Fast Food vs. Good Food

Fast Food vs. Slow Food

This is fast food.

We all know what it is and where to get it. Just a few examples.

We like it b/c it’s consistent, convenient, cheap (at first), and fast.

Drive thru, 10 minutes, you’re eating and on your way.

We usually do this when we are traveling. Quick bathroom stop, pick it up to go, get back on the road.

This is slow food.

Sara’s been working hard for this.

Prep the soil, plant the seeds, kill the bugs, make up for no rain, watch it grow, harvest it, then eat it.

This is inconsistent. This year no kale. The peas look like something ate them already. We’re going to try tomatoes and potatoes one more time.

This is sort of convenient. Once you make all the trips up to Viola’s, put in all the work, the convenience comes when we don’t have to drive up to Flag to the store to buy produce.

This is sort of cheap. All the trouble and all the prep is a bit costly and the time is consuming. But picking the produce is free.

Then, there is nothing fast about this.

There are plenty of differences between the 2. Probably the most significant difference is in nutritional value.

Fast food is cheap at first, but it is costly later.

Ppl who rely too heavily on fast food in their diet are more likely to gain weight, more likely to have high blood pressure and cholesterol, and more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

No sure things, just odds.

One of the more difficult social issues to tackle in poor, single-parent families is their reliance on fast food.

Work all day, kids at home, too tired to garden and prepare a home-cooked meal. So, $10 per person will get you a value meal somewhere.

Kids are growing up obese at early ages.

Fast food is filling. But what our bodies do w/ it is store the calories as fat which does not burn efficiently and empties our stomachs.

So, we feel hungrier, eat more, these unhealthy numbers go up.

That, versus slow food like vegetables, fruits and nuts, they are more efficient calories, our bodies burn them, don’t store them as fat, and we don’t feel as hungry as fast. So we don’t eat as much.

One of the potential solutions offered by some fast food chains is a veggie burger. Supposedly tastes a lot like the beef in the regular burger but it’s made of vegetables and they market it as a healthier option.

So, I looked up the nutritional value on one of these veggie burgers offered by one of these fast food chains.

Here’s what I found:

Just the burger w/ all the appropriate fixings.

Total calories; 390 From fat; 153. Not awful

17g fat which is 26% of our daily allowance. One fourth of the grams of fat we should take in daily from 1 burger. Not so good.

Here’s the kicker; 980mg of sodium which is 41% of the salt you should eat in a day in this 1 burger.

Why so much salt? B/C they are vegetables. If you want them to taste good, or taste like beef, you have to load it up w/ salt.

It’s consistent, convenient, cheap (at first), and fast. But if this is a regular part of your diet, you will pay a dear price later.

Now that I’ve made you all hungry, looking forward to lunch after church, why did I bring this up?

While poor single-parent families are raising unhealthy, overweight kids b/c of what they feed them, the church has grown fat and lazy b/c of what we feed our spiritual lives.

This got Israel in a ton of trouble a long time ago that they never fully recovered from. We still have the chance to recover and be the lean and not-so-mean believers God wants us to be.

An unhealthy diet may taste good, be cheap and easy, but it’s killing the people who rely too heavily on it.

Just like an unhealthy spiritual diet that feels good at the time, it’s cheap and easy, but it's killing those who rely too heavily on it.

This is the message from the 3 miracles that are recorded in 2 Kings 4 and 5.

They all go together and communicate an important message about our spiritual diet and how good it is or isn’t for us.

To set the stage, remember where Israel is. They have been on a course away from God and on their way to exile. It’s their own fault. God hasn’t moved. They’ve moved farther away and have been warned what’s coming.

This passage is part of the warning and what to do about it.

Convenience May Kill You

2 Kings 4:38–41 NIV

Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.” One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

The fact of the famine is important to understand the message here.

In spite of the famine and scarcity of food sources, Elisha prep’d a meal for the company of prophets.

In past stories we’ve know there to be 400 prophets. There may be fewer here, more like 100.

Nonetheless, he planned to feel them w/ whatever was available and could be collected.

1 guy goes out and finds a wild vine w/ gourds growing on it. Again, food was scarce so they would have to eat whatever they could find.

