Salt and Light

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music ♪ With just one word You calm the storm that surrounds me With just one word The darkness has to retreat With just one touch I feel the presence of heaven With just one touch My eyes are open to see My heart can't help but believe There's nothing that a god can't do There's not a mountain that he can't move Oh praise the name that makes a way There's nothing that a god can't do With just one word

You heal what's broken inside me With just one word You revive every dream With just one touch I feel the power of heaven With just one touch My eyes are open to see My heart can't help but believe There's nothing that a god can't do There's not a mountain that he can't move Oh praise the name that makes a way There's nothing that a god can't do There's nothing that a god can't do There's not a prison wall he can't break through Oh praise the name that makes a way There's nothing that a god can't do I will believe for greater things There's no power like the power of Jesus Let faith arise, let all agree There's no power like the power of Jesus I will believe for greater things There's no power like the power of Jesus Let faith arise, let all agree There's no power like his power There's nothing that a god can't do There's not a mountain that he can't move Oh praise the name that makes a way There's nothing that a god can't do There's nothing that a god can't do There's not a prison wall he can't break through

Oh praise the name that makes a way There's nothing that a god can't do I will believe I will believe for greater things There's no power like the power of Jesus Let faith arise, let all agree There's no power like the power of Jesus Oh, the power of Jesus All sufficient merit Shining like the sun A fortune I inherit By no work I have done My righteousness I forfeit At my Savior's cross Where all sufficient merit Did what I could not In love he condescended Eternal now in time Life without a limit, the Maker made to die. The law could never save us, our lawlessness had won. Till the pure and spotless Lamb had finally come. It is done, it is finished, no more denial. Paid in full, all sufficient. Married now I am. I lay down my garments, any empty bones. With words now all corrupted by the sinful host. I'm dressed in my Lord Jesus, a crimson roguely white. And no more fear of judgment, His righteousness is mine. It is done, it is finished, no more denial. Paid in full, all sufficient.

Married now I am. It is done, it is finished, no more denial. Paid in full, all sufficient. Married now I am. All sufficient, married, firm in life and death. The joy of my salvation shall be my final breath. And when I stand accepted before the throne of God. I'll gaze upon my Jesus and thank Him for the cross. Yes, I'll thank Him for the cross. It is done, it is finished, no more denial. Paid in full, all sufficient. Married now I am. It is done, it is finished, no more denial. Paid in full, all sufficient. Married now I am. Oh, you're married now I am. Oh, you're married now I am. Praise the Lord together. Let's give thanks to the Lord. We're in a series called Shining the Light, Exposing the Darkness from Ephesians chapter 5, 11, where it says, We don't participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. Everything becomes visible when it's exposed to the light. And we know that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So we are looking at the Word of God and seeing how, what the Word of God says for the life of a Christian, how we are to live and how we are to make a difference in this world.

Today we want to talk about salt and light. about that in his famous Sermon on the Mount. He had been in his ministry about a year, and he preached this sermon, recorded in Matthew, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7, and we call it the Sermon on the Mount. And it was preached from a really beautiful area there right at the Sea of Galilee, the northern, northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. I've been there before. This is, they put a church everywhere Jesus did something special, they put a church to ruin the, you know, the original feel of it, but you have, there wasn't a church there. But it's that mountainside right there on the Sea of Galilee, and it says that he saw the crowd and he sat down and he began to teach. He opened his mouth and began to teach them. And he started teaching them about the Beatitudes, the blessed are people who are this way and this way and this way. He gives nine blessed are statements. And then he goes on to say this, Matthew chapter 5 verses 13, 14, 15, and 16, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Salt and light. Listen, you may be here today and you might be discouraged, discouraged in life, discouraged in your situation, in your job or your situation at home or your situation in your social life as a single adult. You're saying, hey, I want things to be happening different than they're happening and I'm just discouraged. Maybe you're distracted. You know, it says in Luke chapter 10 about Martha. She was distracted with all her preparation. She was worried and bothered and maybe that's what you are today. Or maybe you are here and you're just kind of starting to doubt that God can use your life, can really use your life for something great. Well, I believe that the passage that we just read speaks to those situations. And it's convicting and it's encouraging all at the same time. When you understand what Jesus was teaching his followers, those who are called by his name, that they were salt and that they were light. So our question today is, why does he say that and what does that mean for us today? Three truths to encourage us, to convict us and to encourage us. Truth

