Mike Bickle emphasizes the call for believers to be 'salt and light' in the world, connecting this to the Beatitudes as a foundation for Christian character and action. He explains that being salt means preventing decay in society, while being light involves illuminating the truth of God to others. Bickle warns against losing our effectiveness by neglecting the teachings of Jesus and encourages believers to publicly stand for their faith and demonstrate it through actions. He stresses that the church is God's primary means of transformation in the world, and that faithfulness to the message of Jesus is crucial for making a lasting impact. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to live out the Beatitudes and to actively engage in the mission of the church.

Father, we thank you for the Word of God, and I ask you, Holy Spirit, for inspiration in speaking and hearing your Word. I ask you for living understanding. I ask you to magnify Jesus in our heart, even now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, those that are joining us for the first time, we're in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7, and I gave these teaching notes. We're only going to cover part of them, so the others are just some verses for you to look up in your own time. In our last session, we looked at the Beatitudes. There are eight Beatitudes, which are the high point of the Sermon on the Mount, of what Jesus is after in terms of our character and our response to the grace of God. Now, in calling us to respond to the Beatitudes, in the very next verse, Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. And it's important that we connect this very well-known passage of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we connect it to the passage immediately before it, which are the eight Beatitudes. Because Jesus is calling for a response to those Beatitudes, and he's motivating us by telling us the remarkable privilege we have as weak and broken people. We are called by the Lord to be his conduits, his vessels in the world. We're salt and light. We are the change agents through history, the body of Christ. We are his first and primary plan to transform the nations. Now we look at our lives and we think we're so weak and we're, you know, we don't have that much to offer. The Lord says, trust me. I have called it, I have called you and I have arranged my kingdom this way. I'm not going to transform the earth apart from you. I'm going to do it through you. You respond to me according to these eight Beatitudes and through my grace I will do the work through you. Now in this passage, Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 to 20, he offers, or right even here in verse 13 and 14, he gives two remarkable privileges and he gives two warnings. Again, this is in response to motivating us to walk out the eight Beatitudes. Now the two remarkable privileges, I've already said, we are the salt and we are the light of the world. We're the vessels. We're the conduits. I'm talking about the body of Christ through history. Though it's Jesus would use to make God known in the world and to transform society. And then he gives two warnings after each one of the promises. Let's just read it. Verse 13, it's a remarkable statement. You are the light of, you are the salt of the earth. Now we know that the number one issue with salt in the ancient world was that it prevented decay. That was the primary use of salt. There's about eight or nine different uses of salt in the Bible, but the primary one in the ancient world where they did not have refrigeration, that the meat would spoil, decay, could be prevented by packing salt into the meat. And so they, everybody understood this metaphor. You're the salt. You will prevent decay from happening. And you will be that which makes people hungry and thirsty for God. I will work through you and people will be thirsty and hungry for God as the salt of the earth. But then he gives the warning. He goes, beware. Though this privilege is so awesome that you would be the vessel to stop decay in the world, but know this. If you lose, the salt loses its favor, how shall it be seasoned? It will be good for nothing that is spiritually. We will be good for nothing in making a spiritual impact if we lose our saltiness. Now this particular translation, New King James says, if the salt loses its flavor. Most translations say, if the salt loses its saltiness. And I believe that's the pervert, the word that's, that's best there is saltiness. If we lose our saltiness, how will we be effective? We will be good for nothing spiritually. The way we lose our saltiness is by determining that we don't want to live the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. And that we want to be salty another way. And the Lord's saying, if you don't find your saltiness this way, there is no other way. If you lose it by rejecting the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, which many believers actually do, they don't do it with their lips, they just do it with their life. They say, no, I'm not really going in that direction. By the grace of God, I'm going a different direction. Which is a false use of grace, of course. But Jesus is saying, beware. The only saltiness you have in being the light of the world is in this context. Then he goes on to the second great privilege. He goes, you're not only the salt of the earth, but you're the light of the world. You will be my primary means to bring my direction to the earth. I will bring understanding of God through you. You will represent God to the nations, to your neighbors, to your family. You will, and being a bear, light bearers, those that would bear light, it's more than information. It's more than the fact that we would be used to give direction and understanding of God and understanding of the message of Jesus, as important as that is. But because God is light, that's part of the essence of who he is. He is light. And Jesus said, I am the light of the world. The issue of God's light has a supernatural dimension of imparting the power of God. So when we talk about light and we associate it with God and the power of the Spirit, there's not just the impartation of information, but there's an impartation of power as well. He's saying, you will be the vessels, born-again believers, in which I will bring living understanding. I will bring information from God through you to the nations, but I will also impart my power. Because light has more than information, it also has power. But then he gives the warning in verse 15. He says, don't put the light under a basket or a bushel. Now we might miss the meaning of that warning, because when we think of, of turning a lamp on, we think of hitting the switch. But of course, in the ancient world, they didn't flip the switch and the light went on, but the light was an oil lamp. And they were typically very small oil lamps they could carry in their hand. And what it meant is, is lighting the wick so that the oil would burn and then you would carry the lamp around the house. Typically, there were some standing lamps, but most lamps are mobile that they carried by hand in a house. So what Jesus is saying is, if you light that lamp, that little lamp, you know, just picture it, you could carry in your hand, and you put it under a basket or a bushel, not only would the light not be seen, the fire will go out. It would suffocate the flame, so to speak. So what he's saying is this. You're the light of the world, but it's important that you don't hide the light. You take a public stand for what you believe. And secondly, that you don't allow the fire in your life to be extinguished. Because this was as much about putting the fire out as it was hiding the light when you put an oil lamp under a basket. Now, in the same way that we can lose our saltiness by rejecting the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle and refusing the message of Jesus, the way that we put our lamp under a bushel, we hide it and let the fire go out, is in the same way. So Jesus is actually still talking about the eight Beatitudes. He's saying, don't look for another method to be light bearers and those that would be salt. This is the way forward. He ties together the privilege of being salt and light and being used by the Lord in this unique way. I mean, the body of Christ are the only, it's the only vehicle in the earth that has this awesome privilege to represent God and to be dispensers of his power and to stop decay in society in this unique way. So he's telling the believers, you need to embrace these eight Beatitudes. There is no plan B. But it's not just an issue of embracing the lifestyle, the character of the Sermon on the Mount. Because the eight Beatitudes within incorporate the entire Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the entire Sermon on the Mount, which are, is merely an explanation of how to walk out the eight Beatitudes. But there's another issue that's involved in maintaining our saltiness and maintaining the brightness, the shining of our lamp. It is our commitment to be faithful to the message of Jesus. Now the message of Jesus isn't just, you can have free forgiveness. Some of people reduce what Jesus came to say to offering people free forgiveness. Well, that's the introduction to the message. Jesus has a lot to say about a lot of issues of life. He is the truth. And as lightbearers, we represent his truth. And we don't hide our stand under a bushel, but we make a public stand. I mean, whether it's a public stand between twos and threes in the workplace, or in the neighborhood, or in the home, we stand with what Jesus stands for. Now many believers, they believe things privately, and they hide their light under a bushel. And Jesus says, no, no, I don't want it under a bushel. I want you to own it. I want you to stand for it. Jesus has a lot of things that he has, I mean, in the Scripture, many areas of life that he has very strong positions on. And when we stand for Jesus, we stand for his, the message that he gives. We are to be faithful witnesses of the truth if we're to be salty and to be lightbearers. We tell the truth about God. Now a lot of people love God, but it's a God after their own image. They don't love the God of Jesus. That God troubles them. He's too narrow. We tell the truth about God, according to Jesus. We tell the truth about salvation. He says there's only one way. All the other ways are wrong. They're false. They end up in hell. They go, Jesus, let's not be so intense. We tell Jesus's version of sin. We take a stand on morality according to what he says, not according to the popular religious sentiment. And the church is getting, taking less and less a stand with Jesus on those issues. We take a stand on how Jesus defines judgment, how he defines success, what justice is, what the future looks like, the future in this age, the future in the age to come. We are witnesses of the truth of Jesus, not just the free message of salvation, but rather the whole message of Jesus. I'm talking about his main points that he makes known in the Scripture. Now this is, again, a most remarkable privilege. That we, weak and broken people, throughout church history, are the primary strategy for God to transform the nations in this age, and then in fullness in the age to come. I mean, the Lord Jesus is saying to these uneducated fishermen and to mostly poor people that are listening to him, you're not only my first choice, you're my only choice. I don't have a plan B. I'm not going to change the earth apart from you. I am not going to bypass you. I'm going to use you, but on my terms. I will use you, but according to how I say. You must say yes to the character, the Sermon on the Mount. You must say yes to my message, and you must stand for it, even when it's unpopular. That's number two. Number one, the godly character. Number two, the message. And number three, we give demonstration of the truth with our deeds, both practical deeds of service and supernatural deeds of praying for the sick, prophesying, casting out devils, etc. Let me say it again. One, two, three. How we maintain our saltiness. How we keep the fire and the light in our life burning and shining, instead of hiding it under a bushel and putting it out. Number one, we live for the truth. Our character, the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, which is not popular in the church. Number two, we stand for the message of Jesus. The whole message of Jesus, not just the free forgiveness part. And Jesus's message troubles the church. The Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, which I have called for years, the fasted lifestyle. We're living in God-ordained restraints by the grace of God, in self-denial, grace-empowered discipline, and grace-empowered self-denial, as Jesus taught. That's all part of his message. We stand for that message and its implications about justice, judgment, sin, righteousness, morality, all of these issues that are connected to it. And then thirdly, we demonstrate the truth with practical deeds and with supernatural deeds. Whether we're praying for the sick or helping our neighbor, we back up our godly life and our proclamation with deeds. Jesus is saying, if you do those three things, no matter how weak you are, the poor, illiterate peasants of