Family Fitness | Part 1

What does the Bible say about health and fitness?

This Truth Network Podcast is worth finding, featuring the dynamic teaching of acclaimed pastor and Bible teacher, Adrian Rogers. We've been commanded to treat our bodies as temples to maintain and dedicate to God for His glory. Our bodies are carefully crafted, finely tuned machines, and our maintenance manual is the Word of God. We have physical ailments that are not in our control, but whatever we can control, we are responsible for maintaining. If you have your Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, as Adrian Rogers shares four principles to remember as we work on our family fitness.

Be finding in your Bibles 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. In a moment, we're going to begin reading in verse 19, an unknown person paid $3,005,000 for one baseball. $3,005,000 for one baseball. The thing that made it different is it was Mark Maguire's 70th home run ball, and he valued that baseball so much, a baseball that could be bought for about $9, that they paid $3,005,000 for that one baseball. Well, let me ask you a question. Would you like to have it? Well, let me tell you something that you can have that is far more valuable, I think that God wants you to have, and that is fitness, health. Health is far more valuable than Mark Maguire's baseball. Would you agree with that?

I hope so. The Bible says concerning our bodies that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. Look in verse 19, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

God paid a greater price for you than that man paid for that baseball, and you're not your own. Therefore God has enjoined you, yes, has commanded you to glorify God in your body as well as in your spirit. Now, the psalmist said concerning his body that he was fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139 and verse 14, the psalmist said, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your body is a carefully crafted, finely tuned machine, and thank God it comes with a maintenance manual. You have the Word of God. Now, remember, we are his purchased possession, and so we are the temple of God. Now, if we are the temple of God, don't you think that we need to look into some temple maintenance? The Bible teaches that our bodies do not belong to us, therefore they are to be dedicated to God. Now, some people think that the spiritual thing is to take care of your spirit and your soul, but who cares about the body?

They think that perhaps that the body is of no consequence or perhaps even evil. But Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, the apostle Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Now, is your body presented to God? Is it holy?

Is it acceptable to God? Now, God is interested in the total person. God is interested, yes, in your spirit, and God is interested in your soul, but God is also interested in your body.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 23 says, And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. With my body, soul and spirit, or in the order that Paul gave it, spirit, soul and body. With my spirit, I have spiritual life and I know the world above me. With my soul, I have psychological life and I know the world around me.

With my body, I have physical life and I'm related to the world beneath me. When my spirit is right, I'm holy. When my soul is right, I'm happy.

When my body is right, I'm healthy. And a perfectly tuned person would be holy, happy and healthy. Most folks I know are unholy, unhappy and unhealthy.

I mean, they're out of tune, they're out of whack. They're not what God really intended for us to be. Listen to that verse again. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23, And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God wants us to be blameless. That is, we ought not to do anything to our bodies, spirit or souls that is blameworthy. It doesn't mean that we're going to be in perfect health. We won't have perfect health until we get to heaven.

There are a number of reasons why we have physical ailments. First of all, we have to understand that there is a curse upon all creation. We live in a world that has the curse of sin upon it.

And Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all that have sinned. Now, in that sense, we all have a terminal illness, don't we? The latest statistic on death is one out of one people die. We all have a terminal illness because of Adam's sin, so we might as well admit that. Ever so often we say that so and so died a natural death. There's no such thing as a natural death. All death is unnatural. It is the result of sin.

All right, so that's one reason that we're sick. And then sometimes we're sick because we have violated God's moral law. Sin fascinates, and then it assassinates, and many people die just because of sin in their lives. For example, the church at Corinth, they were living with blasphemous ways at the Lord's Supper. They were not discerning the Lord's body, and Paul warned them in 1 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 29, for this cause many are sick and weakly among you, and some sleep, and he meant by sleep, some are dead, not discerning the Lord's body.

And he says, for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Sometimes sickness is the judgment of Almighty God. Sometimes we're sick because we're afflicted by Satan.

Job was sick that way. The Lord said to Satan in the book of Job, chapter 2, verse 6, concerning Job, behold, Satan, he's in thine hand, but save his life. The apostle Paul talked of a thorn in the flesh. That was the result of Satan. So sometimes we're under satanic attack, and that may be the reason that we're sick. Sometimes we're sick as the discipline of God, and we know that to be true. David said in Psalm 119, verse 71, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.

Sometimes we have to be flat on our back before we can look up, and we see more clearly through eyes that have been washed by tears. And sometimes our sickness is due to a violation of God's natural laws. I mean, we just go out and flaunt God's natural laws and expect to be well.

For example, a lot of people are poisoning their bodies with nicotine. Now, somebody says, well, can I smoke and go to heaven? The truth of the matter is you may get there a whole lot quicker. Smoking won't send you to hell.

It'll just make you smell like you've been there. You violate God's natural law. God made that nicotine to kill bugs, not people.

