07a) Physical and Emotional Growth, Part 2

The Axiom: Attaining and Maintaining Accurate Self-Assessment

0:03 Having sought to lay before you what I call the necessity for and the inevitability of this concern for the pastor's physical and emotional health and vigor, we come now to number two, the explanation of the principle or the exegesis of the axiom. The axiom stated was this, that you must seek to attain and maintain an accurate understanding of your present physical and emotional constitution and engage in a regular but flexible discipline aimed at keeping these two aspects of your redeemed humanity in optimum health and vigor. Now, in explaining the axiom, the first area of concern, pertains to that of attaining and maintaining an accurate assessment of who and what you are, and I underline the word are, physically and emotionally. Romans 12.3 we're familiar with.

1:10 The primary emphasis there is sober self-assessment with respect to gifts. I'm simply highlighting the principle that sober self-assessment is our responsibility to maintain and maintain an accurate assessment of who and what you are. In every area of life, one of the requirements for an elder is that he be sober-minded, that he be in touch with reality wherever reality impinges upon him. And in underscoring what we are, much of it means that we come to grips with the implications of Psalm 139, which is both a humbling and a liberating thing, but a very necessary thing.

1:54 Here, in the familiar words of verses 13 to 16, the psalmist looks back upon his prenatal development and says, Thou didst form my inward parts, Thou didst cover me in my mother's womb, I will give thanks unto thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful of thy works, and that my soul knows right well. My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. He likens his mother's womb to a subterranean hidden place where God formed him. Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, and in thy book they were all written, even the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was none of them. And here the acknowledgement of what God in my mother's womb made me, is an occasion of great delight and praise for the psalmist. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, how great is the sum of them. And in emphasizing this attaining and maintaining an accurate assessment of who and what we are physically and emotionally, I'm simply appealing, brethren, to recognize what God did fundamentally in our mother's wombs, and then,

3:22 in his providence in our development. For example, if someone had scarlet fever as a little child and a weakened heart, unless God intervenes miraculously, soberly assessing who and what I am, means I've got to take into consideration not just the heart God gave me when he knit me together in my mother's womb, but the heart I now have as a result of my contraction of scarlet fever, and facing realistically, who and what I am, both physically and emotionally. Seek to understand, genetically, what have I inherited from the gene pool as best I can discern it. Was my father, was my mother, someone that I might call naturally emotionally volatile, emotionally fragile, emotionally strong, emotionally flat, emotionally dull? Seek to ascertain what it is that has gone into the gene pool and most likely stamped you with what you are both physically and emotionally. And then we must factor in the reality of 2 Corinthians 4.16, that's why this is not a once-for-all assessment, where we read that the outward man is perishing.

4:48 All of us with each passing day is heading to his grave. So what I was at 20, I am not now at 30. And what you are at 30, you'll not be at 40. And all kinds of factors will enter, some that may make you a stronger man at 40 than you were at 30.

5:09 God may bless the advancements in medical science to help them to find out how to correct and neutralize something that keeps you relatively susceptible to winter colds or susceptible to certain emotional weaknesses. You may be more of a man of strength and vigor at 40 than you are at 30. But for the most part, most of us are heading this way. And though inwardly, and this is where the realism is needed, Paul says, as the outward man is decaying, the inward man is being renewed day by day.

5:49 So if there is ongoing, spiritual vigor and growth in the inward man, it means I see things more clearly that make me feel spiritual realities more deeply. Now if our view of preaching is right, what happens then when with a clearer eye and a warmer heart, I go to express the same truths? I'm going to desire to express them with greater vigor. But the instrument isn't what it was.

6:21 It was 20 years ago. That's reality. And I have to face that reality. And so, in stating in the axiom, you must seek to attain and maintain an accurate understanding of your present physical and emotional constitution.

The Reality of Decay and Personal Experience

6:42 This is what I'm talking about. For example, it used to be when I preached myself into exhaustion twice on the Lord's day, that taking half of Monday and doing vigorous physical work, doing all the yard work and stuff in half a day that most men would take two days to do, and working like a madman to where my wife at times seeing me do it said, Honey, you're going to kill yourself. And then taking the other half of the day to kick my feet up, read the newspaper, and listen to some good music and take a nap. Come Tuesday morning, I'm ready to break out of the blocks.

