- Well good morning, welcome to Bridgewater. So glad that you're here today. My name is not Bob Kedlecic. I am about the same height. We figured that out this morning. So I know you might get confused that way. My name is David. I serve as one of the pastors at our Hall State campus. And then I serve essentially with our student ministries. And I bring greetings from Hall State. I'm glad for the opportunity to be with you here. I don't think I've been at this campus on a Sunday morning since I did my tours and intern about four years ago. So it's been a little while, but I'm glad to be with you here in Montrose. And those of you who are joining us in Hancock and on our online campus. So glad that you decided to join us this morning as we look at God's word. Since everyone loves a picture of a cute baby, here's a picture of my family. This is me and my wife Joanna. We have been married for six years today, actually as our anniversary. So yeah, go us. (audience applauds) Good job, good job. And then this is our son Solomon. He's about seven and a half months old. He's very cute. He's the best. He's pretty loud even when he's happy. So if you hear some screaming, it's like, is that a cry? Is he happy? I don't know. That's probably him. And he's teething and pulling himself up on everything. He'll probably be walking real soon. So that's our son Solomon. We love him and he's great. So that's just a little bit of me and my family. And this morning to get into the message, I wanna take you back to my high school years. Believe it or not, there was a time when I looked even younger than I do now. Yes, I am aware that I could shave and pass for probably a high school boy. That's okay, I'm aware of that. And in high school, in high school, I was fortunate enough to have my own room. You see, I grew up with three older sisters and we often had smaller houses and so we often had to share rooms and that's just kind of how it was. But by the time I got to high school, I was fortunate enough I had my own room. And one thing you need to know about me is that I like to keep my stuff in order. I like things to be put away. I like things to be where they belong. I like right angles. Like even you might even notice up here, the Bible's gonna be right next to the iPad. Like not just kind of thrown all over the place. I like things to be a little bit more organized. My family on the other hands. Well, let's just say they don't value that as much as I do, okay? And so that's just how they are. It's not a bad thing, it's just a little bit different. And so in high school, as I had my own room, there was quite a bit of difference between my room and the rest of the house. I keep pretty much everything I owned in my room because I didn't really trust my family not to like lose it or mess it up or destroy it. Like it got to the point where I didn't even keep my towel in the bathroom because I like wasn't sure that they wouldn't steal it and accidentally use it. Like that's kind of just how it was in for me in high school. And so my room kind of became a bit of a safe haven for me. And what felt like a little bit of a crazy household. My sister is my mom, they're great. I wasn't trying to escape them. I wanted to be in relationship with them. I love them, but I just couldn't feel at ease with stuff just kind of disorganized. And so my room kind of became this safe haven for me. And it kind of felt like it was the kind of place where I could have some control, some power over my environment, some peace in what felt like a little bit of a chaotic world. I wasn't quite at the level of putting a stay outside on my door, but I didn't really want you coming in and messing up my stuff. Like you were welcome to come into my room. You could hang out for a while, but I prefer that you didn't like mess with my stuff, right? And here's why I tell that story. I think for a lot of us, that's how we can treat God with our lives. We're happy for God to come in and hang out for a while as long as he doesn't mess with our stuff, right? It's like, God, you're welcome to come on in. Let's hang out, let's spend some time together, but please don't touch my stuff. It's like, please keep your nose out of my business. Please let me live my life how I want to live my life. It's like, God, you can come into my life, but please don't mess with my stuff. And whether we're not yet a follower of Jesus, whether we just started following him, maybe we've been around the block for a few times, I think what can happen is we have this tendency to be tempted to relate to God on our terms in a way that feels comfortable for us. And what happens when we do that is we actually set ourselves up as God. And we determine what is most important. And the problem with that is that we make a very, very poor God and we fail to surrender our lives fully to him. You'll hear us talk about making Jesus our forgiver and our leader. And if Jesus is our leader, that means he gets to call the shots in every area of our life. Even in those areas where, if we're honest, we kind of rather that he stay out of. And so we're calling this series, Stay Out. Inviting God into uncomfortable places. We're looking at some of those areas where we'd just rather not let God in, where we'd rather him kind of just stay out of our room. But when we do let him in, we find that his way is actually better. That he actually is calling us into a better life. He's not trying to get into our lives to like mess with us and just be like, ah, you know what, I want you to change this one thing because I'm in charge and you're not and you better remember that. No, no, no, that's not the kind of God that he is. He's the kind of God who wants to call us into a better life. And so that's why he gives us instructions