You Are The Light of The World | Pr Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from ets church. We hope this message

will light up your tea if you have a Bible with you. Let's turn

to Matthew chapter five, verse thirteen to sixteen. Okay, I'm gonna read

the whole passage again for you, because the last time I preached, I

only managed to cover the salt, okay, the salt part, and today

I'm gonna cover on the light. Okay. So it's gonna be like a

like a two part Okay, So today I will finish off with a light,

and then after I'm gonna put both of them together. Okay, So

it's gonna be good, all right. So Matthew chapter five, verse thirteen

to sixteen, Okay, here we go. You are the sort of the

earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampered underfoot

by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is

set on a hill cannot be hidden. No do they light a lamb and

put it under a basket. But on a lambstand and it gives light to

all who are in the house. Let your light. So shine before men

that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Amen.

The Lord blends the reading of his word. So that is the scripture

that I took from the last time I shed about salt and light, and

I covered salt, and today we're gonna go into the into the light part.

Okay, But before that, let me just quickly recap in case some

of you were not here for the part where I shed on the salt.

I share you three things regarding the salt of the earth. Okay. Salt

of the earth, I said that it adds seasoning and taste, right,

Salt ads tastes. Okay, it's a form of seasoning. Uh. And

basically, we as believers should add flavor to the people around us. Okay.

You know, people should love to be around you because of your contagiousness

of your joy, your peace, your happiness, or your words of wisdom.

Right, So we as believers likewise ought to be like salt. Right,

because it says you are the sort of earth. Right, so we

ought to add flavor into the lives of others. So that's the first thing

I shared. The second thing I said was that, you know, let

your speech be seasoned with salt, right, and that what that means is

that it means to be seasoned with grace. Right. And I share with

you a scripture that says, you know, be ready to give an answer

for the hope of the Gospel that we have right. But in everything that

you do, you got to do it with grace, and men do it

with grace. So the salt also talks about, you know, our speech

right, season with grace. That's the second thing that I shared with you

two weeks ago. And the third thing was that salt is used as a

preservative, right, And in the olden days they didn't They don't have freitsch

like us or freezer like us. So they use salt right to preserve meat.

And so likewise, you and I as believers, we have a preserving

influence over our society today. And the Word of God is an anchor,

right that never changes. It's the same yesterday today, you know. The

you know, the world will remain. The Bible say it will remain forever,

you know, And so we we have an anchor to stand on.

And so we have an influence of preserving influence over our society today and the

world. Amen, so that's why I shed about thought. And now today

I'm going to move on into the light. Okay, all right, you

ready, okay, So let me start off by saying that light. Okay,

God created light. Okay. If you look at in Genesis, you

will know that God created light and he did not create darkness. How many

of you know that? If you're going reading Genesis chapter one, you will

find that at the beginning of creation, darkness was already there on the face

of the deep. You can go read it in Genesis chapter one. Okay,

So it was already there, right, And darkness is simply this darkness

is the absence of light. Did you get that? Darkness is simply the

absence of light? Right? God created light. Okay. God created light,

and He's separated light from darkness. Okay. And darkness is simply the

absence of light. See, without light, you have darkness. Okay.

So that's just to help us give some context. Okay. And what's the

definition of light. The definition of light is simple, the brightness that comes

from the sun, fire, et cetera, or from electrical devices, and

that allows things to be seen. This is what the Cambus Diary says.

That's what light is according to the English language, right, it allows us

to see things. Okay. In fact, if you go study further,

it's actually basically electromagnetic waves, you know, that puts different colors together and

allows us to see. Right. And so without light, you and I

in the natural cannot see right, you know. And I see some of

them closing their eyes. Yeah, it's true. If you close the eyes

you will see black. Right, you don't see anything, right, it's

dark. So light helps us to see. And the basic function of light,

it's as simple as to help us to see. Do you agree to

help us to see? Okay, But let me just give you a few

examples, you know from the Scripture of the function of light, okay,

and number one is this. It gives us a direction, okay, direction

Psalm Chapter one one nine, verse one hundred and five. I think I

have things on a slide. Yeah, should be able to see on a

slide. Okay. It gives us direction. It says, your word is

a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, so it gives

us direction. Right. And so this, this simple example, right,

is very common in our daily living. Right. When you come back home

at night into your house. What's the first thing that you will do?

Exactly, you will turn on the lights right, open the door. Open

the first when you open the door and go into your house, the first

thing you do is turn on your lights. Right. You know. That's

why most houses have their light switches near the door. Right. You will

not put the light switch in the storeroom behind. Right, because by the

time you walk to the storeroom behind to on the light, you would have

either knocked, do something, or walk into a wall, right, unless

you have night vision goggles, you know. So, so whenever you enter

the house, naturally, we know that the first thing you do is to

do on the lights right. Likewise, also when you drive at night,

you would also on your lights so you can see clear. Right. And

so the Bible tells us that your word is a lamp to my feet and

a light to my path, and I like to draw is also to our

lives, whereby we will face many challenges in our life. How many of

you know that, in fact, a Bible already said you and I will

face challenges. It's not if it's a matter of when, right, and

every age and season of your life we have different challenges. Correct, When

you're a kid. You have different challenges when your student, different challenges when

you're young, working a out, different challenges, when you're a parent,

different challenges, and when you're retired also different challenges. Right, and we

will face many challenges. But the Bible reminds us that to take heart because

Christ has overcome the world. And when he has overcome the world, even

even death, Christ has overcome the world. So you and I will make

many decisions in life, okay, In fact, we make up to thirty

over one thousand decisions in a day. Should know that thirty thirty k plus

decisions in a single day because you have to decide whether to go out or

in. When you decide to cross the road, you decide when to cross,

so that when you compound all your decisions together, you know where to

eat, what to dorink, whether to order or not, You know everything.

You know what time to leave, what time to wake up, what

time to set your alarm, decisions. Right. But basically, what I'm

trying to get at is that you know the Word of God is a guide

to our life, right and and helps us to make the right choices.

You know, so I said in life there be many challenges, right,

So the word of God. It's a lamp to my feet and a light

to my path. So my encouragement to us is you got to read it

every day. Come on, you gotta read the Bible every day because there

are plenty of guidance on how to live a life for God every day.

Amen. So that's what light does. It gives us direction. The second

thing is light exposes evil. Okay, it exposes evil. John chapter three,

verse twenty. Let me give you a verse USA. John three twenty

says, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the

light less his deeds should be exposed. So here we can see clearly the

Bible tells us that light exposes evil. Okay, So let me give you

a restympe example in our in our lives again red particular, Right, when

you want to wash something, or when you want to clean something, what

is one thing that you ensure that you always have. Of course, you

need to have soap, right, But besides soap, you also need to

have water. Yes. And besides that, yes, you need to have

either a bush or whatever it is, right, a sponge. Right.

But there is one thing also that you need to have, which is like

yes, good, yes, of course the thing that you're trying to watch

it there is the floor. It is a plate or whatever it is,

right, uh, you know. But something that you need when you're cleaning

something, and you're cleaning either a floor, whatever this is, you need

light, right because without light you wouldn't be able to see the dirt.

Does that make sense? Very practical, you know. And so for example,

like if I want to wash my toilet floor, right, the first

thing I'll do is make sure my life's on right. Of course you need

the soap, you need the brush and everything else. Then only you will

be able to see the dirt, right, and the clearer the light is,

or the brighter the light is, uh, the clear you'll be able

to see the dirt and clean it right. And likewise in our lives it's

the same, right, we actually need the light of Christ, you know,

to shine on our lives. And that's where we can find where is

the dirt in our in our hearts or in our lives or in our minds,

right, so that we can either wash it or get rid of it,

amen, so that it will be clean. Right. So, if

you want to clean something, you want you want to be cleansed. But

you need light. You need light to expose the dirt or to expose evil,

so he can be removed. Very practical, all right. So the

third thing is this light gives hope. Light gives hope. Isaiah Chapter nine,

Verse two, and verse six says. Verse two says, the people

who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who draw in the

land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined. And verse

six we use this for Christmas. Usually you hear say this, for unto

us a child is born, until unto us a son is given, and

the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful

counselor Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And then so light

gives us hope. Right the worse worse two says, the people who walk

in darkness have seen a great light. And what is that great light that

they saw, which is the hope of Jesus, right, the birth of

Jesus. They saw a great light. So light that also represents hope.

