Our Guiding Light

Sermon Summary:

This message invites us into a profound exploration of Jesus as our guiding light during the Lenten season, building on the theme of the Good Shepherd from Psalm 23. We discover how Jesus reveals His messianic identity through the Gospel of John’s carefully crafted narrative, particularly during the Feast of Tabernacles. The Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem, celebrating God’s provision in the wilderness, watching priests pour out precious water on the altar and lighting massive golden bowls that illuminated the entire city. In this context of powerful symbolism, Jesus makes an audacious claim: I am the light of the world. This declaration wasn’t just theological rhetoric but a direct challenge to religious tradition and an invitation to personal transformation. The message reminds us that we don’t have to navigate life’s major decisions in the darkness of our own limited wisdom. Whether we’re choosing a spouse, discerning our calling, or facing daily challenges, Jesus offers to be our guiding light. He doesn’t just show us the way to heaven; He illuminates the path we walk today. Light exposes who we truly are, sometimes painfully, but it also reveals the way forward. As we journey through Lent, we’re challenged to let Jesus shepherd us by allowing His light to guide our steps, trusting that He provides wisdom beyond our own understanding.

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Sermon Points:

• Wedding in Cana (2:1-12)
• The Temple in Jerusalem (2:13-25)
• Nicodemus (3:1-21)
• Jacob’s Well (4:1-42)
• Sabbath (5:1-47)
• Passover (John 6)
• Feast of Tabernacles (John 7-8)
• Hanukkah (John 10)

-Gary Burge, NIV Application Commentary, John

Key Takeaways:

• John’s gospel presents a high Christology, deliberately showing Jesus as the Messiah through signs rather than miracles
• Jesus intersects with Jewish rituals and institutions to demonstrate his messianic fulfillment
• Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus provides abundantly—120 gallons of wine, baskets of leftover bread, rivers of living water
• The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s provision of water and light in the wilderness, with elaborate ceremonies involving water processions and massive lampstands
• Jesus boldly claims “I am the light of the world” in the temple court where sixteen golden bowls burned brightly
• Jesus offers himself as living water on the seventh day of the feast when priests poured water on the altar seven times
• The “I am” statements throughout John echo God’s self-revelation to Moses as a claim to divinity
• Jesus serves as our guiding light not just for salvation but for daily decision-making and wisdom
• Light exposes who we really are and illuminates the path forward

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Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript:

Well, thank you, worship team, for leading us in worship today. Well, you know, our theme for the Lenten Easter season is the Good shepherd, and we began our season together on Ash Wednesday, if you remember, and we talked a little bit about Jesus being the Good shepherd and what I have asked us to do as we make our way through the Lenten season on Sunday mornings in our worship time together. I want us to read the 23rd Psalm out loud together. And so we’re going to put it on the screen for you. I’m going to invite you to read it with me.

And as I shared with y’ all last time, you know, there are a few passages that I memorized as a boy in the King James Version, and so I just can’t get them out of my head. So I’ll just invite you to enjoy the King James Version with me this season from the 23rd Psalm. So we’ll put that on the screen for us. We’re going to read that out loud together. Can we do that?

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. As I shared with y’ all last Sunday, I hope that’s your testimony that the Lord is your shepherd and you’ve come to know him personally and you’re walking with him in your everyday life. So with that said, one of the things that we are learning together during the Lenten season is how does the Lord shepherd us? What does it mean that he is our shepherd? How does he do that?

And as we make our way through the Lenten season, I want us to learn together how he does that. So this morning we’re going to look at a text from John Chapter eight. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, I’ve entitled the message Our Guiding Light. And we’re going to learn another way that he shepherds us. Last week we talked about him being the bread from heaven, but we pick up the story in John 8:8 in the middle of a lengthy Section of material.

John 7 and John 8 actually form that one big section of material. There’s a little bit of an interruption, the first few verses of chapter eight that are not actually in our most ancient and best manuscripts. But we’re going to look at verse 12 and following. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, let’s look at John 8. And it’s our custom to stand and honor the Lord Jesus when the Gospel is read.

So I invite you to stand with me if you’re able and hear the reading of the Gospel. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The Pharisees challenged him. Here you are appearing as your own witness.

