Eden Every Day: 4 How To Live A Long, Healthy, Happy Life

[Music] [Music] last week we talked about marriage and I basically gave ten bits of what I take to be wisdom under number one how to find the right one number two how to remain happily married and then the goal was to try and get through ten bits of wisdom biblical wisdom biblically informed wisdom I should say on parenting but we only got through two thirds of the presentation so what we're gonna do today is we're gonna spend the first probably about 15 to 20 minutes talking about parenting and then we're gonna transition into how to live a long happy and healthy life so marriage as we noted last week is the most important of all human relationships and the reason is obvious marriage is the relationship that gives rise to every other relationship right marriage the coming together of a man and a woman a husband and his wife is the the procreative relationship that creates little human beings and then those human beings become fathers and sisters and dads and cousins and uncles and nephews and church members and friends and neighbors when we transition now to talk about the the outgrowth of not all but most marriages is children children right we have children and so we're going to talk about what is God's intention and is there any biblically informed wisdom when it comes to parenting and the answer is yes I want to start by saying something here that's really radical and for me this is the sort of cornerstone of everything else that I'm gonna say about parenting after this the 10 points that will follow and that is that as Christian parents we are not called to merely raise our children right we are called to disciple our children right now I just need you to it is not the job of tweed Valley Adventist college or Gold Coast Christian College or or any school to disciple your children they're going to do their best Blair and Marty and the administrators and the staff they're going to do their best to try and disciple but what they're doing is augmenting what they're doing is enhancing and magnifying the discipleship that's already taking place in the home right now of course a high percentage of people that go to some of our Adventist schools are not always ad Venice they don't even come from any Christian background at all but for those that do Christian parents need to feel the responsibility they need to feel that well not just of providing not just of teaching not just a feed not just of clothing but of disciple you are called as a minister of the gospel if you're a father you're a minister of the gospel if you're a mother you're a minister of the gospel even if you're an older brother or an older sister you are a minister of the gospel to raise and to disciple your children or your younger brother or sister now I want to say something about that one of the things that I have seen not just in this local church but all over the world where I've traveled parents sometimes find it difficult to disciple their children and to call their children to a high end godly standard because they know they themselves failed in various capacities as as teenagers and as young people and so what happens is because they have failed they feel that they've lost the moral leverage or the moral ground on which they can then advise their children differently than they may have behaved and so I want to say this yes as parents you may have made some seriously bad mistakes but the call is to teach out of those mistakes right if you have made mistakes then use these as opportunities teachable moments to disciple your children and so I want to talk about parenting 101 and I want to start with number one it's this this idea that there really is no such thing as quality time now that might sound a little strange to you especially since we've already talked about the keeping of the Sabbath in this very series how to keep the Sabbath holy what do you mean pastor ash like when you say the first thing when it comes to parenting that there's really no such thing as quality time years ago I read an article titled the myth of quality time and the idea was that when it comes to children a child does not care if you are on a Mediterranean cruise or a Caribbean cruise or some you know tour of the Middle East or a Europe or whatever or you're playing catch in the backyard right for a child when it when it comes to the raising of children and the disciple enough children it's not the those special moments those holidays that you spend lots of money those are important don't get me wrong they're fine to do those things but it's the volume of time just the the sheer amount of time that you spend with your kids which segues into number two one of the things that I've heard over and over again and I'm sure that Blair Marty and others have heard this is they get parents that come to you and say oh my fifteen-year-old son my 16 year old daughter is off the rails what do I do now this is not always the case I want to be clear these are generalizations but it is often the case that when parents suddenly see the red flags they missed the yellow flags in the early teens and even the preteen years and I want to say this as a parent you put money in the bank from ages 0 to 12 so that that money is there to take out to withdraw in the ages of 13 and beyond right so you're thinking about those troublesome teen years it's very difficult to to try and quickly and I've met many fathers and many mothers that have tried to like become super dad when their child's 15 or 16 and starting to go off the rails starting to steer toward independence well you weren't there as you could have been and should have been with volume of time when they were 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 now you want to come to the rescue as super parent when you're 16 year old child or your 17 year old child says dad I don't want to have anything to do with you and mom I'm over it you have to put time in as a great quotation here from Jennifer Schwarzer she says bonding parent-child bonding forms the foundation of mental and relational stability later on if you want to have the ear of your teenage children you have to get the investment get the change in your pocket from ages 0 to 12 and it's not just the those fancy vacations and again those are important and you you go on them insofar as you feel led to do or and as you're able to do but you've got to just invest I want to say something here that might upset a few of you but it's probably several things I'm gonna say today that might upset a few of you probably two years ago I had an interesting conversation with a member of this church who was who was basically talking about how hard they worked and they're working 50 hours a week 60 hours a week they're just working so hard as saying pastor Eric you know I don't see you working 50 hours a week I don't see you regularly working 60 hours a week I said okay let's be clear about something I'm not I am not regularly working 50 hours a week and I'm very rarely work 60 hours a week and I said now let me tell you why that is this right now is a season in my life life has its various seasons and the season that I'm in right now is that I have two teenage boys what do I have everyone two teenage boys and I've looked up my contractual relationship with the North New South Wales conference who's my employer and my contractual relationship with em is for a 40-hour workweek now there are gonna be weeks right