In the morning at 9 o', clock, your decibel meter would have gone off on your watch because these kids brought so much life. Listen, I'm telling you, it's just so encouraging. I sit here watching them, and, you know, you start reminiscing. And this is my fourth VBS here. And I think it was Jackson Crosby's little boy, Jackson.

I was sitting over there. I think it was the first vbs, and he's over here, and he goes, hey, hey, Pastor Jamie. I'm over here. And then I just looked over here a minute ago and saw Amelia Carter, and she's just in her own little space. It's like just being Amelia.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, just the joy, guys, we need to be reminded that there's joy in our Savior. And it's just such a blessing. Take your device or your Bible. I'd like to ask you to go to Ephesians 5, 7.

I got some things I want to share with you before I start. The thrust of the message. So I want to try to make that really quick. But if you are new here, what we mean by new here, maybe today's the first time you've come into this room, maybe the first time you've joined us online, or maybe you've been coming for a few weeks, but we haven't got to put a name with a face. We'd love to do that.

Stop by our New Here desk, let them know you're new. I mean, the coffee mug is great. We know you probably have a lot of coffee mugs, but none of them say Ebenezer on it. We want a reminder in your cabinet of who we are. And if you've been here for any length of time, I want to brag on and point out our connection wall that's in the area where our coffee station is.

Because that wall is brand new. Number one. It breaks down our core values into the 12 stones, the 12 steps of how we measure our walk in Christ. And so if you haven't, you're sitting here today, you're going like, what's my next step? I can tell you very quickly.

It's either to get in a group, go to serve, or go on mission. I mean, I can summarize it in three statements, how you get there. That wall helps you out. Our church app helps you out. We want to get you connected.

Statistics show that when you serve in church, you're more likely to stay in church. And so that's our goal for all of us, that together, that the body of Christ that we're reaching in to the community that's around us. And speaking of next steps, let me just throw a bunch of them at you at one time. So if you want to take some notes, here's some dates. The next thing we got going on, other than the renovations and the camps that are going on this summer, is July 25th is our love to Koa Serve Day, where we will have teams going throughout our community at the same time on the same day, loving our community.

That's it. We want to connect. We believe God has called us to help others know and to do that and to reach them with hope, we have to go and saturate our community. And so please make note that's going to be coming up. Randy will be talking about that in the next few weeks.

August 5th, very important day, because that's when our Wednesday nights will resume. And more than likely, this room won't be available. So you're going to have to be closely paying attention, especially adults, as our gather groups will resume. Our gather groups is the first phase of our discipleship strategy that goes from gathering so that we learn about who Jesus is, to growing, where we're connecting, to follow who Jesus is down to grow. Go.

Excuse me. In that go group is that microgroup where we're making disciples and learning how to make disciples. And so the first step in that is to get into a gather group. Our elective courses that happen on Wednesday night, Kevin is cooking some good stuff you will want to eat, so be looking out for that. And then our regathering day, which is August 9th.

That is the day we're planning to have a big legacy celebration in this room after some of the work is done. We want you to be here for that, to celebrate with us. And it's kind of a kickback off into the school year. August is a big time when people go, hey, probably right now is a good time to get back in church. So be thinking about who you're going to invite now.

Just begin praying about that. God give you that opportunity. September is our month for Breakaway weekend. Breakaway for students, which will be the second weekend, September 11th through the 13th. Crosby is already working on that.

That is for our middle and our high school students. So, parents, if you're here and you've not been here in the last year, and you're like, what is that? Well, that's our discipleship weekend, where our students come and they're poured into activities, engagement. We want to invite you to do that. And finally, new to Our church this year is Our Marriage Conference, October 25.

Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott will be joining us through simulcast. And it's a little work, but the purpose of that is to help strengthen our marriages as we learn to love our spouse better by learning to speak the dialect of their love language. So I want to encourage. That's a lot of stuff, isn't it?

Well, the last one is this. Today is the last of our Illuminate in our Illuminate series. And next week we will begin a study in the book of first Thessalonians. Next Sunday. It's called Resolute.

You remember in that book in Acts, Paul went into Thessalonica and was only there for a short amount of time and he ran out of town. And so he writes them this letter calling them to be resolute, resolute in their decision, resolute in their commitment, resolute in following Christ. And so from next Sunday through the end of July, that's where we're going to be. So if you, I want to just encourage you, go on Amazon and look for those small little booklets like we had for Philippians, where you can go through, take notes, do a little extra study. I want you to get as much out of that book as possible.

So there's the infomercial. Y' all got all that written down, right? You got it memorized? Well, I asked you to memorize something last week. Y' all remember what it was?

John 8:12. These kids quoted it. And so we wanted you to do the same thing that says, and Jesus again spoke unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And so last week we talked about the what?

That Jesus, being the light, came in to disperse the darkness. And here's what we found if you want to start following in your study guide. What we found was that when we follow the light as we flee the darkness, because we found Christ. Actually, we should say it, that Christ found me. Look, I don't know where you come from, what you've been and your experience with Christ, but I can guarantee you, all of us would concur that Jesus found me.

And he found you because you weren't thinking about him when he engaged you. While we were sinning, Christ died for us. There's no one righteous, not one. No one was thinking of God. All his sin had fallen short of the glory of God.

We needed Jesus to come and save us. This is so straightforward, unapologetic. No gray areas. When you find Jesus, truly find Jesus, there is no place for darkness in your life.

You get that? There is no middle ground. We're not straddling a fence. When I put one foot in sin and think I'm putting one foot in the blood of Jesus, I'm living a very tense place. Because you can't stand there.

You can't fulfill the desires of your flesh and the darkness and live in the light. He's calling you today, some of us. He is directly calling you today to step out of the hypocrisy of claiming to be a Christian and not living that way. That's strong, isn't it? You know, it kind of reminded me, I'm just gonna go ahead and apologize in advance.

I'm gonna tell a movie quote today. When I was a youth pastor, my workers would take and tally up how many movie quotes or references I would do in a talk. I've been really good in the last three and a half years. Well, almost. But I got to thinking about this idea of darkness, and it got me thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean.

There's a fan.

Before I tell that story, y' all want to go ahead and stand. Y' all been sitting for a little bit. Stand up. Let's read this passage. And then I want to talk to you about Bootstrap Bill, another fan.

Therefore, do not be partakers with them. We're going to talk about who the them are. For you were formerly darkness. Now, stop right there. He didn't say you were dancing in the dark.

He didn't say you were tempting. You weren't playing in the dark. He didn't say you were walking in the dark. He said you were dark. Do you see the difference?

You were darkness. It was who you were. But now you are light. Where in the Lord. So he commands them, walk as children of light.

For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, all righteousness, and all truth. And then this one little phrase at the end, trying to learn. Don't you love that? We're all on this journey, nobody getting it right, but we're trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. But here's the truth.

You'll never find what's pleasing to the Lord if you don't care what's pleasing to the Lord. Father, thank you for your word. Let it speak to us now. In Jesus name, Amen.

So even in this study we've talked about, don't ignore the light. Follow it, don't hide the light. Reflect it. Don't Withhold light, release it, don't reject the light, receive it. And today we're going to dig into this idea that we don't need to refuse this light, we need to walk in it.

Say walk word, peripeteo. It means literally. It's this idea of walking the circumference or the perimeter thereof. It encompasses all area of your life. He's calling us to walk.

In the book of Ephesians, six different times, Paul is referring to calling us to walk, how we walk, why we walk, the way we walk. It's important and it's vital. Because if you don't realize it, the real reason that people navigate, stick in, stay in the darkness, is it's because it's who they are. If you're here today and you have not surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, you're a child of the dark.

You're going, well, I'm not that bad of a person. The scripture just said to us that we were all sinners. Like, that's bad, that's not good. And if I'm a child of the dark, what kind of things am I going to do? Dark things.

