All right, well, let's go to Matthew 5. I know that's a shock to you, Matthew chapter 5, but I'm gonna finish the message that we started about the salt, and tonight I wanna look at the light. And you know, I think we can make application first simply as we are all the salt of the earth. God makes that very clear. But when it comes to light, I think that we can apply that to a corporate setting like a church. When I wrote this message down, the first thing I wrote is, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. You wanna come up and sing it with me? All right. Man, you're taking your life into your own hands when you ask little Dan to do something. But we're gonna do it together, all right? You know how it goes? Got your light, get your light up there. Get your light. All right, here we go. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Is that all we know? All right, yeah, it's good. Now, the reason I did that is because at church, the music people will not let me sing specials. So that's the only way I can do it is just to do that. And so that is a great song, this little light of mine. So think with me, go to Matthew chapter five, go ahead and stand with me. And when I read verse 13, I'm gonna also read that again and go through verse 14, 15, and 16. And again, think about this message tonight in light of a corporate setting and what I mean by that as a church setting. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. Now that's the opportunity for the pastor to say, don't be good for nothing. Amen. Uh-oh. No more amens, huh? All right, well, I'll have to go amen myself. Verse number 15. I'm telling you, the same as he says ye are the salt, he also says ye are the light, look at this, of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Lord, once again, we want to thank you for the week. I am appreciative of all the music that has been sung this week, all the things that go on in the background. And each night we've had a fellowship and we've had food and that doesn't just come by accident, but there are those who are working behind the scenes, those are practicing and the choir specials. Lord, it's a blessing because it really prepares our heart in worship and prepare us to hear the Word of God. And I need your help one more time tonight, Lord. And my desire, as you know, and my prayer has been that each of these messages would cause us to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to remind us that we live in a very dark world. We live in a world that is not Christian, but at the same time, if the light of the gospel is going to shine, it's going to shine in our life and corporately in the life of this baptized assembly of believers. So I pray, Lord, that we might take the corporate aspect tonight of letting our light shine as a church. Like is mentioned here, we are like a city that sets on a hill. And I pray, Lord, that we would just be challenged and convicted about the idea that we are to live a beatitude Christian life And therefore, the application would be, we are salt and we are light. Help now in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated tonight. Now we'll say, and I hope that you understand this, that if we do live the Beatitudes that Jesus has given us as disciples, and really those are found in verses three through down verse number 12, and I do believe that Jesus is taking verses three through 12 and preaching them, and then making the application of these verses by telling us who we are as salt and light. Jesus wants us to be a light in a dark world. Light, listen to this, light helps people find their way. I think when they invented the iPhone, one of the greatest things on the iPhone is the flashlight. And that is because you can have a phone and a flashlight all in one, plus a camera, plus blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Who would have ever thought that we would be lost without our phones? But used to, we'd always carry flashlights, and they would be in our cars, or they would be in the glove compartment, or they would be in the garage, and we would use them to find our way. Now we have that light on our phone. But you know, the thing about it is, is light is always good when it's dark. That's when you need light. And by the way, light is very powerful. Light always overcomes darkness. And I just want you to understand, when it comes to the end of this age, we win. The devil does not win. Evil does not win. The light wins, God wins, God is going to win. But it just seems like in the dark world that we live in, that it's almost like we feel like sometimes we're not winning this battle that's taking place. Well listen, it's not over until Jesus says it's over, and when it's over, the devil will be put down, and light will always, light will always overcome darkness. Now you can understand this if you ever stay in a motel room and you decide that you're gonna close off the curtains and the little thing that comes down because maybe you wanna try to sleep in the next day. Well, at least I used to do that when I was young. That doesn't work anymore. But it doesn't matter