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We'll come back to Ecclesiastes 10, but just go back a few pages to Proverbs 23. Tonight I'm preaching on the sin of gluttony. I'm preaching on eating junk food or eating too much, engorging yourself, being a glutton and a wine bibber. Now this is something that the Bible does talk about and cover, but you don't hear about it in church very much. Because of the fact that it's a sensitive issue for some people, but it's just like any other sin. And if I don't preach on a sin because people are guilty of it, well then I'm not going to be able to preach on any sins because everybody's guilty of something. And when you have 300 people in the church, you know, somebody's going to be guilty of everything. I remember in the early days of our church back in 2006, I got up and I preached a hard sermon about smoking. And I didn't think anybody in our church smoked. I just thought, this is a preventative sermon. I didn't know of a soul in our church that smokes, so I preached this big sermon against smoking and just ripped on smoking. I even bought a pack of cigarettes and smashed it up and preached about it. And so it was funny when I bought the pack of cigarettes, I walk in the gas station and I said, hey, I'm buying this pack of cigarettes, you know, I need a pack of cigarettes to preach against it. And he's like, what brand do you want? You know, he said, you know, what brand do you want? I don't like any of it. I'm preaching against it. So then I'm like, just give me whatever's the most popular. And he was just seemed like really confused. This Pakistani guy that was helping me out. So then finally he just picked like the most classic pack of cigarettes and then he just put it on the table and he's just like, I give you a discount. I'm like, okay, great. So I guess since I wasn't actually going to smoke it, I got a discount. So if you ever want to get a discount on cigarettes, that's a little trick that I picked up. But anyway, the point is I preached this sermon against cigarettes and literally it turned out there were four people in the church smoking. And keep in mind, the church is running like 20 back then. Four of them are smoking. I didn't know anybody was smoking. And several people came up to my wife independently and said, is Pastor Anderson mad at me because he got up and he ripped so hard on smoking and you know, I know he was directing that at me and they all thought that I was directing the sermon at them. But in reality, I'm just preaching the Bible and if the shoe fits, wear it. But obviously we got to preach against sin. Now the Bible says some men's sins are open beforehand going before the judgment and others they fall after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. And what the Bible is saying there is that some sins are really open and easy to see. Other sins are hard to see. So just because one person's sin is more public than others, you know, sins like smoking or gluttony or things like that, they're a little bit easier to spot. You know, that doesn't mean that that person's a bad person or something like that because everybody else has sins too. It's just some of them aren't as open. But everybody's guilty of sin. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sineth not. The reason that I preach this sermon is because I love you, okay? And I know that being a glutton will destroy your life. It will destroy your quality of life now. It will destroy your longevity to where you won't live as long. And not only that, but it can even cause you to have mental problems and all kinds of other relationship problems, problems at work, problems with family. There are all kinds of repercussions that come from this thing of gluttony. And in America, many people are guilty of this. I mean, this is a huge problem. It's an epidemic in America today where it's almost just become considered normal to be obese, to be gluttonous or to overeat. And even in Baptist churches, they almost pride themselves in this. Many preachers pride themselves and almost, you know, show it as a trophy, their giant gut, you know? And we need to change the culture amongst Baptists, okay? We need to be, we need to understand that the Bible applies to every area of life. And whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. And so we shouldn't just have this attitude that says, oh, who cares about that? You know, I'm just going to eat whatever I want and I'm just going to be a hundred pounds overweight and I'm still a good Christian. Because it's funny how quick you are to condemn people with other sins. That's a sin too. The Bible says no. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, okay? And you don't have the right to just expand onto that thing and do that kind of a major addition, all right? So we're here in Proverbs 23. Look what the Bible says in verse 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise and guide thine heart in the way. 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. Now the Bible says here, don't be around winebibbers and riotous eaters of flesh. Why is that? Because you don't want to learn their ways. If you get around people who have bad habits, you're going to pick up those bad habits. And so eating and drinking especially are social activities. Meals and drinks are often shared between people. So if you get around people who just indiscriminately just gorge and overindulge on food and drink, well guess what? You're going to start being the same way when you get around people that are like that. And the converse is also true. If you get around people who are exercising some restraint and holding back and being sensible in their choices, you're going to do the same thing. I mean I can't even count how many times I've sat at a table and the waiter asks, you know, what would you like to drink? And I said water. And then everybody at the table is like, oh yeah, we'll have water too. But if I would have said, yeah, give me a chocolate milkshake and a Coca-Cola, then everybody, yeah, same. Everybody would, right? Because we tend to follow the lead of the people around us. So we got to make sure that we don't hang out with people who are just overindulging and just constantly setting us a bad example