Salt & Light Two

Matthew 5:13-16

1. halfway through college Heather & I went on a 10 month short-term mission to the Philippines. One of my responsibilities was to teach a weekly Bible study in the Cebu Provincial Jail.

I met with 6-8 men. One was convicted of murdering his political rival. Another, George, murdered his wife. Another, Jimmy, was in for armed robbery. Eventually Jimmy was released, moved in with me, and a couple of years later was shot & killed by the police in an attempted robbery.

These were desperate men. I sought to bring the light of Christ into their darkness & rub the salt of the gospel into their spoiling lives.

2. last week I launched a 10 week series that I’m calling Salt & Light: Stepping up to make an Impact for Christ. I made 2 points from Matthew 5:13-16:
® Christ-followers must be radically different from the rest of the world
® Christ-followers must permeate non-Christian society

3. to be a light in our culture we have to get out into the darkness. Light around light is not what Christ is talking about.

example – shine flashlight with sanctuary lights on/off

4. to be salt in our culture we have to be poured out of our salt shakers into our culture. More than that we have to be rubbed into the meat of our culture in order to act as a preservative. We have to penetrate it.
5. I illustrated these 2 points using the prophet Daniel:
® he didn’t withdraw from secular culture
® he didn’t compromise his faith

6. Daniel neither separated himself from secular culture nor allowed himself to be assimilated into it. On the contrary, he engaged it as salt & light for the kingdom of God.

7. mike higgs – community care coalitions in Portland

learning from the Sermon on the Mount
1. the Sermon on the Mount gives us some pretty strong clues regarding how to engage our secular culture as salt & light.

2. 1st we are to personify the character of Christ as found in the beatitudes:
® poor in spirit (recognize our spiritual bankruptcy)
® mourn (in touch w/ our own & the world’s pain)
® meek (humble)
® hunger & thirst after righteousness (pursue the way of God)
® merciful (show mercy to others)
® pure in heart (pure motives)
® peacemakers (seek peace in all of life)
® persecuted (suffer persecution for Christ)

8. 2nd salt & light influence will flow out of our Christ-like character. This is our distinctiveness. The radical nature of our lives. This is what makes us different, makes us both desirable & detestable.

9. 3rd Christ shares examples of what salt & light looks like in the rest of the sermon. And that’s what I want to go to now.

Pictures of salt & light at work in the Sermon on the Mount
5:17-20 = the pursuit of righteousness:
5:21-26 = anger & reconciliation:

5:27-30 = lust:
1. salt & light in pornography – Salem Alliance Church offers support groups for men who are addicted to pornography. They also offer support groups for their wives. The highest rate of success comes for men whose wives are part of their recovery. They are seeing men freed from pornography.

2. Jane Wolf, who oversees the recovery group ministry at SAC, has a vision – that the church will lead the way in society in addressing sexual addictions & become safe places where women & men can disclose their private struggles

5:31-33 = divorce:
5:34-37 = oaths:

5:38-42 = retaliation:
1. salt & light by giving a 2nd chance – I know of a business owner who fired an employee for breaking company policy – this man was drinking on the job. He then went into treatment for his alcohol use….

2. ….and came back & asked for his job. The business owner gave him his job back & a 2nd chance. He wants to support & encourage him in his struggle to overcome his drinking.

5:43-48 = enemies:
1. salt & light in China – our district, the Pacific Northwest District of The Christian & Missionary Alliance, has a partnership with Alliance missionaries working in China called the Pacific Rim Initiative. We send money to our missionaries who, in conjunction with the Chinese government, build Alliance churches in China (a few years ago money from our Miracle Sunday Offering helped build one of these churches).
2. the government officials in China that we work with are intrigued by why people in Oregon & Washington would send them money to build churches. Get this. In April we have our District Conference. One of the Chinese pastors who oversees the building of these churches will be our special guest. And he is bringing with him 2-3 communist officials who want to meet the people who send the money to build churches. Being salt & light in China is bringing communist party officials to our District Conference!

6:1-4 = giving:
1. salt & light by giving lunch – for the past 8 years the Pacific Covenant Mennonite Church here in Canby has been giving food to the needy. They serve lunch once a week at the S. Locust Str. Park.

2. this is an area of our city marked by gang & drug activity. The church has been quietly doing this. They don’t blow their own horn. They are a shining light in a dark part of our community.

3. salt & light by providing a learning opportunity – Tammy Myers is heading up something called Stay & Play (productive learning after school for youth) in our public schools. 674 students signed up. 60 classes being offered. Starts tomorrow. For $10 kid get a healthy snack, all materials, bus ride home.

4. over 40% of children in our area are "latchkey" children who go home to an empty house after school. Stay & Play is designed to provide them a safe, enriching environment where they can experience new things – piano lessons, ballet, art, soccer or academic classes where they can get extra help.

5. like a tutoring class where they match up students with CHS students or adult buddies to read together or do homework. For many of these kids this will be the only time someone sits down and works with them or listens to them read (4 people from our church are working as "tutors" in this program)

6. Stay & Play depends on 70 VOLUNTEERS from Canby High School and the community. Over 10 of these volunteers are from CAC!

6:5-15 = prayer:
1. salt & light by prayer in the Philippines – when President Ferdinand Marcos was toppled from power in 1986 Filipino Christians said it was because of prayer power NOT people power. Protestant & Catholic churches, lay people & nuns, united together in prayer. In their homes, in the streets, in their churches.

2. John Stott – we should take the task of public intercession more seriously than we commonly do. If local churches were to bow down before God every Sunday for 10 or 20 or 30 minutes, what might God be free to do?

3. salt & light by prayer for a community – I know of someone who lives in a nearby community that has been marked by political division. This person & a friend do a weekly prayer walk through their community. Street after street. They pray for peace, for unity, for Christ to come to their city.

6:16-18 = fasting:

6:19-24 = treasures:
1. salt & light through a home for un-wed mothers – Thiessen Roadhouse for unwed mothers, Linda Wiles Thornton & Annie Cernak interview

6:25-34 = worry:


7:1-6 = judging:
1. salt & light by visiting bars & taverns – Bob Keyes was an Idaho cowboy & an alcoholic until he became a Christ-follower about 40 years ago. Instead of leaving the bars behind like his church told him to do, he made them his salt & light hang-out.

2. he spent his spare time in bars in Boise, Cascade, McCall. He sat with people, drank coke, talked to them & listened to their stories. He shared Christ. And he saw Christ transform drunken lives just like his had been transformed. He didn’t judge them – he loved them.

7:7-12 = prayer:
7:13-14 = focused living:
7:15-23 = fruit:
7:24-27 = solid rock:

Where to now?
1. what follows now is 8 weeks in Acts 2:42-47. There are certain practices or habits that we have to give ourselves to if we are going to be salt & light – the filling of the Holy Spirit, teaching, caring, praying, worshipping, generosity to name a few.

2. go & be light; go & be salt