Fueling Our Bod Without Forgetting Our God Series

Fueling our Bod without Forgetting GOD

1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 10:23-33

We continue this morning with our annual church theme, Living a Holy and Wholesome Life. The theme is taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:23: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our third quarter emphasis is on physical health, the body. And we are looking at key influences to physical health. The key influences we’re looking at are adopted from the Daniel Plan: Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus and Friends. Copies of the Daniel Plan book are on sale in the lobby.

Majority of what I’ll say this morning will come from the Bible, rather than the Daniel Plan book. So reading the Daniel Plan will provide additional ideas and instructions for physical health.

My physical self-care and eating habit are nothing to brag about. For 20 years, I slept under 6 hours a night and lived a sedentary life. I skipped breakfast and ate a granola bar for lunch. I wasn’t trying to save money; I just thought that as long as my body seemed to work fine, I didn’t need to do more.

Then about four years ago, I began to feel the years of neglect take their toll on me. Depression and anxiety gradually came into my life. I developed some physical symptoms, also.

Two years ago I began to sleep 8 hours a night, bike or walk 2 miles a day 5 times a week. And a year ago I began to eat three nutritious meals a day with snack in between. I’m thankful to report I’m no longer depressed nor anxious. Some of the physical symptoms have been reversed. But I wouldn’t describe myself as in great physical health yet.

God’s Word in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us, “Don’t you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is in you. You have received him from God. You do not belong to yourselves. Christ has paid the price for you. So use your bodies in a way that honors God.”

For many years, I didn’t treat my body as God’s temple. I treated my body like a tool shed. I used it and neglected it. I didn’t see the connection between physical health and spiritual health. When my Mom and Dad urged me to take care of my physical health, I interpreted their value and instruction as unspiritual. I was wrong.

Maybe your experience in physical self-care is unlike mine. Instead of neglecting your body, you count calories. You have a love-hate relationship with food. To you, “an apple a day” can turn into apple juice, applesauce and apple pie.

In Dr. David Eckman’s Kindle book, “Diet from the Heart,” he noted that in America 50% of females and 24% of males are on some sort of diet. And 10% of Americans suffer from eating disorders. I believe this dilemna of starving or stuffing ourselves can be helped by restoring the purpose of food and reconnecting with the ultimate Provider of food.

This morning I want to share two principles for eating that recognizes our bodies are God’s temples. Our text is from 1 Corinthians 6:12-13 and 10:23-33. Let me read the first passage and highlight the first principle.

(READ 1 Cor 6:12-13). Here’s the first principle for eating that recognizes our bodies are God’s temples: Eat for biblical benefits.

The Corinthians had a saying, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” In other words, what and why we eat is a matter decided by the stomach. The stomach is the Master. Whatever the stomach craves is what we will eat. The benefit is a satisfied stomach, but not necessarily a healthy human being.

This attitude also doesn’t consider God’s purposes and benefits for food. Instead we are controlled by our cravings and urges. We eat for emotional rather than physical hunger. And food was not made to feed emotional hunger.

Throughout the Bible, from the creation account, to the exodus account (God providing manna in the desert), to the Levitical account (God giving the food laws), to the feeding of the five thousand, to the Lord’s supper, foods’ purposes and benefits are to sustain life and strengthen faith in God.

Each time food is involved in the Bible, life and faith are tested, with the hopes of sustaining life and strengthening faith in God. For example, in Genesis 2, we see God created trees with fruits for food to sustain life. We also see God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as an opportunity to strengthen Adam and Eve’s faith in God. In this case, Adam and Eve failed the test of faith in God.