Welcome And Easter Invitation

Glad you're here. Thanks for coming. My name's Robbie. And I'm really glad that you're here. Get to be one of the pastors here at Free Church. And again, I am not Pastor Chuck's Doppelganger. So my pants are a little short this week, like yours, PZ. I gotta pull these things in. But we're glad you're here. Thank you for coming to church. We're only a few weeks away from Easter, and we're getting ready for that celebration Sunday, right? Resurrection Sunday. We're excited about it, Good Friday, and then of course Easter Sunday. And uh as you know, our lower level here is getting developed, it's getting worked on, and thank you for making that happen, whether it's through your time, your talent, or your treasure, all that is making a difference, and uh it's gonna be incredible to showcase that, especially have this place packed out Easter Sunday, and it's gonna be a great time, so you don't want to miss it. You want to be a part of that, and one of the best ways that you can be a part of that is tell someone about it. Invite someone to come to church with you. Don't come to church alone on Easter Sunday. Make sure you come, bring somebody with you, have them be a part of the experience here at Free Church on Easter Sunday, because I promise it will it'll bless you. And uh always told this Pastor Chuck always taught me this is that when you bring somebody, you remember the first time you came to church, right? Or first time you gave your life to Christ. We have you lift your hand up, right? We can't even see in the back, but we say, I see you in the back, you know. But we you raise your hand, give life to Christ on Easter Sunday. You bring somebody with you. Pastor Chuck's gonna say, Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. You have my permission to peek. Because the greatest day of your life is when you gave your life to Christ, but the second greatest day of your life is when you bring someone else to Christ, and you get to peek. You go, you how many want to peek on Easter? Come on, take a peek on Easter, bring someone with you, raise your hand. I promise you, you'll be excited that you did, and make that experience something great for everybody. We're continuing our series, we're gonna talk about the revelation or the prophetic word that we heard from Pastor Kevin a couple weeks ago, and as we continue this series about light, and how we are to be this light, and we're gonna talk about that, and how God said that Jesus was the light, and then Jesus said that we are the light, and we're gonna navigate that. I'm gonna talk a little about that today. And so, first we're gonna read this scripture, I'm gonna say a couple things, I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna help me preach. Genesis chapter 1, verse number 3 says this and God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Before there were oceans, before there were mountains, before there were any stars, God said, Let there be light. Now there was darkness, but the first thing God ever spoke into creation was not land, was not animals, was not people, but it was light. He spoke light because whenever God begins something new, he starts by turning on the light. We are called to make a dent in darkness. We're called to be light in dark places, and so what we have to do is we have to glow in the dark. See, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, like maybe some of you did, and everything that glowed was all the rage. Glow sticks. Everything glowed, your shirts glowed in the dark. You weren't cool unless you had something that glowed in the dark. Everything in the 80s and 90s was colorful, was bright. And if it didn't particularly glow in the dark, you would have friends who were the kind of weird ones, and they would have a room full of black lights. And those black lights literally made everything glow in the dark. You know, you had a light bright, you had everyone ever remembered, like this was I think it was a television show, but I remember those anyone have an inchworm? You ever remember those? An inchworm, right? Yeah. Those and it was all about the light, all about glowing, all about those things. And then then what you would have is as we moved into a house years after we'd live in the house for most of our lives, and then we moved into this new house, which had a previous occupancy, previous teenagers that lived in there. And so I got this got this room that was a previous teenager's room, and went in there and I put all my stuff, my furniture's all in there. I'm getting ready to go to bed. I shut the door, turned the lights out, laying in bed, and there's stickers all over the ceiling. And I'm it's middle of the night, I can't get them down now, so I have to sleep with just stickers all over the ceiling. And then you can never get them all off, the residue, and you can only take them off when the lights are out, because you have to be able to see them. But what you realize in these little things, whether it's the glow-in-dark stickers or your neon lights, or maybe your bracelets that you had, that that light, that things that had to glow or wanted to glow first had to be exposed to light. That the only way it was ever going to glow in the darkness, is that it first had to be exposed to a long period of being around light. And so we wonder why we're not glowing in the world that we're living in, is because maybe we're not spending enough time around light. The only way I can glow is I have to be around something that does. The only way my light can shine is I have to be around things that the light does shine. And so if I'm dim, if I'm dark, better check my relationships. If I'm not if I'm not shining bright like a diamond, re-read, then I then there's something wrong with where I'm connected to. The phosphorus, it radiates that visible light after being energized. This means you have to expose these items to light before they'll ever grow in the dark. And growing up in the 80s and 90s, one phrase I can never get away from was, we don't do it too much now, but what's can I get a light? Can I get a light? And I think if we were asked this dark world that we live in, I think they'd be asking the same question, can I get a light? Not to light something up in their hand, but to just light up their life. This world needs more light than it's ever needed in before. I was traveling the other day and I was traveling from Detroit to Green Bay, Wisconsin. And because I fly United, Pastor Matthew, I always have to go through Chicago. I've had I go, I'm literally going through Chicago to get to Green Bay. Flying from Detroit to Chicago to go to Green Bay, Wisconsin. It's the worst travel experience, like just that map. It doesn't work, but I have to do it. But I was doing it. So I'm traveling from Detroit to Green Bay, Wisconsin. And so I'm getting on, I get on the plane, and and because it's a small plane and because I travel enough on United, Tyler, I get those perks. I got it. I'm like, oh I got, I got, I got upgraded. Jim, I got upgraded. I'm like, all right. And so it was the great upgrade because it wasn't like it wasn't, I wasn't sitting next to somebody, it was the single seat right here on the left side. There's two over here. I got the single on the left side, third row, awesome. I walk on the plane, sit down, and the the flight attendant comes up to me and says, Mr. Emery, yes, ma'am. We are so happy to have you on our flight today. Would you like a beverage before we take off? I said, No, ma'am, I'm good. Thank you. Well, I got you when we take off. After we take off, I'll come back and visit you. Make sure you're okay, Mr. Emery.

Yes, ma'am.

Light Reveals So God Can Heal

Light Rescues Without Blinding People

Light Reproduces And Attracts

Black Light Shame Versus Gospel Light

Go Public With Your Light

Prayer And Final Challenge

And she she greeted everybody like that on the plane. She was kind to everybody. She it wasn't just favoritism to me, it was awesome. She was it stood out. I get off the plane and I'm saying, getting, just grabbing my stuff. She says, Mr. Emery, thank you for flying with us today. I'm like, thank you for letting me fly today. And so we get off the plane, and and that experience was great, and and I and I kind of forget about it, but I'm going back to the airport the very next day, just a 24-hour trip. The next day, I'm at the airport, and I'm waiting in line, and my wife says, I'm talking to Danielle on the phone, she says, Who's that yelling in the airport? I said, Well, it's a small airport, and it's the gate agent. She's letting us know we're about to board the plane. And so the gate agent says this she says, Hey, you're about to get on this flight to Chicago, and the flight attendant on this flight is my favorite. She is amazing. She's the bright spot in this area. I I love her. I can't wait to see her. I'm gonna give her up. She's saying this in the airport to all the people who are about to board this plane. This is a true story. And I'm like, it's gotta be the same lady. It's it's gotta be Joy. Joy was the flight attendant, and so I walk on the walk on the plane, and there's Joy. Joy, I said, Joy, it's you. She says, Mr. Every, it's you. She says, you're sitting in the same seat. I said, I am. I said, Joy, you're a delight. She said, thank you. She gets on, everyone gets on the plane, she grabs the microphone, she says, as you're making your way to your seats, as you're putting your bags above your head, my name's Pam, and I'm your flight attendant today. And so I what I do often is I often equate people's names to the attitude in which they are portraying it, Karen. And so, but you understand what I'm saying? Is that she had a light that was so bright I couldn't help but mess her name up. I couldn't help but equate joy to who she was. I couldn't help but put that moniker on her and say, Hey Joy, thank you. I wonder what kind of names people are giving us. I wonder what they're saying about us, or they're calling us. When I walk onto a plane, I want them to say, Hey Joy, thank you for coming aboard this plane, or hey, we're so glad to have Joy at work today, or we're so glad happiness showed up today, or we're so glad light walked into the room today. Because there's something that we can grab hold of, something that we can lean into because number one, light reveals. Light reveals, light exposes what darkness tries to hide. In John 8 and 12, when Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me, follows me, will never, everyone say never, walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. If you're following him, you'll never walk in darkness. If you're following Christ, you'll never walk in darkness. Jesus didn't say, I am a light. He said, I am the light. Not a flashlight, not a candle, not a suggestion. He is the light. The light because darkness doesn't disappear through effort. Darkness disappears through exposure. You gotta get that. Darkness doesn't disappear through effort, it disappears through exposure. It disappears through light just showing up on the scene, as Pastor Chuck told us last week. Some people don't like light because light shows things. Light shows pride. Light shows insecurity. But hear me, God doesn't shine light to shame you, He shines light to save you. Luke 8, 17, for there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. That means the truth about you will eventually surface. But here's the good news. We sometimes say that's a negative thing. That's actually a really good thing. When Jesus exposes something, he also heals something. When Jesus exposes a problem, he fixes it. When he exposes an inflammation, he fixes it. I don't know if you can see this in the back. But this is called a what? Oh, a hate, a high what? Highlighter. And I think you need to carry around these one personally, professionally, spiritually. But because you cannot heal what you won't highlight. Wow, when you when you're reading the book, what are you highlighting? You're highlighting something you want to remember. When you're looking at your life, God, I'm gonna highlight the things I need to heal. I'm gonna highlight the brokenness in my life. I'm gonna highlight the things that need to be. We need to take some highlighters to our life and look at the areas where God, I need this restored, I need this fixed, I need this return. He heals it. Number two is light rescues. Light guides people out of darkness. Some people are not bad. They're just lost in the dark. Not bad. They're just they're just lost. They're just they're just confused. Light guides people out of darkness. Psalms 119 and 105. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. You see, we're Jesus is the light, then calls us to be the light. The problem is, is we do have this light in us. And if it's not extinguished, what we're doing wrong is that instead of shining the light on the path, we're shining the light in people's eyes. And if you shine the light in someone's eyes, what do they do? They turn away. If I shine the light in your eyes, you turn away from the light. You look towards the ground or you look away from it. And a lot of times what we're doing is presenting the gospel in a very wrong way. We're presenting the gospel, we're shining it in their face. And it's turning the people away, but if it will shine it on their path. Isaiah 9 and 2 says this the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. There's something powerful here that the people were walking in darkness. Not sitting. They were walking in darkness, not standing around. They were walking, meaning you can be moving in life and still lost in darkness. You can have money