MK040 Sermons
Impact (Audio)
right? Amen. Well there's something about, there's something that's always intrigued me since I was a little kid. And I first started being intrigued by a TV show that was, I don't actually know when the TV show was filmed. I think I was watching the reruns from it called Get Smart. And Get Smart was about this kind of goofy spy that could never quite figure things out. And I kind of got intrigued about spy movies at that time. And as I got a little bit older and the James Bond movies started coming out and I tried to talk my parents and letting me watch them. And they usually didn't want me to. And I would try to sneak away to watch them. And then eventually the Mission Impossible series and then to the Born Supremacy identity and ultimatum. There's always been something intriguing to me about the role as a spy. And I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's just the dangerous missions that they would get sent on. I don't know if it's the cool tools that they always have these amazing things that they get to use. Or maybe it's being able to get the beautiful girl. I think I got that one accomplished. And then they end up on a sailboat somewhere in the Mediterranean. Never done that. So maybe that's my wish list to do. But there's something about the role of a spy that always intrigued me. And one thing that's true about the spy is they always had a mission to accomplish. They always had a mission to accomplish. And sometimes they would be given this mission and then given the opportunity you choose to accept it or reject it. If they accepted it, then they would have to commit themselves to accomplishing that mission. And as I was thinking about that, I realized that's true in a lot of our lives that when we know why we're doing something, it helps us feel motivated to move towards accomplishing it. We talked about this a few weeks ago with our education system that sometimes kids get frustrated because they're told, "Well, you just have to know this. Why do I have to know this?" Well, I don't know why you have to know it. You have to go to school because you have to know this. And that can be very frustrating, very difficult. But if they know that this is going to help them make money in the future or help them live their lives more successfully, then there's a greater level of motivation to accomplish those things. You know, on a sports team, it's important for players on a sports team to know what their individual role not only is, but how that contributes to the goal of them accomplishing this task as a team. And it's the same way in our jobs. It can be very demotivating in a job just to be told, "Well, why do I have to do that?" Or, "What's the point of that?" You may not have the freedom to ask that question or feel the luxury to ask that question to your boss. But if you know that doing this task is going to help move the company forward and make a difference eventually in your take home income, then that's going to motivate you to do that and move that forward. And the truth is, in all of our lives, if we know why we're doing what we're doing, it can motivate us to do those things. It's true in life. You know, if we don't have a clear reason of why am I doing these things or what's the point of all of this, we can lose motivation, we can lose interest, we can lose all of those things. And sadly, when someone loses a lot of that motivation, they can get to the point where they actually give up on life and give up on living. And this morning, we're going to look at a purpose that Jesus outlines for those who are followers of his that is their purpose for living and their purpose for life. And if you're searching in your spiritual journey and you're just trying to sort all this out, Jesus is going to kind of give you an inside scoop and say, "If you want to know what following Jesus is all about, we're going to tell you this morning." And we hope that you believe and are convinced that that's something worth giving your life to as many people have. So if you have your Bibles this morning, if you would turn to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5, that's where we're going to be looking this morning. It's on page 958 in the Bibles that the guys are passing out. If you don't have a Bible, they can make one of those available to you, page 958. And our series entitled Sitting at the Feet of Jesus, and we've been talking about the sermon that Jesus preached called the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Mount. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had a very simple message. He said, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near." He said, "It's getting close. It's getting close." And he goes on to describe in somewhat of an unusual way the kinds of people that Jesus is going to bless and invite into his kingdom. And it leaves us a little bit surprised because he doesn't say the people that raise good families are the ones invited in the kingdom or the people that don't do bad things and don't end up in prison. They get invited. That's not what he says. But he lists these individuals and he says, "These are the people that I will bless." Look at them as they come up on the screen. He says, "First of all, blessed are the poor in spirit, the people that just are beat up by this world." He then goes on to say, "Look at the second one. Blessed are those that mourn, those that have experienced great loss. Blessed are those number three who are meek, those that don't force their way into things, but just take a step back because they trust in God." Number four, blessed are those that hunger and thirst for God's ways. Those that say God's ways are more important to me than anything else in