The Christian's Place in the World | Matthew 5:13-17

• Sermon Transcript

  Well, Terry do an extra work on Mother's Day. So we appreciate Terry. Extra extra work for All right, wonderful. Well, I have some interesting facts about motherhood that I've found, somebody said that a child is carried in its mother's womb for nine months. But someone also said that a child is carried in his mother's heart forever. Somebody said, it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby. And somebody doesn't know that what's your mother normal is history. Somebody said that you learn how to be a mother by instinct. But someone never took a three year old shopping. Somebody said that being a mother is boring. But somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit. So Amen. All right. Mothers have a very important place in the world. As we know that quite literally birth people into the world. Children need the love, they need the nurture, that only a mother can give, in order for them to grow up secure, and well developed adults. And I can just stand here and give you reasons after reasons why mothers have a special place in the world on this Mother's Day today we have been going through this year have been going through the life of Jesus. And we are in a section called the sermon on the mount where he's teaching disciples, what the kingdom of heaven is like and, and what a disciple is like. And today we're talking about being salt, being light. And when I think of my mother, I think how this how she is salt. And she is like many, many of you can think of that as well. And this passage paints a clearer picture of the Christians place in the world. Matthew, chapter five, starting in verse 13. Jesus says to His disciples, You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost his taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled. Under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the stand, and it gives light to all in the house. And the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven. Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us here today. Show us in this passage today, Father, how we are to be salt, how we got to be light. Why that is so important for us to do in this world, that Christians in here today can know our place in the world, and how we should be. Father, I pray that today that my words reflect your heart and giving them that you filled me with your Spirit. And that the people here today receive this word of asked these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, being Mother's Day today, I thought I would not give you three but I'd give you four points. So I have four truths. Today we see in this passage about the Christians place in the world, four truths about the Christians place in the world. First, Christians are called to preserve the world. Christians are called to preserve the world. Verse 13, says You are the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth because in the ancient world, one of the primary functions of salt was to act as a preservative for food. A lot of times now we just use salt to make things taste better. But in the biblical days it was a preservative. And if you ever lost power Are for a day or so you know that food spoils quickly, when the power of the refrigerator or the freezer is turned off, salt would keep meat from going bad as as fast as it normally would from becoming rotten. And so in the same way, Jesus is saying that in the world that we live in, without Christians, preserving it morally, it will become more and more rotten. Christians have a have a moral obligation to morally preserve the world, like salt would preserve meat. How do we go about doing so? How do we go about preserving the morality of the world? Well, we do so by starting with ourselves. Starting with our families, modeling our families, after Christian principles, we don't take our cues from the world. We don't take our cues from any expert, unless they're taking their cues from the Bible. We have a Christian ethic that our family follows. We preserve the world also by voting for politicians who hold Christian values. Sometimes that can be difficult to see, especially if they say they do and they live a different way. But we'd much rather vote for those who at least say they believe, and Christian values, because doing so helps preserve the morality of the country we live in, and the world. We also preserve the world by treating people with dignity. Treating people with grace, treating people with mercy. As Jesus treated others. We also preserve the world by by showing Christ's love to those who we even consider unlovable. People that we don't want to love, maybe people that we need to forgive maybe people that who who've hurt us that we preserve the world by showing that even though we hurt God's heart, God forgave us, they might have hurt our hearts, we forgive them. So in short, we preserve the world by actually living like Christians, actually living like the people we say that we are. And so we're called to preserve the world. And in so doing, we uphold our morals, and our convictions, which are based on God's world word. Listen, if Christians aren't the ones leading in virtue and morality, and holiness, who will? No one. And that is what Jesus is saying. You are to be the salt of the earth. He doesn't even say you are to be he says you are. You are the salt of the earth. Number two Christians are called to flavor the world. We're called to flavor the world. It says in verse 13. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? The phrase to lose its taste, literally means to become defiled, become defiled. You know how it is if you eaten some green beans without salt on it, you feel like it's been defiled some way and where's the butter? Where's the salt? Right? So the world is is filled with flavor. There's all sorts of flavors in the world. But the flavor is is temporary. The world's flavor is like ordering Chinese food and eating house fried rice this is gonna be really bad to do at 11am today but 830 We probably just had breakfast but you're eating house fried rice and you're in his Yeah, like the chicken and the egg and all that stuff in there. Right and and you get all filled up after eating that house fried rice, and then 30 minutes later, what? You're hungry again, you've been there. That's the world's flavor. The flavor of Jesus is lasting as Christians were to not only preserve our world through protecting ours Sacred institutions like marriage, and family and all these things morality, we're also called to flavor the world. So it's not just it's not just one thing that we have to preserve, but we also have to be proactive and flavoring. The world. In almost every facet of Western American life has been flavored by Christians, and Christianity. So you know why we have holidays. Holidays exist, because of Christianity. They're originally called holy days. And they were given at least in our country to celebrate Jesus. The modern hospital system we've all been to and we've all enjoyed was birth through Christians deciding that they because Jesus cared for the sick that they would care for the sick. Christianity also gave us the modern adoption system, the modern foster care sips system, there was nothing other sort before Christians did. So. The rise of the middle class was spearheaded by Christians who believed there's not just the rich and the poor, that every person had a right to work and earn an income. Christians did that. Any high view of marriage, any high view of sexuality exists because of its Christians, roots? Do you know that Jesus was the chief revolutionary for women's rights even see, in Jesus's day, women were the property of their husbands, so much so that if a man committed adultery, it was illegal, but he was only punished if it were against another man's wife. But if the wife committed adultery, no matter who the man was, then she was subject to lose her life. Men were able to mistreat and abuse their wives with with no legal recourse. And women were not allowed to even testify in court. The truth the fact that women are made in God's image, and have dignity just like men is a Christian teaching. It's not Roman teaching to Christian teaching. What about children, children are held in a high regard because of Christianity's influence in ancient Rome, children were never valued by society, and they were often killed if they were born with any deformities, or elements. Families very rarely had more than one daughter. Because that's not what was desired. When it comes to art, the Renaissance period was littered with Christian artwork. Almost all the paintings and sculptures have biblical themes. What about music? Sebastian, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven were all Christian musicians they they shaped the sound of of history. history's most famous songs are Christian songs, Silent Night, Amazing Grace. Christians flavored the world. And furthermore, Christianity created the foundation for modern education, science, even the abolition of slavery and modern literature. Simply put, Christianity created the foundation of America. And America exist as it does, because it's been flavored with Christian teachings. We must continue to flavor our country and as flavoring our country, we flavor a world or else we will become useless. Why would I say that? Well, that's what Jesus says. Look, the next verse, the next part of the next verse, it says it is no longer good for anything. if salt loses the saltiness, except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. That's what happens to Christians living in a culture who are being salt. They get thrown out and trampled. You see it every day. Salt was thrown out and those days if it lost the saltiness, because it would become contaminated with other minerals. So the only safe place to throw it out was on the street paths, where it would gradually get stepped on and ground into the street. That way it wouldn't contaminate a person's house area or their garden or something like that. And Jesus is saying If you salt are not used, then Christian, you become ineffective in the world, like salt that has lost its saltiness. And in living in that world, if you lose your saltiness, you either become contaminated. And there's plenty of Christians who are contaminated by the world's values. Or you will be useless, which might even be worse. So, when it comes to being a Christian, we need to get out of our defensive posture, where we are angry against what we see in our culture. And we need to shift into offensive mode to flavor the world. As much as it confronts us to sit around and lament about all the moral problems in the world. What are we doing about it? It doesn't do us any good, but make us feel more self righteous, and more and more prideful, while further enabling us to despise the culture that we live in. Listen, we live in a lost world, it's not gonna get any better unless you and me do something about it. We are called to flavor, the culture flavor, the world we are salt that is our place in the world. Third, Christians are called to guide the world. We're called to guide the world. Verse 14. You he says, are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. So Jesus is also telling us that we live in a darkened world. And we need to be light that is stationary. That's unmoving. Not not a flickering light. Not a light that goes in and out. Stationary on moving. See a city on a hill is is filled with lights. And a weary traveler can see the lights miles away. In the biblical times, it acts like a beacon, drawing people to it. Think about when you're walking through your house at night. You know, there are spots where you keep your nightlights are places where light is located. Now we have flashlights on our phones, if we can find our phones at night. Jesus says in a morally compromised world. The entire culture is in spiritual darkness. And so our lights give both guidance of how to live. But they also serve as magnets to draw people to the light. And that light is the truth of Jesus. See, light exposes people to the darkness. That is their life. And they can respond in two ways. When light shines in our life we get we can shrink back from the glare of the light. And the sin in our life. We can cover up and we can hate God and act like he doesn't exist. And we can be mad at him for exposing us. Or after the initial shock of the light shining in our lives. We repent and we come to the light and we follow him. First Baptist Church moncks corner is a city set on a hill, metaphorically speaking, or sitting right here. And probably one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in town I would think right here, the corner of these two intersections this intersection. We are to be a guiding light to people. When people come into this building, and then enter these doors, one of 50 of our doors right? Any door they enter. They should be able to meet Jesus amen. That's what they should be able to do. Jesus further at this point in verse 15, he says, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. How silly would it be if I walked into your house and you had a lamp on? And I walked in? He said oh hold on one sec. And let me cover that up for you. You took a blanket and covered up the lamp, I would say, Well, why would you do that? Just turn the lamp off if you don't want it on? Oh, no, I want it on, I just don't want it to be very noticeable. Because that's when we have lamp shades. Jesus is saying that people don't light a lamp for the express purpose to give light, and then hide it. They put it for somewhere for people to see. So why would we do that? We learned in Sunday school, that we have a little light and we're gonna let it what? Shine? We have it. We know it? Why are we hiding it? That's not our purpose. He didn't say you can be a light. You couldn't be a light says you're the light. If you're a believer, your light is shining, you can't turn it off. Now you can hide it or trying to hide it. But why would you do that? Jesus didn't save you to hide your life. You are called to guide the world, you may say well, I don't know how to do that. No. But you had the spirit of God in you if you're a believer, and you're called to guide the world to shine your light. You never know God's gonna put into your path that needs your light, to guide them to the truth. To guide them to Jesus we are called to guide the world. In number four, we are called Christians to engage the world. Engage the world. He says that verse 16. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. And give glory to your Father who is in heaven. When we let our light shine before others, they will quote see our good works. And by so doing, they will give glory to God. Notice that when we do good works with the light of Jesus, all glory goes to God. Not us. But God. So we have to engage the world in such a way that they see us doing good things. Good things. How do you react to the rude worker? And the drive thru? How do you react to the rude worker at Walmart or somewhere like that? How to react to the people that God puts in your life? Are they seeing you be good, do good things. We have to engage the world in such a way that they see us doing good things. But it has to be obvious that we do it for God and not ourselves. Sometimes churches even and churches as a whole and believers can get into bad habits of doing good things to glorify themselves. We can do that. Jesus actually spoke about this later on in chapter six. Somebody says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy sound, no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you do give the needy Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So that you're giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Social media makes us very hard. Very difficult. As church leadership, we and I personally try to be very intentional about highlighting the things we do as a church. You know, we help a lot of people. We want to reach people for Christ. We do a lot of things for people in the community. And we want people to know this so they know that they can have help and we want and I want our members know that we're doing certain things and what we're doing in the community. They need to know this, but we have to be careful about how we market that image. And I see churches online fail this all the time. We have to be careful about it. Because Jesus says we're not to do things for our glory, or even the glory of our church, even the glory of our church, for God's glory. And he says, in order to truly do things with a proper heart, you should be able to do it in secret. Because if you don't do it in secret, then your reward is the applause of man. Look at that guy. Look what he did what a great little guy he is. Look at that church is helping the community what a wonderful church they are, again, it's a slippery slope. We want to market ourselves, we want people to know that there's there's something here for them. But we're not doing it for our glory. We're doing it for the glory of God. The glory of God, we're in call it we're called to engage the world and let the world know we are here for them. We are our city on a hill but not in a way that produces a stinky aroma. But in a way that produces pleasing aroma. See the word for good, means attractive, and beautiful. So when you tell someone they look good, you're telling me they look attractive and beautiful. Mother's you look good today. When we do true good works, truly good works. They will be attractive to the world. They'll be able to see it. The world can the world knows. Sometimes the world knows better than even Christians about what really is good and looks attractive. When we do true good works. They'll be attractive to the world. When we do works that glorify ourselves. It is ugly. We've all seen it. We've all been there. It's ugly. Look at John 13. And new commandment I give to you that you would love one another. Just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this. All people will know that you're my disciples. My How will the world know where disciples if we have love for one another? God's people. God's people love God's people. The world knows where God's people funny how that works. We engage the world by loving each other. And then we can love them. That loving the world does not mean that we agree with the world when it sends you don't have to agree with the person to love them. That's the case I wouldn't let my kids my children say things to me all the time. That I don't agree with Mike. Nope, that's wrong. Let me tell you what's right about that. But I don't hate him because of it. I still love them. And part of my job as a father is to let them know the difference between something that's right, something that's wrong. And if I don't know, I'll say You know, I'm not sure let me think about that. Let me go the God's word about that. Part of my job as a father is to let them know the difference between truth and falsehood. And mothers today that's part of your job. Let them know the difference between right and wrong, holy and unholy. If you don't let them know, then they're going to find out from someone else. And it's probably going to be wrong. So we talked about how the world has to be preserved and flavored by Christians if you don't tell them that it'd be praying. They have people who will that know the truth. Now we aren't praise the Lord parents to the world. That sounds exhausting. We are not parents to the world. Though we are salt. And we are light. So we must model what it means to be Christians. When we engage the world. When we disagree. We don't yell and scream and stomp our feet. I fight a little five year old and cuss and argue. That's of the devil. That's not the flesh that's not of Jesus. No, no. We disagree. And then we point to Jesus. We point to the right way. We help those We can help who will receive it. They may not receive it. But Jesus says they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. That is loving the world that is engaging the world that is salting the world that is lighting the world. And that is the Christians place in the world. Happy Mother's Day. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for saving us and giving us a purpose in his life, until you call us home. That purpose is to be sought to be light to the world. And the ways that we have been instructed today, Father, for the mothers that are here today, I pray that this is the best Mother's Day they've ever had. And those in their lives will love them. And treat them well. today. Lord, let us all be thankful for those mothers in our lives and some other figures in our lives that have raised us that you put them into our lives. Let's be thankful for that today as we leave here. And as we leave here, and go eat our mother's day meals and go to our Mother's Day restaurants, let us know there's people we wouldn't be coming in contact with today. And then we didn't have a mom or a grieving over not being a mother, or whatever the issue is, or they're estranged from their mother. And when we interact with those people, let us remember that we're salt and then we're light and that we're loving. Jesus says Jesus loved us, Lord, we love you. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.