Heart for the House: You Are the Salt - Sermon by Pastor Jason Anderson

[Music] hello and welcome to living word growing a family that experiences every promise of God you're listening to another life-changing word from pastor Jason Anderson for more information visit our website at Living Word online.com a father got to thank you and praise you Lord for this time I salute you blessed this time open up our hearts to receive from you the Father God your word is manna it's bread of life it is nourishing and practical something we can use this week Lord that your word is also seed and it goes into the deep good soil of our hearts and it springs forth life and transformation and grows us holy spirit be our teacher this morning teach us what we need to know prepare us for what is coming in our lives in Jesus name and everybody said amen and want to welcome those who are watching on the stream the vidcast the podcast however you're tuning in to us we welcome you it means the whole world that you're with us this morning don't forget we have a daily Bible study called wake up and you can YouTube daily Bible study and find us me and my brother we do a morning scripture we pray everyday it's a lot of fun how many guys enjoying wake up right we love it we would also love it if you would come and visit us sometime if you're ever in the Mesa area we promise we make you feel just like family well today I want to talk to you about a very familiar passage in the Bible one that you're that we know and you've heard before Matthew chapter 5 and I believe that sometimes you can go to a very familiar passage in fact all the time and find that there's more to it we can get more from it than maybe we've gotten before so we go here I want us to open up our minds in our hearts to what God is saying to us today Matthew chapter five and verse 13 you are the salt of the earth you are the salt of the earth it's declared something over you here that's that you are he was declaring it over his disciples in this moment called them to this the Sermon on the Mount this is what this is he says you are the salt I mean like salt I like saw people like salt salt makes a difference it guess makes what they want they're screaming salt me but even Justin I love talking about food we should talk can I just talk about food for a second there's a lot of cool things that salt does but one of them is it makes things taste better you know that you make things taste better you do without you stuff tastes bland you make a difference in this life for the people around you you're built for it ever had McDonald's french fries one of the greatest foods on the planet if you can eat it within five minutes because it does have an expiration date on it have you ever gotten McDonald's french fries and they didn't have salt on them they forgot to salt them I have can I just tell you what they taste like horrible you know what makes them good saw say salt makes a difference it does what's one of the greatest other foods known to mankind just shout one out to me coffee I don't want to salt my coffee though but I heard it right here bacon bacon why is bacon so wonderful have you ever had unsalted bacon even the low-sodium bacon man there's something wrong with that stuff give me my salt and bacon cuz it makes it taste so much better did you know that you are built by God to make the world taste better to make them to make a difference in this world it's other things that salt our salt fights decay in that it's a natural preservative in fact in Jesus day and he would have been pulling on this information as he was teaching us about salt he would in pulling on the idea that in those days when you had meet you salted it you had to salt it in order to keep it from rotting you they didn't have freezers they could just throw the meat in like we do so they would salt the meat in order to keep it lasting longer and drive back the decay you see this world when I look at our city and I look at our state and I look at the state of our nation if I turn on the news for maybe three minutes I can see a lot of decay and it's troubling what does the Bible say do not let your hearts be trouble why because in every generation you could look back and every generation is kind of said the same thing man there's a lot of decay it's slipping right we're slipping are we losing the battle I don't know sometimes I look at what's happening in the philosophy and culture in the Society of America and I think are we losing the decay is fought by salt not only do you make things taste better but you drive back the decay of this world it's one of the things you were designed and built by God to do right if the world is a bunch of meat where the salt that keeps it from rotting we keep them from becoming dead meat no not funny I'll save that for a different service because why because people need that and this is my point is people need what you have see when Jesus said you are the salt I don't believe that he was making a commandment he didn't he didn't word it as a commandment he didn't say you need to act more like salt that's not what he said he said you are salt yes he was declaring something over you that says you can drive back decay that you're valuable you know in the Roman soldiers in Jesus time were often paid by the valuable commodity and currency of salt it was used like money it