The Covenant of Salt and Light
Matthew 5: 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 by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city 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 men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
SALT. All animal sacrifices were required to be seasoned with…Obedience (deeds) rather than sacrifice!
- You are the salt of the earth
- God has chosen to do his will through us. Our deed, not his. Understand what I mean, we are doing his will so they are his works, but we are a vessel to do them through.
- The employees of a company are doing the actual building of the car, but the boss gets the credit for a good Job.
Purifying – Holy, Preserving – keeping things going
Seasoning – makes it taste good, life with out deeds is empty words. (Salted popcorn example)
Covenant – security, consistency,
= Works of Devotion (that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.)
- You are the light of the world
- God loves people, yes but can they see him?
- You are his love in the earth. You are his love letter.
- God didn’t send a spiritual message, he sent his son. In the flesh, Jesus.
- To be the example of what God the Father wanted.
- That we go in the flesh and love people. Offering our lives for the cause of Christ. By this they will know that you are one of my followers, imitators, actual children of God, by your love one for another.
Walking in the covenant of light is to take the word of God, his command to love God and one another and make it the path of our lives.
Sometimes we have to make a decision, build a memorial, and make a covenant to commit ourselves to something.
Today that is what I would like for us to do before God. To make a decision that we are the Love and the works that God wants to give to all people.
Make a covenant of Salt and Light. Is that in the Bible? No! And we are not making it a religious ceremony.
It is simply a demonstration before God and man that what we believe we are publicly proclaiming.
The salt represents our covenant to God and man to live what we believe.
To bring forth deeds of our faith, not only words.
The light represents our covenant to walk in love as God does.
To love God first, then to be a vessel of his love to this world.
- We will light the candles as a symbol of our love
- and bring them and stick them in the salt as a sign
- that we will no longer only talk about love, but we will have deeds of love to God and man
- And with our whole hearts be the salt and light to this world for Jesus Christ.