Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 378 - The Ozempic Gospel: Body Image Panic and the Idolatry of Appearance

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Ep. 378 - The Ozempic Gospel: Body Image Panic and the Idolatry of Appearance · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm not talking about the person who needs it for medical purposes.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Not everybody who is obese is obese because they lack discipline.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: There's underlying medical factors.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So let me just slide that category out of the conversation.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And let me talk about the 80% of people who are overweight are overweight because they lack discipline.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: That is a data fact, right?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: For that individual, rather than disciplining yourself to how you eat and how you move your body for your own good, we want to cut corners.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: But we do this also, let's be honest, we do this with our faith.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is why it's this is why Ozempic to me is a cultural artifact because we can apply that to Christian culture too.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So often we don't want to go through pain and suffering or the process of discipleship and discipline.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: We just want to pull down reels and save them on our, you know, little folders and go to quick fixes.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Every single person wants either a biohack, a spiritual hack, any kind of hack to make life easy and to stay comfortable.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, we want the outcome of discipline without the process of transformation.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: We want wholeness while avoiding wounds.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: We want depth, but we're not willing to die.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: We want to have authority, but we're unwilling to submit.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: We want a resurrection without a cruciform surrender.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, a Zimpic is a cultural artifact that tells us something about the nature of our laziness and our desire for comfort over discipline.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: All right, friends.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Today we have some very special guests in the studio.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: We have Jeremy and Summer.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, wow.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: They're welcoming themselves too.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: They're serious about this.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: Good to have you guys.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for joining us.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Time for a cool classy comment.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, friends.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: And by the way, friends, when I read our cool, classy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: You understand that when you read cool, it's like it clears out a room.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's what it is.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_05: No, when you said the word cool, it reminded Oscar that we will hop.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_05: So he didn't change the case.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: All right, here we go.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Time to freeze me.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh when I say friends, when I read cool, classy comments, it's because they wrote it that way.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, Franz.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a 13-year-old boy and I've been listening to your podcast for the last six months.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: You've influenced me in an amazing way.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: I've been struggling with what to do in my free time, and I've been touched with your heart for evangelism.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought I'd like to do that.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd recently got a job.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: So the next time I went to work, I witnessed to a workmate and gave him a gospel tract, and he responded wonderfully.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: He didn't come to Christ, but I could tell I'd made an impact.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Recently, our church was having a Christmas carol service, and they had some people volunteer to invite people on the street to the carols.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: I decided I would go with them and I had some conversations with people on the street, and the people I was with pretty much showed me how to witness to strangers.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: I did that twice and I loved it both times.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: I went on a long trip recently as well and listened to three of your podcasts on the way there.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: On the way back, I watched the first season of the E E T N test Driving Series.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for the podcast and the use of the wisdom you have been blessed in, Hudson Gilbert.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, Hudson.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: E E T N.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's our friend Corey?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: Corey McKinnon.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_05: I got it.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: Didn't I?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: How did you get it?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: The uh the driving series.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Hudson.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: 13.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: Praise God.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_05: Did he say thank you?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, France.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: Podcast ranking shout out.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Oscar Kansas.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: Romania is number 30 in Canada.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: Love Romania.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: Speaking of Canada.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: Do we love Romania?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: We love Romania.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: Where are we at?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: Number 30 in Canada.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: Canada.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Speaking of people listening to Canada.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: I love ramen.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: I love Ramen.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Romania, I love a good bowl of ramen.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, our dear friends.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 30 in Canada, which is big because that's English speaking.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, thank you guys for making us one of the top podcasts in the world.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: And now, a radically revolutionary resource.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: This podcast is Jesus Amplified.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: Oh I see what you did.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: That was very clever.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: What's it called, Ray?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus Amplified.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, what a deep voice to boot, huh?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Jesus Amplified the deeper meaning of the words of Jesus.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: What's it about, Ray?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_05: Went right.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: We got permission from the Amplified Bible to actually quote them.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I was very grateful for that because I love the Amplified Bible because it spends six chapters on Jesus wept.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_05: What does it say for Jesus Bible?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_05: It says Jesus wept a lot.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Really loudly.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so check it out, friends.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Jesus amplified the deeper meaning of the words of Jesus.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Is that a daily devotional?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes, it is.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: You can get it daily.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Ray, how many devotionals do you have now?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: I can't.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_05: Have you read any of them?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_05: I don't care.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: Have you written any of them?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: They put me to sleep.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: Ray, when here's honestly my question.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: When do you put a book out of your mind?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: Is it like once it's published and you got it in your hand and now it's absolutely done.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_05: Move on.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_05: As soon as they send the author's copy, I get excited for a minute.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_05: And then that's it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: It's like having a baby.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: On to the next thing.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_05: It's like having a baby.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_05: This is really cute.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: I'll let Rachel know that.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Are you writing any books currently?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_05: No, seriously, I'm doing doing devotions, audio devotions, and I'm keeping those for a future devotional.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_05: So that's what's going on.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: You're doing what devotions?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_05: Audio devotions.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's right.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: All right, friends, don't forget that.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: And the Living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible, Living Waters TV.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, you could see us if you sign up for Living Waters TV.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: All that.
