In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing one's purpose in life and being ready to serve God. He uses the analogy of a light that should be shining and making a difference in the world. The speaker refers to Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus teaches about being the light of the world. He encourages the audience to understand that they are the hope of the world and have a responsibility to share their knowledge and experiences of God's love and redemption.

Turn with me, if you will, this evening to Matthew chapter 5, where we've been going regularly. And as you get there, just for the fun of it, why don't you stand and we're going to do this together, just to kind of, it will see how well we're, how much we're kind of getting the flow of the Sermon on the Mount. And all kind of started. And then if you need to look at it, look at it. But as particularly when we get into the Beatitudes, the blessings, see, just give your mind a little maybe stretch and see how much of it maybe you have grasped. This is one of those type of messages that I think is so worthy of us to really do all we can to commit all of it we can to memory. But here we have, it says, see the multitudes that there that Jesus, he went up onto a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are ye who hunger and thirst. Don't mess with me. All right, hold it. I'm going to give you one more chance here before you. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you. Rejoice, be exceeding for great, for soul persecuted. What'd you quit for? Okay, I'll just go. Ye are the salt of the earth, but the salt has lost its savor. Wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. It is set upon a hill, cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and he giveth light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Father, we do thank you for this message. We ask, Lord, that you would make this so familiar with us, the great truths of this, how important, Jesus, this message is to you, that we understand it and long to live it, long to see this message written within our hearts, within our lives. Feed us with it, Father. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, here as we pick it up this evening, I won't go through them again. Hopefully, you're familiar with them and by now pretty well, but anybody that has really experienced the Beatitudes within their life, that is those that are poor in spirit, mourn over their sin, have a meekness before God, hunger and thirst after righteousness, are filled with God. Then as God fills them, remember, they become merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker. And then though, as these things happen though, then the world may not like it, may not receive it. But Jesus said, don't worry about it. They didn't love me either. Just as a servant is not greater than his master, they hated me, they'll hate you. So blesser you, men shall revile you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against you, falsely for my sake. That's what they did to the prophets before, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. And then now he looks at this person, and as we were in last week, he said, you are the salt of the earth. The salt is lost, it's savored, it's hands forth, good for nothing. Wherewith shall it be salted, but it's good for nothing, but now to be cast out and trodden into the foot of men. Now he looks, and he says to me one of the most amazing sorts of a statement here when you look at this, as he turns now and he looks at the disciples there to pass on. But he said, you are the light of the world. What an amazing thing to look at somebody and actually tell them they're the light of the world. Awesome, I think, when you stop to think of it. He's not looking here, when you look at Jesus taking this little group of men, these guys that the rest of the world will look at is not much, kind of a conglomeration of fishermen and tax collector and guys that have been in all sorts of experiences of life, labors, common people by anybody's evaluation, but is he looking at them. Now to look at them and to say, you're the light of the world. As he's looking at the world, he's looking at the whole planet in a sense. And he's not looking at somebody now that's a great politician, some great financier, somebody, you know, huge military genius, somebody there that has great power, great authority, great dominion in the world. He's looking at these common people and he says, you are the light of the world. What an amazing sort of a thing when you stop and think of this is, as he looks at them, he says, you are it. At this point, as he looks at these people that have been poor, that they're poor in spirit, they've mourned over their sin. There's a meekness before God. There's a new hunger for God within their heart, within their life. They want to be filled with him. And as they're being filled and the process has happened, there's a merciful spirit. There's a purity of heart. There is a peacemaker happening within them. And he's looking at them and he says, and now when you can take these ingredients that have been happening within you, within your heart or within your life, he looks and he says, you're the light of the world. What you know, the truths that you know, the life that you have experienced, you are not, you might be, or you could be, or maybe someday you will be. He looks at them right now. He says, you're it. You're the hope of the world. You're the light of the world. You and what you know, what you've experienced, you don't have to pretend it to be a light. You don't have to act it. You don't have to be some sort of a faker about it. You are the light of the world. What you now know, what you now experience is the greatest truth in all the world. You know more about God, more about his love, more about redemption, more about why God created the world, more about what happened to man when he fell, more about how God restores a man, conforms a man, does his grace and his work within a man. You know more about the purposes of God, the plan of God than anybody. You're the light of the world. You're the hope of the world. And on one hand, we may look at our lives and feel, you know, I don't feel like the light of the world. I don't know how many of you feel like, boy, when you walk in and out, you look, hey, I'm the light of the world. What do you think, folks? Most of us, you know, our own process, we don't sit around and think that way. It doesn't happen. We're looking at our own life and we're struggling in our own walk with the Lord. We're looking to maybe at our own marriage, our own home. We're looking at our struggles of paying the bills, keeping a walk with God, trying to know his word, trying to build a relationship with him, trying to be some sort of a witness. For the most part, from our own perspective, feeling we don't do that good of a job at it. Feeling there is so much undone. Feeling like, if anything, I'm a hypocrite. And to have God, have him actually look at me and say, you're it. You're the light of the world. You're the hope of the world. And you know, the amazing thing here, even though with all of our struggles and all of our weaknesses and all of our failures and all of our humanity, to stop and think that they're Jesus. And even, you know, with people like the apostles, the disciples then, and you and I today, it's like he takes the keys of the kingdom, puts them in our hand, and he says, now you're it. You're the hope of the world. You're the light of the world. You possess more light than Socrates, than Plato, than Aristotle, than Sartre, than Kierkegaard. All of them put together. You know more truth. You know more about existence, why you exist. How man can deal with his issues in his life and his problems. While we're always struggling with these things, to stop and realize that a person that knows this, he looks at us and he says, you're it. And though I may find, I'll tell you one of the things about me, I mean, I don't know how often I feel like a terrible failure. I feel tremendous inadequacies. I feel like what I feel that God would desire and expect of me constantly falls short. In fact, I don't know that ever. When I ever, I've looked at the end of the day and said, Lord, boy, we really did it today, didn't we? I think he'd look and say, well, you did, but don't include me in it, you know, or something. You had a lot of time to say, you know, but, and, and what we did wasn't really close to the plan, but in my mercy and grace, yeah, we got a little done maybe. But always feeling so insufficient, so inadequate. And I'm so grateful that on one hand, the Lord, when he looks at me, one of the thing I do know, I know I love him. I know I fail. I know I let him down, but I know that the deepest truth I've ever known, the greatest accomplishment that I've ever had in my life, the most wonderful, awesome thing I've ever known is I've come into a knowledge of Jesus Christ, of his love, of his mercy and his grace. And I know I appreciate him. I know I love him with all my heart. I failed him. I let him down. I'm always inadequate, never good enough in the sense of what I ought to be. But I also know that he has looked at me and he loves me for it. He looks at me and he says that there all by itself makes you the light of the world. You have the greatest truths. You have the message of hope. You have the message that the world needs. And so often, you know, we look at our lives and, and even what we think is so important, you know, I want to be that great athlete or that great musician or that great politician or that great other person that I think would be light, that I think would be so important, so valuable to the planet. Realize who is more valuable than somebody that can look at another person and introduce them to the love of God, that can introduce them to God's mercy and God's grace. And on these terms of the beatitudes to be able to look at them and say, you know, have you failed? Yeah. Well, you know, I have too. Do you mourn over it? Is there any, is it produced a meekness before God? You have the, the formula, not to reduce the Bible down to a formula, but you have the truths, the fundamentals of the greatest things in all of the world. And when we begin to comprehend that, we begin to understand that, to realize here Jesus, and by the way, when he says this, he says, you are the light of the world. It's emphasized there actually in the Greek. It is something to say, ye and ye alone are the light of the world. The person that has these things, they are the only lights in the world. There is no other light in the world. I mean, the world is a very dark place, obviously. And when you look at it to realize there, the Lord looks at all of this darkness and the message that the Christian has, that is experienced the beatitudes