Salt Always Makes a Difference

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. This is Salt. And if you're familiar with the NBC hit TV show, This Is Us, I kind of got the idea, the title from that. If you ever want to cry a little bit, cut on This Is Us.

It never fails. Every episode I watch, I'm shedding a few tears here and there, you know. And the idea of the show is this family and this couple back in the 70s when they met and they get married and they have kids and the kids grow up. So you have these flashbacks of them when they're young with the kids or before they had kids and they're dating and they're connecting the dots between the adult kids and what they're going through. And it kind of, you know, the whole event surrounds what they're doing, you know, like how they're dealing with life, how their childhood affected them, how close they were and how far apart they were and all the things.

But the idea of the show is this is us. This is who we are. Look at our family. So today I'm saying this is us. This is us, Salt Church.

This is our family. And I want to talk a little bit about why Salt Church exists. And I'm going to carry us through a three-part series in this. Next week I'll be talking about better together, us being together, how we as a church are better together. The following week I'll talk about the commission is the mission.

The commission is the mission. So I'll talk a little bit about mission and getting out of the walls of our church. But I kind of want you to get you an introduction of why we call ourselves Salt. And for many of you, you probably are thinking, well, it comes natural. You chose the title of this church, Salt, because you're near the beach and somehow it applies to the Bible.

And it just kind of works. But what's interesting about it is the title was really hard to come up with of our church. The actual Salt Church logo, title, whatever you want to call it. The name of our church was actually, it took a lot of time to kind of figure that out. Because in my heart, the one word that really stuck out to me is life, is life-giving.

When Jesus gives that account when he's teaching the people, he says, I have come to give you life and life abundantly. And that really struck a chord with me. That was a powerful, powerful statement that God gave. That it's not religion that does it for you. It's not just doing church on Sunday.

But there's something special about Christ. When you have Christ, there's something life-giving about it. And I wanted a church that really tapped into life-giving. So I'm like throwing all these names around. You know, there's already a big life church and life, life, life, life.

Like life is really a big topic within the church. And so many people, even within the church, are not experiencing life. They don't have the fullness that God, that Jesus talked about, because they're still strapped down in religion. They're strapped down in being good enough. And I want to talk about that a little bit today.

I want to talk about what it means to be salt. And the title of my message today is, Salt Always Makes a Difference. Salt, so the name salt came as I was staring at myself in a mirror in the bathroom, of all places. It wasn't like this big, you know, cloud in the sky. Oh, salt, that's it, you know, anything like that.

But I was looking at myself in the bathroom, and I believe Miranda was in the living room. She was getting ready. I think we were getting prepared for church that Sunday. We were getting ready to go out to church. And we were kind of, you know, it was before we started Salt.

So we were going to some, you know, moving around, looking at some different churches, getting some ideas, talking to some pastors, talking to some leaders and things like that. Just, I was constantly just trying to figure out, what are we going to do? How are we going to do this? What's it going to look like? God, what are you envisioning?

But I knew that I had a passion. And that's all I knew. I had this passion to start a church. And I could see it. And I could see all of you.

And I could even see more in the future. I mean, there's this vision of people coming in the door, just filling seats and really experiencing life in Jesus. And that was my passion. And it's still my driving force is the vision of Salt Church. But that word salt came to me while I was looking at myself in the bathroom.

And I was like, God, you have really called me to this? Have you really? Is this just me or is this you? And I could hear Jesus make that statement. You are the salt of the earth.

You are the salt of the earth. And that takes place in Matthew, the gospel. There's four accounts. I know most of you probably know that. But for those of you who are new to church, there's four accounts of the gospel.

And Jesus is teaching on a hillside. And he's sharing this statement with people. And here's the question. Everybody desires purpose. Why am I here?

What is my purpose? Can I really make a difference in this world? Because I really want to. Just me. Am I just, you know, a small, insignificant part of this world?

Am I really that important? And on the other side of it, people are like, you know, my life is just so busy. And I got so much going on. How many of you can relate with that? Ah.

And I really want to make a difference. But, you know, this is this. You know, I got all this stuff going on. And I know God's calling me to something, but I got all this stuff going on. Or maybe you don't, you have no relationship with God at all.

And you're like, I'm just working through life or going through life or hitting this and hitting that. And I feel so busy. But all this stuff that I'm doing that I think is significant is kind of meaningless. It's meaningless because, you know why? Because there's something in us all.

There's something that desires purpose, that hungers for something greater than ourselves. And we don't want to just live life, be born, get an education, have kids, and then retire. And then, well, here I am, God. Because all of us crave something significant. People live their entire lives with good jobs, good retirements, good families, and have everything that would suggest that life is great.

Yet, they still feel like they're missing some type of purpose. And that's why we're here. That's why we're here. Because the good news of the gospel is that there is more. There is more.

And Jesus has more for you. And in Matthew 5, 13, he says, You are the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. Now, that might not mean too much to us today. But that statement changed people's lives.

And that day, it changed their world, their entire perspective of themselves and their calling. Because in context, these people were not kingly people. These people were not priests. Although there were Pharisees in the background, scoping over. These people were not Pharisees.

They were not people of the law. They knew the law, but they weren't the elite class. Because the Son of God, for sure, the Son of Man, for sure, according to them, would come through some type of priestly structure. Or come through some type of monarchy structure. Or some type of castle situation, right?

Or some kind of temple situation. For sure, the Son of God would come through that. But that wasn't the case. And here's this man on a mountainside, not in the temple, not in Rome, but he's on a mountainside among the least of these. Vine workers, ground workers, people who were just regular old people trying to make a living.

And he makes this statement, you are the salt of the earth. Now why would salt, why would that idea of salt be so significant to the people in that day? Because salt was very precious. They understood salt. We primarily understand salt as a flavor enhancer, right?

I mean, we put it in our food and we all have high blood pressures as a response to too much salt because we like flavor. My wife was watching the British Bake Off yesterday and they were talking about British palates as opposed to American palates and how British palates, they don't really like all the flavors we have. And they make this really sweet, sugary stuff. And we love sugar, right? We like our pies and our cakes and stuff like that.

And they're like, oh no, no, no, right? They think it's absolutely disgusting. We do not want to even touch that. You know, the American pie? No way.

You know, so you have, you have these thoughts, you know, in context, people see things differently. For us, man, we love salt. We love sugar. We love all those things. We think about flavor when we think of salt.

But for them, it was primarily not a flavor enhancer, but a preservative. A preservative. And it built their economy. Think about it. This was Israel.

Israel. This was the Middle East. It's hot. And they had food. And they, and they liked meat.

Because they had a lot of sacrificing going on for forgiveness of sins. So they had a lot of meat stored up. So how did they use that? They had salt. Salt was a precious commodity.

And they would, they would take these batches of salt that were on plants that were taken from the salt sea. And, and they would, they would pour it over and rub it in. And most of, some of you even know, like when you're preserving meat, you rub it in the meat and, and you just put the salt, you smear it in and you push it over and then you, and then you have it there. And that's what they thought of when he said salt. He says, I am a, I am the salt of the earth.

I am the preservative of the entire world. But me, man, nobody even knows my name hardly. Only the people around me in my small village know who I am. And you're telling me, son of God, Jesus, or whoever you are, when they were listening to this teaching, he says, you are the salt of the earth. And for us, you know, just, just kind of to give you an example, some of your bakers in here.

And, and even for us, we, we need salt, right? We need salt in our food and we understand it's a flavor enhancer. And I don't know if you've ever, has anybody in here ever baked bread? Like homemade bread. Yeah.

We got a lot of bread people, homemade bread people in here. And the ingredients, when you look at the ingredients of bread, you know, you got flour, you got like all these other things that I don't, I don't know anything about baking, but I, so I can't really explain them to you. But one thing I can explain is there's always salt in the, in the ingredients. And it's not much salt. So a teaspoon of salt for a whole loaf of bread is what's required to have, to, to bake a loaf of bread.

But if you leave that table, that teaspoon of salt, it's a teaspoon, it's not a tablespoon, it's a teaspoon, a teaspoon of salt. Out of the equation, you don't want to eat it. Trust me. It tastes like cardboard. You have to throw the whole thing away.

But it just takes a little bit of salt. It takes a little bit of salt. And, and, and those of you who bake, you understand that principle like just a little bit of salt goes a long way. It goes a long, long way. And it's important for us to understand that because it, it's, it's a way of us discovering our significance.

And even back in the Old Testament, Genesis 18, we see this very same concept when Abraham is pleading with God for Sodom. Sodom was a city. It was a very evil city. And we don't know a lot about Sodom. We have a few accounts of Sodom.

The prophet Ezekiel talks about Sodom for a second. It says this, and Ezekiel, this is not in your notes. Now, this was the sin of your sister, Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned. And they did not help the poor or needy.

So this was a city that didn't care anything for the poor, didn't care anything for the needy. And even Josephus, extra biblical, he's not even a Christian. He's not even a follower of Christ. He was a Roman historian that was Jewish that wrote about Sodom, this city, Sodom. And what we can take from Sodom, it was a very, very evil, selfish city.

But it was also a very wealthy, wealthy, wealthy city. And we don't know how they made their living. All we know is that they were wealthy, some suggest, because they were by the Salt Sea, by the Dead Sea, that they actually had minerals and salt, an economy that people didn't have to work. They made a lot of money and didn't have to work. And they become lazy, they became selfish, and they became evil as a result.

In fact, some historians suggest that, or historians talk about these structures that were placed outside the city. They were these sleeping units so that travelers would come through. And they didn't like outsiders. This city was so selfish, was so evil, they didn't like outsiders. So they would put these beds up, and when people would come through, they would go into these places and rest for the night.

And by law, anybody had the ability or the privilege to go in and beat these people up, rape them, murder them, do whatever they wanted to. Everything goes, because we are a perfect people. We are a wealthy people. We are an established, beautiful, wonderful city, and we do not want any beggars to come in. We do not want any travelers to come in to tarnish what we have going on.

So they became very, very evil and very, very selfish. And God had enough of it. And he says, I'm going to take this city out. And then Abraham pleading with God. Because like us, and this is just me, this isn't any commentary or anything.

I'm just thinking about what Abraham was thinking. He says, what if there was just 50 righteous people in the city? Could you spare it? Because this is a good city. God, there's a lot of money in the city, you know?

We can use that for your glory, right? I'm just thinking that, you know? Why don't we just spare the city if there's just 50 righteous people? God says, okay, if there's 50 righteous people, I will spare the city. And couldn't find 50 righteous people.

How about 40? How about 30? How about 20? And he just was pleading with God. How about this many?

How about, because he's like, you know, I'm probably not going to find 50. I'm probably not going to find 40. But how about, how about 10 people? Just 10 righteous people in this city. God, will you spare the city?

And we see the gracious heart of God say, Abraham, I will spare the city if there's just 10 righteous people. And unfortunately, the city was so evil that there was not even 10 righteous people. But the point of that story is not to say that these evil people need to perish necessarily, but to show the heart and grace of God for just 10 righteous people. He says, you are the salt of the earth. Just, just 10 people, just, just little you.

Just a few people. He would have probably gone down to one person in that passage in that particular event in history. He would have gone to one person. If that one righteous person was there, I'm sure he would have been willing to spare the city. And God in his sovereignty has a desire to use our church, to use the church, to reach a people that is lost for him.

And he's holding back. He is holding back his judgment because God is a just God. And he wants to justify the sin that is happening. All the things around the world that we can't explain, we can't figure out why God, he says, Hold on. It's getting ready to happen.

I'm going to judge the people. But because of you, my church, I'm holding back. I'm holding back. Because a little bit of salt preserves the entire world. And I'm holding back for you.

And then Peter says, talks a bit about that. He says, you know, God is holding his raft back. He's pulling his raft back so that that one can be saved. And we, as a church, have a responsibility. Have a responsibility.

It is a powerful responsibility. It should be an exciting responsibility. It should give us joy because it's life. Because he desires to see us be salty people, salty people through this world. And then he gets to the second part of Matthew 5, 13.

He says, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. So there is good salt and there is bad salt. The good salt can be used for the glory of God and can do extraordinary things beyond what you can think or imagine. It can fill you with joy, unspeakable and full of glory, as the scriptures say.

