the world dance style verse 15 really talked about you know happiness just to join the world I got ya look at this guy he's carrying two rito-san lettuce and that's all they got sauce on this face and drinking coke I don't know the heck's in the bottle you know everybody straight I'm trying to come here I'm trying to change your lives in proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 it says as iron sharpens iron man can sharpen okay you know I wake up every day and I try to make the best decision but this is making it so hard because it says I gotta wash it before you I don't want to watch food I just want to open this bag right here and snack old me spicy I want to be spicy sweet I wish I was sweet just like Joe and chili flavored that sounds like a dream but I don't want to disappoint Daniel and that guy really reminds me of somebody a biblical character if you know what I mean hey what's your name no that's that's not the point of this no no that's not the point of this let's let's hold off on that I mean I don't really get what his problem is it's just stuffed crust pizza your name you gotta go how's it going Daniel seems like an all right guy you know he could stand you know tone up a little bit work on this you know those mechanics trying to get her right because you know if he wants to be as fly as this you know he's gonna have to put some work into it you know this doesn't happen all overnight my sleeping tight yeah should we share bed haha so he's nice the guy seemed really really cool really nice guys Michaels is little tense I think he's got the kind of the wrong idea about all of this Joe he's he's very buff guy he's a little rough though we'll definitely work on that with him he's into you know how he looks and you know just going out having a nice time and stuff again not really what we're we're here to do George George's I guess we can say he lacks motivation and Scott's someone I feel we can definitely motivate he's a lot like most people when they just start off the day names I'm kind of on the on the edge of things not really sure what he's getting himself into whether it's just the food or whether there's more into it but once he and I think most of the guys start to realize that it's not me that has all the answers and it's really God that gives us the power to go on we can get past this initial step of getting started and really move forward but you know everything connects like I don't know I don't know what to do let me help and the lettuce is brown I'm sorry [Music] how about this maybe down a little bit more sometimes I tend to get a little bit loud can y'all hear me okay very good maybe down just a little bit I tend to scream sometimes I was so I've been told so I've been told all right well I hope you guys are excited welcome to the first week here in the Daniel plan maybe just a little bit more down there - sorry these guys work very hard back here because a lot of our people are out of town so these guys have been working very hard here welcome to the first week in the Daniel plan if you're just kind of joining us and you don't know anything about the Daniel planned and you should be excited because what we are doing today is we're starting a six-week journey together and it's something that we're gonna do as a community as a church together and we're going to find there's tremendous strength to going through this journey as a church body it's not just a weight loss thing it's not just an eating healthy thing it's not just an exercise fad or any of those things well we are going to do here through this six-week Daniel plan journey as we are going to go to God's prescription for healthy living and since it is fourth of July weekend and is Independence Day and revolution all this kind of stuff we're starting a revolution here today in our church because what we are saying is that what we want to do is we want to go to God the creator of our bodies and we want to see his prescription for how this thing is supposed to operate and how we're supposed to treat this body that he given to us the Daniel plan is based on a story from the Bible about a guy named Daniel very creatively titled a guy named Daniel I'm sure you all heard his story had a book named after him and everything in the Old Testament Daniel is one of the children of Israel one of the Jewish people people of God but Daniel lived at a time where the Israelites had been captured by a another country called Babylon Babylon was bad guys they did not worship God they ransacked the Israelites and then they took they killed many of them and then they took many more into captivity and they're living in this place called Babylon and that's where we pick up the story of Daniel and three of his buddies while Daniel is in captivity the king who has a cool name his name is Nebuchadnezzar say that with me Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar very evil guy one of the worst guys ever but never Kadesh it was a smart guy he said we got all these slaves here with us and we want to use them as part of our workforce as opposed to just manual labor he created some kind of like a type of internship program where he said choose me the best and the brightest from these children of Israel and bring them to me and they're gonna spend some time and like I said like this internship program where they can if they graduate and they pass kind of like Survivor okay if they kind of get to all the obstacles then what they can do is serve in like the cabinet-level of the King as high-level royal advisors Daniel gets chosen for this along with three of his friends their names are Hananiah say after me Hananiah Azariah and Mishael Hananiah Azariah Mishael Hananiah Azariah misha l later they were given babylonian names and those by which they're most commonly known as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego but their real names are there are their Hebrew names which those were the three names anyway Daniel and his three friends whose names are we're chosen for this program and one of the perks of the program was they get to eat meals at the Royal table and they would eat not like the rest of the slaves they would sit around the Royal table and they would have the finest delicacies and wines and all kinds of good food and that's where we pick up the story in Daniel chapter 1 verse 5 and it says and the King appointed for them a daily provision of the Kings delicacies and of the wine which he drank and three years of training for them so that the end of that time they might serve before the king so the king brings them and says you guys are gonna eat this royal food so that you can be healthy and strong and not eat like the slave food the slaves just ate whatever grew in the ground problem was is that the dietary rules of the children of Israel were contrary to the rules of the rest of the world so the Babylonians were feeding them food that by Jewish law was restricted by God was not allowed by God so because of that Daniel and his three friends they don't want to break the rule daniel 1:8 but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the Kings delicacies nor with the wine which wit with which which he drank therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself think about what Daniel did he's living ok as a Hebrew and he's with Hebrews he keeps the laws and now all of a sudden he goes and lives in Babylon as a slave and he's forced to eat the Kings delicacies how would we respond how would you respond to that never heard of when in Rome that's what we would do that's what we'd all do why there's our church fasting well we did our best but when in Rome whether it's a diet we did our best but it's 4th of July when in Rome yes that's kind of the principle that we would all have but Daniel his three friends said no we will not break the law of God now why was Daniel so adamant that he would not break the law of God why think about it what did Dan Daniel knew something but none of us if we can get this in our head it'll make the biggest difference as far as our health Daniel understood something that me and you we struggle with this concept why did God give them these dietary restrictions why why did God say don't eat that and don't eat that and only eat that why what was the motivation behind his giving the law torture that's what it must be because that's what we think God gave us this law to torture us and make us miserable and because of that the first opportunity we have to break it we break it but Daniel knew that God didn't give a lot of torture parents why do we tell our kids what they can't eat and can't eat why because we care about their health God cared about the health of the people and that's why he told him don't eat this food and eat this food because God is the one who created our bodies and he's the one who wrote the manual and he knows what kind of gasoline when you put in it it makes it run well what kind of gasoline when you put it it does not make it run well that's why if you all remember we did a series on the Bible of several months ago and we talked about how God knew stuff before anyone else before science knew stuff for anyone else God for example talked about these foods don't eat them and we later discovered these foods lead to these diseases God was a dietician before there were dietitians he was nutritionists God was also an expert on medical research and God said when someone has this disease put him away for a period of 14 days why not to be mean because God understood contagious and infectious diseases before there was the CDC God knew all that stuff and that's why everything prescribed in the Bible was that given a torch of the people to make a sufferer but because because God knew how our bodies best operate so Daniel says we ain't eaten at King's food now the official the eunuch who is like in charge of them think of him like the prison warden was kind of alarmed at this decision he never heard this before that a slave would reject the good food so he says this and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel I fear my lord the king who has appointed your food and drink for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age then you would endanger my head before the king what'd this guy say he says look here I appreciate your religious laws and customs but I got a job to do and if I'm responsible to feed you guys and get you all fatted up and the King prescribed the order of what you're going to eat and y'all look frail and skinny is gonna be my head not yours so he said I don't agree with this decision because I'm trying to protect my own head right here but Daniel full of wisdom struck a deal with the guy and he said this verse 12 through 14 he said please test your servants for 10 days please test us for 10 days and then let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink and then our appearance and then let our appearance be Zaman before you and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the Kings delicacies and as you see fit so deal with your servants so he consented with them in this matter and tested them ten days Daniel struck a deal he said look let's go ten days and lets us we'll obey God's laws okay and you obey your laws just ten days the program is many months years give us ten days this next six weeks is going to be us saying what Daniel said it is gonna say we're gonna give you God a period of testing we're gonna test treating our bodies as prescribed by God the way God told us to treat our bodies and then we're gonna test and we're gonna see and we're gonna see what the outcome is they thought that when these guys didn't eat the good food they'd be weak they'd be frail they wouldn't be able to compete with the rest of the guys but let's see how the story ends up Sezen at the end of the ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the Kings delicacies thus the steward took away the portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables as for these four young men God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and literature and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams the root of the next six weeks of this series is this is that God's prescription for our health is the best and that when we obey God's prescription and I'm not just talking some of you were freaking out because it's talking about just eating vegetables I'm not this isn't just about eating okay one week we're gonna talk about eating all right where's gonna be one week in the series but we're gonna talk about much more than eating we're gonna talk about what we call the five FS or five essentials of our health food fitness faith focus and friends food fitness faith focus and friends and each week we can take one of those and see how God prescribed for us to live in each of these five areas because God has given us clear instruction in each of these areas how we should treat our bodies as far as what we put in how we should behave with our bodies and exercise our bodies how we should rest our bodies what we should not allow to invade our mental capacities in our bodies and how should relate with other people as well God's given us clear instructions and we're gonna see like Daniel that when we follow God's instructions we will never be worse off for it but in the exact opposite so we're gonna start this week with like an introduction talk about God's plan for my body and what we're going to see here today like I said this is more than just exercise eat right if if you are coming just to hear exercise and eat right there's nothing I could teach you you don't already know there's no is there's nothing that I'm gonna sit here and tell you that you haven't heard a thousand times shouldn't eat this should exercise this shouldn't stress out this should sleep more like this we know all those things but something happens because the knowledge in here hasn't translated to life out here the knowledge here hasn't translated because we've all done one of things that st. Paul says in Romans chapter 7 he says I don't understand what I'm doing the things that I will to do that I do not do but that which I hate that I do and I think many of us can relate to that same idea that which I the resolution that I write and I've written it and I'm so good at writing it have written it every single year all right it's the same resolution I never ever been able to implement it the same promises that I make to myself every time I find myself falling so what is it that's going to make this Daniel plan different than all the New Year's resolutions that we set in the past well I want to talk about three things right now ways that we usually fall short when we make resolutions that hopefully will correct here in the Daniel plan number one in the Daniel plan we will rely on God's power not on willpower we will rely on God's power not on willpower willpower sorry to break it to you doesn't work if will power worked you'd be a size six and I would have been able to resist that second serving of chocolate cake willpower doesn't work because we all do things that we wish that we wouldn't do yet we can't stop ourselves from doing it you know what willpower is the best analogy I ever heard for this imagine a boat a speedboat all right speedboat that's set you know for course right here and you set the autopilot on the speedboat you say go you know 20 degrees starboard all right in this direction you programmed it all right and then once you programmed it it goes and then let's say along the way you decide that you want to change the course a little bit so you decide to grab the wheel and turn it this way you want to go this direction not this direction would you be able to change the direction of the boat by forcing it probably but how long do you think you'd be able to hold that up you'd have to force it use a lot of energy because the will the the the the autopilot is working against you it's going this way so you could force it in this direction but what's gonna happen the second that you get tired or the second that you need a break what's gonna happen back to where it programmed and then you are gonna muster up all your energy say okay I'm gonna do it again this time and I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna do it I'm gonna hold on I'm gonna hold on and then you're gonna need a sneeze you need to go to the bathroom there's gonna be fourth of July or whatever it's gonna be and the second you blink back to this direction isn't this how we live most of our lives willpower this is what willpower is that's why we will not rely on willpower we will hopefully increase our willpower but we can't rely on a willpower relying on willpower is like relying on your muscles to steer the boat the other direction well we rely on God's power and we're going to try to do is change the programming on the autopilot because that's a much smarter way to do it isn't it and we could just change the autopilot programming that's why like I said there's gonna be one week in this series we're gonna talk about focus and we're gonna talk about how to put in here the right kind of thoughts the God wants us to have towards this stuff I try to remove all those negative things that are steering us back in the other direction anytime you use willpower you are forcing yourself to do something that your brain is programmed against and that isn't gonna work in the long term number two we will find the right motivation what I discovered is one of the reasons that we so often fail in our efforts to get he is we're doing it for the wrong reason why do you want to get healthy one look good want to fit into that dress even even you want more energy like these are all good things I'm not saying they're bad