at all within their life, that knows poverty of spirit, that knows any mourning over their sin, that knows a meekness before God, that has a hunger and a thirst for them. They have the greatest truth, the greatest life, the greatest hope of all. They again know who made the world, why he made the world, what went wrong with the world, what he did to fix it, how I come to him, how he works within us. And when we stop to realize, I mean, on one hand, it's no small thing in a sense, it's an awesome thing. And it fits when Jesus says, I am the light of the world. That fits. But now when I become a follower of his and he's going to heaven and now he turns to you and now he turns to me and he says, you're the light of the world. It ought to be something that now we begin to realize this is why we exist. This is the real reason for which we exist, to know him and to make him known, to share his life. Oh, we have other things we do, but those should not be the things that we're wrapped up in. We've got our, you know, we've got whatever it is, you know, nets to mend. We've got careers to have. We've got fields to plow. We've got responsibilities. But in the process of that, all the way through it, God, I want to be a light wherever I go, whatever it is that I'm up to. And here, essentially, what has happened is that through the Beatitudes, a person is becoming a transmitter of the light. We come into a union, into a fellowship. What is actually happening here wonderfully through the the Beatitudes, the whole reason for which we live, to stop and realize that Jesus looks at every one of us and says, you're the light of the world. Maybe you came in here and I wonder why I'm alive. Well, if you know anything of the Beatitudes, you know the greatest reason of all to live. More than anybody else is accomplishing politically, militarily, financially, whatever pieces of the planet they have ever taken over and they own, they control, you know more. You have a greater reason to live. You will one day be able to look back on your life more than somebody who maybe came along and was the richest man in the world. I think if somebody, and you listen to some of these testimonies of, you know, some of the great and wealthy people that have ever lived. And then you look at their lives and at the end of it, what did they ever really do? What light did they shed into the world? What blessings did they bring into it? And oftentimes they have absolutely nothing. They look at the end of their life and say, is this it? They accomplished nothing. But the person who knows anything of the Beatitudes at all within their life, they know why they're here. And then Jesus looks at them and now, you know, as he says, you are the light of the world. He then goes on and he says, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hit. He now looks at somebody, now Jesus says, not only are you the light of the world, but little did the disciples know that in the next few, you know, weeks thereafter, Jesus's resurrection and then his ascension and then the outpouring of the spirit, he would wanted to take their lives and set their life on a hill and make it something that the world would have to take notice of. He was going to put them in all sorts of experiences in life and he was going to, they were going to, he was going to make them a city essentially that would be set upon a hill. And here if anybody, on one hand, I think somebody that when we would stop to realize again with maybe the disciples, I don't think they thought that their lives were important, that they were strategic to the world. They probably wondered just like anybody else why they existed in many ways, particularly the person that's poor in spirit, mourns about it, has a meekness within them, a brokenness in their own heart, in their own life. They tend to look around and wonder, they don't think much of themselves. But yet at the same time, Jesus also said, whosoever exalts himself will be abased, but whosoever humbles himself will be exalted. He said, you watch what I'll do with there's somebody that is poor in spirit, they mourn over it. That produces a meekness, they begin to hunger after me, he says, I will take their life and that humility and that brokenness, and I will take it, I'll use them. I'll put them in the most amazing places. I'll use them in the most amazing ways. Even though Paul one time, as he commented to those in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1.25, Paul, he says, you know, the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, the base things of the world, and the things that are despised hath God chosen, yea, the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Paul one day looked around, and he looked at the people that God was using to revolutionize the world. He looked at the people that were going off to work, mending their nets, you know, living their life before God, growing in him, and basically he says, not many rich, not many noble, not many famous, not many great people. And he says, but the amazing thing is that God takes the weak things of the world, the foolish things of the world, the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. I remember one time years ago, a fellow came up to me and says, do you believe the Bible? I said, yes, I believe the Bible. And he says, do you believe God uses the foolish things of the world? I said, yes. Do you believe he uses the weak things