The Pastor's Physical and Emotional Growth, Part 2

Driving home: How can you glorify God in your body? If you are willfully ignorant of or indifferent to the things that make for optimum bodily health.

A preacher who consumes excessive salt and caffeine, then asks for prayer for high blood pressure, is an example of inconsistency with 1 Corinthians 10:31, as congregants might question his stewardship of his body.

So I rest the case on those two texts. There's a lot more, but I would rest it on those two. The preacher who loads his system with excessive salt, excessive amounts of caffeine,

2:58 - 3:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I am too busy. Oh, you are. Too busy to do the will of God? Well, then you're too busy with something that ain't the will of God.

The contrast between natural physical activity in a bygone era (walking, chopping wood) and the sedentary nature of the technological age illustrates why planned exercise is now more critical for ministers.

Now, our technological age has made much of the natural physical activity of a bygone day outmoded. There was a time when you wanted to get from one place to another. You walked or you went on horseback. When you wanted your home to be warm, you chopped wood.

6:14 - 6:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Establish now a planned physical exercise regimen.

The nursery rhyme characters Jack Spratt and his wife are used to illustrate that different people have different needs and preferences for exercise, so no specific type is legislated.

And people like that are prime candidates for hypertension, for cardiovascular problems, for heart problems, etc. Now, I'm not legislating the kind of exercise, where, with whom, how much. Jack Spratt could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean.

7:17 - 7:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God can give in sleep. In other words, when your hands are completely off the situation, God can give.

The vivid description of the sluggard in Proverbs 6:6-11 is quoted to acknowledge the Bible's strong condemnation of laziness and excessive sleep, providing a necessary balance to the discussion of rest.

Now, I know the Bible is unsparing in its castigation of the sleep lover. Proverbs 6, 6-11. You can't help but laugh, as well as want to weep, when you see the picture of the man, the sluggard. And what happens?

8:56 - 9:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.

A lengthy quote from Spurgeon's 'Lectures to My Students' explains that unbroken labor leads to depression and spiritual dullness, emphasizing that rest is essential for mental and spiritual health, just as sleep is for the body.

And what do I mean by that? Well, let me just let Spurgeon explain what I mean. And I quote from his lectures to his students on page 160. In the midst of a long stretch of unbroken labor, the same affliction may be looked for.

16:29 - 16:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the stubborn refusal to listen to others who see signs of physical and emotional weariness in you.

The story of a ministerial friend who had a heart attack after ignoring his nurse wife's warnings, leading to a humorous but serious 'covenant' to listen to her medical advice, illustrates the danger of stubborn refusal to heed counsel about one's health.

They said, we'll force you away. Well, a ministerial friend of mine ended up flat on the floor in the bathroom. His wife thought he was dead. He wasn't dead.

23:01 - 23:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate a wholesome domestic climate. Your home should be... your emotional haven, brethren, where you can come amidst all the pressures of the ministry and where you can feel free to just be totally relaxed in the pre…

The home at Bethany, where Jesus found retreat and fellowship with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, serves as an example of a wholesome domestic climate that provides emotional haven.

To say no in the Holy Ghost is essential to having any degree of emotional and physical stability over the years. Fourthly, cultivate a wholesome domestic climate. Our Lord loved the home at Bethany. It was his retreat. Not too many things that I get itchy to wish I could go back and relive, but that's one of them. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall. What was there about that home at Bethany when it says that Lazarus whom he loved, he whom you love is sick. You wonder what kind of innocent playfulness, what kind of animated conversation about things that were of interest to Lazarus our Lo...

32:45 - 33:31 Read in full sermon