How many of y'all would call yourself details people? Okay, notice my hand is not up. How many of you would call yourself a big picture person? Okay, how many of y'all can comfortably live in the middle?
Okay, Miss Eaton McEwen, glad I'm glad I cannot. So if you don't know me, I'm not a details person, what's over at all? I mean, I will run from details. You can ask my wife, like, you can give me a list of 15 things to do, it's gonna be bad, because the more detail they are, I'm horrible at it.
I realize I'm a big picture person, completely. So big picture is aggravating to myself and other people. But this week, I read a book that I've had sitting on my shelf for a year and a half, Tom Rath, see the Gallup organization, it's called Strength Finders 2.0. I've gone business have heard of this before.
I've had a year and a half, it's been sitting there, I've not read it, there's a survey, like 140 questions, it takes like 30 minutes. And it tells you, they've organized 34, they call strength themes. And you can take it. And I took it and then they provide the place to where you can write your top five on the front of the book when you're done to remind yourself of it.
And so my top five strengths are strategic, and activator, and maximizer, and significance, and futuristic. And not a single one of them is detail oriented. Not a single one of them. In fact, they're warning you, like the top three, they're like, listen, you're gonna have to find somebody to work alongside of it gets details, because you're going to be horrible at them.
But the funny thing is, and I can tell the difference, I love this kind of test, because they show you so much about yourself personally. So I'm a big fan of them. But what's interesting is that I've noticed the best ones are not the ones that give me the most insight into what I need to do, but they're the ones that give me the most insight into what I do not need to do. And then the really, really good ones also get like super honest about your shortcomings, and super honest about the things that you're bad at, super honest about the things that you need to be aware of.
And this one was right there, and it did an amazing job, and so I like it so much, of bridging the gap between big picture people and details people, because this is the tendency that we have. And I've seen this happen in teams, I lead in places I've worked, and I'm sure you have as well. When things get really tough, and you're working with a group of people, and things get complicated, we have a tendency to divide out into details of people, and then the big picture of people, and you can start to fight, and you start to think that one's better than the other, and it gets all catty-wampus. And this morning, the story we're gonna look at it, Jesus is building a bridge between the big picture and the details, something that's just terribly important.
And so we're just gonna jump right into it, if you wanna open your bibles, it'll also be on the screen behind me, you can use your phone if you wanna do that, but we're gonna read Matthew 5, verses 13 through 20. And we're gonna see what Jesus has to say about the big picture, and what Jesus has to say about details, and why both matter. So as we said, you're the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it's lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again?
It will be thrown out, and trampled underfoot is worthless. And you're the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one likes a lamp and puts it under a basket instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, but you're good deeds shine for all to see so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
But don't misunderstand why I've come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses, or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.
So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But anyone who obeys God's laws and teachers, and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. But I warn you, unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So this summer we're going through the sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, six and seven.
And we realize that this is an intentional storytelling device by one of Jesus' disciples. And he wanted to show people the absolute essentials, just the core of Jesus' message. And he put these together in an intentional and strategic way. So the very first week we talked about just the setting and how Jesus taught.
He went up on a mountain side of a place where big stuff always happens. And he called us disciples together and he sat down and began to teach him. That he took on the pose and the posture of a person who taught. And second, last week, Alison shared about the Beatitudes, about this message of blessing, about what blessing truly means and how these blessings begin building this foundation of this kingdom that Jesus is talking about.
So this week now Jesus comes in and starts talking about big picture and starts talking about a little picture. And we're going through two pieces this morning that we might not necessarily put together. But we realize that there's something intentional about this ordering and that there's a story that's being told between the two of them. And so the easiest way for us to jump in is categorize the story of salt and light.
And the best way to do that is just a statement that here is what happens when we have something powerful. So there's two common descriptors. First, I talk about salt and says that salt loses its taste. Now I've never found salt to lose its taste.
I promise you, I've had the same like jug of the blue girl with the salt and the umbrella, the mortons that it. I've had that same like big, huge salt thing in my cupboard for five years. It's still fine. But back then people salt mainly came from reclaiming it from the Dead Sea.