But then there's salt that people have that can be used. But if it has no saltiness, if it's not flavored, if it's not a preservative used for the kingdom, it's not worth anything to be thrown out on the ground. And that day they understood that as well. Because salt, when it lost its preserving factors, when it lost the flavor of the salt, was thrown out on paths, was thrown up on roofs. And even one commentator suggests, and some translations suggest, is thrown out on manure.

Because the roads in that day had lots of animals and there was manure and they would throw it out on the road and throw it on top of the manure. And that's all it was good for. Your salt, what he was saying, if it isn't salty, your salt is as good as being set on a pile of manure. He wants you to be salty. Salty, a preservative, a flavor.

He doesn't want us to just simply exist. Nobody wants to simply exist. We all want purpose, we all want meeting, and no one wants to just wander through life, with or without being fully devoted followers of Christ. All of us want to be and make our lives count. We want satisfaction in life.

Everybody wants satisfaction in life. Being satisfied, what does that mean? I think John Piper put it best in his book that really challenged me. I read this about six or seven years ago, maybe longer than that, maybe it's more like ten years ago. This book came out, and it was such a challenging book about our calling to be and glorify God.

It says this, he says this, and don't waste your life. Don't waste your life. It was becoming clearer and clearer that if I wanted to come to the end of my life and not say I've wasted it, and nobody wants to waste their life, right? Then I would need to press all the way in, all the way up to the ultimate purpose of God and join him in it. But if my life was to have a single, all satisfying, unifying passion, it would have to be God's passion.

And then he goes on to say this, the people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have mastered or who have been mastered by one great thing, one great thing. So our desire is to introduce people at Salt Church to this thing. Because there is one all satisfying, all purposeful, all life-giving, just passion and packed full of the purpose of God, the idea of this God that we all are seeking or this thing that we're all seeking past ourselves. Because salt heals, salt produces, salt is fruitful, it preserves the world. Why?

Life-giving. So that you can experience life to the full, so that those who don't know him can experience life to the full. Ephesians 5, 14, 16 says this, Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. Because the days are evil. See, the church is an open door of opportunity that God has given in such an evil world.

The world is evil. How many of you agree with me on that? You know, when we see everything going on around us, yes, we're blessed here. But I mean, and we're going through our problems and issues. But we just see around the world, all around the world, people are just evil.

Evil structures, human involvement. Things are happening all around us. Oppression, fear, hate, all these things in the world. And God has given this opportunity. I love this word opportunity.

In the original Greek, the word is kairos. Kairos, an opportune or supreme moment is what that means. It's a passing instant in which an opening appears that must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved. How many sci-fi nuts do we have in here today? And all I can think of, we got one.

All right. We got two in the back. You know, the tech team, all of them raise their hand. Okay. Yeah.

Sci-fi nuts. I mean, and even if you're not, you've seen those movies where you have the temporary portal appear in front of you and you're kind of running to get in. Everybody's kind of jumping through and, oh, no, it's going to close. We're going to be left in this alternate reality in this other world. We need to get through it, you know.

And in the same way, I know it's kind of silly, but in the same way in the spiritual realm, this is what this word is talking about. There's this temporary spiritual opening that God invites the church to be, that opening. And on the other side, it's an opening for those who don't know him, an opening, an opportunity that God has given us. And we need to push through that opportunity with force and take hold of it and let God do some things, some amazing things. So Salt Church exists and has taken the opportunity that God has placed before them to give people an open door to experience the fullness of life in Christ.

That's why we exist, that we exist to lead people into fully devoted relationships with Jesus. That's why we exist, because we know, we know the fullness of life that people can have, whether they have been walking with God for a while but never have really stepped into that fullness or they've never known Jesus before. And we are here to help people take this. Next Steps of Following Christ. Because I believe, if you're somebody out there that's like, you know, I know Jesus, I know Jesus, I've even received Him as my Savior, but you haven't quite really experienced what I'm talking about, that's why we're here.

That's why we're here, to help guide you to take those next steps into the fullness. And this stuff is very counterintuitive, because God doesn't do things the way men does. And we like to take men's thinking, and place it in God's thinking. Say, God, why don't you do it this way? And we question God, we ask God, and we're so, you know, pulled one way or the other, and we're fighting it.

But if we are open, and we listen to God, and believe what He says, number one, I don't think people believe what God says anymore, because they don't even believe the Bible is inerrant anymore. And we're dealing with a culture that doesn't trust, or have faith in what God says. But if we trust and have faith in Him, and this isn't a lesson about the inerrancy of the Bible today, I can save that for another sermon another day. But I'm asking you, have faith, be a child, open up your hearts, and look at the Word of God. Look at these historical documents, these scriptures that were put in place.

These are real things that happen. This is God's message to us, so open up our hearts. And let's see, why we exist as a church is straight from scripture, straight from what God wanted for His people. So there's four things I want to talk about today, just some practical steps to take. First of all, we have to follow Christ.

If you jot that down in your notes, if you're following your notes. Because God is in the business of making followers. God is in the business of making fully devoted followers of Christ. And we exist first to make followers. And I need you to get this before anything else.

Why we do what we do. Why did Salt Church start as a church? Why do we do certain things, certain ways, based on your theological or religious background? Some of you ask, why do we do what we do? Why do we create environments that are attractional?

Why do we create great hospitality? Why do we do all the things that we do? Why do we put so much effort into these things? Because we are about new people. Our first and foremost thing, when you walk in here, if you're new with us today, we're about you.

We want you to be here with us. And our Sunday morning experience is designed specifically to introduce people to Jesus. Whether you've been a follower of Jesus or you've never been a follower of Jesus, you're still trying to figure it out. We design our services to do that. And we do four things.

If you want to write these down, they're not in your notes. We believe it's a place of celebration. Sunday morning is a place of celebration. The psalmist said, I was glad when they said to go into the house of the Lord. So we want to create a place where you want to come to church.

I think it's exciting. I want to come to church every week. And you're getting out and you're like coming. And we want to create a place of celebration. To celebrate the goodness that we experience in the week.

And then inspiration. Inspiration is the presence of God. We desire to experience the presence of God in this place. This is what we're, every day we pray before the service. Our dream team gets together.

We started doing, by the way, if you're interested in being on the dream team, we do a pre-service now, which is really cool. So you can have the same experience in a condensed form, but the same experience before serving on that Sunday. And today we did that. We got together and we asked that God's presence be in this place. And we pray that every week because we want people to be inspired to follow God.

That it not just be my clever words, which are not clever, but the power of God. The power of God working through the message, working through the music, because we desire the presence of God in our house. Can I get a good amen on that? We desire the presence of God. My God, we are here for you.

We are inspired by him. And then we are prepared, preparation, the teaching. The reason I teach the way I do is so that you can have practical things to take you with, application to take with you every week and apply it to your everyday life. So we do it, we prepare you, we equip you, we prepare you for even outside the church and where you're going. And then salvation, most importantly, salvation.

This is a salvation moment that we invite God into this church. We celebrate together and we prepare you for the week so that we've designed all of this for the first step in that salvation. Because here's the thing, Romans 10, 13, 14 says this in a New Living Translation. It says, for everyone who calls on my name or calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And we believe that.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord in their heart, in their life, I give my life to you, you are mine, Lord, I am yours. Here, take my life, take my heart. Whoever calls on the name, meaning rescue me, Lord, from this, rescue me, save me, save me from this, will be saved. And then, as quoted from the prophet Joel, but how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him, right? So you have to believe in him first.

You have to know about him. You have to figure out who he is. And that's why we teach and we do the things we do, right? And how can they believe in him unless they've heard about him? So what are we doing?

We're telling people about them. Now, it's not that nobody, most people in America probably know about Jesus, but do they know Jesus? So that's why we're here. We really want them to know Jesus, not just know about Jesus. And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?

See, that's what salt is. We're people who tell others about Jesus. And then we offer a next step, a door, an in-row to experience this fullness that we were talking about. Because Jesus didn't just want us to be, you know, people that knew him by knowledge or people that even initially knew him. He wanted us to be fully devoted followers.

He wanted to carry us down to being sold completely out for him. So many people are not sold completely out. So they're not experiencing all that God has for them. They're not experiencing a joy. They're like, why are you so joyful?

I'm telling you, I'm not happy all the time. In fact, a lot of times I'm not happy, okay? But I have a joy in my heart that I can pull from, a cup that flows over, because I'm a fully devoted, committed follower of Christ, and I trust him rather than the world and rather than man. In Mark 8, 34, he says this, and this was a very challenging statement. Then he called to the crowd, to him, along with his disciples and said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves.

Well, I don't want to deny myself, God, because I find joy in myself. Well, where is that leading you? How many of you tried to figure it out all on your own? Amen? Doesn't work too well, does it?

You must deny yourself. You must deny yourself. They deny yourself and take up their cross. And, you know, we understand cross as a little nice gold cross around our neck, and we wear it around, we're proud of it, but that was a symbol of death. Cross is a symbol of death.

You must deny yourself, take up your cross, which symbolized death, and follow me. Be willing to go all the way with me. So that's why we're here, to provide in rows, to provide a church where people can know Jesus and then take the next steps to a fully devoted relationship with Christ. Because we know, and I know, that that's the only way to live a real, full life in Jesus. And then secondly, we need to connect with His church.

Connect with His church. Connect with His bride. He calls us the bride. His bride. And connection is a good thing.

Connect with His bride. Connect with His bride. Connect with His bride. Connect with His bride. Any place that's connected, anywhere in regular life, you're connected is healthy.

It's good in any area of life. It's successful. It brings success when you're connected. Whether you're in the business, you need to connect with people, people to help you. In a network setting, you know, you're probably a part of some networks and you've connected with people and it brings success to you and your business.

And even in the vegetation world, you know, being connected to fertile ground, being connected to some type of water source, what does that do? It creates fruit. It's healthy. It's productive. And you need to be connected.

You need to be fully connected. Okay? Not just an attender on Sunday morning at church that doesn't do it. That's why you're not experiencing the fullness of life. If you're still leaving church, you get your fix until the next church service, right?

And you're like, oh man, it's Friday or Saturday. I got to get to church, you know, because I got to get another fix for the next week. But you should be experiencing that fix all the time because Christ is living in you. So you need to be connected. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said this.

He said two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down and we all fall down, right? One can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them. He says, also, if two lays down, they will keep each other warm. But how can one keep another warm when they're alone?

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. It's not quickly broken. Every one falls. You fall, I fall.

And we need people in our lives. And that's why we do groups. That's why we do salt groups. I got a good report from a salt group, someone who attended salt group for their first time. And they said, what an experience.

I can't tell you, you know. Sent me a text, just lifting up, being a part of a salt group. I'm telling you, get connected to a salt group. Get connected to something. We have, even here in our teams on Sunday morning, it's a great way to connect with the people, to be ministered to, to fellowship with.

Because we need to be connected. We need to be connected. We need to be connected. Life change happens best when we're together. Together.

We are better together. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that next week. About being together in community and things like that. And what we believe about that. Third thing is, you need to discover why he put you here.

Not only do you need to be a follower of Christ, which is the first stop, and that you need to be connected to his church. You can't do anything unless you know why you were put here. Why God put you here. 1 Corinthians 12, 27 says, all of you together are Christ's body. All of you.

And each of you is a part of it. Meaning there's nobody, there's nobody that's out. There's nobody that's, everyone is a 10 somewhere in ministry. Ephesians 1, 18 says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. And I love how the message says this so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do.

See, that's what it gets to. Why are you designed? What are you designed for? What is your purpose? Because you will never experience the fullness of Christ until you know what you were made to be.

And you're like, well, I'm just this or I'm just that. I'm just a handyman or I work at a McDonald's. That means nothing. Nothing. Everybody is a 10 somewhere.

I'm terrible at numbers. Oh, my goodness. I just, I'm lost and I just think too much about them. And math just gives like accounting is like I'm the furthest from accounting. But guess what?

You have to have an accountant to run a church. And thank God for people who actually love counting, right? I love being an accountant and doing that because they can help me because we need each other. So my question is, you know, do you know who you are? Do you know?

And then finally, the fourth point I want to make is serve. Serve those he died for. Know God. Know God. Connect to his bride.

Connect to his church. Discover why you're here. And then start serving. Start serving. You know, the happiest people in the world are those who serve.

I'm just thinking about we got, we got our Thanksgiving Day serve having a job of surf over at the oceanfront. And last year we did it and there was just so much excitement about being here. I mean, we took away a few hours from our Thanksgiving Day when we want to be with our families and we serve to others. And I'm telling you, I don't, I don't want it. I love my family.

I love the time we spend. We need to spend time with our families. It's so precious. Every moment counts. I spend all kinds of time with my kids and my wife and we're really close.

And even my extended family, we're really super close. And my mom's getting on to me because I'm doing another, another Thanksgiving away from her. She wants to see the kids. She doesn't want to see me. She just wants to see the kids.

But she said that straight up. So, and that's okay. But I'll tell you what. Oh man, when I'm in there serving people that don't have a Thanksgiving to go to, don't have a family to go to, don't have the blessings that we have. And I get to sit down with them.

I get to put food in front of them, a hot meal, a special, whatever level they are. I mean, there was people in there that were white, middle class, upper middle class people that didn't have anywhere to go. And we, we, we think about, you know, the poor and needy, which is, they were coming in too. There was a few people that were coming in that were poor and needy. And this was what, and, and, and, and, and they're so like desperate for relationship.

And they're desperate for something more than what they're currently experiencing. And I'm thrilled to do that. What more could I do, Lord, than serve those you died for? Because you love the world so much that you gave your son. Ephesians 1 18 says, I pray that you may grasp the immensity of the glorious way of life he has for his followers.

First Peter 4 10 says, each of you use whatever gifts he has, uh, the gifts he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in various forms. So we all are given, we talked about that even last week coming out of our Holy Spirit series. We talked about the specific, God gives us specific gifts working together faithfully to minister to those. But I just love that, that, that, that word immensely of the glorious way of life, the glorious way of life, glorious way of life. You know, there is a glorious way of life that some of you here are missing out on today.

Some of us have got it. We figured it out. It took, we were hard headed, but we figured it out and we've experienced it. And we're glad to celebrate that. But today there's, there's many that, that perhaps have not, that you're still trying to figure it out.

You, you, you, maybe you, you've made a decision for Jesus, but you're missing out on what a little bit of salt looks like. Thank you. Thank you. It's flavored with the power and glory of Jesus Christ and His purpose in this world. And He uses us, He picks us to do that.

So today I make a charge to everyone in here, be salt. Be salt. Because a little bit of salt goes a long, long, long way. Imagine a church where everybody has discovered their gifts, are connected together, and doing ministry together, because the mission is the commission. The mission is the commission.

We cannot put enough seats in this room. We cannot have a building big enough to hold the people. Because God knows where true life stands and it's in Him and the purposes that He has. Let's pray together. God, we ask your Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, just move over to this place right now.

Breathe the breath of full life. Let us experience you in a fresh way, God, even at this moment, Lord. Some of us are troubled, we're far from you, Lord. Lord, and others of us are trying to find our purpose, Lord. Some of us feel alone, disconnected.

Some of us just, we haven't really quite figured out how to follow you, Lord. So today, God, with open hearts, completely vulnerable before you, Lord, we lay our hearts and lives down before you. Change us. Push us to that next step, Lord Jesus, in our Christian walk. The discovery that you desire us to discover.

That thing, that gift, that talent, that next step, Lord, whatever it may be, Lord, begin to reveal it to the people's hearts today. As your Spirit works in them. And that we make an open confession that we are all in, Lord. Lord, you are Lord of our lives and our hearts. For others here today, maybe this is you.

You've never been introduced to Jesus. With all heads bowed and all eyes closed. That something struck you today. You're like, Pastor, I'm just, I've never given Jesus an opportunity. You can make that decision.

He says, whoever calls on my name, whoever believes in me, whoever confesses their sin and their wrongness and their trying to do it on their own, I'll confess all that to God. He will come in and change your lives. If that's you today, if that's you, just lift your hand and say, Pastor, it's time today. It's time to give it all to you. It's time.

It's time. You pray this with me. Father, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. I accept you as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart.

Come into my life. And change me from the inside out. I no longer walk my way. I'm walking your way. I'm tuned, stepping with you.

Amen.