[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Amen. Thank you, Kristen, Lydia, Cindy, and Ed. We're blessed with such talented people in the church.
[0:13] Music is a great way to communicate truth. That's an important job that we do as Christians is to communicate truth out into this world. I learned this week Brother Chuck and some others have been working towards forming a youth choir, and I'm really excited about that because singing is not only a great way to communicate truth, but it's a good way to make it part of your life.
[0:29] Like what Brother John said in offering devotion about, it's not just a truth that you learn, but something that you'll live and experience. Let's hope what we'll find here in Matthew chapter number 5 is that you'll find the truth that you will live and you'll experience as we're told to be salt.
[0:45] We're told that we are salt and light in this world. I love this passage of Scripture. Talking to David a boy yesterday, we were hanging out together, and we were talking about some years ago Aaron Bashore preached the message out of Haggai, and I walked out of the church and I saw David and I said, David, did you enjoy that message?
[1:04] And he said, well, really? And he said, it really has led me to believe I should do something. He had like this plan of what he was going to do, and it was a pretty serious thing that he was going to do in his life, a big step that he was going to take.
[1:18] And I said, oh, wow, I was just making small talk. I didn't really expect to be in the middle of this. And it was a great reminder that we don't just come to the Word to learn, but we really do come to implement it into our lives, to find a place in our heart to live it out.
[1:33] So Matthew chapter number 5 talks about this salt and this light that is there. So Pastor took us through what's commonly known as the Beatitudes, what is seeing the marks, what makes us distinct as believers in this dark world that we live in.
[1:49] The pastor said that we are the beggarly ones, we mourn over our sins, we're meek before a holy God, we hunger and thirst for righteousness, and consequently merciful, pure in heart, and we are the peacemakers.
[2:04] And then verses 11 and 12 where we ended last week, he said because of that, us being that type of person in a world that isn't like that, we're the peacemakers that we are persecuted. And so that's what distinctness of our life, that it ought to be different than an unbelieving person.
[2:20] So now we pass through the Beatitudes, and we get through verses 13 through 16, and if you're the sum of these four verses in the one word, it would be the word influence. It talks about the influence that every one of us have in here, from the student in here to the oldest senior saint in here, every one of us have a measure of influence because of that life that he gave us.
[2:41] Many of you have seen the light in the darkness video, and if you haven't, I'd love the opportunity to watch it with you. But one of the lines I like, Doss says, nobody in my society knew who I was until I met Jesus.
[2:53] And now there's some people that know him. And he's not popular, and he can't run for politics. Not everybody knows him, but the ones who know him know him for something now because he became different.
[3:04] He became remarkable because of the way that the gospel had changed his life. Philosophers say it like this, that no man is an island, that we're all interconnected one another.
[3:15] The Moravians, the famous group that sent out so many missionaries, they had a ring. Jeff Bush and I made one 10 years ago when I was a student in Peru, and it said, no man liveth and dieth unto himself.
[3:26] It's a reminder that like it or not, every one of you have influence in here. I have influence, and I'm not going to die without making an impression upon somebody's life.
[3:37] And so I don't have to convince you to have influence. That's given. But I will challenge you from the Word of God about what you're going to do with that influence. One person put it like this, you're writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by deeds that you do and words that you say.
[3:51] Men read what you write, whether faultless or true. So what is the gospel according to you? What is it people understand about our great God by the way they watch you live out your life?
[4:03] Salt, silent, quiet, characteristic, and then light, truth, being spoken, being proclaimed. What are people learning about our God? When it's said in Acts 1-1 of Jesus, it's what he began to both do and to teach.
[4:17] It was his life and what he taught. So those who live according to the Beatitudes, those who have been transformed by the gospel, are going to influence this broken world as salt and light.
[4:29] Verse number 13, Ye are the salt of the earth. Say this with me. I'm going to ask you to say, We are the salt of the earth. 13 verse 1, We are the salt of the earth.
