INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Have you ever given a lot of thought to how you were brought to Christ?
• Was there someone in your life that was an example to you?
• You were around them enough to know that something was different about them.
• At some point they helped to lead you to Christ. Maybe they personally lead you to Him or they got you to church where others helped in the process.
• There is a word that explains why that person was able to help lead you, INFLUENCE!
• As we spent time on the Sermon On The Mount, you will see that Jesus deals with attitudes and actions of those who are citizens of the Kingdom.
• The next two messages will deal with the issue of influence.
• It seems that the world is trying to run God out of the public arena and it seems as though the church is sitting back and letting it happen.
• How can this happen? I wonder if it is because we do not understand how God wants us to live out our faith?
• Christians need to ask themselves how they are going to live out their faith in a dying world.
• Are we to go to the hills and hide? Are we to lock the doors of the church and hope we do not get stained by the world?
• Are we supposed to blend in with the world during the week and then put on a “church face” for Sunday?
• Jesus is gives us two metaphors that deal with how we are called to influence the world we live in.
• Today we are going to do a little study on salt so we can learn how we are called to be in positive influence in the world that we live in!
• Let us look at our passage this morning.
• SLIDE #2
• Matthew 5:13 ( ESV ) “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
• SLIDE #3
• As the salt of the earth we are called to:
SERMON
As the salt of the earth we are called to:
I. HELP SLOW THE DECAY OF A DYING WORLD.
• Salt had many uses in the ancient world as it still does today.
• In the ancient world salt was used to keep food from going bad. Even today it is stilled used in that manner in parts of the world where there is not much refrigeration available.
• When things are dead or dying, they are in a state of decay. Salt was used to slow down or stop the decay. The salt could not take something that was already in a state of decay and reverse it; the salt could keep it from getting worse.
• We are living in a world that is in a state of decay because it is dying. Christians are to be the agent that keeps the world from decaying. We are to be the preservative for the dying world.
• WE cannot stop the ultimate death of the world, but we can be an influence in peoples’ lives to help keep them from dying.
• SLIDE #4
• 1 John 2:17 reminds us of the state of the world we are living in.
• 1 John 2:17 ( ESV ) And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
• Christians are primarily responsible for the preservation of morality, justice and social conscience. God has also instituted the state and the home for these purposes, but without the church even these lack salt and light.
• Historically, the church can be credited for many of the advances in science, medicine, prison reform, orphanages, abolition of slavery and child labor, education and literacy. The kingdom of God has, indeed, flavored this world in significant ways.
• Can you imagine what the world would be like today without the influence of the church and Christians?
• The world would slip ever deeper in decay.
• SLIDE #5
• 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 ( ESV ) But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
Christians are called to influence the society so that it does not smell bad.
• For salt to work, it has to be mixed in with what it is trying to preserve. As Christians we are called to be in the world, but not of the world. We are to be involved in all aspects of life and we are to be the preserving agent of the world. We are to get out of the salt shaker and into the world.
• As the salt of the earth we are also called to:
• SLIDE #6
As the salt of the earth we are called to:
II. ADD FLAVOR TO A TASTELESS WORLD.
• Salt is meant to also flavor food.
• Have you ever eaten something that NEEDED to be salted but was not?
• Mashed potatoes without some salt are bland. There many other foods that need a little salt lift to make them have good flavor.
• When food is flavored properly it is hard to stop eating it!
• When Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, He is saying that we are to bring flavor and spice to life.
• The tragedy is that so often people have connected Christianity with precisely the opposite. They have connected Christianity with that which takes the flavor out of life.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
• In the past the church has been against so many things that it looked like all Christians were abut was to make sure that everyone lived a miserable life.
• That was sort of the impression I had about Christians until I started hanging out with Robyn’s friends when we were dating. I actually saw that it was all right for a Christian to enjoy life.
Christians should be the ones who add flavor to life, that make life worth living. We should be having the most fun of anyone.
Too many times we focus on the things that we should not be doing and make it look like without those things we cannot have fun.
• I guarantee you one thing. When you love Jesus, you life will have flavor and that flavor needs to be spread to other people. There are a lot of people who are living a bland life and they need us to add the flavor of Jesus to their lives!
• One of the tricks of flavoring bland food is making sure you have the right amount of spice in the food.
• Salt by itself is not very good, but when used in the correct proportions it can make things taste very good. We need to make sure when we tell people that they are lost that we balance that with God’s love for them and the fact that He desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
• Imagine having a nice soup in front of you. If you put too little salt in it, you will not taste it, but if you put the whole shaker in the bowl of soup, it will taste terrible.
• As we are trying to bring some flavor in the world, we must make sure we add the right amount of salt. Too little, you have no influence over the flavor, too much and you will ruin the dish!
• We do want to present the gospel as a bland boring message. The message of salvation is one that is exciting. If we cannot get excited about God, then we are missing the boat!
• As the salt of the earth we are called to:
• SLIDE #7
As the salt of the earth we are called to:
III. OFFER HEALING TO A HURTING WORLD.
• Salt was used as an antiseptic. You can clean wounds with salt.
• The world is full of hurt and they need us to come along side of them to help them with their hurts.
• The world is infected with sin and without Jesus their sins will lead to their destruction. Sin will infect their blood and once an infection hits the blood stream, it is hard to get it out.
• We are to take the message of the gospel to people to help heal the sickness of sin in their lives. Jesus said that he came for sinners, not the righteous.
• SLIDE #8
• Matthew 9:12 ( ESV ) But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
• Once again, salt in the shaker will not cleanse a wound. If we are going to help bring healing to a dying world, we MUST be involved with people; we need to know them enough to know their hurts and pains. They need to trust us enough to share those hurts with us.
• WE can offer the people the ULTIMATE healing in Jesus. Jesus can take the hurt away and He will give them eternal life!
• Finally as the salt of the earth we are called to:
• SLIDE #9
As the salt of the earth we are called to:
IV. DISPLAY PURITY TO AN IMPURE WORLD.
• Matthew 5:13 ( ESV ) “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
• In our passage, Jesus speaks of what happens when salt loses its taste.
• Technically, salt (i.e., sodium chloride) cannot lose its saltiness. It is an extremely resilient chemical. The word Jesus uses would be more literally translated, “is defiled.” Although salt cannot become un-salty, it can be mixed with other substances.
• If you take a glass of water and add a cup of salt to it, you can taste the salt, take that cup of salt and add it to 100 gallons of water and you will no longer taste it.
• The salt of Jesus day came from salt marshes. If the salt had too many impurities in it, it was useless. When the salt was stored, the salt that was close to the ground would become useless because it would get wet and combine itself with the ground.
Christian’s lose their saltiness when they become too mix in the world. They become so much like the world that they lose their ability to influence.
• The phrase that is translated “lose its taste” is also translated “Fools” and “Foolish”
• Romans 1:22 is an example.
• SLIDE #10
• Romans 1:22 ( ESV ) Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
• This passage could also read that disciples who lose their “saltiness” will make fools of themselves.
When salt was so contaminated that it could not be used, it was put on the roadways to be trampled. The contaminated salt would ruin the farm ground so it was put in the streets to be walked on.
When we become “tasteless” Christians, we are of no use to anyone.
Just think what would happen if the salt that you use at home all the sudden had no flavor? What would you do with it? Use more? You would toss it out.
• Jesus wants us to be an influence on the world that we live in.
• For that to happen we are to be pure, we are not to be 25% Jesus and 75% world.
• We cannot be 90% Jesus and 10% world. We are to be 100% pure Jesus. In other words we are to totally belong to Jesus.
CONCLUSION
• If you look at this salt shaker, you will notice that it does not do what it is suppose to do unless you pour it out. Jesus said that you are the salt of the world.
• Look at the salt shaker. Talk about salt. Why did Jesus say that you are the salt of the earth?
• If we understand the uses of salt, we can understand that Jesus expects Christians.
• When we realize we are the salt of the earth, our walk will be a bold one!
• Next week part 2, we are called the light of the world!
