Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Praise God this morning.

I'm going to introduce our youth pastor, next-gen pastor of Rene.

We're grateful for him and his wife, and I know he's going to bring it this morning.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Hold on.

Give me a second.

Did you guys already say hi to each other?

We didn't do that today.

What happened?

You still want to do it?

Okay, say hi to one person while I open my iPad real quick.

Quickly, quickly.

All right, amen, amen.

Okay, that gave me some time to drink some water and open my iPad.

How's everybody doing today this morning?

So everybody grateful to be in the house of God.

I'm excited to be here.

Thank you, Pastor Ryan, for the opportunity to share the Word of God.

I know it's been a minute, right?

The last time I was here, I think it was the last time I was here.

It's been a while.

So thank you for the opportunity and the privilege.

And I'm excited to share the word with you guys.

God is speaking to me.

He's speaking to my heart, and then I was excited.

I almost called Pastor Ryan yesterday and told him, can we start already?

Can we go ahead and start?

I'm excited to share the word of God with you.

But I'm grateful to be here, and I know that God has a word for each and every one of us.

And today we're going to be reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew Chapter 5.

And we're going to be reading from the greatest sermon ever preached, man, the sermon of the mouth.

And it was preached by Jesus himself.

And the sermon of the mountain takes chapter 5, chapter 6.

Mostly, most of the, most of chapter 7, too.

So it's like 106 verses.

So I hope you guys came ready to read.

Just kidding.

We're not reading everything.

But we're going to chapter 5, verses 13 through 16.

And if you don't mind standing as we read the Word of God, Matthew 5. verses 13 through 16.

And this is what the word God says in the name of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trample on their food by men.

You are the light of the world, as city is set on a hill, cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamb stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.

Amen.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for allowing me to be here this morning.

Thank you for this Sunday.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity. to come and to worship you.

Thank you because we have the freedom to open your word and learn from it.

And I pray that this morning you will take full control of your word.

And I pray that you will speak to us through your Holy Spirit.

And I pray that you will help us to be hearers, but also doers of your word.

In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

I know you probably are thinking, you know, I've heard this so many times.

You have heard said that we are the salt and that we are the light.

And especially if you have been in church for a while.

And for some of us, we probably remember these words from Sunday school.

Back, there was a time we used to have Sunday schools on a Sunday, and it was started scripture.

And we probably heard this song that we used to. to sing to the kids, This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Nobody?

Okay.

All right.

So this brings back some memories, and I know you probably have already heard this word so many times.

And as I was preparing this sermon, the Lord kept putting in my heart that one of the greatest temptations in the church is to know the word of God and not to live by it.

When we hear this word. word you probably, some of us are probably thinking, I already know this stuff.

Being salt and light, I know it.

I got it now.

Let's go and learn something deeper.

But the thing is that are we really living of salt and light to the earth?

You know, sometimes it's the simplest things that we learn really quickly, but we're not good at putting it to practice.

As one of those is being salt and being light to the world.

Said to the person next to you, you are the salt.

Tell them.

You're the salt and the light.

Sometimes a little too salty.

I'm just kidding.

Don't tell them that.

Don't tell them that.

Don't tell them that. light to the world.

And we are salt and we are light to the world.

We are to make things better and we are to make things brighter.

And in the four verses that the Lord Jesus summarizes the function of believers in the world, and we have to summarize this verses to one word, it will be influence.

Because whoever lives according to the beatitudes is going to function in the world, salt and light.

Everyone is either being influenced by the world. or you are being a daily influence to it.

And this morning I want to remind you in the words of Jesus himself that you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.

And in the gospel of John, Jesus kept on saying, and he said these words from verse 16, 15 through 18, he says, I don't ask that you take them out of the world. but that you keep them from the evil one.

He says, they don't not belong to the world anymore than I belong to the world.

Consecrate them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you send me into the world, so I send them into the world.

And for anyone out there who is a new believer, who has been struggling in her heart to know what is the purpose of my life, what is your calling for your life?

I think the words that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 is the answer. to that question.

Your purpose and your in this life is to be salt and light.

And our calling for every single believer is to be salt and light to the world.

Jesus says you are the salt of the earth.

And as Jesus is preaching in this great sermon and explaining to the crowd and the disciples, why are they here and what is their purpose in their lives.

He gives these two metaphors.

And for the first one, he says, you are the salt of the earth.

So what does that mean?

What does it mean that you are the salt of the earth?

Salt is not very valuable these days.

And we hear about the negative things of the salt, right?

If you put too much salt in your food, it's not good for you.

I know some people out there that they put food in their, I mean, salt in their food before they even tasted, right?

I'm looking that way.

By the way.

Yeah, they really like their salt.

And if you tell somebody today, you're salty, it's not a compliment.

It would have been in Jesus' time.

But for the audience that Jesus was speaking to, this metaphor made sense because back in Jesus' time, salt had a great value.

And in fact, often Roman soldiers were paid in salt.

And it was from that practice that the expression comes not worth his salt originated.

Okay, salt is supposed to make things better.

If you pull salt on any kind of food, it will make it better, right?

Most of the foods, right?

There are some foods out of that you can put all the salt you want and they're not good, like Brussels sprouts. right?

Yeah, what's the deal with that?

No, no, no Brussels sprouts.

I think, yes, there's nobody, I don't do that.

If you eat Brussels sprouts, that's a sin.

You got to repent.

Yeah, you got to repent.

You know, I was recently, I was scrolling to social media, and I came out with this recipe that this is probably the only way that I would eat broth sprouts.

And the guy says, is that you're supposed to cut, cut them in half, put a little bit of salt and pepper, put them in the oven for a few minutes.

And then the final step is the most important one.

He says, as soon as you take it out of the oven, you throw them in the trash.

And then you order pizza.

That's the only way that you're going to try them.

But salt is supposed to make things better, right?

It's good.

And back in those days, salt had a lot of value, like I said, and Roman soldiers, they used to get paid with salt.

Can you imagine coming into the office, and instead of getting a paycheck or a deposit, they give you a little sack of salt, and that was your paycheck.

And so those are a few things, and one of those things is that it gives flavor to food, like we have mentioned.

And when Jesus is saying that we are the salt of the earth, then this audience and the disciples, it can mean that they are the ones who bring flavor to the earth.

And as salt to the earth, you and I are the ones who are to bring flavor to this earth.

We are to make things better.

We are to make things brighter.

They are the ones who make the things better to the ones that are around you.

And since one of the metaphors of salt is to give flavor, then as believers we should be doing the same thing.

That means that when we get involved in any situations and we're living our daily lives, And God gives us opportunities to minister to people.

We are to be salt in those moments.

The moment we walk in any situation, Jesus says, you are the salt, and your purpose in this situation is to make things better.

Because before that person or that coworker that you're having an encounter or you're having a conversation, they had no hope.

But now there's a child of God coming into their life, and they're bringing hope and life into their lives. and you're supposed to make things better for them.

Another purpose of salt is that it can serve as a preservative, that it holds back decay.

And when you pack a meat with salt, it serves as a preservant, and it keeps them from spoiling.

Back in those days, they didn't have refrigerators, so this is why they use.

And what Jesus is saying here is that our role as a disciple is to be a preservative in the world to keep things from going bad.

Salt also causes thirst.

I know most of you know that I was born in Mexico and I spent most of my childhood with my grandparents so they had a ranch so I was always around animals.

I was always around, you know, pigs, chickens, horses, cows, all that kind of stuff.

That's probably why we have so many animals at our house right now.

And one of the things that my grandpa used to do is that when he has some horses and you will keep them too much on the ground, on soft dirt, you know, their hubs, what's it called?

The hubs?

Hoops?

Hubs?

Yes.

That thing, they began to grow too much.

So it was dangerous for a horse.

Okay?

So in order to trim them down, you will send them to the mountains. and with all the rocks and walking in all the rocks, their hubs would trim themselves and then we could cure.

But, you know, you had to let them out and let them free in the mountains.

So the way that you bring them back close to you or to your property is that my grandpa and I used to go to the mountains and we would take this bag of salt and we'll put little handfuls of salt in the rocks.

