Speaker 1: Thank you, sawyer, y'all give him a hand.
Speaker 1: Yes, sawyer, All right, all right.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: It's so good to be back with you.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time that I really started to commit to my walk with Jesus I was in middle school and I went to summer camp at Highland Lakes.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever been to Highland Lakes before?
Speaker 1: Really Nobody.
Speaker 1: Even pre-teen camp, we got a few.
Speaker 1: So Highland Lakes isn't far.
Speaker 1: It's like in the Austin area which you guys are like okay, cool, but I thought it was the most magical place on earth, because I grew up in Dallas, where trees and hills don't exist, and so to go somewhere that had lots of each of those, I thought it was magical.
Speaker 1: And we were there and we had fun.
Speaker 1: The real impact came, as usual, right One of the last nights, the speaker at this point I can't remember if it was a guy named Shane or a guy named Brian, but I'm getting the years mixed up just shared the gospel in the most clear way that I've probably ever heard, and he actually had this moment where he would say like hey, if you're struggling with this sin, just go ahead and stand up.
Speaker 1: And so it was this powerful moment of confession, and it was raw, it was scary, but it was powerful and I'll remember that moment.
Speaker 1: And then, in good youth camp fashion, of course that night we had cry night, and so everybody was like ugly crying by the end of the night, like didn't even know what you're crying about, snot running all over the place.
Speaker 1: And then, of course, you have share night, so everybody shares and by the end we're like singing kumbaya, just oh, everything's amazing.
Speaker 1: And then the next day you get up and in the morning session you know how that speaker if you've been to camp before he like fires you up.
Speaker 1: He's like now we're going to go back home and we're going to tell everybody about Jesus, like your whole middle school is getting saved brother, like we're charging hell with water pistols, like we're making this thing happen, and like you're ready to go.
Speaker 1: And then you get on the bus and then you go home and you go back to the real world and you realize, hey, not everybody just shared that same week that I did right.
Speaker 1: I remember probably that first year where I come home and I sit down at the lunch table.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, guys, like y'all want to hear about Jesus and like crickets, like nothing, nobody wanted anything to do with it and I realized really quickly that this whole like taking Jesus seriously and following him in the world is not easy.
Speaker 1: It was going to be a little bit harder than I thought.
Speaker 1: So why am I telling you this story?
Speaker 1: Well, because we are in our sermon on the Sermon on the Mount series and we've been walking through this for one week now.
Speaker 1: This is our second week, and last week we wrapped up what we called the Beatitudes, and the Beatitudes were basically these upside-down values of God's kingdom saying hey, if you're following me, you value things differently than the world does.
Speaker 1: And Jesus ended that section where he says hey, if you accept these values, if you live this way, you're going to face trouble in this world.
Speaker 1: People are going to persecute you, people are going to ridicule you, people are going to leave you out of things, but that's okay because that's exactly what they did to me and all the prophets before you.
Speaker 1: And so many of you guys have felt that You've gone into your schools, some of you go home after camp, after D-NOW, and you don't have another believer in your family.
Speaker 1: You're the only person who follows Jesus in your family and whenever you get fired up and you're excited about your walk with the Lord.
Speaker 1: It's like one of the most soul-crushing things, because you come back home to people who couldn't care less, or you go to a school full of people who not only couldn't care less but think you're kind of weird for believing what you believe.
Speaker 1: And the reality is there's really two responses we typically have to that.
Speaker 1: One is to just conform, to fit in.
Speaker 1: You know, I had this great week, but it's a lot easier for me to just do what everybody else does.
Speaker 1: So they leave me alone or they accept me, and so I'm just going to do that or withdraw, right, I'm going to find my one other Christian friend.
Speaker 1: We're going to stay in this kind of holy huddle and we're going to do our thing.
