There’s a reason God has placed you on this earth. Find out your divine purpose in this scriptural message from Pastor John Bradshaw.

<p>There’s a reason God has placed you on this earth. Find out your divine purpose in this scriptural message from Pastor John Bradshaw.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

The Salt of the Earth

I'm glad you joined me today, I'm glad for this opportunity to join you.

Before we open up the Bible, let's pray together.

Father in heaven, thank you that we can come to you in your word and know that you will speak to us.

I pray that as we look into the Bible we'd be blessed and we'd hear your voice and that you'd draw us to yourself.

Amen." You know, salt has been very important down through history.

In times when it wasn't plentiful, it was very valuable.

I read where at 1 time salt was traded for gold.

In the early 1800s, salt was 4 times more expensive on the American frontier than beef.

Roman soldiers were on occasions paid in salt.

In fact, that's where we get the word salary from, from sal, the Latin for salt.

Salad, too, that's another word we get from salt.

That comes from the practice of putting salt on leafy vegetables.

There are many good reasons why salt is a good metaphor for Christians.

1 is that salt is necessary for a person to live.

Salt is made up of 2 chemicals, sodium and chloride.

Sodium helps carry nutrients into your body's cells.

It also helps regulate your blood pressure and helps your nervous system transmit messages.

The chloride is used to make stomach acid to help digest food and kill off harmful bacteria.

So the salt that Jesus was talking about in the Bible is something that was essential, necessary, helpful, even life-sustaining.

God puts the Christian into the world as salt.

People need what we have, what Christians have, so that they can live.

There are several different kinds of salt.

Real salt is salt in its purest form, such as sea salt.

What you buy in the supermarket is typically refined salt.

Unrefined salt is pure, while refined salt has additives in it that are said to make it more palatable.

There's no question God wants His followers to be pure, unadulterated, unmixed with any of the junk of the world.

Jesus said Nathaniel was an Israelite in whom there was no guile.

It's when the Christian starts putting in additives that the purity of our experience and therefore the power of our experience is compromised.

1 of the characteristics of salt that best represents the Christian is that salt is a preservative.

When they figured out that salting various foods caused them to last a long time, a whole new world of exploration opened up, as now you could take food with you that lasted for ages.

And Jesus asks that we as Christians preserve or impart a preserving quality to the world around us.

This is Matthew chapter 5 and we shall pick it up in verse...

Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." He goes on to use a very similar illustration, similar but different.

You're to be a preservative in the world.

You see, God's purpose in showering his grace upon us is so that we can then be agents in saving others.

God hasn't just chosen us so that just we can be saved, but also that, through the believer, the world might receive the grace that brings salvation.

In John 17, Jesus said that He sanctified Himself so that we might be sanctified through the truth.

In the same way, a person who has claimed Jesus as Lord and Savior will possess saving qualities that serve to preserve the world around her or him.

You are the salt of the earth, Jesus said.

So keep in mind, the right amount of salt is good.

Jesus didn't say you are the chili powder of the earth, but the salt.

If you get too much salt, which is very easy to do, you could die as a result of that.

It's very common for a person's blood pressure to rise even to dangerous levels because of overconsumption of salt.

3 quarters of the salt a person consumes typically comes from processed foods and often where you wouldn't expect it.

Bread, breakfast cereals, cheese, cookies, often loaded with salt.

Experts will tell you that you need no more than a teaspoon of salt a day.

It's easy to get that much by the time breakfast is over.

I remember a time many years ago, my little niece was staying in our home.

But when she was a low flyer, she mistakenly put salt on her breakfast cereal when she thought she was adding sugar.

Oh my goodness, you should have seen her reaction.

The look on her face was something I have never been able to forget, and something frankly I don't want to forget.

I'm sure everyone has cooked something at some time when you've overdone the salt and it becomes offensive.

Keep in mind Jesus says you're the salt of the earth.

If you want to be the salt of the earth remember that the right amount of Christian salt is absolutely good and necessary.

But when we overdo it, that's when we can get offensive.

When you're discussing the Bible or sharing your faith or witnessing in some way, it's good to know when to pull back and let the Holy Spirit do His job, so that you're not just pouring on the salt and becoming offensive.

I don't want to scare you into not saying anything for Jesus.

Trust me, most of us are in no danger of overdoing it.

But an obnoxious Christian, an offensive Christian, an argumentative Christian can drive people away from God.

The badge of Christianity is not merely an outward sign.

It's not just the wearing of a cross or a crown.

The badge of Christianity is that which reveals the union of a person with God.

No other influence that can surround the human being has such power as the influence of an unselfish life.

Someone once said, the strongest argument in favour of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian.

Now, we both know that what salt does, 1 of the things it does, is it adds taste.

We want to keep in mind that for it to do any good at all, salt has to be mingled with the substance to which it is added.

It has to penetrate and infuse before it makes a difference.

It was often my job growing up in the family home to peel the potatoes and put them on to boil.

And I did not do this very often, but there were times I forgot to salt the potatoes.

The salt sat literally in a big container on the back of the stove.

The salt was near the potatoes, but if it didn't get in the potatoes, it didn't help.

And then if you put it in, you of course wouldn't want it to clump down in a corner of the pot.

You would want the salt to mix up and get around.

In the same way, it's through personal contact and association that people are reached by the saving power of the gospel.

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The Salt of the Earth

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