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And Jesus is saying, "Don't keep your salt
in the saltshaker.
Don't hide your light under a bushel."
Through Jesus Christ, we can be people of influence
and we can make this world better
and we can make it brighter for all eternity.
Teaching people everywhere who Jesus is
and why they need him.
This is "Touching Lives" with James Merritt.
Nobody can dispute that Jesus Christ changed the world.
Nobody can dispute that.
Nobody will dispute that every person Jesus touched
was never the same after He touched them.
I mean, never.
And what Jesus is going to tell us this morning is this --
"if you'll follow Me, if you'll just get in My footsteps,
if you'll do what I did and do what I'm going
to share with you that you can do
and I will give you the power to do that..."
If you will do what I'm about to say to you and be
what I tell you to become, you can change your world.
You can touch people in such a way they will never,
ever again be the same.
This is what I want you to take out the door.
We can make this world better and brighter
if we follow the leader.
We can make this world better and brighter
if we follow the leader.
Now, Jesus says, "There are just two simple things
I'm going to ask you to do."
You won't believe how simple this is, how easy this is.
And everybody in this room can do it.
You may be a relatively new Christian,
you may have only come to Christ in the last month
or the last six months or the last year --
you can do this.
You may be 15 years old -- you can do this.
You may be 85 years old -- you can do this.
It doesn't matter what color your skin is.
You may not even be a native of this country.
You may be from a foreign land.
Doesn't matter.
Everybody can do this and you can make
an unbelievable difference where you live, where you work,
where you play, who you know, and who you're with.
Jesus said, "Do two things."
Number one -- show a godly life to others.
Just show a godly life to others.
Now, Jesus begins with this incredible statement.
He said, "You are the salt of the earth."
Now, let me ask a very obvious question.
Jesus could have used any chemical compound He wanted to;
He chooses salt.
He says, "You are the salt of the earth."
So I always ask the question when I come across it like that,
"So why did Jesus use salt?
Why didn't He use pepper?
Why didn't He use cinnamon?
Why didn't He use ginger?
Why didn't He use thyme?
Why did He use salt?"
Well, if you think about it, salt is a miracle.
Let me tell you why.
You know what salt's made of, right?
Salt is a chemical compound.
It's made of sodium and it's made of hydrochloride.
Now, sodium taken by itself in large quantities can kill you.
You know why?
'Cause it can shut your kidneys down.
Hydrochloric acid -- if you were to take this much
hydrochloric acid and pour it on your hand,
you wouldn't have a hand anymore.
If you were to drink that much hydrochloric acid,
you wouldn't live to tell about it.
I mean, it can absolutely kill you.
Here's the amazing thing -- I can take this same sodium,
I can take this same hydrochloride,
I can mix those two together and what do I have?
I've got salt, which is one of the most usable substances
in all of the planet.
And oh, by the way, it was even more available
in the days of Jesus.
We don't understand how valuable salt is.
Salt's a common commodity.
You know, you can get salt anywhere.
Back in Jesus' day, it was very, very important because
salt is a preservative.
Now, why was that a big deal?
Well, back in Jesus' day, they didn't have refrigerators.
They didn't have ice.
So the only way they could preserve food and keep it
from rotting was by preserving it with salt.
As a matter of fact, salt was so valuable
that in certain places you could even trade it
ounce for ounce for gold.
You may not know this, but Roman soldiers were paid in salt.
In fact, we are too, in a way, you just don't know it.
You say, "Well, no, I'm not paid in salt.
I'm given a salary."
You're given a what?
"I'm given a salary."
Well, where do you think the word salary comes from?
The word salary comes from the Latin word salarium,
which comes from the root word salt.
Have you ever heard this saying, "He's not worth his salt?"
Where'd we get that saying?
Well, if a man didn't do a good job, he's supposed
to get paid in salt, what'd he get?
He got pepper.
Okay?
So he didn't get his salt.
Man's not worth his salt.
