The Consequential Nature of Kingdom Faith | Matthew 5:13-16 | Pastor Neil McClendon

The third reason the salt loses its saltiness is confusion about the purpose of the church.

Confusion about the purpose of the church.

This comes from people that lead churches that think church planting is the reason the church exists instead of making disciples.

If I hear one more pastor say, I want to be a church that plants churches, that plants churches, that plants churches, and that all sounds good, and people write big checks for you, and you go out there and you plant a church, and within 18 months to 28 months, the church is folded, you've bruised and beat up a lot of people, and you just take the money and run.

And here's the problem: church planting, listen carefully, okay?

And especially you people that are watching on the internet, all my friends that talk about we're gonna be a church that plants churches and plants churches, we're gonna plant a thousand churches.

Let me tell you something.

We got so many churches, we don't have enough qualified people to lead those churches.

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Uh, and we're called to be the same.

This is why you said be f be holy as your Father in heaven is holy.

And so we've come uh to imitate you, to represent you, to be salt and light in a world that is bland and dark, and it's getting more tasteless and darker by the moment.

Every day, every night we turn on the evening news.

It's easy for fear to kind of get ginned up inside of us.

So we say no to that.

You've not given us a spirit of fear, you've given us a spirit of love and adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father.

And so when we have weeks like we had this week, we're not gonna run in path, we're just gonna say Abba Father.

We're gonna say what the Bible, what the gospel tells us, what our identity informs and shapes us to say.

We're not gonna escape from the culture, we're gonna step to the culture because it needs salt and light.

We don't need more politicians and more pundits.

We meet, need more salty, integrated men and women and students who speak the truth in love.

And so we've come to be better equipped to be those people today.

So, Holy Spirit, illuminate your word now for the good of your people and the glory of our God.

We pray this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take and open up to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

If you're our guest, we're preaching through the gospel of Matthew.

Uh, and in God's providence, he has us at a very uh simple and short passage of scripture today uh that I think has our name all over it.

I'll start reading in Matthew chapter 5, verse 13, and I'll talk to you today about the consequential nature of kingdom uh faith.

Matthew 5:13

The consequential nature of kingdom faith as opposed to cultural faith that's kind of, hey, it's spirituality, it's hey, let's don't get overboard.

This is good until we get our kids raised, or at least until they get 16 and get a car, then we can kind of chill and take more weekend trips, amen.

Uh uh, but but we're called to be this visible, consequential people.

And after the past few weeks, a lot of people are, I think, are asking the wrong question.

Uh, I got many people, so if you're one of the people that emailed or texted me this question, I'm not talking directly to you.

I'm speaking to the question.

A lot of people reached out to me and said, How could God let something like this happen?

I think the real question, and therefore the better question, is how have Christians managed to become so inconsequentially safe?

I think that's a bigger question.

If you're asking that question, you do not understand human depravity and moral responsibility.

If you want to hang not just not just this like Wednesday, but the past three weeks are forever on God.

You're on the way to deconstructing your faith, which really means you never had a faith to begin with.

And so be very careful the questions you ask in the context of tragedy.

I think that Christians in America have become not just inconsequential, but really safe, where the hardest decision you made recently was where are you gonna go on vacation next?

And the Bible calls us to a little more consequential kingdom faith.

Uh, Jesus is uh uh Sermon on the Mount has started, he kind of lays down, he got baptized.

Uh the the God the Father confirms his identity.

This is my son, whom I love, with whom I'm well pleased.

And then Satan comes along and says, I'm gonna attack that immediately because he always wants to attack what the Father is establishing in you.

And so he comes in in the temptation and says, If you are the son of God, you you he's always putting an if where God puts a period.

If you are the son of God, and now he because he knows he's gonna be the same way to Jesus' followers, Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 5, 13, you are the salt of the earth.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

But if salt has lost its taste, how shall it be, how how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is 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 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 the house.

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 heaven.

There's three things in the text I want to point to this morning.

And the first one is simply this it's right there in verse 13 is that number one, there's a problem we have to overcome.

There is a problem we have to overcome.

And it's right there when he says, Jesus seeking to establish our identity, he says, You are the salt of the earth.

Here's the problem.

