The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Salt and Light

Episode Date: April 26, 2020

We are not saved by our good works. We are saved by Christ’s finished work. However, we are saved FOR good works. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:8-10 For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For Disciple Group Curriculum please visit coe22.com/disciplegroups

Amen and amen. You guys can be seated. Hopefully you stood up at home for the reading of God's word also. If you got your Bibles, we are going to be in Matthew Chapter 5. I don't really have an intro. Page 12 in your journal. If you haven't downloaded that yet, go ahead and do so. And we're going to dive right in. Even if you're brand new to Bible study, you're going to hear some familiar terminology in what we study in our time together. And I want to just point out, I kind of skipped over this last week, that when Jesus teaches the best sermon ever known as a sermon on the Mount, It says this, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So what we're going to talk about in our time together is how a disciple ought to act.

Last week we went through the beatitudes. That means that we are saved by grace, but if the grace train runs over you, then it changes the way that we act. And so the rest of the sermon on the mount is about this kingdom ethic, or what are the symptoms of a gospel-infected life. And the reason I point this out is because I am primarily going to be talking to disciples of Jesus Christ. However, just like the sermon on the mount, you realize when you get to the end that there's

this huge crowd listening in on this sermon to disciples on how to be a disciple. And so here's what I know is going on really all over the country and all over the world. There are some of you that are tuning in every week and you've been a Christian a long time and you already had your Bible open to Matthew chapter 5, praise God. And then there's a bunch of you kind of kicking the tires and figuring out, is this Jesus thing real? And what do I think about it? Well, just like the sermon on the mount,

there were people that believed in Jesus and trying to figure out what they believed about Jesus. And so no matter who you are or where you are, you're in the right place, because the Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Real quick, last week, Jesus starts this sermon on the Mount with the beatitudes. And again, they are not eight separate circumstantial blessings. Like if you're pure in heart, you've got a blessing, and if you're meek, you get a blessing, and if you're mourning, you get a blessing. That's not what it is.

Jesus essentially rolls out the gospel by saying it starts with, blessed are you when you're poor in spirit, blessed are you when you get to the place in your life that you realize you're spiritually bankrupt. because the kingdom of heaven is with it grasp there. And it goes all the way to, blessed are those who live their life with such a kingdom ethic that we don't value the things that the world values. Therefore, this world devalues us.

Blessed are you when you're persecuted. And praise God, last week, 35 people watching online surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen? Praise God. Praise God. Now, after Jesus, Jesus firmly established that we are not saved by our works,

that salvation doesn't mean that we like turn over a new leaf, but it means that we turn over our life to God. We are meek that we turn over the reins of our life to our master. Now what he's going to do is he's going to say, therefore this is how you should act. He establishes, you're not saved by works. Now get to work. This is how this goes.

And so even if you're new to Bible study, you've heard this before. If you've ever heard somebody described as, that person is the salt of the earth. It comes from this part of the sermon. Or if you've ever sung the song, this little line of mine, I'm going to let it shine. It comes from this part of the sermon. Jesus says this, you are the salt of the earth. Now notice, real quick, Jesus starts with identity before activity. He doesn't say, if you're a Christian, if you're a Jesus follower, if you've surrendered your life to Christ, you ought to be the salt of the earth. That's not what he says. He says, you are the salt of the earth. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means a bunch of things. In the first century, salt primarily was to preserve meat and fish. And so in other words, what he's saying is, you live in this crooked and depraved and and, and, and,

rotting society and culture, and a part of the job of the Jesus followers is to preserve the culture from decay. So here's what this means for us as a church and for every believer, is that we are to fight against all things in our culture that are not God's way, that we are to fight against things like hate and injustice and racism, that we are to fight for the least of these, like the homeless and the mentally ill and special needs, and. and the unborn, anywhere that God's way is being undermined, that Christians are like salt in this earth to help preserve God's common grace for all people.

It's a part of what we have been called to do. Another thing that salt does is salt makes you thirsty, and as believers in Jesus, we are supposed to live in such a way that people would look at us and be thirsty for the Lord. One of my favorite things that salt does is salt makes everything taste better. Amen? Amen. And if you don't like salt, you're a communist or something. I don't know what's wrong with you, okay?

