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Men, Proverbs chapter 23, beginning in verse number 20, the Bible reads, Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Harken unto thy father that beget thee, and despise not thy mother when she's old. The title of my sermon tonight is Gluttons and Winebibbers. Gluttons and Winebibbers. The Bible says, Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. Why? For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Being a drunk, being a glutton, will not only sap you of your money and bring you to poverty because of all the money wasted on booze and junk food and medical bills, but also they will make you drowsy. It will take away your energy. If you eat and overindulge in junk food gluttonous, you will become drowsy. You will lack energy and people will drink alcohol. It's a downer. It's a depressant. It doesn't give them more energy. It gives them less. Drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. But notice verse 20, it says, Be not among winebibbers. Why is that? Because if we spend a lot of time around people who are constantly indulging the flesh, constantly giving in to the lust of the flesh, and exercising no willpower, then we're going to begin to be the same way. The people that we're around have a great influence upon us. And so if we want to live a life that keeps under our body and brings it into subjection, then we need to make sure that we surround ourselves with those type of people. We don't want to be around people that are constantly a bad influence on us, that are influencing us to give in to the lust of the flesh. Not only that, but this also highlights the importance of, as a parent, setting the right example for your children. Because I don't think it's a coincidence that right after he says that we should not be among winebibbers and riotous eaters of flesh, because the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. And in the next breath he says, listen to your parents, he says, hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. You see, the bad habits of the parents will be passed on to the children. Or the good example set by the parents will be passed on to the children. And often what the parents do in moderation, the children will take to excess. And we have a ton of examples in the Bible where parents dabbled in a certain sin, and then the children just went all the way into that sin. And we see that the sins of the parents are often passed on to their children. Now I want to focus tonight in my sermon, I'm not going to focus as much on drinking alcohol, I'm going to focus more on the gluttony side of this, and just the winebibber side of this, not talking about the alcoholic stuff, but the non-alcoholic stuff, the sugary drinks that you're pouring down your gullet, the winebibbing gluttony of that. Now I'm going to focus on that tonight, and there are not a lot of preachers that will preach this sermon because they're afraid of offending people. And I don't want to offend anyone either, because of the fact that my goal as a pastor is never to hurt people's feelings, or to just get on their case and just sock it to them. I mean, what would be the point of that? The point of preaching the Bible, no matter what sin I'm preaching against, is to help people get it right. It's not to beat people up for mistakes that they've made in the past, or to just get on people for being wrong. No, it's to try to help people to improve. The point of hearing the preaching of God's Word is that it would bring about repentance in your life, that you would hear God's Word preached and realize, hey, this is something that I need to fix. This is something I need to improve. What's the point of even going to church if you're not going to be challenged from the pulpit? If you're not going to have sin pointed out so that you can purify yourself and become a better Christian and a better servant of the Lord. So I don't want to offend anyone, but no matter what sin I preach about, somebody's going to be offended. You preach against fornication and having kids out of wedlock, the single mother is going to be offended. You preach against divorce, the divorced are offended. You preach against any sin and somebody out there is going to be offended. But often the people who are offended are the people who need it the most. And a wise man will hear and will increase learning and will understand, hey, maybe there's something I can learn from this. Maybe I can become a better Christian in the new year going into 2018. Maybe I can fix this problem in my life. There are people today that are godly, Bible-believing Christians, but this is a major sin in their life of being a glutton or being a wine bibber or being one who indulges the flesh to excess. And it's a sin just like anything else. Just as the smoker is in sin, just as the drunk is in sin, just as the thief or the covetous are in sin, the one who looks at porno is in sin, the glutton is in sin as well and it needs to be addressed from the pulpit. The Bible covers it. The Bible says, and if you would flip over to Deuteronomy 21, Deuteronomy 21, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10 verse 16, woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house dropeth through. You see that often overeating or gluttony is mentioned in the same breath with drunkenness. You see that those two things are often put together side by side in the Bible. Here's another example of that, Deuteronomy 21 verse 18. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of the city, Deuteronomy 21, 19, and unto the gate of his place and they shall say unto the elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die, so shalt thou put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear. And so while you might think to yourself, well I don't know if gluttony is a big deal, I don't know if it's a big sin, here's the thing, it can lead to worse sins. Because when a person is willing to disobey in that area, to disobey mom and dad in that area or to disobey the wisdom and the guidelines of the word of God and overindulge in this area, what area will they overindulge in next? You see when we train our bodies to rule us and when we just train ourselves where whatever we crave, whatever we desire, we just indulge in that and we don't tell ourselves no, are we going to tell ourselves no in other areas of life? You think about Eli. The Bible talks about how Eli was a very heavy man, the Bible tells us. And in fact when God rebuked Eli, he said to him, wherefore kick ye at my sacrifices and at mine offering which I have commanded in my habitation and honourest thy sons above me to make yourselves fat with the cheapest of all the offerings of Israel my people. So he rebuked him for making himself fat and he said that he was a very heavy man. But what do we see next? Eli, that's where it stopped with him. That was his big sin was that he was just overindulging the flesh but you know what his sons did, they did the same thing except they added another sin, they lay with the women that assembled by the congregation. So basically the dad had this sin of gluttony and then what did his sons do? They said okay I see your gluttony and I'll raise you fornication. They did what the dad did but then they just indulged the flesh in other areas as well. And so this can lead to worse, we don't want to raise sons of Eli do we? I don't want my sons to grow up and be like Eli's sons and just grow up and indulge the flesh through gluttony, indulge in drunkenness and indulge in fornication. I don't think you want to raise an Eli either. Well we need to have some self-discipline in our lives so that our children will see that example and grow up and be disciplined young people and not like Eli's sons. Now you say well it's just genetic. That's funny because when you see people that are morbidly obese and they adopt children, those adopted children become morbidly obese as well. You say well the whole family is that way, it's genetic. The whole family has the same habits. The whole family has the same diet. The whole family has the same lifestyle. And you know who determines this more than anyone else is the mother. And the mother is the one that's going to the grocery store and putting things in the cart. The mother is the one that's making breakfast, lunch and dinner. You got to take that responsibility ladies to serve nutritious food to your family and to teach your children habits of what is the right food to eat and what is the wrong food to eat and when to say okay you've had enough. You know we need to put limitations on what our children should eat and not eat. You say well Pastor Anderson I think that this is just all your opinion. It's out of bounds. How dare you? Well if you stop and think about it and if you would flip over to Genesis chapter 2. If you stop and think about it the very first sin in the Bible was somebody eating something that they were told not to eat. That's the first sin in the Bible. True or false? You open the Bible to Genesis 1 and you start reading. The first time somebody disobeys God is God says don't eat that and they eat it. And you know what I'll bet you that that is one of the first sins that we all committed in our lives. How many of us when we were kids stole a cookie out of the cookie jar? That's probably the first thing that we ever stole. Right? I mean who here can say Pastor I remember specifically a time. Every head bowed every eyes closed. But how many of you would say I remember specifically a time when I was a kid when I was told that I was not allowed to eat something and I snuck it and ate it anyway. I remember a time like that. My kids should all have their hands up because I busted you doing it. Yeah but look around. So look it's the first sin in the Bible and it's probably the first sin in most of our lives. I remember one time you know my mom was reorganizing our bedrooms and she was moving mattresses. She picked up my mattress and underneath my mattress there were like 30 packages the wrappers of those Farley's fruit snacks who knows what I'm talking about the Farley's those things were good right and grape strawberry and cherry right and I mean there was just so many packages and I got a big you know or I think I think my mom didn't spank me because I convinced her like that was a long time ago mom the statute of limitations has expired on that you know I'm like no that was like a year ago I think it's like a year and a half ago you haven't even bought those in a while you know because I had just been sneaking them because there was a rule you're allowed to have one per day or something but we would go beyond that and then the wrappers would have to be disposed of in a in a in a safe location so the point is you know this is a sin that everybody has probably had in their life at some point the Bible talks about it the Bible deals with the Bible covers it therefore I as a preacher should cover it as well of course in the famous verse the Bible tells us what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God and you're not your own for your bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God if our body belongs to the Lord we need to honor our bodies and not destroy them I mean if I borrowed someone's car I shouldn't trash the thing and return it to them but that's what we're doing we're trashing a borrowed body that belongs to the Lord we need to treat it with respect the Bible talks about in Psalm 78 stay there in Genesis but in Psalm 78 29 it says so they did eat and were well filled for he gave them their own desire they were not estranged from their lust but while their meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smoked down the chosen men of Israel look this is something God deals with in the Bible it's something that we need to be cognizant of ok so what food should we eat you say ok Pastor Anderson you're right there's a limit to what we should eat we should take care of what we eat mothers fathers need to make sure that their children have nutritious food but what should we be eating what's the right thing to eat what should we avoid when do we say enough is enough when do we decide we've gone too far and we've gone into gluttony well let's get some principles from the Bible of course we showed that in Genesis 2 the first sin was was not was eating something God said not to eat but look at Genesis chapter 1 Genesis chapter 1 verse 29 says this and God said behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the witch is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat now the word meat let me just stop and explain this when we say the word meat we are only referring to animal flesh but when the Bible uses the word meat it's actually referring to any type of food for example in the Old Testament they had something called the meat offering and it was made out of fine flour mingled with oil so that's not something that we would think of as meat we would think of that as a pancake okay but here he says that the the fruits and the vegetables the seeds to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I've given every green herb for meat and it was so so let's just start out number one as one of the foods that we should eat the fruits and vegetables that God has created now that's not the only thing that we should eat the Bible has a lot to say about other foods that we should eat that we're not talking about veganism tonight I'm going to get into that a little bit later but one of the things that we should be eating are fruits and vegetables these are the foods that God created and if we are eating them in the exact form that God created them how could that be bad for us when God says look I've given you all these fruits and vegetables and seeds so eating fruits and vegetables is healthy it's nutritious and God said of all the trees of the garden now may as freely eat it's a it's a great thing for us to be eating but notice he did not say to you it shall be for a drink he said to you it shall be for meat okay the biggest problem today with our diet in America why is it that obesity is epidemic why is it that so many people struggle so hard to keep their weight under control it's not the food as much as the drinks it's the drinks that are killing us today it's the drinks that are causing people to struggle in this area more than anything now there's a lot of junk food out there don't get me wrong but the drinks are even worse okay now let me just explain to you the science behind this okay see everything that we eat is eventually turned into sugar it's turned into energy that our cells and our bodies can use to perform whatever the function and that's what we're doing okay but there are different types of sugars that we could eat now one of those types of sugars is known as glucose and another of those sugars is known as fructose and the reason it's called fructose is because it has to do with fruit okay anything that ends in o is pretty much a sugar like you've got your lactose and maltose dextrose fructose glucose stay with me now all right glucose and fructose now our body will eventually break everything down to glucose glucose is the standard energy unit that we use in our bodies okay it all comes down to glucose eventually now what is fructose it's found in fruit well what about the white granulated sugar that's sitting in the sugar jar or on the table at a restaurant what is that stuff well that stuff is called sucrose and it's half glucose and half fructose okay so just stay with me now glucose is the energy that we all need to survive right fructose is the kind of sugar that comes from fruit everybody got it that's the white powdery stuff on the table is both of these things combined because it's called a dye saccharide because it has two monosaccharides glucose and fructose together form sucrose which is the stuff on the table in the white dish everybody follow okay here's the thing about glucose when you consume glucose you're getting calories and your body says I got calories I'm going to get a little more full now because I've ingested calories right because our bodies have a mechanism to tell us when to stop eating right you're eating you're enjoying it but you get to a point where you say you know what I'm full I don't need anymore or you might just go hours and hours having no desire to eat why because you're full well one of the things that makes you full is eating food now I know that sounds kind of obvious but bear with me for a moment you eat food you get full right glucose has that effect upon you okay fructose on the other hand does not have that effect on you in fact fructose makes you more hungry so you're putting calories in and you don't walk away more full you walk away even hungrier that's what fructose does now why why would God create fructose in the glucose that way here's why because fruit has so much fiber in it that if you just ate a bunch of fruit all day right and then just said oh I'm full you're not going to get enough food you're not going to get enough nutrition you're going to be at a super caloric deficit if you're just eating just nothing but just fruit okay why because if you eat fruit it takes up a lot of space in your stomach but it doesn't give you a lot of calories and that fiber takes work to digest and it's not giving you so the point is that it makes sense why God would create the sugar and fruit to not make you full so that you don't just eat nothing but fruit you know you have to eat other things too that will actually fill you up right I mean think about it if your kids hungry and you just tell them well eat an apple son is that going to fill them up here eat these grapes here eat some strawberries that doesn't really fill you up though you're like I need a real meal okay so that's why fructose doesn't fill you up because you can eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want and you're not going to get fat from eating raw fruits and vegetables okay here's the problem though when you take the fructose out of the fruit now you don't have any of the fiber and the good stuff now you're just mainlining pure sugar into your body that doesn't make you full but makes you hungry so you drink a glass of orange juice or apple juice or grape juice and what are you doing you're just dumping in sugar that makes you even more hungry doesn't fill you up at all now can you see why this would be a problem okay you say well you know that's fruit juice okay what about coca-cola you know what coca-cola is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup so it's been scientifically proven that if you drink a coke with your meal you'll eat more food so you're adding calories with the coke not that but it doesn't fill you up makes you more hungry so if I ate 200 calories worth of food I'd be a little more full right because I ate 200 calories of real food but if I drink 200 calories of coca-cola I walk away even hungrier and I've had an additional 200 calories everybody understand what I'm saying so you end up eating way more it's not just oh