Good morning. My name is Kim Sinangelo, and I'll be reading God's word. Please follow along with me. There's bibles you can find under the chairs and the racks in front of you. I'll be reading Matthew 5-11-16. This located on page 958. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who are before you. You are the south of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salt again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on the hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it in its stand and it gives light to everywhere in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Kim. Let's pray. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we thank you that you are the perfect God. And we are in perfect people. We come to you broken and scarred and I pray that we will lift up our hearts, be amazed and be changed by you, the perfect God. I pray that whatever we're feeling, whatever we're going through, that we will lift up our hearts to you and that you will comfort us and that you will in live in us today so that we may glorify you with what we say and with what we do. And Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and be pleasing to your sight in Jesus' name. What is your New Year's resolution? By a show of hands, how many of you were able to keep every single one of your resolutions last year? Anybody? Well, we have one over there too. I'm impressed that two of you kept it. Obviously, the reason I asked this question is most of the time we get excited about resolutions and then it ends up quickly fading and we lose interest. For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that I'm a goal setter and you know that I'm almost borderline OCD when it comes to setting goals. In fact, guess how many goals I set for myself last year? 51. Now, how many do you actually think I kept? Anybody can guess? 2. Okay, anybody else? 5. About 5. Yes, pretty weak. But the reason why I only kept about 5 was because I lost interest as time went on or I set way too many high and unattainable goals. Well, this morning, instead of talking about our New Year's resolutions, I would prefer to talk about what God calls each and every one of us as Christians to do. And the message this morning is simple. It's this that God calls each and every one of us to impact our culture and to promote His Kingdom. We impact our culture by being the soul of the earth and we promote His Kingdom by being the light of the world. And it's my hope that every single one of us will leave here today being reminded that your life matters and that your work matters. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is talking to His closest followers called the disciples. And Jesus gives them eight be attitudes, practical suggestions on how they were to live their lives. From verse 1 through 8, we see that. And then as it goes into the whole persecution idea from verse 11 and 12, Jesus kind of shifts gears and He tells His disciples that blessed are they, who are persecuted for my name's sake, and great is their reward in heaven. And right after He talks about persecution, He then calls His disciples the soul of the earth and the light of the world. Now, why did Jesus all of a sudden shift gears so quickly, moving from talking about persecution to talking about salt and light of the world? He did that because He wanted to explain to His disciples that even though they may seem insignificant to the world, even though they may be persecuted and ridiculed by the world, they are the ones who are the salt of the earth. They are the ones who bring about hope to the world. Let me stop here for a second and tell you this. God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. We see this play out time and time and time again. As you read the Bible, you see average people who do incredible things. You've probably seen it in your own life a few times. But whatever you're feeling right now, if you're feeling inadequate, if you're feeling insignificant, be prepared because when you're weak, he is strong. In 1 Corinthians 1, we read that God uses the foolishness of the world to shame the wise and He uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And in our weakness, He is strong. And He can use us when we are weak. As we talk about salt of the earth, Jesus calls us that and He wants us to know that we matter. And when I think about salt, there are a number of things that comes to mind. The first thing when we talk about salt is that it creates thirst. For those of you in here who have been to McDonald's and you've eaten McDonald's French fries, you know what I'm talking about. After you eat a bunch of fries, what happens? You get dehydrated and you go for a coke or a water to quench that thirst. Well, just like McDonald's French fries quenches our thirst, so we are to quench the thirst of non-Christians, our non-Christian friends. They are to be thirsty because right now all of our non-Christian friends are dehydrated and they're in danger because if they die today, they will not go to heaven. And so as salt of the earth, we're called to impact those around us and to be salt to them by creating thirst, giving them excitement about what we believe in. The second thing that salt does is that it not only creates thirst, but it also stings. And all of you have been to the beach, we're in Central Florida. And so when you go to the beach, what happens when you swallow the salt water? It stings, doesn't it? And the singer or speaker knows that salt stings and just like salt stings, so we are to sting the evil around us. That's an analogy there about salt. The third thing that salt does is that it adds flavor. Anytime you eat French fries or hamburgers, you always add salt to it, normally. I was eating cheese it yesterday, it had salt on it, it added flavor to it. Someone once said that Christians have no sense in being boring. And I think you ever said that is exactly right. We should add flavor and excitement to the world and to those that we come into contact with. People should want to be around us. I can't help but think about the quarterback for the Denver Broncos and many of you know who that is, Tim Tebow. In fact, I know many Florida fans here and many Tim Tebow fans. I