in these different areas. And so far we've looked at money and at entertainment. And I think both of those areas we can probably realize are important, significant, and know why we'd spend some time on that. But today I think we might be tempted to think that this area is maybe it's not that important. Today we're gonna be talking about food. And you might be thinking, why would we spend a whole message on that? Does it really matter that much? Well, the reality is that we spend a significant portion of our lives on food. I mean, if you think about it for a moment, especially if you're the person who prepares the food, you probably spend more time on food than you do on many of the hobbies that you enjoy. You might even spend more time on food than you do with members of your family. It is a big part of our lives. Food is such a regular part of our daily lives that it's very easy to give lots of thought or sometimes very, very little thought to our food and our food habits. Here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Paul gets to the end of this discussion about food that was offered to idols in his summary statement, is this whatever you do, whether it's eating, whether it's drinking, whether it's anything else, do it all for the glory of God. And I think he uses eating and drinking as an example. And you're not only because he's just been talking about it, but I think he's also trying to reach for something that we do all of the time. Think about it, outside of breathing, there's very little that we do as frequently as eating and drinking. It's such a big part of our lives. And apparently, even in something as everyday and maybe as mundane as food, we can glorify God or not. We can eat in a way that brings honor to God or in a way that does not. And so how do we know the difference? Well, I'm glad you asked that question because that's exactly where we're going this morning. We're gonna be looking at how do I honor God in my food? How do I eat in a way that brings honor to God? And today we're gonna be looking at a couple of different passages of scripture. And if you wanna follow along with me, that's great. There'll also be on the screen for you. There's a few different ways to preach on a topic from the Bible. Sometimes you can kinda find a text that says all or most of what the Bible says about a particular issue. You can kinda camp out there. And other times you kinda go to a couple different passages to kinda get a more holistic picture of what the Bible says about that. And so today is gonna be the ladder of those. And by the way, if you don't have a copy of God's word, we'd be happy to give you one for free. We'd love for you to be able to have your very own Bible. And so I wanna get started in Matthew chapter 15. And here Jesus is, he's rebuking the religious leaders for following their man-made traditions over what God says. And so here's what he says starting in verse eight. At the chapter 15 verse eight, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. Then Jesus called to the crowd to come in here, listen, he said, and try to understand. It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you. You were defiled by the words that come out of your mouth. You see the Old Testament law, which was the set of commands that God had given his people, Israel, to live by it. It declared certain foods as unclean. And Jesus here is turning from that. And he's helping the people see that it was really never about the food anyway. The actual issue was deeper than that. The religious leaders had become so good at really become experts in behavior modification, where you try to change your behavior with setting up systems and practices, and they become experts at that. And Jesus is saying, listen, you've missed the whole point. It's not about what goes into your mouth that defiles you. It's what comes out of your mouth. It's not about the food that defiles you. It's instead your words, it's your actions. And so Peter asked for some clarification for this down in verse 15. Then Peter said to Jesus, explain to us the parable that says, people aren't defiled by what they eat. Don't you understand yet? Jesus asked. Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. Great picture for your Sunday morning, right? But in the words you speak, but the words you speak, they come from the heart. That's what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands, it will never defile you. Making sure to wash their hands before they ate was one of those traditions that the religious leaders had become obsessed with and were criticizing Jesus' disciples for not observing that. And Jesus saying, the problem isn't so much the external. The problem isn't so much what you eat, whether or not you wash your hands, although that's probably a good idea, right? Before you eat. But that's not so much the problem. What goes into you, it goes into the sewer, but what you do, what you say, your actions, those actually flow from your heart. You see, I eat what I eat because of something within me. I do what I do because of the desires of my heart. It comes from deeper within me. It's not so much about the externals as it is about my heart. And so here's what Jesus is getting at from this passage. Don't just modify your behavior, monitor your heart. When it comes to food and really any area in our lives, don't just change your behavior. Don't just set up rules and systems, though those might be good and those might be necessary. Make sure you actually get to the heart level. I think a lot of harmful things have happened in the name of Jesus and in the name of religion. When people have made it all about those external behaviors and have ignored the issues of the heart. Maybe you have experienced some form of