Flourish and Thrive Health-wise

We’re at the midpoint of our Flourish & Thrive series, and we’ve been exploring what it means to truly thrive in every aspect of life. We began by grounding ourselves spiritually, centering on seeking God first. We then explored how our work—our vocation—becomes a way to serve and honor Him. Last week, we looked at flourishing financially by trusting God’s provision and embracing generosity. Spiritual Growth, Vocation, Finances, Health, Relationships, Character, and Happiness.

Today, we’re focusing on our physical health. We want to look at God’s prescription for physical health… on how to flourish in our physical health.

The reality is that we already know what we should be doing. To get healthy you have to eat healthy and you have to eat less. You have to get moving (exercise). You have to get enough sleep and you have to lower the stress in your life. We know all of this… deep down. So why don’t we do it?

So today we want to focus on the motivation to do all of this. We want to look at why we should want to be healthy and why we are not. When we understand the why, God will show us the how.

So first, we want to look at what God says about the importance of our physical health.

My physical health is important to God.

Check out what Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth

1 Corinthians 6:12–20 NLT

12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

What is Paul saying here? You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you IOW, we have the freedom to do anything, but it might not be good for me. Paul is saying that there are things in life that are not necessarily wrong, but are not good for us. Does that make sense? Then he says,

And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. IOW, you don’t want to let anything master you… or dominate your life. I will not become addicted to anything. Then he steps on some toes…

“Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) IOW, We won’t be here forever. The reason you are here in this earth is not for food and to last forever.

But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead He will raise your body up as well. Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ?

1 Corinthians 6:18–20 “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. (Sexual sin is a different class of sin) Why is that? 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? (The Holy Spirit of God lives in you) You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. (You were bought with the blood of Jesus on the Cross) So you must honor God with your body.”

This passage teaches us 6 counter cultural things about our body as we seek to flourish in our health.

1. God expects me to manage my body.

You don’t own your body. We are the managers of our bodies. God is the owner of our bodies. The Biblical word for this is stewardship. We are talking about the stewardship of our health.

That means we can’t blame others for our bad health. I am to manage my health. My body is a gift from God on loan and I am to manage it… to take care of it.

1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT

12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.

One day, I will, and you will, stand before God and he will ask, What did you do with what I gave you? I have said before that this life is a test. It’s preparation for eternity. And God is seeing what he can trust you with including the health he gives us. He will ask, what did you do with the health I gave you? the mind I gave you? the opportunities I gave you? the abilities I gave you? The wealth I gave you?

One of the things he will say to us is what did you do with the body I gave you? God is watching to see how we treat it. I am the caretaker of my body and he is testing me to see how I do.

2. The Bible teaches that my body is God’s property.

I know those are fighting words here in America. My body my choice… We have this idea in America that it’s my body and I’ll do with it what I want to. God says, it’s not your body… it’s mine.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NLT

19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,

1 Corinthians 6:19 “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,”

Our body is on loan to us from God. I didn’t create it, he did.

Everything that you see was created by God and the Creator owns it all.  You don’t own anything.  It’s loaned to you, just like we talked about your money last time.  You don’t own your money; its loaned to you for about eighty or 100 years.  It was somebody else’s before you were born.  It’s going to be somebody else’s after you die.  You just use it while you’re here.  He owns it and he loans it.

1 Corinthians 6:13 “…But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.” IOW, I don’t have the right to share my body with anyone and everyone, and neither do you. That’s a radical and counter cultural concept today.

What Americans do today is they make the common mistakes that the Greeks of Paul’s day did, which is called dualism.  Back in the days of Aristotle and Socrates and Plato, the Greeks believed in dualism which was, we separate the mind and the body.  They said really what matters is just that your spirit or your mind, your spirit is right with God and if your spirit is right with God it doesn’t really matter what you do with your body.  They devalued the body.  In fact, they taught the body is evil.  So it really doesn’t matter if you mess up your body because it’s just evil.  What really only matters is your spirit. 

