Salt of the Earth

Well, good morning and welcome to Church at the Grove Online.

We're so thankful that you're joining us this morning.

My name is Nathan, and I'm one of the pastors here.

And this morning we're continuing our series called The Good Life.

And for those of you that I haven't had the chance to meet, just a little bit about me.

I've got uh two kids.

I've got a five-year-old and a three-year-old, and then two both boys, and then I've got one on the way, a little girl that will be born in June.

And if you're a parent, you understand what I'm about to say completely.

But being a parent is probably the most rewarding thing you'll ever do.

It's so much fun.

It's the best job you could possibly have.

But there's a lot of frustrations that come with that as well.

And probably the biggest frustration I have with my kids at the ages that they're at right now are the words I forgot or I didn't hear you.

Those are the two things that we seem to hear so often in our house.

And I know that as teenage years approach that we're probably going to be dealing with that for quite a while longer.

But it's so frustrating because when I hear the words I forgot or I didn't hear you, it's typically always when it comes to us asking them to do something that they don't want to do.

When we ask them to go clean their room and they disappear for a little while, but then we go back there and they're playing with their toys rather than cleaning them up and they say, I forgot, or I didn't hear you, you know that's just a convenient excuse for them to try not to get in trouble.

And so it's so frustrating, right?

Because you know that they hear you, you know that they haven't forgot because I can speak in the same tone, I can speak in the same voice, in the same vocal range, and say, Hey, I've had some candy for you to eat, and they certainly hear me say that, and they certainly do not forget that I've said that.

And so it's just a convenience factor.

But when you really think about it, um this is how we oftentimes operate as adults in our lives as well.

When it comes to our relationships with God, uh, oftentimes we kind of play the same victim.

We kind of say, I forgot, or I didn't hear you, when it comes to the commands that God has ultimately given us for us to live by in our lives.

And as a result, we we suffer from following and obedience to what God has called us to live out.

And in the American church today, I think that we've seen evidence to this.

And so far in this series, this series called The Good Life, where we've been really studying the Sermon on the Mount and discovering how Jesus ultimately would have his followers live out their life and this new kingdom that he's establishing here on earth.

It's so important for us not just to hear the words that God has been telling us, but to actually live them out, to actually follow in obedience.

And so far we've heard some really challenging things.

And if you haven't been with us through this whole series, I would encourage you to go back and to watch some of those messages online so that you can really explore what Jesus has been teaching us.

But so far we've heard things like blessed are the poor in spirit, those that are spiritually bankrupt, that are humble in heart, those that recognize their spiritual dependence.

We've seen blessed are those that mourn, the people that have their hearts break for the things that break God's heart, that we need to be those types of people.

Blessed are the meek, not the weak, but the meek, the people that have strength, incredible strength, but strength that's under control, it's under submission.

Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we aspire to follow the things that God has set out for us, that we work for righteousness in our lives and justice in the world around us.

Blessed are the merciful, that we would live lives of compassion towards others, especially those that don't look and live and believe like we do.

Blessed are the pure in heart, those that have a singular focus on following the ways and the directives of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, not the peacekeepers, but the peacemakers, the ones that are seeking to bring peace in all of their relationships.

And then last week we looked at blessed are the persecuted, that those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for following the ways of God, for belonging to Jesus, that they are truly blessed.

Now, if you've been a part of any of those messages, you know that there's some really hard truths that we've had to wrestle with.

And there's probably been some things that we felt like the Lord was speaking to us in those messages that we needed to apply to our lives.

But if we were being honest, many of us maybe have failed to apply those truths to our lives.

And here's the detriment to being people that are like my kids that are saying, hey, I didn't hear you or I forgot.

It's ultimately pointless.

Our faith is pointless.

That's actually our big idea this morning that to possess faith and not practice it is pointless.

To possess faith and not practice it is pointless.

That we need to be people that don't just hear the words, but actually put them into practice.

And that's ultimately what Jesus is going to talk to us about today.

We're continuing in this series as we kind of come to the end this week and next week and kind of come to the end of the Beatitudes, the first section of the Sermon on the Mount.

And we see Jesus say these words in Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 13.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He says, 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.

You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

And this morning we're going to talk specifically about being the salt of the earth.

Next week we'll look at being the light, but today we're talking about being the salt.

Now, salt was a precious commodity back in the first century.

It was used for many different purposes.

It was represented purity, it was used for preservation and flavoring.

It was used to bring healing and it was the creation of thirst.

And so it was a very valuable commodity.

In fact, we know from historical records that there were Roman soldiers that were actually paid with salt.

This is where we get our saying from.

He's not worth his salt.

It comes from this time period.

So salt was a very valuable commodity back in these days.

And Jesus is telling his followers, the people that are listening to him on this hillside, as he's beginning to announce this new way of living, he's saying, you need to be the salt.

You need to, your life needs to stand out, your life needs to look different.

And this is radically different from the perspectives that were popular back in that current culture.

Back in that time, there were men and women, or there were men that were Pharisees, and the Pharisees were men that were all about religious observance.

That's what their life revolved around.

There were the Sadducees, and they kind of had one foot in the religious world and one foot in the political world, and they were trying to kind of bridge the gap and make these political compromises.

Then you had the zealots, and the zealots were people that were trying to overthrow the Roman government and get out from under their oppression.

Then you had the Essenes, and the Essenes were people that recognized the wickedness of the culture and the world around them, and so they thought to solve the problem, you just simply move out into the desert and become these monastic communities and live separated from everyone else.

And Jesus is coming on the scene and he's saying, I'm not picking sides here.

It's really none of these options are good options.

My kingdom is about my followers that are living as part of the world, but they're living a lifestyle that is radically different from the world.

They're in the world, but they're not of the world.

They're people that are showing incredible grace towards others and mercy and compassion.

They're living lives that are pure and holy and that are set apart, that they look radically different from the world and the people that existed during this time period.

Jesus is telling this crowd, if they're going to live a life that impacts the world around them, then they're going to have to live differently than the people that they're around.

Jesus' followers were meant to bring water to thirsty souls, that they were meant to bring God's ways into the world, that from a decaying world they were to preserve the ways of God, that they were people that were to be set out to be different.

The salt that He calls us to be a part of is a salt that was never meant to just stay in the cupboard.

It was never meant to just stay in the cabinet somewhere, but it was meant to be brought out and used to flavor food.

We weren't meant to just stay in our holy huddles and just be around one another, but we were meant to influence the world around us in a radical way.

This is what Jesus is calling his followers to be about.

But if we were honest this morning, we know that this is oftentimes not the case.

And Jesus recognizes this.

He says, 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.

Jesus tells us that salt can lose its flavor.

And if salt has lost its flavor, then it's pointless.

It's worthless.

It needs to be just simply thrown out.

In other words, to possess faith but not practice it is pointless.

To hear the words of God and not actually put them into practice, it is just pointless.

It's worthless.

It's to be just thrown out.

Matt Chandler says that salt is the breathing in of our faith and the light, being the light of the world, is the breathing out.

Salt is the internal transformation.

It's taking the truths of God and actually applying them and living them out in our world and our culture today.

But let's just be honest, the church in America today, we struggle with this.

As followers of Jesus, if you're a follower of Jesus and you're watching this this morning, we we struggle with this.

In fact, Barna did a research not too long ago in a book called Good Faith.

And one of the key characteristics of people that were outside of the church used to describe people inside the church was the word irrelevant.

The way of our life is really irrelevant to the culture and the world that we live in today.

Where people look at the lives of followers of Christ and they don't see a life that they ultimately want.

They see a life that's maybe uneducated, that hasn't evolved, that hasn't progressed, and therefore they don't see people that are living the good life.

They see people that are living in backwards and they aren't really seeing the success.

They aren't seeing the joy that ultimately coming and following Jesus should bring in our lives.

And I think it's because a lot of times we've received information, but we've failed to take that information and that knowledge, apply it to our lives, and see transformation in our lives.

That's the truth.

And in the world that we live in today, we've equated spiritual maturity with how many church services we have attended, how many Bible studies we've taken place in, how many scriptures we've memorized, and that's not what spiritual maturity is.

Spiritual maturity is not about the information that we have received, but it's ultimately about how we have applied the information that we've received into our daily lives.

It's ultimately about application rather than information that brings transformation.

And if you look at just our world and our culture today and you compare it to people within the church, you see that the church isn't doing so hot with this.

If you look at the state of marriages in our world and our culture today, if you look at what the Bible says, the Bible says that the husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that wives should submit to the leadership of the man as the head of the household, and that they should mutually submit to one another and love each other with a godly love, that they should be one flesh, not two.

But yet, if you look at the statistics, we know that there is the same divorce rate practically in the church and outside the church.

If you look at debt, we know that debt is not a smart decision and that the Bible tells us that when we enter into debt, that we become slaves to our debtors, and that we shouldn't live with these consumeristic mindsets where we're constantly wanting more and more stuff that we don't need because Jesus is our ultimate satisfaction.

But yet you look at the statistics, and the debt load for people inside and outside the church are practically the same.

You look at porn or sexual immorality, the Bible tells us very clearly to flee from these things, but you look at the statistics and it's the same inside and outside the church.

And so, how is it that Jesus is calling us to be the salt of the earth, to bring flavor to a flavorless world, to be people that are making a positive impact and bringing his kingdom to this world, but yet our lives look a lot like the world's lives.

And our lives aren't really seen and characterized as the good life, but rather our lives just look like everyone else's.

I think that there's several reasons for this.

The first thing is simply this.

I believe that we have put an emphasis on width rather than depth.

When it comes to our lives and when it comes to spiritual maturity, we've focused on information rather than the application of that information.

And so being a Christian, being a Christian is just simply going to church.

That's what we hear so often in our world today that everybody's a Christian because at some point in their life they've gone to church, especially here in the Bible Belt.

And so we put a focus on with rather than actually going deep in our spiritual life.

It's not just about making converts, it's about discipleship, making disciples that are following Jesus.

First John tells us this.

John in his book says in verse 2, starting in verse 3, he says, and we can be sure that we know him being Jesus.

We can be sure that we know Jesus if we obey his commandments.

If someone claims I know God, but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and not living in the truth.

But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him.

That is how we know we are living in him.

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Man, what a powerful, hard hearing to hear word.

That those that know Jesus are the ones that actually live out the commands that we have been taught.

The information that we have received.

Again, it's not about the information, but it's about the transformation as we apply God's truth to our lives.

It's about depth, not just width.

It's not just about getting more information, but it's about digging in and applying that information to our lives.

One of the things here at Church of the Grove that we've tried to put a focus on to help this is moving our community groups to spiritual application guides.

Where or sermon application guides, excuse me.

And sermon application guides are simply taking the messages from Sunday morning and learning how we can apply them to our lives Monday through Saturday.

That it's not just about a Sunday faith, but it's about a daily faith that happens all throughout the week.

Because we want to put a focus not just on information, but ultimately transformation about depth, not just width.

The second thing, and the reason I think that we've found ourselves in this situation is that there's been a disintegration of real community, where people have failed to live in life-giving relationships and they've failed to have people that are investing in them, discipling them, and seeing true life change take place in the context of community.

My personal story is that I didn't really grow up going to church.

We would go to church every once in a while.

But I can remember going to church at about nine or ten years old, the pastor preaching a message, me feeling conviction, my heart kind of pounding out of my chest, and knowing that I needed to respond.

I walked an aisle, I prayed a prayer, got baptized, and I put my faith in Jesus, but there was never any transformation.

We never really consistently went to church.

I wasn't connected in community.

I didn't have people that were, you know, loving me and challenging me and my faith and being spiritual parents to me.

And so as a result, there was no growth.

There was no transformation.

And so again, when I was in middle school, a similar situation happened.

Pastor was preaching, I was at a church event, walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, got baptized, and there was still no transformation because I wasn't in community with other people that were investing in me and seeing me grow spiritually.

It wasn't until I was a junior in high school that God began to surround me with a group of friends that were actively working out their salvation and living their faith out in a practical way.

And he put spiritual parents in my life through youth pastors and pastors and teachers that were investing in me.

And it was only when that happened that I really began to grow in my faith.

And I think in our world today where everybody just lives in this individualistic kind of mindset and society where we go to our own houses and we close the doors and the garages right behind us, and we're not living in community and real relationships with one another, we don't see spiritual transformation and we don't see the people actually applying the truths of scripture to their lives.

We have to have community in our lives.

This is why we put such an emphasis on community groups.

It's because we believe that it happens, spiritual life happens best when we're living in community, not sitting in rows on Sunday morning, but when we're sitting in circles, living in relationships with one another.

The third reason I think that we failed to put into practice the words of God is that we have a failure to submit to authority.

I mean, our country, if you look at America, our country was founded on a rebellious nature, right?

We didn't like how we were being treated, and so we rebelled against Britain and we overcame and we had the American Revolution and we we created a new world, a better world for us to live in.

And so we're kind of founded on this rebellious kind of spirit and nature, and we don't like people naturally telling us what we need to do in our lives.

But when it comes to following Jesus, not only do we need men and women in our lives that are helping challenge us and we should submit to their authority in our lives, but we also should submit our lives to what the scriptures say.

I think so often we fall into the trap of just rejecting the things that we don't like.

We see this in church attendance where people will come and the pastor might be preaching on something that's a hard topic, and that's something that where we feel maybe some conviction over.

And so instead of us digging into that and really working through the conviction and coming out on the other side, the person that God wants us to be, we just walk away.

We just go to the church down the street or maybe go nowhere at all that we just don't like to submit to the authorities that have been put in place.

And this can translate even into scriptures.

When we start reading the scripture and we start recognizing some areas in our lives that need to change, but it's hard, it's difficult.

We don't want to do that.

We we like our lives and we like the way that we are currently living, and so we fail to submit to the truths of scripture.

Thomas Jefferson did this, one of our founding fathers.

The Jefferson Bible is a Bible where he actually went through the scriptures and he was someone that did not believe in the miraculous and the supernatural.

And so he went through and he really cut out all the miracles and crossed out all the miracles that happened throughout Scripture, and he created a new Bible because he didn't like something that was written in there.

And while we might not do that, we do that on a practical level when we fail to live in obedience and submit to the authorities of Scripture in our lives.

And so one of the reasons we don't see the transformation, and one of the reasons we're not the salt that God has called us to be, is because we resist the authorities that God has placed in our lives.

Fourth thing, I think, is that we've got an overemphasized.

On light, on being the light.

Now we'll talk about more about being the light, but the light is all about being the witnesses of Jesus.

It's about evangelists, it's about sharing our faith.

And that's a good thing.

That's an important thing in our world, in our culture today.

And we need more people that are being the light, that are taking the message of Jesus to dark places in our world, in our society, and seeing transformation take place.

But a lot of times people are commanded to do things like that, but they haven't had a transformed life.

They're not the salt first.

They don't have the depth that is there.

There's a lot of attention in the church world that we want to build the church.

We want to make churches bigger.

We want to see bigger numbers come on Sunday mornings.

We want to see, you know, all of these people come, but there's not a whole lot of focus on the depth.

We're called in Scripture to make disciples, not to make converts.

And so we want to see people that are focused on being lights for sure, but there needs to be an emphasis on actually living out the truths of God's word.

It's hard to be people that accurately and realistically share our faith in a powerful way if we're not being people that are digging into the scriptures, living out our faith in a practical way where we're following the commands of Scripture.

Fifth and final thing I think that makes us have a hard time following the commands of Scripture and actually applying them in our lives is that our culture is built on speed.

Everything we see, everything around us is always built on speed.

Look at your cooking instruments of choice.

It's about the Instapot, right?

It's about the air fryer, it's about the microwave.

These are the things that we want to use to cook because we want food now.

We don't want to have to wait a long time to get that food.

It's all about quick.

It's all about the fast food joint where we go through, and if we have to wait two minutes for our food to get to us, you know, we lose our ever-loving mind.

Like it's all about speed in our culture and our world today, but spiritual growth and maturity and living in obedience to God's word and ultimately being the salt that God has called us to be is never fast.

It's a slow process.

Eugene Peterson says that obedience is a slow walk in the same direction.

That it's it's about just constantly moving and taking small steps forward in one singular direction, and it happens over time.

Just like your kids, if you have kids and you do the thing that many families do where you put them against a doorframe and you measure their height as they grow, you don't put their height on the doorframe and then the next morning when they wake up you do it again.

Why?

Because there wouldn't be any change, because change doesn't happen overnight.

It happens over a season, over a time.

You put a seed in the ground and it doesn't immediately sprout up, but it takes weeks for the sprout to come up.

It takes even more time for that plant to produce a fruit of some kind.

See, spiritual growth is a lot like that.

It takes time.

In our culture that's built on speed, we've got to be people that are willing to slow down and be consistent in following through on what God has commanded us to do.

You want the good life.

The good life is not trying something one time and then when it fails to work, you reject it.

The good life is when you slow down and you continually do something over a long period of time and you see the transformation that takes place in your life.

Jesus has called you and I to live in obedience to his commands.

He's called you and I to ultimately live salty lives.

He wants us to be different.

He wants our lives to stand out.

He doesn't want our lives to look like everyone else's.

He wants us to be different.

And the only way we'll ever be different is if we move from just hearing his word to actually doing his word.

That it's about living out the truths of God that we have already heard, applying them to our lives, and trying our best to live them out on a daily basis.

Now please hear me.

I'm not saying that we're saved by our works.

I'm not saying that we work really hard in order to earn God's favor and approval.

We are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus and what he has accomplished on the cross, through his death, and his resurrection.

That's how we're saved.

But once we come to know Jesus, our lifestyle should reflect a lifestyle where he is our Lord and our Savior, and we live in obedience to him.

And so let me just say, as we've gone through this series, we've heard a lot of hard truths.

And if you've been on this journey with us, maybe there's been some things that God has said to you during this season, and maybe you failed to live them out.

Maybe you failed to actually obey the things that God has told you to do.

And so just to kind of close out this message, and you know, we'll close out this series next week, but to kind of really put a bow on this series, I want us just to slowly again read the words of Jesus that we've looked at and not just hear something intellectually.

I I don't want to hear people say, man, that was a great message.

I I don't want people to say that.

I want people to say, man, I'm applying this truth of Scripture into my life.

This is the difference it's made in my life.

That's where the real transformation has taken place.

So I want to read for us just those first uh 13 verses once again and just slowly hear them in our lives and see where do I need to apply the truths of these scriptures to my life.

So Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 1.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Now, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside and sat down.

His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.

He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.

For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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.

What is it in the words of Jesus, maybe through this message or another message we've heard in the series, or maybe something totally unrelated to what we've been teaching, that God has told you to do and you failed to live in obedience to it.

And today, make Jesus transform your life by applying the truths to your life.

Man, to possess faith but not practice it is pointless.

Let us be men and women that live out our faith in a practical way where we apply the truths of Scripture to our lives and we see the transformation that will take place, not just in our lives, but in the world and the community around us.

The secret to the good life is not just hearing the words, but actually living them out.

Let me pray for us.

Dear Jesus, thank you so much, Lord, for who you are.

Lord, I thank you so much for your words and that your words ultimately do bring life.

And Lord, so often I'm guilty of failing to obey the truths of your word, and as a result, missing the blessing that you would ultimately bring into my life.

And it's difficult to do the hard things, but Lord, I pray that we would have the courage and the boldness to actually apply the truths of Scripture into our lives.

That we would not be men and women that just simply hear your message, but that we would be people that do your message, that we would be people that actively are the poor in spirit, that we would be people that mourn, that we would be the pure in heart, that we would be people that seek to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we would be the people that rejoice in our persecution, that are peacemakers, that we would be these types of people.

And as a result, Lord, that we would reap the benefits of living the good life.

Help us to be people that live out your truths and as a result see the transformation in our lives and be the salt in the world and the community around us.

We love you, Lord Jesus, and it's in your name we pray.

Amen.