What's Your #EmptyFlashlightStory? God's Help for #Loneliness, #Depression, #Abuse, #Addictions

[Music] what is your story what is your flashlight story what is your flashlight story because everyone sitting here right now and everybody on planet earth has a flashlight story and what i want to do is to help you understand what it is to be a christian to act as a christian be a christian what is it to become a christian but also help you understand why do people do the crazy things they do you have family and friends and loved ones and they just do crazy stuff and you're like what is wrong with you right you ever have those moments what is wrong with you and you'll understand by the end of this message what's wrong you'll understand the crazy all right so i'm going to take this flashlight i'm going to talk about how this flashlight is like you and me and everybody on the planet all right so that's kind of the goal so first thing about this flashlight is it has the creator and oh by the way there's a handout so you can follow along with this message there's a handout in some verses i'll be talking about but this flashlight was crea as a creator this did not happen by accident there was not an explosion in a plastic factory and all the plastic went out and then it was suddenly made made of flashlight that did not happen no there was a creator someone decided the length of it the width of it the color of it you know decided how it was going to be made they decided everything about this flashlight well you know what psalm 139 says you have a creator you are not an accident you are not some cosmic accident some people kind of think that but no you are not a cosmic accident you're not a result of just evolution there's a god who created you the bible says in psalm 139 that you are fearfully and wonderfully made some more fearfully and others more wonderfully but you know you can decide on that but but god decided where you're going to be born you had no choice in that matter god decided the color of your hair now you can change it later if you want but but god decided the color of your hair god decided the color of your eyes i have two different colored eyes i didn't decide that god decided that god decided for you how tall you were going to be now you can decide how wide you want to be but god decided how tall you were going to be god decided how you were hardwired what he put within you abilities and skills that are really quite amazing this god who created you he he did all of this the bible says that all of your days before you lived before one of them was lived god had written him in his book the bible said that god formed you in the innermost being of your mother's womb god did that you have a creator it's amazing god created you god created everybody you know god created everybody on the planet but secondly uh the flashlight and you have a purpose flashlights have a purpose my wife and i just went on this 75 day trip and we have multiple flashlights uh and we would use them at different times but no matter which flashlight we grabbed to use as we were out and about across america there was always one purpose right what was it we wanted a flashlight that had power and would show for the light right that was that was that was it right that was what it was all about was okay every flashlight no matter what size shape color hey is it working okay turn it on it's working great we have got light every flashlight created with a purpose whole power show forth light you my friends were made by god with a purpose colossians 1 16 all things have been created through him and for him you were made for god you were made to know god you were made to know the love of god you were made to know the presence and the power of god shining through your life you were made to shine with the glory of god god made you that way you were made with a purpose but but just like the flashlight you know you came empty because that's a problem that's the number three here is flashlights come empty right and you buy them they come empty they can't shine and no matter what you put in this flashlight it can't shine and this flashlight if i try to make it work i mean it's made to work it's made the whole power it's made to shine and i say come on shine and it's not shining so i hit it come on come on just shine just shine no matter how much i hit this flashlight no matter what i talk to this fight come on shine it can't shine can't do it what about you and me we have a problem we were born empty we were born separated from the creator we come empty and can't shine ephesians 2 1 says this it says you were dead empty powerless in your trespasses and sins the world is filled with walking dead people empty dead people powerless dead people you were dead empty powerless in your trespasses and sins in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world into the ruler of the power of the air and so what happens in life is we we're born and we we sense with that we were made of the purpose and we have a creator and we but we feel this emptiness and we just say we need to feel the emptiness and we start this life trek of feeling the emptiness and everybody you've done and i've done it everybody does it i want to just feel life i want to feel love i want to feel something i know i'm made to live and to shine but i'm empty and i want to shine and so there's this journey we go on and we try to feel the emptiness and the world's got a little black box and it's got a lot