Good Morning and welcome to HeavenBound GB Ministry. We thank you for coming to join in with us worshipping and learning the word of God. Come and join us as we listen to Reverend William present “The Old Lamplighter”

Call to Worship:

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

Shall we together open with prayer

Almighty Father, as we assemble this morning, we bring a large assortment of failures and weaknesses to Your throne, pleading for Your forgiveness, and confessing them as sins to be plunged into the fountain filled with blood. We recognize we have a strong enemy who accuses us day and night. But we have a stronger advocate—Jesus Christ, the righteous One, Himself the appeasement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. So forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And having forgiven us, Lord, renew the joy of our salvation, restore our enthusiasm for life, revive our spirits, and refresh us this day with the thirst-quenching waters of worship and praise. Father, Send the Spirit to teach us, to lead us to light our Lamp so others may See. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Scripture: Ephesians 5:8: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”

Introduction: Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish humorist and comedian of another era, was a Christian. One evening at the Hotel Cecil he told about an incident that might have been spoken from a pulpit. He said: “I was sitting in the gloamin’, an’ a man passed the window. He was the lamplighter. He pushed his pole into the lamp and lighted it. Then he went to another and another. Now I couldn’t see him. But I knew where he was by the lamps as they broke out down the street, until he had left a beautiful avenue of lights. Ye’re a’ lamplighters. They’ll know where ye’ve been by the lights [ye have lit].” That is a beautiful description of the Christian life. We are lamplighters. The darkened lamps are the lives and souls of those who sit in a dark world. The flame is the flame of the love of Jesus Christ burning by His Spirit, and the pole is the presentation of the gospel.

1. Closet Christians. One of the sociological phenomena of our day is the “emptying of the closet.” The closet used to be full in America, but today it’s empty. The prostitutes have left the closet and are demanding their rights. The homosexuals are out of the closet and having their own parades. The fornicators have left the closet and have put both names on the mailbox where they cohabit apart from the blessings of marriage. But there behind the coats and scarves, cringing in the corner, clinging to his lamplighter’s pole, are those church members who hide their lights and are ashamed to witnesses for their Lord.

Said one businessman to his friend, “How long have we known each other?”

“About fifteen years.”

“And you believe, I understand, that no man can go to heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ. Is that correct?”

“Oh, yes, I believe that very definitely.”

“Do you really care for me?”

“Indeed I do.”

“Sir, I beg to differ with you. You actually do not care for me at all, for in fifteen years I have heard you talk about hundreds of subjects, but you have never yet once talked to me about Christ.”

“You Forget My Soul”:

You lived next door to me for years;

We shared our dreams, our joys, our tears,

A friend to me you were indeed,

A friend who helped me in my need.

My faith in you was strong and sure;

We had such trust as should endure.

No spats between us e’er arose;

Our friends were like—and so, our foes.

What sadness then, my friend, to find

That after all, you weren’t so kind.

That day my life on earth did end,

I found you weren’t a faithful friend.

For all those years we spent on earth

You never talked of second birth.

You never spoke of my lost soul

And of the Christ who’d make me whole.

I plead today from hell’s cruel fire

And tell you now my last desire.

You cannot do a thing for me;

No words today my bonds to free.

But do not err, my friend, again—

Do all you can for souls of men.

Plead with them now quite earnestly,

Lest they be cast in hell with me.

Did you know that according to the Gallup Poll only 3 % of Christians ever share their Faith? Pretty Grim Huh! All of us want to be Witnesses for Christ, but most of us lack the drive and boldness necessary to go door to door pushing our faith on our neighbors. The problem is, many of us, ok maybe even you, are gulp shhhhh don't say it too loud, "Closet Christians".

Are you a Closet Christian?

Do your Friends, Co-Workers and Neighbors even know you're Christian? Yikes if this is you it's time to DIE! What, surely I didn't mean to say DIE! Yes, DIE. It's time to move on becoming mature in your faith or Die trying. Yep, it's time to die to self and live for Christ. That doesn't mean you need to go to the nearest street corner, hang a sign around your neck and scream Repent. It does mean that you must stop being embarrassed about our Savior Jesus and talk about him and your faith in Him. Are you ashamed of our Lord? Remember, He did say if you are ashamed of Him before men He would be ashamed of you before His Father.

Mark 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Luke 9:26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

2 Timothy 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,

1 Peter 4:16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

2. Christ’s Command. Jesus, in His last command, said that we are to be witnesses unto Him. He died to purchase eternal life for all who would trust in Him, and we must share the Light of Life. Oh, if we could but see a friend, a loved one, an acquaintance, a business partner, five minutes after their death, we would surely lament if we had not told them of the Light of Life. Michelangelo once carved several statues out of ice one cold winter day, perhaps to amuse his friends. They were magnificently done and many came to admire them. But, of course, soon the sun rose higher and the statues melted. We would think it foolish for someone to leave a legacy in ice to turn to water and mud. But, my friends, some of you have spent your whole life carving in ice. Making a living. Fixing a house. Making sure your lawn is impeccable. What will it matter 500 years from now?

On May 8, 1984, Benjamin M. Weir, veteran Presbyterian missionary to Lebanon, was kidnapped at gunpoint by Shiite Muslims in Beirut. During his sixteen-month imprisonment, he was constantly threatened with death. On his first night in captivity, one of his captors came to him and told him to face the wall, which he did. “Now take your blindfold off, and put this on.” The man handed Weir a pair of ski goggles with the eye holes covered in thick plastic adhesive tape. He could see no light. In Weir’s mind, the sun had set. He later wrote:

In the twilight there came to mind the hymn, “Abide with me—fast falls the eventide.” I felt vulnerable, helpless, lonely. I felt tears in my eyes. Then I remembered the promise of Jesus, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.”

“Lord, I remember your promise, and I think it applies to me, too. I’ve done nothing to deserve it but receive it as a free gift. I need you. I need your assurance and guidance to be faithful to you in this situation. Teach me what I need to learn. Deliver me from this place and this captivity, if it is your will. If it is not your will to set me free, help me to accept whatever is involved. Show me your gifts, and enable me to recognize them as coming from you. Praise be to you.”

For the next sixteen months, his hope and joy was that he was not simply abiding in captivity, he was abiding in Christ and thus able to “bear much fruit.”

3. Making Your Life Count for Eternity. Those who are truly wise and mature in their faith of their Savior Jesus sculpt in human souls and fashion them into the image of Jesus Christ. I urge you to work for the souls of men, and I am not speaking alone. There is a trio of voices speaking to you. I speak God’s Word to you, but the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and so is your own conscience. How many have stood by the grave of a loved one and lamented, “Oh, how I wish I had spoken to this one about Christ.”

“As I reflected on the meaning of maturity,” wrote Jerry White, “I realized that there is a central mark of maturity. In the human physical realm, maturity is gauged by when a person is able to bear or father children. A tree is mature when it bears fruit. A stalk of grain is mature when it can be harvested. In all creation, fruit-bearing is the preeminent mark of maturity.

“Certainly the spiritual realm differs little. A mature believer bears fruit of two kinds. The first is that of character and holiness of life. The second is becoming a spiritual parent either by leading others to Christ or by adopting a baby or growing a Christian.”*

In chapter 20 of Matthew we find the parable that He described a woman who loses one of her ten silver coins, worth about a day’s wage. These coins, which she wore as a headdress, represented her savings and probably formed part of her dowry. At issue was not only the value of the coin but also the fact that losing part of her dowry would be a shameful thing.

Jesus pictured her living in a peasant’s house which would have a low doorway and few or no windows. To find the coin she lit a lamp and diligently swept every nook, listening for the coin’s telltale clink and watching for its gleam in the lamplight. When at last she found it, her joy knew no bounds! She rushed to tell her friends the wonderful news and called them to rejoice with her.

Jesus then applied the parable by declaring the joy that the angels share together with God when sinners return in repentance to Him. The self-righteous scribes and Pharisees in His audience clearly lacked this joy (Luke 15:2), but God’s gracious acceptance was wonderful news to the ordinary women and men who heard Him. Not only does Jesus as us to light a light for the world to see us brightly for new coming Christians but also for the ones that are lost and yet found. Won’t you Light your Candle so they can find you.

Conclusion: There are some in this world who will never hear the gospel unless they hear it from you. If every person in this sanctuary today were to become a lamplighter for Jesus Christ, there would be such joy that people would wonder what was going on when they walked into this church. Nothing you can ever do will give you such satisfaction. A businessman had a layover in Dallas. Being a lamplighter, he wondered how he could use the hour-and-twenty-minute wait to good purpose. He had some tracts in his briefcase, so he took them out, inserted a business card in each, and gave one to every man in that particular section of the airport, saying, “Here, this will tell you how to become a Christian. If you would like to know more, I’ll be sitting right over there until my plane leaves in an hour and twenty minutes. Or, if you would like to write me, here is my business card.” What do you think happened? Before his plane left, men were standing four deep around his seat trying to find out more about how to become a Christian. And for weeks he was answering letters from those who had inquired. Yes, we are all lamplighters, and they will know where we’ve been by the lights we have lit.

Benediction:

And now, Heavenly Father, may we leave this place to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide their feet in the way of peace. Amen.

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