What’s Cooking in Your Pot?
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
By Rev. James May
Now I know that some of you might be asking right now, “Pastor, why are you preaching on cooking when we’re in the middle of our days of fasting?” Well, I hope I don’t make you hungry but I believe that the Lord has a message for us from the Word of God tonight, and it all has to do with “what’s cooking in your pot”.
Being from South Louisiana where we are known for our great food, this message really hits home. For those who live elsewhere, if you hear or read this message, please forgive me for making your mouth water but in all of my travels I’ve never tasted better food than I have right here in Louisiana.
I’m not Cajun, that is, my ancestors did not come from the Acadians that settled this area many years ago. I’m of English and French descent, but I have certainly adopted the taste for Cajun cooking. It’s the best in the world as far as I am concerned. I know that people from other places often dislike all of the seasonings that we use to make everything taste better. But as for me and my house, we love it. One of the seasonings that we use often is called “Slap Ya Mama”, and it gets its name from the phrase that we hear quite often in our neck of the woods. If something is extremely tasty we often say, “Wow! That’s so good it’ll make you slap your mama.”
Let me just say that putting in some “Slap Ya Mama”, or “Toni Chacherie” and other spices and seasonings can make your mouth water, even if it’s on road kill buzzard. It makes anything taste great, and since we here in Louisiana will kill and eat anything that moves, it’s always a good idea to have lots of seasonings around just in case. And when you sit down to dinner, don’t even ask what it is, just dig in. It won’t matter anyway, because the seasonings make it all good, no matter what it is, from turtle and alligator to Rib eye steaks and tilapia fish. Just eat it, smile and let the waistline expand!
Now what does all this have to do with the message for tonight? It’s simply this: What you have “cooking” in the pot of your life, can either be good for you or it can destroy you, and often it’s hard to tell because of the “seasoning” that the devil casts into the mix to make it seem good.
Can you recall what is said about Moses in Hebrews 11:24-25, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the [taste of sin] pleasures of sin [because of the good seasoning] for a season;" That’s just a little play on words, but if you think about it, sin often tastes good, feels good, looks good, for a little while because of the pleasure that it brings to the flesh.
There’s a lot of Christians who get caught up in the trap of enjoying the taste of the things of this world that have been seasoned with truth and made to taste good for a while!
The young man or young woman never intend to get caught up in fornication and adultery, but the pleasures of sin sure look good and feel good for a season. Then, when the realization of what has happened sets in, and the seasoning begins to wear off, they get this sick feeling in the pit of their stomach; and it’s not always the feeling that comes as a result of an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy. It’s that sick feeling that comes from a guilty conscious that comes when the Holy Ghost begins to bring conviction for sin.
The one who goes out drinking, and drinks himself or herself into drunken stupor until the pain of the reality of life’s troubles go into oblivion are enjoying a time of what the world calls fun. Reality has been seasoned to taste so much better through the pleasures of sin, but sooner or later the seasoning wears away, and the pleasure turns to even greater pain. That sick feeling as a result of the alcohol poisoning drives them to fall in love with the “John” as they try to rid their bodies of the effects of the past evening isn’t so much fun in the end. But even worse than that, is that sick feeling that they should never have done it in the first place. God, the Holy Ghost, is ever at work trying to bring the sinner under conviction for sin. Sadly, many respond only by trying drown those feelings of guilt and get caught in a downward spiral. Only the power of God can set men free from the bonds of alcohol fully and completely, and thank God, He has done it for some of you.
Every kind of sinful deed we could name is that same way. It all has such an appeal because the seasoning of the pleasure of doing it is what draws man aside. But every sinful deed also carries the same penalty. It’s the penalty of death; death spiritually and physically; and a lifetime that is filled with pain, agony, guilt and shame. The pleasures of sin for a season; give way to a lifetime of regret when the seasoning is gone.
We have to be so careful what we allow to go into the pot of our life. We have to know what we’re cooking; to know before the seasoning goes in, whether it’s good for the body and soul; or whether it can bring us to the point of death. There’s life and death in what we allow to go into the pot; and the seasoning might make it taste better while it’s going down, but in the end, the result will be the same. Seasonings only change the taste, but the stomach will soon know the difference on whether it was good or not.
What is it that drives us to putting things into the pot of our life that is often not good for us? Why do people go searching for the pleasures of sin, and allow those drugs, drink the alcohol, get involved with all kinds of sins of the flesh? What is the root cause of it all?
The answer is that they are living in a place of spiritual famine! Their lives are empty and unhappy; never satisfied; always searching for something that will bring peace and joy; and ever looking to other people and other things to make life worth living, when there is only one source of peace, joy and happiness that is lasting; and only one source of finding that which makes life worth living. That source is only found in Jesus, but that’s the last place that most people care to look.
But without God; without the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost; without the Prince of Peace living in the heart; the only thing that can result is spiritual famine. Mankind is living in a spiritual desert; dying of thirst; trying to find food for the soul where there is none; and taking anything that even resembles food and putting into the cooking pot of his life, when all around him is God’s provision and the Water of Life that he can drink freely if he will only give his heart to Jesus.
There’s a passage of scripture that I want to take you to over in the 4th chapter of 2 Kings. It’s a story in the life of Elisha and it happened a short time before Elijah was taken to heaven in the chariot of fire which was only the second man to have ever been taken to Heaven while he yet lived.
Enoch, who walked so close to God that he just walked from the rocky roads of Israel into the golden avenue of Heaven in a moment of time; and Elijah who caught a ride in God’s Heavenly limosine of fire with a lot of horsepower pulling it along; are the only two men who are in Heaven today that have never faced death. But there’s coming a day when a whole lot of us are going to Heaven before going to the grave. The Rapture of the Church, the Bride of Christ, is at hand. What a day that’s going to be! Enoch and Elijah won’t have anything on me!
2 Kings 4:38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.
The Prophet Elisha went down to Gilgal, which was located in the mountains of Israel, not far from Bethel. Bethel means “House of God”, and it seems fitting to me that Elijah and Elisha had established a school for prophets near there. We are told that there were about 100 students in the school, each of them with a call of God upon their lives and all of whom were trying to follow in the footsteps of Elijah.
Even though Israel was God’s chosen nation, and the land that they inherited was described by God as a “Land that flows with milk and honey”, it seems that the milk had stopped flowing and the honey was all dried up, for there was a famine and a drought in the land. Food and water were scarce and, if you found food, it was inflated to a very high price because the supply was much less than the demand. There’s always those people who will try to make a profit over the suffering of others. It was no different in the days of Elijah than it is now.
These 100 prophetic students all lived together and with that many people to feed, trying to find enough food to go around in the time of famine was really hard. They were like most preachers, they didn’t have a treasury to draw from to go buy all that they needed, so they just had to trust God and search for whatever they could find. We call that scrounging!
Has anyone here ever gone scrounging in the refrigerator or kitchen cabinets for something to eat? I’m sure you have. But let me ask you a question; Has anyone here, except maybe for someone who has been trained in survival schools in the military, ever gone scrounging for food in the pastures, woods and fields around your house?
I don’t know what you’d expect to find, but I don’t think the mushrooms growing out of the rotting trees and dried up cow patties would make a good choice. How about the little red berries on the holly trees; they really look good? How about pine cones? Have you ever tried thistle and crabgrass salad? How about a pine cone soufflé? Only Ewell Givens could enjoy that!
Now I know that there are muscadines, black berries, and other plants that are often used for medicines and some are really good for food, but if you’re going to send someone out to scrounge in the woods for food, you’d better send someone that knows what’s good for food and what isn’t and can recognize the difference in the plant life.
All these students of the school of the prophets were men of the scriptures, men of God, studying to be the ministers to Israel. It’s highly doubtful that they had ever had even one class in Botany.
But the time came that the growling of their empty stomachs was louder than the instructor in the classroom so they had to find a way to find something to cook. So they pulled out the big kettle, put some water in it, set it on the fire and began to boil the water to purify it and make it ready for whatever else they could find to throw in.
As I read this story, I kind of wonder if some of these students might not have been the ancestors of the Cajuns. They had learned to scrounge and to eat anything that looked edible. It if flies it dies. If it grows it mows. If it looks like food; it probably is. It appears that they would eat just about anything; even if they didn’t really know what it really was.
2 Kings 4:39 And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.
So what did they do? Like most schools, the older students are always picking on the new guys, so I think that they probably chose the newest student with the least experience to go out and do the hard work of finding food for dinner. I don’t know how this school operated for certain, but I’ve never seen a school when there wasn’t some sort of class society, even Bible schools.
So this inexperienced young prophetic student went out into the fields and forest to find food. After all, their supermarket was the river bank and the bushes that grew near the water. There was no Piggly Wiggly or Walmart Marketplace. They’d have to wait several thousand years for those to come along and they’d be mighty hungry by then.
What did he find? He found a wild vine with some kind of fruit on it. So he automatically assumed that it was good to eat. After all, had not God told Adam that he had given him every herb of the field and fruit of the trees for food? What could be wrong with a wild vine filled with beautiful fruit? It looked just like squash to him, so he picked it, brought it back, chopped it up and threw it in the pot. We’re going to have some good soup now! Can’t wait to taste it! What kind of surprising taste will this one have? Everyone is different because every time they went to their “supermarket”, the soup tasted different depending upon what they found growing in the wild.
According to several commentaries that I read, the consensus is that this student had found a wild vine called a “coloquintida”. It appears to be a beautiful fruit, but it has a very bitter taste and will cause violent bowel movements, bringing on dehydration and death if no remedy is found quickly. One other possibility is that it may have been a plant called a white brier, or white vine, that has berries which are very beautiful to look at, but are also bitter and will cause severe diarrhea. Just a few bites of each the stomach growling didn’t ease up, but grew much louder instantly. I pity the poor students who tasted it first. It only took a minute to know that you didn’t want any of that soup. No amount of flavoring could have made up for the after effects.
2 Kings 4:40 So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.
I can only imagine how bad the students must have felt after eating the poisonous soup. I can just imagine how they started calling out to God; and calling on the Man of God to do something! God, we need a miracle right now! Help me, Lord!
2 Kings 4:41 But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.
Now you have to admire and be amazed at how God works! Here is this huge pot of poisonous soup that looks so good but is so deadly to eat. Sitting around it, staring at it with longing eyes and empty stomachs are 100 students of the school of the prophets. Oh how hungry they were; almost to the point of desperation! They could have taken the bitterness, no problem! They could have overlooked that it wasn’t the best tasting soup, but it would have filled their empty stomachs. But what good would it do if it killed them in the process!
Then up steps Elisha with a Word from the Lord! The great Prophet of God has spoken, and he has a remedy for the whole situation! Go get some corn meal and throw that in the pot. All it needs is corn meal and that’ll neutralize the poison. Elisha, are you sure you heard from God on this matter? You didn’t eat some of this stuff and start hallucinating, did you? Elisha, you’re a prophet of God, not a chef, or a chemist, or a Botanist! How do you know this meal is going to take out the poison?
I wonder which of the students was brave enough to be the first try the soup after the meal was thrown in? Now that’s what I’d have to call “A Real Man of Faith”! But the soup was good. It was cured of the poison, and the meal had taken away the bitterness and made it taste like seafood gumbo! What a miracle! They all ate, none got sick, and they were all filled – all at the word of Elisha.
Now before anyone here goes out and buys a 20 lb bag of corn meal expecting that to cure food poisoning from anything you fix; and some of you that can’t cook too well may really need that; let me tell you that it wasn’t the meal that did the curing! It was the obedience of the prophets and the miracle working power of God that did the work; no the meal!
God was showing the students of the school of the prophets that He is still God, and that there’s nothing impossible to him that will believe in God’s power to perform miracles. God was in the school. God was proving that He was with them and that He was their Provider. God was all they needed under every circumstance.
After they had all eaten of the soup in the pot and were filled, the soup that they had eaten was now gone and it was time for another meal. But this time they didn’t have to go scrounging in the wild. God sent another miracle to reinforce the fact that He would provide their need.
2 Kings 4:42 And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
The man had brought the first fruits of the harvest to be offered as a sacrificial gift to the Man of God, Elisha. It was customary to do this at the time of every harvest. In effect, Elisha was receiving tithes and offerings of the firstfruits of the harvest, and it was hoped that God’s blessings would be upon the harvest as it was taken in and cause it to multiply to meet the needs of the people of Israel. Since there was a famine and a drought, this was really a sacrificial offering, but Israel and the harvest really needed God’s help now!
It was all meant for only one man, Elisha. But Elisha didn’t keep it all to himself. He wasn’t greedy; and he didn’t want to live in the luxury of having his own needs met while so many others were starving. He shared God’s blessings with as many as he could and said, “Divide the bread and corn and let everybody have some to eat.”
But there were only 20 loaves of bread and a few ears of green corn; how is that going to feed 100 hungry students?
Elisha’s servant didn’t understand. I wonder if he didn’t think to himself, “I know that if Elisha keeps this as it was intended, then as his servant, I’ll get my share and be fed. But if we give it all away, then what’s going to happen to me?”
That’s the mindset of so many today! If I give away what the Lord asks me too, how will there ever be enough left for me to survive? Preacher, I don’t make enough now to pay the bills, or I’m barely squeaking by. How will I survive if I give away 10% as tithes, and then give in offerings to the work of the Lord? It just isn’t logical!
God isn’t hemmed in by your logic; and He loves to work outside of the realm of human possibility and thinking. He is God and He is your provider; not your paycheck! Are you going to trust God’s Word; or trust in your own power to provide for yourself? God will not fail you, and in fact, he promises to meet your every need! Just trust him, prove Him and watch him work in your life and give you a miracle of provision!
YOU’LL NEVER EXPERIENCE THE MIRACLE OF GOD UNTIL YOU FIRST LEARN TO GIVE IN FAITH SACRIFICIALLY AND HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TRUST HIM!
2 Kings 4:43 And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
2 Kings 4:44 So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD.
Just like Jesus did at the feeding of the 5,000 in the New Testament, God multiplied the bread and corn for the school of the prophets! God never changes! He is always faithful and you can count on Him! Every student ate his fill and there was bread and corn left over! God performed another miracle of provision to prove Himself to these students of prophecy!
Now, in closing, once again let me ask, “What’s Cooking in the Pot?” Has the world, by the desires of your flesh, caused you to allow things in your life that are poisonous to your heart and soul? Have some things that seem so innocent in the beginning began to take over your mind, your heart, your time and are they causing the bitterness of conviction to enter your life?
This wasn’t just a lesson for the School of the Prophets, it’s a lesson for us all. The world has a lot to offer that looks so good, and promises to fulfill the needs of the flesh and the desires of the heart. But a lot of it, that seems so innocent, is deadly when it begin to take hold of your life.
Let us be careful not to pick the bitter fruit of the world, things that are growing in the wild; that is things that are not rooted and grounded, or proven to be worthy by the Word of the Lord!
Let us be careful of what we allow to bet cast into our life and begin to bring bitterness and death upon our souls.
Always be aware of what’s cooking in your pot! Don’t let the devil destroy you through deception. He will always attack at your weakest moment, when your guard is down and when you are desperate to see something change in your life. Made sure that what you swallow is of God lest your life becomes poisoned.
Remember, God is your only Source of real provision; of eternal life; of real peace and joy; and of everything in life that you will ever need. Always look to Jesus first, and you’ll never have a life that has been poisoned by the wild things of life. God will perform a miracle of provision for you, multiplying the thing that is blessed to give you all you need for as long as you live.