But if salt has lost its taste, I fear this has happened and is happening in our country because so-called Christians, self-defined, self-labeled Christians, are indistinguishable from the rest of the world.

We're just, we, we, we, when salt loses its taste, it becomes indistinguishable from every other mineral in the pot.

And I think Christians have become that way because we kind of looked around and kind of said, hey, hey, let's don't go.

Where's the safe zone?

Where can I just kind of plead neutrality like Switzerland and just kind of, hey, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

I I I listen, if you live in a world where you're ruled by this fear of not hurting anybody's feelings, you will bring nobody any glory.

Not yourself, and sure not God.

As you'll see this morning, that's the end game here is that God gets glorified in your life or in your death.

But God gets glory.

That's the ultimate thing.

You say, What do you mean, indistinguishable Christians?

It's 1 Peter chapter 4 kind of warns us about this.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

I'll just read the first four verses of 1 Peter.

I use this a lot in counseling with people because it's got to be this point that you come to in the text here.

1 Peter chapter 4, verse 1 says, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

1 Peter 4:1

For whoever suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

For the time, here's the turning point.

And if you hadn't gotten here yet, look at me.

You'll never hear a sermon or read a book or listen to a podcast that's gonna make you pull your truck over and go, that's enough, I'm done.

For the time that is past, suffice this for doing what the Gentiles want to do.

Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

For the time that is past, look at me.

Until you get to that point where it just kind of fills up and ding, you're just like, I think I'm done.

I don't think I want to come back here anymore.

This doesn't meet a need in me.

Oh my God, what am I doing?

I'm slandering people who aren't even in the room for the 30th day in a row.

What is going on with me?

Until you get to that point, you'll be the most mealy mouth.

Well, oh, he, who, huh?

You're like a thermometer.

You go up and down with your surroundings.

You're not like a thermostat.

You don't regulate the surrounding you find yourself in.

You're like, hey, oh, you know, oh, what's going on?

The time that is past.

And what the Bible's asking you today is have you have you put enough time in doing what everybody else wants to do?

Living in all the sins that all your friends want to commit?

For the time that is past suffices.

It's enough.

Quota has been met for doing what unbelievers, Gentiles, want to do.

And he spells it out.

Then verse 4 he says, This, with respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.

With respect to this, they are surprised.

What about you surprises unbelievers?

So does the way you spend your money surprise unbelievers?

Does the way you consume does your relationship with alcohol surprise unbelievers?

Does your sexual ethics surprise unbelievers?

Do your spiritual priorities surprise unbelievers?

Do they malign you?

That's a great King James word right there.

Do people like clown on you?

Like, are you serious?

You do what?

What?

See, this is how the salt loses its saltiness because it's indistinguishable.

It's just like, oh yeah, you get up and shave your legs on Sunday, I sleep in and go to a brunch.

I mean, potato, potato.

No.

No.

No.

One translation says in verse 4, they think it's strange.

They think it's strange.

You want to get a great conversation going to lunch today?

Just ask everybody you eat with, hey, what do unbelievers, people that don't think like you, live like you, believe like you, what do they think is strange about you?

Are they like, hey man, the only difference to you and me is you go to a building on Sunday and listen to a talk.

That's about it.

There's a problem that has to be overcome.

And the Bible says, if the salt has lost its taste, I think the question that rises out of the text is, okay, how does the salt lose its saltiness?

How does the salt not taste like salt anymore?

What in the world is going on?

Have you ever noticed when people get baptized over here?

And my favorite one was James and Donko a couple weeks ago.

He got, they have a little, Brett held out this little cup of salt and said, put your finger in there.

And when he touched it when your finger's wet, that salt just clams onto it.

James pulled it out, like, uh-oh, that's a lot of salt right there.

It was too late, and then he just tried to make it not look painful, like, and then Brett Daniels asked the greatest question in the world, What is that?

And James is like, that's all.

Yeah, when people get a taste of you and they say, What is that?

And they like, ha ha ha ha salt.

Are they like, I don't know, you tell me.

Yeah.

Yeah, so so so I just want to give you four ways that the salt loses its saltiness this morning.

Because it's a great question.

It's a problem we gotta overcome.

Four ways salt loses its saltiness.

