Walk in the light
Key Passage: 1 John 1:5-9
Date: June 7, 2024
First John, chapter number one? First John, chapter number one.
By the way, that is one of the great keys to life. If you help someone, I guarantee if you’re down a little bit, go do something for someone else. That’s the key. And I don’t know about you, but I want to go in seclusion sometimes when I’m down. Well, that kind of brings it down worse. Go help somebody. I’ll encourage you to help you more than anything.
First John, chapter number one. I believe we’ll be here pretty much every Sunday morning for the month of January in this passage. We’re just going to try to prod our hearts, the Lord prod our hearts a little bit on one subject this morning.
First John. First John is kind of the back part of the Bible. There’s St. John, but this is not it. First John, Second John, Third John, Jude, Revelation. So it’s right before the last part of the Bible, just a couple of books all in the back. And First John, let me just say a word or two while some are turning to it. The book of First John is really to the family of God.
It is a very—it’s kind of like God the Father, Dad, saying, “Dad, I want to talk to my family here.” Okay, that’s First John. And he uses this term, the Greek word teknon—it’s kind of like a, it’s a very endearing term. It’s like, “My little children, let me talk to my children here.” It is a very special book. It’s kind of like God sitting down by the fireplace with his family, “Let me talk to my family here a little bit.” That’s what’s going on in the book of 1 John.
We’re going to start in verse number 5, 1 John 1, verse number 5. And the Bible says, “This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declaring to you: that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
It’s amazing how the world has been trying to change God for a long, long time. God said, “No, no, no darkness in Him at all.” It doesn’t matter where our society goes; God’s not going to go there. In Him is light, no darkness at all. He’s not going to change. They can make legal abortion, do whatever; He’s not going to change. And that’s what He’s speaking of there, verse 6: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.”
I’ve spoken with people who, very obviously—and I’m not trying to be judgmental—but very obviously they’re living in sin. And they’ll say, “Oh, I’m super close to God. I walk up all the time.” And I think, “Ooh, something’s not right,” because the Bible says that if we say that we have fellowship while walking in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” We’re having fellowship with Him, as He is speaking of there. “And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Would you focus back on verse number seven? And there He says, “But if we walk in the light”—that’s the theme of this year. If you see the banners up front here, “Walk in the Light,” they’re taken from that verse right there. Think of a whole year: walk in light.
We want to focus on that for just a little bit this morning for verse number seven. “But if we walk in the light…”
For years, I had this mindset that in order to be close to God, you had to be pretty near to being perfect. That’s discouraging. That was just my mindset. Now, not to be saved—I knew better than that. I knew that was a gift; Jesus paid for that on the cross of Calvary. But to have fellowship, to be close—just as my mindset—I thought, “Man, you had to be pretty, just a notch short of being perfect.” I thought, “Man, I’m about a notch short of being a complete failure.” You know what I mean? I mean, no hope.
If that’s what it takes to be real close to God, man, I’m just, ooh, I’m out in the back, pastor, you know, just not going to happen. And then I would see great Christians—and I do believe for the most part they are great Christians. And I think, “Man, they’re close to the Lord,” and I think they were for the most part, I really do. And I would see how being close to the Lord just brought peace in the middle of huge battles and problems; they had a peace about it. And I think it was sincere. And I thought, “Wow, I’d like to be there,” but if you have to almost be perfect—I mean, you know, at the time, some of that time I was raising kids, and you know what that means, folks, especially if one of your sons, Brother John, I’m teasing with it there. But I thought, “Man, I’m not there.”
And if you just have to really pretty much have all your T’s crossed, dotted, and just do everything just right, I’m pretty much hopeless. I mean, yes, and I was so often tempted just to say, “Forget it, man. Been around long enough, I can scoop by, if you will. I can kind of make it.” But as far as being close to God, you got me like those—I mean, surely those Christians, surely, they are the guys that have, if you were to pull back the shirt, they have the ‘S’ on there, you know what I mean? Super Christian! I mean, that must be those guys are real close to God. They’re super Christians, and I think, “I’m super failure,” you know. There’s no SC, Super Christian; there’s an ‘F,’ you know. There’s just no way. That’s a little bit of my mindset, and it’s defeating, discouraging.
