Be Salt, Be Light: Return to Your Identity

But the great tragedy of religion is to know the word of God and not live it. And sometimes what God wants to do is he wants to make things really simple again so that we would understand what it is we're called to do. Now we can have these verses on our phones as backgrounds. We can have them on the wall in our bedroom. We can have them in our mind. We know them, but but it means nothing unless we live it. Unless we live it. [00:02:54] (28 seconds)  #LiveTheWord

Now this is an enormous statement because in scripture, light belongs to God. Right? Genesis one, let there be light. God is the father of lights. And John in John eight says, I'm the light of the world. Jesus says to us. And he says, you, again, you are the light of the world. All of you. But but we need to be clear. Our light is reflected light. Like the moon, we don't generate it. We reflect it. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. You're not the source. You're the vessel. But some of us turn the light off. Some of us have dimmed our light. [00:15:28] (37 seconds)  #ReflectTheLight

The goal isn't that people see us. It's that through us they see him. The light has come into the world, and you don't manufacture light. You receive it. We receive it. Maybe we don't need to try harder. Maybe we just need to step closer. If we've we've drifted, returned. If you've never stepped in before, I'm gonna need a prayer in a moment you to say, I wanna step into the light of hope. [00:27:46] (26 seconds)  #SeeHimThroughUs

It's the light that brings hope, that covers all evil. It breaks through darkness. You might feel small. You might feel like a little light, but I tell you what, that light changes lives. Because it's not you. It's not me. It's not my words. It's the power of Jesus who will do whatever he wants whenever he wants when you make yourself available and you're obedient to seasoning people's lives of salt and shining the light that he already has put in you. And for some of us, we need to lift the basket again, church. [00:24:26] (41 seconds)  #LiftTheBasket

To have an impact, we have to get approximate. We have to get close. We have to sprinkle the salt. We we can't we can't just stay contained in the church. We can't just stay in our in our box at work. We can't just kind of put our life over here. This is this is my this is my church life. I'm just gonna contain it. No. We sprinkle it for people to see. We scatter our salt. We get proximate to people. We get close to people. [00:11:29] (45 seconds)  #GetProximate

He says to them, he says to us, you are. This is an identity. In other words, you are salt, so don't try harder to be more salty. In other words, not do more shining, but instead, this is who you are now. And over those four weeks of kind of time out, I I've had to as I've read these words, realize that it's it's not about what I'm doing. It's who I am. This is about being. [00:04:47] (31 seconds)  #IdentityNotPerformance

And Jesus adds this in the NIV. He says, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. There's something about that phrase, city on a hill. Because in the ancient world, people often traveled at night because of the heat. And so you'd look for towns built up on high mountains and hills because their lights actually became the GPS. They became the navigation. Jesus is saying your life is meant ultimately, church, to help someone find their way home. [00:16:30] (29 seconds)  #GuideHome

And I know some of you may be feeling crushed right now. I I pastor you, and I know some of you are in a challenging place right now. Some of you disappointed. Some of you are worn out. Some of you resentful. Some of you are tired, and the enemy in those moments will whisper to you, you've lost your edge, James. You're useless now. But Jesus says, you're still salt. You're still salt. So have we stayed in the bowl? Have we withdrawn? Have we blended, or are we distinct? [00:14:11] (32 seconds)  #StillSalt

And and someone asked me an an an understandable question at the time because I had the watch on my wrist. He said, what's the time? And I looked at my watch, and it said the time it says now, which is two minutes past eleven. And knowing it didn't tell the right time, I got out my phone to check the time. And then my friend very kindly just said to me, that's not a watch. That's a bracelet. [00:10:17] (27 seconds)  #GuardAgainstDrift

This word is interesting, isn't it? Because a lighthouse, you think about it, it stands, it shines. And and, actually, the reality is, though it doesn't chase the ships, it doesn't compete with the storm, it just stands and shines. That's what the church does. That's what we're called to. And someone out there right now, maybe even here this morning, has been scanning the horizon for light. Our job, the job of the lighthouse, is to stop people hitting the rocks. [00:18:35] (40 seconds)  #PreserveLife

