Salt and Light

[Communicator Note: Tell a story of a time you encountered something that made you ask, “why does this exist, what’s it’s purpose?” Make it light, the goal is to land at a point where you can turn the question around on the audience.]

I went to Japan, and found myself asking the, “why does this exist” question more than any other time in my life. We stayed in a hotel that had a giant Godzilla head on it [Godzilla hotel picture], we saw a Gundam Wing the size of a building that lit up and moved [Gundam], if you’re a nerd like me, get to Japan man haha. But there was one thing I tried in Japan that I couldn’t understand. Like a true performative male, I ate matcha ice cream [matcha ice cream picture]. It LOOKED delicious, I mean that actually looks good doesn’t it? IT WAS TERRIBLE. It just tasted like cold bitter tea in ice cream form, there was no sugar in it at all. The devil is a liar, and so is matcha ice cream haha, it promises deliciousness but it’s just weird! I found myself asking Why is this here? [Pause]

TENSION

By the way, that’s a really good question to ask. Have you ever asked YOURSELF that question, Why am I here? It speaks to our purpose, and having a good answer to this question affects every other area of our life:

If “the reason you’re here” is to succeed, achieve, win, then that’s going to be what you aim your life and your best effort at, it’s what you’ll think about the most.

If “the reason you’re here” is to make other people happy or to earn the approval of other people, it’s going to shape every other thing about you, what you like, how you dress, what you do, what you don’t do.

If you’ve never thought about this question, you might not feel like it matters WHAT you do really, you’re just kind of living and going with the flow haha.

Some of you feel like there’s no good reason for you to be here, and you’ve been struggling with some big, maybe even scary, thoughts and emotions recently as a result.

Question. Every person has to answer this question, it’s the question of What’s my purpose? Why am I here? Where does the meaning of my life come from? Tonight’s a big night, because we’re going to look at the Bible’s answer to this question for us. I think you can leave here with a clear direction on the purpose God has for you if you lock in. You might not get the whole map, but I think God has a next step for everybody tonight.

TRUTH

Context. So go ahead and pull out your Bible, we’re in Matthew 5:13–16 tonight. We’re going to be in this section of Scripture all semester going verse by verse through what’s called the Sermon on the Mount, and I want you to know where it is. Now in this teaching, Jesus is telling the people who want to follow Him what the standards, beliefs, practices, and expectations are for what He calls “The Kingdom of Heaven.” Sounds like an epic Netflix series right?

Jesus is explaining what His way of living looks like over and against the practices of the world and of other religions. If you’re not a Christian and are curious about what Jesus says about life, this is the core of it. If you’re a follower of Jesus, this message lays out really practically what it looks like to follow Jesus.

Do I have permission to be boring for a second? Some of you are like, “too late for that Brandt,” thank you very much I will continue then 😊. The verses we’re going to read tonight are like the thesis statement for the whole sermon. Y’all still do thesis statements in papers right? The blessing statements or the Beatitudes which we talked about last week serve as the introduction, and the metaphor Jesus shares next acts like a summary for the rest of what He is going to say. For you visual learners you can think of it this way:

Beatitudes (Who is the Kingdom of Heaven for?)

Salt and Light (What do Kingdom People live for?)

The Rest (How do Kingdom People live?)

Scripture. So here’s our Scripture for tonight from Matthew 5:13–16: 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. (Matthew 5:13–16 NIV)

There’s two key parallel statements that Jesus makes to His disciples here: You are the salt of the earth, and you are the light of the world. Now, what in the world does that mean? I’m going to give you a summary statement that’s going to frame the rest of the message, and then we’ll unpack it. If you’re taking notes I want you to write this down: Christians live to bring God glory through serving others. [Repeat]

Serving others. Let’s look back at our two analogies, starting with the salt, but I want to make a change to our translation for a second. Now in English I say “you” to mean one of you, and “you” to mean all of you. In southern I would say you for one of you but what would I say if I was talking to all of you in the south? “Y’all” that’s right. Greek has different pronouns for a group or an individual too, so our translation really looks something more like this, say the first word with the best southern accent you can with me:

13 “Y’all are the salt of the earth…

ILLUSTRATION

That was real good haha! Now why am I making a big deal about the “y’all” part of this? Over here I’ve got a box of kosher salt. Jesus was Jewish, so we went with the Kosher 😊. Jesus is telling us that as a community of people who follow Him, we are like this salt.

Now, salt has a lot of uses, but my favorite use for salt is putting it on french fries, anybody else? Have you ever gone through the chickfila drive through, went for a fry expecting salty perfection, and discovered that the stressed out teenager making your food forgot to put salt on your fries? It’s the worst! Fried potatoes, SUPER mid, SALTED fried potatoes, a gift from heaven!

Salt makes food better, but you know what salt doesn’t make better? Salt. Like, you can’t salt salt. Salt doesn’t exist to make salt saltier. If I had a bowl of salt, and salted the salt, I’d just have more salt, not saltier salt haha. In other words, salt only serves its purpose when it’s applied to something that lacks it.

The reason the “y’all” is so important to get, is because in the top three of the most counter-cultural things about Christianity is the fact that the second you decide to follow Jesus, you have decided to stop living primarily to benefit yourself, and have decided to live for the benefit of others. Just like salt adds saltiness to things that need it, the Christian lives to bring CHRIST to those who need HIM.

And listen to me, the second we decide that following Jesus is about our own comfort, gain, goals, ME, is the second we’ve abandoned our purpose and made our faith worthless. Our “salt” has lost its saltiness. In one place Jesus tells his disciples:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24 NIV) In another place he tells them:

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant… 28 just as the Son of Man [Jesus] did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26–28 NIV)

Anybody who makes a decision to trust in Jesus, to follow Him, to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven and its blessings also makes the decision to live their life in service to others. There is no other option, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT JESUS DID. If we don’t do that, we might have the title of “salt” but none of its flavor. When people expect Jesus from us, all they get is another person who’s really only about themselves, only worse because we claimed to be different.

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. (Matthew 5:13 NIV)

Here’s how I put it in my notes. Honestly I didn’t want to put it this bluntly or this harshly, but this is how harshly Jesus speaks here:

The faith of a Christian that isn’t directed towards serving others is worthless (because it isn’t faith at all).

It takes zero faith to serve yourself. It takes a lot of faith to trust God enough to put others first. The light analogy that he uses makes a similar point.

We turn on lights in order to allow those around them to see. We who follow Jesus are supposed to be like a light in our community. Light doesn’t exist to make light lighter, it exists to shine in places where there is none. Our purpose is to be so full of Jesus that we have the faith, the confidence, the courage to bring him into places where he isn’t shining, and if we’re not doing that we’re not living in line with God’s word, we’re holding an empty title of Christian.

Salt that adds no savor.

Light that doesn’t shine.

A Christian that doesn’t serve.

None of these serve their purpose.

There is nothing like serving your purpose. NOTHING like the moment you realize that you are doing something that God put you on this earth to do. So that’s where we’re going to close with today, I want to help you DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE, it’s one of the crucial steps to following Jesus.

APPLICATION

Glorify God. There’s an old church document called The Westminster Shorter Catechism, which is basically a beginners guide to the Christian faith. It asks questions and then gives answers that summarize what the Bible says. Here’s the first Question. Q. What is the chief end [PURPOSE] of man?

In other words, where does the meaning of life come from? Why do I exist? Why did God put me on this earth? This is the question every person on planet earth is asking, and I think one of the reason rates of depression, suicide, anxiety are on the rise is because we’ve answered this question wrong as a culture.

We’ve made our purpose to satisfy every desire we have, and we’re ALMOST happy. We’ve made our purpose to get as much money as we can and it’s ALMOST enough. We’ve made our purpose to be liked and celebrated by as many people as possible, and it ALMOST satisfies. The reason we’re so messed up is because we’re aimed at all sorts of lower case “p” purposes that we’re told will make us happy, but it’s not what we were made for! Here’s what we were made for:

A. Man’s chief end [PURPOSE] is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Notice it says chief end, that doesn’t mean life has to be one big worship party forever and doing anything else is wrong. It means that EVERY other “end” that we pursue, everything that we do, should serve the CHIEF END of bringing glory to God.

You might be an athlete, but your purpose in life isn’t athletics, it’s the glory of God.

You might be a genius, but your purpose in life isn’t academics, it’s the glory of God.

You might be a musician, but your purpose in life isn’t music, it’s the glory of God.

You might be funny, but your purpose in life isn’t comedy, it’s the glory of God.

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

THAT is our purpose, and we’re only satisfied and doing what we’re made for when we live in that purpose.

Christians live to bring God glory through serving others. I want to give you two next steps that you can take this week, starting tonight, to discover specifically what that means for you, because while this is the general purpose for every Christian, it expresses itself in different ways.

GT. The first thing I want you to know about is something called Growth Track. Growth Track is our church’s way to help people discover their purpose. It’s a three-week class that meets on Sunday mornings, and every session is geared towards helping you discover the things God has made you for. If you’re interested in serving others and joining, if you have a phone you can text GROWTH TRACK to 37748. If you don’t have a phone, you can go to 12stone.com/growthtrack online when you get home to sign up. It is on Sunday mornings, so you’ll have to work it out with your parents, but it’s worth the effort to get there.

The second thing is something we’re all doing as a Wednesdays family together that we started last week. Brandt read the first question of the Westminster Catechism about purpose, here’s the next question:

Q. 2. What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? In other words, how do we know how to bring God glory? Here’s the answer:

A. The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Bible Project. We won’t know what it looks like to glorify God if we don’t read His word. So all this month we’re going to be working through the sermon on the mount together with the Bible Project. You can follow along on YouTube, on their website, but I’d recommend downloading the Bible Project app if you have a phone. They’ve got really helpful and informative videos, podcasts, study questions, it’s a great way to study Scripture together. While doing the three readings this week might not show you the whole purpose of your life immediately haha, it will help you build the habit of Bible study that will put you under God’s word so that He can help direct your life.

Let’s pray together, then we’ll talk about this more in groups. Pray

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