The Spiritual Discipline of Healthy Living - Baptism

Manuscript Template

Title:  The Spiritual Discipline of Healthy Living

Focus Statement:  

When it comes to living the life God calls us to live, taking care of our health doesn’t seem that important. Yet without a healthy body, we may not be physically capable of saying “YES” when God calls. We need to treat our bodies as the Temples that they are, taking care of them so they are ready to do whatever God calls us to do and last so we can continue to serve as we get older. This week, we’ll starting the process to become healthy. We’ll look at how small changes to diet, exercise, and mindset can make huge differences in our lives and our ability to serve.

Function Statement:  

Eat healthier, exercise more, filter what you’re allowing into your mind

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 12:1

Supporting Text:  1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Romans 5:3-5, Matthew 6:22-23

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  

Benediction:  1 Corinthians 9:27

Questions to Review

Is the bottom line clear? Main point should be able to be said in a single sentence.

What’s the opening line? Not hello, start with a question or something to grab attention.

Is the transition from the introduction to main point clear?

What’s my main point? Make it short and memorable

Does it matter? Is the topic relevant to the congregation?

Where is the power in the text? What word or phrase highlights the tension?

How am I moving toward application?

What is my main to-do (application)? Be specific.

What does it matter? The WHY creates urgency.

How am I closing? Have a plan.

BAPTISM

Nadia, in keeping with the example of Jesus, you have presented yourselves this day that you might receive the sacrament of baptism. Baptism is not itself the door to salvation, but rather is an outward sign of the new birth which God has wrought in your heart. It proclaims to all the world that you have taken Christ Jesus as the Lord of your life, and that it is your purpose always to obey Him.

It is at this time that Nadia would like to share her testimony.

Before I baptize you, so we may know that you understand the significance of the step you are taking, we want to ask you a few questions:

Do you believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?

That Jesus Christ the Son suffered in your place on the cross, that He died but rose again, that He now sits at the Father’s right hand until He returns to judge all people at the last day?

And do you believe in the Holy Scriptures as the inspired Word of God?

That by the grace of God every person has the ability and responsibility to choose between right and wrong, and that those who repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified by faith?

Answer: All this I steadfastly believe.

Do you intend by this act to testify to all the world that you are a Christian and that you will be a loyal follower of Christ?

Answer: I do.

Nadia Yates, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Congregation...Luke 15:10 states

Luke 15:10 “10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””

Let’s Join the Angels in celebrating the decision Nadia has made today. [clapping, cheering, etc]

As a way to honor the step of faith of everyone who received the sacrament of Baptism moving forward, we want to start a new tradition. We’re going to have everyone who is baptized sign a water drop with their name and date of their baptism and hang it from the baptismal.

My prayer is that The Light KC can be a church that lives out Luke 19:10 seeking and to saving the lost, and very soon we can cover this baptismal in reminders of the amazing work God has done in our community.

Let’s give Nadia one more round of applause for the decision she’s made today. [clapping, cheering, etc]

WELCOME

I think we should start every Sunday that way. If you have not been baptized and are feeling the Holy Spirit whispering to you that it is time, please come see me. We’d love to help you take that next step of faith.

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope your doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

I want to start with a statement that has been very true for me, and maybe is true for you as well.

Being healthy is hard.

We know having a good diet and exercise will benefit us greatly. A healthy diet and consistent exercise has been shown to lead to...

Reduced risk of heart disease

Manage sugar / insulin levels

Reduce chronic pain

Improve mood / reduced stress

keep your thinking, judgement, and learning skills sharp as you age

Reduce risk of cancers

Improve sleep

Increase chances of living longer

Yet...most days it feels like the world is doing all it can to make it as difficult as possible to be healthy.

Quite a few years ago a church Andrea and I attended decided to do the Daniel fast for Lent. Basically it is a vegan fast. To do the full Daniel fast, you can’t have any meat, dairy, alcohol, sugar, or processed foods. The church we went to decided to allow poultry (chicken and turkey) as none of us knew enough about vegan living to ensure we got the required protein in our diets.

