Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the transformative power of walking in the light of Christ, highlighting that true change comes not from self-effort but from trusting in God and seeing Him clearly. He encourages believers to acknowledge their struggles and confess their sins in the presence of God's light, which exposes darkness and leads to cleansing and transformation. The sermon stresses the importance of dependence on God rather than self-sufficiency, urging the congregation to embrace their need for Him and to cultivate a genuine relationship with the Lord through His Word. Beach Jr. reminds us that true fellowship with God and one another is rooted in walking in the light and being transparent about our struggles. Ultimately, he calls for a collective commitment to reject darkness and embrace the light of Christ in every aspect of life.

giving us a tremendous opportunity to learn a very valuable lesson that is so important in our Christian journey. The Lord is in our midst as our Savior, as our Sanctifier, as our Deliverer. There is much struggle within our lives so often over the issue of what we know God wants us to be and how we seemingly find no strength or no power or no ability to become what we know God wants us to be. And now, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord is giving us a wonderful opportunity to discover the secret of being changed. It is not by self-effort. It is not by struggle. It is not by works. It is not by the creature mustering up his willpower and his energy and his strength and his might, trying to become the person that God wants you to be. No, beloved, those efforts result in endless frustration and failure. But now, now, we have our Lord Jesus in our midst by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we discover that the power to be transformed is found not in trying, but in trusting and seeing. In seeing, behold, John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Are the eyes of your heart open this morning? Are you seeing him? In seeing him, we are transformed. We are changed as we behold him by the Spirit of the Lord. And now, our part is to simply agree with what God is saying and what he's doing and who he is. We agree. It's simple. Here he is in our midst. We say, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. We stand together. And the very yes that we say to God is because God is working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So the very strength and power to say yes comes from God. But this is where you and I can right now, if you are frustrated and struggling about areas of your life that you know the Lord wants to deliver you from, this is now a moment of opportunity for you together with one heart, one soul, and one mind. Let's simply say to the Lord. And now this will be an object lesson. This will be a lesson for you and I to learn when we're home, when we're in our families, when we're in our devotional. This is how the believer cooperates with God in the work of God, resulting in the progressive work of God in us, setting us apart wholly, spirit, soul, and body for himself. It starts not with us trying, but us worshiping and seeing him. And when he comes in his word and he reveals himself to us, then we just behold him and he does the work. He does the work that no flesh will glory. And so here it is in his presence together. We say, yes, Lord. That's right. Yes, Lord. Lord, I stand together in the Holy Spirit's power with all that you are, my redeemer, my sanctifier, my healer, my wisdom, my righteousness, my holiness, my purity. But what do you do? What do you do when in the brilliance of his light you see areas of darkness in your life? What do you do when in the brilliance of his light you see those harsh words that you've spoken, that roving eye that you know is there? What do you do when you see in his presence the fact that you've been grasping after earthly things? You've been coveting position, holding on to money, because this is what will happen when he comes in his brilliance. This is what will happen. The true sign that the Holy Spirit is really working in our lives, individually and corporately, is that we'll see the Lord in his word and by the Holy Spirit illumination. And not only will we see him, but we'll see any area of darkness that is in our life. What do we do with that then? Do we lose the victory? No. Do we get swallowed up in condemnation and feel that we have to now run from the presence of God because we see the corruption in our heart? No. We confess our sin to the Lord. We say, Lord, I agree with all that you are. And Father, in the name of Jesus, I confess the sin, the mixture, the flesh that you're exposing right now in my life. Now what do you do? Make a resolution. And Lord, I'm promising you that I'm never ever going to do this again as long as I live. No, because you'll make yourself a liar. You don't make promises. This is all according to the word of God. All we do is confess our sin and he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. And then we, listen, it's real simple. We agree with God's word and we deliver over to death the corruption, the sin that God is exposing and agree with God that when we believed in Jesus Christ, not only were we forgiven sinners, but we were