Being Salt and Light in an Upside-Down Kingdom

The world is lacking salt and light. The world is lacking people who actually live like Jesus. The the the Jesus didn't say and it's, you know, this isn't me saying this to try to make you feel guilty or to feel bad. This is just what Jesus said, and I'm just repeating what Jesus said. And if we're Christians, this is what Jesus said to us. Jesus didn't say go out and try to be the salt. He didn't say go out and work on becoming the light. He said, you are the light. You are the salt. You are the light. To me, this means that Jesus is saying this isn't an optional thing that we get to decide to whether we want to do it or not. This is you are the salt and you are the light, and this should be our identity as Christians. [00:54:03] (51 seconds)  #YouAreTheLight

So this week, don't just go to church, be the church. Walk into the world. Walk into your world with purpose. Speak with graced, grace, and stand with truth. Love when it's hard. Forgive when it's, well, unforgivable because here's the truth. We may be the only glimpse of Jesus that somebody may see this week. No pressure. Just say yes. So let's shine even when it's uncomfortable, even when it's inconvenient, even when it may cost you something because light always stands out in the darkness. [00:57:07] (48 seconds)  #BeTheChurch

And so I go to work and I'm telling the guys and and I got a bag and I'm like, this is just junk. Like, you guys might need to help me out. So one of the guys takes a spite bite of it and spits it out real quick. Says there's no salt. Oh, salt. That would probably be something that makes it taste better. And so what we see today is Jesus says that we're the salt of the world, that we are supposed to be salt. And we could go through all of the science of what salt is, but salt preserves what is decaying, and it also makes things taste better. [00:32:44] (42 seconds)  #SaltPreserves

So for three weeks, we've seen Jesus that describe the heart of the kingdom citizens. We see poor in spirit. We see those who mourn. We see the meek, hungry for your righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and the persecuted. Those are all characters of the kingdom. But Jesus doesn't stop there because when God changes the person on the inside, it begins to change how they impact the world around them. The beatitude is describes who we are. Salt and light describe what we do. Kingdom people influence the world. [00:31:10] (42 seconds)  #KingdomPeopleInfluence

You don't have to know the whole story. You just have to know the story that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and then it was resurrected on the third day. That's all you need to know. And it's not up to us to prove that. We just get to be the the salt. And and and if we're the salt and the light and people see that, they're like, they must really believe that. So the world does not and here's the thing is the world is not lacking opinions. Everybody has opinions. It's not lacking noise because there's a lot of noise. It's not lacking darkness because there's a lot of darkness. Here's what is lacking is salt and light. [00:53:16] (47 seconds)  #SaltAndLightNeeded

And I don't know about you, but I don't wanna be like that piece of jerky that tastes like an old shoe. And I don't wanna be hidden. I Because light that is hidden is pointless. And some and sometimes if we're honest, we just get really comfortable blending into the society and the things that are around us, and we like to play it safe. But Jesus didn't save you so we could just sit there. He saved us to shine. So take your light to work this week. Take your light to your family this week. Take your light to your community this week. Not because we're perfect people, but because we need to be real people, and we need to know then the world needs to know that we're surrendered to Christ, and that we're gonna be different. [00:56:16] (51 seconds)  #ShineEverywhere

So we see that authority when Jesus is speaking. At this mountain on Sinai, the law was written on a stone. It focused on behavior. But on this mountain that Jesus is on, it goes deeper. Moses said, do not murder. Jesus says, deal with your anger. Moses said, do not commit adultery. Jesus says, deal with your heart. And here's the shift. Moses gave a lot to follow. Jesus reveals a kingdom to belong to. The beatitudes don't say, do this to be blessed. What they say is, this is what blessed people look like. [00:27:06] (42 seconds)  #HeartOverLaw

So this is just leading us up. The purpose of shining is not attention on me. It's not worship. It's when people see our lives and they should see our lives and be drawn to god. They shouldn't be impressed with us. They should be impressed with god and they should see god's salt and god's light in our life that they say, that's what I want. And we need to point that to god. We need to point the salt and and and the light to god. We need to give god the glory. [00:45:31] (41 seconds)  #ShineToPointToGod