And the horses will eat the salt and it will create thirst and they will come down from the mountains. and they will come down from the mountain looking for water.

And we would just have to wait patiently, and they will come down.

So in the same way, if Jesus is saying that salt causes thirst, and we are to be salt, we are to be causing thirst to other people.

When you have conversations with your friends and your school, wherever you are, you have to live them wanting more.

And you create that thirst in our life.

And next time you come back, they're going to keep asking, Talk to me again about Jesus.

Talk to me again about your God.

I want to know more.

And eventually you're going to be able to bring them to the source of life, to the water well that never dron dry.

The last thing I want to mention about salt is something that we don't hear very often.

And everything I've said about salt, it can be applicable to our lives.

Salt gives flavor. salt preserves.

But what if when Jesus said that we are to be salt of the earth and the light of the world is not necessarily by saying something or doing something, but by simply being.

Jesus says, you are the salt.

You are the light.

And light affects its environment simply by being, what it is.

And salt affects its environment simply by being what it is.

Not by saying anything or doing anything, but only by being completely different to its environment.

All we need to do is be completely different.

And in the Gospel of Luke gives us a better understanding of what Jesus could have meant by salt.

And Luke chapter 14, he says, salt is good, but if salt itself loses its states with what can its flavor be restored?

It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile.

It is thrown out, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

And this tells us that what salt was used for back in those days.

It would scrape off the Dead Sea, which is like 34% salt solutions.

And it's a mixture of different salts.

And one of the main ones is potassium chloride. potash, something like that.

And if you are a gardener, if you like to, you know, if you like plants, you know that every plant needs three kinds of fertilizers, right?

And it's nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium.

And a good fertilizer would include all those three.

So the salt that was scrape off of the Red Sea was widely used as a fertilizer, mainly because of, it's a fertilizer. mainly because of its potash in it.

Maybe Jesus is thinking of the use of salt as a fertilizer.

Because in the Gospel of Luke, he says on the soil, and it's the same Greek word used in Matthew when Matthew uses the word earth.

It's the same Greek word.

It can be soil.

So the salt of the earth, the salt of the soil.

So the fertilizer that you put on the soil to make things grow. and then he mentions the manure pile and he's not referring to animal manure but human manure or the dunk hill and back in those days people will have a pile of dirt and that's where they will go and do their business and then they will have this bucket of salt and they will put a handful of salt in that dirt from keeping things from growing and serve as a disinfectant as well so if you put these two things together that we get a positive and a negative influence of salt.

It can promote the things you want to grow, and it can also prevent things that you didn't want to grow.

So if this is what Jesus is saying by being salt, then that means that we are to be salt to the soil.

And we are the ones who will stop bad things from growing or spreading, and we will always promote the growth of good things.

So it is possible that we can be salt, not necessarily by saying something or doing anything, but by simply being totally different from the environment, by simply being salt.

For example, in the kitchen, a simple sprinkle would do.

Just a little bit of salt, just a little bit of salt, and your caldo, and that's all you need.

But for a fertilizer or disinfectant, you need a considerable amount.

You need handfuls to be able to. to zero salts.

A sprinkle of salt in the soil is not going to do much if you want things to grow.

Therefore, the reason sometimes we don't see a lot of the changes in our environment, in our world, wherever we are, is because we're not pouring enough salt.

And the only way that salt operates is by being in the right contact with the soil.

In other words, it operates by pressing. and not absence.

If we keep the salt inside these four walls, we're not going to do any effect to the world.

Because we're not in it.

We're not in direct contact with the world.

We can be salt only on Sundays.

Amen?

We need to be salt every other day.

So salt, you need a certain amount for different purposes. it needs to be in direct contact, and it must be salty.

And Jesus talked about losing its flavor or its saltiness.

And this is a bit of a scary verse, I think.

How can salt lose its saltiness?

And the answer is, it can't.

It's impossible.

But if Jesus mentioned it, it must have happened in those days.

And the only way that salt can lose its flavor is, by being mixed with other substances.

A lot of the salt that was crept of the dead sea was mixed with sand and a lot of other substances, so a lot of the salt was not even salt.

And it didn't have a lot of purpose to be used in the kitchen.