my life. Number five, blessed are those who are merciful, those that put the physical needs of others above their own. Number six, blessed are the pure in heart, those that kind of think they've got it all figured out, think they're on the right track and then somewhere along the way realize they're missing something and that's God in their lives. Number seven, blessed are the peacemakers, those that get in the middle of conflicts even though they don't want to be in the middle of them. They end up in the middle of them. And lastly, number eight, blessed are those that are persecuted, those people that say, "I'm going to stand up for God's ways." And Jesus said, "Those are blessed." And it kind of leads us scratching our heads a little bit, feeling a little bit confused because it's not the people that we would think. He doesn't invite good religious people. He doesn't invite people who do good things, people who say the right things. And then instead he involves people who have sometimes made a mess of their lives, struggled in life, faced unexplained hardships and sometimes arrogantly and proudly ignored God. In spite of all of this, these individuals have an openness to God and their openness to God is what invites Jesus into their lives and saying, "You will be blessed and you will be blessed and you will be blessed." And something will change about their lives. You see what Jesus did is he wiped clean this social infrastructure that said, "You're in and you're out." And Jesus said, "No, that's not the way it works." And he turned it upside down. He said, "That's not the way my kingdom -- the kingdom of heaven works." And what Jesus did is he changed people's lives. He touched their lives. He spoke into their lives. He was present with their lives. And as they were open to the message of hope that he offered, they were radically changed. And as they were radically changed, they discovered a purpose that they were designed for on this earth. You see God only really has one purpose for creating this world and for creating all that lives in us. And that one purpose is that God gets glory. Glory is not a word we use much these days, but God gets honor. God gets praise. God gets to be exalted. And what God did is he created mankind and he gave mankind a perfect place to live, but mankind turned their back on God. And God loved them so much he wanted to provide a way and he did that through the person of Jesus. And when people choose this answer and this hope that's found only in Jesus and their lives are transformed, they turn that praise and that glory and that wonder that God would do this in their lives back to him. And so this morning, we're going to talk about two ways that God does this. Two ways that God does this. Two things that God says that those people that have been transformed, those people that are followers of Jesus, two things that are true about them. The first thing he wants that he's going to talk about is he's going to talk about the subject of salt. He's going to talk about the subject of salt. And salt is something that in the day when Jesus was living was incredibly important. Does anybody know why salt was incredibly important in that day? There was no refrigeration, right? There was no refrigeration. And so without salt, what happens to food that is fresh? What happens to it? Spoils becomes rotten. But salt does what? Salt preserves and salt has a value to it. I need a couple of people to help me. Jesse, there's a bowl underneath there. If you could just take that bowl and just kind of know right there underneath that. And Matt, you want to grab underneath here? And Greg, you want to get underneath there? There's a bowl here. Just give it to everybody there. They can pass it around. You don't have to pass it. They can pass it themselves. Just give it to them. Take a couple pieces and pass it around to the people. And it just reminds us, this is some popcorn here. And as you have a little popcorn, you're sorry I don't have a movie to show for you today or comfy seats. It's as good as you're going to get. But just kind of reminds us of how important salt is. How important salt is. And we put it on everything. And when we don't have salt on something that we normally have salt on like popcorn, we realize, wow, this could use a little salt, right? This could use a little salt. And we realize how important it is. You know, in that culture, salt was incredibly important because they would rub the salt into meat or any product and that would preserve the meat. When I was, I took a trip to Romania one time on a mission strip and they, I lived in a village and they, they had salt pork up in the attic that they would, they had a smoke house up there in the attic. And I didn't know any better, but in the morning for breakfast, they would give you a little, little egg in this big chunk of salt pork. And I had never had salt pork in my, my, in my life. So I just took a big bite of that thing and, oh my goodness, that was the saltiest thing I think I ever ate in my whole life. Because they really, they rub it in and rub it in and rub it in and it's smoked into preserving. That's, they just get used to eating meat like that. In the, the word, the Latin word for salary is, comes from the word salt. And Roman soldiers, because of the value of salt in that day would be paid in salt because it was so valuable. In the, in the Bible, it talks about in the book of Leviticus, it talks about salt being used to season sacrifices. And it talks about salt being used to purify fragrances. And Paul later says, let your speech, your words, be always seasoned with salt. Because salt not only preserves things, right? But salt does what? It adds a little, what did you need? You need a little