Good morning and welcome to The Roads Church! In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God, through him, all things were made everything and everyone from the gleaming stars to the brilliant sun, every creature on land and sea, every delicate flower, every intricate tree coming to life at the sound of his voice, just as the first creation responded to the noise. As he declared, let there be light and there was light and it was good. Darkness was also in the beginning, void empty and without purpose. There’s a deeper darkness. We’ve been experiencing a heaviness. As we see the evil and chaos surround us. The brokenness inside us. We were drawn to the darkness accustomed to the lack of light, our eyes so easily adjusting to the pitch black night, but it’s in the midst of that darkness. When we truly realized our desperate need of light, a new day is dawning.
As we see the great light, the light of life, Jesus Christ. God’s one and only begotten son. He entered the world and invaded our darkness. He became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory full of grace and truth. And we behold him. Now our resurrected King, the light of life, the Lord of Lords, the one who paid the price I could never afford. You took our sin. You bore our shame. You gave your life as a sacrifice in our place. Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who takes away my sin and my hurt.
Thank you, Jesus for being here at The Roads Church. Welcome to Easter at the roads. We’re so glad that you joined us this morning and we’re here for one thing is to magnify, to glorify, to praise the name of Jesus and who he is. He has risen. He is alive, and we’re here to celebrate him today. So God, we just give you all of our heart today. We give you all of our worship and all of our praise. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, come on. Let’s continue to worship him this morning. We’re going to sing about the great name of Jesus
[inaudible] [inaudible] let’s see that again. We left too. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] yes. There is power in your name. There is power, power, power, power, power, power. [inaudible]
[inaudible] thank you for freedom in this place. Jesus, because of what you did on Calvary, you paid the price. You gave your for me, for everyone in this room, everyone watching online. Thank you, Jesus. We give you all the praise. You have permission this room to lift your hands, to get crazy for cheeses. You are free this morning. Thank you, Jesus. So we live in a country that we can be for. Some people have to be silent. The Lord work in a shout. We’re going to shout your name. Jesus. We’re going to shout your name. Jesus. We won’t be silenced, but it’s all because of you. Jesus. It’s all because of you.
Yes [inaudible] [inaudible] geez. Geez. Geez. Geez. She, she, she, she [inaudible]
[inaudible] she had a word for the body this morning,
The past few days, this has just been rolling around inside of me, just in my spirit. And I feel like the Holy spirit just telling me it’s time. It’s time. It’s time. And it’s Psalm 24. It’s about the King of glory.
David writes the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it, the world, and those who dwell in it for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the streams and the rivers who may ascend onto the mountain of the Lord and who may stand in his Holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul to what is false nor has sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. And then he says, this is the generation of those who diligently seek him and require him as their greatest need, who seek your face. Even as Jacob did lift up your heads, okay. Be lifted up ancient doors
That the King of glory may come in [inaudible]
Before that word that Charlie gay, because I believe that the King of glory is in this place this morning, his presence is here. God wanted me to remind you with that today that I stood on this stage over a year ago, about a year ago. And there was no one in this room. God wanted me to declare this morning and decree just like David said, he said, God has unsealed his lips. And I believe today that there’s an unsealing of lifts today because he said he unsealed my lips so that I could pray. There’s a praise party tonight, church. There’s a praise party. And whether you believe it or not, I believe when we begin to praise, breakthrough begins to happen. Breakthrough begins to happen. And some of you are going to leave here this morning. And you’re going to say just like the disciples, you’re going to say [inaudible]
[inaudible] Jesus [inaudible]
Thank you today that we imitate heaven and what has happened in heaven right now. God, we thank you that Holy Holy, Holy Lord, God almighty is being seen over and over and over again. God, we partner with heaven today. Heaven come to your invade. This place invade the earth.
We thank you, Lord,
We honor you. And it’s in your name. We pray today and everybody’s said, all of our Rose family said everyone in the overflow room said, Hey man, come on, get in the shout of praise.
[inaudible]
Thank you. Jesus paid for you to make your way back to your seats. And we’re just going to continue with this attitude of worship. Communion is available in your seats, erodes family. If you’re you got your comedian elements ready, we want to partner with you and agree with you this morning as well. So go ahead and get your elements out. They should be there in your seat and give you just a moment to get those. And as you’re getting your community elements, just keep that attitude of horseshit, because we want this to be a place where we honor God and honor Jesus for what he did on the cross. And then for what he did three days later, as he Rose from the grave and give us life today. So we’re going to participate. Jesus said this, that if you don’t drink my blood or eat my flesh, you have no part with me. So today we want to participate in this communion with God and we don’t take this long.
We just thank you today. You
Have the brand which represents the body of it. So we’re going to take the bread today as Jesus took the bread and he, he blessed it. He broke it.
He
Gave it to his disciples as remembrance of him as a covenant. This is the covenant that we’re making with God. Today is his body was beaten. It was bruised. It was, there was insults hurled at him. There was, he was purist. He was a man who knew no sin that became since so that we could become righteous, that we could become the righteousness of God. So father, we thank you for your body broken for all mankind that removed the stain of sin. We thank you today. God, as we take your bread and your body, we do it in remembrance of you. God, we thank you. So your name, we pray today. Amen. Let’s eat today.