was so valuable in fact the word that they used when they paid Roman soldiers to assault was solarium it is the same word that we use to describe our salary why because it was valuable there was a currency about it you see your Jesus was saying you fight decay he was saying you make a difference you make things taste better on this planet and he was saying and you have value on the inside of you I think sometimes we we start to say or fight with the idea that how could I have the answer to what this world needs how can I make a difference how can I make a difference at my work I see the brokenness and the decay of people who need salt I see that there's need to bring healing to the pain but what am I gonna do pastor how am I gonna make a difference I can't pray I'm not prepared the way other people pray I hear other people pray and they're so good at praying and I can't say all those cool ornate things I don't know the Bible like other people do I'm not ready you know the disciples could have said the same thing they had just started Jesus ministry and this was their very first training session they could have said I'm L prepared Jesus Who am I but Jesus said you are the salt what was he saying he was saying we got to stop listening to the voice that tells you that you don't have within you the answer that this world needs listen when you believed in Jesus he made his home in you and he deposited the Alpha and Omega the all-powerful Spirit of God on the inside of you Jesus was saying you are the salt because I have given you everything you need for life and godliness on the inside of you you have the power you have the Holy Spirit on the inside of you you have exactly what these other people who are lost need you are exactly the answer you have Jesus in you so you are literally a message delivery system for the power of God into this world you are the light of this world and he called that light out of darkness praise God what is he saying to us today you are the answer to the brokenness and pain of this world you have in you exactly the right answer for the people around us who are hurting and need relief from their pain in Jesus time they would mine the salt and deliver it transfer it from a place called the Dead Sea that's where they got their salts a very high levels of salt in the Dead Sea in fact in the old tests in it when you see the word salt-sea in some other translations it'll say the word Dead Sea in both cases is referring to the same sea because the salt and the death why would God call a salt when he's mining salt out of the Dead Sea because God is showing you that he brings value out of the dead and broken places of your old life the things that used to defeat you the things that you don't like to talk about the things that try and haunt you in your life the things that Satan wants to defeat you in and bring you guilt and condemnation those old ways of your old life that try and echo into your future God says I'm gonna use even the dead things in your life to bring life to this world I'm gonna mine the darkest defeated places of you to find value for this world why because somebody is where you used to be somebody is in the shoes of your old defeats and when they get when they get around you they're gonna say can you pass the salt how many know that sometimes you need the salt passed over you get that plate of eggs and you know what you need you know the world knows that you have exactly what they need and they're gonna say brother can you pass the salt and you know what you're gonna say you're gonna say I used to be in that defeated place I have a journey that you can take that's gonna get you to where you need to go see I have out of the old dead places of my life I have the life the resurrected power of what you need that can get you to where you need to go I'm gonna draw upon what Satan meant for defeat I'm gonna draw upon that to bring life into your life put on somebody you have exactly even feeded places you have exact answer of what that person needs praise God what does it say what a Satan view he tries to defeat is what does God do he brings life and resurrection out of our death praise God he brings strength out of our weakness isn't East the strength where we were weak the Bible says in mark chapter 9 and verse 49 that you have been salted with fire you've been salted with fire you see when you receive Jesus and the the Prophet Joel had said this I will pour out my spirit upon all peoples men and women old and young slave and free everybody's gonna get my spirit it doesn't matter your class or your social status the color of your skin it doesn't matter anything about your history or genealogy or pedigree your ancestry he says I'm going to pour out my spirit upon you because you chose to believe in my son and when his spirit got deposited in you that fire that fire of the Holy Ghost salted the inside of you and that salt is exactly what the rest of this world needs when you start to listen to the direction of the Holy Spirit in your life which you have he'll give you nudges go this way or that he's positioning his salt shaker for the world so that when you get in proximity people will start to ask for it the other day I was I was just studying the Word of God just writing my teaching and stuff and the Lord said to me go get some coffee at Starbucks and I was like praise Jesus