Right. Every time you wake up in the morning, when you see the

sunrise, it gives you, you know, a hope for a new day.

Right, uh, you know. In fact, researchers have actually shown

that if you open your your curtain at night and in the morning when the

sunlight comes in, he helps you to wake up better. If you know

that actually it does. So when when if I want to if I want

to sleep in, you know, on a holiday, me and my wife,

who make sure we close all the curtains for plea and it's and the

curtains I use are like black out curtains, you know, so the lights

don't don't really come in unless they come into the gaps. Right, but

it's really dark by by ten ten am is still dark in the room because

of my curtains, right. Uh. And on important days we know we

need to wake up early, right, it's working there and all this,

we will always open the curtains like this. You will leave a gap like

that, you know, so the light in the morning comes in, it

actually helps you to wake up better. So give you a tiba, so

say you don't oversleep, okay, So yeah, so light like us us

hope. In fact, we are very familiar with this statement. There is

light at the end of the tunnel, right, We see light at the

end of a tunnel, right, So when you go to a tunnel,

it's dark all the way, and you see a small light at the end,

right, and it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

You find that there is hope. Right. You're reaching the end of

the tunnel and you come out of the tunnel, and of course the tunnel

just means like a challenge or something they're going through, right, and you

feel better. Right. And so light gives us hope. Amen. And

thank God that you know that the sun rises every single day. You know,

I can't imagine if the sun there's not rise one day, you and

I will be very worried, very okay, But yes, it writs us

every day without fail. And that is the faithfulness that God has for us

as well a man never never, never, never failed. Amen. So

it gives us hope. So and my four point is this light gives us

life and salvation, Life and salvation. John one, verse one to five

says, in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God,

and the word was God. He was in the beginning. We've God.

All things were made to him who is this him? Jesus is Jesus.

All things were made to him, and without him, nothing was made.

That was made in him was life, and the life was the light

of man. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did

not comprehend it. So Jesus is a light, and we're sure another verse,

John chapter eight verse, John chapter eight verse says, then Jesus spoke

to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He

who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

Somebody say amen. And then so this is Jesus saying. And this

was the time when they exposed the woman with the adultery, you know,

and Jesus saying to them, I'm the light of the world. He who

follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

So when you walk in darkness, it's always very scary, right, And

I picture myself. This happens to me every every night, you know,

when I go to my room to sleep. Actually, my house has a

has a corridor, a small corridor, and the light is on one end.

The switch the switch the lights on one end, and my room was

on the other end of the corridor, right, And so in order for

me to off the light and go to my room. Sometimes maybe my wife

is really deepening and the door is closed, right, so I want to

off all the lights, right, So I need to go to one end

of my corridor and off the light, and my corridor is peach black.

And then I just turn around and walk to my room in darkness, you

know. And I've done that so many times, you know. And if

you are in my situation, you realize that one of the common things you

do is when you walk in such darkness, right, we will always put

our hands out, right. It's like it's like you put your hands out

today. You don't knock something? Do knock me something? Right? And

so so it's likewise the world is walking in darkness and they need the light.

You know. They are always stretching out their hand trying to find something

that they can grab, right. I think they can hold on something,

hold on the uh, you know, or to prevent them from from hitting

a wall right or going into a ditch. Right. And so the world

is in darkness and needs the light. And how many of you know we

have the light because I read to you the scripture just now right that says

you are the light. Okay, but where does our light come from the

Bible says Jesus is the true light. Come on, friends, Jesus is

the true light of the world. In fact, the light that we have

does not come from us, It actually comes from Jesus. Right. So

that's why I started by saying, you know, I started by giving you

the scripture that Jesus said, I am the lights of the world. Jesus

first stated I am the light of the world, right, and he who

follows me to walk in darkness. And then he says to us, you

are the light of the world. And when I look at it, when

I put that two statements together, did you know that it's both a compliment

and yet responsibility given to us. Both a compliment and yet the responsibility because

Jesus is the light of the world. Right, But now he says you

are the light of the world. That means we are we ought to be

like him, right. That deserves a compliment. But at the same time,

that's a heavy responsibility to take, isn't it. It's a great responsibility

because the light that we have is not from us, but it's from him.

It is it is him who gives us that that light. And then

and sometimes when we go about our our life right in our campus, in

our family, in our in our school, in our marketplace. You may

be the only one shining the light. Okay, you may be the only

one who is a believer of our this type of Christ in your in your

in your workplace, in your office. And it can be scary. You

know, you can be likened to like a little just a little cander because

you're the only one, right But you know, San Francis said this,

All the darkness in the world cannot distinguish the light of a singer candor extinguishes

extinguisha. All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a singer

candor. So even if you were a single candle burning right, all the

darkness around you still cannot extinguish the singer cander. Come on, amen,

even a single candor is good enough to light out light our room. You

know, we just right there. You know, when you light a lamb,

you put it on a lambstand not put in a basket, because you're

putting a basket is useless. There's no light, right, So I would

encourage you. You may be the only one, but don't worry. Still

continue to shine for him. A man, be the sort, be the

light for him. Wherever you are, doesn't matter how small the influence is.

Just continue to be the light. Amen. And what keeps fire burning

or what keeps the light burning? Fuel? Right? Actually, I realize

that there are three things that needed heat, fuel and oxygen. Correct some

science class are today science okay, if you don't mind. Course, it's

like a study, you know. And so fuel is needed. Oxygen is

needed. If you take a cander and you kept the cander over. Happen

if we die off, if we extinguished within seconds, right, because there

is no presence of oxygen, right, if we extinguished. And likewise,

for you and I, in order for us to keep our light burning,

we need to be recharged. We need to be refueled. Right, And

where do you get that? From the Word of God, from God himself

and the Holy Spirit, from friends, brothers and sisters who sharpen each other,

and in fact, from the church. Friends, that is where we

get our oxygen from. You come to church every Sunday, you get recharged,

You get refueled, you know, and then you go back to the

to the world. Six days in a week, of course, seven days

of course Sunday as well, you know, but you got I mean six

days in a week and you're coming on Sunday and we charge again, we

feel again, and you go back out there and continually shine for Him again.

Amen. And we need to have all we need to have fuel and

oxygen in order for fire to continue to burn. And so that's why you

know, when I when I was growing up as a young kid, I

remember this song that says, give me all in my lamb, burning,

burning, burning, you know, a song right, give me all in

my lamb, I pray, I pray right. So we need that,

we need all, we need oxygen in order to keep burning for Him.

Amen. So that's where the that's where the church comes into play. That's

where the function and the purpose of the church is to is to refeel us,

to be charge us, you know, to renew us so we can

continuely shine for God in the coming week wherever they He has placed us.

And Amen. And in one of these coming weeks, I will share with

you the purpose of the church. You know, I sense that there's a

message moving and I will share with you where this beautiful function and the purpose

of the church and and how it helps us in our faith and so in

my in my home church. Right, every every year Christmas when I go

back to my hometown to celebrate Christmas, because I go to my home church

that I grew up with, it's quite a traditional church, is a Methodist

church. And we will have this service doing Christmas called the candle light service.

How many of you have been to a candle light service before? Yeah,

some of those of you who have been to more traditional churches, you

will been the one, right, And so what what what what we do

in there in the services that of course we hear the world that's preaching and

whatnot, right. Uh. And then there's a there's a part of the

service at the end of the service whereby we will actually turned off the lights

in the church, right Uh. And there's a huge candor at the altar

at the front, right, and the past or, the leaders or the

lay leaders of the church would use a small candor and would would light their

candle from the big cander at the author right uh. And all of the

congregation each would have their own candles. Each we have their own in church,

right. And then what they do is that they were the leaders would

go to the row to the first row they were light the first person's can

the first person's cander right, and then he'll go to the second row like

the second second person's cander and continue on right. And so that this row

of candors, uh they were, they were passed the light from one person

to another. They will light each other's candor as a symbol of receiving the

light from Jesus himself. And and you you know this, when I when

I received the light or the fire on my candor, I don't hold it

to myself. I actually have to pass it on. So I received the

light and I pass it on, right. So the light is never just

for ourselves. Think about it. When we receive the light, it's for

us to pass it on and to shine the light so that others may also

see. Those who are in darkness may see and also receive the light that

we have in us, immen. And so we actually don't don't carry our

own light. What we do is we actually reflect the light of Christ.