And so in the same way that people of God, we're called to the same, to be agents of life, not death, hope, not despair, life to the full. When we're on the scene and when we're in our environments, actually, what needs to happen is darkness gets pushed back. We're carrying that seasoning that's bringing a difference. You hold back decay wherever you go. The soul of Jesus in you preserves what is good around you. [00:07:57] (29 seconds)  #AreYouSalt

Obviously, just so we're all aware, if someone calls you salty today, that is not a compliment. It's not a good thing. But in the ancient world, it was actually a massive compliment because salt was extraordinarily valuable. It was actually like currency. So Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, and this is where we get the word salary from. It's the words solarium. And so when Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, what he's saying is he's saying you're valuable. [00:06:43] (24 seconds)  #SteadyIntegrity

It's choosing integrity when it costs you. It's being steady when culture's reactive. That's salt. That's light. That's what we're called to be. It's people don't say you're impressive. I honestly, people don't say anyway about me, and I don't I don't want them to. You know, it's not that you're impressive. You're different. There's something different. Why are you happy? Why are you smiling? [00:26:53] (23 seconds)  #ResurrectionLight

And the beautiful thing is even if your light feels small, it's still light. Remember that song? This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine. I think the theology is wrong. Anyone else? This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Why why do we call it little? It isn't our light. It's his. And the light of Christ is not small. The light of Christ is resurrection light. It's the light that splits history in two. [00:23:48] (37 seconds)  #ReadyForOpposition

This isn't spoken to the applauded. This is spoken to the opposed, and you you will be opposed. I I generally believe as we see the lord move more and more and he is. Right? Bible sales are up. We're seeing awakening. God is moving. The church is growing. There's a fascination now. The persecution will come. It's the reality. And so are you ready to bring light and salt into your environments? [00:03:59] (29 seconds)  #RestoredIdentity

But what Jesus wants to do is he wants to restore us. He wants to reflect through us his glory, not our brokenness. And it's fascinating how he decides and wants to do that through these words. Because if you don't know who you are, you'll spend the whole of your life trying to work out who you are. So work out who you are. And the holy spirit, I pray today you'd remind us who we are. That before anything, that we are your sons, we are your daughters, that we are loved, that we're valued. [00:06:06] (34 seconds)  #TakeTheBasketOff

And I believe that this is an opportunity for us to shine. This is an opportunity for us to season. This is Jesus says to us, you are salt, so be salt. You are light, so be light. Bring direction, bring traction to each other, to one another, to help each other, to keep walking, to keep going. Sometimes you don't realize quite the impact you have on someone else's life through what it is you're doing and the way you're being with them. This week, how can you do that again? [00:22:01] (40 seconds)  #ReflectClearly

I believe God's in the business of helping us return or stepping into the light for the very first time. This isn't about saying, oh, Lord, help me to be more salty. It's recognizing the identity that we have, that we have a light to shine. But the truth is we're a bit like mirrors, aren't we? And God shines his light on us, and we reflect it to the world. But like a mirror, sometimes we can get distorted, and we reflect distortion. [00:05:35] (30 seconds)  #ForTheOverlooked

And the good news is he's not speaking here, Jesus, to the the spiritual elites. He's speaking to the tax collectors, the fishermen, the overlooked. Maybe you feel like that today. Maybe not a fisherman, but maybe overlooked. Maybe the ones that culture wouldn't have picked. Maybe not the influencers. Maybe that's you today. But Jesus says before anything else, you are. [00:04:28] (20 seconds)  #LeaveThingsBetter

So as as we salt as we salt, the places we go should become better because we're there. Are you leaving environments you're in better than when you arrived? Our present should make a difference. Salt preserves. It wasn't just for seasoning. In Jesus' day, and not until quite recently, there were no fridges, no freezers, and salt would basically prevent and slow down decay. [00:07:29] (27 seconds)  #EverydayLight