salt for that popcorn to what? Add a little, what? Flavor, flavor. Now I want you guys to have something with a little bit of flavor. So underneath the front row, there's a bag of chips. Sorry, Matt. I need you to grab them. There's some bags of chips. Grab the bag of chips and pass them along to everybody. So I want you something with some salt, little bit of flavor. So you remember the value of salt, you know? You remember that salt is something that adds some flavor. I think everybody's got their chips. They can just pass them along. So, so with all that in mind, this is what Jesus says as you're thinking about salt. Look at the, look at the passage that's going to come on the screen. Oh, before, before we go to this, the reason that salt was so predominant in the ancient Near East is there's a place called the Dead Sea. I think we have a picture on the screen for you, the Dead Sea. And, and the Dead Sea has nine times the level of salt as the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Nine times. And so you can see the salt builds up all around there. And it's even used in health and beauty products. I think we had a picture that's going to come up on the screen that, you know, guarantees that things are a hundred percent of salt from the Dead Sea to help you look beautiful these days. So, but that's where the salt came from. And so, Jesus with all of that in the background about the value of salt, this is what he says in Matthew 513. He says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. Now, what's surprising is Jesus doesn't say that the Torah or the law is the salt of the earth. That's what's going to preserve and that's what's going to add flavor. He doesn't say that. Jesus doesn't say the city of Jerusalem, the temple, that's what's going to add salt to that. That's what's going to preserve the earth. Or even the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the rabbis, they're the salt of the earth. They're going to preserve and add flavor to the earth. He doesn't say that. He says the people sitting around him on that hillside. He said, you are the salt of the earth. He doesn't say you're going to become the salt of the earth. He doesn't say you do these three things and you'll be salty. He says, you are the salt of the earth. He's not concerned about you become salty, but about your effectiveness as salt. Look what he says in the second half. He said, if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty? Again, it's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You know how salt loses its saltiness? Does salt get less salty if you leave it sit out? Does just air make it less salty? What do you think? No. No. It's still salty. It might stick together, but it's still salty. Salt is a very stable compound. Sodium chloride is a very stable compound. The only way salt will be broken down is if it's mixed with certain chemicals that make it impure. That's the only way salt is not effective. Jesus says, he says, what are you doing with your salt? He said, if you don't do anything, it becomes like just road dust. You know, just kind of throw it out and it gets trampled. It's useless. It's useless. So if salt preserves and if salt flavors, what is Jesus telling those who are part of his kingdom? I don't think he's telling them one specific thing to do, but I think he's reminding them what salt does. First thing it does is preserves. It keeps something good from what? Spoiling, right? It keeps something good from spoiling. That's the first thing that salt does. And so what Jesus is saying to us is he's saying to the people that choose to follow him, the people that become part of his pink kingdom, he said, part of your mission in your life is to keep the good things from becoming bad. That's part of your mission in life. You say, what do you mean by that, John? I think, well, what Jesus is talking about is he's saying, there's going to be things that you're going to see in this world that are bad things that your role is salt. It's to somehow preserve what is good. Preserve what is good. Now, I don't think Jesus is talking about that there are certain traditions in the life of the church and we hold on to those things and we don't let anything change. I don't think that's what Jesus is talking about. I think what he's referring to is what sin does in this world, in this culture that we live in. Sin ruins things. Sin ruins what is good. But Jesus says, I want you to preserve it. When I was a kid, one of the things my mom would tell me to do to take care of a sore throat is to gargle saltwater. Anybody had to gargle saltwater? A lot of you know what I'm talking about. So when I was learning how to do this to kid, every once in a while I would get a little bit too much and it would kind of go down and it's not supposed to go down. And so when you swallow a little bit of saltwater, what does it make you do? It makes you what? Gag, right? Or puke or hurl. You know, it's something right that. That's what happens if you get too much salt. You know what I think has happened in our culture, especially where we live in Lancaster County here? I think what has happened is many of us have been exposed to watching or experiencing people or ourselves getting gagged on too much salt. And because of that, we're not effective at salt. We're not effective at salt. We've seen someone do it badly. We've seen someone make a fool of themselves. We've seen someone get mocked and ridiculed and we'd say, I'm not going to go there. But Jesus says your role is to preserve the good in this world to preserve it. You know, I'm glad that we live in a country that's opposed to discrimination and that I'm glad we live in a country that accepts people regardless of their background