SALT: MAKE USE OF IT
(Mother's Day)
Matt 5: 13-14 (p683) May 8, 2011
INTRODUCTION:
Bob Briner in his book "Roaring Lambs" writes, "I have a friend who raises sheep. He says they're the most misunderstood of farm animals. True, he says, they are meek…they need someone to follow, and if they don't have a thoughtful, caring shepherd, they generally get themselves into trouble…BIG TIME TROUBLE. But, says my friend, the sheep farmer, their trust in their shepherd is so strong that they will do anything to follow the guy. In fact, he says, they can be the bravest, most assertive creatures when they feel secure in the care of their shepherds.” That's the kind of lambs we ought to be. We have a shepherd we can trust fully, so we really ought to be out there on the front lines of battle for the cause of the Gospel. The fact that many times we aren’t has a lot to do with our understanding or (misunderstanding) of these oft quoted words from Matt 5:13:
"YOU ARE THE SALT."
To the average Christian salt is something that comes in a round blue box and hides itself on the shelf until it’s needed…it’s found on one of these little white packets…(pepper's best friend). If you've spent more than 20 minutes in church you have probably heard that "you are the salt of the earth".
I was watching a newscaster report on the horrible devastation in Tuscaloosa, Alabama…hundreds were killed, thousands displaced….it was absolutely horrible…and he said these were "salt of the earth kind of people…hard working, honest, Americans"
My heart breaks for these folks…it’s affected even people we love here at Fern Creek…but that's not what Jesus meant in any way, shape or form when he uses the words "you are the salt of the Earth."
When Jesus said, "you are the salt of the earth," He was speaking to anyone then or now who accepts Him as Savior…It's one of the clearest declarations from Jesus to His followers. Notice, He did not say for us to become salt. He said we are salt…once we accept Him into our lives we are automatically the salt of the earth.
And the second part of the verse gives us insight into what being salt should mean…"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 an trampled by men."
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In fact isn't Jesus saying…just being salt is not enough…if we are salt and not being salty we are good for nothing Christians?
But the question is what do we do?
I HOW DO WE ACT AS SALT IN OUR WORLD
The answer lies in the way salt is used. Salt is a seasoning and preservative. It seasons by adding taste and enhancing flavor…It preserves by cleansing and retarding spoilage.
In both cases, the salt has to be in contact with what it seeks to season and what it seeks to preserve before it works…its power cannot be released unless it touches the food.
Salt does no good sitting in the little packets or shaker…It might as well be thrown out.
20 years ago E. Stanley Jones, the great writer and missionary, was asked to name the No. 1 problem in the church…His quick reply, "Irrelevance". He believed that Christians were failing to show in concrete ways and to tell in understandable terms how the person of Christ is relevant to all of life in the 20th century.
Elton Trueblood, the influential Quaker teacher and writer, put it this way…"It is hard to exaggerate the degree to which the modern church seems irrelevant to modern man.” The number one way for Christians to be salt is for us to show Christ's relevance, to live His relevance in every area of life.
We cannot accomplish this by talking only to ourselves, writing only for ourselves, and working only in the "safe" careers and professions.
Remember Jesus isn't speaking to pastors and missionaries at a convention…He's speaking to lay people…and he's challenging them to think strategically about the Kingdom of God…and to act in ways to built it. Be salt when it comes to public policy, be salt in advertising, media, higher education, business, entertainment, the arts and sports.
If you keep Christ's relevance bottled up in the church it’s like keeping Salt in the shaker…as we go…and where we go, we need to show His relevance and the relevance of His word in every aspect of modern life…It's not an option we can be ashamed of …It's a scripture imperative!
For us to be obedient to this command it takes penetration…salt must penetrate the meat to preserve it; Christians must penetrate the world in the key areas of our culture if we want to preserve it.
Penetration does not mean standing outside and lobbing hand grenades of criticism over the wall. It is not about being reactionary and negative. It is about being inside (like
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Joseph) through competence and talent, with God's help and the discernment of the Holy Spirit, offering scripturally based alternatives to those things that are corrupting and evil.
"Be in the World…but not of the world." You cannot be salt without both. We need to understand that real Christian penetration of the world is not easy.
Boycotting a movie is much easier than creating, producing and selling "The Chronicles of Narnia"
Protesting an abortion clinic is much less time intensive than working at Nicole's Place or a Woman's Choice Resource Center.
I understand it must be very difficult to be Tim Tebow in the N. F. L….A committed Christians whose parents are missionaries to the Philippines. I'll never forget the interview where a reporter asked him about the pressure he felt right before the National Championship game and he said, "Pressure…this isn't pressure…pressure is sharing the Love of Christ in a country where little children go to bed hungry every night.
That, my friends, is salt.
When Christians criticize and complain but offer no alternatives, the world rolls its eye, snickers and moves on It is really when we offer "a more excellent way" that we command or deserve much attention.
Dr. Ray Pritchard is a Bible Scholar and the senior minister at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Ill. He says, "Being the salt of the earth means acting as a purifying agent to hinder the spread of evil. We who follow Jesus Christ are to be a "moral disinfectant" slowing the spread of evil. We are to be the conscience of the community, speaking out for what is true and right."
To do this we must be in the community. We must be part of the community. We cannot be much of a moral disinfectant from afar.
It does very little good to communicate with each other about how evil the world is, how evil the media is, or the political community. How horrible music has become. Setting in the pews wringing our hands about decay in the world isn't being SALT. Neither is decrying the evil without offering positive, godly alternatives.
It's exactly what Paul advised the Roman Christians.
ROMANS 12: 9-19 (p 803)
These 11 verses are a picture of salt being used exactly as Jesus intended in the world
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And
II. It Doesn’t Take a Lot of Salt to Change the Recipe
Today is Mother’s Day and I remember baking with my mom growing up…Tollhouse cookies, fresh bread, and red velvet cake. If you look at the recipes for any of those things they all call for salt. Even if you’re making 2 or 3 dozen cookies or a big cake it’s like ½ a teaspoon. It’s just a tiny ingredient.
But here’s the point—if you leave out the salt it tastes like garbage. I remember giving my mom a breadmaker. She made 6 loaves of bread, but she forgot to add the salt. My dad, who could eat anything, tried to act like it was awesome. But when mom took a taste he fessed up. “It tastes horrible.”
Jesus says, “But if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It’s no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
If salt loses its flavor, if salt loses its ability to purify or preserve, there’s no difference in it and sand. So throw it back on the path. I struggled with this point a little because salt doesn’t lose its flavor, or its saltiness. But it can become useless. It’s useless if it always remains in the shaker or packet. It’s useless if it is not fulfilling its purpose. It’s good for nothing.
There are two major bodies of water in the land where Jesus walked. One is the Sea of Galilee, a beautiful lake 13 miles long and 7 ½ miles wide filled with fish and surrounded by lush foliage.
The other body of water is the Dead Sea, 50 miles long and 11 miles wide, the shoreline of which is 1300 feet below sea level. Seven million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea every day. The saline or salt content of the water of the Dead Sea ranges from 26-35%, making it 10 times saltier than the oceans of the world. There’s no seaweed or plants of any kind in or around the water. There are no fish or any kind of swimming, squirming creatures living in or near the water. As a matter of fact, what you’ll see on the shores of the Sea is white crystals of salt covering EVERYTHING. According to extremescience.com, fish accidentally swimming into the waters from one of the several freshwater streams that feed the sea are killed instantly, their bodies quickly coated with a preserving layer of salt crystals and then tossed onto shore by the wind and the waves.
Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are fed by the Jordan River. There is really only one difference between these two bodies of water, really only one thing that causes the Sea of Galilee to be beautiful and alive while the Dead Sea is barren and lifeless. The Sea of Galilee has an outlet; the Dead Sea does not! Water flows through the Sea of Galilee. Water flows into the Dead Sea, but not out!
If you go out west you’ll discover that when it rains the majority of the runoff goes to one
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location. And it’s not a place of life; it’s a place of death. It’s the Great Salt Lake. There are no outlets for the water of life to flow. So all the salt and minerals stagnate in this huge lifeless body of water.
Jesus doesn’t tell us we ought to be the salt of the earth, or we should be the salt of the earth. He says, “You ARE the salt of the earth.”
If your influence doesn’t flow through the church and out into the world it’s useless. It’s no longer good for anything.
Jesus hasn’t entered our lives for us to only congregate. He’s entered our lives so it can flow out into all the earth. If we forget that, we’ve become more like sand than salt. Churches that forget this truth become more like the Dead Sea than the Sea of Galilee. It doesn’t take a lot of salt for the recipe, but if it’s not there it tastes like garbage.
You are the ½ teaspoon that adds His essential flavor and purity to the world in which you live. The only way we can do this is to become lambs that roar. And whether you build buildings, work in an office or are a stay-at-home mom or nana, you have no idea how far that little influence will flow.
Byron Ballard never progressed beyond the minor leagues as a baseball pitcher, but, because he was a solid, hard-working teammate, he won a hearing for the Gospel with Dave Dravecky while they were playing at Amarillo, Texas. Dave accepted Christ and went on to become an outstanding major league pitcher who was a powerful influence for good in the highest levels of baseball and continues to minister to many. Byron went for it. He used his skills and abilities to penetrate the professional baseball community, performed at his own personal peak, and after he had earned a hearing, effectively presented the Gospel message. Byron did not make it to the major leagues, but his influence did. Byron Ballard is the salt of the earth.
You are where you are right now because God wants you there! Christians who realize this truth become lambs that roar.
