Welcome to the Further Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn, and this is episode three of a series that I've titled Reset. We've talked about reset for your mind. We've talked about reset for your schedule. Today, I want to talk about reset for your health. Now, personally, I don't think pastors talk about this enough, and it might be for two reasons that we avoid this. Number one, we're afraid to offend people because we separate body and health from theology. And the same man who is fearless to tell people about heaven and hell might be afraid to talk to people about obesity as sin. It can feel so personal, I think, for pastors to do this because of body image issues and social rules that say it's, well, it's mean to call out obesity. And of course, we're not talking about obesity that's related to chronic illness or disability. We know that in today's world there's hormones and bodies and challenges, and people deal with certain issues and they carry more weight than they'd like to. And it's not that they're just lazy gluttons. But pastors need to be able to deal with this. And I want to make an argument in this episode that the way that your body is treated, your health, your fitness, all of that is actually spiritual and it's not detached from the spiritual. Now, the second reason that pastors might avoid this topic is because we ourselves are out of shape or obese or unhealthy. In fact, one of my main issues with my own kind, and I have fallen into this in the early years of ministry. I was putting on a lot of weight and I was an athlete in college and I always prioritized health and fitness. And then I got into ministry and I did it at the beginning and I was strong and felt good. And then all of a sudden I started eating the ministry stress and sort of just losing motivation. And I was like, what is what has happened to me? The simple truth is this we in ministry get fat often. There's a lot of pastors that are obese and that are overweight. And it's because we eat the stress of ministry and we use food to find our comfort. And honestly, we we pound food at potlucks and we call it fellowship, and it's all spiritual, but we don't push weight in the gym. And I have no issue with a man who has a ferocious appetite. I've got a ferocious appetite myself, but if you're gonna eat, you gotta lift. And if you're gonna eat, you need to eat for the right reason and not to fill yourself with comfort and because you're stress eating. And you got to fill your body with the right foods, whole foods, quality ingredients, not Doritos and Gatorade. Because your body, as a pastor, if you're listening to this, is a part of your spiritual life. That's for everybody. There's a spiritual conversation that we need to have. God created your body, he inhabits it as a temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And we know this theologically, God has sovereignly numbered our days. Yes and amen. Not eating Doritos or eating Doritos is not gonna shorten your life or extend it, since God, the Bible says, has numbered each and every one of our days. But that's not an out. I think a lot of pastors and people use that as a spiritualized excuse. You can't use the sovereignty of God in numbering your days to say, well, I can eat whatever I want. Who cares if I'm fat or if I'm obese? Because how you treat your temple is how effective you'll be with the days he has sovereignly numbered for you. So do you want to be 60 years old and running and gunning, or do you want to be 60 years old and in a hospital all the time? Do you want to be ministering to the max with your days, loving your family and serving the church with health and energy, or do you want to be stumbling towards the finish line, falling flat just before it, realizing, well, now I'm immobilized. I'm still alive because God has sovereignly numbered my days, and yet I'm not in good health. I want to start with a passage that a lot of people are familiar with in viewing the body as a temple. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 says, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? Now, verse 18 says, flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside his body, but the immoral man sins against his body. Verse 20, for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your body. The context here is fleeing sexual sin, sexual immorality, and stewarding your body in a way that honors God. When you take it at face value, here's the simple principle: your body is a temple. So no, don't use it for sexual immorality, but also no, don't abuse it in all of these other ways. The passage that we often refer to when we're talking about not looking at porn or not being sexually immoral is tied to a timeless principle. Your body belongs to God. Your body is not your God. It's a gift from God, it's a tool for God, but it's also not your identity. It's a stewardship entrusted to you by God as you live