Date: January 6, 2013, Title: Stay Salty! Scripture: Matthew 5:13

 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage." – The Message

- Why do we use salt today? Salt has many uses: it lowers the boiling point & the freezing point of water, which makes it indispensable in cooking (& in making homemade ice cream), as well as helping to keep ice off the roads.

- If you've ever made pickles of any type, then you'll know that pickles need to be soaked & stored in pickle juice or brine, which contains a high concentration of salt.

- Why do we add salt when we are canning & pickling fish, meats & vegetables?

- We add salt because it is a preservative; it kills dangerous & unwanted germs & extends shelf-life so that these foods can be eaten at a later date.

- When we are sitting down to a meal we often sprinkle a little salt on it because it brings out the flavors.

- The main uses of salt in the first century A.D. were also in food, to preserve it & to enhance its flavor.

- Eugene Peterson in the Message translates the words of Jesus, saying, "You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God- flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage."

- According to Matthew, why did Jesus instruct his disciples to stay salty?

- Jesus instructed his disciples to stay salty because salt which loses its taste is of no benefit to the world.

- Much of the salt we use today is refined, so it's 100% salt, sodium chloride, but in Jesus' day that was not the case.

- Household salt & commercial salt used to preserve fish around the Sea of Galilee was not refined like ours & contained all the various trace minerals that you would naturally find in it because it was most often taken from the salt beds around the Dead Sea.

- So over time with humidity & use when you got down to the bottom of your container of salt what you would have left would not be salty, &, therefore, useless & it would be foolish to keep it.

- Just like salt loses its flavor, disciples of Jesus that lose their God-flavor are not able bring out the God-flavor of the world as enemies of corruption & injustice, & keepers of wholesomeness & purity.

- "You are," says the voice of Jesus, "the salt of the earth."

- Salt that loses its flavor is not only useless, Matthew actually wrote foolish, much like the five foolish virgins who didn't take enough oil with them, so the Christian must not allow him/herself to become useless to God's mission because that is utter foolishness.

- Jesus has a very strong warning for us that we must not allow the power of the gospel in our lives to become diluted by the world or we shall be fit for nothing but the trash heap.

- That brings me back to the title of this morning's message, which is a simple direction: Stay salty!

- If I could paraphrase the words of Jesus with one simple sentence, I would say this: You are the salt of the earth, so stay salty.

- That brings up another question: how do we stay salty?

- Pickles stay salty because they are saturated in pickle juice.

- Ham stays salty because it is saturated with brine.

- Christians stay salty when they are saturated in God's Word with Jesus.

- Stay salty by spending time with Jesus in the Word, then obeying his teaching.

- Quite often we think, "I'm a mature adult; I won't be influenced by the world," when nothing could be further from the truth.

- The Scriptures tell us a true story about human nature. We are warned over and over again to be on our guard against the devil & his schemes because he masquerades as an angel of light, & we are reminded again & again that we are to look to God as the source of our life & for guidance & direction.

- It's time we all got honest with ourselves. When we don't spend enough time in God's Word with Jesus, then we are opening up our lives to be watered down & diluted by the influences of the world.

- If you take pickles out of pickle juice & soak them in water, then what happens? Their flavor is diluted.

- If you buy a ham at the grocery store & it is too salty. What do you do? You soak it in a pot of water overnight to dilute it because water leaches out the salt.

- Friends, the one thing we must not do is water-down & dilute the power of the gospel in our lives by spending too much time in the world & not enough time in the Word.

- Dear people, I believe God has a new vision for Millville Baptist Church & the first part of that vision requires us to be devoted to spending time in the Word with Jesus so that we stay salty.

- I believe that: Our mission is to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus in and for our community until the light of Christ shines in every home.

- If we are going to carry on with God's mission, then we must stay salty.

- God's vision for us is a reflection of the values that this church holds dear.

- I believe God's vision is that: As a church, each member will be involved in ministries that reach out to each other, our families and community with commitment, compassion, and teamwork as we strive to meet needs and grow through evangelism and discipleship.

- If God's vision is going to be accomplished, we need to stay salty.

- Stay salty by spending time with Jesus in the Word, then obeying his teaching.