THE RIGHT FOOD
About this time last year I had to go and see my GP because my blood pressure was very high. One of the things he asked me about was my diet. Much to his surprise my diet was not that bad. To me it seemed quite balanced – a lot of rice and pasta, meat and vegetables. I took great pride in telling him I did not have sugar in my tea or coffee but fell down on the amount of salt I put on things. Anyway the result of the check-up was blood pressure tablets and an encouragement to eat a better diet. I still take the tablets but I am not sure that my diet has improved significantly, as you can tell from my waistline. We hear a lot today about dieting. It is a multi-million pound industry. I wonder how many of you have tried the Atkins diet. I was once offered the Daniel Diet – it was actually vegetarianism dressed up in spiritual language. Doctors encourage us to eat the right food. There are healthy eating programmes and healthy options in most schools these days. So the right food is important to us for our physical wellbeing. What about our spiritual food? What is the right food to enable us to grow spiritually?
In his biography Jack Nicklaus revealed his secret to staying at the top for so long as a golfer. At the end of each season he went back to his college golf coach, handed him a golf club and said ‘teach me to swing a golf club properly.’ He did that every year. Isn’t that amazing? The man who was the number 1 golfer in the world for many years went back to the basics at the end of every golf season. So this morning I am going to go right back to basics on this sermon. Some of you may think I do not need to hear this sermon. I know what the right food is for me spiritually. Well that might be true but it does us all no harm to be reminded of the basics every so often. You see the right food is more than knowing that your sins are forgiven and you are going to heaven. It is for those whose desire is to have a character that mirrors the character of Christ. It is for those whose desire is to be known as someone whose heart is after God. Listen to these words written by Paul to the young Timothy – 1 Timothy 4.6-8. Paul encourages the young Timothy to have the right spiritual food and to stay away from the wrong spiritual food. I think we all need to heed that advice this morning.
Allow me to list the Right Food for a Christian:
RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
BIBLE
PRAYER
FELLOWSHIP
WORSHIP
I believe those are the foundational foods, the daily requirements of a balanced diet. Without each of them I truly believe that we become malnourished in our spiritual lives and we cease to grow as God intends us to. So let us briefly look at each one this morning.
RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
We addressed that a few weeks ago. Sufficient to say to you this morning that without a right relationship with God – which is found only in Christ Jesus and his finished work on the Cross – there can be no growth spiritually in your life. You may fool yourself into thinking you are a ‘spiritual person’ but without Christ you are not a Christian. So the foundation to the right food is having the right relationship with God through Christ.
BIBLE
Let me read you an illustration I came across the other day in a book. It is a dairy which was kept by a Bible.
January – busy time for me. Most of the family decided to read me through this year. They kept me busy for two weeks. I’m now forgotten.
February – my owner used me for a few minutes last week. He had an argument and was checking references.
March – grandpa visited us and he kept me on his lap for two hours reading 1 Cor.13.
April – I had a busy day. My owner was appointed a leader of something and used me. I got to go to church the first time this year…Easter Sunday.
May – I have a few grass stains on my pages. Had some early spring flowers pressed in me.
June – I look like a scrap book. They have stuffed me full of clippings. One of the girls got married.
July – they put me in a suitcase today. I guess we are going on holiday. I wish I could stay at home as I will be in here for at least a month.
August – still in suitcase
September – back home again, and in my old place. I have lots of company. Two ‘Field and Life’ and one ‘Cosmopolitan’ on top of me. I wish I got read as much as they do.
October – they used me today, one of them is sick. Right now I am all dusted down and sitting on the coffee table. The pastor must be calling.
November – back in my usual place.
December – they are getting ready for Christmas. I will be covered in wrapping paper and packages.
Now if your bible kept a diary would it read something like that?
How much time does it take to read from Genesis to Revelation? If you read it as you would read from the lectern – it would take approximately 71 hours. Divide that by 365 days and it works out at 12 minutes a day. Can you spare 12 minutes a day for the Word of God. Richard Foster in his book ‘Calling for Disciples’ says: ‘I have discovered that the most difficult problem is not finding time but convincing myself that this is important enough to find the time.’ Why would you make time to read God’s Word?
Turn with me to 2 timothy 3.16-17, familiar words. They tell me that by reading the Word of God I will be
Taught – it will help me understand God, his will and ways. It will require me to read it regularly and systematically to be taught. Some lessons I will need to learn over and over again.
Rebuked – because I stray from the path so easily I need to be rebuked to get back on the path again. The Word of god confronts me with my sins.
Correction – the greek here means ‘straighten up’ due to ignorance and lack of awareness of what is required. It also includes correcting my straying ways due to sin.
Training in righteousness – godliness, uprightness, holiness.
Why? Because as Paul says that I might grow and be thoroughly equipped for the task which God has for me.
If I want to grow spiritually I need to daily spend time in God’s Word. Turn to Psalm 119.9-16. This whole Psalm is an acrostic of the Hebrew Alphabet. Each letter is taken and introduces a different prayer or reflection on the Word of God. We could have literally chosen any section to speak about the importance of the Bible in spiritual growth. But look at these verses. The Psalmist tells us that if we want to:
Have purity of heart we need God’s word – v9.
If I want to make sure I do not wander from the path of righteousness I need God’s Word – v10.
If I want to avoid sinning against God I need God’s Word – v11.
If I want God to be my teacher I need his Word – v12.
If I want to confess God then I need his Word – v13.
If my desire is for God then I need his Word more than riches – v14.
I need to fix my eyes and heart on his Word – v15.
I need to remember God’s Word and to take delight in it – but I can’t do either if I do not read it or know it – v16.
You see a sincere love for God is demonstrated by treasuring in your heart the Word of God. How can I claim to know God, to love God or to serve God if I do not read my Bible? My relationship with God is dead if I do not read my Bible. Some of you need a wake up call on your discipline of Bible reading. You wonder why you live a defeated life as a Christian. You wonder why God seems so far away. You wonder why there is no joy in your Christian walk. The answer is staring you in the face – when was the last time you spent time in the Word of God? When was the last time you spent time meditating on a passage and letting it soak into your soul? Waken up! I will move on or we will be in danger of staying with this issue and none other this morning.
Prayer
Turn if you would please to Matthew 6.5 following. We have here simple instructions from Christ Jesus concerning prayer. Now I think it is significant that one of the things which Jesus gave instructions on to his disciples was how to pray. He tells them, and us, to go to a secret place – prayer is between us and God – it is not about a public show. The words we speak are for the ears of God and not for the ears of others. Prayer should never be used to impress other people, nor to teach other people, nor for self-glorification. Prayer is the opening of my spirit to God. It is an intimate act of fellowship and communion with God my father. Jesus said you need to go to a quiet place to pray. He often withdrew from the crowds, and from the disciples to pray. We read that he prayed before many important events in his life. Most significantly he prayed in Gethsemane before his death on the cross. Don’t you think it a significant example that he set for us in his prayer life and in his teaching on prayer. Turn to Acts 2.42 – what was one of the characteristics of the New Testament church – devotion to prayer. Let me ask you this morning – how is your prayer life? Have you spoken to God this week? Let me remind you of a promise that most of you made at the baptism of your children – you promised to set an example of prayer in your home for your children to learn from. How do you expect to grow if you do not talk to your heavenly father? I want to say this as diplomatically as I can to you all this morning. You need to stop using prayer as a 999 call and to make it a local call again. You need to start praying again. You need to get into the discipline of a regular prayer time. I find it amazing that I hear ‘I just don’t have the time to prayer regularly every day.’ Friends you have time to read the paper, to read a book, to watch the TV and the list could go on. What is your priority friends?
FELLOWSHIP
Let me read a verse to you from Hebrews 10.25. Again a simple verse but of profound consequence in our spiritual diet. If you neglect to meet with other Christians for worship and for fellowship then your spiritual diet is wanting an essential ingredient. I find it significant that Jesus never sent a disciple out on his own – but sent them out two by two. Paul never went on a missionary journey without a companion. From the beginning of creation we were created for fellowship with God and one another. God said this in Genesis 2.18 ‘It is not good that man should be alone.’ This pre-fall and man at this point had perfect fellowship with God but God said he also needed fellowship with another human being.
Again can I say to you all that the spiritual temperature of your life can be gauged by your fellowship with other Christians. The fact that some of you come for a few weeks, then we don’t see you for a few weeks, then you are back speaks volumes for your spiritual apathy. The discipline of meeting with other Christians week by week is not to be neglected, as Hebrews says. You wonder why you are nowhere with God – it is because away from the people of God you grow spiritually cold. The NT knows nothing of someone who is a Christian and does not attend the weekly meeting of the people of God. So maybe you need to examine your discipline of fellowship.
But fellowship is much more than Sunday church attendance. Fellowship is about meeting with other believers to read an study God’s Word, to pray, to encourage etc. Fellowship is about you seeking to build one another up in the Lord. It is being the supporting arm, the comforting arm when someone falls from grace. Again this is an area neglected in the lives of so many of you here this morning. How do I know? Because I have been there myself. I know when my spiritual thermometer is going down – I begin to avoid being with Christians and so do many of you.
WORSHIP – is really all of our lives but I want to concentrate on public worship. In Genesis 4 we read of Cain and Abel. You know the story but I wonder have you ever noticed that it was in the context of worship that the sin of murder was conceived and carried out? God had called them both to worship Him but Cain did not bring the acceptable offering, unlike Abel. Friends God calls us to worship Him. How? John 4.24 ‘in spirit and in truth.’ Only spirit can worship. Only when our spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit can we worship in spirit and truth. Only when we worship God as he as called us to worship him – in truth – and we know that Christ Jesus is the Truth and that the Word of God is Truth. Therefore we must worship God in Christ Jesus and according to His Word.
We have been created and called by God to worship him. He alone is worthy of our worship. But let me ask you a question: Why do you come to Church? The answer: We come to worship God. We come to worship God full stop. We do not come to be blessed but to worship God. If God blesses us that is an act of his grace but we come to worship expecting nothing in return. We do not come to be entertained. We do not come to off load on to God a long list of prayer requests or moans. We come to worship God. Our priority is worship. The audience is one – God almighty. Our concern should not be those around us but God. Our thoughts, our heart, our everything should be focused primarily on God. We come to worship Him and to hear Him speak from His Word. Again can I ask you is that true for you this morning? Until our hearts are right. Until we come with the right attitude and frame of mind – then spiritual growth will not happen.
CONCLUSION
This sermon has not been an exposition of one passage as we normally do at Holy Trinity. It has been an attempt to remind us all of the basic ingredients of our spiritual food. I only wish that just as we grow hungry physically if we have not had food for a time that we would also have a spiritual hunger when we have not been fed spiritual food. I think the challenge to us all this morning is to examine our diets, our spiritual diets. For some it will be a case of more of the same please – because it is pretty healthy right now. For some it will be a case of getting back on the right food. For some of you it will be starting right at the very beginning with a right relationship with God and the baby food of early Christian life – and that is fine – we all start there and grow. My prayer this morning is that spiritually we will all be nourished by God and grow in our faith and maturity before God and men. Amen.
