As the glow sticks in our hands remained uncracked, the promise of light lingered – a powerful metaphor for the spiritual illumination we're called to in the world. Inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, we embarked on a journey through personal anecdotes, the wisdom of Jesus, and the practical outworking of faith in our daily lives. From the heady intellectual understanding to the heartfelt emotional connection, right down to the hands-on application, we shared stories and insights about becoming the salt of the earth and the light of the world. No matter the chaos of life's distractions or the pull of responsibilities, we urged each other to cling to Christ and let our faith shine.
As the year winds to a close, we face a crossroads of spiritual renewal and response to God's call. The water's ripple in a bowl served as a stark reminder of our potential impact, inviting us to embody our faith and make tangible changes in our lives. Whether it's a reaffirmation of commitment, seeking a church home, or understanding Jesus for the first time, the call is clear. Join us in prayer as we seek guidance and dedication for the year ahead, prepared to respond boldly to the divine call echoing in our hearts.
As the glow sticks in our hands remained uncracked, the promise of light lingered – a powerful metaphor for the spiritual illumination we're called to in the world. Inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, we embarked on a journey through personal anecdotes, the wisdom of Jesus, and the practical outworking of faith in our daily lives. From the heady intellectual understanding to the heartfelt emotional connection, right down to the hands-on application, we shared stories and insights about becoming the salt of the earth and the light of the world. No matter the chaos of life's distractions or the pull of responsibilities, we urged each other to cling to Christ and let our faith shine.
As the year winds to a close, we face a crossroads of spiritual renewal and response to God's call. The water's ripple in a bowl served as a stark reminder of our potential impact, inviting us to embody our faith and make tangible changes in our lives. Whether it's a reaffirmation of commitment, seeking a church home, or understanding Jesus for the first time, the call is clear. Join us in prayer as we seek guidance and dedication for the year ahead, prepared to respond boldly to the divine call echoing in our hearts.
Hi and welcome to the FBC Eldorado Sermon Podcast. We hope God will use this week's message to both inspire and challenge you as you seek to walk closer with the Lord. Now join me as we listen into this week's sermon. Well, I didn't say it before, but happy New Year. Isn't it crazy how fast this year's flown by. Let me ask does anybody have a New Year's resolution? Okay, is anyone thinking about having a New Year's resolution? Anybody? No, if you're thinking about, hey, tomorrow, if you didn't know, is January 1st. So if you're thinking about it, now's the time because you are out of time in like 14 hours. So if you're thinking about it, commit to it. And if you're not thinking about it, but you've meant to think about it, you're thinking about thinking about it not to throw you under the bus, but you're out of time. Okay, new Year's resolutions are good. Yeah, we set goals to lose weight or get fit or be more plugged in, to do a lot of different things. Let me offer you this morning one more resolution, one more thing to put on your list. I promise you that you won't regret putting this on. So this morning we're going to do something a little different. It'll make sense as we continue through the service. If you want to follow along in your own Bible, we'll be in Matthew, chapter five, this morning.
Speaker 1:While you're turning there, there are some things that are going to be passed out to you, and I don't have one. Can someone bring me a glow stick? Hey, listen, don't crack these, please. Thank you so much. I forgot. Hey, you're going to get a glow stick from somewhere. You all can go ahead and start passing them out. Don't be shy, all right? Hey, listen, I'm telling you now. If you crack these now, it's going to lose its effect in a few minutes. So if you've got your kids in the room I hope you do If they're not across the street, tell them. They get one too, but tell them not to crack these. I'd only bought a few, okay, so don't crack them. If you do, I'll tell you shame on you, but that'll be about it. So please don't.
Speaker 1:And while you're getting those, let me kind of give you some context. A few months ago, we went through across the street a series called Head, heart and Hands, and what that is? Just three simple illustrations of some ways that we can put our faith into practical use. Our heart, or our head, is where we started. It's the knowledge that we have of Scripture, the knowledge that we have of Christ, just our basics of our faith. Moving on to our heart, we look at how we apply our faith to our own lives, things that we can change, things that we set goals for, things that God calls us to do or doesn't call us to do, that maybe we should move towards or move away from. And finally, our hands Our hands is just a very practical thing. What do we do with what God has given us? Does anyone still need a glow stick? Raise your hand. Are there still views still over here? I think there are plenty. Let's see. Anybody else still need one? Cool, so yeah, our hands are just our practical things of what we do with our faith, things that we do with Scripture. How do we get plugged in in order to tell other people about Jesus?
Speaker 1:In Matthew, chapter five, we find the Sermon on the Mount, maybe Jesus' most famous sermon, and illustrations that he has given to us to date, and some things that are really practical that he follows the Beatitudes with, looking actually in verse 13,. Sorry, I told you verse 14, but I'm going to back it up just a little bit to throw some context in there. Jesus says this you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. So I don't know the context of salty that you all have. My terminology is not great, as I'm told by some students, so salty has not always had a great concept.
Speaker 1:I remember back when I was in college, we would go to our student pastor's house and play a card game called Spades. I know that's Spades. Okay, we'll play sometime. It's a lot of fun. However, our youth pastor was really really, really good at spades, and so what he would do is he would bring a salt shaker to the table with him. You see where this is going. He'd set it right here in front of us and so we'd start playing and he and his partner somehow I think they cheated, because his partner was normally my sister. Anyway, I think they cheated, but anytime they would start winning, he would just take that salt shaker and he would slide it to one of the losing teams. Essentially, what he's saying is you're salty because I'm beating you. That's not always what we want to be known as is salty, angry people who can't play a card game and get really upset about it.
Speaker 1:However, jesus has a different context here. What he says is salt is a good thing. Being salty in this context is good, because what it is is. We are preservatives of the world. What he's done is he has set this way of life, this standard about it, to us, and what we're to do is to go and tell other people about that standard that he set, about scripture, about who he is, what he came to do and what he does for us. So what he says is if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet, and that's where we have the scripture that we're going to dive into this morning.
Speaker 1:Starting in verse 14, jesus says this you are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lamp stand, and it gives light for all who are in the house In the same way. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. So in verse 14, jesus starts off by saying this you are the light of the world. We just got done celebrating Christmas. Some of you are way ahead of the game and already have all your lights taken down. Some of us got our lights put up a week before Christmas by some students that came over for a cookie swap and I refuse to take them down until next week, maybe because they just got put up.
Speaker 1:But what we are reminded of during Christmas time, the reason we have lights and big shining things is so that we can remember that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus came down to earth and we are told that he is the light that comes to save us, to die for us, to raise again, for us, so that we have eternal life with Him. But Jesus says something kind of profound and maybe really important to your life. Instead of saying I am the light of the world, as he does in a couple of other scriptures that we will mention shortly, he says that you are the light of the world. And so, out of the three verses that we are going to really dive into, this may be the most important thing that he tells us.
Speaker 1:First of all, there is a theme that comes with light. Light is used a lot throughout scripture as a separation, so a practical one. Light is the opposite of darkness. Light also is the separation of good and evil, of God and Satan and, importantly, believers and unbelievers. The other reason that this phrase is important is because, again, we have heard it before. In John 8.12 and John 9.5,. Jesus tells us that he is the light of the world. Jesus' mission while he was on earth was to come and be a light, to show people who God is, to save His people, to restore a world that was broken and filled with darkness. He is the separator of good and evil.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells us to follow the words here, though in the same way that now they are the light. Because they have encountered the light of who Jesus is, his disciples are now the light of the world. Theologian Michael J Wilkins puts it this way. He says the light of revelation from God that accompanies Jesus' announcement of the kingdom is not just carried by his disciples, but instead they are the light of the world. A lot of words in there, so let me read it again the light of revelation from God that accompanies Jesus' announcement of the kingdom is not just carried by his disciples, but instead they are the light of the world. Jesus' disciples are called to be the light. They can't be hidden. For their very nature, the kingdom life within them is living testimony to those in the world who do not yet have life. Our testimony, by our nature, of being Christians, is to show other people a light that they have not encountered yet. Our mission is not just to tell other people about the light or Jesus, but instead to be the light and be like Jesus.
Speaker 1:So here is what we're gonna do, moving into verse 15, the moment that you've all been waiting for. Can you turn the lights off? And here's what I want you to do All at once, we're gonna take our glow sticks and, by the way, I forgot about the giant windows in here, so sorry, it doesn't have the same effect as it does across the street. Just pretend, okay. And on three we're gonna crack them together and it's gonna be the most incredible. Some of y'all can't wait until three. All right, here we go ready. One, two, three. You know, act like they're silent. You can crack them and you can shake them up a little bit. I'm gonna go six works. Mine is not glowing. I'll hold this in so you can see it Everybody. Hold them up, wave them around. Okay, look around, that's not bad, everybody can kind of see it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So listen, the purpose of light is to be a light, to give some kind of definition to people around us. And now here's what I want you to do, as some of you are still trying to get yours to glow. They were cheap at Walmart, sorry. So here's what I want you to do. Okay, what I want you to do quickly is hide your light, okay, put it somewhere that nobody your neighbors can't see it. Keep the lights off for just a second.
