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Are in jeremiah chapter 31 look down at your bibles in verse 13 It says then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance both young men and all together for I will turn their mourning into joy And will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow and I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness And my people shall be satisfied With my goodness saith the lord and the title of the sermon this evening is developing godly appetites developing godly Appetites now here in jeremiah chapter 31 Is what basically we see throughout the major prophets and the minor prophets? Where judgment is coming upon the nation for their sin for their idolatry? And what god does is he basically foretells of a time when the nation of israel will no longer be The way they are during this time, you know, they will no longer be idolatrous They will no longer be wicked They will no longer be given to uh to covetousness and adultery and all these wicked practices that we see them doing Within these major prophets and in fact, what are they going to be doing? He's saying he's foretelling of the millennial reign And in the millennial reign he's saying, you know, it's going to be they're going to be restored You know god's going to bless them. He's going to bring them back into the land now People today will take that to say well the physical nation of israel the physical nation, you know of israel the jews They're they're they're the ones who are going to be brought back to the land But what this is actually referring to thanks mark what they're actually referring to Uh, no, no, no sound effects, please from the crowd, uh, what they're actually referring to Is those who have died in christ those who were saved in times past will be brought back, right? And I want you to notice verse 14 He says there that I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness Sayeth the lord now notice that he equates fatness with goodness. Amen So, you know those of you who are overweight out there, you know, i'm just kidding, you know He says the fatness is equated with his goodness But why is he saying this why is he saying that he's going to satisfy to satiate means to satisfy? Why is he saying that the the soul will be satisfied with fatness? Well, if you remember from jeremiah chapter number six go there if you would go to jeremiah chapter six We actually read this this morning You know the priests the prophets and the pastors were all given to wicked practices They were prophesying using bail. There are just a bunch of wicked false prophets of those days. So this promise Regarding the priests that we see in jeremiah chapter 31 is not necessarily made to the priest It's made to the people that the priests are leading. Okay, because how You know horrible does it feel to have a wicked leader, right? These priests these prophets who are just covetous They're idolatrous and god is saying hey one day i'm going to give you pastors that are according to my heart One day i'm going to give you priests who will be satisfied with the fatness, which is my goodness In other words, he's saying i'm going to give you leaders Who are going to be good leaders? Okay, and now who's he referring to? He's referring to the royal priest today, man Because that that's the priest who's going to be ruling In these times during the millennial reign look at jeremiah 613 says from the least of them Even unto the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness from the prophet even unto the priest Everyone dealeth falsely so we see that in these times what is satiating? The spiritual leadership what is satisfying the leadership or what is the leadership using to satiate their desires covetousness? You know whether it's unjust gain Finances, you know preaching smooth sermons in order to get financial gain making merchandise off of the flock of god This is what they're using to satiate their souls. So therefore god in jeremiah chapter 31 is promising Hey, there's going to come a time when the priests are not going to satisfy themselves using covetous practices You know, they're going to satisfy themselves in the fatness of the lord the goodness of god These are going to be righteous people now Although this is a prophecy of people and rulers in the millennial reign, this is something that can be applicable to us today Because what satisfies the priests in the millennial reign is the same thing that's going to satisfy us today. Okay? you see The same problems that we see in the old testament with the priests satisfying themselves with covetousness. Well the same as today, right? You have not just priests and prophets you have god's people often trying to satisfy Their desires through wicked means through covetousness. They try to fulfill their Appetites with ungodly means and we need to recognize that god has already created a formula He's already created a remedy where we were with we can be satisfied in the lord in the goodness of god Okay, go to first peter chapter number two, if you would first peter chapter number two You see the bible tells us in proverbs 27 20 hell and destruction are never full So the eyes of a man are never satisfied. You know what this tells me is that there are people out there That are constantly trying to satisfy their carnal desires through things that they watch Through the senses through things that they hear through things that they eat or whatever it may be But you know what? They're never satisfied This is why people who try to who will have a will to be rich. They want to be rich They they get they they they want to uh, cure finances and just have all kinds of money in the bank because they're not satisfied Well, they never will be Because money does not satisfy you having riches having tons of thousands of dollars in the bank will not satisfy you It's not going to help you Okay, because money was never meant to do that what satisfies us as christians the goodness of god the fatness that he provides, right? and there is a link that we're going to make today of course because you know, You know your pastor was on keto for a while Okay, and there there is there is an analogy that you can make there because of the fact that even on a keto diet For example, what satiates your hunger what satiates your desire fat? Okay, and i'll get into that just a bit. You're like we're sick and tired of hearing keto. Well, too bad You know, i'm preaching this tonight. So you're gonna have to just put up with it, right? But hey just as in the physical realm eating good fats like avocados butter Satiates the hunger so you don't desire the bad stuff like sugar Well in like manner if we fill our souls with the fatness of god We satisfy our souls So that we don't need to go to the world. We don't need to try to satisfy the flesh We don't need to go to worldly means to be content in the lord. We can be satisfied with his goodness Okay, look at first peter chapter two verse one It says here wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby by the way It says grow thereby not be saved and you know grown to salvation As many versions would put including the reign of elir in 1960. Just thought I'd throw that in there It says that you may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the lord is gracious So one thing that will help you to desire the sincere milk of the word sincere means pure Is that you taste it? You know you start reading your bible You start getting into doctrine and then what happens you start developing an appetite for the word of god