Thrive: Healthy - Pastor Brad DeLong

You can be seated tonight. Thankful that he is here and thankful that you are here. Thank you for being faithful to the house of the Lord dodging the rain and storms. And I think we all made it through unscathed. Of course, we welcome you back to our Wednesday night midweek service and we are kicking off another series and we're really kicking off a couple months of growing together.

I mentioned this last week, but the more specific details are that in October of last year, we planned out our sessions and our topics for each Wednesday night in the year of 2025. And we know that the Holy Ghost can change those things and lead and direct us, and we're always open to that. But our aim and goal was not to be too rigid or to him ourselves in necessarily, but we wanted to be both prayerful and strategic about where we are heading and where we're leading this wonderful church and the family members of APC.

With that in mind and our God-given vision in mind, we plan these next two months to talk about what it means to be thriving, healthy, growing, and full of love. And then to discuss our homes and our household health as well. How many of you go home every Wednesday night? Anybody raise your hand? Okay. How many of you are home most nights? That's the place where you're at. And home, of course, includes your family and those who live there. We want our homes to be healthy. We get to be here four, five hours a week.

We're thank God for the health that uh that's here and in our church body, but we know that we're going and spending time at home more than we are here. So, we want our homes and of course our physical or our lives, individual lives to be healthy. So we're going to discuss these things. How many of you again you going to get a show of hands here first couple minutes but how many of you believe that our our health our spiritual physical emotional household heart health all these how many you believe that it matters to God? It does.

I believe that this book the Bible would concur and we're going to turn to it together in just a moment. Before we do, can anyone tell me what the vision of APC is? Anybody? Okay. What do we want to be? Okay. All right. Hey, come on now. We got some confident people. All right. So, we're going to say it together. They don't have it on the screen. I didn't for warn them, but we want to be a thriving apostolic church that is faithfully connecting, growing, and serving others.

For those who were in our leadership sessions a few months ago, you may know some of these answers. You may hear some similar concepts. You may also be able to recall that this vision statement was built on both scripture obviously and on the back of our district vision, which is to see a thriving apostolic work in every community. What do we mean by apostolic in our vision? Anyone want to give me just a brief uh uh definition? What do we mean when we say that we're apostolic? Anybody? I'm catching you cold, but yes. Did you have an answer over there?

Selena's got an answer. Maybe be like the apostles. Yeah, that's a good answer. Yeah, Mila says that we listen to the apostles. That's her that's her quick answer. Uh we are after the order of the apostles in particular. We adhere to the apostles beliefs and their practice. So when you tell someone, I go to Apostolic Pentecostal Church. Maybe you're like me and where do you go to church? I'm an APC. It just kind of rolls off the tongue. And what's that mean? Apostolic Pentecostal church. Usually the first thing they ask is what does apostolic mean?

Apostolic. What's it mean? Very simply, we believe and we adhere to the beliefs and practice of the apostles. This is critical for us to remember and to be able to recall and of course to live out. And then we have three adjectives that we use to describe the word thriving. I just said them a moment ago. What are the three words we use to describe the word thriving? Anybody? Healthy. Someone saw it on the screen. Yeah. Now some of you like, "Oh, there it is. Let's say it together.

Healthy, growing, and full of love." I said three words, but that's actually six or five. Uh who's counting, though? Some may wonder, okay, what are we doing? Why do we need this review tonight? What does this have to do with the task at hand? And I'll uh show my card, so to speak, when I tell you that in order to kick off this series, I want to remind us of where we are headed as a church. We are going to be a thriving apostolic church. We are going to continue to be an apostolic church.

Everything we discuss this month and next month and really any month has our vision and our mission and our core values in mind as well as the scriptural admonition found in Ephesians chapter 4, which is where we're headed. I told our leadership team in early February that they were going to be hearing about these biblical principles continually. Your pastor is like a dog with a bone. And more than that, I feel a mandate to see these scriptures uh as more than words that are printed beautifully on our sound booth wall.

But both the Holy Ghost and the strong admonishment of scripture have been driving me forward and our church forward until we all attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ until the saints are equipped for the work of ministry and we're edified in the body of Christ. So, we're going to keep pushing for apostolic health and ministry until we see the Lord's vision fulfilled and his stature attained. Is that okay, everybody? Are we all on the same page there? All right. I figured it would be because it's right here in scripture.

Ephesians 4:11, a passage you hopefully recognize by now. Some of you are wondering if I ever teach from any other passage. And uh we will tonight. It says that he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and pastors and teachers. He gave them for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ until we all come to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

If you're wondering as a Christian what you should be doing, that's just a great summary right there. That's what we're aiming for. that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love. We want to grow up.

Everyone say grow up in all things and to him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share. This causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself and love. Every church wants growth and this is what causes it. In the New Living Translation, that last verse, Brother Parky, our district superintendent, grabbed onto these three monikers or or adjectives when discussing what a thriving church looks like.

This is uh Ephesians 4:16 in the NLT. It says, "He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. These also happen to be the titles for the next three weeks. Tonight is of course healthy and then we'll discuss growing and full of love. So we're going to focus on this word healthy tonight, the concept of health and we will take a look at this in a multi-dimensional way.

I also give the distinction uh that I gave in our leadership session a few months ago and that is that I I'm going to take a very zoomedin approach on health and and focus on an individual and even a family level. Uh whereas Paul is talking here about the health of the whole body. This passage in Ephesians 4 has a collective and a corporate health in mind. He says equipping the saints edifying the body till we all come to. So he's he's talking about all of us.

Uh so there's a mandate that the whole body, the church be healthy and growing and full of love. But this mandate also includes each part doing its share or special work and every joint. Someone say that's me supplying what's needed for the body. So for the whole body to be healthy, we know that the individual parts need to contribute and need to be healthy in and of themselves. stated another way, a healthy church is built on healthy homes and families and individuals.

So, for the sake of time tonight, in order to get all the the individual parts healthy, I'm going to focus on the the joints. I'm going to focus on the parts rather than the whole knowing that the whole is affected by the health of the parts. I shared an example with our leaders a few months ago when it came to the activity known as push-ups. And at that time, my shoulder wasn't uh very healthy. It affected my form. Uh I think is the right form. I don't know. Uh affected the rest of my body, and I wasn't able to do push-ups, which is just horrible.

I'm sure you can imagine. Um and it must have been somewhat of a a product of getting older yesterday, but I ran into a similar issue on Monday night as well. I was doing this thing that uh the experts call squats. Oh, I hate them. And of all things, my I think it was my left ankle started hurting. It didn't hurt previously. It I don't have ankle problems, but it just decided to start hurting in that moment. You can imagine it affected the whole body as I tried to exercise effectively.

The other the rest of the body starts to compensate and then that can cause other issues and problems. So one part, one home, one family, one individual's health, it does matter. It matters. That hurting ankle didn't completely stop me, but it did slow me down. Every healthy part contributes to the health and movement of the whole. And every unhealthy part has an inverse effect as well. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we want to be healthy. We want to be growing. We want to be full of love both as a body and as a individual.

And I was explaining this to our our team. It was a Wednesday night just like this one last year. Sister Amber Wilfford was talking about this concept of being a thriving apostolic church and explained that the parts need to do their share and be healthy in and of themselves. And I just felt a a shift in a a greater understanding happen within my heart. This admonition for health, for for spiritually mature Christians, for us to attain to the measure of his stature, it just became cemented in my heart.

I explain it sometimes like if you get a new car and you never really noticed that car before, but then you get in that car and now you see it everywhere. I see Tesla Cybert trucks everywhere. I don't have that, but I just notice them mostly because of the way they look, but uh you notice those things. So when you that clicked for me that night, I just started to notice the need for us to be healthy, growing, and full of love.

We've been on this journey for quite some time and I believe that the Lord has our best interest at heart and he has our health as a whole at at heart and in focus and tonight is just another indication of it. So we're going to talk about this word health. It has a clinical definition of a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not just the absence of disease or infirmity. So it has a comprehensive definition, one that speaks to health beyond just the the physical.

