Sunday 19th February - Taste and See - Ian Harding

foreign welcome to week three of feed your soul and I want to tell you right from the very beginning I have more content than I have time for so do you know what I'm gonna do I'm not going to go through all the content I'm only going to give you part of the message this morning and then during the week we're gonna put some stuff up on on the Instagram so that you can kind of find out some of the stuff that um we didn't get to because The Barbers is so good there's just there's too much there's always too much and so rather than keep you for three and a half hours now um I decided it would be a good idea just to kind of cut it short so this morning um I have entitled today's preach um sorry I just want to start actually recapping um just by way of recap in week one we saw how Jesus comes to satisfy our deepest longings and last week um can't explore how Jesus calls us to fix our Gaze on him and this morning I want to speak on the idea that Jesus comes to invite us to a feast and all the people who love food said amen in a message I am entitling taste and C so that is the title of the message taste and see so I'll ask you a question have you ever had a great meal like you know not just like a good meal but a great meal um you know there is something isn't that about like a great meal even even after you've finished a great meal it's like you can still remember bits of it um and I was realizing this week that when it comes to a great meal it's not just about the food now the food's a massive part of it but it made me realize that when it comes to a great meal a great meal is a great meal because all of the elements are working together to make it a great meal you know there's something about when you're um when you're going to a place where you know it's going to be a great meal or you walk in that door from the moment you walk in the door you know it's going to be a great meal you look around at the atmosphere you look around at the decor you you're greeted in a certain way and there's a way in which the person greets you they'll let you know that they're gonna make you feel incredibly comfortable they are here to serve you they're here to look after you whilst you are at the restaurant you know it's like the lighting even for example you know like you might sort of like ring up and go oh just let you know actually I'm we're out for our anniversary and they've actually taken the time to think about oh if they're out for their anniversary maybe we can give them a table that has a great view so not only are you in a great restaurant but you're in a great restaurant with a great View and even like simple things like when you sit down at your table someone is clearly thought about the cutlery and the Crockery and it's just awesome am I the only person just like sidetracked am I the only person that goes to a restaurant and like if you see Crockery you really like you actually pick it up and look look on the underside is that just me oh it's just us babe oh well I would like I would like to see I would like to say at this moment though um just just so you're on the way I have never stolen any Crockery from a restaurant I have visited so there you go um but here's the thing and that's before like the food has even come but then great food it's all it's a multi-sensory experience they say that great food isn't just about how it tastes great food is about how it looks great food is about how it smells great food is about how it's presented and this is all just the time the effort the thought that goes into a great meal a great meal and you know we love that I don't wanna but the picture that the Bible paints is actually of the fact that when God what God has for us is a great meal that's even better than all of that so I want you to imagine right now the best meal you have ever had I don't know what it was maybe maybe it was last week maybe it was like um at groups one week and you were like yes that is the greatest meal I've ever had hanging out with the greatest people in the world maybe it was your honeymoon for some of us here that was the greatest food you ever had but I want to take this to the Book of Psalms and this is what the psalmist David is saying In This Moment he says this is from Psalm 34 Verse 8 he says taste and see that the Lord is good oh the joys of those who take refuge in him now obviously we've been kind of like preparing for these messages and I've been meditating on what the Bible has to say about how we feed ourselves how we feed our souls well what we feed our souls with and what happens when we do that consistently and you know what as I read this scripture recently um I was just I just found myself having to pause and stop because I was just arrested by those words that as the psalmist um is speaking to us people who believe in God he says taste and see that the Lord is good I wonder what is your definition of God [Music] because I realize see we are surrounded by lots of different definitions of God but what I love about what David is saying here is David is saying make no mistake about it if you taste and see you will taste and see that the Lord is good in other words David is extolling us he is encouraging us to actually taste and see that the Lord is good because like any great food like any great feast David is like I've tasted this I have seen and spent time with God and you know what what I have discovered what I have experienced is he's good how many of you having gone to a great restaurant have immediately told all of your friends to go there I know I have okay none of the rest of us how many of us having gone to a great restaurant have immediately started like I'm suggesting that our friends should go to that restaurant when it first came yes that's right at least seven of us the rest of you you decided no I want to keep that restaurant for myself I don't want anyone else to go there it's too good they'll ruin it um so um and as I was just hit by this I was hit by this fight that like gosh God is good yeah yeah but you know what I've also realized that there's a lie up there as well and this is a lie I hear time and time and time again and it's and it's to deal with like how people view God you know here David says God is good but actually I think out there there's other competing ideas for who God is there's people like God is boring God is mean and angry and he hates me God is uncaring God is irrelevant and to quote a very famous now dead philosopher God is dead but that's not the god that David knew and it's not the god that this passage presents us with well this passage says loud and clear is God he is good now here's the thing whenever the Bible mentions words like this and there's this there's this rule of biblical interpretation called The Law of first mention so basically it's when we come across a certain word it's like go back to the first time that word is used because I don't know about you I also feel like we live in a world whereby good is very how shall I say relative when you say God is good people are going what is good tell me about good I've and what you actually do is if you ask someone if even in here if I asked every single one of you what's your definition of good what we often find is that our definitions of good is actually slightly different to each other and yet what the Bible is saying to us here is now God is good and what the Bible wants to show us is the Bible wants to show us what God means what God means by good and what the definition of good is based on what the Bible has to say and so if we if we're to find the first time that good is mentioned in the bible we need to go all the way back to Genesis 1. and in Genesis 1 we come across this word in its first use in relation to Creation and we hear time and time again through Genesis 1 this refrain and God saw that it was good see Good by God's definition is where everything is in the dynamic life-giving relationship that it was designed and created to be good is where we as his creation are able in Total Security to celebrate our identity and reflect that goodness that we experience in our relationship with God out into the world expanding this cycle of goodness until it fills the whole earth the first the Commandment that was given to human beings was to fill the Earth was to Steward the Earth we still look after the Earth we were supposed to be people who extended the goodness of who God was into the world we have been designed to create to make to build and the idea was that we would make and build in a relationship that is with God in perfect relationship with God but therefore also in perfect relationship with one another but the result of the Fall the result of that decision by the original human beings to say no we want to Define good and evil for ourselves that's what eating from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil means it's not it is basically like human beings deciding no we don't like your definition of good God we want to make up our own we want to decide what's good for ourselves we want to decide what's good outside of you and God in his love says okay because love means our love means I give you the freedom to choose but now we've chosen that it means that our perception of God is not always gold we sometimes think we know what God is but actually our lives demonstrate that when often when we think we know what's good for us often that leads us towards a place which is not good for us you how many of you growing up heard from your parents something like look you won't understand now that this is not good for you and of course in that moment our response was of course Mommy and Daddy I trust you you know I'm so glad that you look out for me and you understand what's good for me do you know what you are such wise parents he goes I am blessed and privileged to have you mother and father who Steward my soul with such goodness no we didn't we kicked we fought we said to them it's not fair we said you don't understand me you don't get it because what is wrong with you you're just old you know like anything that we could think of to you know like like basically dishonor our parents you know who actually did understand what was better for us and who knew what was good for us but we were just like much like the original much like Adam and Eve we were like no I know what's best for me you don't know what's best for me because what are we doing we're doing exactly the same thing in the original um man and woman on earth did we want to Define good on our own terms thanks very much we you know not only did we struggle taking good from my parents we definitely struggle with taking it from God you know like we can't even get it right with our parents let alone with God but all of that to say that what David is saying here and when he says that God is good what he has in mind what the Bible is referring back to it's it's this good this good as it was originally defined good where everything has its place good