Salt Of The World

SERMON 2, SANDS, 12. 05. 2007

BIBLE TEXT SONGS:

Good morning and happy sabath to everyone. It is a privilege for me to have the opportunity to speak here again. Some weeks ago it was my first time here and I have to tell ypou that I felt like waiting for the surgery. After the sermon my wife told me that she never seen me so stressful, stiff and afraid.

A minister told his congregation, "Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17." The following weekend, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up. The minister smiled and said, "Mark has only 16 chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying."

TWO BROTHERS LIVINGSTONE I will tell you a true story about lives of two brothers. When they were young like all young people they had to decide what kind of school to choose and what would they like to do for the rest of their lives. One of them wanted to become a famous politician so he went to study the law. Second one as a young person didn’t like religion although his father properly thought him about Christian faith but at the age of 20 somehow he got converted and then he decided to serve others and help people in their sufferings so he thought that if he study medicine it would help him to fulfill his desire. Both of them studied very hard and became what they wanted to. First one studied law and became a lawyer. After certain time he became even a member of parliament and well known politician. Second one studied medicine. He worked as a physician but at the same time he felt great desire to preach the good news so he studied theology as well and for a couple of years he worked as a preacher and physician.

Nevertheless he still was not satisfied so he moved from England to Africa to work there as a missionary and he helped many poor and sick people in Africa. He married the daughter of another famous missionary Robert Moffat but unfortunately she died in Africa because of malaria. And although he loved her so much and suffered greatly, after her death he said with tears in his eyes “My God, my Lord, my King, my Everything, send me wherever You want but go with me.” And God went with him. One day a lion crushed his arm but He survived. Sometimes he disappeared for months and no one knew what happened to him. Soon one of the biggest American newspapers sent reporters to follow him and write articles about his work so soon he became famous especially in America and England. In many places in Africa he was the first white man who ever appeared there bringing the good news about salvation by faith in Christ. As a result of his work 2 mln inhabitants of Africa gave hearts to Jesus. Oe evening, after many toilsome years, when he was 60 years old being very tired and sick he went to pray and it seemed that he prayed for long time so in the morning when he was still on his knees someone decided to talk to him but he didn’t answer. He didn’t answer because He was dead. He died on his knees while talking to his Lord. Whole world new that this great man died. People in England demanded that his body must be brought to England but inhabitants of Africa took the heart out of his body and buried it under a great tree because they said his heart belonged to Africa. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London on 18 April 1874 in the same place where Isaac Newton and some other most famous man and women are buried. I want to go there and see his grave because I am sure that one day when Jesus comes this grave will burst like a frying popcorn, and this man will resurrect and go with Jesus to the centre of the universe to rule with Him over the whole universe and to receive from Him a crown with 2 mln stars. About both of those two brothers you can read in Britannica - the biggest encyclopedia. About the first brother the one who wanted to be a famous politician there is only very short information and underneath his name it is written: “Brother of David Livingstone”.

One of many books which were written about David Livingstone’s life says: “… He was gradually dying. He crossed the river on 4 April 1873, and proceeded along the swampy shores, tormented with mosquitoes, poisonous spiders, and stinging ants. From the middle of April he was so ill that he had to be carried in a litter. On 27 April he made the last entry in his note-book. The next morning he was found dead, kneeling by the side of his bed, his body stretched forward and his head buried in his hands upon the pillow… H. M. Stanley wrote that for the four months he had lived with

Livingstone he never found a fault in him, and although he himself was a man of a quick temper, with Livingstone he never had cause for resentment, but each day's life with him added to his admiration of him.” When I was preparing this sermon my wife asked me what I will be speaking about. And I said: “About David Livingstone and may be someone else... Then she said: “May be you should rather speak about Jesus…”. You are right – I answered – but it still will be about Jesus because only Jesus could serve humanity in and through this man so unselfishly. Than my wife said: “You are right, I forgot about this…”.

E. G. White, The General Conference Bulletin, July 1, 1902, paragraph 16 “Let the pupils study the lives of such men as apostle Paul and Martin Luther, as Moffat and Livingstone. Instead of burdening their memories with an endless array of names and theories, let them study all lands in the light of missionary effort, and become acquainted with the people and their needs.”

If we as Christians let Jesus live in us with His unselfish love like this David Livingstone did I am sure that we would illuminate the whole world with the light of Gods love and at last the true Christian religion would become most attractive to all sincere people in the world. Mahatma Ghandi once said addressing his words to Christians: “If you Christians start to live like your Master did lived than whole India will bow down before Christianity.”

One day a man came to Napoleon and said that he invented a new perfect religion. He explained that he took best elements from all religions, put them together and made one wonderful ideal religion that would please all people. After listening to this man Napoleon said: “This is very interesting and it would be wonderful but if you really want to have a hope for the final success you have to do one more thing”. - What is it sir – asked the man.

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You must also live totally unselfish life and than allow people to crucify you. Then it is possible that many people would accept your new religion but not all of them…

Why people still look for a new religion? It is so because generally Christians only in the beginning were the true light and salt of the world. Forgive me if I offend some of you but I am sure that generally even now we are not the light and salt of the world because although we tell the Truth we often do it without selfless true agape love. And telling truth without love is of no value and could be even very dangerous and deadly. Because of this Christ always said the truth but He never did it without love. In the book Desire of Ages we read: Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, page 353, "Christ Himself did not suppress one word of truth, but He spoke it always in love. He exercised the greatest tact, and thoughtful, kind attention in His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He fearlessly denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity, but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, that refused to receive Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness, and sorrow so deep that it broke His heart. Every soul was precious in His eyes.”

SALT I remember very well a perfect illustration former president Robert Folkenberg once used to explain relationship between truth and love. Every day we use salt to improve the taste of our meals. And salt is a simple combination of two chemicals: One of them is chloride and second one is sodium. Likewise we can be the salt of the world only if our Christianity is a combination of truth and love.

But truth alone, without love is like chloride without sodium. Chloride alone (without sodium) has a suffocating odor that is detectable in very low concentrations and it is a very dangerous and poisonous chemical. Likewise the truth without love can be very dangerous and deadly. When we speak only the truth without love we can irritate people and even cause rejection of the gospel and spiritual death of a sinner. On the other hand, love without truth is like sodium without chloride. Sodium is highly reactive which means that it easily binds to other chemicals. Because of this sodium is found in nature only as a compound and never as the free element. And the same is when in our Christian life love is separated from the truth. It seems to be naive, careless and blind and have the tendency to bind to every sort of theories, unfortunately often false. Only when we combine chloride with sodium we obtain salt which improves the taste of the food we eat. Likewise if in our Christian life truth is always combined with God’s love we can become the salt and light of the world. Unfortunately not only we but all other Christian denominations forgot about this extremely important principle. Our most common problem is that we often preach the truth without love while they preach love without whole truth. Moreover, the situation could be even worse, when Christian church is deprived not only of truth but love as well.

WHAT TO DO? BIBLE, PRAYER, COMMUNION WITH JESUS A certain man hired a wood cutter. First day the man cut 18 trees and his boss said Very good so many trees in only one day! but next day encouraged by the praise of the owner he worked even harder but he cut only 15 trees, so next day he tried as hard as he could but every day he cut less amount of trees. so at last he came to his bos and asked what could be the reason and the boss asked: When last time did you sharpen your ax? The worker was so busy that he forgot to sharpen his ax! The same could be applied to our spiritual life. Often we are so busy that we foget to sharpen our axes

We Sometime ago I heard a story about a little boy who one day asked his father a question: "Dad, how tall am I now?" Wondering as to why his son asked this question, he said that he was about three feet tall. Then he heard another question: "Dad, how tall you are?" So

the father answered that he was five feet and ten inches tall. Then the boy got to the main point that was on his mind all along, "Then how tall is Jesus Daddy?" "Well, I don't know for sure," his dad replied, "but He must be more than six or may be even seven feet tall. But why are you asking about this?" said the father. "You see dad, you told me that if I believe in Jesus He is living in me, but if He is so much taller than me, then He must be sticking out of me all the time. Is that right dad?"

WYPOWIEDZ JANA CHRZCICIELA TU

HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS IS A GOOD LUCK?

Było to daleko st±d na pewnej farmie. Którego¶ dnia osioł farmera wpadł do głębokiej studni. Zwierzę krzyczało żało¶nie godzinami, podczas gdy farmer zastanawiał się, co zrobić. W końcu farmer zdecydował. Zwierzę było stare a studnię i tak trzeba było zasypać. Nie warto było wyci±gać z niej osła. Zwołał wszystkich swoich s±siadów do pomocy. Wzięli łopaty i zaczęli zasypywać studnię ¶mieciami i ziemi±. Z pocz±tku osioł zorientował się, co się dzieje i zacz±ł krzyczeć przerażony. Nagle, ku zdumieniu wszystkich, osioł uspokoił się. Kilka łopat póĽniej farmer zajrzał do studni. Zdumiał się tym, co zobaczył. Za każdym razem, gdy kolejna porcja ¶mieci spadała na o¶li grzbiet, ten robił co¶ niesamowitego. Otrz±sał się i wspinał o krok ku górze. W miarę, jak s±siedzi farmera sypali ¶mieci i ziemię na zwierzę, ono otrzepywało się i wspinało o kolejny krok. Niebawem wszyscy ze zdumieniem zobaczyli, jak osioł przeskakuje krawędĽ studni i szczę¶liwy, oddala się truchtem! Życie będzie zasypywać Cię ¶mieciami, każdym rodzajem brudów. Sposób, aby wydostać się z dołka, to otrz±sn±ć się i zrobić krok w górę. Każdy z naszych kłopotów, spadajacych na nas plotek, oszczerstw, cuchnacych jak smieci pomowien, to jeden

stopień ku wolno¶ci... I jeszcze to: Dzi¶ jest dzień najlepszych znajomych, Wy¶lij to do wszystkich swoich dobrych znajomych MILEGO DNIA ;-)))

A young girl once confessed to her priest that she thought she was guilty of the sin of pride. She said, "When I look in the mirror, I think I am beautiful." The priest said, "That's not a sin, that's a mistake."