Be Fit! Series

BALANCE

“Be Fit!”

Luke 2:52, 1st Corinthians 6:12-20

Most of us have been to the circus at least once so I am guessing that all of you have seen the guy known as the plate spinner. Usually around 6 to 8 plates. However read this week that the world record is actually 108-2 people got together and they were able to keep 100 and 8 plates spinning at once. As you can imagine, that’s the hardest part; keeping all the plates moving and balanced all at the same time so that none of them fall to the floor and break. Can you imagine 108 plates at once?

The scripture tell us in Luke 2:52 that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Scripture tells us, reminds us that Jesus knew what it meant to live a balanced life. In all four areas he grew wiser. He grew stronger. He grew spiritually. He grew in his relationships.

This is what the Scripture tells us here. Live a balanced life, first of all we must learn wisdom. We must learn to be wise. I told you last week that James tells us that if any of you asks God, he should ask God and he will give it to him. I emphasized last week that doesn’t mean we should all just ask once and expect that we will have all the wisdom we will ever need. Really, it’s a daily thing. In some ways all four of these areas we’re looking at require daily attention. Otherwise the plates fall and we lose balance and something breaks.

(1) So we must learn to be wise. Be wise.

2nd. Jesus not only grew in wisdom. He also grew in stature. He grew stronger physically. Be fit! Now I don’t know how much you have given to this the past I want you to consider the fact today that there was nothing weak about Jesus. He worked-he grew up most likely working in a carpenter’s shop with his father. Easy work especially considering the fact there were no power tools in that day-no electricity. So cutting lumber was a very strenuous job.

There was a young man who had just gotten his driving permit so he asked his dad, will you buy me a car now? Dad said well I tell you what, if you will do three things I will. This is okay. What three things? I want you to bring your grades up at school, read your Bible daily and also get a haircut. So a month later, the young man comes back and says I was hoping we could talk about the car again. His dad says sure. He says I noticed you brought your grades up and also notice that you been reading her Bible more. He says and I am really proud of you. Also notice that you still haven’t gotten a haircut. The young man thought for a moment says, and says but Dad... Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair; even Jesus had long hair. You said yep and you also might have noticed that that they all walked everywhere they went. ? So the fact that Jesus would have walked everywhere that He went tells us that he must have been in pretty good shape. In all the paintings I’ve seen through the years of Jesus I have never seen an overweight version of Jesus. I’ve seen overweight Buddha, right? But never overweight Jesus.

The apostle Paul was writing to the church in Corinth. Listen to what he says. 1st Cor. 6:19-20. No we would do well to look at a few verses that lead up to this statement. Specifically there are two slogans that are mentioned. Philosophies. They became a way of life. One has to do with food and drink. The 2nd has to do with sexuality. And he gives us an honest look at both. Let’s look at the first area.

(1) Everything is permissible for me. Food and drink. Vvs. 12-13a. We immediately come across this phrase here that says, “Everything is permissible for me.” Paul says this four times in this letter. And we need to recognize here that there were two slogans that were floating around in the church at that time. The first one was this: everything is permissible for me. Now listen carefully---just because this was being taught does not mean it was true. Or correct. This was used to justify all kinds of activities that simply were not healthy/good. People were using it to justify sexual sin. To justify all kinds of sin actually. In other words, I’m saved so I can do as I please. Paul counters this by reminding all of us that just because we no longer live under the OT law does not mean that doing those things will be beneficial to us. We will look at this further in a moment.