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Foundations of Health: "Stewarding the Lord's Temple - Leaders' Talks

The Road Church Podcast

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  1. Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.

  2. This is the Road Podcast.

  3. Thanks for joining us.

  4. My heart is to empower you to change the world.

  5. I hope this message impacts you.

  6. Here now is our guest speaker.

  7. Um I asked Pastor if he was doing the second talk, and he said no.

  8. So I'm like, oh, okay.

  9. I found out we lost Colorado yesterday.

  10. Yeah, I know.

  11. Yeah, Oregon State, that is.

  12. Oregon State, we lost the University of Colorado.

  13. Yeah, bummer.

  14. Okay.

  15. I'm on a higher note.

  16. I uh who's up for a testimony?

  17. Yeah.

  18. I uh you know I'm a physician, and when I started my integrative practice in Washington State, uh we would have an infusion room, an IV room where you would start IVs on people, and when we weren't busy, we would go in and worship uh with the people with our patients in the IV room.

  19. And sometimes people would come who would know the Lord, and and sometimes people who didn't know the Lord will be there.

  20. And it was a real opportunity for them to open up.

  21. And I uh I have two stories that come to mind that I'd like to share with you is one was a young lady who was a college student who came down with some random spontaneous disease that nobody could figure out, and she was really scared and really fearful.

  22. And uh through a friend, through a friend, you know how God does things, she found us.

  23. And we ended up, well, she came from a very religious background, a religious family in Christ.

  24. And so, anyways, we were treating her and moving ahead with her, and then finally uh we were praying with her one day, and my office assistant looks at her and she says, Caitlin, have you ever been filled with the Holy Spirit?

  25. And Caitlin goes, uh, yeah, well, I don't know.

  26. And like I think I think a lot of us know when you know, right?

  27. And so she goes, Well, I don't think so.

  28. She goes, Well, do you want to be?

  29. She goes, Well, yeah.

  30. And so we started praying, and guys, you you guys remember the scripture in Acts chapter 2, like a rushing of a mighty wind.

    Acts 2 chapter mention

  31. We were praying, and I had my hand like right here, and I was sitting in a chair like this, and she's right here, and Lori was right here.

  32. And I'm not kidding you, the heat and the Spirit of God filled the room, and I literally felt it singe my face and touch her, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, and she was healed.

  33. And she ended up going to YWAM and becoming a minister for the Lord, you know.

  34. And so, what the enemy took, right?

  35. You see how you know God likes to recompense the enemy.

  36. Like that was meant to destroy, but it ended up propelling her, you know.

  37. And so there was another um story about a gentleman now uh who you who is in a ministry you guys are familiar with.

  38. Um he came in and he was in that new age kind of movement.

  39. And when you're a natural physician like me, I I encounter that a lot, which I enjoy that because they're open and they're hungry for something spiritual, they just have no foundation, right?

  40. And so uh he would tell me all these goofy things that he was doing, and I go, okay, that's that's cool, you know.

  41. And uh yeah, and then I'd tell him little gentle testimonies about what the Lord had done in my life and the lives of our patients.

  42. And then finally I said, Ken, have you ever seen this documentary film Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost?

  43. And he goes, No.

  44. Holy Ghost, yeah, I want to watch that.

  45. I go, yeah, go home watch it.

  46. So he went home and watched it, and then he came back the next day and he looked at me and he goes, I want to get filled with the Holy Spirit.

  47. I want to serve Jesus.

  48. And I go, Well, that was easy, you know.

  49. And uh, so uh uh Lori was at the front, and she's our prayer warrior front desk lady, and I go, Lori, we got one! You know, and so we put him in the ivory room and began to pray for him, and the love of God just flooded him.

  50. He had tears, he got delivered of some demonic stuff, as you can imagine, you know, in that.

  51. And we had to literally carry him out of that room.

  52. And I will tell you, three years, three or four years later, he is under Androx, Andrew Omax ministry here in Colorado.

  53. Yeah.

  54. So only, only God, right?

  55. And like when I was seeking the Lord about how to talk to you guys this morning, I just continually felt that song in my heart, too good to not believe, right?

