How to Read the Bible | The Bible For Grown-Ups

Hi everybody, it's Rob from Trinity Streetsville and here at Trinity we're just a group of

ordinary people learning to follow Jesus in our day.

Hey when it comes to the Bible, how hungry are you?

Do you turn your nose up at it?

Do you find it tasteless?

Do you kind of just pick and choose certain bits of it or do you dig right in and come

back for more?

Well today I hope you brought your fork in your knife because we are going to learn not

just how to read the Bible but how to eat our way through the pages of Scripture.

This is a reading from the book of Psalms, Psalm 1.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners

take or sit in the company of mockers but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and

who meditates on this law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever they do, prospers.

Not so the wicked, they are like chaffs that the wind blows away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the

righteous.

So the Lord watches over the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

This is the word of the Lord.

Today we are going to start off with a bit of a question.

I am going to ask you something.

I am going to ask you that when you were a kid, what was your favorite food?

And if you are here today and you are a kid then you can just say what is your favorite

food now?

And then turn to someone beside you and say what was your favorite food as a child?

Ready, set, go.

Now I want to tell you that I found a poll.

It's an American poll that some people told us what their favorite foods were and I have

to say I don't think these foods, this list of foods represents some of the diversity

and the cultural, different cultural backgrounds that we know here in Mississauga.

But this is what we read.

We read that the top five kids' favorite foods were spaghetti, meatballs, hamburgers, pizza,

chicken fingers, a number one, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese could be craft dinner.

Just quickly, did you see one of your, did you see yours up there?

Yes, yes, oh, that's interesting.

More than at the 9.15.

So now we are going to switch gears and I am going to ask you the next question.

What was your least favorite food as a child?

Or if you are a child, what is your least favorite food now?

Three, two, one, go.

All right, here we go.

Again, according to this group of American people that they interviewed, these are the

top five least favorite foods of children.

Spinach, beets, broccoli, fish and Brussels sprouts.

Did you see your least favorite up there?

Is your least favorite?

Yours is up there.

All right, fantastic.

All right.

But JP, what was your least favorite?

Fish.

All right, do you like fish now though?

He likes fish if it comes with chips.

That's the thing with, especially kids, there are some foods that we just love, love, love

and they could have more and more go back for seconds and go back for thirds.

But then there are these other foods that are like, they're just, they're not going

to, they're not going to tackle them.

They're going to push them off to the sides of their plate or maybe they're just going

to like, have you ever seen, you know, kids at meals, they just kind of pick away at it

all dinner long.

And you're like, just eat it, stop picking at it.

But no, they just pick at it.

Or maybe when you're not looking, they take the plate and they're like, does they give

it to the dog?

Because they got a dog that, do you guys have a dog that you feed your food you don't like?

Yes, Marcus, I see that, yes.

But here's my question to you.

You know, as kids, we have these kind of, sometimes you're a bit fussy, but part of growing up

from a kid to an adult is that your appetite develops and you start to appreciate more and

different foods.

That's just part of growing up.

It's just kind of how it works.

Now let's talk a bit about the Bible.

Is the Bible one of your favorite or least favorite foods?

Now you'd say, good grief, Rob, I've never thought of the Bible as a food.

The Bible's not a food, Rob.

We've been learning for the last five weeks that the Bible is this library of books and

that's true.

Way back at the beginning, we talked about what is the Bible?

We talked about where the Bible come from.

We talked about, you know, what does the Bible do to us when we read it?

And last week, we talked about the idea that the Bible is inspired.

But today I want to ask a different question.

I want to ask, how do we not read the Bible?

How do we eat it?

How do we get this book into us?

How do we consume it?

How do we digest it?

When using the metaphor of eating the Bible, that's actually a metaphor that comes from

the Bible itself.

Let me give you an example or two.

First of all, how about this?

Ezekiel, the prophet, has this vision and an angel says to him, hey Ezekiel, son of

man, eat what is before you.

What is before me?

There's a scroll.

Eat this scroll, a.k.a.

Eat these scriptures and then go and speak to the people of Israel.

It's this metaphor for getting the Bible, getting God's word into us.

Or Jeremiah wrote, when your words came to me, I ate them.

Right?

I ate them.

They were my joy and my heart's delight.

