Resources

Care For Your Body

Pastor Floyd speaks about taking care of your physical body as well as your spiritual body.

$6.00 — $12.00

This morning I want to begin a new series of messages for the next few weeks together.  We’re going to call this series “Extreme Spiritual Makeover.”  And I want you to look with me to the Word of God this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5.  1 Thessalonians chapter number 5.  I want to read one verse, and this verse will be our launch verse each week that we find ourselves together in this series.

The scripture says these words in chapter 5, verse number 23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely.” Now notice this next phrase.  “And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “May your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This morning I want to deal with a segment of that verse, because I want to talk to you this morning about the subject “Care For Your Body.”  Care for your body.  The Bible speaks to us not only out of 1 Corinthians chapter, or excuse me, not 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23, but also 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 and 20.  And I want you to look with me to 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 and 20.  Powerful verses of scripture that are very convicting to life.

The Word says, “Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,” notice what he says, “you are not your own,” the scripture says, “for your were bought at a price.  Therefore, glorify God in your body.”

Extreme Makeover Home Edition is a reality television series that exists for the purpose of providing a renovation to homes for families who are going through moments of hardship.  Each episode features a family that’s going through difficulty.  All of a sudden local leaders, and local construction firms gather their forces together and they do rapid home construction for the purpose of meeting the needs of a deserving family.

Extreme Makeover, the Home Edition is hosted each week by Ty Pennington, and it’s been on the air, this popular television series has been on the air since February of the year 2004.  It helps build a culture in North America, and as well around the world about this subject of makeover.  A lot of people today have makeovers.  Some have facial makeovers.  Some have physical makeovers.  Some have an experience apparel makeovers.  In fact, every time I say that statement I think about it’s amazing what a little money will do to help all of us.

But we’re very committed to that makeover mentality in our culture.  I thought recently what would it take to have an extreme spiritual makeover?  What would that take in your life, my life?  I believe that 1 Thessalonians chapter 5; verse 23 gives to us what it would take.  It talks about the importance for each one of us to do this: care for your body.  Control your soul.  Release your spirit.

Powerful phraseology that we’re going to break down over the next few weeks together.  Today we’re going to begin with the subject, “Care For Your Body.”  A new phenomenon in the exercise world is called P90X.  The strategy of P90X is somewhat equated with insanity, is a whole theme for 90 days give yourself strong nutrition, and this excessive, extreme exercise, and resistance training surprising the muscles constantly, and you can have a new body in 90 days.

Now I have a question about that.  Is that what it means to care for your body?  I believe there is a bigger question than that today that we need to ask ourselves.  And the question is this:  As a born-again Christian, and today if Christ is in your life, and your sins have been forgiven, then you are born-again.  You have been born-again by the spirit of God.  Now everybody’s not born-again here.  Everyone does not know Christ personally in this room.  But many of you do.  And so I’m going to assume for a moment for those of us that know Him the question is how do you care for your body?  What is God’s way to care for your body?  What is the right way to care for your body?

This morning I believe there needs to be two actions that we participate in on this theme on what it means to care for your body.  Action number one:

1.            You need to be influenced by the Bible.  The Bible.  The Bible needs to influence dramatically what you believe, and what you practice about the care of your body.  And when it’s influenced by the Bible that means that it’s not influenced by the culture.  Do you realize how the culture has influenced the care of your body?  It’s usually in one or two extremities.  Extremity number one:  Extreme indulgence.  Eat.  Drink.  Be Merry.  Eat what you want.  Drink what you want.  Do what you want.  Pleasure.

To that extremity, all the way to the other extreme, which is the care for your body, the health side of life.  Extreme health fanatics, perhaps, or radicals about health and fitness.  So is it that, or is it over here?  You see, we have to ask ourselves what is it by the Bible?  If you’re not careful if you’re over here with extreme indulgence, or over here with this whole element of your body, and it’s all about your health, and your fitness.  Both of those can end up in what I call body idolatry, where you can literally serve your body.  You worship your body.  You worship the way you look, good and bad.  Or worship what you do with your body.  Nobody tells me what to eat.  Nobody tells me what to drink.  Nobody tells me how I’m going to have pleasure.  I’m going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, and how I want to do it, and who I want to do it with!  In other words we operate in a culture that operates from extreme hedonism to the opposite ends.

