The Pastor's Physical and Emotional Growth, Part 2

Introduction to Practical Directives for Physical and Emotional Health

0:03 Alright, having attempted to set before you, brethren, the evidence for the assertion that the man of God, if he is to have sustained usefulness, must be concerned for his physical and emotional well-being, and then having given you an axiom and exegeted the axiom, now we come in the third place to practical directives. Yes. No, we're all set. We've got a previous arrangement here. Yes.

0:33 That's fine. Thanks for your help.

0:37 Practical directives for the implementation of these concerns. So I'm going to break them into two categories, those pertaining to our physical health and those pertaining to our emotional health. Now, in saying that, I'm not negating what we established earlier, that these two play each upon the other. They penetrate each other, but for the sake of giving some counsel, I am separating them.

Warning 1: Beware of Ignorance or Indifference to Health Basics

1:04 As though they were two distinct categories. First of all, then, those pertaining to physical health. And I'm going to give them in terms of warnings. As I reworked the lecture, I said, well, that's negative.

1:16 Maybe it's better to try to, if I said no, maybe this will be the best way to do it. And so I'm going to stick with the negative cast of these seven words of counsel. Number one, beware of fundamental ignorance of or indifference. Indifference to the basics of health and nutrition.

1:47 Beware of fundamental ignorance of or indifference to the basics of health and nutrition.

2:01 And I rest my case down on two clear texts. One I've already referred to, 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 20. 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.

2:26 And 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. How can you eat to the glory of God if you are willfully ignorant of the basics of nutrition? For the purpose of eating is not just to give you nice feelings when certain foods pass over.

2:47 For the purpose of eating is not just to give you nice feelings when certain foods pass over. It's to sustain your physical body in health and strength.

2:58 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,

3:11 whether in tea, coffee, or soft drinks, and then asks his congregation to pray for him because he's got high blood pressure,

3:25 he's going to be in trouble if there's anybody in the congregation that understands 1 Corinthians 10.31. They're going to say, Preacher, I can't pray in good conscience for your high blood pressure thing while I see you belting down cokes like they were going out of style. Can't do it.

3:42 When I see you always having the munchies with stuff that's got enough salt to, you know, make a second Dead Sea, there ain't no way. No.

3:56 No. No. No. No.

3:57 No. No. No. No.

3:57 No. No. No. No.

3:57 No. No. No. No.

3:57 No. No. No. No.

3:58 No. No. No. No.

3:58 No. Making a plea for body worship, for nutritional fanaticism.

4:03 Nor am I calling you to a diet of large doses of nothing but dried seaweed and unsalted sunflower seeds. But what I am saying is this. If you don't have a basic understanding of what constitutes physical health and good nutrition, then do what you've got to do to get it. Now, I spoke early this morning to Gary Rule.

4:29 Our doctor in the making. And I challenged him to get up a lecture that he can give in two hours on the basics in these two areas. And he accepted the challenge and he said he's going to start work on it. And before long, I'm going to have Dr. Gary come in and lay out the basics for you.

4:49 All right? So we're going to try to give you some help so you can be less inexcusable. But, brethren, seriously, and this is not some peculiar...

5:00 kick that I'm on. Early as a Christian, I could not understand how people could read texts such as the two I've quoted and be willfully indifferent and ignorant of the basics of health and nutrition. So that's my first warning. Beware of that ignorance.

Warning 2: Beware of the No-Planned Physical Exercise Syndrome

5:18 Secondly, beware of the no-planned physical exercise syndrome. Beware of the no-planned physical exercise syndrome.

5:32 It grows out of believing yourself altogether too important.

5:38 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.

5:48 Because it is the will of God that you do what you must do to maintain optimum physical and emotional health. And 1 Timothy 4.8 is a positive statement about physical exercise. Bodily exercise profits.

6:04 For a little. Now, that's a positive statement. And if it profits for a little, then you ought to receive the little profit that it gives.

6:14 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.

6:30 And there were a lot of ways in which a man who was responsibly caring for his... ...household and didn't have servants doing it got some regular physical exercise.

6:42 But because of our mechanized age, that is past for most of us. Furthermore, the nature of our work brings maximum mental and emotional strain with a minimum of vigorous physical activity. So, in the light of this, ministers are prime candidates for the results of what happens...

7:05 ...of what happens when...

7:06 ...someone has unusual mental and emotional pressure joined to a pattern of life in which there is no vigorous physical exercise.

7:17 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.

7:40 So, you've got the Jack Spratts, for whom running, walking, swimming.

7:47 But there's some other way. And I'm not legislating, because I cannot do so based upon Scripture. But what I'm saying is, here and now, as a student, amidst these relatively easy pressures, you laugh now, but there's a day you'll long for the good old days, when you had it so easy as a student here. You'll long for those good old days.

8:10 You will. You don't think it's possible, but you will. Establish now a planned physical exercise regimen.

8:21 And if you want some private counsel and advice and helpful suggestions, I'd be glad to give those off the cuff. And others would. But don't allow yourself to get locked into a no-planned physical exercise syndrome. Thirdly, beware of the pattern.

Warning 3: Beware of Cheating on Necessary Sleep

8:42 Of cheating on your necessary measure of sleep. Beware of the pattern. I didn't say the occasional cheating. But the pattern of cheating on your necessary measure of sleep.

8:56 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?

9:12 And it says, You know, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come, as an armed man. Furthermore, I know the Bible has a doctrine of self-denial, which sometimes involves denying our bodies their legitimate claim for sleep. Matthew 26, 40.

9:33 Could you not watch with me one hour? It was sleep time, man. It was the middle of the night in that garden. But the Lord said, Watch with me.

9:42 And it says, Their eyes were heavy. He was asleep. And he said, Watch and pray. Now, I'm fully aware of that.

9:49 The warning on the one hand of God's castigation of the sleep lover. The Bible's teaching of self-denial, mortification, that sometimes involves denying legitimate sleep. But the same Bible teaches us the truth of Psalm 127 and verse 2, in which he says, It's vain for you to rise up early, to go to bed. For so he giveth unto his beloved in sleep.

10:19 Not he giveth sleep, but he gives in sleep. In other words, what you think you've got to do, and the only way you can get it done is by cheating on sleep, is really, many times, an aspect of unbelief. God can give in sleep. In other words, when your hands are completely off the situation, God can give.

10:45 But it's necessary for you to fulfill your God-given tasks. And you do have the record of the incarnate God taking a nap in the daytime. Mark 4.35 coupled with Luke 8.22.

11:01 He took a late afternoon nap.

11:06 Mark 4.35 with Luke 8.22.

11:12 So if the Son of God, in the midst of his unwearying labors, found it necessary to give his body sleep, even at the abnormal, in the abnormal time of late afternoon, then don't assume you're sinning if you take an afternoon nap. Some of us have to struggle for a long time to free our consciences of false guilt about an afternoon nap. Luke 8.22 says, Now it came to pass on one of those days that he entered into a boat himself and his disciples, and said unto them, Let us go over to the other side of the lake.

11:43 And they launched forth. But as they sailed, he fell asleep. And they said, And in Mark 35, the parallel passage, Mark 4 and verse 35, And on that day, when even was come, he said unto them, Let us go over to the other side, etc. So apparently, it was an early evening nap, a late afternoon nap, and our Lord was so deep in his sleep, you'll remember, that even that storm did not awaken him.

12:17 So the necessity for a realistic cycle of sleep, and work, must be viewed as part of our creaturehood, and not our sinnerhood.

Warning 4: Beware of Dependence or Addiction to Stimulants/Depressants

12:27 All right? Fourth warning. Beware of dependence upon, or addiction to, stimulants or depressants. If you're going to have good physical health, beware of a dependence upon, or an addiction to, stimulants or depressants.

12:43 Now notice I did not say, beware of the judicious, or occasional use, of stimulants or depressants. When the Bible says, every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, 1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5, I believe it's speaking of food and drink in the context, including drink that has caffeine in it. I have thanked God many a time for the initial impress of the caffeine upon my brain in the morning when I want to go upstairs and be alert enough to pray.

