Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
This Sunday, the title of the message the Lord has given me for you is this: They Will See. They will see, and it is my prayer that you're encouraged to believe what Jesus says about you, to turn your heart away from everything you may believe for all kinds of reasons—because we have a lot of reasons. For all kinds of reasons, we may believe a lot of things about ourselves, and we may be able to explain exactly why we believe those things. Maybe people, they do love you, but maybe they said things about you that have just gotten into your heart and into your mind, and you believe things about yourself because you were told time and time and time again what you were like. "You'll never amount to anything." Sometimes parents, they don't mean to, but they can speak some things onto your life, and you begin to believe what they say about you. And it can become hard to believe what Jesus says about you. "You're not smart." "We won't win the war with you." "What is wrong with you?" All of those things can make a way into our heart, sometimes at a young age, and we begin to believe that something is wrong with me—so I need to change something, or I need to behave differently than how I really feel, or I need to appear different than how I really feel. We don't really think through that, but it does have an effect on us.
And then later on in life, sometimes we don't really know why we do what we do, why we behave the way we behave, or why we struggle with the things that we struggle with. It is my prayer that your heart can hear what the word of God, what Jesus himself, says about me, says about you. And that, with childlike faith—Daddy said so—so it's going to be that way. With childlike faith, you may decide to trust him today. I hope that with all of my heart. I want to start sharing the gospel over your life with you before we get into that part Isaiah 40, verse 28 and 29. In Isaiah chapter 40, starting in verse 28, the prophet cries out: "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable." I want to stop right there for a moment. He cries out, "Don't you know that God doesn't run out of breath?"—is what he's saying. Don't you know God never gets tired? Don't you know God has unlimited resources in strength and in power and that he understands all things? And then an incredible verse, verse 29: "He gives power..."—that word refers to the strength that God has for himself. He neither faints nor gets weary—"and He gives power to the weak." And to those who have no might—they can't make a difference in their life, they can't change certain things in their life—"He increases strength."
He cries out to a people in trouble and he says: "Don't you—you are looking at your situation, and you are looking at yourself and what you can and cannot do—have you not known? Have you not heard that there is a God who has the power, who doesn’t run out of power, who never gets tired, who understands everything? And He gives His strength to weak people, and He increases strength, He causes strength to grow in the lives of people that have no might, that have no ability to cause real change in their life?" Have you not known? Have you not heard that this God comes to people that are weak, that this God comes to people and loves on people that have no might? Throughout the generations, it is always so much easier to believe that God is really doing a thing in the lives of people that have it all together. They're kind of impressive people. They must read their Bible every day, probably for a while. They must pray every day—that's why it's going well for them. And the prophet cries out to you and me: "Have you not known? Have you not heard? God comes to the weak. God comes to the people that have no might. And instead of teaching them how to be better, He gives them His strength. He gives them His power so that they can walk out things that they could never do, so they could accomplish things that are unaccomplishable by the strength of man."
The goal is that everybody begins to realize: God has done a work for that man. God has done a work in that woman. And the reason God picks the weak and the broken and those without might is that people will start to ask themselves, "Why in the world would God pick that man to do such a mighty work? Why would God pick that woman to give her so much strength? She didn’t do anything to earn it. He had an unhonorable past. Look at all of the things he’s done wrong with his life. Why would God pick him?" You see, the Lord seeks to do something through our life that causes a question to rise up in the hearts of the people that know us—the hearts of the people that are your friends, your family. God tries to bring a question to the surface in their heart, and the question is simply this: "Why him? Why her? Why would God love, speak with, redeem, change, give calling, give strength to him? He’s weak. He’s only good at sin. He’s only good at failing. He runs his mouth. He has to say sorry all the time and he knows it but he doesn’t do it. Why would God pick someone like him?"
That’s the question God tries to bring up in the hearts of people all around you. He wants people to know—that's why He makes you honest. When you run into Him and you begin to believe on Him, He begins to make you honest. And people that get to know Him, they start to tell everybody what they’ve done wrong. Why does the Holy Spirit do that in our heart? Why does He make us so honest that we tell everybody what we did wrong? So that people may begin to ask in their heart: "Then why would God love you? Or why would God pick you or speak to you or reach out to you or give giftings unto you or give so much grace and mercy and love to you? Because you gave God only reason to reject you. You’re weak. You have no might. You couldn’t be good for God. Why would God do it?" Because the Holy Spirit, the Word—every ministry that comes from heaven, whatever shape it takes—every ministry that comes from heaven seeks to make people look up to the cross of Jesus Christ. Every single ministry—your life included.
