How to Impact Your World

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus took us away from such a self-centered, self-promoting kind of philosophy to an outward philosophy, to a looking outside ourselves and how to impact our world. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 through 16, Jesus takes two common household commodities to illustrate how we can have an impact on our world, how we can be outward focused, not inward focused, not self focused, not me focused, but focused on others, on our world and having an impact upon our world. Two indispensable household commodities, salt and light, and in a few short direct and powerful statements, these two household commodities become brilliant, searching, penetrating pictures of our mission in a fallen world. So how do we impact our world? We can learn a lot from what Jesus says about being salt and being light. Let's read what he says and then we'll unpack it just for a few moments. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It isn't no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. In the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Jesus is talking about how to have an impact on our world, how to have a kingdom impact on our world, an impact for righteousness, an impact for godliness, an impact for Christ. And he uses these two word pictures, these metaphors to illustrate what it means to have this impact, salt and light. For several things that I think we can learn from the use of these two metaphors, first of all, these two metaphors, the word pictures, salt and light, highlight the difficulties we confront in this world. Okay, we're going to have an impact on our world. We want to have an impact for Christ in this world. We understand and we need to know, we need to understand what we're up against. The difficulties that we face. We are highlighted in those two commodities. First of all, the idea of salt indicates that we live in a decaying world. You know, in Bible times and in the ancient world, for many centuries, the number one function of salt was as a preservative. If you wanted to preserve meat in time when there was no refrigeration, there were no ice machines to preserve goods, particularly with meat, what was done was you would salt it down or soak it in a saline solution so that it would be preserved at least for period of time. That method of preserving and keeping things from decaying more quickly was actually common well into the 20th century. Some of you can remember that, right? I know you can. I know some of you are old enough to remember that the day before refrigerators. And so before refrigeration, this was the common way to keep things fresh a little longer at least, to keep them from decaying and decomposing more quickly. So when Jesus uses this word picture of salt, the implication is when He says you're the salt of the earth, the implication is we are trying to prevent the spread of corruption which implies that this world tends to decomposition. This world tends to rot away and this world cannot help but go that direction. This world cannot help but rot away and go bad because the germs of evil are everywhere in this world. And so the world system is festering with these seeds and germs of evil and it putrefies it tends to go down, it tends to decay and decompose. It cannot help but go bad. After Adam, the world got so rotten that God had to judge the whole thing with a flood. And since that time it's gotten rotten again. Because one depicts a civilization, Paul talking about his own civilization in the first century and we are rapidly approaching it again if we have not already surpassed the evil of the first century. But Romans chapter 1 pictures a society that suppresses God's truth, that does not want to hear God's truth. And so suppresses it, keeps it out of their consciousness. It doesn't want it in the public arena. That sounds familiar? Romans 1 talks about a culture that suppresses God's truth and thus pulls away from the so-called restraints of values and standards of God's word until the gradually the culture steadily deteriorates with the germs of evil and sin and wickedness. It becomes thoroughly putrefied and pervades the whole culture until finally God gives the culture over to its own sinful ways and its own wickedness and its own deteriorating slide into rottenness. God gives it over to that until the culture literally stinks in the nostrils of God. That's the picture in Romans 1. That's the picture in 21st century America, I believe. We live in a decaying world. That's the difficulty we confront as salt. But we are also called upon to be light, which implies that another difficulty we're going to face in this world is darkness. We live not only in a decaying world, we live in a dark world. The purpose of light obviously is to dispel darkness. And so the implication is if we are to be light, we are to dispel darkness. We must be being told in that we live in a dark world. We live in a world where there is little or no light of its own. The Bible continually describes the world this way. It is a spiritual darkness that is being talked about here. A spiritual moral darkness. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4. He says the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. And describing the culture of his day, the pagan Gentile culture of his day, Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 and 18, verses 17 through 19, really. He says, so I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do and the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of greed. They are living in darkness, he says. They are darkened in their understanding. We live in a dark world and the horrifying truth is that people prefer that. This world loves that. Jesus Himself said in John chapter 3, herein is the truth. Light has come into the world and men have rejected the light because they love the darkness. They love their sin more. And so men reject the light because they love the darkness. We live in a dark world. This is the world we are called to impact. As salt it is a decaying world. As light it is a dark world. Those are the difficulties we face. So how do we proceed? What do we do? The duties we have are clear from these two metaphors. In a decaying world we are to be salt in a dark world we are to be like. What does it mean to live that way? What is Jesus talking about when he says you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world? What does that mean? Well as salt, remember salt was to restrain and hinder the natural decay, the natural decomposition of organic matter. And so God has put us in this world to hold back the spread of corruption and decay and deterioration morally in our world, in our culture. I believe there are other restraining influences that God has put in this world that were designed to do the same thing. One is the influence of government. It is clear from Genesis 9 when government was instituted that one of the responsibilities of government was to halt the spread of evil. It is clear from Romans 13 that one of the responsibilities, the primary responsibility of government is to punish evil and reward good. But government by and large across the world has failed to live up to that responsibility. God also instituted the home as another institution to be a front line bastion against the spread of corruption in this world. And by and large the home has caved into the culture, especially in American civilization. But all along I believe God intended that the most powerful restraint would be his own, redeemed, regenerated, righteous people living as salt in this world. So what are we to do as salt? How are we to live? Five things quickly. Number one, we are to live righteously. As salt, we need to live righteously. Remember we function as a preservative and a restraint to decay. First of all, we do that by a lifestyle that is a reproach to the sin of people around us that serves to halt the spread, the proliferation of sin around us. Now we don't have to do that self righteously. We don't have to do that in a condemning way. I think as Peter says in 1 Peter 3 that we're to live with meekness and kindness and gentleness, we can live a righteous lifestyle in such a way that when people are around you, they know they just sense that a filthy story is inappropriate. And so they back away from that. People when they are around you as a righteous bearer of the image of God, someone who lives out righteousness, people ought to just instinctively know that dishonesty or laziness in the workplace is unacceptable. It's just not right. They feel guilty when they're around you doing that on the job. It's not that you've been self righteous toward them. It's not that you've been condemning toward them. It's just that you dedicate yourself to righteous living in such a winsome and attractive way that it serves as a rebuke to those who try to spread unholiness and unrighteousness. It's the kind of living that when people are around you, they realize that a stinging cursing reply is just inappropriate. And they have such respect for you that they will not do that around you. You see how that's restraining evil? To live righteously is to live as salt. And when we live consistently righteous lives, those kind of people in business, those kinds of people in the military, those kinds of people in schools, those kinds of people in college campuses, those kinds of people in neighborhoods serve to halt the spread of corruption. Now one of the difficulties we face is that the decomposition and the decay is growing faster and spreading wider all of the time. And we know that's true. We know that's going to be the way it is because of what the Bible says will happen in the last days. That things will progressively grow worse and worse morally. And so we can expect that this is going to be tougher and we can expect that as we live this way in our culture, there will be more and more people who resist that and who fight against that and hate that. But we are still as salt to live righteously. Secondly, we are to live in a way that we stand against evil. I believe part of our responsibility as salt is to courageously speak out against personal sin and against society's evil and not back down. Yes, we can do that graciously. We can do it in a spirit of love and kindness, but we need to uphold the truth and we need to speak and stand against evil in our culture. God has not called us honeypots all sweet and sugary. He's called a salt. And when there's an open source, salt stings. Salt doesn't feel good. So sometimes we need to sting a little bit. Sometimes we need to be very direct in our condemnation of evil. Be very clear about the holiness of God and his judgment on sin and what our culture is doing wrong. That's what we witnessed last Sunday night in Houston. People who are willing to say as salt, we are going to stand for righteousness and we will condemn sin in our society. We will not back down. We will not waver from the truth. We're not going to do it in an ugly way. We're not going to do it in a way that is unchristlike, but we are going to do it boldly and courageously. As salt, we must condemn and stand against evil. The corollary to that is that we must uphold truth. So the third thing we're to do as salt is to uphold truth and that is to boldly stand for something, not always just against something, but for something. And for truth, provide an alternative to the decay of the culture and it is God's standard of righteousness. So we uphold His view of the home. We uphold His view of marriage. We uphold His view of unborn children. We uphold His view unashamedly of God's truth in this world. In many different ways we should do that. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the 17 and 1800s in England, there were a number of influential men who did this very thing. Quitfield, West sleep, Harris, Schaffsbury, Wilbur Force, men who were preachers, men who were also politicians, men who were influential in the government in England. And they stood for truth and in the awakening that swept through England in those years. There were a number of spin-off cultural ramifications of that and influences of that movement. If you know anything about the history of that time, you know that these people championed prison reform, medical care started because of the responsibility of these people to see that people were cared for compassionately. The control of the liquor trade was brought into being by the stand of these people. Wilbur Force, you well know, His drive to abolished slavery and England abolished slavery long before we did because of Wilbur Force's untiring efforts in that regard. The abolition of child labor because of their stand for the righteousness of God in society. The establishment of orphanages, the reform of the penal code in England was a result of the preaching and the political efforts of these kinds of people. That's what it means to be sought to stand for righteousness and God's truth to stand against the evil in society. That's being sought. So we're to live righteously. We are to stand against evil. We are to stand for truth. But we are also as sought number four to live joyfully. To live joyfully. You know, salt is a condiment that brings spice and zest to the kitchen table. You know that bland food is just, it's jockey. I know it's not maybe that good for you if you put a whole lot of salt. I mean, you don't want to just dump salt on it towards the mound of salt. But bland food just doesn't taste very good. Salt adds a little spice and zest and taste. And in that way, I think this metaphor is designed to represent that we are to live the kinds of lives in this culture that are fully alive and joyful, that add some spice in the right way. Of course, but add some zest and joy and a little taste to life that we live in such a way that is attractive and win some to unbelievers. In contrast to a dull and lifeless existence that people have to numb with pleasure, with entertainment, with artificial stimulants to try to get some kind of happiness in life. In contrast to that, this world needs to see believers who are fully alive and joyful in Christ, enjoying their work, enjoying their family, enjoying the days activities, rather than griping and complaining. And guess what? Even enjoying the weather. You know that would be a tremendous testimony really. If when everybody is complaining about the weather, we could find something good about it. That will stretch you a little bit, I know. It will be too. But living lives of joy and zest and spice to live joyfully in this culture as part of what it means to live is salt. Then the fifth thing it means is to create thirst. To create thirst. Salt creates thirst. Go home and eat a big batch of country ham and you'll be drinking water all night. Salt creates thirst. Around Jesus, people got thirsty for God's kingdom, for God's righteousness around us when they see the difference in our lives. They should long for what they see in us. They should long for joy and for peace and for character and for the things that are really important in life. People ought to look at us and long for those kinds of things. Would the God we could live that way? That's what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 3 when he says reverence or revere or set apart as Lord Christ in your hearts so that you will be ready to give an answer to those that ask the reason for the hope that is in you. He's talking about living with Christ at the center of our lives so that it causes people to ask questions about the difference in our lives. And when they ask the difference about the difference in our lives, we can with meatness and respect give them an answer. But the very fact that we're living in the way Christ would have us to is creating thirst on the part of people. People need to see that there is a difference in our lives. That's what it means to live as salt. But Jesus also says, you are the light of the world. What does it mean to live as light? Well, first of all, it means to reflect Christ, to reflect Christ to this world. You know, Jesus said in John chapter 8 and verse 12, we hadn't been long since we looked at this passage on Sunday morning. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And interestingly enough, just a chapter later in chapter 9 and verse 5, he says, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So what Jesus is saying is I'm the light of the world, but I'm going to be leaving here. So we're going to need someone else to take on that responsibility. I like to think of it as the sun. When the sun goes down, what comes up in the sky? What does the moon do? It reflects the light of the sun, doesn't it? And when there is no sun in the sky, there is a moon in the sky to give us some light. Now the moon is not as bright as the sun. It doesn't do as good a job as the sun, but at least when it's a full moon, it gives some light and it reflects the light of the sun. That's what Jesus is calling upon us to do. When the sun sets, when the sun is off the scene, we are to be reflectors of his light. When Jesus says, you are the light of the world. We're not the sun. We're not like Jesus who said, I am the light of the world, but we are a lesser light that reflects his light to those around us. And so we are to reflect Christ. The question is, what kind of moon am I? Am I a little sliver that's not giving much light? Am I just a half moon or am I a full moon? Giving the best light I can, the most light I can to reflect Jesus. So as light we reflect Christ. As light we also share Christ. Throughout the Bible light is often a common symbol of truth. It is God's truth which brings light. And so giving God's truth, sharing the light of the gospel dispels darkness. And so one of the things we need to do as light bearers is to give the light of the gospel, to share the light of God's truth of the gospel with other people so that they can move out of darkness into light, into Christ. So