You are the salt of the Earth (Matthew ch 5:13) by Pr. Brian Brodersen

[Amazing Grace Ministry]

Dear Brothers in Christ,
Here is an excellent sermon to remind us about what a Christian life is all about.
I know it is a very lengthy sermon. But I urge you to read it. For I am sure you will be blessed.
Share it with as many Christian brothers you can, and in doing so, let the fire of Christianity spread.
God Bless you
Amazing Grace Ministry

Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." As we studied the Beatitudes, we saw that each Beatitude is a description of the character of the Christian. We pass now from a contemplation of the character of the Christian to a consideration of the function and purpose of the Christian in this world. And so Jesus says to us, "You are the salt of the earth..." Now imagine for a moment the scene of this statement. Here is this itinerant Jewish rabbi. He's seated on a plateau overlooking the Sea of Galilee, a somewhat insignificant location in the vast empire of Rome. And here surrounded by a handful of rude and rough countrymen, He says to them, He says, you and you alone are the salt of the earth.

In Biblical times, the primary function of salt was to act as a preservative. And so when Jesus made this statement, "You are the salt of the earth", the disciples would have immediately thought of salt in that primary function. They would have understood Him to be saying that they were to be a preservative in the world. So Jesus was saying to them, you are the ones who are to keep the world from rotting and to bring it to its best light. That is the same message that the Lord is wanting to communicate to us today. We live in a world that's rotting. And I don't think that I have to prove that to you. I think that you know that very well just by your experience here in the world. The world is rapidly decaying morally and ethically and in every other way. So we're living in the midst of a world that is in this rapid decay process. Jesus says we're the ones who are to halt this process. We're the ones who are to stay this decaying process by our influence in the world.

The statement, "You are the salt of the earth", has really a threefold application. Christians are to be first of all a preserving influence in a rotting world. The Bible teaches that the world is rotting, and our observation of it confirms the teaching of Scripture. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, said this in reference to this verse:

It clearly implies rottenness in the earth; it implies a tendency to pollution and to becoming foul and offensive. That is what the Bible has to say about this world. It is fallen, sinful and bad. Its tendency is to evil and to wars. It is like meat which has a tendency to putrefy and to become polluted. It is like something which can only be kept wholesome by means of a preservative or antiseptic.

So this is the teaching of Scripture, that the world is in this process of decay not only in the natural physical sense. The second law of thermodynamics teaches that everything is in a process of deterioration materially. But that is also the case, not from a scientific point of view, but from the spiritual point of view, that is also the case morally and ethically and spiritually. The world is decaying and rotting. So when Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth", He was saying that you are to be that preserving influence. You are to be that which stays the evil. The very presence of the church in the world, the very presence of Christians in the world, is to have this effect upon the world of keeping this corruption from becoming complete.

Secondly, Christians are to be seasoning. Salt was also used in those days as it is today as a seasoning. So as Christian people, when Jesus said to us, "You are the salt of the earth", He was saying, secondly, that we are to bring flavor to life. We are to bring zest. We are to bring really meaning to an otherwise dull, bland, and boring existence. Life apart from Jesus Christ is dull, bland, and boring regardless of what people might say. People say, "Oh no man, life is so exciting. It's so thrilling." If that's the case, why are they always having to bring additional things into life to add excitement to it? If life itself is so exciting, then why the need for the extremes that people go to? But you see, the very existence of these added things, entertainment and the pleasure-mania and all that, the very existence of these things indicates that life is essentially dull. There's something needed to spice it up. Well the Bible teaches that life apart from Christ is essentially dull. The Bible teaches that Christ is the one who brings the real meaning to life. He brings the real flavor to life, one that doesn't have to be exchanged with something else as it wears out, but one that goes on and endures perpetually. You see, the world has a lot of things that it offers us to bring us fulfillment, satisfaction, meaning, and flavor to life, however you want to describe it. But you always have to replace what the world offers you with something better, because what the world has to offer you isn't legitimate. Therefore it always has to be replaced. So we get involved in something but after awhile we find, no, this doesn't satisfy. So we move on to something else, something bigger and better. And it's just this vicious cycle as it goes.

You think of the ways that people are seeking entertainment today. Now the things that were entertaining ten years ago are no longer entertaining today. They're boring. Oh who wants to do that? That doesn't bring a thrill any longer. And so we're seeing people going to all kinds of extremes to try to find fulfillment. Well, that's just indicative of the fact that life cannot bring fulfillment apart from Christ. The difference between these things and Christ is that Christ brings you a permanent fulfillment where you do not have to continue to seek for something when the thing that you're presently using to bring flavor to your life becomes dull and boring. See, Jesus promised this, "He who drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst" (see John 4:13-14). There will not be this ongoing thing. So Christians are to bring to life seasoning. By their lives, they're to be showing people that fulfillment and meaning and purpose and flavor are a result of knowing the Lord.

And then thirdly, Christians are to be stimulators. One of the effects of salt on a person is to create a thirst within them. And so we, as the salt of the earth, we are to create a thirst for God in the people that we come into contact with. As they see us, as they observe our manner of life, as they listen to how we talk and the things that we're interested in, all of this is actually to create within them a hunger for God themselves. That they might look at us and say, "I want what that person has."

How do we do this practically? How are we practically the salt of the earth? Well, number one, we must live the Christian life. We must live this life. It's not good enough just to know about it. It's not good enough to even be able to expound what it is. We must actually live it. We must live it out. And it's in living the Christian life that we are truly the salt of the earth. It's in living a distinct life, a different life, a life that is unique and outstanding; it's in this that we're going to have this kind of an impact. You see, it's because my life is different that I have the power to stay corruption. If there's no difference in me, then there's no effect upon the corruption. For example, if you have no real witness as a Christian, when you walk into a group of people who are maybe discussing things that are inappropriate, things that are ungodly, if there's nothing distinct about you, they are going to continue to discuss those things without any apprehension or without any conviction that they shouldn't be doing it. But if you are distinctly different, different in the sense that you are a Christian, as you walk into that group, as they encounter you, there's going to be a staying of the corruption that might otherwise proceed. And hopefully you've had that experience.

Many have had that experience where you walk into a room and suddenly everybody goes quiet. "Oh, Holy Joe is here. Quiet down. Hey, save it for later. The preacher's here." And all of the different little titles they'll use to describe you. But you see, when that happens, you are being exactly what Jesus was talking about here. You're being the salt of the earth. You're staying the corruption. You're preventing the pollution from spreading. It's just by your very presence that that happens. But you see, that's only if you're living the Christian life. If you're not living the Christian life, (if) you're just making a profession of being a Christian but there's no evidence of it in your life, then when you walk into the room, there's no threat. There's nothing to worry about. Things just go on. And they can trust that you're not going to be affected by it, bothered by it. You'll probably even join in with them on it. You see, if we're going to practically be the salt of the earth, we must live the Christian life.

One of the greatest tragedies in the modern church is its desire to be like the world and to be liked by the world. You see, this is something that the modern church is obsessed with. The modern church wants the world to know that we're not really any different than you are. But you see, if we're not really any different than the world, then we're nothing. Why bother with us? And this is one of the things that in my opinion is so pathetic with so much of the church today. It's promoting itself as, "Hey, we're just like you. Don't be threatened. Don't be afraid. Don't be intimidated. Just come on out. And you'll find out that there's not a whole lot of difference between us." One advertisement for a church read like this, "The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urban, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes." Now basically, what this advertisement is saying to the non-believer is, "Hey, come and join us, because we're really not any different than you are. You'll be comfortable with us. We're not going to do anything to make you feel out of place." But you see, this is a major mistake on the part of the church, because it's the difference that ultimately does attract people. That's what makes them interested in you is the difference they see in your life. If there's no difference, then there's no interest.

Jesus was radically different than everybody else. He was so different from the other teachers of His day. Now you look at the time of Christ and there were thousands, tens of thousands of people that followed Jesus throughout Israel. Now there were many rabbis in Israel in the time of Jesus. But none of them had a following even remotely close to the following that Jesus had. Why? Because Jesus was unique. He was distinct. He was different than the rest of them. There was something about Him. There was a quality about Him. And people looked at Him and said, "I want to follow Him." And you see, that is what is to take place with the church. It's to be distinct. It's to be different. If we are the salt of the earth, then we must live the Christian life, an essentially different life than the rest of the world. You see, I've got to live this life. I've got to purpose to be different.