work 45 hours there's gonna be the occasional week where I work 50 hours but this right now it's not a season in my life where you should have the expectation that you're a pastor with two teenage children is gonna be working 60 hours a week to save the church and then his two teenage children feel like he was busy saving everybody else busy ministering to everybody else busy loving everybody else and had no time for them this is not that season in my life now my son's now are seven nearly 17 and 15 and in about four years time they'll be out of the home and then you might see me doing 50 and 60 hour work weeks there certainly were times Roberts doing that with greater frequency before my children my two sons were in their late preteen and teenage years so the thing I want to say for those of you that are I want to be careful here because I don't want to tread on the choices that you're making in the way that you're raising your children I just want to say this you only get your children one time and my strong advice to you is if you have to scale your lifestyle back if you have to scale back that raise or that promotion or those overtime hours so that you get more times with more time with your children that's the season in your life especially in those formative years ages zero to 12 or you're pouring into the to your children pouring into your children so that hopefully if you've done it right by the grace of God you're 14 15 16 year old children want to spend time with you you're not annoying you might be a little annoying but it's not just ah dad I don't want to have anything to do with you and slamming doors and I hate you and all of these kinds of things that you want to get to the place where in the natural formative development of teenagers what's happening is is that they're becoming they're becoming aware of a larger reality dad doesn't know everything mom doesn't know everything and so they're beginning to take more seriously the role of their peers and the value of their peers nothing wrong with that so here's a way to think about it when your kids are young when they're four five six seven eight nine even 10 11 12 the table of influence for a child that age as a small table it has you and your spouse and the the brothers and sisters and maybe an occasional friends and then they're there so maybe you have a table of six people right depending on the size of your family but here's what happens as soon as your children get to be 13 14 15 16 all of a sudden you notice that the tables bigger and there's other people sitting at the table there's now 16 year-olds at the table and 15 year-olds at the table and and now you're one voice at the table now here's the goal I just give it to you very simple your goal as a parent of teenagers is to keep your seat at the table it's it's unrealistic to think that you're gonna keep that table as the same size what I mean by this is the table of influence it's unrealistic to think that when your child is 16 or 17 in fact it wouldn't even be developmentally you're socially healthy for the child's circle of influence to continue to be that small no you don't want only 5 or 6 people at the table you want there to be 20 people at the table of whom are mom and dad and brothers and sisters and maybe even if you're blessed grandparents as well so the goal the goal for a Christian parent is to be one of the voices at the table to be there well how are you going to be that you've got to be invited to the teenagers table and there's many a parent that have figured out you can't force yourself into the into the inner circle of influence in a teenager's life you just can't you win yourself you ingratiate yourself into that teenager circle of influence in ages 0 to 12 you've got to put money in the bank from 0 to 12 if you have any hope or any desire to withdraw that money later number 3 very important it's straight out of the gospel straight out of Scripture speak faith hope and belief into your children but also be realistic do not breed narcissism right don't not just general things about how you're the greatest you're the best you're the prettiest you're the smartest that's not what we're talking about you don't read narcissism rather emphasized service and usefulness not so-called worldly greatness speaking faith speaking belief speaking hope into your children is absolutely beautiful we've already seen this in the very first installment of this series galatians chapter 5 verse 13 the apostle paul says you've been called to liberty you've been called to be free but use your freedom for service use your freedom for what everyone service and the Apostle Peter says the same thing in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 16 live as people who are free but do not misuse your freedom as a cover-up for evil but living as servants of God so when you're speaking faith when you're speaking hope when you're speaking belief and confidence into your children you're not building them up some unrealistic you know ridiculous portrait of themselves so what you effectively are doing is creating a narcissist no you're preparing them for usefulness and for service to the larger world believe in them in that capacity number four never ever let them question your love can somebody say amen to that you can be disappointed you can be annoyed you can even be angry you can be all of those are totally appropriate emotions for a parent at certain situations in the raising of a child but never ever ever create a situation or a culture or a context where your child could legitimately or justifiably question your love for them well how do you do that well you have to tell your children over and over and over and over again that you love them it breaks my heart I get people in my office they say things like my dad never told me he loved me I didn't hear I love you from my parents that just wasn't something I'm just pleading with you if you have your own children even if they're already 10 11 12 13 14 15 you haven't really been doing it much up to this point just start occasionally at least episodically and I'm encouraging you to do it regularly just say the words I love you I love you I love you a day would not go by that Landon and Jabil would not hear from my mouth that I love them half a dozen times between I mean I just every day and hallelujah Landon's in this really cool phase right now in table to some degree as well where we're almost every phone conversation or every interaction that I have with my oldest son Landon who's almost 17 ends with love you dad love your dad well why why is he doing because I've modeled for him you say you love you don't just love and keep quiet you sayin I know that some of you aren't as extroverted as me some of you aren't as you know you know talkative as me but you can say the words I love you three simple syllables right you don't have to be loquacious you can just say son I love you and many of you that have young children and many of you that have teenage children in this very Church you'll know that I regularly come to the parents in this church of teens and I say I love your son I love your daughter I'm proud of your son I'm proud of your daughter you know that I do this right what I'm trying to do there as a pastor is model for you that you should be speaking love speaking affirmation and speaking affection into the lives of your children number final punishment is totally a legitimate thing but it should be consequential