New Year Message: It’s Lights On In The Church Or Lights Out For The World, 8th January

‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.’
Matthew 5: 14-16

Happy New Year to you all! May it be a year of unprecedented fruitfulness for you and of increasing discovery of the fullness and faithfulness of God.

While away in South Africa I have marvelled at God’s faithfulness. Morning by morning as I have looked up at Cape Town’s Table Mountain and the majestic mountains of the Western Cape, I have repeated once more the words of Psalm 121 which became a daily comfort during the sad days of my wife's terminal illness.

‘I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth….’

My daughter and I remembered those words early on the morning of her wedding before she married in the sunshine at the foot of Table mountain…at The Twelve Apostles Hotel.

I was a proud and happy Dad to get to walk my daughter down the aisle twice once at the church for the service and once for the vows by the sea.

In the weeks that have passed since, I perceive that an era of God’s faithfulness during transition is over and a new era of God’s faithfulness and fruitfulness has now begun.

You and I have the call of God on our lives. You and your family are called to make a difference. The church that we are part of has a great destiny to bring hope and healing to many people and many nations.

This year will, I believe, prove to be a year of fulfilled potential, new blessings, new ministries, new breakthroughs and new growth.

I not only believe that this will happen but I believe that this must happen. Our world and our country is an increasingly dark place, morally and spiritually.

We are living in a culture where morality and family life has broken down all around, where a multitude of faiths, notably Islam, are promoted and where Christianity is marginalised and where senior Christian leaders often give out muddled and mediocre messages.

Marriage is undermined with the legalising of new civil partnerships, pornography is on an epic scale, hard drugs are freely available, all hour all age drinking is destroying civil order, crime is rampant, cynicism and disrespect for any kind of authority is common place, and the people of this land for all their freedoms to do whatever they want are not happy.

I saw a headline from a British newspaper in South Africa, referring to the gas explosion in December which said in bold headlines ‘Toxic Cloud all over England.’

That struck me as a very prophetic headline. There is a toxic darkness all over this nation and we are called to bring the light. If we don’t shine our lights, then it’s lights out for our nation.

There is one phrase that has been in my mind for a couple of weeks now - Matthew 5:14: YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

I want to simply break this verse down with three questions:

1. Who Is The You?

You means You!
We live in an increasingly globalised, de-personalised world but one person can make a difference.

One person can change the mood of a nation from defeat to victory like Churchill.
One person can make a difference like an old prisoner called Nelson Mandela who refused to be bullied by his white oppressors and who refused to let his ANC colleagues give way to bitterness and revenge.
One person can make a difference in a home, a school, a group.
When one person speaks up others sit up and stand up.
When one person goes down others do too.

You need to make a difference this year by letting the love and life of God shine through you to your friends and enemies.

You Means Your Family
There must be light in the home. No hidden things between husband and wife. No dark clouds of mistrust and misbehaviour between parents and children.

The light of God must come to you home. Every family should have a weekly cell.

You Means Your Church

Church is so often despised, but Christ loves the church and gave Himself for the Church. The church universal is worked out in the local church where there is real community, accountability and authority.

The church is not a free for all, it is a covenantal group where all can be free as they place their lives under God’s rule.

The power of a local church to bring change is awesome.

2. How Much Light Do You Have?

Darkness has to go from our lives. Hidden sins, private lifestyles all have to be brought out into the light.

We need to open our lives to the light of God this year. How?

By Living Holy Lives
Consider the words of Jesus in Matt. 6 22-23. Your whole body can be full of darkness because of love of….money. Materialism, wealth can bring you into darkness so that you can’t see clearly.
By Having An Encounter With A Holy God
See Isaiah 6.

By Being Illuminated By The Word Of God
‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’
Psalm 119:105

We must daily read and meditate on God’s word to see where we are going. We must be a people of the Word.

By Living Under The Direction Of The Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. We must have the insights and direction of the Holy Spirit.

3. Will You Shine Your Light In The World?

Your daily world: the world of school, business, medicine, arts, media, politics.

Your geographical world: your estate, your town, your city, your nations, the nations.

We must take the light of God everywhere, but as they say at Lakewood Church in Houston, ‘The light that shines the furthest shines the brightest at home.’

This New Year if the people walking in darkness are to see a great light, then great lights first has to come in us.

Let us this day ask for God’s light to flood us and determine that we can indeed obey our Lord when he said: You are the light of the world.