Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / A Simple Counterstrategy Shake and Shine │ Msg 314 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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A Simple Counterstrategy Shake and Shine │ Msg 314 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Influence always a timely subject. We influence others when we
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  Speaker 1: direct them without exerting force over them. In numerous intangible ways,
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  Speaker 1: we sway people's opinions and we modify their lives. Is
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  Speaker 1: commonly called impacting others. Parents, for example, impact children, Teachers
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  Speaker 1: impact students, leaders impact organizations, teams and nations, pastors impact congregations.
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  Speaker 1: The media impacts are thinking, but much of the impacting
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  Speaker 1: we see today is either negative or temporal. Power obsessed
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  Speaker 1: people abuse their authority, relying on money or prestige, or
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  Speaker 1: even brute strength to get their way. As Christians, we
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  Speaker 1: must focus on making a lasting impact for good, influencing
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  Speaker 1: others without resorting to force or some other means of control. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the crucial question is how Jesus answer in Matthew Chapter
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  Speaker 1: five is still the best. Though his words are familiar
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  Speaker 1: to us, we must apply them with greater diligence and
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  Speaker 1: more confident faith than ever, because they really do work.
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  Speaker 1: We're to shake the salt and shine the light. That's
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  Speaker 1: exactly what Jesus tells us in the thirteenth through sixteenth
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  Speaker 1: verses of Matthew five. Listen carefully now as I read
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  Speaker 1: the verses from the New Living Translation Matthew five thirteen begins,
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  Speaker 1: You are the salt of the earth. But what good
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  Speaker 1: is salt? If it has lost its flavor? Can you
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  Speaker 1: make it salty again? It will be thrown out and
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  Speaker 1: trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the lot of the world,
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  Speaker 1: Like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
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  Speaker 1: No one lights a lamp and then puts it under
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  Speaker 1: a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand,
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  Speaker 1: where it gives light to everyone in the house. In
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  Speaker 1: the same way, let your good deed shine out for
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  Speaker 1: all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly father.
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  Speaker 1: Isaac Watts asks a question that still needs to be answered,
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  Speaker 1: even though he asked it over two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: years ago. It in every generation calls for an answer.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, he asks three questions. Instead of having you
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  Speaker 1: open your bible to a certain passage to begin with,
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to have you open a hymnal you may
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  Speaker 1: find nearby in our hymnal, it's number five hundred ten.
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  Speaker 1: This old hymn is dated seventeen twenty four or thereabouts.
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  Speaker 1: Long before Isaac Watch drew his last breath, he had
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  Speaker 1: written this piece. In fact, he left us over seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty hymns by the time of his death.
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  Speaker 1: This one begins with a question, Am I a soldier
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  Speaker 1: of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall
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  Speaker 1: I fear to own his cause? Or blush to speak
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  Speaker 1: his name? But the question in my mind comes in
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  Speaker 1: the third stanza, are there no foes for me to face?
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  Speaker 1: Must I not stem the flood? The real penetrating question,
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  Speaker 1: is this vile world a friend to Grace? To help
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  Speaker 1: me on to God? Look at that? Look at the question?
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  Speaker 1: Is this vile world Grace's friend? Will it help you
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  Speaker 1: on to God? If you listen to its counsel, if
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  Speaker 1: you sit at the feet of its professors, if you
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  Speaker 1: learn your ways through its example, if you read its works,
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  Speaker 1: if you watch its films, if you pay attention to
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  Speaker 1: its cadence and get in step, will that help you
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  Speaker 1: on to God? The scene is a scene of warfare.
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  Speaker 1: You can almost hear the report of the canons in
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  Speaker 1: the distance, or smell the smoke, or see the blood.
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  Speaker 1: He pictures us as soldiers and even as sailors, charting
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  Speaker 1: a course through bloody seas. But the kind of warfare
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  Speaker 1: we're engaged in is not one of literal bombs and
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  Speaker 1: literal rockets and actual bullets fired from weapons. This is
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  Speaker 1: an invisible war, and it's a war that attacks not
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  Speaker 1: the body, but the mind, the emotions. Being invisible, you
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  Speaker 1: can't see those missiles that are launched from the media
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  Speaker 1: or from some other part of the world system. They
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  Speaker 1: are tagged with warnings this could be detrimental to your
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  Speaker 1: walk with God. They just came fast and furious, and
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  Speaker 1: they assault sometime late at night, sometime in the heat
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  Speaker 1: of the day, sometime almost before you're out of bed
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  Speaker 1: in the morning. No, Isaac Watts would have us answer
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  Speaker 1: a thousand times. No, this vile world is vile. It
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  Speaker 1: is corrupt, it is dark. It has nothing that will
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  Speaker 1: enhance a walk with God. And if you take your
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  Speaker 1: cues from it, you will not be readied for heaven.
