Impacting Your Environment

Lord God, we thank you for tonight, and we are grateful for all that you do, and you have blessed us with so many blessings, Lord, and your word is the greatest of all blessings because it expresses to us the beauty of your name. It shows us exactly what it is you want us to do as your children, and we thank you, Lord, for the encouragement and comfort that it brings. We are blessed people, and we want to thank you for that.

Tonight, as we open your word, we pray that you would instruct us in the way that we should go. We pray, Lord, that you'd open our eyes to behold the beauty of the Lord. We pray, Lord, that you would encourage the faint-hearted, that you would comfort those, Lord, who are downtrodden, and that, Lord, your word would speak to their hearts, that your spirit would use your word to strengthen us every single day until you come again, as you most surely will, in Jesus' name, amen.

Take your Bible, if you would, and turn to Matthew, chapter 5. Matthew, chapter 5. There are many nursery rhymes that I'm sure that you know very, very well.

My favorite is Humpty Dumpty. It goes like this. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, and all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Humpty Dumpty was quite a man. I'm not sure you've ever met him or not, but he was a man in control of his life.

He was a man who knew what he wanted to do in life. So one day, Humpty Dumpty decided to take a stroll, and on taking that stroll, he decided to do something he had never done before, and that was climb a wall. So he did.

He climbed up on the wall, and he wanted to get a view of the world that he'd never seen before, thinking that it would give him a good worldview, a good perspective on life. But something all of a sudden horribly happens. He falls off of the wall.

He wasn't pushed off the wall. He just simply fell off the wall. And lo and behold, his whole life was shattered.

His whole life was broken. His life was in shambles. He was in desperate need of help, and help would come.

But help did not come from his friends. Help did not come from his family. Help did not even come from his work associates.

Help came from our nation's capital. It came from Washington, D.C. In fact, Humpty Dumpty was such a unique man that Congress decided to have an emergency session to decide how quickly they could dispatch to meet the needs of Humpty Dumpty. And so they dispatched all the king's horses and all the king's men.

And upon arrival to where Humpty Dumpty had fallen, they quickly came to realize that they could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And Humpty Dumpty trusted in the best of the land, the king's horses and the king's men. But they were unable to do what Humpty Dumpty needed done.

They could not put him back together again. And so as you read the nursery rhyme, you must remember that the nursery rhyme is not about Humpty Dumpty. It's all about the king's horses, and it's all about the king's men.

And it shows us how ineffective that the best of the land can be when it comes to tackling man's shattered lives. Our world has all kinds of problems. There's crime, there's sex trafficking, there's drugs, there's alcoholism, there's child abuse, there's spousal abuse, there is murder, but none of those are really the problem.

They're just symptoms to a deeper problem. And that is sin in the life of every person. For sin is embedded in the heart of a man.

And man is completely shattered, completely broken. And no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to find help in this world. No matter how expensive the help is, no matter how important the help may be, they are unable, they are ineffective to put man's broken, shattered life back together again.

But there is someone who can. And believe it or not, that someone who can is sitting in this room tonight. For you are the solution to man's shattered soul.

For the Lord said, you are salt and you are light. In a world that's decaying and deteriorating, you, as a child of the living God, are its salt. In a world that's dark and depressed, you are its light.

And believe it or not, what Washington cannot do, you can do, because God has equipped you to do that. He gives us the identity of a child of the king in verses 1 to 12. He very strategically interprets the identity of children of the king, and then he specifically articulates the authority of those who are children of the king.

In Matthew 5, verses 13 to 16, this is what it says. You are the salt of the earth. But the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Interesting that the Lord says that the people that are reviled the most, the people that are persecuted the most, the people that are slandered the most are the only solution to a shattered, decaying, dark world. The peacemakers are the ones who truly can bring peace to shattered lives.

So Christ makes it very clear that when he identifies his children, he specifies their authority. They are salt and they are light in a world that's decaying and dark. You are the solution to the world's problem because Christ ordained you to be such.

And so we have three points this evening. One is simply understanding what it means to be salt and light, and we're gonna address the condition of society, then we're gonna articulate the solution from the scriptures, and then we'll apply some directions for the saints. If you have an outline, you can follow along with us.

But addressing the condition of society is not very hard at all because society is decaying. Society's not getting any better. It's never going to get better.

I love to talk to my post-millennial friends because they think that things are gonna get better, just get enough Christians in government, just get enough Christian doctors and enough Christian lawyers and enough Christian mayors and enough Christian teachers, and you can usher in the kingdom. Things will be better. I'm not sure what Bible they're reading, but they're reading not the same Bible I'm reading because things are not getting any better, they're getting worse.

They're continually decaying. Even the second law of thermodynamics and science points that out extremely well. But man is not getting better, he's getting worse.

And over 250 years ago, almost 300 years ago, it was Isaac Watts who wrote a hymn entitled Am I a Soldier of the Cross? And in that hymn, he asks several questions that need to be answered. Let's know what it says. Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the lamb? Good question, are you? And shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name? That's a good question.

Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fight to win the prize and sail through bloody seas? Again, another great question. And this says this, are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me onto God? Great question. Is this vile world a friend of grace to help me onto God? The answer is no.

If you sit under university professors, will they help you unto God? If you read the books of society, will they help you unto God? If you were to receive counsel from a psychiatrist, will they help you unto God? Answer, no. If I live the way of the world, will it help me in any way get closer to God? Answer, no. Why, because we live in a vile world.

We live in a decaying society that's only getting worse and worse with each progressing day. It's not getting any better. Paul would say that evil men and impostors, 2 Timothy chapter 3, are only gonna get worse and worse, not better and better.

Why is that? Well, 1 John 5:19 tells you. It says, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. It's no wonder all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Why, because they're under the power of the evil one. They're directed by Satan himself. They have no answer to man's dilemma.

Oh, they can change laws and they can rewrite all kinds of prescriptions, but that's not gonna change man's inner soul. They can't do that. The Bible says in John 16:11 that Satan is the prince of the world.

In Ephesians 2:2, he's the prince of the power of the air. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says he's the god of this age. I mean, everything about the world is under Satan's domain.

The Lord has allowed that to happen. He's allowed Satan to run his course. So everything in society is ruled by Satan.

It's no wonder that nothing of the world can help you move to God because it's not a friend of grace at all. It only takes you further and further away from the Lord. Over in Philippians 2, Paul says this in verse 14.

Do all things without grumbling and disputing so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

So Paul is addressing the church of Philippi some 2,000 years ago and says that you need to appear as lights in the world because you live in a crooked and perverse generation. He goes on to say this.

Among whom you appear as lights in the world holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. So we live amidst a perverse and crooked generation.

Paul would say it this way in Romans 3, verse number 10. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God.

All have turned aside together. They have become useless. There is none who does good.

There is not even one. Their throats are an open grave. With their tongue they keep deceiving.

The poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known and there is no fear of God before their eyes.

You see, the reason all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again is because all the king's horses and all the king's men were as broken and shattered as Humpty Dumpty was. They just did not recognize how broken they were but they were. That's why they could offer no help. There was no solution.

Why? Romans 3 tells you. Philippians 2 tells you. 2 Timothy 3 tells you. That's the world in which we live in. It's a world under the reign of Satan and he wants to destroy everything that God has done and is doing.

So the world is decaying. In fact, all you gotta do is read the book of Genesis, right? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And when you get to end of Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two, everything's good.

In fact, it's very good. Well, Genesis 3, the fall of man occurs, right? And in Genesis 6, the Bible says this. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

From Genesis 3 to Genesis 6, God says that every intent of every thought and every heart was only evil continually. So what did he do? He destroyed the whole planet. Everybody on it except for eight souls. Started over again.

You come to Genesis chapter 18. Abraham pleads with the Lord.

If there be 50 righteous in the city, will you spare the city? God says, yeah, I'll spare it for 50. How about 45? Yep, 45. How about 40? 40 righteous souls in Sodom and Gomorrah spare the city.

God says, I'll spare it. How about 30? Yep. 20? Yeah.

Whoa, how about 10? Yep. That's where Abraham stopped and God destroyed all of Sodom and Gomorrah because there was only righteous lot in the city. And isn't it interesting? In Luke 17, it tells us to remember Lot's wife because she was turned into what? A pillar of salt as a reminder to every husband in the room that you need to be salt and light primarily in your family. And then in your city.

But if you're not salt and light in your family, how do you expect to win the city? We love to send people on mission trips and we love to tell people how we share the gospel with people at work, but are you a salt and light in your very own home? Because if you are not, you have failed miserably. And Lot failed miserably.

We would never know that Lot was a righteous man if it wasn't for Peter telling us he was righteous Lot. Because when you read the book of Genesis, you don't get anything about that from Lot's perspective that he was a righteous man. And yet God did something very specific.

Tells the wife, do not look back. She does. But that's more of a leadership issue on Lot's part than anything else.

Because remember, she was in the back. She was behind everyone else, right? Why, because no one there could scold her. No one there could stop her.

She was in the back. Leadership says, you go up front. I'll bring up the rear.

And I will take you out of here. Lot didn't do that. Failed miserably as a husband.

And so many men today fail miserably at home because they're not salt and light at home. And yet that's the primary emphasis of your ministry. I mean, you can read about missionaries and people who have traveled the country and shared the gospel with people and won many souls to the Lord, but their families are going to hell in a handbasket because they missed the ministry, the main ministry of home.

That should not be. We live in a world that's decaying. And everything begins, discipleship begins at home.

It doesn't begin in church. It doesn't begin with your neighbor. It begins at home with your family, with your wife, as a father, husband, with your children. That's where it begins.

So the world is decaying. The world's dark, dark. That's the condition of society. Spiritual darkness dominates the entire world system. But you know what? The world loves it that way.

First John, I'm sorry, John 3, verse number 19. And this is the judgment that light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds are evil. Romans 1, verse number 21.

When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but because, or excuse me, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Christ would later say in Matthew chapter six, which we will cover down the road, these words. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? And then in John nine, Christ says, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

And he warned them in John 12, verse number 35. Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

For he that walk within darkness knows not where he goes. The world is dark because the prince of darkness rules the world. The world is decaying because Satan is the destroyer.

He wants everything to be destroyed. But God has a solution. God has a very simple, simple solution.

And that is his children. His children are the answer to man's shattered soul. You, he says, are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world. The word you is emphatic. You and you only.

Nobody else. Just you. Not you in this organization or you in that organization.

It's just you. Children of the king. You are the salt of the world.

And the you is plural. So you collectively, as my children, are the solution. What one grain of salt does not help your burger much or your french fries much. You gotta douse it with salt, right?

My father loved salt. He used to salt pretzels. He would salt salt and vinegar potato chips.

He put salt on Chinese food. He put salt on everything because he just loved salt. But never did he put one little grain of salt on anything.

He would douse it with salt. Well, so here is the Lord saying you, plural, are the salt of the earth. One grain does not do much, but collectively, you will make a significant impact.

Because you see, everything is about influence. Everything is about impact. It was William Shakespeare who said these words, all the world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players. And each man at his time makes his entrance and has many parts.

It was Elihu Burrett who said these words. He said no human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present age but of every subsequent age of humanity.

It was the writer of Acts, Luke, who says in Acts 13:36, that David, after he served God in his generation, fell asleep among his fathers. David, after he served God in his generation, he can only impact his generation. Just like you and I can only impact this generation.

And God has called us collectively to do the same thing. Collectively to be salt and to be light in a world that's decaying, in a world that is dark. Salt retards corruption and light is that which reveals truth.

Salt acts silently, where light acts verbally. Salt is how we live that retards corruption and light is how we speak when we manifest light. The influence, or to influence something in another direction means you must be the complete opposite, going the other direction.

That's why the Lord says what fellowship have light with darkness? What fellowship have the Lord with Belial? Come out from among them and be separate, be unique, be distinct. As Christians, we are completely different than the world but yet we're in the world. And Christ would pray, Lord, take them not out of the world but protect them while they're in the world.