But what does it mean for God to influence your life and my life by the Bible concerning the care for our bodies?  Today if you look at 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 and 20, there are 4 teachings God gives you about your body.

(1)            Teaching number one:  The Lord alone sanctifies your body1

Thessalonians 5:23.  “The Lord alone sanctifies your body.”  In 1 Thessalonians 5, the scripture speaks about the coming day of the Lord.  And it tells us how we are to live our lives before the Lord comes again.  And just preceding the prayer that we find in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, the Bible tells us to do what?  It tells us to stay away from every evil.  And then the scripture tells us in this dynamic text in 5:23, it says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely.” And then he breaks down who you really are: spirit, soul, and body.  We’re talking about your body being sanctified.

What does it mean to have your body sanctified?  It means to have your body made holy.  It means that you are separated from sinfulness to holiness.  Sanctification is a process, and it’s a progress that you go through in your life.  The scripture here says that God Himself is the only One who can separate you from sinfulness, and separate you to Himself in holiness.  Sanctification is a process of my salvation.

You say how in the world does that take place?  Well, when I trusted Christ at 15 years of age, Jesus came into my life, and I was saved from my sin.  My sin was forgiven, however, I still have to live life.  Therefore, sanctification is the process of living out my salvation, living out my life, and so the constant challenge of sanctification is putting your body, putting your spirit, putting your soul under the authority of Jesus Christ, and letting Him sanctify you completely, according to the scripture.

It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul talked about over in the 2nd chapter of the book of Philippians in the very last of verse 13, and the very first of verse 14.  Listen to the reading of the scripture.  He says, “Work out your own salvation.” Now some of us will say wait a minute Ronnie, we don’t, we don’t believe in work salvation, we believe in grace alone.  Absolutely, we believe in grace alone salvation.  You’re exactly right.  But remember?  Once I’ve been saved by grace, I’m in a process of living out my faith.  Therefore I am working out my salvation.  In other words, I’m working through my life trying to become more like Christ, and that’s that whole process of what we call being sanctified.

He said work out your own salvation.  How?  With fear and trembling, meaning in respect and honor of who God is.  For it is God who is working in you, enabling you.  In other words, it’s God who sanctifies you.  It’s God who is working in both the will and the act for His purpose.

So the first teaching of the scripture is what?  The Lord alone sanctifies your body.  He sets your body apart.  Teaching number 2 in the scripture is this:

(2)            The Lord alone lives in your body.  He lives in your body.  The Bible talks about that over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19.  He talks about how do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you?  Once you have opened your life to God, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you, and He is living in you.  This is the same word that we see for the word body over in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5 when He talks about the body being a part of the whole person.

In 1 Corinthians 6 he uses the phrase temple, or he uses the phrase sanctuary.  I love the sanctuary part of that because once Christ enters your life at salvation, the Holy Spirit dwells in you.  In other words, you are God’s sanctuary.  You are God’s temple.  A moment ago we sang, “Lord, fill this temple with your glory.”  It’s not talking about fill this room with your glory.  Now God can do that.  I believe the Holy Spirit moves atmospherically among His people, but that’s not the real heartbeat about what that is.  It comes back to that 1 Corinthians 6 understanding that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, this is the same word used by Jesus about, about body as used over in John 2, verse 19 when Jesus said that He was the sanctuary.  He was the temple.  It will be destroyed and in 3 days it will rise again.  Amen.  Then he talks about it again over in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16.  Same word again about this whole element of your body being a sanctuary.  Do you not know the Holy Spirit lives in you, and God is there with you?

It is also the same word used over in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 21; I believe it is, when he talks about the church being the habitation of the Lord.  The church, not the building, but the people fitly and rightly fitted together for the glory of God.  Therefore, the goal and the motivation should be in your life and my life that nothing is done with our bodies that would be disgraceful because God lives in us.  You think about that the next time you want to do something you don’t need to be doing.  God’s with you.  He’s in you.

And we talk about well, He’s watching you, well He’s with you.  Huh?  He’s in you.  He knows exactly what’s happening.  He knows what you’re eating.  He knows what you’re drinking.  He knows your lifestyle.  He knows the choices you’re making.  He’s not caught by surprise.  He’s there!  He’s in you.  So the Lord alone lives in you.

A third teaching in the scripture is:

(3)            The Lord alone owns your body.  He owns your body.  This body doesn’t belong to you; it belongs to God.  You say well prove it.  I’ll be glad to prove it.  Look at chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, and then verse 19 and 20. He says what?  He says God lives in you.  He says you are not your own.  That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?  You are not your own.  Well show me more.  Well, okay.  You were bought with a price.  So, you are not owned by yourself.  You were bought at a price.  It was Christ who saved you, and once He comes to live in you, you belong to Jesus 100%.  Did you get it?  100% of you is owned by Jesus!  And how did He buy you?  How did He pay for you?  He gave His life as a ransom for you.  Here you were lost, hopeless, destitute, desperate for a relationship.  Jesus came to die on the cross for your sins, and He spilled His blood on the cross, and when you received what He did at the cross, guess what happens?  He forgives you.  He comes in you, and then all of a sudden He owns you!  You’re not your own.  I mean the moment you got saved, before you get too happy about it, you better remember He owns you, 100% of you.

Let me put it another way today.  He has absolute, full, complete authority and property rights over your body.  Wow.  Get it?  Some of you say man I didn’t know that.  It’s okay.  You know it now.  Now you’re accountable.  That’s the problem with coming to church, you just get more accountable.  [LAUGHTER]

The fourth teaching from the Word of God is that:

(4)            The Lord should be glorified through your body.  Boy I like talking about this.  He talks about it in chapter 6, verse 19.  Now remember, what he has said up there.  Powerful statements.  Do you not know that your body is the sanctuary of the Lord?  That the Holy Spirit lives in you, therefore, you are not your own.  Now follow me.  What did he say?  For you are bought with a price.  He has full property rights over you.  Since He is sanctifying you, and since He lives in you, and since He owns you, therefore, and anytime you see a therefore in the Bible you need to look and see what it’s there for!  Therefore, glorify God in your body.  And even some translations come back to say, “Glorify God in your body, which is the Lord’s.”

It all belongs to God.  So our bodies should be glorified, or we should glorify God with our bodies.  Listen, would you like to know the number one function of your body?  Here it is.  Dial in.  The number one function of your body, the reason God made you is to glorify God!  It’s not to eat, not to drink, not to be merry, not to get into pleasure, not to gratify the flesh, and make the flesh feel great, and wonderful, and satisfied, or neglected, all right?  But it’s about one thing, glorifying God with it.  Therefore, it’s not yours to neglect.  It’s not yours to abuse.  It all belongs to God.

Now I don’t know about you, but you’ve got to have some measure of authority in your life.  In this church we believe the Bible is authoritative.  We believe it doesn’t matter what the Bible talks about, if the Bible talks about government, then its, its, its authoritative in what it says.  If it talks about taxes, it’s authoritative in what it says.  If it talks about money, it’s authoritative in what it says.  If it talks about family, it’s authoritative in what it says.  If it talks about your body, it’s authoritative in what it says.  So because I’m influenced by the Bible, something else has to happen.  It’s a major action, and that is you’ve got to be:

2.            Inspired to take action.  And I have to be inspired to take action.  So I have to deal with this whole element if God has shown me something in the scripture, then I’ve got to be inspired to take action.  Now I want to bring a little clarity around something today.  For the next few minutes I’m going to talk about something.  My heart is not to offend anyone.  My heart is to educate, inform, and inspire.  But I do realize that there is a small, small, small group of people here, and it’s a lot smaller than probably what you’re going to think, cause everybody always thinks they’re an exception of the Word of God, an exception to something going on, especially when it’s going to cost you something.  But some people do have medical issues, and they can’t control certain elements that I’m talking about here today.  But that’s rare, rather than norm.  So I’ll continue.

With that qualifier, do you realize today that one of the major health problems in America is childhood obesity?  Did you know that one in three children are categorized as obese?  And 112,000 children each year die due to obesity?  First Lady Michelle Obama is not getting involved in declaring and taking action with major initiatives to fight the obesity problem, and I’m really glad she is because it is a major problem that will absolutely escalate healthcare costs regardless of which way that thing ends up going one day.

Oh let’s continue.  Did you know that among all Americans age 20 and older, which is most of us; 145 million Americans are overweight, or obese?  Now men have a greater problem in this than women.  76.9 million are men, and 68.1 million are women.  One of the least healthy states in all of America is The Natural State, the State of Arkansas.  Over 60% of all adults in our state are at an unhealthy weight, and 37% are obese.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that we are 8th among the 50 states in the country, 8th in heart disease, 1st in stroke mentality, 9th in cancer, lung, cancer over all, and 6th in death due to lung cancer.  Between the years of 1991, and the year 2000, obesity in the State of Arkansas increased by 77%.

At the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, there’s a wellness center that is set up in that environment, and it cost pastors and their wives any money to go through it, any layperson can go through it if they’re there, um, there for the convention, and they are a messenger from their church.  And through that whole screening process people are given an opportunity to see the condition of their health.  Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people go through it every year because it’s of no cost.  Last year at the Southern Baptist Convention, of those that went through it, more than 75% of last year’s participants who completed the screening were found to be significantly overweight.  So it was obvious that this is a problem that the church doesn’t understand, but the church better start understanding, and the church needs to address.  Isn’t it amazing?  God’s Word addresses it.  And therefore, we should address it.

But I find this even more disturbing to me.  While obesity is the number 2 cause of preventable death in the United States, our world is facing a hunger crisis unlike anything we have seen in the last 50 years.  Every 5 seconds, now you listen to this, every 5 seconds a child somewhere in the world dies of starvation.  And while that is happening, we sit back in America killing ourselves with indulgence, while the world around us is literally starving to death.

So not only should data and research inspire us to take action, and not only should the Bible inspire us to take action, but can I just remind everyone today that your body, even your body and how you deal with your body, what you do with your body is a testimony of Jesus Christ whether it good, bad, or poor.  So we need to deal with it biblically, but we also need to understand that change can occur.

So how can change occur?  Can I talk to you about that from my heart today?  First of all, change can begin:

(1)            Spiritually.  That’s right, spiritually.  Very important that you get your arms around this.  A lot of us as Christians we, we, we seem to think we’re exempt to those kinds of matters.  But I want to challenge you to pray about your health.  Pray about the condition of your body.  Pray about it.  You say oh man I’m not very good about that, and boy I don’t take care of myself.  Well pray about it.  It all begins with praying about it.

And it involves discipline and commitment.  You’ve got to pray about that discipline.  You’ve got to pray about that commitment.  And it’s hard!  It’s hard to care for your body!  It’s tough!  I mean this morning early, after I had my quiet time earlier this morning, put on my running stuff, went out into my neighborhood right at the crack of dawn, just before it, and ran through the neighborhood.  I ran 40 minutes.  I hated the first 10 minutes, couldn’t stand it.  Didn’t really like any of the 40.  But when I came back, I felt great.  Came back and I’m glad I did it.  Soaking wet, it was so humid outside today.  Got scared at one point.  I heard something over in some woods, and I thought oh my goodness, Lord, help us.  Then all of a sudden this little deer started prancing out.  Got you covered.

Are you understanding what I’m saying today?  It all comes back to praying that God will give me discipline and commitment even in that areas, area of life.  But you not only have to deal with it spiritually, you’ve got to deal with it:

(2)                             Practically.  And boy that’s where it gets hard.  And so I

want to talk about that today.  And I want to demonstrate it to you, so, at this time I want my team to come up and help me right now.  Now let’s get going.  Now I want ya’ll to bring on my team here today, all right? Because what I want to do today is I want you to get your arms around something.  I want you to be thinking about how you can do something.  About how you can do something in your life, because you can.  Every one of you at some level in your life, you can find something about caring for your body.

In fact, let me just kinda talk about that for a moment.  I mean, look at this way, do you see that couple right there?  They’re walking.  You know what?  Every one of you can walk somewhere.  Every one of you can walk somewhere.  You can walk somewhere and take care of you.  Do you realize what would happen in your life if you just walked 20-25 minutes a day?  How that could help you in your life?  It can transform some of you.

And then you see this guy over here, one of our former Razorbacks.  Let’s give it up for him. Look at him lifting.  You know, I used to look like that. But you know what?  I’ve been lifting for a while now, and you know what happens when you lift?  You see all this?  It gets built up.  When this gets built up that means that this doesn’t go down as much.  And you know what?  The older you get, the more you need to lift.  Some of you say well I’m 60, 70, 80.  No, I’m telling you, the more you do it.  Iris told me a moment ago, wherever he’s at; he said I started working out 10 years ago.  He said my guy; Iris is 80 something years old.  He told me he leg pressed this week 500 plus pounds.  Amazing.

This guy here, he’s spinning.  This is what you call RPM.  My man Bruno here.  I go to his RPM class every Friday.  He’s a radical.  You say that’s not too hard.  Well do it for 40 minutes, do it for 45 minutes, do it for an hour.  And then you’ve got to understand it’s all about the music, and what the music is, and watch what happens because you’ve got this little button here, and I mean…how do you like me being in control big guy? I’m getting you back big guy, huh?  Come on.  [BRUNO:  I’ll get you back Friday.]  [Pastor laughs]  You’ll get me back Friday, yea.  But you see what happens is this little button here can make you feel like you’re climbing the hills of Bella Vista.

Running.  Boy I tell you running can be powerful.  Let me tell you why running is important.  You can accomplish a lot more running than you can walking.  All right?  You say well man I could never run.  Do you realize most people that run marathons, they just started getting it in their mind well I’m going to start running, and they just played the game and started running?  You say well I could never do it.  Well do something.

Then you think about stretching.  Oh I hate to stretch.  I can’t stand stretching, but I’m telling you stretching, the older you get, the more important stretching is to you.  Flexibility is critical to your health.  And do you see them stretching?  You see I can’t do that right there, but I’m telling you stretching is very, very important in your life.

And then this other part that none of us like to talk about: eating.  Here’s the quarterback for Bentonville High School.  Gonna win a state championship this year, isn’t that right brother?  In the name of Jesus. Yes sir.  All right?  You see what I’m saying.  And then right here, what are they eating right here?  They’ve got fruit.  Wow.  Broccoli.  Wow.  Isn’t that good?  Huh?  Little, little uh chicken that’s been grilled.  Do you see what I’m saying?  Eating.  You know you become what you eat.  Got it?

I mean I don’t like talking about eating because I like to eat.  Do you understand what I’m saying?  It’s a challenge.  It’s a commitment.  It’s discipline.  Now here’s my point today, you’ve got to find out where you are, who you are, where you are in life, and get in somewhere, and do something about your health.  Why?  Because God lives in you.  You’re owned by Him, and He wants you to glorify Himself with it.  Amen?

All right.  Let’s give it up for our team today.  Thank you guys.  Great job.  Outstanding.  You see there’s something that’s really important for us to understand.  I really enjoyed what I did to Bruno a moment ago.  Here’s something important to understand today.  Exercise and health is not just about longevity of life, that’s not what it’s just about.  Everybody wants to live longer, but it’s about having life while you live.  Life while you live.  And do you realize that if you want great health at 30, 40, let’s say 40, you’ve got to start working on your health when you are in your 20’s, hopefully before our 30s.  If you want it when you’re 50, you better get after it when you’re 30 and 40.  You want it when you’re 80; you need to work on it early in your life.

It’s not just about living longer, that’s what the culture emphasizes, but it’s about having more of a quality of life while you live.  So notice today, we’ve got to deal with it spiritually.  We’ve got to deal with it practically, but we have to also deal with it, listen to this:

(3)            Now.  Now.  Now.  You can’t keep waiting.  What are you waiting on?  Years ago, Jeana and I when we were working on our doctorate, I took a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Plashes, Texas.  It’s right on the Gulf Coast of Texas, 90 miles south of Houston, right on the water.  90 miles north of Corpus Christi, right on the water, right on the edge.  We loved it.  I guess that’s where we fell in love with the water.  Great place to live.  A little shrimping community at that time.  Not a whole lot to it, but I mean it was a big shrimping community, a big boating community like that, and uh, a water community.  But in that little city I had an assistant, a secretary, by the name of Betty.  Now Betty’s husband was named Bill, and Bill owned a fish house.  That means when the shrimpers came in, they’d all bring their shrimp to Bill.  He’d be one of the fish houses, and he’d take all the shrimp, weigh the shrimp, buy the shrimp, and then he’d go sell the shrimp.  Okay?  That’s the way that works.

Well every now and then Betty would walk into my office, in fact way too much she’d walk into my office and say, “Hey, Bill just got a brand new, you know they just slept in the bay last night.  Man, and if you want some fresh seafood, boy we’ve got it.”  She said, “If you’ll let me go home just a little bit before lunch, I can go home, and I can fry some shrimp, fry some oysters, got some of those last week, and this will be great man.”  Bill would call and say get Jeana, get David, who was my music and youth guy, and get Janine who worked with us, and let’s all gather here at this time.  We get it and get it done.  Bill’s already got it started.  He’s waiting on you right now.  I said okay.

