[0:00] This is the evening service at Holy Trinity on the 6th of March 2005. The preacher is Paul Barker. His sermon is entitled From Gluttony to Self-Control and is based on Philippians 3, verses 17 to 21.
[0:26] Glorious food, hot sausage and mustard, wild dairy food, cold jelly and custard, sweet pudding and sour boys, lost in the question, rich children and happy boys in digestion.
[0:49] Food, glorious food, where I just try it, free breakfast day, our favourite diet, just a great big steak, fried, roasted off stewed, oh food, wonderful food, marvellous food, glorious food.
[1:11] Please, sir, can I have some more? Let's pray.
[1:23] Our Father, we pray tonight that as we come to your word, not only will our hearts and minds and ears and eyes be attentive to it, but that our stomachs may be conformed also by your word, that we may be no longer gluttons, but possessing the spiritual fruit of self-control, so that we may honour the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do. Amen.
[1:52] Are you a glutton? Is gluttony really such a deadly sin? After all, surely gluttons are those people who just can't stop eating, who have a sort of compulsive eating disorder and just keep eating and eating and eating.
[2:09] We're not like that, surely. Is gluttony really such a deadly sin? Surely gluttony is not as serious as pride or perhaps lust or anger.
[2:22] How does gluttony get onto this list of seven deadly sins? Is it really that bad? Well, of course, gluttony really can be fatal and deadly, physically at least.
[2:34] Obesity, clogged arteries, high cholesterol, they're all things that can contribute to death, making gluttony indeed a deadly sin.
[2:48] But is it more than that? As with the other deadly sins that we've already looked at in the last month and with the couple to come over the next two weeks, the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament alerts us and warns us about the dangers of this sin.
[3:09] For example, in Proverbs 23 we read, Put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite.
[3:20] Well, that's a drastic measure, isn't it? How many people here would, if we followed that statement, literally, had blood oozing out our throat?
[3:32] Put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite. Now the context in which this is written is, When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite.
[3:47] Do not desire the ruler's delicacies for they are deceptive food. What's being said there is not strictly limited to the context of eating a banquet with the king, after all, how many of us ever do that?
[4:00] But when we've got a banquet before us, not succumbing to the sin of gluttony, for food is deceptive. It's enticing, but it's a deadly sin.
[4:12] And it leads to gluttony, which leads ultimately to not just physical death, but ultimately spiritual death as well. You see, it's just food for the stomach.
[4:24] And that, along with our stomachs, will one day be destroyed. That's what Paul warns the Corinthians in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians.
[4:35] Elsewhere in Proverbs, later in the same chapter in fact, we read this, Do not be among wine-bibbers or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.
[4:52] We have to be careful when we read the Proverbs. It's not a strict law of God. It's an observation on what is often, if not usually, the case.
[5:03] And the glutton, along with the drunkard, comes to poverty. They spend all their money on food, in effect. As well as that, they become drowsy. And again, the context is not just physical, but ultimately spiritual drowsiness.
[5:18] Dullness to God. Because we're so physically chock-a-block with food, that we're actually dull and no longer alert to God.
[5:29] In the book of Proverbs, those who do what is warned against are at least unwise, at best sinful, at most sinful.
[5:42] That certainly is where gluttony is heading in the book of Proverbs. It's a sin in itself, and its consequences are dangerous also.
[5:54] Later on in the book of Proverbs, in chapter 28 this time, we read this. Those who keep the law are wise children, but companions of gluttons shame their parents.
[6:11] Now it's addressing their companions of gluttons, but it's putting them in a negative light, a clearly negative light, and in contrast to those who are keeping the law.
[6:22] So that gluttony is opposed or contrasted with keeping the law. Gluttony, therefore, is in the basket of disobedience to the law. And even companions of gluttons will bring shame, we're told in that verse, to their parents.
[6:40] How much more then for gluttons themselves? That's the thrust of that proverb. Now there are observations in Proverbs, just a sample, where gluttons are clearly portrayed in negative light.
[6:55] To the extent that we ought to see gluttony as unwise, and really in the end, in the context of Proverbs and how it's written, gluttony is a sin.