like they're good but if all your motivation is is self focused I guarantee you there's gonna come a point in time or you're going to fail our motivation needs to be bigger than me I need to be motivated and driven by something beyond myself in order to keep myself going when the going gets tough me personally share for me personally I know it's hard to believe okay but every now and then I think that I could probably stand to lose a few pounds okay I know it's hard to believe I know it ain't easy but I know I know so every now and then I say you know what I need to start eating healthy not so much because I care how I look because I wear this all the time so I mean this is best thing okay if you don't want to eat healthy but just because my eating habits are pretty poor like I name has ever been with me like I might my eating habits like I'm quantity not quality like that's I've always been that way I'm not I have the worst eating habits and I know is not good and especially as I start to get a little bit older you know like these things are important so every now and then I must throw up the motivation whatever and I give it a try but then like I said it only lasts until there's like a holiday or there's like an occasion or Saturday like weight whatever comes first art and I never was able to find long-term success when it comes to eating healthy now I'm not gonna say that I'm perfect in it right now but I will say is that this year the year 2014 has been a bit of a breakthrough for me at the start of the year and for those who are at the momentum conference all right which we did in February I spoke a little bit about goals all right I have actually a print grab me that piece of paper on that chair sorry I printed out I brought my goal list right here okay one of the goals I came up with a list of goals at the start of this year and one of the goals I came up with was in regards to thank you very much was in regards to like how I you know like healthy and body and get myself in shape and I wrote down like I had this little piece of paper here with for my goals I have eight of them these are four and they're right in front of my desk so if you ever come to my office you see it right in front of my desk to see it every day and it says get to a certain number of pounds by July first all right and I set for myself and what that number of pounds is it relates to my wedding weight okay how much I weighed when we got married which I haven't seen that wedding weight in 13 years but I said you know what imma get to that and when I started off the year all right I was roughly 22 pounds over that wedding weight roughly 22 pounds I'm not gonna say I accomplished it all but I would say as of Thursday morning when I prepared this talk of the 22 pounds I had six more to go that is good and I was smart to do it on Thursday before the holiday weekend I don't know what it is this morning but I tell you on Thursday as of Thursday of the 22 that I had 16 gone six left to go does that mean that I ate perfect throughout the entire year absolutely not and as many times that I fell but every time I fell I came back you know why because underneath that gold that's what most of us fall short we have the goal but we don't have underneath it why we want let me read to you why underneath I want to get to that weight number one to feel good about myself and give me self-confidence number two to have more energy and be more productive number three to be healthy for my family into the future like play with Bowl with my kids it's up like that number four to be able to continue to play basketball with the young guys cuz anytime we play ball I always find myself I'm the oldest guy and I don't wanna I found myself there was a time I kept injuring myself and people around me would tell me you're old stop playing ball and I said no out of stubbornness I'm gonna continue but I said in order to continue I need to be able to get myself a little bit better shape and then the last one to set a good example for others we fall short because we set a goal and we don't understand why we want to accomplish that goal or the goal we want to accomplish it just adjust to look good or just to fit into whatever what happens after you fit into whatever then what keeps you going what I'm saying is we need to find the right motivation and to find out what it is that driving us to do it and to put that in front of our eyes and then yes when fourth of July came we fell and then we looked at that list again we said you know what back on on the wag and every time this is the way that that anytime I've ever lost weight in the past I've been able to lose more quicker but I have been able to sustain it this long okay like easy for me you know what I mean like the willpower and force them and stuff like that but in its short and then it ends after a while the difference this time is I believe that if you figure out why God will help you with how you want to get in shape we will find the right motivation and number three we will not try to do it on our own because this is the biggest mistake that you can make and anything in life you will always have more success when we do it together in a context of a team or a community this is why we're doing something called life groups this is why I encourage anyone who wants to take this seriously join a Daniel planned life group they're gonna be starting this week you haven't missed any sessions yet you stopped by the connection table after we finish and you find a group that meets in your area convenient for you and you join even if nothing else just the support of being together in a group like I know one group already that said we're going to do like a little competition amongst each other all right and who can get the most in shape and who can lose the the weight this way and they're gonna that little competition some people are you know I wouldn't know but some people