Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

The Lord made away for Pastor John to visit Israel and he will be gone from Saturday July 30- August 19.

If you have any needs or questions during that time, please reach out to Danny Lonai, Kevin Griffith, or Jim Goodenough and they can help you out.

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time and one book at a time!

We are currently in Matthew and we have come as far as Matthew 5:13, so let us open out Bibles there and dive into the Word and see what the Lord has for us today.

Read Matthew 5:13-16

Prayer

Lord Heavenly Father, we are so privileged to be here today to worship you in Spirit and in Truth this Lord’s day.

And why we come together corporately for worship in Bible study and in song, our heart is that our public lives would match up with our private lives.

Father we all have come with many joys and yet burdens, but for now can you through the power of your generous Holy Spirit direct our thoughts, can you give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us and may you help us to practically apply the lessons.

Lord our hearts are grieved over the death of Chaplain Gil Alden from WSP and we ask the your would immerse his wife Angie in your grace and love, that you would comfort, give peace, hope, and healing to the family during this time.

Lord, please help us all to remember that life is but a vapor and that heaven is near.

So please Lord, may we all be ready for that Day.

Please make us more like Jesus today, than you did yesterday we pray…

In Jesus Name, we Love You! Amen and Amen

Review

Last week we closed out the beatitudes with blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness and for Name sake and not our own.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven and what is interesting is we started with blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom had come because Jesus came of the scene and when we surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, therefore the Kingdom lives in us and through us.

But the Kingdom is yet to come and when the consummation of God’s Kingdom happens this brings the end of the curse that came about in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve entered into rebellion against God.

The consummation of God’s Kingdom will bring about the destruction of all evil and the end of this “present evil age.

It is interesting we started the beatitudes with the poor in spirit and ended with being persecuted.

But the greatest thing we can take away is if we have all 8 in our lives, then we will be blessed to be like our Savior and we will be fragrant to those around us.

When Mary poured that alabaster jar of perfume on Jesus there was a fragrance that filled the room.

And I believe that if these our operating in our lives, we will be fragrant and that we will draw men, women, and children to the Lord.

But wait, I also think there will be those who walk in darkness and will reject the fragrance of Christ in our lives and thus persecute us.

Having seen what the Christian is, we now come to consider how the Christian should manifest this.

Or, if you prefer it, having realized what we are, we must now go on to consider what we must be.

In other words, in these verses that immediately follow, we are told very clearly the relationship of the Christian to the world in general.

The Christian is not someone who lives in isolation.

But they live in community.

It is importnat for us to remember that this is the Sermon on the Mount, therefore, verse 13 followed verse 12.

The beatitudes are connected to being salt and light church.

This sermon was spoken to the disciples of Jesus Christ then, but this is also written for our admonition now.

YOU ARE, the salt of the earth is written as a statement of fact ( indicative), not an imperative ( a command to be something).

Church, Jesus didn’t tell us we should Be salt & light.

He tells us we Are salt & light

However, the implication here is that we are to be what God has made us.

What you have in these very simple four verses is the picture that our Lord gives of the Christian in the world, the function of the believer in the world.

And if I could reduce it down to one word, it would be the word “influence.”

Our Lord is saying that the Christian who lives according to the Beatitudes is going to influence the world as salt and light.In all that a person does and that a person is, or is not, the sum total of our character, consciously or otherwise, affects other people.

As Jesus continues his teaching he uses 2 important elements in their day (salt & light) to paint a picture of what it is to be a faithful christian witness.

Metaphor-a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else.

Salt- why did Jesus choose salt?

Salt was a valuable commodity when Jesus walked on the earth and I would like to share with you a few things regarding being a salty saint.

Salt was used as a preservative.

There was no refrigeration and they used it to preserve the meat and other things of the day from decay.

When Jesus says that we are the salt of the earth he is teaching his disciples church that even though the world is decaying, that we are God’s preservatives because he wishes not one shall perishes, but that all would come to repentance and ever lasting life.

Salt was used as a flavor enhancer.

It enhanced food, like it does for us and kingdom people should be flavor enhancer in a world that is rotten.

So our speech needs to be graceful and seasoned with salt.

Is our speech full of grace and seasoned with salt or pepper?

If we were to ask our brothers and sisters, our spouses and children, our bosses and our co-workers if are speech is full of grace and seasoned with salt, what would they say?

See salt and later we will discuss light are terms of influence church and if we are not salt, then we are pepper and pepper is an irritant.

We will not draw others to Christ, but rather away if we have lose lips.

BACK DURING WW1 or 2 I believe they said loose lips, sinks ships.

And church, to be honest, I have seen men and women not be able to enter the ministry because of their tongue and I have seen some disqualified.

God desires our tongues to be full of grace and seasoned with salt.

President Woodrow Wilson told this story.

He said, "I was in a very common place.

I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a personality had entered the room.

A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself, to have his hair cut, and sat in the chair next to me.

Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him.

And before I got through with what was being done for me, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D.L. Moody was in that chair.

“I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular effect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop.

They talked in undertones.

They didn't know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thoughts.

And I felt that I left that place as I should have left the place of worship.

My admiration and esteem for Mr. Moody became very deep indeed."

Influence.

Influence.

What message do you leave the world?

When you pass by, what are you saying?

Years ago, Elihu Burritt wrote this, "No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present, but of every subsequent age of humanity.

No one can detach himself from this connection.

So salt is a preservative and flavor enhancer.

3. Salt was used to pay the Roman soldiers.

Being so valuable, soldiers in the Roman army were sometimes paid with salt instead of money.

Their monthly allowance was called "salarium" ("sal" being the Latin word for salt).

This Latin root can be recognized in the French word "salaire" — and it eventually made it into the English language as the word "salary."

He is not worth his salt!!

Are you worth your salt?

It was a valuable commodity.

In fact, it was so valuable during the time of Jesus that if you wasted salt, your were shamed by the culture you were surrounded by.

When Leonardo da Vinci painted the last supper, he put an overturned salt cellar in front of Judas...

Can salt really lose its flavor?

Pure salt cannot lose its flavor or its effectiveness.

But scholars believe Jesus shared this because of the salt in the Dead Sea that is contaminated with gypsum and other minerals.

It had a flat taste and did not enhance food or preserve anything.

Such salts were used for keeping footpaths free of vegetation church!

So when Jesus shared that salt can lose its flavor, he is referring to being contaminated by the world.

Being contaminated by false teaching.

I know a guy that is absolutely amazing, but he holds dear to the evidence that you have the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues and you know that this is holding him back form being used mightily by God.

4. Salt penetrates.

It inserts a new quality, substance, and life.

It changes that upon which it is put.

Believers are likewise to penetrate the world and insert a new life into it.