Mayonnaise Sermons

The title of our Pearls of Wisdom today is Mayonnaise Sermons.

Now I know I have your curiosity aroused. What is she talking about? This title came as I was watching Bill Winston’s program and he was talking about his grandmother. The first time he went to his grandmother’s house when he got older, he asked her for a sandwich and when she gave it to him, it didn’t have any meat in it. It only had mayonnaise. He was used to having meat in his sandwich. I’m assuming her frugality was a carryover from the old days when meat was expensive.

Even so, if we have been used to having the meat of the word and go someplace different which is just serving a palatable sermon with no substance, we ask: Where is the meat? The meat is God’s Word given to us with instructions on how to use it. A sermon is not a matter of three points and making sure you have followed the outline you received from seminary. If the people to whom we are preaching don’t get any word or instructions on how to put into practice what they have heard, they walk away just as defeated as they came and sometimes more defeated. Why is that? It is because every person is looking for answers. And what has happened is that these people have turned to the world to get answers. The psychics, New Agers and others are happy to give them answers. They use many of God’s principles of positive confession and positive action to produce results. The only difficulty is that these results are not lasting; they are only temporal, subject to change, because they are given as an answer from the world and not from Jesus. They have to keep going to more and more seminars to keep them up and pay more and more money to stay positive as times get tougher.

This is the year to turn that situation around. People are hungry. I am used to meat and consider my time too valuable now to go back to baby food. If you have been used to eating steak, baby food pureed from a jar is not too satisfying.

What is the meat of the word? The meat of the Word of God is the understanding and wisdom we get from His scriptures to apply to our everyday life and get results. It is the application of the Word in our lives so that we may mature in the things of the Lord, so that we will be adults and not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. The Word of God is our stabilizer in crisis, our shelter when the storms of life hit, our tool to bring deliberate, planned victory over our enemy, satan. He has strategies. So must we have strategies, developed by the Word of God.

What are some of the things we can do to grow up, to sink our teeth into the steak of God’s Word? The first thing we need to do is to position ourselves under ministries that teach and preach the uncompromised Word of God. Then, we must take what they are preaching and meditate on it, confess the Word, until it becomes reality in our spirit man and our mind. You see, our spirit man and our mind must be in agreement with the Holy Spirit of God and His Word. It is our responsibility to chew on that Word until it becomes a part of us to the point that no one can talk us out of it. Read the Word of God, confess the Word of God, study the Word of God, meditate on the Word of God. Spend time quietly in God’s presence and allow Him to teach you what His Word means. Worship Him. Praise Him. Have a heart of gratitude toward Him for what He has done for you and me.

I was reading Psalm 119 this morning and looking at how David valued the Word of God for his life. That is what we must do. Here are some of the things he said. He wanted his ways directed by the Word. He asked the Lord to teach him His Word. He asked the Lord to open the eyes of his understanding to be able to behold the wondrous things in God’s Word. He asked the Lord to quicken him, give him life according to His Word. David said that he would rejoice in the Word and meditate in it and delight himself in it so that he would not forget the Word. He said that he had chosen the way of the Word. He asked God to establish His Word in David’s heart. He praises the Lord for dealing well with him according to His Word and talks to the Lord about how good He is and the good things He does. David asks for God’s mercy and kindness to be his comfort. He wants his heart established in God’s Word. He considers God faithful to His Word and that His Word is David’s heritage. Study this psalm yourself and confess what David did.