7:17 Ain't that way no more? I find that, I find that Sunday night the current is still running over the wires. Try to sleep in a bit late on Monday morning, and now I can do a little work physically, but for the most part I'm like a zombie. And instead of hitting the floor Tuesday morning feeling like I'm ready to take on the world, I find it takes till Wednesday till I've recovered.

7:46 That's in spite of regular cardiovascular exercise, constant watching of the diet, doing everything I know to help prop up this decaying thing that's heading to the grave. And if I don't come to grips with that, I'm going to do one of two things. I'm either going to tempt God and send myself to an early grave, or I'm going to live with a falsely accusing conscience. Now I don't like either of those alternatives.

8:12 They're not very attractive to me. And by the grace of God, I'm determined to resist both of them. But it means, brethren, this attaining and maintaining an accurate understanding of present physical and emotional constitution. I've also found with the passing of the years that deeply traumatic emotional pastoral situations wear on me in a way that they did not in my earlier years, where once the emotional wires could take intense current for long periods of time, and when it was time to sleep, just turn them off and the rebound.

8:50 It's not that way anymore. I have to reckon with that reality and respond accordingly. And you can't just will it away. It just won't be willed away.

Establishing a Regular but Flexible Discipline

9:02 It is there as a part of reality. Then letter B. The second area of concern has to do with establishing a regular but flexible discipline of activities related to these issues. A structure of activities, relationships, both personal, domestically, and ministerially, which will, with the blessing of God, maintain you at optimum physical and emotional strength.

9:35 When you pray, thy kingdom come. When you pray, give us this day our daily bread. When you pray, lead us not into temptation. As one who is thinking biblically, having thus prayed, you do all within your power to advance the kingdom, to earn your bread, and to avoid circumstances of temptation.

10:03 Well, in the same way, if you are committed intelligently, based on biblical light, that it is your responsibility to have a discipline that is regular but flexible, that will keep you at optimum health and vigor, physically and emotionally, then, you see, you are showing the same proper response to the biblical framework of prayer joined to sanctified endeavor. Now, obviously, it needs to be flexible, and this is why I've quoted 2 Corinthians 12, 1 and following. When Paul's thorn in the flesh was given to him, it meant a radical disruption of his normal patterns. So much so that he saw it as an impediment to fulfilling his apostolic duties. And therefore, he earnestly sought the Lord three times for its removal. That was obviously a period of disruption of the normal set of circumstances.

11:13 And I've quoted Psalm 102 and verse 23, a text that again over the years has brought great consolation and encouragement to me. Psalm 102 and verse 23, he weakened my strength in the way. He shortened my days. God brought something into the life of the psalmist that upset the normal patterns, and it meant that he had to, as it were, interrupt his ordinary patterns of life and give himself to seeking God.

11:57 I said, oh my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. And then Psalm 103, I should have added as well, Psalm 103, verses 13 and 14, like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

12:21 And therefore you and I, having, by the grace of God, an ordinary discipline involving physical exercise, etc., we'll come to some of the specifics later, it is one that we're prepared to have disrupted when God intervenes through no choice of our own, when there are factors that make it wise that we should suspend certain activities, but we know what to come back to. We have something to come back to, as the regular framework within which we maintain, by the grace of God, optimum physical and emotional health. Then the third area of concern focuses on this concept of redeemed humanity.

The Concept of Redeemed Humanity

13:06 In the axiom I've said, keeping these two aspects of your redeemed humanity in optimum health and vigor. And there I simply remind you of the text quoted earlier that, I have been purchased with a price, God indwells the temple bought by the blood of His Son, and He places me under a solemn obligation, glorify God therefore in your body, which is His. And you see, this will keep us, on the one hand, from denigrating the body, or falling into body worship. This is purchased property, and I am to care for it, to the glory of the God who purchased it, and who indwells it by His Holy Spirit. And I have found, if I may bring my personal testimony in, it's instinctive with me. Rarely is there a time when I don't do it, when I get on that treadmill at the beginning of my regimen of physical exercise, and before I punch the tape that I'm going to listen to, whether it's the Scripture or sermons, that there's almost a, I probably could write the prayer out. I've prayed it so many times.

14:24 Lord, as I now give myself to exercise this body that's slated for the grave, but purchased by Your dear Son, bless the activity of my lungs. Why I use the word viscera, I don't know, but I use it. And Lord, bless my viscera. And if it please You, as the blood is pumped through the arteries and the blood vessels at about three times its normal rate, unclog any cholesterol, that's gathering on the walls, keep the arteries healthy.

14:53 Lord, may this body be used for Your glory as long as it pleases You to use it, and may I regard it. I pray that way and ask God's blessing upon those endeavors. Now, I may die of a heart attack in the middle of my next regimen, but on the way out, I'll be able to say, Lord, it ain't because I was careless. You see?

15:16 I don't guarantee I'm going to live to be 80 or 90. But it does mean that I'm not tempting God. And so, having the concept that this is redeemed property to me is critical in the implementation of these matters. All right?

Practical Exhortations for Physical Health: Ignorance, Weight, and Exercise

15:34 Then we come to what I'm calling in the next two pages. And you say, how in the world are we going to get through that in 20 minutes? Well, I think maybe we can. The practical implementation of this principle, large and small, letter A, concerning physical health, and there I set before you eight exhortations, and then B, concerning emotional health, six exhortations.

15:58 Concerning physical health, the first one is, beware of fundamental ignorance or indifference. Beware of fundamental ignorance or of indifference, that is, to the basics of health and nutrition. 1 Corinthians 10.31 is the only text we need to support this exhortation.

16:22 Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now, how can I eat and drink to the glory of God if I'm fundamentally ignorant of what God has intended eating and drinking should do? And what kinds of eating and drinking will produce what kinds of effects in my physical and even in my emotional constitution? The preacher who loads his system with excessive salt, excessive amounts of caffeine, and then within the pressures of the ministry has hypertension and has a stroke, is he glorifying God with what he eats and drinks?

17:07 When the evidence of excessive intake of salt in relationship to hypertension is so evident, the evidence of the excessive imbibing of caffeine, I didn't say the moderate, but excessive imbibing, in some cases, we have one of our elders, he can't so much as drink a Coke with caffeine in it. His heart is such that it's triggered and it'll bring on a tachycardia. He has had to kick caffeine cold turkey and treat caffeine like a wino would treat any alcoholic beverage. And he's a teetotaler, I should say, a caffeine totaler.

17:49 I mean, there's nothing, no caffeine whatsoever. Well, if he's to glorify God in what he drinks, he knows for him he can't have one hundredth of a milligram caffeine. That's reality, a reality that's come upon him in the last couple of years, and he's living with that reality. And so, brethren, with all that is available, and I'll be glad to recommend several general health letters that I have found helpful.

18:16 One of them I didn't need, until a few years ago. It's called Health After 50, put out by Johns Hopkins Hospital. Well, once I got 50, I figured if there's peculiar stuff for people over 50, then I'd better find out what I'm particularly vulnerable to. And sure enough, both Pastor Barker and I look forward to our Health After 50 letter coming every week.

18:37 Go to the library, get a couple of good books and read them. Secondly, I've given you this warning. Beware of excessive weight accumulation. Because the nature of our labor is primarily sedentary.

18:53 We're sitting at our desks, and given that we live in the day of the automobile and not horseback and getting there by foot, we live a sedentary life. And in the light of that, it is easy with just what would be a normal caloric intake without being a glutton at all to have fat cells starting to store up. And the older you get, it's like there's an invisible magnet between here and here. And the evidence of belly fat in relationship to cardiovascular problems is overwhelmingly convincing.

19:29 Brethren, I urge you, beware of the excessive weight accumulation because it produces sluggishness. You're making the heart pump blood through all that excessive flesh. It'll cripple your conscience with guilt if you keep your conscience enlightened by the Word of God, and then you'll lose a grip on the consciences of others. How can you call others to a life of self-control?

19:55 What are the requirements for an elder? 1 Timothy 3, 2. If rolls of blubber hanging over your belly and even, as it were, resting on the edge of a pulpit say you are not in control of your own caloric intake or your exercise or whatever's necessary to keep the fat cells from feeding upon excessive calories. Brethren, 2 Corinthians 6, 3.

20:25 In nothing giving offense that the ministry be not blamed. But someone says, Spurgeon was fat and overweight and look how God used him. I say Spurgeon's in his grave and in the presence of his master leave him there. To his own master a servant stands.

20:46 That's all I have to say about Spurgeon. What's your name, sir? To your master you'll stand or fall. Are you giving occasion for the ministry to be blamed by your excessive weight?

21:00 Then deal with it! And don't go pointing to Spurgeon or anyone else. Then, Exhortation 3. Beware of the no planned physical exercise syndrome.

21:16 Know what that means? That means convincing yourself you're too busy in the ministry to do the will of God. And that's how you need to face it. If you're convinced it's part of your stewardship in the will of God to keep yourself in optimum physical and emotional health, then there is time in every day and in everyone's schedule to do the will of God.

21:43 Now, there may not be time to do all the things you'd like, read all the books you'd like, and certainly not to have all the counseling sessions that people think they need. I'm going to address that in a separate Exhortation somewhere. I've got an explosion building up on that. But anyway, I'll keep the explosion under.

22:01 Since the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, I'll manifest it here. But beware of the no planned physical exercise syndrome. Our technological age has made much of the ordinary physical activity of a bygone day outmoded walking, chopping wood, riding, etc. The nature of our work brings maximum mental and emotional strain with a minimum of vigorous physical activity.

22:29 In the light of this, ministers are prime candidates for the results of a life of stress without vigorous physical exercise. 1 Timothy 4.8 is a positive assertion. Bodily exercise is profitable for a little, whether comparative or in terms of its time.

22:53 It is profitable. And I am not going to legislate for you what kind of exercise, where, how much. All I'm saying is, establish a plan suitable to your needs and start it now. I don't mean next semester, in the summer.

23:14 Now, in the middle of the winter, with all the things that say you can't do it. If you need to read a book on aerobics, whatever you need to do, beware of the no planned physical exercise syndrome. As surely as if you think you'll pray if you just find time to pray and you'll never pray, if you just think, well, if I find time to exercise, I'll use it. There's no block sitting out there just floating around saying, hey, look at me, use me for exercise.

Practical Exhortations for Physical Health: Sleep and Stimulants

23:48 No. It must become a matter of conscience, and conscious endeavor. Fourth exhortation, beware of the pattern of cheating on your necessary measure of sleep. And notice the number of texts that I've listed.

24:03 I begin with the text that warn about the sluggard, and I don't believe any of you men here would be here and would be passing your grades were you sluggards. And there is a time when the Lord Jesus says, when men would naturally be overcome by sleep, Matthew 26, 40, what could you not watch with me? One hour. There was a time when the disciples were to resist what was a very natural proclivity to sleep.

24:34 Their eyes were heavy. It was in the wee hours of the morning, yet the Lord was calling them to resist the natural sleep that would have given rest at that time. But then we must reckon with these other texts. Psalm 127 in verse 2.

24:52 Psalm 127 and verse 2. It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of toil, for so he gives unto his beloved literally in sleep. And it's apparently the picture of the man who says, well, the only way I can provide for my family is to be holding down two jobs at the same time. And he's doing it to the point where he's destroying himself.

25:19 He said, look, look, look, look. God will provide for you. You do your proper measure of labor and God can give to you in your sleep. God can give to you in your sleep.

25:32 In other words, there's a sense in which we really take things on us that God has taken upon himself if we get into a pattern of regularly cheating on our own necessary measure of sleep. And I've listed Mark 4.35 because here again, our Lord Jesus, perfect humanity, is seen doing a very strange thing. Some of us would be embarrassed to do this.

26:02 In the middle of the day, he's taking a nap. 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. And leaving the multitude, they take with him, even as he was in the boat, and the other boats were with him.

26:24 And there arises a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the boat, insomuch the boat was now filling. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. Even has come, not night time, evening has come, a time when most men are still about their business. The Lord Jesus is so dog-tired that he's taking a nap.

26:51 Luke 8 and verse 22, parallel passage. Luke 8 and verse 22. Came to pass on one of those days that he entered into a boat himself and his disciples, and said let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth, and as they sailed, he fell asleep.

27:11 Gentle rocking put the Lord Jesus asleep, and he didn't fight it and say, well I must give the impression of a disciplined, self-controlled man who's never caught a sleep before it's night time. He was tired, the gentle rocking of the boat. He fell asleep, and he was so tired, his sleep was so deep, that when the gentle rocking became a turbulent storm, it didn't even wake him up. There's our Lord.

27:43 His labors had wearied him, and his sleep was the means of refreshing him. The necessity for a realistic cycle of sleep and work is part of our creaturehood, not our sinnerhood. That was the thing that liberated me. Going back to Genesis and realizing that in creation, God made it day and night.

28:06 Sleep was essential to Adam and Eve in their unfallen state. Now thank God it's not going to be necessary in the new creation. There'll be no night. There'll be no weariness.

28:20 We'll serve him day and night. But in the original creation and now with the added weariness that comes from the effects of the fall, sleep is essential. Sleep is essential to refresh us for labor. And each one of us must reckon before God and continually reckon, because it's not the same.

28:44 With that measure of sleep that we need in order to render not only optimum service to God in the immediate, but to render optimum service to God assuming, not presuming, but assuming he's going to give us our three score and ten years to serve him. Few of us, if we have any heart for God, didn't go through a period when the first time we read David Brainerd or Henry Martin or Robert Murray McShane, we wanted to burn out and die before we were thirty. And somehow, somebody would write a little booklet about us that we burned up for God before we were thirty. And though we didn't think we'd have a big fat one that others would read and be affected inwardly in the naughtiness of our youthful pride, we thought there was something spiritual about this idea of burning out for God. Well, God has shown us that that is not a biblical concept. The biblical concept is that we ought to not presume, but assume that God's marked out our three score and ten or perhaps, by reason of strength, four score years and to live in the light of optimum usefulness for the long haul. And not to have to write as John Owen did.

30:05 Vain reading is a way to get rid of the regrets for folly in youth with regard to sleep. So beware of the pattern of cheating on the necessary measure of sleep. Number five, beware of the dependence upon or addiction to stimulants and depressants. Beware of dependence upon or addiction to stimulants and depressants.

30:26 Remember, when the Bible says every creature of God is good and every creature of God is evil, it is true that every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused. First Timothy 4, 4 and 5 is speaking of food and drink and I believe by implication of stimulants. I thank God for that immediate impact of the caffeine on my brain in the morning that helps me to read my Bible and pray with greater clarity. There was a time when I didn't need it.

31:01 When I was younger I used to be able to have my feet hit the floor and be in the place of prayer and meditation with just a brief sojourn by the bathroom as alert as any man. Those years have long since passed and I thank God. I consciously thank God for the caffeine but I must make sure I don't get dependent upon it and if I find myself beginning to get in a pattern where I say I've got to have that extra cup and I say uh-uh, meats for the belly, belly for the meats, I'll not be brought under the bondage of any. And if I need caffeine to keep me going throughout the day so that I'm having as it were a constant caffeine rush then something's wrong with regard to my sleep patterns or there may be some other physiological problem that needs to be addressed. Likewise there may be a time in the midst of a crisis when you may need a prescription sleeping pill to help you to get over the edge and into a deep enough sleep to forget the burdens. That would be the application of what God says is the purpose of strong drink. A strong drink to him that is ready to die that he may forget his sorrow.

Practical Exhortations for Physical Health: Days Off and Listening to Others

32:17 There is a place for a depressant as well as a stimulant. But beware of dependence upon or addiction to stimulants or depressants. The next exhortation beware of the no day off pattern of life. And here I lay before you the pressure of the fourth commandment.

32:39 Beware of the no day off pattern of life. Listen to Spurgeon in the addition of his lectures to my students the paperback one that is now paperback that I have it's not the one with the line drawings etc. Page 160 In the midst of a long stretch of unbroken labor the same affliction may be looked for. The bow cannot always be bent without fear of breaking.

33:07 Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body. Our Sabbath our Sabbaths are our days of toil and if we do not rest upon some other day we will 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.

33:38 What? When the people are fainting? When the multitudes of the mountains without a shepherd? Does Jesus talk of rest?

33:46 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? Let him rave in his folly the master knows better than to exhaust his servants and to quench the light of Israel. Time is not waste time.

34:15 It is economy to gather fresh strength. And then he gives analogies and alas I believe there are times when under the pressure of his own large and compassionate heart the dear man forgot his own exhortation to his students and humanly speaking went to an early grave. And for that I don't fault him. Most of us don't have the problem of having such a heart of people that we run the kind of risk he did.

34:47 But I believe the Sabbath principle demands that we carry over something of the mental and physical rest of a Sabbath into another day. And this is where Murphy's quote is so helpful. The center of page 104. We would also earnestly recommend that Monday be observed as a day of mental and bodily rest.

35:11 The minister said that his resting day as well as other men or he will suffer the consequences. His physical constitution demands it. If it is denied in time he'll break down in health as hundreds are doing. Nor must it be supposed that devoting one day of the week to absolute rest will be a loss of time in the end.

35:39 No, the work of the other days will be more vigorous. The physical and mental tone far more work will be accomplished. One day of wakeful energetic work is worth three or four spent in half dreaming and forcing oneself to unattractive tasks. We need to listen to these old men.

36:00 They knew what they were talking about and they had learned from bitter experience and astute observation. And then I've exhorted you beware of the no planned end. And there I've listed Mark 631 where the Lord consciously deliberately says come apart and rest a while for the sake of your families for the sake of your own soul and here I would give my own testimony I've repented before God of not heeding this principle I don't recall stifling exhortations given to me and left at the mercy of my Lord that I have done for you the right and the right way together in the right way and that I have and that you have and that you have and that you have weariness in you. Beware of the stubborn refusal to listen to others who see the tell-tale signs.

37:23 I thank God for a time about 15 years ago when my fellow elders saw some signs that alarmed them, and the next thing I knew, they said, you're out of circulation for two weeks. The pulpit's closed to you. What am I to do? It's all been taken care of. You're to get in your car with your wife, and you're to drive X number of miles down the Garden State Parkway to such and such a place, and there you will find a house all furnished, etc., and you're to do nothing but sleep, rest. Thank you, brethren. I don't know where I'd be today if it weren't for that.

38:04 Could have led to a complete breakdown, but they saw some of the indications that too much current had been running for too long without the kind of break essential. But as Porter said, recognizing that people find it very difficult to listen to others, listen to what he says. This is a subject, talking about this matter of caring for our physical and emotional well-being, that many would say belongs to the physician and not to the teacher in pastoral theology. He said, I'm not such a novice in human affairs as to expect that any counsels that I can give by way of premonition will be seasonably and seriously regarded by more than one intent. I'm not such a novice in human affairs as to expect that any counsels that I can give by way of premonition will be seasonably and seriously regarded by more than one intent. I'm not such a novice in human affairs as to expect that any counsels that I can give by way of premonition will be seasonably and seriously regarded by more than one intent. Of those to whom they are addressed, one who had the very best opportunities for observation on this subject and who was much distinguished for discrimination of judgment remarked to me, quote, the student must break down himself before he'll take warning. Very few men will learn anything as far as the preservation of health from the experience of others.

39:11 That was, he says, Timothy Dwight, who saw hundreds of men pass under, his observation as president of Yale. And he said, very few will listen until they break down and their back is against the wall, then they're ready to listen. Brethren, hear me. Hear me. When those around you who love you see the indications, listen to them. Go and get a general physical. Go and get whatever you need of the means available to make sure that you are not tempting God by excessive pressure placed upon your physical and emotional constitution. And then what about your emotional health?

Practical Exhortations for Emotional Health: Naturalness and Social Interaction

39:57 Am I putting anyone in trouble if I just take the five minutes and run down through these? Alright? They're self-explanatory. Beware of unnaturalness and ministerial stoicism. God has made us with emotional pores which, like physical pores that keep the body ventilated, help us to ventilate emotionally. Such things as hearty laughter, vigorous discussion of secular matters, playfulness with your wife, interaction with your kids and others, listening to good music, these are all emotional pores. Don't allow the ministry to cause you to clog them up. That's what I'm talking about when I say the unnaturalness and ministerial stoicism. When it's time

40:47 to weep in appropriate places, and company, weep unashamedly. When it's time to laugh, laugh heartily. Cultivate liberty in the expression of your emotions in secret prayer, brethren. I believe it's one of the greatest means of grace for emotional health is to let your emotional life be fully vented in the presence of God.

41:13 He'll never be nervous with your tears. He'll never, never frown at your holy laugh. He'll never, never, never be insulted at your groans. So vent yourself emotionally in the presence of God. Be frank in your dealings with God, natural in your dealings with men, honest in your position before the people of God. Few strains are greater than trying to support an image that ain't you. Am I keeping up the image? Horrible strain.

41:50 Just be you. You, more and more like Christ, yes, you, more and more sanctified, yes, but you. And when you have a salad that had too much garlic like I did the other day, just tell the people, look, I'm standing at a distance from you because I really got a fancy breath. And they'll have a good laugh and you'll have a good laugh. And then they'll feel the tension ease. They already smell it and they don't want to appear rude. So you tell them, I didn't realize I didn't put that much garlic in my Caesar salad. I know my breath stinks. I can't stand the taste of it. But we'll weather this together. So you be honest and open. Don't be a stoic. Beware then of social isolationism. Brethren, God has made us social beings. The incarnate God says, what could you not watch with me? One hour? He's leaning on his

42:43 creatures. What a pathetic creature. But he leans upon them. And then he obviously delighted in their companionship.

42:51 John 18 says he oft times went over the brook, hidron into the garden, resorting there with his disciples. Paul with Timothy, the pain he felt when he had to depart, the joy he had, 2 Corinthians 7, 5 and 6, God who comforts those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. I love the text. It's so unspiritual.

43:16 The comfort of God came not with a mighty baptism of divine nearness, but the door creaked and in came Titus. Paul's heart was lifted up. That's wholesome social interaction and acknowledgement of social need. Beware of excessive responsibilities.

Practical Exhortations for Emotional Health: Responsibilities, Climate, and Diversions

43:39 Few things will break a man down when he takes on more than God ever intended. Beware of the tyranny of opportunity. Every opportunity to do good is not a call from God for you to take it. And Jesus again is our great example. Mark 1, he went out early in the morning to pray. The disciples found a village. He said, no, no, no, we've got to go to the next towns and villages for there unto us I sent. You think our Lord did that without pain? To say no to the cry of hungry hearts? But he wouldn't let human need determine the measure of his labor nor the sphere but the will of God. Beware of excessive responsibilities. There's enough strength to do the will of God, not all that others may think is the will of God for you. Fourthly, cultivate

44:29 a wholesome domestic climate. Our Lord had no wife and children, but he had that lovely home at Bethany where he had wholesome female companionship and male companionship of the deepest order. And God had mercy on the wicked, filthy people who would say that he had homosexual or illicit sexual involvement in those intimate relationships. No, he is our picture of one who found healing in wholesome domestic interaction. Five, cultivate the ability not to take yourself so seriously.

45:13 You know, the world got on real fine before you were ever conceived and born.

45:19 The sun came up every morning, set every night, and I'm going to tell you something. It's going to go right on until the Lord comes when you're rotten in your grave. I find that so liberating. Emotionally,

45:35 you're goofed. So what? The world isn't going to stop. And all bow over and weep because you blew something and did something stupid.

45:45 Don't take yourself so seriously.

45:48 Take yourself seriously in the biblical sense, but don't have an over inflated view of what a big cog you are in the wheel of things. God got his work done very well before you came on the scene, and he'll continue to get it done when you go off it. You're just privileged. I'm privileged.

46:05 Have a little par for a little time. Don't take yourself too seriously. Finally, cultivate a pattern of timely, wholesome, emotional diversions. Put in the word emotional diversions.

46:22 See, some men, their diversions make too much emotional demands upon them. It's like preachers. I can't understand the preacher that finds playing chess a diversion. Once I learned how to play chess in order to have a thing to do with my son, I said, man, I'd never get into this too much because, man, that was like exegeting a pass.

46:45 That wasn't emotional diversion for me. That was emotional labor. Emotional diversion for me is sitting down, reading Sports Monday in the New York Times and listening to Rachmaninoff. That just washes my emotions. That heals me. Well, you've got to find the things that are real, wholesome, emotional diversions for you, and have them timely in the schedule of your life. So that your emotions will be kept healthy, that when you come to preach, you have a wholesome, emotional constitution to be the instrument along which God can convey his truth to his people. Well, thank you for your patience, brethren.

47:32 I did want to get through this in one unit, and I think once stating the principles, you can see the application of them is something that each one of us will have to work out in his own way before God. All right. We're done. I'm ready to stay on.