[7:07] In other passages in the Old Testament, we find the same sort of thing. In Deuteronomy chapter 21, for example, in a context now of law, rather than wisdom and observation as the book of Proverbs is styled.
[7:23] In Deuteronomy 21, we read this. It's an accusation about a rebellious child that he is stubborn and rebellious.
[7:35] He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard. Now the context is, if someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place.
[7:52] They shall say to the elders of his town, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard. And then all of the men of the town shall stone him to death.
[8:07] That's serious. For a glutton and a drunkard. Now the wider context is disobedience to parents, breaking one of the commandments therefore.
[8:20] And it's the context of faithful and obedient parents, somebody who is not keeping in general God's law. And they are typified or characterised as gluttons and drunkards. For that is so often it seems a description of sinners in the scriptures.
[8:36] In the letter of Paul to Titus, a little bit into the New Testament now, Paul writes about a number of sins of the people of Crete where this letter is addressed to.
[8:49] And in Titus chapter 1, Paul says that Cretans, the people of Crete, are always liars, vicious brutes and lazy gluttons.
[9:00] Again, it's a general description, but it's clearly making out gluttony to be in the same basket as lying and vicious brutes. A characterisation of sin.
[9:13] In Matthew 11, the same sort of thing. The drunkard, the glutton, the sinner. It's part and parcel of a description of people. Gluttony characterises the sinful person.
[9:27] In Proverbs, in Old Testament law, the rebellious son. The description of Cretans who are sinners. The description of sinners in Matthew chapter 11. Always gluttony is or is associated with sin and with sinners.
[9:42] Now gluttony is not just simply eating tonnes and tonnes of food. It's not simply the case that the glutton will be obscenely obese because they eat huge amounts of food.
[9:58] Not at all. That's certainly a sign of gluttony. But to be honest, most of us, if not all of us, eat too much. It's a sin of the Western world where we have so much choice, so much array of odours and smells and tastes to stimulate our appetite.
[10:19] Most of us eat far too much. And in a sense, we're verging on falling into the sin of gluttony. As we're in a sense, possessed or prepossessed by feeding our stomachs.
[10:35] Gluttony, I think, is common to most of us here. As I tried to work out whether I was a glutton as I began to prepare this sermon, opening yet another chocolate, I thought maybe I am.
[10:50] But worse than that, in a sense, gluttony exposes a deeper sin or deeper error. You see, the glutton, and we fall into this category more often than not, I suspect, a glutton lives for today and not for tomorrow.
[11:09] A glutton is on about being satisfied here, today, now, and not looking into the longer term future, delaying, not anticipating future things.
[11:21] A glutton lives for his or her stomach rather than their soul. That is, fill my stomach is the demand of the day rather than spiritually feeding and nourishing my soul, my mind.
[11:34] A glutton lives for that person, for the self, rather than for another. The glutton wants the stomach to be filled three times at least each day.
[11:45] That is a selfish attitude rather than a selfless one. A glutton lives for this world and not for the world to come.
[11:56] Now, there is a sense in which when we are gluttonous, we are also in this turmoil of living for the world to come as Christians, but yet living for this world now, filling our stomachs and also wanting, on the other hand, to fill our souls.
[12:08] It is part of the line of good and evil that flows through our hearts, in effect. But we all keep verging into the sin of gluttony. And that means we live for today, not tomorrow, for our stomach, not our soul, for our self, not for another, for this world and not the world to come.
[12:25] Gluttony, when it is practiced, leads to a sort of, not just a physical drowsiness like that proverb alluded to, but really a spiritual drowsiness or torpor as well.
[12:42] When Israel was threatened with the judgment and punishment of God to be carted away into exile in the 8th century BC, the Northern Kingdom, as it in fact was, one of the caricatures or descriptions of ancient Israel in the prophets was of its luxuriating gluttony.
[13:05] So in the prophet Amos, for example, in Amos chapter 6, we read this description of ancient Israel. Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David improvise on instruments of music, who drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.
[13:36] That is another name for the people of God, Israel. You see that picture there of the wealthy? They are on ivory beds, that is the extreme wealth. They are drinking wine not from goblets or cups, but from bowls.
[13:49] They are eating choice lambs and cattle, which is again a statement of luxury in that society. They are sitting back, you can imagine them clicking their fingers to their waiter, another chocolate please, and so on.