That’s why God makes you honest about your mistakes. That’s why God makes you honest about all of your failure. He takes away the shame. He takes away the guilt so that you freely feel you can be honest about everything you were—everything you even do wrong today.
That’s why He makes you so honest, so that people wonder why. And the only answer we have—we may not know how to preach. I don’t know how to preach very well. I don’t know how to explain everything very well. But I can point to the cross. And I can tell people—"I don’t really know sometimes why He is so good to me. All I know is that there’s a cross. All I know is there is a cross. And ever since I’ve known with all of my heart there’s a cross for me—Jesus died on it. Ever since I’ve known that there’s a cross, that the Father sent Jesus to die on, ever since I’ve known that in my heart—God has treated me this way." Ever since I’ve known that in my heart, God has behaved completely differently to me. My prayers get answered. I don’t have very good prayers, but they get answered. Sometimes it’s no, but they get answered.
When I seek Him, the moment I even have that thought, His presence seems to surround me. I haven’t really done anything yet. That’s only been that way ever since I knew with all of my heart—there’s a cross in my life that Jesus died on for me. That’s all I really know. Ever since then, God behaves this way towards me. Haven’t you heard? "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength." That means if you have weaknesses, you can expect God’s power to fill your life. That’s what the Bible teaches us to expect. Believing God’s word means I say: "Wow, I found another weakness. Hallelujah! I’m going to have a great story down the road in this place. I found another thing I cannot do. This is going to be great. People are going to see it done anyways." And I just get to say: "Ever since I’ve known about the cross, ever since I’ve known about Jesus—when I find a weakness, or when I find lack of strength, God does something everybody recognizes only God could have done. And I get to tell people that the only reason God does these things inside of my life, inside of my heart, inside of my mind—is because I heard about a cross that Jesus died on, on my behalf." And when I believed—just a little bit, even just maybe—that cross was for me.
Ever since that day, anytime I find a weakness, anytime I have no strength, God swoops in right away, and He does what cannot be done. That is what He seeks to do—so that people will see something in your life.
Let me read to you Revelation 1, verse 4, 5, and 6: "John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father—to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Here, John, as he receives the revelation of Christ throughout this entire book, he begins to explain a little bit of who this Jesus is. At the beginning of this book, the Firstborn—we know who it is—the Lord Jesus Christ, the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us... The one who is ruler over all... And the Word tells us, "And washed us from our sins in His blood." You don't have to do that yourself. You don't have to run to the blood of Jesus Christ every day of your life when you make a mistake to try and see if you can somehow in prayer get a hold of some of the blood of Jesus to please have my sins forgiven once again, please feel cleansed once again. No, the word tells us he loved you and he expressed his love in this way: he washed us from our sins in his own blood.
He did the washing. He provided the blood that was needed to wash away everything that was clinging on to us. And this is what he did for every single one of us because he loved us—not because you ran to an altar, not because you became a greater believer than your neighbor, not because you sang louder, not because of anything you did—because there is a cross at which he expressed that love and provided the blood necessary to finally fulfill his desire over your life to wash you and cleanse you. It is an incredible thing, and I want to ask you today: do you talk about what Jesus did with your sin? Do you ever talk about it? Do you ever tell someone still today? I know you probably did it when you first met Jesus, but do you still tell people about all of the dirt that used to cling on to you? You couldn't get rid of it. You couldn't change it. You could exchange some lying behavior for other lying behavior. You could exchange some secret for other secrets. You couldn't have the kind of marriage you wanted. It wasn't an exemplary marriage. It wasn't a marriage of total love for one another. It was tolerating one another but often living separate lives, and you couldn't change it. You couldn't do anything about it.
