How to be Salt in a Decaying World - Matthew 5:13-22, John 1:4, Matthew 22:36-40

1. 0:03 Amen. Thank you, team. Thank you all very much for your support. I've been installed, uninstalled, forestalled, restalled any number of times. I really thought this morning why don't we just do it again, but I've got to tell you, I really was kind of blown away by all that.
2. 0:21 So I want to thank the other elders and the deacons and all of you for your support. It's a great, great privilege to be a pastor and it's especially a great privilege to be your pastor. So thank you for allowing me to continue to do this. It means the world to Heidi and me.
3. 0:36 So with that, would you pray with me? Our Lord and our God, it's a great privilege to be here in a place of worship with the people of God gathered here at 84, 85 Southwest 112th Street.
4. 0:52 Those of us who are joining us online, those who will see this service later, Lord, we ask that you would be now here in the midst of your people that you would dwell in and inhabit the praises of your people. Now as we look into this portion of your word, your word is truth.
5. 1:09 Please sanctify us in the truth. For I make this prayer in the name of the living word, Jesus. Amen. Well, I am a preacher. I make a living with words and I have always been fascinated by words, by their power, by their flexibility.
6. 1:27 Think about the times in your life when just a word has had such an impact on you. Maybe a one-syllable word like a yes or a no. The things you've said yes to, things you've said no to, how they have impacted the course of your life.
7. 1:45 I know that's true in my life, my family's, and the reason I'm here today. Things we say yes to, things we need to say no to, just a word or two here or there. Words are powerful. Words can make us laugh. They can make us cry. They can make us angry. They make us sad.
8. 2:01 Words can inspire us. Words can discourage us. Words can start wars. Words can end wars. In my lifetime, I think of some of the great inspiring words that have helped impact and inspire this nation.
9. 2:19 January 20th, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Words that please God, let them reverberate and echo from shore to shore again today.
10. 2:37 We need to hear it. August 28th, 1963, when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said, I have a dream. I have a dream. June 12th, 1987, when President Ronald Reagan stood in the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall and against the counsel of all his advisors, he said, Mr.
11. 3:06 Gorbachev, tear down this wall. And I think of September 11th, 2001, when 40 men and women, passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93, their plane having been hijacked by Muslim terrorists, huddled together in the back of that aircraft.
12. 3:31 when they realized that what was probably about to happen was that those terrorists were going to take that plane and crash it into a building in Washington, D.C., either the White House or more likely the Capitol building. Those 40 men and women did the most American thing you can do.
13. 3:49 They discussed it. They took a vote. and they decided they were not going down without a fight. And one of them, Todd Beamer, who'd just been on the phone with an operator who was giving you information about what was happening that day, he asked her to please call his wife and children and tell them that he loved them.
14. 4:09 Then he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer with him, and she did. Then he turned to the 40 others. He said, okay, guys, are you ready? Let's roll. Then they rushed the cockpit and overpowered the terrorists. Instead of taking it to their intended target in Washington, D.C., those 40 courageous souls saw to that plane augured into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
15. 4:34 I hope to be there one day to honor their memory. They struck the first counterattack in America's war against terror. Words, just air coming up from our lungs and through our lips shaped by our tongues and our teeth, but man, the power of words have.
16. 4:52 Those words have shaped the course of a nation. These words, from Matthew 5, verses 13 to 20, these words have inspired and impacted the entire world. Would you read along with me? Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
17. 5:13 It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light 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 and it gives light to all who are in the house.
18. 5:31 In the same way, let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works. Give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
19. 5:48 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of these, least of these commandments, teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
20. 6:06 Whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. These are words, simple words that have changed the world.
21. 6:24 Salt, light, life. We're continuing a new series that we're calling Jesus Said What? The great Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson says this is Jesus' manifesto.
22. 6:41 Whatever you want to call it, these words are momentous, life-shaking and world-changing. Life on earth has never been the same since Jesus of Nazareth stood on that Galilean hillside and preached what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
23. 6:57 Jesus said What? If you read the Bible, you read it seriously and you never, ever, ever say, Wow, really Lord? Jesus, really? Did you mean that? Lord, are you serious?
