Faith Alive Church: Welcome to the Faith Alive Sermon Podcast. This is a replay of a past sermon from Faith Alive Church. Whether you missed it, wanna hear it again, or share it with someone you know, we're glad you're here. This sermon is by Jordan D. Waggy, lead pastor at Faith Alive Church. Man, it's so good to have everybody in the place. Welcome, online audience. I know that you saw me talking, but now you can hear me. but we're excited to have you here this morning. And I wanna jump right into this. We have a very exciting celebration here today. And for those of you that are new with us, I want to say from the stage here, That we are a next generation church. We love our next generation. That's youth, that's kids' ministry, and that's young adult ministry. And we want to be intentional about celebrating the milestones within our next generation. And today is a celebration, and I'm gonna tell you why. We have Forty nine of our preschoolers that are moving in to elementary ministry. And so, yeah, come on. So I wanna celebrate them here today. So I'm gonna have our kids ministry directors, Jamie and Jeremy Carrier, bring in some of the students here today. Would you show them your love here today? Come on. we just have one? that is precious. That is awesome. I guess they're all coming to the second service and the third service. Yeah, come on up here. Come on up here. this is sweet. What's your name, sweetheart? Vivian? guys, can you say hi to Vivian? Make her feel welcome. We wanna be intentional here this morning. Could you stretch your hand towards Vivian today in representation of all of our preschoolers moving up into elementary ministry. Father, we come before you today and we lift up all that are graduating, Lord Jesus. We pray right now, God, that you would be with them, that you would move in them. Lord God, that you would get a hold of them. Lord Jesus, that you would call them into whatever it is that you have in store for them. And Lord Jesus, we lift up little Vivian today representing our preschoolers. And we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would anoint her and bring her into the next area. Of ministry in a great way. And if you believe that Faith Alive Church, would you celebrate them? Would you say amen and give them a round of applause here today? Thanks for coming, Vivian. she's precious. She is precious. I think we have 49 total preschoolers moving into elementary ministry. Isn't that amazing? we are so thankful for that. And we're pumped up about all that God is going to do in that. And today I wanted to jump right into our the meat of our message here today. For those of you that have been with us, we have been studying one word, and that word is elevate. Very good. We have been learning what it means to elevate, what it looks like to elevate. And for the past four weeks, we've talked about everything that involves elevation. We've talked about elevating our humility, we've talked about elevating our faith, we've talked about elevating the next generation. We've talked about elevating our commitment unto the Lord. And today I wanted to go in a different direction and pose a question to you today. It also happens to be my son's favorite word, and that is why. Why? Why? Why do we want God to elevate us? Why do we want to grow? Why do we want Faith Alive Church to reach more people? Because if the answer is simply so that we can become larger as a church or so that we can gain more notoriety. We have missed all that God has taught us in these past four weeks. Would you agree? But if the answer is so that more people can see Jesus, so that more people can experience his love and his grace and his mercy, then I think we've answered that why question correctly. Amen. In Matthew chapter five, you can turn with me in your in your Bibles here this morning. Otherwise, it'll be on the screen. But in Matthew chapter five, Jesus is preaching and it's good. All right. Jesus is preaching. This is the account in Scripture that's called the Sermon on the Mount. This is where Jesus is preaching. And to understand this a little bit more, to put on some context about these portions of scripture, you have to understand who he's preaching to. I want you to know that he's not preaching to kings, he's not preaching to nobles, he's preaching to ordinary men and women like you and I. And he says these words to them. In verse 13 of Matthew chapter 5, he says, You are the salt of the earth. But if it 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. Then he says, You are, somebody say, You are, 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. Don't you just love the red letters in Scripture? Jesus says, You are. You are salt. You are light. You know, from time to time I think we forget who we are, but more importantly, we forget whose we are. And we have to be reminded of that from time to time. So would you declare it with me this morning? Say, I am. Come on, say it again. I am. Say I am worthy. Say I am anointed. Say I am loved. Say I am a child of God. Come on, say it again. I am a child of God. Listen, your identity isn't in what you do. It's not in who the world says you are or who you think that you are. Your identity is and will always be who in who Christ Jesus, the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords, says that you are. Forever and always. Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13, salt has many attributes. It preserves, it flavors, and I like this. It impacts what it comes into contact with. You were called to that specific thing. You were called not simply to exist. in the world you were called to impact the world. But you cannot, listen to me, you cannot impact what you refuse to come into contact with. Salt sitting in a salt shaker does not change anything. It does not change the flavor. It does not change anything because it hasn't come into contact with anything. It has to leave the salt shaker to make a difference. Would you agree? Churches have gotten really good at building salt shakers. Let me explain. They've become really good at building better buildings. They become really good at building better programs and better services and better experiences. And now listen, those aren't bad things to build, but Jesus doesn't call us to be better salt shakers. He calls us to be better salt within that shaker. That means that we have to get outside of the four walls of the church into our neighborhoods and our communities, into our schools and into the work. Places, into our families and our relationships. Faith Alive, listen to me. We are not called to be salt that remains in a shaker or