number one, salt. You are the salt of the earth. Salt makes a profound impact on everything it touches. Salt is so key. There is nothing more useful than sun and salt. Now, we would say with the Romans, well, OK, we understand the sun is really critical. If the sun goes away, guess what? We're all dead. But if you don't have salt, if you don't have a certain amount of salt in your body, guess what? You're dead too. Sun and salt are critical. And the Lord says, you, speaking to his true followers, we don't know how many were there that day when he, when he spoke and preached the Sermon on the Mount. Several hundred, maybe even a thousand or more were there. And he's talking to those who belong to him, those who had put their faith and trust in him. You are the salt of the earth. Now, salt is critical to life. It is said that there are 14,000 uses for salt. But I just want to share four, four that are very critical. Fourteen thousand, we'd be here till prayer time Saturday night. So, four that are very important, that show us how salt, the physical salt, the actual chemical compound, NaCl, sodium chloride, is so important and how that relates to the Christian life. First of all, salt provides seasoning. We all know that. You know, if you eat something that is bland, what do you want to do? You want to salt it. My wife loves salt. She salts things before she ever tastes them. She just, she just looks at it and says, that needs more salt. How do you know that? I can just tell, it needs more salt. So, she salts it. Well, the Bible says in, in John… Can something tasteless be eaten without salt? Ask that question. Well, no, you need salt because salt enhances flavor and salt balances the taste. You know, I marvel at my wife when she's cooking because she doesn't really go by recipes. She just kind of has feel for things. And we were having a men's chili cook off a few years ago and you'd bring your chili. And so I was gonna pastor Jeff's chili and pastor Jeff can't cook anything. I mean, I do, I make a mean bowl of cereal.

That's about it. And so I said, Debbie, this is my chili but I really need it to be our chili. You know, the two shall become one flesh. So here, will you make it? And so she told me some stuff to do. Well, you're gonna have to do it. So she told us some things to do. And then she would say, okay, she would taste it. She said, it doesn't have enough salt. And she would start adding in all these seasonings and mostly it was salt because she just knew you have to have more salt. Salt provides seasoning. You know, in Leviticus 2 verse 13 talks about offerings to the Lord. Every grain offering was to be seasoned with salt. And really all the offerings that the Jews brought, they were to season those offerings with salt. And the reason being is salt was a symbol of an enduring covenant between God and his people. So salt is a seasoning, provides seasoning. Christians in the world provide seasoning to the world. You know, you can just imagine what's going to happen when the rapture hits and all the Christians are taken out of the world just like that, how this world will just go crazy. It'll be a horrible place and it will give rise to the Antichrist. So salt provides seasoning.

Number two, salt creates thirst. When you eat something that's salty, you get thirsty. There's just something in the property of the salt. Sodium chloride makes you thirsty. We had pizza yesterday, a big family event yesterday for our family in Tyler at my daughter Sarah's house. And we had pizza and the pizza was really good, but it was very salty. I got really, really thirsty because salt does that to you. It creates a thirst. That's why you can't drink salt water. I used to see these people in shows and things that somebody lost at sea and they're dying of thirst. And it's like the Shakespeare line, water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. You can't drink salt water to quench your thirst. It'll just make you more thirsty and it'll end up killing you. So as Christians, we are to create a thirst in this world for Jesus. As they see the way we live and our relationship with him, it makes them want to inquire as the Philippian jailer did to Paul and Silas, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You create that thirst in a person as they see Jesus in you. Thirdly, salt brings healing. It has medicinal properties to it. It's a natural antiseptic. When you get a sore throat, many do this, I do this, we start gargling with salt water

because there's something about the salt that brings healing. Now we also know about salt, if you have a cut and you put salt in there, it hurts. It burns in a wound. You know, if you cut yourself and then you go to the beach and you're in the salt water, that will burn. When we were in the Dead Sea, I was not feeling great when we went to the Dead Sea, so I didn't get in the Dead Sea, but those that got in the Dead Sea, you can only be in there for so long because the salt will really come at your skin and if you have any little nick or something like that, it will really burn. And I still remember one of our guys that went with us, he's taking the mud of the Dead Sea, he's rubbing it all over his body and it was really all that great fun until he started to have these little micro nicks all over himself and the Dead Sea salt was just killing him. He told me in the shower as he was cleaning off, he goes, I'm on fire here because that's what the salt water will do. But it does bring healing and as we speak the truth and love, that hurts and often our witness is going to hurt before it heals, but it is so important. And then the main thing that salt did, especially in the first century, salt preserves against corruption. Why was salt so critical?