crucified sinners and the body of sin, which includes everything in us that has the sin principle working in it. Everything in us has been delivered over to death, has been delivered over to be crucified. And so what we do in the presence of the Lord is we agree that he is our life. He is our righteousness. We affirm the blood of Jesus when he exposes our sin and we thank him for the cleansing. We thank him for the washing. We thank him that we are as clean as we could ever be by the blood of Jesus Christ. But we deal with the sin by making a conscious choice, a conscious choice in his presence that we identify that darkness and we affirm the word of God that we put to death the of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we simply pronounce the judgment on that that God himself pronounced the judgment of death, the judgment of being crucified. And we by faith say, Lord, you are my life. You are my righteousness. You are my holiness. Here's some scriptures that we can look at. First John. First John. What is God's intention? What is the Lord doing in our lives? First John. We have children while the children are leaving quietly without running. We're turning our Bibles to First John and what we're going to do is begin to look into the word of God and let God's word speak to us. Let God's word minister to us and let God's word help us to see what he's doing. Oh, brothers and sisters, there is nothing more beautiful, nothing more beautiful than to be given the gift of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. The gift of life, the gift of life that comes through believing in Jesus Christ, the gift of life that comes from trusting in Jesus Christ. And he is here now. He is a real living person. Not only is he here, but brothers and sisters, he's with all those that trust him and that tremble at his word and that long in love for his appearing. He's with the broken. He's with the contrite. He's with the needy man and the poor man. He's with those who recognize that they have need. As we look into the New Testament, we find that Jesus was always attracted to needy people. He was always attracted to people that were willing to admit that they were broken, that they were crooked, that they were sinful, that they didn't have it together. So don't despise the dealing of the Lord in your life when you feel that God is, through circumstances and through situations, making you feel needy. How many have felt that? You felt that you feel like life itself is almost working against you, working against you. And you say, Lord, what's going on? Don't despair, beloved. Don't despair. When life works against you, when circumstances work against you and I, and when we feel that we're at our wit's end and we have nowhere to turn, God is setting us up. He's setting us up. Dependence. That's a lovely word, isn't it? Mike just said dependence rather than independence. Dependence. That's what the Lord is doing. That's what he's doing. He's helping us to see that we were created for the very purpose of being dependent upon God, not self-sufficient, but sufficient in God, deriving our strength and our wisdom, deriving the deepest need of our heart, finding the answer to the deepest need of our heart in God alone. And so that's why the Lord lets us go through difficult testing times. It's to teach us, as he did Paul, not to trust in ourself, but to trust in God. And he knocks at the door of our heart in the moment of our weakness, in the moment of our despair, saying, just call on me. 1 John 1, beginning in verse 5. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God is light and in him is no darkness. Whenever you and I, by the Holy Spirit, are being enabled to see something of God, something of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are immediately in the presence of pure, undefiled, uncontaminated light. The light of God indicates the absolute moral perfection of his person and the absence of all darkness. The absence of all darkness. Light is the absence of darkness and darkness is the absence of light. And so whenever we touch God through his word, by the Holy Spirit, and this is the chief place where God ministers to us, it's through his word and in the Holy Spirit we're touching light. Always remember this, dear ones, a walk of intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, a fellowship with the Son of God, a heart that is open to God is continuously touching and being confronted with the light of God himself that shines through his word. And this light is intended to both, number one, expose all darkness in our life, all that is inconsistent with the moral perfections of God. It is intended to expose. Light brings into view what is hidden in darkness. But not only is God's light intended to expose darkness, but it is intended to have a transforming effect upon us, so that not only are we being exposed, but as we confess the darkness, as we'll see, we are being transformed, changed, so that our lives more and more can reflect the light that is in God. Verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him, with who? With God, God who is light, God in whom there is no darkness, no darkness at all, okay? If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. And so, therefore, the Lord Jesus in our midst, having