Speaker 1: And the problem is, neither one of those are what God calls us to, because what we're going to see in this next passage tonight, what Sawyer just read Matthew 5, 13 through 16, jesus actually calls us to a third way of living, one that kind of talks about both of those and how we can keep from falling into either one of those issues.
Speaker 1: And that's really just this point of how should we live in this world as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so if you'll read one more time with me, I'm going to read verse 13 and we're going to walk through it.
Speaker 1: You are the salt of the earth, but if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
Speaker 1: It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Speaker 1: How many of you have heard this verse before?
Speaker 1: You're the salt of the earth.
Speaker 1: Few of you.
Speaker 1: Some of you haven't.
Speaker 1: That's totally fine, right?
Speaker 1: One of the most confusing things about this passage is Jesus.
Speaker 1: What in the world do you mean by salt Like?
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: You've probably heard it preached a few different ways, but the thing about salt is it was a way bigger deal in Jesus's day than it is now.
Speaker 1: In fact, it had a whole bunch of different uses.
Speaker 1: One back in the day, oddly enough, it was added to sacrifices and this was to please God, because God loved the aroma and the flavor that it added to it.
Speaker 1: There was another way that it would purify things.
Speaker 1: Elisha purified water in a miracle by using salt.
Speaker 1: They would actually rub salt on infants we use like saline rinse, because it's sterile.
Speaker 1: So salt had these purifying qualities.
Speaker 1: It also was a condiment for food.
Speaker 1: This is the one we know right Like.
Speaker 1: Personally, I like so much salt on my popcorn that I can actively feel my arteries clogging, like that is my necessity to be able to eat that.
Speaker 1: Like the places that have the salt shaker where you can put it on yourself, fantastic.
Speaker 1: And then there's another one where it's a preservative.
Speaker 1: So, and then there's another one where it's a preservative.
Speaker 1: So, before refrigerators, how in the world would you keep food for long periods of time?
Speaker 1: Well, they would actually salt that food, and we still see this with, like jerky or salted meats.
Speaker 1: And so it was huge for being able to keep food for longer periods of time so you wouldn't have to go out and hunt every single day.
Speaker 1: It was also used as a sign of loyalty In Ezra, sharing salt.
Speaker 1: Was this sign of kind of almost like a covenant or entering into an agreement?
Speaker 1: In Mark 9, 50, jesus uses salt to symbolize peace.
Speaker 1: Right, he says have salt among yourselves and be at peace.
Speaker 1: And it can also signify wisdom We've talked about, or you might have heard the saying of like hey, that guy has some salt to him.
Speaker 1: It's an older saying, but the idea is like the seasoning, this wisdom that comes with experience.
Speaker 1: And so the question is well, what in the world is Jesus talking about?
Speaker 1: Is he saying that we preserve the land?
Speaker 1: Is he saying that we purify the land, that we're the wisdom of the world, like?
Speaker 1: What is he saying here?
Speaker 1: Well, I think the answer is actually yes.
Speaker 1: I think Jesus probably has all of those meanings in mind when he's teaching this, because, ultimately, the fact that salt had so many different uses made it essential, and we have lots of different writings that are even outside the Bible that speaks to this.
Speaker 1: There's a book in the Apocrypha called Sirach, and it's kind of like Proverbs, but different.
Speaker 1: Obviously we don't think it's scripture, and it says this.
Speaker 1: It says basic needs for life are water, fire, iron and salt, right.
Speaker 1: So normally, when we think about what you need for life, you're not grouping salt in with that right.
Speaker 1: But they did.
Speaker 1: That's how important it was in that ancient world.
Speaker 1: Or there was a historian who said there's nothing more useful than salt and sunshine, and so I think Jesus had all of these in mind, and what he's saying here is hey, as he's speaking to his followers on the side of this hill, you are essential to the world.
Speaker 1: You are essential to the world.
Speaker 1: The emphasis is on the essentialness here, and I also think that the back part of this verse is where Jesus actually has some application and he presses us.
