Good Happens After Dark

How many are having a great week at camp so far? Didn't Brother Killmon do an incredible job this morning? Thank you so very much. Turn with me in your Bibles. Psalm 74. Wave at the camera. I know that's supposed to be candid, but that's kind of had to do that. It's been so great to be here. For those of you that don't know me that showed up for midweek Bible study, my name is Adam and I am Canadian. Appreciate you and the US government for letting me in your country. And I also appreciate all the 51st state jokes that I have been receiving this week. And those are always well received right along with the young men that turned the lights off in the bathroom this morning when I was there. Also, thank you for that. I'll be trying to figure out who you are later.

but I've had a great time getting a chance to know everybody and moms and dads and local church pastors that are here. You have sent your young people to the right place. You've got an incredible ministry team that lead this district. My goodness, is the Lord doing great things in Indiana. Psalm 74, the day also I want to minister to your heart today. God is going to do healing in this room. At the end of this service, the gift of healing is going to sweep through this whole house. And the sign of healing is not going to be crutches on the stage or a wheelchair or a walker abandoned as you go home, but it's going to be five years from now. Your faith is still intact. Your mind has been healed and renewed. You're stronger than you've ever been. I declare that over this room in the name of Jesus that God is going to heal hearts and minds.

I want you to know where we're going from the outset. God is going to heal hearts and minds in the next 30 minutes. Praise the Lord. The day is yours. The night also is yours. You have prepared the light and the sun. Psalm 139 and verse 12 says, "But even in the darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you." With the help of the Holy Ghost, I want to preach to everybody in this room. Good happens after dark. Good happens after dark. Jesus, Lord, I knew God, I have known him, God, for the past two weeks that of all the messages you would have me to deliver to this camp that this is one that must be delivered on this night. I pray anoint us. Give us ears to hear, a mind to receive.

Lord, what your word would say over all of us. God, I pray for every teenager and young adult that's in this room that they would be ready to receive. God, I also have felt this strange uncction and burden Lord Jesus for families that I was not expecting God at a youth camp. But Lord, now that I see this crowd, I know Lord that it is because you are wanting to minister to everybody from the front to the back, from the registered campers to the staff to the parents and local church members that are gathered here today. Loose your spirit in this room in the Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, you may be seated. You may be seated. With my heart pounding out of my chest with my heart literally pounding out of my chest, I realized I'm still not over it.

And I was not a little embarrassed at this discovery. Let me give you the backstory. I traveled to Australia a few years ago to preach at a conference and I flew from Toronto to LAX and it was in the middle of the weird COVID thing that was going on. You guys didn't notice it but California was still going crazy. and and so they had shut down a perfectly good PF Chang's and I was stuck at a PF Chang's for 8 and a half hours while I waited to board my final 15-hour flight to from LAX to Sydney, Australia. And after 36 hours of being continuously awake because I can't sleep on planes. And I don't need to get into the biology, but those of you with large neck circumferences know that unless unless you have a CPAP machine with you, you can't sleep on an airplane.

And the kids, you'll you'll worry about that later. And and so I have not slept for 36 hours. And as I made my way through customs with my swollen cankles and all I wanted to do was sleep, I met my hosts outside the airport and they said, "Whatever you do, do not go to sleep." And I said, "I don't know how that's going to be possible." And they said, "We have a solution for you. You're going to drink five coffees and then do some touring." And so I did. I drank five coffees and I jumped on a little electric scooter and I rode around Sydney Harbor. And then I went back to my room. They had a wonderful gift basket there for me. I ate a sleeve of Tim Tams before church because when I'm tired, I have no self-control over carbohydrates. I went to church and I preached preached my guts out.

The service was great. I have still not slept yet. They said, "We're Pentecostals and it doesn't matter if you're in Oceania or in North America, we going to eat after church." And I said, "Fair enough." And so we went to a Chinese restaurant and and where you could they had fish tanks just filled to the brim with eels. And they said, "You can pick out whatever eel you want and they will kill it and they will cook it for you." And I said, "Do we have chicken tenders?" And they said, "Yes, we also have chicken tenders." And I said, "Let's have that with some rice." And I had the chicken tenders. and I made my way back to the hotel and campers. I collapsed into bed and then if you've traveled internationally, you know what happened three hours later. I woke up in the middle of the night horrifically jet-lagged and since we're just oversharing here tonight, glad the parents and pastors are here and the internet is viewing.

I not only was I horrifically jet-lagged, but I also had to use the restroom. Don't look at me like that. You You go as well. and so I'm like, "Oh, God. All I want to do is sleep. Lord, I'm going to leave the lights off." And I and and I'm mapped out where everything was in my room because I do that everywhere I travel. I know exactly where everything is. I know where the exits are because that's exactly what normal and healthy people do. And I so was trying to find my way to the restroom and as soon as my toes hit the cold tile floor of the threshold of that Australian bathroom and I remembered an article that I had read. Does anybody know what they have in Australia? Okay. So who what is it? Spiders. No, I wasn't thinking of spiders, but now I will next time I go.

Thank you for that. But I had snakes. Did somebody say snakes? Snakes. I remembered an article when I was prepping for my trip to Australia. And here's what they said happens in Australia. They said they said that snakes, now stay with me here, snakes can crawl through the plumbing and hide in the bathroom coiled to strike whoever comes in the middle of the night. And I stood there with my big toe touching the tile and my heels on the carpet as I contemplated what to do. And with my heart pounding out of my chest, I began to swat like a madman at the wall trying to find the light switch. But in Australia, they're not up and down. They're side to side. I don't know why they do that, but I hit the light switch and I turned the lights on. That moment I realized I was a little embarrassed to admit that I am still a little afraid of the dark.

Anyone here still afraid of the dark? Okay, thank you to those of you that raised their hands. Afraid of the dark. It seems to be a thing. I read a poem from 1816 where a guy said the world was going to end because he looked out his window and it was dark outside. Fear of the dark seems to be a universal phenomenon. And I thought to myself, what in the world is darkness? Darkness is simply the absence of light. It occurs when light sources are blocked and not present, preventing light from reaching the surface or space. And here are a few ways to look at it scientifically. Light or darkness is a physics problem. Darkness is a condition where light photons are not visible or scarce and completely absent altogether. It's also a perception of the mind issue where our eyes cannot detect the light that is there and so we perceive the environment to be dark.

But darkness goes beyond biology and physics and it's a symbolic and philosophical reality in the part of the human existence. Darkness is a metaphor for ignorance or evil or fear or the unknown. Dark is the place of scary things that live in your closet or under your bed. So we are told, we are told that nothing good ever happens after dark. Darkness has always been the symbol of chaos, instability, and turmoil. You can't see. So there is confusion. There is uncertainty, and there is fear. And this phrase, nothing good happens after dark, is a bit of a phenomenon. Did you know that 65% of all murders happen at night? 59% of all assaults happen at night. 87% of DUIs happens at night. And as a pastor, I sit in my office with people who are going through trials and tribulations. Their life walks through dark valleys and they experience great pain in their life.

After they share with me the story of their trial and their trauma, one of the things they do with tears beginning to trickle down their cheeks as they go, "Pastor, it feels so dark." Darkness implies a loss of judgment or self-control. And people are tired, uninhibited, or under immense pressure. And the Bible darkness it carries this deep symbolic and theological meaning as beyond just the physical absence of light. It affirms that bad things do happen at night as darkness is used symbolically to represent evil and judgment, ignorance and separation from God. Proverbs 4:19 says, "The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble." Psalm 143:3-4 it says, "The enemy has chased me. He has knocked me to the ground and forces me to live in darkness like those in the grave. I am losing all hope. I am paralyzed with fear.

