PREACHED:
OL
“HOW MUCH TO YOU
WEIGH?”
1ô WEIGHT CONSCIOUS!
A. The only nation on earth that has built a
major industry out of controlling weight.
1. Just think of what we live with daily:
a. “Nutri-System
Weight Loss Center,” “Physician’s Weight
Loss Centers,” “Atkins Diet,” “Hollywood
Diet,” Weight Watchers,” “Grapefruit Diet,” “Mayo Clinic Diet,” “Biometrics,” “Hendrick Health Club,” “Hendrick
Nutrition Counseling,” Fat Burning
supplements that claim to allow you to eat what you want and still lose weight
while you sleep, etc. etc. etc.
B. Thousands of dollars are spent to take
off what we have spent millions of dollars to put on.
1. We have forgotten that that which is on the
table will eventually become that which is on the chair...
a. Or, as the wise Indian guru once
said: “Banana splits make people
double.”
2ô BIBLE WARNS...GLUTTONY:
A. Paul, for example, talks about those
“whose god is their belly” and he says concerning them, “Their end is
destruction” (Phil
B. Paul spoke of sins of the body in writing
to the Corinthian church and he quoted what was probably a common saying among
those whose direction was centered in the carnal, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” But
Paul’s inspired commentary on that concept,
“But God will destroy both one and the other.”
And he adds, “the body...is for the Lord…and the Lord for the body...”
(1 Cor
3ô SAD CONDITION - TOO LEAN IN OUR SOULS!
A. That’s the problem with a lot of people
spiritually, today:
1. Delivered from the sin and death, they
sing
praises to God. But
soon they forget what
the Lord has done for them they don’t seek
His
will for their lives,
the flesh takes over
and their souls begin to waste away!! They
get fat physically but are nothing but
skin and bones, spiritually!!
4ô DID YOU KNOW THAT GOD WEIGHS US EVERYDAY?
A. 1
Sam 2:3. “…the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed.” Proverbs 16:2. “All the ways of a man are pure in his eyes, but the Lord weighs the
spirit.”
B. When God looked at the actions of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, he sent a vision to express
his dis-pleasure with his ungodliness. He told Him:
1. Dan
5:27. “You have been weighed
in the
balances and found wanting...”
5 GOD’S “SCALES”...HIS WORD!
A. Heb 4:12.
1. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that when we
have gained a few pounds and need to weigh, we don’t want anyone one close-by
to see the scales?
a. But in the realm of the spirit, God does
the weighing and He knows it all!!
B. Let’s say that it’s “weigh-in” time this morning
for your soul.
INTRODUCTION:
I. WHAT IF GOD WEIGHED YOUR INFLUENCE?
A. Rom
14:7,8; Matt
5:14-16 (Salt & Light); I Pet
1. We need to remember that we often
influence as much by what we don’t do as by what we do!
II. WHAT IF GOD WEIGHED YOUR WORDS?
A. In Proverbs, Solomon personifies wisdom and declares
wisdom’s message. But the message is so applicable to our own words when we
speak:
1. 8:6-9.
“Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right, for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are
righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are all straight
to him who understand, and right to those who find knowledge.”
a. None of us are going to be perfect in
what we say, but certainly the declaration of Solomon ought to be our goal!!
1) Eph
4:29.
III. WHAT IF GOD WEIGHED YOUR ATTITUDE?
A. Phil
2:5
1. You see, our words and actions come from the
storehouse of the heart: Matt
a. A great illustration of the importance of
attitude:
1) A young bride during WWII,
followed her husband to an Army camp on the edge of the
Only housing...run-down shack
near an Indian village. Heat unbearable
…115 in the shade... wind blew constantly...dust and sand on everything...days
long and boring... Only neighbors were Indians who didn’t speak English.
When her husband was ordered
farther into the desert for 2 weeks of maneuvers, loneliness and the wretched
living conditions finally got the best of her and she wrote to her mother that
she couldn’t take it and was coming home.
But her mother wrote back with these two lines:
“Two men looked out from prison
bars, One saw
mud, the other saw stars.”
She read them over and over and
felt ashamed of her attitude. Her change
of heart produced a new direction. Made
friends with the Indians....asked them to teach her pottery and
weaving...became fascinated with their culture, history----everything about
them!
Began to study the desert.... It changed
in her mind from a desolate, foreboding place to a marvelous thing of
beauty...Had her mother send her books.
Studied the cacti, the yuccas and the Joshua trees.... Became an expert
on the area and later even wrote a book about it.
What had changed? Not the desert; not the Indians. Simply
by changing her attitude she had transformed a miserable experience into a
highly rewarding one!!
IV. WHAT IF GOD WEIGHED YOUR MORALS AND ETHICS?
A. Heb
12:14-16. “Strive for peace and
holiness… without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails
to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes
trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or
unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.” 1 Jn 3:3. “And everyone
who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
1. When I close my eyes to the moral inequities
and ungodliness in my life and the lives of others, I become like a blind
torch-bearer with an unlighted torch. He
holds it up but it gives no light... DOESN’T KNOW IT!
V. WHAT IF GOD WEIGHED YOUR WORSHIP?
A. John
4:24; Psa 95:6,7. “Oh
come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For
he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
1. What if He weighed your faithfulness to
the worship assembly?
a. Psa 122:1. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go
up to the house of the Lord!’”
2. What if he measured your Bible study and prayer
time?
a. II Tim
2:15; Psa 119:97. “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” V 131. “I open my mouth and pant, because I long
for your commandments.”
VI. WHAT IF HE WEIGHED YOUR PRIORITIES AND THE
WAY YOU USE YOUR TIME?
A. Matt
A lot of us have a zeal for a lot of
things that are not nearly as important as our souls and the souls of others:
1. Like the epitaph
of the woman who died in
a. “Here lies a poor woman who was always busy;
She lived under pressure that rendered her dizzy; She belonged to 10 clubs and
read Browning at sight,
Showed up at luncheons and teas
and was out every night. She served on committees, and went near and far, She golfed and she photographed and drove her own car. Liked
urges and splurges, knew microbes by name. Approved of Delsarte,
was a daughter and dame, Her children she saw only
once in a while, Her husband signed checks and tried hard to smile. One day on
her schedule, she found some time free, The shock was
too great and she died instantly...”
INTRODUCTION:
Let’s make sure that
while we are feeding our body we are not starving our souls!