Because they didn't have. And so, you would kill something and you had to eat it right then because you couldn't store the fish, you couldn't store the meat, you couldn't store a lamb. You had to eat it right then because immediately corruption comes. So salt staves off corruption. And it is critically important, especially in a time when there is no refrigeration. I ran across a story some years ago about a battle in the Civil War. This is October 2nd, 1864. It was in a small town in Virginia. The Union Army fighting the Confederates. In six hours, over 500 people died in this battle. And the battle was over salt. There was a salt works place where they were processing all the salt for the Confederate Army and the Union Army attacked them there and they fought to the death because they knew if we lose this salt manufacturing place, well we can't provide rations to the troops. We can't — it was also used, they used salt and gunpowder. We can't do that and this is critical. We have to fight to the death to not lose this salt works facility. Salt is critical. You know, if you can't feed your troops, you're in real trouble. And if you can't preserve the meat that will feed the troops, you're in serious, serious trouble. Genesis chapter 6 says this, when God called Noah to build the ark, he told Noah, now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth and behold, it was corrupt. It was rotting. It was decaying like bad meat. It was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. There wasn't enough salt for all the corruption. Interestingly, when the Lord came to Abraham and said he was going to check out, send his

two angels to check out Sodom and Gomorrah and two other cities that don't get as much play, Admah and Zeboim, but they were the four cities of the plain. And he was going to see, he said the wickedness has come up, I'm going to send my angels to see if it's as bad as what I have heard. And Abraham knew how bad it was, and Abraham knew that his nephew Lot lived there. And Abraham said to the Lord, Lord, what if 50 are righteous are there? You wouldn't destroy the city if you could find 50 righteous. And the Lord said, no, if I find 50 righteous, I won't destroy it. He said, what if the 50 lack five? What if it's only 45? He said, I won't destroy it for 45. He said, what if it's only 40? He said, I won't destroy it if I can find 40 righteous. He said, what about 30? And he said, I won't destroy it if I can find 30. He said, what about 20? He said, I won't destroy it if I can find 20. He said, Lord, I venture to speak one more time even though I am but dust and ashes. What if there's only 10? God said, I won't destroy those four cities if I can find 10 righteous people. But God did rain down fire and brimstone on Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, why? Because he couldn't find 10 righteous people. There wasn't enough salt for the corruption that was there. And he didn't need a lot of it, but he needed some, just 10 people in light of the thousands that lived in those four cities and he couldn't find it. Corruption was rampant and those cities were destroyed. Salt makes a profound impact on everything it touches. It preserves, it seasons, it creates thirst, it brings healing, it is critical. And the Lord says, you are the salt of the earth. Now truth number two, salt is virtually indestructible, but it can be contaminated.

You know, when you think about the chemical compound, NaCl, sodium chloride, that comes together and that compound doesn't want to come apart. It's virtually indestructible. Salt is always going to be salt. But Jesus said, if the salt becomes tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It's good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. So he asked himself the question. Well, wait a minute, how does salt become tasteless? Because salt is always salt, and salt always has a taste. Here is what happens, and this is what he meant when he was talking about salt becoming tasteless, and the people understood that. Salt could get contaminated with other things. The sodium chloride could get contaminated with other chloride and sulfate compounds, with magnesium sulfate or magnesium chloride, other salts. You know, the Dead Sea is not just sodium chloride, it's got other things in it. And if you get gypsum and other things in with the salt, it contaminates the salt, and then all of a sudden now, this pound that you had that you thought was pure salt is not. It's mixed with other things. The salt is still salty, but it's overrun by these other things, and he says it's good for nothing. You can't use that anymore. You can't use that to preserve your meat. You can't use that to season your food. You just have to throw it out. Let it, throw it on the road, let it be trampled underfoot by men. Now it's interesting, when it says that the salt has become tasteless, the word for tasteless in the Greek is moreno. Moreno comes from a root moros, which means a moral, I'm not making this up. It actually means a moral blockhead.

We get our English word moron from moros, and moreno is connected to that root moros. When the Bible uses moreno in Romans chapter 1 verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They became moral blockheads. Now it can mean tasteless, or it can mean being a moron. What do we do in the Christian life that could hurt our impact? Well, we get contaminated. We make foolish decisions, and we start letting the world come into our lives. You know, we're, Jesus said, I saved you out of this world and sent you back to this world to be a witness in this world. That's our only business in the world. We're like a boat in the ocean, a boat in the water, and that's good, that's fine. That's what we're supposed to be. It's fine if the boat is in the water. It's not fine, red alert, when the water gets in the boat. We all know about the Titanic, the iceberg ripped a hole, a gash in the hull of the ship, and everything was going good before it hit the iceberg. The boat was in the water, the ship was in the water, but then the water got in the ship, and that ship was going down. It is serious business when the water gets in the ship. So every Christian must be on guard against the world. The Bible says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. Paul said in Romans chapter 12, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So in the J.B. Phillips translation, it says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. The world is always trying to squeeze us into its mold. The world is — the water of the world is always trying to get into the boat. See, we are to make a difference in the culture, but the sad reality is the culture has made such a difference in the church. The water has gotten into the ship, into the boat, and the boat doesn't — it's gone down so much, and the church in the world doesn't have the effect. The church has gotten contaminated. So many Christians have gotten contaminated. Doesn't mean they're not salt anymore, it's just that means that they have played footsie with the world, and now they're contaminated and compromised, and there's so much other — So many other minerals in there with the sodium chloride that the salt has become tasteless. You know, James says in James 1 27, this is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. So, we have lots of people that want to come up right against the edge of the things of this world. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12, David Holder talked about this at Man Up on Thursday. They did a great job talking about that. It says, therefore, if anyone thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. You know, Adrian Rogers said he used to have a plaque on his desk that says, he who does not want to fall down shouldn't walk in slippery places. If you go right to the edge, guess what? The edge is a slippery slope. And so, the goal of the Christian life is to keep yourself unstained by the world. There's a man in Scripture, he's spoken of highly by the Apostle Paul in two different places in Scripture. His name was Demas. He's mentioned with the likes of Luke and Mark, but in the last epistle Paul ever wrote, in the last chapter he ever wrote before he got his head cut off, he said, Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. One of the wounds in his heart as a church planter was this guy Demas that he had poured into at the end when Paul needed him the most, when he needed people to be there for him

the most, Demas deserted him. Why? Because the world had gotten in. Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Salt is good, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Hey, a worldly Christian hurts the cause of Christ. If you let yourself get worldly and start to go with the way the culture is going, well, you don't help the cause of Christ, you hurt the cause of Christ, and the Lord can't use you. Doesn't mean you're not still salt, you are still salt, but you're salt that has been contaminated and your life doesn't have the impact that it once had. As Jesus said, your usefulness is gone. You're good for nothing anymore. The impact is gone. You know when Davis sinned with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet went to him and what he said to him was very significant. He said to him, 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 14, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that is born to you will die. Bathsheba, your illegitimate son with you in Bathsheba, that son is going to die because you've given occasion in your sin, you've given occasion for the enemies of God to blaspheme. When a Christian lets the water come into the ship, the unbelieving world just says, oh yeah, that's another one of those hypocritical Christians. That's another one of those phony baloney Christians. They're all like that. All they care about is money. They have problems with money, with sex, with power, with gossip, with this, with that, with the other. They're no different from me, yet they talk to me about how to live my life. Forget them all. There's nothing real about what they say. You give occasion for the enemies of God to blaspheme. A verse I like, Psalm 69 verse 6 from the pen of David, may those who wait for you not be ashamed through me, O Lord God of hosts. May those who seek you not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel. Now listen, none of us is perfect in his or her walk with the Lord, but we can be genuine, and we can walk in the light as he himself is in the light. Salt is virtually indestructible, but it can be contaminated. So, the Lord says, you are the salt of the earth. And then he says, you are the light of the world. Now, truth number three, light is desperately needed in a darkening world.

We need light. Nothing is more useful than sun and salt. And what did the sun do? The sun brought light. Verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Now every Christian has gone from darkness to light. When you talk to a true born again believer, they know exactly what it means to be in darkness and then to be in the light. It says in Colossians chapter 1, for he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom, into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8, for you were formerly darkness but now you are light and the Lord walk as children of light. We sing that song sometimes, I saw the light, I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night, now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight. Praise the Lord, I saw the light, amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind in the darkness but now I see in the light. So every Christian knows what that's like. We can relate to lost people because we know what it's like to be lost. We used to be there. Now it's harder when you got saved if your testimony is I got saved as a young child. You know because you're not as familiar with the darkness. Everybody has a testimony of I once was lost and now I'm found, was blind but now I see. But if you got saved when you're six or seven, it's hard to remember what life was like before that.

