Salt and Light

Walking all right hey good morning everyone we are a little light this morning and that's okay we're here to serve the Lord amen we are going to go out we are going to be salt and light to our community we've got a bunch of different work projects that we're taking care of today and so am I coming through really loud okay like all right so they'll adjust that as we're going a couple of things be sure to grab one of these bulletins these are going to let you know all the things that are happening in the life ministry of our church a couple of things is that nicholas he's still putting together some workers for awana and so that's gonna be they've got a really important meeting that's coming up on august 24th and so if you have signed up it's an essential meeting you have to make that meeting on august 24th to serve in awana now we also have excuse me sorry it's been two nights of really not very well good sleep my son David he's had a fever the last few days so we've taken him to the doctor they said it's viruses he just has to run his course so if y'all see my four little ones over there misbehaving just sit real close to him and say I'm watching you straighten up but anyways we do have global hunger sunday that's something new that our church is doing it is an sbc thing that our church that the southern baptist convention does where we are providing global hunger relief our church goal is two thousand bucks it's our first year we wanted to set an attainable goal for us so if you care about world hunger you want to see kids without

Go being filled when they typically have to go without please be sure to give on that day for that we have community group leader training on august 27th and a big date change we've been doing our monthly men's prayer breakfast on the last saturdays of the month this year we're or this month we're not going to do that because we've got a lot of things that need to get done in our church on august 20th as you guys have seen we've got a lot of construction that's going on outside and it's it's it's kind of a big deal we've got this whole wing right here downstairs that we've got to make sure is moved before all that takes place everything happens we've got some deep cleaning that's taken place down on this side of the building if you've got kids a very important announcement this could change depending on the construction we might have to well we will definitely have to use the back steps on this side of the building so the main steps to the facility that we typically go up to go to kids quest those will be closed and sealed off okay so that starts next week through I think the following week of course that can all change and so if you don't get regular updates from our church through our church email or you don't follow us on facebook you might miss the memo that whole wing may be closed depending on construction we don't know things have already changed for us so far okay so but for now the game plan is use those back steps and go out the building come around and re-enter our facility on the outside yes the nursery will be on this side of the building in rooms was it 412 and 403 or something they were just right across

The hall from each other so that's the plan super excited about it got a lot of things going on and so we see the Lord's hand at work now today we are doing something called salt and light sunday it's where we get to go out and be salt and light to the community and it's important for us to do that and as we'll see in Matthew chapter five that others may see your good works and glorify God as a result of them and so that's what we're going to do today we are going to work hard for the glory of God that others might see our good works and glorify God because of them so why don't we just take a moment right now and just bow our heads and close our eyes and ask for the Lord to minister to us in worship today as we stand and have exciting engaging worship and as we go through the preaching of his word today just take a moment calm your heart close your eyes ask the Lord to make you ready today maybe for you it's been a week just a really hard week ask the Lord right now to be your strength perhaps you're here and you're just excited to serve him it's been a while since you've just joyfully served the Lord take a moment and confess that and ask him to be your joy and your strength today Lord we ask that you would help us to worship this morning help us to praise your name to recognize that you are worthy God help us to worship as the body of Christ unified by the power of the cross by his blood that redeems us and in fact adopts us into your family Lord help us to worship amen well let's

Stand together and join our voices as we sing [Music] I was buried beneath my shade who could carry that kind of weight it was my tune till I met you I was breathing but not alive [Music] all my failures I tried to hide [Music] it was my two till I met you called my name and I ran out of that grave out of the darkness into your glorious day you called my name and I ran out of that grave out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] now your mercy has saved my soul now your freedom is all that I know the old name knew Jesus when I met you called my name and I ran out of that frame out of the darkness into your glorious day you called my name and I ran out of that grave out of the darkness into your glorious day I needed rescue my sin was heavy but chains break at the weight of your glory I needed shelter I was an orphan now you call me a citizen of heaven when I was broken you were my healing now your love is the air that I'm breathing I have a future my eyes are open cause when you called my name I ran out of that grave

[Music] [Applause] out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] you called my name and I ran out of that grave out of the darkness into your glorious day sing it again you called my name you called my name and I ran out of that grave out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] you called my name and I ran out of that grave out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] amen come all you weary come are you thirsty come to the web that never runs dry drink of the water come and thirst no more come all you sinners come find his mercy come to the table he will satisfy the taste of his goodness find what you're looking for God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us whoever believes in him will live forever [Music] bring all your failures bring your addictions come lay them down at the hood of the cross Jesus is waiting there with open arms for God's soul love the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us whoever believes in him will live forever the power of hell forever defeated now it is well I'm walking in freedom for God's soul love God so love the world praise God from whom all blessings love praising

For the wonders of his love praise God from whom our blessings flow praise him for the wonders of his love for God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us whoever believes in him will live forever power of hell forever defeated now it is well I'm walking in freedom for God's soul love God so love the world bring all your failures bring your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the cross Jesus is waiting God so loved the world [Music] amen Lord we thank you God we thank you that you loved the world in such a way that you would deign to send your only begotten son to die the death that we deserve to bear the wrath for our sins so that me we might be reconciled to you and God we asked today that you would help you would remind us of that in such a way that it would cause us to go out and serve others to serve others that they might see some glimpse of your glory it's in Jesus name that we pray amen all right well good morning church we are excited to be in the house of the Lord amen and there's much to be said about enthusiasm and joy and gladness Scripture says that we are to enter his house with thanksgiving and praise and so that for many of us it means joy to see him in other people and to pour out ourselves in an undignified way in worship

When's the last time that any of us were undignified in worship in king David he said I would be more undignified than this and my prayer is that would be true of each and every one of us that through our worship that we would be undignified you know we're gonna be in Matthew chapter five so if you have your Bible and I hope that you do open up to Matthew chapter five we're just going to be in a short passage as I said I'm going to preach a shorter sermon today and all God's people said yeah so sorry John it's going to be a sermon that this morning wherever you're at he changes it up on me sometimes whoa you're back there today that's crazy man all right so why are we doing salt and light sunday at this time part of it is that why are we doing it on a sunday morning I've had that question asked remember that Jesus he taught explicitly on the sabbath he claimed to be Lord of the sabbath he even instructed us that it is lawful to do good on the sabbath that's an important thing because you know for many folks they say well as long as I do my hour or my two hours then I'm good oh Jesus is Lord of the sabbath and he is our rest and therefore we take rest in him whether we that is through our labor or through our rest I would say that God is more glorified through our worship and our going to serve than he is in us vegging out on tablets all day or screen or tv you know Jesus he offers rest not as the world gives does he give it to us and as a pastor you know I felt the burden of helping us as a church rediscover the

Joy of serving the Lord because for many of us like we're good at serving but what about the joy of serving the Lord what about the happiness that it gives to us the gladness of serving Christ do people see that in you as you serve do people see that in me and so that's kind of where I've been wrestling even in my own personal study and in my own personal doings because you know yes I'm the pastor here but I also volunteer in many ways and one of those ways is by playing guitar I'm very thankful because someone has said hey man can I do that for you I said absolutely praise the Lord amen and I'm very thankful for that and so you know now look for a new place to serve because we're called to serve each and every one of us now we've been in Daniel and we just finished up like the first half of the book of Daniel and the first half of Daniel is this historical narrative where it's kind of like major life events in the history in the story of Daniel in babylon it's been great to see God at work and then in chapter 7 it totally changes from a book of history to a book of prophecy and so everything changes and so as I was looking at the calendar I thought you know we've talked about Daniel being salt and light for six chapters for you know for us almost six months now we need to kind of talk about what it means to be salt like even in our own babylon by going out and minister and helping folks and as we looked in Daniel it all started with him not defiling himself with the king's food the king's wine and as a result of that act of

Faithfulness we saw Daniel's influence and his greatness just expand and explode over 60 70 years we got to see that and we could easily say that Daniel he was salt and light to his culture but Jesus he definitively taught on what it means to be salt and light so let's stand in honor of God's word as we read Matthew chapter five we're going to read verses 13 through 15 13-16 and we're going to see what Jesus taught us about being salt and light the Scripture says this you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet you are the lie of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven and so God we do pray that today that we would learn about not only what it means to be salt and light but how to apply it to our lives help us to remember what your clear and explicit instruction is for us that we might go out and do good works that others might see your son in us and might because of what we do be saved help us to make disciples who make disciples that we might be found faithful God our goal is that at the end of this life that he would look at us and say well done my good and faithful servant God let that be said of each and every

One of us in Jesus name amen well have you ever been around someone who just changes the atmosphere of the room you know some folks might call them the life of the party but when I think of people that change the atmosphere of a room I think of my wife she can walk into like a disjointed room and just exude Christ she exudes joy and peace even in the midst of the chaos of having five kids she just exudes patience and love not all the time okay she's she's she is a saint she's not perfect but she's pretty perfect for me I think dr marshall as he could walk into a whole church and just you could feel the love oozing out of him and his wife Ruth you could feel the patience and the kindness and the love even as he was just here for just a few short months he left a tremendous impact through his faithful ministry there's a story of president woodrow wilson who was at a barber shop and he was put in a position where he really couldn't see the entrance of the door and those barbershop talk going on you know and guys just kind of cutting it up and telling dirty jokes and things like that and all of a sudden you heard this the door opened up the bell rings and all of a sudden the whole atmosphere in the room just changes and all of a sudden everyone kind of gets quiet and you hear this big booming voice talking about the Lord and folks just all of a sudden they're they're talking and they're sharing all sorts of different stories and I wonder where they're going oh okay good

But they're they're they're the stories changed the content of the jokes changed everything all of a sudden went from kind of this darker feeling all of a sudden to this lighter feeling and president wilson couldn't turn around to see who it was and then he gets a warm towel put over his face and he hears this man witnessing the people you know and sir would you like to be saved and all of a sudden yes and he gets the sense even with a towel over his face that he feels like he's in a worship service all because of one man and by the time that towel was taken off he was able to look and it was the evangelist d.l moody that was in that room who changed the entire atmosphere in much the same way that's exactly what Christians are supposed to be like where just by our merely presence by merely our presence we make things better and Jesus he didn't talk about being salt with some type of future hope did he what does he say there you will be the salt of the earth is that what he said no he said we are it's not some future hope it's who we is you are the salt of the earth this isn't just a descriptor of you know my wife or the dr marshalls or the dl moody's of the world this is this is a verse explicitly about you as a Christian mean as a Christian this is a description of our influence this is what we are called to do so why did Jesus decide to use salt if you're taking notes write these things down these are just different characteristics of salt firstly salt back in that time was extremely valuable actually roman legionnaires used to get paid in

Salt that's where the phrase he's worth is salt or he's not worth his salt came from and so that's how it was it was used even in an economic way but in the roman world it was considered almost divine and as important as the sun itself and so for us as Christians we are to proclaim as precious people to God the truths that are found in his word and they may not even realize how precious Christianity is and that's okay we are still called to be salt to the earth in the world salt also brings flavor and vibrancy to foods you know you ever had like unsalted mashed potatoes it's just you know it's like wallpaper paste but what does salt do it takes the thing and all of a sudden it's your favorite part of the meal that's exactly what salt does it gives favor and flavor it gives life it gives vibrancy to different things as Christians we are to be salt in the sense that we are to make our world a better place there's there's no other world view that exists for that purpose they all borrow from the Christian worldview in order to make it work but as Christians we are called to make it a better place by serving by loving by giving by sharing the Gospel by telling others about God's will did you know that charity did not exist before Christianity because charity is a Christian idea didn't exist so if you like love non-profits and charities thank God for it's a gift to the world because of what Christians have done because of their love for the Lord salt also stings doesn't it ever get salt in a wound it burns in many ways Christians we can prick the conscience of the world by being the salt of the earth at Christianity it's always been offensive to people you look at the early church and they were like kill them and that's how Christianity grew remember that people they're naturally evil and by pointing out the need for salvation the need for the Savior it's offensive but if we're standing on God's word and we're sharing with people their need for the Savior remember that if people are upset and they're angry and their consciences are pricked it's because they're upset with God and not with you they're ultimately angry at God for being God because what he says is wrong is contrary to the natural desires of the flesh salt also makes people thirsty you ever heard the phrase that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink you ever heard that other part of that of that phrase you can't make him drink but you can put salt in the roads in other words develop the thirst for the horse and then he will drink when you want him to as Christianity flourishes in our world we also see other aspects of our world flourish too because salt is also a preservative that keeps things from spoiling thank you miss heather

Things like the economy the arts overall goodness and morality in the world it grows when people begin to turn to Christ there's a reason for that it's because Christianity makes things better it makes things good it's an overall worldview that guides every aspect of life and as the world abandons God's word and it forsakes God's law and it persecutes his people then what will happen is that the world will get darker and darker and darker which is why Christ he didn't just say that we were salt to the earth but we were also light to the world if Christ put his spirit in you then you have his light within you and salt can be hidden I'm constantly surprised by things that have a lot of salt aren't you like if you have to like look around at the different dietary things you know my favorite all-time cereal is quaker honey hoes anybody ever had those before they're just known as os okay my kids are like yeah those are awesome I can't hear a thing while I'm eating them because they're just so crunchy and delicious so like my wife she'll be talking to me about something I have no idea what she's saying so it's a moment of peace for me and my house but malto meal they got it they got a good brand just in case you all are curious the golden honey oats those are a-okay but for a bowl of that it's 340 milligrams of salt which you know you wouldn't expect something so sweet and delicious to be so salty either v8 has 680

Milligrams for an eight ounce glass and I doubt there's many too many people that are sad about that but I'm constantly shocked that even at veggie dudes you wouldn't expect there to be a lot of salt in there but there is my point is that salt can be hidden but life but light cannot be hidden light it helps illuminate things it reveals things it stimulates growth and it gives warmth you know ice it melts very quickly on icy days or on sunny days doesn't it you know we always we're it's not necessarily oh we well we hope that gets above freezing we hope that the sun comes out don't we because it helps get rid of the icy cold roads in much the same way for us in Christ when we're the light of the world you know what happens is that the icy hearts of men and women begin to melt because of the good works that they see because they see Christ in us they become more receptive even gandhi said I love your Christ but I don't like your Christians because you need to see more Christ in Christians but light is for everyone to enjoy you know my wife she has this habit of cooking in the dark for whatever reason like it'll just be dim it'll be light outside but very dark in her kitchen so I'll turn on the light she's like oh I can safely cut this onion now and so you know that's what it does it illuminates things last night I dropped something and I couldn't see it so I got out the flashlight on my phone that way I could see it reveals the things that we miss in the dark in the ancient world

White also meant hope in civilization many small towns they would keep their homes at night to prevent rates but the cities with their walls they were protected so they had no problem having the lights on at night because it wasn't supposed to be hidden because they were secure and they were safe and they also meant safety for people that were outside of the city and in the same way for us we are safe because our hope and our joy and our salvation is found in Christ and when we let our light shine you know what people see is they see safety and hope and so they look to us how do I get in that city the city of God and it allows for us to share the Gospel and the church and the believers we are called to be soft in light and one of the things I want you to remember is verse 16 it's the key verse in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven not in a like a flagrant look at me kind of style because Christ even said let don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing like let your good works be done in secret right we know that's true but also in the same way we are called to let our light shine in a public and visible way how do we balance those two what's it's as a result of our heart what's the goal in service I would argue that any other desire like supreme most important highest of high desire has to be to glorify okay God the secondary desires of you know being kind and loving and all those different things like you know those are secondary desires what is the supreme and most valuable desire for

Serving it has to be to glorify God because he should be the most supreme and most desirable and most wantingly fulfilling being in our entire existence not others but Christ if we shine a light and cover it up what good is it doesn't do anything it doesn't help it doesn't illuminate if I pulled out my flashlight to find something I just covered it up what does that do nothing it doesn't help and so what is what is Christ trying to teach the disciples that are here on the sermon on the mount the most famous sermon preached in all time take you about 20 minutes to read the entire sermon what is he trying to teach us he is wanting people to do good that they might give glory to God that's the whole summary of this teaching what good is it to do good works for the sake of doing good people aren't saved by my goodness they're not saved by your goodness but they're saved by Christ's goodness what he did for us on the cross and so we can do good works to point others to their need for Christ to show others the light that is within us that we can say come and see what the Lord has done taste and see that the Lord is good that's the whole purpose of serving and if we can get people to come to God then it's then between them and God if people can see Christ in us we're able to point them to the cross and we're to say now you deal with God we're not their mediator we're not called to be their mediator they have a mediator and his name is

Jesus they have to enter through him only way they can ever get to heaven and so as you're thinking about salt I want you to write this acrostic down if you're taking notes just kind of big thoughts here salt stands for serving and living truth certainly or speaking excuse me speaking and living I said it's been a long two nights speaking and living truth it's what it means to be salty as a Christian we all need salty people we need salty Christians and so we shared God's word and we abide by it and when we think of light I want you to write this down this acrostic it's loving individuals God has treasured loving individuals God has treasured to be light is to be others minded for the sake of God's kingdom so today as we begin going to our work projects writing letters or repairing fences or doing crafts or to take to the nursing home or doing visits for shut-ins know that your light shines for others to see Christ in you that we are the salt of the earth that people might have an encounter with God and so I want to encourage you that as you go out we're not going to do like a big invitation or even a response song what we're going to do is we're going to spend a moment we're going to pray and I'm actually going to dismiss you guys by service groups and so if you didn't register you'll have to wait until the end and the way that's all going to work is we'll we'll just run down the list and

Get you guys squared away to your work projects but head to hand heart because I need that and I know that you guys enjoy that head hand heart here's what I want you to know as we're talking about this passage God he has called you and I to minister okay you don't have to be a minister to minister okay you don't need an ordination you don't need anything like that you are called by God to minister each and every single one of us so God he's called you to minister you and I were a light we are salt God has already said it hand I want you to work hard today for God's glory some of the conversations that you have it might be awkward or clunky because you may not be used to it you might have an opportunity to speak to a neighbor today point them to Christ you know say yeah I'm from first baptist church and we're here to love on people because we believe that's one thing that God has called us to do but what about you what do you believe about God and see where it goes it's a scary thing but do it that's what we're called to do in heart I want you to believe that we are to joyfully serve for God's kingdom psalm 100 verse 2 tells us to serve the Lord with gladness and so that's one thing that we are called to do so let's serve from our heart not just from duty not just from resolve or mechanical workings okay but let's serve with a spiritual mindedness for the glory of God so let's make it happen and so right now what I would like for you guys to do is just kind of right where you're at with your group or maybe a couple of others if you see some folks around you

That maybe they're a couple or singles or something like that once you kind of move over to them what I would like for us to do is maybe just in that group spend some time praying for your different service projects ask the Lord to help you so once you guys stand up and move and find those different groups and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to close this out in kind of a big group prayer