The cultural river is strong and fast, towards destruction (get out and follow Jesus!)

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV), For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who

enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Enter by the narrow gate.

Stewarding our Whole Health:

PHYSICAL – 11 major systems! We are complex beings!

MENTAL – “we all have mental health”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) “Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely… think about these things” (Philippians 4:8)

“…take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

SPIRITUAL – we are not just physical beings with bodies, or I’m not just my body. God has place eternity in the hearts of man (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8)

EMOTIONAL – health, maturity, intelligence, awareness, articulation, not being run by, not ignoring

RELATIONAL – made for relationship: friends, family, church, God (the ability to form and maintain)

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (ESV), Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD

your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Mark 12:28-31 (ESV), [Jesus was asked], “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Ephesians 5:28-29 (ESV), In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who

loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

Stewarding our Whole Health

– The goal is not to have perfect ________ health (we wait for Heaven)

But to be faithful with whatever He has entrusted to us

– Stewarding – not owner, manager – not mine to do as I please, but I answer to the Owner

– To fall in line with His design

Psalm 139:1-6 (ESV) O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and

lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Psalm 139:7-12 (ESV) Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Psalm 139:13-16 (ESV) For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

God is complex, and He made us like Him – complex! (Genesis 1:26-27) There is a care required, and a design to fall in line with

God made the body, He knows my thoughts/words, God made my soul (meaning far beyond the physical world), God gave me emotion, God made me for relationships – to be known and to know

Stewarding our Whole Health – physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, relational

• The goal is not to have perfect ________ health (we wait for Heaven)

But to be faithful with whatever He has entrusted to us

• Stewarding – not owner, manager – not mine to do as I please, but I answer to the owner
• To fall in line with His design

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV), …You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (+ emotions + thoughts + soul/spirit + relationships)

1 Timothy 4:7-10 (ESV), …train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is

trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God…

Disciples of Jesus: we follow Jesus – He came down and modeled what it looks like to follow the Father in all these ways, so that we could follow Him in all these ways

Disciple-makers: we live by example, and we disciple the whole person, not just one dimension