the coke's only 200 calories whatever yeah it's 200 calories and it's gonna make you hungrier and then you're gonna eat even more and then you're gonna drink even more and then you're gonna get hungry and not only that coca-cola is designed to make you even thirstier too have you ever noticed that when you drink coke you're even thirstier because it's diuretic it has it's literally formulated to make you thirsty and hungry that's why these restaurants love to ply you with coca-cola because they know you'll buy more food you'll eat more and they oh free refills on the coke buddy drink up because the more you drink the hungrier and the thirstier you get and the more you're gonna overeat and over indulge this is a huge problem today why people are overweight one of the biggest things that you could do to fix this going into the new year you know because look you can party till midnight tonight all right but you know don't you know you can put this all into practice tomorrow I don't want to dampen the potluck or anything you know this is all tomorrow folks but here's the thing about that one of the best things that you could do is just start drinking water with every meal see we in America today are just too used to just drinking a fun party drink with every single meal we wake up in the morning for breakfast and we gotta have a big giant glass of orange juice and just dump all that fructose down the gullet and then for lunch it's coca-cola or milk or grape juice or apple juice or whatever the soda and it's just dinner time it's a fun drink and you know what it's also expensive you're also wasting money when you go out to eat and you got to buy all these expensive drinks to go with your food and you know this might not be a popular sermon but this could actually save your life you know when you don't have type 2 diabetes and when you don't have heart disease and when you aren't suffering from all these illnesses that are obesity related drinking calories that's the biggest problem and especially fructose and you say well no no pastor Anderson you understand I got the the coca-cola from Mexico with the cane sugar which is what half fructose same thing it's having the same effect you're drinking calories that don't make you full if you instead ate those calories you say well I tried to eat I tried to lose weight I was just too hungry all the time yeah but focus on eating the calories eat food eat nutritious food fill up on that and drink water now look if you're used to drinking a fun drink with every meal this is a little bit of an adjustment at first I you know for me I drank a ton of milk with every meal and I I don't think milk is bad unless you're overweight then milk is bad because milk is the Bible says that you may grow there by all right so yeah if you're a baby or a child yeah desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by but you know what some of us aren't interested in growing anymore now if we need to grow then yeah let's if you're underweight drink milk it's good for you okay but people that are overweight you just need to drink water friend with every meal now look if you're used to just the constant sodas and I've been there when I was a teenager and you can kind of get away with it sometimes when you're a teenager although you're setting bad habits for your life and and harming your health you know I was drinking sodas with every single meal drinking milk constantly with every meal but listen to me all you have to do is go like two weeks where you drink water with every meal and you will not miss it anymore you know it's like quitting smoking it's like quitting anything I mean you just you go like two weeks where you just with breakfast you drink water lunch drink water dinner drink water and just do that for a few weeks and you will break the addiction your body will adapt and pretty soon you won't even miss it and some of you guys especially because it's a lot harder for women to lose weight than men but for you men just that alone would probably cause you to lose like 20 or 30 pounds if you would actually just drink water with every meal because then you're going to eat less food I mean look I used I used to go to Panera I mean I still go to Panera but I used to go to Panera and I'd get two giant breakfast sandwiches and sometimes I'd even have something else with the orange juice right but you know then I switched to drinking water with every meal now I eat one breakfast sandwich and I'm done because you're just not as hungry when you drink water instead of dumping in all that fructose which is an appetite giver not an appetite suppressant so I don't want to spend too much time on that now look I'm not saying to never drink juice or soda or anything like that but I will say this it should be a rare treat see the Bible says he that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich the Bible says the pastor should not be given to wine the deacon should not be given to much wine wine in the Bible is fruit juice now often it's alcoholic and other times it's not alcoholic it just depends on the context but you know what as a pastor I should not be given to either the alcoholic kind or the non-alcoholic kind you know why because if I'm given to the alcoholic kind then I'm a drunk and if I'm given to the non-alcoholic kind I'm going to get fat and you know what all across America we have fat preachers in the pulpits all across America by the thousands and it's a look I'm not down on them I don't hate them I'm not mad at them but I'm telling you that's a bad example they're setting a bad example to their flock and they need to change that they need to fix that I'm not saying that they're bad people I'm not saying that God can't use them but I am saying that they should get it fixed and you know what there have been many fat preachers who've lost the weight and fixed that anybody can fix that but they have to you can't just keep doing the same thing and expecting to get a different result you know you're gonna have to make changes in your life like for example step one don't go home and dump out all the coca-cola and all the fruit you say well fruit juice is good for you drink your apple a day wrong fruit juice is good for you you know what yeah if you're underweight drink fruit juice anyone who is overweight should never think that they're doing their body a favor by drinking fruit juice ever you are not doing anything healthy for your body ever drinking fruit juice if you're overweight if you are overweight fruit juice should never even enter your mouth because and the sad thing is people drinking like oh this is really good for me you know I saw a TV commercial about it orange juice is good for your heart dad have a big glass you know I remember that was a commercial I can quote a lot of commercials from my childhood but you know drink this glass of orange juice given to old man here you need this yeah this is gonna help your heart well you know it's not gonna help your heart to be a hundred pounds overweight because every morning you drink a glass of fructose and then you're hungry all day and eat a bunch of junk food look fruit juice especially the pasteurized fruit juice at the store or at a restaurant has virtually no nutritional value the nutritional value is close to zero and whatever nutritional value is there is counteracted by the fact that's making you overweight which is bad for you so you just got to get that out of your head that fruit juice is good for me wrong here's what's good for you fruit say what's the difference fiber it's a massive difference look you could eat pineapples and bananas and apples and oranges all day long that stuff's good for you but as soon as you start drinking pineapple juice apple juice grape juice it's bad for you and again I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it for a rare treat but that's what it should be considered a treat you know your birthday comes once a year New Year's Eve is once a year you know right Christmas is once a year Thanksgiving's once a year you know somebody told me they said you know your birthday comes once a year and today's not your birthday but it's always somebody's birthday and you know that's our mentality I mean look when you have a church with 365 people in it it's always going to be somebody's birthday so here's a good rule of thumb party on your birthday but not on everybody's birthday because if you're gonna just break out the wine and and I'm not talking alcohol now I'm talking the fruit juices the coca-colas the the fun drinks if you're gonna crack those out on everybody's birthday you're gonna be just drinking that stuff all the time eating that stuff all the time in excess so look yeah cookies brownies cake all that sugary kind of junk food and the the fruit juices and the sodas they should be a rare treat I'm not saying you can never eat them or drink them but when you're just constantly eating and drinking that stuff don't be surprised when you get overweight and again let me just say a little more on the science part of the sermon before I get back to the Bible here's the science of it okay one pound equals 3500 calories all right one pound 3500 calories so what does that mean that means that if you ingest 350 extra calories that you don't need for 10 days right everybody listening 350 times 10 that's a pound of fat added okay now do that for a whole year and you just added 30 some pounds I mean you can you can really do damage quickly or you can lose weight now look how much if you're drinking a soda with lunch and a soda with dinner right that's like 350 calories between those two things or a glass of orange juice with breakfast and a soda with dinner that's 350 calories that you just drink not to mention bags making you hungrier and you're overeating but just that alone that's 350 calories every 10 days imagine what that how quickly you could gain too much weight and then you wonder why so many people are overweight it's all the drinks and then some people when they're teenagers and they're growing they develop these habits and then they get married and their life slows down and then they just keep eating and drinking the same way they ate and drank when they were teenagers or in their 20s look when you get in your 30s you got to slow down on that stuff you're not growing anymore and so you know if you want to even just even to just drink just think about this even if you just drank 100 calories a day above what your body needs just you just have an excess every day of 100 calories times 365 I don't know what that math is I'm too tired but anyway it's bad whatever it is it's it's don't do it that's all I know I'm just kidding but anyway you know yeah you're gonna gain 10 pounds approximately in a year right or you're gonna lose 10 pounds if you shave off 100 calories every day so you know these are just some things to think about you can't just keep on going down that same path and then wondering why you can't lose weight and look stay away from gimmicks have I preached to you a gimmick tonight yet no I'm not telling you to do any kind of a gimmick I'm just telling you to drink water like all the prophets in the Bible drank water like everybody in the Bible drank water and they drank wine as a treat as a rare treat okay let's get back to the Bible what kind of food should we eat fruits and vegetables are great but don't juice them and don't drink the juice eat the fruit eat the vegetable get the fiber eat it the way God intended number one but number two we should also be eating meat go if you would to Genesis chapter 9 Genesis chapter 9 we should also eat meat so first of all the fruits and vegetables are good for us but we should eat them not juice them actually ingest them as God you say well no no because if we if we can juice them then it's like we can just get so many more nutrients because there's no way I could ever eat you know 15 oranges but I could juice some and there's no way I'd ever eat all these vegetables and fruits you know I get like 30 pieces of produce and just drink it all in this one glass it's just so many vitamins we're saying obviously God didn't intend you to eat or drink that many or else it wouldn't require a machine that was invented in the 20th century to make it number one but number two who can afford that it's like you're just buying like so I mean that stuff is expensive and then like 90% of it goes in the trash right you come home with like bags of produce you juice it all it's like one glass and then the whole trash is just filled with pulp and fiber and that's all the stuff that's good for you fiber is good for you so you know stay away from the juicing you know and actually eat the eat the foods and you say well but by blending it up it's like pre-digested here's the thing your body is supposed to do the digesting you don't need a pre-digested meal digest it yourself because you know what then your body if your body has to work to digest things then you're like burning calories just to digest it I mean like that Apple that has 60 calories you're not getting 60 calories out of that Apple so we are an apple has six cars no because it takes 60 calories just to gnaw through the thing and swallow it all and digest it all and eliminate it all you're gonna burn 60 cows that's why the fructose doesn't make you full because you need to eat something that's gonna put meat on your bones and apples will not put meat on your bones you're not you know look the chewing is part of the process oh yeah it's great you don't have to chew anything you just pour it all down chew chew and swallow and digest don't have someone else do your digesting for you so number one we should eat the fruits and vegetables number two we should eat meat Genesis 9 verse 3 every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things but flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall you not eat go to first Timothy chapter 4 first Timothy chapter 4 so the Bible tells us to eat the fruits and vegetables but he also says to eat the the moving creatures the living things the animals he said as the green herb have I given you all things now the misguided vegan philosophy will tell us well but yeah but before sin man only ate fruits and vegetables well here's the problem with that logic is that before sin lions also ate straw like an ox but if a lion tries to eat that way now it'll die any cat even a house cat cannot live on a vegan diet despite what lying vegan websites will tell you cats do not have the enzymes to process a plant based diet they must eat meat now dogs could live on a vegan diet but cats cannot that's why God brings up the miracle by the lion is going to eat straw like an ox and the millennium and so forth that's how it was the beginning so to say well you know God told them in the Garden of Eden just eat fruits and vegetables so that must be the best thing for our bodies that's about as logical as saying well straw is the best thing for a lion's body because after all it's how it's going to be in the millennium how it was in the Garden of Eden no wrong our bodies right now are designed to eat meat so God tells us to eat meat first Timothy 4 1 now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shut apart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth for every creature referring to the animals that provide the meats for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou is attained and in the Old Testament the priests every day ate meat from the sacrifices and the children of Israel had to eat meat at the Passover it would have been impossible to be vegan in the Old Testament and be right with God impossible because you have to eat the Passover commandment so God obviously didn't intend for us to be vegan so number one eat your fruits and vegetables number two eat your meats and number three eat bread eat bread Matthew 6 11 give us this day our daily bread Luke 11 3 give us this day our daily bread Acts 2 46 and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of art you say well pastor Harris said what kind of a diet is this we're supposed to eat meat and bread and fruits and vegetables so are we cutting out butter no butter is biblical amen kind of a diet is this I thought you were gonna go paleo man thought we're going vegan thought we're going low carb low fat no get off the gimmicks get off the fads now look do the gimmicks and fads work yeah they work if you actually follow them all of it works I mean if you were to just go super low fat yeah you're gonna lose weight if you go super low carb yeah you're gonna lose weight but here's the thing a lot of that stuff it's not sustainable for a lifetime though so people they do the fad they do the gimmick and then they end up gaining all the way back or or let's say oh it works to lose weight but that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you because people can do a low fat diet and yeah it works right until their hair starts falling out till they start getting all crazy because they don't have enough omega fatty acids going to their brain you know their nervous system gets all weirded out and stuff so look look I don't want to do some radical diet because then I could be missing out on key nutrients so I don't want to cut out carbs or cut out fat or cut out meat or cut out fruits and vegetables you know what we need to eat a balanced normal diet and stay away from the gimmicks and the fads just a sustainable long-term diet where we drink water and eat a balanced diet of healthy whole foods you know and and and just say now look you say well I lost a lot of weight and had success with this gimmick or that gimmick great but you know for the average person that stuff doesn't work you know you need something that you can stick with you need something that fits your lifestyle and it God tells us to eat bread and meat and butter is good and the fruits and vegetables now if you would flip over to Deuteronomy 22 Deuteronomy chapter 22 and by the way this paleo diet I don't like the name because it implies that we were once a caveman and it's basically telling us hey we evolved to eat like a caveman let's eat like a hunter-gatherer or whatever and look I'm not saying that people you know couldn't be healthy or lose weight on that paleo diet but I don't like the name first of all and I dead sure don't believe that that's how God created us to eat when he's telling us to eat bread every day give us this day our daily bread now the problem today is not with meat or with bread the problem is that people are eating junk meat and junk bread you know and so people will say like well I switched to a vegan diet and now I just feel so much better yeah that's because you went from a junk food right well-rounded diet to a healthy vegan diet then yeah you're gonna be way better off on the healthy vegan diet than you were on the total junk diet but you know you can actually get on a healthy well-rounded diet then you'll be better off even than the vegan say why are you down on the vegans it's a doctrine of devils the Bible says and so it's something we need to combat