Good evening everyone, welcome to Faith in the Word of God's Church.
Great to see you all here for our Thanksgiving evening service.
Could all please have a seat and grab a hangover.
You know what? We're doing all the questions.
Anybody got a...
First of all, yes, 15?
15.
You don't have to, that's just a suggestion.
Come on.
Show me the truth where thou must lay,
Taylorly more than well.
Angels and folks of light, awake,
Far if thee must thou stand.
Lest I forget this family,
Lest I forget thy agony,
Lest I forget thy love for me,
Leave me to Calvary.
Let me, like Mary through the blue,
Come with a gift to thee.
Show to me thou in the empty turn,
Leave me to Calvary.
Lest I forget this family,
Lest I forget thy agony,
Lest I forget thy love for me,
Leave me to Calvary.
May I be willing more to them,
They lead my cross for thee.
We may let love come way to share,
Thou that's growth for me.
Lest I forget this family,
Lest I forget thy agony,
Lest I forget thy love for me,
Leave me to Calvary.
For this church, Lord, for everyone that's here,
Lord, for you, just bless this service
with your full name, Amen.
Amen.
So let's turn our hymnals to...
147.
Ooh, doesn't sound familiar.
Probably on the list.
Wow.
Yeah, song number 147,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.
Ready for the 7th.
For a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
What a blessed dance, what a peace of mind,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Leaning, leaning,
Sweet praise to your humble heart,
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Oh, how sweet to walk in this new way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Oh, how bright the path flows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Leaning, leaning,
Sweet praise to your humble heart,
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Oh, how sweet to walk in this new way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
I am blessed to be with my Lord today,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
Leaning, leaning,
Sweet praise to your humble heart,
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms,
All right, it's time to go to the announcements.
All right, if you need a bulletin,
go ahead and slip up your hand,
and we'll bring you one.
As always, we've got the service times,
the upper left-hand side,
and I pulled an audible this week.
I actually am going to preach another
Thanksgiving sermon tonight,
but thanks to everybody coming out.
I know it's Thanksgiving, kind of a thinner crowd,
but I appreciate everybody being here,
and I'll definitely try to keep it short.
I know not everybody has a day off tomorrow,
and you probably all are stuffed to the gills
and ready to just slip into a food coma,
so I'll try to preach a short one for you tonight
and get you out of here,
but we will be in 2 Kings 12 next week.
We've got the salvation, baptisms, and offering totals.
Below that, speaking of which,
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody,
and the dessert social is going great thus far.
Plenty of pie for everyone, right?
So some of you are still eating it,
and that's great.
You can eat while I'm preaching.
You can enjoy yourself a dessert.
I mean that.
If you've got to get up and get a dessert, go ahead.
And then we've got the field trip below that,
Shamrock Farms.
If you want to go to that, please get with me.
And then on the back, there's the one
to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum,
that homeschool field trip.
That's coming up.
It'll be here sooner than you think,
so please sign up if you intend to go
and read over those details.
And then don't forget the next big event
is going to be the Christmas Eve service
on December 24th at 7 p.m.
Keep in mind that's a great service
to invite folks out to and let them kind of see
what we're about here.
It's a brief service, but it's a good one.
We'll go ahead and count up any soul winning
that was done over the week going back to Monday,
if there's anything from Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday.
And then I don't think anybody went out today either.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we get into the preaching tonight.
Let's turn to song number...
439.
439, uh-oh.
Song number 439.
We've got your blessings.
Number 439.
We've got your blessings.
See what God has done.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your many blessings.
See what God has done.
All you better bring with the Lord again.
Count the blessings that you are called to bear.
Count your many blessings that we now will find.
And you will be singing as the days go by.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your blessings.
See what God has done.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your many blessings.
See what God has done.
When you look at others with their hands and know,
think that Christ has promised you his wealth once more.
Count your many blessings.
Make them one by one.
You'll be born and have a new year all the time.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your blessings.
See what God has done.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your many blessings.
See what God has done.