You know, you will never develop a proper appetite for the bible if you don't actually open it up and read it You know, oh man, I just want to read my bible through from cover to cover but have you started? Have you actually desired have you actually opened up the bible to actually read it And and meditate upon it ruminate upon the word of god because when you do that You will taste and see that the lord is gracious. Okay, you know There's nothing more satisfying than reading your bible and having the holy spirit actually teach you some biblical truth It's great There's nothing more satisfying than reading your bible learning truth And then your pastor gets up and preaches the same exact thing that you learn from your bible It confirms that we have the holy spirit of god It confirms that the spirit of truth is teaching you the word of god. And what does it do it satisfies you? You know, it satisfies you so you don't have to go to a commentary Satisfies you don't have to go to john macarthur And charles haddon's purgin And all these unsafe people who have these great swelling words of vanity They try to teach you the word of god, you know We can be satisfied with the holy spirit that dwells within us teaching us all truth, okay Through his goodness now Go to third john if you would third john Third john So, what does the sermon say well the sermon this evening is just simply to remind us That hey, you got you need to make sure you're taking care of your soul Okay, you know, it's great to go on a diet. It's great to get in your exercise physically, you know It's great to have great mental health But at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we're ministering and we're keeping our souls healthy Okay, when you need to make sure that your soul your inward man is constantly growing it's learning new concepts You're feeding your soul with fatness in order to satisfy the desires that it has because look When you're saved you have the inward man, and he has desires But you know what if you don't satisfy those desires, you're going to be a carnal christian You're going to be a christian who's always in the flesh you're failing you're you're involved in sin You're doing things you shouldn't be doing and then you just live a life of guilt Because you're like man i'm not doing what i'm supposed to be doing. I'm not reading my bible. I'm not praying I'm not sowing i'm not doing anything. Well, that's because you haven't fed the soul You need to feed the soul. You need to satiate the soul In order to be helped in order to to have a well-balanced spiritual life. Look at third john verse one says It says the elder into the well-beloved gayas Whom I love in the truth beloved. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul Prosperous so he's telling him. Hey, I want you to be in health I want you to prosper because obviously you're doing pretty well with your soul Now what if this was applied to you today? What if your soul was representative of your physical health? You know, what if your soul represented the physical health of your body? How good would your soul be? You know or vice versa How good would your body be if it was representative of how your soul is prospering would it be anemic? Would it be just all thin and skinny and malnutritioned? you know, you just look all wrinkly and ugly and just You know just soars all over the place because you're not taking care of yourself, you know, we need to make sure that as christians We're prospering physically, but also that our soul is prospering as well. Okay, then we're growing In fact, look what it goes on to say verse three for I rejoice greatly When the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy Than to hear that my children walk in truth, you know what? Bringing a great deal of satisfaction in my family is when my children are healthy Physically speaking, you know When you know the other day They just had a bunch of sugar You know, they uh, my kids were invited to some pinata downstairs and you know They had a pinata and this is like the first time they've ever i'm like here's your initiation to be a real hispanic here It's now you're partaking in the pinata, you know, and they're just like They don't even know what to do, you know The real actually that's not the real initiation The real initiation is when you're doing the pinata with the blindfold and you get whacked, you know Yeah, you always have that one kid, don't you who just runs through and they're just like you just cracks them But um, you know, they got a bunch of candy And and we just let we just let them we don't give them unfettered access to sugar But you know during these days we did because they had the pinata there and everything. So we're giving them where they had candy and kyla She was eating this chocolate, right? And uh, we had we we had gone to the beach in the morning We're just having we're just having family time. And so She was at the we're all at the house and we're just talking. We're just having family time and she had this chocolate She took one bite And then she just like looked at my wife. She just gave her this blank stare And my wife's like kyla Are you okay? And and you know when they give you the blank stare where you wonder like are they choking? you know and she's just like And then she like looks at me and she just i'm like kyla i'm like snap out. Are you okay? Are you choking and she's just like She's just kind of like pondering I'm like what's going on and all of a sudden she's like Straight like exorcist status just and it's like, oh, okay. That's what was wrong. You know, it's like the faucet came on I'm, like when you vomit you vomit with style like you know how to be suspenseful you know what I mean because i'm like we didn't know what was wrong and then she's just like They just came out. You know what I mean rivers of living water just flowing out of her mouth And um You know, but she felt better thereafter and you know, there's been a bug going around with the kids I've been throwing up, you know, you brought your kids to church They got my kids sick kind of thing. My kids got the other kids sick, you know how it goes and It's miserable to see your kids sick You know when they have a fever for example, it's just they're just not feeling well And you wish you could just take their sickness and put it upon yourself because they're so miserable Okay, and you love your children you want them to be healthy you want them to be vibrant and strong and just you know Just healthy, you know And that brings a great deal of satisfaction to a parent when you see your child running around with energy and they're just having they're just Living life as a child just having a good time healthy, you know whole Well in like manner, you know It should bring us a great deal of satisfaction when our brothers and sisters in christ are healthy spiritually speaking as well And this is what the apostle paul said He says I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth, you know that their souls are prospering And you know what? I'll be honest with you. It brings me a great deal of satisfaction to see the people in our church growing You know, I go home on a sunday night. I go home on a thursday night satisfied Just having the conversation with people in our church see them growing see them repenting of sin Cleaning up their lives just growing as just people of society You know becoming regular functioning members of society It brings me a lot of satisfaction to see people growing in the knowledge of the word of god They're making good decisions men