• 7:23
  unknown: Living Waters.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_05: And while we're speaking of that, Daniel's dog got skunked again.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, he told me.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_05: Big time this time.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_05: And you know what I think's really sad?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's really sad.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_05: What are you laughing at?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_05: I don't mean to laugh.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: What are you laughing at?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_05: The skunk does look like a cat, a black and white cat.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_05: The poor dog goes running out, chases a cat, turns around, sprays on him.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_05: But there is another sermon in creation.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: Sin may look attractive, but it stinks.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_05: Stink it.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is it an inside dog at all?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: Do they let the dog go inside?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Not now.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: But there comes a sticks in Daniel's bed?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_05: No, but not now.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's seriously left outside.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_05: But they they've got the special stuff stuff you spray on it and it gets rid of it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_05: What's that stuff?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_05: That smell you like?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_05: Cologne?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_05: Do you ever?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: What we talked about the other day, the one but chuly.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_05: They just put it on the dog.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: Chula.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's better than skunk.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but Ray, there comes a point where it goes from a poor dog to a dumb dog.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: This is like the tenth time.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's the eighth.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: Don't exaggerate.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: Exaggerator.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_05: But it was real quick.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: Can't oh.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: All right, friends.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: Today we're talking about the Ozempic gospel, image, panic, and the idolatry of appearance.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_05: I have a confession to make.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know what a Zempic is.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_05: No, no.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you got it.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_05: You got it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_05: I read the title to Sue.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_05: She said, What's that mean?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I thought it was another one of Easy's big words, like Exemplify.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_05: Or something like that.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_05: Big word, exemplify.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: I couldn't think big disestablishmentarianism.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Electronics of we were talking about the Olympics.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: The Olympic gospel.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: I thought we were talking about the windows.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: We're taking the gospel to the Olympics.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: Ah, there you go.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: So Oscar, don't look at my nose.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard because you you have like a 40-inch TV screen in front of you.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: Look at my nose.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you're ready for the Super Bowl every year.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: So guys, this is a this is a big deal.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: No way.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: Tiny deal.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Take that shot.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, you know, weight loss, drugs, uh, body uh, you know, issues, body image issues, obsession with looking perfect.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Oscar and my I love how you are able to just um pivot on the fly, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're able to and what with really and make it sound as if you you know what you're saying.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_05: That'll be it'll build a build confidence.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Listen, Mark, man, I ain't playing.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever I say, man, I know what I'm saying.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: I never stop.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm gonna never quit.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever I talk, it's so legit.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need Oscar, you or Ray.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: I could do it myself every single day.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: So listen up closely to what I'm telling ya.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: If you don't quit, man, I'm gonna be yelling at ya.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_05: That was actually easy.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_05: Me and Mark hate rap, but we're fascinated by how you can do it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: That was really good.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: I do know what I'm talking about, Mark.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_05: Why don't you rep the rep the entire Bible?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_05: Let's go.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_05: Genesis 1.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: I bet you can't.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: I should try that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: How about Acts?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: I bet you can't do Acts chapter by chapter.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Acts.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Chapter one, uh resurrection, the commission, and they choose the 12th one.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: Chapter 2, God's promise comes to Day of Pentecost, Sankefaga on the Jew.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: Chapter 3 to set the layman free, then Peter preaches to everybody.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Chapter 4.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: Verse 6.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: You're in the store, Pete and John the rest, and they preach some more.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: I like it.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Poor Oscar.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: Ozempik?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Ozempic.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: We went so be quick and I'm gonna be slick.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: I'm about to preach on Ozempic.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I do.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really excited about this conversation because Ozempic is everywhere.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, just uh a kind of a clarification on what we're talking about in case you're unfamiliar with it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Ozempic is a commercialized name for a drug called GLP1.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of these though now, but GLP1 is the one that made it more probably.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's everywhere.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the conversations over medicine, but it's also in the conversation regarding weight loss and uh how you see it.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh GLP1 is a drug, it's a receptor agonist.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be telling like I know what that means.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what it does: it mimics gut hormones, which lowers blood pressure, which reduces your appetite, which is slowing digestion.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was originally designed for extreme cases of type 2 diabetes, and it's now widely used as a weight loss substance.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh for some, they view Ozempic as a life-saving drug.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, for others, they see it as a cosmetic hack to get the body that they're hoping to get.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, while there may be some conversation out there whether it's wise or not to take it for health purposes, some people equate it to insulin.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's like insulin saves type 2 diabetes people's lives.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And in some ways, Ozempic has been proven to save people from heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I think what we want to talk about today is not so much the details over uh the complicated decision to take dangerous drugs to save your life.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: What we want to talk about is hacking your way through a particular type of physique and why you would do something.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why would you why would you drug your body for the purpose of looking a certain way?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_05: I have a question.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_05: Is this a shortcut to self-control?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely it is.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, some people need it for diabetes.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: So there's no shortcut there.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe it's a shortcut to help you out.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but by and large, perhaps I think so.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think it definitely leans that way.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: That maybe because you lack that self-control.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: So what a Zembic does, my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, guys, is that it it slows down the food from being digested in your stomach and it stays in there two to three times longer than it normally does, which makes you feel like you're full.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: So you don't eat, you stop eating.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Coffee does that for me.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_05: Seriously, a hot coffee.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is a food suppressant.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: Does the same thing.
• 13:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, coffee is a food suppressant.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: Coffee.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: Coffee.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_05: Coffee.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and I'm glad, Oscar, that you you made a distinction between um you know, things that that are done for a specific reason.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like you can have someone that's in a dangerous place and like they need to lose weight quickly.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: I know there's sometimes people have the uh, I think they call it the gastro bypass.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: We've had friends that did that and it worked for them.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, or you know, other things like that.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes they have to, they have to drop weight quickly in order to even do that.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like a lot of times, if someone is is too big, they they have to slim down a little in order to do that.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: So there could be different reasons for that.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: You're right.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna get into like the details.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: We don't understand all you know all of that, but I can say, like you brought up, that people need to examine motive behind this.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because man, this is this is huge.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know, our our good friend Kirk Cameron and you know, our friend as well, his sister Candice.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: Candace had a major issue.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, she was on full house, very famous, but she had a she had an eating disorder.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, she's written a book about it, she's come out about it.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: But but this is I think this is more prevalent than people realize.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I think there are people who would think, oh, not my not my child, of course not, but it it might be, you know.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and so so Mark, where does this come from?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: Is it societal pressure to form to be to look?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um the obsession with perfection has become its own religion, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: The the mirror that is there to serve us has uh caused a weight to be put around us.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and it's hard now because we live, we've talked recently on our podcast about this, that it's hard because we live in a world that is photoshopped, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Every Instagram post is somebody putting their best foot forward.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oscar talked about this on our last last podcast.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we want to do is we want to impress people around us, right?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: The whole idea of why do we go to work to make money and to make extra money to buy things that we don't need to impress people we don't like.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: We we need to be careful with that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, first Samuel 16, 7 says, Man looks on the outward appearance.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: And what has happened in today's day and age is that has become our liverse.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Man looks on the outward appearance, man looks on the outward appearance.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: What is he thinking of me?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: What is she thinking about me?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember ever since my girls were younger, when we would go to church, they would come out with two pairs of shoes, which goes best with this outfit?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I go, they they both go, no, no, you gotta pick one.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: What do you mean I gotta pick one?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody will notice your shoes.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember telling them, hey, here's a test, a litmus test.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: If at the end of the service, when you're done, when you're done hanging out with your friends, you're done going out to eat, look at whatever friend you want in the eye and say, What color are my shoes?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: And if they can guess what color your shoes are, I'll give you$20.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody cares about you in that way.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's not about you.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: And church is not about you.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: What color are my shoes, Ray?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we we need to we need to be careful with that because we are enslaved to our appearance.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we are, and and you see its effects and its impact.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there are times when I'll I'll walk into a store.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: I remember, Ray, years ago, I think that might have been the first, uh maybe it wasn't, but one of the first videos we did, it was another company that videoed you, but we went to Hollywood Boulevard and we were on Rodeo Drive and we were looking at price tags on shirts.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: I got kicked out because you were filming them or taking away.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: I was filming the price tag on shirts.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they didn't like it.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_05: Because this was what, 25 years ago?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_05: And these were over$200 for a shirt, which is like$600 now for a shirt, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_05: And they said, out of here.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_05: And then we couldn't film on the sidewalk because they own the sidewalk in Beverly Hills.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: It was crazy.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was insane.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: But again, it was a reminder to me of the extent that people will go for the sake of impressing others, you know, buying things that are, you know, ridiculously priced.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: I again, I'm not saying people can't have taste and they like something because they like it, they enjoy it, you know.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: But it's it's when it's done for image for the purpose of the praise of man.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the only appropriate word I could think of for that is bondage.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's bondage.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you go to certain countries, I in fact, I'll I'll shoot straight.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Greetings to my Lebanese friends.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: You go to Lebanon, honestly.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, the economy in Lebanon in in the last several years has been atrocious.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: But you you'll go there, and even before, you know, it's always been rough.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: You go to someone's home and you know, it's it's very basic.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: They they get you know, they're struggling really to be able to, you know, eat well, but you look you look at their car and they have like the top-notch car, their clothes are the top notch, because it's all about for some people, image, you know, and so you think of the other repercussions and ramifications and how people um end up getting impacted that way.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I I think of Ozempic like a cultural artifact.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so let me describe that like cultural artifacts.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: When we when we look at Roman culture, for example, we're gonna see uh swords and shields, and that tells us something about Roman culture.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: They were into war and conquering, sure.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you look at agricultural cultures, and you're gonna see um gods that have everything to do with fertility in the land.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, artifacts tell the reason why they're an artifact isn't just because we found it, but because it tells us something about the culture and what they value.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Ozempic is a cultural artifact.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And the two things that I can think that it tells us about our culture is that uh we lack discipline is the first thing.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that we are obsessed with body image.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so the first well, maybe even a third thing, which is that we seek comfort, we are dying for comfort and we do not want to be uncomfortable.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so the reason why I'm bringing that up is because, like you think of again, I'm not talking about the person who needs it for medical purposes.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Not everybody who is obese is obese because they lack discipline.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: There's underlying medical factors.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: So let me just slide that category out of the conversation.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And let me talk about the 80% of people who are overweight are overweight because they lack discipline.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: That is a data fact, right?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: For that individual, rather than disciplining yourself to how you eat and how you move your body for your own good, we want to cut corners.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we do this also, let's be honest, we do this with our faith.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is why it's this is why Ozempic to me is a cultural artifact because we can apply that to Christian culture too.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: So often we don't want to go through pain and suffering or the process of discipleship and discipline.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: We just want to pull down reels and save them on our, you know, little folders and go to quick fixes.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Every single person wants either a biohack, a spiritual hack, any kind of hack to make life easy and to stay comfortable.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, we want the outcome of discipline without the process of transformation.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: We want wholeness while avoiding wounds.