His Harvest is Ready

Letting Down The Last Man To Let You Down

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. C.A. Murray

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Series Code: HHR

Program Code: HHR000004


00:35 Wonderful merciful Savior.
00:41 Precious Redeemer and friend.
00:47 Who would have thought that a Lamb could
00:53 rescue the souls of man.
00:58 Oh, You rescued the souls of man.
01:09 Counselor, Comforter, Keeper.
01:15 Spirit we long to embrace.
01:22 You offer hope when our hearts have
01:28 hopelessly lost the way.
01:33 Oh, we've hopelessly lost
01:37 the way.
01:41 You are the One that we praise;
01:47 You are the One we adore.
01:53 You give the healing and grace
01:58 our hearts always hunger for.
02:04 Oh, our hearts always
02:08 hunger for.
02:12 You are the One that we praise;
02:19 You are the One we adore.
02:25 You give the healing and grace
02:30 our hearts always hunger for.
02:36 Oh, our hearts always
02:39 hunger for.
02:47 Almighty, infinite Father.
02:53 Faithfully loving Your own.
03:00 Here in our weakness You find us
03:06 falling before Your throne.
03:11 Oh, falling before
03:15 Your throne.
03:18 You are the One that we praise;
03:25 You are the One we adore.
03:31 You give the healing and grace
03:36 our hearts always hunger for.
03:42 For... our hearts always
03:46 hunger for.
03:50 You are the One that we praise;
03:57 You are the One we adore.
04:03 You give the healing and grace
04:08 our hearts always hunger for.
04:14 For... our hearts always hunger
04:19 for.
04:35 Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you so very much.
04:38 So very, very well done.
04:39 Our title for this evening's discussion:
04:43 Letting Down the Last Man to Let You Down.
04:47 And the crew had quite a lot of fun today
04:50 trying to figure out what this means.
04:52 And someone gave me actually a whole new wrinkle on it.
04:55 They said: "In this world, so many people let you down
05:00 the last person who would ever let you down is Jesus. "
05:03 So, letting down the last person
05:06 to let you down must be a sermon about
05:08 not letting Jesus down.
05:10 And I said: "That's very, very good.
05:12 Wrong... but very, very good. "
05:15 We're going to talk about letting down the last person
05:18 to let you down just now. Shall we bow our heads in prayer?
05:21 Father God, we thank you for Jesus our Savior and Friend.
05:26 We thank you for His love, His power, His protection.
05:31 We thank you, Lord, for the truth of Your Word.
05:34 And we're asking, Dear Father,
05:37 that You would show us only the truth in Your Word
05:41 because we don't want to follow cunningly-devised fables.
05:45 Lord, we want the truth, the whole truth,
05:49 nothing but the truth.
05:52 And then help us to do that which we know to be true.
05:54 In Jesus' name, Amen.
05:57 When I pastored the Ephesus Church in New York City,
06:01 my membership was 2,142.
06:06 In the seven years that I pastored that church
06:09 I conducted 117 funerals.
06:13 117 funerals.
06:16 During my ministerial career I have had two very close
06:21 friends who are undertakers... funeral directors.
06:25 Both of them, by the way, are named Bill or Willie.
06:29 One is Bill Willis, who is living in Buffalo, New York,
06:33 in the church that I grew up in.
06:34 In fact, the Buffalo, New York, Church Emmanuel Temple is
06:37 hearing these meetings tonight,
06:38 so I want to say "Hi" to Bill Willis.
06:40 The other is Willie Bathea,
06:42 who is a member of the Ephesus Church that I pastored.
06:45 And it's interesting that one was Bill Willis - BW -
06:49 the other Willie Bathea - WB.
06:51 But the... and one is from the Bronx and one is from Buffalo.
06:54 But they both were undertakers.
06:57 We usually think of funeral directors - undertakers - as
07:00 somber individuals, you know, who wear black
07:03 and are very somber. But Willie Bathea was
07:06 really quite a character. I say was... he IS
07:09 quite a character. And anybody who knows him
07:11 knows that he sort of breaks the mold of the somber
07:14 undertaker because Willie is full of fun
07:17 and likes to joke and is a rather jovial fellow
07:22 to be involved in such a serious line of work.
07:25 He's a great singer, and we were very, very, very close.
07:29 Also I can say this about Willie Bathea... he also
07:31 was a... he snores more than anybody else I've ever met.
07:34 We took a trip in Jamaica and we had to be roommates.
07:38 And I called his wife and I said...
07:40 I said: "Irene, I think you've got grounds for divorce.
07:43 I've never heard a man snore like this before. "
07:45 But we're very, very close friends.
07:48 And I got the title of tonight's message actually from
07:52 Willie Bathea.
07:55 As an undertaker, he put on his business card
07:58 I think it was: I will be the last man to let you down.
08:01 And of course, he meant let you down in the grave.
08:05 He would be the last person to ever let you down.
08:08 And that was his... that was his moniker as an undertaker:
08:12 I will be the last person to let you down.
08:15 And in thinking about my days with Willie Bathea
08:19 I came up with the title of this message:
08:21 Letting Down the Last Person to Let You Down.
08:23 In other words, the title is
08:26 how to disappoint the undertaker.
08:28 How to postpone your funeral.
08:31 How to let down the last man to let you down.
08:35 Amen.
08:37 And some of you are looking at me... what is he talking about?
08:40 We'll make it a little plainer.
08:42 So tonight's message comes from
08:44 Letting Down the Last Man to Let You Down.
08:46 We can also call it: Three Ways to Postpone Your Funeral.
08:50 Now I need to say this:
08:51 in life we have no guarantees.
08:54 There are none
08:56 except for the fact that Jesus is coming again
08:59 and all of those who are faithful in Christ
09:02 will be saved. That is a guarantee.
09:04 Other than that, as far as humans are concerned,
09:07 we have no guarantees.
09:09 We make no guarantees.
09:11 But, if you live a certain way,
09:15 God has guaranteed certain outcomes. Can you say Amen?
09:21 So if you conduct your life a certain way,
09:24 certain things are going to happen from living that way.
09:28 There are certain laws that if you obey those laws
09:31 certain things happen.
09:33 If you break those laws, certain things happen...
09:36 and they are inevitable,
09:38 even though in this life we have no guarantees.
09:41 So let's look at a Biblical principle.
09:43 I'm in the book of I Corinthians. What did I say?
09:46 I Corinthians - you're with me - chapter 10 and verse 31.
09:49 I Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31.
09:52 Give you just a second to find it.
09:53 It's on the screen.
09:55 Here is a Biblical principle.
10:08 Now that is an overriding, overarching Biblical principle.
10:14 Whatever we involve ourselves in
10:18 God ought to be glorified.
10:20 Things we eat, things we do,
10:23 things we think, things we say,
10:27 places we go. All of these things as Christians
10:31 ought to give God glory.
10:34 And if you're doing something,
10:37 eating something, drinking something, saying something,
10:41 thinking something that does not give God glory
10:45 as a Christian you need to stop doing it.
10:47 Can you say Amen? You need to ask for God's help
10:51 to stop doing it because we, as followers of Christ,
10:54 ought to be involved only in those things
10:58 which give God glory so that someone seeing us
11:02 will know that we are different.
11:04 Can you say Amen?
11:05 They ought to be able to see something different
11:07 about the way we eat, drink, dress, talk, walk.
11:13 Even Christians...
11:15 Christians ought even to smell differently.
11:19 Um-hmm.
11:21 There ought to be certain smells that ought not emanate
11:24 from the Christian persona.
11:27 Ought to look differently, talk differently,
11:31 walk differently, speak differently,
11:34 act differently, smell differently.
11:39 That's a beautiful text in... is it II Corinthians chapter 2
11:43 verse 15? I'm coming from my memory
11:44 where the Bible says we are the aroma of Christ who died.
11:48 We are the aroma of Christ...
11:49 so you ought to even smell differently as a child of God.
11:52 So God then is concerned with every aspect of our lives.
11:56 Can you say Amen? Now this is something that
11:58 makes a lot of people a little uncomfortable...
12:00 but it is the truth. Every aspect of your life
12:04 concerns God. He is concerned about the little things
12:08 and the big things.
12:09 Everything you do; everything you think.
12:11 Your physical, your mental, your social, your spiritual welfare:
12:15 all of these things concern God.
12:18 As Christians, everything that we do ought to have
12:22 divine approval. Amen?
12:25 So God is concerned with all of these things.
12:28 God's concern, ladies and gentlemen,
12:31 is based on eternal reality.
12:35 When God looks at our life,
12:37 He is looking at you not just now
12:40 but throughout all of eternity.
12:42 So as God structures our life,
12:45 as things come in and through our lives,
12:47 God is looking at the ultimate big picture.
12:50 Amen? Yeah.
12:52 You may not get the fourscore and ten
12:54 or the threescore and ten. But if you get eternity, you've won.
12:58 And God is looking at it from that big picture.
13:01 God, then, is intimately concerned
13:04 with the here and now of our lives
13:07 but He is ultimately concerned with our hereafter
13:12 or our eternity.
13:13 God wants all of us to be saved!
13:17 Can you say Amen? Amen!
13:19 Now, what is most important to the Lord
13:22 is our salvation...
13:24 not necessarily - I want you to hear this -
13:28 not necessarily our temporal happiness
13:34 or our good time.
13:36 Because sometimes... sometimes
13:41 the things that make us happy
13:43 are not for our good.
13:46 Amen? Amen!
13:48 Yeah. When I was young, I used to love to eat Butterfingers.
13:51 Still like it to an extent.
13:53 I could sit down and eat Butterfingers all day long.
13:56 But they weren't for my good,
13:57 and so my mother had to restrict my Butterfinger intake.
14:01 That's what parenting is about:
14:03 not always giving children what they want
14:05 but more importantly what they need.
14:07 So God does not always give you what you ask for
14:10 because the Bible says sometimes we ask amiss.
14:13 We ask wrong.
14:15 So God as a good parents says "Yes, " He says "No, "
14:18 He says "Wait, " and we don't like to wait.
14:22 Sometimes waiting is for our own good.
14:24 So God is intimately concerned about our total
14:29 ultimate happiness... not our temporary happiness.
14:32 Case in point: ask Samson.
14:35 Famous last words: "She pleases me well. "
14:39 "I like her! "
14:42 "She's a sharp girl, that Delilah...
14:44 with a sharp knife and a sharp pair of scissors. "
14:48 So everything that makes us happy is not necessarily
14:52 for our good.
14:54 And sometimes we've got to trust God
14:57 even when what He's taking us through doesn't make sense.
15:02 We've got to follow Him.
15:03 I have a friend, bless his heart. He's Korean.
15:06 Works seven days a week.
15:09 Up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Owns three dry cleaners.
15:11 I've talked about him before.
15:13 Uh, owns three dry cleaners.
15:15 Get's up in the morning at 5:00 or 6:00.
15:18 In the first one at 7:00; the second one at 8:00;
15:20 the next one at 9:00. Works all day till about
15:22 7 or 8 o'clock at night.
15:23 Closes up all three dry cleaners.
15:25 Collects all the money; takes it to the bank.