who are leading their homes women who are submitting to their husbands, right, you know, just People growing that that brings a great deal of satisfaction to know that their souls are prospering and look that should satisfy us As well, right when we see another christian growing in the lord You know, you shouldn't be jealous You shouldn't become envious. You should rejoice with that Because as a whole as as the body here that's going to help us all right So god wants our souls to prosper and to be in good Health but in order to do that we need to develop spiritual appetites. Okay, and We develop those appetites as we satiate our souls. Let me read you some verses here Go with me if you would to first thessalonians chapter number five I'm sorry, go go to act chapter 20. Go to act chapter 20 Because look Every every one of us we want to get to a point in our lives when we just desire the things of god Naturally, do we not? I mean people when they go on a diet It's like they wish they could just flip a switch or they just want to go work out They want to just eat the right type of foods They don't have to battle their flesh to not eat sugar and all these things It's like they just want that switch, but it doesn't work that way You have to train your body To eat the right things you have to train your body to do the things that you don't want to do That is the price you have to pay to receive the reward of weight loss or just of of health in general Okay But we all want that desire. Let me read to you from psalms 27 verse 4 David said this one thing have I desired of the lord and that will I seek after that? I may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the lord And to inquire in his temple. He says I got one desire and that is to be in the house of god You know for me, it's just like I wish all of god's people had that desire every single sunday You know what I mean where they wouldn't miss church. They just be in church. No matter what happens. They have that desire. Amen The bible says psalm 42 verse 1 as the heart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul After thee oh god, my soul thirsted for god for the living god when I shall come and appear before god What is he saying? I'm thirsty for god You know, I want to be satisfied. I want to quench my thirst with the things of god That's this is a great desire to have and don't think well this that's just david, you know, he's a man after god's own heart Yeah, but he's an example to us that we could be people after god's own heart as well We can have this characteristic And this spiritual attribute and quality of desiring god to the point where you you feel like you're panting for god You know You wake up in the morning like man. I can't wait to read my bible You know, I can't wait to go soul winning. I can't wait to just pray and spend time with the lord I can't wait to do the things of god. Obviously you're not going to live life like that all the time But you know what every once in a while you should be But that happens as you develop these spiritual appetites psalm 63 verse 1 says oh god thou art my god Early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh Longest for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary now I know a lot of people who are saved people who feel this way because they don't have a good church to go to They're like man, I want god I want good preaching I want good, uh, uh, you know bible pre- I want some hard preaching. I want some biblical preaching my soul thirsted for those things, but there's there's no water in this land There's no good church. Well, thank god that we have a church to go to amen The bible says in psalm 143 Verse five. I remember the days of old I meditate on all thy works I'm used on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands into thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Sila, so what am I saying is, you know as christians we should desire that we should have that thirst for god Okay, but you know what? It's hard to thirst for god When you're drinking other things other than water, right? You know, it's like oh i'm so thirsty for god, but let me just pound this coke I'm so thirsty for god, but let me just get this gatorade Let me get this energy drink or whatever and we substitute You know what? We're supposed to be drinking with these artificial drinks spiritually speaking and we think we're satisfying our thirst, but we're really not You know, we think we we we are satisfying our souls when in actuality we're creating a greater thirst and it's actually Becoming more detrimental to our bodies spiritually speaking Okay Psalms 36 verse 8 says this they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house And now shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasure The bible tells us in matthew 5 6 blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled What does that mean they will be satisfied? Okay, you know if you hunger and thirst for the right things and you get those right things you'll be a satisfied person Okay, but the person who wants happiness in life but looks for it in drugs The person who wants happiness in life, but they look for it in immorality fornication pornography. They're never going to find it The person who wants to be satisfied, but they're constantly chasing the dollar. They're constantly wanting to be rich They will not be satisfied with those things. How will they be filled if they hunger and thirst after righteousness? Because god promises you hey if you hunger for the right things once you get that avocado Once you get that butter in your system You'll be satisfied. Okay The bible says in first thessalonians 5 22 Actually, let me read you let's go. Let's go to uh, you're in act chapter 20. So what are some things that will satiate our souls? Well number one And obviously we understand reading the bible, right? Prayer soul winning. These are basic things that we already understand But you know what let me tell you this is that generosity satiates the soul See don't we think that in order to be happy we got to get things Like in order for me to be happy in life. I need to receive things. That's what makes me happy Money makes me happy gifts make me happy having things having people give me things makes me happy But that's not necessarily how it works because the bible tells us in proverbs the other 25 the liberal soul shall be made fat What does liberal mean the generous soul the person who gives shall be made fat And he that waters shall be watered himself Generosity will help you to feel like you're fulfilling your purpose in life. Okay? And what is the opposite of generosity greed? You know where it's just all about me myself and I what can I get out of this relationship? What can I get out of this job? What can I get it out get out of this church? It's all about me Right, whereas the bible says no you need to see what you can give And that's how you're going to satisfy yourself. Look what the bible says in act chapter 20 verse 35 I have showed you all things how that's so laboring you ought to support the weak And to remember the words of the lord jesus how he said it is more blessed to give Than to receive. I mean that's the words of jesus He's telling us. Hey, you'll be a lot more blessed if you actually give than what you're actually taking in Okay, because the flesh desires to take in but the soul desires to give out The soul desires to give out, you know of give out blessings, you know give out generosity and Liberalism in order to be kind to people and to fulfill the laws of god that satisfies the soul That's why you can go home at night lay your head on your pillow if you've been serving god And just sleep like a king Because you know you've been giving out You know you give out you you you invest your time into the things of god You're generous with your resources and what happens you're satisfied, okay? Go to proverbs the book of proverbs if you would proverbs chapter number two So generosity will satiate the soul but you know what also satiates the soul knowledge knowledge And i'm not just talking about the knowledge of the bible Which obviously that's that's a given You need to learn the bible amen And if you're bored with the bible, you just have not been studying the bible Okay You know if you're getting bored like i already know all this and why is he preaching on this? This is uh, this is basic Tell me about in time. Let's hear about the homos Let's hear the let's hear some some crazy sermon make me laugh scream do something entertain me No Sometimes you just need knowledge Sometimes you just need to be reminded of basic biblical knowledge and you need to be challenged even in the basics of the christian life Why because that's what your soul needs look at the bible says in proverbs 2 10 when wisdom enterth into thine heart And knowledge is pleasant unto Thy soul you see it's pleasant to gain knowledge go to proverbs chapter three proverbs chapter number three You know, hey every once in a while look not just not just the bible you need to read books Self-help books On how to you know get character develop good habits become just a functioning member of society become a better employee Become a better whatever, you know be good at administration Learn how to create witty inventions learn how to be creative in your life. This is these are things that satiate the soul Okay, when you have knowledge god doesn't want us to be stupid He doesn't want us to be stupid well, you know I'm, not about smarts and knowledge. Well god is My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The bible says You know, you need to learn and keep learning in your christian life not just about the bible but just about life life period Pick a topic pick a subject, you know Hey ladies learn to develop your household better by reading some books on cooking or on health Okay Become a better knowledgeable person about just the things of life. This feeds the soul Okay, and you say well, you know, i'm not that good at reading. Well, you're gonna have a hard time being a christian Because like a large portion of our life deals with reading the bible every day Every week Every month every year for the rest of our lives You know, look i'm for like I have a list of books that I listen to on audible Okay, but you know god didn't give me an audible. I mean there's audible bibles out there, but he wrote a book for me to read Okay. Now I don't want to slam audible because that was my next point and say hey you need to like download some books on audible And and listen to some books, you know get Out into the world and learn some things learn knowledge become knowledgeable about things not just about the bible Okay, you just need to be a knowledgeable skillful person That's constantly growing and learning and one of the reasons why you should is because it helps our conversations I'm talking about in church You know we can have intellectual conversations I like talking to smart people Because I get to learn something from them they have something to offer me intellectually Right, you know i'm for laughing and joking and stuff like that, but I also want to learn something from you as well You know when you talk to me, I love it when people come to me and they impart some knowledge that they learn It's intriguing to me. You know what it does it feeds my soul It satiates my desire to want to learn something. Okay, and this is something that the old ifb would just kind of downplay all the time You know, they're they were kind of satisfied with just being ignorant And you know these like hillbilly type christians were just like, I don't know bro. I don't know I just know that i'm saved, you know, I don't know anything but one thing I do know I know i'm saved Then you're a sorry christian then You're stupid You're ignorant Because that shouldn't be the only thing that you know you know and so Like for example, like for example, you know when I made that clip about kanye west You know people were like don't preach that just preach the gospel You want me to preach the gospel every sunday Like every service everyone here knows the gospel The best is like why am I going to do that? Everyone here is already saved We need to talk about other things just preach christ and him crucified No God would get mad at me if I preach christ and him crucified every single service Yeah Because that would mean that i'm not growing In my knowledge of the word of god and if i'm not growing you're not growing You know We need to make sure that we love knowledge Oh knowledge puppeth up. Yeah. Well, that's why we got to balance it with charity obviously, you know We got to be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving our own selves But we we should love knowledge. We should love to grow in in in different areas in our life Hey, you know what some of you out there some of you po-chos out there Need to relearn some spanish Right, man that that went over like a screen door on a submarine Okay Some of you just need to like pick up the skill of learning spanish because you can You we got smart people in our church. Okay, not me. I'm like a hillbilly. I can't learn anything No, I know there's smart people here and some of you just need to get on pimsleur Get on duolingo and learn some spanish hey, let me just start off with the hispanics first, okay Hey, you have an advantage over the white man Okay You know, hey the white man over here. He's learning spanish Right eric still on that If he wasn't he will be now Okay see Hey some of you hispanics out there you need to start Learning relearning spanish What for so you can win them to christ? You know you can become more profitable, you know, or you know, whatever your native language is learn something just learn something Exercise your brain in order to satisfy your soul. Okay, it's important But not only that, you know boundaries our knowledge satisfies the soul But so do boundaries the bible says in proverbs 3 20 by his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop Down the dew my son let not them depart from thine eyes keep sound wisdom and discretion So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck, you know, the inward man loves boundaries The inward man loves rules The inward man loves restrictions. It's the flesh that does not like to submit itself until the laws of god It says it can't be subject to the law of god because it's carnal Whereas the inward man loves boundaries and you know what? We are we need to make sure that we're constantly placing boundaries in our lives growing in our area of standards whether it's dress standards It's entertainment standards, whatever it may be. We need to grow in that area go to proverbs chapter 13 proverbs chapter 13 What else satiates the soul? How about accomplishments? Accomplishments That should should ring true more so for men than the women You know, hey you should have goals That you want to accomplish Let me ask you this don't answer. This is a rhetorical question. Okay, you know, we're nearing the end of the year What have you accomplished personally? in 2019 What is something that you are today that you