Bringing the Kingdom of God: Salt and Light
Inherit the Land • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What do I believe God wants us to do? Be salt and light
Why? It brings life and hope
What do I believe God wants us to know? We are salt and light
Why? It gives us a powerful mission and when we live it out it gives life to others
ME/WE
We are in series called INHERIT THE LAND….It has been amazing how God has been on this series…I encourage you to share and listen to it…The Words there I believe are from the Lord.
The part of INHERT THE LAND we are in now is called BRINGING THE KINGDOM OF GOD…we started this last week one of the MARKERS of the KINGDOM OF GOD is LOVE that we bring the KINGOM OF to do that in love
Today we are going to dive deeper into how we bring the KINGDOM of GOD more fully to Cleveland.
Milk and honey…Prospering
A place of justice and mercy to all walks of life
A place full of the FRUIT of the SPIRIT
Love, joy, peace….
How do we do that…we learned last week the LOVE of GOD needs to lead the way.
And another way we do bring the kingdom of God is by living into who you really are…..BE WHO YOU ARE
- THIS CAUSES OFTEN TWO REACTIONS IN PEOPLE.
1. WHO LITTLE OLD ME…WHAT CAN I DO.
Anybody thought this way
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
2. I am too BAD to be used by God….Pastor if you looked at what I have done…If you look at where I am now…you wouldn’t say that…
Let’s not FORGET GOD is one WHO CAN CHANGE YOU AN INSTANT
Let’s look at Paul…one moment on Damcus road going to perscute Christians….BUT THEN, BUT THEN….JESUS SHOWS UP
Too young
ABRAHAM….THROW YOU THE WHOLE WORLD IS GOING TO BE BLESSED and The messiah and he was 75 years old when called by God
God does care who you have been because that is done and burried
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Let’s remember what HE CAN DO and WHAT HE HAS DONE
ONE OF THINGS HE HAS DONE IN YOUR LIFE IS HAS GIVEN YOU A NEW NAME AND NEW IDENTITY
YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD NOT A CHILD OF WRATH
HIS NAME IS WRITTEN UPON YOU
NAME OF GOD
JESUS FURTHER SAYS TO US THAT WAS MIND BLOWING IS THAT WE ARE SALT AND LIGHT
LIGHT WAS WHAT THE GREAT RABBIS WHERE CALLED
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
YOU ARE SALT
Some of us might think….Oh i have been know to be salty a time or time…The american definition of salty meaning I have been rude, sour, or bitter over something insignificant….Especailly when they do that thing____ or I go to the store and online it said it is in stock and I go and it is not in stock….And I might display SOME SALTY BEHAVIOR
ANYBODY WITH ME?
IS THIS JESUS DEFINITION OF BEING SALT? NO
WHAT IS DOES JESUS MEAN BY SALT???
BUT BEFORE WE GO THERE…LET’S ASK THE QUESTION? WHAT IS THE VALUE OF SALT
We look at salt and it cost a couple bucks at the store and last a LONG TIME…We spend under $10 a year on salt…But in that IN THAT DAY SALT WAS VERY RARE and therefore it was expensive to the point that people sometimes paid in salt….they preferred it to get paid in salt than receive money….in fact our the word salary comes from the root word for SALT
When Jesus calls you SALT you are valuable…you are like a diamond
The reason it is valuable is because it does 3 things
SALT ENCHANCES FLAVOR
How does steak taste without salt?
How does fries taste without salt?
What happens to chocolate or chocolate chip cookies when you add salt to them? I discovered this and it takes chocolate to another level.
HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME? HOW DO I ENHANCE THE FLAVOR?
We are called to enhance the flavor of the environments we are in for good.
That when we step into the room, our workplace, our house, the grocery store we are called to bring a difference to the place…I am not saying shout like some street preachers do in a condesending way… salt is a small substance that makes lasting change that we don’t always see…even our food we don’t see but we can taste it is there.
We have all experienced this when a co-worker shows up at work or your good friend comes to your house…that the place was not so good…BUT JOY came to work today, JOY came to my HOUSE today….It didn’t matter what happened….We see this with some of you Lilly, Beza, Trish, and many others walk into the room and things change.
Jesus says that what we are to do
How?
One of the simplest ways in understanding hard sometime to walk it out is by radiate the the fruit of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
If we want to enhance the flavor of the enviorment we radiate
joy,
We bring a level of peace to the environment
We bring patience into the environment
And when do the whole environment changes
2. Why salt was so valuable???
Salt was preserver of meat, back in the day they didn’t have refridgerators or freezers and who you would preserve meat was by putting SALT on the meat and the meat would last. to slow down and stop the decay of the the meat
Because Things that decay get destructed
SALT PERSERVES THE MEAT
How does this apply to me? In a similar way we are to slow down the decay of world that’s natural drift is towards darkness.
WE ARE TO PRESEVERS OF TRUTH IN A WOLRD FULL OF DECAY….WE DO THIS BECAUSE TRUTH GIVES LIFE
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Some of the ways we do this is we perseve the truth
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is one of the ways or it is Jesus plus good works
- Preserve the TRUTH that mercy and justice is for all people no matter your skin color or the size of you bank account.
- We are to preserve the value of life, that all life matters from the womb to the tomb…THAT PERSON IN THE MOTHERS WOMB MATTERS, JUST LIKE THE MOTHER MATTERS. WE BELIEVE IN HUMAN RIGHTS, WHICH INCLUDES WOMANS RIGHTS AND UNBORN HUMAN RIGHTS
- We are preserve the truth that there are two genders, men shouldn’t compete in women’s sports, and marriage is between a man and
We are why to do this? Preserving the truth leads to life. LIES LEAD TO DESTRUCTION
Can you imagine where would be if we didn’t have Martin Luther King Jr. preserving the truth that all people are created in the image of God and need love
WE ARE LIVING IN TIME WHERE THE UNBORN ARE DEVALUED
Or that we said lead to heaven ?
3. SALT WAS USED FOR HEALING.
They didn’t have medicine like we have today so they would use SALT for open sores, inflamation, infections and salt has healing properties.
In a similar way we to to HEALERS.
We are to bring physically healing
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
I had this
It is not just PHYSICALLY HEALING
It is emotional healing
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The healing we more readily need is emtionally or spiritual healing.
Anybody ever been down and someone came and brought healing through your words…or you have done this to someone.
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
God says we are to be salt to bring healing to each other….To do this we have to be in community with each other and share with each other and have our eyes open
Salt enchances the flavor of the environment
Salt presevers truth
Salt brings healing
Salt brings life
How can you this week be a little salty
Look for ways to enhance, preserve, and heal in your daily life. Be who God has called you to be—salt and light.