if you were to close the curtains. If you were by accident to leave one little crease in that, And you know what's gonna happen? The light is going to find its way through the darkness. You know why? Because light always overcomes darkness. Light is greater than darkness. And if we can simply, listen to this, I know I've beat this like a horse, but it's okay. If we can simply, think about this, be poor in spirit, which is humility, mourn over our sin rather than to justify our sin, have a life of power under control, which is meekness, if we can hunger and thirst after that which is righteous, then we will be salt and we will be light. And the disciple must sit at the feet of Jesus and be willing to take instruction. One of the most beautiful pictures of that is when Jesus was in the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus there in Bethany. It was a place that he would stop often and there was great hospitality there in their home. And if you know anything about the Jewish culture, they're very hospitable. And so Jesus comes into the house to Mary and Martha, and he has his disciples with him. And you understand that Martha, the Bible says, was cumbered about with much serving. So I can just see her all of a sudden having a group of people in her house, knowing that she needs to be hospitable, and she's going from the kitchen or going to the place where she may be getting some refreshments or whatever it might be. We'll use our culture, she went to get some coffee, she went to get some tea, and she's going back and forth, and here is Mary. sitting at the feet of Jesus, taking it all in, everything that he has to say, she is taking the instructions of what Jesus Christ is saying at that time. And Martha's going back and forth, and finally I can just see her in my mind's eye as she's looking at Mary going, can you help me? And finally she can't take it any longer. And she said, Jesus, and I'm just paraphrasing, can you tell Mary to get up from what she's doing and come in here and help me? And you know, she thought that Jesus was gonna be on her side. And Jesus said this to Martha, Martha, Martha, he even used it twice. Now listen, anytime a name is used back to back like that, Martha, Martha, you know it's important. If my mom ever said my first name and my middle name back to back, I was dead meat. And Jesus said, Martha, Martha, thou art cumbered about with much serving, but Mary hath chosen that good part, meaning to sit and let and listen at the feet of Jesus and become a disciple. What is it that Jesus was preaching that day? We have no idea, but I would like to think a lot of it, what he preached to his disciples here, he was preaching to other people to let them know the way of a disciple. So a disciple has to be willing to take instruction so they can be what God wants them to be. You know, that's why we, again, I don't wanna belabor this, but that's why we need to be in the word of God on a daily basis. That's why we need to be in church on a weekly basis. But here's what we need to understand about light and salt. We don't dispense light and we don't dispense salt. We are the salt and we are the light. And you think about this because we looked at the very thing that Jesus was trying to get across when he talked about salt, and that was the preservation because sin corrupts. And you think about it, darkness and corruption go together. Salt prevents decay from happening, and light causes people to be able to find their way. Darkness and corruption will always go together. Now, there is darkness in many forms in our world. Let me give you some. There is darkness in education where there is no Bible. That's a dark education. And that leads to things like evolution and such as that. And so if you have an education without the word of God, you will have darkness. Evolution is a dark path that leads to a bad worship. That is not God. God does not want a a godless education. No, he wants us to know what the... And you know why I love math? Because one plus one will always be two. And two times three will always be six. And five times two will always be 10. It doesn't matter what people try to say. And so we've even had a generation that said, well, it's okay if two plus two, if you want it to be five. No, it's not okay. What do you want to teach a kid to be? I don't know if I should use the S word, stupid or not? There is a spiritual darkness. There is a moral corruption. There's darkness in politics. Somebody say amen to that. and therefore there is corruption in government. If there is darkness in politics, there will be corruption in government. If men do not see light, the corruption and the decay grows worse. Ephesians 5.8, here's what Paul said about us that are saved. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are the light in the Lord. And then Paul said this, walk as children of light. So, you know what? Before I got saved, I used to think all roads lead to heaven. If you do the best that you can, surely when you get to the end of your life, God will accept you. That's a lie of Satan. No. Darkness will always be darkness. Now, how is it that we're to shine? Notice in the text here, the Bible tells us in verse number 14 that we are the light of the world. He uses the word ye. And then he says this, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Now, when Jesus spoke these words, They totally understood because most of their homes were one room homes and they were lit by one candle and it was on a stick, they would put it on a stick. And that candle was able to light the darkness, to take away the darkness in that home so that they could see. So here's what he says, we shine as a candle and we shine as a city. The word ye here indicates that it is something that is corporate or collective, and I do believe that we can make great application tonight to a church, because after all, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, started the church in his gospels. He called a group of men, he set them aside, and they did the same thing that we do as a local assembly of baptized believers. And he was teaching them, corporately, that they were going to be the light. They were going to be the light that sets on a city, on a hill. This means Jesus was talking to a group of people, and we know that he was. A church, listen to this, a church, it has to be a light. Traveling, and I mentioned this the other day, but I'm gonna go through this. Traveling in an airplane at night gives you a good perspective of this. You can fly for miles and miles and then come upon a city and you see these many individual houses that are lit up and it just begins to light up the whole city. Then you can go out of that city And my illustration has always been, leaving Dallas, Texas, there can be a lot of dark places out there, but you'll see a little light here, a little light there. But when you come up on like Joplin, Missouri, you'll see a whole group of lights. And then once you leave Joplin, It's about 70 miles from Joplin, Missouri to Springfield, Missouri. And there's not a whole lot, there's no cities between that except little cities like Sarkoxy, Missouri and little cities like that. And so you'll see a little farmhouse light here and farmhouse light there. But pretty soon you'll begin to see the outskirts of Springfield. And there'll be a bunch of lights. And that's when I get excited because I know that I'm almost home. And if you consider the vastness of areas, and these little flickering lights in the distance, they give light to that one area. But suddenly you come up on that city, and you see those bunch of lights, and here's what you realize, that when you take a bunch of lights and put them together, You have a light setting up on a hill, you have a city that is lit, or a church that is lit. And the size and the degree of darkness in this world is such that you need to be a part of a collective group of people. And the Bible says that God gets glory in the church. That is why, listen to me, don't ever... think it's not important because church membership is so significant and so meaningful that Jesus died for the church because he knew that the world was dark and there needed to be lighthouses all over the world. And that's what a church is. And we don't put our light on a hill and put a bushel over it. No, we want it to shine. And this church right here needs to be the city that sits on a hill that Abraham sought after and never found but understood that it was a city whose foundations were built by God. That's amazing to me when the Bible says Abraham looked for He looked for a city whose foundations were built by God. Now, this church must be governed by the Spirit of God and it must be, listen to this, high above the rest of the world. The standards of a church should be high. The standards of God's people should be high. Why? Because we live in darkness. We live in darkness. And we should be the salt that causes people to thirst, and we should be the light that shines in a dark world. The Bible says of the church, listen to this, it is the pillar and ground of the truth. And our purpose is the highest purpose with the highest cause, which is the souls of men. But we're not gonna win people to Christ, and thus our light is shining. The church does not exist to evade darkness. The church exists to invade darkness by being the light. In other words, we're not to run from it. The church is the church that should be lived by the Beatitudes. If we apply the Beatitudes in our church life, you can be sure that we're gonna be a light that shines. And we'll be able to sing our, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. And I forget the second verse. What is it? Come on, what? Yeah, all right, thank you. Hide it under a bushel. No, I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel. No, I'm gonna, you're supposed to help me with that. And you know what, Jesus said one little light, one little candle will light a whole house, verse 15. And it giveth light unto all that are in the house. As I mentioned, typical home at this time was lit with one candle. One light can make a lot of difference. You may live in a family or you may be a part of a family that desperately