The Taste of God Given Christ likeness — Santosh Poonen

Yeah, hi family. Happy New Year to you all. I'm really looking forward to this year with you all and what the Lord will do in our midst. Just thinking about the memory verse we had for this last week.

Are we allowed to be anxious? No is correct. And yes is also correct. We just said waiting anxiously. I hadn't thought about it until sitting there. I was like, okay, so I'm allowed to be anxious. Now that word has a different meaning from what you think of when you think of anxiousness or anxiety.

But I thought about this even as I was listening to you all say the memory verse from last week. If I'm going to be anxious about something or anytime you're tempted to be anxious, it's always about something of this earth.

Like is there healing going to come? Is the money going to come? Is the situation going to be okay? It could be even a spiritual battle. But every time you're tempted to be anxious, turn that anxiety towards the coming of the Lord.

Let there be an eagerness. Waiting eagerly, I think some translations say. That's the real meaning there. We're not fretting about Christ's return even though he delays. But we're eager. That's the thing that captivates our attention more than anything else.

Let it be true this year. For each of us individually, for our marriages, for our homes, for our church, in every situation we face, we're eagerly, eager. You know, there are things that you eagerly wait for on this earth.

Maybe it's a birthday, children. I can't wait for my birthday. You count down the days to your birthday. Think about even though we don't know the day or the hour when Christ will return, we know he's coming soon.

We can't count down in terms of from down to zero, but we know it's soon. I want to be ready. Perhaps today the Lord will call me home. Perhaps this week sometime the Lord will call me home. Will that sadden your heart?

Is there something on this earth, a relationship or a thing that's holding you down, where when the Lord says come, you're not able to be released right away. You're held down by something on this earth, some plan you made for this week.

And so we're told in the scripture, make your plans, but say if the Lord wills. The Lord doesn't call me home today. I'll see you guys. We'll have a meeting on Wednesday, and we'll have a prayer meeting on Saturday.

I don't think we have prayer meeting this week, but that's the way we go about our lives. I'd like you to just quickly return to Jude 1, and in view of this, keeping ourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life, He says, first of all, that there will be some who will bring division, verse 19, worldly minded, devoid of the Spirit.

But then he also says in verse 22, in the verse after that, as you keep yourself in the love of God, waiting anxiously, have mercy on others. Be merciful. If God has given you light about His return and His mercy, and you are keeping yourself in the love of God, and you see somebody else who's not, have mercy on those who are doubting.

Have mercy on some who are doubting. Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. So there will be those who you'll have to show mercy from a distance.

Pray for them, like we heard last week. Intercede for them. But be careful of that garment polluted by the flesh. Don't get sucked into their way of speaking or their sinful behavior or attitudes, their fleshly garments.

But have mercy. And so I pray that this is a good verse for us to start this week. Also in Psalm 16, I have set the Lord continually before me because He is there in my right hand. I will not be shaken.

Say that verse to yourself often, dear brother, dear sister, dear children. I will not be shaken 2022. Maybe you'll look back on 2021 and you are shaken every now and then. Maybe. But make it a goal. This is God's will.

This is why we claim the promises of God. If you can really say, I will not be shaken. It's not just a memory verse. It's a promise. Because I have set the Lord before me continually, I will not be shaken.

And if you wake up one morning and realize you were shaken the day before or the night before, you say somehow I didn't set the Lord continually before me. So I'm going to do that again, and I believe I will not be shaken.

Receiving the Life of Christ Through Lowliness

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and I'd like to continue where I left off a couple of three or four weeks ago, I think now. Where I was talking about how the life of Christ is received. It's not produced.

This is something I've been meditating on for a number of weeks, but actually for a number of months, I would say because I find it so easy for us to try to produce the life of Christ. It's our tendency and no matter how much we hear about it and are reminded about it, there's a tendency to slip back into, okay, I'm gonna try harder this time.

I'm gonna try to produce the life of Christ. The life of Christ cannot be produced. It is simply received. But I started by talking about how God can only give the things of heaven to those who are nobody's.

Those who have low thoughts about themselves and actually no thoughts about themselves. Lowly, lowly, like we sang even in one of those hymns, lowly in every situation when a thought tries to exalt itself, a thought about yourself, a thought about you and your idea, your agenda, tries to lift up itself.

