4 STEPS TO BE A HYGIENIC CHRISTIAN
Ps. 119:97-100
INTRODUCTION
A. ALL YOU CAN EAT PLACES
1. I think that one of the wisest decisions ever made in the food industry was the idea of the “All You Can Eat Buffet.” Many restaurants only offer this option and it has proven to be very successful.
2. For years, whenever we went out to eat with my (now deceased) Father-in-Law – this was the only type of restaurant he preferred, especially fish/shrimp places.
3. I must admit I’m also a fan of Golden Corral, Ryans, Grand Buffet, and Hartz Chicken Buffet. There are very distinct reasons why many of us like the buffet style restaurants:
a. To see the food before we eat it;
b. Observe the quality of the food beforehand;
c. Choose our portion size according to our tastes;
d. If you want a little extra desert and fewer vegetables- it’s not a problem; you can eat as healthy or unhealthy as you want to;
e. And finally, because it’s ‘All You Can Eat!’
B. THESIS
1. According to statistics, less than 1/5 of American believers read scripture daily. If spending time in God’s Word is really so important for spiritual growth, why aren’t more people doing it?
2. It’s pretty evident that many Christians aren’t “healthy” spiritually. Paul said that our knowledge of the Word needs to be “sound” (1 Tim. 1:10), Gr. hygiene. He tells us we need to “hygienic/healthy in faith” (Tit. 1:13; 2:2).
3. So we’re going to look at the 4 Steps to becoming a healthy Christian: 1. Desire the Word, 2. Memorize the Word, 3. Meditate on the Word, and 4. Obey the Word.
4. The title is “The 4 Steps to be a Hygienic Christian.”
I. WHY DESIRE THE WORD?
A. IT GIVES WISDOM
1. God’s wisdom will “prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.” Prov. 3:1-2.
2. It will “bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” Prov. 3:8.
3. With God’s wisdom…“You will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” Prov. 3:23-24.
4. God’s “wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” Prov. 8:11.
B. IT WILL SAVE YOU FROM JUDGMENT
1. “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men/ women” Prov. 2:12.
2. “How can a young person keep his/her way pure? By living according to your Word” Ps. 119:9.
3. By God’s Word “your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward….who can discern their own errors?” Ps. 19:11-12.
C. THE WORD IS SPIRITUAL FOOD
1. Job said, “I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” Job 23:12.
2. Jeremiah said, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight” Jer. 15:16.
3. David said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Ps. 34:8.
4. “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matt. 4:4.
5. Apostle Paul said, “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. I Cor. 3:2.
6. So the Word of God is not simply to be read but it is to be consumed.
D. GENERALLY
1. “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes” Ps. 19:7-8.
2. So how should we pray? “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your Word” Ps. 119:36-37.
II. MEMORIZE THE WORD
A. JESUS’ EXAMPLE
1. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He engaged in spiritual warfare with the devil. He used the Sword of the Spirit -- the Word of God. Matt. 4:1-11.
2. All three times He was tempted, Jesus quoted passages from the Bible. These verses showed Jesus the errors of Satan’s temptations. The Word was His guide through temptation.
3. Think: If He hadn’t have had those verses memorized, He couldn’t have countered the evil suggestions of the enemy.
4. It’s the same with us!
B. OTHER SCRIPTURES
1. “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You” Ps. 119:9. The Hebrew word “hidden” is “tsaphan” and means to hide, hoard, reserve. God even uses it of His Holy of Holies, His “treasured place” Ezek. 7:22, NIV. We’re to treasure God’s Word in our hearts.
2. “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul…” Deut. 11:18, NKJV.
3. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another…” Col. 3:16, NKJV.
III. MEDITATE ON THE WORD
A. WRONG CONCEPT OF MEDITATION
1. When most Christians think of meditation, they think of the practices of Eastern religions, wherein the mind is “emptied.”
2. But Biblical meditation is much different. In Biblical meditation, instead of emptying the mind, the practitioner fills his/her mind with thoughts of God and/or scripture and ponders upon them.
3. Two Hebrew words translated as meditation in the Old Testament. The most common, hagah, means “to murmur or mutter.” The other, shiyach, means to “talk to oneself.” Both have the idea of ruminating, prolonged thought on a specific idea.
