The Parable of the Lamp
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
I came across a story about a couple who received a set of two horrible bedside table lamps as a wedding present from a distant aunt.
Since the lamps were so ugly, this couple didn't want to actually use them, so they put them in storage and bought a nicer set themselves.
That worked for a while, but a few years later, this particular relative came to a family celebration.
Knowing she would be there, the couple quickly set up the aunt's lamps on the tables and hid their usual ones under the bed.
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When time came to show the aunt around the house, the wife said, “Come and see how nice your lamps look in our bedroom.”
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She turned on the switch on the wall -- and suddenly an intense luminosity emerged...
From under the bed!
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 8 and focus on verses 16 through 18.
Our message this morning is titled, “The Parable of the Lamp”
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This message today will focus on the next parable Jesus gives after sharing the Parable of the Sower...
Here Jesus continues to focus on the Word of God and the message of the Good News...
And He makes it clear that this life saving message is a message we need to share with all.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
The Lamp...
The Light...
And...
The Warning.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are the Great I Am!
You our Rock in which we stand...
And You are our very source of light and life!
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Thank You for taking care of Your children...
Without You we are lost...
Without You we are doomed...
But You saved us by sending Your precious Son into our world...
You keep us by sending the Holy Spirit into every born again believer...
And You continue to speak to us through the Scriptures that are breathed out by You!
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Open our hearts and minds to receive the truth that will be proclaimed this very day...
Give us spiritual eyes to see...
Give us spiritual ears to hear...
Give us spiritual minds to understand...
And give us spiritual hearts to be convicted and changed by Your truth!
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
16 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
17 For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.
18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Lamp
1) The Lamp
Verse 16: “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
This verse is the first of three sayings by our Lord and Savior that we will cover today...
Additionally, the three sayings in this unit are also found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, as well as being recorded in early church writings.
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However, it should be noted that these sayings are often employed in different contexts and for different purposes...
These sayings are considered proverbs or similitudes...
They can be applied to a variety of situations so they should be interpreted contextually in each case.
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Like Mark, Luke places the sayings immediately following the Parable of the Sower...
Which we covered last time in our study of the Gospel of Luke two weeks ago.
Let’s quickly reread that parable recorded in Luke 8:4-15:
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,
5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
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So, in our present context and based on its placement, the Parable of the Lamp is certainly meant to act as an aid to understanding further the truths from the Parable of the Sower.
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By Jesus providing the proper explanation of His parable to His disciples the Lord lit a light in the disciples...
This light that He now teaches must not be hidden by them but shared with others.
As the New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“Although He speaks in parables, it is nevertheless His final purpose that the light of the Gospel should be spread in full measure.
He initiates His followers into the true knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom—not for them to hide such knowledge, but to make it known, without hindrance or reservation, to all with whom they come in contact.”
Parables could only be spiritually discerned...
For those of the flesh parables were confusing...
But the ones of the spirit could see God’s truth...
Yet, that truth was not to be hidden by those with spiritual discernment...
It was their responsibility to share the truth of God’d Word with others.
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Pastor John MacArthur says:
“The fact that Christ taught mysteries in parables was not to suggest that His message was meant for elite disciples or that it should be kept secret.
A lamp is not lit to be hidden, but must be put on a lampstand, where its light will reach furthest.
Still, only those with eyes to see will see it.”
So, the specific feature the Lord communicated through this analogy is that genuine disciples do not hide the truth of the gospel.
Instead, they listen to the revelation of God’s Word and then proclaim it to others.
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Simply put, to keep that truth all to oneself was just like lighting a lamp only to hide it...
That just does not make any sense!
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New Testament scholar Robert H. Stein puts it this way:
“An oil lamp is not lit in order to be covered by a jar or vessel, for this probably would extinguish it;
Nor is it lit in order to be placed under a bed, for this would hide its light.
The purpose of the lamp would be thwarted by such actions.
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Rather a lamp is to be placed on a stand in order for its purpose of giving light to be aided.
Since Luke 8:18 is directed to Jesus’ followers, it is incorrect to understand this verse as referring to Jesus as the light and his teaching ministry as representing the shining of the light.
It refers rather to those who hear God’s word and let their light shine.
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The purpose of the light is that those, i.e., the ‘others’ of Luke 8:10, may share in the light of the gospel.
The disciples, who know the secrets of God’s kingdom, are to provide that light in order that others might believe and be saved. ”
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Again, as Luke 8:10 says:
10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
Although the disciples knew the secrets of the Kingdom of God they were not called to keep those secrets to themselves...
Those truths are a light meant for others to experience...
That light is needed in a world of darkness!
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As believers we are to have this great urgent desire in our hearts to share the Gospel with all we are able to...
We are to feel a burden to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the lost and hopeless...
We are to share God’s light with those desperate and confused.
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Beloved, the day you and I were saved was not the end of our spiritual journey!
Being born again is not the end goal!
We are to take that hope we now have in Christ and lit this world up!
We are to stand firm on the Scriptures and declare God’s truth!
We are to stand firm on the Word of God and proclaim God’s message!
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As the MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“True conversion results in a desire for telling the gospel story.
Genuine disciples respond to the truth evangelistically;
That is, they not only take it in, but they also give it out.
Lack of zeal for sharing the truth may reveal that God’s work of salvation has not been wrought in the heart.
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Jesus may also have had another issue in mind when He gave this analogy.
In Luke 8:10 He had told the disciples, ‘To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
As noted in the discussion of that verse in the previous chapter of this volume, that was an act of judgment on Jesus’ part.
Those who rejected the truth would have it hidden from them.
The disciples may have thought that they were to render the same judgments and decide for themselves who to present the truth to.
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But it is not the believers’ place to make such a determination;
Only God knows a person’s true spiritual condition.
Christians are responsible to obey the Great Commission and ‘make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.’
And when they were ready, Jesus would send the Twelve out to preach the gospel to all whom they encountered.
What He had explained to them in secret, they were to proclaim publicly.”
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Now that we have thoroughly covered the lamp...
Lets continue to explore the function of the light that comes from the lamp...
And that takes us to our second point.
2) The Light
2) The Light
Verse 17: For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.
This is our second saying by Jesus from our passage that we are expositing...
The focus here is what the light does...
Not only does light illuminate a dark place...
By light exposes what was once hidden in the darkness.
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As the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“Light not only illumines, it exposes.
The standards in Jesus’ proclamation also examine how people are responding to God.
Indeed, Jesus’ teaching reveals hidden things and exposes secrets.
The second saying focuses on the evaluative and authoritative function of Jesus’ teaching, which brings to light people’s thoughts.
It is a promise that one day all will be exposed and made manifest by God.
Truth and light will manifest themselves, and what is hidden will become known.
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The warning is clear:
God’s standard will be maintained, revealed, and one day executed—so beware how you respond to the message.”
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Jesus is exhorting believers not to hide or quench the light of the Gospel...
And in addition to that He is telling believers that, in light of the coming judgment, He calls for self-examination on the part of those who claim to be His disciples.
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We are not just proclaiming God’s Word...
We are to live by it...
For the truth found in Jesus message will expose our hidden sins...
One can’t claim to be a follower of Jesus without also living like Jesus...
One can’t say they trust in God’s Word yet refuse to obey it an produce good fruit!
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As Matthew 10:26 says:
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
The Word of God is a light and it will expose the things hidden...
That is why the world is so hostile to the Good News.
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The world does not want light as they love the darkness...
For it is the darkness that covers their sin.
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However, even if the wicked are able to cover up their sin for a time in the public eye...
It will all one day be exposed on Judgement Day!
So, there really is no place to run from God...
It is far better to repent and believe today than to, in vain, try to hide from God the things He already knows...
The penalty of sin is death...
There is no getting around that...
So, one must decide if they will surrender and trust in Jesus who is able to take their place and with his blood wash away our sins...
Or if Christ is rejected, one must stand alone on that Last Day and pay for one’s own sins in an eternal lake of fire.