and still be in darkness. You can have followers and still be in darkness. You can have influence and still be in darkness. And so I need to highlight what I need healed in my life. I need to highlight what's broken. I need to highlight where I'm I'm drowning in the things that I need to be saved from. Number three, light reproduces. Light was never meant to stop with you. Jesus didn't just say he's the light, he also said that you are the light. We do this at Christmas every year, and we'll have a candlelight service. And one of the things we do at a candlelight service is we take candles and we light them. But it usually just starts off from one candle. And then we light your candle. And then we light your candle. And then we light your candle. And the great message of that is this no matter how many other candles that I light, it does not diminish my light. And for our lives, is we have to understand that no matter how many other candles that I light, no matter how bright and how bright I make you, it doesn't diminish my light. So light it up, up, up, light it up, up, up. Why are we not lighting it up more? Why are we not walking in the areas, being the light that we're called to be, being that joy on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Green Bay, from Green Bay back to Chicago? I'm telling you what, when you get on a flight and you see somebody, you're gonna know, Pam. You're Pam, my pastor preached about you. And she's gonna say, Is that Robbie Emery? And she, I'm gonna be like, Yeah, how do you know? Because he is light too. Light was never meant to stop with you. Jesus didn't say, He just say he was the light. He said, You're the light, you are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand. It gives light to everyone in the house. Jesus said, You're not supposed to hide your light, you're supposed to raise your light. Light that is hidden cannot help. Please understand, light that is hidden cannot help. Ephesians 5 and 8, for you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light. Notice what Paul says. He didn't say you were in darkness, he said you were darkness. You were once darkness. But now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. He didn't just save us from death to life or from sin to save. He took us out of darkness, which is what we were. Too light. I was the person of darkness, but now you are light. You don't have light, you are light. And so if you are light, what does light do? Well, light attracts. We were away for a few days, and there was a you could see the ocean at night, and you could really you could hear the ocean at night. You really couldn't see it because it was pitch black, and the ocean is one of those things that's very eerie to me. Just that it's out there, you can see it barely, but it's all black and and dark, and all of a sudden you could see miles away. Miles away. My wife looks at us and says, That's a cruise ship. It was a cruise ship just going across the ocean. You could see it miles away, and we watch as that cruise ship started on one end where we could see in the other end, and eventually it disappeared out of our purview. And but you could see the light from the ship in the middle of that darkness. Light is attractive. We lived in Houston for several years, and living in Houston, we noticed something right away that everything is bigger in Texas. Not just the food, not just the animals, but the bugs. The bugs are big. I didn't know there was such a thing called tree roaches until they start falling from the tree on top of you. True story. And so you get what you call this in your backyard, you get to help with the mosquitoes, you get what's called a bug zapper. And this bug zapper, you could sit out in the back and you would know it was working because you would hear a mosquito. But how many bug zapper Christians are there? Snuffing out. We're just attracting and zapping people. You glow, you make noise, but all you do is kill anything that gets close. As I mentioned that my friend had what would be called a black light. A black light exposes a thing that light removes. Exposes what natural light hides. When you spend time in a black light, you see all the blemishes in the black light. There's a reason why I call it a black light. You see the mistakes, you see the anger, you see the hurt, and you see the pain, you see all that. All that God had forgiven. All that natural light had hidden, all that natural light had covered up. You getting what I'm saying? Is this there's there's this place in these world this world that the black light will try to shine and try to pull up your past. It'll try to pull up the stuff that the things that God has forgiven you from, the the past pain that God has already covered you in, the past situations and the breakups and the heartaches that you've already overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the light of Jesus Christ has shined on you, and that natural light has covered that up, but the black light will try to expose it. That means your testimonies is not escaped. I escaped darkness. No, your testimony is God turned me into. Somebody here today, you thought your life was stuck in darkness, but darkness is not permanent. Darkness is temporary. Because the moment God speaks light. Genesis said God didn't fight darkness. He didn't argue with darkness. He didn't negotiate with darkness. He just spoke light. And darkness had no choice but to leave. I think too many times we our speech is negative. Our talk is darkness. Our talk is the things that are, you know, but we spend most of our time talking. I always tell the joke that on social media, it's never an average day on social media. It's either you bought a house or your house burnt down. That's what we post. But I think a lot of times our conversations is darkness, and we wonder why darkness is still around. We wonder why darkness is still there. Well, I gotta talk about it, Robbie, because if I don't talk about it, then how are we ever going to fix it? How about we talk about things that are light? How about you talk about the things that are positive? Here's what I don't want to do. I don't want to come into your world and start pulling all the bad things out. I want to come into your world and start pouring all the good things in. What makes more sense? How about we pour all the good things in instead of just pulling the bad things out? You get the best of both worlds. When we pour good in, it flushes the bad, but the good gets the same. That's what we do as light bearers. I'm gonna walk into the darkness and I'm allowing my light to shine. I'm not gonna talk about their darkness. Come on, somebody. I'm not gonna talk about the bad, I'm not gonna talk about that situation. I'm just gonna let the light shine and make a difference one person at a time. How do you know you can make a difference? I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I get to read my Bible every day and oftentimes share it with you. I get to go to my knees in prayer, I get to lift my hands and worship. I that's the path I follow. How do I know that anyone can make a difference? It's because there's a person who works for United Airlines named Pam that I've mistaken her for joy because that's the personality she portrayed. And I'm telling you, you can make a difference when you go to work tomorrow, you can make a difference when you go to your campus tomorrow, you can make a difference. Allow the light of God to shine through you. Because he didn't just bring you from darkness, no, he changed you from darkness, he didn't change your address, he changed your DNA. You were darkness, but now you're light. Darkness had no choice to leave. He said, Let there be light. You know, that's Genesis 1 and 3. The McCarthy family's here today, our family. I'm glad they're here today. And Jim in Genesis 1 and 3, God said before anything was created, he said, God said, let there be light. Pastor Matthew, there was light. In the beginning, he said, Let there be light. What's the last book of the Bible? Oh, Revelation. Let's leave what Revelation says. Revelation is 21, 23. We got that. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light. And the lamb is its lamb. Guess what, guys? It started with light and it's gonna end with light. You might as well get with it. Might as well lean into it because it started with it and it's gonna end with it, and it's forever going to be him doing it in heaven. There will be no sun, no moon, no night, because Jesus Himself said, I will be the Matthew 5, 14. Here's another way to put it. You're here to be the light, bringing out the what God colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this as public as a city on a hill. There is a we moved into an area in Michigan where there's more farmland than there is city lights. And the amazing thing is you get away from all the city lights and you're out there and the sunsets are different, sunrises are different, the stars are different, the moon is different, everything's different out in the country. Now nothing has changed. I just don't live in the city anymore. I live more close to the country. Now the sunset's still doing what it's been doing. Everything's still doing what it's been doing. I just moved to a different area and I can appreciate it now because there's not as much light around that I can now see the natural light better. Here's what we can't do. We can't get caught up in just us being in the light every Sunday. I love being I love seeing your light. I love that your light is bright, Pastor Matthew. I love that your light is bright, ma'am. I love that your light is bright, sir. But that bright light just gets mixed in with another bright light in this room. It's just another light in this room. But where that light stands out, it stands out in the campus of your school. It stands out where you go to work, it stands out on a united flight, it stands out there. There, we need you out there being the light of the world, being the light of Jesus Christ everywhere you go. That's where you know, go be the light there. Because you're gonna make a difference in the lives of so many people. So, where are you today? Do we need to highlight something that needs to be healed? Is there some area in your life where, man, if I could just have this healed, I just need this to be healed. Maybe you've hidden it instead of highlighted it. If you'll highlight it today, I believe that the God of the universe will heal you. Because light exposes light, restores light, reproduces light. Light is powerful. So the enemy would love to extinguish that light in your life. Don't let them do that today. Because someone out there needs the light that you have. All over this room, every head bowed, every eye closed, every mind upon God. Today in this room, I don't know where you are, where you feel that you are, and maybe in the exposure of life has happened to you in such a way where you've just felt like you can't share your faith, or you can't tell someone about Jesus, or that you just feel inferior to be able to allow your light shine. I'm telling you, that is the trick of the enemy that your joy, your light, your passion, your heart for God is what this world needs. So don't allow what you don't know, don't allow those inner personal feelings to keep you from being the light at work tomorrow, the light on your campus this week, or maybe just the light on the plane as someone else sees you. I believe that the next happening for our church is better than anything we've ever experienced before. But it's all gonna start with you walking into this world and being the light that He's called you to be. I pray for our church today. I pray for every person in this place. I ask you, God, that you would do a work that only you can do. And God, as we highlight what I want you to heal, I pray strength, I pray for healing, I pray for deliverance right now in this place. And I challenge everyone in the name of Jesus to go out and be the light that we need to be. In Jesus' name.