Hello and welcome to this message from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. We pray this message strengthens your relationship with the Lord. If it does, let us know email us at my story at Calvary AB que.org. And if you'd like to support this ministry financially, you can give online securely at Calvary AB q.org/give overindulgence is a hallmark of our modern American culture. The temptation to eat and drink too much or indulge in any number of things is constant. It's also trivialized. As we continue this series White Collar sins skip explains how you can bring honor to God with your body. Now open your Bible to First Corinthians chapter six as Skip begins the message gluttony, society's most acceptable sin.
Would you please turn in your Bibles to First Corinthians chapter six. We are continuing this series called White Collar sins. It's interesting, Matt said, How many of you are enjoying this series of white collar sins? And you were gracious enough to affirm that, but I was thinking that enjoyment may have just ended with this message title. Gluttony, society's most acceptable sin. So fasten your seat belts. I'm going to tackle a very difficult subject. There's a great old story about DL Moody, that great evangelists from Chicago in the last century. And moody loved Charles Spurgeon. He considered Spurgeon, a mentor a hero, even though he didn't know him personally. He had followed him from afar and he'd always wanted to meet Charles Haddon Spurgeon. So moody went over to London knocked on his door. Spurgeon opened the door and said, it opened the door with a big cigar hanging out of his mouth, which shocked DL Moody. And he kind of stepped back a few steps on the stoop, shocked and bewildered and moody said to Spurgeon, how can you a man of God, do that? And Spurgeon was always up for a challenge, and he smiled, took the stone out of his mouth, walked down a few steps for Moody was and pointed to deal Moody's rather large Rotunda stomach, and said the same way that you a man of God can do that. It was reported that Spurgeon even said Mr. Moody, I'll put down my cigars when you put down your fork. Have you noticed that Christians are quick to judge others on obvious blatant sins, I would call them cultural sins in some regards. They're quick to say, Well, you shouldn't smoke, you shouldn't drink you shouldn't say those words. You shouldn't own those things. But they themselves while they say that may be guilty of this very sin of gluttony. Now, I'm going to venture a guess, that you've probably never heard a sermon on gluttony in your life. It could be but I doubt that you have or very, very few have. I've never preached one on it. This is the first time you're thinking You must be crazy to even tried to tackle this subject. You want to make everybody your enemy. And that is certainly not my desire. When you hear the word gluttony. I wonder what image comes into your mind. I'll be honest with you the first when I think of gluttony, the first image that comes to my mind is from the movie Star Wars, I think of Jabba the Hutt right? That big old, show yours. That is like the personification of gluttony. Now, maybe some of you are more spiritual than I am. You don't think of Jabba the Hutt, you might think to that story in your Bible, of a king and judges three called King Eglon of Moab. The Bible says that he was a very fat man that's right there in the Bible, King James and all. And it says that a hood from Israel was a left handed warrior who came to give a message to King Eglon. And it was a 18 inch bladed sword that he kept on his side. And he plunged it he said, I have a message for you from God to His enemy, and he plunged it into egg lon, and it says egg line was so large that it just consumed the 18 inch blade handle and all just the folds of the fat kind of went around it and I just gotta say it's one of the coolest stories in the Bible if you're a guy. But the Bible does speak about this issue in Proverbs 23. Solomon, who probably knew a lot about gluttony, said do not mix with wine beggars, or gluttonous eaters of meat, for both will come to poverty. In Ezekiel chapter 16, There's a very interesting text regarding the city of Sodom. Most people think of Sodom is being destroyed by God for one particular sin, and they're quick to bring that out. However, it says in Ezekiel 16, that the sins of Sodom were pride, laziness, and gluttony, while the poor and the needy suffered outside. Then there's this crazy text in Proverbs 23, where Solomon says, when you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat. If you are a man given to appetite, do not desire his delicacies for their deceptive food, that the idea is and go sit down and slit your throat. The idea graphically put in poetic language is Don't allow yourself to be controlled by a meal, even if it's a really great meal from a really great king. The basic idea of Gluttony is over indulgence. And sure, we can talk about food and that's what our minds go to and the Bible does speak about that. But I think we also need to broaden that out a bit and think of overconsumption over consumerism, over indulgence in just about anything. And I think you might agree that of all the periods of church history, this subject has never been more pertinent than it is now. I read an article by Joe McKeever, a pastor and an author. The article grabbed my attention, it was called Five Reasons pastors don't preach on gluttony. I thought, Well, I gotta read that five reasons why pastors don't preach and God and I, before I even read the article, I thought, well, I know why they do, and they want to keep their job. But that wasn't one of the reasons he gave five reasons. It's in christianity.com. But afterwards, he gets three reasons why they