Giving Thanks to God in All Situations — Zac Poonen

Jesus’ Repeated Command Not to Worry

Many of us have read, I'm sure, the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew chapter five, six, and seven. Have you noticed there, there was one commandment that Jesus gave, please turn to Matthew chapter six, and in a space of about 10 verses, he repeated something three times.

Now, Jesus, whenever he repeats something, it's always because he wants to emphasize the importance of it. Now, I can't think of any other passage there in the Sermon on the Mount, which he repeated three times in 10 verses, exactly the same commandment.

I don't know whether you noticed it. It says here in Matthew six and verse 25, for this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life, what you eat, Matthew six, 25, what you drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on.

Isn't your life more than food and the body more than clothing? And again, he says in verse 31, do not worry, saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear out? Because the non-Christians, the other ones are worried about all this.

And then a third time in verse 34, do not worry about tomorrow. Now, when Jesus emphasizes something or says something three times in 10 verses, it must be pretty serious. It must be something that we must take heed to.

And it's in the context of, you know, being, say, do we have enough to survive? And particularly at this time in the history of what's happening all over the world, people are thinking so much about that.

How are we gonna survive? And the subject here is survival. Do not worry, do not worry, do not worry. And there are one thing here he said as a cure for it. Verse 33, it's a cure, it's a cure for worry.

Seek first, verse 33, God's kingdom and his righteousness. All these other things that you're worried about will be added to you. Added means you don't have to struggle for it, God will just add it on to you.

So I have believed that promise for many years. And I know through times of struggle, health struggle, financial struggle, everything, I said, Lord, I want to seek your kingdom first. And I believe that all the things that the world is full of anxiety about will just get added to me without my struggling for it.

Not that we don't have to work, because Jesus said we have to work and we earn our bread through the sweat of our brow. There's no place for laziness in God's kingdom. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3, that if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat.

So I'm not talking about avoiding hard work. We all have to work hard to support ourselves, but there's no need to be anxious along with our hard work. It's very important at this particular time that we live free from fear and anxiety.

One of the things that Jesus would frequently tell his disciples was don't be afraid. Why were you afraid? Very similar to don't be anxious. So fear and anxiety was something that Jesus baffled or warned against as much as sin.

We preach in the church, the new covenant is that we don't sin. The new covenant is also that we're not afraid and don't get anxious about anything. That's just as important. I mean, just because I avoid getting angry and lusting with my thoughts and avoid murmuring and grumbling and complaining.

And at the same time, if I'm fearful and anxious, I'm just sitting in another area. I avoid the cliff on one side and fall over the cliff on the other side. So this is very, very important. And what does it mean to seek God's kingdom first?

In my early days, I thought seeking God's kingdom meant I got to do missionary work or go out and preach or something like that, but not everybody can do that. What about a mother with small children at home?

How is she going to go around the world preaching? The kingdom of God is not that. The cure for anxiety and worry, which Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33, was seek God's kingdom first. And these things you're worried about will get added onto you.

You don't have to worry about them. The kingdom of God, let me show it to you. I hope you'll never forget this. It's described in Romans 14, 17 as righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's it.

So when you're seeking God's kingdom first, it's not going out and preaching. It is seeking after Romans 14, 17, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So to seek God's kingdom and his righteousness first is to say, Lord, I want you to fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I'll have righteousness, peace and joy in my heart.

Only God can do that. It's not a peace I work to myself by trying to claim this promise or that promise or remembering some verse. We forget these things, but the Holy Spirit can bring peace in our hearts.

He's the author of peace. So the other thing I want you to see is in Philippians in chapter four. In Philippians chapter four, also the apostle Paul picks up the same word that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 6.

He says the same thing, Philippians 4, verse six, be anxious for nothing. So what is the solution he gives for that? We saw the solution Jesus gave, seek righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit all the time.

Paul says here, if you're concerned about something, if you're worried about something, concerned about what's gonna happen to you or your children or the future or anything, Philippians 4, 6, take it to the Lord in prayer.

You know that song we sing, oh, what peace we often forfeit, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. So he says, take everything to God in prayer. But the important point I want you to notice here is this.

See, this is the command, be anxious for nothing but. So the solution for anxiety, to be anxious for nothing, according to Paul here is pray with supplication. Supplication means specific request. Prayer is general prayer.

Supplication is specifically, Lord, this particular thing. And don't stop there. There's one more thing. End your prayer with thanksgiving. When you pray, make your request specific. Don't just say, bless me.

Be specific what you want and then end your prayer with thanksgiving. That means, no, normally we don't do that. See, we say prayer and we say, Lord, this, this, this, in Jesus' name, amen. But here he says, learn to complete your prayer with thanksgiving.

Thank you, Lord, for hearing me. That's the thing that'll cure you of anxiety, he says, because when you do that, the peace of God will be like a garrison, like an army surrounding your heart and protecting you from anxiety and fear.

It's a wonderful thing. When you think of the, this thanksgiving is something which we don't normally have in our prayer. It's, we pray for many things, but thanking God is something from which we can get a lot more than we prayed for.

Thanksgiving Learned from the Ten Lepers

I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 17. And you know the story of the 10 lepers who came to Jesus and asked him to cleanse them. They raised their voice, it says in Luke 17, verse 13, and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

And Jesus said, go and show yourself to the priest. Luke 17, verse 14, and as they were going, they were cleansed. Now, what would you do if you had leprosy for many, many years, and you had to stay outside the camp?

That's the rule of those days. And you're cleansed, completely healed. You can live a normal life, go back to your family. I would think you should rush back to the Lord and say, thank you for healing me.

But these nine did not go back. I don't know why. There could be so many reasons. Somebody may have said, I think I was already getting a little better. So this is not really a great miracle. It's so easy to write off a miracle with so many other human reasons.

But one man, and that man was not a Jew, he was a Samaritan. Jesus often spoke about the despised Samaritans as sometimes being more godly than the Jews. You remember the story of the good Samaritan? The priest and the Levite ignored that man who was beaten on the roadside, and the Samaritan went and picked him up.

And here also, the one person who comes back to thank the Lord is a Samaritan. It says here, one of them, verse 15, when he saw that he had been healed, he turned back and with the same loud voice, Luke 17, verse 15, with which he had asked for healing, with a similar loud voice, he glorified God now.

That means his thanksgiving was as loud as his prayer. And he was a Samaritan. He fell at Jesus' feet. Does Jesus expect us to thank him? See here in verse 17, Jesus answered and said, weren't there 10 people cleansed?

Where are the nine? So today, when the Lord looks down at all the prayers ascending from his people to heaven, Lord, give me this, give me that, do this for me, do this for my children, and heal me, et cetera, et cetera.

Out of 10 prayers, one person comes back to thank God. That proportion is probably true even today. I wonder whether there's even one out of 10 who come back and say, Lord, I'm so thankful with the same loud voice with which we pray.

See, notice here, with a loud voice, he prayed saying, Master, have mercy on us, verse 13, all 10 of them. One man came back and with the same loud voice, verse 15, said, thank you, Lord, for healing me.

That's how we are to be. Prayer, specific request, with thanksgiving, you'll be anxious for nothing. And it's very often because we don't learn to thank God that we miss out on so many things God has for us.

I wanna show you that right here. Some of you may not have noticed it in Luke 17. First of all, I wanted to point out to you that Jesus expects us to come back and thank him. See, we don't have any right to expect people to come and thank us, no.

It's wrong for us to expect people to come and thank us. But it is right for Jesus because he is Lord. God is perfectly worthy to receive worship, thanksgiving. We are not worthy to receive worship and we should not expect people to thank us.

We must thank people, definitely. We must teach our children to thank those who do something for them or give them something. But we ourselves must not expect any thanks from anybody. You remember that story?

Not story, but the truth that Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 25, the day when he will come back and sit on his throne. And it says there in Matthew 25 that, you know that story where all the nations are gathered in front of him and he's gonna separate them and the righteous are on the right, he's gonna say to them, Matthew 25, verse 34, come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you because, what is the reason?

