KINGDOM MANIFESTO: Salt & Light

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Now, here's this week's podcast.

Jesus, thank you so much for the opportunity to gather together and to lift

your name up and to elevate who you are in our lives as a community, as a collective.

I pray that your spirit that's already here, that's already moving with us would

now speak to us and speak through us, that you would move in our hearts and

our minds, that we might be made new as a result of being together with your word in this place.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Well, we've been in the middle of this conversation called the Kingdom Manifesto,

where we've been looking at this talk that Jesus gave on this mountain, this perspective,

this manifesto on what it looks like to live inside the kingdom of God,

this kingdom of light and hope and beauty here and now.

And we've been talking about how this talk that he gives answers so many of

the core questions that we as human beings have.

They inform us of who we are as human beings in light of this new reality that he's bringing to us.

Now, as a coach and as someone who counsels and someone who pastors,

one of the things that I hear more often than not from so many people,

a question that almost every single one of us is asking is this question,

what on earth am I here for?

And that question comes in a lot of different forms.

It may come in the form of like, you know, what's my purpose?

I don't really know what my purpose is.

It may come with the question of how am I supposed to invest my days that I'm here?

It could be as big as what is the meaning of my life and how am I supposed to

give myself to this experience that I'm having right now, but this is a core

question that we all ask of ourselves.

And here's the thing, because most of us are addicted to performance,

or at least we think that what people long for is our performance or that what

we do is synonymous with who we are.

This question gets flipped and it changes from what on earth am I here for?

And it turns into what am I supposed to do with my life?

And so we start asking a different question rather than the question that our

soul is actually longing for.

And then we spiritualize that question, God, what am I supposed to do?

And we ask God, hey, what am I supposed to do with my life in an attempt to

answer this core question of what's my purpose?

And so we start asking questions like, God, do you want me to go to college

or do you want me to get that job?

And then when I do have two job options, God, which one do you want me to do?

Or we ask questions like, God, do you want me to buy the house or do you want me to rent?

Do you want me to go here or there? Do you want me to marry this person or that

person? Do you want me to get the salad or the wrap? Which one?

And so we start interacting with God as if there was some divine maze that he

was having us go through. And if we turn right, there's freedom.

If we turn left, it's a dead end and death.

And it's frustrating at times to ask that question of God, what do you want

me to do? you, God, do I become an accountant?

Or God, what am I supposed to have kids? Or what am I supposed to engage?

As if God is going to answer that question or you're going to make a wrong turn

and then he's going to be frustrated with you, right?

Like, what? You became an accountant?

You were supposed to become a lawyer, right?

Or you had kids right now? You were supposed to wait five years.

The whole plan's messed up, right?

You got the parm fries? You were supposed to get the truffle fries. eyes.

And so we assume that God has this master plan where he has ordained every detail

of where we're supposed to go with our life.

Now, look, I am not saying that you should not seek God's wisdom for your life.

I'm not saying that you should not pray through or ask for direction in your

life, but I actually believe that God is far less concerned with what you are

going to do with And he is much more concerned with who you are becoming.

And the impact that you are making on the world around you, regardless of this.

And in his kingdom manifest, Jesus gives us these words.

And in this, I believe he gives us a key insight into our purpose,

why we are here on this earth.

He says this in Matthew 5, 13, you are the salt of the earth,

but if the salt loses its saltiness, how could it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. foot.

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 its 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.

Now, one thing that Jesus loves is a good metaphor.

And he is, he is full of them all throughout the scriptures.

And he gives us this starting metaphor that gives us insight into our purpose.

And he says, you are the salt of the earth. Just turn to your neighbor and say,

Hey, you're a little salty.

Just do that right now. All right. You're a little salty over there.

Now we have an interesting relationship with salt because I know most of us

aren't supposed to eat salt because it affects our blood pressure, but we're

In this context, salt had a very different space in community life.

See, we can go to Costco and buy a whole bunch of meat and cheese and dairy

and perishables and stick it in a refrigerator and it's good for a couple of

weeks, right? We can preserve it there.

In this context where Jesus was talking about, you couldn't buy a piece of meat

and stick it in a refrigerator. That did not exist.

There was not like a giant, even ice box that you could put it in.

There were even no coolers. And so what people did was they would take things

like meat or cheeses or dairy products like that, and they would stick them in salt.

Sometimes they were cloths that were soaked in salt water that they wrapped around it.

And the salt preserved whatever it was connected to.

That if a block of meat was encapsulated in salt, it stopped the decay.

That if a piece of cheese was encapsulated in salt, it would stop the decay of the cheese.

And so it kept things fresh wherever they are. Now, I know in our modern context,

preservatives are like a big no-no, right?

We don't want preservatives. Everything needs to be preservative-free.

But in this moment, here in this passage of scriptures, sorry to tell you,

but Jesus says, ah, you are the preservative.

You are the preservative. So what exactly are we preserving?

See, one of the things I love about living in California is the beautiful landscapes,

and aspects of nature that we have all around us.

It's why we pay 10 times the rent

here in California, because right now we could get in our car in an hour.

We could be in the mountains in an hour. We could be in the desert in the hours.

We could be at the beach in an hour. We could be at the river somewhere.

We have all of that available to us.

You go to someplace like Texas, you just get flat, right?

And we have all of this around us, but we also have all kinds of natural disasters

that come with this beautiful landscape. Of course, we have the wildfires that have been taking place.

We have the potential for tsunamis. We have earthquakes.

We have mudslides. And all of these erode at the beauty that's around us. They...

Try to take away from the landscapes that we have grown so fond of in California.

Just about a month ago, we had a free weekend at the neighbor home,

which happens like twice a year.

And so I said, let's go do something new. And so we decided that we were going

to go to the swimming holes in Azusa Canyon.

We had never been there before. And I've been watching them on YouTube and I

thought, this is the day.

So we got our swimsuits and we got our floaties and we got our ice chest full

of food and we headed out there. Now I had no idea what to expect.

We drove up there and we parked on the side of the road where everyone else was parked.

And we had no idea what we were doing. We just kind of followed everyone else where they were going.

And we walked down this little trail and into these woods.

And as the woods parted, we open up into this picturesque lakeside with pools

that children are swimming in.

And there's the sound of the brook and like eagles above us.

I'm like, this is ridiculous, right? This is insane.

Where, Where has this been my whole life? And so we were just going to be there

for a few hours, but we ended up spending most of the day there.

And then we immediately came down and we said, this is like our new spot,

right? This is our new spot.

And I never thought I was going to be like a river guy, but apparently I'm a

river guy. I just found out.

And so we went and got like an adventure pass and we decided we're going back.

And so we said, let's go back in a couple of weeks. And then like the next Sunday,

I said, no, no, no. Let's go back today. day.

Like, let's go back right now because I'm stressed and I just need to be in a river.

And so we get in the car and we get to the river.

And as we're driving up to the river, we noticed that all these cars are driving

back down from the river and they're going like this to us.

And I'm like, this is odd. Is this like a new thing? Maybe this is what river

people do. You know, I don't know. I'm new. I'm new to being a river person.

But we get up there and then we start seeing fire trucks. And quickly we realized,

oh, there's this bridge fire that had started just an hour before we got in

the car to go to the river.

And they had blocked off the streets and people were now coming back down.

And now I'm worried because I'm thinking, I just found out I'm a river person

and I just found the river, right?

And now the river's on fire. And the whole week, for the last two weeks,

I downloaded this app called Watch Now, and I've been watching the fire line.

And I'm like, did it burn the river? I'm zooming in to where we are.

Like, please make sure our water holes are still good.

And the firefighters have been out there at the Bridge Fire for the last three

weeks, making sure that this fire line does not destroy homes,

that it does not destroy more natural resources.

They are containing the beauty that exists over there. That's what firefighters do.

They stop the destruction of the beauty around them as they're fighting the fire.

They preserve all of that beauty. And what they have been doing is taking a

stand between the potential breakdown of this fire and the beauty that's all around them.

And luckily for me, up until now, our river's okay, right?

And every day I'm watching for when that road is open because we will be there

the next day. But here's the thing.

When Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth,

what he is saying to us is that you were put here on earth to preserve beauty

and to prevent the destruction and the decay of the human spirit.

That in the same way, firefighters are right now at that bridge fire,

standing, holding a line, making sure that that fire does not produce any more

destruction and they are preserving the beauty that was already there in the

same way he says, you are the salt of the earth.

You were put here to preserve beauty and to prevent decay wherever you go.

See, that when you see goodness and kindness and joy and love and hope and freedom,

that it is your job to make sure that that gets preserved, that it has a space

to flourish, that it has a place to engage,

and that it was to stay alive and well.

And in that, in your preserving of beauty and goodness, everywhere you go,

you prevent the ongoing destruction and decay of the human spirit.

That is what we are here for, to preserve the beauty around us.

