Seismic Shifts
Session 7 “From Stuffed to Satisfied”
RBW (inspired from “seismic shifts” book)
How many of you dressed up for Halloween? (use pictures of animals dressed up for Halloween)
+ Powerpoint with animals dressed up for Halloween. Humans are different from any other life on this planet… because God can take up residence inside of each one of us. And we become His Body!
+Congregational Reading:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
+Pass out the Dominoes.
In this next chapter our author reminds us that we’re multifaceted creatures.
We’re more than just phantasms floating around haunting the earth. We have bodies.
And so this seismic shift has to do with how we view and take care of these unique vehicles.
+How many of you have ever driven in a car? How many of you have ever put gas in a car?
How many of you have ever washed a car? How many of you have ever taken a car in for a tune-up, or to get new tires, or to get some noise fixed or whatever?
Sure, we take care of our cars because our cars take care of us!
+It’s pretty much the same for our bodies. For example,
How many of you have ever stopped into a Mexican restaurant and gotten gas? STOP!
We go in for checkups; we let the Doctor check underneath the hood.
We shave and shower, stop for fuel.
But, seriously, God has given us amazing bodies to go and do and create and have fun, and laugh and cry and experience through our senses the wonders of creation and experience the joys of knowing the Creator!
How many have in this room have ever attempted go on a diet? Tough, huh? And there are so many different diets to choose from and each promises to satisfy us.
+Kind of like the two Cannibals, a father and his son. They were out one day looking for food. They hid behind some bushes and waited for someone to come by. After a few minutes, a skinny man comes by. The son says "How about him, dad?" "No," says the father, "he’s too skinny." A short time later, a fat man wanders by. "What about that guy, dad?" asks the son. "Too much cholesterol." A little later, a pretty, 20 year old lady walks by. The son asks, "Dad, how about her?" The father replies "Yeah, Son! Let’s take her home and eat your mother!"
How many of you eat fast food at least once a week?
Sure, it’s kind of like driving a Ferrari like it was a garbage truck.
So, because we all learned from last week’s chapter that we’ve got to learn to slow down… maybe we’ll also apply that to our eating habits.
Again Paul says, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
+19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
+How many of you have ever gone with friends to a restaurant? Let’s say it’s an Italian restaurant. The server brings you a basket of fresh baked bread. You pass it around the table. Someone in your party orders appetizers and everyone digs in. Soon your salad arrives.
And it’s at this point you feel satisfied. Right? You’ve been there right? If you stopped right there you’d be good. But………… you know that the main course is still coming. It’s your favorite Pasta. (you know what they call a fake spaghetti? An InPasta)
Well, you have to eat the Pasta, it’s the reason you came to the restaurant in the first place.
And so you go from being satisfied to being stuffed.
And we don’t just do this around a table of food… we tend to have many areas in our lives that are out of balance.
God wants us to keep everything in it’s proper perspective. That means there is never too much of anything in our lives… with the exception of God… and you can never have too much of Him!
So I want to spend the next few minutes talking about what is healthy for these bodies that God has given us. And how these very same principles will make us a spiritually healthy body of believers.
1. +Breathing – We must oxygenate these bodies or we will die. (we breathe in, we breathe out). Breathing is just like mediation according to the great Christian mentors. Look at what David said about Meditation:
Psalm 1:2 (NIV)
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 19:14 (NIV)
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 48:9 (NIV)
9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
Meditating on God and His Word becomes our oxygen for Life.
2. + Eating and Drinking - Statistically, we eat too much of the wrong things and we don’t take in enough fluids. What used to be the only size of fast food in the ‘50’s has now become our small size in the 2000’s. We’re eating more and doing less! We’ve never had more super sized meals to choose from while at the same time statistically we’re becoming increasingly unhealthy as a result of a monumentally sedentary society and culture.
We’ve replaced our evening walks with remote controls.
Our bodies statistically have become more and more like the Dead Sea… taking in the resources, but then doing nothing with it. Our Nation has become fat.
But, so is the church in America. We take in, take in, take in… but we aren’t giving back.
It’s time we do something with the resources that God has so richly given to each one of us.
3. +Resting – Taking a Sabbath. (talked about that last week).
4. + Practice Personal Hygiene – You know you need to take better care of yourself if the people around you start speaking to you in French.
But, in the same way we try to be clean as we can be with our bodies, we’re urged to practice personal cleanliness and purity in our spiritual lives.
Psalm 51:10 (NIV)
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Matthew 5:8 (NIV)
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
1 Timothy 4:12 (NIV)
12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
5. +Exercise – Walk, run, lift weights, swim, play tennis, dance, jog, row a boat, chase a frizbee. Your body (with the exception of an illness or a disease) was created to do great things. So like NIKE says, “just do it”. Be active, find someway of burning those calories, exercising those muscles, getting rid of the excess.
Likewise we’re told to exercise our gifts in the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
6. +Build Endurance – Any physical activity only really benefits you if you practice it regularly. Push yourself further than you could go before. (Walking, running). It’s great for the cardio and the muscles. It’s the same way in your spiritual life and in the body of Christ.
Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
2 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV)
12 The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 (NIV)
5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
1 Timothy 4:16 (NIV)
16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Hebrews 10:36 (NIV)
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
James 1:3-4 (NIV)
3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
7. +Manage Your Stress – So important we’re going to deal with this in detail next week.
But listen, stress is probably the #1 killer in this generation. It’s associated with heart disease, cancer, strokes, depression, suicide…
Philippians 4:6 (NIV)
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
God has made us in His Trinitarian Image… We’re 3 as well. Body, Soul and Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
+Repeat: “I have been bought with a price, Today I will honor God with my body.”
