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Chapter that I want to focus in on is starting in verse number 15, where the Bible reads there in 1 Corinthians 6, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit. You know, Jesus said something similar when he said unto the Pharisees, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And the Bible says he spake of the temple of his body. So Jesus referred to his body as a temple and he says to us that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us and that we are not our own but that we have been bought with a price and that we should therefore glorify God in our body and in our spirit which are God's. So both our body and our spirit belong to God and we should honor God with our spirit, yes, but we should also honor God with our body and not to defile the temple of the Holy Spirit which is what our body is. This body is not something that we own and can trash in any way that we see fit. Rather, we should treat it like it belongs to the Lord, okay? It's sort of like when you rent a car. You don't rent a car and just put a bunch of bumper stickers on it and just start trashing it and messing it up and being really rough with it because you know that it doesn't really belong to you, okay? And you're going to have to return it and give an account for how you treated it when you turn it back into enterprise or whoever. So we should treat our bodies as if they belong to God, not unto ourselves. My body, my choice isn't really going to cut it because the Bible says it's the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us. Now one of the things, first of all, that would defile the body, I'm going to give you several things tonight, but number one, the thing that the Bible talks about that would defile our body as the temple of the Holy Ghost is fornication. That's what this passage mentions right away. Now it says in verse 18, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body or outside of the body, it's saying. But he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his own body, the Bible says. It says in verse 15, know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. So the Bible's teaching us not to defile our bodies by engaging in fornication. The Bible says, look, I'm not going to take the body that belongs to Christ, I'm not going to take them the members of Christ here and make it the members of a harlot because two saith he shall be one flesh. And we don't want to defile the temple of the Holy Ghost by committing fornication. Now one of the many verses we could go to, we could go to all kinds of verses in the New Testament about fornication. But one that I would point out is Revelation 17 verse 4. And if you want, turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. You flip over to 2 Corinthians 7. But in Revelation 17, 4, when it talks about the great whore, it says, And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations, watch this, and filthiness of her fornication. Notice that phrase, filthiness of her fornication. The Bible refers to fornication as filthiness. It refers to it as uncleanness. It refers to it as abomination. It's a sin and it's something that we should abstain from and we should have some respect for our bodies. You say, well, why would committing fornication be a sin against your own body? Well, because of the fact that going out and committing a bunch of fornication is harmful to your health. And you say, well, how is it harmful to my health? Look at all the disease that's out there. And it's always been out there. There's nothing new under the sun. The Bible talks about people being diseased as a result of their sin. And I'm telling you, today the level of STDs in America has skyrocketed as we've thrown out Christian morality, as we've thrown out the idea of remaining pure and abstinent until you get married, STDs abound. And today in certain areas, you know, one fourth of the population has an STD in a lot of urban areas and just the statistics are through the roof. Also because of the fact that our land has become filled with sodomites, this has caused the disease to spread at a rate that is just rampant, OK? Because a lot of these sodomites go both ways and spread it to the straight population. You know, when you go out to some bar or some nightclub or hook up with whoever off the internet, you know, there's a pretty good chance that that person could be someone who's a sodomite or they've been with a sodomite or whatever and you could pick up all manner of disgusting diseases and I'm telling you, there are people out there who are spreading these diseases like wildfire. And if you think it's far-fetched for you to go out and get a disease, if you're living a fornicating lifestyle, you're wrong. And you know what? The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. Therefore a saved person who goes out and commits a grievous sin like fornication is more likely to be punished than an unsaved person. Because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. See a lot of unsaved people can go out and sin and get away with it but when we're saved, we know God will judge his people. God will judge his children and punish his children as a loving father will punish their children and so we don't want to commit this grievous sin of fornication. It's morally wrong. It is spiritually filthy and it also is physically unsanitary and harmful to your health. And so we need to flee fornication. We need to run away from it and not get involved in it. That's the number one way that we should not defile the body. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Notice he differentiates between filthiness of the flesh and filthiness of the spirit. They both need to be avoided. He says, cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Here's another famous verse about our bodies. The Bible says in Romans 12, 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Listen, you're going out and fornicating and being a whoremonger or a whore, that's not a body that's holy and acceptable unto the Lord. When you're going out and taking the members of Christ and making them members with a harlot or when you as a woman go out and commit fornication before you're married, you know, you're defiling the temple of the Holy Ghost. You're bringing the Holy Ghost along for that physical debauchery. That's what the Bible is saying. But number two, go to Leviticus 19. Remember we're not our own, we're bought with a price. We need to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's, we need to present our body, a living sacrifice unto God, holy and acceptable. Number one, we do that by abstaining from fornication. But number two, we need to stay away from tattoos and other mutilations of our body. The Bible says in Leviticus 19 27, you shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor, watch this, nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Verse 29, do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness. So he's listing off here in Leviticus 19 some ways that people would defile their body. Now of course some people just want to throw out the teachings of Leviticus, but let's not forget that this very chapter, Leviticus 19, contains the second greatest commandment in the law, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That's right in this chapter. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. There's nothing in the New Testament that says, hey, there's been a change, now God likes tattoos. If he said in the Old Testament, don't print any marks upon your body, then we shouldn't be printing any marks upon our body in the New Testament. There's no change in the New Testament where he said, hey, I've changed my mind. Now it's okay. Cuttings in the flesh, tattoos upon the body, these are permanent mutilations to your body. Now look, you say, well pastor's mad at me because I have tattoos. Look, if you've had tattoos in the past, there's nothing you can do to change them, and this is a big reason why you shouldn't get a tattoo. And if you talk to the people who have tattoos, they would get rid of them if they could, but you can't. So this isn't to try to rip on people who have tattoos, because you know what, there are a lot of godly Christians who have tattoos, they got them in the past, and they're permanent. They got them before they were saved, or they got them after they were saved, but they just weren't as strong in the Lord, maybe they didn't know this scripture. And so this is nothing to judge people, to look at people and judge them that they're a weak Christian. You know, it's not for that at all. You know what it's for? It's to warn people who haven't gotten the tattoo yet. It's not to make people feel bad who already got one, because there's nothing they can do to get rid of it. And if they could push a button and get rid of it, if they could spend money and get rid of it, they would. Because you say, oh, tattoo removal. Yeah, it sounds great, go look into it. It's not that easy. Talk to people who've tried it. It's extremely painful, expensive, and doesn't really fully get rid of it. You know, I mean, there's varying levels of success. It obviously depends upon the person and what kind of skin they have and what kind of tattoo they have, but it's not just that easy of just, oh, walk into the tattoo removal and just get it raised. Listen, if you get a tattoo, just plan on having it for the rest of your life, because you're going to. And here's the thing, I look at it this way. Tattoos on your body is sort of like bumper stickers on a car. It doesn't make the car look like a nicer, fancier car when you put bumper stickers on it. I mean, think about it. If you put a bunch of bumper stickers on a car, that doesn't really make it a nicer car, does it? Doesn't really add to the value or make it look cooler. And you know, some people go real overboard with bumper stickers. Some people go real overboard with tattoos. It's kind of similar. And I'm not ripping on you. There's no prohibition in the Bible against bumper stickers, okay? Go ahead and put all the bumper stickers you want on your car, because it's just a car. But don't do that to your body, okay? And the Bible says right here, thou shalt not print any marks upon thee. Case closed. And people say, well, I'm not sure what God thinks about tattoos. Well, this is, to my knowledge, I think this is the only mention of tattoos in the Bible. And it's telling you not to do it. Case closed. Okay. But then he also talks about cuttings in your flesh for the dead. He also talks about, you know, rounding the corners of your heads and marring the corners of your beard. Now, some people will twist this scripture and try to say that this is telling you you can never trim your beard. That's ridiculous. You should, you know, keep yourself neat and tidy. Now, some people go clean shaven. I don't believe that there's anything wrong with being clean shaven. I don't believe there's anything wrong with having a beard. Some people have a longer beard, a shorter beard, whatever. But I think when the Bible says, here's the thing. The word mar, if you look at the word mar, that has to do with damaging something. When something is marred, it's like there's a chunk taken out of it. It's been gouged or damaged, okay? So this is basically talking about, in my opinion, carving strange shapes into your beard or into your haircut. You know, instead of going with a natural look of your hair and a natural look of a beard, you know, carving out these real creative, weird shapes where it looks marred. You know, it's messed up, okay? There's something wrong with it. I believe that that's what he's saying here. And you see people who do these kind of just crazy hairdos. And you know, it kind of all goes in the same genre of, let's say, shaving your hair into a mohawk, for example, okay? Or then, you know, making the gauges in your ears where you have the big giant earlobes hanging down or the big disc in your lower lip or, you know, just all the different piercings. And here's the thing. You know, the Bible does speak positively about earrings in a woman's ear as being something that's normal. And you know, my wife doesn't have her ears pierced. I'm not really into piercing my daughter's ears. But I don't think there's anything wrong with it because biblically there is a positive mention of earrings on women. But I will say this. Some of the piercings that we're seeing now are more like a cutting in your flesh and just a mutilation than just a normal piercing your ears. You know, piercing your ears is one thing. But what I'm seeing now is like where somebody will just have like a metal rod like in the back of their neck. Who knows what I'm talking about? What do they call that thing? Does anybody know what it's called? It's like the official name of like these just metal rods that are just like a post or I don't know what they call it. But like, you know, putting a hole in your tongue and putting a metal rod through it or like just putting a rod through random parts of like your lower back, your neck. I mean, I've seen people have just a big chunk of metal in the back of their neck. And it looked inflamed. Like you could tell the skin around it wasn't happy. It was like, what is this? What is this, you know, on the back of my neck? And then also, you know, I one time literally saw a guy who instead of a Mohawk, he had these metal spikes but they literally screwed into his head. Like the sockets were installed in his head and he could, you know, change them out for different occasions, different spikes because they could screw in and out. Okay, so these type of mutilations are the things that God is saying. You know, you're defiling your body. Don't permanently disfigure yourself in any way, shape, or form. Don't burn yourself, cut yourself, tattoo yourself, mutilate yourself. You know, look like a normal person the way that God made you. Okay, and we're living in a day where these body modifications and body culture is becoming more and more popular as we get more away from the Word of God and Christian culture. We get into heathen culture of mutilating. And everybody wants to just look different or stand out. You know, why don't you stand out like the Bible says by your good works? Why don't you let that light shine? And if you want to get attention so bad, why don't you get some attention by being a great person for God that does great exploits for God and your adorning will be not the outward adorning of the way that you do your hair and the clothes you put on but that outward adorning of good works, the Bible says. That's what's of great price. And so this whole mutilation thing, so number one, fornication. Number two, tattoos and other mutilations. But number three would be slothfulness. Now go to Proverbs chapter 19. You say, well why would slothfulness defile my body? Well, because it's unhealthy. Because you're not treating your body in a healthy way. You see, God wants us to be healthy. Here's a verse from the Bible. Third John, verse two, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth. So basically in Third John, the letter is being written to a man named Gaius. And John says to Gaius, basically it's great that you're prospering spiritually, but I also want you to be in health even as thy soul prospereth. So God does desire for us to be healthy. Why? Well, if you had somebody working for you, wouldn't you want them to be healthy? If you had an employee or worker? Well guess what? We've been bought with a price and we are the servants of the Lord and God wants us to take care of the body that he owns and that we would not defile the body. And one of the ways that we defile our body is by being slothful or idle. Now the Bible says, where did I have you turn? Go to Proverbs 19. Proverbs 19. Here's one of the things that slothfulness does to you. And slothfulness is kind of an archaic word. Our modern word would be what? Laziness. We say laziness. The Bible calls this being a sluggard or being slothful, which comes from the names of two animals. A slug. What is a slug like? It's like this little blob of an animal. Basically it's a snail with no shell. In fact in German it's called a naked snail, nachsnecke. That's how you say it in German. So basically it's just this blob of an animal that moves very slowly. It's as slow as a snail. It basically is a snail with no shell. So that's the slug where we get the word sluggard in the Bible. And then slothful comes from the sloth, which is an animal that lives up in the trees and doesn't move around very much or very fast. So we have these two animals as an illustration of this. But look what the Bible says in Proverbs 19. Slothfulness, or laziness is what we would say today, slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Now there are a couple of things that we get from this scripture. First of all we see that people who are lazy lack energy. See the Bible says slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep. Ironically not working makes you more tired. Because you'd think, oh man if I went out and did a bunch of physical activity I'm going to get tired. But actually it's the opposite. If you go out and do physical activity you end up with more energy than the person who sits around slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep. They get tired and drowsy from sitting around and doing nothing. You know I remember when I used to work in the fire alarm business it was a lot easier to work all night if I were actually pulling wire and installing electrical. But driving all night was hard. Why? Because you're idle. You're kind of just you know getting really tired because you're just sitting there and the kind of the vibration gently lulls you to sleep. Because you're idle. You're not really doing anything. And so it's bad for your body to be sedentary, to be idle, to be slothful and it actually makes you have no energy because it's a vicious cycle of being lazy then you get no energy and then you get lazier and then you sit around even more and it gets worse and worse. And then notice what it says also, an idle soul shall suffer hunger. You know people who sit around and are inactive also have a greater appetite. And this is also ironic because you'd think oh yeah you go out and and use a lot of calories you're going to be really hungry to refuel. But actually it's people who sit around doing nothing that get the hungriest. And again back to the illustration of my job. You know when I would sit in the car driving you want a snack while you drive. You're bored, there's nothing else to do, you're chowing down, you know you're driving, you're stopping and picking up a Ben and Jerry's tub, that's what I would pick up, get one of those Ben and Jerry's tubs, the what was the one that I'd get, the chocolate peanut butter cup, whatever, I forget what it was called, or the Haagen-Dazs chocolate peanut butter. I'd kill one of those things like it was nothing on a drive. You know or I'd get those Haagen-Dazs bars with the almonds on, I'd get four of them. Yes I did. And you know because you're just you're driving down the road and it's just one after another after another you know. And so this has become the American culture today of being real sedentary, idle, slothful, and then that leads to gluttony also which is a later point in the sermon. Look at Proverbs 24 verse 5, Proverbs 24 verse 5. The Bible says, a wise man is strong, yea a man of knowledge increaseth strength. So according to the Bible, strength in a man is a virtue, being strong not being weak okay. Now obviously the verse that pops into everybody's mind when you preach about stuff like this is they'll say you know hey exercise thyself rather unto godliness for bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. And of course this is the life verse of many people that are way out of shape you know. They say hey bodily exercise profiteth little amen. You know just like every wino's favorite Bible story you know is when Jesus turned the water into wine or you know hey use a little wine for your stomach's sake. You know basically these are the type of verse that people latch onto and you know what that is true that we should exercise ourself rather unto godliness. Godliness is far more important than bodily exercise. Bodily exercise profiteth little, godliness is profitable unto all things. But we don't want to take that and just trash and neglect our body well you know bodily exercise profiteth little you know plop down and lay around and do nothing. No because of the fact that the people in the Bible lived lives that were completely different than the life we live with all the technology that makes us sedentary. See the reason the Bible is not telling you hey you need to get out and do some exercise is because here's what the Bible says go work and back then their work was strenuous. So when the Bible's telling you to go out and work hard that's your fitness program. You know when you're on a farm when you're dealing with cattle when you're living in those days they worked hard. Now if we look at the people in the Bible because even though there aren't a bunch of verses telling you hey you need to exercise but look at the lifestyles that the people in the Bible lived. First of all let's look at Jesus and his disciples. Okay Jesus Christ the pattern man he went everywhere on foot. That alone is great exercise. You never see him riding a horse except one time when he rides into Jerusalem on the triumphal entry he rides upon a colt the full of an ass. Okay that's where you see him on an animal but the whole rest of his ministry what's he doing? Walking walking around to all the villages and then whenever he's going to go pray where does he go to pray? He goes up into a mountain to pray. See even