Light in the Darkness - 1 Samuel 3

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good morning. I'm glad to be here to worship. I'm also thankful this morning for air conditioning. That is a blessing from God. Before we get started this morning, I'm going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we will stand and read some Scripture together before we dive into our time of worship. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you that as we gather this morning, we know that you are good and that you are in control and that you watch over us and that you care for us. Help us as we worship this morning to fix our eyes on the hope that is in you, the strength that comes from you, that we would be a light in a dark and broken world, that we would be people with a message of hope and of grace and a call to repentance

for those who need to turn to you. We thank you for Jesus and we thank you for grace. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Let's go ahead and be standing. We're going to read from Psalm 18 verses 1 and 2, a song that David wrote after God, a psalm that David wrote after God had delivered him from the hands of Saul. And as we sing this morning, we're going to be singing about putting our focus on Jesus and seeing the salvation that is found there. So let's read from Psalm the 18th chapter. It says, "I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." And we're going to begin by singing, "Our God saves."

in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come. We are gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering. As your saints bow down, as your people sing, we will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will see that our God saves. Our God saves. His hope in your name. Morning turns to songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. In the name of the Father. In the name of the Son. In the name of the Spirit. Lord we come. We are gathered together. To lift up your name. To call on our Savior. To fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering. As your saints bow down. As your people sing. We will rise with you.

Lift it on your wings. And the world will see that. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope. In your name. Morning, church. To psalms of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. My anchor holds within the veil. My anchor holds within the veil. Christ alone, call us home. We pray strong in the Savior's love. Lord, you're the star. He is the Lord of all. He shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless than before the throne. Christ alone, call us though weak may strong in the same as love.

He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ alone, call us though weak may strong in the same as love. He is Lord, Lord of all. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Let's pray.

I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds the time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I feel. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first? I set my hope on Jesus. Though I falter in this war with sin, I set my hope on Jesus. When I fail the fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame will drown me in its steel, and I drain the waves of justice, I will cast my life on Calvary. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. I only trust. You set his heart upon you first. I set my hope on Jesus.

Though the world call me to leave my Lord, I set my hope on Jesus. Though it offer all its vain rewards, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to stray, give me grace enough to finish. Till I worship on that final day, I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. You set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. You set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus.

I come to the table this morning. One of the things that Rachel and I have discussed, every time that we have bought a car, especially after a long road trip, we sent her a video of a van like that this past week where the guy was saying, "Hey, check out our family van." He said, "The greatest feature in our family van is it has the limousine window in between the passenger compartment and the driver's compartment." I thought about that. And in theory, that sounds good, right? But as we were riding in the car around West Virginia yesterday, one of the things that I enjoyed doing is talking back and forth to the kids and spending time together, and sometimes it was a little more grumpy than other times. But there is a desire sometimes for us, and I was thinking about this in regards to the church and the world that we live in, that it's very easy for us to try to sort of roll up the window on the world

in which we live, right? We just sung about temptation and struggles and cares, and we've all experienced the heartbreak and the brokenness, and it's very easy for us to seek to become a place where we can run and we can hide and we can be as far away from that as possible. What God designs the church to do and what he calls us to do is to be a place where we come together, encouraged by God's goodness, empowered by his strength, together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and if you remember what Jesus says in Matthew, the 18th chapter, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And so rather than being a place to hide, the church is called to be a place where we strengthen and encourage and help one another in the midst of all of that brokenness. And so as we come to the table this morning, I want to remind us from the 46th Psalm, and it's a Psalm we read fairly frequently on Sunday mornings, and it begins by talking about how God is our refuge and our strength of very present help in trouble. And verse 2 begins just with this, "Therefore I will not fear, because God is my strength and my help