That being said, it was one of the hardest things I have done. To eat a healthy diet was almost impossible. Especially when I found out that starch turns into sugar, so all rice, bread, potatoes were off the menu.

Then I discovered I couldn’t go out to eat. Even if I ordered food without the fries or bun to avoid the starch, the sauces they use contained a ton of sugar.

We lived on sauce free chicken / turkey, quinoa, and more vegetables than I had ever eaten in my life.

We managed, but it was miserable. It seemed like every item from the aisles of the grocery store was too processed to be healthy. We had to stick completely to the perimeter of the store, avoid all restaurants, and resign ourselves to paying WAY more for food because healthy food is a lot more expensive.

Needless to say after Lent we did not continue to practice. We adopted a few healthier eating practices (swapping ground beef for ground turkey), but mostly reverted completely back to our old habits.

And if eating healthy is not hard enough, things that we have no control over seem to be popping up everywhere to get us.

Around the same time the PFAS issues started coming up. I’m not sure how big of a deal it was down here, but we lived very close to the global headquarters for Wolverine Shoes. They produced the shoes 5 miles from our house. As part of the leather tanning process they used PFAS (a chemical used for water proofing material). The PFAS got into the streams, rivers, and ground water. It got so bad the company had to pay a ton of money to have everyone’s water tested and do massive cleanup.

I didn’t know what PFAS was, but apparently it’s in the same family of chemicals as TEFLON.

[image of PFAS]

Teflon was invented by Dupont in 1938. It was used in everything from non-stick cooking pan coatings, to Goretex waterproof fabric coatings, food packaging, stain guards on furniture and carpet, among other things. It doesn’t react with anything so it was initially considered safe. What they didn’t know was that even though it didn’t react with anything, it collected in our bodies. As the amount of Teflon (and later the variants of Teflon including PFAS) accumulate in our bodies health issues arise. These chemicals cause some cancers, infertility, high blood pressure, developmental delays, accelerate puberty, reduce bone density, among other issues. The big concern is that 97% of us already have these chemicals in our systems and there is no way to remove them.

So even when we try to do everything correct to be as healthy as possible, it seems like we’re fighting a losing battle.

AND YET...

The Bible states in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NIV

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Our bodies are the temples of God, and it is our responsibility to take care of our bodies and as Paul states in Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1 NIV

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

We’re called to take care of our bodies and use them as a sacrifice to serve God as He calls us to serve.

Yet...every time I try to live this out, it feels almost impossible.

It is hard.

WE - Tension

Anyone felt like this before?

Anyone try to live healthy and find it nearly impossible?

Anyone start a diet just to quit because of the cost or the difficulty in sticking to it?

Anyone try to exercise, just to give up when you don’t have the time or motivation to continue?

Yet...we are called to steward the bodies we were given by God, treat them as the temples they are, and use them to do the work that God calls us to do.

So...how do we do that?

That’s what we’re going to talk about today as we wrap up our series called “PLANTED” where we’re looking at the spiritual practices that can help us GROW DEEP ROOTS of FAITH.

If you missed the previous messages on FASTING, JOURNALING, PRAYING, and SERVICE, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [1 Corinthians]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND...if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Lets dive in.

GOD - Text

Today, to answer the question, how do we live a healthy life, that treats our bodies as the Temples of God that they are, we’re going to break the conversation down into three parts.

We’re first going to talk about diet, then exercise, and wrap up talking about mindset.

But before we do this, I want to give some background.

In the first century, culture was obsessed about the human body. If you look at the statues from that time period, they were carved to show the human body at it’s best. The artists studies human form, anatomy, and painted / carved / sculpted their works of art to reflect the very best the human form could be.

Sounds familiar?

AI Facebook posts

Photoshop magazines

CGI edited movies

But...the fascination with the human body didn’t stop with art. The Greek / Roman people wanted to make their bodies reflect the idealized perfection they saw in the art. Each Roman town had a gymnasium where children would not only learn philosophy, but partake in physical exercise. Exercise was as important to the Roman’s as knowledge. Along with the gymnasium each Roman town had a stadium for athletic feats, and hippodrome for races, and theatres for plays.

