Good morning church, from baptism, the pulpit, here we go. All in one this morning. It's a good morning to be here. Hey, my name is Eli. I'm the high school pastor here. So, if I haven't met you before, come up, let's talk, let's meet each other. But man, I'm super excited for the word that God has given us this morning and getting into.  But before that, really quick, I just want to thank you guys for being here on a long holiday. But I want to take the moment to thank the families of the men and women that have died for this country. And it's so freely that we get to be in a room like this here today, that we get to open the Word of God and so freely be able to talk about Jesus. And so, I want to thank those families of the lost ones this morning, so that we're not in a persecuted church. Yeah, come on. Yep.

So last week, if you were here, Matt Petty, our senior pastor, introduced us to a brand-new series that we're going to walk through all summer long. So, you should know exactly where we're going this week. If you've already been in Matthew, chapter five, it's the Sermon on the Mount.  The most famous passages in all of Scripture, it's the most read letters that you will see in Scripture, meaning Jesus spoke these words himself. And so, he started this last week, open it up in the Beatitudes, which he walked through some characteristics that Jesus gives us in the way that we should live. Now, I don't know about you, but this week as I was studying, I was looking back at some of this, I really struggled to the back half of this passage that Matt walked through this last week and I want to tell you why. If you have some Scripture with you this morning, open up to Matthew 5, I want to read you verses 10 and 11. And it says this in verse 10, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say, all kinds of evil against you, because of me."  Now, I don't know about you, but when I read those words, like often times, when I'm in conversations, or I'm talking with people about my faith in Jesus and explaining, and they give me pushback, and they slander, and you know it, you see, it's all over the internet. I do not feel blessed. Amen?  Like, I don't feel like when I walk out of a conversation, that I just got an earful that I'm incredibly dumb for believing this. I'm not like walking out the door and going woohoo, I am blessed.  I'm saying, like, I just don't do that. Like, that's not something that's a part of my life. And Jesus does this thing in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, it's brilliantly done, because here's what happens. He walks through some characteristics that we as believers are supposed to have in our life and then we kind of run into a little bit of the conflict, of the persecuted church in the persecuted world. And here in America, man, we're blessed. Like I was reading this week, we're not in a top 50 deadliest countries, right for the gospel of Jesus. And here's the thing. I think God knew that because of those characteristics that people are supposed to ooze and live out in their life, that people would eventually face some criticism and some persecution because of that. And he walks into that. 

And then he almost gives us an example as to how we're supposed to continue to live out our life, despite the persecution, despite the insults in our life. And I'm going to read this over you this morning. And this is going to be the massive text that we're staying in and that we're going to walk through this morning. If you have scripture, Matthew 5:13-14 says this, "You are the salt of the earth. But if 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 underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. Here's what I think Jesus knew, walking out of last week's text, that many of us would be sitting in this room or many of us believers here in America would feel and be the same way that I am. That when faced with persecution, when faced with insults and backlash of our faith, that our initial and our natural reaction would to be recluse, would to be pulled back. I don't want to face that anymore. Matter of fact, I'm going to steer away from those conversations, maybe I'm just not going to talk to that person anymore. Because I don't want to feel that I don't want to be persecuted. I don't want it in my face or in my life, like that was harsh, like that stung a little bit. Right?  And Jesus knew exactly what it was. And he took it a step further.  There is no page break, there is no different paragraph, it simultaneously fits with persecution. He says, not only will you face this, it's inevitable. But then I've called you to be the salt and the light of the world. Now, if you're anything like me, you need to define what salt and light means. Because when I think of salt, I think when I'm finished here, I'm going to go the Mexican restaurant, and I'm going to dump some extra salt on my chips when they bring the salsa.  Right?  

