Maintaining Our Health

Hello. I looked down. It was kind of dreary when I was getting dressed this morning, so I thought I'd wear one of my brightest ties to reflect the sunshine that we didn't have. Now we have sunshine.

But I don't think anybody would mind that. Although, I wasn't sure how well it would go. Sue said it was okay, so I'm alright.

Well, I mentioned it. You've heard me say it many times about summer camps. Sometimes I worry that I might do it too much, but it's one of the important programs and been a big part of my life.

And I'm fortunate that I've been able to participate. I've had good health most of my life, no serious disabilities, and enjoying all that.

But I've been reminded, especially not long ago, that there's no guarantee it's always going to be that way.

And of course, as I said, we have the older portion of the congregation here today, and you're well familiar that good health and strength are fleeting. They come and go.

And I want to harken back last May when we had the annual General Conference of Elders.

And Mr. Melvin Rhodes, who is the chairman of the Council of Elders, gave a very serious talk to the ministry, somewhat of a heart-to-heart.

And he wanted to talk about how we in the ministry need to take care of our health. And he encouraged us to take better care of our health than we had.

And it turned out to be pure coincidence. I really thought it had been planned, and later I asked. It was pure coincidence that that very evening, Mr. Aaron Dean, the treasurer, called all the church employees, which included a large number of the ministry and those at the home office, to have a meeting to talk about health insurance, and how the costs keep going up, and talking about different ways we can deal with it, so that the church doesn't end up taking money away from preaching the gospel, and spend it on taking care of our health care.

So these got me on a train of thought, thinking about, you know, maybe it's worth talking about.

As part of his presentation early on, Mr. Rhodes mentioned that he'd come across a study that some organization had done, and I think he told us who did the study, and I didn't write it down at the time, so I can't tell you who it was, but they'd done a study on the relative health of different churches.

And they mentioned that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the healthiest church in America, which I didn't know that, but they do stress health care quite a bit.

Now, I know Mr. Rhodes had pointed out he'd had dealings with a lot of people in the Mormon Church and said, boy, they sure look healthy, they ought to be up there.

And he asked the question, what about the United Church of God? Where would we rank on such a study?

And we say, where would we? Because, to be honest, we're such a small group, I doubt that they looked at us, but would we be that healthy?

And then the obvious question is, why shouldn't we be? We have a lot of knowledge and guidance for what we can do for our health.

And if you've been in God's church a long time, which I know many of you have, you know, we used to emphasize some of those things more than we do lately.

And to be honest, and I might have a skewed perspective on it. I was younger than I am now, but sometimes some of the things that they stressed seemed like they weren't entirely balanced to me.

But I think, as we often do in the church, we tend to get over in a ditch, and then we realize we're not on the center, so we try to move over, and then we cross over the middle, and then we get into the other ditch until we realize, oh, we're in a ditch, we need to come back.

So, well, actually, I've got a note to pause here, because before I go down this line, I want to mention, Mr. Rhodes did not, in his part of his presentation, say, now, I want all of you ministers to go back and talk to your congregations about that.

As a matter of fact, he didn't stress that as a need. He was concerned with we in the ministry, and he commented, in fact, that he said that he himself, he said, I'm a good person to give this talk, because nobody's going to think I'm talking down to you.

He explained something that I didn't know. I first met him, I think, not long after he'd moved to the U.S. He served in Britain for many years and in parts of Africa, and he revealed to us that when he first came to the U.S., he gained, it was 60 or 80 pounds in the first year.

And he said, partly because the potlucks in America are so good. And we pride ourselves, we have good potlucks.

But he said, you know, it's been a common thing in the ministry for a lot of the men to put on more pounds than they should.

And to be honest, my memory of Mr. Herbert Armstrong, when I first came into the church, he looked like a round little man.

Now, he didn't look as little because I was small, but, you know, he went through a phase where he was probably carrying a little more than he should have, and he slimmed down later on.

It's also been pointed out, and something I didn't know for most of my life. I don't know that it's widespread, but there have been some in God's ministry who have had a problem with alcohol, where they've started to rely on it too much.

So Mr. Rhodes was making the comment when he spoke to us in the ministry as somewhat of a heart-to-heart, saying, we should be setting an example for good, not for bad.

And as I said, he said, I'm not one to be talking down to you. He said, I've had this problem.

And you might remember, over the winter, he had a problem with an infection in his foot that had been very serious.

So he's saying, I'm not coming to you as a holier than now, saying, we've got to work on our health problems.

His point was, I've got to work on mine, and I'm encouraging all of you.

And he went out of his way... well, I don't think he's going out of his way to single me out, but it turned out he made that comment, and then the next morning I ended up being sitting at a table with him.

And I sat down with Patrick and Joan Reed, who are from Ontario, Canada, and I know them because I was friends with their daughter.

So I sat down chatting, and I got up to get another role, because I was still hungry.

When I came back, Mr. Rhodes had sat down to join them. So I sat down and proceeded to start listening instead of talking.

They're all older than me and more experienced, and I enjoyed the conversation.

And they were asking him about the situation with his foot and how much they appreciated his talk the day before.

And he looked at me and said, well, you couldn't give a talk like that.

And I said, well, why not? So, well, you're obviously thin, you know, and people would take it the wrong way.

Well, I hope that you're not going to take it the wrong way, because I want to talk about maintaining our health.

And I'll make the point that I'm fairly slender, and that's largely because of jeans.

Not my jeans that I wear, but genetics, I mean.

It's funny. I didn't have anything funny in my notes. It's odd how it goes that way.

But I want to, you know, talk not as someone talking down, because remember it, I'm sure you're all well aware that how someone looks doesn't necessarily reflect their health.

But we have some knowledge we should be working on taking care of our health.

And so I wanted to address that subject because it's one I think maybe we haven't heard in a while, and we want to look from the biblical perspective.

And let's look at some of our responsibility as Christians.

Now, I did make a note first before I get into this, just to remind us that our spiritual health is still preeminent.

That's the biggest concern. Where is our spiritual health?

But still, caring for our physical health is important.

Now, how many of you, I could ask for a show of hands, but I know everybody's hand would go up.

If you've heard quoted that the phrase from the Bible says, my body is a temple.

It's not only been quoted many times, it's been misquoted so many that it doesn't carry much weight.

Matter of fact, this morning I was glancing in my notes and I thought one of the places I saw it first was in a Garfield cartoon.

And if you know Garfield the Cat, I was a big fan of Garfield when I was younger, and I had actually books of all the earliest cartoons.

And there was one where he just finished eating an entire plate of lasagna.

And his owner, I think John's name says, you really got to do something about your weight.

And Garfield's answer was, no way, man, my body's a temple.

Well, I think he was misusing it. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 6.

Let's see what the Bible does tell us about our body being a temple.

1 Corinthians 6, and we'll start in verse 19.

Because although people have misquoted, it is in the Bible and it does have some importance.

Remember, this is the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church, whom he had to give some serious instruction on several matters.

And he says here, now, I'm taking this out of context, as I'll make note, but he says in verse 19, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, whom you have from God?

And you're not your own.

So your body is a temple because God's Spirit dwells in you, and God, by power of a Spirit, dwells in us.

And then Paul says, you're not your own, which there's another place where it says, you've been bought for a price.

When we had hands laid on us, when we were baptized, we surrendered our life to God the Father and Jesus Christ.

So we're not in charge of us anymore.

Now, one thing I didn't understand until actually Mr. Rhodes pointed this out in this section of Scripture, and actually, if you look throughout the New Testament, two different Greek words are often translated into the English word temple.

The one word, hyeron, which spelled in Greek letters, but if you want an English spelling, it's H-I-E-R-O-N.

Hyeron or he-eron, I'm not sure which pronunciation, can refer to the entire temple complex.

And that time, remember, was when Herod had increased the temple, and you had the sacred area, and you had the grounds around in the courtyard.

That word could mean all of that.

But there's another word translated to temple, naos, N-A-O-S, and it refers strictly to the most holy place, the holy of holies, the area where God's Spirit would come and appear.

And that's the word that Paul uses here in 1 Corinthians 6 and 19.

So he says, your body is a temple. He says, your body is nails. It's the area where God's Spirit dwells.

That makes it a big deal. That makes it important.

Let's go over to 1 Corinthians a few chapters earlier to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and we'll read verse 17.

And as I said, God takes seriously where He puts His Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3 verse 17 says, if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.

For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are.

So God doesn't want the place that He puts His Spirit defiled.

Now, I'll make a point. Paul uses the word in different ways. Here, I believe, he's referring to the entire church.

The congregation or the body of Christ is holy. That's a temple.

But as we saw in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, our individual bodies are also a temple because the Spirit goes in us.

Well, even before you're baptized, the Spirit is working with you.

But once you repent and are baptized and have hands laid on you, the Spirit dwells in you.

It joins with the Spirit and man, and it's part of you. You've got to take good care of that dwelling.

Now, I'll also remind us, of course, it's fundamental to our belief and our understanding of God's plan and purpose that we dwell in physical bodies now, and they're temporary.

Of course, we know the Feast of Tabernacles is coming up. Actually, I'm getting excited about the Feast of Tabernacles coming up.

I mentioned that in Pressensburg last week. Now that camp is over, I can start getting excited about it.

But the whole one of the main lessons of the Feast of Tabernacles is that we are tabernacling.

We're dwelling in temporary dwellings now, looking forward to the permanent dwellings.

So we know that we're here temporarily in these bodies, but part of the reason for that is God put us in changeable, moldable flesh so that we could grow and overcome, so that we can learn lessons until He will give us a permanent spirit body.

So we have to learn to exercise godly principles. And of course, He makes it so we can learn and grow and change. We can be forgiven for our mistakes.

But it's important how we exercise godly principles in all of life's decisions.

What we do with our things, what we do with our money, what we do with our time, and what we do with our physical bodies.

We have to develop character in the process of all of these. Let's turn to Luke 16, another principle here. Luke 16, verse 10.

As I said, I don't think I'm misquoting any of these scriptures, but as I said, quoting from Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, he was talking about sexual immorality, but it's still a matter of using your body properly.

Here in Luke 16, verse 10, Jesus Christ makes this point.

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. So if you're faithful and careful with something that's small, God realizes he can trust you with something that's bigger.

But he who is unjust in what is least is unjust in much.

Okay, well, we're given our physical bodies now, and in many ways, they're what's least, even at their best and their strongest.

And I'm sure many of you will agree with me.

And I was thinking back... I'm always embarrassed to say this when I'm a group like this, because I talk to other people, especially at camp, about how I'm feeling the effects of age and all that, and many of you will be laughing at me.

But back when I was 30, I felt great. I was in peak physical condition. I could run further, lift more weights.

And my body felt like it was something else, but it's declining. So that even then, it was something that was least.

But we all have to learn to treat properly what is least, so that later God can give us more.

Let's turn to Romans 6. Romans 6, and we'll begin in verse 12. The lesson there is, God wants us to learn to take good care of our physical bodies, so that then He knows He can trust us with spirit bodies that will have immense power and that will not decay or be injured or anything like that.

1 Corinthians 6 and verse 12. So in order to do that, to exercise that principle, Paul says, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you obey it in its lusts, that is, the strong desires that are part of our physical bodies. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God, as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments to righteousness.

And as I said, in many cases, Paul is referring to sexual sins, but the principle is there. We need to build our bodies, build our health, maintain it, knowing that we're exercising godly principles then.

Now, I did make a note before I go further and talk about some of those. I thought it's good to make a disclaimer that, of course, we're all still going to get sick.

There's going to be injuries, there's going to be difficulties, and when Paul says, you know, I just read this where he says, Don't let sin reign in your mortal body. I don't want anybody to think that I'm saying, if you're sick, it must be because you sinned. That's not the case. There are a lot of things that can affect our health, a lot of things that we can't control. One is, as I mentioned, your genetic, the genetic material you were passed on. Some people just will have a proclivity. I think it's, what is it, in a lot of the African-American communities, sickle cell anemia is very common, and they just inherited that.

There are a lot of men who have a proclivity in their genes that if they live long enough, they're going to get prostate cancer. And it doesn't matter how well their diet, or how good their diet is, how much they exercise, it's just there. And of course, we live in a polluted environment. You know, we can't control the air pollution and the water pollution.

We can do the best that we can to avoid it. But what I'm saying is, we have to exercise control and do the best that we can with what we have, knowing that there are other things still out there. And of course, there's the fact that we just plain get older. God made us flesh and blood. He made these bodies to wear down. And there's where, as I said, I'm starting to become more aware of that than I was back when I was 30, and I thought I would live forever.

And of course, our bodies wearing down and getting older is not a sinful thing. It's part of the process God built into us. It makes us appreciate the idea of eternity in a spirit body so much more. And I look forward to that more and more every day as I realize that I wake up in the morning sore more often than not. I say, wow, that didn't happen when I was younger. So, as I said, since we're going to have problems anyways, we have to do the best we can with what we have.