My nature needs to be changed. That's why I started thinking about Bootstrap. Bill Turner. He's the father of Will Turner, one of the major characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He was on the ship when Jack Sparrow originally was the captain.

And when they committed mutiny, they threw him overboard, tied him to a barrel of a gun, and he sank to the bottom. But he didn't die. He was picked up by the Jolly Roger, Davy Jones. And he made a deal with Davy Jones to become a part of his ghost crew, not dead, but not alive. And he joined his crew, and the crew in the movie chants, part of the ship, part of the crew.

And as time begins to pass in the story, as Will discovers his dad on this ship, what he discovers then is that Bill is slipping ever more closely to really becoming a part of the ship. Now, if you haven't seen the movie, you don't know what I'm talking about. Literally, he's starting to attach himself to the boards and the rafters. He's becoming a part of the ship. And that is the way it is.

Why are you saying that's a morbid illustration what it is? Because it gives me a picture of those who are still connected to the darkness. You're a part of the ship.

And until you come to this place where you realize that the light of the world has come to change you, to pull you out of that darkness, you remain a creature of the dark. On the Flying Dutchman, they literally became a part of the thing that they served. Now Jesus is calling you not just out of the darkness, he's calling your nature to change that you would be begotten from darkness to light, to be a child of the light. He didn't say you were in darkness. He said you were being darkness.

It wasn't just an environment. It was our identity. And I'm saying was because I know Jesus Christ. Do you? I don't want to claim that old life.

I don't want that old life. That old life sometimes comes up and knocks on my door and tries to trip me up, tries to grab me by the arm and pull me back into it. But he said, if I follow Him, I will not walk in darkness. It's not gray, guys. It's black and white.

Either you is or you is not. There's not grades and levels of Christianity. I'm not more of a Christian because I have a Christian degree. I'm a Christian because I yielded my life in repentance to the Lord and he saved me by his grace. If you're a Christian today, you're a Christian.

You're not this level, this level, this level. You is or you is not. But if you're not, the truth is you are a child of darkness. Paul talks about this in Chapter four, that those who are of the darkness, they're futile in mind. Their understanding is darkness.

They live in ignorance. Their hearts are hard, they're callous, they live sensually, which doesn't make sense, that if you're callous, how can you be sensual? Because they're looking for what makes them feel good. They're impure in their greedy. All of that is evidence of darkness.

So Paul is calling them, step out of that. It's not who you are. You are now a child of the light. And so in Ephesians 2:10, if you want to write these numbers down, Ephesians 2:10, he calls us because we are his workmanship, his masterpiece. To walk in the works, what God had prepared for us to do beforehand.

In other words, that is the place we walk. The works. He is working in us. The reverse doesn't work. I cannot be a child of the darkness and think, if I do some good stuff, that's going to produce light.

The light comes in and transforms me, and then I follow the light and God begins to produce those images. So I walk. Ephesians 4:1. He told us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling that I've been called, I've been called out of darkness. So I need to walk worthy of this new path.

Worthy. I can't earn it. Not worth of earning it. It's that he's changed me. It makes no sense to me.

Sometimes when I talk to people who claim to be Christian, but they live in hate filled negativity, bitterness, lack of joy and they're like, well, I'm a Christian, like what? I don't make sense in my mind. I mean the very God of the universe loved you so much that he sent the best he had. He's calling for our allegiance. Now.

I know in our flesh we don't have the capability, we don't. But didn't the word say that he would enable us to do that? I am crucified in Christ. It's no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. Don't we want the Lord to live his life through us?

Well, he can't do that if I keep turning the switch off.

Ephesians 4:17. He says, I affirm with the Lord that you should not walk like the Gentiles walk. If you need an example, look at the way the world works and walks. That's not the path. He says in 5:2, after he says, be an imitator of God.

He says, walk in love. That's not the be careful the way I phrase this. That's not the cultural tolerant love that we hear preached by our culture. It's love that says, I don't want you stumbling into hell. Sin is killing you and I love you too much to let you walk down that lie path.