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: We want depth, but we we're not willing to die.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: We want to have authority, but we're unwilling to submit.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: We want a resurrection without a cruciform surrender.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, a Zimpic is a cultural artifact that tells us something about the nature of our laziness and our desire for comfort over discipline.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's really on point, Oscar.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because disciplined, because I believe of the convenient age we live in, has really become kind of almost frowned down on.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like, why would you do that when you could do this?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you could, you know, easily.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, guys, look, we we've talked a lot about uh ChatGPT and grok and things like that, and the the the blessings of them and how helpful they are on so many fronts.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm telling you right now, like as I've used Chat GPT and and use it on many occasions for research and and different things like that and and ideas and so forth, but I'm telling you right now, it freaks me out sometimes when I see how accurate it is and how articulate it is, and how it can give you just you know so much uh material that I'm telling you, we are going this is what I believe is going to be one of the biggest problems in the church.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: We are going to have a generation of pastors whose sermons are fully prepared by Chat GPT.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Already have I'm sure it's happening.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: And and what they're going to be are totally fake pastors because they're not mining the word of God, they're not meditating on scripture, they're not they're not putting in the work.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's not even them.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's they're basically just you know regurgitating what took them five seconds to find.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: And if you find yourself doing that, um you probably don't have the gift of teaching.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you find yourself needing to rely upon that so much so that you probably don't Have the gift of teaching.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's so available.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like this, just because I'm preaching this Sunday.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so that chat offers it to you.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So my process is I take a day or two and I write down all of my notes that I get from commentary, culture observations.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: So usually I've got three or four pages of notes.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Then I take that and I find my outline.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: So then what I did with chat is like said, here's my outline and here are my notes.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Organize my notes under the right outline so that I can write the manuscript.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so it adjusts it, and then the next prompt that it offers to me is, would you like me to formulate your manuscript for you?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, there are people that are like, oh, yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Is that where you got Hell's Best Kept Secret 40 years ago, right?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: Ray actually invented chat.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: He's been keeping it secret all this time.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: Picked on.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: But no, that that's Yeah, but no.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: I like that.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: Ray, what are you gonna say?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um, the secular world's forgotten that it has a soul.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's the problem.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's good.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_05: Thinks it's just a body.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_05: Jesus said, What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_05: You can take out the whole world and drop in the perfect body.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_05: What shall it profit a man if he gains the perfect body and loses his own soul?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_05: And the answer is nothing.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely nothing.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_05: I I one of my favorite scriptures is godliness with contentment is great gain.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_05: Contentment.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_05: I remember I regularly visited a lady in New Zealand when I went back to see my parents.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_05: Her name was Mrs.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_05: Wade, she was a widow, and I have got this image in my mind of her face that has always got this tiny little smile.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_05: Just and her eyes sparkled.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_05: She really had nothing.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_05: Her husband had gone, she was really waiting to die in a convalescent home.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_05: But she had this, she oozed this peace that came from that virtue of contentment.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Are you sure she wasn't just laughing at you?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, she wasn't laughing at him.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: There he is again.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_05: There's Ray.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, let me just finish this by saying there's one word that advertises hate, and that's the word contentment.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so they continually sow discontentment in the heart because our contentment means we don't want their product.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so what we've got to do is cultivate contentment and realize as Christians that we can have contentment.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_05: It's not dependent on what I have.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_05: Sorry, it's not dependent on what I want, but what I have.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_05: That's where contentment comes from.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_05: Don't you think so easy?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_05: I agree.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: Let me just share this first tool.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_05: So Jesus said, Lay not for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_05: And if I'm live living for good looks and a good body, the thief of time is gonna break in and steal it.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_05: Oh that's going to happen.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_05: Um Paul said, I have learned in whatever state I'm in to be content.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_05: We know what comes after that.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_05: And all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_05: But I think it's very relevant that that word is learned.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_05: You don't have to take years to learn that principle.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_05: You can learn it in a second from Scripture just by saying, I believe it.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_05: I'll put it into practice.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_05: I will be content with what I've got.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_05: And that's the answer to peace in this world.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_05: Just to be content.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_05: Learn to do that.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: I I think contentment is um so priceless that if you really begin to even taste a little bit of it, uh, you crave for more.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: But what happens is we get derailed.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, think of those times when you seriously felt content.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like just that just sense that sense of contentedness, like we don't need anything.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like man, I'm good.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, when I do that, like Ray, you and I have talked about it before.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: We've been to some very palatial homes, and God bless our.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: You remember the goblets that we had in Texas?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_05: We were I was substituted as a speaker for someone who didn't show up, and suddenly we were thrust to the front, like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table type thing.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: The banquet.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this was a big like banquet uh for a ministry, and but they held it at a home of you know some very, very wealthy people.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: But um, seriously, like we had these cut, they were like this.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: God bless you.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_05: Size of my head.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: Ray could have swam in it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: I fell in.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_05: Easy hit to rescue me.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_05: I did it.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but but you know, we've been to palaces, you guys have been to big homes, you know, and again, I'm not not speaking down on that.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: God bless his people in that way.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, but uh, but when when I when I walk around my my house, it's an average home, you know.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um no taste.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'll let Rachel know that, your daughter who decorated it.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but but something in me, like is after I come back from home is like that, I just walk in my home and I'm just like, man, Lord, yeah, I'm so grateful.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's a simple home, but it's home.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: And you feel that sense of contentedness.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, just give me some mesh potatoes and gravy.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah, just something basic.