[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected] Hallelujah. Welcome to church today. It gives me so much pleasure to be here and one of the things that we do on Sunday and I just want to specially welcome any first timers in the house. If it's your first time, can you just wave and let me see you? Anyone in church that is new, welcome to church. Yes, yes. Thank you. Hallelujah. And yeah, I mean, it gives us so much pleasure to have you and to host you today. One of the things we do in church is that we share the word with ourselves. The word of God, the Bible. We remind ourselves, you know, what the truth is and that's what we're going to be doing this morning. But before I go further, I'd like to pray. So let's pray, please. Father, I thank you.
[00:00:53] I give you all the glory because you are the one who made every one of us and you have brought us together to gather like this. Father, I ask, oh God, that you breathe over us, you speak to us. I ask that you meet us where we are, every one of us, that there will be a word for everyone. And at the end of today, indeed, your light would have invaded every darkness. In Jesus mighty name, Amen. Have you ever imagined a world without sunlight? Who has ever imagined that?
[00:01:23] I had to imagine over the past few days. Anybody.
[00:01:28] What would that look like, really? I want you to shout out some words. The teacher in me is here this morning.
[00:01:34] What would that look like? Scary. Good.
[00:01:37] Dark. Thank you.
[00:01:39] Any other word?
[00:01:41] Cold. Yes, very cold. Any other word? Depressing. Depressing, yes. That was the word I wrote down. You literally have mentioned the words I wrote down here. Absolutely. That's what a world without sunlight looks like. So you can imagine the impact of sunlight just even on our lives physically, you know, and then imagine what that now looks like for us spiritually. I was thinking about it and I was saying to myself that we used to sing a song when we were young in church. And I'll do it for you just quickly. When we're in kids church, like those kids have gone. All our kids have gone to kids church now. We used to say, life without Jesus is like a doughnut. Like a donut, like a donut. Life without Jesus is like a doughnut. Like a doughnut with a whole.
[00:02:29] Yeah.
[00:02:30] I thought you clapped for me.
[00:02:33] Thank you, thank you. I hope I did a good job. Rasma. I know I don't have the voice for singing, but I do have a voice for talking. But the point of it is just the fact that. Look at the void and look at a lot of things we said about the sunlight, you know, and how our lives can be without it is exactly the way that our lives can be, you know, without the light called Jesus.
[00:02:53] That's. That's the message today. But before I even go ahead into that, I want to start with a story. We're going to look at John, chapter eight today, and we're going to look at verse one to 12. The core of the preach today is actually verse 12. But it's important for us to look at the story that leads us into verse 12, meaning, let's look at what was the context or what was happening before Jesus then made that declaration in verse 12. And so a story unfolds, which is a story of a woman, you know, her accusers and the Lord Jesus. It was early morning in the temple, actually, permit me to say, it was a Sunday morning like this, you know, and Jesus had barely begun teaching when the crowd parted all of a sudden, and there was a woman, trembling, dragged through the streets by religious men. Her sin was exposed. Her shame was public. Her accusers were ready to stone her to death. To them, she was a scapegoat. They were about to make a very good example to prove a point. But to Jesus, she was a soul that needed to be restored. They.
[00:04:04] And they went to Jesus and said, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery.
[00:04:11] Moses says to stone her. What do you say?
[00:04:16] They were always looking for the truth, always looking for answers. But instead of answering them, Jesus stooped down and he began to write on the ground. They kept pressing him until he stood. And he said, let him who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at this woman.
[00:04:39] And one by one, they dropped their stones and they walked away. Finally, I can imagine that if Jesus had done that, there, probably that would be the same. I mean, I'm sure that would be the same. I'd probably just walk away, isn't it? And Jesus looked at the woman and said, woman, where are your accusers?
[00:04:57] Has no one condemned you? Has no one stoned you? And she answered, no one, Lord.
[00:05:03] And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.
[00:05:10] And turning back to the crowd, Jesus declared.
[00:05:15] He declared, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but they will have the light of life.