We have the juice was represents the blood, not the blood of goats, the blood of bulls. It’s only the blood of Jesus that can make a center clean, purify your heart. As you take his blood today, as you drink his blood over your life, over your marriage, over your finances, over your emotional state, your conditions, whatever it is today, we believe the blood of Jesus we’ll make you whole. So God, we thank you for your blood. We thank you for shedding your blood because without the shedding of blood, there’s no remission of sin. We thank you. It’s in Jesus name. We pray. Amen man. Good morning. Roads, church. Happy resurrection Sunday. Hey, my name’s Chris. Welcome all of our egos family. We just want to take a moment and welcome our erodes family. Thank you so much for joining us. You’ll just drop it right there in the chat where you’re watching from all across the country, all across this world, just reaching people, our overflow room right here in the auditorium.
Can we make some noise for all of our first time? Hey, your first time, welcome to the road shirts. If you’re a first time guests, we want to connect with you. It’s our heart. It’s our desire to connect with you. If you’ll just take a moment in your worship guide, there’s a connect card. If you’ll take that connect card out to our next steps, tables out of the cafe in the four-year area after service, we have a free gift for you. We also want to connect with you and we want to just help you on that next step or talk to you about whatever your next step may look like, whatever that is. We want to help you with that because everybody has a next step. So we just want to take a moment and connect with you on that, but we also have a free gift for you as well.
And uh, we just, we’re so honored to host you and have you on this resurrection Sunday. So we just want to connect with you and just take a few minutes to just take a few minutes and fill that connect card out. And, um, also, I just want to tell you about a few things are happening, happening. You’ll see in your worship guide. There’s some next steps. Everybody has a next step. As I was talking about, you’ll also see that on our website. You’ll also see that in, uh, on our, all of our different platforms, um, in your worst of guide, you’ll also see that at our, at our next steps tables, you’ll see about your next step. You’ll be able to talk to somebody about your next step, whatever that is. If it’s baptisms, if it’s, uh, uh, getting to the Rhodes group, if it’s a freedom ministry, next step, grow track, getting out of the crew and, and, and, uh, getting out of the crowd and on the crew.
We just want to help you with that, whatever that looks like for you, wherever you’re at in your walk with God, we just want to help you. You can go under the different platforms. You can see that ways you can get connected here at the roast church. We’ll tell you about a couple more things. It’s very important. Pass it to me and it’s very pass it to the roads. Church one is our ropes kids. Can we just make some noise for all of our roads kids, all of our crew members of making church happen for our kids every week. But I want to encourage you today that our roads kids is not a place. It’s not a drop-off center. We don’t drop our kids off. And then we pick them up just so we can have a service. We take our kids, we are chopping them off into a discipleship center where they’re being invested into their being poured into their learning, the ways of God.
And we’re teaching them the ways of God and the way that he for his heart. So I wanna encourage you with that, that when you, it’s also a place where we can resource parents, where we can resource you and you come alongside your kid, because how many knows the discipleship is not just in the church. It’s whenever you take your kids home. That’s when discipleship starts as well. So we want to resource parents. That’s the heart and the vision behind road’s kids. We want to resource parents, or maybe you have a teenager, fifth grade through 12th grade, you’re saying, Hey, I want to know what is their next step, or is there something for them Wednesday nights or move services. And we’re very honored to have them. God’s doing amazing things in our youth. If you don’t believe me, just come and check it out.
It’s amazing. Things are happening with our youth. We’re so excited for our youth passionate about our youth. Also, we’re getting ready to launch in a couple of weeks or next week, our move services in Mount Carmel for the first time. So we’re excited about that. We haven’t been able to do that. We’ve got amazing crew members already lined up, ready to just reach Mount calmer and reset region. Um, so just want to encourage you with that, that with our kids, with our youth, that’s the future. That’s why we do what we do. We pour into children. We pour into the presence of Jesus, Holy spirit. We pour into them because we want them to be strong, mighty warriors for God. Amen. And so right now, we’re going to continue to worship with our giving. I want to give opportunity to give that if you’re watching online, maybe your erodes failures said, Hey, I want to partner with the road’s church.
What’s happening here at The Roads Church. We want to be able to help you with that. You’ll see that on the screen and on your screen, you’ll also see on the screen behind me, ways that you can give there’s ways that you can give. And we just want to, we take nothing for granted. We want to make sure that we honor God with our giving. That’s why we do. We do it. That’s why we give, we give out the place of our heart. We don’t give out a place because we have to, we give out a place. Cause we get to, we get to give, we give God the tin, the tie he honors the Tod. He will rebuke the devour whenever we give, we don’t give to kit, but there are benefits that God gives. And well, as well as we honor him with our ties that are giving.
So if you have your ties and offerings, go ahead and get those out. We’re going to pray over those. So God, we just thank you for the power of the tide. We thank you for the sea. We thank you for the sower. We thank you, Lord. For this. You’re expanding all across the world, not just here in our region, but Thailand and India and Israel and the underground railroad. God, you’re rescuing children by the power of the time. Lord, I just thank you for that today. Thank you for what you’re doing through the tithe. And we just ask God that you expanded in a large, it use it for the furthest of your kingdom. It’s in your name. We pray today. Everybody said, amen, amen. Hey, we’re going to check out the road’s news. And then pastor, Chad’s going to be out with the message.
Good morning church, happy Easter. And welcome to the roads. We are excited to be together today, to worship and connect with the one who is the light of life. Jesus, as one church, with many locations, our North city campus, our Mount Carmel campus and our E Rhodes family. As you join us from your homes, through your devices all over our nation, wherever you are, Jesus is amazing. And being in his presence is everything. If you’re joining us on one of our campuses this morning for the first time, take a minute to fill out your connect card found in your worship guide that you got. When you came into service after service, stop by our next steps table on your way out. We’d love to get to me, you and give you a welcome gift. And if you’re joining us online today for the first time, we’d love to hear from you to go ahead and text the word roads to (618) 243-0900.
