Today on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, we're discovering what it takes to be salt and light in this world.
The way you live, it begins to create in the people around you a desire to say, hey, there's something that makes me want to know more about the God that they have. And so you become the agent that causes people to be thirsty to know more about the living God. You become salt and you become light.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Well, we're starting the last message in our series, Step Up, and it's going to be a good one. Most of us have been taught to accept low potential, but we really want to squash that notion today. here, Mark.
We do, Wayne, because God calls us to a high calling. And when I say high calling, I don't necessarily mean a platform calling or a spotlight calling.
Good point.
It's the calling that fulfills you. It's a calling that energizes you. It's a calling that God has gifted and empowered you to fulfill. And one of those, Wayne that all of us have, all of us are called to, is to be salt and light. Yes. And sometimes we think that our calling is within the four walls of a church, that that's where we do ministry.
Not at.
All. But, you know, there's a calling that every believer has to be salt and light outside. And that's what's challenging. But it is so compelling.
The gospel is not to be hid, and we have a role to play. Let's listen to Mark's message now on bold steps.
As I look at Matthew chapter five, I see that Jesus is challenging his disciples to be who God has called them to be, and to function at a level that may make them uncomfortable, but their calling in life. And I'm going to read verses 13 through through 16 of Matthew chapter five. I'm going to ask you to stand one last time for the reading of the word. Jesus tells his disciples in something called the sermon on
the Mount. And I've actually been on this mount near the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus delivered his most famous sermon, the Beatitudes, where he begins to talk about turn the other cheek. He talks about you've learned eye for an eye, but I teach you a different way. He's introducing to them a whole different way of living. And sandwiched in the middle of this message are a couple verses about being salt and light. Jesus looks at his disciples and
he doesn't tell them, you need to become salt. He says, you are salt. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city 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 Jesus said, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven. The Word of God. You may be seated. I want to talk to you about stepping up to your new influence, or letting your influence come out, based on these verses found In Matthew chapter five. If you're taking notes, Jesus begins by telling them, and I'm going to. There's two main illustrations that Jesus uses.
He uses the imagery of salt and the imagery of light, and he basically tells them, hey, if you're really going to influence a society that you live in, then you need to let your salt come out and you need to let your light shine. Notice he doesn't tell them you need to become salt and you need to become light. He says you already are salt, but it has to get out and you already are light and it needs to shine. This is not something that you're not. This
is something that you are. But you need to let it get out. How many of you know, oftentimes we have things that we are but never come out. And Jesus is trying to remind them that you are salt and that you are light. And so I'm going to tackle these two images and really look at what they mean. First of all, if you're taking notes write this down. You step up to your new influence when you need to be salt and others will taste the goodness of God.
Be salt and others will taste the goodness of God. When I talk about salt today, I just grabbed a little salt from our cupboard as I was leaving the house. This happens to be Morton. Iodized salt. Pretty much. Table salt. Salt in today's society is not as valuable as it was in the society in which Jesus was speaking. When Jesus was speaking about salt, people understood what salt did
and they understood the importance of salt. In fact, you may not be aware of this, but Roman soldiers in the days of Jesus were often paid salaries in salt. The word salary comes from the Latin word solarium, and it's just a carryover from those days. And so we have the word salary, but its root meaning is comes from salt because people were paid in salt. And so it shows you it testifies to how important salt was. You've ever heard that expression? They're worth in salt. Um,
anybody heard that expression? Okay. All right. Uh, they're worth in salt. In essence, it's coming back to the days where people valued salt so much. And you wonder, well, why was salt so valuable in those days? Well, it was valuable because it functioned in two primary purposes. The number one purpose of salt had to do with salt was a preservative. And when Jesus was talking to his disciples, they well understood that salt functioned as a food preservative.
The salt has the power to kill bacteria that stops spoil the spoiling process. If you've ever watched the old war movies in the Civil War, when someone had an injury and an open wound, what is it that they put into the open wound? They would put salt in the open wound because it was salt that would help kill the bacteria that would cause infection. Don't try it if you have an open wound, because you will squelch with. It's painful to put salt in your wound, but nonetheless
it all. It kills the bacteria. It's like alcohol that also kills the bacteria, but is very painful. In the days in which Jesus lived, there was no refrigeration. Obviously there was no electricity. And so when people went to the market and they bought meat, that meat in the arid temperatures of the Middle East would quickly Spoil unless there was some way to preserve it. Nowadays we just go down to the local jewel-osco, we buy our pound of ground beef, and we put it in our car
so that the trip home, hopefully it won't spoil. As soon as we get home, we put it in the refrigerator and it's the temperature that preserves our meat. But in those days they would take meat and they would take salt, and they would rub salt inside of the meat,
both on both sides of the meat. And they would make sure that that salt penetrated the meat, because that salt would, would kill the bacteria that causes rotting and decay, and it would stop the rotting process of the meat so that they could have meat in their home for quite some time. When Jesus was talking to his disciples, in essence, what Jesus was saying is you are the
salt Assault of the world. He was letting them know that as believers, they have the power and capacity to stop the decay and stop the rotting of the world and society and culture that we live in. Because as the salt penetrates society, it stops the corruption, so to speak, that lives in society. And it has this changing, sterilizing effect on society. If the salt really gets out into
the soul, the social fabric of a culture. It's interesting to observe, however, that salt that stays within a container loses its purpose. A salt cannot affect meat unless the salt is poured on the meat, right? There are two extremes in Christianity. And if you've been a Christian for a while, you may have observed these extremes. There are some people that are very much aware that we live in a culture that's full of temptation. There's a lot
of bad influences. Uh, there's violence and bigotry and jealousy and greed and materialism and, uh, just there's all kinds of sexual perversion and deviation that's out there. And so there is a tendency in some Christian circles to feel like, since this world has so many dangers and so much pollution out there and so many places that we could be affected in a bad way, we should separate ourselves from the world, and we should isolate ourselves from the
world because we don't want to be contaminated. And so we have groups that sometimes become very insulated from the world around them. I mean, what parent hasn't thought of that? How many of you, after reading the news, after reading the newspaper or watching television, have thought, I just need to pick up my kids and we need to move to Montana. No television, no radio up in the mountains somewhere. Get away from all this craziness. Because my poor kids.
What kind of society are they going to live in? Come on. How many parents have thought about that? Sometimes I need to. I need to go somewhere else. I mean, you think about that, right? In the sixth century, the fifth and the sixth century, there was a movement. It's
not the first time we thought about it. And down through the centuries of Christianity, there have been movements and theological thoughts where people believed that if they could just separate themselves from the world and the contamination of the world, that they could be more holy. In the fifth and sixth century, when a lot of corruption started coming into the church. There was a movement called the Monastic Movement.
The monastic movement was basically groups of people that would live in community, and they would travel out to the desert. And there was most of these monastic communities were birthed in Northern Africa, and they would go out into the middle of the desert, away from all population, and they would build their houses there, and they wouldn't allow anybody to associate with the community unless you were a part of the community. And they would be self-sustaining, self-contained communities
that would pray a lot, worship a lot. They had their own order. And and nowadays we know them, as, you know, monasteries and convents. And there's different orders that started out. But the idea behind it is let's separate ourselves from the world, let's cloister ourselves together. Let's let's separate ourselves from all the pollution that's out there so
that therefore maybe we could become more holy. The problem with that is that if the salt separates itself from that which needs to be salted, then the salt has lost its purpose.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Today's message is titled step Up to a New You. Part of our series, Step Up Living Higher will continue in a moment. One of the ways you can continue to be salt and light to a lost and searching world is by partnering with us. When you become a bold partner, you'll be making a difference not only in the lives of those in your community, but in the lives of people
all over the country. And we hear from listeners every day who let us know that this program makes a difference in their life. For instance, we recently heard from this listener who said, thank you for your encouraging words. We want to give more this year because of your sensitivity to the needs around us. Your faith increases our faith. God is good and faithful always. We agree. And if you'd like to join us in this mission this year, we'd love to partner with you. You can sign up
online at Bold Steps. Org or give us a call at (800) 356-6639. That's 800. D.L. Moody. All right, let's dive back into the second half of Mark Jobe's message to discover what Jesus has to say about being salt.
If the salt is no longer on the bacteria, if the salt is no longer rubbed into the meat, then the salt has absolutely lost its purpose. Because Jesus taught us we were to be in the world, but not of the world. Now, I think it would be a lot easier to keep your mind pure, to pray, and to live holy. If you were in some cloistered Monastery where everybody around you is Christian, and they chant all day and pray all day, and there's crucifixes all over.
And so that seems like it's a lot easier to live spiritually there than it is to get up in the morning in Chicago, jump on the L, fight with people that are have nasty bad attitudes, get off the L people are pushing you swearing already. You see billboards of of of women that are almost naked. Get into your office downtown. People are crabbing about this and cranky about that and and and fussing about this and fussing about that and swearing about this and trying to lure
you into this and talking about their weekend exploits. And your boss is down your throat and, and people are inviting you to celebrate and party on the weekends. I think it's a lot harder to live right for Jesus in the middle of a society that's luring us in, but that's exactly where Jesus wants us to live. See, your faith is tested. Not when you isolate and when you insulate. Your faith is tested when you're in the middle of it. But you're still salt and you're still light.
