This Little Light: Is It Really Mine?, Part 1

Jesus often used metaphors to drive a point home. For instance, He spoke of the contrast between light and darkness. Jesus said, You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. And then He added, No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp gives light to everyone in the house. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll helps us understand the power and protection of walking in the light of Christ. He titled today's message, This Little Light, Is It Really Mine? Paul called believers light in the Lord in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8. And then he went on to tell them to walk as children of light. Now, some of you may wonder what in the world that means, so we're going to talk about that today as we study Ephesians 5 verses 6 through 14. When God created the world, He began by calling light into existence.

Remember that? And He then separated the light from the darkness, creating an opposition that exists throughout the Scriptures, light and dark. This opposition means that light indicates purity and holiness, while darkness stands for sin and wickedness. In a world that seeks to complicate the boundaries between various groups and entities, seeing the difference between living in the light and living in the darkness can and should propel us toward the kind of transformation in our lives God wants for His people. For some, this may seem a little complicated, and so today I want to read this passage of Scripture from the message.

Eugene Peterson has a very unique way of making common sense out of complicated passages, and this is a good case in point. So we're reading Ephesians 5 verses 6 through 14 from the message. Don't let yourselves get taken in by religious, smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with Him.

Don't even hang around people like that. You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain.

So no more stumbling around. Get on with it. The good, the right, the true.

These are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it. Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busy work, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are.

It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ. Wake up from your sleep. Climb out of your coffins.

Christ will show you the light. So watch your step. Use your head.

Make the most of every chance you get. These are Desperate Times. You're listening to Insight for Living. To search the scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures Studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. Today's message is titled, This Little Light, Is It Really Mine? And Chuck begins with prayer. Our Father, we would not stand before anyone and sing praises and give glory to anybody on this earth, but with you there is a vast exception. And we are learning in this journey from earth to heaven that that's how it ought to be.

While we may respect and admire others about us, there is no adoration and there certainly is no worship of them. And so, Father, in this trek that is so full of obstacles and surprises along the way, I pray that you would find us faithful. Not flashy.

Not glitzy. Not necessarily impressive, but faithful at the stuff you call us to do. And may we do it well. And may we do it regularly. May we do it for the right reasons, like this offering. You keep giving to us and we keep taking and we thank you for that. And so we're learning from your generosity what it is to be like that in return. So help us to imitate your style here. We do it gratefully and we do it joyfully.

We do it generously. Find us faithful even in this, Father, for we ask it in the name of our ever faithful God and Savior Jesus. And everybody said, amen. The number one television show today has a question for a title. In fact, the whole show is about answering questions the right way and they're all multiple choice questions.

The one who answers all of them correctly finally is a millionaire. Now you act like you haven't looked at it, but I know you have. And I've looked at it a few times and I've always thought, why doesn't he know that answer?

And so the obvious answer will come up and I will yell it out and he never seems to hear me. You know you're getting old when you talk to television set. I was thinking while watching it the other day that it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to choose a subject from the Bible. Wouldn't that be an interesting set of questions to ask a contestant and see how they do?

For example, for $100, name the first book of the Bible. Not here! I'm not talking about here. A. Jungle Book, B. Generations, C. Geritol, D. Genesis. And the answer is? Genesis, of course. You want $100.

Then you get up higher and higher and you reach about the $250,000 level. For $250,000, name the person who wrote the first book of the Bible. A. Peter, B. Paul, C. Mary, D. Moses. And he just sits there. And I think, you klutz, answer D!

It's obvious! And he'll say, he says, Moses. Okay, we finally get to $1 million.

You've answered correctly all the way through now that we're at the top level. What are the first recorded words of God in the book of Genesis? And you think, and you think, I'm not talking about the first words in the book of Genesis, God's first statement in the book of Genesis. Some of you are looking. I am seeing you. Let there be light, and there was light.

In fact, the Hebrew is even more succinct. Let light be, and light was. Now isn't that an amazing thing? The first thought you have when you hear those words is, boy, he already had the sun in place and it's burning down on the earth. Wait, wait, wait. If I read the book correctly, it hasn't even made the sun.

In fact, here's a million and a half dollar question. On what day did he make the sun? It was the fourth day. For three full creative days, or eras of days, however you might handle that, for three solid periods of time, there was light, but there was no sun. And then you get to verse 16, and all around that section you find that he made the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.

You know what those are. The greater light, the sun, and the lesser light, the moon. And you realize then, at that point, there was the cycle of time and life that got set up, and God continued to do His creative work. But what's interesting to me is that the light that came upon this earth for a period of who knows how long, did not come from the sun.

Where did it come from? Well, 1 John chapter 1 verse 5 says that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Psalm 104 verse 2 says that God clothes Himself in light. In fact, when you get into the tabernacle and it's got everything but light, God's presence is poured over the tabernacle right down into the holiest place of all. It's called the Shekinah. Isn't that a great word? Shekinah.