because, you know, when they're constantly hitting the roach coach and buying a bunch of junk, you know, we're going to be tempted to do the same thing. So we need to exercise some restraint and be a good influence on those around us and also try to get around people that have the same common sense that you want to have and be sensible the way that you want to be sensible. What does the Bible say? Be not among wine vippers. Be not among riotous eaters of flesh. But you say, oh, I think that's optional. Really? Because the Bible says don't be around that. Why? Because you don't want to do the same thing, right? Now that's not saying don't be around anybody who's overweight because guess what? There are people who are overweight but they're losing weight. They're actually exercising restraint and taking control of the situation. So that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying don't be around these riotous eaters of flesh is what I'm saying. Now if you would flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you from Deuteronomy 21. Bible says in 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've 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 his city and under 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 shall thou put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear. Notice how this guy who is just a rotten person and his parents have disciplined him and rebuked him and he's not listening and they said he's stubborn, he's rebellious, he's a drunk and they said he's a glutton also. Also think about the sons of Eli. You know Eli's sons we know were deep into the wicked sin of fornication and even worse than that they had actually known the depths of Satan by actually using church as a recruiting ground for women to fornicate with. They fornicated with the women who assembled themselves at the door of the tabernacle. They were using their position as the sons of Eli the priest to basically abuse their power, abuse their authority to take advantage of young ladies. And not only that but they abused their power in the church to steal food from church just to indulge their gluttony. Part of the sacrifice was supposed to be burned on the altar. The other part was to be consumed. They just wanted to eat the whole thing. And they were destroyed because of that. God killed them. They were wicked people. So we don't want to take this lightly and think it doesn't matter, it's not a big deal. It can lead to other sins if you don't get it under control. And I understand a lot of people have been sucked into this because our culture today makes it really easy to be a glutton. It makes it really easy to overindulge because we just have an abundance of food and our culture tells us to eat a lot of junk food and to drink a lot of unhealthy beverages. So this sermon is not to condemn you, it's to exhort you. It's to help you and it's to also reprove you if you're not taking heat under these scriptures. Now look down at your Bible in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 16, the Bible says 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 droppeth through. So the Bible is telling us here that there are people who eat for strength, meaning they eat to get the nutrition, to get the energy, to get what they need and then there are other people who eat for drunkenness. Basically they're eating just to indulge, just to have that pleasure and so forth. Now it says here, woe unto thee O land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning. Now you say is it bad to eat in the morning? Well here's the thing, it's a great idea, especially if you're trying to lose weight, to skip breakfast. This is a good idea. Now a lot of people have been taught their whole lives, myself included, hey breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Not true. Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. And actually there's science now that's coming out, finally catching up with the Bible, even though we've heard our whole lives, oh man you got a breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper, you know we've been taught that our whole lives. But actually the science now, that never set well with me because of this Bible verse. But now the science is showing that actually it can be good for you not to eat breakfast and to just eat all of your food in like an eight hour window. So eat lunch, eat dinner, eat for only eight hours, and then basically go 16 hours without eating. And the way that you do that is by sleeping and skipping breakfast. And it's not that hard. Now if I told you to skip dinner, that'd be pretty hard. That takes, you know why? Because when you start out your day you have maximum willpower first thing in the morning. This is the way most people are. Maybe there are exceptions to this, but I know first thing in the morning that's when I have the most willpower. So if I have something hard to do, I want to do that first thing in the morning. And then as the day progresses your willpower gets weaker, weaker, weaker. So it'd be a lot harder to skip dinner. But skipping breakfast really isn't that hard because you haven't really started eating yet. So you haven't really gotten that engine going yet. Just don't start. Just drink water, push through the morning, it's not that hard, and then eat lunch. It's not that hard. And then you say, well that's not going to work. Well it's just one less meal that you're putting in your body, number one. So that's just less food that you're eating. How could that not work? It's going to work. Okay, but not only that, number two is that when you're sleeping your body goes into a repair mode and different hormones are released to repair your body. That's why if you do some strenuous activity and then you go to bed you wake up sore. You wake up stiff because your body has switched into a repair mode and that's what's going on. So here's the thing. When you take your first bite of food in the morning, this is what the science is saying, basically that mode ends. So the human growth hormone that was being released, other good hormones that are helping you repair and burn calories and stuff like that, those things are shut off when you start eating because then your body switches into a different