Revelation 21:22-22:5 (The Light, Jeff Kliewer)

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness Whose love is mighty and so much stronger

The King of glory, the King above all kings Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder

Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder The King of glory, the

King above all kings This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love

That you would take my place, that you would bear my cross

You laid down your life that I would be set free

Oh Jesus I sing for all that you've done for me

Who brings our chaos back into order Who makes the orphan a son and daughter

The King of glory, the King of glory Who rules the nations with truth and justice

Shines like the sun in all of his brilliance The King of glory, the

King above all kings Yeah, this is amazing grace, this is unfailing love

That you would take my place, that you would bear my cross

Oh you laid down your life that I would be set free

Oh Jesus I sing for all that you've done for me

Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain

Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the

Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the

King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

Worthy, worthy, worthy This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love

That you would take my place, that you would bear my cross

Oh you laid down your life that I would be set free

Oh Jesus I sing for all that you've done for me

All that you've done for me That is up and running now.

Pastor John and Pastor Jeff are leading that at the noon hour. So please make every effort to come and join us there.

And if you can't, those are being posted up on our YouTube page. Also, starting point, we'll begin this evening.

This is a three -week introductory class for those of you who are new to Cornerstone and those of you who are interested in becoming members here.

Please make every effort to attend that as well. And you can see Pastor Jeff with more questions about that.

We're beginning also, I believe, this week with our Encouraging Police. We're going to try to bring some prepackaged meals to them on Wednesdays at midnight.

So see Pastor John if you're interested in taking part in that. There are also some children's lessons planned in the bin in the foyer when you come on in the room.

So grab one of those if your kids want to have something to do during the sermon. Our men's breakfast is postponed until September 21st.

John Detoli is the point person on that, so you can get more information from him. Also, in Pastor Jeff's email this week, there was an email link about a survey for the women's

ABF. So if you are a woman, please check that out and fill out that survey for the ladies as they're trying to pursue some worship initiatives for our women.

Cindy Randall is also going to be heading up a precept study that's going to be starting in September as well.

So please get in contact with her for information about that. And that's all I got for announcements. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this glorious morning. As we start to get the crispness of September in the air, we're just thankful for the beauty that will begin to take place in a landscape as the leaves start to change.

Lord, thank you for our morning of being able to sing today. We just praise you.

We ask that you help us to lift up your name in our song, in our prayers, in our worship. And please be with Jeff as he leads us in the word today.

And we ask this in your son's name. Amen. We would see nothing else besides you and your great gift for us,

Lord God, of salvation. As we sing your praises, Lord God, the more we get to know you more, the more we have to praise and worship you about.

See, beauty that made this heart adore you, hope of a life spent with you.

So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here

I am to say that you're my God.

You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.

King of all days. King of all days, oh so highly exalted, glorious in heaven above.

Humbly you came to the earth you created, all for love's sake we came forth.

So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here

I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.

And I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.

Oh, I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.

No, I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.

No, I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.

Oh, so here I am to worship, here

I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my

God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.

See my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus can make me again.

Nothing but His love flows, that's all.

There's no one else

I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus is the flow that makes me white as snow.

Oh, I know

Jesus, the blood of Jesus.

Oh, the blood of Jesus washed as white as snow.

Oh, the blood of Jesus.

Oh, the blood of Jesus washed as white as snow.

Oh, I love to praise

Him. Oh, I love to praise

Him. Oh, I love to praise

Him. Oh, I love to praise Him. He washed me white as snow.

Oh, the blood. Oh, the blood of Jesus.

He washed me white as snow.

He washed me white as snow.

He washed me white as snow.

Let's pray. God, thank you so much that you sent your one and only

Son, Jesus, not only to live a perfect life, practice perfect obedience, but to die the death of sinners.

Not for His own sin, but for my sin. If it weren't for the blood of Jesus, I would be lost.

And I thank you, God, for sending your one and only Son, for my sin and for those here who trust in you.

We thank you for that. We ask now that you would turn our hearts completely to you, because we live in a dark world and it's easy for us to wander.