Salt on everything. And what's crazy is if you just tasted salt by itself, you would think this would ruin everything. Like nobody eats a bowl of salt. But then you put a little bit of salt on all food and it brings out the flavors in that food. I think a part of what Jesus is saying here is Christians, the way that you live your life, should demonstrate to this entire world that you have a good, good father that loves to give good gifts to his kids, that you have a good shepherd. And following this good shepherd, he has given us life and given it abundantly.

In other words, Christians, we are supposed to put on display to this world that we enjoy life better than everybody else on the planet. Do you realize that if you're a believer in Jesus, then we should enjoy life better? this life better than everybody else and the reason is because our enjoyment does not terminate on itself i've talked about this all the time like when we eat food the other the other day we have been quarantining with our neighbors okay we started this was our safe group and and so we can kind of get together we stay six feet apart but the other day we did a low country bowl you ever done one of those glory to god let me tell you how good god is god invented the idea of sausage corn red potato shrimp, cocktail sauce, butter, and lots of salt.

And that all comes together in this concoction. Now let me just tell you, when a pagan eats it, all they can do is enjoy the shrimp for the sake of the shrimp. That's it. That's as high as their praise can go. But when Christians get together and make a low country boil, not only can they understand that we serve the God of the shrimp, and the sausage, praise God. But God also has placed me in a certain place in my life. And these humans that are standing around in my backyard are not just random people that I get

along with, but they're actually God's anointed people in my life that he put there as my friends and brothers and sisters in him. And so then when that kind of thing happens, it doesn't just terminate on itself, but it lifts something in me and stirs something in me that Christians. give glory to God. And what it means also to be the salt of the earth is this, is you don't just give glory to God when it's going

good for you. But even and especially in the bad times, you can say, I have learned the secret of being content in every situation. And people look at you and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's just different. Not only that, I think that

our church, like so individually we should be sought, but also corporately as a church, our church, the Church of 1122, should make our community better just because we are here. And so one of the ways we're going to do that, again, Wednesday, April the 29th, one of the great needs because of all the COVID-19 stuff is that hospitals are really low on blood. And so we're going to partner again with one blood Wednesday, April of the 29th, that all campuses from 12 to 6.

Go to COE22.com slash local outreach. You can sign up. last time we gave enough blood to save over 500 people, and I think it just is a really good message for Christians to be giving blood. It just makes sense to me, theologically. So go and do that. And I will say our church is making a difference in this community. Even in this crazy corona time that we're in,

our city leaders reach out to us, and we partner together with them to make this city a better place. I think this is a part of what he means when he says that you are the salt of the earth. but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. Now, I think what Jesus is saying is one he's saying,

a non-salty salt is useless. Like if salt was just had the color, but not the taste, it's worthless. And here's what he's saying. He says it's useless. In other words, if you are a Christian but don't act like one, it's useless. That just doesn't make any sense. Salt without the taste of salt, what use is it?

Now, salt in and of itself, I don't think it can lose the taste, but the way they would get salt in the first century is most of the salt came from the Dead Sea area. It was super salty. They would get these branches and leaves and stuff that was saturated in the Dead Sea. and they would bring that there to their house, and they would use the branch, and they would, like, put it on the meat, and eventually the salt would run out.

And when the salt ran out from the branch, then they would put it on their roof, and people would, if you've ever been to Jerusalem, you can see it's like stacked houses. It's kind of weird. And it would just be thrown out for people to walk on. Well, here is what I think he's saying, is that God didn't save you and sought you,

to sit in a church. That's not why he salted you. That God didn't save you just so one day you can go to the sweet by and by. But God has a purpose and a plan for you to demonstrate and display his gospel on this earth. And it's happening right now. We are in the year of scent,

even though the whole world's shut down. The sending has not been shut down. We just hosted a digital mission trip a couple weeks ago or last week. We had 10 people sign up in our church, and they helped one of our church plants that's going to be happening in Montana build all of our church planners, social media, website, all of that kind of stuff. Another church in Daytona saw us doing that, so they're going to do a digital mission trip. Also, in addition to that, this year, we've had 505 people sign up for a short-term mission trip. That's more than we've ever had before.