The Jewish people didn’t partake in the worship of the human body quite to the same degree as the Romans, but Paul regularly used athletics in his teaching when speaking to Gentiles.

In addition to that it was easier to be healthy back then. They didn’t have desk jobs. The people of the first century lived an active lifestyle. Many were shepherds, farmers, or did other physical work (Jesus grew up as a stone mason). Since they didn’t have cars they walked everywhere.

How many of us get our 10,000 steps / day.

The typical day’s walk for a 1st century person was 20-30 miles when they traveled.

To put that into perspective…

At the end of July, I’m going to be in Lawrence for the district conference, where I’ll be ordained. Anyone want to walk with me? In the first century that would be a day’s walk.

They also didn’t have the processed food that we have today.

In the 1st century, people were more active and healthy food was easier to get.

Being healthy is not impossible for us, but it does require more intentionality.

Diet

The first thing we need to do to within the spiritual practice of healthy living is have a healthy diet.

I’ve learned this the hard way. Diet is the most important thing you can change to get healthy.

I used to joke all the time, “I exercise to eat” and over the years I have exercised a ton. I still exercise for at least 1 hour / 6 days a week.

Yet… over the years, training for and completing 5 IronMan, more than a dozen 1/2 IronMan, dozens of marathons, a 50 mile running race, and a 100k running race...I have never lost weight.

In fact, every year I gain about 5 pounds. According to the mirror, it is not muscle.

The phrase, “you can’t out exercise a poor diet” is true. Healthy living is determined 80% by your diet, and 20% by exercise.

If you want to immediately feel better, eat healthy.

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 NIV

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

And most of our diets are doing just that...Destroying our bodies.

But...as we talked about earlier it is hard to eat healthy.

Talking to nutritionists, the going advice is to

Only eat things with 1 ingredient on the label. Most if not all processed foods are not healthy.

Drink 1/2 your body weight in fluid ounces of water per day

Avoid processed sugar at all costs.

Establish routines to develop habits to make healthy eating a lifestyle and not just a diet, diets end, lifestyles continue forever

I have to be honest. This is still the hardest area of my life to maintain control over. I like going out to eat. I like candy. I like brown sugar coated bacon.

Yet, we all know that none of these things are good for us. They may make us feel great in the moment were eating them, but long term, they are slowly killing us.

You probably can’t flip a switch and become healthy overnight, but...

What is one step you hear the Holy Spirit calling you to take to eat healthier?

Exercise

The second thing we need to do to within the spiritual practice of healthy living is develop the habit of regular exercise.

Most of know the recommended amount of exercise we’re supposed to get.

Current thinking is that to live a healthy life, you should be doing at least 30 minutes of cario 3x per week and some sort of strength training 2x per week.

That sounds like a lot. I AGREE

It sound intimidating. I AGREE

You may feel like you can’t do that. I DISAGREE

We can all do something.

Walking is cardio. Ellie is training for her half marathon and right now the training plan is all walking. She walks 20 minutes some days. 30 minutes other days. The point is, walking counts. At some point her plan will transition to running, but the point is, we all have to start somewhere and there is something we can all do.

You may be thinking, “fine, I could do cardio, but I’m not signing up for a gym to use weights”. That’s fair. But bodyweight exercises count. Squats, pushups, sit-ups, planks, dips, lunges, etc. They are all strength exercises. And to be honest, you see more changes with strength work than cardio because as you build muscle, your metabolism increases and you burn calories all the time. With cardio, you’re only burning calories while you’re exercising.

That’s why I’ve never lost weight. All cardio + no strength + no guilt in eating = weight gain.

But...be warned. If you go from no exercise to even regular walking, you will feel it. There will be soreness. There will be days you just don’t want to do it.

Paul writes in Romans 5:3-5,

Romans 5:3–5 NIV

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Like we talked about the other week with the Anterior Midcingulate cortex (aMCC), doing what you don’t want to do, purposefully engaging in some suffering because you know it is good for you, leads to increased willpower that applies to all areas of your life.

By choosing to regularly exercise you will be growing the willpower you need to do things in all areas of your life.