mode. So by not eating breakfast you can actually boost your good hormones that will help you stay lean. So there's science to back up what the Bible's already saying here of look, you don't need to eat in the morning. Now if you're a child, eat in the morning. So by all means children, have your bowl of cereal or whatever you want, eat your breakfast, eat up your growing boy, but the problem with you adults is that you're a growing boy too. But you're growing horizontally now and so it's time to maybe start thinking about skipping breakfast. There are several people in our church who've come to me, or one of them, I even came to him and said, wow, you've really lost a lot of weight. What are you doing? And he said, just skipping breakfast is the main thing. And it's a lot easier for men to lose weight than women. Men all we have to do is just kind of halfway try and we lose weight. Men have to really work a lot harder at this because they don't have as much testosterone in their body and other things that help us lose weight no problem or easier than they do at least. But I've had multiple people come and tell me that this worked for them. And so there you go. But the Bible had it right all along, amen. So you don't need to just roll out of bed and start filling your face. Now sometimes I'll eat a late breakfast, but that's because I get up super duper early in the morning. I've been up sometimes for like four or five hours, and then I eat breakfast. But it's good to get up and do other things besides just chowing down because once you start eating, you're just going to keep on eating all day. It's a lot easier to just not start that ball rolling yet. I found that to be true in my own life. When I'm losing some weight, often I'll skip breakfast, and that works for me. Or sometimes if I overindulge the night before, I say, hey, tomorrow, no breakfast as a punishment. Hey, if we would judge ourselves, then we would not be judged. But when we're judged, we're chastened of the Lord, the Bible says. So we've got to chasten ourselves. We've got to judge ourselves. The Bible says I chastened my soul with fasting. So if you would flip over to Proverbs chapter 27. Right after that in chapter 10 there in Ecclesiastes, it talked about the eating for strength, not for drunkenness. And then it said by much slothfulness, the building decayeth. But the building here is actually referring to your body. It's a metaphor. By much idleness, the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands, the house droppeth through. You'll notice three things that kind of go together in a lot of these verses that we've been looking at and are going to look at, and that is drunkenness, gluttony, and slothfulness. These three things are like a trifecta, right? Like an evil trinity of just destruction to your body, right? Do not give in to these three things, right? Gluttony, drunkenness, and slothfulness. They go together. You say, well, how do they go together? I don't understand. Well, they all have to do with just indulging the flesh. They all have to do with lack of self-control, lack of restraint. If it feels good, do it. I mean, that's what these three things have in common. Not only that, but when you eat the wrong food, it makes you tired. I mean, how many times have you eaten a huge meal where you overdid it? Did you have a lot of energy afterward? Because you think, oh, man, I took in all these extra calories. I'm going to have so much energy now. No way. After you eat a lot of food, ironically, you have less energy. Sometimes skipping a meal or eating a light meal, you end up having more energy, ironically. So that's how slothfulness and gluttony can feed off each other, no pun intended, okay? And then what does drunkenness have to do with it? Well, you know, these alcoholic beverages, they'll make you fat, too. You ever heard of the beer belly? Okay. Why? Because you're just drinking liquid calories, right? The beer, the wine, whatever. That stuff will also go straight to your liver. It'll do other damage in the process, but it will also not help you in the area of keeping your diet under control either. Look at Proverbs chapter, and I'm going to get more into the subject of wine in the Bible a little bit later in the sermon because that's a very misunderstood subject, and I'm going to park it on that for a while. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse 5, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. The full soul loathes in honeycomb, but to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Now here's another important principle about eating right from the Bible. If you get hungry enough, everything's good. Isn't that what the Bible is saying here? To the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. The full soul loathes in honeycomb, but to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. So guess what? If you actually show some restraint, maybe skip breakfast or just show restraint and eat less food, you're going to find yourself getting hungry, right? I mean, look, if you're losing weight, you're going to be hungry. I don't think it's possible to lose weight without being hungry. I mean, maybe, okay, you found a way to do it or whatever, but I'm saying realistically, losing weight involves being hungry. You have to experience hunger at some point, okay? You know, my stomach will growl audibly. My stomach will literally just, you know, if I don't eat. But if I'm hungry, I'm not as picky, right? Every bitter thing is sweet. So guess what? Now you can eat healthy food. That healthy food that you don't think is cool enough or it's not a party in your mouth? Guess what? It'll be good when you get hungry. So you want to eat nutritious food, not junk food. You say, oh, but the junk food just tastes so good. Yeah, but get hungry enough and the nutritious food will start tasting good. Then you'll be like, that actually sounds good, anything sounds good. You know, and you can eat things that you normally might not be as excited about. You'll get excited when you get hungry enough, amen? So that's an important principle to keep in mind is that to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Now, in our society, if you would flip over to Luke Chapter 6. In our society, there's this attitude of wanting to go through life without experiencing any pain or suffering or hardship. Like the second that you feel the slightest little ache or pain, you pop a pain pill. The second you feel the slightest thirst, it's like, I got to get a drink of water. The slightest little twinge of hunger, it's like, I got to eat some food. You know, and this is what we're told, you know, if you feel thirst, you're already dehydrated. Who's heard that one? When you feel thirsty, it's already too late. Oh, man. Guess what? That's not true. It's okay to experience hunger. It's okay to feel thirsty. It's okay to have a little bit of pain or a little bit of suffering in your life. In fact, pain and suffering make you a better person. And this attitude that just seeks to eliminate all pain and suffering, it doesn't make you happy. It doesn't make you a better person. It just makes you into a weakling. It makes you into a hedonist, is what it does. Now look what the Bible says in Luke chapter 6 verse 21, blessed are ye that hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall lie. Jesus said it's a blessing to be hungry. Right? Well, to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Sounds great. Wouldn't you love to just enjoy every possible food? If you get hungry enough, you'll get there. Okay? That's what the Bible is saying. But look, blessed are ye that hunger. Now, my wife was reading up on something about children's nutrition. And the current recommendation was feed them seven meals a day. It was like snack. Now she's toning it down to six. When you originally told me you said seven, now she's saying it was six. It's like snack, meal, snack, meal, snack, meal, because you just got to keep them from being hungry. You know, it's okay to be hungry going into breakfast. It's okay to be hungry going into lunch. It's okay to be hungry going into dinner. And what are you teaching your kids when you're just teaching them, I'm going to feed you six meals a day just so that you never have to feel even the hunger between two meals. And in between meals, snacking is often why kids are picky eaters. You know, it's amazing how when you've been snacking on Doritos all afternoon, all of a sudden dinner doesn't seem that cool. And you're turning your nose up at dinner. You're turning your nose up at a sandwich. You're turning your nose up at the burger. You're turning your nose up at spaghetti. Why? Because you've been snacking. Because you've been eating a bunch of other stuff. And then all of a sudden, oh, I'm just not really that hungry. Yeah, I know why you're not hungry, because you've been sneaking food. You've been snacking. You spoiled your dinner. You spoiled your lunch. Right? We need to get back to that kind of a concept of don't spoil your dinner. Okay. Now, there are some good snacks that you can do, obviously. You know, there's nothing wrong with eating an apple or something, right? Eating fruit and vegetables and things like that. But you and I both know what kind of snacks are usually being consumed. Right? It's a lot of chips and cookies and just easy-step crackers. Why? Because it's easy. It's a box. You just open the box. You start eating it. It's just the easiest. Nothing could be simpler. So that's a bizarre concept, hedonistic to think that you should never be hungry or never be thirsty or never wait for anything or never go through pain. That's a wrong philosophy. Now, while we're in Luke, you might as well just move over to chapter 7 right there. Chapter number 7 right there. This is where the Pharisees and the scribes and everything, they're criticizing Jesus and they've called him a glutton and a wine bibber. But look what the Bible says in verse 33. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. And ye say, He art the devil. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking. And ye say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of all her children. So Jesus Christ came eating and drinking and specifically he's eating bread, drinking wine, and they're saying, He's a glutton, He's a wine bibber. That's what Jesus is being accused of. Okay. Now why do these things go hand in hand? Now a lot of people when they see wine in the Bible, they just always assume, oh that's alcohol. I'm not going to waste time in this sermon proving what should be obvious to anyone with a brain in their head that when the Bible says wine, it is not always referring to an alcoholic beverage. Now you say, well why do you say anybody who has a brain in their head? Because of the fact that the Bible mentions wine like well over 100 times and it never talks about juice. You expect me to believe that 1189 chapters of the Bible, 31,000 some verses, where he talks all about milk and honey and butter and you know, he's just never going to mention fruit juice? Like it just doesn't exist? Fruit juice does not exist, but let's just talk about wine 150 times. Like you think God is just really that into wine? He's just really into liquor. He's really into alcohol. No, it's really dumb folks and you know, there's no excuse for it if you've been taught. I can understand somebody who knows nothing about the Bible, they've never read the Bible cover to cover or they've been taught false doctrine on this, but you know what, if you have actually been in church for a decent amount of time, you've been a Baptist, you've read the Bible cover to cover and you still think that wine in the Bible is always an alcoholic beverage, you know, shame on you for being a fool. At this point, you are a fool because the Bible says wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. You are not wise if you think that Jesus created an alcoholic beverage. If you think that Jesus turned water into booze after they'd already well drunk, let's give them more. What kind of stupidity is that? When the Bible says you'd be thrown out of the church for being a drunk as if Jesus Christ is going around boozing and giving out booze and everything, it's dumb folks. The Bible says that new wine is found in the cluster. When was the last time you found a cluster of grapes with booze in it? When was the last time they asked for your ID when you bought a cluster of grapes? But that's what the Bible says, that the wine