of the world? I said, yes. Do you believe he uses the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are? I said, yes. He says, does God use you? And I slugged him. But anyway, but when we stop and realize God just uses anybody that looks there and says, God, I long to be used. All I know is, is I have, I am now a vessel in which have been invested the greatest truths of all the world. The love of God has become real to me. The hope of eternal life has become real to me. The mercy of God, the forgiveness of God, the goodness of God. I have experienced it. It has come into my life. I don't know how good I am at it, but I know I love it. And I know it's part of me. And when we find ourselves there, you know, wanting to move out of the old life and therefore God, all right, here I am. I offer myself to you and however you want to use it, you go right on ahead and you use it. God, he takes people essentially theologically in the world. There's four positions that people find themselves in condemnation, justification, sanctification, and glorification. We all come into the world in condemnation. We're all condemned. We're all lost in our trespasses and sins. We're all dead. But then when we come to Christ and he forgives us, we're now justified before God. Then as we offer our lives to him, he then sanctifies it. He sets it apart for God, for his service. And then when he takes us home, he'll conform us to his image and we'll be glorified in him. But the wonderful thing is, is that a person that has experienced the beatitudes, that is, that's poor in spirit, they're mourning over their sin. There's a meekness in their heart. They hunger and thirst. Those are essentially this processes through which a person moves from justification or into sanctification, where the life becomes usable to God. And when I'm looking saying, God, I want you to use my life. This is what Jesus is looking at and wanting us to respond to it. He then goes on after he, when he says, I want to set your life upon a hill. He says, neither do men light a candle and put it on a bushel, uh, under a bushel, pardon me, but on a candlestick. And it giveth light to all that are in the house. Here, Jesus now looks and he says, why would I light this candle? He's looking at their, at our lives. He said, I want to use you. I want to use you wherever you go. And he says, why in the world would I ever think of taking a candle, lighting it, and then putting a bushel or putting it under something? And he says, why would I do that? Why would anybody do that? Nobody does that. And he says, when I take you and I am touching your life, I'm filling you with my hope and my mercy and my love and my forgiveness. It's that I might take your life and set it upon a hill. Not that it would just be shoved away, useless, hidden, having no effect. But rather than that, that just the same thing that you and I do with the light, that it would be something that's important to us. It's almost like he's looking at it and he says, why light a light and then just hide it, not use it. You ever walk into your house or you go and do a closet and when you come in there, you find out for the last week you left a light on that closet and you're realizing that light's been on all week. Nobody's been in there and you're mad at the light. You know, almost it's kind of like, why did I pay for this light to be on all week long? And it's been hidden. The door's been shut. What a waste. It's not just like you just look at it and, and oh well, who cares? Big deal. I don't know about you, but it's just because I'm a Scotsman or something. But it's something there that I mean, I like to have an air conditioner. I like to have a heater. But if I leave for a few days and I forget to turn it off and I come back and the house is warm and I realize it's been warm for three days for nobody, I'm mad at my heater. I want to, what a waste of a heater. And I think here we look at the Lord and we realize he looks at us and he says, listen, I'll take your life and I'll love you and I'll forgive you and I'll atone. I'll draw you to myself. I'll give you a hunger for me. But I want you to realize the potential of your own life, the importance of your life, the strategy of your life. You and you alone are the light of the world. I don't have other lights. I don't have plan B. I have the body of Christ. I have those that I love, those that I have forgiven, those that I have regenerated, those that have come to me, that I poured my life and my love and my power and my mercy and my grace and my goodness into. You're it. I don't have another way I'm going to do it. I want to use you. And then he takes us and he puts us out. And so often I imagine, you know, many of you, you live in an area that's very dark. Maybe some of you work at a job and you're the only Christian around. And maybe some of you live in an apartment complex that you seem like you're the only Christian around. And you're in all sorts of environments and you realize, God, I need Christians. Get me around Christians. I need it. I want it. He says, no. I'll draw you together here and we'll feed you and we'll get you around and you'll have fellowship here. But then I'm going to take you and I'm going to send you out where the dark places of the world are. And I want to use you there. Tell me if you were for the city of Costa Mesa or Santa Anne or in some city, if you were in charge of city lights, would you