The Bible says that’s absolutely false.  Your body is not evil.  Your body is holy because God made it.  And everything God makes he makes for a purpose.  God has never made anything without a purpose.  So don’t compartmentalize and say all that really matters is my spirit, not my body.  They both matter.  That’s a myth.

The fact of the matter is that God owns your body and He not only is the boss, but he knows what works best. God owns it and expect you and I to manage it well.

3. Our bodies will be resurrected after I die.

God doesn’t waste anything. He doesn’t waste a hurt… if you will give it to him. He will take hurt-full things in your life and turn them around and use them for good if you let Him. He doesn’t waste anything and he will not waste your body. He doesn’t give it to you for the short time it lives on this earth. He will recycle it.

Right now, you are living in Body version 1.0. In heaven, you get Body version 2.0. You will have a body and you will be recognized. Some people think we will be floating around in heaven in white robes sitting on clouds sing hymns - that would be hell. You will not be an angel. Angels are angels and people are people.

Heaven is not going to be plain. Who invented color? music? food? the beauty of our planet? Heaven will not be some white cloud thing, it will be a multi-color extravaganza like never before.

1 Corinthians 6:14 NLT

14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

God says I am not done with your body. It’s important to God. It doesn’t matter if it is decaying in the ground or cremated and placed somewhere. God will resurrect our bodies.

Now, I am not sure what they will look like. Hopefully a little younger than now. We do know that after Jesus was resurrected and he walked around Jerusalem for forty days and one time was seen by five hundred people and talked to them and different people, that his body actually had some kind of capability to dematerialize because he could appear in a room without walking through the door.

That would be kind of cool wouldn’t it. Like Star Trek. Materialize and de-materialize. But people recognized Him. Our bodies will not decay in heaven but we will still be who we are. You will still be you… version 2.0 with no blemishes.

That verse said by His Power. This is one of the reasons we don’t get healthy… stick with diets and exercise programs. There are three….

We don’t stick to health plans because we use will power.

Will power works for about 3 weeks. Then you get tired and go off the diet… quit exercising… start smoking again… Will power is ok for short term, but not for the long term. When you use will power, you are forcing yourself to do something that your brain doesn’t want to do. And it won’t last.

You don’t need will power, you need God’s power. If you don’t want to struggle with “your struggle” you need to plug into God’s power.

We don’t stick to health plans because we have the wrong motivation.

If the motivation is all about me, that’s not enough to keep us going. Me looking good isn’t big enough motivation. Our motivation has to be something bigger than ourselves. How many of you have started a diet because you wanted to look good, and didn’t stay on it? There is nothing wrong with that but it’s not enough.

There’s far more spiritual significance to being in shape than simply looking good and feeling good.  There are other reasons for it.  We’re looking at those six reasons right now.  Appearance is not a big enough reason. Once we get to the right size, we let up and go back to our old habits.

So most of the time, we have the wrong motivation.

We don’t stick to health plans because we try to change on our own.

We were made for community. We have to have support in this life including good habits. We need God and others.

4. The Bible teaches that my body is connected to the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:15 NLT

15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!

1 Corinthians 6:18 NLT

18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

1 Corinthians 6:15 “Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!” 1 Corinthians 6:18 “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.” That’s why it’s in a special class of sin because you are sinning against God and yourself.

5. The Holy Spirit lives in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NLT

19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,

God put His spirit in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,” That means God is living inside you. God doesn’t live in a building called the temple, He lives in you. You are the temple of the Lord.

A lot of people think the house of the Lord is a church building. If we see people vandalizing a church building, we go, that’s not right. You should not be doing that.

Well, guess what. We vandalize the temple all the time by what we put in it, by our sleep schedule, by not taking care of it. We are vandalizing the temple of God when we don’t take care of it.

