"The Recipe For A Healthy Diet"

When was the last time, or how often doyou find yourself looking at the nutrition facts on the back of the label ofwhatever it is you’re eating? What do you notice about what you’re eating? Younotice the healthy things that you should be eating – proteins and the like. Oryou’ll notice the things you shouldn’t be eating too much of – sodium or fats.You read through the labels b/c you want to know exactly what you are eating.You want a healthy diet – and not a diet full of junk foods.

Imagine you walk into the doctor and youtold him what you were eating and what was in your diet, and you said, “Doctor,I’ve found the perfect recipe for a healthy diet. My diet consists of a cup ofwater and a whole lot of salt.” The doctor would be thrilled to hear the firsthalf of your recipe for a healthy diet. In fact, he’d tell you don’t stop at justone glass of water – be sure to drink a lot more. But when you tell him aboutthe salt, he’d get a funny look on his face wondering what you’re talkingabout. Salt in large quantities is not good for us. It raises blood pressure.

Did you know that was the exact recipe fora healthy diet that Jesus gave to his disciples and that he shares w/ you andme this morning? You see, Jesus cares about our diet to maintain physicalhealth, but he’s even more concerned about us having a spiritually healthy diet– and what that looks like. In verse 41 a few lines down in our lesson, Jesussays, “I tell you the truth, anyone whogives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainlynot lose his reward.”   And then inthe very last verse, verse 50, Jesus says, “Saltis good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace witheach other.” 

The point that Jesus is making thismorning that we want to well remember is that in order to have “The Recipe Of A Healthy Diet”,we need to have a cup of water tokeep the parts of your body; and we want to have a lot of salt to keep peace in the body.