Weekly Sermons

Shine, Christians, Shine!

Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word, Lord, and let there be light
(Chorus of Shine Jesus Shine by Graham Kendrick)

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” - Jesus in John 8:12

Last time we saw that if we follow Jesus and His upside down teachings, we can expect trouble. Today we will see that as we follow Him, we will get to have a preserving and light giving influence in the world.  

Read Matthew 5:13-16

Followers of Jesus ‘season’ life on the earth - V. 13

Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? - Job 6:6a

How do we do ‘salt’ the earth? By showing up and living out our faith in Jesus, loving others like He would if He was physically here. Jesus is spiritually present when His committed followers are physically present!

Make sure you see clearly that Jesus did not say you are just the salt of the church, but of the entire earth.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.    - Col. 4:5-6

Make sure you don’t lose your ‘saltiness’ by damaging or ruining your testimony.  
Interestingly, pure salt cannot lose its saltiness! Sodium Chloride is a stable compound. But Jesus knew that most salt they used came from salt marshes and contained impurities mixed in.

But Jesus puts this warning to us here to guard our testimonies, because He wants us to make the maximum impact we can on the lives of others, and have maximum reward when the Day of Christ comes!

Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward!    - 2 John 1:8

Followers of Jesus ‘light up’ the world - V. 14-16

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. - John 9:5

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.    - Proverbs 4:18

Your Christian faith will never grow to maturity if your aren’t sharing good words and works with others. You will always just be a flickering flame.

These pews are filled with the light of the world – God’s plan for the world to see goodness, to hear truth, to learn about salvation through Jesus – don’t leave your light here – Shine, Christians, Shine!