What We Do in the Dark // Dark Night - Bright Light, Part 6
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Release Date: 03/17/2025
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
We’ve all made mistakes in life. I have. You have. Imagine, imagine if we could have another crack. You know, a new life with the slate wiped clean. This week so far, we’ve been looking at the paradoxes in life. In particular, how on the one hand everything tells us we should put ourselves first, that we’re the centre of the universe, but on the other hand, the bleak reality of that kind of approach, well it just doesn’t work. People are just dying to have a great life but so often they focus on the short-term cost and the changes they need to make to have that life. In a sense,...
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A few weeks ago, I celebrated one of those milestone birthdays. So what. We all have a birthday. Easy though to get self-absorbed about things – to imagine somehow that we’re at the centre of the universe. Easier it turns out, than many of us think. As I said, a few weeks ago, I celebrated one of those milestone birthdays ... 66 years since I breathed my first breath. So I was thinking … whoa, stop, don’t turn it off! I’m not going to talk about myself for the next ten minutes; I was just trying to make a point. You know those people in life who only ever talk about...
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We all know people with that “my way or the highway” attitude. Delightful aren’t they? But truth be known, this a bit of that streak in each of us. Question is, what to do about it? Now we all know people in life who are the sort of people who dominate, they rule the roost, it has to be done their way, “It’s my way or the highway.” You know the sort; if you close your eyes you can just picture their angry faces. It’s all kind of wrapped up in an inherent selfishness, an underlying belief that, well, I’m at the centre of the universe, life is all about my needs, gratifying...
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Life is full of contradictions. Things that are supposed to work but don’t. And mostly, because they’re too hard to confront, or we’re too busy to bother, we ignore them…while all along they’re tearing us apart inside. Our day to day lives are cluttered, jam packed full of paradoxes, contradictions. Boy meets girl, would be somewhere at the top of the list. That chemistry, that excitement, that joy, it’s hard wired. They get married and a few years later all of a sudden it gets hard, so hard in fact, that between forty and fifty percent of those marriages end up in divorce....
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Some people have discovered their gig in life – they know what their particular talent is, and they’re living it. But most – most haven’t. Do they have a gift? Does God have a plan to use that gift? One of the most rewarding things in my life is watching my three children grow from childhood into adulthood. They're all young adults now, thirty two, thirty and twenty one years old, our baby. The two older ones are the boys and the youngest is our daughter. Why is it so rewarding? Well in part you see the huge investment that you put into them finally bearing some fruit. There's that but...
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You and I know that we have to work hard in order to be rewarded in this world. And to a point … to a point that’s true. But what happens when we take that truth just a bit too far is that truth, becomes a lie. I’m joined again today on the program by Brett Barclay who this week is talking to us about "The Top 5 Truths that God Wants Us to Believe". You'll recall over the past few weeks we've been looking at the lies the devil tries to feed us so it's a pretty good time for us to be talking about truth. And you know what, ultimately even though we may not realise it the truth matters...
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Most people can’t imagine being confident in standing before God. Let alone being bold in His Presence. But … well, that’s exactly what God wants us to be. Confident and Bold … but how? One of the hardest things for me to unlearn is the idea of being afraid of God but instead be confident before Him. Why? Well you know we've all done stuff, you've done stuff and I've done stuff. It's a bit like with our fathers when we were kids. When we'd done stuff we knew there were going to be consequences and so we wanted to run and hide and then when we do come to that point of putting our trust...
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The world’s system is a performance-based system. Perform, and you get rewarded. Perform and you win. Perform and you succeed. Most religions are like that too. What about Jesus? Is He into performance-based religion too? It's great to be with you again today and I'm joined by my very special guest on the program this week, Brett Barclay and Brett I believe that today we're going to talk about performance based religion, is that right? Brett: We are, yeah. Berni: Okay, so let me ask you this: Is Christianity a performance-based religion? A very simple answer: one word, yes or no? Brett: Yes,...
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Can you imagine what it would be like if you and I could have the same relationship, the same standing, the same intimacy with God as Jesus does. Can you just imagine? Well … turns out, that’s precisely why Jesus came. It's Monday again and I'm joined today and this week on the program by a very special guest Brett Barclay. His day job? Well he helps companies and organisations to learn and grow and perform. Some interesting clients there on his client list but at the heart of who Brett is lies the theologian, the theology lecturer. If that all sounds just a bit daunting, he’s a man...
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When you’re travelling through the dark days in life – it’s one thing for someone to say to us “Don’t worry God will come through in the end.” But it’s another thing entirely, when we discover the refuge of the Lord. I want you to imagine that you're out one night walking along a dark and lonely street and all of a sudden you see some drunk and unruly men coming towards you, they're swearing and they look to be wielding knives. You take a quick look around and there's not another soul in this street and just then you see a house to your left, you look in the window and you see a...
info_outlineSometimes we travel through dark patches in life – and in those difficult times, it’s tempting to let that darkness smear how we think, what we say and what we do. And yet how we behave on those dark days – is so very important.
