Okay, I'm going to preach about the missing ingredient this afternoon, and often that's salt, right? I'm going to get you in a minute to go over to the book of 1 Corinthians, so if you want to go ahead and be heading that way, you can. We'll look at a verse over there shortly. How many times you've been sitting around at the table and somebody says, this is missing something, and you say, well, try a little salt, and that was it. It just needed a little salt. That happens sometimes. AND THERE IN LEVITICUS CHAPTER 2 VERSE 13 WE READ THAT ALL OF THE OFFERINGS, EVERYTHING THAT THEY OFFERED TO THE LORD, THEIR REQUIREMENT, LEVITICUS CHAPTER 2 VERSE 13 WAS THAT IT MUST HAVE SALT. NOW I CAN'T NECESSARILY EXPLAIN THAT, NOT GOING TO TRY TO. I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING ELSE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT IN JUST A MINUTE THAT MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT EQUATE TO THAT. BUT I DO KNOW THAT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT MARK CHAPTER 9 VERSE The Lord, he was talking about hell, but he said, for everyone shall be salted with fire. Talking about those that go to hell. And then he went on to say this, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. He goes on to say salt is good, but salt is a loss of saltness. Where would you we season it how salt in yourselves have peace one with another and so salt is definitely? Something that's necessary. You got to have it to live and it's definitely an ingredient that helps and this is not a message about salt I'm just kind of using this to go somewhere for just a few minutes this afternoon. I give you about five Uses for salt there are many more than that I've taught on salt probably preached on salt before and giving you probably more than that The first one is the obvious and we've already talked about it seasons the food And I'm thankful for it. Now, we don't want to get into the argument this afternoon of whether or not to put salt on watermelons, whether or not to put salt on cantaloupes, whether or not to put salt on tomatoes. The answer's yes, okay? I know not everybody feels that way about it, but as far as I'm concerned, salt seasons food and it makes it more, almost everything. I can't hardly think of anything as far as food-wise. I like it on my watermelon, I like it on the tomatoes, I like it on the cantaloupes. I just like it. It seasons food, makes it more palatable, if we can use that word, makes it tastier, just makes it better. There might be some exceptions to some of you. And I think we can say this, that it enhances the flavor. It doesn't just add something, it brings it out. You ever eat French fries without salt? The salt doesn't just flavor the French fry, it brings out the potato taste in it. I think it does that with... I'm not one of these heavy salters. I'm not a heavy salter like maybe some of you are, but I like a little. Jesus said salt is good. Did you know Jesus said salt is good? Yes, Jesus said salt is good. If your doctor says we're going to put you on a no salt diet, say Jesus Christ said that salt is good. So anyway, salt is good according to the Lord and it enhances flavor. It brings it out. Not only that, but it preserves. Salt preserves. It preserves meat. It preserves other things. Salt is a preservative. Salt melts the ice. Salt is used, it has healing properties, salt does. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6, verse 14, and we're gonna try to use that information. Every sacrifice and every offering was to be offered with salt. Now we go to the Christian life over here in 1 Corinthians 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. We're not offering sacrifices this afternoon, not sacrifices of animals or offerings of fruit and vegetables or anything like that. We are commanded to present our bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is just our reasonable service. And so we got the Christian life that we will look at this afternoon. First Corinthians chapter number 16, verse number 14, just a little short verse here. And it has a similar content. It says, let all your things, you know what let all your things means? That means all your things, okay? Let all your things be done with charity. And so charity here is not, one of my pet peeves amongst preachers is, preachers that will, and charity's not the only word they do it with, but they'll talk about the Greek and the Hebrew and take you to the different words for love. And then when they get to the English word that's different, they just call it love. That just always bugged me. that in 1 Corinthians 13 in the modern versions of the Bible, it's often just says love. Well, it's charity. And charity is a Christ-like, selfless, sacrificial love of God's people to other people, okay? That's what charity is. It's not what we would consider charity in our culture where you're helping out poor people or something like that. It is a sacrificial love that we are taught by Christ and the church is supposed to have it. And thereby, these three, faith, hope, charity, and the greatest of these, greater than faith. How great's faith? Ephesians 2, 8, by grace are you saved by faith. We're kept, 1 Peter 1, verse 5, by the power of God through faith. Faith is so important. Without faith it is impossible to please God. But charity is greater than faith. 