But you take that into your body. One pastor was asked to pray for another pastor who was sick. And that pastor said, I'm not going to pray for him. Why should I pray for him? He does the work of ten men and eats everything in sight. And then, you know, we just want God somehow to give us a pass to go ahead and violate his natural law and then think we're going to be well and ask God to heal us while we continue to do the things that make us sick.

Now, it's very, very important. Your family thinks about your family being fit. Because when you naturally, willingly violate the laws that God has laid down in his Bible, I'm talking about natural laws. If you're not careful, you will become a burden to yourself and a burden to your family, and your family will become a burden to other people. You see, God tells us that your mind, your soul is to rule your body just as your spirit rules your soul. Your body really is a servant. But if you abuse that servant, if you abuse your servant, that is your body, your body may rise up and smite you for it.

Your body is very unforgiving. Now, most folks value money more than they value health. Isn't that true? They value money more than they value health. We value things more than we value health until we lose our health. So many people spend the first half of their lives accumulating their wealth by wasting their health. Then they spend the last half of their life spending their wealth trying to get their health back.

And they're unhappy in both halves of their lives. Now, it's a funny thing about health. We value money more than health. Money is the most envied, but it is the least enjoyed. Health is the least envied, but it is the most enjoyed, that is until you lose it. When the wealthy man loses his health, then he would give all of his wealth to get his health back. But he doesn't think about that health.

I'm talking about the simple principles of family fitness. Now, I'm not a doctor, and I thank God for doctors. I believe in doctors. I have a personal physician that I love very much. And Jesus said, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

Luke was called the beloved physician. And I thank God for what doctors can do. But you know what many of us are trying to do? We're trying to break God's natural laws and then go to the doctor and try to get him to put the scrambled eggs back in the shell. We're trying to get him to undo what we have done, and that's not the purpose of medicine. Now, let me give you four principles for family fitness.

Are you ready for these? Number one, family fitness is a matter of discipline. Write it down. Family fitness is a matter of discipline. Now, we call ourselves disciples. Well, the word disciple and the word discipline are linked together.

We cannot call ourselves a disciple if we're not disciplined. We had a staff meeting, and one of our staff talked about passion. And he said, we need to live our lives with a passion. And then he gave a description of passion, and this is what he said. Passion is the degree of what one is willing to endure to achieve God's purpose for his life.

I love that. Listen to it again. Passion is the degree of what one is willing to endure to achieve God's purpose for his life. Many of us are living lives without passion because we do not want to be disciplined. We don't want to endure certain things. For example, we need to be disciplined in matters of diet and the things that we eat.

I heard of a woman. Somebody said she's a light eater. As soon as it gets daylight, she starts eating. Many of us fail to understand that we are breaking God's laws concerning what we eat. Now, you may think that the Bible doesn't say much about what we eat, but the Bible has much to say about what we eat, and also the Bible gives us an injunction in I Corinthians 10, verse 31, which says, Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. That ought to be put in our kitchens, maybe on your refrigerator. Whatever we eat, whatever we drink, do all to the glory of God.

Now, there's a fad today. People are telling us that all foods are equal. It doesn't make any difference that all foods are equal. That green beans and jelly beans are the same. I mean, they really believe that.

Friend, that's absurd. If you believe that, you're going to make your body a walking garbage can. The Bible mentions healthy foods, whole grains, herbs, fish, fowl, clean animals. No eating of fat, no eating of blood. Blood in the Bible is a symbol of life. But also, God prohibited His people from the ingestion of blood.

Why is it? Well, we know that the blood, it carries infections and toxins that circulate in an animal's body. And when you eat these things, when you eat and ingest animal's blood, you are needlessly exposing yourself to these infections and these poisons. The Bible warns very clearly about the consumption of fat. Scientists are now just catching up with this, that we are to have diets that are low in fat. So many people have arteriosclerosis because they have ingested this fat and they have a higher death rate than other people. The heart diseases, it's an old disease.

They've actually done autopsies on Egyptian mummies and found fat deposits in their arteries. The Bible has a lot to say about what we eat. The Bible makes a difference between clean and unclean animals. And we say, well, that's Mosaic law.

Listen, you better go back and read your Bible. You talk about everybody, everybody talks about how the animals went on the ark. How did the animals go on the ark? Two by two, two by two, two by two. Go read your Bible and you'll find out that some animals went on the ark by sevens.

People, oh, where's that? Just go read your Bible. What animals went on the ark by sevens? The clean animals. They were there for food. That was before the Mosaic law.

That was before any of these ceremonial laws. They're clean animals. What is the difference between the clean and the unclean animals? God puts all animals into two categories, those who are scavengers and those who are not scavengers. God says don't eat the scavengers. Those scavengers who will eat rotten, dead, decaying flesh.

Those scavengers who eat the off-scouring of other animals. You eat that and then you're putting all of that into your body. The Bible has a lot to say about what we eat. The Bible even warns against junk food.

