Well, good evening to you all. Wonderful to see you again tonight. Ready to get back into the Word of God, singing together. My, how rich we are with the ministry of music. It's wonderful that God has given us a song to sing for His glory, the glories of our Savior. What a privilege. What a privilege. This evening I'd like for you to turn in your Bibles to second Second Corinthians chapter four, and as you're turning there to say that I've been looking at the table out there in the foyer where my colleague David has set up some literature, and I notice that there are still some copies of the Emmaus journal there. We probably have saturated your libraries with the existing copies of the journal. If you haven't read one of the journals that is produced by the faculty at Emmaus Bible College, I would invite you to pick one up. and read through it, work through it. It's designed for people who are serious about Bible study, and I think you will find it a very helpful and challenging journal to read. You will also, I hope, greatly enjoy the next issue that will be off the press very, very soon. I just want, for those of you who are subscribers, I just want to alert you to the fact that in the next issue of the journal, when is it coming, Dave, next month, the end of this month, very soon there is a just an excellently helpful article on the subject of the autonomy of the local church now one of the finest things I have seen in print on that biblical subject and that among other articles in that will be exceedingly helpful to you I just wanted to alert you and to whet your appetite a little bit for an excellent study in the New Testament doctrine of the autonomy of the local church by friend Jack Spender so you look for it when it comes off the press I hope that many of you will get it and if not we'll get some copies down here for you to enjoy and to profit from as you study that and you know this is only one of the various ministries of Emmaus to reach off of our campus we do a lot of things in the classroom on the campus we spend a lot of hours with young adults in the classroom but there are ministries of Emmaus that reach far beyond the brick walls of our buildings there on the campus reach all the way around the world through the correspondence school and I hope that you're praying for that extended ministry too I know that many of you tell me you're praying for Emmaus I know you're praying for Margaret and it's a wonderful thing to know you stand with us I hope that that your minds and your prayers are broader than a lot of people's prayers and that your minds and prayers are as broad as the Great Commission because the ministries of Emmaus reach to the far corners of the world. The hundred and eighteen languages now, about a third of a million current students, pray for the students that are studying the Word of God, in our classrooms and around the world. We need that. Now we want to read from Second Corinthians chapter four. And tonight we'll just read the opening verses of this chapter, beginning in verse one. Therefore, the apostle writes, Since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. We'll end our reading there. Let's pause again a moment to pray. Father, help us tonight. Again we come needing your ministry to us. We come to focus our attention on the page of Scripture. Demonstrate again we pray to us this evening that your word is truly living and powerful. And grant our Father that as we understand this text, Jesus Christ may be exalted in our hearts and minds we pray in the Savior's name. Amen. Now I've learned we have a lot of sharp students in this group and so I want to admit that we've skipped the section of the letter. Some of you are probably saying, why is he reading from chapter four? We haven't studied that last section of chapter three yet. Well, I'm suggesting for us for just a few moments here this evening that Second Christians, chapter three, verses seven through eighteen, is parenthetic. And that if you're following the flow of the book, which is not easy, by the way, that if you're following the flow of the book, you could go from chapter three and verse six right on to chapter four and verse one. It appears to me that that last section of chapter three is parenthetic. You will see, if you look back to the text we looked at last night in chapter three and verse three, that the apostle, in comparing the living letter of commendation that he saw in the very lives of these Corinthian believers, that contrasted with other letters of commendation. And you see in this verse three that he mentioned tablets of stone in contrast to the fleshly tablets of the human heart. and it seems as though I think we're getting an insight into the way the apostle thinks here that this reference to tablets of stone in contrast to fleshly tablets of the heart has triggered now a concern that he has and so it seems to me that in verse seven he begins a parenthetic thought in which he contrasts the old order the mosaic order the law that was given through Moses to the nation of Israel with what we have in Christ. And there are a whole series of contrasts here. If you look down through the passage, you will see them. He compares the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. And there are a number of comparison points. Sometime you may want to work through that passage on your own. and take a piece of paper, draw a line down through the center, at the top of one side, put Old Covenant, at the top of the other side, put New Covenant, and then jot down all the things that the Apostle says about the Old Covenant, and jot down all the things that he says about the New Covenant, and then pair them off because they're in pairs. For example, the Old Covenant was the letter of the law, but the New Covenant is given by the Spirit. The Old Covenant, he says, was the ministry of death. The New Covenant is the ministry of the Spirit. The Old Covenant was the ministry of condemnation. The New Covenant is the ministry of righteousness. The Old Covenant was really given in glory, but compared to the New Covenant with such greater glory, it was no glory at all. The Old Covenant was given to Moses. The New Covenant was given to the apostles and indeed to all of us believers. The Old Covenant The veil that Moses wore, remember that's part of the narrative from the Old Testament? When he had been in the presence of the Lord in his face, Sean, and he put a veil over his face? There was a veil over Moses' face, but for us, we have unveiled faces. And then, of course, there is the contrast. He says, that veil, and he sees the veil on Moses' face as symbolic. of the veil of spiritual blindness that's upon the heart of the Jewish people, even to this day. They have a very difficult time accepting and receiving any message of the gospel. In contrast, of course, to the fact that in Christ that veil is taken away. And then there is the contrast between the hiding of the glory, because you remember that veil was put on Moses' face for two reasons. One, to hide the glory that reflected from his face, and also to keep the people from seeing how that glory was fading. But we, Paul says, have unveiled faces. And then, of course, in the Old Covenant, their minds were darkened. Now we have liberty in Christ. And, of course, there was the reading of the Old Covenant in contrast to the metamorphosis that the believer experiences in the likeness of Christ. There are really a great array of contrasts. And you may want to work through that and dig those out on your own. That's your assignment for tomorrow. Being a little bit schoolteacherish here. But not tomorrow. You don't need to sit up tonight to do it. But sometime you may want to take that section, that parenthetic section, and see the remarkable series of contrasts that the apostle gives us between the old covenant given through Moses and the new covenant, the covenant of grace in the New Testament. But we're going to follow the train of thought now and jump right into chapter four and verse one. Because if you go back to chapter three and verse six, Paul says, God made us adequate servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Therefore, he says in chapter four, verse one, since we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Wonderful section here. the opening six or seven verses of chapter four really present to us the apostolic ministry all over again remember there are certain themes that keep coming up in second Corinthians and here is another theme now I should say another repeating of the theme of Paul's defense of his own apostolic ministry remember that the Judaizers who came into Corinth after Paul established that local church and then moved on his way in other ministries. The Judaizers came in, those who mixed the law with grace and works with faith. And in their process of mixing up the people doctrinally, they maligned the apostle, they spoke against him. And Paul is conscious of that. And so in this letter, there are a number of times when he defends the nature and the content of their apostolic ministry. And the section we're looking at tonight is another one of those sections in which he is defending the ministry that he and those who serve with him had. Now, first of all, look in the section that we have read at the apostolic claims. As I read through this, I say, it's awesome. to think that a human being could make the claims that the Apostle Paul makes here. Just look at them. He says, we have this ministry. He says, we have received mercy. He says, we do not lose heart. He says, we have renounced the hidden things of shame. He says, we do not walk in craftiness. He says, we do not adulterate the word of God. He says, we manifest the truth. He says, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience. He says, we do not preach ourselves. He says, we preach Christ as Jesus as Lord. He says, we have a treasure in earthen vessels. That's a tremendous array of claims. And of course, he is not only speaking for himself in his apostolic ministry, but for those who are with him in this team of servants of Christ. that went into Corinth and laid the foundation thereby preaching the gospel of Christ and seeing people saved and bringing them together in a local church fellowship. And speaking for those who served with him, he makes a whole series of claims. And we want to look at just a couple of them here. We don't have time to look at them all. We want to look at a couple of these claims. And as we do, I would suggest that as you think through this section and the claims that the apostle makes, just ask yourself the question, could I make that claim? Could you make that claim? And a very searching thing for me again, to look through the passage and then the presence of the Lord to say, Lord, these are wonderful claims that a servant of Christ could make. And I assume they were true because the Spirit of God moved him to write this letter. And then to ask myself the question, could I, as a servant of