The Heart That Influences the World

Salt and light are both easy to overlook, until they're missing. Jesus chose these two ordinary, everyday illustrations to describe the extraordinary influence His followers are to have in the world. But what did He mean, and why did He choose them?Over the past two weeks, we've been studying the Beatitudes in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. We discovered that Jesus isn't simply giving us a list of moral virtues to imitate. He's describing the character of those who belong to His Kingdom. True Kingdom citizens are transformed from the inside out. The Christian life is not about trying harder to be a better person; it is about becoming more like our Savior as He transforms our hearts.This Wednesday, we'll continue our series, The Upside Down Kingdom, with a new message entitled: The Heart That Influences the World (Matthew 5:13-14). Jesus now turns from describing the character of His disciples to explaining their influence in the world. What did Jesus mean when He called His followers "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world"?