needs light. Your office, your place of work may need light. The place that you go to school may need that light to shine, and if it does, it will shine effectively. You know, one of the places that I went as a kid was Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. I had an aunt and uncle that lived in Lubbock, Texas, and one day, They talked about Carlsbad Cavern, and so we took a trip down to Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico, and we went down into the bottom of that cave, and man, it was like, it was probably 105 degrees in the desert on that day when you got down there, the cool air, and we went all the way down, and this tour guide took us through there, and then he said something. He goes, I'm gonna show you what real darkness is like, and he turned off the lights where we're at, and you could feel the darkness. I've never had it where you could feel the darkness. You couldn't see anything and if you would have stayed in that, you know, like when we go to bed at night and we get up, our eyes adjust to the darkness. There's a good message right there. Your eyes are never going to adjust at the bottom of Carlsbad Caverns. And I was like, I'm a little bit nervous here. I was like 12 years old, you know? And the guy was talking and I wanted to make sure that my mom and dad were like close by. Because I was one of those kids, I was always afraid my parents would move and forget to tell me where they moved to. Yeah, I was that kind of kid. And they turned that light on and man, I felt so much better. But what they did was he just turned one little light on. He just had one little flashlight, but did you know that it was enough to light up that whole area where we were standing? Now, I will never forget that as long as I live. And when I came to this portion of scripture, I thought, that's exactly what God's people are like when they live around darkness. And so don't ever underestimate the power of a church and a power of individuals who are a member of a church because there's a work that shines that Jesus said, let your light so shine, look at this, before who? Men. Make sure your testimony is before men. There is a way our light is to shine, and the reason our works are to shine, listen, is for one reason. Not so that people can say, oh, look at that guy. No, our light is to shine for one reason, and one reason only, and that's to give glory to God. That's what the Bible says. And glorify your Father which is in heaven. Every aspect of our shining should give glory to God. If you're motivated to be seen by men, then some of your works will not be that God can receive glory. I have a group, I pastor a group of people that they are so working behind the scenes, working. I remember we had a lady in our church and she was in a nursing home and she was gonna have a birthday and I kind of mentioned, you know, send a card to her. I think it was her 99th birthday. And by the time I got over there that afternoon, she had already had four parties. from people in our church. She had four cakes, four parties, all this kind of stuff going on, and I just felt like, well, glad I showed up. And I thought, that's letting, and you know what? Every person in that nursing home saw Berean Baptist Church, the different people come in, and they saw, you know what they were doing without even realizing it? Well, actually, they were just living out their Beatitude Christian life. But one by one was shining their light into the darkness of that nursing home. And people were able to see that. You don't have to be seen of men, you just need to do it because it's the right thing to do. Because then God will be glorified. And that just showed me right there, hey listen, we as a corporate people, and you know that, and then I can start preaching about missions. And I can encourage you in Faith Promise Mission Giving, but I'm just telling you, corporately, every individual in a church is challenged to do something for mission. People always ask me, preacher, what's your goal for missions? And my goal is always to be 100% participation. Because I know that if everybody in the church participate, the money will take care of itself. But you do that, and corporately, you're able to give to missions. And is it that you might let people know how much you give? No! When people fill out a Faith Promise mission card, We don't tell them to put their name on it. We just tell them to make sure they do what God tells them. Now, this story was told to me. There's a young man. He was saved in our church in 2010. Eventually, he went in the military. Eventually, he married a young lady. He took a job with T-Mobile and he went to Utah. And he told me this recently. He just told me this. I was preaching a mission conference up there, and he's a member of that church. And he came to me and he said, Preacher, I wanna tell you something. He said, one year when you were doing Faith Promise, he said, and I don't always do this, I did it one or two years, but I decided to take all the cards up, and we took all the cards up, and we take our cards up the whole month. And so at the