history, you will be my agents of change for the earth. This is my strategy. I refuse to bypass you. You are my number one, and you are my only choice of changing the nations in this unique way, through being vessels of truth. So, as salt, we resist decay in society, and we resist it in our own life. And as light, we resist darkness in our own life, and we resist it, we take a stand and bring light in society. We don't yield to decay and darkness, we resist it. And our character, our words and our deeds. Now paragraph B, and I've just mostly just covered the first two pages in the last few moments here. But in B, I just want you to know how I'm approaching this session, just when you might look at some of the notes later. I'm approaching this passage of Scripture in a personal way, as though Jesus is answering questions that the disciples might have asked. Now these are unspoken questions, actually these are my questions, I just inserted them into the text. So the, Jesus has just talked on the eight beatitudes. And the final beatitude, which was the verse before, verse 13, verse 12, he talked about persecution. He said, now you got to know, this lifestyle is not popular, and the message is not popular. You will be resisted. And we find out through history, we're resisted in the church, and we're resisted outside the church, for being faithful to the message. I'm talking about the body of Christ through history. So I imagine, one of the disciples asking, okay, we're going to embrace this intense lifestyle, this costly lifestyle, summed up in the eight beatitudes. And I mean, it's costly to our flesh. Is it going to be worth the effort? Will it help anybody besides us? Now we know it's going to help us personally, because eight times in a row, Jesus said, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure, blessed are the merciful. He goes, I know I'm going to get blessed, but I want to know, Jesus, if I live this costly, sacrificial life, and I bear persecution for it, will I impact anybody else? Will it matter to anybody else that I do this? Because it's common, we want to, many of us, we want to be a change agent in the grace of God, in our generation. So I imagine Jesus, paragraph C, he's saying, yes, good question. Again, I inserted the question into the text. Good question. It will be worth it, and it will do, it will bless more than just you, as I've declared eight times, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. Yes, you will be used to touch others, and more than touch others, to transform the nations and the earth itself. Yes, it will make a difference. This demanding lifestyle will have an impact on others. Paragraph D. Now, what about, I mean, being qualified to make this great change? We have spiritual weapons, and the good news about these spiritual weapons is every, they're accessible to everybody. Poor, uneducated fishermen, or the illiterate peasants of history, that said yes to Jesus through the generations, they can, they have access to these spiritual weapons. Meaning everybody can do this. These weapons, I've already said it, the three things, same again, it's godly character, saying yes to the eight Beatitudes. The poor of the earth can do that, the uneducated can do it. Saying yes to the message, taking a stand where Jesus stands, and that's more difficult than it seems, because we've become accustomed to standing for free forgiveness, a little bit of economic blessing, some healing, and some good circumstances, and hanging in there when it's tough, and we kind of end the message there, but the message is far bigger than that. So our weapons, godly character, taking a stand for the message, and demonstrating our convictions by deeds. Again, practical service, as well as supernatural deeds, laying the hands on the sick, etc. The proof that it works for anyone, is that these uneducated fishermen, and those around them, changed the world in their generation. I have a quote by Martin Luther. Martin Luther being resisted by so many in Germany, in the 1500s, as he's leading the great Protestant Reformation from Germany, he had the armies of Europe standing against him, and his sentence was this, with God's Word, by just speaking God's Word, I can be more defiant, and I can be more boastful than they are with all of their power, swords, and guns. Now, we might have asked Martin to throw in a little humility in there, but I get the point. Because he was talking about not cowering before the threats of the armies of Europe, is what he was talking about. When he said boastful, he goes, I can be bold. I don't have to draw back at all. Top of page 2. Now, our call to be salt and light, is the call to impact society. And we will impact, we impact society in this age. And that impact is increasing, and will continue to increase until the Lord returns. And when the Lord returns, he will bring the impact to a whole other dynamic level. But here's the good news. The impact we make in this age, which is increasing, will have continuity to our lives, and the impact of the age to come. Now, that's another subject for another time. But my point is this. There's two positions in the church about our impact in society, and I believe both of them are wrong. Two very popular positions. The idea, well, things are going to get worse and worse, so why polish the brass on a sinking ship? Why bother impacting society? It's all going to go corrupt anyway. Millions of believers buy into that, why polish the brass of a sinking ship? Just, let's just evangelize, and not, let's not worry about being salt and light and transforming society. That's a very popular position, but I believe a non-biblical position. The other non-biblical positions on the far other extreme. It's going to get better and all of society is Christianized, and when everything is Christianized and victory triumphs and fullness, then Jesus will return. That's a non-biblical position as well. The biblical position is that the light is going to get lighter, but the darkness is going to get darker, and they will both increase simultaneously and come to fullness in the generation the Lord returns. That Jesus said in Matthew 13, verse 30, the wheat and the tares, the good and the bad, will both mature together at the end of the age. So we have great advances, but we don't have the full victory till the Lord returns. But there is continuity in our labors in this age, and our life and our labors in the age to come. Again, that's another subject for another time. But our call and this glorious privilege to be salt and light, it depends upon us maintaining our distinctiveness. Meaning, there's a lifestyle, Sermon on the Mount, that's a very