You know when I was six, I was really a terror but then I got saved. You know there's not really a testimony like that. I was robbing banks at six but at seven I really cleaned up my act. Now it's not like that. But now I got saved at 17, I know what the darkness is like. And then you see how the Lord delivers you from that. So every Christian has gone from darkness to light and every Christian must let the light shine. That's the command. You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, so let your light shine. And let it shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Now here is the pressure, the temptation. We are light in the Lord. But the pressure and the temptation, first of all, is to hide it. To hide the light. This is the light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No, I'm going to let it shine. Now Jesus said that. Hey, you're a city set on a hill. You can't hide a city on a hill. Why? Because the city on a hill, you see the different dwelling places and there's light in those dwelling places and it's up high. You know a city in a bunker somewhere, well yeah you can hide that but you can't hide a city set on a hill, but we try and do that. We're a city set on a hill. And we, what do we do? We take our lights and we put them under a peck measure.

Jesus said, well nobody would do that. Why would you do that? What's the point of lighting a light and then putting it under a basket? No you put it on a lamp stand. So it lights up the whole house. But the temptation is, and the pressure comes from the world, to hide it. To hide the light. We have to be careful with that. We hide because of fear. The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. Proverbs 29 verse 25. Now I was thinking about a song that was very popular, actually an album was very popular in Christian circles when I was in college. It was Amy Grant's album, My Father's Eyes. Amy Grant used to be this very sweet, beautiful, wholesome college girl who would just sing, play her acoustic guitar and sing. And she was just, I mean everybody was wanting to find out about Amy Grant, sing Amy Grant songs and things have changed since then. She's gotten water in the boat. But she had a song that I liked and it was one of those, you know, deep track songs. It was... one of those throwaway songs, but it was one of my favorite on that album, My Father's Eyes, and it was called Giggle. And the song said this, Giggle, giggle if you want to, but I know it's still true that he's always gonna love me. So just laugh out if you think I'm uncool, playing the part of a fool because I love him.

Don't you know that I love him? Oh, well, I do. When I'm in a sticky situation, sitting in a class at school, everybody's talking evolution, no one talks of you. My hand goes up. I don't want to be too pushy. My arm, it feels like lead, but there's such a joy they're missing saying God is dead. I have to stand up. I have to speak up because the conversation in my classroom is saying that God didn't create, that God is dead, and I have to stand up for him. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Now, why don't we stand up? Why don't we speak up? Because we're afraid. And we're afraid that people are gonna laugh at us. We're afraid that people will mock us and say bad things about us. So we put our light under a basket. Jesus said, don't do that. There's a temptation to hide the light. Don't hide the light, let it shine. And then don't sweat it.

Don't hide it and don't sweat it. Some people really sweat. They think, man, I gotta shine for Jesus. I'm gonna pray, Lord, help me to shine for Jesus. I'm gonna just pray that I could be this light for Jesus. Well, you are the light of the world. He has no other light. That you is emphatic in the Greek language. You and you alone are the salt of the earth. You and you alone are the light of the world. God has no other light. He lights through his bride, through his people. And so you don't have to pray, Lord, help me to be light. You are light because he lives inside. He who is the light of the world lives inside. You know, it says in him was light, was life, and the life was the light of men, John chapter one. And so when you receive Christ, you receive the Lord. And when the Lord comes in, the life comes in. And when the life comes in, the light comes on. And now you are light in the Lord. That's what Paul says. So walk as children of light. We don't have to pray, Lord, just, you know, give me more light. No, you are light. We just let our light shine. I had a Bible study teacher. He said, it doesn't say make your light so shine among men. It says, let your light so shine.

Just take it from underneath the bushel basket that you have it under, put it on the lamp stand. And guess what? It will shine. It will shine over the whole house. So don't get the idea that you, this is just some kind of effort. Lots of Christians fall into that trap. It's the performance trap. I gotta try and just effort this. You know, it's like you bear fruit. How does an apple tree bear apples? Well, it's not sitting there, sweating it out. Oh, what are you doing, apple tree? Oh, it's trying to get a piece of fruit out. You just abide in the vine. You just abide and then you produce fruit. And so we kind of complicate it. We make it much harder than it actually is. Let your light shine. Don't, you don't sweat it. But now here's the key. How do you do that? If I am salt, well, I got a guard against contamination from the world. But if I am light, well, now what do I have to do? I let my light shine. Well, how do I do that? Well, it requires courage. Every Christian must remember that shining takes courage.