And we have to start where we are. How many of you, if you had a chance, would go back to when you were 20 and do some things differently? I know I would, and I think I did fairly well taking care of myself, but still, there are things I know I could have done better.

But we can't change the past. But every day, we can try to do the best we can at taking care of ourselves that day. In the United States today, our biggest health problems, they say, I say they, I hear it on the news all the time in different reports, reading in magazines, but a lot of our biggest problems come from improper diet and lack of exercise. Those are the two biggest things. I'm going to talk a little bit more about those than some other factors today. Obesity, they keep saying, is a growing disease in America, and it comes largely from those two things.

Improper diet, not enough exercise. So I'm going to come back to exercise later and talk about diet first, because it's something that affects all of us. It's amazing. I had to stop and make a note even here. How often, in the course of human existence, has too much food been a problem for people? I mean, we're blessed. We're the richest nation ever. Most people have had health problems because they couldn't get enough food, couldn't get enough variety.

We have more food than we need. Now, we're having trouble more than I wish we would of getting the good foods, and that's getting into another story. Now, there's a lot of advice you can find out there, and among many well-educated and well-intentioned Christians, you can find strong advocates of one thing or another. And I want to come down, I hope, in the middle, as far as what I would advise that we should or shouldn't eat.

I'm not going to advise eating only organic foods that you go to a particular market. I'm not going to say you should never eat any sugar or food additives. I'm not in favor of becoming a vegetarian, but also not in favor of the Atkins diet. That's the one where you eat only protein, I think. All meat and no carbohydrates.

I want to focus on a principle that I think is always appropriate, and we can find it in Galatians 5. Galatians 5 and verses 22 and 23.

And just when I say that scripture, it probably rings a bell, many of you have memorized it. Galatians 5, starting in verse 22 and verse 23, are what we call the fruits of the spirit. I'm going to read through all of them, but I want to get to the end of the list.

Here Paul says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He says, against such there's no law. Self-control, and I believe the old King James renders that last one as temperance. That is, we could say moderation. I'm going to quote here Philippians 4 verse 5 without turning, but there Paul writes, Let your moderation be known to all men. Let your moderation be known to all men. That, I think, is an overriding principle that's worth us keeping in mind, and it affects not only our diet, but all of our health principles. You know, it's very important in deciding what we eat and how much of it we eat.

I don't think that's good, because if the Bible, if God wanted to, He could have put in the Bible a strict list of everything to eat. If you look through what Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, there's a lot of specific details. He could have put a menu in there. Imagine if He did. On Monday morning, you eat this for breakfast, then you eat this for lunch, then this for dinner, and this will be your snack later in the evening. Then Tuesday, and He would have, in the King James, on the second day of the week, thou mustest eat.

But can you follow me? God could have put that in there. He could have said, this is exactly it, no straying, and it's a sin if you don't do that. But He didn't do that. He gave us freedom to choose, but He advised us exercise moderation. And then He did give us some strict guidelines of some things. He said, no, no, no moderation here. You keep your hands off of that. And since we're on that subject, let's go to Leviticus 11 and remind ourselves of those things. I want to remind us of those, and also to make an important point, once we have that established.

Leviticus 11, we'll begin in verse 2. Of course, I'm sure, especially in this group of well-experienced Christians, as soon as you hear the words of Leviticus 11, you know that's what we call the clean and unclean meats chapter. God doesn't give a list of everything we should and shouldn't eat, but there are some things He does.

And He tells us as far as when we're eating meat. Leviticus 11, verse 2. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. And of course, rather than listing them all, He gives the criterion.

Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hoofs and chewing the cud, that you can eat. So a divided hoof, which means it has to have hoofs in the first place. Paws don't count, and it has to chew the cud. Which, I'm thinking this afternoon, there's a lot of young people that haven't been around farms. You might have to explain, you know, there's a certain type of digestive system. And, whether it's with cows, they have like a four-chambered stomach, and some of it comes back up and they chew their food again.

That sounds really disgusting. But it digests it the right way. And so there are things, the foods we can eat, we know we can eat beef. We can eat venison, mutton. We can even eat giraffe. That's the one that strikes me is they have clove and hoofs and chew their cud, but I don't see it at Kroger and the... And I just liked giraffes. I can't imagine wanting to eat them. But then again, Bambi looks awful cute, and I don't mind then. Okay, I'm going to stop there. But of course, some of the things that are popular these days, we don't eat.

And we know we don't eat pork. You know, they have a clove and hoof, but they don't chew the cud. A lot of people out there love pork. God says that's not meant for food. And then there's also delicacies that some people might want to eat, like rabbit or chipmunk or rattlesnake. And I made a note, even if you see five pounds of possum in your headlights, if you remember the song from the variety show, I love that bit. It's too bad Rick and Carol aren't here. Anyways, let's look down to verse 9.

Okay, that takes care of land animals. In verse 9, These you may eat of all that are in the water. Whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or rivers, that you can eat. But all in the seas or rivers that don't have fins or scales, all that move in the water or any living thing that's in the water, that's an abomination. So fins and scales, that includes most of the common fish that we eat. I wrote some of them down, and I don't see it.

It's like haddock, perch, whitefish, tuna, salmon, but of course, no shellfish. But as a shell, it doesn't have scales. So we don't eat oysters, we don't eat lobster, which is just a big type of spider. That seems gross to me. And not catfish, which are an abundance around here. Now, I'm not going to read further down because, interestingly, when God addresses birds, He doesn't give a strict criteria.

He lists a lot of them. Several people have analyzed and looked at how the toes are divided and whether they have a crawl and things like that. But I found in the United States, at least, we don't have a big problem with wanting to eat very many birds that aren't clean. Chicken and turkey are fine. That's what we eat the most of. Also, pheasant, I believe, and grouse. And there aren't many unclean birds that we're inclined to. So if you're not sure, always say, if you're not sure, stay away from it. But if you want to get a turkey sandwich, that's good. And also, in America, we don't routinely eat bugs.

But God shows, if you do want to eat bugs, grasshoppers and locusts are okay. Stay away from the others. Now, of course, I don't want to make a sermon on this. It makes a good subject for a sermonette and sometimes a split sermon to go into more details, especially in deciding more about this. But I want to focus, as I said, on the moderation.

You know, the things that we're allowed to eat. Because we're allowed to eat beef, that doesn't mean we should gorge ourselves on it. As I said, the Atkins diet would have you not eating any bread and I think not any potatoes or anything, just only meat all the time.