distinct lifestyle the world does not buy into. Much of the church does not buy into it. We can't dumb down the lifestyle to relate to people better. We have to be true to the distinctives. And the second area of distinctives is the messaging. We can't kind of put the message in the back and just kind of pretend like we agree with all of them on their other, all their ways, and the message isn't really important as long as we connect with them and they like us. Then we'll sneak Jesus in there sooner or later. Now I don't believe that in every relationship the first thing you do is you tell them about Jesus. I believe that relationships grow and there's opportunity. That's legitimate. And when we meet with somebody that's entrenched in a particular sin or particular point of view, our first conversation isn't to confront that issue. Our first conversation about the Lord is to invite them into relationship and to tell the glory of the potential relationship and how he feels about them and how he loves them. And as they respond to that, we say, let me tell you, he's so loving. This is what he says about sexuality. He's so loving. This is what he says about judgment. This is what he says about justice. This is his position because he cares so much. The reason I say that, some people in the name of wanting to be faithful to the message, they meet somebody. This person's, you know, entrenched in a sexual addiction or certain lifestyle or some other kind of addiction and they feel mandated. The first thing they have to say is, you can't be a drug dealer and walk with God. Well, we can bring the drug dealer thing up in a minute. Let's tell them about Jesus first. Well, you know, I want to make sure I get it in there. Why does it have to be the first? He, when God first talked to you, he didn't talk to you about all your sins. He talked to you about the way he felt about you and the potential to relate to him. So as I'm talking about being faithful to the message, I'm talking about in the context of how Jesus did it. But a lot of folks, they draw back on the distinctives in the name of relating to people. Like, let's not really be straightforward ever about where we really stand. And the Lord says, if you do that, you're salt that's lost your saltiness or you're a lamp, an oil lamp that's under a bushel. The fire went out and the lamp and so did the light. You won't make any impact no matter how sincere you are. It won't work. You got to do it my way. Now, Jesus's teachings are very offensive to the mind. Not all of his teachings. Some of them are just, are very attractive to the mind. I mean, who doesn't like free forgiveness? I mean, I'll take that any day. Free forgiveness? Are you kidding? But that's not the whole message. His message and his values are so different. And I believe that Jesus's full message is not welcoming in the church at large, in our nation. Certainly there's thousands of congregations through the land that are being true to the message, but mostly the church talks about the positive and they ignore the negative and completely hide the negative. And that's not being salt and light. We don't have the option to negotiate on what Jesus says. If he says it, we say it. If he doesn't say it, we don't say it. We're loyal to him. That's where salt and light operates. Now C.S. Lewis popularized a phrase. He called it resistance thinking. And what he was talking about is, he said, we have to develop resistance thinking. He was talking about, even within the church, when the popular tide of religious sentiment rises in the church, we have to challenge the status quo in the church and compare that which is popular and that which has momentum with that which is biblical. And if we find it's not biblical, no matter how popular it is, we must have a mindset that's not afraid to challenge the status quo that has momentum and popularity that everybody's buying into. We have to be resistance thinkers. We have to make sure it's faithful to Scripture. He used the phrase, we have to be against the world, yet for the world. This paradox. The body of Christ, as salt and light, we are the number one champions for the cities and the nations of the earth. As the body of Christ, we have more insight into the destiny and the dignity of cities and nations, and we are calling out for it, and we're working for it, and we're sacrificing our lives that cities and nations and people groups would enter into their full destiny and full dignity. We're for the world. We have more insight, and we are the champions declaring how far they can go in God. But at the same time, we're against the world. We're testifying of the resistance against the God of love that's in the nations. Now it's easier to be one or the other, but the believers that are salt and light are both. We can't reduce Jesus's teachings to make them comfortable. We have to stand where he stands. I mean, even today, the one way to salvation makes people nervous. The reality of hell, the idea of judgment in the nations and increasing judgment. It's like, let's put that Jesus in the back room when the come over. The Jesus who taught self-denial. Well, that hasn't really worked that well in our Western culture. I mean, it's okay if we talk about a guy in a biography, but not really us today in our culture, self-denial. Beloved, that's his message. We have to bear witness to it. We cannot minimize the difficult parts or the parts that are difficult to our natural thinking. Paragraph two. Our message, I'm saying the same thing again, is both world-affirming and world-denying. As we preach the implications of the scandal of the cross. I mean the cross, the fact of the cross in its two applications, it's a scandal to the natural mind. The first application of the cross isn't just that we have free forgiveness. Again, people like that. It's bigger than that. The message is bigger. It's that only by relating to the man who died on the cross can the nations be cured only on his terms and under his leadership. A guy that died on the cross is the answer to the transformation of America and Europe and the nations. Yes, there is no other answer. There's secondary answers that come into the solution of fixing all the problems, but it begins with loyalty and coming under the leadership of a man who went to the cross. I don't know about that. That's a little too narrow. That's scandalous to think to the natural mind. That's the only way forward. Well, even more difficult than that is the second application of the cross. Jesus calls every one of his disciples to bear the cross of self-denial in their life. He goes, if you don't do this, you are not my disciple no matter what popular