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  Speaker 1: It will weaken you. As they used to say in
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  Speaker 1: the Second World War, there's a war going on. Pay attention, ration, think,
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  Speaker 1: watch out for the enemy. He comes in subtle ways,
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  Speaker 1: always camouflaged from the hymnal. Look at the letter John
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  Speaker 1: wrote toward the end of the New Testament. First John,
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  Speaker 1: It's called in our Bibles. Let me introduce you to
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  Speaker 1: the real world that is invisible. First. John five, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm looking at verse nineteen. I want you to see
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  Speaker 1: why I say the whole system is degenerate and antithetical
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  Speaker 1: to the things of God. John says as he reaches
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  Speaker 1: the conclusion of this penetrating letter. We know that we
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  Speaker 1: are of God, and we also know the whole world
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  Speaker 1: lies in the power of the evil One. You'll observe
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  Speaker 1: the power of appear in the New American Standard Bible
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  Speaker 1: in italicized forms, alerting us to the fact that the
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  Speaker 1: editors have added those three words to make the passage clearer.
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  Speaker 1: I would prefer, if we're for messing around with words
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  Speaker 1: here and they're not in the original text, I would
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  Speaker 1: prefer the whole world lies in the lap of the
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  Speaker 1: wicked one. The wicked one has a game plan, and
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  Speaker 1: it's moving according to his procedure. Of course he operates.
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  Speaker 1: It's under the hand of God, just as he did
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  Speaker 1: in the days of Job when the Lord said, you
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  Speaker 1: may afflict him, but you may not kill him. The enemy,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that his days are numbered, knowing that he has
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  Speaker 1: only a particular series of events before his doom, will
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  Speaker 1: come nevertheless, holds the world in his lap and gives
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  Speaker 1: its its directions, announcing his plan day after day. And
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  Speaker 1: it's impressive. It's appealing. As a matter of fact, it's
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  Speaker 1: very satisfying. It's impressive. And this old world system, with
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  Speaker 1: all of its nuances, most of them subtle, continues to
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  Speaker 1: have its way in the majority's lives. He tells us, nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: that it lies in the lap of the evil one.
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  Speaker 1: Is this vile world a friend of grace to help
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  Speaker 1: you on to God? No, indeed not. In the same letter,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter two, verse fifteen, you will see what God tells
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  Speaker 1: his children about the world system. He warns us with
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  Speaker 1: commands that began do not do not love the world
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  Speaker 1: nor the things in the world. If any man loves
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  Speaker 1: the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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  Speaker 1: Now those are just words unless you take them seriously.
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  Speaker 1: Child of God, listen to these words. May I take
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  Speaker 1: liberty with them. Stop loving the world, Stop taking your
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  Speaker 1: cues from the media, Stop adoring the things the world prizes.
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  Speaker 1: Don't love the world. If anyone loves the world, it's
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  Speaker 1: the proof that the Father's love is not at work
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  Speaker 1: in him. It's not in him at all. For all
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  Speaker 1: that is in the world, and now he identifies those characteristics.
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  Speaker 1: The lust that appeals to the flesh, the lust of
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  Speaker 1: the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not
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  Speaker 1: from the Father, but is from the world. The world
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  Speaker 1: is passing away. It's easy to forget that. We build
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  Speaker 1: our buildings and we think they'll be here forever. We
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  Speaker 1: erect our bridges and it looks like they have timelessness
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  Speaker 1: written across them. The only things eternal on this earth
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  Speaker 1: today are the Word of God and people. Everything else
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  Speaker 1: is passing away. The only things eternal the Bible and
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  Speaker 1: the souls of men and women. So he's correct. The
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  Speaker 1: world is passing away, and also it's lusts. But he
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  Speaker 1: who does the will of God abides forever. Go from
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  Speaker 1: the letter John wrote to the Gospel. He wrote fourth
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  Speaker 1: Book of the New Testament, Chapter fifteen, Gospel of John fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: verse let's begin about verse seventeen. Jesus is with his men.