is in the cluster. But then people say, ah, wine means wine. Yeah, wine means wine and you don't know what it means. And not only that, but wine means any fruit juice, not even grape juice. Wine is apple juice in the Bible. Wine is orange juice. Wine is the juice of the pomegranate. Read your Bible. It's not even grape juice. It's any kind of fruit juice is called wine, whether it's fermented, unfermented, grape or another fruit. It's all called wine in the Bible. And I mean, the foolishness of saying, oh, well, you know, you Baptists, you know, you don't even believe Jesus made real wine. Oh, the fruit juice isn't real? I mean, what is it? Oh, the real stuff. You drunk. Get out of here, you fool. I didn't want to be around you because the Bible said not to be around wine bibbers and gluttons. Okay. But here's what we need to understand is that when the Bible says wine, it's talking about fruit juice. Now, sometimes, and then people will pretend like they don't understand and they're like, oh, you're saying every single time it's fruit juice? Yeah, except that some of those times it's fermented, so sometimes it is an alcoholic beverage. How can you tell? The context. So when the Bible says, hey, don't look on the wine when it's red. Don't look on it when it gives its color in the cup. Your eyes are going to behold strange women. Your mouth's going to utter perverse things. You know, I wonder what type we're talking about there. Or when he says, woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink. What are we talking about? We're talking about alcohol. But what about when Jesus says, here, take this and drink it all? That's going to be just fruit juice, my friend. Now, a lot of people get hung up on this. Where did I have you turn, Luke? Go if you would over to 1 Timothy, Chapter 5. A lot of people get hung up on the qualifications for the pastor because the qualification for the deacon is not given to much wine and the qualification for the pastor is not given to wine at all. So they see the difference there, not given to much wine, not given to wine. And they say, well, the deacon can booze it up a bit. But the pastor, not at all. Folks, there's not a double standard amongst God's people. The same principles that the pastor lives by are the same principles that the deacon lives by. And those are the same principles that every Christian should live by. We should all be the husband of one wife. None of us should be out brawling, right? Oh, I'm not a pastor, so just bam, you know. We're not supposed to be a brawler. We're not supposed to be given to wine. We're all supposed to be sober, et cetera. Look, when the Bible said, and look, a lot of people, they've mocked me for this, but this is the honest truth. Hey, guess what? When it says not given to wine, it's talking about fruit juice. You say, oh, why would you not be given to fruit juice? Because number one, fruit juice back then is expensive. And wine in the Bible is a symbol of luxury and wealth. And you know what, these bunch of TV preachers that are flying around in their fancy jets and wearing expensive Armani suits and everything, you know, they're in violation of what the Bible is teaching. When he says not given to wine, he's saying you're not this luxuriant living some lavish, rich lifestyle. That's what he's teaching, number one. And number two, drinking fruit juice makes you overweight as an adult, okay? So that's what he's saying. When he tells you, hey, we don't want to be given to wine, what he's saying there is you don't want a pastor who's just guzzling fruit juice, getting fat, and wasting money, okay? Now, fruit juice now is cheap, but when the Bible was written, fruit juice is very expensive because think about how hard it is to juice fruit juice without a machine. See, fruit juice is cheap now because a machine does it, but they used to literally step on grapes with their feet. You got to pay somebody to tread the wine press and make this stuff. Or squeezing fruit and getting the juice, and then there's a lot of waste. Even with the machine, you end up wasting a lot. You know, you want one glass of juice and you end up using like a whole big, giant bag of oranges, right? Now you can buy it at the store cheap, but usually the cheap stuff is junk. That's why it's cheap, because you're paying for junk. Now you say, are you against drinking fruit juice? Listen, we drink too much fruit juice in America today. And we have this wrong idea today that fruit juice is good for you. And I grew up thinking, oh yeah, the best thing you could drink is a glass of fruit juice. It's so nutritious, so good for you, and so forth. It's a fraud. You know what's good for you is eating fruit. Eating the fruit is good for you. Drinking the fruit juice, you're not getting the fiber. You're just getting the sugar water mainlined into your system. And look at a Coca-Cola. Look at the sugar. Now look at a bottle of orange juice, and guess what? Same sugar. Look at it. It's virtually the same sugar. And I know this is a hard pill to swallow. But just look at the sugar content in that apple juice or orange juice or pineapple juice, and then compare that to a Coca-Cola. And you're going to see the calories and the sugar is about the same. Now true, you're getting some inkling of nutrition from that juice, whereas the Coca-Cola is giving you nothing. But it's not enough of a value for just pouring liquid sugar into your stomach, okay? And so we need to be careful of overindulgence in fruit juice or what the Bible calls wine. And so because so many people have had this stupid doctrine where they think that all wine in the Bible is alcohol, because they just assume all the wine in the Bible is alcohol, now they ignore all the warnings about drinking too much wine because they think, oh, as long as I don't do alcohol, I'm okay. Well guess what? You're overindulging in fruit juice. That's why you're overweight. And by the way, Coca-Cola is the same thing, except worse, okay, because it has even less nutrition. Now what does the Bible say? The Bible said in 1 Timothy 5 verse 23, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. And again, people try to say it's alcohol, but alcohol is not good for you. I don't care what your doctor told you to drink