15 people have signed up since the quarantine began, praise God. The giving towards our trips are still happening. Some of the trips have to be rescheduled, but the vast majority of people are still going to go on those rescheduled trips. We just had a trip, get back right before the world shut down, got back from Scotland, and some of our folks were partnering with one of our church plants in Scotland. This church plant in Scotland has been praying that they would get a facility.

Right now they're kind of in a borrowed facility. they've been trying to do this for years. Our Scottish mission trip, kind of like Joshua, they went and they walked around the building. I don't know if they did it seven times and blessed it a trumpet, but they prayed and prayed and prayed. And then the very next day, the church, that church they were trying to buy, the facility they were trying to buy,

they received their offer and said yes, and that thing is moving through. So things are still happening and still going. So praise God. You see, in order for salt to work, think about this. We're going to go first century now. The salt in your salt shaker is useless if it always stays in the salt shaker. And the point of salt is not just the salt and other salt. Other salt doesn't need the salt.

What needs salt is like french fries without salt or meat that needs to be preserved. And it's not until it is scattered that it actually is useful and makes sense. So in a very similar way, we gather together physically when we can, line right now for sure. We gather together. We get all salted up right with the Holy Spirit. And then we are scattered to wherever he sends us for the purpose of doing his work. So he says, you're the salt of the earth. I was going to go on to another illustration. You are the light of the world. Again, identity precedes activity. He does not say, all right, now that you're a Christian, you ought to be light. He says, you are light. You are

You are the light of the world. What does light do? Light pushes back darkness. We live in a dark world. Let me ask you this question. Where is your world lit up because God placed you there? Like in your job, in your home, in your neighborhood, in your school, wherever it is. Is there light there because you are there?

Because Jesus says that you are the life. light of the world. Then he says, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. In fact, this phrase is really talking about Israel in the old covenant. In the Old Testament, God said that Israel would be holy, would be set apart. And their set apartness would be like a city on a hill. And everyone in this world would look at them and look at their distinctiveness from this world and begin to think, you must have a mighty God because of the way that you live and trust him. And so he says, a city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. This is very important.

The church exists for the glory of God to put on display to people his glory so that they would be drawn to him. In other words, the church does not exist for the church. Like, you light a light in a dark room to bring light. You put salt on stuff that needs salt. Sometimes, oftentimes, what church has a tendency to do is church has a tendency to turn inward. And to only be concerned about itself. And again, when you're doing that, you're just salting the salt. that doesn't make sense.

When you're doing that, you're just lighting a light where there's already light. That doesn't make sense. Salt has to be scattered. Light has to shine in dark places. If you take a flashlight, in order for a flashlight to work, you don't shine it at you. It just illuminates you. And at the same time, blinds you. What you do with a lantern or a light is you shine it away from you.

Church of 1122, let me give you a little warm. morning. I think God is doing something and stirring something through this COVID-19 quarantine thing. It seems to me that there is a spiritual hunger and thirst that's kind of rumbling in our country. Even if we just look at the amount of people that are logging on and watching and checking out the divos and all of this. And it's not just true of the Church of 1122 as I talk to all of my pastor buddies around the country right now. There are exponentially more people that are that are sitting under gospel teaching now than was before this happened. Let me give you a warning.

When we're able to open the doors again and everybody gets to come back, we need to be prepared because I believe there's a whole bunch of people that are watching online right now that are going to walk into our doors in a few weeks or whenever that is. And if we treat this thing like a family reunion, if everybody's just so excited to see everybody that we already know, I think we'll miss God's opportunity for what he is establishing for us and we won't be a light and we won't be salt. We'll just all be stuck together in the salt shaker and it didn't be good to be back in the salt shaker? No. No, no, no, no, no. So as we get back together, it is not a family reunion. It is an outreach because I promise

you there are going to be hundreds, if not thousands of people at all of our campuses that have been attending online and checking it out online and now they're going to walk through the door and we have to be ready. Do not shine the light in your face. You see, God didn't save you for you to not display Christ to this world. And you see, the kind of light that we are, we have two primary lights in the sky.

We have the sun and the moon. The sun is a source of light, and the moon reflects light. We are supposed to be the kind of light like the moon is light. Like them, when people see us, They don't so much see us, but they see a reflection of the source of light, which is Jesus. Jesus says he was the light of the world, and then he says you are the light of the world.