Jesus never cloistered himself. In fact, you know what they said of Jesus. He's a friend of sinners. That's what they said of Jesus. He's a friend of sinners. Why? Because Jesus hung out with people that needed salt, and they needed light. And he was not afraid to be around them as he was influencing them. And so that's why we as a church have opted to embrace a salt and light mentality. I understand that people have a lot of different definitions of how to work and how
to operate. But it's been part of our desire that this church would be a salt and light church. There are some churches that you walk into and you feel like, well, everybody there has been there for 40 years. They all know each other, dress the same, talk the same, look the same, and have the same hairstyles. I mean, you know what I'm talking about. Have you ever been in those cultures? I think a salt and light community is drawing people in from the outside all, all the time.
I think a salt and light community is when people are mixing with the world out there, but maintaining their testimony, and people are visiting a salt and light community because they've been influenced and want to check things out. And so every Sunday at our gatherings, there are people and there are some here today. I'm sure this is your
first time visiting here. Or maybe you're not a believer, or maybe you're just exploring Christianity, but you have contact with someone that salt and light, and because of them, you're here in a place of worship, listening to Bible teaching and just having endured some worship that maybe made you uncomfortable. I'm glad you're here. Praise God that you're here today. So not only does salt fight decay, but salt also is a flavoring agent. It brings out the
best flavor. I'm one of the people I know. This is if we have any doctors in the house. Please forgive me. I'm not advocating this. I'm not encouraging you to do so at home and do so at your own risk. But for some reason, I like my suits. I like my food salty. So I'm one of those kind of guys. I go out to eat with my wife, and they'll put the plate in front of me and I'll salt it and she'll say, you didn't even taste it already. I said, I know it needs salt, though,
just by looking at it. I know it needs salt. Well, I like salt. There's something about salt that just kind of brings it out, right? It's a flavoring agent. Have you ever tasted something that was just very bland and needed a little salt? What happens when something's bland? You lose your appetite. I don't want to eat this. It's nasty. If you're. If you're if you're eating at your mother
in law's, you feel like you have to eat it. But, you know, if it's just a restaurant, you put it aside because something bland causes you to lose your appetite for it. But when something has flavor, when something has a compelling flavor, it makes you want to eat it more. And it's hard to stop eating it because it's so good.
What Jesus is saying to his disciples is that you are the salt that flavors the message of the gospel in such a way that people taste it and they want more of it because they've tasted the salt that you are spreading out there. You are creating a spiritual hunger and appetite for God, for people that didn't even
know they were spiritually hungry. In other words, what Jesus is saying is when you're out there, the way you live, the way you talk, the way you think, the way you move, the way you behave yourself, it begins to create in the people around you a curiosity, an appetite, a desire to say, hey, there's something about them that's different, something that's compelling, something that makes me want to know more about the God that they have and the peace
that they have inside. And so you become the agent that causes people to be thirsty to know more about the living God. You become salt and you become light. Now I want to say that another part of Scripture, Paul says that all of our conversations need to be seasoned, seasoned with grace and salt. Have you ever had too
much salt? I remember I went into a restaurant once, and I was about to do my regular salting of the food because I knew it needed to be salted, and I took the salt shaker and I poured and some. It had to be a teenager. Someone before me had unscrewed the cap of the salt, and so as soon as I went to pour the salt, the whole thing came out and it's just like, oh no. And then you try to wipe it off, but now it's just too much salt causes you to lose your appetite as well.
If you're the person that did it to me, come and see me afterwards. You have to have a little confession, repentance time here because you really messed up my food. And I think some of us at times before we learn how to be real salt. Sometimes our approach is abrasive and actually turns people off to the gospel rather
than creating a thirst for the gospel. Because how many of you remember when you first came to Christ and God had done something in your life, and you look around and you think, the whole world needs to be saved? How can they be so dark? And everybody needs to know, everybody needs to hear this. So you go to the birthday party, your family's birthday party, and you wear a t shirt that says, turn or burn, and you have a big cross with you and a big King James Bible,
and people go to talk to you. You're slapping beers out of people's hand and saying, telling them what they need to do. And you have them cornered like this and they're looking, how do I escape? And you wonder why people scatter while you're after them, and they stop inviting you to things all over? Why you say, well,
because they just are hard hearted and don't accept the gospel. No, no, no, you're putting too much salt on it If you're salting something, well, you know, you, you get a little salt and it's a little salt like that. But if next time you go to salt your corn and you go like this. You just spoil the corn. It's not that people don't want the salt. It's just you poured out too much at the same time.
Mark Joe will pick up the message right there tomorrow. And you're listening to Bold Steps. Well, we ended today's message on a bit of a funny note, but our series is called Step Up Living Higher. And Mark is serious about you fulfilling your calling and reaching your highest potential. So if you joined us late, or if you'd like to hear the complete series, just head over to our website and explore our growing archive of messages. You'll find
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