where everything is connected in the way that God designed and ordained it to be so that we can flourish and grow and stick security and stability and life and wonder and awe and love that we would know that we are loved and that we would be able to show love the design of Heaven is the fact that you and I would not seek to strive for what has already been given that we would know that we are loved that we are celebrating that we are known by the maker of heaven and Earth and that we can find our purpose and our identity in that that is the original goodness that is the goodness that when we have said yes to Jesus we have been reconnected back into the problem is is there is a floor in the system and the floor in the system is is that sometimes we still think we know what good looks like and we still want to Define it on our own but what I love about what um David is saying here and what I want to remind us of is the fact that actually David is absolutely sure of who God is and he says God is good I want to encourage you to taste and see God is good because that's God is the place where our deepest longings are satisfied God is good because my past shame has been dealt with God is good because now I know who I am God is good because I now have a purpose in my life and God is good because through him working in me I can make a difference in the world God is good because my unique personality and identity is not only celebrated by God but it is needed by God because he designed me to be a gift to this world he designed me to actually stand in a place which no one else can and you see what I've realized is that too easily we buy into this definition that God has um our definition of God that has nothing to do with who God is and when we do I miss out on experiencing the good of who God truly is and that's the invite that David is saying it taste and see the Lord is good he's saying God is a feast there is no end to how good God is and he wants to invite you to the Feast of Discovery who he is and whatever impression whatever experience you've had of God up until this point what this verse is basically saying is Jesus is better than that like if you've been out in the world and you've experienced this this this this and this and this and you think that's pretty good what what the psalmist David is saying is yet Jesus is better than that whatever's the most amazing experience that you've ever had Jesus can top that and we see that this idea of this feast in Isaiah 25 6 we see this we come across the description it says this it says on the mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food of All Peoples a banquet of aged wine the best of meats the finest of wines you see once again I think we have brought into a vision of good that is less than the good that the Bible paints that when the Bible talks about good the Bible talks about how good God is it talks about it in relation to a feast in Isaiah what we see is we see this promise that one day there is going to be a feast and this is talking about the arrival of Jesus and it's saying of the kingdom of God the kingdom of God is Not lack the kingdom of God is not like no don't judge don't taste don't see the kingdom of God in relationship with Jesus is yes and amen in other words it is yes you can taste yes you can touch yes you can see it's actually about experiencing a fullness of life within the boundaries of the love of God that actually leads you towards your richest life one of the lies that has been perpetuated through through media um and if I'm honest probably through the example of the church the fact that like when God invites you into relationship he invites you into something that is less than he invites you into something which means that you're gonna miss out whereas actually what the Bible Paints the picture of the goodness of God is that when we have the goodness of God we won't miss out on anything that does not lead us towards more of the goodness of God we see this in the life of Jesus this goodness it's no accident his first miracle is at a party the first miracle recorded in the gospels is John 2 and it's Jesus at a wedding he is partying celebrating with other people and that's when he does his first miracle he is trying to say something about the what the kingdom of God is like the kingdom of God is and surrounds a feast in actual fact Jesus became so famous for this and we see this in Luke 7 verses 33-34 and the Pharisees said this about him John the Baptist didn't spend his time eating bread or drinking wine anyways they're having a go at Jesus saying we don't understand what you're about and you say he's possessed by a demon the son of man by which Jesus is referring to himself on the other hand feasts and drinks and you say he's a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and other sickness but I love that I love the fact that when they're talking about Jesus and how Jesus arrives they're saying Jesus arise feasting Jesus arrives with food in other words once again taste and see that the Lord is good Jesus invites us to a feast it's a feast because Jesus has come to show the world how good the father is and so when he invites when he meets people he's inviting them into this Feast he's saying come and see me come and follow me come and experience how good I am and what you will discover is is that contrary to the lies contrary to popular opinion Jesus is not less Jesus is a feast and the more you have of Jesus the more you will want of Jesus because he is ultimately the only one that can satisfy and so for the remainder of our time together I want to take us to a famous Old Testament Passage because everything that Jesus has been saying there he's leading them to this place where he's saying I want you to come and feast on how good I am which therefore begs the question do we know how good God is do we know who God is so that we can actually Feast on that because we don't know who God is then let me tell you you will Feast on something you were wired to eat my friends you will Feast on something and what is going to fill your spirit is either a picture an image of that actually matches who God is or it's gonna be another picture but I want to encourage this let's actually Feast on who God says he is and as I said um I have no intention I do have six points absolutely but there's I have no intention of going through them all because we don't have time so I'm just going to share three with you um if you can turn um it's gonna come on the screens but if you do have your Bibles and exodus 34 verses 6 to 7 in the NLT it says this and this is the first time that God kind of like explains who he is the Lord passed in front of Moses calling out Yahweh the Lord the god of compassion and mercy I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness I lavish unfailing love to a thousand Generations I forgive iniquity rebellion and sin but I do not excuse the guilty so what does this reveal this passage about what we should be feasting on in terms of who God is the first one the first point that this demonstrates is number one what we should gather and what we should understand about God is this God wants to be known by you if you look at verse six it starts with this it says the Lord passed in front of Moses calling out now the bit that we didn't get to read together is is that this is part of a conversation that God is having with Moses and Moses has been walking with God for a long time now at this point in the story basically Moses is coming towards the end of his life and he's saying God I'm I've walked with you I've known who you are um and he's asking for God to reveal more of who he is he goes I want to see you I I've heard you I've followed you Faithfully during my life but I want to see more of you and just as a side issue you'll notice that notice that that every single person who makes the commitment to actually walk alongside Jesus and walk with him during this life of faith that we are all called to any single person who does that authentically for any period of time they will always want more of God they will not only become like Jesus they will want more of him and that's exactly what we see with Moses here and I love the fact that in this conversation Moses has been saying I want more of you I want to see you I want to know you deeper and more and what I love about this is is that God doesn't turn around and say no you can't do that that's not for you who are you mere human that you should see me I am God no what I love about this is that God says okay yes let me show you who I am now I need to create some protection around you because otherwise if you see the fullness of me basically your eyeballs will burn off and you will die but notice God's not sick God's not putting a boundaries there to prevent Moses from encountering more of God he's putting a boundary there to protect Moses from God as in the full Glory of him he's saying look if you saw my full Glory it would be too much but I still want to reveal more of who I am and so what does he do he passes in front of Moses so God shows us that if we ask him to if we say God I want to know more of you God's response is always going to be I'll make a way for that to happen I might use a person in your world I might use a circumstance I might even use a trial that you're going through right now but actually behind the trial is I'm going to show you more of who I am I think that when things go wrong in our world we need to have the posture of a follower of Christ where we say God show me more of Who You Are show me more of you you are you see God longs to reveal more of himself to every single one of us the most exciting thing for God is when you and I decide to show up each morning and go morning God I want to start the day with you and God is already there yeah he's longing to reveal more of himself you know this is the adventure of life that we're all called to to discover more of who God is to recognize that we never get to the bottom of who God is there's always more that we can see foreign this next one is good number two God is God semicolon you make a rubbish God I mean I love so God is God remember you make a rubbish God look at what he says I don't know if you I don't know if you noticed it this is verse six again it says Yahweh the Lord now in my version the NLT it's actually got two different names it says Yahweh and the Lord but actually in the original there's no real difference it's just basically the Lord the Lord so he just starts like Moses like who are you and then he comes past and goes I am the Lord the Lord and you're like okay so you said the same thing twice why now here's the thing we need to understand we need to understand that um in the Hebrew whenever like a writer does this whenever they repeat something like this it's basically sort of like underlining this is important you need to get this first I am the Lord the Lord you can serve any other God but it will not be a God Like Our God and so in this moment what what God is revealing he's saying to him he's saying remember I'm the Lord I know that during life there will be lots of other things that we'll try and Vie for that top spot there'll be lots of things that will try and distract you there'll be lots of things that will try and take your gaze like cat was talking about um last week but what you want to do is you want to fix your eyes you want to keep your eyes front and center and you want to remember he is the Lord he is the Lord now because we are human beings it's not even it's not even often other things that take our gaze for me more often than not if I'm brutally honest the the thing that I most struggle with is self-lordship I.E I want to be the Lord the Lord this particularly turns up mostly in my life When God says to me you should do this and I'm like awesome the Lord the Lord but I don't want to so I am the Lord the Lord I will do what I like thanks very much and of course we don't say it out loud that simply but sometimes I think what we do is and I'm I wonder if you've ever done this if you've ever made it if you've ever made a really tough decision um and you kind of come to God not so much with a request God show me what the right thing to do is here God I think it would be a really great idea if I moved to Sweden and then he goes God just maybe give me a word if Sweden is not where I should be moving to and even like the way we word it God give me a word if Sweden is not the right thing then of course like a few weeks pass and interestingly enough there has been no word about Sweden being a bad idea so we take that as like God must be on this idea moving to Sweden must be a great idea oh I'm so glad I came up with this idea what a great idea it was to move to Sweden and by that point we've managed to kind of spiritualize it to the point where we've decided that actually moving to Sweden was all God's idea he definitively told us and if anyone asks us that's definitely how we're going to share that story yeah it's amazing how I came to Sweden like I was praying one day and I just felt God say to me move to Sweden then and then that's exactly what I did whereas actually what actually happened was we had an idea about moving to Sweden and then we decided to get God on board with our idea and because we're Christians we decided to spiritualize it and make it God's idea when it was not really God's idea at all um you know like for me this normally revolves around cars you know like um oh car I would really like a car God if I if it is not your will for me to get a brand new car please speak now you have 10 seconds babe God hasn't said anything I think it's time for us to get a new car now I used that ridiculous example to kind of point out the fact that actually we are very very good at slipping into the god driving seat Zone and then authorizing things and saying that they were God when actually they were us yeah what we need to do in all seriousness kind of like jokes aside at this point I love the fact that the beginning of this that what God reveals to him is this he says I am the Lord the Lord and again you might think how is that a feast how is that a great invitation then Ian I don't get it let me let me tell you why this is a great invitation you have absolute freedom to get out of the driving seat you don't need to depend on yourself half as much as you think you do because when God says this I'm the Lord the Lord what is inviting us into is he saying I want to invite you to trust me for what great decisions look like I want to invite you to live in such a way whereby you hold everything so lightly that if I said to you I want you to let that thing go you'd be like no problem because it doesn't have my heart you have my heart because you are the Lord the Lord you have every part of my heart you have my heart you have my life and God where there are areas of my life that are not surrendered to you yet I am on a journey of going that area it will submit to the Lord the Lord for he is my lord and there is no other you know I love the fact that as well that in this moment you've got to understand it God is sharing his name he's saying I'm the Lord the Lord I am your God this name Yahweh it is the personal name of God for the people of Israel but it's shared first with a person before it becomes a god of a Nation and it's shared first with a person because that person decided and sad God show me who you are I want to encourage you God wants to show you who he is God wants to reveal his name to you but it needs to come when it happens when we say God you are the law of the Lord and there is no other and the final thing I want to share with you is this later on Yuri we read this it says verse six into seven this is God speaking he says he is a god filled with unfailing love and faithfulness I lavish on failing love to a thousand Generations I just want to end here because what we see here is the crazy depths of God's love once again you'll notice that we have two repetitions in these two verses the first repetition is I am the Lord the Lord the second one is that he says twice that he is filled with unfailing love and it's an unfailing love which lasts for a thousand Generations you see what God is revealing to Moses here and what I want us to Feast on over this week is I want to us to Feast on the Limitless never-ending unfailing nature of the love of God I want us to grasp how wide and deep and long and high is the love of God that he has for his people I want us to grasp that that when God clears the Earth in Genesis because of the evil of the people that he's created through the flood he then makes a covenantal promise to Noah saying I will never ever do this again knowing full well that these people will not be able to follow him they will not be able to follow him with love they will not be able to love him authentically and well they will break the Covenant again and again and again and basically what God is doing is if he is signing up to the fact that he will not destroy the people of the earth even though they will break his heart again and again and again and again foreign counter in the Bible for the first time here when God is expressing who he is that his love is covenantal his love is never ending his love is promise keeping his love is Limitless it is boundless it is overflowing it is abundant it is a love which is compelled by utter faithfulness which will never leave us or abandon us no matter what that cost may be it does not matter how far we fall from the love of God the promise here and what God is saying is is that my love will come and find you my love will come and rescue you my love will hold you when you cannot hold yourself my love will my love is more powerful than your defeat my love is more powerful than your insecurity my love is more powerful than your doubts the only thing that can conquer your fear and your timidity and your uncertainty and your insecurity is an experience of the covenantal love of God and the reason I'm finishing up on this here is that I want you to I want to remind each and every one of us that God declared that he was this abundant love that is most powerfully expressed through Jesus and Jesus is Love is Jesus's love that led him towards the cross it's Jesus's love which actually allowed him to go through death and come out the other side in Victory and that Victory which has been won for us means that that love can rescue each and every one of us today that we don't need to wait God's love is the foundation of our victory and like Paul mentioned in one Corinthians 13 He said love never fails God's love has come to rescue us it has come to restore us it has come to resurrect us and it's come to restore the story we are telling ourselves you see the success measure of every Christian is our ability to Define ourselves through the prism of God's love and not our circumstances or our failures or our past or our insecurities our insecurities our past our failures and our circumstances are filtered through the prism of God's love and we realize that his love is deeper we realize that his love is the answer oh which leads us right back to where we started [Music] Psalm 34 Verse 8 which says taste and see the Lord is good now if you're actually reading your Bibles the beginning of that it says Psalm 34 written by David after his own son had betrayed him kicked him out of Roy or the Royal Palace and was trying to hunt him down and kill him I don't know about you but that does not seem like a great situation to be able to declare that the Lord is good that doesn't sound like a particularly good place but I love the fact that David in this moment as he talks about this he's like I'm not defining the goodness of God based on what I'm going through I'm defining the goodness of God based on his unchanging nature not the changing nature of my circumstances I'm just checking something says this yeah oh yeah sorry A Psalm of David regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front of abimelech who sent him away so this was someone you know confusing two sons of this is um one of the people and David had to pretend to be insane because he feared for his life if you look at it it says this I will praise the Lord at all times I will constantly seek his Praises look at his attitude this guy's pretending to be insane and he's then going I'm going to boast about look at this I will boast only in the Lord let all those who are helpless take Heart come let us tell of the Lord's greatness let us exalt his name together I pray to the Lord and he answered me he freed me from all my fears those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy no Shadow or shame will darken their faces in desperation I prayed and the Lord listened he saved me from all my troubles for the angel of the Lord is a God he surrounds and defends all who fear Him taste and see that the Lord is good oh the joys of those who take refuge in him fear the lord you his godly people for those who fear Him will have all they need even strong Young Lions will sometimes go hungry but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing notice they were like no good thing it does not mean to say that you will not experience luck but what God is saying is you won't lack any good thing even if you are lacking something right now it's so that God can actually Forge in you something good this is why we get to when we get to Romans 8 28 when it talks about for God works all things together for good what for those who love him no it's when we love him God works it for good when we love him God works it for good so right now I just want to encourage you um in this place where do you need to Feast on more of who God is do you need to Feast on the idea that God actually wants you to know him he wants to know you and he wants to make himself known to you do you need to Feast on the idea that God has come so that he may be your lord but you need to Feast on the idea that God's love is great [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]