as light we reflect Christ in our character and personal lives, but we also share Christ. We share the light of the gospel. And then thirdly as light we are to show compassion. Look at what it says in verse 16. In this whole section of being the light of the world, he says in the same way, let your light shine before others. What do you mean, Jesus? Here's what I mean. They may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. There are two words for good in the Greek language. One of them is the word agathos which means morally good, the opposite of evil, the other is koos which means attractive. That which is good in the sense that it's attractive and beautiful and it attracts people, that kind of goodness. And that's the word he uses here. The good deeds we are to do, yes they are certainly good moral deeds, but more than that they are compassionate acts toward others. Acts of kindness, acts that are beautiful in their expression and attractive to other people. I think it was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the writer who said, what you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. What Jesus is saying here is that as we live out our lives, our lives ought to be not only reflection of Christ and sharing of the gospel, but doing deeds of compassion and kindness toward others that are wholesome and attractive to them and draw them to the Savior. So acts of compassion, showing compassion like Jesus did. Jesus couldn't see a crowd, but he was moved with compassion because of all the needs they had and he would do whatever he could to reach out and meet those needs. And that's the way we ought to be living. Those are the duties we have as salt and as light. Quickly let me just mention three dangers that we face. The difficulties we confront, a decaying world and a dark world. The duties that we have as salt and light we've enumerated. Let's talk a little bit about the dangers we face. One of the dangers we face as salt in particular is contamination. You see it there in verse 13, you're the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, or in other words, loses its distinctiveness. If it is mixed with other compounds and loses its distinctiveness, then how can it be made salty against no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under foot. It loses its effectiveness. If it is mixed with other compounds and contaminated by other compounds, and what Jesus I think is talking about here for us, we're the salt of the earth, but we can become contaminated by the very world system, by the germs that are decaying this world, we can become contaminated by the very same thing. By a world system. Now the problem is that we often confuse this contamination with an unbidlicable view of worldliness. So there are a lot of folks who talk about, okay, don't be worldly. Women don't wear slacks. Don't listen to anything, but Lawrence Welk kind of music. Don't go to a movie theater and all of those kinds of things. And that is the definition of holiness for some people. That's not the point. That's not real worldliness. Necessarily. Some of Lawrence Welk's music might even be worldly. I'm not real sure, but some of that might be kind of bad. Here's the point. The Bible defines worldliness for us. And I've preached this a lot. I hope it's stuck. The Bible defines what worldliness is in 1 John 2, 16. He says, everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life is of the devil, not of the father. Those are the three things. Those are the three controlling philosophies of life that make up the world system that is of this devil and is not of the father. This organized system of thought, of focus, of ambition in life, it's all built around three things. Lust of the flesh is the desire to pursue your sinful nature. Your sinful nature pulls you to do towards sin. That's worldly. That's because that's the way the world lives. That's the only way it knows how to live. That's the reason the conversation of the average worldling is so full of innuendo and sinful thoughts and wickedness. Why? Because that's the pull of the flesh, the desire of the flesh. The lust of the eyes, the word lust simply means a strong desire to have. The idea is the strong desire to have what your eyes see. The first one is pleasure, the lust of the flesh. The second one is possessions. That's nothing wrong with possessions. We all need some of that to make our way through life. The idea is your ambition is to get all you can get and to fill your life with earthly possessions. That becomes your ruling ambition. That is worldliness. That is a worldly spirit because that's all the world knows to do. Get the best job you can get, move up as fast as you can move up, get all the money you can get and get all the toys you can get. That's the world's way of thinking. That's worldliness. So lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. That's the desire to be recognized, to climb over everybody else, to be number one. It's pride. It's the desire to have everybody looking up to you, to be famous, to be popular, whatever it may look like. It's the desire to have the acclaim of others rather than to be a humble servant of others. It's totally the opposite of what Jesus taught us to be. Remember when James and John kind of got it messed up and twisted in their thinking and they sent their mother to talk to Jesus about this, but they were kind of standing around in the corner or listening, you know, kind of listening, well, hope it's going to go well. I want to be the secretary of state, I want to be the secretary of defense and your cabinet, Lord, I want the first two places in your kingdom, I want to sit at your right and your lap. And Jesus said, wait a second, that concept of power and position is the way the world works. That's the princes of the Gentiles. That's how they work. Jesus said it is not so in my kingdom. The one that wants to be first, be last. In other words, flip that thing around. Flip that whole philosophy on its head. For