Influencing our Community

I want you to turn with me this morning in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

If you're here this morning and you do not have a worship guide, raise your hand.

We're out.

That's good.

That's a good sign.

That's two or three Sundays in a row.

We've been out with our worship guides.

That's a good sign.

That means more people are here.

Amen.

More people are eager to hear the word of God, to worship in spirit and in truth.

I'm telling you, folks, this is going to be a fantastic year.

This is going to be a life-changing year.

What'd you just say, Darren?

The year of plenty.

The year of plenty, 2020.

Amen.

I like it.

I like it.

And again, let me remind you: starting this Wednesday till the end of the month, January 31st, we'll be praying and fasting for two weeks for our church.

And mainly if you read my blog, especially all the constructions going that's going to be going on this year on that property.

We need for, first of all, we need to pray Satan bite the dust.

Can I get an amen?

He is really throwing about every punch he can at us over since we started in July.

Yeah, he really has.

I mean, it's been, and I'm not going to get in detail, you don't need to know it because it gets me in the flesh, and I don't want to be in the flesh before I preach.

So uh, but uh just be praying for for protection, guidance, wisdom for our building team, our our council as we work.

And again, you know everything, I bring everything to you when we know it.

And that uh so uh it's exciting, it really is.

But boy is Satan just trying to bully us.

He's trying to bully us.

But bless God, he's not gonna bully us.

So uh and we're gonna do it, it's gonna be done.

Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

So anyway, pray for that and then pray uh for finances.

Uh and God so blessed us financially, but we don't we we have not because we ask not.

And and start asking God to help you this year give more.

We're gonna need more giving this year.

You saw the budget.

Somebody asked me, said, Man, that's odd.

We doubled the budget.

But now you gotta understand.

The reason we doubled that budget is the building, okay?

Somebody said, Good great.

I we understand, we understand.

Uh, but we're trusting God uh to provide that.

And uh so, and I believe he's gonna do it.

Uh, I mean, we've got over half of it or three-fourths of it already.

Can let's give God a hand for that.

Amen.

Danny, we needed a bunch of drivers for the property, and the man that brought that property did it for the cost.

He made nothing on it.

See there?

See there?

See there?

He gave that.

He did it.

And that's what our church and he gave it at cost.

And that's what we do.

Pray for here's what we need to pray these next two weeks.

Here's what here's what we need to pray.

God, give us favor.

Give us favor with everyone that's gonna be involved in this building project.

That's what you need to put on top of your prayer list.

God give us favor.

Amen.

He gave us favor for almost a half a million dollars worth of dirt.

So he can do it for everything else.

So you travel cost us half what it would have cost.

That's right.

So just pray for favor.

Amen.

Favor, protection, and providing the means, the money.

Well, I'm excited about teaching on our core values.

I did this right after we started the church seven years ago to about 50 to 60 of us.

But today I want us to go back to our core values, or and let me tell you what core values are.

Core values are beliefs held close to an organization's heart or a church's heart.

And I'm going to be talking about our core values these next few weeks.

But today, I want us to talk about, and if you notice the title of the message is influencing our community.

Influencing our community.

And that is the way we do that is through integrity and influence.

And influence is integrity.

In fact, let me tell you what I've learned.

Recently I was reading a survey where 1,300 senior executives across America were asked to list in order, watch this now, in order of priority, what they thought was the most important thing in their organization.

The most important thing.

Okay?

Now that's a top.

1,300 people, most of whom were non-believers, by the way, listed integrity as number one.

Integrity as number one.

Huh.

I wish we could.

You think we ought to preach this message to our government?

Hello?

Hello?

You think we ought to preach this to our newscasters?

Lying, lying has become an acceptable characteristic in America today.

God help us.

Because let me tell you what God thinks about lying.

Lying lips are abomination unto God.

They will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 12, 22.

Amen.

So, here in Matthew chapter 5, and we're going to pick up with verse 13.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

I want you to see the Lord had just finished teaching the Beatitudes.

And here's what he said in verse 13.

I love it.

He says, Ye are, by the way, you say this, say this with me.

Me.

Me.

You stand for me.

You and me.

We, he says, are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salty?

It is therefore good for nothing.

Wow, that's pretty powerful, folks.

But to be cast out and be trodden underfoot of men.

Ye, you, me, say me again, me, are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bush, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

In verse 16.

Let, say it again, let me, say me with me.

Me, let me light, my light, let my light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Wow.

Now, right here, we see that salt is of no use if it remains in the shaker.

Amen.

It's no use.

