"Pass the salt, Please"
Matthew 5:13
Matthew 5:13
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Matthew 5:14
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH.
Jesus refers to the disciples as being the salt of the earth and in the next scripture after that, He refers to the disciples as the light of the world.
Why would Jesus refer to the disciples as being the salt of the earth.
Well salt can be used for many different things. So it is with light, light can also be used for many different things.
Tonight I would like to hit on a few ways that salt can be used and how it can be applied to our lives.
Tell your neighbor "Pass the salt, Please." Gee die sout asseblief
Why would Jesus tell His Disciples - You are the salt of the earth?
The word “salary” was derived from the word “salt.”
Salt was highly valued and its production was legally restricted in ancient times, so it was historically used as a method of trade and currency.
The word “salad” also originated from “salt,” and began with the early Romans salting their leafy greens and vegetables.
Undeniably, the history of salt is both broad ranging and unique, leaving its indelible mark in cultures across the globe.
In the days of Jesus salt was a very precious commodity.
There was a reason Jesus told His Disciples you are the salt of the earth.
It wasn't that Jesus just said the first thing that came to His mind.
Did you know that the word Salary is derived from the Latin word, sal, which means salt.
Back in the day some people were paid 'wages' in salt, as opposed to money.
Have you ever heard the saying " Worth his salt."
Roman soldiers were sometimes paid with salt, giving rise to the phrase "worth his salt."
Being that Roman soldiers were paid using salt, and they (unlike many other soldiers) were regularly paid, so salary is a term for a regular payment for services to an employer.
So with that in mind lets look at some ways that was used back in the day and lets take a look at how you and I can be salt of the earth.
1. The primary use was as a preservative.
Salt was very much prized within the Roman Empire, it could be used to preserve food, which was very important for an Empire which stretched almost halfway across the world.
In addition, the preservative quality of salt is in view here to show how the disciples were called to preserve the society and the world around them from moral decay
a. see back in those days they did not have refrigerators like you and I do. So salt was used as a preservative.
b. When meat is butchered it will soon begin to putrefy or rot because of the surface bacteria, but what Salt does is kills the bacteria and prevents a rapid putrification.
So when Jesus referred to disciples as being salt of the earth - He was probably thinking of the great opportunity that you and I have to be a blessing to a dying and hurting world.
To be a preservative in a world that is decaying and rotting.
An opportunity for you and I to live a life that brings hope to a world that is decaying and falling apart.
As salt of the earth, you and I have an opportunity to be living testimonies of the life changing power of Jesus Christ, in a world that is looking for answers.
And we are able to bring the good news and say if God did it for me he can surely do it for you, there is an answer for your situation.
There are many places and oppportunities that you and I can be the salt of the earth and be used as a preservative.
We can be used to prevent decay at our:
1) At our Jobs
2) In our schools
3) At our family gatherings
4) At the shopping mall
5) In whatever atmosphere we find ourself in.
You and I can be a perservative to a hurting world whereever we go.
2. The second use of salt was for flavoring. Bringing out or enhancing the flavor of food.
The second thing about salt is that it adds flavor to that which it comes into contact with.
a. Have you ever tried eating potatoes without salt? They taste completely different.
b. Have you ever eaten some hot chips without salt?
c. Have you ever food that just doesn't taste the same with out salt?
In the world we live in today, there are many people who feel like their lives are without purpose and living life with no flavor.
On the outside everything is together, but on the inside their lives are flavorless.
They are searching here and there trying to fill their lives with happiness and excitement, but they keep coming up short.
That is where you and I as the salt of the earth come in.
You and I can bring the excitement of Jesus Christ into a world that is living lives that are flavorless.
Once again, where can we bring this flavor. We can bring this flavor whereever we go:
a) it can be our jobs
maybe people are stressed, purposeless, and feel like life is going nowhere - you and I can bring life.
b) it can be our homes
maybe some of your family may not be saved, but you can bring the joy of the Lord to that house and Season It Up!!!
c) it can be in our neighborhood or township
maybe you have old friends in your neighborhood that don't know about Jesus, you and I can let them see the change and flavor that our lives have now that we are serving Jesus.
