Alright, we're here in 1 Timothy chapter 4, and I want to bring your attention to verses
7 and 8 of 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 7 and 8, and we're continuing our series on biblical
health, and this is the fourth part of a five-part series, and we talked about the introduction
in the first sermon, and then we talked about godliness, which is definitely the most important
part of being healthy, is living a holy life, but then we also talked about our diet, which
the Bible talks about that a lot, and we talked about that last week, and this week's sermon
is on exercise, and obviously exercise is part of being physically fit and in good shape,
and the Bible does talk about it. Now let me say this, that the Bible does not talk
about this as much as diet, or even as much as what we'll talk about next week, and I
think there's a good reason why, but I would say it would be a mistake to say the Bible
doesn't talk about it at all. We'll look at a lot of verses and see what the Bible does
say, but I want you to notice verses 7 and 8 in 1 Timothy 4, and I think a misunderstanding
of these verses is a reason why a lot of people think that the Bible doesn't talk about exercise
at all, but it says in 1 Timothy 4 verse 7, but refuse profane and old wise fables, and
exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For oddly exercise profiteth little, but godliness
is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which
is to come. And so in verse number 8 it says bodily exercise profiteth little. Now I talked
about this I think in the first week's sermon, but I want to just make it very clear what
this is saying to understand this, because I've heard a lot of people say bodily exercise
does not profit too much. They say it only profits you little or a little bit. That is
true, that's what the Bible says, but I think they're misinterpreting what it means by that.
Because if you notice at the end of the word little, you'll see that colon there. It's
going to combine the next thought, and it says but godliness is profitable unto all
things. Why is godliness profitable unto all things? Because it having promise of the life
that now is and of that which is to come. Basically, you get rewards in heaven if you
live a holy life. So there's the promise of the life that now is and of that which is
to come. Now I talked about that there is a promise to living a godly life of having
good health in this life. It's going to help you out. But when it says bodily exercise
profits little, it's because it does not profit you in the life to come, it only profits
you in this life. That's the distinction being made. To say bodily exercise does not
profit too much in this life would not be true. And obviously we would understand that
anyway, but it's not saying it only profits you a little in this life. No, it's saying
it profits you not in heaven, but it profits you here. As a result, it's very little because
this life on earth means nothing compared to eternity. But we also are still living
now, so it is important to be in shape when bodily exercise is profitable in this life,
so it is important to that. Now turn to Genesis 3. Now here's the reason why the Bible doesn't
talk about exercise that much. We'll see that it does talk about it. The reason why
it doesn't talk about it that much is because quite frankly we have very different lifestyles
than they had thousands of years ago. We live a much different life. See, thousands of years
ago a sermon on exercise would probably be pointless. Why? Because just going through
your daily life you're exercising. I mean it's a trial for everything. I mean in the
Bible you see people going to a well to get water. Look, in every single day you have
to carry gallons of water to your home, you're getting exercise. You don't need to go to
the gym. You don't need to do push-ups. You're getting exercise, okay? But our lives are
very different now. Nowadays people drive with their cars to go to places, and they're
not getting much exercise from that time period. Now a lot of people, their job is to sit behind
a computer all day. Now there's nothing wrong with that job. That's the job I used to work.
I sat behind a computer all day. But if you sit behind a computer for eight or nine hours
a day, you're not getting any exercise. Right, right, right. And see the way it used to be
was exercise was the way God made it as part of our daily lives. And since that is lacking
in today's world, depending on what your job is and how much you naturally exercise, you
might want to start exercising on the side. Now in Genesis 3 we see this, okay? Genesis
3 verse 17. And on the Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy
wife, and hast eaten of the tree, at which I command thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat
of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou give it all the days
of thy life. And so in verse number 17, as a result of eating the forbidden fruit, there's
a punishment that comes upon the serpent, upon the woman, and upon the man, okay? But
in verse number 17, it's interesting how it says, cursed is the ground for thy sake.
Because what it says is, you know, yes, this is a curse that comes upon you, but it's also
for your sake. It's also for your benefit. So it's honestly not bad that the ground is
cursed. You say, why? As a result of that, because they ate of the fruit, they're going
to die one day. Their bodies are going to break down. But now the change that God has
made is, you're going to have to work very hard to provide your needs, and that is actually
a good thing for you. It's good for you that you've got to work hard to get food, you've
got to work hard to provide your needs. Why? Well, it's giving you natural exercise. Because
your body's going to break down, it says it's going to be difficult for you to provide what
you need, and as a result of that, you're going to exercise, which will help you have
a healthier life and help you live a longer life, okay? Verse number 18, thorns also,
and this will shout very importantly, and thou shalt eat me, girl, in the field, and
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out
was thou taken, for dust thou art, and on the dust shalt thou return. And so it's said
in verse 19, in the sweat of thy face, okay? Look, it's not bad for you if you have to
sweat a lot each day in your job. That's not a bad thing. That's actually the way God's
designed it, okay? Now look, they didn't have computers back then. Now we have computers
and you don't sweat at all when you're in an office, right? And so if you're not sweating
at all, I had a job, you know, when I worked at an office, and they were trying to save
money, so they never turned on the heat. Now, in Maryland, it's actually very cold. It's
not warm. And so it would literally be about, I don't know, 12, 13 degrees Celsius. It was
cold. That is when I started drinking hot, because I'm cold all the time, and I'd bring
like a sweatshirt into work because it was always cold. But look, I wasn't sweating at
all on that job. I'm literally just behind a desk all day and it was cold in the office
and never sweating at all. And so if you're not getting any manual labor at your job,
because God's designed it for you to sweat and to work hard, what you might want to do,
what would be smart, I believe, is to incorporate that outside of your normal work schedule,
okay? Now, at the end of the sermon, I'll give you some practical applications of what
you can do. But I want you to see, though, in verses 17 through 19 that just exercise
was part of daily lives for people. They had to work hard. Look, in this room, if your
job is a farmer, quite honestly, you don't really need to listen that much to the sermon
because in your daily life, you're working hard. So depending on what your job is, you
might not have to really exercise on the side, okay? If you work as a farmer, you're getting
a workout all the time. You're sweating. You're getting a workout. You're moving stuff around.
You're getting a good workout all the time. But depending on what you do with your life,
if you're very inactive as part of your job, there's nothing wrong with that job. You're
obviously working hard mentally, but your body's meant to get some physical exertion,
right? Hard work in your body. If you're not sweating, like the Bible says in Genesis 3
19, it's probably something you might want to do on the side a little bit, okay? Now,
turn to Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31. Now, I want you to understand an important application
of this. Before we even talk about exercising on the side or doing push-ups or anything
like that, what you saw in Genesis 3 was basically that just to provide your needs, you're going
to have to work hard, okay? But here's the thing about this. You can choose to work harder
or be kind of lazy in providing your needs. And so the harder you work, the more of exercise
you're going to get, okay? See, honestly, the best part of the big thing about getting
exercise is just work hard in your life at everything, no matter what it is. So basically
at your job, if you don't get any exercise, when you go home, don't just sit around and
do nothing all day. Don't just sit around and look at the computer all day, okay? Just
find something to do. And if you find something to do, you're going to get natural exercise
just as a result of doing something, okay? It is possible that if you live a life where
you're very active, you won't have to do any exercise outside of that. But if you're sitting
around all day and you come home and all you do is stare at the computer, then you know
what? You should find a way to get some exercise on the side because that's not good on your
body. You're meant to move around. You're not meant to just stare at something all day
and do nothing, okay? Now, in Proverbs 31, verse 27, it says this. This talks about
the virtuous woman in verse 27, and notice what it says. She looketh well, verse 27,
she looketh well in the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idols. And so
the virtuous woman is not idle. What does that mean? She's staying busy, okay? Now,
obviously, in Proverbs 31, we're seeing the ideal situation of a mom that's staying home.
But let's think about that. If a mom stays home, she can choose to work hard and clean
and she's getting natural exercise, or she can sit around and watch the computer and
watch the box. Those are kind of two extremes there, but honestly, she can choose not to
work that hard of taking care of her household, and as a result of that, she's not getting
any exercise. And so whether you're a man or a woman, whatever your job is, whatever
you're doing, work very hard at, and you're getting natural exercise. Look, if you work
hard as a stay-at-home mom, you will get exercise. I promise. You say, why is that?
I mean, have you looked at how heavy my son is? Think about having to pick up my son all
day. Now, you can choose to just have him watch a cartoon all day, but if you're actually
playing with them and picking them up and stuff like that, you're getting natural exercise.
Look, my son's pretty heavy. It's hard for me to pick him up. Look, you're getting exercise
just from your normal routine. Look, cleaning, you are getting some exercise. Now, I'm not
saying that you're going to bench 300 pounds and have a six-pack and everything like that,
but look, you're not necessarily designed where you need that either. You're designed
to basically be functionally strong, and if you're doing your daily activities, you're
going to be functionally strong. See, people that have worked out at a lot of the gym,
there's muscles for show and muscles for go. There's a difference there. Now, I know the
exercises that are muscles for show. You can do certain exercises that make yourself look
really strong. Look, I had a friend of mine, actually the one who led me to the Lord. His
younger brother competed in an arm wrestling competition, and his younger brother was
very strong, super strong, and he was in the competition, and he lost to a farmer that
had very few muscles. I said, why? Because farmers are very functionally strong, but
it doesn't mean that you're going to get these massive muscles, and maybe God didn't design
it that way, but you are functionally strong. There are certain tasks that you want to be
good at. Carrying furniture is something you might do sometimes. Carrying stuff around
the house. There's a difference between having the big muscles and actually being functionally
strong, and you can have both, but you can also just look strong without being strong
and vice versa. See, if you work hard at your daily lives, what's going to happen is you're
going to probably be functionally strong and have real strength. That is why it's so important
that whatever you're doing, whether you're a guy or a girl, you work very hard at it.
Don't be lazy. Now turn to Ecclesiastes 5.
People that are moms in this room, if you're spending a lot of time with your kids, there's
definitely the opportunity to get a lot of exercises in your natural daily lives. I am
not suggesting that you forsake your kids and just go to the gym for two hours a night.
I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is in your daily life, God designed it for
you to get exercise, and if you work very hard, you can get that exercise. Notice what
it says in Ecclesiastes 5, verse 2. Verse 12, I should say. Ecclesiastes 5, verse 12.
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he need little or much, but the abundance
of the rich will not allow him to sleep. The Bible says the abundance of the rich will
not allow him to sleep, will not suffer him to sleep. Now there's kind of a twofold meaning.
One is the fact that if you have a lot of possessions, you constantly think about those
things, and you're basically paranoid of losing them. But also, if you're a very rich person
and you have everything you want in life, quite honestly, you probably live a much easier
life than the average person. And as a result of that, you're not getting the exercise that
other people are, just going to give you routines. If you have a lot of money, things are going
to be very easy in life. You say, brother, my life is so difficult, I have to work very
hard. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because it's going to give you natural exercise
that's going to help you live a longer life and be strong and have the ability to do things.
If you're rich, look, you might not end up getting much exercise, because life might
be too easy for you. But I want you to notice this. The Bible said the sleep of a laboring
man is sweet, whether he need little or much. You could be a laboring man that has much
to eat because you are blessed with money, but you choose to be a laboring man so your
sleep is going to be sweet. Or you could be a laboring man that barely has the means to
survive. You're working hard just to have your needs met. And the Bible says whether
you don't have a lot to eat or whether or not you have a lot, you can sleep well. So
basically, whether you're rich or poor, if you work hard, your sleep is going to be sweet.
What does that mean? It means that when you work really hard for eight or nine hours in
a day, and you come home and your head hits the hill, you're out like that. Isn't that
the way it works? When you're sitting around with nothing to do, you don't sleep well.
You say proof of the Bible. Why did David commit adultery? Because he couldn't sleep.
Why couldn't he sleep? Because at the time kings go forth to battle, he didn't go. Sitting
around doing nothing. What happened? He couldn't sleep. He's out at night. He's perhaps even
a human adult. Why is it that he couldn't sleep? It's because he was being lazy. Now
David was not a lazy man, but he chose to be lazy in that time period. And so he was
someone who had a lot to eat. He had money. But whether you have money or not, you can
work very hard in your life and not just sitting around with nothing to do. Whether or not
you have a lot of money in this room or you don't have much money, God wants you to be
a hard worker. And if you're a hard worker, quite honestly, you're going to find a way
to get exercise naturally because you just find something to do. There's always something
to do. We talked about volunteering here earlier, and look, we love soul winning and that's
definitely work. That's definitely some exercise. But honestly, afterwards you can choose to
just not do much and just kind of sit around. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing
simple. Or if you're one of these people that's always busy and finding something to do and
just helping out with stuff, you're getting exercise naturally. Now it doesn't mean you're
going to bench 300 pounds, but you're getting the sort of functional exercise and strength
that God wants you to have. Now turn to Ecclesiastes 9. Look, there's not much worse than not
being able to sleep at night. Quite honestly, on times I have trouble sleeping at night,
it's usually because I've been staring at stuff. It's usually because I've been practicing
chess for too long. That's the reason why I can't sleep. It's usually because I haven't
been working that hard. And so quite honestly, God expects us to work very hard, and then
when we go to sleep, you know what? You get your pillow and you're out. Now look, when
you work at an office job, there might not be many opportunities to get exercise on your
job. I worked at an office and I was on Microsoft Excel all day. Every time where they had a
project where you had to pick up something, I'd say, hey, I'll volunteer for that. I'm
perfectly fine with just going and grabbing this and going to the elevator. But you might
not have that many opportunities to get exercise. And I would stare at a screen all day, and
that's not even good on your body to stare at a screen for that long. It is what it is.
I had a computer job. A lot of us have computer jobs. But if that's the case for you, you
don't want to just come home and just stare at a computer all day. You're not designed
to do that. Now I understand you can mentally work hard at a job like that. You work very
hard at getting no physical exercise. But you know what? Honestly, you're going to want
to find a way to incorporate some physical exercise, whether or not it's actually doing
push-ups or going for a job or whether or not it's just doing your normal routine of
stuff to do and being busy. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom
in the grave, whether thou doest. And so whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your
strength, all of your power, all of your might. And so if you're cleaning, hey, work as hard
as you can at it. Don't be lazy with it. Work hard at it. Oftentimes when I'm here
during the week, I almost always just walk down the building. This morning I had a lot
of stuff to bring so I couldn't walk down. But I usually just walk down here and walk
back. And look, I'm amazed at how slow people walk. I'm just like, I have to start here
and I have to end here. Why do I try to make that take as long as possible? I try to do
it as quick as possible. Whatever you're doing, you do it with thy might. Whether you're
going for a walk, whether you're cleaning, whatever, do it with thy might. Look, when
you go out so many and you see the Jehovah's Witnesses knocking doors, this is how a Jehovah's
Witness knocks the doors. They knock a door and then they're like, literally, that's how
fast they are. They're incredibly slow. They don't even care about what they're doing.
Look, when we're knocking doors, we don't want to just be really slow about it. Now
I understand we wait to see if they answer. We give them the gospel. But look, it's not
something where it's like, oh, I have to be here for two hours knocking doors. I'll do
it as slow as possible so I can knock as few doors as possible. They don't even want to
be there. Now usually I don't try to talk to false prophets. I just ignore them. But
I remember one time in Sacramento, we get certain maps where we show up at a certain
address and we have certain doors to knock. And so I had my area to knock doors. It was
me and my partner and then there was like four of us. I can't remember if my wife was
going to do it. I think me and my wife and then another couple we were with. And then
the Jehovah's Witnesses were on our trip. So basically they're knocking the doors before.
So the people aren't as receptive in the U.S. anyway and they're not going to answer
if they just got bugged by some other religious person. So it was basically just like, okay,
great. These guys are in our territory. Do we go somewhere else? And I walked up to the
Jehovah's Witnesses. There's a group of like six of them. And I said, I've got a question
for you. I've always wanted to ask. And he's like, okay. And I said, why do you walk so
slowly from the door to the door? I was like, it's like you don't even care about doing
it. It's like you don't even want to do it. And then like he was caught off guard. I don't
think he expected that question. He's like, why should I walk fast? I was like, well,
we walk fast because we actually care about those people. We want them to hear the gospel.
We actually care about them. And I said, it's not just here. I was like, anywhere you go,
every Jehovah's Witnesses is like this. Anywhere around the country. Everywhere you see Jehovah's
Witnesses knocking the door. They're always so slow. That's what I told him. And he's
like, well, that's your answer. Jehovah's Witnesses are everywhere. That's what I said.
