Gun Lake Community Church
Worship
August 22, 2004
Facing Your Future: Impacting Others for It
Scripture:
Mt 5:13 “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 by men.
Mt 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Mt 5:15 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.
Mt 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV)
“Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.
If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:13-16 (MSG)
Intro: God commands us to be SALT and LIGHT.
People are watching us. I heard of a minister who was making a wooden trellis to support a climbing vine. As he was pounding away, he noticed that a little boy was watching him. The youngster didn’t say a word, so the preacher kept on working, thinking the lad would leave. But he didn’t. Pleased at the thought that his work was being admired, the pastor finally said, “Are you trying to pick up some pointers on gardening?” “No,” he replied. “I’m just waiting to hear what a preacher says when he hits his thumb with a hammer.”
We are always influencing someone, either positively or negatively. People are watching you! What do they see? What they observe has an influence on them. And it should. Jesus has energized us to be persuaders for Him. – Rev. Brian Bill, Pontiac Bible Church
(SermonCentral.com)
My name is Randy Bennett and I’m the Junior & Senior High Pastor here at Gun Lake Community Church. We are in a series titled “Facing Your Future” and today I want to talk about impacting people for the future. We’ve provided an outline for you in your bulletin to follow along and to take with you during the week, so please pull that out and follow along.
Many of you I’m sure remember Charles Barkley, the NBA Basketball star who didn’t want people watching him too closely. People were disappointed with his actions and attitude on and off the court and challenged him to be a better role model. His response was basically, “Hey, I’m a basketball player. I didn’t ask to be anyone’s role model and I don’t need that added responsibility.” As an NBA star, Barkley didn’t have the option to choose whether or not he wanted to be a role model. That decision had already been made for him when he signed a contract to play in the highly publicized NBA.
The same is true for those of us who call ourselves Christians. Once we make that decision to follow Christ, people are watching. Whether you like it or not or whether or not you think it’s fair, you’ve become an example for the family of God.
Point l:
For the first point in our outline, God commands us to be SALT and LIGHT. As we read today’s passage, we see that Jesus says, ‘YOU ARE the salt of the earth and YOU ARE the light of the world.’ He doesn’t say you could be, or some of you are; He clearly says, YOU ARE. There are some things in the Bible that are very clear commands and some that aren’t. Take spiritual gifts, for example. You may have the gift of hospitality, but not the gift of teaching; you may have the gift of mercy, but not the gift of prophecy. Evangelism, on the other hand, is one of those things that God commands use do. Although many Christians try, you can’t refuse to evangelize and claim that you don’t have that gift. This passage about salt and light is one of those commands - it isn’t optional. If we believe that God commands us to be salt and light, let’s take a look at what that means.
I’m interested to hear what pops into your heads as we talk about salt. What are some things that we use salt for? (to season food, to melt ice on roads, to get leeches off, to gargle with when you have a sore throat) Salt is an important part of our daily lives, but I think that in order for us to understand what Jesus means, we need to also look at what salt meant for everyday life 2,000 years ago.
Last summer, Becky and I purchased a pop-up camper. On our first camping trip, we set up the camper, put up the awning and plugged in the power. We had some milk and meat that we wanted kept cold, so we waited for the fridge to kick on. We didn’t hear anything and it wasn’t getting any cooler, so I started to check the electrical connections to see if the fridge was connected properly. After 10 minutes or so of searching and following wires, I realized that our camper was not equipped with a fridge but an icebox! One trip to the convenience store and a block of ice later, our milk and hamburger was safe and sound in the icebox.
Believe it or not, refrigerators didn’t exist 2,000 years ago. They didn’t even have ice boxes. They didn’t have the luxury of butchering a cow and putting it in the freezer until they needed it. Whatever they couldn’t use immediately, they would pack in salt to preserve it for a short time.
Point 2: Salt is used to PREVENT DECAY.
The second point in our outline is: Salt is used to PREVENT DECAY. And just as salt was used to preserve meat, God has called us to act as a preservative here in our society. Let’s face it, our world is not becoming a better place overtime – this place is decaying! We have an opportunity, actually a responsibility, to be a preservative - an agent of change to slow that process of decay.
One example of the decay in our society is Hollywood. It seems that there has been a constant, steady slide downward in the morals and values coming out of the movie industry in southern California. Many Christians like to complain of all the filth coming from Hollywood. They boycott movies with too much sex, too much violence or if they present Christianity in a negative light. The real question is this: whose fault is it that Hollywood seems to be completely devoid of God? Is it the fault of non-Christians, who don’t know - and can be expected to know - God? Or is t the fault of Christians for not bringing God into the mix in Hollywood? Hollywood has been a part of our American society that has decayed quickly. As Christians we could have slowed that decay by being present and participating. Instead, we chose to boycott and walk away from Hollywood. Fortunately, over the past few years, a few Christians have invested in Hollywood and have brought a more Christian worldview into the movie studio.
Long ago, when people packed meat in salt, it didn’t last forever, but it did keep for a short time. The salt didn’t completely STOP the decay of the meat, but it did slow it down. In the same way, we’re not going to completely stop the decaying of our society, but we can take an active role and slow down the process of decay.
But preacher, you say, I’ve read the end. This old world just gets worse and worse until God burns it up. You’re right. But you know what – you will die someday but you run and work out anyway. Someday something will kill you, but you still watch what you eat. When you get sick, you go see the doctor and you take the medicine he gives you. Why? I know the end and everybody dies. Why fight it? Because you can’t be passive about your life. As a Christian you can’t be passive about the world. Be salt and stop decay.
Contributed by: David Salisbury, Lomax Church of Christ - (SermonCentral.com)
Point 3:
Another way that salt was (and still is) used, is for seasoning food. The third point in our outline is: Salt makes things TASTE BETTER.
A woman once wrote the editor of Christianity Today with this story:
“One afternoon, my four-year-old niece Paige and my six-year-old daughter Ashley started an argument, which grew louder and louder. I was about to intervene when my daughter stormed down the stairs. "Mom," she yelled, "Jesus wants us to be the salt of the earth and Paige is being the pepper!” - (SermonCentral.com)
Let’s face it, folks, life can get boring. It’s way too easy in today’s world to get stuck in a rut.
Sunday: get up, go to church, go to mom’s for dinner, go home, take a nap, read the paper, watch the game.
Monday: get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to Suzie’s game, and go to bed.
Tuesday: get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to Johnnie’s meet, come home, mow the lawn, go to bed.
Wednesday: get up, go to work, come home, skip dinner, and take Johnnie and Suzie to practice, read the paper, and go to bed.
Thursday: get up, go to work…
If this is all we live for, life’s going to get real bland real quick. As followers of Jesus Christ, we DO have something more to live for. We live our lives with purpose – we worship God, we spend tine in fellowship with other believers, we seek to grow in our relationship to God, we serve one another and we tell others about the awesome love of Jesus Christ. Suddenly those hours at the office take on new meaning; that dreaded 40 minute drive becomes a daily worship time; and those conversations with the other soccer moms become a great opportunity to share your faith.
One common barrier to faith for many young adults is that they don’t want to give up their fun-filled lives for the boring Christian life. And they have this common misconception because many Christians have lost their saltiness and have become bland, boring Christians. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the greatest news anyone could ever hear! In John 10:10, Jesus said that He came to give us life more abundantly. Too often as Christians, we’ve been the pepper instead of the salt.
Point 4:
Not only do we live in a world that is decaying in need of preservation and bland in need of seasoning, but our world is also full of evil, suffering and pain. The fourth and final point in our outline today is: God calls us to be LIGHT in a DARK world.
There area couple of things that we need to remember as we talk about being light.
The first they to remember is that light requires a power source. We have a number of lights on right now here in the sanctuary, but without a steady flow of electricity, those lights would go out and we’d be sitting here in the dark. In my office, I have some frogs sitting on top of my computer monitor. They’re glow-in-the-dark frogs, so when the lights go out, they glow there sitting on my computer. But they don’t glow all by themselves - they first need to be exposed to the light. We’re all seen this before, you hold them in the light and when you turn the lights off, they glow for a while. We’re the same way, we need a power source if were going to shine. Just like my little frogs, we need to spend the soaking up God’s light so we can go into dark places and glow.
The second thing to remember about light is where it’s needed. Let me read a story that appeared in the September 2002 issue of Focus on the Family Magazine.
