[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church, located in Plano, Texas.
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry, please visit CitizensChurch.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, good morning, it's good to see you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are new, glad you're here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this is your place, it's good to have you.
[SPEAKER_00]: With this, my name's Corey.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm one of the pastors on staff.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to be joining you this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been to a place, I so wonderful, so beautiful, so like captivating, that you start like texting people, pictures of it before you even get home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because my family lives in a city called Plano,
[SPEAKER_00]: We like to go to these places.
[SPEAKER_00]: We started making our way through National Park as a family a couple of years ago because of Plano.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when we go to these beautiful places, I'm enthralled by them two weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: We went on a family trip to Yellowstone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was number 10 on our list.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we finally got to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because there was no cell service in the park, which is kind of a gift from God, like flyfishing in the middle of the Yellowstone, is a good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had to be right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, just right there in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I got back to the cabinet night, I would start sending pictures to my people.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my favorite responses from one guy was just chatGBT.
[SPEAKER_00]: He thought it was fake.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, dude, no, this is real.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jamie Roller said, that's fake, bro.
[SPEAKER_00]: You did.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what you said.
[SPEAKER_00]: When one travel author said something like this, he said the beauty and glory of a place is seen and how many people, how many different people's find satisfaction in life and its streams and rivers.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we see these places, we like to go, we can't help but point to their beauty.
[SPEAKER_00]: We experience something breathtaking our hearts, naturally want to include others in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a moral obligation, it's an instinctual thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a response that's been written into our souls when we see an experience something beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beauty calls us outward.
[SPEAKER_00]: church in the same way, the splendor, the glory, the beauty, the love of Jesus must be shared.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about this with our at least students minister, our name is Logan Helm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Logan said this, she said, there is no one like Jesus, no, his love never runs dry, his strength is unwavering, his gentleness, calms our anxious hearts, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: His peace is a refuge in the midst of the storms of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: His presence brings life and hope in ways that created world only hints at.
[SPEAKER_00]: How could we keep such a beauty to ourselves?
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what's true church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about what we're taken with.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do this with our travels.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do this with our favorite people.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do this with music that we enjoy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We share YouTube videos.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what's written in our hearts is to talk about the things that we are taken with.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most importantly, our lives should overflow with who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: overflowing with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the interaction between the rulers of the day and Peter and John in the book of Acts and Acts chapter 4 and verse 20 when they were told to stop telling people about this Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their simple response in verse 20 was, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard or in short form.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The John Piper said it like they said, God intends for His glory to be public.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did not create the world so that his glory would remain in cognito, and he does not redeem people so that they will have a merely private experience of his preciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: His aim is that His glory be openly reflected in the deeds of His people who starts to reflect His truth and whose affections reflect His worth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, Jesus is the greatest, the most beautiful, the most glorious reality any of us has, or ever will experience, ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is nothing better.
[SPEAKER_00]: How could we keep such beauty to ourselves?
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about what we are taken with.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if beauty compels us to share and glory can't be hidden, then it makes sense that Jesus would describe his people as he does in Matthew 5.
[SPEAKER_00]: Salt that preserves and light that shines.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's hear his words again together in Matthew 5, starting in verse 13.
[SPEAKER_00]: You,
[SPEAKER_00]: or the salt to the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if salt is lost, it's taste, how shall the salt and the spear are stored.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled in a people's feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: You, the light of the world, sitting on a hill cannot be hidden.
[SPEAKER_00]: In order to people light a lamp and put it under a basket, put on a stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it gives light to all in the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father, who is in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, God, we thank you for your Word, this morning, we gather around it to recall who you are and what you done for us in Jesus, God, would you stir our affections for you, our grading glorious King?
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you loosen our lips, would you remove any restraint, Lord God, it would keep us from
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, would you come and move now in this place?
[SPEAKER_00]: We love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so Matthew is one of the earliest accounts of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Versus chapter five through seven is a collection of Jesus' most well-known teachings called discernment on the Mount.
