How To CHURCH // Salt & Light (John Wilson)

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you, and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from

one of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your

faith is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as

you engage the Word of God. Stay tuned after the message for ways to

get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in there.

I wanted to tell you something really weird about myself. I'm really into what

people call superfoods. Everybody know what these are? Superfoods? You know,

chia seeds, you know what it is? Well done? Thank you,

son? Yeah, I saw them this morning, keen wa you know,

almond, milk, flax seed, peanut, butter, powder, poring,

right. I mean this is the kind of stuff you think of when you

think of birds, right, birds, you know, nibble. Yeah,

anyway, that's kind of what is. But this is got what I've done

in my life. I've built My son Jacob calls them towers. You know,

you build them as big as you can, with as much superfood as

you can. When you go to do it, I'm not I have never

been this person. But in the last year, I've lost fifty pounds and

I'm now a triathlete. So like I'm engaged in all kinds of ridiculous exercise

kinds of things. However, like these superfoods have become like a passion of

my life and it's almost like a game, like how many of this can

you actually eave anybody else into this at all? No? Okay, well,

if you if you think of a superfood that you think I should eat,

confine me and that we can have a challenge together if you want to.

I know it's kind of ridiculous, but you know, one thing I

want to talk about is an additive if you will that Jesus talked about.

Is he talked about salts and so kind of as we get into this continue

in this series how to Church, we're going to unpack what our role is

as a collective church. We're not really talking about how to Christian as you

see, we are talking about how to church like collectively, like church as

a verb like in our community. So we're kind of going through this series

we're talking about what we're called. We're talking about what we're called too,

and then we're going to talk about what we're called to do. So today

we're going to go further what you know actually what we are called. Pasterfike

did an awesome job as usual. Last week's hard to follow this act talking

about that the church is God's family, that it is his ecclesa as he

said from the Greek or assembly of God or gathering. He attempted last week

and did an awesome job, like I said, reclaiming the high ground and

speaking about God's family values and what those values look like at the church.

If you haven't had a chance, it's loved to invite you to join our

podcast. You can do it on an Apple podcast app that's my preference.

Y'll know why, or Spotify, or you could do YouTube. I'd love

for you to catch up if you haven't had the opportunity to listen to that.

So, like I said, today we're digging into where Jesus calls us

salt and light. And this is kind of highlighted in Matthew chapter five at

the beginning of what Jesus said, what I would say is the greatest sermon

ever delivered, very intimidating for a communicator like myself. The greatest sermon ever

delivered, called the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus

refers to us as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

What's so interesting about this is that he refers to himself in these in

these ways later, but he refers to us in this way as well.

We'll kind of unpacked why so we're going to look back at how Jesus referred

to it, and then look at some of the prophets and how they talked

about that. I would love to invite none other than the amazing Mary Lukenzaliz.

Can you. I'll give it up for Mary Lukenzaliz, if you're gonna

come up here, we'll join us here for a little reading of the scripture

this morning. I have a tradition. I grew up in a very liturgical

setting, if you will, and we share this in honor. And I

got a nice microphone for your right over here, my friend. Oh,

actually i'll grab it for you so you can do that. But we're going

to stand, so if everybody could stand for me here and here's your lovely

microphone. Thank you so much. We're going to stand in honor of God's

word, and Mary Lou, you can take us through and read the word

of God. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt

loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again. It is no

longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are

the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead

they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the

house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that

they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. This is

the word of the Lord. Amen, give it up to Marry Lou.

If y'all can, y'all have a seat. Well done so much. Let's

we kind of get in and unpack the salt and light together. Let's pray

together, Lord Jesus, and thank you for you are worthy and that you

have called us to bring the flame of life and light into this dark It

take this world, But God, there's power that you bring us. There

is fruit in our actions. There is a delightful disposition that you put inside

us that you equipped us with that attracts even the most bitter of people.

God, this morning, would there be something about our love, our good

deeds in this community that makes an impact that makes this body irresistible to our

community the Jesus name. Amen. So this morning, as I said,

we are going into this series, I could want to set the stage of

where Jesus shares the sermon on the mount You could see just from this Boson

podcast this is a picture of the Mount of Beatitudes, if you will.

This is out near the Sea of Galiley in Israel. Of course, I

actually my mother listens to this podcast, so I have to recognize her.

Now. My mother took me here right right out of college. And I

will tell you it's a present taking sight. It's an amazing place to experience.

That's exactly what these people are doing. They are being taught as Jesus

may have taught right on the side of the mountain the attitudes, but in

this setting Jesus took them out on the hillside. Could be hundreds, there

could have been, you know, a thousand or so people that he taught

the greatest sermon ever delivered, and kind of in this sermon, you know,

it's a little long, but into the fifth chapter of Matthew you can

kind of read through and see all the things that you shared there. Do

we have any Chosen fans? I know Britt is a big Chosen fan.

Very nice. John's chosen fan. We got some hands, very nice.

I remember the scene. Yeah, season two episode six. Good, Yes,

I'm Fred. So this is this is from season two, episode five.

If you've not experienced the Chosen it is an extra biblical or like a

commentary if you will, on what's happened or what happened in Jesus's life.

But so it isn't specific to exactly what the Bible says. However, it

gives you kind of an understanding of what that would been. One of my

favorite scenes from this is Jesus is out in the solitary places he often did,

and he is practicing for this sermon. And whether he did or not,

I don't know, but it was an interesting depiction that Jesus may have

practiced for the greatest sermon ever given the sermon on the Map, and that's

his proximum. But they're like, man, I have hope as a communicator,

Like I'm like practicing in our closet this morning, try to get ready

for this. Maybe if Jesus practiced to you, maybe they have a change.

But it's just fascinating to see how Jesus like prepare for this. So

at the beginning of this, serve right before we hear this, you are

the salt of the earth. You are the life of the world. He

names what are called the beattitudes, and the attitudes are like this. It's

kind of a land phrase, are cool left word if you will that you

know speaks to the qualities or experiences that you have that make you blessed or

happy. And he defines like what that means like as part of that.

So, for example, it's one of my favorites. He says at the

beginning of serving, the amount blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs

is the King in the favor. I'll people, ie, Honestly, I've

struggled with this. What the heck does that mean? Like, I'm having

a hard to understand. Some of you are like, I've known what that

meant since I was baby Jack comm I've been in church a long time.

I'll be honest, I just struggled with this passage for a long time.

But you know, over the past year or so, God's done a lot

of redemptive work in my life and help me see the real meaning behind this.

And that was specifically that people, people that are poor in spirit,

understand where they're at. People that are poor in spirit understand that they don't

have it all again, that they are dependent on someone higher than themselves,

that they don't have all the answers, that there is a sense of ruin

in themselves because they are incapable, but He is capable of all things.

They realize the dependency that they have. So Jesus marks these traits and then

speaks that then he comes to and then he says. Then he speaks and

says that we are the salt of the earth. And so now when you

think of salt, and I do want a little feedback here, It's okay

to speak up in church. It's okay, this meant here. When you

think of salt, what do you think of? What do you what's up?

French fries? Right on? I thought popcorn, but yes, very

good French fries. Anybody else? What uses do you have for salt?

What do you do? Yes? What's that brisket? Yes, sir,

all right, couple. That is a super food. Yes, let's go

to Maya's house. We'll have some of that superfood after shirt. I don't

want to. Yes, what's that? Who a d sir? Very nice,

very nice. I love that. I thought of electrolytes again, super

yell a little healthy? Sorry, I got that. I thought of constipation.

Anybody either for that? No, you don't. I thought anybody do

EPs and salt? Like, guy, you've done this past, your mom

will do this? Yeah, okay, we've got does anybody, ladies have

ever done a dead sea mask? You're down one of these? Anybody?

Oh yeah, Karen? All right? Anybody? Okay, we'll elsehol check

it out. Any other uses that I'm missing? What do you use for?

What do you solve for brisket? What's that? What's that flavor?

Okay, put it on something, make it taste good? Right? Absolutely?

So, Yeah, that these are like some of the ways that we

would envisioned with Gina says, you're the salt stuff might come to mind for

you, So it might be interesting to say, like, what does that

actually mean for me? I think there's three categories that he is getting out

here, and he's speaking to salt being useful, salt be tasty, and

salt being symbolic. And I'll kind of speak through the last one really surprised

me, Like I said, I was going through this passage, but I

want to im back together this idea of being useful salt like in the world

and specifically, like I want to speak to what the Jewish audience would have

understood, like when this was said, does anybody know what kosher salt is?

Have you seen as at the star? No? I love that post

yourself. So it's supposed to be one of the purest salts that you could

buy for a specific reason. If you've ever heard of kosher meat? Anybody

don't sure meat? I heard of this, right, So the idea was

in Leviticus seventeen. God said that you cannot eat the blood of man.

Now, maya speaking about your brisket that will probably not be the best brisket

in the world. About the meat the blood in it? Right, right,

exactly so, but for this audience it was commanded Levinica seventeen, you

cannot eat meat with blood in it. So this is literally the process they

would do. They would wash it, they would salt it, and it

drains all of the blood out of the meat. You're thinking like that sounds

terrible to eat, doesn't it. It doesn't taste at all. However,

this was the process. This was the command and for devoutes even today,

it is very important that you need meat with no blood in it, because

it is commanded in the law of God. Now, the other thing they

would have thought of is kind of what we were talking about is preserving meat.

And back then there's no refrigeration, so in order to preserve meat for

a long period of time and make sure to have to get solved in it

to ensure that it doesn't decay like as they go through that, so again

Koser salve using a process to drain meat out of it, to drain the

blood out of the meat and also preserved. That's kind of their understanding of

what it would look like. So kind of with that, there's a question

of life for us. What does useful solve in that context as they understood

it, what does that mean for us? And I would say, like,

you know, kind of speaking to the useful purpose of it is that

we as believers as a church, as a representative for good in this world,

we stand in the way of decay. We are people who stand up

to injustice in our world. We are people that do the right thing.

We're people that say no to the things that are wrong, and we stand

up for the helpless. We stand in the gap of the fatherless, and

we seek to lift up life and elevate life instead of taking that life away.

Now, there's one particular, very controversial topic that I'm going to bring

up today. I know everybody doesn't agree on this topic. That's okay,

not asking you to. However, usually when we think of preserving life,

we think of this, we think of abortion, and we think that this

issue specifically like is taking life away. So we as a church want to

stand against this. And I obviously just acknowledge not everybody agrees on this particular

subgect, even in the church for that matter. However, I want to

argue that today it is less about being against this particular subject or pretends this

action, and more about what we are for. So, if you remember,

the Movement Church's website looks something like this says God is for you and

so are we see at the at the Movement Church, we believe that God

doesn't stand against us and he and he doesn't stand against people, but that

he is for us. And the reason he is for us is because of

what Jesus has done on the cross right like he took the sin that has

has stayed us, and he has brought life to us through his son Jesus.

And so he loves us despite our issues. And not only that he

is for us, he's not against us, and he is against sin because

it's because it's bad for us. He wants what's good for us, and

he stands with us. So maybe maybe what our argue is it's not so

much that we are against that particular subject, but that we are for women,

that we are for children, that we are for the unborn, That

we are for preserving life like in our communities. That if we are to

be like a preservative, if you will, we are to be useful.

That we are for women and children in our community. That we stand in

the gap for the fatherless, that we parent those that don't have parents,

that we adopt or act as adopted aunts and uncles, for children that don't

have extended family, that we stand in the gap as grandparents, and as

a church, we stand up and step in when there is nobody that will

take that place. I think there's a lot of people that are taught from

the crossfire of this a particular issue that need a great body like ours to

say. I'll state in the gap, I will be a father to the

fatherless, and I will step forward for children and women in our community because

it's about before not necessarily huber against at our community. I want to tell

you a story. I know, Jeremiah Cope. Are you still have ability

different because they hear Jeremiah. Oh there is right there, right, Jeremiah.

Do you recognize this place las? Oh? Yeah, okay, yes,

yes, very nice. So Jeremiah, I hail Sake city. You're

from San Antonio or Texas. Anybody been to San Antonio, Texas? Anybody?

Oh? Yeah, right? Next? Hold on? This place is

called Lata. I really love it. I'm a big fan. I used

to go gear all the time. Jeremiah will talk about this. It's like

a two or three time of wheat kind of thing, you know, text

next San Antonio and Texas. Yeah, I was fifty pounds ever wait for

a all right, really enjoyed this stuff. Right anyway, So I had

a friend name is Scott. He te young men in our church, and

he would take them one on one to Las Palacas and order you like to,

I said, And he would sit across from them and they eat delicious

tacos because there is no other taco with San Antoni well, and they would

talk about whatever, like the meaning of life, I don't know, scripture,

memory, talk through you know, stuff they're struggling with, thinking about,

uncertain of It was an hour a week. It's been individually with young

men in our congraination. What was it many maybe two or three that this

you know every year with but maybe two and three hours of this week and

the injured young men with no strong father figure in their life. That he

stepped forward and said, I'll stand in the guy. I'll take an hour

a week. I'll say now with the young man, and I'll be present,

I'll be in the here. I'll share with them whatever I got to

offer, which sometimes could be something and sometimes maybe nothing. You know,

to be honest with you, but I always speak from experience. My life

was transformed because of that, because that man stepped forward and said, you

know what I got you. I'm gonna go breakfast with your week. I'll

buy you a couple of tacos and now you love those things, let's talk.

And it absolutely changed my life our week. I wonder what if we

have bested something like that. Right, it seems small, but could that

transform someone's life and something else? It did for me. So that's the

thing that I think we're really about in our community, so that we are

about bringing life, positivity, hope, growth, a future to people around

us. That's what it means to be useful. That's what Jesus is speaking

to of, like what salt is capable of doing in the world and what

he wants us to do. Now, if you remember, Jesus says this

interesting baby, says you are the salt of the earth. But if the

salt uses its saltyness, how can it be made salty again? It's no

longer good for anything said to be thrown out and trampled under foot. It's

not useful. It's not doing what it was designing to do. Now,

some people make wondering is Jesus saying in this passage you're going to lose your

salvation? Y'all know that's not what he's said here, because actually it's the

other way around. It's how the world sees you. Are you you useful?

Are you like at a place where you are making the places around you

better? Because if you're not, they're going to set you to decide.

See a church that do that says one thing and does another, has laws

of the saltiness because people then go, I don't know if I want to

be a part of that. That's not the real thing, that's not authentic.

Let's set that to decide and let's find the real thing, whatever that

looks like in our lives. That would challenge you as you study this back

flater because it just starts this morning in the ins sortment. Think about this

from the world's perspective. What if you've lost your saltiness? Then they would

set you aside? Not God. God doesn't set you aside, right He

sealed that Jesus, And this instances thinking about, Wow, how does the

world really see how useful I am? If I do if I say something,

they do another that Ultimately the world sets the side and thinks that we're

irrelevant in our community. Now I want to talk about the next idea.

I don't know if you guys know who this guy is. You ever seen

this fella? Anybody? Yes? Got all right, Karen's got this thank

you. I appreciate it, all right. So this is let me say

if I say it right, this Ratt Gokey is his name. He is

Turkish. He has a very famous steakhouse and or if you don't know about

his steakhouse, maybe you've seen his memes on social media. They're very silly.

Some of them could be inappropriate. I'm not going to show those,

don't worry. But salt Bay is kind of his nickname. He is a

very interesting fellaw. But he basically he salts things. It's legit. Literally,

he lays the meat out and he salts it like this. It's super

silly. You gotta like google this guy's hilarious. Anyway, I gotta check

it out. But anyway, what he does here is he salts meat to

to Maya's point and makes it flavorful, makes it tasty, He makes it

enjoyable. He makes food better. His restaurants have spread all over the world.

Such thing has got several in Turkey, Beverly Hills. It's very high

end kind of place. But it's really an experience that he creates and the

taste of that. He is improving what he does in a very silly way

with the salting rank. So what does this mean for us? I believe

that salt for us as a church, to be salt in our community,

we need to enhance our community. We need to make our community better.

It means that we build, It means that we provide. It means that

we improve the quality of life of the people in our community. Now,

one point asking it really obvious, where are we right now? School?

We are at a Greek elementary right, So I didn't actually know what this

place looks like during the week, maybe a lot of kids here, but

this is what it looks like during the week. We are all these kids.

I got some issue guys to my girl Scouts rocking out their boy Scouts

rocking it out there because it's like they're bettering today assembly. It's right off

their website and kind of see it here. I just want to state something

really outmous. We have a huge up lesson. We have a huge opportunity

here this morning. We're just a general We have the opportunity to make this

school better. And I don't know if you've read about teachers these days or

some of the struggles that happened in school, or maybe you're aware of this

for yourself. It's tough, y'all. Life is really tough. To invest

in kids and like help them to be great citizens in this world. That

is what the school is trying to do. And I wonder what if we

said to this school, how can we help you? What can we do?

Where can we volunteer? What if we said, hey, what's supplies?

Do you all mean? What can we buy it for you so that

you can take care of your kids better? I mean, you know,

watch a principal's job drop. But but like, really, what do you

have in mind? You know? Uh? The other thing? I thought

that sounds crazy, it's a big pie in the sky. But hey,

we've thought about it. We want to give a bonus to all of your

teachers this year. Thank you. Right, I'm not saying we can do

death. I'm saying, what if we could do something like that that would

enhance this community? Right? Be less about you guys, host us.

What if we thought of we host you, we take care of you,

We enhance the lives of teachers and students in this place. That's we read

a lot too, that's right in front of us, right in this place,

all through the week. We can make a huge huge impact like that

way, let me introduce you something out old Passive County quick words ol Passive

County Department of Human Services just has an enormous amount of social workers that are

absolutely overwhelmed our community. No part about this or know about this. That's

the point of red afort so that like this particular group like overwhelmed. They

have a lot going on in the world. Now there's this amazing thing called

care portal. Anybody's heard of this thing, care portal. Anybody puais you

hands? You got? Anybody got careportal? Want perfect free, cool,

very nice? So care portal. The idea of this is social workers or

at schools, community leaders can post needs and people from churches or businesses can

see those needs in care portal and be notified about them need those means.

So, for example, I received one this morning from Lewis Palmer High School

in middle school where they said that kids are coming to school hungry because they

don't have breakfast. They don't have food, so they don't have money to

buy food in their homes, so they're coming to school. They got free

they got free lunch. And obviously in the state of Collboro, that's the

way it is right now, but they're coming to school hungry. So teach

out of their own pockets are buying breakfast for these kids because they're hungry,

and so they posted to literally or receive this email as morney. So the

teachers are doing this, they need help. Would anyone in the community be

willing to buy gift cards for groceries so that these teachers can go buy food

for breakfast for these kids. My art was all torn up. I was

like, you got to beginning right now. Yeah, so ign up right.

I could buy a fifty dollars car, buy one hundred dollars gift card.

I could do some of that stuff low hanging fruit, right, that's

right in this community, right, this district that we're in. That's what

we're talking about right now. But this is another opportunity to be have.

It's like very simple. You get an email at your inbox, there's a

need posted, and you say, yes, I can help send them a

gift card, show up with whatever it is that they need. I think

this is another way we can make our community tasty, like we can make

it where we enhance our community, and I think that's really what we on

our reputation to be at the Movement Church, right, We're we're not here

to make just focus on ourselves. We are here to make a tremendous impact

on our community. So we want to be that group of people that somebody

asked about. Hey, tell me about the Movement Church. I say,

oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that group of people. Were

group of people that beat a great elementry. They gave all of our teachers

a bonus last year. What what are you talking about? Who does that

kind of stuff? Or Oh, that's that group of people that donated groceries

to all the foster families in this community. They think about this stuff.

That's tasty, that's enhancing. That's some people go, man, that is

what I want to be a part of. That's irresistible. That's something that

I have to move and be part of it. So that's that's what Jesus

is talking about here. When we do those things, that's when you're insulting

here. When you don't do those things, if it's disingenuous, lacking perspective,

or seems disconnected from the community is doing, that's when you use your

salts. That's when it isn't resistantle that's when you don't want to last far

as saltians it's being, it's symbolic, and this is a new idea to

me. I was unaware of kind of what this looked like that I learned

a lot about Jewish customs like this best week. I don't have a Jewish

heritage in my family. However, I'm a Christian, of course, so

like looking at this, I was like, I need to learn. So

one of the pastors I learned about in Leviticus too, he said, you

must also put salt on all your grain offerings. And remember grain offers,

they have grain, they pour some oil in it, they put a little

salt on it, and then they would sacrifice a little bit of it on

the altar to God. And as part of the success, salt stands or

represents your agreement with God that will last forever. Do not have it out

of a grain offering. You must add salt to all of your offerings.

