Undisciplined | Part 6 | Gluttony
Alright we’re there in Proverbs 23. And of course on Sunday nights we’ve been going through the series called undisciplined. And we’re actually ending the series tonight. We’ve been going through these different lessons and different thoughts on things that we often do when we live undisciplined lives and we’ve been learning about how to live disciplined lives. But we’ve been looking at these specific things. We started with laziness. Then we talked about tardiness. We talked about cleanliness. We talked about out-of-control words. Last time we were together we talked about out-of-control emotions.
Tonight we are finishing the series talking about gluttony. Gluttony is a sin that we often do not hear a lot about. You don’t hear it preached a lot but the Bible definitely talks about it. The Bible talks about this issue and we’re going to look at it together. What I want to do is I want to give you three thoughts tonight regarding the sin of gluttony and what the Bible teaches in regards to gluttony. You won’t hear a lot of churches talk about this but we want to preach the whole counsel of God. We want to teach and preach everything the Bible teaches. And I’ll be honest with you, I think gluttony is something that is often misunderstood.
So I want to begin tonight by answering the question or talking about what is gluttony. When we’re talking about gluttony, what is gluttony. Just simply stated, gluttony is overeating food. Proverbs 23:20 “20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:”. A wine bibber is an alcoholic or some who drinks wine a lot. If you study out gluttony in the Bible, it is often associated with drunkenness. The word riotous means wild or uncontrolled. Verse 21 “21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”. Drunkeness is when someone drinks so much alcohol that they are drunk. Gluttony is when one eats too much food. Any alcohol is too much according to the Bible but a drunkard is someone who takes that to another level. The person is the overeater shall come to poverty according to the Bible.
Let me give you some dictionary definitions of gluttony. It’s derived from the Latin word glutear. That means to gulp down or swallow. It means over indulgence and over consumption of a food or drink. It is an inordinate desire to consume more than what is required. When we consume more than what we need, it is an over consumption of food or drink. Gluttony is overeating but not necessarily being fat. Now of course gluttony can lead to being fat or obese. But when I tell you I’m preaching on gluttony, A lot of you automatically think I’m preaching about being fat. The truth though is that someone can be a glutton without being fat. Let me also say that there is nothing wrong with enjoying food. God created food for us to enjoy but the problem is eating more than we need. The Bible often speaks about fellowshipping especially around food. It talks about breaking bread and fellowshipping. There’s nothing wrong with food obviously. The problem is when we over indulge, take it too far or eat way more than we need.
Proverbs 25:16 “16 Hast thou found honey?”. Notice that he doesn’t say don’t eat. What he says is “16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee,…”. See, there is nothing wrong with eating the honey & enjoying food. The problem is overeating. “16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.”. So notice here that he says that if you overeat, you could vomit it up.
I remember when I was in the Air Force in boot camp for 8 weeks, there was no junk food. We just ate what they fed us. Once we got close to graduation, the family started coming in for graduation. They give you leave for a few days and things like that. One of the things that they allowed you to do there towards the end is that you could go and get a candy bar or a snack or a dessert. Something that we hadn’t had for 8 weeks. I remember a lot of people just went out and just got a bunch of candy and ended up throwing up because they ate too much. When you eat this much garbage food, this is exactly what happens. “16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.”. Again, the problem is not enjoying food. God created food for us to enjoy. But with gluttony, we’re talking about overeating food but not necessarily being fat.
Obviously this is a touchy subject in our nation today. Oftentimes when you talk about these things, people get their feelings hurt and all that. But the truth matter is that it’s my job to preach the whole council of God. When it comes to our nation, the problem is that we live in a country where there is an obesity epidemic. We are told that 36.5% of US adults are obese. We’re told that 19.3% of children are obese. We’re told that 21% of our annual medical spending in the US is due to obesity related illness. 14 billion of that is spent on childhood obesity. Obviously this is something that affects a lot of people. This is something that involves a lot of people. But my thought is that “faithful are the wounds of a friend”. That’s what the Bible says. The Bible says “Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”.
The truth is that God does not want us to be obese. He wants us to take care of our bodies, to not be overweight, to not be fat. Gluttony is linked obviously and can cause somebody to become fat. Now what is gluttony? Gluttony is over indulgence. What does it mean to indulge? Indulge means that you really just love something, enjoy something. Now look, we all love food. Everybody loves food. But you can take it to the point where it’s like your drug of choice. Now Psalm 78:17 is a scripture referring back to a story from the wilderness time.
Psalm 78:17 “17 And they sinned yet more against him…”. This is referring to the children of Israel in the wilderness and they’re sinning against God by provoking the most high in the wilderness. “17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. 18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.”. Meat in the Bible is a word that means food. The word meat in our modern vernacular is “flesh” in the Bible. But in the Bible, meat is just referring to food. It says they tempted God in their hearts by asking meat. Notice these words “…for their lust.”.
When we think of the word “lust”, we usually think of a physical relationship between a man and a woman. But here he’s talking about lusting after food. Why is that? Because the word lust simply means desire and these people were desiring or lusting after food. And if you remember the story in the Old Testament, you have the children of Israel and they’re complaining to Moses. They were sent manna from heaven and not they are complaining about it. They want garlic, onions, leeks and the melons. They’re talking about all the food that they had in Egypt and forgetting that they were enslaved in Egypt. They were beaten and killed and couldn’t serve God. Skip down to verse 29. It doesn’t mention it here in Psalm 78 but in Numbers it talks about how God sends so much quail and they are eating it breakfast, lunch and dinner for a month. Verse 29
Psalm 78:29 “29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;”. Here they eat because God gives it to them but we’re talking about gluttony here and we’re going to connect this later in the sermon. This story is really about people having desires that aren’t controlled. Let me explain something to you and your young people need to listen to me. One of the worst things that could happen to you in your life is for God to give you exactly what you’re desiring. If you have a lust and God gives it whether it is food or drugs or a relationship or whatever. One of the worst things that could happen to you is that God lets you have that. Here God gives them exactly what they want which is quails. He gave them their own desire. Psalm 78:30 “30 They were not estranged from their lust….”. The word estranged means separated. Think of an estranged husband or wife. God said I’m not going to keep you from what you want. But notice this “…But while their meat was yet in their mouths, 31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.”. In this verse, it says that the fattest people are complaining about food and God kills them. The Bible definitely associates a desire for food with being obese and overweight. Overweight is definitely a negative in the Bible. God wants us to take care of our bodies.
1st Corinthians 6:19 “19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”. The Bible says that your body does not belong to you. It’s the temple of the Holy ghost and we should glorify God in our body and in our spirit. Our bodies should bring glory to God. This is not specifically talking about obesity but you can apply this to anything. That’s why you shouldn’t smoke, drunk alcohol, do drugs, fornicate, etc…Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost and God wants you to take care of it. This also has to do with being healthy, not obese, not overweight, etc…
The Bible says that whatsoever we do should be to the glory of God. Being a glutton can obviously lead to being obese and fat and all of those things. God is against it. God doesn’t want us to live that life. But let me just say that being a glutton does not necessarily mean that you will be fat. Sometimes thin people can be a glutton and still be unhealthy. When you preach a sermon like this, people focus on overweight people. But don’t just sit here and listen to this tonight and say it doesn’t apply to you because you are thin. Just because you’re thin doesn’t mean that you aren’t a glutton. Have you ever heard of someone being “skinny fat” before? There are people that for whatever reason just have good genes and it just hasn’t caught up to them or whatever. But if you watch them eat, they’re still overeating. They’re still eating way more than they need. They are still lusting after food. Just because for whatever reason they don’t show it physically doesn’t mean they aren’t a glutton. A glutton means you are eating more than you need which can be a thin person also.
