Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
EP 179: From Milk to Meat: Growing Beyond Surface-Level Faith
Fast food feels convenient, but it can't sustain our health long-term – a truth that Pastor B discovered during a personal dietary shift. This same principle applies to our spiritual nourishment, where easy access to Christian content through podcasts and social media has created a dangerous illusion. Many believers mistake content consumption for genuine spiritual growth, settling for spiritual "fast food" instead of the rich nourishment that comes through dedicated time with God.
Drawing from Hebrews 5, this episode explores the critical distinction between spiritual milk and solid food. Pastor B challenges listeners to honestly assess their spiritual maturity, noting how many professing Christians remain in spiritual infancy despite years of faith. True growth, he explains, doesn't come through passive consumption but through active disciplines: prayer, meditation, studying Scripture, and applying God's word through constant practice. This maturity develops as we courageously let go of comfortable spiritual habits and embrace the stretching, sometimes uncomfortable work of deeper faith.
We face unprecedented distractions in today's digital landscape, but Pastor B reminds us that distraction remains our choice. The algorithms only feed us what we've already chosen to engage with. To grow beyond spiritual milk, we must reset our focus, create space for quiet reflection, actively listen for God's voice, practice discernment, and find accountability partners who will challenge us. There's safety in the deep end of faith – a place where we gain proper perspective, resist deception, and develop the spiritual capacity needed for life's most significant challenges. Are you ready to move beyond content consumption to authentic spiritual transformation?
Welcome to the Living From Sunday to Sunday podcast with your host, pastor B. This podcast is designed to help you walk faithfully with God through the various trials and challenges this life presents. The truth of who we are is revealed in our lives in between Sundays. You will be inspired, challenged and equipped to live a victorious life that will bring glory to God himself. Come on, let's get started. Hello, welcome to another episode of the Living from Sunday to Sunday podcast. I am your host, pastor B. I believe that this is the best 15 minutes of your day, because real change happens 15 minutes at a time. Do me a favor Please like, share and subscribe to this podcast. If you're watching on YouTube, hit the notification bell, subscribe to the show so that you're the first to know when a new episode drops. All right, so listen.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking about my walk with God. This is a podcast that focuses on living life in between Sundays and so often I kind of go back and I look at go back and I look at my walk with God. Like am I doing those things I'm supposed to? What's my prayer life looking like? When's access to biblical content due to technology, right? And you know there are podcasts just like mine. There are videos on social media. There's so many Christian content creators out right now that it can seem that just by consuming that stuff that that is enough to live a life unto God. But what I've learned and what I have experienced is, the easier that you have access to things, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's good for you.
Speaker 1:Right, me and my wife we've been. We decided that we would kind of alter and change our diet. We decided that we would try to kick fried foods for a period of time and even for a little bit. We even decided to not do any meat right, to really just kind of do fruits and vegetables much, much more into our diet. So one of the things if you don't diet, so one of the things if you don't meal prep and bring your food to work with you, then you are kind of at the mercy of the fast food industry. And so where my job is is it is in the middle of a pretty busy place, pretty busy place, pretty busy area of the city where I'm in, and man trying to find fast, convenient, healthy food options is nearly impossible In order to get the right types of food for the diet that I'm trying to abide by any time. It costs me a little bit more. I have to go and search in grocery stores. I have to find specific stores. There may only be one restaurant in the city that has what I need. I'm surrounded by stores food that food doesn't really have enough to sustain me long term, right. But it's easy to get to, it's like within five minutes of my job. But the more that I consume what's easy, the sicker I become.
Speaker 1:And so when I look at that and I compare it to my life, to my walk with God, we have easy access to Christian content, but the true, real meat of God's word, it takes time. We have to spend time with him, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness is more than just, you know, a 15 minute soundbite or a 45 minute podcast. Right? It is sitting in front of the word of God. It is praying to God. Say Lord, reveals spiritual truth to me, open up my eyes so that I can understand your word, right? And then with that understanding comes conviction. The Lord is going to show you who you are through the lens of the Holy Spirit, through the lens of the word of God, right? And so then we have to make a choice. We have to choose whether or not to abide by the word of God, to whatever the word tells us to do. We have to choose to do it us to do. We have to choose to do it. We have to subject ourselves to following the principles that's in the word of God. This means we're going to have to give up those things that we love. It means that we're going to have to not spend so much time on the shallow things and dive deep into the true word and meat of God.
Speaker 1:I want to read the scripture. This is Hebrews, chapter five, right, and the writer of Hebrews, near the end of this chapter, is giving a warning about apostasy or the great falling away. Right, and this is what he says in verses 11 through 13. It says about this. We have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For, though, by this time you ought to be teachers. For, though, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Speaker 1:So there's a couple of things we want to look at in this verse. Right, there are some basic principles, some basic understanding of God that a lot of people are arguing over right now. Right, things that should be very simple. Over right now, things that should be very simple, things that should be quote-unquote elementary People who claim to have this mature knowledge and depth of the word. They're arguing over the elementary parts of God. And so what this scripture is saying is that if we can't get our foundations right, if we can't get the basic principles of God, then we are incapable, just like a baby is incapable of eating real food whenever they're born. It takes a number of years for that baby to be able. If you are immature in the faith, just say you're immature in the faith. Right, it's okay to be a babe, but the worst thing you can do is say that you can handle the mature, solid food of God when you're really a babe. This scripture alludes to teachers who carry themselves with a knife and fork, thinking that they can serve up these mature meals of the word and they don't have enough spiritual depth In order to serve the word properly. Properly, because they are not even able to consume what they're attempting to serve. They don't have the capacity for solid meat. They're still on bottles, they're still on milk, right. And so how do you develop from spiritual milk to being able to handle solid food, Right?
Speaker 1:This scripture says that maturity comes by the constant practice of discernment, the constant practice of reading the word, the constant practice of meditation, the constant practice of listening to the voice of God, the constant practice of repentance and devotion and discipline. That is how we grow. We grow in God simply by obeying his word and subjecting ourselves to his will. Right, there are many areas in my life that God is trying to grow me up in, but babies are those who are attached to comfort, right, we can't say that we're growing in God if we're not willing to throw off our baby clothes, if we're not willing to let go of the binky, if we're not willing to let go of our, of our favorite childhood toy. Right, there's some things, spiritually, that we have to let go of so that God can grow us and take us to a new level, so we can have a new and deeper level of experience with him. Right, because as you grow in God, there are certain battles and certain encounters that you have in this life where you need a certain level of strength, you need a certain level of capacity.
Speaker 1:Right, my concern for a lot of people who say they love God and are professing Christians is that we're so addicted to the milk of the word that we don't see the need for solid food. Right, we're 30 years old, 20, 25, 30, 40 and we say we've been with God for a really long time, but we're really immature because we've gotten comfortable with milk. Alright, it's really not great for us to be lazy spiritual Christians. Right, we should be tired of shallow faith. We should be tired of having a surface level relationship with God. Right, because I mentioned earlier deep faith. It requires time, it requires quiet meditation, it requires says right, this culture more than any other.
Speaker 1:We're super distracted, and one of the harsh realities about distractions and I'm guilty, right, I'm not preaching to you, I am preaching to myself and to you as well Distraction is a choice. We choose what our eyes entertain. Right, and it is the substance of what we consume that's addictive. But we chose that show, we chose that friend, we chose that app, we chose to follow that person. The algorithm only feeds us what we choose to see, right, and so it is. Just, we're just, really, really just distracted to a whole nother level right now. Right, and so we have to choose better. Right, we have to reset our, our focus, we said, our attention, and we can't be scared of the conviction of the Word of God. Right, some people don't like going to church because they know that God is going to speak to them and that he's going to ruffle their feathers. Right, some people really try to avoid that feeling, so they'll go and hear voices that will appease them and make them feel good.
Speaker 1:But, man, like I said earlier, spiritual growth is a stretching. It is requiring you to do things on a consistent level that you may have never, ever, done. Right, it's a different approach, right, and so I want to encourage you to do three things To be quiet, to listen and to put into practice the spirit of discernment. Right, fast from the noise, man, just take it, take moments, just get away, turn off your phone, do not disturb and just get away, just be quiet for a little while. And then, lastly, man, like, try to find somebody who can hold you accountable.
Speaker 1:We're not, we're never meant to live this life alone, especially this christian walk, like you need community. You need someone, um, who will check in on you just to make sure that you're good, that you're doing what you're supposed to do. All right. So I believe that there's safety in the deep end. I believe that the deeper that we get in God, the more understanding that we'll have about our situation, the better we'll be able to view the world from the proper perspective. It won't be so easy for us to be deceived and attached and attracted to the wrong thing.
Speaker 1:All right, that's my hope for you, and thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Of course, this podcast is available everywhere where they may be found. Podcasts is available everywhere where they may be found. So go to Apple, go to Spotify you can go to Good Pods even and like, share and subscribe to this show. Let people know that this show is blessing you. And if you're watching on YouTube, please make sure that you subscribe to the show and hit the notification bell so that you are the first to know when a new episode drops. All right, until next time, we'll see y'all when we see you, no-transcript.
