A City On A Hill Series

Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D. L. Moody was in that chair.

I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.

Perkins Example…

• For the most part I did a lousy job of being Salt while in the Navy

• Determined to do a better job when I waited tables for 4+ years while in Bible College.

As A.T. Pierson said,

We are not responsible for conversion, but we are responsible for contact.

NOW – Jesus does give us a warning about being salt…

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 underfoot.

- Matthew 5:13

Technically salt cannot lose its saltiness.

You see sodium chloride is an extremely resilient chemical.

Now the word Jesus uses here would be more literally translated as the defiled.

Although salt cannot become unsalty, it can be contaminated with other substances. For instance, it was likely that around the Dead Sea, the natural salt in the water dried on the ground along with other chemicals and white dust.

The mixture could be scraped up and pawned off as salt.

Though it contained an element of salt, it was so contaminated that it's lost its preserving ability. If you bought a batch of this salt you could do nothing with it but pitch it.

The analogy to Christian is obvious. When we become mixed with the world, and start looking like and living like the world we lose are preserving influence in the society.

If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness – Matthew 5:13 MSG

Light

‘The truth that we share and the Savior we point to’

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. - Matthew 5:14-16

UNDERSTAND – while being salt is about living the life of faith… being light is about sharing the message of faith.

AND LISTEN – we are called to be both, ‘salt’ and ‘light.’

QUESTION – what is the truth (the light) we are to share with the world?

THAT…

• God so loved the world, that He gave…

• Yes, they are sinners… and yes, the wage of sin is death… but the gift of God in Christ Jesus is grace, mercy and forgiveness… and a full satisfying abundant life, the life they’ve always dreamed of.

• God is not against them, but for them

• He wants to call them home

• He wants them to be His sons and daughters

• satan is a liar and God’s Word is truth

AND – who is the Savior we are to point the world to…?