Salt and Light

Good afternoon, everybody. I’d like to welcome those who are joining here in person and also those who are joining online.

Before we do our normal schedule, I think in light of what happened yesterday with former President Trump, I think our country needs some prayer. So let’s pray together.

Father, we pray for our country. We don’t know exactly what’s happening, who’s behind this assassination attempt, but we know that Satan, at the core, is behind all evil, and he wants to bring this country down.

So, Lord, we, as your body of Christ, we lift up this country. We pray that Satan would not topple us. Satan would not devour us. We pray that we would stand firm.

The righteous men and women in this country would stand firm. We pray that this can become a righteous country again. Turning back to you, completely trusting in you, not trusting in a man, but trusting in Jesus Christ and him alone.

Father, we just pray that the best years are ahead for this country. We pray for blessing upon us.

We pray for blessings upon this world, that you will send out many missionaries from this country as you have always done so. Lord, we pray that you would have your way, that Satan would not have his way in this time. Thank you, Lord.

Pray that you be with us throughout this service. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.

Would anyone like to come forward and share testimony, especially those who are joining the mission trip to Mexico?

If you’d like to come forward and share, like, why are you going and what do you hope that God does in your heart as a result of the trip? Anybody?

And if you’re not going on a trip, it’s fine if you come forward as well. Okay. Well, the mission team, you’ll have more chances. We have a couple more weeks to go, but I am. I wish we were all going together.

I think God has. He’s already starting to speak to me about what’s going to happen there. I wish we could all be together.

And so my way of including everybody here is to start sharing at a high level the things that we’re going to cover in more detail on the mission trip.

So please turn with me to Matthew 5:13. The weeks leading up to the trip, I will be sharing the passages that we will go into greater detail on this trip.

Matthew 5:13.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ 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. 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. (Matthew 5:13-16, ESV)

Let’s pray.

Father, please teach us what it means to be salt and light.

We’ve heard many messages about this. We’ve read these verses many times. But Lord, we’re asking that you give us deeper insight and understanding and revelation so that we can live it out. Pray that you meet us during this time. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

First of all, for every one of us who’s going to Mexico in a few weeks, in some sense, you don’t have to do anything. You just have to be a certain kind of person. Salt is just salt. Light is just light. You don’t have to, like, be somebody that you’re not.

You’re just going as you are, in a sense. Salt doesn’t have to try to be salt. It’s just salt. Light doesn’t have to try to be light. It’s just light.

But it says, a salt, if it loses its taste, it’s good for nothing. And then there’s a clarifying verse in Luke 14:34.

³⁴ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:34-35, ESV)

I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced salt losing its taste, but it happened in our family that Jackie was saying. I don’t know why it’s bland. I’m using the same amount of salt, and I’m adding more salt, but somehow it’s not having the same flavor as it once did.

I think the only way that salt can lose its taste is when it becomes impure. And there’s things in it that cause the salt, which in its pure state, should stay salt. But if it.

If extra stuff is mixed in your finger, your fingertips, that you touch something, and the moisture in the air, it gets into the salt jar, or whatever you use to sprinkle the salt from, and it becomes impure. That’s why it degrades and loses its taste.

And here it gives us two uses in the biblical times for salt. It says it’s used for soil and it’s used for the manure pile. And for us, we have no idea what this means. But if you are alive in Jesus’ day, you know exactly what this means.

Apparently, the salt, especially from the Dead Sea, had a lot of nutrients. If you use salt in a garden, it provides nutrients for the soil. Likewise, if you are doing number two in the back of your house, you need to disinfect the number two deposit, and you do that with a shovelful of salt.

So this is not a little sprinkling of salt. It’s actually a shovelful amount of salt that you’re putting on the soil for fertilizing, so things can grow, or on the dung pile for disinfecting.

And a Christian, just by you being you in society, you are having an effect, and things flourish the way God intended it to flourish, just by you being there and being the salt that you’re supposed to be.

Likewise, if you are properly salted and you are salty, and you haven’t lost your taste, just by being you and being out in society, in your neighborhood, in your workplace, you’re disinfecting that place.

And so the evil and the depravity and the downward spiral that place was going, or that city was going, or that country was going, just the fact that you are salty and you’re there, it slows down the depravity and the degradation that comes through sin.

So just a simple question. The fact that you’re you, does it make a difference in your home? Does it make a difference at your school? Are you making a difference in your workplace, in your neighborhood?

In Bellflower, the fact that this amount of salt has gathered, not a few sprinklings, but a shovel full amount has been just poured onto the city of Bellflower. Have we allowed Bellflower to flourish the way it should? And have we stopped Satan, satanic activity, and degradation to slow down because of our presence in Bellflower?

And it’s with us not doing anything just by us being us, if we’re properly salted, if we are salty and we have not lost its taste, and then we go into the light. It’s the same thing, same concept.

Are you a light that shines? But there’s a caveat here. You may be a light under a basket. And if we just stay inside the church walls, and we never go on a mission trip, or we never try to do anything in this world, then we’re like salt in its shaker. You just stay in that shaker, and you might be very salty, and you might be very bright. But the fact that you’re in a basket, in a shaker, never coming out, you will have zero impact.

Even though you and yourself have the potential to change the surroundings for good and to slow down the evil, if you stay in the shaker, if you stay under a bowl, if you just stay in your home, you never shine publicly, then what good is it? That’s what he’s saying here in this text.

And so when Abraham in Genesis 18 is interceding and pleading for Sodom, he’s making the case. If there’s 50 righteous people, will you spare it? And God says, yes. 40? Yes. 30? Yes. 20? 10, there wasn’t even ten.

There was not even a shovelful amount of salt in that city. That’s why it was degrading and degrading, and the only result is judgment upon that city.

And I’m not sure. Are we at that point in this country, that judgment is upon us? I’m not sure. We might be salty, we might be bright. But if we’re under a basket, if we’re not out there, then what good is it?

We need to save our city. We need to save our families. We need to save our coworkers.

We need to save our country by being out of the shaker, out from under the bowl, come visibly for you to shine, for you to be salty. That’s why on occasion, Jesus calls us and sends us out on a mission field.

It is not every day that Jesus calls the apostles out or the 72. It is on specific occasions, and he’s trying to teach a lesson during those mission trips that you’re supposed to bring back into your daily life.

Luke 11:33. Now we’re going to go a little bit more specific about the metaphor for light.

³³ “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵ Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. ³⁶ If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (Luke 11:33-36, ESV)

Have you always been confused about verse 34? What does it mean that the eye is a lamp of the body? Isn’t it very confusing? We think we understand, but we look at a little bit more, and we think maybe it’s not that. Maybe there’s more to it.

And that’s what the Lord showed me this week to have an eye that is good or healthy. It’s an interesting word.

It means to be single, simple, sound, plain, straightforward, unmixed, or whole. Meaning there’s no hidden agendas, there’s literally no folds. It’s just what you see is what you get.

And there’s only two occurrences of this word. The other one is Matthew 6, the same reference in the sermon on the mount. But if you look at the broader context for Matthew 6:22, it becomes obvious what Jesus is talking about when he says, the eye being healthy or bad.

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! ²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:19-24, ESV)

So in light of these verses, isn’t it obvious what it means to have a good eye? It has to do with finances. I think it’s no accident.

Like if it’d be one thing if God sent us to Japan like he did with our family 20 some years ago. I don’t think these verses would jump out at me. But the fact that we’re going to a poor country like Mexico, and we are serving a poor family, it is not lost on me what God is trying to communicate.

Before we look into the healthy eye, let’s look at the bad eye.

The bad eye is evil, it is wicked, it is malicious, it is slothful, it is filled with pain and misery and annoyances and hardship and toil. That is a definition of a bad eye.

And to give a little bit more understanding, like what does it mean, a good and a bad eye with regards to finances. Proverbs 22:9, whoever has a bountiful eye, or a healthy eye, or a good eye, will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

⁶Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy, or who has an evil eye. Do not desire his delicacies. (Proverbs 23:6, ESV)

²² A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. (Proverbs 28:22, ESV)

²⁵Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. (Proverbs 11:25, ESV)

⁹ Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. (Deuteronomy 15:9, ESV)

Now some examples in the New Testament.

¹ We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. (2 Corinthians 8:1-2, ESV)

¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 9:11, ESV)

And the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.

You know, the employer, he hires people at different hours of the day, some at the early part of the day, some at the last 11th hour of the day. And at the end, he gives the same wages.

And we read that and say, it’s not fair. How can you only work 1 hour and the guy who worked all day gets the same amount? It’s not fair.

And what this, what this is showing is that, 1 second, what this is showing is the generosity of the master exposes the stinginess of the workers. Like God.

God is God. He can do whatever he wants. The master made a deal. It’s an equal day’s wages for everyone. The generosity of God our Father exposes us, exposes the stinginess of our hearts when we read this and say, it’s not fair. I should be paid more. No, God is being God. He’s being generous and he’s saying, we should be like this.

But do we live this way? The parable of the rich fool. He has a very plentiful harvest. He has so many crops. This is in Luke 12.

It’s all, Jesus just unpacks it more and more through parable after parable. And it’s always in a lot of these cases, the ones that I’m bringing up today, they’re all about money.

He says, if you have a great harvest and you have too many crops, this man says, let me store it up. Let me make a bigger barn, because this little small barn can’t store it all, and I need to make a bigger barn. And God says, you fool, this night your life will be required of you and you’re not ready.

²¹ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21, ESV)

So there’s two ways to live. You either invest in your relationship with God and being rich toward him, and with all of your wealth, you’re very generous. That is what God expects.

Or you could say, I don’t need to be generous. I’m going to be stingy. God has blessed me. I’m going to hoard it. I’m going to keep it to myself. And you will be rich toward your goods, and you’ll be poor toward God.

I think this is one of the reasons why God is sending me in particular on this mission.

²⁹ And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. ³⁰ For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. (Luke 12:29-31, ESV)

And this is a difficult thing for us in America when we’re living in such abundance.

Compared to the vast majority of the nations of this world, we’re living in such abundance. And God says, haven’t I guaranteed? Even people in poor countries, but all the more for us in America, haven’t I guaranteed, and haven’t I proven myself that food, drink, and clothing are yours? You never have to worry about it.

Now seek first my kingdom and with all the excess that I’ve blessed you with. Now what are you going to do with it? You can hoard it. You can put it in a bigger barn.

You can invest in all kinds of ways, or you can say there’s a poor brother or sister just across the border. Should I be thinking about that person? Am I my brother’s keeper? Does God actually care that I meet a need of a brother or sister who is a few hours away from me? Does it matter to him?

I think it matters to the father. There’s a reason why God blessed us in America. There’s a reason why God has blessed us with finances. He wants us to be generous, very generous. Not to our friends.

And there is a passage like this. Yeah, the parable of the great banquet. He says, don’t be generous to your relatives who are rich, because guess what? They’ll be generous back to you, and you’ll receive your reward. That’s in Luke 14.

Or your rich neighbors. Yes. You call them over for dinner and you do a full five-course meal. And the next occasion you will be invited to their house for dinner, and you’ll be repaid. So it’s not, you’re not giving it for free because you expect to be paid back.

And in this kind of a context, when you’re dealing with other rich people, yes, you will be paid back. And God says you’ve received your reward.

¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.“ (Luke 14:13-14, ESV)

Isn’t he talking about money? Isn’t he talking about money? People, in contrast to rich neighbors, when you bless them, they will bless you monetarily in some way. People who cannot repay you. What does Jesus say?

You’re putting a deposit. Not in this life, but in the next, where moth and rust cannot destroy a treasure in heaven that is safe.

Every time we give to somebody who is poor out of the generosity of the Lord because he has blessed us abundantly. When we do that to another brother or another sister, we’ve just put a huge deposit in our heavenly bank account.

So what does it mean to have an eye that is healthy and good and your whole body is filled with light?

I think it means you have a proper attitude when it comes to the finances that God has given to you. There’s no ulterior motive. There’s no, I’m scratching your back, I expect to benefit later. There’s not this give and take, like I’m doing this because I expect a favor later. We’re gonna repay each other for our kindness. We do this to one another, like you have me over for dinner, I’ll have you over for dinner. You loan me this money. When you’re in trouble, I’ll loan you some money. Everything is repaid in this life.

But if you do it to somebody who cannot repay you financially, you’ve made a deposit in a heavenly bank account.

And God is saying, not many of us view money this way. In fact, we are gripped by money. We worry that we don’t have enough money. We are devoted to our bank account. A bigger barn is what we need. And God is saying, could that be a bigger influence in your life than me?

This is one of the topics I want us to wrestle with in Mexico. We’re not going to Japan.

We’re not going to a well-established country. The gospel is needed in those countries as well. But there’s a reason why. Through Canaan, now we’re going to Mexico.

I think it’s for me and for all of us to wrestle with. Do we have a good eye? Is our eye healthy? Is it functioning the right way? Like, how do we know our body is full of light? You see it through our attitude toward our money. And may people see through our generosity to the poor. Not generous to just anybody, but generous to the poor.

May God see just light shine from that person as God meant it to shine.

Okay, let’s pray. Father, you’re calling us to be salt and light. The fact that we are salt, we don’t do anything. Just our presence in our family doesn’t make a difference. In our workplace doesn’t make a difference. The fact that we moved into our neighborhood, this city, doesn’t make a difference. We don’t do anything. Just our presence alone doesn’t make a difference. Does it cause a flourishing in the family, the workplace, the city, the neighborhood, the country?

Just because we’re a righteous man and woman and child who is salty doesn’t make a difference. To increase flourishing and to slow down evil. The fact that we’re light, maybe we are light, but we’re under a basket, under a bowl. We’re too low. We’re not visible to anybody. What good is it, Lord, if we don’t shine? If on occasion you don’t send us out and we’re on a stand, everyone can see us. And who we are will come out for good or for worse. Lord, we’re not asking for a mission trip experience.

And then a week later, after the mission trip, nothing changes. That’s not what we’re after. We’re asking for a fundamental shift in our identity, in our perspective, in how we view life, our vocation, our finances, everything.

Lord, we seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. All the things that we need are guaranteed. We don’t worry about these things. We work hard, we’re diligent, whatever you call us to do. But, Lord, that is not our primary. That is not where we put our treasure. That’s not where we put all of our energy and our focus.

It is a distant second to being a light that shines and to go out to whoever you send us to proclaim the kingdom of God has come near.

We pray that you meet all of us throughout this preparation to Mexico. We pray that you meet all of us on the Mexico trip.

We begin now just wrestling with the question: is it good or is it bad? Is it healthy or is it diseased? It all is dependent on how we view money. Do we worry about it or do we trust you with it?

Do we hoard it, or are we generous to the poor? That is what you want from us as a church, as individuals. That is what you want.

With all the money that we tithe to you, you want us to give it to the poor, to use it to spread the kingdom of God. So, Lord, may this be the first step. We don’t know what you will do in the future, but, Lord, we take this as our first step of obedience as we wrestle with our attitude toward money.

Thank you, Lord, for your body that was broken for us and your bloodshed. We pray that you minister to us as we take the Lord’s supper. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Jenna channels blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful, where streams of abundance flow. Blessed be your name. Blessed be your name when I’m found in a desert place, though I walk through the wilderness.

Blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out, I’ll turn back to praise. When the darkness goes in life, still I will say, let it be the name of the Lord. Let it be your name. Let it be the name of our Lord. Let it be your voice.

Can we stand together? We stand together. Blessed be your name. When the sun is shining down on me, when the world is all that it should be. Blessed be your name. Blessed be, blessed be your name.

On the road, my place of, they offer it. Let it be your name. Every blessing you pour out, I turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, light shall say, let it be the name of the Lord. Let it be the name. Let it be the name of the Lord. Let it be your glory.

You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, blessed be your name again.

You give and take away, you give and take away. My heart will choose this. Blessed be, let it be the name of the Lord, let it be your name. Let it be the name of the Lord, let it be your glory. Let it be the name of the Lord, let it be your name. Let it be the name of the Lord, let it be a glory.

Father, we want to be devoted to you and not to money. We don’t want to despise you, but instead we want to despise money.

Lord, you tell us very clearly through so many passages in the Sermon on the Mount and related chapters that you’re dealing with what we depend on. At the core, Lord, we repent of depending on money and all the security it provides.

We pray that as you’ve blessed us far beyond what we need, help us to be generous proportionately, especially to other churches, other brothers and sisters across this world who are in desperate need, whose basic food and drink and clothing is lacking.

So, Father, help us to have that kind of a heart, that when you send us out, we will have the heart of God, to be salt and to light, to have good eyes, healthy eyes. Help us have your perspective.

Teach us many things, Lord, in the weeks leading up to and also on this mission trip. We dedicate this summer to you. Have your way with us, Lord.

In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.