“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed-Sowers,
It is my prayer that as each one of us walks through this world-wide pandemic that we will be the salt and the light of Christ to our dark world.  May we keep our eyes on Jesus and may His light shine through us.

Last week we looked at being the salt of the earth.  This week let’s take a few minutes and reflect on the call to be the light of the world.  We need to light our lamps of love, joy, faith, mercy, peace and grace into the world we live in.

Last week I challenged you to consider the kind of foundation you are building upon.  Are you a wise-builder or a foolish-builder?  Are you going to build on sinking sand or on the ROCK of Christ?  As I have been reading this week, I came across this great illustration about building on the ROCK and letting your light shine:

Eleven miles off the east coast of Scotland, in the North Sea, stands the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It has endured the ferocious onslaught of the North Sea’s violent storms since 1811. It rests upon less than one acre of solid rock. The small reef is covered by seawater 20 hours of every 24. The builder of the lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, and his band of 65 skilled artisans, had only four hours each day to chink away the stone and gouge a foundation in the rock. As a result of this painstakingly patient work, the 115-foot-tall lighthouse is still in use today–200 years later. There are usually great costs in digging a deep, Christ-like foundation.  Do it anyway. Your legacy will outlast you if you do!

In 1972, a young Egyptian businessman named Farahat lost an $11,000 watch. He was stunned when a garbage man dressed in filthy rags found it and returned it to him. Farahat asked him why he didn’t just keep the watch. The garbage man said, “My Christ told me to be honest until death.” Farahat later told a reporter: “I didn’t know Christ at the time, but I told the garbage man that I saw Christ in him. I told him, ‘Because of what you have done and your great example, I will worship the Christ you are worshiping.'”  Farahat studied the Bible and grew in his faith. Two years later he visited the garbage man’s village outside Cairo, where between 15,000 and 30,000 people were living in poverty and squalor. There was no electricity or running water. Alcohol, drugs, and gambling were pervasive. Men, women, and children sifted through huge mountains of garbage, looking for something of value that could be sold for cash or traded for food. Farahat found himself reflecting on the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He also remembered the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:13, “We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things.” It was soon thereafter that Farahat and his wife began ministering to people’s spiritual and material needs. They preached the gospel throughout Egypt, and thousands of people turned to Christ.  In 1978, Farahat was ordained by the Coptic Orthodox Church and became known as Father Sama’an. Now, about 10,000 believers meet in a large cave outside the garbage village. It is the largest church of believers in the Middle East. In May of 2005, a day of prayer was held for Muslims to turn to Christ. More than 20,000 Arab Christians gathered. The event was also broadcast on a Christian satellite TV network, where millions were watching. All this, because one garbage man chose to humbly return a watch that would have made him the richest man in town.[i]

Wherever you are, whoever you are–you can be the light of Christ. Build deeply into the foundation of Christ. Let Christ’s light shine in you. Go love others.

SO WHAT?
Jesus is on the mountaintop teaching us how to improve our lives.

·         You are the salt of the earth. 

·         You are the light of the world.

Do you come to church to worship the living God?  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to RUB the love of God into your heart each Sunday?  Do we let our daily devotionals and weekly Bible Studies season our lives so that we are ready to flavor our part of the world—our home, work places, schools, neighborhoods and church?  If we had an ingredient list—how far down would the Jesus-factor be?

Jesus was onto something at the mountaintop.  From His viewpoint, he saw a decaying world.  What about you? Will you do whatever it takes to be the salt and light of your world? Remember Robert Stevenson only had four hours each day to gouge a foundation into solid rock but that lighthouse is still in use–200 years later.

The work you do in your lifetime has the opportunity to outlive you. 

When the waves of the world are crashing all around you, you can stand safely and securely in the midst of the storm.  Why? Because you have built your foundation upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 5: And the light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it. The BELL ROCK lighthouse has safely guided the seas for over 200 years. Why? Its foundation is embedded deeply into the rock it rests upon. May the same be said of you and me.

See you Sunday …

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Dear Seed-Sowers,
I hope and pray that you are all well, safe, healthy and growing in grace. I have been rereading Matthew 5 this week and reflecting on Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Wow!  There is so much meat in chapters 5-7 of Matthew. (Perhaps a challenge for you to read these chapters for a week?) In the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that we are to be poor in spirit, called to be merciful and meek, called to hunger and thirst for righteousness in order that we may be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”  In essence, what Jesus is telling the people gathered on that mountainside is that they are to not to just sit around listening about HOW to be a Christian, they are to go out and BE a Christian.  Jesus clearly states the purpose of the Christian life — to be salt and light in our world!

SO WHAT? ABOUT “salt”?

