Sunday, Jan 11
2026-01-11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pozoZ4lBde8

Amen. Amen. Amen. Before we dive into Matthew, chapter 5, we're just going to sing the first verse of "Come Thou Fount."

Come Thou Fount of every blessing. Chew my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me sonnet, loaches sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise Thy mount and fix upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.

Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, may you truly tune our hearts to see your goodness and your glory, to sing your praises, to proclaim your grace. We just ask that you would be with us this morning as we move into these words from your Son about salt and light, that in this you would help us to see who we are, that you would help us to see the greatness of the mission that you have given to your people, that you would help us to see and to understand the position and struggle that we face, and that most of all we would behold your glory, and in beholding your glory, you would help us to see the value of the kingdom. You would take away our fears and help us to live for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We are in Matthew chapter 5. We're going to be picking up here in just a minute. I'll read through the text, and we'll get there in just a minute. It's really easy sometimes, I think, in our worlds to find ourselves where we simply just want to give up. I remember the very first time that I drove from where we lived in Vermont, and I was driving out to Missouri to begin college, and I am not one of those people who is good at long-distant road trips. I either need something to keep my attention, and this was 1999, so there was not a lot of things. You had the radio and a CD player. I didn't have an audiobook. It was the middle of the summer, so you couldn't even roll down your window and, like,

you know, below zero weather and stick your face out and try to stay awake. And I made it, like, four hours into the New York State thruway before I was like, "Man, I gotta stop and rest." And at this point, I'm never gonna make it. And there are times where it sort of feels like we are wearing down, that the monotony and the struggles of life are just bringing us to this place where it feels like we're just so tired, we can't go on. And it was so good to hear some of that testimony during prayer time this morning about that perseverance that God brings into our life that keeps us going in those moments. And this is one of those texts that we're going to find ourselves. Jesus talks about salt and light. The heart of this text is both an identity of who we are in Christ.

It's gonna show us the greatness of the mission that he's given us as a church, but it's also a warning for those moments where it feels like maybe we're gonna begin to compromise, or we're afraid, or we want to slow down, or we don't want to keep going. And then ultimately it's gonna direct us to the glory of God. And so I don't want us to find ourselves in the midst of discouragement. So I'm gonna go ahead and read this text, and then we will... I'm gonna arrange things just a little differently here so I can see what's on the screen behind me. And go ahead and read this text, and then we will dive right into it. So Jesus says this, "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world, a city sit on a hill who cannot be hidden, nor do people put a lamp, or light a lamp, and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." And in this text this morning, we're going to see, I think, four things: transformation, we're going to see power, pressure, and ultimately, provision. And I want us to begin with this: transformation, and that is, we have an identity that is shaped by grace. Or another way of saying this is that God's people are a people who are shaped by grace.

Look at what Jesus says at the beginning of verse 13. He says, "You are the salt of the earth." And then in Matthew 5:14, he will say this, begins like this: "You are the light of the world." And what Jesus is doing in the beginning of both of these illustrations that he gives to, first of all, his disciples, and then to the crowds that are gathered around him, he is clearly and unmistakably declaring the identity of those who follow him. That if you are a follower of Jesus, what he says, "You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth." What I want us to understand with clarity this morning is that Jesus here is not declaring a goal for us to work toward, not a future possibility, not an opportunity that might be sort of spread out in front of us that we can get there if we work hard enough,

but he starts with just a simple declaration. You are, not you will be and you might be, you could be, but you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. It's easy for us sometimes, I think, to assume things. And I don't know how much of, you know, furniture in a box that you have built. Some people call it flat-pack furniture, so you can get, you know, a bookcase and it's down to this big and this long. And I remember when Rachel and I were dating and then engaged at her apartment, her and her roommate, they had bought a, like a little stand for their TV. And so I was over there on, I think, a Sunday afternoon, and I said, "You know what? I can knock this out. I'll put it together."

