 Amen, so happy new year, last day of the year, last sermon of the year, and with this sermon we are going to start a brand new sermon series. And the sermon series is going to be a good one to kick off a new year, not just for the first day of the new year, but just for the first, you know, few weeks of a new year. We're always thinking about how to get better and how to change for the new year. It's kind of silly, really. I mean, we should be always getting better and changing what we need to change all the time, and not just only on the new year, but be that as it may, that's what a lot of people do, and that's what everyone, a lot of people's thinking is. So the series intro is basically, the series is going to be called Good Habits. It's going to be called Good Habits. We're going to have four to five sermons on just habits, and these aren't habits that are small habits. These are habits that you can adopt in your life that will fix bad habits, but habits that you can adopt in your life that will change your life. That will change your life for the better. I mean, the Bible has a lot of practical advice. I mean, there's a lot of advice in the Bible that's spiritual well-being, and that's the most important thing, of course, but you know, the Bible also has a lot of very practical advice on how to prosecute your physical life on this earth, and that's super important. I mean, God wants us to be able to have a profitable life on this earth, and these habits that we're going to talk about in the next few weeks are going to be related to that. If you look down at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse 19, where the Bible says, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. So the Bible here says, I mean, of course, it's talking about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. There's a lot of focus on fornication, and how fornication is, you know, a sin against yourself. That's why verse number, by the way, verse number 9, that doesn't have to do with the sermon. There's a lot of controversy over the last part of verse number 9, where it says, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. That's referring to, you know, what it's talking about in this chapter. That's why you have to take the Bible in context. You're talking about fornication. You're abusing yourself in fornication. But the Bible here is talking about that in the context of fornication, it does say something that's interesting. It says that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that, you know, ye are not your own. Your body is not yours. And then look at verse 20. It gets even worse. It gets even more serious in verse number 20, where the Bible says, for you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. So look, your body belongs to God. Your spirit belongs to God. Of course, we have the Holy Spirit in us. We're sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise. But the, you know, the Bible says here, before it talks about the spirit, it says, you know, you're glorify God in your body. So we're going to talk about this evening is living a healthy lifestyle. We're going to talk about the habit of living a healthy lifestyle. Our bodies are temples, the Bible says. Okay. No, I mean, we talk a lot and we focus heavily on, you know, getting your heart right and watching your speech. And because what, you know, is in your heart will come out of your mouth, your words, your actions. But the Bible also talks about your body here. Now look, in the Old Testament, you have to understand that the lifestyle of the people that we read about in the Bible, New Testament and Old Testament was much different than it was today. These men, and it doesn't take much reading the Bible, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, to realize that these men lived a very active lifestyle. These people lived a very active lifestyle. They walked everywhere. They, I mean, that was traveling. You know, their feet were shod with the gospel of peace because they're walking. They're literally walking two places to give the gospel. You know, you see men in the Old Testament from Abraham to Lot, to Jacob. They're farmers. They're ranchers, which is very hard physical labor. Turn to Genesis chapter 319. And actually, you know, the thing about this is, this is actually what we are designed for. We are designed to work physically, to have physical lives. And it makes perfect sense because we see, you know, how things, you know, we talk a lot about what happens when you get outside God's plan. I mean, how many times have I mentioned that when we're talking about whatever topic in a sermon? If you get outside God's plan, things just aren't going to go well. Well, the plan for your life, the plan for men can be found in Genesis 319. Look down at your Bible. In Genesis chapter, let me turn there, 3 and verse number 19, the Bible says, In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return. So, you know, God, of course, is talking to Adam and there's a lot of things going on here before they're to leave, you know, the Garden of Eden and after they've, you know, eaten of the tree that they shouldn't have eaten of. But look, he's saying, he's like, you're going to live, you're going to eat by the sweat of your face now. He's like, you are designed, you know, it's meant for us to go out and have physical lives, to be out there doing physical things. I mean, forget about, you know, the fact of all the war in the Old Testament. I mean, there is