of stuff in there to help you feel that emptiness now for me and i'm gonna this is my story you know my story for god's glory right i had i felt the emptiness even as a young child in my teenage years and i felt that emptiness and i just thought if i just had money if i had money in the things that money could buy i'll feel something wow i got money and i got stuff and i got presents and i got toys and now i'm somebody if i just get that fancy bike i'm going to be somebody you know and you've done that in life we've all done that if i just get this thing if i just get this much money you know we'll be happy well you know what i found out that money was it wouldn't make me happy and i thought well you know the problem is i i just need more money if i had more money i'd be happy and so you know i got more money and then i even got some more money and you know and if i couldn't get money i would take money from people and i just did a lot of things because i thought if i just had money and the things that money could buy i could feel something i could feel like i had life and i could shine and it didn't work so well maybe you can kind of relate to that you know some of you you know what you did is you just excelled you did good in school you did in sports you did good in life whatever and you know your life has been all about kind of just excelling so you just thought if i could just get enough ribbons enough good enough gpa do this do that do the other thing if i just get enough then i'll be happy i'll be satisfied you know tom brady has what six or seven super bowl rings guess what the after super bowl he's empty again i mean for a moment it felt like he shined right in those in that moment but the next day he's just tom brady and he's empty inside we're going to have olympians who spent their whole life if i if i could just be an olympian if i could just do that and they're going to be an olympian but they're going to wake up you know six months now they're like i'm still empty inside some people are going to get gold medals and and silver medals and bronze medals and and blu-ray you know all of that stuff and they're still going to feel empty inside because you know what sports can't ultimately satisfy success can't ultimately satisfy stuff can't satisfy you know other people they just say well i'm just going to be a good person and so they just they're kind and you know maybe this is you you're loving and you bathed your parents you did all this stuff and this is kind of like white cotton you just stuck you just kind of filled your flashlight with good things you volunteered and you served and you helped and you did all that and you're like wow that's that's great right well that's like you know that's still there's still an emptiness you still don't feel anything some of you even went into a church some of you went to church and say well if i just went to church if i could just go to church and and you go to church he said now i'll shine i'll be around people that are shining and then i'll shine but you can walk into a church it doesn't make you a christian you go into a garage it doesn't make you a car you go to mcdonald's and make your hamburger okay it's not it's not church christians do go to church but going to church doesn't make you a christian so that's that's glum and then some people hear about jesus and they say you know i want jesus in my life and and so they you know invite jesus in their life and they've got a little bit of jesus but jesus doesn't seem to work for them and they don't quite understand it but you see there's other stuff going on in people's lives the bible calls it sin the bible calls it ten commandments the bible says you know that we're to love god with all all of our hearts soul mind and might but we don't really do that do we we love ourselves we love stuff we love all of our things and it's just kind of like dirt filling up our flashlight every day there's just a little dirt we just really don't love god that we're supposed to we don't uh honor the lord's day on it's sunday but no it's just part of the weekend we're just gonna go have fun and and i don't really like that person so the bible said don't bear false witness against somebody but they're a jerk and i hate them and so i'm just gonna talk trash about them and we do that in their life and we covet the things that people want and and we do that and and we lie and and uh and we don't murder but we do wish some people would be dead and so you know we just feel our flashlight you know that's a problem and we kind of have all this stuff going on and but then we say well okay i want to get a career or i want to get cool clothing or i want to i want to do this or i want to do that and then we you know we kind of you know just try to find a way to shine and we put something in our life and hope that people don't see inside the brokenness inside of us and the emptiness that they hope that they see the outside and they're being pressed you get the right house you get the right car you get the right clothes you get the right you know whatever and you're doing this kind of thing and then there's a whole area of sex and it's like well i got buttons and i'm gonna go find someone else's buttons we're gonna push each other's buttons and wow that feels so good and and i'm gonna that feels like i got life and like i'm really living but after the end of that night that one night stand you know the next morning you're still as lone alone and empty as