go get all the lights of the city and just say, hey, let's just put them all in one parking lot so they can all have fellowship and they can all just look around and wear their, you know, sunglasses. Whoa, it's just bright. Or wouldn't you take the lights and you would put them in the darkest hairpin corner to where accidents tend to happen and where people, they go and they easily get lost, lose their directions. And you'd find them and want to put a dark place here and a dark place here. And then you would look at that light and you would place it in a place that if that light didn't shine, accidents could happen. Tragedies could happen. And here when Jesus said, ye and ye alone, are the lights of the world. And he says, I don't want to just light a candle and put it under a bushel. I want you to begin to see the potential of your life and long to see that potential experience and discovered and to enter into. And I think one of the saddest things to me that I ever see is sometimes I see people literally going around with their life as a Christian. They've been born again. They've been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. They have been forgiven. They've been atoned for the highest price ever paid for anything in the entire existence of the planet was paid for their redemption. Jesus Christ died in the cross for them. And yet they're walking around wondering, why am I here? What am I doing here? So what do you mean? What are you doing here? You've got the greatest job in the world. You're the light of it. You're the light of it. And maybe you're a light that's over here in a dark place in your light. It's over here. But when you sit there and realize, God, I don't think I'm going to figure out a lot of the other reasons I'm here until I come up with the obvious one, the greatest one. I am yours. Some of you, when you leave here, you may go home to a family that's divided. You may, you'll find yourself going to work tomorrow and there'll be struggles and tensions and heartaches and all sorts of problems around. And you may wonder why am I here? I think the Lord would like to say, why are you there? There are people dying around you. And you have, you know how to heal them. You have the message of redemption, of forgiveness. You're the light of the world. And when that begins to settle in, I think that when we begin to realize that a light begins to go on within us, that we look there and God, you want to use me in my home? Yes. You want me to share with people in the neighborhood? Yes. You could actually use my life to bring other people in the kingdom? Precisely. I think when that begins to settle into somebody and realize whatever else that they may want to be or wish they could be, that isn't why we exist. That isn't why we're, you know, why we're here, why we're around. I remember as a kid, one of the, I love sports. And once in a while I'd feel like, you know, I can do this. I want to do this. I want to make a career at this. Until somebody hit me and I realized, no, I don't want to do that one anymore. Or something else would happen. There's somebody too big for me or whatever else. But then one time I picked up golf somehow or another and I decided I want to be a golfer. That's why I want to be on this planet. I want to be a golfer. I played every day. Every day for years. Because I want, and then I got actually got pretty good. Not great, just pretty good. I won some tournaments, did a few things like that. But then I really thought, I'm going to be a professional golfer. That's why I'm going to be here. And then I didn't get much better. And then I realized, you know something? I'm not that bad. But at the same time, there's at least a million guys that play this good. At least a million. And there's about a hundred that make a living. I don't think I'm going to do this. And I was so disappointed because I realized that there was something that I thought I really, truly wanted to do. And I wouldn't be able to succeed at it. And I oftentimes, when I have football, I wanted to be a great football player. And the coaches never agreed. They said, well, you can, you know, well, you can fill a hole. And if you'll just hold your ground, you can do that pretty good. You're all right then. But nobody's ever going to pay you to fill the hole. You know, sort of a thing. And everything I try to do, I don't know how good I ever could have been at it or not. But to stop and realize the greatest existence, far greater than playing a stupid game, knocking. When I look there and realize people actually, they spend their entire life knocking this little white ball around the place and say, this is why I'm alive. Isn't this great? And they pay me. And they say, no, you just sold out for a stupid game, your existence for what you could have been. You missed it. I'm not saying that they're not a place for a wonderful Christian golfer. I'm just saying though, that with people, that's all they're alive for. It is not the reason we exist. I remember then I quit and I didn't play for years. And then actually, when I was in Redlands, one of my elders loved to play golf. And he one time he tried to get me to play. And I said, okay, we'll try it. And he took me out one time to play golf. And I hadn't been on this course. He'd played a lot. And we get to the 18th hole. And I'd done all right for that. I beat him. But anyway, but anyway, he was, we came down to the 18th hole. And