preaching tells you. You are not my disciple. If you don't bear the cross and walk in grace-empowered self-denial in your life according to the way Jesus taught it. So we have this twofold message. We are proclaiming what God's called the world to be and all of its destiny and dignity and glory, but at the same time we're declaring what the world has become in its depravity and we're preaching the cross as the central message. Paragraph C. This is a really important, particularly for young people, but for old people as well. The idea of blending, and it's just the particular way I'm defining the word blending, blending into the secular scene. A lot of believers are talking about, oh I've heard this for 20-30 years, not just in the last year or two, but crossing over. And particularly a lot in the subject of the arts. Music and drama, fashion, media, movies, the realm of the arts. And make no mistake about it, we are called to invade that realm of society as salt and light witnesses of Jesus. That's no question about that. But here's where the deception comes in. That people want to blend in to the secular scene, particularly the arts, but I'm only talking about the arts, it's in all the areas. And becoming like them so we can win them. That is a deception. That is anti-biblical and Jesus would say, don't you dare do that, you lose your saltiness. So I've talked to young people over the years. Okay, I want to get involved in the secular music scene and relate to them and bring Jesus. I go, that's good, but here's what I want to ask you. Are you gonna stand openly for the eight Beatitudes as the lifestyle that God approves? Talk about purity, talking about morality, talk about His view of life, death, abortion, sexuality, money. Are you gonna stand for that? Well eventually. Now I go, no, no, no. Don't go there. Blend in to win them, because they will win you. I've watched it for decades. I've watched 30 years of people blending in to win and they get won over. Their light goes out, it's under a bushel, and their salt loses its saltiness. And they were not salt in life, they just lost their testimony. If you're going to go over in those areas, particularly the arts, you must maintain your distinctive lifestyle, and you must maintain your distinctive message, or you're deceiving yourself. If you're gonna move over into that realm, hold the biblical standard of morality, the biblical standard of modesty. This is, well, if I do the modesty thing, I'm not gonna fit in any of those arenas. There you have it. If you can't do Jesus in your clothing, in your speech, and your morals, then you can't bring Jesus to people who aren't receiving it. Well, I was saying this last night. Wes Hall is a lawyer. He goes, you think it's bad in the arts, it's really bad in the law department. I mean, he goes, it's way worse there. And I thought, well, it's probably the medical, the law, the business, the restaurant industry. Fixing highways on the construction team is probably the same way. But my point is this. We are called to invade every sphere of society and to challenge the culture, but in doing it, we don't blend in to be like them, to win them, but we maintain our distinctiveness, or we don't go there till we're prepared to. We don't venture out as missionaries until we're sure about the message and our lifestyle. And we've got to be doing it in our private life. I mean, you can't be struggling with pornography in your private life and then going into the art, music, fashion industry to hold the standard for purity. Don't, don't do that just yet. Give it a little more time before you invade that sphere of society. Top of page three. Well, Jesus, he, he gives even greater implications of where this is going. Let's read Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 again. He goes, you're the light of the world, but let's look at this. He brings another dimension of potential. He says, a city on a hill can't be hidden. I mean, it's one thing for you to be light and salt to two or three people around you or 10 or 20. And that's kind of typically the numbers that individuals impact. Twos and threes, tens and twenties, and that's God's will. That's the way it works. It's not like you're not sold in light unless you touch thousands. No, touch twos and threes. Start in your home and in the marketplace in the neighborhood. Twos and threes, tens and twenties is what you want to be thinking. But it's not just an issue of individual lights, maintaining this godly character of the servant of the mount lifestyle, being faithful witnesses to the whole message of Jesus and following it up with demonstration of deeds, practical and supernatural deeds. We do that as individuals, but if a bunch of people do it together, then we are a city set on a hill that can't be ignored. It can't be missed. Whether they like it or don't like it, the city or the arena or the region, they will see it. They can't miss a whole bunch of lights in unity together. You know, just recently I met with some pastors in the area. I asked them to have a lunch and I said, hey, I got this vision. What if, and I'm not going to give it all right now, but we will know weeks and months ahead. I go, what if 10 or 20 churches, we all work together and we decided in Grandview that we were going to, by name specifically, take care of every single fatherless child, every child that doesn't have a father in the home. We're going to get involved in that family. We're going to locate them together. What if we located every widow, believer or unbeliever, and we go and adopt them. I mean 10 or 20 churches working together. What if we together worked on the Grandview school system? What if together, and I listed about 10 things, a lot of enthusiasm. I said that we don't, and there's a way we can do it, I'm not going to get into it right now, where we're not even mentioning different congregations or personalities. There's a way to do it. That as a city, I mean a whole bunch of believers together from different congregations, we're in a concerted effort where the majority are saying yes to the Sermon on the Mount, not all, the majority are saying yes to the message of Jesus, not just salvation, forgiveness, but the whole message, and the majority are willing to follow it up with deeds, practical and supernatural. Beloved, we'll be a lamp, we'll be like a city on a hill. It can't be ignored by the region, can't be. Some won't like it, others will, and others will just be perplexed by it, but it can't be ignored. Jesus said it. Well he said in verse 15 that men don't light a lamp, again it's the oil lamp that they light the wick with, you know, the flame, and then go put