So what may the public better pray or song?
Do not be discouraged.
God is over.
Count your many blessings.
They just will attend.
No pain, comfort, or pain to your journey's end.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your blessings.
See what God has done.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your blessings.
Make them one by one.
Count your many blessings.
See what God has done.
And Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
The Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou?
And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
And the Lord had said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth,
a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and iskeweth evil?
And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him, to destroy him without cause.
And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone, and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes.
Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die.
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.
What shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?
And all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came everyone from his own place,
life as the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.
For they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort him.
And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept,
and they rent everyone his mantle, and sprinkled his dust upon their heads toward heaven.
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him,
for they saw that his grief was very great.
Let's go ahead and do a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the time that we have to come together.
And Lord, I acknowledge you on this Thanksgiving Day.
Lord, I pray you would help us to acknowledge all that we have to be thankful for every day of our lives,
not just one day out of the year.
And Lord, we thank you for all the many blessings you give us.
In Christ's name, we ask that you would please bless this service. Amen.
So in Job here, we see that Job is somebody, of course if you know the story,
that has been through a lot at this point already.
If you read chapter 1, you would already know that he's lost all of his wealth,
that he was a very wealthy man, and it was all taken away from him,
that God permitted Satan to take that away from him.
And then he also lost all of his family.
All of his children died suddenly, and he receives all this news just back to back.
And that famous verse, that famous statement that he makes,
you know, naked came I from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.
Saying, you know, blessed be the name of the Lord.
So Job is somebody who is a great example to us of, you know,
maintaining integrity and going through suffering and affliction.
And here in chapter 2, we see that the next step that God allows Satan to take
is to actually touch his body and affect his physical health.
And what I want to preach tonight about is about being grateful for good health,
being grateful for good health.
And you might see here in a minute kind of why this has been on my mind lately,
especially this last week.
But, you know, we're all human. We're all going to, as we go through this life,
we're going to have people in our lives, those around us, even ourselves,
are going to go through times where our health is not good.
I'm talking about our physical health, maybe even our mental health.
We'll go through bouts of depression.
We'll go through different things in our lives that are going to be difficult
on a physical and mental basis.
That's why it's so important to be thankful for your good health when you have it.
You know, there's probably a lot of things.
People sat around this evening, around the dinner table,
and maybe everyone expressed thanks for different things.
I know my kids made those five-finger turkeys.
Probably all did that. Probably everyone in the room has made the turkeys out of your hand.
You trace it out, and you've got the feathers, and you've got the head.
And then every feather becomes something you're thankful for.
You know, if we were to sit down and fill that out as adults,
hopefully we would write down there our health.
We would be thankful if we have good health.
Because health is something that we take for granted.
It's something a lot of times we don't really appreciate it until it's been compromised.
Until either we ourselves are sick, then we start to think about how great it is to not be sick.
Or if there's somebody else in our life that is going through some physical trauma,
that is going through some trial with their health,
then we might start to think about our own health as well.
And this is something that we've all seen.
This year I know several church members have been through this kind of thing themselves
with others. Even myself this last week, as early as last night,
I had some kind of stomach cramping going on.
My youngest has got croup, so if you're wondering where my family is,
they're not boycotting the dessert social.
They're all at home trying not to pass the disease around,
with you guys not trying to pass the croup virus to other kids.
That's misery, to have a young child go through that.
But it also just got me thinking, we should be grateful for our good health when we have it.
It's Thanksgiving, we should think about something that we ought to be thankful for.
There's a lot of things we might not be able to give thanks for,
things that we might wish we had that we don't have.
Maybe we're struggling in certain areas, maybe our finances aren't what they want them to be,
maybe we don't have the job or the situation isn't right.
There might be a lot of things that we don't have that we can't really be grateful for
simply because we don't have them.
I'm here to tell you, if you have your health, you have quite a bit.
Even Satan here in this story, you can see that he even understands this.
It's human nature to maybe even take their health for granted.
