Grace and peace on this Thursday! It’s good to be with you in the Pastor’s Workshop today.
This week we’ve been working on a Sunday message based on I Corinthians 6:19-20. In this Scripture the Apostle Paul reminds us that our bodies are a gift of God, a temple of the Spirit. He encourages us to treat our bodies with respect and to care for them in ways we honor God. The phrase he uses is, “glorify God with your body”.
Thursday is when we take all our thoughts from the week and see how they come together. What is the message emerging from your written notes and creative musings? What is God speaking to you? Where do you need to listen to and to follow?
As I look backwards on my notes and forward towards Sunday morning here’s the message shaping up for me.
We all are blessed with a body. How we treat our bodies is important.
Our bodies require ‘constant maintenance’. We call that ‘training’ – physical training.
We all know that. What we don’t often think about (and what the Apostle reminds us of when he says, “Do you know…”) is that our physical training is also an exercise in faith. Our physical training can be a ‘training in godliness’. When we do something good for our body, it is also good for our soul. When we do something good for our bodies, we are also building God’s good will for our health, well-being and strength into our lives.
The Apostle drives home his point with these insights noted in the text: 1) Our bodies are a “temple of Holy Spirit” abiding in us; 2) our bodies are a gift “we have from God; 3) are bodies are a trust, “they are not our own”; 4) are bodies are invaluable to God, “we were bought with a price”. All that being said, the Apostle says our opportunity is to “glorify God with our bodies”.
The question is, “What does that mean?” – to “glorify God with our bodies?”
To focus that challenge specifically, what is one change you can make in how you care for your body which would be not only a physical act, but also an act of faith? What choice can you make where you say, “this is a way I want to glorify God with my body?” How can you can build healthier choices into your daily routine so you might be more fit to serve others and be the blessing God would have you to be? Jot down your ideas.
There are three core areas of health where changes will be considered in this message: food, exercise, rest. In looking at these areas many things we already know. The question becomes where do I need to act? What change do I need to make to be more physically fit and faithfully engaged ? The message will go more in depth on these.
As we make these changes, as we move into this personal “New Normal”, we experience a blessing. Our message will close with a good illustration of “feeling Gods’ pleasure”. But more than that you’ll want to tune in because John Tarver’s postlude captures the closer magnificently!
As always this is just the basic outline. Sunday morning’s message will be enriched and expanded to make it more engaging and allow for deeper exploration. I hope you’ll want to view how it all is proclaimed. (It is now available as of 6:00 am on Sundays – thanks to our new filming schedule and wonderful production crew!)
I look forward to being with you then. And even before, I’m glad we can join together on Saturday for the ‘prayer that prepares’.
In that anticipation have a great day and I’ll see you on Saturday in the Pastor’s Workshop.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for Word. Thank you for your Holy Spirit and the ways the Spirit speaks to our hearts through your Word, bringing us into your Holy Will. Lord, let us live faithfully to how you guide, so that we might live more fully into who you would have us to be in Christ Jesus. For that gift of your grace you offer us today, we thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen