Saved to Shine

Take your Bible tonight and turn with me to Luke chapter 8. We are in these parables, the parables of Jesus, that are all concerning the Christian life. So we're gonna be right here in a few verses, verses 16 to 18 in Luke chapter 8. Now I am going to turn to a portion of Scripture at Acts 4. You don't have to turn there. Many of you are gonna be familiar with that portion of Scripture, but it's just an illustration, an example to help highlight some of the teaching. But tonight we're continuing in our study through the parables of Jesus, but this one section these are the parables concerning the Christian life.

Jesus taught certain ones that spoke to a particular area, and that is the Christian life. And in all these parables we're gonna see themes, we're going to see lessons, we're going to see examples that speak to Christian, true Christian living, and then sometimes we're going to see themes and lessons and examples that speak about false Christian living. Now in speaking of the true and the false, notice something. Last week when we studied the parable of the two sons, that was in Matthew 28, Matthew 21 verse 28 to 32, we saw both the true and the false. They were both right there together.

We saw that the first son in the parable represented the tax collectors, the harlots, who were genuinely saved and serving in the kingdom, but then the second son in the parable represented the Jewish leaders who said they were right with God, but did not serve in the kingdom. So if you think with me a minute you're gonna see it. We can see both the true and the false. And so Jesus is giving examples and lessons and themes that deal with true Christian living and false Christian living. Well tonight we're not gonna see the false, quite like we did last week. We won't see the Jewish leaders like we did last week.

Last week we had the Jewish leaders front and center. Remember there was this escalating situation between Jesus and the religious leaders, but that's not the case tonight. It's gonna be about Jesus and his disciples. Jesus and his disciples. And tonight we will be examining, some of you already looked at your copy of God's word, the parable of the lamp. Now you might see a different heading in your Bible, some of you might have a heading that says the lamp under the jar. Now remember, the headings there are not inspired. They're given there by the Bible translators and those things are good.

And I point that out because sometimes when you see differences it might catch your attention. But those headings are good. I like noticing those and pointing them out. Now just like with the parable of the two sons, we need to see the context of our parable tonight and look and notice that the parable of the lamp, it comes right after the parable of the sower. Way back when we dealt with the parable of the sower, I mentioned the fact that it is in other places besides Matthew 13. But look in your copy of God's word in Luke chapter 8. You see in verse 4 the parable of the sower. Jesus gives the parable and he gives an explanation.

And then we see the parable of the lamp. They are back to back. You might say, "Pastor, that is pretty obvious." Although that is obvious, some can miss that and that is extremely important for us to see. Now a couple of questions here that we need to think about. What is the significance of these two parables being together? Is there any significance to these two parables being back to back and together? What was Jesus point? What was his purpose in each parable? And what is the point of these parables being together? Is there anything here that we need to see?

We need to see and understand what Jesus was teaching in the parable of the sower and then we must interpret the parable of the lamp in relation to the parable of the sower. The two parables were taught back to back for a reason. So that means that we've got to start with the parable of the sower. So it's a good thing that we thoroughly study the parable of the sower. Every one of you remember everything that I taught you. Isn't that right? I know the answer to that. I do. So that means that we need a quick review, okay? Now some of you know this and if you know it, be patient.

Now we learned in our study of the kingdom parables that the parable of the sower teaches and illustrates the beginning of the kingdom. And this kingdom is the kingdom of God on earth which is the church. This is all about the church. And we learned that this parable illustrates and explains how people come into the kingdom. That would be the church, the church on earth. We saw that the parable of the sower shows us how people respond to the gospel or the gospel seed, the word of God. Some accept the gospel and they come into the kingdom and some do not.

And in the parable we have four types of soils which represent four types of human hearts. And in the parable all four, all four hear the word of God, the gospel, and all four react in different ways. The hard soil in the parable represents the hard-hearted person. The word of God is sown into their hearts like seeds are sown on a hard path or on a road. They do not receive it and the scripture say that the bird of the air which speaks to the the devil, the devil takes that away. They are not saved. Now I'm not going to read the verses because of time but we see that in Luke 8 verses 11 and 12. Then we have the rocky soil.

