Salt and Light in the Neighborhood

1. As we start out I wanted to ask how well do you know your neighbors?

If I asked you what are their first and last names? The names of their kids? What do they do for a living? What’s their favorite food?

Would you know the answers?

Because if you do not know the answers you would probably fit into the category with the majority of Americans.

Because according to Pew Research, only 31 percent of Americans say they know all or most of their neighbors.

And whats really interesting of that 31 percent , those who lived in rural areas 40% of them knew their neighbors and but then those who lived in urban areas (where everyones close together) only 24% of them knew theirs.

But whats sad about this study is that you can see the effect of this, because other studies say that anywhere between 50-60 percent of people feel lonely.

These are people who have kids, who might be married, maybe have friends, but they feel alone and disconnected from community.

And so today what we are going to do is be looking at this idea of discipleship in the context of our community.

Because being someones neighbor was a big responsibility in biblical days

In fact Matthew 22:37-40 says:

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Anyone use cliffnots in highschool? That saved me in highschool because it summerizes books

And whats neat is Jesus gives the spark notes for everything in the law and the prophets, basically the Old Testement spark notes is this simple commandment to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as your self.

And this is a commandment that to be honest we do not always do a great job at this,

And so all of that to say our main passage today tells us what discipleship looks like with the people around us or in our community (and hopefully it even impacts those far away).

So turn Matthew 5:13-16 because this is our main passage today and it says this:

Matthew 5:13–16 (NIV)

Salt and Light

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 underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

You know if you were with us last week we talked about this amazing identity that we have as Christ followers.

because who you are impacts how you live.

If you said “I am a muscian”

It probably means you play music

If you said I am a an athlete

you probably play sports

And in this passage Jesus says You are salt and you are light.

And thats a little weird, because you might be thinking, what in the world does that mean?

And so lets look at verse 13 because here Jesus says you are the salt of the earth.

Who here loves salt or seasoning? all of us right?

Its because it makes things way tastier.

And when its missing you can kind of tell, because you go there is not a ton of flavor

And Jesus is saying part of our identity as children of God is that we should make the world better

Because we live in world where often times there is a missing ingredient.

And I mean the world is going yeah we can feel that something is missing.

And whats amazing God has given us this missing piece.

Think about it like this because in this cooler I have some hamburgers, for the potluck.

and they are good. I mean you could eat these and go this taste okay.

But its missing the seasoning.

And can I be honest, because to often I think as Christians we say I have this ingredient, but in reality, we haven’t let it effect our lives, let alone the people around us.

And heres the issue because we can have the seasoning, but if we don’t put it on our lives its useless.

And not just that it has to be fresh.

This seasoning expires in a year, after that its going to start loosing flavor

And heres what I want you to get, You are the salt of the earth,

You have the ability to not just enhance but to give the world a taste of something they are missing and its going to start with your neighbor,

And it has to be something that we are coming to God daily with to stay fresh.

My prayer is that every person in this church is seasoned, but for us to be a church where we are seasoning others and giving them a taste of who God is.

And look what he says in verse 14 because he moves on to saying you are the light of the world, a town or city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Have you ever thought about how a light makes a huge difference,

I mean Liam and Finn are at that age where they are starting to like having some sort of light in the room before going to bed.

Because its comforting to be able to see whats around you.

And this passage is saying that we are a light, we should be a comforting presence, but really we should be a light that shows the world for what it is.

I mean when we plug in a night light in Liam and Finns room its good for me because otherwise I will trip on a toy and go to the hospital,

When we are a light it should comfort us, it should guide us, but this last one is big as well, it should shine.

I mean I know we are far from Christmas, but one of my favorite services is the candlelight Christmas Eve service, because the sanctuary is just pitch black with a few candles and we just get drawn to them don’t we?

But then and then each person gets a candle and the light spread and before we know it this pitch black room is filled with this glow from the candles.

Because while lights, guide and comfort, they glow and they shine to the people around us in the most beautiful way.

And this is why this passage says you are a light, you are a city on a hill,

People should see you and go wow I want to know that person, want to know about them because they just shine.

But to often instead of being a people that shine it seams like we hide it and the passage even recognizes it.

Because it says that too often we put a basket over it and cover it or we blow it out.

And I want to read this last part of verse 16 because it tells us to shine and this last verse tells us how. it says:

Matthew 5:16 (NIV)

… let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Did you notice there are two parts to this. It says this:

Because it points out that we shine through our deeds.

this is a really active word and its important to point out that Jesus is not saying work yourself into being lit (or into being into a relationship with Christ)

But He is saying when you enter into a relationship with Christ you shine, because thats just what a light does.

And part of being a Christ follower is being a person that you should be actively following Christ, where you do not just learn about Him, but you live it out!

I mean when was the last time you did something for a person around you?

Because its easy to say well I can’t do this because I don’t have a lot of money, or I am not super healthy.

Do you know how much of an impact a card makes, do you know how much of an impact a meal can make?

Do you realize how just saying hi can make an impact? 60% of people are lonely, you can change someones life by saying hi!

Some of you after we had Eden made us a meal and it just shined light to us.

Our faith is meant to be active, but heres the other beautiful thing, because it glorifies God.

And can I be honest, There is a sacrifice that happens when we do this

I had a friend that he was on a trip to a middle eastern country when he was in college, and he told be that they understood the passages we read really well.

because while he was their him and his friends got a little turned around and got lost one day.

And he mentioned he stuck out as a tourist hardcore, I mean it was obvius

And so their was a family that lived there and reconized they were lost and they actually invited them into their home for dinner.

And he was amazed because they did not even ask what are you doing here or who are you, but they just said come on in.

And then at one point during the meal he realized that while they were eating (because they were so hungry at this point) the family was not,

And eventually they connected the dots that this was the dinner that the family was having, and the family went hungry so these lost Americans could eat

You know these people understood what it meant to shine the light of Christ to the people around them.

And I think sometimes its hard to know what exactly it looks like, I have not foound a lost tourist in Buchanan yet, but what does it look like to be salty, what does it look like to be a light, to be a city on a hill.

And maybe God has something specific, but if not maybe it can be just a time for prayer, what does it look like to activley be a light?

And I really think it starts with our neighbors.

As we close you should have recieved an insert in your bulletin.

And this is a grid that you can use to map out who your neighbors are, and you might go well I live far from my neighbor, but I am assuming you still have a neighbor (and apparently yoou have a better chance at knowing your neighbor better then someone who lives in the city)

Maybe this morning you don’t know what to do, but I can guarantee your light can’t shine to the people you do not know.

Maybe you just need to map out who you know, maybe its to say I want to right an encouraging card, or help with sometiming small

Because the truth is it is amazing what can happen when we begin to shine the light of our God to the people around us.