WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.179 If you have Bibles, could you open them at Matthew chapter 5 at the passage that Cori 00:00:05.179 --> 00:00:06.820 read to us? 00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:09.580 Just before I start, it's good to be here. 00:00:09.580 --> 00:00:12.019 Thank you for your warm welcome. 00:00:12.019 --> 00:00:13.660 We're here on Thursday night. 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:14.660 We got fed. 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:15.939 We've come back today. 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:17.719 We're going to get fed again. 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:21.059 So maybe you want to stop doing that, or you'll see us every weekend. 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:24.339 But it's good to be here. 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:32.579 I want to talk to you, your different people from those around you. 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:33.579 We sang Psalm 4. 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:40.899 It said, Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for his own, or as his own. 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:42.460 That's who you are. 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:44.019 You are God's people. 00:00:44.019 --> 00:00:46.100 So you are different. 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:50.179 A few weeks ago, I was at a conference, and there was lots of people like me at it. 00:00:50.179 --> 00:00:55.659 At lunchtime, I went for a walk, and at the end of a street, I saw a sign for the Harley 00:00:55.659 --> 00:00:58.460 Davidson garage, and it said that there was an event on. 00:00:58.460 --> 00:01:03.859 So I walked into the Harley Davidson garage, and I thought, there's lots of motorbikes 00:01:03.859 --> 00:01:06.379 here, and I thought, what do you do with these things? 00:01:06.379 --> 00:01:10.659 I had to look at them, and I didn't know how to work them. 00:01:10.659 --> 00:01:16.099 I saw there were other people there, and most of them didn't look like me. 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:21.659 I was worried that somebody would ask me which was my favorite Harley Davidson. 00:01:21.659 --> 00:01:23.059 I'd give an answer. 00:01:23.059 --> 00:01:28.099 I'd hate to hear somebody say about a car and say something like the blue one. 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:30.819 I was different in that place. 00:01:30.819 --> 00:01:35.500 I stood out as different, and so I went away from there. 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:36.979 You are different. 00:01:36.979 --> 00:01:41.979 You are different from everybody around you, and the sermon on the Mount starts to teach 00:01:41.979 --> 00:01:43.219 us that. 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:48.299 We are different from every other religious and secular culture. 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:52.060 We're different as Christians in Scotland. 00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:55.340 Christians are different in Africa and in America and India. 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:57.060 They're different from everybody else. 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:01.460 You are different at work and at school and at college. 00:02:01.460 --> 00:02:03.620 You should be different. 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:07.299 Now when we are different, we start to worry, don't we? 00:02:07.299 --> 00:02:14.780 We think, well actually the more we are like people, the more they are likely to like us, 00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:18.419 and so we don't want to stand out. 00:02:18.419 --> 00:02:21.539 And I get that we're not to be objectionable. 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:23.539 We're not to be weird. 00:02:23.539 --> 00:02:29.300 We're not just to be different because we wear clothes that people could maybe say, 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:31.620 he looks like a Christian because he's wearing something. 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:33.939 Well that's not how we're to be different. 00:02:33.939 --> 00:02:40.900 Jesus tells us that we are different here, and he tells us that we not try to be different, 00:02:40.900 --> 00:02:45.259 but be what I have made you to be. 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:50.539 He tells us first of all that we're different people, and we're going to look very briefly 00:02:50.539 --> 00:02:55.620 at the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount and see how we're different people. 00:02:55.620 --> 00:03:00.740 Now I know that when you think of the Beatitudes, you could have a whole sermon series on each 00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:06.740 Beatitude, but we're just going to go through them quite quickly and see how we are different. 