I mean, if those salt shakers sitting on that table, if you don't grab it and put it on your food or in your soup or wherever you're gonna put it, it's gonna do you no good.

None whatsoever.

To be effective, it must come out of the shaker.

Same way with Christians.

If you and I are gonna be effective, we gotta get out of the church building.

The work of the church is not done at the church.

The work of the church is done in our community.

It's done in our community.

And we are to be that salt.

We must be sought at home.

We must be sought at work.

We must be sought, hey, and our community, we must be sought in our schools.

And young people, you can be that salt.

You can be that influencer.

I like what Jesus said, and you'll see this in John chapter 17, 4.

John 17 · chapter mention

Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion, and John 17 is really the Lord's prayer.

When you go to Matthew 6, and a lot of people call that the Lord's Prayer, and that's okay, but it's really the disciples' prayer.

And John 17 is literally the Lord's Prayer, praying as he's praying.

And here's what he says.

And I love it.

He says that he has brought glory to God, the Father, by completing the work that God had given him to do.

So if you and I, and then and then I love what he says.

Let me, verse 18.

Then he takes it to verse 18.

In verse 4, he says, I have finished the work, I have brought glory to God the Father, my Father, because I have finished the work that God's given me to do.

And then in verse 18 he says, and by the way, now he's talking to us, as well, he's actually talking to his disciples.

And he literally says, Now, as God the Father has sent me, even so send I you.

Now, what does that mean?

Even as I have brought glory to God the Father, now you are to go out into the community and bring glory to God the Father.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

So that is our commission.

That is our commission in Chelsea and our surrounding communities.

It's to bring glory to God.

Paul put it this way: whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, you do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10 31.

So here we see we are sent out on a mission.

And that statement not only applied to the original disciples, but it applies to us.

So in order to do that, two things we're going to look at today.

Our foundation for these four core values is right here in these few verses.

And that is that you and I, God started this church for one purpose, and that was for us to be salt and light to our community.

And the way that we are that salt and light, we execute that salt and light through our four core values.

So, before we look, and next week we're going to look at clear biblical truth, will be our first of the four core values that I preach on.

But today I want to lay, we've got to have the foundation.

You've got to understand that as God, hey, as Jesus had come and completed his mission to bring glory to God, he's sending us now to bring glory to God in our community.

And the way that we do that is salt and light.

And there's there's, I love this, five ways that you and I can exhibit that salt in our community.

Here we go.

Number one, to be the salt of the earth, by being the salt of the earth, five ways we can influence our community by being salt of the earth.

Ready?

One, by being the way we radiate.

By the way we radiate.

After more than 2,000 years, salt is still the primary way we bring out the good flavor in our food.

Oh, I'm telling you, have you ever eaten something that was supposed to have salt and it didn't?

What did you go?

Can you imagine a community that we live in?

And they think about the church.

In fact, I just had a young couple tell me, I always shake hands at everybody coming in, and I I usually recognize the first-time visitors, and I always introduce myself and they introduce themselves.

And the first thing I ask them is, How'd you hear about us?

And here's what they said, Facebook.

And on the Facebook, all the comments about how good they were.

So they decided they'd come visit today.

So, but what if they had gotten on Facebook and instead of getting those very complimentary comments, they got they wouldn't be here.

Or if if they've not heard anything about CCW of this church, why would they want to come?

Why do people come?

Because I'm telling you, and I'm going to get ahead of myself a little bit, but I can't help it.

I'll tell you why people come because they're thirsty.

And salt should make you thirsty if it's doing its job.

Amen.

So we see right here that it brings, what does salt do?

It brings good flavor to your meal or to whatever you're eating.

The purpose of CCW is to bring a good flavor to this community.

Can I get an amen?

Isn't that?

Say good flavor.

Now say this, I'm a good flavor.

Amen.

That's what we're to do.

We're to bring good flavor to this community.

In fact, when we read and study the Beatitudes, they were all about how to be blessed.

Bless this, bless that.

The word translated blessed literally means, are you ready for this?

It literally means divine delight.

When you are blessed, you are delighted.

You are delightful.

I meant you.

Now I'm a sweetaholic.

Amen.

I'm boy, is it?

I'm the only one, two of them.

Now I've watched some of y'all get two and three of those desserts, so don't tell me I'm by myself.

No, I did not know that.

There's the cook.

Susan said, Did you know a pinch of salt makes something sweeter?

I just got educated.

I did not know that.

That's pretty good, honey.

But the thing is, have you there's some desserts that when I bite into, now Rick will tell you it's every dessert.

I just say, oh, that's the best I've ever had.

Oh.

I just, oh yeah, and Rick says, Preacher, you do that on every dessert you eat.

Well, maybe I do.

But it's just delightful.

There's some people I've been around that I enjoy being around because they are so delightful.

They bring encouragement to me, they bring joy to me.

I'm just, I just love being around them.

And then there's some that I will be gracious and I will be kind, but I don't delight in being around them.

Because they're so negative.

Oh, there's nothing positive.

So we have a choice, and God has called us to be delightful, to bring delightfulness into our community.

Can I get an amen?

I mean, when people think about you and you say, I'm a I'm I'm a member at CCW, I go to CCW, they ought to say, man, I've heard some great things about that church.

That's the way it ought to be.

And that's what he's talking about.

We ought to radiate.

The word translated joy.

And Jesus put it this way in John 15, 11.

Watch.

These things have I spoken unto you.

Now watch, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be what?

Woo! Full.

You know what full means?

I mean totally content and delighted.

You're there.

Woo! I may want another piece, but I don't need another piece because then I'd be overeaten.

But I'm satisfied.

Here's what it means.

And it's haraiah is the Greek word.

It's kind of like chara, but it the way you pronounce it without the kaharah is it means that you are totally content and satisfied to the point that that's what it means.

Delight or gladness.

We live in a world where people are trying to numb their unhappiness.

I've been reading a lot of some bad statistics, and I'm not going to bore you with them.

But they're trying to numb their unhappiness with pleasure, possessions, prestige, parties, power.

It's not working.

It's not working, folks.

Why?

Because he says in Psalm 16, 11, only in his presence is the fullness of joy.

At the right hand of God is pleasures forevermore.

That's why the worldly circumstances and culture will not satisfy you and me.

It will not.

Not as a Christian.

But you and I can bring flavor to a very unhappy world right now.

Those who look to Him are radiant, they shall never ever be ashamed.

Secondly, not only by the way we radiate, but B, by the way we communicate.

In Jesus' day, there were no refrigerators.

Therefore, salt was used as a preservative.

To keep fish and other meats from decaying.

Hey.

So as Christians, are you ready?

Now here's their big responsibility.

We're to be like salt.

We are to be preserving a decaying culture.

Amen?

Now don't tell me you don't think it's decaying.

You can't watch TV without seeing the decaying that's going on in America.

Ladies, gentlemen, we're in trouble.

We are morally headed to deep as we can go away from goodness and righteousness and holiness than that we've ever been in the history of our country.

We're totally divided, no unity.

If it feels good, do it.

There's no moral standards, there's no biblical standards, there's no absolute truth anymore.

There's no, in fact, there's no truth anymore.

They just lie about everything.

And they make it up.

Where's the church?

We ought to be preserving.

The language of our culture is becoming more and more vulgar, filthy, and irreverent.

I'm telling you, I am tired of hearing people cuss.

I'm fed up with it.

I mean, you can't even watch, you can't even go to everything.

And I'm going to tell you something.

They said, well, that's the way it was.

Can I say something?

I was not raised that way.

And in school, when I was going to school, we didn't have those kind of words.

If you use those four-letter words that they're using now, I'll tell you what we did.

We got sent to Mr.

Burke's office, the principal, and he took out a big old wood, two-inch thick paddle, and he tore your behind up.

Hello.

I guarantee it.

And if you did it even on the football field, now you see coaches over on the sideline cussing like a sailor.

Hey, hey, if we if we cussed or said something while we're practicing football, we had to get on, we had to do crawlers.

You know what that is?

You get on your all fours and you go to 40 yards back and forth, back and forth.

Till you pute.

Then you didn't cuss anymore, I promise.

You wouldn't even think about it.

Much less do it.

I want you to, I want to show something.

I want you to hear this.

It's not in there, but uh turn real quickly to me with me to Romans 3.

I want you to see something.

This is where he says, talking about sinners.

That's why I have a hard time with Christians using four-letter words.

Hello.

Oh me.

Let me tell you why.

Verse 11.

Romans 3.

There's none that understands, there's none that seeketh after God.

Now, what you're about to see is if you use it, if you're saying, using foul language, you're not seeking after God, folks.

Look at verse 12.

They're all gone out of the way, they're altogether become unprofitable.

Means there's nothing honorable, there's nothing good, there's nothing uplifting about it.

There's none that doeth good, no, not one.

Now, watch verse 13.

Their throat, their mouth is an open sepulchre.

With their tongues, they have used deceit.

They're liars.

Sound familiar?

It's almost like the venom of a cobra, poisonous snakes, is under their lips.

Now watch verse 14, circling.

Whose mouth is full of what?

Cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to be shed to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their way.

Wow.

Wow.

Hello.

Jesus put it another way: those things which proceed out of your mouth come forth from your heart.

Our speech ought to radiate.

Remember, that's the first thing.

Our communication ought to radiate who we are.

What did Peter say?

If, hey, be ready to give an answer for the hope that life in you.

Paul said, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto its hearers.

Amen.

If it's not good, hey, if it's not building up, if it's not necessary, if it's not spoken graciously, don't say it.

And cut out your gossiping.

If you have nothing good to say about your church and the people in your church, don't say anything.

You're a testimony.

And by the way, this starts at home.

We have a tendency to rip each other apart at home because we feel safe.

Well, we ought to be the greatest example at home.

It starts at home.

Your children are listening.

Amen?

So it matters.

It matters to be salt.

We've got to radiate, but our communication has to be gracious.

In fact, if our speech is gracious, listen to what, oh, you've got to hear this.

Colossians 4, 6, I think I have it on your outline.

And here's what it says.

Let your speech always be full of grace.

And then what does it say?

Season with what?

Salt.

Again, what does salt do?

It brings flavor.

Right?

It brings delight.

Let your mouth be seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer each one, everybody.

And then listen to the words of what it says about Jesus in Luke 4.22.

And it says, and that, hey, they all bore witness to him and marveled at his gracious words which came out of his mouth.

In fact, they were so surprised they said, Is this not the carpenter's son?

You know what they ought to say about us in the community when they hear even when negative talk or something?

We ought to just say, hey, hey, hey.

Don't talk like that.

Don't talk like that.

Hey, pray for them.

Don't talk about them.

Lift them up.

See if you can help.

I learned this.

One of my pet peeves is when I go to a restaurant, waitress or waiter, I like my water to stay full.

If I drank a coffee, I like it to stay hot.

And sometimes I used to be bad about this, and Susan kept getting on to me, I quit doing it.

But I used to look at the waiter or waitress and said, if my water glass never is empty and my coffee is always hot, you're gonna get a good tip.

And I would.

I mean, I'd I'd give them a$10 bill just like that.

If it never got in.

I said, now if it gets empty one time.

And I was playing a game.

But I not only was I playing a game, I was trying to teach them a lesson.

If you'll do your job as well as you can, you'll be rewarded.

But I quit doing that.

But now if you don't get waited on like you should, what's our tendency?

Man, that's I'm not gonna give her a good deal.

Have you ever thought?

Have you ever thought that waitress or waiter may be having a real major bad time?

And a lot of times they are.

How do I know?

I ask them when I get ready to pray, is there anything I can pray with you about?

You'll be shocked.

I've had them start crying.

So if they're not getting there quick enough, if they're not doing it like you think it ought to be done, don't gripe about it, complain about it, pray about it.

And ask them, can you, and you know what I've learned to do?

When they're having a bad day, I give them a larger tip than I would if they had awaited on me.

And I usually will say something.

I'm praying for you.

That's all I say.

I don't go into detail.

Now, when they get that tip and they see that you're praying for them, you know what?

They're gonna think immediately.

Somebody really cares about me.

Somebody's noticed.

Instead of complaining, you've noticed.

Hello, you boy, it's gotten quiet.

The way we radiate is by our communication.

C is by the way we refuse to deviate.

We're to be sought on the earth.

Salt or sodium chloride is a stable compound.

Therefore, it is always salt, but it can become contaminated.

Jesus says, when it becomes contaminated, it is therefore good for nothing.

Look at verse 13, but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot.

What is he saying?

He's saying, your testimony matters.

Your testimony matters, folks.

Hello?

People are watching you.

I know people are watching me all the time.

When I'm on the pickleball court, when I'm in the line at Walmart, when I'm waiting to get my food.

They know if they, especially if they know I'm Pastor Danny or a pastor.

And when you say, and I've had people tell me, I don't tell people, people ask me all the time, why do you introduce yourself a lot as Pastor Danny?

I'm going to tell you why.

It's not because I think I'm special.

Not at all.

Not at all.

In fact, I'm a no-good, rotten sinner saved by God's grace.

And I'm just as human as anybody else.

And I have my bad attitudes just like everybody else.

But you know why I do that?

Because immediately I have to be held accountable for my testimoniality.

I do that for me, not for you, or to try to think I'm somebody because I know.

Why do you think I wear this Jesus awesome band and worn it for 30, 25, 30 years?

Why?

Or belt, and everything's a Jesus.

It holds me accountable for who I am.

Can't you see yourself losing and cussing somebody out and you got a Jesus awesome band on?

They look down and say, oh boy, your Jesus is awesome, isn't he?

Or you're you're you're you're you're blowing your horn and and trying to just acting like an idiot to somebody in the a road rage or everything, and on the back you got Jesus is awesome.

Or Hulk if you love Jesus.

Hello.

Is that not true?

Hello.

Is that not true?

It matters, folks.

It matters.

Say it with me.

It matters.

Matters how we talk about each other, how we talk.

It matters.

You're writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by the deeds that you do and the words that you say.

Men read what you write distorted or true.

What is the gospel according to you?

See, by the way we refuse to deviate.

In other words, Jesus didn't call us to be sugar, he called us to be salt.

Can I get an amen?

Now watch this.

You ready?

Sometimes salt does two things.

It irritates.

Hello?

Huh?

Everybody in here needs a friend that's willing to sit down with you in a loving way and tell you when you're wrong.

Other than your wife and husband.

Because they're gonna do that.

I mean, they mine's gonna, I don't have to worry about that.

Boy, they're gonna do that.

Preach, preacher.

But you need somebody else that's gonna call you aside, a friend, and say, preacher.

Watch it now.

Clay and I play a hook a ball a lot together.

We're pretty good too.

Together as a team.

Every once in a while, I get that competitive spirit going.

And when I'm not talking and I'm like this, you better look out.

And every once in a while I, after I get, we're into it, baby, and I hit something, hit it in the net.

Or hit it out.

You say, uh-huh, testimony, testimony.

He knows what I'm thinking.

You know what I've learned to do?

I just lay my paddle down.

Sit back and say one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Lately, I learned this in California playing in a tournament.

Guy would mess up, he'd step back.

Peanut butter.

I said, what?

But then I got to think about that.

Man, when I say that, I like peanut butter.

So it kind of calms me down a little bit.

Then pick my paddle back up and keep playing.

Why?

It matters.

Say it with me, church.

It matters.

Your testimony matters.

Don't deviate.

And then, hey, not only does it irritate, it stings.

If we're the salt of the earth, there'll be times that our words sting or hurt.

That's Proverbs 27, 6.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Sometimes you're not going to want to hear what your mate's going to tell you, or sometimes you don't want to hear what your friend's going to tell you, but you need to hear it.

Most of us do not have those kind of friends.

Because we don't want those kind of friends.

Because we're prideful.

We don't want somebody to tell us what to do.

Can we all say oh men?

I mean, oh me together?

Oh me.

Oh men.

That's a good one.

Is that not true?

Come on, guys.

We're being honest.

We're family.

We're talking truth here that's going to make us be all that God wants us to be to bring glory to Him.

We need this.

Why don't we come to church?

What I'm preaching, can I tell you right now, I'm getting whooped like a dog right now.

I mean this, I'm guilty too.

I want you to understand that.

So it's irritating sometimes and it stings.

This means a friend who is truly the salt of the earth will tell us what we need to hear, watch, not what we want to hear.

Can I get an amen?

What we need to hear, not what we want to hear.

They will tell us when we're wrong, about to make a bad decision, to get off track spiritually.

They'll come back and sit down with us.

We can make a difference in the world by the way we radiate, communicate, refuse to deviate, and then hear D, by the way we captivate.

It was the very religious like Nicodemus, or the very sinful like the woman at the well.

If we are the salt of the earth, we will make people spiritually thirsty.

And that's what 1 Peter 3.15 gives us.

Listen what he says in 1 Peter 3.15.

Sanctify the Lord your God in your hearts.

Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you.

Now what?

A reason for the hope that's in you with meekness.

Why do you think they're going to ask you for that hope?

Because they see something different in you.

They see something different in you in the situation or circumstances that you are placed, and you don't act like the culture, the wrong culture, acts.

You handle it differently.

You handle it graciously, lovingly, compassionately, caringly.

Not I don't give a flip.

It's not all about you, it's all about them.

When we start thinking that way.

Can I get an amen?

When we are the salt of the earth, I wrote this to me.

And I put Danny, preacher, this is for you.

When we are the salt of the earth, all kinds of people will be drawn to Christ and will ask us questions about our faith.

I believe that.

It's happened to me all my ministry.

The Bible tells us to make the most of our time.

Colossians 4, 5.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are lost, redeeming the time.

Now here's a question I asked me that I want to ask our church.

When was the last time someone came up to you and asked you about the hope that lies in you?

When's the last time someone has come up to you and asked you, man, you why is it you're so joyful all the time?

Why is it in a in a in a situation that looks like it's going bad, you can have the joy of the Lord.

How do you do that?

I've had people like that.

How can you do that?

Because, remember this?

We know.

Say it with me, church.

We know all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

And we're walking by faith and not by sight.

That's how we do it.

That's how we do it.

Always be prepared to share our faith.

Always.

We should also invite people to our church.

Luke 14, 23.

You ought to be so excited about your church in 2020 that you can't wait to invite everybody you come.

Anytime you have a little conversation with somebody, here's why here's it's this simple.

Here's what I ask.

After we get to say so-and-so, yeah, hey John, yeah.

We play in this.

Hey, John, do you go to church anywhere?

That's all I ask.

Do you go to church anywhere?

Yes or no?

That's what they're gonna say.

Yes.

If they do, I always ask them where.

I said, well, good.

Then I usually, if if I really feel led, I say, Well, are you involved?

Yeah.

I'm involved.

I play the drums, or I do this, I do that, I help.

Or if they say no, I say, well, look, hey.

The church at Chelsea Westover, we're we're right down here on 280.

Why don't you just come visit us Sunday?

We start at 10.

And let me tell you, not only will you enjoy the worship, I hope you enjoy the preaching.

I promise it won't be boring.

That I can promise.

And then you're gonna have one of the best meals in town.

In fact, you'll have you'll eat at the best restaurant in Westover.

In fact, it's the only one in Westover on Sunday.

Amen.

And get them laughed.

But you ought to invite everybody.

Invite everybody that's not going somewhere.

If they're going somewhere, I say, well, good, John, man, just stay involved, man.

Just keep exalting Jesus.

Jesus is awesome.

I don't try to invite them to my church if they're involved in another church.

I don't, don't, I want all the people that's not going to church.

There's 82% of them.

I'm not in competition with it, we're not in competition with any church, folks.

You know what?

I was thinking with this message.

I'm not asking God to let us be the largest church in the area, but you know what I am asking him, and I want you to agree to ask with me, but I want him to, hey, I want to ask him to let us be one of the most influential churches in the community.

Amen.

That's it.

That's what he's called us to do.

At last brings me to that fifth thing by the way we rededicate.

At times we get off course in our spiritual lives and are no longer the salt of the earth.

We just talked about that.

But if that salt has lost its savor, verse 13, where will all shall it be salty?

If we've lost our saltiness, in other words, we're not walking according to the things that we know God wants us to be doing.

We're not our speech in what it ought to be, our honesty, our morals, all of.

We just we're not living sold out to God.

If so, how can we regain our saltiness?

That's the that's it.

But it's it's pretty simple.

When our lives are contaminated by the culture and the world, the ways of the world, we cease to be salty on the earth.

I can tell you.

In fact, he says in James 4, 4, you adulterers, ooh, look at what he calls us if we're not so, you know, living for him.

You're an adulterer.

That's pretty strong.

Have you ever thought about that?

You adulterers and adulteresses.

Know ye not that the King James says, enmity?

Well, your love for the world is enity with God?

That means hostility with God.

See, I'm convinced God wants a radical love affair with you.

In fact, he's jealous.

He wants you to love him, and hey, like nobody else, and he wants all of your love and devotion.

He doesn't want you mixing with the world.

That's why John says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

Now what?

If hey, if the love of the world's in you, then the love of the Father is not.

Wow.

Pretty strong, folks.

Hey, don't get mad at me.

I'm just a delivery boy.

Amen?

That's pretty strong.

That's real strong.

In fact, we need to learn to pray like David.

Let me give it to you.

Psalms 51, verse 1.

Psalms 51:1

Have mercy upon me, O God.

Now, this was a man after God's own heart.

And by the way, he was pronounced a man after God's own heart after the big mess up with Bathsheba.

So there's hope.

Can I get an amen?

If you truly repent.

Listen to what he said.

He says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

Amen.

Blot out, notice what he says, blot out my transgressions.

And then verse 2, he says, Wash me thoroughly from my sins.

Now the Hebrew word translated blot out there.

Maha.

The Hebrew word, maha, means to utterly wipe away or erase.

Whew! In other words, if we confess our sins, watch this.

He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In other words, think of that eraser.

Remember when we were growing up, you wrote with a what number two pencil, I think, or something like that.

And you mess up, you could erase it.

And start over.

Well, that's what true repentance is.

God forgives you, and you can start over.

You're going in one direction.

True repentance is, and you God stops you in your tracks, like he did Paul on the road to Emmaus.

And you hey, you get forgiven of your sins, and you truly repent, and you say, Okay, Father, I'm so sorry.

I've been sinning against.

You.

I've not been doing what you asked me to do.

But today I'm asking you to forgive me and I'm going to live for you radically.

And you turned around and you start going the opposite direction.

That's it.

You've got that choice.

You've got that power if you're a Christian.

Now, if you're lost, by the way, you're just doing what you're supposed to do.

You say, well, I'm just, I'm.

Paul said I was the chief of sinners.

Yeah, he was.

He didn't know any different.

But after the road, hey, after the confrontation with Christ on the road to Damascus, I meant the road, yeah, to Damascus.

I'm fixing to go to Jerusalem.

But hey, hey, what did he do?

He changed.

Unbelievable.

He was the chief of sinners.

So don't tell me, don't worry about what you've done.

You keep saying, but you don't know what I've done.

Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter what you've done.

You haven't done anything worse than what Paul did.

He killed people, had them killed.

And God radically saved him and he went on to write most of the New Testament.

Don't tell me God can't radically change you.

If you're willing.

Hello.

But you got to do your part.

All right, quickly.

Go to Second Thing and with through.

Not only we're the salt of the earth, but we got to be the light of the world.

Matthew 14 through 16.

If we live out these beatitudes, we'll be not only the salt of the earth, but we'll be the light of the world.

And for this to be a reality in our lives, we must do three things in reference to being a light.

Number one, comprehend what light is.

You gotta know what light is.

Can I tell you what light is not?

Light is not saying that you're a Christian.

Can I tell you what light is not?

Not saying that you're a member of a church.

Light is not just meaning you're a member of a church.

Can I tell you what light is not?

Well, I've been baptized.

That's not light.

Can I tell you what light is not?

Well, I'm a tither.

I give.

So let me tell you what light.

You gotta understand what light is.

Light, and here it is.

And by the way, the word for light here is fos.

Fos.

F-O-C-E, FOS.

And it means to shine or make manifest.

In other words, it literally means to radiate what you are.

Hello.

You know why a lot of people aren't light?

Or excuse me, why a lot of people don't radiate light?

Because they don't know what light is.

They don't understand what light is.

And before you can radiate light, you've got to have the light.

Hello.

Amen?

Okay?

Now watch this.

This is so good.

In a physical sense, here's what light does: light enables us to see form and color.

Okay?

In a spiritual sense, light enables us to see spiritual truth.

And that's why Jesus makes the statement in John 9, 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Not only was he the truth, but you literally saw the truth.

Ladies and gentlemen, when light is in us, not only do we know the truth, but we radiate that truth.

Because that light works through us.

He works through our, and all those five things I just taught you on Saul, our radiation and our communication.

You with me?

So we see that it's so important.

Jesus is no longer with us physically, but that is why he says, now watch in the Sermon on the Mount, watch what he says.

You say this with me.

Me, me, you and me, we are the light of the world.

Since, and I love the word ye is emphatic here.

The statement could read in the original language.

You are the only light of the world.

In other words, you and me, Christians, we're the only light of the world.

We're the only Christ some people will ever see here on earth.

Is that not a responsibility and an accountability?

But isn't it an exciting time?

The world is, the America is darker than it's ever been.

Which means we have the opportunity to shine more than we've ever shone.

We keep saying, oh, it's getting worse, it's getting worse.

You know what we, and I've been guilty of that.

You know what we need to start saying?

Yes, but we need to get brighter and brighter and brighter.

Say it with me, church.

Brighter and brighter and brighter.

When it's the darkest, that's when the light shines the most.

We've got to comprehend it.

I thought about this.

Give me a little.

I am a little educated.

The sun is a source of physical light for our world.

You believe that?

Of course you do.

However, at night, when our the side of the earth rotates away from the sun, what happens?

What comes out?

And what is the moon doing?

The moon is what?

Reflecting the light of the sun.

How about that?

It's a reflection of what the sun is.

Hey, so in the same way, we are to reflect what the spiritual light Jesus Christ is.

We are kind of the moon.

We reflect Christ.

Amen?

Isn't that good?

That's good, honey.

So it says we need to be a full moon.

In other words, we need to reflect the full glory.

Not the half moon.

We don't want any half glory.

We want all the glory.

Amen?

Don't give me half glory.

Give me all the glory.

Here's biblical.

Give me a double portion.

Amen.

That's what he's talking about.

That's exactly what he's talking about.

So, in our outline, we've got to concentrate.

We've got to understand.

Comprehend light.

B.

We've got to consider the consequences of what happens when you hide the light.

Light dispels darkness.

Therefore, light is only needed when there is what?

Darkness.

So why are, and we're all guilty.

