--PRE-SERVICE PRAYER--

Focus: Stand Firm & Take Action

Foundation Scripture: Daniel 11:32 (ESV)

Prayer Points:
1. Pray that He would Increase Our Dependence on Him, as we Seek to Hold Firm and Take Action.
2. Pray and give thanks to God for His faithfulness on us as a Church family!
3. Pray that many people would come to Jesus and that many lives would be changed through God’s work in us as a Church Community.
4. Sunday Services & Resources for the expansion of Linked UP Church

--MESSAGE--

“Let There Be Light”

Introduction: Exposure is Mercy

This is a time of great exposure - Exposure in the New Testament Greek means to expose: reprove, rebuke, discipline to show to be guilty. properly, to convince with solid, compelling evidence, especially to (prove wrong).
Something that I want us to realize about exposure is that although it seems shaming and condemning its rooted in the loving desire to usher people out of darkness and into the marvelous light of the Lord Exposure, is a great mercy of God.

In His goodness, God chooses to expose hidden evil so that His people can come to realize that the things that they love in the world are actually rooted in darkness.

In John 3, right after Jesus is telling Nicodemus, that He didn't come into the world to condemn it but to save it, and before that, the powerful scripture God so loved that world that He gave his only begotten son so that the world would not perish but that they’d have eternal life

Already we are seeing a function of the light of the Lord, exposure is a mercy because it is a result of the light of God. Jesus Christ came into this world and was the most beautiful light and glory that this world has ever known but He was rejected by men. Imagine you come to your creation as the liberation King of Light. You want to set them free and awaken them with the truth and they choose bondage oppression and darkness instead. The only way that a slave would love their oppression is if they were deceived.

Define The Terms
We are still building here but before I go deeper, I want to make sure we are all on the same page so let’s biblically define some of the terms that I am using.

Expose: reprove, rebuke, discipline to show to be guilty. properly, to convince with solid, compelling evidence, especially to (prove wrong).
if light is what exposes, then light is the rebuke it is the proof, light is the truth and the reality of the way, kingdom and frequency and essence of God Himself.

Light: is purity, God’s unadulterated truth, the presence of God’s glory, revelation of The Word, Jesus Christ Himself.

When God spoke the powerful and precious words, “let there be light” in the of the beginning of time at remarkable speed that light rushed the earth, snatching it from the darkness that it was literally drowning in and illuminated the face of the earth which gave the foundation for the order and beauty of God’s Kingdom to dwell in the midst of it.
Of course, darkness is biblically defined as evil, as lies and confusion and wickedness the place where Satan dwells but I want to define it really simply today because there is only one reason why darkness exists

Darkness: the absence of light So we see why God in the beginning said that it was good for darkness and light to be separated.
What God did in the beginning is exactly what He is doing in the end, he is separating light and darkness, he is allowing his light to shine on the hidden things so that we would know what is truly light and what is truly darkness so that the two would be set before us like life and death and we make our final choice.

I'm here this morning to declare God let it be
Let there be light in the hidden places
Let there be light to expose the darkness of this world
Let there be light to show us the wickedness in our own hearts and our own belief
Let there be light to proceed the coming of the glorious, beautiful light of Jesus that will overcome every hidden darkness big or small to rid

Deceived into a Foreign Frequency
As human beings, we were created to be light bearers, we were fashioned to flow from the frequency of the father’s light
For those who just believe you are free thinkers, I'm really going to bust your bubble. Your mind is a vessel it was designed to channel.
At creation, your mind was designed to flow from the mind of God himself. Our minds were made so that our thoughts were in line with His thoughts and our ways His ways.
We were designed to be an extension of Him. We were not made to be independent thinkers.

Even when God made Adam in the garden and told him to name the animals, Adam could do that freely because his thoughts flowed from the source of God and Adam called the animals, what God wanted them to be called.

The devil was in such bondage because the garden was so full of light, Adam and Eve flowed from it, the creation itself was birthed from
words that came from the mouth of God, so its very matter was light itself. He had to find a way to infiltrate and the only way that darkness could break into the light is for the light, the truth, God’s way, to be absent.
He had to steal the light. Replace the truth with a lie. It all started with getting eve to question if the light was the truth. If I can replace the truth with a lie then the light will be absent, and darkness can infiltrate.

“Did God really say that”

Pastor stood up here and showed us for a whole 4-week series that the issues that we say are “political issues” are actually biblical and spiritual issues. (share how the light shined on me)
When you're in the dark for a long time, your eyes adjust to the darkness and you do see, but you begin to see differently than how you would see if light was present

It can be painful and difficult on the eyes to be flooded with light after there has been darkness for so long. You begin to believe that what you see is correct, this is why the lord says to acknowledge him and not to lean on your own understanding because what you think you see since you've seen it that way for so long isn't right

When adam and eve entertained the devil and came into agreement with his lie, all hell broke loose in the world for generations and
generations to come. What if the attacks of the enemy in your life are just a result of the innocent lie that the world convinced you to believe
We were made to flow from the frequency of the father's light but in that moment Adam and eve decided to flow from the frequency of a foreigner voice.

They changed the channel of the minds to receive messages from a liar and those messages caused their actions to be more in line with the enemy so that once they thought the way God thought, now they thought the way the devil thought, and they did what they saw him doing Hidden!

Darkness and hiding go hand and hand
Adam hides because he’s naked, who told you that? It did not flow from my mind; it is unfamiliar to me Light’s 3 purposes in Ephesians
Jesus this is the judgment, that light came into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light!

Many of us don't realize that the systems that socialized us were systems void of the light of God. because we were raised in a world designed outside of the presence of God, some of the things that just come natural to us in our thinking and in our belief systems, in our responses and our processes were things that we received from the frequency of a foreign invader.

LET THERE BE LIGHT
When light comes it reveals your source, your beliefs that come from that source and your actions that flow from the source of your beliefs
This verse in Ephesians is going to show us the 3 things light comes to do!!

1. Light Exposes:

He exposes His very own people so that they are awakened to the fact that the darkness that has become so normalized in their lives through comfort and familiarity is the evil wickedness that He said it was from the beginning, and He hopes that the revelation of such truth would lead to repentance and freedom from the bondage of darkness.
When things are exposed, it reveals to you that what you have actually loved is darkness.
I told you exposure is a mercy but if darkness is exposed but you still choose it. You've made your choice, we see the wickedness of the world, music, religion, your favorite movie stars and politicians
Exposing sources, believes and actions

2. Light Illuminated:

God doesn't just want to expose you by proving you wrong and revealing your wickedness He wants to illuminate you by giving your revelation of the truth in that area of darkness in your life
The illumination is the aha moment. It is often both beautiful and painful to see something clearly for the first time. It hurts to realize that ...
Things to call out Music, witchcraft, sororities and pledging, political views, abortion, racism

3. Light Envelopes:

God’s heart and purpose even for sending His son to die for us and free us from our sin is to transform us into the image of His perfect son. He wants us to become His Light.
You are supposed to be the ones who expose darkness in this life. If you are the light, then you are called to expose it. Remember the light in the word, the essence and beauty of the truth of Jesus so what it looks like to expose darkness is to speak the word of truth in the face of darkness. Some of us don't realize how powerful it is to say something on the earth to be the voice of the lord and to give His words voice when you speak what He speaks.

We have minimized the depth and the beauty of what it really means that we are light in this dark world and because of that we have gotten acquainted well with darkness.
If you don't become it, it’ll destroy you (suns power)
When Jesus returns, he is returning in the fullness of his glory. Even the sun will hide in shame because of how bright and beautiful he will be now. Let me tell you this, our only defense in not being destroyed by the power of such light is if we become it.

Come into the Light!!
Altar call and invitation to flee from darkness. Invitation to repent and rethink what we believe, ask the Lord where our understanding is darkened.

When Jesus returns, He is receiving those who are familiar to Him
If you live your life flowing from the frequency of the foreign enemy but you call yourself a Christian, He will look you in the face and say that he never knew you. Why because You look like something that is foreign and unfamiliar to me perhaps because you have spent your life being well acquainted with what is foreign and unfamiliar to me
We need light!

Let there be light! Light shines best in times of darkness!