Today, we focus on identity. Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. These identity statements are crucial for understanding our purpose. Salt adds flavor and preserves, while light illuminates and fosters growth. Jesus teaches us to be interesting and to live in a way that points others to God. He emphasizes that we were created to stand out, not blend in.
We reflected on the movie 'Stand by Me' and how knowing who we are and where we're going can be empowering. Jesus' teachings give us that clarity. Imagine sitting on that hillside in Galilee, hearing Jesus affirm that we were created to be different, to make a difference. It's a grand vision that inspires us to dream bigger.
We also touched on a memorable 'Carpool Karaoke' segment with James Corden and Paul McCartney, which beautifully illustrated the impact of using our gifts to be salt and light in the world. Today's message is about embracing our identities in Christ and using our gifts to make a meaningful impact. Jesus reminds us that we are the light of the world, and we should live fully into that identity.
(00:01) Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount Series
(01:05) Review of Previous Sermons
(02:15) Jesus' Teachings on Identity
(08:00) The Importance of Knowing Who You Are
(12:40) Paul McCartney and the Power of Positivity
(16:07) Embracing Our Identity in Christ
Matthew 5:13-16
"You are the salt of the earth. 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. "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
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[00:00:01]
Matt Sapp:
We're getting into the middle of our summer worship series right now, right in the thick of it in the Sermon on the Mount. We're taking the summer together to go in some detail through these three chapters of Matthew, Matthew chapters 5 through 7. Three chapters that together make up the most important body of ethical teaching in the history of the world. And as we've gone through our series this summer, we've said week after week after week that Jesus is starting to put together a story about how the world works. He's building a narrative in this sermon. And the story Jesus is telling, we keep repeating to ourselves. The story Jesus is telling is not the same story we've heard before, not the same story we tell ourselves, and it sure isn't the same story the world has been telling us.
The story Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is something new, it's something better, this is something true, and maybe even true in a way that other worldviews are not, this narrative in the Sermon on the Mount. Here's a little review as we get started this morning. A few weeks ago, to begin, we looked at the Beatitudes, those first 12 verses of the Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus redefines happiness for us. Happy are those, he says. Happy are those, happy are those. Jesus says the things you've been chasing after won't make you happy. In fact, they may even leave you feeling emptier. The things you've been chasing after won't make you happy, but these things will. That's the Beatitudes. Be happy.
We've talked as well about generosity. Jesus reminds us that as Christians, we're called to a standard higher than fairness. We are called, each of us, to be more than fair. We are called to be generous. And we learned together that there's great benefit in rejecting that ethic of fairness, that ethic of reciprocity and score keeping, the ethic of an eye for an eye, an ethic of always trying to get even. That sounds exhausting just saying it right now. Jesus teaches a higher ethic than that in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, Be generous. Last week we talked about what it means to be holy, and we said that holiness is about much, much more than our own self improvement.
Holiness isn't about being dedicated to self. Holiness is most properly an other directed endeavor. So we gauge our holiness not by our own behavior or by some measure of self improvement, but by how who we are impacts others. By how our behavior either elevates or minimizes the selfhood of others. That's holiness, we said. Be holy. We pick up today with words about identity. If you're going to put together a story, a narrative about how the world works, then it's helpful pretty early on in the story to figure out who you are in the story. So today, Jesus talks about identity, about who you are.
Listen to these 2 you are identity statements, stuck right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. These are the very first verses following the Beatitudes. Matthew 5 verses 13 through 16. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built upon a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
You were put on this earth to make life more lasting, more interesting, and more palatable, like salt. You were put on this earth to be a source of warmth and growth to those around you, like light. You are salt and light, Jesus teaches. Be interesting. Add interest to the world around you. Live your lives in such a way, Jesus continues, be a living example, someone who points other people to God. And one day Jesus says, if you live that way, in a way that points other people to God, those people will praise both God and you for the way you've chosen to live your life. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
You were created to stand out, not to blend in. I don't know about you, but I don't like to stand out. I don't like standing out at all. I don't like calling attention to myself, and that might sound strange coming from someone who stands up here in front of you and speaks every week, but it's true. I will never be the first person on the dance floor. In fact, I may never make it to the dance floor. I like to sit in the back of the class. I'm never the first one to raise my hand. If I weren't up here preaching, I'd be sitting over there on the back wall with Keith, right back there, holding the wall up. A lot of us don't like to call attention to ourselves.