  56. Don't tell me he can't do it, right?

  57. And I want to just release that today.

  58. So let's go ahead and start with the talk.

  59. Um, I want to talk about the foundation of health from a biblical standpoint and how it can enhance our walk with the Lord and ensure that we fulfill our purpose here.

  60. Now, how many people want to fulfill their purpose here?

  61. I hope all of us raise our hand, right?

  62. So, next next slide here.

  63. So I'm gonna go off Psalm 10, Psalm 11.3.

  64. If the foundations are out of place, what will the righteous do?

  65. And I I do believe foundations has a depth when that word.

  66. Um and so foundations is first of all our relationship with Christ and the Word of God, right, and our obedience to that.

  67. Then it's our marriage and our family and our church and our community, right?

  68. And and the nation, right?

  69. But I also believe there's foundation for health, right?

  70. And so let's let's press into that to that scripture for this concept today.

  71. Next slide.

  72. As a physician, I I continually found that people are disconnecting any current physical struggle they're having with maybe it's what we're actually doing to ourselves with our lifestyle.

  73. Okay, so you know, for example, I saw a gentleman who I was just supposed to specifically talk to him about you know a lifestyle program and how how that can help him get where he needed to go.

  74. He goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that.

  75. I need you to deal with my diabetes.

  76. And I go, there's you see the disconnect, right?

  77. And so we can be in control, we can be accountable.

  78. Today, a lot of prescriptions that are prescribed, kind of namely for cholesterol, for blood pressure, uh, sometimes for pain, are really lifestyle things that are out of foundation.

  79. Okay, so we can take that back.

  80. All right, next slide.

  81. All right, I want to bring this scripture in and bring some connection here.

  82. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down and who has no walls.

  83. So you can see the two different cities there, and you can see the one to my right, your left, is broken down.

  84. So can you imagine as you are contending for the Lord in intercession or prayer?

  85. Can you imagine that if there's any space he can assault you, he will, right?

  86. And I think a plane we don't understand where he can assault us is in our body.

  87. Okay?

  88. And I mean, one thing that just came to my mind right now is when Jesus was in the garden contending for us, he sweated blood because he was in such heavy contention, right?

  89. I mean, how many of you guys have been in contention in prayer, and like the part of your body that's weak begins to flare up?

  90. Have you ever had that experience?

  91. And so I have had that experience, and I know patients do too, and sometimes we don't make the connection.

  92. That's a weak spot that maybe we've allowed, maybe we haven't, you know.

  93. So I want to make that connection for you.

  94. And Pastor let us in with this with the with the thing here.

  95. Body.

  96. Everybody say body.

  97. Like I think when we read that scripture, we're thinking very, very spiritual, right?

  98. But God's sozo, salvation, is by as the whole package, right?

  99. Including our body.

  100. I mean, He sanctified it wholly, right?

  101. That means He's gonna finish it, right?

  102. Okay, next slide.

  103. So we perish for lack of knowledge.

  104. I think we fall victim to societal norms that we've kind of just flow into, and we don't realize that's actually hurting us, right?

  105. You know, namely Thanksgiving, right?

  106. What do we all of us do on Thanksgiving?

  107. Would we go into a turkey coma, right?

  108. Right?

  109. And then we overeat, and that's just expected, right?

  110. But that's actually a kind of an assault on our body, right?

  111. It's a stressor.

  112. And so I'm saying, no, I'm not I'm not coming against Thanksgiving dinner, by the way.

  113. I love gravy, I love turkey, let's get that straight, okay?

  114. I'm not a food Nazi, okay?

  115. So, so, and and so in this, we want to begin to have an attitude with our lifestyle that will take accountability for it.

  116. Meaning, I take accountability for my choices, and I don't blame situations, I don't blame people, right?

  117. I just say I can do this, and that's the beginning where we can actually come out of a hole maybe that we've been in with our lifestyle.

  118. I wanted to give a testimony about a pastor who is a patient of mine up in Seattle who was always bugging me about what diet am I supposed to be on, you know, and I'd just tell him something and it wouldn't really work.

  119. And then finally I got him on something that really fit for him, and he was able to go in three months from 47 pounds overweight to he lost 50 pounds.

  120. And he took his cholesterol panel, which was awful, to something that was like looked perfect with no drugs.

  121. So that's cool, right?

  122. So imagine if your doctor is talking to you in the office and you get your blood work and it's like, oh, yeah, your cholesterol's out of whack, we're gonna have to put you on statin medication.

  123. Or why don't you come back in three to six months and you can do, you know, you can take control of your life, and let's look at it again.

  124. And then you then you go, oh, really?

  125. I mean I can do something?

  126. Yes, you can do something.

  127. Okay, you can do something.

  128. You can take control of this.

  129. And so he, I believe that by him making that choice, he is can he has positioned himself to fulfill the ministry God has given him.

  130. And not only that, to receive more.

  131. Right?

  132. Because to him who has, more will be given, right?

  133. And the one who doesn't have that, which he does, that's what he thinks he has, it's gonna be taken away, right?

  134. He's using what he's got because he's choosing.

  135. Alright, next next thing.

  136. So, doc, you're telling me that I gotta get my lifestyle under control, and that's really important with my walk with Jesus and fulfilling my time here.

  137. Like, that doesn't sound very fun, right?

  138. You're like telling me to eat spinach, you know, and eat like a rabbit.

  139. No, no, we're not telling you that.

  140. Because the scripture clearly tells us that food is to be enjoyed.

  141. Okay?

  142. He made food for us to enjoy.

  143. I'm quite certain when he made food, he was thinking about all of us and how he wanted to bless us.

  144. Right?

  145. He didn't make bread to torment us, right?

  146. I know some of you do, some of you think that.

  147. Right?

  148. He made all foods for us to enjoy.

  149. Um and Psalm 103, you know, is a psalm I love and I stand on.

  150. It's bless the Lord all my soul and all that's within me, bless his holy name, and forget not all of his benefits, right?

  151. Who who forgives all of my sins and heals all of my diseases.

  152. Capital A L L.

  153. All of your diseases.

  154. Read down a little bit more in Psalm 103, and here's a little secret.

  155. Who satisfies your mouth with, does everybody say satisfy?

  156. Say it again.

  157. Thank you, that's better.

  158. Yeah.

  159. So satisfies your mouth with good things and restores the strength of your youth.

  160. Like an eagle.

  161. You guys catch the catch, there's a little secret there.

  162. He wants to satisfy you.

  163. And when that happens, that unlocks the door for the strength of your youth to be renewed.

  164. Okay, let me give you an example.

  165. When I was overeating healthy food and then covering it up by intermittently fasting, because I'm spiritual, right?

  166. And then when I'm done fasting, whoa! Yeah, I'm hungry.

  167. And then I got fast again, so I'm starting to gain weight.

  168. No, you know, I think a thing that is more pleasing for the Lord is that we press into self-control and consistency, right?

  169. And then he will choose the fast for us, right?

  170. And so with that, there's a spectrum satisfy and indulgence.

  171. Okay?

  172. Satisfy means I take my time, I sit down, I thank God for the food, I ask him to bless it, and then I just chew it and I'm present.

  173. I'm in I'm there.

  174. I'm in the moment with my family or by myself with the Lord or in my workplace.

  175. You're there and you take time because what does our culture do?

  176. Go, go, go, go, go! Like all my life, you know, kindergarten, lunchtime is set up, and you have a certain amount of time to eat.

  177. High school had 20 minutes to eat my lunch.

  178. Uh college football, same thing.

  179. Medical school, oh boy, you better roll.

  180. You better go, right?

  181. Right?

  182. Teach people about health, but you're not healthy, right?

  183. And so we have to slow down.

  184. I mean, there's just no other way around it.

  185. You have to slow down with our food, with the eating and nutrition and chewing.

  186. And this is one that haunted me for 10 years.

  187. My wife would always tell me, Will you slow down?

  188. You know, nobody's gonna take it from you.

  189. Yeah, husbands, I'm coming after you.

  190. I know, I'm coming, right?

  191. And so my wife told me this for 10 years.

  192. Then finally I got a hold of that concept and I began to chew, and I forced myself too.

  193. Then I realized just a few days later, I'm feeling kind of better.

  194. Like my I had some I had some uh Achilles tendinitis that wasn't going away, it started going away.

  195. I'm like, what in the world?

  196. You know, I didn't even know.

  197. I started limbering up a little bit, I started getting more energy, brain fog started going away just by chewing my food, which ended up reducing the portions that I was eating, right?