Christ, make these same claims? Could you? Let's just look at a couple of them. Look at the first one in chapter four, verse one. We have this ministry. Okay, now students of the word. You've got a problem here. Why? Because you have a pronoun. By the way, I'm glad you survived your lesson in New Testament Greek this morning, those of you who were here. All right, now we've got a grammatical problem here. We have a pronoun at the beginning of a section. We have this ministry. What ministry, Paul? What does that, what's the antecedent to that pronoun? Well, grammatically, when you have a pronoun, you look for the antecedent, you go back to the previous section. And there are three statements in the previous section which Paul talks about his ministry. Notice chapter three and verse six. He speaks of the ministry or servants of the new covenant. That's part of the answer. Paul, what ministry are you referring to? The ministry of the new covenant. Not the old Mosaic covenant. The new covenant. Do you remember when our Lord Jesus brought his disciples together? celebrated that last supper, the last Passover, and then instituted the Feast of Remembrance. He said, this is the blood, the blood I'm going to shed, is the blood of the new covenant. It's the covenant that Jeremiah talked about, that in Jeremiah's day was yet future, the new covenant that involves us in the church and God's purposes in Israel in the future. And Paul says, you want to know what ministry we have? It's the ministry, first of all, of the New Covenant. The second reference to his ministry is in verse eight, where he speaks about the ministry of the Spirit. In contrast, of course, to the ministry of condemnation that the old law represented, the thunders of Sinai and the threat of life if you did this or did this. No, Paul says, ours is the ministry of the Spirit, realizing that it is the absolute essential that we recognize that the Spirit of God is active in the ministry of those apostles, and indeed, if we have any value and any significance in our service for Christ, it will be the work of the Spirit of God in our lives. We can't serve God and accomplish eternal things in our own energy. Paul told them, he raised the question, remember in the last passage, who's sufficient for these things? We're not sufficient in ourselves, Paul said. But the ministry of the Spirit makes all the difference in us and through us. So when Paul says we have this ministry, first of all, it's the ministry of the new covenant. Secondly, it's the ministry of the Spirit. The third reference to his ministry is in verse nine. where he talks about the ministry of righteousness. Oh, that's refreshing. To think that to us believers in Christ as to the Apostle, we have been given a ministry of righteousness. The Apostle was very conscious of the fact that in that old order, that there was a condemnation that was fundamental. The Old Order condemned man. Go to Romans, for example, chapter three, where Paul arrays a whole series of quotations from the Old Testament to prove how that the Old Testament scriptures just presented the sinfulness of man in great detail. And then he goes on to say in that same chapter, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been manifested. See, that's what he's referring to here. the ministry of righteousness. Because while the law was given through Moses, grace of truth came through Jesus Christ. So here is a wonderful statement that Paul makes. We have this ministry. What ministry, Paul? The ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of the spirit, the ministry of righteousness. Now let me ask you, do you have that ministry? Do you understand the new covenant? Is the Spirit of God free to work in and through your life? Do you understand that the message of the gospel of Christ is a message of righteousness? Rightness. I hope you can say, yes, Paul, I have this ministry too. Notice his second claim. We have received mercy. That's a wonderful claim. Have you? Could you claim that? What does it mean to say we have received mercy? What is mercy? Well, you know that mercy is an attribute of God. Mercy really is a, in a sense, a negative concept. Mercy is that in God that withholds judgment that is deserved. Someone has said God's footsteps of judgment are slow and reluctant. Oh, they're nevertheless sure. But God is not quick to judge. He is merciful. Mercy in God is that restraint. And there are some key passages like, for example, Ephesians chapter two, in which those three important things, mercy, grace, and love, are all seen together. Mercy is that in the heart of God that withholds a deserved blow of judgment. Grace is that in the heart of God which gives that which we don't deserve. And love is the motive for both of them. God in his mercy would... Let me ask you this. What if the first time you sinned consciously as a child, God would have struck you, judged you, sent you to hell? He could have. He could have. But he didn't. If he had, you wouldn't be here tonight. See, God is a merciful God. What if he judged you the first time you heard the gospel and probably did not respond with faith in Christ the first time you hold the gospel? I didn't. Did you? What if he had judged you? Just cast you into hell. The first time you heard the gospel and did not receive Christ. Where would you be? I know where I'd be. I don't like to think of it. We have received mercy. It's a wonderful thing to know a merciful God who did not deal with us according to what we