Ephesians 5, 8 that we just read. You formerly were darkness, now you're children, so walk like that. Remember the song in the 80s, walk like an Egyptian? I'm not going to do it. I didn't dance any this week.

I just want everybody to know I'm on record because nobody wants to see that. So I'm not going to do the Egyptian thing. Hey listen, if I'm a child of light, what light's been shown in my life? It's simple. Like some things in Bible are simple.

What evidence of light is exuding in your life? What's there? What's there? I took Micah to see the Michael movie that does not roll off the tongue. And you know he had a song.

I need to start with the man in the mirror. I think some of us do too. And then in 5:15 he says, it's this final warning, be careful how you walk. And he qualifies that by saying, not as unwise, but wise. Can we agree that Paul is serious about getting the point across?

You need to look at how you're walking. And if you're walking according to the darkness, your nature is still dark. But if I'm walking according to the light, it's not a perfect walk. No one in this room is perfect. We're grace beings covered by the grace of God.

When we're walking in that grace, he's going to guide us, direct us. When we follow, he'll pick us up. When we mess up, he will forgive us. Isn't that great news? He's going to work it through me.

And if he allows me to stumble sometimes, it's so that he can pick me up, teach me, and show me things. So in this passage that we just read, I want you to see three primary things. Number one, we see a reflective warning. You were darkness, but that's not you anymore. Are you living in your new nature, A reflective witness?

In other words, if we look at the fruit in our life, who I am, does it look like goodness? Does it look like righteousness? Does it reveal truth? I mean, he came into the world to reveal truth. He is truth.

John 14:6. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father but by me. He wrecked this world when he came into it, and he's beckoning us to follow him. And finally he's calling us to a responsive worship, trying to figure out, trying to judge, trying to learn what pleases God.

Is that not the essence of worship? My life is to be a medium of worship, not 30 minutes in a church service. Every wakening moment of my life should be something reflective to the glory, the exaltation of God. But if I'm walking in darkness, it's evidence that I'm still a child of the dark. If I have not repented of my sins and entrusted Christ to forgive my sins, received the Holy Spirit, that He gives freely, imparting life to me.

So much more than just a get out of hell free card. I think that's sometimes how we simplify it. You know, the sad part about the Pirates movie is that as time passes in the movie Bootstrap, Bill begins to forget his own son, even though he just reconnected with him. In fact, he attacks him. He was becoming so much a part of the ship, a part of the darkness.

They didn't already recognize who people were.

Where are you standing today? Are you a part of the ship? Are you part of the light. So let me give you four, I'd say four direct applications of how do I flee darkness and. And follow light.

The first one's very simple. There is nothing complicated about the four points I'm about to give you. Number one, you must eliminate the connection to the darkness. You must eliminate the connection to the darkness. Look again.

Therefore, do not be partakers with them. Well, if we're good students of the Bible, I should wonder, well, who's the them? Who's the them? So back up a little bit. Verse 1.

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. If you back up even further into chapter four, he gives a litany of things. Do this, don't do this. If you're a son of disobedience, you're a son of wrath. These are the things that are coming.

If you do these things, you deserve wrath. This is what children of light, children of God do. And he says, walk in love. Just as Christ also loved. You gave himself up for us.

We're different.

Are you different?

I was talking to one of our students this week and sharing the gospel with her as we were standing in line, and she had no clue. When I started talking about becoming a Christian and being she's, like, saved from what? I mean, like, it was a blank slate. And the thing I think that began to kind of connect with her was when we started talking about, he wants your life different. He wants your life different.

I may think if I get everything my heart desires that that's. That's a full life. But I'll never be whole.

Jesus came to make you completely whole, because right now you're not. It's on him. He tells us in 4:31, right around 4:31. He says to put away bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice. That's dark stuff.

Light stuff is being kind to one another, tenderhearted, not callous. Forgiving one another. Why? Because that's what God did for us, doing these things. When we imitate God, we provide or prove that we're his children.