it's this long par five, dogleg right. I didn't know how, where to hit it and what the plan was. I'd never played the course. But he tells me, he says, all right, what you want to do, you hit it straight out here as far as you possibly can. Then you're going to hit it and lay up there. And then the dogleg is way at the end. And then you're going to go into the green. So I said, okay. And I got up and I hit that thing. And I really tagged it. I had, I, man, maybe I should go back to this game. It was one of, you know, every time you play golf, you get one shot that makes you want to think you ought to do it again. The other 99 shots, you know, you forget all those, but this one, it was just a shot. And this guy walked in. He said, I've never, this is, this is the best drive. This is a phenomenal drive from here. You can go for the green. You want to go for the green from here. You can hit the green in there. And I said, I don't even know what the green is. He says, we'll see that hill over there. See that telephone pole up there on the top. The green is right below that thing. And I said, how far is it? And he tells me the club. I can't remember what it is. And he said, you just got to go for it to have a drive like this and not go for it. Okay. So I said, where am I? So he ain't tells me where to go. And so I hit the ball and I, I got two in a row. Perfect. It went exactly where he told me. He says, you're on the green. I can't believe it. I never seen anybody actually do that here. I've heard of guys that just haven't seen it. And so I said, okay, I'm on the green. I'm on the green, I guess. And on it, we walk up there while I, he's going off and getting his ball. And I walk up to the green and I, I didn't see any green and I'm walking around. And so when I were why, and this is on the 18th hole. And when I walk up there, I walked by the cup and just for the fun of it, cause I'm this type of guy, but I walked by and he's off doing something. And I took a ball out of my pocket and I dropped it in the hole. And then I walk on like, and then I got off the green and I, and, and I'm looking around in the rough. I couldn't find my ball anywhere either. But then he gets up there and he says, you're not on the green. I said, nah. And, and he said, man, I thought, I thought you were on it for sure. And I said, no, I guess not. I thought I hit it okay too, but you told me what to do. And, and so I just dropped one. I said, here, I'll hit one on. And so by then he hits his ball up and he goes over to tend the pin. And as he gets the pin, he looks and he sees his ball no. And he reaches down and he put, and he says, what are you hitting? I said, it was a title is two. That's what I dropped in the hole. He said, what? And I, and I said, a title is two. And then he goes crazy. He says, you got a double Eagle. I've never seen a double Eagle. It's never happened. He says a two on a par five, that's greater than holding one on a par three. That's a double Eagle. And he's screaming. I said, next day, I know there's guys over there in the putting green and there's people up at the 18th hole there. They got a little cafe. They come out of the, uh, uh, the pro shop there and the starters out there and he's yelling double Eagle. And I'm there saying, really forget it. This whole thing backfires. I'm terrible. I mean, all these people are coming out and the pros saying, Hey, we'll send it title. So give you a bunch of golf balls. What club did you hear? Will, we'll tell the club maker. They'll do stuff for you. That's double Eagle. You got that. It's nothing really. It's really not. Yeah. And this guy, I mean the whole place I'm sitting there watching, how do you get out of here? I just, and they thought I was the humblest guy. We leave and I go on home next Sunday. You got the message. I was in Romans where the judgment of Christ will be the, you know, the, the revelation of secrets. I had the perfect illustration. So I told the story of what happened. This guy is sitting there, this elder who'd he, he had called his father. He'd called people all the country. He had done everybody. But I think that I'm sitting there. I only knew for sure that what everybody thought I did, I didn't do. And you know, I think that's the way a lot of people that live for a lot of other reasons, no matter what it is you think, and everybody thinks you're great and you succeeded and you're good and you're something. I think everybody looks and realize, but that is not why I'm alive. That is not even so what if it did happen, which it didn't. But when somebody looks and realizes what else is there alive, are we alive for other than to live for him, other than to be used for him. You know, Jesus gives an amazing parable and one that theologically is a nightmare to a lot of people. But in Luke, I'll just read this to you. But he says, he said, let your, your loins be girded about and your lights burning. And he says in you yourselves, like in the men that wait for the Lord. And when the return for when he returns from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, that they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants from whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. And if he come in the second watch or become in the third watch and find them so blessed are those servants for this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and would have suffered his house to do, to be broken