Matthew 5:13Scripture
Everybody turn your Bibles to Matthew.
I don't have a lot of my notes written down, which is very dangerous for you. Very dangerous times today. But I have taken notes all week long. One notepad after another. I will say that we are kind of getting to the crux of the issue here in Matthew where we talk about what a blessed life in Christ Jesus is like.
Notice here that these blessings they are blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure of heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. These are indicative of a life that's been changed by Christ.
That's a fact, Jack. This is not up for debate. This is a life that has been transformed by Christ are marked by these things.
We really error if we take these things and begin to figure out how we live a better life. Jesus is speaking to what he does in your life. It is very quickly we can very quickly begin to rob God of glory because we begin to go into our effort to accomplish something that he's saying he accomplishes in the life of those he redeems.
We should not wrestle for glory with God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:53
We must understand this morning this is his work.
Introduction
He has done something marvelous in our sight. He has taken a life that was lost, hungry for sin, avoided righteousness, avoided chasing the things of God, hated God in every way.
Our very life was an offense to him. We were at war with God. And he took a life like this and he redeemed it. And he has been working these things in our hearts and our lives and changing us from the inside out.
If you've walked with him any amount of time, you know that who you used to be is not who you are any longer.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:34
For he is doing a work in you. You can find yourself at times and in seasons to being at places where deep from the recesses of your inner being, stuff rises up with you, inside of you that is not Christlike.
And the moment that rises up, mercy takes over and does in you what your flesh does not want to do. This is not a work of the flesh, ladies and gentlemen. This is a work of God that no man can boast. That's right. And so we do not rob him of glory by taking something that is a profession of what he's accomplished in our life and turning it into a will factory where we do these things for him.
That's not what he's saying. And he continues this. He continues to speak about the wonderful things he is doing in our hearts and our lives in verse 13.
He says you are the salt of the earth. Not you will be, not you might be, not you can be. You are the salt of the earth.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:43
How many of you deep down inside your heart wrestle with that because and I'm going to say this with quotes because you know you or let me put an emphasis at a different place.
You know you which is it? Is it the you know or is it the you he made?
Are you still could it be that you are still holding on to the you the version of you that used to be and you define your life by it?
You still are marked by who you used to be. Your behaviors are shaped by who you used to be. But this does not give any room for the you think you are. He has changed you. And so then he moves on. He begins to talk in all the blessings of how he's made you in his image, what he's fashioning in you, what he's creating in you, what he's making you.
And then he shifts in case you're wondering whether or not he's really going to do it. And then he shifts and he says, "You are not what you think you are. You are salt. That's what you are. And
You're salt and an earth that does not want salt. It wants sugar because it's nice and it goes down easy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:32
But if salt loses its taste, how shall it be how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. In the day, they would have known a lot about what that was because of gypsum and a couple other basically things that had been mixed in. And as water washed over these minerals, it took the salt out.
And what remained was something that was ineffectual. It looked salty. It had the image of salt. The minerals looked like salt, but it was not salt. And today in the church, we have mixture. The church could possibly have lost its impact because we have mixture. We have churches filled with people who say they are Christ, but they are not.
We have mixture. But the Bible doesn't necessarily emphasize the mixture as much as it emphasizes the promise. The promise is you are salt. You are salt. And
The pure salt, true salt, does not lose its saltiness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:02
That's the good news. Can we just talk about that for a second? You're like, "Yeah, I know that to be Sean. I know that to be true, Sean.
I'm pretty salty. I'm salty when people cut me off on the road. I'm salty when things don't go my way. I'm very salty. I can attest I'm salty. It's true. It's true. It's really true. But he's saying, "You are salt." And what I want to do this morning, because I think it's important,
Salt is not about what you do.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:32
It's about what he's doing in you. Salt is something that's used in the hands of God, much like seed to a sewer hand.
Salt is worthless if it stays in a shaker and on a shelf.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:52
Can I get an amen? What good and how much effect can it have if it stays in a salt shaker on a shelf?
Not much. But in the hand of someone, it can accomplish much. In the hand of a amazing chef, salt goes a long ways. In the hand of God, it could change nations, affect homes, affect relationships, change environments at workplaces.
