Increase - Stature

Luke 2:52 “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people.”

Wisdom stature favor… Mind Body Relationships.

Last week we talked wisdom, and when we talk stature this week we are going to focus on the physical.

Bring 12 and 30 year old up on stage. On way up. Does physical health matter to God? Should it matter to us?

We say that, but none of us seems to like the doctor when he tells us our cholesterol is high do we? Sometimes we as preachers feel like physicians, the truth isn’t always popular, but in the end we should be thankful for it. Today we are going to talk about our physical health, recognize that God cares about it, and so should we.

Note differences between two people

Let them go back to seats.

I’ve told you I’m a goal setter and I have been for a long time. When I was a teenager at the beginning of the year I would make a height goal. How many know that making it a goal to be a certain height is no goal at all it is simply a wish. Jesus posed the questioned in His teaching, which one of you by taking thought can add height to yourself? It was posed as a rhetorical question of course because we know that we can’t, but Jesus was saying in the same way, we worry so much about things that we don’t have any control over at all.

What do we know about how Jesus grew between 12 and 30. We know he became wise enough to teach, he was healthy enough to lead, and gained favor enough to manage relationships.

This message is important and you can know that I intend to preach it with great sensitivity.

Today we are going to talk about growing in stature not as a natural occurence like height, but by considering the things that we can impact and have some freewill to be involved in.

Jesus GREW, someone said there’s two ways to grow, the right way and the wrong way.

There is perhaps no greater area of life where Christians reveal hypocrisy than in the way we address the health of our bodies.

I recently heard a pastor say he felt convicted because he didn’t talk to neighbors who smoked weed because they might influence his children negatively. He went on to say Christians don’t smoke weed instead… we smoke ungodly quantities of meat. Food is the drug of choice in the Christian community, well food and caffeine… We point our fingers at sex, drugs, and alcohol, but food well that’s how bring people together.

You might be surprised where I start with our first point today but I believe this message is one that needs to be heard wherever we are in our physical health today.

So let’s start with the idea of…

Too Much

Let’s talk for a minute about how we get a little too concerned about the physical aspect of our being. Look at what Paul wrote to his protege in…

1 Timothy 4:8 “for bodily training is just slightly beneficial, but godliness is beneficial for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

When I was teenager the stature part was moving slow for me. I was short and I was skinny. Not attractive skinny, see bones skinny. I hated it so much. More than anything I wanted to be big. I lifted, I ate, I drank all the protein shakes, it was beyond out of control. One day my dad brought me into his office, he saved the office for 2-3 important conversation we had in life and He said this to me. Jonathan, actually he probably said David because he usually called me by my middle name. He said, you used to be small and now you’re big… We get it. Something about the way he said it, hit home, obviously if i remember it today. It was a big moment in my life because any time I begin to think too much of myself in anyway I can still hear my dad say, we get it.

But some of us might need to hear that today… we get it. You run.. we get it. You lift weights… we get it. You are on a new diet… we get it. You have a new app or watch to track your exercise or your calories… we get it. By the way, if you think an app or a watch is what’s going to motivate you to quit that unhealthy habit you’ve been living in for 30 years you got took. Not only only did you waste your money, but you might be annoying everyone in the room that doesn’t care how many steps you took yesterday. Remember our verse said physical is slightly beneficial… The world has us constantly chasing a new gym, or diet, or pill, or look because that’s what keeps us forking over our money.

Now alot of you like that we went after the gym rat, but you know there’s 2 sides to every coin, you know where I’m headed but before I jump out of this point let me lean in a little more on it. Let’s look at…

Isaiah 53:2 “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.”

This was a prophetic passage about the coming of Jesus and most notably it says He wasn’t going to be anything to look at. Some of you might not like to hear me say that Jesus was ugly so I won’t say that, but you get the gist. Let me ask you this, is there anything that God doesn’t do on purpose? So Jesus came being not great looking…ON PURPOSE. He wasn’t telling us to not be good looking or not present ourselves well, instead He came making sure that we knew that’s not what it’s about.

So some of you that might not worry about weight that amen’d with me, might still need to check the tennis shoe collection, the haircut, the outfit, the manicure, the pedicure, the jewelry. The bottomline is that we have become so concerned about appearances. It’s why so many are trapped in a social media world where we post only the pictures that are flattering or even perhaps fabricated with filters, lighting, and angles. This is what I want you to hear more than anything before we transition points, The more they see of you the less the see of Him. REPEAT You know where we are headed with this next point, when it comes to the physical many of us are not concerned enough…

Not Enough

If you want to find your way to 1 Corinthians 6, and keep your finger there because we will be in 1 Corinthians the rest of the time today, I want to share something with you that is somewhat of a confession and even a little of apology on behalf of pastoral leadership. Pastoral leadership by and large in America is perhaps one of the most obese or unhealthy occupations in America, and it’s not ok. I’m trying to lose a few pounds myself right now and you all know that the older we get the struggle is real. But for whatever reason it’s the unspeakable sin. If a pastor cheats on his wife, he loses his job and goes through months of counseling to ever be considered for leadership again. If a pastor gets caught up in drugs or alcohol we might act sympathetic towards them and pray that God helps them to break the chains of addiction. But an overweight pastor, mostly we make jokes about how we like to fellowship at meals. And I’m going to call it out right now. I’m not sure where the line is, 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 50 pounds? There’s grace for sure… but a pastor or Christian or anyone, that is 100 pounds overweight is struggling with the flesh the same as anyone else that is struggling with other less acceptable sins. I know there are disorders, I know there are genetic predispositions, I’m not standing here to judge, I’m here to warn, challenge, and bring truth. Look at 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6:12–13 “All things are permitted for me, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will do away with both of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.”