All of this dirt was clinging on to you and getting stuck on your life. And Jesus came into it. I heard about a cross, and Jesus showed up in my life, and he washed me with his blood. And all of these things, they just started disappearing. I didn't need to do it. I didn't need to try. I didn't need to make it happen. I trusted. I believed on the cross, and Jesus showed up, and he washed me with his blood. He gives power to the weak. He increases strength to those that have no might. Have you not heard? Have you not known? Do you share this with the people around you? Because there's an incredible promise in the word of God—the people that are close to you in your life. Your friends—think of your friends. You're not so sure that if you are standing at their grave next week, you're not so sure that they are for certain in heaven. Family members, co-workers, people you love, people you are around—there's no coincidence. If Jesus purchased you, there's no coincidence that you are around any of these people. You're going to see it in the word—there's no coincidence. But are they hearing through you? Is the Holy Spirit still allowed to do that work through you that causes people to go, "Why you? Why would God give all of that to you?"
Why, if you have so many mistakes, if you do so many things wrong, if you still make mistakes—then why do you never have to pursue the presence of God? You claim that it's always with you. Why? Why would your prayer—no matter how short it is, how insignificant it is, how quiet it is—but it always gets answered? Why does God treat you that way? "I pray louder than you, longer than you. I mean it more than you." You can fill in any excuse. Why would God answer the weak that prayer simply? Why would God give strength to those that don't even know how to live a right life, that have no might? Why? Why would God give it to you? Do you cause, still today, that question to come up in the hearts of those that God placed you in their lives? They are in your life for a reason. I've learned this a long time ago from one of the friends of one of my mentors. He always said, "Once you've been bought by the creator of the universe that holds the world in his hand, once he bought you for a purpose, nothing is a coincidence in your life anymore."
No person you run into is coincidence. There is always an intention. Because when Jesus purchased you, when Jesus filled you with his Holy Spirit, when Jesus helped you understand that it was because of the cross that he works in your life and no other reason—once he gave you all of that, your time became too valuable to waste. He doesn't waste the time that he has through you to spend. There is no coincidence when you run into someone. There's no coincidence when you've been praying about something, and all of a sudden that week, you run into that schoolmate from years ago. There's no coincidence in your life. But you can miss it, can't you? You've been there where you realized afterward, "Huh, that was... that was a huge coincidence." It's not a coincidence. God is ordering your steps, and your life will do something that causes people to see something. Your life is called and empowered to bring about something people have never seen before—God just giving away his power to any area of weakness that you begin talking about, any area of lack of might that you run into. God just increases strength.
That doesn't make sense in the way that this world thinks. You put in less effort, and God does more? That makes no sense. You simply come into the light and tell everyone all the things that are wrong, and God just shows up and does the impossible in your life? That makes no sense.
But there's a cross. That is his only reason. But if you, for whatever reason—whether the enemy has something to do with it, whether people at one point in your life spoke things over you that you began to believe, whatever the reason may be—there are many ways in which we grow quiet and we stop telling people everything that is wrong and yet how God treats us. And when we stop telling people everything that is wrong and yet how God treats us, then the question of "Why in the world would God do that?" stops coming up. It stops coming up.
Your life is designed by God to provoke this question in the people around you. You may just be one of the most powerful—you may at times be the only God-given invitation that the Lord has sent into the lives of, again, your co-workers, your loved ones, your family, people all around you. And you don't have to be a great preacher. You don't need to know everything.
You already know what you need to know. You know everything you do wrong. Nobody has to tell you. You know. You know all of your shortcomings today. Yet God loves me. Yet he answers my prayers. Yet he gives me peace. That is all you need to know. The rest God will do. He will cause a question to come up sooner or later: "But why would God do that? Why would God reach out to someone like you? Why would God speak with you as a friend? You say, actually, you hear words from God? Why would God do that to you? You're not that great. You're not better than me. Why would God do these things for you? Why would God use you?" Why?
Why would God? Because there is a cross. That’s all I know. That’s the only answer I have. I’ve never done anything right. That’s what I tell everybody. He treats me as if I am his beloved child. He has done it ever since I heard there was a cross, and I believed that that cross had blood on it because of me. Let me take you to 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind."
You see, so many times we are convinced, one way or another, that there are things we cannot do. How many times have you said, actually out loud, just in the past month, "Oh, I can't do that"? How many times have you thought it? You know, kids are inclined to think that way. It’s our flesh. It’s around from when we're very, very little. Amen? Somebody said, "Amen." But we run into all kinds of obstacles in life that seem bigger than us. And especially when we’re kids, we get the message pretty quickly: "I can't lift that. I can't pay for that. I can't cook that."