As the salt of the earth, where ever you and I go, we should bring flavor.
We let the world know that it is because of Jesus that you and I have flavor, because before Jesus came into our life we had no flavor.
See not too long ago the world was looking for Swaga, but as a Christian we got Flava.
Somebody say Flavor
Our lives should be filled with the life of Christ and we bring Flava where ever we go.
WE bring Flava to the cituation.
We bring Flava to the family gathering.
We bring Flava to the University.
We bring Flava to the job site.
We bring Flava where ever we go.
Before you might have brought something else - Come On Somebody!!!
Maybe your family didn't even want you to come - when you knocked on the door they fake like they were sleep and not home.
They didn't want to let you in, but now when you come around they should get happy because they say here comes hope and Flava.
Tell your neighbor - Here comes Flava!!!
We can add flavor by being a good testimony at our job.
We can add flavor by being a good testimony at our school.
We can add flavor by being a good testimony to our family.
We can add flavor by setting the example to our friends, families, and people we come into contact with.
On the other hand, How many times have you heard someone call themselves a Christian, but they behave worst that the people they come into contact with?
Fighting, gossiping, stealing, and the list goes on.
What we need today are some people who are going to be salt outside of Sunday morning.
We need to be the salt of the earth, not the salt of the Church.
Side Note - we should set the atmosphere where ever we go:
See you have thermometer Christians and then you have the thermostat Christian?
Oh wow - let me break it down for you.
See a thermometer changes with the temperature. If it's hot then the thermometer rises and if the atmosphere is cold then the thermometer drops.
See that is how the Thermometer Christian is - they change with the atmosphere around them.
If the people they are with are on fire then they are on fire, but if the people we around are luke warm, then we become lukewarm.
They are up and down and change with the temperature.
Now a Thermostat on the other hand is used to set the temperature.
Whatever temperature you would like the room to be, you use a thermostat to set that temperature.
That is how you and I should be - where ever we go we set the temperature.
If we are with a group of sold out Christians then we are sold out, and if we are with a group of un-saved people, then we still keep the fire and let our light shine. - WE SET THE TEMPERATURE where ever we go...
That is what salt does - it changes whatever it comes in contact with. That is how our lives should be, we make an impact in the lives of people who see what God is doing in our lives.
Wellll.......ok back to salt...
What good would it be for you and I to live our Christianity only on Sunday mornings when we are all together?
What good is it, if the salt stays together in one place as a lumpt of salt?
It is not to effective.
The thing about salt is that is it most effective and tasteful when you sprinkle it in different places.
We shouldn't be laid up in a heap in the Church House, but must be scattered as salt upon the meat.
Sprinkle a little here sprinkle a little there.
Put some in this township and put some in that township.
Put some in this job site and put some in that job site.
Put some in this family and put some in that family.
Put some in this University and put some in that university.
Put some in here and put some there, just like the Levites were dispersed in Israel, that wherever they life they may add flavor to the earth.
That is how you and I are going to be the most effective as being the salt of the earth.
Tell your nieghbor - Flava...
3. There is another thing that salt does and that is it makes you thirsty.
Now usually what happens when you eat food that has a good amount of salt on it, it will make you thirsty.
The last thing that I would like to point out about salt is that it makes you thirsty.
A. Have you ever noticed how thirsty you get after eating a bag of salted pop-corn?
B. How you ever noticed how thirsty you get after eating salted peanuts?
C. What about while you are eating some hot chips(french fries)?
Somebody say "Thirsty..."
Now remember Jesus told His Disciples you are the salt of the earth.
So there was a reason that He mentioned to them about being salt.
If salt makes you thirsty, then I think our lives should be so full of salt that it makes the people we come into contact thirsty for what we have.
Our lives should be so full of salt that it causes people to want to drink from the living water.
Jesus said in John 4:14
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Our lives should be so full of salt that it causes a thirst in the lives of those we come into contact with, to get to know the Jesus that we serve..