And so it was not anywhere close to its pure. And so salt actually could lose its taste. And he starts talking about light. Now here, this metaphor of light is super, super familiar in Old Testament and also shows up a bunch in the New Testament.
So these people that Jesus is teaching, they're going to instantly recognize this metaphor that Jesus is using. Research talking about where do you put light? Now, now as a kid, now as in Cub Scouts, everybody had the exact same flashlight. Remember the green, like L-shaped flashlight your grandpa gave you, his military surface.
He probably brought it back from Korea. Did those things work very well? No, they were horrible. I mean, even if you use the cool belt because they put it on your shirt, it was still bad.
We quickly learned that there's that gallon of water jug that you have and what you do is you get two of your flashlights and you put it up against the water jug. And that water reflects light. And so you have this light that fills your tent. So you don't kick over the water jug in the middle of night.
But where do you put light in the bottom? You don't try to hide it. You're gonna eliminate everything. So it's two stories that Jesus is telling really quickly that are about waste.
It's like you don't waste stuff. You don't waste things that are valuable. You're gonna use it and you're gonna put it up high where it can be, it's most effective. Well, a lot of people smarter than I, and they look at the whole sermon on the mountain, they realize that it's about discipleship.
It's about living a life that's been activated by Jesus. And so if the sermon on the mountain is this, we have to realize these two stories about waste are talking about nominal discipleship. They kind of cut star core pretty quickly, think about that. Because a nominal, a nominal disciple who does not function as a disciple is worthless to the kingdom.
That's what Jesus is saying. That's harsh. We can say, right, yeah, that's harsh. That's harsh, that's tough.
We don't know what to do about it. But we realize that if we look over this whole story, we try to understand what Jesus is actually a folk song. Folks, and we realize that we cannot waste what we've been graciously given. That's this bottom line for this thing.
I want you to remember on Monday or Tuesday that we cannot waste what we've been graciously given. And this harshness is true. It's there, it's awkward. We don't know what to do with it.
But let's make it operative. Let's flip it over on top of itself. So I'm not a fan of doing. Is this, why call ourselves disciples?
This is not going to be easy. Jesus tells us pretty frequently it's easy. No one who is following Jesus intentionally will tell you that it's easy. So why call ourselves disciples?
This life is not going to be easy. Why call ourselves this? If we're not really going to do it. Why call ourselves disciples and put up and learn to live with.
The beautiful reality of Jesus that goes against and is very frustrating in the reality of this world. Why do this halfway? If we're going to do it, let's take absolute full advantage of what Jesus is giving us and live fully in this world, in this new reality is giving us. We cannot waste what we've been graciously given.
So we realize the big picture here is this is what happens when we have something that's so powerful. And this next set of teaching that Jesus gives us is about the law. And we kind of have to enter into this really quickly. I wish we had a lot more time to talk about this.
We might find another avenue. But we've got to realize that the law that Jesus is talking about is this thousands of years old, by this point in time, covenant relationship that God had made with a ragtag bunch of people and then a lot of descendants that's got him Abraham. And he pulled them out of Egypt. And they had spent hundreds of years in slavery and did not know what it meant to be a people, did not know what it meant to organize themselves, did not know what it meant to rule themselves, did not know what it was like to behave themselves, to even to live together in freedom.
And they didn't know. So God made a holy promise with them. And it was about worship. And it was about ethics.
And it was about the way that you live in a right relationship with someone that does not cause them harm. And they had about that. They were unsuccessful with this attempt. And ultimately led to their own downfall.
The nation was split in two. It was exiled. It was drug off to other countries. And a remnant of them was allowed to come back in Jerusalem.
And then we see for 400 years, the 400 years before Jesus was alive that the law was just grossly misinterpreted and distorted. And they added to it. And they made it super picky. And they made it terribly hard to even live life.
And they lifted this up. That's what Jesus was talking about. And so if this is what happens, we have something so powerful. This teaching Jesus has about the law is why the power matters so much.
Because Jesus is going to demand a lot. Next week, we're talking about the Humdinger. It's like 35 verses. And I've been not looking forward, looking forward to this passage for two months since we decided to do this.
Jesus demands a lot from us seriously. But here's where everything changes. Where the religious leaders came in. And they defined God's laws in terms of how people behave.
