Hello and welcom to
"Books of the Book."
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This is a very exciting moment
for me and for Dr. Shepherd
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for you to join us
in this Bible study.
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We're studying the
books of 1 and 2 Peter.
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And Dr. Shepherd comes
from Andrew's University,
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he is a professor at
the Theological Institute
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or Seminary at
Andrew's University.
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Dr. Shepherd, you have
a doctorate in religion?
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And also you
have another doctorate
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in public health, is that right?
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Yes, correct.
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Before I did my training
in New Testament years before,
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I was a student at the
school of Public Health
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at Loma Linda University,
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got my masters at Public Health
and Public Health Nutrition.
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And at that time they called
it a Doctor of Health Science,
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later it was gone
further into be renamed
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Doctor of Public
Health and Preventive Care.
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Has that been of
any help in your career?
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Well, yes I--
when I was in Africa
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and my wife and I were there
as missionaries for 6 years
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and I was ADRA's
Health and Temperance Director
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for the Malawi Union.
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And, so, made use of my
health training a lot then
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and it's still you know,
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it still comes in from
time to time and understanding.
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So it just takes
in-- talking about health,
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in fact we'll talk a
little bit about that today
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as we talk about 1 Peter.
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And we're talking
about why I go to church?
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Yes. Why do we go to church?
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Well, let's read the
passage it's in 1 Peter 4:7-11.
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And this is what it
says, 1 Peter 4:7-11,
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"The end of all
things is at hand,
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therefore, be self
controlled and sober minded
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for the sake of your prayers.
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Above all, keep
loving one another earnestly
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since love covers
a multitude of sins.
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Show hospitality to one
another without grumbling.
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As each has received a gift,
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use it to serve one another
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as good stewards
of God's varied grace.
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Whoever speaks, is one
who speaks oracles of God,
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whoever serves is one who serves
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by the strength
that God supplies,
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in order that in everything
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God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ,
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to Him belong glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen."
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The end of all
things is at hand,
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and what does
Peter mean by this,
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the end of all
things is at hand?
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Well, you know, Peter
wrote about 2,000 years ago,
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so some people
raise the question,
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wait a minute, he said,
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"the end of all
things is at hand."
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He must have been
wrong because 2, 000 years
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have gone by since that time.
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Well, there's
two things to help us
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understand this little better.
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First is what does he
mean by the word, end.
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The word is telos in
Greek and that word means end
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but it also means goal.
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The same word is interestingly
used in Romans 10:4
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when Christ--he says,
Christ is the end of law.
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That's not that he is
the termination of the law
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but he is the goal of the law
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to which the
law is headed, okay.
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So, in one sense, one of
the commentators says that,
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when he talks
about the end is nearing,
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he's talking about the end
stage of God's redemptive plan.
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You can think of
this is happening
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since the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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That as Christ
resurrection is the affirmation
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and the assurance
of our resurrection
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if we should die
before our Lord returns.
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So that resurrection of
Jesus is an end time event.
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It's a eschatological event
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that has implications
for the end of time.
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But there's another
thing we will study again
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when we come to
2 Peter Chapter 3
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where he talks about
the second coming of Jesus.
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But I brought a
little illustration with me
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and I'll just hold up here,
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you can probably
see this is a ruler
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maybe if I hold it
down next to--yeah,
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maybe that's little
better, you can see my ruler.
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And this ruler is
a foot long, okay.
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And as you look at that you
can see just how long it is.
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Now, if I'm to turn,
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if I take and turn this
ruler on edge like this,
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it looks a whole
lot shorter, doesn't it?
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It does.
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It seems like an
optical illusion.
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Maybe just a couple
inches or something long
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instead of being
actually a foot long, okay.
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Over in 2 Peter
Chapter 3, we are told that
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for the Lord a thousand
years is as one day, all right.
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In God's
perspective how long it's been
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since Christ
died and rose again?
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Two days. Okay.
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Two days. 2000 years--
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That was a true question there.
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Hasn't been very long at
all just a very short time.
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So the end of
all things is near.
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Now, some people might not
be satisfied with that so much.
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But think in terms
of Christ resurrection
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as assuring our
resurrection as beginning,
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you could say the end days
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or being a marker
of the end of days.
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And in God's perspective it's
only short time till He returns.
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Of course we have
to talk more about this
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and we'll talk about that when
we talk about 2 Peter Chapter 3.
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But now we're talking
about 1 Peter Chapter 4.
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So, what can man's flow
from the nearness of the end?
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Okay, he says, the end of all
things is at hand, therefore.
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Then he says, two things be
self controlled and sober minded
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for the sake of your prayers.
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All right, these two words,
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the first one means
to be of sound mind,
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to be in your right
mind, to be reasonable,
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to be sensible,
to be serious, okay.
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So just as we've already seen
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Peter making
emphasis on staying awake
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and being active
in your perspective
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as you look at things.