Your testimony is not valid. And Jesus answered, if I testify on my behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I’m going. You judge by human standards, I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true because I’m not alone.

I stand with the Father who sent me. In your own law, it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the Father who sent me. Then they asked him, where is your Father?

You do not know me or my Father. Jesus replied, if you knew me, you would know my Father also. He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. Thank you.

You may be seated.

So, those of you that have been a part of our Wednesday Bible studies that I teach every Wednesday, you know that we are making our way through the Gospel of John verse by verse. We’re just walking through the text. And one of the things that we are learning together already in our study is what I would call the high Christology of John’s Gospel. One of the features of John’s Gospel is his Christology, his presentation, if you will, of Jesus as the Messiah. And John is very careful and deliberate in how he does it.

So when you’re reading John’s Gospel, on the one hand, he has an overall chronological take, if you will, in the life of Jesus. In fact, because we have John’s Gospel, we now know that the ministry of Jesus lasted over three years. Had we only Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those three gospels are referred to as the Synoptics. We would only have about a Year and a half of the ministry of Jesus. John focuses his recounting of the story of Jesus on the Judean ministry of Jesus, the southern ministry of Jesus, if you will.

And because of John’s account, we now know that Jesus had at least a three year ministry because of the way John describes the attendance of Jesus at different festivals. So on the one hand he has an overall chronological take. However, he also has a thematic take on the life of Jesus. And he chooses to address things from a thematic theological position. And one of the things that he is doing in his Gospel is giving this testimony.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He’s the Christ, if you will. That’s what that word means. Now how do we know that? How does, how does Jesus demonstrate his claim to be the Messiah?

What, what kinds of actions is Jesus going to engage in to prove, if you will, that he’s the fulfillment of messianic expectation? That’s what John is wanting you to understand. He will tell you at the end of his Gospel, these things have been written for you, he says, so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah. You believe in God and the one that he sent. So the overall focus of John’s Gospel is evangelistic, if you will.

So with that said, let’s talk a little bit about that, the Christology. Here’s what John does as he shares the story. He records several instances where Jesus engages with a ritual, perhaps, or an institution or some tradition in Judaism. And then he expresses his messianic fulfillment, but only for those who are paying attention, because not everyone will see it. But if we’re paying attention and we can reflect together theologically, then we will see John’s point and we will hear the claims from Jesus as the Messiah.

And so the way he does that is he walks through first century Israel. That’s what Jesus is going to do. He’s going to engage in all kinds of experiences and he’s going to intersect the different rituals of Judaism, he’s going to intersect the different traditions of Judaism. He is going to somehow be connected, if you will, to institutions of Judaism. And as Jesus does all of that, he is going to proclaim himself as Messiah by how he expresses himself in those interactions.

So let me see if I can illustrate that for you. The first 12 pages of John, most scholars refer to as the Book of Signs, John doesn’t like the word miracle. He uses the word sign. What’s the purpose of a sign?

To what point you? To instruct you, to point you towards something. And so John uses that word, Jesus Performed this sign, if you will. We’ll find that over and over in John’s Gospel. And you’re reading through John’s Gospel in your daily Bible reading, so notice when those that word is used.

So a number of New Testament scholars have this view of John’s Gospel. I would be among those that these traditions, these rituals, as Jesus engages them, he points us to his messiahship. So let me show you what I mean by that. Gary Burge is one of the scholars who’s put this together for us. Number of others have.

So let’s start with the first one. The wedding at CANA. John 2. Y’ all remember the story, right? We covered this in our Bible study Wednesday.

Jesus and Jesus mother, his brothers, his disciples, they go to a wedding in Cana. Weddings were a big celebration in Israel in the first century. The celebrations lasted in the evening, sometimes a week long. Y’ all remember what happened in the wedding of Cana? Jesus mother comes up to him and said, what?

They’re out of wine. Jesus then decides that he will answer this need. Now, this was a potential embarrassment for the groom. It’s the groom’s responsibility to provide the feast for the party. So they’re out of wine.

Jesus tells some men who are working there. He says, I want you to fill these pots with water. Now, they weren’t just any pots. They were. The Jews had different ways of storing water in the first century.

