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The title of my sermon tonight is A Spiritual Connoisseur. A spiritual connoisseur. Now what does it mean to be a connoisseur? Well a connoisseur is someone who knows the difference between something that is good and bad, something that's a high quality versus a low quality. And usually this word is used in regard to art or music or food. A connoisseur is someone who can tell the difference between really high quality food and just regular food or junk food. You know most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference at a certain level or most people wouldn't be able to understand the differences in fine art or something like that. Now this scripture right here actually defines a similar concept to being a connoisseur. Look what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing your dole of hearing for when for the time ye ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now if you stop and look at that phrase, they're of full age and by reason of use they have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. This is basically saying that they are a connoisseur, that their palate is sophisticated. You know they can actually taste the difference because of the fact that their senses have been exercised to discern both good and evil. So the illustration being used here is with food. He talks about the milk of the word, the strong meat of the word, and how a mature Christian is someone who's taste buds are tuned in where they can tell the difference between that which is good and that which is evil. And so in that sense they're a connoisseur. You know if you know Spanish the word is connoisseur, right? And connoisseur means to know. So a connoisseur is somebody who knows the difference, who can tell the difference. We want to be a spiritual connoisseur. We don't care about fine art and music appreciation and you know eating fancy food or something, but we want to have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil. We don't want to just live our lives continuing as babes in Christ, only able to handle the milk of the word, but rather we want to grow in the sophistication of our spiritual taste buds so that we can discern between good and evil. Now stop and think about this. You know there are so many people today who they want to take shortcuts and they want to teach the Bible, they want to preach the Bible, they want to put themselves forth as some kind of an expert in the Bible without actually doing the real study, okay? And the Bible says here you know you ought to be teachers but you have need that one teach you again which be the first principle because he's saying you know if you're a babe in Christ you have no business trying to handle the strong meat of the word. That belongs to those that are of full age. That's for people that are more mature in the word. You know for example 1 Timothy chapter 1 says in verse 5, now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside into vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. So there are people out there who want to teach the Bible but they don't know what they're talking about. They don't understand what they say. They don't know whereof they affirm and so they need to study and learn and exercise those senses. Now it's not just about studying the Bible or reading the Bible or knowing facts about the Bible but the Bible says in verse 14 there in Hebrews that by reason of use they have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So when we talk about learning the Bible and growing as a Christian this isn't just about memorizing facts or taking in information but rather the Bible says that we learn the Bible by using the Bible. You know the Bible says be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass for he beholded himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed. So when it comes to learning the Bible you've got to be a doer of the work. It's not enough to just sit down and read the Bible or study the Bible. You've got to actually put the Bible into practice. You've got to actually use the Bible and by reason of use that's how you become someone who can handle the more difficult parts of the Bible the strong meat of the Bible. You can actually discern good and evil and do those things. Now when someone's cooking for you you know this person needs to have discernment about what tastes good and what doesn't. You know people who are actually good at cooking you know what they do they taste the food while they cook don't they. They don't just want you know I remember one time a certain unnamed person brought a chili to the cook off a long time ago and I asked this single dude I said you know so do you use a recipe. No. Oh wow wow that's bold. That's interesting. I said well did you taste it. No. It's like how can you neither use a recipe nor taste it. Really you should be doing both. You know you should be using a recipe and then tasting it making sure that everything's on track and of course the chili is about how you think it turned out. That's about how it turned out. The infamous chili number five from back in the year 2007. We're still talking about it. All right. But anyway I'm not going to say who it was but anyway you know it doesn't make any sense right to not use a recipe to not taste it. You've got you know and you know my wife I remember when we first got married I was horrified to see her even pop a little raw meat in her mouth while she was cooking. I was like what are you doing this is America. You know you can't do that. And you know but she's like I got to taste it. I got to know. I'm like no you don't have to know. You know E. coli H 1 5 7 H 7. That's all I got to say about that. But anyway the point is that you know a cook someone who's a great chef I guarantee you they're going to have a very sophisticated palate right so they they can tell the difference. If something's a little off they're going to know about it. Now on one end of the spectrum we have a highly sophisticated chef who really knows food and flavor and taste. The opposite side of the spectrum would be a child. Children are not connoisseurs at all when it comes to food. Children don't know what is good for food. You know what children like to eat cat food and dog food. Who ate dog or cat food when you were a kid. I did. I ate dog food. One of my children recently ate some cat food. And so you know that's what kids do and it tastes fine to them. They don't know. They don't know what the difference is. You know you take a kid to Chuck E. Cheese and they think it's good pizza. Correction they think it's pizza. They don't know. They don't have their senses exercised to discern. You could get them the junkiest food or the nicest food and to them you know they don't really know the difference. They're not going to appreciate it. And so the Bible is saying here you know that babes