[SPEAKER_00]: But back before that and Matthew 4, Jesus announces that the kingdom of God of the kingdom of heaven has come in and through him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So five through seven, Jesus is telling us that this person who's a part of the kingdom of God, what they're like, their character, their identity, and what it looks like to participate in the kingdom of God they're calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: These first 12 verses, the Beatitudes of Chapter 5, is Jesus inviting people into the good life with Him, the blessed life with Him, or is one voice that's been prominent in our church, Dr. Jonathan Penitence, says, the life of human flourishing is found with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dallas Willard said like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, the commands of Jesus and the sermon on the Mount are invitations to be a certain type of person through faith and discipleship to Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This person has become inwardly transformed so that his behaviors flow naturally from who they are now as his mature brothers and sisters under the present rule of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're to put into the context of our current series on becoming like Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who have been changed by Jesus will begin to act like Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and this brings us to our verses for today, Matthew 5, 13, to 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: They serve as a bit of a transition in the sermon on the mount, the salt and light verses, describe the mission of those people whose hearts have been captivated by Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God forms the people by His grace, verses 1 through 12, and then sends them out in love and service to the world, 13 through 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so we are now then the very means, but which the kingdom of God permeates and
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so there's a shift in verses 13 through 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the missional movement of a flourishing people who don't just receive blessing, but become blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not just there to get some of Jesus, they want to give and provide Jesus to the world around that they reveal the life of flourishing for those who know Lord, trust, and obey King Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Flourishing in the kingdom always has a public dimension.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always a public aspect to our flourishing and crises where we act like Jesus that our lives are a visible sign of God's life-giving reign and inviting other people into it, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or as we keep saying over and over again, we talk about what we're taking with.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's have a look at our passage then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so, is the familiar passage?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is Jenny said a minute ago, is something if you've been in church at all, you've probably heard this multiple times.
[SPEAKER_00]: These statements in verses 13 through 16 that you're the salt to the earth, you're the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sitting on the hill cannot be hidden.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about those two things then, that Jesus proclaims over his followers, you are salt, you are the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: So first in, you are salt, Matthew 513, you are the salt of the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm there's two ways that salt is interpreted.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as modern day readers, we're going to see this a little differently from the original queers that Jesus was preaching to on that mount that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think of salt as flavor and we think of salt that goes on a beautiful cut of meat and is going to be delicious.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think of salt that way, helping the world taste and see the goodness of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should be that person bringing the lightful flavor to the places that we inhabit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but it's not the original intention.
[SPEAKER_00]: Salt was precious in the ancient world because it preserves what would otherwise decay.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was applied directly to food, especially meat, so that it would last.
[SPEAKER_00]: Salt was meant to hold back rot, where say to another way, the kingdom of God at work in us should resist decay around us.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, we, as citizens of the kingdom of God who have been loved and changed by Jesus, are called to resist decay, resist death in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kingdom people slow down the world's unraveling by drawing others near to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how we do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, we act like Jesus when we move towards the rod, move towards the death that is around us, that we might apply the life-giving salt of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, you are salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is one answer to the decay.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is, but one answer to the death that we see around us, that we even feel in us, it's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second, you are light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 514 through 16 says this, you are the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: A city on a hill cannot be hidden in order to people light a lamp and put it under a basket.
[SPEAKER_00]: But on a stand and it gives light to all in the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: The metaphor of light is a bit more straightforward to us than the salt one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, a candle lamp would have been elevated place on a stand in a home that it might provide light to everyone covering the space with light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Light is noticeable, it is obvious, it pierces darkness, it changes landscape.
[SPEAKER_00]: um, it helps older people like me read books, light reveals what's true, light shows a better way to live to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: It brings hope in the middle of fear and despair.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, do you remember being afraid of the dart as a kid?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if you still are, that's, that's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've got blessed my mom and all the years of walking me through my fear of the dark nightlights, closet lights, hallway lights, turning on the lights, sleeping with the light on.
[SPEAKER_00]: All my kids have dealt with different types of fear of the dark.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've all struggled with it at different points in their early childhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even to this day, when I think I hear something in the middle of the night, and I find myself going out to see what's there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing I'm doing at every room is turning on the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you turn on the light, something changes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something is altered.
[SPEAKER_00]: The light of Jesus does the exact same thing in our fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: in our confusion, in our questions, in our pain, especially in our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we see the darkness around us and in us, we have the opportunity to shine the light of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: A light of Jesus brings hope in the dark places of life, both salt and light than our agents of change, life-giving, noticeable, meant to have an effect where they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: We act like Jesus, salt and light.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always a sow that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look in the middle of our 16, there's a sow that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that part.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father and heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: The good deeds Jesus speaks of are not self-promotion but revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, this isn't a passage just for the extrovert or the platform.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it's not a call to draw attention to self.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our lives exist though to display the beauty and reality of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reality of who you isn't what he's done, the goal of our good deeds isn't so that people would think that we're good or morally better or have it all together, but they would see and say that God is glorious and worthy of it all and been drawn to Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the goal of our good deeds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our works are meant to be a visible echo of our joy for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we might be salt and light.
[SPEAKER_00]: When our hearts are satisfied in Him, our lights shine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then our people are drawn not necessarily to us, but the source of our satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus says, we are salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you are salt, you are light.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he also kind of poses a question and a thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, this is, what good is salt that's lost its saltiness or a light that's covered up?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think these questions that are worth asking and wrestling with in this passage are a great deal of invitation from Jesus to be his salt and to be his light in a dark and decaying world.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think these questions cause us there's an invitation to wrestle with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever felt this way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever felt my life does not shine?
