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Amen, man. God is good. Alright, here we go. Ready? God is good. All the time. Amen. Amen. Hey, you know what? We're going to jump back into 1 Peter chapter 2 and 18 to 21. And we'll turn there right now. 1 Peter chapter 2, 18 to 21. And it reads like this Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and you are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. Lord, we thank you for your word. It's living, it's active. Every time we open it, Holy Spirit, we're thankful that you speak not only to our intellect, but you speak into our spirit the very riches and the blessings and the splendor of who you are. And we we thank you for that, God, because without your Holy Spirit, we would be dead in our trespasses and sins still. Without the blood of Jesus, the work on the cross, the risen Savior today, the uh the high priest seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us, we wouldn't know what in the world to do or how to live our lives or how to gain peace or to how to how to have life. But you are the source of life and peace, and we give you praise tonight. We pray that you be with us as we share from these scriptures again tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we've been talking about submission lately, and uh submission is deferring to another person, authority, or power, your rights, and living under that uh authority and power. And we all know that before we became Christians, we were under the authority and power of Satan. How many know that for sure, right? We were living in our own devices and intentions. Our choices, our whims, our wishes were governed by our fleshly nature, our sinful nature, and also the dictates of Satan himself that uh spoke into our lives through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the uh eyes, and the pride of life. But the rescuer, Jesus, amen. Came in the dark of night, into the darkness of your heart, rescued you from the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of his light. And man, do we give you thanks and praise for that, Lord? Amen? We are no longer of the dark darkness, we are children of the light. And now we have this unending desire, privilege, pleasure to submit ourselves to the will and the way of God, and it's a daily battle, isn't it? Because although our sinful nature has been kind of taken care of, our flesh is still governed to those things of the world, the flesh and the devil, our will, our mind, and our emotions were geared to all that stuff, man. We were we were ruled and reigned and governed by all that. And then Jesus has taken us out of that. And we no longer live as slaves, we live as children of God. Amen. So now we spend our days submitting to the Lord and to submit to his ways, and that can be tough because we're prideful people, aren't we? And when you go to work and your boss humiliates you or doesn't treat you right, your flesh kind of flares up. And it's interesting, in Peter's day, in Rome itself, there were three servants or slaves to every Roman citizen. And then the entire Roman Empire, there were about 60 million slaves, and there were over uh more than 50 percent were slaves and servants, and then the rest were citizens. And we see here that slaves and servants in Peter's day were property of their owners, and they could do anything that they want to them. They weren't considered uh human beings, they were considered inanimate objects that were owned and were taken possession of. So here we see Peter expressing this wonderful revelation of submission, servants that knew Christ would have to submit to the governing authority, to these authorities that were over their lives, because it's the principle of authority that every authority and institution given among man is is is engineered and governed by God. Amen. Do you believe that? Even some of these uh presidential regimes that raise its raise itself up, God exalts leaders and God tears down leaders. And our job is to submit to the final authoritative power of the universe, and that is God Himself. So when we place ourselves under these authorities, we're really saying to people and to God that we place ourselves under your authority, God. We're under your uh authority and power and rule in our hearts and in our lives. So, how many have ever been beaten for stupid choices? Amen? Yeah, we've done that. We know what that what that's all about. But the Lord is saying to us here, even when we do good, sometimes we suffer. And the Bible says here that we endure sorrows while suffering unjustly. And it is a gracious thing. And we talked about Sunday how what the world needs now is grace. Amen. In the world of hostility and uh enmity, alienation, separation from God. There's a vitriol out there in our culture and in our society and in our world, and the only combat, the only weapon that is used against the vitriol and hatred, hostility of sin, and the work of the enemy is the grace of God. Amen. And this is a beautiful thing when we live our lives under submission of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it goes on to say that uh when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. It's a gracious thing. And to this you have been called. It is the calling of God that in every situation of our lives, in every institution, everything that is raised up in our lives, we submit ourselves to God because Christ suffered for us. And he left us an example so that we might follow in his steps. And aren't you glad that Jesus didn't just leave an example? But he said, Fellas, I gotta go, because when I go, I'm gonna send the comforter, the helper, the helper, the advocate, the spirit of truth to come, and he will manifest all my wishes, my desires, my purposes for your life, and manifest who I am. And isn't that the wonder of the Holy Spirit? Amen. That reveals Christ to us and who Christ is and his work on the cross and everything that he has done for us, all the many blessings that he has done for us. So we thank God for the Spirit of the Lord that not only uh reveals to us the example that Christ is, but lives in us, and we live out that example on a on a daily basis. So let's look up some uh scriptures that we were reading during the week, and let's turn over to Matthew chapter 5. How many uh how many take the spiritual formation sheet home with you and you read the verses that are in those? That's good. Because then it's just a waste of paper and basically a waste of a tree. You know what I'm saying? If you don't take that home and make it to your advantage to read scriptures, and let's turn to uh Matthew chapter 5, 13 to 16. Matthew chapter 5, 13 to 16. Why is this going off all the time? You iPad, don't do that. Okay, Matthew chapter 5, verse 13. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all 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 who is in heaven. Why do we submit to the Lord? Because we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Amen. The salt of the earth. The Bible says that you are. You are. Isn't that something? When you're in Christ, you are. You don't have to achieve anything, you don't have to get a degree in uh light worthiness, amen, or salt worthiness. The Bible says that you are the salt of the earth. And salt is something that is a wonderful, wonderful thing. George was talking about it, I believe, last week, wasn't he? Salt. The being the salt of the earth is, as we look at it, it's identity before activity. Isn't it true? It's identity before activity. Jesus didn't say try to be or become, he says you are. And this has to do with our identity. And the greatest thing that a believer can come upon is walking in the identity of who you are in Christ Jesus. This is a great revelation, man. You're no longer walking in the identity of what people said about you or what you thought about yourself or your experiences or your past or the things that have happened to you. Now you have a new identity, you have a new life, there's a new transformation, taking you out of the cocoon of sin, shame, guilt, and condemnation and set you free. You became a butterfly. Amen. Showing off the identity of who you are. You are you are Christ's. You are a believer. So as believers, our nature has been changed, our influence flows from who we are in Christ. That's a wonderful thing. We live out this Christian life by the power of the Holy Spirit and by believing the Word of God and doing the Word of God. So we talked about how as believers we have principles in God's Word, foundational beliefs that we abide by that affect our behavior and our words and our activity. And if our beliefs and our activity and our behavior don't back up what we say or what we say we believe, there's a disconnect that the world looks at us and says, You're wrong. And our testimony is diminished before believers. The Bible says, before um unbelievers, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. You don't produce saltiness or light by striving, you express what God has already put inside you. Amen? Isn't that something? The salt of the earth. What does salt do? It preserves. I just heard a great a great um advertisement for beef jerky. 30 sticks of beef jerky for$36. Paliovelli, if you want to look that up. That's a pretty good deal, right? Um what does salt do? It preserves. In ancient times, salt prevented decay, and this is what we do as believers, guys. We slow down the moral and spiritual decay in our culture, right? We slow it down, man. We lift up the standard of who Christ is and the standard of God's word in our workplace and where we are, and we live out our testimony, uh, not worrying about the persecution, not worrying about what our friends might say or people at work or wherever we are. We are concerned about this standard of being salt and being light. And then salt adds flavors, doesn't it? Now, for two months, I've been salt deficient ever since you know what happened, you know? And uh I'm praying to the Lord that I would be able to have salt again. One day, no, salt makes things better. So your presence shouldn't make environments healthier. Your presence should make environments healthier, kinder, more truthful. Uh you should bring wherever you are a sense of a positive attitude, right? A sense of an attitude that uh is uplifting and exhorting others. And when people see see that in the workplace, they see something that's different, they see something that is is um alive, they see something that is not of this world, and they ask questions. Then salt creates thirst, doesn't it? Salt makes people thirsty. So a godly life lived for others and before others brings a spiritual thirst in their heart and life. By looking at your life, they say there's something in that person that in my life. And um Steph is an amazing person because what she does at the cash register with uh with clients is is unbelievable. You know, witnessing two two clients and God opens up opportunities, right, Steph? Where uh she can have words aptly spoken, encouraging one another, strengthening one another, strengthening uh those people. And that happens at a cash register at TJ Maxx, which is awesome. So we give we give thanks to God. Wherever we are, our life can create a thirst for Jesus Christ in the life of others. Do you believe that tonight? Amen? And this is a wild and wonderful thing. A godly life should make others thirst for God. Live such good lives that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. So when it says that if the salt has lost its saltiness, it's no good. And what what causes us not to be the salt of the earth? What causes us to lose our saltiness? Rob? Water ourselves down? Okay. What's that trudy? Blood pressure can surely do it. Yes, amen. Amen to that. Yeah. Um he's not flavoring our life, we cannot flavor others, amen. And somebody else, what what causes saltiness? Media? Right. Yep. It brings compromise and brings uh spiritual dull dullness, doesn't it? There's a desensitivity that happens when we uh watch things on TV that we shouldn't, or we're listening to stuff that we shouldn't, right? We get desensitized, we get numbed down, we get dumbed down, and uh we get thumbed down by the enemy of our of our life. It's like the frog in the kettle, right? You throw a frog in a in a pot and put them on a stove, and that frog will stay in there and boil to death because of the slow increase that happens. And this is exactly what what this passage of scripture is talking about, how we've got to be so careful uh not to compromise, amen? And not to uh fall prey to the things of the enemy that that n that nullify us and numb us. And there is a lot that that happens. Bill? Yeah, right on. Yep, yeah, that's right. What's that, Lucy? What you read. Yeah, right. You know, there's uh principle in God's word that we take every thought captive and we subjugate it, we submit it, we put it under the knowledge of God, right? And that has a wonderful um illustration of a police officer that apprehends a criminal, right? Puts him in cuffs, bangs his head on the door when he puts him into the car. Get in there, right? And this is exactly what we do with thoughts that do not come under the knowledge of the word of God, right? Because we entertain thoughts in our in our minds that are not right. And here's the thing about thousand to twelve hundred words run through our mind a minute. And eighty percent of those, they say, is is negative. So we have a we have a battle to fight it, don't we? And uh we fight against the enemy's influence in our hearts and lives by truth. The only thing that the enemy has to combat us and weaponize us uh against us is deceit. That's his thing. When he brings deceit into our lives, the only weapon that we have is what? Truth. Amen? The truth of God's word. So we don't get numbed down, dumbed down or thumbed down by the enemy. We stay sharp and we we stay focused on who we are in Christ. And uh we are the salt of the earth. And then the Bible says that we are the light of the world. Light reveals truth, doesn't it? Light exposes what is hidden. I remember me and my brother, we were down in the Bronx. He lived in the Bronx and he lived right on a little inlet, and he had a cement dock down there, and he had a boat, and we were going down there probably near dusk. It was still a little light, but um, he flipped the boat up, and there was a rat underneath that thing. And you know the rats in the Bronx, they break records, man. And that rat leaped out for our throats. And my brother had he played baseball. I was better than him, but he played baseball, and uh, and uh man, what a beautiful shot. He had a piece of wood, and when that rat jumped up, he smacked that thing, flew that thing out into the into the water in the inlet. And I was sitting there like, oh I just couldn't believe it, man. Yeah, so listen, when you expose uh when you expose the rat, the rats of uh the of Satan, the darkness, um, yeah, those things uh get exposed and they they run, right? The Bible says that there are people in the world that love darkness rather than light, and they hide from the light. But as believers tonight, we do everything we can to put ourselves in the spotlight of God's truth, don't we? Whatever the cost might be, and we know what the cost is. We know that God will speak to our heart about the things that are are numbing us and dumbing us and thumbing us down, and he'll he'll try to get those things out. But we know that we are trying to get our own way and run from God and compromise God when we kind of stray from the truth. We all have little nooks and crannies in our heart, right? That kind of kind of we kind of hide from God. Those little dark places that we go down to in our