in the foot. He says, “Get out of here and don’t you ever come back.” A week later, the dog came back. Except he’s now wearing two side pistols on his hips. But he looks around, he doesn’t see the bartender. He goes up to the guy behind the bar and he says, “I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.” Some of you may get that about halfway through the sermon.

I tell you that story because I want to just tell you about a guy by the name of John Wesley Powell. If you were raised years ago, if you ever heard that name, you would go, “Man, what an adventurer.” The thing that was amazing about John Wesley Powell was there was nothing that he wouldn’t try, nothing that he wouldn’t do. He was an amazing guy. Every grade school guy kind of knew about him back in my day. And some people just thought he was nuts. And one reason was because everything he did, he did with one arm. During the Civil War, somebody shot his paw. And so he operated without an arm. But he would try anything. And one thing he wanted to do is he wanted to go down the Colorado River. Now, this is 1869. And that thing hadn’t been charted. Nobody went down it. They said, if you saw the River Wild with those Class IX waves and things, that was like going through your shower, okay, to what the Colorado River was like. And people thought he was nuts, but he was going to do it. In fact, someone back in those times said this, “This river and this part of the canyon will always be pristine because nobody’s coming in it.” And yet John Wesley Powell and nine guys actually did that. They left, they went down the river, and they just got hit with everything. They stepped into it. And let me tell you what they, they were ambushed by Legion Killer Rapids. They were ambushed by waterfalls. They were ambushed by boulders the size of cabins. They were ambushed by the loss of boats, critical foodstuffs, instruments. Yet 100 days later, John Wesley Powell and five guys showed up, barely making it. All hope for their survival had been giving up weeks before. They were suffering from exposure and there’s our starvation, but they made it. And what happened to the other four guys? Well, one had decided early on to go back and did. The other three would just kind of kept arguing with him, and they left, and they went on to the, hiked up the rim of the canyon and were killed by Indians. They should have stayed in the boats, but he made it.

And I just tell you that story for this. As you go through life, you’re going to be ambushed, okay? Count on it. When you get saved, I was reading one book this week that said that you become a foe of Satan right off the bat. And you become his foe and all the other angels and hell and demons. You become their foe. God still wants you to make a difference. I’m always amazed at passages of Scripture that God says, “Al, I want you to preach on that.” And I’m going, “Really? Okay.” And so we are in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. It’s a kind of in-your-face kind of passage. Paul’s writing to a church that he loves, he helped establish, and yet he struggles with all the time, the church at Corinth. I don’t know why a church would ever call themselves Corinth Baptist Church, but they do. Because this is a crazy church. If you ever read 1 and 2 Corinthians, he’s just always dealing with issues and problems in this church. But if you’ll stand with me for the reading of God’s Word, starting with verse 14. It’s kind of an in-your-face thing. I mean, 2 Corinthians, I’m sorry. 2 Corinthians 6, starting with verse 14. Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.

Thank you for standing. My thing this week is this. The world must see the difference between life with Christ and life without Christ. And I want to tell you, folks, people are watching you. You may not like it. You may not think it’s fair. You may think, I can’t live up to that standard. But I’m telling you, they’re watching. See, without the difference, they’ll never make a choice. People want to see what’s different between the life of being a Christian and the life of not being one.

That’s why I’m always amazed that people in the church, or even the church itself, you know, how we just compromise the world. I’ll never forget years ago, I was on staff at a church, and we brought in a young guy to do the youth ministry. And the weird thing was is, you know, they were having a lot of good times, but the youth group was dwindling. And here’s why I believe they were dwindling. See, even people who don’t know the Lord when they come in and they come into a church or something are expecting Bible study. They’re expecting that you’re going to talk about Jesus. They’re expecting to, you know, to sit down and have a time of study. Yes, we’re going to go out and we’re going to have some good times and we’re going to have fun. But you know what? They can do that in the world, too. And people need to understand and know it’s not always just about fun. Sometimes we need to study and get right with the Lord. And the reason we do that is we say, here’s a choice. See, this is how Christ would have us do it. This is how the world has us do it. Now, tell me what’s working for you.