You know, somebody thinks the three basic food groups are fast fried and junk. Listen to this. Proverbs 23, verses one through three. When thou sittest with a ruler, consider diligently what is set before thee. That is, the ruler is the guy who's, he's the high muckety-muck.

He's the guy with a, he can have all of his little dainties. And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. And then the Bible says, be not desirous of his dainties. Listen to this. They are deceitful meat. A lot of us are eating deceitful meat, dainties and people are telling us, well it makes no difference.

Do you know a sad thing? I was reading an article the other day that shows that Christians tend to be more overweight than pagans. Listen to this. States with a high rate religious affiliation, Mississippi, Michigan and Indiana have heftier citizens than such strongholds of secularity as Massachusetts, Hawaii and Colorado.

Now listen to this. Among all denominations, Southern Baptists are the real heavyweights. Southern Baptists. Maybe we ought to call ourselves Southern Fried Baptists.

I mean, Southern Baptists have the idea that when we go to heaven, heaven is going to be a great big banquet table up there with fried chicken, buttered biscuits and pecan pie. I think sometimes our churches are guilty of encouraging gluttony, promoting gluttony. The Bible says if you're a man given to gluttony, put a knife to your throat if you're a man given to appetite. You see, we live off of half of what we eat. The doctor lives off the other half.

Now what do we do? Well, find those foods that God created for food and eat those and avoid the others. And eat things as much as possible the way that God created them before they have been poisoned and preserved and mutilated and stabbed and baked and fried or whatever else. And then, friend, only eat them in the right proportion. But not only do we need to be disciplined in what we eat, we need to be disciplined in our exercise.

Put down 1 Timothy 4, verse 8. The Bible says, for bodily exercise profiteth little. Now some people have taken that as an excuse not to exercise, but that's not what he's saying. He's saying there is profit in exercise. He's saying that godliness is more profitable. But he's not saying that exercise is not profitable.

I took the time to look this up in a number of different translations. The RSV says bodily training is of some value. Williams' translation says fiscal training indeed is some service.

It does profit. And whether you're a couch potato or a pew potato, we need to understand that God wants us to exercise these bodies of ours. One thing about being in rotten physical shape, you don't have to exercise to keep it up, no matter how much money you have. If you're a rich man, in matters of diet and exercise, you're going to have to learn to live like a poor man or else you're going to kill yourself.

Walking is the perfect exercise, and if you want to do more, fine. But there needs to be a discipline in the matter of diet, a discipline in the matter of exercise. You need to get your kids out.

You need to get out yourself, Daddy. There needs to be a discipline in the matter of rest. Psalm 127 in verse 2 says, it's vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For he giveth his beloved sleep. It literally says he's giving to you while you sleep. That is, you are taking care of business while you are asleep.

Just think of those simple things, diet, exercise, and rest. Oh, that is so phenomenal. Friend, that's ABCs. That's just the ABCs. We need to be disciplined in all of these things. Now, here's the second thing. Family fitness is a matter of discipline. Number two, family fitness is a matter of disposition.

That's the second thing. It's a matter of disposition. Hardening of the attitudes is just as bad as hardening of the arteries. Listen to Proverbs 15 verse 17. Better is a dinner of herbs, that is a vegetable plate, where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

A vegetable plate is better than a filet mignon if you have that vegetable plate with love rather than that hefty steak where there's hatefulness there. And then he says this. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.

You can choose your thoughts like you choose your friends. And coming up on Monday, you'll hear part two of this important message. But I wanna remind you right now that one of our greatest honors at Love Worth Finding is to come alongside you and pray with you and for you. We're proud to be a prayer ministry and we strive to keep our community praying continually for each other's needs. If you can, go to our website homepage, lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. There you'll find the option to submit a prayer request or pray for others. We hope you'll use this inspiring resource on our website and let us hear from you today.

Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title of the message, family fitness. This message is also part of the powerful and convicting series, It Takes a Family.

If you'd like the complete collection, all seven powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, thanks for joining us in our study of God's word. Consider your health today physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Take inventory. Choose to rejoice where you are and make steps to improve. And we hope you'll join us for part two of Family Fitness Monday right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener wrote recently with this encouragement, these messages always speak to me.

They're so timeless. Pastor Rogers spoke with power and conviction. He wanted to reach everyone to penetrate their hearts with God's word. I'm thankful for his messages. Does that sum up how you feel about this ministry? We are so honored to be able to share these timeless lessons in an unsure time. At Love Worth Finding, we believe it's our joy to equip listeners with profound yet practical resources for the whole family so that we can honor God in our homes. To say thank you right now for your support this month, we want to send you our It Takes a Family booklet collection. This bundle features popular booklets such as God's Plan for the Man and It Takes a Family as well as two brand new booklets, Maximum Mom and Honoring Father and Mother. Request this bundle when you call with a gift right now at 1-877-LOVEGOD. And again, thanks for your generous support.