We don't like to think of ourselves as set apart or different, but Jesus says, You are. You were created to stand out. And whenever Jesus looks at us and says, You are, whenever Jesus tells us that directly who we are, we ought to listen up. You're different, Jesus says. And if you fail to be boldly different, then what good are you? When you add salt to something, you know it. Right? Salt doesn't blend in. Salt in our food both stands apart as distinct and brings out the best of the flavors of the food to which it is added. You are the salt of the earth.
You have a particular purpose and it's to stand out, to maintain both the distinctness of self and identity, like salt maintains a distinct flavor, and to add to and improve everything you are a part of. You have a particular purpose and it's to stand out, to maintain both the distinctness of self and identity, and to add to and improve everything else you are a part of. Jesus says, Like salt, that's who you are. You are the light of the world. By you, other people see more clearly. You are a source of warmth and life and growth and creativity. You're the light of the world, that's who you are.
There's something very empowering about knowing with clarity who you are. One of the most inspiring and satisfying and freeing things any of us can do is to develop a clear understanding of who we are and where we're headed, what we're meant for. A clear identity is kind of like rocket fuel for individuals, for families, for churches. When you can just clearly and straightforwardly identify who you are, You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Anybody remember the movie Stand by Me? It came out in 1986, a long, long time ago now.
Stand by Me. It's a it's a movie adaptation of a Stephen King short story. It's from the same book of short stories that The Shawshank Redemption is from. If you're still looking for good summer reading, I recommend it. It's called Four Seasons, the collection of stories is. Stand by Me is a coming of age story about 4 boys, 4 relatively young boys from the same neighborhood, who hear somehow that there's a dead body near their house. And somebody says, you can go see the dead body. All you have to do is follow the railroad tracks until you get there. You'll you'll see it. So these 4 boys go on a 2 day pilgrimage down the railroad tracks to to see a dead body out in the woods. They embark on this great adventure together, just the 4 of them.
And the narrator of the story, reminiscing about the kind of, kind of, glow of freedom and camaraderie that comes over them as they go on this journey together, the narrator, reminiscing about what they experience as they make their trek, says this, says, Everything was there. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand. Everything was there. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going, those 4 little boys. It was grand. That is grand, isn't it? To know exactly who you are and exactly where you're going, but that clear sense of direction and identity is is all too rare.
Do you remember a time when you felt that way? Maybe when you were younger, like the boys in in the story. Maybe there's a lucky few of us in this room who feel that way right now. Or maybe that's just a fleeting feeling of youth. Or maybe it's something you and I can recapture if we just work at it a little bit with God. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Imagine with me now sitting on that hillside in Galilee, that that first group of believers gathered to hear Jesus give that famous sermon. Jesus is teaching, people are spread out in front of Him, the sun is low in the sky, the lake is in the background, there's a there's a nice breeze blowing at the end of a great day.
You've got a blanket spread out in the grass in front of you with your friends. As Jesus starts to speak directly into your life, directly to your heart, Jesus starts saying out loud what you've wanted someone to affirm in you and in your friends for longer than you can remember. You were created to be different, he says. You were meant to be interesting, to stand out, not to blend in. You were created to make a difference, to add value. You're the salt of the earth, don't lose your flavor. You're the light of the world, don't shirk your responsibility. You were created to do good works so that others will see God in you, and at that moment, if you were to look out over the crowd and see the crowd on that hillside, you would have seen everybody sitting there, leaning in just a little bit, captivated, nodding along, saying, That's it.
He's saying exactly what I feel inside. He's putting words to my deepest longings. He's giving me courage to live it out. He gets it. He gets us. He knows exactly who I am and exactly where I want to go. He gets me. Isn't that grand? We all want our lives to mean something, don't we? We want someone to validate who we are, to give us a little bit of permission to just dream bigger. So Jesus says, You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And that's a grander vision, perhaps, than that small town crowd might have initially imagined for themselves. But there's something inherently inspiring about big dreams, isn't there? Jesus didn't say, You're the salt of Galilee and the light of Judea.
Didn't say, You're the salt of Newnan and the light of Georgia. You're the salt of the earth and the light of the whole world. We all want our lives to mean something. Anybody remember James Corden? Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS. It came on in the middle of the night when all of us were asleep. And he used to do these carpool karaoke segments that would make it the rounds online after after the show had aired on TV. On The Late Late Show, James Corden would get these famous singers or even an entire band, and he'd crowd them into his car. They'd all drive around town together, and James Corden would put the band or the singer's own music on the radio. As they drove around, they'd all sing it together in karaoke style in the car and talk about their lives and and things like that. Several years ago, Corden got Paul McCartney to ride around with him in Liverpool, England, where the Beatles are from, as they filmed one of those segments, carpool karaoke segments.
Most of the karaoke segments, they're fun and they're funny and they're entertaining, and this one was all of that, but but it was more than that somehow. This one was somehow meaningful. It really resonated with a lot of people. James Gordon and Paul McCartney start out driving around town. The first song they they sing is, is, Baby, You Can Drive My Car, and they they beep the horn of the car along with the song as they go along. Beep beep beep beep, yeah, right? They sing Penny Lane while they're driving down Penny Lane. Paul tells stories about growing up in Liverpool as they drive around town. Interestingly, he mentions lots of churches that they pass by.
I used to sing in that choir. In church? Yeah, I was a choir boy, he says, growing up. My brother got married in that church. He remembers a big big family event as they drive by another church. In the middle of all the singing, all the reminiscing, all the storytelling, James turns to Paul in the car and says, with just real sincerity in this honest, transparent, unscripted moment, he just one man looks at another man and says, Your music is so full of positivity and joy. And there's something strangely impactful about that honest moment when it happens on film. Something impactful really about the whole segment, something emotionally impactful to see someone, to see 2 people actually, James and Paul together, to see them so effectively using the gifts God has given them, to be salt and light to everyone else who's getting getting to glimpse in and watch, to add flavor and warmth and richness to the world around them through what they do.
The segment ends with Paul McCartney going back to a a pub in Liverpool, where he used to go when he was a much younger man, and they surprised the crowd there with a little mini concert from the famous Beatle. The the pub quickly fills up to capacity and just overflows with joy. The light on people's faces as they rock along to Paul is just remarkable. You know, you don't have to take a vow of poverty or be Mother Teresa to make a difference in this world. Anyone can be salt and light. The whole segment from beginning to end just captures the vitality of being salt and light in the world, of adding to the world around us, of being interesting in a way that few things seem to be able to do these days. You can find that segment online. Just look at search for it on YouTube when you go home. You should watch it all of you. Today's message is about embracing our identities, about using our gifts in a particular way to impact the world around us. And today, we remember that our deepest most impactful identity, all of us, is our identity in Christ.
And today, we also remember that Jesus tells us very clearly who we are. As Christians, we spend so much time remembering that Jesus said, I am the light of the world, that we too often forget that he also said, You are the light of the world. Would you bow with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, remind us that our greatest identity is our identity in you. Give us the courage to live fully into the people you tell us we are. To be people who stand out in the best kinds of ways. People who add to the lives of others in ways that bring out the best in them. People who are sources of warmth and growth and vision and life and light and love to everyone we meet.
God, make us salt and light. We offer this prayer and all of who we are to you in Jesus' name. Amen.
We're getting into the middle of our summer worship series right now, right in the thick of it in the Sermon on the Mount. We're taking the summer together to go in some detail through these three chapters of Matthew, Matthew chapters 5 through 7. Three chapters that together make up the most important body of ethical teaching in the history of the world. And as we've gone through our series this summer, we've said week after week after week that Jesus is starting to put together a story about how the world works. He's building a narrative in this sermon. And the story Jesus is telling, we keep repeating to ourselves. The story Jesus is telling is not the same story we've heard before, not the same story we tell ourselves, and it sure isn't the same story the world has been telling us.
The story Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is something new, it's something better, this is something true, and maybe even true in a way that other worldviews are not, this narrative in the Sermon on the Mount. Here's a little review as we get started this morning. A few weeks ago, to begin, we looked at the Beatitudes, those first 12 verses of the Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus redefines happiness for us. Happy are those, he says. Happy are those, happy are those. Jesus says the things you've been chasing after won't make you happy. In fact, they may even leave you feeling emptier. The things you've been chasing after won't make you happy, but these things will. That's the Beatitudes. Be happy.
We've talked as well about generosity. Jesus reminds us that as Christians, we're called to a standard higher than fairness. We are called, each of us, to be more than fair. We are called to be generous. And we learned together that there's great benefit in rejecting that ethic of fairness, that ethic of reciprocity and score keeping, the ethic of an eye for an eye, an ethic of always trying to get even. That sounds exhausting just saying it right now. Jesus teaches a higher ethic than that in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, Be generous. Last week we talked about what it means to be holy, and we said that holiness is about much, much more than our own self improvement.
