🎵Somber piano music🎵
You
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to steadfast Baptist Church. You please find your seats and grab your hymnals. We're gonna sing song
246 redeemed
246 redeemed let's sing it out like you're redeemed 246 redeemed
You
Redeemed
I
Good thing let's open up in a word of prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for this afternoon and for the opportunity to be freely gathered together
To sing praises to your name and hear preaching of the Word of God
I pray that you bless the service and bless our pastor. We love you and you see me pray. Amen
All right for our next song. Let's go to 220. Jesus is all the world to me
220 beautiful song Jesus is all the world to me 2 2 0
Oh
Good singing. Thank you so much for coming
If you don't have a bullets in or you need one just lift your hand up real quick
We'll get you a bulletin on the front
We have our Bible memory passage as well as the inside or service and soul winning times on the right
We have a list of expecting ladies and then we have several upcoming events
make sure to take note of
The signup sheets we have as well. There's a
Baby shower on the 16th for the Jackson's there's the soul winning marathon that's gonna be here the church on the 30th
Also, the 31st is Easter. So it's a little earlier this year and we're gonna have a communion that following evening
Also April 9th of the 10th is the Verity Baptist Church next generation news Valley
April 13th is the Shreveport, Louisiana soul winning marathon and
I've noticed we have a signup sheet for that out there
we probably need to get a signup sheet for the cedar hill one too just so we can organize food and everything like that and
Then the details for the baby shower down below on the back is our list of those who should we we should be in prayer
For that's pretty much
All I have as far as announcements make sure you're turning in your soul winning maps to the soul winning bins and
Your numbers to your soul winning captains and everything like that. So we're getting those that data accurate. We're gonna sing Psalm
150
Immediately following the service. We're just gonna go straight into our business meeting and that should go pretty quickly. So Psalm
150
All right, let's sing Psalm 150 Psalm 150
Oh
Good singing as the offering plates are being passed around. Please turn to Proverbs 23 Proverbs chapter 23
You
Proverbs chapter 23
the Bible reads when thou sit is to eat with a ruler consider diligently what is before thee and
Put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite
Be not desirous of his dainties for they are deceitful meat
Labor not to be rich cease from thine own wisdom wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not
For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle as an eagle toward heaven
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye
Neither desire thou his dainty meats for as he thinketh in his heart
So is he eat and drink sayeth he to thee but his heart is not with thee
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words
Speak not in the ears of a fool for he will despise the wisdom of thy words
Remove not the old landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless for their Redeemer is mighty
He shall plead their cause with thee
Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge
withhold not correction from the child
For if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die
Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell
My son if thine heart be wise my heart shall rejoice even mine
Yea, my reign shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things
Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long
For surely there is an end and thine expectations shall not be cut off
Hear thou my son and be wise and guide thine heart in the way be not among wine bibbers among riotous eaters of flesh
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags
Harken unto thy father that begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old buy the truth and sell it not
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice and he that beget at the wise son shall have joy of him
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad and she that bear these shall rejoice
My son give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my ways
For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit
She also lieth and wait as for a prey and increases the transgressors among men
Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath babbling who hath wounds without cause?
Who hath redness of eyes?
They that Terry long at the wine they that go to seek mixed wine
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red when it giveth his color in the cup when it moveth itself aright at
The last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder
Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast
They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sick
They have beaten me and I felt it not when shall I awake I will seek it yet again
Let's pray dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for the wisdom in the Word of God
I ask you to bless pastor Shelley with wisdom as he comes to preach to us
Please apply your word to our hearts in Jesus name. Amen
Amen
The sermon this evening is where I want to go in a little bit more detail
Based on something I kind of mentioned in a previous sermon. I
Talked about sickness and
Stopping the spread and in that sermon I had brought up the importance of nutrition. I kind of had a
An acronym or an acrostic to try and help us remember
Seven steps that I think really are emphasized in the Bible such as washing
alerting
separating hiding contaminated material
masking
eradicating
hazardous material and then specifically
Nutrition and I believe that the Bible while it doesn't necessarily spell out nutrition or use that word
It definitely brings up this concept and a lot of different passages and a lot of different places in Scripture
But kind of just the essence or to me like something that's a really important thing
to kind of latch on to is this phrase found here in verse 1 of
Proverbs 23 where the Bible says this when they'll sit us to eat or the ruler consider
diligently
What is before thee and I think that that's really the thought that I think a lot of us need to apply in our lives
is to consider
diligently
what is set before thee and
Notice that it's using a lot of language here to describe this consider. First of all, that's saying think about
You know to consider is to actually approach something with some thought or think about it
And then not only that it says diligently
What is diligent it would be to think about every aspect of what is set before you and and I think that this is a an
Important principle upon which God's people could be benefited and blessed is by considering
Diligently
What is set before thee and what you're eating because I believe that it plays a major role in
Your overall health and just generally just everything about us
Sometimes they'll say this you are what you eat and that's a very true statement
I believe and so it's something that we need to really consider
it also says in verse 2 and
Put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite
That is some strong language that the Bible is using here. Obviously. It's it's a hyperbole. It's an exaggeration
That's not really trying to actually say you should ever put a knife to your throat
That's that's not what the Bible saying at all
But it's it's just essentially trying to say that you know
It's we should take seriously what we're eating and not really be a glutton
The Bible brings us up even in this exact same passage about being a glutton and I'm not gonna read that passage yet
we'll come back eventually, but I just kind of want to
Flesh out this thought for a moment and you know, my sermon doesn't necessarily have a lot of points
It's really I just want to just emphasize
The idea of nutrition and I really just the one walkaway thought is for us to just always
Consider diligently what is set before us? Okay and
Go if you would to Ephesians chapter 5 go to Ephesians chapter 5 in the New Testament
The Bible again, like I said doesn't bring up the word nutrition
But I want to just read the definition and then we're going to notice that in the definition of nutrition
We're gonna see a phrase brought out a lot in Scripture and
If I look up nutrition in a dictionary, it'll say this the process of
nourishing or being nourished
especially by which a living organism
assimilates food and uses it for growth and for a placement of tissues, so the idea of nutrition is
Frankly in a lot of ways the nourishment and the growth aspect of food
One of the major aspects of eating food is just growth in general, especially when you're younger, especially as a child
It's important to give children proper nourishment so that they'll grow properly. You know, if you want your children to
Reach their physical potential you need to feed them lots and lots of food and feed them good food
It's gonna have an impact on their physical growth
Not only that us as just even adults, you know
You'll grow if you eat a lot of food and you know
It'll change how your body is structured the type of food you're eating what you're eating how often you're eating
It just has a major impact on our daily lives and we all pretty much eat probably at least three times a day
And if you include snacks and you know late dinners and all the other stuff
It's like sometimes it's even more right? So food's a big part of our life. It's a big part of who we are and
The Bible again, well, it doesn't say the word nutrition
It does bring up the word nourishment a lot
Nourishment is a concept and a thought that it's brought into Scripture quite a bit
And of course, it's often in a spiritual context, but that's because the Bible uses
Carnal truths to expound spiritual truths. And so, you know the things that we should
Recognize in our carnal world should help us then to
Bring that into a spiritual context and help us to apply spiritual truths better
But notice what it says in Ephesians chapter 5 look at verse 29
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh
But nourisheth and cherishth it even as the Lord the church notice that the Bible is saying you shouldn't hate yourself
You shouldn't hate your body. And in fact, it's very contrary to not like yourself
But notice what it's saying is that we try to nourish and cherish our own bodies
And so the nourishment that we provide to our bodies is a very important thing and it's something that we should take seriously
Go go to Daniel chapter number one go to Daniel chapter number one
So in the context of the sermons this evening, you know
we could think a lot about the idea of nourishment and the importance of growth and and not only growth from a like height
Perspective or just even muscles or something like that
But if you kind of understand how the human body works your your body is constantly replacing
Everything it's replacing your skin. It's replacing your hair. It's replacing your blood
It's replacing your bones and and most of you know
Even working out is damaging or destroying things in your body and then the body either repairing or replacing it
You know, you're tearing your muscles so that your body will rebuild those muscles stronger
And so there's a lot of aspects that are going on in your body that are a pair process or a constant renewal
Process that's happening. I've heard it said that your blood is basically replaced
I think it's your maybe and I'm sorry
I think it's your bones your bones are basically being replaced like every seven years
Approximately based on just what's going on in the natural body process and that's a good thing
That's part of the mechanisms and why we heal ourselves
Since the body is constantly replacing itself and constantly growing new skin new hair and new parts of your body
a lot of times that's those mechanisms are sped up or
Height heightened when you're injured and your body's basically trying to replace those skin cells that have been damaged or replace the blood
You know people can literally donate blood and then eventually replace all of that blood and so, you know
eating is
Important in that process of replacing and the growth and the tissue that's going on in your physical body now
That in mind and the concept that we read in Proverbs 23 the Bible says to consider
Diligently what is set before thee I can't think of really a more clear example of that than Daniel
And and look what it says in Daniel chapter 1 verse 5
The Bible says and the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank so
Nourishing them three years that the end thereof might stand before the king
So in Daniel chapter 1 the king is gonna be the one providing
Nourishment for these children and for three years look at verse 8
But Daniel purpose in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat
Nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself
But this is exactly what the Bible is saying in Proverbs 23
It's like when you're sitting with a ruler to consider
Diligently what is set before thee and notice that Daniel is not willing to eat the king's meat
He's thought about whatever is gonna be provided to him and he's not gonna eat it or drink it because he doesn't want to defile
Himself and so he's taking these things very seriously look at what it says in verse 15 and
at the end of the 10 days
their countenances
Appeared fairer and fatter and flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat
I'm kind of just cherry pickings of verses here
But what I'm trying to emphasize is the actual physical aspects here notice that Daniel needs nourishment
Not just spiritually he needs physical nourishment, and let me tell you something children in this room need physical nourishment
You know we need to be very diligent and making sure that we're feeding our children and giving them good food
And we're keeping them healthy that is an important aspect of them and Daniel
It was important for them to be physically in
Shape and the Bible is saying by the meals and the food that they ate they were fairer and fatter
And fatter and flesh meaning that they actually looked better
What is the word fair mean where fair means beautiful the word fair means looks good?
And you know you'll see people that are the same age, and they look way different
And it doesn't matter like all over the spectrum
you can see people that are 15 and 15 and they look way different 20 and 20 30 and 30 and
I wonder how much of that actually has to do with diet and lifestyle many times
It's the it's the reality
You know I've seen young women who drink a lot of alcohol or smoke cigarettes
And they're like in their 20s
And they look 40 and you're just thinking like what's wrong with you
And then you see some people that are like 40 and they look 25 and you're thinking like how is that?
You know it's like you look at the Asian culture
And it's like they're really emphasizing like certain foods and stuff like that you'll see people that are you know very old
And they look very young and it's like this is someone that's probably not been smoking a lot
Drinking heavily, and they probably been taking care and considering the food that they're eating whereas you see a lot of Americans eating a lot of junk
food
Smoking and drinking and doing all these things their body
And then they literally look like they've aged 10 or 20 years beyond where they're actually at in life
And so you know part of our nourishment even as a major impact on you just your physical appearance
That's what the Bible is literally saying that Daniel actually looked better more attractive more beautiful more handsome
Based on the foods that he was eating and considering what he was drinking and you know what I?
believe the same thing that we should really take into
account the food and the drink and the things that we're eating because it's gonna have an impact on how we look how
Strong we are and and there's a lot of aspects to the food that we eat go go to first
Timothy chapter number four go to first Timothy chapter four now
And again that you know I'm not necessarily emphasizing this this evening something that
Is
Spiritual right now. I'm emphasizing something. That's physical. You know what God cares about the physical stuff
You know I think that we don't want to get this weird idea that the Bible doesn't even bring up anything about our daily lives
Or a lot of these subjects, and you know I haven't really heard a lot of sermons on these things
Virtually none I guess, but I think it's important. It's in the Bible. There's a lot of verses here
I think we should consider diligently what is set before us I?
Believe that we should take Daniels approach that we should consider the food that we eat as to how it's going to impact our
Lives because when you're clear-headed
When you're stronger when you have more focus, that's just more energy and effort you can put into the things of God
So it's actually spiritual to be healthy
Because now you're actually in better shape to serve God what happens when you're not healthy
And you're not focused and you're not smart. You're not working hard. You know it'll help you in your job
It'll help you in your relationships. It'll help you in every area of life, and so we should take
Seriously, what God has given us because you know anybody can be healthy
Like anybody can choose to eat good food and and take care of themselves and could be in good shape
You know you can't you can't always necessarily change the fact of like how tall you are
Or how attractive you are any of those kind of things?
But let me say this being healthy will make you so much more attractive anyways
And in fact most of the time the reason why people are not very attractive is just because they're not very healthy and if they
Were just really healthy they would look a lot more attractive than they're perceived right now
So you know anybody could do this first of these chapter 4 look at verse 4
For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving
For to sanctified by the Word of God and prayer if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things
Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ notice this word
Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine where into thou hast attained
So often when the Bible used the word nourishment, it's in the context of the words of God of spiritual diet
Spiritual nutrition, but why is it being applied here because we were just bringing up the idea of physical food
And it's saying there's technically not any food
That's necessarily bad if it's received with
Prayer now again. What is the context of first Timothy chapter number four verse four?
It's in the context of eating
certain meats
Like eating pork eating what would be considered unclean beasts of the Old Testament. It's saying technically speaking
Anything that was considered as an unclean beast the Old Testament is still good for you
And it's still fine to eat so obviously pray for your meal, but there's nothing necessarily wrong with it
But this is not saying what this is not saying is that literally any food out there is fine
What this is not saying is McDonald's is great now, okay?
You know we should never refuse any kind of food or any kind of nourishment
It's not saying the soy burger is good now. That's not me literally okay, so you know let's make sure
We're careful in our context here that we don't go wild and start then saying like oh
Twinkies are good now. You know or or you know I'm just gonna eat as much junk food as possible
But I prayed for it. You know that's not that's taking this verse out of context here
It's saying there's nothing wrong with eating pork or eating
You know certain unclean birds, or I believe rabbit was considered unclean obviously dog isn't don't eat dog
Okay, I'm just kidding
But it technically hey if dogs on the menu and you prayed for it go for it
Okay, you know it's probably still more meat than McDonald's so you know you never know
But
We should at least consider diligently what's up for us, and if it's an unclean beast be like
Did you cook it you know make sure it's cooked and you know consider what you're eating still look at verse 8
For bodily exercise profit of little
But godliness is profitable into all things have been promised the life that now is and if that which is to come
Here's another aspect of this and you know mostly emphasizing nutrition, but another thing is just overall just health
exercising
Working out taking care of our bodies. We live in a culture where almost everything is so much easier than times past
That we actually have to exercise
Like in times past you didn't need to exercise because you're good
You're good on having to walk a couple miles just to get some water from the well
You're good in the fact that you didn't have a dishwasher
And you didn't have a washing machine
And you didn't have a car and you didn't have a you literally walked everywhere ran everywhere carried everything
You didn't even have processed food. You didn't even have junk food in order to eat you had to make it
That would actually make a lot of people skinny
Is if you had to if you personally had to make your food?
That would just cause because you would just be thinking like you're starving all the time
But you don't even you don't have anything to eat because you have to literally physically make it
Okay
And in times past for the most part people have not really suffered with the idea of gluttony as much
Just because they didn't have as much access to food they were hoping to eat not like eating too much
That is you know only in certain contexts major cities with lots of abundance of course
That's us today
But a lot of people have not had to struggle with that a lot of people today aren't struggling with
overeating because they just don't have access to that so you know we as
American citizens living in Texas living in the land of prosperity
Living in the land of great food
We have to emphasize the idea of not being a glutton and actually exercising
Whereas other people may not have to emphasize that as much they have to emphasize other things
So you know I believe that it's still important notice. It says for bodily exercise profit a little it doesn't say it doesn't profit
It does technically profit now again
Should we all just join the gym and then quit church? No because godliness is way more profitable
Okay, you know if I have to pick the church or gym
I'm gonna pick church, but it's not always like you can't have both. It's not saying you don't do both
It's just saying make sure you're godly
That's the most important thing and you know hey, it's still that bodily exercise helps though. You know it's not that it's bad
It's not it's not a negative thing
It's a positive thing and I would argue in many ways if you read the scripture in whole
Having good health and being in shape and being strong will actually help you then accomplish that first goal being godly now
go if you would to
Let's go to Ezekiel
No, I don't want to go there first. I want to go back to Proverbs 23. I want to go back to Proverbs 23
So in essence we need to consider diligently what we're eating. There's a lot of food out there that is
Not very healthy for you
And you know I've heard this it's probably somewhat true. It's like when you go to the grocery store
everything on the aisles that has a shelf life of five plus years is
Really not the best stuff to be eating like the best stuff is pretty much the perishable stuff
The perishable stuff is and this is just a general rule okay the perishable stuff is usually the best things you can eat the
Nonperishable stuff is usually the stuff that's gonna be high in calories
Not as nutritious probably not helping you. That's just my personal opinion
I've heard that it seems to match a lot of things that are true in the Bible
So you know just just generally speaking and there's certain foods
You could literally eat as much as you want, and you will not ever
Get fat like it. You just can't like you can eat unlimited celery
carrots
Cucumbers you could just you couldn't eat enough to ever get really even gain weight
So you know there's nothing wrong with eating large amounts of food
But we you know being a glutton is more of the idea or the context of just gorging yourself
Especially on foods and things that taste good you know dainties
treats
Relicacies things that are not designed to actually give you strength, but are just a pleasure food only
You don't look at this food and think like I need this to really give me strength for the day
It's really just for joy, or you just like how it tastes you know that the person gorging themselves on this
That is really what the Bible is kind of
De-emphasizing because again, there's really nothing wrong with eating certain healthy foods
You could literally just eat all day, and there's no problem. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not really necessarily
De-emphasizing this but notice what it says in Proverbs 23 verse 20
So the Bible is comparing a glutton with someone that's a riotous eater of flesh
So this is just someone gorging themselves on food
Gorging themselves on things that you know specifically I mean flesh you could think of meat
But I think it even extends itself to the dainties and the treats because that's what's brought up in
Verse 3 look what it says this be not desirous of his dainties for their deceitful meat
Often when the Bible uses the word meat it just means food
Which is a little confusing because a lot of us think of the word me I think of the word meat
I'm thinking like steak burgers brisket ribs like all of that sounds great, okay?
But often many times the word meat is just simply saying food okay and notice again is bring up the idea of dainties
Because what a king is going to be the one that kind of has all of the desserts
And all the really the really fun food to eat things that aren't necessarily
Necessary for daily life. They're just fun to eat, and it's just saying be careful
You don't want to go this way of just gorging yourself on this type of food being I mean a riotous eater of flesh that
sounds extreme
But you look at America, and it's kind of like that and even, Texas now look I love, Texas
Okay, so it's hard for me to say anything negative, but let's just be honest when you travel to foreign countries
Most of the time when they have the largest item on the menu, you know what it's called the Texas
Burger the Texas steak the Texas sandwich like they're literally like you'll just go to a foreign country you go to Australia
And it's like hey try our
Texas burger, and it's like it's like two patties and bacon and you know it's like this giant thing
You can't even fit it in your mouth, and you're just kind of thinking like huh, you know
I like Texas food, but that doesn't mean I have to always have Texas portions. You know what I mean and
Again, I'm not down if someone has the Texas burger. God bless you, okay?
But but maybe you shouldn't have it for every meal right it's like I have the Texas burger with the Texas shake with the Texas
Fries and then after that I'm gonna have the Texas cake
You know hey man, and then the Texas apple pie and ice cream I
Feel like there's this these places. I don't even know what they're called exactly
But they're like shake places or something like that, and it's like they have like or does
I don't know what they are, but they're like it's like a shake and then like a donut
Like on the shake and then they're or they'll put like cookies, and then they'll put like all this stuff
I'm just thinking like who's eating this stuff
Like it's just a random place. It's like hey after my meal
I'm gonna go get a bucket of
Ice cream and milk and a donut and cookies and eat all that and then I'm gonna go have dinner
And it's just like what is happening and and notice what the Bible literally says it says be not among wine bibbers among rioted
Eaters of flesh it's saying don't don't be like this and don't even be around this person
You know why because you'll go in there and be like that shake looks pretty good
You know that that looks pretty good
it's kind of saying you're gonna kind of fall victim of their lifestyle of that kind of habit and
Notice what the consequence of this the glutton is gonna come to poverty buying foods expensive anyways
You know you know one of the best ways to save money is just to diet
It's like you don't even realize how much money we spend on food and and all kinds of different things
And it's like you know eating healthy food oftentimes isn't even that expensive because no one wants to do it
it's a lot of times the junk food and
The Texas burger that's really where all the expenses come in
You know you go to restaurants a lot of these places drinks are really expensive, and they're really high in calories
And you know it's fun, but at the same time
You know if you never limit yourself if you're not showing any kind of self-control
Well there's going to be consequences to that
Go to Proverbs 30
Go to Proverbs 30. You know
it's important that we're not doing this because
gluttony
Kind of lends itself to other sins that are being alluded to here
laziness and
Rebellion is kind of what's being alluded to the consequence is poverty
But really the sin of gluttony at its core
is really kind of related to and similar to the idea of being lazy and kind of rebellious and you'll often see a
parallel between people that are gluttons or
Fat in the Bible as being kind of lazy people being kind of rebellious people
I don't know this in my nose, but you can think of like Eli's sons
They're getting fat and gorging themselves on all the meat
Offerings, and they're of course what very rebellious. They're they're very sinful
they don't really care about the things of God in the Bible alludes to the idea of being full as
A negative thing often look what it says in Proverbs chapter 30 verse 9
Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord?
Notice you know in this proverb and that the context was the idea of him being fed with food convenient for him
But he doesn't he doesn't want something. He doesn't want to be full of food because by being full of food
What is a potential consequence of this notice?
It says thus he deny thee and say who is the Lord meaning a lot of times?
People that are gorging themselves on food and just have too much food and too much
consumption that they really don't want God and
Boy doesn't that just kind of sound like America that we're just just so gluttonous and so full
That we don't really need God. It's like they're not hungering for righteousness
And they're so full and they're so gorging themselves whereas many times people that are poor and missing meals
They're a little bit more receptive to the things of God and being spiritual
Whereas people that have every need taken care of and they're very full
They're not as interested in the things of God go forward to Deuteronomy 21 go in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 21
Makes me think of a Jeremiah
When I use this verse recently in another sermon, but the Bible says when I fed them to the full
Then they committed adultery
So it was saying like hey once they're full now
They're committing wicked sins and all kinds of iniquity so we don't want to downplay
The fact of the Bible is really harsh and negative towards the idea of being a glutton
Just consuming a lot and we're gonna constantly see this in the text
but I'm telling you that the Bible over and over is emphasizing, you know, the food that we consume and
Not necessarily
Gorging ourselves and eating too much
Deuteronomy 21 look at verse 20
The Bibles is this and they shall say unto the elders of his of his city
This our son is stubborn rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard
notice again the parallel between someone that is
stubborn lazy
rebellious and what a glutton and so oftentimes gluttony someone that's just
Feeding themselves and gorging themselves
Often falls victim to this exact same thing again go if you would to
Deuteronomy 8 just go backwards a little bit go to Deuteronomy chapter number 8
And look at verse number 11
Well, let's start in verse 10, I'm sorry
Deuteronomy 8 verse 10 when thou hast eaten and art full
Notice that word again
Full when thou art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee
Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God and not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes
Which I command thee this day lest when thou hast eaten and art full and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein
and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied then thine
Heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God
Which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So God is worried
That if people eat too much food, and they're too full that they could do something forget God
Draw away from God, you know again nutrition being a very healthy thing
You know if I'm just gorging myself I could become very lackadaisical very lazy
You know, some people don't realize that eating certain foods will literally just cause you to be like tired
Good or dinner a chapter 32 if you eat too much food
Like I'll just be honest if I go and eat a big lunch. I don't want to go soul winning at all
Like I just I'm just kind of like I just want to like go take a nap or like
Never wake up again or just lay around like, you know, it's just you kind of you kind of feel bloated
You're just like, you know, it's a lot easier for me to go soul winning
If I left lunch still a little hungry
Like I still wanted to eat just a little bit more because as soon as we leave I'm I'm not hungry
But it's like sometimes we don't realize like you're not really hungry
You're just your body is just a selfish jerk
okay, and he just he just wants more than he can handle and and oftentimes you just walk away drink some more water your
Brain will recognize. Okay, you know, I didn't technically need the you know, the Texas burger shake and cake and everything else
You know, I still want it
but and
Often they'll have a lot more energy. In fact, I try often not to preach
After having eaten right away like it's it's kind of difficult. You know, you don't really feel the same
It's almost better to do it kind of on an empty stomach or on a lean stomach
Because it's almost like you have better energy and and so, you know by always being full
You're gonna often just simply just be kind of lazy
You're not gonna necessarily want to do a lot of things
Even you know, I've noticed this and you don't have to do this
This is how I work, but I pretty much just don't eat breakfast like ever
I have and I will sometimes but I don't eat breakfast and if I work
Like if I'm just working or doing something I don't even notice it's not even really a sacrifice
but I've also noticed this on the days where I'm kind of like yeah, I want to eat this or this looks good as
Soon as I start eating something I am starving
Like if I don't eat anything, I feel fine until lunch or even pass lunch. I don't even notice food
I don't even care but if I were to eat like hey
I'm just gonna eat like a half a banana or I'll just eat something then all of a sudden
it's just like all I can think about is food and I just want to eat and I just want to Gordon myself because it's
Like your body responds to what you're doing you're working. It'll be like, okay, I guess we're in work mode
But as soon as I like open food
It's like the hunger demons come out and they're just like feed me
And I just want to eat and eat and eat and so, you know
Oftentimes we don't even necessarily need food
It's just your body's responding because you ate something you kind of just you're triggering it and it's causing it to now think like oh
Okay, let's fill it up. You know since we're here and so you got to be careful, you know
I hear a lot of diets like snack all day and I'm thinking like that would be really bad for me
You know, I kind of try to avoid eating for certain periods of time because I find it a lot easier
But it's very consistent in the text. We're in Deuteronomy 32 that when you're when you're fat full
Gorging yourself that you have a tendency to reject God look what it says in Deuteronomy 32 verse 15
but just you run wax fat and
kicked
Thou art wax and fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness
Then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of salvation notice when they got fat
Is
When they're forsaking God and again, this is kind of just symbolic language that's being described here
But it's symbolic because of the carnal truth that often when people will quote wax fat
They will be weary of the things of God not desire the things of God
And so I believe taking care of our bodies physically is important. I
Want to go to Ezekiel 16 I want to go to one more place
But but here's a question, you know, you don't like this sermon if you're mad at me
I mean how many texts do I have to show you that say the same thing? I
Mean, we're just seeing a consistent theme like hey, they're waxing fat
They they kick, you know, my son's a glutton. He's the one that's rebellious
we see
In Proverbs 23 the glutton is the person that's coming to poverty the Bible just really warns us. We want to be hungry
For righteousness and for the things of God and somehow it has a parallel to our physical well-being and
Not necessarily gorging ourselves physically either Ezekiel 16 look at verse 49
Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom
Now what is iniquity sin? So it's saying this is the sin of Sodom pride notice this one
fullness of bread
Did you notice that
Hey, here's the sin of Sodom. One of them is fullness of bread. You know what that is
gluttony
Gluttony one of the sins of Sodom is that it was gorging itself on
Food it was just filled to the brim with
Food and then notice an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters
Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor need this sounds like America
super prideful
Full of just food and gorging themselves and gluttony
Obesity has become a major problem in America
And in fact I saw an article it said obesity has now become a much more dangerous
Thing in the world then than starvation
They said there are more people are gonna die or have problems because of obesity than starvation in the world
We do not have a food problem in the way that many people try to present it
It's it's more eating too much than it is not eating enough
Abundance of idleness boy, that's a that's just that's just negative. You need to find something to do and
And doing something will keep you out of trouble
Go if you went to Genesis chapter 1. Let's look at a couple more verses here. You know, what are some things to eat? Well
You
Know I'm not I'm not gonna try and get up here and just tell you all you know
I'm not gonna give you a book that says eat this and don't eat this right you can buy that book, right?
It's like eat this don't eat this
It's like a whole book or whatever and here's the reality if I go on the internet and I try to ask the internet
What should I eat?
Literally every possible option times 10 exists
You'll find 10 articles that say eat this and 10 articles that say never eat this
Like there's really I don't personally believe there's even very much consensus anymore
There's just there's just so much out there so many diets and so many variations and people are like eat me
Don't eat me eat fruits and vegetables. Don't eat fruits and vegetables. I mean at least this though
No one's advocating to eat McDonald's. All right
Like there's pretty much every opinion out there except for like fast food. Everybody's pretty much like fast foods terrible for you. Okay?
but I
Here's my belief and here's what I think the Bible it wants us to do is to try and eat biblical foods
Try to try to eat something that the Bible is talking about and the and the closer it is to what the Bible described
I think the better it is for us and the further away the less recognizable it is in the Bible like a dead
Bird egg or something. It's like
I don't ever see that in the Bible. Okay, like that sounds scary. Okay
But notice what it says in in Genesis chapter 1 verse 29
and God said behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and
Every tree and the witch is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you. It shall be for me
so here's a great idea eating fruit literally and
Eating the seeds of that fruit, you know, it's seeds
nuts and fruits are really good and that's just my personal opinion, but I feel like the Bible
I mean, this is God's like first instruction thing. Here's the thing you should emphasize eating the fruits that's coming from the trees
Okay
So that's a really good thing to eat according to the Word of God and that's what God wants us to do
Go if you had to Proverbs 27 go back to Proverbs 27
Fruits and seeds are really important and I also believe you know
fruits and seeds have a lot of health benefits that we don't know about and many times science is kind of catching up to these
things and
And identifying them, you know, there's certain diseases like Lyme disease
where people were literally getting I believe it's scurvy and
limes
Had certain nutritional elements in it that help people not literally die and it's like Lyme disease
Okay, so there's a literal fruit curing a literal illness and it's not like the fruit cures the illness
It's more of the nutritional aspects of that fruit
help that person not have a specific deficiency and as a result they get less sick or less prone to certain diseases or
Illnesses and so we need to recognize that there could be a lot of things
That
Could be solved by literally what you eat, but you know, let's be honest if I go to the doctor
Do you think the doctor is gonna want to tell me like hey you need to sleep and eat some better food and go home
And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be able to charge you for any drugs or any medicines or anything like that
And in fact if you eat all this
I'll never see you again because you'll just be healthy you think the doctors really want to do that
Their protocol or would they just like to prescribe you medication and say go eat the the Texas cheesecake, you know
Monster shake just just take this pill and you'll throw it up later or whatever or it'll somehow eat your insides out
And it'll it'll destroy the calories
Like most people today when they go to the doctor and they're obese, you know what the doctor does
He prescribes them medication
He doesn't say work out and eat differently
He says continue your existing lifestyle, but then take this heart blood pressure medication
Take this kind of medication. It's like look I'm not down on anybody for taking medication
But at the same time like could that be resolved another way?
Could you be handling that in a different way? Hey, look, we should take those things seriously. Don't hear me wrong
But I'm just saying like why do I always need medication as opposed to proper diet nutrition?
You know, I think there's a lot to be said about just handling it through proper diet and nutrition
The Bible also says this in Proverbs 27 verse 26
The lambs are for thy clothing and the goats are the price of the field and thou shalt have goats milk enough for thy food
For the food of thy household and for the maintenance of thy maidens
So the Bible brings up milk and specifically goats milk as being for food
So here's some suggestions fruit
seeds
milk
Go if you would to Proverbs 24 for sake of time. I'm not going to have you turn to a lot of other places
I have a lot more written down but think about some verses like give us this day our daily
Bread, so so here's here's some things you should be eating bread
fruit
seeds
milk
How about this drink water out of thy known cisterns?
Here's some you should be drinking water
Boy, that'll help your life
Drink water lots and lots of water. That should be your primary drink is just tons of water and milk
Okay water and milk. These are really good beverages for us to have you know, what were the beverages that?
Daniel's avoiding wine and
Wine could be alcoholic, but it could also just be in general
It's not necessarily great to just drink a bunch of juice all the time or to drink sugary
Beverages or beverages high in calories that's not necessarily going to be great for you
The Bible talks about a wise man being strong the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 5 that strong meat bullying
I'm sorry belong to those who are a full age
So meat, you know meats are important in the Bible bread water
milk, you know fruit
The Bible brings up other foods, I'm not gonna bring what raisins and different things like that, but you know
It doesn't bring up
Ho-hos and Twinkies and shakes and ice cream and cookies and all this other stuff and the few times it does
It's like dainties or confectionaries and it's like they are for kings and the Bible saying hey
You probably shouldn't be going down that road
You probably shouldn't be gorging yourself on that kind of material and really if you go to the grocery store
What are the outside aisles the fruit?
the cheese
Milk and the meat and the bread and then you've got to the counter all that
What's all the stuff in the middle all the sugary carbs and all the kind of?
Process foods and all the other kind of stuff
So again, I'm not down if you say I'm only shopping in the middle section of the grocery store after this go for it
You know, I'm not I'm I'm just here to tell you that
It might be a wise idea to consider what the Bible is bringing up and eating a lot of this kind of food
Let's also I want to say this, you know
Because we live in America and we can literally have any food. We want whatever we want. We're not really forced into anything
You know in times past you kind of were forced to eat certain foods just out of the sheer
Supply aspect like you don't necessarily have every fruit at your disposal. You're kind of limited. What fruits just grew on the tree
It's seasonal. Okay
Go to Ezekiel 47. Let's read that. Let's read that. Keep your finger in Proverbs 24 because we'll come back to go to Ezekiel 47
And you know the Bible says in verse 75 when it's talking about to Timothy
It says drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake
Sometimes there is a medicinal or benefit to drinking a little bit of juice or
Different things. I think my wife's looked this up and she said
Drinking grape juice kind of helps balance the pH in your stomach. It could kind of help you with certain stomach issues
So I'm all for
What would be described as holistic remedies, you know eating certain foods and vegetables and?
Considering your health I think that that's gonna have a major impact and one of those things also could be eating seasonal fruits
Eating seasonal first finding out when fruits are technically in season and eating them then because you know
We're just don't grow on the tree unless you live, you know in certain places every single month
Not everything grows on the on trees
It's like they have to import them from all kinds of different places in the world because of the way seasonality works
But you know, I believe that it's very likely that God intended for us to eat things in
different time periods, you know, it's the winter typically when citrus grows and
You know citrus has some benefits with vitamin C and vitamin D often when it's the winter
You're not going outside as much so you're not getting as much vitamin D from the Sun and then when a lot of people get
Sick in the winter time so, you know
Perhaps maybe you should consider having more vitamin D vitamin C in your diet in those time periods
But look what it says in Ezekiel 47
verse 12 and
By the river upon the bank thereof on this side and on that side shall grow all trees for meat
Whose leaf shall not fade neither shall the fruit there be consumed it shall bring forth new fruit
According to his months because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof
For medicine so the Bible saying, you know, it's kind of alluding to the tree of life and it's talking about future
but specifically saying hey
It's gonna be bringing different food in different months and specifically even those leaves could be used for types of medicine
You know a lot of leaves are used in creating teas or other kinds of beverages
And so we can we should consider what God has already created for us and not ask some
Doctor and a lab coat that is conjuring up drugs and giving them to us. Okay again, I'm not a hundred percent against
medications that are made in the pharmacy or laboratory
Obviously, you know, there's certain drugs like penicillin and other things that have been developed that have greatly benefited society
But I also think we should consider diligently was set before thee including drugs
And we shouldn't just always be reliant on drugs. Maybe we should consider our diet and what we're eating people will think
Oh, I keep getting sick
Because of sick people well, sometimes that's true. Maybe you're getting sick because you're not eating healthy
You're not getting any kind of exercise. You're not taking care of yourself. And so you're just
allowing any kind of sickness or disease or bacteria to
Attach on to you and you need to get sick from it very easily the more healthy you are the more you're taking
Nutrition very seriously. It's gonna have an impact. Why would Paul tell Timothy? Hey drink wine
Because it's literally gonna impact his health
He's getting sick all the time and Paul's really frustrated with him for getting sick all the time. He's like drink some wine
You know, it's like hey, don't just only drink water drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake and mine often
infirmities
He's I like that word often. He's like hey, this guy is getting sick too much
You know make sure you're drinking a little wine
Meaning that we have a direct impact on how often we get sick. And what was his remedy food?
What was his remedy drink beverage the things that he has in his diet?
And I think we need to take those things seriously go to back to I think it was what Proverbs 24
Proverbs 24 look at verse number five. I'll just read for you real quick
but the Bible says a
Wise man is strong. Yea, a man of knowledge increases shrink
We as men need to be physically strong and this world wants us to be weak and let me tell you something by the food
That you eat it will greatly impact your physical strength
you know what the world wants us to do is eat crickets and burgers and soy and just be weak and
Fat and out of shape and you know what as God's people as men we need to be strong
And physically fit where we're able to use our minds at its full capacity
We're able to use our legs when we go out and preach the gospel to its full capacity and where we're physically strong
We don't want to be a weak
Sissified nation, you know, especially for the next generations. You know what women are attracted to strong men
And we need to raise our children and raise the young men to be strong men
To not be weak and if then you go to other countries
it's like every guy in that country kind of seems a little bit weak or docile or kind of effeminate and
It's kind of a shame. It's kind of embarrassing. You know what our country should not go that way. Our country needs to stay strong
physically
mentally and especially spiritually
So we need to work on our health and nutrition, you know, I don't
For sake of time I'm not gonna read as much as I wanted to about this other thing
But I kind of brought up previously
This this article and I'd read a little bit about it and it was called germ theory denialism
and it's really interesting because it kind of
Puts two different thoughts side by side and kind of compares them compares like the germ theory and then it compares
in one section of this a thing called the terrain theory and
This is what I find interesting about this though is well, I believe that you know, the
scientific aspects of the germ theory are true. That's my personal opinion and
You know, I definitely would say that a lot of their conclusions are true
the practices of those who have come up with this and
A lot of the things that have stemmed from it are very negative where they really go
Overboard with like vaccination and just a lot of medications
Whereas it's funny because this this terrain theory while I don't necessarily subscribe to a lot of the scientific conclusions
most of the people who did subscribe to this ended up being better off and
Actually having better practices in their life and it's kind of funny, but I was reading this
Article it's like a Wikipedia article and it's just talking about it and this is what it says specifically
About the terrain theory it says however
Understanding the cause of a sickness does not always immediately lead to effective treatment of sickness
so it's saying like just because someone knows why someone was sick doesn't mean they actually know how to deal with it properly and
It said that the great decline in mortality during the 19th century stemmed mostly from
improvements in hygiene and cleanliness in fact
One of the first movements to deny germ theory was called the sanitary movement and this was
Central in developing Americans public health infrastructure. So this is what's so funny. All of our modern science is kind of based on
Germ theory and if you go to medical school or you go to the hospitals or the doctors
That's kind of what they're based on but they're saying like all the great improvements
We had in the health care system were from people that didn't subscribe to the germ theory, but they actually brought in sanitation
methods into our hospitals infrastructure like clean water and washing and nutrition and health and
Like basically all the things in the Bible saying it's like all these people were doing and it's just kind of funny
how
That works, but at the end of the day, you know, I don't really care what this world says
You know, like I don't really care what theory or what is the most, you know up-to-date research
Because it's always changing and they keep proving each other wrong and all this stuff. I care about the application
and
I'll tell you what
Many times people that don't necessarily subscribe to a lot of modern medicine
They end up being a lot healthier and more productive people in society
it's like they are the ones who
actually recognize a lot of things the Bible are saying and they work on their health and their fitness and what they eat and
You can't necessarily blame everything on just bad germs out there or something
You know, sometimes you need to take some ownership and say like maybe I'm not taking care of myself
I'm not taking care of what I eat and
Exercising and being healthy and of course this then applies to a spiritual connection
So I want to summarize what I've said number one. Don't be a glutton
number two eat biblical food
number three exercise and
Number four use natural things for medicine and health. So we've seen that consistently through this through what we've read
Don't be gorging yourself don't be a glutton the foods that we should eat should be kind of based on the Bible
We should constantly exercise and number four
We should be using natural things for medicine health like the leaves of the trees like using a little wine
And if we take those four principles and we apply them carnally, you know, we can do
Apply them spiritually
What would be?
Not being a glutton spiritually
Gorging yourself on this world and
The people are gorging themselves in this world
You know what they end up being too full and not needing God and they're not hungering for spiritual righteousness
Hey, I don't need church on Sunday night because I'm good
Well, it doesn't sound like you're very hungry. Oh
But I'm just I'm just gorging and I'm just so full on everything else
And of course, they're not eating the things that they should be eating. They're eating a bunch of junk food
We need to make sure that we're having a diet of healthy food like the Bible
Not just eating biblical food eating biblical words
Eating the Bible and you know, this is like the celery the carrots. You can't eat too much of it. It won't hurt you
okay, you won't ever get too full of eating this you can just keep eating this and eating this and
We want to make sure that we're exercising and keeping yourselves in shape
Well, here's the thing in a Christian life. We need to make sure that we're doing the work
We need to go out there and exercise our faith and actually put in the labor and not just be a forgetful hearer
But a doer of the work and actually putting into practice
Christianity actually doing Christianity going soul-winning preaching the gospel. This is gonna keep you healthy and
Lastly we talked about using natural things for medicine and health. You know what? Why don't you seek God for spiritual health?
Yeah
You know a lot of people they're like, hey my marriage is falling apart
So I'm going to go listen to this online marriage counselor
Or I'm gonna go ask my buddies at work or I'm depressed
And so I'm gonna ask the world what I do and the world's like eat more ice cream, you know, or I
Take this drug. In fact, let's just be honest
Literally every problem in the world today. You know what? The answer is drugs
I mean there is a drug for depression. There's a drug for obesity
There is a drug for everything that you could possibly think of some surgery or hey, I don't like how I look
Well get surgery
Well, I don't like this part of my body cut it off. I want this party to be bigger
Well, we'll put more in there or whatever. It's just like well, I don't like my hair color
Well, we'll dye it this way and you know, it's just like I mean, there's so much crazy stuff
That's what the world is trying to tell you to do it's like no
No, if you have a spiritual problem, we have an issue go to seek the Word of God
And you know the Bible says that beauty is vain
You're like, oh I'm struggling with beauty. We'll just realize it's worthless anyways, and it doesn't matter
You don't realize that. Hey, maybe by being healthy. You're gonna be more attractive
Anyway, you want to be more attractive plastic surgery is not it. I
Mean you look at the you look at these women that got plastic surgery. You're like you only got worse
But many times it would be like hey if you just actually
Stopped eating the Texas shakes and burgers and whatever and worked out a little bit. Wow that made a major improvement
You know, it's crazy some people have these dramatic transformations you're thinking like there was something good-looking under there somewhere
You know, it was like but you had to work on it and as men, you know
You're this skinny little effeminate soy boy, but then you go work out and it's like whoa, who's this guy?
Who's Arnold Schwarzenegger that just walked in, you know, it's just like
There could be there's a there's a strong guy somewhere in there. You know, we just have to pump him up
I'm gonna bump you up. Okay
And and I'm telling you the physical often relates to the spiritual
When we take care of our bodies physically and we're exercising and we're seeking, you know
Biblical advice for our health needs will often get it and especially spiritually speaking
We need to get a constant diet of the Word of God
We need to constantly not gorge ourselves on the world
Maybe doing the work and we need to see God for spiritual health
If you're struggling if you have you're down you're depressed you're upset
You know, we need to seek this as our source and not the world
I mean, I actually have listened to some of these people just to get an idea of what they say. They have terrible advice
There's some guy that works with Dave Ramsey
Pretty much probably everybody's heard of Dave Ramsey
But he has his own like online network and he has some guy that does like marriage counseling or something on YouTube
You can like call in he'll give you these marriage advices and things like that and and people are calling in and they're talking about
you know
Bringing other people in a relationship committing adultery and doing all these kind of things and he's never being like well
You know the Bible says don't do that. He's like, I just don't think that's the best option
you know, it's just like what are you talking about and
You know, he's not necessarily downplaying divorce. He's not necessarily downplaying all these things, you know, you go to the world
You're gonna get some really bad answers
And if you think you can just call a random guy that doesn't even know you on the phone and he's gonna fix your marriage
Problems you're already doomed
That guy because you know what he's not gonna do follow up with that person and see if his vice worked
It's just you know what he's doing
He's taking advantage of people that are in really bad marriages and taking their worst and most private things and putting them on the internet
You know what? He is a professional gossiper
He's a professional tailbearer
I mean, can you imagine telling the whole world the worst things that are going on your relationship and
It's like who loves to hear that. Oh, yeah, everybody loves your gossip. So again major YouTube channel. It's exploding
This is the worst person to get marriage advice from the guy that's blasting your private details to the whole world
That is not marriage counseling. That is a guy taking advantage of weak and vulnerable people
Don't let the world you go to the doctor and he just takes advantage of you because you're down depressed having issues take this drug
Oh, well, I'm sure a hundred and fifty dollar a month of drugs gonna help your problems
No, you know what's gonna do you're gonna have less money. You're gonna have all kinds of
Side-effects from those drugs and it's not even gonna affect your real issue
Many times you'll have another issue and they'll be like, oh you have to take this other drug for this issue
Because you're taking this drug. It's thinning out your blood
So now we need to do something for your blood for your blood
And then it's like and now it's doing this thing to your heart now
You need this thing for your heart now you need this drug and it's just like a forever chemistry experiment
Avoid the chemistry experiments. God is saying eat seeds eat fruit eat milk eat bread
Eat meat right, but let's not gorge ourselves and get so fat that we just forget who God is
Let's stay hungry physically and spiritually. All right, let's go some prayer. Thank Heavenly Father so much for the Word of God
thank you for giving us wisdom and and I pray that you would help us to have the
Wisdom and the strength of willpower to subdue the flesh and not always just give in to everything
I pray that we would be careful and we consider diligently what is set before us
And we would recognize that it has a major impact on our lives our physical strength on our overall well-being and our health
And I pray they would take these things seriously as they impact us and our families and our service to you
I pray that you would just help us to stay hungry for the things of God and Jesus name we pray
All right, we're gonna learn a new song tonight it's
359 thy word have I hid in my heart
Sing it together
359 thy word is a lamp to my feet
Unlike to my path
To guide and to save me
And show me
Thy
Forever
Established and fixed on my
Thy faithfulness unto all men
That I might not sin against me
My word have I did my
At morning
And shall be through all my days
By
I
Are
That I might not see my word