Choose the way of loneliness, the way of being a nobody. In every situation, be a nobody. Don't seek to be a somebody, even in the church. Let God determine the circle that he draws around you and in that circle be a nobody.

If he calls you to preach, be a nobody. If he calls you to clean the toilet, be a nobody. If he calls you to fill the water jug, be a nobody. If he calls you to give a ride to somebody, be a nobody. If he calls you to help somebody move something, be a nobody.

If he calls you to give a gift to somebody, be a nobody. If he calls you to be hospitable, do be a nobody. Then God can use you. And that's what Paul was saying here in 1st Corinthians chapter 4 and 3 and 4 where in the church in Corinth, because they were carnal, carnal means they were fleshly in their thinking.

It's possible for Christians to be carnal. That means they're born again, they are, you know, he says that they have laid their foundation on Christ in chapter 3, but their carnality is their fleshliness.

They still have an earthly way of thinking and as a result, there are divisions in this church and there are people who say, well, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, and the other one says I'm of Christ, so I'm even more spiritual than all of you.

And it's just division. And it's even saying I'm of Christ in an earthly way, in a divisive way, in a way that looks down on others. And Paul says, what is Paul? What is Apollos? They're nothing. We saw that last week and I want to continue where he says, so verse 5, 1st Corinthians 4 verse 5, do not go on passing judgment before the time.

Anytime you're tempted to judge somebody else over anything, about anything, even if they disagree with you on some doctrinal matter, let's say, don't go on passing judgment. You follow the Lord according to the light he's given you.

You follow him wholeheartedly. Let Jesus be everything to you and don't judge anybody else. That's what he's saying here. Don't go on passing judgment before the time. And then he says in verse 8, you are already filled.

You have already become rich and Paul is comparing himself to the church that he planted. He says, I planted, Apollos watered, God caused the growth. And he says, you who are the fruit of my labor, you have become kings.

But I am a servant, Paul says. And there's a testimony. I ask you a question. Who are you following? Are you following the Corinthians, who are a good church in some ways, planted by Paul? Or are you following Paul?

Do you want to be a king? Like the Corinthians were? Or do you want to be a servant? See, I remember hearing this analogy that my dad shared once in a message and I've never forgotten it. Imagine if you were serving a king and the king said, I want breakfast ready at 8 o 'clock.

What time should you be ready as a servant? 7 .30 maybe, in case he shows up early. And let's say you're ready at 7 or 7 .30. Everything's neatly laid out and you're standing there at attention. This is the king and he walks in at 9 o 'clock because he overslept.

What would you say? Would you be upset? He made me wait a whole hour for you. If he's the king, you have no right. You're just there. You had it ready before. You just make sure it's not late. The king can be late.

The king can come at his convenience. And Paul had this mentality, and I'm not talking about timeliness specifically, but just the attitude of a king versus the attitude of a servant. That makes all the difference between those who build up the church, those who have a desire to be a servant, to be a nobody.

I'm here to think of others as more important than myself. These are the ones who are useful in the body of Christ. Not thinking of myself and oh, they didn't treat me a particular way or they didn't invite me for this or they didn't say that to me or nobody talked to me.

These are kings who think like that. Servants are not there to be served. They're there to serve others. And the best church is the one where it has the most number of servants or the highest percentage of servants, I would say.

Most of the world thinks of churches in terms of how big they are, whether it's the building or how many seats are filled. That's not what God is interested in. How many people in a local expression, in a local gathering, have the spirit of a servant?

That means they're the church, the needs of the church, not because it's RLCF or anything like that, but because it's an expression of the body of Christ. And I don't want to be exalted. I want Christ alone to be exalted.

And because I want Christ to be exalted, it doesn't care, it doesn't matter to me what my calling in life on this earth is in this body. If God calls me to be a nobody or he calls me to be a somebody in the world's view, I'm still a nobody.

I'm a servant. Seek to be a servant. He says you are filled, you have become rich, you have become kings without us, but we are servants. He says in verse 9, you know, a lot of people use the word apostle as our title.

Follow Paul's example as an apostle who saw the apostle as one who was condemned to death last. Look at verse 9. I love this expression of being an apostle. Some people say that the ministry of the gift of apostles has seized.

I don't believe it has because none of the other gifts where he says in Ephesians 4, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, none of the others has seized. And he's talking about Christ having ascended on high and then given to the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists.

But don't, if you desire to be an apostle, desire it this way. Desire to be last. I think God has exhibited us apostles last. And the ones whom God can truly use to be apostles in his body, whatever that function looks like, are the ones who are striving to be last more than anybody else.

Such a person can actually be an apostle. Every situation they want to be last. They want to be last. You go ahead. Not just in standing in line to eat because that can be something that you gain honor for.

Everybody looks at the person going last and says what a self-sacrificial person. No, not in that. In your own thinking where nobody knows that you think of yourself last. Whether you stand in the front of the line or not, are you at the back of the line in your mind?

Then you're the last. God can use you. Last of all as men condemned to death because we have become a spectacle to the world. Somebody that they make fun of. Do you desire this? I want to be somebody the world makes fun of.

They think of what good is he? Look at him. These are the ones that God chooses to be the most effective. So don't think of the word apostle as you know aspire for that as a gift. Aspire to be the last.

Aspire to be a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. Fools for Christ. Let everybody else be thought of as wise. You be thought of as a fool. Oh Santosh, ah he's a fool. He's a little too radical, a little too crazy.

I want to be known by that. Not because I desire to be made fun of but because I'm following Christ who was a fool hanging there on the cross and when everybody said prove that you're the son of God by coming down.

He says I'll be a fool. I'll stay here. Then he says in verse um yeah we'll continue reading verse nine. We have verse 10. We're fools for Christ. You are prudent in Christ. We are weak. You are strong.

Do you want to be the weakest person in this church in terms of earthly gift? Oh what good is that person? He has no gift. Can't do this. Can't do that other thing. God says I can use you like Paul. You know Paul was an amazingly gifted man.

He'd studied in the top seminary in Israel at that time under the school of Gamaliel. But after he was born again he counted all of those things as loss. He says in Philippians 3. All of that education.

All of that ability. He didn't throw it away but he regarded it as useless as manure dung for the sake of Christ. And that's why God was even able to use the gift that he gave him. Paul's amazingly sharp mind God used to write more scripture than any of the other apostles.

And so God in a sense could use all of that training in Gamaliel and then take him for three years to the Arabian desert so that he would spend three years counting all of that knowledge as useless, good for nothing, worthless, dung.

And then he says okay I'm not going to take away your mind but I'm going to call you now to serve me. And you look at that gift as nothing. You are a nothing. You are distinguished. We are without honor.

Think about this. The person who planted the church says you who are planted are distinguished. I who did the planting I'm without honor. I tell you my honest prayer. I don't know as God is my judge but this is the desire of my heart even as an elder in this church that I would be the one without honor.

I don't seek. I don't want to seek honor on this earth. Let the other pastors and churches in the world desire that to be the first and have their picture on the website. We don't need that. I want to be the one without honor.

I want to follow Paul who's following Christ. And if we can all go that way, thank you. If we can all go that way what a wonderful blessing it would be. Even as a father in the home, even as a mother in the home to be the one without honor.

Keep reading. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty. Can you imagine Paul came to the church meeting in Corinth and they forgot to feed him. This is how lightly and lowly they thought of Paul.

He was the one that planted the church and they forgot about him because he had such a lowly way of going about them in their midst. I imagine Paul when he came to the meeting he played with the children and he was like the little children.

He played with them and everybody else had their intellectual conversations and there was Paul and they forgot to feed him. Like you would forget a child maybe that's a child. If you forget to talk to a child you go back and think I didn't talk to that one child.

I wish I could talk to them. This was Paul taking the place of lowliness. To this day we are both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed. Paul came in with the worst looking clothes on. Now it doesn't mean that we follow that example physically.

That would be a dead work. You wear the clothes God has given you but you don't pride yourself in it. You have the home God has given you. You have the job God has given you but you don't esteem those things as highly.

You don't think of others yourself as better than others because of something God has given you. That's what he's been saying. What do you have that you haven't received? Everything you have has been given.