Or once in the New Testament, the gospel writer John had this great big vision of an angel

and the angel was telling him all this really important stuff.

And John was trying to take notes, but he says, hey listen, can I just have the scroll

that you're reading from when you're done?

And the angel says, I'll give you the scroll, take the scroll and eat it, the angel says.

It'll be bitter in your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.

And so John says, I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and I ate it.

Right?

Now, if you're an Anglican, if you're kind of a died in the wool Anglican, you know

that during the season of Advent, there's a classic prayer that was always prayed in

Anglican churches.

And it went like this, oh God, who's caused all holy scripture to be written for our

learning.

Grant that we may hear those scriptures.

Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.

Inwardly digest them.

I don't know, you guys get queasy?

All this talking, digesting the scriptures.

If you are getting queasy, I have Pepto Bismol up here.

If you need it, actually, Andrew was telling me he was feeling a little queasy earlier.

Andrew, you ready?

Here it is.

You can pass it around.

Everybody gets some.

Oh, that could have been a bad, a bad throw.

So the truth is we're going to need Pepto Bismol on a day like today because we are going

to talk today about eating the Bible.

And I wanted to say that we're quite fussy eaters when it comes to the Bible.

And so just like mom and dad would say things to us at the dinner table to kind of get us

to eat, we need to hear some words this morning to help us to really start digging in to God's

word.

So one of the first things that we need to do if we're going to appreciate these words

is we're going to have to develop an appetite for the Bible.

How many times do we sit at the table and we're trying to get our kids to eat and we

just say things, hey, honey, just try one bite.

Just try one beat.

It's good.

Look, I'm eating mine.

It's really, really good.

We can be eating buddies.

Let's eat it together.

Let's eat it together.

You're going to like it.

You'll love it.

Just try it.

You're missing out.

Or the classic, right?

Here comes the airplane.

Here it goes.

Open up the hangar.

In comes the airplane, right?

Let's try one bite.

Sometimes we just have to get a taste for it.

We just have to develop the appetite, develop our palate for God's word before we really

start to appreciate it.

Do you guys remember this commercial?

It's like 50 years old now, this one.

Look at this stuff.

Sub-serial.

It's supposed to be good for you.

To do a try it, I'm not going to try it.

You try it.

I'm not going to try it.

Let's get Mikey.

Yeah.

He won't need it.

He hates everything.

He likes it.

Hey, Mikey.

When you bring life home, don't tell the kids it's one of those nutritional cereals you've

been trying to get them to eat.

You're the only one who has to know.

Those other kids, they wouldn't touch the stuff, but Mikey, he didn't just eat it.

He delighted it.

He enjoyed it so, so much.

In our reading this morning that Pat was reading online, in Psalm number one, we read this.

Blessed is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the company of mockers, but get this, but whose delight, delight is in the

law of the Lord.

Here is a picture of a person who delights in the Bible, not forced to eat it, not just

eating it because they have to eat it, but eating it because they love it.

They delighted it.

They can't get enough of it.

They're going back for seconds.

They're going back for thirds because it's just so good.

Now, sadly, that is not how a lot of us approach reading the Bible.

Many of us don't read the Bible on a regular basis.

And if we do read the Bible, we're pretty picky eaters.

We pick a little bit here.

We pick a little bit there.

We push a whole bunch of the stuff that we don't like off to the side.

And we say, I'm not going to eat that at all.

Or if we do eat it, we do it reluctantly just to make mom and dad happy.

Some people read the Bible only because God told me to read the Bible.

I'm going to read it, but they don't enjoy it.

They don't do it out of a sense of delight.

So what do we do about that?

I have to admit, even for myself, many times when I read the Bible, I'm doing it not out

of delight and enjoyment.

I'm doing it out of a sense of duty.

What do I need to do to fix that problem?

The answer is we've got to develop an appetite for it.

We have to develop a new palate, a new taste for the Bible.

And the scriptures are, in fact, quite an acquired taste.

In our house recently, we've started eating more of minestrone.

Now the reason we're eating more minestrone is because we saw this Netflix special on

the Blue Zones.

Have you guys heard about the Blue Zones?

Where people who are living to like hundreds years old or more are eating certain foods

and living in a certain way, and we are watching this special.

And one thing we learned is that at least in one area of the world, the people who are

living really healthy, long lives are eating a lot of minestrone.