Because Jesus himself said I am the true light, right, so you and

I reflect his light. And I like to give you this illustration. You

know, it's like thinking, for example, like we are the moon,

right, okay, And if you, of course you would have studied signs

before. You know, the moon does not shine its own light. Did

you know that? Okay, the moon does not shine its own light.

What the moon does is that the moon actually reflects the Sun's light, right,

you know that, right, it's signs of you know that, right.

And so the pictures, I'm gonna explain what's on the picture, okay,

And so the clearer the path of the Sun to the moon, that's

where you get the moon reflects the greatest light. Okay. However, because

we know scigns, but I don't want to go into the details of it,

like guess it's not a science class. But you know that the moon

all bits around the Earth, right, and the Earth orbits around the Sun.

Right, So the moon has a sight that is always facing the Earth.

Okay. As the moon orbits, the Moon is also turning, what

they think, so it will always have the same side facing the Earth.

Okay. And because the orbit of the Moon is tutored slightly, Okay,

that's why you will find that every month there's something called a full moon.

Okay, because the side way by the Moon is facing the Earth is fully

exposed to the Earth, and you get the the moon that becomes round fully

round, right, And other times of the month you get a questionn and

a half moon and so on and so forth, right. Okay, However

two times too, about five times depending okay, in a year. That's

a phenomenon called the lunar eclipse. Okay. And this Duni eclipse phenomena happens

very like I think. I think NASA says it's about two to five times

a year. Okay, I don't know how many times exactly, I'll just

take that information, okay. And that happens because during this phenomenon, the

Sun, the Earth, and the Moon happens to a line in the straight

line, right. And what happens is that the Earth actually blocks the sun

light from being reflected to the moon, right. And what actually gets reflected

to the Moon is actually the Earth's shadow, which you can see in a

photo. So where am I getting it? Be wondering? This is a

science us. You see, the moon does not shine its own light,

right, and we are likened like the moon, and if the Sun.

I'm just using as an illustration, okay, don't get me wrong. I'm

using as an example illustration. The sun is likened to Christ himself, which

is the greatest light, and the moon reflects the light of the Sun.

Right, we will shine the brightest when we have direct access to the Sun.

Right, that makes sense. Right, However, when the earth gets

in the way between the moon and the Sun. I'm gonna say it again,

when the earth gets in the way between us and the Father or the

source of the light, what do you get? You get a darkened moon.

I think you know where I'm getting at. So likewise, in our

lives today, sometimes the world can really creep in and come in between us

and the source of the light, which is our Father. And so that

that's why the Bible tells us that we are in the world, but not

off the world. Amen, We're in the world, but not off the

world. And sometimes the ways of the world and the traditions or the practices

of things can even creep into the church, which you know that and sometimes

our traditions or the things that we change can can make trick, you know.

So we need be very careful, you know, as your leaders in

the church. I know I've said in our top leadership meetings of the church,

we always go back to the word of God. Right, you will

find that everything that we do, whether it is with homes, whether it's

with prayer, whether it's with fasting, whether it's with giving, everything is

on the word of God. Right, so that we can stay rooted because

we are in the world, but we're not off the world, and we

are actually shining reflecting the light of Christ, you know. So we need

to have a clear path or clear access to the light so that we can

shine effectively and the brightest possible to the world for Him. Amen, And

here's a quote for you. In order to stand out, we need to

stand on the word of God. In order to stand out, we need

to stand on the word of God. We become the most visible when we

stand out and shine the brightest. Let me give you an example. How

do we stand out? It's never easy. How many of you know that

if you just do the natural and just do the normal, you won't stand

out. Right. It's time is when you do things that are unnatural that

when people look at you, they will say wow, like I can't imagine

you doing that when you stand out out of the ordinary. Right, And

so I just wanted to share with you a simple story. Okay, of

how I used to stand out for my for my friends in campus. So

there was a time whereby I had I had I was had exams on a

Saturday. How many of you still have exams on Saturday? You have a

exams on Saturday? Yes, okay, I don't know why. But during

my time, I had exams on Saturday. Okay. There was one time

I had an exam on a Saturday afternoon okay. And then I had a

meeting in church in Subang in the morning on a Saturday morning, okay.