a glass of wine. You get all the same benefits from just a little fruit juice, same thing. You don't need wine. You get the same benefits from apple cider vinegar or kombucha or any other fermented soft drink that doesn't have alcohol in it. But the bottom line is, he said use a little wine. This is something that you don't want to overdo. You don't want to overdo any kind of sugar in your diet. Go back if you went to Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah chapter number 5. Now there are a lot of fad diets out there, aren't there? You know, what are some of the fad diets that are out there? What's out there? The paleo diet, no carb diet, the keto, the South Beach diet, the Atkins diet. There's low fat diets, low carb diets, separate your fats and carbs. There are all these different options out there. But have you noticed what they all have in common? They all cut out sugar. There's no diet that just says eat as much sugar as you want, drink as much sugar as you want, and you're still going to lose it. It doesn't exist. No matter which diet you're using, you have to cut back on the sugar. You cut back. That's the main culprit that's making people fat. It's not the fat. It's the sugar that's the real enemy, okay? And drinking sugar is how a lot of people just are dumping a lot of sugar into their bodies. And it's not even filling you up. It's liquid. In some cases, it even makes you more hungry. But look what the Bible says in Nehemiah chapter 5, verse 17. Moreover, there were at my table 150 of the Jews and rulers besides those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us, Nehemiah chapter 5, verse 18. Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep, also fowls were prepared for me. And keep in mind, he's eating with 150 people. This isn't his personal diet, okay? So he's eating with 150 other people from verse 17. And then it says, and once in 10 days, store of all sorts of wine. Yet for all this required not I, the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people. Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I've done for this people. So what's he saying here? Every 10 days, he busts out the fruit juice. You're drinking it every morning, every lunch, every dinner. He's doing it once every 10 days. And this guy's a king. I mean, he's not literally king, but he's like a governor, a ruler. He's definitely eating like a king when you look at that meal, 150 people are at his table. Nehemiah is also doing a hard job of, you know, he's building the wall, he's busy, he's burning calories, and he's literally ruling as the governor of the land. And so, okay, yeah, he's gonna get out the wine every 10 days. So look, drinking fruit juice or sodas or other fun beverages should be reserved for a special occasion. You know, there's nothing wrong with every few weeks for a treat, drink that Coca-Cola, drink juice, whatever. But you know what, the average person today in America is drinking a big glass of orange juice with breakfast, they've got a Coke with lunch, I mean, they have to have a fun drink at every meal. I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, every head bowed, every eyes closed. I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, but I'll bet you if I ask for a raise of hands, people are truthful. How many of you drink a fun drink with every single meal, a whole bunch of hands would go up, that they don't even know what it's like to drink water with a meal? Hardly at all. You know I'm telling the truth up here. You know that every time they go to a restaurant, they're always ordering a drink. And by the way, you're also wasting money. The drinks are just expensive for what you're getting. And I mean, they don't go to, I mean, everybody's making it a combo. Everybody gets the drink. It's like they don't even think about it. And I've been there, you know, I've done it, where I'm just having a fun drink with every single meal. But you know what, get in the habit of drinking water with every meal. Just drink water. Water is a great drink, okay, drink it with every meal. Occasionally, whip out a fun drink, something sensible, but not just every day, three times a day. And that's where a lot of these extra calories are coming from, folks. It's from just drinking them, just cokes and juice. And just because you're getting some, oh, but I got a Mexico Coca-Cola, ooh, wow. I mean, that's what people think, right? Oh, it's in the glass bottle. Oh, well then drink up, buddy. You have that with every meal. Oh, you got a Coke from Whole Foods. Oh, okay. Well, guess what, it has the same grams of sugar. Yeah, it's not as bad for you because it's not a genetically modified corn syrup, but it's still just mainlining sugar to your liver and it's just creating a bunch of fat in your liver. And you know what, it's not just about being overweight. You know, it's about what's happening inside your body that you don't even see. Your internal organs are getting coated in fat. Your liver is going to look like the liver of an alcoholic if you drink a bunch of sugar because it goes to the liver. See, the alcohol messes up your brain and your liver. The sugar water, it just messes up just your liver. But it still damages your liver severely, okay. Now flip over, if you would, to Deuteronomy Chapter 22. I got to hurry up, but it's not just about eating too much. When we talk about gluttony, it's more about eating the wrong things. You know, first of all, you say, what do I take from the sermon? The first thing you need to take from the sermon is to drink water. Drink water with every meal. Have you ever met people who said, I don't like water? They're all overweight, all of them, virtually all of them, right, when they go, oh, I don't like water. Yeah, I noticed. I can tell you don't like water, okay. Because people who like water drink water instead of drinking Coke and Fanta and Sprite and 7-Up and juice and everything else, slurpy, icy, milkshake, right. So drink water with every meal. But secondly, you need to be sensible about your food choices. Now I find that one of the easiest ways to eat right is to have the right food around. You know, if you have the right food in stock in your house, then you'll eat that stuff. But if your cupboards are just filled with chips and cookies, that's what you're going to eat because it's there. So you've got to stock your kitchen, stock your office at work if you eat at work. You know, make sure that you've got healthy options there to choose. Because it's not so much eating too much as eating the wrong things. Now one of the things that we should stay away from that's kind of a no-brainer is we need to stay away from the GMOs and the Frankenfoods and the junk that has like a hundred ingredients where you have to have a chemistry degree to be able to pronounce the ingredients properly, right. That's the wrong food. Now look what the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 9. And this is a verse that's often made fun of by atheists. It says, thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts as of woolen and linen together. Don't they love to make fun of this? Oh God told you not to mix fabrics. How are those GMOs working out for you, buddy? Because guess what? God was right when he said don't mix wool and linen together. And he was right when he didn't say don't mix fabrics, he said don't mix wool and linen because that's mixing a plant-based fabric with an animal-based fabric. And there's also a symbolism there of work salvation versus salvation through Christ because Christ is the lamb, that's the woolen, and then the linen is made from a plant. That's what man has produced through cultivation and growing things. Like Cain and Abel, right? Cain brings the fruits and vegetables, he's the first vegan, and then Abel brings the first things of the flock so that the lamb represents Christ and the fruits and vegetables represent his good works. He's saying you can't mix Christ with the works of the law. That's the symbolism. But he says don't sow your vineyard with diverse seeds lest the fruit of thy seed which thou has sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. So God's not for GMOs, he's not for these hybrid frankenfoods, keep it separate. Keep it the way God created it, okay? God created these foods that are good for us. So everything that God made, he said it was very good. So eating fruits, good, vegetables, good. Eating things the way that God intended them to be eaten, okay? And God also intended us to eat meat as well. That's why he gave us canines in our mouth to eat meat. And that's why Jesus ate meat. Jesus kept the Passover every year so he's eating lamb and Jesus ate fish and honey and everything else. So we're supposed to eat meat, fruits, vegetables, and there's nothing wrong with eating the right kind of grains, the right kind of bread. You know, there's a lot of bastardized wheat in our day, but that's a whole other subject. But we need to eat the right kind of food. So just some easy steps to take are, number one, quit guzzling all the fun drinks and start having fun with a glass of water, number one. Number two, quit the junk food. And when you're eating out at McDonald's and Jack in the Box and Burger King, guess what, you're eating a lot of GMOs. You're eating a lot of chemicals, you're eating a lot of junk food, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate. I mean, all kinds of terrible things, monosodium glutamate. What's that other stuff called? What's that horrible preservative called, Juja, that we were talking about? Remember this one? Aluminum. But my cereal said it gave me 35% of the aluminum that I need for the day. So anyway, basically, you know, just staying away from the Frankenfoods, the genetically modified garbage, and staying with things the way God intended them to be. Now, I don't believe in veganism or vegetarianism for one second. Now, a lot of people, they think like, oh, well, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to go vegan. I'm going to go vegetarian. And sometimes people like to do these radical or dramatic things because they don't want to actually do the work of just restraining themselves and eating right and not being a glutton. So they basically decide like, this is like a shortcut. I can eat whatever I want as long as I just don't eat meat, or I can eat whatever I want as long as it's plant-based. Well, let me give you some things that are plant-based, Skittles, okay? You know, basically, what a lot of these vegans end up doing is just eating a ton of sugar and grain. I mean, they can eat as many just vegan chocolate chip cookies and vegan donuts. You know, I'll tell you one vegan food I like. Those vegan donuts at Whole Foods, those are good. They make these vegan maple donuts. And you know, when I'm at Whole Foods, I've eaten some of those things. But you know what? I guarantee you, that's not a weight loss food, those vegan donuts, okay? But they're good. So it's like, oh, yeah, I'm vegan. And they're just eating just cookies and just bread and just drinking all kinds of sugar water. I mean, hey, Coca-Cola is vegan, amen? So guess what? Vegan is not the answer. Vegan is not the answer, okay? And you know, there are a lot of needed nutrients in animal products and milk and meat and cheese and stuff, yogurt, that stuff's good for you. But you know, I would suggest staying away from gimmicks and just eating a balanced, normal diet and just exercising restraint, eating the right amount of calories, getting some physical activity, getting exercise, drink water, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Look, let me just give you some basic guidelines, okay, just to make it simple for you, okay? Eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want. You're not gonna get fat eating fruits and vegetables. You're gonna lose weight. I don't even care what, even if it's grapes, bananas, strawberries, pineapples, eat as much of that stuff as you want. But don't make a smoothie out of it. Oh, he's like, let's just do a smoothie. No, no, no, because you're letting that machine do all the work and grind it all up. Let your body chew that and digest that and get all that fiber. So don't juice it or blend it or make a smoothie out of it. Eat it. Put it in your mouth and take a bite and eat it, okay? That's how you ingest fruit, all right? So you know, eat as much fruit as you want. Eat as many vegetables as you want, okay? That's just a good rule of thumb. And you know what I find is that sometimes