You could not store pure water in clay pots in ancient Israel. So if you wanted water for purification, in other words, water that was going to be used in some kind of ceremony, some kind of ritual washing, that water always had to be in stone jars. It couldn’t be in clay pots. Well, the water that Jesus. The jars that Jesus will use, he says, I want you to use these ceremonial jars, and I want you to fill them to the top and then take some of it to the master of ceremonies.

And John tells us it’s about 120 gallons. So the master of ceremonies, after they fill the jars with water, he takes some of it, takes it, the servants take it to the master ceremony. The master ceremony tastes it, and now it’s wine. It’s no longer water. And you remember what the master ceremony said to the guys, why are you bringing this wine now?

The party’s already started. The people are already enjoying themselves, and now you’ve brought the very best wine. He says, in other words, the people have already been drinking and their taste buds are not working well anymore. And you’re supposed to bring the best wine first. And Then the cheap wine later.

But you’re bringing the best wine now. Why are you doing this? Now, I want to tell y’, all, the only way I know about any of that is I’ve had to interview some of y’ all because I don’t know anything about wine. Okay? I don’t drink, so I have no clue.

But anyway, some of y’ all have helped me with this story, but here’s what’s fascinating. When they finished the miracle or the sign, there were 120 gallons of wine. Now, I don’t even know what wine comes in, but would y’ all agree 120 gallons is a lot of wine. Jesus provided way yonder more than they needed. And it was the best wine anybody had ever tasted.

Okay, so Jesus didn’t just help out a groom. Here’s what Jesus was saying. Israel is out of wine. You see, wine symbolizes joy for them, blessing. And Jesus was saying, and if you look to your rituals, the jars, if you will, you’re not going to find what you need.

I’m the only one who can meet this need. He wasn’t just helping out a groom. He was making a statement about who he was. Does that make sense? So we got to be paying attention.

Then. Next, he goes to the temple in Jerusalem. He gets to the temple in Jerusalem, and John puts this story at the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell this story at the end of the ministry of Jesus. So that lets me know.

I believe there’s two of them. Jesus is launching his ministry, and he shows up in the temple, and he drives people out of the temple, establishing himself as the authority over the temple.

Pretty powerful engagement. Then John 3, Jesus meets with a rabbi. Not just any rabbi, Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin. And the next thing you know, Jesus starts teaching him.

Who teaches? A member of the Sanhedrin. And Jesus knows that Nicodemus knows all about tradition. He knows all about the wisdom of the Jews. But Jesus tells him, that’s not enough.

You need to be transformed. And he establishes his authority over the religious leaders and teachers of Israel. Then you come to John 4, and Jesus visits a very famous well, Jacob’s well. It’s in Samaria now. And he encounters this Samaritan woman.

But he’s at Jacob’s well. Y’ all remember who Jacob was? Remember what Jacob’s new name is that God gave him? What’s his new name? Israel.

He’s the father of Israel. And this is his well. And Jesus stands there at that well, and says this. You drink out of this well, you’ll be thirsty again. But if you will drink from the water I give you, you’ll never be thirsty again.

Establishing his authority over the Father of Israel. And then Jesus comes to the man lying by the pool of Bethesda. And the Bible says in John 5 that on the Sabbath, Jesus speaks to this man. And John says, the man has been lame for 38 years. And Jesus looks at him and says, do you want to be well?

Why don’t you just get up and go home? Take your mat and go home. And the Bible says the man stood up, got his mat and went home. The Jewish leaders, the rabbis, members of the Sanhedrin teachers had been walking by that man for 38 years, and nobody’s ever been able to help him. And Jesus looks at him and says, why don’t you just stand up and go home?

And he does. And Jesus does it on the Sabbath, establishing the fact that he’s Lord of the Sabbath and someone brand new is here, someone different than the rest of all of these teachers of the law. Are y’ all still with me? How do we know he’s the Messiah? Come on, y’.

All. We get to the Passover in John 6, and he’s in Capernaum. The people are hungry. And we looked at this last Sunday, and Jesus said, well, let’s get them all together. So they do.

They bring him one lunch, and he gets that lunch and he feeds them all. And y’, all, you remember what happened when they finished eating. Guess what? Guess what they had when they finished eating. Leftovers.

Let me tell y’ all something. Do y’ all know in the first century, guess what they didn’t have? They didn’t have leftovers. These people ate, and they ate whatever they had. And when they were finished, they ate it all.