come and manifested his beauty and his character and his person, is telling us that if we say we have fellowship with him but walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. And so, here we're learning that we cannot have fellowship with God and at the same time continue to be walking in darkness. It's impossible. If we do that, then we lie against the truth and do not the truth. Fellowship there means intimate communion, a sharing of the very depths of the heart, a closeness. Fellowship has to do with proximity. It has to do with your proximity to God, your closeness to God. The only way to live above the darkness in the world, the darkness that's in the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is to live in close proximity to the light. That's the only way. It's to live in close proximity to the light. It's to bathe in the light, to wash in the light, to love the light, to seek the light, to be broken in the presence of the light, to let the light be the light that we walk by, to let the light of God's word be the light that we live in, the light that we love, the light that we seek after. Let God's word richly dwell in our heart. Pray, Oh God, give me a hunger for your word. Let me learn to fellowship in light. Let me learn, Lord, to walk in light. Help me, Lord, not to surround my life with darkness. Help me, Lord, to choose my friends carefully so that my friends are not bringing me down into darkness. Help me, Lord, to be very, very careful what I set before my eyes on television. Help me, Lord, to be very careful what I set before my eyes regarding reading material. Help me, Lord, be very careful what I allow to go into my ears by way of music. Lord, help me. Brothers and sisters, God will teach us as we're being taught of him in the word of God and by the Spirit of God. He will teach us to walk in a life that is discerning. Are you discerning? Are you praying, God, give me discernment regarding the things that I'm surrounding myself with? What is influencing you? What are your thoughts on? Is it light? If we say we have fellowship with him but walk in darkness, we lie. Let's turn our Bibles to Philippians. Keep them in 1 John though too, but let's just turn there and let the word of God speak to us this morning. Philippians chapter 4, beginning in verse number 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. When we read that scripture, we should immediately pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show us in our life where we're not rejoicing, where we're grumbling and complaining and we're unthankful. And what do we do when we see sin? Always remember, this is what it is to walk in the light. You cannot walk. If you read this scripture and it doesn't affect you, then you're only reading it with your mind. You're only reading it with your intellect. You're only reading it with your theology. But if you read this scripture and the Holy Spirit is in it, then the Holy Spirit takes all the word of God and brings you face to face with the person of Jesus Christ. All God's word, everything in God's word brings you to God himself. And when we come to God, what are we coming to? Light. Now if the word of God is not bringing you to God, then it has become something less than what God intends it to be. The Pharisees were very skilled in the word, weren't they? They were teachers of the word. And Jesus said, you search the scriptures, and it is the very scriptures that speak of me, but you will not come to me. And so, brothers and sisters, never ever allow your heart to come to the place where you can go to the word of God and simply read it as a book. Never let that happen. But pray, oh God, so give me a broken heart, so give me a tender heart, and so keep me sensitive to you, so that every time I go to the word of God, the word of God is bringing me to Jesus Christ and the light and the brilliant, radiant glory of his person. And I am immediately being confronted by the eyes of my heart with the pure, unchanging, unadulterated light of God. And let me live in that light. Let me bask in that light. Let me weep in that light. Let me feel that light to be a sharp, two-edged sword that pierces into the very depths of my heart and exposes my thoughts and my intents and my motives, even if it's painful, even if it hurts, even if I have to take the place of a sinner and confess my sin and go to my wife and say, sweetheart, I was reading God's word, and I was convicted of being a selfish husband. Forgive me. Does the word of God affect you like that, brothers and sisters? Or is it just a casual book? If it is, then come to the Lord and say, Lord, help me. Your book has become a dead letter to me. And it's probably because you have drifted into self-life. See, when self-life is in domination, then you don't really come to God's word as a broken-hearted, needy man, because self is always self-sufficient. Here's how you know when self, and we're going to get into this, probably not at all today, but we're going to get into God teaching us to be able to distinguish between self and the Holy Spirit and the works of the flesh. But here's one telltale sign you know when you're being energized by self. You don't feel dependent on God. Self, the principle of sin that is interwoven with my personality, that principle of