God's Plan For Our Physical Health Series

God’s Plan for Our Health - Part 1: Our Physical Health

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - June 22, 2008

*Five years ago I went to have my eyes checked, and Dr. Haynes’ assistant did something I had never seen done at the eye doctor: She checked my blood pressure. And I am glad she did, because it was a lot higher than it should have been. Dr. Haynes strongly recommended that I see my family doctor as soon as possible.

*I had no idea my blood pressure was so high. I should have been checking it, because high blood pressure runs in my family. But that’s not the only reason my blood pressure was high. A lot of it was my own fault, because I wasn’t taking care of my body like the Lord wants me to.

*My family doctor told me, “You are too important to your family, your church and your community not to take care of yourself.” That really got my attention, and the same thing is true for you today: “You are too important to your family, your church and your community not to take care of yourself.”

*Almost all of us need to take better care of ourselves. How can we do it? How can we follow God’s plan for our physical health?

1. First: Start treating your body like God’s temple. Christian: Start treating your body like God’s temple, because it is God’s temple.

*Most of the time we don’t internalize this truth. We don’t focus on it; we don’t apply it; we don’t live in the light of this truth. That’s why Paul started with a question in vs. 19-20: “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and 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.”

*When we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit of our risen Savior comes to live in our heart. When we talk about this truth, we are usually thinking about our spiritual heart, but vs. 19 puts the focus on our body. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit!

*And believers, we must remember how He got in here. It was through the cross of Jesus Christ. Vs. 20 reminds us that we have been bought with a price -- the highest price! God’s Only Son, Jesus Christ, paid that price when He died on the Cross for our sins. But Jesus rose again from the dead! -- And we receive His Spirit when we trust Jesus as Savior and Lord.

*That is how our body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. And this gives our body great value. My old body is something special, because God is living inside! -- Realizing that can motivate us to take better care of our bodies.

2. The time to start is now. Start treating your body like God’s temple. -- And start practicing God-given principles.

*God’s Word has many practical principles to help us take care of our bodies. The Scripture here in 1 Corinthians 6 was part of a specific warning against sexual sin. But God also gives us principles about other issues like eating and drinking. Let’s look back at Proverbs 23:1-2...

1. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you;

2. and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.

*Now look at vs. 19-21:

19. Hear, my son, and be wise; and guide your heart in the way.

20. Do not mix with winebibbers, or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

21. for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

*Clearly the Word of God speaks to us about taking care of our bodies. We need to know that. -- And the sooner the better. We don’t want to be like the 90-year-old man who said, "If I’d a known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself." (1)

*God wants us to take better care of our bodies. For example, He is very strong about drunkenness -- not only in vs. 20&21, but also in vs. 29-32:

29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

30. Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine.

31. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly;

32. at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper.