Esther 8:16 The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.  Before the days of electricity,  a home or a church was lit by oil lanterns.  In order to have light, first you must make sure there is oil in the lamp.  If you are not a Christian,  you have no oil in your lamp.  Oil in scripture is a type of the Holy Spirit.  Even though you can have a perfectly good lamp, with perfectly good oil, there can be a poor light being projected.  There are two possible reasons for this.  First, on occaision the wick needs to be trimmed.  Our Lord prunes us, trims our wick if you please, in order that our light might shine brightly for others to see.
Secondly,  there can be another problem.   The globe on the lantern can become smokey.  It needs a good cleaning!  You and I that are saved are the only light many will ever be exposed to.  Are we walking through this world with a smoked up globe, hindering the light on the inside from shining brightly on the outside?  Jesus said “Ye are clean through the Word I have spoken unto you.”  Today, let’s make sure there’s oil in the lamp, the wick is trimmed,  and the globe is clean!  Oh Lord please… Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, give me oil in my lamp, I pray; give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,
keep me burning till the break of day.  Then, like those in our text, we can have light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. Amen.  Pastor