God is alive in heaven I heard a trumpet blast and the scroll was open and I started driving to Starbucks and and the Lord said no not that one and I had to turn and go to a different Starbucks how do I know there's one on every corner so it didn't matter wasn't that far hard drive to the other one and I got there and and my wife always lasted me because I love it I just start talking to people around me and stuff and and so I was waiting for my drink and there's a guy there and say would you give so he started telling me about history Nikken I was like suey this sounds good I got the lowest before you know what we're sitting down and people do this you know they ask for the salt he I did I didn't come to him and say you know what you need brother and your life is you need Jesus Christ have you asked Jesus Christ into your Lord and Savior just to be a part of your life I didn't say that I just sat and and began to listen to him and he began to talk to me because in in that presence when they get around the saw they start to open up the broken areas of their life I don't know why my wife says it all the time she's like why do people just always just start opening up to us we get around people they just start saying and they say things like I don't know why I'm telling you this right now they don't know I'm a pastor they don't know anything about me this is like I don't know why I'm telling you this right now and he started sharing how this discouragement he was gonna leave his wife he was walking away from his kids and because of all the rejection and there was all this drama and had been years of battling and I said to him you know you have exactly what's in you to fix this well how do you know that I said cuz you're talking to me so you wouldn't be talking to me unless you were supposed to get some hope today and so here's the hope I'm gonna give you I said I want you to go home try this I want you to go see you don't I say you don't want to leave your wife I don't know you don't if you wanted to leave her you wouldn't be talking about this she'd already left know you're trying to find hope so I said you know I just said but I was what the Holy Spirit was talking through I know what its gonna say so I began to give him hope and I said you know you're just gonna go home here and say to your wife I don't know what I'm doing we don't know what we're doing but here's what I do know is that this Sunday we're gonna go to church we're just compact the whole family up we're gonna get dressed we're in go church and because and we're gonna do this every week until we can figure this thing out and I said you know what she's gonna do she's gonna get hope and when she gets hope all this stuff's gonna start turning around for you now praise God give the Lord a hand clap I prayed with him about Jesus of course and because it kind of organically went though a it doesn't always do that it's okay sometimes we're just seed sower SHhhh I don't know what happened to him I don't know if he joined our church I have not seen him again but I know that I was salt in that moment I know that I was there to help pour into him and into his life what God had deposited in the I knew that I had the right answer not because I'm so smart but because I was salted with the fire of the Holy Ghost and so have you been it doesn't matter if you've been a Christian for one day or a Christian for thirty years you have been salted with the fire of the Holy Spirit you have the exact right answer for the people in your world somebody say Amen Matthew chapter 9 and verse 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages I want you to say went he went sometimes we got a wynt you know the Bible says that Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath that's where he was that's a pattern for us he was in the synagogue on the Sabbath but you know what he did the other six days he went I think sometimes in church people not us not a living word praise God but people other people can get what I call Church if I'd church if I'd is kind of like petrified you know it's an awesome thing to be in God's house but it is an awesome thing to be church' fied was a man who had he lived in the midwest i was reading his stories I was doing some research this week he had bought all these 60 pound bags of salt for his driveway for when the brick great snow storms come and but in this particular region that year nobody it never snowed so he never got to use his his salt bags and what he was asking was my salt bags have become rock solid now they're no longer useful to me how do I make him useful again and so obviously people were just like just drop it like banging it on the concrete shake it up and sure enough that's what worked he just had to have it shaken up and sometimes when the salt gets coagulated when it gets rock solid because it hasn't been shaken a while how many though it just needs a little shake sometimes we just need a little shake a little bit to get that salt rolling again can somebody say Amen and so he went teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness what was he doing he brought better information and he brought relief from their pain that's what Jesus was doing you have that in you the Bible says in acts in chapter 10 I think it's chapter 10 that Jesus went about he went about he was anointed by the Holy Spirit