But my Father can. And every time that we see an inability, lack of might, or weakness in our children's life, as a parent, I can just step in and fill up that gap of their weakness, that gap of the lack of their might. And what ends up happening is kids are not worried when they wake up that they’re going to grow hungry that day. Even though they don’t have the strength, they don’t have the might, they don’t know how to do it, they don’t know how to prepare food for themselves, they have no worry whatsoever because they’ve seen: "My father is always in my lack of might. My father is always in my lack of strength."
They don’t worry about who’s going to pay the rent at the end of the month. They don’t worry about whether we’re going to run out of gas when we go somewhere. They don’t worry about any of the things that they cannot make a difference in—none of it. And we are only, at best, half-decent parents here on earth. And God says, "I am your heavenly Father. I am perfect. I am for you. Have you not heard? Have you not known? I don’t grow tired. I have all of the strength. And you are my child. And wherever you are weak, wherever you have no might, I fill that area of your life with my strength, with my ability." God has not given us a spirit of fear as his children, but of power and love and a sound—or a peaceful—mind. He's given us a spirit of power. He's given us a resource that is beyond our own strength and ability. And God doesn't just give that to you and me for ourselves.
But there are times—and I don't want you to feel condemned under this, but I want you to see it—there are times when the ways we think about ourselves, and sometimes the ways we believe, put us in a place where we are still behaving unbalanced, as if we are a dependent child that cannot do these things. And Jesus says, "I've given you a spirit of power." Now, sometimes, as earthly parents, we forget to teach our kids something. Sometimes they don't really want to learn, and they end up telling themselves, "I cannot do this. I cannot do this, Papa. But I can't do that." Now, I know by now they've grown. They can do it. They don't know yet. They still think that they have to always let Papa do it because they cannot—even though we've been feeding them, we've been teaching them, we've been caring for them, and they have been growing in strength. They have been growing in power. And now there are new things they can actually learn to do. They can actually learn to accomplish. They can actually experience that they have the strength to do things like that.
God says, "Listen, I'm doing the same thing. When you came to me, you were like an infant in the faith. I was holding you. I was spoon-feeding you the word. I was always drawing you into prayer. And then, all of a sudden, a little while later—you’ve all probably experienced this—that strong, easy desire to just always be in prayer kind of disappears. That strong, easy desire to always be drawn into the Bible kind of disappears. And we go, 'God, I can't do this. God, I—I'm—I'm—I'm losing my fire. God, I'm losing my desire. God, I'm losing my first love.' And we begin to stack heaven with all kinds of accusations as to why God is not finishing what he started when, in all reality, God says, 'I've given you a spirit of power. I've given you a spirit of strength. You were an infant in the faith when you came to me, but you've grown so much. I've strengthened you. Why don’t you go ahead and open your Bible and see if I will not speak to you when you come to me? You're not as powerless anymore as you once were. I've given you a spirit of power, not of fear.'" And yet, so many in the body of Christ are terrified to step out, are terrified to tell others about their mistakes and how God treats them—because their feelings, our feelings, preach. Amen? Because the feelings tell us something else than what God said. Our feelings seem to be in line with maybe what a mom spoke over us. And they loved us, but they did say it, and it got into our heart.
And our feelings are in agreement with it. Our feelings are in agreement with however our situation looks. When we look at the bank account and fear all of a sudden is allowed to creep in and determine what we're going to do with our day—how we think, how we feel, even how we pray—all of a sudden, fear seems to creep in. And God is speaking over us, "No, I've given you a spirit of power. You're not powerless in this situation. You're not going to be overrun. I've not given you a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind." When was the last time—think of it for a moment—that you told people everything you're not? Everything you do wrong? Everything that you have done in your past? And you tell them, "And yet, God gives me power. Even though I don't deserve it, he's given me a sound mind. I have peace. I have rest.
I can explain why I shouldn't have it. It makes complete sense that I wouldn't have these things. Yet, I have them. God gives them to me. And the only reason I've ever known is: there is a cross, and there’s blood that was shed there. And the power of that blood seems to just rest on my life. I never did anything. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, gave his life for someone like me, to wash me with that blood, wash my sins away. Ever since that day, he seems to give me everything."
It's not fair. I shouldn't receive these things. I totally can explain why I shouldn't. But here we are—God treats me differently ever since I believed on the cross. He's given me a spirit of power so that in me, things get done that I could never do. I never cared about them. I could never change them anyway, so I never cared about them. But God—He seems to really like to do things in the areas where I'm weak. He seems to really like to show off His abilities where I have no might. This is what God does in the life of a sinner. That's why they become so vocal about all of their mistakes. The mistake points out the miracle. And if you say, "I have mistakes, but I don't see my miracle yet," I pray to God that you entrust your mistakes to Jesus today.
Because when you give your mistakes to Jesus, He never rejects you. When you give your mistakes to Jesus, He gives you a miracle. He gives His strength where you are weak. He increases strength where you have no might. If you simply trust Him and say, "Okay, I will forgive—you—my mistakes," He will show up in your life, and people will begin to see something.
Because that power of the blood of Jesus Christ—that blood that Jesus used—He used His blood to wash your sins away. That blood, the Spirit of Jesus who comes to live in you, operates in the power of that blood. That power that rests on you—the power that is distributed into your heart, into your life by the Holy Spirit—that power on you has the ability to turn others to Jesus.
Church, you need to understand this.
The power Jesus laid upon your life is there to turn others to Jesus. You can't turn anybody to Jesus? You may have heard that many times—it's a lie from the pit of hell. The Word of God teaches us—and you're going to see it. I'm—I'm—I'm keeping it for last, but you're going to see it. The Bible teaches that because you have been given power, you actually—by the power of God, by the resources of God, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit—absolutely, God gets all the credit, but He placed that power on your life. He didn’t give you a spirit of fear but of power. And that power has the ability to turn others to Jesus. How does that work? This power of the blood—this power of the blood that has washed us clean from our sins. And now that those sins have been washed away, that is not only for you. He does that for those around you because they are going to see—"Hey, all of these sins are washed away." And now what remains are some good works. Not good works to get right with God. Not good works to impress anybody. Not good works to somehow please God. But there's nothing else—all the bad stuff has been washed away. And people begin to see in your life—they know you. They were around you when you were like that. They knew you never said sorry, even though you had to. They knew that you had a temper. They knew that you did all of these things, and what you should have been doing, you didn’t do.
They knew you because God put you in their life so they would see you and understand you and watch you. And then, when God washes all of the dirt away and there's nothing bad left anymore, there’s supposed to arise a question through your life that says, "Why and how in the world did this happen to you? Why would God treat you this way?" And Jesus exemplifies this journey throughout His life to the point that people said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Why do you think Jesus picked Nazareth as His home place? He causes this question to arise—"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Nazareth was known to be good for nothing. It was a humble place. It was a weak place. It had nothing special. And all along, Jesus is just drawing this parallel to our lives. When—when—when people know every area of your life and you display it honestly and freely—"I have nothing impressive. I do wrong. I have my mistakes."
Can anything good ever come out of that? Can anything good ever come out of her? Can anything good ever come out of him? And Jesus says, "That’s weakness. That’s lack of might. That’s exactly where I’m going to show up. And I’m going to cause people to have a question that says, 'How in the world can good come out of here?'" How in the world did good come out of your mouth when you’re in the same situation I knew you used to curse in? Where there used to be bad works in your life—bad words and works—they often go hand in hand. Where there used to be bad words and works in your life, and they—they—they were stuck to you as if they were old, old stickers that are just such a pain to remove. You can try, but you just get these little peels, and they test your salvation. But that's often what it is like. We can see that it’s out of date. We can see it doesn’t make us look very intelligent. We can see that it doesn’t represent God. But every time we try to begin to remove that thing, some little peels come off. And it is so frustrating because it feels like it’s not going anywhere at times. Have you ever been there? You try to get a sticker off, and you think, "I shouldn’t have done that. It looked better when I left it on."
Sometimes it feels like that—you try to start to change things in your mind or in your heart or how you behave, and it's like the harder you try, the more of a mess you seem to make out of it.