and my trouble, I don't have to be afraid." And the psalmist goes on to talk about the things that he has to be afraid of. If the earth collapses, if the mountains topple into the sea, though in the middle of a storm where the waves and waters roar and foam, so much so that in the storm the mountains shake. He says, "I will not fear." And so as we come to this place and we partake in this meal, we don't have to fear God. The message of the cross is that because Jesus has taken our sins, that he has paid the price for our transgressions. We don't have to be afraid if we are in Christ. We don't have to fear death. We don't have to fear being alone. We don't have to fear not being strong enough because through Jesus, through the promise of the resurrection, through the power of the Holy Spirit, all of our fears have been met in the goodness of God. Let's pray. Father, remind us as we eat this bread and drink this cup that we don't have to be afraid. That our fears often come

from where we have not seen your strength and your goodness in a deep enough way. So in this moment, may we fix our eyes on Jesus. May we focus and not be distracted by all the busyness and the worries and the troubles and the difficulties and all of our insufficiencies that we would see you in your strength and your power. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, bread with me as Jesus shared with his disciples and said to them, "Do this in remembrance of me." And in the same way, after supper, Jesus takes the cup, reminds the disciples this is the new covenant in his blood, and so let's drink together and remember Jesus. And remember, we are not simply called to remember, but we're also called to proclaim.

We are going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 3. Before we get there, we'll get a little bit of a two-and-a-half-minute summary of this. And so, Derek, if you want to go ahead and... Stories of the Bible. God speaks to Samuel. This is Samuel. Hi. Samuel was the son of Hannah. Hey, Samuel. Hannah prayed for God to give her a son, and God did. So Hannah gave Samuel back to God. See you, Samuel. Bye, Mom. And Samuel grew up in the temple serving under Eli, the priest. Hi, Eli. As Samuel grew up, he learned how to serve God from Eli. Samuel lived in the house of God, but he did not know God or what God's voice sounded like. In those days, messages from God were rare. But one night after Eli had gone to bed, Samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle

when suddenly God called out, "Samuel." Samuel got up and ran to Eli and said, "Did you call me?" Eli said, "I didn't call you. Go back to bed." So Samuel did. Then God called out again, and again Samuel got up and ran to Eli asking, "Did you call me?" Eli said, "I didn't call you. Go back to bed." So Samuel did. God called Samuel for a third time, "Samuel." And Samuel went to Eli yet again. After three times, Eli realized that God was trying to speak to Samuel. So Eli taught Samuel to say, "Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening." Okay. Samuel went back to bed, and God came and called as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak. Your servant is listening." God told him many things about what would happen to Israel. As Samuel grew up, God was with him, and everything God spoke through Samuel came true. Samuel was seen as a great prophet of God, because he could hear the voice of God, and he loved him.

Hear the voice of God, and he listened when God spoke to him. We'll pray, and we will dive into it this morning. This, I think, very familiar passage in terms of Samuel. If you've spent much time in church or Sunday school, there's probably two stories you know from Samuel. There is David and Goliath, and there is God's call of prophet Samuel 1 because it's fairly easy for us to understand and depict. So let's go ahead and pray, and then we'll jump right into it. Father in heaven, we thank you for the good news of the gospel. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for this chapter. We thank you for how it directs us to your word, and we thank you for how you bring light out of the darkness. We just ask that you would be with us during this time. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

And so as I see this chapter, and we've heard sort of the summary of the story, and we'll take a look a little more in depth. You have sort of the center point of this being God speaking to Samuel in the middle of the night. And if you have kids or grandkids, especially when they're younger, it's very easy to be woken up in the middle of the night by your children. Probably the most memorable experience for me, and one that sticks in my mind I've shared with some of you before, but during the phase that probably most of us are familiar with, the Anna and Elsa phase of Frozen 1. You went from peace and quiet to now there is only Elsa. There's a point in there where Anna goes to Elsa, wakes her up in the middle of the night and goes, "Do you want to bell the snowman?"