sorry let me say it correctly Jesus was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power okay Jesus was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power and he went at how many know that you've been anointed by the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit and with power okay so then and this is what he did he went about doing good and we have that same ability within us we are salt it's not good for us to disagree and not believe in ourselves that we have the answer that this world needs that you have the answer that your family needs that you have the answer that your workplace needs you do have the answer within you you have better information and you have the power of God on inside of you to bring people relief from their pain so he was bringing healing and he was bringing every disease and sickness go to the next verse when he saw the crowds he had compassion on them the first thing I want you to see is that he saw the crowds and some other the the stories of this particular passage the crowd found out Jesus was on the move and they went ahead of him and created a gathering waiting for him to get there do you know that the crowds of people are drawn to your salt they're going to be attracted to you I was at a restaurant the other day and we sat down and the food came and there was no salt on our table how many know I was up in a second looking for salt and I just go grab it off someone else's table people are going to come looking for you because you're the salt they need in your life you're gonna make a difference you're gonna fight the decay you're gonna bring them hope you're gonna bring him relief from their pain you have that answer on the inside of you because God put it there and Jesus declared it over you it said that he had compassion on them say compassion because they were harassed and helpless he had compassion on them you know sometimes when I look at the decay of this world I could be tempted to get angry at how people act and think because they all crazy right because they all crazy but we need to realize this people don't want to have the water described to them when they're drowning right God Jesus didn't say you're the jalapenos of the world it's too spicy and it gives people bad breath come on I like jalapenos but that's just not what he called you he called you the salt of this world and when Jesus saw them he didn't see bad behavior he saw pain and he was moved by compassion you know why people have bad behavior it's because they have pain our behavior is driven by our pain you see the man who keeps getting drunk on the weekends or drunk every night he's getting drunk because of the sorrow he has to drown he's in pain and he's hurting and we can offer him rehab we can offer him social pressures to not be an alcoholic and we can put him in a situation where he abstains but he's miserable because he's still in pain the reason that he gets drunk and gets in a car and then hurts someone else and causes someone else pain is because of the pain he's living in and so Jesus didn't address the behavior he addressed the pain if I can get you out of your pain you won't need to drink anymore come on somebody the reason that woman keeps getting and hooking up with the wrong man is because the inescapable vacuum in her heart that was left there by an absentee father and she's trying to fill that void with some man who will finally love her but he doesn't she doesn't want the man to stay she doesn't want him to stay because every man abandoned her starting with her father and she needs to recreate that in her life and so we address the behavior and we say stop doing that but Jesus doesn't address the behavior he fills that hole with a father that will never fail a father that will love her exactly as she is and give her the healing in her heart that she needs you see when people walk through the doors of a church can I just tell you this is the greatest training ground in the world it's just being here because there are people who walk through the doors of the church this week and next week and the reason they came is because they're out of hope they don't know where else to turn they've tried the world system and they're at the end of their rope they're broken the distraught they're in pain and they walk through the doors and it is such a vulnerable feeling to walk into a church when you're in that position when you've been beaten up for so many years and you're not sure that there's any hope left but you know what I'll find I'll just go to church and they walk through those doors you know what they need from us compassion a great big hug acceptance that says we will stand with you we will help pick you up I will pray with you because they're walking in and they're saying can somebody pass the salt I just need some salt in my life I need to push back the decay I need healing and relief from my pain so every time when I come to church on the weekends I remember where people are at that there are people who walked in this morning who just need a seat it might be the person sitting down at the end of the road that you've never seen before it just needs a soul hug come on somebody that just needs somebody to stand with them and not judge them and just hold onto them and say it's gonna be all right you're at the right place you came to the right place we love you we accept you can I pour a little salt on you can I do sprinkle some salt and give you some real heed amen it says that he had compassion on them you know compassion is the channel that resonates the power of the Holy Spirit from you it's why because you're channeling your inner Jesus Jesus operates in compassion when the leper came to him and said if you're willing you can make me complain the Bible says you can make me clean the Bible says that Jesus was moved with compassion I am willing be clean he was walk just was walking right here we see that he was healing the sick and all the diseases he had compassion on them the power is moving from the compassion because Jesus on the inside of you who is who you were created to be the salt that's who you were created to be that's who you are because Jesus created you that way on the inside of him when you start to resonate that note of compassion he gets to speak through you now he gets to move in a mighty way through you because that's the channel that he likes to resonate that Holy Spirit is gonna come fire and out you're gonna start saying words that you didn't even know you thought you're gonna minister to yourself while you ministered to someone else you've ever had that happen brother you start ministering or someone else and you're like ooh that's good I needed that for my marriage I needed that for my life praise God because why because I'm ministering from a place of compassion Jesus was walking along a road and he saw a widow who was burying her only son and the Bible says he was moved with compassion when he saw that Widow and he raised that son from the dead praise God there is power that moves through the conduit of compassion there was a man who was following me for a couple weeks and I was pretty he saw it was watching me pray for different people I pray after services and he said why is it that you're seeing so many people get healed the God is really a change notice all these miracles are happening when you pray why are you seeing that he said what do you do it I don't know I don't know it's just Jesus it's not me just trust me I'm not being arrogant now it's just Jesus in me doing his thing but I said to him but I can tell you this it's compassion because I truly deeply love with the love of God that's sound I'm not just a man okay but I'm truly loving and allowing God's conduit of compassion to drive me towards seeing a difference in that person's life because Scott but the Bible says that faith the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love you've got to look at the people around you that are broken and truly say that's pain I wonder if I have what I need on the inside of me to help them with their brokenness I got to learn how to have compassion or stir up the compassion that's in me can I tell you a cool story if you're on a guitar and you're playing a strong B the note B just one note bbbbbb B if there's a piano in the room that piano will start to ring loudly on that B note even though you're not even touching the piano you could be across the room just playing a B and the piano will start to sing that B when you operate in compassion people will look at you and they'll resonate with you they'll say because you know what the whole world is looking for you know what the whole world is looking for somebody to care because nobody cares but you care because you have the love of Jesus on the inside of you you have the caring that you need and when you start operating and compassion that note starts to ring and it will resonate pure and true on the inside of them and the power of the Holy Spirit will move through you and you'll say what they need to hear and they'll bring healing and relief from the pain and brokenness that people are struggling with come on and give the Lord a hand clap that's that nope channel in your inner Jesus I have some loud socks on the other day and I was preaching and I had these pink and blue socks on they were crazy and nobody could see him until you do this with your leg and the pant leg comes up a little bit and I took a picture of him as I was in the car and I sent it to dr. Phil Godot because he ever seen his socks okay you got teased him about his socks when he's here though don't tease the man of God don't do that he'll get you he's got the craziest socks and see every time he comes he's like pastor Jason you get some socks like mine so I texted him I'm channeling my inner Godot and I thought it was funny the Word of God is a strategy that wins a strategy that the people of this world need and you have that information on the inside of you grab your neighbors hand right now and say God is stirring up our compassion saying he is because they were harassed and helpless look at this they were harassed and helpless that's why Jesus didn't blame them Thor for their bad behavior he got it that they were being harassed and helpless but it says that they were like sheep without a shepherd you know Jesus is stirring up our hearts towards God's house Jesus isn't satisfied until everybody is positioned in his house with a shepherd he's not satisfied until he see that because when were without a shepherd he recognizes were harassed and were helpless the Bible says in the book of Acts that God was adding to the church daily those who were being saved God was adding to the church daily those who were being saved so God's endgame for a soul isn't salvation God's endgame is to add them to his church why would you know why because you're here this morning this is what people want there was a guy who was at a gas station he was being moved by the Holy Spirit to pay for a woman's gas so he walked over and this lady was there and he'll peeked in she had a van and inside that van he noticed was look like a house it was just a little minivan but there was clothes and there was plates and she could tell this man could tell she was living in her house of a van and there was four kids in there just little ones and the man paid for her gas but he recognized that paying for her gas wasn't gonna fix anything she needed new information so he said i'ma buy your gas but I want you to follow me somewhere she said okay I'll do it so she he drove from the gas station to this church this is about 15 years ago he brought her into the parking lot and he got out of his car and walked over to her window and he said go here every week and it'll transform your life why what was he saying he was saying you're gonna find jesus in that place you're gonna find a family that'll get around you that'll have compassion for you you're gonna find people who will pray for you you're gonna find people who will watch your kids on Saturday nights so maybe you can get some stuff done you're gonna find people who will call you to a higher place there's strong people in that place see it's not about the building was gonna change your life it was the people that are inside that was gonna give her the strength I want you to know that she still goes to our church every single week God has completely transformed her life she has a house she has a job she just needed she was harassed and helpless and just needed a little bump she just needed somebody to pass the salt on the inside of us every single one of us does [Music] [Music] [Music] Colossians 4 & 6 let your conversation be always full of grace and seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer every one make it a habit in your life to operate from a position of compassion to have words of grace seasoned with salt words of acceptance and hope that bring relief from pain make it a habit in your family make it a habit in your church when it becomes a habit it becomes easy to give it in the workplace it becomes easy to give it in your neighborhood becomes easy to give it even to your extended family it becomes easy to be a person of grace and hope to the rest of this world and this gonna start asking you to pass the salt okay so here hey what a great message tell us give us a No Mas well I mean we're gonna be talking about through wake up this week dry and in the coming weeks just hindrances that keep us from growing into all the God oops I'm pregnant yeah one of the best times over and so now this first one was about not rejecting the change that God is bringing you and I know it sounds funny yeah but I also know very a lot of people reject the change when God brings it to them and we have to learn how to remove those hindrances and embrace what God is doing other life race the change we'll talk more about that on our wake up show it's a daily Bible study if you'll go to youtube if you search daily Bible study we're up yeah but we want to continue a conversation I wake up don't forget also if you receive something from the Lord today you just felt like you got ministered to something changed you know when you get a deposit of God's seed it's a great opportunity to give and Thanksgiving the Bible talks about receiving everything with Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is our opportunity to sow into that seed and say that was important to me I'm gonna take my heart I'm gonna position it to grow what I just heard that's so and we can do that through giving skill so your tithe goes to your local church you guys know you've heard the show at all we always tell you that but help us with your offering sow some seeds into this ministry and help us reach more people and if you got teens want to have teens know somebody with teens get your hands on yep I got teens to help you in your journey with teenagers or somebody that you know and I'm not just writing about it from what guy who doesn't have teams I have teams jeez got a lot of teens if you flash me if you have teens I go yep I have teens I have teens it's not have a sign you can search for it look up pastor Jason Anderson yep I have teens if you write yes i have teams you will not find it this is gone [Music] hey if you're not safe you don't know where you're going we want to say a prayer with you if you'll say it you have it it's that simple is that easy you can't earn your way into heaven it's just through believing in Jesus Christ that Jesus died on the cross was raised for the dead for you so let's pray this prayer identify learn I ask you right now forgive me of all of my sins I ask you to Jesus come into my life be my Lord and my Savior in Jesus name a man amen well don't forget we're standing with you we love you god bless you thanks for watching tomorrow I'll wait go

Channel: Living Word Bible Church

Views: 929

Rating: 4.9069767 out of 5

Keywords: Church, Pastor, Preacher, Sermon, Gospel, Bible Teaching, Christian

Id: Lac1YD8as9s

Length: 34min 48sec (2088 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018