Well, take a little guess.
We're in Galilee.
Anybody want to guess what the major industry
was in Galilee?
Somebody want to guess?
Fishing.
You think salt was important to the fishermen?
They couldn't live without it.
You know why?
'Cause when they caught their fish,
they had to take their fish to market.
Where'd they take it?
Well, if they caught a lot of fish, they had to go
to Jerusalem because there wasn't enough people there
to buy all the fish that they had.
How did they get it to Jerusalem without rotting?
They had to pack it in what?
Salt, right?
So salt was a very big deal, or else they couldn't live;
they could not even exist.
What was Jesus telling them?
He was saying to them, "Look, one of the ways
that you can become a person of influence is just
let your life sprinkle like salt."
Just everywhere you get the chance,
just let the salt of Jesus in you just come pouring out.
And oh, by the way, salt that stays on the shelf,
doesn't do anybody any good.
Now, listen to what I'm saying.
You know where you're sitting right now?
You say, "Yeah, I'm sitting in a chair."
No, you're not.
You're sitting on a shelf.
And what's wrong with too many of us is --
let's be honest -- we walk out of here
and leave our salt on the shelf and come back next week
and pick up our salt.
Jesus said, "No, no, no.
You're not the salt of the church.
You're the salt of the earth."
You're to take what you say you believe
and what you sing about, what you take notes on in here,
and you are to live it out, out there.
So we've got to get out of churches
and out of our houses and out of our holy huddles
and begin to show a godly life to our next door neighbors,
to the people that we work with, to the people that work under us
or work above us, to our classmates,
to our teammates, to our relatives,
and to our friends.
If we don't do that, Christianity is going nowhere.
But Jesus goes on to give this warning.
He said, "But if the salt loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salt again?
It is no longer good for anything except
to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."
Now, what did Jesus mean by that?
Well, people got much of their salt from the Dead Sea --
I've been to the Dead Sea many times --
and you can also call it the Salt Sea because --
you've heard this story before -- when the water flows
into the Dead Sea, it doesn't flow out of the Dead Sea.
It just stays there.
And so the salt begins to concentrate.
But once the water flows into the Dead Sea,
there's no place for it to go.
And when the sun begins to hit that sea,
it begins to evaporate that water.
And when it begins to evaporate that water,
it leaves behind this chunky white powder
that's made up of a combination of salt and minerals.
Now, here's the problem.
There's still enough salt in that compound
to preserve food, but there's enough minerals in there
that it ruins the taste.
It dilutes the flavor.
So you can't put it on food.
It makes it basically tasteless.
As a matter of fact, if you've ever tasted it,
you can taste it there, it's almost bitter.
So what did we say that salt's good for?
It's only good for one thing.
Let's put it on food.
But you can't put it on food 'cause it's bitter
and it's tasteless.
So you know what they did with that salt?
They would take that salt and they would put it
on the roads to hold down the dust.
In other words, that salt just became something
that people just walked over.
Now, here's the point.
Christianity will lose its flavor and the church
will lose its attractiveness to the outside world
if we're just living like everybody else.
And if there's not going to be any difference in the way
you live your life than the way your lost neighbor lives
their life or the unchurched neighbor lives their life,
your salt will be tasteless.
Nobody's going to be attracted to that.
And that is becoming...
See, our problem...
See, we're more interested in conforming
to the culture than transforming the culture.
Then the salt loses its taste.
When we go along to get along, when we say, "Look,
I just don't want to rock anybody's boat,"
that's when the church, the people look at the church
and say, "You're not relevant.
There's nothing different about you.
You have not given me one reason why I ought to get
out of my bed and get up and come to be with you anyway."
Listen.
Followers of Jesus will never make followers of Jesus
until we look a lot more like Jesus.
That's the bottom line.
We will never make followers of Jesus until we look
a lot more like Jesus.
People know when food is salted and they know when it's not
and people should know by the way we live
whether or not we are followers of Jesus
like we say that we are.
And while I'm in the neighborhood,
let me just tell you this.
If I get up here and all I'm going to do is
just say whatever the culture says and I'm going to say
whatever the Supreme Court says and I'm going to say
whatever's popular is or I'm going to say
whatever the latest poll says, I'm telling you right now,
not only will the church empty -- the church ought to be empty.
See?
So that's why if I can just kind of,
while I'm in this neighborhood, I really don't care
what the culture says or what the Congress says
or what the court says about marriage.
Read my lips.
I don't care.
I care about one thing.
What does God say about marriage?
What does the word of God...
What is the truth?
That's all I care about.
You say, "Well, you're not going to win any office."
I'm not running for office.
And if I were running, that's sort of the way
I'd want to win anyway.
So I'm just simply saying Jesus says, "Look,
you've got to show a godly life to others."
You've got to show by the way you live, "Hey,
there is something different about me
and that difference is Jesus."
That's the first thing you've got to do.
Here's the second thing.
You've got to shine a godly light to others.
You show a godly life to others and you shine a godly light.
Now, the second thing Jesus says is this.
He says, "You are the light of the world."
Now, that's pretty easy.
That's easy.
Anybody can get that.
You know why Jesus calls us light,
'cause light only has one purpose.
What is the purpose of light?
What is it?
Yeah, dispel darkness.
That's all.
Light just gets rid of darkness, right?
If you don't have darkness, you already have light
and don't need light.
The only purpose of light is to get rid of the darkness.
It dispels darkness.
And by the way, it attracts attention.
And it doesn't take a genius to figure out,
folks, we're living in a dark world.
I mean, just pick your poison.
Neil to Islam, racial unrest, economic uncertainty...
I mean the list goes on and on and on.
You say, "Boy, that's bad news."
Oh, no, it's good news.
Why do you think it's good news?
Why do you think God put us in this time?
Why do you think God put us in this place?
'Cause I'll tell you why.
This earth, this planet needs salt,
and this planet needs light.
And Jesus goes on to say,
"A town built on a hill cannot be hidden."
You know what the word built means?
It doesn't mean to build like you would build a house.
That's not really what it means.
You know what that word literally means
in the Greek language?
It means to be planted.
It means to be placed.
Let me give you a little... tell you what it...
give you this little illustration.
If you were born in this country,
let me ask you a question.
How many of you chose to be born in this country?
How many of you, before you were born,
you got out a form and you said, "I would like to be
born in the United States of America?"
Okay?
Nobody.
Or let's say you were born in this state.
How many of you would say, "Yeah, you know what?
I not only asked for the country, I said, man,
Georgia's on my mind.
I just... I want to be born in Georgia."
Alright?
I mean, Ray Charles didn't sing "Florida on My Mind," right?
He sang "Georgia on My Mind."
Why?
Okay.
You didn't ask to be born in Georgia.
Right?
I was born 30 miles from here -- Gainesville, Georgia.
I didn't ask to be born in Gainesville, Georgia.
You say, "Well, what's your point?"
You were put here.
You were planted here.
Now, you can believe whoever did it...
I know who I believe did it.
I believe God did it.
Okay, now think about this.
Let's just extrapolate where you are right now.
So you think it's just a coincidence
that you live in the neighborhood you live in?
You think that's just the luck of the draw?
Do you think it's a coincidence that you work in
the particular profession that you're in
and you work with the people that you work with?
You think that's just a, you know, heads or tails?
Do you think it's sheer luck, sheer luck that you know
the people that you know and you play with the people
that you play with?
Do you think it's sheer luck that you go
to the school that you go to?
No.
you were planted there.
You were put there.
Why were you put there?
To be light in that school, to be light in that office,
to be light in that business.
And see, Jesus goes on to say this.
He says, "A town on a hill," He says, "it cannot be hidden."
A town build on a hill cannot be hidden.
Let me tell you why He said that.
