"Healing, Health, and Holiness" - Foundations of Faith - Pastor Doug Batchelor

tell it to Jesus welcome friends to our foundations of faith program so glad to see each of you here and we've been talking about if the Reformation was to continue what are some messages that the Christian world really needs to hear so I want to thank those of you who are joining us here in Silver Spring and our friends who are watching on television we know that people are watching now of course in Hope channel 3abn a-f-t-v and we just want to well and thousands we see our watching on Facebook and so it's just a delight we just have one more meeting after tonight tomorrow morning some of you if you're available we know some of you have church responsibilities we'd be delighted to see you here as we talk about the theme of the second coming of Jesus tonight I'm going to be sharing a topic that I think the Christian world is long overdue to understand this issue and people have suffered greatly because they do not understand this principle from the Bible that is very practical but I like to always start with an amazing fact I'm going to need to read some of this from my notes tonight because there's just a lot of details I can't remember the most powerful supercomputer used to be in the US it was called the big blue made by IBM no longer now it's in China it's the 93 petaflop Sun way tyloo light installed at the national supercomputing Center in wushi China Bindu oshi it has more than ten point five million locally-made processor cores one computer your computers might have a couple at its peak the computer can perform 93 trillion calculations per second which is a whole room of super processors air conditioners and power cables still this is only 0.4% of what one human brain can do in processing in a second which means this supercomputer is about half a as a mouse brain you know the Bible tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made you know in your brain that two-and-a-half pound electrochemical computer it's filled with you know billions of neurons and they've discovered now that within the neurons are these dendrites and they used to think that they were just kind of interconnecting cables but the scientists have come to discover that each one of these little dendrites which are just super microscopic cables within the new neurons actually each is a computer in itself and so the statistics that they had about the computing ability of the human brain they're finding out that it was much more than they even thought which makes sense because we're gonna be learning through eternity that's one reason I just could never accept evolution why would you evolve a brain that you don't even use 70% of it in one life why would you evolve with so much extra capacity I think that God made these things now our message tonight is dealing with a subject of healing health and holiness and it begins with a story that you find in a book of prophecy and it's in Daniel chapter one it tells that after King Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Babylon he took some of the the brightest and the best of the nation and he brought them with him back to Babylon and he said look we're gonna train you in the language of the Chaldeans we're gonna feed you from our cafeteria for three years and we're gonna prepare you to be ambassadors representing your part of the world and go to the University of Babylon and you think well that would be really good to be eating from the Babylonian cafeteria but there's a problem with that Babylonians ate things that God had told his people they're not supposed to eat so Daniel and his three friends that had been carried off to Babylon Shadrach Meshach Abednego there he names were Hananiah Mishael Azariah they said we can't eat that please let us eat pulsar vegetables and just give us a chance and no the man who was in charge of the eunuchs he said I can't do that because if if you start looking scrawny and sick I'm responsible for your health and education my head will be on the Block they said you give us ten days notice it says in Daniel 1 verse 8 then you'll purposed in his heart that he would not defile he would not what defile himself with the portion of the Kings meat so they proposed to Ashton as Prince of the eunuchs prove your servants test us for 10 days let us have pulse to eat and water to drink when I can eat the Babylonian food and the fermented wine and the Bible says he consented to that and then after the testing time it says it found that they were 10 at the end of 10 days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh you know they just come across the desert and he found them ten times better smarter than all the magicians and the astrologers that were in the realm and the first chapter of Daniel closes by saying and Daniel continued until the time of King Cyrus Daniel lived to about a hundred years of age he must have been 15 to 17 and when he was carried off so it's interesting that at this very important book of prophecy it would make a point that Daniel and his friends had purpose they would take care of their bodies even when they were tempted by their surroundings and even though there was social pressure to compromise they said no this is what God says about treating our bodies as the temple of the holy spirit and we will not defile our bodies this is a truth that has been lost by much of the Christian Church and it's an area where there needs to be revival and Reformation and that's also true even within our denomination let's look at our lesson it's going to bring out a number of points first question what was the original diet and God designed for humans you read in Genesis 1 verse 29 and God said behold I've given you every herb bearing seed and in every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and the word meet there at sking James this means for food and so the original diet that God gave to man was a vegetarian diet contains actually fruits grains and nuts beans but later God expanded the diet that's the next question after Adam and Eve sinned and they were evicted from the Garden of Eden they could no longer eat from the tree of life God then said all right I want to give you something supplemental what was added to their diet at that point Genesis 3 verse 18 he said you shall eat the herb of the field meaning vegetables now I find sometimes people don't know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable let me test you apple fruit orange zucchini sea fruit onion vegetable Brussels sprouts inedible vegetable is real seto zucchini it's a vegetable potatoes vegetable it's very simple that anything that is the product of the blossom is the fruit and anything that's any other part of the plant whether it's the stalk or the leaves or the bulbs that's a vegetable and so after Adam and Eve and you know a lot of kids out there really sorry that Adam and Eve sinned because they didn't want vegetables added to their diet but after they sinned and they were told they could no longer stay in the garden God said you can also eat the herb of the field but the original diet for man was a vegetarian diet and I'll just tell you right now I'm biased I am a vegetarian I encourage people to consider it the Bible does not require you to be a vid Tirion but are you aware that we will be vegetarians in heaven when God asked Adam to name the animals he did not look at the cow and say whopper and he did not look at the chickens and say McNuggets you know he was supposed to protect them he wasn't supposed to think about eating them and it wasn't until after sin and especially after the flood that animals became a part of the diet I'd like to sprinkle a few amazing facts here I was reading back in 2014 about Jeannette and Allen Murray who set a record for running the most consecutive marathons of anybody in history together starting January 1 2013 every day through the year they ran a marathon and they ran completely around Australia and Tasmania running 366 they did one extra for good measure marathons 26.2 miles every day and she was 63 and he was 68 years old and along the way they consumed 10,000 bananas thousands of avocados smoothies they're both vegetarians vegans vegetarians part of the reason they did this was to promote a vegetarian diet because she believed it was largely responsible for her recovery from cancer and the jury is in friends in spite of what you may be hearing from some of the the meat and dairy industry a vegetarian diet is definitely healthier for people there's far less disease I learned this the hard way years ago and I'll maybe say more about that later question 3 why is God concerned with our physical health well because first of all he loves you look at Matthew 4:23 what was the Ministry of Jesus like Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people Jesus spent almost as much time healing as he did teaching he wants us to be well he created man healthy in the beginning he wants us to have life you read in 3 John verse 2 beloved I wish above all things that you might prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers how important is physical prosperity to God said even as your soul prospers why why is that important because God communicates to you through your brain your brain is sort of like the bridge between your physical body and God he doesn't communicate to you through your toes or through your elbow and you might think he speaks to you through your stomach but God speaks you through your hand and your head is a combination of some kind of a spiritual organ and they still don't know if thoughts are physical look at all the things that are happening now right now in this room and your minds and in mine while I'm talking to you and I'm taking in things visually I'm watching some of you yawn and think what that does to me while I'm talking and I and I'm seeing all of this and I'm thinking about what I've got to say next and there's thousands of things going on in my mind and are those tangible when the Holy Spirit inspires you is that just a computer process or is there something outside influencing your brain but your brain is also an organ it's fed by a blood it's interesting it's the center of all the nerves in your body all kind of end in your brain but your brain doesn't feel and if you take care of your body and your mind is clear it is easier for you to be a witness for the Lord you will feel better which makes you a happier person which makes you a better witness if your ahead is clear you understand spiritual things better it's easier for you to live a Christian life and comprehend the will of God if your mind is clear and so the devil is working overtime to try to fog up the minds of his people and make him sick so that they're just not able to let their light shine the way he wants them to he wants us to have an abundant life and that's our next verse John chapter verse 10 I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly I love this picture of this guy his name was banana Jack I think in the picture he's skiing he's not only skiing he's skiing barefoot and he's 90 years old he obviously doesn't have dentures because he holding the rope and his teeth you love bananas so they called him banana jack God wants us to have an abundant life a full life God promised the children of Israel when he brought them out of Egypt he gave them a number of health laws question number 4 that if they would serve and obey Him he would remove all sickness from them did he keep his promise you know he prescribed their diet they ate angels food from God every day and after 40 years of following the laws of health and sanitation that God had given Moses you know what the testimony is in Psalm 105 verse 37 among this people this nation of up to 2 million people says he brought them forth there was not one feeble person among their tribes can you imagine 2 million people in a city and the hospital is empty nobody nobody you know that there's the nurses and doctors are just kind of folding their arms and they're watching the clock there's nobody to take care because everybody's well you know one reason that there is a health care crisis in North America is because you know even if you take care of yourself and you follow all the best health laws you'll eventually get old and dying but God doesn't want you to spend the last 30 years of your life dying you reading the Bible about Moses it says Moses climbed a mountain 120 years old gets his Moses time to die once you climb that mountain and we'll deal with it up there Moses climbs the mountain God lays him to rest and it says his strength was not abated his vision was still clear 120 years old active productive clear and then all of a sudden the very end he nice in that kind of how you'd like to go I just yeah I know so many dear old people that took care of their health and just kind of fell over in their garden you know you just you everything sort of holds together until the end but you know what's happening because of the bad living practices not completely some things I know are hereditary and some things are accidents but a lot of the time the bad living practices in Western society people start getting heart disease and diabetes and hypertension all these problems and they're on medication and that makes them sicker and they spend the last thirty years being sick and it's overwhelming the expenses of our society I'll tell you the cure for the healthcare problem in America right now Congress can't fix it but if there was a revival of the teachings of the Bible on your knowing your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and people taking care of themselves in ten years at the health care crisis would be gone try it see taste and see number five why is our health so important to God Bible says in first Corinthians 6 verse 19 your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost therefore glorify God in your body he dwells within you cry say he will be in you so he wants you to take care of this miraculous machine that he's given you and you'll feel better again Romans 12 verse 1 Paul says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present yourself a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto Him you know whenever you've brought a sacrifice to the temple it was to be a holy pure unblemished sacrifice what is a good Bible living rule or what is a good Bible living rule for all Christians simple principle that we should all follow 1st Corinthians 10 verse 31 whether therefore you eat or whatever you drink do all to the glory of God now help me if it's possible to eat and drink to God's glory does it make sense that it's possible to not eat and drink to God's glory and a lot of people are eating and drinking things that are not bringing glory to God it's not good for their bodies either and the church I think needs to discover this truth or rediscover I should say this truth let's be specific if you don't mind talked about it during our Bible questions another night should Christians be using any alcoholic beverages you know there's a reason that you drive by the liquor store and it says beer liquor and spirits because when a person drinks the beer in the liquor they become possessed by other spirits let's face it haven't you notice that when a person has a little bit to drink they start doing things they normally would not do their judgment is impaired they say things they're often sorry about they do things are often sorry about and I know from experience you wake up and you're in jail you don't know why you're there or you wake up and you find out you've done something terribly embarrassing that you can never forget about or you've hurt somebody you cared about because it's like the spirit took over why would a Christian want to do anything that would lower their resistance to temptation nor drank stumbled around Noah drank stumbled around naked King David tried to get Uriah drunk so he'd go against his conscience Lotte drank and he slept with his daughters you look in the Bible it's not a good record give wine to him that is ready to perish you read in proverbs 20 verse 1 wine is a mocker strong drink is raging whoever is deceived thereby is not wise God wants us to be wise alcohol is addictive it destroys brain cells it dramatically affects a person's ability to reason Christians should not drink alcohol and even if you think you could make a biblical argument that they drink a little wine in the Bible now that you know better and since it's the most destructive drug in our society why would you want to support that by your example and make someone else stumble even a little bit what will God do to those that destroy their bodies this is serious now don't say pastor dog you're being legalistic you take it up with the New Testament it's what God