And then people begin to see—when you give that thing to Jesus, when you give that area of your behavior to Jesus, that also means that you talk about it, that you're honest with it. You don't hide it anymore. You're not trying to be a hypocrite. You tell everybody, "Yep, yeah, I struggle with this. I do that wrong. I've done that wrong." It's coming into the light. It's what's called coming into the light—not having secrets, not hiding, not having darkness, but saying, "Jesus is the God of the light. He dwells in the light. He works in the light, and I'm going to take my weakness, I'm going to take my lack of might with me into the light where Jesus is because I trust that He is going to pour His strength on it." So I want everybody to see what I'm bringing to Him. I want everybody to see my weakness. He already loves me—I got nothing to be ashamed of anyway. I want everybody to see because when I bring it to Him, He fixes it. When I bring it to Him, He heals it. When I bring it to Him, He pours His strength on me.
Church, Jesus has sent you into this world to be seen. Now, we have quite a few Slavic people in the house—I don't want your pride to get all worried about this. Jesus sent you into the world to be seen. So often in our flesh, we say, "Oh, not me. I'm not supposed to be in the foreground. Let me be in the back. Let me work in the background." My wife is a perfect example. She loves to serve and work hard in the background—as long as she doesn't have to do anything in front of people. And she's getting a lot better with that, but especially in the beginning of our marriage, she would work like a horse but didn't want any recognition, didn't want anybody to see it, didn't want anybody to notice her. When in all reality, Jesus sent us into the world to be seen because He wanted people to see that in you, there's so much wrong, so much weakness, so much brokenness, so much lack of might. And God knows what He's going to pour on top of all of that so that the people in your circle, the people in your life, may have a question— "Why in the world does God do this for you? How in the world did God give somebody like you peace? How in the world are you not ashamed of these things that you talk about? How in the world do you have nothing to hide? How in the world did your marriage end up turning out the way it did, with your past or with the way that your marriage used to be going? How did that happen?"
"I heard about a cross, and when I believed that that cross had blood on it for me, Jesus began to treat me differently." Let me show you in the Word, Church, that you have been sent into this world to be seen. Verse 13 of Matthew 5—"You are here." Jesus begins to tell you who you are. "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Here, Jesus makes a parable. The word "parable" means to throw alongside. I always have to think of a bowling ball when I say that—to throw alongside. And He throws a story—sometimes a very short story, like here, one verse—He throws a story alongside a truth so that it is easier for us to begin understanding the truth. But we do have to understand what He was saying. Because today, you and I pick our kosher salt or our pink salt or our flaky salt or sea salt—we have so many different preferences of salt nowadays. I'm probably forgetting a couple.
But today, we pick them because we like to be fancy when people come over, or we like our food to have a certain type of flavor. That's not necessarily what Jesus was talking about. Salt has always had that flavor. But the reason that that flavor—and the reason that that salt—was so incredibly valuable at that time... Today, you can get it pretty cheap. At that time, salt was so incredibly valuable because you had no deep freezer. You had no fridge. And when an animal would be slaughtered to provide life-giving food for your family, you would pack that meat in salt, and you would salt that thing and pickle that thing and make sure that that thing was completely enclosed with salt. And it would preserve the food, and it wouldn't go bad.
That's how they were using salt. And then Jesus turns around to His believers, who do this daily, and He says, "You are the salt of the earth."
What is he saying? He's saying, "You—I sent you into the lives of people because in you, I placed something. Inside of you, there is the ability, the power to preserve the lives of other people. You are the salt of the earth. I want to pack their life with you. I want to bring you into their life because when I bring you into their life, there's the possibility that their life is going to end up preserved. It's not going to go bad. It's not going to go rotten. It is not going to rot in hell. I can preserve them. I'm sending you. You are the salt of the earth." 14—"You are the light of the world." We always sing it, and we know it in our mind—Jesus is the light of the world. But Jesus says, "You are the light of the world." That's who Jesus says you are. You are the salt of the earth—people's lives can be preserved through you. And you are the light of the world—people's eyes can begin to see the things of God through you. He says, "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." That's a promise, Church. You are the light of the world. People can't even miss it. People can't miss it. They will see. You are the light of the world. You will cause people to see something. You will cause people to hear something in their heart. You will cause people to become preserved.
That's who Jesus made you. You don't have to know how to do it. Salt doesn't know how to do it. The light doesn't know how to do it. Light comes around—people can see. Salt comes around—meat is preserved. Food doesn't go bad anymore. 15—"Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." Again, Church, I've heard this wrongly explained so many times in my life. Jesus—if you have a red-letter Bible, all of these letters are in red—Jesus was telling us this. He's not saying, "Don't you put your light under a bushel; you make sure that you bring that light out there." He says, "You are the light." And He makes a promise: "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket."