Right? I am a man who is great, you know, great with tools. I have a very sharp mind. I open the instructions, and I'm like, "Hmm, these instructions aren't great, but you know what? Because of my mastery in all things carpentry, I don't even need them." Right? So I reveal their entertainment shelf put together, and she's like, "Why is that shelf on upside down? Why is that one backward?" And why are there extra parts? Right? In my pride, what happened? I assumed that I didn't need all of the beginning steps. I just kind of needed a picture, and I could put it together there. And what tends to happen sometimes when we come to Scripture, especially when we are just looking at sections of Scripture that are part of something bigger, right, we're going to end up with something that is misshapen and missing some pieces if we don't understand the context.

And so we have to understand that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, right, these are not little isolated tidbits of life that He's giving us. Here's one. Here's another. Here's a third one. But rather, this is a continual sermon, and it builds on each other, and it prepares us for what comes next. It is essential for us that we understand the context of Jesus's words. Right? The declaration that you are salt and that you are light, doesn't just drop out of the sky. It depends on everything that Jesus has just said. It grows directly from the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes describe those people who know their spiritual emptiness, those people who are mourning over sin, and they're in grief, they're humble, they're peacemakers, they're hungering for a righteousness that they don't possess. The Beatitudes are there for improvement, but they are grace

at work in our life. And what we said last week is that the Beatitudes, they correct us. They take our wrong thinking and our broken lives, and they put us back where we are supposed to be. The Beatitudes welcome the needy, they heal and transform what sin has damaged, and they prepare God's people to live kingdom life. You see, all of us in this life are turned around and we're confused. And maybe we're turned around by pride saying, "You know what, I'm going to go my own way." Or turned around by brokenness saying, "I'm not wanted." Turned around by struggling to grow in uncertainty and saying, "Well, I can't do it." What Jesus does in the Beatitudes is He sets us on the right path. And He does this throughout the sermon. In fact, the way this sermon ends is by Jesus saying, "Those who take my words and put them into

practice." They're like a wise man who builds his house upon the rock. And we all know the story. It's a familiar story. The rains come and the winds blow, and because that house had its foundation upon the rock of Christ, it survives the storm. And where that starts, that foundation upon the rock, is in the Beatitudes. To see how Jesus, in grace, corrects, He welcomes, He heals, transforms, and prepares us. You see, this identity about salt and light, it's brought about by the work of God in our lives, not by our ability to be impressive. And I want to make one thing clear as we go into this. Because we live in a culture that's very, very highly individualistic. Right, we're very good at one man against the world, right? We see it in our movies, we see it in our culture.

Our pioneer spirit says that one man, or one woman, properly motivated, can give them anything they send their mind to. And it's very easy to bring this idea to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus, this is sort of me, and it's Jesus, and this is what we're doing. I want us to understand that Jesus is speaking to a group of people here. We begin like this last week, where Jesus will say that seeing the crowds, He goes up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying... And we talk about how there's two groups. There's the inner circle, the disciples, the crowds who are listening in. When Jesus says, "You are salt, you are light," He's not speaking to them as individuals.

In fact, in the Greek of your New Testament, the word there is plural. Remember, in Greek classes, you can either use the word "ye," right, "ye" or "salt," "ye" or "light." It's the plural of "you." If you're going back a little bit in terms of the English language, probably in Virginia, as we were reminded in our Greek class, the appropriate thing would be "y'all," right? So it's like, "y'all are salt," "y'all are light." It's "you all" in the picture here. These words are not about you on your own, by yourself, working really hard. Man, I'm going to make this world a salty place. I'm going to make this world a place that is full of light. But rather, it's a group, us together as God's people. Alright, salt and light describe a community that is shaped by God's grace.

And it's only possible because Jesus has already been at work. Because in the Beatitudes, He has corrected us, welcomed us, healed us, shaped us, prepared us, equipped us. Salt and light is what God has made us all together. And you might say, "Well, why are you talking so much about this being a reality for all of God's people?" I think the answer to that is, we have a tendency to say, "How can I be?" Like, "How can I get this? How can I do this?" "How can I be salt? How can I be light?" That's not Jesus' focus. He's not trying to get us to salt and get us to light. It's living faithfully as who you already are in Christ. The one who comes, broken by your sin, poor in spirit, mourning your sin, in humility,

hungering and thirsting for righteousness. When we see this as some kind of future thing, it's easy to say, "I'll just get to that someday in the future." But rather, the picture here is, "How can I live faithfully?" as what Jesus has already done for us. What this does, by understanding this as a present reality instead of a future goal, is that it sets the tone for what comes next. As Jesus begins to show us true righteousness, it's not "Someday you can be righteous," it's that the righteousness is here. How are you living as faithfully as salt and as light when you face your lust, when you face your anger, in your marriages, all those things that Jesus is talking about, in your worship, whether it's giving, or in prayer, or in fasting? How are you going to do it when you're wronged?

How are you going to do it in what you're seeking to find in this life? You see, when God transforms a people, correcting, welcoming, healing, equipping, their lives do not stay hidden. The lives of God's people have a definitive impact on those who are around them. There is instruction here, and we'll see that, but more important, there's impact. This identity is formed by the grace of God, and it has an impact on this world. Let's take a look at that impact. Maybe another way of saying that this identity of salt and light impacts the world is by saying this, that we are a presence that the world needs. In 5:13, Jesus talks about salt, and in verse 14, he talks about light. And I want us to make sure that we're on the same page as Jesus.

When we hear salt and light, we are thinking sort of in modern terms very often, right? It's easy to give this text a meaning that Jesus' hearers would not have recognized, right? So salt makes our food taste better, right? Incredibly common. It's a seasoning. And sometimes we'll say, "Well, that doesn't need any more salt. It's optional." And for some of you, right, your doctor may have been, "No salt for you, right? Don't do it." And so you might hear Jesus' words go, "Well, I've got a doctor's note," right? They said, "No salt. I can't do this." It's very easy to read our modern context into Jesus' words. All right, for example, if you call somebody salty today, right, that's not necessarily a compliment, right? I mean, they're real salty. Like, that's not necessarily something that we want to strive for in our modern life.

The same is true for light. For us, light, maybe nice, inspirational, individual, it's like, it's for us. It's common in our world. It's so common that we take it for granted. In fact, it's so common that we complain about light. Anybody complained about driving down the road at night, and the guy with the low beams that are like 10 million candle power blinds you, and you almost run into a tree? And we're complaining about light? Our electric company here at the church, there's light down at the bottom of the parking lot, one of those dusk-to-dawn, sodium lights hadn't worked forever. Everybody in the neighborhood was happy about it. And I don't know, part of their program or whatever, they showed up, and they have the bucket up on the pole, and they put up one of these new LED lights, and they adjusted it so much that one of our neighbors over here,

his yard at midnight is like noon on a really sunny day. And so he calls them and goes, "What are you doing?" And they came over and they kind of turned it and adjusted it. Right? Light is so common for us that we complain about it. We say, "I need some of that darkness." For us, salt and light are cheap and common. Not so in the ancient world. Salt in the ancient world was a precious commodity. Not only was it necessary for survival, and yes, they understood in Jesus's day that humans needed salt, just like we understand today, that salt helps your body to function. I think it was plenty of the elders who said, "Right, you need sunshine and you need salt." Not bad advice for us today. Not only was it a necessity, but it preserved food by preventing decay. And in many places, salt was central to trade.

