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If you get time this week, you can read the whole chapter to help you with the context

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of kind of what's being talked about here.

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We'll briefly talk about it, but we'll spend most of our time in Luke chapter 8 verses

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16 through 18.

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We'll read through the text, then we'll pray.

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Luke chapter 8 verse 16.

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No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a basket or puts it under a bed, but puts

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it on a lamp stand so that those who come in may see its light.

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For nothing is concealed that won't be revealed, and nothing hidden that won't be made known

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and come to light.

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Therefore, take care how you listen, for whoever has more will be given to him.

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Whoever does not have even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.

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Let's pray.

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Father God, we come to you this morning, we thank you for your good word, and I pray,

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dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit would be with us, that you would help us to examine

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our own lives, dear Lord, God, that we would check ourselves and see if we even have Jesus

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as the light of our life.

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And God, if we do, we need to check ourselves to see if our light is shining for him, dear

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Lord.

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So I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would speak to us through this word, that we would

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listen to what it says, that we would hear what it says, that we would respond to what

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your word says, dear Lord.

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I pray that you would watch over each one here, that you would bless them, that you

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would give them a good new year, dear Lord, and I pray, God, that we would start this

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year off right by seeking you and by seeking your word.

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And I pray, God, that we would grow in it today.

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I pray that you hide me behind the cross, take away any pride or fear within me this

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morning, that I would speak boldly and speak what you want me to say.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

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Amen.

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Now, to understand this passage, we need to understand a little bit of the context of

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what's going on surrounding it, both before and after in Luke chapter 8.

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Now, you may recall, it's been probably three months ago, so you probably don't, but we

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talked, we had a sermon one Sunday where we talked about the parable of the sower.

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We looked at that in the book of Matthew.

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And Jesus tells a parable about seed that were sown in different areas, but only one

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seed grew.

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And that was the seed that was planted in good ground, not the seed on the path, not

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the seed on the rocks, not the seed among the thorns, but the seed that was planted

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on good ground.

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Well, here in Luke chapter 8, we see in the verses before, we see this same parable.

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And Jesus gives an explanation of the parable, as he does in Matthew.

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And that's what we see immediately preceding these verses, is Jesus explaining the parable

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of the sower.

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Now, what you will notice when you go back and read that this week, if you have time,

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I encourage you to do it, is that Jesus says of each of those seed, he says, this is the

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one who heard the word of God and responded in this way.

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So the seed represents the word of God that's planted among people, and the soil that it's

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planted in, or the rocks that it's planted in, or the path that it's planted on, represents

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the people and how they receive it, how they hear the word of God when it's brought to

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them, when the seed is brought to them, if they've heard it, have they listened to it,

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and how are they responding to it?

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Now, the point of that parable is very simple, is that God wants us not to be those who hear

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his word and kind of brush it off, not to be those who hear it and get excited about

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it for a little while, not to be those that hear it and begin to grow in it, but then

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get choked out by the worries of the world, but God wants us to be good soil.

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That is, that we would come, that we would, on services like today, we would read God's

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word and we would think about it, we would pray over it, we would ask God to speak to

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us, let it see how it needs to apply to our life, maybe we need it for encouragement,

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or maybe we need it for correction, or maybe we need it for instruction, we need it for

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all of those things, but at different times.

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And so we want to be those who are fertile soil, that God can begin to work in our life,

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that when we hear the word of God, that it's not in one ear and out the other, but that

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it begins to shape us, it begins to have an effect on our life, it begins to make us into

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the men and women that God wants us to be.

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And with that idea in mind of being those who hear and those who have heard respond

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in a proper way, Jesus says these words, No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a

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basket or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand so that those who come in

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may see its light.

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Now I think what Jesus is saying is this, that if you are those who have heard the word

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of God and respond to it, then there should be a light shining within you.

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Now that source of light for us is Jesus Christ, that we want to be, and I hope everyone in

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here is, and if you're not, I hope the Holy Spirit is dealing with you.

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I hope there's some conviction in your life, that maybe you've heard the word of God a

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lot of times in your life, but maybe you've never responded to it before.

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Maybe you're walking in the darkness today.

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Well, I want to tell you that there is light in the midst of the darkness, in the midst

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of the sin that we struggle with, and the sorrows and the pains and the hardships that

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we go through in this world.

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All the evils that we see, there is light.

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We live in a world that is full of darkness, but the darkness will not ever overtake the

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light because Jesus Christ is the source of light.

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So if we are those who have heard the word of God, if we are those that the seed has

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been planted in, and Jesus Christ is beginning to grow in us, and our relationship with Jesus

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Christ is beginning to grow, then we need to be those who reflect the light of Jesus

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Christ within us.

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So Jesus says something that's very practical.

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He says nobody takes a lamp and covers it up because a lamp is a source of light.

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A lamp is a source of light not in the day, but a lamp is a source of light in the darkness.

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Now, you don't have to look around very far in our world today to see the darkness that

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is around.

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There are horrible evils that take place all around us, maybe some really close to home,

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maybe some that we just hear about on the news, but it's very clear that there's darkness

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around.

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And we understand the concept of what a lamp does.

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We understand it very well.

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We just had a storm come through last weekend, and many of us were without power for several

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days.

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And so what do you have to depend on?

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Well, it's dark in your house at night.

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You don't want to stump your toe.

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You need to be able to get around, and so you depend on a lamp.

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Now, when you light your lamp, what do you do with it?

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You don't stick it under your bed.

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That'd be silly.

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You don't put a basket over it.

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That would be silly.

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A lamp is lit to provide light in the darkness to guide your path.

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Sometimes being in the darkness is quite scary, but it's amazing what a little bit of light

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will do in the darkness.

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Some of you probably still sleep with a nightlight, maybe because you don't like the dark, maybe

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just because you want to see how to get to the bathroom when you get up three times in

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the middle of the night.

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But we understand the importance of what a light is, and Jesus says, when you hear my

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words, and you respond to them, and you know me, and you begin to grow in me, then you

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need to be a light that shines for all who come in to see.

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We need to ask ourselves the question today.

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Are we a light in our world?

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Are we a light to our neighbors?

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Are we a light to our family?

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Are we a light if we heard the Word of God and received it?

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If we heard the Word of God and simply ignored it?

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Maybe today you realize that for a lot of years you've known about the Word of God,

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but maybe you've been that rocky soil.

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Maybe you've been that pathway that the seed didn't penetrate, but maybe as you see the

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darkness around you today you realize that you are walking in darkness and it's pretty

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scary.

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You realize that the darkness brings a lot of fear and a lot of hopelessness, but the

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Word of God brings about some hope in Jesus Christ because He has come to be the light

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of the world.

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He has come to bring light into our soul, to bring peace to us, to bring comfort to

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us, and Jesus says, if you are a lamp, then you need to be shining bright for the kingdom

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of God.

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We all understand what lamps are.

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I've got a couple of lamps here for you to look at today.

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Now, these days we're pretty fancy.

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Everything has gotten really hot-tech.

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We probably all have some little lanterns like this.

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These are pretty good.

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These produce a pretty good amount of light.

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They're pretty phenomenal for a few little batteries, what these lamps can do.

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Praise the Lord we have them.

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This is more of an old-fashioned lamp.

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I borrowed this lamp from Ernest and Angela.

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When I asked for a lamp, I was expecting something a little more rusty.

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This is a little more ordinate than I was expecting, but this is a beautiful lamp.

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I'll try not to drop it.

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Some of you might recognize this as a lamp because some of you grew up using these.

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You put kerosene in there.

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You put coal oil in there.

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For a long time, this was the highest technology there was in the lamp world.

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When I was reading this passage a couple of weeks ago, I began to think about a lamp,

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and I began to think about how a lamp works and how simple a lamp is.

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For a lamp to really be efficient and to work well, it requires a little bit of attention.

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In this bottom part here is where you would put your fuel.

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You put your coal oil there.

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You put your kerosene there.

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This top section here is called a chimney.

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A lot of you probably know this because you all have used these lamps longer than I have been alive.

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You put your fuel in there, and you'll notice this cotton looks like a ribbon.

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It goes down and it sucks up the fuel, and it brings it to the top as it burns.

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A lamp like this can burn for quite a while.

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This holds a lot of fuel.

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Very simple and very practical design.

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But for a lamp to work properly, it does require a little bit of maintenance.

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When you light a lamp like this, it doesn't compare to the light output that we see in a modern lamp.

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A modern lamp like this puts out about 300 lumens of brightness.

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A lumen is a measurement of brightness.

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A lamp like this only puts out about 10 lumens of brightness.

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We look at our light bulbs that we have in our houses.

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60 watt light bulbs, about 800 lumens of brightness.

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So a lantern like this doesn't put out much brightness,

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but if you want to maximize the brightness that the lamp is going to put out,

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then it requires some attention, and it requires some constant maintenance.

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If you don't trim your wick just right, then your flame is not going to burn good.

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Now if your flame doesn't burn good, it's not going to be very efficient.

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If you cut this wick a little bit wrong in the wrong shape,

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then it's going to have to take a lot more fuel to make the lamp.

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If you leave a few little stragglies on the side and a few little stems sticking off

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that you don't trim very well, then guess what's going to happen?

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It's going to begin to smoke a lot.

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If it begins to smoke a lot, it's going to dirty up your chimney,

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and that's going to dim your light.

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If you leave the wick in there too long and don't trim it at all,

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it's going to be charred. It's not going to produce much light.

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If you cut your wick in a rounded way, it's going to produce light in a different way

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than if you cut it in a pointed way or in a flat way.

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Now there are plenty of debates, and y'all can tell me the best way to trim it out of the church today.

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But you look online on how to trim your wick,

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and there will be lots of debates as to the best way to trim it.

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But depending on how you trim your wick is going to depend,

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is going to determine how much light is going to come out of this lamp

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and how efficient it's going to be.

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Now some people will say you cut it in a point.

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If you cut it in a point, you'll have the brightest light.

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And maybe you will. It burns more fuel.

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Some would say round it. Some would say cut it flat.

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Now I don't know what the best way to trim a wick is, but I know this.

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I was thinking about these lamps, and I was thinking maybe our lives

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are not so different than these lamps.

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Jesus Christ wants us to be a lamp to the world,

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but maybe there needs to be some maintenance that goes on in our life.

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Maybe today there are some of you in here, and you've heard the Word of God,

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and maybe you've been living for Jesus for a long time,

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but maybe you're not living for Him the way you should.

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Maybe you're producing a little bit of light,

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but maybe if you're honest with yourself,

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maybe your light's not been shining very bright.

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Maybe it's been under a basket.

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Maybe the light of Jesus Christ in your life has been covered up

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by the worries of the world and the things of the world,

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and maybe your light needs a little maintenance today.

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Now it's 2025. It's the first of the year.

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It's amazing how we flip the page of a calendar,

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and we go from one year to the next,

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and quite frankly there's no difference between December 31st and January 1st,

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but in our mindset, it's something about flipping that page on the calendar.

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It's something about starting a new year.

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It's something about one thing ending and another thing starting

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that gets our minds as human beings to kind of start to think.

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What are some things in my life that I would like to end?

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Boy, I'd like to end the bad decision-making that I do.

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I'd like to end this bad habit that I do.

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It's the end of a year. It's the end.

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It's a good time for me to end some things in my life that I want to end.

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I want to end my bad eating habits.

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But then you flip the page and it's beginning.

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And so many times we start the new year afresh, and in our mind we say,

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it's a new year. It's a new beginning.

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I'm going to do better in these areas.

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And maybe where we need to really start

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is by doing better in our walk with Jesus Christ.

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Now, maybe you are on fire for God today and your light is burning bright.

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Praise the Lord.

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Maybe you're not.

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Maybe you need to trim your wick.

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We've all heard the phrase of being burned out before.

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We get there.

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Every profession, it doesn't matter what you do, whether you're working,

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whether you're at home taking care of kids, life is hard.

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And sometimes, as the saying goes, you're burning the candle at both ends.

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And it is very easy to get burned out.

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It's very easy to get burned out and say, I want to be done with my job.

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I want to be done with the situation at work.

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I want to be done with the situation with the family.

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I want to be...whatever it is.

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There are seasons in our life where we are just burnt out.

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And it happens to everybody.

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It doesn't matter who you are.

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If you feel that way today, you are not alone.

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There are probably some of you in here today and you're burned out.

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But praise the Lord for the Word of God.

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Praise the Lord for Christian community.

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That we can come together.

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That we can be reminded that God loves us.

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That we can be reminded that when we're burnt out,

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that maybe today is the day that we need to trim our wick a little bit.

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Maybe part of the reason we're burnt out is because we've been focusing on our own strength

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and not the strength of the Lord.

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We've been trying to do it our way instead of the Lord's way.

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And just as a wick that's trimmed in properly is very inefficient,

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well, so it is for our lives.

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When we're not living for the Lord the way we should be,

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when we're not following the commands of the Lord,

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man, it's taking a lot of fuel in our life to accomplish a very little.

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But as we begin to seek the Lord and we begin to say,

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God, there are some areas in my life that aren't right.

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God, I need you to begin to start doing some trimming in my life.

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There are some loose ends in my life, God, that are causing a lot of smoke

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that's really hindering the amount of light that I'm producing.