13:19 And if I couldn't thank God for caffeine in its proper use, I wouldn't use it. And if you can't, don't use it. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And if you can't drink a drink with caffeine in it, believing you glorify God in doing it, caffeine is a no-no for you.

13:35 But it ain't a no-no for me.

13:38 But to chug-a-lug it the way some of you do, I'd have problems of conscience. Because I would feel there was a chronic dependence upon that stimulant that showed that somewhere along the line I was not properly ordering my physical regimen. Likewise with depressants. If Paul says to Timothy, take a little wine for thy stomach's sake, then I believe by inference a glass of wine that helps a man to relax when he's come out of his study with a weighty counseling session that's torn into pieces and he knows he'll lie awake for two hours if he doesn't have something to just dull his brain a little bit and he has a four-ounce glass of wine on an empty stomach, and it relaxes him and he can go off to sleep quicker, I'd have a very hard time telling him he was abusing God's gifts or abusing his body. However, if he finds himself every night having his glass of wine and finding that the one glass is two and the two is three, then he'd better beware because what's happening? He's developing an addiction to the depressant characteristic of the alcohol. And so we can, and back to 1 Corinthians 6, 12 and 13, meats for the belly, belly for the meat, I'll not be brought in bondage to any.

15:02 Men, you must be masters under the lordship of Christ, of all of his gifts, so beware of dependence upon or addiction to stimulants or depressants. I always find it hard to keep my seat when I see some big, fat, overweight preacher, prime candidate for a heart attack, belting down his 15 cups of coffee a day, telling people to go, hell, if they ever touch a drop of demon booge, you know, and if they saw a fellow preacher who was exemplary in self-control and in self-denial and all the rest, but knew that he happened to sip a glass of wine once a month, they'd be ready to put him in hell, at least put him in purgatory for five years. Well, you see the horrible inconsistency of that. It's accursed unbiblical legalism. And unless people are prepared, prepared to say Paul was telling Timothy to sin when he told him to take a little wine for his stomach's sake, we have in principle the fact that all of God's gifts are good and are to be used properly.

16:10 So beware of dependence upon or addiction to stimulants or depressants. Five, beware of the no-day-off pattern of life. Beware of the no-day-off. pattern of life.

Warning 5 & 6: Beware of No-Day-Off and No-Planned-Vacation Patterns

16:29 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.

16:45 And here he's talking about the affliction of depression and spiritual dullness. The bow cannot always be bent without fear of breaking it. Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body. Our Sabbaths, the Lord's days, are days of toil.

17:06 And if we do not rest upon some other day, we shall break down. Even the earth must lie fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we. Hence the wisdom and compassion of our Lord when he said to his disciples, let us go into the desert and rest a while. What?

17:24 When the people are fed, ain't he? When the multitudes are like sheep upon the mountains without a shepherd, does Jesus talk of rest? When scribes and Pharisees like grievous wolves are rending the flock, does he take his followers on an excursion into a quiet resting place? Does some red-hot zealot denounce such atrocious forgetfulness of present and pressing demands?

17:50 Let him rave on in his folly. The master knows better than to exhaust himself and to quench the light of Israel. Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.

18:06 And then he goes on to illustrate it. And brethren, this is vital. The principle of life lived in seven-day cycles with a day of rest and refreshment for body and soul. Our Lord's days are the days of our greatest spiritual exhilaration, but of our greatest, physical and emotional expenditure.

18:29 And therefore, we've got to have, as it were, the principle of Sabbath rest physically and emotionally on a day other than the Lord's day. And it won't be there just staring you in the face. If you're a true servant of Christ, you'll have enough work to do if you had a ten-day week. Therefore, it must become a matter of conviction.

18:50 And if the only way you can get away from your books and the pressures and the phone is to, go out in the car to some lonely place, do it wherever, however, but do it and beware of the no-day-off pattern of life. What you sow is what you're going to reap. And if you sow a defiance of God's order, you will reap for your folly some kind, if not of an outward breakdown, the erosion of your God-given optimum usefulness. All right?

19:24 Number six. Beware, and here, brethren, I stand condemned. If my fellow elders were here, it's one of the few areas that I know they'd point the finger and say, you're saying it, but I've got to say it, though I've not been the pattern of virtue in this. Beware of the no-planned vacation pattern of life.

19:53 And I've allowed my conscience, I believe, to be falsely pressured, by a sense of duty that, for the most part, my life has been a life in which there have been very few planned vacations. And I confess it as my sin. I'm not bragging. I'm confessing.

20:14 And by God's grace, I'm seeking to repent of it and to reform my ways. And God helped us over the past five or six years to do that, and then what was our retreat down on the Jersey Shore was sold by the person who owned it, and so...

20:31 And so it left us without that natural pattern we'd begun to get into. But thankfully, I blocked out a couple of weeks that could be called vacation for 85. They're the last two weeks of 86. There was no vacation in 85, the wife's surgery and all of this, but the elders were really getting on my case.

20:52 They said, we want to see, in January, we want to see your vacation weeks blocked out. And though for years I've had three weeks vacation allocated, rarely have I taken more than if I've even taken seven or eight days, and I don't brag about that. God has been merciful to me in spite of my sin and failure. And brethren, I'm telling you here, don't do as I have done.

21:19 Do as I'm telling you and as I'm attempting to do, all right? I'm being as honest as I know how.

21:26 Vacations simply will not come up if you don't structure them and guard them. There will always be needs. Always, always needy people and concerns to take away your time. And you need to sit yourself down once in a while, as I try to do, look in the mirror and say, look, if I drop dead, God's kingdom would go on without missing a lick.

Warning 7: Beware of Refusing Counsel on Weariness

21:48 So I'm not that quite so important that I can't plan a vacation for myself and for my family, all right? And number seven, beware of the stubborn refusal to listen to others who see signs, of physical and emotional weariness in you. Beware of a stubborn refusal to listen to others who see the signs of physical and emotional weariness in you. I thank God for that time about seven, six, seven years ago when my fellow elders stepped in and said, you are out of the harness.

22:36 And asked me, told me, and they said, furthermore, this is where you're going.

22:42 And I said, well, I'm not going to do that. The only thing we're not legislating is what you do when you get there. But this is where you're going, and this is where you're going for how long, and you have no choice in the matter. I said, thank you, brethren.

22:52 They knew that's the only way I could do it. I'd gotten to the place where I just couldn't. I'd seen needs and all the rest. I just couldn't bring myself to back away.

23:01 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.

23:09 He had a heart attack, and now he's a pacemaker. And out of it, came a covenant. It's tongue-in-cheek, but I checked up on him recently to see if he's keeping his covenant. It's called the Solemn Covenant of Kilbirnie Place.

23:25 That's the name of his street. It is hereby declared that most definitely, dogmatically, decidedly, and determinately, that a certain mad preacher by the name of blank, blank, to be referred to hereafter in this document as the turkey, will soon, submit to his wife's direction in matters medical. When the aforementioned wife tells him to phone the doctor, the aforementioned turkey will do so without dispute, dissertation, deliberation, or dissent. When the aforementioned wife states that a medical checkup, either at the doctor's office or the emergency department of the Joseph Grant Memorial Hospital is indicated, the aforementioned turkey will not denounce her with not, John Knox-like funderings, oppose her with Calvinian logic, change her mind with Spurgeonic persuasion, or resist her with Athanasian obstinacy. He will, with that sweet reasonableness, indescribable meekness, and overpowering sweetness with which he has now become possessed, simply answer her, whatever you say, dear. Or it may be permitted for him to say at his wife's discretion, of course, yes, dear.

24:53 To this non-negotiable, never-to-be-changed document, I hereby affix my signature and agree that on any occasion when the aforementioned wife deems it necessary, this document may be waved under my nose, or all else failing may be stuffed down my throat. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

25:20 Well, that's one preacher, you see, who is taking the counsel to beware of stubborn refusal to listen to others because the price he paid in all seriousness was almost a premature death. His wife is a nurse. She saw the sign. She said, dear, dear, dear, and he didn't listen, didn't listen, and you can imagine her shock when one night she goes into the bathroom, and finds him lying prostrate and thought he was gone.

25:47 So the Kilbirnie Covenant was the outgrowth of that, and that's why this counsel I'm giving to you. So when your wife says to you, honey, it's not like you to be so sure. Little things are causing you to respond way out of proportion, and she's telling you there are signs of emotional trauma. When she sees, listen to her.

26:08 Listen to your fellow elders. Don't be bullheaded and stubborn. He that is wise, he hearkens unto counsel. All right?

Emotional Health Warning 1: Beware of Unnaturalness and Ministerial Stoicism

26:17 Now very quickly, because our time is gone. Those pertaining to your emotional health, these I can run through quickly.

26:25 Beware of unnaturalness and ministerial stoicism. Beware of unnaturalness and ministerial stoicism. God has made us with natural emotional pores, which like our physical pores, which help keep the body ventilated, ventilated, they help us to ventilate emotionally. Such things as hearty laughter, vigorous discussion on secular matters, playfulness with your wife, interaction with your kids, tears, listening to good music.

27:01 These are all emotionally, emotional pores. Beware of an unnaturalness and a ministerial stoicism that somehow or other has come up with the conviction that to be in the ministry, is to be neutered emotionally, except in preaching.

27:22 I trust none of you will ever be reluctant to weep unashamedly when appropriate, to laugh heartily when appropriate, and above all, learn to vent your emotions in the secret place. That's why I love the Psalms. When the psalmist was angry, he told God he was angry. When he was confused, he told God.

27:42 When he was weary, he told God, how long, Lord? How long is this going to go on? He just as it were let it all out in the secret place. And it's wonderful to know that the God who made us emotional beings is never offended when we vent our emotions in the secret place.

28:02 Be frank in your dealings with God. Be natural in your dealings with God and men. And be honest in your walk before the people of God. What a terrible emotional strain ministers put on themselves when they feel I must keep up this emotion.

28:17 I dare not ever speak discreetly of my failures, my disappointments. I dare not tell a bunch of young people, young preachers, that I feel like punching people in the nose. What will they think of me? Well, I don't care what you think of me.

28:31 That's reality.

28:33 I'd be less than honest. Try to give some image that I never feel like punching somebody would be to project a lie. I do. I don't think there's any one of you I've ever had the urge with.

28:45 But I have had it with others. And, emotionally, there needs to be that venting. Read Warfield's article on the emotional life of our Lord. I read it periodically.

28:57 His basic thesis is that every human emotion was manifested by our Lord and is recorded in the Gospel records. And that treatise never fails to move me tremendously and it brings me back to that perfect standard even in terms of our emotions. All right? So beware.

Emotional Health Warning 2: Beware of Social Isolationism

29:19 Of this ministerial stoicism and unnaturalism. Secondly, beware of social isolationism. Beware of social isolationism.

29:31 God has made us social beings in creation. And the whole notion that the ministry ought to insulate you from having friends cannot be established in the Bible. Within the twelve, Jesus had three who were his special friends and among the three he had one who was his special, special friend and all the rest knew it. So if people tell you, well, if you have any special friends in the congregation, that'll create jealousy.

29:58 Too bad. Let it create jealousy. That's their problem. Jesus did not hide his unique friendship with Peter, James, and John and he didn't hide his unique intimacy with John among the three.

30:12 So if it's sin to do it, then Jesus sinned. And he did it openly. He didn't do it on the sly. He didn't have to go meet them twenty miles out of town so no one else among the twelve would know it.

30:29 Paul made it plain. I have no man like-minded like Timothy and he let everybody know it. Oh, isn't that an indictment on others? Yeah, it was.

30:36 So what? He didn't care. I have no man like-minded. All seek their own, not the things that are Christ Jesus.

30:43 He said he's unique. He's my precious, intimate, spiritual son. And then I love 2 Corinthians 7, 5, and 6. God who comforts those that are cast down comforted us, by the coming of Titus.

30:57 I love that verse. It's so unspiritual.

31:02 God who comforts those that are cast down comforted us by the fresh disclosure of his mighty omnipotence and his unfailing faith. No. He comforted us. There was a turn on the door and in came Titus.

31:15 And Paul's spirits that were down in the dumps were once again raised. God sent a man. He said, that's how God ministered to me, through a man. Through a man.

31:26 Now that's beautiful in its earthiness. Get the message. Beware of social isolationism. Cultivate those friendships that will become a means of emotional health.

31:39 Sometimes when I'm on the phone with one of my fellow elders, I apologize and say, look, I'm sorry. For 20 minutes, all I've done is grouse. And they said, look, you can't grouse on us. Who are you going to grouse on?

31:49 You can have your grouse all bottled up in you, then you'll be a wreck. Then you start grousing in your preaching. And that will dishonor God. What's a friend for?

Emotional Health Warning 3 & 4: Beware of Excessive Responsibilities and Neglecting Domestic Climate

32:01 So I urge you, beware of social isolationism. Thirdly, beware of taking on excessive responsibilities. Beware of taking on excessive responsibilities. God will give you enough strength to do the will of God, but never enough to do everything everyone else thinks you ought to do.

32:21 God will give you enough strength to do the will of God, but not enough to do everything everyone else thinks you ought to do. So beware of taking on excessive responsibilities. There's a simple little word that your fallen nature taught you to say as a child that you now need to relearn and to say under the impulse of grace. That's the word no. No.

32:45 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 Lord engaged in.

33:32 Your home should be though it's trite, it 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 presence of your wife and your children.

Emotional Health Warning 5 & 6: Cultivate Humility and Wholesome Diversions

33:54 I was going to say some other things but they're on the tape so I won't say them. Cultivate, fifthly, the ability not to take yourself too seriously.

34:03 Cultivate the ability not to take yourself too seriously.

34:08 This is so vital for emotional health. If you take yourself so seriously that every little bit of criticism, every absence of total open faced response from your people throws you into a tailspin, you'll make it maybe six months in the ministry at the most.

34:28 Don't take yourself too seriously. Alright? Sixthly,

34:36 cultivate a pattern of timely wholesome emotional diversions. Timely, wholesome emotional diversions. The thing which for you completely unstrings the emotional bow and it differs in all kinds of people. I could never understand how a man whose labor is mental and emotional could find something like chess of diversion.

35:03 That blows my mind. But I know men for whom it is just the diversion. I know other people. Fishing is a good diversion. Not me.

35:13 No, sir, man. All the while that bait's in the water or I'm real. You stupid thing, I give you the nicest thing. I'm as intense.

35:22 I don't relax. I don't relax. People say, oh, I have a nice relaxing. Not me. If the fish are biting, I'm having the best time jumping around like a nut pulling them in. And if they aren't, I'm sitting there. Crazy things are a waste of time to sit out here and got no fish in the, you know. So every man's different.

35:42 So you've got to find what is timely, wholesome emotional diversion for you. And each one of us is different. Me, best kind of emotional diversion when I can have it is headphones on, some operatic tenor screaming in my ears, and reading the Monday morning newspaper. That to me is emotional relaxation.

36:07 That's emotional hedonism for me. That's great. Someone else would be a former torture to have Pavarotti screeching high C's in their ear. But, you see, each man's got to know himself. So we're not being legalistic, brethren, but you must know what will work for you. All right? Well, that's what I wanted to say to you today. Took a few more minutes to say it, but we got started late.

Postscript: Beware of Excessive Weight Accumulation

36:34 And I hope over the years, brethren, God will help you to lay these counsels to heart that you won't become physical and emotional burnouts, but while being diligent in the work of the ministry, you will be monuments of the grace of God. I didn't say a lot about did I put in there? In fact, you know, I didn't give you that point. I've got to put it in, brethren. Sorry. Put a P.S. in there.

37:00 Because I had written it out in full on the back. Beware of excessive weight accumulation. How in the world I could have forgotten that? Beware of excessive weight accumulation. That's under the physical. As a general rule, ministerial fat and maximum ministerial usefulness are incompatible.

37:25 Excess weight usually results in sluggishness due to a strain on the heart,

37:34 produces the crippling effect of a guilty conscience,

37:38 and it produces a loss of grip on the consciences of others. How can you be blameless as a self-controlled man when your rolls of blubber hanging over your belt say that you've not learned to control what goes into your mouth?