Salt and Light - Heaven Part 8

We like to say we're a church on a mission, and that mission is

to see people far from God discover their real life and

their purpose in Jesus. And all that really means is

this is that when you walk through this world long, if you

get kicked in the teeth, you get beat down and sometimes you

don't know where to go. You don't have an answer, you

don't know what the next step is.

And a lot of times we have people that walk in and they're

giving God this last chance and they don't know what else to do.

And our opportunity, our blessing is to reunite them with

the purpose that God has always had for them and they're just

not getting ready to discover. So we're excited that you're on

mission with us here in real life, and we can't wait to see

what God's going to do in so many people's lives today.

You guys are here on our awesome Sunday.

We are continuing in the middle of a message here is called

heaven. If you guys have been here, the

idea is this is a lot of us. We think that our best days are

behind. That's right.

And that's not the truth. That's a lie from the enemy.

And through this heaven series, we've been re evaluating and re

clarifying what our values are, what we're looking forward to.

And we've talked about questions of what does heaven look like?

What are we going to do there? And so it has been so awesome

just to see Pastor Sean just share with a vision of what

heaven is. But I don't know if you guys

know this or not. Heaven isn't just a destination,

it's part of a Kingdom of God. That Kingdom of God isn't just a

later, it's a now. And so the Kingdom of God really

shapes the way we live, what we do, what we value and what we

want and how we follow Jesus. So today we're going to continue

in our seven series, our heaven series about salt and light.

And I want you guys to woke up Logan Hardy as we continue the

series. Like that balancing act.

Well spoiler alert sorry to burst you guys a bubble, I'm not

Sean. I think we're similar.

If Sean was 5 inches shorter and had a few 1000 less hair

follicles I really don't think would be that far off.

But man, I had like a whole lot I wanted to say to start this

message, but I don't know about you guys, but I was a little bit

floored by the worship today. Did you guys enjoy the worship

today? So if you guys don't mind, I'm

just going to open a prayer and just kind of set our hearts on

God. So if you guys all would bow

your head, close your eyes, Thank God you are not just good,

but you are so, so good. If we take nothing else away

from today, if I just bumble my words the entire morning, let us

take away that we should praise your name for forever and

forever and forever, not just in church, but our everyday lives

and our workplaces and every the aspect of our lives.

We should show the light of Jesus to others.

Jesus name. Hey, man, well, I'm super

excited to be up here this morning.

I've been, I don't know about you guys.

Raise your hand real high. If you haven't been enjoying

this message series on heaven real high.

I have glasses on and the lights are on.

So I'm just gonna take your word that the hands are up.

But I'm gonna I'm gonna ask for you guys hands a few times

because this has kind of been like one of those sermon series

or message series that you just don't want to end, right?

So if during this series on heaven, if you have learned

something new, raise your hand. OK, Again, taking your word that

your hands are up, my hand is up.

If you've been encouraged by this series, raise your hand if

you found a reason to kind of push forward with a little bit

more of a smile on your face, face because you know that you

have heaven waiting for you. OK.

And then last question specifically talking about last

week, because you guys remember the message last week that Sean

did. We talked about how Heaven helps

us persevere through pain and he gives us a reason for

forgiveness. If you were challenged by either

last week's message or any message in this series, would

you raise your hand real high? This should be all of us.

I feel like if you take nothing else out of a series through

heaven, you should be challenged.

So what we're going to continue in today is I hope that you walk

away with a heart of being challenged based off this

message. I know I was challenged when I

was writing it. And spoiler alert, if you're

here and you are in real life youth, you heard something very

similar this last Wednesday. But I knew I was super

challenged when I was writing this.

And before we get into the scripture, I'm going to set this

morning up with an illustration. I want you guys to imagine for

me. I want you to imagine the most

stereotypical American tours that you can.

Country doesn't matter. Maybe for the sake of this

illustration, we'll say it's Venice, Italy.

I want you to think of the most stereotypical American tours

that you can, going through the streets of Venice, Italy.

We'll build 1 together. We'll give this fictionary

fictional person a fake name. We'll call it Drew.