And then every time I did mess up, it’s just very, man, defeating. And I ain’t got one F, only got two F’s. I mean, this guy just—no hope, despair. And the devil really used that on me. I mean, have fellowship, and I wanted that. I knew that’s the key to be close to God. I knew that. I mean, I know I’m half-fry short of a whole fry for McDonald’s, but I knew that’s it. Being close to God, I knew that. But to get there, man, it just seemed like a daunting task. I mean, the mountain is about 40,000 feet high, and I haven’t gotten past half a foot to get there, you know.
It was just very encouraging for me when I read verse number seven. It just dawned on me, and it brought light and encouragement and energy to my Christian life about being close, having fellowship with God. Would you look back at verse number seven with me there, please?
The Bible there—we’ll get back in verse number six just to kind of get the context. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.” But if we become super Christians, we have fellowship one with another? Is that what it says? Does it say, “But if we get all our T’s crossed and I’s dotted, we have fellowship?” Is that what it says? This was so encouraging, and maybe there’s hope for this old boy, you know. What does God say? Take out all the other voices and sometimes even your own heart that condemns you according to 1 John 3. By the way, we know ourselves better than anybody else, don’t we?
And we know all our flaws probably better than anybody besides God. And boy, the devil will use that. The devil loves to beat on a Christian when you’re down. And then our own flesh eats away at us. Sometimes that’s our greatest enemy—our own flesh. And not just to be in fleshly things, but sometimes the fleshly thing is we want to criticize and condemn ourselves.
I love it. It’s over in 1 John 3. It says, “If our heart condemns us, God is greater.” That’s a good thing. So let’s see what God says. What does it take to have fellowship with God, for me to be close to God? I’ve figured it out. I’m not going to be the super Christian, all right? Somebody else can go in the phone booth and come out with the cape on. Just not going to be me, amen. If I go in the phone booth and try that, by the way, young people, you don’t even know what I’ll talk about.
But it’s encouraging. How do you have fellowship? How do you get close to God? Verse number seven. Help me out. Here we go. “But if”—what’s the next few words?—“walk in the light.” That’s what God says. For me to have fellowship, for me to be close to God, for me to walk with Him and enjoy Him and have the peace that comes from Him and the answers to prayer when you get close to Him, and God uses you to be a blessing to someone, Brother, just saying about it, to be there. “Walk in the light.” Is that what the Bible says or not? Well, what so-and-so and so-and-so said? You got to do all this. I understand so-and-so and so-and-so, and I’ll also understand God, and I’ll go with God. God said, “But if we walk in the light.” Now there are things about that we’ll talk about, but there’s hope. There’s hope.
Man, for a guy that’s got an ‘F’ on my chest—failure—there’s hope. I’ve got all kinds of issues. I mean, if you need to know about them, just talk to my wife; she’ll tell you all about you. But I can walk in the light. Frank, and I say, if you want to grow in the Lord and have peace and joy and blessings of God and have His leadership in your life and know you’re following God’s plan for your life—if you want all those things, the key is to walk in the light. That’s the key.
You say, “Well, what about this, that, and the other sin?” And I understand all that. Can I tell you the place you’re going to have victory over this, that, the other sin is in the light? It’s not when you beat yourself over the head and you walk in darkness; you’re just going to stumble even more in darkness. The place you’re going to have victory in your life is walking in the light. Friend, that’s the key. Walking in light—every single person in this room has the capability of walking in light. I don’t care what your background is. I don’t care what happened in your childhood. I don’t care if you spent time in the hood or whatever it may be. You can walk in the light. It’s possible for you. Every one of us—you say, “This is the first time I’ve been in church in 10 years”—it doesn’t matter; you still have the potential. You can walk in light.
If your goal is to become a super Christian, you’re going to end up defeated and discouraged. There was only one Super Christian—for Him—and He walked on water. And if you want to walk on water, I want to see that, especially with this cold weather. I’d like to be there and see that, you know, when you try it. The key is to walk in light. I hope that phrase becomes real to you. You wake up tomorrow morning and the devil’s on your back. You thought it was a monkey; it was the devil monkey. Amen. And he’ll be there, guaranteed. He’ll be there in the middle of the night when you wake up.
But listen, when he’s there and he says there’s no way you’re going to be the Christian that God wants you to be, you say, “Buddy, all I have to do is walk in the light.” And you can do that. I have a couple of things very quickly here about walking in the light. Now listen very closely, and I just really want to try to get this theme out and in our heart today. The ability for you to walk in the light is dependent on two things. It is not dependent on you becoming perfect because there will be no hope.