Are you wondering how you can get to know the roads and get more involved? Growth track is your next step. Our North city campus offers growth track on Sundays at 10:30 AM in the growth track room. And it was a four week class. We also offer our fast track growth track in April. That gives you all four classes in one day. And this is available at both our Mount Carmel campus and our North city campus. Please check your worship guide for details and fast track registration information, Mark your calendars and land to gather for prayer at our Eagles prayer meeting this Monday, April 5th, located at our North city campus. We get started at 6:00 PM and everyone is welcome. We want to invite you to join us for our first Wednesday on April 7th at six 30, located at our North city campus auditorium, our adventure Avenue and Allie roads.
Kids classes will be joining our youth and adults in the auditorium for service our dreamers drive in wonder way classes for ages. One to three years, we’ll still be operating during our first Wednesday service at our North city campus child check-in begins at six 15. Our first Wednesday service is live streamed at our Mount Carmel campus. There are so many ways for you and your family to connect with Jesus and our family here at the roads with our roads kid services every Sunday at 10 30 at both our Mount Carmel and our North city campus, our move youth meeting on Wednesdays, our roads groups meeting in homes and our roads crew serving one another. Make sure to check out the worship guide or our website@wwwdottheroads.church for more information and visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel for all of our services and pastor Chad’s teachings. That’s all for the roads news. We love you. Rhodes family. Welcome home.
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How’s everybody doing today? Welcome to the road, sir. It’s so great to see all of you. As Chris said a year ago on Easter, I came in to an empty room and talk to cameras as a very, uh, interesting dynamic for an Easter service, which is usually supposed to be your largest service of the year as pastors. We’ll talk about it being the Superbowl Sunday of a church world, but man, I just want to thank God for what he’s doing in the world, what he’s doing in your life. And so glad to have all of you with us. Welcome to all of our erodes family, our erodes groups, you know, whether it be in Wisconsin, up in the North woods, thankful for them up there. We’ve got people in Roxboro, North Carolina. These are people that are hosting groups. When we talk about them, not just people that are randomly watching, but they’re hosting groups of people.
So we like to shout out the in Fort Bragg and North Carolina, uh, who, uh, to our soldiers there that are watching online, got some of it up to them, thankful for all of our friends there, all of you in the overflow room, as well as some new friends in Decatur, Illinois, watching things, uh, just excited about what God is doing. Again, a lot of people can’t reach them all or can’t mention them all, but we’re just honored, honored, honored. Our vision is to connect people with Jesus from all roads of life. And so that’s who we want you to meet today. We don’t ever want you to be impressed with us. There’s nobody on this stage. That should be impressive. It’s Jesus. That’s who we’re all here for. We’re all on the same playing field. We all came for him. We all need him. We all want him. So that’s our desire that you’ll meet him in a powerful way today. Uh, looking forward to that and let’s just, uh, I want to mention something real quick before I go any further. Um, some of you may or may not know our drummer, Ben, Dennis, uh, you’ll watch him sometimes in the cage. He and his wonderful wife and their children, uh, Maddie and their kids are going to be moving. And this is his last Sunday with us. So can we give Ben and Maddie a big hand?
Oh man, we’re going to miss them. We’re going to miss them. Where are you at bed?
Thank you. Thank you. He didn’t know that was coming.
You can thank me later. Ben,
I’ll tell you. He just has a heart of worship. You just got to watch the drum and close your eyes. You know, I know I’m supposed to be worshiping Jesus with sometimes I just start watching what God is doing in there in his life. So, uh, let’s just get started with a word of prayer. This invite Jesus to come and speak to his father. Worthy is the name of Jesus. Lord. I just come to lift you up. I want you to get all the praise and glory today. Lord, we’re not trying to impress anybody. We’re just wanting you. We just want you to do what only you can do in people’s lives. So come Lord, bring truth, bring life, bring freedom, shine your light in the midst of darkness today. Show us the way we trust you in Jesus name. Everybody say, amen. Hey, the message today.
The theme for the day is the light of life. It is resurrection Sunday. So we’re celebrating Jesus raising from the dead, this weekend of death, burial and resurrection of our savior. Jesus, the Christ. So here at the roads, we get excited because we believe the Bible is still the truth. So when we open up the Bible, if you’re new here, we want to welcome you. Uh, maybe you’re here and you’re like, wow, those are some rowdy people. Um, but I just think it’s Jesus is worthy of being rowdy about what he’s done for me is worthy of my praise. So, uh, we get excited about the Bible because this Bible, this book changed my life. It set me free and it still helps me today. So if you got these bad boys, these Bibles, your phone, whatever it is, open them up today to Matthew chapter 27, Matthew 27 sermon notes are available there in your worship guide and on the YouVersion Bible app. If you’ve got that, you can follow along Matthew chapter 27. I’m going to read quite a few passages here just to set the stage for the story. And then I need to get after it. So we’re not doing let no one deceive you.
It’s a little, yeah.
Verse 45. Now from the sixth hour, until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. Make note of that six hour until the ninth hour. If you’re wondering what time of day that is, the sixth hour is noon. Ninth hour would be three o’clock in the afternoon. So from noon to three in the afternoon, there was darkness over all the land. It was not a solar eclipse. It was darkness that came on the land. Big difference
For verse
46. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli Lama. Sabachthani that is my God. My God. Why have you forsaken me? He’s actually quoting Psalm 22. So when Jesus was on the cross, he wasn’t just randomly accusing God of forsaking him. He’s quoting the word of God on the cross fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 22 written written hundreds of years prior to that verse 47, some of those who stood there when they heard that they said this man is calling for Elijah. They got excited thought they were going to see Elijah immediately. One of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a Reed and offered it to him to drink. And the rest said, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come and save him. They got their popcorn out there. We’re excited for a show. Verse 50 and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit, yielded as a powerful word in the Greek. I don’t have time to teach it, but it’s a, it’s a word that means literally to give or to send away.