I know the end of this passage mentions sexual immorality and I hope you know we believe that piece as well, but we will bring the focus another day.

Paul says a couple of things here we want to focus on.

All things are permitted.

Not all things are of benefit.

I won’t be mastered by anything.

The body is for the Lord.

Pizza is permitted but maybe not of benefit. Coffee is permitted, but maybe not of benefit. Y’all know I eat me some pizza and drink coffee. But are we mastered by it? Could you go a few days without caffeine? Could you skip eating out for a month?

As Christian it’s easy to quote the permission part more than the beneficial part of our passage. But we want to be a people that keep increasing or physical health so that we can continue to do the work He’s called us to do.

Just like we said we can focus on exercise too much, admitting we eat McDonald’s 3x a week doesn’t make it ok just because we make light of it.

What if we got past the idea of what we weighed or what jeans we fit in and focused on God needing us to take care of our bodies to do His work?

When it comes to the focus on the physical aspect of our being, it can be too much, it can be not enough, but the goal is for it to be…

Just Right

Pardon me if the “just right” thought brought thoughts of goldilocks and the three bears. I told you to keep your finger in 1 Corinthians earlier so let’s look at chapter 9, then we will look at one more verse from chapter 6

1 Corinthians 9:24–25 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.”

If you are an athlete you don’t make it a goal to get through the game, your goal is to win. If you are someone that doesn’t want to win your teammates aren’t going to be excited about being around you. I wonder in here today how many people enjoy being around someone that doesn’t want to see the team win?

We want to win… not just get through the game. And the formula for this is self-control in all things.

We DO need to have an exercise plan today especially because our day-to-day lifestyles involve so much less physical activity than what would have been normal in Bible times. We sit around alot don’t we? We need to get out and move.

We need to exercise self-control in our eating habits. If you have no thoughts about what you are eating, what’s being offered to us and what’s convenient will get us in trouble.

Eat healthy, don’t care how, just try.

Exercise some. The best workout routine is the one that you will actually do.

Rest appropriately. When you are tired the most spiritual thing you can do is rest. I had a seminary professor that said this to us in class, and in my 20s I thought him perhaps lazy or a lightweight, at 42 I think him a genius. When you are worn down is when you make your worst decisions and exercise the least amount of self control.

Remember that the highest purpose for your body is to be used for God’s glory REPEAT

Look at… 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

I’ve been watching the new episodes of the chosen and the scene were Jesus drives people and things out of the temple that shouldn’t be there is pretty stunning. In preparation for this message and thinking about how our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit I found myself asking, what needs to be driven out of our temples. Maybe with a little force or intentionality?

I’m going to invite the team as we consider how to respond to today’s message.

My hope today is that we would consider a new perspective on our health, which like everything else should be concerned with bringing glory to God more than whatever our current perspective is.

We said earlier He came without great physical appearance on purpose right? Because everything He does is on purpose. We need to make sure we aren’t looking down on others based on their appearance, perhaps even more important He doesn’t want us to reject or disqualify OURSELVES based on our body image. Your continual obsession with your image reflects a lack of gratitude for how God has made us.

We need to put in perspective how much we eat. The book of Proverbs says that we should put a knife to throat if we find ourselves controlled by our appetite. Anyone have that person in your life that eats whatever they want and they don’t gain a pound, I know we all hate them, but that doesn’t reflect health and can be even worse as they could be deteriorating internally.

Today like never before we have testing, and blood work and 1000 different things that can tell us about health issues, but what are we doing with it?

When it comes to our health many of us wait too long and move to slow in addressing issues. Sometimes in the name of “faith” we delay action. Faith was never meant to be a replacement for us to be disciplined and use our freewill to live healthier lives.

I know more pastors retiring from health issues than quote spiritual issues. We can’t continue to disqualify ourselves from doing God’s work because we fail to steward to the bodies that have been entrusted to us.

The acronym of EQUIP is part of our strategy. FREE TALK… Energy, Qualify, Unique, Influence, and Produce. The energy we need is limited by our health. We have ways of justifying the abuse of our bodies, but every time you get sick, every time you are exhausted, every time you lack energy, not only do you limit your capacity, but you can negatively effect all those you are working with, and the end of the day your time to serve in this life could be limited.

Would you stand this morning?

We have to keep increasing because Jesus kept increasing. Remember what we’ve been saying this last two weeks, Jesus became wise enough to teach, he was healthy enough to lead, and gained favor enough to manage relationships.

I hope this message fell on soft ground today, and that you know we care about the whole person.

I actually wasn’t going to call for a time of response today because often it can be a little taboo to address the reality of physical health or appearance, but I know this is a mature group that accepts being challenged. God also impressed on me just this morning that physical health is a real struggle for so many today that you might want to come forward and just say God help me to value my health to make a shift because I want to reach one more for you.

PRAY

Lord, I want to have one more good year, one more good decade, one more good season serving and praising you. pray…

Turn over your struggle once and for all to Him today. Trust Him.

POST RESPONSE

Let’s pray. Join us for prayer night.