Bunbury
Wed pm
20/10/2010
“How’s your taste buds?”
Intro: *** In the final years of my parents lives they lived in an area where there were a number of retirement units. It was good for them b/c they met new people their own age, mixed w/ them, had a seniors club they went to & generally had a good time.
I remember one couple in particular they met & b/ca good friends w/. The husband had throat cancer a number of years earlier & due to surgery had permanently damaged his ability to taste anything. I remember my mother telling me how his wife asked him what he would like to eat & he would just say ..... it doesn’t matter I can’t taste anything anyway!
For this man eating was simply a matter of staying alive. Enjoyment was no longer a part of his dinning experience.
Thinking about this it gives us a parallel w/ something that can happen to us spiritually.
We can come to the place as Christians where we lose our ability to taste & even more imptly enjoy God.
As our nourisher / provider / Saviour God not only wants to feed us but ..... the W of G makes it clear that it’s His will for us to enjoy Him.
This then opens up an impt question to think about ......... ‘How’s your taste buds?’.
Text: Psalms 34:8 (NKJV) 8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Let’s think firstly about those familiar words that we’ve all spoken to our children as parents & that is ......
# 1. Taste it!
A. Half the problem w/ trying to get people to eat new things is getting them to taste it.
*** Jesse our youngest son was by far the fussiest of our three children when it comes to food. When eating a pizza he would remove all the toppings & only eat the base w/ the cheese on it! The biggest problem w/ him was getting him to taste things in the first place!
He literally decided there were things he didn’t like b/4 he had even tasted them!!! Even today he has a fairly restricted diet b/c there are so many things he won’t eat.
a. But ......... you can’t tell if something’s good until you taste it.
i. And this is why we are being urged in our text to taste God!
Vs 8. 8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; .....
ii. How many times are we involved in outreach / evangelism offering the lost eternal life & even as they approach you they hold up a hand & wave you off.
iii. How different it is many times however as a friend / family member gets saved & says ..... “You should taste this – it’s fantastic!”
iv. Then it is a different story – curiosity is aroused – maybe He tastes a lot better than I thought??
v. That’s why evangelising the people you have r/s w/ is so impt ...... They have seen that you have tasted & He’s good!
b. First impt hurdle is a willingness to taste.
i. If you’re not even willing to taste then you can never make the discovery of how good God is.
*** A number of Americans used to come & preach in our church in Suva while I was pastoring there. One of my missions w/ the Americans was to ‘convert’ them to Vegemite. Since none of them liked it (Or at least thought they didn’t like it) I made it my mission to educate them on how to eat it properly. I would explain to them that it’s all in how you apply the Vegemite to your toast. I would spread it thin & then give them a sample to try. The brave tasted & saw that it was indeed good! Alas ..... there were some though that never tasted & b/c of this will never know the heaven of Vegemite!
ii. But it also means that for us to be able to convince others how good God is that we must fully taste Him ourselves.
iii. I’m not just talking a little nibble but a full feast of the Almighty God .... indulging yourself in His goodness!!!
B. It’s not just the unsaved that fail to taste.
a. It would be easy for us to think it’s just the unbelievers that don’t taste.
i. But the truth of the matter is that there is much of God to be experienced.
ii. Sometimes as Christians the problem is not that we won’t taste at all but that we don’t take time to savour the taste of what we’re tasting.
iii. The problem here is that we lose the value of what God wants to put into us.
*** We had a German Shepherd cross named Julie. I’ll never forget the way she used to eat. Every time we fed her it was as if she had never eaten in her life. I would sometimes hold meat scraps up & make her jump for them. She would jump up & grab it & most of the time swallow it whole!!! No chewing / savouring / enjoying – just down the hatch!
b. The Christian life as you’ve heard me say on numerous occasions is a relationship.
i. One of the key issues of a relationship is enjoyment .... in other words it doesn’t just fulfil a functional role but rather has an enjoyment aspect to it.
ii. And that’s what our r/s w/ God is supposed to be about – enjoying our God / Saviour / redeemer / Heavenly Father.
*** Truth of the matter is that boys are pigs! Even when they get older. The name of the game is wolf your food down as quick as you can. The quicker you get it down, the better it tastes. My wife often says to me “Did you eat that already?” I always say “I keep telling you that boys are gut’s, you should know that by now!”
When we go down to my in-laws it is always my father in-law Jack or me who finish first. I often say when I finish first, “I won!”
iii. But to really taste something you have to take time to savour the flavour of what you’re eating.
iv. It’s the same w/ God ...... to fully taste Him it takes time, not like eating a McDonalds burger!
Vs 8. 8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; .....
v. The word taste here lit = to discern / perceive or evaluate something ..... if we are going to do this w/ God it’s going to take time.
# 2. Things that spoil our taste buds.
A. We need to u/s that there are things that ruin our ability to taste properly.
a. We are all born w/ a keen sense of taste.
i. It’s interesting to watch babies have some of their first taste experiences.
ii. What’s amazing is that some of the things you’d expect them to eagerly consume they draw back from ..... ever watched a baby try a soft drink for the first time?
iii. Their little taste buds are super sensitive when they are babies & some of the things our more hardy taste buds are used to & enjoy they are repelled by.
*** Never having been a smoker I can’t really say but I am told that smoking dulls your ability to taste. I am told that people are put off their food b/c they can’t taste it like they used to b/4 being a smoker.
I can’t say for sure whether or not that is true but one thing I am sure of .... smoking certainly wouldn’t enhance the flavour of your food!
iv. But it’s not so much smoking that ruin our taste for God & everything that He is so what is it?
