Influence

Intro: (Start with Blank)

A lady was getting on a bus for her early morning commute. She had her small baby in her arms. She walks up the steps and the bus driver looked at the baby and said – mam – that is the UGLIGIEST baby I have ever seen. It made her mad. She slowly walked to the back of the bus and the more she sat there the angrier she became. She told someone about rude bus driver. She told this person, I think I am going to go up there and give him a piece of my mind. The person sitting next to her said, if you want to go up there I will hold your monkey.

Dr. Evan Kane was the chief surgeon of Kane Summit Hospital in New York City. He had practiced his specialty for 37 years. Over the course of time he came to question the wisdom of using general anesthesia for every surgery. He believed people would recover quicker if they only had local anesthesia. However, no matter how convinced Dr. Kane was about his theory, he had one problem. No one wanted to go under his knife while they were awake. Everyone he talked to had the same fear. They didn’t want to feel the pain of the scalpel while they were awake during the surgery.

After much searching, Kane finally found a willing subject. It helped that it was a relatively common procedure. According to Dr. Kane’s own records, during his practice he had performed around 4,000 appendectomies, so the procedure was almost second nature to him. The patient was prepped and brought into the operating room. The local anesthesia was carefully administered. As he had always done, he cut into the right side of the abdomen and entered the body cavity. He tied off the blood vessels, found the appendix, removed it, and finished by sewing the incision back up. To his own credit, he proved himself right. Throughout the surgery the patient felt very little discomfort. In fact, he was up and around the next afternoon, which was remarkable since this was back in 1921. Back then when people had appendectomies they were kept in the hospital from 6 to 8 days. It was a milestone in the world of medicine. However what made it particularly noteworthy was that the patient and the doctor were the same person. Dr. Kane operated on himself. (Charles Swindoll, Veritas, Vol 2, No. 1; January, 2002)

Discussion:

Could I ask you to do something this morning? If we were going to make a list of ways to change the world – who would it start with? Maybe the world is too big – what about our country – who would it, start with? Ok, I understand – maybe changing the United States of America is a pretty lofty goal. What about our state? Do we start with the governor? He has power, influence, authority – yeah that would be alright. What about just changing our town. If we were going to make a difference in our town – who would we start with? You might say – “Let’s start with Jesus” – while that’s a good VBS/Church Camp answer – What if Jesus wanted to use someone to change this town? What if Jesus wanted to use this church to change our town?

If you have your Bible with you this morning turn to (advance) Matthew 5:13-16 (Read)

Four short verses – Jesus tells the people on the hill, and specifically the disciples – He tells them. (advance)

I. You Are Salt (13)

In the Old Testament God commanded that sacrificial offerings in Israel were to be given with salt. (advance)

Leviticus 2:13 – Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

In 2nd Chronicles 13:5 – God made a covenant of salt with David.

a. You are important

I believe generation after generation of young people are going through life believing they are unimportant, unneeded, & unwanted. Some how when we get to be adults – those feelings for some people don’t change. Jesus says that you are important to him.

b. You are of High Value

Jesus doesn’t compare us to Salt – he says – You are salt. Salt was highly valued, and is still valuable. They weren’t able to go to the local Wal-mart and by the big bag of salt. During a period of ancient Greek history it was called Theon which means divine. The Romans held that, except for the sun, nothing was more valuable than salt. Often Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and it was from that practice that the expression “Not worth his salt” originated.