Speaker 1: So track with me here.
Speaker 1: Here's the point.
Speaker 1: He says that if salt loses its saltiness, then it's useless, and that word is actually translated like foolish, like it's pointless.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous is what he's saying.
Speaker 1: It's good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled on, which, at one level, sounds kind of ridiculous, right, because if salt is no longer salty, then it's not really salt.
Speaker 1: But the point here is that what makes salt useful is the fact that it's different, it's distinct, and if it loses the thing that makes it distinct, then it loses its usefulness.
Speaker 1: It's helpful because it's different, and if it loses the thing that makes it distinct, then it loses its usefulness.
Speaker 1: It's helpful because it's different.
Speaker 1: Do you see where I'm going with this?
Speaker 1: What makes Jesus's followers, if you hear, say that, hey, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian.
Speaker 1: What makes you essential in this world is that we should be different from everybody else.
Speaker 1: Last night I actually went to the Bernie and Champion soccer game which, side note, I used to think that, like football, parents were crazy, and then I went to a soccer game and I realized soccer parents are unhinged Like there's no crowd noise at a soccer game.
Speaker 1: So when they yell at a referee, like they hear every single word, and it's not just like the big calls, it's like the most minor thing ever and like homeboys, like calling down curses on this person's family line within earshot, like it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That aside, the other thing I've learned about soccer is that the weather is always terrible, it is always cold, it is always freezing.
Speaker 1: I have never been to a sunny soccer game in my life, I don't think those exist.
Speaker 1: And so I'm sitting there, I'm freezing right for Connor.
Speaker 1: I did it for Connor because I love him, and the one thing I really really wanted in that moment was some sort of hot chocolate.
Speaker 1: And, of course, the concession stands were closed.
Speaker 1: And it's not because I just love high school concession stand hot chocolate it's basically brown water, right.
Speaker 1: But the reason that I wanted that in that moment is because my environment was cold and I needed something hot.
Speaker 1: What made that hot chocolate useful was not necessarily its taste or because I love it, but it's because it was different from the environment around it.
Speaker 1: Right, if I was in the cold and I had cold chocolate.
Speaker 1: That would be useless, right, it'd be gross.
Speaker 1: Now, if I'm in the hot, cold chocolate, milk sounds good.
Speaker 1: But do you see the point I'm making here?
Speaker 1: Its difference, its distinctiveness, is what made it essential, because it was different than everything else.
Speaker 1: That hot, hot, hot chocolate is what was helpful in that cold stadium.
Speaker 1: And in the same way, as Christians, we're valuable to the world around us when we stand out as different, right.
Speaker 1: We add no value when we look like everyone else.
Speaker 1: The world has plenty of itself and it's not working right.
Speaker 1: You turn on the news, you turn on social media and you see that.
Speaker 1: And you've got to get that truth into your heart, because it's so tempting to just want to fit in, to toe the line, the status quo, because you get rewarded for it People like you, they pat you on the back, but it doesn't help anybody around you.
Speaker 1: And it's hard because being different brings resistance.
Speaker 1: Jesus said that.
Speaker 1: But you have to listen to his warning.
Speaker 1: He says hey, if you lose your saltiness, there's no good.
Speaker 1: Be thrown out, trampled underfoot.
Speaker 1: And I have to say Jesus isn't teaching chemistry and he's not teaching you that you can lose your salvation, but what he's doing is.
Speaker 1: He's using this imagery to really just kind of put his finger on and call out the disciples who've kind of sold out to the world around them I'm going to look like everyone else.
Speaker 1: But in doing that they lost any sort of effectiveness to help anybody.
Speaker 1: They lost their purpose for being here to be different.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you tonight is that you, are you any different from the world around you?
Speaker 1: If you're a Christian, if you say hey, I'm a follower of Jesus, do you look any different from the rest of the world?
Speaker 1: If I were to go in your school, talk to your five closest friends who don't come here and ask hey, you know, is Sawyer a Christian, right?