  198. And which was not stressing my body anymore.

  199. Okay?

  200. Uh and then so satisfaction is that.

  201. It's enjoyment, it's thanksgiving, it's intention, and then the indulgence becomes selfish, right?

  202. It becomes destructive, right?

  203. It's by myself, it's it's trying to quench something that only God can quench, right?

  204. Cool.

  205. Next slide.

  206. So I want to help us understand pursuing our health and a health lifestyle is actually a pursuit of godliness.

  207. Because Paul told Timothy, pursue, flee from sin, right, and pursue these things.

  208. And one of the things Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6 is pursue godliness, okay?

    1 Timothy 6 chapter mention

  209. And one of the elements of godliness is self-control.

  210. Okay?

  211. Self-control.

  212. And we're gonna press into that.

  213. We're gonna press into how that brings that mixes with a healthy lifestyle.

  214. Next slide.

  215. And you know, where do we struggle with these things?

  216. It's like I just can't.

  217. Like I've done it over and over again.

  218. I lose the weight, then it comes back on, right?

  219. But we well we'll get back to that.

  220. Or the opposite, oh, I know that.

  221. Oh, I got that.

  222. Yeah, the Lord had to deal with me about that when I was getting ready to get into the foundations of health when we went into pandemic.

  223. He took me through it before he'll allow me to take any of you through it.

  224. And I was like, oh, I why do I need to do that?

  225. I got that.

  226. And the Holy Spirit just checked me and goes, Oh, do ya?

  227. Really?

  228. And turned out I didn't.

  229. I really was not, I was not chewing, I was overeating, my the way I was eating was wrong, how I was eating is wrong, and when I was eating was wrong, you know, how much I was.

  230. So, and then I realized once I took hold of that, that I one, I could not do it on my own, and two, I really needed him to do it, and three, he blessed my whole prayer life with that.

  231. You know, it really enhanced things.

  232. So, why why do we fail to connect?

  233. Is like when we're hungry, we have to identify why we're hungry.

  234. Is it because you're truly hungry?

  235. Or is it because you're thirsty?

  236. About 30% of the time you're actually thirsty.

  237. Okay, you just need to drink water, okay?

  238. Uh or are you in a situation?

  239. Are you going through something in your life that's tough, right?

  240. Like you're in a stressful situation, and one way you deal with it, maybe even on a subconscious level, is you just start eating, right?

  241. And so we have to identify those things, and then where the gift of self-control, well, I will I will explain later, can help us through those situations.

  242. And uh, and as a culture, uh, we've created those habits that I talked about where it's a busy culture.

  243. You know, how many times when you're trying to get a hold of a friend or something, what do they say?

  244. Oh man, I've been so busy, and I'm busy eating too.

  245. Yeah, you know, fast, you know.

  246. So we're a busy, busy, busy culture.

  247. Hey guys, I'll tell you something.

  248. Busy does not equate to productivity.

  249. Being busy does not equate to productivity.

  250. All right, then there's false comforts, which we kind of talked about.

  251. So next slide.

  252. You guys know who she is?

  253. She is awesome, she's great.

  254. War room, right?

  255. Her name's Priscilla.

  256. And she had a testimony that bothered me.

  257. And my wife brought it to my attention.

  258. She goes, honey, check this out.

  259. And she put on the YouTube of what it was.

  260. And she goes, Yeah, you know, I really used to struggle with my weight.

  261. And uh finally I just asked the Lord to tell me when I'm done eating.

  262. And he helped me, and then I was able to, I've said, I when I was eating my food, I would just have the Holy Spirit check me and say, okay, I'm done.

  263. And then and then she got well, you know, she got her weight under control.

  264. And I heard I will be honest with you guys, I heard that testimony, and what I said inside myself was, well, I don't want God involved with my food.