should preach on gluttony. Number one, he says his health, I'm quoting him, he said, obesity is the scourge of our times. It is the Black Plague of the 21st century. Look at an old video clip of city life in the 1940s. And how slim people were, then stand in the mall and look at your neighbors. So he says health is the first reason. Second, he says this scripture. First Corinthians 1031 tells us whatever you eat or drink, and whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And the third reason McKeever says preachers should preach on it is for godliness sake, part of godliness, he argues, is self control. And that is part of the fruit of the Spirit, as we'll see in Galatians, five. Now, we live in this culture, we live in this society. And what you should know is that our society is now beginning to adjust for this lifestyle change this sort of gluttonous behavior. Airlines are redesigning and reconfiguring their airplanes to accommodate larger size patrons, hospitals are adding space just to handle the multiple diseases that are stemming from this lifestyle. Now, having said that, and it's interesting how quiet we got at this last few moments, you could almost hear a pin drop if we had a hard floor. At the same time, I need to say this. We have to be very, very careful here not to judge a person based upon outward appearance, based upon body type. We do not see the heart. Only God sees the heart and it's wrong. In fact, it's sinful to judge the inside of a person based on the outside of a person. We don't know the conditions that exist. Different people have different metabolisms. Different people have different genetic makeups and there are certain medical reasons why a person can gain weight. Even Jesus was accused of being a glutton which was untrue. But I've had to turn to First Corinthians chapter six because I want to look at this through a very particular lens of two verses First Corinthians chapter six, beginning in verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought at a price? Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's? In view of this very negative topic, I want to give View for positive truths for affirming truths about your body. And essentially, what Paul gives us in these two verses, could be seen as a mini theology of the human body. Here's Paul, the apostles, theology of your body. First of all, your body is a holy place. Notice he says, Do you not know verse 19, that your body is the temple
of three times in first and second Corinthians, the apostle Paul regards the individual Christians body, as the temple of God, once in Ephesians, he talks about all of the members, all of the people, the corporate body of Christ, as God's temple, but three times in first and second Corinthians, he's referring to the individual Christian, as the temple. So Paul is speaking here about the physical human body. And what he is dealing with is a culture that was existing in Corinth, at the time, and that was the culture of pleasure. So what I want you to do is notice something we're gonna look at context here, I want you to go back to verse 12. Paul says, All things are lawful for me. But all things are not helpful. Just because I can do anything. They're not right. I shouldn't do all things. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any I'm not going to be addicted to anything. Foods for the stomach, and the stomach for foods. But God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot as one body with her, for the two he says, shall become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him, fleeing sexual immorality, every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commit sexual immorality sins against his own body? Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for your body at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's? Now, verse 13, was a slogan spoken by people who lived in Corinth, I want you to notice what it was. It says foods for the stomach, and the stomach for foods people were saying that all over the streets of corn, that was a modern common slogan in Corinth 2000 years ago. And what it meant was this. Food is a necessity, but it's also a pleasure. And for that matter, so as sex, it's a necessity for procreation, but it's also very pleasurable. So they use this little slogan to justify their excessive behavior. They used it to justify gluttony, sexual immorality, drunkenness, it was a lifestyle of hedonism. It's all about getting pleasure from my body. So Paul says, that may be true, that food and sex are both necessities as well as a pleasure. But what you need to know is your body serves a higher purpose than just your pleasure. It is God's place. It's a holy place. So get this, you have a body. But you are not just your body, your body and spirit. Paul says that in verse 20, that you should glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, so you have a spirit, but you also have a body and the body is the means by what your spirit communicates to others around you. You want to share your feelings, your innermost thoughts, how you process things, your values, that comes through the medium of your physical body, but Paul calls it a temple. Something they would be familiar with, because in Corinth, there were many temples, and I've been to Corinth and I've seen the ruins of the temples to Aphrodite and Apollo and sklep, EOS and others. But if they were Jewish in their background, some of them were, they would automatically think that there was also a temple in Jerusalem to the true and living God. And that would have special meaning to them. Because a temple was a place of worship, a temple was a place of prayer, a temple was a place As of sacrifice, celebration, temples were built in cities to remind inhabitants