As Luke 12:2 clearly says:
2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Likewise, heed the warning found in Mark 4:23-25 which says:
23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
It is that same warning we find in our passage today...
And this takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Warning
3) The Warning
Verse 18: Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”
I really like how the NLT rendering of this verse which says it like this:
“So pay attention to how you hear.
To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given.
But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.”
Essentially, one’s response to the light of the Gospel message in this life is crucial and of the foremost importance!
There will be no opportunity to embrace God’s truth at the throne of judgment...
It will be too late then!
In the end, the false disciples lose everything!
All of their self-righteous works that they had counted on to bring them salvation will turn out to be nothing but rubbish, vain things that cannot save.
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Those who scorn the light of the Gospel until there last breathe will have all light removed from them in eternity...
In other words, to neglect what one has is to lose it altogether forever!
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This is why it is of the must urgent needs to share the Gospel with the network of people you know and the people you come into contact with...
In fact, doing a quick word study proves that Jesus is not just telling us to hear the Gospel in the sense that we only have an intellectual understanding...
But we are called to truly embrace the Gospel and infuse it into our lives.
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You see Beloved, the word “hear” or in some translations the word “listen” is in the present tense in Greek...
This reveals an ongoing hearing is what is being talked about and not just a one time event...
So, the Word of God cannot be given superficial attention...
The Word of God must be engaged...
The Word of God must be weighed...
And the Word of God must be pondered.
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So, the whole purpose of lighting a lamp is that it may give light...
And the teaching Jesus gives is to be made known...
In the end, on judgment day, nothing can be kept hidden...
Therefore it is important to hear the teaching in the right way with a humble and repentant heart...
For, all those who do this will find that their stock of truth keeps growing.
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The ESV Study Bible sums up our passage this way:
“If believers do not hide the light (message) they have heard but proclaim it for others to see, then what is hidden will be made manifest, and what is secret will come to light.
Jesus is ultimately speaking about the final judgment, but gospel proclamation and gospel ministry in this age are like a ‘lamp’ that illumines and drives away dark areas of sin before the final judgment.
The one who [already] has a knowledge of God’s Word will understand it better (more will be given), whereas the one who does not listen carefully (has not) will lose even what he has heard.”
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Remember what Jesus said in the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:8:
8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
That good soil are those with an honest and good heart as Jesus explained in Luke 8:15 which says:
15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
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The light of the Gospel will be accepted only by those who humbly hear it...
And those individuals will be identifiable by the good fruit they produce.
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There is no middle option...
One cannot simply appreciate some aspects of the Gospel message but refuse to accept the whole council of God!
Viewing Jesus as just a good moral teacher will not cut it...
Viewing Jesus’ message as just nice words will not cut it!
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A true follower of Christ surrenders to the truth of the Word of God...
And a true follower of Christ obeys Jesus words as commands to live by!
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Scholar Darrell L. Bock shares with us some wise insight:
“Luke focuses on the word, picturing Jesus’ message as light openly available to all.
Light will eventually reveal all secrets, giving the word a character of judgment as well as light.
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The need exists to respond with care to Jesus’ teaching, which comes with a promise:
Response brings more spiritual blessing.
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But a threat also is made:
Lack of response means losing spiritual insight.
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Neutrality is not possible.”
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
Lee Strobel tells the story of a time when he felt God prompting him to go and share an Easter invitation in the business office of the newspaper where he worked.
He didn’t know why.
But, he listens to God.
When he arrived, he saw his friend who was working in the business office.
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This is Lee’s account:
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“It was an average routine day, and I was packing my stuff up to go home and I felt like God was kicking…and real specifically to go into the business office of the newspaper and invite my atheist friend to come to Easter services at our church.
Because Easter was coming up, so I thought this is great.
If God is really leading me to do this so specifically, this is gonna be spectacular.
He's probably gonna repent right there, get on his knees and receive Christ.
This is gonna be fantastic!
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So, I walk over to the new business office with great anticipation.
I walk in and look around.
I see my friend behind his desk.
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Perfect, so I said, ‘Hey how are you doing?’
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He said, ‘I’m doing great.’
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I said, ‘Hey, you know Easter is coming up?’
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He said, ‘Lee, I’m an atheist, I don’t observe Easter.’
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I said, ‘Yeah I know but Easter is when we remember that Jesus rose from the dead.’
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He said, ‘No, he did not.’
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I said, ‘Well actually there is good historical evidence he did.’
I began to talk to him about the evidence historically Jesus rose from death and I'm trying to get in a bunch of stuff in and you could see his eyes are glazing over.
So, I thought okay this isn't going well.
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So, I took another tact, I said, ‘So um yeah, do you do you ever think about God?’
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He said ‘No.’
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‘Okay um,’ I said, ‘Do you have any questions about God?’
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He said, ‘No.’
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‘Okay um, Hey look’ I said, ‘I know you like music, our church has got great music.
Why don’t you come to Easter services, I think you’ll like the music.’
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He said, ‘I don’t want to go to your stupid church.’
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‘Hey okay, um thanks.
Um.. I’ll talk to you… you know where my office is if you ever have a question.’
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I thought I screwed up and I thought what the heck was that.
Why did God tug me so specifically to go and invite him to church and talk about Jesus and the resurrection?
To this day he's still an atheist and I'm telling you this bothered me for years.
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But I'll tell you now the rest of the story.
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Several years after that, by then I was a pastor at this church outside Chicago, I'd preached on a Sunday and a guy came up to me and said, ‘Can I just shake your hand and thank you for the spiritual influence you’ve had in my life.’
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I said, ‘Well, that’s very nice.
Who are you?’
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He said, ‘Well let me tell you my story.
A few years ago I lost my job and I was panic-stricken.
I didn’t have any money in the bank.
I was gonna lose my house.
I was going to lose my car.
I went to the newspaper, and I said, ‘Hey you have any odd jobs I can do to earn a buck at the newspaper?’
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And the guy said, ‘Well, can you tile floors?’
And I said well ‘Yeah I’ve titled my bathroom.
I think I can tile the floor.’
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The guy said, ‘Well, we need some tiling installed and repaired at the newspaper so if you can do that we can pay you for a while.’
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So, he said, ‘I went to work at the newspaper.
One day, an average day before Easter, I was in the business office of the newspaper, and I was on my hands and knees on the floor behind a desk working on some tile on the floor and you walked in the door.
And I don’t even think you knew I was there.
You start talking this guy about God, you start talking about the resurrection, you start talking about the historical evidence that Jesus really did rise, you started inviting him to church.
But this guy was shutting you down and I’m on my hands and knees behind this desk.
And my heart’s beating fast.
I’m thinking I need God.
I need to go to church.
So as soon as you left, I called my wife.
I said, ‘We’re gonna go to church on Easter.’
She said, ‘What!.’
I said, ‘Yeah.’
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We came to your church that Easter.
I came to faith.
My wife came to faith and our teenage son came to faith.
And I just wanted to thank you.’
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I thought to myself, ‘This is a new form of evangelism.’
Ricochet evangelism is where you share your faith, and it bounces off a hard heart.
You just don't know where it's gonna go.
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Friends this is the unexpected adventure of the Christian life.
You don't want to miss this.
We can't do this in heaven.
This is our one chance.
So, let's ask God to take us on these unexpected adventures.”
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If you never surrendered to Jesus then today is that day...
If you already know Him in a saving way then share His truth with others.
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Never forget that one’s next breath is never guaranteed...
This week my Sister-in-Law’s childhood best friend had a headache and went to bed and did not wake up...
She was only 37 years old and left behind two young children.
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We never know when our time is...
We never know when it will be the time for a loved one...
So, live each day like it was your last...
Live like tomorrow isn’t guaranteed...
Live like you where dying...
And live a life that will honor the Lord!
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As my former Senior Pastor, whom I served with in Texas, would always close his messages and say to the saints...
“Tell someone about Jesus and you are loved!”
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.