in Christ aren't always able to discern between good and evil between right and wrong doctrine especially when it comes to the strong meat of the word. I mean that makes sense. If somebody doesn't know the Bible real well maybe they're they haven't been a Christian for very long they're not going to be able to discern difficult things in the Bible. And so they need to stick on stay on the milk and grow into those things and be patient and learn and grow and let their palate become more sophisticated. You know I was thinking about this I was thinking about that puffer fish that people eat in Japan. Who knows what I'm talking about. So here's an I found an article on this is a BBC article from 2012 Fugu the fish more poisonous than cyanide. The Japanese delicacy Fugu or blowfish is so poisonous that the smallest mistake in its preparation could be fatal. But Tokyo's city government is planning to ease restrictions that allow only highly trained and licensed chefs to serve the dish. Kunio Miura always uses his special knives to prepare Fugu. Wooden handled with blades tempered by a swordsmith to a keen edge before he starts work in his kitchen they're brought to him by an assistant carefully stored in a special box. So you can picture this guy you know Kunio Miura and he's brought his special razor sharp wooden handled knife by a special assistant in a special box. Hey if he messes up someone could die right this is this is serious stuff Miura-san as he is respectfully known has been cutting up blowfish for 60 years but still approaches the task with caution a single mistake could mean death for a customer. Fugu is an expensive delicacy in Japan and the restaurants that serve it are among the finest in the country. In Miura-san's establishment a meal starts at $120 a head but people are willing to pay for the assurance of the Fugu chef license mounted on his wall yellowed now with age. He is one of a select guild authorized by Tokyo's city government to serve the dish. This is the most poisonous part he says pulling out the ovaries but the liver and intestines are potentially lethal too. People say it's 200 times more deadly than cyanide 23 people have died in Japan after eating Fugu since 2000 so that's in the 12 years from 2000 to 2012 so it's like a couple people a year in Japan die from this thing being prepared wrong. Most of the victims are anglers who rashly try to prepare their catch at home so the majority of deaths are just amateurs trying to just chop this thing up and make fish and chips or something. A spokesman for the health and welfare ministry struggles to think of a single fatality in a restaurant though last year a woman was hospitalized after eating a trace of Fugu liver in one of Tokyo's top restaurants not Miura-san's. Petrodotoxin poisoning has been described as rapid and violent first a numbness around the mouth then paralysis finally death. The unfortunate diner remains conscious to the end there's no antidote. This would be enough to kill you Miura-san says slicing off a tiny sliver of Fugu ovary and holding it up. Then he carefully checks the poisonous organs on the tray making sure he has accounted for everyone and tips them into a metal drum locked with a padlock they will be taken to Tokyo's main fish market and burned along with the offcuts from other Fugu restaurants. Now here's the thing about this when you know when you stop and think about this you say wow I mean that's why it's dangerous right scary. It's Japan folks it's a weird place but the thing about this is that you know handling the word of God incorrectly handling the word of God deceitfully is actually more dangerous than this because I mean this is just this is a couple people dying per year and they're dying physically but you know when people get up and they mishandle God's word and they wrongly divide the word of truth you know not only could they destroy bodies they could destroy souls they could send people to hell and so handling the word of God you say man this guy's got a big responsibility let me tell you something handling the word of God's a big responsibility being a preacher is a big responsibility that's what the Bible says be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation because it's a big responsibility and here's the interesting thing you know when the Bible talks about rightly dividing the word of truth and then you think about this guy's got to rightly divide this puffer fish because if he divides it wrong it's fatal it could be deadly and notice he has to use his razor sharp knives he's not pulling out the ESV my friend you want to go to a Fugu restaurant where the chef is using the equivalent of the NIV to cut up your food no you want it to be the King James Bible razor sharp to cut through that thing and to divide correctly to rightly divide the word of truth now look this article is about the fact that Tokyo was thinking about easing restrictions so that it doesn't have to be this expert doing it and instead of this guy going to school for a long time and it cost him many many thousands and thousands of dollars to get certified and he had to cut over a hundred puffer fish and each of them super expensive he had to cut over a hundred puffer fish before he could be certified you know he has to keep practicing and practicing and practicing and they're talking about easing the restrictions and just letting whoever do it okay now you think that's a good idea or you think we should stick with Miura-san and people of his ilk that have actually done the training it's not a good idea to just have anybody just messing with this stuff you know you want it to be somebody highly trained you want it to be somebody who knows what they're talking about and you know it's the same thing with the word of God we want to be careful that we don't just listen to whoever teaching the Bible just just everybody you know and the Bible has these examples where throughout the history of Israel when they would follow false gods and and worship of false religion how they would make the lowest of the people priests and just and just who anyone who wanted to it says that Jeroboam would put them in that office of being a priest if it just anybody wants to do it and want to make sure that we understand that handling the word of God is important and it needs to be done by somebody who actually knows the Bible who actually knows they're doing now look I want you to be a preacher if you want to be a preacher you know the Bible says he that desire at the office of a bishop desire at the good work and we need more preachers in America today we need a whole generation of young men to rise up and and take on the challenge to preach the word of God and start churches and evangelize and do missions and so forth but we want to make sure that they're actually well trained you know want to make sure that they actually do the real say that they're not