Designed To Shine - Matthew 5:14-16 Series

Matthew 5:13-16 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Introduction: A Dark world

In 1987 Pam Tebow went on a mission trip to the Philippines and got sick. She was pregnant, and the doctors advised her to get an abortion for her own safety. She refused and went ahead and carried the baby to term, and gave birth to Tim Tebow, who became a big football star and won the Heisman Trophy in 2007. An inspirational, heart-warming story.

There is a thirty-second commercial about that story that was set to be aired during the Superbowl And that has created an uproar – even though nobody has even seen the ad. Just the idea of a woman deciding to carry her baby to term when the doctors advised her to get an abortion for her own safety is enough to infuriate people. The president of the National Organization for Women, Terry O'Neill, said that to air an ad like that would be ''extraordinarily offensive and demeaning.'' She does not even know what the ad is going to say. Yet she went on to say this: ''That's not being respectful of other people's lives. It is offensive to hold one way out as being a superior way over everybody else's.'' Gregg Doyel is a national columnist and he was also outraged at the idea. “… that's the holiest day of the year. It's not a day to discuss abortion. … Feb. 7 is simply not the day to have that discussion.” Maybe in a less important forum, but not on the holiest day of the year when everyone is listening. What a commentary that is on our culture. A thirty-second, heart-warming story about the sanctity of life and a woman risking her life for her child – offensive, demeaning, and unworthy to be discussed on “the holiest day of the year?” We live in a dark, dark world.

Our Nature: Light

The Promised Light

God created this world as a paradise that was perfectly good. There was no sin, no death, no suffering, no disease – every part of it was good. But then came the Fall. Man sinned, and that brought God’s curse on this world. And after that it was a very short time before the whole world descended to the absolute bottom of wickedness that was so bad that God just drowned all of humanity and started over with righteous Noah. And He promised Noah He would never let it get that bad again. It was necessary for it to happen once so we would understand how wicked the human heart really is on its own. But once that had been demonstrated God promised it would not happen again.

So what was His plan for keeping that promise? How was God going to preserve the world from dropping to the bottom of depravity again? The answer comes in Genesis 12. After the flood God calls a man by the name of Abram, re-names him Abraham, and from his offspring creates a special people that would be set aside for God to function as a light that would keep the world from plunging into total darkness again. Listen carefully to what God said to Abram when He first called him.

Genesis 12:1-3 The Lord had said to Abram, "… go to the land I will show you. 2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

God is going to keep the world from total moral collapse this time by blessing every person on the planet. And the way God intends to bless every person on the planet is to start out by blessing this man Abraham and his offspring. Step one is to bless him and his offspring, and step two is to make them a blessing to the world so that eventually the whole world receives God’s blessing through them.

2 …I will bless you … you will be a blessing … 3 all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.