That doesn't sound like moderation. No, we need to let our moderation, even for clean animals, be known to all men. And remember, there are some other restrictions. While we're here in Leviticus, let's turn to chapter 3. Leviticus 3, and we'll read verse 17. It's the last statement in this chapter. And again, I know these aren't problems in the church, but while I'm covering the subject, I want to be thorough on this. But Leviticus 3, verse 17 says, This will be a perpetual statute. It's interesting. This is never going to change as long as we're eating food.

And all your generations, you shall eat neither fat nor blood. No blood, no fat. So we need to trim the fat from our meat. If you're making a steak or something like that, you cut as much of it as you can off. And usually, if there's a little bit left, it'll cook and melt out. I'm looking to see the women agreeing with me on that. But I know from having worked in a place where I ground hamburger when I was younger, the cheaper grades of hamburger, they grounded so much fat that a lot of it doesn't all melt away.

So even though I'm a... I tend to be a little stingy in the money department, that's where it's good that Sue does most of the shopping. I don't want to buy the cheapest hamburger, but usually that's something we should avoid. Get the one that doesn't have quite as high a fat content because we're not supposed to eat fat. Now, fortunately, draining blood out of the meat is common in America. Although, if you go to a sausage festival, I think it's...

It's called a bucirus up in the northern part of the state, it has a sausage festival. I'm sure you could get blood sausage there, but you shouldn't because it has blood. Of course, those who are hunting, you know, you get your deer or your buck, make sure you drain the blood out. Now, we've covered the easy stuff, right? This is one where God said, don't have this. Now, it's the other stuff that can be difficult. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 6.

Because, as I mentioned earlier, just because something is permitted to us doesn't mean we should eat it very often, and sometimes maybe never, on your individual health concerns. 1 Corinthians 6, and I'll begin in verse 12. Here Paul says, and once again, I'm taking this a little out of context, but the principle applies, All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought unto the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods. But God will destroy both it and them. Now, he goes on to say, now, what he was doing here was quoting a common proverb of the day.

I'm trying to think what's a common proverb today. It's like, once bitten twice shy, or something like that. This isn't something that's from the word of the mouth of God, but he was quoting it to make the point, of course, he's saying, sexual immorality, our bodies aren't for sexual immorality. But he is quoting this because it's still valid. Just because something is lawful doesn't mean you should eat a lot of it, or you shouldn't gorge a lot of it. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but we shouldn't be brought unto the power.

We shouldn't be so enraptured with one particular thing that we've got to have it, or we've got to have it all the time. And here's where I wanted to harken back. We just focused on the unclean meats. And we've been very diligent as a church. Mr. Rhodes pointed out in his talk, he said, if as a church we would give so much diligence to making sure we never get pepperoni on our pizza, and we read to make sure we don't have lard as shortening in our cooking, if we would apply a portion of that diligence to not having quite so many cookies or so many pieces of pie at a potluck, and as I said, he was talking to the ministry.

He wasn't talking to you.

He was telling the ministry, some of whom had a little extra, saying, you need to apply that kind of diligence to how much of that you eat. And that would benefit us. Now, I also want to go on record. I'm not saying we should never eat any sugar. I'm not against sugar, or that we should never have high fructose corn syrup. There's different types. There's fructose and sucrose, and I know there's a couple others I used to know. Is the one in honey different than... I'm looking at Joanne because you were nodding. Okay. Anyways. But what we do eat needs to be in moderation. We can't allow ourselves to come under the power of any. Too much sugar has become a problem in Western societies, and it can cause excessive weight, it can cause type 2 diabetes, and other problems. But the Bible doesn't say anything about sugar, because they didn't really have sugar in common the way we know it. But it does talk about the sweet treat of its time. It talks about honey. Let's go to Proverbs. Proverbs 25. And get some guidance on, as I said, what... I think what applies to honey could apply at least partially to sugar. And I'll make mention, I do realize that they're not equal. I do believe honey is healthier for us than sugar. I don't have any problem with that. But, well, that makes sense then. If honey needs to be taken in moderation, certainly sugar does. Let's see what it says. Matthew 20... Matthew. Proverbs 25 and verse 16. Proverbs 25 and verse 16. It says, Have you found honey? Back then, well, they would find honey in different places where the bees made their hives. Now it might be, Have you found a sweet treat at Kroger? I keep mentioning Kroger. That's where I tend to go. What other grocery chains are down here? I know we've got Giant Eagle up in Columbus now. Anyways, back on point. Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit. Too much isn't good. Eat as much as you need. He doesn't say how much, because there's not a set amount for each person. But don't get too much, or it could make you vomit. Or worse, you might not vomit, but it's going to affect your health. Let's look a little further down in verse 27.

Here it says, It's not good to eat much honey. And the parallel is, So to seek one's own glory is not glory. So in other words, he's using the obvious thing. It's obvious it's not good to eat too much honey. And the same way it's not good to do that, it's not good to seek your own glory. But it was a given to them. Don't eat too much honey. And now, we don't have that much problem with eating too much honey here, because we prefer sugar in our society. But the same could apply. Don't eat too much of it. But, I'm not going to suggest that you should never eat any. Let's turn a chapter ahead to chapter 24 and verse 13.

Because Solomon didn't say, Cut that out, don't eat any of that, it's bad for you.

And said in Proverbs 24 and verse 13, he says, My son, eat honey because it's good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste. He doesn't say, Don't touch that. He says, Son, it's good. Eat it. But if you put that together with the other scriptures, it's saying, Eat it, but don't eat too much of it. Find a balance, that moderation. We want to let our moderation be known to all men.

And as I said, I'm not saying that sugar is as good as honey, so we want to maybe even be more careful with sugar. But I think we could say, as Solomon did, Eat some sugar because it's good, but keep control.

I thought of a story that I thought I would share with you, partly because it's humorous, and partly because it shows how we tend to jump to extremes in the church. And this is going back to my Ambassador College days. My sophomore year, I was down in Big Sandy, and Roderick Merritt, this was the Provost, Deputy Chancellor, I'm not sure what they... He was in charge. And many of you remember Rod Merritt, you've heard him preach. Very dynamic, strong speaker, who tended sometimes to be given to hyperbole. And he might still be, I haven't heard him speak in a long time, but Rod Merritt, if he was talking about something, it was strong, full force. So one day, we all... all the students were gathered in what they called a forum, and he was giving a talk, similar to what I'm doing now, on maintaining our health.

And Dr. Merritt was a healthy person. He went out and ran a mile several times a week, you know, at that time, even, and he was vigorous. And he was talking about, at one point in the message, he talked about how drinking too much soda pop is giving us all these empty calories, and it's terrible the way they produce that, and he held up a can of Coke, and he said, this is an abomination! It's terrible all day, and, oh, it's an abomination! Okay, he finishes his talk by that afternoon, the campus store, where we could buy goods and such, we called it the Redwood Room, all the pop was gone from the shelves. You couldn't buy it, it was disappeared. You know, people had heard his abomination, we're getting rid of it.

The next day, Dr. Marra, him personally intervened, and he called us back together and said, I didn't, you know, and he admitted, he, you know, kind of went to an extreme to make a point, and he said, I didn't mean you should never drink any of it. You know, he intervened with the store and said, put it back on the shelves, but I want to advise you, moderate, don't drink a six-pack of Coke every day, you know, have some, like, as long as it, drink it because it's good, but let your moderation be known.

Now, to show how well something like that sticks in your memory, and remember, for me, this is, what, near 30 years ago, and I remember it very well. It was a week or two later, the choir director was giving a talk. We had forums every week, and different faculty would give us a general instruction. He was giving an instruction on how to appreciate different types of music. And he used, he was showing how there's music overall, and then there's subtypes and subtypes of that, so he wanted to use illustrations from other things. So, first he held up an orange, and he said, what is this? And somebody goes, oh, it's an orange. He said, well, it's a piece of fruit. And then, a subdivision, it's an orange. And if you want to be specific, it's a navel orange. Then he holds up an apple. What is this? So we obliged him. He said, oh, it's a fruit. What type of fruit? It's an apple. You know, it's a Macintosh apple. He holds up a bottle of wine. What is this? He wanted to lead us to say, it's a beverage. And then the type of beverage is its wine. And then he went on to a Merlot. He holds up a can of Coke, expecting us to say, this is a beverage. But when he holds up and says, what is this? In unison, all 300 of us said, abomination. And Mr. Bryant looked a little quizzical. He said, well, maybe, but I meant it's a beverage. And he went on, you know. Now, I'm telling this story partly from the humor, but also to see that one incident of Dr. Merrot's, this is an abomination. It stuck in us, and it'd be easy to just go to an extreme and say, I'll never touch this stuff. Now, that might be healthier for us than drinking a lot of it. But once again, the principle I'm getting at, let your moderation be known to all men. Balance is important. And I try to exercise that. One thing I can, if it's any, I hate to use my personal example, but I think back during the days of Unleavened Bread, I went out of my way to talk about how much I was missing ho-hos. I remember that. And it's funny, because I don't eat them all the time. After, I believe it was after the last Holy Day, Rick Shoemaker had invited Sue and I over to his house for dinner, and Daniel and Don Evans were there. We got there in his after sundown, and they came and they gave me a box of ho-hos. And I ripped it open, and I ate one right there. And I was embarrassed. It wasn't until much later, because I ate the one, and I put it away. I didn't even think to offer anybody else one. I'm embarrassed by that, but I've got the last one here. My point was, I ate one right away, but it took a couple months to get around to going through most of the box, and then the box got shoved back. I think I would have had two, but Sue ate one last week. No, you didn't. She said it was a little stale, but since I didn't think to offer Daniel and Don one, I'm going to see if they want this one this afternoon. So if you talk to them, don't tell them. But you see what? I'm making the point. Nothing wrong for me to have ho-hos as long as not today's 11 bread, but it's nice if a box will last in your cupboard for a good while. Eating one box of ho-hos in a sitting... I wonder if I've done that. When I was a teenager, and if I did, there's the bad example I could show.

So I'm making the point. Eating some sweets and processed foods isn't necessarily going to kill you. But we need to be very careful, because it's more available than we think, and we don't always know what's in there. And I also want to make the point that how much you look doesn't necessarily indicate how good your health is. I mentioned that about myself earlier. Some people have a metabolism where they can eat a box of ho-hos every day, and you won't see it, but that doesn't mean it's good for their health. And some of us can look at a candy bar on the shelf and gain a pound. I understand that. Mr. Rhodes put it so well I wanted to share this with you, because he said, you know the familiar phrase, you are what you eat? He said, well, if you are what you eat, if you eat a lot of junk food but don't gain weight, you might just be a small pile of junk rather than a large pile of junk. But it's still a junk. So, as I said, we don't go by just what we see in the mirror on the scale. Let's go to one more. While we're in Proverbs, Proverbs 23, let's read the first couple verses here. I'm going to move on beyond eating in a moment, but as I said, it's one of the most important areas, partly because of what we see in our society, and I think that's what this verse will illustrate. Proverbs 23 and verse 1, when you sit down to eat with a ruler, that's someone with power, authority, and probably a lot of money, so when you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what's before you. Put a knife to your throat if you're a man given to appetite. If you like to eat, it's better to put a knife to your throat. Do not, do not, not donut.

I'm on a roll here. Do not desire his delicacies. Why not? They are deceptive food. His delicacies are deceptive food, meaning they might look better than they are, or they might taste really good, but that doesn't mean they're good for you. There's a lot of deceptive food in society around us, and that's why it's worth noting, you know, he talks about a ruler. Back then, only the wealthy could afford what we would call royal dainties. You know, my ho-ho. I can buy a box of these for next to nothing, but 200 years ago, only very wealthy people could have these, and the very wealthy people ate too much of it, and they tended to get diabetes and gout and high blood pressure, but now even the poor among us can eat like the rulers did in Solomon's time, and if we eat too much, it's deceptive food. You know, it looks like it's better for us than it is. It tastes like it's better for us than it is. So Solomon's advice, if you're given to appetite, you know, hopefully you don't need to put a knife to your throat, but remember that it's deceptive food. And I'm saying this to me and to you, because I like ho-hos, and I would eat too many of them if I have the opportunity. So what should we eat?

Now, the Bible tells us some things not to, but we have to look elsewhere. You know, and science, and I think common sense, does tell us a lot. Many of you remember the four food groups, and then they replaced that with the food pyramid, which never made as much sense to me. But we need to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. And the fresher the better. Bread has been called the staff of life. Grains should be a major part of our diet, and I think most of you know that. And whole grains are better than highly processed ones, where they take a lot of the nutrients out.

And I say that I know it's true, but it's hard to get those. Some dairy is good, but within limits, and of course, some people can eat more than others. Our body needs certain oils, but not animal fat. God tells us, and we might not know that if He didn't tell us, but stay away from the animal fat. So for your oils, olive oil is good. I mean, that's the one I know of. There's plenty of examples in the Bible. Some are better than others. Stay away from, you know, the more natural, the better.

I know that I'm thinking, I'm looking at Mrs. Huffman, because she pointed out canola is supposedly pretty bad for you. But I think peanut oil is not so bad. I know because Liz Smith left us half a bottle when she moved. She didn't want to take it. I keep saying, we're going to use this.

Let's also consider our bodies need plenty of water. It's easy to overlook, and I guess because I've done a lot of athletic training, water, water, water. We're going to do a lot of research at summer camp. Mr. Cole, were they preaching that at Pinecrest all bet? Hydrate. Many people in our nation around us are going around partially dehydrated, meaning they're not about to fall over, but there's not enough, not as much water in their system as they need.

And our bodies use water for a lot of things. It helps us process impurities and move them out. So, I mean, to be blunt, and I don't want to be crass, but we should be drinking enough water in the bathroom on a regular basis and that it's comfortable to do so. Now, you need a lot of water for that. Oh, let's look on also another subject. If you'll turn to Ecclesiastes, we're still near there, Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7, I want to read. This is another scripture I'm taking out of context, but I think the principle is very good.

Here's Solomon. He's talking about what makes for a happy life, and he says, Go, eat your bread with joy. Drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has accepted your works. Now, this reminds us again that bread is the staff of life, and it's so common that bread in many places in the Bible refers to just food in general. You know, give us this day our daily bread can refer to giving us our daily food, but bread should be a major part of that.

But he also says, drink your wine with joy. But wine is one of those things, or alcohol in general, this brings up, that needs to be done in moderation. And sometimes severe moderation. I'm not sure if... is that an oxymoron? Severe moderation. But you know what I'm getting at it? Alcohol, like honey, can be good in small amounts, but very bad for us if overused, and bad for us in different ways than the honey. I'm just going to cite some scriptures without turning to them, but Judges 9 and verse 13 refers to wine and says, wine cheers the heart of God and men.

In 1 Timothy 4, verse 8, Paul told Timothy, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake, and you're often infirmities. So wine, you know, a little alcohol can help us. But 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 10 says, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. So the principles apply... well, like I said, I wanted to make this more about maintaining our health.

Obviously, too much alcohol can be detrimental to your health. And to be honest, too little doesn't hurt your health. That's something that it's nice to have it, but you can do fine without it, but having too much of it can kill you. But these principles can apply to other things that we call drugs as well. That if used moderately can be good, but if not moderately can be bad. Caffeine fits that category. It's a drug, and here's where I have to hold my hand up. You know, I love coffee. And there are occasions when I'll start to drink too much of it, and I have to pull myself back. Studies show that drinking coffee regularly can have some health benefits, but too much can have health detriments.

And the obvious ones, it can make you jittery and nervous, and I don't know if it pushes you to paranoia. I know it can be hard on your kidneys and bladder. It can increase your blood pressure and things like that. And of course, too much caffeine makes it hard to sleep. And sleep is another important element of health that we'll come to in a few moments. And of course, I know in my case, if I drink too much coffee, then come the evening I feel like I need to calm down, so I'll want to have a drink of wine. And too much coffee can lead to too much alcohol, and both of them can disrupt your sleep. So we want to be moderate. Moderate use of caffeine, moderate use of alcohol if you use it at all, moderate in our sugar intake. And of course, there are some substances straying from diet, but there are some things that there isn't much of a moderate use. And I think of tobacco, first of all.

I don't know of any studies that have shown that used moderately or in small amounts tobacco does any good. Even in small amounts, it's harmful to our bodies. And that's why we teach, even though the Scripture doesn't address it, we say God doesn't want us to harm our bodies. Stay away from it. Now, there are some types of opiates or narcotics that can be used for medicinal purposes in small amounts, but they always have some countervailing health detriments.

And so I would say, well, luckily our society controls the use of them, and we should never violate any of those laws using something that society puts off limits. As Christians, if we simply obey the laws of the land on prescription drugs, we'll be better... Well, obviously we shouldn't disobey them, but it's better to err on the side of taking less rather than more.

I always say it's good to use prescription drugs only as much as necessary for a particular problem and try to get away from them. And remember, there are other treatments. And I'm not wanting to do a commercial for the herbalists in the congregation, but there are a lot of substances that God put in plants that can help us. And, you know, if you can talk to others about that...

But it's good to remember what we put in our bodies is very important, and we want to be careful. But now let's talk a little bit about what we do with our bodies. I mentioned earlier that studies show that the biggest threats to health in America seem to be too much food and too little exercise. Well, if we exercise moderation in our diet, moderate exercise would also be very good.

One of the main reasons we have this problem in the United States is that our society and the way our economy works have turned us into a society where sitting is the dominant posture. And it's been a month or two ago. While I was driving down to Pressensburg for services, I was listening to National Public Radio, which I listened to that on the Sabbath, and usually not other days because it's calm.

But they were having an expert who just published a book about how sitting has become our dominant posture, and the Industrial Revolution had a major impact on that. Because for people to work effectively in factories, they needed to get them to hold still. And so they would try to develop the process in machines so that you stayed in one place, and sometimes even sitting.

And now we've developed machines. Of course, we sit at desks on computers, and I do that. You sit there and you type, and they've developed so you move as little as possible so that you're more productive, but it's not good for your body. God made us to need to move. Now, you all know, you've heard me make references, that I'm a runner.

I run regularly, I've run some marathons, so I want to encourage exercise. And my tendency is to say, yes, exercise, but that needs to be in moderation. It might be more important when I talk to the teenagers and the others this afternoon, because I've found when I train for a marathon, I'm pushing... I think my preparation gets right up to the limit of being extreme. And maybe some would say it's over, because I'll usually give myself three or four months to prepare, and so I gradually increase what I'm doing, and that last month, it takes a lot of time.

And I think it's unbalanced. That's why I don't do it once, but once every four, five, or six years, because, you know, even one month out of five years where you're spending that much time at something, it's a little rough. But I remember it might have been the last one I ran.

You know, it's funny, you hear some conversations at times. You're running along, and people are talking. There was this fellow mentioning how he had already run, I think, eight marathons that summer, and he was running one a week all summer. But that doesn't seem balanced to me. That's not so good. There's other important things to do. But the same could be said for working out in a gym. You know, if you're in the gym all the time, and you're starting to look like the Incredible Hulk, maybe you're spending a little more time than you need. It would be good to ask, how much is too much? And I know, like I said, we've got the seniors in the audience.

Most of you aren't spending hours and hours in the gym, I don't think. But one of the principles I think of, they say, ask yourself, why are you doing it this much? Is it for your health? Or so you can get people to go, look at me! Look at these big bulging biceps. You know, moderation. Matter of fact, let's turn to Timothy 4 and verse 8 to see the biblical perspective, rather than just me telling you what I think. First Timothy 4 and verse 8, Paul says to Timothy, Bodily exercise profits a little.

And some translations say, profits for a little while, but godliness is profitable for all things. So there's a principle. We need to take care of our bodies, and we need to have exercise in moderation. We need to be up and moving a certain amount. But we don't need to do it to an extreme. We need to remember godliness. It profits all the time. There needs to be a balance between sitting all day and being in a gym or running and working out all day. And I've heard it said so many times from experts, and I'm not citing any particular studies, but walking, they say, is one of the best forms of exercise.

Not running and damaging your knees and your joints, not lifting a lot of weights, but walking. Walk fairly briskly, move your arms, and breathe deeply. That'll exercise your heart and lungs, and it does just a wonderful benefit. Three times a week, for 20 or 30 minutes, they say, is really sufficient exercise. A little more isn't bad, but just walking is good.

So if I'm going to go on record for anything, I'm not going to say train for a marathon, I'm not going to say do push-ups and pull-ups, but I will say walking is good for us. And I believed this before, but having watched Connor learn how to walk over the course of the last year and a half just cemented in my mind that God designed us to get up on our own two legs. It's amazing how it just happens automatically.

Sue and I had no idea how to teach Connor how to walk, but we didn't have to. God taught him how. It's built in. And it's natural for us to be up and move. Not all the time. He also made other parts of our body for sitting, and we should use those, too, in moderation.

Well, let's move on. As I said, I spent most of the time on diet, some on exercise, and there are some other necessary things that I wanted to throw in to try to make it well-rounded. One of the biggest is getting enough sleep. Another one is managing stress and then avoiding sickness or injury. And I'm going to come back and deal with all three of these just briefly.

And as I said, I acknowledge that I'm speaking to a crowd that is knowledgeable in all of these things, but it's not bad to review occasionally. As I said, Mr. Rhodes gave us in the ministry a good talking to about how we need to not just know these things, but do them. And I thought, well, Frank, it's good for you to share that, and maybe if I write on it, it'll make me do it more. So part of this is encouragement for me more than it is for you.

But it's become common knowledge in our society that we don't get enough sleep. It's getting more and more common. I recently was reading an article talking about different types of mattresses, and it cited a study that said 60% of Americans, that's more than half, suffer some type of insomnia. That's kind of sad. Way more than half of us aren't getting enough sleep. And modern technology is a big part of that, but other things factor in. Now, the curious part is how much is enough, and they've done studies also to show it's different for different people. I personally get along very well on seven hours sleep a night. If I sleep more than that, I start getting sore, I feel out of sorts. If I sleep very much less, I also don't feel well. Now, Sue needs closer to eight hours. I've known people who six hours is very good for, but I also know some people. I've got a friend who really likes to sleep nine hours and doesn't function as well without. I think she'd sleep 10 or 12 if she had the chance. And that's the way it is for some people. But what I'll say is, however much sleep you need, try to get that much, because it affects all kinds of different parts of your health. It's not just the grogginess the next day. And as I said, modern technology is our enemy at getting enough sleep. Research shows that people sleep best if they turn off their television an hour before bedtime. And I'm guilty. I usually fall asleep on the couch with the TV on, and Sue will say, Come on, you need to go to bed. But we'll sleep better if we turn off the electronic gadgets. What is it that's making us not get enough sleep? A lot of times it's the TV. Something's more interesting. Or the computer. Or the fact that we've been engaging in those, and they affect our brain in a certain way that makes it harder for it to get to sleep afterwards. Other things that can disrupt our sleep. Of course, too much food too late can make it difficult to sleep. Too much caffeine is an obvious one, but it surprised me when I was studying that, you know, too much alcohol. And how much is too much varies for different people. I know sometimes Sue will have a glass of wine with dinner, and it'll disrupt her sleep. And it's, you know, one glass at dinner. That's hardly, you know, going on a binge. But if you learn that alcohol affects your sleep, then you need to be careful with it.

On the other hand, of course, and I'm not going to turn to all these places because I think you know that Solomon, many places in Proverbs, talked about the dangers of too much sleep. You know, and of the slothful man that won't even raise his hand to his mouth to eat because he's so lazy, or, you know, he's like a hinge on a door turning over in his bed. We don't want to go to that extreme. You know, our moderation should be known to all in how much we sleep as well as how much we eat.

And let's, if you will, turn to Psalm 127. I do want to look at a couple of scriptures about this. Psalm 127. And we'll read verse 2.

The last part of this, actually, I remembered this is in one of our hymns, as I think the end of one of the stanzas. And it's been about a year and a half or two years. No, it couldn't have been two years ago.

I gave a sermonette based on the scripture up in Columbus because after Connor came along, I learned the truth of this. Psalm 127 verse 2 says, It's vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrow. So it's vain for you to not get enough sleep. For so he gives his beloved sleep, that he is God. God gives to those he loves sleep. Sleep is a gift from God. I think it's worth us remembering that. It's not an inconvenience. And when we're young, we think of that. At least I did. I don't know how many times I thought, Man, seven or eight hours a day, I'm not doing anything? If I could just eliminate that, think how much better off I'd be. It doesn't work that way. We need sleep. God made it that way. So it's not going against God's way. It's sleep is a gift to be treasured and treated properly. Let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 12.

Here Solomon writes on the subject, he says, The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, But the abundance of the rich won't permit him to sleep. So this ties into my earlier point. Exercise, being somewhat active, helps you to sleep better, and both will benefit your health.

But stress, worrying about stuff, says the abundance of the rich, it's not because he has so much money in the bank and that keeps him awake, it's because he's thinking about it and he's worrying about it. That can take away your sleep. And of course, it leads to the other subject I wanted to address, and that's stress. Stress, worry, and anxiety are bad for our mental health, but they're also bad for our physical health. Science has found a clear link to a person's mental state and their health, and there are a lot of what we call modern diseases that are linked to health. You know, hypertension, high blood pressure, heart disease, esophageal reflux, which is funny. What is it? Gastroesophageal reflux disease, they call GERD, and there are other causes, but one of the big ones is just stress. Our stomach's churning and it comes up and it starts eating away. I've seen it in the commercials. It eats away the lining of your esophagus, right? So take this little pill. You know, if you have to take the little pill to save your esophagus, okay, but better to reduce the stress. Proverbs 17 and verse 22, let's go back there. Oh, yeah, and I read over on my notes. I had various what they call autoimmune disorders, where our immune system starts malfunctioning and attacking. Stress can play a major factor in that. Other things can play a factor, but we need to learn to calm down. And that's where this can play in. Proverbs 17 and verse 22, A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. A merry heart, if we just will have a good frame of mind, works as well, Solomon says, as actual medicine.

