"Bringing About Health"
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Philippians 4:6-7
(taken from "Seismic Shifts" by Kevin G. Harney)

Introduction: There is a joke which says: “You know when you have crossed over from childhood to adulthood. A child must take a nap, but doesn’t want to. An adult wants to take a nap but doesn’t have the time.” People laugh at this joke, but there is great truth to it. We live in a culture filled with people who long to feel rested, but most often are not. We live in a culture where people want to be healthy, but don’t do the right things to be healthy.

While the truth is that even though life spans are getting longer, the quality of life is not getting better. We have more medications, treatments, and surgical procedures to keep us going, but so many people don’t seem to be feeling healthier. According to the Daily Health Policy Report, medical spending in the United States went up over $314 billion dollars between 1987 and 2000. With all this money spent, you would think that people today should feel more rested, healthy and at peace.

Unfortunately, we have become like what the little girl who declared in exasperation: “The faster I go, the behinder I get.”

This morning, as we continue in our Seismic Shifts series, talking about the small shifts we need to make to create positive change in our lives, I want to talk about how rest and health really is available to us.

I. From Rushing to Slowing- (Matthew 11:28-30; Genesis 2:2-3;

Exodus 20:10; Mark 2:27)

Robert has no time to spare in his schedule. From the moment he gets up in

the morning, he hits the floor running. He knows there is no way he can move fast enough to accomplish everything on his schedule for the day. After a quick breakfast he moves from one commitment to another. He doesn’t get home until 7:30 p.m., but even then he can’t rest because he has another 2 hours of work to do. The surprise here, is that Robert is not some protégé working for a Fortune 500 company, Robert is a normal high school freshman who works hard to get good grades, play in the school band, and excel at 2 sports!!

a. A God of rest- We live in a pathologically busy culture. We live frantic

lives. But into this frantic life, God speaks words of hope. Jesus says to us, in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." In this verse, God is speaking to us about some core issues: weariness, burden, and rest.

God has good news for us who struggle in any of these areas, and that is we can overcome. But to overcome we must slow down; maybe even take a nap. We need to discover that the Lord is still the Shepherd who can lead us to green pastures. And on top of all of this, God has given us the example we need to follow. Listen to Genesis 2:2-3, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Why did God rest? Was He tired? Did He need a day off? Was He fatigued from all the creating He had done? Did He need to recharge His batteries?

The answer to all of these questions is NO!! God rested, He took a day off, as an act of love. He rested so that He could model for you and me how rest is essential for our health and well-being.

Most people live frantic lives because it keeps them from having to evaluate the health and productivity of their life. Or they live frantic lives because it makes them feel like they are making a difference. Or they live frantic lives because they don’t know how to say “no.” But God wants us to stop running, turn around, and face Him. He wants us to discover the peace that can only be found when we rest in Him!

b. Understanding Sabbath- What I am talking about is referred to in the

Bible as the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath is one of the 10 commandments. As we are told in Exodus 20:10- “But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.” But people down the ages have tried to sidestep this command by asking: “What is work?” The bottom line of the command is not to do it because it is required of us, but to do it because it is helpful for us. That is why Jesus said in Mark 2:27- “The Sabbath is made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”

So to live out the Sabbath as more than just a rule or law, we need to understand the Sabbath. By definition, “the Sabbath is the God-ordained discipline of setting aside one day out of seven for the sake of refreshing worship of the Lord, joyful community with His people, and rest-filled activity that is different from what we do on the other days of the week.” In short, it is to help us grow closer to God, to God’s people, and to find some rest and refreshment.

So, the Sabbath is to be a day that is different from our other days. So work and rest are different for some than for others. EXAMPLE- I discovered this when Tami and I got married. When we got married, Tami was a professional golfer. When she was not traveling and, playing in tournaments, she would be at the golf course practicing all day. The first time we were to go on a vacation, we talked about what we might want to do. I suggested we go golfing. But in our discussion, I realized that for Tami, this was her work. She wanted to get away from her work on our vacation. What for me would be leisure, to her was work.

So what is rest? Let me show you some pictures, and you tell me if you think it is rest and acceptable to do on the Sabbath. (View slide show- Picture 1, cooking; Picture 2, beach; Picture 3, racquetball; Picture 4, sleeping; Picture 5, riding; Picture 6, worship.) Any of these could be restful and good for the Sabbath depending on the person. When we rush through life, we miss much of what God has for us. We skim over relationships, fail to go deep with God, and fail to experience what God has for us.

II. From Stuffed to Satisfied- (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 12:1-2)

a. A living sacrifice- EX. When I started seriously dating Tami, I got

invited to her house to eat. When you eat at Tami’s parents house, there is always a lot of food! Not only that, but they have desert at almost every meal. It is not hard to get stuffed. You know stuffed, right? Stuffed is when you eat so much that you feel uncomfortable. Stuffed is when the food is so good you can’t stop eating until you realize you have had too much. I finally realized that I had to be smart in how I approached my eating. I decided that I could enjoy all of the different dishes, but in moderation; only a little of each one. In this way I could be satisfied with what I ate, but not be stuffed.

We are called by God to honor God with our bodies. God made our bodies, and He makes it clear that He is concerned about how we care for them. As we are told in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” The Holy Spirit takes residence in the body of each person who follows Jesus. God cares about how we treat our bodies, and so should we. We are His temple, His dwelling place.

We are called to offer all of ourselves to God. As Romans 12:1-2 says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” This means that we enjoy the good that God offers us, but we don’t over-consume. Eating too much can harm our bodies.

Since God dwells in us, He wants us to keep His temple in good repair; a fit place for the King of Kings to make His throne. So what I am talking about here is not just for those with eating disorders. It is for all of us, because eating right is important for us to maintain good health. What I am talking about are commonsense steps that we can adopt so that we might keep our bodies at the right shape and size that will honor God and bring us joy.

b. Maintaining God’s temple- As I said before, you don’t have to eat

until you are stuffed. Learn to eat until you are merely satisfied. Now, even though I say that, I have to confess that I broke that rule a couple of weeks ago. EX. Tami and I, our kids, and my aunt and uncle went out to eat at the Rainforest Café. This restaurant is like all others today, and that is they serve too much food. I ordered the fajitas, and ended up eating 4 of them. I also helped myself to some of Tyler’s French fries. And then after that, I ordered dessert. The dessert was huge, and while I had help from everyone, I ate most of it. At the end of the meal I was stuffed, and I felt terrible the rest of the evening! This is not God’s plan for our bodies.

Unfortunately, this is too common for people. And it isn’t just once in a

while. Our society has forgotten how to eat to just be satisfied. To eat to be satisfied means that we learn to listen to our bodies. If we are in tune with our bodies, then we will notice when we feel satisfied, long before our plates are empty. At this point we need to learn how to stop eating.

But another reason that we get stuffed is because we eat too fast; we gulp down our food instead of taking the time to taste it and enjoy it. God has given us food to enjoy. So let me tell you three ways to take time to enjoy your food. First, by saying grace at the beginning of every meal, we remember that this is a gift from God, and we are more thankful for it. This prayer helps us to slow down and think about the meal we are about to enjoy. Second, we need to let the meal be an experience, not a race. Take the time to smell your food. Take smaller bites. Chew your food completely. I have to confess that I eat my food too fast. I am speaking to myself as much as I am to you. By slowing down, we can realize better when we are at that place of being satisfied. Third, we can teach ourselves to slow down by putting down our food, or our fork, in between each bite. At the end of the meal, you will have a much better feeling when you realize you aren’t stuffed.

A couple other suggestions for being healthy with our meals is to drink more water (this helps to curb our appetite some), exercise (this helps us to work off some of the calories we consume), eat at regular times (when we eat at irregular times we tend to snack more), and eat less fast food (fast food is less healthy and are more fattening).

III. From Anxiety to Peace- (2 Corinthians 11:26-28; Philippians 4:6-7)

The last shift I want to talk about this morning is that from anxiety to peace.

This is more of the issue of rest for our minds.

a. The God of all peace- If I were to ask you “Do you want peace?” I’m sure

your answer would be yes. None of us want to be worried and stressed. As much as you and I want peace, God wants it for us even more. God wants us to replace worry with peace; anxiety with peace; stress with peace. God takes this so seriously that He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us. This has been expressed in many ways: a number of years ago there was the popular song called “Don’t worry, be happy.” The Australians have a unique way of saying this, they say: “No worries, mate.” And in the movie Lion King there is the phrase “hakuna matata,” which means “no worries.” In Jesus Christ we can have a “no worry” attitude.

In the movie “What about Bob?” Bill Murray plays a highly manipulative obsessive-compulsive patient. Bob is worried about getting sick from germs, so he tries not to touch anything. Bob is worried about crowds, so he rarely goes out. Bob is worried about just about everything, and so his life is basically dormant.

All too often, we live with this kind of anxiety; we worry about going to work, we worry about our economy, we worry about our past, present and future. While there is plenty of things to worry about, God doesn’t want us to live lives of worry. To overcome our anxiety, we need to focus on God and trust God. God holds the key to set us free from all worry and anxiety.

b. From worry to prayer- The first, and greatest anxiety buster is the power

of prayer. The apostle Paul had plenty of stress in his life. He gave a partial list of what he faced when he wrote to the church of Corinth. After telling about all of the physical abuse and pain he had suffered, he listed some of the mental and emotional turmoil he faced. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:26-28, “I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” If anyone had the right to live an anxious life, it was the apostle Paul. But with all the legitimate reasons he had to be worried, Paul refused. Instead, he traded his worry for prayer. Paul says it this way in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The answer to the stress, worry, and anxiety of this world is not to run away or try and escape what causes us worry, but to go to God in prayer.

EX. I’ve shared this example before, but when I was in my twenties all my friends were getting married and having kids. I was wanting to be married, to find that special person, but it wasn’t happening. Every year that went by the more I worried about whether it would ever happen. Finally in my late twenties I decided to give it to God; I mean really give it to God. I prayed fervently that God would take this worry from me and help me to focus on the life He had given me. It was wonderful how God lifted this burden from my life. I finally met Tami when I was 29, and got married when I was 30. But beyond the getting married was the fact that in prayer I was able to overcome my anxiety, and live more fully for God!

This is just one simple example of how prayer can overcome worry. When we find our minds and emotional worlds battling against us, it is time to pray. In the process, we ask God for help and strength. We thank Him for the many ways we see His grace at work in our lives. Then we rejoice as God’s peace replaces our anxious feelings.

In Luke 22:42, Jesus said to the Father- “Not my will, but yours be done.” In the book of James, 4:13-15, James says- “Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."…. The best way to be anxiety free is to discover God’s will for your life. And the best way to do this is to seek God in the Bible and through prayer. It really does work.

Conclusion: We all want health in our lives. We can all live healthy lives. To do this we must make these shifts……….we must slow down and take a Sabbath break every week; we must eat better and enjoy what we eat; and we must pray more and worry less. If we do this, then we will enjoy our lives more, we will feel better about who we are, and we will trust God to work in and through us. Will you commit with me to living this out? I hope so, because it will make all the difference. Amen.