As I was praying and reflecting on today and this opportunity for us to be together, my mind and my heart's been going back through these last few weeks. And I want to just, in case you've not been here, or just because we all need a little reminder of some things that we've been talking about, the thought I want to share is overcoming light and overcoming light. And a couple of weeks ago, as we were moving toward the Christmas program, the choir, sang and they did such a wonderful job. And I heard a lot of positive comments about people being uplifted and encouraged by that. And we're very blessed in this church with all sorts of talents and people using that talent to serve the Lord. But we were preaching some messages leading up to that on the transcendence of God. And one of the passages that we looked at on that first message was in 1 Timothy 6, at the end, verses 15 and 16. It says, he who is the blessed and only sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. And one of the thoughts in that message is that God's light is not where he is, but who he is. that God's light is not just a place where he's at, but it's who he is. It comes from him. He can't leave it or take it off. He can only cover it. Now, I got a lot of compliments on my jacket when y'all were coming in. And my jacket can do tricks. It can light up, right? I know some of you were waiting for that, right? And it lights up. But the thing about this jacket is, I mean, it lights up, right? But it's not who I am. And I can take it off, right? Some of you wish I would. But the Lord's light is not like this jacket. It is who He is. And that second message in that series, we talked about the eminence of God. And one of the passages we shared there was in John 1, verses 4 and 5. And it speaks in this passage that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. And this passage introduces us to that concept of darkness versus light. And we know that darkness is sin, and it's corruption, and it's the curse, and it's Satan, and it's disease, and it's death. Everything that is broken around us and inside us. The darkness, right? But then there is that light. In fact, it says, His life was the light of men. That the life of Christ is the light of Christ. And His light is not just a glorious shining, but it's His righteousness. It's His healing. It's His blessing. It's joy and peace. It's eternal life. That light has a moral quality to it. Okay? It's more than just brightness or glory or heat. There is a moral quality. There is a purity to the light of Christ. One of my favorite passages is Psalm 1611 that says, you make known to me the path of life. In your presence, in that inapproachable light, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. That is the life and the light of Christ. And Jesus is the light. Jesus is the light. When he came, he says also in John's gospel, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Now His glory was veiled, He tabernacled among us, He dwelt among us in human flesh and that glory was veiled, but it was still shining through, wasn't it? Wasn't it? I mean, in the things that he said, and the things that he did, and the way that he loved, and the death on the cross, the glory, the light was still shining through in all that he said and he did. And despite all the darkness and even the sins of the world being laid upon Christ, as it says here, the darkness comprehended it not, which means the darkness didn't gain mastery. It didn't overcome Him, right? All of the darkness, all of the sin of the world could not keep Him in the grave because the light of Christ could not be held there and He burst forth in glory. The darkness did not comprehend or overcome that light. A couple days ago I brought you a devotional before the choir concert and it was the mountain and the manger. And there in that passage we focused in John 1 verses 14 and 17. It says, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And John was setting up this comparison between Mount Sinai, the mountain, and the manger, the coming of Jesus Christ. And John implied that when Jesus came in that manger was a greater glory than even Moses witnessed on top of Mount Sinai when he said, show me your glory. And I asked the question, what's the difference? Between the glory of the mountain that Moses saw up there and the manger, what's the difference? And I told you that the difference is the difference between the saying of a thing and the doing of a thing. It's the difference between a couple coming forward to make a promise and a covenant to be there for one another in sickness and health and rich or poor. And then a couple decades later that have actually kept the promise. They've actually done it. It's on Mount Sinai, God told us about himself. But in Christ, God showed us himself. He revealed to us who he is. That's the difference. And then last Sunday night, Brother Stephen, I stole this slide, brought a message called Celebrate Me Home. Now you say, what in the world does that have to do with any of this? That was about the prodigal son and y'all, I'm looking around the room, I think you all know the story of the prodigal son who left and ran away and then he came back after coming to his senses in the pig pen. But when he went away, he went off to a far country. One of the questions Brother Stephen was asking us is, are you dwelling in a far country? Are you far away from God? Are you separated from him? And he was speaking to the lost, but he was also speaking to the saved. Because even as Christians, there can be parts of our life