[14:03] Now in one sense it is a slight caricature, but in another sense it shows spiritual death coming. And it is typified by their gluttony in food and wine, their excess, their luxury as they sit back.
[14:22] It is certainly part of the cause of God's judgment and punishment on ancient Israel, as he led them off into exile for the northern kingdom in the book of Amos, away by the Assyrians in 720 BC.
[14:34] God will judge is what Amos is saying, the sin of gluttony amongst others. And their gluttony is portrayed as a spiritual dullness to God.
[14:47] They are not even grieving over the ruin of themselves, the people of God. They have lost a spiritual edge. They have lost any spiritual alertness.
[14:58] And so as they fill their faces and stuff their stomachs, they are becoming dead to God and his word. Dead to obedience to God's word.
[15:10] Dead to the future. Dead to other people. Dead to God's promises. Dead to God's law. The same sort of thing, and don't just think this is Old Testament stuff here.
[15:21] The same sort of thing we find in 1 Corinthians 6 in the passage I alluded to before. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other.
[15:33] The body is meant not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Now in that section, though fornication is the major topic, there also is the issue of gluttony, stuffing your stomach full of food.
[15:46] And the context there by Paul writing to the Corinthians is, God will judge gluttony. Destruction awaits. It is indeed a deadly sin.
[15:58] Similarly again, Romans 16. At the very end of the letter to the Romans, Paul writes this, For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.
[16:16] And by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple mind. Now he's speaking there of false teachers, but they are characterized as feeding their appetites.
[16:28] That may be broader than just their physical appetites of food. It may be their appetites for ambition or acclaim or applause or something like that as well. But it certainly would involve their appetites of food as well.
[16:42] Their desires or appetites. So again the context is God's judgment will come on such gluttonous. As later on in Romans 16 that's made clearer.
[16:54] And then tonight's passage from Philippians chapter 3, as we heard read the last few verses of that chapter. Paul writes, Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
[17:07] I've often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. So he's speaking of those who are enemies of the cross, enemies of the gospel. They may be false teachers who claim to be Christians.
[17:18] They may be pagans who claim not to be. They are enemies of the cross of Christ. And Paul writes then of them, Their end is destruction. Their God is the belly.
[17:31] And their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. Again, it's a general description.
[17:43] But get the point again. Time and again in the scriptures, sinners are characterized as gluttons. And here is another example.
[17:55] We've seen it in Proverbs. We've seen it in Deuteronomy. I alluded to it in Matthew. We've seen it in Romans and 1 Corinthians. And here in Philippians. The enemies of the cross of Christ worship their belly.
[18:07] That is, they're probably gluttons. Their minds are set on earthly things. And that's so often the catch cry of today.
[18:18] You know the slogan, the Latin slogan that was in dead poet society that typifies much of our age. Carpe diem. Seize the day. Today's the day. Live for today.
[18:29] Eat, drink and be merry. For who knows what's going to happen tomorrow. This verse of course points to the seriousness of gluttony.
[18:41] Because it betrays idolatry in the end. Gluttons make their bellies their gods. And that's the danger.
[18:52] As we pursue gluttony as a sin in itself. It actually becomes a greater and even worse sin. The sin of idolatry. So the person who stuffs themselves full of chocolates on a binge chocoholic sort of night every Tuesday.
[19:07] Or whenever it is. They are going down the path of spiritual drowsiness. But the person who stuffs themselves full of food, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be chocolate. It could even be stuffing themselves full of health food.
[19:19] Who would ever want to do that? That's also leading down a path of spiritual emptiness. The person who gulps down and drinks too much alcohol. Day by day, week by week, whenever it is.
[19:31] Is down the path of spiritual drowsiness. You know after a big Sunday lunch. You sit back. You put your feet up. And you're soon dozing off and snoring as you're pretending to watch TV or whatever it is.
[19:42] Physically drowsy full of food. Full of food. Spiritually drowsy. There's a consistent connection in the scriptures. And as we feed our bellies and turn them into our gods.
[19:56] Then we end up in the worst sin of all. The sin of idolatry. Stomach idolatry. Stomach idolatry is what the glutton is actually practicing.