sin that has to be condemned and crucified so that my personality is being animated by the power of the Holy Spirit. But if I'm not being animated and energized and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, then my soul, which is not evil in itself, it's the mind, the emotions, are under the power of the self principle, which is sin. And it's self-sufficiency. It's the energy of the creature rather than the energy of God moving the creature. And that energy is always self-sufficient. I'll make it. I don't have need. I don't need God's wisdom. I've got my own. I don't need God's direction. I figure it out myself. I don't need. I don't need. I don't need. See, so this is the predominant characteristic of self. We become intoxicated with the false peace and false joy of self-sufficiency. We rest at night not because we found peace with God in the midst of uncertainty. No, we rest at night because we have figured things out and know how they're going to work out. Because we're smart. Because we're smart. That's self. That's pride. And God has to break us from that. The Philippians, and that all comes from rejoice in the Lord. Say, rejoice. Let your moderation. What does moderation mean? Another word. Gentleness, self-control, be known unto all men. Again, brothers and sisters, if you read this as theology, if you read it in a self-righteous spirit, here's what you'll do. Rejoice in the Lord. Oh, praise God. I always rejoice. Let your moderation. I don't know any other person in the world that's as moderate and full of self-control as me. You'll just really get all messed up. But if you read it as a broken-hearted Christian who knows that Christ alone is your life, then you'll let God's Word bring you to Christ, and you'll see in Christ the light. And you'll see in Christ the perfect example of self-control. A man who had all power in his hands, didn't he? All power in his hands, and yet he said, I of myself can do nothing. I can't act unless my God is showing me to act. He didn't take things into his own hands. And so therefore, we read this. The Lord is giving us lessons this morning. He's teaching us how to practically go to the Word in His presence and learn how to let the Word of God change us. Lord, help me. I come to Your moderation. And when I read this Word, I see the Lord in my spirit, and I'm aware of any area of excess in my life, because excess is the opposite of moderation. Any area of excess in my life, and I'm convicted. Any area of excess. Any area where there is a lack of self-control, and I immediately am confronted with whether or not I'm going to walk in the light or walk in the darkness. If I walk in the light, then I'm going to allow that Word to show me areas of indulgence in my life, and I'm going to confess them to God. I'm going to take the place of a sinner. I'm going to say, Lord, forgive me. I see that my tastes are excessive. Actually, Lord, it's actually no longer lawful. Now it's greed and covetousness. Lord, I'm no longer moderate, no longer exercising self-control when it comes to my natural appetites. When under the government of the Holy Spirit are okay. Natural appetites are okay when under the Holy Spirit's power. But you take hold of them, and you just move out on them and fulfill their desires without being guarded by the Holy Spirit, and you know what will happen? You'll become excessive in your appetite of food. And you will no longer seek to eat in order to sustain your physical body, but you'll eat in order to sustain your lust. This is excess. And you think of all the other physical or other lawful appetites we have without the Holy Spirit's control and government, and without renouncing that tendency within us to be excessive. We're not going to be men and women of moderation. We're going to be men and women of indulgence, men and women of excess, and we're going to bring trouble in our lives. Be careful for nothing. Be careful for nothing. Another translation would be, don't be anxious or worried about anything. Not even one thing. Not even one thing. Now again, I don't know how you and I can read that and just blow over it without having the Lord minister to us and without having to confront the tendencies within us to worry and having to come to the Lord and confess. Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, to walk in darkness is not necessarily, although it does include, blatant outward sins such as drinking, smoking, marijuana, drugs, and running around in fornication and adultery, and being a thief and a robber. That certainly indicates darkness, right? But what about when us holy Christians are reading the Word and God says, be careful for nothing, and there's worry in our life, and we blow over it, and we ignore it, and we don't confess it, and we don't let the Lord correct our heart. What happens then? Do we continue in the light? No. We start walking in darkness because the moment we are conscious of light and we refuse to let that light ruin our life, we end up in darkness. And this is why so often our hearts become hard and insensitive, and the Word of God is no longer a living book to us. Oh, we would be very harsh with someone who was living in open adultery or open fornication, or someone who was openly admitting that they were a thief. We would tell them, dear