15:26 Does the receipts. Goes home... cooks for the family
15:29 who sit at the table and wait for him to get there.
15:31 Cooks for the family. Does that six days a week.
15:34 On Sunday he goes to church... cooks for the church!
15:40 Comes home; does his books.
15:43 Cooks for the house; goes to bed.
15:46 Monday morning he's back up at 5:00... that routine again.
15:48 I said: "Bill, you are killing yourself. "
15:51 The reason God gave you the Sabbath is so you could
15:54 get off of that merry-go-round and stop killing yourself.
15:58 His thesis to me is: "I'm happy when I make money.
16:01 I make money when I work.
16:04 God must want me to work because God wants me to be happy! "
16:07 That's his logic.
16:09 And I'm trying to tell him that's illogical
16:11 because you're hastening yourself to your grave
16:13 and you can't take it with you.
16:16 I told him flat out: "You are going to die,
16:20 and you are not in God's will.
16:23 Not working 24/7 like that.
16:25 That's not God's will for your life. "
16:28 III John 2. Third book of John
16:31 verse 2. What book did I say?
16:33 III John 2. Here we go:
16:45 Now, that is not an entitlement to a prosperity gospel.
16:49 What is being said there is: Given that your soul
16:54 is prosperous in the Lord,
16:55 I hope that your temporal prosperity follows.
16:58 It's saying: "Be prosperous in the Lord
17:01 and allow the Lord to prosper you. "
17:04 I am praying that you prosper physically
17:06 as well as spiritually.
17:09 But the most important of the two comes last:
17:11 it's spiritual prosperity.
17:13 He's saying that "I hope that you do as good in life
17:15 as you're doing spiritually. " Amen?
17:17 Because ultimately God wants us to prosper spiritually.
17:20 And if you're prospering spiritually,
17:23 I daresay you are prospering in the physical life also.
17:27 So that is the burden. Verse 3:
17:38 So, his burden again is walking in the truth.
17:42 And verse 4:
17:50 And so John's burden there is not prosperity
17:54 as much as it is truth!
17:56 He's saying: "As you walk in the truth,
17:59 you are a prosperous person. " When you've got Jesus,
18:02 you've got all you need.
18:04 And sometimes you never know that Jesus is all you need
18:07 until Jesus is all you've got.
18:09 But if you've got Jesus, you've got what you need.
18:12 Because Christ has said: "If you put Me first,
18:15 I'm going to take care of everything else for you. " Amen?
18:18 And Amen. So then, God's great concern
18:25 is about our spiritual up building
18:28 and our spiritual strength in Him.
18:31 We need to be involved in those things that draw us to Christ,
18:35 that help us to spiritually prosper,
18:38 that make us stronger in the Lord,
18:41 that do not tear us down physically,
18:45 and that through which God can get the glory.
18:48 In other words, the Lord wants us to be
18:52 healthy, happy, and holy.
18:56 Say that with me.
18:58 God wants us to be healthy, happy, and holy.
19:02 Now some will say: "It's my body
19:06 and I can do what I want. "
19:10 How many have heard that before?
19:12 Here it all the time... "My body;
19:14 I'll do what I want. "
19:15 Well, the Bible has something to say about that.
19:19 I'm in the book of I Corinthians. What book?
19:21 I Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20.
19:26 Let's go to I Corinthians 6:19 and let's read the Word of God.
19:45 So God's making a claim here.
19:48 He's making a claim.
19:49 Let's go on to 20:
20:01 So this idea that it's my body,
20:04 I can do what I want, go where I want,
20:07 wear what I want, dress like I want,
20:10 act how I want is not Biblical and is certainly unchristian.
20:14 Amen!
20:15 God says first of all your body is a temple.
20:18 It is a holy place.
20:20 It is a place where the Spirit of God dwells in you.
20:24 You were bought with an incredibly-high price -
20:27 even the blood of Christ - so you are not your own.
20:30 You and I belong to God.
20:35 God has purchased us at a high price.
20:39 And so this idea of it's my party and I'll cry if I want to.
20:43 Oh, no. No you won't... because you belong to the Lord.
20:47 Amen? I want you to understand. That's very, very important.
20:50 So that we are not free to do certain kinds of things.
20:55 We're not free to act certain kinds of ways.
20:58 We are not free to go certain kinds of places.
21:01 The Christian ought to be different.
21:04 The sign of our love and our relationship with Christ
21:08 is a separation from worldly practices
21:11 and those things which are not like Jesus.
21:14 Now this is not a message people like to hear.
21:16 People would rather go to church and hear: "Doesn't matter.
21:21 Just love the Lord and everything's going to be fine. "
21:25 But it's not true!
21:27 Because if you love the Lord, the Lord has got claim
21:31 on your life. Amen?
21:33 So Christians then must live differently.
21:35 I'm in John chapter 3 and verse 16.
21:38 You know that text so very, very well.
21:40 John 3:16:
21:51 That is the ransom note for you and me.
21:54 That is God saying "I will give up GOD
21:59 in order to get you back. "
22:01 "I made you; I created you...
22:04 and now I've got to buy you back
22:06 because you indentured yourself
22:08 to Satan... so I've got to get you. "
22:11 So God really owns us twice!
22:14 Made us and then bought us back.
22:17 Such is the great love of the Lord for you and for me.
22:21 So I say again: God says "I reserve the right
22:26 to tell you how to live. "
22:27 Now there's a lot of people who do not like that.
22:29 They don't like being told how to live.
22:32 And yet, the Creator has a right to make that claim
22:37 because God broke the bank, ladies and gentlemen,
22:40 for you and for me.
22:41 So He has the right. Let's reinforce the case.
22:44 I'm in the book of I Corinthians again.
22:45 I Corinthians chapter 3, picking it up at verse 16 this time.
22:59 Sounds about like 6:19, doesn't it?
23:01 Reinforcing the point.
23:03 Spirit of God dwells in you.
23:05 God is in you through His Spirit.
23:07 Now, here's something a little bit more serious.
23:09 Let's go on:
23:27 That's a strong text. It's one that needs to be underlined
23:31 in the Word of God. God is saying
23:34 "The temple is holy, and if you persist in destroying it
23:38 then it will have to be destroyed
23:40 because I cannot have you destroying a holy thing. "
23:43 God wants to dwell in us and make us -as that song says -
23:45 a sanctuary.
23:47 But He can't do that if we insist on defiling His temple.
23:51 Here is a statement that I believe few can disagree with.
23:57 We as Americans
24:00 and those of us in most of the Western countries
24:04 are overfed and undernourished.
24:09 Now you got quiet on me.
24:12 That's a time to say Amen.
24:15 We are overfed and undernourished.
24:21 As a rule we take in far too many calories
24:27 with far too little nutrition.
24:30 And if you can't say "Amen" say "ouch! "
24:35 Overfed... undernourished.
24:39 There is a certain fast-food restaurant...
24:42 You can go in the morning and have "breakfast" -
24:47 and I put that in quotes -
24:49 you can consume 2,200 calories
24:55 for breakfast... and very little nutrition.
24:59 You will fill up and fill out,
25:05 um-hmm,
25:08 you will be overfed and undernourished.
25:13 And your body will continue to call for nourishment,
25:16 and you wonder why you're eating all day...
25:19 eating, eating, eating.
25:21 It is because you are taking in calories
25:24 and not nutrition.
25:26 And most Americans are overfed and undernourished.
25:31 There are certain restaurants you can go to
25:33 and the appetizer -
25:34 the appetizer before the food comes -
25:36 is 2,700 calories.
25:39 That's a day's worth of calories in the appetizer.
25:43 We are overfed and undernourished.
25:47 The problem is that as far as vital nutrients are concerned
25:52 your body demands them but gets very little...
25:56 so you eat and eat and eat
25:59 and wonder why you're not satisfied.
26:02 We eat a day's worth of calories in one meal
26:06 and nutritionally we are starving.
26:08 You can have a big lunch or a big dinner
26:12 and soon you're sick... and you wonder why.
26:16 I believe that we Westerners
26:19 are digging our way to our graves
26:22 with our knife and fork.
26:25 If you can't say Amen,
26:27 say ouch...
26:30 We are digging our way to the grave with the knife and fork.
26:35 And we should know and understand that much of the
26:37 disease - many of the diseases that we are suffering from -
26:40 are lifestyle diseases.
26:42 They come from the way we...
26:45 I have a good friend who is an emergency room doctor
26:49 and he says: "I have a ringside seat to the decline and fall
26:52 of Western civilization
26:53 as an emergency room doctor. "
26:55 And he says: "So much of what we see in the emergency room
27:00 in the hospital - chronic disease -
27:03 is lifestyle induced.
27:06 He says if we would just eat a little less
27:09 or watch what we eat
27:12 we'd do so much better.
27:13 The truth is that everything that walks on the earth
27:19 or crawls along the ground
27:21 or swims in the sea
27:23 was never intended for human consumption.
27:27 There are certain things that we are eating
27:29 we ought not to be eating.
27:31 And even though they're not killing us outright
27:33 they are killing us slowly.
27:38 I heard someone say to me the other day
27:41 "You know, " they said,
27:42 "Pastor, they wouldn't really put anything out there
27:45 that would hurt me, would they? "
27:47 My response was: "Are you kidding? "
27:52 Just in the last month they had to recall 1/2 million toys
27:57 because of lead paint.
28:01 You remember years ago a drug called thalidomide?
28:04 Red dye no. 2?
28:06 The list of drugs and foods that can maim, injure,
28:10 kill or destroy is long and staggering.
28:13 There are a lot of things that we are taking in our bodies
28:15 that have no business being there, ladies and gentlemen.
28:18 People will cut corners to make money.
28:20 The truth is: you can read a pack of cigarettes
28:24 and it tells you. Cigarettes may be the only thing that when
28:27 used as directed can kill you.
28:30 When you use it the "right" way
28:31 it increases your risk of death.
28:34 No child of God should ever smoke.
28:37 Come on... say Amen.
28:39 No child of God should ever smoke. It destroys your body.
28:43 It makes you ineffective in the cause of Christ.
28:46 It's tearing you down.
28:48 No child of God should light up a cigarette.
28:51 You don't have to read your Bible...
28:53 Read the label
28:57 then read the Word of God!
28:58 Killing us. Killing Western civilization.
29:01 Cigarettes, chewing tobacco - all of its forms -
29:05 not for the child of God
29:08 and we should have no part of it.
29:10 God says there are a number of things we should not eat
29:15 if you want to live long and stay healthy.
29:19 Things we should not drink.
29:20 Let's run to Proverbs chapter 20 verse 1.
29:22 Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 1.
29:26 I want to punch a little hole in that thing that says
29:29 we need to drink responsibly.
29:30 I say there is no responsible drinking.
29:32 Proverbs 20:1 backs me up.
29:41 If you are not wise, what are you?
29:44 The opposite of wise is?
29:46 Ah, you said it... I didn't.
29:48 But the Bible is saying God's people should have
29:51 nothing to do with alcohol.
29:53 I've heard them talk lately about the... the effect...
29:57 the bioflavonoid effect of red wine.
30:00 What they don't tell you is you can still get that... that
30:02 same effect by drinking grape juice.
30:04 You don't need to have the fermented wine.
30:06 Wine does no good.
30:08 I was going to put up a graphic
30:10 for you of a woman who actually ran down a priest
30:13 in New York City while DUl
30:17 and saying how sorry she was.
30:18 And then they found out in checking the record that
30:20 she was what they call a serial alcoholic.
30:23 She had been caught drunk driving many, many, many,
30:25 many times.
30:28 "Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging. "
30:30 God's people should have nothing to do with it.
30:32 I don't care how many commercials they have.
30:34 How good they say it is.
30:35 How life of the party people think they are.
30:37 Wine has no place on the Christian table
30:39 in the Christian home.
30:41 Christians should have nothing to do with alcohol in any sense.
30:44 Can you say Amen?
31:13 The Bible is saying the child of God should have nothing
31:16 to do with wine, beer, sangria, cordials, cocktails,
31:22 crème de menthe. You name it in any form.
31:24 Wine coolers, little bit of near beer.
31:27 You name it. None of it belongs on a Christian table
31:29 and in the Christian home. Can you say Amen?
31:32 The body has no real internal use for alcohol.
31:35 Kills your liver; kills brain cells.
31:38 Kills kidneys... sclerosis of the liver.
31:42 The next thing that we need to look at are unusual stimulants.
31:48 Wine, liquor is a depressant.
31:51 Caffeine is a stimulant,
31:54 and caffeine is killing our society slowly.
31:57 There are people who cannot get up in the morning
31:59 unless they pump in 4, 5, 6 cups of coffee
32:02 and then they're wired and gassed during the day
32:04 and have to take something else to wind down at night.
32:06 So you get this up and down spiral.
32:08 I've heard people: "I'm no good unless I've got my coffee. "
32:10 Well why? Because you're drugging yourself up.
32:12 You walk around like a zombie all day long full of caffeine.
32:15 Then you can't sleep so you grab a little something
32:17 to sort of tie you down at night.
32:19 The next morning you're back up like a zombie wired on caffeine.
32:24 And caffeine causes cysts in the chest and in the breast
32:28 and it does other things to your body.
32:29 We ought to live naturally, ladies and gentlemen.
32:32 This up and down... I mean, there's enough pressure
32:35 and stress in life now without jolting yourself up on caffeine.
32:38 They've got colas out - Jolt, and other kinds of colas
32:40 which have 3-4 times the caffeine. You really get wired!
32:43 You know, you just... you can't even think.
32:48 And God's people need to stay away from these things.
32:52 These artificial stimulants and artificial depressants
32:55 our bodies are not made...
32:56 and that's why our bodies are breaking down.
32:58 Up and down and up and down and up and down.
33:01 We're taking in things we don't even understand the
33:04 pharmacological effect. Someone was telling me
33:06 that if a young child goes to the corner store
33:09 and drinks a 44-ounce soda that they have... these
33:12 giant Big Gulp sodas...
33:13 that is a pharmacological dose of sugar.
33:17 That child's body chemistry - his brain function -
33:20 has been altered by pumping in that much sugar.
33:23 Your body was never intended to take 44 ounces
33:25 of soda laced with sugar into your body at one time.
33:28 We are killing ourselves.
33:30 And we are wondering why children cannot study in school.
33:33 Why they cannot pay attention.
33:35 Why children grab guns and come to school.
33:37 Because their bodies are so full of different kinds of chemicals
33:40 that they cannot think or reason.
33:42 And it's the same with so many adults.
33:44 Another thing we need to stay away from... umm...
33:48 is tobacco in all of its forms.
33:51 Pipe. Cigarettes.
33:55 Chewing tobacco. All of those things
33:58 we need to stay away from.
34:00 Nicotine is a poison
34:02 and has been proven to be a poison.
34:04 Deuteronomy chapter 9. Let's look at verse 19.
34:08 Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 19:
34:33 God is saying we are fooling ourselves
34:36 if we think we can invest in these kinds of lifestyles -
34:40 eat anything, drink anything, live any way -
34:44 and have peace in our hearts and in our lives.
34:46 It's not going to happen!
34:49 God has given us a roadmap, a blueprint,
34:53 for how to live, for what to eat,
34:55 what not to eat and how to eat,
34:57 and if we follow it we're going to have peace.
35:00 We're going to have good success.
35:01 We're going to have healthy and happy lives.
35:04 Now, I've heard people say many, many times
35:06 "Well, you've got to die of something. "
35:09 That's not the question.
35:11 The question is how you're going to live
35:14 and how you're going to die.
35:15 You can die of a heart attack at eighty-seven
35:18 playing basketball with your great-grandchildren
35:21 or you can die at forty-seven from colon cancer
35:26 because you didn't get enough fiber,
35:28 you packed in too much meat,
35:29 you got no exercise,
35:31 and your body just gave up.
35:33 It's your choice!
35:34 Now... John Lomacang, myself, Danny Shelton are all
35:39 in the same zip code age-wise.
35:41 Every Tuesday we play basketball.
35:43 And a couple Tuesdays ago
35:46 we played some young men thirty years our junior.
35:51 We're in our mid...
35:54 and these were young people.
35:58 And you know... we beat them!
35:59 We beat them... thirty years younger than us.
36:02 And about, oh, a year ago, Danny Shelton and I
36:06 took on two young men from Oakwood College
36:08 who were 19 and 20, bigger and taller than us.
36:11 And Danny and I are the same age.
36:15 We are... years of age
36:17 and we beat them!
36:19 We beat them.
36:21 We're in pretty good shape. Now some of you have heard
36:23 that Danny had a little problem with his heart.
