Texas Baptist Sermon

Open

When I consider the people that most deeply formed the way I look at and live my life; they all have one thing in common. They consistently gave themselves away for my sake. My sweet grandmother Virginia, my loving wife Kathi, and the police officer whose name I don’t even know that shared with me the gospel of Jesus Christ at a time that I desperately needed it. They didn’t give to me expecting anything in return, because I had nothing to offer. But they gave themselves away in order to equip me to one day have something to give to those around me.

These are the ones that Jesus calls Salt & Light. In the sermon on the mount he tells us that as his disciples we are intended to be salt of the earth and light of the world. Not just for ourselves and those closest to us, but salt of the “earth,” light of the “world.” We are intended to be tasted and seen by everyone, everywhere.

But if salt has lost its taste, or the light has been hidden from the sight of others, then they are good for nothing. They in no way stand out, as they were intended to.

And at The Garden Church our mission is simple, we “help people know Jesus, by living lives that show Jesus.” We proclaim Jesus with our voices and our lives. As Paul says to the church at Corinth,

2 Corinthians 4:5 ESV

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

We want to be salt & light, two things that are only valuable as they give themselves away.

In order to give yourself away, you gotta have something to give. And this requires us to abide in him. Which simply means to realize our need, return to him, and repeat that process as often as necessary. When we abide in him we are transformed by him.

In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 we find an ancient Hebrew prayer entitled the Shema. In it, we are told that when we love the Lord our God with our whole being, when we abide in him, his word will transform our hearts (verse 6). And as our hearts are transformed we can proclaim his word with our voice and our life. Teaching and displaying it to our children when they wake up, when they lie down, when we are walking together and when we are sitting around the house (verse 7). In these natural moments of rest we will be forming our household with the word of God out of a transformed heart. And then in verses 8-9 the word will be displayed as frontlets between our eyes, on the door posts of our house and on our gates. The community will be transformed by the word of God, as our household is transformed by the word of God, as our heart is transformed by the word of God.

But, Jesus says in Matthew 6, if we try to proclaim the word before it has truly transformed our hearts, then we are hypocrites who are hindering others from seeing the truth of the gospel. And in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul speaks into that, saying that I could speak this gospel even in the tongues of angels, but if I do not have love I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. And in Luke 6:45, Jesus says,

Luke 6:45 ESV

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

To properly proclaim the gospel, our hearts need to be truly transformed by the gospel.

And only those who know the love of Jesus, can be the ones to show the love of Jesus.

As we abide in him, we are transformed by him, and as we are transformed by him, we proclaim him by giving ourselves away, as he gave himself for us.

He did not give himself because we had anything to give. Much like those saints in my story, they did not give themselves away because of what I had to offer.

He did not give himself because he knew our love. He gave himself that we might know his.

And at the Garden church, that is the direction we are committing ourselves to walk out life as a family. We long to be a family proclaiming the gospel of Jesus through transformed hearts, transformed households and transformed communities. Because when he transforms us through the truth of the gospel, we can proclaim him, helping others taste and see the goodness of the Lord.