[00:05:25] He literally gave a verse to summarize what Just happened there, that yes, there is sin here. It has been exposed, but actually I am here to restore. I am here, yes, to reveal the truth, but I am here to redeem. I am not here to condemn. Jesus was literally making a statement with all that happened there. But with verse 12, that day that woman walked away, forgiven, transformed and seen. The darkness of her past literally gave way to the light of life. And that's what Jesus still does today. That's what he does for every man, woman, single, married, old, young. He still steps into the darkness of our confusion, of our guilt, our addictions, our pride, and says, you don't have to live here anymore.
[00:06:15] Is anybody a witness in the house to that? Yeah, I'm a witness to that. And so Jesus declared that, saying, I am the light of the world. I want us to unpack that. You know, that particular verse, I feel like that's what God wanted us to, you know, focus on when I was preparing, like unpack that and let's share that truth with each other. So Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And that is the truth that we need to hear, that everyone must know. And even those who are not here today, the people around us, that's the truth that they must know today. In a world where the truth is so scarce, the truth is so mixed up. The truth is so relatable now, isn't it? What is true to you may not be true to me, depending on who is speaking. That's my truth. It's not your truth. We are in that world today. Our kids are growing up in that world. And so people are literally looking for what is the truth. People even go to horoscope, you know, they go to manifesting. They do all these things now, you know, when they should really be praying and having faith, you know, when they should be seeking the face of God. People even do all those crystal ball things, you know, and there's a lot of even witchcraft. And you could have, you know, we must have seen a few videos even from Halloween, isn't it? Yeah, we would have seen that. That's why we say we light up the world, because that's who we are and that's what we do and believe in. And we even see some self help when really we should be, you know, seeking the help of God. All of those things are false lights and many more things. The true light is what Jesus was trying to say to them that, see, I am the light, I'm the light. And so where we are in this world and we are wondering what really is the truth? If any even have has questions where you're wondering what is the truth? The truth is the absolute standard by which reality is measured. It's not something that changes based on feelings or perspective or whatever. It's not. The Bible contains truths.
[00:08:09] I particularly believe the one book I believe in is the Bible, because many things written in the Bible, many things written in the word of God has come to pass. Things that were written many thousand years ago has come to pass today and are still coming to pass sadly, like the people in the Bible, the people in Jesus day, Truth exists whether we embrace it or not, whether we want to agree or not. The people in Jesus, they were actually in a place where they were wondering who is who? Who is the Lord? Who is the Savior? When is the Messiah coming? They had questions, they wanted to know they were lost about who the Savior was. But Jesus came and I am the light of the world. And that's what he's saying today as well.
[00:08:56] It is true that heaven and hell exist. That's one truth as well that we must take in and we must embrace. It is true that there is a real destination for every soul. It is true that eternal life exists with Jesus and that eternal separation exists when you go away from him. It is what it is.
[00:09:17] And the Bible says in John 3:16, as if to buttress that point, the Bible says that for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So there are two ways eternal life perish.
[00:09:33] So that's a truth we must embrace. And I know that sometimes people, maybe even family, friends, around us, neighbors, don't believe that truth. But it is the truth. If a person denies that, you know, gravity is true and things, is it true or not? Tell them to drop their iPhone 17 from the 10th floor. Then they would know whether you know it is true or not. This is our truth. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. That is the truth.
[00:10:04] That is the truth. And so the apostle John, you will see if you read the Gospel, he talks and refers to Jesus Christ as the light a lot because he knows we need to hear that when, but we need to know it, but we need to embrace it so that we can have the true life that God has destined for us.
[00:10:22] So apparently, clearly Jesus is the light, meaning that Jesus through him is the way is the truth. When I was preparing, I had a summary in my heart. About all of this. You know that when John was referring, you know, to Jesus as the true light In John chapter 1, verse 9, and Jesus himself said it in 8:12, Whenever we see, you know, anything that looks like darkness, then we know that it needs Jesus. We know that it needs Jesus. And I realized my summary is this. For this part is truth is not an idea.
[00:10:59] Truth is a person.
[00:11:01] And truth is Jesus. And everyone that needs the truth needs to embrace Jesus.