Or when you think about light, I think about the sun that actually roasted my body, and my legs are still peeling today because of it. Like those are the things that we think of when we think of salt, and we think a light.  And Jesus was really, really good and He used some words that specifically defined that.   He says, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. And if you go back and you look at that the earth in the world is talking about humanity, not the physical Earth, not the physical world, but the people that live in it. So, he says, You're the salt, and you are the light in a generation of people. And so, I want to define for us this morning, those two words. First thing, what is salt? What does it mean?  The historical and cultural context of Palestine, because obviously, they're not talking about table salt here, right? Salt is extremely valuable. See, oftentimes in the Roman world, they would actually pay the Roman guards in salt. The Greek word for salt is Sal, it's a derivative from the word that we get salary. So, they would pay Roman guards in salt, because it was worth something. It was a currency; it was of value. And Jesus is looking at the disciples when he's speaking on the Sermon on the Mount. And He's looking at us today going, church, you are valuable to this world. Like there is value there. And now I know that's a hot topic. Because I know in today's age, we struggle so often in our culture all the time with people that wake up that work nine to five, they go to work, they hate their job, they come home, they get the kids to bed, they make dinner, they go to sleep, and they do it all over again. And there's many of us in here, often times, adults, students that have gone God, why? What is the purpose? What is the value of me doing this every day? My life doesn't have meaning. And then Jesus is looking at us this morning, looking at his disciples and going, no, no, listen, there's a purpose in this. There's a purpose in our relationship and you every single one of you have value and you've been specifically made for the kingdom of God. You have gifts, you have talents, you are worth value in who Jesus is. And salt was so valuable, that it was also used as a preservative. It's not really easy in Palestine and culture back then to go to the fridge, open it up, open a can of guacamole and you'd be good to go. Right? Like they didn't have that. It was used as a preservative for meat.  Here's what would happen.  After a kill meat would come to the table, they would have no way other than to eat it to keep it fresh, to keep it from going rotten. So, here's what they would do. They would take salt, and they would pack meat all around it that there was a layer of salt that was used as a preservative that kept meat fresher for longer. Here's what the context of that means for us. The church is put here in this dark and broken world to preserve it, to keep it from going corrupt.  From keeping all those things from happening. George Truett said it like this, "You're either being corrupted by the world or you're salting it."  

There's no two and if buts. You're either preserving it and living for Jesus, showing people that there's a different way to live or you're actively being corrupted by the world looking like every single other person that's in this world. So, it's used as a preservative. It had value. Number two, value on that is seasoning. Now, I know most people in here, including my mama, because she's in here today and she taught me right.  Right? Like somebody invites you over to dinner, like your mom teaches you, whatever they put on your plate, you better eat. Like somebody took the time to cook you that meal. By golly, you should eat every single thing on that plate. Now, if you've ever been, like I have in a certain situation, you don't like everything on that plate, right? Like you go over to somebody's house, and it's not your mama's cooking. It doesn't have as much flavor. What's the first thing that you do? You get on the table and say, "Excuse me, do you have any salt or pepper? Because I got to season this thing up for me to choke it down so that I can do my mama well, right? Salt is for seasoning. I love what William Barclay says. And you can always trust an older Englishman to put it in a way that you could never.  And he says this, "Food without salt can be revoltingly insipid," meaning disgustingly tasteless.  "The Christian, then, must be the man who brings flavor into life. The Christian which acts like a shadow of gloom, and a wet blanket is no true Christian. The Christian is a man who listen to this, by his courage, his hope, his cheerfulness and his kindness, bring a new flavor into life."  Here's what he's saying, when he's looking at the people that he's preaching to meaning Jesus and us this morning, we should bring a newness and a freshness and a flavor that should make the rest of this world so salivate in their mouth, that they must have what we have. That's what that means that our lives to look in such a radical different way than the rest of this world, that people have no choice but to go, they live differently, they're so much joyful and happier than I am, and I don't understand why.  It's bringing seasoning to this world. He said, salt, the earth, bring the flavor of who Jesus is to all of us. So, it's a value. It's a preservative, it's seasoning. And the last thing, it's a purifier.  