[20:08] I should also say that stomach idolatry is also practiced by those who are on severe diets from time to time. Those who are obsessed by physical beauty as well, etc.
[20:19] It's not just the glutton who practices stomach idolatry, let me say. But it's gluttony that we're dealing with tonight. Now the pervasiveness of gluttony even in the Christian church these days I think is seen in a variety of ways.
[20:33] For example, in our struggle to practice fasting. Fasting is an ancient discipline. It's in the scriptures. It's not commanded particularly, although some might argue about that.
[20:46] But Jesus encourages fasting at different times and so on. But our struggle to fast, something that I am hopeless at, let me confess, is in large measure I suspect because we're enslaved to gluttony.
[21:00] We're so concerned to feed our face and stuff our stomach. We think that even for spiritual disciplines we're reluctant to, loath to, find it difficult to, fast and give up meals, give up eating for a time, for a spiritual discipline even.
[21:20] We lack the self-control. So how then do we solve the problem of gluttony? How do we break the habit or kill the sin? Just fast more?
[21:33] I suspect not. I remember years and years ago as a teenager doing the 40 hour famine for World Vision. I remember aching with hunger and rumbling stomachs for 40 hours.
[21:45] But in that 41st hour as we gathered together, what a breakfast we ate. What gluttons we were. How sick we felt within an hour or two. You see, fasting more is not the way to break the habit of gluttony.
[21:59] Self-control is what we need. Not giving up for a time and then going into an excess. But being in a sense temperate throughout. Practicing self-control. Well this passage in Philippians that was read for us points us to part of the remedy for this sin.
[22:16] Verses 20 and 21 at the end of chapter 3 say that in contrast to having minds set on earthly things, our citizenship is in heaven. And it's from there, from heaven, that we're expecting a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[22:30] He'll transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
[22:43] Minds set on earthly things characterizes the glutton. Our minds are to be set on heavenly things from where, heaven, the Lord Jesus our Saviour is coming in the future, one day.
[22:58] The glutton lives for today to fill their stomach today. But the Christian is to look to the future, to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. So we have heavenly citizenship that is to direct our attention to heaven, to a future focus as we await Jesus' return on the final day.
[23:16] That's to be our desire, our appetite is to be for him when he comes. We're to look then to the transformed bodies that he will enable when he comes.
[23:28] Rather than stuffing ourselves full so that our physical body now may be groaning under huge weight of food, our bodies will be transformed on that day and that's where we're to look forward to as we think about our own physical bodies.
[23:44] But also that verse 21 says that God will, or Jesus will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.
[23:55] Our physical bodies will be transformed, they'll be more than that though. They'll be glorious heavenly bodies fit for heaven, not just for this earth. The resurrection of Jesus was his physical body lifted up and transformed to be a heavenly body, as the first fruits for our own resurrection on that final day.
[24:16] We're more than physical bodies just to ply with cake. We're bodies that are being prepared for transformation for heaven. And as we keep stuffing ourselves full, we live for here, now on this earth, and we are not looking forward to that final transformation for heaven.
[24:36] Set your mind on heavenly things is in effect what Paul is saying here. We saw it two weeks ago as well when we dealt with our envy a couple of weeks ago.
[24:50] So too here. A consistent remedy for dealing with any sin is to set our minds on heaven. To think of heaven where we'll be perfected. To think of heaven in the presence of God.
[25:01] To think of heaven from where Jesus will come to transform us and take us there at the end of time. This passage also directs us to the power of transformation.
[25:13] So one of the great struggles we have with sin is finding the power to change sin in our body. And this passage directs us at the very end of verse 21.
[25:24] Paul says that Jesus will transform our bodies to be conformed to the body of his glory by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
[25:38] What is that power? Where does it come from? Paul's actually made it clearer earlier in this same chapter. He says in verse 10, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.
[25:54] You see it's the power of the resurrection of Jesus that is the power that will transform our earthly bodies to be like his, a resurrection body. The power that raised Jesus from the dead, from the life of a human on earth, to be conformed to a heavenly body.
[26:12] That power is ours. And it will take full effect on the day when Jesus comes again as our Saviour from heaven. That is power to transform our physical bodies to be heavenly.
