The Salt of the Earth

The Salt of the Earth

By Pastor Gary Wayne

We have spent time recently talking about the need for us to find the heart of the Father.

In the last two studies we have done on Sunday afternoons, - Revival Breakthrough - something that has highlighted itself to me is the need to intercede for people with tears in my eyes.

Not just praying from my head, but from my heart – His heart.
Too many times a church, a group of people have an “us and them” attitude towards people in our community.

Text: Matthew 5:13-16, John 13:12-17
What is the HUGE point Jesus was making?
We serve with the heart of the Father.

Matthew 5:13-16

Most of my life, I interpreted ver.13 as salt is a preservative.
In biblical days salt was used to preserve meat. So believers are to preserve moral values and that kind of things in culture.

And while this is a truth, it’s not the main truth from this passage.

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor… its good for nothing…

Jesus didn’t talk about preserving anything, He talked about adding flavor.

I love to cook, and salt enhances the flavor of food.
Growing up with the “preservative idea” is like, dumping the saltshaker onto the plate.

Which has done nothing to enhance the flavor of the food.

You only enhance the flavor when you are lightly, or evenly sprinkled into community.

When God sprinkles His people into the mix of a community, it is to enhance the community. They don’t make it salty. That’s hard for anyone to swallow.

Different people – churches with this mindset think that we have to become the leader, to kind of to take over.

Thinking we have to be the top person to bring influence to the community.

But look at different biblical examples where people in servant positions influenced communities.

Joseph, Easter, Daniel, RADICALLY shaped history.
They served the one in charge.

If the only way we bring influence is to be in charge, then we misunderstood the role of salt.

Salt is not the substance of the meal, it enhances what is already there.

God doesn’t need us to be in charge of our city, but evenly sprinkled into the culture to enhance what God has already placed there to fulfill His purpose for the city.

I don’t have to be the chairman of the school board to make a difference.
I make a difference by “serving with my heart towards God.”

Loaded question – How do you do church when you are not in this room?
Church is not what we do here, but after we leave and go home where God has sprinkled us into a community to minister to Him.
Ministry is to Him first, then to others.

If I get this backwards, then I represent to God those “stinking rotten people.”

If I don’t have the heart of the Father towards people, then I represent a distant angry God to people who just don’t deserve to be saved.
“Turn or burn you scum bag!”

In God’s kingdom principles, “the towel is stronger than the sword.”