It can change your school in a moment. But a flash of the eye, it can change everything.
In God's hands, he can take salt and he can change the world. That's the good news of the gospel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:40
God is interested in using you like a tool like this. He has something he wants to do in you. So, I want to just kind of go down through here and each of my five points, although going to be quick because I have no notes on them.
Probably really quick. I want to say this. This is not what you do. Notice that each of my points is what God has done for you because he's taking the salt he makes and he's doing something with it in the earth.
Point 1He named you
Number one, he named you. He gave you a name and he got to decide what your name was. Much like your mom and your dad put their heads together. They looked through all of the name books. They picked a name that they wanted to name you. And they when you were born, they called you by your name. And that was it.
Ladies and gentlemen, you did not get to vote. Parents named you. They decided your name. Now, back in the day, particularly in Old Testament times, names meant something a little more than they do today because names were indicative of a life.
Names influenced a future. Names had more of a prophetic pitch to it than anything because the reality is we were named by who we would be. And today is not much different in some regards today because there are a lot of people who want to name you, put a label on you, tell you who you are, tell you how you will behave.
Let's talk to the young people today. You will be at school. People will call you names. Which name will you answer to? Some of you grew up in homes that were abusive. Not just physically abusive, emotionally abusive. Your parents called you names. It was a regular occurrence in your home to wake up and over a bowl of cereal be called a loser, a waste of space.
A reject, somebody that would not amount to much in life.
This was your course set by a label spoken over your life. But God says, "I have a new name for you. I have a name for you."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:30
And attached to that name is a purpose. Now, we talk a lot today in our world and I hate to even mention anything about it because it gets me triggered because I think we take this word and we manipulate it for our good pleasure.
But the reality is it begins with identity before it moves to function.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:57
There is a function to this to being salt. Can you agree salt has a function? But salt didn't make itself. Are you with me? Salt did not make itself. Therefore, cannot make its function. Salt has a creator and that creator spoken has spoken over you as a believer today in the house for those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
You believe in his work. You believe in what he accomplished on the cross. You believe that you were a sinner who needed a savior. You believed you were at odds with God because of sin. And Jesus became that propitiation, that offering, that sin offering that now brings you back in unity in harmony with God where now he doesn't want he's not at war with you anymore.
For those who have p who have placed their belief in Christ, you are saved. And he says of you are salt.
You are not what you think of you. You are not the sum total of everything that's happened to you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:23
Right? Some of you and listen, I really hate this whole self-t talk thing, right?
But can we just talk I'm just going to mention something for a moment with please don't take this to cuckoo land and now wake up every morning and speak positive affirmations over yourself.
That's NOT what I'M saying. GOD spoke a positive affirmation over you. You are salt. That affirmation you should remind yourself of. That's very different than waking up and looking in the mirror and going, "You are awesome. You are wonderful. You are beautiful. You are." That's a you affirmation.
You didn't create you. You're not going to create a new you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:18
God named you. If you're a believer in Christ, let me tell you the affirmation. If you want to do an affirmation, let me tell you the affirmation you need to do. I am salt. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's crazy today because in like I watch basketball and I know some of you watch football so you just take basketball and replace it with football, right?
Or hunting or whatever. But athletes, they get endorsement deals and then they wear the items from the company that endorse them and then those endorsement deals remain because of the way they behave.
If they behave inappropriately, they lose their endorsement.
And so we take very seriously just here in the earth, we take very seriously an endorsement deal because we don't want to lose the endorsement.
Here's the good news about the gospel. You don't lose an endorsement from God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:46
But we should take it way more seriously than an NBA player takes an endorsement deal from Under Armour.
He's named you. He's labeled you.
You carry the banner of Christ everywhere you go.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:11
You are salt.
Listen, the very nature of your identity speaks to the effectiveness of your function because true salt can't be dropped anywhere without affecting the area in which it was dropped.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:17
Point 2Salt is mined
Number two, salt is mined. Number one, salt is named. Number two, salt is mined. I was actually doing some research this week. I just I maybe I should have had some pictures, but go Google a thing or two. But it is fascinating to me because both salt mines are very deep. I think average they're somewhere around 1500 feet deep.
