Salty Infiltration (Matthew 5:13)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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I don't know if you could tell, but I'm excited to be back in the pulpit this morning. I've been itching to get back up here, but I'll tell you what,

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Jeremiah, Pastor Jeremiah has done a faithful job over these past few weeks, hasn't he?

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He has done a great job as he, I think it was a total of eight weeks, walked us through the beginning section of Jesus's Sermon on the

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Mount, which is referred to as the Beatitudes. And so thank you, Pastor Jeremiah, for that.

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And I hope it's been an encouragement for you because it has been very encouraging for me because we were able to stop for a moment and look at what

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Jesus was introducing. As Jesus was introducing really this mind -blowing, counter -cultural, worldview -flipping portrait of what a chosen person, a chosen child of God is to be.

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We looked through, if you remember, we saw, which is why we named the series

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Upside Down because it's counter -cultural to what the world perceives because we see that believers, that God's chosen people are poor in spirit.

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They mourn, they're meek, they hunger and thirst for righteousness, they are merciful, they're pure in heart, they're peacemakers.

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And then last week we saw that they are persecuted. And just as Pastor Jeremiah has reminded us over these past few weeks, this was the exact opposite of what the people of Israel that are standing there listening to Jesus speak these words, this is the exact opposite of what they thought that the

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Messiah was gonna bring about. They knew there was a Messiah coming. The Old Testament had prophesied of it, but they had a totally distorted and misunderstanding perspective.

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They brought their human perspective, the world's perspective into it. And so they thought that Jesus, the

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Messiah was gonna come and he was gonna rule like an earthly king. That's what they had perceived.

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And so they thought that instead of poor in spirit, they thought that they, as the people of Israel, God's chosen people at that time, they thought that they would be rich.

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Instead of mourning, these people thought, well, when the Messiah comes, we're gonna be just rejoicing. What do we have to mourn?

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He's gonna rule like a king and we're gonna rule with him, the whole world. Instead of meek, they thought they'd be mighty.

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Instead of hungry and thirsty, they thought they would have an abundance. Instead of merciful, they would be merciless.

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Instead of peacemakers, they thought that they would be the peacekeepers, the law, the rule.

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Instead of persecuted, they thought that they would be the persecuted. This is how they saw the

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Messiah coming. And thank you for bringing that out and for us being able to point our attention to that over these past few weeks.

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It's been great because this is what all religion and legalism leads to, isn't it?

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This is what the world's perspective of religiosity and law and rules brings about.

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It's this self -centered, self -indulging, me, me, me,

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I, I, I, it always points to me.

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That is the opposite of the kingdom of God, which is what Jesus is talking about in this

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Sermon on the Mount. This is the opposite. The kingdom of God is about him, him, him.

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It's about the holy, holy, holy. That's what this is about. Jesus is turning it upside down.

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And if it is all about him, if it is about God, if this is all about God, it has nothing to do with us, then no wonder

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God is using seemingly upside down approach. And notice

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I say that in quotes, seemingly upside down, because to us, it does seem upside down.

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But to God, it's right side up because everything he does is good. And I believe the reason that God, God prescribed it this way, that God did it this way is because if we, in our self -centered legalism, in our self -centered righteousness, if we're bringing anything to the table, then what are we doing?

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We're sharing in his glory. We're sharing in that glory. And what does scripture tell us?

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That God will share his glory with no man. God will share his glory with no one.

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And that is why God has intentionally and specifically chosen the weak and despise things to confound the wise.

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The wisdom of this world in its foolishness, but in what they perceive as their wisdom,

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God does the exact opposite. Everything he does in his kingdom that he's bringing about in this world is so different and upside down and completely opposite from what the world perceives.

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This is why Jesus was doing this. So now that we've seen who we are as Jesus laid out in the

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Beatitudes, how are we to live in light of that? How are we to live in light of that?

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That's why we've named this new series, The Way, because now Jesus is making this transition.

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Hey, this is who you are. If you're a follower of me, if you are God's chosen child, and then he goes on and he's now explaining through the

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Sermon on the Mount, this is what you do. This is how you carry this out. And this is what it looks like. And Jesus makes this transition as only he can.

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So let's open up your copy of God's word to Matthew chapter five. We're gonna be looking at verse 13 today.

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Matthew 5, 13. Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth.