Just because somebody’s thin doesn’t mean they’re fit. Being skinny and being fit are not the same thing. Thin people could still have diabetes. Thin people could still have high blood pressure. Thin people could still have high cholesterol. Thin people could still have fatty liver disease. Thin people could still have all sorts of unhealthy things in their body and they can still be a glutton. So we need to understand that as I’m preaching about gluttony, I’m not specifically preaching about fat people. The Bible’s talking about people who eat too much, who lust after food, who eat more food than their bodies need. That’s what the Bible’s referring to.
Let me just say this also. Realize that somebody could be overweight for reasons that have nothing to do with being a glutton. We’ve been going through Job and before you start making assumptions and accusations, realize that you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s life. You don’t know why they might be struggling with something or maybe you’ve never struggled with it so you just don’t realize how difficult it is for a lot of people to try to keep their weight under control. I think of my brother-in-law who doesn’t come to our church. His whole life growing up, he was just a thin guy and healthy. He had some medical issues and they put him on some prescription drugs for the issues. Immediately he just started gaining weight. People just think of him as a fat guy but he would drop right down if he didn’t have to take those drugs. Just be careful about being too judgmental and realizing that you don’t know what people are dealing with and struggling with. Just because you’re thin doesn’t mean that you’re not a glutton. So gluttony is overeating food and over indulgence of food. It is a lust and desire for food. It is not necessarily being fat but being fat can obviously be as a result of gluttony.
Number 2, let’s talk about what is wrong with gluttony. We defined gluttony but let us talk about what is wrong with it. Why does it matter? Why does the Bible even talk about it? Well, out of control diets can lead to being out of control in other areas. 1st Corinthians 6:13 “13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them….”. This verse is saying that the purpose of meat or food is for the belly or to eat. But we need to have this attitude that we are willing to restrain ourselves when necessary. If we develop this attitude toward physical food of just eating until we vomit and not restraining ourselves then this may lead to a similar attitude with other physical desires.
1st Corinthians 6:13 “13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication,…”. You say, we were talking about food so why are we talking about fornication? The thing is that we’re talking about physical appetite and fornication is a physical appetite. Eating is a physical appetite and all sorts of sin are physical appetites. Here’s what God is saying. “Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”. So don’t have this attitude that if it feels good that you will do it. Our society teaches that as long as you’re not hurting anybody then just go ahead and do it. Sleep with that person. Just go ahead and shack up with that person. Just go ahead and eat what you want. Drink what you want. Smoke what you want. Inject what you want. But wait a minute. You can’t have this attitude that you will fill whatever desire you have. God says that your body is not for fornication. And you could swap that word fornication with any other sin that is gratifying to your flesh and it would still apply. The body is not for fornication. The body’s not for drunkenness. The body’s not for gluttony. The body’s not for drugs. The body is not for smoking. The body’s not for pornography. Your body belongs to God. It was created for the Lord and the Lord for the body. You say what’s the problem with gluttony? The problem with gluttony is that you cannot be undisciplined in one area of your life and expect to be disciplined in every other area of your life. Discipline has to be applied to every area of your life. If you decide to be undisciplined with food then you will be undisciplined in all areas.
When you look at what the Bible teaches about gluttony, gluttony is not necessarily put forth in the Bible like this is a big problem. However, it is put forth as something that can be dangerous because it can cause indulgence in other areas. Deuteronomy 21:18 “18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son,…”. Notice here’s a young man who’s stubborn and rebellious. “…which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:”. So they’re chastising him. They are correcting him. They are disciplining him and he’s not listening. “19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son…”. Now notice how they describe the son. Notice the characteristics of their son. “…This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.”. Now this glutton is out of control in his authority structure. He’s out of control in his position as a son. He’s out of control in his life. He’s stubborn and rebellious but he’s also out of control with his food. He’s also out of control with alcohol. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.
Look at verse 21 “21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.”. People often will take this passage of scripture and say this is ridiculous to be stoned for something so small. First off let me say that we don’t have a recorded place in scripture where this law was implemented. I’m not saying it wasn’t but the Bible never gives us an example of it. But I’ll tell you that if we lived in a society that upheld this law, you better believe that’s a law that would often be threatened to children. “You better obey or we’re going to take you out to the elders of the city….”. Listen to me kids, this is a big deal. When young kids are rude and stubborn and rebellious to their parents before becoming a teenager, running off their mouth to their parents, this is really serious. It’s so serious that if our world upheld the laws of the Bible, he would be put to death. Here we have this young man out of control who is stubborn and rebellious.
We saw the stubborn and rebellious son. Let’s look at the sons of Eli. The first sin we will see highlighted about them is they were gluttons. 1st Samuel 2:12 “12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.”, There are the sons of Eli and they are reprobates. They are sons of the Devil or sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord so they were not saved. You better believe that there are a lot of people in spiritual leadership that are reprobates today also. “13 And the priest’s custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand;”. The word seething means boiling. The flesh hook mentioned here is often associated with the devil. Think of the pitch fork you often see with the devil. That comes from this story because these guys were the sons of Belial. They were the sons of the devil. And notice they took this flesh hook of three teeth in his hand and what do they do?
Verse 14 “14 And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither.”. Now again, the Bible is just telling us here what they did. This is not what they were supposed to do. But the Bible is telling us that they had this custom or ritual where somebody brought meat to sacrifice and they would put it in a cauldron or in a pot and they’d begin to boil it. The priest would come and he would take this flesh hook of three points and they would kind of just stab the meat with it and they would pull it out and whatever.
Many of the sacrifices in the Old Testament were to be divided. And if you study the book of Leviticus, and we’ve done verse by verse studies and chapter by chapter studies through the book of Leviticus, you remember that there were certain sacrifices that it was a burnt sacrifice. The whole thing went to God. But then there were other sacrifices that were supposed to be divided. In those cases, the first and the best portion went to God and then the second portion was for the priests. And this is basically how the priest got paid. He got paid in the old testament because he would do these sacrifices. It took a lot of work to take an animal and kill it and chop it up and do all of those things. So there was a certain portion that went to God and a certain portion that went to the priest and that’s how he fed himself and family.
Then there was a third portion that would go to the people or they would eat it together in fellowship. They weren’t supposed to take all that the flesh hook brought up. There was a certain portion that was meant for God. If you remember in Leviticus, it’ll say like the breast or the right shoulder belongs to God and then a certain amount would belong to them. So they’re not doing it right to begin with. They just kind of take this flesh hook and they stab the meat and they pull it out and whatever comes out that becomes their portion. That was just a custom that they had. Nobody had a problem with that.
Look at verse 15 “15 Also before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.”. So their young men were getting this portion because they were priests. They’re getting a portion of the meat. That’s how they get paid. That’s how they eat. That’s how they survive. They have this custom where the meat is being boiled and it’s being cooked and they take a portion. But they don’t want food that’s been already cooked and boiled. They want to roast it themselves. These sons wanted the flesh raw because they wanted to cook it up their own way that they specifically liked. You say, “What’s the problem with that?”. The problem is that the priest is taking his portion before God. What is happening? They are lusting after this m eat. They are saying, I want it medium rare and not the way God says. They’re making decisions based off food they want.
Look at verse 16. “16 And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.”. People were saying “Hey, you can have as much as you want but do it the right way.”. People weren’t even upset that they were taking all. They knew they were lusting after the food. They were telling them that God needed his portion first. But the refused to listen. Look at the last part of verse 16. “then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.”. They said that they would fight them for this meat. Why? It’s not like they were starving. They were fat. They were gluttons. They refused to let God get his portion first but cared only about themselves.
Notice the impact in verse 17. “17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.”. Men did not even want to come and bring a sacrifice to God. Why? Because of how these guys were acting in regards to food. Now notice these two young men, the sons of Belial, what was their sin? They were gluttons. They had a desire and lust for flesh. They wanted it raw meaning that they would take it before god. They want to cook it just how they like it. Out of control food appetites are dangerous because they lead to other out-of-control appetites.
1st Samuel 2:22 “22 Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”. Now we are seeing that these men were committing adultery with the women by the house of the Lord. 1st Samuel 2:23 “23 And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. 24 Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord‘s people to transgress.”. You say, what’s the big deal with gluttony? People who lack self-discipline or self-restraint or self-control in their eating will lack self-control in other areas. You can’t be undisciplined in one area and be very disciplined in all other areas.
Listen to me. Once you realize that someone is undisciplined in any one area then just realize they’re probably undisciplined in lots of other areas. We’ve been preaching on being undisciplined. We talked about tardiness, cleanliness, emotions, words, etc…If someone is undisciplined in any of these areas then it will carry into other areas. That’s the problem. That’s the issue with gluttony. God wants you to be self-controlled in all areas. Don’t give yourself permission to over indulge in any area because when you do it in any area then it’ll transfer over to other areas and it may transfer over to every area.
So we talked about what is gluttony. Gluttony is overeating food and over indulgence of food. It may lead to being obese but not necessarily. You could be thin and still be a glutton. What is wrong with gluttony? What’s wrong with it? Out of control food appetites are dangerous because they may lead to out-of-control other appetites. When you don’t learn to restrain yourself with one area then you may not restrain yourself in other areas. Let’s talk about really quickly tonight how to overcome gluttony. How do we overcome gluttony? And look, just mark it down. If you find somebody and they can’t control themselves with fornication then they will be unrestrained in other areas as well. They’re going to be drunks. They’re going to be drug addicts. They’re going to be gluttons. Here’s what Jesus said. “If any man shall follow me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”. You can’t even be a follower of Jesus Christ until you learn to first deny yourself and tell yourself no.
Let me give you 3 steps to overcome gluttony. Proverbs 23:1 “When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,…”. The idea is that you’re sitting to eat with somebody like a boss. “…consider diligently what is before thee: 2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.”. Now obviously I believe that Solomon here is being a little hyperbolic. I don’t think he’s actually telling you to slice your throat if you can’t control yourself. He’s trying to make a point. This is similar to when Jesus said cut off your right hand, your eye, your ear. The point is you can control if you work diligently at it. The Bible is saying to consider what you eat. This generation is different than how previous generations were raised. I was raised in a day when you were told to eat all of your food and clean your plate. If vegetables were put in front of you then you ate them and didn’t complain. The Great Depression era taught people that where you really had to value food. We live in a different day in 2021. There is so much food and you really have to consider how much you should eat. So when it comes to eating, you have to consider what you’re eating and you ought to consider how much you should eat. You should eat until you’re satisfied but not until you’re stuffed. You should learn to tell the difference between being satisfied and being stuff. Here’s all I’m saying. Not every meal needs to be like Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is nice to do every once in a while but every meal should not be like that. Don’t just eat until you drop. Eat until you’re satisfied.
Ecclesiastes 10:17 “17 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!”. You say what does that mean? We’re supposed to eat for strength, for nourishment. You need food to be able to do what God has called you to do. You need food to go to work, raise your children and all of those things. But don’t eat for drunkenness. Don’t eat too much. Eat until you are satisfied but not until you are stuffed. “17 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!”. So eat until you’re satisfied but not until you’re stuffed.
Number 2, eat at appointed times. “17 Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season,…”. Notice how it says due season. Go ahead and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. But don’t have this attitude that you are going to be grazing like a cow all day. You need to decide when to eat but not just all the time. So you eat till you’re satisfied but not to the point of being stuffed. Eat at appointed times but not all day long.
Number 3, don’t eat late at night. Have a cut-off time. Remember eat in due season. And I’m confessing my faults one to another. One of my biggest temptations is after a tough day of dealing with things to get ice cream or a bowl of cereal late at night. I’m not saying it’s wrong to do that every once in a while but you want to be careful not to make that a habit. It’s not good for your health. Eat at due season. Just decide you are going to stop eating whether it is by 7 or 8 or 9. I’m not here to give you a specific time but you shouldn’t be grazing all day long and you should have a cutoff point where you no longer eat. You should also limit sweets.
Proverbs 25:16 “16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.”. I’m not going to sit up here and say never have sugar, soda or desserts. It’s ok to have one of your favorite foods. One of my favorite things is a glass bottled coke. I’ve got a whole office of them and if I’ve had a hard day, sometimes I just drown my sorrows in them or whatever. I’m not saying it’s a sin but we should limit those desserts. When you are having meals at home, you should have water. Now if somebody invites you to their house and they give you a coke then drink it. It’s fun to do all those things but just be limited. When you’re having ice cream and sugary drinks every night then there is a problem. When you do have those things, don’t over do it. Don’t binge. Limit those things.
I’m not standing up here telling you I’m against it. It’s fine every once in a while. My wife and I go on a weekly date night and I plan on those date nights to have a coke. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. The point that I’m making is you just want to live a life of limits and boundaries where you’re not just overdoing things. You need to limit other sugary drinks like coffee drinks that have a lot of sugar. It’s ok to do for special occasions but you don’t want to make it the habit of your life that it is regular at every meal. If you’re here and you’re super fit then that’s great. But if you are struggling with your weight then you need to make some changes. Get a smaller drink if you are going out to eat. You don’t have to always get the super-size me. Just have some limits. I’m not telling you to have no sugar at all because that not realistic or sustainable. But limit yourself.
Number 1, consider what you eat. How much you are eating. Number 2, limit the influences of unhealthy people. Be careful with food pushers. Proverbs 23:20 “20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”. The Bible says not to be among winebibbers or riotous eaters of flesh. You just want to be careful when you get around people that are rubbing off on you. You want to limit the influence of unhealthy people. Just don’t allow people to influence you to live unhealthy lives. Here’s just a little article about obese friends. When 1 friend becomes obese, it increases the chance of their friend being obese by 57%. If 1 sibling is obese then it increases the risk of obesity by 40% with the siblings. For spouses, it’s 37%. An obese friend results in the other friend gaining 17 pounds on average. So just be careful about allowing people to influence you.
Number 3, exercise regularly. Now let me just say this, if you are a guy who has a laboring job where you are sweating a lot then that is your physical labor. But if you don’t have a job like that then you need to go home and get some exercise on the treadmill or something. Many people have sedentary jobs and it might require you to making exercise your hobby. For me personally, I don’t have a job with a lot of manual labor. I produce 3 sermons a week and plan events and plan strategy for our church. A lot of that happens in front of a computer. A lot of that happens sitting down. I personally have to just make an effort to do an elliptical for 30 minutes because I don’t have a job where I’m just sweating away. Here’s all I’m saying. If you find yourself in that situation where you’re not getting regular exercise, you need to purposely get regular exercise.
Leviticus 16:21 “21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat,”. Notice what the Bible says here at the last part of verse 21. “…and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:”. God here is looking for a fit man that can do a spiritual work, that can do a spiritual job. Here they were looking for this fit man. This man that was in good shape. And look I’m not talking about that you need to go to the gym and just be staring at yourself in front of a mirror. I personally don’t think that married men should be going to gyms around women that are dressed inappropriately. I think you should work out at home or in your basement or whatever. Someone is going to send me an email about a gym where it is all guys. But the point is, get some regular exercise.
Proverbs 24:5 “5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.”. Notice that the Bible says someone who is realizes the only body they have until the rapture is this 1 body. We talked about this morning how this vile body is transformed into a glorious body. This is all I’ve got. I should take care of it and be a wise and strong man. “…a man of knowledge increaseth strength.”. I’m not saying that you need to be some bodybuilder but you need to be strong. If you’re a young man and you’re a little thin then maybe you need to do some pushups. Do whatever you need to do.
Proverbs 31:17 “17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.”. And again, I’m not saying this is some bodybuilder woman either but here we have a woman that’s strong. She’s fit. Her body is in shape. If you want to overcome gluttony, you should consider what you eat. You should consider how much you eat. You should limit the influences of people and you should exercise regularly.
Here’s a bonus point for parents. Set a good example for your children. 1st Samuel 4:18 “18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.”. Remember the sons of Eli were gluttonous young men and fornicators and they died as a result. But notice what the Bible says about their father. “18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.”. I understand that as people get older, sometimes they gain weight. That’s normal and natural. But God mentions this for a reason.
Eli did not set a good example for his sons. Eli was not a fornicator. He was a man of God and a good man. But the Bible tells us that he was heavy. What are his kids doing? They’re just desiring this certain type of flesh and they want to cook in a certain way. But because they were out of control in that area, they became fornicators. Look, as parents we should set good examples for our children. And it’s not just weight. It’s every area. You say I want my kids to be good readers. Then they should see you reading. I want my kids to read the Bible. Then they should see you read the Bible. I want my kids to be a soul winner. Then they should see you soul winning. And if you want your kids to be healthy then you need to take the lead. You need to set the example.
People often say that being overweigh runs in their family. Studies show though those adopted kids are very likely to be obese if the parents who raise them are obese. These are not people they are physically related to. But they’re raising them and bringing them into their culture. This is by large a nurture and not a nature thing. It’s not that being overweight runs in your family but that no one runs in your family. I’m not saying that you need to be some super fit individual. However, your kids should see you taking care of your body. This could be walking, going for a run, riding a bicycle, etc…They should see that you care about spiritual things. They should see that you care about your health. They should see that you care about education. Set a good example for your children.
Ezekiel 16:49 “49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom,…”. Obviously we know Sodom had problems with sodomites and that’s why God destroyed it. But there were certain characteristics of Sodom. And notice, I feel like they’re very close to the characteristics of the country you and I live in of the United States of America. “49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread,…”. Let me tell you something. If you starve in the United States of America you’re not trying. I mean there’s literally food everywhere. There’s food anywhere. We live in the most prosperous nation in the world. Sodom had pride. What does America have? Pride. Sodom had fullness of bread. What does America have? Fullness of bread. And notice “abundance of idleness”. Like Sodom, the US has a lot of idle people.
Ezekiel 16:49 “49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”. There was this abundance of idleness. Now look, I’ve been blessed by God to live in the most prosperous nation in the world. You may not realize this but we live like kings in this country in comparison to the rest of the world and in comparison to all of human history. And praise the Lord for it. God has given us opportunities to do all sorts of things. But just realize that you live in a country that has fullness of bread and abundance of idleness. I mean young men are not just getting up at six in the morning and just working their hands to the bone trying to provide for their wives and provide for their children. That’s not the country we live in. We live in a country where a bunch of 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds are playing video games all day, where the vast majority of men and women are spending just hours and hours on social media and Facebook and all sorts of things. That is a bunch of idleness.
And here’s all I’m telling you, realize that’s the nation we live in. Don’t allow yourself to be influenced just because you can eat a lot. That doesn’t mean you should eat a lot. Just because there’s fullness of bread and food everywhere, doesn’t mean you should eat everything. I’m not telling you not to enjoy your food. Enjoy your food. Take pictures of it or whatever you got to do. Enjoy it but don’t indulge in it. And when you have this abundance of idleness, praise the Lord that God has blessed you. You’ve got a lot of time and energy. Do something productive with it and make sure you’re not just becoming this obese glutton. God says your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and he wants you to care of your body.
Let’s pray.