friend, the Bible says to forsake immorality or forsake being a thief. The Bible says that God cannot bless a thief. And then if we saw that person ignore that and deny it and continue in that lifestyle, we would say, oh my, they're no longer walking in light. They're walking in darkness now. And we would beg them to repent, right? The Bible actually says that such a person who continues in those kinds of sins, we can't really even have close fellowship with them. 1 Corinthians 5. The brother who was living in immorality. The brother who was sleeping with his father's mother, his stepmother. The Holy Spirit reacted against that and said, with such a one, don't even eat. Don't even fellowship. Don't fellowship because what you're doing is you're condoning that darkness. Now, it doesn't mean you treat them like an enemy and you throw stones at them, but you have to say, listen, this is wrong. This sin is wrong. And the Bible says that we do that and pray that they might, what? Repent and come back to the light and agree with the light and renounce that darkness. And it's okay. We can see that clearly with clear sins. But what about these little hidden areas of darkness in our life? Same effect. They have the same effect in our lives when we are unwilling to submit to the light of God. And that's why it's so important to learn. If we're going to enjoy fellowship with God and genuine fellowship with one another, we must beg God to make us lovers of light and haters of darkness and keep us broken enough to where we're willing the moment light shines into our heart to agree with what God says. If not, then we walk in darkness and we're lying against the truth. And that's when self-deception comes in. Be careful for nothing. Don't worry about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard and keep and garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. There's such failure in the heart and mind today, isn't there? I know personally so often because of the nature of the battle, the spiritual battle, that so often I despair life itself because I feel that in my mind and in my heart I'm going to fail. I'm not going to be able to make it. And I'm oftentimes reminded by God to come to Him and to cast my anxieties and my cares upon Him and to confess that He is my strength. And as I do that consistently without fail, time and time and time again, God rescues me from myself and my fainting, failing mind and heart and gives me the peace of God that passes all human understanding. It's wonderful. It's salvation for myself. Alright, verse 8. We went through verses 1 through 7, but we're wanting to get to verse 8. This has to do with light. This has to do with what are you surrounding yourself with. This has to do with are you a lover of truth? Are you a lover of light? Finally, my brethren, make a note here. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true. Now the word true there is not a sterile word. It's not sterile. It's a word that suggests reality. It's a word that suggests that which is real. That which does not have the element of falsehood in it. That which is not propagating the lie that the enemy sowed in Eve's mind at the very beginning, which was what? What was that lie? Anyone? Hath God said, on reality, that which is not real, is anything and anything that comes to God's truth and says, is that really what God means? Is that really true? Any kind, any kind of falsehood is grounded in this lie. Hath God said? Hath God really said? Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true. And this is why, brothers and sisters, I say this with love. I say this with gentleness. But I say this with deep conviction and a sense of urgency from the Holy Spirit. We had better guard what it is that we are letting our eyes and our ears and our minds meditate upon. And we had better pray that God gives us wisdom to be able to direct our children so that they do not sit at the altar of Baal in this world and learn the ways of the wicked. What is true? What is true? Parents, listen to the Holy Spirit as He gives you a solemn responsibility. It is your responsibility in the name of the Lord, in the name of God. It is your responsibility to sit down with your children and in gentleness and in love and in consistence, interpret for your children the real meaning of life. Don't let them do it themselves because they'll mess up. It is your responsibility to interpret life for your children and to teach them to distinguish between light and darkness, right and wrong. Every father and mother needs to pray. But not just pray, you need to connect with other parents because there's no one that's got it all. You need to draw from others. Every father and mother needs to connect with other parents of like mind and heart and pray that together we might learn how to teach our men, our little boys to be men and our little girls to be women. We have to teach our little girls what true love is and where to find true love. We have to teach them the meaning of their existence as women and girls and young ladies and young mothers. We have to teach them. Men, you have to teach your father, your sons. Every father has got to warn his son that the greatest danger in his life is his arrogant, proud heart. Pride will destroy a man and rebellion will destroy a