Amen. Well, it's good to see you. If I haven't met you before, my name is Mike and I serve as one of the pastors here, serve as a pastor of ministries, which means I get the distinct honor of working with our team and our kids, our students, and our adult ministry. We have an incredible team there in, in all three ministries. And I also get to work with amazing volunteers. Now get this, you may not know this, but it takes about 750, 750 volunteers serving in their giftedness to make a Sunday morning happen. Can you believe that? And you might say, Mike, no, I don't. I don't believe that. Well, let me tell you something. Half of them work in our children's ministry. And I love the fact that we have a big children's ministry here, but we're so thankful that, but you get to see the, the volunteers that, that, that are here when you come into the parking lot, you get to see our hospitality team, you get to see, you get to see our t - life group leaders, you get to see so many people who are gifting of their time and talents to be here to make Sunday morning happen.
Can you do me a favor, just give them a round of applause for what they do? Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, if you weren't here last week, you missed a treat. You missed a treat. We had Bryant Wright bring us the word. We also celebrate July 4th and celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country. And yes, it is okay to celebrate the 250th anniversary of these United States. We also honored our men and women of the military. And you know what we also did? If you missed it, we celebrated our senior pastor, Matt Petty, who is not here today. That's why I'm up here. Uh, we celebrated his 25th anniversary as a pastor here at Burn Hickory. Isn't that incredible? And, and y- you can clap for that. Absolutely. It is rare to see that. And I'm thankful that we have a head shepherd here who is as love, loves preaching from God's word.
And I'm so thankful for him. And he's received many of your emails, many of your notes, and, uh, he has read all of them. He's so thankful for those. And if you hadn't had a chance just to say, "Hey, Matt, thanks for being here 25 years." Please, please do so. It's great that he's starting the student ministry and now he's our senior pastor and it's a privilege to work with him. Now, you know that we have been in a sermon series entitled A Verse That Changed My Life.
And last, two weeks ago, we had Chip Paul, our student pastor, talk about overcoming fear and, and, and, and went to the passage of Isaiah and talked about how to overcome in fear and how it meant something to him personally and helped guide him and shape him as a Christ follower. And many of you too resonated with that passage. And that's what I love about scripture. Scripture allows us to take a passage and it just grows with us. It speaks to us. It ministers to us. It directs us. Sometimes it redirects to us. It redirects us to what our images is in Christ and our identity that's in Christ. And sometimes, and just sometimes, the passage might challenge you. And see, back in March of 2020, I had this passage in Matthew five challenge me.
Challenged me in some big ways and it challenged me. And, and, and I want you to know this. It challenged me because I had found myself growing numb to the world that was around me. Numb to the darkness that was continuing to get dark. And, and guys, don't get me wrong. I was still in the church. I was still ministering to people, but somehow I just sort of ignored the world that was continuing to get darker. I was blissfully unaware at times. And there's a question that Matthew 5:13 hit me, convicted me, challenged me, and it asked me this question. Had I stopped being what God called me to be? Come on.
Do me a favor, let's turn to Matthew 5:13 and that's the verse we're gonna primarily focus in on today. But we're gonna read the whole passage because that passage is talking about the salt and light. And that passage some that we, we kinda know this page, right? So let's start off by reading it. So you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. But on a stand and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
You got, you know, guys, you see these verses are kind of easy to understand in Matthew, not that hard. What is hard is actually living them out. And sometimes they make us ask the question it did for me in March of 2020. It said, "Hey, Mike Wynn, are you influencing the world or is the world influencing you?
Are you engaging with the world or, or just have you quietly withdrawn from it? Are we shining brightly in the world or have I just blended into it where no one can tell the difference?" Family, I get it. It is a dark world out there. And sometimes I, that darkness, I just go, "Man, can you get any darker world?" And the world says, "Oh yeah, we can't just watch us. Just watch us. Guys, just wanna hide sometimes. Sometimes we just wanna go home, lock the door and just say, World, stay away. I need to binge watch something. Just stay away from me. Binge watching's a whole other thing. But sometimes that darkness gets relentless. Sometimes that darkness gets overwhelming. Sometimes that darkness gets paralyzing. Maybe you felt that way.
