The King Who Walks Toward Darkness

Have you ever had to do something that required you to move toward danger or discomfort rather than away from it?

Speaker: Pastor Caleb Culver
Date: June 7, 2026

What happens when Jesus steps into the darkest places we try to avoid? Pastor Caleb Culver walks through Mark 5, where Jesus encounters a man completely bound by darkness and restores him with a single command. This sermon reminds us that no one is too broken, too far gone, or too unclean for the grace of God.

Here's a 5-day devotional guide based on this sermon:

Day 1: The Question He Is Already Asking

John 5:5–6 | Psalm 139:1–3

Jesus saw the man at the pool and knew he had been there a long time. He was not surprised by the condition. He walked straight toward it and asked a question. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus asks questions not to gain information but to draw out what is already in the heart. The invitation here is to stop and actually hear what He might be asking you–not as an accusation, but as the most compassionate thing anyone has ever said to you.

Day 2: The Lie That Keeps You by the Pool

John 5:7 | Hebrews 4:15–16

The man's answer revealed a lie he had been living under: no one sees me, no one is for me. Shame works exactly this way—it filters every incoming message until even love sounds like condemnation. But Hebrews tells us we have a High Priest who is not distant from our weakness. He has entered into it. The antidote to shame is not trying harder. It is bringing the hidden thing into the light of someone who already knows and is not going anywhere.

Day 3: What Living Water Actually Is

John 7:37–38 | Isaiah 55:1–2

Jesus stood in the temple and cried out that anyone who was thirsty should come and drink. He was not speaking about water. He was speaking about the deep restlessness that sends people chasing after satisfaction in places that cannot hold it. Isaiah asked the same question centuries earlier: Why do you spend your money on what does not satisfy? The diagnosis has not changed. Neither has the invitation. Come to the One who is the source, and drink.

Day 4: The Work Underneath the Work

Matthew 11:28–29 | Romans 5:1

There is the exhaustion that comes from a full schedule, and then there is a deeper exhaustion underneath it—the weariness of a soul working to prove itself, earn its worth, and manage its own salvation. Jesus is not just offering rest from the nine-to-five. He is offering rest from the work under the work. Because of what He has done, we have been justified by faith, and we have peace with God. That is not a finish line to reach. It is a foundation to stand on.

Day 5: Finished

John 19:30 | Hebrews 4:9–11

When Jesus said, "It is finished" on the cross, He was not expressing defeat. He was declaring completion. The work was done. There remains, as the writer of Hebrews says, a Sabbath rest for the people of God—not a day on the calendar but a settled confidence that what needed to be accomplished has been accomplished in Christ. The only thing left is to stop striving and enter in. That is not passive. It is the most active and courageous thing a soul can do.