In and of ourselves, we don't have that light, but that we are to reflect him. So if this is the case, if you are the light of the world, and you are not displaying that light, then why? Well, he says because Jesus lit you up and you got a basket over it. That doesn't even make sense. Well, then, what are some of the baskets that cover the light of believers? I think one's pride. I think we get confused on what Jesus means when he says we are the light, and we try to play the role of the sun instead of playing the role of the moon,

instead of reflecting light to make everything about him. We try to be the light and be the center of attention so everybody will look at us. In fact, I'm going to jump ahead just a little bit. When we get to chapter 6, Jesus is going to say, don't do your good works in front of men. Right after in this chapter, we've already heard it read, he says, do your good works in front of men that they would see your good works and glorified God. But then in chapter 6 he says, don't do good works in front of men.

What's he saying here? That our motivations matter. And then oftentimes the reason people can't see the light of Jesus in us is because we love the spotlight way too much and we make it all about us. I think another basket that covers our light is fear. Primarily the applause of man. The reason that we don't step out boldly in our faith and do things like share our faith is because we're so afraid

of what people might think about us. Consider this for just a second. Imagine you were having a conversation with one of the apostles. Pick any of them, say, Judas, okay? Imagine you're talking to Paul or John or Matthew, any of them, right? Peter. And you were trying, we, me, we were trying to explain to the Apostle Paul why we find it difficult to share our faith with our neighbors in our neighborhoods. because you would say, yeah, I mean, okay, I get the great commission, I've read it, I got Acts

18, I will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon me, and I will be a witness starting right here in my neighborhood. But the reason I don't, and the Apostle Paul is like, oh, I get it, persecution. Like if you share your faith, they'll feed you to the lions? No. Oh, I get it. Oh, so if you're vocal with your faith, then they'll put your family in prison? No. So if you, share your faith, then you'll lose your job. No, it's just kind of awkward. Paul would be like, huh? I don't even think he would have a category

for what, how hung up we are on what they think about us. This is why Paul would say, am I trying to win the approval of God or man? and it can be a basket for us. I think another way that we hide our light is this. This might be the biggest one. We're just distracted.

We're just so distracted. I don't think anybody that loves Jesus wakes up one day and thinks, I just want to neglect everybody on the planet that doesn't know Jesus yet. I think we just wake up and don't think about them at all. Because we're so quickly and easily distracted by all the shiny things in this world. And we begin to think, we begin to act, we begin to value the things that the world values, and the reason that our light's not shining is because our light is indistinguishable from the values of this world. John Piper says this.

He says, life is war. This is from his book, Don't Waste Your Life. I quoted a lot because I love it a lot. He says, life is war. That's not all it is. it is always that. I don't know what that means. That's the John Piper kind of line right there, okay? Life is war. That's not all it is, but it is always that. Our weakness and prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the

church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It's not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den. God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world. Prayer gives us the significance of frontline forces and gives God the glory of a limitless provider. The one who gives the power gets the glory. Thus, prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with endless grace for every need. Then he goes on to say, but I am wired by nature. to love the same toys that the world loves.

And I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start calling Earth home. And before you know it, I'm calling luxuries needs. And I'm using my money just the way unbelievers do. And I began to forget the war. I don't think much about people perishing missions and unreached people drop out of my mind.

And I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. and I sink into a secular mindset that looks first to what man can do, not to what God can do. It is a terrible sickness, and I thank God for those who have forced me again and again towards a wartime mindset. Look, Jesus is saying that we are at war for the souls of men and women. And when you're at war, you change everything. I mean, the greatest generation in World War II understanding there's a great evil that is attacking freedom, and for that sake, they leveraged everything for the sake of winning the greater war. And as important as that is in human history, it is nothing compared to the eternal war

that is being ways for the souls of mankind. And yet we think, oh no, I'm just going to use my money for me because more is mine. And we forget, we forget that we are the light of the world. and if we don't shine God's light in dark places in this world, how will they ever, ever, ever see? And we get so comfortable. And Jesus would say that it doesn't make any sense. Saltless salt and a light not shining is useless.