Holiness isn't about being dedicated to self. Holiness is most properly an other directed endeavor. So we gauge our holiness not by our own behavior or by some measure of self improvement, but by how who we are impacts others. By how our behavior either elevates or minimizes the selfhood of others. That's holiness, we said. Be holy. We pick up today with words about identity. If you're going to put together a story, a narrative about how the world works, then it's helpful pretty early on in the story to figure out who you are in the story. So today, Jesus talks about identity, about who you are.
Listen to these 2 you are identity statements, stuck right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. These are the very first verses following the Beatitudes. Matthew 5 verses 13 through 16. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built upon a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
You were put on this earth to make life more lasting, more interesting, and more palatable, like salt. You were put on this earth to be a source of warmth and growth to those around you, like light. You are salt and light, Jesus teaches. Be interesting. Add interest to the world around you. Live your lives in such a way, Jesus continues, be a living example, someone who points other people to God. And one day Jesus says, if you live that way, in a way that points other people to God, those people will praise both God and you for the way you've chosen to live your life. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
You were created to stand out, not to blend in. I don't know about you, but I don't like to stand out. I don't like standing out at all. I don't like calling attention to myself, and that might sound strange coming from someone who stands up here in front of you and speaks every week, but it's true. I will never be the first person on the dance floor. In fact, I may never make it to the dance floor. I like to sit in the back of the class. I'm never the first one to raise my hand. If I weren't up here preaching, I'd be sitting over there on the back wall with Keith, right back there, holding the wall up. A lot of us don't like to call attention to ourselves.
We don't like to think of ourselves as set apart or different, but Jesus says, You are. You were created to stand out. And whenever Jesus looks at us and says, You are, whenever Jesus tells us that directly who we are, we ought to listen up. You're different, Jesus says. And if you fail to be boldly different, then what good are you? When you add salt to something, you know it. Right? Salt doesn't blend in. Salt in our food both stands apart as distinct and brings out the best of the flavors of the food to which it is added. You are the salt of the earth.
You have a particular purpose and it's to stand out, to maintain both the distinctness of self and identity, like salt maintains a distinct flavor, and to add to and improve everything you are a part of. You have a particular purpose and it's to stand out, to maintain both the distinctness of self and identity, and to add to and improve everything else you are a part of. Jesus says, Like salt, that's who you are. You are the light of the world. By you, other people see more clearly. You are a source of warmth and life and growth and creativity. You're the light of the world, that's who you are.
There's something very empowering about knowing with clarity who you are. One of the most inspiring and satisfying and freeing things any of us can do is to develop a clear understanding of who we are and where we're headed, what we're meant for. A clear identity is kind of like rocket fuel for individuals, for families, for churches. When you can just clearly and straightforwardly identify who you are, You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Anybody remember the movie Stand by Me? It came out in 1986, a long, long time ago now.
Stand by Me. It's a it's a movie adaptation of a Stephen King short story. It's from the same book of short stories that The Shawshank Redemption is from. If you're still looking for good summer reading, I recommend it. It's called Four Seasons, the collection of stories is. Stand by Me is a coming of age story about 4 boys, 4 relatively young boys from the same neighborhood, who hear somehow that there's a dead body near their house. And somebody says, you can go see the dead body. All you have to do is follow the railroad tracks until you get there. You'll you'll see it. So these 4 boys go on a 2 day pilgrimage down the railroad tracks to to see a dead body out in the woods. They embark on this great adventure together, just the 4 of them.
And the narrator of the story, reminiscing about the kind of, kind of, glow of freedom and camaraderie that comes over them as they go on this journey together, the narrator, reminiscing about what they experience as they make their trek, says this, says, Everything was there. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand. Everything was there. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going, those 4 little boys. It was grand. That is grand, isn't it? To know exactly who you are and exactly where you're going, but that clear sense of direction and identity is is all too rare.
Do you remember a time when you felt that way? Maybe when you were younger, like the boys in in the story. Maybe there's a lucky few of us in this room who feel that way right now. Or maybe that's just a fleeting feeling of youth. Or maybe it's something you and I can recapture if we just work at it a little bit with God. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Imagine with me now sitting on that hillside in Galilee, that that first group of believers gathered to hear Jesus give that famous sermon. Jesus is teaching, people are spread out in front of Him, the sun is low in the sky, the lake is in the background, there's a there's a nice breeze blowing at the end of a great day.
