"Lets Get Physical" Desire Series

Lets get physical

The number one desire that people have is good health, obviously health is not something we can guarantee even if you do everything right. People eat right exercise and still die of heart attacks, people injury themselves and become handicap and we all get old and slowly our bodies start to tell us that we can’t do the things we used to do.

Can we control these things? No. Something that we need to remember is that the deterioration of our bodies are a constant reminder that we live in a sinful world and there must be something more then this life we are living.

2 Cor 4:16
Paul encourages the Corinthian church by reminding them that even though you are physically wasting away God can be and is willing to Spiritually renew you everyday if you enter into a relationship wit Jesus Christ.

But…is there a call for us to take care of ourselves while we are here in the flesh?
1 Cor. 6:18-20

This is God’s House, don’t curse you are in God’s house, don’t run and play games, you are in God’s house. Guess what the Bible says that you are God’s house if you trust in Christ.

For the 5 Yes this building is a resource given to us by God to use for ministry and we should take care of it. By the way you may have noticed all the work that was done in the foyer, that was done by many people who care to see this resource taken care of and looking better.

Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit the Bible teaches there is call to be a good steward with it, God wants us to take care of the body He has given us and lives in.

You may be thinking here we go this is going to be some encouragement to eat right or something. Eat your Bible bar made from ingredients found in the book of Deuteronomy, wash it down with some Jesus juice and clean up your breath with testaments.

No, today we are going to talk about self control if you are looking for “health” physical, spiritual and emotion health, God’s Word teaches we have to exercise self control.

Galatians 5:22-23 says the fruit of the spirit is self control
Eph 2:3 the fruit of the flesh is no control
Romans 8:8 Says “So those who live by the flesh cannot please God.

2 Peter 2:18-19 This verse is saying the world that we live in appeals to our flesh. The result of giving in is slavery to those things. Think about it we live in a fast food, sex saturated society where everyone’s own opinion counts except the truth of God’s Word

Galatians 6:7-8 Principle, reap what we sow. This passage teaches us that when we live for the desires of our flesh there is no benefit, actually it leads to corruption.

Remember Proverbs 13:12 when we get distracted from what we need to do it makes our hearts sick.

A study of Cardiac Risk Factors Heart disease. Obviously things such as smoking, overeating and eating unhealthy foods and a lack of physical exercise cause heart disease are controllable things that cause heart disease but studies also say that stress and behavior attribute to heart disease as well.


Can our health be a spiritual problem? Many times we look at things and put them in compartments, we say, the way I eat has nothing to do with my spiritual life.

The fact that I don’t exercise does not have anything to do with my spiritual life. 1 Timothy 4:7-8
What is this saying if you are so concerned about your body because you want to impress a member of the opposite sex, those are the types of attitudes that God condemns. If that is you maybe you have self control issues in areas of purity.

The things that cause stress, the way I spend my money has nothing to do with my spiritual life. The fact that I lose my cool at work is just the way I deal with things. The fact that I am consistently late or don’t take my responsibilities seriously has nothing to do with my spiritual life. These things cause us stress and get us out of focus and make our hearts physically sick.

So how do we exercise self control in all areas of our lives, especially those we struggle in? Discipline, what is the root word of discipline? Disciple

In order to have self control we need to put the practices of being a disciple of Jesus into practice. We have to make the spiritual disciplines a habit the more we discipline ourselves the more self control we will develope

During his term as President of the U.S., Lyndon Johnson was somewhat overweight. One day his wife challenged him with this blunt assertion: "You can't run the country if you can't run yourself." Respecting Mrs. Johnson's wise observation, the President lost 23 pounds.


What are the disciplines of a Disciple of Jesus?

A person that is displaying self control
Prays daily, Luke 22:44-46 If we spend time in prayer we are less likely to fall into temptation. We can’t make it on our own, we need help from the Lord. If you are struggling with self control in some area you have to give that up to the Lord daily in prayer

We have to have self control to make prayer a daily habit. DL Moody said one day “I have far to much to do today I must spend an extra hour in prayer” That takes discipline to not just start working on the tasks and spend extra time in prayer and it will produce self control
Right Attitude- resolved to do the right thing, Daniel and the choice food. This was about not eating something sacrificed to other gods. With the right attitude we can victory over many areas, food, smoking, alcohol, sexual purity and what we say. It said Daniel “purposed in his heart”

Complaining Philippians 2:14”do all things without complaining”
Mark Twain said
Don't complain and talk about all your problems--80 percent of people don't care; the other 20 percent will think you deserve them.
I am not sure if that is true but it makes you think, maybe others don’t want to hear it.
It takes discipline to have a good positive attitude and purpose in your heart not to sin but it will produce self control
Read and Obey the Word- what is the truth?
-What does the Bible say about gossip? We have to control our tongue
-What does the Bible say about drunkenness? It says not to be
-What doe that Bible say about over indulgence in food? Says don’t be a glutton.
Pro23:21 says drunk and glutton leads to poverty
-What does the Bible say about being angry? In your anger do no sin.
-What does the Bible say about sexual purity and lust? It says that sex is right in the confines of marriage.

The idea here is the Bible is the standard and we have to exercise self control to get ourselves in line with that standard. Psalm 119:133 says “Direct my steps by Your Word and let sin have no control over me”.

It takes discipline to read and obey the Word and it will produce self control

1 Peter 2:11-12 It is another way that you can be effective in telling others about the Lord

Do you want to be healthy? God says that we need to make self control a habit in our lives.