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But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

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It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

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Very familiar passage. But before we jump into diving into this, let's stop for a moment, go to the

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Lord once again, and ask that he illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth. Dearly father, we come before you, and we ask that in our frailty and in our weakness, that you would illuminate your truth to our minds and to our hearts.

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God, I pray that you would guard me from error. Lord, speak truth through me,

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Lord. Open the ears of the hearers, Lord, and I pray that you would be honored in it in Christ's name.

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Amen. Well, some of you may be old enough to remember all the way back in the 80s and 90s, right?

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That feels like it was just yesterday, but it has been 40 years, right? But all the way back in the 80s and 90s, you'll remember this phrase, the moral majority.

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Everybody remember that. That was a really popular phrase, the moral majority. What this was was these were the religious, really political activists, because Christians, individual

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Christians, and churches as a whole, I remember it very well, I was right in the thick of it, that Christians and churches, what they did was they were very heavily involved in pushing and supporting, both financially and physically, people in power and in government.

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This is what the churches were doing. I even remember seeing churches that had governors and politicians come speak at their

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Sunday gathering about the state of America and government. They were so heavily involved in this, and they were pushing this idea.

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And the whole concept was, and you can understand through the term the moral majority, was that the majority of America were moral people.

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After all, we were a Christian nation, right? And so they assumed that, well, the moral majority, they're the quiet majority, but if we can get them on board, then we can enact moral change in our culture through political means.

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That was the whole push of it, was to try and accomplish what only the kingdom of God can accomplish through the world's perspective, through power, through position.

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And we all fall prey to that in a little bit. I mean, let's be honest. All of us kind of wish that someone as popular as LeBron James would get saved, because in our minds we think, man, he could really bring about revival, because everybody knows him and everybody loves him.

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And so we think in those terms, but the church had thought in those terms this moral majority. But my question this morning is, how did that work out for us?

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It didn't seem to work out too well for us. As a matter of fact, I've got some statistics here I wanna share with you.

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There was a study I found this week that blew my mind, that said that 38 % of 18 to 24 -year -olds in the

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United States identify as LBTGQ. Think about that for a second.

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More than a third of 18 to 24 -year -olds are young people, are involved in that lifestyle.

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Another study said that one in three women in the United States will murder their unborn child.

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It's pretty shocking, isn't it? Almost 50 % of marriages end in divorce.

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Gay marriage is legal. Mass shootings are a regular occurrence.

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Drug and alcohol abuse are wreaking havoc on our loved ones around us, our neighbors, our family members, our friends.

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Human trafficking is in the news constantly nowadays, isn't it? Should I go on?

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We could go on all day like this. So I ask again, how do you think that worked out for us? 40 years of the moral majority.

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Pushing politics, pushing power, pushing position. Well, some will argue, well, hey, listen, it restrained some of that sin.

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Who knows how soon that would have come upon us if we hadn't have done it? Who knows how bad it could have been now if we hadn't have done this?

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Well, I would like to argue from Scripture today the opposite of that.

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How good could it have been if we hadn't have done that? I'd like to make the argument that the

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Christian life is about infiltration, not domination. We know that Christ is gonna return, isn't he?

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He's gonna return and he is gonna dominate. He already rules as king, but when he returns, he's gonna make his enemy his footstool.

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And then we get to share in that as his children, as his people.

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But until then, we are left on this earth, and I think we see here in this picture of the

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Sermon on the Mount, this upside down, this different perspective of what the world can't comprehend is that we're left here to seek to live a life of salty infiltration, not domination.

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So let's look at our passage in greater detail right now. In 5 .13 there. The first phrase that Jesus says here is that you are the salt of the earth.

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So there are a number of things that are implied in this statement. There's so much here. But first thing

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I want us to do is identify the you. Who's he speaking of here? Who's Jesus talking about?

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The you, believers, right? He's talking to believers. That may seem obvious, but some believe that he may be speaking to believers or even false converts or anything like that.

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But I think he's talking to believers. And we see it all through building up in those beatitudes. Look at verse 10 even.

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It says, blessed. Blessed are those who are persecuted, right? Persecuted for what?

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Righteousness. And just as Pastor Jeremiah did so well pointing out, this is not only our righteous deeds that we carry out in Christ and through Christ, but this is an alien righteousness that is brought on through Christ.