Maybe you felt that way, but get this. There's good news. There's actually there's great news. And here's a big idea, idea today. The world may be growing darker, but our call to be salt and light has never been more clear. And family, it's never been more urgent. Would you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you now and we just ask you to give us a moment of pause. Give us a moment where we can just stop what we're thinking about from the world's perspective and just start thinking about your perspective, Father. And guys, if you would, would you pray for me? Would you pray for me that I am following the Holy Spirit's direction?
Pray for me that I'm true to God's word. Thank you. And I want you to pray for yourselves. I want you to pray that you have ears and a heart that is open to the Holy Spirit's direction for today. Father, we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so let's get into the context of Matthew five. So Matthew five is just at the beginning of Jesus's, uh, ministry here on earth. See, he had just, uh, been baptized. He went out into the wilderness, called his disciples and began preaching and teaching. And then we come to Matthew five, it's somewhere around 27 to 30 A. D. And, and we see Jesus Christ going to the top of the mountain and giving one of the famous sermons in scripture, which is, you can find in Matthew five through seven. It's a sermon on the mount.
And the sermon on the mount's interesting because the, the, the audience that Jesus was talking to were the disciples, but there were other people around. And see, Jesus was, was basically challenging the religious leaders of the day and say, "It's not legal observance to the law. It's actually the heartfelt obedience to the law." And in Sermon on the Mount, Jesus would say, "It is I, Jesus, who fulfilled the law." And so the Sermon on Mount begins with the beatitudes. And you know what those are? A- a- and they're, they're poor in spirit. They're blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers. These are atitudes that we should be, that's why we call it to be attitudes, but attitudes that we should be. And not self-reliant, but God reliant. It's one that contradicts the world back then. And you know what?
It contradicts the world today.
But then verse 13 comes along, which is our primary passage today. And there's a shift that occurs. It, it, it, it moves from how we should be to how we should function or said diferently. How should we influence the world that is around us? Now, there's something worth noting. There's something that we need to unpack a little bit this morning. And we have to get into the original language. And that original language that the New Testament was written in Greek. And there's something that the English translations can really can't, they can't fully capture. And so in Greek, the pronoun is part of a verb. And I know you're saying, Mike, come on. I got three weeks left of s - before school starts. What in the world are you talking about with these English lessons? Just stick with me. Stick with me, okay? Just stick with me.
So in the Greek, you don't have to write your pronoun. It's included in the verb. It's kinda like a, a package deal. But Matthew 14, 13 and 14, Matthew includes the pronoun twice. And so up on the screen, you'll see a Greek word called <foreign>, which basically means you are. Now, it's interesting that basically when you put it together, it's really you, you are. It's kinda saying it twice, but then he front loads that sentence and puts you in the front of it because that's where the focus is. You. The focus is of that sentence, you. And then get this. It repeats. So if you look at verse 13 and 14, it says, "You are the salt. You are the light." Anytime scripture repeats, it's emphatic. Means there's an emphasis theological point there. And if you have a Bible today, you should circle you in both 13 and 14.
And here's what Jesus is saying in that scripture. He said, "Hey, disciples, gather around. Come on. I wanna tell you something. I am not talking about generalities. I am talking about you and the collective you. You are the salt. You are the light. No one else is. It is you, the people who follow me, Christ followers." He wasn't saying the Roman officials or the government officials. They're not the salt. They're not the light. They weren't then, they aren't today. They weren't the influencers of the day. They weren't the news media of the day. They weren't the in - the, the, the broadcasters and they weren't the loudest voices in the culture. There are people who followed Christ. People back then, people today. He is talking about us, family. And in March 2020, he was talking to me directly.
You see a theologian put it this way when he looked at Matthew 5:13, he said, "If you really had to get into it, it would read like this. You are the only salt of the earth. You are the only light of the earth. No one else, no one else except for a Christ follower." Now you might be saying, Mike, come on. I know Jesus is the light. We're not the light. Well, technically you're right. John 8:12 says, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. See, we as Christ followers are to reflect his light to a desperate world. We take the light that Christ is the true source of light. We reflect it and we shine it back to him. So let's recap here. Jesus is telling us what our job is to influence salt and light.
And he's also telling us who is to do it. The emphasis is you. The emphasis is me. And that's what hit me in March of 2020. But far too often, we can easily ignore our responsibility as Christians. We can let other people do it. Other people who don't follow Christ. It is easy to take a backseat and let others who don't follow Christ take the front seat. But Je - the, Jesus did not tell us that was our job. See, Jesus doesn't want our faith to be private. We don't need to bury our faith. Put it in the ground and wait for the master to return. That master's Jesus. Tim Barton of the president of wa- wall builders said this recently, "If godly people don't lead, the godless will." Family Jesus makes it clear who's to influence. It's us. It's Christ followers. Which leads us to our first point today.
You are the salt and light to influence others.
Salt changes what it touches, but it does no good if it's left on the table. Light changes what it enters, but no good if it's covered up. And the honest truth, guys, is Matthew 5:13. Ooh. Versus easy to read, tough to do, especially in the world that we live in today, which is point number two. You are called to engage, not retreat into this world. Now, John Adams, one of our founding fathers, I, I, I love this quote that's often credited to him. He says that facts are stubborn things. Facts are stubborn things. And sometimes facts reveal to us things that we don't wanna admit. And I love it when we see surveys from, from Gallup, from Pew Research and even from Lifeway Research where they just hold up a little mirror to us to let us look at what we're really thinking possibly. And so they did a survey of Protestant churches, about 2,100 of them recently.
And in that survey, it said this, that 30% of Protestant churchgoers believe this, that many people know, many people that know me are not aware that I'm a Christian. So 30% of Protestant church goers, people like us realize that, you know, I never, people don't really know I'm a Christian. Now you might say Mike, come on, 30%. That's not much. Well, sort of is if you think about it. But here's what's scary, family. Here's what's scary. Is that 10 years ago that number was 14% of churchgoers? Today it's 30%. In 10 years it has doubled. If the church, if you, if me are not salt and light, what's gona happen to that number in 10 years from now? Will it double again? I don't know. But the trends don't look good. 42% in that same survey said, "Spiritual matters typically don't come up when I'm talking to other believers." 42% of people don't really have faith conversations with other believers.
They tell a compelling story, but again, trending the opposite way, but facts are stubborn things. Michael Yusef, you may have heard of him. He's the local pastor here. He said about when he was looking at those statistics from Lifeway, he said, "These aren't statistics of unbelief. These are statistics of silent belief in the church today." And guys, this v- verse points to me. Hope it applies to you, but church, let this survey sink into you just for a moment, just for a moment. See, this is not a study of people who went away from the church who walked away and just got mad. This is a s - this is a stat of people who are in the church.
Silent belief doesn't change the world. Silent belief ignores Jesus Christ and what he told us to be. We're not silent spectators. So let's go back to verse number, uh, verse 13. "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "Now, I wanna be careful here with this verse. And I want you to hear me. This is not be - this does not mean, uh, believer's loss of salvation. It does not mean that. Go to Ephesians 1:13 and 14 to confirm it. This means a loss of usefulness in a Christian's life.
Church, this cannot be us today. I'll tell you this in March, it probably was me today. It was me. Now here's a, here's some good news with all this stuff. You say," Mike, are you gonna get to the good news? "Oh yeah, we're gonna get to it. And here it is. Get this. They, Lifeway did another survey that said 66% of the people who are in America, 66% of Americans say they are open to having a faith conversation with a friend. So nearly 70% of Americans, both in schools, both in colleges, both in the world are open to a faith conversation. But unfortunately, the report says also Americans are willing to discuss religions, uh, and faith, religion and faith, but most say they rarely have such conversations with their Christian friends.