This is like collecting wild mushrooms in the forest. Sara brought home some lobster mushrooms once. They were delicious. I’d never seen them before. Bright red/orange.

All I know about mushrooms is many are poisonous and dangerous to eat. You’ve got to know what you’re looking for and be sure you’ve picked the good ones.

Maybe you want to live dangerously and go mushroom picking at night in the dark. Who knows what you might come home w/ or come down w/.

He gathered the gourds w/out knowing what they were, cut them up, and put them in the stew.

They were convenient, cheap, fast, and easy to find.

But they tasted awful and made the first few to try it sick. The poisoning was immediate.

Elisha asked them to bring him some flour. Grain was hard to come by so flour was scarce, harder to find, less convenient.

He added it to the stew and it made the stew edible.

The message God had for Israel was they were in a spiritual famine b/c they had turned away from God and turned to what made them feel good and was cheap and easy.

Like fast food that is inefficient, adds fat, and empties our stomach quickly making us feel hungry again, so was what they were looking for spiritually.

It did not satisfy them long-term. It made them feel good in the moment. But, soon was gone and they craved more. They more the digested that was not God the fatter and lazier they got.

The bad teaching from the prophets who did not hear from God was just what they wanted to hear. It did not challenge. It did not make them uncomfortable at all.

It looked harmless, like the wild gourds, but it proved t/b disgusting and deadly. It would kill them if they continued w/ it.

But, God’s prophet, Elisha, brought God’s word b/c he heard from God and shared the message. Truth was introduced and counter-acted the bad stuff and nourished them.

The calories were efficient. Kept them lean and healthy.

Stop looking for cheap and easy things that your appetite desires that make you feel good for the time being and look for what God provides that satisfies on deeper levels.

You’ll feel better, sleep better, everything just works better.

The 2nd miracle is a reminder of what God can do w/ just a little of what we have to offer.

Bread Ministry

2 Kings 4:42–44 NIV

A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said. “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.

We have a bread ministry. It’s amazing how far we can stretch a few loaves of sourdough, marble rye, red white and blue, wheat and some bread bowls.

We get 6 or 7 trash bags of bread from Wildflower and Dale, Linda, Nancy, Kas, and Bill will make sure everyone in line gets something. And the line will stretch all the way to the road before we get started.

That’s what we can do.

But what God can do w/ a few loaves of bread is a little more significant.

A man brings 20 barley loaves of bread to Elisha and the prophets.

It’s his tithe. 10% of what his barley crop produced. B/c of the famine is was much less than usual. Far too little to feed 100 hungry men.

The man brought it, gave it to God, it was His resource.

Elisha said to serve it to the men. The guy’s like, there’s no way 100 men can eat and be satisfied by these 20 loaves.

Just do it and watch. There will be bread left over.

This was not the first time nor the last God miraculously fed ppl bread when it looked like they’d go hungry.

God provided manna as they wandered thru the wilderness. Delivered from slavery and into the PL free from everything that bound them. Fulfilled and satisfied by God.

Jesus fed 5000 men, probably 15,000 ppl total w/ 1 boy’s Happy Meal, 2 fish and 5 loaves.

God can multiply limited resources that are dedicated to Him, given to Him to bless, then nourish those who get a bite.

Israel was in a literal and spiritual famine where resources were becoming even more scarce. But those who had faith, believed in and trusted God to provide would see Him multiply what little they had and fill them up. Fulfilled and satisfied by God.

God will meet a felt need to prove he can meet a deeper need. When you have a hunger pang, an appetite for something; when you let God ease that pang it lasts and keeps you healthy.

Just a little bit of faith in a big God who can bless a little bit of nourishment and leave you completely fulfilled and satisfied.

The 3rd miracle, also related, communicated that God could not only ease the hunger pangs of those who reached out to Him in the midst of the famine, he could completely erase the symptoms of those who had had an unhealthy spiritual diet and were dying.

Wash it Off

2 Kings 5:1 NIV

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

Naaman, he’s not Jewish. In Luke (NT), Jesus said that there were many Jews who had leprosy at this same time but God chose to do this miracle thru Naaman, a non-Jew.

A couple of things you see right away.

God will work in the lives of anyone, everyone who comes to him in faith and responds w/ obedience.

Some might thing one race is less deserving or another more blessed. Not true. God will save whomever comes to him.

