Sermon Nuggets Mon April 11
Verses: Matt 5:14-16
14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Light of the World
“A Peanuts cartoon, showed Peppermint Patty talking to Charlie Brown. She said, "Guess what, Chuck. The first day of school, and I got sent to the principal’s office. It was your fault, Chuck."
He said, "My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?"
She said, "You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me."
While Peppermint Patty was seeking to pass the buck, she was in a very real sense right. We should be a good influence on our friends. We certainly do have an influence, for good or for bad.
Last week we reflected on being the salt of the earth. We saw the influence salt has on society. The Christian is called also to be a light to the world. Light is contrasted with darkness.
Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. “Why,” he exclaimed, “when I went a-courtin’ I never carried one of them things, I always went in the dark.” “Yes,” the hired man said wryly,” and look at what you got!”
Jesus said “Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.”
Darkness is expelled as soon as you hit the lights. People are not aware of the darkness they live in if they don’t see the light. “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.” (Matthew 4:16)
To be the light of the world is to take a stand against darkness and expose the lies and the sin the keep people in “blindness” –darkness. The old hymn declares, "Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let is shine from shore to shore." It is a song we often sang at missions time. The concept of the call of missions is to leave the areas which are well lit to go to parts of the world where the light and truth of Jesus is not yet known. When we see the world in disarray we can't help be realize the vast difference of people living in squalor with false beliefs that keep them bound. When people come to faith in Jesus they see as never before and lives are changed for the better not only here, but forever.
There is no much around us that is filled with lies from Satan. He desires that we focus on the here and now and be ignorant of the eternal. He keeps us attracted to the trinkets of this world and fail to see the value of the riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
We don’t like to see our imperfection, but being a light helps people see more clearly and understand more fully what we can become in Christ and to focus on things differently than those who do not see.
The question is does my life help people see more clearly?
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues April 12 Light helps us See
Verses- Matt 5:14-16
14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
EPH 5:8-9 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
Light helps us See
From the beginning of creation God gave us the Sun is the source of light during the day and the moon which reflects light from the sun to the earth to give light during the night.
As the moon reflects the light from the sun so Jesus, our true spiritual light is to be reflected in our lives so people would see.
Our lives are to reflect the mind and will of God!
We all know how hard it is to go around in the dark. We are blessed in our age to have electricity so light is so often at the command of a switch. Gone are the days when we had to strike a lantern and carry it around so we can see.
Now as I get older, more light is desired to be able to read.
Light serves a guide: Airport runways helps planes see their runway by the lights. When we try to drive in the dark or land in the dark without lights it is dangerous. A Christians we are guides to people who are in darkness.
Since we live in spiritual dark world just having the light of Jesus should mean something should show that exposes darkness. There is no such thing as a secret Christian. We need to be a light at all times. Light shines not so much that people may see the light as that they may see other things because of the light. Our light shines not that people will be attracted to us but to the light Jesus Christ.
This passage tells us not to put our light under a bushel (Vs.15)
Palestinian homes were generally dark,having one small window. Their light consisted of a lamp which was a bowl filled with oil that had a wick. When they needed light the lamp was placed on a lamp stand. The most difficult thing of having this light in the house was in lighting the lamp. Remember they didn’t have matches or bic fire lighters.
As a result, no one wanted to let their light go out because It took to much work to get the wick lid again. But when people went out of the house it was dangerous to leave the light on so for safety reasons when they left their homes the lamp would be taken from its lamp stand and placed under an earthen vessel where it could burn risk free. As soon as someone returned they would put the lamp on the stand.
Jesus is aware that people in darkness need to see also. Many don’t even know there is true light from God in Christ. It is our duty to help them see and participate in helping them see sin death, and salvation and life by faith in Christ.
It is impossible as far as Jesus is concerned to be a secret disciple. Either secrecy destroys the disciple or the disciple is destroyed by secrecy. Part of Christ’s responsibility was to be an example to us and we are to be an example to others, that we might spread the light that comes from Christ to others. Believers are to reflect the light or the witness of Jesus.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds April 13- Shown
Verses- Matt 5:15b Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Light is to be Shown
Light also highlights or becomes the focus of our attend in some situations. Whenever there is light in darkness the center of focus and attention is on the light. So let your Light shine that men may see your good works.
We have a sign on Hwy 65 that is lit up and scrolling. People see it from a distance. Signs are it up so you can read them at night.
The lighthouse gives focus for ships. So it can be seen. During the war and in time of battle even overseas is they seek to have a blackout so the enemy cannot as easily locate targets. People can stay in hiding and not be seen in the dark, unless now there are this infrared glasses that located targets based on heat and some that outline figures in the dark.
I'm sure that many of you have been up in an airplane at night. It is a fantastic sight to look below and see the lights of the city. It is so obvious to see the road and the car lights over the plains and farm lands. When you come over a city again it is brightly lit up. Your eyes are automatically drawn to where the light is shown.
We are Christians that cannot be hid. But we are to be on display so to speak with good works. We don't cheat the boss; we don't steal from our employer. We are honest in representing our car that we are trying to sell. We are fair in business and not gossiping about others. We are kind to those who are mean to us. We are a friend to others who are made fun of by others. Christians are to be people different than the world. We are to act like Jesus would act even if we are made fun of.
Keith Brooks related the following story of a student who had some potatoes sprout in the darkest corner of the cellar. At first he couldn't figure out how they had gotten enough light to grow. Then he noticed that the cook had hung a copper kettle from the ceiling near a cellar window. She kept it so brightly polished that it reflected the rays of the sun onto the potatoes. He thought, we can be copper pots catching rays of the Son of God, Jesus Christ and reflect His light to some in a dark corner.
The spot where God has placed you needs His light. If you are walking in fellowship with the Lord be a clean reflector of His character. People will see Jesus in you and be blessed. "The song goes, "Out in the highway and byways of life, many are weary and sad, Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife, making the sorrowing glad. Lord, Make me a blessing to someone today"
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs April 14 Spread
Verse- 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
John 8:12- Jesus said, "I am the light of the World."
Light is to be spread.
Do not hide your light under a bushel so nobody knows, but on a stand. Not only to be seen, but to be spread so that the whole house might be lit up. The lighthouse has one purpose to be beacon to be viewed and guiding path. But a flashlight has another purpose to help show off other things. A lamp in the house isn't turned on so everyone can turn their eyeballs at the bulb and start at it, that's the TV tube, but rather to fill the room so we can go about our task of jobs.
In this way the light of good works is like an example for others to follow. So they might do the same things. Pass it on,and by this others too become lights This is the process of influence on a dark and sinful society. When you look at something in the dark, it does not look so bad.
Jesus said, "I am the light of the World." He came in that context as savior and forgiver of sins, but also as one who healed the blind. Cleansing the leper, having food to the hungry and was a friend to the sinner. He also said, follow me, of course in the religious sense by becoming Christian following but also to carry on these acts of kindness. Like I wash your feet and prove my servant hood so you do to one another. This job of foot-washing is meant to be contagious.
Even if we give cups of kindness of cold water in the name of Jesus we will be blessed, even if it does not produce at this time any other spiritual results. That is the spreading of the light and the gospel and the good news so others can see Jesus is real. The rest is up to the Lord. I am glad that we have outreach programs. One of the concerns I have is with the church seeking to influence the community not only by halting sin, but permitting good.
Christians began education and health care and social reform in our country and most others. Wm Booth was concerned of those in the gutter and those in poverty, and prejudiced against. Christian needed to be in front with the concern in meeting needs of others in the name of Christ.
Missionaries did not change only the spirit, but by seeing to bring the light into darkened areas with the gospel they are causing people to become economically independent. As newsman Clarence W. Hall followed American troops through Okinawa in 1945, he and his jeep driver came upon a small town that stood out as a beautiful example of a Christian community. He wrote, "We had seen other Okinawan villages... down at the heels and despairing; by contrast, this one shone like a diamond in a dung heap. Everywhere we were greeted by smiles and dignified bows. Proudly the old men showed us their spotless homes, their terraced fields... their storehouses and granaries, their prized sugar mill."
Hall said that he saw no jails and no drunkenness, and that divorce was unknown in this village. He was told that an American missionary had come there some 30 years earlier. While he was in the village, he had led two elderly townspeople to Christ and left them with a Japanese Bible. These new believers studied the Scriptures and started leading their fellow villagers to Jesus. Hall’s jeep driver said he was amazed at the difference between this village and the others around it. He remarked, "So this is what comes out of only a Bible and a couple of old guys who wanted to live like Jesus."
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri April 15 Source
Verse- 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
John 8:12- Jesus said, "I am the light of the World."
The Light Source
It has already been commented that we are to be a reflection of Jesus. The moon reflects the light of the son. A Christian is to reflect the light of Christ.
The Pharisees were letting their lights shine so people can be impressed with them. They gave lots of money out of their abundance wanting the praises of men. They prayed to the Lord as a public act. They wanted to spotlight their righteousness. All the good works were really done in the name of man.
The good works are to give the glory to source of true and godly goodness. It is to give the glory to God, because others see God. Why does the Father receive the glory? It was He that sent his son to die that we might be forgiven of our evil acts and thoughts and personalities, and be brought from the sense of meaninglessness and despair in life to the realm of being loved by God and loving him in return.
People need to know that we do what we do for the glory of God!
Oliver Wendell Holmes didn't have much more of flattering comments when he said, "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers."
We are a witness to others whether we like it or not. What are we conveying to the world. Certainly if we are conveying that we are just like them and they don't need change, then I'm afraid we are not salt or light. If we convey that we have miserable lives in Jesus then we just do not understand that joy and fullness that Jesus has when he said, "I come that you may have life and have it more abundantly." Is their joy, and light and love? Is there a concern over sin and injustice and dishonesty? People need to see Jesus and they can only see him through us.
We are called to an affect on our world, first by proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. People need to hear the life changing message.
But is it life changing? If nothing changes where is the light?
We are to be like mirrors we reflect the light. But in order to reflect the light we need to position our mirrors to the light. And we do this by studying God’s word, by praying and by obeying. As we position ourselves each day to Christ, the light will shine automatically. People will see the glory of God.
We await the day when we shall see his glory no longer veiled with human eyes. John writes, ”And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. Rev 21:10-11
Pastor Dale
