Temple Baptist Church - 11-15-2015
Psalm 103:1-3
Introduction:
A. Psalm 103 is one of my favorite portions of Scripture because it so vividly describes the goodness and grace of God to His children.
1. We took a look at David “Blessing The One Who Blesses.” What a wonderful thing it is to bless the Lord who blesses us daily in so many ways. Blessing the Lord is something that we determine to do in spite of our circumstances.
2. We took a look at David blessing the Lord for His great forgiveness. God is a God of mercy and grace; He is a God of loving-kindness. We thanked God for the forgiveness of sin, both positionally (which is eternal and produces salvation) and practically (which is continual and produces fellowship).
3. This morning, I will preach on a subject that I have never used for an entire sermon: good health! I want to take a short look at one of the greatest blessing that you can ever expect to have in this life: good health! The word “health” is found 17 times if you have the right bible, the King James Bible.
a) The word “health” is found only 14 times in the Revised Version.
b) The word “health” is found only 11 times in the ESV, the so-called bible that so many people now hold dear.
c) The word “health” is found only 11 times in the American Standard Version.
d) The word “health” is found only 9 times in the Modern King James Version.
e) Notice with me that in the modern versions from the Catholic Text (Wescott-Hort Text), the number of references decline.
B. I guess, to the liberal scholar, the Word of God is in a transitional state! Good health is not quite as important to the liberal as it is to the conservative? I am going to let it go at that because this is not a study on the travesty of the new versions. Let me say that Good Health is important to God as well as to the believer.
C. Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and, as we respect the church house, we should respect our bodies.
D. Five lessons concerning good health:
1. Good Health is a blessing. Good health is the will of God for the most part. I understand that some people are born with health problems and that is the will of God for their lives but most of us were born with good physical bodies. I watch our little children and every part of their bodies work right. As you get older, they do not work as well. If you have good health and your body reasonably works right, you are blessed!
3 John 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. (The key words of this verse are “prosper” and “”prospereth.” It means to do well and to be so progressively. To continue in good health.)
1. God wants you to prosper spiritually – “even as thy soul prospereth” I want to look at the last part of this verse first because of the words “even as.” Spiritual prosperity brings about the first two prosperings.
2. God wants you to prosper materially – “that thou mayest prosper” God wants us to prosper financially. Not to be rich but to have sufficient to eat, drink, and to enjoy the things of life. I am not preaching a Prosperity Gospel but God wants us to enjoy life. Ecclesiastes 2:24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
3. God wants you to prosper in physically – “and be in health” God gave us our bodies to take care of. These vehicles must carry us for many years and, as any good automobile or tool, must be maintained.
2. Good Health can be taken for granted. Never let a day that is good go by without blessing the Lord for your good health and a body that has little pain.
Psalms 71:9 Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. (Growing old is not for wimps! As you get older, you do not take good days for granted.)
3. Good Health is fragile. Sickness, disease, accidents, and foolishness can change how your body performs. David said that there was but a step between him and death. There is just a breath between having good health and declining health. One step between having a body that works and having something break through accidents or sickness that makes life more miserable physically. “Life is fragile, handle with care!” That saying was on a reflective sticker on my hard hat when I worked in the mines because so many things underground could change things.
Philippians 2:27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. (Our health can change with one beat of the heart. I have pastored a long time and have buried them from a still birth up to old age. Sickness, accidents, and death are no respecters of persons.)
4. Good Health can be enhanced. Through proper diet and physical exercise, we can strengthen our bodies. There are things that we can do to, as much as lies within us, enhance our quality and quantity of life.
a. Our mental state is important. Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. (Poor mental health will ruin good physical health! “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” makes a good application here. Mental health and physical health go hand-in-hand.)
b. Our diet is important. Acts 27:33-34 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. (34) Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. (If God made it, we can eat it. It is not the food that eat that so often hurts us but rather the amount. I hear of all of these crazy diets, all of which are extreme in nature: low fat, low carb, etc. which tell you that you can lose weight fast do not work well. In grade school, we took a Health Class which told us that all food groups were necessary each day for good health. Now, eating meat is a cause of cancer? Get a life! Leave my grill and smoker alone.)
c. Our exercise is important. 1 Timothy 4:8 For bodily 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. (I know that we zero in on the last part of this verse but the first part says that bodily exercise profits.)
5. Good Health can be destroyed.
Galatians 6:7-8 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (8) For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (So many people, saved and lost alike, shorten their lives because of sin. This principle of sowing and reaping brings about a blessed life or one of corruption.)
a. Sin can destroy one’s health - 1 Corinthians 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (Young people expect to feel good and every part of their body work right but, too often, even their health and well-being fail. Accidents, sickness, or abusing the body can be costly and permanent! The old saying, “If I knew I was going to get this old, I would have taken better care of myself,” stands true. Obesity, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, sexual impurity, etc. destroy these marvelous bodies that God has given to us.)
b. The Word of God can prosper one’s health - Proverbs 4:20-22 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. (21) Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. (22) For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Conclusion:
1. The first mention of health is found in Genesis, the Seed Bed of the Bible: Genesis 43:27-28 And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Isyour father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? (28) And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. (Abraham lived a long, fruitful life and was in good health.)
2. The last mention of health is found 3 John 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. (God’s will for our bodies has never changed!)
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