just the act of walking from village to village walking up a mountain to pray these are all things that are going to keep you physically fit. I guarantee you the disciples were in great shape just by walking through the villages every single day they're walking over here walking over here going up the mountain. See walking is actually a great exercise it's actually very good for you it's a full body type exercise too especially if you're carrying stuff then and I'm sure that they carried a few basic things and so therefore they were getting plenty of exercise through doing that. We look at the man of the Old Testament you know we look at first of all Elijah was a man who you know he ran like 20 some miles and outran a chariot you know and we see other prophets in the Bible going on major hikes of hundreds of miles we see them walking running getting all kinds of exercise. Elisha when he was first found by Elijah the prophet was plowing with oxen he was in the yoke with an ox pulling a plow like an animal so he was obviously a very strong man Jacob when we see Jacob show up at the home of his future wife and he goes to the well there was a great stone on the well and they said we have to wait until all the shepherds get here because then we'll be able to lift the stone off the well and he said you know basically hey baby I got this and he just here you know let me just do this real quick he walked up and lifted the stone off the well single-handedly and that's the one that preachers will call the mama's boy Jacob you know Esau was the tough guy and Jacob was the mama's boy yeah such a mama's boy that he lifts the stone off the well's mouth by himself that usually took a whole bunch of guys to lift and not only that but later he's wrestling with the angel all night I mean try wrestling for a while and you'll see how strenuous an activity that is see the men in the Bible worked physical jobs you know carpenters fishermen I mean they're fishing with nets so they're hauling in these great nets they didn't have to go hit the gym when they're hauling in a great net of fishes they're gonna be really strong just from doing that physical work of farming fishing whatever so we have to understand that although we have to be careful that this doesn't just become a god to us and that this doesn't become idolatry where it replaces godliness and where we just get so into body building and you know making our bodies perfect and we're staring at ourselves in the mirror and whatever you know obviously it can go to sinful extremes and that's why God warns and says hey exercise yourself rather unto godliness make that the priority but at the same time let's not go to the other extreme and just completely neglect the body and become a physical weakling because the Bible never teaches that being weak is a virtue the Bible tells us to be strong and the Bible says here a wise man is strong and a man of understanding increase its strength and the Bible gives us the example of all the men of God in the Bible and all the prophets where constantly he's telling us about them performing great feats of strength or great feats of endurance and we see them walking running climbing lifting great objects and so we need to make sure that if we have a sedentary job that we get out there and get some exercise you know a great place to start too is going out soul winning I mean at least that's getting you some exercise when you go to soul winning go to the apartment complex soul winning and go up those stairs I mean there's your stair master right there you know you're going up and down the stairs soul winning at least you're walking a few miles in the course of going soul winning that's good for you also if you work a physical job you're going to be healthier than somebody who's working a sedentary job but those who work a sedentary job can make up for that by getting some exercise in their life and I recommend if you have an office type job a computer based job getting out and getting some exercise or honestly your temple is going to go to pot because our bodies are not designed to just sit in front of a computer all day and look there's nothing wrong with having a job like that but if you have a job like that make sure that your hobbies aren't sitting around hobbies you need to get some hobbies that get you outside walking running swimming bicycling whatever it is that you do but you need to take care of your body because our nation today has become very unhealthy very out of shape sedentary slothful gluttonous and therefore disease abounds and people have all kinds of heart disease type 2 diabetes a lot of this stuff is preventable by your lifestyle but people are just trashing their body with junk food not getting any exercise and they're just quoting bodily exercise prophet of the little all day long as their memory verse you know there's more to the bible than that you know read the whole bible and get a complete picture of what a biblical man looks like he's strong he's a worker he's laboring by the sweat of his face and so we need to make sure that we get some physical activities in our lives so that we don't become a slug okay now you say well what about you know as women well in the bible in proverbs 31 when it describes the virtuous woman the ideal woman in proverbs 31 what does it say she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms it talks about how she seeketh woolen flax and worketh willingly with her hands now look it talks about her going out and planning a vineyard working with her hands girding her loins with strength strengthening her arms see throughout history women have not been sedentary either you know why they didn't have a dishwasher they didn't they were the dishwasher they didn't have a washing machine they were the washing machine i mean they had the washboard i mean that's exercise right so when the bible says of the proverbs 31 woman she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms this isn't saying she's at the gym looking into a mirror you know doing bicep curls what's it saying i mean she's strengthening her arms you know washing the laundry making the clothes carrying water i mean they'd have to go down to the river get buckets of water but today we have all these wonderful machines that make our lives easier the washing machine the dryer we've got you know so you don't have to hang laundry or anything you got the dryer you got the washing machine you got the dishwasher you got the car to take you anywhere you got indoor plumbing but these things also have a negative side of making you slothful to where you sit around and get lazy and idle and then you get more idle and you get more lazy and so this is something that women need to make sure that they take care of too that they get out there and physically move around and get some activity get some exercise to not defile the temple of the holy ghost through slothfulness through sluggardness and idleness and which leads to the next point which is gluttony are you still there in proverbs go to proverbs chapter 23 the bible says in proverbs 23 verse 20 be not among wine bibbers among riotous eaters of flesh for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags so right here we see god warning about drunkenness but he also warns about gluttony he warns about the wine bibber but then he also warns about riotous eaters of flesh what does it mean riotous eaters of flesh it's saying people who are just gorging themselves indiscriminately with food what else could it be riotous eaters of flesh just chow down with no thought of the quantity or the quality of what you're eating now today in churches you usually don't really hear preaching about riotous eating of flesh or gluttony just because you know you don't want to offend people and i don't want to offend people but honestly it's important that we all stop and think about this i don't preach about this stuff very often because it's not a major emphasis in the bible but it is there and so it does need to be preached and god does warn about riotous eating of flesh and he does warn about gluttony go to ecclesiastes chapter 10 ecclesiastes chapter 10 and really the message tonight is simple that is to understand that our body is the temple of the holy ghost we're not our own we're bought with the price we need to glorify god in our body and in our spirits which are god we need to take care of the body don't defile it with fornication don't defile it by damaging it mutilating it tattooing it doing all these uh uh permanent modifications to our bodies uh we need to also make sure that we don't become sluggish and lazy and tired so then when god wants us to work for him we can't do the work you try to preach a sermon you get out of breath listen preaching is a cardiovascular workout when i do it you know because you know my hands are moving around i mean it's like an aerobics workout up here you know i'm waving my hands around i'm yelling and you know but you know it's cardio you got to be in shape you know to be able to get up and yell for an hour and preach loud but you know what when you go out soul winning that takes some some strength that takes some endurance you know if you can't even walk down the street you can't even walk a few miles to go soul winning that's going to slow you down in your service for god and you know what that's not what god wants out of us he wants us to render him a living sacrifice of our body that's ready to serve that's ready to work and not to just abuse our bodies by just putting whatever trash food in our body no thought for the health value of what we're eating and then be sedentary and lazy and slothful and just let our body go to pot and then we can't serve him because of poor health and by the way the body the soul and the spirit are all connected the bible says a merry heart doeth good like medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones so we see that the body the soul and the spirit are connected and so if you are physically unhealthy that will affect your spirit and that will affect your soul and having a bad spirit will affect your health people will even tell you one of the worst things you can do if you're ill or have cancer or other diseases is to have stress in your life because they say hey stress is going to make it worse because our mentality and our spirit is tied in with our health and so sometimes people will become depressed and have heaviness in their spirit and have mental problems because they're not eating right and taking care of their body literally look what the bible says in in ecclesiastes 10 16 woe to thee oh land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning blessed art thou oh land when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness why should we eat for strength not for drunkenness by much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through and the building being described there is the temple of our body he says by much slothfulness the building meaning our body this tabernacle decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through we should eat for strength and not for drunkenness and look eating junk food can even mess with your mind there are certain foods that are known as brain foods what are they foods that are high in healthy kinds of fats these would be bananas coconuts tree nuts avocados these are all known as brain food because they're giving you good fat for your brain fish oil etcetera then there are other foods that actually harm your thinking power and your brain power and it's been shown that you know drinking coca cola and just these kind of junk sweets and and your your little debbies and ho hos and Svenhards and junk McDonald's and and drinking the sodas you know this stuff will actually not only affect your body poorly will actually affect your brain why because your brain is part of your body think about your brain is part of your body has blood flowing to it blood flowing out of it and what's in that blood nutrition what you've been eating what you've been drinking goes to your brain and therefore you will not be able to think clearly if you're not exercising and eating a good diet you can get depressed if you're not doing these things and and get sick and depressed and lazy look I've known people who've gone through depression who've been suicidal and and there's there are certain common denominators that I've seen amongst the depressed and I you know I don't really understand this as much with women but I've known more men that were dealing with depression than women and I don't understand as much obviously the female experience because I'm a man but I know this the men that I've known who've been depressed and men who I've known who actually went through with suicide like they actually killed themselves they're dead you know some common denominators that you'll see first of all there's often an involvement of drugs and alcohol when people actually kill themselves that's usually something that is part of the issue drugs or alcohol but other than that when you see people that are depressed and down and you know here are some certain common denominators they're usually people who don't have a job they're very inactive not not getting out and doing anything physically okay you know they're usually not married okay they don't so basically you see these these these things and you you cannot kind of understand why they're depressed because they're spending a lot of time idle they're not getting out there physically and working and doing anything you know so honestly when I deal with people that are depressed I don't just tell them hey read the Bible that's gonna fix everything you know what I tell people that are depressed get a job I mean as a man because as a man you need the value and the worth of going out and getting a job that's what we were born to do as men to work by the sweat of our face all the days of our life the Bible says and so when people are depressed when men are depressed I say get a job get married get exercise go do something you know and that helps it's people who sit around listening to music right idle no girlfriend no wife no prospect that's why they're depressed I'm not being I'm not joking I'm dead serious right now you know here's the formula for ending depression get married get a job and get physically active and start eating better food now obviously of course reading the Bible prayer going to church so winning of course but you know what if you're going to church and then eating a bunch of junk and sitting around listening to music