don't blame you for being Tim Tebow fans. I do blame you for being Florida fans. No, but Tim Tebow is adding flavor to the game, isn't he? He puts in 110% on the field by being so competitive. And he also puts it off the field as well. He even does this thing called tebowing where he gets down like this and he's praying. He's not just doing that for glamour, he's actually praying because he's giving credit to the Lord. He's not taking credit for himself when he wins football games. He's giving credit to whom credit is due. And he's spicing things up, isn't he? So many commentators and spectators and people are ridiculing him and criticizing him because they're saying, oh, he's too pushy with his faith. Tim Tebow rarely, I mean, he talks about it, but his actions display it, don't they? Because he loves his teammates, he loves those he comes into contact with. He's adding excitement to the game and people are drawn to that. So even though they may not like them, they respect them. We need to add that kind of excitement to the world as Christians. People need to be thrilled to be in our presence. They need to want to be around us because we shouldn't be boring or dull instead we should add flavour to life. The fourth thing that I think of that salt does is that it serves as a preservative. And this is the main point that Jesus wants to emphasise here. Because in a world without refrigerators, salt was used to preserve meat. And just as salt preserves meat, so we are to preserve what has been given to us. We are to combat corruption and decay so that the world will not continue to spoil and descend. That's what Christians are called to do as to serve as a preservative. And if you look at history and you see what Christians have done, it's profound. Christians have helped abolish slavery, think of William Wilberforce. They have helped give women a voice. They have adopted thousands upon thousands of orphans and those who are mentally handicapped are retarded. They have built and established universities and they have built and established hospitals. The list goes on and on and on. But Christians have made a significant difference in their world throughout history and they are today. And we see this concept being played out ever since the beginning. If you read the book of Genesis, we know that before the world was created, it was empty and formless. In other words, it had no shape or structure to it and it had no inhabitants to it as well. But we know in Genesis 1 and 2 that God created the heavens and the earth and he brought about shape and structure by creating the lands and the seas. And then he created animals and humans to inhabit and cultivate the land. And after he created men and women, he gave us all a responsibility and it's what I call the cultural mandate. And the cultural mandate is found in Genesis 1 verse 28. And God says this, to be fruitful and increase in number, to fill the earth and subdue it, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. In the cultural mandate, God tells us to do two things. He tells us to multiply and he tells us to have a dominion over the earth. Now when I say to multiply, I don't mean that we are just called to have a bunch of babies and populate the earth. Okay, that's part of it but there's so much more to it than that. To multiply and to bear fruit means so much more and in fact Nancy Piercy in her book Total Truth says it this way. She says to be fruitful and to multiply means to develop the social world, to build families, churches, schools, cities, governments and laws. So ever since the beginning God has called us to be salt of the earth, he instructs us to do these things. He wants us to create civilizations and nothing less. Not only does God tell us to multiply but he also tells us to have dominion over the earth. And Piercy says that dominion over the earth means to harness the natural world, to plant crops, to build bridges, to design computers or even to compose music. As Christians, what we do while we're here on this earth, it matters. It has significance. So whether you're an engineer, a computer scientist, a teacher, an administrative assistant, a mother, a father, a student or even a janitor, your work matters. It plays a big part in the larger story of life. You are serving a creator God by being creative with your talents and with your gifts. This reminds me of an example by a guy named Doug Sherman. Doug Sherman wrote the book, Your Work Matters to God. And he talks about one of his friends who owns a pallet company. And when you think about pallets, there's not a whole lot to think about, is there? It's just a wooden structure where you place boxes on and they're transported by truck and then delivered to grocery stores. There's not a whole lot to it. And so Doug Sherman was saying, I was wondering why my friend would want to go to work every single day by just manufacturing and selling pallets. What was his purpose? But Sherman said, as I began to really ponder and think about it, I realized that pallets end up serving food or putting food on my table every single day. This is what he says in his book, Your Work Matters to God. Think about all that's involved in putting breakfast on the table. All the workers with their special tasks and God-given skills. First you have the farmers who raise the cows, they grow the wheat, and tend the citrus trees. Then you have the scientists to ensure the purity of these different foods. And you have the farm laborers and those truck drivers. Then add the people who manufacture trucks and farm equipment. The people who build and maintain the highway system and the truck stop workers who feed the drivers. Finally, the product arrives in the stock clerks at the grocery store, bring the food items to the shelves. The cashews ring up the sale, and the baggers place the groceries and containers and the cart. Oh, and by the way, where are my friends' pallets in all of this? Well, they're underneath the boxes of citrus, underneath the cereal boxes, and underneath the dairy products. So my friend is integrally involved in making my world a better place because this food ends up on my table for us to eat. What Sherman is saying here is incredible because he's saying, look at