Don't be a useless Christian. See, there are so many times as Christians that we can be practical atheists. Practically, I mean, Theologically Christian, believe it. Substitutionary atonement. Can believe it counted for me? For sure. But in the practicalities of our life, there is no salt and there's no light. And Jesus would say, that doesn't even make any sense. So he goes on to say, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who was in heaven.

All right. I'm going to be honest. I've been struggling with that line. all week until today. And here's why. Initially, the sermon was done, and then I thought of something else. So it might be long. It's not my fault.

So my initial reading of this is, okay, so do good works, and when people see you do good works, then they'll see you do good works and give glory to God, right? And then I thought, so I made a list. I was like, so what kind of good works could you do? Maybe phone a friend or sign up for a short-term trip or one day serve at the church again or, you know, give blood. You should, all those things were good. Except, all right, like last time we did the blood give thing, right?

We filled it up. We couldn't take any more people. It was great. I don't know anybody that got saved through that. I don't know any, I don't know one blood drive worker that you walked in and you were like, I would like to give blood. And they were like, tell me of your father in heaven. Because there's lots of people that do all kind of nice things for people. and how do you associate kindness to the glory of God?

Which led me to say, okay, God, what am I missing here? What am I missing? What am I missing? Okay, so there's a problem with Bible teachers like me. And that we, like this sermon on the mount, this sermon series that we're doing, we're taking 13 weeks to do a sermon that Jesus did in one talk. See what I mean? And sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.

Now, I will tell you, I think it's a really good idea to do deep dives into every word of scripture without a doubt. But sometimes you've got to back up from it so you can see what we're talking about. And what I mean is this. I think it's sometimes it's unfortunate. Let me show you my Bible, my extra large Bible. The little headings here sometimes can make us miss maybe Jesus' intention for what he's saying. So the way my mind works when I'm preparing sermons is this, beatitudes. See, beatitude starts here and it ends there.

Boom, week one. Salt and light. Salt and light starts here. And what I was doing all week when I was studying is I did not have the beatitudes in mind. What if, if you read this in context, what if the salt and the light that Jesus is talking about is not just us doing good things for the sake of making our community better and all that? But what if the light that would shine, what if your good works that people would see and they would associate those good works with glory to the Father who is in heaven? What if it's actually what Jesus talked about in the beatitudes? Hear it in context.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utterance. all kinds of evil against you, falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand

and it gives light to all in the house. And in the same way, let your light shine before others. So that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in habit. In other words, maybe it's not when we do kind things. We should be kind, for sure, we should be nice, we should make our city better. Those are the kind of things. But what if the good works here are simply this? That when you're getting beaten up by this world,

when you're getting beaten down by COVID-19, When you're getting beaten down because you've been put on furlough or you lost your job, when you're getting beaten down because somebody you know and you love are sick, when you're getting beaten down because you didn't get any help, you didn't get a check coming in, and you are looking at your bank account and you're looking at your bills and you think, ah, something's got to happen here. And yet in those moments, other people see that you are actually rejoicing in being glad

because your reward is greater in heaven. In other words, what if the light that actually shines is when we as believers believe and act like we have a treasure that is greater than any treasure that is here on this planet? What if that's the fundamental good work that we do? Not just that we cut our neighbor's grass, and you should cut your neighbor's grass, for sure.

You do all those nice things. But I don't know that somebody's going to cut the grass and somebody sees you cut the grass and say, Can you tell me of this hope that you have found? Has anybody ever asked you the first Peter 315 question? Because Peter says, be ready when somebody asked you to describe the hope that you found in Christ. And I think the reason nobody asks us this is because our values are the same as this world. But blessed are you when the stock market dives and somehow you have a trust in something is greater than the Dow Jones.

because I think people see that. Look, people are not going to see your successes and follow Jesus because of them. That's not how it works. That's a part of the heresy of the prosperity gospel. Jesus promises that if you follow me, it doesn't go better for you. It gets a whole lot worse for you. And what makes people look at you and give glory to God is when you have a treasure, that's not what this world treasures.

And I think people see that. People see you lose what's most precious. And go, how? I don't think I could go through it. And you go, I don't know how I did either. It's the craziest thing in the world. It's like I had this peace that surpasses all understanding. And as painful as that is, I understand that I have a reward

in heaven that is even greater than anything this world can offer me. And you let somebody see that. And I think you shine. I think you shine. You see, that's different, isn't it? That's different than be nice to your coworker and they might get saved. I think it's more like when you're getting beaten down in this world and your true allegiance, is it to your own comfort but to the king of kings and you know that he rules

and reigns. And as bad as it gets, as bad as it gets, as bad as it gets, you understand that he's still got the whole world in his hands. And when people see that, that's when they scratch their head and say, hey, what's up? I don't understand. I just got an email that a hundred of us are getting laid off here. But how do you seem to be okay? And you're like, well, listen, I'm not saying it's okay.

It doesn't feel okay. But I've learned the secret of being content in every situation. Because my God is in control. and he's my dad. And even though I don't understand, he can handle it. And I treasure him more than I treasure any of the treasures that this temporary world has to offer. And we begin to act like that, then our light will shine. One of my favorite verses, especially because I did student ministry for so long,

it's Philippians 214. I made every student memorize Philippians 214 before every trip that we did. I memorized it in the NIV. It simply says this, do everything without complete. complaining or arguing. That's what it says. Very short verse. I love it. I've had my children memorize it in three different translations. Do everything without complaining or arguing. When they begin to complain and argue, I go, hey, does this fall in the everything category? Oh, it does. So stop, okay? There's a promise on the back end of it. Do everything without complaining and arguing, and you will shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation. Now, the context matters. Earlier in Philippians chapter 2, The Apostle Paul says that our mindset, that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he humbled himself, dressed himself as a servant, put on flesh, and was obedient even to death on a cross.

And in that context, all of Philippians 2 is about considering others better than yourself. Don't look at your own interests, but look at the interest of others. See the example of Jesus. He was obedient to death on a cross, persecuted. And in that context, Paul says, you want to shine like a star and a crooked and depraved generation? Then watch your mouth. When it is not going your way, do everything without complaining or argument.

So listen, do you want to be salt in this community right now? You want to be light in this world right now? don't complain about quarantine. I know everybody is, and I know it's a pain. But when we complain and grumble, then we just have the same value system as everybody else. But when we just keep your mouth shut about that, and we trust that God is in control,

and you don't complain and grumble about your job. I'm not saying you don't consider it, but you bring that stuff to the Lord in prayer instead of bringing it to Twitter, to let everybody complain and argue with it. Fundamentally different. And when everybody else is complaining and arguing about, you name it, and they see in you a fundamentally different value system

that values the treasure and the ultimate treasure here is not a mansion in heaven and streets of gold. No, no, no. The ultimate treasure is that you get Jesus and that he is more than enough, and that he is the secret of being content in every situation. I'm telling you, when you don't complain about the quarantine and money and job, now you pray about it for sure, then people will say,

bro, what's up with you? What's up with you? I don't understand, and you're like, yeah. You see, I trust my king still has the whole world in his hands. And though I don't understand our circumstances completely right now, I do know this. I know that he's never been surprised. Nothing's over his head. Nothing's out of his control.

And I know that he loves me because he's demonstrated it already. That even while I was still a sinner, that Christ died for me. And that gives me, that gives me this peace at the soul level, not because my circumstances have changed. But the sovereign king is my dad. And you do that. And I'm telling you, you'll be salt. And you'll be light. And people will see your good works.

People will see you going through tough times and being beaten up by this world and valuing something differently than this world values. And then they may give glory to your father who is in heaven. And then Jesus keeps going. And he says, don't think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. You see, Jesus is such the master teacher.

He's going to kick off the sermon on the mount with the gospel. It's not about your good works. Blessed are the poor and spirit, those of us that realize that we are spiritually bankrupt. Blesser you when God begins to regenerate your horn and your heart and you mourn over your sin. Blessed are you when you hand over the reins of your life to him, and blessed are you when God sanctifies you because he loves you too much to leave you right where you are. And then he says, and the salt and light thing, so get to work, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That if God has saved you, then the way you live should be different and the way you live should affect the world.

And now he's going to take us back to the scriptures. Don't think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. That was his way of saying the Bible. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. In other words, do not be confused here. Jesus is saying, this whole book is about me. This whole book points to me. And he's saying, not only in my birth did I fulfill all of the prophecies about me.