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  Speaker 1: It's shortly before he is taken under arrest and goes
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  Speaker 1: on trial and finally is crucified at Calvary. He leaves
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  Speaker 1: them with a command on how to live in his
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  Speaker 1: absence fifteen seventeen. This I command you that you love
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  Speaker 1: one another. If the world hates you, you know that
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  Speaker 1: it has hated me before it hated you. Question, what
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  Speaker 1: can I expect from the world. I can expect hatred?
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  Speaker 1: Why can I expect that? Because it hated the Lord Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: and if I'm in league with him, it's going to
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  Speaker 1: hate me. By the way, may I interrupt your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: and ask a question, when's the last time you were
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  Speaker 1: hated by the world? When was the last time someone
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  Speaker 1: in the world system did a hateful thing to you?
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  Speaker 1: You know some of you cannot remember. Could it be
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  Speaker 1: that it is because your lifestyle is so in ligue
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  Speaker 1: with the system that they don't know you don't belong
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  Speaker 1: to them? He says. You know that the world will
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  Speaker 1: hate you because it hated me before you Verse nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: If you were of the world, the world would love
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  Speaker 1: its own. But because you were not of the world,
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  Speaker 1: I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world
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  Speaker 1: hates you. Remember the word that I said to you,
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  Speaker 1: a slave is not greater than his master. If they
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  Speaker 1: persecuted me, they will persecute you. What else can I
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  Speaker 1: expect from the world persecution? He says it over in
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  Speaker 1: chapter sixteen, verse thirty three, same gospel. These things I
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  Speaker 1: have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. However,
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  Speaker 1: in the world you have tribulation. What can I expect
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  Speaker 1: from the world? Hatred, persecution, tribulation is the old country
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  Speaker 1: preacher once said, if the Lord sends you tribulation, he
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  Speaker 1: expects you to tribulate. It's been a long time since
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  Speaker 1: some have tribulated. Maybe it's true because they don't know
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  Speaker 1: you belong to the Lord Jesus. Maybe you've been given
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  Speaker 1: first class treatment because you're singing their songs and you're
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  Speaker 1: walking according to their cadence. Oh, there's a definite difference.
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  Speaker 1: He says, take courage. In the world, you'll have tribulation.
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  Speaker 1: But I have overcome the world. Why will it treat
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  Speaker 1: us with hatred and persecure and tribulation. Well, generally because
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  Speaker 1: it lies in the lap of the wicked one, and
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  Speaker 1: specifically because we belong to Christ and it hated him,
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  Speaker 1: so it will hate us. Martin Lloyd Jones is exactly right,
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  Speaker 1: He writes, The glory of the Gospel is that when
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  Speaker 1: the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably
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  Speaker 1: attracts it. It is then that the world is made
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  Speaker 1: to listen to her message, though it may hate it
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  Speaker 1: at first. If our message is like the message of
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  Speaker 1: the world, the world yawns and goes on its way, saying,
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  Speaker 1: what else is new? I've heard all of that since
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  Speaker 1: I was born. But if our lifestyle and message are
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  Speaker 1: different from the world, the world sets up and takes notice.
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  Speaker 1: This is what is this? How come they live in
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  Speaker 1: the same place I live, but they are to live
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  Speaker 1: a different kind of life. How is it that I
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  Speaker 1: can't conquer this habit but they have? What is it
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  Speaker 1: that makes them love like I can't love? Why are
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  Speaker 1: they so forgiving and I carry a grudge? What is
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  Speaker 1: it about the mercy they show to people who are
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  Speaker 1: in need and I find myself wanting to run rough
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  Speaker 1: shot over them? You get the message. It's the difference
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  Speaker 1: that makes the world sit up and take notice. Is
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  Speaker 1: this vile world a friend of grace to help me
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  Speaker 1: on to God? In no way? The Church is a
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  Speaker 1: friend to grace to get the attention of the world
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  Speaker 1: that needs God, which is what the Sermon on the
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  Speaker 1: Mount is all about. Chapter five of Matthew. In light
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  Speaker 1: of this hostility and this intense warfare, surely g Jesus
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  Speaker 1: is going to tell us to take the bulls by
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  Speaker 1: the horn and go after it, just like the world does. Watch.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to be surprised. What kind of soldiers will
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  Speaker 1: it take? What kind of sailors will it take? What
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  Speaker 1: kind of people to do battle in the world? Well,
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  Speaker 1: are you ready? Here? We are falling in rank, poor
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  Speaker 1: in spirit, mourners, the gentle, those who are hungry and
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  Speaker 1: thirsty for a righteous life, the merciful, the pure in heart,
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  Speaker 1: the peacemakers. Who are you kidding? I think some must
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  Speaker 1: read this, and I think we're supposed to read it
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  Speaker 1: and say, what in the world is he getting at?