And one of my most disturbing awakenings as a dad is waking up with a child sitting on my chest going, "Do you want to bell the snowman?" And it's like 3 in the morning. It's like, "No, first of all, it's like summertime." But secondly, you wake up and you're ready to fight somebody, and there's your child sitting there asking if you want to bell a snowman. And so, Eli doesn't get a very good night's sleep, keeps sending Samuel back to bed, something that we can't relate to. And so, as we come into this text, what we find is this whole chapter of 1 Samuel chapter 3 is dealing with a bunch of really big problems. And we get the whole summary of the really big problems in verse 1. Now, the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days,

and there was no frequent vision. And the first part of this chapter is all about both a contrast and a problem. And so there is a contrast in this text, right? We have the life of Samuel, as young as he is, with all of his character and his relationship with God in a deep and sort of abiding contrast with Eli and how Eli has spoke about God. In fact, it begins before Samuel is even born. Hannah speaks to God, and she speaks to God as if she knows God where Eli simply talks about God. Hannah worships God in a song that echoes through the entire Bible all the way to Mary and her song of joy about the birth of Jesus. We'll see in the chapters before this that Samuel ministers before the Lord and is growing in the presence of God while Eli's sons, it says in chapter 2, are worthless.

We'll see God's judgment against Eli and his sons while Samuel, like Jesus, grows in favor with God. And so 1 Samuel chapter 2 ends with a prophet coming to announce judgment on Eli's descendants for how they have dishonored God. And if you look at 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 1, now here is Samuel ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And as we go through this chapter, what we find is that Samuel has been serving God, has been learning about God, has been close to God, living in God's house. But he doesn't yet know God, but this all changes in chapter 3. And one of the things that has stood out to me in this past week is this reminder through the life of Samuel that God uses those who are young. And this is such an important reminder, I think, both for those who are young and for those of us who have a little more, as Scripture says, advanced in years.

If you think about it, and I love the kids being here this morning, and if you think about it, you sort of cover the first three chapters of Samuel in the age range of children we have this morning. From very, very little up until probably our oldest here are about the age when God speaks to Samuel. And so you have this sort of age range picturing of the life of Samuel. And one of the beautiful things about this text and the book of Samuel in these first three chapters is that God uses those who are very, very young. In fact, isn't that what Jesus says as people seek to keep the children away? He says, "Let the little children come to me." And also to adults, right? It's important for us to remind ourselves that it's not always about me and what I can do, but that God can use children as well.

And so it's both an encouragement for the young and the old in the story of Samuel to see how God uses people. Now, the problem in our text is simply this: the word of the Lord was rare in these days, right? It's not very common. And what's interesting, if you go through the books that precede Samuel in your Bible, you'll find that God has spoken to his people. And he speaks to his people, and one of the ways is through the law recorded by Moses. And in Deuteronomy chapter 6, I'm going to read this. It might be very small. It's in your handouts as well. Moses is relating to the people what God has told him. And I want you to hear these words and then hear how the people are to treat the word of God.

And so it says this: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign in your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." And God, through Moses, will say, Moses is giving the people the instructions. He says, "Love God with every part of your being, your heart, and your soul, and all of your strength, right? In how you think, and in how you feel, and in how you act."

And then notice what he says. He says, "You've got to teach it. You've got to teach this Word to the children." And you've got to talk about it, right? As you're sitting at the table, as you're walking down the road, as you're falling asleep at night, as you're waking up in the morning, attach the Word of God to your life. And the picture here is behind them is a sign on your hands. So when you look at your hands, you see the Word of God. And between your eyes, so when you look out, you see God's Word. And as you walk out your house, you see it on your doorpost. And as you walk in your front gate, you see the Word of God. That God's people aren't just to have heard the Word, but they're to bring it into their life, share it with their children, and have it fill every area.

When they sit down, when they stand up, when they walk, when they go out of the house, when they come into the house, while they're eating dinner at bedtime and at breakfast time, the Word of God is to fill the lives of God's people. Basically, it's everywhere. And if we were to evaluate Israel in the time of Samuel, based on this criteria, here is what we would find. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes, right? God says, "Put my word before you," and they put themselves before the Word of God. And what's in front of their eyes, here, is whatever they wanted to do. And it's not just a "them" problem, it's an "us" problem. How many of us just see something, and we chase after it?

