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January 8, 2025 • 30 mins

Voice of the Nazarene 11-17-24

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Pastor Ray LaSalle (00:00):
Coming to you from North Central Ohio. We

(00:03):
share with you the voice of theNazarene, a week by week,
venture into the Word of Godsponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio
Church of the Nazarene. We joinour Pastor, Reverend Ray LaSalle
and the voice of the Nazarene.
I want to touch on physicalhealth this morning, back there

(00:27):
in the Third Epistle of John,verse two, John is writing to
Gaius, beloved, I wished, aboveall things, that thou mayest
prosper be in health even as thysoul prosper. And John is
wanting Gaius to experiencehealth. And he mentions that he

(00:49):
wants him to prosper financiallyand spiritually and in between
that he mentions about the body,about being in health, that the
body be kept healthy. Now, ifyou had a 2024 Rolls-Royce, I
know you can afford them. Youdon't fool me. They demand a

(01:13):
high test. Can you imaginerolling into one of these little
old, cheap filling stations withbargain gas, and you put in
dirty, cheap fuel into that tankand feed that engine. All of
those European cars have to havehigh tests, and yet we do it all

(01:35):
the time with our body. We putin a lot of junk fuel and junk
food. And I'm simply trying tosay that you're priceless.
You're a much more value thanthat Rolls-Royce in God's sight.
You're the temple of God. And heshares with us Romans 12, verse
one, I urge you, brothers, inview of God, to offer your

(01:59):
bodies a living sacrifice.
Notice, he didn't say to offeryour souls, but he said to offer
your bodies holy and pleasing toGod. This is your spiritual act
of worship. Listen, you can'tserve God except in your body.
People said, Well, I'll be therein spirit. I can't physically be

(02:21):
there, no, because you can't besomewhere where you aren't.
That's not good English, but Iguarantee you caught on. You
can't be someplace unless you'rethere physically. And he says,
offer your bodies as livingsacrifices, holy and pleasing to

(02:43):
God. This is your spiritual actof worship. Did you know that
taking care of your health is anact of worship? Let me summarize
it. We we we all need to get ourbodies in better health, not
just so we can look better, notjust so we can feel better, not

(03:07):
so that we'll live longer. AndI'm for all of that, and those
are legitimate reasons, butbecause, number one, God created
your body, and two, Jesus diedfor your body, and God's Holy
Spirit lives in your body, andyour body is the great

(03:34):
battleground between God and TheDevil. We'll get to that after
bit. And my body is connectedto the body of Christ, and one
day, God's going to resurrectthis body. And in the meantime,
you better realize, one daywe'll give an account for this

(03:59):
body and the deeds that weredone in this body, that's the
spiritual reason. And based onthose seven facts, do you see
how caring for your body is morethan just that it looks better.
It's a spiritual discipline. AndI want to look at God's plan for
our physical health. Look again,Third Epistle of John, I pray
that you may enjoy good healthand all may go well with you,

(04:21):
even as your soul is gettingalong well, the Bible is
teaching us the importance ofphysical health, spiritual
health, and the truth is, wealready know what we ought to be
doing for our physical health. Imean, it's not rocket science to
get healthy, you need to eatright, eat less, exercise more,

(04:42):
get your sleep and try to reducethe stress level in your life.
We know all of these things,nothing new. So what is the
motivation for getting healthyand staying healthy? It's not
just to look good, it's not toget more compliments. You really
look nice, and you lost someweight. Where do they go? And

(05:05):
all of that, there's a moreimportant reason, and I believe
it has eternal implications. Theproblem for many Christians is,
if God would like to use them todo something in the kingdom,
they wouldn't be able to respondbecause they're out of shape and
they have no energy and maybeyou want to really do something

(05:28):
for God, but if you're nottaking care of yourself, you
can't. And God wants us to takecare of the body that he gave
us, not only because of where welive, but because of where he
lives. The Bible teaches that helives in us, and he works
through us. And anything thatGod is going to do in your life,

(05:51):
he's going to do it through yourphysical body. So if it's
unhealthy, if it's out of shape,out of energy. There's not a lot
that God can accomplish throughus. Now, maybe that's a
different motivation than you'veever heard about keeping fit and
being healthy. But I want tolook about what God is saying

(06:13):
about the importance of yourbody, talking about your
physical body, your physicalhealth. You see, your physical
health has to do with spiritualdisciplines. There's habits that
you have to develop and in orderto develop those habits, you
have to have the rightmotivation. So I'm going to take
you this morning to FirstCorinthians, chapter six,

(06:35):
beginning in verse 12, and we'llrun our way down through verse
20. It's the classic passage onthe body. And Paul's writing,
Everything is permissible forme, but he said, Not
everything's beneficial. It'sall permissible. I mean, I have
the freedom to do whatever Iwant to do, but I'm not going to
be mastered by just letting mypatience run free. So what's he

(07:00):
saying? He's saying that somethings in life are not
necessarily wrong, but they'rereally not necessary. They're
not beneficial, they're nothelpful. And he's saying that
life is too short to be doingthings that are not necessary.
So he said, I'm not going to bemastered into my body by just
anything. I'm not going to letanything, including food,

(07:23):
including laziness andtelevision, sports, sex. I'm not
going to let anything dominatemy life or master my life. And
so he's saying what the worldsays there in verse 13, food for
the stomach, the stomach forfood, and God eventually will
destroy both. That's what theworld says. In other words, he's

(07:46):
saying some of these things willnot last forever. That's not the
real reason that you're here.
You're not here to just lookgood. So he goes on to say in
verse 13, the body is not meantfor sexual immorality, but for
the Lord, and the Lord for thebody. By His power, God raised

(08:08):
the Lord from the dead. Here'sthe good news, and he will raise
us also. That's the hope that Ihave when I stand in these
mortuaries, week after week,speaking on a funeral over
someone, it's the hope that whenwe place them beneath the sod,
that one day Jesus Christ willreturn again. Now, how did God

(08:32):
raise Jesus Christ from thedead, physically? And he's going
to raise you also, the physicalbody from the dead. Now the
Bible goes on to say verse 15,do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ himself?
So he drops down at verse 18,Flee from sexual immorality. I'm
gonna throw a thought at youthat maybe you haven't thought

(08:56):
about, but I want you to thinkabout it, because I'm concerned
always about our people. Allother sins a man commits are
outside his body, but he whosins sexually sins against his
own body. That's why the devilthrows the hardest thing he can
throw at us. That's why we havepreached sanctification through

(09:16):
the years, the greatest work ofgrace that can keep us from the
devil's greatest temptation. Sodo you not know that your body
is the temple of the Holy Spiritwho is in you, whom you have
received from God? You're notyour own. You're bought at a
price. Therefore, honor God withwhat?

(09:38):
Your body. Don't come alongtelling me the body's not
important. It's very important.
This passage, and some othersteach seven radical counter
culture things that the worldcan't hardly get their mind
around. And it's what the Biblesays about the body. And until
you can understand this keypassage, the first thing is

(10:01):
spiritual health. But I want totell you, getting physically
healthy in God's sight, gettingour bodies right is a key to
understanding. Now, here's whatthe Bible says about my body.
Number one, my body is God'sproperty. Boy, that concept is
completely counter cultureinnit? The world has taught us,

(10:22):
and we've been growing up tothink that, hey, it's my body,
I'll do with it what I want. Andthe Supreme Court is sat down
and they have said, Hey, it'syour body, do with it what you
want. And we've turned thisthing around and took it into
the legal system, and God isspeaking up and said, No, no,

(10:43):
no, no, that's not your body.
That's my body.It belongs to me.
And God is saying, I own yourbody. I created it, but I loaned
it to you. It's not yours. Youdidn't make it. You didn't
create your body. And thinkabout this, when you look
around, everything that you seein the world and in life around

(11:05):
us, it's created by God, and thecreator owns it because he made
it. And you don't really ownanything in your life. It's a
loan to you. Can I tell you alittle secret? You didn't bring
anything into this world, andwhen you leave here, you're not
going to take anything with you.

(11:28):
Now, if you want the wife todrop $50,000 there into the
casket, she will, but it'll be acheck. You don't own anything.
It's just loaned to you for thefew years that you're alive here
on planet Earth. For here's whatthe psalmist says in the 24th
Psalm, verse one, the earth isthe Lord's and the fullness

(11:49):
thereof, the world and they thatdwell therein. And think about
this, you don't even own yourmoney. You're not going to take
it with you. Somebody else willhave it next week. Our money
just kind of floats around, butwe don't hang on to it very
well. You don't even own yourtalents there on loan from God.
You don't even own time. Davidsaid, but a steps is between me

(12:14):
and death. We don't own time. Wedon't even own the breath that's
in our body, it's borrowed. AndI want to tell you something,
you don't own your body. It's onloan to you to use while
occupying life on Earth. You getto use it while you're here. God
owns it, and he loans it. Yourbody is God's property. Psalm