And so we said we got to start eating more minestrone.

And I don't know if you guys know what minestrone is.

I didn't really know what it was, but it's just like vegetable broth with like other vegetables

in it.

Beans, lots of beans, different kinds of beans, maybe some barley, more beans, more beans,

maybe some diced up tomato.

Did I mention it's got lots of beans in it?

This is what's minestrone.

And so I have to say that when we first started eating minestrone at our house, and maybe

a couple months ago, I'm not going to name names, but some of our kids were not too happy

about it.

This did not look all that appealing.

Is that kale floating around in there?

Is that onion?

What is going on?

But guess what happened?

Just a week or so ago when we were having minestrone, and we kept having it, and we kept serving

it, and we kept having it, and we kept serving it.

One of our children, my new favorite child, said, said, you know what?

This is really good.

And I was like, she likes it.

Mikey, she likes it.

And what had happened?

She had developed a taste for it, started to develop a palate for it, and actually started

to enjoy it, but that's not how it started.

It is hard to develop a taste for the Bible.

It is hard.

It's an acquired taste.

And part of the problem is, is there's so many other things in the world that are competing

for our time and our attention and our taste.

So for example, the Bible has got to compete with your smartphone for your time and attention.

It's got to compete with streaming television.

It's got to compete with your PS5 and Call of Duty.

The Bible has to compete with music and all sorts of other media that is out there.

It is really, really hard to develop a taste for the Bible when there's so many other things.

It's really hard to eat the minestrone when there's chicken fingers and fries also on

the side of the plate.

I would rather eat those.

Those kind of taste better initially.

But you can change your appetite.

And that's what we need to do.

We need to change our appetite.

And that's part of what growing up is.

I want to say to all of us that if you have a hard time reading the Bible, speaking to

myself, we got to grow up.

We have to realize that we're no longer children and that we can't be picky and choosy and fussy

like that about the Bible.

We have to actually start developing a taste for it.

And if we keep coming back to it and keep tasting it and keep eating it and keep consuming

it, then you know what?

Actually we will get to the place where we, like the Psalmists, delight in the law of the

Lord, where we can actually say, man, this is really, really, really good.

But in order to do that, all the research tells us we're going to have to cut down on

some of the junk.

And we're going to have to increase our diet of what is good for us.

And over time, our taste will change.

You probably can think of things that have changed in your own taste.

Over time I used to love Coca-Cola when I was a kid.

I loved it.

It was a great treat.

But as I grew up, I started to realize it wasn't good for me.

And actually over time, I started not even to like the taste.

And in fact, not long ago, there was some Coke in our fridge.

I poured a glass and I drank it and I was like, I don't like this anymore.

I don't like how this makes me feel anymore.

On the other hand, like JP, I used to hate fish.

I hated the taste of it.

I hated the smell of it, the texture of it.

I hated everything, the look of it.

I hated everything about fish.

But today, I love fish.

I love it.

You could say I'm hooked on fish.

Right?

I really like fish.

What I'm saying is this.

My taste matured.

And as followers of Jesus, our taste also needs to mature.

We need to get to the place where we delight in this wonderful library of Scripture that

has been given to us, where you can't wait to open it up in the morning, where you keep

coming back to it for seconds and thirds.

But in order to that, you got to keep tasting.

You got to keep putting one bite in your mouth after another.

So that's the first thing we got to do.

We have to try one bite and develop an appetite for this.

But secondly, if we're going to really get the most out of this and really eat the Bible,

we have to learn how to chew.

Now again, experts say if you want to get the most of the nutrients and the most of

the flavors out of your food, chew.

Chew your food.

Right?

Chew every single bite like five times or something like that.

Kids don't like to chew their food.

If they have food they don't like, like for example, someone in our family really does

not like peas.

So what they will do is they'll just kind of go like this and so they go right down without

being chewed because they just hate that feeling of biting into the pea and exploding in your

mouth and all the flavor.

They can't handle it.

So they don't chew the food they don't like.

And other kids, they don't chew the food that they do like.

They're just constantly wolfing it down, wolfing it down.

So parents are always like saying, hey, hey, hey, just slow down.

They don't chew your food.

Chew your food, kiddo.

In fact, I came across a nursery rhyme.

Parents are so desperate to get their kids to chew their food.

This is the new nursery rhyme that they sing to them at the dinner table.

Chew, chew, chew your food.

Don't swallow it right away.

Chew, chew, chew some more before you go out to play.

I know you think I wrote that.

I did not write that.

I could have done way better if I wrote that.

But listen, in Psalm 1 we are taught to chew through God's word.

Let me show you what I mean.

Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who

chews on that law both day and night.

You probably say, Robert, doesn't say he chews on the law.

It says he meditates on the law.

But you see, ah, that is where we have to understand that Hebrew word,

meditate.

I know when you think of meditate,

you probably think of Eastern forms of meditation,

like a Buddhism or Hinduism or yoga or mindfulness,

where we look deep inside ourselves and we empty our minds.

But that's not the Hebrew idea of meditation.

Hebrew idea of meditation, if we don't look inside ourselves,

we look outwards and we don't empty our minds.

But we look toward God and let God fill our minds.

But the best part about the Hebrew word for meditation

is it is this word, haga, which means literally, it means to chew.

It actually means to growl and to chomp.

So for example, in Isaiah 31, we read this,

as a lion growls over its prey.

And guess what that word growl is?

It's haga.

It's the same word for meditate as a lion

meditates over its prey.

We got this dog, a little corgi named Holly.

And if you give her a tree, do you give her a bone?

Even if you give her a stick, she will growl over it.

She will drag that stick off to a private place by herself.

And she will just go to work on it.

Our dog loves just to chew and growl over things.

So for example, I'll show you an example of this.

The other day, here's Holly.

She had a stick.

I went up to her.

I was like, hey, Holly, what do you got?

You got a stick.

And then I reached my hand.

And she did not like that whatsoever.

This is slow mo.

She bit my finger right off.

It grew back.

And then what did she do?

She ran off to a place by herself where

she could keep chewing over it and growling over it

and muttering over it as dogs do.

That's how we are meant to read the Bible.

There is a way to read the Bible where you just kind of zip

through it or whatever.

But what we're being called to do in Psalm chapter one

is to read it in a different way.

There's a way to read it where you read it, but then you pause.

And then you ponder it.

And you think about it.

And then maybe you reread it.

And you listen.

And you pray those words back to God somehow.

What are we doing?

We're chewing.

We're growling.

We're turning it over, turning it over in our minds.

Eugene Peterson is the fellow who translated

the Bible into this contemporary language,

to a version we call the Message Bible.

And so he's wrestled with all these biblical words

in very profound ways.

And he says this.

He says, Christians feed on Scripture.

Christians don't simply learn or study Scripture.

We assimilate it.

We take it into our lives in such a way

that it gets metabolized into us.

So that's how it works.

How do we eat this book?

Well, it starts by just tasting it bit by bit

and developing an appetite for it.

But then secondly, we have to learn to chew it.

We have to learn to meditate on these words.

The next time you pull out your Bible,

don't take a paper and a pen with you.

Take a fork and a knife because you

are going to dig into this and eat this book.

Thirdly, though, what is one of the things

that parents will always say to us

in order to get us to eat our food at the table?

This is a classic line.

It's good for you.

You got to eat your food.

It's good for you, right?

Don't you want to grow up big and strong like daddy?

Here, eat your food.

Or, hey, eat your carrots.

It's going to give you really good eyesight.

Everyone's heard that one, right?

Or they'll be like, hey, let's pretend that we're superheros.

And this is our power food.

Come on, let's eat our food together.

Sometimes we do tricks and stuff like that to get kids

to eat healthy.

Sometimes we'll chop up the kale, chop up the kale,

and slip it into the spaghetti and meatballs,

and just hope that they don't notice.

And they're getting something good.

It's good for you.

My mom once made me and my siblings a craft dinner.

And it tasted a little strange.

And so we asked her, what's going on?

This doesn't taste right.

And when she finally told us, she told us

she had taken chicken broth from the chicken we had eaten

the night before.

And she had used that instead of water

to make the craft dinner, to make it healthier.

So that's the thing, right?

One of the reasons we have to learn to eat this book

is that it is so good for us.

In Psalm 1, we read this.

The bad person, which person?

Oh, the person who reads God's word,

the person who meditates on God's word, who delights in it,

is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields

its fruit and season, whose leaf doesn't wither and whatever.

