Purity of Body

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Purity needed to   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  21:05
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The Tired Prophet

in 1 Kings 19, we have the story of Elijah the prophet of God during King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s time.
Elijah had just had a GREAT victory for God, defeating the 450 prophets of Baal.
We might imagine this would be the start of a really Awesome series of moves, fixing the Northern Kingdom of Isreal.
But Elijah was dead tired,
So when Queen Jezebel threaten to kill him in 24 hours,
he didn’t trust in God,
he panicked and ran.
He ran a long way
he left his servant behind
and traveled another day further into the desert.
When he finally stopped to rest, he had a little pity party
well really a big PITY PARTY!
1 Kings 19:4 LEB
4 Then he went into the wilderness one day’s journey, and he went and sat under a certain broom tree. Then he asked Yahweh that he might die, and he said, “It is enough now, Yahweh; take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”
Peaple having a pity party are often wrong,
And not very fun to be around.
Does God scold him? No
Does God take his life? No
He lets him rest,
He gives him some catered meals
and he recruits a partner and helper for him.
Sometimes, the best thing can do is stop and rest.
Children and Grown-ups too.
Let’s pray.

Well good morning!

Welcome to this final installment of this Purity in the Heart series based on a very important verse,
a very important teaching of Jesus Christ
Matthew 5:8 NIV
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
If you want to see God, and that means,
get to know Him,
get to be with Him in Heaven etc.
you need to be pure in heart.
I don’t have enough will power, to purify my own heart But if I am willing,
God can make my heart pure.
Sometimes He does a whole lot of change in my heart all at once
Other times, and more often, it’s a daily choice, or daily choices, that if I am willing,
He give me purity in my heart to follow his will.
Purity of Heart is a big topic,
so some weeks ago we spoke of Sexual Purity and
Sex outside of marriage has all kinds of consequences.
Then, we will talk about Integrity Purity in our actions followed by
Heart Purity dealing with the thoughts desires of our hearts
Today we are finishing this series with Purity in how we treat our Bodies,
because some day we are gonna be asked,
“What did you do, with the gifts and abilities I gave you?”
One of God’s gifts to us is our bodies, and when we ask for Gods salvation,
When we ask Him to be our Lord and Savior,
That means,
He is Lord of our life, and
Lord of our bodies.
So, we become stewards of our lives of our bodies,
and some day, we will have to answer for how we treated His Living Temple, that is our body
along with many other things we didn and choices we made.
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.
So, we are Called to treat our bodies well.
Paul once wrote
Ephesians 5:29–30 NIV
29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—30 for we are members of his body.
Paul using this generalization to illustrate how Christ cares for the church,
but we know not everyone loves their body
Image problems, bad habits, additions, denial,
all play a part in how we treat our bodies, the
Temple of the Holy Spirit.
Today we are going to look at some key areas related to dedicating our Bodies to God:
Desecration Rest Sleep Diet Mental Health
Moving forward.

Desecrating/ defiling a temple

In the new testament days, desecrating the Temple was a big deal.
So, when certain Jews saw Paul in the Temple at Jerusalem,
they assumed he brought Greeks into the Temple and accusing him of this,
Yelling out their accusations about Paul, men came running from all
corners, they grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple,
trying to kill him.
(Find this story in Act 21)
And the whole city was in an uproar.
So, if our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit,
how disappointing it must be to Jesus, when we defile the Holy Spirits Temple
one that Jesus bought with a heavy price.

Rest (Sabbath rest)

By rest, I am thinking of the 4th commandment
Exodus 20:8 NIV
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Now I am not speaking against people working on Sunday,
though if you can avoid it, you should
I’m not legalistic about the Sabbath Day, because Jesus wasn’t.
He said
Mark 2:27 NIV
27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
But the principle Sabbath Rest is important
and it was made for man.
We all need a Sabbath rest in our week.
When you, or I work 7 days a week, it’s very tiring.
if you work too much,
you had better carve out times
Not a time but times
to be your Sabbath,
your time of rest.
What happens when you don’t take breaks for an extended time period?
What happens if you just keep on keeping on,
joyful work, even ministry
becomes drudgery.
Some of us, have too much on our plates,
if we don’t carve out some time off,
we just might have to take time off,
due to
sickness,
injury or
burnout.
Elijah lost his nerve and felt sorry for himself, showing signs of burnout
1 Kings 19:10 NIV
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
He was feeling sorry for himself, and needed a rest.
Jesus is the one who said
Matthew 11:28 NIV
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Exercise

Paul wasn’t keen on exercise but he saw it had some value.
1 Timothy 4:8 LEB
8 For the training of the body is somewhat profitable, but godliness is profitable for everything, because it holds promise for the present life and for the life to come.
1 Corinthians 9:27 LEB
27 But I discipline my body and subjugate it, lest somehow after preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Paul was speaking of self control, but that would include self control of our habits.
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.
Hebrews 12:1 NIV
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
He is not talking about running an actual race, instead living out our walk.
But being healthy, being physically fit, should give us more fruitful service, Amen? Amen.