4. “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes” Ps. 119:97-99.
5. There are 21 mentions of the word “meditate,” most about God’s Word, miracles, or God Himself. “I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds” Ps. 77:12. “While I meditated, the fire burned” Ps. 39:3.
B. MEDITATION SIMILAR TO DIGESTION
1. Meditation is similar to digestion. Food will do us no good if it’s not digested well. Digestion doesn’t just occur in the stomach, it start with us chewing up our food well.
2. Digestion breaks food down to its most basic forms and through the chemical plants in our bodies, the raw materials are reconstituted into new substances.
3. Charles Spurgeon famously said, “Instead of putting facts into the [wine] press of meditation, and fermenting them until they can draw out inferences, they leave them to rot and perish. They extract none of the sweet juice of wisdom from the precious fruits of the vine-tree. A man who reads only a tenth part as much, but who takes the grapes of Eschol that he gathers, and squeezes them by meditation, will learn more in a week than your pendant will in a year, because he muses on what he reads."
4. CHEWING THE CUD
a. Cows, sheep and goats all have four(4) stomachs. The food is initially chewed and swallowed to the first stomach.
b. That which is not adequately digested, is brought back to the beast’s mouth for a second chewing. This helps in its eventual digestion.
c. This is what meditation does: it gives the Holy Spirit time to expand, in the mind of the reader/ hearer, the great vistas and meanings God encapsulized in the Word, which encompasses from quarks to the furthest expanse of the universe!
5. “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” Ps. 119:130.
IV. OBEYING THE WORD
A. ASSIMILATION OF THE WORD
1. The last step of becoming a Hygienic Christian is the proper assimilation of the Word into our lives by obedience; “…for I obey your precepts” Ps. 119:100.
2. There are three stages of Bible study:
a. First, the Robitussin stage -- when you take the Word like medicine, because it's good for you.
b. Second, is the shredded wheat stage -- dry, but nourishing.
c. Third, the cookies and cream stage – whew, it's all good! Which stage are you in?
3. Just as food is digested and gives energy to the eater to flex his/her muscles in work, so the intended end of the Word is for it to be put into practice.
4. “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (NIV; Underlined is KJV). James 1:21-25.
5. An Asian man brought a number of his friends to a mission station. When asked how he succeeded in getting so many to come, he said, "I got on my knees and talkee, talkee, talkee. Then I got up and walkee, walkee, walkee!" Pray and then work.
B. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE 2 MEN
1. In verses 23-25, James describes two men using two different words. One "beholds" and the other "looks."
a. The Mere Hearer – “katanoew” – gives “only a passing, cursory, careless glance of the eye."
b. The Wise Hearer – “parakupto” -- is a "serious, eager, anxious gaze of the soul.” Both see their defects, but the second one takes them into serious consideration.
2. One man "goes away;" the other "continues" to look.
a. Mere Hearer -- glances hastily, but uninterestedly. Sermons are dull, let's get it over.
b. The Wise Hearer -- listens intently to discover the solutions to the spots of sin, and finds the blood of Jesus Christ.
3. One man "immediately forgets;" the other becomes "a doer of the Word."
4. It's terrible how many hear the Word in some form, are convinced they are sinners and need to change, but take no action, and their convictions are lost!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: BIBLE APPLICATION
1. A gentlemanly old pastor was walking down the street one day when one of his church members came strutting up to him with a self-satisfied smile.
2. The pastor knew this young man was proud of his accomplishments, and spiritual pride was beginning to be a danger in his life.
3. The teen boasted, "Say, Pastor, did you know that I have now read the Bible all the way through three times this year!"
4. The kind pastor quietly replied, "Todd, the important thing is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but whether the Bible has been through you."
B. THE CALL
1. We’ve looked at the “4 Steps to becoming a healthy Christian:” a. Desire the Word, b. Memorize the Word, c. Meditate on the Word, and d. Obey the Word.
2. If you read Psalm 119, you’ll observe that the Psalmist has a humble, dependent attitude toward the Word of God. That attitude is essential to growth and success as a Christian.
3. Will you examine your life to see if you have a humble, obedient attitude toward the Word?
4. Let’s all pray for a new desire to take in the Word and assimilate it into our lives. Prayer.
