Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Healthy Lifestyle - Physically Fit

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, March 29, 2009

New beginnings. Physically fit. I’ve been waiting for this weekend. It means I can wear my sweats to church. You know, whenever I put these on, I get pumped, I get stoked. There’s just one thing I can think about when I put on apparel like this. There’s only one thing on my mind, one activity that I want to get down to. I want to sit in my easy chair. Yes. These things are comfy, aren’t they? They’re great. They’re loose fitting. Yeah. The thing I want to do is just sit back and relax because I’ve worked hard all week. You have, too.

Now don’t think that I don’t have a regimen. I have my exercises that I do. For instance, I start with curls. And one, and two. Sometimes I do four or five reps, take a break, then I do another set. I have others. There is the reach and grab, there we go. And reach and grab. There we go. And I’m really toned up in one particular area and that’s here in the shoulders and in the arm muscles here because I can lift and push and lift and push. I can do that all night long, just ask Michelle, all night long, I have that one down.

You know what the sad news is? I think for a lot of us, when we put on sweats, we put them on for this reason. We have no intention of running around the block. We have no intention of going to the gym. We just like them because they’re comfy. We like them because they’ll expand as we fill up our stomachs with junk food in front of the TV and it doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable. And that’s unfortunate. It’s understandable. It’s understandable. You have a hard day at work, you have a long week, you just want to sit and relax. If you’re dealing with some really stressful things right now, it’s kind of nice to do something just for you. And the truthful part of it is that, in the immediate future, it works. It does. It works to sit down, stare at the television set and eat some comfort food. Whether that’s nachos, whether that’s chips, whatever it might be, it feels really good for the moment. The problem is the long-term and even the short-term effects are pretty devastating.

Now the last thing I want to do this morning or this weekend is to make you feel guilty about not exercising or taking care of your physical health. We all know the attributes about it. We’ve read the articles. We’ve watched the specials on the 10:00 news. We probably have a friend or two who lives a real healthy lifestyle and they want to extol all the virtues to us. The problem is how do we get up off of the chair and how do we make it happen? And I don’t know about you but for me, that’s a real difficult hill to climb, to get off the mark and to actually do something about it. Guilt isn’t going to cut it. I’ve had all kinds of guilt. I’m guessing you have, too. That’s not the motivator that we need. And so this morning, what I want to suggest to you is a new perspective on a healthy lifestyle, a godly perspective, a biblical perspective on a healthy lifestyle and why it’s important to be physically fit. There are things that really need to change, two areas of your perspective that need to shift.

The first one is this: If you’re going to make it happen, if you’re going to make a difference and start living differently, living a more healthy lifestyle, then you have to make it spiritual. I know that sounds strange because we spend a whole lot of time talking about spiritual things but not about physical things. And so we have to stop separating the spiritual life from our physical life. In a church, it seems we spend a whole lot of time talking about our spiritual life and our spiritual relationship with God but we don’t talk at all that much about our physical life and the body in which God has given us and yet, the two of them are inseparable. It’s inseparable, the body and the soul, the spirit, that God has given to us.

For instance, I want to show you something from Psalm 32. That hymn was too short. I could not get out of those robes and into this silly stuff so just bear with me. Alright, it’s early. Alright, Psalm 32. I want you to listen to the shape this guy’s in, okay? “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away. I was groaning all day long. Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” This guy is in bad shape. He is hurting big time. I don’t know what his malady is. I don’t know what disease that has a hold of him but it’s as if it’s the middle of Iowa in August. It’s 90 degrees with 90% humidity and that sapped all of his energy. He feels like God’s hand is heavy upon him. He’s just laying on the couch moaning and groaning. He’s in such pain. So what is the disease that he has? What’s the malady that has afflicted him? The next verse gives us a clue. “Then I acknowledged my sin to you. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” What was his malady? It was a spiritual sin. I don’t know what he did, I don’t know what actions or what he said but he had such remorse, he had such guilt over the things that he has done that it affected him spiritually as if God’s hand was upon him. All he could do was lay around all day and groan in pain. My point here is there is a connection between our spiritual life and our physical life. And what’s happening with us spiritually can affect us physically and I would dare say that what’s happening with us physically can affect us spiritually. The two are intertwined. God created you both body and soul. Both.

Look back to creation. All of creation by God’s Word, things came into being. All of the rest of the animals on the planet, God called them into existence and, boom, by His voice, they were in existence. It comes to human beings, what does God do? Scripture says that He reached down and He formed man out of the dust of the ground. He took the time to design him, to create him, to form him and then He gave him the breath of life, both body and soul. Is it any wonder the psalmist from 139 writes this, “For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I’m fearfully and wonderfully made.” You, you knit me together in my mother’s womb, he says. God created you. When you were in your mother’s womb, God designed you and made you just the way that you are. That’s why there are all different shapes and sizes of us and we should celebrate the body which God has given to us. We shouldn’t try to be somebody else. No, let’s celebrate what God has done for us but understand that God created you and He gave you this body that you have. So there needs to be a shift in perspective about how we treat this body, what we do with our physical life.

Here’s the shift in perspective: If you’re going to live a healthy lifestyle, then you make it spiritual and you honor God with your bodies. So scripture says honor God with your bodies. Here’s the context of it. This is Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth, kind of a PG13 passage, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside of his body but he who sins sexually sins against his own body,” and here it is, “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. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” Honor God with your body. God tells us through St. Paul that when we sin against our body, when we abuse our body, whether it’s the way in which he was talking about to the Church at Corinth or whether it’s us abusing our bodies, filling it with junk food, eating unhealthily, not exercising it, not taking care of it, we’re sinning against our own body but even more than that, he says don’t you realize that this body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? God gave you the Holy Spirit at your baptism and He lives within you and God says this is His temple. You see the shift in perspective, a different way of thinking about it. “Am I taking care of the temple that God has given me? Am I regarding my physical health and my body as highly as I should?” It’s so easy for us to think of that secondary. It’s so easy for us to focus just on our spiritual life and about spiritually fit and that’s important. That’s vital. But am I taking care of the gift that God has given me? Am I honoring God with my body?

St. Paul goes on to say, “You were bought at a price.” He’s talking about Jesus. He’s talking about the fact that Jesus went to the cross for you and we always know that He went to the cross and He died for our sins and He cleanses our souls and makes us pure and holy. But He redeemed not only our soul, he redeemed our body. You see, God tells us He redeemed us both body and soul. So the difference in perspective here, as you’re looking to make a change, as you’re looking to be motivated, then make it spiritual and say, “I can honor God. I can worship God by taking care of the physical life that He’s given to me.”

The second shift in perspective is make it about others. Don’t make it about yourself. Now maybe you don’t struggle with this. If you don’t, then that’s great, that’s fine. I do. And that is somehow I believe the lie that if I take care of myself, I’m being selfish and I’m taking away from those that I care about. It goes like this: What happens is, my day typically starts out early in the morning I leave the house before anyone else is up so they’re all in bed. I leave the house. I go in and I put my day’s worth of work in. Then if I have a meeting that night, so that time between when my day ends in late afternoon and that meeting at night, I’m supposed to go over to the gym, right there on my calendar, beeps at me, tells me this is what I’m supposed to do. And each time that I get into the truck and I drive over to the gym, I feel guilty. Why do I feel guilty? I should feel guilty if I’m not going to the gym. That’s true, I do. But I feel guilty if I’m going to the gym. Why? Because I haven’t seen my family all day. I left before they were up and now I’m taking time away from them while I go over to the gym. It is very easy for me to fall to the temptation and to convince myself that I will sacrifice myself and not go to the gym because I’m putting my family first. Doesn’t that sound noble? I could wear that as a badge of honor. I’m pudgy because I love my family.

I want to challenge that way of thinking. I want to challenge that way of thinking and change the perspective that you’re going to make it about other people. If you’re going to have a healthy lifestyle, it’s going to be about those who you love. Listen to this piece of scripture. This is from Philippians 2, two important things here, “Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of others.” Okay, he says we should look to the interest of others. We’re going to do that but I want you to note, it says, “You should look not only to your own interest.” He doesn’t say you shouldn’t look to your own interest, that you shouldn’t do anything for yourself, that everything should be about somebody else. He says, no, don’t look only to your own interest. God expects that we take care of ourselves. God expects that we live a healthy lifestyle and we take care of this body that He’s given to us but not in a selfish way, not in a self-serving way. So okay, let’s not do it that way. We will put others first but I submit to you living a healthy lifestyle, being physically fit is just as much about others as it is about you.

This is my way of thinking. We all know that if we eat right, if we exercise, the mounds and mounds of data about how that’s good for us and all the positive things that it does for us. Let’s deal with just a couple. Stress. We know that physical exercise will reduce your stress. In fact, God has made us an incredible way. This is part of His design. This is what He’s done to us. They tell us when we exercise, we have these endorphins and other things that I can’t pronounce that are released in our brain and that these chemicals that are released give us these positive feelings. They say one of the number one ways in which you can fight depression is to exercise because these endorphins are released and they change your viewpoint on life. So if you’re going through a really stressful time right now, you’ve lost your job, you’ve lost somebody else, one of the best things you can do to fend off depression is to do some exercise. Walk around the block, jog around the park. Do something because that’s how God made you. That’s how He created you. And it reduces your stress. How is that about others? This is how it is about others. If your stress is reduced, when you go home, you’re not crabby with your wife. When you go home, you’re not short with the kids. You see, all of a sudden, you’re a different person when you’re with them because your outlook on life has changed. You release some of that pent-up frustration and stress.

Second thing. We know from research that you have more energy. If you eat the right things, if you exercise, you will have more energy. If you have more energy, that means when you go home, instead of plunking in the chair and watching TV and having “quality time” with the family, you go home and go on a bike ride or you go home and you play a game or you go home and you engage in conversation. You see, you have the energy to invest in them instead of just being wiped out.

Third and final thing. That is we all know if you live a healthy lifestyle, you’re going to live longer. Well, let me tell you, if you’re not crabby and you’re fun to be around, your family would like you around a little bit longer. They’d like to have a few more years with you. I’m not just playing games or doing semantics here. I’m serious. It’s about them. That’s how you can serve them. How can you be the best husband, the best wife, the best son, the best daughter, the best friend? If you take care of the body which God has given to you, if you make use of the wonderful way in which He has created you and, all of a sudden, you have more energy, you are more relaxed and you are more present with them. Isn’t that a great gift that you can give them? Does that make a difference? It’s a change in perspective if you make it about others.

And then finally, you just have to make it happen. You have to make it happen. That means, first thing you need to do, is you need to call on God because I don’t know about you but I can’t do it on my own. I don’t have the willpower. I don’t have fortitude. I’ll come up with all kinds of excuses. I have to call upon God and say, “God, you have to keep me on track. You have to keep me motivated and you have to walk along side of me and give me the courage to get started and just make sure that I keep going down that path.” The second thing you do is you have to call on a friend. It’s shown time and time again, if you want to stick with something, if you invite a friend to go along with you, it skyrockets as far as probability that you’ll stick with it. If you have someone else who is helping hold you accountable, it’s going to happen. Make a plan. In other words, do some research. It doesn’t have to cost you a thing. There are some web sites that are on the Weekly Word. You have the public library that’s available to you. Do some research. Find out what’s going to work with you, whether it’s a walk around the block or it’s a full-fledged workout. It doesn’t matter. Just start someplace. Make a plan and then get started. Understand, you’ll fall off the wagon. Confession time, I was two weeks, didn’t go to the gym. Just, all excuses, I was sick, I didn’t feel good. Okay, whiny, right? I should have went. Got back up, got back on because that’s what it’s going to take. You just understand that about yourself. But with God’s help and God’s power, I believe you can make it happen. It’s a shift in perspective, though, of what we’re doing.

God has made you both body and soul and we can honor God with our bodies and how we take care of the gifts that He’s given to us. And we can be a greater gift to our friends and our families and our loved ones when we take care of ourselves. That’s a new beginning. And that’s really what we’ve been talking about for five weeks now. Whether you’re going through a tough time right now or sometime in the future you will. Some tools to know how to turn that around to see how God can work in your life so you can have a fresh start, how you can deal with the past, how you can deal with the loss that maybe has happened in your life, how you can be fit spiritually, strong in your relationship with God but also how you can be fit physically so you can be strong physically and mentally so you can serve God and you can honor Him.

And I feel confident, through His Word and His blessing, it will happen for you. Amen.