The Romans would say that salt was the purest of all things, because it came from the purest of all things which is the sun and the sea. Matter of fact, they would also use it in some sort of bacteria or infection in a cut or a wound. Now it would hurt like crazy, right? You ever poured salt into a wound, right? You ever just let that thing bubble and sizzle?  But here's what it's doing. It's taking all that infection and bacteria and grossness that so creeped in and it's now purifying it.  In the context of what Jesus is saying to them and to us is that you and your life should look in such a purifying way that others should notice that your life should represent the purity and the perfection of who Jesus is to us. That the nastiness and the grossness of this world, you don't have to continue to live that way. But you can go a different direction, that you can live in such a way that people look and go, man, there's something different here. And so, he uses His word, you are the salt of the earth. And then He uses His word light. And I love this. What does light do, in a sense of historical and biblical context?  Light dispels darkness.  Read with me, Ephesians 5:8, He is speaking to believers, "For you were once darkness, but now you are a light in the Lord. Each and every single one of you in here this morning that has a relationship with Jesus, the old you are gone. You have been cleansed; you've been ripped away. There is no more darkness, but the light of who God is lives inside of you. That's what that's saying. If you don't believe me?  2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness." Here's the thing. The only thing that can dispel darkness is light. Darkness is the absence of light, the light the source of Jesus, and I love what it says.  He says let your light shine out of darkness. This world, this generation is living in darkness of the world. It's the church. It's the people of God that light it up, that bring that savor, that tastes that we so talked about. He's looking at it and He's saying the light, it should glow, it should illuminate, it should expel darkness, which leads into the next one. It exposes. Now I love this because it's going to hurt a little bit.  Ephesians 5:11 says, "Have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them."  If you keep reading in verse 13, and 14 of the fusion five it says, "But everything exposed by light becomes visible - and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.  That is why it is said: Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine in you."  Now, I don't know how many of you have been in like actual physical dark places before.  Right? Anybody ever like old school like you've gone snipe hunting out in the middle of the woods, right as a joke, and like your friends left you out there forever. And like you couldn't see anything in front of your face because it was so dark. And they were like four or five miles back in the woods. And you realize that there is no snipe, that's actually a fake animal, and you're looking for nothing. And then they left you.  Right? 

And it's dark, and you have absolutely no idea where you're at. Right? I have one of those experiences myself, but the vivid one that I remember is, I was on a mission trip, okay, with Pastor Matt Petty, right? We were down in bridge city, Texas, and a hurricane had just come through Texas, kind of wiped everything out. And the next day, we knew that we were going to some housing departments. They weren't condemned, but they should have been right, and it was gross from all the hurricane, and it was completely dark. And I'll never ever forget walking into a room about this size. It was a very big room, very dark room. Like all the doors are boarded, all the windows are boarded. Like I'm literally standing there like keep walking, keep walking. I'm thinking like, this is a trap. Like what are we doing here? Right? Like, I mean, honestly, what's happening. And so, we get in the middle of this room, right?  Middle of this room and it's dark and it was also like the lighting was like stadium like somebody flicks it on and it was like, right, and it comes on, except when those lights came on, there was millions of bugs and creepy crawlies that just ran.  Right?  It was like they were hovered all around, and they just expelled, and they're gone. They were exposed.  Right?  That's what the light of Jesus does in our life. The light of God, that so cleans up the broken and disgusting things, lights it up. Now, here's the thing that I know about exposing. It's really personal. It's also global. Here's what the Holy Spirit of God does with us. It exposes things in our life, that may cause some stumbling between us and our relationship with God. Now, here's another thing that I know about us. That's personal, like the person next to you, does not listen to the Holy Spirit that's telling you, right?  And so, what happens most of the time, is when God exposes something in our life, we have the choice to either surrender that to the feet of Jesus, or we continue to push that down in our life. And here's the other thing that I know, is it's so much easier to continue to push it down in our life, because here's what we do a lot of times.  We like to expose other people's sin, right? Like, listen, I've been married for five years. I love my wife, right? And I know when I'm in that conversation, I'm going to call it passionate conversation, right? We're in a passionate conversation and she is exposing some things, right? And you know, you're like, okay, yeah, that's actually kind of true, right?  Like, you know, what I'm talking about.  Like, you're in the middle of it. But everything in you is going, how do I continue to suppress, suppress, suppress.  Why don't I expose what she's been doing?  And that's what we do, especially as believers.  

A lot of times we justify some things that are coming in between our relationship with Jesus by going, you know what?  Actually, their sin is a lot greater than ours.  You should have seen last weekend, what they were doing, hey, at least I didn't post this on social media. And we try to expose something else in order that we can completely forget that the Holy Spirit of God is exposing something personal in our life. Church, I know, our families.  I know our families would be in a lot better place if that exposure, we would deal with it with Jesus this morning. I know that.  There are some people in here that have really, really been pressing some things down for a while. God's really been all over them and they've just been suppressing, suppressing and pushing the blame on everybody else. And I know that there's some issues in our families that if we just dealt with that at the feet of Jesus, we'd be so much better off. We would feel so much better.  The weight of the world that we've been just keeping it inside of us would just release, because here's what it does. Jesus has cleansed from all of that. He has already dispelled the sin if you have a loving relationship with him, and a lot of times, the exposure hurts.  That pain of moving away some things that God doesn't want. But the beautiful thing is he adds back His spirit and His glory every single time. So, it exposes.  I got off on a tangent there, sorry. The last thing it does, it gives life.  Read with me, John 8:12 and I love this. "When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me, will never walk in darkness, but will have light of life." Here's the picture. And the reality of what Jesus was saying here is He was probably pointing to the light of the sun, that gives life to the plants that gives life to us, that we need a constant nutrient. And then He points to us in a spiritual sense. And He says, I am the source of that light. Now, here's the thing, we talked about some sin, and some dark things in our life.  There's a lot of people in the room today that your lights not shining. Or maybe it's got a little flicker, because you are trying to suppress, suppress, suppress.  The light of Jesus, the unfathomable power of the Lord comes from Him and Him alone. The reason that He's standing on the Sermon of the Mount and looking at the disciples in us and saying, Be the light of the world is because he wants a relationship through you to share the light of the world. That's it. That's the purpose. That's the value. And we have that in who He is. You don't have to walk around going, what's the purpose of my nine to five? What's the purpose of me being here? Jesus has already given you that by a personal relationship that now points to Him and every single thing that you do. So, a couple takeaways from this passage. Now that we understand what light is, we understand what salt does, there's some things and there's a terminology that I really want to point out to you. In the first couple verses, it says, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. This is huge. We may not understand this, but here's what Jesus is doing to the disciples, he's looking at you is looking at them and going, your identity is rooted in Me. 

If you know me, in a personal relationship, you are these things. It's not if you feel like these things, not if you want to be these things, if you know me, you have no choice, but to be these things, because I am those things.  Galatians 2:20 says it like this, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."  It's no longer you. That light is not you. It's the source empowered by Jesus. He's looking at disciples, and he's saying, I am with you. Your identity is now rooted with Me, you are sons, you were adopted by the living King. Now live for me. He's saying that, now that's important. Because there's two people in here, there's people that identify with Jesus and have given their life to Him and then there's people that need Jesus to be the identifier of their life, because they're lost in translation.