[4:40] 14, We are the light of the world. Say that one more time with me. We are the light of the world. It's stating things that are true about us. So everyone in here, teenager, everybody in here, you know that that's already a God-given role that you play in this world.
[4:58] You are salt, and you are light, and now we just let that light shine. And so it's about influence, and it's about placement. Because you're already those things if you're a believer.
[5:08] And if you're not lit in here today, if you haven't been made that by the gospel, I'd love for this to be the day that that happens. But everyone who's in here has to think, I am salt, I am light. And then on these verses, we look at the placement of salt and light.
[5:22] And I would encourage you to station your light differently. I would challenge you to place yourself in different places that need you in this world. So first of all here, we see what's obvious.
[5:35] We see the problem with the world. It's dark and decaying. And we see that because it says it's needed light and it needs salt. So you can deduce that from it. If the place needs light, then apparently it doesn't have light.
[5:47] And you are the light. There's not a plethora of different ways to get light. There's one place where light comes from in this world, and it's the light of Jesus Christ that shines through us and from us because of what He's done. They need light because they don't have any, and they need salt because it's decaying.
[6:01] And it's a stated effect here. I find it interesting that Matthew did not pull out the Sunday paper to give you evidence of the truth, and so neither will I. There is no shortage of evidence that this world is dark and in need of salt and light.
[6:16] You've seen it this week. You've heard it during prayer requests and the times that are going on. We live in a broken world. And the verses 10 through 12 told us the attitude that people have towards us as that.
[6:28] Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you, that ye shall all manner of evil speak against you falsely for my name's sake, for my sake.
[6:42] So it tells us a lot about the world by the way they treat us. The fact that we're salt and light and they're not happy about it. The fact that they're blinded by it, that they don't enjoy the light that's there. They don't see the marvelous light of Christ the same way we do, that we're not wanted in certain places is indicative of how dark and decaying that the world is.
[7:00] 2 Peter 3, verses 3-7 say it's so true. You would think this was written today about today, but it was written 2,000 years ago, but it's very much true today.
[7:12] People are scoffing and they're willfully ignorant. People are chasing their own lust while mocking the return of our Lord. Listen to it in 2 Peter 3-7. 1 Peter 3, verses 3-7.
[7:51] It's the day we live in. It's been a dark day as it has been since the fall of man and his people, the believers, those people that have made new by faith in Christ.
[8:08] We are the salt and light. So we ended the Beatitudes, but this is still the Sermon on the Mount. So Jesus has the multitude there. And if you're picturing this, he's looking out over a large crowd. His heart goes out to the world.
[8:20] He came to seek and save. That was lost. But then he targets in on those disciples. This is how G. Campbell Morgan says it. It says, And he says, I told you who you're going to be, and I've told you how the world is going to treat you, but I'm not going to take you out of this thing.
[9:03] I'm not going to tell you the run, but I'm going to tell you based upon what we know in this world, I need you in this world being salt and light. The world left itself gets worse and worse disorder.
[9:15] Some people believe that the world is evolving up. I read about those people, but I rarely meet them. But if you're one of those people today, I won't insult you from here, but I would love to have a conversation with you because from the Word of God and simply from looking out the window, I cannot see how you cannot see that the world left to itself gets better and better.
[9:36] And the attitude of the believer to the world is much different than the way the world would look at us. They said they're going to persecute us. We said we're going to be a blessing to this world by the way we point you to the truth and the way that we are salt in this world.
[9:50] In 2 Peter 3, in the following verses that we didn't read, it says there's a time coming in the future when God will again rain fire out of heaven and destroy the world in a holocaust of fire like men have never dreamed.
[10:02] 2 Peter 3, 8-10, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but in longsuffering towards usward, but not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance, that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
[10:31] The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. So knowing the type of person we are and that the world doesn't like us and we persecute us, it would be very easy to say if that's how you feel about us, this is how we feel about you, but there's just one thing that we know that they don't know, that the end is near, that the wrath of God is coming.