The rocky soil represents the shallow emotional hearted hearer. The word of God is sown into their hearts like seeds in shallow rocky soil. They receive it eagerly with joy but they have no depth. The gospel is only received in their emotions and notice they seem to be genuine but in time they fall away. They are not saved. These are not genuine converts. We see this in verse 13. Then we have the thorny soil which represents the sin-filled worldly-hearted person. The word of God is sown into their heart like seeds that are sown in soil infested in soil that is infested with thorns and thorn seeds.

They receive the gospel seed but the seeds of sin and worldly pleasures grow up and choke out the gospel. They can seem genuine but they are not saved either. And we see that explanation in verse 14. And then we have the good soil, the last one. This represents the good-hearted person. The gospel seed is sown in their hearts like the seeds that fell into the good soil. They receive the gospel. They hold on to the word of God and notice they produce Christian fruit and they persevere in the faith. Those two things are key. These are the only ones that are truly converted, one out of the four. Now here I want you to look at verse 15.

And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and they hold on to it and they bear fruit with perseverance. You see? Now we need to see and remember the overall point or points of the parable. This is the parable of the sower. We have the gospel seed that is sown in the different types of human hearts. We have four different types of human hearts or reactions to the gospel. One and four say this is what we should see. First, what the truly converted look like. They receive the word not simply in their emotions. They are repenting of their sin.

They produce fruit and they persevere in the faith. And then second, we see what the falsely converted look like. They do not have a good heart. Their hearts are either shallow or they're filled with sin and wordliness. And the one who receives the gospel in a shallow heart, they are a false convert. The one who receives the gospel yet holding on to sin and wordliness, they are false as well. But then we see the hard-hearted what they look like. They hear the word but they have no reaction. The gospel seed is simply snatched away. So with the parable of the sower, Jesus teaches remember his disciples. How the gospel works in the human heart.

Jesus teaches disciples how different peoples react to the gospel. Jesus teaches his disciples who is truly saved and what they look like. And for Jesus disciples, understanding these things equip them for gospel work. You see? Understanding these things equip them for bringing people into the kingdom. We can see that these spiritual truths and realities laid the groundwork for their ability to go out and evangelize. And right after this teaching, very important, Jesus then moves into their great great responsibility here.

In verse 18, Jesus tells them to be very very careful how they listen to these things because they had a great great responsibility to listen to these things carefully and respond carefully. So let's read our parable. The parable that we're going to study tonight. Verse 16 on down to verse 18. Just three verses. Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on a stand, a lamp stand, in order that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that shall not be evident or become evident, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.

Therefore, take care how you listen for whoever has in him shall be more given, and whoever does not have even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him. Now before we really get into the teaching of the parable, we need to ask what these things are in the parable. We have a lamp, we have a lamp stand, we have a covering, there's even a bed that is mentioned. I think that's all easy for us to see. Simply in their day they used lamps very often. They were terra cotta lamps if you do some reading on them. Some were smaller and some were were larger, but simply they were they were bowl shaped objects.

They were shaped kind of like a bowl, kind of like a saucer, and they had a handle on one end with a spout on the other. The bowl portion of the lamp held oil and the spout had a wick for lighting. And this type of lamp was common in their homes and other places to provide lighting. They would have some type of a stand to place the lamp on so that it would provide light into the room or light in the home. We can think of a candle. You know if our electricity is out we might break out some candles. We're going to put that little candle in a safe place but in a place where it would give light into the room.