Number one, it's absorbed by its surroundings.

It's it's it's absorbed by its surroundings.

Now, for the scientists in the room, Bill Nye Science Guy, let me point out that salt as we know it today is a stable compound.

Don't send me an email with a chemical breakdown.

I got it, okay?

I took chemistry.

Thank you.

Some of you just oh I was gonna email you.

Yeah, thanks.

Uh listen for conviction uh and not offense.

Uh, but it's absorbite surrounding salt as we know it today is a stable compound.

It cannot lose its saltiness, saltiness.

But salt in that part of the country at that time, that region came from salt marshes in the Dead Sea, and it was corrupted by many of the impurities found in the soil.

And once the ratio was too much, uh uh the salt, you could you you just couldn't distinguish it, like I think it needs more salt.

And you put more in there, like, oh, it's not quite what it used to be, what it's supposed to be.

Jesus is trying to make a sign, he's not trying to make a scientific point, he's making an ethical point.

The salt loses its saltiness because it's absorbed by its surroundings.

Secondly, exposure to moisture.

The more moisture, the more saltiness goes away.

Moisture takes many forms in our culture today.

Here's what moisture sounds like in our culture today: it's silence.

When someone says, Hey, what'd you think about that Charlie Kirk thing?

And if the first thing comes out of your mouth is how you felt about Charlie Kirk, you're just loud silence because you have nothing to say.

Oh, I hate that guy.

Really?

That's the best thing you got to say.

It's just, and I if you've been here 10 minutes, I don't I'm not into politics.

I'm just in when something like this past week happens, or the school shooter from a couple weeks ago happens, it's like uh all of a sudden everyone's a pundit or a politician.

Moisture takes many forms.

Silence, fear, relationships.

Some of you are in a relationship with somebody that's just your salt and their moisture, and slowly they're going to dilute you.

It's already starting to happen.

You pray at night, oh God, please let me speak up.

I don't want to say anything.

I want to say something, but I want I like having a girlfriend.

I like having a boyfriend.

Well, I'm 38.

I like being in a relationship.

But you're going to dinner with moisture, and he's slowly just delete, diluting the saltiness.

Moisture takes many forms.

Friendship with the wrong people, peer pressure, love of acceptance, love of money, greed, unbelief.

Moisture takes many forms.

The third reason the salt loses its saltiness is confusion about the purpose of the church.

Confusion about the purpose of the church.

This comes from people that lead churches that think church planting is the reason the church exists instead of making disciples.

If I hear one more pastor say, I want to be a church that plants churches, that plants churches, that plants churches, and that all sounds good, and people write big checks for you, and you go out there and you plant a church, and within 18 months to 28 months, the church is folded, you've bruised and beat up a lot of people, and you just take the money and run.

And here's the problem: church planting, listen carefully, okay?

And especially you people that are watching on the internet, all my friends that talk about we're gonna be a church that plants churches and plant churches, we're gonna plant a thousand churches.

Let me tell you something.

We got so many churches, we don't have enough qualified people to lead those churches.

That's the problem in America.

You ain't got that many called men, so stop planting churches and start making disciples.

Because it's sexy to say, we're gonna plant a cherry, and we're gonna plant this, and we're gonna plant that.

Okay, great.

And by the way, I'm not against planting churches, I just don't think Fort Bend County needs anymore.

You can't sling a dead cat around here without hitting a church.

I mean, just right back here, I was riding my scooter the other day, and I was just like, oh my gosh, another church.

Two blocks later, another church.

There's a church and a barn.

I'm gonna go to that.

Then they said we meet for three hours.

I said, I don't want to go to that.

Yeah, I mean, just here's my thing.

All my church-fighting people out there, I want you to email me, better yet, call me, better yet, come see me, okay?

Because I'm gonna ask this one simple question.

If you think, because what they did was they took a first century New Testament phenomenon, well, everywhere Paul went, he planted a church, that's because the church didn't exist, knucklehead.

You've taken something first century and try to make it normative for the 21st century.

And just because you want notoriety, it's you don't get a lot of notoriety making disciples.

It takes a long time, and you gotta preach the gospel over and over and over, and you gotta counsel and you gotta weep with these people and you gotta pray with these people over their marriages.

You can't just get up and say, We're gonna be a church that plants churches, then they didn't put churches, but when Paul and Timothy went on the first missionary journey, check the Bible, it's in Acts.

We just preached through it.

They went out and planted churches.

When they came back and visited those churches, did they ever look at those guys and say, hey guys, how many churches have you planted since we were here last?

Because the reason the church exists is to plant churches.

That's a lie from hell.

And a generation of young, restless reformed people, most of whom are dead or not in ministry anymore, perpetuated that, and we all were like, Oh, who are we to question you?

You've got skinny jeans and a coffee bar.

We got a coffee bar.

Somebody said, you know, somebody said to me this week?

They said, and I quote, the thing I love about our church is no one on stage wears ripped jeans.

I was like, I've never really thought about that, but uh because we're not cool, that's why.

Now, again, I'm not against planting churches.

We need churches in Vermont.

We need churches in New England.

Where you got 40 people, that's like a revival.

But you don't, you we don't have people on planting churches.

You have people in Fort Ming County, especially, that want to be in charge of a church, but you don't want to plant a church.

Because if you want to plant a church, you would go where the church is not coming, or the kingdom's not coming, and you would say, Here it is.

If I gotta be bi-vocational, if I gotta milk cows at four in the morning and three in the afternoon, that's okay.

But you got a bunch of little dysfunctional boys with daddy issues who go, I'm gonna plant a church.

Okay.

Great.

How you make it disciples?

Paul goes out, by the way, I'll answer the question for you.

They go on the missionary journey, they come back and visit these churches.

They didn't say, How many churches have you planted?

Because you've got to be a church that exists to plant churches.

What they said was, hey, here's what the Jerusalem Council decided.

Here's some doctrinal directives.

You need to get some deacons and elders in place, and we're gonna commit you to the Lord.

We think you guys have got it.

You got local autonomous leadership in your church, we're headed out.

Not one conversation about planning a church.

And yet somehow in America, that has become the DNA test for how effective your church is.

And I'm just, I know, I'm in the minority.

Some of you are just like, I cannot wait to email my friends.

Because it's easy.

It's like the fat kid that walks by the cake and licks his finger and just gets some of the frosting off.

Mmm, tastes like church planning.

Make disciples.

You lazy cowards that want to be in charge, but you don't want to be responsible.

Down here embracing the responsibility of making disciples.

The Great Commission was go and make disciples, not go and plant churches.

Yes, you have no idea the amount of emails I'm gonna get over this.

Because every youth pastor in America is right there, right now, is just thinking, oh man, I'm gonna go plant a church and I'm gonna make my church pay for it.

Okay, again, I'm all for planting churches.

I just think Texas has got plenty.

See, I'm expanding out.

Fort Bean County, Texas.

Let's go east and west.

The coast.

No, no, no, no, no.

God's called me to be uh no, okay.

Here's the fourth reason loses its saltiness.

Churches that try to make Christianity interesting instead of making Christians consequential.

Churches that try to make Christianity interesting.

Hey, Jesus said, hey, unless a colonel wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Who wants in on that party?

You cannot make Christianity interesting to people that God's not dealing with.

Like some of you in this room right now are just like, dude, for the love, could you like just do something happy clappy?

Yes, because you think I my job is to make Christianity interesting.

Only the Holy Spirit who reveals the Father to you can make you interested in this.

Falling to the ground dying, praying for your enemies, forgiving people that sin against you.

Are you serious?

But the church has taken on, it's called the seeker movement.

We're seeker-friendly, we're seeker-driven, we're seeker.

Basically, the church has become a place for lost people to get free coffee and philosophical and psychological ideas.

Paul Harvey predicted it 60 years ago.

You're welcome.

Yes.

Here's the second thing in the text.

Number one, just there's a problem we have to overcome.

Number two, there's a responsibility we have to embrace, and it's in verse 14.

Are you still with me?

Did I lose you there?

Y'all are like, you're you're a little amped up.

Uh uh, no, I just it's it's it's it's plain as day to me.

We're being duped.

And and churches are kind of like churches that don't make disciples pride themselves on how many people they give money to to go plant churches.

Here, here's some money.

We'll give you three years to fail.

Fall flat on your face, your wife will leave you, but we can say we plant a church.

I think it's a disgrace.

There's a responsibility to embrace.

It's verse 14.

Jesus says, This, you're the light of the world.

He thinks a lot of you, or he's crazy, one of the two.

You are the light of the world.

Walk into class tomorrow, kids at Logos and just announce that, by the way.

By the way, I know homecoming's coming up.

And if you guys don't have a date, I'm the light of the world.

Who wants to sample this buffet, boys?

Don't you want to be in the eighth grade and talk like that?

Wouldn't you just be like, I don't know who that is, but I'm strangely want to get a mum for her.

Yes, yes, you are the light of the world.

A city on a hill, cannot be hidden.

Hello?

You think anybody drives by and somebody says in the car and goes, What's that?

Oh, there's nothing to see there.

I look at a picture like that and I'm like, I want to go to church wherever that sepal is, and I want to live right over there.

Jesus says to these people who lived in a culture that looked like this Hey, by the way, this is you.

You cannot be hidden.

If you're thinking, well, my faith is a private matter, that just got crushed by Jesus.

A city set on a hill, you're 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 he gives light to all in the house.

There's a responsibility to embrace.

It's twofold.

You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.

The flow of the thought in the text that Jesus has his identity established by the Father at His baptism, and now He seeks to establish the identity of His followers.

Unless and until, hear this, unless and until you understand and accept your identity, who God says you are.

That's your identity.

Unless and until you accept that, your activity, what God commands you to do, will never make sense or seem appropriate.

And every political ideology that comes along will take root in you on the ladies' podcast you listen to.

Because there's so much room in you.

You do not embrace your identity.

You're waiting for someone to come over the airways and tell you, this is why you're breathing.

You read God, that's it.

And Jesus was here first, and he'll be here last, saying, You are the salt of the earth, Christian.

You are the light of the world.

Unless and until you understand and accept your identity, who God says you are, your activity, what God commands you to do will never make sense or seem appropriate.

It will sound offensive, I would just dare say to you.

Now, if you're like, I, well, my faith is a private matter.

I would just say you have a religious preference, maybe a religious tradition, but not biblical faith that brings out the God flavors in the culture and lights up the whole room when it shows up.

Here's a question I want us to think about this morning.

What would the world be like if all Christians simply embraced their identity and then acted accordingly?

Let me say it again.

What would the world be like?

What would America?

Heck, let's just bow it down to where we are.

What would Fort Bend County be like if we all just embraced, hey, hey, hey, hey, this is my identity, and I'm going to act accordingly.

Jesus said, not my pastor, Jesus, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.

What would the world be like?

See, to get a picture of this, you got to go somewhere where they do not have street lights.

A couple of years ago, Travis and I went to Vermont to scope out a mission possibility.

And I was like, kept putting my driving at night, I kept putting my light.

We flew in, I don't remember where it was, but we drove going up north through Saratoga, New York, stopped and had some dinner, and then I'm like, man, are these lights working?

Because it was really dark out there.

And I had the lights on high beam, and then it dawned on me.

Oh, in Vermont, they have a law against light pollution.

There's no billboards on the side of the road.

They're not allowed.

It was dark.

It was like dark, dark.

I had the lights on high beam, and I was like, slowing down because the light was the darkness was so pervasive, the high beams weren't going as far as they go where there's a bucky's every three miles on the interstate.

I need some beaver nuggets up in here.

I can't see.

Getting stressed out.

I gotta do some stress snacking, all right?

What's going on?

And then you get there, you get out, and you're like, oh my gosh, it looks like God sneezed.

Because look at me.

When there's no light pollution and it's that dark, the stars are amazing.

And they're everywhere.

And you're just like, oh my gosh, what in the world?

Now, the question I ask you, hey, what would it be like if we just embraced our identity?

I'm the salt of the earth, I'm the light of the world.

Twenty years ago, I read the Sermon on the Mount.

It was 20, 2005.

I was reading the Sermon on the Mount, just going through it, just I just I just want to believe everything about myself the Bible says about me.

And so what landed on me 20 years ago was you're the salt of the earth, you gotta preserve this culture, you gotta bring out some God flavors in this culture.