[10:48] And so you may not like us, but we're not going anywhere. We never get invitations from closed countries to send missionaries. We never get emails from neighborhoods asking us to come there. We don't get emails from your friends, Brother Paul, saying, I'd really like my co-worker here to talk to me about Jesus.
[11:05] Could you talk to them about Sunday? We don't receive any invitations like that, but we still go and we still do what we're doing because there's a truth that we know that they don't know.
[11:15] And when they know it, they become peacemakers and not the persecutors. Because we were the persecutors. We were the rebels. But now we get to be the peacemakers. And I understand this is a difficult task.
[11:27] John chapter number 17, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, he says, I pray that they will not be taken out of the world. And the next sentence, it says, they're not of the world. And the last verse later, it says, so I've sent them into the world.
[11:40] And then in John, he says, but love not the world. So God talking to us about the world says, I want you in the world, but not of the world. I've sent you to the world, but I don't want you to love the things of the world.
[11:51] Sounds a little complicated, doesn't it? But because of what he's done us as a new creature, you are that person. You're salt and light. It's not something you have to work up. It's just naturally the way that the world is going to treat you.
[12:04] And we should feel an urgency about it. Ken, if you'll put the picture up of the wheat field, I won't show you all the pictures. I went with this story. But in Kansas, there was a picture shown out in the middle of the field.
[12:15] It's a house surrounded by a field. It's a mom and a dad. And they had lost the child in the wheat field. I won't show the picture because it's just too much to handle. The story is very sad.
[12:27] And so the child is lost in the wheat field. And it gets late in the evening. The sun is setting. And they call the friends. The friends start coming over. And they start looking for the child. They get hand in hand.
[12:38] And they walk through the wheat field. And the next morning, they found that the child had passed away in the night and through the cold. And the picture of the dad there crying, he says, I wish to God we would have joined hands sooner than we did.
[12:54] If we would have got together sooner, if we would have found this child. That's just a horrific story. But can I tell you that that isn't an overkill to illustrate this point. If anything, it's a smaller illustration of the bigger point.
[13:06] That in this world, we are called to go hand in hand and to go through this field looking for those people. That when they find us, they're not happy that we found this. That may persecute us at times.
[13:17] But they're people living in darkness that need light. That's what we do. We comb through this community together. Hand in hand and working. So we see the problem in the world. And that's easily given.
[13:28] You should know about it. If not, turn the news on for a few minutes. I like Uncle Sam. He says, I don't even read the newspaper. It just makes your hands dirty and it makes your mind clouded with all the mess of the world.
[13:39] That's how he puts it. And not only that, there's a problem in the world, but we're peculiar people. David, I heard this growing up. I usually heard that we were peculiar people when somebody did something really weird and they wanted to justify why we did weird things.
[13:49] That's not exactly what the Bible is saying. If you're weird, that's your choice. It's not necessarily a Christian characteristic. Even though plenty of us are weird, that's optional. And so peculiar people, meaning that we're set aside for a specific work that he would do.
[14:02] 1 Peter 2.9, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises. That you should show forth the praises of him.
[14:14] So what are you going to do tomorrow? You're going to show forth the praises of God. On your to-do list, on your day plan, or whatever it is you have to do. Number one, today I'm going to show forth the praises of him.
[14:27] Because you have been called you out of darkness into marvelous light. Because we see this. It's marvelous here. We're set aside. We're out of darkness into marvelous light.
[14:38] It's not that we're just away from something. He doesn't just call us away from darkness to something else. But we're called away from darkness to a person that is light. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
[14:49] It's not from something with no, just get away from that. It isn't just get away from that and get to this. It's get away from there and come to him. That's why it's marvelous. Because it's a person of Jesus.
[15:00] And we learn about him. In your adult Bible fellowship, in Sunday school classes today, in the book of Jonah we were there. We learn about this wonderful, gracious God and the light that we now live in because of that.
[15:11] And so we're given a responsibility to make a difference to you. I had you say it. We are salt. We are light. Every one of you in here. So none of you in here get the job of just giving a commentary on the problem.