So I guess he wasn't expecting that question from me. But it's the truth. They're very
slow from door to door. It's like they don't even care. There was one time I was in my
house in Sacramento and Jehovah's Witnesses, they left a invitation at our gate and I started
walking out and I was looking at them and they were like too shy to even come over and
talk to me. And it's like, you honestly don't even want to talk to me. You're just doing
this because you're forced to. Whatever you find to do, you do it with your mind. Work
hard at it. Whatever you're doing, whether or not it's a job at a computer, whether or
not it's a manual labor job, take it seriously. And if you do take it seriously, you will
get natural exercise by and large when you're living your life. But you can choose to be
very slow about everything you do or you can choose to work hard at it. And so turn
in your Bible to Nahum chapter 1. Nahum 1. I saw a video recently and I couldn't find
it again, which I wish I could have to explain to this sermon, but there's basically this
group of people that are, and I'm not suggesting we do this, but they basically are isolated
from most people. But it's not the Amish, but it's similar. Basically they're isolated
from modern conveniences. And basically they have to get water from a well and stuff like
that. They have to work hard just to provide their daily needs. And they said that the
group of people that have been living there for a long time, they never exercise. Like
they don't have a gym, they don't go jogging or anything like that. And the average age
of them is over 90 years old. You say why? Probably because every single day they're
actually getting exercise. That's probably part of it. Our bodies are designed to be
getting exercise as we go about our days. We see that in Genesis 3. We see that in the
Bible. And look, if your life though is so easy that you're never moving around, that's
not good for you. It's good that we're moving around picking stuff up. When you're doing
it, it might not be fun, but it is good for you. It's healthy on your body. You say why
is this important? Well, for one, as we talked about in the opening sermon, which I'm not
going to go back to, but please ask this as well. The Bible talks about the evil days
coming upon you. And as I mentioned, you lose strength as you go on in life. If you're getting
exercise, you're not going to be losing as much strength. You don't want those evil days
to come upon you at a young age. Because if you're losing your ability to do things when
you're in your 40s or 50s, you know what? It's only going to get worse from it. You're
probably not going to be able to fix that. And you don't want to lose your ability to
do your daily tasks that you need to do when you're in your 50s. And look, that happens
to a lot of people. And I understand sometimes it can be because of an accident or genetics
and things like that. I'm not saying there's no exceptions. But honestly, I've known people
in my family, people that are related, people that are older, that when they reached their
50s, it was hard to do anything. And they had to rely on other people to help them.
And part of it was because they didn't really take care of their bodies. Now, in the name
of chapter 1, I want you to understand, in our lives, our purpose, we need to be fit
for the battle. That is one reason to keep ourselves in shape to get exercise. It says
in Nahum 1, verse 15, Behold upon the mountains, the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows. For the wicked
shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cut off. The Bible talks about preaching
the Gospel upon the mountains. Every word's important. Notice what that says in Nahum
1, verse 15, upon the mountains. Now, look, in our country, it's pretty flat. There's
not a whole lot of mountains. But look, depending on where you live, there might be a lot of
mountains. And to preach the Gospel on the mountains, to go from door to door, it takes
real effort. It takes real work. Look, I grew up in West Virginia, the mountaineer state.
That's what it's known as. Why is it known as the mountaineer state? It's all mountains.
It's all it is. And in a lot of areas where you're knocking, it takes real effort to knock
one door. You're literally walking up hills to knock one door, then you come down the
hill, you go around, you go to the next house. You're doing a lot of walking. And you know,
honestly, this verse, and people in West Virginia get it. Nahum 1, verse 15, because honestly,
you know, he goes, so many times people would visit me from out of town, and they'd come
sobering, and they had to rest after a couple of doors because they just weren't used to
that sort of physical activity. And now obviously this really applies in West Virginia because
you've got to really work hard just to knock the doors in some places. But you know, we
want to be fit for the battle of soloing. And quite honestly, when I'm 60, 70, 80, 90
years old, I hope I'm still knocking the doors and have the energy to do that. I don't want
to reach a point in my life where I basically have to go on the sidelines because I'm not
in a good enough shape to do it. I want to be a soloer until the day I die. Now look,
when it comes to being in shape to do that, that's going to include the other things you
talked about in this series as well. It includes your diet, it includes everything. But look,
you know, I want to be in good enough shape to be able to do that. And in Nahum chapter
1 it talks about preaching the gospel upon the mountains. That's someone who has some
sort of physical condition to do that. Mark 16. Now look, I believe that almost any of
us can keep ourselves in that sort of shape and have that ability as we get older. I remember
my neighbor growing up. She lived to be a hundred and something years old. I went to
her 100th birthday party. And I remember when I first met her, you know, we had moved there
from another house in Bridgeport. She was in her 90s and every single day she was walking
her dog up and down the hills in her 90s. You say, why did she live so long? I mean,
probably part of it was that she got a lot of exercise. I mean, she's walking up hills
in her 90s. I mean, it was encouraging to look at it. It's like, wow, there's someone
who... I mean, she was retired. She could have just sat there and watched TV all day.
But she made it a point to always be out and she was walking up and down the hills.
And look, I'm going to have to bring in a picture sometime to show you the hill that
I grew up on in Bridgeport because the incline was incredible. I mean, it was 15, 20 percent
for large parts. And if you've ever run on a treadmill before, I remember when I used
to run on the treadmill, the maximum I went to was like a 12 percent incline. It wouldn't
even go that high. And literally on the hill that I grew up in, man, there were parts where
you were really fighting to get up that hill. It was not easy. But she was in her 90s and
she was walking her dog up and down the hills. You say, why? Well, because it's something
she made as part of her normal routine. Now, she could have when she retired, she could
have just stayed home. Her husband had passed away and just sat there and done nothing.
But if she had done that, I don't think she would have lived as long and I don't think
she would have had as good of a life. I don't think she would have had the ability to live
without the ability to go about her daily normal routine. My grandmother, my parents
have to stop her from climbing on the ladder to fix stuff at her house. It's like, no,
you don't need to be doing this. But having that sort of attitude of staying active, that
is what keeps you living the long life. Because you're staying active and you're getting
that natural exercise. Mark 16, verse 15, the Bible reads, and he said unto them, go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so being fit for the
battle, we're expected to preach the gospel to every creature. Now, when it comes to preaching
the gospel, this would be more about having endurance than it would be about having physical,
I can lift a lot of weights. But it says to preach the gospel to every creature. Now,
turn to Acts 8. I was going sowing in West Virginia one time and we were sowing in this
area and we saw one house at the top of the hill. I didn't want to knock the house, but
my friend is like, the Bible says preach the gospel to every creature. He's like, if
we don't knock that stuff, nobody's going to knock that house. There's literally a 15
minute walk up to that house and we knock and of course nobody's home. But we always
think about that song in the hymn though, I want that mountain. So whenever we sing
that song, I think about my friend. I want that mountain. We're like walking up the steep
mountain to knock one door. Look, there's areas though where honestly you've got to
preach the gospel to one mountain. You've got to put in real effort. But even here in
the Philippines on Wednesday, me and brother Dustin were sowing in here on Wednesday and
we knocked up on an apartment complex. And so we're going up and down those steps to
knock those doors. Now there's not as much here, but you want to have the ability to
do that. And so when you are moving around, the more physical ability you have, the more
you've kept yourself in shape, the more you're going to be able to last longer doing
it. Now in Acts 8 verses 26 through 30, the Bible reads,
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south on
the way to goeth down from Jerusalem, on the gates of which is the desert. And he arose
and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the hands
of this queen of etheopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to
Jerusalem for her worship, was returning, and sitting in his chair, and read Isaiah
the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself in this
charity. So Philip is told to go there and preach the gospel. Notice what it says,
And Philip ran thither to him. It's significant. It says he ran thither to him.
Now we don't know how far away the charity was. We don't know how fast he had to run.
But we do know he had the ability to run when necessary. Look, quite honestly, if he
didn't have that ability, that person wouldn't have got to save. He actually had to see
the opportunity he had to run. And honestly, when we knock doors, especially in
un-receptive areas, oftentimes the people we get saved are people walking by on the
streets. We need to be ready for that. And honestly, most of it's a mental thing, but
part of it is a physical thing as well, that you actually have the ability to do that.
And that's what we're seeing here with Philip. Now turn to Leviticus 16.
But not just a spiritual battle, but in our daily lives there's things that we need
to do at our houses. And honestly, if you're not in shape to do it, it's going to make
it difficult. I think we've all seen people that when they get older, let's say they
drop something on the ground and they don't have the ability to pick it up. They don't
have the flexibility to do that. And that's sad to see when people have lost that ability.
Obviously we can have things happen to us when we're not able to do that, but as much
as we can prevent that, because honestly it's going to be pretty frustrating. And I'm not
old, I'm in my thirties, but as we get older it's going to be frustrating if we can't do
some of those basic things. It'll be frustrating to me if I don't have the ability to go outside
with my son and play with him. I want to be in shape, and I've lost sports growing up,
but even more so as my son grows up, I want to be able to share with him the memories
of just shooting a basketball, just father and son having a good time going out and doing
something. I'd love to be able to do that with my grandkids one day. I'd love to have
the ability. I know that when I grew up, my dad would go out to the park with me every
Saturday, and we would throw a baseball, we would kick a soccer ball, play basketball
or whatever, and he had the ability. I want to have that same ability. Notice what it
says in Leviticus 16. He might say, what type of exercise do you need? Well, what the Bible
teaches is a balance of strength and endurance. Okay, strength and endurance. Notice what
it says in Leviticus 16 verse 21. Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live
goat and confess over all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all the transgressions
and all the sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the
hand of a fit man into the wilderness. What is a fit man? Well, someone who has some sort
of strength to bring this goat, but also he's taken him out and he's going to have
to have some endurance as well. So what you're seeing in the Bible is being fit is a combination
of strength and endurance. This makes sense to me. When I was growing up, when I was a
freshman in high school, I ran 50 miles a week. I was in very good soccer shape. I run
for an hour a day, but based on what the Bible says here, I was not a fit man. You say, why?
I wasn't that strong. I never lifted weights. I hadn't really done little push-ups either.
I started to do them in high school. I was very skinny, extremely skinny. Very good shape
for soccer, but I wouldn't be what the Bible would call a fit man, because a fit man is
someone who has both strength and endurance. At the same time, like I talked about earlier,
you can build muscles for show, and people that have muscles for show, honestly, they
usually have very bad cardio. You can have a lot of strength, but basically be too exhausted
to do anything. If you're someone who doesn't have any cardio whatsoever and you're not
very active and all you do is lift weights but you're not very active, you're going to
have very bad cardio and you're going to get tired of doing anything. You might be able
to have a great one rep max, but you're not going to really have the ability to do a whole
lot because you're going to get tired all the time. What you see in the Bible is a balance
between having strength and endurance. As a guy, it makes sense that we need to have
some strength. You say, why? We have to protect our families. I hope you're stronger than
your wife. We're designed to be stronger than our wives. I hope as a husband, and honestly
if you're not, you need to start doing some push-ups. You need to go outside the scope
of the sermon. You need to start going to the gym, doing whatever you need to do because
you're designed to have some sort of strength. For wives, when they have kids, their daily
routines, they're going to get the sort of strength they need to accomplish those routines.
