Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
What Do You Do When The Lights Go Out?
Isaiah 50:3-11 September 17, 2006
“When a state trooper shows up at your door early one morning, you know it can’t be good
news.” That’s what Oliver Bray said on Thursday morning when he called me at 6:15 a.m. to
tell me that his son Paul had died.
Hopefully you will never have that experience, but the truth is that at some time in our lives, all of
us will be confronted with pain and sorrow that will plunge us into the depths of darkness and
despair. It is a part of life.
I’m sorry to say that being a good Christian won’t exempt us from this experience either. It only
makes it stand out even worse. I know we like to think that once we accept Jesus into our lives,
everything will be super, but it doesn’t always work out that way. The lights still go out on us
sometimes because the world can be a cold, hard, dark place.
We are a bit insulated in North America. We don’t have crazy people running around with bombs
strapped to their chest. We don’t have nutcases planting roadside bombs and loading up cars
with dynamite in shopping centers. Yet stuff happens no matter where you are.
In the midst of his sorrow, Oliver said he keeps thinking of the poem, “Footprints in the sand.” It
reminds him that God is most certainly with him as he and Barbara walk through the darkness of
grief and loss. As we look at our text today, Isaiah steps forward and tells us that darkness will
come. At the same time he encourages us to look beyond the darkness, to God who brings light
into our world.
So is anyone here experiencing a dark time in life right now? Are you suffering from the loss of
someone special in your lives? It could be the physical separation of death or the breakdown of a
marriage or relationship. You wake up one morning and you know that nothing will ever be the
same again.
Or are you deep in worry about a troubled child, who has brought you nothing but grief and don’
t know when it will end, or worse yet, how it will end? You wonder if even God can do anything
to change things.
Maybe your financial picture is pretty muddy right now. You can’t make ends meet and you are
thinking about bankruptcy and the embarrassment of failure. You might wake up tomorrow and
everything you have might be gone.
The truth is that we all go through these dark nights and my question today is what do you do
when the lights go out? Now some of you may have thought I was going to get a little kinky
with this title. The truth is I wanted to be provocative. I wanted to get you thinking because
many of us act very differently when the lights go out, than we do when the lights are on. When
people are looking, we put on a good front with our faith. We say all the right things. But when
the lights go out we weep and gnash our teeth. We feel so alone and wonder if there is anyone
who understands.
Here is the good news. God understands and he has promised that he will not leave us alone.
When we look at Isaiah’s text, the first thing you have to realize is that the prophet is not talking
to just anyone. He is talking to someone who loves and serves God, someone like you and me.
HE is not trying to cajole the lost sheep back by telling them once they come back things will get
better. He is talking to the choir, the faithful, those who pay their dues and walk faithfully with
God.
He is talking to the people like Job, Habakkuk and john the Baptist and others like them who have
served him through the ages.
Job said, “God has put darkness in my path” (Job 19:8). Habakkuk exclaimed, “How long shall I
cry and you not hear (Hab. 1:2). John the Baptist sent messengers from the prison and asked
Jesus, “Are you really the Messiah or should we look for someone else?” Each of these great
men of God came to a time in their life that they did not understand or comprehend why and
what was fully happening to them.
If you read the stories of great saints in history, there is hardly one of them who did not
experience the dark night of the soul. So here is the good news: If you are in darkness, it does
not mean that God has forgotten you or that you are so bad God is punishing you. It simply
means that you are human.
And God is so good that he can use these times to help you grow and to strengthen your faith.
Think about it, at those moments when darkness covered you, when the lights went out, after
you began to reorient yourselves, didn’t you experience some real spiritual growth? The truth is
that in our pain and sorrow, we often feel God’s hand. It is in the darkness that we begin to
understand that the promises of scripture are true. All that we have believed has been tested and
found faithful. So we grow in our faith and admiration of God.
How does our faith grow in the darkness? First, in those moments we can do nothing else but
look to the Lord (or “trust in the Lord” as Isaiah says). Warren Wiersbe has said, “We live by
promises, not by explanations.” Just because it does not make sense to us, does not mean that it
does not make sense to God. Just because it does not make sense now, does not mean that it will
not make sense later. Thomas Watson has said, “Where reason cannot wade, faith must swim.”
In the darkness, when the lights go out, we learn to stand on God’s Word regardless what is
going on in life. We find it is true that God’s Word never changes. It remains constant through
all of the seasons of our life.
So when tough times come our way keep on doing the things you have always done. Don’t stop.
Continue to give your tithes and offerings even though you face a financial reversal. Continue to
trust in the Lord even though you do not understand what is happening. Continue to attend
worship and praise God even though your family is under attack. We need to continue to have
our quiet time with God even when sickness is upon us. We need to simply stand on God’s
Word. The promises of God remain the same whether the sun is shining or darkness is around us.
The second step is to lean upon the Lord (or as it says in the text, “let him stay upon his God”).
When you are in the dark, you do not have to have an explanation, you need God. It is more
important to be with God in the valley of darkness than to be without Him on the sunny days.
Sometimes, God removes all the answers in order to give us Himself. The truth is that his
presence comforts us a lot more than his reasons.
God desires to even use us in the midst of darkness. John Milton, in the darkness of his
blindness, wrote Paradise Lost. While John Bunyan was in the Bedford Jail, London, England, he
wrote Pilgrims Progress. During John the Revelator’s exile on the Island of Patmos, he wrote the
Book of Revelation. God wants to develop our faith. Never doubt in the dark what you learned in
the light. The test of our character is not what we do in a worship service. The test of our
character is what we do in the dark. Shortly before Mother Theresa’s death, she said, “You will
never know that Jesus is all you need until all you have is Jesus.”
That’s the funny thing about the darkness. You don’t often see the blessing until after it has left
you. Again I point you to footprints. You begin to realize that even in the darkness there are
treasures to be taken. For example, have you ever heard someone say, “The stars are out
tonight.” The fact is that the stars are out in the daytime, but we cannot see them because of the
sunlight. There are some treasures of darkness that are only revealed at night.
It has been said, “We can dress as though we are intelligent, but when we open our mouth,
people will know whether we really are intelligent or not? When someone has gone through a
dark period in his/her life, they learn some truths that remain with them the rest of their lives.
The biggest truth is this: God will always be with us in the morning. Even though you may be in
darkness now, there is a better day coming. If you are in darkness, then trust God. God will
eventually turn every tear to a pearl, every hurt into a hallelujah, every Calvary into an Easter. The
scriptures say, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).
One of these days, God is going to pull the shades of night and pin them with the stars. He will
then open the door of the morning and flood your world with his light and love. You will see
things and know truth that you have never seen or known before. There is a better day coming
for you.
So what do you do when the lights go out? I hope your answer will be, the same thing you do
when the lights are on, when the grace of God is shining in our lives. Praise god, for he is always
with us, day and night. Amen.
Isaiah 50:3-11 September 17, 2006
“When a state trooper shows up at your door early one morning, you know it can’t be good
news.” That’s what Oliver Bray said on Thursday morning when he called me at 6:15 a.m. to
tell me that his son Paul had died.
Hopefully you will never have that experience, but the truth is that at some time in our lives, all of
us will be confronted with pain and sorrow that will plunge us into the depths of darkness and
despair. It is a part of life.
I’m sorry to say that being a good Christian won’t exempt us from this experience either. It only
makes it stand out even worse. I know we like to think that once we accept Jesus into our lives,
everything will be super, but it doesn’t always work out that way. The lights still go out on us
sometimes because the world can be a cold, hard, dark place.
We are a bit insulated in North America. We don’t have crazy people running around with bombs
strapped to their chest. We don’t have nutcases planting roadside bombs and loading up cars
with dynamite in shopping centers. Yet stuff happens no matter where you are.
In the midst of his sorrow, Oliver said he keeps thinking of the poem, “Footprints in the sand.” It
reminds him that God is most certainly with him as he and Barbara walk through the darkness of
grief and loss. As we look at our text today, Isaiah steps forward and tells us that darkness will
come. At the same time he encourages us to look beyond the darkness, to God who brings light
into our world.
So is anyone here experiencing a dark time in life right now? Are you suffering from the loss of
someone special in your lives? It could be the physical separation of death or the breakdown of a
marriage or relationship. You wake up one morning and you know that nothing will ever be the
same again.
Or are you deep in worry about a troubled child, who has brought you nothing but grief and don’
t know when it will end, or worse yet, how it will end? You wonder if even God can do anything
to change things.
Maybe your financial picture is pretty muddy right now. You can’t make ends meet and you are
thinking about bankruptcy and the embarrassment of failure. You might wake up tomorrow and
everything you have might be gone.
The truth is that we all go through these dark nights and my question today is what do you do
when the lights go out? Now some of you may have thought I was going to get a little kinky
with this title. The truth is I wanted to be provocative. I wanted to get you thinking because
many of us act very differently when the lights go out, than we do when the lights are on. When
people are looking, we put on a good front with our faith. We say all the right things. But when
the lights go out we weep and gnash our teeth. We feel so alone and wonder if there is anyone
who understands.