woman. And every father should weep before his son and confess his own pride and tell his son what his pride has done and the trouble that his pride has brought in his marriage. I know some fathers, they resent this because they don't want to be weak in the presence of their children. They want they want to be their kids idol. Fathers, if you try to be your kids idol, you're going to disappoint them greatly. Whatsoever things are true, true, all that is in the world, 1 John chapter 2, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, these are not of the father but of the world. Every single parent should first of all beg that you would be taught by God what it is in the world that constitutes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Clint and I were just talking about this last night. I got a phone call from a minister in another state and I've known him for many, many years and it was good and we had a good conversation. But afterwards I cried and I was grieved. Not only was I happy that I sensed the Lord was doing something in the man's heart, but I was grieved because so much of the conversation was about what I'm doing for God. I, the pride of life, it's the pride of life transferred from the world into the Christian church. You know, we would be offended if we met some man who doesn't know the Lord, who spoke for 30 minutes about all his money, his DVDs, all of his success as an entrepreneur. Yeah, I've got 47 people under me. Yeah, well you know, I know how to direct people very well and I have business meetings twice a week and I delegate. I say this, do this and they do it. After a while we'd say, boy, that's the saddest pastor I've ever met that without 20 minutes of talking, he's bragging about how big his church is, how many people are working for him, the great sermons he preaches, building program, how much money he makes. What is this, brothers and sisters? What is it? It's 1 John chapter 2. It's the bragging. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now, what does the NIV say with, and I caught my wife not paying attention. Oh, Lord have mercy. NIV, 1 John chapter 2, the boastful pride of life. What does the NIV say? Remember you shared it with me last night? The boasting of what he has or what he does. Now, this is the word of God, isn't it? Or is it not? To walk, listen, to walk in the light is to be convicted at the fault. Brothers and sisters, are you listening? It's to be convicted, not at the deed. Once the deed's done, you've done it. It's being convicted of the thought of being tempted to boast about anything other than who? Jesus Christ. God forbid, Paul said, that I should boast, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom I am crucified and the world is crucified unto me. This is what it means to walk in the light. Now, sterile religion won't bother you like this. Sterile religion will never deal with these issues in your life. Never. You could be a religious person and feel good about yourself, but when we cease from sterile religion and come into a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, these issues have to be dealt with. That's just the first word, true. Time check. Good. That was later than that. Okay. All right. Who said that? All right. Jerry, is that Jerry? Good to see you, Jerry. It's been a while. All right. And also, we just want to make mention, it's good to see Mr. and Mrs. Miscavige here with their little girl. Praise the Lord. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true. Now, listen, brothers and sisters, one of the characteristics of walking in the light is that you will be convicted of things in your life that are not true. And if you're not being convicted, what does that mean? Your heart is hardened and you're not walking in the light. Now, if you want, you can create your own form of Christianity. That's fine. But this is what the Bible teaches. Number two, finally, whatsoever things are honest, honest, the absence of dishonesty, the absence of deceit, the absence of manipulation, the absence of having an agenda, an impure agenda, whatever things are honest. Paul said in 2 Corinthians that he renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. He renounced them. He said because he was entrusted with the gospel and it was such a dear trust to him, he said, I have renounced all the hidden things of dishonesty. He refused to allow any hidden dishonest motives that would operate in his life. He refused. And we too must do that. Whatsoever things are just, that which is right, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good rapport. Now, is gossip good rapport? Is slander good rapport? Is evil speaking about people good rapport? No. So should the Christian be engaging in any form of slander or gossip or character assassination or speaking evil of anyone? Evil? No, we should not. This is how the devil destroys people and destroys relationships. If God is convicting you about having said something about a brother or sister with the intent to hurt and it wasn't in love and it was malicious and it was just an uncalled for comment, we should beg God to forgive us and we should ask God whether he wants us to go and humble ourselves before our brother and sister and say, forgive me, Mike, I said something about you to brother so-and-so