Speaker 1: What would they say?
Speaker 1: And if not, hear me, I'm not trying to shame you, I'm trying to save you.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to save you from a life wasted on trying to keep up with everybody else.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to save you from just spending your life and spinning your wheels trying to earn the approval of everybody else and look like everybody else, because there's no life in that.
Speaker 1: And this is also a warning against false assurance, which I know is hard right.
Speaker 1: We're not trying to cause anybody fear or doubt, but really Jesus is saying here like man, if you're not salty, why would you think you're salt?
Speaker 1: And so there's this point where you have to sit back and ask yourself, man, does my life reflect what I say, I believe?
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't, that's a big check engine light.
Speaker 1: Like we need to address that, like maybe I'm mistaken, maybe I need to repent, but there's something wrong there, because he says salt is salty, like that's the universal reality there.
Speaker 1: And the thing here is Jesus is calling you to something incredible the opportunity to be different than the broken, dark world around us by standing out and it really comes very practically by saying, hey, I'm going to be different from everyone else.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do what everyone else does.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to have sex before marriage.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cross physical boundaries with my girlfriend or my boyfriend.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to intoxicate myself with vape, pen, nicotine or THC or alcohol or weed.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cuss, gossip or tear other people down with my words.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to treat other people like objects by looking at pornography.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be honest.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cheat on my test.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be different and as you do that, you'll make a difference.
Speaker 1: You'll stand out.
Speaker 1: People will see that.
Speaker 1: They'll wonder why do they do that?
Speaker 1: Why do they not talk like everybody else?
Speaker 1: Why don't they treat women the way other people do?
Speaker 1: Why are they kind to their teacher when everybody else is a jerk?
Speaker 1: Why do they do that?
Speaker 1: And by doing that you'll be the salt of the world.
Speaker 1: But the question is, is this all just about being a moral person, like, live a good life, shame everybody else because they're heathens and they need to turn or burn and you're going to heaven and they should jump on it?
Speaker 1: No, that's not the point here.
Speaker 1: And if I really want to be different, then should I just, like go live in a cave somewhere, like, should I just?
Speaker 1: That's the other thing we talked about.
Speaker 1: The temptation is to just remove yourself from the situation.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't really solve anything either.
Speaker 1: And that's what Jesus kind of touches on with this next metaphor in verse 14.
Speaker 1: You are the light of the world.
Speaker 1: A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Speaker 1: Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Speaker 1: Instead, they put it on its stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
Speaker 1: And so, similar to salt light is this theme all throughout scripture.
Speaker 1: You see it in uh, creation.
Speaker 1: God said let there be light, right, and then you see all of creation following that.
Speaker 1: You see it in exodus they're wandering through the wilderness and there's this pillar of fire that guides them.
Speaker 1: And then israel receives the law and it's considered god's light.
Speaker 1: It's his revelation of reality, like the.
Speaker 1: The law and god's word is him showing you.
Speaker 1: This is truth.
Speaker 1: This is reality.
Speaker 1: This is the truth about the world you live in and who you are and how you should interact with it.
Speaker 1: And this is your guidance and your wisdom for how to live in this life.
Speaker 1: And if you follow it, you will flourish.
Speaker 1: And this isn't health, wealth, prosperity, gospel, I'm not saying life's going to be easy, but he's saying hey, this is the truth and if you walk in this light, you will be blessed.
Speaker 1: Psalm 119, 105 says your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Speaker 1: But in this specific passage, most scholars actually believe that Jesus is referencing a verse from Isaiah, which Jesus actually uses.
Speaker 1: Isaiah a lot.
Speaker 1: If you read something, that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: A lot of times it's actually a quote of an Old Testament Isaiah, chapter 2, verses 1 through 5, it'll be on the screen.
Speaker 1: It says this is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains.
Speaker 1: It will be exalted above the hills and all nations will stream to it.
Speaker 1: You hear the city on a hill imagery there.
Speaker 1: Many peoples will come and say come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob.
Speaker 1: He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.
Speaker 1: The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes.
Speaker 1: For many peoples they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Speaker 1: Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Speaker 1: Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Speaker 1: And so he writes about this image of a temple set on a hill, like, literally, city on a hill.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus is referring to.
Speaker 1: But the function of this temple is that it's this beacon of light and that all the nations around Israel would come to this temple and they would hear the teaching of God which, remember, we said, god's word is light.
Speaker 1: And so they would receive this light here and then they would go out and take that light into the world around them and they would bless the nations.
Speaker 1: And you see this imagery where it says they're going to turn their swords into plows.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Well, you're turning a weapon of war into something that's used to grow food, and food brings about life.
Speaker 1: And so you see this radical change that comes from this light of God being brought in to the world.
Speaker 1: And so that's in Isaiah.
Speaker 1: But then in John 8, jesus calls himself the light of the world.
Speaker 1: And so he's this temple, right.
Speaker 1: People come to see Jesus, they come to meet him, they place their faith in him and they receive this light.
Speaker 1: And then they're called to go and take that light to others.
Speaker 1: And so when Jesus says you're the light of the world, what he's saying is that, as a follower of him, you're supposed to be a reflection of him.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to take his light, his hope, his truth into the world around you.
Speaker 1: So we're not just trying to be good, moral people, we're trying to be Christians, right.
Speaker 1: We're not just trying to tell people that they need to act good.
Speaker 1: They need to say hey, you can't act good on your own right.
Speaker 1: We were so lost and broken that we needed a Savior to come and literally die for us, bear the punishment for our sins so that we could be saved.
Speaker 1: So we share the message of the gospel, right, god loved us so much that he paid the penalty that we earned for our sin.
Speaker 1: And then the word of God is that light as we're saved, we get to take that to people who desperately need it.
Speaker 1: But just like the last verse, that application comes at the end.
Speaker 1: Jesus says a town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Speaker 1: Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Speaker 1: Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Speaker 1: And so the point is light is useless if it doesn't go out.
Speaker 1: You hide the light and it doesn't help anybody.
Speaker 1: And in the same way as the light of the world is a follower of Jesus, you're supposed to go out and be in the world, not be of the world.
Speaker 1: Right, we're salt, we're different, but that doesn't mean we just go build a bunch of monasteries and be monks and whatever.
Speaker 1: The female version of a monk is nuns and live the rest of our days there.
Speaker 1: No, we're called to be in a world that desperately needs us because we have the light, not just sit in a holy huddle at church.
Speaker 1: And I learned this lesson the hard way when I was in student ministry.
Speaker 1: We had a solid group and we were tight and some spiritually mature people and we would hang out, we'd do game nights, but it was usually like the seven to ten same people every single time that we would invite and there were others who wanted to be involved.
Speaker 1: But like you know how it goes, you can't invite everybody and you know it's a small group and this, that and the other and we didn't evangelize a whole lot at school.
Speaker 1: We kind of just kept to ourselves and see what happened was we got comfortable with our church friends and like that was good for us.
Speaker 1: And honestly, most of those people who graduated, like you, look at them now they kind of have their life together families, ministries but I look at some of those people that we didn't invite in and they've made a mess of their lives.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was actually this week was the anniversary of one of my friends that I was playing football with who took his own life.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, on the outside you thought he had everything.
Speaker 1: He was in school doing what he wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I had another friend who before him so I've got two guys that I played football with that I was in contact with every single day.
Speaker 1: I didn't invite in, I didn't bring the light, and I just have this thought of, like man, what if I just tried to have a conversation?
Speaker 1: What if I just tried to pray with him Something?
Speaker 1: And so you see, by getting comfortable in this holy huddle, we took our light and we hid it because it's going to be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: People might judge us, we might have to deal with some people who don't think like us or talk like us, but by doing that we missed so many opportunities to be the light in the world, to bring that healing and hope that God did for us to others, because God's work in our life wasn't meant to stay with us.
Speaker 1: And so let me ask you, believer, who are you inviting in?
Speaker 1: Who are you inviting to church?
Speaker 1: Who are you inviting into the family of God?
Speaker 1: By sharing the gospel that's what sharing the gospel is You're inviting them in.
Speaker 1: Who are you inviting into your community?
Speaker 1: And if you know Jesus, if you follow him, you've received God's light.
Speaker 1: And so go and take that to your team.
Speaker 1: Go, take that to your clubs, to your home, to your job, to anyone who will listen.
Speaker 1: If you believe the reality that if we die separated from God, we'll spend eternity separated from Him in a place called hell that wasn't made for us but we end up in because our sin deserves a punishment, if you believe that, how could you not tell everyone you know that truth, if you believe you have the answer and I know that's difficult, I know it's uncomfortable, but, man, if we really believe it, how could we not?
Speaker 1: And if God has done a work in your life, who are you to take that and hide it from helping others?
Speaker 1: And I know it can be frustrating when you're taking Jesus seriously and other people aren't.
Speaker 1: But the only reason that we're here is because someone loved us enough to push through that discomfort, to share the truth with us, to put up with us.
Speaker 1: I'm here because my youth pastor decided to deal with me when I was a dumpster fire of a 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th grader, because he loved me enough to invite me in, because, ultimately, jesus has started that invitation?
Speaker 1: That's not up to us.
Speaker 1: We're just telling them about how God is inviting them into his family through the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1: So do that for someone else.
Speaker 1: But what does that look like?
Speaker 1: Right, we're called to be salt.
Speaker 1: We're called to be different from the world, not to conform to the broken world, but to be light.
Speaker 1: Don't just stay in that holy huddle, go and bring that to everyone else.
Speaker 1: But Jesus actually lands the plane not so much on the what we're supposed to do, but the why.
Speaker 1: And so in verse 16, he says in the same way let your light shine before others so they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.
Speaker 1: Which Jesus kind of makes the shift here he goes from metaphor to reality.
Speaker 1: He says let your light shine so that people see your good deeds.
Speaker 1: And so now you kind of get light shining and good deeds going hand in hand, which doesn't make sense, because in Matthew 6, jesus says be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them, because if you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Speaker 1: What's he saying here?
Speaker 1: At one level he says do it in front of people so they would glorify me.
Speaker 1: And then at the other level, he says don't let anybody know when you're doing good deeds.
Speaker 1: Well, the point here, what he's trying to say, is that showing off your religion to get people to praise you is not the same as living a life that clearly shows God's goodness.
Speaker 1: Because when you do things to look holy like, people might pat you on the back, they might think man, he's religious.
Speaker 1: But when you genuinely live for God, you take people's eyes and you say, hey, I'm not that good, I'm broken.
Speaker 1: The only reason I have anything of value to you is because God's given it to me.
Speaker 1: Look to him.
Speaker 1: He's the one you want, he's the one with the answer, he's the one with the healing for your brokenness.
Speaker 1: Your motive matters and we know this right.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things is when Leighton runs up to me.
Speaker 1: It's like daddy, daddy, I love you so much, give me a hug Now.
Speaker 1: Sometimes she does that and then she goes daddy, daddy, I love you so much, give me a hug.
Speaker 1: And there's a pause and you can like see the wheels turning.
Speaker 1: It Like okay, yeah, I now know why I got hugged and why she told me how much she loves me.
Speaker 1: Right, she's already learned at two and a half years old how to butter up dad.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, nothing she did was wrong.
Speaker 1: Right, it's not like she, you know, is trying to manipulate or anything.
Speaker 1: She's two.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know that.
Speaker 1: Right, she's still doing good things, but because of her motive, even something that on the surface might have been good didn't achieve the desired effect.
Speaker 1: And in the same way, as a follower of Jesus, it's possible to do the right thing, but it'd be worthless because your motive is off.
Speaker 1: You're trying to build your own platform.
Speaker 1: You're trying to build your own reputation, the whole point of being salt and light.
Speaker 1: It's not about glorifying yourself.
Speaker 1: It's not people thinking man, like Ashley, she's got it together, like she loves Jesus, right, we're not trying to build an Instagram following here and she doesn't.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: You were just the first person right in front of me, sorry, but the reality is we're trying to take their eyes and we're trying to say, hey, look at God.
Speaker 1: And that's the beauty of a testimony, because a testimony has nothing to do with how I clean myself up.
Speaker 1: It's how God met me in the pit, in the deepest, darkest part of my brokenness, and he pulled me out by no means or power of my own, and he'll do the same for you.
Speaker 1: That's what it looks like to put your eyes, or put other people's eyes, on Jesus and so ask yourself where's your heart at?
Speaker 1: Is your motive your reputation?
Speaker 1: Is it checking the box?
Speaker 1: Is it making your parents happy?
Speaker 1: Is it making a girl or a guy that you're interested in happy?
Speaker 1: Because that's not what we're called to do.
Speaker 1: You can spend your whole life doing a lot of good stuff for the wrong reason, but we're called to make it all about God's glory.
Speaker 1: Are you saying look at me?
Speaker 1: Are you saying hey, hey, look at him.
Speaker 1: And so I want to close tonight by acknowledging that not everybody here is salt and light.
Speaker 1: Right, those are things that are true of believers, followers of Jesus, and I know that not everybody in this room is not.
Speaker 1: Not everybody's made that decision, and if you haven't, I want you to hear from me.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here, I wouldn't want you any other place, but I want to tell you one thing that you're invited in, you're invited in to be salt, and thing that you're invited in You're invited in to be salt in life, and you're invited into a life that's beautiful, a life lived for the glory of God to make other people look at him and say, man, he is so good to take their eyes and point it off of me, point it to him, say he's good, he's where the joy is, he's where the hope is.
Speaker 1: And we want that right, because, whether we realize it or not, we're not made to be at the center of our own universe.
Speaker 1: Guys, I'm just going to be real.
Speaker 1: There's some of you in here that your universe revolves around you, and some of you it's not even your own fault.
Speaker 1: Your parents' schedule revolves around your travel ball.
Speaker 1: Your parents' finances revolve around it.
Speaker 1: Right, every decision you make revolves around getting you into the cause, like it's all about you.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: You're miserable.
Speaker 1: You're miserable Even though you have everything you think you always wanted.
Speaker 1: You look at all your stuff.
Speaker 1: You got the girl, you got the spot on the team, you have an iPhone in your pocket that's worth over a thousand dollars and has the totality of human wisdom, and a brick that we can't even hold on to and not crack the screen, and there's still something off.
Speaker 1: It's because we weren't made to live for us.
Speaker 1: We were made to live in a relationship with the God who created us, who created us to know him.
Speaker 1: That is your purpose, that is why you are here.
Speaker 1: But there's this thing called sin that separates us from that.
Speaker 1: God is perfect and he punishes evil, and we want that we all have a part of us.
Speaker 1: That's like, yes, they should face consequences.
Speaker 1: When you see somebody on the news, he's done something absolutely terrible and heinous and awful.
Speaker 1: But what happens when we have that same evil in us?
Speaker 1: And God in his perfect justice?
Speaker 1: He doesn't just let evil off the hook, but he also doesn't want us to be separated from him, and so he sent his son, jesus, to live a perfect life.
Speaker 1: And Jesus didn't deserve to die, and he didn't die on accident, but at the end of his life he walked into Jerusalem, fully willing, knowing exactly what was going to happen, and he got up on that cross.
Speaker 1: He was nailed to and he died a terrible, terrible death.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: For the joy that was set before him.
Speaker 1: And the joy that was set before him was you being reconciled to him, becoming his child once again and being healed and being set free and then leaving from there, and now you get to live a life for other people, for God's glory and for the benefit of others.
Speaker 1: At the end of your life, you have the opportunity when you're in the casket and you're in heaven and people are saying nice words at your funeral, they're about to go eat a potluck, you're able to live to have people say things like, not like man.
Speaker 1: He was good at business, he made a lot of money, he did a lot of good stuff in his life, but, man, I'm in heaven because of him, because of God's work through him, right, my life was changed because of her.
Speaker 1: That's the life you're invited into.
Speaker 1: And so when you hear me up here sharing the gospel, I'm not inviting you into a life of rules, I'm not inviting you into just another thing to tack onto your life.
Speaker 1: I'm inviting you into a whole new worldview, and it's the worldview of the God of the Bible.
Speaker 1: And so if you look around at your life and you're dissatisfied, you look around and you're like man, is this it?
Speaker 1: Make good grades, get a good job, make a lot of money, retire one day and leave it all to someone else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the way of the world.
Speaker 1: That's all there is.
Speaker 1: But not when you think about being a child of God, living for eternity to make an eternal impact.
Speaker 1: It's what gets you out of bed in the morning.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm on the stage, that's why your leaders are here tonight, and so, if we can just get a little bit I don't know if we have the pads or whatever playing in the background I just want everybody, real quick, just bow your heads.
Speaker 1: We're about to wrap up.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 1: I just want to give you an opportunity to respond and maybe you're here tonight and you say hey, that's me.
Speaker 1: You know, I look around at my life, I look around and I just I look like everybody else.
Speaker 1: There's nothing salty about me.
Speaker 1: And, man, at the end of the day, what little bit I do have of my faith?
Speaker 1: It's not really faith, it's just kind of performative and I kind of hide it.
Speaker 1: And I look around at the life I've built, or the life that's been given to me, and I just feel like there needs to be something more.
Speaker 1: Can I invite you to come and taste and see that the Lord is good, that what Jesus is inviting you into.
Speaker 1: To be salt, to be different from the world we live in, to be light, to bring the hope and peace and healing of God to those who desperately need it, and to live for his glory and not our own.
Speaker 1: It's available to you today and it starts by asking it's a free gift.
Speaker 1: There's nothing you could do to earn it.
Speaker 1: If you did, jesus wouldn't have had to die.
Speaker 1: But we simply accept and we say Lord, I believe that you are who you said you are.
Speaker 1: I believe you did what you said you did and I'm gonna spend the rest of my life following you.
Speaker 1: And if that's you tonight, you say I'm ready to make that decision.
Speaker 1: I need to make that decision tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of to count to three.
Speaker 1: Nobody's looking around and who cares?
Speaker 1: If anybody is, we're going to celebrate.
Speaker 1: But if that's you tonight, you said I want to make that decision, I want to stop all this meaninglessness and I want to put my faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Can I count to three?
Speaker 1: I just want you to slip your hand up.
Speaker 1: I'm going to hang around for just a little bit and we just want to pray for you.
Speaker 1: You don't have to make that decision alone.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't make that decision alone, right?
Speaker 1: Because you've just been invited into a family and so, real quick, I'm about to give you that opportunity.
Speaker 1: If that's you, just raise your hand.
Speaker 1: Three, two, one, I see you.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord, anybody else.
Speaker 1: There's no shame, there's no guilt, there's nothing to be worried about.
Speaker 1: Your whole family might think you're a Christian.
Speaker 1: That's fine.
Speaker 1: Don't live in the darkness anymore.
Speaker 1: Don't live in that deception.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Lord, I'm going to pray and then we're going to do small groups.
Speaker 1: All right.