Salt and Light Fort Worth
Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sunday afternoons. https://www.saltandlightfw.com/
Listen on:
Episodes
Monday Dec 04, 2023
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
Many followers of Jesus in our cultural moment say that the gospel is “good news.” But amidst competing worldviews, everyday busyness, and a context that prioritizes values over beliefs, it’s easy to leave that “good news” on proverbial “church shelves,” relegating it to Sundays or Christian conversation. In this, we functionally live as if other forms of “good news” are better, more impacting, and more applicable to Monday - Saturday life. Even the Bible, church community, and religious practice can replace the gospel as our priority. In short, we don’t truly see the gospel as good news, that impacts every aspect of life, and infuses our faith practices, conversations, and relationships.
But the gospel is truly the best “good news” — and both people followers of Jesus and those who don’t are desperately in need of the best good news! For all history, God’s people are created by God to be a “good news people.” We’re part of a counter-cultural family, existing within a broader world whose values look different from our belief. And we’re invited by God and empowered by his Spirit to believe in a better “good news” than any other, to see that good news change our everyday lives, and to share that good news with each other and the world around us, in winsome ways that it actually sounds like good news.
This identity is easy to forget, and this charge is easy to ignore. So Salt&Light is going to spend much of Fall 2023 remembering who we are, and how this vital message changes our lives. We are a good news people. We have good news that a broken and hurting world needs. This is who God has created us to be — it’s the message he’s created us to share: we are a good news people!
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
After Easter Sunday, Jesus appeared to many people. Four in these chapters responded differently to Jesus’ resurrection: Mary, Peter, John, and Thomas were among the many whose hope was lost at Jesus’ crucifixion — despite hearing multiple times that Jesus would return! Resurrection is, by nature, supernatural: so doubt and disbelief are a common response today. But God gives faith when faith is hard; God meets people in our doubts. So when we, like these followers, approach Jesus with our doubt, hopelessness, and lack of faith, we can expect him to accept us, not to reject us. He will build our faith and help us thrive in specific kingdom assignments, just like he did with all four of these disciples. Jesus' resurrection promises eternal life, but invites us into new, fuller “life after death” during this life on earth as well.
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
In three parables — told in the mixed company of self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees alongside despised tax collectors and sinners — Jesus shares the extent of God's pursuing love, and his willingness to leave the people a religious teacher would be expected to be with, for the sake of those far away — the hurting and the lost. We later see the extent of Jesus’ love in his Gethsemane prayer: he experienced deep sorrow, pain, and agony. He was deeply honest with God. And he still submitted himself to God’s will — on our behalf. Jesus was hurt, rejected, and even killed by his love for us. This gives us confidence: in our losses and when we feel lost, we can rest in Jesus’ unfailing love and pursuit, even to his own death. His perfect life covers our imperfections. When we face pain, suffering, and even death, we can trust that God is with us, and works even in pain for our good. Jesus entered human history because of God’s pursuit of you. His suffering gives us hope and strength in our own.
Sunday Nov 05, 2023
Sunday Nov 05, 2023
After seeing Jesus as good news for the helpless and oppressed, we also consider how he is also good news to the other end of society’s spectrum: the rich and powerful. In Luke’s Gospel we read contrasting stories about people in similar social situations: both the anonymous “rich young ruler” and Zacchaeus are wealthy and powerful; both engage with Jesus; he challenges their actions, and also their hearts, motives and worship. One man responds to Jesus well; the other does not.
Today, it’s still hard to convince people who “have it all together” of their need for Jesus: with wealth and power, many seem able to get whatever they need, or want… often at others’ expense. As Jesus did with these men, he reveals the things that satisfy us (our idols) and invites us to turn to a better God, who alone truly satisfies. Having already left the riches of heaven and his rightful throne, Jesus would humble himself further, dying for our pride and idolatry and rising to grant us true richness and satisfaction, in this life and in eternity with God.
