Heaven's Kitchen

Every week, God gives me "bread" for His people within our community. I spend more time in the kitchen than anywhere else everyday:

Marinade the meat.
Chill the milk.
Boil the water.
Get them knives out.
Start the oven.
Light the candles.
Prepare the table.
And be ready to feed.

Those hours "in the kitchen" are among the most important of my week. Why? Because in the kitchen I prepare what God gives me to feed his people. And they can be picky eaters. Or, more often, I am unable to feed them for a number of reasons: they are not at the table (present to worship our creative Creator) & they're in their beds (they have dozed off in their chair).

People are distracted by all kinds of things--legitimate things, for the most part, but sometimes not. Pain fills a lot of hearts. People are unhappy at work. Or their homes are less than ideal. Or they feel great economic stress. Or they strain under the demands of a job. When troubled people come to church, their thoughts suppress the appetite for God's menu. My job as a preacher is to overwhelm those worn out in the world with the aroma of the gospel. You can almost smell the Lord's awesome stew brewing!

So when I preach, I'm continually thinking, "How am I going to hold and use the attention given to me?" I don't have it long. When I watch the conversations in the church foyer any Sunday, I'm amazed at how quickly our thoughts skip from divine worship & the message to talk about the Wizards and the Nationals, or making a buck and what's cooking in politics. In other words, they rather be filled with what's cookin' in the world rather than what's brewing in the Lord's kitchen. It's like, "Hey man! Sunday is a time to be filled with the Lord's meal. We have so much riding from Monday through Saturday." To tell you the truth, Sunday is only an "appetizer" while the rest of the week is the "main course" and Saturday is your "dessert". So one of my major responsibilities of the week is to grab their attention with the sermon.

Consequently, I pass my sermon material through what I call the "So what?" test for relevance. There's no problem with the Scriptures. God isn't boring. God's cooking isn't a 1 or 2 star meal, it's far better than that. They're relevant. But I have to do my part to make the sermon as relevant as the Scriptures, because I want people to leave saying, "I see!" and not "So what?"

The way to do that, I've found, is to preach to the mind, the will, and the emotions. Someone once said: "When I leave a church service, I ask myself the question: Which part of me, need, that I have not brought here today?" That's why I try to touch every part of the person through the material I use in the sermon. If I'm preaching to mind, will, and emotions, the goal is that people won't go away saying, "So what?"

There is far more Bible to preach than I ever can cover in one lifetime, so I've never felt preached out. But I do hit dry spots in my preaching. Sometimes when I've been in a series for a while, I think, Man, this is pretty dry. Let's get out of here quickly and keep the damage to the minimum!'

When you get right down to it, preaching is like farming. I often say, "Lord, here I am. As far as I can tell, I've tried to fill my sack with good seed. I've done my homework, I think my attitude is right, and it's the best, most interesting seed I've got. I'm going to scatter it now, Lord, so here goes. We'll see what comes up in the field." Then, once I've sown the seed, I do what farmers do: I go home and rest. I believe it's extremely clear here! When I feed you, I can tell who is gaining the strength (through feasting of spiritual bread) the Lord provides. I can see who is growing and who is not. They may not be eating. Their minds wander on. They may not be getting His point through my message.

In closing, I identified three groups in the audience: spiritual anorexia, spiritual starvation, and spiritual dehydration.

Spiritual Anorexia: not only does this apply to the Lord's children but also the visitors who takes in His message through my sermon. Once they take the message in their hearts, then after the services, they quickly forget what the eternally and powerful message can do for them. They have invisibly placed their finger in their heart causing the spiritual food to come out. Literally, real-life anorexia's habit isn't a pretty sight. For the Lord knows your heart and if you do such a habit, it wouldn't be a pretty one to the Lord either.

Spiritual Starvation: This one is obvious. You're not taking in the messages given from the pulpit. You may simply be sitting there and mulling over your plans for the week. You say, "At least I am here and they see me." You've given a "vow of starvation" by refusing to eat. Or you may not be attentive to the message given, therefore, there's no feeding of your precious and fragile soul. This happens when you don't take the time to attend bible studies, personal time of prayer, daily bible reading, one-on-one mentoring with a Christian over a morning coffee, and worship. Your lack of involvement in Heaven's Kitchen (personal/interpersonal) is very similar to not eating at all when your physical body needs it to live.

Spiritual Dehydration: You know that I make sure my body is well taken care of. I try and exercise regularly. I try and eat right (a fuel to the body) providing my body the nutrients it deserves. I do the best I can to give my body a time of rest. It needs to shut down for a while (naps) to re-energize & re-fuel before the next difficult task. However, you don't know what's going on inside your body. You're be surprised to learn there may be alot of things happening in their that you don't want happening! Dehydration is one of them! Many of us don't drink 8 oz. glass of water everyday or our body is drying up inside. Parallel to our spiritual life, worship is a precious time to drink the Living Water (Jesus) from the pulpit. I do my best to bring relevance to each and everyone in the audience and that they are getting their fill of Living Water. Though, some may be trying very hard to drink their fill after the hard days at work, their social life, their time spent with families, their appointments, and daily chores, it certainly can bring weariness to the body on Sunday mornings.

My goal this Fall is to provide you with a plan every week. When you come to Heaven's Kitchen on Sundays, we will be sitting at the table, together, to drink 8 oz. glass of ice, cold Living Water filling each of our precious souls. Then before you leave, take home the daily plan: pray, read a Scripture, answer some questions or jot down some of your thoughts, prepare for the day and pray continually! This way, your soul, body and Spirit will be filled with spiritual nutrients. It's a prevention against spiritual anorexia, starvation and dehydration!

"And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another." Romans 15:14 (nas)