We walk in love. We seek purity. We avoid greed. We watch what we say, how we say it. We don't talk about people behind their back.

That's children of light. But children of darkness does the opposite. Paul says that the immoral, the covetous, the idolater has no place in the kingdom. Why? Because they have not been changed.

You cannot enter the kingdom until you change your clothes, and you don't have any clothes fit. He's got the clothes for you. So in verse 6, we figure out who the them are. He says, let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, immorality, impurity, covetousness, idolatry, the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience.

That's the them. And so Paul says, sever the tithe, therefore do not be partakers with them. Now hold on, what am I not saying? I'm not telling you that you should cut off people who are lost because God's called you to be light. You are called to go and rescue the perishing.

Are you hearing me? But if I'm going back and hanging out with the sons of disobedience so I can be disobedient too, that's different. And you've got to be very careful. Some of you have friends that you say, well, I'm going to witness to them, but they're pulling you right back into the same garbage that you said you left. When are you going to draw the line?

I remember witnessing to a lady in Ecuador many, many years ago. And I've shared that story about how she talked about what happens to you when you die. And she said, nothing. And we use that as the means to start sharing the story. But then later she's looking at the people that were with us and one of the guys, he was a brother in law to the pastor, she pointed her finger at him and said, you used to drink in the gutter with my husband.

In other words, she was kind of pulling a Samaritan woman argument where she says, well, you say we should worship in Jerusalem, we say, you worship here. And he looked up with his face downtrod and he said, that's not who I am anymore.

Literally this verse reads this. Therefore then do not be becoming. That's in the past. Continually partakers with them.

It's time to cut it off. A lot of times the reason somebody goes to to rehab, when they get out and come back and they fall, it's because they go right back to the same place and the same people, the same job, the same ways of doing things, and they fall right back into it. Why? Because they didn't sever the cords. Today Jesus is calling us to sever and eliminate our connection to the darkness, to unplug and plug it into the new source.

So my question to you today is who's leading you? Is it a person or is it an idea? Is it media? What is it that's still bringing you, persuading you, tempting you and encouraging you to take part with the sons of disobedience. Today, will you draw a line in the sand and say, enough's enough?

Number two, doing that. Then I need to embrace my new identity. For you were formerly darkness. In other words, it's that word again in imperfect. I know it's Sunday morning.

We don't talk grammar. But imperfect tense is this description of an ongoing action in the past that never resolved. You were formerly darkness, but now. Don't you love the but now? Say now, but now.

You are light in the Lord. You can't be light unless you are in the Lord. And you can't have the light unless the Lord is in you. Are you with me? You can't produce the light.

I was talking to Fred about this, and Kevin and I thought about this idea of coming in here with a trash bag on a black trash bag. Because, you know, trash bag tape doesn't stick too well to it unless you got some Alabama chrome, some duct tape.

And I was gonna stick tea lights to it to show you. You can try to put all the light you want to on the darkness, but it's just gonna fall off because it's contrary to your nature. I'm a new creature in Christ. The old is gone and the new has come. I need a new nature, and that's what happens when I accept Christ.

Now, I have been birthed as a child of light.

Doesn't mean life's going to be easy. Anybody got easy life 10 and under in here? Maybe if you haven't suffered yet. Hold on. Buckle your seatbelt.

Why did God let us suffer? Because it deepens our connection with him. And we get to see more purely and more beautifully the cross that if Jesus suffered, he calls us to suffer. I can appreciate the sacrifice my Lord made. Clinton.

Arnold says Paul intentionally chose this language to characterize the core of their being. And in their pre Christian state, you were darkness. Their plight was much worse than some of them have realized. Some of you in this room, you say you're saved, but you don't really realize what you were saved out of. You need to be reminded that without Christ, you were under the wrath of God.

And if you would have left this world, you would have stood before God and received his full wrath. It's called hell.

Forever to be tormented in fire, separated from God. That is what we deserve. I do not. I'm a pretty good person. No, you're not.