And just like salt can lose its saltiness, Christians can lose their value and their effectiveness in the kingdom of God.

And when we allow sin and worthliness to contaminate our lives.

When we allowed too much of other, stuff in the world into our lives, we can become contaminated.

Don't allow the things to contaminate your salt.

The places that you go, the things that you see, whatever you do can contaminate your life and contaminate your salt.

The most important place we need to be salt is in our homes.

Amen?

Parents?

Is there any parents in the house?

You guys didn't hear me?

Maybe you got to lean a little before. the most important place where you need to be sold is in your home.

Me too.

I need to be salt in my house.

I need to be sure that my family doesn't get contaminated with the world.

I need to make sure that my kids are being a disciple.

I need to make sure that our kids are still serving God.

I need to make sure that they're still following Christ.

And I need to make sure that they're ready to overcome the temptation of the world.

We need to be in control. of how much contact our kids have with the world.

Jesus says you are the light of the world.

And this is the last thing I want to mention.

He says, light also has a positive and a negative aspect.

And the negative aspect is that it exposes bad ways to show the bad of people.

And the positive aspect is that it exhibits. it's the right way, it shows the good works of people.

And just like when, you know, it has like a negative and a positive aspect of light, you can see the good things, but you can also see the bad things.

And Pastor Juan, you probably relate to this.

As a painter, if you paint a room with the light off, because maybe the electrician took the light off, and he hasn't replaced it yet if you paint the room in the darkness and then he comes back and put a brand new light, he turns it back on, what are you going to see?

You're going to see a few mistakes.

You're going to see the bad stuff.

And just in the same way, we are to be light to the world.

We are to shine and to show people their mistakes and the things that they need to change.

So we're bringing out the good of things.

Jesus says in John chapter 8, verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world.

And in Matthew he also says, you are the light of the world.

So Jesus is the light of the world, but we are also the light of the world.

And in the context, when Jesus says, I am the light of the world, it's the occasion when the Pharisees brought to him a woman who was caught in adultery.

That is the context.

And they brought this woman who had committed adultery, and the Pharisees wanted to stone her because that was written under law of Moses.

So Jesus had to make a decision.

They were trying to trap Jesus to make a decision because they wanted to stone this woman, because the law of Moses said that she had to be stone.

But there was also a law of Rome that forbidded executions held by Jews, so Jesus was kind of like you had to make one of the other.

So what did Jesus do?

He started writing, right, on the ground.

And to a Jew, that means one thing.

That's a claim to be God.

It's a claim to be the one who wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger on the stone.

So when Jesus bends down and he starts writing, he's saying, I wrote the law.

I know exactly what it says.

I am responsible for the law.

And a lot of people have asked the question, what was he writing?

But that's not really the point.

The point is that Jesus is making a claim that he is God, and he's the one who wrote the law.

Then Jesus reminds him of another law they were forgetting.

And he says that nobody can be a witness in a criminal charge if they have ever committed the same crime.

And in John chapter 8, he tells them, he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at hers.

So Jesus was quoting a law from Exodus that says you can only be a witness if you have ever, if you have never committed this kind of sin.

And in this occasion, was adultery.

And they all left one by one because they all had committed some kind of adultery.

It wasn't just talking about, you know, sin in general. was talking about that specific sin.

So Jesus was left along with the woman.

I was done, so I asked the worship team, and you guys can come up.

And when Jesus was being left alone with a woman, there was another point that he made.

He says that according to the law, they had to be witnesses.

Had to be two or three witnesses to be able to take this law.

And one of the law was that you had to be two or three witnesses.

One person was not enough.

So that's what Jesus says when she picks up the woman.

She says, where are the ones who are accusing you?

And there's nobody there, only Jesus.

And because of the law, you have to have two or three more witnesses.

There's no witnesses.

So Jesus says, neither do I condemn you.

But then Jesus says something very important.

He says, neither do I condemn you. neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.

And right after that, that's when Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

If this woman would have been walking in the light of Jesus, she would have found herself in this kind of trouble.

And that's what Jesus meant by saying that he is the light. and we are also the light.

He wants to bring us out of the darkness.