But in my life, my death, and my resurrection, I will fulfill all of the prophecies about me. resurrection, I will fulfill all of the requirements of a holy and just God. Now here's the thing. Some people, liberal denominations have taken the sermon on the mount and said, this is all that matters. The good works that we do in our community. And in doing so, what they do is they move away from the Bible, which in the sermon on the mount, Jesus says to move away from the Bible is to move away from me.

So what Jesus, this master teacher does is he does not, he does not have this false dichotomy of right thinking and right practice. He says it's both that he has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the law until all. All is accomplished. Essentially, Jesus is saying, hey, look, you don't break God's law. You just break yourself against it.

And what is required when we break the law is punishment. Why? Because God is a just judge. And for God to overlook our sin, that would, by definition, make him an unjust judge. His character, his holiness, his righteousness. would not allow him to say, ah, don't worry about that. And it's not just the things that we do, but it's the sins that we sin against God with,

which is every single sin. I've told you this a thousand times. It's not just the crime, but it's the victim of the crime that determines your punishment, right? You get mad, you kick your car. That's not awesome. We're going to get to that next week, about anger in your heart.

But your car is not going to be. sue you. You probably shouldn't do that. You go home, you kick your dog, that's worse than the car, okay? But still, I don't know, you probably get arrested these days for that. You kick the cat, it's not a sin, we've all, that's established. You kick your wife going to jail. You kick the pope, you're going to purgatory. I don't know where you go, okay? Kick the president, they'll kill you. I mean, that's just what happens. So when we sin against an almighty, eternal God, it requires an everlasting and eternal punishment. And Jesus says, Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the law until it's accomplished.

And on the cross, he pushes up on his nail-pierced feet. And that's what he's saying. It is finished. It has been accomplished. Not only all of the predictions about his life, death, and resurrection, but the fulfillment of the requirement of a holy and just God for unjust and unholy people to stand. in his presence, Jesus says, that debt has been paid in full. To Telestai is what that is. And he says, that is going to happen.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Listen, sometimes people that hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ can hear it as a license to sin. And if that's how you hear it, you're not hearing it right. That a lot of gospel preachers, grace-centered preachers, are often accused of being, all y'all just light on sin. No, no.

Our sin is a really, really big deal. Your sin is a really big deal. My sin is a really big deal. I believe my sin is such a big deal, that your sin is such a big deal, that it killed Jesus. That Jesus Christ had to die on a cross. He lived a perfect life. He died of a sinner's death because that was the requirement in the eyes of a righteous and holy judge for our sin to be blotted out. The sin is a really, really big deal.

However, there is no sin that is greater than God's grace poured out at the cross. In fact, the cross itself is the intersection between the justice of God and the love of God for his lost children. It is the intersection between all sin must be paid for and the fact that Jesus is the just and the justifier. And so with that in mind, Jesus utters these words. words, this is crazy. Right when you think, I got a lot of work to do.

I mean, I got to up my salt game, something serious. I don't know what I've done in my neighborhood to preserve the decay of my neighborhood. I got to shine some more light because there's some serious darkness in this world and I ain't doing nothing about it. I've just been watching Netflix a lot and I got to seriously do some more light. And I better hurry up and be persecuted so that I can demonstrate to everybody that Jesus is more than my comfort, okay? And right when you get to this kind of thing, and then Jesus is like, not a dot or an iota, and you're like, oh my goodness, this feels heavy, heavy, heavy.

And then Jesus lays out the absolute impossible for I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And you think, well, then I, well, that's impossible. Jesus is saying, right, right. If you think this is about how good you are, then you have to be better than those professional do-gooders. Y'all, the scribes and the Pharisees, they were professional good people. That's what they did.

The Pharisees' job was to study the Bible. They had the entire thing memorized from the very beginning to the book of Malachi. That's all they had at that point. They memorized it. And there's about 613 laws in the Old Testament. And what the Pharisees would do, Pharisee means separated one. And so they took the holiness of God very, very seriously.

And they looked at the law of God and they said, okay, we don't want to break the law of God. So they made up rules about the rules to make sure that they didn't break a rule. It's classic legalism. Anybody grow up like that? Like, you're not supposed to come. cuss. And so

in my house, even though we didn't even go to church, but in my house, we couldn't say words that were like similar to the cuss words. Like, darn it, was not allowed in my house. And I remember thinking, we don't even church people. We should just cuss like sailors. Dad, you were a sailor. He's in the Navy. I don't understand. But that was it, okay? That's what the Pharisees did. They had laws. How about the laws?

The Bible says, don't get drunk. So in Ryan Stone's house, not only did they not drink beer, that he was not allowed to get the root beer that looked like the beer bottle. He literally was not allowed at like a fountain drink place. You couldn't mix the drinks because that was a mixed drink. Literally. Okay, so that's Pharisee right there. Okay, I love the stones, but that's still Pharisee.

All right. So this is what they did. This is what they do. And they believed that if they could keep themselves right before God, By not breaking any of the rules that they would be set up to not be polluted by this corrupt and evil world, that when the Messiah showed up on the scene, they would be the first to recognize them because they were so religiously right. And they're listening to the sermon. In fact, they probably thought this line was a positive about them.

And the crazy thing is, is they are. three feet from the very son of God. They could smell the breath of God that breathed life into their lungs, and they didn't even recognize them because they were caught up in their own self-righteousness. And so when Jesus says, unless your righteousness, unless your right activity is better than the best of the best of the best of the best, unless it exceeds that, there's no chance for you, which is just to remind everybody, I believe, of the way his whole sermon started. so blessed are you when you hear that's the standard

a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and blessed are you if you say well I'm spiritually bankrupt there's no way I can pull that off what do I do Jesus and he goes yeah you bring that to me come to me come to me because I'm going to do for you what you could never do for you and God is going to make Jesus sin not a not a verb he's going to make him to be sin

on the cross so that we who are sinners for anybody that would trust, not in our own righteousness, would trust in his righteousness, that we would be made the righteousness of Christ. You see, for anybody that would believe that when Jesus died on the cross,

somehow that counted for me. Now, what the sermon on the mount is, it is not another law to replace the law. law of the Ten Commandments. It is not another impossible sermon, and once again we can't live up to this one either, but it is just a reminder of Christ living in us how it changes how we all live. And when we do that, we're salt. We change the world and we're light. We push back darkness. Because we don't do it on our own righteousness. We stand on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

See, we're not saved by our good works. We are saved by Christ finished work. but we have been saved for good works to change the world. Church of 1122, I believe, I believe, as a church, in many ways we are salt and we are light. God is using us in this community and really around the world to shine his light for his glory. But may you, may you not rest in your own good works, may you rest in the finished work of Christ, and may that be the motivator that wakes us up every single day to go out and get to work, not to earn the favor of God, but because of his great love for us. He has poured out his grace and mercy.

It would motivate us to act differently, to live differently, to just do life differently so that others may see the way we live and say, what's up with that? And that you would open your mouth and point people to the glory of God. would you pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we thank you and we love you because you first loved us

and you sent your son Jesus on a rescue mission for us. And Lord, I pray against our pride and I pray against our insecurity. And I pray against our laziness and how easily we are distracted by the shiny things of this world. And God, would you remind us

to be salt in life fight, God, to live differently, to just have a different ethic because we live in a different kingdom than this world. And God, we would never be arrogant about that. God, it is impossible for us to simultaneously look up at what Jesus did on the cross and look down our nose at any people in this planet. And so, God, would you use us in mighty ways? And Lord, when the world doesn't understand us and the world persecutes us when the Lord when the world reviles us for righteousness sake then may we shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation god I pray that you would use us particularly in this time to point people to you we prayed in Jesus name amen church we respond to

the gospel that's what we always do and so if you would please stand we're going to respond by singing We're going to sing the gospel. We're going to respond by bringing. We bring our ties and offerings to God. And a part of what this is, I mentioned that wartime mentality. You see, every single time we bring our ties and our offerings, it is a reminder to us that Earth is not our home, that the comforts of this world are not the things that are most important to us,

but we are at war for the souls of humanity, and that we are just taking some reasonable. resources that God is given to us. And we're bringing it back to him saying, you are more important than the shiny things of this world. And we pray. And I would ask you to pray that you would beg God, God, would you show me specific things this very week

where I could be salt and I could be light in this world. So let us sing and let us bring, let us pray. Let us respond.