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Alright, we're here in Philippians chapter 3 and we're continuing our series on biblical health. And in case you missed the first few sermons, the first sermon was kind of an introductory sermon. I just kind of went over some things. And last week, you know, I talked about godliness. And living a godly life is without question the most important thing that you can do for your health. And I think we saw that last week. But one thing we need to understand is that does not negate other areas of having health. The Bible does speak about a lot of things. It speaks about exercise, which we'll talk about next week. It talks about our diet as well and what we eat. And so this is going to be a sermon talking about our diet. And what I want to do in the sermon, because this is a topic that I find particularly interesting. You know, I've read books on various topics and things like that. But I don't want to just go super in-depth and say this fruit gives you this much magnesium. This much gives you vitamin B, whatever. I just want to kind of give you some general principles from the Bible and then you can kind of make your decisions. Let me say a few things that, you know, certain people are not able to eat certain foods for various reasons. Some people are born with an allergy and so some things I say maybe cannot even apply it. Okay, so I'm basically giving you kind of the general rules of what the Bible says. And obviously, depending on what your goals are, if you're trying to gain muscle or gain weight, then you're going to eat a little bit differently than if you're trying to lose a little bit. So obviously not all of this is just two plus two equals four, but I'll just show you what the Bible says. Help you kind of get a guideline on what the Bible says about health. But I will say this, the Bible does talk about our health a lot. The Bible does touch on this and it talks about all subjects, okay? Now notice what it says in Philippians 3, verse 18, where the Bible reads this. It says, For many walk with whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mine perfectly things. Now, in verse number 18, it's talking about the enemies of the cross of Christ. It's basically referring to reprobates, people that are wicked people. And I don't think it's specifically a saying whose God is their belly, it's talking about their diet. What I think it's telling you is this, that those people, they do everything to gratify their flesh. So basically whatever their flesh wants, they basically just say, you know what, I'll take that. If they want to commit adultery, they commit adultery. If they want to harm someone, they harm someone. Whatever gratifies their flesh, they do. Their God is their belly. That's an attribute of people that are reprobates. But I do think it's kind of giving us a hint about diet to a degree, because honestly a lot of people, they make their choices on what are they going to eat based on what tastes good, as opposed to what they actually need in their bodies. And see the first point is this, when it comes to a biblical diet of health, you should eat to live. Eat to live, not live to eat. That's a great debate that's out there, should you eat to live or live to eat. It's not a debate if you're a Christian. As Christians, you eat to live. You do what's going to actually help your body. You don't just simply gratify your flesh. Now look, I don't have a perfect diet. I'm not claiming to. When I preach on anything, I'm not perfect on everything I preach on. And look, I'm not saying it's a sin to eat a candy bar. But what I am saying is we should look at our lives and realize, what we put into our body actually really matters. If I eat healthy, then I'm going to have more energy, I'm going to be in better shape, I'm not going to get sicknesses and diseases as much. It doesn't mean you're going to have perfect health. You can still have problems, I've talked about that these last few weeks, but it will have an impact. What you eat does make a difference. It makes a difference whether or not you eat something healthy versus something unhealthy. The Bible gives us guidelines on what is healthy and what isn't healthy. Now let me say this though, what the world considers healthy is oftentimes wrong. With every topic, the Bible comes in direct contrast with what the world says a lot of times. The world is often wrong. 30 years ago in America, the big thing was, eat no fat. If you eat 0% fat in your body, then that's great for you. No, actually that would destroy your body. You need fat in your body. The Bible tells us these things. We're going to see this in the Bible. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 10. Remember, I gave you guys several weeks of warning. I said the biblical health series is coming up, I'm preaching on a diet next week and everything like that. What we put in our bodies actually does make a difference, and it matters to God as well. If He gives us guidelines on things that are healthy for us, then we should try to follow that the best we can. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. See, the way we live our lives, including what we eat and drink, you know what? That matters to God. Do all to the glory of God. It matters how we take care of the temple of the Holy Ghost, which God has given us. Our bodies matter to God. It matters what we put in our bodies, it matters what we eat, it matters what we drink. It matters to God that we actually take care of ourselves. Now turn to Psalm and Solomon 7. Psalm and Solomon chapter 7. Now this is an important sermon in our time period, because quite honestly in the past, they did not really have access to eat as unhealthy as we do today. We have grocery stores that sell all manners of snack foods and junk foods all the time. That is not something they necessarily had a long time ago. It used to be they had to cook a real meal and have real food. Now we can just walk across the street and get candy bars, junk food, chicks, pops, stuff like that. That wasn't as accessible back in the day. And so quite honestly, it can be difficult for us, because it's around us all the time. I'm someone who I try to stay in shape, I try to eat certain diets and stuff like that. And when I used to work at an office, you're trying to eat healthy, and then every week it's a special Friday so they have cake. A special Thursday they have cookies. And it's tough, because you have that sort of food around you all the time, and you really have to be disciplined. But as Christians, it does matter. We are to eat to live. The things we put in our body are meant to help us in our daily lives. We eat to live. We're not supposed to live deep. I'm not saying you can never have, on your birthday, you have a piece of cake or whatever. I'm not saying you can't do that. But it shouldn't be part of just our daily lives where we say, hey, for breakfast, it's for me. For breakfast, it's ice cream. For lunch, it's cake. That's how a child is. My son, he would love to just eat ice cream every meal. He'd love to just drink pop and eat ice cream, one little taste of sugar. He loves it. But honestly, us, as we're older, we know what the Bible says. We know what is healthy and what isn't healthy. We should try to take care of our bodies, and it will have a real impact on us. In Romans 7, verse 2, the Bible reads this. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Here when it talks about thy navel, it says, wanteth not liquor. What the Bible is trying to tell you is this, that if you drink liquor, it's not going to be healthy on your body. You'll get a beer gun, they say. You'll get out of shape. It's not healthy on your body. It says, which wanteth not liquor. The body itself craves what's actually good for it. This is talking about trying to look good for your spouse, and if you drink a lot of alcohol, you're probably not going to look too good to your spouse. You're not going to be in the best shape. It's going to age your skin. It's not going to be good for you. What the Bible says here in Psalm 7, verse 2, thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor. What the Bible says is this, that when you're married, it's your bodies, your spouses, and vice versa. You are to take care of it for your spouse. Now turn to Genesis 1. Since all things should be done to the glory of God, number one is just simply that we are too mean to live. We are to try to take care of our bodies. Our life should not just be about trying to taste that one food and this and that. If it's healthy and it's good for you, it's not a big deal. But if you just want to always eat really unhealthy stuff, look, you're destroying the body. And it will affect you long term. Look, I don't drive here in the Philippines, but in the U.S. I had a car, and if I filled my car with Coca-Cola, it wouldn't run very well. Say why? Because that's not what the car is designed to have. And look, your bodies are like a machine. They're designed to have certain foods. And we might not understand everything about it. Look, I got a math degree. I didn't get whatever degree to understand everything. But our bodies are like a machine, and certain things are helpful and certain things aren't. It matters what we put in our bodies. The Bible talks about it. The second point is this, that when it comes to really a good diet and the perfect diet, the Bible teaches a balanced diet. A balanced diet is what's good for you. Now, as I said, depending on what your goals are, you might be trying to cut out certain foods and things like that. But when you look at the five basic food groups, as they say, fruits, vegetables, bread, dairy, and meat, all of them are good for you. They have different functions, but all of them are good for you. If I'm trying to get really strong with all I eat is fruit, I'm going to be lacking protein. I'm not saying all you do is eat fruit because it's healthy. No, the Bible teaches a balanced diet. Genesis 1, verse 11. Genesis 1, verse 11. The Bible reads this. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb you see, and the fruit you yield the fruit, after its kind of seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb you seed after its kind, and the tree you yield the fruit was in itself after its kind. Notice the end of verse 12. And God saw that it was good. If God has created fruits and vegetables, and He says that He saw that it was good, guess what? Eating fruits and vegetables are healthy for you. It's good for your body. Now, look, I am not a vegetarian. If all you ate was fruits and veggies, you would be in terrible shape. But if you don't eat any fruits and vegetables, you're not going to be in good shape either, okay? They are part of a good diet, okay? Now, let me just read you this quick article on a few diseases known as scurvy, pellagra, and berrier. Who's heard of any of these diseases? Anybody? Some people in this room? It says this. The great voyages of discovery. When seafarers such as Magellan and Cook conquered the world's oceans, brought immense wealth and knowledge to Europe, but they came at a high price. More sailors died of scurvy more than three times as many as soldiers were killed in the American Civil War. A lot of people died. Now, basically when people would go out on ships for months, you couldn't really bring fruits and vegetables for the most part because they would spoil them. They would go bad. But the problem is those things are necessary in order to function. And so basically they could be eating only preserved foods. And they didn't understand what was going on, but people would come back and a lot of them died, and a lot of them had these major skin diseases, and they were in terrible condition. They didn't understand what was going on, and it turned out they eat deep fruits and vegetables. That was actually the secret. It says an estimated two million seamen died of scurvy during those years. Two million people that were on the seas for long periods of time died of scurvy. You say, what causes scurvy? A lack of vitamin C. That's what causes scurvy. You say, does it really matter if I eat fruits and vegetables? Yeah, you know what matters. Because look, meat's very good for you, but most meat doesn't have a lot of vitamin C. Bread's very good for you, but most bread doesn't have a lot of vitamin C. See, fruits and vegetables are necessary because they're certain vitamins, but not only lacking vitamin C could that kill you. That is what's known as scurvy if you lack vitamin C. If you lack vitamin B3, then you can get pellagra. It's a lack of vitamin B3. And then beriberi is caused by a lack of vitamin B1. These are just basic things that they're lacking from their diet, and two million people died because they didn't get enough vitamin C. A glass of orange juice every morning would have fixed that problem. Now, look, I understand that they had to eat preserved foods. They were on the sea. But what I'm trying to tell you is this, that just lacking vitamins can destroy you. And you say, Brother Stuck, I'm not at the point of death, but here's the thing. There's an intermediate stage between dying and having good health. And if you don't have many vitamins, maybe you're not dead, maybe you don't have a crazy disease, but maybe it's affecting your health more than you realize. And I'll be honest with you that the Bible was written a long time ago, and if they fully believed the Bible and saw what Genesis 1 said, then they would kind of understand this. But I want you to understand that the medical world, the science world is never fully accurate. And they go a long time period, but mostly today they've got everything figured out. Isn't that what they tell you? Everything's figured out today. What I believe is, you know what, there might be certain sicknesses and diseases and illnesses people get that's as a result of your diet as well. Because that was going on for a very long period of time, and the world did not know what. They don't have everything figured out. Okay, the medical world, the science world, they don't have everything figured out. And look, I don't want to go too much into this board and just try to show you this, and you know what, fruits and veggies? Yeah, you know what's important for you. You say, well, Brother Stuck, you know, I don't like to eat vegetables. I don't like to eat food. Yeah, but you eat to live as a Christian. You don't live to eat, and you need that for a healthy diet. Turn to Exodus 3, Exodus 3. And so fruits and veggies, they are part of a good diet. That is something that we should incorporate into our diets, because they are the foods that generally have the vitamins that we need. But if all you ate was fruits and vegetables and you were a vegetarian, that wouldn't be very good for you either. Because the Bible teaches eating other stuff as well. It says in Exodus 3, verse 8, And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, onto a good land, and a large, onto a land flowing with milk and honey. Okay, the Bible mentions milk and honey. Milk is extremely high in fat. Honey is extremely high in sugar. Okay, and yet they're both healthy for you. You say, is fat bad for you? It depends on what sort of fat you're eating. If you're drinking milk, you know what? Yeah, actually it's really good for you. And you know what? Honey is very good for you as well. Now, both of those things would have been considered very unhealthy by the world for a long period of time. Because they said any sugar is bad for you. But that's not true. Because fruits and honey are both packed full of sugar, and they're good for you. And milk is packed full of fat, and that's good for you as well. Look at verse number 17. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt onto the land of the Cainites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, onto a land flowing with milk and honey. So milk is a dairy product, and then honey is just, I guess it doesn't really fit under any of the five, but it's a very healthy food for you. Now, another thing to notice is these things are, honey especially is very expensive. So land flowing with milk and honey, and having true milk is actually really hard to get in a lot of countries, like the U.S., you pay a lot of money, a real amount. So it's not only very healthy for them, it's also something that's kind of more expensive and can be hard to actually get. A lot of us probably don't have money to eat a lot of honey. It's very healthy for us, but it is very expensive. But the Bible tells us that it is very, very healthy for us. Turn to Matthew 6, Matthew 6. You say, why is milk healthy for you? Well, I'll tell you what. Me growing up, fruits have always been my favorite food. I always ate a lot of fruits. I stayed in decent shape. I played soccer, and I felt like I was in pretty good shape. But one thing I always had trouble with was I had problems with my teeth. And I didn't really understand why because I flossed, I brushed my teeth. And honestly, I read a book several years ago that was talking about your teeth, and basically they said the most important thing to have in strong teeth is to have dairy. Cheese, butter, milk, that's the most important thing. It's like that's probably why I had cavities. Probably why I had a couple of working hours because I hated milk growing up. I don't like the taste of milk. I eat it because I need to, because it's healthy. I do not like the taste of milk, but I apply the serum. I do not like the taste of milk, but when I drink coffee, I add some milk, and then sometimes I down it quick because it does not taste good to me. I still do not like the taste of milk, but it is good for you. And that is one of the big functions. It will actually strongly help your teeth. It's funny because you look at certain parts of the world where they don't really floss, they don't really brush, but they have really strong, healthy teeth. And it's in areas where a large part of their diet is their dairy. See, the foods we eat, they have a purpose, even if we don't understand that purpose. Because before I read that book, I didn't understand the reason why I had problems with my teeth, but if I was following a diet that the Bible would say better, what the Bible teaches, then it would have helped me out quite a bit. So the dairy product is actually really good for your teeth. That's one big thing. But milk and honey, those things are good, and they're very different than fruits and vegetables. You say, what about bread? Is bread good for you? Matthew 6, verse 11. Give us this day our daily bread. Bread was part of a daily diet. And we'll talk about bread a little more in detail later on in the sermon. I'll talk about it. But look, that's showing you a balanced diet. Fruits, vegetables, and bread products as well. Obviously things like rice and oatmeal would fall into the category of bread. They're very similar. But the Bible mentions, give us this day our daily bread. So yes, we should have that as part of our daily diet. Fruits, vegetables, milk, honey, bread, these are all things that are part of a good diet. Turn to Acts 10. You say, what about meat? What if meat's the true evil and the vegetarians and the vegans are right? Well, the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible actually teaches that meat is actually good for you. And it serves a different function. Meat has a lot of protein in it. It has a very important function. It's very different, though, than the function of fruits and vegetables. It's very different than the function of bread. We'll talk about the function of bread later on here in the sermon. But meat has an important function as well. Notice what it says in Acts 10, verse 9. Acts 10, verse 9. On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh on the city, Judah went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. He became very hungry and would have eaten. But while they made bread, he fell into a trance. And saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending upon to him, as it had been a great sheet and it at the four corners and led down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creamy things, and fowls of the air. If you remember in the Old Testament, there were certain foods that were clean and unclean, and you were not supposed to eat the unclean foods. What's being shown here in Acts 10 is that God has cleansed everything, and you're able to eat any of them. It's not a sin to eat pork. It's not a sin to eat bacon. You're allowed to eat that. Acts 10, verse 13. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. The voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted himself what this vision which he had seen should mean. He doubts about this vision. Here's the answer. You're allowed to eat whatever you want. Any meat. It's not wrong. There's no meat that is wrong for you to eat. That does not mean that all meats are equally healthy. We'll talk about what the Bible gives us guidelines on what sorts of meats would be healthier, but I would say this, that even though we're allowed to eat any meat in today's world, the foods that were condemned, the meats that were condemned, are generally more unhealthy than the ones that were condemned. So it's not a sin to eat bacon. It's not as healthy as eating fish. It's not a sin to eat bacon. It's not as healthy as eating chicken. We see guidelines later on. We'll talk about that in the sermon. But what you see is that meat is part of something that is part of a balanced diet. We should be eating meat in our bodies. People that go on vegetarian diets for a long period of time, they say that it's almost impossible for them to get off that. When they actually try to incorporate meat back into their system, they basically destroy their body and it's going to be very difficult. In fact, I remember somebody that I met, somebody who graduated from House Anderson, and this person, I don't know whether they got in the vegetarian craze or whatever, but they didn't eat meat for a while and they get physically ill every time they eat meat because they make certain choices and it's hard to incorporate it back into your body because your body is used to something. Now, the second thing we saw is a balanced diet, but the third thing to having a good diet is look at how food is portrayed in the body. We saw a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, and bread, but now we're going to see how is food portrayed in the body because there are certain things that are portrayed as being really healthy for you. Quite honestly, I think a lot of times people just kind of look over these verses and they just don't stop to think about it. But when you compile all of these verses together, you see, wow, God's really actually shown me that this is a good diet. He actually gives you a lot of guidelines. Genesis 1, verse 31, about Greece, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. So in Genesis 1, verse 31, everything that he's made is very good. See, when it comes to how food is portrayed in the Bible, natural food is going to be best for you. The more natural, the better it's going to be for you. God is never going to be able to recreate the banana and make it as healthy as the banana. They might make it taste like the banana, but it's not going to be the same thing, though. It's not going to be as healthy for you. See, the way God made it is the way it's supposed to be, and the world is not going to believe that because they believe we're just a bunch of chemicals and we can just make random chemicals. No, our bodies are designed like a machine, and certain food is very healthy for you, and the stuff that God has made is going to be very good for you. It says everything that he made is very good. So if it's made naturally by God, it's going to be good for you. Now, here's the thing. It doesn't mean that if I just eat 20 bananas in one day, that's good for you, because the Bible taught a balanced diet. It doesn't mean that every food is good for every single thing. For example, if you're trying to get more vitamin D in your diet, there's certain foods that have it and certain don't. I'm not saying every food is the exact same because they're different. Like, for example, if you're trying to lose weight, look, bananas are not the best food to eat if you're trying to lose weight. There's other fruits that you can eat. They have different functions, but they're both very healthy foods. So you do have to, to some degree, know what is your goal, what are you planning. But if it's made by God, it's going to be healthy for you. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. So I've got Doritos here, and I've got lazy potatoes here. Now, first off, neither one of these is healthy. I don't want to break your heart, but these are not healthy foods. We can agree on that. One of these foods, though, is a lot healthier than the other. You say, how do you know which is healthier? Well, if you look at the ingredients of laced potato chips, potatoes, vegetable oil, salt, three ingredients. If you look at the ingredients here, there's a lot of ingredients, and a lot of these I cannot pronounce. There's disodium hydrogen phosphate E339II. I don't know what that is. You have caramel color capital E150 lowercase d. You have flavor enhancers disodium 5-nocnate E631. Look, there's a lot of anti-caking agents. I don't even know what that means. I'm not saying I'm an expert at everything, but what I'm saying is this. If you're trying to have an understanding, you go to the store, you say, I've got two foods, and one of them has less ingredients, it's going to be more healthy for you probably. It's more natural. That's what I'm saying. Now, neither one of these is healthy. It's not healthy on your body, but it is healthier than this. What I'm saying is if you go to the grocery store and you want to try to apply this, and you say, I want a candy bar, you can look at those candy bars, and one of them is probably going to have less ingredients than the other. What I want you to understand is, and this is probably possibly the most important part, is just the fact that you try to eat naturally. Eating things that are made by God, not things that are artificially made. Because if it's artificially made, there are going to be a lot of problems that come with that. Turn to Psalms 104. Number one, when you look at how food is portrayed in the Bible, when it's made naturally, that's a good portrayal. It's made by God, God saw everything that He made, and it was good. And so I want you to look at Psalms 104, verse 15. Let's talk about bread. Psalms 104, verse 15, because a lot of people don't think that bread is healthy for you, but notice what it says in verse 15 of Psalms 104. And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. Say, what's a function of bread? It will give you a stronger heart. Look, a lot of people die from heart diseases. A lot of people die from heart attacks. Bread strengthens your heart according to the Bible. That sounds pretty important to me. Look, bread is healthy for you. Now, just only eating bread is not healthy, but not eating any is not going to be healthy as well. Now, I want you to understand a few things. One, we also have another food prop. We have skyflakes. Now, I like the taste of skyflakes. I think they're a really tasty snack. They're very good. This is not the same as eating oatmeal. There's a lot of things that are under the category of bread. It does not mean that they have an equal amount of health. A good phrase to remember is this, the wider the bread, the quicker you're dead. The wider the bread, the quicker you're dead. You say, why do you say that? Because when it's really white, they usually make a lot of added chemicals and things to it, so it lasts for like four months. Look, if your food lasts under counter for four months, and it doesn't go bad, that's not good for you, because food is naturally going to go bad. If the food lasts for a long period of time, it's not going to be good for you. What I want you to understand is certain types of bread are going to be healthier than others. Honestly, if you look at healthy bread, it usually has more protein, more fat, and more dietary fiber than just plain white bread. You can study this more if you want, but what I want you to understand is bread strengthens the heart. I've heard some people say that bread's bad and they changed bread, and there's a lot of truth to that. They've made a lot of changes to bread, and now they have a lot of types that aren't really real. In the past, I think a lot of people had homemade bread that would go, it tastes really good, it would be bad in a couple of days, but it's really good for you. Nowadays, there's a lot of bread you can get at the store, and they're trying to make money, so they basically put a lot of chemicals into it to make it last a really long time. But at the same time, we can still eat some bread sources that are healthier than others. Skyflakes? You say, well, I've got my carbohydrates, this many carbohydrates. For example, what carbohydrates did you put in the body? Because only Skyflakes is probably not going to be that good for you. You can eat something like oatmeal or more wheat bread or something like that. Certain types of bread are going to be healthier than others. Now turn to Proverbs 16. I personally find this topic really interesting. You talk about diets. I can go on a lot of rabbit trails, but if you want to study this out more in your free time, if you're welcome to study it out, and obviously there's a lot of other information to learn, but looking at how food is portrayed in the Bible, it should be natural, and when you look at something like bread, it's portrayed very, very well. Another food that a lot of people used to at least think was very unhealthy for you was honey because they said honey is full of sugar. But notice what it says in Proverbs 16, verse 24. Pleasant words are as in honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. According to the Bible, honey, and specifically here, honeycomb is healthy to your bones. It's good for you. Now we talked about pleasant words being like the words of God. We talked about that last week. God can just be very healthy to you, but honey in and of itself is very healthy for you. Now once again, there's a lot of fake honey that they make. They make a lot of changes, and that's something you can study out and stuff like that, but honey is healthy for you. It's good for you even though it's filled full of sugar. That doesn't mean that eating honey is going to help you lose weight. I don't think that's the main function of it. Different foods have different functions, but it is healthy for you, and it's very good to help prevent sickness and help you to overcome illnesses and things like that. Turn to Isaiah 7. What I'm doing is going over certain things that are kind of controversial because a lot of people think honey is unhealthy. The next thing we're going to look at is butter. According to the Bible, butter is healthy for you. The Bible says here in Isaiah 7, verse 15, butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Butter and honey are referred to as good. They're healthy for you. Now look, I'm not saying if all you ate was a big bowl of butter, that's going to be good for you. I talked about having a balanced diet, but having a little bit of butter on your food, that's not bad for you. You say, why is butter useful? In fact, the thing about tea, it will help knock your cavities. Margarine, on the other hand, that's not naturally made by God. They make a lot of changes. That's not the same as butter, and it also tastes disgusting. But butter is far healthier for you than margarine because it's naturally made. Look, the Bible says butter is good. Now, the world was in this big non-fat craze a long time ago, and they said any amount of butter is bad for you. Well, not if it was Bible. We need what the Bible says, and look, butter has its place in our lives. Now, if we have too much, it's obviously bad for us, but look, if you ate 15 apples a day, it probably is not good for you either. Too much of anything is not going to be good for you. So yeah, it's good to kind of study this out and figure out how much of each food. Look, butter is good for you, Matthew 14, and it tastes good on you, so we should be happy about that. Butter is good for you. So the Bible says butter and honey are good, so the next morning you have a big bowl of butter and honey. Don't let anyone tell you that's a felony, right? And so the next thing I want to look at is fish. Now, what I mentioned was that certain foods are highlighted more than others as being a good thing for you, and when it comes to meat, I don't think there's any question in the Bible that fish is really highlighted as being very good. When you think about how you fed the thousands of people, what did it do? You fed them with fish and loaves of bread. That's what you fed them with. Fish is really good. I mean, even a lot of the great soul owners, that's what they did for a job. They're fishermen. And what do we do going soul-willing? We fish for men. And when you look at how the Bible portrays it, that is giving us some guidelines on it. Fish is extremely helpful. And the secular world would agree with that, that fish is the healthiest food that there is. Notice what it says in Matthew 14, verse 15. And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him saying, This is a desert place, and the time has now passed. Send them all into the way that they may go to the villages and buy themselves big shores. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart, giving them to eat. And they say, I know, we have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And so notice how He feeds them with five loaves and two fishes. He didn't feed them with tea to eat alone. He fed them with bread, and He fed them with fish. The Bible's trying to tell you that these foods are good for you. They're healthy for you. Now turn to Luke 14, Luke 14. When you think about other things in the Bible that are portrayed good, when it comes to bread, doesn't the Bible say that Jesus is the bread of life? That's a pretty good connotation in the Bible. When the Bible says the bread of life, it's giving you some guidelines. When we take communion, you know you have bread and you have grape juice. Look, grape juice is very healthy for you. The Bible talks about drinking of the water of life freely. Look, water, that might be the most important part of your diet. Water, as mentioned, is a very good thing in the Bible. And see, the way God portrays these foods, He's trying to tell you something. Now, He doesn't tell you this has this vitamin A, this has vitamin B, this has vitamin C, this has this many grams of protein, this many grams of fat, saturated fat, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated. I mean, there's so many different things. But it does give you some guidelines. A balanced diet and the things that are naturally made are good for you. And look, you know, a lot of these things I've mentioned, the world has disagreed with quite a bit. In today's world, avocados are considered a superfood. They're considered one of the healthiest foods. But if you went back just 30 years, they said that was really unhealthy. You say, why? Because it's got a lot of fat, so it must be unhealthy. That's what they told you. Well, you know what? It was made by God, don't you? And so we as Christians, we ought to know better than that. And so just because something has fat, that doesn't mean it's bad for you. Now, look at what it says in Luke 14, verse 34. What about salt? By and large, the world will tell you salt is bad for you. Notice the first three words of Luke 14, verse 34. Salt is good. Salt is good. But if the salt had lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? See, God actually made certain things that you could season your food with. He gave us salt as something that we can use that's not unhealthy for us. Salt is not unhealthy. Butter's not unhealthy either. You know, we don't have to man-make our own things and try to replace what God did. No, these things are healthy for you. Salt is good for you. You say, well, brother, suck it. You ate too much salt. Yeah, if you eat too much. Too much if anything's bad. Too much fruit's bad. Too much veggies are bad. Too much lean meat's bad. Look, too much of anything's bad. But salt is not bad for you. And look, if I go out and run for an hour and I'm sweating a lot, I'm losing a few things in my body, and I'm losing a lot of water and I'm also losing salt. Guess what? I need to replenish my body with water and salt. It makes logical sense. Look, if you sweat a lot, you're probably going to need a lot of salt in your diet. Now, yes, you can go overboard. Look, if you eat a tortilla chip and all you see is white on there, then yeah, that's probably a little bit too much salt. You can have too much salt, but you can also have too little salt. You can't have too little butter. You can have too little of these things that they try to tell you are really bad for you. Look, salt is not bad for you. And it's not just here where it says salt is good. The Bible says that we are the salt of the earth. Doesn't that seem like a pretty good representation of salt? It sounds pretty good to me. We're the salt of the earth. You say, when the Bible says here in Colossians 4, 6, you don't have to turn there, but it says, Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt. It's saying the way you speak, seasoned with salt. Look, it's giving you a good connotation of salt. Salt is good for you. Now, the only argument I could hear against salt being good from a Bible perspective is that Lot's wife, what does she get turned into? A pillar of salt. But that is actually not a bad connotation. You say, how is it not a bad connotation? Because what the Bible is trying to tell you is that Lot and his family were supposed to be the salt of the earth in Sodom and Gomorrah. And since they didn't do any soul winning, they weren't the salt of the earth, and she got turned to a pillar of salt to show, hey, you were supposed to go soul winning in that area. You were the salt of that community, and it became some reprobate wicked area. That's not a bad connotation of salt. They were supposed to be the salt of the earth in Sodom and Gomorrah. And she got turned to a pillar of salt to show, hey, you know what, you're supposed to go soul winning there. They were the only people ever saved. They should have been soul winning there, but Lot didn't do that. And so it's kind of a reminder to them. So salt is mentioned as being a good thing throughout the Bible. First Samuel 2, turn to First Samuel 2. And so another thing let's look at is fat. Now fat is not in and of itself bad for you. Some fat's bad for you, some fat's good for you. Avocados are made by God. Look, avocado, that's healthy fat. Milk is mentioned as a good thing, that's good for you. Other dairy products. Butter is basically all fat, but it's not a bad thing for you. It's not a bad source of fat. Too much of it obviously, but it's not a bad source of fat. But the Bible does kind of give us some guidelines on what would be some bad fat. First Samuel 2 verses 27 to 29. And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father when they were in Egypt and Pharaoh's house? And did I choose them out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priests, to offer upon my altar, to burn incense, to wear an e-father before me? And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? Wherefore, kicking out my sacrifices and at mine offering, which I have commanded by habitation, and honours thy sons above me to make yourselves fat with the cheapest of all the offerings of Israel my people? Now if you remember what they were supposed to do was burn the fat and eat the meat. They were eating the fat. And then they ended up eating the fat. That's what was all eating the fat. That's what was taking place. And so basically they weren't supposed to eat the fat off that meat. Look, if you have steak, there's going to be a strip of fat along the outside. Okay? The Bible's trying to show you that you know what? That fat's not good for you. Right. Okay? So we go back to thinking of bacon versus chicken. Well, I mean like half of bacon. It's just that fat. Right? It's full of fat. So yes, meats with less fat are going to be healthier. Why do we know this? Because the Bible's showing you that here in the first hand too. They would burn off the fat. They would eat the meat. And the meat is the good part for you. It's good for you. But when you eat meat that's got a big pile of fat on it, that's not healthy for your body. Right. Okay? That's what we're seeing. So there is guidelines on what kind of meat to eat. Okay? Now look, if all you eat is lean meats though, you might lack some nutrients. For example, I'm not a major red meat eater. I was always more of a chicken person. And if you only eat chicken, you could lack iron in your body. Okay? So you could eat too much lean meat. So sometimes, yes, you need to eat some meat. It's not bad for you. Okay? It's got certain things that chicken's not going to have. But in general, the lower fat meats can be healthy for you. So I personally would not suggest eating no red meats. But I wouldn't suggest eating mainly red meats. Okay? Lean meats would be healthier for you. Okay? Now turn to Jeremiah 6. Jeremiah 6. And so one thing I think we should do, because this is a really, really comprehensive topic in the Bible, and it's a really big part of our lives as well, our health, is that when you're reading the Bible and you come across a verse that says, you know, salt is good, you should stop and think about that. When you're thinking about your diet, what is the Bible trying to teach you? Clearly it's trying to teach you that, you know what, salt's not bad for you. Right? Salt is good. Okay? The Bible does talk about our diet a lot. Okay? It's something that's mentioned quite a bit. I'm only picking out certain verses. Now this could have been a series in and of itself talking about diet, but eventually it's kind of over. Okay? There's a lot in the Bible to preach. The Bible talks about our diet a lot. Okay? And when we're reading the Bible, we should stop and pay attention. Realize, though, that the world is probably going to disagree with some of the things you find out in the Bible. Yeah. The world's not going to agree with everything I said. They're going to tell me, no, salt's bad, butter's bad, this is bad. But you know what? I believe what the Bible says. Amen. Okay? And yes, the Bible teaches a balanced diet, and that's going to prevent you from eating too much of one thing. And look, if you start to have certain health problems with your body, you're noticing some problems. You might find out why is this happening on Google or whatever. It might tell you, hey, you need more vitamin A. And change your diet a little bit. Start eating some carrots that have vitamin A. Start eating more vitamin A if you need to make changes. Okay? But by and large, if you're following a balanced diet, you're going to be in pretty good shape. Okay? Now, turn to Jeremiah 6, verse 20. Jeremiah 6, verse 20. And let's talk about sugar for a second. Okay? Is sugar good for your back? Now, for one, honey's good for you. There's no question in the Bible. Fruit is good for you. And they're packed full of sugar. Okay? But sugar in and of itself is not really mentioned as a good thing in the Bible. Notice what it says here in Jeremiah 6, verse 20. To what purpose cometh there to be incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifice is sweet on you. It talks about the sweet cane from a far country. What the Bible's basically showing you is this, that sugar was not really accessible, that you can just walk across the street and drink it quickly cold, back in the day. It was from a far country. Okay? So what the Bible's showing you is, it's not that sugar is a sin, but it's a luxury. Right. See, during the Bible days, you know, you really probably have to have a lot of money to, you know, have a lot of stuff with sugar. Nowadays, it's pretty easy to get. Okay? But in the Bible, it's not that sugar's wrong, it's not a sin to have a slice of cake, it's not a sin to have a bowl of ice cream, but it's a luxury in the Bible. It's something you see as people that have money, something from a far country. It's not something where you just, throughout your house, just have tons of sugar, and just every meal, you know, you're eating dessert. It's something that's more of a luxury in the Bible. So it's not that it's wrong, but look, if it's something that's very normal to you as part of your diet, it's not going to be good. Look, it's not wrong on their birthday to eat a slice of cake, but you shouldn't eat a slice of cake every day. Now, it's up to you to make the decisions that you want, but if you eat tons and tons of dessert, it's not going to be good for you. Now, the secular world would agree with that. They'd agree that sugar is not good for you, but in the Bible, we're seeing it's a luxury. It's not like bread, or, you know, since they are daily bread. Okay? It's something that's more of a luxury from time to time. Now, turn to Judges 4. And look, I don't have a perfect diet, but honestly, a lot of the stuff I need to apply to myself as well, because it's tough in today's world. Because with grocery stores and everything around, and you go to the office, they always have cookies, they have cakes. It is tough. It's tough to resist the food that's unhealthy. By and large, 90% of food, you would probably all agree on it. By name of the food, you'd say unhealthy. You'd all agree. By and large, you already know the foods that are healthy for you. By and large, you already know the foods that are healthy for you and are unhealthy. I'm giving you a few guidelines, but look, we already know what's good for us and what's not good for us. But it's something that we ought to strive to do. Ought to strive to try to eat healthy. Otherwise, it can be very destructive to our body. Judges 4, verse 18 through 21, let's talk about health care for a second. Judges 4, verse 18. And he said unto her, give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, crying thirsty. So in verse 19, it says, give me a little water. I'm thirsty. I want water. I need water. Okay? And she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him. So notice how it says she opened a bottle of milk. Did she give him water? She didn't give him water. You say, why didn't she give him water? Because obviously, milk would be more expensive than water. Milk is more of a commodity. Why would she give him milk instead of water? Okay? Now, you have to understand these people are enemies. They're not friends with one another. Okay? Cicero's the bad guy in this story. And Joe's the good person in this story. Okay? And notice what it says in verse 20. Again he said unto her, stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, is there any in here, that thou shalt say no. Then in jail, Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly on to him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fasted it into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary, so he died. It says she's fast asleep. Say, what does the Bible teach us? What are you talking about? The Bible's showing you milk makes you tired. Now, the secular world agrees with that, but look, if you studied that, Judge, before you would have known that thousands of years ago. Yeah. He wants water. She gives him milk. Why does she give him milk? She wants him to be fast asleep so she can kill him. Okay? She gives him milk, because milk makes you tired. Look, what do you give a baby at night to get them to go to sleep? You give him milk. Why? Milk makes you tired. That's what the Bible's showing you. That's what you see in Judges Chapter 4. He wants water. She gives him milk. Why? She's trying to make him fall fast asleep so she can kill him. That's what she does. She asks for water. She gives him bottled milk. Look, the Bible talks about food quite a bit, but sometimes when we're reading the Bible, Proverbs 13, Proverbs 13, sometimes when we're reading the Bible, what we really need to do is slow down a little bit and really think about what we're reading, because if you're just quickly reading it over it, you won't even really notice that, oh, he asked for water, and she gave him milk. Okay? And you say, what is the Bible trying to teach us? That's what it's trying to teach you, though, in Judges Chapter 4. Milk makes you tired. Okay? What's interesting about that is that she was fully aware that milk makes you tired. Right? She's trying to get him to fall asleep. Now, we can look back at the Bible and we know that. She already knew milk makes you tired. You know what's sad is that in today's world and the world of technology, people are less knowledgeable about things than they were back in the day. We try to act like thousands of years ago they were like walking cavemen. They were just really bobo. They didn't know anything. They're idiots, blah, blah, blah. They didn't know anything about health. No, actually, they know more than we do today, because the problem is we rely so much on doctors in the medical world that we don't even think for ourselves. And honestly, you know, it used to be that these things would be passed down. What I'm teaching in the sermon was probably just a father passing down his knowledge to their son. Like, look, son, if you drink this water, it's going to make you tired. That's something they probably just used to pass down to their kids. She's obviously aware of that, because she gives him milk to make him tired. Why? Because this was something that people used to be more knowledgeable. They used to pass down knowledge that they had. Look, you know, you can go to areas and then they'll say, hey, if you eat this sermon, leave. It will cure this. Right? And the world always mocks them. They're like, well, they're just dumb people. They don't live in Europe or the US. They're morons. That's what they always say. Right? It's like, no, maybe they actually are more knowledgeable than you. Yeah. OK? But the problem's 13, verse 25. And the last thing I want to mention here in this sermon. So we talked about we should eat to live. We talked about the importance of a balanced diet. We talked about looking closely at how foods were trading. The Bible, which I only went through some of the verses. You know, in your free time, stop and look at those verses. You can get a better idea. But the last thing, the Bible tells us to not eat too much. It says in Proverbs 13, verse 25, the righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall want. See, the Bible says eat to the satisfying of your soul. Basically, don't overeat. It says the belly of the wicked shall want. OK? We all know where we reach the point where we're full. OK? And sometimes, you know, we say, well, that tastes really good. I'm going to have extra. When you're full, your body's telling you you don't need more food. Right. OK? Now, look, this is what would happen if tonight. Let's say tonight, you know, I eat dinner, and I'm full. But I just say, you know what? I'm going to eat extra food. OK? And I eat extra food. What is going to happen is I'm going to sleep longer and be lethargic the next day. OK? Now, I don't know about you, but for me personally, I notice a huge difference when I'm eating healthy personae. If I eat junk food and a bunch of sugar, the next day, I sleep a lot longer, and I don't feel great. Right. I feel very lethargic. I feel tired throughout the day. You say, why? Because the food that you put into your body is going to affect how you feel. OK? The Bible's giving us guidelines. And look, if we just eat really unhealthy, you'll feel the side effects. Say, brother, second man, every single day, I have a massive headache. There might be a reason why. It might not be random. OK? Now, look, I understand you can have genetic conditions. You can have problems. And all of us, you know, you might have to be on a gluten-free diet or whatever. I understand you can be in these situations. But look, we really ought to think about this and say it might not be random. I might need you to make some adjustments. And what I'm doing, it'll make a difference. When it comes to people that oftentimes have headaches, the number one thing I would say is drink more water. Right. Because usually, that's what the problem is. Or they drink too much caffeine. Because if you drink a lot of caffeine, as you go off it, your body wants it. OK? And so it's really hard to get off caffeine. And you'll start to get headaches because you're not drinking caffeine. So caffeine gives it a headache. And then it kind of forces you to stay on it or to get a headache when you get off it. OK? But look, you know, that's just kind of an easy example to think about, which is like if you're having health problems, like if you're having a headache all the time, you might be able to make some adjustment in what you're eating and what you're living your lifestyle might make a difference. If you have a certain ache you're getting in your body or whatever, then look, you might want to try to adjust them. OK? In my life, just giving you an example from a week and a half ago, when it was about six or seven years ago, I had surgery on my knee. I tore my ACL. OK? And every once in a while, I'll get a shooting pain in my left knee. And it's very normal when you have a torn ACL. I tore my ACL in my meniscus. It's very big for surgery. And you know, I had that surgery. And every once in a while, I'll feel like a sharp pain. It feels like a knife going in. It kind of just happens every once in a while. And like a week and a half ago, I was reading online because I had the worst pain I've ever had. I kind of sat there for like 40 seconds. And it's kind of random. You know, I'm just kind of going about my day. It's just kind of random. It'll pop up. It's like the same pain from when I had the surgery, like afterwards when the medication wore off. And I felt all the pain. But then I read online that more often than not, we'll develop arthritis if you end up having ACL surgery very often. And so for me, obviously, I don't want to have arthritis. I'm not that old. They say within 10 years, you can develop arthritis. And so you know what I did? I kind of went on Google. And I said, what foods, what vitamins, what minerals will help prevent arthritis? And I looked at it. And I said, you know what? I want to make a change in terms of if I can. So look, if you have a problem in your body, you might want to try to make some adjustment. Because you don't want to have problems your entire life. Now, it might be possible that you're not able to make that adjustment. It is possible, though, that just adjusting how you eat or how you live your lifestyle could make the difference. Now, turn to Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. And look, I understand that everyone will always bring up, well, I know somebody who smoked like two packs of cigarettes every day. And they ate bacon five slices every day for breakfast. And they lived to be 90 years old. The reason why you know that story is because it's so rare that they make a big deal to highlight it. That's an exception to the rule. That's not the common situation. Yes, there's going to be exceptions sometimes. Yes, somebody could be eating healthy, working out, and die of a heart attack. Yes, that can happen. I've talked about this during this series. I'm not saying this is 100% two plus two equals four. If you do what the Bible says, you'll never have any health problems. No, because characters in the Bible have health problems sometimes. But to say that it doesn't matter at all, that would be very foolish to talk about. Proverbs 25, verse 16, the Bible reads, has thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomit it. See, what the Bible says is this, that if you eat too much, you're going to get to the point where you're going to vomit. Eat what's sufficient for you. Basically, eat until you're full and going over to eat. Look, I remember when I was a kid growing up, and in America, Pizza Hut was the best, biggest pizza place. And I remember just going to the buffet at lunchtime. And as a kid, you're just seeing, how many pieces can I eat? You're trying to set a record or whatever, 20 pieces or whatever. Look, it's not good for you. And when you eat too much like that, you start to feel really sick. And you feel lethargic. You feel like you have no energy. Look, what we eat and how much of it that we eat, it matters. Now look, it depends on what you're trying to do in life, though. If you're trying to build muscle, let's say, for example, you lift, unless you're trying to work out, your diet's going to be a little bit different than if you're trying to trim down. It does depend on what goals that you have, but we should try to follow what the Bible says. And honestly, most people that I've heard, I've never really heard people preach about this, to be honest. It's like they don't think the Bible talks about this stuff. Everything I said was straight from the Bible. I really didn't go off what the Bible said because I have a lot of opinions about this. I'm just talking about what the Bible says. We get to make our decision, but the Bible talks about all areas of our life. It doesn't matter what the topic is. We should believe that the Bible has the answer. Let's go to the Lord's Prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you to help us to buy the sermon.