[26:26] Power to change sinful bodies to be glorious bodies. Power to conform our fallen bodies to be in the likeness of Jesus' perfect body. Power to live as we ought.
[26:38] That power is the power of the resurrection. So in three weeks when we celebrate Easter Day and we remember that Jesus rose from the dead on that day, it's not just an event out there 2,000 years ago that gives us hope, but the power that changed that lifeless corpse, cold in the grave, to bring it back to life, to warm it up, and to rise it from the dead, just as a physical body come back to life like Lazarus, someone who's had mouth to mouth or something like that, but a body fit for heaven, that power that raised Jesus then is the power that is at work in us to make us fit for heaven, transformed and conformed to the likeness of Jesus' glorious body.
[27:28] This wider context of Philippians also helps us think about what does it mean to set our minds on heavenly things. Yes, it means focusing on perfection, transformation, the conforming of our body, the return of our Saviour, to look ahead to those events and to be expectant and eager for them.
[27:45] It also means, as chapter 4 will make clear, to think on truth. Think on whatever is good and noble and pure, chapter 4 verse 8 that is.
[27:56] That's what we're to focus our minds on, heavenly things indeed. We're therefore to focus our minds also on not worrying. As chapter 4 verse 6 makes clear, we're to focus our minds on rejoicing, even in the midst of struggles and sufferings.
[28:13] All of those things are in a sense fleshed out a bit more in chapter 4. They're the sorts of things to set our minds on. Jesus' return, perfect heaven, rejoicing, not worrying, thinking on truth.
[28:26] That's what has got to be our desire, our focus, so that our minds are not fixed on the next piece of cake. Our minds also are to be focused on pressing on.
[28:40] Well, that's the immediate context before this passage in Philippians chapter 3. Paul says at the end of verse 13, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
[28:56] That expresses the eagerness that is to be ours as we look for Jesus' return from heaven, as we set our minds on heaven. Straining forward, he says, pressing on to the goal, to the heavenly call.
[29:10] Not straining forward to find the next physical meal, the next sausage or peas pudding and savalloy, but rather pressing on to being found in the likeness of Jesus on that final day.
[29:23] Now, overcoming sin doesn't happen easily. It doesn't happen overnight. This pressing on idea encapsulates a whole amount of human effort. We're to push and drive ourselves looking to Jesus' return as our goal.
[29:38] Now, of course, all this doesn't mean that we give up food altogether. That's silly. But rather it puts everything in perspective. Our overwhelming desire and appetite is to be found conformed in the likeness of Christ on that day.
[29:54] But a couple of other pointers, I think, that the scriptures give us on this sin of gluttony as well and dealing with it. After fasting 40 days in the wilderness at the early part of his ministry, found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, Jesus would no doubt have been hungry.
[30:11] That's part of the whole test. 40 days and 40 nights without food or water. He had the power to create food from stones. He could turn what he liked into food.
[30:23] After all, later on, he fed 5,000 with just a handful of fish and a bit of bread. So he could feed himself with whatever he decided to set his mind towards to ease his hunger after 40 days.
[30:34] There was real temptation for Jesus to heed Satan's words and turn those stones into bread. He could do it. If he couldn't do it, it was not a temptation. If Satan says to me, turn those stones into bread, I know I couldn't do it.
[30:47] It's not a temptation to me. But it was for Jesus because he could. But he didn't. He resisted the temptation. He refused to yield to Satan's fiendish ploy.
[30:58] How did Jesus reply in that wilderness? When Satan, trying to tempt a hungry Jesus to turn stones into bread, he resisted. Jesus said, You shall not live on bread alone, but on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
[31:14] Now, it's not just a pious platitude, let me say. He's quoting from the Old Testament, from Deuteronomy chapter 8, which deals with Israel's 40 years in the wilderness and in the context of Israel's failure in the wilderness.
[31:29] Because periodically and regularly, Israel in the wilderness, in the struggle of being in a desert with little food and water, kept complaining. They wanted water. They wanted food. They got manna from heaven.
[31:40] They didn't like that, so they got some quails as well until they got so many they complained about that. Jesus, by contrast, submits to God's word. Man does not live on bread alone, but on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
[31:57] Israel's belly-centeredness for 40 years in the wilderness betrayed their spiritual emptiness. They began with gross idolatry at Sinai, making a golden calf.
[32:09] They ended with gross idolatry at Peor, on the border to the land. For 40 years, they were periodically idolatrous, and their belly-centeredness, their complaints for food typify that general pattern of sin.
[32:26] Not so Jesus. Unlike Israel, he fed on God's word. Israel didn't trust God's word or obey it through those 40 years of wilderness wandering, by and large, that is.
[32:39] They even spoke lies of God and sought to return to Egypt, the place of slavery. But for Jesus, the word of God that came from his mouth was sweet to taste, was nourishing and enlivening.
[32:51] It was sufficient for him, so that he didn't succumb to the temptation of turning stones to bread. There, you see, is what we've seen in recent weeks.
[33:05] Part of the remedy of sin is the powerful, nourishing word of God. Don't forget that these words in the scriptures are powerful to change us.
[33:19] And Jesus gives us an example of that in his submission to God's word, so that he does not fall into the sin of turning stones into bread.
[33:30] For the glutton, here is something far more nourishing, the word of God. Keep turning to and submitting to God's word as we grapple with the sin of gluttony amongst others as well.
[33:45] But a third part of the remedy. Again, we've seen echoes of this in other sins in recent weeks. God's powerful word, God's powerful spirit.
[33:58] In Galatians chapter 5, we perhaps know very well the list of nine spiritual fruit, one of which is the fruit of self-control. Not of human willpower.
[34:09] Oh, I'm not going to have another cake. I'm not going to say yes to seconds. Oh, I couldn't possibly have another second helping of dessert. That's human willpower struggling. But rather a spiritual fruit of self-control that comes from God's powerful spirit.
[34:26] For God's given us not a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1. That spiritual fruit of God, of God's spirit, is to counter the sin of gluttony, the sin of self-control amongst countering other sins as well.
[34:46] It ought to be evident in our lives. The same spirit has been given to each and every Christian. And as Galatians chapter 5 also says in the context of that spiritual fruit in verse 22, it goes on to say that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
[35:06] If we live by the spirit, let us also be guided by the spirit. We saw that passage a couple of weeks ago. Here it is again. If we're Christians, it's not just that Jesus died out there for me, but that we died in him, crucifying our flesh in him, dying to the sin of gluttony in him.
[35:27] And again, it's God's power at work through the spirit to give us this fruit. Self-control, we should say, is not abstention, but rather temperance.
[35:38] Not giving up food, I mean we have to eat obviously, but being temperate in our eating of food. So three things, the power of the resurrection, the power of the word and the power of the spirit.
[35:52] But a fourth final point. The way of the Christian, the way of Christ, is the way of self-denial, not self-indulgence or self-fulfillment.
[36:04] Let me say that I think the attitude of Christ's self-denial is often overlooked and ignored in modern Christianity. Not just on issues of food, but in the wider context of all.
[36:16] Christians, like our world, are wanting to claim every right and indulgence they possibly can. They think that Christianity is about self-fulfillment. It's more about self-denial.
[36:28] Following Christ is taking up the cross, denying ourselves, following him. Self-denial for Jesus' sake will mean that we are not gluttons.
[36:41] That we are temperate with what we eat. That we actually deny ourselves even fast from time to time for the sake of Christ. If we are self-denying as we seek to follow him, then we'll also, of course, confess our sins.
[36:57] And if you're like me, it's easier to generally say, God, I'm sorry for all the sins I've done wrong. But we ought to be more specific. When we name the sin, somehow it loses part of its power.
[37:14] God, I confess that I am a glutton. I feed my belly more than I'm keen to feed my soul.
[37:25] But self-denial also looks forward, not just to the return of Jesus and the transformation and conforming of our bodies. But to Jesus taking us to heaven, to a heavenly banquet.
[37:42] Not a banquet where we'll just gorge ourselves on heavenly food. But rather a banquet where Jesus is at the centre.
[37:53] Where we celebrate Jesus, our Saviour. Where we celebrate bringing in the presence of Jesus and of God, our Heavenly Father. We will celebrate with food.
[38:04] If food is not a bad thing. But it will be Jesus who is our desire and Jesus who satisfies. Amen.