If I am honest and if we are honest with one another tonight, for many believers, the greatest struggle with their faith, the greatest struggle to trust in God, the greatest struggle to maintain the relationship with Lord with the Lord, it's not the myriad of intellectual challenges that face the Christian faith as we ended up talking about today. Just it kind of happened, brother Killmon. It's not about the struggle of wrestling with textual criticism. It's not the debate over the long ending of Mark. It's not why does king say the army is this big and chronicle says the army is this big. It's not why Jesus and not Krishna. It's not why Jesus and not Buddha. Those are not the questions that trouble many people here in this room. The thing that keeps you awake at night is God. What do I do with my darkness?

What do I do with the unanswered prayers? What do we do with the absolute lack of money? What do I do with this failure that's in my life, God? What do I do with my struggle with anxiety and depression? What do I do with this betrayal and breakdown in my family? What do I do with this trauma that I have gone through? What do I do with this diagnosis? What do I do with this abuse that I have suffered? What do I do with this breakup and separation that's happened in my family and the divorce that everyone has had to walk through as mom and dad no longer live together? It's been another month and there's been no change. It's been another month and there's no improvement. It's been another month, God, and I'm still overwhelmed and I'm still in pain and I'm still confused.

And the question we wrestle with the most of all is God, where are you in all of this? Is this okay, folks? This is where we live. God, where God, where are you? God, where are you in all of this? God, where are you in all of this darkness? God, where are you in all of this pain? Theologians call it theodicy. CS Lewis called it the problem of pain, but Heman the choir director in Psalm 88 6:13 and 18 says, "God, you've thrown me into the lowest pit, into the depths of darkness. Oh Lord, I cry out to you. I keep on pleading day by day. Oh Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me? You have taken me away from my companions and my loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend. This is the great struggle of many people in this room.

The great challenge of many people in this room are not what the great philosophers are writing against your faith. It's how do you handle the pain in your body? How do you handle the trauma in your past? How do you handle the brokenness in your emotions? How do you handle the difficulty that has stricken your life? And it prompts many of us to develop a broken theology where we assume that there are limitations to the sovereignty of God. But I have a question for you tonight. Why is it that we assume that the enemy owns the dark? Why is it that we assume the enemy owns the darkness? Nothing good ever happens after dark, they say. But I beg to differ. and without minimization, without denial, without dismissing what you have gone through. I have come with a word from heaven for families and for young people tonight that darkness may be the place.

That night may actually be the perfect seedbed for a revelation of Jesus Christ in your life. That darkness is not what it seems. Your night is what it is cracked up to be. that it may be the perfect place your tears may be the perfect place for Jesus to show up in your life. Here's here's where all this started. Here's all this started. It was Easter Sunday and our family family is this favorite restaurant we go to in Hamilton. It's it's called Chard and it's a Portuguese chicken joint. that's completely staffed by Filipinos and is owned by a a Jewish guy named Mark. So, Shabbat shalom, whatever suits you, I guess. I was at Chard with my family and my friend Mark comes over and he wished me a happy Easter and he said, "Do you know that it's Passover?" As a Christian, do you know it's Passover?

I said, "We do. In fact, we have a pretty favorite lamb." that that's Jesus, by the way, for all of you that haven't done exploring God's word yet. He is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Okay. I said, "We have we really like Passover, actually. It's a big deal to us, too." And he said, "Ha, have you ever read what what we do?" I said, "I believe I've I've come across some of the earliest, you know, earliest inscriptions of what you do in in the book of Exodus." and he said, "I I've got a book that has been in my family for nearly a hundred years." And I'd like you to read it and you can just kind of see what what we do. And for those that do not know, Passover is the same as falls the same weekend as as Easter Easter weekend.

