Sermon Cloud

I came across an interesting quote a couple weeks ago. From a book entitled 13th Genereation by Neil Howe and William Strauss. "All the diagnostic experts keep pointing backward to the era of the ‘60s and ‘70s as the fatal hour when everything started going to hell." If that doesn't cheer you up, then I don't know what will.
I know I'm not speaking for everyone here, but most of us are the kids of baby boomers. Generation X, Millennial Generation, wherever you're grouped, being kids of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s means we're living out the consequences of the choices made by many of our parents. Another author, John Burke refers to what happened in the ‘60s and ‘70s as the Postmodern Experiment. The Postmodern Experiment began with our parents generation trying to live life by the motto, "if it feels good, do it." The 60's kicked off a 3 decade binge on self. And we're still vomiting up the consequences uncontrollably.
Here's the result in our family lives:
• From 1962 to 1981, the number of divorces tripled.
• In 1962, 50% of adults believed that parents in tough marriages should stay together and work on it for the sake of the kids. By 1980, less than 20% felt that way.
• A child born in 1968 (ten years before I was even born) faced three times the risk of parental break-up than a boomer child born in 1948 faced.,
• Less than 50% of people in my generation reached age seventeen with both biological parents living with the in the same house.
• A national survey showed that 50% of all children of divorce had seen their fathers three times or less the previous year.
Which means that we're living in a world full of hurting people. We are hurting people.
While trying to deal with their own pain, people act out in negative ways. Doing things that cause pain to themselves and to others. And because this type of destructive living is all so many of us have ever known, it's what our parents modeled, so many of us don't realize there's a better way.
Colleen is a perfect example. Colleen was addicted to the attention of men. Her father had walked out on her at a young age, never came back. She began craving the attention of men. In her teenage years, she learned how to use her body to get that male attention. This eventually landed her the man of her dreams and they were married.
But this "man of her dreams" couldn't fulfill the deep need for affection and attention that welled up inside her broken soul. And she fell back into old habits. She found a man at work that was noticing her. His attention temporarily met that craving for attention. But that temporary fix ruined Colleen's dream marriage.
At rock bottom, she began to look up. A friend invited her to church and 8 months later, she gave her life to Christ. She got into a small group, joined a ministry team that served the homeless, even got into an accountability group with 3 other women. Where they prayed for each other, shared their struggles and were totally honest with each other. Two years into her spiritual journey, Colleen was being trained to lead her own small group.
When suddenly, out of nowhere, Colleen just disappeared. The Pastor found out she's moved to another city to be with her fiancé. Her accountability group had been challenging her about this relationship, saying it's moving too fast, concerned that the guy wasn't following Christ. The years of being mistreated had not yet overcome the two years of following Jesus. Colleen thought that the hole in her heart could be filled by a man.
I'll be honest and say it would be nice if we were a bit more diverse, but the vast majority of our church is under. 40. Of the average people under 40, 1/3 of the women have had an abortion. 1/3 of the women have been sexually molested. 60% of us believe that living together before marriage is the best way to prevent divorce. Most of us were sexually active before marriage. Most men have struggled with pornography or other sexual addictions. And ½ of us have struggles with substance abuse.
There was nothing free about the post modern experiment. And our lives and the lives of those we care about have been offered as payment for our parents' generation self-centered ways of living.
Most of us fit in those stats somewhere. And we all know people that are acting out in destructive ways. None of this is lost on God. The Creator longs to see his creation living healthy and whole lives. The way God created us to live. But with all the pain in our lives and the sickness in our culture, is that even possible?
We see in scripture that God does believe it to be possible. And he even has a strategy for us becoming whole and for bringing wholeness to those around us. Matthew 5:13-16
Before you sit down, I want you to look around this room. Try to take in all those around you. Now shake hands with the person next to you and grab a seat.
My high school had just under 1,000 people, but our football program was pretty weak. My senior year we had 19 guys on varsity. A couple of those were worthless. Which meant I got a lot of playing time. I only came out on kickoffs, which didn't happen much since we didn't score often. My senior year was the last year our school had to play Ottumwa HS. They were a lot bigger than us and moved into a Des Moines league the next year.
And the week before we played Ottumwa, we got a guy hurt and a guy suspended. Meaning we dressed out 17 players for that game. When we out for the coin toss, the ref asked me, "where's the rest of your team?" I just told him it's a bad year for Fort Madison football.
The six guys standing on our sideline had to spend the game looking over to the Ottumwa sideline, where there were at least 60 guys lined up. It was quite the mismatch. We did hang with them. For about 5 minutes.
I can imagine that's about how the first followers of Jesus would've felt when they heard him say, "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." Just a handful of people in the midst of a big, huge world. Even 5 decades after Jesus said this, when the writer of Matthew put these Jesus stories together for his church, they would've still been a tiny minority in the Roman Empire.
And yet, Jesus says to them, "you are my plan to heal this broken world. You are the ones who are going to lead home those wandering in darkness." The word Jesus uses for "world" is cosmos. It's a greek word, referring to the entire scope of reality.
So let's take a look at Jesus' bold statement. 3 observations I want to make.
1) Others First of all, salt and light exist for something beyond themselves. They exist for others. You don't eat salt by itself. Salt exists to be a flavoring and a preservative. Even green beans taste good with salt. In the days before refrigeration, salt kept meat from going bad. Light exists not for its own sake, but to illuminate a room. It pushes away the darkness.
If we're followers of Jesus, the same is true of us. Jesus is transforming us, so we can help others experience that same transformation. Those of us who are broken have been chosen to bring healing to others. We've gone through pain and we can help others through their pain. The idea from scripture is that we've been blessed so we can be a blessing to others.
Salt exists for food. Light exist for dark places. Followers of Jesus exist for the rest of the world.
And this is where so many people who consider themselves followers of Jesus completely miss it. I'm not a part of a Christian community for what I get out of it. I'm a part of a community because there are so many others who need to encounter Jesus through this community. My focus is on other people. And as I'm focusing on others, God will take of me and my family.
Salt sitting in the shaker right next to the food, while close, is completely worthless. Might as well be thrown out into the street.
Which is why we're been focusing upon our Fave Five this year. Cards Who has God sent into your life for you to serve, to pray for, to love?
2) Reality Secondly, Jesus is simply declaring a reality. He doesn't say "you should be, you could become." He says "you are." Become what you already are.
We've got a great example of this in our congregation, Josh Vance. There are quite a few people a part of our community because of the influence of Josh and his wife, Ashley. So the other day, I interviewed Josh and asked him how he seeks to live this way. Video
Amanda was a little nervous about me sticking the camera in her face, so thank-you for sharing, Amanda.
As we live for Jesus in our everyday lives, we will be salt and light to those around us.
If you can't look around you and see the people you're helping take steps toward Jesus, then you need to ask some serious questions about your commitment to Jesus. You've major re-prioritizing to do.
I've saved the most important observation till last.
3) Church Jesus is speaking here to the church. The "you" of "you are salt/you are light" in the original language is plural. It could best be translated as you folks. Or, as Pastor Andy would say y'all.
Remember all the faces you looked around at a few minutes ago? All of us together make up God's plan to bring healing and wholeness into this screwed-up world. God has not abandoned his creation to the pain of their sin. The church is God's answer, we are his strategy. And he has no back-up plan.
8 years ago, last semester of college, I was sitting in what was called divisional chapel with fellow ministry majors, when God told me he wanted me to start a new church. I didn't know where, I didn't know when but as the speaker passionately shared with us that the best way to connect with those who are disconnected from church is to start a new church, I knew that's what I was to do. I decided to give my life to my life to reaching those who don't yet know Jesus.
The church is God' answer. We exist to be an authentic community. We're here to offer an alternative way of living for those who are done destroying themselves. Those who are ready for something new. We are here to lead people toward Jesus.
And we're doing it. Since the fall, we've had 5 families join our community that were not involved in church. Every single family came as the result of some form of invitation. You heard it in Amanda's story. We're leading people toward Jesus.
Not only are we committed to leading people to Christ through our church. We're also committed to helping start new churches. We've slowly been saving money to start a church out of Trinity Family. Our long-term strategy since the beginning was to get TF up and going, then plant another church then start working toward a permanent facility. If we put others first, God will take care of us. I'm actually having a conversation with a potential church planter right now. We might be able to plant a new church within the next year. But in the meantime, we support other new churches in our area.
Which is why we've invited Scott Johnson to come share with us for a few minutes this morning. Scott is starting a new church in the River Market area. I'm on the committee that helps develop new churches for the Kansas City area so I've heard Scott share his vision several times. His passion and calling are obvious. We want to support and help Scott.
Caleb - Scott will be bringing a power point for you on Sunday morning.
We've all got images in our mind from the tragedy of 9/11. In the days that followed, the news was full of images of ground zero. The rubble and twisted steel of the collapsed buildings. And furiously at work at ground zero were thousands of rescue workers. And though there were thousands of dead bodies under the rubble, they were some in there still alive. And these guys would not quit because they knew that they could save some. They were digging, trying to find those that were still alive. We saw the images of firemen and emergency workers literally falling over from exhaustion. But we also saw them pulling people from the rubble.
Church, we are a rescue mission. The whole reason we exist is because there are people still under the rubble. Their world is falling apart, but there's still hope for their marriage. There's still hope for their kids. There is new life when all they may feel right now is death. If God is saving you, then I am happy for you. You also need to know, it's not just for you. God is saving you, so you can be a part of saving others.
The church is a rescue mission. Are you being a part of that mission?

We're going to share communion together this morning. I want to take a moment and remind you what communion is all about. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he was demonstrating God's love for us. God responded to our brokenness and our sin by allowing his son's body to be broken for the forgiveness of our sin. You'll tear off a piece of bread which represents the breaking of Jesus' body. You'll dip the bread in juice that represents the blood of Jesus, shed so you could be made whole.
The band is going to play a song while we receive the elements. And I want you to take your time preparing yourself. Before you take the elements, spend time praying for your Fave Five. That they would come to know Jesus. And I ask that you'd receive the elements only if you're willing to turn from sin and allow Jesus to heal you. You don't have to be perfect. You do however, need to be serious about Jesus.
There are offering baskets at each communion station. It's one of the ways we participate in the rescue mission, through our sacrificial giving. If you're new, there's no expectation for you to give.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26