Christianity that it was all about what you looked like on the outside. No one really cared about what was really going on in your heart and what was really going on in your life. As long as you looked good on a Sunday morning, everything was peachy. I knew I grew up in some versions of that. And I remember how hypocritical it was, how judgmental it was, and most of all, how unhealthy it was for my soul. So listen, that's not what we're talking about here. Jesus is saying, don't just modify your behavior. Make sure you actually get to the heart issue. You see, we can change our diet. We can change what we eat. But if we don't understand what food is and why God gave it to us, we're gonna continue to miss these deeper issues of the heart and like everything else in life, the big issue with food is actually our heart. So with that as a foundation, I wanna ask this question. What does the Bible say about food? Does God give us any instruction on what food is and what it's there for? Food is actually talked about or referenced a lot in scripture. And there's at least three themes that we see throughout scripture that we're gonna talk about this morning. And if we're gonna honor God and how we need to understand them and how they can impact our food and our food choices. And so first, we see that food is for nutrition. You see, the Bible teaches us that God gave us food to nourish us, to give us the nutrients that we need. Let's look at Genesis chapter one verse 29. Then God said, look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And so at first, all that was on the menu was fruits and vegetables. And so if you're like me and you think of mealless pointless without meat, you'd be a little bit sad if God didn't make this addition in Genesis chapter nine verse two. All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and tear. I have placed them in your power. I have given them to you for food just as I have given you grain and vegetables. And so now meat is on the menu and all God's people said, amen, right? Amen, that's right. So God gave us food. To give us the energy, the nutrients that we need, He made our bodies, He knows what they need. And so He provides food for us as the thing that's going to give us the sustenance that we need in order to survive, in order to live. Food is for nutrition. And if that was all that the Bible said about food, we might conclude that food is fuel. And that's all that it is. Maybe we'd even conclude that it's a, maybe a necessary evil or even a means to an end. But that's not all the Bible says. The Bible doesn't stop there. Secondly, we see that food is for pleasure. Food is not simply fuel. It is a good gift from our good father. It's something that he gave us to enjoy. You saw Solomon talks about it in Ecclesiastes nine. Not my son Solomon, but the king Solomon. Eat your food with joy and drink your wine with a happy heart for God approves of this. Listen, we can eat our food with joy. God approves of that. God could have made all food bland and tasteless, right? He could have just make it fuel that gives us the sustenance that we need, but he didn't. Some food is salty, others is sweet, some is bitter, some are spicy, the list could go on. There's endless possibilities for combinations of flavors and textures and smells in our food. God did not simply mail it in when it came to food. He was creative. He was kind. He was giving us a good gift, something that we get to enjoy. And I think these first two themes kind of help balance each other out a little bit. I think people will sometimes be tempted to lean in one direction or the other and kind of ignore the other one, right? I think people who are obsessed with health might so emphasize that food is for nutrition, that they ignore that we can actually enjoy this food too. And people who are obsessed with just enjoying food and only care about the taste need to realize that yeah, we're supposed to get nutrients from the stuff that we consume too. And finally, the last theme that we see in scripture is that food is for relationships. We see people in scripture eating together all over the place. Food is often the thing that brings people together. And we see that in our lives too, right? And one example of that is the early church in Acts chapter two, verse 46. They worship together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's supper and they shared their meals with great joy and generosity. Food was an opportunity for the early believers to share, to have joy together. This early church was together all the time. They had some amazing relationships and life sharing and one of the pieces of that was food. I think oftentimes we can downplay the spiritual importance and significance of food is if it's just this basic desire and spiritual things are more important, but the Bible seems to actually place it in the realm of the important and in the realm of the spiritual. Food is such a great way to slow down and actually connect with those around us. But I think today in our fast paced society, we have often forsaken the table for the couch and for the car. We'll eat in a hurry on our way to the next thing. We'll eat as we are all staring at a screen. We're always in a hurry, gotta get to the next thing. And it's no wonder that our relationships suffer and we struggle with food. Really shouldn't surprise us that much. I know I struggle to slow down when it comes to food. My wife makes fun of me all the time. I'm learning, I think, I'm trying to get better. I tend to view it mostly as fuel, although I do very much enjoy it, but I wanna like inhale it as fast as is humanly possible and move on to the next thing. I gotta keep going, right? For much of my life, I was somebody, if you were around me, you'd hear