Trimming Your Wick

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

of kind of what's being talked about here.

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

Luke 8:16–18

16 through 18.

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

Luke chapter 8 verse 16.

Luke 8:16

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

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

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

and come to light.

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

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

Let's pray.

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

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

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

as the light of our life.

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

Lord.

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

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

your word says, dear Lord.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

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

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

Luke 8 · chapter mention

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

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

We looked at that in the book of Matthew.

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

seed grew.

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

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

on good ground.

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

Luke 8 · chapter mention

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

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

of the sower.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and how are they responding to it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

all of those things, but at different times.

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

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

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

the men and women that God wants us to be.

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

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

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

may see its light.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe you're walking in the darkness today.

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

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

we go through in this world.

All the evils that we see, there is light.

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

light because Jesus Christ is the source of light.

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

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

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

Christ within us.

So Jesus says something that's very practical.

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

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

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

is around.

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

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

around.

And we understand the concept of what a lamp does.

We understand it very well.

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

days.

And so what do you have to depend on?

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

You don't want to stump your toe.

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

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

You don't stick it under your bed.

That'd be silly.

You don't put a basket over it.

That would be silly.

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

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

will do in the darkness.

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

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

the middle of the night.

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

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

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

We need to ask ourselves the question today.

Are we a light in our world?

Are we a light to our neighbors?

Are we a light to our family?

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

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

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

but maybe you've been that rocky soil.

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

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

scary.

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

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

of the world.

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

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

of God.

We all understand what lamps are.

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

Now, these days we're pretty fancy.

Everything has gotten really hot-tech.

We probably all have some little lanterns like this.

These are pretty good.

These produce a pretty good amount of light.

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

Praise the Lord we have them.

This is more of an old-fashioned lamp.

I borrowed this lamp from Ernest and Angela.

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

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

I'll try not to drop it.

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

You put kerosene in there.

You put coal oil in there.

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

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

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

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

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

You put your coal oil there.

You put your kerosene there.

This top section here is called a chimney.

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

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

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

A lamp like this can burn for quite a while.

This holds a lot of fuel.

Very simple and very practical design.

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

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

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

A lumen is a measurement of brightness.

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

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

60 watt light bulbs, about 800 lumens of brightness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's going to begin to smoke a lot.

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

and that's going to dim your light.

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

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

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

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

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

But you look online on how to trim your wick,

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

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

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

and how efficient it's going to be.

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

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

And maybe you will. It burns more fuel.

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

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

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

are not so different than these lamps.

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe you're producing a little bit of light,

but maybe if you're honest with yourself,

maybe your light's not been shining very bright.

Maybe it's been under a basket.

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

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

and maybe your light needs a little maintenance today.

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

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

and we go from one year to the next,

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

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

It's something about starting a new year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I want to end my bad eating habits.

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

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

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

I'm going to do better in these areas.

And maybe where we need to really start

is by doing better in our walk with Jesus Christ.

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

Praise the Lord.

Maybe you're not.

Maybe you need to trim your wick.

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

We get there.

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

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

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

And it is very easy to get burned out.

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

I want to be done with the situation at work.

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

I want to be...whatever it is.

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

And it happens to everybody.

It doesn't matter who you are.

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

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

But praise the Lord for the Word of God.

Praise the Lord for Christian community.

That we can come together.

That we can be reminded that God loves us.

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

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

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

and not the strength of the Lord.

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

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

well, so it is for our lives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And sometimes with every wick,

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

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

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

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

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

And the way that these things are taken care of,

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

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

It's through seeking the Word of God.

It's listening to the Word of God.

It's living by the Word of God.

And Jesus says here in the midst of this beautiful parable

about being one who hears the Word and responds to it

and grows for the Kingdom of God, he says,

and know that you are a light,

and nobody takes the light and covers it up.

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

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

So he says, be a good light.

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

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

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

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

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

Do we hear the Word of God today?

Do we respond to the Word of God today?

We're part of the Kingdom of God today.

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

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

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

and follow my commands.

I'm paraphrasing there.

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

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

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

What about us today?

Are we brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ today?

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

We take the test.

Do we hear His words and follow Him?

Maybe we do.

Maybe we don't.

Maybe there are some areas that we do pretty good.

Maybe there are some areas that we fail miserably.

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

that we should for Jesus Christ.

Maybe today we need to trim our wicks.

We need to wipe out our chimneys.

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

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

Let's pray.

Father God, we come to you.

We thank you for your good word.

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

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

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

Maybe they already know that they need you.

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

Maybe they've read your word.

But maybe they've never really listened to it.

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

Maybe they've never really confessed their sins and repented

and made Jesus the Lord of their life, God.

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

that today they would see the light of Jesus Christ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the way they should be living, dear Lord.

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

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

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

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

We're starting fresh, dear Lord.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

they're just wearing theirself out, God.

I pray that today that they would repent.

I pray that they would seek you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

that would be bright for everyone to see.

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