I want to share with you how to flow with the Holy Spirit. These are deep spiritual realities that are rarely talked about, but every believer should know how to flow with the Holy Spirit, not just in life, but also in ministry. When you're ministering on a platform, when you're ministering in the streets, when you're ministering to a loved one, these are simple basic biblical principles that you can apply to your life immediately. And as you begin to apply these truths to your life, you'll begin to see that it's actually quite easy to flow with the Holy Spirit. Look, we complicate it. In the flesh, we complicate things. But in the Spirit, that's where things are simplified. So, number one, you want to flow with the Holy Spirit. Number one, you have to forget about yourself. Now, I'm not saying that God doesn't care about you. I'm not saying that God doesn't want to move in your life or God doesn't want to give you breakthrough. But when you're flowing with the Holy Spirit, sometimes you can become a distraction to you. Sometimes you can be so focused on what you're feeling or not feeling, what you're experiencing or not experiencing, what you desire, what you think. Sometimes you get in your own way. Let me show you something here. Go with me to Isaiah chapter six. And I want to show you what happened to the Prophet when he was initiated in his calling. Isaiah chapter six, beginning at verse number one, it was the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne in the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him were mighty Seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they flew. So, here already we see the heavenly realm opening. Verse three, they were calling out to each other. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heaven's armies.  Their voices shook the temple to its foundations. I love that. And the entire building was filled with smoke. So, here we see Isaiah the Prophet carrying out his duties. He's being responsible. He's at work for the sake of God's glory. And then all of a sudden, in the middle of a seemingly mundane day, the heavens are open. He catches a glimpse of God's glory. God begins to reveal himself to Isaiah in a way he had never seen before. He looks and he sees angelic beings, heavenly hosts. And as they speak, their voices are so powerful that the temple is shaken to its foundations. Now, of course, he's frightened by this, but verse five, we see how Isaiah responds. Now, imagine this. Here is a man who is witnessing something that is divine. What is his first response? Well, his first response is often our response whenever we encounter the living God, or whenever God is trying to walk us through something. Verse five, then I said, it's over. It's all over. I am doomed for I am a sinful man.  Yet I have seen the king, the Lord of heaven's armies. You notice here that he's very focused on self.  He's probably afraid that he's going to be judged because of those inadequacies. He probably doesn't feel worthy of having this experience because he is so focused on self. He's not fully able to experience in joy or focus on the heavenly display that's before him. And so you and I often will run into the awareness of our inadequacies, the constant questions that berate our minds, the doubts that berate our minds, even to the point where we're so focused on what we're experiencing that we can break that experience. For example, there have been times when I'm flowing in prayer and I begin to sense physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power. Some people report feeling like a wind blows through the room. Sometimes they feel like a heat or electricity. I had sometimes I felt all those things and other times I feel like I'm waiting water, like you can feel like currents or waves flowing through the room. And sometimes I turn my focus from the Lord, from trying to see his heart, from trying to commune with him to focusing on what I'm experiencing in that moment. And the moment I become more concerned about what I'm experiencing, well, now I've just unplugged from the source of that experience. And so the experience dissipates.  Let me say that again. Whatever capacity you're feeling, God fills you in that capacity. And so we can flow with the Holy Spirit in our schooling. We can flow with the Holy Spirit. And of course, we know this in our preaching. When we're praying for others, when we're evangelizing, when we're ministering, when we're moving in the spiritual gifts, but we can also flow in the Holy Spirit when we're being a spouse, when we're being a parent, when we're being a child or a child to a parent. Some of you, of course, watching this are fully grown. And so you're not a child anymore, but you can still be a good son and daughter and flow in the spirit in that capacity. But in order to do this, you must learn to forget about yourself.  And there's a time for questions, of course, but when you're flowing with the Holy Spirit, you have to get out of your own way. Many times we pray, fill me Holy Spirit. And that's very difficult at moments because we're so full of ourselves. We are so crowded in our lives with ourself, with I, with ego, with pride, with doubt, with guilt, with whatever you want to call it that's preventing you from experiencing the fullness of that flow. That's what blocks us from being able to just flow with the Spirit. And again, we complicate these things. We get all tangled up in our emotions. We get all tangled up within self. I want to flow with the Spirit. I want to turn my focus from self to Jesus. I want you to write that in the comment section if that's your prayer. Just write, help me focus. Those three simple words, let that be a public prayer, a public declaration, help me focus if that's your prayer that you want to turn your eyes to Jesus and off of self. Number two, and I think I'm going to spend a little more time on this point than I did on the previous one because this one gets complicated. What I'm about to share with you, it's difficult especially for those who are in public ministry.  Well, number two is you have to forget about others. Both compliments and criticisms. There's a popular phrase and I agree with it, though I don't know exactly how to quote it, it goes something to the effect of, if you live by their compliments, you will die by their criticisms. And this is true. We become so consumed with compliments and criticism that we begin to be taken off of course. We forget who we are in Christ. We limit the unique expression of the anointing in our own lives because we're trying to match up with what people perceive us to be, what people want us to be, what people will pressure us into being. If you're not careful when you're preaching, you're going to be thinking of the critics or of those who will give you a compliment. If you're preaching because you want to hear compliments, if you're praying because you want to hear compliments, if you're moving in the gifts because you want to hear compliments, then you're going to be broken the day that criticisms come. We can't do this for the praise of man. If you do this for the praise of man, you will always fear man because you receive your foundation of approval. You receive your confidence. You receive your affirmation from people instead of God. So then when people stop affirming what you're saying, you adjust to try to get their affirmation again. We as preachers of the gospel have one responsibility and that is to say what God says, how God says it, and when God says to say it. We can't be so consumed by the opinions of others, whether that be compliments or criticisms, that we begin to change our message or even hesitate in the way we say something. Now look, I'm not saying that you can be rude. In fact, I think preachers today for the most part are a little meaner than they have to be and to some extent we celebrate that. The more mean someone says something, the more we equate that with them being truthful. But to be truthful, you don't always have to be mean. Rather, what you should do is just speak the truth in love, speak the truth with boldness, and don't attempt to offend people, but don't attempt to not offend people. Either one shouldn't matter to you.  Instead, be focused on what God has said, what the Scripture says, and say what that says, and leave the results to God. Let me show you something in Mark chapter 5. Go there now. Mark chapter 5. We're going to read a very popular narrative here. Mark chapter 5. This is when Jesus drives a legion of demons out of a demoniac. So they arrived on the other side of the lake. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained even with the chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night, he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. Verse 6. When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed, why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don't torture me. For Jesus had already said to the spirit, come out of the man, you evil spirit. Then Jesus demanded, what is your name? And he replied, my name is legion, because there are many of us inside this man. Then the evil spirits begged him again and again, not to send them to some distant place. Now, this is where it gets interesting. As if that wasn't interesting enough. There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. Send us into those pigs the spirits begged. Let us enter them. So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs. And the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. The herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane and they were all afraid. Then those who had seen what happened told the others about the demon possessed man in the pigs. Now watch this. Here we see a powerful miracle. Jesus demonstrates his absolute authority over demonic forces. Jesus speaks a simple command and drives a legion of demons out of a human vessel. Now the man, of course, in his right mind now, was thanking Jesus later. He was pleading to be able to follow him and go with him. His life was forever transformed. But instead of seeing the miracle, the people in the town saw the mess and they said in verse 17, and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. Can you imagine that? Here he performs a miracle but he performs it in a way that they did not prefer. Now I imagine that this possibly affected their economy at least to some extent because this was, of course, having pigs. This was a part of a business that maybe somebody was running. And so the people were very upset at the mess that resulted from the miracle at the side effects, if you will, of what was happening. And sometimes moves of the Holy Spirit can be perceived as chaotic. People often criticize moves of the Holy Spirit by saying something like, well, God is a God of order and that's true. Or the Spirit gives you self-control and that's true. But what they're doing when they say things like that is they're twisting those biblical truths to imply that everything that God will ever do will always make us comfortable. Will always be perceived as us by orderly. Yes, God is a God of order, but that doesn't mean he does everything that we perceive to be orderly. He has his own order. He has his own way. He has his own agenda. And sometimes that's going to contradict the agenda of man. So instead of saying God is being disorderly, rather we should get on board with what God is doing and fall in line with his order. And here we see the people were upset. Go away from us. Leave us alone. They didn't want anything to do with this. And that's what happens when God begins to use you. People will misunderstand you.  