People are gonna dip their finger in you and go, mmm, oh I don't like that.

That's okay, Neil.

Just keep walking.

Because there's gonna be some rejection, there's gonna be some acceptance, and there's gonna be some, oh my gosh, I want to know more about this.

But also in 2005, a little thing happened in New Orleans, didn't happen here, a little thing called Katrina.

And then I was watching the news, and I'm just watching the news, just kind of like Hurricane Katrina, by the way, devastated New Orleans.

And I was watching the news, they said people are flooding to Houston.

And the Holy Spirit said, Hey, what are you gonna do?

And I said, Well, I'm gonna pray for those people.

I'll even reach out my hands towards my TV, so if my wife and kids see me, they'll go, Dad's in a trench.

And clear is about because they showed a picture of a hotel overrun with people.

And so I just, the Holy Spirit's like, Hey, see, when you embrace your identity, your activities, it becomes very clear.

So I just drove down, there was the Xenon State Hotel, I think it's still there, right?

90 between 90 and 59, right over by Sugar Creek.

And it was just, I mean, a throng of people.

And I walked in the lobby, and uh, and there's a guy at the counter, had a wife and two kids standing there, and he was crying.

I mean, and I said, What's going on here?

And she said, Well, I've got one room left, and there's people all want a room.

This is one room he wants it, but his credit card, to get here, he had to max out his credit card.

And so I can't take his room, and he's got to get out of line.

He's like, No, I got it.

And I just put out my credit card and slapped it on the counter, and she said, I said, Can I pay for his room?

And she said, How long?

I said, At least a week, two weeks.

How long it needs to be?

And she said, Sir, why would you want to do this?

And I said, Because I'm the light of the world.

And she said, Come again.

And I said, I am the light of the world.

And she looked at my credit card and said, It says Neil McClendon.

Potato, potato, it's all the same.

And she said, So you mean to tell me you're gonna pay for this total stranger?

And the guy's like, Well, sir, let me don't, please don't hug me, don't touch me.

Because I will walk out if you do.

And I said, Yes.

And I said, Listen, I as a Christian, I'm the light of the world, I'm the salt of the earth.

I'm not gonna sit in my house and watch the news and pray for these people when this man down here got two kids that need a hot shower and a meal.

Well, is this just for the room?

You don't have room service here, lady.

Well, I mean, I whatever they need.

And she said, Well, we'll do a week.

And he goes, I'm not a bad person.

I've got a job, I'm gonna go, sir.

You don't have to explain who you are.

I'm here to demonstrate who I am.

See, when you embrace your identity, your activity is reflex, not labor.

It's not, honey, come here, let's pray.

Really?

All you're saying to God is find somebody else who's more willing than me, because I'm not.

I love my stuff too much.

By the way, I don't always get it in the moment unless I sound like, you know, about a month ago, someone said to me here at church, hey, oh, so-and-so needs a blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, well, I'll pray for that.

And then I saw them on Thursday at the varsity, and the lady said, What she really needs is one of those blah, blah, blah that they sell at gallery furniture.

So I had got up.

I didn't have to, I got to get up and sent some emails to some friends of mine called the gatekeepers, walked in gallery furniture and said, I want one of these right here.

He said, Oh, sir, those are expensive.

I see the price tag.

And he said, Well, you're gonna love this.

I said, No, I'm not, it's not for me.

He said, Well, who's it for?

I told him who it's for.

And he goes, Wow, that's very kind of you, and blah, blah, blah.

Oh, oh, no, don't give me a trophy or a cookie, because my flesh would love both.

But who I am causes me to do things like this.

What do you mean, who I am?

I am the light of the world.

Now, when you say that in gallery furniture, you draw a crowd.

People, little earpieces walk out.

Uh, sir, we're gonna we're gonna make a line right here.

Uh they had a big table set up, you walk in full of little bags of chips.

I said, We give away chips today?

He goes, Take as many as you want.

I don't want to be rewarded for just obeying.

You can give my chips to somebody else.

He said, sir, this is incredible.

No, what's incredible is I get to act on my identity.

Now I say to people all the time, giving makes me giddy.

And I'll talk about this in my wife's class on Wednesday night because we're talking about prophecy.