He says here, under the Lord in verse 4, he said,
Skin for sin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
He understands the importance of health, that if you take someone's health away,
that's pretty much all they have.
You can have great wealth, you can have great riches, you can have great success in this world,
but if you have poor health, it's all for naught.
In a sense, it's kind of like what Jesus said,
What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Obviously, he's referring more to salvation in that context, but it's the same principle.
If we have all these great things, and then we achieve some level of success in this world,
but then we get some disease or something like that,
we'll probably give all that away just to have another day of health, just to have our health back.
What's interesting about Job is that obviously he's being put forth as an example of somebody with integrity.
He's saying, hey, there's none like him, that feareth God and iskeweth evil,
that he's upright, and then he says,
Satan says, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Put forth thou that hand, touch his bone, and he will curse thee to thy face.
That's something that Satan knows about human nature,
is that our health, if we don't have that, we'll probably even curse God to his face.
Again, I'm trying to keep it brief this evening.
The point is this, what should be grateful for this Thanksgiving?
Be grateful for the health that you have.
I doubt anyone in the room would be some top performing physical athlete
that's going to go out and accomplish great feats of physicality and win medals and things like that,
but even those of us maybe that aren't in the best shape that we could be in,
at least we have the health that we have.
At least we're not bedridden.
There's people that are celebrating Thanksgiving in a hospital right now,
or they're bedridden, or they're facing some disease in the face.
They're going through that.
We don't really often think of that until it's been compromised,
so I just want to remind us very briefly tonight to just appreciate the health that you do have.
If you would, go over to Ecclesiastes chapter number 10.
Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. I'll move quickly tonight.
The Bible says in Proverbs 27,
Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
We could even be in sound physical health today and in a short time wake up
and get some kind of a prognosis, get a diagnosis from a doctor that's basically a death sentence.
That happens to people all the time.
People are just living their lives and just kind of going about their life.
Everything seems to be fine, and then they get some kind of a symptom.
They go to a doctor thinking it's just this, that, or the other thing,
and it actually turns out to be this life-threatening thing.
It turns out to be a very serious condition.
So we should appreciate our health, especially while we have it.
I mean, eventually, no matter how good a health we're in right now,
our health will decline as we get older.
Maybe not to the extent of some, and maybe it won't go completely to pot,
but that is the trajectory of life that things tend towards decay.
So boast not thyself of tomorrow.
Don't think, especially young people, that you're going to just walk around
six feet tall and bulletproof for the rest of your life.
I'll break it to you right now. You're not right now,
and that's not the way life's going to be.
There's going to be trials, tribulations. Health is going to suffer.
So appreciate the health that you have, all of us,
because we don't know what's going to be tomorrow.
We don't know what's going to be on tomorrow. Our life is a vapor.
Understand that you only have today, and you only have...
There is no promise, I guess is what I'm trying to say,
that you're going to be in as good physical health as you are right now.
And really, you know, health is a blessing from God.
It's something that God gives to us.
Now, I'm not saying if somebody's going through something,
like if they're been afflicted with some disease,
if they're going through some physical trial,
that that necessarily means that God's judging them.
Now, God does do that. God can do that. It's certainly within his power.
I mean, you see that he gives Satan that power to flick Job in the story.
But, you know, God also can bless us with physical health.
God can give us, you know, a good health.
That's something that God gives to people.
You know, some of us, it might be, except for the grace of God,
you know, we might have, you know, suffered from some horrible disease.
We might be going through something.
For all we know, God has prevented us from getting something incurable.
God has staved off some disease or some sickness.
Good health is a blessing from God.
Therefore, we should be thankful for the health that we have.
The Bible says in 3 John chapter 1, I'll just read to you,
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health,
even as thy soul prospereth.
You know, John said, hey, I want you to prosper and be in good health,
even as thy soul prospereth.
You know, our soul is going to prosper.
We're saved. We're going to go to heaven.
You know, we're bound eternally to Christ, you know, through the Holy Spirit.
Nothing's going to separate us from that.
We're going to receive that new body.