2nd, God is involved in the governmental and military affairs of nations and ppl who do not believe. Just b/c someone doesn’t believe in God doesn’t render her impotent in accomplishing his plans for the world.

God brought this non-Jew and his unbelieving army victories b/c it played role in accomplishing God’s plan.

Naaman had leprosy. Leprosy was seen as an illustration for sin. they had the same ultimate affect.

Leprosy, like sin, was 100% fatal. No known cure.

Shrodinger’s Cat. You were both dead and alive at the same time.

You might still be breathing, but you were a walking dead man.

That is the affect of sin. It’s killing everyone unless you do the one thing you can do about it.

It’s what Naaman did.

2 Kings 5:10–14 NIV

Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Naaman knew he was in trouble, he came to Elisha to cry out to God for help.

Elisha’s response? He didn’t even deal w/ it himself. He sent his servant out w/ the message.

Naaman was an important man and was not used to being brushed off by anyone. He expected Elisha himself to do something and do it publicly as an honorable display for this important man.

But for this miracle, no flash and only a little splash. A simple message to do a simple thing.

But it was a life-threatening, complex diagnosis in the life of an important man.

Whatever...

In God’s eyes, no big deal for nobody special.

Go wash 7x in the Jordan River.

Naaman just got mad. Such casual treatment for someone so important. He expected a rite worthy of his position and authority.

Besides, he had 2 rivers in his home town where the water was cleaner than the Jordan. Why the Jordan?

There was nothing special about the water. There was nothing special about the #7.

The question was, would he humble himself enough to do such a simple task?

He had faith, but did he have the humility to not need a public celebration and make this about him?

He humbly asked, but did he have the humility to obey the simple instructions?

He had nothing to lose, he had everything to lose.

In a time of spiritual famine, when those who should have known better sought the cheap and easy way to satisfy their hunger pangs in way that didn’t keep them full; anyone who faithfully called out to God and humbly obeyed his instructions ended up deeply and forever satisfied and fulfilled.

The God who gives life, who restores life, who keeps us content will also meet our deepest needs if only we will faithfully obey the simple instructions to be nourished on what takes a little longer to prepare but lasts a lot longer in our lives.

3 miracles about not settling for what’s convenient, cheap and easy when it comes to those needs that are deep w/in.

Don’t settle for fast food. Harvest good food. Let God provide lasting answers to your deepest questions.

Applications

Appetite

1 Peter 2:2–3 NIV

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

How does a newborn baby communicate to his mother at 3 am that he’s hungry?

Have that attitude toward your appetite for good things.

Simple

Maybe too simple.

Daily, pray and read your bible.

Set the time aside, focus your attention.

You don’t like it when you’re trying to talk to someone who’s not giving you their undivided attention.

Newspaper, TV show, ballgame, fingernails, whatever.

Give God a little of your undivided attention every day.

PU your cross daily.

Don’t do it if your priority is to get something from God. Do it to daily give your life to God.

Then, you’ll get something in return that satisfies you deeply.

Not about you

Make everything in your life all about God.

No flash or splash, unless you’re getting baptized.

Don’t expect extraordinary until your satisfied w/ ordinary.

God is involved in the ordinary details of your life. Look for Him there. There may be very little extraordinary in your life.

If it’s all about you, you tend to expect extraordinary, after all, it’s you.

But in God’s eyes, it’s not big deal and we are nobody special. Except Jesus died for you to make you special, but He did it for everybody.

And since everybody is special, then nobody is any more special than anybody else.

Don’t make you life about you. Make your life all about God.

In a time of spiritual famine, when those who should have known better sought the cheap and easy way to satisfy their hunger pangs in way that didn’t keep them full; anyone who faithfully called out to God and humbly obeyed his instructions ended up deeply and forever satisfied and fulfilled.

The God who gives life, who restores life, who keeps us content will also meet our deepest needs if only we will faithfully obey the simple instructions to be nourished on what takes a little longer to prepare but lasts a lot longer in our lives.

An unhealthy diet may taste good, be cheap and easy, but it’s killing the people who rely too heavily on it.

Just like an unhealthy spiritual diet that feels good at the time, it’s cheap and easy, but it's killing those who rely too heavily on it.