You've got a blanket spread out in the grass in front of you with your friends. As Jesus starts to speak directly into your life, directly to your heart, Jesus starts saying out loud what you've wanted someone to affirm in you and in your friends for longer than you can remember. You were created to be different, he says. You were meant to be interesting, to stand out, not to blend in. You were created to make a difference, to add value. You're the salt of the earth, don't lose your flavor. You're the light of the world, don't shirk your responsibility. You were created to do good works so that others will see God in you, and at that moment, if you were to look out over the crowd and see the crowd on that hillside, you would have seen everybody sitting there, leaning in just a little bit, captivated, nodding along, saying, That's it.
He's saying exactly what I feel inside. He's putting words to my deepest longings. He's giving me courage to live it out. He gets it. He gets us. He knows exactly who I am and exactly where I want to go. He gets me. Isn't that grand? We all want our lives to mean something, don't we? We want someone to validate who we are, to give us a little bit of permission to just dream bigger. So Jesus says, You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And that's a grander vision, perhaps, than that small town crowd might have initially imagined for themselves. But there's something inherently inspiring about big dreams, isn't there? Jesus didn't say, You're the salt of Galilee and the light of Judea.
Didn't say, You're the salt of Newnan and the light of Georgia. You're the salt of the earth and the light of the whole world. We all want our lives to mean something. Anybody remember James Corden? Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS. It came on in the middle of the night when all of us were asleep. And he used to do these carpool karaoke segments that would make it the rounds online after after the show had aired on TV. On The Late Late Show, James Corden would get these famous singers or even an entire band, and he'd crowd them into his car. They'd all drive around town together, and James Corden would put the band or the singer's own music on the radio. As they drove around, they'd all sing it together in karaoke style in the car and talk about their lives and and things like that. Several years ago, Corden got Paul McCartney to ride around with him in Liverpool, England, where the Beatles are from, as they filmed one of those segments, carpool karaoke segments.
Most of the karaoke segments, they're fun and they're funny and they're entertaining, and this one was all of that, but but it was more than that somehow. This one was somehow meaningful. It really resonated with a lot of people. James Gordon and Paul McCartney start out driving around town. The first song they they sing is, is, Baby, You Can Drive My Car, and they they beep the horn of the car along with the song as they go along. Beep beep beep beep, yeah, right? They sing Penny Lane while they're driving down Penny Lane. Paul tells stories about growing up in Liverpool as they drive around town. Interestingly, he mentions lots of churches that they pass by.
I used to sing in that choir. In church? Yeah, I was a choir boy, he says, growing up. My brother got married in that church. He remembers a big big family event as they drive by another church. In the middle of all the singing, all the reminiscing, all the storytelling, James turns to Paul in the car and says, with just real sincerity in this honest, transparent, unscripted moment, he just one man looks at another man and says, Your music is so full of positivity and joy. And there's something strangely impactful about that honest moment when it happens on film. Something impactful really about the whole segment, something emotionally impactful to see someone, to see 2 people actually, James and Paul together, to see them so effectively using the gifts God has given them, to be salt and light to everyone else who's getting getting to glimpse in and watch, to add flavor and warmth and richness to the world around them through what they do.
The segment ends with Paul McCartney going back to a a pub in Liverpool, where he used to go when he was a much younger man, and they surprised the crowd there with a little mini concert from the famous Beatle. The the pub quickly fills up to capacity and just overflows with joy. The light on people's faces as they rock along to Paul is just remarkable. You know, you don't have to take a vow of poverty or be Mother Teresa to make a difference in this world. Anyone can be salt and light. The whole segment from beginning to end just captures the vitality of being salt and light in the world, of adding to the world around us, of being interesting in a way that few things seem to be able to do these days. You can find that segment online. Just look at search for it on YouTube when you go home. You should watch it all of you. Today's message is about embracing our identities, about using our gifts in a particular way to impact the world around us. And today, we remember that our deepest most impactful identity, all of us, is our identity in Christ.
And today, we also remember that Jesus tells us very clearly who we are. As Christians, we spend so much time remembering that Jesus said, I am the light of the world, that we too often forget that he also said, You are the light of the world. Would you bow with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, remind us that our greatest identity is our identity in you. Give us the courage to live fully into the people you tell us we are. To be people who stand out in the best kinds of ways. People who add to the lives of others in ways that bring out the best in them. People who are sources of warmth and growth and vision and life and light and love to everyone we meet.
God, make us salt and light. We offer this prayer and all of who we are to you in Jesus' name. Amen.