of that city that God had a plan and a purpose for their life. So when he says your body is a temple, it's very significant. So these temples were built, but they were also kept clean, you know, they would build a temple, they wouldn't just let it go off on its own, they would maintain and clean that temple, even in Jerusalem. If if you remember, I'm not holding you accountable to remember this small detail. But back in First Chronicles chapter 23, after Solomon built the temple, it says that he employed 38,000 People 38,000 Men Levites to help the priests with their daily responsibilities, and 24,000 of them were to look after the work of the house of the Lord, that if they were to maintain the temple, clean the temple, make sure it was just right. And then we even say that Jesus twice in his ministry, we call it cleansed the temple I've ever heard that terminology. That didn't mean he had a sponge in a bucket. He's out there cleaning the temple, I meant that he took a whip, and he drove out of the temple, those who are buying and selling, and the temple courts, he cleanse the temple. Likewise, when we view our body as a temple, we are raising the viewpoint of our life where it raises life to a higher plane. Because now I see my body not just as a tent, though it is temporary. I don't see my body as a tenement, I don't see my body as a trash can I see my body as a temple. So your body is a holy place. Second, affirming truth, second positive truth about your body. Your body is a holy place, but your body is has a holy person. That's what makes it a holy place. Did you see what he said, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you have from God? In ancient pagan temples, there was the belief among the pagans that the god or goddess that they worshiped at that temple, was housed in that temple. So they would put up an idol, a statue. And they actually believed that the god or goddess inhabited that likeness, that idol that was represented. Now this was far different from Jerusalem. Was there any statue in the temple in Jerusalem, any picture of God? How many pictures of God or statues were there? This many zero, because of the second commandment, they couldn't make statues, they could make images of God. They believed, however, the God was present there, they called it the covered the holy presence of God in the temple. But they knew that the the power of God and the might of God does not dwell in temples, as Solomon said, and Stephen repeats in the New Testament, for the most High, does not dwell in temples made with hands. He does, however, dwell in this temple, the physical body of the Christian, he takes up residence in your body. Jesus Christ said, in John 14, speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth dwells with you, and he will be in you. So your body is a holy place because your body houses a holy person, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune God. What does that mean to you practically? Well, what it should mean is that you ought to see your body as the base of operations from which the Holy Spirit works in the lives of people around you. Just as Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, and made Capernaum, to headquarters for three and a half years of His earthly ministry, start looking at your body as H S. H. Q. Holy Spirit's headquarters. Right now in my physical body, he is taking up residence in me. So Jesus wanted to win you, so the Holy Spirit can dwell in you. That's part of his redemptive plan. It's not just to save you, it's to save you and then use you by planting His Holy Spirit in you as the base of operations. So my body as a temple should be used to worship and serve the true and living God, hold that thought. When Paul writes his letter to the Philippians, which we covered in depth on Sunday mornings not too long ago, he said a strange phrase and chapter three. He spoke about those whose God is their belly. That weird phrase, whose God is their belly whether go ha, hallelujah belly, I praise you worship. That's just
sounds weird. But listen to the whole sentence, whose God is their belly, and who set their mind on earthly things. In other words, they worship their appetites. They're controlled by their appetites. They don't control their appetites, their appetites, control them, and they just serve their appetites. That's what it means by their god is their belly. Question. Why do people become gluttons to use the Bible term? I want to be careful here because I am not a doctor. I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not a psychologist. There are a variety of reasons that people have food issues. But let me give you one of the most fundamental reasons why a person would resort to gluttony. It's because so many people have the flawed view, the primary view of humanity is flawed. And that is most people, many people in this world, their primary view of humanity is I exist here for my pleasure. Life is about my personal pleasure. Which by the way, was the unsaved Corinthians view of life. There's a whole Greek school of thought called Epicureanism and Epicurus and his followers, the Epicureans believed that life's sole purpose was for enjoyment, sensual enjoyment, enjoying food, enjoying drink, enjoying all those things in excess, as much as you want as long as it brings you pleasure. Now, many times, gluttony is the result of trying to cover up some emotional scar. Gluttony is often regarded as an emotional cry for help as author, Peter div. Reese writes, gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign that something is eating us. Back in the 1980s, there was a young man from New York called Christopher Rios. He was a rapper, a rap artist, and his nickname they call them big pond, which stood for big Punisher. Now, he admitted to eating to seek relief from emotional pressure to seek relief from emotional pressure. He eventually died because of obesity. When he would go to the stage they had to put them on a golf cart just to get him there. They had to take him off the stage on a golf cart, take him to his room, put them in a van, take him back to his hotel room, etc. And before and after every show, he had to just be hooked up to oxygen just to survive. Well, he died of a heart attack at age 28. Most articles will tell you directly due to obesity. Then there's actor Marlon Brando and his eating binges were legendary. He frequently a two whole chickens, a half a cheesecake and a pint of ice cream in a single setting. He was also known to drive to food stands in the wee hours to gorge on several hot dogs. So he put on his hat and sunglasses like he's hiding and I mean, come on. He's the godfather. Give me some hot dogs. Close to his death, Brando weighed over 300 pounds. Did you know that Satan often tempts people with food. He did it with Eve in the garden he held out food to tempt her. She looked at that and said it's good for food. Satan tempted Jesus with food. He said, Hey, if you're the Son of God, command these stones to be turned into bread. Jesus said Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Satan tempts people with food, but the stomach might be full while the heart remains empty. And for many people, they're just trying to cover up what has long been called the God sized hole that every person has in their life. There's an emptiness that everyone's born with a god sized hole. And people can try to fill it with food, with drink, with sacks with status with wealth with experiences, but that hole just grows bigger. Because a god sized hole can only be filled with God Himself. Now Christian, you and I were the temple of the Holy Spirit. And if we're the temple of the Holy Spirit, that means our temple should be filled with what? The Holy Spirit. That's what the Bible says, Be filled with the Holy Spirit. So think of it. If your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you can't lock the Holy Spirit up in some little room in the corner of your temple and say, You're staying in there all week long, except on Sunday, I'll take out once a week. You give him the keys to every single room in your life. So it is filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just one little category, not just one little area, be filled with His Spirit. Be filled with a very resonant that God has placed within you the Holy Spirit. So your body is a holy place. Your body has a holy person, let's take it to a third positive thing about this very negative topic. Your body had a hefty price. We're gonna see what God did to get you in your body, your body and spirit. Verse 19, tells us Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God? Now watch this, and you are not your own? Whoa, you don't belong to you. For you, verse 20, you were bought at a price. So get this before you could ever think of saying, well, it doesn't matter what I do with my body, what it really matters what I do with my spirit. Let these verses sink in. God paid a hefty price to get both you your spirit and your body and their one package. And that was according to First Peter chapter one. You were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Vance Havner. Put it this way. Salvation is free, but it's not cheap. Because God paid that hefty price. It means he owns your very life. As Daniel would say to Belshazzar back and Daniel, chapter five, God holds your very breath in his hand. What that means is, you cannot claim independence. You cannot claim individuality. You cannot claim self determination. You cannot say I'm my own person, I'll do whatever I want to do. No, you're not. You are bought with blood. God bought you for himself, is Paul's point. So wouldn't you want to make lifestyle choices that reflect that great truth? Wouldn't you want to make sure that the base of operations for the Holy Spirit your body is kept as pure as possible. Think of your body as a city. In ancient times, they would put a wall around the city to keep bad guys from coming in and good guys from getting hurt by it. They had walls around every city for protection. And in the city walls, they had city gates, and that was to monitor the flow of traffic. Let certain people in but not others let certain people out while protected but they could come back to that protection. So think of your body that way. You have gates, you have the eye gates. You have irrigates you have a mouth gate. You open your eyes and you let images in you let things into your eye gates. Be very careful what you look at, especially men. Be very careful what you allow your eyes to fixate on. Protect the city by the gate. Be very careful what you allow in your hearing. That can be unwholesome. Be very careful in the mouth gate. What words you let out what foods or items you bring in. Make sure that it's protected. Now someone might be thinking, Yeah, but Jesus said it's not what goes into a man that defiles him. But what comes out of a man you're absolutely correct, but we're not talking about being defiled. Here. We're talking about being usable as long as is physically possible. Make sure that your body is a well tuned instrument in God's hands. Because you see gluttony according to this article that I have devalues and lowers our quality of life. Quoting from it, it says obesity is a health hazard. It's a risk factor for such serious health issues as type two diabetes. High blood pressure, Unhealthy cholesterol levels heart disease, stroke color rectal breast and uterine cancer, gallstones, infertility, joint problems and back pain sorry for some of your TMI.
But obesity causes 300,000 people a year, their lives, that's the rate in this country every year 300,000 people die of obesity, not to mention the emotional scarring, the depression, the low self esteem and other factors that are involved. So, so God did something to purchase you so that the Holy Spirit can then live in you from which he can influence and work on people around you. Now, let's close this off. And let me give you a fourth positive truth about your physical body. Your body has a heavenly purpose. There's a word in verse 20, that is the hinge word is the word therefore, notice he says, Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God, you know, that's how Paul writes, he was so logical, he would say stuff, stuff, stuff, more stuff, and then he goes, now therefore. So I said, all that stuff, because this leading to this, all that means this, and here's the hinge, therefore, because God gave His Son to by you to place his Holy Spirit and therefore our responsibility, glorify God, in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. In other words, your body should be a billboard, to the glory of God. That is, your body should point people to God. Now, I know you've heard that term before glorify God. It's a Bible sounding term Bible sounding phrase, what does it mean exactly? Let me tell you what I think it exactly simply means I'll break it down. It means your mouth part of your body, your mouth can preach the gospel. Your hands can help the needy, your feet can go to the lonely, your ears can listen to the brokenhearted, your lips can smile at the oppressed, your eyes can give attention to the Forlorn and in all these ways you use your body, you're telling a world God cares about you. God loves you. That's how you glorify God in your body. Now, when I start thinking of my life this way, life doesn't become about my pleasure. It becomes about his purpose. So instead of this slogan in current, verse 13, foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods. My slogan is my life for His glory, my lips for His glory, my eyes for His glory, my ears for His glory, my whole life for His pleasure, therefore glorify God. Now, here's the irony to this. When I live for His pleasure and his purpose, I find pleasure. And I find my purpose. It's funny how that works. The more you give your life away, Jesus said, the more you gain your life, the more you pour it out, the more it comes back, the more joy you get, by not living for your own pleasure, or joy, but you live for His pleasure and purpose. And that brings you joy. It's funny how that works. Best example, I know of Paul the Apostle, listen to this man, standing on the shores of Miletus with the short with the elders of Ephesus around him. And he says, I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in every place that chains and tribulation await me. Now listen to his response. But none of those things move me nor do I count my own life dear to myself, that I might finish my course with joy. What? Who are you Paul? He says, I know it's gonna get bad when I go to Jerusalem and I'm gonna get beat up gonna get arrested. The Holy Spirit says that everywhere I go, here I go. Because actually, I don't care about my life. I care about what he wants from my life. And that brings me joy. I live for His plan and for His purpose. And that brings me joy. I've said this on several occasions. I'll repeat it again to then turn it around. That the more you do as you please, the less you are pleased with what you do. I know people all over the place. They just do what they please. And the more you do as you please, the less you are pleased with what you do. But here's the reverse of that. It's also true, the more you do as he pleases you The more you are pleased with what you do. That's how it works. Now, having said that, I want to bring this to a conclusion. So I want to ask this question and try to answer it a little bit. How does one overcome gluttony? Now, that's not an easy question. It's not an easy answer. I mean, there are food clinics, and there are programs that deal with a number of different different levels. I just want to make it simpler than that. I want to begin on a simple level. And I want to say that to begin, we need to say yes, we need to say no, and we need to say go, I'm going to explain those. First of all, we need to say yes, before we say no, we need to say yes to something. And what you need to say yes to is to develop an appetite, for truth, an appetite for the Word of God, don't don't tune me out here. Don't brush this over. Have you noticed in the Bible, how oftentimes the Bible is used with the analogy of food? Like it says in Psalm 34, verse eight oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Or First Peter, chapter two, verse two, desire, the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, are Jesus words, Matthew, chapter four, verse four, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So you say yes to that. And allow the Lord to develop within you a real hunger for righteousness for spiritual things. That's
what you say yes to. Second, say, no. Yes, there comes a point when you're sitting at a table and there's stuff in front of you to say, No.