through. And pardon me, would not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also for the son of man cometh at an hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us or even to all? And he said unto them, who then that is faithful and a wise steward of his Lord shall make him a ruler over his household to give him their portion of meat in due season. Blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. By truth I say unto you that he will make him a ruler over all that he has. But if the servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and the maidens and to eat and to drink and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him. And at that hour, when he is not aware, will cut him asunder, will appoint unto him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew the Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. For he knew not and did not commit, pardon me, and he that knew not and did not commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whom much is given, him much should be required. But here is Peter, they're listening to say, Lord, who are you talking to? And even then, as Jesus looks, the important thing to me and to try to work out all the theology sometimes of some of the parables Jesus gives. But the important things is, I think for all of us to look and realize, why am I here? I am to be looking. I'm a light. Jesus looks there and he says, trim your lamps. Know you're the light, that whether I come at the first watch, the second watch, the third watch. You are somebody, you know why you are alive. And you're about the business, waiting for your master, wanting to be used, wanting your heart, wanting your life, that you've got a burden for people around you. Burden for their soul, a burden for their life. And here he looks at them and I think that when we realize that here the Lord on his disappointment with, again, walking into a, you know, a closet and there's a light been on, shining nowhere, doing nothing any good. Something there that is not even conscious of need or taking care of other needs. And just how we can feel. And here the Lord also makes it clear. He looks at us and he says, I want to see your life be used. Don't you? I've got a greater reason than any other reason why you're alive to be living that way. Don't you want to be alive for that reason? Wouldn't you love to one day look at the end of your life and say, God, you use me for every one of us. You know, Jesus intercedes the same every day. Every one of us, he presents faultless. Every one he pours out his love and his mercy and his grace on every one of us. Every one of the body of Christ there. Jesus is. He loves us and he redeems us and he cares and he presents us and he pours out his love. But, you know, some people, they just soak it up. All of his blessings. God, pour out your love. Use me. Fill me. I'm hungry, merciful. I want to, you know, pure at heart. I want to be a peacemaker. I want to be a light. I want to be salt. Take my life and use it. And other people that he does the exact same things for. Don't even think about it. I believe Jesus interceded as much for you and me today as he did Billy Graham. He interceded for as much you today as he did Chuck and Kay Smith. He pours out as much mercy and grace on every one of us every day. But some people, they just seem to soak it up and say, I want it. Take me. Make me salt. Make me light. Use me. And others have some excuse. They're busy or they don't see the potential of their life and they don't care to really search it out and say, God, what do you want to do? And sometimes maybe we even go out to try to be used and we have a few bad experiences. I remember when I started witnessing to people at work, all I did was get flack. All I did was get arguments. All I was trying to do was share with them that Jesus was real. And as soon as I would do it, and whether in my fraternity life or at school or the jobs that I had after I came to Christ, and I found myself just trying to go share thinking that something might happen. Virtually every time they'd look at me and say, what? Or they'd argue. Or I don't believe that. I remember one guy, you know, there I'll never, it worked when I decided I'd been, I had to pray for this guy and pray, God, go open the door. Let me talk to him. And I finally, one day I got the boldness and I started sharing with the guy, this guy, he was foul mouthed and he was as crusty of a guy that there ever was. And I was just praying and God just opened the door. And one day he kind of, I saw something. I thought, hey, there's a door open. I turned to him and I wanted to share with him about Christ. I said, tell me something. Do you know anything about Jesus? And he looked at me and then he took off on me and on Jesus and on everything for quite a little while. And I wrote, well, I guess he knows a little, at least what he thinks. But he didn't care for anything I had to say. And he didn't want to know anything I had to say. He wasn't interested in anything I had to say, but I didn't quit. And when you continue to find people, Billy Graham, Billy Graham, once a year, wonderful Christian man, went through Bible college, felt God calling him in the ministry. There was a girl he fell in love with, asked the girl if she'd marry him. She said no. And she told him the reason, the reason I won't marry you is your life is never going to turn into anything. And he started off in