In the King James translation, when Peter is referring to believers as being a holy nation, a royal priesthood, there in the King James Version it states that we are a "peculiar people". The modern translations have dropped the use of the word "peculiar" because it sounds peculiar. But I think they would have been wiser to retain it because that's really what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we are to be a peculiar people, a different people, and a people that the world would look on and just say, "What's with these people?" "Why are they like this?" And "Why don't they do what we do?" And "How come they're not following suit?" You see, that's the thing that really will ultimately attract people. When they look on and they see you just like them, there's no attraction. When they see you going for the same things that they go for, there's no difference there. There's nothing to draw them to you. When they see you having to derive your fulfillment from the same kinds of things that they derive their fulfillment from, they draw their conclusion that you don't really have anything that they need. But when they see something different in you. "That person doesn't participate in this. But yet, they really seem to have a peace about their lives. They don't join in in the kind of stuff that we're doing. But they seem to at the same time have a joy that I don't understand how they've gotten that." And when they see those distinct things, when they see those differences, those are the things that attract. That's what draws people. And that's what Jesus meant when He said, "You are the salt of the earth..." We have got to live the Christian life.

Secondly, we must live as Christians in the midst of this corrupt world. You see, we've got to live the Christian life in the world. It's not good enough to live it in the church. It's not meant to be lived within the confines of the monastery. It was a sad day in church history when the church withdrew from society, when Christians withdrew from society. Now all of us, I think at sometime or another, are tempted to do that. All of us, at some time or another, are fed up with the world. We're frustrated with the whole thing. And so we want to get away from it. I want to quit my job. And I want to go work at the church. I want to move out of my neighborhood and move into a neighborhood that only has Christians in it. I want to shop at a market that's owned by Christians. And I want my car repaired by a Christian auto repair person. We have these temptations to just isolate ourselves and to cut ourselves off from the world and just to deal within our own little Christian subculture. And that's something that's tempting as the world becomes more corrupt. But it's the opposite thing of what the Lord wants us to do. Now of course, I'm not saying that you shouldn't use Christians to work on your car or anything like that. But I am saying that we do have to guard against the temptation to isolate ourselves from the world, because if we're going to be the salt of the earth, as Jesus called us to be, we've got to be a part of the world.

To preserve, salt had to be rubbed into that which it was going to preserve. So it had to come into close contact with that which it was going to preserve. Of course, for it to work as a seasoning, it has to be applied to that which you want seasoned. In order to create a thirst, salt has to be tasted. So in other words, if I'm going to have an impact on the world, I've got to be in the world. The problem with Christians is when they get in the world, the world gets into them. See, that's not to happen, because when the world gets into Christians, then we have a deluding problem. And then we end up being ineffective, as Jesus mentioned here. And we'll talk about that in a moment. We have to be in the world but not affected by the world. We are to live in the world but not to be a part of the system of the world. And that is when the church has its greatest impact on society, when you as a Christian person, you live your Christianity in the context of your everyday life. You take it to the office with you. You live it out in your home. You live it out in your neighborhood. As you go out shopping, as you go on vacation, whatever you do, you're just living out the Christian life. That's how Christians have the greatest impact on the world. It's not by clustering together and refusing to be in contact with the world as we're often tempted to do. But it's by being out there. Of course we need to fellowship. We need to come back together. We need to get strengthened and prayed for and encouraged through the word, and fellowship is essential; but there is always that temptation and that danger of isolating ourselves, and we have to guard against doing that. God has placed you where He has you in the world in order that you might be an influence for Him there. "You are the salt of the earth…" God has placed you in the midst of some corrupt thing, and God wants to use you there to stay that corrupting influence.