nothing, there is nothing more physical than you will ever do in your life than fighting, for sure. I mean, I wrestle when I was in high school and that's the closest thing I can think of, but those were the hardest, you know, six minutes that you, I mean, you're completely spent after that. You're completely spent after those six minutes, like fighting, going to war, things like that, especially the physical wars of swords and things like that, that these men fought in the Old Testament. Look, these guys were living, I mean, think of David and his mighty men. These guys were living extremely physical lives. These guys were not couch potatoes. Okay? So look, all the kings, the king's sons, all the wars, it was a very physical life that we read about in the Bible. Okay? So look, our society is extremely inactive and unhealthy compared to this. Okay? So what I want to get at, turn to 1st Timothy chapter 4, what I want to talk about this evening, I want to focus on two main areas on the habit of living a healthy lifestyle. And you know, I don't mean to scare you, but I kind of do, because I want to show you how bad it actually is compared to, you know, what it is supposed to be. But look, if the problem is this, if you follow, if you follow the status quo of what we are living in, you will fail in this area. If you follow, you know, the status quo, meaning what everybody else is doing, what everybody around us is doing, how everyone else lives their life, you'll fail here. We have an interesting few problems in America here, and we have a lot of excess in this country. So we have, you know, some things that we need to deal with here. So we need to buck the status quo in a couple different areas, and that's what we're going to talk about this evening. You look down at 1st Timothy chapter 4 and verse number 8. Of course, this Bible verse says, for bodily exercise, profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. Of course, we can take this verse and say, okay, this is talking about how bodily exercise is not important. Here's the thing though. If you live in extremely physical life, bodily exercise is really not that important. If you live a really physical life, like if I went out and I just had just a really physical job every single day of my life, and I got home and I was just physically wiped out every single day, going to the gym probably isn't a don't go to the gym. But I mean, exercising in a gym or working out is probably not profitable to me, because I'm already a very physical person. But I don't actually have a physical job. So bodily exercise is important in my life. It's important that you have that. So look, it is important to live a physical life. So the first thing, when we talk about living a healthy life, I want to look at two aspects, and the first one is this, turn to Proverbs chapter 23. The first one the Bible talks about very specifically, and it is gluttony. Gluttony is the first thing that I want to talk about. Look, the Bible specifically points this out as a major problem. Look at Proverbs chapter 23 and verse number 20. Proverbs chapter 23 and verse number 20. Proverbs 23 is kind of the gluttony chapter in the Bible. Okay, there's a couple different places where it talks about it, but I want to point out a couple things to you in Proverbs chapter 23. Look at verse number 20. The Bible says this, be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. So we're talking about two different types of people here. He's talking about winebibbers. These are drunks. These are your drunkards among riotous eaters of flesh. And then he explains it in verse number 21 where he says, for the drunkard and the glutton. So there he said, that's how I know. That's what he's talking about, because he says, for the drunkard and the glutton, those two people that I was talking about in the verse previously shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. So look, the first point I want to make here is that gluttony is compared with drunkenness. I mean, that's pretty serious. I mean, if you were a drunkard, I mean, we would consider, you know, that a very bad sin, but gluttony is right there with it, is right there with drunkenness. So you say, what I mean, but what will happen? They'll come to poverty and they'll be drowsy. Well, why? Why the glutton? I mean, I can see that the drunkard, you know, he can't, he can't go to work and, you know, he's missing things all the time because he's drunk or whatever. But you think about the glutton. I mean, look, when you're out of shape and overweight, you can't do physical activity. And remember, the Bible is designed, you know, meant to do, to work by the sweat of their face. You can't work as hard. And here's the thing, when you're overweight, you don't feel like doing anything. I mean, any man that has gained a few pounds knows this. When you're over, it's, it's a, it's a terrible snowball effect. You know, the more overweight you are, the less you want to do. And we're going to talk a lot about why this is and what's actually happening to you when this happens. And guess what? You'll be tired. You'll be tired all the time. You will have less energy. I mean, it's a terrible thing. It's a terrible snowball effect and you should never want to be in it. So look, lose some, I mean, to prove this right, just lose some weight and you'll feel good. Just losing five pounds makes you feel good. Losing 10 pounds makes you, makes you feel better. And look, you'll have a lot more energy. It's like magic. It means like the Bible's true. Look at verse two of Proverbs chapter 23. This, I mean, this, this is how serious, you know, the Bible takes gluttony and it says, you know, if you are a person that just can't stop eating and can't control what you're eating, it's like, and put a knife to thy throat. If thou be a man given to appetite. I mean, it's just saying, you know, you'd be better off just cutting your own throat, you know, put a knife to your throat and make yourself stop eating. Now look, I'm not talking about having a piece of birthday cake here. We're talking about lifestyle here. Okay. Ultimately, that is what is needed, is a lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle. Diet, look, diets are great. Okay. I mean, the weight loss challenge, that's great. I mean, that's a good thing. That's something that you should, you should try to get to. But look, I'm not a big fan of all these crazy, wacky diets that, you know, you just drop like 20 pounds in 30 days and then, you know, you just gain it all back. All these, I mean, to me as I, especially as I get older, as a man that gets older, I'm starting to realize that I need to make lifestyle changes along the way, or, you know, I'm going to end up overweight. So look, it's, I'm not a fan. I'm looking for things that I can sustain. I wrote a number down for the challenge that I want to hit that number and sustain that lifestyle. That's my goal. So my goal is beyond that box back there. My goal is to sustain a lifestyle. So look, let's look at the status quo. You say, okay, this all sounds good. But let's look at the status quo in America today. All right. So the American problem of gluttony can be traced down to basically one thing. And that one thing is sugar. And it's uniquely American. And I'm going to show that to you in the next few minutes. But look, in per capita terms, the United States consumes the most amount of sugar, meaning, meaning in the entire world, per capita means each American consumes more sugar every single year than any other single person in any other country in the world. That's something that we should pay attention to. And you say, well, you know, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is this. 10% of the US population is diabetic. 10% of the United States population is diabetic right now. And you think that's bad. It's even worse. One third of US adults, one third of US adults are pre diabetic. What does pre diabetic mean? I mean, that's like 100 million people or, you know, close to that number. I mean, one third of one out of three people is pre diabetic. That means that they will develop type two diabetes if they continue on their current path. That's what pre diabetic means. No, but no, but wait, you know, there's more. I mean, it's it's worse than just diabetes because what does diabetes do? So eating sugar and all this sugar is causing everyone in the United States diabetes is is an American issue. And it's tied directly to sugar. But pre diabetes puts you at increased risk of developing type two diabetes, which leads to heart disease and stroke. Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans in the United States for I can't even count the how many years past. Heart disease, 670,000 some deaths every single year from heart disease. I mean, I mean, that's way more than corona. I mean, that's one in four United States deaths is related to heart disease. So basically, if the coronavirus lockdowns cause people to be more unhealthy, you could make a pretty decent argument that they're actually killing a lot of people by causing, you know, unhealthiness. I mean, one, you know, another thing that just kills me from the whole last year. I mean, we knew right away at the beginning, I'm not going to go off on coronavirus, but we knew right away at the beginning that, you know, from our favorite doctor from first works and so many other people, if you went and you talked to people that that vitamin D that zinc and vitamin C, those were the things that will keep you healthy and that will keep you virus free or at least if you do get the virus, it will be not a big deal because you'll have a strong immune system. But you never you still never heard that from the narrative. It was just wear a mask and don't go anywhere. It's just, it's really strange. It's something to think about. Just another, you know, thing out there. But anyway, there's more with these diabetes trends. So when you look at the graphs, you go to the CDC and they've got all kinds of graphs over the last, you know, two decades or whatever about diabetes. It's interesting because with adults, it's largely flat. The trends are flat. So I mean, it's just bad and it just keeps continuing to be bad. But you know what's interesting and what's kind of sad is that the trends that are rising are the kids. The trends that are rising among diabetes and I mean, think about it, diabetic children. We're ending up with rising trends because of, you know, in the area of children, all because of what? Sugar. That's it. Here's some more sugar fun facts. In a narrative review by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the authors write that sugar could act as a gateway to alcohol and other addictive substances, adding that like sugar, that adding that like sugar, cocaine and opium is refined from plants to yield pure white crystals, a process they call that they say significantly adds to its addictive properties. Now I don't believe in addictions and you know that. But the point I'm trying to make is that many people will compare the desire for sugar to drugs, to the desire for drugs. Now, is that something that you want to pass onto your kids? I mean, I don't believe in addictions turned to 1 Corinthians chapter nine. I believe in self control. But look, it's definitely a craving. It is definitely a habit that can be formed. This craving for sugar. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter nine. 1 Corinthians chapter nine. 1 Corinthians chapter nine, look at verse number 27. Look, it's something that you can train your body to want. If you get in a habit, a bad habit, you can train your body to, if you eat a candy bar every day at two o'clock, pretty soon every day at two o'clock, Pavlov's dog, you will, you know, you will want a candy bar every single day. That is just a habit that you're forming. It's not an addiction. It's a habit. It's like your body just, you train your body to want it and you can train your body to not want it. Okay, so look, look at 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 27. This is what Paul's talking about, this kind of training of his body. He says, but I keep under my body and I bring it into subjection. List that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. He's just talking about keeping himself from sin, his body. He's talking about keeping his body under control. He's talking about literal self-control here. Addiction is simply a lack of self-control. That's what addiction is. Drugs, alcohol, sugar, I mean, all, they all have varying chemical properties that train your body to think that it needs them. And some are worse than others. But look, you can get hooked on sugar. It's possible. And I would argue that most Americans already are. I mean, one third of Americans are pre-diabetic. I mean, that's crazy. That's a crazy number. Heart disease, leading cause of death in the United States. I mean, you could make the conclusion that sugar is literally killing you. You could say that and it would be true. And the trends are rising among children. So look, here's the thing. If you're raising your children with a sugar-filled lifestyle, you are literally taking years off their life. Turn to Proverbs chapter 13. I mean, why would you do that? Why would you do that? And I think I know what it is because I've seen this over the last 20 years. I've seen this with several kids that have been close to us in our lives. And over the last 20 years, I've seen this play out. I know exactly what it is and what it's caused by. Look, it's tied. Parents that hook their kids on sugar, it's the same reason that parents don't want to discipline their kids. It's the same thing. They just want to make them happy. But look at Proverbs chapter 13. Look at Proverbs chapter 13 in verse number 24. It's the same, it's the same issue as discipline. You know, parents just trying to make their kids happy at all costs. It's the same reason people don't spank their kids. They just don't want to see their kids unhappy. But what does the Bible say? The Bible says the opposite. The Bible says that if you don't spank your kids, look, Proverbs 13, 24, he that spared with his rod, hated his son. But he that loved with him, chasing it, and be times. Parents that are constantly feeding their kids sugar, I mean, they must hate them because they're killing them. I mean, that's what the Bible would say. I mean, that's what the Bible would say. Look, you say they're killing them, that's a little extreme. If you have type 1 diabetes, you will live 20 years less than a normal person without diabetes. If you have type 2 diabetes, which one-third of Americans will end up with type 2 diabetes, according to the stats right now. If you have type 2 diabetes, that takes 10 years off your life. These are just the stats. These are the numbers. You say, ah, they're kids though. Their bodies can handle it. Well, I mean, first of all, you show me an overweight kid, and I will show you a kid with a sugar problem. I will show you a kid that eats too much sugar. And look, it's not just candy. It's not just candy. You think, oh, we're just going to cut out the candy. It's much worse than that. It's all the carbohydrates of all kinds, the donuts and the pastries and the pastas, the fast food, the junk food. I mean, the cheap food, the frozen food, the TV dinners, all the moms are going, oh, the lazy food. Turn to Proverbs 31. It's the lazy food. It's the food that you can make in three minutes. It's the food that you don't have to prepare. One guy told me one time, I mean, one guy that was just like a super like health nut guy, he told me, and this was great advice. Look, take advice that's good if you get it. He said, never eat anything out of a cardboard box. I mean, that's good advice. Pretty much anything in a cardboard box in the grocery store is garbage. It's filled with preservatives. It's filled with carbohydrates. It's filled with soy. Don't even get me started on soy. But look, look at Proverbs 31 and verse 15. Women, listen up. The Bible says of the virtuous woman, it says she riseth also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household and a portion to her maidens. Look, there wasn't microwaves here back, you know, at this time, first of all, but this woman is getting up and she is working extremely hard to feed her family. She is preparing meals. Look, this is the biggest advantage. This is the biggest advantage of, or one of the biggest advantages of a stay-at-home mom is that she can provide for