are competitive that might help you okay some people that might drive you and encourage you when you're not going through it all on your own stop saying one day I'll get there stop saying that let's end that today because as a wise man once said if you could have if you could have you would have but you can't so you won't wise man said that if you could have you would have but you can't so you won't so it's time for us to say we can't do it on our own and we need some help to get our bodies and line with what God wants now the question that should be on everyone's mind the question this should be on everyone's mind especially all the spiritual people in the room is this seems so what's the worst thing that you can say it to a Christian in a church this seemed so secular this seems so secular this isn't spiritual business secular I don't know what that means to be honest but it's really bad okay god only cares about our spirits not our bodies right right isn't that what it is God doesn't care about our bodies like tell people to pray don't tell people to get healthy tell people to pray more and tell people that they need to work on on spiritual things not on physical earthly things body things for those who follow me on my blog I put I wrote about this on on whatever it was this week on Wednesday I talked about this series and this concept and it was it didn't even take an hour for me to get that first comment if someone asking this question wait a minute isn't the body bad and doesn't the Bible say doesn't the Bible say that the spirit wars against the body and we're supposed to like crucify our body isn't that what we're supposed to Bible says is that the Bible says does the Bible say we should crucify our body does the Bible say that the spirit fights against the body we need to talk about what the Bible says about our body because it's a very misunderstood concept most important thing is understanding the Bible makes a distinction between your flesh and your body your flesh and your body and I know this sounds like semantics it sounds like splitting hairs but forget about the English word because in English the word is the same your flesh is your body forget about the English word try to understand the biblical concept there's a biblical concept which is written in English words but understand the concept don't get stuck on the words because the words are insignificant is the concept that makes more sense Galatians 5:17 says this says walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusts against the spirit the body the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires flesh is bad but not body bodies different I want you to think of it this way like I try to draw you a picture God created man he created man as a person and as a person I'm a person I have different components within me but in all is my personhood I have a flat I have a body I have a mind I have like emotions I have a soul inside me like I am a complete person and this entire person was created by God not that God created a soul and their soul was good and then he just needed something to put it inside so he said okay give me that body and just take it inside the body and the body is just like an iPhone case the body is not just a case they were gonna throw away the body is part of me and all of me was created good so what's the flesh and what's the spirit me as a person has a body a soul a mind whatever what heart whatever the flesh and the spirit refers to what we inherited God gave us the spirit Adam gave us the flesh and now the struggle in life that this is talking about is which one of those two is gonna control my person which one is gonna control my mind spirit given to me by God or the flesh the fleshly desires that human that sinful human nature given to me by Adam Christ gave me Adam gave me this is what's warring against one another the sinful human nature the Spirit of God which inside me that's the flesh that's bad and all of life is trying to see which of these two I'm gonna let control my mind let control my heart and let control my body as well don't separate your body from your person okay that's like something like Socrates and Aristotle those guys in Plato they got messed up with that stuff okay they used to teach like I said that the body is just like an iPhone case it's the iPhone we care about but the case we throw it away God doesn't throw away the body throw away the body who said God throws away your body God doesn't first of all God recycles okay God doesn't throw away God takes your body he gives it to you to use you meant you might mess it up or ding it up here and there but absolutely God recycles that body look here well read about the flesh and then we'll get to the little bit this is what the flesh is all about in Galatians 5:19 says now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery fornication uncleanness lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentions jealousy outbursts of Wrath this is the flesh that's bad that we crucify the flesh and that flesh fights against spear not the body he goes on selfish ambition dissension heresy envy murder drunkenness revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand that just as I also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God body good created by God will be recycled one day when we rise just as Jesus right Jesus died all right and then he rose with his body we will die and we will rise with our body and Jesus was given a new body and we will be given a new body but that new body make no mistake about it when people saw him they recognized him so that body is connected to the old body meaning it's not we throw away the old he give us something new he takes the old and transforms into something new which we don't know exactly what it looked like Romans chapter 12 verse 1 st. Paul says this about our bodies he says therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in the view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your true and proper worship wise thank Paul said offer your bodies is this a secular statement right here secular it should say offer your hearts we'd feel good about that offer your hearts all for your thoughts offer your your emotions why offer your bodies you know I offer your bodies the example I always think of as example in this picture which we just read about earlier today for those who were here at the liturgy in the morning when Archangel Gabriel came to Virgin Mary and says you are going to give the greatest sacrifice ever known to mankind you're going to bear the Son of God in your womb she was asked literally literally to offer her body and what happened when she offered her body to God what did that change in her everything like offer your mind okay hmm there it is but it I didn't I didn't change anything offer me your heart hmm okay offer you my heart I offered you my heart no no put your money where your mouth is all for your body because when Virgin Mary literally gave her body and Christ came and dwelt inside it then her whole life was never the same ladies when you offer when your body is full with a little human being inside that changes everything about life doesn't it changes how you eat changes the places you'll go it changes the shoes that you might have to wear it changes everything when you offer your body and that's why when Saint Paul says offer your bodies as a living sacrifice he is saying your entire person should be offered to God and no part is excluded from it I believe the same way God did the Virgin Mary and she offered her body I believe God wants us to offer our bodies and say God this body belongs to you and you tell me you direct me how you want me to treat it three facts about our body that we need to understand as an intro to this series that will guide everything we talk about over the next five weeks the first fact is God the Father created my body it is his property God the Father created my body it is his property my body does not belong to me it is not my choice what I do with my body and I know those are fighting words here in the United States of America for me to say it is not your choice what you do with your body especially on Independence Day but you know what the truth of the matter is as your body is not your own you didn't make it you didn't create it it was given to you as a gift by God and it is his property and he tells us how we use it not vice versa first Corinthians 613 now the body is not for sexual immorality but the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body your body wasn't created for you to whatever it is that you want when you say it's my body I'll do what I want with it no your body was created by God and it was given to you as a gift to use for his purposes you know what it means to say my body is mine I'll do what I want with it it isn't exactly like a child five-year-old child who is living in a house with his parents and says this is my room you can't come in excuse me this is my room they say your room this is my room and you're lucky that I let you sleep in here no such thing as my room I don't know if you all remember The Cosby Show there was a great episode in The Cosby Show one time Theo all right Theo was telling his dad something about like we're rich and he was saying like you know you know we're rich and were rich and we're rich and the dad said to him very great Saint but he said he said son your mother and I are rich you have nothing you have nothing and he kept repeating it that's the truth about us we have nothing we live in a nice house any yours we have this nice body it's mine I'll do what I want with it no you will not son your body was given to you by God and just because he lets you live in it for a few years he paid for it he decorated it all the stuff inside is his we can't say that we will do what we want with it Bible says this in Romans chapter 8 verse 11 and 23 but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you not only that but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves either eagerly waiting for the adoption the redemption of our body you know that means that means a God created you he opened up a room for you to live in alright say this is my room but he's gonna come back in there one day he's gonna take the room back and he's gonna ask you what did you do with him God has given to us our bodies and it's a biblical concept called stewardship stewardship means I'm given something to manage for a time but then the owner will soon come back and hold me accountable for how I treated that gift on just talking about your bond I'm not about everything but including your body like this principal is a spiritual principle meaning God gave us our mind how do we fill our mind God's gonna hold us accountable God gave me health how do I use my health to serve Him and glorify Him or do I destroy my health God will hold me accountable to the health that he has given me because so many other people were not given that same amount of health or that same quantity or that same quality of life God will hold me accountable and my body is no different number 1 my body was created by God the Father it's his property number 2 the Holy Spirit lives in my body it is his home first of all you got to treat your body good because it belongs to God but secondly because God actually lives in there and you can't say it's my room I'll do what I want the Holy Spirit lives in this part of the room you can't treat it however you want without at least discussing with the roommate every single person in this world has a home address if you knock on the Holy Spirit's door say I want to send you a letter where do I mail it to what's your mailing address you know what he'd say he'd say you he'd say I live inside you that's where I live we think of the Holy Spirit at someone who's gone out there and floating all around he may be out there but then every day he comes home and and goes to bed right here because this is where he lives and because he lives in here it is not my right to treat my body however it is that I want first Corinthians 6:19 do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that place where God lives ever since the beginning of the Bible God has said I want to live amongst my people and that's why Moses God went up the mountain got the Ten Commandments and the first thing that God told Moses after he got the Ten Commandments so when you go down there I want you to build me something called a tabernacle Moses said why God what's a tabernacle you read about in Exodus 25 and 26 he said it's a place where I can dwell amongst my people and I want it to be this big I want to be this color I want to be made of this and God was very particular build me a tabernacle a place that I can live later on King David came around King David said God this Tabernacle is like a moving tent man all of us have nice homes God you don't have a home we have homes and you don't have a home I want to build you a house for you and God said this is a very noble cause and I agree we should build a house for me but not you your son's gonna do because you had some problems and stuff when let your son do it but David David set the blueprint and prepared all the materials everyone says Solomon built the temple David did 90% of the work of the temple by preparing all the materials and like the the structure all right in his mind he developed the concept and finally when Solomon came he built him a glorious temple and they all said now God you have a place that you can live amongst your people God likes dwelling amongst his people after the tabernacle was destroyed where does God live now I'm starting at the top of the temple went from the tabernacle to the temple and then that was destroyed where's God lived now all of a sudden God doesn't care about living amongst his people God doesn't care about being on earth no I'm the temple I'm the moving temple I'm the living temple where everything is mobile these days right all right we don't need landlines landline temples we're mobile temples and I'm a temple of God imagine you're walking down the street you're walking down Fairfax Drive today and you walk by a church and you see someone vandalizing that church breaking the windows spray-painting the wall what would you do forget about even a church I would hope you do it if it was a synagogue or a mosque or a temple whatever it is a place where people worship God and you saw that what would you do stand by idly join in the fun you take action depending on the size of the people doing it okay you may take action you may call for action to be taken trying to walk by somebody vandalizing the church and say who cares no that's that's a crime and that that's bad well you know what if we're the temple of God meant some of us need to turn ourselves in for the way we've been vandalizing the temple of God some of us need to turn ourselves in for the crimes that we've been committing against this temple and again if you think I'm talking about just losing weight and eating I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the way we put stress on this building that was never meant to carry that kind of stress the way that we we indulge in evening and weekend activities that this body was never ever meant to be able to handle some of us need to fix up our temple number one God the Father created it it's his property number two God the Holy Spirit lives in it it's his home number three God the Son Jesus Christ purchased my body on the cross it is his prized possession my body was paid for in full when Jesus went up on a cross and died for me imagine you've always wanted something let's say a fancy car your dream car what's your dream car what's the fanciest car that you can imagine let's go Hyundai Sonata that's what I Drive let's say you wanted yourself a fancy-schmancy Hyundai Sonata the kind with the dent and the front bumper and everything okay and let's imagine this is your dream car and let's imagine it costs okay which we know it doesn't but let's say it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars all right $100,000 for this state-of-the-art driven by father Anthony a Hyundai Sonata took a top-of-the-line like the best thing ever and you don't have enough money so what you do is you save and you save and you get an extra job and you save and you and you eat cereal and baloney every day you save and you save and you save and you save up and then finally you purchase it but then you weren't actually purchasing it for yourself you purchased it and then your son comes along and you say to your son like I want to give this to you I want it back but I want to leave it with you while I'm going on as overseas trip how do you expect your son to take care of that possession of yours which cost a lot of money and cost you your blood sweat and tears to put into it you expect him to be driving 100 miles an hour between traffic lights like gas and then brake like that you expect him to be doing donuts and in the muddy pit if he values me he will value what I value right well I Got News for you first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 says you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods everything I'm talking about applies not just to our body but our body in our spirit but we hear the spirit all the time so I'm not negating that by saying that the body's more I'm not saying it like that I'm saying we talk about this all the time now I won't tell you that your body is not evil your body is not secular whatever that means your body is the possession of God and it is his prized possession which he bought and paid for in full with his own blood sweat and tears every time you look at this picture of Jesus on the cross or any picture of Jesus on the cross every home should have a picture of Jesus on the cross I mean everyone should look at that picture before you pray all like you have to look at the picture of Jesus on the cross several times a day okay hope it's in a place that you can walk by and see it but look at the picture of Jesus on the cross and every time you see that picture see Jesus with his arms wide open and you remember that he is saying I love you this much but I can only one hand cuz I'm like I love you this much right this much I love you so much and listen to me I'm not saying Christians I love you this much he never said Christians I love you this much he said of your Buddhists if you're Muslim if you don't even know what you are I love you this much I love you so much that I would rather die than live without you I love you so much that you could say I love you so much that it hurts you I can't I'd not saying I love your spirit I'm saying I love you and your body is part of the you that I love this much and that I can't live without first Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 says this says do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you if anyone defiles the temple of God God will destroy him for you are the temple for the temple of God is holy which temple you are if you saw someone while you're walking down the street vandalizing a church you'd say man that guy is in trouble and I'm telling you if you see someone vandalizing their body God says is that's even worse because you are the living temple of God and what I want to leave you with today is this alright today like I say we're just doing an intro today alright we're not getting to all the meat till starting next week but I hope I hope that all of us are convinced that as the temple of God we are his our body is his property our body is his home and our bodies is prized possession that we are motivated to take better care of God's house and I'm telling you the stuff that I'm talking about right here this is stuff that is going to not benefit God it's going to benefit us because we are the ones who have the most bit like God created this machine to function a certain way and what like I was talking about my motivation to get in this machine in order there's the more I realized how much God wants to do in me and through me and I realized that I want to do just this much enlightenment I want to do this but if I want this machine if I want this car to run for two hundred thousand miles I gotta start changing the oil more often I got to put to start putting a good gas inside if I want this thing just live for fifty thousand miles and then crash then yeah pull whatever junk you want inside the engine but I believe this machine was made for much more and I believe that that one was as well and will never realize the full potential of what we could be in Christ until we live by God's prescription for our health leave you with this thought it's time to do a little fixing up to God's temple it's good for us because we don't have a church building right we live in this nice building which doesn't belong to us and we rent this place so it's nice for us when I say guys we got to fix up day at the church you see need a lot of church to do this we have a clean-up day at the church we're all going get-together church bring our tools we're gonna fix broken stuff well that's we're gonna do for the next six weeks but the church is your body we're all gonna start fixing up our bodies already start fixing up our health I start fixing up our mental abilities as well we're gonna get ourselves in order and I'm telling you don't miss this chance because there is power when we will do this together as a group and I don't want anyone to miss out on this opportunity that's why I'm saying the life groups are so important because there's power and motivation and strength when we together are doing it we motivate each other we push each other and I want anyone to miss this opportunity we are going to do is we take our boy and change the way we think about our bodies I'm gonna see my body as a creation of God as his possession as his home I'm gonna say God I'm gonna give it to you I'm asking you how you want me to take care of it because I know that you created this body for a lot more than I'm doing with it right now all right let's stand up together and say a prayer in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God amen Lord we thank you for this day that you have given to us in this beautiful weekend we celebrate freedom and all the good things that we have here in this country or we pray that you would help us to see our bodies as your temple and and and not to take it for granted that we have something that so many other people don't have with the health that we have and the lives that we've been given and just all the opportunities that you've given to us in life I pray that you'd help us to glorify you in our bodies to get more out of the bodies that you've given to us and to see it as an essential part of our relationship with you I pray for every single person here especially those who have struggled so many times to keep their resolutions I pray that this time that you would help them to rely on your power not on their own willpower and through the power of community and group that they would really find the ability to make the transformation and change that they so desire in life or you pray this in the name of your son with the intercessions and prayers of all your saints here's as we pray thankfully our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil 1 in Christ Jesus our Lord - the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen thank y'all very much again if you want to sign up for life groups do so in the back if you want to pick up a copy the Daniel plan you could do it there - see y'all next week
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