ever looks familiar just can you relate to this some of your journeys i know some of your stories and you you're like yeah brian you're talking about me some of the people you know family friends you're trying to wonder why they're doing such crazy they're just trying to feel the emptiness right they're just trying they're just trying to feel the emptiness and it happened and then sometimes it doesn't work and you say well man i'm just gonna get drunk and so we're gonna party and so you just go you just try to just you know pour out the pain and you know you just get drunk or you get high don't like drugs you don't like alcohol we'll give you drugs you put drugs in there oh it feels like wow i'm really living but you're a walking dead man and walking dead woman you're dead and your trespasses and sins all right so what do you do with this there's only one thing you can do see the cross first john 1 9 says if we confess our sins our junk he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness see the the problem with some easy believism pray to receive jesus and you do need to pray to receive jesus but the problem is a lot of people pray to receive jesus but never acknowledge the sinner that they were and the sins that they've done and and so for me this is my story for god's glory now you've got your own story right you got your own story if you don't have it god wants to give it to you your story for his glory but for me i this is me at 21 years of age this is brian kluth walking through life just you know trying to feel the emptiness doing all this stuff right and uh some friends of mine they they told me about jesus and how jesus had set them free from sin in their life and and i just said well that's fine for you but i'm too busy living life and having a good time and i'm not interested in that jesus that you have and and so but they they told me about christ and what he could do in my life i said i'm not interested i don't care i don't i believe in god in my own terms my own way and all that stuff and but one day i found myself on a sunday morning after a weekend of partying and i just like i need to go to church and you go to church and i and i uh i i got hold of my friends i said hey what church do you go to there like this particular church i was a student at uw madison and uh they said this church and i said okay i'm gonna be there and i went i went and they were like you know why are you here you ever ever been around some people you're like okay why are you in church i i know your story and like you don't belong here and that's i was that i'm like you know why are you here and i just said i i just needed to come here today and and the preacher was preaching and and uh while i was talking and i've not heard this word in a long time but i came under the conviction of sin i came under the conviction of the weight of my sin was just heavy on me i mean there this season in my life at one point i wanted to die i remember i was going down an interstate and there was a i could go right or i could go left and i thought my life is worthless i'm just going to take my life but i don't want i don't want to you know i'm i don't want to shoot myself for something or take drugs so i'll just you know instead of going right or left i'll just hit the cement wall and people think it's a car accident because i didn't feel like living anymore because i couldn't i couldn't figure out how to feel the emptiness but anyway i'm in this church service and all of a sudden i'm like i i got to get out of here i got to get out of here and i i get i'm my friends go are you okay i'm like no no i got to get out of here and uh and i get out and i'm walking around the church and i'm like okay go down some hallways and stuff and and i and i find i find a door and i open i look in the door and there's a broom closet like a janitor's closet and and i suddenly found myself on my knees and and to me it was it was a jesus moment i mean really a real jesus moment and to me it was all about the cross it's all about this cross and and i suddenly found myself literally on my knees and i was just before the lord i was like jesus jesus please i'm such a liar and a thief and i'm an immoral and i'm conquered so empty i don't know what to do jesus bill and nancy say you can forgive my sin and he could make me a new person jesus he told me i could go to heaven someday jesus i need you forgive me for my sin thank you for dying on the cross thank you for taking my sin upon you thank you jesus please come into my life and in that moment jesus met me there i remember i don't know how long i was kneeling 20 minutes 30 minutes 40 minutes i have no idea but something happened that day this this is what happened ezekiel 36 jesus god says i will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean i will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols idols is anything that takes the place of god in your life anything that takes the place of god in your life and i i had a lot of idols right i had a lot of things that i thought could satisfy that could not fill that god-shaped vacuum i had but god says he would cleanse me from all those impurities all the filth all the crud and junk that was in my life he would take it away you take away that those impurities that filth and from your idols i will give you a new heart i will put a new spirit in you all right and so as i got up that day off my knees i had a new experience suddenly the emptiness that had been there