 You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You're the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill, cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. You know, as thinking about our lives, thinking about our society, thinking about the chaos in this, in our world, and the stuff happening in Israel and all, and things happening here, and our students starting school, and the things that you and I face, and our jobs, and worrying about a drought right now, and worrying about paying bills, and all these things, and how easy it is for us to get consumed with worry, and doubt, and fears, and everything else. When the Lord says, listen, if you just focus on me, and remember who you are, remember who you are because of who I am. And if we are to simply remind ourselves of these things, see following Christ goes far beyond a private spirituality. It involves a believer's public life. So he says that you are the salt of the earth. See, at that time Christ's salt was a preservative. It would kill bacteria and delay spoilage. For us, as Christians, we should have a preserving type of influence. See, in society is wherever Christianity is gone. It has been the preserving influence in that society. Wherever there's a strong Christian emphasis, and a strong Christian voice, that society has been, and is being preserved and maintained. Where the Christian voice has begun to diminish, that society has begun to deteriorate, and ultimately it gets destroyed. Well, like salt believers there to be a preserving influence, it's to slow the decay. We need to ask ourselves as Christians, have we lost our flavor and our effectiveness? You know, even last night, one of the things I was sharing with the students, and I share this all the time with our students, I ask them, how many of you have grown up in the church, and many of them have, and honestly, because I didn't, it's one of my fears. Fears in the sense that, because for some of them who are maybe homeschooled and different things, they live at church practically. Their lives are all about church. They go to school here, they go to, they're here, you serve here, so they're here all the time with you. And what happens is that church and Jesus, and it's a routine. It's not always fresh, it's not always passionate, it's not always, right? And that's my fear, because I want them to know how God can move in such a powerful way. Not just simply go through motions like, I go to church, because we go to church, because we're at church, because that's what we do. And honestly, that's what happens for some. And what, the other thing is, some of them, they want to know what a testimony is. And they don't realize that you have done your best to protect them, and they feel like they missed out. Because the world convinces them that they missed out. And so what happens? Well, a lot of times we as Christians, we lose our effectiveness, we lose that saltiness, that preserving factor. See, Jesus is saying to his disciples, you are the preserving influence in the world in which you live. I just had a conversation with one of our students, and I said, listen, I know that it must frustrate you at times when your parents seem overprotective, but listen, I pray that you would understand and be grateful for that. Because you're being saved from being in this drunken stupor, you're just being saved from STDs, you're being saved from things that the world says doesn't talk about, they just say go play and have fun. They don't talk about the hangovers, they don't talk about the STDs, and sex outside of marriage could lead to babies and other things, and how you're going to provide, and all this other, they don't talk about this. They'll just talk about the party life, and how fun, and don't miss out. And well, the Bible tells us that there's a war going on between good and evil, between spirits of warfare. And if there's a war, that means that that stuff is appealing, right? I mean, if it wasn't, then there wouldn't be any fight, right? Be just like, why would I want that? Because we say that, right? I just want Jesus. And yet the enemy comes in and just wants to distract us, and wants to draw us back to the worldly things. Salt is also used to add flavor. Pure salt cannot lose its flavor or its effectiveness, but the salt that is common in the Dead Sea area is contaminated with gypsum and other minerals and may have a flat taste or be ineffective as a preservative. See, we as Christians add to life and flavor. We should bring the flavor to people's life to make every experience taste better because of our presence. Can you imagine this little girl? Well, she was little, but she was 17. Soon she's going to leave this girl's home and have nowhere to go. But she says, at 17 years old, she tells Danielle, I have to tell you something. And she says, you have your presence just coming here. It's the best day of my life. Can you imagine that? I can't. I can't imagine that. I think, you know, I got to travel. I've been to Hawaii, been here and there like, oh, I've had so great experience. This little girl is saying the best day of my life is you guys coming