I did that too many times.  Fell in love with it.  I love fried shrimp and oysters.  And I’m telling you after I had done that for almost 3 years, I, I swelled up man to 207 pounds.  I mean I looked like a bloated toad frog. That’s the way I looked.  Because I so ate improperly.  One day after getting kind of fed up with the way I looked, and the way I was dealing with all of that, I just decided you know, something’s got to change.  And I’m such a legalist, and I’m such a committed guy to the Word of God, how can I make this happen for me?

And you know I really felt the Lord said, “You know Ronnie, it’s a lordship issue.”  It’s who’s going to be Lord of your life every day?  And that’s how I dealt with it.  It wasn’t easy, but I began the journey, and all these years I’ve been committed to it.  I was a young guy.  I think I got my doctorate when I was 27; something like that, or just turned 28.  And so, you know we were very young.  And that began my journey.  And it had also become not simply a lordship issue, whether I was going to be lord of my life, or Jesus was, it was also a lifestyle issue.  I had to make a decision.  Is this going to be my lifestyle?  You can’t go, just stop and start, and I mean you’ve got to sooner or later get after it, and stay with it.  And I’ve stayed with it all these years.  Yes, there have been stronger points than before, and all that, and I tell you I have been through a year, a rigorous year in my life.  I’ve never had a schedule like I’ve had the last year, 11 months.

Someone asked me not long how are you doing with all that?  Well, besides the prayers of God’s people, there are 2 things keeping me going: 1.  I never negotiate having time with God.  I start my day like that; have ever since I was a junior in high school.  And I’m committed to that, Word of God and prayer.  And the second thing: I have negotiated my health.  I have worked out 5 or 6 days of every week, and it’s helped me sustain it, stay with it.

You see, God wants to do something in you that’s so fresh, and so new that if you’re willing to be sanctified in your body, in your soul, in your spirit, which all belong to God, something great could happen in you.  And the real question is going to be the following question: Am I going to let Jesus control my body like He’s really Lord of my life?  That’s a hard question to answer.  I’m better about that some days than I am about others.  It’s a challenge.  But you know am I going to let it be like He’s Lord of my life?  Because remember, He lives in me.  He owns me.  And He wants to be glorified through what He’s given me in this body, and He wants to be glorified through your life.

So I ask you today, are you living like Jesus is Lord in your body?  You’ve got to deal with that where you are in your life, how you’re dealing with that, and you know, I just want to get this real clear today also, if you, I know the way people think about…here’s the way many of you are going to deal with this.  You’re going to say well you know this week you’re going to be talking, well I tell you old Ronnie really laid it on us today.  There’ll be some of ya’ll going to some buffet today just gorging yourself.  “Well I’m glad he isn’t here today!”  And all of a sudden I become the issue.  I’m not your issue.  It is not me.  If that’s where it is then it’s gone right here.  I’m not talking about going right here.  This is between you and God.  And everybody has to deal with it on their level; in any way they believe God wants them to deal with it.  I’m accountable for me.  You’ve got to be accountable for you.

But you know what I can’t also as your pastor deny the Word of God, and just preach the Word.  And that’s what I’ve done to you today.  And so now you’ve got to deal with it.  But is Jesus going to be the Lord over everything, including your body?

And then also, by the way, includes sinful actions that you just love to be a part of.  Living that doesn’t honor God because of the body and life is not about bringing pleasure; life is about bringing glory to God.  And so it’s that.  But also there are a lot of you here today, you know what?  None of this means anything to you because Jesus doesn’t live in your body.  You’ve never trusted Christ.  You’ve never been changed by the grace of God.  Your sins have never been forgiven.  But I want to give you some great news today, Jesus wants to come and live in you.  He wants to live in your body.  He died for you so your sins would be forgiven.  And today you can leave this campus with everything forgiven.  Past is past.  Future is future brand new.  And you leave the past and you go to a new future that God starts with you through the power of the Holy Spirit as you learn to live in the Word of God.

I pray today that you’ll learn what it means to care for your body under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Would you bow with me?

SKU:
2Z221L
MP3:
http://www.ronniefloyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2Z221L-Care-For-Your-Body.mp3
Vimeo:
12019102