Those Salty Christians

You are the salt of the Earth

Salt is a preservative. The first ice box was invented in 1803; and it was not until 1911 that the first electric refrigerator was introduced. Keeping food frozen or cool for preservation is not all that ancient of an idea- especially for those in Jesus’ day who lived the middle of a desert. For them, food was preserved by salt. Many of us in this church still butcher our own hogs, and use salt to cure hams so we are fully aware of this practice.

The salt keeps the meat from spoiling or decaying. If left out or untreated with this salt their food would surly spoil because of the world around it.

Listen to the words of Romans 8:20-21 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Sin has corrupted this world and spoiled it. Because of sin, all in this world- our bodies, the weather, morals, all of it- has been effected. So we should not be surprised, friends, when things in this world go crazy. Sin has broken it all. The world continues to promote brokenness. The world promotes substance abuse, our TV screens a full of sexual immortality, and binge drinking; leaders teach that sex is okay outside of marriage, that recreational use of drugs is ok as long as it is “responsible” and that it is completely ok to use violence to retaliate against someone who harms you.

Did you know that salt also helps balance the fluids in our body? Our bodies are 60% water and salt helps that water function. Good salt intake supports muscle health and never function. Salt also helps regulate our blood pressure and our brain function. If your sodium is too low you can suffer seizures, go into a comma, or even death.

In fact, for many months we have to serve Olivia salt water through her feeding tube once a day to keep her body balanced because her formula did not have enough salt and she was not taking any food by mouth. Salt preserves and salt sustains.

In the midst of this decay Jesus calls us- his church- salt. That one of his greatest purposes for us is to preserve the things of God in this world. How do we prevent the decay of this world from taking us, our homes, or our churches captive? With salt.

Friends, we talked about this with our men last week, but I want to touch on it again because it is so important- when the pressures of this world start to push in around us and the sin and values of this world begin to invade the communities, the people, and even the church around us, what keeps those things from creeping in and harming us and our church and our families? We do.

Salt is flavoring. I know some of you all love your salt; I’ve eaten meals with you. When I worked at DQ we had one cook who put so much salt on his fries we had to buy the portion control shaker for him because he would salt the fries so much. He just could not understand that a little salt went a long way!

Want to make that popcorn a little better- put some salt on it

I do a lot of grilling at my house and about every grilling recipe needs a little salt

I bet most of us put some salt on our rice or our pasta

And if you are like me I shake some salt on my watermelon.

Why? It’s that little pop of flavor we all love. Just a little bit to excite our taste buds.

As the salt of the Earth we too are called to bring flavor to the world around us. This flavor might be seen as joy, as health, as wholeness, to the grey world around us.

Guys, this world is dark, and full of pain; hate; sorrow; and shame. People need hope. Many of them do not even know what they are missing.

Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

We are made to connect and worship our creator God. There is a part of our being that is meant to connect with God and that part of us cries out for connection with him, even when we do not realize it. People fill it with drugs, sex, alcohol, money..but it is not enough.

Now, take that salt in your cup, take a taste real quick- just a bit. Notice how your tastebuds just came alive for a moment? Like waking up from sleep?

Now imagine being someone who is dead in sin, that part of them that has been crying out for God is desperate. And then they meet someone on fire for Jesus; someone who is passionately in love with him and their spirit lights up...

Salting the Baby- There is another moment in Scripture that we read about salt- and it is actually a little obscure- and as you all know, I love my little obscure Bible tidbits- so here we go.

Ezekiel 16:4 “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.”

Babies in Ezekiels time were rubbed with salt for 2 reasons, one physical and one spiritual. They were rubbed with salt to help fight off infections. it was an antibacterial of sorts

But there was also a spiritual significance. Followers of God would also use this salt rubbing as a moment to prayer over the child and claim a life of purity and integrity over the child.

Again, see the significance of purity and righteousness?

So it seems to reason, friends, that when Jesus calls us the salt of the Earth his emphasis is on our righteousness and our purity.

We are called to be a people of purity. Friends one of the things that has brought so much harm on the church in the past 20 years is that many Christians and churches do not think much about purity. As followers of Christ we are called to be holy- set apart- pure. Oftentimes Christians are more concerned with how close they can get to the world .

The challenge with that, of course is that getting to close to the world can often leave long term effects on us.

When I was little there was a service station in Draft that sold fried chicken; deep fried chicKen in this little gas station. I am not sure if they didn’t change out their fry oil enough or what but it had a very distinct smell. And when I was little my dad would often stop there to get gas and of course at that time there was no pay at the pump- so he would go in to pay. Well, the smell of the chicken and the oil was so strong that when he would come out smelling like nasty fried chicken. Just walking into the place

Friends we need to remember this as Christians, we can only get so close to the sinfulness of this world without it rubbing off on us. That’s why purity is so important.

Charles Spurgeon: “The man whose heart is pure, will be able to see God in nature. When the heart is clean, he will hear God's footfall everywhere in the garden of the earth in the cool of the day. He will hear God's voice in the tempest, sounding in peal on peal from the tops of the mountains. He will behold the Lord walking on the great and mighty waters, or see him in every leaf that trembles in the breeze. Once get the heart right, and then God can be seen everywhere. To an impure heart, God cannot be seen anywhere; but to a pure heart God is to be seen everywhere

You see, Christian purity is not about us being controlling or scared- it us about us wanting to have the best connection for God.

Look at that salt in your cup- notice how white it is? I bet if a piece of dirt dropped in it, you would see it pretty quick. What if we threw some pepper flakes in? Those would probably be pretty easy to spot too.

If we allow the world to taint our heart. To make us impure, when sin and evil come in they will be less obvious.

Maybe that is exactly why David prayed the famous prayer of Psalm 51:10-11

Psalm 51:10–11 ESV

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

The hardest part of this passage is the last part of Jesus’ words… if the salt looses its saltiness it is good for nothing.