that are dwelling far from God. Or if I were to translate that into the illustration we're using here, I could say, are you dwelling in darkness? Or are there parts of your life that are dwelling in darkness far away from the light of Christ? For as we sing at Christmas, let every heart prepare him room. to let the light of Christ come and illuminate all of us. And so, those are a lot of things that we've been covering, and let me just try to wrap it up with a bow here, with a couple more thoughts to share with you. I wanna just speak briefly about the overcoming light of Jesus Christ, because we read, we saw there in John 1, how it says the darkness didn't comprehend or gain mastery or overcome the light. Jesus says elsewhere in John's gospel, these things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." These things I told you about. Now what did he say? He had just in the preceding chapter or more had told them about his suffering that was coming. He had told them about their scattering. He told them about his resurrection. He told them that the Spirit would eventually come upon them and be their comforter. And he told them that they would suffer, that they would suffer, that they would go through difficulty to be faithful to him. And his purpose in telling them all of that was so that when it happened, they wouldn't be caught unaware. They wouldn't be surprised. They wouldn't think that God had lost control of anything. but that he was still master of all. And every bit of these circumstances was foreseen by him. It were things that he believed need to happen. There will be hard things. The darkness will be great. And that darkness would not only descend upon Jesus, but upon them too. But he ends this by saying, but I want you to be encouraged because I have overcome the darkness. I have overcome every bit of the darkness that this world can thrust upon us. And I have won. I have won. I have overcome. The light has shined and it has scattered the darkness in me and through me. And of course, we see that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But how does that comfort me? How does that comfort me that He did that? It's because of passages like this, 2 Corinthians 4-6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In this passage, it's a call back to creation with the first words, let there be light. And there was light in the universe because he simply spoke it into existence. And this is a call back to your salvation. If you know Christ, the moment that the light came, the moment that the Lord delivered you from sin and darkness and death, when He came in and took away the burden that was on you, letting you get the reality of sin and all the things that come from sin, and He took that away and He simply gave His peace in His presence. But my friend, that's just a taste of the light of Christ. a taste of the light of Christ. And if you are saved, that light, the light of Jesus Christ, the inapproachable light, it dwells in you. He dwells in you. He lives in you. And we have other passages. When John wrote this epistle, 1 John, he said, whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is He? Who is He who overcomes the world but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? That's why Jesus could say, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world because His victory is your victory. His win is your win. That's why his victory is comfort. And your victory is not just about future tense. It's not just about what's ahead of you, if you've been saved. Oh, that's glorious, and that's the final victory. But it's a victory that you can realize It's a victory you can realize over sin and darkness in your life now. It's a victory you can realize over depression and despair and anxiety now as we allow Christ to illuminate us more and more. In all the rooms of our heart to let him come and reign more and more in our life We can see the victory over the darkness with darkness within us, and I mean and I mentioned it earlier I know there's unspoken repress requests around this room There are lots of burdens lots of things that we're we're praying for that we're concerned about and and our desire Is that the light of Christ would fill these things would disperse the darkness in us and around us? John marks the spiritual growth by success and overcoming the darkness of sin. Your victory is His victory. Didn't I just say that? No, I said His victory is your victory. I changed it this time. Your victory is His victory. What do I mean by that? Well, this is what I mean. It's not like learning how to fish or how to cook. or how to fix something or how to do a heart transplant, I don't know. That's not what this overcoming looks like. Because this isn't about Jesus saying, here, I did it, let me show you how to do it. This is about us learning to get out of the way and surrender and letting him do what he can do, what only he can do in our hearts and lives and around us. Because it is His victory. Our faith in Him, as it says. What is the victory? It's our faith. It's our trust in Christ. And isn't this the hardest thing? And we want to say, you know, Lord, I trust you. But don't we feel, especially as we go down the road a little ways, don't we find it harder to really mean that completely? I trust you. Right? Because as Christ foretold, there's suffering, there's difficulty, there's darkness, there are hard things. And we can be like, I want to take it back. I want to hold on. But our victory is our faith in trusting Him. That's where the victory is really at for us. There's a song. Sister Lisa sang it here a few times, and I love the words. It says, I'm fighting a battle you've already won. No matter what comes my way, I will overcome. I don't know what you're doing, but I know what you've done. I'm fighting a battle that you've already won. And as the light shines more and more in you, this light is meant to be shared. Because Jesus told us, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. But he's left and he left us with this charge. You are the light of the world. Not that you're a light, but that He in you, Christ in you, is the light of the world. And the more brightly we shine, the more brightly we let Christ illuminate our lives, my friend, it is a light that can shine out beyond us and can be transferred. Just as we're about to take these candles, And we're about to light each other's candles with it. That is the way this is meant to work. That's the way it's supposed to work in the church. That's the way it works as you reach out to a lost world. It's the light of Christ in you shining to other people. So they bring this to a close. God's light is true life. truth and purity, joy, peace, justice, righteousness, love, healing. His light is true life. And the greater glory of Christmas, of the manger, is that God came to earth to be and to do. To be the light. And the doing is the overcoming, the scattering of the darkness. And the light has won. He's overcome the darkness. And if you have Christ, if you have Jesus, if you are saved, His light is in you. And I hope you can feel it a little bit today. I hope you can feel some of His presence and some of the hope. And just remember what He's already done. The light, if you are saved, is within you. And it can and will overcome the darkness. And you need to let this light shine. You need to let this light shine. Let it shine in every corner of your heart. Let Him take more and more control because your victory is your faith in Him. Your key to victory is your faith and trusting in Him. And it will shine forth to those who still dwell in darkness. And that's the picture of this candlelight service. We have this candle here, and it's just a picture meant to represent the light of Christ. And we're gonna come, and I'll light my candle, and I'll share it with the deacons, and we'll go around and light everybody else's candle, but we didn't start the fire, right? Christ is the light, and it's meant to spread and overcome the darkness. So with that, I wanna come down here, and Sister Janet's gonna get the lights for us. And we'll ask the deacons to come forward. We'll wait till the deacons to come forward to turn off the lights. And we're gonna light our candles. We're gonna spread the light throughout the congregation here. And ask everyone to hold on to their candle. Once all the candles are lit, we will sing together. And then we'll have prayer. You guys can go ahead and start writing. Deacons will be taking it to the end of the aisles, and as they light up your candle, please share it with others. Johnny, go ahead. Yeah, let's go ahead and start sharing the light with some of these others. Let's all go ahead and stand as we sing. Love looking around the room and seeing all these candles lit. Holy infant so tender and mild. The sun and night, holy night. Shepherds quake at the sight. ♪ Glory streaming from heaven afar ♪ ♪ Heavenly hosts sing alleluia ♪ ♪ Christ the Savior is born ♪ Silent night! Holy night! God of God loves tonight. Pray and peace from thy holy face, With the dove of redeeming grace. It's about our heads in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you so much for your great light. We're just grateful today for who you are, Lord, and that you've revealed yourself to us, that you told us about yourself, Lord, and there's such great glory in the telling. Lord, there's glory in just being in service and being able to read from your word and read about who you are. Lord, for you are glorious and you are light, but Lord, What an even greater glory when we can know it for ourselves. Lord, when you gave your son and you showed us what love means. God, you didn't just tell us, you showed us through the great sacrifice of your son. You showed us how pure and true your love is. We see, Lord, that it's untarnished in any way. There is no darkness or shadow of turning in who you are, God. Your light does not set. And God, we just praise you today for the glory in your son, Christ. And we praise you, Lord, for sharing it with us through the gospel and through the gift of salvation, that that light can dwell in our hearts. And even when we blow these candles out, Lord, nothing can blow away the light of Christ in our hearts, Lord, for those of us who've been saved. Lord, I pray that he illuminates every chamber of us, Lord, that we would lay our lives down before him day by day Take control of more of us, Lord, let us shine your light more brightly. And Lord, we pray that we can pass along this light to others. We pray, Lord, for those who don't have that light inside them. God, that even today, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ would come and by the power of your spirit, Lord, there would be a wick that would be set aflame with the glory of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the unspeakable gift that we get to celebrate this time of year. We praise you and thank you and ask that you help us, Lord, to keep you above all in our hearts and minds as we celebrate with our family and friends. Lord, let the light overtake the darkness. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.