Facts are stubborn things. When we forget to function assault in life, we sort of have this subtle and, and, and, and passive retreat away from the world. I did that in 2020. We, we, we tend to slowly drift away. And maybe you've skipped out in a conversation. Before I went into the ministry, I, I worked for about 20 years in the, in the, uh, business world. But before, uh, before ministry, I did that. And now that I'm into ministry, we can even slowly drift away if we're not intentional about it. Maybe you've avoided a topic at work. Maybe you've avoided a topic with your friends. Maybe you've avoided a topic with your family. You just didn't wanna rock the boat, but God placed you exactly where he wants you to be. That's your sphere of influence. You may not have a TikTok account, you may not have a YouTube channel, but God has given you a group to influence, sphere of influence.
But so many times it's easy to retreat, guys. I was doing that. Didn't wanna rock the boat. Now Jesus didn't say he didn't want his church to rock the boat. Jesus said, "No, it's gonna be okay." And he told Peter this in Matthew 16:18. "And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Ladies and gentlemen, nothing hold back the church. Sure, we're gonna go throgh persecution. I get it. But even Satan knows he can't stop it. And he is not gonna stop it until Jesus takes his bride home. A. W. Tozer said this, a scared world needs a fearless church. A scared world needs a fearless church. There's a psychological phenomena called the bystander effect. And you may have not heard of it, but you'll get it. It's very intuitive.
It says this, the more people around, the less responsibility a person feels. The more people around, the less responsibility a person feels, which means everyone assumes someone else is doing it. And it usually happens in large crowds. Makes sense, right?
Guys, we're a large church. Could happen to us. We just assumed someone else was taking care of it. When Matthew 5:13 looks right at you and says, no, no, no, no. It's you. It's the collective you. We could easily fall into the trap of thinking someone else is gonna do it, but that was not part of God's plan, was it? And this is where exactly just got real to me. This is when March 2020 got really real. Can I say really real? It got real down into my soul. And this verse looked at me and said, Mike, wake up. You see the pandemic hit in 2020. The world shut down. The world paused. It was a tough time. It was a tough time for this church. It's a tough time for a lot of churches. The world shut down, he paused. I started pausing. I started looking around me going, huh?
What's going on? Sure, I knew the pandemic was going on, but, but I didn't know about some of these social issues that were happening. See, I kind of removed myself from them focusing on the ministry when I forgot to focus on the world and what God called me to go and be the salt and light with. And I was busy. I was hoping to support my family. And you know what? That's okay. You need to do that. But what we can't do is say I don't wanna draw attention to myself because we're not supposed to. We're supposed to draw attention to who Christ is. And the truth is these issues out there are complex. I just wanted to get home, shut my garage and just do something other than engage into a dark world. But Matthew 5:13 again stared me down.
See, I wasn't avoiding the world. What I was doing was avoiding what Christ told me to be, which was salt and delight, to a world that desperately needed to know him. So I started diving in. I started studying everything I could because I, I could, because I didn't wanna be this way. I truly didn't wanna be this way. I started reading. I started asking people, said, "Hey, do you know anything about this? " And some would. And guys, what I found scared me. Actually, it kinda shocked me. And you might see some of these stats that I talk about today and go, "Mike, I kinda knew about that. Good for you. I didn't." And I knew there were problems. I just didn't know the extent of what those problems were. See, I found out that we live in a culture that celebrates death. Live in a culture that almost over a million abortions occur every year, even more worldwide.
We live in a culture that there's 13 states in the US that allow physician-assisted suicide or medical assistance in dying. I don't care how you name it. It's still not value in life. And then euthanasia pops up. And if you don't know what euthanasia is, go look it up this afternoon after the service. But look no further than Canada.