were not? January 2019 What is a skill that you that you Learned what is knowledge that you have gained that you did not have a year ago, you know, we should have Goals that we want to accomplish don't be the same christian today That you know or excuse me, don't be the same christian in 2020 that you are in 2019 Okay, we should be going forward and learning how to accomplish certain things Look what the bible says in proverbs 13 verse 19 the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil The bible says in proverbs 13 12 hope deferred make it the heart sick But when the desire cometh it is a tree of life. There's nothing more satisfying to me Than accomplishing a task and checking it off my list I have a task list that I work off of I even have a habit chart that I use for my personal habits And one of the most satisfying things is that when I have accomplished my bible reading I do my pimsleur I you know, I I journal, you know that just yeah And I just love looking at that week and just seeing all x's because it's showing me. Hey i'm accomplishing something Don't just let life happen to you You should happen to life. Hey, man You should say man this week. I want to accomplish this I have these goals, you know, i'm going to complete this many lessons on duolingo I'm going to complete this many lessons on pimsleur. I'm going to acquire this skill I'm going to get to this point. I have goals why because you want to satisfy your soul And the way you satisfy is by accomplishing tasks accomplishing goals and look small dreams move no man's soul Okay, and look if you had a bad 2019, that's okay. 2020 is around the corner make some plans there's look At our church. I had the calendar for 2020 all the way to december already finished I have goals for our church up until december 2020 You know when we reach them all my goal is to reach to reach every single one of them But the reason it's there is because there's going to be a planner that goes to that calendar Tasks that are under that goal that we can accomplish in order for me to be able to check it off and say man We did something great. We accomplished this in 2020 okay, and look I encourage you to do the same You know, oh, yeah, but i'm not an executive. Well, you know what you should you're not an executive but you should be an excellent christian though And an excellent christian makes a plan, you know a dream without a plan is just a wish I have so many dreams. Yeah, but do you have a plan? And if you don't have a plan, that's just a wish And there's nothing worse than having a dream reaching the end of the year and saying man. I still didn't accomplish that dream Dream You know, yeah, it's just a wish, you know You got to put steps to those goals in order to fulfill that dream and look i'm telling you it's a satisfying feeling Okay And i'll give you an example. I mean like, you know, we joke about keto, but you know, that was a goal that I had That was a goal that I had in order to lose a certain amount of weight or you know gain a certain amount of clarity In my mind and when I reach that goal is like check What's the next goal? You know why because Accomplishments help us to strive to become better people. Okay, and look it may not be You know, it could just be a health goal like man. I just want to eat better Or I want to start exercising or I want to just be able to read through the bible Okay, some of you out there who struggle reading through the bible cover to cover. You know what? Maybe you just need to make a plan and not just go like this All right, i'm gonna start reading All right. All right. That's where i'm gonna start, you know You should have a plan Why not? This is the most important thing in the christian life is bible reading Why don't you why don't you have a plan to be able to finish the bible? Create a bible reading schedule for yourself in 2020 Okay, we're going to give those out. But you know if you have your own all the better accomplish it Don't be a slugger. Amen Proverbs 13 4 says the soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing But the soul of the diligent shall be made that Okay What is it saying? You know those who are sluggers they desire, but they're never going to get anything Because that's all they have is a desire They don't have the character to actually put in the work to be able to fulfill that dream and to do what they're supposed to Do so, how do you develop healthy spiritual habits? Well, like I mentioned i'm going to use keto analogies, right? To make my points here so you can tune out if you want but you know this kind of helped me and I'm using these keto analogies because I feel like it's it's very applicable to what i'm going to talk about but number one How to develop healthy spiritual habits? Well, number one you have to rid yourself of excessive sugar intake Spiritually speaking, all right. I know some of you are going to have carbs and sugars myself included. All right By the way, i'm not in ketosis right now and by the way every single keto person in the church is no longer in keto either Okay, you know marcus went to fishing yesterday and and all the other disciples said I go with thee too, you know There's the Kimberly and jacob's wedding was like a major stumbling blade. They had all of the goods You know They were going to the 40-day fast in the desert, you know and jacob came and gave him bread and they were just like I'm, just kidding. I'm kidding. Okay But hey, you know if you're if you're gonna have a Hey, you know if you're if you're gonna have good spiritual appetites You need to rid yourself of sugar. Like for example, even in physical health sugar's bad for you No one's gonna deny that okay sugar is very bad for you and everyone's just mad dogging me right now Go ahead mad doggy, I don't care it's bad But what does this compare to it's compared to the old man If you constantly walk in the old man you're walking in the flesh it's bad for your spiritual life Okay The bible says this In hebrew chapter 12 go to hebrew chapter number 12 if you would hebrew chapter number 12 You know sugar is bad for your health it makes you tired it makes you fat It makes you lethargic. It makes you fat Did I mention that it makes you fat? Okay, it's not good for you. Okay, and you know, it's a false sense of satisfaction Because once you have sugar you're like, oh man, this is great But then you just want more and more of it and you have to have higher doses Of sugar in order to satisfy your cravings, right? Whereas when you have the good fats Like butter like avocados, you know all these things these things actually satiate your desire You know one of the big things in keto that they tell you to do Uh, you know because people are like, oh man, I hate keto because i'm just always hungry or you're not doing it, right? You shouldn't be always hungry Okay, what you do is you increase your fats And the fats satiate your desire for hunger, so you're not hungry I know this sounds weird, but you know, you could actually go about your day and not even think about food You're like what in the world are you serious? I think about food all the time Yeah, because you're constantly intaking sugar all the time Okay, but you could actually go about your day and forget about food You could even forget about eating sometimes believe it or not like what? No, yeah There could be times when you actually just completely forget about food because of the fact that you're so satisfied With the fatness the goodness, okay And if you're hungry on keto, it's because you're not intaking a lot of fats is what it