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:12.420 The setting is that Jesus has gone up a mountain, brought his disciples with him, and he's 00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:17.300 opened his mouth, and he has began to teach his disciples. 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:22.100 They know they're in a special place when they come down from this mountain. 00:03:22.100 --> 00:03:27.540 When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he has 00:03:27.539 --> 00:03:33.019 teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. 00:03:33.019 --> 00:03:40.340 Let's listen to Jesus speak authoritatively into our lives and understand that we are 00:03:40.340 --> 00:03:41.340 different. 00:03:41.340 --> 00:03:42.340 How are we different? 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:43.859 Well, we're made happy by God. 00:03:43.859 --> 00:03:50.899 We're blessed in lots of different ways because of what God has done, and it's our characteristics 00:03:50.899 --> 00:03:55.299 that have been changed as we have come to Jesus Christ. 00:03:55.300 --> 00:03:56.300 What are we like? 00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:03.140 We realize that we are not the people who the world centers around. 00:04:03.140 --> 00:04:04.980 We are poor in spirit. 00:04:04.980 --> 00:04:07.300 We are not self-important. 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:12.300 We have looked at ourselves, and we've understood a smallness, and we've looked at a great big 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:15.540 God and seen we are very different from him. 00:04:15.540 --> 00:04:22.060 And as we have done that, we have realized that we need him. 00:04:22.060 --> 00:04:28.939 So we mourn, we mourn because of our sin and our sadness and our hearts because of what 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:33.180 we have done, and we turn to God. 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:36.860 We sometimes sing of him in Rock of Ages, there's this line that says, Nothing in my 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:39.379 hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling. 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:44.100 That's what poor in spirit mourning Christians do. 00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:48.500 They realize they had nothing, they go to God and they ask Him to change. 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:55.860 And as they're changed, they don't come with pride but with meekness, understanding that 00:04:55.860 --> 00:05:02.819 they need to be changed by God, and so they hunger and thirst after righteousness. 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:07.980 They're not satisfied with themselves just the way they are. 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:11.339 I took an assembly in school in Thursday, and we sang a song. 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:14.420 If you've ever been in school assemblies in the last ten years, you've probably heard 00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:15.420 this song. 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:21.100 I'm not going to sing it but the words are, you, I'm nearly saying it, you are a star 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:23.540 just the way you are. 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:30.540 And I like that song because as a podgy ginger-haired child, I wish everybody knew that when I was 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:33.300 in school, that you're a star just the way you are. 00:05:33.300 --> 00:05:38.379 But the message that they're giving is, you don't need to be changed. 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:40.540 You're fine just the way you are. 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:44.660 Everybody should accept you just the way you are, and we understand that. 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:46.460 But we need to be changed. 00:05:46.460 --> 00:05:51.860 We need to be people who hunger and thirst after something that we don't have. 00:05:51.860 --> 00:05:54.820 And so we go to God and ask for that. 00:05:54.820 --> 00:06:01.379 Then as the Beatitudes move on, we start to see a different attitude towards other people. 00:06:01.379 --> 00:06:06.220 Blessed are the merciful and blessed are the pure in heart, that we're merciful to other 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:09.620 people because we have received God's mercy. 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:15.100 We don't hold it against them because God doesn't hold things against us. 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:23.060 We're pure in heart, and that has an idea of being single in our attitude towards God, 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:26.579 devoted to Him, but also just of purity. 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:32.060 The message from Hollywood has been over the past few months that men need to start treating 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:33.540 women properly. 00:06:33.540 --> 00:06:34.819 You've heard it. 00:06:34.819 --> 00:06:35.819 We should have known that. 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:41.659 We don't always live like that, but the pure in heart don't objectify like that. 00:06:41.659 --> 00:06:45.939 We shouldn't, and we ask forgiveness if we have. 00:06:45.939 --> 00:06:50.100 We seek peace because we have been given peace with God. 00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:51.860 He's taken away our sins. 00:06:51.860 --> 00:06:54.740 We were at war with Him. 00:06:54.740 --> 00:07:02.939 We were enemies with God, but now we have been brought near to God through Jesus Christ. 00:07:02.939 --> 00:07:06.259 And so we are different people. 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:13.139 It might mean that not everybody loves us though, because blessed are those who are persecuted 00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:15.100 for righteousness' sake. 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:20.459 When we live differently, people are going to see something as different about us, and 00:07:20.459 --> 00:07:23.779 they will not always like it. 00:07:23.779 --> 00:07:27.579 So you might ask, well, is it worth it? 00:07:27.579 --> 00:07:31.019 I hope that if you've been looking at the Bible, you've realized that I haven't preached 00:07:31.019 --> 00:07:36.139 and the Beatitudes have said how you're blessed or the characteristics, but I haven't said 00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:38.699 what all the blessings are. 00:07:38.699 --> 00:07:40.939 You are different. 00:07:40.939 --> 00:07:45.539 You're different from everybody around you, because yours says Jesus is the kingdom of 00:07:45.539 --> 00:07:46.899 heaven. 00:07:46.899 --> 00:07:50.740 You will see God says Jesus Christ to you. 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:52.339 You will be comforted. 00:07:52.339 --> 00:07:54.419 You have an inheritance. 00:07:54.419 --> 00:07:58.579 You are going to receive God's mercy. 00:07:58.579 --> 00:08:03.459 You are the children of God, your sons of God. 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:05.740 You have the kingdom of heaven. 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:07.219 This is who you are. 00:08:07.219 --> 00:08:08.779 This is what you have. 00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:09.939 Hold on to it. 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:10.939 Look for it. 00:08:10.939 --> 00:08:13.139 Live as people who have it. 00:08:13.139 --> 00:08:15.459 Be different. 00:08:15.459 --> 00:08:21.139 Perhaps you're not a Christian yet, and if that's you, then it's good you're here. 00:08:21.139 --> 00:08:26.699 And I want to tell you that it's worth being different. 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:27.860 They might persecute you. 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:34.139 It's going to be hard sometimes at work or at school or wherever you are, but it's not 00:08:34.139 --> 00:08:37.100 worth not having the kingdom of God. 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:40.060 It's not worth not being called a child of God. 00:08:40.060 --> 00:08:43.379 It's not worth turning away from God. 00:08:43.379 --> 00:08:45.779 You have to want to see God. 00:08:45.779 --> 00:08:49.700 And if you're not yet a Christian, then how do you become a Christian? 00:08:49.700 --> 00:08:52.180 You turn to God. 00:08:52.180 --> 00:08:54.139 You become poor in spirit. 00:08:54.139 --> 00:09:00.100 You realize who you are, who He is, and you see that He has sent His Son, Jesus, to be 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:02.100 your Lord and Savior. 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:03.740 So you come to Him. 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:06.460 You are different people. 00:09:06.460 --> 00:09:12.580 And if you doubt it, let's listen to Jesus as He tells us that we should have different 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:15.220 actions as we are different people. 00:09:15.220 --> 00:09:20.100 You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:21.939 be restored? 00:09:21.940 --> 00:09:27.900 It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's 00:09:27.900 --> 00:09:29.780 feet. 00:09:29.780 --> 00:09:31.220 Let's see what Jesus says. 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:33.980 Jesus says you are the salt of the earth. 00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:38.300 He doesn't say try to be the salt of the earth or become the salt of the earth. 00:09:38.300 --> 00:09:43.460 You, His disciples, are the salt of the earth. 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:46.460 God, have you got any salt in Edinburgh? 00:09:46.460 --> 00:09:49.700 I suppose the council might be asking that today. 00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:52.700 Have you any salt in Edinburgh? 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:56.740 On Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings, it gathers in one place. 00:09:56.740 --> 00:10:02.300 It comes together as a body, but then throughout the week you will see my salt scattered in 00:10:02.300 --> 00:10:03.700 schools and homes. 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:09.700 It's everywhere in Edinburgh because my people are the salt of the earth. 00:10:09.700 --> 00:10:11.940 That's what we are. 00:10:11.940 --> 00:10:18.660 And salt, some of you know more about salt than me, but I understand it has three uses. 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:23.379 It preserves, it cleans and it tastes. 00:10:23.379 --> 00:10:25.579 Salt is a preservative. 00:10:25.579 --> 00:10:31.659 Some of you like me have lived sheltered Scottish lives and then some American comes to you 00:10:31.659 --> 00:10:34.179 and says, hey, have you tried jerky? 00:10:34.179 --> 00:10:37.179 You, what's that? 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:42.699 And they let you taste it and you say, back to my sheltered Scottish life. 00:10:42.699 --> 00:10:43.699 What have they done with it? 00:10:43.699 --> 00:10:47.179 Well, I don't know everything they've done with it, but one of the things that they've 00:10:47.179 --> 00:10:53.179 done with it is they've put salt in it to preserve it so that it will last. 00:10:53.179 --> 00:10:58.819 And if you see meat hanging in a bag, move to the refrigerated meats and put them under 00:10:58.819 --> 00:11:00.739 your grill or something. 00:11:00.739 --> 00:11:03.299 But this is what we are. 00:11:03.299 --> 00:11:06.259 We are the salt of the earth. 00:11:06.259 --> 00:11:09.659 We are to be some sort of preservative on the earth. 00:11:09.659 --> 00:11:12.339 We're to keep it from going wrong. 00:11:12.339 --> 00:11:16.059 We are to keep it pure as much as we can. 00:11:16.059 --> 00:11:24.779 That's why Derek's prayer and bringing our attention to abortion this morning is important. 00:11:24.779 --> 00:11:29.859 Everything that needs to be done, who will God have to do it? 00:11:29.859 --> 00:11:31.459 Where is his salt? 00:11:31.459 --> 00:11:37.259 It's in us, we are the salt of the earth and he wants us to be the people who do these 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:38.259 things. 00:11:38.259 --> 00:11:45.659 So be a restraint where everybody is their own God doing what they want to do and most 00:11:45.659 --> 00:11:49.579 of it dismissing what he wants us to do. 00:11:49.579 --> 00:11:52.299 You are to be a restraint. 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:55.379 Is everybody going to love you for it? 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:56.500 No. 00:11:56.500 --> 00:12:03.500 But because it brings glory to God and it is good for them because you love people, you 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:05.559 will do it. 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:08.299 Second use of salt is that it cleans. 00:12:08.299 --> 00:12:09.299 It cleans. 00:12:09.299 --> 00:12:16.339 In chapter 164 there's talk of newborn babies being washed in salt or with salt water. 00:12:16.339 --> 00:12:20.740 The idea that it might cleanse them, prepare them for life and some people think that this 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:26.219 is what Jesus would have in his mind as he spoke and told them that they were the salt 00:12:26.219 --> 00:12:28.899 of the earth. 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:34.579 But we have to go where there is dirt and we have to become a cleansing agent. 00:12:34.580 --> 00:12:39.780 You've heard of the expression to rub salt in a wound, where did that come from? 00:12:39.780 --> 00:12:44.860 Well, the idea is that when you put salt in a wound it's going to sting a little but 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:51.180 it's going to stop any infection from coming, it's going to stop more harm being done. 00:12:51.180 --> 00:12:55.180 Oh, is that what we have to do? 00:12:55.180 --> 00:13:01.580 Rub salt in a wound, that means it will sting or something. 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:04.580 But you will stop harm from being done. 00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:08.860 When you see somebody living their life as if God doesn't exist and you do something 00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:16.060 different then you're bringing glory to God and you're helping them. 00:13:16.060 --> 00:13:22.379 You're helping them to be different, to be changed in that way. 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:27.660 So you have to try and do these things. 00:13:27.660 --> 00:13:30.379 Imagine you'd never tasted salt. 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:36.779 Imagine salt was something new to you and you arrived at a table and you saw this stuff 00:13:36.779 --> 00:13:41.700 and you poured it all over your food and you might say, well, some of us are a bit unhealthy 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:45.379 and we'd say, oh, that's nice. 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:49.899 But you take too much and it's not going to be too nice, is it? 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:54.940 But we are the salt of the earth and we are different to what's around us. 00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:57.419 We're very different to what's around us. 00:13:57.419 --> 00:14:00.339 You hunger and thirst after righteousness. 00:14:00.339 --> 00:14:03.579 You want something different from what they want. 00:14:03.579 --> 00:14:10.860 When people hurt you, you're able to forgive them because you have received God's mercy. 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:14.939 Some will be changed by it and warm to others may not. 00:14:14.939 --> 00:14:16.860 But the difference will have been noticed. 00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:22.860 You notice where there is salt and you notice where there is not salt. 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:27.099 So it all goes wrong if salt loses its savor, doesn't it? 00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:28.620 How does salt lose its savor? 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:35.139 Well, if it's harvested with something else, if it's contaminated by what it grew beside, 00:14:35.139 --> 00:14:40.860 if there's been water around it, it starts to become diluted. 00:14:40.860 --> 00:14:41.860 It's different. 00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:46.580 I didn't know this till recently, but you get this stuff called, I think it's pink 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:48.779 Himalayan mountain salt. 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:52.100 Some of you know it, but it's transformed my salt life. 00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:53.100 It's really good. 00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:55.379 It's not even white. 00:14:55.379 --> 00:15:02.100 But it tastes much saltier than what I've used all my life. 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:03.100 Salt is different. 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:09.779 You can be different to others around you and you shouldn't stop being salty. 00:15:09.779 --> 00:15:13.820 You should try your hardest to be salty. 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:16.340 Don't try and be like everyone around you. 00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:20.860 You're to make the difference to the taste. 00:15:20.860 --> 00:15:23.100 Think about where you live. 00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:24.259 Think about where you work. 00:15:24.259 --> 00:15:29.220 Do your colleagues notice that there is something different about the way that you live your 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:31.779 life? 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:35.740 Do the people around you need salt? 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:36.860 Do they? 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:40.379 Or have they got just enough salt? 00:15:40.379 --> 00:15:44.980 Are you to be what God has made you to be? 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:50.340 This week you might have heard of two politicians who have been described by journalists or 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:56.420 by other politicians as being useful idiots because they didn't speak out against the 00:15:56.420 --> 00:16:00.660 Kremlin in the accusations about the poisoning in England. 00:16:00.660 --> 00:16:06.620 Now time will tell who the useful idiots are, but the question I ask myself is, am I a useful 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:11.500 idiot for the devil because I refuse to speak out? 00:16:11.500 --> 00:16:15.740 Because I don't say what I think is true. 00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:17.340 And I don't want to be that. 00:16:17.340 --> 00:16:20.620 I don't want you to be that either. 00:16:20.620 --> 00:16:22.300 You're the salt of the earth. 00:16:22.300 --> 00:16:25.259 Jesus, there are lovely people in St. Columbus. 00:16:25.259 --> 00:16:28.780 Why didn't you tell them that they were the honey of the world? 00:16:28.780 --> 00:16:30.259 Or the wine? 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:34.340 Or the sugar or something sweet that everybody would love? 00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:37.139 Well, he didn't, did he? 00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:41.180 He didn't say everybody's going to love having you around. 00:16:41.180 --> 00:16:42.180 Hopefully they will. 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:47.779 Maybe they will be changed, but we are the salt of the earth. 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:52.179 For years people have told us we don't need any more salt. 00:16:52.179 --> 00:16:55.139 This isn't about our diet. 00:16:55.139 --> 00:16:59.459 This is about our world, and it needs God's people to be salt. 00:16:59.459 --> 00:17:04.740 Well we are different people who have different actions, and we have a different purpose. 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:05.940 You are the light of the world. 00:17:05.940 --> 00:17:08.740 A city set in a hill cannot be hidden. 00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:13.460 More do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light 00:17:13.460 --> 00:17:15.220 to all in the house. 00:17:15.220 --> 00:17:20.779 In the same way, your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give 00:17:20.779 --> 00:17:24.380 glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:29.579 You have a different purpose, that God would work through you through the way you live 00:17:29.579 --> 00:17:37.140 your life, and that others would see what you are doing, and that they would give glory 00:17:37.140 --> 00:17:40.500 to your Father who is in heaven. 00:17:40.500 --> 00:17:46.820 Now sometimes we know we fall short of being people who have done a good example and lived 00:17:46.820 --> 00:17:50.580 a life like that, but this is what we are to do. 00:17:50.580 --> 00:17:55.540 I used to live in the Highlands and would drive home late at night, and one of the happiest 00:17:55.540 --> 00:18:00.460 things you would see would be the orange glow of the street lights of your village. 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:04.620 You were coming home, you saw the light, and the light was a safe place. 00:18:04.620 --> 00:18:07.020 It was a relief to get there. 00:18:07.019 --> 00:18:14.059 We are the light of the world, and we are able to bring some sort of relief into people's 00:18:14.059 --> 00:18:21.779 lives as we shine, as we show the glory of God, as we do good works that would bring 00:18:21.779 --> 00:18:25.940 people to God so that they would put their trust in Him. 00:18:25.940 --> 00:18:32.220 The light shines, it contrasts, and we are to let that light just shine out. 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:37.500 We don't try and hide it, but we have to be that city on a hill that we don't want to 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:39.380 hide what God has done for us. 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:40.940 Why would we? 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:45.620 Why would we want to hide that we have the Kingdom of God and that we will see God and 00:18:45.620 --> 00:18:47.380 we are going to receive mercy? 00:18:47.380 --> 00:18:52.460 Why wouldn't we want other people to know about that? 00:18:52.460 --> 00:18:54.779 Well, we are different. 00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:56.860 We are different from people around us. 00:18:56.859 --> 00:19:05.779 We like light, John and his gospel speaks about people who in the light shone, they hated 00:19:05.779 --> 00:19:11.099 it because they liked the darkness better, because their deeds were evil, so they refused 00:19:11.099 --> 00:19:17.779 to come to the light because they were afraid that their deeds would be exposed. 00:19:17.779 --> 00:19:19.939 Light shows what's wrong. 00:19:19.939 --> 00:19:21.939 That's one of the things that light does here. 00:19:21.939 --> 00:19:24.619 That's what Jesus is telling us. 00:19:24.619 --> 00:19:30.179 And when people see a light, they understand something's changing. 00:19:30.179 --> 00:19:31.979 They can do something about it. 00:19:31.979 --> 00:19:34.659 Jesus coming into the world. 00:19:34.659 --> 00:19:39.500 I say in chapter 9, the prophecy, the people who are living in darkness have seen a great 00:19:39.500 --> 00:19:44.539 light, and then it goes on to tell us, to as a child is born, a son is given, and all 00:19:44.539 --> 00:19:48.059 of these things, the light comes with Jesus Christ. 00:19:48.059 --> 00:19:51.419 God's word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. 00:19:51.419 --> 00:19:53.699 It shines something. 00:19:53.700 --> 00:19:56.100 I'm telling you today that you're different. 00:19:56.100 --> 00:19:58.539 Telling you that you are to be something different. 00:19:58.539 --> 00:20:01.539 I don't think it's something that you haven't heard before. 00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:08.380 It's something we often need reminded of, but we don't always want to know that we are 00:20:08.380 --> 00:20:09.380 different. 00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:12.180 We don't always want to see that this is what we are to be. 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:14.100 We don't want to be challenged. 00:20:14.100 --> 00:20:19.819 Lord, is the answer to abortion really? 00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:21.620 Is it lying with us? 00:20:21.620 --> 00:20:23.660 Have we to do something? 00:20:23.660 --> 00:20:26.220 It'd be easier not to, wouldn't it? 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:32.180 Is the answer to lots of lost people in Edinburgh at work, in my street? 00:20:32.180 --> 00:20:34.900 Is it something to do with me? 00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:39.180 Might be easier if it wasn't, but it is to do with us. 00:20:39.180 --> 00:20:41.660 You are the salt of the earth. 00:20:41.660 --> 00:20:44.620 You are the light of the world. 00:20:44.620 --> 00:20:48.700 When my boys were wee, I'd put them to bed at night, and they used to be cute wee things, 00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:54.779 and they would say, Daddy, leave the light on, leave the light on because they wanted 00:20:54.779 --> 00:21:01.259 to go to sleep securely knowing that they were still in the house and not in a big black 00:21:01.259 --> 00:21:04.740 hole, so that's what you must have worried about. 00:21:04.740 --> 00:21:12.620 Now I go into my boys' room in the morning, and I turn the light on to wake them up, and 00:21:12.620 --> 00:21:13.620 it's carnage. 00:21:13.620 --> 00:21:14.620 It's not nice. 00:21:14.619 --> 00:21:20.339 They'll close everywhere, and the boys themselves will put their heads under their doovies, and 00:21:20.339 --> 00:21:24.659 they'll stay in the darkness because it's easier. 00:21:24.659 --> 00:21:31.099 It's easier than facing up to the reality of a new morning. 00:21:31.099 --> 00:21:37.219 You are the light of the world, and when you go around and shine that light, some people 00:21:37.219 --> 00:21:43.139 will not want to see it, will not want to know what you are exposing. 00:21:43.140 --> 00:21:48.180 Sometimes you will be able to bring great comfort, because that's what light can do. 00:21:48.180 --> 00:21:54.900 It can show where we're going, where we need to go, and so we will follow the light. 00:21:54.900 --> 00:22:01.580 Other times people won't like it, but Jesus still said, you are the light of the world. 00:22:01.580 --> 00:22:08.100 And as long as you try and be that, there's going to be an end result, says Jesus. 00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:14.699 Maybe He doesn't say maybe, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that 00:22:14.699 --> 00:22:20.699 maybe they may see your good works, and maybe give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:22:20.699 --> 00:22:26.419 If you are the salt of the earth, and if you are the light of the world, people will see, 00:22:26.419 --> 00:22:30.299 and they will give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:22:30.299 --> 00:22:33.279 So you want to be people like that. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:38.059 You want to show people that there is something they need. 00:22:38.059 --> 00:22:43.419 You want to tell them your story of how you were poor in spirit, that you mourned for your 00:22:43.419 --> 00:22:49.500 sin, and you turned in humility to God, and you hungered and thirsted after righteousness, 00:22:49.500 --> 00:22:54.099 and you didn't have any of your own, and you got it free from the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:22:54.099 --> 00:22:58.220 And so now you are different people. 00:22:58.220 --> 00:23:03.579 Don't be people then that hide your light under a ball, but people who let it shine. 00:23:03.579 --> 00:23:11.179 That light does a great work of change, instant change, quick change comes through the light. 00:23:11.179 --> 00:23:12.619 Who are you? 00:23:12.619 --> 00:23:13.619 You're different. 00:23:13.619 --> 00:23:20.139 You're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that 00:23:20.139 --> 00:23:26.220 you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His glorious and 00:23:26.220 --> 00:23:28.659 His wonderful light. 00:23:28.659 --> 00:23:32.379 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. 00:23:32.380 --> 00:23:38.120 Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 00:23:38.120 --> 00:23:39.180 You are different. 00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:40.540 You have come to God. 00:23:40.540 --> 00:23:42.580 All these blessings are yours. 00:23:42.580 --> 00:23:47.220 You preserve, you clean, and you taste the world that you live in. 00:23:47.220 --> 00:23:49.620 You're different. 00:23:49.620 --> 00:23:54.100 When people around you try to be something they're not, it annoys you. 00:23:54.100 --> 00:23:55.100 Look at Him. 00:23:55.100 --> 00:23:56.900 He's trying to be something He's not. 00:23:56.900 --> 00:23:58.700 Look at you. 00:23:58.700 --> 00:24:01.140 Don't try and be something you're not. 00:24:01.140 --> 00:24:05.820 Be what Jesus has told you to be. 00:24:05.820 --> 00:24:10.620 If you were being that person, would you make an impact? 00:24:10.620 --> 00:24:17.540 If you were the salt of the earth and the light of the world, well, you are, so do it. 00:24:17.540 --> 00:24:23.860 If you want to make a difference, be what Jesus has made you to be, what He has said 00:24:23.860 --> 00:24:25.060 that you are. 00:24:25.060 --> 00:24:31.060 Let's pray. 00:24:31.059 --> 00:24:38.460 Lord, these are your people, and you have bought them with the precious blood of your 00:24:38.460 --> 00:24:41.299 Son Jesus Christ. 00:24:41.299 --> 00:24:45.980 And you have put your Holy Spirit in them so that they are able to do things that would 00:24:45.980 --> 00:24:48.019 please you. 00:24:48.019 --> 00:24:55.379 So help them to live the blessed, made happy by God life, where they are the salt of the 00:24:55.379 --> 00:24:57.740 earth and the light of the world. 00:24:57.740 --> 00:25:04.299 We pray that you would help them, that you would help this church to be a light on the 00:25:04.299 --> 00:25:05.460 hill. 00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:10.859 And we ask, oh Lord, that people would see the good deeds of the people here and glorify 00:25:10.859 --> 00:25:12.859 you in Jesus' name. 00:25:12.859 --> 00:25:28.859 Amen.