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