Some of you might think of an old oil lamp. Growing up my grandfather, my grandmother had an old oil lamp. My dad had one and you could still light that lamp even though it might be very very old. Even today I was thinking about the old oil lamp that I grew up with my dad having. I wonder what happened to it. I'm sure it's tucked away somewhere. But many of you have seen things like that. But look in the parable. Jesus said that no one would light a lamp and cover it up or put it under a bed. They would naturally place the lamp on a stand to see. This is easy for us to see. Easy for us to understand.

Simply this is a teaching parable, a simple parable, an illustration that is going to illustrate truth. I've taught you that. Every one of these parables illustrate truth. So now I will approach the parable and I want to approach the parable in two ways. First I will go through the verses with a few words that will be easy for us to remember and write down. And then second I'm going to give us some lessons. I'm going to give us some lessons which come out of the parable. And remember this all centers around what? The previous parable.

The gospel, salvation, evangelism, people coming into the kingdom, and the future responsibility of the disciples. So we're going to look at four truths. And all four of these truths start with an s-word. You know sometimes if you can write one word down it makes it easy. So you can write these down in one word, one s-word. Four things. I'm going to give you the first two. I'm going to go ahead and give you the first two. So number one you see it. The gospel and everything associated with the gospel is to be seen. That word seen. And that's out of verse 16, the story of the lamp. Now this is easy to see in the analogy.

The lamp is put on a stand so that those in the room may see the light. The lamp in its light is not hidden but it is placed on the stand for others to see the light. And that is the case. That was to be the case with the gospel and the good news of the gospel and salvation. Jesus was explaining to his disciples that in their Christian life, specifically the gospel and salvation and everything associated with the gospel must be seen. Must be seen by people and the world and anybody and everybody that they come in contact with. The gospel and everything that comes from the gospel must be seen.

Here's the example from Acts chapter 4 that I spoke about earlier. When Peter and John stood before the Jewish leaders for preaching Christ and healing the lame beggar, the Jews testified that Peter and John were uneducated, untrained, ordinary men, yet they could see something about the men. What could they see? They could see that they had been with Jesus but they could see something. They could see something. They could see the gospel. They could see salvation. They could see everything that comes with the gospel in their lives. You see what I mean? I'll never forget years ago before I was in the ministry.

When I was a layman at Highland Baptist Church there were a group of us that had a little small hunting lease. We had some guys in the life of the church who were a part of that. We had a good time. We were Christians at the deer camp. We had a guy later on that came to faith in Christ that would come hunt with his son. When he came to faith in Christ he gave his testimony and he said, "You know what? I would go hunting with those guys." They were just as much of a Christian when they were hunting on Saturday as they are on Sunday.

They acted the same way at the deer camp on Saturday or Friday or at Thanksgiving like they would on Tuesday night visitation. What he went on to say was we could see the gospel in their life. We could see Christianity in their life. Number one, what we see here is this. Jesus is showing them that the gospel and everything associated with the gospel is to be seen. You see it in the illustration? We've got to ask a question of ourselves. What do people see in our lives? What do people see in our lives? I never forget someone in my family.

We were dealing with someone who professed to be a Christian, a hypocritical witness, and I never forget somebody in my family looked at me and they had their jaw set and a gleam in their eye and they said, "If that's what being a Christian is like, I'd rather go to hell." What were they seeing? We gotta ask, what do people see in us? Now we're not going to be perfect. No. We're not going to be perfect. Number two, the gospel and everything associated with the gospel is to be shined. Now that kind of sounds funny. Pardon me for that, but there's a purpose. It is to be shined and we see this in the verse verse 16 and the story as well.

It should be easy to see this in the analogy. This should be easy for us to see if we look at the analogy. The lamp notice is put on a stand so that those in the room may see the light, but let's turn it around. The lamp was also to shine out in the darkness. Whether it was in a room or whether it was outside in the night, the lamp was to shine out into the darkness. Jesus was explaining to his disciples that their Christian life, the gospel, salvation, everything associated with the gospel must be shined out into the darkness and into the dark world that is full of people.

The gospel and salvation must be shined into the world, into the lives of lost people. Again, back in Acts chapter 4, Peter and John were before the religious leaders, and not only did the religious leaders see something in their life, those men turned right around and they shined something into the lives of the religious leaders. I'm going to paraphrase what they said. They talked about the cross and the crucifixion and they said you crucified Christ. They used the personal pronoun "you." They purposely shined the gospel in the implications of the cross and the gospel onto them and into them.

They said "you." You see how they were shining the gospel? I've shared this with you many times, but when someone started witnessing to me and coming to share the gospel with me when I was lost, they used the personal pronoun "you." They described my life. They said "you are lost and you are in sin and you live like this and you talk like this, and I did not like it." They shined the truth into my life and I rejected it and I disliked it and I hated it, but I never got over it. So what do we see here? We see the gospel and everything associated with the gospel. It is to be seen and it is also to be shined out into the dark world.

Now take a step back and notice what Jesus was teaching in this analogy. Jesus was using light to show his disciples that the gospel salvation, everything associated with salvation, cannot be hidden. It's quite the opposite. The gospel and salvation and the Christian life must be seen by those in darkness and it must be shined into the lives who are living in darkness. His disciples knew that it would be completely dumb to light a lamp and to cover it up. It'd be dumb. Who does that? Well, it's the same way with the gospel and the salvation. In all that they possessed, it would be equally as dumb and more to hide it.

Isn't that what Jesus was saying? Well, let's move on. There are two more things I want us to see here. I want us to see number three, the gospel is not to be a secret. Now I'm going to read verse 17 because there's a transition from the parable. "For nothing is hidden that shall not become evident, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light." Now the meaning of this verse can be difficult to see, but once it is explained, you'll see it. It'll make sense. Now some say that this speaks to the fact that all truth will be made known in the future at the judgment. Well, that is true.

All truth in all things will be made known in the judgment in the future. Ultimately and finally, God will reveal all truth. We see that taught in verses like 1 Corinthians 4, verse 5, and 1 Timothy 5, verses 24 and 25. As a matter of fact, John MacArthur takes this verse to mean that, but I do not think that is what Jesus is aiming at. I think Jesus was being more specific than that. I think that verse 17 pertains to what Jesus has been saying and teaching in both the parables, the parable of the sower and the parable of the lamp. They go together. Simply this is what I see verse 17 is saying, and there were other scholars that said this.

All of the hidden mysteries of the kingdom or the secrets of the kingdom have been wrapped up in the parables, and these once hidden truths were revealed to the disciples through Jesus' teaching. Specifically, Jesus was taking those once hidden things about salvation in the gospel and Jesus, and he was bringing them to light to his disciples through the parables. And the secrets of the kingdom pertaining the gospel and salvation in Jesus were made known to those disciples. And the lesson for the disciples in verse 17 was this. Jesus was saying, "I have made the secrets of the kingdom pertaining to the gospel and salvation.

I've made these things known to you, and you are not to keep these truths, these things secret." Jesus was saying that the secrets of the kingdom and the gospel that were once hidden were to be seen in their lives and in the world and shown out from their lives and shown out into the world. Jesus was saying, "These things cannot be kept a secret." To simplify verse 17 even more, Jesus was saying that the gospel and salvation in Jesus could not be kept a secret. It could not be. You know, think about it. What if you had a terminal disease? You know, we're getting past COVID.

Somebody said earlier, "Well, it's going to come back." We don't know. It might come back. Right now we're past COVID and I'm thankful. But what if you had a terminal disease and I had the cure and I kept that from you? You wouldn't think much of me. Well, those who are in darkness do have a terminal disease, and we do have the cure, and that's not to be kept a secret. No, it's not to be kept a secret. If we have the answer for their problem, we should share. We should share the gospel. We have to shine into their darkness, and sometimes it means saying you. So, number three, the gospel is not to be a secret.