out your identity in Him. And so we don't want the body to become an idol and we're obsessed over our fitness and we're obsessed with ourselves and how we look. That's vanity. But also, we don't say, well, that's just referring to sexual sin. And so, you know, I can be obese, my body's still a temple, the Holy Spirit's in me. No, you could be in sin. Also, I want you to think about this from the standpoint of being effective with your life. You get one body, one mind, and one life. The question is not, you know, will I live forever and can I extend my days and all these people? There's a company out here in Scottsdale, I pastor in Arizona, that'll freeze your body after death, just in case they come up with technology to bring you back. Look, you're not coming back. It's appointed to a man wants to die and then comes judgment. The question is simply this: will you faithfully steward what God has given you while you're here? Your body, your mind, your time, all of it. So let me give you three practical ways to reset your health and to think about your body in a biblical way. This is good. This is my lane. I am a pastor. Maybe some people get bothered and say, stay out of this, just stick to theology, Costi. No, we need to talk about this because it's actually theological. Obesity is a theological issue, especially for Christians. And for our kind, brother, if you're watching this and you are bothered by what I'm saying and you're a pastor, it matters for you too. And I remember Vodi Bacum always saying, if you can't say amen, well, at least say ouch. That's true. We need to talk about this. Number one, feed your body like it matters. Feed your body like it matters. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard came from a Christian physician. He said he starts every patient with the same prescription: food, exercise, and sleep. People are depressed, people are obese, people are mentally drained, people are exhausted, they have chronic exhaustion, they have sleep apnea, they have all these issues. He starts with food, exercise, and sleep. Those three medications. Before you ever pop a pill, look at your food, look at your exercise, look at your sleep. You know, I'll give you a personal example. This week, I was gassed by Wednesday. It's a Thursday right now. I'm recording this for you. And I was done. Wednesday, I text my wife early. I said, Sweetheart, I am absolutely exhausted. Don't know why. So I'm gonna lift this evening. It was early evening. I said, I'm gonna lift. I'm gonna hit the sauna and go to a buddy's house where he is a sauna in a good gym in his garage. I'm gonna hit the sauna, do some red light, and then I'm coming home to eat clean. I'll take our boy to practice. One of our boys had a practice for the sport he's playing right now, and then I'm I'd I just need some rest. And she said, I'll have everything ready. She had the house so clean. She was so sweet, went the extra mile, had dinner ready, and I was in bed. I was in my bed. It was like 8:15 p.m. And I woke up this morning, ready to run and gun. And I was in the gym at 6 a.m., had a great lift, started work at home, I was in my office there, and then shot over to our church office and was doing a bunch of stuff. And I have all this energy and I was laughing with her earlier, and I said, sweetheart, I counted how many meetings I had for the first few days, the first 48 hours. And I started listing wall, and I got to have a great meeting with one of the young men in our church. He's 16, 17-year-old, doing a big speech debate. So he wanted some coaching, and then met with another brother who's going through it. Met with another brother who's newer to the church and wrestling with church membership and what it means. And so all, and then staff and elders, we had a deacon meeting, we had our small group. And so you just, I looked and I thought, oh, that's why I was so tired. I said, sweetheart, I I've had three late nights in a row. We've had I've had nine meetings in two days. I no wonder I'm so gassed and I haven't been sleeping. It's been a few days. And so I got sleep and I felt like a new man. And I'm reminded, even in my own life, and I would say that I have a pretty good work-life balance. I'm in my home for dinner with my family most nights of the week. And as busy as life in ministry can be, when priority is in order and you're sleeping and your food is good. You know, I'm blessed to have a wife who cooks. She made me a great meal. I ate pretty clean last night. It's chicken breast meal, these rice bowls, and she had cilantro in there and uh carrots and all that. And I and so with good food and some sleep and a little bit of exercise, I felt like a new man. It's not hard. You don't have to be on TRT, you don't have to be a super athlete, you don't need a nutritionist, you don't need your own chef. Some of us, you just need to sleep, or you just need to move and get out, or you just need to change the way you're eating. Most Americans are overfed but undernourished. We consume plenty of calories, but not enough nutrition. So, as a general rule, you try to get closer to a food as God made it. Whole foods, this is simple. That's usually what's going to be better for your body. A lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of eggs, a lot of nuts, good dairy, lower the processed food intake, foods that are rich in protein, foods that are healthy fats, certain oils that are natural, like olive oil versus seed oils, your cooking spray that, you know, Pam, because, you know, well, that's what we've always done. Like, look at what you're consuming. It might help. A lot of those dyes that are in drinks like Gatorade can really offset the body's normal function. You think you gotta think about the vitamins you're taking in, nutrients. You know, your body was designed by God. This is spiritual, theological. He designed your body to take in certain types of food and then function as a result. It doesn't mean you can never eat dessert. It doesn't mean you need to become obsessive. It doesn't mean you're now in bondage to food and you can't ever go out and eat anything. But if your diet is built on processed foods, sugary drinks, and convenience meals, you eat out a lot and you don't eat healthy, and you're not sleeping well, and you're not able to identify where in certain weeks you need to slow down and you're not exercising, brother or sister, when your energy crashes, your focus is gonna suffer, your mind is gonna suffer, and your health is gonna decline. And that is a spiritual issue because it's gonna affect you spiritually and mentally. And so if you want to reset your health, start really simple. Eat a high amount of protein at every meal. Look at the kind of fats you're taking in. It's okay to eat some fat. Make sure it's good fat. Drink more water, fewer sugary drinks. Honestly, just cut them out altogether. Uh, learn, if you like coffee, learn to drink coffee black or with less refined sugar. Learn to use agave or honey or other aspects to sweeten something versus just putting white sugar on everything. Build most meals around whole foods. Eat out less, cut out seed oils, replace things like, you know, your classic oils like canola oil with olive oil. Get rid of fake products. Look in your pantry, look in your fridge, look at ultra-processed foods, go back to real butter or raw cheese. If you're not allergic to certain types of dairy, you know, go back to what's natural or what's whole and stop treating food primarily as entertainment. We eat a lot for fun. Start looking at it in terms of function. Do some research. Talk to a nutritionist, get your blood work checked, go to one of those companies or do uh one of those telehealth companies, it'll come to you. Supplement as needed. You need as part of a healthy reset to look at your body as a temple. And that's not just fleeing sexual sin. It's getting honest that I can be full of the Holy Spirit and also fat and gluttonous and be completely in sin. It's not God's will, especially for pastors who stand in the pulpit each week and preach discipline and worship and a life devoted to God. And then we eat like gluttons. We're massively obese. I'm not talking about having a little belly or your pants get a little tighter because you're getting older. Like, it's not, you're not called to be a fitness model. You don't need to have your biceps popping in the pulpit, but it's just being a man who's generally under control. It's unacceptable. It's sinful. And sometimes we get really sensitive about this in ministry and we make it so personal. Look, the truth is it's not personal. We've misdefined the sin of obesity as something personal. It's not. It's public and everyone's looking at it, especially with pastors. And they're hearing us preach the word, and they're having a really hard time saying, he eats a lot of food. He must stay up late. You don't get that obese from just sitting in your office and studying all day. I don't care how long you're in the Holy of Holies for. You must go home and eat mac and cheese and Doritos and hot dogs. You've got to be pounding food that is just putting on the pounds. This is a conversation I'm willing to have conflict over. I'm willing to have people not like it. I don't want you in the comments getting angry about it. I'd rather have a conversation. But the truth is, we got to get honest here. We have to stop spiritualizing away the sin of obesity, not just for pastors, but people. Maybe you have a health issue, and I want to give credence to that. There are people who carry water weight or can't lose weight because of hormones and because of their body and chronic illness. And that is not what we're talking about, of course. We can't just feed our appetites with whatever we want. We got to remember the way we eat is fueling the way we serve God, the way we lead our families, the way