from California to share Jesus with me. Amen. Do we have this in our lives with our coworkers, our friends, our family? See, salt creates thirst. As a result of the earth, we should be making those around us thirsty for the living water. People should say, there's something about you that creates in me a thirst for what you're enjoying. Do they? The people around us? One of the things that bums me out is like, Christian, or Christians. I love Jesus. Oh, God's good. I'm like, God's great. Why are you so happy? Because Jesus loves me. He's so incredible. But your life is in turmoil. I know, but peace be still. Yes, listen, my God is in control. Yeah, my life is in a, it tops each other. It's not good. But I have Jesus. And I know that I'm going to make it through this thing. And that's my comfort and my strength. And I surround myself with godly people who love me, pray for me, tell me straight up. When I'm wrong, tell me straight up. When I'm right, love on me, pray for me, hug me, whatever, cry with me, laugh with me. And I live my life with other believers. And so there's this thing where it goes, does it hurt? Of course it hurts. Just last night, my close friend, who, I was her youth pastor in Palm Springs before I was here. First baby, 19 weeks, she, her water breaks and she has to deliver this baby. And, and baby Lucy went home to be with the Lord last night. And I cry with her. And we cry and my wife and I, we pray with her. And then with others, we get to rejoice and we get to laugh. Our other times I've been with my friend Brittany and we pray and we laugh and enjoy. Well, you know what she did? I haven't lived in Palm Springs in over 15 years. Who's the first people she called my wife and I pray for us. Why? She knows we will. She knows we love her. That's it. Isn't it? We live life together. And we should have this not only with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but we should have this with our coworkers and everything. They would thirst for something more that they would see our lives and going, what is it? What is it in you? Why are you always happy? And for half of us, we say if you only knew, right? But amen that they're seeing you make it through that storm. Hey, Jesus said, I'm going to get you to the other side. Yeah, the storms all around you. Yeah, it seems like we're going to sink, but you're not going to. Why? Jesus said to go to the other side. And we don't forget those things. John 7 38, he who believes in me as a scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. See, Jesus's followers would be like salt and that they would create a thirst for greater. So it prevents infections from setting in. Christians are to have an antiseptic effect on the open source of the world. Second Chronicles 7 14 of my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sins and heal their land. The church more than ever. We need to run to Jesus. We need to be united. Not run from God and not run and we get so consumed with other people and other people's lives and their sin and their problems and so fed up with the church and people. Maybe we take our eyes off a man and put our eyes back on Jesus. And it may he be glorified. Why? Ephesians 6 verse 12. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up your whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day having done all to stand. We need to get our armor on. We need to be ready for battle. And if you read it, we don't have time, but when we talk about the battle, there is nothing to protect our backs, right? Cover your front and stand there. Don't go looking for a battle. You know, it's interesting. I've been in churches where, you know, pastor getting all sweaty and got his handkerchief out. Dev, I'm coming after you, devil. Dev, come on now, devil. I'm coming after you and I'm like, you better be careful because the devil is going to get you. Listen, I've learned don't go looking for a fight because it's going to come anyway. Bible says stand there. Stand there armed and ready. Guard your heart. Guard your mind. That belt on your feet ready, your shield up your sword out and stand there and be ready because the enemy wants to destroy us, wants to destroy those youth. Once I say, yeah, God did that, but listen, I'm going to distract you with school and work and other things and relationships. He's one of the hardest things is coming home from something so great and so mighty to people who didn't do that. And they're like, yeah, that was great for you, but can you clean the room? Like, yeah, like we didn't go like life still went on here. And that happens. And it just all of a sudden all of their experiences gets deflated sometime. And we got to be excited going, wait, let's keep these students pumped up. Let's keep them excited about the things of the Lord. Remember their second Corinthians 10 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Remember who's on our side when the salt became old and unusable. They were throw it out on the pathways. They were trampled it and the sodium chloride will kill all the unwanted vegetation. See, they use it to kill this vegetation on the pathways. This rotten, this salt that was good for nothing that was thrown out. Charles Spurgeon said this, but if they Christians only in name and the real power is gone, nothing can save them. And they are of no use, whatever those among whom they mingle. There is a secret something, which is the secret of the believer's power. That's something to savor. It is not easy to define it, but yet it is absolutely essential to usefulness. A worldling may be of some use even if he fails in certain respects, but a Christian who is not a Christian is bad all around. He is good for nothing and utterly useless to anybody and everybody. Samson, Samson, Lord bless them. Here's your strength. Hey, where'd you get your strength from? Come on, tell me. What happened? Bound up, loses his scythe scythe. It's a great fall, wasn't it? Well, the Bible says this in 1 Timothy 4.16, a call to Timothy says, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continuing them. For in doing this, you will say both yourself and those who hear you need to bring people with us. Yeah, we've got to be excited about Jesus and going to heaven, but we can't hide that we got to be ready. So he goes into verse 14. You're the light of the world. You're the light of the world. Well, it's interesting because Jesus gives the Christian both a great compliment but a great responsibility when he says that we're the light of the world because he claimed that title for himself in John chapter 8 verse 12. So he says, not only are you light receivers, but you all are to be light givers. Light givers. See, Jesus never challenged us to become salt or light. He simply said that you are. And we are either fulfilling or failing that given responsibility. The light of the world often denotes the sun yet here. What we see is Jesus is the light of the world. Again, Johnny 12. Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The interesting thing about that is they just coming off of the feast of tabernacles. They were celebrating the fact that God had delivered them out of Egypt and had provided the fire so that they might see in the cloud that God would lead them. And so what they would do is they would light these lamps in the court of women and it would just light up and they would have these torches and then at night they would have these singing and dancing and just rejoicing at the salvation that God brought to the people. The deliverance and this rejoicing. So when he says, I am the light of the world, by the way, in John 8, if you know that story, the woman caught in adultery in the very act. Woman, where are your accusers? Where are your accusers? Neither do I accuse you. Go and sin no more. She deserved death. Jesus, matter of fact, said, all right, the law says it, let's do it. But first, he who is without sin cast a first stone. He says when he finished writing and the dirt he stood up, everyone took off. So he says, where are your accusers? They're gone. Neither do I condemn you. But don't continue in this lifestyle. I just saved your life. Walk in this victory and walk in this newness of life. You've received grace and truth. Walk in it. Flee from your sin. Well, John 9, verse 5 says, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. John 1, 4, and him was life, and the life was the light of man. Think about the importance of light in our culture. Remember the Main Street Electrical Parade? Peach Dragon. Imagine just, if you're driving through the desert, heading towards Vegas, and all of a sudden you're like, where's Vegas? And you know, the kids are like, where's Vegas? Look, oh! Whoa! See that Luxor light and stuff? Last night when the sun set, it was one of the most beautiful nights, the stars and the moon and then, you know, there was a ship pretty far out. And you can just see its light. And I had the students just turn and look that way and say, look it. And all that darkness, how much that light stands out. The Bible says, we're the light of the world. We have Jesus. We've received the light. Now it's called for us to give out that light. When we think about lights, we use light to illuminate. We use light to communicate. Jesus wants us as followers to be visible and attractive, not to bring attention to ourselves, to bring people to him. Light does several things. First, it dispels darkness. Our lives should be such an influence that wherever we are, we drive out darkness. Not only does it dispel darkness, light reveals. The light of Jesus reveals the darkness that is in others, John 3, 17 through 19, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. Because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Verse 19 says, And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Light shows the way out of darkness. It dispels darkness, it reveals it, but light shows the way out of darkness. First, John 1, 7, if we walk in the light as he is on the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. We should be leading men out of darkness through God's love and spirit in our lives. Pulling them out of this mire, pulling them out and seeing all that God has, revealing the scriptures, the hope that we have in Jesus, the life that we have in him. I received the Lord in high school. My friend on my water polo team at Don Lugo invited me to church. The first week I went, they showed raw Reese's movie, Fury to Freedom, Accept the Lord. The next week, I accept the Lord. The next week, I didn't know what I was doing. I kept going to every invitation. They finally had one of the follow-up ministers pull me aside and explain. I meant to the first week, I just didn't know what it meant. It was amazing when I found out that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. You grew up in a neighborhood where you watch your back and you grew up in a neighborhood where you're picked on your whole life and you grew up having no value in your own heart and you realize that God thinks something special of you. It's amazing. When you're able to hold on to that, when you find your identity in Christ, it is one of the most powerful things that can ever happen. When I left that room and I prayed with these men and their wives and stuff to receive Christ, I walked out and I cried. Tears of joy, but I cried because I can't believe that God would use me. And every time I say that to myself, I feel like God says this to me. Why not you? Why not you? Because I want to go. I want to be open and I want to be ready. Don't you? Lord, I want to see, I want to experience. Lord, I want to be used by you. Lord, I don't want to go to heaven without my loved ones, without my friends and family. I want to go with you and I want to see you face to face, but I want to bring my friends and family with you. I want to have eyes to see the lost and the hurting and the broken and lead them to you. Not shun them and not push them away, but Lord, to lead them to you. I pray that we would all wake up to those things. Amen. See Matthew 28 says to go into all the world, preach the gospel, right? Making disciples. What it means is as you're going. I love what Cody said. I love the fact that Cody said, listen, what I learned is I don't have to go to the Philippines to live for Jesus. I don't have to go to the Philippines to win people to Jesus. What I've learned is the Philippines woke me up that people need Jesus. What I learned is, hey, I'll walk over beggars and panhandlers and stuff to get into a store, but there I'm trying to lead them to Jesus and help me to see Jesus, the people that you put in front of me, the way you see them, whether it's the hurting and the broken are the well off. That we would see them the way you see them, but Lord, as we're going. So for the students, it might be their school. It might be their sports or maybe their work. For us, it might be our work or our home and our family, whatever it might be that as we're living our life, as we're at the stores and everything else, and that we would shine for the Lord. We would be that lighthouse because the Bible says the city set on a hill cannot be hidden. We're not to keep secret our faith. We're not to keep secret Jesus. We're not to hide who he is. We're to shine for him. We're to be set on this hill. Look at that. What's going on over there? I remember when the shops opened in Chino Hills, they had one of those big lights that went like that. And I remember those lights as a kid, you know, always going and, oh, where's that? What's going on over there? Right? What is that thing? Oh, it's like the Batman thing or whatever. You just want to go see what's going on. What's that all about? I pray that that's true. Always of us here at Cabruchel Pacino Valley, that we would just be this impact in our community, that we would be this impact in our workplaces, that we would make such an impact in our families, in our homes, that we would shine for Jesus, that we would love Jesus, and that we would show his love, his grace, and mercy to those around us. That we would share scriptures with people. That we would cry with people. We would share passages like 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Got it all comfort. That we would share 1 Peter 5-7 to cast your cares on the Lord because he cares for you. That we would walk in the scriptures together. That we would remind each other that my words are futile, but God's word is truth and it's life and it's hope. It's a hope that's an anchor for our soul. We'll share instead fast, Hebrew 6-19. Well, he says, don't put your lamp under a basket verse 15, but on a lamp stand. He gives light to all who are in the house. Verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The good works should draw attention to Christ and not to ourselves. See, that main purpose of light is to give light. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11 and 12, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which wars against the soul. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation. May people see our lives. Recently, Pastor David talked about this. When he was talking about his work, remember, he says, listen, I took a half hour break. I didn't take a 35 minute break. I didn't take, you know, an hour break. I took a half hour break. That's what I was given. I try to live my life as an honorable man, a man of integrity. And so I had to quit some jobs, he said, remember? So that I can be a man that's a man of integrity, a man of my character, a man, a Christian man, a godly man. And you know what, he said, he reminded us, listen, I quit, but God provided. And because I took a stand for righteousness and a stand for truth. And when we look at this, he says, listen, abstain from fleshly lust. Having your conduct honorable amongst people. So when they look at you and they talk bad about you, well, you can say, you can analyze it. I'll live my life in front of you. And I can understand how I might make you uncomfortable, but I'm not trying to, so forgive me, but I want you to know how much God loves you. And may that be what makes people uncomfortable. May God convict them, may they be drawn to Christ and may they desire more, more of him, less of us. And may we always be reminded that we're simply, well, he's a pot and we're the clay. He's allowing us to be used. May we be vessels of honor. May we be vessels useful for the master, right? May we not take the credit for something he's done. May we give him the credit always. May we be thankful that he wants to use us. May we be available to be used. May we be ready. See, I've probably shared this before, but one of the things in playing sports, played soccer most of my life and water polo most of my, through high school and then later I coached and stuff. And I don't want to be on a team and sit the bench. I was the main defensive guy in water polo, so I kept getting kicked out and so I'd have to sit out for a little bit so I wasn't majored from the game. And I used to drive my coach nuts though. I'm ready to go back in and coach. Let me coach. Come on. I promise I won't get fouled out. Come on. I didn't join this team to sit and watch. I'm out of play. Let's do this. God has called you and I to first and foremost, receive His love, His grace and His mercy, to know that He is the light of the world, to receive that light. And now it's time for us to go and shine our lights. Shine for Him and live for Him. And when we stumble and when we fall, may we get up. May we not have some pity party and woe is mean. No, get up. Repent of our sins and may we walk with Him. May we walk with Him. May we live this life for Him with Him. And may we be real about that. Nobody expects perfection from you. And I hope you don't expect it from me. But what we do expect from each other is that we get up but we repent when we need to repent. We turn from our sins and we walk in the light and we keep our light lit and we get prayer when we're hurting. We get support and we love on each other and we walk with Jesus. And that's the road because the Bible says that He will be our peace in the midst of storms. He doesn't say there will be no storm. He says there will be a storm. Life as a Christian, as you guys know, usually gets harder, not easier. But He says, I'll give you a peace that surpasses all understanding. Guard your heart. Never leave, you know, forsake you. I'll be with you from now until the end. And we can trust that word. We can rely on Him. We can hang on to this. It's everything for us. Is it easy? No, remember that. So when we start saying, God, where are you? And he's like, I'm still here. Where'd you go? Where'd you go? Why did you take off? I told you, I won't leave you. You walked away. But I was hurting. Yep. And you wanted to be mad. And so you walked away from me. So now that you're back, are you done? I'm done. I'm sorry. That's me. I don't know if any of you are like me. I want to be mad right now, right? I don't care. You and I are salt. We're light. God is calling us maybe not to a mission fill. Overseas or something. But he says, you're on a mission filled now. You leave this building. Matter of fact, we're on a mission filled here. Maybe you don't know Christ. Maybe you're a newer believer. Or maybe you're struggling your walk. Listen, we're to love on each other. We're to lift each other up and pray for each other, and support one another. Not to kick a brother or sister when they're down. Lift them up, pray for them. Get them back in the game, right? And then we go out and do the same. And we share with our neighbors and our friends. And hey, I want you to know how much God loves you. I want you to see what I've seen. I want you to experience his grace, his love and mercy. God can provide for you physically, spiritually, emotionally. All these things he can. I know he can because he does and he has. And he will. So may we always keep perspective. And may we be that preserving. May we cause others to thirst for him. And may we shine our lights. May we be that lighthouse. May we help people to see like, hey, listen, there's rocks there. Don't go that way. It's dangerous. But listen, may we go this way. This is the way. The Word of God is a light, a lamp into our feet, light into our path. May we remember that. May we stay in His Word. May we stay close to each other. May we be faithful. May we worship Him. May we, oh, may He just use us in a mighty way. And may He get all the credit and be glorified. And so we rejoice now. We'll rejoice together in eternity.