Salt and Light: Living the Upside-Down Kingdom

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. You don't the light, you carry the light. So again, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. [00:57:16] (49 seconds)  #CarryTheLight

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. So this week, don't just go to church, be the church. Walk into the world walk into your world with purpose. [00:56:25] (52 seconds)  #BeTheChurch

There's a lot of people that walk by some people every day, and they don't even look at them. They don't smile at them. They don't do anything to them. But if you're a Christian, the Bible is saying that you need to be the salt and the light into that person's life. Let your life third, let your life point someone towards Christ this week. Let your life point someone towards Christ. Say, well, that's I don't know enough of I don't know enough of the Bible to point somebody towards Christ. Well, Jesus didn't say go learn every word of the scripture. He says, be the salt and be the light of you're the salt of this earth and you're the light of the world. That's what he's saying is that we're that salt in that light. He doesn't say, go get a biblical degree in the Bible College and then go share, then go be the salt and go be the light. [00:52:07] (70 seconds)  #LiveSaltAndLight

Maybe you have a relationship that's maybe you're holding on to a grudge. Maybe they've done something to you that's really bad. And maybe you can bring that relationship back to life by being the salt in their life. So bring grace. Second, be light in one situation this week. Just be one one situation. That light. Maybe you're standing in in the store and you see somebody that that looks like maybe they're in the darkness. I mean, walk through our community. There's there's a lot of people living in the darkness, and and it's pretty pretty easy to see some of these people living in the darkness. One person, be that light. Just be that light. And, you know, sometimes just looking at them and smiling them and asking them, how's your day going? Could be a difference in their life. [00:50:54] (72 seconds)  #BeTheOneLight

Maybe you believe in God, but you you don't quite know if you belong to him yet. And so I think we need to be honest with ourselves that you can try to be a better person, you can try to clean things up in your life, and you can try to figure out life on your own, but deep down deep down inside, you already know that it's not working. Because the problem isn't just what you've done, it's your heart. And the bible says that we were dead to our sins. Not struggling with our sins or not improving, but the bible says that you, we were dead in our sins, and dead people don't fix themselves. Dead people don't just resurrect themselves, but that's why Jesus came. Not to make bad people better, but to make dead people alive. So this morning, if you don't know who Jesus is, I would ask that you make that decision to follow him this morning. [00:58:31] (67 seconds)  #AliveInChrist

Matthew five sixteen, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. And here's the here's the thing, is that they see our good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. 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. [00:44:15] (57 seconds)  #GloryToGodNotUs

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 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. So the real question is, do I believe this? The question is, am I living like this? You'll have to bring that one up with Jesus. [00:54:12] (67 seconds)  #IdentityInChrist

We need to ask ourselves, am I living like am I living like it? And this is the thing of it is it's a it's a decision that we have to make daily and and I'm not always the of the world. I can be salty sometimes. I can walk by that person sometimes that that looks like they're living in the darkness. I don't always say the right things. I don't always be behave the right way. I'm not always that salt, and I'm probably not always that light. But it's a decision that I have to to make every day. Do I I have to stop and do it? So I'm not trying to to anybody feel guilty and say you need to be like me. We all need to get better at being the the salt, and we all need to get better at being that light because salt that stays in the shaker is useless. And I don't know about you, but I don't wanna be like that piece of jerky that tastes like an old shoe. [00:55:20] (65 seconds)  #UseYourSalt