and I'm convicted now because I know I shouldn't have said it. It was not right. I humble myself. Forgive me. You say, well, I don't know if I could do that. Why not? Why not? Too much pride. Thank you, Mike. That's it. Our pride will destroy us. Our pride will destroy us. You say, well, bless God, I'm just not going to do it. Well, if you don't, then you're opening your life up to darkness because you're not walking in the light anymore. And if you don't walk in the light and you walk in darkness, then you're lying and you're giving the devil a foothold. And all of a sudden that gossip is going to turn into bitterness and that bitterness is going to turn into resentment and you're going to become a hateful, resentful person. And nobody's going to want to get around you. No one's going to want to be with you because you're going to get a reputation yourself. You like spreading reputations about other people. You're going to get a reputation yourself. And you know what everyone's going to be saying about you? I just can't stand being with them because 10 minutes go by and they're already chewing someone out. They're full of bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. They're hateful. And you're going to be a mess. All starts when what? God shines light into your heart and shows you you've made a mistake by sinning, by gossip, and you refuse to repent. You know what happens when we are tempted to engage in some kind of unclean act, immorality, and we blow it off? We become slaves. How many men or women have said, well, I can handle this. I can handle this. I'm strong enough. Brothers and sisters, that only shows how deceived we are. You can handle nothing. I can handle nothing. God alone. And when we give way to one little thought that is dark, one little thought of impurity, without confessing it to God and saying, oh Lord, I absolutely refuse to let this thing grow in me, being discontent with your husband, being discontent with your wife, having an eye for another person when you know you shouldn't. That's a hidden darkness. And not only should you be able to go to the Lord, but I believe that it's God's will that every person have at least one other person in their life, at least one who God has joined you with, where you are transparent with one another, where there's no walls between you, where you can openly go up to your brother and say, brother, you need to pray for me. I actually was having feelings of lust after another woman, and I don't want that to ruin my life. Would you pray with me? Has that set with our hearts? Let's listen. Has that set with our hearts? Oh, I know it's not the American way, is it? How's it set? Come on, guys, girls. It's called accountability. Oh, but we don't need accountability. We don't need accountability because we got it together. Oh, God, deliver us from that pride. Deliver us from that ego. You say, oh, I know that that's true. I have need. Well, is this working in your life? Or haven't you gone any further than just knowing your need? A lot of Christians say, oh, this is so true. But they never move forward into this kind of fellowship. How many, don't raise your hands. Here's his questions. How many are enjoying right now this kind of fellowship with the Lord, with his word, and with at least one other person? Okay, let me just say this. If you're not, you're going to be deceived. You say, not me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you will be deceived. You will eventually become a slave to something that is dark. Because God's word commands that we are to walk in the light as he is in the light. We're going to get back to this. But let's just finish these words. Of good rapport, if there's any virtue, any praise, think on these things. See now what the command is here? Set your mind. Now, the mind is made up of what? Will, intellect, reason, emotion. Will, intellect, reason, and emotion. So the Bible is saying here, set your mind. Don't do away with your mind. Don't do away with your soul. But set it on the things that are acceptable in God. Think on these things. Now what are we doing when we set before our eyes and before our ears and before our minds abominable things that are so readily available in our society today through videos and TV and magazines and programs? What are we doing? We're thinking on what? Be discerning, brothers and sisters. 1 John. We're going to close here. 1 John, chapter 1. Isn't God's word so wonderful, so pure, so penetrating, so clear? So clear. It's crystal clear. I love God's word. I want God's word to be what I live by. Now watch. Verse 6, if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we're lying. It's time to fess up with any area in our life that we're living in darkness and we have simply been unwilling to acknowledge it. We need to do it. We need to pray, God, humble me. And we need to get things right so that we can go from verse 6 to verse 7. How many want to go from verse 6 to 7? All right, let's go to verse 7. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, watch, we have fellowship one with another. What's the basis of true fellowship? Is it based on our social status? Well, I like to hang around people who got money because, you know, people who don't got money, you know, they're just not really culturally developed. Is it ethnicity? Well, I tell you, I like to hang around people that are like me. I just can't handle some of those other people that are from different parts of the world. I just can't handle it. So therefore, you get around people that are like you and then you say, is that fellowship? Education. Oh, I can't stand hanging around with people who've got a college education. They think they're so smart. So therefore, I find people who don't. Is that fellowship? No. True fellowship is found when there are hearts, plural, who have been dealt with by God and they pursue walking in the light as He is in the light. They walk in His light and in the light of His Word. That results in what? We have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is continuously cleansing us from all our sin. That's true fellowship. And so true fellowship is broken when what? If Norman and Brian and Robert are enjoying true fellowship and they're walking in the light one with another and the light of Jesus is shining in their hearts and they're open and they're broken and they're willing at any moment if God should lead them to go and confess their struggles and Brother Phil comes into their midst and my heart is lying against the truth in that my heart is in darkness but I'm not willing to confess it. I might be with Brian and Norman and Robert during a whole evening of fellowship. I might sing the songs they're singing. I might listen to the things they're saying. I might hear the Bible they're teaching. I might even give a few scriptures myself. But a discerning spirit will say, Brother Phil, you're not in fellowship. There's darkness. A casual look, there's four brothers enjoying fellowship. But a discernment, a discerning heart would say something's not right there. Your life's not right with God. Now it might not be that I have committed some gross sin but it just might be that there's an area of darkness that somehow God has made me to know that I am simply holding on to. That puts me in a condition of walking in darkness. That puts me in a condition where I'm vulnerable to self-deception. That puts me in a condition where my heart becomes hard through the deceitfulness of sin. That puts me in a condition where I might start resisting the Holy Spirit. Where I might start quenching the Holy Spirit. That puts me in a condition where I'm going to start getting strong in myself and I'm going to get defensive and I'm going to get controlling and I'm going to get assertive. Oh my God, that's a mess. Verse 9, if we confess our sins, hallelujah to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the truth and his word is not in us. Shall we bow our hearts before the Lord now? Father, thank you for Jesus Christ. Thank you that he is so loving and kind that he walked in our midst this morning by the Holy Spirit and that the radiant glory of his countenance brilliantly illuminated the eyes of our heart. And we were so conscious earlier during worship of his penetrating power to pierce into the depths of our soul. And now your word has so clearly communicated to us what Jesus was actually doing. I pray, Lord, you'll take your word. It'll find good ground and that we would be empowered to be brought into the presence of your holy light and there to confess all darkness that is exposed by faith to receive the cleansing of the precious blood that washes us and to steadfastly keep ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit in the light as you are in the light that we might have fellowship with one another and continue to grow that Christ in all of his fullness might be made known in our lives. In the name of Jesus, every foothold, every stronghold, every hidden form of darkness be exposed now in the light of God's word. And I pray every one of us would have the power to identify that darkness and resist it and judge it for what it is, sin. And I want no part of it, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Let's sing this song together with the victory that's ours through Calvary and the cross and the blessed Savior who died and rose again. In the name of Jesus, Lord, bring this about in all of our lives. Amen and amen. Hallelujah, Lord. OK, beloved, we're about to leave, but hold steady for one moment as the spirit of God is still moving and working. Please stand together with me as I pray this prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for the light. We thank you for the radiant glory of the Son of God and the word of God. And now together, Lord, we stand that you might break all darkness, that you will expose all darkness, all hidden darkness, Lord, in the depths of our hearts, in our minds and in our homes. Lord, we declare war against darkness in the name of Jesus Christ and ask that the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ would permeate and penetrate every area of our heart, mind, soul and spirit and in our home and dispel all darkness and bring the beauty of the light of Jesus Christ more and more in our lives. Every power of darkness present here, we ask God that you break it in the name of Jesus Christ. Every lying spirit, every tormenting devil, we command in the name of Jesus Christ, take your hands off of God's people. And everyone says amen and amen. Brothers and sisters, because he's here today, amen.