And then I want us to see, number four, the gospel we must be sober. Verse 18, "Therefore, take care how you listen, for whoever has to him shall more be given than whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him." Now, when I use this word sober, I'm not simply trying to use another S word. I'm not looking for an S word for my alliteration. You know, sometimes preachers will do that. This word sober speaks to a lot of what's happening here. This word sober talks about being clear-minded. To be sober means to be thoughtful. It means to be serious. It means to be clear-minded.

Webster says it means to be earnestly thoughtful in character or demeanor. And this is the main message of the teaching here. Jesus is saying that in light of all that he has just taught, in light of all that he's just explained, he's saying you be serious and you be sober. He says to listen. He says you better listen careful. You better be serious and you better be sober. He is saying that these are serious things that must be approached in a serious and sober manner. He says listen, listen, not just because these things are serious, but also because the consequences. The consequences of not being sober and serious are serious.

Jesus says that his disciples must be sober and serious and share the gospel and the message of salvation or else they will lose it. Now, this doesn't mean they'll lose their salvation. No. Here Jesus is giving a principle that is applied to his teaching. He is telling them to be sober, to be serious, and to share all of this, to shine it out into the dark world. The truth of the gospel, the truth of salvation, shine it, share it, give it. And he says if they do, God will reveal more truth to them, but if they do not, God will deprive them of the truth that they think they have. There's no such thing as neutral.

You're going forward or you're going backward. I have a little book on the parables by Richard Trench. And I ran across this in another source and it's a little four-line poem. I don't always read poems maybe because I'm not very poetic, but this really speaks. I'm going to repeat it so listen close. Richard Trench says, "For we must share if we would keep the good thing from above, ceasing to give we cease to have such is the law of love." Let me say it again. "For we must share if we would keep the good thing from above, ceasing to give we cease to have such is the law of love." What is he saying? If you don't share it, you lose it.

And I wonder how many people used to be zealous in their evangelism? Oh, they had a burden for the lost. Oh, they wept for the lost and they shared the gospel. I wonder how many people really were active in their Christian witness and then that began to wane and they begin to lose that urgency. And then the next thing you know they don't even express a concern for the lost in that zeal and that desire and that usefulness is just gone away and they don't even know it. As a matter of fact, they might even forget those truths about the gospel, even the ways they used to witness and to love people and engage people.

If we're honest, we can all say we've been there. I have to be inclusive. The gospel, we must be sober and it could be that we need to be sobered up here. Now in summary, look at what Jesus was teaching in this parable about the lamp. He had just taught his disciples about the gospel, the way different people react to the gospel. He had just illustrated true and false professions of faith in the gospel and the point of the parable of the sower was not simply so that they would know these things have the right information. No, that wasn't the point.

The parable after the parable of the sower, which is our parable for the night, the parable of the lamp, it was meant to tell them that they must let the gospel and salvation in Jesus, it must be seen by the dark world and to purposely shine the gospel into the hearts and the lives of the people who were in darkness. Jesus was telling his disciples that this gospel was not to be kept the secret. He was telling his disciples to be sober and serious and think about it not only the implication of these things but being obedient to these things. And if they did shine and share as they should, they would be rewarded with more truth.

And if they did not shine and they did not share, then they they would lose what they thought they had. They would lose it. Now, this time I want to shift to some lessons that come out of this teaching. This could be lessons, they could be reminders, this could be correction. See, if we've gone the wrong way, it's correction. And maybe for some of you this is a little bit of education. We're all at different places here, okay? So if it's correction, receive it. If it's education and edification, receive it. If it's a reminder, you know we're all at different places. Now this comes out of some James Montgomery Boyce materials.

As a matter of fact, I used some of this material to apply last week's parable. And it just resonated with me. I made a few changes so I want to give credit where credit is due. Now I'm going to call these lessons, observations, comes right out. Number one, I want us to see that the world is in darkness. Isn't that what we see in the parable? The world's in darkness. Now all throughout the scriptures, the sinful world is explained as a world of spiritual darkness. And those who are living in that world outside of Christ, outside of a relationship with Christ, they are living in darkness. Just a few verses.