24. 7:12 Why? If you never do that, if you never have a Jesus Said What moment, I suggest you go back and read the Bible a little more carefully because if you read it seriously, you will frequently find yourself saying, God, I can't believe you'd do that. I can't believe you'd say that.
25. 7:27 I can't believe you'd tell me to do that and yet he does. This is not your typical inoffensive little Sunday homily that people sleep through and then they wake up when it's over and then they walk out and say, nice speech and then they go home and forget all about it.
26. 7:43 Couldn't tell you anything the speaker said that day. No, no. These words, these words are, again, they're life changing. They move heaven. They shake earth. They send shockwaves through the corridors of hell and cold chills up and down Satan's bony little spine.
27. 8:04 Now, these words, Jesus is speaking to us in a whole different wavelength than everybody else. He speaks with power and authority and here in these verses of 13 to 20, he speaks to us of what life is like in his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. So, I'll just point out three aspects of this.
28. 8:21 In these words, Jesus tells us who we are to be, what we are to do, and how we are to live. Who we are to be, what we are to do, and how we are to live. First of all, who we are, you are the salt of the earth, Jesus says. Salt is a preservative.
29. 8:37 They don't have modern refrigeration at this time. So, the way they have to preserve precious food to keep it from spoiling and food was so precious. When they pray, give us this day our daily bread, it's not just a slogan. They're surviving day to day to preserve precious food.
30. 8:54 They put salt on it. Salt helps slow down the decaying process. Salt is a preservative. Salt is what we are to be in the world. We are called to be agents of preservation of what is good in the world.
31. 9:10 We're called to help conserve what is good and right and true about our families, our homes, our cultures, our countries. The word conservative in its traditional sense means you want to conserve what is good and right and true about your culture and your country and so forth.
32. 9:27 Christians are called to be agents of conservation in that sense. But salt also seasons. It's what gives food its flavor. So we as Christians, we're not just called to be the anti-people to say no to everything. We're not just called to oppose evil.
33. 9:43 You know, every party needs a pooper. Let's invite some Christians. That's not our role. We're also called to liven things up to bring life. Now the mood of this verb here, let me just get a little technical. It's indicative. So it's not a command or a mandate.
34. 9:59 It's not a technique. telling you what you are to do. He's telling you who you are to be. It's a statement about who and what we are. If you follow Jesus as Lord, you are the salt of the earth. Now think and act and live like the salt of the earth.
35. 10:17 You know, so often when I pronounce the benediction, I often say to you a Trinitarian blessing in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And the last thing I say to you is live the life. Now I don't say that because I couldn't think of another way to end the benediction. What I'm saying to you is take what we've done here from 11 to 12 or a little longer today.
36. 10:35 Hey, you just installed me, so you've got to give me a little time here, okay? We're going to run over. Don't worry. You're not running out to see the dolphins play. Thank God. Anyway, so what we do in here from 11 to 12, whatever, on Sundays, it's not just a little one-hour spasm that has nothing to do with the rest of your life, then you go out and live your normal cruddy life between now and next Sunday.
37. 10:59 No, you take what we do in here and you apply it throughout the work, throughout the week. You think and act and live as salt of the earth. You live the life. Then there's a warning, but salt has lost its taste.
38. 11:15 How shall saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled. Salt loses saltiness. I won't try to go into the chemical properties of it. That's above my pay grade, but salt, sodium chloride does degrade.
39. 11:31 It just degrades if it's left out, left exposed. And when that happens with Jesus' people over time, we let our faith and our vitality decay, then we're not much used to the world either.
40. 11:46 We're not much used to the Lord. We are also the light of the world. You're the light of the world, Jesus says. A city set on a hill can't be hidden. You don't light a lamp and then put it under a bucket or a bushel. No, you put it upon a lampstand where it gives light to everybody in the house.
41. 12:03 We're called to be light. Here again, the mood is indicative. It's not a command. It's not what you are to do. It's a statement of who you are and what you are. You are the light of the world. If you follow Jesus as Lord and you want to be his disciple, to walk with him, to obey him, then you are the light of the world.
42. 12:26 Give off that light that you get from Jesus. Now just be who you are and live and act and think consistently with your calling to be the light of the world. We of all people should be full of life and light.
43. 12:42 Jesus is. You know, when the Pharisees criticized Jesus, they never say, he's such a bore. He's such a stick in the mud. He's no fun. No. What they criticized him for was being a little too lively for their taste. He broke the bounds of conventional wisdom of what a faithful Jew ought to look like.
44. 13:04 They say he hangs out with hookers and lepers and tax collectors. He actually eats dinner with you. He seems to like these people. Over 40 years ago, Rebecca Manley Pipper put out a book called Out of the Salt Shaker and Into the World.
45. 13:20 It's a great book. Still highly recommend. Now I've shared this quote from this book with you before, but I want to share it with you again. Some of you will not have heard it. Rebecca Manley Pipper writes, people were offended with Jesus because he violated their understanding of religion and piety.
46. 13:35 What do you do with a man who's supposed to be the holiest man who's ever lived and yet goes around talking with prostitutes and hugging lepers? What do you do with a man who not only mingles with the most unsavory people, but actually seems to enjoy them?
47. 13:52 The religious accused him of being a drunkard, a glutton, and having tacky-tasting friends. Jesus was simply not your ideal Rotarian. It is a profound irony that the Son of God visited this planet, and one of the chief complaints against him was that he was not religious enough.
48. 14:11 Jesus was and he is the most radical, life-altering, world-shaking personality this world has ever seen. As John says in the prologue to his gospel, chapter 1, verse 4, in him was life, and this life was the light of men.
49. 14:32 Now that's who we are. What are we to do? What are we to do? Well, what we do is in the same way Jesus says, let your lights shine before others so that they may see your good works, and therefore give glory to your Father in heaven. We're to shine a light and let people know this isn't about me.
50. 14:50 This is a reflected light coming from God, the Father of lights. So we lift up. We contend for all this good and right and true in the world. We call out, we oppose all that is destructive and decaying in the world, all that is destructive and decaying of men and women who are the image bearers of God Almighty.
51. 15:13 D.L. Moody once wrote, a holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns, they only shine. I read that quote once long ago in another church far, far away, and after the service, an older gentleman came up to me.
52. 15:31 He was a very seasoned sailor, and he said, pastor, that's not true. He said, lighthouses shine all right, but if they see a ship that's in trouble, like maybe heading for some rocks, they make a lot of noise. They warn that ship, you're in trouble, alter your course.
53. 15:47 So yeah, lighthouses shine, but when they need to, they raise their voices, they make noise. That's why we as Christians, we're so strongly opposed to, we speak out against some of the blatant rampant evils that are besetting our culture and our country today.
54. 16:05 We speak up for the rights for justice for the preborn child, against the evils of abortion and human trafficking, selling people into slavery. We're in that fight against that here in this church. We'd love to have you join us.
55. 16:20 That's why we work so hard to help eradicate disease and poverty and hunger and suffering all over the world, even in countries that aren't particularly friendly at ours. That's why great organizations like Samaritan's Purse, they're on the ground in Jamaica right now. They were there as soon as the wind stopped blowing.
56. 16:37 They were first in and long after everybody else has gotten bored and moved on to the next crisis, Samaritan's Purse will still be there ministering comfort and aid in Jesus' name. And they and other Christian ministries do this all over the world. We believe every human being, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, mental or physical or emotional abilities or lack thereof, economic status, educational level, we believe every human being is created in the image of God and is therefore entitled to dignity, respect, compassion.
57. 17:16 And so we shine a light on that and we raise our voices in support of those things that work for the good of the human race against those things that are destructive and decaying. If you read the Lord of the Rings or at least seen the movies, those of you who haven't read the books or seen the movies, I assume you are communists, you should please make a beeline to read the books or at least watch the movies.
58. 17:40 I can't begin to explain the whole story to you, but just suffice it to say, two little creatures called hobbits. One has a ring of power and he's got to destroy it or middle earth will be overrun by the evil Lord. Cannot confirm whether the evil Lord was patterned after Vladimir Putin. I don't know that for a fact.
59. 17:56 So the hobbits are on their way to Mount Doom to destroy the ring of power. Frodo's the ring bearer, his helper, his best friend, his supporter is named Sam. Here's a conversation that goes on between those two. Frodo, I can't do this, Sam.
60. 18:12 Sam, I know it's all wrong. By rights, we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered, full of darkness and danger they were. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.
61. 18:30 Even darkness must pass away. A new day will come and when the sun shines, it will shine out all the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you. They meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr.
62. 18:47 Frodo, I do understand. I do know. I do now. Folk in these stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
63. 19:02 What are we holding on to, Sam? There's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for. There is good in this world, and it's worth fighting for in the name of Jesus. So what can you do to be salt and light?
64. 19:19 Here's some just simple practical applications. First of all, vote when you get a chance. It is to our shame how few professing Christians actually show up to vote. What a shame. I'm not presuming we'll all vote the same way, but we should at least be good citizens of our earthly kingdom.
65. 19:34 So vote. Contact. You're elected and appointed representatives and officials. It's never been easier. You can call them. You can text them. You can tweet them or whatever that's called now on X. True social, whatever.
66. 19:50 You can email them. You can fax them. You can even, and I do this every now and then, go totally crazy and write them a letter. I do these things frequently. I want my trying representatives to know what I think, what I believe in that I'm watching them and how they vote. It's never been easier.
67. 20:05 We as Christians should hold our elected and appointed officials accountable like that. There's also simple everyday things you can do. Be the person in your workplace who refuses to cut ethical corners. Don't pad your expense accounts.
68. 20:21 Don't say you worked more hours than you really did. Be the person in your workplace who will not take God's name in vain or use Jesus Christ as an epithet. It's a low bar to clear in our culture today, but at least do those things.
69. 20:39 Be the person who generally cares about other people, your coworkers, even your bosses or your employees, your classmates, your teachers, your professors. If you are a teacher or professor, be the one who cares about your students.
70. 20:55 You'll change their lives if you do. Be the person who cares about your neighbors, people on your softball team, your volleyball team, your teammates, whatever, your own family. Be the person who really genuinely cares about the other people in this church.
71. 21:10 Even people who have different political views from you on social media or whatever. Even people who like different music than you. Be the person who cares about them. Simple, practical things where you can be the light. You can shine the light of God's love.
72. 21:26 Somebody says, well, pastor, that seems like a lot to remember. Let me simplify it for you. In fact, Jesus did it for all of us. Matthew chapter 22, verse 36 through 40. Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law, he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
73. 21:46 This is the first and great commandment. Great and first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend on all the law and the prophets. You're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world.
74. 22:01 So what is it? Makes us salty? How is it we're to shine the light? By belonging to Jesus. By professing him as Lord. By allowing the Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts and to change us from the inside out.
75. 22:17 If you're here today or with us online and you've never come to that point, you've allowed Jesus to be the Lord of your life, receive the payment that he's made for you on the cross, please do it today. You don't know when you'll get another chance. Let that process of becoming salt and light start in your life today.
76. 22:36 That's who we are. That's what we are to do. Finally, I would just say how we are to live. Joseph, verse 17, Jesus said, don't think I came to abolish the law and the prophets. When Jesus says law and the prophets, for him, that's the Hebrew scriptures.
77. 22:52 For us, we call it the Old Testament. Jesus said, I didn't come to do away with that. I came to fulfill it. Now, what does he mean by that? I don't know if this analogy will help, but let me try it. I'm not the world's biggest football fan and the most knowledgeable, but in football, they play four quarters, and if the score is tied, then they go into overtime, and then there's different rules.
78. 23:14 So, if after the first four quarters, first 60 minutes, the score is tied, and then you go into overtime, does that mean that the first four quarters, first 60 minutes don't mean anything because you're kind of starting over? No. It's those first 60 minutes that got you to overtime where the rules could change.
79. 23:32 The Old Covenant, what God did with his people under the law of Moses and beyond that, it's like those were the rules at the time, and they have now brought us to the point where Messiah can take the stage, and now he changes the equation.
80. 23:50 Now it's a whole new ballgame because Messiah has come and fulfilled the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets we couldn't fulfill. He has done that for us. He's taken the punishment we deserve for breaking those laws and commandments. He's bestowed upon us his righteousness.
81. 24:08 Praise God. He takes my sin. I get his righteousness. So how does he fulfill the law and the prophets? Well, like I said, he himself is the fulfillment. Sometimes that's kind of hard to see when you're reading through the scriptures. You're in the rules and the regulations in the book of Leviticus or the censuses in the book of Numbers or the genealogies in the first chronicles or the lists of the priests who had to divorce their foreign wives so they could remain priests in the book of Ezra.
82. 24:38 You read those things, you think, what does this have to do with Jesus? Well, he's in there. Sometimes you have to dig a little bit, but it all points to him. Old Testament points ahead to his coming. The Gospels and Acts point at his incarnation.
83. 24:54 Acts and the rest of the epistles and the Revelation point ahead to his second coming and refer back to this first. And that's what we'll celebrate here around this table in just a few moments. Truly I say to you, he says, that word is amen. It means this is of utmost importance.
84. 25:11 Till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, of my law will pass away. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God abides forever. It's probably too strong to say that if you don't believe the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant and follow the word of God, that you can't know Jesus as Lord, that's probably not true.
85. 25:33 There are people who don't believe the Bible to be really truly God's word and still love Jesus. I accept that. God knows your hearts. But I will say this. If you don't believe this book is really God's inspired word that really contains the true story of Jesus, then your faith stands on shaky grounds.
86. 25:52 Then your faith is a matter of saying, well, I think this is true. Just the way a Hindu thinks his faith is true, or a Muslim thinks her faith is true, or a Buddha thinks his semi-faith is true, we need to anchor our faith in the words of this book because Jesus said, not one iota, not one dot will pass away and before heaven and earth will.
87. 26:19 So the Bible is our anchor for truth. We can believe it or not. We can obey it or not. We can teach it and preach it or not. What we cannot do, what I cannot do, is change it and say that it means something that it doesn't say.
88. 26:36 I have no right to do that. So I can tell you, on behalf of Pastor James and myself and anybody else who's ever behind this pulpit, we will continue to present the word of God to you as faithfully and in an unvarnished way as we know how to do. We will present to you the word of truth as best we know how.
89. 26:52 We may not always do it well. Sometimes we may run a little long. But I promise you, whoever stands behind this pulpit will believe this will be the word of God and will preach it and teach it to you as faithfully as we know how. There's just one more shocker here.
90. 27:07 One more. Jesus said, what? Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And, uh-oh. Everybody around him that heard that sermon said, then who can be saved?
91. 27:24 None of us out-righteous the scribes and the Pharisees. And it's true, none of them did. And none of us do. But there was one person there that day whose righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and the Pharisees and that was the man who spoke it.
92. 27:39 Again, Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness that we could not fulfill. And he's extended that to us through his blood and his body on the cross, which is what we're here to commemorate today. These are words that have uplifted and inspired people all over the world for 2,000 years.
93. 28:01 They've changed the course of the world. These are words, simple words, salt, light, life. It's who we are to be, it's what we are to do, and it's how we are to live as citizens of God's kingdom.
94. 28:18 And now this morning, I want to have you pay attention to some more words that have changed the course of the world forever. This is my body which is broken for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you for the remission of sins.
95. 28:34 Will you pray with me? Our Lord and our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, again, we lift our hearts and our minds to you. So grateful that we can be your people.
96. 28:50 We're not good, we're not even better, but we're yours. Lord, now use these simple elements of unleavened bread and grape juice to further nourish and sustain us as we go closer and closer to you and more and more like Jesus in whose name I pray.
97. 29:08 Amen.

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