They do prosper.

My friends, is this not just an amazing picture of health?

Yielding fruit.

It leaves the don't wither.

Prosperity.

Clearly, clearly, eating this book is good for you.

It's better than broccoli.

It's better than Brussels sprouts, this book.

According to Psalm 1, this book, if we eat it,

will give us success and prosperity somehow.

It's amazing, but it's saying success and prosperity in your life

does not come from your talent or your IQ,

or it doesn't come from your good looks or your work ethic.

It doesn't even come from luck.

Success and prosperity comes from these words.

You might say, how could that possibly be?

And I think the reason is because the Bible is filled

with God's wisdom.

And the more we read it, the more it makes us wise,

wise in the choices we make in our life,

wise in the choices we make with our relationships,

and therefore, people who devour this book

are feeding on the wisdom of God, which leads to a prosperous

life.

Now, some of you may say, well, listen,

so you're saying, if I just read the Bible,

I'm going to be prosperous, that I'll have health and wealth,

and I'll have fame and fortune and lots of followers

on Instagram?

Well, no, that is not the kind of prosperity

that God is talking about.

God wants us to be successful.

He wants us to prosper, but not like that.

Instead, as a picture of prosperity, take a look at Jesus.

Jesus prospered in this life.

Jesus lived in harmony with God.

He lived in harmony with other people.

He lived in harmony with himself and with all creation.

Jesus had this contentment and this peace and this joy

about him.

That's the kind of prosperity Psalm 1 is talking about.

That's the health and goodness that we get out of this.

The more of this we eat, the more of that we get.

In fact, the writer of the Psalms in Psalm 119

says, I've got more insight than all my teachers.

Why?

Because I chew on this word.

I have more wisdom than my elders.

Why?

Because I obey these commandments.

The Bible's good for you.

The Bible's good for you.

It's good for me.

It's good for all of us.

So are you getting hungry?

Are you starting to get a hankering to really dig

into this book?

First question, can we develop an appetite for it?

Yes, we can.

Secondly, can we learn to chew and meditate on these words?

Yes, we can.

And thirdly, can we experience the health and the fullness

of life that comes from feeding on it?

Yes, we can.

The dinner bell is ringing.

All we got to do is get out a stool and pull up to the table

and get ready to tuck into it.

But before we do, I wanted to say one more thing.

Before we really think about how we can consume this,

remember one more thing that mom and dad used to always tell us

at the dinner table, and that was this.

Eat slowly.

Eat slowly.

Even if you love God's word, even if you delight in it

and you just can't get enough of it, don't wolf it down.

Don't wolf it down.

You've got to eat it slowly.

Dallas Willard once said that hurry, hurry

was the great enemy of the spiritual life.

So when we get to the Bible, we've

got to learn to slow it down, which is hard because we

live in an age of speed.

And everything goes fast, fast, fast.

But in order to read properly, you've got to slow, slow down.

Reading takes time.

A recent Gallup poll says that adults are losing their ability

to read.

Fewer and fewer people read books at all.

I think only, it said 43% of adults

read at least one work of literature per year.

And why is that?

Well, the answer is clear.

The answer is between video games and tablets

and streaming high speed internet,

everything is going so fast, so fast, so fast.

But in order to read, we've got to slow down.

You can't read at high speed.

So because of this, sometimes if we do read the Bible,

we try to read it fast.

Rather than sitting down and tucking into a feast,

we want fast food.

And maybe we get an email every day with a Bible verse,

and we read that as we race out the door.

Or maybe we have the Bible app installed on our phone,

and it sends us a verse of the day.

Or maybe we even listen to a sermon or something

like that as we commute into work.

And that is way better than nothing.

But still, we need to relearn how to read at a slower pace.

I have to tell you, I myself, I've never

been like a reader that just loves reading.

I have to learn this.

Maybe you have to learn this too.

There's a fellow by the name of Hugh McGuire.

He lives in Montreal.

And he kind of writes a lot about the publishing industry.

And he writes this.

He says, books are different to visual art or music or radio.

Books force us to walk through another's thoughts one word

at a time over hours and days.

We share our minds for that time with the writers.

There's a slowness, a forced reflection required

by reading that is unique.

Slowness, slowness, slow down.