There are some mines that are over 2500 feet deep, folks. That's over six football fields down. That's deep. That salt ain't getting out to the surface and to the earth without a little help from somebody.
Did you know that before you met Christ, you were buried under layers and layers of sin?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:29
You could not crawl your way out without his help.
Without him drawing you out of a life of sin, where would you be without his loving, tender care?
Salt does not gather itself. It is mined. Salt is dug up.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:06
Salt is pulled from the deep places by intentional hands and it's mind with purpose.
It's important to remember that God not only names us, but he minds us from places we could not bring oursel out of.
The only reason salt is effective on the earth is because it came from the earth and it's being used by God in the earth to affect the earth.
And so you know this is why he says come out from amongst them and be ye separated.
It's amazing because a mineral from the earth is going to affect the earth in a different way than the earth has functioned. I find that fascinating. He says like this is mining language. Come out from amongst them and be ye separated so that I can use what I purposed from the earth to affect the earth for my glory.
That's good news that he can use track with me here earthly things to do heavenly things.
Say what? Now for me that's encouraging to me. Could I got some earthly stuff going on here. Amen. But he can separate. Not you can separate you.
He separates you in ways you can never separate.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:58
You were buried. Now listen, I did this thing back in the day when we were in youth ministry because you know sometimes with teens, if you're a year older than them, you're irrelevant.
So they don't really listen to you very much. So you got to do some extreme stuff to help them pay attention. We were talking about how we were buried in sin and trespasses. And I did this one night where I decided it would be a great idea to bury myself alive and do a treasure hunt.
So I got a not a skidster but a excavator and thanks Kirk. Appreciate it buddy. I got an excavator and I dug up pretty deep, you know, and then I put a casket box that I put down in that hole.
I got in it and there was a pipe that went from the casket that I made. What am I doing? Out through the And then they went on this scavenger hunt around the city and they dug me up. And when they got me out, I preached a sermon about the weight of sin and being buried and dead in sin and your trespasses.
Now listen to me. I remember them taking the dirt when I was in there and began to dump the dirt back. We're talking about just six feet salt mine. You know how salt get part of how salt gets to be salt is the pressure and the weight of the earth. It's crazy to me that God can use the very thing that you're going to redeem by him changing you.
You're affected by to produce what he's going to use to change that which is on the earth.
It's crazy. But the weight of that was really weird. So the weight of that you could feel it began to collapse the casket and pieces of the slats were breaking under the weight just six feet down.
That's sin. You were not crawling yourself out of that.
But by God's grace, he scooped you up. Why is this important? Why is it important that we realize that God is doing a work here? Because only God could do this work.
You were dead. Not partly dead, princess bride people, but you were dead in your sin and your trespasses. You were dead and he saved you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:42
You were mind from an impossible place.
Number three. So number one, you were named. Number two, you were mind. You are salt.
Point 3You were shaken
Number three, you were shaken. Oh man, Sean, I knew you'd do it. You're such a punk, man. Why do you have to take something so beautiful in the first two points and mess it up with inconvenience and problems in my life?
How many of you have ever run into a situation in your life that's been a shaking season? Just kind of like that season that feels like it's impossible and you're going to just fold under the pressure of it and you cry out to God in ways you've never cried out to God in years.
How many of you How many of you your prayer life exponentially increases when he begins to shake the foundations of what you've grown comfortable in?
Could it be just a thought? Could it be you are salt and shaking is necessary if we're going to preserve the earth and salt had a preserving effect.
If we're going to affect the taste of the earth, if we're going to do these things as we talk talked about in our small group, we're not going to do it sitting in a shaker on a shelf without being shaken.
That's part of it. Often times and sometimes life just happens. Can I get an amen? Whether you're a believer, whether you're not a believer, there are just bad things that happen. There are sicknesses that come. There are problems that we face. There are attitudes that we navigate. There is our own heart which at times wars against what God wants.
And the reality is there are just things that happen in your life that are difficult. And then there are sometimes that we might possibly attribute to the devil what should be attributed to God.
Sometimes God will shake you out of your comfort zone.
