ERVIE-KIRKCOLM
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
MINISTER: REV. MICHAEL J SHEPPARD BD [HONS]
ASSOCIATE MINISTER: REV. MARY MUNRO BA [AUX.]
ORGANIST MRS: MAIRI MCINTYRE
ORDER OF SERVICE
10.00AM SUNDAY 25TH JULY 2010
Hymn 361(ii) ‘Let all the world in every corner sing' [Luckington].
Prayer and the Lord's Prayer.
Reading: Psalm 111 [pew bibles OT p.602].
Hymn 352 ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty’ [Nicaea].
Readings: John 6:35, 41-51 [pew bibles nt p.126];
Ephesians 5:1-14 [NT p.242].
Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession.
Hymn: ‘Longing for light’ [CH4 543 - Christ be Our Light].
Sermon: 'Let your little light shine!'
JP 258 ‘This little light of mine’ .
Offering & Prayer of Dedication.
Hymn 89 ‘Guide me, O thou great Jehovah’ [Cwm Rhondda].
Benediction & Threefold Amen.
1. Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.
Christ be our light!
Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness.
Christ be our light!
Shine in your church gathered today.
2. Longing for peace, our world is troubled. 4. Longing for shelter, many are homeless.
Longing for hope, many despair. Longing for warmth, many are cold.
Your word alone has power to save us. Make us your building, sheltering others,
Make us your living voice. walls made of living stones.
3. Longing for food, many are hungry. 5. Many the gifts, many the people,
Longing for water, many still thirst. many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Make us your bread, broken for others, Let us be servants to one another,
shared until all are fed. making your kingdom come.
[W&M: Bernadette Farrell; ã OCP Publications via Calamus]
INTIMATIONS
Songs Of Praise Service - St. Ninian's Parish Church warmly invites you to its Songs Of Praise Service being held this evening, Sunday 25th July, and beginning at 6.30pm. All welcome!
The Sacrament of Holy infant Baptism – will next be administered and celebrated here on Sunday 15th August, and to Adam David Fletcher [b.24.02.10], son of Katrina Garrett and Stephen Fletcher, 57 Dalrymple Street, Stranraer.
SERMON
'Let Your Little Light Shine!'
[Ephesians 5:1-14]
Have you ever been robbed?
If you have, then you'll know how horrible an experience it can be. it's as if you have been violated, and your house, your home, suddenly feels quite contaminated.
Robberies tend to happen at night, when it's dark and no one can easily be seen. and the preventive remedy often suggested by the police is to flood the outside of your house in light.
Darkness is the criminal's friend.
If you're going out at night, then it's not all that advisable to walk in a dark area alone, especially if you happen to live in a city. Likewise, when out jogging or cycling, folk are advised to stay to well lit streets or cycle paths. It's safer that way.
Darkness - where a person cannot be seen - is where criminals like to do their work of stealing and hurting and breaking.
Where they can't be seen - that's where Satan and his terrible demons like to do their work of damaging, tempting, hurting God's good creation, and we who live in it.
Where it's hard to see - that's where sin does its most damaging work, as our passage from Ephesians confirms.
The Bible talks to and challenges us to make sure that our lives aren't dark lives - lives where it's easy for sin to hide and do it's worst. It challenges us to put up big spotlights for Christ, so that sin is scared away and it becomes safe to live, good to live, happy to live for Jesus.
And there are two ways we can live -
We can live dark lives.
We can live lives of light.
We can live lives that make it easy for Satan to snoop around, for temptations to hatch into sin, for wrongful thoughts and actions to hide undetected. Or,
We can live lives that are right out in the open, where sin can be seen and flushed out, ashamed to be found and chased away, where good words can be spoken to other people, and where good things can be done that are pleasing to the Lord.
You have a choice - but for people who say that they love Jesus the only really good choice is to live out in the open, and live brighter-than-bright lives.
The bible says, "You were once darkness." That's in verse 8. It doesn't say "You once lived in darkness." No. It says, "You WERE darkness."
It's not that someone came along and surrounded you with darkness; It's not that someone kept the light from you, and that, somehow, you just got caught up in it. You were the darkness yourself.
In the eyes of God, if you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ you are darkness.
When you're more worried about yourself and what you want for life, rather than what the Lord wants for your life, the Bible calls you darkness, and you can reckon on all sorts of shameful and destructive things in the eyes of God to occur.
"Fruitless deeds" is what v.11 calls them. "Fruitless" - meaning empty, and useless for doing good.
I've got a great torch at home. It looks good and quite useful. It's big, and it has a great bulb in it. But, do you know what? It's totally useless, because the batteries are dead. It's fruitless, and, unless I renew the batteries, it not going to do me the slightest bit of good.
Live without Jesus, and there's likely to be nothing in your life that would prevent you from becoming greedy, from talking in a way that makes fun of and hurts others, and from living in a wrong way in regard to personal relationships.
These are the stuff of darkness.
But does such stuff make this world a better place to live? Is this stuff likely to make our Lord and Creator happy and satisfied, or sad and disappointed?
As Christians, we have given our hearts to Jesus. We have asked him to forgive the deeds of darkness, of sin, of all that has happened in our lives, and that will keep on raising its head from time to time. But, in surrendering our hearts to Jesus, we ask for his Holy Spirit to live in us. And, when that happens, Satan no longer has any right to be there.
Oh, he may try and sneak in for a while, now and then. But he has no right to stay there.
For, when you give your life to Jesus, you become light.
What did verse 8 say?
"For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light."
Do you see that?
You were darkness. Meaning that you're not anymore.
You are light. That's who you are - a shining person - a person in whom it's scary for sin to live; where dark things - things that damage peoples' lives, words that hurt people inside, thoughts that are degrading, actions that damage God's good creation - where dark things can be seen for the badness which they are.
'You are light!' But notice what else v.8 says, for it tells you why you are light.
You are light...... in the Lord.
It's a bit like our moon. The moon shines, but why does it give out light? Well, not because there's a giant flame on the moon.
And not because there are millions of moon creatures shining their torches down at earth?
No - it gives out light because the light of the sun bounces off the moon and reflects down to earth. And so we see a great big shiny ball called the moon.
When Jesus - the One the Bible calls "The Light Of The World" - lives in us, his goodness and love reflect off us - it makes us shine. His light bounces off us, and into the lives of others. And the One who makes the light, the goodness of Jesus, shine into us and bounce back out towards other people is the Holy Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven to live in the disciples. People saw that happen as small flames rested on their heads. It's as if they were on fire, as the fire of the Spirit came to live in them, lighting up their hearts and souls with the light-giving fire of Jesus.
It's the Holy Spirit that puts that lousy feeling inside you when you find yourself lying, cheating, or dishonouring someone else's name. It's the Holy Spirit who tugs at your heart when you forget to pray and read the bible. It's the Holy Spirit that makes you feel good and guilty when you carelessly pollute and poison God's green earth. And it's the Holy Spirit who makes you feel good when you help someone, or spend time with a person that others seem to avoid.
The bible's challenge to you and me is to live as light people - like human torches.
This means that we should try to shine the light of Jesus all around, and get rid of the dark and damaging stuff that Satan would love to see us do.
The light that helps us find it is the Bible - Psalm 119:105 says. "Your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our way."
The idea then is that we take that light in - that we study our bibles, and then practice what it tells us to do.
So, live as light people.
Not only get rid of the dark and damaging stuff. But also find and live in good, positive, and helpful ways.
Our bible passage talks about that - about, living a life of love, being thankful for all that God gives you, being respectful to other people, and not always demanding to have things your way. That's what Jesus did when he lived on earth.
It's certainly a challenge - to live out our lives always in this way - and it can sometimes be quite hard.
And, sometimes, Satan can be very sneaky trying to get inside you with his rotten thoughts and ideas.
That's why v.15 tells us, "Be very....... careful how you live."
Pay attention. Watch out.
Shine the light of the Bible in every part of your life.
Associate yourselves with other shiny people, and help each other stay close to the light of Jesus.
And when darkness creeps in, as undoubtedly it will, the thing to do is to acknowledge it right away. Don't try to ignore it. Don't try to hide it. For Jesus sees it anyway.
Admit to it. Say you're sorry. Get rid of it. And Jesus will forgive you.
Then ask for more of the power of his Holy Spirit to come and reside in you.
In doing so, it will make your life better, happier, more worthwhile. and, do you know what?
Other people will come to see it. And, eventually, they may well ask you about it. And you'll then have the chance to introduce them to the Light of the World - namely, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Wouldn't that be exciting?
Because then you'd be helping to chase darkness out of another person's life, and helping them to become a light person, too. You'd be helping to take back another life from Satan, and bringing it instead to Jesus.
And then, together with that person, you could look forward to one day living forever in the beautiful light and glory of heaven - where, the Bible says, there will be no night. No darkness. No evil. Just light.
And joy. And peace. And goodness. And life. Forever and ever. Amen.
