FCWC12: Tuesday Evening

Last night, Cory told us that God's dream for us is that we would thrive, not survive. Tonight, Cory talked about our diet.

In order to thrive, we must take control of what INFLUENCES and VOICES we allow to speak into our lives.

²³ Above all else, guard your heart,
   for everything you do flows from it.
~Proverbs 4 (NIV)

We need to watch what goes into our hearts and our minds. Marketers sell us a lot of things: electronics, books, movies, food, etc., and they don't care what it does to us or our hearts. We need to be the ones to guard our hearts from things that are not good for us.

We went back to the story of Daniel:

 ³ Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— ⁴ young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. ⁵ The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.
~Daniel 1 (NIV)

Daniel and the others were brought in to enculture them into Babylon to be leaders. They were bombarded with the culture, which was primarily pagan beliefs. Daniel knew that the food wasn't following God's law, so he had to chose: conform or chose God?

⁸ But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
~Daniel 1 (NIV)

Daniel put his future on the line and the officials obliged. Daniel thrived when he followed God.

Like when you eat, you have control of what goes into your heart, body, mind, and spiritual diet. Make wise decisions so things don't get in the way. Can you think of some things that come between you and God?

How to control your spiritual diet:

1. Some voices and influences right now are making you HEALTHY: KEEP THEM in your diet. These include church, prayer, exercise, recovery, bible study/youth group.
   ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it. ~2 Timothy 3:14 (NIV). You control what is helping you grow.
2. Some voices and influences right now are making you AT RISK: LIMIT THEM in your diet. These include bad diets, some media, friends, websites. These items can go either way.
    ⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” ~Genesis 4:6-7 (NIV). Control what you are doing, and think about why you allow these things into your diet.
3. Some voices and influences right now are making you SICK: TOSS THEM COMPLETELY from your diet. These include drugs, friends, media, sex, and things that are obviously toxic.
   

    ³ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. ~Ephesians 5:3 (NIV).                            ¹⁹ A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.~Acts 19:19 (NIV).

At the end of the service, the campers wrote on pieces of paper:

• Freezer: want/need to keep
• Strainer/Collander: want to limit
• Garbage: what needs to be thrown away (campers then threw away these voices and influences)