I'm not going to tell you you're the light and then hide you. I'm not going to give light to your life and then hide you and give you no job in the Kingdom and give you no purpose in this world.
"They don't light a lamp and put it under a basket"—that's not what I'm like. I don't do that. You are involved. You are included. You have a purpose. "But you put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house."
That's what Jesus is saying. "I make you the light of the earth. I'm going home. I'm returning in a season, but I'm giving you my Spirit, and I'm making you the light of the world now. And I'm going to put you on a lampstand so that all in your house are going to have light. They're going to see." That's His promise. They're going to see because Jesus made you the light, and He will put you on a lampstand, and it will give light to all who are in the house. 16—"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
He says—Expose. Expose that power that I placed inside of you. Take a step of faith. Believe what I say about you. You know, you may have been saved a short time. You may give your life to Jesus today if you have not done that yet. This truth is for you. The moment Jesus Christ washes you from your sins with His own blood—He does that. It's a miracle He does for every person that comes to Him. The moment He's done that, you have a story to tell. The moment He has done that, your shame and your guilt will be gone. The moment He has done that, you can tell anyone you run into who you really are without God and how God treats you because of Jesus.
It's going to preserve somebody's life. It's going to cause someone to see that Jesus can pay for their sins too. It's going to cause somebody to see that He is willing to pay for their sins. If you would stand with me for a moment, Church— There are so many people—not in a different nation, not in a different state—just within the own bubble of our life, our own sphere of influence. There are so many people—they can't see. Their life is not preserved. This is Jesus's word to you—"You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." He's not giving you some heavy task. He's not giving you something impossible to do. He's asking you to believe what He says about you. He's asking you to believe that when you come around people, God already placed a power inside of you that is going to cause people's lives to become preserved. God already placed a power upon your life that is going to cause people that are blinded to begin to be able to see. And God is going to place you exactly where He needs to place you.
He puts that light on a lampstand. He doesn't put it under a bushel. He doesn't put it under a basket. He says, "So let your light shine. Be who I made you to be." Light doesn't have to do anything to just shine. Let your light shine. Be who I made you to be. Trust that that is enough, and I will use exactly who you are—with all of your weakness, all of your shortcomings, all of your lack of might. I knew all of that. Just let your light shine. It's going to cause people to become preserved. It's going to cause them to start seeing. I know how to fill up your weakness with My strength. See, the Holy Spirit wants us to just take a step of faith and to decide in our heart—"I believe what my Heavenly Father says about me. I trust what my Heavenly Father says about me. I believe that by His power, He has made me the salt of the earth." There's no Plan B. God never made a Plan B. You're it. You're His plan. He sent you into the world. He sent you into the right place. It's no coincidence that you're around the kids. It's no coincidence that you're around your cousins. It's no coincidence that some people at the job seem to gravitate to you.
It's no coincidence—You're the salt of the earth.
You're the person that God seeks to preserve life through. You're the person that He seeks to open eyes through. What do I do, Pastor? Let your light shine. Let people see everything you are—everything you're not. Trust that God will step in. God will step in. He'll fill up all of those holes—all of the weakness, all of the brokenness, all of the sins. He'll fill it up. He'll wash it away. He'll do a miracle. And everyone that actually knows you—because you walk in the light, they know everything about you—He will cause a question to arise in their heart. And when the question comes, you answer. You say, "There's only one reason—Jesus Christ died on the cross." And ever since I heard about it, and ever since I believed, God has been treating me this way. I can afford to be vulnerable. I can afford to be wrong. I can afford to say I'm sorry. I can afford to have mistakes in my life because of how God treats me—since there is a cross.
Now, I want to ask you—If people have come to mind, they're not preserved, and they're not seeing. And when you think of these people and these situations, all you feel is weakness—all you feel is lack of might to do something about it. I believe the Holy Spirit is inviting you—Let your light shine. Tell these people who you actually are—all of your flaws, all of your mistakes—and I will fill you with power. I will cause a question in their heart. I will wash you. I will do every miracle that is necessary to cause these people to become preserved. That's why you're in their life—to cause them to become preserved, to cause these people to start seeing that Jesus has loved them, that Jesus has paid for their sins.
-Pastor Stan Mons