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What Does it Mean to Taste and See the LORD | Sermonette
Jul 20, 2024
Psalm 34:8 stands as one of the most beloved passages in the Bible:
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Yet, you may find yourself pondering:
➤ What does it truly mean to "taste" God?
➤ How can one "see" God?
➤ In what sense is God deemed "good"?
➤ Why does trust in God lead to blessings?
➤ How can I incorporate Psalm 34:8 into my prayers?
All these questions find their answers in this thought-provoking and illuminating video!
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📖 Read the transcript/blog version here: https://becomingchristians.com/psalm-1-commentary-and-lessons/
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0:00
So, brethren, I would like to talk about a particular verse in Psalm that I would say that if you just read it on the surface, it doesn't really make sense
0:09
But if you are going to dig into the words, dig into the ideas of this specific verse, you're going to be blown away by its very beautiful and I would say rich and deep meaning
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I'm talking about Psalm 34 verse 8. Let's go there, brethren. And this is actually the focus of my message, the meaning of Psalm 34, verse 8
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Let's go there. All right, here we go
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Psalm 34, verse 8. It says here, oh, taste and see that Yahweh is good
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blessed is a man who trusts in him oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is a man who trusts in him now if we're going to look into this into this verse what does it mean to taste God does it mean that we have to take a bite we are going to eat God obviously no there's a different meaning here and what does it mean to see
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that the Lord is good. What is David trying to say here
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So this is the verse that I want us to focus on and I believe, I hope that at the end of this message
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Psalm 34 verse 8 would be one of your favorite scriptures in the Bible
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And you would have a deeper understanding of what it means to taste and see Yahweh in your life
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So before we go through this verse, let's go ahead and have a biblical background of this verse
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If you're going to look into the subheading or the title of Psalm 34 in our modern translation
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the editor put here, at this, this is on my Bible, you know, if you have this
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it says, A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed
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So the background of this song, Psalm 34, is actually, this is written by David around the time when he was running away from Seoul
2:37
And then he ended up running and running and he end up in the kingdom of Akish
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So it says here Abimelech, but some say it is Abimelech, this is a title
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It's referring to Akish. So that's why there's a discrepancy in the name
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So at that story, you can actually read the story. I don't know how to go there so that we would save time
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It's found in, you just put it in your notes. First Samuel 21, verse 10 to 15
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First Samuel 21, 10 to 15. So at that time, David was so afraid of Akish
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because he's in the enemy territory and he was captured and he was presented to Akish
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the king of God. and he cannot he doesn't know how to skip what should I do what what should I how should I how should I manage my situation so do you know what he did what was his bright idea he pretended to be a crazy guy he pretended to be mad and that's why in front of Akesh he was scratching the door and he was salivating he was foaming in the mouth so he was
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trying to pretend that he's mad. And so Akish said, so Akish said
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why do you present this guy to me? And he was disgusted and he just said
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oh, just get rid of him. I don't need him here. So that's how King David
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was able to escape from the hand of Akish. And so this song was written
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with a backdrop of that story. So how how come that that David
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David was writing this kind of verse with that kind of bizarre background
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Well, some commentators said different reasons why the editor made a connection between the two stories and this song
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But I would say that perhaps after that, King David realized how he made a fool out of himself
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At that time, King David was actually more fearful. to Akeesh than God
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And because of that, brethren, if you're going to read chapter 34, it has 22 verses
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you're going to read here multiple times about fearing Yahweh. So it's not my topic today that to go through
5:11
Psalm 34, but I just want to look into the verse 8 here
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So it says here, oh, taste and see that Yahweh is good
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Blessed is a man who trusts in him. Now first of all, brethren, this is actually an invitation of King David
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He is inviting the people, those who are reading here, those who are hearing him
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He is inviting them to taste and see Yahweh that he is good
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You know why brethren because King David already proven that he has already experienced the goodness of God And because of that he was saying to other people hey everyone God is good
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And if you don't believe me, I invite you to taste him and to see that he is really good
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So King David was so confident that people who would try to taste and see God, taste and see God
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they would actually immediately realize that Yahweh is actually good. Now, if you look into the word, the Hebrew word of taste here, it's actually interesting
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Let me just see my notes here. The Greek word, no, the Hebrew word for taste here is ta'am, T-A-A-M, ta'am
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which could mean eat or perceive eat or perceive that's why if you're going to
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Proverbs 31 verse 18 just put it in your notes Proverbs 31 18 says
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she perceives that her merchandise is good and her lack does not go out
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by night so the word here in 31 verse 18 in proverbs the word she perceives
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this is actually using the same Hebrew word ta'am So if you go back to verse 8, you could actually translate this as, oh, perceive and see that Yahweh is good
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All right? So, but there's one important question here. Of all the words, why would David use a Hebrew word that also means taste
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Why? Why does, of all the words, he could already, he could easily say perceive or try or
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test God, and yet he was saying taste. You see, brethren, in the Bible
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the word taste, our experience with God is actually being described as an experience of tasting
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and eating. Let me just give you, this is actually a very good ogy
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if you're trying to understand it. If you're going to taste food
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all right there's food there's food in front of you do you
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do you immediately dig into it and you would eat you would take
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a big chunk of food naturally you want to first taste it
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you want to take a little bit of the food and try to taste how
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what is the flavor or how it tastes right so in essence
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when you you want to taste the food first because you want
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to go whether it is good food or bad is it fresh or is it
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it is spoiled so by tasting the food you are trying the food
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okay so in the same manner brethren when King David was saying that
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oh taste Yahweh that is good he's actually saying that you go ahead
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and test it if it is really good that's where brethren if you go to
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if you go to Psalm 119, verse 103, let's go there, brethren
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Psalm 119, verse 103 says, how sweet are your words to my taste
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Sweater than honey to my mouth. Did you see that, brethren? Throughout the Bible, brethren
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you could see the ogy of using tasting and experiencing the goodness of God
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It says here, how sweet are your words to my taste? sweeter than honey to my mouth
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Now, honey is a natural sweetener. It is pleasant to the mouth
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Most of you, in that all, have already tasted honey. It is very nice in the palate, in the taste buds
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Now, a lot of people crave sweetness. They come up with this term sweet tooth
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Some people like to eat sweet things. They like to eat cake, they like to eat candy, they like to eat ice cream, sugar, sugary food
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And especially for the kids, when you say, oh, we have ice cream for dessert, they would suddenly light up
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And they were very excited to eat sweet things. Now, what if we have the same cravings for the Word of God
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because God said that his word is like honey in sweetness. What if we are going to have a sweet tooth for God's word
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What if we are going to have the same cravings so that we would be filled with God's word with his sweetness
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So that is what King David is trying to tell us. And if you are going to look in 1 Peter 2 verse 3
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Here's another way of the apostle Peter telling us about the relationship
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between tasting and experiencing God. 1 Peter 2.3 says, if indeed you have tasted
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that the Lord is gracious. Do you not see the connection, brethren
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That our experience, if we are going to taste God, we are going to find out that he's not just good
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but he's also gracious. And you know brethren by tasting God we would discover that he is truly gracious Can you just imagine Letting your son die for people who doesn even love you
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That's how gracious God is. Now, he's a very important thing, brethren
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If you have truly tasted God, if you have truly enjoyed the sweetness of God's word
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if you have truly received the heavenly gift, and we have truly proven
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the graciousness of God, it is important for us to never go back to our old ways
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You know why, brethren? Because here's a very important warning for all of us
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Let's go to Hebrews 6, 4 verse 6. Hebrews 6, 4 to 6
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It says, 4. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened
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and have, there it is again, brethren, the word, tasted. and have tasted the heavenly gift
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and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God
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and the powers of the age to come. Now here's the warning. If they fall away
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if we have already proven that God is good, that we have experienced his love, his graciousness
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his mercy to us, and still we choose to fall away. What is says here, brethren
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it is impossible for them to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God
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and put him to an open shame. If we deliberately, we consciously turn our backs to God
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then we are falling away. And even if we have tasted the heavenly gifts in the past
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and we have just forget about it, I quit, I don't want this question to walk anymore
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we are going to we will not be able to repent anymore. You know why
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Because it is a deliberate choice for us to never go back to
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that Christian walk anymore. So brethren, we could see here that the invitation
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of King David for us is to test God. To see whether it is truly
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that he is truly sweet, that is truly good, that is truly gracious
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So, tasting God is not just for the first bite, okay? So to speak
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It's not just once we have discovered that he's good, that's it
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Actually, this is an ongoing process. Because every time we take in God's word
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every time we experience his goodness, we are still tasting his goodness in us
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Okay, brethren? So that's why in our daily life once we have discovered
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that God is truly good we have to constantly experience it in our life
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but how much of God's goodness have you already experienced in your life
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brethren? How much of God's goodness have you really proven in your life? How much
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of God's goodness are you conscious of? You see brethren because of the many
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difficulties and trials in our life we can easily forget about God's goodness
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When we go through difficulties in life, it's like, angriest our lives our makalimot
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It's so easy to forget about God's goodness. And because of that, we have become more focus on this world's badness