What's that? That's light. When God presents Himself, when God makes His presence known, it is often through light. Bright, burning, brilliant light. Lights up everything around it. God is light. I'm not surprised then that Paul says to the Ephesians, when he tells us to imitate God, he says, live like children of light. Live like children of light. Light has two purposes as I think about it. First, it is to dispel darkness, and second, it is to attract attention. Always does that.

In fact, the thicker the darkness and the brighter the light, the greater the attention. Back when I was just getting out of high school, my family and I took a trip to Carlsbad Caverns. They didn't have theme parks back then, so you kind of did your own theme park when you went to Carlsbad Cavern.

The whole thing's an e-ticket. Little tiny narrow path, and boy, we were having a great time. My sister and I were there, and brother was there, and mom and dad. We were walking along those tiny little paths down into the bowels of this cavern.

Bats blowing around. Well, I was loving it. I was messing around with my sister in the back of the line, and we got to these holes that were...you ever been there? I don't know if it's stalactite or stalagmite. I never did learn the difference, but the thing drops, and you watch it go...clunk. It's a long ways down that sucker.

I was tempted to push my brother in a time or two while we were there, as I remember. Anyway, we get down to the bottom of the cavern, and when we're down there, our guide does something that we didn't expect. Turns out all the lights. My first thought is, I hope she has good health.

If she doesn't, we'll be down here until Jesus comes back. We'll never find our way out of here, and we're sitting there, and I remember doing this. I remember putting my hand so close to my face. I could feel the heat from the palm of my hand, but I couldn't see my fingers. I couldn't see anybody sitting around me. It was dark.

There's an old black gospel album called God's Trombone. It's a great line, and it says, it was blacker than a thousand midnights in a cypress swamp. That's how dark it was down in the belly of the Carlsbad Cavern. And then, unexpectedly, she lights a little match. A little paper match she lights, and you could see the faces around you. A little tiny flame. The caverns lit up, and you looked around. You could not not look at the light. It dispelled the darkness, and it attracted attention.

Every eye in the place was on that match. Travel back with me another 2,000 years, and you'll come to a hillside, not a cavern. Sitting on that hillside is a revolutionary teacher who's just getting underway with his ministry. The officials are standing in the distance, sneering and frowning, and he's sitting there calmly teaching. A sermon that will never be forgotten, the most significant sermon ever preached, the immortal sermon on the mountain. On the North Shore, the Sea of Galilee is probably the place where he sat. And of his disciples, his followers were sitting out in front of him, and he began with a series of Beatitudes. The sermon begins with, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you. Eight times he says that. And with each one of the blessings, he promises a reward if you live like the blessing describes.

Most Christians know this, but most of us have a hard time remembering what follows on the heels of the blessings. That's another good question for our game we talked about. What word pictures did Jesus use to drive home the point he wanted to make about letting his message out? I'll give you the first one, and you'll guess the second. You are the salt of the earth, and you are the light of the world.

Isn't that interesting? Left with any word picture he could have used, he talks about salt and light. Now, you don't dump a pile of salt on something to make it tasty. You sprinkle a little.

Others don't even want you to do that, but since when do they know what tastes good? You sprinkle a little salt, and Luis Palau has the greatest line. He says, Christians are like manure. You pile them up in one place, they don't do any good. They just stink, but you spread them out. They do a lot of good. Stuff grows all over the place.

Isn't that great? It's the way it is with salt. You sprinkle a little salt, and oh, it's tasty, and this old bland, tasteless earth suddenly finds there's something worth living for as you spread the salt. But how about the light? How about the light? Nobody takes a light and puts it under a bushel basket. He puts it on a hill so that everybody can see it because it's going to dispel the darkness, and it's going to attract attention.

Let's go back to the original. The sun, the moon. The sun took up the light of God. By the way, there's just a little ending to the verse in verse 16 in Genesis 1 that I just always smile when I get to. It says, He made the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.

Does that ever grab you? Oh, and the stars. Multiple, multiple trillions and quazillions of stars, and it just takes a couple of Hebrew words, and stars also, by the way, before I forget. Now, while making moon and sun and stars, God puts His light, and He releases His light to some of these incredible planets. Some are light-giving and some are light-receiving. The moon has no light of its own. Without the sun, it's always in darkness.

It lives in darkness. But with the light of the sun, it begins to shine. We have a saying called moonlight, a term for it. There's no moonlight. It's reflected sunlight.

Mark Twain was right. We're all like the moon. We have a dark side. We don't want anybody to see. But the sun has no dark side like God.

All the light that comes to the moon and from the moon is reflected light. It seems to me that what we needed was a simple little object lesson. That's what I look at every time I preach. See there? It's a lot better than this. Oh, let's stay here. Okay. If this room were dark and it were midnight and black as a thousand midnights in a cypher swamp and we're together and all I've got is a mirror, I don't offer any help because that mirror doesn't do any good without my light. There you are. She's almost asleep. Let me get her awake. I should do this every Sunday.

I've never tried this before. That's my son back there. Okay. Anyway, here's the light. This mirror suddenly, what's this? And the light's facing this way, but because of the mirror, I mean, I could spend 15 minutes doing this, but I won't. Anyway, the only good this mirror does is to reflect.

You are the mirror. God is the light. Without the light, there's nothing to shine. But with the light, let it shine. Let it shine.

Remember? Remember the old chorus? This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. I thought, that's not good theology. Leave it to a preacher to mess up a song.

I don't have any light. So I thought, these are the right words. This great light of God, it's going to shine off my bod.

That'll work. That's great theology. Now, it probably won't be sung very often, but it's true. It's not a little light, it's a great light, and it's the light of God shining on us who would be not only dark, but smeared and smudgy vessels at best. And then Christ invades the life, and with Him, like the beginning of the sun, He offers light, and life, of course. Now, it's that great word picture that Paul, in Ephesians chapter 5, turns to.

And once you get the picture in your mind, you don't need much help with anything else. He starts with darkness, and He moves to light. In verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 5, verse 6. Therefore, don't be a partner with them. What are you, this bright, shining mirror, what are you doing running around in dark caves? That's not your habitat. That's not what life is about for you. You're about reflecting. You're about shining.

Do not be partners with them, for you were formerly darkness. See, that keeps you from feeling proud. The sun could never be proud. He got its light from God. The moon certainly can't be proud.

All of the light it gets is from the sun. He says to us here, you were formerly darkness, but now, that's where the cross comes. Before, you didn't even have anything to reflect.

There was nothing in which God could work. And you realize that in the cross of Christ, there was a sufficient payment for sin offered once for all. This little light, is it really mine? That's the title Chuck Swindoll chose for today's message. And please keep listening because Chuck is here in the studio today with a closing comment. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Let me say, as Insight for Living prepared this current series for you, Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll selected a book that they believe will help you walk in the light throughout the new year of 2021. It's a daily devotional called, Good Morning Lord, Can We Talk? Mornings in the Swindoll home begin with time together. Throughout their marriage, Chuck and Cynthia have set aside an hour every morning, seven days a week, to sip coffee, talk, listen, and pray.

Their morning routine has cultivated a deep love in their relationship. And it's also the inspiration behind Chuck's 365-day devotional, Good Morning Lord. With brief reflections for every day of the new year, this book will shine the light of God's Word on your path day by day throughout 2021.

You can purchase a copy at Insight for Living's website by going to insight.org slash store. Or by calling us, if you're listening in the US, dial 1-800-772-8888. And then as you measure the impact of Chuck's teaching on your life, and as God prompts you, we invite you to join us in bringing the good news of God's grace to people around the world. Your gift, no matter the size, allows us to provide Chuck's teaching on radio, the internet, through our mobile app, and the many other outlets where Insight for Living is freely heard.

Chuck? If you've been listening to Insight for Living for any amount of time, you know that I'm not given to needless hyperbole. I'm not a doom and gloom preacher who manipulates or tries to frighten people into the kingdom. But, and now pardon the cliché, I don't have my head in the sand either. Never in my lifetime have I been more concerned for our beloved country, whose moral backbone has grown limp.

Just look back on the past year. Never before has the ministry of Insight for Living been so needed. Never before has it been so relevant than right now. May I ask, would you be among those who provide fuel for this listener-supported ministry, to accelerate our impact here at home, on your station, and overseas, where we're striving to make disciples in all 195 countries of the world?

Talk about making your gift special. It's not only that, it is critically important today. Without question, I've never been more compelled to share the gospel and teach biblical truth than I am today. In fact, there's a passionate urgency in my heart that starts quickening on Tuesday, stirs on Wednesday, and culminates on Thursday, when I spend a full day quietly alone in my study, preparing to deliver my sermon Sunday morning.

Sometime it washes over into Friday. I'm not kidding when I say that my physical anticipation for preaching is visceral. I'll keep doing the preaching part, but it's your gift that deploys Insight for Living to do this work. You have the opportunity to work alongside me to help us make a difference in our culture, as we courageously present the truth every day, right there on your station, and around the country and around the world, while there's still time to do so. Please, please contact Insight for Living today to leverage and multiply your generous year-end gift.

Thanks for hearing my heart. I appreciate your partnership more than you will ever know. And here's how to respond to Chuck Swindoll right now. To give a donation today, call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888, or go online to Insight.org. I'm Dave Spiker. Tomorrow, Chuck Swindoll continues his encouraging message about walking in the light of Christ, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, This Little Light, Is It Really Mine?, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.