all the people who are just going to work every day that are serving my family. He says, look at my friend who is manufacturing pallets and how that ultimately serves my family. You see, his friend got up and went to work every single day. He was faithful. And because of that, he was considered, he's considered to be the soul of the earth. He is impacting the culture around him. So my question to all of you here is this. What are you specifically doing today or even this week that will impact culture? Jesus goes on to say that if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. What Jesus is saying here is that if you continue to live in sin and you're not obeying God and following him, you will lose your effectiveness. You won't lose your salvation but you will lose your effectiveness as being salt of the earth. In some ways salt cannot really lose its saltiness but when there's contamination, it will lose its effectiveness. And so when we are contaminated by the evil desires of the world, we will lose our value. We will lose our significance in the world. That's essentially what Jesus is saying here. I would encourage all of us to repent of our sins daily and to trust in Christ. In his weekly email to us this week, Mike was telling us instead of focusing on resolutions, we should be focusing on repentance and being a people of repentance where we have a heartfelt sorrow for sin and the ability to turn away from it and give it to Jesus. So whatever is our idols that we're putting in the place of God, let's ask the Lord to remove those from our lives and draw our attention and focus on Him so that we can combat evil. Salt has a negative function and it acts secretly. It has more of an indirect influence on others around us. But light on the other hand is open. It acts openly and it has more direct influence on others. Not only does God call us to impact our culture, but my next point states that He also calls us to promote His kingdom. In verses 14 and 15, Jesus says that you are the light of the world as city 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. As I talk about us being the light of the world, before we even talk about ourselves, we have to talk about who we get this light from because every single light derives from a source. And so our source is Jesus Christ. In John 8 verse 12, Jesus says that I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Christ is saying here that I am the true and original light and I will give you light and life. We know that any time you turn on a light bulb, the only way it will work is if it is attached to an electrical source. The same goes for light when it is with a candle burning on a candle wax or in an oil lamp. If there is no oil, then the lamp will burn out. If there is no wax, then the light will dim away. The same is true for our lives. If we don't spend time with communion and with the Lord and if we don't focus on Him, then we will lose that light. It will be hidden. We all here have a fallen condition that we talk about every week here and that fallen condition is sin. We always look to things other than God. And it is so easy for us instead of praying to the Lord and asking for His advice to just go through life without praying and just figuring things out on our own. And as a result, it ends up taking us down a slippery slope. We also, instead of looking at the Bible for answers, we read the newspaper or we look at other materials instead of Scripture to give us answers. We even isolate ourselves at times where we don't get involved with community and have others hold us accountable. And as a result, it ends up affecting us. Jesus wants us to spend time in communion with Him. And He even gives us a gospel mandate in Matthew chapter 10, verse 32 and 33. He says this, whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge Him before my father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown Him before my father in heaven. This gospel mandate is clear. He's saying, if you acknowledge me before men, if you're spreading forth your light, I will acknowledge you. But He's saying, if you don't acknowledge me, I can't acknowledge you. So if you're here today and you have never put your trust in Jesus Christ, as we read earlier in John 14, he is the only way the truth in the life and no one comes to the father except through him. He is the only way to heaven. So I urge you, I challenge you to repent of your sins and to trust in Jesus as your Lord and your hope. At the end of the service, we'll have elders doing communion and you'll be able to see who our elders are. Go talk to one of the elders if you have questions about the faith or if you need someone to pray with you. We'll even have prayer partners on the side of the room too to pray with you. Take advantage of that if you have questions about Christianity. But I know most of us in here are children of the Lord. And because we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are light possessors that be end up being light transmitters. In Acts 1 verse 1, Luke is writing to his friend Theophilus and he says this to his friend. He says, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and began to teach. Jesus walked the walk and he talked the talk. Our non-Christian friends and family members will never know about Jesus if we don't talk to them. Now granted they'll see our actions and that's important and I'm a big proponent of killing others with kindness and by using few words and just love on them. But how will our friends know about Jesus if they aren't told about him? We've got to give them the word. As I was studying this text this week, I felt extremely convicted. I felt convicted because I went on Facebook this year and I looked at all of my Orlando friends and I tried to discover how many non-Christian friends do I have in this city alone? And guess how many I have? There's about seven. I could only count the number on two hands. Folks, this is not good. How can I be light when I'm not around darkness? And so what I decided to do is get involved in the community and I wanted to get involved in something that interest me. And so I got involved with the local or a Toastmasters Club. And Toastmasters for those of you who don't know, it helps you work on your public speaking and improves your delivery. It helps you with your eyes and your ums that so often we do. It's been extremely helpful but the most important thing is that I've been able to meet Christians and non-Christians in this club, who I consider friends. I also am extremely interested in politics. And so I got involved with a local political club and the same story there. I've met some Christians and non-Christians alike who I consider friends. Now unfortunately, I'm not here to tell you that because of this, people have become Christians. I wish I could say that. But you know what? It's not really my job to change people's hearts, is it? That's the Holy Spirit's job. But my job and your job is to be faithful to what has been given to us, is to tell others about Jesus, is to initiate relationships with people that don't know Jesus. That's all we're called to do. Let Jesus and the Holy Spirit do the rest. We just have to be faithful to what we've been entrusted with. Let me ask you this question. Who can you share your faith with this year? I'll give you a practical suggestion that you can do. And I did it in seminary and it was extremely helpful and it was very challenging. What I encourage you to do is get a sheet of paper and write down four different categories of people that you know. Category 1 would be your family members. Category 2 would be your friends. Category 3 would be your neighbors and Category 4 would be your co-workers or if you don't work and you serve in a volunteer organization, the volunteer representatives. And what I want you to do is write down under each category a list of all the non-Christian friends that you have and start praying for them. Start asking God that He will give you a divine appointment so that when the time is right, you'll be able to share your faith. I became a Christian at the age of five when I was really young. So I've been a Christian now for quite some time and I've been doing ministry for a little while now. And I've realized that there are several ways you can share your faith, several ways. But to me, the most effective way is to build relationships with non-Christians. And then when the time is right, you can share your faith. You earn their trust. You build their respect. And then when they go through something tragic or a crisis or when they just have questions about life, they know who to go to. And you're ready to talk to them. It's so much better than just pounding the Bible in somebody's face. Just love on your friends, your family members, your neighbors. And when you do that, they're going to see a difference in your life and they're going to want to know what you have. And they're going to ask you about it. But so often when crisis happens, people are asking the tough questions in life. Why did my spouse leave me? Why did I lose my job? Why did I lose a loved one? And when they ask those questions, you give them the answer. And you even may say, I don't know the answer, but I do have the answer. And the answer is Jesus Christ. He's the only one who will satisfy your every need, your every longing. He is the only one who will give you fulfillment. As light of the world, we're called to radiate Jesus. And how cool would it be if people saw our faces and they knew we were different? How incredible would it be if all people had to do is look at our face and they see a smile. And they know there's something different about this dude. I think of two people in history that come to mind that radiated Jesus just by the look of their faces. There's a guy named Francis Finnellan. He was a French pilotist. And they said after he had communion with God, after he had a quiet time with the Lord and had devotions, he always had this glare about him, that people knew there was something different about him. He even had a religious skeptic who spent the night over at his house one night and he said, I can't spend another night with Francis because I'm going to become a Christian myself. And then we know from scripture in the book of Acts, there's a guy by the name of Stephen. Stephen impacted the culture around him by helping widows. He fed widows. He also did miraculous wonders, it said. So he was a solid of the earth in that way. But Stephen was also the light of the world because he shared his faith to a bunch of religious leaders at the Sanhedrin. And if you look at Acts chapter 6, verse 8, you see this incredible story of Stephen's life. And you see the significance that he made. And the verse that really stood out to me was Acts chapter 6, verse 15. It says that all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin, they looked intently at Stephen and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. How incredible is that? People looked at his face and they knew there is something different about this man. What is it? He radiated Jesus. Have you ever known anybody that had that look about him? Where all it took was you saw it on their face and you knew. How awesome would it be if people just looked at us and knew we were different? My family, we are called to impact our culture and promote his kingdom. And as we approach the Lord's supper, this table together, let's pray that we will be reminded of what Jesus has done for us, what he is doing for us and what he will do for us. And let us ask for the Holy Spirit to stir in us a passion to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you how you sent your one and only son to live the life that we should have lived and die the death that we deserve to die. You did this because you love us. You ultimately love us and you tell us in John that greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends. And that Jesus is the most incredible gift that anybody could ever receive. It's grace and we preach grace every single week here that we are far more sinful than we ever imagined but yet we are far more loved than we ever dare to dream. Then we thank you that you love us and that you care for us every day. As we approach your table now, Holy Spirit, stir in our hearts, belonging to be with you, belonging to impact our culture and promote your kingdom. May we be salt of the earth and light of the world in Jesus' name. Amen.