heart where we have fun times with ourselves, and God says, Yo, I'm coming in. I'm coming in, and I'm gonna light up your world. And uh, we have to be believers that say, God, light me up with the truth of God's word. Light me up. The light of the world is Jesus. And he says that we are now the light of the world. Here's the verse, Ephesians 5.8. You were once darkness, amen. But now you are light in the world. You were darkness. We don't just carry light, we are the light of the world. And if this can get into our thick skulls and hard hearts, when we go to work or where wherever we go, we have the very Spirit of the Lord living inside of us, and that light is shining. Amen. And people are watching us. How we how we treat people in a parking lot or where we are in a store or at work and how we how we uh entertain people's uh words that are spoken to us and how we respond. People are watching, amen. And man, we can be the light of the world and shine as we uh reveal the character and nature of Christ in every conversation, in every relationship that we have. We want to live our lives for the glory of God. If that can get into our hearts tonight, guys, everywhere we go, every word we say, everything that we endeavor to do, we want to bring glory to God in all that we do, man. And it is it is awesome. A godly life should light up the world. Amen. Bible says, 1 Peter 2.12, live such good lives that they may see your good deeds and glorify God. Isn't that fantastic? And the world is always trying to get recognition, always trying to get accolades, and here we are as believers. We don't want the accolades, we don't want the recognition. Let's deflect that all to the glory of God. Amen. All praise, all exaltation, everything that's said good about. We deflect to the very glory of God for who he is and what he's done in our hearts and in our lives. The light of the world. Light reveals truth. Light cannot be hidden. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. We are lighthouses. They don't exist for themselves, they exist to shine for those that are in danger. And that's our capacity, and that's our life in Christ tonight. Don't cover the light. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Fear, compromise, silence can cover your light, isn't it? How many are embarrassed to share your faith? Or embarrassed to have an opportunity to share your faith because you think you don't know enough. Right? All we need to know is that Jesus died and he loved us so much, he came from heaven and rose again and conquered death, and now he's seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us, sent the Holy Spirit down for us, and one day we're going to be with him forever. Amen? And that's the gospel truth, man. Our purpose is to glorify God. Have you been fearful this week? Have you been filled with anxiety? Have you been fretting over stuff? The Bible says that in the end days men's hearts will fail them because of fear, because of anxiety. Lovely verse. Lovely verse. 2 Timothy 1 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Isn't that fantastic? A sound mind. Amen. He's given it to us, friends. All we have to do is activate it. We have the mind of Christ. And this is a glorious, glorious thing when we're filled with anxiety, which we all are. We have moments of anxiety. We have moments of stress. We have moments where there's a sense, maybe a sense of panic that comes over us, and we get like, oh, and we don't know what to do. God has not given us that spirit. What he's given us is true, and it's power, love, and a sound mind. Transformed mind, the renewing of our mind by the word of God. So the goal is not attention, it's not recognition, it's not praise for ourselves. The goal is God's glory. 1 Corinthians 10, 31. Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Amen. And that means, like we said on Sunday, that you're not going to get what you want to get when you serve the Lord. You might not get accolades, you might not get a smack on the back, you might not get a kiss on the cheek or a hug. You might not get nothing. Amen. But your transaction is between you and Jesus. And man, we talked about, man, when we go to God, we don't do it like the Pharisees, and with all this oratorical, wonderful flare and glare of words, we get into the secret place and we get alone with God, and there God rewards us in the secret place. Amen? And isn't that what we want? And that's what a secret place. And then from that secret place, we go and share the gospel of the Lord Jesus. We are shining like Moses when he came off the mountain. Amen? And we're not going to put a veil on us. We're going to shine. And we're going to shine for Jesus. And we're going to do it in the workplace. Whenever somebody humiliates us or treats us wrong, as we said on Sunday, when you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you were bought with a price. You are not your own, you are his. And that means, and this is going to free you. This statement is going to free you, and you are going to walk out of here free. And you're going to go, you-hoo! And that is that you have no rights. Yo-hoo! You have no rights. You've given your rights to Christ. That means you can't be offended. Amen? You can't hold a grudge about somebody. You've given that right to Christ. And now we submit ourselves to the authority and the power of Christ in loving people, treating people with respect. And let's, in closing, let's turn over to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. And then we're going to pray, guys. Amen. We've been seeing some awesome things coming into being by our prayers. And we're going to pray tonight and we're going to see results as we ask the Lord, as we seek the Lord, as we knock. Romans chapter 12 and verse 14. These are verses that if you're reading them on a bad day, you're going to say, Come on, God. Come on. So here we go. If you're having a bad day, too bad. Here we go. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Dag Nabbit. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Here's a beauty right here. Live in harmony with one another. Whatever you got to do to live in harmony with the brother and sister of Christ, do it. Amen. Do it. Lay down your preferences. Lay down the things that you want, your right to this preference or that preference. Live in harmony. And if everybody did that in the body of Christ, we would have such a wonderful family of God experience. Okay, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one for evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. And that's a great verse that correlates with 1 Peter chapter 2, 18 to 21. Amen. If your boss or co-worker does evil, give thought to do what is honorable in the sight, not just of that person, but in the sight of all that are watching. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And isn't that freeing? There's things that have been done to us in the past that have hurt us, misuse. We've been abused by people's words and things of that nature. We understand that God is a sovereign, sovereign, just God. Amen. And when Christ comes, justice will come to victory. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This heap burning coals on your head, man. In a way, this is kind of satisfying. Because your your enemy, you want to burn their head right off, you know? And then when I first read this, I was like, yeah, heap burning coals on their head. I love it. But here, it's not the idea. You're absolutely right. So then I started understanding the concept of burning coals, and that is people that were of a repentive heart in ancient times wore this thing on their head, burning coals. And if you added coals to their burning head, they would appreciate you because they understood it. So this is uh this is incredible. So when we feed our enemies, when we love our enemies, we're actually burning into them the kindness and the goodness of God to repent. And this is the beauty of giving glory to God. Amen? Glory to God. So, guys, we have the power and ability through Christ to love and to give grace and to live our lives for Jesus like we've never done before, because we are his and we are submitted to him. And we come under every umbrella of authority that he has placed in this world so that we can love others and shine to others. And then when the enemy wants to fire some fiery darts, we step under the umbrella of protection, amen? And the umbrella of provision. One more verse, if you don't mind. And if you do mind, I don't know, too bad. Matthew chapter 5, all right. Uh, and we're gonna go to verse 43. Are you there yet? Okay. Matthew 5, verse 43. And this is this is an incredible verse, and we'll close. We will close with this, okay? Here we go. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor as and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons and daughters of your Father who is in heaven.

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Wow.

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That is amazing. This is a sign that we are sons and daughters of God when we love our enemies and we pray for those. Isn't that something? That frees us, doesn't it? It frees us to be all that God wants us to be. Jesus had the disciples in the room and he said, Fellas, as I have loved you, go and love one another. Isn't that something? And that's that's what builds the church. So let's let's love on each other. Amen? Let's be all that we can be to each other and revealing who Christ is, lifting up Jesus so that he can be glorified and work in our midst so that we can get to know him better and allow him to live our lives for the glory of God. So let's close in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you. We love you tonight for your word. We love you for who you are. We thank you, God, and we renew our commitment to allow you full authority and power and ability over our lives as we submit to your sovereign grace, to your to your love for us. We know that our our life and times are in your hands. We are protected, we are loved, we are secure, we're confirmed, we are established, we are all that we need to be in Christ, positioned in Christ. And now for the rest of our lives, Lord, we pray that you continue to sanctify us in the practical matters of being everything that we need to be for you, for your glory. And we give you praise in all things, Lord, Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's let's pray. Who has a prayer request?