Confronting a Major Cause of Death

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. On the line of fire, Michael Brown, delighted to be with you.

I won't be taking calls today because I'm going to be speaking with a special guest we'll be bringing on shortly, Dr. Paul Burnett. And we're going to talk about some health issues today, some nutrition issues today, a major cause of death and suffering in America, and practical things, practical steps that we can take to bring about positive change. Our thrust this month, our emphasis this month, is let's get healthy. We're talking about spiritual healthy, we're talking about mentally and emotionally healthy, and we are talking about physically healthy as well. And, you know, there are there are many men and women of God who have fallen short, who have not finished their race, not because of lack of spiritual zeal, not because of lack of commitment, not because of lack of passion, but because of lack of health, because of bad lifestyle choices.

Can I say that again? It's not been because of lack of spiritual zeal, focus, passion, passion, some have been people of prayer, and it's not because of health-related situations that were beyond their control, all right, things that happened to them, conditions that just were diagnosed with and no idea where it came from, injuries and accidents or things like that, things that were beyond the control. I'm talking about people whose lifestyles were dramatically shortened, whose lives were dramatically shortened because, because of lifestyle choices. I was making wrong lifestyle choices for decades. I was disciplined in my life. People looked at me as a very disciplined person. I pushed hard. I live with real devotion.

I was, I was zealous on every level, and I mean, I could be more zealous in other ways, but I'm saying I was, I was sold out. I was going for it, but I had poor dietary habits. Even when I got into exercising a lot, I had poor dietary habits.

This was just lifestyle for me. I was a chocoholic. I ate pizza. I could eat pizza every single day. I could eat pizza twice a day, and I'm talking about big New York, you know, I find New York pizzerias in North Carolina where I live, and before that in other parts of the country where I live, and I eat a lot of unhealthy stuff. Now, there was never a day that went by, never a single day that went by, when I ate whatever I wanted to eat all day, all night. I would all, okay, if I'm going to have this extra thing, I'll cut back on this a little, but I'm talking about something unhealthy early in the day, or when I, maybe I wouldn't have lunch after dinner. Always there's going to be chocolate after dinner, you know, sweets then, and then later at night, I just kind of snack through the night.

Jelly beans, pretzels, and then more chocolate, and so that's the way I was living. It's always getting heavier and heavier. My cholesterol numbers were getting bad. My blood pressure was getting high. I was having lower back pain a lot, and obviously, I'm hurting my heart.

I'm hurting my circulation. I'm living in such a way that is ultimately destructive. So, so, as time goes on, you lose energy. As time goes on, you're not as sharp. As time goes on, you might drop dead of a heart attack.

I might have dropped dead of a heart attack, and that's on me. Say, well, God keeps his people. Yeah, but if I jump out of a building, he's not going to stop the law of gravity because I'm one of his servants, or because I'm some powerhouse for the gospel.

It doesn't work like that. We reap what we sow. If I push and push and push and never sleep, I'm going to get exhausted. I'm going to get fatigued.

I'm going to get sick. But what if you're doing it for Jesus? I've done it for Jesus and gotten sick because he's made the body to thrive. He's made the body in many amazing and unique ways.

We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made. I know very little scientifically, medically, about the working of the physical body, okay? I know very, very little in terms of real, real in-depth medical scientific knowledge, but I know enough to know God made the body in amazing ways. He made it to heal itself. He made it in many, many extraordinary ways.

And in point of fact, when we actually take things in that are healthy and nutritious, wow, it is totally life-changing. So I'm going to bring on in the moment Dr. Paul Burnett. He's a board-certified doctor of holistic health. He serves as the director of wellness for TriVita, our new partner, and serves as an executive pastor at his church, so he's very passionate about things physically and things spiritually. And truth to our studio, see if we've got Dr. Burnett online. One, we've just had a problem connecting. And the big question is, okay, if I can be healthier emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically, how can that advance the purposes of the kingdom of God?

How can that advance God's kingdom purposes in the earth? Let's go over to the phones. Dr. Paul, are you there?

I am. Can you hear me? Loud and clear, sir. Loud and clear.

Wonderful. So you combine this passion of spiritual health and physical health. Let's take a passage like 1 Corinthians 6.19. Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you, was given you by God. You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price, so you must honor God with your body. Now, in context, he's talking about sexual immorality, etc., but he's making a big statement that we've been bought with a price. We should honor God with our body. What does that mean to you? Well, you know, in the body of Christ, I think we see the same—many of the same results we see in the world as it pertains to our health. And so there's no surprise that there's an opportunity for us to look at, what did Christ do for us? Well, he gave us the opportunity to have redemption of our sins, which was an incredible price that he paid. But at the same time, if I don't honor my body both morally, but also what I put into my body, what I think about, what I eat, what I do with my body to keep it healthy and strong, then am I really looking at and receiving what Christ paid the price for me to have? I want to be as active as I possibly can.