Attention Funnel: 10 Best Foods
Series Introduction:
- Why do you eat a Donut? You eat a donut because it tastes good. The combination of dough, sugar, icing, and other ingredients hits your tongue and activates thousands of taste buds that send signals to your brain saying, “This is fantastic!” I’m guessing you’ve never ate a donut because someone told you that you have to. You eat a donut because you believe it’s going to taste good.
- Over the next four weeks we’re going to be talking about what is commonly referred to as spiritual disciplines. I’m guessing a lot of you have heard that term before…. and I’m curious what it brings to mind. Perhaps you immediately think of reading your bible and praying. And then maybe you feel guilty because you think, “I don’t do those things enough. I know that I should, but I don’t.” Or maybe you just think of a spiritual checklist that you are supposed to accomplish.
- Here’s the idea that I want to pop into your head over the next week… I want you to think of spiritual disciplines like eating a donut.
- In Psalm 34:8 David calls us to “Taste and see that God is good.” That’s where the title of this series comes from.
- I want you to practice the habits we talk about over the next 4 weeks because I think they are some of the ways God gives us to taste and see that he is good.
- Christianity is not a checklist to maintain, it’s a relationship to enjoy. And God gives us specific ways that we can pursue enjoyment of Jesus. He gives us means to activate our taste buds and bite into his goodness.
- Now, the donut metaphor breaks down a little bit, because you might think… “Kyle it’s not hard at all to eat a donut.” But it can be very hard to practice the spiritual disciplines. That’s where the “See” part comes in. I want to give you one more way to think of them.
- Think of them as a pathway, like a hiking trail.
- During my time in college, my friends and I would go hiking to a place called the Pinnacle in Hamburg, often to camp out at the top of the mountain. The hike was not an easy one. It was about 3.5 miles of uphill hiking carrying all of our supplies. There were moments where I thought, “Why am I doing this?” Why didn’t I just stay at home on my couch?” But then we would get to the top of the hike, and I would remember why: Because the views were incredible! You can see for miles and miles. And there was nothing like being up there as the sun went down or rose the next morning.
- We went through the discipline of hiking so that we could take in the amazing views.
- The same idea is true of the disciplines we’ll talk about. They are not always easy or convenient. Sometimes they are difficult and even frustrating in the moment. But they lead to incredible views. They help us to see God more clearly and enjoy Jesus more fully.
- I’m going to give you what I’ll label as four pathways. This is not by any means an extensive list. There are all sorts of ways to taste and see that God is good. But these are 4 pathways that I think are really good ways for us to taste and see that God is good.
- DISCLAIMER: Please know that I am not putting these before you as an expert in these areas, but as someone who is continuing to try to find my way.
- The framework for this series will be each week we’ll ask “What’s the pathway?” And we’ll answer that by laying out a specific spiritual discipline. Then we’ll ask “What’s the point?” And I’ll try to show from scripture what the purpose of the discipline is. And finally, we’ll ask, “What’s the practice?” Where I’ll try to give you some specific ways to put this discipline into practice.
- And all while, I want you to keep these two images in mind… tasting a donut, and taking a hike to see some incredible view.
Keystone Youth 