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, I've talked about it before, like, like how much more do you need, right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: We've talked about it in that, you know, if you're in 10 feet of water and you're fully swimming and you're floating, your feet aren't touching the ground.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_03: Four feet.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, four feet for a in the bathtub.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm just saying, like, what what like in terms of enjoying swimming, if you had a hundred thousand feet of water versus nine feet, like you're swimming, you're in water.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: You're so it's like if I have food and I'm content, I have a house, I have a vehicle, like why are we striving for?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: Why are you laughing?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_05: I'm just laughing here.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_05: If I was in nine feet of water, I'd feel okay.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_05: But if you said this is like two miles deep, I'm free.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: I'm getting out of here.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: There is a dynamic with that.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: But you guys know what I'm saying?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I know what you're saying.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, excellent.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the adage of how much money is enough, just a little bit more.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've often wondered how much money does a millionaire or a billionaire need to have where they can't get something that they want to get, right?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: So if you had a billion dollars and you're able to purchase a small island, I mean, what is another billion dollars going to do for you?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: Give that away for the gospel.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, give that to livingwaters.com for outreach.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Slash donation.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Give us the island.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: We'll take the island.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: That the word contentment in the Greek, I looked it up, contentment with a tent, the color of mint.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_05: Remember, Paul was a tent maker, it means with tent.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm content with that definition.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, the whole issue of discipline, I mean, scripture's clear, right?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Discipline yourself, exercise yourself for godliness.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that that really has become lost.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: But but to be a person who puts that at the forefront, right?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: So, in other words, just like the person who's successful and financially blessed, but they share and they give and and and they're concerned about the kingdom, you you can, you know, you what, Ray?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_05: I was just gonna say, it's just cutting it back to another thing.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_05: How do you exercise self-control when it comes to food?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_05: What helps you with eating?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, a smaller plate has really helped me.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_05: We we used to have large plates and you want to fill the plate up, so we went smaller plates years ago.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_05: So psychologically, it looks like you've got a lot of food.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you could put a mirror on the table so you can see yourself getting bigger as you eat.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_05: You know.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I'll tell you that that's look, as we talk about the subject, obviously all of us have sympathy toward those that struggle with you know with weight issues.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: Well, my fridge calls my name every night.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_05: Oh come here.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_05: What's wrong with your fridge?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_03: And you especially notice it when when you are trying to be controlled.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like I I told you guys recently on an episode, I'm cutting portions.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm doing half portions for breakfast.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: Come lunchtime, man.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm starving.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but how big are your portions when you cut them in half in the first place?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, like you cut a half a cab.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_03: I've got a full cab, I just cut it in half.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm terrific.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, like a like a 10-pound burger to five pounds, you know.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: I actually would love to have here Oscar's answer to your question.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: I uh what I like to do is I because I, you know, I like to eat healthy, I like to work out, but I also don't ever want my healthy eating to be at the sacrifice of fellowship.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so what discipline looks like for me for eating is that 90% of the meals I eat are alone just because breakfast, lunch, and then dinner with my family is with my family.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: But all that stuff is healthy eating.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: But when I go out to fellowship, I'm not gonna restrain my brothers and sisters by like not eating, you know, um, with certain exceptions.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: We went to lunch yesterday and I was like, hey, can we go here because I can eat healthy there?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_05: But like just a cilantro, just a place.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want my desire for health to get in the way of fellowship.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll glad or also I will enjoy a great meal if it's a really good meal, because I don't, I usually am eating healthy.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I also want to say this our conversation about food is really important.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I would say that starts even in front of your kids.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like I never talk about dieting in front of my kids because I don't diet.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Food is not an enemy.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think dieting is is a can potentially be a toxic way at looking at eating.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, when I'm in front of my kids, I talk about eating healthy.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I talk about my body needs fuel.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, I'm that's that's the conversation, that's the way we frame food in our home.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's not diet, it's not less, it's not lose weight.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's I want to eat healthy to take care of my body.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Food is fuel.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we talk with our kids or in front of our kids, we frame it in that kind of way.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Were you ever really thin or really big?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: You guys have seen the pictures.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen it was big boy.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was remembered.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was tiny forever, and then I got saved, and I got introduced to Christian Potlucks.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I blew up, dude.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: I had pictures of me being a big one.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, wait, are you serious about that?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like two feet?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: I got I I got pretty big when I got saved.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: What's that?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh I was almost 200 pounds.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, but I was probably 200 pounds at one point.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Then you're what, five eight?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Five eight, yeah.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest I ever weighed myself was 197.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm sure I was 200 pounds at one point.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: But the two things for me were I went from always, always like working out, playing basketball, doing whatever, to working in a place where I was working 15, 17 hours at a desk, and then I got saved.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I just I just lost track of naturally being a healthy person and I ballooned.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh it only took me eight months to get back down to a healthy.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_03: So you think you I think you sent the picture and you said give it somewhere or something like that.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I don't know.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, wait, that'll find it.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_05: What's the etymology of die it?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: To die while eating it?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I I I found one of the keys for me with self-control is busyness.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_05: If I get myself busy, I can like just editing or something or writing or something that's got my interest.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_05: I just think I I forgot about lunch.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_05: And that's weird for me because I'm a lunch person.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_05: And and that's the key.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_05: So if you find yourself doing nothing, you'll gravitate toward the voice that comes out of your refrigerator.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Oscar, I I like the fact that I I love what you said and how how you approach it because especially with young people, you know, they can get this complex and and they shouldn't.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: They should just eat and enjoy food.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, as parents, we have control over what you know what we're feeding them typically.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: But um, but the idea of look, why do I do this?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like, for example, why am I doing what I'm doing again?
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: Because you guys know I had I was at the end gym, I was working out, I had some heart issues.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: There was a scare.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: We thought they thought I had a blockage, so I pulled back because straining myself is what was causing it.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm back now, and I'm just telling you guys, I love it.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: I I hate the process, right?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: Of like getting up early, getting in the gym, the exertion, the struggle, but like like afterward, that sense of you know, you're breathing, your heart's pumping, you feel good, you know?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and so, and why am I being cautious with what I eat?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because I want to maximize my ability to be used by the Lord.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: I want to have energy.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't want to be unhealthy.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thinking of my kids down the line who, you know, who are gonna take care of me.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to, you know, be neglectful and then cause them to struggle with bitterness because dad, you could have been more healthy, but you just were, oh, whatever.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think what you're nailing here is the balance that uh people are not getting when they hear the word Ozempic.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because ancient monks starved themselves to feel holy, and modern day people will starve themselves to find identity.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so we are looking for that needle on the scale to find our value.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: We we will get on there and go, okay, well, I I number one thing I say to my wife when I get off the scale, and Ray, you threw your scale away if I remember correctly, right?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: So it can't haunt you.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll get off the scale and I'll say, baby, your scale's broken.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, your scale's broken.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: When we went to Europe, I lost 10 pounds, but I gained it back within two days.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when we got back.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: We need to be careful to not find our value in what the mirror or the scale tells us.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: We are valuable simply because we're created in the image of God.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's where we find our value and our worth intrinsically.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, also, side note, I have a BMI scale because, like we were talking about on a podcast or two ago, your weight is not a good indication of your health.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: And for that matter, if you notice, we are using, I was using the phrase be healthy.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was not using the phrase be skinny.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because being skinny is not the same thing as being healthy.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking, sure, exactly.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: Or speaking of uh Ozempic, I remember, you know, we we we live in Orange County, so we all live in in pretty much an affluent neighborhood, whether we're affluent or not.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_05: The three of you do.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_05: I'm in LA County.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but you know, back to school night, I we show up, it's after summer, and we walk in, and like there were clues, I was like, I I told my wife it felt like I was at an Ozempic gathering.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like the amount of people that came back just significantly different.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I also observed that they did not look healthy.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing here's what Ozempic is a shortcut to losing weight, but it doesn't teach you discipline.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: And as soon as you come off of it, you're gonna go right back into old habits.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you can tell someone who's on been on Ozempic, they haven't like increased in muscular structure.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: They have it, they just it looks different, you know.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason why is because the work wasn't put into it.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um we do this, but are there certain foods in modern America that are designed to give you an appetite to make you want more?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, all of it.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's by design.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_03: We talked about that, I think, last time.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_03: That that they they're creating foods that are addictive.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_05: So we we we can name them fine and there's potato chips, yeah.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: I just food in general.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you ever see, they'll do comparisons where it's like a Starbucks frappuccino versus a healthy meal, and the healthy meal is significantly more food, but the Starbucks fresh frappuccino will have the same amount of calories in it.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the kicker is all of that calories comes from sugars, which doesn't keep you full.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be hungry an hour later.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, you're you're exactly right.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: The food market is making us eat more.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, Ray, what are people like in the LA County city you live in, Beverly Hills?
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um he's like LA, as if though LA doesn't have Bel Air and all those places.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: Hollywood.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_05: I use that line quite a lot.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_05: People say, Where do you live?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_05: I say, Have you heard of Beverly Hills?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_05: And say, Yeah, oh, nowhere near there.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, dark shadow underneath it.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, guys, look, there's also an issue, and we've done an episode on this a long time ago, but there is that the legitimate issue of gluttony.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's a reality that's often, you know, kind of overlooked or not discussed in in Christianity.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I understand, look, because as Oscar alluded to, we don't want to be judgmental because it could be, it could be a health issue uh or or something with someone's body.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: I know they say thyroid issues can cause weight gain and stuff.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: So it could be that.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: But there there is a point at which you know that this is above and beyond.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, they have a show called, I think my 600-pound life or something like that.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so you you have people that are morbidly obese and it is a gluttony issue, and that needs to be addressed by believers.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_05: I think the person that needs to be addressed is the person that goes out and buys the fast food for the 600-pound person who's lying at home and can't move.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_05: They just come in and put it by their bed and say, They I want to make you happy.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_05: And they're killing them.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_05: They're they're digging their grave with their spoon, as it's said.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_05: Oh no, it's not original.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is that original that it's not original?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is that you have to be saying that it's not original?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so okay, but let's let let's talk for a minute on the flip side of that though.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: And like, because as Oscar was was speaking, he almost put me in the eye.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh speaking, um, he he's he said something profound, which is rare.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_03: It must have been a hiccup.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but no, the whole issue of you know, being careful about um about judging and and having that that that that spirit.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: And not just that, but when he spoke, I felt um, I felt a spirit of liberty about what you were saying.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, this is this is what I do, and here's why I do it.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't feel like this, like, oh, I gotta do this, and you know, and and I gotta no, it's like, man, I mean, I would almost put words in your mouth by saying you enjoy the way you eat and your exercise and all that, you know.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: But so aside from the gluttony stuff and all that, like being careful to not become judgmental.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things I have to be careful of, if if the Lord is ministering something to my heart or that there's something that's really impacting me or kind of a paradigm shift in my life, I always want to be careful not to run out and just like make that everyone else's burden, you know?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's easy to do that.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_03: We're excited, but like we're all in different places and at different times, you know.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: But being careful about being judgmental in the space.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: So speak to that, guys.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how do we how do we navigate that carefully and make sure that we're not we're not condemning uh other believers in these arenas?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think a big part of that is remembering what the body is.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: The body, as we said before, is a temple, not a trophy.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so if I view the body as a trophy, then if I am insecure about the form of my trophy, then I'm gonna envy other people's trophies.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: But vice versa, if I put work in and I'm prideful about my body as a trophy, then I'm going to judge others for their air quotes trophy.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: But when we see our bodies as a temple, as a temple that that is uh indwelled with the Holy Spirit, then what it does is it frees us to then have a God-ordained view of the self and of the body.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it also frees us from assuming the body should look a certain way.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 139 is incredibly, incredibly freeing here because again, we talked about the difference between being healthy and being skinny.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: There the problem here is that so much of like the you know, Instagram magazines, if you're born in 1970, uh, whatever it is, like all of the images that you see when you're driving down the four or five freeway, when you're walking through LA, New York, or any mall in America, what you're gonna see is this same exact shape or figure because the marketers have turned the body into a trophy, and then you're gonna long to think that you're supposed to be like that.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: But Psalm 139 reminds us that God formed you in your mother's room womb.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he formed me to be 5'8, and he formed you to be 7'2, Mark, or however tall you are, and he formed you ready to be 4'8.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_03: 4'8.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: And the point here is that I we don't the the the the point here is that we tr we to to to question your form is to question God's design over you.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we should not question God's design because He did not make an accident, He formed you specifically.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: I've used this example before where like it was Valentine's Day, and I wanted to make my family heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I shape them in the little hearts and I throw them into the oven, and 15 minutes later, when they come out, they were not the shape.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: There was like a liver cookie, a kidney cookie.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the point here is this you are not a liver cookie.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: You are not made by accident.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever form the Lord has given you, when you take care of it, it is a temple, not a trophy.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: And there is so much freedom in seeing your life in that light.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: Good stuff.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a quote I've shared before, but the this reminds me of it.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is George McDonald.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_03: He said, I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: For to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's seriously one of the most powerful quotes I've ever read because it captures what you're alluding to, Oscar, and that is that I was made by God.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: And the fact that I was made by God means that I look exactly the way God wanted me to look.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I can imagine or envision a you know the greatest, grandest creature.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_03: But he's saying, I would rather look exactly the way that I am than that, and not have been made by God, because this means that I was touched by the Lord, and he had a he had a divine purpose in his mind for me.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: To be who I am, you know, and beautiful.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, Mark, really, at the end of the day, that that's isn't that freedom?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: Speak to that, like freedom.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: What does it mean to be free?
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: I have an admission here.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: When you said that quote, and you said it was the best quote.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: One of the most powerful quotes.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: One of the most powerful quotes.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: I was going to say, Ray, I will give you$20 if you can, Ray, if you can tell me what that quote was about.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: But then you came out and you started giving commentary on that quote, and I knew I was going to lose my money.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: Is that an A B R O moment?
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I was thinking about what I was going to say, which is far more important.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_05: Of course.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_05: Because it was in God's mind in eternity that I would share this quote from scripture.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Psalm 16.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_05: Lord, you're the portion of my inheritance.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_05: The lines have fallen to me in a pleasant place, in pleasant places.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I have a good inheritance.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that that it's just incredible that we have an inheritance from the God who gave us life.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_05: Jesus has left us in his will, written in his blood.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_05: It's that sure.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_05: And I've I've got a great way of getting people to return my calls.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_05: Don't you look, Spanish?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_05: I just leave the the message.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_05: It's about your inheritance.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_05: It's important, call me quickly.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_05: And they call back like that.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_05: And it's this is the inheritance I'm talking about.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_05: Proverbs 30, verse 8 and 9 says, Give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny you, or lest I be poor and steal.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_05: And that's the key to contentment.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_05: Just having that.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_05: Just slow it.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to be stinking rich.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to be really poor.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_05: Just get me somewhere in the middle, I'll be content.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I would.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, say it.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: Say it.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_05: I've forgotten what it was.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_05: Already.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_05: I have short-term memory loss.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_05: Who are you guys?
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, not listening.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_03: Then I'll ask Mark that question.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_05: Now, a woman can listen.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, isn't but men, they just wouldn't you say that what Ray just alluded to in terms of contentment really comes down to being eternally minded.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, godliness with contentment is great cane, right?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get that content?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are you doing, Ray?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm scratching my head.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're looking at my notes.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_05: No, it wasn't scratching my head.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_03: But it's not like when Ray's being obvious, it's not like I'm scratching my head.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the nostrils are flaring.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_03: He gives it up.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where we're going.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_03: You're scratched your head.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna change the name of the podcast to pick on Ray Podcast.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_05: Lightment.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_05: That's a good idea.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_05: You sit in the middle with a dunce.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_05: And you guys have got fly swats.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: And Luke 9 23 says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: So what what do we do today?
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: We we want to uh uh deny carbs.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing wrong with that.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: Deny carbs.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um you want to deny that hot fudge sundae, not a bad idea.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you deny that hot fudge sundae.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: But the the overarching theme is to deny yourself.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: And how do we do that?
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's to be infatuated with someone else, it's to be infatuated with with the Lord and to realize I'm just gonna come up with this.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is this is original.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: You were made for the day, and the day's made for you.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oscar, that's a tap of the hat to uh Oscar there.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually Matt Chandler.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, is it really?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, he got it off who got it off me.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: The world says, look better and you'll be enough.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, Come to me and I'll make you new.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Not enough, but new.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're new.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: We we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and the old things have passed away.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: I've said before that the greatest miracle I've ever seen is seeing my wife going from being a non-Christian to a Christian.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: I worked with her when she was a non-Christian, she became a Christian, and I went, wow.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: Her beauty changed when she became a Christian to me.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: And in that, listen, there's great contentment in realizing who you belong to and why you exist.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: And only Christianity can answer that question.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: You were created to know Christ and to make him known.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: Now, listen, if the barn needs painting, paint it.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's Billy Red.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: Put on some lipstick, do whatever you need.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: If you need to lose weight, ladies.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, ladies.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_03: Umgee, wasn't it, Mark?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: Is I don't know.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_03: I thought that's why who I heard first.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, if you need to take Ozempic and you listen, you well, whatever.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have much of an opinion on that.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: We just want to make sure that we do whatever we do all to the glory of Christ, not to the glory of a better Instagram photo.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, amen.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: To to circle back to what I said earlier, which is if if Ozempic is a cultural artifact that tells us something about our desire to avoid pain and discipline, um, then as a reminder, like you got God means to make you into something.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: You were invited to become, not just appear.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: And for that matter, like there's no shortcuts, there's no hacks.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: Christ means to shape us through a process, not through simulation.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so let me, I thought of eight ways in which uh pain is good.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: We don't we don't want to be masochistic, but here's where pain is good, where pain, where God means to shape you through discomfort.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: Eight ways.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: First, preaching the gospel when it costs you something, uh-huh.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: Second, standing for truth publicly, uh-huh.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: Third, leaving a corrupt job, ending a relationship that isn't of the Lord, reconciliation over ob avoidance, forgiveness over bitterness, radical generosity that cost you something, submitting your desires to Christ rather than following through with them.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: These are areas of discipline that cost you something.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to make you uncomfortable, it's gonna cost pain.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: But when you discipline yourself to those things, God is gonna do a work in you and then he's gonna do a work through you.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: Great stuff.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_03: And and let me say as we begin to wrap up that uh we're not talking about some legalistic approach to this.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like God, God permits us to enjoy beauty and desire beauty, and to even apply certain things that help in that regard, right?
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, when you look at God's design of the temple, you know, there was beauty involved in it.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: One of my favorite chapters in all scriptures, Ezekiel 16, where God is speaking.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_03: God is speaking to Israel, and he's talking to her about how he found her in her blood, right?
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_03: Writhing in her blood, her velcal cord is still attached.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_03: But then he goes on to talk about how he beautified her and how he he cleansed her and how he adorned her with beautiful clothing.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_03: And and again, we can go to different things.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_03: God, God loved beauty.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_03: Look at how the the the priests were to dress, you know, in the temple and so forth.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: David was a comely person.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: You look at you look at um uh Song of Solomon and the the praise toward beauty of you know the the beloved there.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so we're not talking about neglect because it's it's okay to desire beauty, enjoy beauty.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_03: You want to lose weight to look better, maybe to for your for your husband, for your wife, as you search for a spouse.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's all fine.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_03: We're talking about the imbalance of needing that in order for you to have validation and going to extreme measures where now you're even dishonoring the Lord with how you're treating the temple of his spirit in order to attain man's approval and praise.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_03: And a big byproduct of that, really, or a big indicator of what's happening, is you're becoming too earthly minded rather than thinking about what's eternal and what matters in our earth.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_02: Easy, would you say that contentment is an oxymoron?
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, stop it.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_02: That is so horrible.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, like I have look, it's kind of like a redirection of a Would you like a punch in the knee?
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_05: Stop it.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_05: No, you're not.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_05: You're reading my notes, Mark, which is wonderful.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_05: Go on.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_05: It's a redirection of it.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_05: This let me do this one.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I'll put flaps on the side of his head.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_05: Those horses have them that blinkers.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_05: Contentment's an oxymoron.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_05: Contentment is a redirection of our desires.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_05: We are content, but hunger for more of God, knowing that his pleasures, the pleasures he offers are forevermore.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's great.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_05: That's what?
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_03: Who was that?
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: Is that you, Bono?
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, that's good.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_05: It was deep until you No, I thought it was like Atlantic.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_05: It was deep.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_05: It was Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, deep and sophisticated.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_05: You have a loose hair.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_05: Can I get it now?
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, it's I've been cultivating it for years.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_05: Don't you touch it?
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's just loose.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_03: John John Piper said, Your body is for the Lord.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_03: We were made to draw attention to Jesus, not to ourselves.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, what are you doing?
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: What's your aim?
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, and that's why I think it is important for us to be, you know, um like presentable in a sense.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_03: Because I people do go to that extreme where they walk away with this, with this sort of like, hey, I'm disheveled and I don't need to care about my brushing my hair or putting on decent clothing.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the opposite.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: Swing.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's not right.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_03: So the whole point is not to draw, because that draws attention.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_03: If you're looking disheveled and like that draws attention in a negative way, versus like, hey, I'm just, I'm not gonna go crazy and ostentatious, but I'm gonna be presentable.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right, what we're saying?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_05: No, I've just learned what to do with my notes.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_05: They're gonna steal your notes.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_05: I don't care.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_05: They're not thieves.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_03: You need to get smart glasses that put your notes in there.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_05: It must be that spray that you've got in your pocket.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you want some of that?
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_05: Pepper spray.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, guys, um, I'm so glad we we we hit on this.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_03: And for those of you listening, again, we can't overemphasize the grace of God.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: If every episode ended with us going off on the grace of God, it wouldn't be overdone because that's what you need, right?
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_03: God is sympathetic.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_03: You struggle with this.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_03: Don't flee from the Lord.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_03: Run toward him.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_03: Confess that.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_03: He sympathizes with your weaknesses.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_03: Lord, I struggle with image.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: I struggle with wanting to look a certain way.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_03: I struggle with loving the praise of man or the attention of man or whatever.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_03: Lord, help me.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_03: I struggle with eating.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_03: I love food, and and there are times I indulge.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_03: I struggle with gluttony.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_03: Run to him.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_03: He's there to help you with his sympathy, compassion, and mercy.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh he wants to balance you out so that you live for his glory and you're effective in this world.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_05: Wait on the Lord.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_05: Ooh, is that a right?
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_03: Wait on the Lord.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I just came out with a new song.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_03: Wait on the Lord.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, Mark?
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_02: Go.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wait on the Lord.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_03: Is that nice?
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_03: All right, friends.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget, Jesus Amplified, the deeper meaning of the words of Jesus by Ray Comfort.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to like, subscribe, share, and send us your thoughts, your opinions, your insults to podcast at livingwaters.com.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for joining us, friends.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you here next time.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, Jeremy and Summer.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for joining us, friends.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_03: Come and look them up where we have the idea what we're doing.