lazy about studying the word of God but that by reason of use they actually have their senses exercise to discern both good and evil we don't want to put babes in Christ behind the pulpit handling the strong meat of the word and dealing death instead of preaching life and helping people you know one of the biggest things that I'm constantly telling people when we're training preachers in the preaching class for example is that look if you're a beginner preacher don't try to take on the hardest subject in the Bible and you're going to cover in a 10-minute sermon you know as a subject that we'd be ambitious to cover in an hour even if you are highly skilled and you want to get up and just in 10 minutes you're just going to solve the mysteries of the universe you know we need to be humble and start out as beginning preachers preaching what we know preach the things that you know for sure are right you know think about how many things in the Bible that are so certain they're clear you understand them you know they're right you know that's what you got to spend the early part of your ministry preaching and doing those things and then grow into the the stronger meat of the word after you've gotten more experience and so forth so that you can actually have the discernment to know what's right and wrong because here's the thing you know it's a lot what do you think's easier to get into false doctrine on something simple or something that's more complicated you know things that are simple you know you're not going to get into false doctrine whereas things that are complicated you know look I would trust just about anybody to scramble me some eggs you know I would trust just about anybody to make mashed potatoes or something like that because those are things that are kind of hard to mess up aren't they they're pretty basic they're pretty easy but you don't necessarily want that person preparing puffer fish for you you know or you don't want that person preparing aguachiles for you you know I remember I went to Mexico with my wife and we went during the off season and what that meant was that you know hotels are available nothing's crowded you know it's great because everything was just there for you but the problem with the off season is that a lot of things are closed because they just kind of shut down for the off season so we showed up and we were in a downtown area in Baja California and we were having trouble finding a restaurant finally we found this guy by the side of the road this vendor and he was selling food he was making something we didn't know what it was but we were starving and all the restaurants were closed for lunch none of them were going to be open until dinner it's like three o'clock starving so we're just like we're doing it we don't care what it is that was a bad decision okay so we you know we pull off we park and we get there and we show up and it turned out that the food you know this guy's telling my wife a bystander is telling her the food is not cook-ed not cook-ed she's like huh not cook-ed you know it's not cooked it's raw so it turned out it was aguachiles okay which can be good but basically it's like raw tuna and raw shrimp and the way that you I guess it's just the the seasonings and stuff cooks it who knows what I'm talking about who's eating aguachiles has anyone had it Paul Rogowski and all right brother Hester God bless you I see that in him but you know Paul Rogowski is a connoisseur by the way he knows good food the lemon juice cooks it quote unquote so we you know we sat down we had these so so we sit down and we're getting a little nervous about just kind of eating raw seafood by the side of the road so we're getting kind of nervous and then all of a sudden a sink turns on you know it's like well we've heard that sound and we thought it was like a sizzling and we got excited like maybe they really are cooking it it's like and they're like no it's just a sink it's just a faucet so the food came out the food actually tasted pretty good I liked it but the next day is another story that shall be told at another time so anyway you know here's the thing you know when you're handling raw shrimp and raw tuna and you're just relying on lemon juice to do the cooking you better know what you're doing you better have your senses exercised to discern good and evil you bet and here's the thing we weren't enough of a connoisseur to know what auachiles is supposed to be like we weren't able to discern some of that evil that was in that food because that evil hit the next day the next morning the evil that was not discerned did its damage all right so the point is that for certain dishes you would expect a higher level of cooking ability and skill than for just say you know frying up a hot dog versus making auachiles and serving raw tuna and raw shrimp and that's how it is with the strong meat of the word versus the milk of the word you know the milk of the word is pretty easy it's hard to mess it up and so that's where you want to start as a beginner and focus on that learn that master that and then grow into the strong meat but it's interesting everybody just wants to go straight for the strong meat don't they just got saved brand new believer only read the bible cover to cover one time but they really want to just delve into the intricacies of bible prophecy as opposed to just learning the basics you know and it's just like this and any other area too you know everybody wants to learn the spinning backfist and the flying jump kicks when really they need to just work on that jab cross hook about a thousand times you know and think about it i mean you know you go to basketball class as a junior high high schooler and what do they have you doing you know bounce pass chest pass layups layup dribbling and you're like come on man i know how to do this no you don't you need to get better at it so don't get weary of hammering the basics when it comes to god's word because you need to lay that strong solid foundation before you can really get into the exotic and exciting stuff you got to make sure that you lay a strong foundation but a lot of people they're just impatient and so they want to just jump ahead straight to the fun stuff without laying the proper foundation it's like that in sports it's like that with the word of god it's like that with anything we need to be patient we need to be diligent and the opposite of being diligent in the book of proverbs is being hasty there are people that are diligent they do real work real study they patiently plug away at it and get good at it and then there are the people who are just hasty they just want to go straight to the exotic stuff instead of laying the foundation and doing the difficult stuff you know and it's just it's a lack of character that that just wants to go straight for the fun stuff instead of actually learning the basics the bible says in psalm 131 1 lord