  265. I don't want God to tell me when I'm done, right?

  266. If I'm done when I'm done, you know?

  267. And I, you know, it's it's funny now, but it wasn't funny then.

  268. And and God got me to a place where I'm I got got okay with that, you know.

  269. And so if so, if that bothers you right now, it's not me.

  270. It's the Holy Spirit, okay?

  271. All right, next slide.

  272. So that last slide, the title was Are We Willing?

  273. And that point, I obviously was not willing.

  274. But what a prayer you can praise, God make me willing.

  275. Right?

  276. I don't want to, but I know you can help me with that.

  277. And He will.

  278. Um so just quick foundations just for information.

  279. Uh, a found number one foundation is having healthy nutrition that creates a healthy weight.

  280. It creates a healthy weight where you feel good and have energy.

  281. Okay, and I really want to stress the intention again with your time with eating and chewing things more fully and just taking time and being present.

  282. And then in terms of the things that you should be eating, we really handled a lot in the conference yesterday.

  283. Um, but obviously most of us know those things like you know, fruits and vegetables and organic things, and we don't have to talk about it for this talk because I really want to press into the spiritual stuff.

  284. Next slide.

  285. All right, really important, guys, that we God, we are mostly water, we are about 70% water, and we need a good amount of water per day.

  286. And like I mentioned, a lot of times we're really thirsty and not hungry.

  287. So water will help us get kickstarted in our health foundation, and that is just 65 to 80 ounces consistently, consistently, and you will find that your metabolism will go up, that your ability to burn fat will go up, your body's ability to detoxify will go up.

  288. So it does a lot of benefits just by drinking healthy, clean spring water, okay, not out of the tap.

  289. Alright, next slide.

  290. Sleep, guys, we have to rest.

  291. Man, especially now in the time that we live in and the culture that we live in, that that embraces just being as busy as possible, and somehow that equates to being important.

  292. No, we need to rest.

  293. And if you're like me, my wife and I have five children, and when they're in bed, it's our time to be together, which could last till midnight, right?

  294. And we were doing that for a while, and that was having consequences on my health over time.

  295. And so we really have to press into taking accountability for how our life is shaped and allowing us to be in a dark room by 10 p.m.

  296. Notice I didn't say asleep, just a dark room, because when you're an artificial light, your body stops producing melatonin because you're when the when the sun goes down and it gets dark, your body starts producing melatonin, which is a sleep hormone, right?

  297. But when you're exposed to light, you won't produce it.

  298. You won't produce it on your own, it shuts it off.

  299. And that's that's not good.

  300. Why?

  301. Because melatonin is the most potent, one one of the most potent antioxidants known to mankind.

  302. And you make a lot of it.

  303. And when you when you get light at that certain time, you miss it.

  304. And then also melatonin is a potent immune stimulant.

  305. Potent immune stimulator.

  306. I mean, they've actually used it in Italy augmentation for breast cancer treatment.

  307. I mean it's that important, guys.

  308. It's always better.

  309. I hear you, brother.

  310. It's always better.

  311. I'm almost done, I promise.

  312. And I uh it sounds like home, actually, yeah.

  313. I miss my wife.

  314. So, yeah, so it's really important to get the melatonin.

  315. And I'm talking, it's always better if you can make your own.

  316. And that's why another reason you want to go to bed at that time is because your organs rejuvenate at certain times of the day.

  317. And the endocrine system rejuvenates in that time window of 9 to 10 p.m.

  318. And so when you get in that dark room and just rest, that that system can fully rejuvenate.

  319. And that's your thyroid, that's your hormone system, that's your metabolism, that's your immune support.

  320. And over time that begins to recoup and rebuild.

  321. Alright, next slide.

  322. And and movement.

  323. I don't want to speak a lot about movement, but I want to shift a mindset about movement.

  324. A lot of us hear exercise, and when we hear exercise, what do you hear?

  325. Go to the gym.

  326. Right?

  327. And unfortunately, that's not realistic for a lot of us.

  328. And a lot of us don't want to do it.

  329. Like Pastor and I were talking about last night.

  330. I go, I don't like going to the gym.

  331. I went to the gym all my life, right?

  332. I just want to get it in and get it done.

  333. And that's just movement bursts throughout the day.

  334. There's something called a four-minute workout.

  335. You can look it up if you want.

  336. It's by a doctor named Zachary Bush.

  337. And he made a four-minute workout you can do a couple times a day.

  338. It just, it's like a metabolic switch.

  339. When you want to think of movement as a metabolic switch to get things moving, like pumping the muscles so all the toxins and stuff can get shifted and where they need to go, where the hormone system can come on and the metabolism can come on and the blood can flow, makes a huge difference for your health.

  340. Okay?

  341. Next slide.

  342. Alright.

  343. So when we're coming after like a shift in our life, particularly like a lifestyle thing, most of the time there's a there's a when we want to make a change that's big, it's gonna take some humility.

  344. It's gonna take some discipline, and we need help.

  345. And the Bible gives us an ingredient for that, and it's called humility.

  346. And one of the voices of humility is that humility asks for help.

  347. Humility seeks people who has what you what you don't have, and you say, Can you help me with that?

  348. And you partner with that, and then you partake in one another's grace, and you can come up under that from a spiritual advantage.

  349. Okay?

  350. So it's really important if you're struggling in this area and you've been trying to do it on your own, there's a reason for that, because there's no grace there, because sometimes we're just trying to do it on our own and we need help.

  351. Next slide.

  352. And that's where I get here.

  353. I just can't.

  354. And that's right, that's a true statement because you can't, but the one who lives in you can.

  355. So when you feel like you can't, you speak the word, and I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.

  356. There's grace, right?

  357. Timothy.

  358. For God's not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of love, power, and self-discipline, self-control, sound mind, right?

  359. And so there's grace.

  360. Speak that scripture.

  361. Whenever you get in that situation where it's hard, speak that, right?

  362. Grant us today our daily bread, grace.

  363. There's grace for the day.

  364. It's fresh and new every morning, right?

  365. John 1.16, of his fullness we have received grace on grace, right?

  366. Grace is God's help.

  367. And that we just have to find that.

  368. You know, Paul says, in him we move and have our being.

  369. Right?

  370. Every day, our daily bread, we can move in God's streams of grace, right?

  371. And if we ask anything according to his will, he does it.

  372. And I know he wants us to be healthy.

  373. I know if you ask that, he will answer.

  374. Next slide.

  375. So get to the roots of what caused us to stumble when we when we begin to shift and change and come after these things.

  376. Or is it emotional, right?

  377. Is there some sort of emotional root there?

  378. Where one of the times when we have pain, we deal with it with temporary comfort, right?

  379. When really the gift of self-control will allow you to get distance in that moment where you have to make a decision and then allow God to really turn you where you really need to go, right?

  380. Uh legalism, I got a funny little story about legalism, is I did this thing that I was gonna put my patients through, a little dietary program.

  381. And it just happened to be in my birthday about halfway through, and my wife, and about day 10, I was I was on the program.

  382. I'm not gonna change.

  383. Okay, I'm gonna do this.

  384. Yeah.

  385. And of course, it came to day 10, and at my birthday, my wife made me a cake.

  386. I'm not gonna eat the cake, you know, and of course, funny thing my wife would feel about that.

  387. Not good, right?

  388. And that that's that's already out of balance right there, right?

  389. When you're making your wife mad, that's just not smart, right?

  390. Not good.

  391. And uh, yeah, your prayers are a brass ceiling, right?

  392. So yeah, and so I just I literally panicked when it came time to have my birthday dinner.

  393. And the Lord goes, exactly.

  394. He goes, it's all or nothing with you, isn't it?

  395. It's called illegalism, right?

  396. Guys, have your birthday cake on your birthday, your anniversary, on Thanksgiving, have some pumpkin ply for goodness' sake, right?