ministry, took this little church, couple to dozen people, pastored there for a year, nothing happened. He had, well, I guess she was right, but he didn't quit. If you haven't heard, he's had a nice little ministry through the years. Charles Fuller, I don't know if you've ever heard the name Charles Fuller. Billy Graham, they believe preached for over 30 years before he led more people to Christ than Charles Fuller. Charles Fuller had a radio program, the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, was on for years, where he, this guy from Illinois or whatever and kind of a hick guy, but he just had a burden for people. How can I reach people? And he heard about the radio. And he determined, all right, I'm going to get some radio time and I'm going to go out and share. And he wrote these sermons and he got all ready and he went around to radio stations to where he could see if he could get time to preach the gospel. And so he gets an opportunity. They say, yeah, you can do it here. So he goes in, he gets on this live radio program and he preaches his heart out. And at the end of this thing, then he puts out, and I believe he was in this Kansas or something, or I believe maybe it was Illinois. And so as he's preaching, he tells them, he says, listen, just so we can get an idea of the audience I'm reaching. Anybody that's listening to me in Kansas tonight, you send us a letter and I'm going to send you a Bible for free. And a guy over there working the control starts laughing. And he went and after he preached his heart out for an hour or something, asked the guy what was so funny afterwards. He says, well, we are a six watt radio station. It goes about 15 miles this direction and gets about nine farmhouses. Instead of quitting, God, take my life. I'm going to find something with more watts, you know, something. And he started looking around. I'm not going to give up and I'm going to continue. And so he gets, he finds somebody with 25 or 30 watts that would let him do his thing. And he did it. And they liked it and said, here, you can come back again. And then somebody did write and wanted a Bible and he sent him a Bible. And then he asked if anybody is responding, you know, gave him a number that they could call. I want to pray with you if we can help you. And while he just went out and just found a way to share and to communicate. The next thing you know is one day this guy had led literally hundreds and thousands of people to Christ. And yet he was one of the simple, wonderful men I ever met. I ever met. And he just loved the Lord. It was a guy that he did. But when you just see somebody, you just start someplace and what God has for you and how he wants to use you. And when we realize this, Peter, he writes and he says in first Peter two, nine, he says, you are a chosen generation, a Royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. Peter, as he looks at every one of us, you and I, and I don't know whether you know this tonight, but if you're a child of God, you are, you're a chosen generation. You're a Royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are a peculiar people. You may say, well, I knew that. But the, but here he says that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. Here he looks and he says, if he's called you out of the darkness into the marvelous light, he says, now show forth the praises, be the light, share it, ask God to do it and hear Jesus. Then he closes this section. And he is, you know, by saying to them, let your sight, your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. When we look there and say, God, I don't care what else I'm alive for, but if my life can bring any glory to you, that's why I'm alive. Take me, use me. I want to be the light of the world. If you look at me tonight and you say you are, you may feel like you're a two watt bulb, but at the same time, when you say, okay, Lord, crank it up, get the light flowing, use my life for your glory. See what he'll do. Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness, for your desire, Lord, that you look at us and maybe we disqualify ourselves because we say, well, I'm not anybody. I'm weak. I feel foolish without strength. I get my tongue twisted, don't know what it's all about. I'm not very good at it. But yet, Lord, you look at us and you say, if you know who I am, you are the light of the world. You are, and I want to set you on a hill. And so I'm going to take you over to that dark office. I'll take you into that dark neighborhood. And then I want you just to begin to sing forth the praises of the one who has called you out of darkness and into this marvelous light. Lord, that you would take us, that you would use us, that one day we can look back at our lives and that our accomplishments would not be things that people would look at and in games that were played or stuff that was just acquired or built up. Lord, we've got the jobs to do, but as we do these things, Lord, may we be ones that we realize you look at us and you say, you and you alone are the light of the world. You know more truth than all the heathen philosophers combined. You know, you have more light. You have more understanding. Now let your light so shine. Just let it happen. Just let it flow forth. Lord, may you release our lives. May we be thrilled about the potential of our life and say, Lord, take them and use them for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.