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It's Christ's righteousness on us. But they're persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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He's talking to believers. And so he's talking to believers here when he says that you, and what does he say about believers?

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All believers, not just some believers, all believers of all time. He's saying that you are the salt of the earth.

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So some read this within our context today and they say, well, what Jesus is saying,

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I've actually heard someone preach this before. What Jesus is saying is that we should be flavor.

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That salt adds flavor. And so what we're supposed to do is that we're supposed to bring about goodness and flavor to a bland world.

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Well, that's a very limited perspective. And yes, there may be some element implied of flavor in there, but this is not how the original listeners of this sermon as Jesus is standing there preaching, that's not how they would have understood this to me.

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Because you see to them back then, salt was not necessarily used for flavor as much as it was as a preservative.

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It was used as a preservative. These people back then didn't have their deep freezer in their garage to go put their meat in to keep it good for a while.

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So what did they do? They had a space usually in their home or on their property where they put the meat into and they would coat it in salt.

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And that salt would restrain decay. It would preserve the meat until they were ready to eat that.

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And so this preservative would keep this meat from rotting.

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And so when Jesus is telling them that you believers, followers of Christ, you are salt, then what is he saying?

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He's saying you're a preservative. You're preserving. What are you preserving?

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A preservative of what? What does this even mean? Well, I think in order to understand what

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Jesus is speaking about when he says that you are a preservative is that we have to understand the state of the earth.

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Because that's what we're salt of, right? That's what he says, you are the salt of what? The earth, the world.

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So we need to understand the state of the world. We need to understand the state of the earth. Think back all the way back to Genesis 2.

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Genesis 2 .17, if you're a note taker, you can jot this down to go back and look at it. But it says when

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God is talking to Adam and he's telling him, you can eat of all the fruit of all the trees in the garden that I've given you.

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And then he says in verse 17, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely, what?

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Die. Now we see not one chapter later that Adam and Eve disobey, right?

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They eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And did they drop dead? No, they didn't drop dead.

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But what did happen? What happened? Death was brought into the world. Now all of a sudden things are no longer good like they were good.

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Now the plants die. Now the animals die. Now they will ultimately die because Adam and Eve both died eventually.

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So death is entered into the world. But Paul says over in Romans 5, 12, you can jot that down also.

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He says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, who? Adam. And death, there it is.

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And death through sin. And so death spread to what?

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All men. Because all sinned. So when he told

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Adam and Eve that if you eat that fruit, you will surely die. And then they took a bite of it and they didn't drop dead in the moment.

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He's not just talking about the death that entered the world. The death and the decay and the rottenness.

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The stench of death. He's not just talking about that. He's actually talking about what? Sin, a spiritual death.

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A spiritual death. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 2, 1, Paul says this. And you, talking to believers, were dead in your trespasses and sins.

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So it's not just a physical death that now has entered the world. Now it's a spiritual death that has entered the world.

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And all man is under it because all man has sinned. So there's death.

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This is the state of the world. Scripture speaks of mankind as a corpse.

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We are dead in our trespasses and in our sins. Man is a spiritual corpse.

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And what happens to a corpse? What happens to a dead body?

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What happens to dead flesh? It decays, doesn't it? It becomes rotten.

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There's a stench that comes from it. How many of you ever left the old meat in your trash can a little too long?

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That's a stench that you don't soon forget, isn't it? As a matter of fact, I encourage you to just throw the trash can away.

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It's not worth trying to clean. There's a stench that comes from the rottenness of the meat. And this is precisely what happens to the world.

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Look around us. Look around you. Look at your neighbor's lives. Look at your own life, even, around you in this world.

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Turn on the news for a moment. The stench just comes off the television at you. There's a rottenness.

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There's a death. There's sin. It's corruption. It's death because it's dead, because it's rotting flesh.

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This is the state of the world. So when Jesus says that, hey, believer, you are the salt of the earth, what he's saying is you're to preserve that decay.

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You're preserving that rottenness. This also is implied in there, is that this salt is a completely different medium and substance than the meat that it's placed on.

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It's completely different. It's a mineral. It's completely different.

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Second Corinthians 5 .17, Paul says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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He is a new creation, something completely different. Not only something completely different, he goes on.