First of all, your ability to walk in the light is dependent upon the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Did you notice the rest of that verse? Verse number seven, what did he say? “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” Right there, I believe he’s talking about fellowship with the Lord at that point. “And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
Now, He would not put that in there if He’s talking about you becoming perfect, because for you to get there, or if you were to get there, you wouldn’t need the blood of Jesus Christ. He’s talking about the way you walk in the light is dependent on the power of the blood of Christ. Have you ever been in a service and a song leader gets you to sing, “There’s power in the blood”? How many have ever sang, “There’s power in the blood”? Good. And then you get down to the chorus and he puts four powers: “There is power, power, power, power.” How many have ever sang like that with four powers in there? All right, good. How many have ever sang with eight powers in there? There’s p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p. How many have done it at 16? How many of them?
There’s unlimited power in the blood of Jesus Christ. If He just shed—and He said a whole lot more—but if He just shed one drop, one drop of the blood of Jesus would be able to pay for every one of your sins, past, present, and future, all of them. The blood of Christ. And your ability to walk in light is dependent upon the power of the blood of Christ. Can I say, friend, there’s no limitation there. If you don’t walk in the light, it’s not because the blood is not powerful enough. He shed it. He applied it on the mercy seat; it’s available. If you’re not walking in light, it’s not because His blood is not powerful enough.
Mother, there are those that will teach a false doctrine that His blood was just shed for a certain amount of people in the world: the select few, the elect, predestination, Calvinism, whatever you’re going to call it. Look over in chapter number two, if you would, there. A great verse on that subject, 1 John 2. And God covers that subject. It’s not limited atonement.
Verse number one, 1 John 2:1, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that if ye sin not.” And if any man sin, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is a propitiation.” You said, “What does that word mean?” I don’t know. I just had a hard time saying it. I’m happy I said it right. It means—every once in a while I crack myself up, folks—it means atonement is sacrifice. And here’s a propitiation for our sins. Watch this: “for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
That’s why whosoever will may come and drink of the water of life freely. And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He said, “For God so loved the world,” not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. There’s no limit to the power of Jesus’ blood. Not limited at all. Everybody in the world has that available, but every born-again Christian has that available to them when they want to walk in the light.
So my ability to walk in the light is dependent on two things. Number one was the blood of Jesus Christ, and then number two, it’s dependent upon my willingness to walk in the light. Now, in the coming days, we’ll talk about what that means. Well, let me just start off by saying, when I sin, I step into the darkness for just a moment there, and Satan will offer many, many, many different excuses for you to stay in the darkness. But the choice is up to you.
If you stay in the darkness and you don’t get back in the light, it’s not God’s fault because God has made available for you the shed blood of Jesus Christ—yes, for salvation and for daily fellowship. And if you don’t get your sins forgiven, not as far as salvation, but as far as a child with his Dad, if you don’t get things right with your Dad, it’s not His fault. It’s not that it’s not available; it’s that you do not choose to get your sins forgiven. It’s always available. That’s what verse number nine is saying. If you look there at verse number nine—I’ve said before, this is my last verse right here—truth being known, it is somewhat for all of us if you’re going to walk with God.
Verse number nine: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful.” You said, “Preacher, when I failed about 10 million times?” Well, every Christian in the world has failed 10 million times. So don’t get high and proud and say, “Well, they sin again and again.” No, you sin again and again. Everybody sins again and again. That’s the truth of the matter. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just.” Why is it just? Because Jesus paid it all. “All to Him I owe.” His blood paid for the sins of the whole world, not for ours, but the sins of the whole world. And He’d be unjust to require two payments for a sin. Now, He might spank you, not to make you pay for your sins, but to correct you so you don’t keep going there, so you get out of the darkness.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” And I love the last part: “and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You see, if I want to get back in the light, I have that option. It’s always available. Can I say that confessing there has to do with us seeing our sin as God sees our sin? And sometimes that’s a process. Not that it takes a process for Him to forgive you, but it’s a process for you to get to the point to see things as God sees them and to fully confess that sin, or not just to cover, boom, you know, it’s done. Sometimes it takes a little while for us to get the heart of God in that matter.
But if we confess our sins—see what Satan wants you to do is wallow in the darkness. Satan loves that. Satan’s always his next step is to try to get you just to hang out in the darkness. This is what he’ll do: He’ll try to make you think in your head some way you’re actually paying for your sins and punishing yourself by staying in the darkness. And God says that’s so foolish. The only wages for sin is death, and Jesus already paid that death on the cross. And He doesn’t want His payment for your sin to be of no avail. He wants you to take that and get forgiveness and get back in the light because we have fellowship if we walk in the light. That’s the key, friend: walk in the light.
Tomorrow when your mind goes to something, you say, “I’m not going to go there with my mind anymore,” and you’re done. You catch yourself, “Whoa, what am I doing going there and being critical,” whatever it is. And you say, “What am I going to do?” And so for the next three hours, you kind of own yourself for doing that, and you get a little bit lower now. And the devil says, “I’m having a field day with you.” And God says, “All you got to do is walk in the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us.” It’s waiting, ready. But the choice is up to me.
Look at verse number eight. It’s amazing, verse number eight, what he says there. He says, “If we say that we have no sin”—this is very important—“we deceive ourselves.” Sometimes you can’t figure out why you’re not close to God, and why don’t you feel His love anymore? Why don’t you have peace anymore? When you’re at that point, stop everything and say, “Wait a second, there’s something between me and God.”
And sometimes if I’ve been there for years and years and years, and I’ve just gotten used to the dark—used to be a song out, my wife and I were dating back in 1845. Oh, I mean, my wife was—that was pre-birth date for her, you know, not for me. But there was a song out, “Getting Used to the Dark.” And my wife made a—my girlfriend at the time, maybe fiancée at the time—made a cassette tape. That’ll show our age right there, you know. Brother Anthony said, “My goodness, man, that’s back in the dark ages right there.” Talking about walking in light, and I had that song, “Getting Used to the Dark,” on that cassette tape. And if I just get used to the dark, you know what happens? I deceive myself.
They’re all over the Bible Belt, living just a sinful life. And if you say something about it, well, “Don’t judge me. Judge not.” You’re trying to say, “God, just help you a little bit.” That’s what the Bible says, you know. And I’m not talking about us going around being judgmental. It’s very common: “Well, what’s wrong with this? What’s wrong with that?” And the honest, simple truth is they’ve gotten used to the dark, and they’re deceived. And they really think, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Look at verse number 10. Skip verse number 9; we already covered it. We’ll go back to it again. But look at verse number 10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar,” pretty strong, “and His word is not in us.”
But I’ll have it tucked right in between those two verses: “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness.”
I’ll never forget one Sunday—I believe it was a morning—we preached something about that verse. And a guy came to the door, and he shook my hand and he said, “Preacher, I’m so glad that he put ‘all unrighteousness’ in there.” And I said, “I didn’t get it at first what we talked about.” And he said, “You quoted that verse, and it says ‘all unrighteousness’ in there.” He said, “I’m glad God put it in there. It cleanses us from all unrighteousness.” You see, the key to me walking in light is not wallowing in darkness and not staying in darkness. It’s getting back in the light through the blood of Jesus Christ. He being honest about it, saying, “God, I want to see my sin as You see my sin.”
Now, can I say this? Can I say this? It’s very crucial. The time that lapses when I fall and I get in darkness—and all of us do that. Don’t look at me like that; you’ve been there too now. But when we fall and we get in darkness, and we all do it, the time that lapses between that and the time it takes me to get back into the light is crucial. That’s key. I tend to think that Satan, of course, he’s always working at getting us to fall into darkness. But I think right as soon as we fall, he may work even more. That’s when he really works because he doesn’t want us to get back in the light. It’s kind of like he knows we’re down a little bit, and so he’s taking advantage of it. He’s going to kick us when we’re down. And the time that it takes me to fall, the time to get back up in the light—that’s just crucial, that time right there.
By the way, I’ve learned over the years, still learning. But those people I saw—they walked in the light, and they, man, they got that ‘S’ on their chest—I’ve learned they’re just like all of us. They’ve got an ‘F’ there too, but they’ve learned to get back in the light quicker. They’ve learned how gracious and loving and kind God is. They’ve learned the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.
I love the story of Brother Howes. He was preaching somewhere with John Rice, and they were staying in a hotel, and I think he went to get him. They were going to preach at the church, and he said John Rice was in the back of the room there, and he was in the bathroom, and he saw him putting something—paper in the toilet—and flushing the toilet. He said, “Brother Rice, what are you doing?” And he said, “Well, I just confessed my sins to God. I wrote them down on a card and I confessed them to God.” And he said, “I didn’t want anybody else to see them.” So he says, “I tear them up and put them in the toilet and flush them down the toilet.” And I thought John Rice was a perfect Christian. He wasn’t perfect. He just learned the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sins. Walk in the light.