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  Speaker 1: I thought we lived in a doggy dog world. I
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  Speaker 1: thought you had to be tough to make it. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if you live like that, they'll make you into a doormat. No. No,
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  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, they may persecute you. And
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  Speaker 1: verse eleven say all kinds of evil against you, falsely
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  Speaker 1: on account of me, because your life is a rebuke
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  Speaker 1: to those who are lost in the swamp of the system.
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  Speaker 1: How in the world can soldiers armed with humility and contrition,
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  Speaker 1: and gentleness, and hunger and thirst, mercy, purity, and peace
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  Speaker 1: ever make a lasting impact in a world that is
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  Speaker 1: so mean and tough and dark and depraved verse thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: by remaining salt verse fourteen, by remaining light. The only way,
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  Speaker 1: I repeat, to make an impact that lasts on the
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  Speaker 1: system is to be distinct from it, not identical to it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm impressed. Salt of the earth and the light of
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  Speaker 1: the world. Not just salt in the city where you live,
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  Speaker 1: not just salt in your neighborhood. But there's enough salt
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  Speaker 1: to salt the world. There's enough light to light the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Incredible statement, and he connects both of them to this
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  Speaker 1: emphatic you verse thirteen. You are the salt of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: You are the light of the world. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if you've been to a basketball game lately, but one
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  Speaker 1: of the popular responses of the fans nowadays when a
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  Speaker 1: person fouls at a critical moment, you you you, you,
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  Speaker 1: you you, it's thou in the dear kid on the
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  Speaker 1: court home, man, I did it again.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: The world needs to listen to this. You you, you, you,
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  Speaker 1: You are the light of the world. You are the
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  Speaker 1: salt of the earth. Nobody else, not they, not some
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  Speaker 1: of them, not a few of us, select ones who
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  Speaker 1: have been ordained all of us who know the Savior.
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  Speaker 1: And notice it doesn't say you can be the salt
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  Speaker 1: and you should be the lightest as you are. You
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  Speaker 1: never need to pray. Lord, make me salt, Lord, make
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  Speaker 1: me light. You are salt. You are light, meaning what meaning?
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  Speaker 1: Get at it. Shake the salt, shine the light. Shake
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  Speaker 1: the salt, shine the light. That's the game plan. That's
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  Speaker 1: how you minister to a vile world. That's how you
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  Speaker 1: sail through bloody seas. I may I say a couple
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  Speaker 1: of things about the world that you may have forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: The world is in a process of decaying, decaying. It
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  Speaker 1: is slowly but surely rotting. Not only are civilizations in
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  Speaker 1: a process of decaying, but marls are decaying, lifestyles are decaying.
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  Speaker 1: I've said for years that if Rip van Winkle happened
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  Speaker 1: on the scene of today, I believe he would be
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  Speaker 1: shocked at the marls and lifestyles that would have been
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  Speaker 1: considered scandalous when he went to sleep. The second thing
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  Speaker 1: I would say is that our world is plunged into darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you traffic only in the light, so you
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  Speaker 1: forget how dark the world is. You have distanced yourself
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  Speaker 1: so far from the unbeliever that you don't know now
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  Speaker 1: except in passing, and you get over it real quick.
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  Speaker 1: How dark the world's system is. There is boredom, there
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  Speaker 1: is a flat tastelessness to life. There is fear, There
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  Speaker 1: is terror, There is hopelessness. There is the threat of aids,
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  Speaker 1: of abduction of one's child, of growing old, a financial reversal,
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  Speaker 1: of marital fidelity, of emotional breakdown, constant, constant darkness, fear, threat, worry.
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  Speaker 1: It's dark. I picked up yesterday's paper. Here are a
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  Speaker 1: few things I read about the world system. A freeway
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  Speaker 1: shooter left a driver crippled. He's paralyzed from his neck down.
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  Speaker 1: He shot him in the neck, and the guy gets
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  Speaker 1: a maximum of ten years. There's the fellow in the
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  Speaker 1: wheelchair sits in the back of the courtroom and shakes
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  Speaker 1: his head in amazement. A man was stabbed to death.
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  Speaker 1: Two friends were arrested. A woman who was a wife
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  Speaker 1: and mother shoots her daughter, then her husband, and then
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  Speaker 1: kills herself a quiet, little unassuming home down south of US.
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  Speaker 1: Two men who helped take nine point five million dollars
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  Speaker 1: from several thousand people in telephone swindles were sentenced to
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  Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty years. A wife was found guilty of
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  Speaker 1: killing her husband for insurance money. A restauranteur is convicted
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  Speaker 1: of arson involved in a conspiracy in a Stanton fire.
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  Speaker 1: Jurors convict an eltoral man of manslaughter. A man is
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  Speaker 1: heard in an eight story fall during a hotel party.
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  Speaker 1: The fall was broken when he struck a wooden lattice
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  Speaker 1: over a bar on the first floor. Twenty two motorists
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  Speaker 1: were arrested yesterday at checkpoints. They failed a sobriety test.
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  Speaker 1: That got me to page six. That's just for starters.
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  Speaker 1: You have any idea what it is to live like that,
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  Speaker 1: facing those things without any sign of light, without one
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  Speaker 1: grain of salt, You have any idea what that kind
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  Speaker 1: of news does to the average citizen. If it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: scare him to death, it makes him absolutely indifferent towards
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  Speaker 1: time and eternity. He says in his heart of hearts,
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  Speaker 1: to hell with all of it. You are the salt
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  Speaker 1: of the earth. You are the light of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the salt. You are the salt of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: If the salt has become tasteless, how will it be
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  Speaker 1: made saltea It is good for nothing anymore except to
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  Speaker 1: be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Believe me,
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  Speaker 1: in ancient days, fishermen knew what salt was all about.
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  Speaker 1: There was no refrigeration. When they got their catch, they
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  Speaker 1: would quickly salt it down in layers of salt to
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  Speaker 1: keep it preserved until they could get it to the market.
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  Speaker 1: Our forefathers who came over and rugged prairie schooners often
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  Speaker 1: wrapped their meat in salt, or had meat that had
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  Speaker 1: been soaked in brine to preserve it for as long
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  Speaker 1: as possible. Salt has a preserving effect. It arrests corruption,
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  Speaker 1: spread the salt, shake it around, It adds flavor, It
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  Speaker 1: creates a not a gob of it in one place,
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  Speaker 1: but just a little. I struggle a little when I said,
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  Speaker 1: when I found that if salt has become tasteless, how
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  Speaker 1: will it be made salty again? I remember that, of course,
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  Speaker 1: I took in chemistry that sodium chloride is a very
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: stable and resilient chemical compound, and it never becomes unsalty,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and it stands up against all those odds. And then
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: it occurred to me it loses its bite when it
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: becomes contaminated by being mixed with dirt, sand, impurities. That's
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: when it is Verse thirteen good for nothing. We have
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the saying in our day if somebody is good for nothing,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: that's where it comes from. If you want to see
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: a tragic spectacle, look at a person who has absorbed
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the world's system, though he or she has come to
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: know the Savior, and you will see tragedy and motion.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: You will see a tasteless, saltless, non impacting entity walking
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: this earth. God never intended it. So the worse our
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: world becomes, the greater it is in need of salt.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm not talking about enormous, huge
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: evangelistic crusades that you must put on to shake the salt.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about everyday lifestyle things. Earl Palmer, in a
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: fine little book called The Enormous Exception, Meeting Christ and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount, tells this story. I remember
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a pre med undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley who
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: became a Christian after a long journey through and questions.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I asked him, what were some of the key factors
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: that helped to tip the scales in favor of Jesus
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Christ for him? In that spiritual journey he told me
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of about with the flu that had hit him very
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: hard during the previous school term, forcing him to miss
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: ten days school. During that critical absence from his organic
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: chemistry class, a classmate who happened to be a Christian
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: carefully collected all assignments and worked for him in the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: chemistry class, and then took the time away from his
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: own studies to help him catch up to the rest
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: of the class. The student said to me, you know
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that this isn't done, and I probably wouldn't have done it,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: but he gave me that help. He gave that help
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: to me without any fanfare or complaints. I wanted to
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: know what made them this friend of mine act the
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: way he did. By the way enter a little salt.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: I wanted to know what made my friend act like this.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I found myself asking him if I could go to
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: church with him. Palmer adds God used a salt and
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: light Christian to tip the scales in the life of
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: this student toward the Lord who cares about students who
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: want to know, who want to learn organic chemistry and
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: eventually become doctors. His friend was toward him a preservative
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: influence and an encouragement, so that in that practical and
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: what might appear quite small series of events, his friend
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and fellow student had been able to find the way
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: of an even more profound preservation of life. I think
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the best tribute I ever heard concerning a Christian was
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the tribute spoken of this student quote. I felt more
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: alive when I was around this friend. Isn't that great?