I thank God daily for Christian people within our public educational system. I thank God for Christian administrators and Christian teachers and counselors and people who truly love the Lord who are there in that system and who are, by their very presence as they are living their Christian life, they are staying the corruption. They're having an influence. They're not only having an influence on the evil system that they're working in, but they're having an influence on those kids whom the system of course is desiring to impact. I thank God for those truly Christian people who are in government, in various realms of politics and things like that. I thank God that they're there having this kind of an influence, and we need to pray for them. And we need to encourage people to move in those directions, because sometimes what we end up thinking is that ministry and service to the Lord is only done in the context of the church. In other words, a lot of people think that to really serve God, you've got to leave secular society, and you've got to seek some kind of a position within the church in the sense of it being an entity. But that isn't accurate. Now God certainly does call some people out of secular society to work primarily in His church. But those who work in His church are working to further His gospel to the world.

I thank God for the position I have of being a pastor in His church, and my ministry is primarily to the body of Christ. But my ministry is to equip you to get back out into that world. And I also enjoy those opportunities that God brings to me to get back out into that world and to have that effect, to be that salt. So don't think that to serve the Lord, you've got to leave your secular profession and get involved in church work. If God calls you to do that, fine. That's wonderful. But it could very well be that God wants you to be right where you're at. And He wants to use you there. And this is your ministry. And this is your mission field. And you need to see yourself as God's servant, as the salt of the earth, right where you're at. Oh, the Lord's got you there. Now, boy that will add excitement to your life. Maybe you've got what you consider a boring job. I want to challenge you to begin to look at your job as a ministry. And I'll guarantee that the boring aspect of it will be eliminated real quickly. When you begin to see it as a ministry, when you get up each day and say, "Man, Lord, I'm going out to the mission field for You today." We talk about missions. And we're excited about sending out missionaries, and that's all wonderful. But America is a great mission field. Your place of employment is a great mission field. Your neighbor is a mission field. Your family is a mission field. The mission field surrounds us. Wherever people are that don't know Christ, that is the mission field. So we must live the Christian life. And we must live it in the midst of this world. We must not retreat from the world. We must not isolate ourselves from the world. We must not seek to just gather together as Christian people and shut the world out. We need to be out in the world. But we have to guard while we're out there against being contaminated by the world.

And you see, here I think is really the problem, because obviously the world is becoming more corrupt daily. So this indicates to us that there's a failure on the part of the church. The church is failing to fulfill its role as salt presently. And that's obvious by the fact that the corruption is spreading rapidly, and there's being very little done to stay it. Why is that happening? Well, two possibilities. Number one possibility is that Christians aren't out in the world. They're isolating themselves. Or the other possibility is that the Christians who are out in the world are not living the Christian life. And I think that both of them are probably a major contributor to the problem, probably though the latter being the greatest problem. People who claim to be Christians, people who come to church every Sunday, people who carry a Bible, but when they get into the world, the world gets into them. They let the world mold and shape them. They let the world dictate to them how they're going to behave. And so you've got a lot of people who are Christians, living out in the world, working in the secular society, but not living like Christians out in the world. That's a major problem. If there are as many Christians in this country as claimed, we ought to be having a much greater impact. The only conclusion can be there aren't as many Christians as are claimed, or the Christians who are out there are not living the Christian life.

This is how God works in a society, by putting His people out there. We need more Christians out there living the Christian life. We need to determine to be different. We need to determine to live out the things that the Bible teaches us. But yet so often we're content to just know what the Bible says versus doing it. This has been a trap that God's people have fallen into historically. This is the trap that the Jews fell into. They thought that because they had the law, that was more or less the end. We are the possessors of the law of God. But Paul made it clear to them that it's not having the law of God that makes you unique, it's obeying it. It's doing it. James, in writing to the church, he said, "It's not the hearers of the word that are just before God, but it's the doers of the word" (see Ch. 1:22). So you see, we can't let ourselves be content just to hear the Word. We have to determine to do it. I can't let myself be content as a pastor just to preach the Word. Sometimes as a pastor you can get caught up into just what you're doing as far as preaching. Man, I'm giving good sermons. And that's what it all comes down to. Well, good, intelligible, anointed sermons are important to the growth of the body. But it's just as important that I live what I'm preaching, that I'm not just content to preach and go, okay I did my job. But no, I've got to live out what I'm actually preaching. And I find that each time I sit down to prepare, each time that I finish teaching and walk away, I find the Spirit dealing with me about living now what I've proclaimed, practicing it. And we can all fall into that trap. Oh well, I got to witness to somebody. Great, are you living out what you've witnessed? You told somebody what the Bible says about this. Are you practicing it? Are you doing it?

