Testify Of Love

Testify of Love

Matthew 5:13-16

Thom Tapp, a pastor in TN and one of my favorite cartoonists said this yesterday, “Thanksgiving is not a season, it is a way of life. How can a Christian NOT be thankful?”

As born again believers, we have every reason to be thankful, and not just once a year...but daily.

And most of all, I think we should be thankful when it comes to service.

If you were here last Sunday morning, you know that I presented a challenge...a dare if you will.

It was the love loud dare, an opportunity for all of us to intentionally make an effort to show someone the love of God, not just in words but in deed.

Not only say you love, but demonstrate love and do it loudly!

Here is that challenge...read it.

Before the day is over I want to give you an opportunity to share, as the Lord leads, a bit of your experiences from this past week.

I want you to testify of love this morning.

But first, lets consider God’s word in light of this past week of service and this week of Thanksgiving.

Read Matt. 5:13-16 and pray.

Transition:

Last week we were challenged with the Love Loud Dare, a call for us to love loudly in our church and community…in both word and deed.

This morning, I want us to testify of love…sharing a few of our experiences from this past wee; but first let’s consider what Scritpture says about why we should love loud.

3 truths I want us to consider this morning about loving loud, first of all we love loud...

1.To be salt

Jesus said that we are to be the salt of the earth.

Think about the many uses of salt, and just how they relate to us as born again believers.

Here are 3 things that salt does...

A.Adds Flavor (make things better)

Anybody here works in a hospital kitchen?

OK, let’s talk about that food then.

Have you ever eaten hospital room food?

I don’t think there is anything more bland than hospital food.

You bite into it and you taste...nothing.

So what do you do?

You grab the salt and pepper...why?

To add taste, to make it better.

Folks, we are here to make things better.

We are here to love loud in action and deed.

We should make things better in this world, and most of all make others hunger for what we have.

Psalm 34:8

When we are salt, doing good by loving loudly, we should have an influence on others for what we have.

While we make this world a better place, we also influence others to taste and see that we have the good stuff.

Along with adding flavor, salt also has a tendency to...

B.Make Thirsty

Too much salt can cause someone to become thirsty.

Illus: When I was in Zimbabwe as a summer missionary we had to go out one day to get some fire wood, the reason we needed fire wood was to have hot water.

While most, if not all of us, have our water heaters indoors and attached to either gas or electric, the water heat on our mission statement was a water tank on top of a wood burning heater.

If we wanted a hot shower in the morning, we got up early enough to start the fire and get the water warmed up in time to grab that shower.

So, we went out one day to get some fire wood, loading up on the laurie truck and heading out with axes in hand and some snacks to keep our energy up.

We got out there, grabbed our equipment and started to work, “I’m a lumberjack and that’s OK, I sleep all night and work all day!”

But here is the deal though, idiot boy here found the bag of sunflower seeds and popped a handful of them in his mouth.

I got to my log and started swinging away, and started sweating and then realized I had a mouth full of sunflower seeds...salty sunflower seeds.

Yeah, that little canteen of water I brought didn’t last too long.

Isa. 55:1 says....

People should see that the only provision for their thirst is God by our witness, by our loud love.

We should live our lives in a way and love loudly so that people will see that the nourishment they need can only come from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Like salt makes us thirsty, our lives should make others thirsty for God.

And a final use of salt is that...

C.Promotes Change

Actual changes take place as a result of salt.

In northern states where snow is an issue in the winter a mixture of salt and sand is laid down on the road to melt the snow and ice and make the driving conditions a bit safer.