me burping a lot. People would make fun of me for that also. There's a lot of things to make fun of me for. I give people a lot of ammunition. And you're welcome, by the way, to bring that on. It's a good time, it's fun. And I used to think that that was just because of maybe acid reflux or something like that, that I had some sort of condition, but as I've married somebody who eats a little bit slower than I do and I'm learning to slow down, I've realized it's probably had something to do with the fact that I was like inhaling my food, like it was gonna be stolen. Probably had something to do with it, right? I don't know exactly where that habit came from. I worked at Mose for several years and it often take my break in the back for like three minutes and just kind of shove the food in my mouth as fast as possible so I could get back to work. And I don't know if maybe that just got ingrained in my mind, but I'm learning to try to slow down a little bit. Actually enjoy my food for one, for two, enjoy the opportunity it gives me to be with other people, to build relationships. Now I encourage you to try slowing down a little bit with food too. Ask questions at the dinner table. Sit down and share stories. Engage with your spouse or your kids or your friends or whoever that you have over. Actually take the time to build those relationships around food. The tradition that I think Joanne and I are gonna try as Solomon gets older is to try and have a candlelit dinner once a week. Put away all technology and sit at the table with our food and just have our candles be our light. He's a little young to appreciate that yet, but I've heard of people who do this with their young families and the whole family looks forward to it. It's a special time each week to spend time together, just kind of disconnected from the world and saying, you know, we're gonna focus on this right now, our family, what's important? Maybe it could be combined with some intentional questions about the week. Things like, what made you sad, mad, or glad this week? Whatever it might be for you, food is a great way to slow down and actually spend time with people around you. I mean, when you think about it, food is so inefficient, isn't it? Like food takes so much time. You gotta go shop for it or you gotta go grow it or you gotta go raise it, depending on what your preference is there or combination of those things. And then you gotta bring it home and you gotta actually like prepare and cook the food. And then you have to sit down and actually eat the food and then it takes time to clean up after the food, right? So much, it's so inefficient and our technology has made that time less and maybe it made it a little bit easier. But food is so inefficient and time consuming and I wonder if just maybe God did that on purpose. Wonder if he gave us food as a gift to help us slow down and actually connect with the people around us. Instead of just moving on to the next thing. There's considerable freedom for the follower of Jesus when it comes to food. We are not told that we have to eat certain food groups or stay away from other food groups, that we have to prepare food in a certain way, that we have to pray in a certain way before we eat as a lot of other religions have to do. There's a lot of freedom when it comes to this area of food and what do we eat. But Paul does give us this warning in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12. You say I'm allowed to do anything but not everything is good for you. And even though I'm allowed to do anything, I must not become a slave to anything. And so Paul is saying here, we must not be a slave to anything. You know the way you could say that is we must not be mastered by anything. And so as it relates to our topic of food for today, food should not be our master. We need it every day, yes. But it should not be something that we end up worshiping, something that ends up taking up far too much of our heart, our time, our money, whatever it might be, food should not be our master. And so to help you with that, I wanna walk you through some potential pitfalls with food. These are some areas where food I think can become our master if we are not careful. And the first of those would be idolatry. Maybe the most foundational of those would be idolatry when it comes to food. Idolatry is putting anything before God and even food can become something that we worship, something that ends up mastering us. Yes, we should enjoy food. It's a good gift from our good father, but it makes a really poor God. And this I think can happen on either end of the spectrum. People who are really health conscious can worship food, always so obsessed with counting macros and counting calories and people who are obsessed with, really eat whatever tastes good can worship food. Constantly thinking about the next meal and how good it's going to be. Worshipping food can be anything from spending more time or money than we can reasonably afford on it, spending more of our budget than is wise on food, to using food as an escape from our problems, not wanting to actually deal with them. Maybe it's having to eat out all of the time, like constantly having to get a coffee or a dinner out. Did you know that the average meal at an inexpensive restaurant is 285% more expensive than eating at home. That's an inexpensive restaurant, so I don't even want to know what it is for an expensive one. And Americans spend an average of $300 a month eating out. That's a lot of money. Think about how much quicker you could pay off your house if you used your money for that instead. I know some people who struggle to pay their bills, but always seem to have money for a coffee in the morning or for a burger at lunch. And I'm not saying we shouldn't eat out, I was literally eating at OIP last Sunday, so I'm not saying that. But it can quickly become an idol that consumes far more of our money, our time, our attention, but more importantly, our hearts than it should. So a good question to ask ourselves as we eat is what hunger am I actually looking to satisfy with this food? Is it truly just a physical appetite or is there something deeper that I should actually be addressing? Something that I'm ignoring, something that I'm trying to fill, some hole I'm trying to fill? And I'm using food instead. Listen, I want you to enjoy your food. God gave it to us to enjoy. I certainly do. My wife made me a steak for Father's Day, and let me tell you, it was really good. But don't worship food. Makes a really poor God. Well, a second pitfall kind of related to that is gluttony. And gluttony would be overindulging in food, eating far more than we should. And it's probably frankly more common than we realize in our society. We have more food available to us, more food options, definitely more unhealthy food options than any other society in the history of the world. And where exactly is that line of crossing into overeating, overindulging? Well, I can't give you a chapter and verse. And health experts would probably disagree on exactly where that line is for each person. But I think the point is that we shouldn't just blindly consume all that is in front of us. And all that our appetite says will be good. Should show some restraint, some self-control. That's a fruit of the spirit. Be good thing to have that in our area, in this area of food. Food is for pleasure, but the ultimate source of pleasure is God. And we are missing out if we think that food is all there is. We think that that's gonna be our highest source of pleasure. And I know for me, I have to be careful to not let coffee be something that I overindulgent. I love coffee, I could drink espresso all day long. And so I have to put my, I have a number actually for my day that I'm like, it can't go past this number because I know it's not good for my budget or for my body if I go beyond that. And I wanna make sure I'm not straying into this area of gluttony in my life. Now, you might say I'm an adult, this is America. If I'm gonna crush a 12 pack of beer and eat five burgers every night, no one can tell me any different. And maybe you're right, maybe there's no specific law in scripture that says you can't finish that whole pack of Twinkies in one sitting. I can't give you a chapter in verse for that, but just because you can, it doesn't really mean you should. It doesn't really mean that you should. And while the Bible doesn't give us an exact line for that gluttony, it does warn us against it. And so we do well to try and stay away from it, to show some self-control. And if you're gonna stand on the argument of I can, so I will, that probably shows a heart. It is mastered by something other than God. It's mastered by something else. In the opposite of gluttony, the third pitfall would be asceticism. And that's maybe a word we're not so familiar with. I tried to look up a more common word that meant the same thing, and apparently there isn't one that exists. But asceticism is where we avoid any kind of indulgence and deny ourself good things. And so for food, this would be over dieting, failing to eat enough, never actually enjoying food. This is ignoring or misunderstanding that God did give us food for pleasure. He did give us food to enjoy. Statistically, this is less of an issue in America, but I think we can still fall into it. And I think it would be appropriate here to say that if you're here and you are struggling with any eating disorder, I want you to know that there is hope to be found in community. This message may not answer all of your questions. It wasn't necessarily designed to attack that issue specifically, but I do hope that it gives you a biblical framework within to attack that issue in your life. And I do want to give you a resource to recommend. It's called Love to Eat, Hate to Eat by Elise Fitzpatrick. And she kind of specifically addresses some of those issues from the lens of God's word. So I'd encourage that you to maybe purchase that, maybe read through that, maybe read through it, probably even better with a friend, somebody who can be helpful to you, somebody who can hold you accountable. Listen, we're here for you. We don't want you to have to tackle that all on your own. It is a very difficult issue. It's not as simple as just eat more or just eat less. It's not that simple. Everyone around you might think that it is, but because food actually comes from, again, what do we talk about? It comes from our heart. It's actually deeper issue than that. A fourth and final potential pitfall is self-righteousness and pride. You see, our choices in the area of food can make us feel better than others. You can feel more righteous or more healthy or more whatever than they are and then begin to look down on them. Those who eat really healthy or only organic or only homegrown or whatever that might look like for you can look down on those who don't. And those who really enjoy their food can look down on those who are constantly counting calories. Either end of the spectrum, it can happen to us. I think it's amazing the amount of pressure you can receive from nutrition coaches and online influencers about how to eat and what you're supposed to eat and what you're definitely not supposed to eat. It's amazing how quickly it becomes so judgmental and self-righteous. I know in my life, this can happen really quickly in the area of alcohol. See, I've personally decided that alcohol is just not gonna be a part of my life. I think it's expensive and I think it tastes bad. So for me, like, why