We're prone to wander, to stumble. Lord, we pray now that you would set our feet upon the rock, that you would enlighten our path.

Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Use your word to open our eyes and to help us to walk in the light.

In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, what's the difference between Judas and John the

Apostle? Judas and John, they both walked with Jesus, but had very different outcomes.

What was really the difference between them? Was one a worse sinner than the other? Is that the difference?

Actually, no. Judas walked in darkness. We learn from the scriptures that all along,

Judas was hiding his sin. It wasn't just a last second betrayal of Jesus, but rather, we learn from John chapter 12 verses 4 -6, there was an incident where some pure nard was used to anoint the feet of Jesus.

And it was worth many, many thousands of dollars. That money could have been used to be given to the poor.

And so Judas spoke up and he said, why this waste? Why did you spend this oil on the feet of Jesus, rather than giving it to the poor?

Sounds like a pretty reasonable objection, right? Except it wasn't.

Judas, we learn from John chapter 12, was not concerned about the poor. Judas was a thief.

All along, Judas was taking from the money bag because he was the treasurer that had the money bag.

He was stealing for himself and pocketing change week after week.

He had this dark corner in his life. When it came time for Judas to betray

Jesus, Jesus dipped the morsel and handed it to Judas, indicating who it was that was going to betray him.

And Judas took it and left. And the scripture tells us in John 13 -30, notice this, and it was night.

It was night. This is more than just a description of what time of day it was, it indicates the darkness of what

Judas had just done. Determining in his mind that he would go now and betray

Jesus Christ. Judas walked in darkness and of course he came by night with soldiers and torches to arrest our

Lord. Now John was a little different. Was John also a sinner? Yes, he was.

He was no better than Judas in his sin. In fact, there was one incident we read about in the

Gospels of the disciples arguing amongst themselves who was the greatest. Now none of you have ever done that, right?

You've never sat around arguing about who's the greatest at football or greatest at basketball or the greatest at Nintendo Switch, whatever it is you guys play.

You've never argued about who's the greatest, right? Well the disciples were doing this and Jesus rebuked them for it.

Another time, this one's kind of funny, Jesus sent them on a mission to the

Samaritans to get something and the Samaritans refused them. So you know what John did? He said,

Lord, can we call down fire from heaven to consume them? Wow!

What a reaction there. So John was kind of violent in that moment and just excessively,

Jesus was incredulous and rebuked John. So the difference wasn't that one was a sinner and the other was not, but listen,

John walked in the light. Today we're going to start in the book of 1 John and just read the first 10 verses before we get into Revelation.

This is kind of John's testimony. There's the

Gospel of John, there's the Epistle of John, so this is 1 John, the Epistle. It begins this way.

You can just listen or you can follow along if you have the verses. First 10 verses of 1

John. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the

Father and was made manifest to us. Who's he talking about there? Jesus.

That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the

Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Now here's a description of what it is to walk in the light. This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth.

So there's a false convert for you. Somebody who only looks like a Christian, maybe gathers with Christians.

Somebody who goes through the motions but they're actually still in the dark. Look at verse 7.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

This is not a picture of a perfect person. If it required a perfect person to preach

God's word, guess what? I'm disqualified. If it requires a perfect person to be here in the fellowship and to truly be saved, you guys should all go home right now.

But it does say walking in the light means you have fellowship and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

So how does that happen? Look at verse 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Love this verse. Verse 9. If we confess our sins

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. So to walk in the light is this open posture before God where you're walking with God and when you sin, not if, when you sin you confess.

You come back to Him humbly and you confess. That means you agree with God and you say back to God what

He says about your sin. You tell Him. It's also good to confess to a brother.

We'll get to that at the end. But turn with me now to Revelation 22. Actually the end of 21.

Verse 22. Here in Revelation we will see the glory of heaven which is

God Himself shining in all of His brilliance. Jesus the

Lamb of God will be the light. Until that day when we get here and we see this face to face we are to walk in the light.

Not hiding parts of our lives. Secret sin that we cling on to like Judas did.

But walking in the light as He is in the light. So let's begin reading.

Revelation 22 verses 22 through the next chapter verse 5.

And I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God the

Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the

Lamb. By its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there.

They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations but nothing unclean will ever enter it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false but only those who are written in the

Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the

Lamb through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

No longer will there be anything accursed but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him.

They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more.

They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.

Wow, what a picture. Now in context here we've already seen the tribulation where this world is laid waste as the seals are broken and then the trumpets of judgment and then the bowls of wrath, the tribulation has happened on earth and Jesus came back and he reigned on this planet for a thousand years.

A beautiful picture, the millennium and after the millennium the great white throne judgment where the nations were gathered before him and separated and those whose names were not written in the

Lamb's book of life were thrown into the lake of fire. Then we saw the new heaven and the new earth for this earth and this heaven fled from his presence and in the new heaven and the new earth a new city, the new

Jerusalem descended and landed there. The beauty of that new Jerusalem with the gates and the pearls and the streets of gold but now we see that there is no need for a temple, no need for the sun and no need for the moon.

So the first big point, look at verses 22 and 23 the lesser lamps, temple and sun and moon are no longer necessary in the new heaven and the new earth.

You don't need a temple any longer the temple served a function for a time, it was temporary it was a building in Jerusalem where people would come like a light that attracted the nations and they could encounter

God there. He was there in a special way but in the new heaven and the new earth you don't need a temple because God himself dwells with them.

What else don't you need? You don't need a sun and you don't need the moon because we see in verse 23 that God the glory of God bursts forth with such radiance, such light that you no longer need such lamps.

So what is the lamp of the city? The lamp is the lamb.

Jesus himself in all of his radiant glory fills the new

Jerusalem with light and indeed fills the whole earth with light. What is

Jesus called in verse 22 and 23? I'll give you a second to look, that way

I'm sure you're paying attention. I want you to see it in the text he's called the lamb because the glory of who

Jesus is is connected to his work in dying for our sins.

Some have said that the pinnacle of God's glory is his grace and the tip of that mountaintop is the cross.

By calling Jesus the lamb here we recognize and remember that he is the one who came and died for our sins.

You can't understand the glory of God without seeing the lamb of God.

His glory was to be humiliated, to be treated as refuse, as nothing, to be rejected, to be spat upon, to have a crown of thorns pressed upon his head, nails through his hands, pierced through his side, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.

His suffering displays his glory because his suffering was not for his own sin but for ours.

It was there on the cross that our Lord laid down his life for us. He bled for our sins and there in heaven we will always remember what he has done.

He will forever bear the marks of his suffering in his wrist.

To display that glory, he will forever be the lamb. Remember Revelation chapter 5?

Look, behold, the lion has conquered, the lion of the tribe of Judah and turning to look, what did

John see? A lamb as if he had been slain. Jesus the

Christ, bearing his marks of suffering. He is the light of the world.

Just think about this for a minute. What man can come to earth and claim to be the light of the world?

What a bold claim that is! For someone to say, I am the light of the world?

Who speaks like that? Certainly no mere prophet. Certainly no mere king or ruler.

Only the creator of the world. Did you know light existed in this world before the sun and the moon?

Go back and read Genesis 1. Let there be light came before he put the sun in its place.

God filling the earth with light. And Jesus existed before this universe was created.

He has always been the light of the world. So when he came into the world, John 8, 12, and said I am the light of the world.

If anybody follows me, he will walk in light, not in darkness. Paraphrasing there.

This is a bold claim, and it's a fulfillment of prophecies. Isaiah 9,

Isaiah 42, prophesied a coming one who would be the light of the world.

So the first thing we need to see in Revelation 21 verses 22 and 23 is that the glory of Jesus Christ fills the whole earth with his splendor.

He's radiant. And if you haven't seen a glimpse of that yet, you're not yet walking in the light.

The first step of being born again is to catch a glimpse of his glory.

We're told in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5 that the God of this age blinds the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel, of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But a believer is someone like John, not like Judas, who saw glory in Christ. Something bigger than anything this world has to offer.

The Lamb of God is glorious. And when your eyes are open to see that, this is more than a man, more than anything else in this life.

That's what it is to be born again. To see his glory. But let's continue on in the text.

Verse 24 we see that this light from the city not only fills the new

Jerusalem, it goes out beyond to fill the whole earth and all the universe.

Verse 24, by its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

What is it in that verse? As good Bible students, we always need to figure out what does the pronoun modify or what does it replace?

Here the pronoun is replacing what? The city. The new

Jerusalem here is the it. And within the city is the light of Christ. So this light from the city is spilling out beyond the city to fill the whole earth.

The gates remain open, we learn in verse 25, so people are able to come and go in and out of the new

Jerusalem. And the light bursts forth from the city, probably through the walls. Remember how it's clear as crystal?

And the light goes over the walls and fills the whole earth. Amazing, this light coming from the city.

Next in verse 25 to 27, we're told its gates will never be shut by day, there will be no night there.

I underline no night because it reminded me of Judas. When Judas betrayed

Christ, what does the Bible say? And it was night. Guys, we still live in a dark world.

Christ is the light of the world and us who have been given eyes to see it live in the light and we walk in the light, but all around us there is darkness.

There is night. There's coming a day where there will be no more night.

Look at verse 27. Nothing unclean will enter the city of God.

This is a great hope for the Christian. That there is coming a day when our sin nature itself will be put off from us.

We are in a struggle against sin while we remain in the flesh.

But there's coming a day when our sin nature will be sloughed off and we will be glorified.

The golden train of redemption. Romans 8, 29, and 30. Those whom he predestined he also called.

Those whom he called he also justified. Those whom he justified he also glorified.

What does that word glorify mean? To share Christ's glory, to reflect his glory, no longer sinning.

The sin nature removed from you. What a beautiful promise that is. Well, here we see it.

In verses 25 to 27, there's nothing unclean. There's no night.

No more darkness. But there is darkness in this world.

And while we're in this world, we stumble. Sometimes that can be very depressing.

Have you ever been discouraged by your sin? Some people get very depressed because of the struggle against sin.

But I like, I don't know who wrote this, but something I saw, a quote that encouraged me.

Maybe it'll encourage you as well. It says, the struggle against sin is evidence that the

Holy Spirit is motivating you to resist. The world has no struggle.

They just indulge. But you have a fight because the Spirit of God is still working on you.

Think about that. Dead men don't fight. Those who are dead in their trespasses and sins are not in a fight against sin.

They indulge in sin and continue on happily. If you're in a war, that can be a good sign that you're fighting through the power of the

Spirit to overcome sin. The supremely quotable Charles Spurgeon put it this way, the unsaved sinner loves a salvation from hell.

The true Christian loves salvation from sin. Everyone desires to be safe from the pit, but it is only a child of God who pants to be saved from every false way.

Are you living with secret sin in your life?

Are there hidden ways that you hold on to? False ways?

Or are you walking in the light? The light of Christ shines into our hearts and gives us new life.

And it changes how we walk. If we say we have no sin, but we hide our sin and live a double life, we very well could be like Judas, deceiving ourselves and deceiving others.

But if we're in a struggle against sin and you know your sin and you hate it and you want to be free and you think, how long will

I fight this battle? Why do I still gossip when I thought

I was done gossiping? Why do I still get so angry and selfish in my home life?

If this bothers you, if there's something in you that hates the sin, that feels good, that's a good sign.

But if all you want is to escape the punishment of going to hell, well, wouldn't everybody want to escape a pit, a fire?

Walking in the light means not hiding our sin, but confessing our sin.

Confessing our sin to God, but also to a brother if the power of it is holding you.

Are you content to just live in that sin like Judas or are you willing to come into the light?

If you hate it, you'll come into the light. So we go on to chapter 22 verse 1.

It says, Bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the

Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

When I say that walking in the light means that we don't hide our sin, we don't treasure our sin, but we walk in purity.

And when we do stumble and fall, we confess that to God and we seek help from other Christians.

When I say that, does this sound to you like a boring life? Does this sound like no life at all?

I submit to you that exactly opposite is the case.

Could have used better English there. The opposite is the case. I was talking like Yoda there.

Got everything backwards. But notice in chapter 22 verse 1. It says,

Walking in the light is life. It's not boring. It's not exchanging something good and fun and joyful and delightful for something less.

No, this is life. Notice in verse 22 it says, Would that make you want to jump in?

Go for a swim. This is beautiful. And then the scene of fruit coming from the trees and there's different fruits for each month.

You got a January fruit and then the next month it's producing something else. It's probably not just oranges and apples and blueberries.

It's probably some new fruit that you've never tasted and that's beyond what you could imagine.

John 10 10 says, The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

The walk, the Christian walk. When you're walking in the light, it's filled with life.

My honeymoon, my wife and I went to a place called St. Kitts which is an island out in the sea.

Beautiful place. And one day we went down to the shore and the water was crystal clear.

And there were rocks, but you could see between the rocks and then out in the distance there was this platform.

And I got it in my head that I wanted to swim out to the platform and climb on there. But someone had told me that a wedding ring reflects light.

And that can attract a shark. So I said, Honey, hold this for a minute.

And I gave her my wedding ring to hold and I dove in the water and I swam out.

It was just intoxicating. You had to jump in this water because it was so clear. Bright and clear.

And when I got back to the shore, she gave me the ring back and she said, You seriously just took that risk just to swim out to that platform.

You're gonna take me to St. Kitts and then get eaten by a shark. What a wonderful honeymoon.

But fortunately I didn't. We talked to somebody else at the resort that night who had gone to that same beach and they were saying,

Oh, have you ever been to this beach? The sharks just swim between the rocks. It's amazing. And I was like,

Yep. I was swimming there. But it was just life giving.

The water was so beautiful. Don't you want to go to a place where the water is bright as crystal?

Just a beautiful place. Listen, the Christian life is not drudgery. When you walk in the light, if you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you walk in the light.

You discover life. That's when you come into His freedom. That's when you find joy.

That's when the Bible is a delight. It's not something that is just hard to get to.

You find joy in it. This is a picture of life. And finally, this is a picture of war.

Notice in verses 3 -5 that the accursed things are done.

And we reign with Him. It says, No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the

Lamb will be in it. And His servants will worship Him.

They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.

They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

To reign is to be victorious with Christ. This is the victory of light over darkness.

Look back at verse 3. It says, The accursed things are no more. No longer will there be anything accursed.

To walk in the light is to have victory over darkness. And the world in which we dwell right now is very dark.

Many lies. Your inheritance as a child of light is to stand and shine light on the dark places.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. It is your inheritance as a child of light to dispel darkness.

It has to run from you. So stand boldly in the truth of God's Word.

This light as you shine it will dispel the darkness. I'm always reminded when

I think of this image of cockroaches. Isn't that a wonderful thought? Go to Florida and see what the cockroaches are like, by the way.

They're like this big. But here in Philadelphia and this area, not as much so. But I do remember when

I was a missionary in Kensington, we lived on Orleans Street, and a couple doors down was a family that had a great grandmother, a grandmother, a mom, and little kids.

Four generations of mostly women. And their house was completely overrun by cockroaches.

So wanting to show the love of Christ, we offered to help them. And I had a friend, and he's still my buddy, his name is

Clint Harp. Anybody here watch, um, what is that show called, where they renovate houses?

Chip and Joanna Gaines? What's that called? Fixer Upper, right? Anybody watch Fixer Upper? Clint is the guy on there who makes the tables and makes the woodworking things.

So Clint shipped a table up to Kensington for us to give to this family.

But first we had to take everything out of the house. And as we came into the house, turn on the lights,

I saw cockroaches scurry into the walls. It was gross. But I had

Home Depot spray. Big thing of it, with a spray thing.

So I began to spray the wall. And as I sprayed the wall, the roaches fell and the spray got into the cracks between the boards and behind the drywall.

So the roaches started coming out to flee that pesticide. So I sprayed it and they all fell down the wall and I turned to the next wall and sprayed that one and then turned to the third and the fourth and by the time

I got back to the first wall it was covered with roaches again. And I sprayed that wall and for about an hour

I was just spinning in circles spraying cockroaches. It was...

I actually gagged. I ended up almost throwing up outside because of the pesticide. But so many roaches.

But here's the thing about roaches. Roaches scurry away from light.

They're just hiding in dark places when you come into the room. You would never know there were that many roaches in that building.

Brothers and sisters, you have a weapon far greater than pesticide. You have light and the darkness has to flee.

I picture this culture war in which we're in and someone will come with a lie and they'll claim we're anti -racist.

But in truth what they're saying is we need to judge people by the color of their skin not the content of their character.

And you take the light of God's word and you say Acts 17 verse 24 to 26 says we're all descended from Adam.

We're one race in Adam. And those who are born again are in the race of Christ.

And you bring that light and watch how the cockroach runs. I don't mean the person who's saying it because hopefully they'll be redeemed.

But that lie has to run from the truth. They'll bring some distorted use of language and say we're for reproductive justice.

By which they mean the killing of innocents. And you bring the light of God's word and you say to them but Psalm 139 says that this child is made by God in the image of God and he fashions a child in the womb.

And as you speak these words that lie has to run like a cockroach.

Amen? All the lies of the enemy are impotent before the word of God.

We are the children of light. We have the truth. So we must not fear what they fear.

If they do not fear that is because they have no dawn. Isaiah 8. But we say to the testimony which is the word of God bring the sword of the spirit and the light of God's word to bear in this battle.

There's coming a day where the battle ends. Verses 3 to 5. We see it. We will reign with him forever.

Nothing accursed will be there. But in the meantime we're in a war. Live as children of light.

And so in closing we can call the worship team to come up. I just want to take a minute in a closing prayer time to give you and myself an opportunity to confess if we confess our sins.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you're a child of God, look into your heart right now and see if there's any impure way in you.

Maybe you can spend a little time in Psalm 139 on your own before going to bed tonight to confess any sin.

Let me just read the last two verses of Psalm 139. It says, search me

O God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Worship team as you just begin to pray to play, I want to ask everybody here to bow your head, close your eyes and I know if you're human which is all of us, you sin.

There's things that you need to confess. Bring those things into the light.

Confess those things to God just in the quietness of your own thoughts. You don't even have to say anything out loud. You come to him and confess your sin.

James chapter 5 tells us it's also good to confess to a brother so if anybody just wants to come up during the last song,

I'll just be sitting over here. I would be willing to pray for you. If there's something you want to confess, you can confess that quickly.

I'm no priest. You can confess to your brother. You can confess to your parents. You can confess to a friend.

But walk as children of light. Don't live in darkness. Remember that the blood of Jesus was spilled for sinners like us.

We bring nothing to this table. No righteousness of our own. We desperately need forgiveness of our sins.

So take a moment. I'm just going to stop talking here for a minute and let you pray and talk to God. Father, I pray for these, my brothers and sisters, that they would walk in the light.

Pray for myself that I would walk in the light. Forgive us,

Lord, of all of our iniquity. Cleanse us by the blood of Jesus.

Teach us to walk in your ways. To be very quick to confess our sins.

And we look forward to that coming day when we live in the new Jerusalem, a city of light, where there is no more sin, nothing accursed.

Until that day, help us to walk as children of light and to fight for the truth.

Help us to enjoy this life that you've given us. In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Amen. While we sing the last song, if anybody wants prayer, I will pray for whoever would like.

Stand and sing one more song. Open the eyes of my heart,

Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.

I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart,

Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.

I want to see you. To see you high and lifted up.

Shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart.

I want to see you. I want to see you.

To see you high and lifted up. Shining in the light of your glory.

Pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy.

To see you high and lifted up. Shining in the light of your glory.

Pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy.

So holy, holy, holy. Yes, you're holy, holy, holy.

You're so holy, holy, holy. I want to see you.

You're so holy. You're so holy, holy, holy.

Yes, you're holy, holy, holy. You're so holy, holy, holy.

I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart

Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.

I want to see you. Therefore do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the

Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the

Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible for anything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore it says awake oh sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.