“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
HEB 12:12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” Heb. 12:11-13
I want to share with you exerpts from a Magazine article form the Saturday Evening Post, on Jack La Lann: Fit for life.
At 86, Jack La Lanne has dipped, chinned, pushed, pulled, and lifted more often than anyone in recorded history. His present training regimen is tailor made for only superheroes. While many of his contempories are content to sit on the sidelines, La Lanne rises at 5 am every day, heads to the gym, and logs in a vigorous two hour workout.
La Lanne’s rise to prominence and respect gives new meaning to the popular phrase “no pain, no gain”. When he began promoting the virtues of sound nutrition and regular exercise in the 1930’s and the 40’s, people thought of him as a “nut”, he says. Many people made fun of him publicly. But his big break came in television when the “Jack La Lanne show” was started in the 1950’s, and the world started to hear about the importance of fitness.
Listen to this interview:
Q. How’s your health?
A. Wonderful, I work out for two hours everyday.
Q. Do you work out everyday?
A. Seven days a week.
Q. Do you ever miss a workout?
A. Never, even on the road.
Remember that Jack La Lanne is 86 years old as he is giving these answers.... He says, ‘You get out of the bed in the morning tired and with aches and pains, but this body works for me. It’s my slave. I take care of it. Many older people complain that they are too old to exercise or they really like to eat. They have so many excuses. They are thinking about the good old days. Jack said, “The good old days are today.”
When I was 40, people said, “Your over the hill.” If you were a bodybuilder or gymnast, people thought you were muscle-bound and therefore couldn’t swim. So I put handcuffs on and swam from Alcatraz prison to the mainland. It got international attention. Then every two or three years, I would do something more difficult. I swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge underwater towing a 2,000 lb. boat. On one of my birthdays, I did 1,000 chin ups and 1,000 push ups in one hour and 22 minutes. On another, I water skied behind a helicopter for over 70 miles through rough waters. On my 70th birthday, I towed 70 boats with 70 people on board, handcuffed and shackled, a mile and one half. He finished by saying, On my next birthday, I want to swim from Catalina Island to Los Angeles underwater. It’s 26 miles, and it will take me over 20 hours....”
This morning I’m not going to spend my time talking to you about the benefits of physical exercise.... we all understand that truth don’t we? But this morning there are many similarities between physical exercise and spiritual exercise.... how each one will make us stronger, healthier, and give us more peace than if we ignore this discipline.
So this morning I want to share with you a 2005 Spiritual Workout Schedule.... I want to share with you some simple exercises that you can incorporate into your lives that will really make a difference in your spiritual health and happiness.
Do you know that when you work out and get your heart rate up to a certain level and keep it there for at least 12 minutes that your body releases “endorphanes”..... What are Endorphanes? It’s a natural anti-depressant. These endorphanes make you feel at peace, feel good about yourself, they relieve stress. These are released when you exercise, that’s why I feel so good after a work out...... If God thought about that as he created this human body, don’t you know that He wants us to get that same kind of feeling of well being and satisfaction as we exercise Spiritually also?
This morning, If you had to rate your Spiritual Fitness between 1 and 10 where would you be?
A one would be poor health... low on Faith..... a non giver..... in my gifts or resources for the church.... not very committed. Obviously a One needs some exercise right?
A Ten would be Great health..... a strong and growing faith.... a giver... active and using my gifts and resources in the church.... very committed to my church family and more importantly to God.
1........... 2 .......... 3 .......... 4........... 5 ............ 6 .............7.............8............. 9 .......... 10
(sickly) (healthy)
Now just in case your feeling like you don’t accomplish anything.... listen to what the average adult does in 24 hours:
.. your heart beats 103,689 times
.. your blood travels 168,000,000 miles
.. you breathe 23,040 times
.. you inhale 438 cubic feet of air
... you eat 3.25 pounds of food
.. you drink 2.9 quarts of liquids
... you speak 4,800 words (women, we know it’s more for you)
... you move 750 muscles
... your nails grow .000046 inch
... you hair grows .01714 inch
... you exercise 7,000,000 brain cells (most of you anyway)
So no matter how much you haven’t been doing in your own mind, you have been accomplishing something.... but I think we would all agree we can improve, especially in the area of our Spiritual exercise... So let’s look at the four steps to a healthy 2005 in our Spiritual lives...
1. Daily Exercise.
There are some things that we instinctively know we need everyday in our Spritual life to keep healthy. Kind of like no one needs to tell you to get a drink during the day... you just find something to drink because your thirsty, right? There are some basic spiritual exercises that we need to make a daily habit if we want to be healthy.
1. Prayer... Jesus said to pray like this... MT 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
" `Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’
Jesus gave us an example of how to pray, what to pray for, and basically He showed us that this is personal... pray to the Father just as if He was your Father... because He is. Prayer is to our spiritual life what water is to our physical life.... we won’t live without it.
How’s your prayer life? Make time to talk to God when no one else is around, when you won’t be disturbed, make this a priority and you will recieve the blessing, that’s a promise.
Matt. 6:6 says, 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
2. Be a Student of the Word .... Find a devotional book that will help you if you need too. I have two that I use..... “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers and I just started using “Devotional Readings with John Wesly”..... These are one page devotionals that take a scripture and give a daily application to that passage for you. It’s food for the mind all day long, you can think about what you read and ask God to teach you what He wants you to learn and apply to your own life.... Be a learner of His Word if you want to grow.
Of coarse you don’t have to have a devotional, just read the Bible... if you Bible has study notes, read the notes, try to get the best understanding that you can and then pray for God to speak to you through what you have read, and He will. If you read for 5 minutes you will have plenty of scripture to chew on for the whole day...... take in His word, put it into that awesome computer of a brain you have... you will be amazed how much the Holy Spirit can bring back to your memory when you need it.
3. Be Thankful... To God and for Other’s in you life.... Have a lifestyle of thankfulness... regardless of your circumstances....
4. Have Fun. Life is a gift and it’s to be enjoyed. Don’t forget that humor is one of God’s greatest gifts, and it’s healthy for you. When is the last time you really laughed? Find some funny people and hang around them... find a way to add humor to your life... the bible says laughter is good medicine.
5. Tell your loved ones that you love them..... you don’t know how important this is.. for you and for them.... Just say it... if you have trouble saying it, set a goal to say it once every day for a week... and you will find it will get easier. What a blessing to pass on with your words, don’t wait until it’s too late.
Those are some daily exercises that will help you spiritual life... add them to you most important items to get done everyday and watch how God will bless you in everyway.
2. Weekly Participation
To grow as a Christian you must realize how important it is to participate on a weekly basis in the Body of Christ, through worship. A healthy Christian life includes worship with other Christians. That’s what we are doing right now... there is something that can happen here, right now, with us together as the Body of Christ that can’t happen when we are by ourselves.... God created us to use our gifts to encourage and to build up each other... we really do need each other.
Matthe Rogers Illustration:
A. Sunday Worship... Sunday Night Discipleship (Bible Study)
B. Weekly Life Groups.....
3. Lifestyle Chage
feeding habits may need to improve.
4. A determined mindset to be Christlike in you attitudes and actions
Closing Prayer and Challenge