my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty neither do i exercise myself in great matters or in things that are too high for me so i want to make sure that we don't get ahead of ourselves the bible says in first peter 2 1 wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so be you have tasted that the lord is gracious so i want to change gears a little bit you know we're talking about in hebrews chapter 5 being a spiritual connoisseur and what is a connoisseur a connoisseur is someone who knows the difference between what's good and what isn't so if i were to go out to eat with a five-star chef if i took him out to a fancy restaurant he's gonna appreciate it he's gonna know if it's good or not whereas some people don't appreciate it they enjoy junk they celebrate junk and especially children typically fall on this end of the spectrum just because they haven't had a chance to learn they don't have a chance to know but the bible says if you would flip over to luke chapter 16 luke chapter number 16 the bible says that as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ and as we learn the word of god and as we become a full age or mature as christians we'll begin to be able to discern between what's good and evil we can have our taste buds tuned in we can have a sophisticated palette to know what is good and what is not now look at luke 16 verse 15 it says and he said unto them ye are they which justify yourselves before men but god knoweth your hearts focus on this last part for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of god so that which the world's taste buds thinks is so wonderful actually is junk to god it's an abomination to god you know what this reminded me of it reminded me of a few years back they did a poll on what is the greatest mexican food in america and taco bell won who knows who read that who knows what i'm talking about you know they they did a poll where they're doing a survey and this is why democracy is so wonderful folks this is why voting is so important because look who they vote for for the best mexican food they vote for the best mexican restaurant of course it's taco bell now someone who's actually a connoisseur knows that taco bell is junk it's junk food folks and look i i hate to burst your bubble but fast food is junk it's bad for you it's not healthy and once you actually start eating real food good food fast food starts to taste really bad to you you know i i can remember there was a time when i ate a lot of fast food i would eat a lot of junk i used to love taco bell you know here was my order of taco bell i'd get two chicken nacho cheese chalupas i would get uh three three orders of nachos and a crunchy taco that's what i got that was my order and this is how i'd eat the two chalupas then i'd eat all the nachos and then i still had a little cheese left that's what that last taco was for it was just like a cleanup that last taco was a cleanup and here's the thing you know i got away from that i at some point i realized hey the party's over when you turn 30 you can't just put all that stuff in your body you have no consequence anymore and you guys in your 20s it's coming the party's gonna be over okay so you know you get around 30 and you're like okay i gotta stop this because you start gaining weight you don't have the testosterone that you used to just burn and everything up and so you know i started to eat healthier and then i remember a few years later i got in a bind where i was in a small town there wasn't a lot of good food available i went to taco bell and so i was just on autopilot i just ordered my regular order you know but i hadn't had it in years and i tell you what it was so disgusting to me i couldn't even eat it i took just i took a few bites i tried the nachos i tried that and it was so gross i ended up throwing the whole thing in the trash going to the grocery store and buying a loaf of bread peanut butter and jelly and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to get some nutritious food but i'm telling man that sounds good right now i love peanut butter and jelly but but the thing is i gotta eat dinner before a sermon like this but the thing is you know there was a time when i thrived on taco bell i loved it look when my wife and i were dating you wouldn't believe this because because she's really into healthy eating i'm in healthy there was a time when my wife and i were dating we were going to burger king jack in the box taco bell i mean every day but now that stuff would just gross me out to even think about the old there's only one fast food that i still crave from time to time it's long john silvers okay who said chipotle because guess what chipotle is not fast food okay chipotle is called fast casual and it's actually healthy food and i eat chipotle to this day you need to work on your palate buddy if you think that's fast food but you know what some people don't know the difference they don't know chipotle from taco bell they can't tell the difference and you know these are the same people sorry i gotta get on texas a little bit i gotta mess with texas a little bit these are the same people that try to tell you you gotta try whataburger whataburgers are in and out who's heard that one before that whataburger is the in and out equivalent folks you have no discernment you are a babe whataburger is a janky fast food restaurant that is not fine but you know these are the same people you send them to burgerfi to get a grass-fed beef burger and they're like it was okay but here's what they want mcdonald's burger king whataburger why they want junk and look what is the difference and i and i'm not trying to get on your favorite foods here okay there's a point to what i'm saying here tonight i'm not up here just lecturing you on fast food i want you to take the spiritual because i'm not taking look we could have a seminar on being a connoisseur tonight but that's not what this is we're having a seminar on being a spiritual connoisseur amen the spiritual let's apply the spiritual okay what is the difference don't miss this what is the difference between people who love junk food who love fast food who can't wait to get the next wendy's and jack-in-the-box and whatever and the people who love quality clean healthy organic you know freshly prepared food what is the difference between those two people how do you become a person who loves healthy food versus a person who loves junk food i'll tell you how by eating healthy food you will desire more healthy food and by eating junk food you will desire more junk am i right look if you're raised eating junk and fast food you're gonna love that stuff you're gonna think it's great and that's why some people are perplexed right now by me preaching and saying i couldn't finish my taco bell they're like what's wrong with you why don't you finish your food pastor because they don't understand that when you