it under a basket because the flame will go out and the lamp, the light won't be seen. Now I think of paragraph A here of the Holy Spirit. I'm using that phrase, light a lamp, and I'm applying it to the Holy Spirit in our lives. I want to urge you, ask the Holy Spirit, say, Lord give me divine ideas for service. You're real smart, you know everybody, and you know everything. Give me some ideas of how to serve. Don't wait till you find the idea on the church organizational chart. I've, you know, for 30 years I've had people say, I don't know where I fit in the church, and what they mean is on the org chart. Well most the ministries in the body of Christ don't fit on a church org chart. Maybe 10%, I don't know the real number, but a small percent fit on the org chart. Most of them are Holy Spirit-initiated ministries throughout the community, and we need to ask people, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do, and who do you want me to reach out to? You don't have to ask anybody's permission. You don't have to get a meeting with the pastors and say, hey, can I do this? The Great Commission is the Great Permission. You're already commanded to go do it. Well, one of the young women here, our congregation, Stavetta, she's in her early 30s, and she saw the kids out the window, 10 of them, they're 12 year old, about 10 of them, at the bus stop. Every morning they're at the bus stop to go to the junior high. So the Holy Spirit nudges her. She walks out there. Hi, my name's Stavetta. They look at her. They're, they're 12. She's in her 30s, like, what do you want? I want to pray with you. You know, I imagine, most of them are boys. So these 10 at this bus stop, 8 of them are boys. I can imagine them saying, uh-uh, it's not gonna happen, not here, not on my watch. Well, after a few weeks, she went out every morning. After a couple weeks, they started warming up to her, and now she's been doing it for nearly a year, every single morning. And now, every single time, she goes, there's no exceptions. They, you know, before the bus comes, I mean, what they went prayer for is to score in the soccer team, get the girlfriend, do good at school, but then it becomes personal about the home life, problems, crisis, and they don't pray, but they ask her to, and she does, and they listen, and now she's been doing it every morning for almost a year. She is their pastor. Now some of the moms have come out to check out who this woman is. We heard you're from IHOP. What do you guys do over there? Well, now the moms have given her the good seal of approval. They like it. And so she's been doing this for a year. Now, we're not gonna find bus stop ministry on the church org chart. It's not gonna happen. Another lady, she asked the Holy Spirit, about a year ago or whatever. She's in her 80s. She's 85 years old. Lord, I got some years left. I want to witness this to people. I want to touch the people. So she did similar, but not the same thing. She made cookies a couple times a week. She's been doing it for a year or two or something like that. I don't know the exact number. Goes down on her porch, and the neighbor kids come the same time at the same days. I don't, it's not every day, but several days a week. And she has this little community of 10, 12, 13 year olds. And the moms come and check it out. You want the moms to come check it out. That's good. Matter of fact, it's better to go tell the moms on the front end. And she talks to them and tells them stories. They eat for 10 minutes. They eat their cookie. They run. She's been doing it for a while. She's their pastor. We're not going to have cookie on the front porch ministry on the org chart. It's not gonna happen. Ask the Holy Spirit. What do you want me to do? Light my lamp. But here's the issue. Here's the issue. If he lights your lamp, and I'm using that phrase in a, in a kind of a strange way. If he lights your lamp in that way, you've got to be faithful to follow through. Because what happens down the bus stop ministry, the first week it's exciting. You know, you're thinking about it. You're telling your friends. You go down there. It's novel. It's new. But about a year later, it's freezing out. She goes, it's freezing. It's 10 degrees, you know, in January. It's out there freezing. She stayed up late the night before, but she gets somebody that walks out there. Why am I doing this? I mean, sooner or later, because of the smallness, because 99% of all ministries, 99.9% of all ministries in history are really small. 99.999% of all ministries in all of history are really, really small. That's God's way. Don't despise it. Don't wait for something big to do it to the twos and threes. Let it grow to tens and twenties and ebb and flow between two and twenty, whatever. The problem is, is that it's little. It's routine. It's mundane. It's tiring. Will you stay with it? That's part of not putting your light under a bushel. It means you stay with it. You show up so the kids at the bus stop see you. Let your light shine before men. In this case, it's before 12-year-old men. Let your light shine. Show up and serve them. It doesn't mean brag about your ministry. Let your light shine before men. It means say the truth and serve where people are actually interacting with you. Do it not in just your imagination or your prayer closet. Actually do it in real life before real people. That's what it means to shine before men. Some people think, well, Jesus is telling us to, you know, He told us in verse 5 to be meek. Here in verse 16, He's telling us to boast. Shine before men. He's saying show up and speak up and do it consistently and do it with humility. Let's look at bottom of page 3. Just real brief here, verse 17 and 18. Now I imagine that the disciples go, okay, we're in. Again, this is my own questions I'm putting into the dialogue. So, we're going to be salt and light. We're going to change the nations. Awesome. Now we're going to do the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to be faithful to the message. We're going to follow it up with deeds. Okay, good. Here's my question, Jesus. How far is this thing going? I mean, are we just going to, are we going to touch Grandview? How much are we going to touch Grandview? Are we going to touch Kansas City? Are we going to touch? How far is it going with the whole body of Christ? How serious are you, Jesus, to this commitment to transform the nations? Through weak people, a salt and light. And Jesus' answer, chapter 5, verse 17. He goes, don't think for one minute that I am going to minimize any of the promises in my prophets. I'm going to do what I said in the prophets. I am going to fill the earth with my glory. I'm