Joyce Meyer - Watch sermon: Your Body Is Gods Home online. God wants us to enjoy good health! Learn how you can invest in your body to enjoy a happier, more fruitful way of life.
On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series "Healthy Living: Spirit, Soul, and Body." Jesus didn't come to save and restore only part of us; He came to restore our whole entire being. We are spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body; each needs proper care for us to live an abundant, healthy life. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching.
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Alright, open up your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. "Father, we thank you for the word today and just need a lot of grace today on me as a speaker and on those that are listening, in Jesus' name, amen."
Well, I'm doing a series this weekend about how to be healthy: spirit, soul, and body. Jesus didn't just come for a part of us; He came to restore the whole entire being. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, it says, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through; separate you from profane things, make you pure and holy consecrated to God; and may your spirit and your soul and your body please notice your spirit, your soul, and your body be found preserved sound and complete and found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I think a lot of times, we think that our bodies are just ours to do whatever we want to with, and we just think we can abuse them and mistreat them and do whatever we want to do, and it just doesn't matter. But I want to tell you that it does matter. Last night, we talked about spiritual wholeness. I told you I wasn't going to tell you what I was going to teach in each session because I know people might think, well, I don't think I need that one. Uh, I can tell you about tonight and tomorrow because we all need that. Going to talk tonight about your mental health and tomorrow about your emotional health, but this morning, we're talking about your body.
And if you think, well, I don't really want to hear that, well, it's too bad. God got you here to this session, and we prayed that the people who needed what I'm going to say today would be here. And you know, if you're in great physical shape and you do everything right to take care of yourself and you feel wonderful, then you can just sit there today and just amen, amen, amen. But probably there are more people here today that don't feel good than those that do.
Listen, when my mom was my age, she had already been on a walker for five years. And you might say, "Well, I don't think she could help that." Well, I think she could have done a lot about a lot of it if she would have known what to do. For one thing, she could have stood up to my dad and not let him abuse me, then she wouldn't have been loaded down with guilt all her life, which also takes a toll on your health. And she could have done better things to take care of herself. But there was not a lot of knowledge years ago about how to take care of your health. For one thing, we didn't have all the stress and pressure coming against us years ago that people do today.
But let me tell you something, today, if you don't go the extra mile to take care of yourself, your physical body will break down under the strain of just being alive. Can anybody say "Amen" to that? And years ago, food was healthier. A lot of people, they grew their food, and they ate better food, and it wasn't full of hormones and pesticides, and on and on and on. So, we need to do things to combat that.
And I'm going to say a couple of things to you today that you may go away thinking, "I don't know if I agree with that or not," but I actually—how many of you know the Bible says to know what is right to do and to do it not, it's sin? That's a scripture, okay? I didn't make that up, that's a scripture. If you know what's right to do and you don't do it, it's sin. So, there are sins of omission, just like there are sins of commission. There are things that we commit that are sinful, and there are things that we omit from our lives that are also sinful.
So, if you say, "I know I need to get more sleep, but I just don't..." Come on, thank you, the one or two people that are going to like this talk today. Well, you know, and to be honest with you, I'd probably rather just not do this because I could just talk about how much God loves you, and everybody would clap and cheer and think it was the most wonderful thing ever. But I can't stand to see people dragging themselves around, feeling bad all the time when you don't feel good. You're grouchy. When you don't feel good, it's easier to get angry, it's harder to pray, it's harder to hear from God.
So, to think that your body doesn't affect your spiritual life is totally wrong. Because I can tell you the truth, if you feel lousy all the time, you are probably not going to end up doing all that God wants you to do with, in, and through your life. You say, "Well, I don't feel good, sister, and I'm praying for God to heal me." Well, you know what I've found? And I mean, I have seen this so shockingly in the last year. A lot of times, when we pray for God to do something or to fix something, He gives us something to do, but we miss that part.
We want God to do everything for us. I started praying in January—I wrote it in my journal, January of 2015—and I wrote, "God, I'm just too tired. I need more energy." Let me tell you something, it takes a lot of energy to do what I'm doing up here. You may not think that, but it does. And to do the study, to do the travel, and I'm not 25 anymore. So, you know, the older you get, it takes— you've got to take better care of yourself. And so I said, "God, please, I need more energy."
Well, shortly after that, I got a desire to start walking for exercise. Well, in the last six months, I walked 950 miles. Now, yeah, and hey, ladies, I lost 17 pounds doing it, so that's not bad either. You'd be surprised what a good walk will do for you. And it's a great time to pray, to be out by myself. Now, it takes me an hour and a half, but it's an investment in my future, it's an investment in the call of God on my life. I feel so much better than I did before, but God didn't just zap me with energy. Come on, you've got to get this. If you don't, you're going to be sitting around praying for stuff your whole life that God is just not going to do if you don't do your part.
And you know what, we've got lots of beautiful young people here today, and you probably feel pretty good. But I want to tell you something that you may not have come to grips with yet: you will get older. Every year that passes by, you will get older. And maybe you're 25 today and you think, "I don't want to hear about how to take care of myself. I get three hours of sleep and I get all I need. Well, oh yeah, I live on potato chips and soda pop, I'm cool, I feel good." You know, and you're chatting all day on your machines and doing all your stuff. But let me tell you something: you are spending tomorrow's health. Did you hear what I said? You're spending tomorrow's health. You're robbing from tomorrow and you're using up today what you won't have when you get older. And then you'll say, "I wish I would have," but then it'll be too late.
Okay, I prayed a lot for today. Now, 1 Corinthians 9:24 – I mean, I wouldn't dare say this unless I could back it up in Scripture. So, here we go. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run your race that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours." Now, we're not running to get a trophy, but he was using an example from sports to make a spiritual point. Dave does that all the time: football example, baseball example, golf example. It's amazing how spiritual sports are, that's what they tell me anyway.
And so, Paul was using an example of runners competing in a race. And we are running a race. I don't know about you, but I want to finish my race. I don't mean just get old and die. I mean, I want to do what God has called me to do until I breathe the very last breath that I have on this earth. I don't want to get old and just sit somewhere and feel bad all the time. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, and that means to be vibrant and energetic and passionate and full of zeal and to have energy. That's right. "Well, I wish I felt that way." Well, do you want to walk 950 miles with me the next six months? And that's not all there is to it; I'm not trying to make too big of a deal out of what I'm doing. It doesn't really matter to me what you do, but you need to move. The point is you've got to move.
Now, maybe you've got a job where you get lots of exercise, and that's good. Maybe you're involved in a lot of sports, and you get lots of exercise. But we have all these little joints in our body because they're supposed to move. And if you don't keep them moving, one of these days, they're going to... go. Amen. And you know, Arthur likes to come and visit all of us when we get older. And so they say, "Oh well, you're getting a little arthritis there." And you know, any good doctor will tell you the best thing you can do when you first start feeling that kind of stuff is to get more movement and keep those joints moving. Don't just decide, "Well, I guess I need a walker, and I'm just going to go through life and not be able to move."
I... you know, we're responsible to take care of... My 90-year-old aunt, we got a lot of longevity in our bloodline, so I'm telling you, I'm going to be around for a while. My grandfather was 102 when he died, and he didn't take care of himself, so I don't know, I may be 120, who knows? And... She's 90, and she's just... I mean, she can't walk; she's in a walker, she's incontinent, she basically just lays in a bed all day long. And I just think, I wish when she was younger... Now, I'm not saying that people don't get sick, and I'm not saying that you can't do something about everything, but if she would have known to do some things when she was younger, she might be doing better now.
How many of you think there are some things that we can do about some things? I mean, there are some things you can't do. I've got some kind of... the skin on my forearms is real thin, and they say it's an aging thing. I hate that word.
God's word is filled with guidelines for good health, and anyone who follows them will experience good results. So, let's learn to obey what He tells us.