That is probably the greatest problem today is that Christians are not doing what the Bible says. For some reason or another there's a mentality that's been adopted that says, "Hey, we don't have to do it." That's a subtle mentality. I don't know that anybody's actually outwardly saying that. But that's what's happened. There's some kind of a thinking that's developed that basically says, we don't have to do this. I don't know what it is, a misunderstanding of God's grace, or a misunderstanding of God's Word. But there's a thinking among Christian people that there are certain things in the Word that we just don't have to worry about. And I think it all comes under the, "Well, we're saved by grace." God has saved us by grace. And so all of these other things, we don't have to worry about that. And whenever people get serious and start talking about the way you ought to be living, and so forth, the cry comes up, "Legalism, Legalism. Hey brother, we're saved by grace. Don't give me any of that legalistic stuff." Well yes, we're saved by grace. There's no doubt about that. But do you understand what grace is? If you think being saved by grace means that you have favor with God (and) now you can live any way you want. And it's okay because God will forgive you, and you can sin knowingly, just knowing that when you come to God to confess, He's going to forgive you. If that's what you think grace is, you have a rude awakening coming. That is not what grace is. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in Titus what grace is. "The grace of God has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age" (see Ch. 2:11-12). See, the grace of God doesn't teach us to have a lax attitude towards spiritual things. The grace of God doesn't say, "Oh, let's sin that grace may abound." The grace of God says, "Live godly, righteously, soberly in this present age." We have to live the Christian life. That is the only way we're going to fulfill being the salt of the earth.

Now Jesus brings up this interesting possibility. "Now if the salt loses its savor, how shall it be seasoned?" The salt that Jesus would be making reference to here is not the salt that we're familiar with, the chemical compound of sodium chloride. He would be making reference to the salt from the marshes, the lagoons, from the rocks in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea. These forms of salt easily acquired a stale or an alkaline taste because of its mixture with gypsum. It was due to a process of adulteration, contamination, or infiltration that the salt became tasteless. So this was a very real possibility that Jesus was bringing up to them. And they would have been familiar with this salt that would have become stale and lost its taste. But what He's saying through this of course is that when a Christian becomes contaminated or diluted by the world, that Christian loses his or her effectiveness and subsequently is good for nothing. Likewise when a church becomes contaminated, when a church compromises its position, when a church no longer holds to the doctrines of the Christian faith, then it ceases to be effective and virtually becomes good for nothing. So Jesus is giving us the warning. We're to be in the world, but we're not to let the world get into us. We're not to let the world infiltrate, contaminate, (or) adulterate what God has done. We're not to let the world dilute the effectiveness of the salt.

Now I think it's important at this point to really understand what Jesus is saying versus what He is not saying. What Jesus is not saying is this, He is not saying that we cannot be restored to our first love if we've left it. He is not saying that we cannot regain the cutting edge if we've lost it. Some people have interpreted from this statement that once you lose that spiritual edge, then it's impossible to get it back. But of course that can't be true because there are many places in Scripture where we're exhorted to examine ourselves, and if we find that we've lost that cutting edge or whatever, then we need to deal with it. We need to do something about it. Remember from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works, as Jesus said to church of Ephesus. So He's not saying that we cannot be restored when He says, "If the salt loses its flavor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out." He's not saying that. What He is saying is this. He's simply saying this—you're either salt or you're nothing. You're either salt or you're nothing. There's nothing in between that is useful to God or beneficial to man. In other words, if a Christian is not salt, then the Christian is nothing. You see, to put it in another term, if you're not on fire for Christ, then you're worthless.

You remember what Jesus said to the church of Laodicea? He said, "Because you are lukewarm, you are neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of My mouth." You see, if you're cold, at least God can deal with you. If you're hot, then He doesn't have to worry about it. But if you're in that middle state, and that's what the Lord is saying here, there's no middle ground. You're either salt or you're nothing. If you're not salt, then you're worthless. Your life is meaningless. It will have no effect for God. It will have no influence upon others. You see, what happens when Christians' compromise is nothing. Nothing happens. But yet, the church is in a big compromised state today. "Oh, let's be like the world. Let's let the world know that there's not much difference between us and them. Let's behave the way that they do. Let's do the things that they do." I read a lot of materials. And I read a lot of articles and reports and things like that. All the time I'll be reading about pastors who their emphasis is on things like this, "We've got to go out. And we've got to see every new movie that Hollywood produces, because we've got to be in touch with our culture. We've got to know where the community is at so we can relate to them." And a lot of times you'll hear pastors in the course of their message mention this movie. And they mention this movie star and this song. It's all an attempt to relate to the world. But what does that really say to the person who comes into the church? And they hear the guy up there giving basically a report on what's going on in Hollywood. You walk away saying, "Well, that guy's no different than I am. He must have seen all those movies like I did. What is there to draw me to that?" And so what ends up happening is there's no effect. There's no effect at all. And that's what Jesus is saying. You're either salt or you're nothing. There's no middle ground. If you're not salt, then you're nothing. You're not doing anything. You're not having any impact on anybody. You're not pleasing God. And you're not affecting man. You're just basically good for nothing.

So what's the alternative? The alternative is only this—you've got to be salt. You've got to be what God has called you to be. And you will be what God has called you to be by doing this one simple thing, living the Christian life, living it out, taking it seriously and living it. As we studied the Beatitudes we saw blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who mourn; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful; the pure in heart; the peacemakers. Now I hope that you haven't just relegated that to, "Oh yeah, that was all in the past. Now we're moving on." All of those things are things that we ought to be concentrating on daily, working on every day. Am I a peacemaker? Am I merciful? Am I meek? Am I hungering and thirsting for righteousness? And just constantly calling ourselves into check. Am I this? Am I doing this? As I'm living that way, you know what's going to happen? There's going to be a distinction about me. There's going to be a difference. And there's going to be a draw to God. Those that are in the world are going to look on and say, "There's something different." There's going to be that effect of staying corruption, that effect of bringing meaning to life, that effect of causing people to thirst for God.

I'd like to close with a quote by Alexander McClaren in reference to this passage. He said, "Where are the churches of Asia Minor, and of Alexandria, of Antioch, and of Constantinople? The whole of that early Syrian Palestinian Christianity, where are they? Trodden under the foot of man. Over an archway of a mosque in Damascus, you can read the half obliterated inscription, 'Thy Kingdom O Christ is an everlasting kingdom.' And above it, 'There is no God but God. And Mohammed is His prophet.' The salt has lost its favor and been cast out." Where are all those churches that once existed all over Asia Minor, modern day Turkey? Modern day Turkey is a Moslem country. Where are all those churches that once covered that whole Mediterranean region? All the churches of Europe being converted to mosques, being converted to places of Hindu worship, being converted to places of New Age thought. That's not only happening in Europe and in Asia, that's happening in America also. Church buildings are closing by the dozens. And people of other faiths are coming in and buying these things up. And now they're staking their claim and planting their flag and producing their doctrine from their headquarters there where once the gospel was centered and proclaimed from. What happened? The salt lost its flavor. And it became good for nothing and ultimately was cast out and is now being trampled underfoot by men. God help us that that doesn't happen to us, either collectively as a church or individually as Christians. And the only way that we can prevent it is by being what Jesus called us to be, the salt of the earth, by being salt, living the Christian life, taking it seriously, taking it as the most serious thing in all the world, to live the way Jesus taught us to live. That's when we will be the salt of the earth.

Lord, we pray that You would help us today, Lord, to be the salt of the earth. Lord, You called us that. You said we are that. And yet we know Lord that we are only that if we are living the Christian life, if we are living it in the midst of this world. And so Lord, help us to do that. And Lord, I pray for those who have lost the cutting edge, Lord, those who have left their first love, Lord, those who have become just hearers of the word but not doers. Lord, help. Bring a realization of the true condition. Bring Lord repentance with that. Help us Lord. Help us to fulfill this awesome calling that You have upon us. Help us, Lord, to impact this world beginning right here in our own community. Help us to impact this world. Help us to be the salt of the earth, to stay the corruption, to bring meaning and purpose to life, and to create a thirst for God in others. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.