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This one comes from Dede.
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She says, "There are many people
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in churches overweight.
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Is obesity a sin?
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Are overweight Christians false converts?
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What does the Bible say?
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Thank you."
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I'll tell you this, in all indication,
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the high priest Eli in
the book of 1 Samuel
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was a godly man.
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Grossly overweight,
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but seemingly feared the Lord.
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He was not the best high priest.
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He had two evil sons.
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He was rebuked by the Lord.
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Samuel prophesied of the Lord against him.
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That's just an example
that comes to my mind.
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Let me tell you something,
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the size of a man isn't the sin.
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(incomplete thought)
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Now look, how a person is,
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what a person looks like,
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the condition a person's in healthwise
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may definitely be an
indication of their sin.
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Before God saved me, I did crystal meth.
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Thank the Lord He delivered me from that.
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Have you seen some of the
folks that have used that?
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I mean, you can see people,
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their teeth are rotted out of their heads.
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I saw what alcohol did to my dad.
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I can tell when somebody's old
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and they've been
drinking their whole life.
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They have kind of a
yellow hue to their skin.
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You look at folks that
have been on heroin,
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that have been on crack,
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that have been on crystal meth
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for long periods of time,
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cocaine.
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People that overeat.
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One thing about some sins
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is you kind of wear it on your sleeve.
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I mean, some of the things
we were talking about
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about the sins of the mind,
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the sexual passions of the mind,
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you and I can't see all those things.
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But some of the sins we commit,
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the effects of it are very noticeable.
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And there's no question about it
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that the size of a person may have
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some indication about their eating habits.
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What the Bible doesn't talk about
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is necessarily obesity or overweight.
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What it does talk about is gluttony.
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And typically in the Bible,
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it groups gluttony with the drunkard
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or drunkenness.
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What do you have there?
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Is eating sinful in and of itself?
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No.
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The fact is you cannot
prove from the Scriptures
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that drinking alcoholic beverage
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is forbidden in the Scriptures.
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But what is forbidden
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is eating more than you need
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and drinking to the point of drunkenness.
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Those two things are definitely sin.
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In fact, so much so, the
people that practice those
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don't inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Those fall into these areas too
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of being red flags
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that if you're in bondage to these things,
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there's a problem.
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Gluttons are tied to those who are lazy.
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"Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
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lazy gluttons."
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"The one who keeps the law is
a son with understanding,
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but a companion of
gluttons shames his father."
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"Be not among drunkards
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or among gluttonous eaters of meat."
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Now look, obviously some people
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are bigger than others.
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I mean, one of the questions
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that has to be asked before judgments
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are made about anything
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is why a person is overweight?
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I mean, some overweight people
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eat less than those who aren't overweight.
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Now, that's not to let most
overweight people off the hook.
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That probably does bring some thin people
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into the realm of the
possibilities of sin too,
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even though they may
have a higher metabolism
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and don't show it near as much.
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I mean, there are thin people
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that eat huge meals.
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And I'll be honest with you,
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I don't know exactly where that line is.
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You know, it does seem
like sometimes in Israel
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they had feast times, did they not?
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Three major feasts,
and they would eat, folks!
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They would eat.
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Some times of indulging in food
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seemed to be acceptable by God.
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But doing it all the time
does not seem to be.
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I mean, the fact is this,
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not all people have the same metabolism.
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Gluttony basically comes down
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to eating more than the body needs.
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Eating more than we need to function.
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Well, where is that boundary?
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You know, in a lot of countries,
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they don't eat till they're full.
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In a lot of countries, they
can't afford to do that.
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We have a tendency to eat in America
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unlike they eat in other places.
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Does that mean we're
all guilty of gluttony?
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Maybe. Maybe more than we know.
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But you know, folks, I
would come back to this.
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Remember Paul's words.
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He's not going to be enslaved to anything.
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You know just as much as my wife
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might not drink coffee for awhile,
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you know what?
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There's no question about it.
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Jesus Christ thinks that His people
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will fast regularly.
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Does He not say it?
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When you fast, don't
be like the hypocrites...
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Don't be like the Pharisees.
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There's a way to do it.
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Well, let me just tell you,
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if you're a professing child of God here,
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you need to give yourself to fasting.
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If you can't do it;
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if you don't have that
kind of self-control
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and that kind of discipline,
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then you know what?
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There may be a likelihood
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even if you're a thin person,
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you're in bondage to food
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in a way that maybe you never imagined.
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And I'll tell you,
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you don't realize it sitting here
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when you've still got a belly
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that's three quarter full from dinner.
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You get in a situation where you fast
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for 24 hours and fast for 48 hours,
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fast for three days,
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and you begin to realize
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how much food really controls us.
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Let's face it, the fact is,
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most overweight people are overweight
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because they do eat too much
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and they exercise too little.
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You know one thing I found?
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Traveling to China, traveling to India,
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traveling to Indonesia -
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there aren't lots of overweight people.
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And so, what is it?
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I think San Antonio - is
that the number one
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biggest city in the country?
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Sometimes - it depends on the year.
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But we've had those honors.
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I tell you, you go over to other countries
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you don't see that.
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The fact is, you know,
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typically in those countries,
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the ones that are overweight,
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they're overweight
because they're wealthy.
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The thing is too being overweight
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isn't healthy for you.
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It's not good for you.
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These are to be temples
of the Holy Spirit.
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You know, basically, we have a picture
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in the Scriptures of Jesus Christ
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leaving His servants with things -
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whatever they might be.
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Sometimes, they're
called talents of silver,
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whatever they may be called,
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but you know what
that's representative of.
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That's representative of everything
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that's been entrusted to us.
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Not just money, but our time,
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our energy, our bodies,
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everything that's been given to us.
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And you know the ones who
receive the commendation,
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"Well done, good and faithful servant"?
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They're the ones who invested wisely
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and brought a return for their Lord.
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And we need to take
good care of these bodies.
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If you're eating and not exercising
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in such a way that your body
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isn't serving you well,
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what does the Scripture say?
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It says to redeem the time.
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You're not redeeming the time very well
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if you're in a body that requires
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a lot more rest,
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gets weary a lot faster,
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runs out of breath a lot faster,
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when you could by correct eating habits
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and correct exercise habits change that.
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That's not being a good steward.
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It just simply isn't.
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Folks, if you're going to run, run well.
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Run to your maximum efficiency.
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That's all I'll say about that.