in the end times number one when people make a religion out of it but number two you know you don't want to end up looking like Johnny Nixon because you know you ate way too much soy or whatever if you unless you don't know who that is but anyway the point is you know a lot of these vegan diets a lot of these vegan diets they're they're heavy on soy so boys thank you don't you know look as a man you don't want to look like a soy boy you know you don't want to get all effeminate and and low testosterone because you're getting a bunch of phyto estrogen mimickers from a bunch of soy because you're eating too much tofu so you know that that it's not good for you so even if these things could help you lose weight and look yeah you could be vegan without eating soy I get that but the average vegan person it's so funny how they're like yeah you know we were created to eat this way vegan it's God's intent then why are vegans always trying to make food that's like meat if it's so natural to be a vegan why do you have to keep tricking yourself that you're eating meat right with a vegan sausage and a vegan cheeseburger and a vegan turkey you know if it's so normal to be vegan would you just eat the fruits and vegetables and the grains and stuff you always have to trick all this tastes just like a burger well you know what I got some that tastes just like a burger a burger you say oh the animals slay and eat look at Deuteronomy 22 let me just add this on we need to stay away from the GMOs stay away from the genetically modified foods the Franken foods Deuteronomy 22 verse 9 thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds lest the fruit of thy seed which thou has sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled this is one of those verses that's made fun of in the Bible oh you know you believe the Bible huh well verse 11 says not to wear a garment of woolen and linen together you're wearing a mixed fabric no I'm a hundred percent cotton buddy how you doing you weren't a mixed fabric buddy you know what maybe we should actually listen to this stuff and quit mixing the crops and not so our vineyard with diverse seeds lest the fruit of thy seed which thou has sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled why don't we keep things the way God created them and not genetically modify the plants and animals that we eat so I think that if we were smart we'd go with what God made because God created everything he said it's all very good so if we eat the fruit that God made we eat the vegetable that God made we butcher and eat the animal that God gave us and then we make bread out of the grain that God gave us and we eat the butter from the milk that God gave us in moderation we're gonna be doing great the problem is that we're driving through and getting partially hydrogenated soybean oil high fructose corn syrup and a whole bunch of chemical ingredients and a whole bunch of junk garbage food that's the problem it's not meat that's the problem it's not bread that's so people think like oh if I just go vegetarian it'll fix all my problems and then you tell them no meat's good for you oh well have you seen you know the the meat industry what we don't eat that meat though get your meat from a healthy source get the grass fed get the organic you say oh I can't afford it you know what you can't afford not to eat healthy you you know what you can't afford the medical bills that you're gonna pay from all the junk food that you eat you know what you can't afford all the sick days you're gonna have to take from your junk oh you know I I just don't have enough money so I just have to eat junk food okay you're gonna spend all the money at the hospital and you're gonna lose all the money when you can't go to work and can't perform well because you're full of junk food and you know what junk food is not more expensive than real food that is a myth that is a myth I'll tell you that this is what it comes down to it's not that it's not that junk food is cheaper than real food because it's not you know what it is it's more convenient than real food the thing about real food is that somebody has to prepare it okay that's what it comes down to the junky foods are the ones that are ready to go off the shelf they're ready to go out of the box ready to go out of the can ready and waiting right across the parking lot in Wendy's right here ready to roll I mean what's easier rolling across the street into Wendy's and getting your your combo of the cheeseburger and the fries and the wine and the oil of Wendy's or actually going home and forming your ground beef patties and then baking your rolls that you made from scratch for the bread right you baked your own bread right I mean yeah for the for the rolls you know and and then and then but that's a simple meal but what about you know baking the bread and chopping up the fruits and chopping up the vegetables and and cooking it yourself see the healthy foods the rice and the beans are cheap and they're healthy but you have to do what soak the beans you know cook the food you gotta do work you gotta prepare it that's the issue and if you want to do it on the cheap you have to put a little work into finding the deals and that takes work too right because you have to you know the prudent wife and the virtuous wife is seeking out the deals and the bargains on the nutritious food so eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank you can do it on a budget you just might have to you know do a little more work to prepare things and to seek out things and you know and plus you might not be able to eat steak and lobster with every meal you know you might have to do some meatless meals just to save money but rice beans fruits vegetables these things are not that expensive if you buy them in their raw forms and actually prepare them yourself okay so I'm just gonna leave you with this one last verse turn to Jeremiah chapter 13 Jeremiah 13 and while you're turning I'm just gonna give you a quick review of everything we learned tonight and look if you want to just blow off everything I'm saying tonight you're welcome to do that that's fine I still love you we're still friends but I'm only telling you this stuff because I love you and you know what if the pastor who will never touch on this maybe he just doesn't love his people maybe he's just afraid to tell them the truth