Sermons

Introduction:

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like there was a dark cloud hanging over you ... and it seemed to track your every move? And if it hung around you long enough, there just seemed to be no way out? One of the Enemy's greatest pleasures is to darken your days and to steal your JOY! Did you know that?

Even great leaders of the Church have gone through "˜dark nights of the soul.' Martin Luther was one of those. He would give himself wholly to things like prayer, fasting, and so forth, just to be strengthened and get through those days. Yet, during one of those dark times of his life, it was the simple testimony of friend that brought light to his troubled soul. He urged Luther to look the other way from those things in life that we're dragging him down--to repent, in other words--turn his back on those things that pulled him away from God and "˜cast himself into the arms of his Savior.' Luther did that ... and found peace; he found that his days were brightening...

Jesus came to bring light into the darkness of our lives, too. Today, we're going to celebrate that gift--the gift of his Great Light...