get off of that fast food for a few years you can't go back to it it's hard to go back to it other times i got in a bind and i remember one time i got in a bind and did jack-in-the-box and i had to i had to hit up cvs pharmacy a half hour later to buy some alka-seltzer because it because i was i was so sick from eating that because you're not used to it okay now let me explain something to you spiritually if you just get used to just taking in the world's junk all the time it tastes good to you and you like it oh this is good stuff you're listening to the world's junk music watching their junk movies and looking at their junk magazines and their junk awesome columns of course you're gonna like it because you're constantly eating folks why is it that people in india like indian food because that's what they eat and i love indian food too by the way but you know why do people in china love chinese food why do people in mexico love mexican food why do italian's love italian food is it something in their dna that just makes italian's love pasta or olives or whatever no friend the thing that makes them love it is because that's what they eat the more you eat something the more you crave that thing that you eat so what we need to do is we need to exercise our senses we need to exercise our spiritual taste buds to discern good and evil we need a sophisticated palette spiritually how do we get that folks if you read the bible this is a healthy eating pretty soon you're gonna start to like it you know people who eat healthy they're it's not like they're just punishing themselves every day they're not just these masochistic people who just love pain and suffering and so they're just like oh yeah eat this gritty stuff people who eat healthy that's what they like now obviously it's hard to make the change at first right it's kind of hard to make the shift off of junk food on to healthier food but once you do it you'll actually start to prefer the fruits and vegetables and things and and and here's the thing some of the things that are bad for you in excess like sugar you know eating way too much sugar you know if you get off that stuff for a while you won't crave it the same way you know my wife when my wife makes desserts in our house she usually takes the recipe whatever it says for sugar she puts in about one fourth of that and it still tastes really sweet so we're used to a little bit of a lower sugar level so then if we went to the store or something and just bought a ready-made cake or cookie or something you're like whoa it's so sweet yeah too sweet because you're used to something up but but here's the thing the more sugar you eat the more sugar you crave and then the more sugar you can handle think about how you build up a tolerance to things like caffeine alcohol whatever you know there are people who go down to Starbucks or whatever and they're getting the double triple quadruple shot of whatever I don't know how it works because I'm not a coffee drink this isn't coffee by the way it's water everybody thinks that I I've had all these people write to me about you you know you shouldn't drink coffee or something I'm like I don't first of all this is just water but I'm not against drinking coffee but but here's the thing there are people who do it in ridiculous amounts excessive amounts of coffee and and and here's the thing they have to keep upping the ante and and doing these extreme quadruple shots of whatever because what happens is their body develops a tolerance for it you know and and the more they take in then their bodies you know making more of those receptors and then they can handle more and then they take in more and then when they take in more their bodies like oh I guess it's what we're gonna do now well let's get ready for more now here's the thing if you never drink coffee you're never gonna crave coffee if you never snort cocaine you're never gonna crave cocaine if you never smoke cigarettes you're never gonna crave nicotine you know and if you if you don't just eat tons of sugar you don't end up craving as much sugar okay so these things build on each other and so what I'm saying is how do you develop an appetite for the Bible by reading the Bible folks if you get in the habit of reading the Bible you'll start to want to read the Bible crave reading the Bible desire reading the Bible because you will enjoy this good food right here this is good food whether you know it or not this is good food I had an unsaved guy one time there was an unsaved guy that I was kind of working on him trying to get him saved you know you have people that are kind of a project where you're trying to get him saved and I'm working on this guy and he said he said I read the first 10 chapters of the Bible he started in Genesis or something he read the first 10 11 chapters and he said that basically it was just complete excrement I was like whoa that's a blasphemous thing to say how can you say that but not only is that blasphemous it's just so stupid and wrong because even worldly unsaved people would tell you that this is great literature even if they don't believe it's the Word of God of course we know it's the Word of God but he doesn't know because he has a bad palate he wants the junk of this world he doesn't know good food when it when he sees it you know you you could go to a you could take someone who's a picky eater to a really fancy restaurant buy them a hundred dollar meal and just because you threw a hundred dollars at it they'd say I don't want this give me chicken fingers right think about it most people in America would probably prefer chicken fingers to this puffer fish or whatever you know I mean I'll do the chicken fingers too in that case just to be safe but the point is you know they preferred you know they they prefer junk and and and if you try to serve really high quality food to someone who's not used to it it's wasted on them they don't there's like that you know give me a cheeseburger and so you know it's the same thing with the Word of God you know you're if you cast your pearls before swine they don't know what to do with it they trample it under their feet how do you develop your palate look you don't want to be a spiritual junk consumer you want to be a connoisseur amen we want to grow and be those that have our senses exercise to discern good evil and let me tell you something there's some strong meat in the Bible and it tastes good the strong meat of God's Word tastes good it's a pleasure the Bible is enjoyable reading the Bible is a great feast that those who actually do it get hungry for it you know we we go through the day hungry like man I want to read the Bible I'm hungry for that good food but other people are just twitching to watch the next show or just twitching to get on the gossip column and read People magazine or whatever that's what they're just craving because that's what they've been feeding