We are roughly treated homeless. You know Paul was homeless. Not in the way that we think of as homelessness today. But he didn't count of anything as a home. He wasn't attached to anything on this home.

It says in the last chapter of Acts that he lived in his own rented apartment. So clearly he had a home. But it wasn't as his home in his affections. We toil working with our own hands. That's why we followed Paul's example in all of us elders in this church.

Those who nobody's supported by the church. When we are reviled we bless. When they want to speak evil about this church I pray I hope you will be one that says yeah let them speak evil of me. It's okay.

When we are reviled we bless. When we are persecuted we endure. When we are slandered we try to reconcile. We have become as the scum of the world the dregs of all things even until now. You know the dregs of all things are when you make a cup of coffee and some dregs remain on that.

What do you do with that? You still think I want to eat the dregs, the leftovers. A little bit of ground coffee didn't get filtered properly. It got left over in the cup. What do you do? You just toss it into the trash.

That's Paul. That's how he thought about himself. And that's why he was the most effective man after Jesus Christ I believe in the history of mankind. Do you want to be effective dear brother, dear sister, husbands, wives, children?

The world will tell you to pursue the big examples of those who become rich and famous. And I pray that it'll be true about every single person that's come through RLCF or considers themselves a part of RLCF that we're seeking to be the dregs.

Let RLCF be the church that everybody says oh there's this church and that church and another thing and they forget to mention even us. We're not seeking to be known in this town or this state or in the country or anything like that.

Let God be the one who allows us to have an influence. And we must have an influence but we don't seek a reputation. We're the dregs. We think of ourselves as the dregs and then God can use us. And so this is the verse I wanted you to see though, verse 7.

Who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? First Corinthians 4 verse 7. A very important verse for us to remember through this year. Everything you have received is given by God.

And anything that's of value, if you think you've gotten it in your own strength, it's not going to be of value. Whatever you have, you have received. Whatever you have, you receive. And I think of it like this, that there are two types of Christians in the world.

Cain, Seth, and the Difference Between Producing and Receiving

Those who are trying to produce the life of Christ, like I was saying earlier. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 4. There are two types of Christians in this world and they're represented, I think, by these two men that you see in Genesis chapter 4.

Those who are trying to produce the life of Christ saying, I'm going to do it better. I'll be a better husband. I'll be a better wife. I'm going to try harder. And I'm going to, by hook or by crook, I'm going to be a better Christian this year.

That's my new year's resolution. And they fail. And the second group of Christians are those who are receiving the life of Christ. Simply receiving it. And they recognize that I did nothing to deserve this.

I did nothing to deserve that I am the husband that I am, or the wife that I am, or the father, or the mother that I am, or the brother, or the employee, or whatever. I didn't work hard to be that person, the follower of Jesus that I am today.

It was simply given to me. Those are the people who receive the life of Christ. And you see that here as a picture in the difference between Cain and Seth. Cain was the firstborn. And the attitude that Eve had when she gave birth to Cain, even in his name.

Look at what it says in Genesis 4 verse 1. The man had relations with his wife Eve. And she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I have. I've done it. And in a sense you could almost say that she said, God you produced the first man Adam.

I produced the second man Cain. Just like you did. See I'm like Christ too. See how I died in that situation. And I denied myself. Jesus denied himself. I did it too. Look at my Christ likeness. This is the root of all religiosity.

Cain represents religiosity. He offered a sacrifice to God and was proud of it. It says God had no regard for Cain. And that's why he rejected his sacrifice. He saw in Cain this spirit of, look God I have given you an offering.

Aren't you happy with it? I brought it. By the toil, by the sweat of my brow I produced this fruit of the ground. This wheat or this whatever produce from the ground he brought. And he, I imagine in Cain's thoughts there were, oh I tilled the ground really well.

And then I watered it. And I watched over it. And I cared for it. And then when these bugs came I pushed them away. And look God I brought this tremendous harvest for you. And I've laid it on the altar.

And there was nothing wrong with the fact that God, that he brought grain. It was what God saw in Cain's heart. That it was a producing of the sacrifice that God rejected. And may it never be that we have an attitude of coming to God like I've produced this selfish, unselfishness, or this patience, or this love, or this forgiveness, or this kindness, or this mercy I showed somebody.

And I look back and say, ah I was merciful in that situation. And I sit with my shoulders up because I'm something. Or God uses you to be a blessing to somebody in the church. Or you share a word that is prophetic.

And it's an anointed word. And it's encouragement to others. And you sit there and think, I said it. And they quoted me. This is the way it is in the world. Don't desire to be quoted. Don't desire to even say something.

Be a nobody. This was the root of religiosity. Seth on the other hand, after you know what the result of that was. Cain killed his brother Abel. Quickly sin, evil comes into the world. And then after that Eve learns her lesson.

You read in verse 25. Adam had relations with his wife again. And she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. For she said, God has given. God has appointed. Now it's God. Now I'm not trying to give Eve more credit or give her more blame.

I just believe there's something represented here. And you go on to read what it says. God has appointed for me another offspring in place of Abel. For Cain killed him. To set to him also a son was born.

And he called his name Enosh. And then it says this. Then men began to call the name of the Lord. To call upon the name of the Lord. Or my margin says, be called by the name of the Lord. That's the literal meaning there.

It's not this church or that church or my religiosity, my spiritual. It is the name of the Lord. Whose are you? What church are you? We're Jesus Christ. That's it. Yeah, we have a name so people can know where to find us.

But the name of the Lord. That's what we want to be known by. Then men began to be called by the name of the Lord. Not by the name of Cain. Not even by the name of Abel. It says that Jesus Christ has offered a sacrifice.

His blood is greater even than the blood of Abel. The blood of Abel was good to a certain extent. But it cried out for revenge. The blood of Jesus Christ speaks louder. And we want to be known by the blood of Christ.

We want to be known by that name. That when they come into our meetings, they see we exalt Jesus more than anything else. It's not our programs. It's not this or that. It's not anything of an earthly value that we can offer to people.

But simply this. They've, they esteem Jesus. When they come into our homes, whether we play games or have conversations or sing or have a meeting or or just eat a meal together. These people are taken up with Jesus.

Not ministry. See there's a there's a there's a subtle difference there. Cain was taken up with ministry. That's religiosity. I'm doing this for the Lord and I'm doing that other thing for the Lord. And I have this meeting and I gave the gospel here or did this and do that.

What are you doing for the Lord? I said some may say I'm just raising a godly home. But I'm known by the name of the Lord and I want every one of my children to be known by the name of the Lord. I want our marriage to be known by the name of the Lord.

Seek for this. This is true worship. And the difference between religiosity and spirituality is this. Outwardly it looks the same I think in many ways. You might go into one church and to another church.

One is religious, the other spiritual. And you may think well there's not much difference. They they kind of yeah the songs they sing similar songs. They they speak similar messages. But there's something different and you'll only know it by the taste.

Tasting the Goodness of God Through the Holy Spirit

There's a verse you know in Psalm 34 verse 8. Have you seen that verse? How do you know that the Lord is good? You know when God is good he doesn't just say I'm good. He doesn't just proclaim it from heaven.

He says Psalm 34. A man David writes God is so good that you can taste that he's good. Psalm 34 verse 8. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. He doesn't just say believe me when I say the Lord is good or trust me take my word for it.

You who are hearing me David says you taste the Lord himself. However you however that is. Now in the Old Testament it was only through his word. That's why he could write Psalm 119 which is the longest chapter in the Bible.

And in that he talks about the the precepts of the Lord and the law of the Lord. And he's precious. And you can tell it's coming from a man who's not just set out as a goal to write the longest chapter in the Bible.

I mean can you imagine that David said I want to write the longest chapter of the Bible so I'm going to write Psalm 119. No that's not what he set out to do. He said I've tasted the Lord he's so good.

And the extent to which he could know God was through his word at that time because Jesus had not yet come. But he's so good that I want to keep writing and I want to keep writing and I want to keep writing.

176 times he wrote a verse to talk about the goodness of the Lord. And now he says come and taste and see the Lord is good. He is good. Now our standard in the new covenant is much higher than David had.

We don't just read the Bible and say oh the Lord is good. He says the word has become flesh and dwelt among us and we have touched him and tasted him is a sense that I get from John. John got to physically touch Jesus but he was talking about something much more than that.

Through the Holy Spirit this is why we must seek for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit the taste of Jesus becomes real to me. He's not just something I preach about and know about and I know all the wonderful things he's done for me.

But the Holy Spirit has come within me and disclosed to me the things of Jesus and I have taken a bite of his life and I'm experiencing it. This is the difference. And I believe if you have discernment I desire that we will be more discerning.

You can spend five minutes with somebody and taste of their Christianity and know whether it's real or not. I'm going to use an analogy. I have here an apple. Do you believe that it's an apple? You should because it looks like one.

It's a very good apple. And here's another one. That's not an apple. This is one. They're different colors. But this is supposed to be an apple. And you might look at it from a distance and even touch it.

And these days they can make apples that are fake to feel realistic. In fact as I touch this it feels quite real. It's just a toy. But I bet if I can imagine that if somebody wanted to imitate a real apple they could make it feel so good, so soft and perfect like an apple, until you take a bite into it.

And then you realize it's not. A real life, that's what the apple represents here. Real life cannot be duplicated, cannot be created. You can't create this with human strength or human ability. Only God can.

You can put a seed in the ground. You can water it. You could take care of that apple tree. But the production of apples like this takes life, takes creation. Life in that seed. You can't create life.

Man has been trying. They've come up with realistic robots and been able to replicate and you know test tube babies and all these things. Science is doing a lot of amazing things seemingly. But there's one thing they will never be able to do and that's create life from scratch.

Only God can do that. And it's the same with the Christian life. It's the same with the life of Christ. No matter how much I as a good man, as a good disciple, try to produce the life of Christ in me, it's impossible.

It could look really good. And the Pharisees, Jesus said, do as they say, but not as they do, because they don't have it. Once you actually take a bite into it, you realize it's not real. And so think about it, dear brothers and sisters.

If people take a bite into your life spiritually, what are they tasting? Is it real? You can't fake it. You can't say, well I've got the right doctrines and I know. I've listened to this sermon and let me point you to that other sermon and I know what this means and what that other thing means.

But then they come and taste in your marriage. And they taste in your home. And they taste of your children and the way you're raising them. And they taste about the goals that you've set. And they realize, man, yeah the language is there, but it doesn't taste good.

There's something missing. It doesn't taste like an apple. I have a longing with everything within me. Now there will be people who will be offended over the fact that we stand for the truth. People may be offended by upholding the standards of Christ.

But in our spirit, they must see a gentleness. Let your gentle spirit be known to all. Why? Because the Lord is near, says in Philippians 4. Let your gentleness be known. And when they interact with you, even though they see you like a lion at times when you preach the truth, when they actually spend time with you, realize you're a lamb.

This was Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple. But when you sat with him and you really had a hunger to be lowly and you were in need, like Mary Magdalene found and the prostitutes and the tax gatherers found, he was gentle with them.

That woman caught in adultery, he was gentle with her. I imagine maybe he put his arm around her and says, I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. The lion and the lamb. You know this is, Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 13 that, you are the salt of the earth and if salt has lost its savor, what good are you?

What good is it? You say I'm the salt. You say we are new covenant. You say we uphold this and we uphold that truth and we're seeking to follow Jesus. But when you're actually put into the food in the world, there's no taste.

You look just like the world. You act just like the world. The things that captivate your attention are just like the rest of the world. So there's this tasteless white powder that's getting put in the world and you say I'm salt and you put the two in and doesn't taste.

I've never tasted salt that's lost its savor. But apparently there is such a thing. Jesus said it's possible. Sometimes you can tell that salt is not quite as salty. Certain brands of salt, they cheapened it by mixing in something else.

Maybe they put a little bit of stone in there too. And so the overall effect, no matter how much you grind it, you put it's salt mixed with a little bit of stone as well. Fine stone, sand, white sand.

And then you put a bunch of that and you taste it and realize man it didn't have any effect on the food. Jesus warned us in Matthew 5 verse 13, you are the salt of the earth but a lot of people memorize you are the salt of the earth.

That's it, you're the salt of the earth. But what was Jesus point in saying that you are the salt of the earth? Make sure the taste is there. If the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?