Jesus comes in and defines God's laws in terms of who people are. That's what he's interested in. He's interested in who he are. He's interested in how we're doing what we're doing because of who he is in our life.
He comes in and it's like this to imagine the groundbreaking words that he is saying right now. It's as though the author of the rule book showed up, opening up for everybody and said, yeah, we've been getting a couple of things wrong. Let's actually talk about what this is about. So Jesus says that not a single thing will pass.
Some translations say not a single Iota will change. What he's talking about is in Hebrew language, letters are all consonants. The vowels like the A-I-O-U are just simply dots or dashes above or below the consonant. What Jesus is saying here is like a breath mark.
It's like if you say A-E. Jesus come in saying, we're not even going to change how we pronounce things. I'm not here to break this apart. I'm here to build this up.
So if you're looking for me to come in and tell you, we can do whatever we want to do, it's not gonna happen. But we're gonna come in and revolutionize what has been hitching up our life with God for thousands of years. Jesus is saying is, if the small stuff matters, then the big stuff matters. If the small stuff doesn't matter, how can the big stuff matter?
If the big stuff matters to you, then you absolutely have to understand the small stuff. That's complicated, a lot of turnarounds, right? Let me tell you a story about something we can all understand. One of my favorite bands in the world, is Van Halen.
Not Van Hagar. Van Halen. I'm talking about Sammy, Dave, Alex, and the big guy we always forget his name. I'm gonna tell you a story about Van Halen and how Van Halen helps us understand the story on the mount.
So in the early 80s, Van Halen was the paramount of touring rock and roll bands, okay? Van Halen was taking non-semi trucks on the road in the early 80s. To give you an idea of how big of a production that was, when Pink Floyd went out in 87 for Momentary Labs, it took three semi trucks. Talking nine semi trucks.
This is tons and tons of gear. And every band has a thing called a rider. If you ever roll your eyes at the glorious excess of musicians and you hear about the stupid and silly things that they want backstage, that's coming off their tour rider. Well, Van Halen's tour rider was infamous because they requested a giant bowl of M&Ms with no brown M&Ms.
Who would not want a giant bowl of M&Ms where they go? Oh, come on, y'all are being weighed. Seriously, I don't care if the brown ones are in there or not. But everybody goes to that initiative and they're like, oh my goodness, this is this just stupid?
Like these are a bunch of just pompous rock stars who can get whatever they want. But there was a reason they didn't want any brown M&Ms. You see, Van Halen had non-semit trucks. Van Halen needed a floor.
They could absolutely support the weight of the stage. Van Halen needed more electricity than most places could offer. They didn't make sure their security was top notch. They didn't make sure that the mounting brackets that would hold the lighting rig when the lighting rig was pulled up were not going to fall and come crashing down on the band.
And so their production manager concocted this idea and he said, we're going to ask for no brown M&Ms. And so the second I walk in that dressing room, because I'm the first person to show up, if I see brown M&Ms, then I need to go through every single thing on this tour rider to make sure this band is going to be safe. And time and time again, they found out they would walk in, see brown M&Ms are going through and found out that they've been booked in a place that the floor cannot even support the weight of the stage. There's a story about they played at a college basketball gym out west and that their stage, the weight of the stage, literally sunk the basketball gym floor six inches.
They knew if it's brown M&Ms were in there, they weren't paying attention to big details, because the little details were gone. See, that's what's going on with the law. We can't get rid of it. We can't knock it down.
If we read the word that's repeated the most in those first five books of the Old Testament, we read about the law and the law is given, is the word holy. And God says, be holy because I am holy. Every time they talk about worship, the phrase, holiness under the Lord is given to them. Our call, the reason God created us is so that we can mirror his holiness and live inside of his holiness.
So we cannot disregard his holiness. We can't break apart the law. The big things matter, then the small things matter, the small things matter, the big things matter. This is a little bit of the process I go through because all we're trying to figure out, we can teach this and understand this as fact, but what do we have to dig into for our lives to be different?
And that's it. It's for us to realize that we've got to pay attention to the small stuff before we can pay attention to the big stuff. The big picture people have to have details people and the details people have to have big picture people. I think it's the exact same thing.