Sleep

How many of us DO NOT GET ENOUGH SLEEP?
[pause]
Sleep is an amazing thing.
During sleep our bodies have time to make repairs, such things as muscle damage from the day,
Lack of sleep, especially some good deep REM sleep is very damaging to our health and our metal outlook.
But why aren’t we sleeping?
Is it because we are trying to do too much!
To control our future and
not trust in God
Or is it our ego that likes feeling like,
we are indispensable
and to feed our ego because,
we work like a hero.
I like being a hero.
Perhaps some of you do too.
Psalm 127:2 The Message
2 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
Wow, God enjoys giving us rest.
In fact it says
Psalm 23:1–2 NIV
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
Notice it says, “He makes me lie down
Has God ever made you lie down?
Sometimes He must make some of us lie down.
It seems better to take care of ourselves,
then for God to make us adults to lie down.
I can remember just a little bit of pre-school days
[pause]
What I remember most, is that they made us lie down and take a nap.
And I hated naps.
I never wanted to be forced to rest
when there was so much to do
it was mid afternoon.
At times, there is nothing better then some good hard work to help us sleep, as it says in
Ecclesiastes 5:12 NIV
12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.
So we need sleep.
God grants sleep
He encourages or provides sleep.
Most of us need more sleep but
We can of course live at the other extreme, and the Bible has many verses like these
Proverbs 6:9–11 NIV
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— 11 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

Diet

Does the bible have anything to say about diet?
Well aside from the Jewish dietary laws,
and Daniels choosing to eat only water and vegetables?
Well there is
Ephesians 5:18 NIV
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
and
Proverbs 23:21 NIV
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
Paul advised Timothy that
1 Timothy 4:1–5 NIV
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Paul says that
1 Corinthians 8:8 LEB
8 But food does not bring us close to God. For neither if we eat do we have more, nor if we do not eat do we lack.
Isaiah says this about food
Isaiah 55:2 NIV
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Isaiah is using food to talk about our relationship with God.
But we could also ask why buy junk food when good food
is better for us. Usually it just takes a little more time to fix.
Romans 14:1–3 NIV
1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.
Roman’s 14 discuss not eating,
I might add drinking
things that will cause the other to stumble.
Romans 14:20 NIV
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
And we will finish off our survey of scriptures about food with this
1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Mental/Emotional Health

When I say Mental or Emotional Health,
today I am mainly thinking of worry and fear
Some of us like to worry, at least it seems that way because we have made such a habit of it.
But what good is worry?
Jesus said
Luke 12:25 NIV
25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?
He also said
Matthew 6:34 NIV
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Those of us who worry too much, should have learned years ago that,
the vast majority of our fears are never realized and
the Lord will help us through the ones that do materialize.
Paul addresses this theme of worry when he said
Philippians 4:6–7 LEB
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If we give our cares and conerns to God, He will give us Peace.
That’s a good deal.
But we have to really give them to God and not loan them too Him.
In John 14 Jesus said
John 14:1 NIV
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
You see there is choice involved in being fearful.
In being fretful.
later in that same chapter, Jesus said
John 14:27 LEB
27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you—not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
When you have the peace of God, you can even say with the Psalist
Psalm 23:4 NIV
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Are you still fearful,
and fretful
or do you have God’s peace?
I have a lot of God’s peace, but some things like buying a house put my peace to the test.

Sexual Health

We covered that previously but
gods rules are not to make us miserable,
but to help us live the best lives we can.

Putting it all together

Why I didn’t like this sermon

We touched on many things today and I would like to say
I score 100% on everything,
but to be honest,
I don’t treat my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, as good as I should.
I suspect you are all more or less with me in needing to do better.
So as we celebrate communion today, I’ll lead us in a prayer of confession and dedication to God.
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