Because the purpose of making you salt is not just that you would sit in a shaker on a shelf, but that you would season the earth and impact it for his glory.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:19
Romans 1 basically says that there is this vicious cycle. It is a snowball effect of sin and it has hit the earth and what happens is that people are just becoming more and more sinful.
Can young people, you ignore me for a second. I'm from the 1900s. That makes me sound like I used to ride wagons, right? I can say that now. That's like that sounds really old, but it's not that old. But I'm from the 1900s. I'm from the 1900s. You know what I mean? It's It's really weird. It's really weird.
I'm from the 1900s and the reality is that the earth is not getting less sinful.
TV is not getting better. Now I have to watch Vid Angel to cut the things out just on a normal just a normal just normal TV show.
But think about what would happen in the earth if salt was removed.
The reality is you can't stop the rot, but we certainly slow it down.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:56
And sometimes salt has to get out to preserve. These that come out of here, that's salt.
You season your world with your words. Did you know that your words can be salt and it can be sugar?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:19
He said you're salt. So what do you do, Sean? What do I do, Sean? When I get to a place where someone's really hurting, where they're really hurting and they're really wounded. They're wounded, Sean. They don't need salt. There's a gaping wound. They don't need salt. That stings, Sean, he didn't call you sugar.
He said, "You're salt." But I'm trying to help them, Sean. I'm luring them with sugar, then I'll hit them with salt. He didn't SAY you're A sugar pack AND A salt pack. HE said you're salt. My son Ashton was at a disadvantage from a young age because he was premature and his head got flat on this side and it's no flat any longer.
So don't be checking him at the end of the service. But he had to wear a helmet so his head would grow into the helmet. The problem was that put him at a disadvantage because then he realized very quickly that he did not have to be careful where his head went.
It would go into walls to coffee tables. It would try to run into his brother. It would he went headirst into anything literally into everything head first.
But that put him at disadvantage. So then when the helmet came off, he was wounded a lot of scratches, a lot of blue bruises right on his head because he would go head first into everything.
I remember him coming in and sometimes have scratch marks on his head and Brooke would take peroxide, sadistic evil devil, and put that on his head and he would what?
Scream and cry. Well, that's because Brooke doesn't love him, right? I mean, she must really hate her kid. Why is it that parents never go for sugar when they have a boo? Okay, you're like, "Well, actually, I give them cake on their wound."
You jam cake in their wound. Kind of crazy, right? Yeah. That's what we do when someone's emotionally damaged. We don't give them truth. We give them sugar. Because sugar doesn't sting. It goes nice. It goes down nice and easy. Sometimes when someone's most wounded, what they need is sugar.
Yes, it will sting for a moment, but it will heal for a lifetime.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:44
Are you with me? Healing always comes after the sting. So if you try to do the work outside the nature you were created for, outside of what you were named and how you were mind, you know what you will do?
You'll have no earthly effect. It's like keeping salt in a shaker when you're a chef. Well, I prefer sugar. Yeah, but you should really use some salt. You know that, you know, the evidence of a good dish is the ability to have all of it.
But I think the church has removed salt because it stings and it hurts too much and it's not even a part of our menu anymore.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:35
Yet, that's who we are. We deny our identity. In our service to others. And sometimes because you won't let it go and you won't speak truth and you won't say what needs to be said and you won't apply salt in wounded situations because you refuse to do that.
It doesn't matter. He's getting the salt out of you because he's God. You're not. And you can try to be God and you can try to not let it out of the shaker, but you he's made you something and he has a purpose for you. And if you won't let it fly, he's going to shake it up till he gets it out on the earth and does what he intended it to do.
Some of your shaking is your rebellion to be truthful.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:25
Number one, he names you. Number two, he minds you. Number three, he'll shake you if he has to.
Point 4Salt affects everything
And number four, salt affects everything. Salt does not demand attention. Guys, listen to me. I wrote this part down. This is probably my only notes I got on here pretty much, but just track with me. I wrote this down and I don't want to say this wrong because I want to get to the point. I want to be there lickety split splitty, something like that.
