Sermon Central
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Your Body Series
Contributed by Shawn Drake on Apr 18, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: This series identifies areas in your life that need to be balanced. This is the 3rd sermon in the series, Balanced Living.
Series: Balanced Living [#3]
YOUR BODY
Introduction:
God wants you to be healthy. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were in perfect health. The Old Testament is full of rules and regulations about health. Jesus spent much of His ministry healing people.
How do you honor God with your body? It means you use your body for God's glory, honor Him, and take care of it. In this study, we're going to look at how to feel better physically.
1. Develop a healthy attitude about your body.
There are 3 unhealthy thoughts you should eliminate from your mind set. What do you think about when you think about your body?
* You can reject your body.
Some of you are doing this- Send it back; it's a mistake. You look in the mirror and think, “No thanks”. You reject it.
* You can perfect your body.
This is the opposite extreme. This is the body builders and the models. They are constantly striving to have the perfect body. They worship and idolize their body.
* You can neglect your body.
You ignore your health. You are careless about your condition and you drag through life tired most of the time. As a result, you have the wrong attitude. What is the right attitude toward your body? Don't reject it. Don't perfect it. Don't neglect it. The healthy attitude is to respect it and protect it. In order to protect your body, you have to do a 2nd thing.
2. Motivate yourself to change.
God wants you to be healthy. Why should I take care of my body? A lot of people think if God wants me to be healthy, He'll make me healthy. No, He expects you to take care of it. He expects you to follow the proper plan. There are some reasons that you can motivate yourself to change. There are some physical reasons that everybody probably understands and there are spiritual reasons that probably only Christians would understand.
Physical reasons:
* I'll feel better.
* I'll look better.
* I'll live longer.
* Spiritual reasons:
* God made your body.
* Jesus paid for my body.
* The Holy Spirit lives in it.
3. Follow God’s laws of health.
The principles in God's Word are put there not only for spiritual health but for emotional health and physical health.
When you follow the principles of God's Word, you're going to be a healthier person. The Bible is full of health rules and guidelines. I want us to look at 6 principles from God's Word on building a healthy body. Why do we spend time on this? It's part of life. When you feel bad physically it affects everything else.
* Maintain your ideal weight.
Circle "learn". That is saying that self-discipline can be learned and that includes maintaining your ideal weight.
* Balance your diet.
The point that Paul is making is that eating is not an end in itself. We eat to live- We don't live to eat. The Bible is full of nutritional advice. The Bible says things like, “Do not eat animal fat”. “Don’t eat too much sugar.” All through the Scripture, you read nutritional advice that is still applicable today.
* Commit yourself to a regular exercise program.
In Paul’s day, they were very active. They walked everywhere. Daily labor was a part of normal life. Commit yourself to a regular exercise program. What is the common excuse? "I don't have the time." Do you have time to be sick? If you don't make time for exercise, you'll probably find time to be sick.
What is the common mistake? We overdo it at the 1st. If you want to get in shape fast, exercise longer, not harder. Commit yourself to a regular exercise program.
* Get enough sleep and rest.
Rest is so important. Jesus encouraged His Disciples to rest. Jesus rested. Get the rest that you need.
* Reduce or avoid drinking alcohol.
This is a very “sore” subject for many. The Bible tells us not to get drunk. The Bible tells us to follow the laws of the land, (which means people under the age of 21 cannot consume alcohol). For many, alcohol has been the source of destroyed relationships.
* Live in harmony with God.
Our emotions have a tremendous effect on our physical health just like our physical health has a tremendous effect on our emotions.