Because we are the salt and light. So while you're in the world, do not to be of the world. Because by being in the world, you act as salt to retard the corruption.

You act as light to reveal the gospel, to reveal the truth. And the Lord established it that you and I would be the solution to all the humpty dumpties that have fallen in the world, which is everybody. And nobody can help them except us.

Children of the King, people who know the Lord. We are the solution. We are the ones that help people come to grips with the reality of the sovereign God who rules the earth.

So as you articulate the solution from scripture, number one, it's a fact that you are light, you are salt. Number two, the function of salt and the function of light. We are to shake the salt and we are to shine the light.

Salt does no good by staying on the counter or in the cupboard. Ever notice that? You might want a salty burger, but as long as Morton's salt sits in your cupboard, nothing's gonna happen. You gotta take it out and shake it on the object you want to flavor.

Is that not true? Sure it is. So as salt, you can't afford to sit on the shelf. You gotta be actively involved.

And so you must understand that salt was a very valuable commodity in the days of Jesus. Why? There was no refrigeration, right? So salt was that which preserved that which is important, meats per se. But notice this.

The Romans said that outside of the sun, salt is the most valuable thing on the planet. Why? Salt was so valuable that they used to pay their soldiers with salt. My mom used to always say, son, make sure you're worth your salt.

I'm like, what does that mean? Worth my salt? But she knew what that meant. That means that soldiers were paid in salt because it was so valuable that they could use that over and over again. So salt was a very valuable commodity.

So valuable that when two enemies sat down and shared salt together, they had to be kind to one another and show friendship in spite of the fact that they were enemies. That's how valuable salt was in ancient days. Salt also represents purity, the color.

It's white. And although it's talking about being tasteful or taste less, not specifically speaking about the color, there is something about salt and its color that emphasizes purity and holiness. Salt also creates a thirst.

The more salt you take in, the thirstier you get. The thirstier you are. And there's something about you and me being the salt of the earth that creates a thirst in those all around us.

And even though we are the ones that are reviled and slandered and persecuted the most, based on verses 10, 11, and 12, there's something about the life that causes and creates thirst in those around you because there's something about your life that is so appetizing that people wanna be a part of. Salt is also that which causes great pain. For if you put salt in a wound, it stings.

It stings loud, right? But that's what Christians do. They have a stinging influence, a stinging impact in society because society is nothing but an open wound anyway. And when you shake salt in that open wound, there is all kinds of pain and turmoil in those who receive that which you have shaken.

But most importantly, salt is that what curbs corruption. Salt did that. It preserved those things which are valuable.

And we as Christians represent God's presence on earth. And light, salt is to be shaken, but light is to be shown. We are to shine forth the light.

The Bible says in Philippians 2:15 that we are to appear as lights in the world. The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:4, we are partakers of the divine nature. Now think about that.

We are partakers of Christ's divine nature and God himself is light. Remember, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The very first thing God created was light.

That's not the sun, the moon, and the stars. They were created on David number four. But God creates light first.

Why? Because God is light. And the world needs to see God first. And so he creates light first because everything about creation screams God.

Everything about it. The order of creation, the way he created, screams nothing but God. So at the very outset, you need to know that God created the heavens and the earth and the very first thing he created was light.

He also, by the way, created darkness. We know that from Isaiah 45, verse number 7. You say, what was there before the earth was created? Nothing.

Well, what does nothing look like? I don't know, nothing. There's just nothing there. But dark is a creation by God.

Isaiah 45, verse number 7. I, the Lord, am the one who creates darkness, but he is the one who creates light because he is the light of the world. The Bible says, in Ephesians 5, verse number 8, for you were once in darkness, but now are you light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. We are to walk as children of the light. We are to walk like Christ.

We are to walk very brightly, not dimly, but very brightly so people can see the way to the living God. But notice, failure. The failure of the tastelessness of salt and the lightlessness of light.

He says, very clearly, you are the salty earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. He's not talking about losing your salvation.

He's talking about losing your influence and losing your impact. If you become contaminated by the things of the world, if your purity is compromised, if your holiness is corrupted, your ability to make impact is minimized. Think about that.