  397. But it's just like discipline over time, you know, it's like a withdrawal deposit thing with the body, you know?

  398. It's a withdrawal deposit, you know.

  399. You make sure you've got a big bank account so you can make a withdrawal once in a while, right?

  400. That's that healthy, solid, balanced foundation.

  401. So don't be a legalist, okay?

  402. Uh and pride.

  403. You know, pride is is all of us deal with that, you know.

  404. I've dealt with that a lot.

  405. And pride basically won't ask for help.

  406. Pride tries to do it on its own, right?

  407. And I don't know about you, but I'm if I I'm learning that God loves it when we come together.

  408. He loves it when we ask for help from one another.

  409. Because then it's just an excuse for us to be together.

  410. Because we're gonna have to get used to that in order to be together for eternity.

  411. So sometimes he just gives us reasons to be together, but there's always a higher purpose, right?

  412. So so I would say, man, just find that grace through humility to have that breakthrough.

  413. And I know it's in this body.

  414. Your breakthrough is in this body somewhere, you know.

  415. All right, next slide.

  416. Uh discipline, the definition in the Oxford languages, is to train somebody to obey the rules and follow behavior.

  417. So habitual habit things that we just do subconsciously without thinking about it, like based on the complexity of the behavior, dictates how long it's going to take for you to get in the habit.

  418. So if we can partner with God and ask Him for the gift of self-control and have somebody in our life to help us when we're weak, that if we consistently do that, you know, for days, it actually starts to become ingrained in you.

  419. And then that old, that those crooked places start to become straight, right?

  420. And then it gets easier.

  421. Why?

  422. Because you start feeling better and you actually like it.

  423. And it starts to feed on itself, right?

  424. And then it becomes a habit.

  425. But you've got to go through that groaning period.

  426. Anytime we gotta make a change in anything, right?

  427. Cool.

  428. Yeah, and one other thing I wanted to say is if you're gonna make a change in your lifestyle with your nutrition and whatnot, it has to be attractive, it has to be enjoyable, right?

  429. Like you don't want to do something that makes you miserable, right?

  430. And so you have to be something you can do on a bad day, meaning a day where you just don't have a whole lot of willpower, right?

  431. You want it to be doable and easy and attractive every day.

  432. One of the things the culture taught me in terms of discipline is it has to be hard.

  433. If it ain't hard, if it ain't up at four in the morning, like Rocky Four, get ready to fight the Russian, then it ain't gonna work, you know?

  434. Well, it turns out you're gonna blow up you're gonna blow up after about a week, then you're gonna go back to where you were, right?

  435. So just ease into it.

  436. Uh, and I want to make this really clear.

  437. This is not a talk about willpower.

  438. Because what is willpower?

  439. Willpower is a worldly thing that's about you.

  440. How strong am I?

  441. You know, I can do this, you know.

  442. You can't.

  443. Alright?

  444. Willpower is depletable, it's variable day to day.

  445. But we need self-control.

  446. That's a spiritual gift from the Father that empowers us and enables us to walk the life that we want, and it's never too late.

  447. Okay?

  448. And then what the gift of self-control does, and it's more than it's about their food, it's about those moment-to-moment choices we make throughout the day.

  449. It's about our emotions, it's about so many things, our finances, right?

  450. And what I've learned is if we take hold of those basic foundations I presented, it's gonna spill over into other parts of your life, like your marriage, your work, your finances, right?

  451. Your ministry.

  452. It will spill over.

  453. Can you imagine?

  454. Going back to those walls that are broken down.

  455. Now you're closing.

  456. Now you're more fortified.

  457. And what I've found just personally is my prayer life is amplified greatly, you know?

  458. And I believe he wants that for all of us.

  459. So when I was talking about chewing and talking about how I began to improve my health, now it turns out in Chinese medicine, the food receives the stomach, and the spleen also has to deal with that right away.

  460. And the spleen's job is to purify the food and to help distribute blood flow, along with obviously the heart and the liver.

  461. Um, but the spleen's kind of like first up.

  462. And when you overeat or eat the wrong thing, or eat too much of a good thing, it's a stress on the spleen.

  463. And over time, what happens is it shuts down blood flow to the joints and to the tendons and ligaments, and you start getting what?

  464. Rickety and stiff.

  465. Alright?

  466. You start getting you start getting maybe a little bit brain fogged.

  467. Um, it puts stress on the digestion, and it also decreases your body's ability to uptake nutrients.

  468. Okay, so when you actually go the other way, when you reduce the portions and and not don't stress the spleen, then the blood flow improves and you start limbering up.

  469. So it's a super cool, super cool benefits there.

  470. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you.

  471. Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

  472. It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

  473. And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

  474. My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

  475. You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

  476. And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to theroad.org.

  477. God bless you.