Nobody killed Jesus.
He yielded up his spirit. You can’t kill the son of God. Maybe I will talk for just a second. You can’t kill the life. Life had to be laid down. They couldn’t take it away. He had to say, okay, I’ll let you have it for a greater good. You can’t take it from me. You don’t have that power. Ooh, Jesus, Hey, I felt that one come on then 51. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This, this veil was so tall. It could not be reached by human hands.
It was ripped from top to bottom, signifying God said I’m tearing down the wall. This was the, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest went once a year from the Holy place. And no one went beyond that curtain. This was where the Ark of the covenant was the presence of God. So no one was to go into the presence of God. But when Jesus died, that veil was ran into from top to bottom where God said, you can’t come to me, but I’m coming to you. I’m breaking down the veil. This ain’t even my sermon, but it’s good.
So,
And the earthquake and the rocks were split and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Come on, don’t don’t pass this up. When Jesus died, there was an earthquake rocks. Split open graves were open and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep. Now word falling asleep means dead like doorknob dead. They were, they were buried in the ground dead. They didn’t have a straw. They weren’t still breathing. They were dead. They were raised from the dead coming out of the grays. After his resurrection, they went into the Holy city and appeared to men. So these, these people after Jesus, after I underlined that word after, after his resurrection, after he raised from the dead, he caused other people to raise for the death. Someday when Jesus was raised up, other people get to get in on it. I’m one of those who get to get in on it. After he Rose, I get to read,
Well, we’ll get to the sermon later, but this is exciting. We’re just reading the Bible. So when the Centurion and those with him who regarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly saying truly, this was the son of God, many women who followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him, were there looking on from afar among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph’s translated Joseph and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. Now, when the evening had come there came a rich man from Aaron mutha, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to pilot and asked for the body of Jesus. Then pilot commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.
And he rolled a large stone underlined that he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and part it, and Mary and Magdalene was that Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. As I looked back to this passage of scripture in verse 45, talks about from, for three hours from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, Jesus was on the cross in the middle of the day. Darkness came over all the land in the middle of the day. All of a sudden darkness came on. This is not again a phenomenon of, of solar eclipse. This is a, a darkness that settled over all the land. He could not see similar to what happened in Egypt when darkness fell in the camp of the Egyptians, but it did not come in the camp of the Israelites. So Jesus was surrounded by darkness in the most difficult time of his life, hanging on the cross.
And then the last 24 hours, he had dealt with betrayal, abandonment, and now rejection. So he’s surrounded by darkness. And then verse 60, we read towards the end. After he had died, then he was buried in darkness and a large stone was rolled against the door. There was no way out, all hope was seemingly lost. Let me ask you a question starting out this morning. Have you ever felt like there was darkness over your land? Do you ever feel buried in a hopeless, dead situation with no way out? Do you ever feel like there’s a stone rolled over the entryway of your escape route and you cannot get out of the life that you’re living in. Do you ever feel like that you’re trapped in this existence and you have no way to get free? I want to talk about three ways that darkness can impact our life real quickly.
Three ways. There could be a lot of ways. I’m just going to name three. Number one. When darkness comes into our life, it can create uncertainty, uncertainty, or confusion. You don’t. If the lights go out, you’re not, no, you don’t know what to do. You don’t know where to go. You can’t find your way around. You can’t see clearly you’re tripping over things you wouldn’t normally trip over. You would see if you could see them, you wouldn’t trip over them. But when you’re surrounded by darkness, all of a sudden other things that wouldn’t, you normally would easily step around. All of a sudden you’re stumbling and things that you normally wouldn’t bother you in life. All of a sudden they’re causing great setbacks in your life. It’s because darkness, you can’t see where you’re going, creates uncertainty. It can be painful if you’ve ever stubbed your toe or sin on furniture at night, or maybe stepped on a Lego piece laying on the floor.
Yeah.
Yay. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It makes you turn into a little shout right there in the middle of the night. Darkness causes uncertainty or confusion. Number two, darkness can cause fear. I mean, he’s ever heard the phrase we’re afraid of the dark. You know, the same things are there or another, when I was little, you want to get up. And I would say, you know, afraid of the dark, you know, my parents would say, Hey, there’s the same things are there or not there in the dark. That’s in there in the light. You just can’t see them. So is it that we’re really afraid of the dark or is it the we’re afraid of what we cannot see?
We’re not really afraid of the dark.
We’re afraid of what might be in the dark that we don’t know about
When you’re walking through a building. No,
I come in early on Sunday mornings and I probably shouldn’t tell this people try and come in heightened corners, probably in try to scare me, but I’m making my goal not to turn on any lights in the whole building as I walk around and pray. And, and my idea is is that I want to be a carrier of light. So where sometimes we’re afraid of the dark, like why don’t we turn on the lights? Because we want to be able to see if something is there or not. And that’s what darkness can do. It begin to bring it. Anybody ever felt they’re afraid because they couldn’t see something. Anyone ever been afraid of what might happen that they didn’t know about darkness comes causing fear. Cause something might happen. You’ve ever heard of being afraid about something, how something might end up or might turn out.
