Untitled Sermon (10)

: The world will taste and see God’s glory as followers of Jesus live as salt and light.

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Hook: Every Thursday morning I meet with Seth Huber for personal accountable, and talk……As we were discussing and praying for our church that we would be more of a witness in our town Seth told me a story that He heard on the Radom from an interview down with Tom Doyle with started Uncharted ministers which is a ministeris that seek to find a new great awakeing among Jews and Muslis in teh middle east….In the interview he told a story of a womne named heba, and she had a little boy name named Ali who was six, and even though they live in a fantic muslim Area, there was one church in the area, that went under by the way a lot of persecution, and every time Heba and Ali would walk by the church…Ali would say, “Mommy we have to go into the church…” and she would say no we are muslims we don’t go into the church…But he said but don’t you see the bright light coming out of the windows??? and front door its so marvelous, bright and white…what is that?? and Heba would just keep saying know we can’t go in we can’t go in….And this would go on for weeks and weeks…as they passed by this church to go to the market…and finally he just like most six year old just wore her down….And he finally just took off running into the church..and she followed him in…and she said when she walked in and in the midist of worship and she said, “Sounded like angles sining, I have never seen so much loy, joy and passion,…even though she was in her muslim garber she was met with the salt and light of teh church…..

Now, I believe God moves in vision and dreams, as I think maybe this boy experienced which lead them….But today we are going to find that Jesus does call His believers to be Salt and Light…..that their should be an attraction toward us that leads to His glory….

Sermon in a sentence:The world will taste and see God’s glory as followers of Jesus live as salt and light.

Context:

Today we find ourselves in Matthew who was the writer of Matthew who was a jewish tac collector…the one we find his calling story in and ..He calls him by name…One of the main themes in Matthew is Jesus the long awaited Messiah is now the one who brought the kingdom of God, in fulfillment of God’s promises…More specifically if you have studied Matthew a bit you have picked up on the fact that today we find ourselves in Jesus sermon on the mount….his famous sermon address to disciples of Jesus, but others were listening in as well….The sermon mount- Which was a way longer sermon then I have ever preached…so ya…and it countains so many popular verses, and rightighlty so, its a beatuifl sermon that shows our daily need to be transformed by the Gospel, and from a new heart that is transfomred by the gospel how to live a righthouse life……

-What is more important to note is where our text for today is in the deliever of the sermon…..Verse 13-16 are at the begining of the sermon right after Jesus delivers His famouse Beatitides….That is important for two reason

Jesus in moving from a description of a follower of Jesus to a there function.

In light of the these beascute charactistic that should make up a follower of Jesus this is how you are to look toward the world, they were never meant to be lived in just isolation but moved out….

My aim now is to : To encourage us to know who we are, and pray for a renewed zeal to live out being salt and light for the Glory of God!

How am I going to do that..verse by verse and show you….

Verse 13—What does it mean to be Salt?

-One thing I want to get out of the way right quick is remmeber the context and look at the words…YOU ARE….Being salt is what a believer will be….you don’t go out and try to be salt without first realizeing you are nothing without Jesus…We don’t change behavior and then come to Jesus…We come to Jesus and then He chnages our behavior………

Now in my youth pastor brain some teens might be like this is a bad thing…people used the phrase your salty bro…No..No….think what did it mean in their context that Jesus followers are Salt….What was salt used for in those days???

Salt was used for a vast number of things in the ancient world…But there are three big ones:

Salt was a Preservative:

Now we live in the twenty first century, which means we don’t just have one refrigerator in our house but probably two….plus a deep freezer, this is how we preserve our food…some people preserver more than others…anyway…back in this time…..the only way to make sure food didn’t rot was smothering it with some salt or soaking it in some saltine solution…..rub it all over their meats would make it last….

I would say finding this historical mindset blew my mind and challenged me….because Because with this in view as we being salt or preservative of what….the earth…meaning as we know I mean just flip on the tv and you can see how our world is in decay: aboration are at a all time high, sucides, drugs, etc….And yet we are suppose to be this Salt…”The chuch , as salt, functions as a retardant to decay and a preservative in a disntegrating wordl Jesus was saying in effect, “Humanity without me is a dead body that is rotting and falling apart. And you, my followers, are the salt that must be rubbed into the flesh to halt the decompostion.” The church must be rubbed inot the world-inot thist rotting flesh and wounds so that it might preserved…..

what does that mean?

Salt added Flavor:

We out to be the ones who love life…we don’t look at this decay…and hide in our hobbit holes…..curse the world….NO……we want to understand this world is fallen but by God’s common grace we can still work, write, sing, play sports, think, drink coffee…and we should…we are to created zeal and passion for this life…

Salt makes one Thirsty:

Jesus constanlty made people thirsy are we that way“Are we salty enough to make people thirsty for Jesus” (Huges 82)….Jesus

-Salt isn’t meant to sit in saltshakerit’s meant to be shaken out

- There is a new hot shot theorpyt these days were you just lay in a salt bath…..which I think is what we can so oftern do in our churches…just give me more message, just float around..don’t you want to just float around in the salt tank…naw…oftern I think this is how we think of in the church….we get these great messages and we are just rolling around in it…isn’t it so great to be saved…lets go have another dounte, another pot luck…pass the food brother, why the world is out their decaying we are in hear..sitting in our own salt water….the way we Please and honor Jesus is to get the Salt out of the saltshaker to the world…

How Does Salt loose its Saltness?

-Well chemical speaking it doesn’t( so this

While true Salt can’t stop being true salt it can be deulltied…

how do we dullite salt…they would find salt at the medtertatin see(R.C. sporuls…so it would be mixed with other minerals that looks like salt but isn’t salt….He is not saying that you can loose your salvation…but can loose our saltiness by being dullited….One way I think this happens is with our American attention on number instead of church doctrine and discipline! (——-Illustration——-)

Verse 14-15- What does it mean to be Light?

-Christ is light

We are light— in -Illustration of the Moon——

Espeshinas 5:8

-Do we hide our light and if so are we really light?

-Christ light made a clearer disction of the dark in people lives…

-The stand is a stragegic place)

God places us so that we can shine—-Hillsboro is our stand but so is our workplaces, homes,etc…..Jesus has placed you on your stand to “Brighten the corner where you are”

-You can’t have a City with one person

“darker the better…Christ“

-Our world does love darkness john 3:19……So they may not like your light Verse 11

Verse 16- What is our motivation for being Salt and Light?

good works: Kalos, attractiveness or beauty, rather than agathos, which means good in quality—John stott, “Indeed the primary meaning of ‘works’ must be practical, visislbe deeds of compassion. It is when people see these, Jesus said, that they will glorify God, for they embody the good news of his love which we proclaim. Whtout them our gsopel loses its credibility and our God his honour. The posture of our heart is

Psalm 115:1—“Not to us, O lord, not to use but to your name give glory

Landing the Plane:

-How do we stay light or shine brighter? A man returning from a journey brought his wife a matchbox that would glow in the dark. after he gave it to her, she turned out the light, but i could not be see. Both thought they had been cheated. Then the wife noticed some French words on the box and asked a friend to translate them. the inscription said:” If you want me to shine in the night, keep me in the light”

And we all with unveiled face, be holding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same inamge form one degree of glory to another. for this comes form the Lord who is the spirit 2 cor 3:18

…..and to those who feel the wait of decay, and darknes of the sin they are in and the world they live in and you have seen possible a Christian and thgouth wow…you have been like that boy just drawn to God people..or the church….let me be the first to tell you it isn’t anything they did in and of theselves but what God did in them through faith in trust and Jesus….and you can put you faith in Jesus today….by admitting the truth that you are sinner in need of being saved and that Jesus did take the spot on the cross, and dies and rising again paid for you sin and made a way to the father….Believein the name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved…and You will be come Salt that needs shaken and Light that needs shown off for the Glory of God Amem