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When I was a kid, I wanted to become a pilot; so I became a pastor. I’m still flying by the seat of my pants! When you look back on what you wanted to become, you may not have known it at the time but deep down inside you wanted somehow to make a difference. You wanted your life to count for something. You didn’t want to just sit back. You wanted to make an impact.

Even though all your childhood dreams didn’t come true, you can still make an impact on this world. In fact, it’s Jesus that challenges you and me to become people of influence. In His landmark sermon, He gives us the answer to a life of impact and influence by challenging us to become a unique combination of salt and light to our world.

Jesus said Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth." In Jesus’ day, salt was one of the most useful and important elements you could possess. It was used to flavor food, but mostly it was used for preserving food. Without refrigerators and freezers, salt keep food from spoiling. For instance, if you killed the fatted cow and couldn’t eat it right away, you would rub salt into the meat to keep the meat from decaying or spoiling. Salt either spices something up, or it keeps it from going bad.

I think Jesus’ point is simply this: Salt affects or impacts food. Using this salt analogy, Jesus is saying, "Live life on earth like you are salt. Be salty—exhibit a flavorful life—exhibit a preserving lifestyle that impacts your world." Salty Christ followers are to live in such a way that hopeless people receive hope; discouraged people find encouragement; selfish people get beyond themselves; broken lives are mended; and prodigals are found.

It doesn’t mean that you become either a card-carrying member of the moral police squad or of the sin patrol that goes around breaking the law, beating up people and pointing fingers at evil doers. It’s not about checking up on other people’s lives. It’s about checking up on your life and how you are living so that you can influence, impact and remind people by the way you live of what’s right and wrong; what matters and doesn’t matter. By being salty, you keep those around you from falling into moral decay. You impact evil with good. You face the wrong in life with moral courage.

In his third season Pat set a franchise record with 224 tackles. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 25-year-old superstar began to evaluate his priorities. In 2002, after returning from his honeymoon and after only four seasons, he announced his decision to leave the team even though it meant turning down a three-year, $3.6 million contract. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Ranger with an annual salary of $18,000. On Thursday, April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. According to former Cardinals head coach Dave McGinnis, "Pat Tillman represented all that was good in sports. He knew his purpose in life and proudly walked away from a career in football to a greater calling." Tillman was a man of moral courage who made an impact. God has designed us to be salty influencers who impact this world.

Jesus goes on to say, in Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world--like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see". The very nature of light is to shine. The very nature of a Christ follower is to shine. In Jesus’ day, villages were built on hilltops where breezes could cool them. If you traveled at night, it was easy to locate the next village from a great distance because the village candles and fires lit the sky.

As lights, Jesus challenges you and me to lead people out of spiritual darkness and into the light. You are to show people the way to a right relationship with Jesus; show them the truth about how to live and experience God’s truth. The world is like a dark night, but you are to be the world's light. You are to illumine society and show it a better way. Shine!!

Imagine that you are diagnosed with a rare disease and have one year to live. A new experimental drug comes on the market, which the doctor prescribes for you. You try it and within three months you are totally cured. About that time, you hear of someone diagnosed with the same disease. Now would you keep that new drug a secret? No! You would tell them all about it.

It’s only natural to show them the way, to light someone’s path to a cure. That’s what Jesus is saying. Impact this world by shining your light so that people can find a cure for their moral foul-ups and locate a right relationship with God. Light their way to Christ. Show them the way. Shine!

So Jesus challenges us to make a real difference in our world—to impact our world—by being salt and light. We are to demonstrate moral courage in a world of decay. We are to shine the light of God’s truth into a world of darkness. As salt and light, we are to impact our world.

Here’s the awesome thing: Jesus is speaking to a crowd of ordinary people on a mountainside. He’s not talking to a bunch of religious professionals, seminary graduates or angels. He’s talking to everyday, average people like you and me who He wants to use to impact the world. Oh, we may never grab any headlines, but Jesus is challenging us to salt and light our world.

Jesus is saying, "It’s not the job of the angels or the religious hired guns, it’s your job. Don’t shrink back. Don’t back down. It’s action time. Don’t just subscribe to My teachings; it’s time for you to think about how you’re going to impact your world."

Notice, Jesus didn’t say, "You will be the salt of the earth; you could be the light of the world; you have the potential to be salt and light." No, he said you who are Christ followers are the salt and light of the world. You and I don’t have a choice. We can’t help but be impact players as salt and light in a decaying and darkening world.

But this huge challenge by Jesus to be salt and light also comes with a warning. Matthew 5:13 says "… But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless." Verse 15 instructs, "Don't hide your light under a basket!"

What is Jesus saying? It’s possible for you and me to become passive, closet Christians, low-impact Christ followers. I was miserable at science in high school. That’s why I majored in something practical like history and Greek in college. But I kind of remember that sodium chloride or salt is very stable and resilient. In fact, it can’t become "unsalty." Salt only loses it saltiness when it becomes diluted with things that aren’t salty.

Jesus warns us, "Keep your salt salty. Don’t dilute God’s values with the world’s values. Don’t flirt with temporal things and neglect the eternal things. Don’t water down God’s truth—the Bible—with worldly truth. Otherwise you’ll lose your potency and you won’t have much punch and influence on this world." How’s your salt potency?

In the same way, Jesus says, "Don’t hide your light behind some light-squelching lifestyle or attitude that will limit the illumination or the potency of your light. Instead, be a city on a hill that lights the way. Figure out a way to maximize the impact or wattage of your light. Be strategic so that everyone around you will see your good deeds and be drawn to the Father in Heaven."

So how do we as Christ followers stay savory and energized so that we can impact our world? It begins when we live out the attitudes we looked at last week. By being dependent, broken, submissive, dedicated, merciful, cleansed, peacemaking, faithful followers of Jesus, you enter into a vital union with Jesus Christ where you assign Him top spot in your life and you mean it. Take a look at John 15:5 where Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Jesus is saying that if you want to bear fruit—that is, make an impact and fulfill the salt and light challenge, you’ve got to abide in Him—you’ve got to be in Him—you have to walk in vital union with Him.

One author says, "Abiding is all about the most important friendship of your life. Abiding doesn’t measure how much you know about your faith, or your Bible. In abiding, you seek, long for, thirst for, wait for, see, know, love, hear, and respond to a person. More abiding means more of God in your life, more of Him in your activities, thoughts and desires."

Abiding is not about doing more for God but choosing to do more with Him. By abiding you enjoy a rewarding friendship with God. You become saltier and more energized. Putting God on your front burner and turning up the heat on your relationship with Him is the key to impact.

When water reaches 212 degrees—its boiling point—it changes properties, and there’s this enormous energy release. This powered steam can even drive huge machines. So when water turns to steam, watch out! In the same way, when you heat up your spiritual life to the boiling point by abiding with Christ, there’s an enormous power released in your life. That’s when you become a person of impact—an unstoppable force of salt and light in this world.

Here are several suggestions for heating up your life by putting God on the front burner. Here’s how your salt gets more savory and your candlepower gets brighter. Here’s how you ratchet up your friendship with God. 1. Hang out at church regularly. Don’t make it one of five options. It’s where you come to feed, to grow, to be challenged and encouraged and experience community.

2. Implement some spiritual practices in your life—schedule private time with God to read the Bible and pray, give financially back to God, join an HCC small group, attend Discovery and find your God-given place of service at HCC, and apply God’s principles to your daily life.

3. Personalize a "Salt and Light Plan" or a strategy that flows out of your friendship with God. Management guru Peter Drucker once said that your life plan or personal mission statement should be so clear and concise that you could print it on the front of a tee shirt. Let me encourage you to put it in one simple sentence or phrase so that even a 12-year-old can get it.

What do you think Jesus would have had on the front of his tee shirt? "I came to seek and save the lost." The Apostle Paul’s t-shirt might have said, "Start new churches where there is no voice for God." Bob Pierce who started World Vision—"Feed starving children in the name of Jesus." Mother Teresa: "To show compassion to the poorest of poor." Heartland’s children’s ministry: "Kids Matter." Heartland’s Care Ministry: "No one grieves alone." What would your tee shirt say? E-mail me yours this week. I would love to see your statement.

Can you imagine the impact if we were all people who knew their mission in life—who knew their salt and light plan for influencing and impacting this world and linked together to serve each other, our community and world? Imagine the power that would be released and the praise that would go to our heavenly Father.

But there are no shortcuts. You must walk in a vital union with Jesus every day because apart from Him you can do nothing.

Friends, it’s time to shine on!