In the first century, they didn't have bulldozers
like we did, so if somebody came along
and they would conquer a city, they would usually
raze it to the ground.
They'd kill the people.
They'd burn the buildings.
They'd tear the buildings down.
Well today, you would raze all that.
When we destroyed half of Europe in World War II,
we, through the Marshall Plan, went over.
What'd we do?
We cleaned everything out, rebuilt the cities.
They didn't do that.
For thousands of years, you simply would build
on top of the rubble that was already there.
So cities would be built, they'd be conquered,
they'd be built, they would be conquered,
cities would be built, they were be conquered.
That's why in the ancient world, any major city would
be on a hill, 'cause it would be built on all the cities
that had been conquered and destroyed before them.
So here's why that was such a kind of a cool thing.
You didn't have to have good eyesight to see a city.
If you were looking for a city in broad daylight --
because most of the buildings were built
with white limestone -- the sun would shine
and hit that limestone and reflect off that city
and you could see that city shining for miles.
Or if you were traveling at night, there was torches
and there were candles and there were all kinds
of things that were lighted up and you could
see those lights many, many miles away.
Jesus said, "No city on a hill" --
that's built on a hill -- "hides its candles, hides its light."
But then He goes on to say this in verse 15,
"Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl."
Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light
to everyone in the house.
Now, every one of us in this room
are blessed to live in this country.
We all have lighting in our houses.
Why do we have lighting and why do we use lighting?
Because we don't want to sit in the dark.
We don't want to stay in the dark.
Well, likewise when you and I go into
our dark neighborhoods and our dark businesses
and our dark schools, why do you think God puts us there?
Why do you think we go there?
God doesn't send you into your offices
and into your neighborhoods and into your schools
so you can just kind of say,
"Well, I'll just sit in the dark with you."
God puts you there so you can see
all these people sitting in the dark
and so you can say, "Excuse me,
you don't have to sit in the dark anymore.
Excuse me, you don't have to stay in the dark anymore.
Do I ever have a light for you?
Do I ever have a light that can dispel
the darkness in your life?"
You say, "Well hey, how do you do that?"
There's so many ways you can shine your light.
Just be kind and respectful to everyone that you work with.
Invite people out to a meal and start building
a friendship with them.
Listen to people who have hurts and heartaches
and let people know that you're there for them
and praying for them.
Invite them to come here.
Invite them to join your small group,
or when the door opens up, just share your testimony.
It's not that hard.
I was at a restaurant last week.
I was having lunch with one of the members
of our church, and this lady comes up and she's our waitress
and I said...
She took our order and she came back
and she set our food down and I said, "Ma'am... "
I don't discriminate so I ask every waiter
and waitress this question.
I said, "We're about to pray for our food.
How can I pray for you?"
You know, I've never had anybody get mad at me about that,
get hostile?
Now, I've had some people say, "Oh no, man.
I'm good.
You know, I'm cool."
And then I really know they need prayer, right?
So...
But most of the time, it's amazing the stories you'll hear.
So I asked this lady, I said, "How can I pray for you today?"
Boom -- she tears up.
I mean, she tears up.
And she said, "Well, I'm in recovery."
I said, "Really?"
She says, "Yeah, I've been doing good for about 60 days."
Well, I thought she meant like alcohol or drugs
or whatever, and I said, "Well, if you don't mind,
tell me about it."
She said, "Well, I'm battle depression."
I said, "Really?"
"Yeah."
I said, "You know," I said, "I went through
a period of depression."
You don't even know the story.
I said, "I went through a period of depression in my own life."
She said, "Really?"
I said, "Yeah.
I was pastoring in Mississippi," and I said,
"I'm an early riser."
Teresa knows; she's been married to me a long time.
I'm an early riser.
I get up 6, 6:15 every morning.
Monday morning comes, this particular Monday morning,
and I'm in bed.
It's like, 8:00 in the morning I guess.
Teresa comes in, shakes me.
She says, "Hey, are you sick?"
I said, "No."