And if we're walking with Jesus in the light, then we're not going to find ourselves in this kind of trouble.

And this morning, I just wanted to encourage your church to be salt.

Like I said in the morning, I know you probably have heard this message many times, and I'm sure other people have done it way better than me.

But it's a great reminder that we are to be salt.

So I hope that when we live this four walls and we go out to our regular lives, that we can go with that mentality.

I am salt and I am light to the world.

You are to make things better and you are to make things brighter for the people around you.

Bringing hope, bringing life to them, bringing the restoration, and bringing them to Jesus.

Would you guys stay with me?

I know in a moment we're going to pray for all of our youth and all the ones who are going back to school.

But I just wanted to give an opportunity.

We don't ever want to go without giving an opportunity to somebody who wants to give our lives to Christ.

And maybe this morning this word touched your heart and you probably found yourself like this woman who was caught in adultery.

And because of darkness in her life, you know, she was in trouble.

Maybe that's you this morning.

And Jesus is calling you to his light.

And he wants you to be light as well.

So with everybody's heads down, your eyes close, I want to ask that question.

If anybody is here this morning and wants to give the lives to Christ, would you just raise your hand real quick so we can pray for you?

Amen, I see you one hand.

Two, three, four.

Amen.

Praise God.

Praise God.

Amen.

He is good.

So right day where you are.

Can you just repeat this pray with me?

You don't have to say it out loud, but just as long as you say with this sincere heart.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your son.

Jesus who came and died in the cross.

And because of his death and resurrection, I can now have eternal life.

I turn my back from this world, and I give my life to you.

I repent on my sins.

Help me to live for your glory and honor through your Holy Spirit. in the name of Jesus I pray.

Amen.

Come on, church.

Keep him praise.

Amen.

Praise God.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Renee, for that word.

When was the last time?

I want you to think about this this morning.

Because it is a simple word, but some of the simplest words often serve as reminders to us. to us that we just tend to forget as Christians.

When was the last time you were salt?

We have a little, we have two salt shakers.

I don't know why.

We have two.

And there's one of them in the very back that's just there.

Never use it.

It's got like this much salt in it.

And it's salt, but it's got no influence.

It's salt, but it adds flavor to nothing if it's not poured on anything.

And I believe that there are believers.

Sometimes we walk in this saltiness.

We walk in the light that is Jesus and we come to church and we express our worship because we love him.

But when we go outside, we are not being an influence in the world that we live in.

This year, we decided to take Layla out of, um, a little Christian school that we were, you know, she had been at for five, six years.

And I think we were more nervous than she was taking her to a school that's not a Christian school, but it's closer and it's free.

And so we had many conversations with her like Layla, you might hear some things.

You might see some things.

You might hear some words that are very inappropriate.

You might have questions.

I want you to come and ask us all the questions.

But more than anything, I told her, don't partake in any of that.

Remember who you represent.

You're a child of God.

You're a child of Jesus.

You add the influence.

Don't let them add the influence to you.

And I believe that God is calling a church back to be the salt of the world, not just the salt in the church, but the salt of the world, to offer value to the hurting people, to bring Jesus when we speak the name of Jesus, to offer a glimmer of hope, not because we are the hope, but because we have the hope.

We are called to be the salt in the light of the earth.

And right now, I want to do something.

I know most kids are already back to school, but we want to, we want to bless them.

We want to bless them.

We want to anoint them for this year because I know that God, God doesn't make mistakes.

God has this generation here for a specific purpose.

And we as adults, we as parents as priests and priests of our homes, we want to ask for God to bring us a discerning spirit.

God, let me see, let me be aware of what you are doing in my child so that I don't miss it.

Give me that awareness like Eli have.

Even though he didn't really have it for his children, he had it for Samuel. when he said, Samuel, next time you hear the word of the Lord, I want you to tell him, your servant hears.

So for the next few moments, I want you to step out.

If you have kids with you, I want you to come and I want us to pray over our children.

Can we do that?

Come, come now.

And maybe your kids aren't here with you, but I want you to come and represent your home for them.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch.org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at My PNEUMA Church.

Thanks again and God bless.

Thank you.