Vision Sunday - Salt and Light
Notes
Transcript
Good evening on the internet!
My name is Charlie Kae and I’m the lead pastor at Grace Empire in Wesley Chapel, Florida and I would like to welcome everyone to week 44 of Grace Empire online.
Our vision is to restore, revitalize, and refresh the community of Tampa Bay through an intimate relationship with Jesus.
Everyone is welcome at Grace Empire, but if you were to ask us what our focus is, we started Grace Empire to reach the non-affiliated, gnostics, and non-believers. If you or someone you know has been hurt by religion or has been burned out by doing church, Grace Empire fits a unique role for those that are looking to reengage their faith or find an accepting community.
As a church, we try to keep Jesus at the center of everything we do, so we are praying that you encounter and experience our living God tonight.
We love interaction. So feel free to comment, ask questions, and ask for prayer while you’re watching and the admins will address them ASAP.
But before we continue, our online disclaimer.
Grace Empire Online focus on giving you sermons - so without a doubt - this is an incomplete version of church.
As we move forward with this online church thing, I wanted to urge you and remind you that online church should never replace the community you get from your local church.
We love and are so very honored that you tuned in with us today and by no means am I saying this to guilt trip you, hurt you or make you feel inadequate in anyway. We know everyone is on a different journey with God and the fact that some of you are watching is a huge step and I applaud you for that.
At Grace Empire, our goal is to keep Jesus at the center of everything we do and a big part of that is understanding our place within the church. It’s not just that you need people (which you do); but it’s that people need you.
But as I said, the online church is an incomplete version of what God intended the church to be. The local church also gives you a place to
1. Worship / Praise / Sing
2. Met with other believers in Fellowship and discipleship
3. To serve our community through social action
4. Fulfill the Sacraments of the church
a. Which for us is baptism and communion
b. We plan to continue to do online communion, at the start of every month.
5. And lastly, gives our tithes and offering
a. At GXE we teach that we give to give, not give to get. We give our tithes and offerings because we are thankful to God for providing for our needs. It is also to acknowledge that we live, work, and are sustained because He allows us to be. And because of the advancements in technology giving is an easy one.
b. You can give online through our website www.graceempire.com, or via text by texting the words GraceEmpire to the number 77977 and then follow the link texted to you.
You can either do that now, or at the end of the message.
Alright with all that out the way…lets get to Jesus shall we?
Pray
Introduction
Introduction
Its that time of year again, the start of the new year and with a new year, a new vision for the church. I have been praying about the direction of 2021 since September of last year and am excited about the direction that God is taking us in this year. Even for someone dense like me, this direction makes complete sense.
But before we begin hashing that out, lets recap what God has been doing the last couple of years. In year 1, before Grace Empire was even formed, God lead Amy and I, and a handful of courageous people, on this church planting journey. We didn’t know a single soul in Tampa but moved with faith in our heart and a desire to see people restored, revitalized, and refreshed through an intimate relationship with Jesus. In 2018, the vision was the word roots. We were to lay down roots, thrust our hands into the soul, and prime the land for planting. It was going to be hard, back breaking work. We wouldn’t even be allowed to plant seeds until, we tilled the soul and land down roots. Scariest year of my life.
In 2019, we had started preview services and had begun drawing a select number people. These people would serve as the framework of Grace Empire. If Jesus is our foundation, than these people would be the framework for the house. Amy and I have said many times, that our desire is too embrace as many broken people in the Tampa Bay Metro area, but our arms are just not wide enough. We would need people. We wanted our church to grow from true encounters with Jesus, rather than events or entertainment. Francis Chan writes a silly anecdote in his book Letters to the Church to illustrate this idea, in it he asks his daughter how many kids would come to her birthday party if all they offered was cake. No games, no entertainment. They could come, bring gifts, celebrate her and spend time with her, but thats it. She thought for a minute and said probably a couple. But then he asked, how many would come if he rented out a Dave & Busters with unlimited tokens, food, and prizes? Of course, she said probably the whole school. And while the whole school is there and they are playing games and going nuts, Chan pulls his daughter aside and said, Look at all the people who came to be with you. Would she actually believe that these people were here because they love her and wanted to spend time with her?
