Are You Salty?

Helen Ewing was saved as a young girl in Scotland and gave her life completely to the lordship of Christ. When she died at the age of 22 it is said that all Scotland wept. She had expected to serve God as a missionary in Europe and had become fluent in the Russian language. But she was not able to fulfill that dream. She had no obvious gifts such as speaking or writing, and she had never traveled far from home. Yet by the time she died she had won hundreds of people to Jesus Christ. Countless missionaries mourned her death because they knew that a great channel of their spiritual strength was gone. She had risen every morning at five in order to study God's Word and to pray. Her diary revealed that she regularly prayed for over three hundred missionaries by name. Everywhere she went the atmosphere was changed. If someone was telling a dirty story, he would stop if he saw her coming. If people were complaining, they would become ashamed of it in her presence. An acquaintance reported that while she was at Glasgow University she left the fragrance of Christ wherever she went. In everything she said and did she was God's salt.”

Helen certainly seemed to have been a woman who influenced many people throughout her short life and perhaps and you heard the story of your life, you began to think of people who really influenced you. For me, I’ve been thinking of my old youth leaders and how influential they were in my life. As a matter of fact, they’re one of the reasons Ragan and I got together! And, you know, to be an influence upon someone is a big deal. But sometimes we think to ourselves, “Yeah, but that’s something that older people do. I’m to young to make a difference, to be an influence. I want you to listen really closely to what Elihu Burritt said

Elihu Burritt wrote, "No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present, but of every subsequent age of humanity.  No one can detach himself from this connection.  There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche along the disc of nonexistence to which he can retreat from his relations to others, where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the moral destiny of the world.  Everywhere, his presence or absence will be felt.  Everywhere, he will have companions who will be better or worse because of him.  It is an old saying," says Burritt, "and one of the fearful and fathomless statements of import, that we are forming characters for eternity. Forming characters?  Whose?  Our own or others?  Both.  And in that momentous fact lies the peril and the responsibility of our existence.  Who is sufficient for the thought?  Thousands of my fellow beings will yearly enter eternity with characters differing from those they would have carried thither had I never lived.  The sunlight of that world will reveal my finger marks in their primary formations, and in their successive strata of thought and life."

Did you catch that? The friends you have, the people you worship with, your siblings, your classmates, that teacher who taught you ninth grade English. You will make an impact on them in someway whether you mean to or not! Your life isn’t just a speck on a screen, rather your life matters, and it affects people all around you.

Influence is the word I want to highlight for us today as we think of being a salty Christian. As we look here in Matthew 5, the Lord is preaching a sermon and has just finished highlighting the great characteristics of Kingdom citizens and now He is moving from our character, to our confrontation with the world and He does that here as He gives us the picture of being salt and light. The Bible says Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5:13–16 NKJV

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Today, the Lord is calling you to influence those around you. And with that being said, I want to highlight a few things for us here today.

The Peril

You’re sitting at home one Saturday, the suns going down while mom sets the table for dinner so she asks you to turn on the light. As she sets the table, you all sit down and begin to dig in as someone pipes up and asks for the salt because mom forgot to salt the green beans. Now, if I’m asking for a light and for salt, what does that tell you? Well, tells me that it’s dark and these green-beans are bland! And this is what I want to communicate right here for a moment that the world is a place of decay and darkness.

Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

And if man’s heart is wicked and it’s not even trustworthy, what do you think the world will look like if we reject the trustworthy words of God? It’s going to be a place of darkness and decay right? And that’s what we see today! From the global scale where we see war all the way down to our houses where there is divorce like never before, we live in a culture where people have forsaken the God of truth and we are witnessing their decay all around us. That’s the problem at hand and until we begin to realize there’s a problem, it will certainly be hard for us to see the mission in front of us.

So, as you think of your friends at school, your neighbors and teammates, what is their condition? Are they in darkness, are they facing the decaying and destructive effects of sin? Or on a bigger scale, do we look at Burlington and NC or at the world and see how dark it is? This leads into the next point.

Our Purpose

Do you feel like you have a purpose? A goal or mission before you? Sure, you should have goals to save up for a car and to make good grades, but for what are they purposed? When you talk with your friends, and live out your life do you have purpose? This guy did:

Woodrow Wilson told the story of being in a barbershop one time. "I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a powerful personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself to have his hair cut and sat in the chair next to me. Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D. L. Moody was in that chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship."

When Christ speaks to His followers He tells them emphatically in Greek, “You and you alone are the salt and light of the world!” We are people placed here for a purpose. Notice how he says talks about us as a city on a hill? That’s a sign of prominence, of importance, it is to claim that whoever lives here has a desire to play a role in the lives of people. People who want to live quiet, lonely lives go to little valleys so they won’t be noticed, but that’s not for Christians, the Lord is stating that we are here for purpose. And that purpose, first, is to be salt:

Be Salt

Salt had a lot of purposes in the ancient days, it was used in worship, it was used to pay Roman soldiers (That is where the term, “You’re not worth your salt” came from), it was used for flavoring and for anti-septic but the main thing it was used for was preserving food. Remember, there weren’t refrigerators or freezers back then so you would need to salt your food to keep it preserved for a longer period of time and when you rubbed that meat down with salt, it would kill off much of the and that’s what you and I are called to do.

But not only are we called to be salt, but we are called to:

Be Light

During this time period, people would carry around little lanterns that were about the size of their hands and the Lord uses speaks in the present tense as though to say we are to be constantly light. We are to be what we are.

We are to influence the world, living before them as transformed people who have witnessed the power of the Gospel personally. We are to influence those around us, to cause them to thirst for God, to expose and resist what is wrong. This is not an option for us, it’s just who we are!

But what if the salt loses it saltiness? What if we want to hide the light? This leads us to

A Problem

Now, as you go home, you’ll probably never hear mom say, “Honey, I’ve got to go to the store, our salt is bad.” But back then they didn’t have pure salt like we do so there were chances that the saltiness would leach out. And what could you do? Resalt the salt? The Lord says, “No! It will be worth nothing but to be trampled under the foot of men!”

In Israel people will sit out on their roofs at the end of the day to cool off. And they would often times put old salt on top of their roof to held pack the ceiling to prevent leaks so it would literally be walk on top off.

The Lord also says, in Matthew 5:15

Matthew 5:15 NKJV

15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

What since would it make to turn on your flashlight and then shut it in a drawer? And what since would it make to hide the lamp you just lit? The Lord is giving us an important warning on the sincerity of our commitment to him. The very purpose of being a follower of Christ is to give light, to be a trophy of His grace in your life. It’s not an option, so to speak, it’s just who we are, we’re new creatures!

One writer said, “Lighting a lamp in order to hide it under the peck measure is as senseless as thinking that a city built on a hill can be kept from the sight of those who pass by. In order to fulfil their nature, those who are the light of the world must be prepared to be located in places of clear visibility.”

We could never be lights, unless we have been illuminated by grace. This command to shine is only based on the event of us being recipients of Christ’s light in us.

And lastly we see,

Our Passion

The Lord is driving everything home here by pointing out that our lives, every righteous thing about us and all that we do, should be to reflect our Lord. The purpose of our deeds, the reason that we are to be active in good works is not for our own glory, but that we might reflect the glory of our God in Heaven. It may make people ridicule us, but that shouldn’t stop us. Salts going to be salty, light is going to be bright and we’re going to reflect Christ because we’re Christians.

We have the good Word, and we need to have a good walk before men that testifies of the power of our message.

Listen to this quote, “Thus the kingdom norms (vv. 3–12) so work out in the lives of the kingdom’s heirs as to produce the kingdom witness (vv. 13–16). If salt (v. 13) exercises the negative function of delaying decay and warns disciples of the danger of compromise and conformity to the world, then light (vv. 14–16) speaks positively of illuminating a sin-darkened world and warns against a withdrawal from the world that does not lead others to glorify the Father in heaven. “Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him” (Bonhoeffer, p. 106).”

Conclusion

A few months ago I had a meeting with the Mayor of Burlington and he and I had a great conversation where I was able to share my burden of seeing the Gospel influence not only the government, but to see it impact our city and it was while we were there that he asked us as Christians to speak out against injustice in our communities. Whether it’s a wicked bill in the city council or perhaps people in need, we as Christians are called to make an impact.

And so today I ask you, “Are you salty and is the light of Christ shining in your life?”

Isaiah 1:17 NKJV

17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

Proverbs 31:8–9 NKJV

8 Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 24:11 NKJV

11 Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.

We live in a world wrecked by sin, we see it in the news, in homes, in the lives of our friends and class mates. Do we have a burden for our city? To see it impacted by the truth?

We should be committed to praying that God would keep us passionately dedicated to being representatives of His grace to those around us for His honor and glory.