[SPEAKER_00]: My life is anything but a salt that prevents decay around me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that I would say I was captivated by the beauty of Jesus or maybe you feel like a loss of zeal.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the lost around you, it's a great invitation of a Christ to be salt and light, but there's a great challenge for us here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So answer in the question, would you say that you've lost your saltiness?
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 5, 16, where my favorite verses as a new Christian?
[SPEAKER_00]: When I got saved my junior of high school, I went and found my Bible from high school.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on a bookshelf at our house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have these verses highlighted, underlined, starred with arrows pointed to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just kind of literally like, this was my biblical mantra that I would say over and over and over again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted people to know the experience of moving from death to life in Jesus like I had.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but over time, my zoo for Jesus when it lesson, I remember feeling guilty, and feeling shame, even think that I was failing to be the salt and light of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was becoming more about the messenger than about the message.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the main problem wasn't necessarily that I'd failed to be salt and light per se, instead I'd lost out of the one who made me that.
[SPEAKER_00]: My focus was on myself as opposed to on Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't feel like salt and a dying world, my hope is that you behold Jesus here now.
[SPEAKER_00]: but hold him once again.
[SPEAKER_00]: The before you were salt to others, Jesus was salt to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He brought his healing to the decay in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't feel like light, remember that it was Jesus who illuminated yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, bringing you the hope and the joy of believing in him beloved, rediscover his love for you this morning if you don't feel like salt and light.
[SPEAKER_00]: He delights in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: and wants you to be his salt in his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second, he talks about a city, shouldn't be hidden, a city on a hill, shouldn't be hidden.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you don't lie to lamp and cover it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: The question then is, is your light hidden?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hiding light of Jesus happens in my life for a lot of reasons?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's some of the typical reasons why I kind of lose my shine, per se.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fear, I'm not sure what to say in a given moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: guarding darkness I see around me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Approval, what are people going to think of me if I start inserting Jesus conversation into this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe you're like me, you battle a cultural monster of distraction and hurry and you just run out of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know how time to slow down and shine the light of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of this dims the light of Jesus in me and to the world around me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But beloved, if you're battling guilt or shame in this moment about your lack of shiny light of Jesus, please know this, the good news of Jesus is this at the light you've done, Jesus can reignite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your acceptance before the Father was never earned by your brightness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God, yeah, praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was secured by Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't stay in shame step back into the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let his grace rekindle what fear or distraction or hurry, okay, has doled.
[SPEAKER_00]: So because of the same Jesus who lit your life once before, still delights to shine in you and through you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So recover that today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I feel this is an individual.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel the longing to shine to those around me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray against that our light would be dimmed as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel this is an individual.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I pray against it for us as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are interesting times, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Billy Graham said a long time ago he said, Satan will do anything he can to divide Christians and destroy our witness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll do anything he can, bitterness, assuming the worst of others with holding grace and forgiveness, these hide the light of Jesus and our community.
[SPEAKER_00]: The light of Jesus can be hidden from a lack of unity amongst God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it just doesn't affect us as individuals.
[SPEAKER_00]: It affects the mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: God longs for us to be one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 4, 2 and 3 says, says, we should bear with one another in love and make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: And John 17, Jesus said this, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, or in me and I and you, that they may also be in us, that the world may believe in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our unity matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the opportunity to shine the light of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: For instance, if your salt has lost its potency drawn near to Jesus once again, if your light feels dim, look again to the one who lit up your darkness with his mercy and grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: His presence restores what's faded.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't feel salty, if you don't feel like light, turn your eyes upon Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now what?
[SPEAKER_00]: What should we do then?
[SPEAKER_00]: How should this lead us to act more like Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: In closing, I want to say, there's three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: They all start letter P, really easy to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: First is very simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that's really simple, but pray this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray firstly for your own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for your own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray that God would restore your zeal to recall the grace and rescue that you enjoy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray that you would continue to be in all in wonder of what he's done for you once again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for courage and boldness in a longing to talk about the king who has taken your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for your own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask God to help you have eyes to see the decay and the darkness that surrounds you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead of a response of judgment, let there be a desire to move towards it.
[SPEAKER_00]: who we would go that we might be the light of Jesus, pray for your own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, pray for the hearts of those around you.
[SPEAKER_00]: My hope is is that you make our closing liturgy of praying for the lost around us, that that's a daily liturgy for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praying for the lost around you, asking God to help you see them differently.
[SPEAKER_00]: to see them with eyes of love and longing to be near them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask God to put more of them in your life, more people that need the salt and the light of Jesus, pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pursue people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Salt makes a difference when it's put on something light helps when it's switched on.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same is true for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Valders of Jesus are meant to be near, not apart from people who don't know Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: or may to move towards them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says like this, in first Sessionians 2A, is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, we cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: To be salts and light with people in our lives and us and theirs.
[SPEAKER_00]: So church ask a question from that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is dear to you that doesn't know Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: who is dear to you that doesn't know Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: For our family, one of the ways that we're trying to work this out and live this out is through soccer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know this is kind of the youth sports mecca is living in Dallas.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one of the ways we're playing this out is through soccer is my son calls it proper football.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been praying for the players and parents on my son's team.
[SPEAKER_00]: moving towards them, spending time with them, offering help, trying to be as near as we can, trying to see them as not just people we want to win with, but win too, Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: People we want to be around.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we love the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a huge part of our life, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's exactly why we don't retreat from it, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's opportunity there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world is on my son's team.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a beautiful place to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love moving towards those people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because we truly believe Jesus can save and change every person on that team, we move towards them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see that as opportunity.
[SPEAKER_00]: The truth is this is the gospel is always advanced in this way through our relationships through our presence It's literally always done this church historian Michael Green wrote it like this He said early Christianity's explosion.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's explosive growth was accomplished by informal missionaries ordinary Christians
[SPEAKER_00]: Not trained preachers are evangelists who carried on the mission of the church through everyday conversation and relationship in homes and workshops on walks and around market stalls they did it naturally and enthusiastically.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how the kingdom spreads when conversation, one relationship, one field, one team, one neighborhood at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we pray, we seek to be present with people, and then they're going to be partnered up.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go back and read the passage again, you'll see how Jesus says you, you are the salt of the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually plural.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Texan.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, you guys, if you're from up north, you guys, you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is plural.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are salt, you are light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like in Luke chapter 10, when Jesus sent the 72 out of Sent them to by two, they had great return with their work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Partner up, two people who are taking with Jesus, have much to talk about when they're together, and they have much to tell others when they're together.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great opportunity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Partner up, there's strength in numbers with someone from your home group, someone from your de-group, student someone from your huddle, someone from your high school that loves Jesus, partner up.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a place for you to be able to practice your story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was talking about sharing your story with my eldest child, my high school son.
[SPEAKER_00]: This last week, he was talking about being a raise of the bunch of other P.K.s.
[SPEAKER_00]: and how he feels like sometimes his story is boring.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I stopped him, I go, brother, there is nothing boring about being taken from death to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's every follower Jesus' story.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have so much to share.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're so much good news to proclaim.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are assault, you are a light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Partner up, do this together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, we are a city on a hill.
[SPEAKER_00]: Citizens Church is a city on a hill here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Plano, Frisco, McKenney, Allen, all these places.
[SPEAKER_00]: and our schools, our offices, our neighborhoods, our streets, our teams, and we have been invited in by Jesus as those who have been changed and loved by him to participate.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not spectators.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are light.
[SPEAKER_00]: On my first day, back from our Yellowstone trip a couple of weeks ago, I think the people around me thought I was like a travel agent.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a neighbor down the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been a lot of time with his destructive children in my house a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I started showing him pictures of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, man, we've never been.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess we got to go, we got to pile the kids in the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we should go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, dude, fly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now I drive out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to the office next day, I roll in, and unfortunately I enjoy distracting people as much as I like working.
[SPEAKER_00]: I rolled into the Joe's office and I start showing Joe winner executive pastor pictures of it, and I was talking to him like he had been, he's like, we've never been, I guess we should go.
[SPEAKER_00]: A church isn't this how it works?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those of us captivated by Jesus isn't this how it works, I've experienced it, I've seen
[SPEAKER_00]: You've tasted it, how good he is that we want to bring others to see and taste it, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how it works.
[SPEAKER_00]: Church imagine this with me, us being enthralled with the beauty of Jesus and wanting as many people as possible to know Him, it is how it works.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are salt, church, you are light, let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are my greatest treasure God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are the greatest beauty that I have ever seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: My king and my rescue are my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord God, would you captivate our hearts again?
[SPEAKER_00]: God, I have no doubt that some of us read a passage like this and immediately feel some type of weight from one reason or another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord God, I pray for the hard in this room that when they see this passage, I pray that their heart would be reminded of your light that shined on the darkness of their soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: That you would rekindle again a fresh infection for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The greatest love, any of us have ever experienced.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, that we would talk about what we've been taken by in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We praise you for your love.
[SPEAKER_00]: We fix our eyes on it once again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make us your salt and your light again today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise things in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.