Occupy Relationally (Fit To Serve)

What’s the greatest thing you want to have achieved by the time you’re 65? (for those who are 65, share what you wished you would have achieved by now when you were younger!)

Just as God has given each of us our faith and family relationships as important resources, He has also placed into our hands the gift of our bodies. The human body is one of our most important resources. The bible tells us that God personally designed and handcrafted the first human body and then breathed into its nostrils the breath of life. God took particular delight in His creation and said it was not just ‘good’ but ‘very good’. And indeed, long before the advances of modern science had shown this to be true, the ancient Hebrews understood just how amazing the human body was.

The writer of the Psalms wrote in Psa.139:13-16, ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’ What an awesome poem of praise to God for the amazing gift of our bodies!

Unfortunately, many Christians today don’t manage this important resource well. During the first 4-6 weeks every year, some of the most crowded places in our city are gyms and fitness clubs! But I don’t have to be a prophet to predict that by the middle of February, they will mostly be vacant and abandoned! Our lifestyle of crowded schedules, mechanized transport, sedentary desk-jobs and highly processed foods is about to take over! The result is a generation that is suffering from diseases our grandfathers never knew existed. It’s no longer strange today to hear of Kenyans in their 30s suffering from the so called ‘lifestyle diseases’; diabetes, high blood pressure, heart complications, cancer and strokes.

But this was never God’s intention for us when He gave us our bodies. And even though our health is not explicitly mentioned in our principle passage that we’ve been reading, I believe the ‘occupy principle’ still applies to this important resource. So please turn with me to the text we’ve read since we began, what I’m going to call our ‘occupy manifesto’ – Luke 19:11-27 NLT

The amount in this passage was not a large at all. In fact it was quite easy to take it for granted! I mean – it wasn’t something that would make their master considerably richer, or make a dent in his net worth if they lost it. And so it was quite easy for the servants to feel that what they did with the little money they had been given really didn’t matter much in the big picture of things.

This is easily the attitude that many of us have towards the resource that is our body. It’s common when we ask people today why they don’t exercise or eat healthily to hear things like

1. My life is just too busy for exercise, and who has time or energy to cook anyway?
2. Gyms and healthy food are way too expensive. I’m still dealing with the basics!
3. I’m one of those lucky people who can eat chips everyday; it doesn’t show at all!
4. I am still young to worry about such things; after all, I could even get hit by a car and die before I’m 40!
5. I have given up on dieting. Nothing I do seems to make a difference on my weight.
6. Diabetes and hypertension run in my family and I’ll most likely get them too when I’m old anyway.
7. It is socially acceptable for a person of my age or social position to carry the weight I have.

The reality is that many people will lose their health today looking for money only to lose their money tomorrow looking for health. I don’t know if you are aware that lifestyle diseases are the leading cause of death in Kenya today! [not HIV or malaria!] More than half of deaths (55%) are caused by high blood pressure, heart diseases, diabetes and cancer. These diseases also account for half of all hospital admissions. They are no longer diseases for the rich (there’s a time they were prestigious diseases)! Of the 28,000 people who get cancer in this country every year, 22,000 die because they can’t afford the treatment (80%)! Lifestyle diseases cause 60% of the world’s deaths, and out of these, 80% are in Africa! These are staggering statistics! We’ve gone and occupied other people’s diseases!

But even more importantly than statistics, is the fact that without good health, you will NOT be able to achieve your kingdom purpose. Remember Jesus taught the gospel of the kingdom, not the gospel of salvation. It isn’t just about waiting to one day go to heaven; it’s also about living a full and rich life NOW! Jn.10:10 ‘I have come that you may have LIFE and have it TO THE FULL’. An example of a person who lived a full life in the bible is King David. Acts13:36 tells us, ‘For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep’ in other words, he died after having accomplished the task for which God had created him! But for many of us, not caring for our health means that regardless of how much we want to occupy, we will not achieve our purpose. Unlike Jesus who before he died said, ‘it is finished’, many of us at the end of our days will say ‘I am finished’! You’ll be ‘finished’ but you won’t have finished the job you were put on earth to do!

You see, you are not primarily a physical being – your body is a vehicle. But it is the vehicle that will take you where you need to go! And like a car, it serves best when well serviced. But Christians often tend to prioritize their spiritual lives and neglect their physical bodies! We feel that’s the more holy thing to do! But we forget two things. Firstly the bible asks in 1Cor.6:19 ‘do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit’. As a Christian because God’s Spirit dwells in your body, it’s a holy place and must be treated with respect! But secondly, when we neglect our physical bodies, we compromise our spiritual lives! If we keep living in the same way, many of us will increasingly lack the energy and endurance to pray, to stay in a good mood, to give the best to our work and to serve others. And as we grow older, we will become financially drained and a burden to our families. This is NOT the “full life” that Jesus envisioned for us!

One thing I notice from our passage is that no one knew how long the master would take to return. His journey may have taken months, years or even decades. The passage doesn’t say. It would have been very easy for the servants to lack any urgency in their work! ‘What’s the hurry? Why are you thinking so far ahead? Relax, you’ve got all the time in the world!’ In the same way, we often lack urgency when it comes to our health. ‘I’m still young and have many years to go. There’s so much time to correct things if I make mistakes! It’s not like I’m dying in the next 12 months. Even if I eat chips every day, it will be a while before I see a major difference! Some even saying – maybe I can wait to hear this sermon next year!’ [Let me tell you this; when I was 20, I used to think a 40 year old had one foot in the grave!] Note what our passage tells us however – the servants who succeeded created 1000% and 500% profits. This suggests they didn’t just multiply but they did so diligently, patiently, consistently! They must have started early and kept going, even when no one else was!

The reality is that having a healthy body doesn’t just happen. It takes discipline and exertion! The apostle Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians 9:27, when he said ‘I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.’ (NLT). In another version he says ‘I beat my body to make it my slave’. He was speaking about how we must discipline our bodies now in order to ensure we finish well IN OUR FAITH! And indeed at the end of his life, he was able to say in 2Tim.4:7, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’. The impression we get is that it had been a long, tough journey physically, mentally, and spiritually, but that like Jesus, he too had successfully occupied and completed his assignment.

Let me say finally that simple lifestyle changes don’t have to be expensive. One of my relatives who comes to this church surprised us all last year. He’s a busy banking executive who has a nice car. But the whole year, he decided to walk to and from his house near Wilson Airport and his office in town. It would take him 40 minutes to an hour each way! To our amazement, this guy who was extremely overweight lost all the extra weight he had had for quite a while and now looks extremely fit and trim. The best part of it was that it didn’t cost him a cent! It’s those little choices that count – walking up the stairs to your office instead of using the lift, carrying a packed lunch to work, giving your kids a fruit instead of chips for snack, walking home from work in the evening, cutting out soft drinks…

I began by asking you a question… What’s the greatest thing you want to have achieved by the time you’re 65? What if simple changes in your lifestyle today could ensure that you will be active, engaged, joyful, and still fulfilling your purpose? What if you could serve God to the end of your days and finish strong? What if you could be healthy enough to enjoy the life-to-the-full that Jesus came for you to have? This year, God wants you to commit to a healthy lifestyle that will allow your body to serve you well to the end!