Proverbs 2 13 says that those individual people who leave God's path of righteousness, God's ways, they walk in the ways of darkness. Ephesians 5 11 says that God's people have no fellowship with the works of darkness, and that would be sin because the works of darkness are sin. And then Colossians 3 13 says that God has delivered his people from the power of darkness. That would be the power of spiritual darkness and sin. So the world is in sin, the world is in rebellion against God, a rebellion against his word, the world is in darkness. The world is in darkness. Now an application in your mind, I want you to help me.

I want you to have a blank line that you can write in. And I want you to see that those lost people that you know that you work with, their neighbors, your family, those lost people that you know, they are walking in darkness according to Proverbs 2 13. They are performing the works, the works of darkness. They have no fellowship with God according to Ephesians 5 11. They are under the power of spiritual darkness and sin according to Colossians 3 13. They are in darkness, in darkness, in darkness. The world and the people in the world are in darkness. And then I want us to see number two, the world needs light.

Is it that what we see in the parable? The world needs light. Now just with a few verses we see the power of darkness, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and then the works of darkness and those who are in the ways of darkness, those individuals who are living in darkness. And here in verses 16 to 18, Jesus is saying that the dark world needs light. But there are two things here I think we need to see. First, the light is Jesus. Light on the screen is lowercase L. You could make it upper case L, light capital L as in light being Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. And listen, they need the light of Jesus.

Jesus personally, they do not need Christianity. They don't need religion. You see what I'm saying? They need a personal light. The light of Jesus, the world needs light, Jesus. And then second, the individual people living in darkness need light and not a world of light. This is a little redundant but you need to see it. They don't need religion. They don't need Christianity. The light is Jesus and the people living in the world need Jesus who is the light of the world. Notice Jesus was not telling his disciples to simply go shine the message of the gospel and God into the world.

He was calling them to take the gospel and the message of salvation in Jesus to individual people in the world. Remember, when they were before the religious leaders in Acts 4, they said you. Those were individual people they were preaching to. And it might sound like I'm splitting hairs but it's extremely important to see. Notice Jesus was not telling his disciples to simply go shine the message of God and the gospel into the world. He was calling them to take the gospel and the message of salvation in Jesus to individual people in that world. And we must see that it is people who need Jesus. Neighbors who have names.

Family who have the same blood flowing in their veins. Coworkers that you talk to every day. Faces and names. Names and faces. Don't think about them as societies and people groups and nations. Now hold on. Do nations and societies and people groups need the gospel? Yes. But if we're not careful we can fall short and not deal with the individual people. You see? The world is in darkness. The parable tells us. And the world and the people in the world, they need light. And then third coming out of the parable, Jesus' disciples were to be light. They were to be light. And I think you'll see what I mean here.

Now the disciples could never be like capital L, Jesus, the light of the world. No. But they were to be Christ's ambassadors letting Jesus be seen in them and shine through them. You see? By the power and the work of the Spirit in them. What did the religious leader say about Peter and John? Oh there's something different about you. You have been with Jesus. And think about Jesus was doing in his disciples. He was equipping them to go and to be light for him. They were to go out and to shine the light of the world into the dark world. And it was to be Jesus two people, lost people in darkness through them. And see it's like this folks.

Everywhere we go we should be a little Christ. A little Christ. A little Christ. Not we just sprinkle a little Christ. No. We should be a little Christ. People should see Jesus in us. Christ in our language. Our attitudes. How we act. How we don't act. We're never going to be perfect but they should see Jesus in us. I can't take any credit for this example but years ago when I was bivocational and I worked construction. I worked on a construction crew. And I worked around plumbers and electricians and concrete finishers. And I'm gonna tell you it's not really a Christian world out there. Not in that world.

And I remember one day we were on a roof doing some carpenter work and the roofers were over here. And one of the roofers found out I was a pastor and a preacher. And he started making preacher comments. And you know derogatory comments. It didn't bother me. And he said oh I know what kind of preacher he is. You let him hit his finger with a hammer. I know how he'll act. I know what he'll say. I just kept working. It didn't bother me. And one of the young guys that I worked with and oh I had witnessed to that guy. I mean I had used the personal pronoun you a bunch with him. He said no he don't act like that.

I've worked with him for several years. He don't act like that. Somehow I was able to be Jesus to him. So the disciples were to be light. And then number four Jesus was telling the disciples to expect those in darkness to come to the light through their light. Now this is a little lengthy but can't we see that in the parable? Think about it. Jesus was saying they had a serious responsibility to be seen and to shine into the dark world right? To individual people. And they should expect to have those in darkness come to the light of the world Jesus through their light their witness Jesus in them. And you know this comes down to an expectation.

Now we cannot control when people come to Christ. Jesus says in John 3, remember Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. He says it's like the wind. We don't know where it's coming from or where it's going. It's mysterious. We can't control it. But we should expect to see our sons and our daughters and our neighbors and people who visit with us and people who we witness to. We should expect people to come to Christ. You know we hear these famous preacher stories.

I heard the story of a pastor in England in the days of Spurgeon and he came to Spurgeon and he was down and out and he was pretty worn out and he came to Spurgeon and he said you know I'm just upset. You know I never see anybody come to faith in Christ in my church. You know when I preach and I witness and he was pretty low and he said I never see people come to Christ. And the story is told that Spurgeon said well do you expect people to come to Christ every time you preach? Do you expect people to come to Christ every time you step up there and preach the gospel? And he said no.

And he said Spurgeon the story goes Spurgeon says well that's your problem. That's your problem. And here's my question. Do we have an expectation problem? Again we can never control these things. We can never control these things but we should have an urgency and we should expect to see our sons and our daughters and our neighbors and our friends come to faith in Christ and it should grieve us and it should burden us. And we should examine ourselves to see why these things aren't happening and we should be desiring that these things would happen.

We can really see in the parable that Jesus was telling his disciples to expect those in darkness to come to the light. So this is the parable of the lamp and you probably never saw it in connection with the parable of the sower. Now as I close I want to connect what we are learning tonight with what we learned last week. Well you might say pastor you connected it with the parable of the sower you mean you're going to go all the way back to last week? I think you'll see it. We saw last week from the parable of the two sons that we are what? We are saved to serve. That's the title of the message. Saved to serve.

That was the title of the sermon. That was the theme of the parable. We are saved from our sin to Christ Jesus to serve in the kingdom. Now remember what William Barclay showed us. He gave us an easy insightful way to understand the teaching of the parable of the two sons. Barclay said this is where profession and practice meet and match. Think about it. That's what we learn. This is where profession and practice meet and match. It was one way for the tax collectors and the harlots and it was another way for the religious leaders. But we are saved to serve. Well the parable of the lamp goes right along with this.

This is where true profession and practice meet and match as well. You see this is where profession and practice meet as well. We are not only saved to serve we are saved to shine. We're saved to shine. And that's the title of the message. Saved to shine. So we're saved to serve and we're saved to shine. Now I want to go back and read the verses and I trust and I pray that when we read the verses we look at them together. All of this will come together to give you the meaning and I don't want it just to be meaning as in head knowledge. I want it to be meaning as in we practice it. Profession and practice where it meets and where it matches.

Let me read the verses and then we'll pray. Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container or a jar that puts it under a bed. No, no one does that. But he puts it on a lamp stand in order that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that shall not be come evident nor anything secret that shall not be known and come the light. Therefore take care therefore take care how you listen. For whoever has to him shall more be given and whoever does not have even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him. So we're saved to shine. Let's pray and then we're going to look at some prayer news as always.