Now when you fall into darkness, don’t stay there. Would you determine in your hearts this morning, “I’m going to walk in light”? Maybe let’s just throw it off this week. We have a week. Next Sunday we’ll preach on the same subject. Maybe you say this week, “I’m going to walk in light all week long.” No, I mean you’re not going to be perfect this week because that’ll be defeating. But as soon as I fall, as soon as my husband says whatever and I hold off and hit him, then I’m going to get back in light real quick before he hits me back. Whatever it is, but look, I’m going to determine this week, if I do slip up and listen to the wrong music, I’m not going to listen to it for three days and get around. I’m going to confess it, get it right, and I’m going to get back in the light. Whatever the sin, whatever the subject, would you determine? Maybe it’s negativity, maybe it’s being critical of others. Maybe it’s just wallowing in the filth of the world. I’m going to determine this week I’m going to walk in light. Would you? As a church, maybe make a little pact: Let’s walk in light.
You’ve got a couple of enemies. One, when you fall down in darkness, Satan’s going to try to make you feel defeated, guarantee it. And you’re going to think, “Man, I’m a failure all over again.” I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that voice; I’ve been there before. You won’t hear it. And defeatism—and Satan, one of the titles for Satan is the Accuser of the brethren—he accuses you before God night and day, but he’ll accuse you in your heart and your mind too. And he’s good at it; he’ll be looking for every flaw in your life. He’ll even magnify your flaws to you, make you think there’s no way.
And so one of the enemies when you fall this week, one of your enemies in getting back in the light is defeatism. And you guys say, “Nope, no, no, no. All I have to do is walk in the light.” And the blood is capable. It’s there. And I’m going to use the blood. I’m going to get back in the light. Another enemy of us getting back in the light is pride. “Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly, but the proud He knoweth afar off.” Proud people are never close to God. God resisteth the proud. He giveth grace unto the lowly, to the humble, and to other places.
And I’m down here, I’m just going to have to—no, it’s not so-and-so’s fault or so-and-so’s fault or my spouse’s fault or my kid or my parents’ fault. It’s not the teacher’s fault. It’s not my mom and dad’s fault. It’s just me. And when I have to humble myself, if I’m going to walk in light, if I’m going to live up there, I’m going to have to get rid of my pride and stop acting. Here’s what we all do: We act like we got that ‘S’ on our chest, but it’s really an ‘F.’ But through Christ, it can be that ‘F’ standing for forgiveness and cleansing, and I can walk in the light. But it won’t be there if I’m proud. Stubbornness.
Well, nobody’s going to tell me what I’m doing wrong. You have to just walk around in darkness for a long time then, stumble through life. Sometimes it’s just indulgence. This is one of the saddest things. We fall into darkness. We fall into whatever sin it is, and we just say, “Well, while I’m down here, I might as well indulge a little bit.” Can I confess the sin? Miss Wanda made me this—she didn’t give me the whole pecan pie. I’m a little bit, you know, I mean, she gave me this big old piece of pecan pie. And every morning I would wake up, and it was—my wife left—it’s all my wife and Miss Wanda’s fault. You notice that, folks? My wife says, “Uh-uh, buddy, it’s your fault.”
And that thing was in this container on the stove right beside the coffee maker. That’s not a good thing. That’s just not. And I go to get that coffee and that pecan pie, and I call, “Hey, aren’t you tired this morning? I could give you a little boost this morning. Sugar will wake you up.” And here’s the problem: “All right, all right, I’ll take a little bite of you.” So I fall down in the darkness, and then the big choice: Am I going to indulge in it or not? And all Ms. Wanda’s fault—it was a little bitty piece. I’d indulge in it one day, and it would be done, you know. It’s a big old piece. And look, here’s the thing with sin: Indulging is—the end of that road is always sad.
Because if I sow to the flesh, what do I reap? Flesh. You know what happens is? I mean, I’d fall into the—I’d eat some of that pecan pie and eat more than I wanted. And before long, sin—you become a servant. Whosoever committed sin is a servant thereof. A lot of times that’s why I see people end up in jail and so on and so on. They just indulge, indulge. The greater that monster becomes in my life—negativity, doubt, worry, fear, being critical. Friend, don’t follow in the darkness. That’s never going to satisfy you. The Bible says the eyes—somebody looks on pornography and, well, just one little peek. The Bible says the eyes of men are never satisfied. It’ll always create an appetite for more of flesh. And it grows. Kind of like my belly’s been growing. Not your thing. This mind is never going to give me any more pecan pie ever.
Hey, all you have to do is walk in light. That’s doable. Every person here—and that’s where victory over sin is found. I’m not trying to say, “All right, just go ahead and sin.” I’m not—He said over there, “I’m not trying to just say, ‘Go sin.’” And he said that in the first part of chapter 2. But if you do, you’ve got an advocate with the Father. And he said, “Get back up there and get in the light,” because that’s where victory over the pecan pie is found, whatever may be in your life. And here’s the wonderful thing—I have to be there—here’s a wonderful thing: He always wants you to have fellowship with Him.
I got some pictures of some of my hound dogs. You know, I like my dogs. We’ve got two dogs at our house. We’ve got our little Yorkie. Her name is Bell. Bell’s a good dog, but here’s the problem: Bell’s a shedless dog, but she’s not a stinkless dog. I don’t know, but it seems like those shedless dogs, the older they get, whew, you give her a bath, and three minutes later she’s stinking again. Wow.
And then Dixie. Dixie is our outside dog there. She is part Lab and part Great Pyrenees. We thought she was a Lab Retriever when my wife bought her for me for Christmas. But that’s Dixie. She’s a good dog, sweet natured, fun dog. She likes to play. And there’s Dixie again. She has that collar so she can roam the yard, but she can’t go outside of it. And she looks like a polar bear there. And here’s her stealing the water out of the bird bath right there, you know. She’s got water on the porch, but she likes that water better. That’s just Dixie, you know. And Dixie’s a loving dog. She really is. She likes to play. But if you get her inside, she’s a very affectionate dog. She really—I think probably the most affectionate dog I’ve ever had. She likes to just love on you. And she sleeps in the laundry room right outside the kitchen and dining room. And every morning, I’ll get my coffee, and I’ll go over there, and I’ll let her out. Her routine is she comes out of the laundry room. If she gives me a chance, I’ll sit down in the kitchen chair there, and then she’ll put her front paws up on the chair and she’ll come onto my lap. Man, she’s just loving. Sometimes she’s so anxious to get there, she doesn’t give me time to sit down, so she just puts her front paws up there, so I have to bend down to her, you know. But she loves it. She’s just a very affectionate dog. And I’ll be honest with you, I like it. She likes her owner. Many of you know you’ve had her. Casey’s babysat her a lot of times. My mom used to babysit her until she ate up her Japanese, whatever they were, trees in the backyard. So they’re number one enemies right now. If my dog is ever dead, you know what happened to Dixie.
But honestly, if you’re sitting down somewhere and Dixie’s around, she’ll come. She’ll put her paws up on you. And if you start petting her, she’ll slowly get closer and closer. She’ll get right by your face. And then if you let her, you keep petting her, she’ll get her lower legs or back paws. She’ll climb all the way up on that seat or couch whatever. Before you know it, that 80 pounds is always in your lap. She just loves it. She’ll put her nose right on your shoulder and she’ll just rest it there. She just wants to be close. She’s an affectionate dog. Those who’ve been around her a lot, you know, she really is. We had a dog, Sandy, that was a good dog, but she wasn’t affectionate. My wife kind of put up with Sandy. But Dixie knows she’s gotten into Tammy’s heart. And Tammy likes it when Dixie is close. People like that. And I say all that to say, God likes you to come up in His lap, just be close to Him. He likes that. He likes it when you come and you put your nose up on His shoulder. He likes it when you come and you’re trying to put your paws up in the chair so He’ll bend over. That’s why He saved you—so He can be close to you for all eternity. You see, hell is total separation from the love and mercy of God. God doesn’t want that. He wants you to be close to Him. He doesn’t want you to spend eternity in hell. And He saved you to be close to you for all eternity. And He saved you so you can have fellowship with Him while you’re on earth. He wants to be close to you. He so loved you. And friend, the thing that God says is He’s available. He wants you to walk in the light.
The honest truth is, He is light. In Him is no darkness at all. He wants you to walk with Him. Everything you need, everything you need is found in the light: the joy, the peace, the protection, the financial blessings, all of that, everything. You think, “I need this and this and this to happen.” Know what you need is in the light. Everything you need is in the light. He said, “Walk in the light.”
Original File: If We Walk in the Light - Pastor Paul Chisgar 11021 Sunday AM