LISTEN: Overcoming the Acceptable Christian Sin of Gluttony #5 with Daniel Whyte III

Welcome to the Overcoming the Acceptable Christian Sin of Gluttony podcast, a companion podcast to the Acceptable Christian Sin of Gluttony message series. The purpose of this podcast is to share with you, from a biblical perspective, the means by which we can combat and overcome the sin of gluttony and its outcome of obesity.

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Our passage from the Word of God today is Exodus 16:3-5 which reads: “And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.”

Now, let’s look at gluttony and its effects in the news: According to ABC News, “Overweight women have a harder time getting pregnant. One Indian study of 300 morbidly obese women found that over 90 percent of them developed poly-cystic ovarian disease, a condition associated with infertility, over a three-year period. Dr. Marc Bessler, director of the Center for Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, said that many of his heavier patients experienced difficulty getting pregnant. And many infertility clinics don’t accept female patients with high body mass indexes given their diminished chances of conceiving. However, Bessler said some of his patients become pregnant just months after they had dropped a few pounds.”

In this podcast, we are going through the book, The RAVE Diet and Lifestyle: The Natural Foods Diet With Meals that Heal, by Mike Anderson. He writes in Chapter 1: Diet, Disease, & Weight Loss:

B.A. Stoll said, “Most people don’t let their children smoke, yet they regularly take them to fast-food restaurants and that’s just as risky, in terms of cancer, as if they had bought them a pack of Marlborough cigarettes.”

D.W. Cavanaugh, M.D., of Cornell University said, “There is only one major disease and that is malnutrition. All ailments and afflictions to which we may fall heir are directly traceable to this major disease.”

There is an old Indian legend in which six blind men come across an elephant. Having no idea what an elephant was, they moved in close and started to feel it. One touched its leg and described the elephant as a pillar. Another touched its tail and declared an elephant was a rope. The third touched its ear and said the elephant was like a big fan. And so on. The blind men then began to argue about what an elephant was, based on the empirical data they had collected – with each insisting he was correct. The problem, of course, was that none of the blind men could “see” the entire elephant, only parts of it.

Many of the problems that Americans have with understanding the relationship of diet to disease are analogous to this story. Unfortunately, the inability to see the whole picture is greatly reinforced by so-called “scientific” studies because they only look at specific parts of the entire picture.

Take alcoholic beverages, for example. Recently, there have been waves of studies purporting that wine is good for the heart. This is because these studies are focusing only on a small part of the wine, the antioxidants, antioxidants, which originally came from grapes. What such studies cannot “see” is the alcohol in the wine. When you step back and look at the whole wine beverage, including alcohol, wine not only harms the heart, but the brain, nervous system, liver and other organs – and generally devastates the entire body. Instead of saying that wine is good for the heart and ignoring what it does to the rest of the body, the “scientists” should have been saying this study confirms that the antioxidants found in grapes are good for the heart, without endorsing wine as a health beverage.

We have known that antioxidants are good for the heart for decades. And we have known that grapes are good for the body for centuries. What such “scientific” studies are doing is turning bad foods into good foods for the sole benefit of those who sell bad foods. (Don’t get me wrong. If you want to get tipsy or even drunk, there’s no better beverage than wine – just don’t call it a health drink!)

Of course, the “scientific” approach fits very nicely into the marketing plans of food industries and, in fact, virtually all of these “scientific” studies are funded by food industries. These days, if a product has even a tiny bit of good in it, food industries will hire a team of “experts” from a prestigious university to do a study specifically designed to turn an unhealthy product into a “healthy” product. They will then put out press releases and unleash their marketing team to “milk” as much news coverage from the study as they can get. The public then reads the news report and thinks, “Ah ha! Wine is good for me, after all!” and they run to the nearest liquor store and start drinking like fish.

After a “60 Minutes” show ran a story on the so-called French Paradox, which made the ridiculous claim that wine was responsible for the deceptively low rate of heart attacks in France, wine sales increased by a whopping 40 percent. What was lost in all the hoopla was the fact that the French Paradox is a mirage. The French have different methods of classifying deaths, which make it appear that deaths due to heart disease are lower in France than other Western nations. When statistical methods are standardized, however, it turns out the French die of heart disease at rates comparable to other Western nations. And regardless of how you view the statistics, heart disease is France’s number one killer, just as it is in other Western nations who eat comparable diets.

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Now, in this series, as we focus on overcoming the sin of gluttony, and managing our bodies as God intended, we must not lose sight of the most important part of our existence — our spiritual life. Even those of you who are fit, who eat right, and who exercise regularly must still address the condition of your soul. You may keep your body in perfect condition till the day you die, but you will still die — we all will, and the only thing that will matter is the condition of your soul. Is your soul in shape? Is your soul in right standing with God?

The only way to make sure of that is to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and the consequences of sin. He alone can save your soul, put you in right standing with God, and ensure that you do not perish in Hell. Now, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, here is how you can trust Him today.

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now that is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and today I choose to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and I choose to follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, please email me at [email protected] and let us know. There is some free material that we want to send you. If you have a prayer request, please e-mail that to us as well, and we will pray for you until you tell us to stop.

God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.