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Does a person in the world feel more alive around you?
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Is there a thirst being created from the carefully selected
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: times that you shake the salt? Do you make him
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: wonder why you are so courteous, so caring? Do the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: neighborhood children want to be at your home because of
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the way you treat your children, drawing them like a
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: magnet to your house, or your teenagers the same? You
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: are the light of the world, isn't it simple? I mean,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: you give me ten minutes, that's with Jesus' words, and
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I can pretty well confuse them. But you let them
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: stand on their own, and they're profoundly simple. Profoundly you're
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. Now,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: what's the purpose of light? To dispel darkness? That's all,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: that's the main purpose I don't know the last time
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: you were in a place that was absolutely dark, but
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I remember a couple of places I've been. First of all,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I was an older teenager when my family and I
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: first went to Carlsbad Caverns. I don't know if you've
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: been there, but was back in the days when they
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: go way down in the bowels of the cavern and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: they'd turn all the lights off and they'd play Rock
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: of Ages cleft for me, and as a youngster, I
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: was more concerned will they get the lights back on?
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Than do I know the words of Rock of Ages.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: It was so dark I literally put my hand in
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: front of my nose. I remember doing it just a
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: few inches away from the end of my nose, and
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I could feel the heat, but I could not see
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: my hand or the outline of it. Absolutely inky black.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I have hunted and fished in Alaska, in the regions,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: way away from cities and even villages, for there wasn't
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: even a light on the horizon, and that cloudy nights,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: no stars could be seen. It is such an inky blackness. Again,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: you cannot even see your hand in front of you.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: I remember, as a little boy floundering with my father.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: If you've never floundered, oh my goodness, you've missed half
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: of growing up. About the time it gets dark, you
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: light a Coleman lantern and you walk down to the
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: edges of the bay and you walk along knee deep
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to up to waste deep in very clear water. Water
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: has calm for the night. The flounders have come in,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: and they with their little fins have settled down in
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the mud and the sand and blown it over them.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: And they lay there with their mouths wide open, waiting
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: for supper. When some unassuming mullet or shrimp dances near
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the shoreline, what they don't know is they're about to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: get a gig in their back as you walk along
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: swinging this lantern looking for the outline of a flounder. Now,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: when I was very small, I was more concerned about
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: getting back home than I was about finding flounder. But
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be with my dad. If I asked
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: him once, I must have asked him a dozen times
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: every time we went floundering dead In case the lantern
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: goes out, do you know how to get back home? Yeah? Yes,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Now watch for the flounder. I know, dad, But is
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: there plenty of fuel in the lantern. Yeah, there's plenty
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: of fuel, and now watched for the flounder. There was
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: one point that we would go around and you could
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: no longer see the bay cottage where we were staying.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I remember walking around the point like this, continuing to
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: look at the light last light I would see, because
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the light showed me how to get home. One occasion,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: we gigged a flounder and it sure enough blew the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: water up out of the water, I mean, out of
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: this bay, and it hit all over the lantern and
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: all the lights went out. Oh, this is my moment.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: My dad had a flashlight. He never told me carried
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: a flashlight light, just a little flash and I remember
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: asking him are the batteries good in the flashlight? I
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: want to be able to get home. When you live
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: in the darkness and you don't even have a flashlight,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: you don't know where home is. And that's the way
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it is for the majority in the world. Some born,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: raised die in cultures that have never seen the light
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: of a flashlight, which causes me to be all the
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: more restless. With Christians who do nothing but shine lights
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: on themselves and one another. They have lighthouse parties where
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: they just shine the light on all the truth and
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: they nitpick add one another. Put the light on the bridge.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Get into the darkness. That's where lights needed. Get out
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: of your own little all Christian world and get out
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: where the darkness is. My my ct studs said it best.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Some people like to live within the sound of church
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: or chapel. Bill, I'd rather run a rescue shop within
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: a yard of hell. Your environment is dark. Praise God.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: You're the only one in the company that knows the
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: savior you're talking. You got the light, you got the salt.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Now dode shine it right in his eyes, big big
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: beacon pole. Still Sam, whoa not that kind of light?
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: That salt by the truck's full, just a little salt.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Look at how he puts it as beautiful. A city
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: set on a hill cannot be hidden. You couldn't hide it.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: If you try, just live a different life. It'll drive
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: them nuts, wondering why you don't do the things they do,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: why you don't laugh at stuff they think it's funny.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: They won't know why you live with peace of mind.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: They won't know why you don't worry. They won't know
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: why you smile more than you frown, you're light the hill.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: Nor do men light a lamp and hide it under
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: a bushel basket. They put it on a lamp stand
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and it gives light to all who were in the house.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: It is amazing how light attracts. When you're in a
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: dark place and you have one light, eyes focus on
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the light. The light is what gives the mariners a
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: course to take across the seas. They set their navigational
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: charts by the light that's light years away. That's the
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: way it is with light. It gives a direction, It
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: attracts attention. He says verse sixteen. I love it. Let
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: your light shine. Isn't that easy? Just let it shine.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Just let it shine. Don't add extra voltage, don't call attention.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I walk in the light. You have to do that.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I've been sitting on a plane. The guy next to
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: me is boozing it up. I expect him to booze
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: it up. I expect any person without Christ to be
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: addicted to some habit he can't handle, to be unfaithful.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I expect that lifestyle of the mind Christian, and we
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: need to stop trying to clean up the life of
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: a non Christian. He doesn't have the equipment. So he
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: gets a drink and I'm reading or whatever. Broke in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: conversation with him, and we're talking, and he's here, I
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: buy you a beer and I say, no thanks, Why not, Well,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I just prefer just to drink a coke. How come
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I'm a christianden I don't have to do that. I
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: don't have to say that. He drinks another one, drinks
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: it down. Tell me more about this Jesus thing. You know,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: I'll be glad to I don't rub his face in salt.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: He just knows there's a difference. And I haven't announced
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: a thing, just that there's a light on a hill
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I saw at the Marine Corps barracks for years. It works.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: You don't have to put them down for the way
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: they're living. You just live right, and they will flock
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: to you. Flock. They can't stand the curiosity of how
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: come you aren't like the majority. I never find a
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: time where Jesus said to his disciples, we got to
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: work on getting the crowd. The crowds are getting thin.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: They're not coming to the evening meeting. They just came
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: to him in the wilderness. They came on the hillside.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: They came at the lakeside. They came. He was so different,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: he was salt, he was light. What will they see?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: They will see your good works? What are good works?
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Every visible manifestation of christ life being normally lived out
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: from the Christian, every visible manifestation. They will hear your courtesy,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: They will detect your smile. They will discover you stop
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: to thank them. They will hear you apologize when you
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: were wrong. They will see you help them with their
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: homework when they're struggling. They'll notice that you're the one
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: that stopped along the road and gave them a hand.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: They'll see your good works, and they will glorify your father,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: who is in heaven. They will be riddled with curiosity.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: John rw Stott writes, I sometimes think how splendid it
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: would be if non Christians, curious to discover the secret
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and source of our light, were to come up to
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: us and inquire, go, twinkle, little star, how I wonder
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: what you are? Isn't it a pleasure when someone says
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: to you, why are you like that? And isn't it
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: a natural thing to respond I'm glad you asked. Let
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: me tell you what's happened? May I give you a
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: couple of three suggestions, all of them begin with the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: word don't don't overdo it. Please, don't call attention to
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the salt or the light. Just live his life. Earl
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Palmer said, perhaps the best testimony a Christian couple can
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: give today is a reasonably good marriage. Isn't that relieving?