taking this to the end, to the full degree. And don't think for a minute I'm going to minimize, in the grace of God, my requirement for my people to say yes to righteousness. If righteousness in the Old Testament had one level of expression, in the New Testament, with the indwelling spirit, we can do righteousness on the outside and righteousness on the inside. Jesus said, know this, I am coming in the whole dimension of grace to empower you to walk in greater righteousness from the heart, which he then goes, explains in the next verses. And I'm going to bring salt and light to every single part of the earth, for my glory will cover the earth. Go read Isaiah. Go read the prophets. Yes, I'm going to bring it to fullness. Top of page 4, the last verse. I'll be brief on this, just leave you with the notes to read. Now I imagine the disciple saying, okay, you're going to, salt and light, got it. You are going to bring righteousness to fullness, but you're going to bring transformation to fullness in all the nations. Salt and light, got it. This thing is big and you're going to use us. Whoa. And where are your main strategy? The body of Christ through history. Okay, good. This is exciting. My life has meaning here. Okay, what about me? Individually, me. What place will I have in your kingdom? Me, specific. Not just salt and light and everybody and all the nations and me. And the Lord answers, He goes, well, what role do you want in my kingdom? Well, I want the biggest role I could have, whatever it is. I want to know what my role is at this age, but what about the age to come? What place will I have? Not necessarily what function, but what place. Now we all ask the question, what role or place do we have in this age of the kingdom? But very few ask what role or place they will have in the age to come. And that's the answer Jesus gives. He skips to the age to come. Because it's clear from other passages, which I have even here in the notes, that our role and place in the kingdom that men see in this age is mostly very small and with very few things. We minister to twos and threes and tens and twenties and the Lord says, that's good. That doesn't satisfy a lot of people, but it satisfies the Lord because that's the way he runs his kingdom. Most of what we do in this age is small. So Jesus doesn't answer that question that I'm imposing on the text, I admit. But Jesus says, I'll tell you about the role, the place you're going to have in the age to come. How about that? Because it lasts a lot longer anyway. Okay. Now Jesus gives in verse 19, I consider verse 19, the most ignored warning of Jesus to the church. The whole Bible. It's the most ignored warning that Jesus gave to the board again, church. And I consider verse 19, the most ignored promise that Jesus gave the board again, church. This verse gives us this terrifying warning and this glorious promise, but it's mostly completely ignored by the church. And this is right mainstream sermon on the Mount teaching of Jesus. This isn't some side teaching. Let's look at it just for a moment. Jesus starts off verse 19, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments that I've been talking about and emboldens men to break them. Yes, he's born again. He'll have a resurrected body, but he will be least in my kingdom in the age to come. I'll love him equally, but he will be least in terms of stature and function and authority. He will be least. I'll love him equal, but he'll be least in those other ways. Let's look at that again. Whoever, anybody, no matter if they're very famous, they can have the biggest TV ministry where millions are listening to them. And in this age, it doesn't matter how famous and popular they are. If they break the least of these commandments consistently, because we all break them occasionally, he means that they don't care about him. They just ignore those commandments. And they emboldened other people to do it. And the way that men teach people to ignore the commands of God is always under the banner of grace teaching. It's a saying that I say week after week, this distorted grace message, that's a false teaching. Little bit of it's true. Jesus will give you free salvation. But in terms of lifestyle, it's a distorted message. It's a false teaching. But it fills the land. These men are emboldened, these born again teachers are emboldened people to ignore part of God's commandments, self-denial, discipline, prayer, fasting, giving, humility. These things are not pleasing to the flesh. They call it the grace of God. I'm into grace as though Jesus' teaching on self-denial was anti-grace because Jesus didn't get it. Jesus said if they do it, they will be least in my kingdom. I love them. Maybe they're popular now. It will be different then. But let's go the other extreme. Whoever, anybody, the poorest, the most ungifted, the most unlearned, the guy has no following. He has nothing happening in his circumstances, but he seeks to walk out these beatitudes and he makes them known wherever he has opportunity. Because all of us have a teaching ministry. Most of our teaching ministry is in twos and threes, but it is a teaching ministry. So this guy, unknown, very few gifts, no money, no education, no following, completely ignored by everybody, but he's trying to obey these eight beatitudes and their implications throughout the New Testament. And he teaches them. He only has one person at a time. He tells the bus driver. Nobody else will listen to him, but he teaches them. He will get the shock of his life when in the age to come, the Lord says to that man or to that woman, what you did I consider great in my eyes. And there will be implications in terms of their role and their position and their function. Now somebody goes, Ooh, Jesus is calling us to be great in verse 19. How could he do that? Because in verse five, he told us to be humble. Now he tells us to be great. Is he contradicting himself? No. Beloved God designed our spirit to long for greatness. You can't repent of the desire to be great. You can only repent of seeking it in the wrong way. The great God designed your spirit to long for greatness. If you don't long for greatness, something is shut down and broken. We just have to do it in the right way through humility and servanthood at the right time in the age to come before the right eyes. The Lord's got to do it the right way. I'm into greatness. I'm taking this serious. Because I'm trying to get ahead. I'm going to push you on this. I love you. I want you to do it, but I got a little something in it for me. Okay. I believe this first be God invites anybody to greatness. It has nothing to do with the size of your accomplishments