the health of her family. That's what the virtuous woman is doing here. I mean, yes, there's great financial benefit to it. There's great educational benefit to it. There's great spiritual benefit to it. But there's great physical benefit to it as well. I mean, if you are not taking advantage moms of buying healthy food and cooking healthy meals and keeping, you know, you can drive this, you can lead this charge of just keeping your family healthy here. And I mean, you're missing a huge advantage of even being a stay-at-home mom if you're not doing this. I mean, but look, it's a lot easier to go to McDonald's. That's what it boils down to. It's a lot easier to pop a TV dinner in the microwave. I mean, but it's all loaded with sugar, with carbohydrates. It's just, it's all junk. It's all junk. Here's a test. Here's a test for you. Here's a test for you. See, how bad is it? Here's a test. How much fruit do you eat in your house? That's a great test of whether or not you have a sugar problem. Because guess what fruit is? Fruit is God's sugar. Fruit is God's candy. And guess what? If you eat a ton of sugar and you eat a ton of candy and you eat a ton of all this stuff, you won't like fruit. Well, your kids eat fruit. You know, that's the question. If they, you know, if you put an apple or an orange in front of your kids and they say no, they have a sugar problem. Well, they have a discipline problem too. Okay, look, my kids said no to me one time. I mean, I understand how this is an issue with people. Like, they're kids saying, my kids said no to me one time and it was over right that one time. I guarantee you, ask my kids. Ask my kids if they'd ever say no to me. Never. If your kids ever say no to you, you have a discipline problem, and let's get back to the fruit, back to the sermon, they have a sugar problem if they don't like fruit. It's a great little test. I mean, fruit's expensive. I mean, we go through a ton of fruit in my house, but if my kids are sitting there cutting up fruit at 11 o'clock at night, whatever. Eat all the fruit you want. Eat all the fruit you want. I mean, it's just always going to be okay. But here's the thing. You're giving these kids a lifestyle that's going to kill them is what's happening if you're getting them hooked on sugar. And I mean, it's just like the Bible says about discipline, if that's the case, you must hate them. You must hate them. Look, 71% of youth are unfit for military service right now. 71%, you know why? Obesity. I mean, that's crazy. Not that I would ever want the youth to go in the military, but I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy that they, I mean, gluttony is a huge problem. And America, this problem can largely be blamed on sugar. That's why these ketogenic diets are so wildly successful. I mean, the keto diet or whatever that just cuts out carbs and all these sugars, and it just fixes all these problems. It's not that the keto diet, it's like the airplane with the bullet holes, right? It's not that the keto diet fixed all those problems. It's that the problem was all the sugar that you were eating and you just got rid of the, you know, the issue, right? So look, I mean, even, look, even the coronavirus stuff. I mean, if you listen to immune doctors and doctors that know what they're talking about, like my favorite doctor from LA, if you listen to her, she'll tell you, she's like, hey, the vitamin D, the zinc, the vitamin C, all that stuff's what you need, but sugar will cancel it all out. But sugar works against your immune system. So I mean, it hurts you as far as your immune defense against whatever's attacking you out in this world. I mean, look, it's almost like you could call it poison. It's bad. It blocks your immune response. So look, we see that gluttony is a huge issue. The core of this issue in our country is sugar. Look, if you've ever met anyone or ever worked with anyone from another country that lives in another country, you know this is true because they can't believe it. They can't handle it. You get somebody that comes here from Europe or from Russia or from some other country and they can't handle all the sugar. They can't go to a barbecue place and eat. They're like, ah. They won't eat it. I'm serious. I mean, they can't. They're like, how do you eat all this sugar? I'm like, whoa, you know, we're bred into it in America. You know, we're just used to it. And we're all diabetic. So it's fine. We take a shot after we eat and then we're good. But I mean, seriously, it's an American issue. So it's something that we need to think about. And look, you really need to think about the type of life that we're passing on to our kids. Because look, isn't that the Bible? Isn't that the Bible concerned about, you know, not only just us? I mean, that we follow the law and that we do all these things. But the Bible is just so heavy on the next generation, the next generation, the next generation. What are you passing on to the next generation? I mean, it's one thing if you don't care about your own health or all this and you're just like, I just, you know, whatever, but you're passing it on to your kids because nothing will teach your kids, you know, more about how to live their life than how you live your life. What I mean, what you do is more important than what you say. And your kids are watching and they're learning and they're living with you. So the second aspect this evening of good habits, as far as a healthy lifestyle, is living an active life. You know, do you live an active life? You know, do you engage in physical activity in your life? I know that there's like tons of jobs where there's just no physical activity. I have one of those jobs right now where it's just, there's very little physical activity. And you know, look, you must engage in physical activity in your life. I mean, you can be the correct way and be completely out of shape. You know, it is, it is, it is sad when the 43 year old preacher can outrun most of the teenagers in the church. All right. I'm pointing the kids out. All right. So look, you, you can be out of shape and not be overweight. But being in shape, you must look, you must teach your kids to exercise. You hear what I said? You must teach them to exercise. When they're young, it's easy. You go out and run around at a park or you go on hikes or you do things like that. But eventually, you need to teach them a lifestyle on how to exercise. Look, there's technique to it. I've been, I've been lifting weights and working out for 30 years. And it's just because I, I, I, it's something that I just continue doing in my life because I need to do it. I don't have a job where I'm really out there just like doing a lot of physical activity. I want to keep myself healthy. So I mean, but look, they have to be taught how to do this. I've taught my, you know, kids how to, how to exercise, how to, how to do exercises. I mean, this is part of the homeschooling. I mean, to teach them how to do this. I mean, to learning, I mean, learning how to lift weights, learning how to jog properly is a skill that is taught. You have to teach that. It won't just happen. Turn to Psalm 18. It won't just happen on accident. Turn to Psalm chapter 18 and look at verse number 34. Psalm 18 verse 34, the Bible says, he teaches my hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms. Men, did you know men that you are supposed to be strong? I wonder how many men know that, that you're supposed to be strong. Let me give you some more stats. From 2010 to 2013, prescriptions for low-testosterone treatment more than doubled in the United States. The most prominent, a 2000 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism revealed that there's a substantial drop in U.S. men's testosterone levels since the 1980s, which average levels declining by 1% per year. I mean, that's scary. I mean, the article goes on and on and just lists all sorts of different stats, but basically men are becoming weaker and less manly every single year by 1%. I mean, that's 20 years. That means 20% drop that becoming weaker, less masculine. And the causes, now the causes are, you know, they're debated differently, but they're basically, it boils down to this. Everybody agrees that the causes are basically obesity, inactivity, and poor physical conditioning. That's what it is. I mean, think of the, I mean, I think the men of the Bible, I often, I still think this when I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, I think the men of the Bible would be a complete shock to men today. I mean, some men, you go up and you shake their hand and you feel like you just tore their arm off. I'm like, would you like your arm back? They hand you this wet noodle and they're like, you tear their arm off and hand it back to them, smack them in the face with it a couple of times. That's what I want to do. But look, I mean, can you imagine these men in the Bible? They're probably three times stronger than what we are now. I mean, they were, you know, I mean, then you think of the leadership, because look, testosterone will, I mean, it helps you, it helps everything as far as, you know, being a man. You think of the leadership decisions. You think these men in the Bible, they're just like, bam, bam, bam, they're just making all these decisions. And you know, look, these are men that had some testosterone, all right? They had some testosterone. I mean, just think about, you know, think about the next time you want to feed your kids a bunch of candy, think about this. You're taking years off their life. You're destroying their immune system. And for the boys, you're giving them a lifestyle that will destroy their masculinity. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. It's the worst thing you could do is pass this on to your kids. So how do we change this is the question. We got some problems here. How do we change this? Well, the first thing is you got to have standards. That's where your diet comes in. That's where, you know, I'm going to change the way I eat. I'm going to change the way I live my life. I'm going to exercise. I'm going to be active three or four times a week. I'm going to, you know, get on a regimented, you know, standard of eating and exercising. Well, there you go. That's everyone's New Year's resolution right there. The problem is number two, which is consistency over time. Is that every, I don't know what the stats are now, but they say everyone's New Year's resolution usually fails within 15 days or something stupid like that. So I mean, unless you're doing something consistently, look, the men's weight loss challenge will do nothing for you unless you turn it into a lifestyle. It'll just be fun. It'll be fun for six weeks. Maybe you get on the scale, maybe you failed, maybe you succeeded, but if you don't have a lifestyle change from it, it will do you no good in your life. It will just be something fun that you did one time. You know, I mean, you have to make, you know, a consistent change over time. I mean, that's with anything. That's with any of these habits. And unless you are consistently living a healthy life, by the way, and here's another thing. I mean, you say it's not fair. You know, it's so hard to raise kids, but unless you're doing things consistently over time, it will mean nothing to your kids. Unless you change the way you're eating in your home, it will mean nothing for your kids. And you know, if you do a six weeks, you know, we're going to be healthy in this home and eat good meals. And mom's going to cook, you know, good, you know, meals that aren't filled with carbohydrates and aren't filled with junk and are just, you know, made from scratch meals. And we're going to do that for four weeks. And it's going to be great. It will mean nothing. Don't even do it. You have to be consistent. And then you will have, you know, kids that grow up with a healthy lifestyle, lifestyle, not month style, lifestyle. I mean, who would want to pass an unhealthy lifestyle onto their kids? I mean, we talked about the public school on Sunday morning. Here's one thing that they will do. Here's one thing that the public school will do. They will have classes and meal standards that will teach your kids to eat somewhat healthy. Then public school will do this. I mean, they will measure the kids. They'll tell the kids if they're, you know, they'll report if their BMI is too high. I mean, they'll tell the parents that the kids are obese. They'll teach them how to exercise in PE class. I mean, the stupid public school will do these basic things. I mean, we have a responsibility here. This goes back to, you know, homeschooling, you know, total freedom folks equals total responsibility. If you want to have the freedom to do everything, I mean, it's a blank, it's a blank whiteboard, and it's yours to fill out. Don't keep it blank. And worse, don't fill it with a bunch of garbage, even in that area. Don't raise kids to have a good education, but completely destroy their health on how you're raising them to eat and live and just prosecute their physical life on this earth. Don't raise kids with good knowledge of the Bible with a completely inactive and sugar-addicted lifestyle. That's terrible. So where to start? I mean, cut out all sugary drinks. Just get rid of them all out of your house. I don't remember who told, it was some pastor said, don't ever drink a calorie. That's awesome advice. Don't ever drink a calorie. I mean, that's good advice for adults. I'm not saying milk is bad and things like that for kids, but like, get rid of all these sugary drinks. The sodas and the fruit juices and all this stuff, you know, cut out all the carbohydrate-filled snacks. Don't be just handing your kids bags of chips and crackers constantly. It's terrible for them. It's terrible. It's going to get them addicted to these sugary things. These things should be treats, meaning, you know, vacations or special events or whatever. You know, I mean, that's why we're moving to once a month birthdays, by the way. I mean, I want to try to have a little bit of a healthy culture at this church where we're not just, you know, I'm not preaching sermons like this and then we're having junk food every single night. We're having birthday cake every single night. I mean, it's great that we're growing. And by the way, we grew this here. Did you know that? But we're growing and we're going to have these things where we're going to try to have a healthy culture here. We're going to have a healthy culture at this church. It's just like we want to have a friendly culture at this church. We want to have a culture where everybody makes sure that we make sure everyone's included and all this. We want to have a healthy culture here too. So it's consistent with what you do at home and it's consistent. The kids don't see inconsistencies from their home to the church. I mean, I don't want to teach an unhealthy lifestyle. So like, look, we're going to start working this into the culture of the church. The birthdays thing is part of that. But look, I just can't get this across enough. When you look at these graphs over the last 20 years and you just see the kids going like this, it's sad. It's sad because they're getting that from their parents. The lifestyle, the physical lifestyle, the physical habits that you pass on to your children could be a blessing or it could be a curse to them. And it's just like the kid who had the dad that was the drunk. And you know, you raise kids with a healthy lifestyle. Maybe you'll get that one-off kid that'll be like, you know what, I grew up in this unhealthy house and that kid gets married and he's like, I'm just going to go health food. But most of the kids are going to just adopt the lifestyle. It's why the Bible puts it with drunkenness because it's very similar actually. It's very similar and it may not have, because we're Americans and we're all addicted to sugar, it may not have the same stigma on it as alcohol does, but the Bible puts it as the same type of problem. It puts it together. We need to pay attention to that stuff. You could be a blessing or a curse to your kid's physical lifestyle. So get your physical lifestyle down. I mean, look, it's going to be nothing but benefit to you. I mean, you're going to lose some weight. You're going to get a healthy lifestyle. You're going to feel great. You're going to feel much better and you'll never want to go back to the way it was. And that's what we want to pass on to our kids. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.