I was hungry, Matthew 25, 35, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, you invited me in. I was naked, you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me and the righteous will answer, Lord, we don't remember that, we never saw you.

We never saw you hungry, we never saw you without clothes or we never saw you a stranger and we never saw you in prison or sick. When was it? And listen to this answer, beautiful verse, Matthew 25, verse 40, the king will say to them, I say to you to the extent that you did it to one of these least brothers of mine, not the rich, well-to-do, respected ones, everybody goes and does good things for them, but to the least, to the poorest and the least, you did something for one of my children?

The Lord says, you did it for me, these are my brothers. You helped one of my brothers? Jesus said, you helped me. I remember the Lord showing that verse to me once when I was thinking of a brother whom he had helped in our church, a young brother, the early days of CFC in Bangalore.

He used to come to the meetings and his parents were family, nobody was converted, he was the only one. He was a college student and he would visit us and many times he would stay at our home after the meeting at night, he'd get up on his own, go to the kitchen, make coffee and have breakfast and go off to college again.

He was so much, he treated our home like his own, we were very happy to have him for years. And then he got a degree and he went on and got a good job somewhere else. And for many years, I never heard a word from him.

And I was so surprised. I said, this guy who we helped so much, he's not even written a note to us or thanked us for anything that we did. That's the day the Lord spoke to me and said, the fault is not with him, the fault is with you.

I said, Lord, what is my fault? We helped him, we did everything. The fault is you are expecting thanks from him, which means you did not do it as unto me, you did it as unto him. Then the Lord reminded me of this verse, in as much as you do it to the least of these my brothers, you're actually doing it to me.

And the Lord said, if you have done it unto me, you don't expect thanks from that man. You didn't do it to him, you did it to me. If you want thanks, expect it from me. So I learned something that day, that when I serve other people, I'm not to expect thanks from any of them because I'm not serving them.

I'm doing it as unto the Lord. Please remember this, it'll help you. So often people say, oh, that guy was so unthankful. Who do you think you are? Did you do it as unto the Lord? Or did you do it as unto a person?

I learned that day something. And after that day, I have never expected thanks from any human being or from any believer. I don't expect thanks in any way I serve them. I say, Lord, I'm doing it for you.

So we have got no right to expect thanks from anyone, but Jesus, he has every right to be thanked. That's why he said in Luke 18, where are the nine? Only one person comes to give thanks. I believe one of the things missing in the lives of many Christians is this attitude of thanksgiving, an attitude of gratitude to the Lord for what he's done.

Thanksgiving as Glory and Salvation

And now I want you to see something wonderful here, which you may not have seen in Luke chapter 17. When this man came and gave glory to God, it says here that when you give thanks to God, you're actually giving glory to God.

How do we glorify God? One way is by thanking him. Jesus said that in verse 18. This man has come to give glory to God. And so Jesus said, look at the reward he got. I want you to see the reward he got for his thanksgiving.

Stand up on your faith. Your faith has saved you. That's what the margin of my Bible says. Literally the translation there is your faith has saved you. What did the other nine get? Healing. What did he get?

Healing plus salvation. The others were healed of their leprosy and probably went to hell. I don't know. This man got healed of his leprosy and got into God's kingdom. Why? Because he just came back and with a loud voice, thanked Jesus for what he'd done.

So he got a million times more than the others who only prayed. So what I learned there is you get a lot more from God when you learn to give thanks. You know that wonderful word in Acts chapter 20 and verse 35, where it's a saying of Jesus that is not found in the Gospels.

And I don't know where Paul heard it. Paul must have heard it from one of his apostles. And it's not written in any of the four Gospels, but it says in Acts 20, 35, that Jesus said once, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

That's not in the Gospels. That's in Acts 20, verse 35. The words of Jesus. It is more blessed to give than to receive. When we give thanks to the Lord, we get more blessing. If I were to paraphrase it, when you receive an answer to your prayer from God, praise the Lord, that is a blessing.

But when you give thanks to God for that answered prayer, it's a greater thing. It is more blessed to give than to receive. So this is the one thing we saw in Philippians. When you pray, if you conclude your prayer with thanksgiving, it's like a garrison God puts around your heart that you're protected from anxiety and fear.

God’s Provision in Times of Pandemic and Need

There's a lot of anxiety and fear in the world today. People are afraid they'll get sick. People are afraid that they may not have enough money to survive. We don't know how long this coronavirus pandemic is gonna continue.

How long are we gonna live without jobs? Businesses are closing down and so many people are suffering. I know many, many people are suffering around the world. But the children of God, I think of that lovely verse in Psalm 37.

A word of encouragement to all those who pursue righteousness. You remember the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. This is a Psalm of David. Most of the Psalms that David wrote, he wrote when he was a young man.

A lot of them before he was 30 years old, when he was a shepherd looking after his father's sheep. But there were one Psalm that he, this is probably the last Psalm he wrote when he was 70 years old, before he died.

And he says in Psalm 37 and verse 25, I have been young. It's a, I love this verse. I quoted many, many times to people to encourage them. David says, I've been young and now I'm old. But in my whole life, in all my 70 years, I've never seen a righteous man forsaking.

Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit is the kingdom of God. Seek it. Seek to be upright. Never to cheat anyone. Never to do anything wrong. Be righteous. Be righteous in money matters. Be righteous in your conversation.

Be righteous in your work. And okay, other people who cheat may make more money than you, but you won't be forsaken by God. Impossible. I believe that in all my life, I've never seen a righteous person forsaken by God.

I can say that what David said. And not only that, here's the blessing beyond that. I have not seen the seed of the righteous. That means the children of the righteous begging for bread. In other words, the children of the righteous get jobs.

Who are the ones who have to beg for bread? Those who don't have a job. But the seed of the righteous will never have to beg for bread. And the seed means children, grandchildren. If you're a righteous man, your grandchildren will get jobs.

They won't be begging for bread. It's a wonderful thing to be a righteous person. And a Christian must be a testimony to this truth. I'm not anxious because I seek the kingdom of God. I seek to be righteous in my life.

I don't want one cent in my bank account which is not righteously, honestly earned. I want to pay back all my debts. I don't want to cheat on my taxes. I don't want to do anything wrong in my life. I don't want to be unrighteous in any of my dealings with people.

Okay, people can cheat me, but I don't want to cheat them. I want to be absolutely righteous because I know then I will never be forsaken by God. I know then my children will never look for a job. We'll never have to look for a job.

They'll have it. My grandchildren will not have to look for a job. None of them will beg for bread because I'm righteous. I want to encourage you to do seek that and you'll see it will be fulfilled. I mean, the Lord is coming so soon that you may not see your grandchildren, but nevermind.

You can still be a blessing in your life. You will not be forsaken and your children won't be forsaken. It's a wonderful thing. When they are sick, they will not be forsaken. It's a wonderful thing to learn to be righteous and to give thanks to God for everything.

Gratitude as Evidence of Being Filled with the Spirit

Always giving thanks. Many people ask, what is the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit? You know, so many people have so many, so many different understandings of, how do I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?

Well, there are a number of things I could say, but one of the things I see here in Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5 and says here in verse 18, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5, 18, be filled with the Spirit.

And one result of being filled with the Spirit is, you want to know whether you're filled with the Spirit or not? Verse 20, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.

Now we can give thanks for good things. Even the worldly people would give thanks when something good happens to them. But here it says, giving thanks for everything and not some of the time, all the time, all the time for all things, giving thanks.

Can you make that a goal in your life? Say, Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that my life will not have one bit of murmuring or complaining about anything. About any circumstance or about any person.

If you've got the habit of complaining about people, you're not filled with the Spirit, that's certain. Whatever you may say, you're speaking in tongues and all that, it could be fake. If you're filled with the Spirit, you'll be giving thanks always for all things and for all people.

I don't agree with them, but I'm going to give thanks for every circumstance I'm in. Thank you, Lord, for this, that, and the other. I want to thank God for everything that comes into my life. And some of the tough things that have happened in my life, when I look back over my life, I didn't become strong during the easy times in my life, no.

I became strong through the trials God took me through. So I give thanks for them. I give thanks for my trials because that's what made me strong. Don't you want to give thanks to God for what made you strong?

And it's when God allowed me to go through severe testings in different times, that's what made me a strong Christian. That's what gave me a confidence in God. That's what gave me boldness to tell other people that you can trust God and he'll never let you down.

See, it's like these people who go to a gym to exercise. Now, every instrument in a gym, if you've gone to a gym, you'll see every instrument there, there are so many they have nowadays, is meant to put some tension on some part of your body, either your hand muscles or your leg muscles or your back muscles or your shoulder muscles.

Every bit of equipment there is meant to put some tension or strain on some muscle of yours. See, boy, strain, yes. That's how your muscle becomes strong. That's how these people who go regularly to gyms come out with strong muscles.

The people who don't subject their muscles to strain are fat and flabby. The way our muscles develop is by subjecting them to some tension and strain. It's the same thing spiritually, that when God allows us to go through a trial, that's to make us strong.

And the people who've gone through the most trials are the strongest Christians in the world. So we give thanks for all things. There's no circumstance in which we do not give thanks. In the Old Testament, there were laws concerning giving a Thanksgiving offering to God.

Old Testament Tithing and New Covenant Giving

In the Old Testament, one of the laws was to bring a tithe. By the way, the Old Testament tithe was never money. You know that? Because they were not shopkeepers. They were not people who worked in offices and earned a salary.

Tithe was never money. Tithe was grain or cattle because the Israelites were either farmers or shepherds and they would bring their, sometimes they would sell it and bring money, but otherwise they'd bring their grains and cattle.

And they had to give it to the Levites. You know, the principle of tithing in the Old Testament, let me explain to you. There were 12 tribes in Israel and God said one tribe, Levi, is not going to own any land in Israel.

You know why God chose the tribe of Levi? Just for your information, one day when everybody was worshiping the golden calf and they came out of Egypt, Moses got so angry and he came down and said, who will stand with me on the Lord's side?

And all the sons of Levi came and stood with, that time there were no priests, came and stood with Moses. And God and the Lord, and Moses told those sons of Levi, now go out and kill all these idolaters.

And they went out and did that. And he said, don't spare your brother or sister or anyone. And when they stood for the Lord, they were the only tribe, the sons of Levi, who stood with Moses against this idolatry.

And therefore God gave them the priesthood. It was a great honor that for the rest of Israel's history, always the priesthood would be with the Levites. So God selected that one tribe, not by drawing a lot, but because they stood for him at a particular time.

And then these Levites were not supposed to own any property, were not supposed to do any work. So the other Israelites, the other 11 tribes had to come and give their 10 of their cattle or grain to the Levites so that they could live.

That's what the Levites was for. Now, in the New Testament, we don't give tithes. There's no commandment to tithe after the Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter two, when the new covenant began, no such thing.

And anybody who preaches that today doesn't have a clue what the new covenant is all about. It's only covetous people who keep asking others to give them their money, pastors and preachers. But what are we to give instead today?

What is the equivalent of the tithe in the new covenant? See, everything in the Old Testament has got an equivalent. For example, Egypt, from which the Israelites were delivered is a picture of the world.

Pharaoh is a picture of Satan. The blood of the lamb is a picture of the blood of Christ, which they put on the door and which saves us. They're going through the Red Sea in and out as a picture of water baptism.

The cloud coming down from heaven is a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And they're wandering in the wilderness as a picture of living under the law, defeated. And entering Canaan is a picture of overcoming sin, victory over sin, killing the lusts of the flesh, the giants of Canaan.

Everything there has got a meaning here. And what is circumcision? Is it cutting off of confidence in the flesh? What is the equivalent of the tithe in the New Testament? Let me show that to you. How do I express my thanks to God?

The Israelites express their thanks by giving money or cattle or grain, thanking God for it. In the New Testament, here is the equivalent. And this is what is not preached. Many people are preaching the Old Testament standard of tithing.

But the New Testament, it says here in Romans chapter 12, verse one, in view of the mercies of God, here's what I'm asking you to give to God, not 10 of your income. Why does he say in view of the mercies of God?

You see, he has spent 11 chapters explaining the wonderful blessing of salvation. He starts off in the first three chapters showing that we're all sinners and works his way all the way through chapter 11 to show us what a wonderful salvation Christ has purchased for us.

And then he says, in view of all that God has done for you, that's the meaning of in view of the mercies of God, what are you going to give to God as an act of thanksgiving? Thank you, Lord, for dying for me on the cross.

Money? No, God doesn't want your money. I'm probably the only preacher who preaches God doesn't want your money. He wants something more important than that. God's not a beggar. He's the ruler of the universe.

All the silver and the gold is his. Why does he want our money? What does he want? In view of all the mercies of God, he wants your body. Present your body as an act of thanksgiving. So when we talk about giving thanks to God, here is how I express my thanksgiving to Jesus for dying for me on the cross.

I present my body to him. Now, you see, in the old covenant, the presenting of the sacrifice on the altar, they couldn't just bring a bullock and put it on the altar and give it up like that. No, the priest had to cut it up into pieces.

Now, I'm often wondered, if they're gonna burn the thing in any case, why waste all that time cutting that bullock into so many pieces? That'll take such a long time. Why not just put the bullock on the altar and burn it and say, Lord, here's the offering?

No, the Lord said, you must cut it up. And so I see that there was a symbolism in there. Everything, as I told you, in the Old Testament has a symbolic meaning in the New Testament. In other words, when it says here in Romans 12 .1, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your body, a living holy sacrifice, which is the way you worship in the spirit.

You remember what Jesus told the Samaritan woman, the true worshipers who worship in the spirit? Well, here it is. This is how we worship in the spirit, by presenting our body as a sacrifice to God, but not as a full body, I have to cut it up.

Lord, here are my hands, here are my eyes, here's my tongue, I offer it all to God. That's how I show my thanksgiving to God. Lord, I don't wanna use my tongue or my eyes for anything sinful from now on.

So thanksgiving is not just with words. It's by offering our body, and it says in verse two, by offering our mind. So it's more than just using words. Words can be cheap, like they say, Lord, thank you so much, and we can go on like that.

But more than words, it's the presenting of our body. And if you have presented your body to the Lord and say, Lord, I wanna show my thanksgiving to you. You gave your body for me on the cross. You didn't just say nice words, you gave your body to be crucified.

When we break bread, Jesus, remember what Jesus said, this is my body broken for you. You gave your body for me. I wanna give my body for you to express my thanksgiving for all that you did for me. And when I give my body to God like that, I say, Lord, I have no more right on this body.

You can do what you like. You can take it where you like, you can do whatever you, I will have no complaint. I believe we can be free from anxiety and fear concerning our body if you have presented it completely to the Lord.

The Body Belongs to the Lord

I remember how the Lord spoke to me once through 1 Corinthians chapter six. It's a promise that I very often claimed for, came from the Lord. In 1 Corinthians six, it speaks about food and the stomach and the body in 1 Corinthians six and verse 13.

He's talking in verse 12 about being, not being mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians six, verse 12, he says, everything is lawful for me, but I won't be mastered. I won't allow anything on earth to master me.

And then immediately he thinks of food because he knows that a lot of people are slaves to good food. They are mastered by it. But he says, I refuse to be mastered by anything because I want only Jesus to master my life.

And so he says, food, that's for the stomach. And the stomach is for food, but one day God is gonna destroy all of that. So I'm not gonna worship food. You know that Paul speaks about that twice. It's very important to recognize this.

The worship of food is something that Paul, the Holy Spirit speaks about twice. One is here, food is for the stomach and is in the context of, I will not be mastered by the love for food. Verse 12, the last part.

In Philippians three, he talks about some people, Philippians three and verse 19, some people whose God is their stomach, whose God is their appetite, they worship their appetite. They get upset if the food is not up to the mark.

They worship food. And that is a shameful thing to glory and he says in Philippians three 19. But coming back to one Corinthians six, he says, don't worship food. But then he goes on to say, don't use your body for immorality.

That's another thing people worship. Sex, food and sex are two things a lot of people worship. He says, but the body is not primarily meant for food and sex. God has created these desires and use them under control.