That's the lie of culture that pretty good people get by the lie of our Catholic friends to Say that you go to some kind of purgatory and you earn your way to paradise that doesn't exist. When you leave this world, you either go to his presence or you will go to separation. And if you're playing with fire, saying, you know what? I'll get my life right someday. I got a few more things I need to take care of.

You're not promised the next minute. At the moment, something could happen to you, and you leave this world and you'll stand before God. What will you say? What will you do? That is the nature that is dark.

And we partook with the sons of disobedience. But now we've been called to walk in in the light of the Lord. We are his workmanship. If you've been saved, you are God's masterpiece. What a great work.

The greatest miracle ever is to rescue someone from darkness and give them life. God prepared it beforehand so that you could walk in it. In those good works, remember what Crosby shared with us in Matthew 5:16. Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good. What?

It's more than just what you say, folks. It's more than just showing up for service. In my works, my daily walk. Say walk. My daily walk, I'm doing the works God is birthing in me so they can see the light of Christ in me and see Jesus.

We're called to reach this world not with our logic, not with our money, but with our testimony. What is yours? What is yours? Some of us need to ask the question today. It's time to consider what's snuffing out my light.

And I mean, I say take it serious. I mean, you mean to make a decision today. No more. No more. It's time to cut off the social media.

It's time to turn off the news. It's time to stop going and hanging out at the bar on Saturday night. I know I'm meddling. It's time to start sowing light into my life. Yes, I know.

I really am meddling now. I know sports are important, but to spend 40 weeks a year at a ball field and not into church. Don't be shocked when your kid's not in church when they graduate high school. I'm sorry, that offends some of you. And you'll say, well, I can be a witness on the ball field.

Really? Can you? Well, yeah. We pray before the game.

If you're not sitting under the teaching preaching of the word of God, how are you growing? How are you contributing to the body? God didn't say he made us parts and pieces of culture. He said he made us parts and pieces of his body.

I'm not saying that in judgmental way. I'm saying it because I'm looking at culture and kids graduate and they don't stay in church because maybe they were brought to church every week. But if you're not engaged families, there's a greater likelihood they're not going to stay. They need to see you praying, they need to see you in a group. They need to see you serving, they need to see you sacrificing, they need to see you giving.

Why? Because that is cultivating committed faith in them. It needs to be modeled more than just the one hour of Sunday school or youth group number three. I've meddled enough. Let's go on to point three, express the fruit of light.

Listen to that verse again. For the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. The word consists is not in the original language. It was provided because it's an equal sign. It says, the fruit of life equals in dwelling in all goodness.

God is good all the time.

Y' all knew that phrase, didn't you? Well, you know, that's great to say that, but do you know he's calling us to be the same. I mean, I can sit here and say all day, God's been so good to me. Who have I been good to? I can say, God is righteous and holy.

How's he making that in me? He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. He intends for you to bear righteous fruit. And then number three, he's truth. There's a verse in John 8, a verse y' all very familiar with that gets misused so much, you will know the truth in the.

We've used that in a logical sense, that if I learned something I didn't know, that somehow I'm liberated. That is not. That is not what Jesus was talking about there. Listen to the whole context. When Jesus was speaking to the Jews who had believed in him, he said, if you continue in My Word that then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

This is not Gnosticism. Like, you get some kind of moment and you get some special knowledge nobody else has. The knowledge you've received is His Word, which is the revelation of the truth of God and the commitment to follow him as a disciple. There's where the freedom is not in you picking up some kind of New information. So you'll never misquote that verse again, right?

Anybody? No, you won't. Because it's that truth that sets us free. We are fruit bearers now. I can't do the fruit and think that's somehow going to make me a Christian.

One author said the fact that these three virtues are fruit inclusive clarifies that they are byproducts of being Christian, not prerequisites for finding acceptance with God. So I don't say, well, I'm going to start being good and maybe God will love me. I'm not going to start doing truth, and maybe God will love me. I'm going to start doing righteousness. God will love me.

