To Eat, Or Not To Eat- That Is Question Series

“To Eat, Or Not To Eat—

That Is The Question”

Text: Romans, Chapter 14

Introduction.

Food, food! Everywhere is food! Food truly is something “big” in our lives, isn’t it? We come together and have food—and when we think about coming together, we think about having food—and when even when we don’t come together, well, we still have food!

How can food and drink divide Christians?

We have one great example of how food can bring us together to successfully finish a task. What about this example?

“Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean—

And so between the two of them,

They licked the platter clean!”

Together, they worked as a team!

Stone Cold Peas

Oh, Momma, please!

Don’t make me eat these stone-cold peas!

They’ve grown eyes and they’re looking at me!

I love to eat

Strawberries, oranges, broccoli with cheese,

Apples, pears that hang on trees,

Corn on the cob is really a treat;

But peas on a plate are no fun to eat!

I’ve grown attached to these peas,

We’ve both been here so long.

Would setting them free be so terribly wrong?

Just look at them now, so green and so lowly,

They will just sit here and wrinkle up slowly.

If you listen carefully, you can hear their pleas—

“Peas, oh peas, let us be frees!”

So Momma, things will be just fine—

If you don’t make me eat these friends of mine!

Some people don’t like what other people eat and drink. They say, “Watch out for the fat in that meat!”, or “Red meat is bad for you!”

One young man was trying to impress a certain young lady he went to church with. One week, her mother invited him to their home for Sunday dinner. Now, this young man loved to eat like most growing young people; however, there was one food he disliked and refused to eat—and that food was liver!

The young man was excited about Sunday dinner, because he would get to be with the love of his life and also because the rumor was that her mother was a great cook. Guess what?!? Everyone sat down at the table to eat and the Mother brought in fried liver!

The young man later told a friend that he looked at the girl he wanted so badly to impress—then he looked at the fried liver—he looked at the girl again—then he looked at the liver again. And then he proceeded to eat every bite of the liver!

It just goes to prove that sometimes we might eat foods we don’t like to impress others.

Now, Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible, had no problem with food.

Methuselah ate what he found on his plate,

And never, as people do now,

Did he note the amount of the calorie count;

He ate it because it was chow!

He wasn’t disturbed as at dinner he sat,

Consuming a roast or a pie,

To think it was lacking in granular fat,

Or a couple of vitamins shy.

He cheerfully chewed every species of food,

Untroubled by worries or fears,

Lest his health might be hurt by some fancy dessert,

And he lived over nine-hundred years.

Read Romans 14:1-12.

Paul addresses food, drink, and elevating one day above the other. Maybe today we don’t have as a big a problem as people in that day did with these issues. But, we don’t like our personal opinions and convictions judged, do we? No! We don’t!

Years ago, there was a sweet little elderly lady who attended a particular congregation, and there she was, sitting quietly with her friend as the preacher preached.

The Preacher said, “Woe to those who make and sip that corn sweezin’!”

The little old lady said, “Amen, Preacher!”

Then the Preacher said, “Woe to those who grow and smoke those cigars and cigarettes!”

And the little old lady said, “Amen, Preacher!”

Then the Preacher said, “And woe to those who dip that Sweet Garrett Snuff!”

The little old lady turned to her friend and said, “That Preacher has stopped preaching now and he’s gone right straight to meddling!”

The Leaders of Israel Judged Jesus.

Jesus was judged by many people during His ministry. Some judged Him a sinner, but we know He never sinned. Some looked at His disciples and said, “They eat with unwashed hands!”

Some saw Jesus heal people on the Sabbath and said, “That’s sin!” Now listen to what Jesus told a group of people who judged Him for what He ate and drank.

Matthew 11:18-19 (Jesus himself is speaking here.)

---18---“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’

---19---The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”