Amen. Thank you for joining us this morning. If you would stand, we'll continue with our song service. Hebrews chapter four, verse number 11, says, Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. And it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's good to be in the Lord's house today. Brother Chris Peterson, would you open us in order per? I'm a follower of God. Amen, join me in singing 167, all hail the power of Jesus. a a a He doesn't see the victims who flee and turn from the law. have a ♪ Lord of all ♪ ♪ We'll give all that you see ♪ ♪ As crowns you crown me ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. We'll praise your name forever. We'll praise your name forever. We'll praise your name forever. Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. When the cares of life are just too much, and I have to drink a bitter cup. When I come to you with desperate cries, but it's only silence that replies. When the wilderness becomes your plan And I reach but I don't feel your hand When I think this night will never end And the darkness is my only friend And still I will praise you Still I will praise you, still my trust in you remains. Still you are sovereign, still you are faithful, still I will praise your name. would choose a path of ease, and a soul a joyful song to sing. But you lead me into suffering, where my tears become are sovereign, still you are faithful, still I will praise your name. The days that you've ordained are past. And when I have lived them all at last, When heaven's waiting just ahead, and his body takes its final breath, still I will praise you, still I will praise you, still my trust in you remains. Still you are faithful, still I will praise your name. Still I will praise you, still I will praise you, still my trust Still I will praise your name Still I will praise your name Still I will praise your name. Still I will praise your name. He is worthy of our praise, amen. Let's stand and join me in singing. We will praise him right now, singing, I Will Praise Him. ♪ Reign until the kings be counted ♪ ♪ Good and right for all my sinning ♪ I will praise Him, I will praise Him, praise the Lamb who took His place. Give Him glory, all ye people, for His blood can wash away sin. You are all I think of when I think of you. I miss you when you miss me, and when you miss me. Yeah. ♪ Jesus, I'm so glad you took me in ♪ ♪ He's forgiven my depressions ♪ ♪ He has cleansed my heart of sin ♪ ♪ I will praise him, I will praise him ♪ ♪ Praise the Lamb who saves the lame ♪ Amen. Join us in prayer as we prepare for our offering. Brother Lyons, would you pray for the offering? you He was led to Golgotha on the outskirts of town, then nailed to a rugged cross where the mockers gathered round. The sky spoke like thunder when he finally bowed his head. He who had given life now hung there dead. Then his mother and some friends came to carry him away. They were trying to speak through a broken heart what only tears could say. The sunset cast no shadow on the world's darkest day. And with one last look, they laid him in the grave. I talked to him today, and my cares all fell away. He made me feel like life had just begun. All of my trials can be turned into triumph through the victory that He's already won. And I talk to Him today, and the comfort that He gave filled me with desire to tell the world that on But right now he is alive, I know, because I talked to him today. Mary Magdalene came breathless to the place where Peter lay. He was trying to speak through his broken heart what only faith could pray. I heard her joyful story. His sorrow could not stay. And with one last breath, they laid him in the grave. I talked to him today. all fell away. He made me feel like life had just begun. He said all of my trials can be turned into triumph through the victory that he's already won. And I talked to him today, and the comfort that he gave filled me with desire to tell the world. That on Calvary he died, but right now he is alive. I know because I talked to him today. Yes, on Calvary he died, but right now he is alive. I know because I talked to him today. Join me in standing one more time. We will sing, Great is thy faithfulness. Page 441. Great is thy faithfulness. ♪ Thou changest not, thy compassions make me whole ♪ ♪ Thou'st the best gift that forever will be ♪ ♪ Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy love ♪ It is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Summer and winter, springtime and fall, The great is thy faithfulness The great is thy faithfulness The great is thy faithfulness The great is thy faithfulness The great is thy faithfulness ♪ Happy I am, happy all I am ♪ ♪ Great is thy faithfulness, all mine to be ♪ ♪ Born in person, make up these hands of mine ♪ ♪ Holy Grail to keep Him to Thine ♪ ♪ Straight for today and right on the tomorrow ♪ ♪ Blessings of God in two thousand besides ♪ I see Thank you. You may be seated. We believe in the Father who created man. And we believe the universe and all therein is His. As a loving Heavenly Father, He yearns to save us all. ♪ To lift us from the fall ♪ We believe ♪ We believe in Jesus ♪ The Father's only Son ♪ Existing God created Before time had begun A sacrifice for sin He died, then rose again To ransom sinful men in the spirit who makes believers one. Our hearts are filled with his presence. The Comforter has come. His kingdom unfolds in His plan Unhindered by quarrels of man His church upheld by His hand We believe of the So if the mountains were cast into the plains When kingdoms all crumble, this one remains Our faith is not subject to seasons of men With our fathers we proclaim We believe our Lord will come as he said. The land and the sea will give up their dead. His children will reign with him as their head. We believe. We believe. We believe. We believe. We believe. We believe. Amen, I kind of think he believes that amen what a blessing. I love that song and love it when it's saying with a good solid heart Well, it's our honor to have the Hardees with us, and I so appreciate Brother Dave and Miss Grace. Miss Grace is sitting right here with Brother Dave. Brother Dave's gonna come preach for us. The Lord bless you as you come and preach for us today, my dear brother. Please be praying for him. He's battling right now a little bit with some prostate cancer, but God's in charge of all that, so just continue to pray for him. Thank you. He hadn't gotten any shorter since I was here last time. And I haven't grown any taller. I'm not really sure how to take care of that. Glad my little woman can be with me all the time. Almost 63 years together, it's been good. And I'm hearing other things today. I think in Sunday school, some of you have been together a good while. I just appreciate the opportunity to be here each time I come. You know when your car turns in some directions, it's okay, but sometimes it's kind of like a horse, you just let it go. It's been there so many times. It just comes right up. I saw a billboard on the way up this time. I don't know that I saw it the last time I came up this way. And it said, there's two decisions in eternity. Which one have you chosen? And there is only two, isn't there? And I didn't see the sign real well to see if maybe there were a few more words, but I thought that is really true. But we've always enjoyed the church, enjoy you as a group of people, and I love music. And you say, you're gonna sing? No. Be better if I wait until the service was over, if we did something like that. But isn't music unique? I mean, there's only so many notes, I think. How can you keep making new songs? For hundreds of years, only God could do something like that. But you don't say amen enough when people are singing now. Fact is, I need to get me a sermon together on amens. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever done that? Just preached on amens? You get to thinking about it, it's in the Bible quite a bit. And you know what amen means? It basically means that's right, that's good, that's correct. So if somebody's going to learn how to play these things and sing and do instruments, say amen! And I'm thinking about how many people sometimes maybe get saved and join a church when the preacher's preaching or the missionary's preaching when people say amen. So how about this? See, over the years, 500 people get saved and you haven't said amen, you know what? You didn't have a part in any of it. I'm serious. The Bible suggests that amen means the people confirm that what, you say you're trying to build some amens? No, I don't want to do that. But I'm just saying that I love being in a church where the people are paying attention. When someone sings something right or whatever, then the amen really does come out. It's good. Well now, we're going to have a sermon this morning out of Matthew chapter 5, if you could make your way there, just be seated for a moment still. And this evening, out of the Old Testament, and try to tie these together. We're kind of embarking on a two-part sermon in the New Testament this morning and the Old Testament again tonight. With the thought in mind, if you lose your savor, you lose your worth. Understand savor, you know, we think about taste and all those kind of things. As a matter of fact, this text does deal with salt. but our saver is our ability and what we can do and so forth but if we lose our saver which is the kind of person that we happen to be in the way we act and what happens in life because of that is very special to the Lord and we need to pay attention to it so in Matthew chapter 5 if you turn there and stand we'll look at a few verses this morning If you'll be right at the beginning of chapter 5, that's not what we're primarily going to look at. At the beginning of chapter 5, I actually want you to go back one verse to the last verse in chapter 4. The last verse in chapter 4 says, And there followed him great multitudes of people, from Galilee, and I'm thinking of maybe a great multitude from each one that's mentioned, I don't know. All them great multitudes of people from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. Now you understand chapter divisions were not in the Bible when it was written originally. Verse 1 of chapter 5 And seeing the multitudes, we do not have any idea how many, but it sure seemed like a lot. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and taught them saying. Now, that's as far as I'm going to go right now. We'll have a word of prayer, we'll look at another verse, and move along in that. Father, thank you again for the privilege Grace and I have to be here and I thank you already for the Sunday school lesson this morning and I'm thankful for the men and the women in church that are leaders. Thank you for those who are deacons and then those wives that support them and everyone that has a job. I know that this is a working church. I've been here enough and I've seen it and I thank you for each one. This morning I pray that you'd illumine our hearts in our minds to understand Bible truth, so that when we look at the text that we have this morning and this evening, that it would be a help to us in the future, and especially at that time when we eventually stand before you, because we ALL WILL. I love reading what Paul had to say about some of these things. Great things were there for him, and I'm not saying any of those would equal the Apostle Paul, but we ought to look forward to the time we stand before the Lord. And we will not stand in perfection in the sense of everything that we have done, but in perfection in the sense that we've trusted him and his precious price on Calvary to take care of anything or any misgivings that we've had. So I pray that you just illumine our hearts and minds today to understand Bible truth, not what I say necessarily, but Bible truth. And then at the invitation time this morning or tonight, if decisions need to be made, that we would make them. And certainly would give you all the glory and all the praise because you alone are worthy in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Now you still have your Bibles open, chapter 5, verse 13. Now verses 13 through 16 here are probably considered, you know, probably maybe like the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most important sections of Scripture that we'll ever deal with. But in verse 13, It says, you're the salt of the earth. Now, he's talking to the disciples primarily. He's sitting down and he's teaching them. I don't know how far into the group they could hear that. I mean, some preachers I've known, like Art Wilson, they might have heard him in the next country over there. I don't know. But I know that Jesus was speaking to his disciples, and I think probably a lot of people got as close as they could. When multitudes come like that, they want to hear what's going on. But these two verses together are considered the two most important verses in the Bible by many commentators. One deals with SALT and the other one deals with LIGHT. And this morning we're dealing with SALT. Now verse 13 says, Ye are the salt of the earth. Now that's a statement. If you're a child of God, you are the salt of the earth, period. You say, well, I think it doesn't make any difference what you think. For anybody else, if we're a child of God, the Bible says we are, you know, salt of the earth. And then these conjunctions sometimes really get in the way. Here comes that one, because you're the salt of the earth, but. If we could just leave it as, you're the salt of the earth because we gotta have salt. But then there's a but. If the salt have lost his savor, primarily has it lost its taste, whatever the case, wherewith shall it be salted? Good question. And it doesn't stop there. And this gets tough and a little bit rough for all of us who would name the name of Christ if our salt isn't have its savor. It is henceforth, I don't even like to say this, preacher, good for nothing. No one likes for somebody else to look at him and say, well, it's kind of like Hank the cow dog, he was always telling his buddy that and everything, you're good for nothing. Someone's probably told us that one time or the other, maybe we're just good for nothing. Good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Now, this is not a bad text. It's a GOOD text. Because it tells us some of the things that we could do that anybody else could not do unless the Lord was with them, it would not be done. But Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and we're just looking in chapter 5, is what we call the Sermon