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And sometimes with every wick,

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it just comes a point where you just got to take those scissors

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and you just got to lop the whole end off and you got to start fresh.

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And maybe there are some things in our life today that we need to lop off.

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Maybe there are some areas of your life today that you need to start afresh.

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Maybe there are some areas today that need to be clipped off.

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And the way that these things are taken care of,

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the way that our wick can be trimmed in a way that our lamp can produce

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the light that we need it to produce is through seeking the Lord.

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It's through seeking the Word of God.

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It's listening to the Word of God.

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It's living by the Word of God.

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And Jesus says here in the midst of this beautiful parable

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about being one who hears the Word and responds to it

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and grows for the Kingdom of God, he says,

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and know that you are a light,

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and nobody takes the light and covers it up.

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And he says, know that one day we're going to answer for everything,

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that everything that we do is going to come to light one day.

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So he says, be a good light.

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Know you'll answer for what you'll have to do.

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And then he says, therefore be careful how you listen.

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He says, I've just told you that you need to listen,

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that you need to hear, that you need to respond to the Word,

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that you need to be a light, so be careful how you listen.

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Do we hear the Word of God today?

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Do we respond to the Word of God today?

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We're part of the Kingdom of God today.

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A few verses down from this, some people approach Jesus and say,

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look, your mother and your brothers are out there and they want to see you.

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And Jesus says, my mothers and brothers are those who hear my words

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and follow my commands.

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I'm paraphrasing there.

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But Jesus continues with that same idea of those who hear and those who respond.

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And Jesus says, those who are mine, those who are my brothers,

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those who are my sisters, are those who hear my words and follow my commands.

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What about us today?

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Are we brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ today?

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Well, it's easy for us to determine that.

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We take the test.

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Do we hear His words and follow Him?

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Maybe we do.

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Maybe we don't.

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Maybe there are some areas that we do pretty good.

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Maybe there are some areas that we fail miserably.

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Maybe there are some areas today where we're not really producing the light

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that we should for Jesus Christ.

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Maybe today we need to trim our wicks.

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We need to wipe out our chimneys.

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And we need to seek Jesus Christ to be the light of our life

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so that we would reflect that light to a world of darkness that needs to see it today.

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Let's pray.

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Father God, we come to you.

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We thank you for your good word.

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And I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us to reflect on our own lives, God.

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I pray that if there are any in this room that do not know who Jesus Christ is,

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that this morning, God, that your Holy Spirit would convict them.

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Maybe they already know that they need you.

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Maybe they've been to church a lot of times.

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Maybe they've read your word.

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But maybe they've never really listened to it.

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Maybe they've never really given their life to Jesus Christ.

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Maybe they've never really confessed their sins and repented

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and made Jesus the Lord of their life, God.

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I pray that if there are any this morning that are living in darkness,

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that today they would see the light of Jesus Christ,

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that the word that we read today would penetrate them, dear Lord,

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that it would be good soil today, that even now as we pray

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that that seed has already begun to grow in their life, dear Lord.

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I pray, God, that you would help them to see the light of Jesus Christ

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and that, God, that light would be evident in their own life.

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Dear Lord, maybe there are some in here today and they're yours

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and they know Jesus Christ and maybe they just hadn't been living

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the way they should be living, dear Lord.

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Maybe they've been doing some things, there's things that are kind of lingering on,

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dear Lord, that just aren't right, that don't need to be there.

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And, dear Lord, every day is a good day to start,

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but we're here at this first of the year.

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We're starting fresh, dear Lord.

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Every time for us to start fresh spiritually, to start fresh with you, dear Lord,

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that we would begin to read your Word and let it begin to trim away

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the parts of us and the things in our life that don't need to be there,

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that, God, we'd begin to seek you with our prayer light,

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that by coming to you and speaking to you and hearing from you, dear Lord,

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that that would continue to trim and make us into the people you want us to be.

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Dear Lord, maybe there are some in here today that struggle with sin

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and, God, they're just spinning their wheels, dear Lord,

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they're just wearing theirself out, God.

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I pray that today that they would repent.

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I pray that they would seek you.

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Dear Lord, I just pray that you would help us to be a light for you in this world,

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that we would be one that people would look at, that they would see Jesus Christ.

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And so, God, in those areas where we fail,

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in those areas where we're not doing as we should,

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I pray today that we would repent, that we would seek you,

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and that we would be a lamp stand, dear Lord,

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we'd be a lamp on a lamp stand, dear Lord,

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that would be bright for everyone to see.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.