Speaker 1:So what we're doing right now is we're extinguishing our light. Okay, so maybe we can see our own light, but the people around us are unable to see our light. Again, pretend that it's completely black in here, but we're not called to do that. Like that's not the purpose of our lights. We're not supposed to crack a glow stick and then go and throw it in the trash or to hide it somewhere, because it defeats the purpose of what this is. In the same way, jesus says you don't light a lamp and then put it under a basket, because that's not the purpose of the lamp. In the same way, with our lights in Christ, our purpose is not to hide, it is not to shy away from it. To be bold and to show other people around us, you can bring the lights back up. So when we enter into a relationship with Jesus, we become Christians. We're no longer in the dark, we're no longer hidden away from God's purpose, but instead we are a light. We're revealed in God's purpose and we're filled with the Holy Spirit. God makes us a light to those around us, but it's also up to carry out that purpose. If we're Christians and we choose not to tell others about Christ and we choose to cover up that light that Christ puts in our life, we're defeating God's intentions for us. We're defeating the purpose that God has set in front of us.
Speaker 1:If you remember as we're reading, or as we read, like the Easter story leading up to Easter, leading up in Holy Week, we hear about a fig tree. We read about it. Does anyone remember the fig tree that we read about? Does anyone remember if it was producing fruit or not? For those of you that may remember or may not, it was not producing fruit. Jesus and his disciples were on the road and there's this fig tree and Jesus is hungry and what happens is, instead, he sees this tree that's not producing fruit and he curses this tree and his disciples are confused. They said, well, hold on like, aren't you hungry? And he said, yeah, I'm hungry, but this tree's not living up to its purpose. This tree's not doing what it's intended to do. When Christ fills something, when Christ fills up, what we are is we are full of life, we're life giving, we're light bearing. Just as the fig tree is supposed to bear figs, to bear fruit, we are to bear Christ's light. However, just as quickly as it is for me to do this and hide my light from all of you, our spiritual light, our lives, are really kind of easy to shy away from.
Speaker 1:We tend to get pretty distracted as people, right? So, just for context, in our own life we have two kids and we are currently dog sitting. So now we have two large dogs in our house that are constantly playing and fighting, and really they should probably be outside, but our dog will jump the fence and then go sit on our front porch to try to let her back in the house, and so we're not. Anyway, we have a lot going on. We have a two-and-a-half year old that's learning phrases like no, or when you call her to come into a room or leave what she's doing to come and like eat or whatever, she will say not right now, sorry, I'm busy, which she's like she's cooking in her little play kitchen. She's like I'm making eggs and we're like no, you're not. And anyway it's busy. And I didn't mention we have a three-month-old and so like she's needy too, and that's not her fault, but she's needy. Like our lives are constantly being pulled in every which direction, and we're parents of people less than three, so I know that like you don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it's busy, our lives are busy. It's hard to stay on track a lot of the time. But along with distractions, sometimes we let a sin, a new one or an old one, creep back into our life. That stops what we're doing, that stops our focus on Christ. Sometimes we reprioritize our list to have like a me over him mentality. Or sometimes we say, you know, we will put it off later and you know what I'm talking about. It's the well, I'll get to my spiritual life at some point. Or, you know, just in the nick of time, I'll get right with God when I'm about to go through a hard season in life and that way, like God, will be with me through this season of life. But we are not called to live that way. Instead, we're called to live as lights, as God being the first priority on our list, and sometimes that's hard, but we are called to a higher standard.
Speaker 1:Does anyone know what happens to our muscles? This is kind of another illustration, like if you don't work out for so long, do you know what happens to your muscles? I'm sorry you all are gonna talk louder than that. You lose them. Yeah, I mean they go away, they diminish. I mean, look at this, you know, but listen, sorry, listen.
Speaker 1:In the same way, when we don't use our spiritual life, we're not practicing, we're not in scripture constantly, when we're not talking kindly to others, when we are not focused in what it is that God calls us to do, we tend to get a little lazy with our faith, and that's a bad thing. Instead of living in that way, we have to re-provert us. We have to figure out what God wants us to do, what God calls us to do, say okay, that, and then everything else and it can't be close. So how do we wrap all this up?
Speaker 1:Jesus has said a lot and it's really practical stuff. You know you're a light, don't hide your light. But Jesus goes a step further in verse 16, and he says this just as a reminder. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. So what we do is we take the things that Jesus said in verses 14 and 15 and we just do it, we just act it out. We apply that as part of our life. We live like lights that Christ calls us to.
Speaker 1:I don't really know how Jesus could put it into simpler terms. He just says that we're called to be lights of the world, to be people who leave a little bit of Jesus everywhere we go. Do you remember what James says, that our faith leads to, leads to works? Now we talk about this across the street and, just to remind you all, faith or our works are not the things that save us. However, our works are a direct production from our faith. When we live boldly through Christ, when we carry out our faith in Christ, people see us by our love, which a lot of the time comes through our works, and that's important, because your works are the things that you do every single day. That means that when people see you, just as they saw the disciples they can identify you and say hey, you are a follower of Christ. You have something that is super important. You have a light that can't be put out. That's important for us to remember as we go along our faith journey. So here's kind of what I want to say is no matter where we are, the things we say, the things we do, the way we treat other people, everything should reflect the light that Jesus has put within us. If you want to follow along I forgot to put this in but if you want to follow along, we're going to jump over to Matthew 28. And I'm going to show you one more illustration as well.
Speaker 1:But in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, we have what's known as the Great Commission, something that Jesus gives us to go and carry out what it is that he's called to do. In earlier chapters it says this in verse 18, jesus came near to them and said all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you and remember, I'm with you always, to the end of the age. Is it going to scream if I go this way? So which way? This way, oh, I'm not going to face the speaker, I'll just watch y'all. Hey look. So in here is a bowl of water. I'm going to do this super carefully. Okay, it makes y'all nervous, doesn't it? Hey listen.
Speaker 1:So here is kind of what Jesus tells us, and I learned this at a children's camp several years ago, at a little place called Bog Springs, and it's super practical to today. And if kids can understand it, adults can understand it as well. And if kids can carry it out, adults can carry it out in your everyday life as well. You hear that kids in the room, y'all are super important to what it is that God calls you to do. But we are a lot like this sponge.
Speaker 1:So if I take this sponge and I rub it right here, it's not doing anything. In fact, what it's probably doing is it's picking up a lot of the dirt that's on here and it's sticking right here to the sponge. We're knocking it all over the place, but God calls us to be something different. God calls us to be the sponge, but not a dry sponge, one that is submerged in His Word. Okay, and so what happens now? And I haven't been here long enough to fling water at you, so I won't but what God calls us to do is to absorb everything that he has called us to do, everything he's taught us, everything that he shows us everywhere we go. What we're supposed to do is we're supposed to be like this sponge and everything we touch I'm not going to get all this wet, but everything we touch we're supposed to leave just as the sponge leaves water a little bit of Jesus everywhere we go. That goes a long way. If we can just commit to leaving just a little bit of Jesus where we go, we can make a huge impact for the kingdom. And so here's what I want to do as we move into our invitation this morning.
Speaker 1:It has two different parts. Our first invitation is kind of what we talked about at the beginning our New Year's resolution. Some of us need to make resolutions to be brighter lights, or to be consistent lights, or to be light to people who are familiar. In other words, spouses, be a light to one another in this upcoming year. Life is hard. Your spouse needs you, and what that means is talk kinder to them. What that means is love them more. What that means is show your spouse that Christ loves them and they are valued by Christ.
Speaker 1:Parents, be a light to your kids. Again, we've only been parents for two and a half years. I can't imagine sorry teenagers, what it is that some of y'all have to deal with on an everyday basis. But your kids need you. Just in the short time that I've been here in Union County, union County needs you. Parents, be light to your kids and show them that everything you do brings glory to Christ and that they are valued by Christ. And here's one that's hard Be friends to your enemies. That one stinks because your enemies have nothing good for you but you have something good for them. Be a light to your enemies. Be a friend to the person who despises you. Be that light. Show them that they are valued by Christ.
Speaker 1:Here's the second part of our invitation as I start to close. For a lot of you maybe in this room you don't know quite the light that I talked about this morning. Here's the thing about light or being someone who lives in a Christian faith. You can't share a light. If you don't have a light Like, you're not able to go and tell other people about Jesus if you don't have Jesus yourself, it falls on deaf ears and you become, I guess, a hypocrite is the right word for it. If you don't have that light, if you don't know who Jesus is, there's no more perfect place and time than right now to know who Jesus is.
Speaker 1:So the worship team is coming back up and they're gonna leave us in a song of invitation, and what I want you to do is, during this invitation, maybe you have to make more commitments for 2024. Maybe you have some things that you say okay, god, what is it that I can do better in order to be a brighter light for you? For some of you, if you don't know who Jesus is, I'll be here at the front and I'd love to talk to you about who Jesus is. Whatever it is that God is calling you to do, I pray that you respond. Maybe it's time to find a church home that you've been putting off. This is a great place to call your church family. Whatever it is, I pray that you accept God's call and act boldly in that response.
Speaker 1:So let me pray for you real quick. God, we love you and we praise you. We just thank you for this time of worship. As we close out the year, god, as we move into a new year, we pray that we can be lights to our community, to our families, to our friends, to our enemies. God, we just pray that, as 2023 closes out, that we don't look at the things that we have failed on, but we look at the things that you've done and the ways that you have impacted those failures and how you have helped us grow. God, we just pray for this time of invitation that whatever responses need to be made, they're made. God, we pray for 2024. As we reel in the new year tonight, god, just let us be committed to you for this coming year. God, we love you and praise you. In your name, we pray amen.