I just don’t know I’m in the dark on how this is going to play out. So it can cause fear. What if they do this? What if they don’t do that? What if she leaves? Or what if he leaves? Or what if this happens? What if that happens? Darkness causes fear of the unknown. I can’t see how this is going to play out. I can’t see what’s going to happen. If I trust God and go out on a limb, I don’t know how it’s going to play out. So fear that darkness causes us to be afraid.
That’s the second thing.
The enemy can surround us in darkness of uncertainty and get us buried in the darkness of fear. Just by getting us to think about what might be there that we can’t see or might happen that we don’t know about.
Third thing, third thing, depression
Causes uncertainty or confusion causes fear. Darkness also causes depression, not enough light or too much darkness can be depressing. Medical news today reported that before the pandemic 8.5% of us adults reported being depressed. But over the last year, that number has risen to almost 28%.
Why staying in sheltered darkness? That’s what happens.
It’s statistically. It’s a fact when you stay in darkness, depression can come in. Borrow Alaska, the Northern most community in North America. The sun does not rise for 65 straight days from dusk, November 19 until Dawn, January 23rd. You imagine 65 straight days with no sunlight studies suggest that as many as 20% of Alaskan suffer from seasonal affective disorder or sad, a mood disorder triggered by light deprivation. According to Dr. Aaron Wolf, a psychologist at Langdon clinic in Anchorage, Alaska deprived of normal amounts of daylight, the human body undergoes biochemical changes in the production of two key brain chemicals. One’s melatonin,
Which is a hormone
And serotonin, which is a neuro-transmitter. Here’s the difference. Melatonin is asleep inducer.
The naturally
Produced drug in the brain that helps ease people into slumber. Serotonin is the pick me up the that keeps them alert and happy. We need more serotonin than melatonin, but both of these are linked to the pineal gland in the back of the brain. And that light sensitive gland is in turn hardwired to the eye. Listen to this. Biochemical researchers have found that as sunlight exposure increases, the more serotonin is produced in the brain. As exposure to sunlight decreases decreases the more melatonin, see darkness can create depression. We need to be in the light. We need the light. We are wired in our brain to be stimulated by light. We are wired in our brain to go to sleep in the dark. Now, if you work thirds,
God bless you.
You gotta do what you gotta do, but this is what it’s talking about. So depression can also be caused by darkness. So how many people have ever felt buried in darkness in one of these areas? Uncertainty I have come on, I can raise both hands at the feet, uncertainty, fear, depression. So if this is what darkness can do to us, what is our solution? What’s the weapon against darkness. If this is what darkness can do to us, what are we, what are we supposed to do? What’s the answer? Is it too late? We’re stuck in darkness. What is God’s answer? Well, let’s go to the bid beginning, go to Genesis chapter one. What is God’s weapon for darkness? If I’m stuck in one of these three areas, and I feel like I’m surrounded by darkness or buried by darkness, what am I going to do?
What’s my answer. Let’s see. What God’s answer was when he faced a similar situation in Genesis chapter one, it says in the beginning, verse one, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning. Note that phrase in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was looking at the condition of the earth. This was the condition of God’s existence, his surroundings. This was what was going on in his world. His life, the earth was without form. That means it was a waste, a desolation, no distinct shape or form a worthless thing. That’s what that word means in the Hebrew. So the world, the earth was a worthless without shape or form thing. It was void. That means it was empty. An undistinguishable ruin. This sounded like a bright sunny day on the earth. This was a condition of God’s surroundings. It was empty.
Undistinguishable darkness was on the face of the deep notice on the face of the deep just means on the surface, on the top, on top of it. So this is a situation, but Nixon, the next sentence says, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Now I want you to notice something. So the darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters, deep and waters. There are the same thing. The word is also the same thing in the Hebrew language. So look what we’ve got going on. We’ve got two things happening. We got darkness on the surface of the water and we got the spirit of God hovering over the face of the water. Here’s what I noticed about that. The spirit of God was hovering an active over the same place as the presence of darkness. Even in the presence of darkness, what seems like a worthless, wasted, desolate, empty situation. The spirit of God is active and moving because that word hovering doesn’t mean just, just setting there. If you look it up in the Hebrew and I’m not trying to be a scholar, I’m just saying I got to make things simple. I don’t understand. So I got to read a little bit to figure it out. And so that word hovering literally means to move or vibrate back and forth.
It’s like to sit there, going like this.
Yes, yes, yes.
So the spirit of God is moving active in the same place that darkness is going. When you think it’s just dark in your life and you don’t see anything happen, you need to picture that the spirit of God is moving in your life. Even when I can’t see it moving, God is moving. Even when the circumstances haven’t changed yet, the spirit of God is moving.
Ooh.
So look what happened The Roads Church. So those first hovering, there is just jittering right there on the surface. And then God said, somebody say, God said, God said, let there be one, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. The light, how did the light come about? The light came through his word. He said, let there be light. And there was like someone, 19 one 30 says the entrance of your words gives light. So God said, here’s something good. We can pull out. God said, light verse three, verse four, God saw light. He said light. Then he saw light. He said, life. Then he saw light. We want to see light and then say light. We want to see a change and then recognize the change. We want to recognize that things are different. And then we’ll agree with what we see.
God said, no, no, no. I need you to change what you say. And then you’ll change what you see. Stop waiting to see a change and start speaking a change. God said it. Then he sought. We want to see it. Okay. There it is. Now. I agree. My life’s getting better when it’s still in darkness start saying, like be in my life in Jesus name. Who are we starting to get into it now? So now notice God spoke light into darkness and light came to drive out the darkness. Did God tell darkness to go away? So that light could come. He didn’t say darkness, get out of here. So light has freedom to come. He’s a darkness. I’m not even asking you.