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
On the night before Jesus’ death, he promises his disciples to send the Holy Spirit as “another advocate.” While the New Testament talks about the work of the Spirit in many ways, this title Jesus proclaims offers good news in two ways. First, Jesus says that throughout our life, the Spirit speaks to us on God’s behalf: the Spirit reminds us what is true despite our circumstances, and meets us in our moments of helplessness, and the injustices of this life. Second, the Spirit reminds us of our first advocate, Jesus, who speaks to God on our behalf, taking the punishment for the injustices we’ve done toward God: together, this “advocate” imagery reminds us of Jesus’ freedom/forgiveness, the greatest form of advocacy. Then, as an overflow of realizing how greatly Jesus advocated for us, the Spirit drives us to advocate for others, as they face helplessness and injustice.
Sunday Oct 22, 2023
Sunday Oct 22, 2023
In two very different scenarios, Jesus speaks with two very different sisters, his close friends Mary & Martha. In the first scene, an exasperated Martha wants Jesus to put Mary to work, while Mary merely wants to be with Jesus. In the second, both women are grieving their brother’s death. In both scenes, we see Jesus’ different responses to each sister’s personality & each one’s specific needs in the moment. But we also see Jesus’ unified answer to grief & weariness: because Jesus is God, we can hope for resurrection & the defeat of death. And because Jesus is God, we can rest from overwork & control. Jesus proved his power & deity by raising Lazarus — & later his own resurrection ushers us into a rested, resurrection life in Christ today. But to defeat death & give us life, Jesus himself had to give his life & receive the death that Lazarus (& all humans) deserve.
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
In a brief but poignant encounter, Jesus is put to the test by religious leaders, regarding the right response to an anonymous woman caught in adultery. Rather than condemn the woman for her sin, Jesus shows her grace and offers forgiveness. But he concurrently invites the religious crowd to consider their own sin, and the forgiveness they had received from God. Everyone — in that crowd and across history — is in the same position as the adulterous woman: all sin; all feel shame. Like Jesus did with this woman, across history he meets people in our sin and enters into our shame. He shows grace and offers forgiveness to those far from him, and calls to account those who claim to know him. And this theme is echoed by God’s people through the rest of the Bible! Jesus was the only sinless, shameless man to ever walk the earth – but at the cross he took the punishment we all deserve for sin, and covered our brokenness and shame with his perfect grace.
Tuesday Sep 26, 2023
Tuesday Sep 26, 2023
Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding feast. John calls this event a “sign”; it pointed to something greater. By making wine in jars used for purification water, Jesus was looking toward his own death, at which his shed blood would cover a deeper shame, redeem all broken, & forgive all sin. Jesus’ coming suffering & death had a greater purpose: eternal joy — for him & for us. If that's true, then even when his followers face sadness, suffering, & loneliness in life, we can remain joyful: we have greater, eternal reasons to celebrate. When we’re anxious, lonely, & joyless, we remember that Jesus too was despised & forsaken. He offers us the best wine, while he drank God’s cup of wrath. And no matter what sadness or loneliness we face, Jesus invites us to his wedding feast.
Primary Text: John 2 | Slide Deck
https://www.saltandlightfw.com/
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Nathanael was invited to follow Jesus, but responded with scoffing. Jesus engaged him by valuing his skepticism & questions, but didn’t “prove” himself intellectually. Rather, he showed Nathanael truth & beauty: Jesus is the true Logos, the only bridge between heaven & earth, & the answer everyone is truly seeking. We engage skepticism (our own & others) by seeking the true question, then seeing how Christianity alone makes sense of life, morality, & human value. Jesus alone gives truth & beauty to a world of competing thoughts & brokenness. In addition to Jesus’ incarnation (which brought God’s truth & beauty to earth), Jesus later went to the cross, & sent the Spirit to bring heaven to earth for & through his people.
Primary Text - John 1:43-50 | Slide Deck
https://www.saltandlightfw.com/