Jesus also says in Matthew 18, 18, he says, truly I tell you.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on

earth will be loose in heaven.

See, we are called in our saltiness to be the preserving agents who both bind

and loose things here on earth as they are in heaven.

So where there is hopelessness, we bind it up.

Where there is despair, we bind it up. Where there is bondage, we bind it up.

Where there is decay and breakdown, where families are in destruction,

where marriages are falling apart, where families are trying to figure things

out, where people are in destruction and despair and anxiety.

We say, no, we choose to bind those so that they may not continue creating chaos in the human story.

And likewise, where there is goodness and beauty and hope and light and joy,

we loose those onto the earth.

And the scriptures say that we actually have the power to do that everywhere we go.

But here's what I've noticed is that for so many of us, it is so easy just to

look out at the world and just go, well, this place has gone to hell.

Isn't it? I mean, isn't it just so easy to look out and go, man, this place is a mess.

And the thing is, the beautiful thing about living from that perspective,

it does not require any effort at all.

You can sit back and critique the world all that you want.

And here's the thing that's so frustrating is that while Jesus says you are

the preserving agent of goodness and you are the ones who bind destruction on

the earth, the movement of Jesus has become a wait until we die movement.

It has become a kickback and watch the thing burn and then get a reward after this life.

Just the other day, I was at a Christian event and I was walking around and

engaging some people and I was talking to another pastor

and they were talking about, well, you know, what's going on in politics and,

you know, what's gone in the school systems and, you know, what's going on in

society and, you know, what's gone even in the church.

And there was just so much complaining about all the things that were taking place.

And then the next thing that came out of their mouth was, well,

Jesus is coming back. So I don't really have to take care of it.

And this has become the mantra of the church.

See, if you and I passively wait for Jesus to do something aside from us, guess what?

We just assure more destruction.

We actually just assure that the world falls apart around that.

And when we do that, two things happen.

One, the fire line continues burning through humanity.

The destruction continues. The beauty continues to get lost.

But also we miss out on our purpose. We are left going, I don't know who I am.

I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to give my life to.

And so both things happen at the exact same time. And then we grow cynical with

the just let it burn mentality.

It's not going to turn out. Look at the world. It's a mess. Politics are a mess.

Society's a mess. The world's a mess. Our economy's a mess. And the goodness

that we were meant to preserve gets lost.

And this is why Jesus said, when you refuse to step into your place as a preservative,

you are no good for anything because you lose the goodness.

We lose the goodness that we were designed to preserve here on earth.

See, you are either preserving beauty here on this earth, or you are actively

allowing destruction to take over the human spirit, which is why this metaphor changes here.

Jesus loves a good metaphor, and then he loves changing the metaphor mid-sentence, right?

At some point, he's like, I'm the shepherd, but now I'm also the door of the sheep pen, right?

And so now he's like, you are the salt of the earth.

And if it loses its saltiness, it's no good for anything. But then he changes

the metaphor, but now you're the light of the world, right? First you're salt, now you're light.

Get it together. And not just light, but you are the light of the world. olds.

Now, I grew up horrified of the dark. In fact, I slept with a nightlight on until I was 28 years old.

I just, I did not like the dark. I did not like sleeping in the dark.

I could not sleep in the dark. It was horrifying to sleep in the dark.

Because look, when you turn the lights off and you can't see what's going around

you, anything could be there, right?

You don't know if a velociraptor is in your closet, right?

You don't know if crazy Uncle Joe is hiding under the bed. You don't know that, right?

Anything could become, a demon, a serial killer, the IRS, anyone, right? Right?

Anyone could be coming at you. And this is what the darkness does is it keeps

us from seeing what's in front of us.

It keeps us from being able to react, to respond, to freely engage,

to freely move. You're lost without the lights.

Now on our street that we live on, we have no streetlights.

Our neighborhood was built in the 1920s and in the 1920s, they didn't think

to put streetlights in and the city has not yet put streetlights in.

And because of that, the crime Crime rates specifically on our street are unique

and they're high because where there is darkness, people can hide.

And where there is darkness, crime and theft and brokenness and destruction

has the space to continue because in the darkness, people can hide what's happening.

And this is why light illuminates and gives us the opportunity to see what's

there and then to intervene with what's taking place around us.

Now, this is a little bit of a confusing metaphor that Jesus says,

you are the light of the world, because just like a few minutes before this,

in John chapter 8, verse 12, it says, when Jesus spoke to the people,

John 8:12

he said, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of the

world. See, super confusing, right?