Here is a quote from the book.
Isn’t this basically what we do with God? We have learned that we can fill church buildings if we bring in the right speaker or band. Make things exciting enough and people will come. We say, “God, look how many people are coming because they love being with You!” But do we really think God is fooled by this? Do we think God is pleased? He knows how many would show up if it was just Him. He knows there might be only a few if all we offered was Communion or prayer.
Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 65). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.
I know this sounds bad, but 99% of churches that do this, do this as a strategy to preach the gospel, and there is nothing wrong with that; but we wanted Grace Empire to be different. So how do we build something different? God knew our heart and in year two the word became discipleship. We were going to grow one soul at a time. One life at a time. So we spent a lot of time discipling people and this year was the start of our Empire Groups.
In year 3, 2020 was going to be the year of clarity and seeing clearly. We were extremely hopeful and eager to make this THE growth year for GXE. I was asking God for a vision that was exhilarating and something people could rally behind. As the young people say…something straight fire. So I was less than thrilled when God revealed the word purity to me in my prayer closet. Purity? What? But purity, as we learned is not defined as just, not looking at porn, but that a pure life is one in which sin no longer determines the choices one makes. This had huge implications and we strived to be a people of God that pursued purity, not because we have an angry God that will swing his punishment stick whenever we sin, but because we have a loving God that has given us life; our choice to abstain from sin is our response of love to that very same God. We focused our purity into four areas, purity of the eyes, mouth, body, and mind. Honestly, it had become my favorite vision so far.
So as we enter 2021, and year 4 of Grace Empire and as we celebrate our 3rd year as an official church, the question is, where is God taking us this year? So I am excited to announce this years vision and it is summed up in a single word, visibility.
Visibility
Visibility
Visibility is exactly what it sounds like. I believe we are a church that needs to be here. We are a church that has a unique vision and unique mission statement. Our church has a lengthy vision statement that we state at the start of every church service because we want you to know EXACTLY what we are and what we are doing, but that statement is beginning to change. My heart is for people that have been hurt by church. We are a church designed to bring restoration, revitalization, and refreshing to people that have been hurt by religion or church. Of course, everyone and anyone is welcome here. You can have zero religious background and still find a home at GXE. But we started Grace Empire because we knew too many people that fell into this “Im a christian, but I don’t affiliate with any church” model. We call these people the Nones. The Non-affilitated. Too many christians have left the church because something didn’t feel right. Does being a Christian mean that I have to agree with everything I learned when I was young? What if I don’t agree? What if I do have fact based, science based questions that can’t be answered with faith-based answers? What do I do then? Does being a Christian mean that I have to vote one way and not another? What do I do with the changing climate of the times? What does Jesus think about the transgender issue and is it okay that I wrestle with how the American church has traditionally treated those that were different? These are all real questions and all really difficult things to navigate. But we believe our God is strong enough to handle our adult sized questions. Matter of fact, we believe God wants us to wrestle with them so he can show us that we haven’t figured it all out yet. God is still revealing his uncontainable nature to us. He is still showing us how wide and how deep his love for us is.
So visibility means, if this is our mission and no one knows we are here, how can they come and wrestle with God, or how can they come and reengage their faith?
15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
Our goal this year is to become more visible to the people around us, but that doesn’t just mean we want Grace Empire to be the focus of our visibility. Oh no friends, its not going to be that easy. Im not saying lets build billboards, yard signs, and invite cards. That’s all well and good and I’m sure we will have those, but visibility isn’t just about church marketing and advertisement. When God talks about visibility, he isn’t talking about social media marketing; he is talking about personal testimony.
Matthew 5:13-16 is another famous passage about visibility, so if you have your bibles, you can turn there, and if you don’t you can read along with us down here. Matthew 5:13-16 says,
13 “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 by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 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. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
In these verses, Jesus explained to his disciples the true nature of their calling. They would be salt in a tasteless word, they would be the light in a land of perpetual darkness, but they would do this only because of the one who came as the Light of the World.