[00:11:09] And so we see clearly why he was telling them, you know, or why he made that statement. Statement.
[00:11:17] Let's go on to see the other part.
[00:11:20] The Bible says In John chapter 1, verse 4 to 5, it says the life of Jesus brought light to everyone. The light shines in darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. Light is something that Jesus gives. It's not even just that. It is who he is.
[00:11:36] It gives us light. It is who he is. When we embrace him without light, we will stumble.
[00:11:42] Without light, we will not see. When I was preparing, it was easy to remember growing up in Nigeria. And, you know, back then, electricity was, you know, something they were struggling with. And, you know, we didn't have all the innovation that we had when I was growing up. You know, maybe we had a few lousy generators that were as big as a house, but, you know, we didn't have all the simple things we have now, like the inverters and solar system and all of that. We. But when I was growing up, you could literally be staring, making your mashed potato, you know, or marinating your chicken, or you could really be. You could be changing diapers, like literally doing the most serious thing ever. And the light just trips off in the night, like it just goes blank, black, dark. And you're literally like, oh, my God, what am I doing? And somehow, even though you arrange the chairs there yourself, you try to move and say, let me go. Grab the touch light. You are the one who is going to stumble on that chair. And sometimes you're like, oh, my leg. Just because you're walking in darkness, isn't it?
[00:12:43] That's how powerful light is. But the moment that light comes back, everything is clear. You know where to go and where not to go. That's what embracing Jesus, the light of the world, looks like.
[00:12:55] You know, I was asking you about the sunlight earlier.
[00:12:58] It's interesting that even the government and the government know that light is effective and powerful, which is why we have the daylight saving system, isn't it? Yeah, they know it's serious. It's serious. And that's why we must, you know, embrace walking and following the light. And that takes me to my next point. Jesus then went and said, he didn't just say, I'm the light of the world and leave them with, oh, facing that fact, he said, see whoever follows me.
[00:13:27] Meaning that this is not for a select few. This is whoever, me, you.
[00:13:35] This is not about qualification. This is not. There's no exception to it. The woman caught in adultery was a whoever. So was Nicodemus, so was Peter, so was Saul, who became Paul.
[00:13:48] So was Jackie, the thief on the cross, anyone, anytime, whoever. And Jesus didn't just reveal the truth about him being the light. He invited us to come into it, to embrace him. And that's the invitation we have this morning. Again, knowing the truth doesn't save us. Following the truth is what saves us.
[00:14:09] And this is important. We can know that Jesus exists. We can know that there's heaven or hell. We can know that Jesus is even the Savior. We can even know that the Bible is true. But until we follow him, we're going to remain where we are. And that's what Jesus is saying, saying this morning, no, you're going to walk with me. You're going to enjoy me.
[00:14:30] Now.
[00:14:31] One thing I want to pull out today is that there is an action word there for us. The people is whoever, isn't it? So it's all of us. But there's also an action where there's a movement, you see, it's a relationship. So he's saying, don't just do religion. Come and let's follow. Walk with me. That's what he's saying.
[00:14:49] It's a daily decision, not walking ahead of him, but following him. Walking, right, letting him lead us, you know, trusting his steps, even when we cannot see the path. Following Jesus means living the old life. Following Jesus means walking away from darkness and surrendering control. All those things we think we know, all those things we have put our eyes on as light as the way. He says, no, you follow me and I will lead you and I will show you.
[00:15:17] Because, see, if Jesus says, follow me, I'm the light.
[00:15:21] It is because who you follow, it determines where you end up.
[00:15:25] Please don't forget that.
[00:15:28] So he then further he went and he said, you know, if you follow me, you will not walk in darkness.
[00:15:36] He was talking about deliverance here, like, I'm going to do something for you. Yes, it's the truth. The Bible says in John 12:46, I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. That's the word of God. So meaning that the world we live in, quite dark, really dark. Saw some news last night, and I was sharing my husband. I said, what is this? How can you be on the train and this can happen? Like really, what is going on?