on the Mount. And that's one of the most important places in the Bible to spend our time. William Barclay said the Sermon on the Mount is to the New Testament what the Ten Commandments are to the Old Testament. Well, you've got to think about that for a little while. The Ten Commandments of the Old Testament HAS been the basic foundation of law in the great country of America, and you would FIND it in our establishments with government and so forth, and it still LARES for many of them, maybe not live by as much as it should, but William Barclay was right. The Seminal Amount is to the New Testament what the Ten Commandments are to the Old Testament. a section that you would want to go to and look at for a long time and say, this is good stuff, and I need to live according to it as best I possibly can. One of my favorite commentators is G. Kimmel Morgan, and he said, the Communist manifesto by Karl Marx sets forth what a communist should be and what a communist should do. He goes on to say, the Sermon on the Mount is the Christian manifesto, what a Christian should be and what a Christian should do. These are men well-known, and this really is true. Commentators also say about this section of that Matthew 5, 13 through 16, we're just using 13 on salt and light, are the two most direct metaphors in all the Word of God. And I can't find fault with that. So when I'm reading and I'm thinking about what I'm looking at this morning, is that I'm salt. And that should concern me. That's what I'm supposed to be, and not just the kind we get in the shaker, but God's got it that way so that we can understand it. A number of years ago, actually, it was about... Did you notice the years get longer and you don't know how long it's been or whatever the case? So I'm going back, Pastor, nearly 20 years when I was just leaving Eastland Baptist Church. I tried, Pastor, there 30 years, and my wife had said, Why don't we drive over to Stillwater? Our son pastored in Stillwater. It's about 75 miles from where we lived in Tulsa. I said, Well, we ought to do that. And I thought, you know, that would be an interesting thing to do. We'd hear our son preach, but the main thing is we could see our grandkids, you know. And I've got some people with me today, so. We decided we're gonna have breakfast in Tulsa. And I'm thinking about biscuits and gravy, bacon, maybe some ham. some hash browns, big cup of coffee at Cracker Barrel. And my wife wants to go to Panera and get a bagel. That word even sounds bad to me. Guess who won? But I do get my choice most of the time, and she cooks what I like, so we went to Panera, and the Lord was in it. Now, I don't understand that. I'm going to talk to him about why he would show up at Panera, or anybody would. So we are dressed to go to church because it's Sunday morning, we're gonna go hear our son preach and see our grandkids that afternoon and so forth. And we're just at a table by ourselves, just the two of us, and we were dressed to go to church that day. And we're just about through with our meal, and a guy comes up to our table, and he's not in a suit or anything, doesn't make any difference whether he was or not. He's just a working man, and he just stood there. Well, finally, I'm eating, he never said anything, and I looked at him, because I thought, what's he standing here for? And I looked at him, and he said to me, what's wrong with churches today? Well, I'm not at Heartland now for a pop quiz, you know, I'm here to have a sandwich. My wife was with me. There's a, you know, I've got a witness. and I was thinking about that just a moment and I said I really wasn't ready for this. Well as I said I think today the problem is is that churches are primarily economically driven rather than theologically driven. You say what would that mean then? That money and the ability to have great buildings and everything else is what it's all about rather than teaching the Word of God the way it's supposed to be taught and people can be saved and know that the heavens are home. The difference in economically driven and theologically driven. That's the reason you can have maybe some churches that run several thousand. I don't mean five or 6,000. I'm reading a book about W.A. Criswell. At the height of his ministry, their church had 25,000 people as members of that church. They owned seven acres of downtown Dallas. I'd settle for one acre and then sell it. So he just looked at me and said, Dad, and when I answered it, he said, yeah. And he walked off. He said, well, that's a little bit strange. Well, it gets stranger still. So then about three months later, I was out in Temecula, California, Brother Bill Ranch, and speaking for him. And so my wife wants to go to the mall. What on earth can you do in a mall after Sears and Roebuck and the tool department is gone? These boys didn't say amen here because