What Good is the Light if its not in the Darkness?

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, Saints. It's a new day. I hope you guys have been enjoying this walkthrough Luke. For those of you that are new to the podcast, we've been doing a complete walkthrough of Luke from start to finish. Um, we're currently in Luke 8, uh, uh, so 30+ episodes in and we've made it to Luke 8. Uh, It's never a race as far as being a sprint, though. It may be a bit of a marathon, but we love it. So today we are gonna continue through Luke Eight. We've been working through some of the parables and purpose of the parables, what they are, actually examining some of them. Today we're gonna have a parable, but we're also gonna continue forward in Luke. So I look forward to that being there. A huge shout out to all of you guys. Even though we had a slight hiatus. Couple of months off due to technical issues and life getting in the way. We're back at it, and it's definitely showing that you guys didn't miss a beat. So a huge thank you to all of you that have been listening. It's a great encouragement to see us right back to where we were when the pause began. So any of you that are listening, I do appreciate those of you that have taken the time in the past couple days to leave reviews wherever you may be listening. The reviews help me to improve, of course, as well as let me know that you appreciate what we're doing here. So thank you so much for all of you that. Have taken the time to do that. It is greatly appreciated. But without further ado, let's get down to it. So as always, guys, I am going to be reading from the ESV. I understand that not everybody might be able to have a Bible handy wherever they may be. You may be commuting, driving, you may be in a place where you just don't have your Bible with you. No problem. Don't worry about it. I will always read the passage that we're going to examine, but I do encourage you, if you can, to grab your Bible and have it handy while we go through this. It's a it's a great practice and habit to have that when you're examining scripture to have the the physical word, if you can, in front of you. Lets you take some notes and lets you kind of process through. So today is Luke chapter eight verses sixteen through 21. So there's gonna be a parable, and then we're gonna get to the end of this segment before we move into some other, uh, works of Christ. So again, we're gonna start at Luke chapter— or Luke chapter 8, verse 16. As always, guys, I am reading from the ESV. Feel free to follow along in whatever translation you would prefer. No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be made known and come to light. Take care even how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. So we've got a couple of interesting pieces here today. We've got this parable sandwich where he tells the parable of the seeds and the sower, and then explains the purpose of the parables. And then he goes on to tell the parable of the lamp under a jar. Lamp under the jar is an interesting one in this day and age where we have a lot of people that are perfectly happy to be Christians. We're perfectly happy as Christian men to let people know that that's what our belief is. We go to church every Sunday. We would pray with our family. But in our day-to-day, in our walk, there's not as much evidence of us being Christian. We don't— we're not outspoken in our faith. We're not outspoken in our Christianity. And I understand I'm not painting with a paintbrush and saying that's everybody, but there is a large amount of Christian men where it's challenging for— it's challenging for us to speak out. It's challenging to have a clear and outspoken presence for a whole bunch of different reasons. But here we're seeing Christ putting not just an encouragement of you need to do that, you need to be a light, you need to be seen because it's not you that's being seen, it's Christ, right? But as well, he's challenging you that if you've got a light that's been given to you and you decide that you're going to put it under a lamp, understand that That's going to come with a rebuke. That's going to come with an exhortation. That's going to come with a cost. To the point where it's taken away, that's a heavy burden. So for the first part there, I do want to challenge you guys on that. Make a point in your day-to-day. Some of us live in circles that are entirely Christian. Our friends are Christian. Our workplace is Christian. Our We attend church, we, you know, we're in Christian leagues. Everything that we do is in Christian circles. That's really not the purpose of the lamp that he's talking about here. A lamp shining in a room of lamps seems kind of ridiculous, right? So I challenge you to take a look at your environments and just take a look and see, is there darkness that you're shining in? Do you have places in your walk where you are darkness? So that you can be light to those people, and then the the follow-up to that is of course if you are in darkness, is your lamp getting dimmer or are you shining brighter? Is is Christ prevalent? Is it there? Do you talk about it? Is Christ something that you boldly speak about in your day-to-day in those places? Yeah, it it can be challenging, guys, for sure. The second half of this is very very interesting, and this passage is always a very challenging one, especially for. The men out there that might be Catholic, there's a lot of reverence around Mary. And, you know, it's not solely Catholicism, but there's a lot of Christians out there that hold Mary in very, very high reverence. And this passage where his mother and his brothers come to him and make this plea, you know, we want to see our brother, we want to see— I want to see my son. Well, okay. Normally, we would assume that Jesus would would part the crowd like the Red Sea to to bring these esteemed guests to him, and yet his response is that's nice. That's nice. It's good that my my mother and my brothers are here to see me, but I'll tell you who my mothers and brothers are. It's those that would hear the word of God and do it. And I think that this is a really powerful way where Christ. Started with the the parable of the sower and the seeds, and then he went on to explain it to them and explain why he's doing things the way that he's doing. And then in in typical Christlike fashion, he demonstrates it practically for us. He gives us an example that we can see and we can we can emulate. It's the lamp under the jar of you need to be light in the darkness, right? You need to make sure that Christ is being shown. Into the places where he isn't. He isn't yet anyway. So Jesus' mothers and brothers know him. They have a relationship with him. They know him. They know who he is. They know what he's going to be for the most part. Some of the brothers maybe not, but they come to know it anyway. But Mary at the very least knows who her son is. She knows. And so Jesus' response here is less of a rebuke or a tearing down of his family. It's not disrespectful, but what he's trying to do is set an example for those around him of, look, I just told you that a light can't be put into a room of light, that a room can't be put under a cover. That makes no sense. You have to take the light into the places that need light. And that's what he was doing right there. He was, he was saying, guys, I I appreciate that my family is here, but I am where I need to be. I am a lamp in the darkness at the moment, working with these people. I'm telling these parables. I'm not going to stop everything I'm doing just to have a conversation with those who already know. And we see that message throughout scripture where, you know, the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go and rescue the one that got away, right? Well, you're leaving 99 sheep unguarded. What are you doing? Well, they're okay. They're where they belong. I need to go get the one that isn't where it belongs. It's just this repeated thing of where's your focus? Where's your heart? Where's your conviction in your day-to-day? So again, I just want to challenge you guys. Take a look at your circles. Take a look at where you are. It's not bad to be in Christian circles, to have Christian friends, to attend church. Those are all good and godly things. Those are points of fellowship. But Really flex that that evangelism bone. Really work it out and challenge yourself to find some places where you can be in a place of darkness. You can bring some light. That is it for today, saints. I hope that this has been a blessing to you to continue through this again. If you are new to the podcast and you're just hopping in, there are thirty more episodes that you can go back and listen to to get caught up with if you would. So like they are all shorter, you know, eight to ten minute episodes. But for those of you who have been on this journey, and here we are, thank you again for coming back. I'm going to pray for us real quick here before we leave. As always, guys, if there are prayer requests, please put them out. I'm going to do a recap of inboxes and social media over the weekend and collect prayer requests and start doing those prayer requests at the end of the call. As always, if you want to remain anonymous, that's no problem. I'm always happy to create a pseudonym or just use your first name, anything of that nature. Or just leave the name out entirely. But without further ado, let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much that your care is for those that need the light, not those that have it. You love the people that have the light. You've given it to them. It's a gift. It's a blessing. But that blessing came with a hope that they would take the light into the world, that they would show Christ to the world, that they would cast out the darkness, that they would be bold, that they would be strong, that they would would be convicted, that they wouldn't let even the closest distractions, the loves of our lives, stop us from doing that work. And I pray that as men of faith, that we are convicted to follow Christ's example today and seek those places of darkness that we can shine, that we can bring your light into in our own lives. Pray blessing on the men that are listening, Lord, that their hearts would be convicted by your word. I pray that they would—

Amen.

be strengthened by it, that they would have new conviction to continue into your word and wrestle with it, to continue bringing the word into their lives and wrestling with what that looks like. For all of those going through trials, Lord, for all those with issues of health, pray for them, Lord. For all those struggling with loss, I lift them up to you. For all of those struggling with plenty, pray for them, Lord. It can be a huge burden. Pray for all the men listening, Lord, that you'd be with them today and encourage them, push them to shine your light. In your name we pray.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.