Think about how it is you to train your children to live pure and holy lives. If you live in impurity, how do you train your children to live in purity? It's hard, isn't it? Think of the life of King David, right? How could he train his children to follow the Lord and not commit adultery and not commit immorality? Because he was immoral himself. Or Solomon, his son.

Or Rehoboam, his son. You see, it's very easily passed down corruption. Because our light has been dimmed, our salt has become tasteless, it's become contaminated.

Now, it's hard for sodium chloride to be contaminated, but it can be mixed with foreign substances to make it tasteless or not as tasteful. And whenever you begin to mix a foreign substance, something of the world into your Christianity, your saltiness is compromised. And you're not nearly as stingy as you should be in the wound.

You're not nearly as white and pure as you should be. And you can't preserve corruption if you yourself engage in corrupt behavior. So the Lord gives a warning about the failure of not becoming the salt or being the salt you need to be.

You see, we don't become salt, we are salt. We don't become light, we are light. But our salt can lose its flavor, its tastefulness.

Our light can become dim simply because of sin. Simply because of compromise. Simply because we refuse to do what God has called us to do.

And so, very simply, we need to let our light shine before men. He says, you're the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand.

And he gives light to all who are in the house. It's a good illustration. Because your light should shine the brightest where? At home.

He uses the lampstand, he uses the house as an example. That's not by accident. Our light should shine so brightly at home Now think about it, when you put a lamp on a lampstand, you don't hide it under a bushel, you don't hide it under a basket.

Yeah, some rays of light might seep through the holes that are there, but you wanna take off that lid so the whole room is lit up with brightness. So you can see. And Christ makes it very clear that he wants those in your home to see the brightness of your life.

And then he says this, he says, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. This is the fulfillment aspect. It's all about beauty and glory.

The good works, kalas, deals with beauty, attractiveness. It's not agathos, which deals with quality, it's kalas that deals with the beauty and attractiveness of the light. Remember, a city set on a hill.

In those days, even today, if you were to go to Israel, it is so dark around the Sea of Galilee, but you can see cities on hills all around the Sea of Galilee that are all lit up. It's not one light on a hill, it's a myriad of lights on a hill that light up the city. Why, because they all function together as one.

And Christ says, the world needs to see your beauty and to see, see me. It's about glorifying me. You don't shine for yourself.

You don't shake the salt for yourself. It's all about the Lord. It's all about glorifying your Father who is in heaven, that they might come to know the saving grace of God.

In 2 Kings chapter 4, there's a story of Elisha. And he went to the little village of Shunem. Never said anything, never performed a miracle, never preached the truth.

But there was a lady in the city who saw him and invited him to come to dinner at her house with her husband. And Elisha would go. And every time he entered the city, he was invited to come for dinner.

But the Bible records no record that he ever said anything to the woman and to her husband. And the woman says to her husband, I perceive that this man is a man of God. And he never said a word, never preached a sermon, never performed a miracle.

The only thing he did was eat. In other words, it adds whole new meaning to 1 Corinthians 10:31, that whatever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, do all to the glory of God. Just by the way you eat and drink, by the way you drink, puts God on display.

Elisha did, because we are to shine so brightly, we are to shake so fervently the salt and light that others will never mistake that we truly are children of the king. Last point, applying some directions for the saints. As salt, you should be rubbing into society.

Rubbing into society. Think about where you work and why you work there. Think about where you go to school and why you go to that school.

Think about where you live and what neighborhood you live in. Just to let you know that you're there by divine appointment. Yes, you bought your house.

Yes, you chose the school you go to. Yes, you accepted a job at your place of employment. All that's true.

But it was all under the direction of the sovereignty of the living God. God directed you. God moved you.

God took you where you were. God did this, right? Why? Because he's called you to live out your spiritual existence in a specific sphere of influence, right? He has you there and no one else there. He puts you in that school, in that classroom with that professor.

He puts you in that workplace under that boss with those people. Why? Because you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

And God says, I want you to shine right there. I want you to rub into that place right there. That's where I want you to shake your salt and shine your light.

That's where I want you to be a stinging influence. That's where I want you to be a purifying influence. That's where I want you to be a preservative.

That's where I want you to prevent corruption. That's where I want you to speak forth the light so people will know the truth of the gospel. That's why the word of God is called light.

That's why the word incarnate is called light. So you have the infinite word is light because God is light. You have the inspired word which is light.

That word's a light into my path and a lamp into my feet. And you have the incarnate word which is light for Christ is I and the light of the world. So the infinite word, the inspired word, the incarnate word are all light.

And so you use that word to speak forth the truth so you shed light into a place that God's called you to live out your spiritual existence. See, that's just the great thing about being you. The great thing about being you is that God puts you where he put nobody else.

That's why God gave you the kids he gave you. He didn't give you my kids. He gave you your kids.

He didn't give me your kids, he gave you your kids. Because God wants you to be that light at home. He wants you to be that salt at home.

He wants you to be that purifying influence all throughout your house, all throughout your workplace. This is where God has placed you. And so he wants you as salt to rub into society.

So often, have you noticed that the world has seemed to rub more into the church than the church has rubbed into the world? The church is becoming more and more like the world. We want to accept the people of the world, the things of the world. When the Bible is very clear, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

Why? The world's passing away, the lusts are up. But he who does the will of God abides forever. We gather together as saints that we might learn to grow in our walk with the Lord so that when we disperse from this place, we can act as salt and light in a world of darkness and decay.

So as salt, we are to rub into society. As light, we are to reflect our Savior. Donald Gray Barnhouse was a master of illustration.

And this is what he says about this text. When Christ was in the world, he was like the shining sun which is here in the day and gone at night. When the sun sets, the moon comes up.

And the moon is a picture of the believers or the church. The church shines, but it does not shine with its own light. It shines with reflected light.

When Jesus was in the world, he said, I am the light of the world. But as he contemplated leaving the world, he told his disciples, you are the light of the world. At times, the church has been a full moon dazzling the world with an almost daytime light.

These have been times of great enlightenment such as those of Paul and Luther and Wesley. And at other times, the church has been only a thumbnail moon. And very little light shines on the earth.

But whether the church is a full moon or a new thumbnail moon waxing or waning, it reflects the light of the sun. As lights of the world, we reflect the Savior. The question comes for you and me, how great is that reflection? How is it as little moons, we are reflecting the light of the sun.

Interesting, the Bible says in Malachi 4, verse number 2, that the Messiah will be called the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness. The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. The Messiah was called the day star because of the brightness of that star.

And we, his children, are like little moons shining because we're reflecting not our light, but his light to all those round about us. So tonight as we close, we're gonna do something a little bit different. I want you to all stand up with me if you would, please.

Go ahead, don't be bashful, just stand up. And I want you to exit outside of your pew, and I want you to gather around with me here and all around the auditorium, we're gonna hold hands. And we're doing this specifically because as collective salt and light, we have the opportunity to impact this world.

And as individuals, as individuals, we can make an impact, right? But as a church, with all of us together, the light shines so much brighter because all of us are the light of the world, all of us are the salt of the earth. And we can like jump up and down and act like we're salt shakers and act like we're pouring salt all over the world. But the bottom line is that we are all salt and we are all light.

And we have the opportunity as a church to make an impact, not just in West Covina, but wherever God calls us to live out our spiritual existence. So I wanna close in prayer tonight with all of us holding hands and thanking God for what he's done to make us who we are, that we might be used by him. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today. I wanna thank you for everyone in the room. I'm gonna thank you that as we hold hands together, symbolically representing the fact that all of us are salt, all of us are light, all of us together make a significant impact.

All of us as a family of Christians, as a church of Christians, we have the opportunity to touch the lives of those all around us. My prayer, Father, is that as we look at this lesson and realize what you've called us to be, you've called us to be salt and light, that we would be that, that you would use us with those closest to us, with those we go to work with tomorrow, with those we sit in class with tomorrow, those we rub shoulders with in our neighborhood, that they would know that there's something different about our lives, simply because we are salt and we are light. So, Lord, our prayer is that you would use us for your glory as a church for your purposes, that others might know who you are and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.