bother? But on top of that, I think it's at best dangerous. There's some warnings in scripture that I think we need to pay attention to about the consumption of alcohol. You don't have to look around long at our society to see them there as well. And Paul warns us here in 1 Corinthians 6, not to be mastered by anything. And few things have mastered people as much as alcohol has. And so I've just personally decided that I'm gonna stay away from that. That's a personal conviction that I have. But what I can do with that is I can turn around and I can judge other people who have a different conviction. I can turn that into a weapon. I can turn that into something that I then look down my nose at those who decide that it's okay to consume alcohol, that there isn't a specific thing in scripture that says you never, ever can. I can really quickly get judgmental and self-righteous in this area. In fact, it's pretty serious to send because the Bible has some really strong words for those who are religiously prideful. I mean, think about it. Jesus' strongest words were against the religious leaders. And so whatever our convictions or preferences or habits or whatever it is about food, whatever those things are, we should not judge others based on them. Should not fall into self-righteousness and pride because those are things that will master us. And again, Paul is telling us not to be mastered by anything. And so what do we do when it comes to food? How do we honor God? And something as everyday, as mundane as this food that we have to consume every single day, multiple times a day, going back to 1 Corinthians 6, you say I am allowed to do anything, but not everything is good for you. And even though I'm allowed to do anything, I must not become a slave to anything. See, we can become slaves to a whole lot of things, food being among them. And our hearts want what they want when they want them. And if we're not paying attention, we can find ourselves following those desires off of a cliff. And so Paul is saying, don't let that happen in any area of your life. And certainly not with food. You see, even food requires that you monitor your heart and you surrender your will. Even something as everyday and small as what you eat requires that you check in on your heart and you surrender your will to God instead of to your stomach and to whatever tastes good in the moment. And so my challenge to you this week would be to stop every time that you're about to eat something and ask, how can I honor God with my food? How can I honor God in this moment? Maybe it'll be as simple as just thanking him for providing that food for you. You didn't deserve it, you didn't earn it. That's a grace that he gave you in your life. You didn't deserve it to taste good. That's a grace of his creative ability. Just thank him for it. Maybe there's a deeper issue, a deeper heart issue that you're trying to fill or avoid or cover up with food. And so maybe it's taking the time to say what, maybe I need to address this with something other than what I want to consume here. Maybe it's learning to enjoy food for the good gift that it is. Maybe it's learning to eat in a little bit healthier and actually get the proper nutrition from your food. Whatever it might be, encourage you every time you eat this week. Stop, pause. Ask God, how can I honor you in this moment? Maybe it'll simply be a reminder to pray that much more throughout the day. Wouldn't that be a good thing? Church, let us be a people, an honor God. And something as normal as food. Instead of being mastered by it and worshiping it and subtle or maybe not so subtle ways. Let us instead surrender our will to God in this area of food. He gave us food for our nourishment. And so let's make sure we get the proper nutrition from our food. He gave us food for pleasure. And so let's not neglect to actually enjoy it and to thank him for it. Instead of falling into gluttony on one side and asceticism on the other, let's get our proper nutrition and enjoyment out of our food. And finally God gave us food for relationships. So let's take advantage of the opportunities that food actually does provide for us to build those connections. Instead of letting it become an area where we become self-righteous and proud, I mean what tears apart relationships and more than those two things. Instead let's use food to build bridges, not burn them. And no matter what we do, whatever we do, whether it's eating or drinking, let's do it all for the glory of God. Let me pray. Father we, thank you. For your word. Thank you that it gives us instructions on every area of our life that matters. Including this area of food that I think sometimes we can be tempted to think is so unimportant and so unspiritual, but apparently you didn't think so. 'Cause you know every choice that we make in our life that flows out of something in our heart. It's not just merely about the external, it's not merely about the choice, it's not merely about the behavior, that there's something in our heart that we're trying to meet with this food. And so Father I pray that you'd help us to be a people that honor you in our food choices this week and throughout our life. Father thank you for giving us food. You were really kind with that. You could've made a bland and tasteless, just something that meets our basic needs, but you decided to be creative, you decided to be kind. So Father we thank you for that. We thank you for your love for us that you could show into to us in so many ways. Chief among them, being sending your son to die in our place and for our sins. That he was willing to take care of our greatest problem and that problem is sin. Father thank you so much for the gift of his sacrifice. It's in his name that we pray, amen.