Jesus is saying, I'm not destroying this. I'm expanding this because God's vision for this world, my vision for this world is larger than your vision for this world. So we've got to take care of the details and we've got to take care of the big stuff. We're going to expand this because this message is big, because this message is different, because this is a message that builds, this is a message that fixes, this is a message that repairs, this is a message that heals.
We're expanding all this. We jump into the book of Romans, a few books ahead, a few years ahead, and we listen to what Paul has to say. He starts off in verse four, and says, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point you died to the power of the law when you died with Christ, and now you're united with the one who is raised from the dead. And as a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.
Think about that verse right there. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. When we're controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were it worked within us. And the law arouses evil desires that produce the harvest of sinful deeds resulting in death.
But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the spirit. Saying we're going to expand this. It's a new time, it's a new day, and it's time for expansion.
We jump ahead a few more verses to 24, and it says this, who will free me from this life that's dominated by sin and death? Thank God. The answers Jesus Christ our Lord. I'm not here to destroy, I'm here to expand.
We need the details to understand what this life is like. But we need a big picture to expand it. So that again, we need the details to understand, and we need a big picture to expand. See we're salt, but not for our own good.
We're salt for the sake of other people. We're light, but not for our own good. We're light for the sake of other people. We're not living in a closed fellowship.
God's asking us to be part of this for the sake of other people. We cannot waste what's been so graciously given. So ask a lot of what is, and we'll close with a couple of what is. So what if the issue that many of us face is disengagement?
I can tell you this right now, I've grown up in the South my whole life. I've 11 losing on a 38 or 31 of the 36 years I've been on this earth. Still living in the South London live here. We call ourselves the Bible Belt, right?
And I can tell you this right now, watch top parish over 93% of people self-described as Christians. But we have one of the lowest amounts of church engagement in the entire state of Louisiana. It's like a 20%. We're disengaged, we're disenfranchised.
Who has not been disenfranchised with the church before? Who's not been frustrated with it? I'm being completely honest with you right now, raising my hand. What if this issue is the fact that we've prioritized what was never meant to be prioritized?
That we've been a details person or we've been a picture person. We've never realized how to work alongside each other. We've always been a for the sake of others person or for the sake of myself person and not realize that there's a flow that Jesus calls us to. What is the fact that we think that this face can only be lived in our own private heart and we never get outside of ourselves?
Or if we've lived, we've had no really private, real personal engagement with Jesus, just outward engagement. It takes both, it takes the details and it takes the big picture. It takes the holiness under the Lord, or Jesus saying, I'm not gonna abolish this law. I'm gonna expand it and make it bigger.
Make it better. Make it easier and make it harder at the exact same time. So you can then go and do these things. We cannot waste what we've been so graciously given.
See the Pharisees that Jesus, these people that Jesus is always railing up against, their issue is they misunderstood this and they condensed to the law only into a manageable outward expression. They never cared about the heart. So Jesus is going for it, it's the heart. You see, I'm gonna give you a new heart.
This is about us letting Jesus do the small stuff in our life so that we can then go and do the big stuff. Jesus himself said, you will do greater things than I. That's crazy. That's nuts, he's the big guy.
He says you will do even greater things than I. But for us to understand that, we've gotta realize the details and the big picture. Go absolutely hand in hand. Let's pray together.
Jesus, we thank you for being the God of the small stuff and being the God of the big stuff. For those points and times in our life when we're doing great and fabulous and everything's okay. And we find ourselves just going over to big picture, amazing, wind and speed, awesome kind of things. Got those times in our life when honestly things are pretty crappy and we can't handle coming out in public.
We can't handle being with other people or dealing with those sorts of folks. God, you are the God of us wherever we are. Where you told us, I'm gonna come into your neighborhood. I'm gonna make my home among my people.
The God, your promises that you are gonna walk these very streets with us. That's the sake of our own lives, where we are. That's also for the sake of others. Jesus says you make this a relationship.
As you bridge together big picture and details. That we ask that you bridge these things together in our heart. For our own health, for our own sanity sometimes. But God also says we can be part of what you are doing.
Cause we realize that that's going to be so much better than what we can come up with on our own. Mr. Emmett Craig, amen.