says 1st Corinthians 3:16 and 17 you are the temple of God If any man defile now where did we just see that word d-file daniel said he purposed in his heart he would not defile himself and did God bless Daniel through the whole Book of Daniel bless him with a clear mind a long life a great ministry starts led by saying he purposed he would not defile his body because he believed he he wanted his body to be a dwelling place for the holy spirit was Daniel's spirit filled read in Daniel chapter 6 says the king saw an excellent spirit was in him he was spirit filled would not defile himself the Bible says you're the New Testament you're the temple of God if any men defiles the temple of God he will God destroy the praised the Lord if you're alive there's a chance to repent because you've probably all done it before I know I have but he's calling on us to be holy to be pure and to be healthy why wouldn't we want to so is murderuss in what about self murder now if you take poison and you know it's poison and it takes 24 hours to kill you is that a sin but what if the poison you take is gonna take a week and you know it's poison says this will kill you in one week and you take it is that still kind of suicide what if it takes 20 years at what point is it okay if you know it's going to kill you and what does it say on every pack of cigarettes warning this is known to cause cancer this is known to cause birth defects it's known to cause all kinds of problems tobacco is the second most costly drug addiction in North America is what it does to our now I know people watching people out here you have struggled or maybe struggling with this or one of the other things I have - it was a big struggle the quitting smoking is not hard I've done that a hundred times staying in quit is the hard part that's what Mark Twain said quitting smoking is easy I've done it a hundred times so I did I quit and then I started I quit and then I'd start and I know it's it's a challenge my mother smoked my father smoked my grandparents smoke and I I was a smoker before I picked up my first cigarette just by the secondhand smoke in my life so it's very easy for me to start there's very hard to quit but how much can we do through Christ all things are possible and you know how much money I've saved you could do a down payment on a house for what you'll save if you quit smoking and he can give you the victory whatever it is there's a problem with people addicted to opioids and drugs it's not just alcohol and cigarettes God doesn't want us to abused any drug now there's some necessary medications but we're talking about people who are addicted to things and it controls her life the devil wants you to God wants you to be free the devil wants to enslave you so let's talk a little bit about food you still friends you want me to tell you the truth Paul asks the question in the New Testament am I your enemy because I tell you the truth what mammals does God say we could eat and I told you I'm a vegetarian I encourage that but the bible does say you're gonna eat meat but then it says if you're gonna eat meat there's some criteria you can read about this in Leviticus 11 verse 3 whatever parts the hoof and is clovenfooted and chews the cud these you can eat so it needed have a cloven hoof needed both characteristics not just one but even some meat is not healthy for instance you know a camel camel chews the cud but it's got a paw and if some of your really bothered by that cuz you're gonna have to go take a camel out of your fridge tonight laughter but you know this was a problem in Christ's time he said you straining that you swallow a camel which is unclean he said you're worried about getting a little bitty bug in your water but then you go you camel state when you're home and God says it's unclean if your event around camels I have you don't yeah I don't want anyone but even if you're gonna eat meat there's a lot of problems that can come from eating meat this meat can kill you Newsweek mad cow disease now if something is they chew the cud but they don't have a cloven hoof and then there's a couple of animals and have a cloven hoof but they don't chew the cud you know what's in that category this one's very popular we're cool the PA the hog the swine though it divides the hoof having cloven hoofs yet it does not chew the cud it is unclean to you he goes on to say your flesh their flesh you shall not eat their carcass you shall not touch there's an abomination pigs are filthy I used to take care of my neighbor's pigs when he would go on vacation and you know I always try and find some new word to describe it but all I can come up with us to tell you the pigs are pigs their name is the definition now you can't improve on it you ever been by you're driven by a pig slaughterhouse even the Bible says like the sow that was washed returns the wallowing in the mire and and their flesh is full of disease but they're scavengers God made some animals that are scavengers and they're made to kind of clean up the environment they eat garbage why would you you want to eat garbage but you'll eat the garbage can when you need a pig how many of you remember this this little piggy went to the market this little piggy stayed home this little piggy had roast beef even a pig won't eat pork see that you know I remember reading once I think it was one out of five autopsies done in North America they found out that the Godiva's had symptoms are evidence of Cecchini poisoning trichinosis is a very tricky disease in that when the muscle tissue containing shekinah cysts are eaten by a human it says the sister then