What is one step you hear the Holy Spirit calling you to take to be more physically active?

Mindset

The final thing we need to do to within the spiritual practice of healthy living is have a healthy mindset.

Without a healthy mindset, you’ll never maintain a good diet and regular exercise. It is too easy to give up. The temptation of cheap processed food and Netflix marathons is too strong.

Without a healthy mindset, we will fail to be healthy.

Matthew 6:22–23 NIV

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

What we watch, listen to, and the people we hang out with affects our mindset. You have to be very careful what messages you’re allowing yourself to hear and what you choose to believe.

TV will promise magic bullets that will fix every problem, even thought there is no such thing.

Books will offer a few easy steps, that if followed, will change your life, even though life doesn’t work like that.

People will encourage you to give up, and tell you that you can’t achieve your goals.

What messages are you currently allowing yourself to believe, that aren’t true?

What truths do you need to take hold of?

YOU - Takeaway

The truth is my journey to healthy living is not complete. I definitely could be eating healthier.

I do exercise a lot, but the truth is I am only able to consistently exercise for two reasons.

I sign up for events that have a firm date where I need to be ready. Without an event and a firm date, it is WAY too tempting to sleep in, watch TV, and eat junk.

I have a very strong community that keeps me accountable. Through World Vision and participating in races over the years, I’ve built a very strong community that I train with to this day. I ride with people virtually every Wednesday and Saturday. We follow each other on Strava and check in when we see training is falling off. I travel to meet up with people for races every year. Without these people, I probably would never exercise.

Call to Action

So what step is God calling you to take to become healthier this week?

I’d be remise if I didn’t invite you to join me and Ellie to do the Garmin KC 1/2 Marathon on October 18th. As part of the World Vision team you’re part of an amazing community that is here to support you as you work to become healthier. We train together on Saturday mornings, so you’ll never be alone. But you also have a purpose larger than just finishing the race. Through participation with World Vision, we raise money for clean water for places where waterborne disease kill 50% of the children. And it only takes $50 to bring clean water to these kids. So $100 literally saves a child’s life.

If not for the cause and the community, I couldn’t maintain any semblance of a healthy lifestyle. I need something larger than losing weight to motivate me to do what I know is good for me.

If you want to join us, come talk to me or Andrea or Ellie, or put your name down on the sign up sheet on the info desk and I’ll reach out to you so we can talk and get you more information.

If you think you can’t do this, I’ve seen people of all ages, sizes, and experience complete a 1/2 marathon. Many just walk. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is an amazing journey if you’re up for it.

Even if you don’t feel God calling you to join me and Ellie to join the World Vision team, I’d encourage you to take at least one step we’ve talked about so far.

Eat healthier

Do some form of exercise

Eliminate something you’re allowing into your mind that is not healthy

Because if we don’t take care of our bodies and develop a healthy lifestyle, we won’t be physically capable to say YES when God calls us to serve. If God says “GO”, we need a body that is capable of “GOING”.

What are you going to do this week to become a little healthier?

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV

No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

This week...let’s commit to starting the process to become healthy. Let’s eat healthier, exercise regularly, and control what we’re allowing into our minds SO THAT we will be ready and able to do whatever God calls us to do.

Quick reminder...

Local Church Meeting - 5 PM tonight

Bring a snack if you can, no pressure if you can’t

We’ll be in the sanctuary as Single Mom KC will be in the Cafe. Please come straight into the sanctuary as not to disturb them.

World Vision Signup

Habitat Signup - June 14th - 3 spots left

If you’re new, please stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

How can treating our bodies as temples influence our spiritual walk with God?

What role does our physical health play in our ability to serve God effectively?

In what ways can engaging in healthy living serve as a form of worship?

How can we discern the Holy Spirit's guidance in making healthier choices?

What specific changes in diet, exercise, or mindset do you feel called to make in your life?

What are some simple changes you can implement in your diet to live healthier?

How can finding a workout buddy help you stay committed to exercising?

What influences do your friends have on your eating and exercise habits?

What small step can you take this week to improve your physical health?

How can developing a healthy mindset affect your approach to challenges in life?