B. Think about the process of losing your taste.
a. When our taste buds are damaged we lose our ability to sense what is good & what isn’t.
i. Think about this ...... something that is good can b/co unsavoury b/c our taste for it has been altered.
ii. Now this may be good when it comes to losing our desire for things that are sinful / ungodly.
iii. But it’s not good when we lose our taste for God & the things He intended to be a blessing to us.
iv. Think about O/T Israel coming out of Egypt – God gave them bread to eat – it tasted good!
Exodus 16:31 (NKJV) 31And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
v. Gourmet bread on tap from heaven every day to delight the people of God!
b. But then something Changed .... they began to loathe what they initially loved.
i. We find the people after some time complaining about how they loathed this great blessing God was daily raining down on His people.
Numbers 21:5 (NKJV) 5And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
ii. It’s the same thing that can begin to happen in our lives..... the things of God we once delight in we now have no taste for.
C. So what are the things that can spoil your taste buds?
a. Firstly there is the desire for money / materialism / temporal things that dull our taste for God.
i. As N/T believers (that’s what we are) we are constantly warned about the danger of one of the deadliest things.
ii. What makes it deadly is that it dulls our passion / hunger for God.
iii. So what is it? What can be so deadly that we would have an appetite for that rather than God?
iv. It’s called covetousness! And what makes it so deadly is that you can’t easily mark the point where you have crossed over from meeting your material needs & being covetous.
v. Listen to how deadly this taste bud killer is .......
Matthew 13:22 (NKJV) 22Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
vi. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s no big deal ..... T.B.S. that covetousness will take you to hell!
1 Corinthians 6:10 (NKJV) 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
b. Secondly the love of the world & it’s ways.
i. One of the greatest dangers that faces young people who grow up in church is that they begin to develop a taste for the world.
1 John 2:15-17 (NKJV) 15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
ii. The challenge that every one of us faces is the challenge of living in the world w/o acquiring a taste for the world.
iii. When you begin to see God’s people getting tattoos / piercings / behaving like / living like the world you can be confident that their taste buds are being ruined!
c. Thirdly there is the taste killer of old age.
i. In 1 Sam 19 the aging prophet Samuel makes an interesting admission about h/s & the place in life where he has come to....
2 Samuel 19:35 ( NKJV ) 35I am today eighty years old. Can I discern between the good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? .....
ii. Samuel is saying ..... I’m so old now that I can no longer taste what I am eating.
iii. But there is a spiritual parallel to Samuel’s loss of taste & that is when we begin to get old in God.
iv. Like Samuel we can get to a place where we can no longer ‘taste God’ as we once did ..... we no longer savour / delight in / relish Him & all He is doing.
v. The easiest taste to lose when you’ve been a believer for many years is your taste for God.
# 3. God is the missing taste in life.
A. The exhortation given to us in our text is that God is the missing taste in life.
a. We often hear people .... even Christians make the confession that something is missing!
i. This is certainly true when people cook & experiment & make new dishes ...... they’ll often say – it’s good but something is missing!
ii. But that’s not only true in cooking ...... it’s true in life, w/o Him your life will always be missing what it really needs to be right.
iii. So what does life need to be right?
*** Umami is the Japanese word for the fifth basic sense of taste, after bitter, salty, sour and sweet. It has only this year gone on sale in supermarkets in the UK in a tube as a puree & it has been referred to as ‘bottled deliciousness’.
Despite being known in the East for more than 100 years, particularly Japan, it is a relatively new concept to the West where only the four primary tastes are recognised.
Umami means deliciousness in Japanese and provides the 'meaty' flavour in meat.
It is so unique that it is now recognised as a completely new taste category of it’s own.
What makes Taste No. 5. so appealing is that it triggers the sensation of delight in the brain when at least one of the primary tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and salty is also present.
iv. God is the Umami missing from our lives!!!
v. So many times successful people have been frustrated in their efforts to make life work & the reason why they are frustrated is b/c they are missing the ‘Umami of life’.
B. God gives us the invitation to do the taste test.
a. Look at our test again & think about what is being said .....
Vs 8. 8Oh, taste and see .....
i. The thought here is that if you have a taste of Him you’ll make the discovery that He really is good.
*** The tongue & roof of the adult mouth on average has some 10,000 taste buds. The taste buds along w/ our saliva breaks down our food so the receptors in our taste buds can send a message to the brain & give an evaluation on what it is we are putting into our mouth.
it’s interesting that w/i half a second on putting something on to your tongue a message is fired off to the brain that either says ...... disgusting! ..... or that’s fantastic!
ii. But here’s the promise given to you & I when we are willing to really taste God .... really savour Him ...... you’ll love what you’re tasting!
Vs 8. 8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; .....
b. This is no trick taste test we’re being lured into here .... God says – taste & you’ll definitely come to that same conclusion.
*** In the early years of our married life we lived on a farm. For a while we would buy our milk from a dairy farmer nearby. One morning I came out for breakfast & poured the milk on my cereal & began eating. I had taken a couple of spoonfuls b/4 I realised that the milk was sour. Right at that moment my wife came out & sat down for her cereal too. B/c we had the milk for a few days already she thought to ask me if it was still OK. I said “Yeh, it’s fine!” She took several mouthfuls of sour milk b/4 she realised that the milk was off. It was then she looked at me w/ a mouthful of sour milk & said “You dog!”
i. You aren’t going to taste God & find that you’ve been tricked into a taste test of something that’s not what you were expecting.
Vs 8. ........ Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
ii. Listen to the final line of our text t/n ..... the man / woman who does the taste test will be glad they tasted ..... they will find that they have discovered the Umami of life!