the son of man, he said, came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many, to give, to give, to sacrifice. It's not all about getting and moving up and being upwardly mobile and making a name for yourself. That is worldliness. That's the world's philosophy. Jesus says, my kingdom operates this way, be willing to be last and serve others. That's the way my kingdom operates. So we can be contaminated with the philosophy of this world system and we can start to live for the lusts of the flesh, the desires of our sinful nature. We can start to live for everything that we see and we want to gather in our lives and we can live for recognition and applause and a claim. And when we do, we lose our saltiness. We're no longer affecting anybody for Christ. Why? Because we look like the world. We look just like them. We're living by that value system and thus we're no different. Why would anybody want what we've got? We're clamoring for the same stuff they're clamoring for. There's no difference. We can be contaminated. The second danger is the lack of contact and visibility. In terms of salt, the lack of contact, in terms of light, the lack of visibility. You know, salt has to be in contact with whatever it is supposed to affect. You cannot leave salt in the salt shaker and it does any good. It has to get out of the salt shaker. It has to come in contact with the meat or the vegetables or whatever to have any impact at all. It has to be rubbed into that ham. It has to be poured on something. It has to come into contact. Salt does not do its work if it stays in the salt shaker. And we cannot be salt in our culture unless we penetrate that culture and are involved in the life of people who are not saved. We need to get involved in the life of the community. We need to get involved in the lives of our schools and our government, our neighborhoods, our world. I thank God for people who are moving in circles where they can have influence and be salt. We ought to all be doing that in our neighborhoods and in our places of work and business and as we have opportunity to be involved in our kids sports teams and in our schools and wherever we are, we've got to be in contact with unsaved people. The idea that separation means that we have no contact with unsaved people is totally unbiblical. We can't be salt that way. We've got to have some contact with unsaved people. I love the story of Winston Churchill in the dark days of World War II when England was being bombed on a daily basis by the German Luftwaffe. They were looking for anything they could do to pour into the war machine and one of the things they were looking for was extra silver. They had depleted about all of their resources of silver. So Churchill sent some men out to look for more opportunities to get silver somewhere and they came back with a report. There's plenty of silver to be had but this is a little delicate and a little awkward. It's in the churches. It's in the statues of the saints and Churchill said, melt down the statues and put the saints back in circulation. If you know anything about Churchill, you can just hear him say in that. And that's what Jesus wants us to live. That's how He wants us to live. Come on, let's get melted down and be put into circulation rather than hiding from a lost world. Let's be involved in this lost world in ways that will enable us to be salt and to be light. Jesus said it best. People don't light a lamp and put it under a bowl. You don't hide light. You put it on a stand and it gives light. Everyone in the house. The light has to be where people can see it where it can have an effect where it can shine in the darkness. That's where the light needs to be. So lack of contact and visibility is another danger. The third danger is the lack of availability. Again in verse 15, the light is put on a stand and then it gives light. I believe it's God who places us on our stands wherever we are. And wherever He has you is the light stand He's placed you on. You just need to be available to shine your light wherever He's put you. In the vocation He has you in, in the neighborhood He has you in, in the people you rub shoulders with in the gym or wherever it may be, wherever you may do business with people regularly and you come in contact with people. That's the stand that He's giving. That's the lamp stand He's giving you. And you just need to be available and say Lord let my light shine right here. I'm not going to hide it. You've placed me on this lamp stand. I'm going to let it shine. A lack of availability to the Lord will hinder and hamper our impact in our culture. Jesus said it. He said, be salt. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Now go do it. Go salt your world. Go light your world. That's what He's telling us to do. I'm so thankful for this church and the opportunity that we have to be, to have impact in our community, to be salt and light. Often I will go places in town. I have people say when they find out where I minister they'll say, oh you're the church that does and they list some kind of outreach ministry. You're really involved in our community and that thrills my heart because that's the testimony I want us to have. I think all of us do. Certainly all of our pastors do. In our leadership team, our deacons, we want to have that testimony of being out in the community involved in the community and outreach. Being salt and light, so Jesus is saying go salt your world. Go light your world. Don't hold back. And I trust that we'll all take that seriously. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the amazing metaphors that Jesus gave us to remind us of our impact in this world. Lord help us not to dilute our impact, contaminate our impact, limit our impact in any way, but help us truly to be light and salt in this culture in this world. Wherever we are, help us to be looking for ways that we can shine forth our light and be salt in this culture in this world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.