digested in the stomach then released the larvae which migrate to the intestine begin a new life cycle female truck ina worms live about 6 weeks and in that time they might release 15,000 larvae the migration an insistent of larvae can cause fever pain even death it can cause stiffness in joints and knees and paint and it's often misdiagnosed a person thinks I've got bursitis or arthritis and they got big itis that's what it is it's from it's very common around the world there's a picture of a fellow he's got his lunch on his box back of his bike one nutritionist wrote a few easier and this is an old article but I like the way he worded it September 6 1999 a nutritionist said bacon wasn't technically meat anymore it didn't belong to any food group at all it was a salt a nitrate ridden fat-laden carcinogenic thing why would you want to eat a carcinogenic thing because it tastes good are you gonna be controlled by the spirit or by the flesh now some of you saying pastor Doug you're coming down pretty hard on those of us who you know eat meat and stuff like that you know God designed humans to eat meat that's why we've got these canine teeth you know as I've heard that argument before that's nonsense this fellas got canine teeth too and he's a vegetarian as is the hippo and the elephant I don't know how far I want to take this illustration but and actually the digestive system of a cat or a carnivore or a dog is very smooth vegetarian animals have a more complex digestive system where they've got the the broken up intestine and we're in that category we thrive on the vegetarian diet and people say to me all the time all pastor Doug you know you can't be healthy if you're vegetarian you're not gonna get enough b12 in protein that is a myth that is totally an uneducated statement I've been a vegetarian for 40 years I love when I go to Subway and I order a veggie and they seeonee Jesus and know I'm a vegan too as an orphan Roger I'll just all the veggies say I'm a vegetarian really said yep I said do I look 90 years old and they go I usually confess that I'm kidding at that point notice I didn't say I was 90 I said do I look 90 cars once I said do I look 70 they said yeah about so so I had to up it a little bit but no you know I really haven't been a vegetarian 40 years and I feel great you can you know if you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich has everything you need if you strawberry preserves you got your fruits grains and nuts right there the whole thing you got protein you got b12 you got everything you need and so there's no you won't get enough I don't believe that for a minute look what happened here in the Bible this is it's kind of a primitive chart but you see here these are the people who lived in the days before the flood you got to set in the food alone oeq their lives were measured in hundreds of years after the flood all the vegetation was destroyed you remember God took the clean animals on the ark by sevens and they ostensibly would sacrifice them they were allowed to eat of the sacrifice but meat became a lot more predominant after the flood and look what happened to the lifespan one of the places in the world where people live the longest his tons of people in the Hunza Valley in India largely vegetarian very common for them to live in over a hundred years of age they don't have a fraction of the modern diseases that we experience Karen and I were in Australia where the kids a few years ago and we met Harriet the tortoise it's a fascinating story Charles Darwin collected three Galapagos Tortoises in 1844 when he went to the Galapagos he brought them back to England he named them Tom Dick and Harry they did not do very well he sent them back to Australia with a friend and as the years went by Tom and Dick died and then they moved Harry to the brisbane park where he was on display there and a hundred years went by and they didn't want the tortoise to die off so they tried encouraged him to mate with a female and after about another 50 years they found that the Harry was actually a Harriet they felt really bad for kind of forcing those unnatural relations on him lived to a hundred and seventy five I think I took one of those two pictures sadly he since passed away a vegetarian she sorry I get mixed up on my own illustration now if you're going to talk about we talked about the mammals it had to have a cloven hoof and chew the cud what about the sea creatures what types of fish or seafood are clean biblically you read in Leviticus 11 verse 9 these you can eat of all that are in the waters whatever has fins and scales then you shall eat you know I understand that the Navy did some research back after World War two because a number of pilots and sailors were floating around in the ocean they didn't know what they couldn't couldn't eat the fish they kind of gathered around their life rafts and they said we need to give them some criteria that they can remember something simple and they did all these research and one of them said you know it says in the Bible that if it has fins and scales that's safe and they said once see what that looks like and did all the research they said that's probably the best rule of thumb or we can tell the sailors they found a lot of toxins in the scavengers catfish do not have scales my brother and I used to catch catfish off my dad's back porch he was right on this game Bay in Miami Beach and taking the hook out of the catfish my brother's finger got poked by the dorsal fin and it was so toxic he could never bend his finger again if people eat those things we eat them too back then sharks they've got cartilage on the outside they're scavengers some of you are wondering what about tuna tuna has scales very small but they've got scales and so they needed these things so what would be unclean but in the seas and the Leviticus 1110 still in all the Seas of the rivers those that do not have fins and scales all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water they are an abomination to you now there's no time in the Bible when God calls something abomination in one part that it is in blessed in another part anything that's declared by God an abomination stays an abomination and by the way these are not laws just for one group of people these are laws that God gave to humanity in the beginning I'm getting ahead of myself what about the the birds if you can eat meat what birds are clean well the way they raised some birds I want to eat anything but biblically it needed to be a foraging bird the ones that are unclean it says every raven after its kind and the owl and the Nighthawk in the cocoa and the hawk after its kind the scavengers the the Raptors they were unclean the omnivores the foraging birds like the pheasant and the quail and the chicken and the turkey you'll be happy to know are in the clean category pigeon is clean which means they'll never starve in New York City I want to need any of those though but they were kicked typically in that category so are the laws about the clean and unclean animals part of Moses ceremonial law that ended at the cross this is the argument have you heard this before no you read in Genesis 7 when God was telling Noah to bring the animals on the ark everyone says oh yeah they went on the ark two-by-two not all of them the unclean animals went by - the clean animals went by seven come you and all your house into the ark and it says of the beasts that are not clean they'll bring by two of the clean beasts they come by sevens like you might have the stag and $7 you have the bull and six cows and the bull and so two may have divided it up like that and so how many here related to Noah I'd be all of you how many of you never raise your hand when the pastor asks a question some of you were honest enough to finally raise your hand for that question but we're all related to Noah so God makes a distinction of clean and unclean right back there in the beginning and these things and we know today that there's health principles by the way National Geographic did an article a few years ago called the Blue Zones than any of you here ever see this magazine talked about the areas of the world where people live the longest they came up with three groups the people who live in Sardinia the Mediterranean the people that live in Okinawa Japan some of the oldest in the world and the third category was seventh-day Adventist that live in Loma Linda or 70 adness but that's just a loan it's an enclave down there and so they saw there was a concentration and so they specifically said seventh-day adventists what do they attribute that to their healthy lifestyle following the biblical criteria among other things having a day of rest helps also and they live a lot longer I was visiting a sister today 93 years old up and around doing fine this is a picture of one of my church members 111 still going Viola cook and just was amazing to me her brother-in-law told me art Reid gave me some good advice if you forget everything I say tonight remember this I said art how come you're so old and so healthy he said three things stop eating while you're still a little hungry wake up when you're still a little sleepy and stop talking when you still have something left to say secrets of life does God say that eating unclean food is a serious offense and some people think well you know the Bible laws about health are recommendations Bible doesn't call them recommendations causing laws listen to what the Bible says in Isaiah 66 verse 15 and 17 for behold the Lord will come with fire and with his chariot like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury those that sanctify themselves and purify themselves they're declaring themselves saying to fight him here eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse will be consumed together as says the Lord Oh pastor Doug are you telling me that my BLT sandwich is no more it tastes so good you know when you really think about it there are so many good things to eat I'm surprised people say to me pastor day you're vegetarian what do you eat Wow I'm great lots of things this is you grow up learning a certain way and you think that's the only way you've got to just learn to do good learn a new way and you'll be fine some people think well if God doesn't want us to eat it why did he make it and it's almost like a bumper sticker that you would find somewhere on Bubba's truck God made it so we can kill it need it he didn't make any of the animals for us to kill any people quote this verse in 1st Timothy 4 4 for every creature of God is good have you heard this before nothing to be refused if it's received with Thanksgiving and prayer now they don't read the context they don't read what it says before after it says first of all it'll be sanctified by the Word of God that means the creatures that are approved in the Word of God can be sanctified by prayer but this notion that Christians believe and this is where boy I hope this sinks in with thinking Christians out there the idea that we're free now from the laws about health because we just praying God blesses whatever we eat you would not accept that from your children how many your parents out there have a reason they're handsome if you were getting ready for work one day and your kids were fixing their own breakfast you know they're a little older and you see that they're pouring sugar frosted flakes in their bowl then they're putting sugar on top of that then they go on the fries and they get a scoop of chocolate ice cream then they get some caramel syrup and you say what in the world do you think you're doing don't worry mom dad I'm gonna ask Jesus to bless it what do you tell Hulk it's okay as long as you pray over it that'll be okay how many would accept that so why do we think that we can tempt the Lord by going against the basic principles of health on the Bible say but I prayed over it when the Bible talks about that it's talking about there was a big contest between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians said all that meat had been offered to an idol you can't eat it and Paul said look the idols nothing you pray over he's talking about clean animals that maybe they had bought in a Gentile marketplace goat or turkey or sheep or whatever it was and the Jews had a very sensitive conscience they said but it was a Gentile marketplace they butcher things and and they offer him to gods before they butcher him and Paul said look it's sanctified by the Word of God God's Word said you can eat that goat that sheep and you've prayed over it don't worry about it how many of you eat Chinese food and Chinese restaurant I do I did this week and when I went in there was a Buddha in the restaurant now some Christians might have a problem with that they might say I can't eat in there there was a Buddha I'll be supporting Buddha if I eat in that restaurant Paul the Saint look you pray over your food don't worry about what they think about the cook might be a Buddhist it's not gonna hurt you this was the issue it wasn't saying you could eat anything that's irresponsible we all know better than that what you eat is going to affect your health how much you eat is going to affect your health amen well some will say what about the vision that Peter had in Acts chapter 10 some of you remember tells us a Cornelius a Gentile and his family full of Gentiles an angel says you must hear from Peter they send messengers to Peter normally Jews did not preach to the Gentiles in those early days Pete is up on the roof he's praying he's hungry God gives him a vision of a sheet comes down from heaven full of all these unclean animals and God says arise and eat notice what Peter says not so Lord I have never eaten anything common or unclean and the Bible says do not call unclean what I've cleansed and he's wondering this happens three times he never takes anything out of the sheet it's a vision you can't eat a vision he never takes anything out of a sheet he never eats it and he's wondering what the vision means and some Gentiles knocked on the door downstairs and Peter explains what this vision is about he said God has told me not to call any man that's a funny way to spell Pig doesn't say God showed me it calling me swine on clay niece's name not to call a man unclean because the Jews for calling the Gentiles unclean this vision had nothing to do with food it had to do with taking the gospel to the Gentiles so pastors that say that they're being dishonest they know that's not what was really happening there doesn't make a difference what we eat do you know why we're all having problems with sin and temptation because our first parents ate something they weren't supposed to eat so you're not gonna convince me oh it doesn't matter whatever feels good pray over it you eat whatever you want if we would God wants to bless you if we take care of our bodies he bless us what's a good basic health rule for Christians every man that has the mastery is temperate in all things so you know when you think about food and drink think in the context of a traffic light you got a green light what does that mean go red light stop yellow go real fast No what do you do when you see yellow the yellow means caution right some things are absolutely no you're not supposed to eat the things God calls an abomination if you're gonna eat meat yellow light eat the clean meat and do it in moderation if you can eat sweets it's not just meat you know there's a lot of things a treat that's okay from time to time but if you're eating desserts with every meal it's gonna start to show and then of course green light is blessing go but you know you can overdo anything you should be temperate now I did some research you have you ever wondered what was the fruit on the forbidden tree I'm pretty convinced it was actually a chocolate tree I heard about a guy forgive me but he found a genie true story and he rubbed the bottle and the genie came out he says all you get three wishes and the guy said I want a bank account with a billion dollars in it poof he's got this bank account it's got billion dollar Swiss bank account he said now I want a beautiful red Italian sports car poof he's got a Maserati so now the third thing I want to be irresistible to women poof he turned into a box of chocolates I'm sorry I just thought that's fun so before I say this I needed to say that because this is pretty serious last month Center for Disease Control October 2017 a troubling new report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20% of adolescents are obese the highest rates ever recorded in the u.s. even though we've heard this for years it isn't getting better it's getting worse we're being destroyed by abundance it used to be people were dying every year because of malnutrition and starvation now there are more people in our country that are dying from overeating over nutrition you could say Bible is pretty clear Galatians 6 verse 7 do not be deceived God is not mocked whatever a person sews they will also reap one of the big offenders is soda it's liquid candy is what it is I've got a friend and I hadn't seen him for a while I saw him again he lost thirty pounds I said brother you look great what did he do he said I did one thing what was that said I stopped drinking soda that's all I did don't exercise anymore can I change my diet I gave up the soda I lost 30 pounds you see kids all the run out of time walking around nursing a soda pop and they're struggling with obesity and then it leads to diabetes in their lives there's they start getting sick before they even begin to live this is not God's plan but we need the power of God to make these practical changes amen our Bible health principles still practical today look at some of the principles that God gives in his word very simple things you find this in Leviticus 13 46 quarantine procedures control contagious disease you heard about the Ebola in crisis they found the cure was hyper laviticus they started following the quarantine procedures and Leviticus and they put a stop to it human body ways should be buried the simple sanitation I've been in countries you know most of us forget countries we have a place designated as the bathroom I've been in a few places where it there's only a few places that are not the bathroom and they have all kinds of disease problems washing the body inside now controls germs you need to drink lots of water good water people sometimes never drink water and I haven't even said anything about the addiction to caffeine there having read 24,000 people have been admitted to the hospital last year because of over caffeine related problems and a lot of them are kids moral living prevents sexual disease that's self understood truth you know the Bible says that animal fat and blood should not be eaten and by the way it says that in the New Testament to read Acts chapter 15 you had a lot of Christians you'll never hear pastors talk about that and it's not just the food you eat hatred bitterness is detrimental to one's health some people are sick because of what they're eating a lot of people are sick because of what's eating them they are mad they're bitter they keep nursing grudges they can't forgive and it affects the stress affects your health and of course as I mentioned overeating I've even good food is very harmful I understand these sumo wrestlers they have a brief time of glory and they have very short lives our bodies need proper rest there's never been a time when people are so short on sleep as our age now because of the computers and the fluorescent lights and so much to entertain that people are not resting and it will shorten your lifespan the importance of good exercise and work God took man and he put him in the guard and he said dress it keep it work he wants us to be active and you've got to stay busy God give you a body a with muscles and if you don't use them they atrophy and all kinds of your bones get weak and God it's very simple use it or lose it that's also true with your faith you got to share it with others or you lose it gotta give it away if you want to keep it have a positive attitude Bible says that happy spirit is health to the bones and keep in mind that the life you live will influence others says in Exodus their parents habits will affect the children unto the third and fourth generation so be a good example a lot of people say well I just inherited this metabolism and that's why I struggle with my weight and what they inherited was the living practices of their parents so they end up with the same acreage as their parents and you pass things on to your kids so one reason to make changes in your life as others are watching to be a good witness amen what will people in heaven are will people in heaven kill and eat animals No says they will not hurt and destroy and all my holy mountain says the Lord so how can I make these changes that God wants me to make the Bible says that he will take away ezekiel 1118 the detestable things thereof and notice this and I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit in them that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances how can we do it he puts a new spirit within us now it's difficult making changes in our wives Amen you know I was addicted to ice cream for 40 years I got a sermon you can listen to online it's called cold confession it's a true story I'm not saying ice creams of sin everyone clear on that it was for me I was addicted and I struggled and it was a battle and it wasn't until about six years ago finally I was able to be free I had to have ice cream every single day and so I know what a struggle is a simple thing like that and you know it didn't look like it was hurt me but I knew that I had a grip on me I was the expensive stuff too and God wants to give you the victory whatever your struggles might be how many of you would like to ask him Father in Heaven we just thank you for your presence and pray that the things we talked about tonight that we can put them to practice in our lives set us free we believe that through Jesus all things are possible give us victory and help us to glorify you in our bodies and dwell within them as your temple we pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Aaron

Views: 33,814

Rating: 4.7475085 out of 5

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Id: 4row4FlRUyw

Length: 52min 54sec (3174 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2017