139 (12:39):
13, you created every part of me. You put me together in my
mother's womb. I'm fearfully,wonderfully made. And now
everything that God makes, hemakes for a purpose. God has
never made anything without apurpose. God never made a person
without a purpose. And Goddidn't give you a body without a

(13:01):
purpose, so don't kind ofcompartmentalize it and say,
well, it really doesn't matter.
Let me tell you something yourspiritual health and your
physical health, it matters toGod. God gave you what you have,
and God wants you to take careof it. That leads to a second
radical truth. God expects me tomanage my body. In other words,
I'm not the owner, I'm just themanager. And the Bible shares

(13:23):
the term a steward. We're kindof in charge of it. We're left
in charge of it. For a littlewhile, my body is a gift of God
on loan to me and one day,someday, I'll stand before God
and give an account of how Itook care of my body. Paul says
this in First Corinthians, 6:12,I'll now be mastered by

(13:46):
anything. And he's saying, Hey,I'm responsible for the
decisions I make about thehealth of my body, and I'm not
going to let anything dominateit. I'm not going to let
anything, whether it's food,television, you name it, drugs,
whatever Paul is saying, I can'tblame anybody else if I mistreat
it. So think about it, one daywe'll stand before God, what did

(14:08):
you do with the body that I gaveyou? Now remember, life is a
test. It's a trust. It's atemporary assignment. Life is
preparation for the world tocome, and this life is getting
us ready for the next and we'llspend more time on that side
than we will on this side. Onthis side, God is testing us.

(14:31):
Why are we on Earth? Well, he'stesting you to see what he can
trust you with out there ineternity, this life is a test.
And one day we'll give itaccount, including our body.
What did you do with your mind?
What did you do with yourtalents? What did you do with

(14:55):
time? What did you do withopportunities? What about the
freedoms that you have? Whatabout the wealth, I've allowed
to pass through your hands, yourmoney? Life is a test, and God
is watching to see how we manageall of these things that are on
loan to us, and one of thosegifts is our body. Here's the
third thing that really got mymind. My body's the

(15:17):
battleground. You see, the devilis aware that the Holy Spirit
wants to dwell in us. John,chapter 14, verse 16, I'll pray
the Father, He shall give youanother comforter. And in verse
17, for he dwelleth with you andshall be in you. Satan doesn't

(15:38):
want God to have a dwellingplace on this Earth, and you
know where God wants to dwell, Ihope you do, in you. And so the
devil will attack your mind.
He'll attack your emotions.
He'll he'll attack your drives,your passions, your desires, to
keep you from giving God yourbody for that dwelling place. I

(16:01):
was thinking this week about theattack there in the Garden of
Eden with Adam and Eve. And itwas a three fold attack. You
skip into the New Testament.
It's Jesus Christ, the secondAdam, and he's out there in the
wilderness, temptation and thedevil came in that same three
pronged attack. When John wroteabout it in the second chapter

(16:25):
of First John the littleepistle, verse 16, he said, For
all that is in the world, thelust of the flesh, the lust of
the eye, the pride of life, youboil it all down. I can't, I
can't narrow it down. But theBible does, it narrows down to
the lust of the flesh, the lustof the eye, the pride of life.
Satan came against Jesus Christ.

(16:49):
He came against Him in thephysical, his body, as the Son
of Man. You can't tempt God, thedivine. You can only tempt the
man's side, the human side. AndHe came against Him. You're
hungry. 40 days without food,Turn these stones into bread,
blessed to the flesh, thosepassions, those drives, you

(17:11):
gotta satisfy them. You gottaget those drugs in. You gotta do
this. Well, that didn't work.
Took him up into a high mountainand showed him all the kingdoms
of the world. Do you want all ofthis? You see, it's not just the
passions. Sometimes he'll usepossessions, things, what we can
accumulate, and yet it's alljerked away from us. When the

(17:32):
rich fool died, he left behindhis barns and his rolling acres
and everything. When thatfailed, Satan came again and
it's the pride of life. It'swhat we call position, wanting
to be noticed, popularity, thosekinds of things God wants to

(17:54):
dwell in us. And the battlesbetween and over and about our
bodies. When it talks about KingSaul and said, The Spirit of the
Lord departed from him there in

First Samuel, 1 (18:08):
14, and an evil spirit troubled him. The devil
wants in you, and he's trying toget in, and he's trying to shove
God away. And God wants in. Thebattle is over our body, and
then May I, fourthly, say mybody will be resurrected after I
die. I hope we get a newversion. I'm needing one.

(18:30):
Sometimes my back and my kneesgo go out more than I do. It's
not as bad as you think. Justput up your recorders. I hope we
get a version 201. I've gotversion 1.0 right now, and in

(18:53):
heaven, I believe that new bodyis going to be a 2.0 body. He
said, When I get to heaven, I'mjust going to sit on the clouds,
kind of float around like aspirit. Better get it together,
friend, you're going to have abody. He said, Well, I'll sit on
the clouds and I'll flutter mywings like the angels. Angels
are angels, and people arepeople, and you'll be a person.

(19:19):
And those people that knew youin life, when they see you in
heaven, they will know who youare and recognize you in your
body. It may not be 1.0 it maybe version 2.0
it's called the glorified body,but we'll get a new body. Now, I
appreciate what little bit I gethere. I'm glad God gave me some

(19:40):
ears. I love sound. I love thesound of of the ocean, and I
love rippling brooks, and I liketo hear the wind blowing through
those leaves on the trees. Ilike in a cold winter morning,
to hear the crunch of snow andice under foot. I like sound. I
appreciate music. I'm glad thatGod give us eyes to see, and

(20:07):
through those apertures, we'reable to visualize the world
around us. And falls a beautifultime when God just kind of turns
the leaves into flowers with allcolors. But can you imagine
heaven? Somebody said it's justall going to be white. No, I
don't believe it will. A God whomade all the colors that we
experience here, I believeheaven will be a multi sensory

(20:30):
place and an extravaganza beyondanything. And can you imagine we
can enjoy it in version 2.0,thank god. Well, he said in

First Corinthians, 6 (20:40):
14, by His power, God raised the Lord from
the dead, and He will raise usalso. So do you see how
important your body is? God issaying, I'm not through with it.
I'm going to come back for it.
I'm going to put it together andmake it work again. And the same
God that makes a new heaven anda new Earth can make a new you,

(21:04):
and the God that had the powerto create you can have the power
to recreate you. I don't care ifyour body is decayed out of the
dust of the ground or beencremated. There's a God that can
put it all back together. Butnumber five, my body's connected
to the body of Christ. I bettertake care of this body. The

(21:27):
Bible said your body is not justyour soul and spirit, but that
your body is connected to thebody of Christ. Let me read it
to you, First Corinthians 6:15,it says this, do you not know
that your bodies are members ofChrist Himself? Now, why does
God care about how we treat ourbody? It's connected to his

(21:47):
body, the body of Christ. AndJesus gave his body on a cross
for us, and He wants us to honorhim with our body. And of all
people, I think Christiansshould be concerned about their
health and how we use our bodiesthat God gave us more than

(22:07):
anybody else. How you treat yourbody is a reflection of the Body
of Christ. It's a testimony tothe world. Now I'm not talking
about over indulging incosmetics and beauty products
and physical workouts and tryingto look like Hulk Hogan and all
that. That's vanity, and that'sgoing to the extreme, but it's

(22:29):
making the most out of what Godhas given to us, honoring God
with your body, representing himwell. But here's another thing
about the body, the Holy Spiritlives in my body. God put His
Spirit in you, and that's why,

First Corinthians 6 (22:48):
19, do you not know that your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit, whois in you, whom you receive from
God? That means that God hastaken up residence inside of us
when we place our faith inChrist, you become the temple of
God. The Bible says in FirstCorinthians 3:16, don't you know

(23:10):
that you yourselves are God'stemple, and that God's Spirit
lives in you. God's temple issacred, and you are that temple.
And throughout scripture, Godhas always had a dwelling place
on Earth. When God had thetabernacle designed, he gave

(23:31):
instructions to Moses, and itwas made of a tent material and
while they're traveling for 40years, they could move that tent
or that tabernacle. And God cameand dwelt in the tabernacle. But
later on, God showed up toDavid, and he had him to raise
all these funds and gatherthings to build a great stone

(23:51):
temple there in Jerusalem, andGod dwelt there. Do you know
where he dwells now? In you andin me. You're the Temple of
flesh. We're God's dwellingplace. And Second Corinthians

6 (24:06):
16, For we are the temple of the living God. Let me ask you a
question. Can I ask you aquestion? One person said I
could, so I'll just talk tothem. If you were walking down
the street and you saw a houseof worship being vandalized by
some thugs spraying confetti onit, breaking out the windows,