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And that's how it is very important for us to have that continuous process of tasting and
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seeing God. Have you ever experienced that, brethren? Just because of one problem
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you forgot about God's goodness in your life? That's why I have experienced that before
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just because of one problem. It could easily forget about God. It could easily become
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angry towards Him. Could get frustrated. We could become disappointed. And yet
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when we try to look beyond our present circumstances, brethren, we will still see God's goodness
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That's why, if you go back to Psalm 34 verse 8, brethren, it doesn't
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just say taste. What is the second word, brethren? Taste and see God is good
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Or taste and see that the Lord is good. So it is not just enough to just
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taste God. We have to see his goodness in our lives. Now, you have to combine it with seeing
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What's this seeing, brethren? Let's go to. Let's go to second Corinthians
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I didn't, I forgot to put the verse here. The verse says, for we walk by faith, not by sight
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What verse is that? Anyone could give me the verse, would have a reward later
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especially for the young people. For we walk by faith, not by sight
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I apologize for that. I forgot to put the verse here. All right, there you go
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So I said I youth so it not man you that gave there reward First Corinthians 5 verse 7 a second sorry 2nd Cretion 5 So it says here
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for we walk by faith and not by sight so this is how
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you are going to see God's goodness in your life if you're going to use your physical eyes mahirap
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all around you there's a lot of problems it's hopeless there's no tongue on to
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our Christian walk it's notcahirap everything is stuck up against us all odds are against us
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everything is against us if you take the problem it doesn't have a solution
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that's how if that's going to happen if you're just going to use
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your physical eyes but here's the good news brethren we are going to walk by faith
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we are going to see the eyes of faith that's why brethren
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sometimes it seems that there's no solution but if you are going to look upward
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suddenly God will tell you Josh this is how you're going to go through this life
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just want to give you a case in point brethren in this year I truly believe
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that you are going to have the YLC in my heart and
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I believe that we can have it. I knew, I know that
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there's something that we can do to make this possible the YLC
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But if you're going to use your eyes of faith, we don't have funding, we don't have the necessary
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tools. Actually, those are true. And honestly, I can tell you, by
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looking at our resources to at this point, we don't have anything to support
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our YLC. But truly believe, brethren, if we are going to do our part, that's why it says, walk by faith
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All right? There's an action. There's something that you have to do
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That if we could go to God and honestly say, Father, I have already done my part
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Then it is up to God if you're going to give us this YLC or not
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And yet we have to do our part. to all of us
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We have to support this to make it possible. For the young people
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You don't just wait for your parents to give you the tuition
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You just don't wait for the church to have this. This is also for you
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That's why if you could do your part in saving money then well and good
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Actually, I heard someone who is a very young She is actually not eligible for YLC yet
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And yet, she was saving money. And when asked, why do you save money
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Oh, I'm saving for the YLC. Can you just imagine? I think she was just eight years old or nine years old
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And yet, at that very young age, she was already thinking about saving money for YLC
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And I hope that we could also have the same attitude. That we don't just simply wait
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Ah, there's my kiyadh, Dhani, there's a, this YLC is for all of us
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And when we do that, brethren, when we follow the invitation of Tim David here
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oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Whether God will grant us this or not
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but we have done our part, I can tell you, brethren, when comes June
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we can say we can look back that God is truly good to us
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Napakabooty the Lord's I don't know about you but I have experienced it
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in my life that I could also invite other people oh you, oh taste and see that the Lord is good
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notaputin of our Lord and our our Lord. And I hope that we could also
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invite others to experience the same goodness of God in our life
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because this world is dying and hopeless and because of that a lot of people live a very
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sad and depressing life but still if they just accept the invitation if we all
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accept the invitation to taste and see the goodness of God then we will have a better life
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here on earth so brethren that is basically what I have for you
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about Psalm 34 verse 8. Actually, this is a very wonderful and very rich in meaning
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And I hope that you have learned something today. And my sincerest hope, brethren, is that we develop a insatiable craving for God's goodness
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That no matter how much we eat of that sweet word of God, that no matter how much we consume this word, it will never be enough
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That we will have that kind of craving for God's sweet words in our lives
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And that brethren is the meaning of tasting and seeing that Yahweh is too liquid
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