What's Cooking In Your Pot?

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.