SALT: PRESERVATIVE and FLAVOR
In the days of Jesus, and for many centuries thereafter, salt was the most common preservative used.  There were no refrigerators, no deep-freezers in ancient times. Salt was used to keep things from going bad and becoming rotten, particularly meat.  When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot” Jesus was telling His disciples that they were called to be the preserving agents to a decaying world.

The simple principle is that you and I are called to be a preserving force in the world–wherever we are called to live, work, and play.

Think of it this way — salt that never leaves the shelf will do no good in preserving anything.  To be effective, the salt had to be rubbed into the meat.  Have you gone into the grocery store and looked at all of the “rubs” they have for seasoning these days?  In the same way, we  must allow God to use us as flavorful seasoning in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and churches.  A small amount of love and kindness goes a long way in making our world a better place.

The other day I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I went to buy juice, and I came across an insight on flavoring. I was holding a bottle of Blueberry Pomegranate Juice.  There was a picture of a ripe pomegranate spilling its exotic, glistening seeds onto mounds of fat, perfect blueberries.  I read the ingredient list: “Filtered water, pear juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate.” Where was the blueberry? Where was the pomegranate? Finally I found them, fifth and seventh in a list of nine ingredients. By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. Meaning a product contains the greatest proportion of the first ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down the list. According to the jug in my hand, it contained mostly water—a few other juices, with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color. In the bottom corner of the front label in small, easy-to-miss type, were the tell-tale words: “Flavored juice blend with other natural ingredients.” The enticing picture and clever labeling were decoys to sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product convincingly disguised to look like something it wasn’t. I put the juice back on the shelf.  I chose the juice that was more costly—because it had more of what I was looking for.

SO WHAT? THINK ABOUT THIS:  What if we had an ingredients list printed on us?

Would Jesus be the main ingredient? If not, how far down the list would He be? Would our “label” accurately represent our contents? Or would we falsely project a misleading outward-appearance that cleverly masked our diluted ingredients? This made me think, our outside packaging may look convincing. We may look and sound like the real thing but what if someone came looking specifically for Jesus and found something else?

More than a hundred years ago, the atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche reproached a group of Christians.  Nietzsche said: “Yuck, you make me sick!” When their spokesman asked why, he answered, “because you redeemed don’t look like you are redeemed.  You are as fearful, guilt-ridden, anxious confused, and adrift in an alien environment as I am.  I am allowed.  I don’t believe. I have nothing to hope for.  But you people claim you have a Savior.  Why don’t you look like you are saved?”[ii]

Friends, it is our calling as Christians to be the salt of the earth.  We are called to bring love, joy, peace, hope, mercy, kindness, and grace into our families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, churches and wherever we go. I think about the people who are serving us in the drive up. I can’t tell you how many times I pull away without something I ordered and paid for. The other day my 89 year old father-in-law taught me a life lesson. The drive up forgot his honey mustard sauce for his chicken nuggets.  We were going to go park and take in the majestic beauty of the San Gabriel mountains while we ate our drive through. No honey mustard? Dad said to me, “It’s okay. The mountains are still beautiful.”

I’m trying to say, be the light and the salt of Christ in a world that’s missing the honey mustard sauce!

As you read the living word of God, I’m praying it becomes a great seasoning salt that’s rubbed deeply into your being.  I’m praying that you are conformed, and transformed by what you read in your Bible. It’s a new year–pick a book (there are 66 of them) and read a paragraph, or a chapter a day. This week: be the salt of the earth. Lord knows, the world needs us!

See you Sunday.
God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

At The Seed it is our hope and prayer that you come to know the love of God, grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and go into our world sowing seeds of faith. The SEED wants you to SOW SEEDS OF FAITH in your world.

Know God’s Love!
Grow in Christ’s Grace!
Go in Power of the Holy Spirit!

We sit at the brink of a New Year. The canvas of this year is mostly clean (except for a few weeks). Can we allow the Holy Spirit to help us go in His power to sow seeds of faith, hope, mercy, grace, and love? And, if so, what does that plan look like for each one of us?

January 17th marks the 23rd year of my ordination into full-time ministry. My goal from the very beginning was to serve our mighty God in full-time ministry for at least 25 years. I went into seminary at the ripe, old age of 40 (like Moses)! When people would ask me why I made that career change, I would answer that I had 25 good years left in me! You see, I was a Good Year tire dealer, and the choice was to dream God’s dream or play it safe and sell tires for the next 25 years. I’m so glad God placed that giant-sized burden of ministry onto my shoulders way back in 1994. My prayer as I begin my 24th year of ordained ministry serving in a church is that God will lead me all the way. I want to finish these 25 years of ministry STRONG! I want to press on and reach the goal. I don’t want to slow down and coast past the finish line. God gave me a plan and I’m in it to win it. How about you? Perhaps you are 40 years old and you are being called into a brand, new career, too? My only advice for you:  read your living WORD, pray and obey.

