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You Are God's Influencers
Introduction:
Influencer = Social media professional who has built a sizable following around a relevant topic, and can therefore influence their followers to take an action, thanks to their credibility and authority.
As Salt and Light, I Am God's Influencer (Matthew 5:13-16)
- My Influence is Expected.
- My Influence Comes from Me Being Different.
- My Influence Is for God's Glory.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Matthew in chapter 5.
Today we are going to talk about influencers.
Now the young people here already know something about this, but those of us who
are older, this is, I'm in that category too, this might be a new
concept to some of this. But what is an influencer? We have a definition here, can
we get the definition up on the screen? This is what an influencer is, okay?
It's a social media professional who has built a sizable following around a
relevant topic and can therefore influence their followers to take an
action thanks to their credibility and authority. That's what a social media
influencer or an influencer, that's what that is. And those relevant topics,
that's a lot of different things, right? It's food, health, fashion, pop culture,
travel, gaming, beauty, you name it, there's somebody out there that is an
influencer. They are internet celebrities. And by that, some of them were already
celebrities and they got online. And some of them are people who became
celebrities because of their online presence. There's lists of the top ones.
I was looking up all these lists and you can do this sometime, not now, but I was
looking up lists of who were the biggest influencers of our day. And for
sake of time today, I'm just going to share top five. Here's the top five,
according to this one list for whatever that's worth. The number one biggest
influencer, Cristiano Ronaldo. I don't even know who she is. Is anybody a soccer
player? Not football. That is a different sport. We call it soccer like good
Americans. Okay, so apparently Cristiano Ronaldo is a soccer player and on this
list, the biggest influencer in the world currently. Number two, I think I heard of
her. It's Selena Gomez. Isn't she like an, is she an actor or something? Okay,
actor, singer. Okay, all right. Number three is Mr. Beast. Probably not his real
name. Number four is Lionel Messi. Messi, another soccer player.
What? I played soccer in high school and college and it was not popular back then.
Now two of the top five so far. Oh, number five. I know number five. Number five is
the Biebs as his followers like to call him. Justin Bieber. That's number five.
Did you know God has a face for his brand? God has a spokesman. God has someone
to endorse his relevant topic. Do you know who that is? It's you. It's you.
Think it by your heads with me and I want you to pray for me. Once we turn to God's
word that I'll be faithful to communicate it and I will pray for you to
have a heart open to receive what God has for us today. Let's pray.
Father, your word tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the
Word of Christ. The only transformation that can happen is supernatural
transformation. It has to come from you. And I pray, Father, that as we encounter
your word, as we encounter you, we are profoundly changed. We pray these things
in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, "Amen." We just finished what was
like an eight-week series on the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes describe
what a follower of Jesus is like. Verses 13 through 16 describe the function of
the believer in the world. You are God's influencer. You are. When you live as
described in the Beatitudes, you influence the world. Like, well, how does that
happen? Well, let's see what our Lord says. Matthew 5 verse 13. He says, "You are the
salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be
restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and
trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world." A city said on a
hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. But
on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house, in the same way, let your
light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory
to your Father who is in heaven. Jesus here is saying, okay, here's the short
version. The world is decaying and it's dark. Have you noticed? What it needs is
salt and light. Let's talk about salt and light for a second, shall we? When it
comes to salt, look, in our day, we kind of take salt for granted. It's everywhere.
It's on every table, it's in your cabinet. It's everywhere, and it's cheap. But the
people that lived in Jesus' day would have had a different view of salt. To the
Greeks, they considered salt divine. The Romans said that there is nothing more
valuable than two things, sun and salt. In fact, Roman soldiers were actually paid
in salt. Do you ever hear that expression? He's not worth a salt? Ask where that comes
from. True story. It was so important in so many ways. People would use salt in
making covenants. Salt was used in Old Testament sacrifices. Salt was used for
flavor, obviously. Salt is an antiseptic. Like, well, how did Jesus mean it?
I believe the main primary focus of Jesus' teaching here is salt as a
preservative. Salt prevents corruption. You see, in Jesus' day, they didn't have
refrigerators. They didn't have a deep-freeze chest in the garage like we do.
So in order to preserve meat, you would literally have to rub salt into the meat
to keep it from spoiling. And in the same way, Jesus' followers are the salt in the
meat of the world. We are what's preventing the world from totally rotting right now.
But the Bible says, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the book of Revelation, when
the church is removed from the world in the rapture, the world is going to go to
hell. It's going to get horrific because the salt's been removed. It's gonna rot.
So the implication here of salt is that the world is polluted and corrupt and it
has this tendency to rot like meat. And what it needs is your influence. It needs salt.
Let's talk about light for a second. Also, much more valuable in Jesus' day
because, again, we kind of take it for granted, don't we? We're so used to having
electricity and flicking the lights on. But don't we just lose our minds when a
storm takes the power out and there's no light? I know our house does, but they
didn't have that electricity. So light would have been a much more valuable
thing to them. But you know, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," back in John
chapter 8 and verse 12, "and here Jesus says you are the light of the world." So
which is it? And the answer is both. It's both. It's His light through us. Just as
the moon doesn't produce its own light but reflects the light of the sun, that's
how it is for followers of Christ. We are to reflect the light of Jesus Christ in
our lives. Now when the Bible talks about light, it's talking about revealing
God's truth. This is what the Bible refers to when it's talking about light,
right? Psalm 119, 105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." So
light has to do with the revelation of God's Word. It is the light that tells us
the cause of the darkness. It is the light that shows us that our problem is
we're separated from God. But it's also the light that shows us the way out of
darkness. It's the light of God's Word that says there is a way to get back to
God, and that is through Jesus Christ, who died for your sins, who rose from the
dead to give you eternal life. It's through faith in Him. That's how you get back to
God, and that is only revealed in the light of God's Word. So the implication
when Jesus talks about light is this, the world is dark. Sin has made this world a
very dark place. What it needs is light. It needs your influence. So on your
outline, I encourage you to take some notes here. Here's the sermon, "As Salt and
Light, I am God's Influencer. I am. And if you claim to be a follower of Jesus
Christ, you are an influencer for God. You are." Let's unpack this a little bit.
Shall we, number one, write this down, "My influence is expected." My influence is
expected. Interestingly, in the Greek, we talked about this in the Beatitudes. It's
here too. You know, you as emphatic in the Greek. So literally, you could
translate this. Jesus is saying, "You are the only light in the world. You are the
only salt in the world." You know, I was thinking about salt this week. You know,
something really interesting about salt, as valuable as it is, it's really no good
on its own, is it? It's not good by itself. I mean, when was the last time you
went to Pantera bread, and you said, "Yeah, you know what? I'm not really that hungry.
I'm just gonna have a bowl of salt." Like, who does that? It's no good on its own.
Salt is always used for something else. And you know, thinking about that further,
light is the same, isn't it? Light is always used for something else. Meaning
this, when you turn on the lights, you don't do it because you're like, "You know
what, man? I just really like light." Like, nobody just really likes light. Why do you
turn it on? Because it's light that illuminates what's in the room. Light has
no other purpose. So salt and light always used for something else. Always used
for something else. You know what? You are so valuable. You are. But like salt,
you're not valuable for yourself. Here's what I mean. If all God wanted was for you
to be saved, then the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God
would just take you to heaven. Like, we're done. Good job. I wanted you to be saved.
But He doesn't do that. God, when you're saved, God keeps you on this earth for one
reason. It's influence. He keeps you here to be salt and light. You see, that's what
Jesus is saying here. There is no salt and light except from a Christ follower
who is going to show and tell the people around you about Jesus. Like, well, you're
the pastor, isn't that your job? No. Look, it can't be. You're going to encounter
people just through the course of your every day that I'm never going to meet.
You're going to work with people and there's people in your family. The
pastor Taylor is never going to meet. So whose job is it to let them know about
Jesus Christ? That's yours. That's why God has you there. There's no alternative.
There's just not another option. But you know, side note, it's an interesting
paradox. Last week we were talking about persecution, right? And people hating you
because of Jesus. Isn't it an interesting paradox that the world hates us so much,
but the world needs us so desperately? Look, you're expected. You are expected to
be salt and light. That is so clear from Jesus' words. It is just an
expectation. That's why Jesus gives warnings of being useless. Did you see
that? He says, verse 13, "If the salt has lost its taste." And then over in verse 15,
he says, "Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket." What's the point?
Well, the point is this. If salt isn't salty, it's useless, right? And if light
doesn't shine, useless. What Jesus is saying here is when salt isn't salty,
when light isn't bright, what that means is you've lost your influence. You've
lost your influence. It's a terrible place to be when you lose your ability to be
salt and light for Jesus Christ. You're like, well, how does that happen? How do
you lose your influence? How does salt lose its taste? How do you hide your
light? Well, it happens through sin. That's how it happens. Constantly
complaining, you're losing your saltiness. Gossiping, you're losing your
saltiness. Do you have a hair trigger temper? You're losing your
saltiness when that erupts. I'm inappropriate with the opposite sex in
any way. Flirtation, direct messages to full-on affairs. You're losing your
saltiness when you're involved in sin. Jesus gives a hard wording about that
here. He says you're not good for anything when that happens. I can just
speak personally, you know, over the years there have been several pastors who
have been a big influence influence. Several pastors have been a big influence
on me. Some local guys, some national names. People who have disqualified
themselves from ministry because of flagrant sin. And in a lot of the cases
it was affairs. Whether it was emotion or physical, that seems to be the
predominant disqualifier. And look, right wrong or indifferent, you can reach your
conviction on this. But I gotta tell you, I've thrown away a lot of books and a
lot of sermons and a lot of materials for ministries. Because those pastors lost
their influence, how can you preach this? And for years secretly live a
completely different way. How can you do that? You don't have audience with me
anymore. You're like, yeah, that's terrible. Well, what about you? What about
your influence with your unsafe family, with your friends, with your co-workers?