But, you know, John's saying, hey, even as your soul's going to prosper,
I pray that you prosper and be in good health.
I mean, he's talking like physical health.
You know, John prayed for them that they would have good physical health.
And that's something that we would all desire
and something we're probably more prone to pray for and ask for
and be grateful for when it's taken from us in some way.
You know, if you're anything like me, you get a little sniffle,
you get a little sore or whatever, and it's just like,
my mind just starts to go like, I'm dying.
You know, that's it. It's over.
You know, I'm wondering what people are going to say at my funeral.
And my wife's like, just take some NyQuil and shut up, you know.
And I'm fine the next day, you know.
But that's kind of how I work, but not really.
I'm exaggerating a little bit.
So be grateful for your health, you know.
And you say, well, you know, I'm not in the best physical peak shape I've ever been in.
Well, you know, be thankful for whatever level of health you do have in this life.
You know, whatever level of health you have, it's better than having no physical health.
It's better than being struck, you know, from the bottom of your foot to the top of your head
with boils that you have to sit there and scratch with a piece of broken pottery like Job did.
And, you know, that's kind of an extreme example,
but we don't have to look very far in this world to see people that are suffering physically.
That's just, it's everywhere.
You know, we could just take a short trip down to St. Mary's and go into the ICU or sit in the ER
or go into some other wing of the hospital and just see people that are suffering right now,
you know, in just that one spot alone all around the world from poor health.
So be thankful for whatever health you have, you know, even if it's not the best.
You know, how about this? It's a baseline for improvement.
You know, if you have at least some decent amount of health,
you probably have the ability, therefore, to improve your health.
You know, we're coming up on the new year and I know it's kind of an ironic sermon to preach
at the dessert social, you know, about taking care of yourself physically, right?
But, you know, hey, we'll see here in a minute that there's a time and place for that kind of thing, right?
I know everyone's probably over eight today, right?
Maybe not. Maybe everyone practiced moderation. Maybe some people were very good today.
But typically that's what goes on Thanksgiving. You feast, right?
Not every day should be Thanksgiving, okay? But here's the thing.
You know, whatever health you have, you know, you're probably in a good enough place to improve your health.
Coming up on the new year, right? That's all I'm going to say because I'm just going to leave it at that.
You know, I know I have just as much work to do in that department as anybody else,
so I'll just leave it there before I try to end this night on a good note,
make sure everyone goes home happy and not mad at the preacher.
You know, that's one way you could show gratitude for having good health, you know,
is appreciating the health that you do have, seeing the opportunity that you have to improve your health,
appreciate the help that you have in this area when it comes to having good health.
I mean, we live in a very prosperous time, don't we?
We live in a time where, you know, we really have a lot of access to information and foods and things like that.
We live in a very leisurely society where, you know, physical exercise and things like that are kind of a luxury
that if we choose to indulge in, we may, right?
We have a lot of help available to us in this department.
Even when it comes to physicians, you know, even if maybe we're not talking about being in better physical health,
what about the fact that when we are in poor health, you know, we have things that we can take,
we have doctors that we can go see, we can get answers.
Now, I'm not saying that, you know, all doctors are sent from on high and that the medical industry is some, you know,
great gift from God, right?
But there is, you know, a time and place to seek medical attention.
You know, if we have some kind of emergency, like, you know, we could go and get help, you know?
And this just came to mind, too. This is another example I was supposed to work into my sermon, you know,
about this idea of, you know, you don't appreciate your health until it's taken from you.
For example, today I went over to the park with my kids and sat down on the grass and who knows what a cholla is?
You know, the cholla cactus, right?
Well, on the back part of the park there is just like a fence of just cholla.
It's just full, thick, you know, a bunch of it.
And sometimes that little chunks of it somehow, you know, birds carry it or something, I don't know,
but it gets out into the main park area.
Well, I sat down today and I sat down right on a big burr, just like a whole thing, like a clump of cholla.
You know, and I'm going over there just thinking about how, and I mean sat on it, like not my leg,
like the posterior anatomy was on this cholla.
And I knew instantly when I sat on it, I thought, is that a broken bottle that I just sat on?
Is this broken glass? No, it's just the natural vegetation of Arizona.
That's all it was. I love this place.
But I sat down on that and, man, it's like Thanksgiving's over.
You know, I just ruined Thanksgiving.
And, you know, bless my wife.
You know, she's not, you know, I'm not too squeamish and she's good with her hands.
Like, you know, what can I say? That's the only reason I'm here today, right?
Or this evening.
But it's just the thought that came around, I was like, that's a perfect example.
You know, everything's going great.
Then you have some physical ailment and it's like it comes all about that, right?
I'm kind of backtracking on my sermon, but, you know, I wanted to work that in there
because I'm not going to let me sitting on a cactus go to waste.
That's, you know, I'm going to use that.
That's probably going to be an illustration you hear about for the rest of the next year.
So I'm going to be one of those guys.
But, you know, appreciate the help that you have, right?
I had a physician, so to speak, you know, on hand called my wife who was ready with the scissors
and the tweezers to do what needed to be done, okay?
But, you know, when we get sick, you know, with something else,
we have to go and seek medical attention.
Well, thank God for that.
Thank God that we can go and get medicine, that we can go and we don't have to, you know,
let some disease take our life.
You know, I was thinking about this with my youngest who's got croup right now.
She's recuperating.
You know, that could have turned very, that could have become very serious.
You know, that could have turned into very serious breathing problems.
I'm sure in the past there's even been children that have died of such things,
that have died of respiratory infections and stuff like that.
Praise God that we could call somebody on the phone, you know, for a nominal fee
and just have them explain to us what was going on and, you know,
have us, you know, a $7 prescription waiting for us at, you know, some store.
All we had to do was just go over there and give her a steroid and now she's doing better.
You know, thank God that we have that.
You know, so again, like Jesus said, you know,
they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
We don't want to be one of those people that goes to the doctor for every little thing, obviously.
You know, we try to avoid, hopefully if you're wise, we'll try to avoid, you know,
medical intervention for a lot of, a lot of things can just be healed through other means.
It's called the, you know, the medical industry for a reason.
But thank God it's there, you know.
Thank God that we have that help when it comes to this, when it comes to even this world, physicians.
What about in the scriptures?
You know, God talks a lot about things, but when it comes to diet, exercise,
that kind of stuff, that'll help us be in better physical shape.
I'm wondering if I even want to go there right now.
But, you know, in fact, I think I'll just skip that, you know, for sake of just trying to keep this a little bit shorter.
But the Bible does address that.
You know, for example, I'll just read to you from Ecclesiastes 10.
You know, when it comes to this issue of diet, he says,
Woe unto thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning.
Blessed are thou with thy land, when thy king is the son of nobles,
and thy princes eat in due season for strength, and not for drunkenness.
You know, that's biblical health advice right there.
You say, to not eat in the morning?
No, I don't think that's what it's referring to exactly.
I don't think God's proposing we all practice intermittent fasting or something.
Because in the context, he's saying that thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.
You know, people who just from sun up, from sun down, whose whole life just revolves around food,
are probably not going to be in the best physical shape.
Their health is actually going to suffer.
So I'm just using as an example, I'm not going to harp on that.
I'm just going to use that as an example of, hey, thank God for the knowledge that we have in the scriptures
to teach us how to live our lives when it comes to diet and things like that.
How about when it comes to these ideas, you know, all these different fad diets that are out there?
You know, a lot of people have a lot of different ideas today.
When you start looking up what's, you know, the nutritional advice on YouTube,
I mean, you're just going to get a whole gamut of things.
You're going to have people telling you, you know, to be vegan, to only eat vegetables.
Then you're going to get to the other end of the spectrum where people are going to be like, no, only eat raw meat.
I mean, it's crazy out there. It's a jungle, right?
Thank God that we have the scriptures that shows us, you know, it's about balance.
You know, it's funny because I saw this somewhere and you can't remember where,
saying we shouldn't eat vegetables because there's these certain chemicals in there that are bad for us,
and it's the plant's defense mechanism to not be eaten.
This was their logic. Well, plants have evolved to not be eaten.
That's why we shouldn't eat them. You know, they're trying to survive, right?
And it's like, well, wait a minute. I've never seen a cow like offer itself up willingly on the altar of, you know, my dinner table either.
Last time I checked, they had horns to stave off predators.
It's not like, you know, all these other, you know, animals are just, chickens are just coming in like, take me, I'm here for you.
They're trying to defend, they're trying to save their lives too.
You know, it's like, that's kind of, this is flawed reasoning.
And it is funny to hear that, but that's, this guy was serious.
This guy was dead serious. We shouldn't eat vegetables because there's chemicals in them that are trying to prevent them from being eaten.
They're trying to eat. It's like, what?
You know, and some of the kids in here are probably like, yeah, that sounds like a good, uh-huh.
That's right. You know, they're probably thinking, mom, you heard the deacon.
You know, he told me that those, I shouldn't, I don't have to eat my Brussels sprouts and my spinach or my broccoli because you heard them.
It's, you know, these plants are trying to survive. They're trying to poison us, right?
But what do we see in the scripture?
We see that God has given us all things, right?
That God has given us the herb of the field, that God has, you know, God has given us our daily bread.
God has given, you know, the Levites ate, you know, there was, it was an agricultural society.
It wasn't just, you know, cattle and herds. It wasn't just bovine.
You know, there was also vegetables and things like that.
You know, praise God that we have that knowledge, that we can navigate the waters that we have when it comes to our physical health.
You know, in this crazy world we're living in, when people are coming up with all kinds of just really weird things when it comes to this.
We don't want to be overly austere either. I really don't want to spend a lot of time with the Bible says about this.
I'm not sure how long I've been but I want to, I do want to wrap it up early tonight just for the sake of it being Thanksgiving.
But thank God for our health. Thank God that we have the health that we have no matter what level of health we're in right now.
You know, if you put both feet down on the floor this morning and you stood up and you're drawing breath and you can still hear and see and taste and have all your senses.
You know, praise God for that. That's something that some people don't have.
You know, some people are suffering in those areas and those are things we just take for granted every day.
You know, and it shouldn't be that way. Be grateful for the good health that you have.
You know, it means you have the opportunity to improve that health.
You know, and it means that, you know, we should be grateful for the help that we have in the world and the knowledge of God.
And we also have what, and I'll close on this point, the ability to improve, I already kind of mentioned that, and preserve our health.
You know, that we can live our, we have the knowledge today in the world that we're living in to, and we have the word of God that instructs us how to live godly unto Christ Jesus.
You know, God has given us this wisdom so that we can live, you know, a good, a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
That, you know, we have the ability to live a clean and healthy life.
You know, thank God that God has delivered us from, you know, the way of this world.
You know, there's people out there right now, they're not sitting in church.
They're, you know, three sheets to the wind or whatever. They're drunk already.
You know, there's people out there that are just poisoning themselves with all kinds of drug and alcohol on Thanksgiving.
Thank God that, you know, we have the wisdom, the ability to not do that, right?
And to preserve our health.
I don't know where I had you go last, but we'll close in Psalm 92. Go to Psalm 92.
You know, this is something I thought about, I've been thinking about a lot recently in this last year is just, you know, maybe we don't think about it as much in our youth.
We certainly should. But if not, you know, it's better late than never to think about, you know, how you're going to end this life.
You know, how are you going to end this life?
I don't want the last decade of my life to be, you know, one spent in a nursing home or, you know, just kind of, you know, going through life with some physical malady.
I want to end my life physically strong. I want to end my life in good health.
I'm not saying I need to be able to do some kind of an Ironman or be a triathlete or something like that.
But, you know, I'm just trying to, you know, to stave off a slow and painful death, basically, you know.
We have that ability. Be grateful for that.
If you have any health right now, you have, you know, the wherewithal to start making decisions now to improve your health and to preserve your health well into the future.
And not just your physical health, you know, your mental health as well.
We should all be taking steps, you know, to preserve the mental health that God has given us thus far.
You know, and not turn into people who can't learn anything new or people who are just, you know, kind of going senile in our old age.
Look, I understand some things are just, it's genetic, whatever. I'm not a doctor up here.
But, you know, there are a lot of great minds out there.
Again, this goes back to the idea of being thankful for the knowledge that we have available to us.
There are a lot of very intelligent people. This is their profession. They look into this.
I mean, we're living in a time where there's just all of this knowledge, all this research, everything being put in to these areas that are available to us.
And not just a bunch of goofballs on YouTube.
I'm talking about, you know, people who have dedicated their lives to the studies of neuroscience and biology and things like that to where we can access that information.
And if we're smart, we will. And use that to our advantage to preserve our health well into our old age.
You know, and obviously, we have the scripture as well. And that's ultimately going to be the source.
The Bible says in Proverbs 17, I'll read to you, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
The Bible says, in Ecclesiastes, by much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of hands the house droppeth through.
You know, if we don't, it's the idea, if you don't use it, you lose it. If we don't use our mental cognition, we're going to lose it.
If we don't use, you know, be people who read and learn and understand, eventually you're going to get to the point where you no longer can do those things.
You might be able to read, but you're not going to be able to process that information.
You can get to that point in your life where if you stop learning, you know, you graduate high school and decide,
well, I've learned everything I need to learn, and stop learning anything, stop actually studying things and learning things,
you will get to the point at some point in your life later on where it's impossible for you to learn anything.
Because learning is a muscle. It's like a muscle you have to exercise. It will atrophy.
And that's a frightening thought. You know, the first time I was kind of, that was expressed to me, you know, that really set in.
And that's something I've thought about quite a bit. And then you start to run into people like this.
You start to meet people that are in their 70s and 80s, 90s that are just, it's like talking to a brick wall.
They can't receive any more information. That's frightening.
So again, we want to be people who, if you have any kind of, wherever your physical health is, be grateful for it,
because it means you still have opportunity to preserve it and to improve it well into your old age.
And that's what we all should want. Proverbs 3 says this,
Trust the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thine ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
It shall be, what, health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
You know, there's this real bad attitude I've noticed, you know, especially more in maybe old IFB churches,
where, you know, being, not taking care of your physical body is almost glorified.
You know, it's like, it's the, you know, it's just, you know, being healthy, that's, you know,
that's for all those fruits and flakes out in California or something, you know, whatever, you know.
They kind of glorify just, you know, eating whatever, not taking care of themselves,
they glorify ignorance and stupidity, you know, just being some, I'm just some old country boy from the backwoods of nowhere,
you know, just a simple old, from potent collar, you know, that, you know, that's not what we see in Scripture.
God puts an emphasis on being wise, God puts an emphasis on getting understanding and learning and knowledge,
and God puts an emphasis on having physical health. I mean, he's saying,
look, depart from evil, it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.
You know, just by virtue of not engaging in certain activities, that's going to be good to your, for your physical health.
When you're not a drunk, you know, you're not going to have cirrhosis of the liver.
You know, when you're not taking all kinds of different drugs, you're not going to affect, you know, the chemicals in your mind, okay.
That by, just by, you know, abstaining from those things, that's going to be health unto you.
That's knowledge that's found in the word of God, okay. Look where you are in Psalms 92, look at verse 12.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
And you'll hear about that throughout all of Scripture, about the cedars of Lebanon.
It was a place, a region that was renowned for, you know, the great big trees that they had.
That's where they brought the lumber to build the temple and things like that.
It was sought after, right. Why? Because they were big, they were strong, they were stable.
The Bible's saying that the righteous, they shall be like the palm tree, right.
They shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Meaning they're going to be healthy, they're going to be full.
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall bring forth fruit in old age. That's a promise that we have from the word of God.
If we plant ourselves in the house of God, we will flourish in the house of God.
God will bless us and even in our old age, we shall still bring forth fruit.
You know, if we are wise, if we abstain from evil, if we're grateful for the health that we have,
if we're grateful for the opportunity we have to improve and preserve our health, you know, physically, mentally,
even in our old age, we'll still be doing great works for God.
That's why it's foolish for people to just say, well, you know, I'm too old to serve God. No, you're not.
You know, if you're still drawn breath, you know, you still have the ability to go out and preach the gospel and do great things for God.
They shall bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing.
Now, maybe we can relate a little bit more to that part, right? They shall be fat and flourishing.
But it's the idea of not being, of not wanting, right, of not being anemic, you know, not being malnourished.
We're going to have everything that we need. We're going to be in good health.
So that's my message tonight. Again, hopefully I kept that short enough for you, but I want us to be grateful for our health.
I think that's something that we should think about. There's obviously, there's a lot of things.
We could go around the room tonight and everyone could express something that they're grateful for. Probably several things.
You know, there's a whole multitude of things that we can be grateful for. Our health is just one of them.
But I think it's one of the main things that we should be grateful for because without it, everything else just kind of falls apart.
Without our health, you know, I mean, everything else just kind of doesn't matter. You can't even enjoy those things.
If we're really grateful for our health, if we're, think about this, if you're grateful for something, if you value something, if something is dear unto you, you protect it, don't you?
You know, we have children and things like that. My children are very precious to me. They're very dear to me.
I would, you know, if someone was trying to harm them, I would, I would, you know, do whatever I could to stop that.
You know, I would protect them at all costs. You know, even with my bare hands.
I would literally, I would lay down my life, you know, to save my children. Honestly.
You know, I can't say that about everybody, you know, that I would do that for every other person, but I would, why? Why is that?
Because my children are more valuable to me than anybody else in the world. You know, no offense.
You know, but hopefully you feel the same way about those that are dear unto you.
You know, and I'm just using it as an analogy and as an example that, you know, if we really value our health, if we really value our well-being physically, mentally,
we will take, go to, we will take measures to protect that. You know, that's how we're going to, not just, not just once a year to say,
oh, thank God I'm not, you know, dying of some disease. Oh, thank God, you know, I could still breathe or whatever, walk around and see and whatever.
Thank God that I have some, you know, level of health. No, if we really are grateful for it, if we really want to protect that, you know, we will, or excuse me,
we will protect it. That's what we'll do. If we'll appreciate our health, you know, we'll seek to preserve it.
So hopefully, you know, you get something out of that tonight. That's just one thing we can be grateful for. Be grateful for our physical and mental health.
Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the many blessings you give us, Lord.
The Bible says that you daily loadeth us with benefits, Lord. We couldn't even begin to count back the many blessings that you give us on a daily basis.
If we could praise you for all eternity, just for salvation alone, Lord, I thank you for that.
And Lord, I pray you help us not to squander what health we have, that you help us, Lord, to be people that protect and value and cherish, Lord, even our physical health,
Lord, that we would, like Paul, or like John prayed, Lord, that we would prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers.
Lord, I pray you just bless us as we go now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go.
Yeah?
4-23?
4-23? Alright.
4-23.
Joy to the World.
Let every heart be bare and blue,
and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing,
and hell and hell and nature sing.
Joy to the World, the Savior reigns,
and the songs of God,
of fields and floods, of fields and plains,
we meet the sounding joy, we meet the sounding joy,
we meet, we meet the sounding joy,
long for the sins and sorrows first,
for the ones who blest from hell
he comes to make these blessings whole,
for as the curse is found, for as the curse is found,
for as, for as the curse is found,
he knows the world in truth and grace,
and makes the nations whole,
the glories of his righteousness,
and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love,
and wonders, wonders of his love.
Thanks. Have a good one. We are dismissed.