Hi. Thank you all for coming for this second service, evening service. No one ever runs away, they just come to the first service and they come to the second.
But I know this is my favorite time of the year, Christmas, and it is truly really pleasing to me to hear the Christmas music sung and talking about Jesus Christ.
I mean, Jesus is truly the reason for the season, and I know most people are celebrating other things this time of year, but we're here to celebrate Jesus Christ's birth some 2,000 years ago.
That's a true blessing. But where I derive the title of this message is actually found in verse 13.
Look down at your Bible at verse 13. The Bible reads,
Meats for the belly and belly for meats, but God shall destroy both into them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
Not only that, look also at verse 19. It says what?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
The title of this message this afternoon is Spiritual and Physical Diet.
Yep, it's this time of year. We're going to talk about diet. Thanksgiving just happened.
It's the season, like I said, and here in Hawai'i we like to eat.
Now I'm not going to be emphasizing physical diet as much, but obviously I do want us to understand, as the Bible teaches here in 1 Corinthians 6,
that the body is for the Lord. Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And notice it says you are bought with the price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit.
So what I'm going to be doing is drawing significant parallels to physical diet and the spiritual aspects to that.
Now I understand that if you go on YouTube or online, it is a jungle out there when it comes to diet, how we're to live our life.
And you don't want to take, you want to take things with a grain of salt.
And especially as Christians, we need to use the lens of God's word to tell us things to do in our everyday living.
And food is a part of our everyday life. So we need to use the lens of God's word to tell us what is appropriate and healthy food choices.
Now, like I said, if you want to go into like online and look into like nutrition and stuff like that,
I was studying to be a physical fitness trainer for a little and I got a nutrition and all that.
And I know there are all sorts of crazy diets, you know, paleo diet and all sorts of other crazy things.
But before you radically jump into any type of diet, because diet does imply that it stops,
you will try something out and you will no longer do it. Rather, we should have a healthy eating style in life in general.
And it's not rocket science. I mean, obviously there is some things we should know,
but it should be very obvious what are healthy choices and what are unhealthy choices of foods that we can have as people living our day to day life.
But I'm going to show a spiritual significance to them all.
And what I'm going to be using to explain all this is the old food pyramid.
Who remembers the old food pyramid? There's a new food pyramid and it's wrong and it's blasphemous.
We're not using the new food pyramid model. We're using the old food pyramid model.
And there's a reason why. I mean, the new one is slightly different in ways. I'm not going to go into that.
But the old food pyramid model has a pyramid.
The bottom tier is the most essential food group you should be having.
And then each tier as you go up is less important.
The one thing I'm going to be doing is changing the two tiers that are before the very bottom and the very top and flipping them.
And you'll see what I mean and why I do that because the Bible emphasizes those food groups differently.
The first food group that I'm going to emphasize is starch or carbs.
This is the number one food source that we need to consume to be alive.
If you just want to be alive and you're stuck on a desert island, if you have a thing of rice, guess what you're going to do? You're going to live.
The next food group that is in the original food pyramid would be fruits and vegetables.
But I'm going to switch it and I'm going to explain why.
But it's actually going to be protein and dairy.
And then the next tier, which is a little bit smaller, would be fruits and vegetables.
And then the last tier would be sweets and fats and things like that.
Because, like I said, diet or food consumption in our life is part of everyday living.
We every day eat food, some three meals a day, some two meals a day, and so on and so forth.
But we need to see what God tells us about what is right food to eat, how often to eat, and so on and so forth.
So the first food group I want to get into is simply starch.
Starchy foods, you know, carbohydrates, carbs, these are, you know, what is starch?
I'm going to show you, I'm going to read from you an article that explains the health benefits to every food group.
And then we're going to see what God says about those food groups.
But obviously, like I said, if you ask a nutritionist any one question about nutrition, you're going to get 20 answers.
Because some are going to swear up and down that this food is unhealthy, and some are going to swear up and down that it's the miracle food, and so on and so forth.
But we're just going to get a generic understanding of what these foods do and how often we should be eating them.
So, number one, starch foods.
Starch foods are a good source of energy and a main source of a range of nutrients in our diet.
As well as starch, they contain fiber, calcium, iron, and B vitamins.
Some people think starch foods are fattening, but gram for gram, they contain fewer than half the calories of fat.
So, ultimately, starch foods are known as building blocks to our health.
If you're trying to gain muscle as a man, you're trying to gain muscle mass, it would be bigger, until you eat very carby foods, starchy foods.
Because in doing this, like I said, in going into trying to be a fitness trainer, if you are a small, little, skinny guy,
no one's going to want to take much advice from you about muscle growth.
So, I got into trying to gain weight in my life, and you can ask my wife this.
I was applying for the police department on the island of Kauai, and it would be kind of hard for a 165-pound guy trying to arrest a 280-pound Samoan.
I needed to pick up some weight.
So, in doing so, I had to teach myself to eat six meals a day, all of which needed a source of carb or starch.
So that I was able to gain weight.
I've always been what's known as a heart gainer.
You know those people who eat and eat and eat, and they will never gain weight.
That was me.
My whole life, I literally could out-eat 300-pound Hawaiians, and I knew, here in Hawaii, we like to eat.
So, I was able, all my friends and family would just keep feeding me and feeding me, and they're like,
you're just like a bottomless pit, you just never stop eating.
But, I was like, hey, you're going to feed me, I'm going to take you.
But I could never pick up weight.
Only when I quit drugs and alcohol was I able to pick up immediate poundage,
and on top of that, that's another sermon for another time,
but when you try to gain weights, carbs are the key source food, or muscle mass, or sources of energy.
We, as people, have a lot of things that we do throughout our day, and on top of that, it's good for our heart health.
You know, what does the Bible say about it?
The Bible teaches that men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.
So, the spiritual significance to starches, or bread, or carbs would be that of the word of God.
So, what are some good choices of starchy foods for physical consumption would be, you know,
including peas, corn, potatoes, beans, pasta, rice, and grain, like bread.
We should be eating every day, every day, bread.
Every single day, we should be eating bread.
But not only that, on your dinner plate, you should make up a third to a quarter of your dinner plate should be rice,
should be potatoes, should be something starchy in nature.
That's going to help give you the nutrients to go through the next day.
And not only that, but also the energy to be able to perform.
Now, I know, Brother Ben, you just had pasta a minute ago, and you're looking like you're a little tired.
Pasta is a food group that is very high in starch.
You guys from New York know that New York is like Italian food.
Italian food is known to be very starch-filled.
And they say when you eat it, you want to just go to sleep.
But what you're going to feel after the fact is energy to do more things.
So, what are the spiritual significance?
Well, number one, like I said, the number one food group that we need to eat to be alive.
You're stranded on an island.
You can pick one food group to take with you.
Bring a starch, bread, rice, potato.
Be something that will sustain you.
And we see a spiritual significance to that here in the Word of God.
That is what bread pictures in God's Word.
But before I go into that, I forgot to mention this also earlier.
That the world today, and especially evangelical Christians or liberal Christians,
have an unbalanced diet in their life.
I, the preacher, the evangelist, the pastor, people who are up here giving you the Word of God,
are ultimately feeding you God's Word.
You know, Jesus Christ told Peter right before he ascended up into heaven.
He tells Peter, love is down me.
He says, you know I do.
He says, then feed my sheep.
Feed them with what? Fish?
No, he told them to forsake the net and to become a fisher of men.
To serve God with his life.
In doing that, he's going to be able to help the saints grow in their Christian lives.
Through giving them the Word of God.
And evangelical Christians today, unfortunately, are on a nutrition, their nutrition is off.
They're spiritually obese.
They're very spiritually not able to function because they're fed one food group their whole time in church,
if they go to church.
They're only given one food group.
They're not given the whole entire passages of what God teaches.
And there are pastors who purposely cherry pick, notice that term, cherry pick.
They're picking out the things that they like, the Bible says, and give it to their people.
But the preacher would be doing them a disservice because he's not giving them the full picture of a well-balanced diet as a Christian.
So, back to the concept of starchy foods.
It symbolizes bread in the Bible. Bread is symbolized by the Word of God.
Now, turning you into Matthew, we can see an example of this found in Matthew 14.
Matthew 14 is the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.
Notice what it says in verse 16.
The Bible reads in Matthew 14, 16.
But Jesus sent them to them, they need not to part, give ye them to eat.
And they sent them to him, we have here but five loaves and two fishes.
He said, bring them hither to me.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and two fishes and took and looked up to heaven.
And he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude.
So, obviously, this is the famous story of Jesus Christ charming on the mount.
This is the words of God, Jesus Christ preaching to the multitude.
Now, a lot of people were there for the wrong reasons.
Like I said, they're there for physical food.
And physical food is important.
And he was able to take the five loaves and two fishes and multiply it amongst 5,000 men.
Not including women and children.
And in doing this, he was able to feed them physically and spiritually.
If you, as a Christian, compare the word of God to bread, you need to be in your Bible every single day.
Not only every single day, but it should be that it's the first thing you do in the day.
When you wake up, rather than go on Facebook, rather than go and watch the news.
Rather than read a magazine or do anything, pick up your Bible, read it right away.
I don't care if it's one verse, I don't care if it's Jesus wept.
You can be edified with God's word as a child of God, hearing God's word preached.
To start off your day walking in the Spirit.
I understand that throughout our day we're going to find ourselves making mistakes.
And we may end up choosing rather to walk after the flesh and the Spirit.
But let's start the day off walking in the Spirit by being in the word of God first thing.
Every single day.
Remember the world says we should be containing carbs every day to sustain living.
So we understand that the words of God are like bread.
That we need this to spiritually stay alive and spiritually understand what it is that God wants of us.
So turn if you went to Matthew 16.
Just one page over, two pages in some books, some of your Bibles.
Matthew 16, you know, an aspect of bread that can help us to understand the spiritual significance is the concept of leavened bread.
Now I am not saying don't eat leavened bread.
Leavened bread is good.
Now if it's a grainy bread, I always clearly teach and preach Dave's Kill Bread.
Raise your hand if you eat Dave's Kill Bread.
That's where it's at.
It's 90 grams of protein.
It's one of the better breads that I suggest.
But regardless of that, there is a better bread.
The Bible likens the best type of bread as a leavened bread.
And for instance, I was just talking with Pastor Thompson when he was here recently.
We practice the Lord's communion here at church.
And we eat unleavened bread.
Jesus Christ is known as the unleavened bread.
His leaven is pictured in the Bible as sin.
Now like I said, if you eat bread that has leavened in it, you're not going to sin.
I'm just saying that leaven is a bacteria.
So you can see how it symbolizes sin.
Now obviously Jesus Christ tells us that leaven pictures sin.
Now let's see what Jesus said about leaven.
Look down at your Bible at Matthew 16 verse 5.
It says,
And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith,
Why reason ye among yourselves? Because ye have brought no bread.
So we'll pause here really quick.
Once again, man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedes him.
He's telling him, don't worry about the physical bread.
I'm not talking about physical bread.
I'm talking about the leaven of the Pharisees.
And notice what it says in verse 9.
Do ye not understand, neither remember the five loaves and two of the five thousand,
and how many baskets he took up?
Neither the seven loaves and the four thousand, and how many baskets he took up?
How is it that ye do not understand that I speak not to you concerning bread, physical bread,
but that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
So spiritual way we can look at this is, when you do read your Bible every morning,
when you do come to the word of God, you know, don't read your Bible,
and don't read your Scofield reference Bible.
I'm not even, Scofield reference Bible is a horrible, Scofield is a horrible guy,
but the King James Bible is where the true word of God is.
Don't go to the Bible with a commentary.
Just have you, the Holy Spirit, and the word of God read it,
and Jesus Christ, you know, the Holy Spirit will help guide you into all truth and understanding.
So beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Beware of commentaries.
Beware of people trying to tell you what the Bible says.
Go do it yourself.
Earlier we just read it in Acts 17.
The Bereans came to the scriptures daily and seen if those things were so.
So number one, we need to understand the most important food group to be alive,
to just not die is starch or carbs.
Eat bread every single day.
I am a big advocate.
I mean, my wife and I lived out the PB&Js for like a year and a half or a while there,
but it's hard living here in Hawaii.
When I first got married, I'm like, OK, PB&Js for days,
and you know, you get the nice bread.
Don't get the white bread.
I mean, I think it's pretty obvious white bread's bad.
The whiter the bread, the quicker you're dead.
You know, more grain and so on and so forth.
But I just want us to understand to stay alive.
Eat bread.
There's nothing wrong with carbs.
There's nothing wrong with starch.
There's nothing wrong with these food groups.
But remember, if you eat carbs every day,
and if on your dinner plate you at least make up a third or a quarter of your plate is starch or carbs, that's healthy.
That's normal.
There's nothing wrong with that.
As a matter of fact, that's what God's telling us.
Give us this day our daily bread.
We should be consuming bread every single day.
I don't care if it's a thing of toast in the morning.
Just eat bread.
It's going to help your heart health.
It's going to help you in a lot of ways that maybe we don't understand.
Look, you can go online and you'll see people just raining on the parade of bread.
Bread is the enemy.
Carbs are the enemy.
Don't consume those things.
They're not natural.
Blah, blah, blah.
But God's telling us, give us this day.
Jesus told us in the Lord's Prayer, give us this day our daily bread.
Now obviously there's a spiritual significance to it, but physically to stay alive.
If all you had was a thing of bread, you'll be alive.
You'll still be malnourished.
And that's the thing we need to continue on.
We're talking about spiritual and physical diet.
So the next food group that I want to get into is protein.
Because notice in the feeding of the 5,000, he had five loaves and two fishes.
So this is a protein source.
Now obviously in the fitness realm, protein is just to never do no wrong.
Protein is like the famous, you know, you want to gain muscle, eat protein.
And women, same thing.
There are good proteins and I wouldn't even necessarily say there's bad proteins.
They just act differently.
And like I said, I'm not going to get very critical on the health benefits of all these food groups.
But I will point out the amount we should eat them and how often we should eat them.
And always understand that all these food groups that I'm going to be talking about, every person is different.
I get that there are people who are bigger bone.
They have a genetic disadvantage than some.
But there's what's known as a caloric intake.
This is how much calories you consume in a day.
And once again, I'm not going to get into a physical diet sermon, though I'm going to touch on it.
Now when it comes to protein, turn if you would to Hebrews 10.
And I'm just going to tell you what the world says about protein and how it benefits us.
Well, the world would say, your body uses protein to build and repair tissues.
You also use protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals.
Protein is an important building block of bones, muscle, cartilage, skin, and blood.
Good sources of protein should be obvious.
Chicken, beef, pork, fish.
And honestly, I'm going to barf it on fish for a second.
Because notice Jesus Christ said, what kind of foods do you have here?
He said five loaves and two fishes.
Fish is, I believe, the super protein.
When I was getting into nutrition and going to start a nutrition program for weight loss and things like that,
fish is the key protein you want to be consuming.
Like chicken, it's a lean meat.
Some say it's a fatty meat, but you know what?
I know here in Hawaii, who loves fish?
We eat fish like crazy, and I love fish.
And I would sing the praises of fish all day long.
It's a primary protein source.
So how often should we be eating protein?
We should be eating at least one to two meals a day with a protein source,
and it should make up about a quarter to a third of our plate.
So once again, like I said, if every day you eat bread, you'll be alive.
If every day you can at least get one source of protein in you, that's going to be beneficial to you
for your muscle repair, for your tissue repair, for your bone repair, for your blood, for your skin.
There's all sorts of health benefits to protein.
And a third to a quarter of your plate.
Now remember, if a third of your plate makes up a starch and a third of it is protein,
you still have a third left.
Now, that's for someone, if you're working all day and you're out walking about, working out,
surfing, you know, hiking, even rearing children and pushing them in the cart
and taking them shopping and doing all this stuff, you're going to break down muscle.
You need to build that back up.
Sleep is important, but protein will also help you in that sense.
I'm not going to sit here and explain protein shakes, weigh the differences in different protein types,
but I'm just helping us understand protein equals good.
Don't let anyone tell you protein is bad, okay?
And if you're trying to like lose weight or something, just eat a lean meat.
Eat fish, eat chicken, eat pork.
And if people say pork's not a lean meat, oh yes it is.
That's another sermon for another time.
But what does protein symbolize?
What's the symbolism to protein in the Bible?
Well, I believe the symbolic aspect of protein would be sacrifice and hard preaching.
Now, why do I say that?
Well, for you are in Hebrews, look down at your Bible at chapter 10.
I'm sorry, I didn't tell you to go to chapter 10.
Verse 1, the Bible reads,
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there are too perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sin year by year.
For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
And I know it says blood, because the blood is the atoning factor of the sacrifice.
But what were they eating?
They were eating the flesh, the meat, the beef, the lamb.
They were eating the flesh of these animals.
And this picture is sacrifice.
Jesus Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth.
Jesus Christ is not only the bread of life, but he's the lamb of God as well.
Picturing the Old Testament sacrifices that were made to help the Old Testament Christian be sanctified and separated from others to help become closer to God.
And that's why they offered the sacrifices not to be saved, to draw closer to God.
They already believed on the Lord.
Once they believed on the Lord, why would they keep a sacrifice?
That's simply because they were wanting to be sanctified and separated as God's people.
This is something different that Israel did than other people of the world at that time.
But simply said, turn also if you would to John.
John chapter 6.
Now like I said, it not only pictures sacrifice, but it also pictures hard preaching.
Now who was sacrificed for us?
Jesus Christ, the lamb of God.
And notice where I took you in the beginning in 1 Corinthians 6.
It says that we need to give our bodies a living sacrifice.
I've said it once before, the most reasonable thing we can do is give Jesus everything that we are.
Because he gave us everything that he was.
He died on the cross for us.
He sacrificed himself for us.
So the least we can do is give him everything that we are.
Not for salvation, but because we love him.
He says if you love me, keep my commandments.
He says you need to pick up your cross daily and follow after me.
That takes sacrifice to constantly deny the works of the flesh and to pick up our cross and to walk after the spirit.
That's a conscious effort that we need to continually do everyday by reading our Bibles and making that sacrifice in our life.
But not only that, look down at John 6 verse 53.
Notice what it says.
It says,
Then Jesus said unto them, Barely, barely, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up.
For my flesh is me in thee, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
That's Jesus Christ telling us to be saved we need to consume his body, not physically.
The Catholic Church messed this one up.
They didn't understand that this representation of us eating the Lord was not a physical thing, but it was a spiritual thing.
Drinking of his blood.
This is symbolic of accepting Jesus Christ who put our faith in him.
Jesus Christ was truly the hardest preacher that there was out there.
Now, understanding that protein is a food group that pictures sacrifice, how does it picture hard preaching?
Well, this was a hard saying for some to understand.
He came to his disciples and he says, you need to eat my body and drink my blood.
And they're like, uh, what?
And doesn't the world look at us as Christians and hear a lot of what the Bible teaches?
And they're like, what in the world? Where did that come from?
It's a hard saying.
We need to preach hard against the sins of this world.
We see an example of that. You don't need to turn there.
In Hebrews 5.14 it says,
So, hard preaching, preaching hard against sin.
Remember the evangelical that I was talking about earlier?
They are malnourished.
They do not have this nutrition in their body.
They are not hearing hard preaching.
We first, when we find a church, when we're looking for a church, what do we look for?
That they have the King James Bible, number one.
Because this is where the word of God is.
Seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness.
All things will be added unto you.
You know, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Got it.
Now what?
Make sacrifice.
Accept hard preaching.
Eat protein.
That's the next food group that is important for life.
Also our spiritual walking in Christ.
That it's going to help us to understand both, to discern between good and evil.
The world today is not liking hard preaching.
They hear hard preaching and they're upset with it.
God would never do that. Jesus would never do that.
How often were you in this every day?
Did you read this every day?
Because if you read this every day, you would know really quickly
that the hardest preachers in the Bible were the ones screaming the most from the housetops.
All the prophets were persecuted by them in the Old Testament.
Jesus Christ himself was killed, martyred, put to death, sacrificed, or crucified, sorry,
because they did not accept his hard preaching.
The apostles, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ, even though they said don't do this.
Hard preaching is very important to our spiritual growth.
I know that some may look at you and say to you that you guys are weird.
You go to a church and the guy is just screaming at you all the time.
He's constantly yelling and calling out bad stuff.
Why don't they ever talk about the love of God?
Well, we're getting to that food group.
It's not that it's not there.
Love drives the man of God to preach hard against the sinner.
If I love a child, I'm going to preach against the pedophile.
If I love the flower, I'm going to preach hard against the weed.
This is why we need to understand that first go into the Bible.
See what it says.
Then we need to find someone preaching hard the words of God and making sacrifices in their life to also better serve God.
What's the next food group that we need to have to not only have a good healthy balance physically, but also as Christians?
Well, I say that the next important food group that we should have is dairy.
Like I said, if you go online and look up opinions on dairy, it's the jungle out there.
Dairy is whole.
Don't drink cow's milk.
There's an almond milk.
There's a hemp milk.
There's a soy milk.
There's a milk to everything.
I see that the Bible is very consistent that dairy is a good food group.
The world doesn't like starch and bread because they don't like the word of God.
The world doesn't like dairy.
Some do, and I'm going to explain the health benefits to dairy first.
Number one, what are the health benefits to dairy physically for our body?
Health benefits of dairy, milk and dairy foods are healthy foods and considered nutrient rich because they serve a good source of calcium and vitamin D as well as protein and other essential nutrients.
They provide potassium and magnesium, vitamins A and B12.
Sources of dairy, very obvious, milk, yogurt, cheese, butter.
Let me pause it on yogurt really quick.
I'm a big advocate of yogurt being a super food.
It has probiotics.
It's really good for your gut health.
It helps put enzymes in your body.
And yogurt, I cannot sing the praises enough of.
Now obviously there's Greek yogurt.
There's sugary yogurts and so on and so forth.
Yogurt, just go to the store, buy yogurt.
You hungry?
You want some meat?
You want a snack?
Yogurt.
I am a big advocate of singing the praises of yogurt all day long.
Not only that, correct me if I'm wrong brother Isaac, milk is the best drink in the world.
Raw milk.
I think milk.
I'm not going to get into the debate on the difference between raw milk and not.
I'm not like, only raw milk.
Raw milk is the only way to go.
And look, it's out there.
People will just say, don't drink the store-bought milk that's super hormone driven and so on.
I buy store milk.
It's what I drink.
Store milk.
I don't think I have a testosterone problem.
Maybe I do.
But regardless of that, I'm just trying to let you know that dairy is an important food
that we should never neglect.
Now how often should we be consuming dairy?
Well, the world will say, you should be consuming dairy at least one or two meals a day and
it should make up a quarter of a serving.
So obviously, let's say breakfast.
Everyone loves breakfast, right?
And you may have a glass of milk with your breakfast.
You may put cheese on your omelette.
You can have yogurt with something like fruit with it or something like that.
Sometimes we make overnight oats.
We make it with Greek yogurt and other things like that.
But it should make up a quarter of the meal.
So if the meal as a whole makes up one quarter of dairy, we have a healthy intake of dairy.
But not only that, what spiritual significance do we see with dairy?
Dairy to me, the Bible I've seen constantly pushing, pictures purity and sincerity.
Now what do you mean by that?
Well, turn if you would to Hebrews 5.
And while you turn to Hebrews 5, I'm going to read, I'm just going to quote 1 Peter 2, 2.
It says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow their body.
Babies aren't able to eat physical or hard foods.
It takes them a while to be able to digest certain foods.
But milk is a food that their bodies and stomachs are able to digest.
And as babes desire the sincere milk of the word, baby Christians, Christians who just get saved.
Or look, there are Christians that have been saved for a long time, but they're not spiritually grown.
They need to be able to consume milk.
It shows sincerity.
Sincerity is a subject that I believe needs to get emphasized more and more.
Your intention behind something will really push you to succeed in something.
You know, for instance, the Bible says, if we have not charity, everything's in vain.
I don't care if you speak 20 languages, you memorize scores of passages,
and you're able to preach the boldness and you can do all these things, but you don't have love in your heart.
It's all in vain.
Love is what's going to drive you to go out and preach to the Lord.
Loving your neighbor as yourself, as Jesus Christ said, is one of the greatest commandments.
Loving the Lord thy God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
It's what's going to get you to go walk over to them and tell them you need to put your faith in Christ so that you can be saved.
Sincerity is this thing that I don't think the evangelicals get wrong.
They're very sincere, but you know what? They're sincerely wrong.
There's a difference between sincerity and the intent is not the problem, is where does it lead you.
If you start, and every carpenter and every engineer and everyone who's good at math understands this,
if you have a right angle and you're off by like a millimeter, it will end up feet off.
Anyone who's built a house, especially foundations, they know that if you don't get your angles correct,
the roof is going to be at a weird angle.
So you can start off in the wrong direction and you will end up somewhere really bad.
But if you start on the rock of God, the word of God, remember the first thing, bread is what is essential.
The words of God, sacrifices in our lives, protein, who are having hard preaching and sin.
And if you're sincere about it and you accept the hard preaching, a wise man seeks to be corrected, but a fool will despise or approach.
A wise man looks for hard preaching, looks to be corrected when they're wrong,
but a fool will despise when the word of God cuts them to their heart.
Because we know the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
So, sincerity, Gary points out in the Bible a sincerity and purity.
So where you are in Hebrews 5, it shows us an example of that.
Look down at verse 12, it reads,
For when for the time he ought to be teachers, this is speaking to the Hebrew people.
This is a New Testament passage speaking to the children of Israel.
For when for the time he ought to be teachers, you guys are supposed to be clearly emphasizing Jesus.
He hath need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God.
And it becomes such as have need of milk, and not strong meat, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even to those by reason of their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
That's what I quoted a second ago referring to protein.
But understand this, once again, was there something wrong that they were babes?
Is there something wrong with being a baby?
No. As a matter of fact, it's a great thing to have children, to be a baby.
The baby just simply wants milk. That's all it wants.
It just says, give me milk as babes desire the sincere milk of the word.
You know, in these Hebrews, these people that he's preaching to, they were sincerely wrong a lot of the time.
So Paul, or whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, once again, if you believe it's Paul, say Amen.
I believe it's Paul, wrote this, he's telling them, like, you need to be teaching people the oracles of God,
but here you are at that, the Gentiles are having to show you who Jesus Christ was.
So, purity, sincerity, but what about the purity aspect? Turn, if you would, to 1 Samuel.
Now we're going Old Testament. We're not only going to emphasize the New Testament,
all scripture is profitable, and it's for correction and reproof, and we can all grow in all aspects of...
I've misquoted that passage twice. I need to make sure I re-memorize that passage.
That's a really good verse to memorize. 1 Samuel 17 shows us a good example of King David being sincere.
Notice what it says in verse 17.
And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn and these ten loaves,
and run to the camp to thy brethren.
So notice first thing, the parched corn and the loaves, that pictures the word of God.
But then what else did it say?
And carry these ten cheeses, that's a dairy type, that's dairy food, unto the captain of the thousands,
and look how thy brothers fare, and take their pledge.
Now Saul and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with the keeper,
and took and went as Jesse had commanded him.
And he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to fight, and he shouted for the battle.
So David, when he went to do what his dad said, his dad is trying to feed his other children with bread and cheeses,
the word of God, and with purity and sincerity.
He says to his youngest son David, go to your other three brothers that are fighting the Lord's battle,
and bring them these food, see how they're doing.
David respects his dad and says yes, goes, but before he goes, he leaves the sheep with a keeper.
This pictures the New Testament pastor.
Jesus Christ is the shepherd, the good shepherd.
And Jesus Christ, when he ascended on up into heaven, told Peter to feed his sheep.
The pastor is known as the under shepherd.
Jesus Christ says, I am the light of the world, but when I go, you are the light of the world.
It is up to the pastor to help bestow sincerity, charity, love, to be able to feed the children of God.
And this is what we see David doing.
It's not a coincidence that cheese is brought up in this passage.
I know you may read it and think, oh man, that sounds nice, five loaves, ten cheese.
But look at the spiritual significance to it.
Because number one, what did I first talk about?
Physically, dairy is good for us.
People will say it's not. That's not what God said.
God sent a man after his own heart to go feed his brothers with cheese.
So that tells me that dairy is good.
And not only that, a lot of the time you see the children of Israel, God talking to them
when he's going to lead them into the promised land.
What does he say? I'm going to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
So milk is a good thing.
God says that to have a plentiful of milk is something that is to be pure.
And I'm going to park it on this last point before I move on to the next food group.
Purity. Babies are pure. Children are pure.
The world too much today, you guys.
You don't understand. I'm trying to grow you up too quick.
Do not be deceived by the things in this world.
Enjoy your purity. Enjoy being a child.
Your childhood comes once in your life.
And it's hard for people to, or children to understand that, you know,
I just want to be an adult. Every parent laughs at that.
And every adult's like, you know, I wish I was a kid.
You can just have fun and do all these things.
But what did Paul say?
When I was a child, I spake as a child and I understood as a child.
But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
What that tells me is that when you are a child, you need to think like a child.
Children have a pure mind and a pure heart. Keep your purity.
In the sight of God, purity is a subject that, once again, needs to get emphasized to you guys.
Don't be trying to grow up too quick.
Don't try to be your own man of your own house or be your own woman and go out into the world.
Just enjoy being a child.
Because it's important.
The number one food group that we need to always remember to be alive and to consume is bread.
The second food group that we need to not only have alive but to help us is protein.
The next food group is dairy.
Oh, I almost forgot that. Dairy.
What's the next food group that we can have that will help sustain life,
help us to be healthy physically and also spiritually?
It's obviously vegetables.
I don't think I need to sit here and explain to you vegetables are healthy.
I think everyone knows that vegetables are healthy.
When I looked online to see, because there's so much information on diet,
I wonder who thinks vegetables aren't healthy.
Everyone agrees. Vegetables are healthy.
No one's fighting for the cause of vegetables.
This is a bad food.
I've heard this joke one time.
It was kind of funny because vegetarians and vegans, and I'm going to get into them in a moment,
will sit there and be like, how dare you offer me meat?
You're an animal killer, blah, blah, blah.
But you'll never go up to someone who is like a carnivore and loves meat
and it's like, you're a plant killer.
Don't you come up to me with those vegetables and so on and so forth.
But it's very obvious vegetables are healthy for us.
Vegetables are an important source of many nutrients,
including potassium, daily fiber, not the type of fiber that's found in carbs,
different types of fiber, fullistic acid, vitamin A, vitamin C.
They're good for fat loss and blood circulation.
Let me pause it on that really quick.
Blood circulation.
You want to know why we have an obesity problem here in America and in Hawaii?
Because people are not eating enough vegetables.
They're eating burgers, hot dogs, pizzas, Coca-Cola, and all this other stuff there.
Well, yeah, the salad and the burger.
There's a little bit of green.
There's my daily vegetable use.
How often should we be eating vegetables?
One meal a day minimum should have vegetables in it
and it should make up a quarter to a half of your plate.
Remember that dinner plate I was telling you about?
If a third of it is a carb, rice, potato, pick a healthy carb, a sweet potato, pick anything.
You have another third of protein, chicken, fish, fill it in.
That last third should be vegetables.
It should be salad.
My favorite greens that we love to eat is Brussels sprouts.
I love Brussels sprouts.
Say it, man, if you love Brussels sprouts.
Okay, not too many people, but I love Brussels sprouts.
Some children are like, what do you guys like, broccoli?
There you go, good.
Broccoli is a good vegetable source.
Boy, that would fall under starchy carbs.
What about old ones?
Oh, well, they want starchy carbs.
That falls under that.
Actually, no, you're right.
No, starchy carbs leads to wheat.
Long story short, vegetables are healthy.
I don't think anyone's arguing that.
With that being said, what is the spiritual significance to vegetables?
It should be very obvious.
It works.
The Bible teaches, for instance, turn if you would to Daniel 1.
While you're tending to Daniel 1, I'm going to quote from you.
Let me get there actually myself because I don't want to misquote it.
I'm going to quote from you a very famous passage that almost a lot of us here know.
It's simply Ephesians 2, 8-9.
I know as I start saying it, you're all going to remember it.
This is what's interesting about the concept of Ephesians 2, 8-9.
It says, for by grace are you saved through faith.
We are saved by the grace of God in our faith in that.
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ only for salvation.
Not trusting in our own words, not in works of righteousness which we have done.
But it is according to his mercy are we saved.
For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourself.
It is the gift of God and it is not of works as any man should boast.
But what does it say in the next verse?
For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We should have good works.
It is appointed for us once we are saved.
Your children when they come into your family, they didn't have to work to be in your family.
Once they're born into your family, all they have to do is grow up.
Once they grow up, don't you give them chores to do.
Don't you have rules for them to follow.
Your children should obey you and should do what you say.
Because we are children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in doing so, vegetables, pictures, work.
Well, how can I show you an example of that in the Bible?
Well, where you are in Daniel 1, we can see an example of this.
Daniel 1, look down at verse 9, it reads,
Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel,
I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink.
For why should he see your faces worse likely than the children which are of your sort?
Then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.
Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech thee ten days,
and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.
Let me pause it right there.
I had to do a deep study on the concept of pulse.
When it's pulse, it's a vegetable.
It's like a grainy, peas fall into that category, green beans fall into that category.
It's a vegetable.
We really have been eating vegetables.
But the Bible uses the term pulse, and that's another sermon for another time.
It's its own category, but like I said, we're using the whole food group to help us understand these things.
I know the world's changing on what is a fruit and what is a vegetable.
We were arguing this last time about if an avocado is a fruit or a vegetable is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable.
They're vegetables. I don't care what anyone else says.
I know the world says avocados are fruits.
No, they're not. They're vegetables. Tomatoes are vegetables.
You can come to me afterwards and try to prove me wrong, but I do not believe that they are fruits.
Anyways, pulse to eat and water to drink.
Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee,
and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat,
as thou seest, deal with thy servant.
So he consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days.
And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter and flesh
than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat, which was of pork, which was swine.
Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse.
So Daniel was eating vegetables for ten days.
Him, Mizra'el, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.
I can never memorize the Hebrew way of saying it,
but in doing this their countenances appeared fatter and healthier.
If I look at someone who says they're a Christian and I don't see them doing works,
what I see is a malnourished Christian, someone who is lacking understanding of the passages.
Yes, you do not have to work to be saved.
Yes, if I saw a saved brother and sister in Christ doing a horrible sin that would not question my salvation to that person,
but to be pleasing to God and to be pleasing to your brother in Christ we should have good works.
We should be reading our Bibles.
We should be doing more above and beyond what is commanded of us as New Testament Christians.
Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.
Go ye there to all the world and preach the gospel.
Tie your 10% to the New Local Testament church and that's it.
Show up to church as often as you humanly can, but we can do more.
We can study more, we can contribute more to our church, we can contribute more to the lost, and so on and so forth.
As it says in James 2, you see how that by faith being alone is not made perfect.
Faith is how someone gets saved, but when they continue to do work you're going to be pleasing to God.
Vegetables is that food group that we need to understand is going to sustain our life, but spiritually it's going to help us out.
The next food group that I want to get into, and actually before I go to the next food group the last point I want to emphasize the vegetables,
would be Genesis 1, which is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,
eating of the fruit and the vegetables of the earth, because at that time they weren't eating meat.
But you could spiritually understand this to mean that at that time they were without sin,
and if you're walking in the spirit all the time you're doing good works, constantly.
Now obviously they eventually transgressed the law and ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
which was the commandment of all the trees of the garden, thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou mayest not eat.
So they sinned, at that point they didn't die, physically they spiritually died.
But what I'm trying to get at is that they were told to eat fruits and vegetables, and that gets us right into the next food group.
Fruits. Meat, I'm sorry, bread will keep us alive, meat will keep us alive, dairy, vegetables, the next food group is fruit.
Once again, I don't think anyone is arguing if fruits are healthier.
There are people who are known as pescatarians, they just only eat fruit.
Pescatarians, that's a fish diet, but they just only eat fruit, they don't eat vegetables, they don't eat fruit.
Fruitarians.
Fruitarians, thank you.
There are people that only eat fruit, and in my opinion, once again, you're malnourished.
Yes, you're getting good sources of nutrients, I'm not even doubting that.
The vegan who only eats vegetables, hey, you're getting good sources of vitamins, but you're malnourished.
You need more vitamins, you need protein sources.
Well, I can get the protein sources from peanut butter.
Yeah, I get that, but you can get a lot quicker with pork.
It becomes a full-time job when you're trying to get your vitamins from other food groups.
The reason why God has a food group laid out for us in the Bible is because it's how we are just in balance in our health, physically and spiritually.
So, fruits, no one's arguing if fruits are unhealthy, but I will say this, just like anything, you can over-consume in anything.
And if you over-consume vegetables as a vegan, you're unhealthy.
If you over-consume in protein, you're trying to be a muscle head, you're unhealthy.
If you're just only eating wheat, that's a quick one, you're going to look like a big Italian pasta-eating, you know, you don't want to eat wheat.
And anything we can over-indulge in.
And fruits, look, what do you think gorillas are eating all day?
Fruits, that's all they eat. There's a lot of carbs found in fruits.
There's natural sugars, glucoses, fructosees, and all these different sugar types that are found in fruit, but they're the natural God-given sugar that is good for God-made it.
So, therefore, there's an amount that we should be consuming of it, and that's going to help us keep healthy.
So, what does the world say is the health benefits to fruit?
Well, fruits are sources of many essential nutrients that are consumed, including potassium, daily fiber, vitamin C, and folicic acid.
A diet rich in potassium, many help to maintain health, blood pressure.
I forgot to explain the blood pressure, but simply said, have you ever had cucumber water?
Cucumber water is really good for you. It helps circulate blood, and I got off on the tangent of Americans or obese because they're eating burgers,
but if you eat fruits and vegetables, it's actually going to help your blood circulation.
Do not have clogged arteries. When your arteries get clogged, that's how fat builds up, and I'm not going to get into that.
But, simply said, fruits and vegetables will help blood pressure, blood circulation.
Good types of fruits are obvious, every fruit. Fruits, apples, bananas, oranges, coconuts, let's get tropical, lychee, papaya, mango.
You know, we're here in Hawaii, we eat tropical fruits.
But, how often should we be eating fruits? At a minimum, once a day, and it should make up a half of whatever it is you're eating.
So, like your breakfast, like I was telling you.
If you have a yogurt with fruit, and half is yogurt and half is fruit, that's a very healthy breakfast.
And, if you are having a lunch, and you're having a salad, cut up an apple in that thing.
It's half fruit, half vegetable. It's just, our body, and I know, like I said, everyone's different, and everyone has different ways they take in food,
but ultimately, it should be very obvious that fruit will help us keep healthy.
Now, when I say healthy, don't think I mean like a certain body physique, or like a certain, like, strength level or anything like that.
It just simply means healthy, because blood circulation and other things like that.
But, what does fruit symbolize spiritually?
Spiritually, fruit pictures reproduction and soul winning.
Now, what is the very first commandment given to mankind from God himself?
Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.
Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful.
The byproduct of a marriage of a husband and wife is children.
This is just simply easy math.
One plus one will equal three, because a husband and wife will have another kid, and now there's three of them.
And reproduction is that part in our lives.
You know, the world, don't listen to the communist China's philosophy of one or two children, us four, no more.
You know, the world is trying to put people on earth control, and to, they're trying to build their careers,
and let's have children in our later years, and let's only have so many children.
You know, the Bible teaches us, arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of thy youth, or children in your quiver.
As arrows are to a mighty man, you want as many arrows as you can shoot out,
so that way you want as many children as the Lord is willing to provide you with.
Don't think that if you, I mean, I don't know, because I don't have any children,
but I've heard that women who have more, families that have more than four or five children,
people look down at them and scoff at them.
They're like, oh, you're just taking up all the resources, and you're just, you know, a nuisance to society.
It's just, you know, the average family type, I think not even but 20 years ago, was 4.5 people in a family,
or 4.5 children in a family.
But remember, we were all farming not that long ago.
Nowadays, everything's industrialized and technologized and whatever in eyes,
and they're ultimately pushing one or two children, China, Japan, they're all pushing one or two children,
and that's it, because they're trying to build a career.
They're trying to become wealthy on this earth.
Well, no grandparent ever looks back in history and says, and to their past, and says,
I wish I had less grandchildren. I wish I had less children.
Only they'll say they wish they had more.
I wish I had more children to be able to carry on the legacy of their family and so on and so forth.
But not only that, it also pictures soul winning.
Turn if you went to Galatians 5, and while you turn to Galatians 5, I'm going to quote Proverbs 11,
one of the most famous passages we here in our church and in our movement know.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise.
Do you want to know where we get the term soul winning?
It's from Proverbs 11, 30.
We only claim it, you know, a lot of people say evangelizing, and that's right.
We are going and preaching the gospel.
But we deem it soul winning because the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
We need to go out and try to reproduce another Christian.
We need to go out and preach to the lost.
What is the great commission?
Get them saved.
Preach the gospel to all the people.
Get them baptized.
Once they have been baptized, teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
If you get a full cycle Christian, which yet I've ever done,
I've not got someone saved who they themselves became a soul winner.
I've not got to that point yet.
And it is, I'd imagine, a huge blessing.
What did Paul say to the people of Philippi?
He says, I desire fruit on your account.
I want you to continue grabbing the mantle, moving on and preaching to the people of Philippi.
Because it is important for our Christian walk in life to reproduce, whether physically or spiritually.
The sons of the devil are out trying to do that.
They're trying to convert people to become children of the devil.
That is the spiritual war that is going on.
They're trying to pull people to hell.
We're trying to pull them to heaven.
And we want them to tell their loved ones how to go to heaven.
That is what is our job here on earth as Christians physically to reproduce and also spiritually to reproduce.
And not only that, we need to walk in the Spirit, which the Spirit in Galatians tells us that the Spirit has fruit.
The Holy Spirit.
My fruit would be a byproduct of my wife and I.
My fruit with the Lord would be the byproduct of a new soul saved.
But not only that, the fruits of the Spirit are simply this.
Where you are in Galatians 5, look down at verse 22.
It says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
Remember what I said earlier, that love is going to drive you to do these things.
Love is what's going to tell you.
When you have a friend who is a drug addict, crackhead, bum on the road, you're going to grab him and shake him and say,
You are a stupid idiot.
Because I hate you? Because I love you and I know this is what's wrong for you.
How do you know that?
I read the Word of God first, the bread of God.
I made sacrifices in my life and I preached hard against the sin of this world.
After that, I was sincere. I needed to drive myself to find the true motive of why I would preach the laws.
The fruits of the Spirit is meekness and longsuffering.
We need to be longsuffering with those who are our loved ones, who don't want to hear the Gospel.
Don't give up on them because they didn't say yes once.
Can I explain to you the Gospel? No.
Alright, well good luck with that.
No, go be longsuffering with your loved one.
Be longsuffering with the neighbor across the street.
And these are the other fruits of the Spirit that we can go into.
They deserve their own sermon.
But it's kind of outside the scope of this message.
We're just dealing about physical and spiritual significance to our diet.
Physically, eat fruits.
Okay? Like it's not going to hurt you.
Kids, when you're at home and you're hungry before dinner, in between lunch and dinner, grab an apple.
Grab a banana.
Don't eat chips. Don't eat crackers.
Eat an apple banana. It's only going to help you.
And not only that, but let's say the last food group that I want to explain, that is the tip of the pyramid, right?
Because the bottom is grain or starch.
The next two would be protein and dairy and fruits and vegetables.
And the last one is sweets and fats.
Once again, this shouldn't be crazy for us to understand.
Look, sweets and fats are what we should not...
If I ask any kid in here right now, what do you want to eat?
I bet you it's going to be something sweet or something fat made.
As babes desire the sincere milk of the word, not often do children choose vegetables for their daily food.
Not often do children pick proteins and healthy foods.
Even milk can, with too much, become turned into ice cream, which can turn into fat and so on and so forth.
But, sweets and fats are important as well.
What are the nutritional values to sweets and fats?
Well, when you select natural sources of sugar, remember what I was saying earlier,
fructosees and glucoses from fat and fruits, they usually include health nutrients alongside their sweet counterparts.
Dairy products, like I was saying, milk to ice cream, milk to yogurt, milk to cheese, all the great stuff.
Fruits and veggies all provide natural sugar in addition to fiber, antioxidants, vitamin, minerals and hydration.
And another thing is fat.
And you can ask anyone here, especially my wife, when I go to a place and order steak, so much I hear so many people,
cut up the fat, cut the fat out, I don't want the fat, there's so much fat on this.
My wife, when she cuts off the fat, I'm like, I'll eat your fat.
Fat is good for joint lubrication.
If you have joint problems, fat is what's going to help you out with that.
Now there is a healthy fat and there's a bad fat.
Coconut, healthy fat. Avocado, healthy fat.
Bacon, healthy fat. Protein source. Steak, the fat found on the animal.
Obviously, there is such thing as overconsumption in anything, don't just be eating fat, eat the steak with the fat.
But don't run away from the fat, fat can actually help with joint lubrication.
And it's a very good food source for you. What are good types of sweets?
Honey, fruits, and then a good source of fat would be animal fat.
We should be eating sweets a minimum at least once a week.
If you have a weight problem, if you have big bone issues, if you are husky, if you are...
Hawaiian, find yourself not eating dessert as often as maybe I would.
We have a joke in our house and it's, we eat two desserts.
And sometimes we eat two desserts, but do I look like I am overweight to you?
No, I have a caloric intake deficit.
I burn so much fat so often because I'm so physically active constantly.
I can eat and eat and eat and it will never start.
Oh, great problem Dave, you can eat whatever you want, you don't gain muscle.
But you know what, vice versa.
You know, if you do have a problem with weight in, once again, your opinion.
Because if someone says you're big, that doesn't mean you're big.
I understand there are different genetic body types.
And this is another sermon for another type, metamorphose, anamorphose, there are different body types.
But ultimately, if you have a disadvantage in this area, maybe you don't eat dessert as often.
When you eat dessert, eat a chocolate dip banana.
Eat something that's healthy.
But the health benefits, outside of physical phenomena, there are non-physiological aspects to eating good sweets.
There's endorphins that go off in our body.
I mean they say that like eating chocolates and stuff like that will like bring back memories from when you were a kid.
Like did you ever have a sweet?
Oh, I remember like a sweet like that when I was a kid.
There's a metaphysical aspect to eating sweets.
It's enjoyable.
There's nothing wrong with enjoyment.
Once again, God says I'll give you a lamb flowing with milk.
And that's it.
And honey.
Honey was the sweet part.
God wants us to enjoy.
Just like my sermon I preached not that long ago on comedy in light of a Christian.
We don't use comedy as our driving force to preach the message of God.
But there is times that we can be comical.
There are times in which God was comical.
There are times in which we need to enjoy eating.
I enjoy eating.
Raise your hand if you enjoy eating food.
And it should be that we eat for strength.
The Bible says that we eat for strength to be able to do the works of God.
But not only that, we should have enjoyment in our food as well.
Now the evangelicals, the liberal Christians get this wrong.
They take the food pyramid and they flip it upside down and they're focusing on the sweets.
They're focusing on the love.
They're focusing on all the goody goods, all the cherry picking, all the non-healthy ingredients, the malnutrition.
They're spiritually obese.
That's why when we preach hard against sin, that may land on them, me or anyone, on a nation that's not serving God and is in every way opposed to Christianity.
They're like, whoa, that's not tasting good.
That doesn't sit well with me.
That seems kind of mean.
As a matter of fact, the word of God has likened them to honey.
What did we just sing this morning in Psalms 19?
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
The word of God is sweet to us.
When we hear God's word, as it says in Revelation with John, the angel gave John the word of God and said, eat this.
He says, it entered my mouth sweet as honey, but what's in my stomach?
Bitter because of the message that was going to be revelation.
Read it and don't tell me there's a lot of bitterness that's going on.
The world's going to be weeping and gnashing when the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
Why? Because he's upset.
He's a God of wrath.
But not going into that subject, we need to understand the importance of sweets.
We shouldn't only preach hard on sin and only preach against this false prophet, that false religion, this bad nation.
We should be preaching on the subject of the love of God, the fruits of the Spirit, and ways in which we can better one another.
But that's not what we...
We're not parked on that.
That's the icing to the cake, so to say.
But during the view into Exodus, and I don't have much time, but I just want to kind of end on this one last thought.
Well, I already read that. I'll read Exodus 16 31.
It says, in the house of Israel, called the name thereof manna, or that food thereof manna,
and it was like coriander seed, white and a taste, was of wafers and of honey.
And we need to understand, spiritually, that sweets, honey, sugar, natural sugars, are to help just put that icing on that cake.
Just to simply help us to understand that to have levity in our life from time to time.
And the last note is this, like I was saying, physically, you want to be healthy?
Eat bread. Eat protein. Eat dairy. Eat fruits. Eat vegetables. Eat tea.
You just said every food group. Yes, God emphasizes every food group.
There's a time and a season for everything. We shouldn't be, and your parents will help you to know the right times in which to eat certain foods.
And us as adults should know to be having self-discipline to stop ourselves before we eat that cake sometimes,
and just grab the bowl of salad from now and again. We should be able to keep under our bodies.
Remember, our body is the temple of the living God.
If we're going to destroy our flesh and have clogged arteries and have obesity problems,
you don't think it's going to be harder to walk upstairs to go preach the gospel in a 10-story building?
You're going to be like, oh my goodness, let me tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're doing this for strength. We want to be able to be strong. We want to go throughout the rest of our life as Caleb.
It says, I walked that mountain at 80 years old and was able to go into the Promised Land and conquer.
Moses led the children out of Israel at 80 years old. I want to be, when I'm 60, 70, approaching my later ages, be healthier.
And I hope the same for you. I hope that you guys would want physically to be healthy in your life to be able to better serve God.
If you're physically able and capable to pick up the pulpit and the chairs from time to time, I don't want to make life harder on you.
But I also want to make it to where spiritually you are fit. That is of the most importance.
First things first, consume the words of God. You know what it's going to tell you?
Stay healthy. And in staying healthy, you will be able to be a better, sharper instrument to be used by God.
Inspire Him to have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for food and diet.
Thank you so much for being able to have us all come together to hear your word preached.
Please help us never as Christians, wherever we are in our lives, to be malnourished but to constantly be fed with all the things that your word has to say so we can be well balanced in our lives.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.