Introduction:
Proverbs 23:20-21 - Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Gluttony is Not Wise (Prov 23:20-21):
- Gluttony shows lack of Self-Control .
Proverbs 23:20 - Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat...
- Gluttony leads to Bondage .
1 Cor 6:12 - "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything.
- Gluttony is a Destructive lifestyle.
Proverbs 23:21 - for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags
How Do I Conquer Gluttony?
- Repent .
- Refuse .
- Replace .
- Rely .
1 Cor 10:31 - So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:43-00:45
Open up your Bibles to Proverbs 23.
00:46-00:50
This past year we went through the book of Revelation, verse by verse.
00:51-00:56
And I've got to tell you, the series was really good for me.
00:56-01:03
Spending that time just looking at the hope that God has in store for His people.
01:03-01:11
The series was good for me because when I look outside of the Bible and just look at what's happening in the world today, there's very little that gives me hope.
01:12-01:24
For example, last week, maybe you heard this, last week a woman named Michelle Lesko from Arizona set a world record for eating mayonnaise.
01:25-01:35
She ate 86.35 ounces, or the equivalent of three and a half jars in three minutes.
01:36-01:55
And maybe it's the pastor in me, maybe it's the armchair psychologist, sociologist, I I see that video and I just have a lot of questions like for that woman that Michelle I Think how did that become her life's goal? You know, was that something in high school?
01:55-02:01
Like she shows up at career day and she's like, yeah Can somebody tell me who I need to talk to about?
02:02-02:09
How did that become her goal? And then I thought well, maybe it was suggested by a friend. Okay, Michelle You know what you're really good at?
02:10-02:12
Eating condiments in gross quantities.
02:12-02:14
You should go for the mayonnaise record.
02:14-02:18
You know, church, we love to eat.
02:19-02:25
Hopefully not that, but we are a food-obsessed culture.
02:25-02:28
We don't eat to live.
02:29-02:30
We, what?
02:31-02:31
We live to eat.
02:32-02:33
Just turn on your TV.
02:33-02:36
Do you know how many shows there are about food?
02:36-02:42
Chopped, Cake Boss, Top Chef, Iron Chef, Bizarre Foods, Man vs. Food.
02:42-02:47
I stopped typing at that point. There was just list after list after list after list after list.
02:47-02:52
There's a food network. Who is watching that?
02:53-03:06
Now, listen, I understand if you're like a culinary student/expert, if you're like a Jessica Wolsky or Kristen Ord, where you're like, "That's like my jam, and I went to school for this, and this is a hobby of mine.
03:06-03:07
I get that.
03:08-03:13
But who's the average person just sitting down like, you know what I feel like doing for the next hour?
03:14-03:15
I'm going to watch somebody build a cake.
03:18-03:19
We're so food obsessed.
03:20-03:28
And in our culture, this obsession with food sort of makes us oblivious to even the concept of gluttony.
03:28-03:30
What is gluttony?
03:30-03:31
Look at Proverbs 23.
03:32-03:34
We're just going to look at two verses today.
03:34-03:35
Our main focus.
03:35-03:37
Proverbs 23. Verse 20.
03:37-03:42
It says, "Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat.
03:43-03:54
For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." In the church, we don't usually need sold on the sin of drunkenness.
03:55-04:00
I don't usually have to convince people that drunkenness is a bad idea.
04:01-04:08
But you have to see in these verses, excessive drinking has a food counterpart.
04:08-04:16
And that's why in your Bible, the times that drunkenness and gluttony are mentioned, they are mentioned together.
04:17-04:19
Too much drink or too much food.
04:19-04:21
Both sides of the same coin.
04:21-04:24
Today we're going to talk about gluttony.
04:24-04:25
I'm going to give you a generic definition.
04:26-04:29
It's the inordinate desire to consume more food than we require.
04:30-04:32
Why is the deeper issue?
04:32-04:34
Why would we do that?
04:34-04:35
Why do we do that?
04:35-04:43
The truth is, church, overeating, gluttony is by far the easiest sin for us to justify.
04:43-04:46
I'm going to talk with you briefly about my struggle.
04:47-04:50
And talking about my struggle, maybe you can relate.
04:51-04:55
I looked up my body mass index.
04:57-04:58
Do you know what the results were for me?
04:59-05:01
I'm considered morbidly obese.
05:01-05:06
It's like, "Jeff, you're not only fat, you're like fat to death." Morbidly obese.
05:07-05:13
And the truth is, I can make an excuse to overeat in just about any situation.
05:13-05:15
Now when I say that, I'm not proud of that.
05:15-05:16
Like, "Hey, guess what I can do?
05:17-05:24
Guess what my spiritual gift is?" I'm not proud of that, but I'm saying I can make an excuse when I'm celebrating, right?
05:25-05:27
When I'm celebrating, you know, birthday.
05:27-05:35
What do we celebrate with our birthday? We use cake. Wedding, cake, Columbus Day.
05:36-05:40
I should have a cake. I mean I wouldn't want somebody to think I'm unpatriotic.
05:41-05:55
But when I'm celebrating it's just, you know, I can justify, "Oh, we're having a good day, so I better stuff as much food in my head as I can." Anybody else? When I'm stressed, I overeat. When I'm nervous, I overeat.
05:55-05:58
Worst for me is when I'm depressed.
05:58-05:59
It happens a lot.
05:59-06:01
But when I'm depressed, I justify it.
06:02-06:04
"This will make me feel good." I overeat.
06:04-06:11
And we make these excuses, but again, part of the justification in our minds, I think it helps us to give it a cute nickname, right?
06:12-06:19
Like, I don't just sit out and say, "You know what? I'm really depressed, so I'm going to be a glutton today!" We don't call it that, do we?
06:19-06:20
We have the cute little nickname.
06:21-06:21
It's comfort food.
06:22-06:22
It's comfort food.
06:23-06:57
"Oh, my little counselor in the ice cream carton to comfort me. You know, I need encouragement on my walk and no one encourages me like that sleeve of Oreos. It's comfort food. Or the Doritos. When I'm depressed, the little bag you get at Sheetz isn't going to do it. I need the family-sized bag of Doritos because I'm like, "Family-sized? Well, I have a family. That must be the size for me." And it's always I've never heard that.
06:57-06:59
Never heard that, like, "Dev, I've hit rock bottom, man.
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I ate like three pounds of Brussels sprouts today.
07:03-07:07
I'm thinking about seeing a counselor." Well, we want to walk wisely, right?
07:07-07:09
You with me on the walking wisely thing?
07:10-07:12
I appreciate you laughing at my expense there.
07:12-07:16
Not a very comfortable thing to talk about, but it's something we have to talk about.
07:16-07:23
Proverbs 23, verse 20, "Don't be among them." Don't be among the drunkards and the gluttons.
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That doesn't mean don't be in proximity of them, as much as he's talking about participation with them.
07:32-07:32
Why?
07:32-07:40
Verse 21, he says, "For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." That lifestyle leads nowhere good.
07:40-07:46
Before we talk about this, listen, I need to clarify what I am not saying, and you gotta hear this.
07:46-07:52
And if the person sitting beside you has kind of checked out and not paying attention, you elbow them hard, okay?
07:52-07:55
Like in the armory, not like in the face, but like elbow them.
07:56-07:57
You need to hear this.
07:58-08:02
I am not saying today that enjoying food is sinful.
08:03-08:04
I am not saying that.
08:05-08:19
1 Corinthians 8.8 says, "Food will not commend us to God." Romans 14.17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." I'm not saying enjoying food is sinful.
08:19-08:21
God gave it to us to enjoy.
08:22-08:29
But also, you've got to hear this, this message is not about fat shaming at all.
08:29-08:32
Because gluttony is not about body size.
08:32-08:38
There are many factors that go into body size, like genetics and hormones and a lot of things.
08:38-08:40
You can be a skinny glutton.
08:40-08:42
We're talking about the heart issue, okay?
08:42-08:45
This isn't about body size issue, this is about heart issue.
08:45-08:46
So that's what I'm not saying.
08:47-08:52
And you're like, "Well, I didn't come here today to hear what you're not saying." So what are you saying about gluttony, Pastor Jeff?
08:52-08:53
Well, let's look at what the Bible says.
08:54-08:56
On your outline, if you're taking notes, jot these things down.