36:26 And some people said: "You see, you live healthy
36:29 and you still have heart problems. "
36:30 And the doctor said: "Had you not lived healthy
36:33 it wouldn't have been a heart problem...
36:34 it would have killed you. "
36:35 You see, there are dividends for following the will of God.
36:40 You don't get a guarantee, but what you DO get
36:43 is the presence and power of God and the comfort of knowing
36:47 you're doing the will of God.
36:48 So it's not you're going to die...
36:52 it's how you're going to live until you die.
36:55 And God makes a promise that if we do these things
36:57 you'll get none of these diseases.
37:00 Nicotine enslaves your mind and your body.
37:03 You become a slave to yourself.
37:05 Your body becomes a slave to itself.
37:06 And that's what addiction is: you are a slave to yourself.
37:11 Your mind is a slave to your body, to your lower one.
37:15 Matthew chapter 4 verse 10. What book did I say?
37:18 Matthew 4 verse 10:
37:28 Now how does this text fit in?
37:30 It talks about what I think is addiction.
37:32 God says you need to worship Him only.
37:36 People who are addicted cannot worship God
37:39 because they are slaves to themselves.
37:41 It's like self-worship.
37:43 They don't have the control any more
37:45 because they've given up control of their mind
37:48 and their body to a substance
37:51 which now controls their wants
37:52 and how they live.
37:54 So you're breaking that commandment because you're
37:55 worshiping another god.
37:57 That god is that addictive substance
37:59 that has you in its control.
38:00 Paul said: "I keep my body under... "
38:03 "I fight the good fight against myself. "
38:06 Your toughest opponent - ladies and gentlemen - in your life
38:09 will be you!
38:11 The hardest battle you will fight
38:13 is the battle against yourself.
38:16 And so if you have never smoked or drank
38:21 or taken any substance, I pray to God that
38:25 you will never start.
38:28 And if you have, the good news is
38:31 God has the power to set you free.
38:35 Smoking injures your health, destroys the body.
38:39 So does alcohol.
38:42 I Corinthians 3:16-17 again
38:45 tells us that our body is the temple of the Living God.
38:49 We need to surrender our diets to the Lord.
38:54 Does the Bible have anything to say about what we eat?
38:59 Does it?
39:01 Now it is not a text that we like to read, but
39:03 the Bible has a lot to say about how we eat.
39:07 And before time gets away from me we need to go
39:09 to Leviticus chapter 11. What book did I say?
39:11 I'm in the book of Leviticus
39:14 chapter 11 and I'm beginning at verse 2:
39:47 Ladies and gentlemen, no camel!
39:50 Don't eat the camel; don't smoke the Camel.
39:53 All right?
40:33 Now it doesn't chew the cud. What does the swine chew?
40:41 Anything.
40:43 That's why you can't chew it...
40:45 'cause it chews anything
40:48 it can get it's little mouth around.
40:51 And God is saying it is unclean.
40:53 And when you look... and I've talked to many, many
40:56 doctors on this... when you look at the root cause
40:59 of a lot of disease in the human family
41:02 it is occasioned by eating of swine flesh.
41:06 God says: "Don't eat it. It is unclean. "
41:10 Now, you've got... on the clean side you've got
41:14 cows and sheep and, uh... and, uh,
41:18 animals that chew the cud like that.
41:21 But these others God says stay away from.
41:23 And listen, truly...
41:25 too much meat eating is not good anyway.
41:29 The best lifestyle is vegetarian.
41:32 It really is. And so much of the meat today
41:36 is processed and packaged
41:39 and fed with hormones to get it big enough and fat enough
41:45 to be commercially viable.
41:47 And when you ingest all of that you are taking all of that
41:50 into your body.
41:51 And so the best thing to do is do...
41:53 and you've got to be even careful with vegetables
41:55 to see that they are clean and that they are washed...
41:57 but vegetarianism is far superior
42:00 to a lot of meat eating.
42:02 And we are finding that there are very, very degenerative
42:05 defects to excessive eating of meat... even of clean animals...
42:09 because of the way meat is slaughtered and processed today.
42:12 So these things we need to really keep in our minds
42:16 and think about very, very carefully.
42:18 Let's go back to the book of Deuteronomy.
42:20 What book did I say? We're back in Deuteronomy
42:21 and we read 2 to 8. Let's pick up 9 to 12.
42:26 Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 9 to 12:
42:41 Let's go on.
42:43 God is saying a number of things here
42:46 that translate to us today.
42:49 He is saying: "Be very careful
42:52 about what you put in your body.
42:54 Be very, very careful. "
42:55 And if you've got to spend a few more cents
42:57 to get organic or to get healthy
43:00 it's worth it... because you only have one body,
43:03 ladies and gentlemen.
43:05 And you only go around one time,
43:07 and we want to be as good as we can for the Lord.
43:12 When your mind is benumbed and your body is sick,
43:15 you can't serve God.
43:17 You don't want to serve God.
43:19 You don't want to do anything but lie in bed.
43:21 But when you're up and healthy and strong
43:24 you can serve the Lord and be a tool in His hand.
43:27 We eat too much.
43:33 Amen.
43:35 You know, my wife and I as of late
43:37 this year have reduced ourselves to two meals a day,
43:40 and we found we're fine with two meals a day.
43:44 We used to be one meal a day.
43:48 Um-hmm. Start at 9:00 end at 9:00.
43:52 One meal!
43:55 Now we're two meals.
43:57 We eat breakfast. We eat in the afternoon
43:59 and then we shut it down... and we found it's OK.
44:02 We can make it on two meals a day.
44:04 We tend to eat too much.
44:06 And I say again, we are digging our way
44:11 to our graves with our knife and fork.
44:16 High blood pressure. All of these ills and aches.
44:19 Rheumatoid arthritis. A lot of that can be traced to
44:22 pork and excessive pork. And I've gotten this
44:24 from a number of doctors.
44:25 These things that are killing us so many, many ways.
44:30 We... we... we are so overfed and undernourished.
44:34 Let's go to that graphic, gentlemen, about the food.
44:38 Let's just jump down... I want to show you something:
44:39 how calories sneak their way into our lives.
44:43 That is a Fig Newton.
44:49 One Fig Newton equals a whole cantaloupe.
44:55 Can you believe that?
44:56 One Fig Newton... 60 calories.
44:59 Now most of us don't eat a whole cantaloupe at one sitting,
45:02 do we? No. We may eat a half or a couple slices.
45:06 But when we eat a Fig Newton how many do we eat?
45:10 Five, six, seven? Whole pack?
45:14 And usually wash it down with something, don't you?
45:17 You don't just sit there and eat all that chicken,
45:19 you usually wash it down with something.
45:20 So you can eat 300, 400, 500 calories in Fig Newtons.
45:26 And what's their nutrition? 0!
45:31 Yeah. One Fig Newton equals a whole cantaloupe.
45:36 See how calories sneak in?
45:37 There is so much compact food and dense food and
45:40 engineered food. Let's go to the next one, gentlemen.
45:42 That is one piece of cornbread
45:48 with a pat of butter.
45:50 Do you see what that little piece of cornbread equals?
45:52 Can you see that?
45:54 That cornbread with a little pat of butter
45:57 equals a baked potato, an ear of corn,
46:01 sweet potato, slice of bread,
46:04 roll with jelly, and another ear of corn...
46:06 all in that one little piece of cornbread.
46:08 Can you believe it?
46:10 Tons of calories in that little piece of cornbread!
46:15 And we'll sit down and, you know, have a big dinner
46:18 and have one slice, two slices.
46:20 You can take in 1,000 calories just in cornbread.
46:25 Next one.
46:27 Slice of pizza. Have mercy!
46:32 560 calories.
46:35 And when... In the past I have eaten a whole...
46:41 a whole pizza!
46:44 A half a pizza sometimes.
46:46 560 calories. Now look at this.
46:49 Those two slices of pizza equal a salad,
46:53 slice of pizza, and a whole bowl of soup.
46:56 And that's just two slices of pizza.
46:58 Who eats two slices? We usually eat three slices,
47:00 four slices, five slices.
47:03 Six slices someone is saying.
47:05 Eight, nine, ten?
47:06 And you say what and you wonder why the belt's getting tight
47:09 and you're going back to the dry cleaners
47:11 and shaking your finger at the guy
47:12 "you shrunk my clothes! You didn't do a good job
47:14 with my clothes. My clothes are too tight! "
47:17 And you ate a whole pizza.
47:21 Let's go to the next one gentlemen.
47:24 A whole pineapple.
47:25 Now those little things there are gummy bears.
47:27 200 calories, and that's not a lot.
47:29 That's just a little fist full of candy.
47:31 Those gummy bears equal that entire pineapple.
47:35 And when... you can see children... they will eat
47:39 a bag of those things.
47:41 Or... or adults some times will eat a bag of those things.
47:44 Who eats a whole pineapple?
47:46 Very rarely we eat an entire pineapple.
47:48 But you'll eat several pineapples worth of gummy bears
47:51 and wonder why your jacket is so tight.
47:56 They slip in! Do we have any more?
47:57 I don't know if we brought another or not.
47:59 We've got one more. All right.
48:01 That's... oh, my soul...
48:04 that's a Caesar salad.
48:06 Surely we can eat a Caesar salad?
48:10 That Caesar salad is equal to
48:14 bowl of soup, bowl of fruit,
48:18 roll, and a regular tossed salad.
48:21 The thing that makes that Caesar salad so bad for you
48:26 is it's loaded with cheese and dressing.
48:29 So you take a nice, healthy green salad.
48:32 You add a bunch of croutons,
48:34 bunch of dressing,
48:37 slather it with cheese,
48:39 and sometimes they throw a big old slab of chicken on there.
48:44 And what was a nice salad becomes a 600-700 calorie
48:50 appetizer because you eat a meal after that.
48:54 And we wonder why am I feeling so sluggish.
48:57 Why am I so? I can't get up in the morning;
49:00 I can't sleep at night. It's because we are overfed
49:04 and undernourished.
49:06 God intended for us
49:08 to eat food in its natural state.
49:12 I'm not saying never have a piece of cake.
49:15 Can't say that 'cause we had some two nights ago.
49:18 I'm not saying never have anything sweet.
49:21 I'm saying as Christians
49:24 we have a God-given responsibility
49:28 to take care of this machinery
49:31 so it can be used to God's glory.
49:34 And you can't give God glory when you're sick,
49:38 when you're in bed, when you cannot think right,
49:40 when you cannot function because you've taken in
49:43 too many calories and you've destroyed this temple
49:47 that God has given us. I've seen so many people
49:49 praying "Lord, take this disease away from me. "
49:52 And they've gotten the disease as a consequence
49:56 of lifestyle decisions that they have made.
49:58 You've got to get water.
50:00 You've got to get exercise.
50:03 You've got to get rest.
50:04 You've got to get out in the sun.
50:07 You've got to trust in God.
50:09 You know, exercise is like medicine.
50:12 It is! Exercise makes you feel good
50:15 and makes you look good.
50:17 And you don't have to beat yourself up or kill yourself.
50:21 Just walk a little more.
50:22 When you go to the mall, rather than parking your car
50:25 right at the entrance
50:27 park your car down the road and walk to your car.
50:31 Amen? Or walk to the store.
50:34 You know, I had a friend just across the street from me.
50:37 He used to drive his car to get his newspaper
50:39 on Sunday morning. He'd turn on the engine,
50:41 drive literally one block, pick up his newspaper,
50:44 get back in the car and drive one block back to his house.
50:48 Walk the block or better... jog the block.
50:51 Or walk briskly down the block.
50:53 Exercise is medicine.
50:56 It releases endorphins; it makes you feel better.
50:59 It makes you look better.
51:00 It will make you live longer. Can you say Amen?
51:03 So the Bible has something to say about what we eat,
51:07 about where we live, about how we live,
51:10 it also has something to say about those kinds of things
51:13 that are there in the sea... there in the sea
51:17 and things that fly.
51:19 My time is slipping away but I want to look at
51:21 let's see... let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 11
51:27 and pick it up at verse... Let's go to Deuteronomy 14:8.
51:32 Let's go to 14:8.
51:34 I'm in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 8.
51:36 Give you just a second to find it
51:38 because I'm jumping around just a little bit
51:39 and my time is slipping away from me.
51:41 I want to get John out here in just a little bit.
51:42 Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 8. Here we go:
51:52 That's not the one that I want.
51:54 Let's go back to... let me get my text... ah!
51:57 Deuteronomy 11:13. Let's try that.
51:58 Deuteronomy the 11th chapter and the 13th verse.
52:02 I think that's the one that I want.
52:08 OK, let's go to the next one.
52:10 Let's go to the next one. OK:
52:20 Again, we are looking now at the promises of God
52:23 for doing His will and for following His will and way.
52:27 This book of Deuteronomy has a number of things to say
52:30 about flying things and about swimming things.
52:34 One of the things you will find in the Word of God
52:37 is that God has enjoined us to eat only those things
52:40 which have fins and scales.
52:43 And you will find that the things that do not
52:47 usually are scavengers. When you look at shrimp,
52:50 and lobsters, and crabs,
52:53 and these things, they are
52:55 anatomically built
52:57 for picking and cleaning.
52:59 They were put there
53:01 to be cleaners.
53:02 I remember once when I got my aquarium
53:05 they asked me to put snails in it.
53:07 And I asked: "Why would I put snails in my aquarium? "
53:09 And the aquarium fellow said:
53:11 "because snails keep the aquarium clean. "
53:13 That's what they're there for. They are there as
53:15 garbage collectors to keep the aquarium clean.
53:19 So if they eat garbage and you eat them,
53:22 what are you eating?
53:24 Um-hmm. You're eating what they eat.
53:26 So when you get sick it is the inevitable result
53:29 of what you ate.
53:32 Amen? Fins and scales. That's tuna and other kinds of
53:35 things that are clean. Those you can eat.
53:39 But if you don't, these kinds of things will happen.
53:42 Now, in the last days there is one other thing I want to
53:46 touch on very quickly.
53:48 The texts that I will give you are I Timothy chapter 2
53:51 verses 9-10; I Peter 3: 1-2.
53:55 I Timothy 2:9-10:
53:58 I Peter 3:1-2. My time is slipping away from me.
54:01 We tend to have so much sometimes we just...
54:03 time just gets away.
54:04 God is not only concerned with what you put in your body
54:08 He is also concerned with what we put on our body.
54:14 And I do want to go to I Timothy chapter 2:9-10.
54:19 I want to go to I Timothy 2:9-10.
54:21 Thank you, gentlemen.
54:42 You will find a pattern in the Word of God
54:45 that when God's people were called before Him
54:48 in holy convocation or called before Him
54:51 in a right relationship, they were told to clean yourself up
54:55 and take off all excess and unnecessary ornamentation.
55:00 Are you going to say Amen on that?
55:03 This is God's will.
55:04 We find it in the Old Testament
55:06 in Isaiah chapter 3.
55:08 We also find it in the New Testament
55:10 in these references that I just gave you.
55:12 If you want to check those out:
55:14 I Timothy 2:9-10.
55:16 I Peter 3:1-2.
55:18 I Peter 3:3.
55:20 Genesis 35:1-3.
55:23 This is very, very crucial
55:25 because it goes to the differences between the
55:28 children of God and the children of men.
55:31 God's people eat differently.
55:34 They dress differently.
55:35 They walk, talk, act, and live differently.
55:38 And their appearance ought to bespeak a relationship with God.
55:42 Not decked out; not trying to draw undue attention
55:46 to themselves so that their clothes
55:49 ought to fit the right way.
55:51 I say you need to dress for your blessing.
55:55 If God has blessed you with a pound or two extra,
55:59 then don't wear something that's a size or two smaller.
56:02 Dress for your blessing. Amen?
56:04 And be careful with what you wear
56:09 and how you wear it and the things you drape yourself with.
56:14 They are not godly.
56:16 They are not God's will for our lives.
56:19 God wants His people to stand out
56:21 as trophies for Him.
56:24 When people see us, they need to know
56:27 we have been with the Father.
56:29 They need to know that our life is hid in Christ Jesus.
56:32 They need to know that it's not about us...
56:35 it's about God.
56:37 And our lives, then, are an emblem of Jesus Christ
56:43 and His abiding sacrifice.
56:45 How many love the Lord?
56:46 How many intend now to conduct themselves
56:50 in such a way that God will get the glory.
56:51 Remember our first text?
56:53 Eat, drink, whatever you do
56:54 do all to the glory of God.


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Revised 2014-12-17