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Just a reasonably good marriage. We who are married do
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: not have to pretend we are living as barbie dolls
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: on a wedding cake. We have struggles and dashed expectations too,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: But we offer the world a model of a reasonably
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: good marriage, a reasonably good church, a reasonably good college fellowship.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: It will have radicalizing effects on the world if we
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: offer this. Don't overdo it. You cannot walk on water,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: nor should you try to leave an impression that you do.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Don't overdo it. Neighbors aren't one because they're told too
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: often about Christ. They're one because they get thirsty. They
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: get hungry. Second, don't hold back. See this is where
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: this is, or it pays off. You live this life.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: You cultivate a thirst. You attract the attention of those
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: in the darkness and those who are living tasteless, hopeless lives.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: And when they come asking for information as the time
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: to answer. They're rotting. They need preservation. They're dark, they
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: need light. Take a risk, Take a risk in your
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: good works, launch out on a program that will make
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: a difference in your world. I made a list of
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: programs that we have Christians to thank for. Prison reform,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: abolition of slavery, medical care, helping the addicts world missions,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: alternatives to abortion, exposing child abuse, establishing orphanages, making a
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: positive influence in the political world, leadership positions, and large
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: companies that are making an impact in our world. Shake
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the salt shend the light. The world will sit up
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: and take notice. If you care about those who are
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: in need. Third, don't worry about the few who resisted
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: nobody bats a thousand. Some even walked away from the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Master himself. Remember he was the one they crucified. Even
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the great prophets and apostles were ignored, forgotten, martyred. Remember
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: what it says in Hebrews eleven. They were men of
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: whom the world was not worthy, and they killed him.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Is this vile world a friend to grace? To help
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: me onto God? In no way? The reverse is true.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: People who are salt and light our companions of grace
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: who help the worlding to find direction, taste, beauty, forgiveness, preservation, eternity.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Let's a bow together. Please close your eyes. Some people
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: like to live within the sound of church or chapel
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: bell I'd rather run a rescue shop within a yard
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: of hell. See how dark it is inside your eyelids.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: That's how dark it is in most people's lives, all day,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: every day. Remember the last time you were faced with
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: some cataclysmic difficulty, some struggle that brought you to your knees.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Most people never go to their knees. They don't know
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: there's help there. When you live in the darkness and
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: you don't know where the light is, you lose all
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: sense of direction. North looks like west, East like south.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: When you've known only a tasteless existence, you don't even
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: know there is salt right where you're sitting today. Let
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: me make real sure that you're in the light, that
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: you have the salt to shake. Does Christ live inside
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: your life? If he doesn't, no wonder, there's no lasting
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: impact being made. No wonder someone hasn't talked to you
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: about how to live forever. I invite you, right where
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: you're sitting to say yes to Christ's invitation right now.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Just pull your life off to the side of the road,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: sit quietly at the foot of the cross, and tell
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the Lord you're his. You're going to run no longer.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: You may be a Christian, but for whatever reasons, you've
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: begun to live a compromise life. And not only are
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: you no soldier of the Cross, no one even knows
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: you're in the ranks. Now's the time to deal with that.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Some folks are going to have a lot to explain
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: for standing before the judgment seat of Christ. It's a
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: haunting thought, isn't it. If you're married, just make it
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: a point before the day ends to pray with your mate. Lord,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: help us in shaking the salt and in spreading the light.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Give us ways of doing that so that it flows freely.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Start today. If you need help with this, we have
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: a group of carefully trained and chosen counselors who'll pray
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: and talk with you today. Come today, our Father, I
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: thank you for speaking today through the words of Jesus.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Forgive us. Do forgive us Lord, for living lives as
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: though everyone is in the light, for forgetting that we
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: have salt to shake. Show us again the joy, the pleasure.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: It is just to live different lives. Steal us for
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the times of affliction and misunderstanding, and even hatred that
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: will come from some. But don't let us for a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: moment be deterred from the work of the Gospel. May
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: it flow naturally from our lives in good works, so
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: that they may see those good works and glorify the
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Father in heaven. In the name of your Son who
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: spoke them, we pray Amen.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, a simple counter strategy, Shake and Shine,
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: was copyrighted in nineteen eighty eight, and the sound recording
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: was copyrighted in twenty fourteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide.