Sermon Tone Analysis

*If we think of salt as a preservative, we can assume Jesus wants us to prevent moral decay in our society.

And if we think of salt's ability to enhance flavor, we can be sure He wants us to help people discover the joy of knowing and living for Him.

The place for salt is in the "stew" of  human activities*

His idea was that each thought we have is like a brick in the house we will live in.

So if we take  negative thoughts such as I will never succeed ,I am useless.

That’s two bricks  the wall of the house you are building and the house you will live in day after day after day.

My situation is hopeless no one cares for me.

That’s another two bricks .I am unlovable.

I will never change Another two bricks.

And the walls are getting higher .

If I take many such negative thoughts about myself, about my life ,about my future.

I will live in a house built of doom and gloom, surrounded by  self condemnation and defeat.

You can be sure that every such negative thought has its root from the enemy and not from God.

Read your bible ,see what the Lord says about you .you are the light of the world.

You are the city of God.

You are salt of the earth .Paul tells us you are the righteousness of God, not because of what we have done but because of what Christ has done in us.

Pauls we are more than conquerors in Christ.

You can do all things in Christ who strengthens you.

Satan is a liar but not a stupid liar .

When he comes as our accuser with all these negative thoughts we should reverse whatever he says .Because we know Satan is a liar we know that the very opposite of what he says is in fact the truth.

When he tells you, you are a hopeless case.

Proclaim , my hope is in my God in whom I trust

You must be a light that can be seen.

There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.

Our Christianity should be perfectly visible to all.

A light is a guide.

On the estuary of any river we may see the line of lights which marks the channel for the ships to sail in safely..

A light is something to make clear the way.

Think about this you are in a group and they intend to do some evil thing.

If you stand up and say , “I will not be take part in this,” Perhaps someone else will remember that they are Christian and they will stand up with you and say, “I to will not take part in this .

Had you not given the example, they would have remained silent and followed the group.

There are many people in this world who have not the moral strength and courage to take a stand by themselves, but if someone gives them a lead, they will follow.

Warning light.

It is often difficult, and it is often hard to warn someone and to do it do it in a way which will not do more harm than good; but one of the  tragedies in life would  be for someone, especially a young person, to come and say to us, “I would never have been in the situation in which I now find myself, if you had only spoken in time.”

*Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven*.(i)

In greek there are two words for *good ie agathos* which defines a thing as good in quality; there is *kalos** *which means not only good, also beautiful and attractive.

The word used in the Gospel is *kalos*.The good deeds of the Christian must be not only* good*/;/ they must be also *attractive*.

There must be a certain attractiveness and beauty in Christian goodness.

The problem of so much so-called goodness is that in it there is an element of hardness and coldness.

There is a goodness which attracts and a goodness which repels.

There is a beauty in true Christian goodness which makes it a lovely thing.

Our good deeds ought to draw attention, not to ourselves, but to God.

Jesus totally forbids doing good for sake of rankayadade and praise of those around us.(Example in Nigeria)  That goodness which is conscious, which draws attention to itself, is not the Christian goodness