"Well, something wrong?"
"Yeah."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know."
"Well, what do you mean?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't you get up?"
"I don't want to get up."
"Why won't you get up?"
"If I knew that, I'd get up.
I don't want to get up."
To this day...
I was depressed for three months.
To this day, you can put a gun to my head...
"Why are you depressed?"
"I don't know."
I had no reason to be, but I was depressed, in a funk.
I want to tell you, every day for three months,
every day was a battle for me.
It was a battle.
I mean, I kept preaching.
I kept sharing my faith.
And probably the most important thing I did,
I just kept reading my Bible and I kept talking to the Lord
and I kept believing, "God, You're bigger than this;
God, You're greater than this;
God, You can get me through this."
And I'll be honest with you.
I'm not saying this works for everybody,
and people do need other treatment.
I get that.
I'm not in vain against that.
I just came out of it like I went in -- just one,
and Teresa will remember this, one day I just
wasn't depressed anymore.
I just wasn't.
God just got me through it.
But I'm telling this lady this story and she just,
she's weeping.
She says... I said, "Look.
I know where you've been.
I know where you are."
She said, "You know, I was rich."
She said, "I tried to take my life.
I was suicidal 60 days ago.
But," she said, "so far, I've been good."
And then she said this.
She said, "I just need peace in my life."
And I said, "Have you come to the right table."
And I had little Sure card in my pocket.
I reached out and I said, "Let me tell you something."
I said, "The message on this card radically changed my life."
I said, "It gave me the peace that I'd been... "
I said, "Matter of fact, it's because that I've accepted
this message got me through what I went through."
So she takes it.
It was real busy, didn't have time
to talk to her for a minute.
So we get the check, we pay, and we go to leave.
I started to get up.
This lady comes...
I didn't even see her.
She came running over there.
She's got tears coming down her cheeks again.
She looked at me and she said, "You know what?"
That's what she said.
"It's not a coincidence that you sat in my section."
I said, "No, ma'am."
She said, "It's not a coincidence
that I was your waitress."
I said, "No, ma'am."
And I said, "I'm going to pray for you."
And I said, "I'm going to tell you,
Jesus can get you through what you're going through.
I'm telling you, He can do it."
Now, what did I do?
I was just pouring out the salt.
That's all.
I just... holding up my little candle.
I'm just shining my light.
That's all I'm doing.
And that's all Jesus wants us to do.
See, you can do that.
And remember, the light that Jesus is talking about is Him.
He is the true Light of the world,
and all He wants you to do is let Him shine
His light through you.
You don't have to look a certain way,
you don't have to know a certain number of Bible verses,
you don't have to have certain seminary degree,
you don't have to have a certain position.
He says, "Look, just let your light shine."
So let me put it to you this way.
We're going to wrap this up real quick.
I bet you never thought about this before.
What is the greatest, most important light in your house?
Just give that some thought.
What is the most important light in your house?
I'll bet you it's not what you think it is.
Here's a pop quiz.
Which is more important -- that very expensive chandelier
that you have hanging up in your foyer
or that little nightlight that keeps you
from breaking your neck when you go to the bathroom
at three o'clock in the morning?
Kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it?
Excuse my grammar -- it ain't the big chandelier.
That ain't a lot of help when you've got to
go to the bathroom at three o'clock in the morning.
What I want is that little Georgia Bulldog nightlight
that I've got right beside my bathroom
when I've got to go to the bathroom
at three o'clock in the morning.
That's what gets me through the night.
And here's the point.
It is not how beautiful you are or how brilliant you are.
That's not it.
What God is telling every one of us in this room is this --
if you've got Jesus, you've got light.
He's the light of the world.
And all He wants you to do, every time you get the chance,
every time He opens the door, every time you get
the opportunity, just open your mouth and just open your heart
and let His light sine through you.
Don't let darkness intimidate you.
Listen.
Light is never afraid of darkness.
Darkness is afraid of light.