And it was the top leaders meeting, and I cannot miss it. So

I have a scenario in front of me. I have an exam, obviously,

I cannot miss my exam, and I have another meeting, a leader's

meeting, which I also cannot miss, you know, because it's my heart

and my desire and my commitment to be there, you know, as a

leader, to to see from the vision and heard from from our pastor past

the kend of right. And so me and my twin brother Samuel, we

decided we'll go in the morning to the meeting first and then rush back to

see the exam. Uh. And when my friends look at me, they

were because they were asked me, oh, Saturday morning, you don't want

to study before the exam. I said, I'm no, I'm going to

be in church. And they were like, what your great dish on Saturday

morning before your exam, you know, and and and to me, I

thought that was one of the crazy things I've done. Now, you know,

drove all the way to Suva in the morning, went for the meeting,

and I had to leave three quart off on the meeting to come back

early enough so that I made it in time for my exam. Because it's

scary. And even my mentor told me, okay, you better go a

little bit earlier, you know, because sometimes Germ or Saturday can be quite

bad, you know. But there's an example of how you can stand out

for the Lord right and people will see your conviction and your heart and they'll

be like, man, how do you do it? You know? I

still remember in times that I would I would travel to Subang for payer service

on the tuesdays. You know, I would travel to Subang for extreme practice

on Thursdays. Now you have everything here, right, First services is here,

you know, extreme practices here. Everything is easier now, But in

those days it was tough, right, and you had to stand for your

faith. And when people see that, they go like, you've got to

be crazy, and yes we are, they're crazy. For Jesus, Amen,

we shine the brightest in the darkest room. How many of you know

that the darker the area, the darker the room, the brighter you wire

shine. Just like the city on a hill, they cannot be hidden.

We read that and vibruous now right, city on the hill that cannot be

hidden. By the way, this city that cannot be hidden likely would have

been referred to the city called uh safered. Okay, it's the tallest city

in Easier, Okay, in Galilee. So, of course scholars believe that

when Jesus said, in order the light, whereas you know verse fourteen,

you have a lot of the world. A city that's set on a hill

cannot be hidden, right, The scholars believe that Jesus was afraid to d

city there is the highest in Easier Uh. And so when you look at

the city that's high up in a hill, right, it's very hard to

miss it. Run right, when you're on the lights at night, it's

very hard to miss it. You will see it from far and it's very

obvious. Right. Likewise, you and I ought to be like that.

We have to stand out. You got to be different. If you're not

different, why would others want what you have? Come on, you got

to be different, amen. You got to be the good different. Of

course, you got to stand out and have a cutting age, and so

it can shine for him. Amen. Right now, I'm gonna quickly go

to my last part, and I'm going to bring both the salt and light

together. Uh and I had I had one revelation, and of course recently

I spoke to this uh sem Kama and he also had a lot of evelation

on this and he shaded me. So I will share one of his evelations

and one of that I also had, you know, so I'll give it

two. Okay, So here we go. The first one is this the

sot and light. It's actually two disciplesh it metaphors referring to two different things.

Okay, two disciplesh it metaphors. We're feeling referring to two distinct things.

Okay, what's the difference? Saw of the earth? The second go

up? Okay, So of the earth is what God caused us to be.

Light of the world is what God caused us to do. Okay,

So I'm gonna read the cuture to you again now. Verse thirteen says you

are the sot of the earth. Right. Verse fourteen says you are the

light of the world. So when you look at this right, so of

the earth, refirst to what God caused us to be, and light of

the words what God caused us to do. Right, there's an order to

it. Right. Why didn't the Bible say, why didn't Jesus say that

you are the light and the salt. He didn't you say you are the

sought first, salt case first, then only the light? Why? Because

God causes us to be the sought first, then only you can shine the

light. You have to be the sought first, then only you can shine

the light. Okay. And so the salt is our mandate. The next

light sort is our mandate. To shine the light is our mission? Did

she know when you read this portion of scripture? Right? What comes before?

