Eat and Live (?? ??)

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/eat_and_live-korean.mp3[/podcast] We’re going to open our Bibles to 1 Samuel 14. Before we get there, I’m going to fill you in on what is happening. Last week, we said that we all have our Philistine armies (??? ??) to conquer (??? ??) and that the road to the fight was perilous (????). Jonathan and his armor bearer started an attack on the Philistine army that sent them in full retreat (??). I didn’t tell you this last week, but I’m going to tell you now, but when Jonathan started to attack the Philistine army, he created such a great movement that people who left came back. The Bible says this in verse 22-23: “The retreat was so great that the people who had formerly abandoned the army of Israel started to come back to join in the fight because now it was possible to defeat the Philistines.” ? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ????, ??? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??, ?? ???? ??? ???? ???? ???. ? ? ???? ???????? ?????. (???? 14:22-23) ²⁴ And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” So none of the people had tasted food. ²⁵ Now when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground. ²⁶ And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. ²⁷ But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes became bright. ²⁸ Then one of the people said, “Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food this day.’” And the people were faint. ²⁹ Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. ³⁰ How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found. For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.” (1 Samuel 14:24-30)chasing (????) God’s miracle in your life, and you find yourself extremely exhausted? Isn’t that what our entire Christian lives are about? God’s miracles unfolding in our lives? That’s why he saved us, so that we can be witnesses (??) for the great things He is doing right here and right now. That’s exactly where Jonathan and the armies of Israel are. Tonight’s sermon is titled, “Eat to Live” (?? ??). We’re going to pick up the story in verse 24.I want you to see what happened here at the end. ? ? ???? ??? ????? ?????.  ??? ??? ????? ???. God saves Israel and now they pass over to Beth-aven. In Hebrew, this is interesting because I don’t think there is an actual place called Beth-aven, but I think the writer put this here because he wants the reader to know that the Israelites were now fighting in the house of idols. That’s what Beth-aven means. Now, it was at the end of the battle (??). The Israelite armies were exhausted (?? ????). They were hungry (?????). Jonathan’s faith (??) allowed God to do a miracle (??). Even though it was God who did the miracle, the people were tired. Have you ever experienced a time when you’re Church is the ForestI want to ask everybody here tonight, what are you chasing (??? ??? ?????)? Are we chasing the dreams and aspirations of God or are we chasing the wind? Do you know the difference between chasing God’s dreams for you and chasing the wind? It’s simple, you can take hold of God’s dreams, you can grab it, you can’t grab the wind, it doesn’t matter how much you try. You won’t get it. Let me give you an example to help you tell the difference, if you play the lotto thinking that’s God’s dream for you to win the lotto, that’s not, because that’s a fantasy. Get it out of your head, that’s not a dream, that’s the wind. Have you ever won? Of course not. When we go to verse 25, we find that the Israelites chased the Philistines all the way to the forest (??? ????). The allusion (??) in the Bible about forests is likened to being a refuge (???). The Bible also calls the forest the Sabbath (read: rest) or (??). When we enter God’s forest, we get refuge, we get rest, but we also get honey (?). When we chase God’s dreams for us, he takes us to his refuge where we have honey. It is here that we can eat to live. Do you think God brings you here to stop? No, he brings you here so that you can experience (??) God and have a taste (?) of His glory (??). When we go to verse 26 we see that the “honey was dropping.” The honey is God’s glory. I’m going to explain that to you all in one minute, but I want to talk about the forest of refuge.You have to believe that God gives each and every single one of us a dream. Without God’s dream for you, there’s really nothing there to live for. If there is nothing for you to live for, then why would God save you? Why would God send Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice? ?????? ? ??? ????? ?????? (Romans 3:25).  God saved you and me because He has plans for us. I told you last week that some of us are afraid of chasing our dream so we hang out where it’s comfortable, well that’s not acceptable. I don’t know what that dream is for you, but I do know that only you can do what God dreamed for you. I know what you’re thinking: God’s dream for me is that thing I keep chasing and I’m tired because it’s like the wind—I can’t catch it. I am so tired of chasing because the more I chase, the more tired I am. Let me circle back to this passage in scripture, go to verse 24.Have you seen the things that we chase? We chase things like money. Things like fame (??, ??). Things like recognition (??). We chase well-being (??). We chase temporal things (????). We need to stop chasing those things. Those things are wasting our time and ultimately wasting our lives. The Apostle Paul (?? ??) says in Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????. ???? ? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???). You won’t have to chase temporal things (????), God will give it to you when you are chasing His plans and not chasing the wind. Israel was fighting out there, but they didn’t quite understand why (?) they were fighting. They were just chasing the Philistines; they didn’t know why they were chasing them. When you read this passage over and over again, you see that they have no idea. They just do what they’re told without knowing why. We need to know why we do the things that we do—because God has a dream for us that we need to follow and overcome in his name. I believe that they didn’t understand what it meant that God was going to give them the promise land, only Jonathan understood. Saul didn’t recognize (??) either because he was chasing his own dream. Saul didn’t recognize that he should have been seeking God’s kingdom first (???? ??? ???? ?? ????), so his “avenging” (??) was always about his enemies, not the enemies of God. When we follow God, as crazy as our lives are, it’s not tiring (??? ???? ?? ? ?, ??? ?? ???? ????). God knows you’re hungry (???). You come to church to get a break from the world and taste the glory of God. But we complain about our church. We complain saying that it’s too stressful, it’s too small, it’s a lot of work. But this is a break for you. You come and eat the word of God and you go out into the world and chase the dream God gave you. The dream God gave you is not here at church, this is a break so that you can taste what heaven is like. God knows you need a Sabbath, God is giving you rest. Some of you don’t think it’s a rest, but this is a break. Making food (?? ??), it’s a break. Doing the dishes (???), it’s a break. Cleaning (??), it’s a break. It’s rest. Church is the forest of refuge. God doesn’t just bring us all into his refuge. In his refuge, honey overflows (?? ???). What that means is that there is plenty in God’s refuge. God wants us to eat! The problem is that when we come to God’s refuge, nobody is eating. Why aren’t people eating? God clearly wants people to eat, but people don’t eat the honey that is overflowing. As Christians, we have that same problem, we’re not eating the honey God is giving us. Some of us don’t even know that God is giving us honey. We think God wants to give us steak. But really God wants to give us honey, because it’s so sweet. In this story nobody was eating because they were afraid of Saul’s stupid curse (????? ??? ?? ?? ???). The curse of being Christian is not conforming (???) to this world. The Israelites were afraid of not being part of belonging to the rest of the world. They were worried about the secular king, but they should have really been worried about our heavenly king who brought us this honey. But you’re saying to me, pastor Jonathan, how can we not conform to the world, we run a business, we have to work secular jobs. We’re not professional Christians. Charles Spurgeon once said, “No honey was sweeter than that which dropped from the end of Jonathan’s rod. But that is nothing to the sweetness of the consolation (??) which comes through Jehovah’s rod.” God wants you to eat of Jesus’ salvific grace (??? ??). I don’t mean, just eating it, but enjoying (???) it. You have to enjoy Christ. When you eat of Christ, and enjoy it, your life changes I want you to say this with me then, “?? ??”. We have to eat Jesus Christ’s word and life and we have to live in it. So let’s look at verse 27. “But Jonathan… put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes became bright.” (?? ??? ?????. ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ???). I think more accurate than the translation in this Bible would be this statement, “?? ??.” Jonathan was able to see straight because he got a taste of the food that God had given him.  We all need to eat that spiritual food that God gives to us. I’m talking about the spiritual food that God gives us in the form of encouragement. He gives us spiritual food in the form of love. He gives us the spiritual food in the form of this church family. There is nothing like church family. We enjoy each other. We celebrate together. We taste the sweetness of life with each other. We need to understand that we’re not singing these songs on Friday nights just to sing songs, we are singing these songs to God because when we sing them, it tastes so good to sing them. It prepares us for the next fight in our lives. It gives us the rest that we need to go and keep chasing what God put on us to chase. Jonathan ate the honey and his eyes were able to see what was really important. If you stopped in the middle of your chasing, you would be able to eat of God’s spiritual food and drink his spiritual drink (communion with Jesus) and see the big picture. You would be able to see what you’re chasing and why you are chasing. Saul didn’t understand what he was chasing, nor did he really understand why. The Bible says he fought hard every single day of his life and he wasn’t a good king. We need to be like Jonathan and understand that we are chasing God’s glory. When we eat the honey of God, we are will do greater things than we’ve ever imagined. Let’s pray.