Daniel said, No. King Nebuchadnezzar brought him all the scrumptious fare of Babylon. And he said, No, it says, He purposed in his heart not to defile himself with a portion of the kings delicacies. He said, No. Saying no, is self control. And the Bible says that's part of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians five, for the fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, long suffering down the list is self control. It means saying no to certain kinds of food. It means saying no to large portions of food. It means saying no to seconds, or thirds, or fourths. One of the ultimate ways of saying though, is something that is little talked about these days called fasting. The Bible talks about fasting from food. That's where you say no to food itself, for a period of time for a specific purpose. When Jesus spoke about this on the Sermon on the Mount, he said, and listen to how he put it when you fast Don't be like the hypocrites. Notice he didn't say if you ever fast, he just assumed you would. So he said, When you fast Don't be like the hypocrites who make a big show of it, but do it this way. So when you fast you are making your appetite Your slave your and you're saying appetite, you're not going to control me. Because your appetite wants to control you. Because you're thinking man, it's been 20 minutes I haven't eaten. And we even say I'm starving to death. So when you fast, you tell your appetite, get down behave, you're not going to control me. I'm going to control you so that for a period of time, I can focus on the Lord's voice. So say yes, say no. And then finally say go. This is very practical. It means get up and move that body around. We live in a very sedentary culture. We live in a desk bound chair bound couch bound culture. And sometimes you just need to tell your body like Paul said, I beat my body into subjection, right? I make it a slave, get up and go. First Timothy, chapter four, verse a tells us bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. I've heard people for years quote that as a reason why they don't exercise. Well, bodily exercise just profits a little. Okay, you need a little help. And yeah, the idea is godliness is more profitable than bodily exercise, but the idea of the versus bodily exercise has some value. So use the value and keep your instrument your human physical body as usable in God's hands as healthy as possible until the day he calls you home. I have a friend And who's around 80 Very healthy exercise all the time. And I said to him, so what do you like to do? And he said, Oh, don't misunderstand. I hate exercise. I don't like any of it. I do it. I do it frequently, but I don't like it. I said, Why do you do it? He said, Let me tell you why I do it. I do it because I see it as a way to tell God thank you for the body you've given me. I'm a steward of what he's given me. And so for me to take care of this, I'm just giving him thanks, by taking care of the vessel that God gave me. So in conclusion, glad gluttony Did you know was once on the list of seven deadly sins? I gotta tell you, it's off that list is now on the acceptable sins list. People don't bat an eye at this. Most people don't even think about this. But at the same time, we have to be careful not to judge people based on outward appearance on body type. There's a number of reasons that people have different sizes and weights, so we can't go there. However, having said that, we also realize the culture that we live in. We live in a culture of fast food. We live in a culture of supersize drinks, even the old Supersize Me.
We live in a culture of Taco Tuesdays, and waffle Wednesdays, and French fry Fridays. And all you can eat buffet.
I'm making a lot of you hungry, self included. There's even a motto in some Christian circles that goes like this when we meet we eat. Can I encourage you not to use that motto from now on? If you do, how about when we meet, we meet each other's needs. When we meet, we eat the depth of God's Word. Let's meet over those issues. Not that food is food is good, you need it. But too much food is not good, too much of anything. Excess of anything. Something that is good can become bad, when it's not done for the right reasons at the right time, with the right amount. Father, we want to glorify you with our bodies. You've given them to us. Were born with these bodies, for better or for worse. And things have happened to these bodies over time, but Lord, they're still the receptacle for your Holy Spirit, to live within and shine from. So Lord, I pray in Jesus name that you would simply give us grace as we sang. In this worship set earlier on Grace after grace we need we need your grace, just to realize
that we can live life at a higher plane, that our bodies in a trash can our body's a temple.
And it's a temple because the holy person of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune, God lives in these bodies. Moreover, you, you bought us with a hefty price we belong to you. And because we belong to you, we're not our own. We have a purpose to glorify you with these bodies and with the spirit that communicates through these bodies to a world that God loves and cares for them. We want to do that well. In Jesus name.
Your body is a holy place and it has a heavenly purpose. So how will you apply what you learned in this message to become a better steward of your body? Let us know. Email us at my story at Calvary AB q.org. And just a reminder, you can give financially to this work at Calvary AB q.org/gift. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church.
