"Shine Your Light" - Matthew 5:13-16

Do you shine the light of God for others to see?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This time we'll ask my students who will come and speak for us. Y'all can afford it. All right, y'all could come up here. Don't be too shy. All right. Okay, so you're going first. Knocking it out. All right. So I asked the students today if they could uh read a verse that they like and then just talk, you know, a little bit about what it means to them. So uh Proudables, he's gonna step up first.

SPEAKER_06 0:48

So I chose 1 Corinthians 10, 13, and it reads, The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience, and God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. I like this verse because it serves as a reminder during difficult times. It encourages us to trust God's perfect plan for our lives and reminds us that he'll never allow us to face more than we can bear. Even in our struggles, he is always with us, giving us the strength we need to keep going.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Thank you, Bill.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

My verse is Romans 5.8, and it says, But God chose his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I like this verse because it shows that God made the first move, meaning that even in spite of our sinful human nature, Jesus still died for us so that we could be made right with him. Jesus still pursues us and loves us so much, even though we will never deserve it, and I'm so grateful for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Thank you. I chose Acts 4.12 and it says, and there is salvation and no one else, for there is one no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. This verse said for this verse says to me that you can only go you can only be saved through Jesus and only through Jesus. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Okay, we chose Psalms 46, 10. Be still and know that I am God. I will be honored in every nation, I will be honored throughout the world. This verse teaches us to stop worrying, stop trying to control everything, and trust God completely. When God says be still, he is calling us to have faith in his power, his wisdom, and his perfect timing.

SPEAKER_05 2:37

Even when life feels difficult or uncertain, we can have peace because God is always in control. This verse reminds us that God is greater than any problem we face, and in the end, he will be honored and glorified throughout the whole earth. As believers, we can rest in his presence, knowing that he is faithful and will never leave us.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