for 21 years my life was gone all the idols all the impurities all the sin all the crap all the junk was gone i suddenly all i knew was joy all i knew was forgiveness and all i knew was this presence of god in me and and i was like okay i'm the same guy on the outside but something's happened inside of me and and suddenly i feel the peace and the presence and the power of god in my life and i went back to the fraternity and i i went back to those my broad fraternity brothers and i began to live my life and it was it was interesting because they would say let's go out drinking and i'd say i don't want to it wasn't like i can't it's like no i did all that because of this you know the girls i ran around with hey you want to get together no i don't i don't want to do that no i've got a new life the bible says we're born again the bible says if you were a christian old things pass away behold all things become new and i was living this new life i remember playing foosball one day and all my fraternity brothers are effing this and g d that and j.c that and just cursing and swearing and i was like man those guys are falmouth and all of a sudden i thought well i've always been like that but i wasn't doing it anymore i was like where did those words go they were gone jesus said fill me with himself jesus had filled me with himself and suddenly i was living a brand new life i was born again that's what this is about being born again we all have a flashlight story but god's desire for you and for everybody on the planet is they come to know this and this the cross the forgiveness and then once you become a christian then what john 15 5 you need to stay connected to your power source john 15 5 if you remain in me and i in you jesus speaking you you will bear much fruit apart from me you can do nothing this flashlight cannot shine apart from the batteries your life cannot shine apart from christ all right so you need christ and you need the word of god so as i became a christian you know i need to have my batteries recharged all the time so for me what a hot what did that look like it was being in the word of god every day i would plug in right on the rv trip right my wife and i plugged our phones in every night we recharged them every night so we had power in the morning all right so literally the word of god and time with christ in his word is literally a way to recharge your life every day your spiritual batteries need to be recharged i do not go to the word because i have to or because i should i go to the word because i need to right i need to and you and i have a choice every day we can have a messed up bible or a messed up life that's it that's the choice messed up bible or messed up life but if you're going to walk with christ and know christ and let the love of god shine through you you need to be in his word so for me it's been 40 000 days or 35 000 days in a row in the word of god because i need christ i need the word of christ being dwelling in me richly but how does this relate to psalm 118 let's look at that together psalm 118 that's the verse the chapter i was given to preach from what do we need to learn from this object lesson in psalm 118. number one god wants you to have a flashlight story for his glory god wants you to have a flashlight story for his glory what did you try to fill your life with apart from christ you know what was it that you were doing what was it you thought would satisfy what was the sin that was holding you and had had you had a hold of your life i know what mine was but what is yours but ultimately their story of that is that god did something jesus came into our life psalm 118 5-17 in my distress my sin my emptiness my brokenness my failures i pray to the lord what was that on my knees that's what i did in all of my brokenness and emptiness my sin and my failures i prayed to the lord and the lord answered me and sent me what's the word free he sets you free it's amazing you are free you are no longer a drunkard you are no longer immoral you are no longer a liar you are no longer caught in unforgiveness you're no longer caught in pride or self-righteousness or unbelief you are no longer you have been set free and then it says the psalmist says i will not die instead i will live to tell what the lord has done you know i say i wanted to take my life i had no reason to live but now i had a reason to live now i had a reason to glorify god and to tell others what jesus had done in me and for me and with me and through me right so suddenly there's a whole new life to live and life was suddenly different i had a i had a purpose or a purpose ephesians 2 2 10 says god creates us in christ jesus on the good works which he has prepared in advance that you would walk in them so once you come to know to know christ he wants to shine through your life and he wants you to glorify him you're to tell others what he's done my wife and i on this trip we're traveling first couple days we were going through nebraska and we stopped in omaha and uh we stopped at a dollar store and so we get out and going to the dollar store we're doing some shopping and we go get over to the counter and my wife's ahead of me and i come up behind her and the woman at the cash register looks at us and says do you see them do you see them and we were like see see what they were kind of looking around angels angels they're they're all around you um no don't see him don't see him and she said a few more things and we're kind of like okay and you