But a broken spirit, if we're down, if we're depressed, if we're stressed out, it's affecting our physical health.

Now, medical science agrees with Solomon in saying that stress is killing us. Now, they suggest different ways to deal with it. They say, go see a psychologist in council, which isn't always bad. They want to prescribe drugs like Prozac and Xanax and others. My grandmother actually took Xanax. They're not bad in every case. Sometimes these things are good, but there are other things we should try first if we can. And two or three months ago, I'm losing track, but I gave a sermon a little while back on peace as one of the fruits of the spirit. Psalm 119 verse 165 tells us, Great peace have those who obey God's law. Living God's way is one of the best ways to have that peace of mind. If we're living by His law, we have that confidence of where we're going. Even if we're persecuted in this life, that focusing on the world tomorrow can help bring us to peace. Let's also remember 1 John 4 verse 18. I believe we read this during the sermonette, but it's worth turning back there because it's such a valuable bit of Scripture.

And if you wrote it down in the sermonette, you can just make a reference. I'll read it. It says, there's no fear in love, and that fear can include the anxiety or the stress that comes from worrying about things. But there's no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he loved us, and of course God is love. So obeying God and trusting Him can help push those fears out. Now, I'm not saying that we'll be like someone who is drugged up and we never think or worry about anything. We're still human, but we want to put our minds on the higher plane of existence and knowing what's ahead. And I'll mention there are other natural stress relievers. You know, that's an ongoing state of obeying God, but if you just have stress come up, one way that I like to use to relieve it is exercise. Getting back to doing it in moderation, but I've had times where I'm just really stressed out. I put on my running shoes and go out for a run, and it works wonders, helping me to calm down and see things in perspective. If you're not into that, perhaps a good hobby. Something to engage in. I was amazed at summer camp this year, we had an arts and crafts activity, and we made Pinewood Derby cars. And I understand that Portsmouth, if you've done that here, is an activity. I think maybe we should revive that sometime in the future. Because I sat down with that piece of wood, and I was sanding and thinking... I was just...a lot of the stress of being a camp director kind of faded away while I was working on that little project. No, you know, whatever your hobby, it could be gardening, painting, things like that can be good. Reading a good story or watching a funny movie. Laughter is one of the best things. Laughter does work like medicine and relieves that stress. Or sometimes just relaxing with friends and loved ones, as long as they're not the ones causing the stress. I thought of that, you know, talking to your family, but sometimes your family are the ones stressing you out, and you need to find someone else to spend time with. But, you know, as I said, I don't think I have to give every possible solution. I'm just planting the seeds. You all know these things, and you know, okay, if the stress is getting too high, if you know what works for you to relieve it, make sure you go and do those things. Don't let it build up. And let me mention a couple of other obvious things to do to promote good health. One, of course, is practicing good hygiene and sanitation. Now, that's common in our society. I don't have to tell you that, you know, you don't urinate in your drinking water or things like that. Like, we do have to go into some countries and teach them that. But we can all get careless sometimes about washing our hands enough. My thought is, if your mom taught it to you as far as cleanliness, it's probably a good idea. Wash your hands. If you get a cut, wash it properly and bandage it. I was bad about that as a kid. I've told Sue I used to crash on my bike and then sneak into the house before my mom would see it, put band-aids on it. And I didn't always clean properly. Or when you're playing football, the coach said, well, rub dirt on it. Well, rubbing dirt on it really technically isn't the best way to deal with a scrape. You know, you don't want to rub some tetanus in there. You want to wash it and bandage it properly.

I don't know. When Conner gets the age, I might have to teach him. Sometimes rubbing dirt on some things. Maybe a bruise would be okay. And of course, there's the biblical practice of quarantine. Now that we understand germs and viruses, we know they can be passed around. Avoid people that have them. And if you have one, of course, don't go around other people. We remind people of that, especially at the Feast of Tabernacles, when large numbers of us come together. There are times if you have a cold, keep it to yourself. Spread other things, but not colds or viruses. So we want to practice those principles. And of course, I mentioned two things. Sanitation and good hygiene, and then avoiding accidents. I feel guilty. I see Mr. McFahan here. Usually you have an accident. It is an accident. Nobody intends to trip and fall or hurt themselves. But it's good for us to think that, well, let's not do careless things. And again, I put that in my notes thinking of the younger part of the crowd. When I was young, I did some silly things. I was talking to Kevin Call yesterday as we were tying, putting up those tarps. I said, yeah, I remember when I was younger, I'd put the rope in my teeth and be shinnying up the tree. Well, that wasn't very safe. Much better to have a ladder and someone holding it. Exercise those precautions. Don't do the crazy stuff that I did as a kid. So let's recap all of this. Maintaining health should be a pretty simple thing. And it gets unnecessarily complex sometimes when it shouldn't. God has given us our physical bodies, and He expects us to take care of them partly for the process of developing godly character. Now, there are a lot of subprinciples in that. The biggest thing to remember is moderation. Moderation and balance. We need to eat a good balanced diet, eat enough of what you should and none of what you shouldn't, but don't have too much of anything. Likewise, get some exercise, but don't turn into a bodybuilding fanatic. Just being active, walking regularly enough will help. And at the right time in the evening, turn off the electronic gadgets and get enough sleep. Do the things that your mom probably taught you from the beginning. Wash your hands, take care of cuts, avoid spreading germs, and add to all of that the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you're one of God's chosen ones. You've got an advantage that most people don't have. God chose you. And of course, we understand that He can and does heal us. And I didn't want to make this a sermon about healing because that's a whole other subject, but we have a higher principle involved. We have the hope of eternal life in God's kingdom. So we need to do our part, and we need to be healthy. Now, I've got a prayer request brought up. Let me read this. Jonathan McLathlin, 28-year-old. This is Artis McFann's great-grandson. The father is in the hospital. Am I reading that correctly? The great-grandson's father is in the hospital and needs a heart transplant. It is in congestive heart failure. And only 10% of the heart is working, so let's please pray for God's mercy. So that's Artis McFann's great-grandson's father. And so that's something we want to be praying about. Obviously, congestive heart failure is a very serious thing. As I said, we want to do all we can to maintain our health, but we also need to appeal to God for his intervention when we need that. So thank you all, and let's be praying.