you got any tools. Not everybody's shaking their head, preacher. So anyway, we go and she says, but there's a coffee shop. I said, OK, I'm in. And I'm just dressed in just a regular old, it's not church time, so it's I think it was a Thursday morning. I don't know what was going on like that. And I've got my coffee, and I'm reading a book, and it's not the Bible. It is a book on Bible stuff, and I'm reading that, and she's all terrorizing the balls, you know, about that time. And this is strange, and I don't have her as a witness this time like she was on the last one. A man could pass, or he came and stood right there, and just stood there and looked at me. And if I'm not wrong, it was just either Vatum or very close, and he said, what is wrong with churches today? Well, good thing about it is I had my answer. It wasn't covered in sweat. And he did the same thing and just walked away at that time. Well, you know, in America, we have kind of referenced Matthew 5, 13 here as a very special verse. Now, in our generation, maybe you've not heard that that much, but probably for those of us who live a little bit longer, you know, we might say, that man, that woman is the salt of the earth. How many of y'all ever heard that statement? Now you've got it. We wanted to make sure. You say, why did people used to say that? Because it's in the book and it suggests the best people on earth are people that have the salt of God in their heart and in their life and makes it that way. So I'm out there, you know, and we're at the mall and she's going all over the place and this man says that, you know, and I give him the same answer. And I thought, Lord, this is getting spooky. But it happened. It happened twice, and it's never happened again since that time. Now Barclay said one of the characteristics of the world in which we live is the lowering of standards. What has happened to honesty, diligence, work and morality, they all tend to be going down. Now, that has to fit something about the text we're talking about and what we just said about those people are the salt of the earth. In other words, they will do what they say. They're the ones that really make things happen. Let me read to you from the Encyclopedia Britannica under the heading of The Place of Baptists in American Life. Now, we're Baptists, so let's read about it from the Encyclopedia Britannica, which started many years ago. So here it is, quote, The true significance of a people is determined not so much by their number as by their influence of the society of which they are a part. Let me read that so good. The true significance of a people is not determined so much by their number, but as by their influence on the society of which they are a part. It goes on. The disciplinary functions of local congregations on the frontier contributed, here's a word, immeasurably to the moral quality of growing communities. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE THE EFFECT IF THE BAPTISTS COULD HAVE THE EFFECT TODAY THAT THERE WAS SO MUCH EFFECT THAT THEY HAD YOU COULD HARDLY EVEN JUDGE IT? IT'S AFFECTING THE COUNTRY SO VERY MUCH! Does that sound foreign to you? What's happening with politics now? I'm sick! for my country. And all you young people better be thinking about being salt because you'll be living here. And I want to live here. I don't know how many years I got left. I didn't think I'd probably ever live this long. My dad only, he died at 67. I'll be 80 shortly, something like that. But I want to see America be what it used to be. and it can be because God is God also he says here you are the salt of the earth now this is a contraction in Greek and I don't know why we do it in English I remember we used to have you have a sentence and you know you could say you are a mechanic I'm just doing it because pastor has that kind of work schedule and I'm not now but has his life And then America's decided, we're going to make it shorter and easy for us. We're going to do Y-O-U apostrophe R-E and leave out the A. Well, that saved us a lot of labor, didn't it? It is a contraction, but it doesn't mean what the Greeks mean with a contraction. It means the same thing in English, whichever way you say it. But the Greek doesn't. When you use that contraction, it means like right now, I'm talking to you. I'm not talking to him. I can and I might, or him. Don't look behind you, don't look beside you, don't look in front of you, don't worry about what they're doing, I'm talking to you. That's what that verse means. Now the God of the universe knows you inside and out. That's good. And he knows all of us that particular way. So in other words, when he's very personal, and that's what we're trying to get the idea of here, we're trying to get across. of that contraction and so forth. Now, J. Kimmel Morgan again, he said, Preachers in the 21st century preach in front of people, and that 21st has already passed, hasn't it? But I'm reading it from when he was still alive and could write it. Morgan said, Preachers in the 21st century preach in front of people. Preachers in the 1st century preached eye to eye to people. This is a LOT easier if you've ever been a public speaker, just to go back and forth across the front with your voice at the highest it can possibly get, and NEVER look anybody in the eye, and NOBODY knows who you're talking to, exactly. But you know that bothers some faithful? If you just stand there and look at them for a while? Fact is, that's what this text is all about. You're the salt of the earth. if you've lost your savor, which is that kind of kick that you have. If the salt has lost its savor or saltiness, where shall it be salted? God has that question. And we could give a lot of answers. So let's think about salt just for a minute, what salt does. Now, you don't want to stay here too long, probably, but I did discover in one book there's 14,000 uses for salty. And if you want me to go over them all, we can do that. We're okay? We're gonna get it all figured out. But let me just pick out maybe about four. First of all, I like salt. Anybody else like, beside me, like? Now the rest of you that didn't raise your hand, come up here and promise me you never use salt. Because I don't think you'll still be alive, most likely, if that happens. Salt, first of all, what I think about with salt, it enhances. I mean, salt is primarily, at least for me, conspicuous in its absence. So you go to a restaurant or somebody's house or whatever, and then the first little bit you put in your mouth and you think, who sure is bland? Where's the salt? And maybe the pepper. I know I just did this up the street yesterday and covered it up pretty good. I don't know. I DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S ANYTHING THAT I EAT THAT I DO NOT ADD SALT TO. AND I DON'T SELL SALT. SO, HOW ABOUT A GOOD STEAK? AND I HAD ONE HERE A FEW MONTHS BACK WITH YOU FOLKS. WELL, I LIKE SALT ON IT. I LIKE A GOOD HAMBURGER TOO. BROTHER SAM AND I ARE WATER BURGER BOYS. WE LIKE TO GO TO WATER BURGER. I LIKE SALT ON A JUICY WATERMELON. THAT'S GOOD STUFF AS WELL. I like not only that, but I like to watch my wife with the seeds. She won't buy a watermelon that doesn't have seeds. She said it's not as sweet. And she's probably telling the truth. Do y'all know about watermelon seeds? How many of y'all can shoot one? Come on, raise your hand if you can do it. Did y'all raise your hand? Did you know that that watermelon seed is not the same on one end as the other? And if you squeeze it, have I got some proof here, witnesses? If you squeeze it right in, it'll get that dude right down the road from you, I mean. My wife loves that watermelon, but they have to have seeds, don't bring it home if it doesn't have seeds. And of course, there are vegetables like broccoli. And you cannot put too much salt on broccoli. If you cover it up and then dig it out, you're doing well. Salt enhances, but now the Bible's talking about us being the salt of the earth or the world. Salt enhances, so when we come into the picture Do we enhance things and people are saying, it's sure good to see him. It's sure good to see her. Or they're thinking again. Now I'm just, this is the book. And it says salt. We are salt. Forget about, you know, just thinking about it and debating it. If you're saved, you're salt. But if a salt have lost its savor, What do you mean what we've lost? Lost what you want the salt to do. Why you buy it, why you cook with it, why you put it on things. So first of all, salt enhances. Everybody that we know and hang around with, they do the best we can to make their life better. Try to enhance things as best we can. We can't as Christians be, oh many people, all of our life. I remember in the little youth department we had when Grace and I met, a little church in Arlington, Texas. 30 was a big Sunday for us. Youth department was huge, usually about six. I think sometimes we got up to about eight. But there was a man and his wife named Don and Rachel Branscombe that they did everything they could, and they kept up with us, and they had places over to our house, I mean, to eat and play out in the backyard and all kinds of things. I look back on them right now. We just talked about them the other day. They've both been passed on to be with the Lord now for a good while, but they enhanced everything. I couldn't wait to get over to their house and see what they would have. Number two, salt not only enhances, salt heals. You probably know that. My dad was from Florida, my mother was from Texas. They met through letters in World War II. I was born eventually in World War II. And so my dad was from Florida, my mom was from Texas. My mom went out, so my dad moved to Texas. I didn't know anything