and culture. I'm glad we live in a country that is continuing to say poverty is not acceptable and mistreatment of women and children is wrong. But I wonder where are people of faith on these issues? Why are we not leading the way not only here in our country but around the world? Because God has called us to be salt and God has called us to say, what is good and what have I made that is good? And your role is to preserve that in some way. Say, how do I do that, John? How do I do that? If you've got something that you want to put salt in, you've got the salt over here. What do you have to do with the salt? You've got to put the salt on it, right? Doesn't do any good if you're a person of faith over here and you see a problem over there and you stand over here and say, you shouldn't be doing that. What good is that going to do? Probably little. Like God says, you have to find a way to be engaged in that situation and confront what is wrong. Now Jesus is not saying that you, the things that are important to you, the personal choices and decisions that you make to, to follow Him that you impose those on everybody else. That's called legalism. Religious communities are well known for that. That's not what He's talking about. He's saying the things that matter to Jesus, the things that are important to Him, the things that He talks about here, those are the things that we focus on. A few years ago, when I moved in this community as a part of a civic organization and they would do lots of good things in the community and I got involved in that and got a chance to serve with lots of people. And once I had an event, they had a family picnic and there was families there and my family just couldn't come for some reason. So a lot of families and parents and kids and students and, and they played a particular game and the particular game had a strong sexual overtones to it that I knew that that was probably going to be a possibility and I understood that because I didn't expect them to act differently. That's who they were and that's what they did as part of the things that were fun for them. But what troubled me is that they did this with teenagers and a lot of young children in the same setting. And so I agonized over what to do and I didn't stomp off and I didn't make a scene. But I went to the leader later and I said to them, I said, what took place in the company of children and students was not appropriate at all. I said, those are things that are important in a marriage, those are important in relationships and the things that I value and they're not things to be made light of in this setting. And I spoke to something that I thought was wrong because of what it did to children that exposed children and things that God says they should not be exposed to. You see what God calls us to do is He calls us to to preserve the things that are good when we see wrong in our culture. This is not an easy thing to navigate. But I think that what has happened to people of faith is we have walked so far away from this that we now ignore it and say, well, I hope somebody else takes care of it. Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. But salt not only preserves what does salt also do? It adds flavor, right? It makes things that are just kind of okay, better, right? Isn't that what salt does? Adds a little bit of zest to things. And I think what Jesus is calling us to do is saying, in your life, in the relationships that you're involved in, in the circle and the people that you cross paths with, do you add value to their lives? Say, how does that happen? What does that look like? Do people enjoy being around you? Do people enjoy being with you because you care about them, because you show an interest in them, because their lives are important to you? That's what causes people to say, hey, you know, even though I don't believe what you believe and I don't agree with your stance on things, I like you. I like you. It always intrigues me when I get invited to parties and I'm the religious guy at the parties. I'm the pastor at the parties and sometimes people know that, sometimes they don't. I prefer that they don't. But when that happens, my wife and I kind of stand back in amazement and I'm like, you know, they enjoy us enough to invite us to their party even though they know that we disagree with some of their choices and way of life. And hopefully we can add value to that. There's something that should be true about followers of Jesus that we should influence the world when we show up, whether to preserve it or to add flavor to it. And when we do that, others notice. Listen to this quote. I apologize. I don't have it on the screen. I'll read it through twice for you. The glory of the gospel is when the church is absolutely different from the world. She invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to our message though it may hate it at first. Let me read that again. The glory of the gospel is when the church is absolutely different from the world. She invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message though it may hate it at first. So the question for you this morning is, your mission is to preserve and add flavor to your world. Are you useful? Are you useless? Which one are you? Are you useful? Are you useless? That's what Jesus says. He says, you're mission as salt to the earth. Are you useful as salt? Do you preserve and add flavor or are you of no use? No use. Remember how salt does not become useful? It's when it's mixed with a whole bunch of other things and then it's not distinct at all. If there's not a distinctness about your life, not only in the way you love and care about people but in the things you stand firmly in opposition to with grace and mercy and compassion, then your salt is useless. It's useless. You say, John, what if I've tried that and I've kind of messed it up. I've kind of come in a little bit too strong and over the top and people now they don't want anything to do with me and family members think, oh, here comes the religious guy. You know what? You just need to be gracious and say, I know I've come on a little strong in the past but I apologize for that. I just want to try to be a friend to you or care about you. Again, this is not easy to navigate and it's not something that we're all very skilled at doing. It takes a lot of work and effort and a lot of just, God, what do I do in this situation? But the question is, as salt, are you useful or are you useless? Kevin, if we could put that slide, I'd just kind of highlight that so we can kind of see that. That's what our mission is. That's what our mission is. Well, Jesus gives us a second picture to help us to understand our mission more clearly. He first of all talks about salt and the second thing that he talks about is he talks about light and I want us to talk for a few minutes about light. You know, in the first century, the only light that they had was the sun and when the sun went down, this was the light that they would have in their home. A small lamp with a little bit of oil in it and a wick and that was it. That was it in their home. And light was often connected with truth and knowledge and those people who passed on truth about God were considered to be a light. In the Old Testament, it talks about light. Jesus, the prophet Isaiah said, "My justice will become a light to the nations. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn." And Jesus uses two images to talk about light. The first image that he uses is he talks about a city on a hill. And as I thought about a city on a hill, it reminded me when we were traveling through the west a few years back and we were driving at night through the desert of Nevada. And if you're driving at night through the desert of Nevada and you're driving from west to east, you will be in complete darkness till slowly you'll start to see this glow over the hills. And this glow will get bigger and bigger and bigger so you can't not see it and it's the city of Las Vegas. And it's the closest picture I've ever seen of a city that's up on a hill, but Jesus says a city that's up on a hill that's lit can't be hidden. And then he goes on to talk about a light that's in a home and he talks about the purpose of a light in the next verse. He says this, if we can put that next verse up there, Kevin, says, "Neither do people light only up and put it under a bowl and said they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house." He goes on to explain the purpose of the light in the next verse verse 16. He says, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise or give glory to your Father in heaven." So he's talking about this second picture of light and he said, "When your light shines and the way your light shines is how you do good for other people, what happens?" God gets the credit. God gets the credit. He talks about this in 2nd, 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 12. He says, "This lives such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits us." Same thing, when we do good, God gets the credit. And Jesus says that if you are a follower of mine, you are a light. Now everybody bring your flashlights, you got your flashlights, pull your flashlights out. If you don't pull your phones out, if you got a light on your phone, pull your phones out. Everybody got one, pull those out, turn your lights on. If you guys, if you didn't get a light, Ushers, do you have some of those candles, they'll pass one out to you? So when you everybody turn your light on, all right, turn your light on. It looks like we got a dark spot back in the room there. So we got to get some more lights back in the back side of the room there. So they'll pass some of those out. These little candles, they're turned out to you, just kind of turn the top and the light will come on. And as you can see, as more and more of these are passed out and everybody turns on their light, all of a sudden the room is not as dark as it was at one point in time. It's not as dark. And when the lights on, you can shine it down and you can find your way. Friday night I was waiting for Daniel after the football game and I was not paying attention. I was waiting at the high school and I turned the car off, but I didn't turn my key all the way off and I sat there for half an hour. So you know what happened in the rain. My battery was dead. And as I popped the hood up and got someone to come over, I was trying to figure out how to turn my flashlight because I couldn't see to get the battery cables. And if you mix up the battery cables when you're jumping the car, that's really not a good thing. And so the light was there to help me figure out what I needed to do so that I could solve the problem that I was faced with. And Jesus again reminds us, he says, "Not you're going to become the light." He says, "You are. You are." And the question is, what are you doing with the light that you are? What are you doing with the light that you are? Now in a room like this, when we all have our lights on, it makes a difference and everybody can see. You can see. Now I want everybody to cover up their light, cover up your light. See how dark the room got? Just like that. Now pull your light out. All of a sudden we can see light all over this entire room. And I want you to keep this image locked in your mind because this image is the picture of what Jesus says we're supposed to be. Now just like you can gag on salt, what happens if someone shines the