On the morning of September 11, Jeannie Braca switched on the television to check the weather report, only to hear that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Jeannie’s husband, Al, worked as a corporate bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. His office was on the 105th floor of Tower One. Al had survived the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and had even helped a woman with asthma escape from the building. Jeannie knew that Al would do the same thing this time, “I knew he would stop to help and minister to people,” she said, “but I never thought for a minute that he wouldn’t be coming home!”
A week later, like so many others who were in that building, Al’s body was found in the rubble. Al’s wife, Jeannie, and his son Christopher were devastated! Then the reports began to trickle in from friends and acquaintances. Some people on the 105th floor had made a last call or sent a final e-mail to loved ones saying that a man was leading people in prayer. A few referred to Al by name.
Al’s family learned that Al had indeed been ministering to people during the attack! When Al realized that they were all trapped in the building and would not be able to escape, Al shared the gospel with a group of 50 co-workers and led them in prayer. This news came as no surprise to Al’s wife, Jeannie. For years, she and Al had been praying for the salvation of these men and women. According to Jeannie, Al hated his job and couldn’t stand the environment. It was a world so out of touch with his Christian values, but he wouldn’t quit. Al was convinced that God wanted him to stay there, to be a light in the darkness, and although Al would not have put it this way, to be a hero!
Al was not ashamed of Christ and Christ’s words…and he paid the price of taking up his cross daily. Al shared his faith with his co-workers….many of whom sarcastically nicknamed him “The Rev.” And on that fateful day…on September 11, in the midst of the chaos, Al’s co-workers looked to him—-and Al delivered!
SOURCE: compiled by Kenneth Sauer from "A Light in the Darkness" by Christin Ditchfield. Focus on the Family Magazine, September 2002.
You may not be thrilled about where God has placed you. Maybe you’re tired of working with a lunch of foul-mouthed guys or you’re sick of all the office gossip. Maybe other kids at school give you a hard time and make fun of you when you pray for your lunch in the cafeteria. Remember that light is needed in dark places. Just as we turn on lights in dark rooms, God places us to be light in the dark places - right where he needs us to shine.
Conclusion:
Ashe close today, I’d like to leave you with a question: What does God have in store for YOUR future? Where is God calling you to be salt and light? In what area could you exert your influence on the people around you?
Here are a few reminders from Rev. Brian Bill of Pontiac Bible Church to keep us on track.
1. Unleash High Potency. Salt has to be salty in order for it to be potent. Light has to be bright in order for it to light up a room. Applied to us, we need to be different from the object we want to influence. We can’t be bland salt or dull light if we want to impact others. If Jesus is not Lord and Leader of your life, you will never have the pleasure of influencing others for Him.
Is the Word of God affecting the way you live? Are you connecting with God in prayer on a daily basis?
2. Live In Close Proximity. We must touch the object of our influence by rubbing shoulders with people. We must invite lost people into our lives and we must look for ways to enter theirs. Instead of living almost exclusively in our Christian subculture, we must move out of isolation and begin to take the initiative, establish rapport, find some common ground and build relationships with lost people.
What one person can you get closer to this week? What specifically can you do to spend time with your searching friend?
3. Practice Rich Density. When we stick together we will make a greater impact. When light is focused it’s at its brightest and most powerful. When salt is packed tightly and then sprinkled all over food, it enhances the flavor. Contrary to the new ad campaign of the U.S. Army, we’re not an “army of one,” we’re on a team. This is why in a couple of weeks we’ll be having a SEEK Week at Xtreme Worship. We’re encouraging students to bring their unchurched friends here to GLCC so we can share the love of Christ through relationships, games and music. Individually, it’s very difficult for students to share then faith with their friends, but together we can influence all kinds of students.
A young boy about nine years old went with his parents to Europe one summer. As he visited many churches, he saw the massive stained glass portraits of the disciples. When he returned, his Sunday School teacher asked what he liked most about his trip. He thought for a moment and said, “I loved the awesomeness of who God must be.” His teacher then asked for his definition of someone who follows Christ. As his mind went back to those massive stained glass windows, he said, “A Christian is a person the light shines through.” How true!
Is the light of Christ shining through you? Are you allowing His light to be made visible in your life? Or has the light gone out? Has the passion for God become religious ritual and routine?
-Rev. Brian Bill (SermonCentral.com)