I’m not even asking if it’s okay. I’m not asking for permission. I’m not asking if you agree. I’m not asking if you think it’s okay. I don’t not even asking you. If you think it’s time yet. He said light cup. When he spoke to like he was telling darkness, your time is over because the light has come. How can we do that in our life? We’re waiting on our circumstances to change. So then our light will shine. Our world will be better when all this darkness goes away and all this evil goes away, no church, we got to shine right now. Let your light shine right now. We’re not waiting on darkness to give us permission to shine. We got to go for it. We got to let it go. See did light increased because darkness did decreased or did darkness decreased because light increased light increased.
So if you need, if you got some dark situations, you’re in life, you’re surrounded by confusion, uncertainty, fear, or depression. What do you need to do? You don’t pray for those things to go away. That’s talking to darkness. You need to speak light into your life. You need to get the word of God into your life. And you start pouring light into your life. You start shedding. Some light on depression starts shedding, some light on fear. Start let setting some light on uncertainty and that extra light in your life will cause the darkness to go away. We want to wait until the darkness goes and then I’ll be free to be happy again. No, let the light shine right in the darkness, say the light and then see the light.
He said it from the word. Now let’s look at, uh, Oh yeah, this. And I’ve mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, John chapter one. This is a new Testament, parallel to Genesis chapter one. And John one, one says in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. And the word was God. And he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him, nothing was made that was made. And in him in Jesus was life. And the life was the light of men. And that light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Or that word means did not quench. It did not extinguish. It did not snuff it out by stifling it darkness will never be able to eliminate light can’t handle darkness. Can’t handle the light of God. It can’t handle the word of God. When you release it into your heart, darkness cannot overpower the light.
This is what God’s telling us. Light eliminates darkness, but darkness cannot eliminate light. Darkness can overpower it. The presence of light creates an absence of darkness. Come on. Think about that. The presence of light creates an absence of darkness. That’s not just a cool preaching. CLI say, we need to understand a principle in our life. We don’t ask bad things to go away. We increase the good things of God and it drives them away. If you’re waiting for that addiction to go away on its own, it will knock you, drive it out with the word of God. You drive it out with a promise of God. You looking for that feeling that you have that has you in darkness. And I just don’t know if it’s okay to come out and be free. I just don’t know if it’s okay to be happy. So much darkness, so much things going on in the world. If you’re waiting for that feeling to give you permission to shine, it will not give you permission. Don’t ask it, say, Hey, today, today is the day I’m going to worship Jesus. Today’s the day I’m going to be in a good mood. Today’s the day I’m gonna let my light shine today. Today is the day I’m going to rejoice in the Lord, always. And again, I say rejoice, well nothing’s changed. I didn’t ask it. If it was changed or not. I said, I’m going to let my light shine. I’m going to drive that darkness right out of my life.
Oh,
He’s alive. He’s alive. So you can’t turn up darkness. How does darkness get greater in our life? You can’t turn up darkness. Only way darkness gets greater. As if we turned down How’d I find myself in this place. You didn’t find yourself in this place because you intentionally said, I want more darkness in my life. What we do unknowingly or subconsciously at time we start turning down the light, start turning down our relationship with God, start turning down. Church, start turning down the Bible, start turning down prayer. And when we’re turning down the light, the, the decrease of the light creates an increase of darkness. I don’t know a lot of people that start out their life saying, I want to be a drug addict. I want to have a marriage. That’s wrecked by adultery and pornography. I want to be an alcoholic. I want to be in depression so much that I never want to get out of bed. I don’t know many people who desire that. So how does it happen? It happens for me like it does anybody else. When we turn down the light darkness increases. So I’m telling you don’t turn down the light, turn up the light,
Turn up the light.
Jesus said this in John chapter eight. I am the light of the world who follows me, shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. So with God, it’s never too late to bring the light of life to drive out darkness. Let me go. Let me give you an example of this in the story, go to John chapter 11. I’m going to finish with this one. John chapter 11. Oh, remember Jesus was died in darkness. And then when he was buried, they rolled the tomb over the gray. I’m sorry, the stone over the tube. And he was buried in darkness. Look in John chapter 11. I want to encourage somebody here. That’s ready to come out of the darkness and experience the light of God. This is a story of Lazarus. And you can read the whole story in John chapter 11. I’m not going to go through all of it.
I don’t have time to do that, but it’s a wonderful story. The Jesus, his friend named Lazarus died and he was dead for four days, four days in the tomb. Okay. So fast forward, Jesus, uh, was friends with his whole family and Lazarus had two sisters, Mary and Martha. Now Mary gets all the pub for being the spiritual one. And Martha is painted in his pricks picture by someone who just likes to do some cleaning and serving. And we don’t think she’s very spiritual, but I want to give Martha A. Little pub today. Maybe you haven’t seen this part of the story, but I want you to see something here and I’m not against either one of them. They’re both wonderful. I’m just pointing out as something that, that we may not have seen in this story. And Jesus waited four days and he’s dead. And I want to jump to verse, um, 32 32. Then when Mary came, where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,
Period.