but Texas for a while, but I was about six years old, and my dad said, we're gonna make a trip to Florida, and we did, and I'd never been to the ocean. Now, if you lived back in the 40s, Things were different. Barbed wire fences were everywhere. Not cyclone fences, not picket fences. Barbed wire fences. And that's where all the plums were. Peaches and all of that. I'm just saying I'd be going through those and my friends would and we did other things too. We'd get inside those and find a big wasp nest and work it over and do all kinds of stuff like that. But I was scratched up a lot. Barefooted most of the time. Those that are old enough know what it was like back then. You only had shoes when it was time to go to school. So we went to Florida. We pulled up to the ocean. My dad did after we'd been there a day or two. I had never been any place where we couldn't see the other side of a pond. It was ocean. I jumped out of the car and I was doing Mach 3 out towards that water. I hit that water. I'd never been in salt water before. And I went pretty far out there before I figured out that salt water and scratches don't get along with each other. And I mean that salt got those scratches, and I did a 180 degree about face and came out at Mach 4. And my mother says, what's wrong with you, David? And I said, something is eating me up out there, Mom. And my mom's statement always, aw shaw, boy, get back out in that water. Guess what? Next day? Yeah, she's already got it. Scratches are all gone. Salt enhances, but salt heals. You have any idea how many people outside these walls need some healing? They're hurting, they're suffering, they're not enjoying life like you're enjoying it, but they could, but they're not. But you've got, and I've got what they need. Not because we have it, but we have it because we know the Lord. I remember, I'm not gonna use his name, he's a good preacher friend, but he had a hard time in his life at his church, probably 40, 30, 35 years ago, somewhere 40, I don't know. And it really discouraged him and just, he just got where he wasn't able to do the job and preach. I mean, he's still at his church. But he had come to my church to preach, and he did. And I only lived about a mile or so away, so I said, hey, let's just walk home today from Grace. And I say that as a preacher's wife, but I don't know who I'm talking about. And so we did, and we talked all the way. And we talked about the Lord and ministry and all of that. So things got a little bit better. And then later on, a few years went by, and his wife told me one day, she said, you hadn't had that talk with John. We've been out of the ministry. That wasn't about me. It was about the things of God, and salt heals, and we need to be that kind of salt. Number three, salt preserves. Plutarch said that meat is a dead body, and part of a dead body, and will live to itself go bad, and it will. But salt preserves it and keeps it fresh. Before refrigeration, if you didn't know, there was a time there was no such thing as refrigeration unless you went to the North Pole or someplace like that. But they preserved their meat back then by meat that they called biltong, and today we call it jerky. And it lasts all that time, salt preserves. Do we do that? PRESERVE THE LORD'S THINGS AND THE LORD'S PEOPLE AND PEOPLE THAT WE COULD HAVE ANY IMPACT ON IN THEIR LIFE. THEN I WOULD SAY AT LEAST JUST ONE MORE THING THAT IT DOES, SALT PURIFIES. I DIDN'T KNOW THAT FOR A LONG TIME EITHER, BUT SOME OF THE BEST FILTERS YOU CAN GET FOR SWIMMING POOLS AND THINGS LIKE THAT IS A SALT FILTER. You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, if it's lost its savor, it has lost its ability to do what God designed it to do. I don't want that to happen to me. God doesn't expect me or you or anybody else to do something they don't have the ability to do. But if he gives us the ability and we're salt and we can do these things he's told us, then we need to be about it. And we ought to be doing it joyfully. There's probably people right here in this church that hurt and suffer over certain things that's happened in their life. Something you could say, something you could do, something you'd do to take them someplace, whatever the case, I don't know. Well, how do we lose our salty flavor? Said, I've never seen salt go down. Well, I haven't either, but we don't keep salt in sacks at our place. We keep it in jars and other containers. But in Bible times, they put that salt in a bag. And oh my goodness, salt at one time during the Roman Empire, one ounce of salt was worth an ounce of gold. It was considered so valuable. Maybe one reason it's in the Bible like that, because it was considered so valuable to do that. And so if God gives us the salt or makes us to be the salt of the earth, then he wants us to use that to reach people. But when it's stored in sacks and