deserved. Now that's not all there is in the heart of God. It took more than that to get you and me to heaven. It also took the free gift of his salvation through Christ which we didn't deserve. for God to withhold what we did deserve and then to give us what we didn't deserve. And the motive for all of it is his love. What a God. What a salvation. But Paul says we have received mercy. And Paul was very conscious of this because he had ravaged and persecuted the church. And people who named the name of Christ, he put them in chains and drug them off to their death. Paul was very conscious. that God had withheld judgment from him. I hope you are. And you may not have done the same things that Paul did, but every one of us ought to be able to say, we have received mercy. God has not dealt with us as we could have been dealt with. His third claim, we do not lose heart. Oh, now I'll ask you, can you make that claim? Anybody down in the mouth? Let me see your faces. Oh, it's easy to get down, isn't it? It's easy to become discouraged, to say, what's the use? Looking up to see the bottom. That's not where the people of God should be living. It's glorious for somebody like Paul to say, we do not lose heart. Now, if you just read down a few verses and you find out what he went through, beaten, stoned, imprisoned, mocked, shipwrecked. We could go on and on and on and on. Look what this man faced as a servant of Christ. And yet through it all he could say, we do not lose heart. It's glorious what the Lord can do to sustain his servants. I hope you can say that. Now he doesn't say we haven't had it tough. No, in fact, he's going to say we've had it very difficult times. In fact, there are times when we even wondered if we were going to live. And yet in it all, the gracious ministry of God to His heart and life, he could say, we do not lose heart. Fellow believer, don't lose heart. You know that God never promised us smooth sailing, but He has assured us of a safe arrival. Don't lose heart, fellow believers. God is on the throne. We look at a world that's lost its way. We see heartache all around us. but if you and I live as the believer should live in the light of all of God's grace and promises and ministry to our lives it's a wonderful thing to be able to say we do not lose heart cheer up fellow believers God is on the throne don't lose heart well look at a couple of these others I look for example he says here in verse In verse four, we do not adulterate the word of God. That's the word we were talking about last night. It has to do with watering down. Remember I was telling you about the first century documents that they unearthed, papyri documents in which they were taking somebody to court for mixing water, selling diluted wine in Alexandria. This is the word they used. They watered down their product. They made an inferior product. They diluted it. Paul says, we do not dilute the Word of God. We do not adulterate. We don't water down the Word of God. It's so easy to do that, folks. And I don't know whether you've ever felt it, but certainly any of us who have ever stood to teach the Word of God or to speak to others the things of Christ, in our humanness, there are times when we just like to hold back and just, you know, be very... And we say that's because we want to be sensitive, we want to be careful, and we need to be sensitive to others. But we need to be careful that we don't fall into the trap that Paul spoke about when he said to Timothy in the last days, there will come teachers who just like to itch tickle people's ears. Just like to tell them what they want to hear. Folks, that's adulterating the Word of God because the Word of God doesn't always tell us what we want to hear. doesn't tell me always what I want to hear. I hope you have squirmed and winced and wept before the Word of God. Because the Word of God speaks to us according to our need. And praise God for those who like the Apostle Paul can say, we don't water down the Word of God. There are plenty who do. A lot of saccharine messages. Paul says, we don't water it down. Can you make that claim? Can I? Just one more. Go down in verse seven, where Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Now here's a metaphor. The earthen vessel is a clay pot. Very simple. Everyday stuff in the New Testament world. The commonest, cheapest kind of container you could buy or use in your household was a clay pot. Paul says that's all I am, really. I'm just a clay pot. But there's a treasure inside. There's a treasure inside. Can you say that? I hope you can. Well, here's an array of claims, apostolic claims. But in all of this, there is another major theme that we need to look at here for a few moments. And that is the testimony that the Apostle is giving us. Because I hope you recognize that as we read through this, Paul is giving us his testimony here. Now, we know that he gave his testimony in other terms. In Acts twenty-two and Acts twenty-six, he recounted the experience of God's dealings with him. In a very kind of historic biographic sort of way, he was on his way to Damascus and so on, tells us what happened on the Damascus Road. He's telling us really the same thing here. But in a rather unique kind of context, as he defends his apostolic ministry, he gives us his testimony. And he says, first of all, there was a problem of being blinded. In fact, he presents this as a problem of the whole world of mankind. He uses the word hidden, he uses the word veiled, and he uses the word blinded. Now, these words are proactive words. He doesn't just say people out there are blind, which is true, but he uses a proactive word. He says they've been blinded. And there's a difference. My father was blinded. I told you, my father lived the last fifty years of his life without any sight at all. But his first eye got knocked out when he was a kid. A fellow student made an ice ball, threw it and hit him in the eye and shattered the optic nerve and he lost the sight in his right eye instantly. He was blinded. Yes, he was blind in that eye. but it was more than that he was blinded this is something that was caused see it wasn't just sort of happenstance and this is the language of this section there's been a veil put upon the hearts of people out there in the world there is something that is hidden from them and they have been blinded it's a proactive concept from what the light of the gospel of Christ, Paul says. They've been blinded. It has been hidden from them. Oh, who are those people, these hapless, unfortunate people? Well, he uses two expressions. He talks about those who are perishing in verse three, and he says they're the unbelieving in verse four. They're the ones who've been blinded. They're the ones who have a veil. Okay? the unbelieving, the perishing. Who did this dastardly thing? Well, the answer is in our text. Aha, the God of this world, Satan himself, has blinded the minds of those that believe not. And you see, Paul includes himself among them. Not only that, Where did this happen? Well, he said it happened in their minds, verse four. It happened in their hearts, verse six. The very seat of human personality, the very core and depths of human personality is involved in the lost estate of the men and women around us. And in the deepest recesses of their life and personality, they have been blinded. There's a veil upon them. Their minds and their hearts. Why did Satan do this? Why does he do this? To keep them from seeing the light of Christ. And so when you speak to your neighbors about Christ and they don't seem to care, don't be surprised. There was a time when I didn't care. Hmm? There's a blindness. for the blindness. But praise God, that's not the whole text. Paul also talks a lot about light. And he talks about the fact that the creator God, the same God that way back then in creation said, let there be light, that same creator God, he says, has spoken light into our dark hearts. What a testimony. The Creator God. How is it done? He says it was done by the preaching of Jesus Christ as Lord. Praise God. That's how it happened. That's how the Creator God, who spoke light into a dark world many, many thousands of years ago, brought light into the Apostle's heart through the preaching of Jesus Christ as Lord. And it had its effect. You remember? Bowed there on the Damascus Road, he said, Lord, what will you have me to do? What a day that was for the apostle. And of course, he also tells us that that light was nothing other than the glory of God. He tells us that the power that caused that to happen was the very power of God. And he said, the end result is, I'm still an old clay pot, but there's a treasure inside. Now let's just take a moment to interview Paul here. Say, Paul, Tell us a little detail about that most important day of your life. Well, I was one who hated the name of Jesus of Nazareth. I was committed as a religious scholarly Jew to do everything I could to stamp out the name of Jesus. I had authority from the priest to go and get these renegade Jews who had named Christ and put them in chains and bring them to their death. And I was on my way to Damascus. And what happened then, Paul? Well, it was noontime, and the Syrian sun was beating down on us mercilessly. I was looking forward to getting into the city and a little shade and a little rest. And then suddenly there was a light. Oh, a light. It was so much brighter than that intense Syrian sun that I fell to the ground. fell to the ground. Paul, what was that light? It was the light of the glory of God. Paul, what was the source of that light? It came from the face of Jesus Christ. What a testimony. Then he was never the same. never the same and he could say I'm still an old clay pot but I'm no longer full of darkness the light of Christ is in my life praise God for such a testimony though you may never have been on the Damascus Road you may never have felt the intense Syrian Sun you may have never audibly heard the voice of Christ from heaven but I hope in essence you have the same testimony that you can say even though I was once filled with darkness things are different now because the same God that spoke light into that creative world has brought light into my life the light of the knowledge of the glory of God from the face of Jesus Christ and I'm no longer full of darkness Still an old clay pot, but no longer full of darkness. The light of Christ is in my life. What a testimony. I hope you can say that tonight. And there may be somebody here tonight that can't say that, and I want to tell you tonight, it would be a glorious thing if you would come to realize the darkness of your condition in sin and need. I'm not talking about your economic condition. Not talking about your health. We're talking about the spiritual condition of your heart. And if your life is full of darkness tonight, let me tell you, there is a light. There is a glorious light. Jesus Christ himself. He came as a light into this dark world. And he will come into your life. And bring