consequential and compassionate like God's when it is time for punishment to come the punishment should flow from the violation from whatever the thing is and if you've done it right and it's not easy to do don't get me wrong this was an area that was not a I didn't hit this one out of the park I didn't hit this for a six or even a four we violated and I wrestled because we had slightly different philosophies of punishment early on and it took us a little bit to get our ducks in a row but if you line it up and you get it right you should get to the place where your your son or your daughter is absolutely convinced that you're not doing something to them so much as you are giving them over to the consequence of a choice that they themselves have made it's key number six speak to your children about relationships and sex more than just the old birds in the bees talk that might have worked in the past that might have worked in the 60s 70s 80s 90s whenever you grew up but I Got News for you today is an entirely different situation and in case you're unclear about this if you have teenage children or young children here's what you need to do need required to do right if you want to keep your parenting card you need to do this you need to discuss modesty dating pornography sexting masturbation premarital sex and the list goes on that's the world you live in we don't live in a world where we can just pretend especially in light of the fact that many of our children have smartphones right so called smartphones and and we call them phones but they're not phones it's actually we're doing ourselves a disservice when we say my I got my daughter a phone I got my son a phone if you got them a flip phone a Nokia flip phone that they can just go PPP beep you got them a phone if you got them and if you got them an iPhone or a Samsung whatever those are called you didn't get them a phone you got them a computer hey no you're welcome to do that as a parent you are full well within your parental freedom and liberty to buy your 15 16 17 year-old son an iPhone you can do that but I'm assuming I'm assuming as a pastor that if I see your teenage especially young teens lord have mercy 13 14 15 year-olds if they have an iPhone I'm assuming that you aren't just yourself assuming that everything will be fine and they'll navigate the way forward on their own you've had the I don't want to say conversation you've had the conversations and you continue to have the conversations because the truth of the matter is is that an iPhone or a similarly similarly fashioned smartphone is a portal to filth it's a portal to fill that many of you can scarcely imagine right if you're over the age of about 40 you don't even know what a lot of these kids are doing what what the new normal for these kids is off the hook and I can tell you stories it would just it would just make your hair fall it would just hurt your soul it hurts my soul so if especially if or take in Internet access in the home I just want to say this I've said it before I've said a few parents I'll say it anyway if you have a home or you have young children and they have unmonitored uninterrupted access to the Internet you are delinquent in your parenting responsibilities that you're just delinquent in your responsibilities doesn't mean you're not a good parent you might be a good parent in other areas but you have to monitor you just have to assume the worst not because your parents not because your children can't be trusted I trust my children I don't trust the Internet I trust my children I don't trust all of the points of access because if one in the group begins to look at something and then they get sort of fingered by Facebook I mean the algorithms by which things are fed to us I mean I get stuff on my own as a 40 five-year-old man who's not looking at that kind of stuff I get stuff fed into my feed whether through Facebook or pop-ups or emails it just happens so you have to be having that conversation the conversation about premarital sex the conversation about pornography the conversation about masturbation because the new normal is not the normal that you grew up with if you're 40 years old or older that that's gone zone you're seven give them room to make mistakes but still parents balance here is crucial this is one of the big things that we talked about in our opening series there where God gave Adam and Eve freedom they were free to make morally significant choices I want my children making mistakes while they still live in my home I want them to have enough freedom enough room to roam that when they make a mistake they still live in my home they still live with me so that we can coach them through those decisions and I can work with them etc and create an environment in which it's okay to make a mistake too often we see Christian parents that that seek to almost isolate their children from temptation isolate their children from the world and I want to say this as a Christian parent your goal should be to insulate but not isolate you can insulate from the world you can insulate from sensuality you can insulate from all of those things but if you isolate your children from it at the moment they turn 18 19 and leave the home it's just like a rubber band that's been pulled back pull back pull back for years and as soon as her out of the home the rubber band lets go and they're gone I want my children my two sons making some of those mistakes that a lot of kids don't even get to make until they're 18 19 20 I want them making those mistakes in my home in their 14 15 and 16 but the only way to create an atmosphere in which those mistakes can be made is to give freedom to make mistakes a word on that I'm really passionate about this and I hope I get the support of my teachers and I might have said a few parents so I apologize in advance if I upset you I am absolutely committed to standing by the decisions that are made especially in terms of discipline for from my parents or from my from my children's teachers okay I think it's a very unsafe unhealthy and unwise decision if your child has been disciplined by a teacher to undermine the teacher even if you don't agree with what the teacher did you can have that conversation with the teacher between you and them but you do yourself a disservice and you do your children a disservice to tell your children that the teacher made a big mistake or the teacher misread the situation or whatever I said to my boy says the boys let's make this very clear if you get a detention that's the first part of your punishment okay if you get a detention that's the first part of your punishment the second part of your punishment comes when you get home and I'll never forget Landon got his first detention it was probably a grade nine or grade eight I don't even remember the details but he got his punishment and he came home he's like Oh CC wouldn't mind me saying this to you it was miss Kong he comes oh wow dad I got a detention today I'm miss Kong was this and miss Kong she didn't get it right and she misunderstood and she whatever and he made his case and for those of you that know land and he can be exceedingly persuasive so I heard him out and I said okay let me call CC so I called up CC Kong and the first thing I said to Miss Congress at CC I want to be just I want to just say this right up front I support you a hundred percent I'm gonna stand beside you and not just can you explain to me what happened and I found her explanation completely reasonable I have trust I have confidence in the teachers of my children if I didn't why are my kids in that school so what you do is you actually create a distrust of authority and you create a kind of narcissistic exceptionalism when it's you and your child versus the mean old teachers or the unfair administration or whatever you're just doing yourselves a disservice even if you think the administration is wrong even if you think the teacher is wrong let that be between you and them don't drag your children into it because one of the most difficult things to teach a child anybody is respect for authority respect for authority and you just you've got to do that number right this was a challenge for me I'll be really honest with you nobody in my family violetta myself Lanterna Jabil does this well I probably I say this with humility I probably do this the best in our family and I'm terrible at it okay and that's number eight here learn to say these words as a parent I was wrong I made a mistake I could have done better sorry those are not easy words to say okay but I tell you what you think that if you admitted you were wrong or if you MIDI you made a mistake or if you admitted that you could have done better that this will actually undermine your parental influence it will increase your parental influence I have seen over the years that is I've begun to learn how to be able to say this hey land and sorry I was a bit over the top there Jabil sorry I misread that situation I thought that you said you weren't gonna vacuum the house I'm sorry I just misheard I'm sorry I misread that I could have done better it creates a culture in which now landon can start saying to jabil and Jabil to Landon and Jabil and Landon to mom and mom to jabil and Landon we create an atmosphere in which it's okay to be wrong but it's only okay to be wrong if you admit that you were wrong and you do so in a culture of acceptance and in a culture of positivity someone once said that bad decisions make good stories that's true but they also make for teachable moments if they're if a mistake has been made if if your child is blown it and you know I have two amazing sons many of you know my sons but they have not made it through their teenage years scot-free they have made some decisions that I that pained me in my heart and they have said some things and done some things that I thought you know I thought based on the training that I'd done and based on the discipleship that I've done and based on the education that I've done in the loving that I've done I thought you wouldn't have made that choice but you did make that choice okay but those become opportunities for teachable moments and I'll be honest with you one of the things that has been really helpful for me when my children have done something that I regard is disappointing is I've decided that 50% of all of those bad decisions they've made at least belong to me if I take ownership for at least 50% of the bad decisions that my children have made it helps me to treat them with more grace and more with with more love because the truth of the matter is is that when I look at some of the areas where Landon or Jabil and they're great kids but where they've made some decisions that I wish they hadn't I can look back and think you know David you could have done better there you have to wear some of that mistake you have to wear some of that falling short in that particular area teachable moments okay two more number nine read the Bible with your children pray with your children and talk to them about their life it's a maze how few Christian homes this happens in it is I'm sad to report to you that I believe the majority of seventh-day Adventist homes with children are not having family worship I believe that I think that's probably true in this local church I think it's true in most seventh-day Adventist churches even if you don't have a formal worship where you gather together and you get out the guitar and you play and you sing you don't have to do that but but don't let a day go by even if you've not been doing it up to this point do not let another day go by where you don't pray with your children at some point my boys are prayed with which numerous times a day they're prayed with before they leave to go to school they're prayed with individually each of them when we go to bed at night we pray at every meal and then if a situation comes up I get a phone call or we learn about so hey boys let's pray let's gather and pray right now reading the Bible is crucially important you don't get me wrong I love these devotional books that are produced fire review and Herald and Pacific I read the Bible read the Bible we've just finished reading or in the middle of reading a book right now with table called chiseled right a guide to godliness and young manhood nothing wrong with those kinds of books but also be reading the text because there's power in the word there's power in the Bible read the Bible with your children doesn't have to be some big long exercise just gather your children together and read a psalm before they run out the door to go to school you're not too busy to read the Bible with your children prioritize it and finally number 10 have truckloads of fun together that's you that's for you mail have truckloads of fun together say yes whenever you reasonably can remember the family that plays together what do they do stays together the family that and you know one of the things that I never let my children say from they're a very young age I do not allow my children to say they're bored okay and I advise you don't let your children say they're bored when my boys used to say dad I'm bored I would say that's because you're a boring person because life is anything but boring okay and I just this is just a short list here here's just a few things that you can get involved in with your children if you're not already playing together doing activities together doing stuff together and again if you teenage children teenage daughters our sons this is not the time in your life to be working 50 and 60 hour weeks it's just not this is the time to be pouring into your children and doing some of these things hiking not climbing cycling mountain biking BMX bird-watching photography geocaching off-roading mechanics vehicle restoration model aircraft running basketball touch football snorkeling spearfishing scuba diving bouldering stand-up paddle boarding kayaking woodworking skateboarding wakeboarding gymnastics tennis table tennis fishing hunting shooting skiing swimming weightlifting powerlifting CrossFit golfing Jiu Jitsu squash beekeeping exploring canning and gardening horse riding kite surfing and archery ok I'm sure I'm sure you can find something on there that you could enjoy and your daughter could enjoy or your son could enjoy and everything on that list is better than video games everything on that list is better than video games one of the great decisions that viola and I made was we said absolutely noted all video games right and I did a few little pong like games on their iPad that they played occasionally but there's no Xbox in our home I don't even know the names of these things PlayStation is that the other ones are those the same thing we don't we don't let that in our home now if you do have it in your home I'm not judging what I'm saying is is that I want you to understand something there are people who have their PhDs and human Neuros psychology and neurology who are hired by gaming companies with the express purpose to make games as addictive as possible that there there are people who get their PhDs in neuro chemistry and neuro biology and their job is to make games addictive right to make games addictive so just be aware that if you bring something into your home you are bringing something into your home that has countless thousands and tens of thousands of hours put into it design Utley to make it addictive now I will say this if the games that are being played whether on a computer or an Xbox or a Playstation or whatever are violent games or shooting games that's just completely unacceptable in a Christian home for Christian parents to allow their children to play those games and I tell you I get a kick out of it when I have parents will come to me and they'll say well what am I supposed to do my child's 15 my child's 16 and I just I'd never quite know what to say to that let just repeat yourself again what am I supposed to do your child is 15 or 16 would you like a list I can give you a list of how if a fifteen-year-old lives in your home and eats your food and resides under your roof you can do something about it you are not powerless and the truth of the matter is is that if you've created a power dynamic in your home where you feel powerless to influence your teenage children that didn't happen at 15 and 16 and 17 it happened at four or five and six so I'm just I'm pleading with you get get outdoors do activity whatever I don't care what it is do something so that video games become less and less interesting Christian parents you are not called to just raise your children but to disciple them can somebody say Amen you're called to disciple your children these are just 10 bits of what I take to be wisdom you do not have to be perfect as a Christian parent your children already know you're not can somebody say Amen they already know you're not perfect but your children should know that you're a follower of Jesus your children should know that you're a follower of Jesus we're gonna transition now to the fourth installment in our series which is how to live a long happy and healthy life we've already noted this quotation from New Testament scholar NT Wright in which he says God as the creator is glorified when creation is what's our word does anybody remember one of the F words we had the word free and we had the word functional and we had the word fallible and we had the word flourish God the Creator is glorified when creation is flourishing and able to praise him gladly and freely creation is designed to flourish under wise human stewardship reflecting the love of the Creator we see so many passages in which God exhorts and admonishes and wishes for us to flourish to prosper and to be in health passages like third John chapter one verse two beloved I pray that you may prosper you could just as easily insert the word flourish I afraid that you're doing well I pray that you're prospering and in all things in your life financially spiritually emotionally maritally in terms of parenting and be in health be in health Jeremiah chapter 33 verses 6 & 7 behold I will bring this city health and healing I'm gonna bring health and healing to the city proverbs chapter 3 verses 7 to 10 do not be wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil it will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones proverbs chapter 4 verses 20 to 22 my son give attention to my words incline your ear to my sayings do not let them depart from your eyes keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh Deuteronomy chapter 7 given from Moses the second book of the law it says then it shall come to pass because you listen to these judgments and keep to do them the word this is why it's important that you're reading the Bible with your kids Moses actually expressly commanded the Israelites in Deuteronomy chapters four five six and seven read the Bible to your children tell them the great and amazing things that God has done for his people you're under obligation solemn responsible obligation to do this with your children Moses says it shall come to pass because you listen to these judgments and you keep and do them the Lord your God will keep with you the Covenant of mercy which he swore to your father's he will love you and bless you and multiply you he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land the increase of your cattle the offspring of your flock in the land which he swore to your father's to give you you will be blessed above all peoples there will not be a male or a female barren among you or your livestock the Lord will take away from you all the sickness and will afflict with afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt God's desire for Israel was health his desire for all of his children is happiness health flourishing and fruitfulness be fruitful and multiply that's God's desire for us our modern word health comes from the old english word pulse right there's Anna this Germanic English coming together of these words holf what does that sound like it sounds like the word whole the word health means to be whole no wonder we turn to numerous passages in the New Testament where we see this word whole use as a as a synonym for health he said to them stretch he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other as healthy as the other Matthew chapter 15 verse 31 so the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking and the maimed made whole healthy Acts chapter 4 verse 10 let it be known to you this is Peter speaking in to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead by him this man stands before you whole the word healthy means whole and all throughout the Gospel accounts Matthew Mark Luke and John when we see Jesus healing people restoring people bringing them to wholeness these are echoes of Eden this is the Creator reestablishing the created order of of being fruitful and multiplying I've purposely dropped in just a few slides from our last series the beautiful believable basics and just very quickly in 60 seconds or less I want to remind you that there's these two massively impacting factors in the history of the church and that's the deed judaization and the hellenization of the faith that is to say the unjú ition of the Christian Church and the Greek of the Christian Church we talked about many of the casualties that occurred there this is a slide directly from that series we mentioned the Greek dualistic view of human nature has distorted salvation heaven and hell the Greek said there's a body it's made of matter and there's a spirit it's immaterial and these are two things this is called anthropological dualism as opposed to what the Jews believed anthropological monism that mankind was fundamentally unified the Greeks that no there's a duality not only does this distort salvation heaven and hell it distorts salvation heaven and health I want to talk about that Clark Pennock this is a quotation from that series anthropological dualism has done serious harm in weakening our Blessed hope of Christ's appearing and in distorting our understanding of the world to come we talked about that it has also fostered many false dichotomies including a negative view of the body in contrast with the soul and a concept of salvation as interior experience rather than total transformation right this is where we get phrases like this from he's so heavenly minded that he's well no earthly good because these two are different venues they're different domains or different realms and they don't intersect I'm gonna suggest to you today that if you want to be healthy spiritually if you want to be healthy maritally if you want to be healthy emotionally you need to be healthy physically be you are one whole person whole health God doesn't just care about your soul he doesn't just care that you get your mouth to say spiritual things or even your brain to believe spiritual things he cares about you and you are a body and a spirit put together in a whole human being so far so good Luke chapter 2 verse 52 speaking of the development of Jesus himself it says the Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature with favor and God and men notice the various areas that Luke identifies he grew in wisdom in stature in favor with God and in favor with men that is to say that Jesus grew as a whole person he grew intellectually he grew physically he grew spiritually and he grew socially if you meet someone who has amazing biceps and six-pack abs but all of his or her relationships are broken they're not a healthy person if you meet someone who is a cardiovascular monster but doesn't have a relationship with God they're not a healthy person they're a partial person so I want to talk to you about how to live to be a hundred how to live to be a hundred first of all you have to exercise number one exercise your body is designed to move sweat and be strong so move sweat and be strong no matter how old you are exercise exercise exercise we talked in the first sermon in this series about how Adam and Eve were given not just a job a menial task they were given a vogue auditing a vocation and that vocation was to tend and to keep the garden and it required their physical body it required them to move and to work and to get strong and the way that the body is designed is that when the bile that when the body is stressed when you put the body under physiological and physical trauma it gets stronger and fitter and better so number one you want to live to be a hundred exercise this is the book that you should read I recommend this book all over the world it was published in 2013 written by John Ratey who is the director of the clinical psychiatry department at Harvard University this book is worth its weight in gold because it puts you on the cutting edge of the latest neurological research we're talking research that's taking place in the last five to seven years so if you think oh no no no I know all of that no you don't now you know this is stuff that's brand new fresh the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain John Ratey says in the book in today's technology-driven world it's easy to forget that we are born movers because we've engineered movement right out of our lives our culture treats the mind and body as if they are two separate entities ah dualism he says I want to reconnect the to the real reason we feel so good when we get our blood pumping is that it makes the brain function at its best and in my view the benefit of this physical activity is far more important and fascinating than what it does for the body building muscles and conditioning the heart and lungs I love this he says that's essentially a side effect it's not just to get big biceps and strong core and a ripped a B so that's a byproduct the number one reason you exercise he says I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the what the brain your brain is an organ it's the most important organ in your body what neuro scientists have discovered in the past five years alone patience paints a riveting picture of the biological relationship between the body the brain and the mind to keep our brains at peak performance our bodies need to work what's the last word there you got to work hard let me just give it to you straight you need to sweat and raise your heart weight rate for at least 30 minutes at least three to five times a week if you want your body and your brain to be to be functioning optimally you have to get sweaty exercise sweaty exercise you also need to stay strong which is the other end of the spectrum you have cardiovascular exercise then you have strength training you have to be strong being strong is your ticket to late age freedom and mobility you get into your 50s 60s 70s and 80s it's not going to be the cardiovascular strength that carries you to freedom and independence it'll be the physical strength that you have in your muscles you need to stay strong this is particularly important as you age to 40 and Beyond take a look at this that right there is a cross section of the thigh of a 40 year old professional triathlete okay so you've just cut right across the thigh right you're just bifurcated the thigh right through there and you're looking down so what see is the bone and it looks like a state doesn't it you know you're looking at a bone we're gonna talk about that in just a second you've got a whole lot of muscle and then a thin layer of subcutaneous tissue right that's now look at this this is the leg of a sedentary 74 year old man okay so all of that white stuff around there is adipose tissue all of that is fat and that spindly weak gnarly-looking stuff in the middle is muscle but I want you to see the last one that is the leg of a 74 year old triathlete now take a look at the leg of the 74 year old triathlete and the 40 year old professional triathlete and they are virtually indistinguishable you can stay strong you can stay fit well into your 60s 70s 80s and Beyond this is an amazing report that was just released in 2012 from ScienceDaily Senior runners keep improving summary of the research researchers have analyzed changes in participation and performance of runners aged 20 to 880 in the New York City Marathon over the last thirty years they've been analyzing the ages that the old are the times that older runners are running notice what they've learned the results are largely unexpected why what happened what was so unexpected the best male marathon runners over 65 and the best female marathon runners over 45 have consistently improved their performance over the last thirty years every other age stays the same statistically over over they've been studying this for 30 years now every age has stayed roughly the same but older athletes have improved their time on average every single year the improved performances can be explained number one by the increased number of participants in these age categories number two as well as the increased interest in this age population has in terms of the benefits of physical activity on health and well-being says Rami Wald leper's whose research into motor function plasticity during the aging is part of the overall research for the researchers this initial data on athletes over 40 combined with new physiology and sociology data will lead to improved understanding of the role that physical exercise has in aging well you've got to exercise if exercise was a pill it would be the single greatest drug ever invent back to John Ratey neuroscientists have just begun this is fresh cutting-edge research studying exercises impact within brain cells at the genes themselves even there in the roots of our biology they've found signs of the body's influence on the mind it turns out that just moving our muscles produces proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain where they play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highest thought processes they bear names such as insulin like growth factor igf-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor VG the EGF and they provide an unprecedented view of the mind-body connection it's only in the past few years that neuro scientists have begun to describe these factors and how they work and each new discovery adds a inspiring depth to the picture if exercise came in pill form says dr. Ratey it would be plastered across the front page hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century why in october of 2000 researchers from Duke University made the New York Times with a study showing that exercise is better than sertraline or zoloft at treating depression little paragraph here from rady I want to cement the idea that exercise has a profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health it is simply one of the best treatments we have for most psychiatric problems so rate II says Ya Ya Ya Ya if you exercise and you lift weights and you stay fit cardiovascularly that's good for your arms it's good for your legs it's good for your lungs but it's best for your brain it's best for your brain and there's even recent studies that show that physical vigorous exercise offsets the onset of Alzheimer's dementia and other age-related issues now look at this one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church a woman by the name of Ellen White I just put her her lifespan up here 1827 to 915 1915 wrote in the book education in 1903 1903 one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church and a health reformer par excellence notice what she said November I noted noted several times there were eight he says the most recent research in the last five years and notice what she says the whole body is designed for what's the word action and unless the physical powers are kept in healthy active exercise the mental powers cannot long be used to their highest capacity 1903 and here a book is released in 2013 saying in the last five years we now know that the number one reason you exercise is so that you can keep your brain healthy all that other stuff is simply a byproduct number two you've got to eat like Eden this involves but it's not limited to being a vegetarian or better yet a vegan how do we know that well because right in Genesis chapter 1 verse 29 the series is titled Eden everyday it says and God said see look Adam Eve I have given you every herb every plant that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you it shall be for food the translation is you eat fruit you are a fruitarian after the fall after Genesis chapter 3 God gave them permission to also eat vegetables notice this Genesis chapter 3 verses 17 and 18 cursed is the ground for your sake in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the herb of the field so before fall the fall Adam and Eve were fruitarian strictly and after the fall there were still strict vegetarians eating fruits and vegetables the largest nutritional study ever conducted in the history of nutritional science is called the China Study the China study it was a book that was published several years ago based on research from the 1970s and 1980s that T Colin Campbell and his amazing team from Cornell did and it's absolutely how many people here have read the China study it is it's a mind meltingly good book I'm just absolutely amazing and if you don't want to read all like 600 pages of it I'll give you the some of the major highlight takeaways number one animal protein promotes cancer growth number two you should be more worried about poor nutrition than pesticides number three heart disease can be reduced through diet number four animal-based foods are not necessary and number five eat plants for optimal health all of this is simply saying eat like Eden eat like edan eat like eden the identity have talked about these he dint extremes these identic ideals these eidetic institutions even if you don't believe in the God of Eden if you live as if you were in the Garden of Eden you are benefited if you conduct your marital relation like the Garden of Eden if you conduct your sexual life like the Garden of Eden if you eat like the Garden of Eden if you keep Sabbath like the Garden of Eden even if you said I'm an atheist and I don't believe any of that stuff if you lived this way you're benefited how much more so for those of us that do believe in the God of the Garden of Eden and who want to not only live longer happier healthier lives but we want to live God glorifying lives and modern research is bearing out this very point in his excellent book titled in defense of food by Michael Paul an excellent book highly recommended I agree with about 95% of what Michael Pollan says he's not a strict vegetarian but he's he's mostly vegetarian in the great point that Michael Pollan makes and I want to say this for those of you out there that are vegetarian but you're not healthy being healthy is more about what you are eating and less about what you aren't eating it's not what's not on your plate that keeps you healthy it's what is on your plate that keeps you healthy I mean people who are vegan and vegetarian who still are not healthy because the food they're eating is not healthful nutrition nutritionally dense food in the book in defense of food Michael Pollan summarizes the entire book inset in seven words is that seven words one two three four five six seven seven words he says eat food not too much mostly plants that sounds like the Garden of Eden very good this would be the last one I think yeah we'll roll over the the remaining ten points into our sermon next week so I don't want to rush through any of this notice this this is again Ellen White one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church and a health reformer par excellence notice what she says in a book titled councils on diets and foods in order to know what are the best foods we must study what are we going to study God's saying with me if you would God's original plan for man's where would we find God's original plan for Mansa we'd find it in the Garden of Eden he who created man and who understands his needs appointed Adam his food grains fruits nuts and vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator she continues the effects of a flesh diet may not be immediately realized that she's riding this back in the the early 1900's late 1800s when it was not yet known even that smoking was bad for you or cause cancer so the China study is still a hundred years future and yet she had these insights she had this perspicacity she had I would say an inspiration to be aware of how to live a healthy life the effect of a flesh diet may not be immediately realized but this is no evidence that it is not harmful few can be made to believe that it is the meat that they have been eating that has poisoned their blood and caused their suffering many died of diseases wholly due to meat-eating while the real cause is not suspected by themselves or by others there is no good reason if you live in a country like Australia or you live in a country like the United States of America there is no good reason to eat meat you're welcome to view that that's your inside of your Christian Liberty your inside of your own native agency that you possess as a human being to eat meat you eat what you want I'm just saying there's no good reason to do it now if you are an Inuit that lives you know in the topmost you know level there of the Arctic Circle up in northern Alaska or northern Scandinavia or the Kamchatka Peninsula or something and you don't have a supermarket that you can just go down to and get you know grapes from Chile and lettuce from America and almonds from South America and mangoes from no no no no you go to a supermarket if you go to a supermarket there's just no need to eat me the only good reason you can give to eat meat the only one is that you like the taste of it that's it that's the beginning end the end period full stop okay because all of the think of it this way the cow eats the grass the elephant eats the grass right these are big strong creatures when I when I choose not to eat a cow and I just eat the vegetables I'm just cutting out the middleman right I'm rather than having the cow eat the grass and I get the energy because all the energy comes from the grass all the energy comes ultimately from the Sun through the photosynthetic process right so all I do is I just cut the middleman out I just get rid of the cow and I just go straight to the grass and it's better for you it's better it's better for the environment it's much better for the cow Thank You Ruth okay final point we're gonna make here today and then we'll wrap this or not how do lift actually I'm just gonna end on that we'll do our first two out of 10 points so number one you've got to exercise right and let me just give you a little piece of advice on if exercise doesn't come naturally to you here's a simple simple thing okay just go down to the local store and get to two weights two dumbbells or you can get four if you want whatever the appropriate weight is you know if you're a woman it might be say two or three kilograms that you know a slight woman or if you're a stronger man maybe it's a 10 kilogram weight get two dumbbells okay you can get four if you want or six if you want a whole set just get two this is a simple trick put them in your bathroom put them in your bathroom so you've got these two dumbbells and you put them in your bathroom right you just slide them up under the sink and here's what you do you go and if you I'll give you the exercises that you do they're really simple you just do butterflies you'll do three sets of butterflies three sets of presses like this three sets of curls like this eight to twelve each eight to twelve each these if the weights aren't too heavy squats like this with the weights in your hand right there's a number of exercises that you do and you do it in ten minutes before you hop in the shower that's it that's it and you can especially for ladies because what happens is a number of for a number of internal physiological factors women become increasingly that they're prone to osteoporosis as they age and the number one way to offset osteoporosis as strange as it sounds is to lift weights lift weights you you've got to do load bearing exercise if you're a man if you're a man and you're over the age of 40 what happens is is that you need to try and do things that increase your testosterone and your what's called HGH or human growth hormone and the only way to do that in terms of X in terms of a physical activity you can inject it but we're not talking about that is you have to do exercise you have to do load bearing exercise see when you're 20 years old 25 years old 30 years old even 18 years old you have testosterone and human growth hormone coursing through your veins right this is fat burning fast metabolizing you can eat garbage you don't have to you can you know don't have to get good rest in here you're just you look great but once you turn 35 40 45 the hormones go down and then it gets a cascade of that effects happens it's like a vicious cycle of negativity you lose testosterone you lose home and human growth hormone less and less of it and then as soon as especially men start to get a layer of what's called visceral fat when men start to get the classic belly around them this is bad news it's terrible bad news because that that layer of visceral fat actually starts to act like estrogen in the male body did you know that it actually suppresses testosterone production and starts to act like estrogen in the male body which is why you have the sort of classic example of the man booze right the man begins to actually feminized and he's it but the good news is and I'll give you a great trick next week next week when we come back I'll talked about how you can get rid of that visceral fat but just at the outset here exercise exercise exercise even if you haven't exercised in years do your brain a favor do your body a favor do your family a favor do yourself a favor and say you know what I'm gonna get fit to the glory of God I'm just gonna get fit to the glory of God not out of some Duty not side of out of some compulsion but because God and by the way I think if you pray over exercise you get double benefit I think it's totally appropriate for you to say God in heaven I've let myself go a little bit I've gotten out of shape and I ask your forgiveness and I'm gonna start making a step I'm gonna start moving back toward being a strong moving active actionable person so I want you to please double the benefit of all this exercise please father restore the years that the locusts have eaten and I believe he'll do it even if you're in here you're 70 or 80 years old even if you're almost a hundred and one if you're Agnes is age and Agnes I might get you up next week and ask you a few questions about being a centenarian cinterion you can do some exercise number one number two I urge you to seriously consider if you're not already become a vegetarian a healthy vegetarian defined not so much by what you're not eating by but what by what you are eating and please do your body a favor just stop stop going to KFC stop going to McDonald's just don't don't give these companies your money they are preying upon you this food has been shown to be as addictive as cigarettes it's fast and edible but it's not food you can't even dignify a lot of the stuff that is being served in these places with the name food no no no no no start taking your body seriously take the identic ideal seriously take the identic stream seriously and just say you know what it's better for the environment it's better for the cow it's better for the chicken and all men I could spend a long time I could spend a long time talking about the completely indefensible way in which mankind has exploited the animal kingdom now some of you might be like man this is what I just want the old sermons back it's funny people said we make it more practical we want practical make it really practical and now you're gonna be like okay talk to us more about ontology and theology and get out of my refrigerator and get out I don't stop talking about the Xbox and the refrigerator boxers start to start ok you asked for it you asked for it and beloved I'm telling you I'm not perfect in every one of these areas not even close but there's the ideal and there's the actual and the goal of this series is to get us closer to the ideal so that the actual becomes closer to God's identic ideal because at the end of the day God's identic ideal is not bondage it's not a yoke of slavery it is a passport to health it's a passport to pleasure it's a passport to happiness and it is a passport to freedom Father in heaven [Music] you

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Keywords: David Asscherick, Kingscliff Church, SDA, Health

Id: yISj1HdK-BM

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 29 2018