We'll call this person Drew. So when I think of Drew, again,

a fictional person has no connection with anybody here.

What I think of what Drew would look like in going through

Venice, Italy, I imagine Drew with just globs and globs of no

sunscreen just dripping off of his nose.

When I picture Drew, I picture Drew in a big ridiculous hat.

You know, like a straw hat thing.

Kind of goes out four foot each direction.

Gives him shade for all of him and his kids.

I think of Drew rocking is slightly a three quarter of the

way buttoned up Hawaiian shirt. I think of him in khaki shorts

sporting the biggest Fanny pack you've ever seen.

When I think of Drew going through Venice, Italy, I think

of Drew going on a bird scooter through the sidewalks, pushing

all the locals out of his way just to get to the next

restaurant for his bread or whatever he likes.

I don't know. So when I think of Drew, would

you guys agree that we think of a person as an American tourist,

somebody that stands out, right? The idea of American culture and

American identity is so pervasive and it's so strong, it

is going to be very hard to miss an American in a place that

they're not supposed to be. If you're in Italy and you see

an American on the street, it is going to be obvious.

It is going to be obvious that Drew is not the culture of

Italian that we think he is. So when we think about today,

here's what I want you to have on your heart is when you're

actually marked by a strong identity and when you actually

are a foreigner in a foreign place, you should stand out.

In the same way Drew stands out in Italy when he's on his bird

scooter with his nose sunscreen and is slightly buttoned up

Hawaiian shirt. If we truly are citizens of

heaven, we should stand out when we're here on earth, correct?

So that's going to be the heart behind this message today.

My dad, Barry asked a few weeks ago, I don't know if if you were

here for it, he gave a message series on asking what is your

tribe? Where do you really plant your

flag? Where do you find your sense of

identity? You know, where do you find your

sense of culture and how does it stand out among other people?

So if we follow the logic of that tourist illustration, if we

are truly marked by Jesus and if we are truly destined for

heaven, it should be very obvious that this person is not

of earth. In the same way you're in Italy,

like man, that guy has to be an American if you're on earth,

like that guy has to be bound for heaven.

So that's a challenge. If you have your Bibles going to

start in Philippians chapter 3 and we're going to see Paul

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

talking to the Church of Philippi.

And Philippians is one of the like one of the coolest books in

the whole Bible because it's if you read a lot of Paul's

letters, it's a whole lot of you do this wrong, you do this

wrong, you do this wrong. But Philippians really isn't

that much of a letter of correction and more it's a

letter of exhortation. So we're going to be starting in

chapter 3, verse 17, and it starts join together and

following my example, brothers and sisters.

And just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those

who live as we do before we get into anything.

I pulled a lot of meaning out of this one verse.

This doesn't really tie that neatly into the message, but I

think that if you follow the the verse 17, if you follow verse

17, everything that we're going to talk about gets a whole lot

easier. Verse 17, what does it start

with? Join together.

Is it or is it not a lot easier to live as a Christian when

you're living among Christian brothers and sisters?

Man, if you guys are not in a life group right now, I would

encourage you to join a life group as soon as possible.

If you're coming to church every other week, or even less so than

that, I'd insure, I'd encourage you come to church consistently.

Find a church to get planted into.

It is so much easier to live a godly life when you're

surrounded by godly people. Full stop.

I'm in the way scripture group. So depending on how you feel

about me, that could either be a really good group or it might be

a group to avoid. Talk to Jamie or Brett,

depending on how you think about me and then look at.

So join together and following my example.

Paul is writing the Church of Philippi in this letter and he's

saying that the Church of Philippi is going to have a lot

easier of a time to live a godly life if they follow the example

set by Paul. And as you get later on in

Timothy and Titus, if you're not in here this morning and you

don't have a mentor or somebody that you can look up to, if you

don't have an older gentleman or an older lady in your life that

has walked the walk that you're trying to live and lives a godly

life that you can emulate, you are starting behind the curve.

It is so much easier to live a godly life when you have

somebody to emulate. So that's my charge for you guys

as we get into start do life together, join a life group,

find somebody to emulate. Amen, Amen.

All right picking up going on verse 18 for I has often told

you before and now tell you again even with tears.

Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach and

their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on what

earthly things? Verse 20.

Notice the contradiction. But our citizenship is in

heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord

Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring

everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies

so they will be like His glorious body.

A lot to unpack here. Notice in verse 18 and 19 you

have the characteristics and the distinctives of those bound for

destruction and notice in verse 20 and 21 you have the

distinctives of those that are bound for heaven.

So what I'd like to think is, is you look at verse 18 and 19, you

get a blueprint and a step by step guide on how to blend into

the world around you. If you want to blend into the

world around you, you're going to let God, your God be your

stomach. You're going to be driven and

you're going to be dictated by indulgence in the pleasures of

the world. That could look like gluttony.

If you're like me and like you choose your restaurant based on

how big the serving sizes are, that could that could, that

could be sexual immorality, addiction to partaking in that

kind of pleasure. Really it all roots back to self

worship. If you want to blend into the

world around you, put yourself first.

Put your feelings 1st and put your wants 1st.

And moving forward from that, if you want to blend into the

world, you're going to find glory in your shame.

If you want to blend into the world, the things that distaste

and disappoint God the most, you're going to find the most

pleasure in, like sexual immorality.

Like we're talking about finding pride in the opposite of what

God calls. And if you want to blend into

the world, the way of the world leads to an unmistakable end.

It leads to an unmistakable ending for your life.

I don't say this to scare you guys, but I say this because it

is a reality. How many you guys know that we

are all eternal beings, For better or for worse, we are all

going to live forever. The only question is, are you

going to live in eternal life or are you going to live in eternal

death? And following the way of the

world leads to the latter. Paul writes that their destiny,

destiny is destruction because where Christ brings life, the

secular lifestyle in the secular world brings the opposite.

But the good news, because I'm not, if this isn't a sad

message, this is a hopeful message.

The good news is that Jesus gives us a way to stand out.

And the way to stand out is by following the way of Jesus.

I mean, your citizenship is in heaven if you follow Jesus.

And in like the same way that American tourists find

themselves sticking out wherever they go, citizens of heaven

should stick out wherever they go.

I mean, if you have a citizenship in heaven, you have

a promise that you will be made holy.

If you're a citizen of heaven, you have a reason to stand out.

And that's because we're eagerly awaiting who Jesus.

We're eagerly awaiting our Savior.

What would it look like if you lived?

And if I lived, because I'm not, I'm not just talking at you

guys, this is me a part of this. What would it look like if we

lived like we actually believe that Jesus was coming back?

What would it look like if every single action we took, every

single day, we understood we were giving account to Jesus for

it? How much easier to say like,

yeah, Jesus, I messed up this day, but I felt regret for it

and I fixed it moving forward rather than, yes, Jesus, I fell

into habitual sin and I never got out of that.

I never got out of that rut. So this is going to frame what

we're going to talk about this morning.

You have two ways to live. You have the way of blending in,

which is the way of the world, or you have the way of standing

out, which is the way of Jesus. So what does that look like

practically? If you guys still have your

Bibles out, and I hope you all have your Bibles, this is going

to be a lot easier to read. I encourage you guys all to read

out of your Bible rather than on the screen.

If you don't have a Bible, that's awesome.

But if you can follow along in your physical Bible and practice

studying in that, it is going to be so much more fruitful for

you. So if you do have it, we're

going to be in Matthew chapter 5 and Jesus is just getting, he's

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

preaching the Sermon on the Mount.

He just got out of the Beatitudes and he's picking up

and he is talking about two specific, I don't know exactly

what to call it. It almost feels like they're

metaphors, but they're charges for the people of God and

they're going to be talking about what does it look like to

be the salt of the earth and what does it look like to carry

the light of the world? So salt of the earth 513 Jesus

says 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 under foot.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm very thankful that salt does

not blend in. But salt stands out.

The first time I ever tried cooking anything, I tried to

make steak bites. I was not aware that you don't

fill up an entire like like inch of oil on the bottom of your

pan. So when I dropped my steak in,

it spotted up on me and my skin got all bubbly.

It was really bad. That should tell you the level

of a cook I am. If salt did not exist, nothing I

made would be edible. If Heinz 57, it didn't exist.

Nothing I made would be edible. But salt?

Salt stands out. It doesn't blend in.

You notice salt when you bite into a Chick-fil-A fry that's

too salty. Like it's very obvious that salt

is present. So my question is for you.

Are you like salt? Do you stand out in your

everyday life? Like, do you make in the same

way salt makes Logan's cooking bearable, Do you make the

downtroddenness of the world bearable?

Are you salt mixing into the nasty food of life?

I mean, I'll tell you guys that I'm saying this as a reflective

piece on my end because I don't know how many of you know, it

used to be full time, but now I go to school and whatnot.

So two days a week, I work for my dad and we work concrete.

So concrete work. I don't know what you guys

should. I don't know what you guys know

about concrete work. It is not the most edifying

place I've got not really in any sense at all.

And so I'm up here preaching, right?

I, I, I help run our youth group.

I go to Bible college. It should stand to reason that

Man Logan sticks out like a Thor sum on the concrete site.

There's like all these Pagan heathens pouring concrete, and

then there's this godly guy over here that's paving the way for

them to know Jesus. That's what it should be, right?

What do you think it really is? No, I blend in.

I behave the exact way that they do on the job site.

Man, when I'm at work, I say things that I shouldn't say.

The jokes I come up with at work rival like anything I'll find on

the Internet and it is so funny in the moment.

But then I get home and I'm like man, is that really like how I

should carry myself? Like I'm going to have to give

account to God for that joke I just told.

That was the most afraid thing I could think of and I got 2

minutes of laughter, man. When I'm on the job site, I act

in ways that I shouldn't act. The fruit of the Spirit is

kindness, forbearance, and patience, among other things.

I am not kind at work. I do not have patience at work.

I, I do not have forbearance at work.

I don't carry myself in the way God calls me to at work or how I

carry myself here at church. Man, I am not like salt at all

on my job site. I more often than not, I blend

in and there is no salt to make that nasty food a little bit

more bearable and a little bit more tenable.

So that's me. I asked you guys, how do you

look at your job site? I don't know where you work.

If you work outside, maybe you work in a school, maybe you work

in an office. How do you blend into your work?

Is it very obvious that there's an ambassador of Christ among

the world at your work? Is it very obvious in the same

way Drew rides his Bird scooter across the Venice streets?

Do you stand out in that same manner or you just like your

coworkers? Do you carry yourself just like

your coworkers? And how do you?

Here's another one. OK, we'll pick up off last week.

How do you present yourself on social media?

This is not as much of an area for struggle for me, but I know

for some of you this is an area of struggle.

Are you like the rest of the world on social media?

Are you full of judgement, superiority, moral casting down

on other people? Or are you different?

Are you salt that you stand out in the way that you're full of

grace and you're full of encouragement on social media?

What about everyday life? Not how we carry ourselves on

the phone, not how we carry ourselves at our job site.

But when you're going to the grocery store, when you're when

you're taking your evening walk in the park to get your calories

cut meant do you blend into the rest of the grocery store?

Do you blend into everybody else around you at the park?

When you see a crying stranger on the park seat, do you stop to

comfort her or do you be, are you more on your itinerary?

I got to be home by this time. I got to do this.

I got to do that. Do you stand out in public?

And here's maybe the most simple example of all.

If you guys are like me, is it awkward sometimes just to pray

in public just to stand out in any way possible?

I mean, some of us are just scared and uncomfortable to pray

in public because it stands out. One of the biggest temptations

of being a Christian is to blend in.

What if they think I'm weird? What if they think any number of

things? I'm going to reference a movie

that I am not allowed to name on the stage.

Suffice to say that it's not a movie I should have watched, but

this picture is really good. So in in Asian cultures there is

a rice dish called Joe and what it is, is it's soft rice boiled

in water and serve mostly to the elderly.

Joe is safe. It's inoffensive, it is

unmemorable, it is easily digestible.

And a big temptation for us Christians is to be like the Joe

to be, to be inoffensive, to not stir the pot, to not cause any

waves, to play it safe, to not leave a mark.

