1. Making Sure We Get It Right!
Getting to the Heart of What Matters Most.
Matthew 5:13-16

2. Truett Cathy
Founder of Chick-Fil-A
Believer
He gets it!

3. “I’d like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed.”
“I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to close on Sunday. Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business.”

4. How would you complete this phrase “What matters most to me is…
How important is it for us to get that right?
See how you complete that phrase of what matters most will determine the trajectory of your life and future…
Your conclusions to what matters most identifies your priorities and pursuits.

5. What is a Guiding Principle?
From a biblical view – practical theology
In other words, what you believe to be true regarding God, His Word, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Man, Sin, etc. AND how that theology impacts the way you think and live becomes your guiding principles.
From Entrepreneur Magazine:
By taking ownership of your own values and defining what's important to you, you are setting up a system that will guide you through the rough waters of entrepreneurship.

6. Guiding Principle #1 – Glorifying God – Our primary responsibility, {both as individuals and a church}, is to glorify God in all things. Everything we do is to be geared to proclaiming the wonderful character of God.

7. Main Point
God desires every believer, from every generation, to influence their culture for His glory.
Three principles to help guide our influence on the world.

8. Our influence is to be similar to salt. (13)
Salt was of great value.
Jesus' audience, whether Greek, Roman, or Jewish, would have understood salt of the earth to represent a valuable commodity.
They knew He was saying that His followers were to have an extremely important function in the world.

9. Salt Prevents Decay Salt Provides Flavor Salt Promotes Thirst
B. What does salt do?
Salt Prevents Decay
Salt Provides Flavor
Salt Promotes Thirst
Salt Permeates Food
Salt Pricks Wounds
Although the believer should be doing all those, the emphasis should rest upon the preserving character of salt – the influence of the believer should retard moral and spiritual decay.

10. Recognize the danger of not getting this right.
We cannot stimulate thirst for righteousness if we have lost our own.
We cannot be used of God to retard the corruption of sin in the world if our own lives become corrupted by sin.
To lose our saltiness is not to lose our salvation, but it is to lose our effectiveness and to become disqualified for service.

11. Our influence is to be similar to light (14-15)
Salt works secretly, while light works openly.
Salt works from within, light works from without
Salt works through our living…light works through our teaching.

12. A. What does light do?
Light Destroys Darkness -- John 1:5
Light Detects Evil -- John 3:19-20
Light Discovers Good -- John 3:21
Light Defines Christianity -- Ephesians 5:8; Philippians 2:14-15
Light Demands Exposure -- Matthew 5:14-16

13. B. The Danger of Not Getting it Right
The point Jesus is making here is that light is visible -- meaning that we cannot be satisfied to keep the gospel to ourselves…we must take an active role in proclaiming, not only with our changed lives, but also with our mouths, the power of the gospel.

14. Our influence must be focused on the right goal (16)
Good = does not so much emphasize quality as it does attractiveness, beautiful appearance.
Works = the good we do is a result of what God has done in us.
The reason we are to be doing good works is not to bring attention or praise to ourselves but to God.

15. What’s the danger if we don’t get this right?
If people are attracted to us because of what we do rather than to God, we can be sure that what they see is not His light.
The danger of not getting this right is if people are attracted to us because of what WE do instead of GOD does, then what view of God will they have when we are not so attractive?

16. Life Step
Be Focused – If we are not focused on making sure people have a high and biblical view of God, then we are not getting it right.
The challenge for us today is to be focused on making sure that everything we do points to a high and correct view of God and that nothing we do brings glory to ourselves.

17. Final Thought
Our culture is decaying alarmingly fast and the philosophies of man are riddled in such darkness that we cannot afford to not get this right! Glorifying God is priority number one.