Here is the good news. God understands and he has promised that he will not leave us alone.
When we look at Isaiah’s text, the first thing you have to realize is that the prophet is not talking
to just anyone. He is talking to someone who loves and serves God, someone like you and me.
HE is not trying to cajole the lost sheep back by telling them once they come back things will get
better. He is talking to the choir, the faithful, those who pay their dues and walk faithfully with
God.
He is talking to the people like Job, Habakkuk and john the Baptist and others like them who have
served him through the ages.
Job said, “God has put darkness in my path” (Job 19:8). Habakkuk exclaimed, “How long shall I
cry and you not hear (Hab. 1:2). John the Baptist sent messengers from the prison and asked
Jesus, “Are you really the Messiah or should we look for someone else?” Each of these great
men of God came to a time in their life that they did not understand or comprehend why and
what was fully happening to them.
If you read the stories of great saints in history, there is hardly one of them who did not
experience the dark night of the soul. So here is the good news: If you are in darkness, it does
not mean that God has forgotten you or that you are so bad God is punishing you. It simply
means that you are human.
And God is so good that he can use these times to help you grow and to strengthen your faith.
Think about it, at those moments when darkness covered you, when the lights went out, after
you began to reorient yourselves, didn’t you experience some real spiritual growth? The truth is
that in our pain and sorrow, we often feel God’s hand. It is in the darkness that we begin to
understand that the promises of scripture are true. All that we have believed has been tested and
found faithful. So we grow in our faith and admiration of God.
How does our faith grow in the darkness? First, in those moments we can do nothing else but
look to the Lord (or “trust in the Lord” as Isaiah says). Warren Wiersbe has said, “We live by
promises, not by explanations.” Just because it does not make sense to us, does not mean that it
does not make sense to God. Just because it does not make sense now, does not mean that it will
not make sense later. Thomas Watson has said, “Where reason cannot wade, faith must swim.”
In the darkness, when the lights go out, we learn to stand on God’s Word regardless what is
going on in life. We find it is true that God’s Word never changes. It remains constant through
all of the seasons of our life.
So when tough times come our way keep on doing the things you have always done. Don’t stop.
Continue to give your tithes and offerings even though you face a financial reversal. Continue to
trust in the Lord even though you do not understand what is happening. Continue to attend
worship and praise God even though your family is under attack. We need to continue to have
our quiet time with God even when sickness is upon us. We need to simply stand on God’s
Word. The promises of God remain the same whether the sun is shining or darkness is around us.
The second step is to lean upon the Lord (or as it says in the text, “let him stay upon his God”).
When you are in the dark, you do not have to have an explanation, you need God. It is more
important to be with God in the valley of darkness than to be without Him on the sunny days.
Sometimes, God removes all the answers in order to give us Himself. The truth is that his
presence comforts us a lot more than his reasons.
God desires to even use us in the midst of darkness. John Milton, in the darkness of his
blindness, wrote Paradise Lost. While John Bunyan was in the Bedford Jail, London, England, he
wrote Pilgrims Progress. During John the Revelator’s exile on the Island of Patmos, he wrote the
Book of Revelation. God wants to develop our faith. Never doubt in the dark what you learned in
the light. The test of our character is not what we do in a worship service. The test of our
character is what we do in the dark. Shortly before Mother Theresa’s death, she said, “You will
never know that Jesus is all you need until all you have is Jesus.”
That’s the funny thing about the darkness. You don’t often see the blessing until after it has left
you. Again I point you to footprints. You begin to realize that even in the darkness there are
treasures to be taken. For example, have you ever heard someone say, “The stars are out
tonight.” The fact is that the stars are out in the daytime, but we cannot see them because of the
sunlight. There are some treasures of darkness that are only revealed at night.
It has been said, “We can dress as though we are intelligent, but when we open our mouth,
people will know whether we really are intelligent or not? When someone has gone through a
dark period in his/her life, they learn some truths that remain with them the rest of their lives.
The biggest truth is this: God will always be with us in the morning. Even though you may be in
darkness now, there is a better day coming. If you are in darkness, then trust God. God will
eventually turn every tear to a pearl, every hurt into a hallelujah, every Calvary into an Easter. The
scriptures say, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).
One of these days, God is going to pull the shades of night and pin them with the stars. He will
then open the door of the morning and flood your world with his light and love. You will see
things and know truth that you have never seen or known before. There is a better day coming
for you.
So what do you do when the lights go out? I hope your answer will be, the same thing you do
when the lights are on, when the grace of God is shining in our lives. Praise god, for he is always
with us, day and night. Amen.
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
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