Fit For Life I

Every time we gather, I'm just so aware of those needs. But you be sure, if you have a need, afterwards you find your way up here, and there'll be people to pray with you specifically and personally. That's who we are as a church. That's our commitment. And there are people that will testify to God's power to set free and to restore and to heal. So don't miss those opportunities. I'm going to invite the ushers to come now. If you've been gone for the last few weeks, or are just concluding some summertime off or whatever, and you've not gotten your spiritual health and life assessment, it's time to get these. So ushers are going to come all the way forward, and I'm going to ask you to lift up your hand. If you didn't get one, it's now your time. So ushers are coming. Here they come. And if you didn't get one, it's just a little one-page thing. There's no name on it or anything. It's very safe. But it's to help you connect with us for the next eight weeks as we go through this new series together we're calling Fit for Life. You may have noticed the equipment when you came in. It's all part of this next series that we're launching. By the way, while they're doing that, I just want to say, speaking of staying fit, there were over 700 children here on Friday night for the Kids Blitz, and our staff did a great job keeping up with them. And by the way, at the end of the evening, 30 kids gave their hearts to Christ. And I just say thanks to our team for that. It was an awesome deal. We just never know. We never know how the Lord is going to operate from those moments when kids have encounters with God. So thanks for that great time. Let's look together now at what the Lord would say to us today about spiritual health. That's where we're going today, how we become healthy as believers. Now earlier this summer, because of the privilege of having some extended time off, I was browsing through one of the major book retailer shops and saw all these books that I just don't normally have time to even look at, let alone read. And a lot of titles jumped off at me, and I went, Oh, that looked good, and that looked good. And then I saw a book that had a lot of pictures on it. So that looked good. It reminded me of my fourth grade reading. The more pictures, the better off I was. But the pictures on this book were particularly intriguing. If we put the lights down a bit, the pictures, you may have seen it. The book had some pictures on it that looked like this. The before, and the after. Oh, man. A little grainy, but you get the idea. There's another one that looked like this, and then like that. Pretty big transformation. One of the gals looked like this, and then looked like that. Whoa. Okay. And a couple, how about this pretty nasty-looking couple there, having a bad day, and then they looked like this. Well, the book was 40% off. I said, I'm buying that book. I've got to take a look at this and see what this is about. It was called Body for Life. You may have seen it. Apparently, it's been a New York Times bestseller. I didn't know that, of course, because I don't have time to read things like this. But it was very fascinating. I'm going to talk about it in a moment. But the fitness craze that's in America today is big business. It's big time, as you know. Millions of Americans are very concerned about health and fitness. It's estimated that 20 million Americans go into a health club or fitness club every single day. 20 million. And that doesn't begin to touch all the things that you see in the infomercials and all the home equipment that everyone has and all the dieting things and all that has to do with staying healthy and staying fit. It's cool to be fit. Some people take it to an extreme and freeze other people out. But it's a big deal. It's a hot thing to do. But what intrigued me about this book was the main premise that the author began to reveal early on. And, I mean, it was quite stunning, actually. He says that, these are my words, that fitness is not just about body fat or cholesterol control or muscle mass or tone definition of your body or energy levels. It's about a better life. That's what he says across the board. And he engaged 54,000 people in a challenge, a 12-week challenge, to get in shape by offering them a $200,000 sports car, which he owned, by the way, a Lamborghini. 54,000 people signed up. And after they took the challenge, they started writing in and saying things. Here is a literal quote from his book about what happened in the lives of the people. It's this. It says, Many of the men and women who accepted my challenge reported that this program literally saved their lives. Their risk of heart disease was drastically lowered as well as the risk of being afflicted with other illnesses. Beyond even that, the psychological and emotional changes reported by these men and women were and are stunning. They described off-the-chart leaps in self-confidence, self-respect, and empowerment. They discovered that taking control of their bodies broke down barriers all around them. People were more attracted to them. They got better jobs. They made greater amounts of money. Their relationships with colleagues, family, and friends improved. Their marriages got better. Their sex lives became more successful. Old habits that seemed impossible to break suddenly became easy to drop. And on and on he goes. I'm thinking, wait a minute. If I just get in shape, does that mean my emotional and relational and psychological life are automatically going to get better? Not in my experience. I mean, if that be the case, hey, we might as well replace all these seats with Stairmasters. Instead of cookies, we'll hand out granola bars and stuff. We'll just make this the biggest health fitness place in Eastern America. I've discovered, how about you, that there's more to really having a wholesome life than just being fit. There's a whole lot more. And in fact, to face life's challenges, there has to be something going on on the inside. And I'm not disputing what this author found out from his people. That's fine. Those are his conclusions. My own experience and my conclusions after a number of years of being involved with people is, you need a lot more to face life than just being in shape. It's okay to be in shape. It's good to be in shape, physically speaking. But you know what? There's not one word that I saw in this book about what happens to the body after you die. So it's a body for this life, but it has nothing to do with the life to come. That's why when Jesus Christ came, he said, I have come that you might have life, life, and have it more abundantly, or have it to the full. The life he's talking about is not just eternal life, although that's an amazing, wonderful truth and promise. He's talking about life in the here and now. In fact, what happens when you open your heart to God, the Holy Spirit comes into your life, takes up his permanent residence inside you, and he begins to change you from the inside. How many of you have experienced that? And you know that there's something that happens in you. It's hard to describe sometimes, but that life begins to grow. And the Bible says that it's that life that soon begins to be the assurance that you have eternal life as well. You no longer ask the question, I wonder what happens to me when I die. You know that what happens to you is you go on living. The spirit life in you goes on living. And beyond that, God says, by the way, he's going to give us these bodies back in a way that's indestructible. I think that's kind of the coolest fitness there is, don't you? The indestructible body that God has for each one of us. So I want to talk with you today for just a little bit about being spiritually healthy. And lest you think I'm just sort of making a big long extrapolation of this point, I want you to turn on your outline, take your outlines out of your notes here. So many of you commented you liked the approach last week of no blanks. I don't know if it was just you like not having your pens. I couldn't go two weeks without some blanks, but I'm going to do a little bit of exposition and a little bit of blanks today for you. And I want you to read right out of the Bible what Paul said to his spiritual trainee, his pastor in training, Timothy. Here's what he writes in the book, The Letter to Timothy, chapter 4, verses 1 through 11. This is the New Living Translation. Now look at it with me. It says, Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last time some will turn away from what we believe. They will follow lying spirits and teaching that comes from demons. These teachers are hypocrites and liars. They pretend to be religious, but their consciences are dead. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created these foods to be eaten with thanksgiving by people who know and believe the truth. Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it. We may receive it gladly with thankful hearts, for we know it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. Paul makes a very important point to start out. He's saying to Timothy, first of all, avoid the extremes of teaching. If you're filling in the blanks, write that down. Avoid the extremes. Paul is saying, Timothy, there's going to be some very smart people that are going to try to trip you up. They're going to try to fool you. They're going to tell you, don't eat this, don't do that, stop this, don't do that. Do this. And Timothy, they're hypocrites and they're liars. And they're speaking to you things that are going to cause you great sorrow. They'll promise you things that bring big rewards, but end up bringing great pain in your life. Now, in the physical realm, we have some things that hold out big promises and don't deliver much. They're called, have you ever heard of a crash diet? Have you ever heard someone say, you know what, if you just do this, in one week, you can lose 18 pounds. Or in one month, you can lose 75 pounds. The only way I know to do that is to stop eating altogether and cut off your leg. I mean, maybe that's a way you can get it done. There's all kinds of, I mean, there's amazing claims being made these days out there. Have you heard them? Millions of Americans are spending billions of dollars, billions of dollars on diets and fads and machines. And they're just, they're looking for that one thing that's going to get really easy for them to quickly get their body under control and to get in shape and be physically fit. The most amazing ones are the ones that say, you know, eat anything you want, don't exercise and stay exactly the same and drink this teaspoon of this stuff overnight. And you're just going to be turning into this amazing hulk. I bought some of that. Because I had to see what it was that could do that. And