is You're not you got it. You got to intake the fats. In fact in the prime of my keto diet I knew if I didn't have enough fats because i'm like man a chocolate bar sounds good right now I want some of this. It's like I need I didn't have enough fats. I didn't have enough avocado I didn't have enough butter. I need to make sure I I just just satiate my flesh With fats in order to be satisfied, okay But look at hebrews 12 verse 1 says wherefore seeing we are, uh, we also are Compassed about what's so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight And the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us What is he saying here saying look in order to run the race properly, you know, you got to lose some weight right It's true I mean that's true in the spiritual sense, but it's true in the physical sense, too, right? You don't really see like overweight people running like a marathon or something, you know, it's just not it's not in there You got to lay aside every weight, right? and You know in order to for you to successfully lose weight, for example, physically speaking You got to cut out the sugar no matter what kind of diet you do I'm, not just talking about keto Any kind of diet they'll tell you you need to cut out the sugar Okay, you need to cut out the sugar cut out the soda cut out the bread, you know Not don't have so much uh, wheat or bread or whatever it may be, you know those carbs that turn into sugar You know don't have that much if you cut that out you will lose weight And in fact on keto they specifically tell you you will lose at least 10 pounds within the first two weeks Because you're cutting out the sugar And once you do that, it's just like 10 pounds right off the bat Which I think is great because that kind of motivates you like man i'm skinny you're like You gotta think look at me I'm looking good But you got to lay aside every weight and you know what spiritually speaking is the same way In order for you to develop the right type of spiritual appetites. You got to get rid of some things You know, you got to get rid of the things that are you think are satisfying you right? Entertainment worldly activities whatever may be sin that does so easily beset us What does beset means it means we're surrounded by sin. I mean literally our inward man is covered in flesh So we're constantly surrounded by sin. So how do we lay aside our flesh? Well, we need to die to self We need to walk in the spirit not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Okay That's what we need to do go to james chapter number four if you would James chapter number four I didn't put the James chapter number four And look at verse number eight. He says draw nigh to god Verse number eight of james chapter four draw nigh to god. He'll draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded notice that he says cleanse your hands first And then purify your hearts So it's often the actions that we need to stop taking that are necessary before we could actually even purify our hearts We've got to change our actions. Okay, no more sugar Right, no more, you know mcdonald's shame on you if you eat mcdonald's by the way, okay You're just destroying yourself You know no more eating plastic at jack in the box No more eating tofu with the 99 cent burger or 99 cent tacos No more eating things that are just destroying your body physically. Hey, you need some some turkish food. Amen Mediterranean he just woke up mediterranean turkish food Fresh food, you know, these are the things that you need in order to really satisfy your soul now Let me say this is that here's the cool thing about Not just keto, but you know, there's a process called autophagy. Okay, and This comes about as you basically do like intermittent fasting And you of course you got to eat right and everything But what autophagy is is basically when your body begins to eat itself and it actually begins it's a detox process Whereby your body begins to recycle and replenish rebuild your protein cells It's a great thing. And in fact during the great depression People actually extended their lives by like seven years Okay, the average lifespan was extended seven years because they were only able to eat once a day, you know during the great depression Why is that well because their bodies were capable were what would go into autophagy And they would actually rebuild their protein cells because when you eat bad You you're just unhealthy you're destroying your protein cells. This is why you get sick all the time You wonder like why am I always getting sick? Why do I always get a cold? Why do I always get a flu? Why i'm never healthy because you're just your your protein cells are probably destroyed Okay And so when you get around a sick person The virus just goes straight through your protein cells because they're just they're broken down. However, if you allow your body Physically you're getting a biology class here, right? You know, if you allow your body to go through autophagy What happens is you begin to actually rebuild those protein cells and it strengthens your body And in fact, they even say that when you begin to lose weight for example Um, you know and you have like some excess skin, okay You know, it actually begins to tighten up because of the fact that the autophagy is rebuilding those cells, okay, it's great It's great the way god created the body and look autophagy is great because of the fact that you're you're giving your liver a break You know people who eat all the time and they're constantly snacking You know You know, it's just like why don't snack I eat a sandwich, you know or whatever You know, they're just constantly snacking constantly eating chocolate constantly. You're never giving your liver a break Okay, your body's just constantly working however when you give your body a break It's able to repair itself. Okay And there's a lot of things that happen with that, you know, you you boost the longevity, you know You're able to resist diseases and viruses a lot better because of it and this is important now You said what does it have to do with you know, the spiritual aspect? Well when you Lay aside every weight in the sin, which doth so easily beset us. Guess what you give your spiritual life an opportunity to repair itself Because look before salvation or even after you get saved you might have had some bad habits Some bad spiritual habits that may have kind of destroyed your spiritual body so to speak, you know, you you destroyed your mind Or you've given yourself bad habits that have caused god to to punish you and chastise you Well, what do you need you need spiritual autophagy? To rebuild Those things again, you know, you might have seen you might have opened certain doors Right in your christian life that are will be there for the rest of your life But that does not mean you cannot rebuild resistance toward those things That does not mean you cannot be strong in the lord And in the power of his might But you have to allow your body to go through autophagy. How does that take place by? You know putting away the sugar putting off the old man being consistent and putting on the new man You know making sure that you're dying to self look not putting yourself in temptations way getting away from the donut wall I was there. Okay with my plate. It was like i've been a good boy, you know You know don't put yourself in temptations way You know if there's a sin that you struggle with you're more you're more prone to give into You know, you can't go into spiritual autophagy if you're constantly putting yourself in front of that Eventually, you're going to give in. Okay, and it's not going to be good for your spiritual life Go to go with me if you would to colossians chapter number three colossians chapter number three Colossians chapter number three You know, you need to rebuild yourself rebuild your spiritual life rebuild those spiritual habits you're like man I'm just i've gotten so lazy. I don't read my bible anymore. Well, that's because you've replaced your bible reading with something bad That's what it is, right? You're filling your time with something else other than bible reading and prayer Well, if you get rid of that your body can go into spiritual autophagy And then you can begin to delight yourself in the law of god again You know, it's like man I just have such a hard time reading the bible well turn off the television Turn off the music turn off whatever is distracting you put off the old man Open up the bible and then guess what you can rebuild those protein cells You can be strong once again You're like man. I just I've become so Such a sluggard. Well, you know if you want to tighten up that flab You got to put off certain things, okay in order for your body to repair itself spiritually speaking But not only that we have to replace the sugar intake with proteins and healthy fats Amen Everyone's like i'm so sick and tired of hearing about this. Well, you know what it's it's true though Okay, and look protein what I mean by protein steak Amen, if anybody's against steak here you'd be against keto, but don't be against steak. Okay, if you're against it shame on you you vegan Vegetarian wuss Bible says you're weak in the faith, right? Colossians chapter 3 by the way, we've had vegans and vegetarians in our church and they've converted amen Yeah, that's right miss dj I saw her instagram story she's buying some some nice good meat She's just like i'm getting me i'm gonna learn how to eat meat Amen, you know why because she's growing spiritually she's growing amen It's good Colossians 3 10 says and have put on the new man Which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Well, what i'm saying is this is the the protein the steaks you need the meat of the word. Amen That's what that's what god compares his word to is meat And fat right the goodness of the lord and so it's not so much as just getting rid of the bad things You need to implement the right type of things You know, it's not so much. Well, i'm just gonna get rid of all my friends Well, yeah, but you got to get some new friends too though Because if you just get rid of the the old friends and your homies and your gang banger buddies But you don't implement any new friends. Guess what you're going to eventually go back to that You know, well, i'm just not going to listen to any music at all. I'm going to put away kanye west, you know You know, i'm just not going to listen to that that reprobate anymore, but I don't really like the hymns I'm, just not going to listen to anything. No, you're going to go back to kanye west Well, maybe not even that bad, but you know, you you'll go back to something else. Okay Oh, no, justin bieber. Don't go back to justin bieber What i'm saying is this is that you have it's the principle of replacement we believe in replacement theology. Amen You have to replace bad habits with good habits replace the sugar with fat replace the carbs with protein Eat steak eat meat. Hey, you know replace the entertainment with hard bible preaching meaty preaching Okay, you know we want our church to be filled with people who are bulking up spiritually speaking They're getting their protein intake. They're learning the word of god They're putting off the works of the flesh and they're putting on the new man They're getting the fats. They're getting the health. They're eating some vegetables every here now and then but you know what? They're getting the nutrition that they need And the way you're going to make sure that you you constantly are putting off the old man Is you got to increase those fats you got to make sure that you love the lord because the bible tells us this That the love of christ constrained us Right the love of christ constrained us. So when we taste the goodness of god, we taste that fat You know what happens is just like man. I don't even want anything else All right. I remember there's times in on keto where it was just like I saw a snickers bar or something. It's just like, you know, no I don't need it You know or you know something unhealthy. It's just like I don't even want it anymore. I'm satisfied with what I hate I really have no desire to eat this right now now look in the christian life just like in the physical life, you know There's going to be times when you do desire it Right because we're sinful men You know, we don't believe in this sinless perfection garbage crap, you know We understand that because we're sinful, you know that we can still have temptations because we have the flesh, right? Well, that's the same thing with keto, you know on keto It's just like there's going to be times when you're really resistant other times like man Actually, that does look pretty good, you know that that that little caesar's pizza does look pretty bomb You know like I can probably kill a whole box man, you know, but then you say no. No, i'm not gonna do it. Okay So but the way you can counterbalance that is make sure you increase your fats Make sure you're loving the lord. Amen Delighting in the lord, you know, how do I make sure I stay away from the world? Well, this is how you make sure by by making sure you you you love the lord Okay, delight in his word delight in god You know be filled with his goodness This is why I encourage people they even in their prayer time. There's nothing wrong with just sitting still Right. The bible says be still know that i'm god and just think about your salvation for a while Speaking of i'm saved i have eternal life lord Thank you for that and just meditate upon that. You know what that does that creates A love a swelling love for the lord. It reminds you you know, like man i'm saved. This is great You know, I have eternal life. I have the forgiveness of sins and it helps you to get emotional About the lord, which is exactly what god wants. There should be a time in your day When you just ponder upon the goodness of god, what are you doing? You're increasing your fats Okay, you're you're recognizing the goodness of god Therefore you you won't you won't want to go back to anything else, okay Now, you know, we've been given liberty only to use not liberty as an occasion to the flesh, okay You know, we need to make sure that we keep our appetites in check go to first peter chapter two first peter chapter two And look Your body isn't made up of sugar So you can't expect to eat sugar to make yourself feel better, right? Your body's literally made up of proteins and fats. I mean think about your brain for example made up of primarily fat So you think sugar is going to help your brain function the way it needs to function? No, it needs fat It needs protein, right? Our diet should primarily consist of proteins and fats and but you know spiritually speaking is the same thing, you know We're not going to grow spiritually By using things the sugars of this world the sweet cotton candy preaching of this world And I don't know this is a crowd that I don't need to tell that to but that's it's just it's worth saying We need to stay away from whack preaching from lame cotton candy You know wussy hillsong type preaching And not even like give that thing. Uh, uh any of our attention? No, not for