[15:22] And saying, you guys, you be salt and light. I'll stand over here to the side and I'll let everybody know how incredibly dark it is. Well, you can retire. We don't need you to do that, okay? We're very much aware of how dark the world is.
[15:33] We also need people just to give analysis of how we think other people are doing with their salt and their life. Man, can you believe that guy with his influence? I mean, he's a football player. Why can't he be like Tim Depot or some other football player?
[15:45] I don't know. We give analysis. Or why is that politician? Why doesn't he? He's a Christian. Why doesn't he do more with his influence? Or whoever it is. Maybe it's a boss and has more influence. You have plenty of influence in life to steward to give your life to complaining about how other people do it.
[16:02] And I would love, I can't take it in here. I'd love to sit down with every one of you and to show you how incredible influential you are. Simply by being in here today or with your children or with somebody who comes up to you today.
[16:14] Of all the stories. I wrote a letter to my son's basketball coach for eight Saturdays. He was my son's basketball coach. And I said, I don't know how much future Thatcher has with basketball.
[16:24] I'm guessing very little right now. But I said, I don't know how much influence basketball is going to have in his life. But you had a big impact on my son. And that means a lot to me. You know? And so that's there.
[16:34] He's showing up on Saturday, doing his job, being faithful. And you're that person at some place at some time. And it isn't a lot of time. But you have that influence with people. And so we are salt.
[16:46] We are the salt here. The only people. The only people with the characteristics of the kingdom are you and I as believers. And so we'll talk about salt more in a minute. But you know there's a saying among Roman soldiers who were told that they were paid by salt.
[16:58] And so that's where the saying comes, you're not worth your salt. Meaning you're getting paid in your salt. But you really weren't worth what you did there. And so we see the commentaries. If you study this passage and he talks about salt, it means a lot more.
[17:11] When I think salt, I see salt shaker. Okay? When they thought salt, they thought much more than you and I would. They might think payment. They would see it in a different form. But there's a lot of quick things that salt go to.
[17:22] There's a purity there. And that contrasts against the things that are in. And that would be obvious. There's a flavor about salt. We know that. But even the Bible. In Job 6, he gives his little recipe about making eggs.
[17:34] Job says, don't eat eggs unless it has salt on it. How many of you agree with me? Don't eat eggs unless it has salt on it. And Job said that. I don't know. And so that was inspired by God that put salt on your eggs.
[17:46] And all Southern Christians said, amen. Okay? And so we should add value to the things that we're in. We shouldn't be takers. That a little salt in a loaf of bread, even though it doesn't taste salty, it makes a big difference in the salt.
[17:57] So you add value to whatever company you work for, whatever you're in, whatever you volunteer at church. We're not takers. We add influence. We add flavor. We make things better because we've been made something that this world needs.
[18:13] And then there's a sting about it. We are a sting and convict the sinful world, the wound of the world. And Ezekiel 16, verse I never paid attention to, but it said that when a baby is born, they take this salt water and they would put it on the baby.
[18:29] And so it would help with the wounds of the baby when it comes out. And that's who you are sometimes. We don't go about looking to be that person, but we're not going to waver from the truth. So sometimes the things we say, they kind of sting.
[18:42] But it's there to bring healing in the life of somebody. Say, well, I don't feel like God's that way. Or I don't think the Bible really says that. You say, well, if I wasn't salt, I would agree with you.
[18:52] But I am salt. And because of that, I must say what the Bible says. I'm a Bible-believing Christian. I saw an interview with a famous pastor. They kept asking him controversial things like, what do you believe about this?
[19:04] What do you believe about that? And he was being pressured to say something different. But he said, well, I'm a Bible-believing Christian, so I believe. Now, that's great wisdom. What a smart move. You say, because I'm a Bible-believing Christian, this is my opinion on the matter.
[19:18] And sometimes that stings. And also it creates a thirst in people. That our love for the Lord, it ought to create a thirst. But quite obviously, what would be seen of salt, that was what they would know salt would do, would bring preservation.
[19:32] If it weren't for Christians in the world, it would be a far more corrupt place. We preserve it. If you look at Sodom and Gomorrah, and you would look at that place, and there's kind of a reverse auctioneering going.
[19:45] The numbers go lower instead of higher. Higher and higher. And Abraham says, what if there's 50 people? All right, but what if there's only 45? What if there's 40? What if there's 30?
[19:55] What if there's 20? What if there's just 10 people that are living this life here that are salt? Will you preserve it? And so they work all the way down.
[20:07] Ezekiel, we learn about what Sodom and Gomorrah is like. When you take a city that is deprived of salt people, of Christians, Ezekiel 16.49 says, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom.
[20:21] Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, and neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. It was a city full of pride.
[20:32] It was a city that had abundance, but it didn't take care of the people that needed it. It was a city of idleness. They had abundance and they were just idle. What does that look like? It looks like a city that is depraved of salt.
[20:44] It's what the world looks like when salt is not there. And then we find at the end of time, when we are raptured out, the wrath of God comes upon this world.
[20:56] So I'm not just thinking, hey, you and I are really good guys, and this world would be a lot worse off without us, which sounds really good. It only sounds good. It's what the Bible says, that we bring a preservation to this world.
[21:08] We should have our conversations. Colossians 4.6. Because we're that type of person, we should have conversations that look like that. Colossians 4.6 says, Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.
[21:24] Picture of a barbershop here. Woodrow Wilson, one of our presidents, was sitting in a barbershop, which would be a commonplace. He was sitting there at the barber. And he became aware that a personality had entered into the room.
[21:35] And the man had come quietly upon the same errand as himself to get a haircut. And he's sitting beside him. But every word the man uttered, he thought it was not in the least, he was listening to it.
[21:46] And he was shown a personal interest in everybody that he talked to. And he was helping everybody. And before he got through with what was being done, he became aware of the fact that he had become part of an evangelistic service.
[21:59] And the man sitting there in the barbershop with him was the evangelist D.L. Moody. He said he purposely lingered in the room after he left. And he noted the singular effect that the visit had brought upon the barbershop.
[22:11] They talked in undertones. They didn't know his name. They knew something had elevated their thoughts. They felt the place had become a place of worship. And President Woodrow Wilson said his respect and admiration for Mr. Moody could not be any deeper.
[22:29] So a man sits down. He's not known as a famous evangelist. He's just a man getting a haircut. And in his conversations, when he leaves, the conversation in that room had changed.
[22:40] It had been elevated where people were thinking. And that he had brought an evangelistic service into that place. Well, none of us get our hair cut at barbershops anymore. But don't think this isn't relevant to you in that sense.
[22:54] Wherever you go, would there be a salty conversation that you would have? Would you elevate the conversation? Would it change the way that people talk about it? This is a hard message because sometimes the Word of God comes down and it's an accident you take at a certain time during the day that you would do.
[23:12] Maybe it's read your Bible. And so at a certain time during the day, you're like, I need to read the Bible. This passage is talking about our entire life. It's talking about living a certain type of life.
[23:23] How many of you have seen on the back of cards where it says salt life? Have you ever seen that sticker before? Here's one. Because I'm so cool, because I'm a student pastor, I'm cool. Amen? Nope.
[23:33] All right. See? Luckily, it isn't a qualification of a minister to be cool. And I gave up on that a long time ago. But I thought, oh, salt life, this is a great Christian lingo. Some company must be encouraging people to be salt with their life.
[23:47] And I said, I want to know more about this because I've seen people in Cumming, Georgia with a salt life sticker on their car. And then I Google it and I found out it's about surfing and the beach and everything. And I'm like, we live in Cumming.
[23:58] Lake Lanier definitely isn't a beach, you know? There's no salt life going on in Forsyth County. It could be salt vacation. It could be dreaming about the salt life. You don't live the beach life around here.
[24:10] And so I thought about that, but it's a life that's being lived all the time. And in your conversations, you have that opportunity to elevate it, to add something there because that's who you are.