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So here he tells us
to have a sound mind
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to have our senses awake.
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You remember how we talked about
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girding up the
lions of the mind,
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being ready for action.
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And sure enough he repeats
the word that he used before,
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he says that
you should be sober.
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Be well balanced,
be self controlled.
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Now that word
actually means to abstain
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from wine and interestingly
Peter uses this word,
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this word three times
in Chapter 1 verse 13,
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Chapter 4 verse 7 and
again in Chapter 5 verse 8.
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In each of these
places he combines the term
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with words of
thoughtful wakefulness being,
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you know, being awake
and not going to sleep.
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So these are quite
focused on clarity of thought
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and on life outlook
how you think of things.
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I mentioned before and
I'll mention here again
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the idea of what we call
eschatological temperance.
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I'm thankful
that my church teaches
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that we should
stay away from alcohol.
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It's a poison from
the top of your head
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to the tip of your toes.
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And it's just not a good
thing to make use of it all.
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In fact, alcohol, so I'll
now take off my religion hat
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and put on my public
health hat here little bit.
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Alcohol kills 100,000 people
in the United States every year.
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Tobacco kills 400,000 people
in the United States every year.
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500,000 people die in
this country every year
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because of these two plagues.
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If there were
some red dye number 5
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or some additive to some food
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that was killing so many people
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he would been out
lot long, long, long ago.
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The Adventist health message
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is such been a
wonderful blessing in my life.
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I just like to
mention very briefly
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the something
that Ellen White says
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that just lays out for us a very
simple and beautiful lifestyle.
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She calls it the
eight natural remedies.
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They are easy to remember
if you think of them in groups,
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fresh air, sunlight and water.
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Those three just kind of,
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I don't know they
seem to hang together,
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fresh air, being
out in fresh air,
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getting enough sunlight
and drinking lots of water.
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I actually
recommend that people drink
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a minimal of 10 cups a water,
8 ounce cups of water everyday.
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And it's actually better
I think if you drink more
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unless you have kidney failure
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but for most of us you know,
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that's a good
amount of water to have
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10, 15 cups of water everyday.
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And so far these remedies
apparently are not very costly.
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They are not costly, you know,
fresh air free, sunlight free,
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water you know,
that not costly at all.
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Then we have rest and exercise,
they seem to go together
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because one is the
opposite of the other,
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rest and exercise, okay.
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And rest, scientists have found
that most people will do best
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if they get 7 to 8
hours of sleep per night.
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This means going
to bed early enough,
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turning off the television set
even if it's 3ABN, oops sorry.
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But getting to bed
at an early enough hour,
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so that you can
have a good night sleep.
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The real secret of
getting enough sleep
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is going to bed early.
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Most people go
to bed way too late,
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you know, 10, 11,
12 o' clock at night.
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Would be much better
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if we're going to
bed at 9, 9:30 at night.
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You get more restful sleep
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and you need
like 7 hours of sleep.
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And then
exercise, exercise everyday.
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I used to do long distance
running, now I do walking.
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And I walk
everyday, I don't miss a day.
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And so walking is exercise
also? I tell--oh, absolutely.
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I tell people
that they need to talk
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to their two doctors everyday,
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their right leg
and their left leg,
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the two doctors.
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And, actually when
it comes to exercise
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scientists have
found that the people
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who are most likely to
continue in an exercise program
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are those who do it
first thing in the morning,
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first thing in the
morning that's the best time
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for doing exercise because
nothing else is going on,
00:10:13.22\00:10:15.53
so if you go to
bed early enough,
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you can get up early enough,
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you can go for a
walk, you can go swimming.
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People will ask, well,
what's the best exercise?
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And I say, I'll tell you exactly
what the best exercise is.
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The best exercise is the
one that you will keep on doing.
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If you don't like walking,
go bicycle riding, go swimming,
00:10:29.32\00:10:32.51
find something you enjoy.
00:10:32.54\00:10:34.79
There are when
they take and divide
00:10:34.82\00:10:36.71
fitness levels of
people into five levels,
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zero or one being, zero being,
00:10:39.40\00:10:42.03
you know, completely sedentary
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and five being a
person who is one of this
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ultra marathon
people or something that.
00:10:45.55\00:10:47.90
They've found that
the biggest difference,
00:10:47.93\00:10:50.19
the biggest
jump in healthfulness
00:10:50.22\00:10:53.14
and you're decreasing
your risk of heart disease
00:10:53.17\00:10:55.69
was going from
step zero to step one,
00:10:55.72\00:10:58.40
like cut your heart
attack rate in half.
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Going from zero
to one, what's one?
00:11:02.12\00:11:04.14
20 minutes of
exercise, mild exercise,
00:11:04.17\00:11:07.19
three times a
week, it's 20 minutes,
00:11:07.22\00:11:10.97
it's one hour a week, you know,
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doing from zero to one, that
if people could just do that.
00:11:13.62\00:11:16.78
Then the next group is
abstemiousness of avoiding
00:11:16.81\00:11:19.59
totally that which is harmful
00:11:19.62\00:11:21.24
and using it in
moderation that which is good.
00:11:21.27\00:11:23.35
And then last of all trust
in divine aid, oh, proper diet,
00:11:23.38\00:11:26.56
we have proper
diet in there too.
00:11:26.59\00:11:27.96
A proper diet is low in fat,
00:11:27.99\00:11:29.74
low in sugar,
vegan or vegetarian
00:11:29.77\00:11:33.44
and simple
foods, simply prepared.
00:11:33.47\00:11:36.60
These eight natural remedies
help to bring us great health.
00:11:36.63\00:11:39.97
Good thoughts, Dr. Shepherd.
00:11:40.00\00:11:41.79
Why does Peter here link
being watchful with prayers?
00:11:41.82\00:11:47.56
Okay, it's just though prayer
00:11:47.59\00:11:49.46
is that which keeps
us spiritually awake.
00:11:49.49\00:11:52.75
You see it lifts us up above
the doldrums of everyday life.
00:11:52.78\00:11:56.54
When we do not see
where things are headed.
00:11:56.57\00:11:59.22
Prayer changes
your outlook on life.
00:11:59.25\00:12:03.02
I used to give my students at--
00:12:03.05\00:12:06.40
when I taught at Union College,
00:12:06.43\00:12:08.43
I gave them what I
called a prayer assignment.
00:12:08.46\00:12:10.24
I told you before I was cellist
00:12:10.27\00:12:11.64
and I took I would take a string
quartet on tour to churches.
00:12:11.67\00:12:15.45
And we would
miss one class period,
00:12:15.48\00:12:17.68
one day per semester being away
00:12:17.71\00:12:20.46
on a Friday to go
for the distances.
00:12:20.49\00:12:23.46
And while I was gone,
00:12:23.49\00:12:25.11
I would give the students
this assignment that they had,
00:12:25.14\00:12:27.78
they could either read
two chapters on prayer,
00:12:27.81\00:12:30.50
one in the book ministry,
00:12:30.53\00:12:31.90
if you're in the
other in the book,
00:12:31.93\00:12:33.30
Steps to Christ and
write a one page report
00:12:33.33\00:12:34.70
on it of the five
great ideas that they found
00:12:34.73\00:12:37.64
and that they liked or they
could spend 30 minutes in prayer
00:12:37.67\00:12:41.33
connected minutes in prayer
00:12:41.36\00:12:43.37
and write a one page
report on what happened.
00:12:43.40\00:12:45.33
An assignment to
pray for 30 minutes?
00:12:45.36\00:12:47.45
Yes, 30 minutes connected,
00:12:47.48\00:12:48.85
they had to like
use a alarm clock
00:12:48.88\00:12:51.92
or something and I told them,
00:12:51.95\00:12:53.36
look if you
think this is legalism
00:12:53.39\00:12:55.33
please do the other assignment.
00:12:55.36\00:12:56.86
So they would take and
have amazing experiences,
00:12:56.89\00:13:01.04
sometimes they
would pray for 10 minutes,
00:13:01.07\00:13:03.81
look at the clock and say
oh, no, what I'm gonna do now.
00:13:03.84\00:13:07.08
And it seems like sometimes that
was when the real prayer began.
00:13:07.11\00:13:10.67
Because of most of us
will pray for 5 minutes or less
00:13:10.70\00:13:13.86
and then we sort of
run out of things to do.
00:13:13.89\00:13:16.32
Many people found that
they were praying for people
00:13:16.35\00:13:18.35
they had not
prayed for long time.
00:13:18.38\00:13:20.58
They found when they
finished, they had great peace.
00:13:20.61\00:13:23.98
They said, why
do we have to have
00:13:24.01\00:13:25.45
an assignment to
do this, you know.
00:13:25.48\00:13:27.71
And I would tell to
them, I say, you know,
00:13:27.74\00:13:29.42
if you--your prayers
are mostly about yourself,
00:13:29.45\00:13:33.15
you're probably not
praying long enough,
00:13:33.18\00:13:35.48
not spending
enough time in prayer.
00:13:35.51\00:13:37.47
And I said I know
some of you will go through
00:13:37.50\00:13:39.48
some hard
experiences in the future.
00:13:39.51\00:13:42.04
And I remember this
experience of prayer
00:13:42.07\00:13:45.63
and what it's done for you.
00:13:45.66\00:13:47.45
Well, we still got lot to
talk about, 1 Peter and so.
00:13:47.48\00:13:50.18
We're gonna take a
little break at this time
00:13:50.21\00:13:52.08
and then we'll back to
talk more about 1 Peter 4:7-11.
00:13:52.11\00:13:55.95