they sit it in an earthen building, then the moisture comes up through the ground and it gets up in the sack and sucks out the brine, if we could call it that, and the salt is still in there and it's still the same color, but it's not salty salt. and it doesn't do the job. I'm thinking, Lord, I don't have a lot of talent, but if I'm supposed to be salt and I can be salty, I'll do what I possibly can. This text is about people, and it's about people being salty. We'll ask ourselves if we are salty. Have you ever wanted anybody to Christ? Have you ever borrowed anybody to church? Have you ever gotten someone out of a bad spot in their life? I mean, I'm saying salt always affects what it touches. Now you think about it. Always, you say, well, I can't talk. Did you know salt doesn't talk? But it gets a lot done. Sometimes just presence and being there for someone will get it done. we are the salt of the earth but if we lose our savor if we have lost that because somehow some way the brine has sucked out the saltiness what can we do well first John 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, clear, white, salty salt again. I don't know how we can drive down the road in America without being fouled up with our vision and what we see and things like that in life. You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, think about it. I'm going to have an invitation in just a moment. Ask yourself, could I maybe have done more for the Lord if I'd made sure that my salt was still salty because he made me that way. Heavenly Father, let's all stand. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for this faithful church, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday nights, other nights, maybe for visitation, to do all they can to be a blessing and a help to someone else. Now I think of all the men here that probably worked with somebody. Reminds me of being in the Navy on a submarine with those men, foul language. But they're human beings like all the rest of us. And that in due time, even though I was not accepted to begin with because of my convictions as a Christian, but little by little the salt Kind of got their way. Hard to understand now that two pastors came out of that. X numbers of them have gotten saved. Lord, I just pray that each one of us would think for a moment. Lord, is it possible that maybe my salt has got corrupted because of all the things that's happening in America that I see, and it's just like I can't Get past all of it without affecting me just a little bit in my mind. All the things we see and all the things we hear and all the things that are out there, that you would forgive me and help me and make me clean again, like 1 John 1, 9. And Father, if you would do that, whatever could be accomplished, we'd never make a reputation of ourselves, but give you all the glory and all the praise. And we ask it in the most gracious name for Christ's sake. Amen. And if we could have a verse. If your soul's been messed with, you even think it is, God'll fix it for you, but it'll be up to you. All to Jesus I surrender All to Him I really give I will ever love and trust Him in his presence daily live I surrender somebody you know but you don't know where they are spiritually speaking I surrender is there something, take them to eat call them on the phone every now and then do something I come to thee my blessed Savior I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I I surrender all All to Thee, my blessed Savior if they would, go ahead and make their way to the back. I know you want to shake their hand and tell them that you're glad that they're here. We will be having our afternoon service at one today, and so I encourage you to be here for that. Brother Hardy will be preaching again. I want to mention that our Patch Pirate program is starting up on September the 11th. There's a sign-up sheet in the foyer if you're needing books. The cost of the books are $10 each. And that money needs to be paid today if possible. If you have any questions, you can see Brother Stephen about that. Outreach next Saturday at 9 o'clock. I encourage you to come. Go with us as we reach out into our community. And then next Sunday we're going to have Brother Gibson with us speaking. And I know he'll be a blessing, encourage you to come. And it's good to be together in the Lord's house today. Let's close in a word of prayer. Lord bless you with us. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your great love for us. Thank you for the opportunity to be in your house today. Thank you for the reminder about us being the salt in the world in which we live. Help us as we go from here. Help us to impact the world around us. Show forth the love of Jesus from our hearts. People might come to know you as their savior. Love you and we ask these things in your blessed and most holy name. Amen. you