everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church you can please find your seats and grab your hymnals
we're going to sing song 246 redeemed 246 redeemed sing it out like you're redeemed 246 redeemed
thank you for this afternoon and for the opportunity to praise us to your name and your preaching of the
word of god the service and bless our pastor love you and you send me praying next song go to 220
this is all the world to me 220 full song jesus is all the world we have our bible mary passage
as well as the insider service and soul winning times on the right for a list of expecting ladies
we have several upcoming events make sure to take note sign up sheets we have as well there's a
baby shower on the 16th for the jacksons there's the soul winning marathon that's going to be
here at the church on the 30th also the 31st is easter so it's a little earlier this year and
we're going to have a communion that following evening also april 9th of the 10th is the very
baptist church next generation use valley april 13th is the sriport louisiana soul winning marathon
and uh i've noticed we have a sign-up sheet for that out there probably need to get a sign-up
sheet for the cedar hill one too just so we can organize food and everything like that 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 um all i have as far as announcements make sure you're turning in your
soul winning maps to soul winning bins and your numbers to your soul winning captains and everything
like that so we're getting those uh that data accurate we're going to sing psalm 150 um immediately
following the service we're just going to go straight into our business meeting and uh that
should go pretty quickly so psalm 150 sing psalm 150 psalm 150 passed around please turn to proverbs
23 verbs chapter 23 chapter 23 bible reads when thou sittest 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 seize 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
has 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 under
instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge withhold not correction from the child for if thou
beat us him with the rod he shall not die thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his
soul from hell my son if thine heart be wise my heart shall rejoice even mine yea my brain 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 winebibbers among
riotous eaters of flesh for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall
clothe a man with rags hearken 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 begetteth a wise son shall have joy of him
thy father and thy mother shall be glad and she that bear thee 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 in wait as for a prey and increaseth the transgressors among men who
hath woe who has sorrow who hath contentions who hath babbling who hath wounds without cause who
hath redness of eyes they that tarry 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 shelly with wisdom as he comes to preach to us please apply your word to our hearts in
jesus name amen and 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 um 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 onto is
this phrase found here in verse one of proverbs 23 where the bible says this when thou sitest to
each other 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 two 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's saying at all but 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 going to 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 walk away thought is for us to just
always consider diligently what is set before us okay and go if you would to ephesians chapter
five go to ephesians chapter five 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 going to 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
replacement 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 going
to 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 while it
doesn't say the word nutrition it does bring up the word nourishment a lot nourishment is a concept
and a thought that's 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 aphesians
chapter 5 look at verse 29 "for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth
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
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 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 no 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's 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 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 one verse five 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 one the king
is going to be the one providing nourishment for these children and for three years look at verse
eight 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 unix
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 going to be
provided to him and he's not going to 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 in flesh than all the children which
did eat the portion of the king's meat i'm kind of just cherry picking some 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 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 in flesh meaning that they
actually looked better what does the word fair mean the word 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 and drinking heavily and they've 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 has 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 going to 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 to the first timothy chapter number four go to first
timothy chapter four now and again you know i'm not necessarily emphasizing this this evening
something that uh is is spiritual right now i'm emphasizing something that's physical you know
what god cares about the physical stuff you know i 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 daniel's approach that we
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 and 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 take care of themselves and could be in good shape.
You know, you can't always necessarily change the fact
of like how tall you are or how attractive you are
or 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 Timothy chapter four, look at verse four.
For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused
if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God in 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,
wherein too thou hast attained.
So often when the Bible uses 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
in 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, 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 is, don't eat dog, okay, I'm just kidding.
But technically, hey, if dog's 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 eight.
For bodily exercise proviteth little,
but godliness is provable unto all things
having promised the life that now is
and of 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 were 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.
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, cause 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.
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.
And if I have to pick the church or gym, I'm going to pick church, but it's not always
like you can't have both, it's not saying 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 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 non-perishable stuff is usually the stuff
that's going to 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 generally speaking.
And there's certain foods you could literally eat as much as you want and you will not ever
get fat.
Like you just can't.
Like you can eat unlimited celery, carrots, cucumbers.
You could just, you couldn't eat enough to ever really even gain weight.
So you know there's nothing wrong with eating large amounts of food.
But 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, delicacies, 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, 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.
So it's not really necessarily de-emphasizing this.
But notice what it says in Proverbs 23 verse 20, "Be not among winebibbers, among riotous
eaters of flesh, for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness
shall clothe a man with rags."
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 three.
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 meat.
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 bringing 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 fun food to eat, things
that aren't necessarily necessary for daily life, they are 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 Hex's 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 on, if someone has the Texas burger, God bless you, okay.
But maybe you shouldn't have it for every meal, right?
It's like, hey I have the Texas burger with the Texas shake with the Texas fries.
And then after that, I'm going to have the Texas cake, you know, amen.
And then the Texas apple pie and ice cream.
I feel like there's 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 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'll, or they'll put like cookies and then they'll put like
all this stuff.
And 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 going to go get a bucket of ice cream and milk and
a donut and cookies and eat all that.
And then I'm going to have dinner and it's just like, what is happening?
And notice what the Bible literally says.
It says be not among winebibbers, among rioters, 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 going to kind of fall victim of their lifestyle, of that kind
of habit.
And notice what the consequence of this, the glutton's going to come to poverty.
Buying food's expensive anyways.
You know, you know, one of the best ways to save money is just to diet because 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.
Um, you know, you go to restaurants, a lot of these places, drinks are really expensive
and they're really high in calories and, 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.
Um, 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 even have this on 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 very sinful, they don't really care about the things of God.
In the Bible it 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, the context was the idea of him being fed with food convenient
for him, but 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, "Lest 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 so gluttonous and
so full that we don't really need God.
It's like they're not hungering for righteousness.
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 to Deuteronomy 21, go in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 21, makes me think of a Jeremiah
when, and I used 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 that the Bible is really harsh and negative towards
the idea of being a glutton, just consuming a lot.
And we're going to constantly see this in the text, but I'm telling you that the Bible
over and over is emphasizing the food that we consume and not necessarily gorging ourselves
and eating too much.
Deuteronomy 21, look at verse 20, the Bible says this, "And they shall say unto the elders
of his city, This our son is stubborn and 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.
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 in 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 hast 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.
Again, nutrition being a very healthy thing.
If I'm just gorging myself, I can become very lackadaisical, very lazy.
Some people don't realize that eating certain foods will literally just cause you to be
tired.
Gooder in Deuteronomy chapter 32.
If you eat too much food, I'll just be honest.
If I go and eat a big lunch, I don't want to go soul hunting at all.
I'm just kind of like, "I just want to go take a nap or never wake up again or just
lay around."
It's just you kind of feel bloated and you're just like...
It's a lot easier for me to go soul hunting if I left lunch still a little hungry.
I still wanted to eat just a little bit more.
Because as soon as we leave, I'm not hungry anymore.
But sometimes we don't realize you're not really hungry.
Your body is just a selfish jerk, OK?
And he just wants more than he can handle.
And oftentimes, you just walk away, drink some more water.
Your brain will recognize, OK, I didn't technically need the Texas burger shake and cake and everything
else.
I still want it.
And often I have a lot more energy.
In fact, I try often not to preach after having eaten right away.
It's kind of difficult.
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 so, you know, by always being full, you're going to often just simply just be kind of
lazy.
You're not going to 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 past lunch.
I don't even notice food, I don't even care.
But if I were to eat like, "Hey, I'm just going to 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 gourd 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've 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.
Or in Deuteronomy 32, that 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 Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked, thou
art waxed and fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness, then he forsook
God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his 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 "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 here's a question.
You know, if 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 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.
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 than starvation.
They said that more people are going to 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 more eating too much than it is not eating enough.
Abundance of idleness, boy, that's just negative.
You need to find something to do.
And doing something will keep you out of trouble.
Go if you went to Genesis chapter one, let's look at a couple more verses here.
You know, what are some things to eat?
Well, you know, I'm not going to try and get up here and just tell you all, you know,
I'm not going to 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 so much out there.
So many diets and so many variations and people are like eat meat, don't eat meat, eat fruits
and vegetables, don't eat fruits and vegetables.
I mean at least this though.
No one's advocating to eat McDonald's, alright.
Like there's pretty much every opinion out there except for like fast food.
Everybody's pretty much like fast food's terrible for you, okay.
But here's my belief and here's what I think the Bible wants us to do is to try and eat
biblical foods.
Try to eat something that the Bible's talking about.
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.
That sounds scary, okay.
But notice what it says 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 which 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
like, first instruction, 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 through the
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 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. Do 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 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 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 and nutrition? You know, I think that
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 the 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 here's some things you should be
eating. Bread, fruit, seeds, milk. How about this? Drink water out of thy known
cisterns. Here's something you should be drinking. Water. Boy, that'll help your life. Drink
water. Lots and lots of water. That should be your primary drink. It's 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 was avoiding? Wine. And wine could be alcoholic,
but it could also just be, in general, you know, 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 belongs to those who are
of full age. So meat, you know, meats are important in the Bible. Bread, water, milk,
fruit. The Bible brings up other foods. I'm not going to bring 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
are confectionaries and it's like they are for kings. And the Bible is 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, the milk, and the meat, and the bread, and then
you've got to the counter. What's all the stuff in the middle? All the sugary carbs
and all the kind of processed 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. 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. I want to say this,
because we live in America and we can literally have any food we want whenever 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. Keep your finger in Proverbs 24 because we'll
come back to it. Go to Ezekiel 47. And you know, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 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 an additional 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 can 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 going to have
a major impact. And one of those things also could be eating seasonal fruits, eating seasonal
fruits, finding out when fruits are technically in season and eating them then. Because oranges
don't grow on the tree unless you live in certain places every single month. Not everything
grows 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 thereof 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's saying, you know, it's kind of alluding to the tree of life and it's talking
about future, but specifically it's saying, hey, it's going to 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 should consider what God has already created for us and not ask some doctor in
a lab coat that is conjuring up drugs and giving them to us.
Okay.
And again, I'm not 100% 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 what's set before thee, including drugs.
Now 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 onto you and you get sick from it very easily.
The more healthy you are, the more you're taking nutrition very seriously, it's going
to have an impact.
Why would Paul tell Timothy, "Hey, drink wine?"
Because it's literally going to 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 your stomach's sake and often infirmities."
I like that word often.
He's just like, "Hey, this guy is getting sick too much, you know, make sure you drink
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 back to, I think it was what, Proverbs 24.
Proverbs 24, look at verse number 5.
I'll just read for you real quick.
But the Bible says, "A wise man is strong, yea, a man of knowledge increases strength."
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 effeminate.
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 going to read as much as I wanted to about
this other thing.
But I kind of brought up previously this article, and I had 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 while 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 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 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.
This one'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 healthcare system were from
people that didn't subscribe to the germ theory, but they actually brought in sanitation methods
into our hospital's infrastructure like clean water and washing and nutrition and health
and fitness.
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, I don't really care what this world says.
I don't really care what theory or what is the most 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.
Sometimes you need to take some ownership and say 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 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 and 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 what we can
do?
We should do it spiritually.
What would be not being a glutton spiritually, gorging yourself on this world.
And the people who 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 and 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 and 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 ourselves in shape.
Well, he's thinking 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 going to 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?
You know, a lot of people are like, Hey, my marriage is falling apart.
So I'm going to go listen to this online marriage counselor, or I'm going to go ask
my buddies at work, or I'm depressed and so I'm going to 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's a drug for everything that you could possibly think of.
Some surgery or, Hey, I don't like how I look.
We'll get surgery.
Well, I don't like this part of my body.
Cut it off.
I want this part 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, no.
If you have a spiritual problem, if you 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 then it doesn't matter.
Realize that, Hey, maybe by being healthy, you're going to 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 and 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 and you're thinking like, there was something
good looking under there somewhere, you know, it was like, but you had to work on it.
Even 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, you know, there could be, there's a, there's a strong guy somewhere
in there, you know, we just have to pump him up to pump you up.
Okay.
And, and I'm telling you, the physical often relates to the spiritual.
We take care of our bodies physically and we're exercising and we're seeking, you know,
biblical advice for our health needs.
We'll 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.
We need to be doing the work, and we need to seek God for spiritual health.
If you're struggling, if you have, if you're down, if 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's, uh, 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 people are calling in and they're talking about, you know, uh, bringing other people
in a relationship, committing adultery and doing all these kinds 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 going to 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 going to fix your marriage problems, you're already doomed.
That guy, because you know what he's not going to do?
Follow up with that person and see if his advice 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 tale bearer.
I mean, can you imagine telling the whole world the worst things that are going on in
your relationship?
And it's like, who loves to hear that?
Oh yeah, everybody loves to hear 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 $150 a month of drugs is going to help your problems.
No, you know what it's going to do?
You're going to have less money.
You're going to have all kinds of side effects from those drugs.
And it's not even going to 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.
And then it's like, and now it's doing this thing to your heart.
And 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 to prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for the Word of God.
Thank you for giving us wisdom.
And I pray that you would help us to have the wisdom and the strength and the 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 that you 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 in Jesus'
name we pray.
Alright, we're going to learn a new song tonight, it's 359, "Thy word have I hid in my heart."
359, "Thy word have I hid in my heart."
Let's sing it together, 359.
"Thy word is a lamp to my feeling, Son to all that sin and pride."