It was instituted by God in the book of Exodus for the Jewish people. And after 400 years of slavery, God delivered them. And it was celebrated the night where they had been delivered. And it has been kept ever since. So I grabbed the book and over chicken and rice, I began to read it. And this Passover book from my friend Mark's family, walks through step by step how Orthodox Jews would commemorate the Passover celebration. It was very specific. And I was reading it and some of it I knew because I've read the Bible. Other things were Jewish traditions that had been added. But then I got to the 39th page and something just seemed to leap right off the book at me. And it's where this message to all of you comes from. And on the 39th page, the patriarch of the house, the father of the house, would begin a call in response as he would walk through the entire history of Israel from the call of Abraham to the close of the Old Testament.

And it would begin with a thunderous phrase where the children and the grandchildren and the the ladies of the house and all of the sons would exclaim, "Thus it happened at midnight." And then the father would bellow over his family of old most of the wonders you did you did perform at night. The celebratory praise begins by reminding those at the Passover table that most of the great things that God has ever done. He did them in the middle of the night. It begins in Exodus 11:4 when Moses said, "Thus says the Lord, about midnight I will go into the midst of Egypt." And then in verse 29 of chapter 12, it says, "It came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck at the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to of the captive who was in the dungeon and all the firstborn of the livestock." It was at night when it seemed like all else had failed and Pharaoh's heart could not get harder that God struck the slave masters of Egypt and set Israel free.

And then it goes to another story in 2 Kings 18 when King Sennacherib of Assyria attacks Judah and conquers the small towns. And Hezekiah in a fit of of anxiety, he bankrupts his entire country to pay off the attackers to satisfy the mad king so he would torment them no longer. But it's of no use because the chief of staff of Sennacherib comes into Hezekiah's court and he shouts in the throne room so people would be able to hear. He says, "We will starve your people and they will be so hungry." And this is gross, but it's in the Bible. It says they will they will eat their own dung and drink their own you own their own urine. He shouts to Jerusalem. He says, "You better surrender to us because we are going to so destroy you that we will deprave your very humanity.

Do not let your king fool you into trusting in the Lord. Our king is greater than your God." Hezekiah is so distraught, he tears his clothes in despair. And then Sennacherib sends a messenger to Hezekiah with a letter where Sennacherib personally pens himself and says, "Your God cannot protect you. Get ready. We're coming to destroy you. And Hezekiah goes to church. He goes to the temple and he takes the letter and he lays it out before the Lord and he falls on his knees and he cries out and he says, "Listen to what this pagan king says about you, oh God." And when it seemed like all hope was lost, we find ourselves in 2 Kings 19:35. And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. 185,000. Here we go.

Lost my place in the notes. 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, they were corpses all dead. Overwhelming odds. Darkest moment of their lives. But when God finally came through, it happened at night. I could go on and on. I got to go to another story. The patriarch Jacob, he was a cheater. He was a deceiver. He was a liar. It's what his name meant. His name Yakov meant heel grabber. He had cheated his brother out of his birthright and his inheritance. And he's on his way back to the land of his fathers. And he hears that Esau is coming. And he is coming with a band of mercenaries for him. So he divides his family to save in case he saw attacks. And then he goes to prayer. But all of a sudden in the middle of the night, an angel leaps out from the bushes, the embodiment of God, the angel of the Lord, and wrestles with him all night.

And while Jacob is there in the darkness, praying for God to help him as he reaps the bitter fruit of his mortal failure, God changes his name. And God transforms his character. And God delivers him from the anger of his brother. It was at night where Jacob was transformed wrestling with God during a crisis on and on. I could go Daniel thrown into the lion's den, but the mouths were shut at night. I could leave the end of Mark's book and I could pick up the New Testament and I could find myself in Matthew 14 when the disciples were in trouble far away from land for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting heavy waves and about 3:00 in the morning about 3:00 in the morning Jesus came walking to them on the water when it seemed like all hope was lost. When the sky could not get any blacker and the night could not get any darker, as waves begin to fill the boat, there comes Jesus walking upon the waves at night.

And the ultimate for us as Christians, it is Easter and Jesus is hanging on the cross and he cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And then he gives up his spirit and he slumps forward on the cross and he dies and the sky turns black. But while people are turning and running and while darkness covers the land, the Bible says that the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom and now regular people would now have access to the presence of God. All of this happened at night. All of it I could take weeks. I could take a whole other youth camp and say if you want to see God, you're going to find them in the dark. If you want to find miracles, you find them in the dark. If you're looking to see the hand of the Lord deliver his people, it always happens in the dark.

Time and time again, when we see God move, it is rarely in the sunshine. It is never when life is calm. It is always in the dark in the middle of the night. And my friend Mark's Passover book concludes, "Oh God, oh God," the father would pray, "Oh God, make it known that yours is the day and also the night." The psalmist would write in Psalm 74, "The day is yours, the night also is yours. I've come not with a sermon, but with a word from God for your life and for your family." That God owns your darkness just as much as he owns the day. That God owns your night just as much as he owns your day. When it is the heaviest, when it is the darkest, when you feel the most isolated, when you feel the most cut off, when you feel the most broken, when it feels like your enemy and your odds are stacked against you, that is where you can find God.

That is where you can see the Lord. That is where God does his best work. Remember what I said at the beginning about darkness that darkness is the perception of the absence of light. Just because you cannot see him doesn't mean he isn't there. Just because you cannot see his hand moving doesn't mean his hand isn't there. Just because you cannot hear his voice speaking doesn't mean his voice is not there. What do we sing? We sing that song. Just because I can't see it, God, you're still moving. Even though I can't feel it, God, you're still moving. even in the darkness, he is there. Just because it feels dark to you, it does not mean it is dark to God. Just because you perceive that your victory is slipping from your hands doesn't mean that God is not there. Oh, praise God. Praise God.

Praise God. Praise God. can player if you could come. What do I do? What do I do, pastor? What do I do if in my world it's so dark? What do I do? I find God in the darkness. That's what you do. You find God in the darkness. Psalm 42:8 says, "But in the day, the Lord directs his love and at night his song is with me. A prayer to God of my life." What do you do when you find your life? At midnight, you seek the Lord. What do you do when you find your life in the darkness? You seek the Lord. What do you do when it feels like the odds are stacked against you? You seek the Lord. Here is the word from God for somebody tonight. Do not withdraw from his presence just because you cannot see him. Do not pull away from his people just because you cannot perceive him.

Do not walk away from his house just because you cannot feel him. If night is at your hand, if your night is because of your hand, because of the phenomenon of natural evil, evil of others, I beg you, don't go silent in the middle of your night. Stay close to Jesus. Stay close to your pastors. Stay close to your elders. Stay connected to the body of Christ. I'm here to encourage you that it is the night where God does his best work. It is night where God works his wonders. It is night where miracles happen. Psalm 139:12 says, "Even in the darkness, I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to you. I've come to tell somebody you're dark. It's not dark to God. It is just as easy for God to work in your night as it is for the Lord to work in your day.

So what do we do when we find ourselves in darkness? We seek the Lord because that's where God is to be found. We think God is found on the mountaintop. We We are addicted sometimes to victory and to praise breaks. And I hope we have some by the end of the week, but can I tell you I have found God not in the shout beat of an altar song, but I found God. And I may talk about it on Friday. I found God walking a run in my carpet in my basement when my wife had cancer for the second time. That's where I felt the Lord. That's where I found God when it was at a youth camp and my son had an anaphylactic reaction. We were an hour away from the nearest hospital. As I watched him lose consciousness, as I watched his throat close, as his head slung forward and my hand, my friends laid their hand on him and said, "In the name of Jesus, touch this boy." When I was panicking, when I was afraid, that is where I saw the hand of Can I tell someone in this room that is facing devastation in your life, I'm talking like your family's falling apart.

I'm talking like it all your dreams and plans have collapsed. I'm talking like you don't know what tomorrow holds. Maybe you've messed messed up real bad. Maybe you're like Jacob and your flesh took over at some point and you now find yourself staring down the miracle of the consequences of your sin. And you say, "Surely God can be in this." I'm here to tell you he can even be in that too. Even as you reap the fruit, even as you reap the seeds that you have sown to the flesh, the grace and the mercy of God can redeem darkness that has been at your hand. I wrote this in the middle of the worship service as the Lord began to speak to me about you. For those in this room that are tempted to run from the house of God because of the darkness that is taking place in your mind and in your family, you are chasing an escape.

Something to relieve the pressure. Something to relieve the pressure. I have a word from God for you and that is make no moves. Hold on. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Cling to God in the darkness. Cling to worship in the darkness. Cling to prayer in the darkness. Cling to faithfulness in the darkness. Cling to the presence of the Lord in your darkness. Hold on. Do not grow weary. Do not give up. For in due season you will reap. If you faint not, I could tell you from my own life and moms and dads and church folks, I'm going to share our family story on Friday. Please make sure you are here. I could tell you from my experience that the night will not last always. But for people in pressure, hearing hope for tomorrow is sometimes sometimes bitter medicine because I I know light could come tomorrow, but what do I do with right now?

Can I tell you the most powerful lesson I have learned from God is that the Lord is not restricted. He is not restricted to the day. Day and night is the same to him. In your pressure, in your squeezing, in your testing, in your turmoil, in your trauma. Psalm 18:6 says, "In my distress, I called on the Lord to my God. I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears. The great promise of this precious life of faith is not the absence of night but the constant presence of the Lord. I could tell you because I know from experience that you can speak to the winds and the waves and sometimes they'll go away and God will miraculously deliver you. I can tell you from experience that if you are faithful soon the sun will start to rise.

But I feel in my spirit that there are people there are teenagers who are weary and heavy laden. You have been dealing with the crisis of your mental health. You have been dealing with the crisis of economic uncertainty. You have been dealing with crisises in your own family. And I'm not here to tell you that tomorrow it will get better. I'm here to tell you that right now when it feels bad, the Lord is with you. So seek him. Seek him. Here's this altar call as we stand all over this room. The call of God on this night is whatever is dark in you, whatever is dark in your family, whatever is dark in your world, I want you to bring it to the feet of Jesus right now. I want you to bring it to the Lord right now. What did Jesus say before his ascension?

He said, "Lo, I am with you always. Even to the ends of the earth." He said, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you." He was speaking about the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Can I tell you that the baptism of the spirit is not only for your anointing. It is not only for your shout. It is for your comfort. When it feels like darkness surrounds your life, the gift of the Holy Ghost is for your darkness. The gift of the Holy Ghost was for your darkness. So whether you're being attacked like Judah, whether you're enslaved like Israel in Egypt, or whether or whether you got caught like Jacob, no matter why night has come to you, the presence of the Lord is here. Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Cast your cares upon him, for he cares for you." Here's what I want us to do all over this room. I want us to Hallelujah. I want us to close our eyes. I want us to lift our hands and I want us to make a simple declaration by faith. Jesus, no matter where I am, your presence is with me, Jesus. No matter what comes my way, Lord, no matter what life throws at me, Lord, your presence is with me. The Holy Ghost is reaching right now for young people that have suffered abuse, that have been bullied, that have been shamed, and you feel like there is darkness all around you. The Holy Ghost is reaching for young men right now that have found themselves enslaved to internet pornography. And you've got darkness surrounding your heart and darkness surrounding your mind. The Holy Ghost is reaching into the back for moms and dads that showed up for a youth camp service whose marriage is on the rocks and you're not sure if you're going to make it another year.

God is in your darkness. He is reaching for the person that just got a devastating medical diagnosis. And you go, "God, I thought everything was going to get better." And God wants you to know he's even in that darkness, too. Do not do not weep. Do not lose hope. Do not throw your hands up in despair. The King of glory is with you. Just because you cannot see it, just because you cannot feel it, just because you cannot receive it.