Look no further than other parts of the world because euthanasia, we have a culture that celebrates death as opposed to celebrate life. And guys, one of those may have impacted you. And I just wanna tell you this. I feel led to say it, that if you're dealing with one of these issues, know that there's forgiveness at the cross. Amen. Do not let sin hold you back from being salt and light because once you ask forgiveness, you have a peace. And God throws it as far as the east is from the west, which is meaning it is forgotten. But you do have to come to him. Guys, I also figured out that Christian martyrdom was still going on. Now, I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church as a bad baby, made decision for Christ at 13. But here's the deal. I though Christians were being murdered way back when during the Roman times.
And they were. They absolutely were. But it still occurs today. According to open doors last year, almost five, almost 5,000 people were martyred for their faith. That was last year. The numbers will probably be the same this year as well. Most of them that are occurring are occurring in Nigeria with about 3,500 of those numbers being from Nigeria. Christians being martyred. Where is the church? Where's Mike? Then I started figuring out, I said, "Hey guys, let me just look at the, the research on voting and see if, if Christians are voting. Guess what I found? We're not. According to Barna, 56% of born again evangelicals are voting. The rest are not. And the number continues to go down and down. Birth rates continue to go down.
There's a whole host of implications when it comes to birth rates. By the way, I love the fact that we have a vibrant children's ministry here. Show me the future of your church. Just walk back into the kids' ministry. By the way, next time you see a mom holding the baby or dad holding a baby, give him a high five. We are supposed to be fruitful and multiply, but sometimes we don't talk about it as like birth rates go down. We are just ignoring what's happening throughout the world. So many issues I had grown aware, unaware of, so many issues happened. Those are just a few of them, guys, but I didn't figure out. I knew what was happening. I just didn't know the extent of what's happening. And here's what I would do. I would, I would, I would start to get mad at this.
I'd go up to friends and say, "Hey, hey, John, have you heard of this? " Or, or like if you, anyone I could find out would say that. In fact, people started kind of ducking around corners when they saw me coming. Just here he comes again. He's gonna talk about current events and having a biblical worldview from them. But guys, I was getting mad. I was getting mad that people didn't tell me what was happening. I was getting mad that the news media wasn't telling me. I was getting mad that the church wasn't telling me. But here's what I want you to hear. I couldn't get mad at the world. The world would just be in the world. Come on. Couldn't get mad at others because you see when I looked at Matthew 13, it had this pesky little pronoun that said you. That's you both collectively and also individually.
And it pointed right back to me and it said, "Mike, when, what are you doing? Are you being the salt? Are you being the light?" And see, I had quietly taken myself out of the world, but these verses reminded me, no, no, no, no, no. Mike, you gotta get in there. It's gonna be tough. I gotcha. Don't worry about that. You've got to be the salt and light.
And see, we are supposed to go out there and make Christ's name known and reflect his love. So many people in this dark world need to have some type of solution. And they're looking for one, almost 70% are. We have the answer for that. You know, they say in polite company, there's two things you shouldn't talk about. Religion and politics. Now, here's the deal with that. I, and I started thinking back in March. All right, so let me see this. If Moses went up to Pharaoh and said, "Hey, buddy, I don't do politics. Can't talk to you today. Sorry." No, that's not what happened. What if Paul, what if Paul came up and said, "Hey, listen, Rome, I'm coming to you. I wanna get there, but get this. We're not gonna talk about religion." He didn't say it. "How if Joseph said that? How about if Esther said that?
How about if we said that? Not by what we say, but our actions. When churches stop doing what we're called to do, the world hurts and family. The world is hurting, looking for a savior. David Jeremiah said this, he, and he's a pastor out on the West Coast. He says, Church buildings are places where God's people meet to be encouraged and equipped and to be ready to go out and serve him. But the real church is not here, meaning the church building. The real church out there out in the world. So I got moved, guys. I collected all this information. I got moved in a big way and I started tracking current events. I started letting people know about them. I started praying specifically and boldly. And, and, and I didn't get mad at the world. I didn't get mad at the news. I started praying for the news.