know we chatted and went out i went to the rv and and i said to marielle what did that girl say and she said she said she saw angels around us that's what i thought she said that's really strange so i need to go back in and talk to her so she was going on break when i went back in and she was going to break and i said hey can i talk to you for a minute i said sure i said you know you were talking to us about angels you know were you trying to say you two are angels were you you know were you trying to be nice why were you calling us angels no no no no you said you don't see them i said see what angels right now they're all around you and i said i don't see him and then she said in my life demons i've got demons they follow me everywhere i go and i said hey i don't see what you see but i know god's brought us here to omaha today for this moment and i said i want you to know something there's a god who loves you and whatever those demons are you know whatever i don't know what's going on in your life but i said i was a liar and i was a thief and i was immoral and i was a drunkard and that was all these things and jesus set me free he set me free and he can do that for you he can do that for you and we have these little cards we carry in our wallet and a person and it's a little pay it forward card and if we do an act of kindness for someone we give it to them then there's a little little video uh link and it's god's love for you and i said i gave the gal a little money and i just i want to bless you with a little bit of money and and in this card and when you go home i said please go look at this video god's love for you dot com and and i and if any of you doubt the love of god go go home and look up god's love for you dot com uh and and i said go look at that and realize jesus loves you and whatever this isn't going on in your life he can set you free god wants us to have a story for his glory and the story is he set us free he set us free all right well let's go on to number two god's presence gives you authority and victory god's presence gives you authority and victory you know it's not what's happening in your life it's not who is against you in your life it is who is in your life right so this flashlight does not have to be afraid of the darkness it doesn't no matter how much darkness comes upon this light if you turn off all the lights in here and this flashlight was suddenly surrounded in complete darkness this flashlight does not have to be afraid of the light i mean afraid of the darkness this flashlight does not have to curse the darkness we've got a lot of christians running around cursing the darkness all right they don't like the darkness but god's like don't worry about the darkness just shine right just turn on just let me shine in the darkness let me shine in this moment it's not matter what's going on it's not a matter who's against you it's who's for you and who's in you and who's with you shine in the darkness shine that's what god's called you to do shine he gives you authority to shine in the darkness not to fear not to run from it not to be afraid from it but to just let jesus in your life shine in the darkness psalm 118 7 10-14 the lord is for me he will help me though hostile nations empty flashlights surrounded me i destroyed them all with the authority of the lord the lord is my strength in my song he has given me victory victory there's a lot of people i know even christians that understand the work of the cross that jesus died for their sins and they're completely forgiven but they are walking around wounded they're walking around wounded why are they wounded there was emotional abuse in your past there was sexual abuse in your past there was physical abuse in your past there was family there was parents there were siblings there were friends there was a co-worker there was a boss there was a teacher there was a coach there was some some idiot somewhere in life that just messed up your life they brought hurt and harm and pain to your life and there's been suffering and you're walking around with this open wound because of what happened to you and yes you know you're forgiven and yes you're on your way to heaven but you're just walking you're walking wounded what do you do with that what do you do with the sins done against you you under many if you're an evangelical christian believer you understand what to do with the sins you've done but what about the sins you've done with you see a lot of people can run to counselors and you can spend years in counseling and they can help you you know with some some ideas and some treatments and some things and they can do this and they can do that but at the end of the day all that pain that somebody else caused is still there they can't take it away and jesus says how much do i love you they put his hands on the cross i love you this much and i believe just like i went to that cross you know for my own sin i believe there's a place and for some of you need to really hear this say this is why god has you here today you've got some pain in your past you've got some things that happen you live with it every day you go to sleep with it every night you wake up with it every morning it is just there you need to take that that sin done to you and against you by that person or those people and you need to bring that sin to the cross you need to say jesus jesus you who know that moment you saw that moment it was wrong what they did was wrong what they did hurt it's hurt for so many years jesus please take that sin not just my sin but the sins done against me jesus take my dead sin and i bring it to the cross and i put it under the blood of christ that sin you paid the penalty for that sin you are more powerful than that sin jesus please take that sin upon yourself and when you get up and when that remembrance that thought comes that sin that wrong that hurt that harm when it comes into your mind you say paid for paid for it's under the blood you now have blood colored glasses you look at you look at that incident and you say no it was paid for jesus paid for that sin i'm yes i had a wound i had a wound but jesus will heal that wound you don't have to walk around wounded okay you don't have to walk around with he can heal that wound it doesn't erase the memory it doesn't erase what happened but you now know that the blood of christ covers that and here's what happens with a wound when you have a big big bad wound right what happens is you're left with a scar you've got a scar right the sky you're healed but you've got a scar here's what god can do he can take your scars and turn him into stars he could he can take take you and you were a victim and now you're a victor you could take the test and now you're you have a testimony you have a message to tell somebody else that was abused say yes i understand you i understand what you went through i went through that too and first corinthians talks about that there's a god of all our sacrament he's a god of all comfort and he comforts us in all of our troubles all of our pain all of our suffering he covers us in all of our suffering so that we can comfort others with the same comfort we ourselves have received from god suddenly that pain becomes a source of gain suddenly you have a message more than a mess you've got to decide what are you going to do with that hurt and that harm that came into your life you're going to walk be open will you walking wounded or you're gonna let jesus the great physician bring healing bring his word bring his blood upon that that thing that hurt so badly set you free set you free number three no matter what happens you can rejoice every day no matter what happens you can rejoice every day psalm 118 if you look at that chapter there's five times i'm going to say this five times verses one two three 4 and ends in 29 his faithful love endures forever won his faithful love endures forever too his faithful love endures forever three his faithful love endures forever for his faithful love endures forever five why does he say it five times because his faithful love and doers what forever for that's a long time right his faithful love endures forever this is the day the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it all right we will rejoice and be glad in it okay now you might be dealing with stuff you might have difficult times i will tell you every day is not good but god is good every day you know i've said from this pulpit from this platform before you know i i had a wife who died and went to heaven that was hard i had a little three-month-old grandson tragic death that was hard i've had loved ones that have really messed up their lives it's been hard i've been fired in my life that's been hard every day is not good but god is good every day and so every day you have the choice what will you do with the day and i believe every day we can say i will rejoice this is the day the lord has made i will rejoice and be glad in it why will you why can you rejoice why can you be glad every day no matter what happens right why because christ is in you the power and presence of god is with you and for you you can rejoice every single day because of the love of god for you no matter what happens the bible says you cannot be separated from the love of god no matter what's going on god loves you and god is for you right and god has a future for you you're on your way to heaven if you know christ right you can rejoice every day just for the presence of christ the power of christ the future plans for of christ in your life we can rejoice every day but but do you see how this message is so important for all of us what's your story god wants you to know your story but he wants you to know the power and the presence of god in the midst of your story because then you can tell others jesus set me free and you can live for the glory of god he wants to give you a beautiful story he wants to give you a beautiful story and the people you know around you that they're they're so messed up and they're so hurting maybe this maybe this little illustration might help you have a conversation maybe that maybe this video needs to go viral and you say hey i saw that guy talk about this flashlight thing hey watch this we had a gal last week i preached that mr lakewood she said every friend i have is going to get this video as soon as it's ready because my friends they're so messed up they're doing all this crazy stuff they're they're hurting themselves or hurting other people i just wish they knew the answer and brian you gave the answer it's jesus it's jesus he's our answer he's the only one that can fill the emptiness because the only one that can deal with the pain and the past and the problems only in him can we have peace and purpose his presence his power his promises let's pray together [Music]

Channel: Brian Kluth

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Id: TCFCAHFqyUw

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021