If you don't have courage, you're gonna hide your light under a basket. You're not gonna raise your hand in class when people are laughing about the Lord. Everybody talking evolution, no one talks of you. My hand goes up. I don't wanna be too pushy. My arm, it feels like lead, but there's such a joy they're missing saying God is dead. You can giggle at me if you want to, but I'm gonna stand up and speak up for the Savior. And that takes courage. Joshua had to follow Moses and the Lord had to tell him repeatedly, have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. I like what Winston Churchill said about courage. He said, courage is rightly esteemed as the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others. If you don't have courage, you're not going to stand up when you need to stand up. And so, we desperately need courage. I like what it says in the Beatitudes, the last Beatitude of Matthew 5, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for your reward in heaven is great for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Jesus said in John chapter 3, this is the judgment that light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that

his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. Hey, we're light in a darkened and darkening world. And how do people respond to the light? Some will come to the light and some will run from the light. They hate the light because their deeds are evil. As Jesus said, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its deeds are evil. He was the light that shines and men said, no, I'd rather have my darkness than the light. But that is our job before the Lord, that they would see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Not everybody's going to do that, but that is our charge from the Lord, our commission from the Lord to be his witnesses and to shine and to share and to not be afraid. And when we are made fun of, that we remember, hey, we're blessed. That's what they did to the prophets who were before us. It's okay. It's okay if people make fun of you at school. It's okay. It's okay. You don't want to be obnoxious. You know, people can not like you because you're an obnoxious jerk. That's not okay. But if you're a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus Christ and people don't like you, okay. That's fine. I'm trying to please him. I'm not trying to please you. And Adrian Rogers once said, listen, if I please God, it doesn't matter whom I displease. But if I displease God, it doesn't matter whomever I please because my life will be a bust because I have to stand before the King one day and give an account of my life.

I want to hear him say, well done, my good and faithful slave. Well, let me close out with this. I was thinking through, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. We are those things. But here's how the devil works. He works to get you to forget who you are in Jesus. You know, I told you before about the movie, The Lion King, and how that one scene in The Lion King where Simba, the cub from Mufasa, the great king, you know, his dad dies. Simba feels like he's the cause of his dad's death. And he ends up living on the backside of nowhere, living with the pigs. And he has an encounter with a little priest-like monkey, Rafiki, remember Rafiki? He has a little knapsack. And he talks to Simba about his father. He goes, you knew my father? Correction, I know your father. He said, well, I hate to tell you this, but he's dead. He's gone. No, no, I will show you. And he takes him to this pond. And he says, look there. And Simba looks there. And he says to Rafiki, he says, that's not my father. That's me. And he goes, no, look harder. And he touches the water, remember that? And all of a sudden, he sees his dad. And his dad said to him, Simba, he says, father? He says, Simba, you have forgotten me. Oh no, I wouldn't do that.

Yes, you have forgotten me. Look how you are living. You are more than what you've become. You are my son and you have forgotten me. He said, remember who you are. And that's it. That vision fades away. He's just saying over and over. Remember, remember, remember, you are the salt of the earth. There is no other salt. It comes from Christians. You are the light of the world. If you're not going to shine, who's going to shine? Remember who you are. Remember why you are here. He saved you out of this world and sent you back to this world to be a witness in this world. That's our only business in this world. And suffer hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We need to remember who we are. Let me put up one last scripture before we close. Peter says this in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 9, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Hey, you are, that you may, that you may proclaim. You are the salt of the earth. So don't let yourself get contaminated by the things of this world.

And if you've fallen into the things of this world, here's the wonderful thing. Salt may not be able to be made tasteful again and salty again because it's corrupted with all those things. But you as a Christian, you can ask God to forgive you. You can ask God to cleanse you. You can have a fresh start in him that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord when we repent and come to him and we can shine. We can take the basket off. We can put our lives on the lampstand. We can say I want my life from this day forward. I want my life to count for Jesus Christ because I've been put on this earth that I may proclaim the excellencies of him who called me out of darkness into his marvelous light. Will you be faithful to stand up and to speak up as salt and as light? Now we come to the most important question of all. Have you turned from sin and selfishness and given your heart and life to Jesus? Listen, if not today is the day for you. Just pray this simple prayer from your heart Lord Jesus. I need you. I know that I'm a sinner and I can't save myself, but I believe Jesus that you are God in the flesh. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead and right now I ask you to forgive me and save me come into my life change me make me the person you want me to be I surrender my life to you and I promise to follow you all the days I have left now if you pray that kind of

prayer and mean it the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same. Listen, I would love to hear from you. So please contact me and share with me what's going on so we can pray for you. And if you are ever in the Texarkana area, we would love for you to visit us live and in person at FBC Texarkana. Listen, you really are important to God and you're important to us and we're here for you. Amen.