but you know sometimes a little tough love is what we need to hear because we're destroying ourselves we're destroying our bodies we're destroying and you know what fundamental Baptist churches are notorious for junk food every fundamental Baptist Church I've ever been to it's just McDonald's and just it's just the worst junk and Kool-Aid in the Sunday school and we Baptists love to eat amen you know just the huge preachers and everything's junk and rare you know this is like one of the only Baptist churches in America where we extol healthy eating and organic and non-gmo and and look when we have a church picnic that's what we serve we serve organic grass-fed beef we serve any church activity even when we break the record and serve ice cream as a rare treat it's organic ice cream or it's the healthiest ice creams that we can find so how can you afford that you know what because if we wouldn't serve it to Jesus we won't serve it to you if if if I have anything to do with purchasing any food for any activity I buy what I would buy for Jesus I wouldn't serve Jesus junk I would you know if I were to serve Jesus ice cream if Jesus said woman give me an ice cream cone should my wife get you know the five gallon Walmart cheapest possible ice cream and give it to him you know or should she give him the best and if we've done it on to one of the least of Christ's brethren we've done it unto him and we you know so so we want to have a culture in our church and a culture for our children and a culture for the people around us of modeling healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle in all areas of life not to just get up and say don't smoke kids and just eat the worst junk food and be a hundred pounds overweight and then you know what the kids are going to think well Bible doesn't mention smoking where how dare he tell me that look what he's doing to his body he's gonna he's gonna be lucky to hit 50 you know so the point is that you know we need to set the right example for the people and and by the way I've heard that there's been some people in our church have taken this preaching and said oh well pastor pastor says smoking's not a big deal because it's just like eating junk food look the thought of foolishness is sin I think you missed the point the point was don't eat junk food or smoke it wasn't like oh it's just like eating junk food so let's just smoke up let's go up and smoke no you're missing the point buddy but you know people kind of hear what they want to hear don't they but you know what I'm sick of people blaming me for their sin don't say well I smoke because pastor Anderson said it's not a big deal you know what let me just start right now and say you know what if you smoke you're a fool and you need to quit smoking it's a lack of character it's stupid it's worthless it's destroying your health it's a waste of money and I'm against smoking anything pot tobacco anything it's garbage quit smoking it's foolish and don't try to blame me on that and say well pastor Anderson was soft on smoking it's like good night the last point I want to make after I make this quick review number one drink water with every meal number two eat a balanced diet of healthy nutritious food you don't need a gimmick just eat less food eat a balanced diet eat as much fruits and vegetables as you want if you get hungry eat fruits and vegetables right drink water eat a sensible portion of food get you know you want to count calories look do whatever it takes get on whatever program you need but get it under control and then lastly is this you're going to have to change your habits you're going to have to change your habits you're going to have to break some addictions in your life that's what it comes down to Jeremiah 13 verse 23 says can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil what's the bible saying look if you are accustomed to doing evil it seems impossible to you to do good like it would be impossible for a black person to become white or for a leopard to become a tiger okay look people have this attitude that oh it's impossible but it's just that you have to change your habits everybody's got an excuse don't they oh you know it's just my my my thyroid it's just my hormones it's just my genetics it's just my DNA but you know what it is though it's that you're accustomed to doing it wrong that's the problem show me somebody who loves to drink water and drinks water with every meal and I'll show you somebody who's not overweight and you show me the one who's drinking all the sodas and the wine and the beer and the fruit juice and the milk and the drive-through sodas and icees and I'll show you somebody who's overweight by and large we need to change our habits and you know what the new year is a great chance to do it to push a reset button have one last hurrah tonight and tomorrow decide on some concrete and don't just have some vague yeah I need to fix this you know you need to go into it you know if this is a problem and a lot of people don't have this problem but some people do you know you ought to go into it tomorrow with with a plan that says you know what I'm going to start out doing X and sometimes it's just baby steps you know just one step at a time just get rid of the drinks just get on water for a while see what we'll learn what water tastes like learn what we've been drinking the rest of us and then you know keep progressing from there let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we just thank you so much for your word and the wisdom on this subject Lord help us not to be gluttons and wine bibbers Lord help us not to be given to wine and given to indulging the flesh and eating junk Lord help us to be sensible and to control our appetites Lord and I know this is a very difficult struggle for people it's a hard addiction to break Lord but I just pray that you would just give us the strength to do it to eat what's right so that we can have the energy to go out soul winning and not get tired after 20 minutes but that we could get out there and get soul winning and not be drowsy and to be able to have energy to raise our children and do the things that we need to do Lord and I pray that no one would be angry or offended by the sermon tonight Lord I pray that everyone would just accept it in a spirit of love in which it was delivered Lord and in Jesus name we pray, Amen.