It is impossible for the Christian to be deeply connected to the world. The Bible says we’re to live separate and distinct lives. So what we’re going to do this morning, we’re going to come up with six truths that I believe we must understand if we are to be different in order to affect the world. And still in the process, and this is how do we live in the world but still stay true to God? Basically, how do we do this? How do we live in the world but not of the world? You ever heard that term? You know, there’s not a verse in it that says live in the world but not of the world. There’s a lot of things that talk around that. Paul is right here when he says that we should have to leave the world altogether if we want to truly separate ourselves from immoral, worldly people.

Folks, when you become a Christian, all of a sudden you’re going to be attacked at three fronts. The world, flesh, and the devil. Count on it. It’s going to happen. So what’s number one? Number one is that Scripture demands separation. It just does. We’re to be in the world but not of the world. In the world means we separate in a way. How do we do that? Well, that’s kind of location. What am I looking at? Now, we have to understand this. We’re in the world but we’re not of it. And the deal is how much has that influenced me? And we’ll talk a little bit more about that. But does it change? Is it where I’m at going to be changed? And I’m going to tell you, you’re going to be tempted. My son-in-law, bless his heart, he works for a, he’s an IT guy, software guy, works for a large Swedish company. And if there’s ever a woke company, it’s his. And, you know, there are some things he just doesn’t bring up because he knows what’s going to possibly happen to him. I’m sure many of you in your line of work know that if you go in there Bible-thumping, what could possibly happen? But I’m here to tell you this. You can be in the world, but I want to tell you, people can watch how you live your life, how you answer things, how you talk, how you respond to anger and other things that are not fair in the marketplace. And how you react and how you live your life. People notice. And they’ve noticed. Because they say, “I want to live like you. Why did you do that?”

I’ve talked to two guys in the last couple of weeks, deep Christians, that are still struggling with forgiveness. There were things done in their lives years ago that they just can’t forgive. Or they say, “Well, I try to forgive, Al, and then it comes back up. And I’m telling you, that anger just burns in me, that bitterness still burns in me, and that all that work, you know, those feelings come back up, and I’m ticked, and I’m mad, and I want to do something.” And I want to tell you, folks, we got to learn how to work with that. We’ve got to be different.

And Scripture demands separation. And I want to tell you something, it goes back, it goes back to the Old Testament. Listen to Numbers 33. I mean, this is nothing new. When Israel was coming into the promised land, God says, “I want you to separate. I want people to know that you’re different, and I want them to ask why you’re different. And I want them to see how you’re blessed because you’re different and want to be like you.”

Numbers 33, starting with verse 50, says this: “On the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, across from Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you cross the Jordan to Canaan, drive out the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy their carved images, their cast idols, demolish all their high places, take possession of the land and settle in it. For I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans, to a larger group, give a larger inheritance to a smaller group, a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by their lot will be theirs. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They’ll give you trouble in the land you’re going to live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.’”

God says, “You be separate because let me tell you what’s going to happen.” I want to tell you they didn’t do what God wanted them to do. And I want to tell you those folks were exactly that. They were barbs to their eyes. They were thorns in their flesh. They were problems. And God saw it down the road. He knew what they were going to be like. He said, “Burn those graven images. Get rid of those things because you need to.”

New Testament, here’s what God says. This is Jesus. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you’re not of the world,” He says, “I chose you out of the world. And I did it because the world hates you.” In John 17, He says, “I have given them your word. The word has hated them for they are not of the world anymore than I am of the world. My prayer is that not to take them out of the world.” And basically what Jesus is doing here is He’s praying for His disciples. He’s saying, “God, don’t take them out of the world, but that’s protect them from the evil one because they are not of the world, even though I’m just like I’m not of it.”

Then the apostle John says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father, listen to this now, the love of the Father isn’t in him.” Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, again, the love of the Father is not in him. And then he goes on and on. Romans, “Love not the world, only the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, again, he’s not in him.” Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by what? The renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.

Throughout Scripture, God is saying we’ve got to be a separate people. We’re, again, remember the term, the light on the hill? Scripture demands separation. Scripture also means that we separate from sin and unto the Lord. We separate from sin and unto the Lord. Paul’s struggling with this church because this church struggles with not being of the world. They struggle with things that it’s all about what they want, not so much about what Jesus wants. They’re not even crazy about Paul. Paul is always defending himself to this church. This church looks at the apostle. Now, we know we look back at the apostle Paul and say, man, what an incredibly godly guy. This church would look at the apostle and Paul goes, you know, he’s not really that good a speaker. He doesn’t even really look that good, okay? Some people think he might have had stutter. He’s struggling with his eyesight. I mean, I like the way Apollos, that man can talk. That man can preach. I mean, that man’s pretty awesome. And they just gave Paul all kinds of problems. Plus, I’m just saying, look at Paul’s life. I mean, Paul was like, let me start church and then I get beat up, okay? Let me start a church and let me get stoned and left for dead. Let me start a church. Oh, they’re going to throw me in prison. Would you hire a guy like Paul? Probably not. Remember what his resume looked like? Yeah, Paul loved these folks. And, you know, when we look down the annals of history now, and I think God looks at me, so that’s the kind of guy I want. I want a guy that can separate the things of the world from the things of God. See, next couple series of sermons I want to do for you is about making choices in life. See, when you get up in the morning, you got to make some choices. You want to live for Jesus or you want to live for you? Do you want this church to live for Jesus or live for you? You know, a church can be a nice, godly country club. God, you know, the word that I never see in scripture is comfortable. It’s just not there. We separate from sin and we separate unto the Lord.

I think about, you know, I think about farmers in this church. I think about like Michael Cordray and, you know, it’s kind of like plowing. You know, when they talk about being separate and it goes all the way back to Exodus, the book of Exodus, where He says, you know, be separate. He was telling them, telling them back then, be separate. He says, you don’t take an oxen and because you don’t have a second oxen to plow with it, just hook up a donkey to it. Does that make sense? You wouldn’t do that. And a farmer on the planet would do that because number one, they’re different. Now, I want you to understand this. Separation also does not mean isolation. See, here’s what we do in the church. And here we’re doing, and I’m not saying homeschooling is bad. I’m not saying all those kinds of things because we want to teach our kids right. And we want to make sure that they do get scripture and those kinds of things. But we’re still to be, you know, in the world, not of it, but in it.

Now, in this passage, He gives warnings. You know, He talks about the past and the fact that He says, you know, like verse 14, do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partner says has righteousness and lawlessness. You know, and we see some five comparisons. Number one, righteousness and lawlessness. Well, that’s behavior. Righteousness is that I want to be more holy. I want to be more like God. Lawlessness is saying whatever happens, happens. Live just, if you feel good, just do it. He says, that’s a behavior deal. He then goes to the next one. He says, or what does fellowship has light with darkness? That’s character. What are the things of light? People are attracted to light. Light shows things. Light shows character. Light opens things up. Darkness hides things. You know, light, light, and the deal is just, is we’re to be like Christ in the fact that we light the things of the Lord. People are attracted to light. People don’t like darkness. You ever been, look, I’ve been in the belly of the earth. I, when Beth and I, years ago, we were stationed in, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and we went to New Mexico, went to the bat caves, where we went like them, and we, and we went down to these caves or like a mile down in the ground. Man, I had to take the special elevator to get down there. And I’ll never forget, at one point, they shut off the lights. Now, you want darkness? I mean, pitch black, can’t see, can’t put your hand right here, can’t see it. I was sitting there going, somebody turn that light back on and turn it on now. I don’t like darkness. And yet, for some reason, we want to be around darkness. But God says we’re to go in the darkness and we’re to bring the light. Shows character.

Then He says, what harmony has Christ with Belial? What does that mean? What’s Belial? Belial is just another name for the devil. That’s who he’s talking about here. And as he talks about this, and he talks about Satan here, Belial actually, in the original language, means worthless. There’s no Greek, it means worthless. He says, he says, what does Christ, with being to the point of worthless where it’s just evil all the time. And that’s it.

So we’ve talked about behavior. We’ve talked about care. We’re talking about power here. Do you want your power to come from Christ? Do you want your power that’ll go away and twist and ultimately consume you come from Satan? See the connections. See the comparisons.

He says, what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? I mean, that’s kind of the means of salvation. When you get saved, something happens in your life. I mean, the Holy Spirit offers an energy. You’re a different person. The Bible says you’re a new creature. And all of a sudden, and there are hard decisions to make. See, you didn’t, when you were lost, you didn’t have to worry about making certain decisions because you didn’t think twice. You just did it. If you wanted to do it, if you wanted to go on that behavior, you want to go toward darkness, that was a natural deal. But now something’s different when you get saved and the Holy Spirit comes into you and convicts you of your sin, reveals to you things about Jesus. And all of a sudden, there’s someone inside of you saying, nah, you may not want to do that. Oh, you think twice. What would Jesus want you to do? And also now there’s conflict and choices have to be made.

Paul’s looking at this church and kind of going, guys, make the right choices. It doesn’t mean isolation. I like this. Nature determines association. You know what? If you’re a pig, you know where you like to hang around? Other pigs. Just put me over there with the slop. Let me just hang around the junk. The Bible says we’re not that. See, when you get saved, all of a sudden, all your alliances, everything that comes into your life is pure and holy and sweet. Now, you’re still got that sin nature in you and you still have to make some choices. But why would you want to go somewhere that’s not what is about you? Why do you want to go back to the pig pen? God says, you know, I got something a whole lot better. Why do you want to go back there when, look what I got for you. I’m walking with you. Let me tell you what happens. Yes, you may live, have some struggles here. You may live to be a hundred years old here. But let me tell you about something called eternity. And here’s the deal. Even while you’re here, the kingdom comes to you here.

Nature always determines association. Christians should associate with the things of the Lord. That’s why I think church attendance is important. Things like Sunday school, vacation, those things are important because we want to be around the things of Christ. I want to ask you this. When you’re around Christians, what do you act like? Do you usually act like a Christian? When you’re out in the world, what do you act like? See, I’m always worried about guys that say, yeah, I’m a Christian. I look pastors, you know, they go to the bar. You know, I can witness the people there. Really? Maybe. There are some people that can do that. Some people that are strong enough. What takes us to the next? So there’s a question that shows up. Well, what’s the question? Well, who’s doing the influencing? See, when you go somewhere you shouldn’t be, who’s being influenced?

My son-in-law was just up in, again, he was just up in Boston with his company. They were having a big conference up there, and they were talking about a lot of things where the company’s kind of going. But you know where they hung Around at night? They went to bars. They did axe throwing and all kinds of darts and all kind of crazy stuff. And they kind of kidded him around a little bit. He wasn’t drinking. But see, here’s what I find about the world and people that are searching and seeking. As they’re watching your life, if you don’t compromise, they’ll believe you. See, it’s when you say, “I am this, and Christ is in my life, and church is important,” and all those kinds of things. And then you do the same thing they’re doing. Then they go, “You know, when I got a problem, I don’t know if I’m going to go to you. I’m going to go to this person down here.” You need to stand your ground. I didn’t say it’s easy. But the point is, is who’s doing the influencing? It’s like, you know, our dating life and all those kinds of things. “Well, we’ve been married. We can just stay the night over each other’s house.” Really? So, we forget sometimes about the influence that we have. We forget sometimes that people are watching.

Some people say, “Well, that’s none of the church’s business.” Well, it is. And the reason it’s their business is because they want you to take a step higher. They want to become more conformed to the likeness of Christ, Romans 8. They want you to grow in your Christian walk. It’s a life of choices.

Then we come down to this. Each believer must clean up his or her own life. See, salvation means we share the Father’s life. But separation means we enter fully into the Father’s love. “God, this is, I’m struggling. I don’t know what’s going to happen if I make this decision. I’ve got a moral decision to make. I’ve got an ethical decision at work to make. I can do this, which I know is right, and I can live with, or I can do this. I’ll get the promotion. But if I don’t, I might lose my job. Lord, help me with this.” I want to tell you, in your life, you’re going to have those kind of choices. But when you enter into the Father’s love, my stars, folks.

There were four I wills. I’m just going to go over these real quick to show where the future is if you make the right choices. This is what God says to us. Verse 15. Look at, I mean, 16. I will dwell in them. This is basically out of the Old Testament. I will dwell in them, and I’ll walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then He said, look, end of verse 17. I will welcome you. Verse 18. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord God Almighty.

That’s not just God just throwing something out there, folks. That’s a promise. Okay, do you understand that? That’s a promise. God said, “I’m going to stand with you.” I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. I’m not saying it’s not going to cost you. You may suffer a little bit, but do what I ask you to do.

Many of you know who Jalen Hurts is. Jalen Hurts happens to be the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. He used to quarterback Alabama, and then he went to Oklahoma and was very successful. Hard liking him because he beat Georgia. But he’s trying to handle his newfound celebrity, and he’s struggling. I mean, here’s a guy that took his team to the Super Bowl last year as quarterback. Number two in the NFL, most valuable player balloting. He’s trying to struggle with handling it.

He remembers a meeting he had where Nick Saban, the head coach at Alabama, brought in some speakers. But he remembers one of the speakers was a guy named Kobe Bryant, who has since passed away in the NBA Hall of Fame, incredible athlete. And he asked Kobe Bryant, he asked him, “How do you do it? I mean, how do you handle the money and the fame and everybody pulling on you and all those kinds of things?” You know what Kobe Bryant told him and told the other Alabama players? “You got to edit your life. There are some things you got to take out of your life. There are some people that if they’re bringing you down, you got to take out of your life. There are some things that you used to do, you got to take it out of your life. You got to edit your life. You got to find out what’s important, what’s valuable, what’s meaningful, what really makes a difference.” And Everything else, you got to edit. Sometimes to be the Christian God wants us to be, folks, you know what? We got to edit our lives. And He’s got to decide what you want to choose.

I’m going to just quickly play a song. Phil Wickham, who wrote songs like “It Is Amazing Grace” and some other neat songs, recently wrote a song about choosing Jesus. He said of all the songs he’s ever written, and he’s written a ton of songs, he said this one has impacted him the most about how he was going to live his life. So I just want you to listen to the words. Listen to the words. Watch the words.

Light comes into darkness, changes everything. And God may have placed you in a place, asked you to go win. Folks, don’t go in unless you’ve chosen the Jesus one. You get up in the mornings. Your prayer ought to be, first thing out of your lips ought to be, God, help me this morning to always choose the Jesus way.

Let’s pray. Father, life is nothing but a life of choices. Your word is nothing about stories of people having to make choices. And sometimes they made the right ones, and sometimes they made the wrong ones. And we see the consequences of both. Father, help us. Maybe there’s someone here who needs to make the choice to just give their life to You and commit to You. Because when we do that, You commit to us. And say it’s going to be easy. Nothing worthwhile is easy. The cross shows that. Lord, help us, even this morning, choose the Jesus way. Help us to make what decision we need to make. And all God’s people said, amen.