First, he says, I'm the light of the world. And now he says,

you're the light of the world. Which is it?

Who exactly is the light of the world in this context? I thought he just said

that we were the light of the world. Now he says he's the light of the world.

See, oftentimes when we hear passages like this, when it says you are the light

of the world, we hear it through the lens of pop psychology,

which tells us you just gotta shine your light, baby.

You just gotta shine your light. You just, you be a good person over there.

You know, you do you, you let your authentic self shine. You let your freak

flag fly, right? You shine your light, be your authentic best self.

You should shine bright like a diamond.

And so we think that what we need to do is like muster up this light inside

of us and just let it shine as if we had shutters on us. And we're like, here you go, right?

Here's all of me, here's all of my lights. Which ironically,

when people engage it from that perspective, usually it leads to burn out from the light.

That when we just are trying to muster up light, we're trying to perform our

way through the light. We're trying to just engage that space.

We find ourselves burned from the lights. So you and I are less like a flashlight

and we're more like a lantern.

See, a lantern in and of itself does not have its own source of light.

It requires an external source to be placed inside the lantern.

It requires some other light to be placed inside of it. And once it's in the

lantern, the lantern amplifies the light.

The lantern allows the light to be spread further than it would be just on its own.

So when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, he says, when we follow him,

his light is now available in us.

See, the beautiful thing here is that you don't have to perform your light.

You don't have to perform your way into light.

You don't have to like muster up all the light that's inside of you and let

it shine. There's nothing that you actually have to do in this.

You just have to say, Jesus, I follow you. and now your light,

his light is available inside of us and we allow that to shine.

See, this isn't about building up your flames.

This isn't about figuring out how you can shine bright. It's about allowing

the fire of God to consume your life in such a way that as you burn,

the rest of the world sees it around you.

And your light, your life becomes illumination to every single person around you.

That you actually bring light into the hidden places where evil and destruction

and hopelessness thrives.

You illuminate the places where there is hopelessness and despair and darkness,

and it dispels all of that.

Now, there are all types of metaphors around this battle between light and darkness.

This metaphor is used all throughout the scriptures, light and darkness and what it means.

And we use it all throughout our culture, right? Even in narratives like Star

Wars, we have the dark side and the light side.

And usually this metaphor is describing this epic battle that's taking place

within us and around us, that the light is battling the darkness and the darkness

is battling the light, and we're going to see which side will win.

But you know what is required to defeat the deep evils of darkness? Yes.

A light switch. That's actually all that's required.

There's actually not much more than that. See, when we talk about this battle

between light and dark, we think about this epic battle, wondering who's going

to win as if both sides had equal power and we were going to see which one snubbed out the other.

But the reality is, is that if a room is dark, all you have to do is flip on

a light switch and then it's done.

It is not even a fair fight. This is not even a two-sided battle.

It really is a one-sided engagement when it comes to who is the light and how

it impacts the darkness.

See, Jesus says in John 1, he says, in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness, which has not overcome it.

See, once there is light, there is never a moment that darkness can overcome it.

So there, it is impossible to live in a world where there is so much darkness

that it can overcome the light. that is impossible.

So it isn't even a question of who wins.

It isn't even a question of what is the outcome when I decide to have this light

of Jesus burning in me in such a way that it amplifies out to the world around us.

See, it is not a question of what the outcome is.

The question is our willingness to participate with the light.

That is the only thing that's there. See, the only thing that will diminish

our ability to overcome the dark is the placement of the light.

That's it. He says it's impossible for a city shining on a hill to be hidden.

In the same way, don't turn on your light and put a bowl over it or cover it up.

Could you imagine walking into someone's house at night and it's dark and you

ask them, Hey, could you turn the lights switch? It's dark.

Could we turn the lights on? And they go, oh no, the lights are on.

There's this new fad. We just throw blankets over all the lights.

It's like the new cool thing to do.

That would be bizarre, right? It would be bizarre to walk in and say,

hey, why are we doing this?

Why are we covering up all the lights?

See, it may sound crazy, but oftentimes that's what we do spiritually.

See, there's actually this new trend that I noticed that it's emerging in the

faith conversation that says something like, you know, I just,

I just need to get a cabin in the woods with just me and Jesus.

And I'm just going to let my light shine there. You know, I'm just going to

let it shine and it'll just be me and my light.

And in that cabin by myself in the woods, I will find illumination.

And then I will finally be enlightened by the light that's available to me.

And the darkness cannot get to me because I am in my cabin with my lights under

a bowl in my safe space over here.

And we do this at times because we're either lazy with our light or like so

many of us, we're afraid that the light inside of us through Jesus doesn't actually

have the power to dispel the darkness.

And so we think that we need to manipulate the circumstances in such a way that

this light can finally shine.

But either way, it keeps us from living out this second purpose that we have,

which is to be the light of the world.

Now, listen, we absolutely need silence and solitude.

It's actually considered one of the chief spiritual disciplines,

but for what purpose is the most important question that comes with that?

See, we do not need silence and solitude so that we can be alone and finally be connected to Jesus.

We need silence and solitude so that Jesus can start a fire within us so that

when we step back out into our lives,

when we step back out into our communities and our families and our workplaces

and our schools and our neighborhoods, that we are now on fire and that that

light amplifies and illuminates everything around us.

And that when people are with us, they are enlightened because we have been

connected to the source of light.

See, if you have to be in isolation to have your light illuminated,

and let your light shine, I'm gonna ask you to consider that your source of

life may not be God, that it may be something else.

Because here's the newsflash, your light, the light that was given to you,

the light that is in you, the light that was designed to illuminate you and

to dispel the darkness within you and to bring into illumination the areas that

are in destruction and decay and brokenness, it is not just for you.

Jesus, Jesus did not place light in you so that you could go away and enjoy

this little light of mine.

See, your life is illuminated when you follow Jesus, but you become the light

of the world when you decide that that light is going to be given away to others,

that you are going to serve others with that light.

When you bring hope and love and faith to others, when the wisdom that you have

been given gets passed on to others, when your character has transformed and

then you become that transformative agent everywhere you go,

you become now not just someone who is illuminated, you become the light of

the world when you give it away.

See, it's one thing to have the light in you. That's actually pretty easy.

All you have to do is say, I surrender to you, Jesus, and boom,

the light of life is now within you.

It is a whole other thing to choose to become the light of the world.

No longer hiding your light, no longer giving into the lie that the darkness

somehow is going to overtake your light or that the darkness somehow has the

ability to quench your light,

but recognizing that the light within me was designed to be a gift to the world around me.

You turn on the news today and it seems like everyone's just shouting about the darkness.

Everyone's just shouting about how things are falling apart and how nothing's working.

And we have political factions who are just informing us of how dark the other one is.

And it is easy to get sucked into the darkness with that.

It is easy to believe that our responsibility is to simply shout at the darkness,

darkness especially when it feels like the world is being

overtaken by destruction and decay and hopelessness

see you can either spend your time and your energy shouting

at the darkness or you can just shine the light and it

immediately dispels all the

darkness that is around us so you

can grow apathetic to the darkness you can grow apathetic to

the decay you can grow apathetic to the destruction around you and decide hey

it's not my responsibility let it burn Or you can own your place as a preservative

of beauty in this world and an illumination to humanity,

and in that, you take on your purpose.

You own why you are here on this earth.

See, what I think is so beautiful about this passage is that if God wanted to

do any of this himself, he could.

He is the light. So if he wanted to just come and, you know,

pop into humanity for a moment and just shine by himself, he could.

He is the beautiful one. If he wanted to release more beauty on this earth just

by himself, he absolutely could.

He is not helpless to preserve beauty. He is not helpless to bring light to

this world. He is the light.

He is the beautiful one. He is interested, though, in expanding his kingdom of light and love.

He is interested in taking this light and this beauty and this goodness and

expanding it through us.

So he knew that in the Pomona Valley in 2024, he needed a you.

That would be an agent who preserves beauty and illuminates humanity.

See, he strategically placed you in your home, and he placed you in your workplace,

and he placed you in your school.

He placed you in your family, in your network of relationships.

Not that you could sit back and say, well, guess this is the way life is,

and passively watch it burn.

No, he said you are the ones who preserve beauty and illuminate grace,

illuminate hope, help illuminate possibilities full of salt and light,

and he chooses to work through you.

But see, some of you have actually forgot that this light starts with you.

There may be some of you in this room who have darkness that exists within you,

and you're afraid of the darkness.

There may be places in your own life where, man, it just feels so dark,

it feels so heavy, it feels so hopeless.

And the good news that Jesus says at first, he says, look, I'm the light of

the world, so I will come and illuminate your darkness.

If there's ever a moment where you feel like the darkness is too big,

all that's needed is to turn on the light.

There may be places in your life where you feel like, man, it feels like it

is in decay, it is in breakdown, it is like the destruction is taking over.

And guess what? You are the salt of the earth.

You get to preserve the beauty through Jesus in your life. It starts with you.

And as you preserve beauty in your own life and as you allow the light of Jesus

to come and illuminate your darkness, it then extends outward to the world around you.

You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.

So next time you ask the question, what is my purpose?

You don't have to guess. You can say, oh, I am the light of the world.

I'm the salt of the earth.

I am the one who preserves beauty and illuminates humanity because Jesus moves within me.

See, next time that you look at the current state of the world or you look at

the current state of your life and you are tempted to run in fear,

or you are tempted to give in to the voice of apathy and cynicism or you are

attempted to grow angry and apathetic or you feel defeated and overwhelmed around

all the circumstances within you and around you and you feel like there is no

hope and there is no possibility,

You remind yourself that the fight is already fixed and you have been given

everything you need to illuminate the darkness and preserve beauty everywhere you go.

You are the catalyst that God placed in this world to transform it.

And so this is the invitation today that you don't have to do it alone either.

See, I know we, in our Western mind, we read this, you are the light of the

world individually, but I want you just to look around this room for a moment.

Just look around the room, do it for a second. If you're online,

you can just look around your living room.

But when Jesus says you are the light of the world, he was standing on a mountaintop

looking out at people and he wasn't saying you are the light of the world.

He was saying you are the light of the world.

That when we come together in community, when we come together as a body,

when we come together as a unit, as an organism and say we together will illuminate

this world, things transform. for me.

See, I think sometimes we come to this space so that we can have our light like

refreshed, kind of pour some kerosene on the light and let it go,

get it a little brighter, you

know, get a little encouragement so that we can go out and live our day.

And I hope that happens. I hope you walk away from here encouraged.

I hope you walk away from here like, all right, I have some fuel for the week.

But you know why we gather?

Because this is a space every week where salt and light is in the city of Pomona, in the Pomona Valley.

That the people that you are in life with who are in active destruction,

who are in darkness, you can say, oh, hey, I have a space where the light gathers.

I have a space where the salt is that can be poured on the destruction in your

life and bind it and loose beauty and hope in your life because Jesus is there.

Not just here on Sundays, days, but in homes all throughout the week,

in our loft, where people gather together and say, we are the light of the world.

So you may need to start with you, but then you get to connect your light to

others, and it brings a fullness to this. You do not have to do this alone.

This is a joint venture, and we get to be the catalyst.

We get to be those who preserve beauty and and illuminate humanity together.

Let's own our purpose and let's let nothing else get in the way of it.

Because what the world needs is not more people shouting about how dark it is out there.

What the world needs is people who are courageous with their light and are courageous

with their salt and say, I will preserve beauty and prevent the destruction everywhere I go.

We just bow your head and close your eyes for a minute.

I just, I feel like maybe there's some people in the room today who...

Feel overwhelmed by the darkness within them and feel overwhelmed by the destruction

that they see even in their own lives.

And maybe you've given up your purpose, your role, your space of being the salt

of the earth, the light of the world.

And you've forgotten that light is available to you through Jesus.

That salt is available to you.

And if this morning you're here and you're like, man, I feel like I don't have that source of light.

Maybe you had it a while back and you let it go.

Maybe you've never connected to that source of Jesus.

And today you're saying, I want to get back to that. I want to be illuminated.

I don't want to battle this anymore.

I don't want the destruction to continue taking over.

This is your opportunity to connect to Jesus.

So if that's you today, this is your moment. This is your opportunity to say,

all right, I want the light back.

Or maybe for the first time, I want the light to come and illuminate the darkness

and to preserve beauty within me.

If that's you this morning, maybe for the first time or for the first time in

a long time, say, I want to connect to Jesus as the source.

Would you just, with no eyes looking around, would you just raise your hand?

If you're online, you just type in Jesus.

Awesome. I want you just to pray this prayer with me, if that's you.

I just want to pray, Jesus, I give you my life.

Jesus, I give you my life.

And Jesus, we thank you that you are the light of the world and that you have

come as the beautiful one to create beauty in us and through us and around us.

And I pray that we would take up that call, that as you illuminate our lives,

that we would become the light of the world,

that we would become the salt of the earth that preserves beauty,

especially in this season where the world seems to be in mass decay,

where darkness seems to be the main conversation.

Would you allow us to take up our purpose, to be the catalyst that you've called

us to be, so the world might be transformed by love? We.

Music.