if I'm craving like ice cream or cake or cookies or something, sometimes fruit will satisfy that. Now the first couple of times it's not going to, but you build, you get in the habit where you train your body like, oh, you want sugar? Here's some sugar. Eat this fruit. You know, eat this, this carrot has a little sugar to it, you know? If you train your mouth right, carrots start tasting sweet to you. You just got to get hungry enough. They taste like sugar. You know those Cebuitas that we eat down in Mexico, those onions? To me those taste like candy. Those things are sugary enough right there. So you got to, first of all, a lot of our mouths are just trained to where they just crave like extreme amounts of sugar. So you got to break that sugar addiction and then cooked onions will start tasting sweet to you. Fruits will start tasting sweet to you, right? Fruit will taste sweet to you. So eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want, okay? And look, there are a lot of sensible meals. And look, I recommend the Weight Watchers program too. I think it's a great program. It's a good balance program. This message was brought to you in part by Weight Watchers, but you know, I've used it before to lose weight and I don't go to the meetings or anything. I just follow their guidelines because they give you like, this is how many points you get today. And you know, you eat up those points and then you have like your weekly points so you can do like a weekly binge or whatever on those points. But if I run out of points, then I just have to eat fruits and vegetables. You know, you're done for the day. You've killed your points. Or I have to go out and earn exercise points, you know? So that I have to, it's like, oh man, now I have to bike like 60 miles because I just ate that. I'm just joking. But the point is, you know, that's a pretty well-rounded approach because you can eat whatever you want. You just have to pay the points, the points value. That's a pretty good system. There are other systems out there that work for people that are a sensible, well-rounded. They're not an extreme where you're cutting something out of your diet completely where you can kind of include everything and still eat a diet that makes sense. So we need to understand this is a spiritual issue. This is appropriate to be taught in church because God said, don't be a glutton. Don't be lazy. Don't be a sluggard. Don't be slothful, right? Have wisdom. Don't be foolish. Eat right. You know, don't eat too much sugar. He said, don't eat too much honey, he said. Eat a little bit but don't eat too much or you'll vomit it up, he said. Put a knife to your throat if you're a man that's given to appetite, the Bible says. And look, if you eat sensible food, you don't even have to go, you know, my wife makes for breakfast sometimes huevos rancheros, okay? And she makes them to where they're like almost, they're like four points or something on Weight Watchers. They're like almost nothing. And I can hardly even finish them, they're so filling. Like I finish it and I'm just like stuffed. I'm like, I don't even know if I can finish this. And it's like four points. And I have like 24 for the whole day or something, not even to mention the weekly points. Okay. But then again, you can just take one little sip, one little half glass of orange juice and it's like you just burn through four points in one sip. Or you can eat a meal that will stuff you so much that you can hardly even finish it. Okay. So it's all about just eating the right things, eating healthy food, eating sensible things. Look, I want you to live a long and healthy life. I want you to be healthy. I don't want you to be sick. I prefer performing weddings to funerals. So I want to perform a lot of weddings and very few funerals. So I want you to survive, all right. And you know what? You're going to do more soul winning. You're going to have more time for your family if you're actually healthy and in shape and able to do the things that you want to do. And you're not going to be having as many mental problems either. Because all this junk food and everything, it can mess with you. Oh, I have depression. Well, you know what? Part of that's your diet. You eat a bunch of junk food. You feel sluggish. You're sitting around. Yeah. Of course you're going to be depressed. Of course you're going to feel down. Hey, it feels good to eat healthy and be in shape and take care of yourself. So again, the sermon is not to condemn you because, you know, you're condemned already. All right. Everybody loves to quote that verse that Christ came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. But then they forget the next verse. He that believeth not is condemned already. You know, hey, I came not to condemn your diet but that your diet might be saved. But he that's drinking wine with every meal is condemned already. You know, if you're going to drive through and get junk food every day and you're going to the gas station and getting little packages of doughnuts at the gas station and filling up a super-duper extra big gulp where your drink is the size of a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket and that's your drink, you're condemned already. I'm not here to condemn you. I'm here that you might be saved. All right. And I'm not talking about the gospel now. I'm trying to save you from diabetes type 2. I'm trying to save you from heart disease. I'm trying to save you from making a shipwreck of your body. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and the wisdom that you give us, Lord. Help people to realize that the Bible should govern all areas of our life. Lord, help us to seek to your wisdom when it comes to food, drink, when it comes to government, when it comes to our job, our family, our marriage, our children, Lord. Help us to seek you in all areas and to use wisdom, Lord. And if there's anything in my sermon tonight that people didn't agree with, Lord, I just pray that they would just figure out some way to get this sin out of their life. If they don't like the suggestions that I've given, Lord, I just pray that people would be strong and healthy and be able to serve you to the best of their ability. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.