When they know that you're a Christian, and by the way they absolutely should,
look, when they know you name the name of Christ, they're watching you. They are
watching everything you do. They're watching your attitudes. They're listening
to every word that you say and how you say it and what you talk about. They're
listening. They're watching. I have to ask you, do they
see sin? Or maybe you just try to tone down the salt a little bit when
you're around them. Maybe when you're around them, you don't want to be the
weird religious wackadoo. So you're just, let's just dim the lights a little bit.
Can we just dim the lights a little bit? Jesus says, if that's the case, He says,
you're not good for anything. Like, Jesus is saying, why do I have you here? Why do I
have you here if you're not going to be salt and light? You're no good. It's a
hard warning. But notice, Jesus didn't say after the beatitudes, okay, now would
you pretty please be salt and light? He said, you are. You are. So really the
question is, how salty are you? How bright are you? Because you're going to
influence people one way or the other. And Jesus is expecting His influence on
this world to happen through you. So your influence is expected, number one.
Number two, right this time, my influence comes from me being different. My
influence comes from me being different. That's something else about salt and
light. It has to actually be touching what it's going to affect. Did you know
that? If the salt's going to be of any use, it has to be on the food. I know that's
profound, right? What did you learn in church today? He said something about the
salt's no good unless it's on the food. Right. Right. The light must be mingled
with the darkness, right? But at the same time that it's touching, it's also
distinct. What I mean is salt and light are unlike the medium on which they're
placed. So the point is we are to be different from the world. We're to be
as different as the salt is from the meat. We're to be as different as the
light is from the darkness. And that means my friends, we're not we're not
self-serving. We're not materialistic. We're not worldly. The influence happens
when we're different from the world. And somehow we have a hard time as
Christians remembering that. We think that we are going to attract the
world by imitating them. We have this game in our minds where we say, "Well, I'm
going to show them that I'm no different than them. And they're going to see that
I'm cool and I'm relevant and then I'm going to be able to give them the gospel."
We think being like them is going to attract them.
Just imagine you have this co-worker and you have an exchange like this.
Your co-worker says, "Hey, you want to hear a dirty joke?" And your reply is, "Yes." And
then I will tell you one because I'm cool. Your co-worker says, "Hey, did you check
out that new lady that they hired? She is fine." And your reply to that is, "Yes, I
also think she is smoking as you do because you and me are the same." Your
co-worker says, "Hey, do you want to have too much beer later?" And your reply is, "I
sure would because that would be relevant to my relationship with you
because I'm just like you." And then maybe after our beers I will tell you how
Jesus changed me. Changed you? From what? Even in the church. Even in the church.
There's this tendency, we want to attract unsaved people so we think we've
got to be just like them. Let's put on a show. Let's make it like a secular
concert. Let's get the laser lights and the smoke machine and put on a big
theatrical production here. Let's be like the world. That'll win the world, won't it?
Because don't we want people to be comfortable? We hate that, don't we? When
churches are like, "We want you to come and be comfortable." Church is the last
place you should be comfortable. Standing in the face of the Word of God is
the last place you should feel comfortable. The church is, "Let's be like the
world and what that means is we're going to have to not take such a
hard stand on the truth of God's Word because we want to win the world, right?
And in order to do that, we got to be like the world." I was shown a church
recently online was advertising, "You can get baptized there." But the interesting
kicker was, they said, "You can get baptized any way you want."
Any way you want. You want to get dunked? Well, don't you? You want to get
sprinkled? We'll splash you? You want us to dip our hands in water and touch your
forehead? We'll do that. You name the way you want to get the water on you. We'll get
the water on you. As our Lord would say, "What is going on?" I heard this quote one
time that always stuck with me. Somebody said, regarding the church, they said,
"Just when the world needs us the most, we become just like them." And look, if we're
just the same, we got nothing to offer them, right? And if we learn anything from
the Beatitudes, it's this, kingdom of heaven people live different than kingdom
of earth people. We are not the same. We are not made out of the same stuff that
the world is made out of. We are salt and light. My influence comes from being
different, right? And finally, number three, my influence is for God's glory. My
influence is for God's glory. Look at verse 16 again. Jesus says in the same way,
"Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give
glory to your Father who is in heaven." Good works. Good works. You do good works?
Well, you have to check your motives for that, right? Because it's not about what
people think about me as much as what they think about God. But Jesus said,
"They'll see our good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
Meaning this, "I do what I do because I love Jesus." And people are going to see
that, and that is going to give me the opportunity to share the gospel with
them, to invite them to church where they're going to hear the gospel. And
our hope is that they receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, because
that is the ultimate way that God has glorified.
But if we're going to be influencers, we have to be salt and light both.
Because you can read this passage and be like, isn't Jesus kind of saying the
same thing with the salt and the light? Like, why did He use two pictures? Why
didn't He just keep it short and use one? Because there's some key
differences between salt and light. The one I want to focus on is this. We could
spend so much time on this, we don't have it. But I want to say this. Jesus is
saying you have to have godly conduct, that's salt. And you have to have the
gospel message that's light. You have to have both.
Meaning this. You can't just walk away from this message and focus on one of
these aspects, but not the other. Meaning, let's just say you're only
going to focus on being salt. Okay, you're like, you know what, he's right
about the salt, you know what, I got to work on that. I'm just only going to focus
on being salt. I'm just going to focus on my walk with Christ, but you never
actually share the gospel with anyone. Well, the question is how is anybody
going to glorify the Father if you never tell them the gospel? Do you think
people are going to see your good works and just automatically, somehow,
miraculously understand the content of the gospel just because you're doing
good works? There was a saying that was thrown around years ago. You know those
sayings that sometimes creeps into the church that Christians use that sound,
they sound so like magnanimously spiritual, but they're really, when you
think about it, really kind of empty. This is one that kind of drove me nuts.
Years ago, people would say, preach the gospel and use words if necessary. Remember
that one? Preach the gospel and use words if necessary. Look, words are
necessary. Words are necessary. No one hears the truth just by watching
somebody's character, but on the other hand, if you're like, you know what,
you're right, I'm not going to worry so much about the salt. I'm not going to
monitor my salt content so much. I'm going to focus on being light.
But look, if you're just running around telling everyone John 3.16, but you're
not personally walking with Christ, there's no good works backing up this
message that you're preaching, you're going to leave people asking, why should I
listen to his message? Because he doesn't seem any different than me. You got to
have salt and light both. See, salt refers to your general conduct. Light is the
specific word. Salt talks about who you are. Light speaks to what you do. Salt is
being the example. Light is carrying out the work of evangelism. Salt is living it.
Light is telling it. See, that salt can't save anyone. Salt holds back the
corruption. You need the light of God's truth to lead the salvation, but the
light has to be backed up by the salt of God the character and good works. That's
Jesus' point here. And the end game? The end game is the same end game for
literally everything in the universe. The glory of God.
We get that definition of the influencer back up here. I looked at a few
definitions here, but I thought, wow, doesn't this definition really speak
to the same kind of stuff Jesus was talking about here? Look, here's what I
mean. Has our Lord built a sizable following?
A little bit. You may have heard of him. He built a sizable following. Does he have
a relevant topic? I would argue the most relevant topic ever, eternal life. Is our
Lord interesting in influencing His followers to take action? That's why
we're here. Like, well, how does that happen? There's last two words jumped out
to me then. Credibility and authority. What's credibility? That's salt. And what's
authority? That's light. Look, God has given us a new mission field to reach at
Harvest Bible Chapel. God has given us a community without a church where we can
be salt and light. So there's an exciting new chapter ahead for Harvest Bible
Chapel. And just now we're going to have our town hall meeting, getting an update
on how God is moving. And my friends, you were in the presence of a miracle
today because I got done early. We'll do the directors cut in the next service.
So why don't you just want to take a couple minutes? We're gonna start at 10
promptly, Pastor Rich. So once you take a couple minutes, if you need to check on
little Joey or use the restroom and then at 10 o'clock sharply, Pastor Rich is
gonna come up here and we have an amazing update for you on what the Lord's
doing. So let me pray real quick and then we'll reconvene here at 10. Father in
heaven, I just want to close this time in your word by asking you to empower us to
be what you've already pronounced us to be. You've said we're salt and light, God,
we need the wisdom of your word and the power of your spirit so that we can carry
out that function in a way that glorifies your name. Thank you Father for all that you've done.
We're excited at what you're going to do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:13-16
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
In what ways are disciples of Jesus like salt? Like light?
How does salt lose flavor (the believer lose their influence)? In what ways do we put our lamps under a basket? Why does Jesus say someone in that state is “no longer good for anything”?
Why is it important to both salt AND light? Why not just focus on one or the other?
How do you really know if you are doing good works for other people’s attention or God’s glory?
Breakout
Pray for one another to be salty and bright.