I chose um John 3.16, and it says, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Why I chose this verse is is is the foundation of our beliefs and what it means to me is God gave his life, and Jesus gave his life and sacrificed himself so we could be in heaven.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Thank you. All right. Thank you all again. And uh as you can see, you know, even with young people, God's doing a mighty work, right? And I quite honestly, some of these testimonies that we hear today and the the way he sees Scripture, I I can honestly say I've worked with some adults who don't have the understanding of the gospel and the Bible like some of these kids do. And so when we look at uh the way God moves, um it is very different than our understanding, right? And we're reminded again that Jesus does say, Let the little kids come to me. So thank y'all again. Y'all can be seated. Just a a fun, fun moment moment there. I realized that Jeffrey's gotten taller because I think back when he came and spoke last time, we couldn't see over the podium. So now so now we can see him. So that's good. That's that's about how big I was when I was his age. I was tiny too. Actually, I think he's bigger than me. So uh so when I was thinking about what to preach on, and uh let me go back. Uh for those who are visiting today, I think we have some visitors, uh, I'm Joseph Gomez, and I'm the youth and kids pastor here at Cedar Street. And uh so my wife is sitting here, her name is Julie, and we have the honor and privilege to work here, and uh we have enjoyed it greatly. And so uh, but when I uh was thinking about what to speak on, I was like, you know, that Bible verse that that's on the necklace that I showed y'all it says shine your light. Um as believers, that's that should be a given, but quite honestly a lot of times we we struggle to do that. So uh we're gonna talk about that today. Uh the the message comes from Matthew 5, 13 through 16. Uh the message title is Shine Your Light. Uh very uh easy to understand. And so when we look at Matthew 5, 13 through 16, it reads, You are a salt of the earth, but 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. You are a lie 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 lampstand, 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. When we look at these verses, okay, and Jesus is speaking to his disciples, but also to many other Jews, uh sought and light, right? Very simple to understand, but sometimes hard to grasp. And uh we remember in John chapter 1, John writes that the light has come to the world. So we know that's Jesus. But as he is touching our lives, as he is changing our lives, he calls us to be a light also, just like Millie uh spoke on earlier when she read the Great Commission, right? We're called to be a witness, called to be a light to those around us. Now, in different ways, right? Uh some are called to be pastors, some are called to be sub school teachers, some are called to be just service workers. But in everything we do, we're called to be salt light. Every way we talk to people, all the ways that we communicate things is so important. And so uh, for the sake of time, I'm gonna try to make this pretty uh pretty straightforward. So as we dive into this, uh the first point is stay connected to God. Stay connected to Christ. Okay? That's where it stems from. Jesus makes it very clear in John 14 that we are that he is uh the vine, we are the branches, right? And uh when we think about that, he tells us that if we're not connected to him, if we're not abiding in him, we are going to fall short. It's going to happen. And we all know this is certain. We all we all struggle every day, we all sin against God. But as we think about this, uh it has to begin with us staying connected to Christ. Okay? If he is the source of light that that changes us, then we have to stay connected to him. Uh when I was looking at the sermon and working on it, uh John MacArthur gave this point. He says, it reminds us, he reminds us that uh that the source of salt, okay, as we're talking about salt, uh, the source of it matters. And so he said that in the Dead Sea it's known for its saltiness, but he said that that salt is contaminated. It's not pure salt. And so it's pretty much useless for practically everything for throwing out on the on the path to keep stuff from growing. It's no good for flavor, it's no good for preserving, you know, and it's amazing because you think about how big that sea is, how big that lake is, yet how much of that soil is we can't use for much of anything. And that's a reminder to us, you know, there's a lot of people who go to church. A lot of people call themselves Christians, but how many are living out their faith every single day on fire for Christ? Oh, I think today we saw a great example by our youth, right? Set an example. Uh Paul writes to Timothy about that, that as young people, they can set the example of how to live for Christ. And I think for us at Cedar Street, you know, we can learn to be a church that's on fire for Christ. And so the first point was uh stay connected to Christ. Second point is let Jesus penetrate every part of you. Okay? Let Jesus penetrate every part of you. When I was working on this, I was trying to figure out if that's the word I want to use, penetrate. But it is. Uh part of changing and conforming to the image of Christ, penetrate kind of gives the idea of, you know, he's having to prod, he's having to poke, he's having to remove things in our lives that's keeping us for living for him. There are times in our lives that we we all see it, that uh some days we're doing great, some days we're struggling. Uh I used to tell my youth, and I still use the example, but uh I had a student at a previous church, and I used an example, he was one of our older students. I said, Imagine if he saw me at Walmart and I was cussing a storm, angry at the world, whatever it might be. I said, Imagine if I was there and he saw me, he didn't know me, right? And he came and shared a gospel with me. Should I be offended that he shared a gospel with me because I'm acting like a sinner, because I'm acting like somebody who doesn't know Christ. Yet every single day, if we're not careful, we can live that way. Uh I was reminded uh of this when we moved last year to Cedar Street. Uh uh, it was probably we moved last January moved, so it's been a year and a half now about Sears Street. And it's probably around March or so. I was at Walgreens. I was picking up waters and snacks and stuff to uh to get for the youth on Wednesday night. And I remember seeing uh this family there, uh a teenage girl and kind of things, but I