end of the month on a Sunday, I had somebody put a projector up there and I said $20, $25, $30, $100, and it was going up on the board to see what it was. One was $300, and he said that he couldn't believe that somebody had given three or $400 a week to missions. And you know how much he gave to missions that year? Zero. You know how much he tithed that year? Zero. I told him, you need to baptize the Berean Baptist Church. And the preacher told me, oh, we believe in local church, you know, so he's gotta tithe here. I said, no, he owes us about three years of tithe. I'm gonna come after him. But he told me, he said, I have never been so convicted when I saw somebody give three, I think one was $450 a week. Now, and he said, so my goal, was to do that. And you know what? He didn't actually tell me that he was doing that, but he implied that he was doing that. You know what happened? Somebody gave and he was provoked in their giving. He just saw somebody's light shine. Now we didn't tell who it was that gave that money, because I didn't know who gave that money, because his name wasn't on the card. And it doesn't matter because it's God who gets the glory. And when you get to heaven and you stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ, then He will say to you, Well done, thy good and faithful servant, if your light was shining to give glory to God and not yourself. What's unfortunate is those that want to give so that they can be seen of men. Now, has anybody, has that ever happened? Yeah, it happened to Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. Barnabas came to church, and he was a shining light in that church, and he sold a piece of land in Cyprus. Listen, that'd be like selling beachfront property in Hawaii. And he sold it and he brought it to the church and laid it at the apostles' feet and basically said, use this for those that need it. And Ananias and Sapphira saw that. They saw that and they decided, hey, you know, maybe we should have a little action. Maybe people should pat us on the back. You don't need a pat on the back. And the reason that they sold the land and kept back part of it and came and gave some of it is because they wanted acculations. They wanted people to recognize them. And what did it do? They got rolled up and they said about both of them being dead, he gone, she gone, that's it. Because Peter said, why have you lied to God? It was your piece of property. We need to shine our light that it might glorify God. You know what God calls people like Ananias and Sapphira and the Pharisees that he had to deal with? He called them hypocrites. You know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is someone who acts a part that they're not real. In fact, we get the same idea of a hypocrite of somebody who's an actor on a stage. That's not really who they are. Every time I have a special needs daughter, she's watched When Calls the Heart at least 20 times. And every time Jack dies, she cries. And I said, quit watching that nonsense. He's an actor, he's not real. You can't say that to a special needs child, by the way. Anyhow, my wife goes, no, he's not dead. I saw him in another movie, in another Hallmark movie. He's an actor. You know what he is? He's a hypocrite. Now that's exactly what it is, is if you try to be somebody that you're not really. Why don't you just let your light shine to glorify God? And again, Jesus is not advocating works for self-glory in the applause of men. He is speaking of good works that come forth, listen to this. from a life of humility and purity and meekness and righteousness and mercy, a purposed heart, a person who's a peacemaker, and endured suffering and persecution. You should come out and go door-knocking not because you're afraid what people might say or not say. You should come out and be a witness because you wanna glorify God. That's the only reason that you should go on soul-winning visitation. That's the only reason. That is the works that Jesus did, and it glorified His heavenly Father. Teaching the disciples these character principles is what will cause us to shine in a dark world. Seeking the lost with compassion, showing mercy to those who no one cares about, forgiving the enemies who have wronged us. and they have committed against us. Stooping to wash the disciples' feet, showing zeal for the house of God. Jesus did that. Spending time with his father in prayer. This is what Jesus did and he showed this to his disciples and they became lights. Now were they perfect people? No, right up until the time that Jesus Christ was getting ready to go to the cross of Calvary, they were arguing with each other over who the greatest in the kingdom was. And I already mentioned this, but two of them got their mother involved. Now, how ridiculous is that? But you know, after the crucifixion and the resurrection, those boys got serious about it. they realized everything that Jesus Christ has been teaching us is because he wanted, he glorified the Father and he wants us to glorify the Father. And that's, how many of them you think throughout their life after Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven, did they remind each other about being light and salt? I guarantee you all the time. You know why I've preached these messages this week? Because I'm praying that a year from now, you'll still be thinking about this. That you'll go to work thinking about it. That when you read through the Beatitudes, you'll think about it. When you read Matthew 5, 6, and 7, that you'll think about the kind of disciple that God wants you to be. And listen, I didn't even, I'm telling you, there's 40 messages in those three chapters alone. We've only got seven of them. There's much, much more to what Jesus had to say. That's why I'm hoping I whet your appetite enough that you go study the Sermon on the Mount. Somebody say amen. That's right, exactly. Because I'm going back to Missouri. Good works are works that originate with God and are done with the motive of glorifying God. Before we engage in any activity, we need to ask God, will this glorify you? My wife always, oh, she is the most, 100. I tell you, on her birthday, I bet she got 75 texts. On my birthday, I might get three. I'm just kidding. She's got a great influence. because she's got a light that shines among children and pastors and pastor's wives and people in the church. I'm telling you, when my grandkids come up to me and my wife is not around, the first words out of their mouth is, where's Nana? And I'll look at those little boogers and say, well, what about Papa? Where's Nana? You know what? She's got a light that shines. She glorifies God. And she'll always say something like this to me when I'm going through something. Well, do you have peace about it? Woman, why don't you leave me alone? Sometimes I wanna say to her, go to Walmart. If I'm ever watching Tennessee football, she comes in and she goes, why do you get so bent out of shape and so animated? Robin, you need to go to Walmart. Go vacuum, do something. Leave me alone. But she always said, well, do you have peace about it? Have you prayed about it? I always gotta bring in the spiritual aspect of everything and I'm over here trying to have a best pity party for myself that I possibly can and she blows it up like dynamite. But you know what, she's right. Do you have the peace about it? Have you prayed about it? Is your works coming from a beatitude heart? Will what you're talking about give glory to God? You see, if your works are coming from a beatitude heart, they can no more be hid in a cave than a candle in a dark room or a city on a hill. Our life work should be to glorify God. When we were in Namnaster, the first three years were very volatile, meaning that there was missiles at the Air Force Base and the missiles were going out and the B-2 bomber was coming in. I got there in 1989. The B-2 bomber got there in 1992. There was a very big turnover going on. We would have people that were getting saved. They were being discipled. And then the next thing you know, they're gone. And it was really turbulent. And I got frustrated about it. I got bent out of shape about it. And my wife comes up to me and says, well, you know what? Rather than being frustrated about it, and by the way, it's the Lord's church. It's not my church. It's not the pastor's church. It's not the deacon's church. It's not the charter member's church. Well, that went over like a lead balloon. It's the Lord's church. He died for it. It's his. And he's more concerned about it probably than we are. But she said, why don't we just start praying that those that get saved, God will start calling them to be in the ministry or to preach. And then if they leave, it'll be good. And you know, from that day, we started praying for that. It was an amazing aspect. I had to open up a Bible Institute to train the men that God saved and called to preach and still are in the ministry today. And it's amazing. They're in Australia. They're in Columbia, Missouri. They're in popular bluff, Missouri. They're in Olathe, Kansas. All of these men that have been through our ministry got saved. You know why? Because it's about glorifying God. And by the way, it's not about kingdom building. There's a lot of churches that wanna build their little kingdom. How about let's build the kingdom of God? And if we build the kingdom of God, that means we'll send out our very best people. And they'll go all over the world. Hey, that's okay. We're trying to glorify God, not to build a little empire for ourselves. Somebody say amen to that. If your works are coming from a beatitude heart, you can't hide it and it'll glorify God. But you know what? There is a wrong kind of shining. No one can cover up or put out your light but you. The way to shine is by lighting a candle that our works will glorify God and no man can put that candle out but us. Darkness cannot be destroyed by light. You understand that? In fact, the heavier the darkness, the brighter the light shines when it's lit. Just like that cave down there in New Mexico. The prince of darkness has no power to destroy the light. Why would a Christian want to conceal his light? Maybe they want to be popular with the world. Maybe they want to be like the world. We can be our own worst enemy when it comes to shining our light. The devil wants to stamp out light, but he has no power over light. In Acts, the light was shining bright in Jerusalem. The workers of darkness tried to stamp out the light with persecution, but the light spread to Judea, Samaria, Asia, and to Europe, and to the uttermost part of the earth. Paul was a preacher of the gospel, and he was a shining light for the Lord. His light was so bright that the workers of darkness put him in prison. They beat him. But his light continued to shine, and in prison, God used him to write much of the New Testament that we preach out of today. Because darkness can't stamp out light. It's impossible. John Bunyan was preaching in the 1600s in England. And listen, they were Anglican. and his light was very bright in the darkness of that wicked religious world. The throne of England demanded that his light be put out. They put him in prison, but the darkness did not put out the light. He wrote a book called Pilgrim's Progress, and many today still read that book and even have come to help them find the light of Jesus Christ. You cannot put out light. Darkness can't put out light. Cain killed Abel, but though Abel is dead, the Bible says that he's still yet speaking. You know what that means? That the light of Abel's still shining. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Darkness crucified him, darkness buried him, but you can't put out the light because the light rose from the dead. Why? Because you can't put out light. And you're the only one that's going to squash your own light. But it needs to shine. How can we put out our light? Don't live the beatitude Christian life. That's how you can put out your light. Be indifferent to the decay of the world. Have an apathetic attitude. Quit praying. Don't read your Bible. I'm trying to help you to learn how to not be light. Everybody getting this? I'm trying to help you. Fall in line with the world. Don't go to church. Whatever you do, don't go to church. and you know it, and the light just gets, no, no, our light should shine bright. Be more interested in popularity. That'll take the light away. Make sure that you're more concerned about position or whatever the world has to offer. You know, when I was in Bible college, I have always tried to be an entrepreneur in the best way possible, meaning that no matter where we're at and what we're doing, I sat around thinking, I don't understand people who don't understand you can make money in this country. There's lots of ways. My wife used to make Care Bears. She was always helping in our family, even though she was staying home and watching our kids. And so when I was in the Bible college, I went to work for FedEx and I was a courier. And while I was there, I decided that I would go through their management program. So I went through their management program. And I'm telling you, I wanted to be a good witness. I wanted to be a light. I wanted to be a light in a dark, and I'm telling you, that company that I worked for, there was a lot of darkness in it. I'm just telling you there was. But I just, I kept my testimony. I went forward. I decided to be a manager. I went through managing school. And when it came time for me to go through the, and it took me, I don't know, a year and a half, two years to go through all the, stuff that it takes, and when you finally take your final examination, they fly you to, they fly you somewhere, and in this case, they flew me to Indianapolis, Indiana, in a hotel, and I had to give a four-hour presentation. I had to be able to answer senior managers and regional managers' questions based on the policies and procedures of FedEx, and they would grill you. They grilled you, and they would ask you if an employee did this, what would be your response. And you would have to, it's almost like the Bible. You'd say, well, the policies and procedures say this. You know what I like about the Bible? It's our policies and procedures. The Beatitudes are our policies and procedures. So I went through all of that, never knowing. You know what happened was? Is it helped me to be a better pastor later on. It helped me to be a better manager in that sense. So the time came, and so I did all of that, and then I started getting job offers. I never thought about that, but I was still in Bible college, and I wasn't going anywhere. I got job offers from Texas, Dallas, Texas, Houston, Texas. I got job offers from Indianapolis, Indiana. I got all these job offers, but I wasn't interested, so I just ignored it. I just thought, well, you know. Well then, through a series of events, God, And I'm telling you, my wife could go back to that time when God was dealing with me about going to Knob Noster to preach. They called me and asked me if I would come and preach for them. And I said, yeah, but I'm not gonna be your pastor. I'm still in school. I don't wanna do this. And she was praying and my pastor was praying. And I did not realize that God would just like that, say, no, you need to go to Knob Noster. And so I did everything I could