We are the Salt and the Light of the World

1/27/2023 

Text: Mathew 5:13-20

Our Role as followers of Christ – directed at the Disciples: Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The Fulfillment of the Law

¹⁷ “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. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Prayer: Open our heart Lord as we share Your scripture today. Let it be the Salt and the Light our lives. In your name, Amen

Sermon

 

First part

1.      We take in the Salt: change inside, clean up inside us

2.      We take God’s light: outward reflection of what inside

 

Second Part: The Law & Jesus Purposes: The Fulfillment of the Law. The Fulfillment is Christ became the Redemption

First: We are the Light and our purpose is to turn darkness into light. We are the Salt and we preserve and flavor our food.

Salt - The intake of salt is to preserve meat and other purposes such as cleaning. Salt is a natural antibacterial and has been used for cleaning since the medieval times! Clean the kitchen drain: Pour a mixture of salt and hot water down the kitchen sink to deodorize and prevent grease buildup. Salt preserve by killing bacteria that make the meet go back—it de-rottened our food, Imagine that, Chris in our hear removing spiritual bacteria that makes a rotten heart. Christ de-rotten our hearts or appropriately, Christ renew our hearts. Salt is an antibacterial as Christ is anti-Satan

Flavored: its our purpose: flavored the taste of our food. So sometimes when there is a meal that does not taste so well, salt is added. Salt from it’s nature pull out the goodness in our food. Pull the best out of others. That is what Jesus is saying today: We are the salt of the earth because we seasoned others to be Christlike. Now we have been preserved and our presence influence others to be preserved and

The main points of the first part: is that we are the Salt (work on our inside) and We are the light is to be the shining example

 

Light - Today we understand how important the power supply for electronic devices, lights, vehicles, among other things which requires power. Our Text aims to capitalize on our blessings, the first part of chapter 5, and we are all filled with blessings and now Christ turned to the Disciples and commanded them to be Salt and Light of this world.   

 

We are called to shine God’s light onto others in the world, but that light does not come from our own power or ability. We do not give out of our own importance. We shed the light of Christ by first being filled with it ourselves. Because of Christ’s love, life, and death, we have the opportunity to serve Him by loving and serving one another.

Do you know what this is? (Hold up light or flashlight). Yes, this is a flashlight!

Turn on and off – worldly light, battery runs out but Christ Light Stays on at all the time because it is plugged into to eternity

 

Our Christian lives can be this way sometimes? Sometimes the light is on sometimes it is off. God calls us to be the light of the world. Do you know what that means? It means that God wants us to tell others about Him, And to demonstrate His love to people. In our text today, Jesus tells us to let our light shine so that others can now have something special. This means we walk into a room; we are the reason as to why that room is brighter. It means when folks around us have a bad day, we have the ability to lighten it up. 

 

This lamp (or flashlight or light) only shines if it is plugged in (or charged, powered, etc.). So our light can only shine if we are connected to the light of Jesus.

 

We have to be “plugged in” to Him constantly. We have to stay charged by our power source. How do we do that? We can be faithful to read God’s word, the Bible. We can pray and pray continually. We don’t just pray or read the Bible once in a while or when we are at church; we can do this all the time! We must stay charged up and the only way to od this is to continuously plug into Christ.  

 

The usefulness of the light is only be recognized when it shines in all direction. But if that light is hidden, it is no longer useful

 

Here's the practical process:

 

1.      Salt is to internalize the scripture

a.      Add to your daily bread

2.      Light

a.      Let the internalization of the scripture Shine through you  

b.      Be the sample of Christ

3.      Compartmentalized

a.      Let Jesus be the guard of our compartments

b.      Let Jesus open the appropriate compartments

c.       Take that burden off from you

 

Story: Young man dies and went up to meet St. Peter

This young person died early at a young age. He ascended to the pearly gate and St. Peter met him at the Gate. St Pete flip through his list looking for this young man name and could not find it. St. Pete told the young man, “You are here too early, it is not your time yet. Therefore, what I am going to do is not send you back but will give you a choice.” “You will choose where you want to spend eternity at, between Heaven and Hell.” They took the elevator down to Hell and the young man notice all this beautiful people parting and the music going on, everyone is having fun and a good time. The young man eyes revived, “uhhmmm, this is Hell?” so they went back up in the elevator to Heaven and he notice people up there just worshipping and singing.

They went back to the Gate and St. Pete asked: “Well, have you made up your mind?” the young man  said well, “looks like folks in Hell was having a whole lot of fun, I want to go there and join the party.” So they took the elevator down, when they got down there, door open, dead heat, terrible odor, awful sound of crying coming out and Satan came to the door to meet the young man, young man asked, “what happen to the party and the beautiful people having fun and good times?” Satan said, “when you first came out, I was campaigning!”

Let’s not be distracted by the things of this world. We have to internalize the scripture and let God’s light shine through us so we can see the distractions and be the change agent that God have designated us to be.

 

God always wants to hear from us, and we can ask Him for help in letting the light of Christ shine for all to see. Let’s pray

Closing Prayer:

Lord, we thank you for always answering our prayers, give us the strength and the wisdom to accept your answer in Your way when it comes. Help us to pray with faith consistently and repeatedly, to believe, wait, and then move forward in Your timing. Help us to be patient in prayer, not give up, and trust You even during the time of our most difficulty, we want to turn it over to you and live by faith. Help us not to take matters in our own hands for you have blessed us eternally. 

Today, you’ve reminded us how you have blessed us:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And you also reminded us of our responsibilities is to be the Salt and the Light of this world. Helps us shine your light through us. We are to influence others throughout our journeys. Influence others not with those things of this world but with the eternal light of your Love.

With your help Lord, deepen our understanding, and give us greater knowledge of how to become the eternal light that not only shine now but also guide us to eternity. We thank You Lord. You have all the wisdom and will answer our prayers in Your ways. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Move Forward

Through the twisted rope attached to my belly button, generational myth passed on to the building block of my DNA. Parted I was, independently I thought, the world is mine and I am of the world. The sound resembling floating tubs moisturized as cotton mothball gaining weight while sinking into the deep. I am awakened to the revolving door of another season, yes, it is another new year. A transitional experience that repeats every 12 months. It is time to pause, it is time to ponder, it is a time of reflection, it is time for contemplation, it is time for gratitude, overall, it is time to move forward.

I am reminded of a story that was told to me by one of my elders: “Young man went to the Circus, and he just happen to pass by the area they kept the Elephants; he noticed that one of the elephants is tied on one of his feet with a skinny rope onto a single chair. “This is a 1200 LBS elephant that is tied onto a chair?” He thought to himself, this is very unsafe, as the elephant, with no effort, can easily pull on the rope and get away and it could be very devastatingly dangerous to the crowd.

As he was wondering this, one of the trainers passed by, so the young man asked, “trainer, isn’t it dangerous to just tie the elephant with a skinny rope to a simple chair? He can easily get away?” The trainer explained: “see young man, when this elephant was just a toddler, he was tied with the same rope to the same chair. Back then, he did not have the physical strength to get away.” So, the elephants have been mentally trained and conditioned that he could not get away. Although he is physically capable, he is mentally incapable.

Yes, the revolving door of the new year happened two weeks ago, but the constant reminder continues: it is time to move forward. We may had had some conditions or situations in 2022 that we thought we could not get away from, this is the time to move forward. It is time to breakaway independently from the myths of our pasts. Lets not continue to be mentally enslaved to those conditions that hold us back. Free ourselves and move forward!