We've been complaining more about the darkness than really getting excited that the light shines the brightest in the darkness.

I'm guilty.

Are you not guilty?

But now I'm getting to think God's really speaking to my heart through this whole series of messages again.

This is why you're here, preacher.

Quit worrying about the gut, quit worrying about the politics.

Quit worrying.

Just start being who you are, what you are, and stand for truth and stand for justice and stand for what's right.

And by the way, if you stand for right, what's right, it'll control who you vote for because you're not going to vote for anybody that stands for darkness.

Hello.

That's simple.

It's easy.

Look at how they voted.

Hello.

Isn't it amazing?

Those votes are always recorded.

You know how they voted on abortion.

Hello.

Getting quiet again.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Now watch this.

Alright, make some line this up.

This is so good though, man.

A city in the daytime is very visible.

You can see it.

But at night, when it's dark and all the lights are lit, it radiates.

Doesn't radiate in the daytime, like it does in the night.

What I'm trying to say is, it's only when things get really dark that the glory of God and the radiancy of Christ will be shown.

We're living in a time, I'm convinced right now, that the church witness could be the greatest it's been since Jesus' time in America.

Hello.

You just hear what I said?

I don't think you did.

Because it's fixing to get more like Jesus' times here pretty soon.

I'm telling you.

But that's when the disciples turn the world upside down.

I got chills.

Acts 17, 6.

And then the last thing.

Concentrate on brightening your light.

Jesus says we are to let our light shine before others.

Verse 16, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

And the word glorify there literally means to express a good opinion or praise.

In other words, there should be no doubt that the source of our good works, our lights, hey, don't shine to draw attention to us, but to Him.

And how can we do good works that will brighten our lights and cause people to defloor, hey, to glorify Heavenly Father?

Write them in four things.

I've already preached them, so I'm just going to put them in the thing so you won't say you forgot those four blanks, preacher.

How can we brighten our lights?

Number one, acquire a good, positive attitude.

An I can attitude.

Can I get an amen?

Not an I can't, but an I can.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Number two, apply yourself at work or at school.

What do you mean, preacher?

This is a message within itself.

Hey, in other words, don't be a shoddy worker or don't do shoddy performance.

Christians are called to competence and to set the standard.

We ought to be the most dependable, the most efficient, the most honest, and doing the greatest, highest quality of work.

That ought to be what you do where you are.

Can I get an amen?

You ought to be the best.

In fact, I wrote this to me.

Watch this.

Where is it?

I can't.

It's so good.

Oh, we don't have to be the best, but we ought to do our best.

In other words, whatever qualities, talents, gifts you got, that's you.

You're different than me.

I'm different than you.

So don't try to be the best at everything.

You just do the best you that you, hey, with what you got to do with.

Can I get an amen?

And your reward will be just as great as the other one.

This, you may only have one talent, the other guy may have three talents, but if you do your best, you get the same reward.

Hello, Ken.

Man, that's good, preacher.

Number three.

Avoid blinding people with your light.

Oh, this is a good one.

In other words, don't be a spiritual smart aleck.

Don't think you're better than anybody else.

You're not holier than thou.

Notice what it said: let your light so shine before me and not at them.

Don't blind others with your light.

Philippians 2 3 said, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but be humble, thinking of others better than yourself.

That means you should not be rude, condescending to anyone.

When we are lights, we will be witnesses.

Hey, we will be witnesses, not prosecuting attorneys.

Amen?

And then number four.

Alleviate every worry.

Alleviate every worry about rejection.

Look at verse 11.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely.

For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is our reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ladies and gentlemen, listen to me.

You cannot stand for Christ and be the light of the world and the salt without irritating, stinging, and shining in the most darkest thing, and not be relicoed.

Jesus said, Luke 6, 26, woe unto you if all men speak well of you.

Now I don't mean that in a holier than our eye attitude.

I've already just talked about.

What I'm talking about is just be real, be loving, be compassionate, but don't deviate from who you are.

Don't compromise.

Don't be a chameleon.

Well, if I'm with this group, I'm like them.

When I'm with this group, when I'm in the world's group, I'm like the world.

When I'm in church, I'm like the church group.

That won't work.

That's not a like, that's a chameleon.

I really believe with all my heart that we can be a great influence in this community.

I think we already are being one.

But I think there's a lot yet that we can do to brighten.

Why did I just say work on brightening our lights?

With these four things, the right attitude, the right communication.

Just don't deviate.

Be real.

Did you hear me?

Real.

Not perfect.

But real.

None of us can be perfect.

Amen.

We can't.

But we can be real.

Every head bow, every eye close.