Lord, if you would’ve been here earlier, my life wouldn’t be like this. You’re just a little too late. If you’d have been here before this happened and this happened, and this happened, and this happened, then that I might’ve been able to see a way out of this situation, but there’s too much water under the bridge. Too many things have happened in our marriage. Too many things have happened in my mind, in my own life. Too many things have happened. And so Lord, if you would have been here earlier, if you could have stopped this and this and this, then I can see where you something. I could have had some hope, but it’s just too late. And she goes on in the next verse. Let’s just begins to week. Lord, if you could have been here, my brother would not have died and she’s crying. But back up, if you would to verse 20, I want to talk about Martha for just a moment. It says then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary was setting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, pick up on the
Lauren. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. Sounds like the very same thing, same, same thing that Mary said. But look at the next words out of her mouth Lord, a few had been here. My brother would not have died, but even now,
Yeah,
Let’s get into the story for a minute. Maybe you’re maybe you just came for a nice little Easter service, but that’s, that’s not what I came for. I want you to encounter the even now moment in your life. I want you to encounter the resurrection power that does not know an ending. He doesn’t know when it’s too late. He doesn’t know four days dead in the grave. I’m thinking the little tardy. If I’m going to show up to change the situation, I might want to show up a little bit prior, but Jesus waited on purpose.
Yeah.
Waited on purpose for days. Miss Martha and Martha said, Lord, Lord, if you’d been here, my brother would not have done. Same thing that Mary said, but Martha had something that I think we need more of in our life. Martha said, but everybody say the next two words even now, come on, say it again. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you Martha. Martha said, I know it looks bleak. It’s been four days, but now sticks. Lord. If you’d have been here earlier, if you’d have came before this happened, if you’d have came before she said that I was good until she said that I was good until he did that. I still had some hope until that happened. I was hanging by a thread. And then that has the last, the straw that broke the cap.
Yeah,
You haven’t got, I haven’t hit you yet. That’s all right. But even now four days dead now, stinking now, too late. Now, even now she said, even now I know.
Yeah, yeah.
Of Chuck it back here, you better catch it. Even now. I know It doesn’t matter what, you know, it don’t matter what, you know, doesn’t matter what I know it matters about what you know yourself about your situation. I can preach something to you and it doesn’t change anything for you. It’s about what do you know? It doesn’t matter about how I get hyped up in a moment. But how do I know? What do I know about the resurrection power of God? What do I know about? It’s never too late. Oh, he said I shouldn’t have closed my Bible. Cause I don’t know where I’m at.
She said, if you’d have been here earlier, if you’d done
Before I found out that he was doing that, if you’d have showed up before I found out this happened at work, if you, if you’d have been here before I found out my kid was doing that.
Yeah.
If you’d been here before I had that, it’s just too much, God, this is too much. But, but somebody needs a Martha anointing in their life where you look the darkness in the eye and you say, even now,
Even now,
But now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Do you know? I know that’s the right answer. But do you know? I know you’ve heard. We’ve all heard, but do you know? Well, I’ve known about that situation, but I don’t know about, we’ve said that before. How you think things are going to turn around? I don’t know. Did Martha know how she didn’t know how, but she knew who she knew Jesus. He told her he goes on and tells it to, you know, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. So at the beagle, I got to jump. So can jump to verse 38, then Jesus, again, groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. And Jesus said, Jesus said, you know what? Jesus is the word, John one 11 in Genesis. One, one God said, let there be life. So here’s Jesus. Fast forward. The word made flesh coming to the tomb. And he says out of his mouth, take away the stone.
I’m excited because I know what that means to me. If you don’t know yet. So I’ll go ahead and tell you. So we get on the same page, but take away the stone. The stone represents. What’s keeping the darkness in and the light out the light can’t get in and it’s holding the darkness here. No, we all got these situations going on. Life, fear, uncertainty, depression. We’ve got a lot of stones. We’ve got a lot of stones in the way. Hertz, insecurities, betrayal. What is your stone? That’s keeping you captain. What’s your stone. That’s keeping the darkness in. And the light out. He says, take the stone away. I believe God. To David to take some stones away. Martha says, yo Jesus heal. By this time, there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days. And Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God you need, we need to see the glory of God in our situation. Did not. God say, he’s come to speak to you and say, if you will believe, you will see the glory of God. You’re like, yeah, it’s too late. It’s over. Maybe you’re like, I believe for that. But I’m already divorced. It’s too late. But that doesn’t mean your life is over. I don’t know what God has for you, but your life doesn’t end. When your prayer request is not answered the way you want it to be.
God said, stay in it. He can resurrect some things in your life. Resurrect some hope and dream. Take away the stope. Look at us. So then in verse 43, now when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. What happened when they rolled the stone away? What happened? What happened? Some of you, your light came in. It was dark in there. But when they rolled the stone away, what came in light came in. What had to go away. When light came in, darkness had to go. So now the word of God comes, light is there. And light says Lazarus, come on out. The word of God.
You know, Lazarus, didn’t have no choice. He’s minding his own business. Hey, Hey, comes out. Wrapped in his grave. Posts don’t look like mummy, man or something. What’s happening. What’s God doing. Let me, let me close this man. God said today, he wants to take the stone away. He’s EQL says this is equal 26 or 36, 26 says I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I’m telling you the light is coming into your life today because he’s taking away the heart of stone and he’s bringing in a heart of flesh. You want to see change in your life. Let the light in only way you let the light in. You got to get that heart of stone out of the way.
Get that pride out of the way. Just pull that stone pride out of the way. Let’s say Jesus. Let the light come in. Come on. Let’s pray right now. Lord Jesus. I pray for your light to come. Let your light come. Lord, take the stone away. Take the stone of insecurity. Fear of pride mood. I preach you. Take my stones away. Anything. That’s keeping me in darkness. Get the stone out of the way. Lord, I let you in. I let the light come into my life. Come on. Don’t let it stay dark in your life. Have you overcome by uncertainty? Fear, depression. Let the light go. He’s here. He’s here. He’s here. He’s here. This is going to take out that hardest stone. You’ve been hardened to God. You’ve been hurt. You’ve been, you’ve been hard against the things of God, but right now God’s going to take that Stony heart out and I’m going to put it off soft for me.
Holy spirit. I just give you glory for what you’re doing right now at The Roads Church in Jesus name and what you didn’t come to hear a sermon. You came to encounter your savior. You’re not asking for darkness to give you permission for your life to get better. Light has come. The light has come. His name is Jesus. And he says, lift up your head, begin to praise him, lift up your heart and begin to worship him. Let the light in and the door. It will be driven out. If you want to let the light into your life in him was life. And that life was the light of men. You need to let the light of God into your life right now. If you want to do that, he wrote his family right here. Overflow room. Come on. Let’s pray whether you’re Christian or non-Christian right now, pray this simple prayer. Just say, Jesus, I open my hearts. Let the light come in. You may be saved, but you may still have be like me. You got some darkness that needs some light to sign in it, come and take the stone away. Take the stone of your past. Roll it out of the way and let the light come in. No, that’s my secrets chamber. That’s my two.
You need to let the light in. I feel like I got to say this. Got to bring it to my mind. Some will say that. Maybe you ever notice this whenever you go from darkness to light, abrupt changes in either one, it’s difficult to see your eyes have to adjust to it. So if you’re in a bright room and all of a sudden they turn off the lights, you can’t see anything it’s darkness, but eventually your eyes adjust to it and you can begin to see better. And it becomes more normal. Then if someone shines the light on it, all of a sudden you can’t see because it’s too bright. And I feel like God is safe. That some people listening to my voice have got used to the darkness so much that it seems normal to you. And the light of God is coming to you and you say, Oh, it’s too bright. It’s too bright. I handle it. If you will just stay in the light, your eyes will adjust and you will. We’ll begin to see clearly the new life that God has for you.
It’s going to seem abnormal. When you first start walking in the light, it’s not going to feel normal. It’s not going to feel comfortable like, Oh, I don’t, I don’t know this. Isn’t my life. I can’t walk in that kind of freedom. I can’t fake those thoughts. I can’t feel that way. That’s not normal. I know it’s the light of God. Stay with it pretty soon. The darkness will seem foreign to you. If you’re not a Christian today, I want to give you an opportunity to ask Jesus, to come into your life. Come on, join team Jesus. It’s the winning team.
We’re not debating ideologies with people. We’re living a different kingdom. If you’d like to join the kingdom of Jesus Christ, it’s not a kingdom of perfect people, or I would not be allowed in, but it’s a kingdom of people that want to give their life and hearts to Jesus because he died for us. If you recognize that you’ve been living in sin and you need to get out of darkness, you need to let the light in right now. Pray these words with me. We’re going to pray it all together, but I’ll give you a chance to get born again today. Say dear Jesus, forgive me. Come into my heart and shine your light. Driving out the darkness today. I repent. I choose you. I believe you died for me. I believe you Rose from the dead. I accept you as my Lord and savior. I receive your life.
Fill me with the Holy spirit. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me in Jesus’ name. I pray. Amen. Amen. Come on. Let’s give people a hand. This book, come on this. And if you pray that prayer, that’s not the end. That’s the beginning. Do us a favor. We want to connect you with your next steps on the way out. There’s a new life table. I want you to stop by there. Take your connect card and tell him today. I let the light in. I’m never going to be the same. If you did have watching online, you can get out your phone. You can text the word new life to this number (618) 243-0900 (618) 243-0900.
But if you would stand to your feet, I want to give an opportunity for prayer before we dismiss. If you need prayer this morning would like prayer. If you want more of God, if you want God and moving in your life, if you want the light shown on your darkness, they don’t want to give you a chance to do that. I’ve got a couple of words of knowledge I’m going to give because they were specific. First when someone dealing with chronic migraines want to pray for that second one, the healing of the lingering effect of a prolapsed uterus. That’s pretty specific. So if that’s you, I’d be like, okay, that’s gone. If I’m dealing with that. And someone just reads that out, I’d be like, okay, today I’m getting healed.
That’s not something that just random throwing out. So I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds like it needs to be healed. So now just because we didn’t call out what you’re dealing with, it doesn’t mean you can’t receive healing today. So I want us to pray. If you need prayer, if you want prayer step out right now and come forward. If you’re watching or you road’s family, or you’re in the overflow room, you can step out there. And the overflow room come to the front. If you’re watching your Rhodes family right now, whatever you have need of, I believe God can go through screens and touch you, right where you are. I hear reports of it happening all the time. So we just got to trust God, father. I thank you. That’s your healing, that uterus and the name of Jesus, Lord. I thank you that you are healing migraines right now in Jesus name, Lord, I thank you for continuing to heal blood disorders in the name of Jesus. Lord, I praise you for balancing chemicals and people’s body by the power of your name.
Lord, we thank you for raising from the dead for us so that we can have new life. And we pray for your presence to come. That we not just have a service with you, God, but we open our hearts to you. We want more of you. We want more light Lord drive out the darkness. We open away, open the stones. We remove the stones so that we can see clearly what you have for us. We love you, Lord. We praise you in Jesus name. Come on. If you need prayer, make your way in the front. I’m going to turn it over to Chris. To close that, to remained in service. He’s got some information for you. Have a great rest of your Easter. Amen. How many? Just thankful for that word this morning. Definitely man. Amen. This one encouraged. He Rose family. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for so much for hanging out with us. This has been an honor and pleasure. We hope you’ve enjoyed the experience here at The Roads Church . Also all of you in the room,