Matthew Chapter five, verse thirteen? Anybody want to guess what's the passage

before? What's? Yes, very good? But what's the passige that comes

before verse thirteen? Look at your bibles? Yes, it's theb attitudes and

what does the beatitudes basically mean? Beautiful attitudes? Right, that there can

be two versions of it, they say one is either beautiful attitudes or attitudes

to be right. And so when I actually when I look at my study

biber right, uh, Worse one to thirteen is worth one. The chove

is the be attitudes that the title and the following passage it's called the similitude.

Yeah, similitude that means it's similar to us before right. And so

that's why you see from Worse one word chop. It talks about the beatitudes,

the attitudes, the character that we ought to have, that we ought

to be right. And immediately after that verse comes Worse thirteen, which says

you are the salt of the earth. Are you catching something? So?

So of the earth is what we ought to be and light of the world

when you shine. The light to shine is the word is an action word.

It is the action right, And so that that is what we ought

to to do, right, that's our mission. And you will find that

there's a similarity right between the advice that was given to from Jetro to Moses.

You will find us a similarity, you know, in We're in Exodus

chapter eighteen, verse twenty, Jetroe said this, and you shall teach them

the statues and the law, and show them the way in which they must

walk, and the work that they must do. Teach them the way that

they must walk and the work that they must do. So again, the

work is the mandate, the work is the mission. Right. So it's

what we ought to be, like, it's what we ought to do.

We ought to shine. Amen. So you can see that both of them

come together. You can never shine if you have not gotten the characters right.

If you have not got the salt right, you can't get the light

right. Are you? Are you catching me? You gotta get the salt

right first. What we ought to be right, what we ought to be

speaks about our character, our identity. Who we are? You know who

we ought to be? I mean you can get that right. Then only

you can shine the light to others around us. Amen. Sort and light

coming together. Amen. And so the revelation that of course, uh sever

re me was that you know the sort of the earth? Why is it

within the sort of the earth and light of the world. Why do you

use earth and the world different? Right? Because the earth can be likened

to like land or soil, right, and so is in other words,

it's like your your social impact a smaller social impact, right, And so

we ought to be the salt in a smaller circurve first, right, in

a smaller social of influence. Then only you can be the light to the

world to a bigger influence. Because the definition of Earth and world Earth is

actually basically just either land or a planet, but world world actually refers to

the planet Earth, blast the stars, everything on the Earth and his systems,

everything as a whole. Right. And so if you can't shine in

a small place first, or you can't be the sort at a small place

first in the Earth, how then can you be a light to the world

in a bigger influence? Come on? So that's all they do, it

imen, So we need to shine, we need to get it right in

a smaller scale of first. Then only we can shine for him in a

wider influence. Amen, And so you know we sent I was just watching

this interview by interview of President Buke. I'm not sure they even know him,

the president of El Salvador. They went through as a nation, very

tough times. They had gang gangs that took over the nation. Right,

the nation is very, very poor. They don't have much in the western

side. You know, the gangs took over the country and he became a

murdering country, Okay, so much so that there was he was considered the

most dangerous place in the world Alsabad Okay, because the gang stok over right,

and this president Buke it's not to be a believer. He actually he

actually publicly testifies it or declares it. Right. And so when he was

elected as a president, right, we didn't want the two years he completely

eradicated this murder and these rape cases in Al Sabador. He turned this country

from the most dangerous country to in fact today one of the safest countries.

And within one of two years. And in the interview, right, the

interviewer asked him, how did you do it? How did you do it?

So he said, there's an unofficial answer, and there's an official answer.

Re turned you one. So he says, the official answer is we

had a plan or we did this these these days. We put them in

prison, we put our police force, we double the army, and that's

the official answer. Of course, as the government, you need an official

answer, right, you need to write it on paper, right, and

he said, there's an unofficial answer. We prayed, we prayed. He

said, so, you say, when he gets he gets into his meeting

room in his officials, he said, what they would do is they will

stop the meeting and he said he will pray. Because one thing that president

recognized was that this gang war that was happening, right, it's called amester

thing. You can go and check it out, amster thing. It's actually

satanic. He realized that the better is not physical, but it's spiritual.