[00:16:04] But then you realize that that's what my Lord was talking about, that just walk with me. It doesn't mean that darkness will not exist around you, but it just means that you will be able to go through it with maybe clarity. You will be able to go through it, you know, having light on what to do, what not to do. But even sometimes he will sustain you even through pain.
[00:16:25] He will give you understanding of what is happening in a way that somebody who doesn't have Jesus won't understand.
[00:16:32] How many know what I'm talking about? None of us have gone through loss, gone through sicknesses, things. And you're like, what's going on here? But somehow you can feel that presence of God carrying you through. That's what we mean when we say Jesus is the light of the world. And he says if you follow him, you will what? He will pull you out from darkness. That's what we mean.
[00:16:52] And so much more. That's even just a tip of the iceberg.
[00:16:56] And so I understood even more why we must swallow this, but why we must not just stop at swallowing this truth, but following him and, you know, experiencing this deliverance.
[00:17:08] To walk in darkness is something I want to, you know, shed a bit of light more.
[00:17:12] It represents confusion.
[00:17:14] You, you know, you look at your life and you. I don't know what to do. I don't even know where I'm headed. I don't even know what to do with these children or whatever it is. It looks like deception. You know that this is not true. You're just following those cynics and those things you know that is not true. It looks like addiction. It looks like those things, you know, that nobody must never catch up you doing, whether it's pornography, whether it's even addiction to smoking or drinking or whatever it is, whatever, addiction, whatever.
[00:17:43] That's what darkness looks like. It looks like fear, it looks like shame.
[00:17:49] So sometimes it's not even what you have done, but how the enemy keeps you grounded in what you have done in a way that you feel like nothing else can come out. That is darkness. Because something more can come out.
[00:17:59] And I'll share about that in a bit. It looks like guilt, but it looks like sin. Everything that is not good, everything that you can't take a microphone and speak of, that's what darkness looks like.
[00:18:11] And the promise, like I said earlier, is not that darkness won't exist, it's but that you don't have to walk in it because you'll be walking in the light. Colossians 1:13 says, he has rescued us, yes, from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Whatever this looks like, even if it's emotional pain, even if it's rejection, even if it's anxiety, I was in a session yesterday and I was sharing and I said, you know, anxiety is not a fruit of a spirit, meaning that that in itself is darkness. Today I'm going to make a call at the end because I really felt strongly, just any iota of darkness that maybe may even be existing, and you want to flush it out with God's light. Today we're going to have a prayer call and we can just join hands together and believe God to evacuate, you know, invade every darkness. That's the faith that he put in my heart this morning. And it would happen in Jesus name, it will happen in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And so the word of God was saying to us there in Colossians that this is what we already have if we're in Jesus. This is what you can have if you follow Jesus. It's the promise of freedom.
[00:19:20] It's the promise that if you choose to follow him, darkness will lose its grip over your life, over your family, over your marriage. Yes, it will lose its grip, meaning it will not have power over it anymore. You won't be under it and quaking under it. You won't be. You won't be. And that's what deliverance looks like walking out of once previously defined you.
[00:19:41] Ephesians 5:8 says, for you once were darkness, but now you are light. And he says, walk as children of light. That's the invitation we have. This morning Jesus confronted a real life situation like he's going to confront this morning.
[00:19:57] Religion exposed that woman, but Jesus rescued her. He didn't deny the truth of her sin, but he revealed a higher truth, which is redemption, deliverance, and in fact, salvation. Jesus said, they just showed you what darkness does. You saw it, they're about to stone you. But let me show you what light does. That's what Jesus said. And that woman had an encounter and she followed. Finally, the remaining part of that verse, it says, but when you follow me, you will not walk in darkness, but you will have the light of life.
[00:20:38] Jesus was offering salvation.
[00:20:40] Jesus was telling you, telling us and telling them what will happen. He was saying that light gives life.
[00:20:48] That's what he was saying. Like we said that we will stumble if there's no light. He was saying that without light nothing will grow. You may think he's growing, you may think he's looking good, but truly in the full picture of God for your life and the plan and purpose that's for you. Actually, without the light called Jesus, there is no life. When Jesus shines into your life, he doesn't just reveal what is wrong, he restores what is dead. What is dead this morning?
[00:21:15] What is dead in your relationship, in your life, career, whatever it is. And before we go too further, this is not a get rich quick scheme.
[00:21:24] This is not one of those things where we are preaching. Oh, all your problems are going to just go away. Yes, I said that we are going to pray and darkness will evaporate. I can say that coverly because I'm a testimony of that. But it does not mean that tomorrow you have all the money in your bank. No, we are not magicians in the river church. That's not what's happening. It's just the fact that because you are in Jesus, like I said earlier, you get to walk with him. He carries the weight.
[00:21:52] And yes, we can be rich and wealthy in him. There's no doubt about that. We can have good health and we will have good health. We can have the future that he has for us. But he said even more than that, you would have a life in me right here on earth. And after you leave earth, when you die, there is life in me that is eternal. You will be with me in heaven.
[00:22:11] This is the whole message really. This is the call of the word of God. This is the core of the gospel. Whoever believes in me would have what life everlasting. That's what we have. That's the hope we look forward to. We're so sure about it.
[00:22:26] So salvation is not, and I want us to be clear about it, it's not adding a sprinkle of Jesus to all of what you're doing. No, it's actually giving him the whole of your life.
[00:22:37] In John, chapter one, verse four, John said in Jesus, in him was life and that life was light, was the light of men.
[00:22:49] Jesus said, I've come that you may have life and have life in abundance.
[00:22:54] There is no life without light. There is no life without the light. There is no life without Jesus.
[00:23:01] So we're not going to sprinkle Jesus on top of our plans, you know, do the come to Sunday occasionally kind of thing. That's not what we're doing. We're living a life in him. And that's the invitation that he's calling and making this morning.
[00:23:14] And so this morning we're going to surrender our plans, our lives to him and say, I want to follow you, just Jesus, I want to live the life you have destined for me.
[00:23:24] And so we see, you know, that that's the breakdown of that verse. And we see an invitation. There is an ultimate outcome. It is salvation, it is transformation, it is purpose. When Jesus lights up your life, you don't just escape darkness, you actually become light yourself. But that's a sermon for another day. But that's. You can find in Matthew 5:14, you know, it says, you are the light of the world. Honestly, there is so much more in living a life with God.
[00:23:52] I want to begin to wrap up. And I know that sometimes in our gloom and our despair, we fear that our sorrows, you know, and troubles may never end.
[00:24:00] Although the Lord may not always spare us from troubles. I feel like I need to say it again. If we follow him wholeheartedly, he will lead us safely through them.
[00:24:10] He will lead us safely through them.
[00:24:13] I want to share some true life stories just so that you would feel this and hear this even more, that this is not something just about preaching a word. But it's true. If I ask some of us to come here and stand and share our, you know, Jesus, light of the world story, we would share stories with you, but there would be no time. And I don't. We don't want to keep you, but this is a gentleman or a powerful man. Actually, if you ask me, his name is. Or his name was, because he's now very late, you know, but the name is Smith Wigglesworth.
[00:24:42] If you know him, you may know him as God's General, but some of you may not know him. And I'll tell you a little bit about him, actually. He was, you know, British born. You know, he was born in Yorkshire, hopefully. That's how you say it. You know, he was English, you know, he was born in 1859 and died in 1947. He was initially a plumber, you know, before becoming a full time evangelist. But there's something about his life. You hear that plumber, a full time evangelist, and you're thinking, wow, actually that's not really how the story really went. You know, the Bible, not the Bible. Now the story we hear and that is all over Internet, you can Google it and find it, you know, is that he was once backsliding, meaning that he had grown up as a believer. He grew up actually in a Christian church, but he, for some reason fell back. But that's not where he ended. We hear that he was a terror to his wife. He was harsh. The woman would even go to church and come back and he would lock her out. There's a whole story about it. But he was also an alcoholic. So he was literally, you know, falling apart. Darkness had somehow crept into his life, but somehow through his wife, and that's another sermon again entirely, he began to see that there's a better way to behave, you know, and he began to say, okay, I better go back to this truth that I know. And he went back to Jesus. He went back and embraced the light of the world.
[00:26:01] And when he returned to Jesus, light broke through. And that same man became one of the greatest revivalists of our time. Imagine that the true picture and the destiny of God is that this man will be an evangelist raising and bringing many millions to the kingdom. Imagine. But look at how he started. Look at what happened in between. And is that not how some of us are. Our journeys are like, isn't it? And that's why I'm saying to you that when he says he'll give you the light of life, that's what we're talking about.
[00:26:30] But also, there is a story that's very familiar to me of a young lady who at teenage years, you know, got into all sorts looking for light, love, looking for attention, got into all sorts, you know. You know, the light that the enemy shares to the youth. Now suddenly they are not here today that, you know, you should have a boyfriend at 15, 16. That's what everybody does, isn't it? They say that's the light, but is that really the light?
[00:26:55] And so I got it, you know, this lady got into that, you know, and all of what comes with us and all of the sin that can come with that.
[00:27:05] And by the time before she was 18, all sort of things had happened. The enemy had really said, I would make sure I invade this girl's life with darkness. She would not have the life that God has destined her to have. And she was living in pain, heartbreak, shame, and all of that. But one day she truly encountered Jesus. She did encounter Jesus, the light of the world. And even though she did encounter Jesus and started living the way that he wanted her to be, she experienced even more pain. She had broken engagements, you know, cried her eyes out and all of that, telling you that it's not as if those things will not happen. But you know what? God still restored her. And she found divine love. She found marriage, the true love. She found true love first in him, and then she found motherhood.
[00:27:47] Meaning that God allowed all of the things that the enemy was trying to make sure she never entered into. God allowed it to happen for her. I know this story because that's that woman, and that woman looks like me.
[00:28:00] But that's what happens when light overtakes darkness.
[00:28:03] See, Jesus didn't just forgive my past, your past, that woman's past. In the story, he rewrote her future. One of the songs we sang today, I had to sit down to note it.
[00:28:14] Through God's loving kindness, he tore through our darkness. That's the truth. That's what he does. And that's why he's the light of the world. If you are here today, I want to beg you. I want us to close our eyes. I want you to think about your life. I want you to think about how you've been living. I want you to just face God this moment. Please, if we could all close our eyes. It's a moment to pray and reflect. Why am I still walking in darkness? What am I doing? Where am I? Am I even still walking in darkness? What voices am I following other than Jesus voice that is keeping me from the light? Where will I let his light redefine my story? I want you to please close your eyes. Because this is a moment between you and God. And you may already have come to Christ, you know the Lord, but some people may not. And I want to give them a chance to say, jesus, I want to follow you. So if all eyes are closed and we are all looking at our God and facing him, is there anyone who wants to give their lives to Christ? Who wants to say, jesus, light of the world, I embrace you. I want you. I need you. If there's anyone there, you may just want to put your hand on your heart and you want to say the prayer and just say, today, lord, be my light. I confess with my mouth that you are Lord. I confess my sins and I ask that you take over my life. Jesus, I believe in you. From today, I embrace you, the light of the world. Shine your light over my darkness.
[00:29:35] Say that prayer.
[00:29:37] Say and know that from today you have embraced the light of the world. And if there's anyone in church, if the prayer team can come and the choir can begin to come, please, let's begin to wrap up the service. But prayer team, if you can just come. If there's anyone, I could sense that, you know, if we had a burden, that there's something dark or something we're not happy about, something that has happened that you're like, I need the light of God to invade this darkness. I need the light of God to shine. Is there someone in your life who you know that this is darkness that is manifesting and you want to pray the light of God? Can I please ask you to come to the front as we begin to worship? Can I ask you to come and get prayer? There will be someone you know that you want to even pray for, that you want the light of God to invade their life. So maybe it's you, maybe it's your colleague, maybe it's your child. We can come out and begin to pray. We have the prayer team come in, worship. If we could just have worship and we trust that the Lord God Almighty will shine his light over our hearts in Jesus name, amen.