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
It feels sort of confusing right? Jesus says both he is the light and we are the light. But we are the light because His light lives in us. I cannot speak for everyone watching, but I know for me, before I accepted Jesus into my life, my life was a mess. I felt lost and without hope. I was making choices that was leading me down darker and darker paths. It was the opposite of purity; I was allowing sin to determine every decision I made. I can say this without any hesitation or equivocation, knowing Christ has made every aspect of my life better. I am a better husband because of Christ. I am a better father because of Christ. I am a better friend because of Christ. I like myself more because of Christ. I became a better student because of Christ. I am smarter with my money because of Christ. I am a better version of me because of Jesus. It is because of the light that is Jesus, that lives in me that has changed me for the better. Now don’t get this twisted, it’s not like my life is perfect nor is my walk with God perfect. I have plenty of battle scars from being a Christian. I feel like a weathered soldier and sometimes walking with Jesus is rough man. But I know the light that is in me that comes from Jesus is the reason I am alive today.
Jesus called his disciples the salt and light of the world.
Just like today, in the ancient world salt was used as a flavoring AND as a preservative. Instead of being made by evaporation of salt water, the salt came mostly from salt marshes in the area southwest of the Dead Sea. Salt had commercial value, but the impure salt taken from the sea and its surrounding areas was susceptible to deterioration that left only useless crystals. So when Jesus asks, “how can salt be made salty again?” we can understand this as rhetorical because the people would have known, there was no way.
Jesus also calls you a light and a city on a hill. If you have ever driven an incredibly long distance, you know the feeling of driving miles and miles through the barren country, tired, exhausted, through the night, only to come over a hill and see the lights of your destination in the horizon. That feeling of relief, of finally being able to get out and stretch your legs, use the bathroom, eat a hot meal, and fall into a comfy bed, is an awesome feeling. You are that relief for many people. You are that city on a hill. There are people that have been traveling endlessly in the darkness, exhausted and hopeless, and they are looking for a place to find solace. Jesus says, you are that solace. You help provide that peace.
In the same way, nobody lights a lamp and then hides it under a clay jar. Nobody buys a lamp and places it away from everyone else. The whole point is to light up the darkness. Jesus emphasized that the disciples would continue to reflect the light of their Master and in the same way that is our task as well. It would be absurd for someone to hide a city on a hill or light under a basket, so it is absurd for us to hide the light in us.
The salt and light are tools to preserve, bring flavor, illuminate, and guide others to relief. In other words, visibility for Grace Empire means we need people to see the light in us. We are the messengers that bring the good news. Your feet are beautiful. Bet you didn’t know I was going to compliment your feet today, did you? You have that light in you and people need to see that.
That doesn’t mean your life is perfect. As I have said, being a Christian doesn’t mean your life is 100 percent put together. What it does mean, is that you reorient your life and rest your hope in someone that is. Our light is a reflection of his light. That means you are not showing people your “perfect” life, you are showing people who God is.
So how do we do that? Simple. Good deeds. Start simple. Start with the people that are around you. For many of you that is the people you work with. Just be intentional about being the salt and light to them. If someone is having a horrible day, bring some flavor into their life and let them know why? I don’t know how you do it, do it your way. I like to bring gifts. I’m not an encouragement letter writer. Faith Brake sends me greeting cards from time to time. Michelle White writes me emails. Kelly Hopkins leaves gifts at the door. Everyone’s salt is a little different. Do whatever is your flavor. But heres the important part, when you do it, point the ACT to Jesus. This is very important. Look, it doesn’t have to be weird and awkward, just make it matter of fact, but make it clear why you are doing it.
Learn this phrase - I’m trying to live out my faith in a real way.
When I bring someone a Starbucks and they ask me why, I simply say, Im just trying to live out my faith in a real way. I don’t my faith to be theoretical, I want it to be practical. I want Jesus to shine out of me, but I want people to see that it’s Jesus, not Charlie. I want people to wonder and focus on MY faith, rather than on Charlie as a person. I want them to focus on the WHO behind my faith. It’s not about me. It’s not cause of me. It’s cause of Jesus. Remember verse 16, the goal is that they may see your good deeds and praise who? You? No…your Father in Heaven.
So that is our vision for this year. Visibility.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Let’s be visible to the people around us. Grace Empire is going to make a difference this year and its going to be through you.