And here's what I'm trying to tell you.
Boy, things are kind of bad out there right now,
aren't they?
Yeah, they really are.
You know, cultural...
Let's face it.
Let's be honest.
Let's just... We're a very diverse church.
Racial unrest is out there, folks.
Thank God it's not in our church.
But racial unrest is out there and it's real.
And economic uncertainty out there and it's real.
And I'm going to tell you, there's an Islamic threat
out there and it's real.
And there's an intellectual atheistic threat out there
and it is real.
But let me tell you, the darker our culture gets,
the brighter our light ought to shine,
the brighter our light out to be.
So Jesus concludes by saying this,
and we're going to wrap this up.
Listen to what He said.
He said, "In the same way, just let your light shine
before others that they may see your good deeds" --
now this is the key, this is the ball game --
"and glorify your Father in heaven."
Now, watch this.
You say, "Well, I've just got one last question.
So how do you know if you're being salt out there?"
How do you really know if you're being light out there?
How do you know if you're really making that difference?
How do you really know that you're doing
what Jesus has told you to do?
How do you really know if your life
is really shaking the salt and your light
is really shining the light?
Here's the test.
Jesus just gave it to us.
He said, "If others see the life that you live,
if others see the way you react to negative situations,
if others see the way that you treat other people,
if others see the truth that you share
and the way that you share it, if instead of saying
what a good guy you are or what a good gal you are,
if they say, What a great God you know,
then you'll know you're shaking the salt
and you're pouring out the light."
So I'll just wrap this up.
There was a little boy, went up to his daddy.
He said, "Daddy," he said, "how tall am I?"
His dad says, "Oh, you're about four feet tall."
He said, "Well, dad, how tall was Jesus?"
He said, "Well, son, I don't really know."
He said, "Men weren't tall back then like they are now,
so I'd say Jesus was about five and a half feet tall."
He said, "Oh, let me get this right."
He said, "So I'm four feet tall, Jesus' about
five and a half feet tall, right?"
And he said, "Yeah."
He said, "So what?"
He said, "Well, dad, I just got to thinking...
If I'm four feet tall and Jesus is
five and a half feet tall, if Jesus is in me,
He'll stick out, right?"
That is great theology.
That is wonderful theology.
If Jesus is in you, He will shake out of you like salt.
He will shine out of you like light.
So this is my last paragraph, we're going to pray.
If you are a follower of Jesus, there's one reason.
I promise you it's true.
The reason why you're a follower of Jesus today is
because somebody was salt to you.
The reason you're a follower of Jesus today is
because somebody was light to you.
My mom, my dear departed mother who I love
and still miss to this minute, she was my salt.
She was my light.
I'm here today because my mom poured her salt onto me
and my mom shined her light into me.
And Jesus is saying, "Don't keep your salt in the saltshaker.
Don't hide your light under a bushel."
Through Jesus Christ, we can be people of influence
and we can make this world better
and we can make it brighter for all eternity.
Jesus said that "My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
So if the thought of influencing others for Christ
sounds overwhelming to you, maybe you're taking on
more responsibility than God ever intended.
He merely wants to use you as a vessel.
He'll do all the heavy lifting.
Call Touching Lives today at 800-413-1131.
Let's pray and ask for His help.
Teresa and I are going to Israel this year.
We want you to join us.
It is the trip of a lifetime.
I want to show you why.
♪ ♪
I have been over 20 times to Israel, because every time
I learn something new.
Every time God reveals Himself in a fresh and new way.
You don't want to miss this trip.
It really is the trip of a lifetime.
Go to TouchingLives.org.
That's TouchingLives.org.
I promise you it will change your life.
There's more than one way to influence the world for Christ.
Yes, we need to be salt and light to those
within our spheres of influence, but when you partner
with Touching Lives, your influence
is multiplied exponentially.
Together, we are taking the good news to the world
through print, TV, and online as well as through
our YouTube, Vimeo, and Roku channels.