And we desire it. Rather than being filled and surrounded with the Word of God in our life, we say, "Oh, I want that." And we go there, or we seek that, or we plan for this other thing. And we don't have time this morning, but God's given them other reminders. There's monuments to His goodness at the Jordan River. The sacrifices they're called to make to God. The Levites dispersed throughout the land, teaching the people, the priests in Shiloh. God has spoken to Israel, and they have not listened. Now, there are spots of brightness through all this darkness, Hannah. The unknown prophet in chapter 2, but as a whole, the spiritual trajectory of Israel is kind of circling the drain. It's not going well. And these words regarding the word of the Lord and the fact that it was rare, and that there was no frequent vision, are words of judgment by God.

God says, "You haven't listened." And His judgment against Israel is seen in His silence. We'll see it in the life of Saul in 1 Samuel 14 and in 1 Samuel 28. He asks God, and God does not respond. Amos will say it this way, "Speaking of the silence of God is the judgment of God." "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but hearing the words of the Lord." And if we look at this, and we say, "How does this happen?" How do you go from loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, writing it on your hands, and having it before your eyes, and on the doors of your house, and talking about it when you're eating breakfast, and walking down the road, and eating, how do you go from that to this?

What brings this about? How does this happen? One of the easiest ways for this to happen is to take the Word of God for granted. Where we simply think, right, it's always here. I'll always have it. I'll never have to worry about running out. I can go to it when I need it, and we take the Word of God for granted. We just get used to it sort of being adjacent to our lives. We're not feeding on it, but we know it's there if we need it. We take it for granted. So this happens, not in a spiritual sense, but in a physical sense. If you spend any time at Costco, you go and you find something you like and find something you love. And if you're not familiar with this, this is my Costco tip of the day. If there is something that you love at Costco, and you go to pick it up,

and there on the sign, there's a little asterisk in the corner. It's referred to as the Costco Death Star, and it means they're not restocking that item. So there's items that you love, and you walk in, and you go, "Whoa, this is gone!" And I'm not going to see it again for however long until they decide to restock it, whereas the week before, you're like, "Oh, we have plenty of that at home. I don't need it." This is the attitude, I think, it's so easy for us to begin to bring to the Word of God. It's always there. It's always near us, and we don't take the blessing of God and bring it into our life. We just sort of leave it near us. This is what happens in Israel. In fact, you can kind of trace it from parents to children to grandchildren in Israel.

The first generation sees and hears God's good work. The second generation takes God's good work for granted, and the third generation disappears from the service of God, and it's the same with our world today. You see it in churches. You come to a generation that's excited for God. You come to a generation that takes God for granted, and then before you know it, the third generation has walked away entirely. But this happening of leaving behind the Word of God isn't just come from us taking it for granted. We can become distracted and ignore the Word of God. So yesterday we went to the farm crawl. It was great, 10 million degrees. Probably still a little dehydrated. Just for your information, they're moving the next one to October, which I think is a wise idea. And we were there, and there's a pair of draft horses, Doc and Dale, Persia on horses.

They weigh in at about 2,000 pounds a piece, so together you've got two tons of horse. And we were over talking to Levi, the owner of the draft horses, and he gets them all harnessed up, and he's getting ready to move them over to the wagon that he's going to be taking people out to watch the cattle drive in. And if you've ever seen people move draft horses, they sort of throw the chains over their shoulder, and they hold the reins, and they kind of walk them over to where the wagon is. And there was a lady at this event with a big floppy sun hat who had no situational awareness, and was just, she might be one of the most annoying humans I ever met. He's getting the horses, he's backing them up, and she walks over right in front of him,

and stands just across the wagon tongue, just oblivious, just looking at the sky, and the trees, and looking out over the landscape. And here he comes with 4,000 pounds of horses that need to be where she is. And her just distracted by everything that's around her. How easy is it for us, as Christians, to ignore all of God's gifts and blessings? We're looking at something else, and we're looking over here. One of the ways in which we leave the Word of God behind in our life is not just taking it for granted, but being distracted by something over here or over there, rather than keeping our eyes on what truly matters. Our attention shifts, and the next thing you know, we find ourselves separated from the Word of God. We can also abandon the Word of God for our own desires.

We had a dog like this once, right? Comes from a loving home, has a nice bed, air conditioning, plenty of food, water, a trash can that we frequently forget to put the lid on top of, like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And some of you remember this, every Sunday morning for a few months, you're all coming to church, and I'm chasing a dog down the street because as soon as the screen door opened, he was off like a flash. All of the good things provided for him, safety and comfort, and all the food, but something out there drew his attention more. And how many of us find ourselves in the same way? James says that we are tempted when our own desires, and we begin to follow those rather than what God has called us to do.

All the good gifts of God, and here we are just zooming right out the door. We get to 1 Samuel chapter 3 and verse 1. The word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no frequent vision because we have taken for granted, been distracted, and we followed our own desires. And at the heart of all of it is taking our eyes off the goodness of God. So what happens when the word of God is absent from our lives? Let's take a look at verses 2 and 3. "At that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was."

The first thing that happens when God's word is absent from our life is that it begins to get dark. Notice it talks about Eli's eyesight, that he hasn't been able to see good, that his eyes have begun to grow dark. And while this is true about his physical condition, this is also a reference to his spiritual condition. That over time, and through the actions of his children and his enjoying the benefits of their sin rather than correcting them, Eli hasn't just stopped seeing with his physical eyes, his spiritual eyes have grown dark as well. And the lamp of God here is a picture that at night in the tabernacle, the lamp of God would burn from sunset to the morning. And so this happens in the middle of the night. We know it's the middle of the night because it says the lamp of God had not yet gone out.

And while this is about a physical lamp, isn't that the danger for Israel at this moment? That the light of the goodness of God in their lives was growing dim, and it seemed like it might go out. Not only does it get dark, but we become distant from God. Notice what it says, "Eli was lying down in his own place, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark was." That Eli, when it gets time to go to bed, he heads off into his own room, into his own comfort, somewhere over there. Commentators aren't sure what's happening, but some of them think that maybe Samuel just kind of finds a place to sleep. Right? And he chooses to sleep here. Maybe he's given to attend the lamps, to wake up a couple times during the night, make sure the lamps are still lit.

But what you notice in the physical description, Eli sleeping over here, Samuel sleeping here. Right, it's also a picture of the physical description. These are real physical events, but it's also a real spiritual reality. That Eli, over the course of his life, has grown distant from God while Samuel is still close to his presence. And when we become distracted, and when we become the people who take God's word for granted, and when we become the place where we chase after our own desires, two things happen. One is, it gets dark. And secondly, we get distant. And as 1 Samuel chapter 3 continues, we don't just see darkness and distance in the physical condition, in the physical location. We see it in the reality, in the spiritual reality of Eli's family. God will say this to Samuel for the second time in this book.

I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them, that for Eli the future is darkness and distance. I'm going to read a longer section, and it's probably going to be small on the screen, so if you want to follow along in your Bible or on the handouts, I'm going to read verse 4 down through verse 10. And to hear this hope that is in the midst of the darkness in the distance. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, "Here I am," and he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me," but he said, "I did not call, you lie down again." So he went and lay down, and the Lord called again Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me," but he said, "I did not call, my son, lie down again."

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him, and the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down. If he calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times. Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." We might be able to relate to being awoken in the middle of the night, sometimes by our kids or by our grandkids. But in these verses, what we find is for those who are in the dark and for those who are distant, God is providing a way for his people.

And I love how this text plays out. And there's so much about this that we could talk about. I'll just say this. In terms of Scripture, Samuel is called in the same way that Abraham and Moses are called. People who had a deep and abiding impact on the nation of Israel. It's rare to find God coming to someone and using their name twice. But in the case of Abraham, Abraham, or Moses, Moses, or Samuel, Samuel. But his call also doesn't just echo them. It echoes the call of Isaiah being before the Lord. And in the darkness, and in the spiritual distance of the people of Israel, God is doing something wonderful. Let me show you what happens in this. I want to begin in verse one, and then we're going to take a look at the end of the chapter.

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. And there was no frequent vision. Look at how this chapter ends. After God brings this message of judgment, Samuel brings it to Eli. Eli probably does the one right thing in his life and tells Samuel not to hold back with the word of the Lord. And listen to the results of Samuel meeting God in that darkness. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

So we go in this chapter from the word of the Lord, no frequent vision, to the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. In the span of this night and in the coming days and months, we've gone from darkness and distance to people in the entire nation of Israel seeing and hearing the word of God. And maybe we say, "I wish that God would do this in my life. I wish that God would speak to me." In Hebrews chapter one, it says this: "Long ago, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets." Fathers like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaac, Samuel, Isaiah, Amos. Through the songs of David, God spoke in many times and in many ways. He spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But look what happens next in verse two.

"But in these last days, He has spoken to them. Now He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom He also created the world." Here's what I would have us know. First of all, we don't have to be afraid. We live in a dark world. And the church, I think, sometimes feels this more deeply than it others. We see the darkness of brokenness, the darkness of sin, the darkness of rebellion against God, the darkness of hopelessness. And it's easy for us to feel like we're small, and we're weak, and we're afraid, and we can't do anything about it. And I want us to know that in this darkness, we do not have to be afraid. Look at how John's Gospel begins. The light shines in the darkness. This is Jesus. And the darkness has not overcome it.

This is a demonstrable truth in your life, right? Walk into a room at night in your house that's dark, and turn on the light switch. And it's not this fight between light and dark, where maybe if the light's strong enough, it can overcome the darkness. When you turn on the switch that powers the light in a dark room, the darkness disappears. And for us, if we are walking in the light, and we are with the light, and if we are with Jesus, it doesn't matter how dark and broken this world is, there is hope. The darkness cannot overcome the light. The second thing we find is the darkness of your sin and your distance that you feel from God in Christ is not the end of the story. Matthew chapter 1. We read this all the time at Christmas. "You shall call his name Emmanuel, and he will save his people from their sins."

That word "Emmanuel" Matthew has in parentheses, which means "God with us." That Jesus steps into the darkness of your sin and brokenness so that you can be brought into the light. That when we see the darkness of the world, that if you are in Christ, you do not have to be afraid. Because Jesus is the light, and he calls us to share that light in a world that so desperately needs us. But if you are in the place where you say, "I relate more to Eli than I do to Samuel." I relate to that darkness and this distance. I want you to know that Jesus came to be near you, to be with you. And not just to sort of walk beside you, but he came to bring you out of that darkness. To lift the weight of your sin, and to bring you into the light that you've been so afraid of.

And to save you from your sins, so that you can walk with him. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Jesus and for grace. I thank you for the goodness that you have brought into our lives. I just ask that as we look at the world in which we live, and we see the darkness that is present, that you would remind us that, first of all, there is light that overcomes this darkness. And that it comes from you. And help us and strengthen us to reflect that light into this world. And I ask for those who feel dark and distant from you, that you would let them know that all the running and the hiding and the excuses, that you have come to save them, to bring them out of sin, into righteousness, out of fear and into hope. I thank you for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.

I'm going to stand and sing about God's grace. Let's pray. I rest my soul on Jesus. When the mountains shake. I put my trust in Jesus the moment I awake. And when my soul is lost at sea, He will be my rock. My vision be in Christ alone. This grace is all we've got. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. So I, upon His shoulders, safely brought this far. The helper of my helpless soul, the King of broken hearts. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Though His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. When breath grows still and night draws near, I will not be afraid.

I know the plans He has for me, don't finish at my grave. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. We will be back Wednesday night going through the book of Colossians next Saturday is our men's breakfast the 20th at 9 a.m. And coming up the last Sunday of the month, two Sundays from now, we're going to have a meal following our Sunday morning service. I'm going to go ahead and pray, and we'll read a verse of Scripture and we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to be here together this morning. I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for grace. I thank you for the hope that you bring into our lives.

Just help us to walk in your hope and in your word and in your light. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Verse we begin with, before the sermon in the time of communion, God is our refuge and strength, a very precious help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth gives way and the mountains are moved into the heart of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.