Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Central Proposition of the Text: You must demonstrate & declare the Gospel in order to fulfill your calling

Purpose of the Sermon: To call our people to live out their faith and their testimony in a world desperately in need of salt & light

Theme: Kingdom mission

Thrust: YOU are called to be salt & light

Central Proposition of the Sermon: Take that blessing into the world with you

Sermon outline

Introduction

<<PRAY>>

<<READ 13-16>>

Last week, we completed our study of the Beatitudes, Jesus’s introduction to His sermon on the mount.

This morning, we begin digging into the body of the sermon.

vv13-16 as the “heart” - when you got saved, Jesus made you a new creation, but he didn’t take you out of the world.

Why not?

The world is desperately in need of blessing, and you’ve got it

Note for Life Groups: When you share your needs, joys, and you receive Gospel-shaped responses, hospitality, love, wisdom and truth, note:

Non-Christians don’t have that.

Maybe friends to play basketball with, and a small group of real friends, but even their close friends have no real life-giving answers, because they don’t have a connection to the source of life and truth.

Let’s say you lose your job.

Your marriage is in crisis, or your kid is in crisis.

Where can you go for the kind of help & answers you need?

Let’s say you lose your job.

Your marriage is in crisis, or your kid is in crisis.

Where can you go for the kind of help & answers you need?

Those of you who have found those things in your life group, or Bible study, or Sunday School, or Youth Group - if you didn’t have Christians in your life, where would you go to figure out how to live a life of wisdom and meaning?

Where would you go for real help in figuring out what it means to live out a life of wisdom and meaning?

Those of you who have found those things in your life group - truth-telling, life-giving help and answers - if you didn’t have Christians in your life, where would you find those things?

Most people don’t have anyone who’s pointing them to God.

Think about this: Name someone significantly older than you, that’s not related to you, who you know you can go to if you need advice.

Here’s a shocker for you: Name someone significantly older than you, that’s not related to you, who you know you can go to if you need advice.

Now name someone you know you can trust to be honest with you about things even if it’s uncomfortable, and they’re not just going to give you an opinion - they have a standard that’s outside of them.

These are all things that the world desperately needs, and the Church is the only place you can get the genuine article, and many of us here today can testify to how God has worked through His Kingdom People to do that.

So what are we waiting for?

That’s the question of our text today - what are we waiting for?

When Jesus saved you, he left you here in the world.

Why?

What are you here for?

The Beatitudes tell us that if we belong to Him, we’re blessed.

OK, so why do we have to be blessed here and now, in this world that’s still so broken and full of sorrow?

You might ask the question:

Point out that the very things that might get you killed might get someone else saved

Q.

What did Jesus save me for?

Three points: First, to bring the flavor

Point out that the “righteousness” of Christ working its way out in your life is the “good works” in v16, but without the clarity that it’s Jesus doing it, nobody’s gonna get saved and nobody’s gonna get persecuted

Point out Pastor Han again - the reason Sang Chul got saved was the reason Pastor Han got killed

Note that his behavior (helping Sang Chul by selling mushrooms in China & bringing the money back to him) was matched by his Gospel proclamation

Get people excited about changing the world around them

Q.

OK, now what?

// Why are we still here?

// What am I saved for?

I. Bring the flavor of God (v13)

Look in verse 13.

He says “You are the salt of the earth.”

Illust: Potatoes - I want you to imagine

Potatoes - 1st thing you do - taste one to see if they have enough <<??>>

Salt - a treasure in the ancient world

Scholars say salt served at least 11 purposes

Focus: Flavor, preservation, purity

Meat - no refrigeration - cured & preserved

Two Towers - “coneys” section

Salt comes to the table and saves a bland dinner, right?

, , , ,

Salt comes to the table and saves a bland dinner, right?

Illust: Hackney’s

Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” because you’re blessed.

You carry the favor of God wherever you go.

Did you know that?

The saving presence of Jesus Christ is in you, and you’re walking around in the world.

Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” because you’re blessed.

You carry the favor of God wherever you go.

Did you know that?

The saving presence of Jesus Christ is in you, and you’re walking around in the world.

Remember in , (QUOTE), we looked at Jesus’s words in ,

And in , he told the woman at the well that the water he gives becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life?

He doesn’t just give enough to survive, he gives enough to change the world around you.

Now he says you’re the salt of the earth, carrying around the flavor of God’s favor with you wherever you go.

When salt brings flavor, it also brings preservation.

I probably don’t have to tell you that in the days before refrigerators, they didn’t have refrigerators.

So that cow you slaughtered had a very short shelf-life.

The two primary ways to preserve it were to cure it with salt or smoke it - and by the way, those are still the best ways.

And if you combine them, you get pastrami, which is the best of all, but I digress (digest).

When salt brings flavor, it also brings preservation.

I probably don’t have to tell you that in the days before refrigerators, they didn’t have refrigerators.

So that cow you slaughtered had a very short shelf-life.

The two primary ways to preserve it were to cure it with salt or smoke it - and by the way, those are still the best ways.

And if you combine them, you get pastrami, which is the best of all, but I digress (digest).

And then there’s the purifying power of salt.

According to , every offering had to be seasoned with salt.

It purified the offering.

The salt of the earth is meant to make a specific difference in the world.

Without a relationship with Jesus Christ, the world has no flavor.

And it’s also perishing - it needs the preserving power, the saving power, that comes from a life-giving, purifying connection to God.

The world needs Jesus.

Look at the rest of verse 13 - he says, <<READ 13>>

What does unsalty salt of the earth look like?

Purposelessness.

If Bethel isn’t bringing the flavor of God to the world, then we don’t have a purpose.

Unsalty salt is good for something, Jesus says - it’s good for being trampled.

Which is to say unsalty salt is kind of a joke.