to discourage them from calling me. to be the pastor. And by the way, they called me and after I preached for three months, there was only eight left. There was a bunch of Calvinists in the church and I didn't know, I'm not a Calvinist, the Bible's not a Calvinist. But anyhow, the day that they called me to be their pastor was a Wednesday night. So I preached there on Sunday, they called me on Wednesday night, said, we want you to come be our pastor, we'll work out, you know, and I drove back and forth for four months to finish school, a lot of stuff like that. But on that very Thursday, listen, the very next day, the very next day. I come home from school and my wife said, Randy Stiles called you and wants you to come in early to work 30 minutes. And he's the boss. He's the big boss. Not only is he the big boss, he is the big boss, meaning he's like 6'6", weighed about 250. I'm just a little, you know, at that time I was 170 pounds soaking wet. and very intimidating guy, so I went in early my whole time. Anytime somebody does this, my wife always thinks the glass is half full, and I know it's not, it's half empty. If anything bad can happen, it will. So I'm thinking, oh my, did we miss some package last night? Did the plane got off on time? I don't know what we did wrong. What's going on? So I go in there and I said, well, this will be a good opportunity to ask him if he can help me get a job up in Kansas City, because I'm going to have to resign my position here in about six months. Because the thing about it was I knew I was going to still be working there until we moved. So I go in and he goes, Hey Jeff, come on in. He goes, man, I got some great news for you. He said, you're going to, he said, we've got this, I got a, I got a job opportunity. And I'm like, what? He said, Tom Dapp's going to go to first shift. The first shift manager took a manager job up in Illinois. I want you to be my second shift manager. He goes, don't worry about that school thing. He said, I can send you to Memphis for six weeks during the summer. You got to go through six weeks of training. And so he goes, and he goes, but he goes, now listen, I can only give you $70,000 starting off, but, and that could have been $70 million as far as I was concerned. He said, I'll give you $70,000, but don't worry, with bonuses, you'll probably end up with 85 or $90,000 a year. I'm a Bible college student. who just went through a management program because I thought it would help me. And I looked at him and I said, well, I'm not gonna be able to take the job. I said, because I was gonna come in here and tell you that I actually took a job in, I actually took a pastorate job in Knob Noster, Missouri. And he goes, what? Knob Canooster? No, Knob Noster. And I'm from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, so it's okay. And you know what he said? He said, how much are they gonna pay you? And I knew what they were gonna pay me, because they'd already told me. I said, $100 a week. And he leaned back in his chair and he laughed, and he laughed, and he thought that was the funniest thing in the world, and said, you are kidding. You do want this job done. I said, no sir, I can't take it. I have to do what God's called me to do. And I'm telling you, eventually the word got around. and they thought I was crazy. But let me tell you something, if I was to go back, would I do it over? I'd do it exactly the same way. Why? Because I wasn't called to make money, I was called to be a light. I wasn't called to be an operations manager for Federal Express, I was called to be a pastor of a New Testament Baptist church. That was 35 years ago. People, we have to be the light. We cannot live this life for money. We cannot live this life for prestige. We cannot live this life for position. We have to be more interested in glorifying God than in anything. Now, let me tell you why. Listen to me, because we live in a dark world. And the darker it gets, the brighter our light can shine. God's people need to shine like disciples so God, listen, can be glorified. The life of a beatitude Christian is not so we can walk around and say, look at me, because the world will never do that anyway. They're gonna think you're crazy until they get cancer, or somebody in their family dies, or some tragedy comes along. Then you know what darkness is doing at that time a lot of times? They're looking for somebody who has the answer. Hey, guess what? We have the answer. Several times, and I was able to transfer to Kansas City, Missouri and be a courier up there, never became a operations manager, but I was thankful for the training that I received. But I'm telling you right now, we need to let our light shine like a city setting on a hill. And this church right here, needs to shine in Missouri City, Texas. Because Houston is so big, there needs to be a lot of light shining around here. Why? So God can be exalted. The world dishonors God. Did you hear what I said? The world dishonors God. The world needs light. And guess who that light is? Cornerstone Baptist Church. If we give God glory, then we'll be the light. Let's stand.