It's great to be with you again this week. I'm not sure if you were able to join me last week but we began a new series called, "Dark Night, Bright Light" and it's one that we're continuing on again this week on the program. We all travel through dark times in life, times of loss or loneliness or sickness or sadness or depression, the list goes on. Now I'm not suggesting that we're all a bunch of losers, I don't mean that, it's just one of the realities of life that dark times are something that we all have to travel through.
Jacqui, my wife, was talking to a long time friend of hers, her children are growing up and there's lots of challenges and problems and she's exhausted. A dear friend of mine whose son committed suicide, he and his wife are still reeling from that and another friend who's been retrenched, well he's in his fifties and it's hard for him to find a job.
This stuff happens; dark times are difficult because it's dark and so often we can't see where we are or where we're going. I've had them, you've had them, that's life and that's why we're talking about these dark times again this week on the program.
And it's not just about the darkness but also the bright light that shines in those dark places. Jesus said these amazing words:
I am the light of the world.
And one of the things we saw last week is that He is in the 'light' business and that’s good news for anyone going through a dark patch. The very first thing that God created, Genesis chapter 1, was light, a trillion, trillion stars at least. That tells us something about Him; God is definitely in the "light" business, hallelujah don't you think?
Last week we spent some time with King David in Psalm 34 and we're going there again today. This man David had more than his fair share of dark, difficult and lonely and scary times. That's why what he has to say is so useful; his wisdom comes from what he learned about God. So this psalm is kind of a retrospective with a benefit of hindsight, he's looking back on the dark times, on his fear and when God showed up. Let’s read the first part of that psalm again right now; this is what he says:
I will bless the Lord all the time; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; let all those who are afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let’s exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered in shame.
This poor man called and the Lord heard him; He saved him from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
See, David's saying God is a god who shows up in the dark times and delivers us. Now David isn't telling us that off the top of his head, it's from his experience. He spent such a long time, so many years on the run from Saul who was trying to kill him. In dark caves, in lonely places. David had fought so many battles where he was hard pressed and he should have been killed but God was there for him and one of the things that we touched on last week was fear; bad fear and good fear.
Bad fear is the fear that David talks about in verse 4 of this psalm:
I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
But he also goes on to talk about good fear in verse 7:
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them.
Fear of the Lord is something we're going to have a look at some more today because it's what this next part of Psalm 34 is all about. I want you to come with me now as we read just the next 5 verses of this psalm, verses 9 to 14 which is where we're going to spend a bit of time together today. He writes:
Fear the Lord, you His holy ones for those who will fear Him will have no want. The lions may grow weak and hungry but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing. Come my children, listen to me; I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days; keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
This is a really important part of the psalm. The first part told us all about God and what He's like, it's fantastic, we looked at that last week. This second part though; it's about the part that we have to play during those dark times.
I want to tell you something about darkness; people will do things in the dark that they won't do in the light. Think about it, we're much more careful about where we walk and what we do out there in the dark, in the night time, than we are in the day time. Robberies, muggings, murder; they're all more likely to occur under the cover of darkness. And the same is true in our lives. Dark times, well they're the times we're far more likely to do things that we know are wrong.
Let me just give you a few practical examples. A husband and wife, they're going through some tough times in their marriage and their eyes start to wander, they start looking around. That's how adultery begins, instead of holding on to each other, holding close and working through the issues.
Or perhaps there's conflict at work; someone’s just not treating us well and we're feeling under pressure, it's really getting to us, you know. The boss is just being horrible so we take that as an excuse to justify being lazy or stealing something or gossiping behind their back or not servicing a customer properly so that the company will lose some money.
Or perhaps money's really tight, we're under real financial pressure and we're tempted to lie and cheat on our tax return or when that shop attendant gives us too much change and makes a mistake; ah we just slip it into our pockets. Do you see how easy this stuff is?
In the dark times, in those hidden places the temptation to do wrong is far greater than when times are good. No-one notices it, after all times are tough, I have to look after number one, I have to look after me. I have to justify myself or protect myself or provide for myself and that’s how we rationalise this stuff. Do you notice the central theme running through all that? Me, myself and I.
Darkness is a time when we're afraid and in those times we can end up being tempted to turn away from what we know is right because no-one will notice and besides we just have to. The devil loves it, he's so delighted by this. Have a listen to what the apostle John says:
This is the message we've heard from Him and declare to you. God is light; in Him there's no darkness at all. If we claim to be walking with Him and yet we walk in the darkness, we lie and don't live in the truth.
And so over this week we're going to look at the wisdom that comes from David’s own experience in those dark times. What he learned about what to do when temptation comes in the darkness. You know how we rationalise this? I have to sin to save my skin; when I'm afraid I just think I have to do whatever it takes, no matter what the consequences are, to save my own skin.