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He says, the old has passed away. The old is gone, and behold, the new has come.

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So when we are bought with a price, when we come to faith and repentance and look to Christ for our salvation, and new life is breathed into our soul, he brings about life.

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We are a new creature. We are something altogether different now. The old is gone. That old death, that sin, all of that corruption, the decay, all of it has passed away now.

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It is stripped from us, and now we're a completely different entity. We're a new creation.

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We're completely different. So we are the salt. We're separate.

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We're in this world. We're around this world, but we're not of this world. This is not who we are.

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We're not the meat anymore. We're the salt now. And because we are a different substance, we have a different purpose, just as salt has a different purpose than the meat.

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Jesus actually addresses this in the next phrase. He says, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

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This phrase here that's translated, if salt has lost its taste, actually reads more literally, that if the salt is defiled.

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If the salt is defiled, because again, Jesus isn't necessarily talking about flavor here, and that's where it gets confusing in these translations.

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But what Jesus is saying, if salt is defiled, and what he's saying here is that once the salt has been defiled by the meat, it ceases to be that preservative, right?

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That's what would happen, is that salt would lose its saltiness. It would be defiled by the meat over time.

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And then that salt, once it's lost its substance, who it is and what it does, its whole purpose in life, its whole purpose in being that mineral, once it ceases to do that, what's the purpose of it?

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It's no longer a preservative. All you're doing is basically throwing some sand on your meat.

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There's nothing there. And so it can't preserve. That meat is just gonna rot. Just as when we seek to combat the corruption of this world on their terms, through their power, through their means, through their thinking, we're no longer doing our job.

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We've lost the saltiness. We're no different. As a matter of fact, we'll go on in this passage and see that we're worthless anymore because we're doing it according to their terms.

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Because you see, we're not crusaders. Despite what many think in today's culture, we have such a militant perspective from the world's perspective, is we're not crusaders left here on this earth, are we?

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We're missionaries. We're missionaries.

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Now, some of you are looking at me like, well, what about the armor of God? What about us combating sin?

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What about us fighting this battle? Well, this is very different. And hear me out. We're not battling against flesh and blood.

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This is a spiritual war. This is something very different. A spiritual war is very different.

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We're not battling the flesh and blood like they are. And we're called to be salt and light.

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We're called to be that salt and light in this earth, something completely different, something that exposes the sin, something that points to Christ and brings the light about.

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We're salt and light, not vinegar and power. But that's the way the

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Christian subculture in America carries out the moral majority, is we wanna do it according to the world's standards.

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We're abrasive. We're gonna fight. We're gonna stand because we're crusaders. No, we're missionaries.

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We're a preservative. We're something altogether different. But we're so busy.

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We're so busy judging and fighting the world according to its standards, trying to force it to be morally upright, aren't we?

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We're trying to force the world to be morally upright. And in the process, all we're doing, because what the world is, is we're just propping up dead corpses with two -by -fours up the backs of their shirts.

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And then we're upset and wondering why they won't dance to the choreography that we forced on them.

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They're just a dead corpse. They're rotting meat that is incapable of spiritually being upright in any fashion, in any way, in any purpose.

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They're incapable of it. And yet we're trying to force them to do so according to their power. And in the midst of it, we lose the gospel, don't we?

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We lose the gospel. We lose the fact that we are preservative for this world.

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Paul said again in 1 Corinthians 5, 12 and 13, for what have

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I to do with judging outsiders? He's telling the church, he goes, why are you looking at me?

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I have nothing to do with judging them. I have nothing to do with judging those people that are out there.

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He goes on, he says, is it not those inside the church whom we are to judge? And we like to walk around and say, thou shalt not judge.

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Don't judge, don't judge. But yet here's Paul telling us, hey, yeah, I'm gonna clarify that. Don't judge them because they're just dead corpses.

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You can't judge them according to anything. They're already condemned. But we are to judge in here.

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We are to judge. And he says, God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you.

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Judge within. We're not to judge others, but we are to judge within our own.

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The world is gonna act like the world. All right, heathens gonna heath.

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The world's gonna act like the world. And what is the world? Death and decay. Sin, corruption.

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But we must judge within. Why must we judge within? Why is

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Paul telling us there in 1 Corinthians to judge each other? Why? Because we must keep our saltiness.