And so, for the 23rd year I have been doing just that. I’ve been opening my Living Word, praying and seeking God’s heart on what my 2021 preaching schedule could look like. I’m always open to the Holy Spirit changing my plan but, as of yet, God’s plans have worked! And so, at the end of December, I sat down and spent time seeking God’s voice for The Seed.  “What do you want me to preach on in 2021?” To be boldly honest with you, I am extremely excited to begin a New Year and a new sermon series: “God With Us.”

All during Advent, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart, “Dave, with all the world has been going through, stop and reflect on the three little words of Christmas:  “God With Us.”   Isaiah* 7:14 — “Therefore the Lord himself will give you (this pronoun is plural it include you and me) a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means God With Us.)  *Just a quick invitation — I am teaching the book of Isaiah on Wednesday nights in our Get-A-Life group.  We are doing this study by ZOOM at the present time.  If you would like to join our study, send me an email at pastordave@theseedchristianfellowship.com and I will send you a ZOOM invite. (We begin at 6:30 pm Pacific Time; believe it or not, we have people from the east coast who join us.)

This Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel showed up to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  Listen to how Matthew records this in Matthew 1:20-23:

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23

Did you hear those three, little words?  GOD WITH US!   Three little words with big meaning. All wrapped up in one little Hebrew name, “Immanuel.”

Maybe a good “so what?” question before we dig into our message for this week is:

Do you believe those three little words — GOD WITH US? How do these three, little words affect your life? Is God with you?

Like everyone else I have been waiting and watching all that has been happening in our world in this world-wide pandemic and again I am watching with all the political upheaval. These days are tumultuous, turbulent, trying and terribly frightening.  There seems to be confusion in the chaos. Friends and family members are getting sick and some are dying.  Businesses are closed, schools are shutdown and moved to online, Even our churches closed and moved online. Relationships have been limited and stretched to the limits. Families have been isolated and quarantined from one another.  Many people are struggling with depression, doubt and despair.  Some are asking — “How Long — Lord?”   Fear, frustration and anxiety and anger seem to be the emotions that are being expressed by so many.

Do you believe those three, little words — GOD WITH US?

How do these three, little words affect and impact your life?

There is a story told of two missionaries who were captured and imprisoned in the same cell but forbidden to speak to each other. Christmas came. One of the missionaries, shivering and silent, sat on the floor covered with hay. As he was playing with bits of hay around him, he thought that he discovered a silent way of communicating with his friend. He spelled out the word Immanuel. As soon as his friend saw the word, immediately he lit up with joy. They were captives, but they both believed that God was with them and that ultimate triumph would be theirs.[i]

Listen, if you are all alone: the SEED has spelled out for you in the straw of life: IMMANUEL! GOD IS WITH YOU!

So What?
Over the next few months as we make our way to Easter, I am going to share some of the famous stories in the Bible, stories where God showed up despite dark, dismal days.  God was with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in a fiery furnace. God was with Daniel in a lion’s den.  God was with David when
he faced a giant named Goliath. God was with Elijah when he was confronted by hundreds of prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. God was Elisha when he raised the dead son of the Shunamite and filled the widow’s olive oil jar to overflowing. God was with Jonah in the belly of the big fish. God was with Samson, Gideon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the prophets. The entire bible is filled with stories that beat the odds.  God has not left us! GOD IS WITH US!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

This is my prayer for us as we journey through 2021.  No matter what, I want you to know that GOD IS WITH YOU. He’s with you whether you have small children and are losing your mind being encapsulated! God is with you whether you are sick and need medical care. God is with you even if you are all alone and feel as though you are dying of loneliness.

GOD WITH US.  SAY IT OUT LOUD. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS HARD: GOD WITH ME. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS GOOD: GOD WITH ME. PRAY IT OVER YOUR FAMILY WHEN THEY ARE STRUGGLING:  GOD WITH US.

Every day my wife and I care for Dad in our home. Andy celebrates his 89th birthday on MLK Jr Day! He’s ordered a prime rib, corn and baked potato dinner cooked at home. Jac’s been busy getting cards from people who know Dad. We will hang up the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign and put 89 on top of his chocolate cake. You see, Dad suffers from end stage Alzheimer’s and the past few months have take a toll on his mind and body but not his spirit. Every night as Dad and I head down the hallway to his bedroom, Dad tells me, “Talk about forgiveness, Dave. No baggage.” Dad is aware that I preach on Sundays and record messages for the radio and you tube. After 23 years of ordained ministry, I pray I never forget: GOD WITH US. I AM FORGIVEN. NO BAGGAGE. Amen.

It’s not about our power, it’s about GOD’S POWER at work IN us. There.  Do you see it?

GOD WITH US. Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com