Opening And Mountain Setup

Well, listen, I'm ready to preach God's word today. Are you ready to receive it? The year was 2019. 2019 is the year that I climbed Kilimajaro. So, spoil alert, I made it. I made it to the top. But I want to just share something as I was preparing for this message today in that journey. The journey began on a Monday morning at about 6,000 feet above sea level. By Thursday night, we had reached 15,000 feet, and it was a very systematic and strategic ascent because there was the necessary means to acclimate to the higher altitudes. By the time we got to 15,000 feet on Thursday, there were several people on our team that had bowed out. In fact, people that had finished Iron Man competitions, you know, where you swim for a mile and then you bike for 110 miles and then you go ahead and run another marathon in one day, those guys were unable to go past 15,000 feet. Something in their lungs could not handle the pressure. On Thursday night at 15,000 feet, at about 10:30 at night, we began to climb through the night in order to make the first peak of 18,000 feet before reaching the second peak and the highest peak for a freestanding mountain of 19,400 feet. That climb was through the night. It was dark. They tell me, I don't know if I remember it, but they tell me I had a lamp on my head, but it didn't really show very much. It felt like I was climbing through the dark. Every step in this rocky, very loose form of earth below me felt like I was about to slide right off the mountain. You know, when you can't see, your mind plays tricks on you. And so it was like my mind kept saying, You're on the edge of a mountain. Well, I wasn't on an edge, but it sure felt like it. About five in the morning, we had already been climbing now for seven hours, still had not made 18,000 feet. And I was exhausted, weary, cold, couldn't see, frustrated, hungry, thirsty. I was thinking to myself, what on earth am I doing here? And I was ready to give up. Several people on our team had turned back and started back down the mountain because it was just too difficult of a task. And I'll never forget the guide who had been with us all the way. He was assigned to me and a few others. His name was Emmanuel. I'm not making this up. This is this is a true story. And Emmanuel sat me down and I just said, I told him, I said, I don't think I can go any further. I I'm frustrated, I'm angry, I want to go back down. And he looked at me and he said, Listen, in about 45 minutes, the sun is gonna begin to rise over that peak right there. And he says, and when that happens, you're gonna feel a burst of new energy. And so I'm telling you, you're gonna make it to the top today. And you're gonna keep going because if you don't keep going, you'll be so mad at yourself for going back down. And he said, in fact, I'm so confident you're gonna make it, I'm gonna take your heavy backpack and I'm gonna carry it. And for the next 45 minutes in the dark, he carried my pack. And I made one step after another, thinking at some point the sun is gonna rise. At some point, the sun is gonna rise. At some point, the sun is gonna rise. And when that sun came up over the peak, I found this new energy, and I made it to 18,000 feet, and I was like, let's keep going. And we made it to the peak, and we took some pictures, and then they said it's time to go back down. And for for the five days of climbing, we stayed on top of that mountain for about eight minutes, and then we went straight down. And I'm gonna tell you, it is the year that I learned that sometimes the light of grace in a dark time is just enough to get you to the real light of a new day. So why don't you turn to your neighbor and just say, here comes the light. And to the one you've been ignoring all service, look back at them and say, the light is grace. And the one you've been ignoring, look back and find somebody else and say, and grace has a name. Here at Free Church, we've been on a series entitled Light. And the key verse is found in Matthew 5 and 14. It says this, 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 and it gives light to everyone in the house. If you're reading in your sc in your Bible, a physical Bible, some versions of the Bible are printed in what's called red letter edition, meaning this is what Jesus said. It differentiates what's been written in what Jesus actually said. And this would be red letter edition. Jesus is saying, you are like. Tell your neighbor you are like. Notice Jesus doesn't say you can be like. And he doesn't say you could be like. He doesn't even say you should be like. He just says you are like. And here's the tension we find on this Easter Sunday morning, and on almost every day that we walk on this earth, although we may not be climbing up Mount Kilimajaro, we are on a climb every single day. And here's the tension. How can broken people be called light? How in the world does God choose people like me and people like you with our imperfections to carry something so pure? And I would tell you, the answer is very simple. It's not just an Easter answer, but it's definitely magnified on Easter Sunday. That the light God gives is grace in visible form. That grace is not just something that God gives, it is something that we walk in. That grace is just enough light to get me through to the real light. You see, here's a few things about grace and light. Number one, you receive light, you don't produce it. 1 John 1 and 5 says this this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. You see, light comes from God. And you're like, PC, that's like Christianity 101. I mean, you're just telling me what the word says. But the reality is light didn't start with you, light came to you. The Christmas story could be summed up in this phrase: the light has come. And the Easter story can be summed up in this phrase, that light is grace. Many of you today are you're exhausted, worn out, physically tired, emotionally tired, mentally tired, because you are by your effort trying to shine a light without being connected to the source. Look at what it says. This is not in your notes this morning. This verse leapt out at me as I was finalizing my thoughts this morning in verse 6 says this in 1 John 1, verse 6, it says, and if we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. Meaning, it's almost as if we're walking through the night, climbing the mountain, and we can't see every step, and our mind is telling us, oh, we're about to fall here, we're about to fall here, we're about to fall there. But if we would just understand, grace has arrived in our life to give us light to the next day. You shine by encounter. And encounter is not something that you earn. You don't get good enough to encounter Jesus, you don't get right enough to encounter Jesus, and you don't manufacture a moment of light to your faith. It cannot be manufactured. It is a grace. Look what Paul says in Ephesians 2 and 8. For it is grace, it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is a gift from God. It is by grace you've been saved. Grace is undeserved, it is unearned, it is freely given. And grace is the light that you walk in. This is what I love. God didn't wait for you to clean up. He stepped into your darkness and turned on the light anyway. It occurred to me that this is what Jesus did for us. We were in darkness, but because he is light, he shared grace with us, and that grace became the light switch to turn the light on in our dark world. You've been stumbling around in a dark room, and you know there's a light switch over here somewhere, and you're finding your way, can't see, can't see, and then you flick the light on. You know what? You didn't think one minute. Why? Why? How? How what is the engineering? What is the science behind this light turning on? You were just thankful in the dark room when you hit the switch, the light turned on. So why question and struggle with the idea that Jesus stepped into our dark world and graced us with light? You see, grace is that light switch for our lives. The second thing I want to tell you today is that grace leads the way. Grace leads the way. Look at 2 Corinthians 5 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, and the new is here. You know what a lot of people mistake grace for just an answer for my past. It's like, well, there's grace for what I've done. The reality is, yeah, grace will save you, but grace just doesn't want to save you and help you with forgiveness of sin. Grace wants to lead you into your future. Well, what do you mean? It's the light to help you see the way through a dark time. Grace is not just a blanket to cover your sin. That's what the blood of Jesus did. Grace is a beacon guiding you into your glorious future with Jesus. It is the empowerment to live above and not beneath. It is the framework to live as a victor and not a victim. And it is the goodness of God pouring out for you to receive a better word, to take a better step, and to live a better, much more abundant life. That's what grace is for. Grace is not just to help you get past your past, grace is to guide you into your future. And you think, well, what do I do with that? See, when Jesus says you are the light of the world, you have to know this. You are not the source, but you are the evidence. You are the evidence that the light has come. You are the evidence that that light is grace. You are the evidence that grace leads the way. And you are the evidence that that grace has a name. It is a name that is like the morning light. The one the darkness cannot deny. It is the resurrection and the life. That name of grace and the name of light is Jesus. You are the evidence that the name of Jesus saves. The name of Jesus heals. The name of Jesus makes the storm still. You are the evidence that Jesus is the king, overwhelming us with grace. The Lord, the first and the last, and he has a name above every other name. You are the evidence. Not because you're good, but because what he's accomplished. You are the evidence, not because what you can do, but because he's good. You are the evidence of this light and of this grace. And this morning, when we come into this place and we sing and we worship, no matter where you might be on the mountain of life, no matter what the season may be, morning, noon, night, darkness, storm, peril, struggle, this is what you need to know. It's not your effort, it's his grace. It's not make yourself the best you can, it's his grace. And the reality is if you can just allow the light to grace you enough in this moment. You might feel like giving up. You might feel like you'll never make it, you might feel like you're just not gonna be enough, but if you will allow the light to grace you, you will find yourself reaching the heights that God has called you to reach. Three things very quickly. Romans walks us through this. Paul says, There's not one righteous, no, not one. None of us in our own standing can have right standing. Then he says this. Not only is there not none righteous, not one, but then he says this all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There, can you picture there's this mountain that we're climbing, and we all have sinned and fallen short. We're trying to reach it, but it seems like on our own strength we can't make it. It's too tall, too dark, too difficult. You'll never make it. All of us. Paul keeps going. He says this that there is a there's a penalty for falling short. He says the wage of sin is death. What a judgment. That's me sitting on that rock somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000 feet, thinking I'm ready to give up. And Emmanuel walks up to me and says, You're gonna make it. In fact, I'm gonna carry your heavy load for you so that you're just a little bit lighter. A little bit lighter. Do you mean by the load or by the view? That's what grace does, it lights the weight. Isn't that what Jesus said? He said, Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Was he talking about the weight of it? He was talking about the ability to see by it. So that judgment, the wage of sin is death, gets canceled because the gift of God is eternal life. In Romans 5.8, the last one I'll tell you. Paul says this is how Christ showed his love for us. That while we were yet sinners, while we were on the mountain of life in the very darkest place, Jesus showed his love for us by dying on a cross. And because he was obedient in that moment, we have a freedom from sin. We've been graced with a light that we can live in and not just live in, we become light. And because of that obedience, that's why Jesus has a name that's above every other name. So when I tell you light has a name, and when I tell you grace has a name, that name is Jesus, and He has a name that is above every other name. So no matter what you're facing, you face darkness, the name of Jesus is light. You feel weighed down and burdened, Jesus is light. You feel overwhelmed and unable, grace has a name, and his name is Jesus.