themselves so you might think to yourself you know what it's just not possible for me to become a person who loves the Word of God I just don't see myself sitting and reading the Bible every day I you know I just don't see myself you know unplugging from the world's junk and the world's entertainment and stuff like that but here's the thing you can do it it's the same thing if somebody said well I just can't see myself getting off junk food but here's the thing you know as you eat the right food your taste will change your desires will change your palate will change and it's the same thing spiritually if you get used to reading the Bible going to church listening to preaching singing the hymns your taste will change and you'll get to where you start desiring the right things and look the Christian life's a lot easier when you desire the right things you know otherwise it's just like a really bad diet or something where you're just constantly forcing yourself not to eat the junk and forcing yourself to eat healthy you know you want to get to that point where it's not such a chore to serve God you want to get to the point where you like serving God isn't that what God wants anyway he wants us to be a cheerful giver and he wants us to love him and enjoy serving him well you know you've got to train your body to like good food well guess what you got to train your soul to actually enjoy the things of God and why do Mexican people love Mexican food because that's what they grew up eating and here's the thing if we're going to love the right things we've got to take in the right things so it becomes like a cycle it's like a snowball the more bad you do then the more bad you desire to do and the harder it is to do what's right and then the more good things you do it gets easier to do good things and you have less desire to do what's wrong so that's what you've got to do you've got to work on now it's always hard in the beginning so you got to start out tomorrow Monday morning by forcing yourself to do the right thing right so tomorrow morning you force yourself to read the Bible you force yourself to abstain from sins that you've been indulging in and struggling with and you just slowly make the changes and what you'll notice is that it gets easier and easier but you got to make that effort you know that the longer you've been clean of cigarettes the easier it's going to be not to smoke the longer you've been clean of alcohol the easier it's going to be to stay that way the longer you have a habit of reading the Bible it's just going to become second nature to you I mean look there are some times when when I think to myself man I don't feel like I've read my Bible yet today I got to read my Bible I don't feel that I've read it but then I think about it and I've read it multiple times that day but it just it just didn't feel like it was enough you know it's just like I don't feel like I've read what I need to read but here's the thing that's because I like reading the Bible but why do I like reading the Bible does everybody like reading the Bible some people do some people don't but it's just that when you read the Bible a lot you start to appreciate it and by the way every single time you read the Bible you understand more and it's a lot funner to read something that you understand than something you don't understand the hardest time through Leviticus is the first time you know once you've read the Bible multitudes of times and then you know you start going through Leviticus and it's all making sense to you and things are clicking and you're seeing things and it's more enjoyable you've got to sophisticated that palette our tastes can be trained but let me tell you everyone in this world today loves junk don't they look at the music that they love look at the preachers that they love look at the preachers that are pie look at what auto plays after this sermon that I'm preaching right now on YouTube you know what's gonna autoplay Steven Furtick who's a total fag by the way you know it's gonna be John MacArthur Joel Osteen Ravi Zacharias Billy Graham you know that's the kind of stuff that's gonna play because that's what the world loves but okay what if we just went to YouTube and didn't type in anything what if we just took a fresh browser and I don't recommend doing this what if we just took a fresh browser you know that doesn't have all your personal data already stored by Google and examined and you know where they know everything about you but if you actually went on a fresh computer fresh browser to YouTube just the homepage and just surf the homepage you know what it's gonna be is all trash you think there's gonna be anything intelligent on there it's gonna be all the most mindless foolish vain jangling just low comedy just junk trash it's not gonna be a bunch of educational or spiritually uplifting content now look you can go on YouTube and find lots of things that will educate you and uplift you spiritually but not on the homepage not on what's trending now not on what people are watching now it's gonna be a bunch of trash why this world loves trash that's why Taco Bell is the number one Mexican restaurant that's why McDonald's is the number one most successful restaurant in the world is it because McDonald's serves the best food now some of you think that McDonald's serves the best food but it's because you're wrong okay but is that but but how did they get to be number one by serving the best quality food no they got to be number one because people don't know what good food is people don't know what good preaching is people don't know what good entertainment is they don't know what good music is they don't know what good literature is why because they spend their lives consuming junk and developing an appetite for junk we don't want to be like this world that celebrates junk that lifts up the scummiest people I mean who are people's favorite people today who are their Hebrews who are their heroes and celebrities it's some of the sleaziest people some of the worst people some of the worst human beings are the most popular people don't know the Bible says that we need to renew our mind be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God you know get your taste buds transformed so that you can prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect burger the perfect burger the good burger and the acceptable burger and none of them is McDonald's McDonald's is none of the above well guess what you need to spiritually renew that thing and figure out what is good and that's what it means to grow as a Christian to become a spiritual connoisseur and when you are a spiritual connoisseur then you can immediately spot false doctrine you'll hear something and say that doesn't sound right because you're like this tastes off you know every once in a while my wife will try to slip in some ready made product into our food and I'll say to my wife you didn't make this sauce this came from a jar and she's like well you know I got hurt and I'm just like I can tell the difference so I can I immediately spot a ready ingredient anything that's not a hundred percent fresh and homemade I immediately know about it so and sometimes it's not that bad I'll say to my wife I'll say you know what that was really good but I just want you to know I know that one of those ingredients came from a can because I could taste the difference you know just just you know and look I I'm joking about this because my wife is an excellent cook that's why I'm so spoiled that's why I'm such a connoisseur because I'm being fed all the right things all the time so every once in a while when she slips in that ready ingredient like like she thinks I'm gonna fall for these little pre-packaged guacamoles like I'm not gonna know that that's not homemade guacamole it's like come on you take me for the fool I I know the difference I can taste the difference and I can look I can go to a restaurant and immediately taste this isn't real butter I'm not one of these people that can't believe it's not butter I can believe it okay yeah I'm not Fabio up here okay I know the difference you can immediately taste if the eggs are real if the butter's real you can immediately taste the quality of the vegetables and the meat and everything like that you can tell did it is it is it filled with preservatives or is it fresh you can tell the difference if you're a connoisseur well here's the thing spiritually when you're a mature Christian you'll get to the point where you listen to a sermon and you're just like this is this is junk you know what I mean like this is not this is not homemade this is not organic this is not quality this is GMO garbage you can tell the difference have you ever heard of something being an acquired taste right well here's the thing many of the things of God are acquired tastes and you want to change your appetite to where you'll love the things that God loves because you're not necessarily just born loving the things that God loves because you're born in sin and we're raised in a sinful world and so we've got to adjust those taste buds you know you can also train your taste to like bad things like here's another verse they use the word exercise it says having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls on heart they have exercised with covetous practices so you can have your senses exercised to discern good and evil and to love the things of God or you can exercise your heart with covetous practices and develop a taste for wickedness and then it's just going to be so much harder to live a clean life look I don't know about you but I want I want things to be easy not hard I don't want to I don't want to be hard every day to live the Christian life I wanted to be easy well here's the thing the more sin you indulge in the more junk you take in you're just making it harder for yourself to live for God you're not making it easier you're making it harder because you don't get satisfied it's not like you sin a little you're satisfied got it out of my system that's not the way sin works sin begets more sin sin gives you cravings for more sin and righteousness gives you craving for more righteousness you know I was thinking about the song yield not to temptation in the hymnal right yield not to temptation for yield each victory will help you some other to win think about what that lyric means in that song each victory will help you some other to win it's saying if you don't give in to temptation today it's going to be easier to overcome that temptation the next time whereas if you give in today it's going to be easier to give in next time that's what that song is teaching with those words and so I'll just end on this the Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 103 how sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than honey to my mouth and here's the thing those who are spiritual connoisseurs they know that God's word tastes great they've tasted that the Lord is good they know God's word tastes good they know that it's sweet to go to church to sing hymns to go soul winning to win someone to Christ that those are the tastiest things but then there are others today who've completely destroyed their palate and they think that the only sweetness is to be found in the mouth of the strange woman right that the Bible says in Proverbs that her lips taste like honey well you know what the word of God tastes like honey so which one's it going to be you can go out there and find yourselves in the arms of some degenerate lover or you could fall in love with God's word and you say well it just sounds boring it doesn't sound like a happy life let me tell you something the Christian life is the happiest life that's like so well I just I just don't think I could ever be one of these people who eats healthy but you know people that are eating healthier enjoying their food just as much as you're enjoying your Taco Bell they are they're probably even enjoying it more just as much as you enjoy that greasy whatever from Whataburger other people are eating real food and enjoying it it's not a greater level of enjoyment my friend you say oh man you know must be nice and you know what young people that grow up in a Christian home they stupidly envy the wicked oh man it must be nice out there drinking partying sleeping around man that's the fun life no it isn't it's not it's not what it's cracked up to be and it's destroying your body and soul and everything else but not only that it's not even that good I mean think about it it's like oh man you know the sacrifices I make to eat healthy no McDonald's that's not a sacrifice I mean look I haven't eaten at McDonald's Burger King Jack in the Box in those places in like almost a decade and I don't I haven't eaten a Taco Bell in like a decade and you know what that's not a sacrifice I don't just drive by and just think I will set no wicked thing before my eyes you know I hate the work of them to turn aside it shall not clean I don't have to work hard at that because of the fact that I realize that it's junk it wasn't that good I didn't know back then I was mixed up you got to get to that point spiritually where you realize I don't want to be out fornicating I don't want to be out committing adultery I don't want to be out getting drunk there's no appeal to taking drugs now look I'm not saying you're going to get to some point where you're never tempted with sin like I said Long John Silver is still a temptation for me I'm not saying you're just going to get to the point where you're not tempted with sin because that's ridiculous because everybody's got those receptors they're always going to be there amen but the point is you know you'll get to the point you will get to a point though where there's a lot of sins that don't tempt you anymore you're always going to be tempted by sin you're always going to struggle with the flesh you're never going to be perfect and look look I eat really healthy but I could name some some junky stuff that it's a temptation I mean I you know I would love to just kill a pint of Ben and Jerry's like every day that's not healthy right I mean I could do that all day long but but the point is I'm not being tempted by every single fast food place that I pass I'm not being tempted that like like if you were to put out all the most unhealthy and junky and processed foods some of them would be a temptation to me but most of them wouldn't so you know you want to get to a point spiritually where at least you're not being tempted by every sin in the book every single day you know what I mean now look am I tempted by sin every day absolutely but you know what I'm not being tempted by cocaine I'm not being tempted by drunkenness I'm not tempted by smoking you know I mean there are a bunch of sins that I could just say these have zero appeal to me you can just cross them off the list you want to get to a point where at least you're tempted by less sins and less tempted and where you have more of a desire to do right stuff because one of the best ways to not do bad things is to get busy doing good things so if you can get to where man I love reading my Bible I love going to church I love soul winning I love praying I love singing hymns you know you kind of fill up your time with those things and then it's like boom made it through another day without smoking crack because you know you do bad things because of the fact that you're not doing good things so you want to get to where you crave the good things and you don't crave the bad things are you ever going to be perfect no my diet's not perfect okay I eat junk food there are certain things I could you know I could I could binge on cereal every single night I you know what I would love right now a big gigantic bowl of cinnamon toast crunch I could eat an entire box of Fruity Pebbles right now but and it's junk it's filled with chemicals and preservatives and is that would that be good for me right now to just in no but I'm not tempted by Burger King I'm not tempted by McDonald's but cinnamon toast crunch is a temptation I'm you're never gonna be above sin you're never gonna get your palate just so perfectly dialed in where you only want healthy food but you know what though you can make it a lot easier you can adjust it quite a bit to where there are a lot less temptations and here's the thing you know how I'm gonna avoid binging on cereal is by eating the right things you know last night I kid you not nobody brought me anything home from the picnic I'm not bitter about it but but basically last night I kid you not I sat down and I just poured myself a gigantic bowl of whatever the organic version in our house of like Cocoa Puffs we have like an organic Cocoa Puffs it's still not the best dinner to have right I poured myself just a giant bowl of Cocoa Puffs but then I I looked at that and I stopped I said what am I doing because there's this wonderful my wife had made this wonderful Supa Tuscana the you knows the Olive Garden is that is it super Tuscana at Olive Garden my wife makes a copycat recipe except it's like a hundred times better than the one at Olive Garden it's unbelievably good it's got all kind it what's that green stuff that floats in is that kale is that what that is so it's just it's just tons of kale floating in it lots of kale sausage stop me from getting this wrong potato whatever it's amazing and I stopped I said why would I do this when you know what I've got in the fridge is so much better and I poured the Cocoa Puffs back into the box because I hadn't put the milk on yet so it wasn't too late that's when you got to catch yourself when you're sitting once the milk goes on is too late so I stopped myself and I poured it back in the box I got the Supa Tuscana I put it on the the the stove I heated it up and it was way better and it was better for me and when I was done I forgot all about the cereal that's and and you say well kale yeah the kale is one of the best parts when your senses are exercised there too you know obviously you want the kale floating in that fatty broth you know that's what makes it good all the meat all the all the fatty sausage fat you know that's surrounding it but but the point is that if you know you've got to replace some of the bad things in your life with good things can't just do nothing because you're gonna eat the Cocoa Puffs if it weren't for that soup I would have eaten the Cocoa Puffs and it would have been good but it wouldn't have been healthy you know so you've got to get to the point where you phase out bad stuff and you phase in good stuff and I'm here to encourage you tonight and to tell you it's gonna get easier and easier and you too can become a spiritual connoisseur and get to where you actually know what's good and what's not good and where you enjoy what's good and where you don't like junk and you like stuff that's good that's where you want to get in the Christian life let's pray. Father we thank you so much for your word Lord thank you for giving us the ultimate meal right here with the Word of God thank you for Lord giving me as a preacher a sharp knife so that I can chop up that blowfish without anybody getting hurt Lord and I can actually preach the Word of God and rightly divide because I've got a sharp tool to divide and Lord God I pray that every preacher that's hearing me and every every young person that desires to be a preacher someday Lord I pray that all of them would decide you know what I'm not just gonna be this hack preacher I'm not just gonna take the shortcut and jump into the exotic doctrines I'm gonna lay a firm foundation of solid Bible reading and Bible knowledge and Lord help us to use discernment about who we listen to and not to just listen to every bozo who opens the Word of God and and puts up a YouTube channel Lord help us to actually examine the fruit know them by their fruit and actually listen to those who are skillfully handling the Word of God and Lord in our personal lives help us to adjust our palates to become a spiritual connoisseur that way we'll know what good preaching is and what bad preaching is that way we'll know what's right and what's wrong and that that way it'll be a lot easier for us to live the Christian life when we can actually like doing good things and and and and to where bad things will start to taste bad to us Lord help us to get to that point where we could serve you and please you as as a better Christian in Jesus name we pray Amen. Amen, please take your hymnals one last time this evening in turn number 256 number 256 look to the Lamb of God number 256 say on that first verse if you from sin are longing to be free look to the Lamb of God 256 to the Lamb of God are you Oh is all and all you