didn't know her. Uh we we just moved here, so I was still learning people. And sure enough, she texts one of our students who actually just uh read a verse and gave a testimony. Uh she texted me and said, I just saw your youth pastor. Yeah, he was buying this at Walgreens and stuff like that. It reminded me of I didn't know this girl, and this girl eventually did come and visit our youth group. Uh, but I was reminded of, what if I was buying something else? Y'all, y'all could fill in the blank of what I was buying that was not God honoring. And what if she had seen me as a youth pastor in the community, even though I didn't know her? What if she had seen me and that throwing off her her faith? Her path that she's on is being derailed because she sees me doing something because of the way I'm living, right? Just a reminder of that. We've got to let Christ change every part of us. That's not easy. Uh that's that's painful. But that's what God wants. Uh that's the second point. The third point was let the goodness of Jesus pour out of you. Okay, let the goodness of Jesus pour it out of you. We all know that God is good, right? We we know the saying that God's good all the time. But how often do we think about that as God is changing us, that we should let his goodness flow out of us, right? Let his goodness penetrate us, but then just it just overcomes, right? Oh we we've seen that before. Everybody in here has seen a Christian who's just, when you're around them, they're a joy, right? You just see Christ in them. That's how we should be. Let the goodness overflow from us. Uh, point number four. So here's the hard part, right? Choose today to let your light shine before others. Choose today to let your light shine before others. It's a choice. You know, a lot of times we'll say the devil made me do it, or all these excuses we give. No. Jesus tells us every day we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. It's a choice. Will I choose today to live for him? Will I say that uh today he is Lord and I'm not? Uh at a church that June and I were at, we had an interim pastor, and they had chairs kind of like this up on stage, and he would remind the congregation every time he spoke, he reminded the congregation that we have a war going on in our hearts. Who will be king? Will we let Jesus be king of our lives? Right? And he's a good king. That's the thing, is a lot of times we forget that. Our sin, you know, it wants to taint who Jesus is. But Jesus is a good king. Jesus the king that gave his life for us. He's the one who loves us, right? Pulling us out of darkness into his light. And so we think about that. Choosing Kim is choosing good, right? But that's a choice every day we must make. And here's number five. God places us where he wants us. God places us where he wants us. A lot of times we look at the Christian world, right? The Christian sphere, and we see big churches, and we're like, oh, you know, they're supposed to be better than small churches. Or we we see bigger towns or cities, and we're like, oh, they must be better than small towns. That's not what God says. That's not what Jesus says. If you remember from the Gospels, our Savior was born in a small town called Nazareth, right? That's where he was from. And he was uh his town, Nazarene, Nazareth, was not uh known for being good. You know, that's that there was not so what Jews heard where he was from, they they a lot of times would not uh even give him credit, right? It's not about where we're from, it's where God places us. And so if he places us in in Metter, He places us in Georgia, he places us in a state over, wherever he takes us, right, we should live for him. You know that that's that is he is king, he is lord. So we follow him and we live for him. And so when I was looking at uh these points, uh my goal today was to make this this message very practical. Okay, and so if you look next to practical questions, all right, how can we take what we what we're talking about today and actually apply it to our lives? Okay, we know we should be a witness, we know we should be a light to those around us, but how do we do this? And so hopefully here's a practical ways to think through it. So the first one, quick first question is who? Who has God placed in my life? Who has God placed in my life? Um This could be family, it could be friends, neighbors, coworkers, the guy down the street, you name it, right? But who has God placed in my line of that I'm walking down every day that I could be a light to? So who the first question is who? Who has God placed in my life? The next question is, what? What am I doing? Okay, it's very clear. We're living out our faith. Okay? That's the what? What am I doing? I'm living out my faith. I I claim to be a Christian, so I'm gonna live like a Christian. Okay, that that's that's what it means. And so, the next question would be, what would Jesus have me do? I was playing on the word the words, of course. What would Jesus do? But what would Jesus have me do? Okay? Uh what does he want from me as a believer in him? Okay, which leads to when God gives me an opportunity, am I looking and am I prepared to respond? Well, we talked about before, am I staying connected to Christ? If if you are truly in God's word and hear from the Lord, you'll be a lot more prepared to respond. Uh you'll be more prepared to see people the way God sees them. But those moments that you get away from it, that I get away from it, and I'm not reading elsewhere, I'm not praying, I'm not at church, I'm not connecting, uh, it's harder. And I've been there. I know, I know there are weeks where I could tell that my personal devotion, uh time of devotion is not as good. Maybe I'm studying more for lessons or whatever it might be, and I could tell it's affecting me. And I there's this uh drawing in my own life that I know that I need to connect back to Christ. Okay, so uh when God gives me an opportunity, opportunity, am I looking and prepared to respond? The next question is where? Okay, where does God have me? Okay, He can have me at home, right? Family discipleship, at church, in Metter, in Georgia, U.S. overseas, but where does he have me? Okay, uh in this moment, this time, God, God brings us through seasons. And uh the question is how do we live for him during those seasons? Okay, and the next question, okay, this is one of the more practical, all right, is how? How can I shine my light? Okay, how can I do this? Okay? Well, the first part is we could pray. Pray with somebody, right? Don't obviously pray for them, but pray with them. I remember a seminary, I would have friends uh just pull me inside and say, I want to pray for you right now. And I just remember how much that meant to me in that moment, right? Pray with somebody. Sick of them being be there for somebody. I've learned in student ministry, in kids' ministry, that there's sometimes I just show up to a ball game. You know, I may I hope to see parents, hope to see students, but sometimes my time's cut short. But I've learned by just being there, and if they see me, that means the world to them. Means the world to the parents, right? Be there for somebody. There are times that somebody's hurting and we uh we don't know what to say. But sometimes you just gotta sit there with them and know that you're you're a good friend. Okay? Be there for somebody. Throw and share the gospel, very clear, right? We're in a broken world. Okay, we need people need to hear the gospel. Only Jesus saves, Holy Spirit changes us, right? We share the gospel. Next was a word of encouragement, right? Writing a note, sending a text, or whatever it might be, but how can I be an encouraging encouragement to somebody else, right? A word of encouragement. And number five, act of service, right? How can I serve people? I'm very blessed. My my dad has the gift of serving. And so I grew up going to usually elder folks in our church at a whole hammock, but we go over and do your work. And we spend hours doing your work, and I learned to be a servant through that. Um so grateful for that. You know, there's some things that may not be hard that we can do to help serve people and be a light. Okay, last question. Okay? Question of why. Why do we do this? Because we know Jesus loves us, and that's it. We know Jesus loves us, and he gave his life for us on the cross. And that's how much he loves us. So in return, we choose to love and live for him, right? That's that's living our faith. We understand that he loves us, and so now I'm gonna live for him. When I was in youth, uh, it may have been in the early years of high school, but we would go we went to a camp up at Tacoa. And one night uh after this the service, I remember uh you know, the pastor talked with us, and we just had this, you know, discussion time after the service, and I don't know, I honestly can't tell you what the the the speaker who the speaker was or what he said, but what I remember was there was a moment we were sitting there, and I remember saying, because Jesus lived for died for me, I want to live for him. That's what I said that night. I think that's about all I said that night. I was pretty quiet. And uh I can see looking back on that that God's work in my life. And that's that's the essence of this message, right? Jesus gave it all for me. You know, let me let me live for him. He's so good. Uh but so at this time, uh, we're gonna do something a little different. In youth ministry, uh a lot of times I'll give the youth either we'll go and do discussion groups after I do a message, or I'll let them sit there, I'll give them a piece of paper, and they can have a time to respond. Okay, and write down basically how God's speaking to them in that moment. And so that's what we're gonna do right now. Uh on your paper, you see it says, Who has God called me to be a light to? It says, remember begin with prayer. Um so I want to give you know a couple minutes where you can write down three names, people that come to mind, and uh how how can I respond to God right now? Who do I know who maybe they need encouragement? Or maybe you saw their yards really messy, go help do yard work, or maybe they need to hear the gospel. You know, how can I be a light to those around me? So I'm gonna give y'all a couple minutes and to uh just write down a couple names of people who God's placed on your heart. As we uh come to a close, I'm gonna read these verses one more time. It says, You are the salt of the earth, with the salt you should lose its taste. How can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You're 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 a lampstand and gives it light to for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. When I was uh working on this, actually I was already home working on this, and uh uh thought I had the sermon finished, and then uh I realized something. Uh, you go to the next slide, Joe Jody. There we go. Is it's what we claim to be, right? His hearts and hands. Um we say that this is a this is what our mission statement for church is, right? But when I was doing the sermon, I was like, that's that's exactly what Christ is teaching us, right? We we say, God, I understand, I understand that I'm a Christian. I understand that you gave it all for me, I understand your word. And moving from what I understand to, God, I feel you stirring. You're a stirring in my soul. There's somebody I know that either needs you as their savior, that needs you as their hope, they need you as their joy. But God, I know they need you somehow. And I can serve, I can serve them, I can encourage them. But then we go to, I must do something about it. You know, I can't sit still any longer, right? It's hit hearts and hands, just like we call for in Cedar Street every set every single Sunday, right? It's who we are. And so uh as we close in prayer, uh I just want to encourage everybody to take this, take a step of faith. Take a step of a leap of faith to just say, okay, God, I have these names, have these people. They need they need you, right? I need you some some form of fashion. And God help me to be your hands and feet today. So let's pray. Father, I thank you for your day, Lord. God, thank you for all that you've done for us, God. You are uh so good to us. And Father, I pray that we'll be a people who understand what we're about as Christians. And God, we'll live our faith. We'll be alike, God. There's so many around us who need you, who are hurting, who are broken. Students going to schools, broken homes. You got teachers who are hurting, people losing loved ones, God. There's so much hurt around us, God, and help us not turn blind eye, God, but be ready to respond, God, in a way that glorifies you. God, I pray that there's someone we know who needs the gospel, God, that we will be urgent. We'll show grace and truth, Lord, in our conversations. And God, that we'll just be a light, Lord, everywhere we go. Not so, not for us, not to shine our own light, God, but to shine light to you, to bring people to you, Lord. Father, thank you for this crowd, God. God, I pray for your students again, uh, the students from children's church and nursery. God, I pray that you'll give them a great school year, Lord. And God, that during this time that you'll just reveal yourself to them. Father, thank you for what you've done for us. In just name I pray. Amen.