People will place on you a pressure to please them. People will place on you this pressure to fit into their box. People are going to misunderstand you. In fact, let me just put it to you bluntly. There are people who are intent on misunderstanding you. There are people who will take no explanation that you give them. No clarification you can possibly present will cause them to perceive you as a servant of God. You will be called a false prophet. You will be called a false teacher. Well, at least if you become effective, the more effective you become, the more you begin to draw criticism. But if you're going to flow with the Holy Spirit, you have to forget about what others say. And again, not just their criticisms, but also their compliments. There will be people who try to manipulate you. Who will say things to you like, you know, I'm following you and they'll point it out. I'm following you because I've watched everything you said and everything you say so far aligns with everything that I believe. So for now, I'll follow you.   You used to be so different, even though they probably didn't even really know your ministry that well. Like for example, there are people who every week discover that I believe in the slang power of the Holy Spirit.  Don't go down this path. And I'm thinking, you do realize that was happening since the inception of the ministry for over 20 years now. Nothing's changed. It's just now you discovered something that you don't like. And this by no means is unique to me. Everyone will face these things. So you have to make a determination up at the top that when those criticisms begin to come, you're not going to be moved by them. When those compliments come, you're not going to be trapped by them because people will attempt to trap you in their compliments. They'll say, I like that you're like this. I like that you say this. I like that you agree with me on all this.  Because I paid you a compliment because you're aligning with everything I like. Well, you can't flow with that. If you're so concerned about the opinions of people, you'll never be concerned with the opinion of the Holy Spirit. Rather, you have to follow the Scripture. What does the Word of God say? And you have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit spoken directly to your Spirit. And as long as the Holy Spirit that you believe you're listening to isn't contradicting the Word of God, then it is most likely the Holy Spirit. And you have to flow as God has anointed you to flow. People won't like your methods.  People won't even... There are some people who just won't like your personality and you're just going to have to get over that. And it was funny because when I first began in ministry, I said, no, I'm going to keep things so balanced that no one will take issue with the ministry. And I'm telling you right now, that's just not possible. Because the moment you begin to grow in influence, not that it's your influence, we understand it's the Lord's influence, the moment you begin to grow in fruitfulness and effectiveness and impact, there will always be criticisms that come your way. So you're just going to have to be okay with that.  They're going to make fun of what you wear.  They're going to make fun of how you operate. But you have to forget about the criticisms and you have to forget about the compliments. Again, I say, do not allow people to control you with their criticisms or to trap you in their compliments. You do what God called you to do. If you want to flow with the spirit, number one, forget about yourself. Number two, forget about others, both compliments and criticisms. And if you're enjoying this message and you think others would benefit from being able to hear it, make sure to leave a like on this video right now. And that single act will actually help to spread the content even further. Number three, forget about your circumstances. Now this is difficult, I must admit, because sometimes when you're operating in ministry, and again, I'm not just talking about platform ministry, I'm using platform ministry as an example of how you might apply these various different keys, but I don't necessarily want you to just think in terms of platform ministry here. Because again, you can flow with the Holy Spirit in various different capacities of life, not just in platform ministry. But let's take a look here real briefly at Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, I'm going to read verses 12 and 13, two simple verses here. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with the full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. Four, I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. Now verse 13 is often misapplied to mean that anything you ever want to do or desire to become, that you go ahead and do it, use this kind of as a self-help scripture and anything that's in your heart, you go and do it, Christ is going to help you to do it. Now, this is talking about living for the will of God in every circumstance and in every one of those situations, as you're continuing to fulfill God's will, He will give you the strength to accomplish that despite what you're facing. But many believers hesitate in their calling. In fact, we'll completely stop flowing in their calling, we'll stop flowing with the Holy Spirit simply because of their circumstances. They'll say things like, I know the Spirit is directing me here, but I want to wait till I've taken care of everything here. Now I understand that there is something to be said of applying wisdom, but if you have an instruction from the Holy Spirit in terms of what you are to do and the timing in which you are to do that, then you need to get moving no matter what the circumstances are. As you serve the Lord, you'll find that serving God isn't a shield that keeps away trials and tragedies and challenges. In fact, as you serve the Lord, you're going to come up against challenges and those challenges will help to perfect your faith and will help to sharpen your character. But as you begin to flow with the Holy Spirit, you must learn to shut away all of these different circumstances that are attacking you or that are vying for your attention. For example, when I stand on a platform to minister, I leave everything I'm facing backstage. When I step behind that platform, in fact, I step into the room, I can feel the anointing in the atmosphere when I step in a place to minister. And I'm just, if you were to walk backstage, you would just see me pacing. I just kind of either will fold my arms like this and I just pace or I'm holding my hands like this and I'm just pacing back and forth, back and forth, just communing with the Spirit, talking to him, asking for his help. Help me to keep my mind focused. Help me to speak what you've told me to speak. Help me to be sensitive to what you're telling me about the people here present and the people watching online. And I'm just communing with the Holy Spirit, worshiping, praying in the Spirit, praying in tongues, just surrendering and asking him to help me. And I say the same thing to him every single time before I step onto the platform. I say, Holy Spirit, if you don't go with me, and I don't mean that literally, of course he's in me and so he goes with me everywhere I go, what I mean is if he hasn't empowered me unto that moment, then there's nothing I can do for the people. So I'll say, Holy Spirit, if you don't go with me, I have nothing to offer these people. They came for nothing. And if you've been to one of our services, you know they come by the thousands and there's a line hours before the service starts. And sometimes we don't even have enough space to fit everyone. People fly in from other countries for a single service. People drive 12, 14, 16 hours for a single service. People will come in and spend the night at a hotel and plan a whole trip around a single service that they're attending. Desperate parents with sick children will bring those children to that building.  People who are dying, people who are suffering, people who need deliverance, people who have addictions come expecting a touch of God. And I say, if I took any of that pressure onto myself thinking I had anything to do with it, I'd be in trouble. So I say, Lord, it's you and you alone. And so I can't be focused on issues that I'm facing. I can't be focused on the stress and the pressures of my life. And I do have stress points and pressure points in my life, of course. Everyone does. Everyone has their challenges. Instead, I have to say, okay, Lord, help me to set this aside for now. I know it'll be here waiting for me when I come back to this part of the stage again. When I step out there, I want to just be focused on Jesus. So I'll step onto the platform and I just forget about my circumstances. I forget about the trials. I forget about the heartaches I'm experiencing. And I just become focused on Jesus. I'm not worried about what the people are feeling or not feeling. I'm not worried about whether or not they're applauding for the message or even if they are cheering, I can't let that sway me. I can't worry about why they're there or why they've come. I can't worry about what they think of me. I can't worry about my own inadequacies. I have to just focus on Jesus. And the moment you begin to do that, you'll notice there's this flow that comes with the Spirit to where you're not so focused on the things of the world that you're distracted from the heavenly realm. But now there's this flow that comes. Guys, I'm giving you secrets of ministry here. Things that are rarely talked about. And you apply these simple keys. I'm telling you, it'll change the dynamic of the way you minister.   And you remove all of those things from your mind that cause confusion or distraction. And you just allow the Holy Spirit to minister peace. You say, how do I do that?  You have to forget about others. You have to forget about the circumstances and focus on Jesus and glorify Jesus and talk to Jesus and just be so captured by His image, so captured by His glorious person that your mind has no room to focus on anything else. It's not about not focusing on these things. It's about focusing on Jesus with such intensity that these things disappear. And then as you begin to minister in that state, as you begin to live in that state, there's this flow that comes that cannot be manufactured by your own attempt. It's simply moving out of your own way and allowing Him to take over. Romans chapter 8, please go there now. Romans chapter 8. I'm going to read verses 31 through 39. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? That alone right there. That promise alone. That God is with you. You're with God. That alone should help you to forget about yourself, others, and circumstances. But let's keep reading. If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. Won't He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us, whom God has chosen for His own? Going back to that point about criticism, I want to stress this. You get into ministry. You start experiencing fruitfulness. You will always have critics.  