light. And forgiveness. And salvation. If by simple faith. you will receive him and then you too can say I'm still an old clay pot got some cracks in it in fact but no longer full of darkness full of light oh I hope you can say that praise God I can it's wonderful to know the light of Christ in your life now just a couple of quick thoughts here on this passage in terms of principles and application I really believe as Paul introduces this whole section of testimony that we can conclude from this scripture that a fresh knowledge of your position and of your calling in Christ will give you courage and keep you from despair because what Paul talks about here when he says we do not lose heart is not psychological it's spiritual And if you look at it in this context, Paul could say, we do not lose heart because he understood his position and his calling in Christ. And he knew that even though he was still in old clay pot, that Jesus Christ had come into his life, that the Savior had put his hand on him and given him a commission and a service to fulfill. And that's what kept him from losing heart. and it wasn't a mess of psychological potage and it wasn't pep pills it was Christ in his life and you and I can say the same thing very interesting I think of a cartoon a long time ago maybe you remember one of the Charlie Brown peanuts things and Lucy and Charlie Brown were looking out the door and it was raining raining raining And they were looking outside and finally Charlie Brown says, oh, it's raining a lot. Maybe we're going to have a flood like a great flood of Noah. And Lucy looked at him and said, huh, you worried about that? Don't you know God promised he'd never destroy this world with a flood of waters again? And Charlie Brown, and then she walks off, of course, in disdain. And Charlie Brown stands there saying to himself, oh, that's comforting to know. And then Lucy sort of shoots this comment over her shoulder saying, well, sound theology has a way of doing that for a person. You see, that's why Paul didn't lose heart. Sound theology has a way of doing that for a person. He knew the Savior. He knew his calling in Christ. He knew the service and mission that he had been given to fulfill. He knew the Spirit of God was at work in his life. And he could say, we don't lose heart. I pray that you can say the same thing. One more principle drawn out of this passage, and that is that we must never lose sight of the fact that people out there without Christ are blind spiritually. They need the light of Christ. And I pray God that they will see it in your life and mine. That's why Jesus said, let your light so shine before others that they seeing your good works, your kindnesses. And there are many, many people that will have to be reached first with some everyday kindnesses. You may have to earn the right to be heard. You may have to build some bridges. They may need to feel the warmth of your life before they will ever see the light. But they're darkness. They're in darkness. This world is benighted. Don't kid yourself. Oh, we live in a very educated, sophisticated, technological world. But they're spiritually in utter darkness. But you have the light. You have the light of Christ, if you know the Savior. So let your light shine, fellow believers. Let your light shine before others, Jesus said. They need the light. The light of Christ. And that's the only light in this dark world. The only light that can fill these old clay pots and dispel the darkness. Praise God. for the light of Christ in your life. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful tonight for this testimony of the apostle. We're grateful that into that dark heart of his the light did shine. And we confess, Father, that when we see the apostle saying that It's really the God of this world that has done this blinding that has placed the veil over the hearts of unregenerate people. We realize that none of us are a match for the God of this world. We can't save people, but you can. And your spirit can bring conviction. Your spirit can help those around us to see their sin at need. Your spirit and your word can help people to see the light of Christ. So deliver us from merely trying to accomplish all of these things in our own energies. We couldn't save ourselves. We thank you, Father, that even though we are still old clay pots, those of us who have come to Christ have a treasure in these earthen vessels, the light of Christ in our lives. how we thank you for the Savior, how we thank you for his light, his presence that has dispelled the darkness of our hearts and lives. And we pray, Father, that you will help us to live in the glorious, glorious reality of a life that has been lighted by Jesus Christ himself. Make us ever grateful. for the light of Christ in our lives. And pray, Father, that you will help us to let our lights shine, that we may be able to reflect His glories, His beauties to others, and that we will see some around us who are still in darkness coming into the light of Christ. Give us a heart. for the benighted men and women around us. Some of us have unsaved relatives, neighbors. Some of us are concerned about our grandchildren, that these little ones may come to Christ early in life. We pray, Father, that you will make us grateful that the light of Christ is still shining, that the Savior is still able to save to the uttermost all who will come to God through him. Help us, we pray, to be your instruments of light to others. But Jesus Christ may be honored.