a light that shines inside of a building. We were called to leave that shaker and to carry that light into the darkest places of the world. Would you agree? Jesus continues, He says this in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14: You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. Once again, you are light. Let me teach you something about light here today, if you didn't know this. There is only light and the absence of light. Let me say that again. There's only light and the absence of light. Darkness. Can only be measured by the amount of light that is present. Darkness in and of itself does not exist. You follow me? That means that if there's light in your life, hear me, darkness cannot exist. That means that if there's light in your life, darkness cannot be found. That means if there's light in your life, darkness cannot overcome you. What is that light? Is not the question, but rather who is that light? Somebody tell me his name. His name is Jesus. John chapter 1 and verse 5 says, In him that is Christ was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. This light that dwells within you cannot be kept to yourself. Somebody needs what you are carrying in your life. There is somebody at your workplace that needs the hope that you carry. Somebody in your family who needs the grace that you hold. Somebody at your school who needs a friend. Somebody next to you, even today, maybe one invitation away from experiencing and encountering Jesus. Don't hide the light. That you have inside of you, let it emit from you that light that was given you is for the building up of others. Jesus warns us in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 15. He says, Do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, put it on its stand. And if you do, it gives light to everyone in the The house. Now I want to make this real for each and every one of us who has a lamp inside of their house. Just a few of you. Hope you have some light switches at least. But imagine everyone knows what a lamp is. You light a lamp, you turn it on, and you throw a blanket over top of it. Now that doesn't make sense because why? It defeats the purpose that it was made for. I don't know about you, but I would never want to bury the gift that God has given me. Unfortunately, we see this in the Christian community from time to time. That those that have giftings from the Lord hide that gifting and refuse to use it. You do not experience God's grace, his gift to all mankind, and keep it to yourself. I want to encourage you, Faith Alive Church, that it is important for you to let the light out. Let the light that shines within you out. What God has done in you is meant to flow from you. Yes? Don't hide it and don't wait for the perfect moment to use it. There will always be excuses, there will always be stumbling blocks, roadblocks that will get in your way. But Jesus says, Don't hide the light, period. He doesn't say don't hide the light when it's convenient for you. He doesn't say don't hide the light when you won't know and understand more scripture. Don't hide the light period. I want to ask you this question here today. Where has God placed you? Because where you are is exactly where your mission field is. Exactly where you are is where your mission field is. Is it your workplace? Is it your place of employment? Is it your school for the students in the house? Is it Your neighborhood? Is it your social media platforms? Can I tell you today that social media gets a bad rap a lot of the times and a lot of it is justified? But can we use it and look look at it as a tool to where we can share the good news of Jesus Christ on? It's why we focus on it as a church so that we can reach more people for Jesus Christ. It's important to remember. Let the light shine in and through you so that others can see the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, and the love of God. Jesus says in verse sixteen in the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds. And glorify your Father in heaven. This is what it all comes down to. This is the climax of our sermon series, Elevate. This is all what it comes down to that all may see who you love, who you believe in, who you preach about, and who you glorify. Listen to me: the higher you go, the more Jesus people will see. The higher you go, the more Jesus people will see. Faith Alive, I want to ask this question. What if? What if? What if God is giving you, giving us greater influence? What if he's giving us greater opportunities? What if he's giving us greater resources? What if he's bringing more people inside of our church? I want to ask this question, what are we gonna do with it? Will we build reputation around cultural respect, or will we build it around kingdom advancement? I want our church to be a conduit for transformed lives, a conduit for salvation, a conduit for Jesus. I want God to use each and every one of us, whether it's through our groups, whether it's through our Church ministries, whatever it may be, I want God to use us to see more people fall in love with him. And I think when we all get on the same page, when we all understand that we are exactly where he has placed us, that the mission field that we have been put in charge of is right where we are, then we can see lives come to know him in a greater way. Nearly eight months ago, we declared, Lord, elevate us. Nearly eight months ago we said, Lord, take us higher. Not for more attention, not for more notoriety, but for more responsibility. We need more responsibility within the church. It's not about becoming more important. It's about becoming more useful. I want to be used in the kingdom of God in a greater way. I want to be used by the Lord in a greater way. I might not know what it looks like, but Lord, would you use me? Lord, would you use me? It's not about people knowing our name, it's about people knowing his name. It's the most important thing that we could be a part of. And maybe the greatest prayer isn't, God, elevate me. Maybe it's Lord, would you deepen me in my relationship with you? Would you deepen my faith? Would you deepen my character? Would you deepen my prayer life? My love for your scripture, for your word? Would you deepen my generosity? Would you deepen my compassion? Would you deepen my obedience and my dependence on You. Thanks for listening to the Faith Alive Sermon Podcast. We hope this message encouraged you. If it did, be sure to subscribe or share it with someone else who may need it. If you want to get connected or reach out to one of our pastors, go to our website at faithalive.church. We'll see you next time.