PASS THE SALT PLEASE
by Pastor Bobby Sullivan

Quote of the week: We need to pray from his presence to see his purpose accomplished on earth. Bill Johnson

Intro: The various names God gives His children in the Bible.
Ambassadors: “We are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20).
Branches: “I am the Vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5).
Citizens: “Fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19).
Disciples: “Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).
Elect: “Elect of God, holy and beloved” (Col. 3:12).
Friends: “You are My friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).
Garden: “A garden enclosed is My sister, My spouse” (Song of Solomon 4:12).
Heirs: “Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ . . .. that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:17).
Jewels:  “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels” (Mal. 3:17).
Redeemed: “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things.….but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18).

I want to focus this morning on why Jesus calls us SALT on a message called, Living Happy as Salt, “Pass the Salt Please”
SALT – Stand A Little Taller

When Jesus gives us the name of “salt”, He is reminding us that we have the opportunity and the responsibility to be an influence in the world and stand a little taller. It is interesting that these verses should follow the Beatitudes.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus gives some qualities that ought to be present in every citizen in the Kingdom. When we are possessed of these characteristics, we will be a positive influence and we will make a difference in the world around us. When we are living out the standards of the Lord Jesus in our lives, we will be like salt.

Matthew 5: 13 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty (seasoned) again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Who is the Salt of the earth? Jesus uses the pronoun YOU ARE
YOU ARE!! Salt of what? THE EARTH not the church, not your kids, not yourself but the world!! Salt is never self -serving
There is power in the salt! Salt Sodium Chloride 40% Sodium, 60% Chloride. When this chemical reaction collides, it produces salt. It makes up 28% of your body weight.
Salt is a reaction between an acid and a base chemical!
We (as salt) are the result of a reaction between a sinner and the grace of God
Smelling Salts restores and awakens people. We are called to awaken this unconscious world.
Salt is a catalyst because it causes a natural reaction or response when its present! Something happens when you show up! If not you’re a salt substitute!
People naturally represent either Light/Darkness Salt/Pepper

SALT in Scriptures is said to be, 1. A symbol of a binding covenant (Lev. 2:13) 2. A healing and cleansing aid (2 Ki. 2:20-21) 3. A stimulant to the appetite (Job 6:6) 4. A preventive of decay (Luke 14:34-35) 5. A promoter of peace (Mark 9:50) 6. A stimulant to our testimony (Mt. 5:13) 7. An evidence of grace (Col. 4:6)
SALT: Influence -Impact LIGHT: Global level/your earth/your world
This is the mandate/the mission that motivates us. We can influence the world from our world! Right where you live is where God’s righteousness is to be revealed and reflected. We live out our Christianity within the culture that God has called us to cultivate in!
Some have asked recently. “What is the overall view on raising the standard of the church?” Well, this is the part of the Sermon on the Mount where we transition from Blessed are you, to How Bold are you really?
This is the part where the Raising of the Standard or the bar gets higher yet.
I hear the word salt, I hear infectious, contagious, transmittable, compulsory, influencer, impacting.
I am so motivated to move when I know my purpose
My faith is not what I hold on to till I get to Heaven, but rather something I hold out for the world to see, embrace and experience.
You are a valuable asset and without you this world would die of decay from the inside out!
Salt was rare in Jesus day. In the first century, Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt! Latin word salarium, which also means, “salary” and has the root sal, or “salt.” In ancient Rome, it specifically meant the amount of money allotted to a Roman soldier.

Salt was so sacred that if you spilled it, it was considered a shameful act.
When Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Last Supper, he painted Judas Iscariot knocking over the saltshaker. Because it was indicative of his betrayal with something shameful.

In both biblical and pagan traditions, sacrifices could not be made without the addition of salt. It was considered purifying.
Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed salt to be representative of justice, and spilling it was a warning of an injustice to come.

Today, the Salt industry boasts 14,000 uses of salt.
Raises the boiling point of water
Lowers the freezing point of ice
Removes rust, puts out grease fires, keeps cut flowers fresh, and many more!
America harvests over 65 million pounds of salt a year

We are called salt because of:
1.Our Preserving Ability – People who have a salt seller is where they put meat so It will not go bad! If the salt has no contact with the meat, the meat will rot!
Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

It was a common belief that salt represented immortality. In certain cultures, salt was placed inside a coffin to ensure the soul’s eternal existence. Without the luxury of refrigerators, salt was an integral part of the daily diet and a highly valuable commodity.

The United States has had its battles over salt. In 1777, Lord Howe made a successful attempt to capture General Washington’s stock of salt. Many battles and treaties took place before Western salt licks were free to be used by settlers.

During the War of 1812 with England, it became very difficult to obtain salt from abroad. Because of this, commercial production of salt began in Syracuse, New York.

December 1864 The union army dismantled the salt mine that the confederates had in Saltville (Saulville) SW Virginia. IT was used to cure leather to make shoes and keep meat fresh! NO FOOD or SHOES! Hard to fight a war barefoot and starving!
We are to preserve the power and presence of God’s truth to this population.

Salt wards off rot and decay! It is rubbed into meat in an effort to preserve it. So it is in Canada today! I am convinced that the presence and the prayers of “salty” Christians has done more to preserve this nation than anything else we could name. It is the righteousness of God’s children that made Canada great!

If we are the righteousness of God by faith and we are the salt of the earth, then our preserving presence exalts this nation.

I want there to be safety in the sanctuary but not at the expense of me losing my saltiness!!

Salt and light are metaphors that Jesus uses to tell us who we are and what our purpose is!! We are to engage and enhance the environment by our experience!

It is our salt as citizens of heaven that saturates a secular society

We Serve: We can’t be content with our success/accomplishments/improvements and think we have arrived when we are not seeing people saved!
We might have visitors but we are not raw soul winners yet. We are good at serving one another but not as good at serving our community.
I’m not condemning you just challenging you as a concern of mine.
We want to love God and others so much that we are willing and committed to reaching/winning people into the kingdom of God at all cost!
Luke 14: 16-23 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
Serving is not being satisfied with the status quo! Our city must be seasoned with salt! Not saturated! Too much salt can be deadly.
Personally, there is a balance in just enough and not too much of a good thing. ( We can push people away by oversaturating them. Use wisdom)
The modern mentality, “We have to be like the world to win the world.” We’ll win more if we are like Jesus!
We are not called to accommodate culture but to change it. I’m not totally convinced that the church is convinced that it can! The reason is we embrace culture and we don’t feel we can enhance it.
We don’t feel that we are an example therefore we don’t engage culture because we are not experienced enough. That is about to change!!!
I am on a mission to enhance my experience that will compel me to live my life as an example.
TO the degree that Jesus has changed us is the degree that we believe that Jesus can change others through us.

As salt we are to engage not entertain! Come in contact! Stop being afraid. Be the change you wish to see!

The Gospel will challenge you, convict you, and it will always convince you that with God you are a courageous Christian called to conquer the world with the good news!!!

Only 24% of Americans attend church every week,9% almost once a week, 11% once a month, 25% seldom, 29% never. America is not a Christian nation!
Our assignment as SALT of the earth is to serve the earth by steering them in the right direction.
I am just as guilty when answering this question, “When is the last time you led someone to Jesus? I didn’t say, lead them from one church to another!
I’m not saying you’re not saved, I’m saying your salt may have lost its flavor, its usefulness, its effectiveness, influence by dilution. Don’t ever permit your testimony to be tampered with. Guard it!
You are the salt of the earth! Not the salt of the sanctuary!
***People want the benefits of being served but don’t want to invest the time to serve someone else.
Remember I always say, You get a burden for the lost when you walk with the lost. People are invisible when your eyes are closed.
I think we need to serve regardless of the circumstances! We are Christ in Action! Love personified.
The Bread of Life can go stale if it’s not served!
Luke 7: 36-50 What is it that a sinner saw that the saint didn’t? The Savior!
John 13: 1-17 Jesus washed His Disciples’ feet! Even Judas
1 Peter: 4;10 Galatians 5:13 Matt 23:11 Mark 10:45
LOVE THE HELL OUT OF PEOPLE

2.Our Penetrating Ability – Salt will penetrate and infiltrate whatever it touches. I believe that we have been called by the Lord to be an active force in the world around us. I believe we are to love people from hell, not leave them alone
The purpose of salt is to be spread over the meal, enhancing the flavor and pulling out flavor that is covered up by other flavors. The Church on the other hand is like the person who pours the entire container on one side of the plate. We are all huddled together, not having any contact with the people of which we were poured out for. . We don’t trust the righteousness of Christ in us enough to allow ourselves to be sprinkled throughout society. That’s changing, but that is the church’s history because we’re afraid of being contaminated, so we stay on the corner of the plate. In the old covenant, if you touched someone who was unclean or sinful, you became unclean; but in the new covenant, when Jesus touched the unclean, or the lepers, He didn’t become unclean, they became clean. We should have a healing, preserving influence on others.

Colossians 4:6 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

We are supposed to add flavor to the world. We are to bring an expression of the kingdom to every facet of society. Where Jesus, by the sprinkling of his blood, death on a cross and subsequent resurrection changed the course of human history, so the sprinkling of salt on a saltless society changes the taste and flavor of it as well.

3. Our Purifying Ability – Salt has remarkable cleansing ability. (Ill. 2 Kings 2:19-22 – Elisha cleansed the waters at Jericho with salt.
In ancient times, newborn babies were washed in salt to cleanse their bodies and to give firmness to their skin, Eze. 16:4.) (Ill. Salt in a wound can cleanse the area.) Often, Christians have a purifying effect on the world around them. Thank God that you are acting as a purifying force in the world around you. We are to offer our lives as an offering to the Lord, Rom. 12:1-2. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

4. Our Pleasing Ability – Bringing out the best, salt blends and adds flavor to food. So too, the Christian should flavor the world around him. As salt, we are to so live our lives that we bring out the best in those around us. That is what Jesus did time and again, and that’s what you and I are supposed to be doing for His glory!
Use of Salt: Seasoning; Salt pulls out the flavor of your foods. We are called to pull the best out of people!!! You are a saltshaker. We are to season of City! Season our society!
5. Our Poisoning Ability -Salt kills some things! Salt poured on a lawn will kill the grass. Abimelech, in Judges 9:45, took a city and then sowed the city with salt to prevent the ground from being used to grow crops. He killed the fields with salt.) By the same token, when true Christianity is sowed into the lives, homes and communities of the world, some things will be put to death. We can make an impact on our world by the very fact that Christianity is pure poison to sin. When Jesus comes into a life, that old life loses its luster. SALT ALSO MAKES ICE CREAM

6. Our Promoting Ability – This is not the place in time for us to be passive and private! We must go public and proclaim!!!!
Salt creates a thirst for water in those who are exposed to it! As salt, the Christian has the wonderful opportunity to promote a thirst for Jesus in the world. Remember what the Lord told us? He said that out of our bellies would flow rivers of living water – John 7:37-38.
We must never give anyone cause to say, “If that is a Christian, then I never want to be one.” Instead, our lives ought to motivate people to say, “That is what I want my life to be.”