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Because we must stay a preservative. And if we're not, if we get corrupted from within, then we start to lose our saltiness because we start to lose what

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God has called us to be, separate and altogether different. And what happens if we are to maintain our saltiness?

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Are you catching on yet? It begins to slow the decay and rottenness of the world because it's a preservative.

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That's what we must judge within. But we're far more concerned with misinformation out on Facebook than we are with the misinformation and heresies from with our own ranks.

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Let's be honest. At least that's the perspective that I see. When I'm sitting there on social media, all

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I see is far too many Christians overly concerned with what the world is doing.

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We're so concerned with what the world is doing. We've turned on our Fox News and we just become overwhelmed because we're looking at it and we're going, what is the world doing?

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Oh my goodness, why can't they just be morally upright? Why aren't they dancing to our choreography? And we lose sight of it, don't we?

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We lose sight, we become so concentrated on what the world is doing, yet we hear very little, very little concern about false teachers.

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I'm gonna go down a rabbit trail here. I'm just gonna go on a tirade here for a moment.

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We should be judging statements like this one from a false teacher like Stephen Furtick. He posted this past couple of weeks.

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He posted, following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. Well, that just contradicts what we just read

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Paul say, right, that you're a new creation. He says, following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. It reveals who you've been all along.

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What would it be like to see the you that God sees?

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Do you hear it? We have stuff like that out there all the time and nobody thinks twice about it.

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The you that God sees, thank goodness God doesn't see the me that I am.

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Otherwise, he'd send me to eternal judgment and punishment for eternity just trying to pay for that wickedness.

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He sees his son, the one that his son is, but yet he makes these comments and these happen all the time.

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These types of heresies happen all the time, yet we're more concerned with what some spiritually dead politician thinks that there's more than two genders.

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Of course he thinks there's more than two genders. He's a corpse. He's dead in his sins.

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He has no capability of functioning or thinking clearly. He cannot be logical. He cannot think straight.

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He's a dead corpse, but yet we're so concerned with that.

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And we ignore things like these false teachers. And in the process, you know what we're doing?

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We're losing our saltiness. We're losing it. When we're the moral majority and we're more concerned with politicians and power and position and what the world sees and what the world can respect, then we are losing our saltiness.

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But if we would reject them, the false teachers, and we would do our job of equipping the saints, then the saints will go out and be salt and light, which again, in return, then goes out and infiltrates and slows the decay, accomplishes the ultimate purpose that all of us are wanting, the slow of the sin and the godlessness and the stench of death and sin.

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But what happens to us? We long to think like the world. We long to act like the world.

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We long to react like the world. We long to take like the world. We wanna have the respect of the world.

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And then we begin to wonder, why is it slipping from our fingertips? Why have we fought this battle for so many years, yet everything seems to be falling apart in front of us?

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Jesus said it there in the next part of our passage here in verse 13. He says, it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

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That's what the world thinks of us. That's why the world tramples all over us.

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It's because we're trying to play their game and they're better at it. So what does this all mean?

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How should we be living in light of this? I pointed out what the wrong is from the

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American church. What is Jesus saying that we should be doing? What does it mean to be salt?

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We see now what it doesn't mean to be salt, but what does it mean to be salt? I love what

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Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones says here that when he's pointing out the early church approach to being salt and light when he's preaching through this passage.

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I wanted to share this quote with you because who am I to think I can say this better than Dr.

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Martin Lloyd -Jones? He says, the New Testament church is not identified with any nation or nations.

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The result is that you never find the Apostle Paul or any other apostle commenting upon the government of the

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Roman Empire. We never find them sending up resolutions to the imperial court to do this or not to do that.

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No, that is never found in the church as displayed in the

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New Testament. He's right.

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You won't find it in the New Testament, but what will you find? What you will find is that these few men and women turned the world upside down.

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They turned the world upside down, not through political means, not through picketing, not through arguments, not through judgment, not through physical war, not by any means that the world can understand.

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No, they did it by knowing nothing but Christ crucified. That's how they did it.

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They knew nothing but Christ crucified. And then they fought for the purity of the bride through judging one another, making sure that one another were maintaining that saltiness.

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That saltiness that only comes from a gospel -centric church and mindset and worldview, a completely different kingdom all together.

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And they did it by loving one another in unimaginable unity.

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That seems contradictory to the world, judgment and unity. But you can't have unity at all cost.

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There must be unity. There must be a fight for purity and that unity. And what did Jesus say to his disciples?

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One of the last things he said to them, he said, they will know you. I think it was one of the last things he said to them.

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I'm not sure, I'm backtracking here. He says, they will know you by your love for one another.

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That's how they'll know you're my disciples. That is so counter -cultural. It's not me, me, me,

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I, I, I. It's Christ, Christ, Christ. And because of Christ, Christ, Christ, I can look at you and live for you and love you and have unity.

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And then when you're in sin, call you out on it so that we maintain our saltiness. That's what they did.

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This is what it means to be the salt of the earth. Do you know what would end abortion?

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And it needs to end, doesn't it? We need to pray that God is gracious and ends it.

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What a horrendous genocide. Do you know what would end it? You know what would end and stop gay marriage, divorce, human trafficking?

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Do you know what's gonna end all of those things? All of the moral corruption that's happening, the death, the stench that's coming from the world?

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A great awakening, a great awakening.

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And what brings about a great awakening? Politics? Power structure?

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No, it's Christians getting on their knees and diligently pleading with God that he move, and my sister, and my church, that he move in us, and that our saltiness would infiltrate this community and would take over, and we need to pray, and we need to pray.

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I'm not talking about your two -minute prayer when you wake up in the morning. No, I'm talking about the people of God.

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You look at throughout history, whenever any great awakening happened, what was it? It was always preceded by him. His people going into a great time of prayer, pleading with God that he move, and then getting up and actually being salt and light by sharing the good news of the gospel unashamedly within their circle of influence.

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That's what's gonna bring about a great awakening because we've infiltrated. We're salt.

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We're slowing the decay. We're infiltrating. So this morning, you may be a farmer.

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You may be an office worker. You may be a housewife. You may be a pastor. You may even be a politician, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that.

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We need them. We need godly people infiltrating that, that world. You may be retired.

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You may be, whatever sphere of influence that God has placed you in, that has given you, we are to, so my question for us this morning is, are you known in your circles of influence as the conservative

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Republican? Are you known as the progressive liberal?

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Are you known as the leading person in your field? Are you known as the smartest student?

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Are you known as the comedian? Are you known as the nice guy? Are you known as the kind lady? What are you known as?

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What are you out there? Are you known as the poor and spirit mourning, meek, merciful, pure in heart, peace, making zealous follower of Christ?

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That's saltiness. That's different. I'm not saying that those other things aren't perspectives that you can hold in your life.

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What I'm saying is how does the world perceive you? How are you infiltrating this corrupt, broken, decaying culture?

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And it works in small ways. God uses the small and despised things to confound the wise.

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That's how the early church turned the world upside down. Let's quit trying to look at the world's perspective and the world's power and the world's view of what position and what accomplishes great things.

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People will look into a church like this and look, oh, well, you guys are small and insignificant. How are you gonna change the world?

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Because it's not about us. Because God wants his glory to be seen, not us.

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So that if this church were to permeate this community in Northeast Arkansas, breaks out in revival and everyone points it back to 12 .5

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Church, they can't look at 12 .5 Church because they go, that seems very insignificant. That must have been a great and mighty

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God that did that. Because that's what he does. I hope this has been helpful for you.

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And this completely different upside down counter -cultural perspective that Jesus has presented here in this sermon on the mountain.

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This is what the next few weeks is gonna be like as we dive into more and more of what Christ has called us to do.

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This is the way. This is the way. This is the way Christ has prescribed for us to live as Christ.

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For me to live as Christ, that's what it's about. Let's pray.

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Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, forgive us.

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Forgive us for forgetting where the source of power comes from.

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Forgive us for looking around at this world and thinking that they have any power or any means to accomplish your purposes.

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God, forgive us. Forgive us for losing our saltiness.

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God, help us. Drive our hearts and minds to the cross.

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Help us to remember that you were despised by the world and you have chosen that way, that purpose, that process to show your great immense glory.

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Help us to trust in it and remember. And when the world seems to be coming in on us, God, and it seems to be winning, that we would be like the psalmist and call out to you and acknowledge the truth that you reign,

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God, you reign. And that your kingdom is altogether different.

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And that we trust in your power, not our own. In Christ's name, amen.