it hasn't worked, I don't think. I'm looking, it hasn't worked. There is no quick, easy fix, is there? No, there really isn't. In fact, it's usually rather heartbreaking because people just keep getting tempted and then getting discouraged. There's crash course Christianity too. You'll read about it. People say something to me like, you know, if you just listen to this tape, it'll really change you. Or if you just, if you watch this guy on the television, that's the guy that really has sort of an inside track to getting Godly. Go to that seminar, that one seminar, I mean, it'll make sense, or whatever. Folks, let me assure you of one thing I can tell you after 37 years of walking with Christ, there is no overnight way to get your life going. There's a way overnight to begin to change, but there's no way that you're just going to do one thing and all of a sudden everything's different. It's not that way. Why? Because Christianity is a relationship with the living God. So, be very careful when someone comes and says, hey, if you just listen to this, it's going to change you forever. I mean, I doubt that. I very seriously doubt that. Sometimes we can take a radical step to get loose, to get free, to get on the path, but then you need to take the next step and the next step. Last week a gentleman came up, a very wonderful spirit, and he came up and he was so enthusiastic, he said, you know, I just have been kind of far from God and I need to start reading the Bible. So he said, I started two weeks ago reading the Bible. And I said, where are you now? He said, Leviticus. If you've read through the Bible, you know that Leviticus is sort of like, you know, the dead end street of reading through the Bible. And I just want to say, be careful about making those kind of commitments. People say, I need to pray more. I'm going to get up at five o'clock and pray for two hours. You know how long it usually lasts? About 30 minutes. Maybe the next day you try again and you just can't. Watch those radical things because they don't, you know what they end up doing? They produce guilt on top of everything else in your life. Be alert to these kinds of things. And there's one other kind of extreme. And that's the extreme of the people who kind of say, hey, well, it doesn't matter what you do. Just kind of, you know, don't do anything. Just show up once in a while. Just kind of hope that you're as good as anybody else and life will work out for you. That's extreme teaching as well. It's a teaching of error. It's a teaching that comes out of the heart that says, hey, you know, God's sort of got everything under control. It doesn't matter what I do. It matters a lot what you do. What we're going to talk about in the remaining moments of this message is about what you can do to get in the way of grace because God's grace has the power to change us all. So, number one, avoid extremes. Number two, activate your will. Let's read on. Here's what Paul says. If you explain this to the others, you will be doing your duty as a worthy servant of Christ Jesus. Remember, Timothy was a pastor. One who is fed by the message of faith and the true teaching you have followed. We're in the third paragraph here. Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales. No commentator that I could find elaborated on what those were. We don't know what those things were. But how many of you have been engaged in conversations that have been really pretty much a waste of time when it comes to religion? People talk about, well, you know, if God really was loving, you know, there wouldn't be poverty or there wouldn't be people that were sick. Or they get into all these kind of, well, I heard about a group of people that saw a flying saucer coming down and they said that they had seen God. Folks, don't waste your time. Those are godless things. It's a waste. We only have so much time. I want you to read the next verse out loud with me. Would you please? It's underlined. Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. That's in the Bible. There it is. Spend your time and your energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. There it is. Right there. And then he goes on to qualify this. Look at the next sentence. Physical exercise has some value. In other words, it's okay to be fit for, in a physical sense. It's good to work out. It's good to take care of your body. But, spiritual exercise, circle the word spiritual exercise, that's what we're talking about in this series, is much more important for it promises a reward both in this life and the next. What we're going to be talking about in the next eight weeks is going to prepare you to live this life and it's also going to prepare you to be ready for what God has for you as you move forward toward the life that is to come. It's an amazing thing. And, by the way, I'm not just making up the connection here. Look at this. The word for training there, in the underline, the word training, is the word gymnase. In the Greek, it's spelled, transliteration, G-Y-M-N-A-Z-E. Gymnase, for which we get the word gymnasium. That's right. He's literally saying, it's good. It's good to be somewhat disciplined in your spiritual growth. One of the great things that has been taking place in the last ten years or so in Christianity as a whole is an awareness that you need to have some discipline in your Christian walk. It's not just about experiences, folks. It's about a discipline. That's the balance we want to strike here today. Let me give you four specific illustrations of spiritual exercises. I'll do these quickly. We're going to look at these at somewhat more length as we go through the next several weeks. Pastor Dave and I are going to share these teachings. But I want to share four ways you can have a balanced spiritual exercise program. You ready? Number one, you need people to live with. People to live with. Any good spiritual fitness plan includes other people that are in the same process that you are. You need them to help encourage you, support you, cheer you on when you're having a tough time and kind of hold you accountable when you want to slack off. That's true in physically working out, isn't it? How many of you work out regularly with somebody? I was talking to Peter here. He works out. He plays football. He's got to be ready to go. When you get pushed, is it usually another guy that's saying, hey, come on, put on another 10-pound skip and another rep or two? Isn't that the way it works? I mean, you have a spot or someone to help you. In fitness, it works that way. You push a little bit more because somebody's with you. Likewise, in the Christian faith, you tend to try a little more if someone's encouraging you. And if you get discouraged, they can lift the weight off of you. It's very important. A lot of us try to be long-rangers, and folks, we just flat don't get it done. It's so discouraging, and it can be very difficult. I've discovered, have you, that it's time with others that makes the Christian life really fruitful. Sharing my sorrows. When something goes wrong, isn't it great to have somebody you can say, hey, pray for me. I'm having this problem. Or if something's great in your life or something really neat happened, it's great to share it. You double your joys and you halve your sorrows. I mean, ever get a new car and then just drive around looking for someone to give a ride in it? It's like, I've got to share this. It's too nice. Well, our Christian life is that way. We're looking for somebody to share life with, to grow with. The church is custom-made to be that support network that you need. Listen, I want to make this really clear because for some of us it's changed. I talked to someone after the first service and said I never understood church this way before. It isn't primarily our building. It's not primarily our services or our events or our programs. The church primarily is people. And it's so important to us at North Way that you get that, that we never put the word church in our name. When we named this community of people, this group of people, that was called a church, we called it North Way Christian Community. And people have never figured out why don't you call it a church? I mean, some people even drive by, they see this sign out there that says North Way and they see the big green building with the steeple and the cross and they say, I wonder if that's really a church. It's a church, okay? But listen, it's more important about what we are as a people than it is where we go. If someone says to me, well, where do you go to church? You should say, hey, I'm part of a community. I'm part of North Way. That's my church home. That's my church family. Now, that's a little thing maybe, but up here it's a big thing. In God's eyes, he doesn't look down and see this building and that building. Does he? Does he? Does he look down and say, oh, well, here are the Baptists and they have their building and here are the Independents and here are the Methodists and here are the Catholics. No, he looks down and he sees hearts of people. And that's what church is. People to live with. We all need it. And this is a wonderful place to learn how you fit in with others, to learn how to be connected together. I want to say just a word to some of you who've been around for a while and you've been in a small group and then you slipped out. Maybe a change happened in your life. People moved or job changes, whatever. I want you to know this is the time for you to get reconnected because nothing will have a greater impact in your spiritual growth than being connected, intentionally connected in a small group. I want you to hear from a couple and I've known Courtney for a long time and her husband, new husband of mine, Ed. Ben are going to come up and share just how they went through the process of staying connected as they changed in their journey of life. Let's give them a warm welcome as they come. Thanks for staying, guys. Good morning. As Pastor Jay just said, my name is Ben Garrett and this is my wonderful wife, Courtney. We are excited to be here to talk with you about how God has worked in small groups through small groups in our lives and continues to work through small groups here at North Way. Let me begin by briefly sharing my journey that brought me here today. I began attending North Way about four years ago, shortly after graduating from college and initially I was very overwhelmed by North Way because of its size and I was intimidated for a few months and as a result of that I didn't try to develop any new relationships here. I would come to church on Sundays, I would sit, I would listen, I would worship and then I would leave. Finally, after about two or three months, someone reached out to me and asked me to be part of the Thanksgiving service and during that service I carried banners during the worship time. Through that small step of participating, I was introduced to small group leaders and through that I was plugged into a wonderful cell group and I'm going to stop here and let Courtney share for a minute how her experiences allowed our journeys to eventually connect. Good morning. North Way has been my home since I was nine years old. I have experienced the many changes, the growing congregation and many of the same intimidations that new members might feel. I especially remember this feeling after I graduated from college. We were still meeting at Marshall School and I remember looking around at only a few familiar faces and thinking, how will I ever fit into this church after being gone for just a few years? Sometime later, I decided to take a huge step and I showed up by myself one Friday night to a social function for TNT, which was a 20's and 30's group. By the end of that night, I had been embraced into a small group that had been meeting for some time. This group was truly an incredible group. This is also the group that Ben would later join. And it was truly an incredible group. There were married couples as well as single men and women. In just a short period of time, this group became like family to me. We were all able just to be completely open and honest in every aspect of our life and it was a very safe place. I finally had felt that connection that had been missing in the larger congregation. What Courtney didn't tell you was that after I began to attend this group, I also began to pursue my future wife. And after our cell group had met for a few years, it had gotten quite large and it split into some smaller groups that met in different homes. And over time, members of those groups had moved and it became more difficult to continue to meet. But by this time, Courtney and I were both feeling pretty connected through the relationships that we had developed at these groups. And not meeting on a regular basis did not seem to affect us individually. Eventually, after two years of pursuing Courtney, I won her heart and we got married last November. After the honeymoon period was over, not that it's quite over yet, we found ourselves at that similar place where we had been before. Through discussions following Sunday services, I soon realized that Courtney was feeling the same disconnectedness that I was feeling here. I was relieved to hear that Ben was feeling the same as I. Here we were, a couple now, beginning our new life together as one. Although we are still so blessed with all the friendships that had evolved from our previous cell group, we both were really missing the regular meetings on a weekly basis. Our greatest desire is to grow spiritually together. So since we both had such a great previous experience with small groups, we knew immediately that it was imperative for us to join a new small group. So we prayed about it and again just took that simple step of making a phone call. We called Pastor Bob Zontz, who encouraged us to not only plug into a small group, he also encouraged us to pray about holding a small group in our home. We both had been small group leaders in the past and he encouraged us to seek that possibility again. Although we were excited about that possibility, we both were a little anxious about adding one more responsibility into our new honeymoon phase of life. After all, us newlyweds have a lot to do in our new busy life together. So again we prayed about things and God immediately calmed our anxious thoughts. He reminded me of my love for opening my home to others as well as the Bible verse that's hanging in our hallway, Joshua 24, 15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So now Ben and I are beginning a new small group in our home that we'll meet on a regular basis. The group is still being formed and we are so excited to see where the Lord's going to take us. So we are here tonight, today, to encourage any of you who are uncertain about being in a small group. We really encourage you to just reach out and connect with one person about joining a small group. And if you are already in a small group, we also really encourage you to reach out to someone else and help them to connect. By embracing someone new into a small group, we can allow God to release his blessings upon our church as a whole. Thank you. It's always easy to stay pushed back. It's always easy to say another time. I pray that you'll take their encouragement as just the nudge you need to get off the fence and get involved in a group. And by the way, today, the launch that's going to happen right after the service is a great opportunity to do that. If you can't do that, then perhaps at the very least, you can just mark your communicator and say, well, call me and let me know what's available. And those of you who are in groups, you have a great mission to include others. A couple of people said, well, I'm just not ready for a commitment yet. Well, let me just make an interim suggestion. Pastor Scott mentioned earlier the one-on-one connection and there are also some courses coming up on Saturday the 22nd. One of those four-week courses can make a wonderful bridge into a greater understanding of commitment. So it's all out there for you, folks. You just need to take that step. Second thing I want to bring your attention to, and just quickly I'll touch these because we're going to develop them a little bit more in weeks ahead, principles to live by. To have a balanced spiritual exercise, you need to have some principles to live by. I am increasingly aware that it's easy in this culture to not take a stand for truth. Have you noticed that? In fact, if anything, it's more comfortable to take a place of tolerance and just sort of to couch that under the umbrella of love and say, well, you know, what everybody feels is okay. It doesn't really matter a whole lot as long as you're loving and so on and so on. And, you know, many, many Christians today don't know what they believe or why they believe it. They kind of cower when someone challenges their faith a little bit. They avoid discussions. They go with the flow when moral and cultural issues are raised. Not that they're bad people, but they're not making a difference. And, loved ones, you've got to make a difference. The culture that God has put us in, we are called to be light and salt. The opportunities that we mentioned earlier abound. I'm not going to go through them. I just want to say, now's the time to read through this, to know what's happening. Even this week, things are starting where you can find support and input. Maybe your schedule's a little tighter in the evenings. You know, there's things that are happening Saturdays. There's things you can take online. There's all kinds of ways for you to grow. But, listen, it's up to you. You have to activate your will. You have to say, I'm not going to just watch somebody else grow. I'm going to be part of managing my own spiritual growth as the Holy Spirit enables me. Very important. In this really post-modern era in which we live, it's more about knowing what you believe and why than anything else. If you don't know that, you're likely to find yourself unable to stand and make a difference. Look what Jesus said. Everyone who hears my words and obeys, circle the word, obeys them, is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. And what he goes on to say is, when the storms later came, their house stood. I want you to know, if you don't build on a rock, when the storms come, your house is going to get blown away. On the way out today, there's a table out there that has some information about a community impact seminar. A lot of great truth is going to be imparted on Saturday the 22nd. Pick up one of those flyers and read about what's going to happen. Third thing you need is a place to invest in. One of the most specific ways to grow is to find a place to serve and begin to do it. Know what your gift is and turn on that key and you'll find yourself growing geometrically. I remember personally, my most dramatic season of growth was when I graduated from school and got involved in a youth group. I just went up to the pastor of this little Presbyterian church I was attending in a small town in Virginia. I said, do you need any help with your youth? He said, sure. Are you breathing? I said, yeah. He said, great. I will use you. And I got involved with their students and things started to happen. I mean, it was a little chaotic and I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but the kids loved the fact that there were some people who were doing it now. And like most youth groups back then, and even today, we didn't have any money. So we had to do something. I mean, they had no budget at all for their youth. And so I remember just very distinctly on a spring morning in 1970, piling in a big old van and driving about 50 miles to Roanoke, Virginia to make a stop at the... Thank you, Peter. Krispy Kreme Donut Store. And the people from Cranberry know exactly what this is about. Those of you from the South Hills are clueless, probably. But this is like the new hot thing. And folks, you know, being your spiritual leader, I had to stop and get the first dozen out. Those are for real, yeah. Don't even think about coming up afterwards, okay? But we bought 500 dozen of these, hauled them back in the van, and sold them for a buck and a half a dozen, and made like $150 or something like that for our youth group. I mean, it was how we did things. And by the way, it was during that same season that I met Carol. And, you know, it's sounding like, you know, if you get in ministry and get in a small group, you're going to meet your spouse. I'm not going to guarantee that, okay? That's not necessarily going to happen, but I can tell you that there's nothing that you can do spiritually that will help to turbo your life personally more than serving. God puts you here for a reason, and the reason is to serve. How do I know that? Because Jesus said, I have come on this earth not to be served, but to serve. And he said to his disciples, now you go and do likewise. That's what we're called to do. If you invest your life... Many of you come here Sundays, and you love what goes on and so on, and I appreciate that, and we're grateful that you come. But listen, you need to know where you're supposed to be giving out. Giving and receiving is a cycle that will change your life. Finally, fourth thing is, know your purpose for living. This is sort of the big picture. It's the big picture. Did you know that in your surveys that we have tabulated so far, your spiritual health assessments, about 80% of you told us that you're not very comfortable with sharing your faith? 80% of you. Four ou