Now it's less about the rule like with this, that's a rule, of

course, laws full of this. However, there's a purpose is to remember

that salt is a representative of your agreement with God will last forever. It

is God's ever lasting covenant. And see That's what happened. When Jesus got

across. He established an everlasting covenant with you, and now we are symbolic

of that covenant in our community. See, he sealed the deal for all

eternity. We now are part of that, and now we represent that in

the communities that we're in. It is symbolic. It is a representation of

God's eternal and everlasting covenant with people. It's the opportunity to step into the

gospel. So what does this mean for us? We represent God's covenant in

this world. We bring hope to this world. What the gospel is?

Right like? That's you know, when Jesus died across, when he rose

from dead, it wasn't for power. It was for you. He came,

he died, he rose, and he did it specifically for you.

It wasn't that he wanted you to fix yourself up and then approach God.

He said, calm as you are, I will transform you from the inside

out. Isn't that not the hope of the gospel. You don't have to

fix yourself, you don't have to clean yourself up, you don't have to

be something that you not. You come to him and he transforms you from

the inside out. That's the hope of the Gospel, and that's what it

means to consulting. That's what it means to be the salt of the earth

and our community we represent the everlasting covenant of God in this world through this

sacrifice us so kind of shipping years the same ideas, through the light of

the world. And Jesus said right after that you are the life of the

world. You talk about where the salt of art, but now we are

the light of the world. The town built on a cot. Even if

people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it

on the stand and it gets light to everyone in the house in the same

way. To let your light shine before others. They may see your good

deeds, good deeds and glorify the see. Light can't be hidden. Your

eyes are drawn to it. Right you can think about cities even back then,

you know, with fires or lambs and the homes you can back then

you can see it for miles and miles and miles off. Something similar in

the house. If it's dark, pitch black, especially back in those days,

you had a small oil lamp in the house, your eyes are drawn

to God you get closer to it or want to be a part. Now,

I'll tell you a funny story about a little boy at my household named

Luke. Luke's said, happy fun here. We have trampoline at our home.

Everybody else have trampolines. There got trampolines. We got one. A

couple trampolines are legit, Like I mean, everybody gets hurt on When I

was a kid, you didn't actually put the nets around it, you know,

so you bounce off and fly and keep you out break arms and stuff.

Still breaks stuff on me, but just not nearly as bad as anyway.

Luke Luke loves being out there her like, I feel like you could

just live out there. And we had a lot of sunshine this week.

This is from this week. He's in his uniform from school, and that's

just that's where we are. You lay in the sun and you just soak

it up. He's drawn to it. He wants to be, you know,

in a place that's warm, that is enjoyable. That's his happy place,

that that falls sun. I think I think similar to my boy.

There's lights changes in the environment you are drawn too. Like I was joking

with Christige, which the sun is out at our house. She usually likes

to to basket outside and joy like a little bit, you know, because

it's so nice. It's time. But you're drawn to it like you it's

contagious, it's irresistible, it's you know, it's something that you feel like

you've got to be at an art. As Jesus says in this passage,

our good deeds are like that. People are drawn to that. It draws

people to the Father. People see like what you do, and they experience

Jesus. Because of what you do see they taste redemption. You represent this

unique relationship with God. They see that, they want more of God.

They are interested that, they're blown away by God. They're curious by that.

And that's honestly, that's what they see. They see the Gospel of

Jesus. And so with that, what that means for us is that we

show unconditional love to the world. We don't say to the world, hey

listen, you get your life in order, then we'll talk right say hey

listen, let's go to lunch, let's talk through it. That's that's the

people that are with people that don't know how to overcome the things in their

life. See That's what God did for you, right, He said,

Hey, like, you've got this in your life, but I want you

and I want to walk through this with you, and I want you as

you are. We're bringing lightens too dark places with this. And some of

you may have heard of this because I love you. I love you,

c us I love you a couple of you. This is a movement that

is amazing. Actually, the mayor of Colorada Springs was part of establishing some

of this movement years ago as a church planner. And it's interesting that they

say on their website, it's interesting the US I Love You is a city

gospel movement Colorado Springs. The mission is to unite and ignite the local church

to love the city. The vision is this that every woman, man and

child would experience the tangible love of Jesus. I'll say it again, the

vision is that every woman, man and child would experience the tangible love of

Jesus. If you know anything about this. They do a spring serve,

they do a Fall serve, and they do this thing called the Backpack Bash

where they grow people from all over the community to bring as many backpacks as

they possibly can. The stuff that is full of school supplies as possible and

get it kids does free of charge, no strings attached, just one blessed

people. That's all of this. And the other thing they do is the

service. They'll go into schools all across the community and they'll paint the schools.

They'll do he'll dig up anything that's part of that. But it's to

show the tangible love of Jesus. And that's what I would argue is what

it means to be like in your community. It's to be like the to

say this tangible love of Jesus in the community. See. I think we

make a difference. People visibly see the love of Jesus pour down in our

community. And in fact, I think we can get involved in this.

I would just throw this out there, May third and fourth this year they're

doing their Spring Serve and this isn't just a Colorado Springs thing. This is

a monument would more Palmer late kind of thing. I think we can all

make a huge difference in the tangible love of Jesus by being involved in Springs

Served. So I think it goes further than that. I think it's that

we step in here every week and what fight our pastor calls a pep rally,

if you will, for rallying ourselves for the gain of the week.

And I think that happens in a lot of different circles. I think that

happens in the workplace. I think that happens in your family. I think

that happens in your neighborhood. And God has chosen broken people like us,

messed up as we are, to go into our communities and our family in

our workplaces, not trying to fix them, but trying to show them the

grace of God in great tangible way. I want to tell you another story

about a friend of mine named Michael. He looks very unhappy to hear it

doesn't me but he works in a very dark place. Of the place in

which he works, people just simply hate each other. They do not get

along. Maybe it works somewhere like this, but it's like simply like people

do not get along at all. But you're like ducking your head like every

time somebody talks, because they might bite your head off. Though maybe you

don't work in that place, and I really hope you don't. However,

my friend does, and there has been constant turmoil at this place, and

he has believed for years that it is his responsibility to fix that and make

that rights and somehow make everybody happy in the place that he's had, until

one day he recognized in the scriptures he is not the answer for them.

He is not the one that's going to bring peace to his workplace. He

is not the one that is going to make everything right. It is the

person of Jesus. And it seems ridiculous, It seems so elementary right that

Jesus would be the answer. He would be the sunny school answer if you

will with this. But Jesus truly is the answer to darkness, and we

are what he calls his light bearers. We go into dark places with the

light of Jesus, and Jesus is the one that makes the transformation. We

are not the power that makes change. He is the power that makes change.

See, this is what I think happened to my friend. Is he

really thought that he could fight hell with a water Pestalas anybody heard this expression

before, it doesn't work right. That's a small water pistol, that is

not a super sober people like that. That's ridiculous. It seems outlangage.

It's true, like somehow you believe in and of yourself, you have the

power to overcome darkness in this world. And I'll tell you right now is

a fool's errand you will lose every time. Jesus is what he is,

the living water that will bring life to all that endures forever and ever.

So, my Mom, Paul, as the movement Church, be that whatever

dardness that we face together, is that the life of Jesus that lives inside

of us, the ambassadors that He has made us be. We recognize the

answer is to us. We're dependent on Jesus. We need him. He

is the one that makes change in our communities. He is the one that

won't empower us. He is the one that won't make the difference all.

Trust me, ask dream big, ask big. Join him in network because

I believe Jesus will use us likely that way to do great things. So

I want to because I'm at that for us. Wrap it up here.

We are coming to a closing function. Hopefully they're not too overwhelmed with kids

up there right package of those cop It's a test backer. So we are

the salt of the earth. We are useful, We're influential in this world.

We stand up to injustice in this world. We stand up to what

it's right. We make things better, to make things taste better, represent

God's everlasting covenant for us. We are the light of the world. Like

we take light into dark places, we represent Him. So what's God leading

you to do next? And how can we help? Would you send us

an email to info at Movement Church dot co and tell us how we can

pray for you and help you take the next step in your spiritual journey.

If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, text amount you'd like to

give to the number eight four three two one, or look us up online

at Movement Church dot c. You can find the Movement Church on all social

media platforms, and we hope that you'll give us a follow God bless you,

and remember God is for you and so are we.