And here's what He's saying to us. As believers in Jesus, it's our job to show that.  It's our job, every single place that we are, it's the whole reason that we're going to get into this next point.  You are identified and rooted in Jesus. But God's people are the bright light of hope. Matthew 5:14-15 says it like this.  "A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house."  Here's the reality. Jesus was standing on this hill. If you were here last week, Pastor Matt showed you this picture of almost exactly where Jesus would have been. And to his right. There was a hill where there was a city, like we talked about earlier, if there is no central power, there's no city lights, there's no lights that line the street, you're out in complete and utter darkness. And He would have pointed to this hill, and everybody would have known about the city. Why? Because if you were lost, and you're wandering in the wilderness and you're dark and broken and all that, you would have seen refuge in that city, but the lights that were in it.  And that's exactly the context of what God's saying to us, the people of Jesus, are the hope of who He is. That's the reason that man, so many of you are burdened by people in your neighborhood around you live, they come to you and they're like, I just need to tell you about some my struggles. Why? Because the hope and the light of Jesus is shining through you.  Church, my prayer this week has been for this body of believers to see this church as the light on top of the hill, as the city on top of the hill that people from all around that are in darkness can seek refuge here. And it starts by being the light in this church you individually.  In your relationship with the Lord, the source comes from God and not us. You're a city on a hill that burns brightly. Acts 4:13, I love this. I don't know if I have time to give this everything it's worth. But I want to read this to you, because man, this is my hope and my prayer for every single one of us.  It says, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished, and took note that these men had been with Jesus."  Church, students, adults, I wonder if the people around us would look at the way that we live and be astonished and take note that you've been with Jesus. I wonder the people that don't even know Him would go, you distribute characteristics that look just like Jesus. I wonder this morning, how many of our close friends would say, Man, there's something that's just different about this person, that they've been with Jesus, that they don't look like the rest of this world. That's what Jesus is saying on this. 

And the last point.  What we can take away is how you live matters. Matthew 5:16 says this, "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."  I need to tell you what this means by they may see your good deeds. Because here's what I feel like we fall into as a church and as Christians is a trap, is that we kind of scheme in our mind and come up with things of like, Man, you know what, I wonder what I can do today, that's good for somebody else and that's the glory for me and not of Jesus. And here's what this means. It means by the Holy Spirit of God that lives in you, speaks to you, and then you radically obey that.  Right?  Like if you've ever been in the marketplace, and like that, moms in front of you. And she's like, hauling for carts because she's got 12 kids, right? And she's just like, almost on the verge of tears, right? Like, if you've ever been there and just going man, I hurt for her in the Holy Spirit stops and just goes, hey, would you just pray for her? That simple, right?  Would you just stop and ask if she’s, okay? Like, because clearly, she's not.  Like she's had a rough day, like we've all been there. And God's just all over you. Like, take a moment. Breathe, and pray for this woman. That birthing the fruit of the Spirit out of us, by the person of Jesus.  It's not us scheming saying, what can we possibly do in order of all these good words, it's listening to the spirit of God that's talked to us by His Spirit and following through with that.  How you live matters. Oh, and with this, first Peter, 2:11 & 12. And I love this. "Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles of this world, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against our soul. 

Live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God, on the day that he visits."  Church, we live in a completely dark and fallen and broken world.  And God has called his church to live such a different life, that people want to say bad things about us, but can't.  Matter of fact, they may persecute you and say bad things about you, but it doesn't matter because they see the glory of God through you. That's what this passage is saying.  That your life and my life is completely radically different. When we're at the pool tomorrow, that we live differently than every single person around us, that we are purified and live such a holy instead of part life, that people and we do life in our baseball team in our workplace, look at us and go, they're different. And so much so that they want exactly what we have, not because of who we are. But all because of who Jesus is. 

Church, I've been praying this week, that if we can grab a hold, that we are called to be the salt and the light of the world, that this world would look a little bit brighter.   Right?  That this world would be illuminating and oozing with who Jesus is not who we are.  

Will you pray with me, Father this morning, God, we thank you for your word. God, I pray that this church and the churches around us and the believers all around this community, God, I'm praying right now, Father, for us to be a place of refuge in darkness. When people are struggling and hurt and broken, or in pain, God, that they look to the church, to the people, for your hope, for your love, and for your grace and your compassion.  God, this week I'm praying for the person that has suppressed some darkness in their life, Lord, God, will you continue to convict and bring that to light? God said that we can look more like you and that your light can shine in the dark and fallen world.  God, we pray this morning, that every word that was spoken here in a room gives You honor, gives You glory. In your name we pray. 

Amen.