It was a strategically important resource, and as a result, it was extremely valuable. In fact, the place where we get our word "salary," we talked about, "Well, it's your salary. I need this for a salary." That word comes from the Roman authorities, where they would give the soldiers a salarium. And it wasn't that they were paid completely in salt, as some would say. But what they were given is Roman soldiers were given salt money or an allowance for purchasing some salt to take with them. And so they would get their salarium, or their salary, to purchase salt for the road. In fact, the Roman Empire even built special trade routes specifically for salt. The Via Salaria, the salt road. The importance of salt leads to a phrase in English, we don't use it very often anymore,

but if you've ever said or heard somebody say, "Well, they're really worth their salt." Right? It's a throwback to this picture of salt being valuable, rather than, in many cases, something we avoid. That's too salty. Light in the ancient world, in the same way, was often small, fragile, and costly. So if you're going to light your house, you would use sort of small clay oil lamps. You can get online right now and buy replicas, some even made in Israel. Say, "Look, first century oil lamp," and you get a little clay lamp about the size of your hand, put oil in there, drop a wick in, and you light it, and there would be a little lamp. Nothing like the lights of today, but that oil lamp would make life possible after dark. In many cases, it would reduce fear, right? Because light helps us to see, and it prevents us from stumbling.

And if you were a city on the hill filled with light, it would mark safety, and it would mark a direction in which to go. And interestingly, in the geography of where Jesus is, there's a city in this area. It's about 3,000 feet up on these hills. And so as Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Jesus' listeners would be looking around at the hills, and there'd be a city. And they would understand, when they come out of their houses at night, they see that little bit of glow. Nothing like today, but a little bit of glow, and understand the power of light. You see, light would say, "There's where home is." That's where safety is at. You see, when Jesus speaks about salt and light, he's not talking about just adding something nice to the world.

He's saying the world will be a worse place. It will suffer without his people. God's people preserve. They show the way. They bring relief from fear. There is health and safety that God's people proclaim to the world. Jesus isn't saying, "Add something nice to the world." He's saying that without them in the world, the world will suffer. That God's people, you and I, who are shaped by grace, marked by mercy, humility, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, we're a preserving, illuminating presence, and when they live faithfully, they glorify God where he has placed them. And what's interesting is salt and light don't always announce themselves loudly, but they're unmistakable. And when they're absent, their presence is immediately felt. The power of salt and light should make us understand why, for some, there is an impact to try to quiet or minimize salt and light.

You see, this is an identity that is under pressure. You and I will face pressure that will tempt us to give in or to give out. And remember how he said this sort of all fits together. This is not happening in a vacuum, but rather this is part of a bigger sermon. It's not an accident that Jesus says, "You are the salt of the world. You are the light. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." Immediately after the Beatitudes. Remember how the Beatitudes end? They end like this. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

And if you want to underline to sort of see what words are frequently used here, right, it's persecuted. Persecuted. Every verse talks about being persecuted. Jesus, when he says, immediately after this picture of persecution, to continue invisible faithfulness, right after he's talked about the cost of the transformed life, that's not accidental. Listen to this. "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its space, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. The city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house." It's not an accident that Jesus talks about persecution. He says, "You are salt. You are light."

And the very next words, after you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world, is a warning about being diminished in your capacity as salt or being diminished in your capacity as light. Because Jesus knows that when pressure and persecution come, disciples tend to sort of fail in two very different but equally dangerous ways. For example, in verse 13, which we have read several times now, "If the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?" "It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." Now for us that sounds strange because salt for us gets clumpy, turns to rock, but it doesn't stop being salty. It's different in Jesus's day. Sort of the historical background of this is that the salt used in this place and in this time would have come from the Dead Sea.

And it's not just pure sodium chloride, which is the salty salt, but there's also other minerals in it as well. And so salt was often stored in these clay containers that sat on the ground. And if you were not careful, either humidity or water itself would come into these containers. And in this salty mineral that they would use, it would dissolve that sodium chloride right out of it. And it would leave a white powder that looks exactly like it did before. When you go put it on your cheeseburger, right, there's no salt left. And it would look like salt, but it wouldn't taste salt. And notice that this happens not intentionally, but because people have set the salt aside, and they haven't taken care to either protect it from the moisture in the air or the moisture on the ground.

That the picture here, first, is one of neglect. That the first struggle that God's people face is this warning about neglect. Right, sometimes our faithfulness turns into drifting. We're not denying Jesus, we're not rejecting, we're just neglecting. Sort of setting it in the corner and forgetting about it. We're under pressure, we let some things go, conviction soften, obedience becomes a someday kind of thing. And this is especially dangerous because so often it feels harmless. And it happens gradually, and most of the time, we don't notice it until the salt stops being salty. And that's what would happen. You set it in the corner, you wouldn't think about it, and when you went back to it, all of a sudden that salt was no longer salty. The first warning that Jesus gives is that in the middle of opposition and persecution, as we are salt that preserves and flavors the world, is that it must be intentional.

It has to do with neglect. But then there's a different problem. You are the light of the world, the city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house. It's a very different problem and very different warning. This is not neglect, but it is intentionally hiding your light under a basket. We may know what faithfulness requires, but fear steps in. And so we choose safety over obedience. We cover the light, not because it stops shining, but because we don't want people around us to see it. And this kind of hiding is more conscious and more painful because we know exactly what we're doing, and we know exactly what we are avoiding. Right? There is a way to lose our saltiness without maybe consciously thinking about it, because we neglect it.

We set it off to the side. Other times we hide it because we're afraid, and in both of those the world loses something wonderful, and God's glory is obscured. Jesus warns us. Not because His power or our calling is weak, it's because the pressure we feel to retreat is real. And the question we have is this: if we're so pressured, and if we're so prone to neglect and to hide, what can sustain us? What can keep us going in those moments where it feels like everything is against us? And here's where we come to an identity sustained by the glory of God. Another way of saying this is that God's glory sustains our faithfulness. Look at what Jesus says: "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

At the heart of all of this is the glory of God. It's not a call for better performance, but deeper dependence. The one who takes the poor in spirit and brings them into the kingdom, who takes the sorrowful and brings them comfort. The ones who fill those who hunger and thirst for righteousness with good things. It's about Him. And so many times what we do, and the reason we struggle so much, is because we are making it about us. Notice what it says: "They may see your good works, but give glory to your Father who is in heaven." See, there's a real problem, because oftentimes we're trading our recognition for our comfort. That's not the danger. The danger here is trading God's glory for our comfort. You see, when silence feels safer than obedience, it's not that we've thought too much about the cost,

it's that we've thought too little about the glory of God. You might say, "Great. How does that help?" First of all, seeing the glory of God makes us realize how valuable the kingdom truly is. Later in His ministry, Jesus will tell a couple of parables. The one I direct your attention to is this one in Matthew, the 13th chapter. The kingdom of heaven, this is who the poor in spirit inherit, right? The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. This is a strange kind of parable if you were to move it into real life. If you would put this in the context of having a family and having a kid or children, and you're out and you find the one pearl and you go home and you say,

"Honey, say goodbye to your mom's china. Say goodbye to your grandma's quilts. Sorry, Ranger and Kaiser, right? It's time to go. You're being sold." Right? That's the picture here. So this pearl merchant finds a pearl that is so valuable it's worth everything that he has. A pearl in its value puts into perspective the sacrifice that he is facing in getting rid of all of his physical things. And what we have to understand is that God's glory in his kingdom, when we see his glory, it puts this into perspective. And it's easy for us to say, but we see example after example of this in Scripture. Let me give you one. By faith, Moses, when he was growing up, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the reward. Now, if we're honest, the treasures of Egypt are not small-time treasures, right? How many movies have we made about seeking treasure in Egypt and finding treasure in the sands? But Moses looks at it and says, "It's passing, it's fleeting, and there is a greater treasure." When we behold the glory of God, what it does is it begins to put into perspective what it is we are facing. Moses isn't making the cost seem small. He's making the reward, showing us the reward is great. The same is true when we see Jesus, as it talks about the cross, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

That Jesus, as He faces the cross, our founder and perfecter of our faith, He despises the shame because He sees the joy that is set before Him. There's something bigger and greater, and there is a treasure worth fighting for. Jesus will deal with this exact issue later in the sermon. He talks about laying up for yourselves treasure in heaven. Also, seeing the glory of God puts our fears into perspective. Matthew 25:5, there's a story about the talents, and the parable of the talents. And this servant who had been entrusted with his money from the Master says, "I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, what you have is yours. I didn't invest it, didn't use it. I hid it because it was afraid." And what happens to this man is he doesn't see his Master's greatness.