And in their minds, they're the good guy. But you have to keep moving. You have to keep going forward. You have to stay focused on Jesus. Who dares accuse us, whom God has chosen for His own? No one, for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. It's imputed righteousness. Who then will condemn us? No one. For Christ, Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us. And He is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us. Now remember this whenever you face difficult trials. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death? As the scriptures say, for your sake, we are killed every day. We are being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us. And I am persuaded that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. That alone should help you to focus on Jesus. Forgetting about all those things that surround you and stress you and just focus on where the Spirit is leading you. One more portion of scripture and I'll be reading this particular portion out of the King James Version, Galatians chapter 5. I'm going to read verses 16, 17, and 18. Remember, forget about yourself. Forget about others. Forget about circumstances. Watch this now. This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Look at what the scripture says here. Walk in the Spirit. I love the way that's phrased and it's very intentional the way that was written. You're not walking ahead of the Spirit. You're not lagging behind the Spirit. You're walking in the Spirit. When I was a little boy, my dad tried to teach me how to hit a baseball with a baseball bat. Now, I am what you would call athletically challenged. I'm not the most coordinated individual. So these types of tasks don't come easy for me. Sports was never really my thing. I was decent at basketball because I was taller than all the kids for a season. And then once they all caught up to my height, I was no longer any good at that particular sport. But my dad was teaching me how to play baseball in our backyard or how to hit a ball with a baseball bat. And every time the ball was thrown at me, I would flinch, close my eyes, or turn away or try to run from the ball. I was just too scared to hit it. So my dad comes behind me and he places his hands on my hands and grips the bat for me. He places his feet beside my feet to help me get the proper stance. And then my brother tossed the ball our way. And again, I tensed up and I remember feeling my father's hands try to move the bat to hit the ball for me. But I was so tense. I was so afraid that even though he tried to move the bat for me, I tensed up and wouldn't allow him. I prevented him from moving the bat. And so he told me, just relax. Just let go. And so I remember closing my eyes and just going loose. And I didn't even know the timing of when my brother had thrown that ball. But I do remember feeling my dad's hands move my hands. I didn't fight him. I just let him do what he needed to do. And as that ball came closer to us, my dad swung the bat using my hands and I felt that connection from between the bat and the ball. The ball went across the yard. I thought, in my mind, I did a great job. But you see, I was fighting the posture that my dad was trying to help me gain. I was fighting the movement. And this is what some of us do. In our tension, we resist the flow of the Holy Spirit. So you want to flow with him. Don't fight him. If you know he wants to do something or he's nudging you to do it, don't fight him. Don't force him. If he's not in something, stop trying to force him to be in something. The Holy Spirit is not easily persuaded. The Holy Spirit cannot be pressured or manipulated. Don't try to force him to do something he's not wanting to do. And don't try to get him to be involved in something he doesn't want to be involved in. Instead of fighting him and forcing him, just flow with him. Wherever you go, I go. I'm just going to loosen my stance and you take me where you want me to go. Forget about yourself. Forget about others. Forget about circumstances. Father, I pray that you would touch and bless each one watching now. As we pray right now, I want you to resist the flesh. And the flesh right now, as we're praying, flesh is going to begin looking for distractions some way out of this. The flesh craves entertainment and distraction. Spirit craves the things of the Spirit. So fight the flesh right now as we pray. I know, especially online, there's probably 100 other things that you could click on right now. Stay focused with the Spirit. This is the anointing flows from the beginning to the end of this broadcast. I promise you that if you learn to fight the flesh, you'll learn to flow with the Spirit. So Father, I thank you that you are giving us self-control. I thank you, Lord, that you are filling us with your peace and joy overflowing. Help that one receiving this prayer now. Help them, Lord, to recognize the voice of the precious Holy Spirit and to move when he moves. To stay still when he stays still. Let us walk in the Spirit, I pray. To walk in step with you is our heart's desire. Teach us, Lord, to flow with the Holy Spirit. Let us sense your presence even now. We thank you. We bless your name. In Jesus' name, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. You enjoyed that. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel.  Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and live righteously, and then all these things shall be added unto you. Jesus was talking about material things. He was talking about what you wear, what you eat, the material needs of this life. And he's saying, Jesus is saying, that if you put the kingdom of God first and you live righteously, that all of your material needs are going to be cared for. We live in a time when many are afraid for their future. But do you realize that in every season, in every year, there's always something about which we could be afraid? There's always an excuse that the flesh can find to not give to the gospel. Always. Every season of life will offer you an excuse. And if you're not careful, the flesh will take that excuse and miss out on the blessings of God in the area of financial fruitfulness. And so I want you to remember that we as believers, all of us, have a responsibility to support the kingdom of God through our giving. That's biblical. That's a Christian duty that we all have. And so I want to challenge you to help this ministry. We have a very simple vision. We are laser focused on winning the lost and on empowering the believer. So evangelism for the lost, empowerment for the believer. And we do that through two simple means, events and media. All of the events that we do are free. The media that we release here on social media is free. And we are able to continue doing that through your generous support. So can I ask you right now to consult with the Holy Spirit in this moment? Ask him how much you should do. Maybe he'll speak to you about 25 or 50 or 100, some of you even more. Maybe he'll speak to you about becoming a monthly ministry supporter. And that's huge, by the way, guys. When we can get monthly ministry supporters signing up, then we can really begin to plan for the future because we have a stabilized income and we know how many people are giving each month.   Or you can go to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner to become a monthly ministry supporter. And you can see the various different partner tiers there on that webpage. Remember, your giving helps us to take the gospel all around the world through events and media. So if this ministry has blessed you, if you believe in what we're doing and you want to get behind this, you want to make a difference in the world, you want to be involved in something that's bigger than just you, I want to be involved in that too. It's all of us together for the sake of the glory of God and the expansion of the kingdom. Don't dismiss yourself. Don't dismiss yourself. Don't say that your giving doesn't matter because it does and fight the flesh because the flesh, that little hesitation, some of you may now be feeling a little like, I want to but then there's that hesitation. Say yes to the Spirit, note of the flesh and do as the Lord leads you. And as you do as the Lord leads you, I believe he will increase your resources. He'll take notice that you are being responsible and obedient with the resources that he's given you and he will increase your resources that a harvest of generosity might be produced in you. One more time, single donations at davidhernandezministries.com slash donate become a monthly ministry supporter by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner. For those of you who are giving internationally, we accept currencies of all kinds. We even now, we've had several of you asking about this and yes, we now receive cryptocurrency.  But do me a favor, if you're giving, do try to give on the website first davidhernandezministries.com and if our form doesn't take your currency or doesn't work in your country, then as a secondary way of giving, you can use Facebook or YouTube or some of the other social media platforms. But we are asking that you try to give directly through the website. Thank you so much for your generosity. I can't express how much it means to me to know that the people of God are supporting this work. We're seeing great expansion, it's a season of great favor, millions watching online, thousands attending our events around the world and it's only the beginning. Get on board with what God is doing and let's win the world to Jesus. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.


I'd like to call the 18th regular meeting of the 2016-2017 Common Council to Order. Would the clerk please read the quote for the day? Thank you, Mayor. The holiday season is a perfect time to reflect on our blessings and seek out ways to make life better for those around us. Thank you very much. Please take the roll for the evening. There are 13 present. Okay, Alderperson Holschew, Lewandowski, and Bitters are all excused. Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Next item on the agenda is the approval of our minutes from the last council meeting, Alderperson Donahue. Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve. Second. Thanks for that motion. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, all those who are pleased to approve, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Next, we're going to move on to some holiday tunes by local guitarist Jim Oldschmidt. Jim, a pleasure to have you today. Please proceed. Jingle bells jingle bells jingle bells jingle bells jingle bells all the way Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh It's a turkey air that sails and toys and goodies on its sleigh The mother's child is going to spy on this symphony It's from 1 to 9 to 8 times many ways With lots of toys and the mother's child is symphony Time's many ways, ma'am Jim, thank you very much for bringing the Christmas spirit to our meeting tonight. Appreciate it. Next, we'll move on to the agenda. 