If they're staying active and not being lazy, picking up their children, doing the cleaning,
they're going to get the exercise they need if they're staying active. As guys, if your
job is to sit at a computer all day, you're probably going to want to do something, start
doing a hundred push-ups a night or something. It's not a lot, but honestly it will make
you functionally stronger. It gives you the ability to do stuff. If we have to move furniture
where we live, I don't ask my wife to pick up the table and do it. I need to be able
to do that. As the husband, you need to be able to do that. You need to have the strength
to do that. Being a fit man in the Bible, it implies having strength and endurance.
Try Exodus 34. Exodus 34.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying you have to get these massive muscles. I'm saying
though that you should be active and stay in decent shape and you should be getting
some exercise. If your normal routine is you work and you just sit there and you come home
and you just watch the computer, you should make some lifestyle changes or you will probably
regret it when you're in your 50s. You'll regret it as you start to learn now as time
goes on. Exodus 34 verses 1 and 2.
Now, I want you to understand that climbing a mountain is not an easy thing to do.
Moses is not a young man. He was 80 years old when he started his ministry. We don't
know the exact age. He was only 80 years old. It's not easy to climb a mountain when you're
in your 30s, much less when you're 80 years old. Moses had the ability to do that though.
Now, if you think about the life of Moses, was he someone who sat around all the time
or did they move a lot? They moved a lot, didn't they? So he's getting natural exercise.
I'm not saying that he's going to the gym. He's getting natural exercise, but your life
might not be like that. You might not be departing to some other land and just leading the children
out of Egypt. He's getting natural exercise, but look, he has the ability to climb a mountain
when he's an older person. Verse number 4,
And he hewed two tables of stone like on to the first, and Moses rose up early in the
morning and went up on to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his
hand the two tables of stone. So wait a minute, he's not just climbing a mountain, but he's
also bringing tables of stone with him. Look, carrying heavy stuff is not easy. I think
it's called fireman's carry. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Where you carry the heavy
dumbbells, you're walking around. I think it's called fireman's carry. And look, it
gets tiring because carrying something in your arms, even if it's not heavy, gets tiring.
You go to the grocery store and you carry groceries that are not that heavy, but if
you're walking a long distance to get home, doesn't it get tiring? And he's climbing up
a mountain. When you get your groceries, you probably will climb up a mountain to get home.
He's climbing a mountain with the tables in his arms. Look, Moses was in physical condition.
That's what we see. He was in good physical condition. It makes sense to me because if
you're working hard, which I'm sure Moses was a hard worker, he's getting natural exercise
throughout the day. I'm sure he was willing to help out with whatever, and he's getting
that natural exercise that you need. Now turn to Proverbs 31.
You say, well that's just Moses. Well, why does the Bible always talk about Jesus going
into a mountain apart? Jesus would constantly go into a mountain away from everybody to
pray and get close to God. He would go into a mountain apart. Look, he didn't have a car.
He had to walk in. He had the ability to do it though. And so in the Bible what you're
going to see is whether it's Moses, whether it's Jesus, or even the people that listen
to John the Baptist and Jesus preach. It wasn't easy for them to make it there. They put in
real effort, and a lot of times they're walking long distances to hear the word of God preach.
They obviously have the ability to do that though because in their lives they were not
just sitting around all the time. And in our lives we don't want to just always be sitting
around. In the long run it's going to be good for us if our lives are not that easy. And
if you've been blessed financially and things are good so your life is that easy, what you
should probably do is try to make it not that easy. It may happen that God's blessed you
with money, but don't allow yourself to just have such an easy life and always want to
do everything just so simply and easily. It's going to be bad for you long term.
Now in Proverbs 31 verse 16 and 17, it says in verse 16,
She considered the fuel and buyeth it. With the fruit of her hand she planted the vineyard.
Look, the virtuous woman is planting the vineyard. That takes physical exercise.
That takes work. In verse 17, she girded her loins with strength and strengthened
in her arms. And to the virtuous woman, she's strengthening her arms. She wasn't just
sitting there all the time. She's actually staying active. She's getting natural exercise.
Now turn to Psalms 90. Psalms 90.
Look, it's not a burden to have to pick up your baby throughout the day if your baby is crying.
It's actually good for you. Why? It's giving you natural exercise. You're girding your
arms with strength. You're getting natural exercise. Now look, obviously for women,
I don't go to the gym anymore. I used to go a lot, but it's not.
Depending on what gym you're at, the atmosphere might not be good. It kind of depends on what gym you're at.
Look, I'm not suggesting women just go to the gym. They're getting super strong. They're lifting weights.
I don't think that's really what God has for you. But what I'm saying is that you can
stay active in your personal life and you're going to get the exercise that God wants you to get.
You don't necessarily have to have big muscles. If you're staying active, you're going to get that strength.
But notice what it says in Psalms 90 verse 10. The days of our years are 3 score
years and 10. 3 score years and 10 is 70 years. The score is 20, so 3 times 20,
60 plus 10 is 70 years. The average person lives about 70 years long.
And if by reason of strength they need 4 score years,
yet is their strength, labor, and sorrow for the student cut off in a flat way. Reason of strength,
you reach 4 times 20 or 80 years. The more you take care of your body,
according to Psalms 90 verse 10, by reason of strength you might live a longer life.
And she's saying, is it a good thing to have some strength? Yeah, I think it is.
I think that's the way we're designed. The Bible talks about the virtuous woman hurting her arms
with strength. Just doing her daily tasks. That strength is going to help her live a longer
life. And the evil days will not come upon you quite as soon.
Now turn to Joshua 14.
So in the Bible, you're not seeing people going to the gym. You're not seeing people necessarily
competing in competitions all the time and stuff like that. But what you see though is that people
live difficult lives oftentimes. And by living difficult lives where you had to work
hard, you're burning a lot of calories. And if you're burning a lot of calories, you're
getting a lot of exercise when you're doing that. As much as is possible, we should want to try to do
exercise. In exams you say, well how is it possible if you live a busy life? Let me just give you an example.
I live on the 5th floor of a tall concrete. Now I
basically never take the elevator. You say why? For one, it takes me less time using
the stairs. If it takes me less time, I don't want to. Now if I lived on the 30th floor, I'd just take the elevator.
Because that would be pretty exhausting. Climbing up stairs is tired.
If you've ever done that, I don't know about you, but sometimes I would jog up stairs in the past. I remember
in a place in West Virginia you'd have like 400 straight steps or something like that. You get a good workout if you're running up and down steps.
Man, that is tired. But on the 5th floor, honestly there's no need for me to
take the elevator. You say why? Because by the time I wait for the elevator to come,
it usually takes me more time to get to the 5th floor anyway. So for me, why would I logically
do it? For one, going up and down the stairs is better for my health anyway and it takes less time.
And so for me, honestly, throughout the day, just in my normal day, I'm going up and down the stairs
several times a day. Why would I spend extra time? And so in our daily lives,
there might be ways that you can incorporate a little more exercise if you think about it. Yes, it would be
easier to just get on the elevator, but the point of our lives is not necessarily to be incredibly
easy. We're meant to work hard by the sweat of
my face, the Bible says. And yeah, climbing up and down the steps, look, you know, yeah,
I'm able to have fans in my room, but they don't have that on the steps
by the fire escape. So yeah, you don't have to get a little bit of sweat going when you do that. But you know what, that's not bad for you.
And it's good for you to get exercise. To me, you know, it makes sense to just take the steps. And so I believe that there are
ways you might be surprised where you can incorporate exercise into your daily life and it will be
good for you. Now let me give you some examples in the Bible of people that are very godly people
and quite honestly, they're in pretty good shape. One example is Caleb in Joshua 14, verse 10.
And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said these forty-five years, even since the
Lord spake this word unto Moses. While the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now lo,
I am this day four score and five years old. Eighty-five years old.
As yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me.
As my strength was then, even so is my strength now. For
war both to go out and to come in. Caleb says, you know what,
I'm as strong as I was in the days of Moses. Okay? Eighty-five is not a term.
But he says I'm just as strong as I was. Now notice how he says, for war.
Look, when you're fighting a war back then, you didn't have a gun. You had a sword.
Swords are not light. It takes
effort. If you were carrying a sword and fighting a battle all day, your arms would be very tired.
And look, Caleb says for war, he has the ability
to wield a sword all day. That takes some energy. That takes some effort.
That's someone who's actually taking care of his body. That's someone who has both strength and endurance.
As men, especially in the Bible, I think you're going to see that we should have some strength in this.
It is something that's good for us. It's something that's healthy for us. And if you are
basically taking care of your body in that way, it's going to help you live a longer life and have a better quality of life.
Now turn to Genesis 29.
Now look, I don't exercise every single day. I exercise some.
I personally enjoy exercise. I like doing workouts, push-ups, Starbucks, things like that.
I like it. I always have. I'm always into sports and stuff like that. That might be you. It might not.
But even if I wasn't exercising though, just from setting
aside time to work out, you can still get some exercise in your daily life if you work hard.
It's something that's good for you. So I'm not saying you have to take this sermon and say, man, I'm going to the gym for two hours a day.
I'm not saying this. I don't go to the gym at all.
But I am saying that if you work hard in your lives, you're going to find a way to get some exercise. It's going to be good for you.
Now Jacob is an example of someone who's in very good shape. And you're going to see why. Genesis 29 verse 7.
And he said, Lo, it is yet high day. Neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together.
And they said, we cannot until all the flocks be gathered together, until until they
roll the stone from the walls now, then you water the sheep. What do they say in verse 8? They say we
can't do this until they roll the stone. They is
multiple people. What are they saying? We're not going to be able to roll away the stone unless we have a lot of people here to help out.
They is plural. It's multiple people. They said we don't have the ability to do that.
Verse 9. And while it gets fake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept her. And so all of a sudden you see Rachel come.
Now I want you to understand something. I personally believe that he's interested in Rachel from day one.
So I think that gives him kind of extra motivation to roll the stone away. Like he sees Rachel come and he's like, OK, I'll do it.
But notice what it says in verse 10. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his
mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the
well's mouth, and the water from the flock, and Laban, his mother's brother. So basically they say, well, we've got to wait until everybody's here to roll away the stone.
And Jacob, once he sees Rachel come, he says, I'll do it. And he rolls away the stone.
Now perhaps he's got extra motivation and extra energy because he's interested in her.
But he doesn't have to wait for lots of people to roll away that stone. He just does it himself.
You say, why? Because, honestly, he stayed active. Now I don't think Jacob ever went to the church.
I don't think he ever did bench press. I think he was just a labored man, and in his
natural daily life, you get exercise from doing that. You say, why do you think that? Wall notes what it says in verse 14.
And Laban said to him, surely thou art my bone and my flesh, and ye have both within the space of a month.
And so Jacob stayed with Laban for a month. And then what happens? Verse 15. And Laban said unto Jacob,
because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for not?
What is he saying? This past month you've been serving me for not, serving me for nothing.
I'm paying you nothing, but you're still serving me. What is that saying? It's saying that Jacob was working
from day one when he got there. He isn't taking a vacation here. He's just working.
He's there at Laban and he's working without getting paid. Why did he get so strong that he could roll away that
stone? Because he's a very active person. That's the reason why.
It's not that he went to the gym a lot. It's not that he was drinking protein shakes.
He wasn't on anabolic steroids. But he was just a hard worker.
And quite honestly, the biggest part to take away from the sermon is that if you
work hard in your life, you're going to get some exercise just from being a hard worker.
I want you to understand something because I personally am very interested
in diet, exercise, stuff like that. And this is something I've read books, done things like that. I used to
go to the gym all the time. But I want you to understand something. I've been in the gym before and you can look at
certain people and in the back of your mind when you're going to the gym, you're kind of wondering how much does this guy
bench press? How strong is he? That's kind of what you think with everyone. But honestly, oftentimes it surprises
you. I have seen people with basically no muscle whatsoever and they're doing all kinds
of pull-ups and stuff like that. And they are very strong. They don't look very strong.
And you say, why is that? Well, probably because they're very functionally strong. A large part is probably because they
live very active lives. So I'm not saying that God designs you to just look like the incredible
Hulk. I think though that if you're staying active,
even if you don't have these massive muscles, you're going to be strong just from the way you live your life.
And honestly, if you go to the gym, how strong people are often really
shocks you. You don't necessarily know. Now usually if somebody has big muscles, they're pretty strong.
You see people that do not look that strong. And you're like, how is he benching like
260 pounds? That guy is really small. He doesn't look like he has much muscle or anything like that.
But quite honestly, a lot of it is they're probably just living very active lives. They're staying busy.
Now, what are some practical applications? Because you might say, brother, I would like to exercise
more. But maybe with my schedule, I can't really see how I can do that during my day. What's
a practical way that I can actually do this? Well, let me give you a few tips on things that you can do.
Now, I've preached on prayer before, and I think it's good for everybody to have a prayer list.
So you're actively going through stuff on a Saturday. One thing you can do is go for a walk
while you go through your prayer list. You can spend 15 minutes. And if you say,
well, I can't go outside, there's no where to walk, you can walk up and down where you live. Now I'm not saying that's all the exercise in the world,
but you know, it's a little bit. And if you slowly add a little bit
each day of your life, just in the way you live your life, it's going to give you a lot in the long run.
A little bit goes a long way. So you could spend those 15 minutes. And look, if
you can plan your exercise in the Bible means, you can pray down on your knees and everything like that, you can pray out of the book.
What I'm saying is, you know, if you're walking around, you're going to get some exercise just from walking. And you can go with your prayer list.
And I often do that. OK? Or maybe you've memorized the Bible.
You know, we're memorizing through 3 John now, and I'll be honest with you that I've been able to
memorize a lot of chapters and books of the Bible, and every single one I memorized was while I was walking.
Or riding a bicycle at the gym. Every single one. A few reasons why is, one, it's been proven that
while you're doing exercise, you actually are mentally working better as well.
Like that you go hand in hand. And so for me, when I memorize the Bible, I want to get away from distractions.
And so I would just go walking and just memorize the Bible as I'm walking. You say, how do you do that?
You print it off on a piece of paper with big prints, and you just memorize a phrase in your head over and over again as you're walking up and down the hill.
I would show up for church like an hour and a half early. I'd go to a really steep hill nearby our church in West Virginia,
and I would just walk up and down that hill just memorizing the Bible.
And you get a good workout when you walk for an hour up and down a hill. OK?
And so you're basically doing two things. You're memorizing the Bible, which is good, but you're also getting some exercise as well.
Now that doesn't give you big muscles walking up and down a hill, but it's giving you the sort of strength, physical strength that's good for you. OK?
Another thing you could do, if you listen to a lot of sermons online, quite honestly, that's a good time to do push-ups.
That's a good time to do something besides just sitting there and watching. What I do is, I will have a piece of paper and a pen,
and whenever I'm doing push-ups or working out, it's usually while I'm either listening to a sermon or something else, an educational documentary.
I'm multitasking. And so what I'm doing is, if I'm listening to the sermon, if there's any highlight from the sermon, I'll write it down on a piece of paper.
So I'm not just sitting there doing nothing all day. I'm not even staring at the screen. I'm just hearing the sermon.
And so basically, I'm able to do push-ups and get a workout while I'm also hearing a sermon. OK?
We live busy lives. I'm not suggesting you forsake other areas of your life that are important to you or are unnecessary.
But what I'm saying is, I think you can find ways to incorporate exercise. Because if you're able to sit and listen to a sermon for an hour,
you're also able to do push-ups while you're listening to that sermon as well.
And this sermon is nothing about, I'm not giving you tips on what sorts of exercises to do.
That's something you can study for free time. I have opinions on it. I mean, you're welcome to ask me.
Other people that work out probably know that as well. But what I'm saying is, you're able to do something besides just sitting there watching the sermon.
You could multitask. And it would be better for you. And honestly, watching something for an hour on a screen is not really good on your body.
You'd be better off doing something where you're not just messing up your eyes by staring at that.
And so another thing you could do, the last thing I'll mention is, when it comes to spending time with your wife or spending time with your kids,
you can do something kind of active. You can go out for a walk. You can do something where you're actually getting some exercise
or doing something as a family. I personally, I like to go outside and go for walks.
And when we lived in California, we'd go to the park, you know, with Zep, you know, when he's got me throwing up and stuff like that,
you can find something active to do. Okay? And you say, well, you know, I have other stuff that I want to do.
Well, I'm just trying to tell you that it would be smart to try to incorporate some exercise in your whole life.
And a lot of it is just being a hard worker and finding something to do with all your mind.
But if you're not getting any exercise, that is something that God designed for you.
Because the virtuous woman is growing her arms with strength and she's getting exercise, she's doing her daily routine.
And Jess is trying to talk about the sweat of life things. And so in our daily lives, it is not meant to be so incredibly easy that you sit there and you knock on it.
Okay? Being active is going to help out the quality and the quantity of your life, and something that would be smart for us.
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for allowing us to be here today.
And I ask you to just help us apply this to serve your lives, God. Help us all take care of our bodies so we can have good lives, God. High quality.