[24:20] That you get to bring something to the conversation that might not have been there if you didn't enter into the room. And I understand that working in a cubicle with Robert Canfield makes that a lot easier for me than sharing the gospel with him every week.
[24:33] And I know there's times with you that doesn't come as easy. That the conversation is in stark contrast to what's being said. And that you've tried many times. But I can't let you off the hook because you can't stop being who you are.
[24:48] That is who you are. You're there to show forth the praises of God. And I can't promise you that there will be a response from it. The word won't turn void, but the response may be in their heart. I want nothing to do with it.
[24:59] But at least they'll know that there's one man, there's one woman that cared enough about them that would not change who they were because of the conversation. So there's salt. And we also have that we are light.
[25:10] John 8, 12 said, So we are the reflection of Christ. We are a light into this world.
[25:22] As a lamp, is it the source of light? It only contains it. You and I only contain it. We now can enlighten men only because we've been given the knowledge of the glory of God.
[25:32] For God who commanded the light to shine, 2 Corinthians 4, 6, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[25:43] That is who you are. We shall shine in this place. Philippians 2, 14, 16 says, In the midst of a crooked and a perverse nation, we shine as lights of the world, holding forth the word of light.
[25:56] So in salt, it's your characteristic in the light. It's silent. It's who you are. But in light, it is a proclamation. It's shining. It's taking the word of light and putting it in on every situation and letting people know it.
[26:09] It says we provide guidance in the world. And if you read about Proverbs 31 in the virtuous woman, one of the characteristics I never noticed about her. If I would have, it wouldn't have really made much sense to me. It said that her candle doesn't go out at night.
[26:23] That has to do with, unlike where we live, where there's street lights everywhere and it never really gets dark. When it got dark there, it really got dark. Unless people were to place a candle in the window to guide people to that.
[26:36] And it says that she is the type of person that keeps that candle going all night long to provide guidance for those who are in their home to find their way. It's beautiful the way it's said that they provide guidance.
[26:47] That the virtuous woman is a person that provides guidance to her children and the other people. And we are people like that too. We never let the light go out. We're constantly guiding people where they should be going, which is following after the Lord.
[27:01] And we must avoid the danger of just meeting in circles and not joining hands and walking through the field together. That the placement there. We have influence, but these jobs can only be done if we go and put ourselves where we should be.
[27:16] Psalms 4, 6, and 7 says, Who will show us any good? There will be many that say, Who will show us any good, Lord? Lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.
[27:26] Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than the time that their corn and their wine increased. So you can picture the farmer and his corn and his wines increase. And he goes around and is happy.
[27:37] And everybody says, Man, your countenance, what's going on? He's like, Man, I got a bunch of corn this year. I'm so happy about it. But there's another person. And there's something coming out of them. They said, I don't know what's going on with this guy.
[27:48] Because apparently it's even greater than the guy who has all the corn. Something bigger has happened. And that's you and I in there. And the Bible tells us that the world, and I know we don't believe it sometimes, you don't believe that the world is saying, Show us any good.
[28:03] Because you don't hear people talking about that. I know you'd love to go to work or go to school. And you walk in and they're all saying, Please show me. Is there anything good? Please show me the way to Jesus. But they're doing it in so many different ways.
[28:15] They're crying out, asking for somebody to show them good. And there's salt and there's light. And there's people like Mr. Moody that we all know of. And then there's a maidservant in 2 Kings.
[28:26] That when Naaman has leprosy, and she just says to Naaman's wife, she's working there, scrubbing the floors and doing her job. And her master has got leprosy.
[28:37] And she says, Yeah, where I'm from, my God could take care of that. She was showing forth the praises of God. She was placed there as salt and life. And she changes the story.
[28:47] Because she was doing her job, but she did both of her jobs. She did her job that she's paid to do, but she did the job that she has redeemed and saved to do, which was to be salt and light to that conversation.
[28:58] And then we do this collectively. We work together. It says that we are a city on a hill. We're not a grain of salt. One grain of salt by itself doesn't do what we can do collectively.