all day and not doing anything you know you might still get depressed even though you read the Bible it's just reality so we need to take care of ourselves and we need to understand that when we eat we should not be a glutton and the Bible says that we should eat for strength and not for drunkenness now drunkenness we would usually associate with alcohol so what's this eating for drunkenness okay what's the Bible talking about here you know obviously food's not really gonna make you drunk but he's speaking figuratively here and saying you know you're not eating just to have a party in your mouth and to feel good okay that's not why you eat you eat for strength food should be looked at according to the Bible here as fuel for your body to give you strength you're putting fuel into the system that's going to be used for strength not just ooh let me tickle and tantalize my taste buds once again with a party in my mouth at every meal and even between meals that's gluttony that's eating for drunkenness now it's interesting when you look at this verse in verse 16 because it says woe to the old land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning now it's interesting because we think to ourselves wait a minute you know breakfast like a king you know lunch lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper right who's ever heard that before no one all right no a couple people have yeah you know you know breakfast like a king lunch like a prince dinner like a pauper and we're always told hey eat that huge breakfast eat a real big breakfast you know and and it's gonna make you lose weight and you know it's gonna make you who's heard that before you know to lose weight be sure you always eat a big break but here's the thing just because you hear something a lot doesn't necessarily make it true and in fact now a lot of the studies that are coming out are starting to reverse this and say hey actually eating a huge breakfast is not what it was cracked up to be it's actually not making you any thinner or losing weight to eat some gigantic breakfast and and it really doesn't matter now here's the thing the bible never changes and the bible here is seeming to indicate that eating a lot in the morning is not a good thing according to this scripture because he says you know woe unto the o land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning blessed art thou o land when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness so perhaps it's better not to just roll out of bed and start eating but rather maybe to get up and start doing something first and then eat a little bit later on now I know this that sometimes and I know I'm getting a little off topic here but I want to just kind of expound this verse because I think a lot of people get confused by this verse because they look at it and they say wait a minute I've been told my whole life to eat a big breakfast but if the bible says something different you know we need to look at what the bible is saying here and when I look at this you know I know that sometimes what I've done is let's say I eat a big giant meal for dinner which I've been known to do you know real big dinner eat a lot of food at the end of the day you know then sometimes I'll just skip breakfast eat a big meal before dinner and then go like or go like 16 hours without eating or something and then just go all the way till lunch you know there's really nothing wrong with doing that and it's really not bad for you at all and in fact you know sometimes by just eating a big breakfast big lunch big dinner or whatever the more meals you eat is just the more chances to eat too much food if you're a sedentary person now if you're a real active person and you're burning a ton of calories then yeah you need to take a lot of food in to maintain that but if you're a sedentary person who's getting very little exercise it's easy to overeat right and to gain weight and to get overweight and so therefore you know maybe just rolling out of bed and eating a big breakfast isn't the best option maybe it's better to wait until later closer to lunch to eat something and then just eat lunch and dinner and then call it good and then just go to sleep and then wake up you know and look how much you eat I'm not going to get up here and tell you hey this is how much you should eat because it's different for everybody if you have a real physical active job and I personally I'm real active and so I really try to get enough calories because I don't want to become a skinny weakling so I have to eat a lot of calories just to try to maintain my body weight but other people are trying to make sure they don't eat too much to basically get overweight so it just it depends on your lifestyle it depends on your metabolism but but here's what the Bible is teaching you eat for strength and not for drunkenness so basically you eat what you need you eat what's good for you that's going to make you stronger healthier faster and not just what's going to give you a party in your mouth and you know sometimes if you roll out of bed it might be good to go out and be active and do something and get to work and then maybe eat a little later something to consider based on this verse of maybe skipping the big breakfast and maybe that is not all that's cracked up to be because see the world is always changing its health advice they'll come out with all the oh eggs are bad for you and then oh give eggs a break you know oh salt's bad no the Bible says salt is good especially if you live in Arizona you need to eat a lot of salt because you sweat so much here so anyway I don't want to get off on some big health sermon but I just want to throw that out there that you know what we as Christians should not just say well it doesn't matter what I eat it doesn't matter how overweight I get or how skinny I get you know some guys need to work on this some of these these guys that are just so twiggy and skinny and weak right need to get some meat on their bones and build some strength and then they and then they basically then they're judging they're judging girls by their outward appearance when they're a skinny weakling you know that's not cool so you know we as men and also the ladies need to not just have this attitude of just trash our body drive it till the wheels fall off bodily exercise profit a little it's what's inside that counts pass the extra large diet coke pass the dozen Krispy Kremes and let's eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die no if our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost number one we need to not defile it with fornication number two we need to not mutilated tattoo it put a metal post in it okay number three we need to make sure that we don't get lazy sluggish slothful that we get out and get exercise and get moving I'm not saying that you necessarily have to go to a gym because honestly a lot of people they just want to throw money at problems when they're out of shape and unhealthy they want to just sign up for some expensive gym or or buy some expensive piece of equipment you don't need a piece of equipment to get in shape my friend because the best way to get exercise is to go out and walk go out and run jump up and down get a jump rope a jump rope is $10 you say well you know I