But the, the, the, the truth is that God calls the opposite of

us. We are so scared by what people

think of us. I mean, what if this person

thinks I'm scared? Not scared, I'm sorry.

What if this person thinks I'm weird?

What if this person calls me name names?

What if I'm called intolerance? What if the world around me says

that my views aren't only outdated, but they're actually

immoral? What if the people around me

push for me to lose my job? I was talking to somebody on my

youth team who actually has been running into issues at his

workplace because he was telling people he was giving people

blessings at the end of an e-mail.

Like simple stuff like that causes reactions and those are

real temptations that cause us to not stand out as much as we

should. So we're called to be the salt

of the earth. And in my opinion, it is a lot

easier to be Joe than it is to be salt.

But God calls us to be salt. And the way to be salt is by

showing the light of the world to those around you.

So we're going to pick up again in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

We're going to keep going in verse 14, but you are the you're

the light of the world. That picture of light, that same

light that blinds me coming from the spots that makes me can't

see. I want you to picture that for

the rest of the message. Light is going to be

instrumental to the rest of what we're going to be talking about.

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,

but instead they put it on a stand and it gives light to

everyone in the house in the same way.

In the same way being as what it looks like to take your lamp and

put it on a shelf rather than throwing a blanket over in that

same way, in that same manner, let your light shine before

others. So that's the action right here.

What is the action? Let your life shine before

others. And what is the result?

That they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in

heaven. This is the best news of the

heaven, best news of the heaven. This is the best news of the

morning. That everything that we're

talking about, what does it look like to stand out?

What does it look like to carry, to carry the light of Jesus?

What does it look like to be an ambassador of Christ?

The best news of the morning is that that one's doing the heavy

lifting is not us, but is actually Jesus within us.

We're going to come back to John.

We're going to come back to Matthew 5 in a minute.

But I want to give some context for what this light really is,

because that's cool in theory. But what is it in practice?

What is the light of God in all practicalities?

So in John 11 it says that in the beginning was the Word.

And for those of you who don't know the Word here, this capital

word, this is Jesus. And the Word was with God, and

the Word was God. He was with God in the

beginning. Through Him all things were

made. Without Him nothing that was

made had been made. In Him was life, and that life

was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the

darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

You see what John here is saying about light in relation to

Jesus? Because in Jesus is life,

eternal life, and in that eternal life is the light of

Jesus. So let's go back up to Matthew

5. Let's reread it.

And instead of light, let's plug in Jesus.

As we reread this Matthew 514, you carry Jesus before the

world. A town built on a hill cannot be

hidden. Neither do people light a lamp

or put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand,

and it gives Jesus to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let Jesus shine before others so that they may

see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

When you're putting your light in front of the world, when

you're putting your light in front of the stand, you are not

putting yourself up in front of the world.

You are letting Jesus shine in front of the world.

Man, when I got serious about my faith in my works started to

match up with where my faith should have had them at.

It was not Logan being glorified.

When you do the things that you should be doing, when you're

acting actually like the salt of the earth, it is not Mike that

is being glorified, but it is Jesus working within Mike that

gets all the glory. And what is the purpose?

Why do we show our light before others?

What did the verse just say? What's the purpose of it?

Not just to glorify God, because that is a part of it, but so

that others may glorify God. How many you guys know that a

part of the plan of salvation is you?

A part of God's plan to have His love and have His world reach

the World is your guys's willingness to share the hope

that you have been given. The world around you needs to

see Jesus in you. I don't frame that for a minute.

The person around you that's an atheist, that is an agnostic,

that's XY or Z, whatever they might be, that doesn't worship

and glorify God, they can't afford for you to blend in and

be Joe. They cannot afford for you to

put a blanket or a bowl over the light that you have been given.

The world desperately needs to see Jesus in you.

Verse 16 says in the same way, let your light shine before

others so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your

Father in heaven. Your willingness to share your

hope is a part of God's plan of salvation, and God help us if we

can keep that to ourselves. Man, I don't know, how about you

raise your hand real high? If the radical transformation of

the Holy Spirit has made a tangible difference in your

life, raise your hand real high. Now here's what I want you to

do. Picture where you were without

the Holy Spirit and apply that to everybody around you that

doesn't know God. See how much more difficult that

makes it to put a blanket over your life.