we focus at work, and the way we enjoy life. So feed your body like it matters, my brother and my sister. Number two, move your body like it was designed. So feed your body like it matters. Move your body like it was designed. God made you for movement. The reason why there's not a lot of instruction in the Bible, there's the sin of gluttony in those things that are addressed, but there's not a lot of instruction about exercise is because they moved all the time. There really was not anything like the obesity we see today. If there was, it was fat kings stuffing their faces all day, and that meant they were rich because they had access to lots of rich foods. But the average person, most people, I mean, you could even look at photos from the 1920s and 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s in America, and you can't find a lot of obese people in the picture. Obviously, big pharma and a lot of the health uh orbit of business in our country has basically been shoved to the side, and in comes the food industry to maximize revenue and minimize expenses. So food is fake, ingredients are garbage, yes, but you also had people moving a lot, not simply being entertained to death. And Paul makes this statement in 1 Timothy 4, verse 8. He says, for bodily discipline is only of little profit. Some translations say of some benefit, but godliness is profitable for all things. And that is true. And so what you get though is people who focus on the spiritual side. Yeah, Costi, you know, we don't need to be worried about a lot of this exercise stuff. You know, Paul says bodily discipline is only of some benefit, but you know, godliness, oh, that is profitable for all things. So we focus on spiritual growth. We tell people stop obsessing over your muscles and your health and your body, and we create a false dichotomy. First of all, yes, some people should stop idolizing their fitness and ignoring their spiritual growth. We don't need you posting every day with your shirt off or whatever outfit you're wearing that's a modest to show how you got it, girl, or how you got it, bro. That's awesome. So glad that you're very fit. If you're married, man, save that, go have a blast with your husband or your wife, enjoy your body. Okay. Health is good, but some people idolize their body. At the same time, we don't need to pit one against the other. And so now the person who's not in shape, who's poor, uh, who's in poor health, who doesn't discipline their body, is like, well, I focus on my relationship with the Lord, so I don't have a lot of time to worry about my abs. You've created a false dichotomy as well. Notice that Paul does not say bodily discipline has no value. He said it has some value, just godliness is greater. But physical stewardship still matters. So your goal doesn't need to be, I want to look like a fitness model or a bodybuilder, unless you're a Christian bodybuilder. Though hard workouts should still be the norm. Start somewhere. Start moving like God intended. The goal is to be a faithful steward of your body. Now, most health experts recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week. That is 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That's that's walking or a number of other exercises. I made a little list here. If you're watching this on YouTube, these will be on the screen. If you're listening as you maybe work out or go on a walk or do some house chores or drive, you'll hear these. But first, walk. I already said it. Take a walk. Second, ride a bike. Third, lift some weights. Fourth, swim. Fifth, you can play a recreational sport. Join a men's soccer team. Join a men's hockey league. If you love hockey, great, great cardio, great for your legs, great for your heart. Uh, join a men's softball league. Get out, do something. Join a pickleball league. There's so many things you can do to just get active. What about a mountain hike? Go find a trail. Doesn't need to be strenuous, but go find something to do. Rowing. I mean, there I was on Facebook Marketplace a number of months ago hunting for a rower. I wanted a rower in my garage. And there were ones for so cheap. People just getting rid of them. I met one guy one time, bought a treadmill, put that in my garage too. Guy practically gave it to me. I was gonna buy it off him. And it drove out. He was getting a divorce and he said, Look, man, I, you know, a beautiful house. It was out in Paradise Valley, out here in Scottsdale, one of the highest, wealthiest zip codes around. I drive all the way out there with a buddy in his truck to buy this treadmill from this guy. End up ministering to him, talking to him. He tells me he's getting divorced. I didn't tell him I'm a pastor or anything like that. Just used my faith and was talking to him. And dude's breaking down. And he's like, you know what? Honestly, I don't even need the money. Obviously, you see the kind of house I live in. You promise you're gonna