1 Corinthians 13, 13. How great is hope? Well, the Bible says that we're saved by hope as well. I tell you, we have an anchor, a hope that's an anchor of the soul, the Hebrew writer said. But charity is greater than hope. This thing of charity, let all your things be done with charity. And so, let's talk about that. Do you know what charity does? That selfless, cross-like love, it seasons and enhances relationships. It seasons and enhances relationships, makes them more palatable. There's a phrase in the Bible, and I can't remember right now where the reference is at, but it says, forbearing one another in love. You can put up with people when you love them. Did you know that? You can put up with people when you love them. It's season and enhances the relationship. It makes the bland edible. I remember when I first came here and the first Sunday that I ever came, I had been here to a revival once just to hear a preacher that was a former pastor of mine actually and came to hear him maybe two or three years before that I was asked to come here and preach on a Sunday morning. But the first Sunday morning that I ever came to preach here, Brother George Rigsby was teaching Sunday School class and at that time Brother George was an old man and he lived another 15 years almost after that. But I can remember sitting in that adult Sunday School class and I thought, who in the world is this guy? And he was old enough that he was bad to chase rabbits, and old enough that he was bad to get off subject, probably like some of you think about me. I hope not. But he was bad to do that. And to be honest with you, I thought to myself, surely there's a better Sunday school teacher than this man. And so I begin to pray. I begin to pray, Lord, help this Sunday school teacher. And my thoughts were perhaps that God would put somebody else in that position of teaching the adult Sunday school class. But you know what God did? God did with me what he did with the prince of the eunuchs to Daniel. He brought me into tender love with brother George Rigsby. And I'm gonna tell you something, there's not a man that I've ever known of that I have had any more respectful than I did George Rigsby. He was a man's man. I remember one time after, that would have been 2003, it came a tornado through our place. In fact, where we live now suffered quite a few trees down. I told Brother George, he was 70, I'm gonna guess he was 75 at that time and still cutting his own wood, still cutting his own firewood. And I said, Brother George, the storm, the tornado came through in April. And I said, Brother George, you got plenty of firewood? He said, no, not yet. And I said, well, I've had a tornado come through on my place. And I said, he knew where I lived, but he didn't know where I lived at the time. He didn't know where I live now. And I said, if you'll come down to the house, I said, I'll take you over there and you can cut all you want. He said, well, I said, I'll be down there, he said, probably about eight o'clock, something like that. Well, before daylight, I heard a vehicle outside. And I went up there, and it was Brother George. He said, yeah, I got up around a little early. I come on down a little early. And so as soon as it got daylight, I took Brother George over there and showed him. And I don't know how long he stayed there, how much wood he could cut. His wife was an invalid, stayed in a hospital bed. He took care of her. Got her up and down, took her to the bathroom, waited on her, cooked her. Brother George was a man's man. He was a hunter. He was a fisherman. He studied his Bible hours and hours a day, prayed hours and hours a day, grew the biggest garden. He grew over an acre garden. We're talking about one more dude, and I learned to love that guy. I learned to love him. And you know what? I got to getting so much out of his Sunday school classes. Y'all hear me talk about stories Brother George used to tell, right? You know what happened? I started loving him and it enhanced our relationship. It helped it. It made it something not only that I considered bland or something I could do with that, but it's something I would look forward to. for spending time with him. Did you know if you would let all your things be done with charity, if you would love people like you're supposed to, you could actually enjoy being around them? Those people that you think are hard to get along with, those people that you think are hard to be around, those people that you almost dread seeing coming, if you love them like you were supposed to, you might actually enjoy them. Let all your things be done with charity. Those folks are what they are. Did you know that? People are what they are. You are what you are. Did you know that there's somebody that you get on their nerves? Oh, no, not me, brother David. No, I don't get on nobody's nerves. I guarantee it. In fact, those of you that think you don't get on anybody's nerves, you probably get on more people's nerves than the rest of us do. There's somebody that you just get under their skin. And you drive them batty. You're just what you are. And there's somebody like that to you. You just need how to learn to love people. Let all your things be done with charity. That means every single relationship you have. Let all your things be done with charity. You have got to learn to love people. And I'm telling you, it will enhance the relationship. It'll help the relationship. It'll make it something you can enjoy. Not just something you can put up with. Charity not only like salt seasons and enhances, it preserves. It preserves those relationships. It preserves memories. It preserves families. It preserves churches. I appreciate what Sister Debbie said about our church. And thank the Lord for the unity that we do have. And it's not a fake. It's real. We do have unity. Proverbs 10, 25 says this. Is it Proverbs 10, 25? 10, 12, I'm sorry. Proverbs 10, verse 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins. Love covereth all sins. Salt preserves, love preserves. I know there have been people probably that you have thought, I'm just going to write them off. I'm just going to write them off. I don't care if I ever have anything to do with them. The truth is you're not writing them off because of what they've done. You're writing them off because of what you're not going to do. You're just not going to love them. You know, if you love them, you won't write them off. I'm glad the Lord didn't write me off. I'm glad that the Lord didn't write the people off that were crucifying him. He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Love preserves. It preserves. That's why Paul told the Thessalonian church, 2 Thessalonians chapter 13, or chapter 13, chapter three, verse 14. He talked about, if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed. But he didn't stop there. He said, yet count him not as an enemy. but admonish him as a brother. I'm just trying to tell you that let all your things be done with charity means that the relationships and families and homes and churches will be preserved simply because of the love that's present there. Well, there's a bluegrass song I just thought of. I asked jokingly, I asked back before homecoming when brother Andy Lefkowitz and sister Rachel were coming, I said, there's a song, I know you used to play the fiddle for this song and for the guy that sung it. But I said, I'd like for you to do it. It's about Noah's son. And I'd like for you to do it at our homecoming if you would. And he said, brother, I'm drawing a blank. He said, what song are you talking about about Noah's son? I said, well, it's called You Can't Hurt Ham. And there's a bluegrass song called You Can't Hurt Ham, OK? And the idea is salt. There's so much salt in ham it can't be hurt, OK? And the song talks about on the back, you know, they're traveling in the bus going to the next show, and they're hungry, and none of the stores are open. And somebody says, hey, there's some ham back there. Whoever was supposed to have been Lester Flatt or Earl Scrooge or somebody said, well, you can't hurt ham, bring me a sandwich, bring me a biscuit and ham. You can't hurt ham. I tell you, you can't hurt love. It preserves things. It preserves things. Well, salt heals, love heals. Let all your things be done with charity. Okay, 2 Kings 2 Bible quiz, young people. There was a curse on Jericho and they said to the man of God, the ground, the water is not, that means no good, and the ground is barren. Who healed the waters of Jericho? Who can tell me? Who healed? Timothy, you want to take a stab at it? Elisha is correct. And how did he heal the waters of Jericho, Timothy? He put salt in there. You know what, the waters of Jericho were sending out bitter water and nobody could drink it. But the man of God put some salt in there. And he said, from henceforth, there shall be no barren ground. I forget exactly what his words were, but the salt healed the waters of Jericho by removing the poisons. Charity will remove the poisons of malice and bitterness and envy and hate. The Song of Solomon says this, chapter eight, verse six, set me as a seal upon that heart, as a seal upon that arm, for love is strong as death. How strong is death? Well, there's no discharge in that war. Death gets everybody it comes calling for, except for Jesus Christ, didn't get him. They got him, but he had power over it, praise the Lord. But love is as strong as death. I'm just telling you that love can defeat the poisons that are in your heart from what's been done in the past and the poison remains because you allow it by refusing to love. This thing of let all your things be done with charity, He's not telling us to do something that it's impossible for us to do. You can do it. You can do whatever it is. You can minister to others with charity. You can make phone calls and tell people you missed them at church with charity. You can love people. You can do it. You can do it. Let all your things be done with charity. It heals by removing the poisons. Jesus Christ did it. Stephen did it. It's not worth carrying the poison around. It's not worth carrying the poison around. Salt melts the ice. The coldness of past deeds and the coldness of relationships because of past deeds, the atmosphere of bitterness is melted by love. It's melted by love. I hope Mama won't mind me talking about her family. I remember one of Mama's brothers, Daddy co-signed for him. He was going to open a business. And he needed somebody to co-sign for him when he borrowed money at the bank. I was young enough. I don't know all the details. I don't know how much money it was. But, Mom, you stop me if I'm telling something wrong now. You know where I'm at. And Daddy co-signed for him. And then he just up and you know what vamoose means? He just turned up missing. Gone. Took off. and left daddy holding the bag. And the family didn't hear from him for what, two, three years, something like that. And then at that annual reunion and decoration day, by that time I was probably about 13 or 14, and the word had got out that he had kind of resurfaced, and he was gonna be at the reunion. And I thought to myself, I was just a kid, I thought, man, let's see how this goes. Let's see how this goes. And I remember when we walked in, we went to church that morning and we walked into the reunion down there in Alabama. And there he was sitting there. And I remember Daddy reaching out and grabbing his hand and saying, it's good to see you. And all the ice just melted. It was over with. It was over with. Why? Love. Love. It melts the ice. You know what he did? He started paying it back. I don't know if he ever got it all done or not, but every year at the reunion, he'd give daddy a check. Here's a little more. Here's a little more. Here's a little more. Folks, that's what love will do. That's what love will do. It melts the ice. The ice of past deeds and the atmosphere of bitterness. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. Almost all of your struggles in your Christian life are gonna be based on two things, okay? Are you listening? All of your struggles in your Christian life will be a failure of faith or love. Just about every one of your struggles as a Christian is gonna be a lack of faith on your part or a lack of love on your part, okay? So, we need to let all our things be done with charity. And so the question arises, how in the world do we love more? How do we practice 1 Corinthians 16, 14 that says, let all your things be done with charity? Well, the first thing you gotta do is admit you got a problem with loving others and it's not Christian. If you struggle with loving others, number one, admit it to yourself and admit that it is not the Christ-like way of doing things. But God committeth his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's not Christian, which means Christ-like. It is not Christian to hold grudges. It is not Christian to be bitter. It is not Christian to be unforgiving. It is not Christian to hold things over people's heads. So if you're gonna love people more, you've got to admit that you're just out of line. Say, but David, you don't know what they did. It doesn't matter. Admit you've got a problem with love and others and that it's not the Christ-like thing to do. And then you've got to understand the nature of love. And I hope you young people listen to what I've got to say. Love is not, love is so much more than feelings. In fact, feelings are only a small part of love. Our world thinks that that's all there is to love, is feelings. When Jesus said, Matthew 5, 44, but I say to you, love your enemies. Does that mean he wants us to have feelings for our enemies? No, no. No, you'll have feelings for them all right. but you're supposed to love them. It's more than just having some kind of hunky-dory feeling. I don't know where hunky-dory came from, and I wish I hadn't even said it, because I don't like the phrase, but anyways, it's more than that, okay? Love is more than feelings. You gotta understand the nature of love, okay? You're not gonna overcome the feelings you've got by expecting some kind of other feeling. If you're gonna love people more, you've got to understand a little bit about the nature of love. And then this is the last thing on how do I love people more? How do I practice? Let all your things be done with charity. Number one, admit you got a problem. Number two, understand the nature of love is more than just feelings. And then this is it, church, cultivate it like you would anything else. You plant the seeds of love. You water those seeds. You pull the weeds. You fertilize it. If that enemy hunger, feed him. Romans 12, 20, if he thirsts, give him drink. You cultivate it. If you are gonna let all your things be done with charity, it's easy said, let all your things be done with charity. That's like let your light so shine before me. Okay, well, yes, you've got to allow it to happen, but you've got to work at this thing. If all of the things that you do are gonna be done with charity, that means taking a Sunday school class, it means singing the songs, it means giving a testimony, it means walking in the doors, it means greeting people, it means cooking your food, it means cleaning up, it means visiting, it means going to the nursing home, it means reading your Bible, it means praying for people. Let all your things be done with charity. And if you think that's just gonna happen, You need to wake up. You're going to have to work at it. You're going to have to work at it. You're going to have to cultivate it like you would any other plant. You have to cultivate that thing of charity and love in your heart for other people. And you can watch it grow if you cultivate it and you water it and you plant the right seeds and you do the right things. You can watch it grow. So every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt. Let all your things be done with charity. Let's make that our goal. Amen. When we come into church, when we leave church, when we go home, let's let all our things be done with charity. Let's bow our heads for a prayer this afternoon. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Thank you for the prayers you've answered. Thank you for the great testimonies this afternoon. Thank you for the word of God. Lord, help us. Thank you, God, for loving us so much and forgiving us, for committing your love toward us while we were yet sinners. LORD, BEHOLD WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE FATHER HAS BESTOWED UPON US, THAT WE SHOULD BE CALLED THE SONS OF GOD. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU LORD FOR BEING SO GOOD TO SUCH UNWORTHY CREATURES AS US, AND SO UNDESERVING. I THANK YOU LORD, HELP US TO BE MORE LIKE YOU, IN JESUS NAME I PRAY, AMEN.