Kingdom Logic (Part 7) - The Good Life is a Tasty Life

Welcome to episode 248 of Grasp the Bible. In this episode, Pastor Drew continues our study entitled Kingdom Logic. Today we will cover: 

• “You are the salt of the earth, You are the light of the world.” — Matthew 5:13–16 
• The call to be salty and lit. 
• Purpose influences the world. 

Key Takeaways: 

• The call to be Salty and Lit. 
• God’s righteousness is felt! 
• God’s love is longed for! 
• God’s presence is preserved! 
• God’s Provision is Proclaimed 
• The Caution to the Salty and Lit. 
• The Charge for the Salty and Lit. 

Quotable: 

• “Taste and see that the Lord is Good” (Psalm 34) 
• “We are what we eat!” (Psalm 1) 
• “The salty taste that leaves you thirsty!” 
• “The purpose and plan is for you to be salty and lit, so that through you others would taste and see that the Lord is good!” 

Application: 

• Silent – A choice we make. A consequence the world feels. 
• Subtle – A choice we make. A consequence the world feels. 
• Shelfed – A choice we make. A consequence the world feels. 
• “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” 

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https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Crash the Bibles podcast of Spring Baptist Church that walks through selected books of the Bible verse by verse, as well as spends time exploring biblical ideas and topics to help you understand and apply God's word in your daily life. On this week's podcast, we'll be joined by Drew Bauscher, the pastor to students, here at Spring Baptist Church. This is our 248th episode. I'm Marty Richardson, one of your co-hosts. It is great to have you with us. Pastor Drew, it's good to have you with us as well. Yeah, I'm so glad to be here. Well, this is our final installment of the Spring 26, if you're paying attention or going along in the in the linear flow of things. And we've been doing some topical studies and they've been lots of fun. We've had everything from uh Pastor Drew cooking. Yes. Um we've we've had a little bit of that, and we've had some toast stomping. Yeah. There's there's been some good stuff. But what are we ending this series with?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah, so we kind of have been looking at the Beatitudes and all the different topics that are within there, and now we are uh finally seeing what the purpose of those were. The Beatitudes were a progression with a purpose, and the purpose is that believers who live like Jesus, who live according to the Beatitudes, would influence the world and so and help other people taste and see that the Lord is good.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Taste and see? That the Lord is good. Yeah, that's a song that pops up in my head. Well, awesome. Well, it sounds like a great study. Let's get into today's study. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Well, we are going to wrap up our study on uh Kingdom Logic, our series on the Beatitudes, which is great because Pastor's starting a series on the Beatitudes. And uh, and so uh as we uh continue today, I titled this message uh The Good Life is a tasty life. Alright, so I hope you're not hungry, because you might be at the end of this. Okay. So uh that being said, has anybody ever had one of these? You know what this is? Well, shh, I didn't ask if you liked it. These are my favorite candies, alright? Okay, the reason I have these in my office is because like when my wife gets me something, this is what she gets, alright? But here is uh this is the Cookies and Cream Hershey's bar. Okay. Has anybody never tried it before but likes sweet things? Yeah? Does anybody want to try it? No? Nobody wants to try it? I'm giving away a kid. If I was in student ministry right now, they'd be chomping at the bit right now. Me, me, me. Okay. Well, I'm gonna leave this here, and if anybody wants it at the end, they can. But the point of this is when you taste something good, right, you share that with other people. Right? And you don't just leave it just for you. You know, I can remember stories from going on mission trips and going to a good restaurant here in the States or wherever, and you eat this good food, and sometimes you go on vacations, and when you get home, you just talk about everything you ate while you're on vacation. Wow, man, I was at the Gulf Coast and we ate this awesome seafood, and we went to this place, and it's like, did you go anywhere but restaurants, right? Because we like to talk about it. Because it's something that everybody relates to. But see, God's word talks about tasting things as well. And we're gonna see how this applies to the Beatitudes. So I want to remind us for the last time, remind us of the Beatitudes and uh and kind of read that together in just a moment. But before we do, I want to remember our main points that we've talked about, the two big ideas we had. That the good life is not normal, it's faithful. And in fact, it's not just faithful, but it's full. It's faithful. Because God's way is better than our way, it's more fulfilling than anything we could ever dream of. And then we see the Beatitudes are a self-portrait of Jesus and a portrait of us that is still being completed. See, if we look at the Beatitudes, Jesus was the perfect picture of each and every one of those, and we are to be becoming more and more in the image of him, and we are to pursue those things as well. And so as we look at this, we see a progression. A progression that has a purpose, and we're gonna find out that purpose today. See, we walk through the Beatitudes, and it starts with that idea of being poor in spirit, and it continues from poor in spirit. In Matthew chapter 5, we see that it continues from poor in spirit to those who mourn over their sin, to the meek who are willing to say, God's your will, not my way. And then he changes our hearts. Once our posture is correct, he changes our hearts and we begin to hunger for his things. We desire what he wants, and we pursue righteousness, and we're merciful, and we're pure in heart, and we're peacemakers, and then we also become those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. And then we see that there's this impact that we leave in the world. And well, today we see that the purpose of the Beatitudes is to influence the world. Because if we're more like Jesus, we're gonna leave the taste of Jesus in the world around us. So I want to read for us because Jesus systematically went through the Beatitudes and then he went to salt and light. So let's read for a moment. Verses 13 through 16 of Matthew chapter 5. And here's what we see. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do we do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. What we see here is whoever lives according to the world, or whoever lives according to the beatitudes, is going to function as salt and light. So let's begin to pray and ask God to show us how we can be salt and light in our world. Dear Jesus, we love you. Teach us, grow us, remove everything of me right now. And God, we just want to come to you and ask that you would uh fill us with the knowledge of you right now, that we can live here and live lives that are overflowing with you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so taste and see that the Lord is good. This comes from Psalm chapter 34. And so when I thought about this, I thought, hey, this, and when we get to our conclusion today, you're gonna see how this verse ties in, but Psalm chapter 34, verse 8, is where we find taste and see that the Lord is good. And in that passage, it's all about the fear of the Lord. See, it says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. See the good life, right? Blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Lord. You can almost already see the poor in spirit, the one who needs God. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. Respect, understand his will, follow his way. We see that it's pouring out this to us. Well, as we look at taste and see, the first thing I want us to see today is that what we find in uh verses 13 through 16 of Matthew 5, we first see the call to be salty and lit. Now, salty and lit are some Gen Z and millennial phrases, okay? If you were to say that to your grandchildren, you'd be the coolest grandparent, right? No, salty, right, in their vernacular today, all right, is somebody who's kind of like upset, bothered by something simple, right? You know, like you might say a salty comment to somebody, like your waiters, like, well, I thought we would get our drinks by now, but uh, you know, you're taking forever. That's gonna be affected on your tip, you know. That'd be a salty comment to say, right? But that's not what this verse is talking about. Lit, on the other term, in Gen Z terms, is uh to say uh, like, hey, you're gonna be the life of the party. It's gonna be awesome, right? So if something is lit, it's gonna be awesome, right? So if afterwards you want to encourage your your grandkids to be salt and light, you can text them and say, stay salty and lit, fam, and then send the peace sign, okay? And they'll be like, what is going on right now, okay? All right, and then you can explain it to them, okay? All right, so just a little Gen Z fun in our in our thing today. But uh, to be salty and lit, what does that look like? Well, first it's a call for us. And so I want us to think about some of the qualities of salt and light and see how they can apply to our life. So, first we see you are the salt of the earth. Well, there's a reason why we talk about putting salt in a wound. Because it would absolutely sting. If you cut your foot and then go get in galvasin, you are gonna be in pain, right? Because salt in a wound stings. And so here's what we see. We as believers, we're called to be salt of the earth. And one of the ways that we're salt of the earth is that God's righteousness is felt when people are impacted with us. Because, see, the the wounds of their sin, when they interact with salt, should leave a sting to show them, not that we're judging them, but that God has a judgment that is coming and has a will for their life that they're not living up to. And so, salt, one of its features is that it stings. And so God's righteousness is felt. But another feature of salt is the taste. When you eat something salty, what do you need right away? Right? Something to drink. It leaves a parched taste, a parched tongue. You need water. And so the second thing we see is God's love is longed for. When people interact with us, they should feel God's righteousness because we're living like Jesus. And they should long for the love that we showed them because interacting with us is different than interacting with the world. And the third, and probably the most powerful, and the purpose for his using salt, is God's presence is preserved. See, Christ is no longer here on this earth in a physical body, but who he left is his believers with his spirit in them. And so in the world that scripture, there's countless scripture that talks about the deterioration of morals and sin and the attacks from Satan in a world that is under attack. The thing preserving who Christ was and who Christ is is his believers as ambassadors for him on this earth. And so God's presence is preserved. But we also see something in his light. Says, you are the light of the world. We see that light shines. And so what salt was was kind of like an inner thing. It wasn't a spoken thing, but when they interact with us, how we do our financial dealings, how we deal with relationships, how we deal with conflict, all of that sets an example for those around us. And they get that preserving longing that is felt. But for light, light shines. It's an outward thing. And what this is, is God's provision is proclaimed. This is us sharing the gospel. See, we're not supposed to be silent, we're supposed to be a megaphone sharing with everyone what God has done, what provision he made for them. That while they were at their worst, while I was at my worst, Christ died for them. And that if they would repent and believe and give their lives to the Lord, they would be saved. See, I've heard it said before. Share the gospel and if necessary, use words. Let me just tell you, that's a terrible quote. Absolutely horrible. And we as the church believed it for a long time, which is why today they say less than 2% of evangelical Christians share the gospel. You know why? Hey, it's just gonna rub off on them. No, it's not. Here's what the quote should have been share the gospel, use your voice. It's necessary, right? Because how will they know unless we tell them? Wow, there was something different about them. I wonder what that was. They're probably taking some new medication. It's great, you know? No, it's the power of God within me. I need to proclaim what God has done in my life. That's what I need to do. That's why a city on a hill cannot be hidden. I can't leave somebody without them knowing, hey, why are you different? Oh, well, it's because of what Jesus has done for me. Yes, living the right way, being kind, rubbing elbows with someone is great. But it needs to lead to a proclamation of who Jesus is. That's what we're commanded to do, to be salt and light, not just be salty, be salty and lit. But here's what he gives. And speaking of that, he gives a caution to the salty and lit. He says this in verse 13 and 15. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. So here's what happens. He basically says, what happens when salt and light aren't being used properly? Well, it's a waste. That's what he pretty much says. Now he's not saying that if you're not salt and light, that you lose your salvation. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is you lose your effectiveness. You lose what God had intended you to do. And so here's what we see here. First, we see the caution for being silent. Like what happens when we're silent, when we're not the light? See, it's a choice we make to be silent, but it's a consequence that the world feels. When Christians as a collective don't share what Jesus is doing in them, then the world starts to not feel what God can do through them because they don't know what Jesus has done for them. See, I like to think about it like this. Jesus has already won. Right? I'm a big sports guy, okay? Right? When you're up by 20 in the fourth quarter, right, in an upward basketball game, then you gotta pull your people back, right? But if you're up by 20 in a varsity basketball game, that could change in a heartbeat. You just keep going, right? This is varsity basketball. Well, guess what? We're in varsity Christianity. And guess what? Jesus has already won, and every person that comes to know Jesus, now we're just running up the scoreboard on Satan. Zero, whatever the number is of people who follow Jesus, that's where we're at, and it ticks up every time we share the gospel and someone comes to know Jesus. See, we're called to run up the score, not be silent. The second thing is subtle, and this deals with the saltiness. See, salt never really loses its taste, but you can dilute its taste when the world begins to change believers to be more in the image of the world than of Christ. See, you can dilute the taste of salt, but you can't change the taste of salt. So, what happens when we dilute the righteousness of God that's within us? Well, we become a subtle taste, a bitter taste, one that we don't really want. Why is there salt in this Hershey's cookies and cream bar? That's gross. See, a lot of times we don't realize the impact we have on people that are watching us until we mess up. And then when we mess up, we realize how big our witness was. And finally, it leaves believers feeling like they're shelved. We basically are deciding to put ourselves, if I was using a sports reference, to put ourselves on the bench, if I was using a salt reference, to put ourselves back in the cupboard instead of on the dinner table. See? Being silent, being subtle, and being shelved is a choice we make, but that impacts the world we live in. See, Psalm chapter 1 tries to highlight this for us far before Jesus came. Psalm chapter 1, remember, is where we first find blessed is this, blessed is that, blessed is this, right? Where we get this reference to a man who can either have the blessed life or the wicked. And in Psalm chapter 1 it says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. Right? Do you see that progression there? Who's walking by the sinner? It's like, yeah, that's not too bad, right? Begins to become subtle, then stands in the way of sinners, begins to participate and become silent on what they believe, and then sits in the seed of scoffers. Decides, I'm just gonna put myself up. See, the the contrast to that was the man who's planted by streams of water like a tree, who delights in the law of the Lord both day and night. See, he prospers. He has the good life. Basically, what we see here is to use a food metaphor, is spiritually, we are what we eat. And so finally we get to the charge for the salty and the lit. In verse 16, it says, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. See, a charge is a purpose and a plan. It's something given to us by someone else. And the purpose and plan is for you and I to be salty in order to bring glory to our Father in heaven. You and I to be light, so we can bring glory to our Father in heaven. And the way we bring glory to our Father in heaven is that we one, yes, do all the things and the Beatitudes. Come before Him and say, I need you, and I follow after you, and I pursue righteousness, but then we become righteous. And it doesn't end there. Now that I am righteous and I'm living differently and I'm experiencing persecution, other people are seeing me and they're wondering why I'm different, and I'm telling them, and it all leads to glorifying God because other people are going to turn and follow Jesus. See, the charge is to bring glory to our Heavenly Father. So through you and I, others would taste and see that the Lord is good. You see how it all comes in a complete circle? You and I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Good. And we walk by the Beatitudes not only for salvation, but for every day, for sanctification, to become more like Him and to walk in the good or the blessed life. And we do that, why? So other people would taste and see that the Lord is good. And even further, so that then they would become more in the image of Christ. So that why? More people would taste and see that the Lord is good. So the question I have for us is are we salty and lit? Let's pray. Dear Jesus, thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth of your word that is so powerful and profound. God, we love you and we can't wait to see what you're going to do in and through so many people at VBS and at camp and different things. But in the meantime, God, we just pray for a spiritual revival amongst the people that are present at Spring Baptist Church, that they would just come before you and just admit their need for you and just develop a longing for you and for your word. That would span not only for their lives, but would impact the other people in their lives, their friends, their family, their coworkers, so that they would taste and see that the Lord is good and experience your goodness firsthand. We love you so much.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Thank you for that. Now, as we do every single time we're together, we like to take a moment after the teaching time and just kind of flush out a few big ideas or key takeaways. Pastor Drew, thank you for that message. Now, what is the key idea, a big takeaway for today? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

So as we dove into this passage, uh, we really took apart, uh there's kind of like three parts to it. There is like the the call uh to be salty and lit. And so, and that's what I called it. The call to be salty and lit. Uh, because it says you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. And we kind of dissected what that looked like, uh, kind of some of the things about salt. You know, salt stings, uh, it leaves you thirsty, and it preserves. And uh, we kind of looked at how that parallels with what God does and what uh our effect should be on the people around us when we live distinctly different than the world. Uh, and then we looked at the light of the world and how God's provision for all mankind should be proclaimed, it shouldn't be hidden. Uh, and so we first saw the call to be salty and lit, but then we saw the caution to the salty and lit. Uh, because uh right after he says both of those, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, uh, he says, but if a salt loses its saltiness or loses its taste, and then it says, you know, nor do people light a lamp and hide it. And so there's this caution that if we're not living according to God's word, uh, that uh we lose our effectiveness. We don't lose our salvation. But uh when salt, the only way to lose its taste is if you put it in with a bunch of other things, right? Uh, and you lose the saltiness. And so uh so that's kind of what we see there. And then finally we get to the charge to the salty and lit. And that circles back to our initial statement at the beginning is that in Psalm 34, we see that we're supposed to taste and see that the Lord is good. Well, we as believers are now how the world tastes and see that the Lord is good, and so now that's our charge at the end is that uh our light would shine before others so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

So uh so that's kind of what we we learned a little bit. Well, great ideas, and I love it because it kind of just man pains a bullseye. I'm like, just go do this. If you do this, yeah, everything else is pretty good. Well, excellent. So do we have some practical application on that? Because that's kind of where the rubber hits the road, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

So what's a practical application on that idea?

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Well, the practical application is kind of twofold. It's kind of like what we shouldn't do, and then what we should do. Okay. So first, uh the opposite of being salt and light, right? Something that is seen, something that is distinct, and something that is out there for everybody, uh, would be if we were to be silent, if we were to be subtle, and if we were to be shelved. And so uh basically the idea is we have a choice that we make. We can either be silent or we can proclaim who God is. Uh and but the choice we make, there's consequences that the world feels. And so if we're silent, the world won't know who Jesus is. If we're subtle, the world won't know that Jesus is different and wants more for your life than just to come to church on Sundays and to wear Christian tees and uh to drink your coffee at, you know, and do your Bible study at Starbucks, you know?

SPEAKER_00 27:18

And so we all had to go to Starbucks. I had to be, I thought we had to go to one of those other places. Sure, yeah, you know, uh to each their own, you know. Uh but uh be it salted carmel and light at Starbucks.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

But uh and then finally, I think if you're uh silent and subtle, then what you're really doing is removing yourself from the playing field and you're shelving yourself. So with the alliteration and with the imagery of salt, it's instead of being on the dinner table ready to be used, you're putting yourself in the cupboard. And so so the the alternative to that then is uh paralleled back into Psalm chapter one, uh, which we see is the blessed life, kind of the first time we see the blessed life. Blessed is the man who walks not in the way of sinners, who uh sits not in the you know, walks, stand, sits with mockers, scoffers, and uh the wicked, right? And so uh but the alternative to that is you delight in the law of the Lord and you're planted uh by streams of water. So basically we said that hey, you are what you eat, what you consume, you are. And uh if you are consuming, you know, the light of the world and you're consuming salt, then you you will be distinctly different and be useful to God.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

And so that's kind of what we saw. Great word on that. Um, and such great imagery. I I love that Jesus taught with parables and with with beautiful language that was deep and because there there's just so much there.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah. It's like an onion, there's layers to this.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Yes, yes. So very, very good. So just as we're kind of wrapping it up, I I know what you just said was wrapped it up. I mean, that's a pretty good wrap-up. But is is there any kind of anything else that's just kind of on your mind as we sort of like end this chapter?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah, I just want to make sure everybody knows that even though there are specific tasks that we should be doing, that there's it starts with the heart. And that's what we saw in our progression of the Beatitudes is it started with the heart that says, I can't do it on my own. I'm poor in spirit. And then I mourn over my sin. I'm broken. And you know, uh Craig Rochelle in a men's Bible study I did a long time ago, he said, uh, without the grace of God, I'd be capable of the worst types of sin. Right? And we have to realize we have to be broken over our sin, realize we can't do anything without God, and then that's when we get the meekness part where we submit and say, God, your mission, your will, not my will. And that's why we called it kingdom logic, is because it's his kingdom come in my life. And it starts with the heart, and then the heart uh gets changed, and our desires get changed, and that's where the blessed life comes from. Because right now, if your desires aren't things of God, you feel like you're not living the blessed life if you don't have a million dollars and a Porsche and the garage and no doubt a pool in the backyard. But if your desires are changed because your heart has been given fully to the Lord each and every day, then your desires are being met because he's giving you all of his satisfaction, all of his righteousness, all of his mercy, and uh the power to walk and to do his will and be useful for an eternal purpose rather than just temporary.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Oh, great word on that. And I think it's a great place to pause and say this a lot of people struggle because they try to fix the outside first. Yeah. And I I I think you've hit on it. It's uh it starts at the heart. You'll never get the outside right until the inside's right. Right. And so a lot of people just struggle with that because they they try, they think that that Christ came for behavioral modification and he came to change our hearts.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

So if you're struggling today and you're like, I just can't get in line, this is a great place to start. Go back to the heart. Yeah. Um, because that's you know, Jesus said, from the heart springs all everything else. So very, very good. Well, this has been a good semester, hasn't it? Yeah, it's been great. It's been great. Well, thank you uh for joining us. And Pastor Drew, it's always good to have you with us. Any closing remarks? No, I'm excited to hear what Daryl has planned for the summer. You know, he is on top of things. Yeah. And I think he just told me he's got the seventh episode recorded, so I've got to get to work. I've got some editing to do. Well, great. Well, thank you for joining us. As always, we don't take it for granted that you've spent your time uh with us because we know this God's word has changed our life. When we study it, it moves us and it shakes us and starts at our heart. And we want the same for you. So join us next week as we continue to grasp the Bible.