The Closet

Read‍

1 John 1:5-9 "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Think

Somebody is coming over in twenty minutes and your room is a disaster.

You do not clean it. Nobody has ever cleaned it in that situation. What you do is open the closet, take everything off the floor in about four armfuls, put it in there, and lean on the door until it latches.

And it works. That is the thing. It completely works. Your friend comes over and says, “Your room looks good,” and they are not lying, because from where they are standing it does.

The problem shows up later. Because now you cannot get to anything you own. Now every time you need one specific shoe you have to open that door and deal with all of it at once. And the pile does not shrink on its own. It just sits there, growing, every time company comes over.

That is what hiding does. It is not that it fails. It is that it works, and then it costs you everything behind that door.

John writes that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Then he says, “If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.”

Read that carefully, because most students read the word light and hear the word exposure. As in, God turns on the lights so everybody can see how bad you are.

That is not what John says. He says walking in the light is where fellowship happens and where cleansing happens. The light is not a spotlight in an interrogation room. It is the place where things finally get dealt with instead of stored.

And notice that verse 7 puts two things together that we usually separate. Walking in the light gives you fellowship with one another and cleansing through Jesus. God and people. Both.

Which is why confession is a thing.

Not because God needs the information. He watched it happen. Confession is not you informing God of something he missed. It is you agreeing with God about something you have been arguing with him about.

And when John says he is faithful and just and will forgive us, he means God has already committed to this. Faithful means he does it every time. Just means it is not God overlooking your sin, because Jesus already paid for it. God is not being soft when he forgives you. He is being fair to what his Son already did.

So here is the question that actually matters today.

What is in the closet?

For some of you it is something on your phone that you have never said out loud to anybody. For some of you it is something you did last summer that nobody at church knows about. For some of you it is not an action at all, it is something that was done to you, and you have kept it in the dark because you think it makes you dirty. Hear this clearly. That last one is not yours to confess. That one is yours to bring to somebody safe who can help you carry it, and it is not a stain on you.

Whatever is behind that door, the reason to open it is not that God is angry. It is that you were never meant to hold the door shut for years.

Revival brings things into the light. Not to humiliate you. To finish something.

You do not have to empty the whole closet today. Just open the door with God, and then with one person, and let the light get on the first thing.

Apply

Open the door – Name to God the one thing you have been keeping in the dark. Then decide today who the safe person is that you will say it to this week, and put a time on it.

Pray

God, you are light, and there is nothing in me you have not already seen. I have been holding a door shut for a long time and I am bringing this into the light with you now. Thank you that Jesus already paid for it and that you are faithful to forgive. Give me the courage to tell one person too. In Jesus’ name. Amen.