See how much more difficult that makes it to blend into your job

site. See how much more difficult it

makes it to not pray with the mother crying on the bench.

See how much more difficult it makes it to not show the hope

that you've been given before everybody.

If you leave with nothing else today, leave with the

encouragement to share your hope because you don't know how far

God is going to use it and you don't know what it's going to

lead to. We're going to be ending the,

we're going to be ending the message.

We're going to be ending it in Second Corinthians.

We're going to be looking at 2nd Corinthians because there's a

really cool picture that is painted by Paul here.

We're talking this whole morning so far about the reality that is

not Jesus shining in US, right? No, sorry, it's not us shining

before others, but it's Jesus shining in US.

And Paul lays out this beautiful picture of this idea that we are

nothing more than jars of clay in Second Corinthians chapter 4,

2 Corinthians 4:7

verse 7, we'll read, but we have this treasure.

What is this treasure? This treasure is the Holy

Spirit. This treasure is the work in our

lives that has been performed by the Holy Spirit.

This treasure is the light in the promise of salvation that

has been given to us. This treasure, being all the

good stuff that God gives us through the promise of the Holy

Spirit, is what we have in jars of clay.

And it's to show that this all surpassing power is from who?

It's from God, and it is not from us.

I had Buffalo Rollers this morning for breakfast, and it's

coming back up. Man, this is such a beautiful

picture. Into take another drink.

I should have what I should have, Joe.

Yeah. Soft price, man.

Look at verse 8. This is a powerful reminder and

a sobering reminder of what the world does to us.

We are hard pressed on every side, but we're not crushed.

We are perplexed, but we're not in despair.

We are accuser. We're persecuted, but we're not

abandoned. We are struck down, but we are

not destroyed. We always carry around in our

body the death of Jesus. So what?

So the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Are you guys picking up a theme so far this morning?

Are you picking up a major purpose of what Jesus does in

your life and how it can be used in the lives of others?

Let's go back up. And so if we have, I'm not done

reading there, but I really want to touch base here.

If we have this treasure in jars of clay, what does this treasure

give us? And just for the sake of the

morning, let's say the promise of heaven, because we're talking

about heaven. If we have the promise of

heaven, and if we are citizens of heaven, what can we overcome?

Well, we can overcome the hard pressing of the world.

I don't know about you guys, but life gets very, very, very

difficult sometimes. I find a million reasons to hang

my head every single day, but I'm never crushed because I have

a Father in heaven who says I am enough and I have a Father in

heaven who gives me the power to get through anything that is

maybe, maybe faces me. Psalm 23 says that he anoints my

head with oil, that whenever the issues and the troubles of life

come, I have a Father that is here by my side so that I am not

crushed by the power of life. Man, how many guys know that

life is perplexing? How many guys know that life is

confusing sometimes? There's been so many things I've

been, I've been getting a lot better about learning the

stories of the people that I serve with in youth.

There's been some particular stories that have stood out

lately where you just can only ask God from a very human

perspective, like God, what are you doing right now?

Why are you letting this happen? Why is this happening to this

person who's doing all these good things and is carrying

themselves in a godly way? Who is not Joe?

This person who is salt but is being crushed by something that

just isn't fair. Man, the life in the fallen

nature of this world, as we've been talking about in this

series, it perplexes us, but we are never in despair because

these, in these people who are the salt of the earth, they have

a promise of heaven. We have not lost our hope.

I mean, how do you guys know that we're persecuted?

Well, to varying degrees. But when you actually stand out

as salt to some degree or another, there is going to be

pushback. There is going to be somebody

that has a problem with you actually carrying the light of

Jesus. Because as Paul says, with

tears, which by the way should be our orientation this morning,

we should have tears in our eyes when we think about the fact

that there is not everybody that carries the same light that we

have but cross. But Paul says with tears that

there are enemies of the cross, there are enemies of the life

that you carry within you and you will lead that will lead to

persecution, but you won't be abandoned.

Psalm 23 again. He walks with you in the darkest

of valleys and in the lowest of valleys.

Man, we're struck down. Life gets hard and it knocks us

to our feet, but we are able to get back up because we're not

destroyed because of the promise of Jesus.

And all this is done because we carry in our body the death of

Jesus, the power of his resurrection, the power of his

sacrifice on our behalf, so that it may also be revealed in our

body. Verse 11 For we who are alive

are always being given over to the death, over to death.

For whose sake? For Jesus sake?

Is it for our sake? Is it for our glory?

Is it for our glory that we overcome the hardships of the

world? Is it for our glory that we're

able to show our lights to others?

No, like everything else we've been talking about, it is for

Jesus's sake, to his glory, so that his life may also be

revealed in our mortal body. And that's such a good way to

describe what we are. Mortal body.

What do you guys think of? We think of mortality, decay.

Punctuality is not the right word like shortened vapor.

Our mortal bodies are very are very much just that they are a

vapor verse 12 so then death is at work in us but what life is

at work in you. It's about the best news I can

give you this morning. This really could probably be

just a message on how to keep persevering through pain.

The world is going to press down on you when you they see that

you really are a citizen of heaven.

If you really are the salt of the earth, the earth though, the

world is going to fight back in that.

And even though all these things are at work in you, Jesus is

also at work in you. And how many of you guys know

that Jesus is going to overcome any power that's going to come

against you, any pain that's going to come against you, any

hardship that's going to come against you?

Man, at the start of this verse, Paul writes to us as if we're

clay jars. How many of you guys remember

back in elementary art, you guys made like you had like the kiln

in your art class, you made like the clay pots.

You guys remember that? Or is that just like

specifically me? No, OK, I want you to picture

these clay jars. And mine was really pathetic

because I was bad at it. So it was like like a hand sized

open bowl. But I want to imagine you're

good at it and it's actually like a full size jar.

I want you to imagine dropping that jar, picking it back up,

piercing it together, gluing it together, taping it together.

That's what we are, man. As as as Paul writes, we're clay

jars. And in that same way, we're

pressed on every side. We're perplexed, we're

persecuted, we're struck down, but in the cracks that form

underneath the weight of the world, Jesus shines all the

brighter. And that shining through the

cracks that you have is for the sake of others coming to know

Him. His power is made perfect in our

weakness. But find the joy to be a jar of

clay for Jesus. Find the joy of understanding

that you're nothing more than just a vessel to carry His

light. Life gets so much easier and

it's so much more enjoyable when you understand that it's Jesus

working within you. And it's not on my shoulders.

I don't carry the burden of bringing others to Christ.

I carry the burden of being faithful to show how Jesus has

changed mine. And in changing my life, Jesus

is going to use that power to change the lives of others.

But find the humility be a clay jar.

Because like I said, it is the power of Jesus.

But Jesus has to be on the footstool, not you.

You are simply the side character in the main story that

is Jesus. Find the humility to be that

clay jar. May be the person who does not

say what his Co worker says, Be the person who like I should be,

stands out on the job site, does not say the same thing as my

coworkers. But be the person who builds

people up on Facebook rather than tearing people down.

Be the person who who who comforts the crying stranger who

takes an extra 5 minutes to have a human relation with somebody

else. Gross.

Be the person who actually wants to connect with people.

That is so countercultural. We love staring on our screens

and we love staring on our feet, but be the kind of person who is

intentional with connecting to those around you.

Be the kind of person who's not afraid to pray.

Be the kind of person who is not afraid to talk to their father

in front of a watching world because that watching world

needs the Father that you have. Amen.

Amen. How different.

This is what we're going to end with.

How different would the world be if you were ambassadors of

Christ? Like we're talking about my

terrible cooking, my pathetic cooking, my awful cooking.

I'm so pathetic in that same way that my cooking is so unbearable

until I add salt. How much more bearable do you

make the life around you? How much more bearable do you

make the hardships of the world, of the world?

And how much different would it be if we showed our life to

others? I wonder if we all made a

commitment this week and moving forward to constantly be

vigilant about showing our lives of others.

I wonder how many more salvations we'd see.

I wonder how much healthier our churches would be.

I wonder how many more churches would sprout up.

I wonder how different our workplaces would look.

I wonder how different our grocery stores would look.

I wonder how every single aspect of our lives would be touched if

we were just willing to show Jesus a little bit more.

My prayer for you is that you would be the salt of the earth.

My prayer for you is that you would find the joy and the

humility to consider yourself nothing more than a vessel

carrying the light of Jesus, showing that the world has

broken you down and beaten you over, but you've been put

together and all the cracks in the jar that you are has been

filled with the holy light of Jesus.

My prayer for you is that you would find that joy.

So if you guys all would bow your heads and close your eyes,

there's a couple groups of people in here with every head,

every head bowed and every eye closed.

There's, there's the first group of people in here that I, I'm

really confident there's somebody here like this that is

feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And maybe you're in here and you find yourself in a similar

position to me, man, I don't stand out in my life.

I blend into all the things around me.

I am a citizen of heaven and yet I look like a citizen of earth.

I mean, if that's you and you find yourself, I, you find

yourself having an identity marked by, by the world around

you rather than the problems that you've been given.

Would you raise your hand? If that's, if that's you right

now and you're in here and you recognize that you could be

doing a better job of standing out like me.

Would you raise your hand if you're in here and you feel like

you might have been putting a blanket over the life that

you've been given and you're feeling a little bit of a

conviction because you have not been showing the hope that you

have been given to the degree you should, But you raise your

hand. I mean, that's you and you're

here. I do see your hands.

I appreciate your honesty. Let's pray together real quick.

Thank God you're so good. You're not just good, you are

so, so good. Thank you so much for the light

that you have given us. Thank you for changing our lives

from the inside out. Thank you for everything that

you have done in our lives. And give us the wisdom, and more

than anything, give us the courage and the boldness to show

that light and the world around us, Father, we know cannot

afford to live any longer with you without you.

Give us wisdom and give us courage and give us submission

to live as you have called. With every head still bowed and

every eye still closed. I get the feeling that there's

another person in here. I get the feeling that there's a

person in here that can't say that they're the salt of the

earth because they can't say that they have been given the

light of the world. If you're in here and you've

been thinking about giving your life to Jesus, if you've been

like wrestling and grappling with this idea of Christianity,

just understand that every head is bowed right now.

Every eye is still closed. And I would invite you just to

focus on these words. If you've been struggling with

blending in and you're ready for a light to plug up the cracks of

the jar, understand that in order to get to heaven, which

what we've been talking about in this whole message series, you

have to be perfect. You have to be holy.

And if you're anything like me, you are not perfect.

You are not holy. You sin and you sin and you sin.

But Jesus and God, being as gracious as God is, sent Jesus

to die on the cross after living a life that we were supposed to

live to pay a debt that I never could pay, that you never could

pay. And the only thing that is

waiting, if that's you and you are in here and you're almost

ready to make a decision to follow Jesus, the only thing

that is waiting is a response to surrender, to believe that Jesus

died on the cross for your sins and have faith in Jesus and to

live as Jesus calls. So if that's you, if you're in

here, if you've been thinking about starting a relationship

with Jesus, you're ready to take that first step today.

Would you raise your hand? If you're in here and you're

ready to find the light and find the hope that I've been talking

about, would you raise your hand?

I mean, God, you know the hearts, you know the

orientations of all of us. I mean, if that's you, we'll go

ahead and pray this prayer after me.

And it's not the prayer that saves you.

It's not the words that do anything, but it is your

orientation towards God. May God, I am a Sinner in need

of a savior. I mess things up all the time.

I so constantly. But I believe that you sent your

son Jesus to die on the cross after living a perfect life, to

pay a debt that I never could pay.

I put my life in you. I surrender my life to you,

Jesus name, Amen. I give it up for everybody that

made that decision today. Thank you all so much for the

opportunity to come up here and talk to you today.

I hope you were challenged. And my final exhortation, my

final encouragement is to be the salt of the earth, to let your

light shine and to look for all the change that is going to

make. Thank you guys.