You know, they say prime time is between 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM Monday through Friday. It's prime time news cycle. And what that means is most eyeballs are watching the news between eight and 11. Wouldn't it be great if that's when every evangelical person got on their knees and prayed for what was happening in the news? It would be prime time prayer. And that's the world I wanna live in. So I got involved with the issues. I, I did, I never thought I'd be meeting with certain people that I met with. I, I, I started teaching others of how to handle things through, through a biblical worldview. I started getting into patients' rights. I started getting into everything I possibly could, but God would put some certain things on my heart. And he's probably talking to each of you right now saying, "Hey, there's something that you need to do to be salt and light." And if he is, listen to that voice.
But I was not gonna allow what happened to me happen to anybody else that I came in contact with. But here's a, here's a real interesting thing, guys. I wasn't alone and this is what motivated me. As I started talking to people, I started finding some things out. And, and I started finding out that people are already being salt and light in the church. People are showing up at school board meetings. People are showing up at city council meetings. People are showing up in different meetings all throughout the Cobb County and Paulding areas. I found that people are volunteering and some working at, at crisis pregnancy centers. I found out that people were urging Christians to vote, vote, vote. Guys, there's no excuse for us not voting. There is no excuse for us not voting as Christ followers. But I also found out that people were praying for principals, school teachers, and they were actively doing that.
And there's an example, there's two examples I wanna give you that I did get permission for them to share me these stories, share these stories with you. One was that, uh, someone was getting appliance fixed and the repairman came in and it's such a beautiful story because repairman came in and he kinda went late in the day and he got up to dinner time and they felt the Holy Spirit leading them to say, "Hey, would you stay for dinner?" And I started thinking about that. When's the last time I asked someone to stay for dinner? Well, they did. And what ensued was a miraculous thing. What ensued was there's a lot of church hurt with this person.
There's a ton of church hurt with this person, but they're able to point them back to a church connection that was just a remarkable thing. And see, they were salt and light as they built up the church and said, "No, get back into the word. Don't let man get in the way of God. God is God." And we joined together to worship him together. They also had a wonderful time of prayer over this person. So that's salt and light. There's another story of a man who just started coming to our church. It's a couple, but specifically the man. Someone called him and said, "Hey, listen, there's someone who's having trouble in life. Would you talk to him?" He's living his salt and life because someone knew that, hey, he's a Christ follower. So they pointed him to a Christ follower. So he connected with them.
And he asked, "Where should I meet? Where should I meet this guy?" Guess where he met him? Here. At Bern Hickory in our lobby that's open between 6:30 AM and 10:00 PM every day of the week. When he met him here, he found out what his story was. His story was a tough one. This happened two weeks ago, by the way. It was a tough one. But due to being salt and the light and, and sticking to the mission of what we're supposed to be, we have another believer in the kingdom of heaven because he accepted Christ right outside that lobby because someone said, "I wanna be salt. I wanna be light and I wanna be available." You can clap with it. That's a good one. Another person in the faith. I'm so thankful for that. By the way, I'm thankful for our facilities team here that allow our building to be open from 6:30 to 100 every day.
Uh, they allow that to happen so that we can be a beacon of hope for the cob and Paulding County. But church here by heart, we can't blame others. That pronoun of you is you and me. It's us collectively. Pastor and theologian John Stott said, "Instead of blaming the world for its corruption, we should ask where the salt is. Instead of condemning the darkness, we should ask where the light is. Stouters remind us our job is to influence the world. But more importantly, Jesus in 5:13 is saying, you are the salt. You are the light. We can't ignore the world." John 17 says this, "I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Our third point today, we are We're in the world.
We're just not of it. Guys, Satan wants to distract us. He wants to make us feel miserable. He wants to remind us of a sin so we can become less impactful. When he reminds you of your sin, you remind him of his future and you remind of what Christ did on the cross.
Guys, sometimes in the Christian walk, we forget who wins. Sometimes in the Christian walk, we're trying to fight for victory, but we already fight, we're fighting from victory because Christ defeated the grave. He rose and we have ultimate victory because of what Christ did for us. But sometimes we forget about that. John 16:33 level sets me. He says this, "I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace." We need a little peace, don't we? In the world, you will have tribulation. That's the truth. I'll preach. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to stop living in defeat and live in victory. And I know it's easy. I know we wanna run from it. I know sometimes we wanna turn the channel. But guys, we can endure the now because we know the future.
And the future is one of victory. The future is, is one that we see in Genesis with our serpent's head is crushed. And we see in Revelation 20 where Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus wins and sometimes we need to be reminded that we need to act like it. Amen. And Matthew told me that I need to act like it. We can be bold because we know the future. Romans 8:31 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Point number four, even though the battle is tough, the victory is settled. So you might be here today and say, "Mike, what do I do? " I mean, I, I love what you're saying and I feel like God's working on my heart and I'm gonna give you a, just a little helpful diagram here to show you what I'm talking about.
And it, believe it or not, it spells salt. Can you believe that? And the first step is that seek God's advice, not your own feelings. Now God gives us feelings in our heart, but take it before the Lord. Ask God for advice. Pray to him. He relax wisdom. Ask He gives it generously. Then ask others for advice. Now I'm gona say this, others are Christ followers. People who know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Ask them for advice. Maybe it's someone in your life group, maybe it's someone here in the church, maybe it's someone on staff. We would love to connect with you because there's so many great opportunities to be salt and light and so many of you are being the salt and light in schools and college universities as well as the world. I'm so thankful for that. L, look for ways to serve.
We have plenty of ways to serve here at Burn Hickory. And we wanna get your spiritual gifts connected to your gifting so when you serve, you're connected to that gifting. And it's a powerful thing when that happens. I love our serve ministry here that we have to connect people. So look for ways to serve. And then T, take one step forward. Just one. All you do is take one step and I've got an idea for you. We have a prayer walk coming up August 1st. The QR codes will be up there in just a moment, but the QR codes all around campus we would love for you to be here on Saturday morning, August 1st to be salt and light. And what we're gona do is we've been given schools to go pray for. And wouldn't it be great as we go out there and pray for our dear administrators and teachers and support staff and students that we go out there and they say, "Man, Bernhicker has given these schools and whoa, they brought a lot of people to it.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are called to be salt and light. Sign up for that if you can. I'll see you here if you're here. But as we move forward today in closing, I wanna ask you, how are you gonna move forward? Scripture gives us two examples, one from Jonah, one from Paul. Both men were called by God to do a certain thing. Jonah was called to do something and he, he got his, his calling of what to do. And he said," I'm not going to Nineveh. I'm gonna go to Tarsus. "And so he went the opposite way of what God told him to do. God sent a whale to take him out actually to bring him back to Nineveh. And then vomit him out on the shore where he then gave the shortest sermon that we have in scripture today. But the people repentant. But God, but Jonah wanted God's vengeance on the people that he didn't like.
Sometimes I can be that way.
But I'd rather be this way. I'd rather be like Paul. See, Paul was pers - not this part of it. Paul was persecuting Christians, but then God blinded him with the light and then he said," Paul, why are you persecuting me? "And Paul did this and this is what we all should aspire to. Paul said," I'm gonna run to it. I don't care what happens to me. I don't care if you beat me. I don't care if you shipwreck me. I don't care if you throw me into prison. In fact, if you do, I'll write most of the New Testament for you. Whatever you wanna do, do it. Because I know my mission is to let people know that Jesus is real and we need to make his name known. That's who I want to exemplify in my daily walk. So I'm gonna ask you today, Matthew 5:13 convicted me and moved me.
Does it move you? Are you running toward your calling to be salt and light? Are you running away? There's no middle ground. Running toward or running away. You're the one or the other. Ladies and gentlemen, God told us it's you. It's me. It's the church. We are to be salt and light to a world that needs to know his name, Jesus Christ. Would you pray with the people?