And his fear is so big that it overwhelms everything in his house. In glorifying God, what we do is we see his bigness and his greatness, and it changes how we view the cost. It becomes the fleeting pleasures of sin. It becomes the size of the treasures of Egypt compared to the greatness of God. It becomes the pearl of great price, and it puts our fear into perspective. I want you to understand that God does not sustain our faithfulness by demanding courage from us. He sustains it by revealing his glory to us. When we see his greatness and his goodness, his power, his grace, his mercy, obedience isn't a reckless thing. Silence, however, starts to not feel safe anymore. Faithfulness becomes a fitting way of life for God's people. We let our light shine, not because we're fearless, but we have something that is more glorious than our safety.

The one who calls us to live this way is the one who was faithful for us, who endured the cross, who bore the shame, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. And He does not ask us to give what He has not already accomplished. You see, we don't live as salt and light because we are strong. We live as salt and light because God is glorious. Father in heaven, help us to see Your glory and Your goodness and Your grace. Help us to see Your Son, who is the radiance of that glory. May Your Spirit make that known to the depths of our being. That we, coming to You, would be corrected. That we would be welcomed. That we would be transformed. We would be prepared. And we would be salt and light because of Your goodness. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing His glory and our good.

Let's pray. I trust the Lord. Help me bear the thorn. So in faith I follow Jesus on the road, not under me. He is working for His glory in my world. To our God be the glory. To our God be great. He alone, the name above all names. I will boast ever only in the Lord my God. For I am my good. See the old covenant of Jesus crossed that day. What they understood as weakness. Deserves by every praise. For the charge that was against me. It was never to the word. Yes, I know that He will save me. For His glory and my good. To our God be the glory. God, leave me alone. In the name above all names. I will boast ever only in the Lord. In the Lord my God. For I know His glory is my good.

Would I gladly be made nothing? For Christ would be made more. Would I seek the only kingdom? The far away is the Lord. I will stand before my Father, where the faithful saints have stood. And with joy my heart shall praise Him, for His glory and my good. And with joy my heart shall praise Him, for His glory and my good. To our God be the glory, to our God be grace, He alone, the name above all. I will boast ever only in the name of God. For I know, I will boast ever only in the name of God, for I know, I will boast ever only in the name of God. For I know, His glory is my good. To our God be the glory, to our God be grace, He alone, the name above all. I will boast ever only in the Lord my God.

For I know, His glory is my good. Yes, I know, His glory is my good. Super thankful that you are here with us this morning. We'll be back here Wednesday night. At 6:00 p.m., we're taking the Sermon on the Mount and going maybe a little deeper into various aspects. So this Wednesday night, we're going to go back and unpack the Beatitudes a little bit, dive a little deeper into salt. And so that's what we are doing on Wednesday nights. Next Sunday is Soup Sunday. So following our service next Sunday, we'll gather, eat some soup, and enjoy some fellowship together. So we'd encourage you, bring a soup to share, invite a friend to come with you if you'd like. Come and have some soup and some fellowship with us following our service. I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer, read from 1 Peter, and then we will be dismissed.

Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. May we truly live for your glory in all the things that we do. We ask that you would equip us and strengthen us for the week that lies ahead. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Peter writes this, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but you have not received mercy. Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so when they speak of you as evildoers,

they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Church, we have been called out of darkness and into God's marvelous light, not by our goodness, but by his grace. And so as we go, may we live without fear and hesitation as salt and light in this world. And when our faithfulness seems costly and our fear feels persuasive, may the glory of God renew and refresh your perspective. May your lives, shaped by mercy, sustained by hope, bring glory to your Father who is in heaven. So we want to go in peace, trusting that His glory is truly for our good. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise God, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you.