But we as the church also recognize that our spiritual health weighs in here as well. So if we take a biblical angle of health, it would offer a more comprehensive definition. To start, if you look at the derivative of healthy in the Bible, it's actually the word whole. It's the word that Jesus used when that woman with the issue of blood came and she wasn't just healed of her disease, but now she was able to be integrated into the community because she was no longer unclean. And Jesus says, "You're whole. You're whole." Synonyms abound.

Words like complete in the Bible, perfect or perfected in the phrase I love, filled to the full. One author said, "Health is not simply being free of mental and physical disease. It is a wholeness of mind and body and I would also add a wholeness in our spirit. The author cites Jeremiah 33 and6. We'll read together. It says, "Behold," this is Jesus or the Lord speaking about his people. "I will bring it or this nation health and healing." Notice what that means to him.

"I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth and and I will cause the captives of Judah, the captives of Israel to return. I'll rebuild those places as the first. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they've sinned against me, and I'll pardon all their iniquities by which they've sinned and and by which they've transgressed against me. Then it shall be to me a name of joy, my my people. There'll be a praise. There'll be an honor before all the nations of the earth.

You shall hear the good news or all the good that I do, and they'll fear and tremble for all the goodness and the prosperity that I provide for my people. Notice that their healing and health involved and pertained to their peace and truth as well as to their spiritual status, their connection with God, their cleansing and pardoning, and lastly, their spiritual standing with God.

So, a more comprehensive look and definition of health might be that health or wholeness refers to a state of completeness, integrity, and harmony within oneself and in relation to God and others. It encompasses a physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational wellbeing. We're talking about health, which is an allencompassing concept. Completeness. Paul would tell us it's only found in Jesus Christ. And this kind of health affects our spirituality, our physical well-being, our minds, our hearts, our homes, our relationships, every facet of our lives.

All of which God is interested in and invested in at any given time. So I believe that the Lord wants us to be healthy to grow up to be like him in every way to be complete or whole in him through his spirit. And since we are whole persons and our mental health affects our spiritual and our physical and our relational and vice versa, it stands to reason that we want to be fully healthy, fully in compliance with the word of God and his admonition for us to be whole.

We do kind of have some lines that we draw in our current setting and culture that help us distinguish between areas of health. You've heard of them, mental health, physical health, spiritual, etc. But we also have to recognize these bleed into one another. They are all affected by our connection with God and our desire to please and honor him. Sometimes we try to draw the line, well, that really doesn't have anything to do with my walk with God. I would beg to differ. We can't draw lines where the Bible wouldn't draw lines.

and and effectively keep God out of places where he has both a vested interest and a way of strengthening us in those areas. God desires health in the whole being and body both this body and this one. With that in mind, we're going to discuss the area of health I believe is the most important and this one I believe forms the baseline for all others and that is our spiritual health. Everyone say spiritual health. We need to be spiritually healthy, right?

We need our connection with God to be sure and strong and healthy and and that health will inevitably affect all other areas. This kind of health is deeply tied to our hearts and our spirits, our our heart health, if you will. Solomon says this in the Proverbs, and I'm talking about spiritual health or heart health. He says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." And I believe Jesus concurs. He says this, "For a good tree does not bear bad fruit. A bad tree doesn't bear good fruit.

For every tree is known by its own fruit. Men don't go and gather figs from from thorns and they don't gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." I'm using some some synonyms here. I'm using some interchangeable terms here to get at the point that our spirits, our our hearts, our souls, if if you will, they have to be right. This is a priority. They've got to be healthy.

They've got to be whole. Our heart towards God has to be secure and healthy for this determines the course of our entire life and our our health and in most if not all other areas. I know that some try to draw lines, try to divide soul and spirit and heart and personality, etc. I don't have the time to take a deep dive into into that realm, uh, we'd be here all night.

Not to generalize, but if I if I lump them together and say that our spirituality, our relationship with God, our hearts, which is a biblical metaphor for the seat of a person's emotions and intellect and spirit, represents their inner self, relationship with God. These are critically important to the rest of our health and lives. And you already see there I mentioned the word emotions. So they you see the bleed. You can't really fully divide these things. They affect one another.

Heart health, not just in a physical way, but it determines the issues of life. Paul tells Timothy in the passage we're going to discuss later. He says that godliness, being like Jesus, this this realm of spiritual health, it's profitable for all things. And there's people who try to get their lives together and they focus on all the wrong things. And we need to start here first. He uh admonishes the Thessalonians and he gets at this wholeness of health.

He says, "Now may the God of peace sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful who also will do it." It matters to God what the condition of our spiritual health and hearts is. matters to him and ought to matter to us. That in mind, I I am simply advocating for spiritual health tonight, for the spiritual health of your families and homes. We need to make this a priority together.

As much as we rightly focus on things like mental health and physical health and and the health of our children, understand that the health of our spirits has to be a priority. And it will inevitably affect areas of mental health for the good and for the bad. I know from experience there's times when I will go out of my way to make sure that I'm trying to be physically healthy. There's other times I might go out of my way to to be unhealthy, but I'll I'll take extra steps.

I'll make extra sacrifices and and we'll buy the the good brand and all the other We ought to take every step we can to be spiritually healthy. Thankfully, there's simple and keen ways to strengthen that health. If you get into the physical health side, which we will in a moment, you see about a million different people advocate for a million different approaches. There's cardio, resistance training, strength training, calisthenics, aerobics, aquatic training. Never done that.

You watch three YouTube videos on physical health and you will get three different opinions and you will confuse yourself to death. Everyone's like, "Listen, I've got the silver bullet. If you do this for 10 days, you won't be the same person. You lie. And I I am thankful that with all the complexity out there of physical health that spiritual strength and health is pretty simple. Read your Bible. Pray every day. Pray every day. Pray every day. Read your Bible. Pray every day. And you will grow. There's those squats. Yeah. Grow. Grow. Grow.

It really can be that simple. And of course, we we add some things to that as well. things called disciplines. We had fasting. Health is always discipline. Just so you know, it's always discipline. You discipline your mind, you discipline your body, you discipline, you have disciplines and habits and your and your family. It's always discipline. Fasting, discipline, meditation on the word of God, memorization of scripture, worshiping the Lord, thanking him regularly.

These are adding to your spiritual health, faithfulness, faithful to assemble together, faithful to giving and serving others, evangelism, loving one another, doing right by God and and others, even taking care of of our children and families and providing for them and nurturing them within reason. Now, if you can't go and say, "Hey, I worked 20 hours today and that's spiritual health." Okay, I never saw my family, you know, but these are spiritual disciplines. Things like the fruits of the spirit are are good to add for spiritual health.

They're also indicators of spiritual health. Again, that's not an exhaustive list, but it reminds us just how simple yet critical. It's these things that we know to do and sometimes just fail to do, but it's so simple. This pursuit of spiritual health, it's a good metric of our health when we take the time to review it. And this should be a good opportunity. When I go to the doctor on rare occasions, I need to go more. They ask me a whole litany of questions. They're asking me things like, "How often do you exercise? Do you smoke? Do you drink?

Uh, do you have any pain or discomfort? Let's check your breathing. Let's check your heartbeats. Let's check your blood pressure." They do a thorough health checkup. We can easily do the same. Are you reading your Bible? Are you studying it? Are you praying? How often do you pray? If they're asking you how often you exercise, and that's important that it is, how often are you praying? How often are you reading your Bible? How often you talk with God and strengthen your connection with him and not just to check a box? Do you fast?

Are you walking with God? Are you healthy in your spirit? What what are the fruits of that spirit? Do you know the Bible more today than you did a year ago today? Do you exhibit the fruit of the spirit more readily than you did before? Are you more kind than you once were? Do you let people cut you off in traffic? That's always my go-to. I Lord, help me. Pray for patience. Get ready. Are you exhibiting more than you were? Are you living an overcoming life? Are you allowing the right things into your heart and mind and spirit?

Out of this flow all the issues of life. Says, "Keep your heart with all diligent." As diligent as we should be with our physical and mental and relational health, we have to be diligent with our hearts and spirits. Everything flows from this, including our physical health as well. I want to remove a pseudo barrier that has often been drawn and reinforced in our context and time and culture. When I say this, spiritual health ought to lead us to physical health as well. Spiritual health should lead us to physical as well.

