20th Sunday after Pentecost ~ October 2, 2005

Diets. It seems we hear about diets all the time. Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Low-Carb, Low-Fat, Low-Calories, (low taste – just kidding), Weigh-Down Diet, The Makers Diet, The Divine Diet, The Omega Diet, The 3-hour Diet (sounds like a winner), The Big Fat Greek Diet, The Mediterranean Diet, The French Women Don’t Get Fat Diet, and the popular TV show – The Biggest Looser (which I don’t like the title at all). It seems like there are as many diets as there are people wanting to sell one.

I list these off not to make fun of diets. Just this week I received a letter from my doctor saying, “Your labs are normal except for a slightly elevated LDL cholesterol level and a slightly lower protective HDL cholesterol level. Your cholesterol is not high enough to need medication at this time and will probably respond to a lower fat diet and increased exercise.” I need to rethink my diet too!

When we think of diet we often associate the word with giving up something. Actually diet just means to have a plan or pattern to eating and taking care of your body. We all have a diet. It is the way we eat and take care of our body. So the word diet may actually be a good word for us to use when it comes to our spiritual lives. Just as we need food for our physical bodies we need to feed our spiritual bodies as well. We need a pattern or plan for our lives that includes Jesus daily.

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14, ESV)

The Apostle Paul in our text for today talks about a goal, a plan to keep Christ in front of him at all times. He sees it as something he has to strive for daily. He has a spiritual plan and pattern to his life as he says in an earlier verse, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8, ESV) That is his plan, knowing Christ Jesus.

What is your diet or plan for knowing Christ? There are many things we can include in our Christ diet but the ultimate goal is to be feed spiritually on Christ. We can feed on the word of God in Bible Study. We can be nourished by regular worship. We can be filled with the Spirit through prayer and daily meditating on Christ. We can be nurtured by the sharing of our lives with other believers. And we can be strengthened as we exercise our faith in the world through our words and actions to others.

But in every good diet there are temptations that draw us away from our plan. Temptations that want us to give up or at least stray away from what is good for us in our diet. And the temptations for food diets and spiritual diets are similar. The first being discouragement. When the goals we have set are not being achieved the way we want them too we becomes discouraged and want to stray from the plan. When we aren’t losing the weight or not gaining in strength we tend to doubt our diet. When we suffer and feel set back by the world we doubt our spiritual diet. We get discouraged when life deals us a bad hand and we feel bloated with sin. We begin to doubt the Christ diet as being the “good” plan. But what did Paul say in our text? “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…” The plan works! Christ is the way to true success in our spiritual lives. To be truly nourished and feed we need to stick to the Christ plan.

Another temptation is that of choice. I could list off as many life philosophies and religions as I did diets a moment ago. Each one claims to be the “true” or “best” spiritual diet that will lead to success in our lives. But Jesus answered this one and leaves no question as to what the true spiritual diet is – Himself. He says in the Gospel of John, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” We may think there are many choices, but all of them are junk food when it comes to our spiritual lives. Only Jesus is the true way to spiritual nourishment and enlightenment. Only Jesus will truly satisfy our hungering souls.

I find it amazing that God uses earthly, food terms to describe spiritual matters. Heaven is talked about as a banquet table we gather at. Jesus says He is the very Bread of Life for the world. The Psalms say we are to “taste and see” that the Lord is good. And in our worship we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We come to the altar to eat not only bread and wine that nourish our physical bodies but we also receive Christ’s body and blood, which strengthen and nourish our spiritual bodies as well. God provides for all of our needs of body and soul. A Christ Diet is a plan, or a goal to be feed by the true food of Jesus Christ daily.

And to exercise. A good diet includes exercise. To keep strong we need to exercise our faith. That is by reaching out with the Gospel in caring acts and in loving words. By sharing the Gospel of Jesus with the world we are strengthening out own faith. Without exercise we get weak and it becomes hard for us to function. But when we use our faith to help others we build ourselves up. We can just come to the Lord’s Table and eat all day. We need to take our faith out into the world and exercise it. A good spiritual plan involves regular exercise – share your faith.

But there is another part of our faith diet that I think is important too. That is forgiveness. In a “food” diet we usually try to get ride of the weight on our bodies. Forgiveness relieves the weight of sin in our lives. When we have a daily diet of coming to the Lord we can shed the weight of sin. Jesus invites us to lay our burdens at His feet and feel the freedom of the Gospel. To lose weight we need to confess our sins and receive the forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ. That is an eternal weight lose program that will not fail. But we can only lose weight when we have a good diet of Christ.

We need to daily feed on the Word, worship regularly, be in fellowship with other believers and exercise our faith in the world. These are part of a healthy spiritual diet, which can only be found in Christ. The Christ Diet – the only one that works!