Treasured Truth

As Pastor Ford begins a new message from Hebrews 13, he explains that the only reason we can come to God and give Him the sacrifice of praise is because Jesus provided for us the pathway to God and the power to worship Him.

We’ll continue to explore how Jesus compared believers to salt and discover that in those days, when salt had lost its savor—or lost its potential property to bring flavor—they would take it and throw it out in the road for people to walk on it.  And today Pastor Ford will explain what Jesus meant when He compared certain believers to savorless salt.

Pastor Ford will explain today what Jesus meant when He said that believers are the salt of the earth.  They add zest to an otherwise bland world.  Others see their joy, they see their love, they see their commitment and are drawn to Christ.  But why aren’t people drawn to some believers?  Because they’re not salty enough and they don’t display to the world the attractiveness of Christ.

As we begin this short series on Matthew 5, verse 13, Pastor Ford will help us analyze our own effectiveness in light of God’s Kingdom. This verse tells us that, as believers, we are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost is saltiness, then what good is it?  Listen today to find out how you can keep your saltiness and maintain your effectiveness as a believer in Christ.

Who do you look to when you have a situation, when you have a problem?  Do you look to your intellect? Do you look to your Pastor or your church? Do you look to your bank account?  Do you look to your friends or your family?  Or do you look to Jesus?  Pastor Ford will share with us why there’s no reason for us to look to anyone or anything else, but Jesus.

When you look at the storm you’re going through, then you’re ready to give up.  But when you look through the storm, you have resolve to go on.  And that’s what we need to do! We need that resolve to look through the storm, keep going, keep on pushing through, and keep on doing what God has called us to do.

Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age…” So, with that statement, He was reassuring us that we can be confident God is always working on our behalf.  When God is silent, He’s working behind the scenes and doing things that we don’t even realize, in order to get us to the place where He wants us to be.

When they were wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel took their eyes off the promise that God had given them and put their eyes on the problems they had.  And what happened to them as a result?  All of that generation died in the wilderness.  Pastor Ford asks us today—how many of us are dying in the wilderness because we always focus on the problem and not the promise?

What’s the definition of compassion?  Pastor Ford defines it this way:  Your pain in my heart.  So that means, in order to be compassionate, we have to put other people’s pain in our own heart and then strive to see their situation from their perspective.

In our study today, we’ll discover that the Apostle Paul encourages us to react to people who have needs and who can’t bear those burdens by themselves.  But he doesn’t want us to relinquish them of responsibility that they can handle.  We need to strive to achieve a balance when we seek to help people.