in this age. It has to do with the size of your heart response. You can have no accomplishments, but you're going after this at the heart level. You'll be great. Paragraph C, whoever doesn't teaches it again, most of our teaching ministries in twos and threes. It's informal settings, but it's still teaching. It's in your home. I've been teaching the Bible on a weekly basis for 40 years. I just did the math on that. And my anniversary was a couple months ago when I started my weekly Bible study. When I was 16 years old, scared to death, my youth leader made me do it. I got up there and I had 10, 14 year olds every week or 20, whatever the number was. And I'd get up. I was so scared. I have 20 pages of notes for 20 minutes of preaching. And I ran out of things to say. I still had two minutes to go after 20 pages. I'd get up there and say, my name is Mike Beckle. I am very glad to be here today. I was terrified, but I started, well, anyway, that's not a real point that I just had a memory glitch there. Here's my point in 40 years of teaching on a regular basis. Clearly most of my teaching in 40 years is in twos and threes. Yes. I have meetings like this a time or two a week, whatever the number is, but over 40 years, most of it is in twos and threes. It's at tables, cars in my home, walking on the street and a restaurant. So my point is don't wait for a microphone to think of your teaching ministry, teaching twos and threes, because if you get a microphone, you'll still be teaching mostly twos and threes. I never graduated from that and I don't want to. D this is terrifying. I'm just reading D just, I did it last night and this morning the other services just to scare me. No, I mean, it just got me. Jesus warned. He goes, if you minimize the least of my commandments and you tell others to, you will be least. If you minimize the least, you will be least. I look at that. I go, Oh, I don't want to minimize anything. And again, the way men do it is by saying under the grace of God, this is how we're supposed to live. And you get a follow. You could get an applause. You get a lot of people approving it. But I tell you, you're minimizing the commands of God, promoting spiritual laziness and passivity all in the name of grace. Let's go to paragraph F end with this. I compare our ministry. This is not a joke. This is not a kind of a cute little thing. Our ministry in this age on the earth, our ministry assignment, whether it starts in our home and our families and our schools and the marketplace in friendship circles, our ministries, everything, not just quote the ministry of the org chart at the church. I compare our ministry in this age on the earth, our 70 year, 80 year ministry as our internship, because your ministry assignment on this earth with the physical resurrected material body on the earth, you will have a teaching ministry on the earth again. That's a thousand year assignment. Beloved, I want to do well in my 70 year internship because I want the Lord to see my internship and give me an assignment on the earth in my physical material body resurrected. I want an assignment. That's just, that's a response to faithfulness in this one. My point is don't get lost in this assignment. Be faithful in little things, serve people, follow through on the ideas. God gives you stand boldly for truth. Walk in the AP attitudes. No matter if nobody else recognizes it or not. I tell you, you will do well in your internship. Billy Graham's in his nineties. He's coming to the end of his internship. He's still an intern. God's not going to judge Billy Graham evaluated by how many stadiums he filled, how big his stadiums are. He's going to judge Billy Graham evaluated on how big his heart is and his response. Beloved, let's do well in our internship. Let's be salted light now. And beloved, we'll be shocked when we find out we're salted light forever. Have different applications to it. We'll always be the vessels and the conduits of power to the earth. Amen. Let's stand. So I'm going to, I'm going to lead you in prayer. I want to ask you to ask the Holy spirit. Is there any issue in my life of which I'm losing my saltiness? And it's in the beatitudes. Is there an area of purity, meekness, being a peacemaker, enduring persecution. Look at those beatitudes. Of course, the whole amount. Is there any area I'm saying no to your leadership in? I mean, I'm stumbling and coming up short in a lot of areas, but I'm saying yes to the Lord. I'm saying those areas are saying yes to the Lord. You're, you're reaching to obey is what the Lord wants. And I got plenty of areas. I'm coming up short, but I'm reaching to say yes. And that's what the Lord cares about. Is there any area where you refuse to come public on where your stand is? I mean, these issues of sexuality and judgment and hell and one way of salvation. The Lord says, I want your light out from the bushel. I want you to come public with what you believe. I don't mean you've got to force it into every conversation. And are you following through on the deeds? The Lord sparked your heart with, or did they get boring after a few months? Because the numbers were so small. They got mundane. The Lord says, be faithful. You gotta be faithful to those deeds. So I'm going to pray and lead you in prayer and ask the Holy spirit. Is there any area, any area where I'm losing the saltiness? Let me just give you a thought. I say yes to you. I want to obey you in that area. Is there any area I'm hiding my light under a bushel, which is the same thing as losing your saltiness. It's the same concept. Fire's going out. I'm hiding it. Lord, I want the light clearly showing in front of the twos and threes you put me in front of. I want to follow through with the deeds of service. Just take one minute, 60 seconds. This could be one of the most important 60 seconds in this next few months right now. The Lord might give you an idea that tells you where the saltiness is being lost. I want to be salt and light in this age and the age to come. We want to do this all the way. If you would like prayer for that, or because I'm just saying I want grace or someone to agree with me on this, or you would like prayer for anything, physical healing or a life situation. I want to invite you just to come and stand on these lines. We're just going to go into worship for a few moments. I'm going to invite all of you, many of you that love the Lord in this room to come out and pray for people. Pray for two people, one minute each before you slip out. So everybody gets prayed for at least once or twice. Pray for two people. Just take a minute each. Ask the Lord, just agree with him for grace to touch the heart.