[29:09] And in these pictures there, we're told that we're gathered. The way races, social classes, and people of different work. We work together. We show the world the power of the gospel. They see friendships that we have in here.
[29:21] If it was not for Christ, I would not have the deep friendships that I have today. And the world sees us there together working collectively, but not just for ourselves, not just for the good of each other, but for their good.
[29:34] And we come together. We're only people that meet for the good of everybody outside of here. Isn't that right? Not only meet for the good of everybody outside of here, but we even meet for the good of people who wouldn't even like us if they know this.
[29:46] And we're the only group like that. And it's wonderful. Then lastly here, there's the positive side, but there's also the negative side. The possibility to little or no influence.
[29:57] It says that we can lose our effectiveness. You don't lose your salvation, but you will lose your effectiveness in these areas. 1 Corinthians 9.27 says, But I, Paul, I keep my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means I have preached to others myself should be a castaway, that I should be put on the shelf.
[30:16] Paul wasn't wondering if he was going to lose salvation. He knew where he stood with the God of heaven. But he was saying, I want to keep the influence that God has given me. I don't want to be set aside. I want to do what He has given me to do.
[30:29] And it says that we'll become, this is strong speech, but it says, I will be good for nothing that it's there. Just imagine with me. It would be like if we had a bunch of trucks and big piles of salt under Spaghetti Junction and a big snowstorm came and the salt didn't go anywhere.
[30:45] It just wouldn't help any. Did you even fathom that idea for us? I don't really know if that's happened. But that's what the news said. They said, they have all the equipment, they have all the salt, they could have solved the problem. If the governor would have done what he was supposed to do, the temperature would have been 75 and it would have never snowed.
[31:01] Alright? That's a little exaggeration. But they were complaining because they said, you had the ability to do something, but you didn't do something. And so that's what it says. It says, you have the ability to do something, but your placement's going to make it where you won't do something about it.
[31:15] And we can lose our influence. By being sinful at work, we can lose our reputation. By being sinful at school, listening to things that people say that aren't right, being involved in things that we know that we shouldn't be, we lose that influence.
[31:28] Dads, moms, we can be sinful at our homes by living as if we're still in darkness. We give up this opportunity. We hand over influence that we shouldn't be handing over.
[31:39] The Bible says that we are a treasure and an earthen vessel. The gospel of Jesus Christ and only, but no one knows it. And we have it in here and our earthen vessel keeps it in so tight and people don't know about it.
[31:53] Your life is so remarkable. It shows the contrast between the beauty of Christ and the darkness of the world. I'll tell the story a million times with a young kid on the Ganges River who looked at the river and said, isn't this beautiful?
[32:04] And I thought, you know nothing of true beauty. You have never heard the story of Jesus. You don't know what beauty is. But He was using His influence to point to beauty and we should use our influence.
[32:15] Don't hide yourself or your story. Get out there. Don't stay all clumped together. Get out there and season this world. So you have an influence of a silent testimony of salt and the impact of a verbal and a living testimony by being light.
[32:30] Be there. Be salt and light. I think the world, Pastor Robert Canfield, he left Friday afternoon. Things that I know all of you have done on occasion. He just drove all the way to Ohio so they could hug a friend that was going through a hard time, get in his car, and come back.
[32:47] Because he understood that the value of salt in any story is important. That he wanted to make sure there was enough salty people in that story that his friend could know the praises of God.
[32:59] And that's an important thing. It's worth the drive. It's worth doing those things to be that person. So don't run from a problem. Run to it. You know, Ryan Murphy hears his friend's house burned down.
[33:10] He doesn't run away or pretend like he doesn't know. He runs there and he tries to do something. Every one of you have stories like that. I thank the Lord for it. Our presence should make a difference as it did with D.L. Moody. Ephesians 5.11 and have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them.
[33:26] Have no fellowship with them but rather reprove them. The corruption in the office ought to feel uncomfortable because we're there. The danger in gossip ought to feel dangerous because we're there.
[33:38] The wickedness at the party we're called salt there. We're not called honey. We're called salt. So sometimes our presence there changes things in a way that people wouldn't like. But that is okay.
[33:50] There is a way in which we live this life in which God can receive glory. That's what verse number 16 says. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
[34:02] We're created this way in salvation. The world doesn't like it. And there's a purpose. And the ultimate purpose is that it's for the glory of God. And so that's the way that's why you live as light and salt into this world.
[34:14] And the purpose is that the God of heaven will be glorified. God means there will never be a meaningless day or a decision to be made. Because you're salt in life there's never a meaningless day.
[34:24] You have a purpose here. You don't recognize it. Jobs come and go. Good times come and go. But your purpose in this world is not going away until He takes you home to heaven. You have a purpose here in this world.
[34:36] There are men, women, and even teenagers in here that have made hard decisions that have even cost them a job because they say I am not changing who God has made me to be.
[34:46] And they were salt and they were light in that moment. Deciding if this is priority will determine the rest of all your decisions. Deciding if the glory of God is highest priority will dictate the rest of the decisions you made.
[35:02] A lot of decisions in life that you make that are so hard when you apply that to it what do I do for the glory of God? It really gets rid of them. I know sometimes we're treating two good options and there's still things we must pray over and ask God for.
[35:13] But a lot of times if you apply that filter to it it gets rid of a lot of options if I live for the glory of God. Am I more concerned about His glory or my reputation? Safety or comfort?
[35:25] Psalms 115.1 Love this verse. Psalms 115.1 says this. It says Not unto us, O Lord not unto us but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake.
[35:42] And so as we close here today can I say is that the prayer of your life? As you're out there and you make decisions about where you're going to place yourself being salt and light some of you need to open up the door to your home if you open up the door to your home you'll be amazed at how many other doors it opens in this world to be salt and the light of people you need to have that conversation you need to make an action plan of what you're going to do knowing you are salt and light you have something to say you can make a difference and can your prayer be in here today can you say with all of your heart not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto Thy name be glory given glory I mean that's what you do with salt and light and make that your decision today not unto us not unto us but unto His name and His glory and we can live this salt life and we live as light place yourself there the placement of light matters so much so you may recognize in here yeah I know I'm a Christian I know I'm that light I know I'm a salt I know I'm those things can I ask you today are you living as if you know those things are you placing yourself in places in this world that need it it's called to the mission field they say running to the darkest corner of this earth so they can have a light why don't we have
[36:56] Mark and Natasha over in a city because it was dark there and we needed to send somebody and if you described your environment and I heard about it we would be pleading with people to be a missionary to go there as well because there's dark places where you work some of you work in industries that are even darker than others because there's very little Christian testimony there others are in environments where a lot of your co-workers say they're Christians but you know that they're not really Bible believers or they don't really love Jesus and their example is at that and doesn't and does that even challenge you even more to be the proper representative and ambassador to Christ not unto us oh Lord not unto us if you're in here today you're still searching you're still in darkness could I welcome you to a city on a hill ready to show you Jesus Christ that there's people all around you here today that would like to show you about this marvelous light how we were once in darkness wherever you're at no matter how dark it is we were there with you we weren't in a dimly lit room that now came into light we were in darkness just like you until the gospel of Jesus Christ penetrated our hearts and saved us and from my heart
[38:03] I don't know your story in here but if you would allow me the opportunity to show you from the word of God how you could leave darkness and find light I would love to do that today believer are you living out who you are in Christ that's seen in these beatitudes in such a way that people glorify our father in heaven by the way they see you live out your life when you walk out of the barber shop do they know that somebody was different that had been in that room with them and that's in you that person is in you the Holy Spirit is working through this world and he's doing it for your life let's pray together heavenly father pray that you'll make this real unto us pray that this will become a lifestyle I pray that you will convict where conviction needs to be brought as only you can do I pray if there's someone in here today that has never put their faith and trust in you that this will be the day that they do it knowing that the sun is fading and that their life is short that there's a room full of people hand in hand that are going around looking for people they can share this message with this message was recorded at
[39:09] Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings