"Good Sense Living: Taking Care of Your Body and Soul"
(I Timothy 4:6-8)
Main Idea: The responsibility to take care of our body and soul is a choice only we can make.
This morning we continue our series called "Good Sense Living." In this series we are talking about living our lives in ways that make good sense. As we said last week, there are ways we live that do make good sense and ways we live that do not make good sense. In our first message we said that it doesn’t make good sense to seek fulfillment through our work and sacrifice our family at the same time. We then talked about how we have to make some hard decisions regarding our time to bring balance between our work and family and leave room for God to work as well.
Today we are going to talk about the responsibility we have to take care of our body and our soul. Unless you have been living in a cave for the last ten years, it is not surprising to you that as an American culture we are an unhealthy bunch of folks. Our failure to take care of our own physical health contributes annually to over $20 billion dollars in additional healthcare costs. Our lives are far too inactive and our diet is far too inadequate. Our own Governor’s new book says it well: We are "Killing Ourselves with a Knife and a Fork". As Christians we have a responsibility to take care of the body that God gives us.
At the same time, we as believers are failing to take care of our soul, our spiritual selves. There has never been a time in Christian history when there were more resources available to nurture and grow spiritually. There is every imaginable specialty Bible available as well as books and study materials. Every conceivable media resource is available to us from television, DVD’s, Internet and now Podcasts, offering us information on how to grow spiritually. Yet with all the information available, why is it that there is so little real spiritual transformation going on in our lives? The reason is we have failed to take responsibility to care for the health of our soul.
So the problem is not a lack of information and it really isn’t a lack of motivation. It is simply that we have failed as believers to take responsibility for the care of our body and our soul. If that’s the problem, what do we need to do? I believe Paul’s words to Timothy can guide us. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:6 that he has a responsibility to remind the brothers and sisters of some specific things that will aid them both physically and spiritually. This morning my words to you are a gentle challenge for each for us to be reminded of some things you already know but need the encouragement to act. This text reminds us of three areas for which we need to take responsibility:
Before we can begin to address the care of our body and soul there is primary factor that has to be examined. That factor is that the key reason we fail to take care of either our physical health or spiritual fitness is that the way we use our time is out of balance. In I Timothy 4:7 Paul tells Timothy, "Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives tales." Then he says, "Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness." He tells Timothy that there were some things that could waste his time and as well there were other things that really needed his time. The "godless ideas" were concepts that were spiritually bankrupt. The "old wives tales" referred to ideas that were silly and wasteful and not worthy of his attention. Paul is telling Timothy that he needed to be careful not to use his time on things that were ultimately worthless but to spend his time on things that were truly valuable.
What this says to me is that before we can truly begin to take responsibility for the care of our bodies and souls we have to make some hard decisions about balancing our time. Why? Because if we decide that we need to take responsibility to care for our bodies and our souls and do not make some lifestyle changes, it won’t happen. We don’t need more things to do; we need to do the right things. That was Paul’s point to Timothy.
Making room for the right things means bringing balance to our lives. The reason we keep doing the wrong things is we don’t know what else to do. Bringing balance to our lives is not about making a list of priorities because, ultimately, priorities become defeating. Why? Because to say one thing is a priority is saying that something else is not. If you decide that you are going to take responsibility for the care of your body, then in order to do that it means you will not choose to do something else with the time you are giving to your body. Say you choose to exercise in the morning after your wife has been up three times with the baby. Just when you start out the door you hear the baby cry. Now, if you choose your priority, you may find your spouse having issues with your priority.
Real life is more about arranging our life around balance than it is following a list of priorities. Balance means that you recognize your limits in defined areas of your life. It may be that the time you are giving to work is the place that throws the balance off in your life. You may be spending far too much time on a hobby or some recreation activity that keeps things out of balance. Balance understands that we all have physical, emotional and mental limits. Balance says that you understand that you can’t be excellent at everything at the same time and accepts that as pleasing to God! Balance means recognizing where your life is out of balance and making choices to bring balance back into your life. Paul said, "Make the most of every chance you get…Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants" (Eph. 5:16-17 Msg). The first crucial step to taking care of my body and my soul is to recognize that my time needs to be balanced.
Once we recognize the need for balance with our time then we have room to do what we can to take care of our body and soul. Paul says in verse 8, "Physical exercise has some value." Paul is not discounting the need for a healthy body. Some see that Paul is using the analogy of physical exercise to emphasize the need for spiritual training. Others say that Paul is alluding to extreme forms of bodily discipline that can get out of hand. Either way, Paul is not saying that we should neglect or fail in the care of our physical body. He does say that it has "some value."
Paul lived in a world where what we think of "exercise" or "working out" would have been relegated to the athlete or to the elite. The average person in Paul’s day or the first century walked everywhere they went so there was little need to "run" or "walk" for exercise. Also, the diet of the average person was predominately whole grains and vegetables with very little meat, so there was no need to watch their calories. So, for Paul, there was not a concern for the physical health because their lifestyle took care of that.
This is not true for us today. Our culture is focused so much on convenience and that has forced us into too much inactivity. It has, as well, made our food as equally convenient, which forces us to eat foods that do not promote health. You are well aware that our inactivity and our diet are contributing to at least half of the ten major causes of death—heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke, diabetes and some cancer. Yet with all the information available to us, the vast majority of us ignores it and goes right on doing nothing to change! Why? Because we simply won’t make the choice to change our lifestyle or our eating. Fast food places wouldn’t be promoting "super sized" items if they weren’t selling. People walking or running don’t exactly cover up the streets! This is not about a woman being a certain size or a man being "buff." It’s about simply taking care of the body God has given you!