5.1 is Resignations. nations there's none today and The mayor's appointments city attorney. There is one appointment the mayor is submitting the following appointment for your confirmation Grazia Pirella to be considered for appointment to the mayor's international committee with the term to expire on April 27 2017 That'll be we'll lie over till our next meeting Next we're going to have a presentation a year in review by the On a harbour center marina operations by manager Matt bower Good evening for those you don't meet Matt bower the manager for harbour center marina Here to talk to you tonight. Just kind of highlight and review our season for 2016 Use some of the successes we had the improvements we made and give you kind of a preview for 2017 as well Start financial performance is obviously the most key measure of any kind of business there and we'll start with Revenue each of you were handed the projections for 2016 We have the fortune in this business here where things get kind of quiet this year So we have a pretty good idea where exactly we're going to end for the year Starting off with revenue then we saw gross revenue go up $68,000 over last year One of the biggest components of that jump in slips. We saw 36,000 additional dollars in slip revenue In terms of occupancy. We were at 161 last year and this year we reached 182 occupied slips. So a Good jump in occupancy this year In terms of our revenue centers there. We have a lot of other things that help create revenue for the marina as well Fuel sales this year fuel dock did extremely well We sold an additional 20,000 gallons over 2015 Might not look much in terms of revenue gas prices significantly down this year But that was an additional 22,000 hours in fuel dock revenue as well Our ship store also saw significant growth. We thought 30% increase in revenue in the ship store which came out to $12,000 Now offered some new products Changed from late out a little bit there and I was all kind of came together to help drive ship store revenue I Lastly the launch ramp there. I can't take too much credit for that law that is driven off of fishing conditions weather But we saw a great increase in that as well this year. We're up 38% over last year. So That definitely helped as well Revenue is only half the battle there as long as we control our expenses. That's definitely a huge part of it as well In terms of expenses there cost a good sold stated within $50 of budget for 2016 In terms of operating expenses, we saw a slight uptick to tackle some major maintenance issues that we wanted to handle in 2016 Coming down to the bottom line there. We were projected to have a net profit of $102,000 this year That's $17,000 above last year and $10,000 above the 2016 budget for net profit Financial performances is one thing there But how do we how do we achieve that and what what makes people want to spend their money with us there is just as important And first off I just start off with you know customers Well, I might seem like the the obvious choice there to say if we don't put that as a forethought of everything we do every day It's easy to get put away in our daily grind An important tool that we use to measure The satisfaction of our customers are our annual surveys each of you are given a copy of our 2016 surveys this year They serve multiple purposes for us there. We get valuable feedback and ideas on improvements. We can make for next year How voters felt we did this year and It's a good it's a great tool for us there this year overall satisfaction rating was 94 percent Bought on par with last year's up slightly 92 was last year's satisfaction rate there another key component there is The city of Sheboygan there. It's our greatest asset there It's right right in our backyard, and we we take full advantage of it at the marina there We do our best to work with the Sheboygan squared bid district to integrate with local businesses and restaurants And creates You the community for the voters there so they know what they're what's available for them in the community a Couple ways that we do that is for for transit voters We provide welcome packets and those have area bidmaps Direct them to local businesses and restaurants and offer coupons as well And we do events such as the our open house which brings down local businesses for for one afternoon Voters can walk around we do some food for them, and they can get a taste of what is available in Sheboygan further season there Big part of that as well as we try to create a sense of community at the marina as well And we do the biggest way we do that there as we create events that help drive that there a couple of Events that we tried this year were trivia night. We did a wine tasting live music in the pool Might seem like simple ideas there But the whole main theme common theme there is to get people connect and when we get people to connect and build that sense of community It only helps us drive retention And once again, this was one of the ideas that came from our voter surveys there last year We had noted that voters said they were about 85 percent satisfied with the events that we offered We took that to heart And the surveys this year we got 96 percent in the events area then Now lastly Not necessarily the most glamorous part of the job is the dock system and upkeeping that if we don't provide a good product for voters We we don't really have much to sell in the first place One area that you guys might be very familiar with is our aeration project a quick recap on that is last year Jgr Smith's group made the recommendation To replace air Raiders in the marina to help mitigate the dock damage over winter Just a quick update as to where that is what that is for this year then Early November all the air Raiders were put in place they were since tested and We saw our first ice start forming in early December. They were turned on and have been running ever since So far so good to say with that there the true test is obviously going to be while the docks look like in spring But we're hoping for the best right now And I hope to come before you next year with with good news on that another maintenance area that might not be as known there is slip reskinning there Maybe a little bit more of an industry term there But the bottom of the slips are coated in a galvanized steel plating there and this Can cut wear off over time and get pulled back especially with our dock damage that we received in the prior years We've been noted quite a few slips in the marina that were in need of this It causes a very big instability in the slip and can be a big hazard to voters So this year working within the maintenance budget We're able to knock out seven of those slips that were in need It costs roughly around five thousand dollars of slips. So it's a relatively big expense So something that would have normally cost it or require additional funding We were able to work within our budget to Repair and maintain So what do we get to look forward to next year then every every season we? We end with a campaign to get renewals there our goal over years to build occupancy and grow our boarding community So we end with a chance to get voters renewed for the next year then in 2015 we connected a similar campaign we ended with 101 renewals This year our campaign ended us with a hundred and thirty two renewals, so we're up thirty one renewals over last year and So plan to keep continuing to do you know point the customer first integrating with our city and maintaining the dock system and Safe and well-kept matter then that's what I had for you for 2016. Is there any questions? any questions for Matt Well Matt, thank you very much for your report and we appreciate the great job. You're doing now. They're managing the marina for us Appreciate it. Thank you Is there anything for public forum? No, not this evening. Okay, we'll go on to Mayor's announcements First of all, I want to give a little update on the storm Totals for this last storm the Department of Public Works had 16 pieces of equipment that worked this weekend and into Monday morning During the snow event. There were 35 DPW of plow drivers that drove a combined total of 4,332 miles In the distance from New York to Los Angeles is 2,780 mine mine miles, so that's quite a ways 35 DPW of plow drivers operated equipment from combined 379 hours and the plow drivers spread 316 tons of salt during their operation The Department of Public Works began posting updates on their plowing operations in the city's social network using next door Twitter and the city website to Keep residents informed and we got a lot of positive comments and a few things that we wanted to point out that they should clean up So it was a great operation. I want to thank Jason Bestolia the superintendent of streets and sanitation all of his staff for all their work they did to clear the streets so we could get to our destinations and This being our last meeting before Christmas I want to wish everyone here and at home a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I'd like to remind That you that some of our Christmas events to support the needy are falling a little shorter their goals for this year The Salvation Army declared a state of emergency last week their Christmas goal is 525,000 and they still have almost half of that goal left to raise the Christmas Campaign ends on December 31st and the last day of the Red Kettle campaign is this coming Christmas Eve, so if you can help them out that would be appreciated The Rotary making spirits bright lighted displays at Evergreen Park are also behind their past performance Last year the donated food was able to supply the food banks through the following May right now The food pantry collection is at 41,000 pounds, which is down by 9,700 pounds It's a little over half their total for 80,000 pounds of their food goal for this year The car count is 13,145 cars, which is also down by about 2300 cars and the making spirits bright display is open through New Year's Eve with the exception of Christmas Eve every evening from 5 to 9 So as you finish your shopping and celebrate Christmas with family and friends Please remember the needy in our community and do your best to support these local organizations Who take care of the those in need throughout the entire year? Next we'll move on to the consent agenda Include items 2.2 through 2.0 Alderman Drone Thank You mayor vanderstein I'd like to make a motion that we move ordinance 6.1 up only because we have a Person here is Miranda Schmidt here Miranda needs to get back to work managers and she asked if we could do that and if that works So I would like to make a motion to is there any objection to moving that item forward There is none so please proceed. Thank You Miranda if you'd like to please come up by the podium We did contact Miranda two times one by mail and one by phone Regarding her license application for bartending for a beverage beverage operators the first of all Miranda What where are you applying for work or where are you working at? Well, my I work at Blue Harbor as my full-time job in the management position for bartending It's going to be a part-time thing at Ricky's bar and Michigan Avenue, okay? The reason that we initially called you in we review some of the applications if we have questions That's why we have people come in and just out of curiosity You couldn't make the other two meetings was that because of work or the first one I don't know exactly what had gotten mixed up with my mail, but you're I didn't receive the first letter of November And then the second one was the family. I had my nephew wasn't able to come in so I did call I didn't know that it was That it would have been denied for me not showing up there. I thought it would have been rescheduled so right for that The questions that we have pertain to some of the convictions here You have a number of Were listed and some that were not and we need to always make sure that that's always on application Was there a reason that the others weren't I was just a little confused because when I was my previous times that I had My liquor license I didn't feel any of that out It was through my old workplace that kind of filled it all so when I was there I asked her like what am I filling out and I thought it was from kind of from when I had my liquor license I asked you now and she said if there were any questions that were brought up She would bring it, but then I did include some of my like I had My like my drinking fines from when I was younger I had put on there, but I was just Miss I was just misunderstood. It does list that it's new applications So there was a lapse of time between your last license in this license application or is this yes? I had my liquor license For I don't know. I renewed it one other time, but it was always my job again Well, the one reason I wanted to have you come in is just to ask about the charges for the underage alcohol Can you give us a just a quick detail of what that pertains? It was from For teens I was just from years ago I was it's your last one was five soon to be six years ago So were you underage yourself at the time? Yes? Okay, so this was not a serving environment where you were serving underage No, okay. No, okay. We just want to make that very clear obviously we take that very seriously, and that's a big responsibility So I appreciate you coming in and that cleared up what I wanted to find out what we as a committee Wanted to find out so I would make a motion to approve Second we have a motion in the second to approve 5.8 No, it's actually Okay, so is there any discussion on the motion Seeing none will the clerk, please call the roll for passage to grant yes to grant the license 13 eyes Motion passes. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Just as a quick note if you could go back to fill your application Just get that updated we'd appreciate that so all of the all of the charges are listed Okay, and also make sure you do have there was a fine that hadn't been paid And they won't even though the license has been granted. It won't be issued until you pay your fine Okay, then we'll go back to the consent agenda all the person Donahue Thank you mayor I moved to accept the file all reports of officers accept them drop all reports of committees Second thank you for that motion and support the consent agenda is before us. Is there any discussion? Seeing none will the clerk, please call the roll for passage 13 eyes motion passes Under reports of officers items 3.1 through 3.5 will be referred to various committees All the person bellinger. Thank you mayor I just have a question on 3.1 typically that those types of things go to the finance committee I'm wondering why it's going to public works and It's just a question I can answer the journey. It's not a claim. It's claims that typically go to finance and this is not a claim Okay, thank you. Thank you all the person boring Thank you, mayor. That was a one of my constituents that contacted me and he had already Had some discussions with public works regarding the manner Regarding the matter but was not really satisfied with what he had heard from public works So that's why I referred it to public works and I realized it wasn't a claim and that's why I Sent it to public works. Thank you. Thank you for that information Then moving on to resolutions item 4.1 will lie over till our next meeting Same for item 4.2 that will also lie over in Items 4.3 through 4.8 will be referred to various committees And moving on to reports of committees item 5.1 is an RC by group health insurance and wellness committee To whom was referred resolution number 154 of 16 17 direct referral by Alderperson Donahue authorizing and introducing a points based wellness program in 2017 for eligible employees and recommends that the Resolution be passed Alderperson Donahue Second thank you for that motion in support is there any discussion on the motion Alderperson Jose Thank You mr. Mary. Just have a question about what the What the points are and how they earn the points and what happens if they successfully are in the I'd like to call up Jenny Lawrence to explain that The employees will earn the points based on their all the employees take a biometrics testing every year This year will be moved up to June You can gain in a thousand points maximum by your biometrics testing Which is basically in Tara health comes in measures Pricks finger measures cholesterol blood pressure Waste or conference things of that nature and you can gain a thousand points by that part of it If they successfully reach 1100 points you can also earn points by participating in employees or employer sponsored activities Physical activity exercise logs a quiz a monthly quiz on in Tara's site if you Gain 1100 points, then you will be paying the Lowest portion of the employee premiums which next year will be 8.1 percent if you Only participate in that biometrics testing and you don't get your 1100 points You'll pay a maximum of 20% of the employee premium or the whole of premium. Sorry Use your microphone, please So if you successfully earn the points You would have a reduction in your health care premium by almost 12% is that correct correct? Any other questions? Thank you very much Jenny All those in fate what would the clerk please call the roll for passage? 12 eyes one no motion passes Item 5.2 is an RC by group health insurance and wellness committee to whom is referred resolution number 155 of 1617 direct referral by elder person Donahue Adopting the 2017 city of Sheboygan fitness center reimbursement program for eligible employees and recommends that the resolution be passed all the person Donahue Thank You Mary move to accept and adopt the resolution and put upon its passage second Thank you for your motion and support. It's on the floor for discussion all the person born Thanks mayor seeing that we were just talking about points a few minutes ago with this an employee participating in the health club reimbursement With that qualify for some points at the end of the year Jenny can you describe that please? Getting used to this trip Yes, the employees if they participate in the fitness center reimbursement program and also complete an exercise log They would then also receive points back to the Points baseball in this program as well There's a maximum of five points per week and the fitness center reimbursement program Requires a minimum participation of eight visits per month to an approved fitness center within Sheboygan or Wherever they live actually any other questions on this one Thank You again Jenny the clerk, please call the roll for passage 12 eyes 1 no motion passes items 5 item 5.3 is an RC by public works tumors referred resolution number 130 of 1617 by all the person bellinger Authorizing the superintendent of parks and forestry to oversee the recreational fires on the beaches program and recommends That the attached substitute resolution be passed all the person bellinger Thank You mayor and move to accept and adopt and pass a substitute resolution Thank you for that motion in support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none will the clerk, please call the roll 13 eyes motion passes Item 5.4 is an RC by committee of the whole to whom was referred resolution number 144 of 1617 by all the person Donahuex adopting the city of Sheboygan's 2017 to 21 strategic plan and recommends the resolution be passed all the person Heidemann Second thank for that motion and support under discussion Seeing no discussion with a clerk, please call the roll for passage 12 eyes 1 no Motion passes item 5.5 is an RC by finance who has referred resolution number 146 of 1617 by all the person wolf Determining a maximum bid on the property auction for 606 North 9th Street and recommends that the resolution be passed all the person Wolf Thank You mayor. I make a motion to Accept and adopt and pass resolution second. Thank you for that motion in support under discussion All the person Bellinger Thank You mayor Originally I submitted the dollar amount on this resolution and I've come to the Realization through the development department that that bid will likely be inadequate and that the Appraise value or the estimated value of the property is significantly greater than that So I would like to amend the dollar amount on this resolution to 250,000 second Thank you for that amendment and support First we're going to discuss the amendment and vote on it. Is there any discussion on the amendment? See none will the clerk, please call the roll 250,000 did you say? 12 eyes one no The amendment passes Then we'd be voting on the main motion as amended. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none will the clerk, please call the roll for the item 5.5 12 eyes one no motion passes Item 5.6 is an RC by public works to whom is referred resolution number 148 of 1617 by all the person Bellinger authorizing entering into a professional engineering services agreement for the high strength waste receiving co-digestion Evaluation and recommends that the resolution be passed all the person Bellinger Thank You mayor and move to accept and adapt and pass the resolution Thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion Seeing none will the clerk, please call the roll 13 eyes Motion passes item 5.7 is an RC by salary and grievances to whom is referred resolution number 151 of 1617 by Alderperson Donahue establishing the monthly premium Equivalent rates for the city's medical benefit plan for the calendar year 2017 coverage and recommends that the attached substitute resolution be passed Alderperson Donahue Thank you mayor and move to accept and adopt and put the resolution upon its passage second Thank you for that motion and support any discussion on this item Seeing none with a clerk, please call the roll 13 eyes Motion passes under ordinances items 6.1 through 6.3 will be referred to various committees and Next is other matters city attorney 7.1 is a resolution by Alderperson Wolfe Proving the amended and restated restated contract for the sale of land for private development buying between the city of Sheboygan's and 8th, New Jersey LLC that would be referred to the law and licensing committee 7.1 should go to finance very finance 7.2 is an RO by the city clerk submitting various license applications for the period ending December 31 2017 June 30 2017 and June 30 2018 and that'll go to line licensing All the person down to you. I move to adjourn There's a second. We have a second there. Those favor, please signify by saying aye. I opposed we stand adjourned Thank you for your time and Merry Christmas


Amen. Alright. Keep your place there in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, so tonight we're going to talk about your body, your physical body. We're going to talk about tonight. I'm going to depress you even further. Do you understand why we're not doing a series on violence though, by the way, because that's just, that's a hard topic to talk about. Okay. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we're going to talk about the physical importance of your body tonight. You know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, you know, 15, it says, No, you're not that your bodies are the members of Christ. So your bodies are the members of Christ. And in verse 19, he says, Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And guess what? The Bible says that your body is not yours. It says that it doesn't belong to you. You were bought, you were paid for. If you're saved tonight, you were purchased. And you were purchased with a heavy price. So the Bible doesn't talk a lot about, you know, it doesn't put a lot of emphasis on the physical. But I'm going to show you tonight that there's things in the Bible and things that there's reasons that God is telling us to do certain things in the Bible. They're there to protect us. They're there to protect our lives. They're there to protect us against death, even physical death. Okay. So tonight, we're going to talk about the physical importance of following a biblical lifestyle. The first thing I want to talk about tonight, turn to James chapter one. So I've mentioned this many times in sermons, but basically, you know, God's laws, he doesn't have all these laws that are just there because God just wants to watch a bunch of puppets on a string dance. You know, God's laws actually make a lot of sense for us. They actually are there to help and protect us. All right. And the first point I want to make tonight as you're turning to James chapter one is that sin itself, meaning the transgression of God's law will destroy your physical body.  Look at James one in verse number 15. The Bible says, then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Of course, you know, Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death. You know, we talk about that second death, but look, sin can actually cause you to physically die. Right. Now it could be the judgment of God that's actually killing you.  Now the context of first Corinthians chapter six, when he's talking about your body being the temple of the Holy Ghost, he's actually talking about the sin of fornication. It's a very specific sin. Look back at first Corinthians chapter six and look at verse number 18 where the Bible says it says flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. So the Bible says that there's a unique thing about fornication, that fornication is you actually sinning against your physical self. It's going to actually hurt you physically. Look at verse number 15 where he says, know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot? God forbid. So in the context, he's preaching against fornication, talking about taking care of your body. So if we look at what's happening today around us, are people around us living a biblical lifestyle? Is a biblical lifestyle common in the United States? No, it's not. People are leaving the biblical lifestyle. People are not getting married anymore. People have never gotten married at later, at older ages than the United States right now. In the history of the United States, the married age has never been older than it is now. People are living in fornication. Fornication is normal for kids in school. It's accepted. And people as adults, it's just an accepted thing to just live in fornication with a girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever. But guess what? This is destroying people's bodies. From the CDC, I mean all of these different STDs, the Bible or not the Bible, but the CDC actually says that are on like one of them is on a 20% increase since 2014. You know, 63% increase for another one. Syphilis, which I actually thought didn't even exist anymore, is a 71% increase in the United States. And that can be passed to babies from childbirth from their mothers. You know, 50% of kids ages 18 to 24 will get a sexually transmitted disease. 50%, that's half. Currently 110 million Americans have an STD. Americans, by being so smart and so enlightened, leaving the biblical lifestyle are destroying themselves. 110 million. There's 320 million people in the United States. That's one in three, folks. You know, so that's the irony. The irony of like what's happening today is that we're already a nation full of sickness.  And by the way, you just couldn't help but run into this when you're looking through all these CDC stats, but they're the biggest spreaders of disease or homosexuals.   Nice people. That's just a side note. But my point I'm trying to make is that fornication as the Bible actually says, literally destroys you physically. It destroys your body. It causes, you know, it ends up causing cancer. It ends up causing, you know, infertility, all these different things. It literally ruins your body. That's why it says that he that committed fornication sineth against his own body. It literally destroys your body, flee from it, run from it, the Bible says. I mean, there's huge pressures out there today. One of the biggest benefits of separation and a separated family and a homeschooled family and a separated church is this one right here, is that you could flee fornication, that these kids will grow up and there will not be that pressure. There will not be that they'll be raised in a proper environment. But it's important. It's important that you separate from what's normally happening out there or it's a flip of a coin. What's going to happen to your children. You can separate them from it. That's why we teach separation here. Okay. These things could literally destroy your children physically, literally. But not just for the children, you know, even the adults out there. Now this look, this was a big debate in the Bible. Turn to Acts 15. Acts 15. If you remember in Acts 15, here you had Paul, you know, he's out preaching to the Gentiles and he comes to Jerusalem and there's all these Pharisees saying that, hey, what are we going to do with all these Gentiles that are getting saved?  You know, the Jews had a very, a very strict lifestyle and everything that they ate and how they acted and all these different things. So there's this big debate. And then of course, it got pushed into salvation, right? I mean, do you need to be, you know, circumcised to be saved and all these things? But mainly the issue was, what do we do with these Gentiles once they get saved? What do we do? And after the debate, James, you know, the brother of Jesus who is, you know, he just, he just lays down the law and he says, after everybody said their piece in verse number 20, James says this, he says, but that we write unto them, his is his sentence, that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood. Look, fornication made the short, the short list here. So we're sitting here and we're deciding, hey, what do we do with all these heathens, these Gentiles that are getting saved? You know, do we have to make them like follow all the rules of the Jews? And he's like, no, he's like, we'll just tell him to do these four things. And fornication was one of them because it was a sin against their own body and he knew that it was a, it was a big deal. It wasn't about salvation here. It's just, how do we teach them to live after they've got, they've accepted the gospel? Okay. Now look, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Don't think God will protect you because you're saved. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Actually, turn to Numbers chapter 25 and I'm just going to read for you 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is talking about a story from Numbers chapter 25. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, in verse number 8, the Bible says, neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day three and 20,000. Turn to Numbers chapter 25. So this is referring to a story in the Old Testament where the children of Israel committed fornication with these heathen people and God brought judgment upon them. Look at Numbers chapter 25 in verse number 1 where the Bible says, in Israel abode and shittim and the people began to commit hordom with the daughters of Moab. They were not to, you know, mix with the people, even marry with them, but they were not marrying them here. They were committing fornication. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal Pior and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, slay everyone his men that were joined unto Baal Pior. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midian-Idesh woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So this guy was not obeying. He's just like, whatever, I'm going to do what I want to do. And you guys aren't going to tell me what to do. And when Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it. He rose up from among the congregation. He took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through. The man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. Now we have a Bible contradiction here. Let me just get this out of the way. So we have twenty three thousand in 1 Corinthians chapter ten and verse number eight and numbers twenty five verse nine. Everyone's like, the Bible's contradicting itself. But what is 1 Corinthians chapter ten and eight says? It says, it fell in one day three and twenty thousand. So in one day twenty three thousand people died, but total twenty four thousand died. There you go. It's not rocket surgery, right? All right. So God judges fornication. Back to my point. God judges fornication. Flee from it. Other sins, other than fornication, turn to Proverbs chapter twenty three. Other sins that will destroy your body, your physical body. Look, God's rules make sense. They make sense. Look at Proverbs twenty three. Look at verse number twenty nine. Look, I all all I hear about people doing these days is just staying home and just getting drunk. I mean, that's what people are doing at home from my perspective. I mean, they're just like they better not close the liquor stores. I mean, there is so many people in this city, in this state, in this country that they're just they're just drinking and now they're drinking way more than they used to because they're just sitting home and that's all they want to do is drink. Proverbs twenty three. Look at verse twenty nine. The Bible says this. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who have contentions? Who have babbling? Who have wounds without cause? Who have redness of eyes? Look, these are all like physical conditions, right? I mean, you're do we really even need doctors when we have this kind of like, I mean, look at this. You'll be depressed. You'll you'll you'll have family problems.   They that tarry long at the wine. They that go to seek mixed wine. Look, not upon the wine when it is red.   That's why people that they drink their eyes are red because their eyes are literally bleeding. They're just inflamed these blood vessels. First number thirty two. At last it biteeth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. And then it ties again with fortification. Thirty three. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yay thou shalt be as he that lie down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me thou shalt say and I was not sick. They have beaten me and I felt it not. When shall I wake? I will seek it again.  Think of that. Drunkenness and not being sober are actually tied to fornication and filth in the Bible. And that's exactly what the CDC will tell you as well. When you come look at stats and like just behavior that's you know causes all these STDs and all of this. Look there's long term physical effects as well. I mean you say that okay the the all these things happening to you is like you know one day or one night that happened but there's long term physical effects to alcohol as well. The you know the Mayo Clinic says drinking too much alcohol can raise blood pressure to unhealthy levels and if you keep drinking alcohol you'll end up with you can end up with chronic blood pressure problems meaning your blood pressure raises when you drink alcohol but then if you just you drink all the time you're it just your your arteries harden not to get into it but I mean you'll just have high blood pressure period it'll just it'll just stay that way. Substance abuse and hypertension is a huge problem. Substance abuse and hypertension are important health concern especially in adolescent and young adults presenting with elevated just think about it young people with elevated blood pressure and associated cardiovascular conditions elicit drugs including cocaine marijuana and feta means and I can't even pronounce that one remain potential sources of acute and newly diagnosed hypertension and all of this leads to what they call heart disease in the United States. Now heart disease is tied to high blood pressure diabetes drinking alcohol also causes diabetes by the way but heart disease is a cause of 647,000 deaths in the United States every single year heart disease that's one in four deaths in the United States is from heart disease and all of these things you know increase it from Harvard Health alcohol abuse drunkenness is a cause of all these things dementia depression anxiety suicide family problems I mean so far the bible caught most of these already family problems unemployment cancer of the mouth throat liver colon and breast cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes is the biggest one so all these things well I mean the use of alcohol illegal drugs is they'll destroy your body they will destroy your body and the longer that you do it the more damage that there will be drugs look just look at these people walking around California I mean just look at these people I used to tell Vladi when we were standing outside the church you know we would literally we're watching these people die years and years we're standing outside being ushers and we see the same guy go to the methadone clinic and get high and do heroin or whatever and we're literally watching these people wither away and die in front of our very eyes but I told Vladi one time I was like man I was like it's it's amazing what the human body can take you just watch these people wither away into these skeletons and just they're just destroyed they're they're not the right color anymore they their minds don't work anymore their bodies are broken and you're just like it's amazing what what the human body can take but it will kill them it will eventually physically kill them you know smoking destroys your your heart your lungs so all of these things all of these you know being sober that's why the bible says be sober and it covers everything it covers all the drugs alcohol everything so the whole argument about whether or not you know oh is this wine here in the bible alcohol and this it's it's stupid the bible says be sober period and when you're drinking alcohol you're not sober so the bible says be sober and if you're not sober if you're drinking alcohol doing drugs it will destroy you physically is the point of this sermon my third point is this you should stay in physical condition or in physical shape turn to proverbs chapter 31 you should be physically active you should try to keep yourself in some sort of shape that is biblical okay i'm going to show you now i'm going to i'm going to come after the ladies here then i'm going to get on the guys go to proverbs 31 so proverbs 31 of course the virtuous woman is who we're talking about but look at what the bible says about the virtuous woman so the virtuous woman does all these things she's she's very hard-working she's she's supporting her family she's doing all these things she gets up early you know her husband prays with her children and her husband call her blessed i mean there's so many great things but look at verse 16 of proverbs 31 where the bible says she considereth a field in biathet with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms the the virtuous woman is no weakling she's a strong woman physically i mean she's doing all this thing and by the way turn to ruth chapter 2 there's only one woman in the bible that that the bible actually says is a virtuous woman and that's ruth so let's look and see if there's a correlation here the bible says in proverbs 31 that the that the virtuous woman is physically strong i mean it makes sense when you read proverbs 31 and you see all the things that this woman is doing she can't possibly be just just this weakling or this person that you know just lays around and can't even you know walk across the room without getting tired i mean it's not possible so look at ruth chapter 2 and verse number 15 of course ruth came with her her mother-in-law Naomi and ruth goes to take care of her mother-in-law and in verse number 15 the bible says and when she was risen up to glean i bet she rose up early by the way when she was risen up to glean boas commanded his young man saying let her glean even among the sheaves and reproach her not and let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her and leave them that she may glean them and rebuke her not so she gleaned in the field until even and beat out that she had gleaned and it was about an ifa of barley so i mean just think about this do you guys know what a barley plant looks like it's like it's got a head on it like that right so it's it's not a huge thing it's not a huge thing you just pick up i mean she's literally like either on her hands and knees or bending down constantly all day picking up these little heads of barley or these and they probably weren't even full heads of barley she's gleaning they've already harvested boas was nice she'd already done it and boas was nice and said hey throw some on the on the ground for her throw some extra on the ground for her but she's literally going and she's picking up these pieces all day long and then she's not done right she's not done in order to you know the combine comes in today you know it takes the head of wheat or barley and then it beats it and it gets all that the chaff off and that the kernels fall out right we used to when we were kids we would take it and a head of wheat we would rub it in our hands and then we would we would blow the chaff away and then you would have all the wheat kernels in your hand and then you could eat it we would always do that as kids during harvest time but what she did was she gleaned all these heads of barley and then she went and she beat it all out and and clean the chaff out i mean she worked until late at night i'm sure here okay so she must have had some considerable strength turned to a ruth chapter three and it fits perfectly because if you look at ruth chapter three in verse number 11 when ruth goes in to ask bow as you know if he would you know do his duty and marry her he says this in ruth chapter 3 11 and now my daughter fear not i will do to the all that thou require us for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a proverbs 31 virtuous woman so here we see that ruth you know she was no physical weakling okay so it was important and it's part of being a virtuous woman so there's reason to keep yourself in shape ladies there's reason for that now let's look at the men turn to second samuel chapter 23 this is where it gets depressing man so get ready second samuel chapter 23 second samuel chapter 23 second samuel 23 is the the the describing the mighty men of david the mighty men of david and if you ever want to feel like not so much of a man just read this chapter second samuel chapter 23 just look down at verse number eight we'll just read a couple verses these be the names of the mighty men whom david had the takamite that sat on the seat chief among the captains the same was a dino the as night he lift up his spear against 800 and you know you're saying okay he slew 800 men like in his life no at whom he slew at one time so in one battle this man slew 800 men can you imagine how physically hard that must have been i mean that's a lot of work to actually you know physically battle 800 people verse number nine and after him was eliezer the son of dodo the oh oh height one of the three mighty men with david when they defied when they defied the philistines that were there gathered together in battle and the men of israel were gone away he arose and smoked the philip philistines until his hand was weary in his hand clave unto the stored and the lord wrought a great victory that day and the people returned after him only to spoil he fought so hard brother trevor talked about this last night that he literally couldn't open his hand anymore this has happened to me i remember it happened to me when i was a teenager wrestling matches you would you would just six minutes right six minutes and after the wrestling matches over your your your gripping your forearm so much that i would literally have to go up against a wall and go like this to get my hands to open again because your your muscles just lock up that's what happened to him he fought and fought and fought until his hand wouldn't let go of the sword anymore that's how hard he was gripping the sword and how long he was gripping the sword so look these were obviously very extremely physically strong men in in the bible now let's look at the u.s today there's something happening in the united states today from a 2017 article in forbes magazine testosterone levels are dropping on average by one percent per year since the 1980s that's depressing a 2016 study study showed that the average 20 to 34 year old man could apply 98 pounds of force with a right hand grip and this was down from 117 pounds in 1985 so in 2016 men could apply with their right hand 198 pounds in 2016 and in 1985 on average that was 117 pounds so men are getting weaker testosterone levels are dropping by the way just a side note you know the bible says in revelation turn to revelation 13 13 16 and causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads talking about the mark of the beast guess what why the right hand you ever think about that we're something to think about like 90 to 98 percent of people depending on who you ask are right handed not me left handed anyway but i mean that's just uh just a thought okay but look men are getting weaker in this country men are getting weaker in this country turn to Jeremiah 51 turn to Jeremiah 51 the bible talks about this too this could be judgment men are getting weaker Jeremiah 51 look down at verse number 30 Jeremiah 51 is talking about the judgment coming to Babylon now Jeremiah 51 and verse number 30 the mighty men of Babylon have forebored to fight they have remained in their holds their might have failed they're getting weaker they became as women they have burned her dwelling places her bars are broken so you say you know that's depressing what can we do well here's some advice from the endocrine society a new study finds that a drop in testosterone levels over time is more likely to result from a man's behavioral and health changes then by aging so they're starting to think they're starting to realize that this whole phenomenon that's happening here just from a scientific level is not just because you're getting older all right it's because of your lifestyle and the things that you're consuming and you know what this goes back to alcohol as well because there's a lot of alcohol consumed in this country and it has proven that that will drop your testosterone levels all right so many times this is also associated with obesity diabetes and depression now there's so many factors involved but one thing that a lot of them agree on is that lifestyle in general along with increased consumption of low standard food are major contributors to this testosterone drop in the united states people literally agree on that it's what you eat and how you live period is what's doing it it's the common denominator so a common denominator actually what we're all we're talking about whether it's it's alcohol drugs or you know low testosterone levels is diabetes too diabetes is huge in the united states from the cdc now this is shocking i did not know this more than a hundred million us adults are now living with diabetes or pre diabetes pre diabetes means that you will have diabetes in five years a hundred million us adults there's i mean that's that's there's 320 million people in the united states all right this report finds that as of 2015 30 million americans 10 percent of the u.s population have diabetes another 84 million have pre diabetes a condition that if not treated often leads to type 2 diabetes within five years look we are not healthy in this country now here's one thing that you know with diabetes that i will tell you right now that is true about the united states we eat way more sugar in this country than any other country in the world we put sugar on everything everything that we have is based in sugar and you know let me tell you something aside from diabetes itself there's so many new studies coming out saying that sugar aids and cancer growth sugar just depletes your i mean look at the the doctor from faithful word la talking about how to protect against the coronavirus she said you know what the worst thing you could do is eat a lot of sugar she said don't even drink orange juice because even though the vitamin c is good for you the sugar that's in the orange juice will just negate the vitamin c because it attacks you look sugar is i mean i'm going to confess my faults here sugar is a problem you know that i need to get rid of in my life but it's look it's a huge problem for americans it's a lifestyle thing there's immune system studies now i mean sugar destroys your body period eat healthy natural food don't become a food nazi but eat healthy natural food one person told me one time that you should never eat anything out of a cardboard box that's pretty good advice i'm not saying that i follow it but it's pretty good advice turn to first timothy chapter four first timothy chapter four first timothy chapter four there is something to the sugar thing i'm telling you that there's it's coming up in in real studies especially the cancer thing the cancer thing i mean i mean i don't like the keto thing but the keto thing is basically the opposite of a sugar diet right i mean you're not having any carbs and the keto thing has proven to you know fix all sorts of ailments from diabetes to you know helping you know get rid of cancer and all sorts of things but it's you know it's the it's no sugar basically it's no carbohydrates all right look at first timothy four and verse number eight where the bible says for bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come look it says bother bodily effort exercise profiteth little but i mean there's still profit there all right there's still profit there so we should exercise we should eat right look to be absent from the bodies to be present from the lord we get that but hey i just don't want to end my life here because of sin and an unhealthy lifestyle let's put it that way i'm not afraid to die but i don't want to die because i ate twinkies my whole life you know and i only lived to be sixty i don't want to die because i smoked you know five packs of cigarettes a day you know i don't want to end my life that way look this body is a gift right this body is a gift it was it was and it's not ours it's it's purchased right turn to first Corinthians chapter 15 and guess what it's corruptible it's corruptible first Corinthians chapter 15 look at verse number 53 i mean you can corrupt this thing is basically the whole point of this sermon you have a body you know your body is not yours it was bought with a price the price of the you know the blood of christ and it's corruptible you can corrupt it look at verse 53 for this corruptible must put on incorruption one day we're going to have you know a glorified body you know we're going to put on incorruption but not now it's not what i have now this thing right here is corruptible and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory but look you can corrupt this thing you can corrupt it through sin through fornication through poisoning it you can corrupt it you can corrupt it through your lifestyle through a sedimentary lifestyle by the way you know it's it says they're finding out lately and this is a little depressing as well but it is as bad to have a sedimentary office job as it is to smoke you're starting to see like stand-up desks everywhere you know in the office environments and all that kind of thing because they're coming out with all these studies that says you know what you might as well smoke if you have a office job where you sit in front of a computer all day because it's killing you just the same just this sedimentary lifestyle so look maybe maybe just a thought but maybe there's nothing wrong with working by the sweat of your face maybe there's nothing wrong with that but are we told that today i mean if you have a job where you actually have to get up and you know grab a tool and actually do something i mean that's frowned upon today in america no you got to get one of these jobs where you sit down and you just you know get hemorrhoids and die basically i mean i guess you know i mean but that's what the united states and all these studies are coming up saying it's it's terrible for you it's terrible for you but the bible says that you should work by the sweat of your face you know work hard and guess what you know then you'll live and i have men in my family that that's true you know ships and men rust at port in conclusion you know people you know you'll see a lot of people who are young and they're in they're just doing whatever they want because they think you know what i can get away with it and you know i'm young and nothing ever is wrong with me because i'm you know 20 30 years old but guess what you're going to be 80 one day and then you're going to reap the whirlwind of what you sowed today now calib is a great example for us in the bible i love this guy he doesn't get enough mention in my in my opinion but turn to joshua chapter 14 calib you remember calib he was with joshua right he was one of the spies calib was one of the spies he was one of the faithful men that came back and wasn't in that head faith and said you know what they are big and they are but you know what the lord is with us and he he was one of the you know one of the men that was with joshua look at joshua 14 in verse number seven calib is talking here and calib says 40 years old was i when moses the servant of the lord sent me from catish barnia to spy out the land and i brought him word again as it was in my heart nevertheless my brother and went up with me and made the heart of the people melt but i holy followed the lord my god and moses swear that day saying surely the land where thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever because thou has holy followed the lord my god and now behold the lord kept me alive and he said these 40 and five years even since the lord spake this word unto moses while the children of israel wandered in the wilderness and now lo i am this day four score and five years old he's saying you know what he's already gone into the promised land you know he's fought the battles and you know what he's 85 years old now it's 45 years later and look what he says in verse number 11 this reminds me of my grandfather it's verse number 11 here he says as yet i am as strong this day as i was in the day that moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for war both to go out and to come in he's saying i can still fight i remember my grandpa was still alive we moved out before we took over the farm we lived like just a few miles from my grandpa because i was like you know what i'll be able to help him out on the farm he's 90 i'll be able to help him out with you know the fencing and all this but he would always just call me out after everything was done all the time and i was so annoyed with it but he'd go and he'd be like i put that fence post in with this sledgehammer by myself can you do that he's 90 you know he reminded me of Caleb i hope that i am this strong when i am 85 you know i hope that you know that that the lord would bless me with that but look if you destroy your body when you're young you have no chance at being Caleb here so you have to be a good steward of what of this temple of the holy ghost right i'm not talking about being vain but i'm talking about just being a good steward of what god has given you and teach your children to be good stewards you'll find that healthy parents will have healthy children because they're learning the lifestyle through you you know what you do is more important than what you say and if you say ice cream is bad and then you're always going out for ice cream i know i'll fix it but what you do is more important than what you say okay so the more time look the more time you spend in these bad things the worst it will be for you you know and just just keep in mind that you know you young people keep in mind you will be old one day and those things that you did in your youth will come back to you they'll come back around it's it's reaping and sowing it's just a it's a great physical example of reaping in sowing what you sow today you will reap when you're 80 and as we see today you know you want to be strong when you're older because this world is constantly attacking your body and you know just you want to be strong you want to be like Caleb when you're old so your physical body is not you know the most important thing the inside of the cup is obviously more important but you know your physical body is important you know and it's important that you know you you keep yourself healthy and you do these things and just don't fall into all the sin of this world that will destroy your body it will destroy you know your children and remember that these laws that god has put in the bible are there to protect us and protect us physically and spiritually but physically as well all right let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear heavenly father we thank you for this evening we thank you for all these people that would be faithful to the house of god lord uh i just thank you for your word and all the things that that are in it for us and for our safety and for our protection i asked that you would just just help us to to read it and learn it and understand it lord lord i asked that you you know you bless the rest of our week and keep us all safe and healthy in jesus name we pray amen