So he said in the interview, he said this once you win in the

spiritual where very quickly the physical is one. That's why he said, it's

amazing. And so he just recently won his re election term just recently this

this year. He's i think the only president who gets re elected the second

time in the past three decades. The only president it's one of the most

famous presidents in the world today. You can go and check it out.

And so he's and so in his in his re election speech, right,

he said this, you know. Uh so in the past years he has

saved the country. He said, I've got this big victory. You know,

the country has gone from the from the most dangerous to one of the

safest country in the world. And now he says his next plan is to

revive the economy. He has the three part plan is in his economy,

and the first part of his plan is see God's wisdom. And the interviewer

just sat there and he kept laughing. He's like, I've never heard Actually,

he said why why would you say that? And said, why wouldn't

you Why wouldn't seeking God be the first part of your plan? Why wouldn't

he be he says, he says, it's common sense. Then the then

the inter way was just laughing. He said, it's common sense. But

it's like I've never heard a leader that. I've never heard a leader that

will say that never. And so, friends, we've got to be sought

in small places of influence first, and there will be a day that you

can be light of the world in big places of influence. And so,

you know, at the at the inauguration of it, you know, I

think he got some pastor to pray to pray over him and play over the

nation. Uh. And so you know, you have seen the country come

up from his depths of defeat and death, you know, and come up

and try and turn around, and now you know it's on a it's on

a recovery, you know, and people just you know, when I when

I watch the YouTube video, you can see tons of comments and one common

coring team that comes up in the comments is that many people will say,

I reach my liader was like that, you know, I reach my country

had that And many people will also say they give glory to God. They

will give glory to God. And you'll find that true in the Bible because

I just read it to you. It's in Matthew chapter five, verse sixteen.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good

works and glorify your father in heaven. Amen, that they see your good

works and glorify your Father in heaven. So listen to this. Is like

close. I told you that the sought of the earth is what we ought

to be. Light of the world is what we ought to do. So

you have to be good first in order to do good works. Are you

following me? We have to be good first in order to do good works

because a good tree bears good food. You can't have a bad tree bear

good food, nor can you have a bad So you know, can you

have a good tree bearing bad food. Why is sovers it doesn't work?

Matthew seven seventeen to eighteen says, Even so, every good tree best good

fruit. You see that every good tree what you ought to be, best

good fruit, what you ought to do. A good tree cannot bear bad

fruit, nor can a bad tree bad good fruit. Amen. I hope

you are blessed by that. You know, and friends, all of us

have this huge responsibility to be salt and like because the world needs to know

who Jesus is. The one needs to know of the saving grace of Jesus

and the love that he has for each and every one of us. I

told you that Christ is the true light. In fact, Jesus Christ is

the only one who has come from heaven and has gone back to heaven,

and it's coming again to bring us to be with him in heaven. So

he is the true life. He is the way, the truth, and

the life salvation is found only and only to Jesus Christ. And so if

you are here, you know there could be two groups of people. You

know, one maybe you are seeking. You know you are seeking, and

you just heard me share about this light that Jesus is the true light.

I pray that your eyes and your hearts will continue to be open to seek

answers and to find out more about who this true light really is. Who

is Jesus Christ. Is that when you see nations that prosper, many of

them give the glory back to God many of them. So I pray that

your eyes will be open, that your hearts will be open to receive,

and that you will discover more about who this light is. Jesus Christ,

who came to the earth walk the earth, loved us so much he went

to the cross to die for our sins. Why are you here to die

for our sins? Because the penalty of sin is death, and because all

of us have seen we had to die. But because God loved us so

much, Jesus Christ died in our place so that we should not die,

but we may have eternal life. Amen. And there's another good of people.

Maybe you're sitting here and you are saying, Lord, help me,

help me to be that soul and light wherever I am. Help me to

first be a disciple. It's full disciple of Christ. Because if we are

not one, then we can't shine the light. There's an order to it.

There's a sequeence to it, So I pray it a lot will also

use you. The load I encourage you. The Lord will equip you.

The Lord will strengthen you. The Lord will give you the word to say

when you when you are placed in a situation where you can shine for Him.

Amen. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information

on our church, please visit as Church Do RG. We are also active

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good week ahead for you. God bless