Where does that begin? It begins by your decision to change your lifestyle before your lifestyle changes you! It is not first about an exercise plan or a diet; it is about a lifestyle change. You can get all churned up about some new exercise or diet but if you don’t make lifestyle changes, you will be right back where you were. So first change your mind about changing your health. Next, find what works for you. If you can walk, then you have the capability of providing the best long-term exercise available. All you need is a pair of shoes and a front door. If it is something else that works for you, then do it! Just keep one simple idea as key: burn more calories than you consume. After that, it’s up to you. Finally, start today. Maybe all you can do today is think and pray about what I’ve said. Do something today to say to God, "I’m taking the responsibility for the health of my body."
All that Paul has said about our time and our bodies has been said to put into focus what Paul knows is most important: the spiritual training of our souls. He says in verse 7: "Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness." Then he says that "spiritual exercise" is "much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next" (v. 8). The word he uses for "training" and "exercise" is translated also as discipline. The word is actually the one we use for gymnasium. It is also was given to Timothy as a command that is to be obeyed. Another thing is that this training or exercise is something for which Timothy is responsible, because he tells him to train "yourself." Paul is commanding Timothy to give his best energies to vigorous or intense training for genuine godliness. Why? Because what we train our souls to become prepares us or equips us to live life now and into eternity.
As necessary as our need to make choices about own physical health we desperately need to make choices about our spiritual fitness! The sad truth is we show more concern—what little concern we show—about our physical appearance than about our spiritual health. For example we have over 1600 people enrolled in Sunday School and we have less than half of that show up on a good Sunday! Sunday School attendance isn’t the only indication of spiritual fitness but it shows us that only 50% of us have any desire to have any spiritual growth.
One of the reasons for this is that we have told ourselves that the Christian life is about our entrance into heaven. We have heard the statement, "If you died today and God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?" The answer, of course, is, "I trusted Jesus as my Savior and Lord." Yet is that all that Jesus wants for us is some "password," or "pin number" that gets us into heaven? That, sadly, is what most people make of the Christian life and that’s the reason there is nothing different about their life from anyone else’s. They have the password for heaven but have lived the rest of their life never knowing the transforming power of Christ. That is why Paul says that spiritual training "promises a reward in both this life and the next."
Another thing that we have told ourselves is that spiritual fitness is measured by some sort of devotional activity. In other words, if I read my Bible and pray then I am spiritually fit. I believe, without question, that those two things are vital to our spiritual health; but is that all that being spiritually fit means? If it is, then I am not doing something right because I can have a set time to read the Bible and pray but then something happens that makes me think that I wasted my time because I am really not a different person as a result. Spiritual fitness is about more than my being able to check off my Quiet Time on my to do list.
Spiritual fitness is about training ourselves toward transformation. There are several of you who have run a marathon, which is over 26 miles. Those who have run a marathon didn’t get up the day of the race and go out and run 26 miles without preparing through training to do that. There are some of you even now who are training to run a marathon. You have started with short distances and are building up gradually to complete the distance. Now if you had not trained for the marathon you could try to run the marathon but it would make little difference. Why? Because trying won’t accomplish what only training can! Training transforms, trying doesn’t!
Training both physically and spiritually means "arranging life around those activities that enable us to do what we cannot do now even by extreme effort" (John Ortberg). If my soul is going to be transformed then it will be because I trained my self spiritually to overcome the sinful habits that were holding me back. Doing the things needed to overcome the sinful habits that were holding me back. Doing the things needed to overcome obstacles to my transformation is called spiritual disciplines. A spiritual discipline is "any activity that can help me gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled it." (John Orberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, p. 48).
Spiritual disciplines are more than your daily Bible reading, praying or coming to church. Spiritual disciplines are things that help you overcome a particular sin habit in your life. They typically come in two categories: things you do and things you don’t do. If I have a problem with gossip then my choosing to be silent trains me to overcome that. If I have a problem with patience, then I may choose to stand in the longest line at Wal-Mart to overcome that. In one case I made a decision to not do something to learn something spiritually. In another, I chose to do something in order to help me learn what I needed. I could try all I wanted to stop gossiping or to be patient. I could read more and pray more. I will only be transformed when I am trained over a period of time to be spiritually fit. Trying will only lead to more frustration. Letting God train us by the Holy Spirit will transform us.
So let me ask you: Are you taking care of your body and your soul? If not, where do you need to start? Let me give you some practical things to get your started:
First, you must decide whether or not your life is arranged in such a way that your time is balanced. I can’t do that for you. Yet, if you don’t stop and ask where are things out of balance then you will only continue in the same direction and fail at the most important things that God would have you to do.
Second, take some small deliberate steps to change your lifestyle in the way you care for your body. If you don’t change your mind about your lifestyle, then all the exercise and diet plans are worthless. God created your body and it matters to Him what you do with it.
Third, open your heart to God’s Holy Spirit to let Him guide you toward spiritual transformation. That doesn’t mean that you just act like a drifter on a raft just holding on for dear life. It means you are like a sailor on a sailboat adjusting your sails in the direction the wind is blowing. The Holy Spirit is the wind and your soul is the sail. Once our soul catches the wind of God’s Spirit the transformation begins!
The choice about arranging your time, the health of your body and the training of your soul is a responsibility that only you can make your own. Let me ask you this, though, does it make good sense to choose otherwise?
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas