Salt of the Earth

Matthew chapter 5. And once again I like to always go over this because I hope as a result of this time that we have of just kind of the initial going over of the Beatitudes. I hope you end up memorizing them. I think this is a portion of Scripture that is well worth memorizing.

The whole Sermon the Mount is worth it. But if there's just the Beatitudes alone because of the power, I think the truth of these Beatitudes, I think they're life-changing. And they're things if you take them in all your life you want to learn them and relearn them that you'll never never reach the end of them and of the truth of the message within them.

And of course the Sermon the Mount as you recall it's one that essentially is given to the disciples when we see these movies and things kind of of the Sermon the Mount. Usually Jesus is preaching it to the multitude but it says they're seeing the multitude. He went up onto a mountain and when he was set his disciples came unto him.

So seeing, this is all in light and in view and in thought of the multitude, but it is given to the disciples for when he said his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. And now tonight you are the salt of the earth. If the salt has lost its savor it is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men.

I was going, I even ran all my studies and planning I committed myself to doing the salt of the earth and the light of the world both of those tonight but I realized I wasn't going to do it so I'm not even going to pretend and quote it because I know I'm not going to get to it I just know I can just feel it you know but the but at any rate here is Jesus again with the Beatitudes hopefully these are things that you yourself could sit out and with your own heart or with your own family or with neighbors you could preach them you could just turn right around and I've driven them home hopefully so many times over and over that there would be such a familiarity that the message of them you could just simply give them back for here again is there they're just like falling off a log almost

they're just things that one will ought to result in another into the next in the next when he says oh how happy says the happiest person in the world is somebody that first and foremost is poor in spirit they're utterly personally individually spiritually poverty stricken they've come to the realization though created in the image of God they have fallen the life and the power and the glory and the majesty that God created a human being to be they've lost it something occurred in a forfeited it and the consequences of it is great personal poverty stricken nature they find themselves right there Jesus he simply says the person that can just be honest about that honest about their own sinfulness honest about their own loss honest about their their miserable personal identity says that's a

person that's going to be immensely happy it isn't happiness in and of itself but it is definitely the first step towards it and then that ought to result in oh how happy are they who mourn that now there is somebody that they mourn over their own sinfulness they mourn over their own loss they mourn over the fact that here they are somebody that had such a majesty such a glory and they lost it and in losing it they take personal responsibility they're not blaming their world in their life on their mother or their father or their teachers or their environment or their friends or their neighbors or anybody else they take full responsibility they say I have sinned like the public and who couldn't even so much as look up unto heaven but he smote himself on his chest he says God be merciful

unto me a sinner Jesus and I tell you that man will have his prayer answered that day the day that somebody can look and say I am wrong I have sinned and there's an old you know kind of a spiritual that they used to sing not my mother not my father but it's me Oh Lord stand in the need of prayer you know and then they would just add any other name not my brother not my sister but it's me Oh Lord stand the need of prayer and not my friend not my neighbor but it's me Oh Lord stand in the need of prayer and it's a wonderful thing when somebody takes personal responsibility it isn't God it's I'm tired of blaming my life on everybody else it's me standing in the need of prayer and there's a there's a sorrow there's a mourning over their sin with that results in a newfound humility of life in a

meekness Jesus said oh how happy of the meek they shall inherit the earth the wonderful thing there to the person there that in his meekness before God all of a sudden the power of God the hope and the plan of God begins to be open to that person God looks at that person so you can't believe what I'm gonna do for you when you open your heart your own life and you take responsibility and it produces a humility and a meekness then he says oh how happy because that's gonna all those just drain a person they take us all the way down to the core of our being and they take us into a hopelessness and an emptiness and it's difficult for most anybody to be honest enough to take that route toward believing it could even lead to happiness but Jesus says it does that's why Jesus said you know narrow

is the gate you know that and in few there be that enter in broad is the way as he said later on and broad is the way that leads to destruction many there be they go in there at but narrows the gate and there is the way that leadeth unto eternal life and few there be that go in there so often real happiness it's look so narrow to people it looks something as you observe it did to go down this road how could this possibly lead to happiness poor in spirit morning meet this but then that person and they'll result in a hunger and a thirst after righteousness after a right life a right relationship with God a right relationship with Jesus I as son in my life a right relationship with his spirit filling my heart of my life and when I am allowing that hunger to happen within me when I really

find myself crying out God fill me God work within me Jesus and I'll tell you that person he'll be filled and then the result of that fullness is God comes in he takes up a great place of power in his life and that person now begins to be merciful they find there the very nature some of the deepest aspects of the very nature in the character of God begins to be fashioned and formed within their heart and there is a mercy towards the rest of the world they realize God if you can forgive me of my sin and my rebellion who can't you forgive they begin to look at the world and realize now oh if everyone knew this road if they knew this the poverty of spirit and what it is to mourn and what it is to become meek before God in the hunger and thirst after righteousness oh how their lives would be

different oh how every one of them in here these people can be so hard and so angry and they can have so many different aspects of their life that turn us away and frustrate us and make us convinced they're hopeless and they're lost and we don't like him and we're angry and we're just wanting them to get it but rather the person that's poor in spirit and they mourn and there's a meekness about it and they're filled with God they begin to look at the whole rest of the world say you know if these things that have happened to my life could only happen to your life you'd be a different person you wouldn't be the way you are your heart your life your entire existence would be transformed and he says oh I happy of the merciful they'll obtain mercy then oh how happy of the pure heart there's

somebody now that God is literally purifying their heart and their life and their motives their identity and then he says oh how happy of the peacemakers now a person that has found peace with God peace within their own heart how to retain peacefulness with God is simply through continuing in these same things day by day continuing in a poverty stricken spirit continuing mourning over our own sinfulness continuing in a meekness before God continuing day by day God fill me I'm hungry for you and I'm thirsty for you continuing in his mercy continuing in his in his purity of heart and he says that person is a peacemaker oh how happy is that person they can now bring peace to virtually anybody anywhere anytime because the issue in everybody's life is just the same as ours we're all the same

we all have the same needs the same struggle we are all created with the same identity we all fell into sin every all got you know all men everywhere we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but when somebody knows this they know we're pieces and they're a peacemaker and then he says next after this person is a peacemaker oh yes there'll be a lot of people that won't go for it they won't like it they won't agree with it and he says oh how happy are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake there's the kingdom of heaven and he says rejoice and be exceedingly glad great is your reward in heaven a blessed union reviled in your persecuted they saw a manner of evil against you falsely but rejoice about it the wonderful thing is is that even when the world rejects it and

doesn't want us they realize a they didn't want my lord either Jesus said a servant is not greater than his Lord he didn't like me they won't like you but then now when a person comes in there at peace with that all right this is who I am now at this point it's as if Jesus can now step back after he has actually taken somebody and they and they have been through these beatitudes now it's an essentially it's like Jesus just steps back looks at his finished work looks at this person that he is recreated refashioned their life their identity their whole existence and now he looks at them and he says you are the salt of the earth he now looks at this person that has been through this and he says you are the salt of the earth he goes on he says that the salt has lost its savor it stands forth

good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men there's a consequence when you don't know it and don't respond to it but first of all he says you are the salt of the earth he looks at somebody says this is now your reason to live you have the greatest of reasons for existence you have the greatest of identities he looks at them you are the salt of the earth now salt is something that to us it doesn't mean as much in our society although it still has a lot of the same principles and truths never change about it but particularly when Jesus said these things salt was something that when you would talk about it everybody knew two great things about salt first thing about salt and a reason for its existence there's actually a couple reasons I want to look at one of which

seems to be a little negative it really isn't but it seems that way and the other is positive but the first essential principle you might say of salt is that salt particularly at the time was a preservative it was an antiseptic it was something that as far as salt was concerned because they didn't have all the methods of you know food preservation and all the different things that they could put on it to kind of continue it or contain it or to make it hold and last and and stay you know kind of pure and clean they didn't have the refrigeration and all the preservatives for it the fundamental preservative of food back in Jesus's time was salt and they went killed an animal and they had any fresh meat there was they would be a packet in salt salt kept it pure the salt kept from this from

all the stuff of just the air and things around that would just bacteria that would just immediately you know you take some meat and put it out maybe at home and you thaw it out or something but if you leave it out very long you can't do anything well you got to throw it out because it immediately after it thaws out it starts putrefying it starts you know going bad but if there is salt on it salt was it was a preservative it was an antiseptic it was something there that the very existence the reason for salt is it was something that implied rottenness it in my it implied you know the putrefaction process essentially that happened to food and and I suppose when Jesus here he's saying you are the salt of the earth he is looking there at his children he is looking at it somebody that has

experienced the Beatitudes he says you are the salt of the earth you are the preservative of the earth you are the one there and I suppose if ever you look at how the world even was then but when you stop to think of what it is now boy if the world's ever needed a preservative and an antiseptic it's now when you stop to realize the world we are living in it we are literally watching it seems like the world rotting away at a rate that is unbelievable you look at our country and even the last you know since 1776 when we became a country but even before that after it was discovered in the time of the Puritans and the time of the early church in the time of of really the wonderful things that were happening in this country how the Constitution was built the Bill of Rights was put together the

identities of you know of our education process a lot of people don't even realize it but back when our government the federal government was established and they had funds to help the states get established and to set up educational systems and the Department of Education one of the very first things that the Federal Department of Education required of anybody that wanted to set up a school even a one-room schoolhouse someplace and have any federal funds is that if you did not teach the Bible you could not even apply for funds from the government now you teach the Bible don't bother to apply you know sort of a thing you any but this was kept through so much of our history when you would look at prayer in our in our government prayer that went on in the houses of Congress the houses of

representatives in the state houses when you look at the chaplaincy programs that they all had within them raising up in a way there you look at our in places like now a Harvard that was established as a divinity school you couldn't even attend Harvard if you didn't have a very strong conversion experience to Jesus Christ you couldn't even go there they wouldn't even consider you it was a divinity school first and foremost above all else to train people to go out and serve Christ and you look at these schools now and how far they have gone but for many years that's what they were and even if the in our country here and in the recent you know history most of our colleges believe it in over 90% of our private colleges were started as Christian institutions University of Southern California

USC Methodist started there as a Methodist college to preach the gospel train people equip people to walk with God and this went on for hundreds of years in our country you know we come along and don't really realize something that preserved and held our society in our nation together they always knew we need salt there were they knew in our land we need salt we need to establish churches they knew right off when they would even go want to establish a town they knew the bars would come they knew the taverns and all that in the dance halls would come they knew from human nature but they also knew that if they wanted to establish a town that would survive they needed churches they needed people to come in and establish and preach the gospel in towns were oftentimes set even in our early

when you go through most of the United States many of the towns that were settled you will go in and you will find the main house of government at one side of the town square and then you will find its church the first one that was kind of their established over at the opposite end of the town square circle that was right over there they established a government and they established a place for people to know God they knew the government would only stand as long as the gospel as the salt was being applied to people's lives as they fashion and they formed a people and there was something that has always been true and of course you look today to where now we have virtually just taken God out of the schools which we did and taking prayer out and we've taken him out of government we've taken

him out of virtually every possible place and is there and his boy is the is the putrefaction process as it become rampant when you stop and you realize you look at our morals in this country not only than the morals of just the natural fallen man but the morals of our nation the morals of our leadership of our nation that were something there on one hand it was only about 30 years ago a lot of people don't realize this but up until about 30 years ago according to the American Psychological Association homosexuality was always up until only 30 years ago considered a deviant you know psychological disorder and 30 years ago they had enough pressure to where they just said well it's just a normal thing and then that then next thing you know after that of course it's being taught in the

schools and you go into the schools now safe sex is taught not not any abstinence whatsoever oh no we can't do that we can't deny them the right to express themselves by any means and we can't be a preservative we can't tell them no this will putrefy your life it'll rot and make your heart in your life and your human experience rotten these are things you need to stay away from oh no we don't tell them that any longer now we live to where the we give them condoms we give them birth control and then we'll also sneak them off to for a free abortion if they what we give them doesn't work and we're religious literally what our government is doing this isn't just something that people out there that are doing it these are things supported financially legally set up by our nation as a people

and you look of course now at just all the statistics and the issues of what's happened you know and immorally and of course then now we have so far interestingly enough since Roe v.

Wade we have now aborted over 40 million babies you stop to think of that of all the Holocaust that have ever happened of all the terrible things yeah you know within a society how rotten in a sense is a society when it literally we have over 10% of our population it isn't even here doesn't even never even got to be born you know it's an interesting thing as well not to get off into other ramifications of our immorality as a country but right now there's a whole generation of baby boomers that are coming up towards getting near retirement that have been paid into Social Security that know what for within but the full well how are we ever going to get anything out of it how is it going to be able to support us you see because while in our selfishness and our immorality we were just

thinking about ourselves we didn't realize by the way we have also taken away 40 million lives that would be out there you know building a nation producing paying into that you know the tax thing that would have paid people Social Security but we didn't think about that the very children that would be taking care of a generation and now aren't there to do it and now there's a generation is going to find itself out on its own in no way to have itself supported but a tragic that you know a process that we brought into ourselves when we look at this the issues of you know pornography virtually is taking over our society now there's all these addictions that have to do with sexual addictions and sexual issues with pornography because now we so opened up First Amendment rights there's nobody

sitting there that says this is wrong this is impure we need some salt somewhere in our society there's something that says this will putrefy this will destroy this will corrupt a Oh no now we're telling kids at the youngest age you live as you want to go find yourself express yourself do your own thing of course in the process now whether it's drugs and alcohol and so many other addictions are so rampant and you look at these these problems that we're having in society now not only the you know the they figure that somewhere between one and five hundred thousand lives die a year in direct response to alcoholism in one way or another let alone the billions of dollars that go you know out of a society into the cost of medical aspects and the other billions in lost wages and workdays and

things because of society it's impure it's putrefying we're looking there at you look in the family you look at what is going on with with it the the divorce statistics you look at children that are you know growing up alone and last key kids without you know anybody there around to lead and guide and and help them you look at the rates of molestation that are happening in our society the incest literally the killings within families killing family members and you look here the crime statistics the murder statistics the statistics of what's going on and in corporate you know high white-collar crimes that is raiding billions of dollars out of us our society through insider corruption we're a society that we are putrefied on seems like through and through the carcass in only a generation or

so very rapidly we have been falling apart and in the whole process of it though Jesus looks and he says you are the salt of the earth he looks at people in it you and I and by the way we live it ought to be something that the very mere existence of our life ought to be something that other homes and marriages and families in and through and around the neighborhood they look and they ought to be touched when they say they say here is somebody that their life their values that there we ought to be salt that people look at us and they look at our life and they look at our love for the Lord they look at our love for each other they look at our love for our children and our love for everything that is pure and right and holy and just and good and not a remark it's something there that they're

purified by it there they are touched by it they're convicted by it they're drawn by it that they look there and they realize there is a way to make a marriage succeed there is a way to raise a family there is a way you know to have these things happen when we realize we're to be this all of the earth we're to look at our the people we work around and realize God I'm there to be salt for them I'm there in my neighborhood to be salt and if sometimes you know who knows what you know not our business how whether they like this salt it's just to be salt I remember I wasn't a Christian at the time but when things were happening with my family and my parents and they got saved and then I've got an older brother and two a younger brother younger sister and one by one they were getting saved but

I remember you know my family in the sense of you know the need you know for prayer the need for the word the need you know for church and all of these things starting to happen and then our home remember are they know you're opening up our home and all the neighbors a friend our family room or we had a big living room in our house furniture all moved out of it and all chairs put in the thing and they'd have somebody that we had a friend dr.

Ralph Byron he was at a friend head of City of Hope the chief of medicine or something there and he'd come over Ralph would come over and we'd invite all the neighbors and no neighborhood be in house so that he could preach the gospel he could share with them hope the message of salvation and when somebody just looks this is why we are alive this is why we just we are to be the salt of the earth I didn't like it I wasn't a Christian so I just stood there and what are all these people doing in my house the next thing you know they're gonna want to get into my refrigerator and that you come in my house but don't eat food or something but I didn't care much about it at the time but when I look back and realize there the the the the issue of a of human beings realizing who they were and

wanting to be who they were salt is also though it's not only to be a preservative salt is also something that he says if the salt is lost it's savor it ascends forth good for nothing but therefore it's to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men but as he looks at it so you know it's salt is not only kind of a preservative what some would look at negative there to take care of the putrefaction issues but salt adds flavor salt is virtually still the main spice in the world you go anywhere you didn't find any place where food is served and you're gonna find a salt shaker you're gonna find a fast food place high great restaurant any restaurant any place in the world you go if there's food there's going to be salt because salt has a savor to it it has it has a flavor it has a taste the

word releases with the salt is lost it's it's savor the word savor Webster's dictionary defines the word as the power to excite or interest when the salt is lost its savor here he looks at you the salt of the earth and you have a savor you ought to have something about you that has a power to excite and create interest here Jesus looks at a Christian at his child and he says I created you and if I've taken you and you mourn or you pour in spirit and you mourn over your sin and there's a meekness and you're filled with me and now there's a merciful spirit and there's a pure spirit and there's a peacemaker within you if anything in all the world ought to excite other human beings ought to be something that gains the interest that people ought to look at this is it and he says you have a

savor you have a flavor you have something about you that people ought to look at you in that relationship that you have with God and be excited about it what's happened to your life what is going on with you where did you get this new joy that's what happened when you look at the book of Acts you watch them the world was just amazed they were so the world watched their new life in their power and their joy in the way that they loved one another and they ministered one to another and the world was so astounded by it the excitement they created the interest ought to be when a Christian walks into a room all of a sudden people realize this is what we've been missing who are you you know ought to be something there ought to be a life and a vitality a joy about them that just ought to ring

out they ought to be people that are so excited to be alive look the Sun came up again here we are what are we here for let's go do it that's how it ought to be I most of my life I woke up you know I made it you know they do my mother singing she actually she went through college in light opera she was gonna be a light opera singer at beautiful voice but my dad married her and that was that but the but she's still saying and in fact it was a little embarrassing as a kid because my mother go around in this you know like she's in a you know I don't know but anyway she'd be bellowing these things out but it was always so excited so alive something there that he and you know don't hey come on in don't mind my mother she's you know it's a little weird but let's go on through here and but but

somebody ought to be able to look at a person and find something and see something within them that there's a power to gain interest into it to excite tragically a lot of Christians they don't seem to realize this is the power of their life they ought to have a joy unspeakable about them there's somebody else that comes in and says oh look at this I got a new ring look at this I got a new outfit they ought to be look at this I got my sins forgiven hello I'm going to heaven you're going to hell you know or whatever you you want something really lasting but the joy that they ought to have but unfortunately a lot of Christians that get around people and like the early church they persecuted them they rejected them some did massive ones amounts didn't there was always a few that would

intimidate to try to get him to be quiet but for the most part they had this phenomenal effect on most of society around them they looked at them and they were drawn into it not intimidated by not turned off not I'm going I better quit this isn't fun they said this is the reason I'm alive and they loved being salt and they wanted to be salt and it was so it was an excitement about him and in some part sometimes somebody gets to where they get into you know somebody rejects him or doesn't like him or puts him down or gives him a hard time at the office or at school and they just well I better be quiet it's not popular and I want to go hide I want to go avoid the world to do it wasn't nice to me I tried to be good and and so they just back out and they it's amazing to me how sometimes you

meet Christians have been Christians for years and they and and and like Jesus that we'll get into next week but they're a light and it gets under a bushel they've got this magnificent story they've got this unbelievable testimony Christ has forgiven them of their sins they are a child of God they're going to go to heaven and yet at the same time they're intimidated afraid to share it and they just back off many you know sometimes we just never say we never speak sometimes a lot of Christians they remind me of a story of one Christian he kind of got put down and he just decided that's it I'm going to join a monastery now you just see he went to a silent monastery where you don't say a word I'm going to meditate I don't like this rejection or anything else so I'm just going to be by myself

so he goes in there and the rules for the monastery is you know it says you never say a word not a word he liked it nobody says a word anybody only every five years you come in to the head monk and you say two words so you meditate for five years what are the two words you want to say and then you go out for the next five years and you come back in ten years and you say two more well this fella goes in and he joins in this kind of tough but he's get along and after five years he comes in sits down with a head monk and he says well what do you have to say he says bed hard guys is ok goes back out five years later he comes back in sits down how you doing what he got to say you've been meditating when you want to say food bad ok goes back out comes in after 15 years what do you have to say

now I quit the head monk looks at him and says well I'm not surprised you've done nothing but complain complain complain ever since you got here but there's some people I mean there's only two reasons one reason we're alive and that's to live for him and if we don't we'll just sit around and rot ourselves we'll sit around and complain or murmur about life or how miserable it is either we'll look within and look around ourself and that'll kill anybody or we'll realize Lord let's go on and live this is why I exist maybe you know I don't know how good I am I don't know how I am at sharing how bold I am or how to put the words together I trip over my own words and my thoughts and and people attack and I don't know what to say but God give me a life let me be the salt of the earth let me go

out and live because you see the tragic thing is is that if I don't do that here Jesus now he simply looks at us he says by the way you are the salt of the earth but if the salt is lost its savor it is thenceforth good for nothing good for nothing and I'll tell you I think one of the most tragic things that there ever is to ever see in the world is a good-for-nothing Christian also known as a carnal Christian essentially the Bible in the Bible carnal Christian what a what a miserable life there on one hand you've come to Christ you've given him your life at one point you started off with him but then you didn't follow through with it and yet at the same time here on one hand now you're at a place there where you're run by your own life or your own fears your own insecurities you're not

going on with him and the next day next thing you know you wake up and you're no good for God nor man neither one and I'll tell you there's nothing to me more miserable than being a carnal Christian having the internal witness of the Spirit that you are a child of God you belong to him and yet not responding to that witness doing nothing with it after I finally did come to the Lord and here I am I'm in college and I'm trying to be a Christian somewhat on Sundays anyway to you to start with let's give it one day a week and see where you go with it but Saturday I was in fraternity I was partying or die was doing other things and here I am on Sunday I'm going to church I realized this is where I belong this is true I know this I knew I was forgiven I knew my sin was forgiven the Holy Spirit

had come into my life I was born of the Spirit of God and I had his witnesses said I'm a child of God and I knew it I knew it and yet the same time I still here I am going back and forth I'd be at a party being miserable there's all there's this internal voice what are you doing here you don't need to be here we don't need this yes we do I'd literally go back yeah I'd be arguing with myself I'd tell a joke bad joke there'd be a voice inside that isn't funny yes it is you know I didn't go back and forth I whatever I'd inside I mean you're no good for anybody you can't give yourself to the world because you know it's hopeless and yet at the same time you won't surrender to God and here Jesus looks there and he says if the salt has lost its savor its flavor its zest its zeal it's good for

nothing it finds itself there you know to where it's it it now what do you do after you've come to the Lord and you don't go on with him Paul and Philippians he once said he says those things that were gained to me they were a loss for Christ he says yea doubt not doubtless and I count all things but lost for the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things that do count them but done they might that I may win Christ Paul there looked and when he baby became a Christian on one hand he looked there and he said you know everything I live for and everything I stood for and everything it was important to me and all of my accomplishments and all of my value systems and everything he says now I counted all but done or refuge if that's maybe a nicer word

today or rubbish what the word basically means well you can figure it out but it's it's well it's the word it's what you have left when everything that's good has been taken out of it you might say like a city of trash rubbish they just all the wrappings and the trimming and the junk and everything from dinner and all the junk that's needs rubbish and here you know everything that Paul looked there he says all the other things in my life that just the old containers and wrappings and stuff of life that was it was one so important to me now I look at it and realize that was rubbish now I count everything but rubbish that I may win Christ and be found in him Paul attorney says the reason I'm alive is him and everything else is just trash it's just rubbish it's nothing and then when somebody

though if we don't go on with Christ now where do you go because now do I go back to the rubbish and the things I read remember sometimes I think it's good being here and then leaving and coming back sometimes because being here in the early seventies and being around when there is such a revival and such wonderful things going on and how well I can remember times like we would just there was such a revival people were just lining up to get saved it's almost like you got to take a number you know and things and here we you know wait for you later we're busy yeah I'm serious people you know and the times of worship were so awesome we would worship and people there they were coming and whether they knew it or not they maybe didn't actually know the Beatitudes and know that was happening but

massive numbers of people were just passing through the Beatitudes there was a poverty of spirit there was a meekness there was a humility there was a mourning over sin they looked at their lives or homes and marriages sure there's some of you that came to the Lord during those times and I remember how many marriages were in trouble how many families were in trouble how many people in the drugs or the alcohol or the the affairs or the stuff that was going on in life and then lies were going right down the drain they were rubbish and people were coming and they were poor in spirit and they were broken and they would mourn over their sin and there was a meekness and they were hungry and thirst and we would worship and hands were just raised to say God please crying out the worship was so

beautiful there was this altar almost every time we worship people just built an altar of their own they'd lay their life out on it offer it afresh to God and there was this intense wonderful worship and you'd see lives they couldn't get enough of the word they couldn't get enough worship they couldn't get enough fellowship God was putting their home there together and their marriage together and their kids together and wonderful things were happening by the thousands and people you know it's like we had more than we could even handle as a staff around here I can remember I mean people come along you know and I want to get saved you know and excuse me where I get said just a minute I'm dealing with somebody just take a number we'll get to you almost it was was terrible it was wonderful

but when you people he'd come in they'd have problems in their life and in problems in their marriage problems with their children problems with their careers we'd look at him say are you broken are you have you given up your life are you in filled with Holy Spirit I came in about my marriage I know I heard you how in the world could you possibly have a happy marriage if you're not filled with the Spirit it takes a spirit filled man to even consider loving a woman you know or something you you idiot don't you understand that you're a half a man without God now either get in line to get filled with the Spirit or go somewhere else we don't have time for you and people were just coming and then the next guy come in I got a problem with my child are you filled with the Spirit I have a problem

with my child of course you got a child with you a problem with your child if you're not filled with the Spirit how can it did it can an empty human being raise a child you can't do it you've got to be filled with God okay you know and needing the power of the Holy Spirit it was like one size fit all and it did it did because if somebody is poor in spirit and they mourn over it and there was a meekness that's happening within their life that fullness of God's Spirit has a way of just overflowing taking over all of the old things that used to control a life it's rubbish forget it all now I'm just here to give my life to the Lord seek him open his word and amazingly you would just watch things just fall off of human beings I remember though five or six years ago I was down here speaking for

something and while I was here somebody took me out to dinner I went into a restaurant and as I walked into a restaurant I saw a couple sitting there that the last time I'm sure I'd seen them was one of those times whether it was there in the worship or their hearts of their lives they had had a very severe problem in their marriage that had happened in terrible problems with their children and yet through it they'd come to Christ and they'd given their life to him and God had so transformed them they couldn't get enough of him every day the ministry involved in the word and everything in their marriage is transformed their children are transformed they're here in the Academy and everything's happening their families their neighbors they're all the time you almost had to you know just

order a special queue for them alone because I'll people from work people from their schools people from their neighborhood always hauling them in here you got to come to church with me and here I walk into I see them and I come walking over to him and as I'm coming up to the table I look over and they look and saw me and I'm saying I if it is I come up I look and here's the table and there's no four or five shot glasses in front of them and they kind of looked at me at first and they're really happy to see me but it's almost like both of us just you know how you remember somebody in that in a certain way and that's the last relationship Kenny had and then all of a sudden I walk in and here's somebody and they look around they got other friends now and somehow another they're married

seems to be okay I guess business scenes but guess kids are okay I guess you can kind of relax a little bit but now they're witness and I'm looking at them and my heart just began to break and I could just see in their eyes a distance that they once had with God and it's gone and now you know where are you and they're they're trying you know say oh you know yeah yeah I you know where's your walk and where's your life all were I can't remember how the conversation went other than it was just wonder where you looked at somebody where the salt has lost its savor and you're looking at them were somehow another they recovered they recovered from that desperation of needing God they recovered from that hunger to be used they discovered they did they recovered from that need to share with a lost

world around them they recovered and kind of got back there you know on their own stability and kind of got some stuff together and now all of a sudden you look at their lives and they're kind of back in the same place my heart left broken and empty you know when how somebody realizes God I want my life to be used for you that's why I'm here he says for that the salt has lost its savor it's henceforth good for nothing when you lose the savor you're good for nothing you can get you I believe the salt you get salted again I think the very things here Jesus said that bring about the savor you get when there's a poverty of spirit and I mourn over it and there is a true meekness maybe now it was easy the first time maybe when I was all messed up and my marriage was messed up and everything

else was trashed and maybe at that point there was an obvious poverty of spirit but now when I come back and realize God have I lost that poverty of spirit have I lost that mourning over my own sin have I taken my own life back into my own control am I okay because I'm okay the pressure's off God am I meet before you am I still hungry and thirsty for you to fill my life the wonderful thing is is that we can come and God can renew that and restore that he told the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation you've left your first love come back get back you once again when you worship you build an altar and you lay your life out on it you'd God I don't know where we're going and I don't know how much time we got left before you come for me but I want to be about the business of serving you

I don't want to lose my savor for he says there if the salt has lost its savor is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men here Jesus now he looks there and he says basically now that person that once had this once had this life once had this vitality once had this fullness once had this message and now when they have lost their flavor they've lost their excitement they've lost the power to interest the world in who they are in Christ he says there henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men you see in those days one salt had kind of lost its savor just been used and you know and it maybe packed some meat and kept it for a time but said whatever it lost its savor now what they did is the last thing with it they

would take that salt and they would take it out into the pathway and that you know and they would sprinkle it on the pathway that it would be trodden under the foot of men and the reason for it is that the salt would keep root weeds from coming up it would keep the pathway there it would keep you know that instead of coming in and there was something there that that that salt would keep other things from getting in and maintain the path how many people are there along the path of life that you go down and you watch them you see first they they love the salt lost its savor first there was a brokenness there was a morning there was a meekness there was a fullness there was a dynamic there was something so rich and so wonderful it took over their whole being and then little by little they

recovered and they got better and they got on with life and the next thing you know some of the things that they repented of some of the things that they took off they came in and they I remember people literally bringing in drugs alcohol bringing in magazines bringing in stuff here flush it down the toilet get rid of it I never want to be around any of this and next thing you know though if you don't continue constantly God I want all these things out of my life forever I don't ever want to find out how much I can handle or how much I can do with this how much you know you know I can do with this and still do fine no Lord I want it all out and I want to keep it I want to constantly be poor in spirit I want to constantly mourn over things within my life that shouldn't be there I want to

constantly be bringing into you anything and say God flush it down I never want to recover to where I can handle it because the next thing you know is you see people that do and it's a sad thing it's like the parable Jesus gave of the man there we hear the house with the demons in it he came in he cast the demons out but because the house wasn't filled the demons came back found it empty and seven more seven times more came and so often what times what happens is that we come and we give the house we give our life in but little by little we can oh well God doesn't have to rule and the next thing you know we're in trouble the next thing you know we're bringing things back and the next thing you know we're worse and then one day we wake up and we realize Lord I've lost the flavor but when

we find herself no Lord forgive me cleanse me keep me there give me boldness to share my friends my neighborhood people I do business with who you are because I want to be used let me just close with reading an interesting thing one of my sons Marcus just gave me the other day I said hey I'm stealing this thing you may use it someday on your sermons but I'm using it first it was so good but it's called this I'll just read it to you it's called the tale of two kingdoms once long ago a people rebelled against the authority of their king and were promptly invaded by an evil Emperor who set up a counterkingdom of a tyrannical nature the king defeated the dark Emperor and then sent an army to reclaim the people of his kingdom for the Emperor's troops from the Emperor's wicked Emperor's troops

the king's army had been given power and authority of the king and an abundance of weaponry with which to route out the enemy forces and to liberate the king's people yet the king's realm was extensive and the battle was a very long one though a hard-fought the victories along the front lines were sure and the rule of the king was steadily re-established as village after village was freed the inhabitants were given a choice submit to the rule of the king or return to a life of slavery to the already defeated Emperor as this effort wore on those behind the lines whose work supported the army began to lose sight of the purpose for which the army had been set out by the king namely that it might engage the enemy this loss of vision was subtle happening over a long time some said it started

with the cooks noticing that the soldiers were delighted when they served doughnuts the cooks begin to serve more and more doughnuts until they became almost the exclusive diet of the troops even though the soldiers sickened and with malnutrition and becoming unfit for battle they didn't complain for they enjoyed the sweetness then the iron workers tired of the severe lines the weapons they began to add flourishes and ornaments in the ornamentation until next thing you know the weapons became useless due to their extra weight the tailors began to add more color and bright colors to the drab uniforms unaware that it made the soldiers on the front lines very easy targets for the enemy's arrows this lack of vision and purpose spread to many of the king's army the officers as they train the

young recruits concentrated less and less on the practical techniques required for engaging the enemy and more and more on the pride and the etiquette of being in the king's army losing contact with the front line some even began to say the battle for the king's realm was fictitious and the military maneuvers ought to be ceremonial others actually forgot that a war even existed and were content to be in an army for the sake of just being in an army without any direction or purpose even on the front lines some of the soldiers stayed and they reveled in the liberated villages long after they were needed for getting the yet unfinished task and not even realizing that the freed villagers could offer added strength to press on with the battle but despite all this the purposes of the king was

unchanging and he was continually active towards its achievement his heart ached continually for those who were still under the tyranny of the dark Emperor's troops though much of his army had ignored or forgotten his purpose for sending them thus falling into foolishness ineffectiveness and aimlessness he still sought those who would heed his orders to these who clung to his purpose of claiming his rightful realm he promised ready access to his throne room and under his authority that they might defeat the evil forces and establish his rule among those who would accept it but you know the tragic thing is the day I forget the battle goes on within my own heart my own life it isn't long until the next thing you know the weapons aren't important the strategy is important the complete you

know desire to be equipped and to be used for the issues of the kingdom it all loses its identity and one day I wake up and I'm no longer salt I'm no longer somebody that is doing the things I think one of the things and I'll close with this that that I am so thrilled about Calvary Chapel I think of all the bodies of people I know I don't know anyone in the world that has a concern for villages all over the world would hear the gospel of Christ like I don't know anyone that you know that on one hand is sending out more missionaries establishing more training centers wanting to get more people out and I'm so thrilled to be a part of a bunch of people that are honestly want to be about the business of the king as he wants to reclaim as much of this planet as he possibly can but yet

oftentimes as individuals in the army we can lose vision and we can get caught up in things that distract us and how I would encourage you tonight maybe some need to say Lord I want to be salt again I feel like I'm just being cast out and trodden under the foot of men all you need to do same things you ever did that's what Jesus told the church at Ephesus go do the first works again go come and build the altar offer yourself afresh Lord put me back on the front lines when I go home front lines neighborhood front lines the office front lines use me for your glory I'm poor in spirit I want to mourn over it and be meek that you'd use me amen father we just come before you tonight and I thank you Lord for your great love for us and I thank you Lord for you the great king of kings who

established a kingdom and Lord the wicked one came in and he stole it became the God of this world the prince of the power of the air and yet Lord you have called us to yourself and as you take our lives and we give them to you you one day you look at us and do we understand the world we're in do we understand the war the the world we understand and care about the souls of people all around us do we look at our lives and do we want to become yours and so surrender to you in such a way as that we can be used for eternal things and father as we come before you tonight we just want to open our heart and Lord we ask that you would just take of us maybe there's some of us we've we've recovered maybe some of us we knew what it was just to stand before you and to sometimes worship we close our

eyes we'd lift our hands we would sing praises to you we'd offer our heart in our life and as we would do it as the offering of our life it became a sweet smelling savor unto you as we were poor in spirit and we mourned over our sin our meekness and our hunger and thirst for righteousness Jesus you filled us and we were so filled that we didn't even know if we should open our eyes you were so real we were sure you we'd see you you were there in such power Lord we know that you long to be in our face and in our heart and in our worship with all of your heart and Lord I pray that you in a fresh wonderful way maybe there's some of us we've recovered in Lord we've gone back in the world around us the refuge the junk the rubbish Lord it's no good we want to offer ourselves to you so we open

our heart and Jesus we just pray that tonight that you would just take the offer the sacrifice of our life afresh that we could open our heart and say Jesus here I am tonight I just feel maybe as we are praying maybe there's some of you that would say Don I you're talking to me tonight I want to be the salt I've lost the savor maybe you just where you are you say pray for me wherever you are lift your hand I just want to pray for you that's where you are yes well many around many if there's others just say Lord afresh take my life I just want to offer to you I want to be used mighty way I've recovered and I'm sorry I want to Jesus to be back I need you with a desperation that's fresh in my life any others maybe just before we close Lord I give you offer take me bless me or Jesus I thank

you that you have seen Lord I just pray that now our lives would just be free to respond and say Lord take me and use me for your glory I offer myself afresh to you Jesus in your wonderful name I pray amen let's stand and let's sing a song together before we go shall we Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me maybe before we go tonight some of you just even want to just pray with someone maybe some of you want to just come and say I I need my heart in my life cleaned out I just want him to use me more I want to offer myself afresh I've been away I've been who cares where just away but if

as we close you just want to come the staff is down here just to pray with you pray for you the Lord just take our lives to me I can't believe what an exciting ministry this is exciting body of people the vision for service the salt this is it but the day we forget that Lord keep me about your business so may God just take his word to you may bless you may strengthen you may he pour out his love upon you and may you not go home and bed hard food bad I quit that's what happens people don't just quit person beds are in the food bed but first they went in the wrong direction we need to be on the front lines who cares you know that hard you mean there's a bed food bad you mean there's food I can't quit this is why I'm alive I'm the salt of the earth may God take you and anoint you and use you

for his glory now until he comes again and then forever more amen amen God bless you as a fellowship but come for prayer if you want it God bless