an hour Right stay away from those things because it's not going to help you. We need the fats and the proteins in order to Grow look at first peter 211 says dearly beloved. I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust Which war against the soul? Hey abstain abstain from from the little caesar's pizza Spiritually speaking, all right, you know abstain from the mcdonald's and the fast foods. They're just they're warring against your body They're making you unhealthy. Well, spiritually speaking We're talking about that we need to abstain from certain things that will cause us to go backwards and not forwards. All right And then lastly go to job chapter 23 Job chapter 23 i'm gonna reach you from psalm 36 verse 7. How excellent is thy loving kindness? Oh god Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house Now shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life In thy light shall we see light And then lastly this goes without saying we just need a well-balanced diet in order for us to make sure That we're healthy spiritually that we develop the right appetites. We just need to make sure that we have a well-balanced diet, you know Physically speaking. We need to make sure we have our vitamins our minerals our electrolytes. We're salting our foods You know, we're getting these things that we need but spiritually speaking is this hey be a well-balanced christian What I mean by that don't overemphasize one aspect of the christian life more than another You know, we've had times when people would literally not come to church But they'll go soul winning That's not well balanced Oh, but it's so noble. No, it's not Noble That's weird It's like I don't want to go to church, but I definitely want to do some soul winning like That's not that's weird. You know what that tells me It tells me that you probably want to be seen of men Do those things? Okay, that's probably that's what it tells me now Look i'm not saying that that's not going to happen every once in a while with you where it's just like You know You had too much sugar the night before and you wake up late or something and he's like man I miss it But I need I need to make it to soul winning But if that's constantly you where it's just like you just don't show up to church But you show up so many that's not a well-balanced diet Or how about this you go to church or you do so any but you don't read your bible That's not a well-balanced diet Yeah, but i'm winning people to christ and man i'm i'm such a good soul winner. Yeah, but you're an unbalanced christian The balanced christian goes soul winning because it's a byproduct of their walk with god the balanced christian preaches the gospel to others not because You know, they have a good heart it's because they have a good walk with god It's telling them. Hey, it's time to go preach the gospel to other people, you know We need to make sure that we're well balanced not perfect. Well balanced that hey Bible reading it's in its place Soul winning is in its place church attendance is in its place Holy living is in its place and we're not going to balance this perfectly But there needs to be some sort of balance there where not one is more important than the other, you know Don't ask me. What's the most important thing? They're all important Yeah, but if I have to choose though You won't don't worry You have to do them all Well, you know, i'm just going to come to church and i'm not going to go soul winning. No, you have to go soul winning also That's important. That's a well-balanced christian there Because you're you're you're in taking the word of god you're being equipped for what To go out and preach the gospel and do the work of the lord, right? Well, you know, I just you know, i'm not really into the the Bible reading aspect, you know, I just struggle with that But for sure i'll just win like 10 people to christ every single week. No, that's not the way it works You need to make sure that you you you're balanced in every single one of these areas And look see where you're lacking in like, you know what actually tonight? Yeah, you're right Maybe I don't do as much soul winning as I should or I don't Come to church as much as I should I don't read my bible as much as I should I need to put that thing in check. I need to make sure that i'm fulfilling that responsibility This is how you do a well-balanced diet and look even in the keto life hashtag keto life Okay, even in that there's times when we I would eat and then I feel something like, you know, I didn't have enough Fats, I didn't have enough protein. I didn't have enough vegetables I didn't I can tell there are certain aspects of my diet that I was lacking in I mean, I remember there's time because we're kind of like learning as we're going And I remember like the first two or three weeks was hell on earth It was terrible. Okay, because I didn't know that you had to have like electrolytes, you know You're intaking all these fats and proteins and but you know with all these vegetables that you're intaking, you know, you're expelling all of your salt all of your electrolytes and I was just like Is this how you're supposed to feel like like i'm healthy I guess you know I was like what's wrong with me? I'm like tired. I'm just like my body feels weak Well, it's because I was expelling all of my electrolytes and I wasn't putting it back in I wasn't salting my foods the way I should be I wasn't putting those electrolytes in there. So, you know, don't fool yourself And to thinking well, I got this down and this down. Yeah, but you're missing your electrolytes You need to make sure you get some good preaching in. Okay, you got to make sure you come to church You got to make sure you're reading your bible. You got to make sure you have a well-balanced diet Job 23 12 says neither have I gone back from the commandments of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth More than my necessary Foods and I had some other verses I want to go to but i'm out of time What's the sermon tonight? The sermon is basically this is hey, make sure you're constantly working on developing good spiritual appetites Okay, you know be spiritual. Amen. You know, some people are like, what are you trying to be spiritual? Yeah, i'm trying to spiritual that's what i'm working on. Thanks for noticing You know work on getting spiritual work on developing those those spiritual appetites, you know, make sure that you're putting off the old man You're getting your spiritual fats and your spiritual proteins in but you're also eating a well-balanced diet Don't overemphasize one aspect of the christian life more than the other god says they're all important And what we got to work on it's a balancing act that we have all of those in check and we're constantly Working on them. All right, let's bow our heads in our word of prayer father We thank you so much for your word And thank you for your fatness that you fill us with it satiates us your goodness is great And lord, um when we take time to think about that We recognize that the things of this world have nothing good to offer us our flesh has nothing good to offer us It may seem it may glisten it may glitter it may catch our attention from time to time Because we're in this world. We're in this flesh But I pray that god you as you promise help may you satiate our souls with your goodness with your fatness Help us to develop the right habits and to maintain them through spiritual disciplines And I pray god that you'd help us to do so. We love you so much and we thank you Pray these things in jesus name. Amen