You know why? Because they weren’t sure they were going to eat tomorrow. And they didn’t have a refrigeration system. So these people are not familiar with leftovers. They’re not like me and you.

You know, you and I get leftovers all the time. We go to a restaurant, we say, can we get a. Get a. You know, whatever to go? I don’t know why we do that.

At our house, we do that, and we never eat it. So I’m not sure why we do it. But nevertheless, it must satisfy something inside of us. I typically throw it away. It’s kind of like when we buy a watermelon, we never cut it open.

I always tell Cindy, we buy a watermelon and bring it home. And I said, you may go ahead and throw in the trash right now or put it in the refrigerator for three weeks, because, you know, that’s where it’s going, you know, so anyway. But these people, they didn’t have leftovers. That’s not. That was foreign to them.

But they had eaten so much, they couldn’t eat anymore. And so Jesus said, you know, your fathers ate manna in the wilderness. I’m the bread that’s come down from heaven. I’m giving you so much. There are leftovers.

Then you come to our story, the Feast of the Tabernacles. I’m going to talk about that in just a second. Then you come to Hanukkah. John 10. Jesus is in the city for the celebration of lights, where they’re celebrating what God has done for them and how God’s provided for them and celebrating their leaders who led them during that period of rebellion and throwing off the shackles of the enemy.

And Jesus says to the leaders, you’re a bunch of blind guides now. Israel has no leadership. Any. You’re no longer shepherds. I’m the shepherd now.

I’m the good shepherd. He says. So over and over and over, what is Jesus doing? He is demonstrating. He’s the Messiah.

Don’t miss it. Everything is done in abundance over and above. And that’s why John gives you all of these signals, if you will. So with that said, let’s look at our text. Okay, our Context for John 8.

Jesus is in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. So let’s talk about that. If you’re familiar with the Feast of Tabernacles, we’ve got to go back to John 7. So if you have your Bibles over, let’s go back to John 7. So Jesus is in Galilee when John 7 opens.

So in other words, he’s back in northern Israel and it’s time for the Feast of Tabernacles. And Jesus has been in and out of Judea. He’s confronted by religious leaders over and over and over. He’s already confronted them about the Sabbath. He has addressed them about the way they’re caring for Israel.

He’s demonstrating his messiahship. Well, now it’s time for the Feast of Tabernacles. Well, the Jews, they have three pilgrim feasts every year. They’re called pilgrim feasts because at some point in your life, no matter where you live as a Jewish male, you’re supposed to come to Jerusalem at least one time in your life for One of these feasts. And if at all possible, in the ancient world, if you could get there, you came to Jerusalem for all three of these.

The first was Passover. Passover was held every year in the spring. It’s at the beginning of the grain harvest. Then there was the feast of pentecost. Penta means 50 in Greek, so it’s 50 days after Passover, seven weeks later.

And it was the celebration of the end of the harvest. And then the third pilgrim feast would be the feast of Tabernacles. And that was in the autumn of the year. It was to celebrate the harvest of the trees and the vines, the vineyards. So the Jews would camp out in their fields to protect the harvest of the vineyards.

They would build these little booths, these little lean to things, if you will. They just have sticks and, and branches, and they would dwell in what was called Tabernacles. Now why that was, that was commanded by them, commanded by God to do this in the book of Leviticus. And what was supposed to happen was not only are they there to celebrate the harvest of the trees and the vineyards, they’re supposed to be reflecting upon the desert experience of their forebears in the wilderness, when God’s people were living in tents, making their way through the wilderness. So they were supposed to read the stories of the Exodus and focus on the fact that God provided for them in the wilderness.

And they are calling to mind the whole tabernacle experience. It’s seven days long. And during that seven day period, they offered up a lot of sacrifices. As a matter of fact, in the first century when Jesus was alive, the, the priests were divided into 24 orders. And there were so many priests, you only had to be in Jerusalem when your order was called upon.

And y’ all rotated and alternated the weeks during the year. Except for the feast of Tabernacles, there were so many sacrifices, all 24 orders had to be in Jerusalem. It was all hands on deck. So everybody is there that can get there. And not only that, y’, all.

The feast was built around what was called the autumn equinox. And what that meant was for the Jews, it was the one day on the calendar where they recognized that the night was lengthening and the day was shortening. In other words, summer was coming to an end. And on that particular day, both night and day shared the same number of hours. It was called the dying of the day by the Jews.

Kind of interesting to talk about that today on Time Change Sunday. But not only that, it was a time of year where they were experiencing a drought. It was in the autumn. The spring rains were long gone. This was the dry season.

The hills were already turning brown, and it was time for the vineyards to be harvested. And so the Jews were reminded that God was the only one who could provide for them. So here’s what they did during the Feast of Tabernacles. Let me give you the Old Testament theology that was on everybody’s mind when they came for this week, okay? Are y’ all still with me?

Okay. So in Zechariah, chapter 14, during the feast of the Tabernacles, the Jews reflected on this passage, this page from what you and I would call the Old Testament. They looked for the day of the Lord, okay? And so Zechariah 14, verse 6 says this. On that day, on the day of the Lord, there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty nor cold, frosty darkness.

It’ll be a unique day, a day known only to the Lord, with no distinction between day and night. And when evening comes, there will be light. So there’s going to be light both day and night. In other words, when the day of the Lord comes, there’ll be no darkness. And it says on that day, living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it to the east, to the Dead Sea, half to the west of the Mediterranean Sea in summer and winter.

On that day, God is going to provide so much water, it’s going to flow out of Jerusalem, fill up the Dead Sea, fill up the Mediterranean Sea. In other words, God is going to provide light and water for his people. As a matter of fact, light and water for the whole world. That’s the day of the Lord. So the Jews come together during the feast of Tabernacle.

That’s on their minds. So here’s what they did. For seven days, the priest. Every morning, one of the priests would lead a processional of the Jews. They would leave the temple, and he’s carrying this huge golden pitcher.

And he would take it all the way down to the springs of Gihon, which fed the pool of Bethesda. The lame man was the priest then will fill this golden pitcher with water elevated above his head. He and a group of priests would then form a processional. And the Jews would be reciting scripture, Isaiah 12, verse 3, about God providing salvation. They would sing together the Psalms, Psalm 1131-141151-16117, 118, as they’re numbered in our Bible.

And they would make their way all the way back to the Temple, get to the Temple. They the priest then would take that pitcher, stand over the altar, and pour water out over the altar. Now, y’, all, let me just tell you, in the first century in Israel, there was one thing you never did with water. You didn’t pour it out. This was an arid culture.

You don’t pour water out, you use it. But on this day, they would pour it on the altar, basically saying, we have so much faith in our God to provide for us, even in the drought, we’re just going to pour this water out on the altar. And then on the seventh day, they did that seven times. So they had seven parades on day seven, and poured water out on the altar seven times. It was a memorable, powerful experience for them, reminding them that they believed God would provide enough water for them.

On top of that, the second symbol during the tabernacle feast was light. The priests also built these huge stands in the court of women. In fact, if you still got your Bibles open, if you’ll look at chapter eight, we just read verse 20. It says that when Jesus was doing this, teaching this, he was in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. That’s the court of women, okay?

Where Jesus was standing, they had placed these huge four stands for the week. On the top of each stand were four huge gold bowls. Those four huge gold bowls were full of oil and wicks. So there were 16 of them around the court of women. And every night they were lit a fire.

And Israel was to be reminded that God’s glory descended upon the tabernacle in the wilderness. And he brought light to guide them through the wilderness. And so Jesus is in Jerusalem when all this is happening, and he’s watching the priest every day, go and get the water and bring it up and pour it out over the altar. He’s watching the priests every night light these 16 bowls. And some of the rabbis that wrote about it said that you could see Israel, Jerusalem, rather, from miles away.

There was so much light coming from the temple, and it was a reminder that one day Israel was going to provide light for the whole world and water for the whole world. So with that said, y’, all, here’s the claim. Jesus is the light of the world. He’s the light shining in the darkness. He’s our guiding light.

How does Jesus demonstrate his messiahship? Well, let me show you two ways he does it. In this story, if you still have your Bibles on, look at John 7. Look at verse 37. Want you to notice what John says on the last and greatest day of the festival.

That’s day seven. The priest has gone to the pool, the spring of Gihon, seven times, and poured out this massive pitcher of water on the altar. Look at verse 37. On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stands up and says in a loud voice, are y’ all still thirsty?

Isn’t that awesome? He says, if you’re still thirsty after watching all this water that’s been drawn by these priests and poured out on this altar, if you’ll come to me drink, you will have rivers of water flowing out of you. In other words, I now am the answer for the thirst of Israel. I’m the real living water. What a powerful testimony from Jesus.

What a boat. Can you imagine someone standing up in the middle of one of the high festival days of the year in the temple and telling everybody, you seen the priest get all this water? I’m really all you need. Who talks like that? Jesus, The Messiah does.

Then look at our passage, chapter eight, Jesus. Look, he’s standing in the court of women. That’s what it tells in verse 20. Those four massive stands, 16 bowls on fire, lit up, provide light for all of Israel. And what does Jesus say in verse 12?

I’m actually the light of the world. You know, one of the ways that Jesus is going to shepherd me and you is in way, in how he reveals himself to us. In John’s Gospel, he does that with some very powerful, bold statements. They usually begin like this. I am.

There are seven of them. As you make your way through John’s gospel, just look for them. What do you think? Every Jew, when they heard Jesus say, I am, what did they think about God? Do you remember in Exodus when Moses said, what’s your name?

And God said, I am. John will even say at one point, Jesus, you know, Jesus will say, I’m the bread of heaven. We talked about that last week. Today it’s, I am the living water and I am the light of the world. But in John 8, Jesus is going to get into a discussion about who he really is and who his dad is.

You know, when Jesus says, I came from heaven, they said, now wait a minute, we know your dad. You’re from Galilee. And Jesus said, no, actually, I’m from heaven. And then he starts talking about Abraham and what Abraham would have said. And they said, what do you know about Abraham?

And Jesus said, well, before Abraham was I am. What a bold statement from Jesus. What Jesus is saying is, I’m the Messiah. And in this very text, y’, all, he’s saying, I’m the Light of the world, here’s what I would say to you today. Let him reveal himself to you for who he really is.

And he is your guiding light. He’s the bread from heaven. We learned that last week. But he’s also your guiding light. That means he will not leave you to the darkness of your own wisdom.

You don’t have to live your life making decisions in the dark. You can. You can, but you don’t have to. You don’t have to rely upon your own ingenuity and your own wisdom. Only you can invite him in your life and allow him to guide you.

See, Jesus is the way. He’s not just the way to heaven. He is, praise God. But he’s the way to live your life on this earth. And so here’s what he wants to do.

He wants to illumine your path. He wants to you know what light does. First of all, he wants to reveal to you who you are. That’s usually the painful part. When Jesus has to show us who we really are, that’s when we come to that point of knowing we need Him.

He’ll provide that light for you. He will. Light exposes. But then he’ll also provide you with light for every day. Light for your decisions.

Light for how you’re going to manage the challenges of your life. He wants to provide you with that light. That light is so important. You know, right now, our children are at Choices Weekend. You know what we’re trying to help them do?

They’re young. I get it. But we’re trying to help them make really good decisions. Our youth are at Encounter Weekend. You know what we’re trying to do with those youth?

Help them learn how to follow the light of Jesus as they walk on their path. Last Thursday, I spoke to the college students and we talked about discerning the will of God. Some of y’ all were there for that. As I told these college students, when I was in college, I made huge decisions. Who I was going to marry, what my vocational calling was, where I was going to go to school to pursue all that.

I made all those decisions when I was 20 years old. Those three decisions still impact my life every single day. We make huge decisions. We don’t need to rely on our own wisdom. Only we need the light of Jesus.

And guess what? Jesus says, I’m the light of the world. Let him guide you. He’ll help you find your way on the Jesus way. May it be so.

Let’s pray together.

Well, Father, we love you. We thank you that you care enough about us to be invested in our everyday lives. Lord, we are grateful for that. We need you. We need your wisdom.

We need your light. There are people right now within the sound of my voice that are making big decisions, and they need your wisdom. They don’t need to just rely on the wisdom of the darkness of their own wisdom. They need what only you can give them. And so, Lord, I’m.

I’m praying for them right now. I ask you to give them wisdom. Wisdom to make good decisions. And I just pray that you will be the light in their lives and that you’ll help each of them find their way on the Jesus way. We pray that in his name, Amen.