Salt does not demand attention. Salt does not seek applause. Salt does not insist on visibility. Salt simply dissolves and disappears in what it was used in.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:02
It works quietly. It disappears from sight. Yet its influence cannot be denied. You don't have to be seen to be effective.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:25
Come. Oh man. I just in the church specifically, it's amazing because if you get in the church any amount of time, people don't know how to be salt and be effective without being seen.
But the Bible says you can be salt and if salt doesn't need to be seen to be effective. It's just got to be present. This is the picture of a faithful believer. You may not be in the spotlight. You may not feel gifted today. You may not be well known.
But when you live for Christ, your life leaves a spiritual aftertaste that remains wherever you have walked.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:27
People remember your kindness.
They remember your prayers. They remember your words of truth. You affect everything you touch. They remember your faithfulness. They remember your integrity. They remember how you carried Christ into the room.
You cannot, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot be salt and be ineffectual.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:08
I've taken salt before. You can take salt. And I take steak. Lord, we thank you for steak today. I take steak and I put it out on the counter and I let it sit there and get to room temperature and then I take salt and I crack that salt and as soon as that salt hits it disappears, but it's still doing something.
If salt can be seen, it's probably not doing as much.
If stal remains undiluted or untouched, it probably is not affecting as much in the church today.
This means a lot because we have people are like, "I'M going TO BE salt. I'M going TO BE seen. I'M going TO BE salt. I'm going to be visible. Look at me. I'm salt.
But salt that affects things disappears because ultimately it's not about you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:28
It's about the one who named you. It's about the one who mind you. It's about the one who shakes you. When you won't let the salt out, he shakes it and he gets it out. And then we affect the world. Number three, number something or another.
Point 5Salt stings, but it heals
It stings. Salt stings. Sugar looks like salt. Maybe I hijack this one. Sugar sparkles like salt. Sugar pleases the tongue. But sugar cannot track with me. Cleanse a wound. That's right.
Sugar cannot stop an infection. Sugar cannot purify what is contaminated.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:22
Sugar confronts but does not cure.
Salt stings but it heals. Salt burns for a moment but restores afterwards.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:41
Salt touches the wound and awakens it. Salt hurts before it helps. And this is the way the gospel works in the hearts of men.
Could it be that we're trying to preach a gospel in a way that goes down like sugar but restores like salt?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:02
And what kind of message do you think that is? And what real effect is it happening is that God gets to determine this is why this is why it's so important you don't take these things and begin to think this is about you.
This is what God has done for you. He gets to decide how you're used. You're not God. You're not God in conversation with your kids. Well, they've had a hard week and I just really need to make sure that this truth I'm about to speak, I season it with sugar and cover up the salt. Sometimes they need some salt in their wound.
Young people, to your parents, respectfully, be respectful. Don't be rude. Try not to roll your eyes while you say it.
But sometimes your parents need truth and not sugar.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:06
I know your mama. I know your mama. She've been crying for sugar, especially since you're a boy now and you've you've gotten to the age of 18 and hugs ain't your thing no more and she always wants sugar.
But sometimes your mom might need some truth. Give her sugar, too. But don't hold back truth. Young people, you should speak truth to your family. Family, you should speak truth to your kids.
We should speak truth to our friends even when it hurts. And they should speak truth to us.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:45
Truth sometimes stings. And
Let me tell you this, conviction burns for a little while.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:57
Correction sometimes pierces. But that sting is part of the healing. Jesus did not call us to be sugar Christians who sweeten everything with souls while souls remain sick.
He called us to be salt Christians who bring truth and healing even when it hurts.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:17
God said through Jesus, you are salt. He named you. He minds you. He shakes you. He uses you to affect the world. And he causes you to sting where healing is necessary.
He does that. He's not asking you to do that. He does that. This is the work of God in your life. He does that. I hope Let me tell you this. I hope this to some degree unteathers you from a life of overwhelming duty in something you were never called to touch.
He is doing a work and we are getting to behold the work that he's doing in our lives. We should rejoice this morning. Now I know listen I know any many any person in the room including me at times might think we have a better plan we might think we have a better way but the reality is today that God's way is the way there is only one way to true salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and Jesus Christ our Lord has spoken on this thing said you are the salt 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, trampled under Jesus' feet or under people's feet.
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