So to end today, and actually to end this whole series,

I want to introduce you to a spiritual discipline,

an ancient spiritual practice that

is meant to help us develop a taste for scripture,

learn how to chew on it and meditate on it,

and take it in slowly.

It's got a Latin name.

It's called Lectio Divina.

And what this essentially means is spiritual reading.

That's what it translates as.

And for people who practice Lectio Divina

when they come to reading the scriptures,

there are kind of five parts to it.

And I'm going to outline them to you real quickly.

But I've also put all this on a bookmark.

If you want, you can go to the welcome desk

after the service.

And you can pick up the bookmark and stick it in your Bible.

And it'll remind you, as you read your Bible every day,

how to do it.

So here is how it begins.

First, the first step is just getting yourself ready,

or what Lectio calls silenzio.

Go find a quiet place.

Just turn off your phone.

Be like my dog.

Run off with your Bible, with your bone,

and find a quiet, comfortable place.

And be still.

Be quiet.

And just take one or two moments just of silence.

Ask God.

God, come and speak to me as I open up this book.

Speak to me.

Just silenzio.

Second step is to read it, or Lectio,

which means find whatever passage you're reading.

Maybe you've got a reading plan.

Maybe you're reading through a book of the Bible, whatever.

Whatever you decided to read, read it.

But read it slowly.

Read it slowly.

Read it out loud if it helps, or read it quietly in your mind.

But as you read, listen.

Listen for a word.

Listen for a phrase.

Listen for an idea.

Listen for an emotion.

Listen for a character or something

that catches your attention in that reading.

Because God is speaking to you now.

So listen.

Then thirdly, Meditatio.

Begin that process of chewing on it

and reflecting on what you've read.

Ask yourself questions like, what does this mean?

What does this mean for me?

What does it mean for our world?

Maybe the reading stirs up some emotion in you.

What is that about?

Think about it.

Is this reading challenging you to do something?

Is it commanding you to do something?

Is there a promise in this reading

that you need to grab hold of?

This is not a Bible study, by the way.

You don't need commentaries.

You don't need textbooks and all that stuff.

There is a time and a place for that,

but that's not what we're talking about right.

In Lectio, you are just letting God speak to you

from this word.

Read it again.

Read it again.

God, are you saying something to me?

Fourth step of Lectio is to respond to what you've heard,

oratio, which is a Latin word for prayer.

So respond.

Say, God, I've heard you say this to me.

It makes me feel like this.

God, you pray it back to God.

Pray back whatever you're feeling.

If it's praise and wonder and adoration, pray that to God.

If it's confusion or anger or frustration, pray that.

Back to God.

Just engage with God in prayer.

This isn't a one-way dialogue.

This is a dialogue.

It's a conversation.

And then finally, lastly, contemplatio.

Just rest.

Just rest now in God's presence.

This is the delight part.

Just delight in who God is.

Delight in this word God has spoken to you.

Maybe you say, God, is there anything else here for me?

Is there anything else you want to show me?

But if not, just rest then in God's presence.

No words are necessary.

You can just be.

That's the Lectio Divina outline.

Like I said, you can learn a lot more about how to do Lectio.

In fact, coming up in a couple of weeks,

we're going to be doing a whole course just on this.

Stay tuned for the announcements at the end of the service.

But do you see how this is actually a conversation?

It's not just you.

God is at this table too.

You're not dining alone.

You're dining with someone.

God is there speaking to you as you feast on scripture together.

God is there with us.

He's eating with us.

And He's calling you to this table today.

Many of us come to the Bible like children.

We're picky eaters.

But if we're going to grow up, then our appetites

have got to change for God's word.

Try one bite.

Start nibbling away at it day by day.

Keep feeding on it until that palate and that delight for God's

word develops in you.

Begin to really chew your food.

Don't just read it.

Meditate on these words.

Realize how good it is for you.

These are the words that give you life, life to the fullest.

And remember, eat slowly.

Practice something like Lectio Divina or whatever

until you, like the Psalmist, can say in your heart,

man, this is really, really good.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us today

for our final sermon in our series, The Bible for Grownups.

And we hope that Rob's message left a good taste in your mouth

and gave you something to chew on as you go forward in your week.

Take care, everyone, and come back next week.

Today's sermon was taken from the May 5,

2024 service at Trinity Church Street

in Nashville in Mississauga, Ontario.