Now, because this is such a sensitive area, I want to give a couple disclaimers. Just because you may not be totally physically healthy, that does not mean that you are not spiritually well and not walking with the Lord. And I'll give you an example. I know that some have underlying conditions, any number of extenduating factors that are not your fault. And I've got some Bible for that. In John chapter nine, there's a man born blind.

And the disciples look at him and they say, "Jesus, was it him that sinned or was it his parents?" And Jesus says, "Neither. He's not blind and has this physical ailment because he sinned or he's not spiritually healthy." This was done that my glory might be revealed in him. Which opens a whole another set of questions. Wait, what?

But Jesus corrected a thinking in that day of time that said if you uh had any ailment, if you weren't physically or totally physically healthy, if you had some kind of uh thing happen to you that you must have been in sin or out of the will of God. Just to be clear tonight, I am speaking this evening more about things that are within our control. things like what we eat, how much of it we eat, whether we truly take care of these vessels or not, what we use these vessels for, how we treat these God-given frames and temples and body.

As I said, I know this is a sensitive area. I'm going to walk carefully, but I do need to teach us the whole council of God. All right? And I must say that our physical health, if you read it, matters to God. For one, Paul calls these earthn vessels the very temples of God. Now, recognize that was no small thing in a first century context when the temple was like the center of many of their lives. The temple, they revered that temple. And Paul says, "You, you are the temple of God." He says this in 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Or you do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God that you are not your own for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. I'm thankful for the the way that we treat this temple this building. And I'm thankful for the way that the people of that day revered their temple and their holy places. And Paul draws from that understanding and reminds us in this case it's with sexual immorality in mind.

If you read the context, he reminds us we are the temples of the living God. And we're to honor God with our bodies and everything that we do and are. Here's where that one whole person thing comes back into play. God created and knit us together as one whole being. And I know that there's some language that, you know, well, someday we're going to discard this thing and immort mortality will put on immortality and I thank God for that day and and with some of my ankle pain, I thank God for that day. But we also have been given a gift.

Colossians says this, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." him. I believe that our bodies have a part to play in that, especially if you adhere to the words of the psalmist in Psalm 139. This is one of the the pictures we need to get uh the the biblical picture of this gift that God has given us. You see the way that our physical frames are valued by God and should be valued by us. He says this, "For you, the Lord God, you formed my inward parts.

You you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." If you just look at what God did when he created these bodies, the intricacies he put into it, you can see he put some effort into it. James says, "We're the centerpiece of his creation." What think it matters to God? Does. Psalmist says, "Marvelous are your works." Talking about the body and that my soul knows very well. My my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they were all written the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of it. I read passages like this, church, and it sounds to me that what I do with this fearfully and wonderfully made vessel that God gave to me. It sounds like it matters to God how I treat this frame that was knit together with God's own hands and God's own skill. The health of this earthn vessel, what I can control, is one of the greatest gifts that God has given to me. Anyone agree with that? Anybody?

that health is a gift and he gave it to me. And just like with every other gift, it has to be stewarded well. James, every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above. My health is one of those. I've got to steward that. Physical health, how I treat this God-given temple matters to God. John prays for this in third John chap or verse two rather. He says, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and that you may be in health just as your soul prospers." Notice he draws a line. You may be in health also in your soul.

Commentators stress a duality of his prayer, but the ones I read all agree John was praying for gas's physical health and well-being among other things. That health is tied to our spiritual health. It's a gift from God. Beyond that, I noticed this earlier in the week. This is Romans 12 1-2. It talks about the body and the mind. We're called to submit both of these to God.

Of course, Paul says in this passage, he says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies." And he's talking about your actual bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And we know what he was talking about because many scholars believe he was pointing back six chapters earlier. He says this in Romans 6 and 12. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. talking about the body that you should obey it in its lust.

Don't you obey the lust of your body and let things reign in it that shouldn't. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. My members as instruments of righteousness. It matters to God what I do with. You see the pattern council of scripture reminding us what we do with these earthn vessels in which the excellency of God is housed matters to him.

This is the the epiphany and the truth that I believe in many ways has changed my life in recent years and times. And if I could just be extra vulnerable with you for just a moment, I would tell you that I had completely missed this truth and these teaching for years. And I'm not yet the picture of perfect health, as Paul would say. I'm not I'm not already attained. I'm not perfected. I've got a long way to go. But I know that the Lord himself got a hold of me and arrested me in this realm of health.

This is why I'm adamant that our spiritual health affects other areas because I was praying. If you ask God about these things, he'll talk to you. I was praying in my home one morning, I could take you the spot. And the spirit of God came and convicted me. Again, just being as honest as I can be, I believe that the Lord told me, said, "Brad, you've got control or discipline in almost every area of your life, but this one." He said, "You have no control in this area of your life. You have no discipline." I thank God for conviction.

Conviction can save you. And I had kept the Lord at arms length. It doesn't matter to you. I'm just telling you my story. I thank the Lord for the word of truth and the whole council of God. It was like that car that you get in and I started noticing this matters to him. Again, that we don't have some biblical picture of well this is how much you know BMI and no none of that. just that I want to honor God in every single thing that I do, which includes what I do here.

Thank the Lord for men and pastors like Matthew Mullins who wrote this statement that sent some shock waves into my spirit. He said this, "We have only a finite vessel with which to fulfill the will of God." There's a will of God for every life in this room, and you have a finite vessel that he's given you to fulfill. We have this earthn vessel, a gift from God given to us to fulfill his will. So, we've got to steward it. And again, I don't have this all figured out. I'm I'm trying my best.

And but but what happened was I determined I want to honor God with my whole being. I determined that I want to honor God who gave me this body and who breathed the breath of life into it. And each person's got to do that. And there's some biblical ways and biblical patterns, but you figure some of these things out. And I love these conversations. You can come talk to me.

I also determined things like I want to be around long enough to be healthy for my family and I want to see my grandkids if the Lord would carry and I want to be able to play in the floor with them and chase them around. My motives cannot be driven let me help someone by scales and aesthetics and cultural norms and pressures. Here's where my motives are. Whatever you do in word or deed, I feel the Holy Ghost here. This was a hardfought realization. If I can help anybody this truth, I will. They weren't directed.

And if I get off track and I start to focus too much on those, I've got to remind myself I want to honor God. And I pray this every day, including in my physical health. Lord, help my mind to be healthy. Help my heart to be healthy. Help my body to be healthy. Lord, help me to honor you with what I do with this vessel today. Help me to honor you with what I consume and and how much of it, not just food, but even what I'm consuming through these gates. Help me to be disciplined like your word calls me to be.

I cannot draw a line between the physical and mental and emotional. Especially when scripture tells me, present my whole self to God. I have to take care of it. Does that make sense, everybody? Okay, we're all right. I know this is sensitive stuff. I do. I I haven't come to shame or anybody, especially not when I'm on the journey. I've got work to do. I'm on this daily journey with everyone else in this room and and I've just come to present to you the whole council of God. And I know some I want to just mention this briefly.

Some have taken Paul's words in 1 Timothy chapter 4. He's talking about uh he says this in verse 6. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you've carefully followed. He says, "But reject profane and and old wise fables and and exercise yourself toward godliness.

For bod bodily exercise, he says, profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." Some have taken this and they'll take the particular version of scripture and they'll say, "Uh, it says Paul says bodily exercise doesn't profit at all." Look at all look at I mean if you count Paul's exercise metaphors you would see that is not the case. But the commentators and the ones I've read and the ones I've trusted have noted that Paul is drawing a distinction here.

He's using some of this language that was common in that day. And they they said he's not saying that it doesn't profit because likely when he walked 20 miles a day that profited him. What he's saying is you should not look at that as the end all beall. But spiritual exercises, spiritual health profits in every area of your life. It's a both end. It's not an eitheror. Bless God, you exercise that ain't, you know. No. If your body is healthy and your spirit is healthy, that's a good thing. I believe they both matter to God.

And the council of scripture in the end reminds us that our total health, including the physical, matters to him. If you have any questions of that, you need any clarification, please come talk to me. If I offended you in any way, come talk to me. It's sensitive, and I know that firsthand, especially having lived without adhering to this principle for too long in my life. But it brings such great understanding and clarity to know how much God cares about our bodies. And here's the other thing I hadn't thought till just now.

When I lift my hand, say, "Lord, will you heal my body?" I am believing that God cares about my body. Jesus, will you love me enough to heal me? And he has done it so many times. If he cares about us that much, it matters. Our last area is our mental health. And I don't want to fly through this, but I needed to take more time on on the second. Talked about this in sessions and sermons and one-on-one, especially since COVID and and the wave of what they call the mental health crisis.

Truth is that ailments of the mind and emotions and the psyche, if you will, they're nothing new. We just have a higher awareness to these things for in many ways for the better, in some ways for the worse. I won't get into all that tonight, but uh it's it's helped us in some ways and in other ways it's it's it's fueled some things. Thankfully though that the Bible and the word of God was fully prepared for what we would face and the Bible has a lot to say on this subject as well as our physical and spiritual health.

Solomon tells us there's there's nothing new under the sun. So the characters of the Bible experience most if not all of what we experience today, although they didn't have the same names and classifications. If you read it, you can see things like anxiety and worry and depression, trauma. There's a lot of trauma in the Bible. Paul battled sleeplessness. Apparently, David battled sleeplessness. Some even said that King Saul was bipolar.

And if you read, I'm thinking, "Yeah, I can see some of that." You know, one minute he's throwing javelins and the next minute he's he's all right. These are just to name a few. Just a quick look at scripture would tell you they were fighting for the same level of health that we are today. It's a good fight. And they had their share of battles. David was literally foaming at the mouth and acting insane before the king of Gath, which tells you they knew something about the absence of mental health. They knew what it looked like.

If you read just a few chapters in Psalms, you see these are real people. They battle real things in their mind and emotion. And you can also see that even under the worst of circumstances, many of them attained health through the help of God and his word. And I believe this is critical for us to know. And hear me. I am thankful for every help and every method and every tool and every person the the mental health professionals that are here. Uh I'm thankful for every organization out there fighting for true health. We need all of the help we can get.

But I also need to say that our mental health is still well within God's purview and God's concern. God hasn't outsourced this area. And I know that our uh our counselors and those in this space uh believe in the principles of scripture and believe in God's health. Sometimes though our cultures try to draw a line here and say, "Well, God's got nothing to do with this." Scripture would beg to differ. Our mental health is is tied very closely with our spiritual health. We should get as much godly and wise advice and help we can.

And I am all for good and and healthy count counsel and mental health. Uh but we also cannot leave God at arms length as we try to search for the same. We need both. It's a both end. If you look back at Romans 12, you see that the tiein here between the body and spiritual implications and the mind. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Don't be conformed to this world.

be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That to be transformed there is the same word transfigured talking about same word used in the mount of transfiguration. It's essentially getting at being changed into the likeness of Christ from one degree of glory to another with the Lord's help. What does that mean?

means that when you give yourself completely to Christ, including in your body and your mind, your mind ought to start to take shape and to be formed and transformed to be more like Jesus's. You'll think and respond and contemplate things more like Jesus and take on what Paul calls the mind of Christ. If there's anyone's mind I want to have, it's the mind of Christ. That seems like a healthy mind. You know, uh, this type of transformation really can only be healthy. It has me thinking of Christ and more like Christ.

It's the kind of thinking that Paul talks about in Philippians 4. He says, "Be anxious for nothing." Easier said than done, Paul. But let uh but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And this is the promise, and this is one of my favorite promises. and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And we love to think, well, that's the end of it right there. That's what's going to happen. But then look at the next verse.

Here's where discipline comes in. So we have a part to play. Finally, brethren, whenever things are true, whenever things are noble, just, pure, lovely, if they're of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate, dwell on these things. said earlier, our mental health is very much dependent on our connection with God and his health. You see evidence of that here when Paul said that the Lord would give us his peace and and be a guard over this is the the the help that that that God provides.

But also notice, we have a part to play as well. With God's help, we discipline our minds to think on things that are described in the list above. Good, noble, trustworthy, good report. God doesn't do our thinking for us. You can't. We have a part to play and we I know that I' i've had times and I've heard others, God, take these thoughts from me completely and those are good prayers to pray. Or or we can just leave God out of it. Well, I tried to pray and nothing happened. Neither of those. Lord, help me.

Would you help me to bring these thoughts into captivity? Would you help me to think on things that are good and just and love? Again, God doesn't take over our brains. He just comes alongside and helps us as we obey his word. We have to discipline our minds. And if you need help to do that, by all means, get good and godly help and counsel. Sometimes we need the added help to discipline our minds because our minds start to spiral and and we've got wonderful people that can say, "Hey, here's where you put up a guardrail. Here's what you need to do.

Here's, you know, and get God's help." When we partner with God and when we partner with godly counsel, he places a guard over our thoughts and mind. See evidence of this throughout scripture. Worst of circumstances, those that don't know, the Bible describes some pretty rough and gruesome things. People went through the worst. But with God's help, we see Psalms like Psalm 46. It says this, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear even though the earth be removed." That's pretty extreme.

Though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Then you see in Psalm 34, it's written right after David pretended to be insane. It says, "I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears." Later in the psalm, it says, "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. He saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

That's an honest thing. But the Lord delivers him out of them all. Out of them all. Let me just pause here and say there is no affliction you are facing. God cannot deliver you. There is no affliction that you are facing. The demoniac was literally in a cave cutting himself and attacking people as they went by. And within about five minutes, he's sitting in his right mind sane at the feet of Jesus. Now, yeah, demonic possession. But you think those demons had something to do with his mind and mess with his mind a little bit?

And he's in his right mind at the feet of Jesus. One of the most extreme circumstances you ever find. And Jesus did it. We're going to face afflictions. We're going to face difficult thoughts. We're going to face mental ailments. But we've got a remedy and help and a source of wisdom and strength both in our God and his word and his godly counselss. We can be mentally and emotionally and physically and spiritually healthy. Church, we it's not an impossible battle. We can do this.

Some days you may be mentally down and you're physically out, but these do tie together. I believe that the Lord has our health in mind and he's pushing for our health. As we stand to a close tonight, I'm going to have you stand with me. I want to read again to Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians. We're going to pray this together in just a minute. Paul says this, "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. We're looking at 1 Thessalonians 5:23. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. If you are trying to do these things on your own, you will fail. trying to get spiritually healthy on your own without God, you're going to fail, that doesn't really make sense. If you're trying to get mentally healthy on your own, you may be able to try every coping mechanism in the book, but if your spirit isn't right and you're not in alignment with God, that's not a recipe for health.

And then I'll just say this, you may be able to try every diet plan out there. And maybe you're successful. Maybe you're probably way healthier than I am. But I'm telling you, if you do it to honor God with the right motives, it makes all the difference in the world. Lord, you have control and autonomy in every area of my life. And I want you to sanctify me completely. As I studied this, there's probably one or two areas I thought, "Yeah, I need to work on this. I need to work on that." And maybe even as we talked tonight, you thought, you know what?

I need health. I need greater health in this area or this area. I want you to help me pray right now that God would make us completely and wholly healthy. If there's an area that the Lord was dealing with you about like he's done with me, maybe focus in on that area as we pray. Would you help me pray? Jesus, I'm thankful, Lord, for that prayer of Paul. And I'm thankful that you are faithful and that you can and that you will do it. And tonight, I ask for your help. Lord, I submit myself to you.

my whole body and heart and mind and spirit, all of who I am. I want to be healthy and growing and full of love. I want my family to be healthy and growing and full of love. Lord, I submit all of myself. I anything in my spiritual health, Lord, that needs to be changed and strengthened. Anything in my mind, Lord, in my emotions that need to be tweaked or strengthened.

Anything in my body, oh God, and my physical health that I need to work on, Lord, in any other area, my heart health, oh God, uh my my relational health, whatever it may be, I ask, Lord, that you would help me uh that you would sanctify me, Jesus, that you would make me and help me to be better and edify my life and our church family. We trust in you now in Jesus name. In Jesus name. Amen. Who wants to be healthy? Anybody? Not not just healthy the way the world says it. We want to be healthy like the book says. We can do it together.

And truthfully, I am I'm honored. This this church, you all have helped me in all these areas. There's a group of men that keep me accountable uh in some of these areas. And I'm so thankful for that. You can lean on one another, too. We can be healthy in these areas together.