gotta work my look here's how you work your upper body like this right you know you do push-ups and everybody wants to go out and get an expensive gym membership buy a bunch of barbells do some push-ups you know before you go out and spend a bunch of money walk over to the playground and start doing some pull-ups drop to the ground and do some push-ups sit-ups jump rope run do something you don't need to spend a bunch of money and join a gym but even look if you have a job that's physical great but if you don't have a job that's physical you need to get active somehow and maybe you can even work around your house and maybe do some improvements that involve you swinging a hammer or something that'll get you active whatever I'm not telling you what to do I'm just saying that God doesn't want us to become physically slothful and sedentary and it will make you depressed and mess with your mind also we are living in a time that is unlike any other time that anyone has lived in history you know it used to be that being overweight was not a big problem with people you know unless you're like Kublai Khan or something who was real overweight why because he's being carried around by slaves all the time because he's the king he's some great emperor but you know your average guy had to go out and work so hard your average woman had to work so hard it just wasn't an issue and people were healthier as a result but beyond gluttony beyond being sedentary number five another way that people defile their body go to Proverbs 23 another way that people defile the body is through alcohol cigarettes and drugs okay now the Bible does not mention cigarettes the Bible does not mention smoking but I don't think anybody here would argue that smoking is good for your health nobody here is gonna stand up and say no I think smoking is actually good for you I think it actually reduces your chances of lung cancer I think it actually makes you a better runner and it actually makes you healthier no one would claim that everybody knows that smoking is bad for you therefore is it really right for you to first of all take the money that God gave you to the tune of six bucks a day because think about if you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day doesn't it cost about five or six bucks help me out who knows how much cigarettes cost five bucks seven man alive you need to go to the Indian Reservation how much if you buy a carton how cheap can you get it forty bucks and how many packs come in a carton ten so you can get it down if you're real economical you're getting a carton you're going to the Indian Reservation whatever you know maybe you can get it down to four bucks a pack other people are paying seven so let's just say five bucks right that's a hundred and fifty dollars a month I mean that could be a cheap car payment I mean you could do a lot with a hundred fifty dollars a month you know you could buy a lot of healthy organic food for a hundred fifty dollars a month you could do a lot with that but here's the thing not only are you throwing away and I'm not going to do it tonight because I don't have a five dollar bill in my wallet but usually when I preach on this I take a five dollar bill and tear it up and throw it on the ground and everybody's horrified like oh you just destroyed five dollars but think about it I just destroyed five dollars and I'm just as healthy as I was pretend I did it here all right pretend I did it what later will come in the graphics you know on the video and we'll add the dollar special effects but anyway you know pretend I tore it up and it's like okay I destroyed five dollars but I'm just as healthy as I was five seconds ago but yet nobody bats an eye at throwing away five dollars every day and destroying up see if you woke up every morning and tore up a five dollar bill to put in the trash every morning people would think you were nuts wouldn't they what if you just walked into your job every morning and just went shh every day people would think you were a psycho but yet that would be way smarter than smoking a pack of cigarettes every day because you'd yeah you'd lose the money but you'd be just as healthy you're tearing up five bucks and destroying your health and so that's something to think about with cigarettes even though the Bible does not say hey smoking cigarettes is a sin it's still stupid see you say well is it really a sin to smoke cigarettes no but it's stupid and the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin so the thought of hey let's go buy cigarettes is a stupid thought and just thinking that is sin and then also drugs you know there are all kinds of obviously drugs that are harmful and you know street drugs people are abusing prescription drugs and taking all kinds of harmful medicine and the doctor will tell them hey you can either change your diet and exercise or take these pills up give me the pills that's what people will choose the pills instead of changing their lifestyle I've known people where that's exactly what the doctor said here do you want pills or do you want to start exercising give me the pills and then it's like okay here's the list of side effects on the pills and it's like pages of you know death blood in the urine you know what I was just like whoa what in the world you know all this horrible side effect but it's like well God forbid you'd actually eat right and exercise give me the pills okay so drugs but here's another one that a lot of people don't think of alcohol alcohol is bad for your health now people try to lie to you and tell you that alcohol is good for you and they'll even point to scripture where Paul says take a little wine for thy stomach's sake and they'll say see alcohol is good for you take a little wine for your stomach's sake but in reality when he says wine there he's talking about juice throughout the Bible the word wine is often referring to juice like when it talks in Isaiah 65 about wine being in the cluster that's talking about in the grapes that shows that it's juice right there but when he says use no longer water but drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities notice the contrast is between water drinking water only and using a little wine what's he saying he's saying go from just water to water and a little bit of juice he's not saying hey you know you need to drink liquor for your stomach's sake because alcohol is not beneficial to your stomach it's harmful to your stomach now when they say oh but yeah but you know a glass of wine will prevent heart disease yeah a glass of grape juice will also prevent heart disease it's not the alcohol that's doing it it's the it's the stuff in the grape juice that's doing it for you that's helping you and by the way there are trace amounts of alcohol in any sweet beverage any sweet beverage has trace amounts of alcohol but it's nothing that could ever get you drunk you know you drink an orange juice or even a coca-cola anything has trace amounts of alcohol but that doesn't make it an alcoholic beverage so you know you're still if you need those trace bits about you're getting it anyway in in whatever you drink just by drinking juice drinking tea kombucha you know and kombucha or apple cider vinegar is a great way to get the health benefits of a fermented beverage without the harmful intoxication of alcohol you know you can drink kombucha or apple cider vinegar to get that fermented you know healthfulness and so forth but here's one of the things that a lot of people don't think of about alcohol and it's harmful health effects first I'm going to read the scripture here in Proverbs 23 the Bible says in verse 29 who hath woe who hath 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 on the wine when it is red when it give it this color in the cup when it moveth itself aright at the last it biteth like a serpent and stinketh like an adder so here he's saying there's a type of wine that you don't look at there's a type of wine that's good for you juice and then there's a type of wine that you should not look at the one that is fermented the one that causes your eyes to behold strange women and your mouth to utter perverse things but it's interesting I was talking to a lady who's visited our church a few times Dr. Rita and she said and I'd never heard this but she talked about how beer makes men actually develop feminine body characteristics it actually increases their levels of estrogen and reduces their levels of testosterone because she's a doctor and she talked about how she would test men that would come to her clinic for their testosterone levels and she said that the vast majority of American men their testosterone levels are in the dumps and in fact I read a study that said that men's testosterone levels today are 25% of what they were in the 80s you know a 25 year old guy today has 25% less testosterone than a 25 year old guy in the 80s or a 40 year old man today has 25% less than a 40 year old guy back in the 80s the testosterone levels are dropping in men and what does this cause all kinds of harmful things but listen to this hops you know beer is made from hops first of all alcohol in general any alcohol is harmful to your testosterone levels and it will raise your estrogen but especially beer now beer is made from hops and listen to this hops are the female flowers of the hop plant and have high levels of phyto estrogen or estrogen for plants long ago German beer makers made the startling discovery that the women who harvested hops actually experienced early menstrual periods it also seemed to reduce the libido and contribute to feminizing the bodies of men did you that feminizing the bodies of men the reason for all this is now known hops is one of the more powerful phyto estrogens in the world and all of this extra hops is causing havoc in our bodies today hops is far and away the most used plant-based estrogen primarily being consumed through beer the result of all this extra hops is that your body will exhibit the characteristics of a woman specifically hops contribute to the buildup of extra fatty tissue in the chest giving many men the appearance of breasts and I'm going to change some of the wording here you know to use a more biblical wording in the next few but it also leads to atrophy of your stones you know to use the biblical term that is your stones will shrink and harden as the estrogen in your body overwhelms the testosterone further you will experience body hair loss loss of libido and other something I'm not even going to mention that you don't want to have as a man okay so look we're talking about a drink that makes you feminine and yet what do the world and the commercials and TV tell us it's manly to drink beer yeah get that dark ale you know and be a big tough man yeah you're going to get man breasts that's what the studies are saying you know look you're going to get feminine and you see men aren't getting them just because they're gaining weight oh no they're specifically gaining weight in their chest because of the estrogen through drinking the beer that's not cool I mean who wants that who here says you know I really want to get more fatty tissue on my chest I really want to have lower testosterone I really want to have the body of a woman you know nobody wants unless you're some freak like Bruce Jenner or something you know I mean I guess with him it's like drink up buddy you freak but but here's the thing we needed not defile the temple of our body and and beer is defiling your body man and it's harmful for women too in other ways because you know it it messes up their balance of hormones as well you know getting too much of that phyto estrogen and so forth you know but also soy soy low-fat diets and too many beers are the things that are reducing the testosterone also laziness idleness making men become more feminine and in the in the very chapter that taught us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit 1st Corinthians 6 you know what else it said in that same chapter don't be effeminate right in the same chapter that said hey your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost so these are some things to think about and I know that this is not a big emphasis in our lives and we're not trying to to become body builders and we're not trying to make some kind of a religion out of exercise and healthy eating and obviously it's not a big emphasis of this ministry and obviously it's not the most important thing in our lives but you know what it is something we should think about because the Bible does address it and honestly we should walk away from this sermon saying hey I need to take some care of my body I need to not indulge in sin with it obviously and fornication is a horrific sin but not only that we need to realize that you know tattooing it mutilating it putting junk food into it being a slob with it eating junk drinking beer taking drugs smoking cigarettes it's all showing disrespect and disregard for the body that God gave us to serve him with and we need to keep our bodies tuned up within reason not the big focus of our lives but within reason let's keep our bodies tuned up so that we can serve God to the uttermost and we can live long healthy productive lives not for our own glory to go pose in front of the mirror somewhere but rather for his glory so we can get out go soul winning preach so that we can take care of our bodies be productive be able to reproduce healthily and and live godly lives that would benefit the kingdom of God and benefit others by taking care of the body God gave us and not just trashing it like like some rental car you know that we that we're not even worried about getting the deposit back or whatever let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much lord for the bodies that you've given us lord and and there are people here i know that struggle with health problems but lord there are also many people here who you've blessed with a very healthy body but lord whatever you've given us we're thankful for it help us to take care of it make the best of it and not trash the bodies that you've given us or mutilate them to look ridiculous to the world and in Jesus name we pray amen we broke the record again how many 148 tonight what was our old sunday night record 140 we smashed it all right do we still have ice cream left or no oh all right your body's the temple you guys ready for ice cream it's or are we having ice cream do we have it it's organic ice cream okay but listen everybody hey the healthy eating and the exercise starts tomorrow all right deal all right