light? Go ahead, shine the light in my eyes, Johnny. I saw you doing it earlier. So thank you. What happens if someone shines the light right in your eyes? What do you do? You put your hand up, right? And you're like, "No, that's too bright." Or you put your hand up because the light is too bright and it's too much in your eyes. And so the light is not designed to be shined in someone's eyes, but to show them the way. And Jesus says sometimes you show them the way with your actions. And sometimes you show them the way with your words. But just like too much salt, too much light can turn people away. Now in a room like this, if we've all got these lights on, if one person turns their light on, it's not going to make a big difference, is it? Because we've got light in this room. But I want everybody to cover up your light, cover up your light. All right now, Johnny, uncover yours. One light makes a big difference in a dark room, doesn't it? Makes a big difference. And part of what you and I have to look at as we wrestle with our lights is we have to ask ourselves, "Is my light hidden or is my light visible? Is my light hidden or is my light visible?" Because that's what Jesus says we should do with being lights. Your light can either be hidden or your light can be visible. All right, let's go ahead and bring up the lights and you can turn your lights off there. The truth is, I think we all know that our words and our actions speak. Our words and our actions speak. And again, sometimes we're not really sure what this means. And we've had confusing messages in the past about these kinds of things. Some people have suggested that to be in the light of the world, that means that whenever you talk to anybody that you cross paths with, you need to be sharing the gospel of Jesus with them. And there are some people that do that and they're very gifted at doing that. But that's not the message that I believe that Jesus has for us here. He says, "You are a light." The question is what kind of light are you? What kind of light are you? Do people when they encounter you, that they find someone that is generally grumpy, is generally distant, is generally rude, is generally impolite? Is that what they encounter? When they meet you, do they find someone that is warm, that's courteous, that's engaging, that's polite, that's a pleasure to be around? You see, we can just ask very basic questions about this, that sometimes are just related to common courtesy. And people aren't quite sure to know, people aren't quite sure what to do with that at times. I was in the grocery store the other day and I was checking out and I was actually at weavers buying some potato chips, I think is what I was doing. And I went through the line and there was the girl waiting on me and she had a bunch of bandages on her arm. And I simply said to, "Oh, did you have an accident or something?" And she said, "No, I was bitten by a spider and I've taken some antibiotics and I've got it covered up and I'm just trying not to itch while I'm working." And so I just said to her, I said, "Well, I'm glad it wasn't anything more serious and I hope that something that heals very quickly and I thanked her for serving me." Now, I could have just as easily swiped my card and said, "Thank you, have a nice day," and walked away. Now, I need to tell you, I don't have a conversation with every cashier that I go through. That's not me, some people are like that, you know, it's not necessarily me. But I happened to notice something and I was drawn to that and I simply asked her about it and I showed a little bit of concern for what was going on in her life. And maybe, just maybe, in that moment of time, I was able to be a little bit of a light and my light wasn't hidden. You say, "Well, what did you show? How was your light?" And I just simply cared about the person that was waiting on me. That's all I did. That's all I did. I was talking with P.V. Joseph, a missionary we support from India is here for the year and he was telling me a story. Recently, he said he and his wife had stopped at a McDonald's and there was a young man waiting on them and he was probably 18 or 19 years old and had a couple of different piercings and quite a few tattoos and so he came up once and the guy served and came up again, came up a third time because his wife kept wanting more and more different things and they were enjoying for dinner. And after the third trip, he said to the guy, he said, "Wow, you're really taking all my money here and I'm, you know, and the guy kind of chuckled at it." And he said, "You must be a good employee because you're serving us very, very well." And the guy was kind of taken back that this person even engaged him in a conversation other than just to take his money from him. And P.V. proceeded to talk to him and ask him how old he was and what he was doing and was he going to school or anything and he was kind of trying to decide what he's going to do about his life. And he said, "Well, that's P.V. he's a missionary. That's what he's supposed to do. That's what they're supposed to get paid to do that kind of stuff." But, but the truth is, if you know him, he's actually an introvert. He's very comfortable being on a stage talk with people, but he's not really comfortable talking to people one-on-one. You see, Jesus doesn't say if your personality is outgoing and you're a sanguine and you're the life of the party, then you're supposed to be the light of the world. That's not what Jesus says. He says, "You are a light." The question is, is your light hidden or is it visible for other people to see? Which one is it? Is it hidden or is it visible for others to see? And that's the question you have to ask yourself. God is not calling you to be someone you are not. We have some individuals here that there's not a stranger they've never met and they know everybody. That may not be you. God is not calling you to be like that person. He's calling you and he's saying, "Do you recognize that God loves you so much and he wants you to show that love for him and how amazing he is simply by loving and caring for the people in the world that he's placed you in whatever that world looks like. If that's a high school classroom or a college classroom, do you care about the people in that room? If it's a factory floor, do you care about the people on that floor? If it's an office, do you care about the people in that office? If it's a neighborhood, do you care about the people on that street in that neighborhood? You simply care about them and if you care about them and you have a growing love for other people because of God's amazing love for you, then you're going to be a more effective light and you're going to be a more effective salt. You say, "But John, I'm not around people who need Jesus. And if I turn my light on, the room is lit and nobody sees my light, then maybe for you the question needs to be your prayer maybe needs to be God. What do I need to do? Where do I need to engage so my light can be seen? Because if the room is all lit, your light is what? Is it visible or is it hidden? It's practically hidden because it's not really needed in that room. So what about it, students? What kind of salt are you? Are you useful? Are you useless? What are you doing with your light? Is it hidden or is it visible? On the sports field, no matter how your team does, in the classroom, in the hallways, your job? How about you adults? A lot of us have come from backgrounds where this whole idea of salt and light has been kind of hammered on us but in harsh and very unkind and unloving ways. How effective is your salt? Maybe there's some situations in your world where you know there's some things going on that are just not right but you're afraid to speak up because it could cost you your job and so your salt gets mixed with a lot of other things and it's not very effective or maybe it's a family gathering and you've tried to be a testimony in that family gathering and so you've shared your faith, you talked with others and all they know is you're just the Jesus crazy person, that's all they know about you and there's probably some good things about that but maybe you've done it in a very abrasive way and you want to talk to them about Jesus but you don't really care about the struggles that are going on in their lives and they get a very mixed message that you care about their soul but not about their life and Jesus cares about both. What about when you're hanging out with old friends, high school college friends and what's your salt and your light look like in that environment in that arena? What's it look like? As I close this morning I want to just invite you to bow your heads just give you a couple minutes to talk to God and maybe your salt and light is not where you would like it to be. Maybe you're not someone that adds flavor maybe all you do is weigh other people down with your struggles and you don't care about theirs. And if you've hidden because you don't want to be you want to stand out maybe you just need to say God I've I've been ashamed what you love and what you treasure. I don't want that to be true of me. Maybe just need to confess that your light's been hidden because you're scared and you're afraid or maybe nobody can see your light because it's light everywhere you are and you have to say Jesus where is a dark place that you want my light to shine in? If I had this message about salt and light is not a very complicated one to hear about but challenging one to live. And it's not a tough techniques or skills or having the right words that's not what Jesus is talking about. You're just saying do a little self-assessment because this is your mission if you're a follower of mine. I saw are you useful or useless? I don't think any of us want to be useless God. I may not know how to be useful and is our light hidden or is it visible in the world that we live in each one of us and that's different maybe we just need to say God how do I make my light more visible? How do I love and care for people like Jesus did? God we just ask for your help to live in these ways and you've not instructed us to do this as a as a guilt inducing you should be because you aren't but it should flow out of the fact that just like the people Jesus was talking about who were blessed and their lives were transformed they couldn't help but do this and Jesus was saying when you do this this is what will happen God gets all the amazing credit for it and what if that's not true in our lives maybe we need to take a step back and really examine and say God what's not really true in my life and what's not really happening in my life that's allowing me to be effective light and effective salt because that's really what I want to be happening or I want to be true God we just ask for your help to do this because we can't do these things on our own we need you in your name you know as I close this morning I want to just invite you to think about this what would it be like if men and women and students stood up for the same things that Jesus stands up for valuing children protecting women caring for the poor walking with the brokenhearted and in doing so pointing other people to Jesus and what would it be like if our lights shine so brightly so that each one of our homes and our places of occupation and everywhere we were was a beacon of light in this region because of the way we loved and cared for and pointed people to Jesus I think that's what he wants us to do