use it. Like, this is gonna be something. I said, absolutely. He said, please just take it. Like, I don't even care. We bought this treadmill, never even used it. Our marriage fell apart. Man, all of this is just going. And I got it. You can find things on Facebook Marketplace for next to free and put it in your garage. And now your 30 minutes of rowing, you can do an exercise class. Maybe you say, I don't like being alone, Costi. I like, I need people, I need community. Go to an exercise class. Go to one of those gyms that you can be around a bunch of people with you. And if you're a lady, you get one of those ladies' ones, or maybe you want to do some Pilates. That's a real popular one around here. There's like Pilates places everywhere, and the ladies go and hang out and they do their Pilates. And uh great. You can't say you don't have time though. A lot of men I know, a lot of men in our church, they work 60, 70, some of them 80 hours a week as pastors. We're busy, we get after it. But you still manage to spend most evenings with your wife and kids. You can still get up early and go to the gym. If you don't sit there and doom scroll till 11:30 or midnight, you can wake up early and get after it. This is where I want to challenge us all, me included. What you desire, you will eventually do. If you want to maximize the days God has given you, then move your body like it was designed to. If you want to be healthier, do something about it. And one area that Christians often overlook as a part of their effectiveness in ministry, this is spiritual, as we age, is strength. Muscle becomes increasingly important. Strength helps prevent injury, it improves your balance, it'll support your metabolism, it'll enable you to stay active longer. And that will help you serve your family and stay engaged in ministry and have a strong mind. Now, to the everyday person here, I want to talk to you. That is something you can do and should do. And you can serve your church and you can get after it all the more with your life and make it count. You'll be better at work as a Christian worker. If you're a pastor or you're a ministry wife or you're in the ministry in some level, I want to challenge you here as well. It's not that shocking anymore. It shouldn't be that shocking to see ministers with energy getting after it, ministering to their church, winning at home, in decent shape, and around the community, and maybe traveling here and there once in a while. It's not that shocking. It always bothers me a little bit when people uh, you know, say to my wife or I, like, oh, it must be so exhausting. You know, Costi just he's got the church and for the gospel and go travel sometimes. Like he must never be around, or you guys just must be so tired all the time, especially with six kids. And we just stare at people and go, no, I mean it's busy, but no, life is pretty good. And I can show you my calendar and go, hey, look, I'm at home most nights a week around my table. I got energy. It's not because I'm I'm supernaturally gifted with some extra energy. It's because we prioritize what we eat, when we eat, how we live, exercise, and our temple so that we can maximize serving the Lord. I don't think Paul the Apostle was like that crazy. I think Paul the Apostle was just a get after it kind of guy. And there's a reason why he used illustrations like the farmer, the athlete, the soldier. I got a dear brother on our staff, his name is Dustin. He is our uh children's ministry uh director, heads up family ministry in that area, but he also works full-time. He's in federal service and he was in the military. He's a Marine for a number of years. He's got a bunch of kids, they homeschool. He doesn't live like right next to where the church is, and kind of the same mentality. And I I talked to him about it recently, and I was asking him, you know, some questions and going, what is it? I mean, you lift, you get after it, you're winning at home, your wife likes you, she likes the ministry, your kids love the church, they love you. Like, you what, what, what's your mentality? Like, talk to me. He's like, Oh, I remember a mentor of mine when I was getting out of the military gave me a secret to success. He said, No offense to civilians, but here's the deal a lot of people in this world are lazy. And one thing the military teaches you is to get after it with the time you have. And they'll think it's so special. Oh, you must, oh, because you're in the military. Oh, but he said, it's actually just being a normal, hardworking guy. You'll separate yourself from the average civilian. If you just show up on time, work hard, don't complain, and get after it, you'll make yourself look extraordinarily different, even though all those things are normal in life. He said, it the bottom line is most people just don't show up, they don't discipline their time, and they don't get after it. If you just do a good job and don't complain, you'll be different. And I think there's a conversation to be had when it comes to our health with that same attitude in mind. It's not that shocking to be effective and busy in ministry. It's not that special to be able for one of us to go travel and do a conference on a Friday, fly back on a Saturday morning, spend time with our family, show up to church, preach a sermon. Most of us don't even have night church anymore. Most churches have done away with the evening service. We're all pretty much home by 2:30 or 3 p.m. And yeah, ministry's hard. And yeah, people attack you, and yeah, there's drama and marriages fall apart, and you got to get in there with church discipline. And yeah, there's a lot of expectations and some criticism here and there. But the bottom line is if you prioritize your health and your food and your fitness and you keep a renewed mind, you can absolutely get after it for the glory of God. Go home happy, win at home, love your children, love your wife, and grow old serving the Lord. And you don't have to walk around like a big victim. Like it's just so hard. I can't function. Yes, you can. God divinely designed your body and your mind to handle all of it if you're called to it. Maybe, just maybe, brother or sister, and I'm with you in this. Maybe we're the problem. Maybe we're not stewarding our body the way God has ordained. And therefore, you're not getting the results and the energy that God has made available to you. Now, none of that was in my notes, so that's just bonus material. Uh I made a list for some ways to challenge you with this practically this summer. If you say, Casi, that's this is a lot. I I don't even know where to start. Then walk 30 minutes a day. Start by walking 30 minutes a day, morning and evening, and pray while you do. Okay. Just maybe it's the morning, maybe it's the evening for you. Just go on a walk. Go on a walk. I have a dear brother in the church. He goes on a prayer walk every day. No matter what time it is, he'll go on his prayer walk. I would strength train three times per week. This could be in a gym, in a garage, it could be body weight in your home. You can look up, you can ask ChatGPT. I'm 52 years old. I haven't been very active. I need a simple bodyweight routine to start in my home 15 minutes a day, lay it out for me. And ChatGPT will tell you do some bodyweight squats. Let's do some lunges. Consult your doctor first. Yada yada. You get some rubber bands from wherever. Like even stretching for five minutes a day. Start moving, start taking care of your body, move it the way God intended. That's not revolutionary. That is just consistent, healthy temple care. And I understand the need for motivation. That's part of my goal here. I hope this motivates you, but I gotta warn you, I don't do these episodes every week, and you probably don't want to listen to me rant for 30 minutes every week on this. You can't always look for motivation. You need discipline. Discipline is doing what you ought to do even when you don't want to. Motivation's gonna come and go. Discipline carries you when motivation disappears. I do not always feel like going to the gym. I do not always feel like eating properly. I don't always feel like recording a podcast, and I don't always feel like doing the next thing that I have to do. You're not gonna feel like doing it sometimes. What is discipline? Do it. It's discipline. Now, the third aspect related to a reset for your health has to do with the inner man. I'm not gonna neglect the spiritual here, all of it's spiritual, but this in particular. Not the outer man, the inner man. So this is the most important. You gotta number three strengthen your inner man. A lot of health problems are not just physical, they're spiritual. The inner you, the inner man, Paul calls it in Ephesians 3.16. He references being strengthened with power through his spirit. That's God's spirit, the Holy Spirit, in the inner man. That's the spirit, lowercase s, you, that's where real health begins. A lot of people are obese or eating improperly or stress eating because they're carrying anxiety, bitterness, stress, guilt, fear, unresolved conflict, all of that for years. The body is keeping score, if you will. And it's merely showing what's happening on the inside. That's why I'm so tough on pastors with this, my own self included, because it is not for us to carry. We are not the savior. We point people to the savior. And by the way, we need the savior too. So you can't carry all that and you can't eat it away. And eventually those burdens are going to affect every area of life. And so a healthy body, even if you're healthy on the outside, you got good genetics, you could still have a very unhealthy soul. And you can be physically fit and hide it, and you can be spiritually exhausted. And you can eat perfectly and still be consumed with anxiety. You can exercise daily and you can carry a lot of bitterness. So you've got to care for your soul too. Part of health and your reset in the health area is the inner man, or the inner woman, if you want to call it, for you who are ladies. One of the greatest health habits you can develop is learning to run to God before you run to substitutes. So when you're feeling stressed, just ask yourself, what do you reach for first? Is it food, entertainment, alcohol, social media, retail therapy? What is it? A lot of us have developed unhealthy coping mechanisms that become temporary distractions, but they never actually help us. They end up hurting us. The words of Philippians chapter 4 are so helpful here. I'm going to turn there in my Bible. Maybe you're watching this and you want to do the same or follow along on the screen. But you think about anxiety and you think about the antidote for it. And I know some of you are carrying this even as we talk about health and fitness. It says, be anxious for nothing in verse 6. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The solution to anxiety is prayer. Because God never intended you to carry your burdens alone. So we turn to Him for help, not food. We turn to prayer as our solution. And this week, maybe for you, the journey doesn't only start with going on a walk, scouring Facebook Marketplace for some exercise equipment. Maybe it starts with a process that I want to give you here to encourage you. Number one, read a song. Read one song. Number two, spend 10 minutes in prayer. Number three, write down, journal what's troubling you. And number four, give it to the Lord. So read a psalm, pray for 10 minutes, write it down, give it to the Lord. Those four things happen before the bag of chips, before the booze, before the McDonald's run, whatever that is, before the milkshake. You take your guilty pleasure, you put it in its place. There's a place for a cheat night, if you want, as far as your health goes. You want a pizza? You want something. Hear me on this though. Those four steps are what we ought to do. If you're full of anxiety and you're feeling stressed, and you want to go reach for food, go through those four and I guarantee less and less will you run to food and run to the pantry, and more and more will you feel the peace of God as a solution to the wrong way of coping with stress. Listen, I hope that this has encouraged you. I hope it's challenged you. Feed your body as God intended, move your body as God intended, and strengthen your inner man as God intended. A word to those who are dealing with obesity because of chronic health issues. I love you. Nobody's talking to you. I'm not talking to you. I know that you want it. I know that you're struggling. I know that the body breaks down and because of sin, we're in a fallen world. And what you're dealing with is not your fault. There is a category for that. But a lot of us are doing a disservice to those who have chronic illnesses, and that's why they're obese. They have a disability. They're stuck in a wheelchair and they can't really move around as much. And so they've put on weight. The rest of us are doing a great disservice to our brothers and sisters who are actually dealing with challenges with their health. And the rest of us are just being lazy and making excuses. If you're a pastor, it's time to get honest about obesity as a sin, gluttony as a sin, and stop making excuses and stop leaving it as a personal thing, but standing up in the pulpit every week publicly and talking about every kind of sin while wearing perhaps your most devastating sin on your midsection right in front of everyone. We got to get honest. It's not offensive to talk this way. It's more offensive to leave it as the elephant in the room. We got a generation of pastors who are less likely to be flashing their biceps in the pulpit and more likely to be eating the stress of the ministry, but spiritualizing obesity. So let's get honest. It starts with us. And maybe for you this summer, best opportunity for a reset. I'm with you in it. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Thanks for giving to for the gospel. We're 100% donor supported. And the reason that by God's grace this ministry is reaching millions of people every month and in multiple languages is because of faithful friends like you. So thank you. Thank you for praying. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for all your messages. We get them. The comments or your emails, you gospel patrons. If you've got suggestions on content, we always love to hear them. I've got a long menu of things I want to talk about with you biblically, but always love hearing from you as well and knowing what's on your heart. We know ultimately that prayer is the power source behind all faithful ministries. So please keep praying. If you want to learn more about for the gospel or if you want to partner with us financially, go to forthegospel.org, click give. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.