You Are The Salt of The Earth and You Are The Light of The World

This is the script that I used to deliver the sermon on Morning Chapel time on 28 Feb 2018.


"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

"You are the light of the world. A town built 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, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Mat 5:13-16

YOU

This verse comes right after the beatitudes.

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 in heart…..
Blessed are the peacemakers…..
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness……..

Blessed those… without pointing at a certain person. But here.. Jesus started by the word YOU.

This, of course, will startle those who are listening.

God is pointing to you. To ME.

Address specifically to me.

Isn't it beautiful?

God wants a personal relationship with you. He wants to talk to you. Nothing that God wants more from us than a close relationship.

You are the SALT of the earth

You know that Salt functions:

• To flavor
• To preserve
• Texture enhancer
• Nutrient source
• Binder

Flavor

Have you ever tried eating a food that doesn't taste anything? No flavors at all? 

That is actually what the world is now.
We live in a world that is tasteless. We do not know which is right or which is wrong. Everyone does what they seem right.

They cloud their wrong thinking with the word of Freedom of speech, Human Rights, in the name of love, etc.

For example: The pursuit of wealth

There is a very rich man that has accumulated so much wealth that he thought that he can just enjoy his wealth forever.

Luke 12:20-21"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."

It is clear that God does not approve of the mindset.

We are to give a flavor to this world. We need to give the world the sweet taste of God.

Preserve

We also called to preserve the world from corruption. Sin is already rooted deep inside us. We tend to do sin. We refuse to do good.

You can see how deep the sin has its root inside us by watching how a small baby can actually do against its parents' will.

My daughter can do that. She has the tendency to tease her parents by doing exactly what was forbidden to her.

We told her that she shouldn't climb because she could fall down. It would hurt her.
You know what? The next thing she did was …. Climbed the table.
Not only that. She even called to me and said "Papa.. Abi no no no.. Nanti jatuh.."

Another favorite of hers is to hold a marker and starts drawing on the wall! Luckily for us, she only uses the magic pen to draw on the wall. It contains only water.
What she did was to call on us with the pen in her hand, ready to draw. When she saw that we already have our eyes on her, then she started to draw. She made sure that we were watching her breaking the rule!

Yes, it was actually a game for her. We always punished her by tickling her until she lost her breath laughing.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Yes. We probably have a weak flesh that made us do sins.
It is not an excuse that we can use though.

To be a salt, we need to be active. Our presence should be "tasty".

People should acknowledge our saltiness. They want us in their daily life.
Not us per se but God in us that is what they want.

But what if our "saltiness" reflected back to us, through every form of persecutions and tribulations? Our Governor experienced this and it put him in jail.

What would you do?

Will you "lose your saltiness"? Just become a Kristen KTP? Only registered in your ID but not really becomes the identity of you?

What would you do?

Can salt that loses its saltiness be made salty again? Are you just going to stay bland forever?

Then you will be good for nothing.
If you are not flavoring the world with the Word of God, you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing.

You are the light of the world.

Now comparable to the salt, Jesus used the term light.
This word actually better translated as shine. Because the light itself is God.

Revelation 21:23
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

We are to shine. 
Phi 2:15b Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

Another example of this is John the Baptist.
(John 5:35) John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

How come people enjoy our light?

Light function

To brighten

I really love to watch stars. I never knew how bright they are until one day, I went to Yogya by car. We drove through woods and stopped a while for a quick break. In the darkness of the wood, somehow I can saw the surrounding very well. Then I looked up and saw those uncountable stars shining down on us. That moment made me realize how bright the stars are.

You know that stars are suns, right? They are located millions of light years away from us. Even from that distance, they managed to give their light to shine upon us.

Would you like to be a star?
Even though, you are "millions of light years away", you can give light to someone's life.

To expose

1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God.

Have you ever experience a blackout? Living in Jakarta for so many years, I already prepared a lot of flashlights. They are always regularly charged and ready to be used. When a blackout hit, I can immediately reach out to one of them and turn it on. Exposing everything that was previously covered by the dark.

Light can be measured.

From the science perspective, light can be measured. Candela is the SI unit to measure the brightness of the source of light.

To say it in the physics term, total darkness is when you emit ZERO candelas.

This is actually a very encouraging revelation for me. Why?

Because if you are the dimmest light, that can only emit the lowest candela possible, you are still emitting light.

You are still being used by God to be his light in the darkness. Do you like that?


What if you think that your light is not bright enough?
Then what Moses experienced can be your answer.

You know that Moses is the leader that brought the Israelites out from Egypt. It was the first time that a big group of people traveling together. So, God needed to teach Moses all the necessary things to lead a nation.

Moses was taught for 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai.

Exodus 34:29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

All you need is to talk to God. Have a conversation with him. 
Daily!
Constantly!

And your face will be radiant! You will shine! You will give out light to those in the dark.

To conclude our reflection time today:
Do you notice that Jesus said: You ARE the salt and the light of the world?

He didn't say that you will be or you are able to become. He said that You ARE.
It is now our duty to maximize our function.
Please give the world a good taste!
Please brighten up the world!

Have a good day! Thank you!