(24:32):
trying to set it on fire, Howwould you feel? I'm talking
about a building dedicated forworship as a house of worship.
Would you be upset? Would youprobably call the police? Or if
some of you are big enough,would you try to take the crowd
on? And yet, we do it every day,nearly with our own temple. We

(24:56):
vandalize it by how we abuse itor misuse it, and we run it
without any sleep, and we putjunk into it. And I'm just
simply saying when we let ourbodies be stressed out, we go
without sleep, we don't takecare of it. We're vandalizing
the temple of God, and Godexpects you and me to care for

(25:17):
his temple. I'm responsible.
Well, moving along, may I saythat Jesus bought my body on a
cross, my body, your body. Jesusdidn't just say, just pay for
your soul on the cross, he alsopaid for your body. Here's what
it says. I'm not making all thisup. Verse 20, you're not your

(25:38):
own You were bought at a price.
Therefore, honor God with yourwhat body. It didn't say honor
God with your spirit. It said,honor God with your body. He
paid for the real estate inwhich we live in this body of
ours. You want to know how muchyou're worth to God, just go to

(26:01):
the cross. Look at the nails inhis hands. How much do you love
people? He gave his life? That'show much he cares. He would
rather die than to live withoutyou. He left the house of heaven
and came to the barns ofBethlehem, just for you. He

(26:21):
bought us. He paid for us. Notonly created, but he bought us
back. So why should we honor Godwith our body? How? How do you
do that? Well, Paul answers thatquestion right here in Romans,

12 (26:35):
1, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer
your bodies as a livingsacrifice. The problem with a
living sacrifice, they can keepcrawling off, and we do, don't
we? Lord, I'm going to live foryou, and I'm going to do this,
and I'm going to straighten up,and then we forget about it the

(26:57):
next day, and we kind of crawloff from our commitment and the
vows that we made to God, and hesaid, we're to offer our bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy,pleasing to God. This is your
spiritual act of worship. Didyou know that worship is given
your body to God? He didn't justask for your will, but he wants

(27:19):
us to offer our physical body.
Why? Because that's the onlyplace that you can serve God.
You can't serve God without abody. Offer your body as a
living sacrifice. Your spiritualworship. Taking care of it is an
act of worship. You say, timeout, Pastor, you telling me that
taking care of my body is an actof worship. No, I didn't say

(27:42):
that. God said that. I'm justpassing it on. I never saw this
like I've seen it over thisweek, don't you wish I hadn't
studied this. It's an act ofworship, and you do it out of
worship to God. You do it to bepleasing unto God. You do it out

(28:03):
of gratitude. You do it that hecan use you for His purpose.
Therefore, we need to manage ourphysical health and spiritual
discipline. We have to set somehabits that have to be
developed. And there are certainkinds of premises that we can
get promises. You know, theBible is full of all kinds of

(28:24):
promises about health and ourbody in the Scripture, but you
have to do it God's way, andtherefore you need to know his
premises so he'll keep hispromises. Now, I was reading,
I'll close. Okay, I should havestarted on this one, John,
chapter five, verse six, Jesuscomes along and he finds a man

(28:45):
that had been sick. This guy hadbeen sick for for 38 years.
And Jesus said to him, would youlike to be well? What a dumb
question, huh? Or do you justwant to just stay in the shape

(29:08):
you're in? Wilt thou be madewhole? Do you want to be well?
That's the question that Jesusis asking that I'm passing on to
you. Do you want to remain asyou are? You want to say, you
know, this is an act of worship.
God, you you loan me this, youloan me that, and you loan me
this body. And God, if you'llhelp me, a year from now, I'll
not have it in the shape thatit's in right now. I'm going to

(29:30):
treat this gift, I'm going totake care of it for you as an
act of worship. Do you want toremain in the shape you're in?
What one step could you takethat would make you a better
you? And find someone and tellthem and ask them, would you

(29:53):
hold me accountable? Would youcheck on me next week and I'll.
Check on you, and together, wecan get more healthy
spiritually, financially, we canbe in health physically and
relationally, and we can go onand on. God, I want to have an
act of worship. I'm going totake care of this gift that you

(30:14):
have loaned me so that you canuse me.
Thanks for being a part of thevoice of the Nazarene. Visit us
every Sunday at 9am with BNC'sPastor Ray LaSalle, for more
information regarding BNC, visitBucyrus nazarene.org.
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