All of that encompassed me. I want to be in his goodness, in his righteousness, and in his truth. And I can't do that until I sever my ties with darkness, embrace my new identity, and become the fruit bearer. I either have dark fruit or light fruit. You know, somebody pointed out to me a little while ago.

I didn't never. I never said the word Darth Vader in any of this series.

And I won't. I just seen y' all paying attention. I mean, it is a story of the dark pulling him away and destroying his life. The reason Darth Vader is one of my favorite characters is because in the end, he came back around and he was redeemed. And the same type of redemption is available not of ourselves, but in Jesus Christ alone.

Because the last point there is we need to exude authentic obedience. We need to exude authentic obedience. What does that mean? Obedience from the heart? Because I have a new heart.

I have a new motivation. The word trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord has a really neat history. The root of that word was used to describe men who were finding counterfeit money in the day of Jesus. So they had this tool that they would scrape the coin with to find out if it was a fake coin. And those men who were finding the fake money were honored.

They were called dokimos, which is the root of that word. That meant they were approved. When he says trying to learn, there's two aspects that we're judging that we're trying to find out. What's the approval here? What's authentic?

One is me. Am I authentically standing before Christ, repentive of my sins, full of faith and trust in Him? The other is to look at the landscape around me. The works that I've done, the things that are connections that I have. Are those things honoring to God?

Can I ask You a question? Does the thought cross your mind, Lord? Am I living a life that's pleasing to you? Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. And then you read the rest of that chapter and some of the things, they were sawn in two and killed because of their faith.

Because they were holding out for the promise of what was to come. What drives you? Do you want to do the things that please him or do you want to do the things that please yourself? I love that we're saved by grace. Because when I fall short, God will forgive me.

He promised to when I fall down, God will restore me. When I succeed, I give all the credit back to him. That is authentic obedience. So can I ask you a simple question? Are you more concerned about what God wants you to be and do?

More concerned that you want God to conform to your ways and your wants? Because if not, then you're probably still living in darkness. And it ought to scare us because we need to ask, has my nature been changed? I need to stop refusing this light and I need to walk in the light. That's what I need.

I need to eliminate that connection, embrace my new identity. Let the fruit of this new character live in my life and exude authentic heart led obedience to God only until Will Turner defeated Davy Jones and becomes the captain of the Jolly Roger. I know it's a dark movie.

Bootstrap Bill is released and he's no longer a part of the ship. He's serving the captain. Where are you today in your walk? Say walk? Are you concerned with your walk?

Are you concerned with how you walk and are you concerned with why you walk? We're called to walk in the spirit and we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh. Why walk in the spirit? Because that's the gift that we should have received. Somebody ask you to bow your heads.

I want for you today that Jesus would liberate you, separate you and let you find that new freedom that's only in him. But I can't do that until I repent of my sins and cut that tie with my old life. So in just a moment as I open this altar and we invite you to come. If you're lost today, you don't know Jesus Christ. If you died today, would you go to heaven and be with the Lord or would you go to hell separated from him?

That's a big question and a big ask. But if you're still living in darkness, there's a good chance that you're not a child of the light. And if you are a child of the light, what's God asking you and calling you to do? How can you shine that light? You're a child of light.

But if other people looked at you, what would they see? Now, that sounds like I'm telling you to go and make a list of 10 things to do to try to look like Jesus. What if you just started with a prayer, God, help me to look more like you. Help me to look like you. I'm not a Georgia fan and I won't become one anytime soon.

Somebody just said amen. But if I were, I'd be wearing red and I'd learn how to bark like my daughter learned how to bark when she went to Georgia last year. Because then people would see that's a part of who I am. When they look at you, do they see the kindness, the love, the grand grace, the mercy, the purity, all the things that encompass the life of Christ? Do they see that in you?

And if they don't, ask the Lord today to help you to be the light he's called you to do. Father, we love you, we praise you, ask you to work in our hearts. Now in Jesus name, amen.