6. Jesus bought your body on the cross.

1 Corinthians 6:20 NLT

20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:20 “ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

Have you ever thought about how much you are worth? If you really want to know how much you are worth, look at the Cross. When Jesus hung on the cross, dying a painful death, He siad this is how much I love you. That’s how valuable you are.

Question: If you owned a million-dollar race horse would you feed that race horse junk food?  You’d be crazy to do it.  But you put that stuff in you all the time, and you are priceless.  You are worth more than a million-dollar race horse.  You are the temple of God.

Romans 12:1 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Romans 12:1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies (your physical bodies. You can’t serve God other than in your body) to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” Taking care of your body is actually an act of worship.

Let me say these 6 again: God created your body, Jesus died for your body, the Spirit lives in your body, your body is connected to the body of Christ, your body is going to be resurrected in version 2.0 someday, and you’re expected to care for it in the meantime. 

Based on these six facts, can you see how caring for your body is more than just, I’d like to look better? It is a spiritual discipline. The healthier you are the more God can bless you, the more God can use you. 

Have you heard people say, when in doubt, consult the owners manual? Our bible is the owner’s manual. Noone knows more about than God. And if we will do what he says, we will be in better health. There are all kinds of health promises and principles in the bible.

Psalm 119:73 NLT

73 You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.

People don’t take care of their bodies but then they pray for a miracle. Why would God give us a miracle and heal you if next week, you keep on doing the unhealthy things that got you into the mess you are in? Why would he heal you of whatever, it you are going back to eating unhealthy and smoking again? Why would he give you a financial miracle if you keep overspending and getting back into debt in weeks? He’s not.

He just said give me the sense to follow your commands.

Deuteronomy 32:47 NLT

47 These instructions are not empty words—they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you will occupy when you cross the Jordan River.”

If I stood up here today and said “I have discovered a new pill that will give you a long life.  This pill is guaranteed to extend your life.”  You’d pay big bucks for it. Listen, you don’t have to pay anything. God has it all right here, and if we will follow his instructions, we will live a long life.

Over 100,000 people are over 100 now so the likelihood that you will out live your parents is pretty good. But what kind of quality of life do you want to have? I don’t want to hang around in a wheelchair, I want to be like Moses, like Caleb, like my mom… Active.

Here are some health instructions that you will not find at Barnes and Noble.

Proverbs 3:1–10 NLT

1 My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. 2 If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. 3 Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. 4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. 7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. 8 Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. 10 Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.

Proverbs 3:1–10 “My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. 2 If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. 3 Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. 4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.

Then he gives some commands.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

God is saying to trust Him instead of worrying. Don’t get all stressed out. don’t try to figure it all out. He will show you the way.

6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. (Humility) Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. 8 Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.

Marrow in your bones is important. If your bones are good, the rest is good.

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. 10 Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.”

That’s Generosity. He mentions living a satisfying life… trusting in God… He will make your paths straight… Humility… don’t be wise in your own eyes… and generosity - give the first part of your wealth away.

If you live a satisfying life (tranquil life) a life of integrity, humility and generosity, you will be in better health.

There is a direct connection between your spiritual health and your physical health.  So let me just wrap this up. Here are four things that will help you thrive and flourish in your health.

1. Trusting God is good for your health.

Why? Because you don’t worry. You either worry or worship… pray or panic in life. If you worship and pry you will have a whole lot less to panic about. God says in Psa 116:7

Psalm 116:7 NCV

7 I said to myself, “Relax, because the Lord takes care of you.”

Just relax and trust God to take care of you.

Trusting God is good for us also because we get rid of ency and jelousy.

Proverbs 14:30 NLT

30 A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones.

You can eat all the suppliments you want, but if you harbor bitterness toward anyone… your mom or dad… someting they did in the past, it will harm your health.

Bitterness is like drinking poison and hopeing the other person dies.

There is an issue there that says trusting God and then getting rid of stuff and that leads to number two

2. Confessing your sin is good for your health.

Psy confirms that if we get rid of guilt and shame, our health is better. You may try to repress it, and suppress it, but you can’t. It will pop up. When you swallow your anger, your stomach will keep score. If you don’t talk it out with God, it will tear up your body.

Psalm 32:3 NLT

3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.

You cannot feel guilty and happy at the same time. It will eat you up. It will make you weak. You are carrying around garbage that God doesn’t want you to carry.

Psalm 32:5 NLT

5 Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Interlude

One of the healthiest things you can do is to receive the forgiveness of God in your life. Get rid of the shame and guilt and accept God’s forgiveness. Don’t carry all the resentment, fear, worry, guilt, legalism, jealousy and envy and all those other emotions.  Don’t carry them into the new decade.  Trusting God is good for your health.  Confessing my sins is good for my health.

3. Giving generously is good for your health.

It feels good to give. Every time we give, we break the grip of materialism in our lives. If you wonder whether or not you are materialistic, look at how you spend your money and your time.

There are more promises in the Bible about giving and generosity than any other subject. Why? God is a giver and He wants us to be like him in every way. God gives us every thing we have… our health, our bodies, our jobs, our abilities… everything. He wants us to be like him. Generous.

Proverbs 11:25 NLT

25 The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

Givers are happy people.

4. Having fun is good for your health.

You probably weren’t expecting that one. But there is a lot in the Bible about enjoying life. Life is to be enjoyed, not endured. Pro 17:22

Proverbs 17:22 NLT

22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

He who laughs… lasts a long time. We need to learn to laugh… to laugh at ourselves. If you can laugh at yourself, you will never run out of funny material. Don’t take yourself so seriously, laugh.

In the book of Daniel, the Persian Empire had taken over the world at this point.  The guy who was king was a guy named Nebuchadnezzar.  Nebuchadnezzar took over the nation of Israel when Jehoiakim was king.  He took the entire Jewish race and moved them to Babylon.  They were in captivity for 70 years.  Just like what happened in the 400 years in Egypt. While the Jewish nation is held captive in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar says, “I want you to take the top guys, go cherry pick the top young men in this Jewish nation and bring them to me because we’re going to put them through a mentoring intern program and many of them are going to become my advisors, royal advisors in the future.” 

So they go and they pick these different guys.  This is the story of four of the guys who got picked.  One of them was named Daniel.  The others were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  They changed them to Babylonian names – Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They said these guys are going to go through this plan.  One of the perks of being in the king’s mentoring program was you got to eat at the king’s table.  You got to eat all of his fine delicacies and all his rich food and all his wine and things like that.

Daniel 1:5 “The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service.” They were going to be trined in the ways of Babylon.

Daniel 1:6 “Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah.”

Daniel 1:8–16 “8 But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.

Daniel wanted to eat a healthier diet.

9 Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. 10 But he responded, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded.”

11 Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 12 “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. 13 “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s food. Then make your decision in light of what you see.” 14 The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days. “15 At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.

16 So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others.”

In John 5, Jesus is walking down the road and he sees this guy sitting on the side of the road who’s been sick for 38 years. He is a paraplegic… he can’t walk. Jesus walks up to him and asks him one of the most important questions of his life, and one I will ask each of us today.

Do you want to get well?

This guy had been sick 38 years. You would think that’s a no brainer, but Jesus asked him the question, Do you really want to get well?

That’s the question for us today? Do we really want to get healthy? Where do you want to be this time next year health-wise? more energy? bright smile? sharp mind? strongest body you have ever had?

Prayer time

Father you created our bodies. jesus you paid for our bodies, then sent your spirit to live inside our bodies. Help us to always remember that our bodies belong to you, and that we are connected to the body of Christ. And that one day, our bodies will be resurrected in body version 2.0.

Forgive us for all the times we have misused our bodies and abused our health. Lord help us to follow your plans for our bodies.

To trust you with our health.

To confess our sin to you and be set free from guilt and shame.

To become generous people

to have fun living the abundant life you came to give.