I've always felt troubled by phrases such as "I need to be fed" or "I need meat" when referring to spiritual growth. And not just because they're usually meant to be critical of a pastor's content... but I could never see this thinking in Scripture. Paul uses "feed" and "meat" in terms of where he expects Christians to be in their maturity, but it's never used by people to demand something. So I took a crack at it on Sunday...
Sunday's message [The Table - part 2] was the compilation of research from my own study of scripture, Ed Young's message series 'The Table' and John Piper's messages about spiritual milk. It's about not being a lactose intolerant Christian, but someone who drinks the milk of the word.
Thanks for posting this. I look forward to listening to it later. It's often struck me that we demand "meat" as a distraction from truly submitting to the foundational issues, and from inviting Holy Spirit to truly transform and equip us. It's a deception to think that transformation will come solely from being made to think deeper or from expanding our knowledge. The usual accolade for a good sermon is "it made me think", not "Holy Spirit came and really messed me up".
Posted by: Mark H | January 18, 2007 at 04:52 AM
Your podcast seems to be broken:
The URL "http://thesaltyalmond.com/rss.xml" could not be found on the server.
Posted by: Mark H | January 18, 2007 at 05:15 AM
ben,
i'm anxious to listen to this later today. i too get a little frustrated with the "i need meat" mentality.
Posted by: david | January 18, 2007 at 08:36 AM
Mark, we just loaded it yesterday, so it may not have registered on itunes yet. But everything on our end is good. In short term, you can stream or download straight from our message page. inconvenient, i know. =)
Posted by: Ben | January 18, 2007 at 09:02 AM
Great message. That's put some meat (sorry!) on the bones of what I felt about the issue. Thanks :-)
Posted by: Mark H | January 18, 2007 at 11:24 AM