And she's like, Would you come answer questions from a prophetic perspective?

Sure.

Uh but but but but here's the thing about giving.

Giving, I say giving makes me giddy.

Here's what happens.

Uh, when something taps into your identity, uh, and this tapped into my identity.

A Tavar said lady sitting out, I was like, you know what?

I you said that, and it just I wasn't really tuned in.

I'm hearing it today, bam! And it tapped into my identity, and nothing activates you at a deeper level than your identity.

Let me say that again.

Nothing.

Here's why you should understand your identity.

I'm the salt of the earth, I'm the light of the world.

Nothing activates you on a deeper level than your identity.

Because if it's just activity, you're just an activist.

You're you're cause-driven and you're not spirit-led.

There's a big difference in those two.

This is the last thing I want you to see in the text.

True faith is distinguished by the number of people who are affected by it.

True faith is distinguished from what?

From false faith.

From youth camp faith.

Oh, I love Jesus.

Okay, that's over.

Mom, can you wash my clothes?

I'm gonna go back to being who I used to be and have always been.

True faith is distinguished by the number of people who are affected by it.

Verse 15 and 16.

The Bible says this.

Look at it.

After he says, You're 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.

A lot of Christians saw this past week and they're like, hey, uh, let's keep this on the down low down here.

We might get shot at.

You're being shot at every day.

They just don't use real bullets.

Yes.

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who's in heaven.

Can people see you doing good works and God still get glory, or you just consume that all upon yourself?

What I mean when I say true faith is distinguished by the number of people who are affected by it.

Hear this, and we're about done.

You still with me?

Notice the context in these three or four little verses.

The context earth, world, hill, house, and heaven.

You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.

The city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor does anybody light a lamp, put it in a bowl, but they put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to the whole house.

People see your good deeds and they glorify your father in heaven.

Nowhere in the text do you read these little manageable safe words like family, school, youth group, your church, neighborhood, country club.

This is free students.

This is free.

If you really take seriously what the Bible says today, people in your own youth group will turn on you because they don't want this, they want to pimp the church to have some socialization until they get to be about 17.

It's like deuces.

That's why you've always got more seventh graders than seniors.

Until we give out a free gift basket on senior Sunday, then you'll show up.

Because you ain't got no shame.

You feel me now?

I see you all looking down at the floor like, dang, Pastor Neil's mad.

No, no, we're just not dumb.

That's all.

I'm just trying to prepare you.

If you take it seriously, they'll get in a small group today and be like, what's up with that guy?

Oh, wow.

Who's he think he is?

Right?

Yes.

The context.

It's bigger than you're comfortable being in.

I'm not sure how people I'm talking to somebody right now, they're like, well, I don't know.

I don't know about this whole baptism thing.

And I just, uh, this is love, this isn't hate.

I said, I, you know, I'm not sure if you're afraid to get baptized in front of your own church, I don't think you're gonna make a dent in the culture.

You think this is hard?

Try speaking up at a public school.

See, God revealed himself to you so that you'd be part of changing the world he left you in.

Hear this, we're and we'll be done.

God revealed himself to you so you could be part of changing the world that he left you in.

Why else do you think you're here?

I mean, look around at this place that God left you on, this big dirt ball of depravity.

How could a loving God justify leaving you here?

Why did he just take you to heaven when you when you prayed the prayer?

Unless you're here to be salt and light to a flavorless, dark world that is only getting more bland and darker by the minute.

Somebody has got to lovingly say to the gender dysphoric community that when you refuse to submit your lives to the truth that there's only two genders, not because anybody hates you, but because we love God and we believe God's word that says in his image he created them, male and female, he created them.

That's not hate, that's faith.

And so let's be clear about what's being attacked and shot at in the culture today.

Unless you, the gender dysphoric community can understand that, then you're only left with two options: volume, which is the media, and the politicians.

Oh, yes, you can play song, you can play on the girls' volleyball team.

All that means is you're not good at beating boys, so go pick on girls.

No, you got volume, which is what we hear all the time, and you got violence, which is what we saw this past week.

And here's the thing I would say to that community, to the gender dysphoria community, as a man that loves you, when you resort to violence, you're like a sexual Muslim who believes that you're right to kill anyone who disagrees with your sexual ethic.

You're like, you're lost, the Muslim believes, oh, I uh you're an infidel, I can kill you.

My holy scripture tells me I can't.

That's what the trans community does.

I told somebody when this first came out, this will be traced back to trans.

And here we are.

You feel how quiet it is in here?

Well, Pastor, you might get shot at.

So what?

I got insurance, my life be great.

She gets a check and a do-over, and she's like, She'll be like, I'm so sad.

How much was it?

Yes.

Look at me.

When the culture figures out what you're afraid of, that's what they'll use against you.

We don't have a spirit of fear.

And by the way, I don't hate anybody.

Just again, there's no difference.

You're trying to convince anybody everybody you're peaceful people.

No, you're not.

Your people think it's your right to kill people because they disagree with you.

It's not about disagreeing with you.

No one hates you.

We disagree with what God's word said, and we love God.

We want to worship God and demonstrate our faith.

Why can't we do that?

In a country where you can, you know, they tell you you got 47 genders.

That's a lie.

There's two.

There's male and female.

And people that love, the Bible says love rejoices in the truth.

People that tell you the truth actually love you.

Everybody else is a liar and they don't they don't care about you.

They're using you.

Let me just say this, beloved.

Nobody's going to be affected by your faith if you let fear cause you to put it under a basket because the way other people react or may think about you.

The earth, the world, the hill, the house, and heaven all need to be influenced by your embracing your identity in Christ because of what Christ has done, and because of what he's left you and I to do, and where he has left you and I to do it here on this earth.

Where he taught us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guests, just relax, we'd like to teach the Bible, then we'll give you some space to think about it.

Some questions come up on the screen.

That's for your mental worship.

We'll talk about it in our community group right now.

Let's just be still.

And just ask the Lord.

What do I need to think more about today, God?

What do I need to direct my intellect and my affection?

And just let it go there just for a minute or two.

Let's think about these things.

Lord, that's what it's all about.

We're not trying to win arguments, though we do need to get better at disagreement in this country and dialogue.

But we're just trying to be men and women that live connected to our faith in a culture where we let everybody else be connected to what they profess to believe.

Christians are being marginalized and minimized.

Here's why.

Because it's the truth.

No one takes any other deity's name in vain.

Just an indicator, it's the truth.

We don't live in fear.

We're not gonna start today.

We're not gonna put our light under a little bowl and hey, let's let's lay low for a while until things cool off.

No, no, no.

Let's let we're the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Let's let the light be on the on the lampstand where it goes so it can give light to the whole room.

Lord, our culture needs light more than heat right now.

Let us be people who bring light to bear on everything.

For your glory and our good, we pray this in Jesus' name that everyone said.

Amen, amen, amen.

If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome.

Uh, if you're our guests, we don't ask much of you, uh, but all I ask of you today, if you would, if you want us to know that you were here, if you would just text welcome to the world on the screen behind me, or the number on the screen behind me, give us a record of your visit.

I know some of you like to visit a while and then like, hey, I'm just checking it out.

That's great.

But when you're ready, we'll just shoot you a text back and just say, hey, thanks for exploring Grand Parkway.

We want to help you get connected to a church, and whether it's this one or another one, okay?

We've always got things going on in the life of our church uh that we want to make you aware of.

We do that by way of our video announcement.

So check out the screen behind me to see what's coming up.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Is this your church home?

You are invited to attend our starting point experience on September 28th and October 5th at 9 a.m.

to help you answer that question.

At this gathering, we will describe how Grand Parkway Baptist is led, what we believe, and explain our core values and vision.

We will help you understand what is expected of our members and what they can expect from us.

Space is limited, so register soon to reserve your seats at the meeting.

This year's men's weekend will be October 24th and 25th with Trevor Joy, Executive Director of Missions at the Village Church.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that most people in this room are settling for a version of Christianity that is smaller than what God desires to be.

Register now to join us for an impactful weekend of worship, teaching, and connection with other men.

Don't delay.

The price goes up September 29th.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors or elders at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing, so if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out.

Depart now and give light to a world that is getting darker by the day, and salt to a world that has lost the taste of God.

This is your privilege and your responsibility.

So do it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

Thank you for listening to this message.

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