08:56-09:02
First of all, our outline is, "Gluttony is not wise." Gluttony is not wise. Why?
09:02-09:05
Number one, gluttony shows lack of self-control.
09:05-09:07
Gluttony shows lack of self-control.
09:07-09:26
"Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat." Again, Proverbs is sort of from the perspective of Dad talking to his son, saying, "Son, these are people you don't hang out with." And it's not about the food and the drink, it's about you can't hang out with people that have no control over themselves.
09:26-09:28
Don't hang out with people like that.
09:28-09:32
Gluttony, specifically today, it shows lack of self-control.
09:32-09:38
Like its liquid counterpart, drunkenness, gluttony is just showing no restraint.
09:39-09:39
No restraint.
09:40-09:56
You know, if a guy sits down at a bar and drinks himself drunk several times a week, we would go to that guy and say, "Man, you got a problem." But if a guy eats way more than he needs to several times a week, we sort of applaud that.
09:57-10:07
Like, "Wow, wow, you're really good at eating." And my question is, why does no self-control get a pass when it comes to eating?
10:07-10:08
Why does it get a pass?
10:10-10:12
Why do we sort of celebrate that?
10:12-10:22
"Hey, guess how many pierogies I ate? I don't care. But why do we celebrate that?" You're like, "Oh, come on. Overeating doesn't hurt anyone, Pastor Jeff.
10:22-10:23
You see, that's the difference here.
10:24-10:32
Drunkenness, that can hurt people, but gluttony can't hurt people." Okay, number two on your outline. Gluttony leads to bondage.
10:33-10:35
I want to jump to 1 Corinthians 6.12.
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Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.
10:39-10:41
All things are lawful for me." Look at this last phrase.
10:42-10:46
Paul says, "I will not be dominated by anything." Do you know what the context is of that passage?
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Food and drink.
10:48-10:57
"I am not going to let anything enslave me, dominate me." And gluttony ultimately is a craving that conquers you.
10:57-11:09
And this week as I was studying this topic, I read so many stories online, blogs and articles, and so many stories online of people who were honest with this struggle.
11:09-11:14
I read so many stories of people who said, "I swear, I'm going to stop gorging myself.
11:14-11:16
I'm going to stop eating like this.
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I'm done. I'm done stuffing my face.
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I swear, I'm not going to eat like this anymore." And they all said, "But you know what? I just quit the dog." And a lot of it felt very familiar.
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It's bondage. It's bondage.
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You know, the church traditionally has been so hard on smoking and drinking.
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Like, why are you so hard on smoking and drinking?
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Well, two reasons. It's unhealthy and it's addictive. And that's true.
11:42-11:46
But can't the same be said for gluttony? It's unhealthy and it's addictive.
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So for the person that says, "Well, gluttony doesn't hurt anyone, Pastor Jeff," it absolutely does.
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I looked up some stats. You know, at least 30 million people in the United States, people of all ages, genders, suffer from some sort of eating disorder.
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30 million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder.
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And every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder.
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And this last one really caught my attention.
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Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
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Think about that.
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Well, it's not hurting anybody, Pastor Jeff.
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Well, that's not what the statistics say.
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Bondage. It's bondage.
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I can't stop. I'm literally eating myself to death.
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And do you know what gluttony ultimately is?
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It's like committing suicide in very slow motion.
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Instead of all at once, we sort of stretch the suicide out over years.
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We're slowly killing ourselves by the way that we're eating.
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So, gluttony shows lack of self-control. Gluttony leads to bondage.
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And thirdly, I'm sure you saw this, it's pretty obvious in the text, gluttony is a destructive lifestyle.
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Look at Proverbs 23, again, 21.
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It says, "For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." I'm not even talking about the whole physical health ramifications.
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You can talk to a doctor about that.
13:06-13:10
Proverbs addresses the spiritual ruin that leads to financial ruin.
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And the key focus here is lifestyle.
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Just as we saw last week that laziness leads to ruin, living a life of constant overindulging - drunkenness, gluttony - that lifestyle will ultimately lead to ruin.
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It's a lifestyle issue that we're talking about here.
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It's a lifestyle of no moderation, no balance, no thought of when is it appropriate to eat or drink, no thought of how much is appropriate to eat or drink.
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It's just unrestrained consumption.
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You see, a life lived without self-control in any area is ultimately going to be destructive.
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A life lived without self-control in any area.
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Sexually? You live sexually, out of control, no restraint?
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How's that going to work out for you?
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Financially? You live financially, unrestrained, out of control, I spend what I want?
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How does that typically work out for people, Stacey?
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Not good.
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The same is said about drinking and eating here.
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Living an unrestrained lifestyle, it's not wise because it's destructive.
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The question is, "How do I conquer gluttony?" How do I conquer it?
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"Alright, Pastor Jeff, I'm a little convicted right now." "Maybe I do have some issues here. How do I conquer it?" I love the simplicity of Proverbs here.
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He doesn't give you the "12 steps in breaking the cycle of gluttony." Again, this is told like a dad talking to his son.
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This is actually ultimately our heavenly Father giving us advice, and His advice is pretty simple.
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He's like, "Hey, hey, you see people that live completely unrestrained, uncontrolled lifestyles, just don't hang out with those people." Why?
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Because you act like the people that you hang out with.
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That's just the universal truth.
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I want you right now in your head, I want you to think of your closest circle of friends.
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If they're a bunch of pursuing Christ, wanting to know God deeper, wanting to understand His Word, that tells me a lot about you.
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If your closest circle of friends are a bunch of knuckleheads, you're probably a knucklehead.
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I say that with all the love I can muster. You're a knucklehead and you're loved.
15:19-15:40
And you might say, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I see what you're saying and I certainly agree with this. Absolutely this is true, but Pastor Jeff, my gluttony is not really caused by being with a group of friends who live an unrestrained lifestyle. That's not really the root cause in my situation, at least at this stage in my life. So how do I conquer gluttony?
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I'm going to give you four words.
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I'll begin with R.E.
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Alright?
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How do I conquer gluttony?
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The first one, letter A, repent.
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Repent.
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We've talked about this so many times in the past, and I need to remind you, what is repentance?
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Repentance literally means to change your mind.
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You need to start agreeing with God.
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You need to renew your mind.
15:59-16:02
In other words, you need to see your sin for what it is.
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Instead of gluttony being something to be proud of, you need to say, "God, here's what you say about it.
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You say, "I shouldn't hang around somebody that's like that, so how can I be participating in it myself?" Gluttony is ultimately a form of idolatry.
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You're seeking delight and satisfaction in food that you should seek in Christ.
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And before you go, "Wow, I think you really overreached there, Pastor Jeff." I think that was a pretty obnoxious statement.
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I want you to think about this. Just think about this.
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I want you to imagine a rough day that you've had.
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Maybe a rough day at home with the kids, rough day at work, whatever you end up doing with your time.
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You've had this horrible day, you've had so much stress, there's been so much pressure put on you, and you've just been under so much anxiety, and you finally get home, and you still feel like you didn't leave work at work, you just still feel this tension.
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And let me ask you, in that moment, are you more likely to pray for an hour or to eat for an hour?
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To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, he says, "We're not talking simply about too much food.
17:12-17:14
We're talking about too much attention to food.
17:15-17:21
We're allowing food to be something it was never intended to be." Jesus said the Holy Spirit is a comforter. The Holy Spirit is a counselor.
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But nothing else can happen until you humble yourself and agree with God on this.
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So you know what? You're right. I've made it into something it's not.
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You need to repent. Secondly, you need to refuse.
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Refuse what? Refuse food for a while.
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In other words, I would encourage you to fast as a response to your gluttony.
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If you're hearing this and the Spirit's convicting you right now, and you're like, "Man, I do have a serious problem. What do I do?" I encourage you to fast.
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Physical appetites have a way of displaying my ability to control myself, or my inability to control myself.
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And while gluttony... Hear this.
17:56-18:03
Gluttony is using food in a way that distracts us from spiritual appetites.
18:03-18:10
Fasting is refusing food so that it doesn't distract us from spiritual appetites.
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Fasting is a way of saying, "Hey, hey, hey, I control my appetites, not vice versa.
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I'm not a dog. I don't live dictated by my appetites.
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My focus is on my hunger for Christ, and I'm not going to fill that hunger with lesser things.
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If you want to know more about fasting, we had a whole sermon on that this year.
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April 28th, it's on the website.
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It's easy to find, just search for it, HarvestPittsburghNorth.org.
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Fasting is your number one weapon if this is an area in which you are struggling.
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So repent, refuse food for a season, and I would say replace.
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And this goes right with fasting, replace.
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You know, the Bible doesn't simply say, "Just say no to sin." That's not really the way the Bible presents repentance.
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It's not saying no to sin, it's saying yes to something else.
18:58-19:03
The Bible talks about putting off sin, but at the same time, you're putting on something that glorifies God.
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You know, the Bible has so many analogies regarding the Lord, and our relationship with the Lord, and our delight in the Lord.
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So many analogies the Bible uses that has that food, taste, flavor terminology.
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such as Psalm 34, 8, that says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2, 2 tells us to "desire the sincere spiritual milk of the word." John 6, 35, Jesus says, "He's the bread of life.
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If we come to Him, we will not hunger." And there are so many others.
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John Piper said, "The implication is that if we give ourselves to being satisfied with spiritual bread, wine, milk, then the physical hunger will lose its supreme power." As I shared with you, that's my own struggle.
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Blotting is often an escape.
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It just is.
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That's just for me, for a lot of people.
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It's an escape.
19:55-19:56
Life is disappointing.
19:56-19:58
My relationships aren't in a good place.
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I'm kind of bored at work lately.
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But you know who never lets me down?
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Food.
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It always tastes good, available.
20:07-20:28
We need to discipline ourselves to find satisfaction in other things, such as the Word of God, or pouring into your family, or small group fellowship, as Dr. Rupp talked about earlier, or involved in work in the church, or projects in the home, or whatever, but to find satisfaction in something other than gorging yourself.
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Replace. No to gluttony, but yes to better things.
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And then finally, rely.
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Rely. Rely on the Holy Spirit.
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Because if you've heard every word I've said to this point, check out now, then the whole sermon is a fail.
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Because this is most important.
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You can't leave here like Aya the tiger, like, "That's right! From now on, I control it!" Like, you're going to fail.
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You can't muster up self-control.
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Because the Bible says self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, right?
20:58-20:58
Galatians 5.
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Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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That's something that the Lord gives you.
21:07-21:08
Understand that.
21:08-21:15
Self-control is something that by faith, God gives you the ability to control yourself.
21:16-21:19
God has to enable you. He has to.
21:19-21:29
He gives you self-control, so cry out to Him for self-control to be manifest supernaturally by the power of the Holy Spirit in your daily living.
21:29-21:36
Hey look, we live in America, and you can't control all of the incredible food options that are out there.
21:36-21:39
But you can control every bite that goes in your mouth.
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1 Corinthians 10.31 says, So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
21:49-21:51
So does your eating glorify God?
21:51-21:52
Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank You for Your grace.
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We thank You for Your Word, even when it's uncomfortable.
21:59-22:04
Father, this is a very uncomfortable thing for me to share because of my own struggles in this area.
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We thank You, God, that You're God of healing, You're God of grace.
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And these admonitions from your Word aren't because you want to stifle our joy, it's because you want to maximize.
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Father, you know that that hamburger and that pizza, that's not going to satisfy us the way that you do.
22:22-22:25
Father, I pray that you would, by your Spirit, give us self-control.
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Alert us and make us mindful.
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Everything we do is to be a reflection of our relationship with you, empowered by your Spirit working powerfully within us.
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everything that we do is about being citizens of Your kingdom, including when we sit down to eat. Father, I pray today's a new day for some people.
22:44-22:54
Self-control by Your Spirit. We cry out for it, Father. We thank You ahead of time for the victories that You're going to win in this area for people. Glorify Your name, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Proverbs 23:20-21
(If you like, review any other Proverbs on gluttony we covered on Sunday!)
What was your biggest take-away from this passage / message?
How would you define gluttony? Why is it often ignored in the church? Do you think it should be addressed? Why or why not?
When are YOU most tempted / prone to overeat?
Why is gluttony / overeating addictive? How can fasting help someone overcome gluttony?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another. Are you struggling with this sin? Get an accountability partner - now - from your group and keep after each other.