Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When you look at the Word of God we see that God loves us, He love us, He loves all the people of this world that He has created.

We see it from his dealings with Adam and Eve and we know it historically as He worked with His children of every generation and time.

Now, as God called His children, the children of Israel to walk and follow Him, He announced through his prophets that one was coming, a Savior and Deliver who would save the world from its sin.

God loves the world, In the Old Testament we see He was sending one who

And the world waited.... and at the right time, Jesus came… the Savior, the one who would save us from our sin… and we know that Jesus lived, was crucified and died and rose again on the third day.

He died as a ransom, a sacrifice for sin, He took our place and forever redeemed us from sin, from death and from hell.

And as we followed Him, we began to walk and follow Him as Lord and Savior.

As a follower of Jesus, we have a responsibility as any son or daughter has to their parent, in our case, to God our eternal parent.

One is to be a witness..

Two ways in particular my friends...

First, as His children we are called to be a light, a light to a world in darkness..

Look around us my friends, we do indeed live in a world of darkness.

In our nation today we have justified the legal murder of children even at the time of birth… We would like to euthanize those who people call a burden on society.

The world all around us is dark.

And secondly, we are called to be salt .

Salt is a wonderful thing my friends, because the properties of salt has a great effect on what it is applied, it flavors, preserves and yes, purifies… Salt can change and make some well, whole… Oh Jesus makes us well...

So we are called to be salt and light....

This morning I want us to look at the gospel of Matthew, to the sermon on the mount where we are called to be salt and light...

So lets explore this topic, and we will examine the call for us to be lights

Let me take you to

Lets find , verses 13-16

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I love this passage, and the reason being it reminds us that we can have a wonderful effect upon and in this world, but we have to be willing to be a witness of the good things we have seen as we have walked with Jesus.

So lets begin this morning and see what is our responsibility...

A Call .....

First off today my friends, there is ...

1.

A Call .....

The call for the child of God is to be different.... and the society of the world we live in is not our friends.

It wasn’t in the time Jesus walked and it is not today either.

A Call .....

If you look back you can see very easily my friends that this world and its inhabitants have fallen away from God.

Since sin entered the world, people have been bent toward evil when left to their own devices.

And so the call for us is to be agents of change...

Jesus calls for people to be salt and light in this world…

Now consider this....

As you look back at the beginning of this 5th chapter Jesus began by sharing the “beattitudes” with those He was teaching.

These “new” attitudes that He shares represents a radically different outlook we are to have than the rest of the world.

The world endorses sin, sin and more sin…today and sadly the world is at war with God and the people of God.

So the child of God is to be agents of change under the direction of God’s Holy Spirit.. bring light to the darkness, bringing salt to help affect change in this world.

That is our call...

Remember, Jesus told his disciples and yes us by extension to be his witness in this lost world.

Remember Acts 1:8....

With the coming of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered and directed to be His witness indeed.

And while we do not live in Jerusalem we can begin here, East Stone/Big Stone Gap, this is our Jerusalem… Judea, which is our surrounding communities, Samaria .. the areas surrounding that… yes all the way down into Florida this coming week and then to the other most parts of the world.

And we have been Moldvoa and other places,

And there are so many other places, but the idea is for us to be ready to step up because we have been called!

You have been called… not just me, Bobby, Jarret, all of us!

Are you ready to head out...

Do you sense God calling you to go and tell, to go and serve......

Will you answer His call… Will you be like Isaiah… Here I am Lord, Send me!

Now lets move and consider this second thought.....

2. Two Tasks....

Consider this my friends, as a child of God we have work to do!

We have the responsibility to live in front of our Savior in a way that is not only pleasing to Him, but also makes a lasting difference in this world.

So lets break this down...

As His Child we are called to be a disciple.

A disciple is a student, one who learns to walk and imitate the Master.

Walking as He walked.

So we are found to be pleasing in His sight as we live for Him, as we walk as He has commanded us to walk, essential living and being, acting like Jesus in accordance with the word of God.

But then we can fine tune what all this means.... now I am not going to explore every scenario of our responsibility…not today.

But from what we examine in this text.. Jesus says we are called to be two things in this world… salt and light.

Lets go back to the text...

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There it is, verses 13 and 14 … Jesus says “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.”

So consider those two Salt and Light..

1. Salt is a wonderful mineral, one that we can identity with today.

We use it… there is table salt, kosher salt, sea salt, pink Himalayan salt and it does on and on… Now in today’s word salt is really pure.

Now what I mean by pure is that we have developed the technology to separate salt from other mineral items that is mined with it… Thus we have salt that is pure, it will last, it will remain in a since … salty

But this wasn’t the case in the days of Jesus.

Salt had a high rate of impurities that could change the way it tasted, it could over time decrease its ability to work and influence other foods or other items it was used for…

So lets build off of this information..

Jesus says you - me the children of God, disciples are the salt of the earth.

That phrase means there is a fundamental goodness about us.. yet I would contend that the only true goodness in each of us is Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

His presence in our lives is what has made us good, better, redeemed my friends, so His presence in us is what makes us useful in this world, it speaks to us being salt.

Now when we look historically we know that salt was used in three ways...

A. Seasoning B. Purifying agent C. Antiseptic

A. Seasoning… It was used to flavor and enhance the taste of food.

, verses 6 -7 speaks to the blessing that food is better with seasoning, with salt.

Also, says thagt animals should have fodder that has been seasoned, which means that salt is added to add the animal for health and its delight.

we like salt.

But we know that to much physical salt can be harmful, but not spiritual.

B. Purifying agent

A. Seasoning… It was used to flavor and enhance the taste of food.

, verses 6 -7 speaks to the blessing that food is better with seasoning, with salt.

Also, says thagt animals should have fodder that has been seasoned, which means that salt is added to add the animal for health and its delight.

we like salt.

But we know that to much physical salt can be harmful, but not spiritual.

C. Antiseptic

As the salt of the earth we are to season this world, out presence should be an effect that makes the world better.

Our presence reveals the love of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus and of course the message of the Savior as well.

We exist to help make the world better, to improve others lives because of our commitment to God and each other.

Let me ask you a question… what are you doing that improves the world’s taste of the gospel, of His presence, of the things of God in this world.

Are you improving...

B. Purifying Agent.... We know one of the best uses of salt is a good ole country ham.. ok, not the ham, but it is the fact that historically food can be salted and preserved, kept from the process of decay or rot… it makes the item stable for later consumption.

Also, We know that in , Elisha used salt as the agent in the miracle of purify a polluted spring.

We know that in , Elisha used salt as the agent in the miracle of purify a polluted spring.

As the salt of the earth we are to share the message of the gospel so that all might hear the message “For God so loved the World.”

Let me ask you a question… how are you being that purifying agent… Are you successfully bearing the message of Jesus to others… The message we share is not one of osmosis… No! It is one of sharing that life might be made better....

And then lastly,

C. Antiseptic - Salt was used to aid in the healing processes of life.

Babies often were rubbed with salt, especially around the cord, it aided in the healing process and keeping infection away in the world .