Get out the Mirror

Have you ever thought about what makes people attractive? Now I don’t mean sexually – get your mind out of the gutter. But what I mean by attractive is they seem always to draw people near to them. These are the popular people. The people who set the trends or styles. These are the people that everyone looks at and tries to imitate. People imitate the way they act, the way they dress, the way they do their hair and makeup. We have all, at one time or another, looked into the mirror and wondered: What would I look like if I did my hair like Shiloh or my makeup like Angel.

And of course, that leads up to the question: What kind of people attract us? What are the things that they do that we find attractive? - Are you attracted to the jock or gamer/YouTuber, the comedian or the serious-minded? Or what about the whole yin-yang thing – the good and the bad? Or you could say light-darkness (as a metaphor for righteousness and unrighteousness). I know most of us genuinely want to strive to be a good person, do the right things morally; I say most because I know there are some of you in here that like being little heathens. You like going against what you know is right just because you can 😊

Do you ever find yourself looking in the mirror and wondering how do people view me? Or would I be more accepted and have more friends if I acted like so and so? This line of thought has to do with who you are (at the core) – your personality and your character. Who you are and what you value. Your driving forces in life.

And then, of course, there are those who just go with the flow and find themselves not thinking about these things. And if that is you, I would encourage you to think about these things. Because the driving forces in our lives are the things we value most. And the things we value are what we represent and what we ultimately become (rather we think about them or not); they are the things we live for and worship. They become our idols. Well, today I hope to equip you to confront these darkness’s (regardless of what they are) in the light of the gospel.

Sub-intro/body:

When you think of light and darkness, the first thing that should come to your mind is good and evil, life and death, holiness and unholiness. Now we have all heard the word holy and know the basic meaning of holiness, or have at least sang about it in a church song – right? We know that being holy is being good, being morally pure, and that is true, and the Bible tells us, “to be holy because God is holy” (). But when the Bible speaks of being holy it is much deeper than that. When the Bible talks about the holiness of God, it speaks of God as the creator of all things the source of all things, the sustainer of all things. He is the one and only unique being that has the power to do this and that’s the definition of Holiness – the unique power to make a world full of such beauty and light.

(Illustration) A helpful way of understanding the holiness of God is to look at the sun as a metaphor (all metaphors break down). The sun is unique, powerful, the source of life, at least in our universe, you could say the sun is holy. We could take this metaphor even further, by saying that all the area around the sun is holy because the closer you get to the sun the more intense it gets. And because it is so pure and holy if you get to close to it, and you’re not pure, it will destroy you, not because it is so bad, but because it is so good!

And this is the same paradox that we see with the very heart of God. This is the picture of the holiness of God that we see all through Scripture and this is the reason we have been separated from God. God’s holiness created life created the world, created us. He created us to be in a relationship with him, fellowship with him. And because of our desire to do our own thing we have broken up with God. Our sin has rejected God. And because of our impurities God has no choice but to separate himself from us. But Jesus. . .

(T.S.) So, how do you confront darkness?

By knowing if the light switch is on or off.

Jesus said in ,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Look in the Mirror.

Are you a light to the world? Are people attracted to you because you are bringing the light of life to everything around you? Are you walking in the purity of Jesus? His word is a “lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (). And no one lights a lamp and then covers it up, so no one can see its light (). Look in the Mirror. What are your motives in life? What is radiating out of you? says,

6If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

This is the holiness of God; this is talking about being pure. Look in the Mirror. What is feeding your soul? Your eyes are a gate to your heart and mind. The things you surround yourself with will consume your thoughts and intentions in life. They will also radiate out to the people that are around you. That’s why it is so important to live for Christ. But if your life is surrounded by garbage you will radiate garbage.

(Illustration) Are you looking at porn, thinking about sex outside of marriage, drinking, drug use. Or maybe it’s the way you talk the way you bully people. OR maybe it is the way you dress and carry yourself. Is what you are wearing highlighting your body or is it highlighting your face? Because if it is highlighting your body, it is causing someone to sin in their hearts. Jesus said if you look at someone with lust you have already committed adultery with them. If you are a child of God, why would you want to put someone in that situation? Or if you are the one looking how dare you disrespect a child of God by looking at them with unrighteous thoughts. They are holy to God. Jesus died to cleanse them, and you are going to going to look at them with that kind of defilement? How are you going to explain that to Jesus?

And don’t think, well I’ll just remind him I am a sinner saved by grace. That’s cheap grace. Paul addressed this in , he said,

1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Jesus gave us a way out of that sin by dying on a cross to crush that sin.

So, Knock it off. I know at times this might seem easier said than done and v.9 gives us the answer to conquering this difficulty. says,

9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Have you done that? This is something that we do daily as Christians. If we say we have fellowship with God, he convicts us of our sins, and we will sin less and less. This is a constant conversation with your Father in heaven.

But mind you, this is not something that you do to gain God’s acceptance; this is something you do because you know what the gospel has already completed for you and it convicts you. Many of us hear, be good do moral things, be holy, but we have truly never embraced the holiness of God and what God has done for us. So, we live our lives to be morally perfect because we know it is the correct thing to do. Because you know you are made in the image of God, but we feel no conviction. If this is you, you have embraced religion not the gospel.

If you are a Christian, you will love to be in communication with Jesus. How can you claim to be his and in a relationship with him but not talk with him? You can’t. To be in a relationship with someone is to talk with them, walk with them, to love them. Jesus loves you. I love you, and I love Jesus. So, I am telling you we need to confront the darkness in our life with the light of the gospel.

There are thousands of people dying as we speak without Jesus. That means they are going to hell. There may be someone in hear right now who is on their way to hell because you have not truly accepted Jesus. This might all sound crazy to you. says,

8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

What is this truth? That Jesus is the holiness, the source of life, the light of the world. Stop comparing yourself to everyone around you to justify your goodness. If you are comparing yourself to others who have rejected the only God and you think its okay, you are deceiving yourself. That’s like jumping off the bridge because someone else did it before you even seen that there was no water at the bottom.

If this is you, I am pleading with you to let your heart be softened. Jesus is calling you. Don’t harden your heart. Look in the Mirror. Do you see the power to bring something out of nothing? Do you see the holiness of Jesus, the perfection?

(Map) To confront the darkness in the light of the gospel, we need to look into the mirrors of our lives to see our motives.

(T.S.) How do we confront darkness in the light of the gospel?

(MAP) Divine fellowship equips us to walk in the light of the gospel.

By Flipping the light switch on and looking in the Mirror.

What do you see? Do you see Jesus when you look in the mirror? You should. He is in you, and his light will shine out of you. See yourself for who you are, not by what you think you are, or what this world says you are. If you are a child of God, this world can’t hurt you. This world can’t take away from you what they didn’t give you. If God is for you, who can be against you. Look at what says,

7 if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sins.

Isn’t Jesus amazing? Do you see what this verse says? It says because Jesus took the punishment we deserved by dying on the cross for us and then resurrecting to defeat our condemnation he paid the price for us. And because of that, we walk with him. His holiness healed us not destroyed us. His holiness is in us. Your sin has been defeated. You don’t need to make excuses. You don’t need to let your anxiety burden you, your addiction to porn has already been defeated, you temper has been calmed. Let the righteousness of Christ shine out of you. Look in the Mirror see your identity is in Christ.

Then Get out of the Mirror. Let people see Christ in you.

Do the people around you see Jesus when they look at you? If you claim to be a Christian, they do judge Jesus by your actions. But don’t let this fear you. The ties that bind you have been cut free. And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed ().

He is in you, and if he is in you, no one can hurt you. I’m not preaching a prosperity gospel. If you are a Christian, you will never die. Sure, the body that you have now will turn to dust, but this is just a temporary temple for you. If you are a Christian, you were predestined before the foundation of the world to be justified and because he justified you he will glorify you. So, let the light of the gospel give you the boldness to shine in the darkness.

But you can’t do that by just coming here and listening to me or anyone else for that matter. You need to see it for yourself. Receive it for yourself. You have to be in a relationship with Jesus. This is one of the problems with American Christianity. We have this idea that all we have to do is say this prayer and have an emotional response. This is the lie of the Devil. He wants you to be passive. He knows he can’t stop you from being a Christian. He knows he has already been defeated. But he wants to stop you from being fruitful. Don’t let that happen to you. Being a Christian is a radical change. It is living and breathing to glorify Jesus. The devil doesn’t want that. He wants you to continue to watch the things that God hates, do the things God hates and convince you that you are saved by grace, so you don’t need to do anything. That’s not in the Bible. Sure, you are saved by grace through faith, but this faith produces fruit. You cannot know God outside of his Word. I know that many people will disagree with me on this but how can you know God apart from his word? – By trusting your feelings? That’s not Christianity. Your heart is deceptive apart from God. But when God comes in and squeezes your heart and breathes life into you, he makes you alive to see the truth. That means to know you cannot separate God from his word and to follow truth you have to study the Bible.

(Application) Look at how you are living your life, is it in light of the gospel? What are you doing to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ at school, on the court or in the gym, at work, in your classroom, on your video games?

Conclusion:

If you’re here today and you have not excepted Jesus as your ultimate authority, your King, your Savior; and this passage has opened up your eyes to the difference between religion and the gospel, I’ve gotta ask are you ready to repent of your sins and ask Jesus into your life. . . Maybe v.10 was describing you but now. . .

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