Keys to a Long Healthy Life

I would like to begin with a quote from a major leading U.S. news magazine, a weekly news magazine, and it's on the state of health in the United States. It is generally recognized that America is the most over-medicated, most over-operated, and most inoculated country in the world. It is also the most anxiety-ridden country with regard to health. We are flabby, overweight, and have a lot of dental caries. Our gastrointestinal system operates like a sputtering gas engine. We can't sleep, and we can't get going when we're awake. We have neuroses. We have high blood pressure. Neither our hearts nor our heads last as long as they should. Coronary disease at the peak of life has hit epidemic proportions. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death. We suffer from a plethora of the diseases of civilization. When skipping on down, we are the wealthiest country in the world, yet one of the unhealthiest countries in the world. Well, this was taken from U.S. news and World Report magazine June the 4th, 1962, 59 years ago. But have things changed any as far as our national health? I don't think, really, all that much. Not for the better at all. Did you know how much of our GNP goes toward health care each year? What percentage? It's about 18 percent. That means about 18 dollars out of every hundred that is spent in our country goes for health care. It's even more than we spend on food. Food is about half that much on the average. And we spend in the United States 3.8 trillion dollars every year on health care, which is about 11,582 dollars per person.

That's a lot of money per person that we spend. You know, right now, COVID, the pandemic, there's a lot of talk about our health, and that's what I'd like for us to speak about today, to think about. There's much in the Bible about health. We'll be reading a lot of verses. There are laws and principles that support and promote good health. Let's just read a few of them. We can't begin to cover this big topic, but we can at least scratch the surface. First of all, you know we all want good health, and guess who else wants us to have good health? Our creator, God, wants us to have good health. He wants us to enjoy each day, and He wants us to be able to work. He wants us to be able to achieve and to produce. Let's go to 3 John, that little book near the end of the Bible. 3 John, and verse 2. 3 John, verse 2, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things. You know, this is a good prayer for us to have for our brethren, too. I pray that you may prosper in all things. And he goes on to say, and be in health just as your soul prospers. So God does want us to be healthy. He doesn't delight that we have sickness. Sickness is when you feel miserable. You're in pain and suffering. God wants us to be healthy, and He even goes to a lot of effort to instruct us in the Bible how we can achieve good health. And good health is important. How important is it? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19. It is important that we maintain our body health and do the very best we can. Even if we have been given, let's say, a bad hand to deal with, we've been dealt a bad hand, and certain things have come through us through heredity or through genetic problems, we still need to do the very best we can with the hand which we have been dealt. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? So, you know, that is true, isn't it? God's Spirit joins with our spirit, with our mind, with the human mind, and so we have God's Spirit abiding with our, joining with our minds and abiding in our physical bodies.

And so we are the temple. Our bodies are the temple of God's Holy Spirit. And what are we to do in verse 20? You are bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. You see, the spirit is where God's Spirit joins with our spirit, but we're to glorify God in our physical body as well and to maintain it.

You know, without good health, we are cut off from achievement, and we're cut off from enjoyment of life. You know, when you feel miserable, what? You take a day off of work, you stay home, you mope around. Life is not good. Is that what God wants? No, he does not. And that is not glorifying God in the way that he would like. So without good health, we cannot achieve. We cannot produce. We cannot really enjoy life.

Mr. Herbert Armstrong wrote his booklet, Seven Laws of Success. Guess what law number three was? Good health. He wrote extensively during his lifetime in magazines and articles. And Mr. Armstrong wrote a lot about good health. You can go back and read those if you would like.

But maintaining good health is certainly part of our message as well in the United Church of God. We have many articles and statements to make on this subject as well. We have a booklet called Making Life Work. Making Life Work. And also, well, in this booklet in chapter 16, a chapter near the end of the booklet, rather, there is a chapter by the title, Keys to a Long, Healthy Life. It's 16 pages long. It goes over some of the basic keys to maintaining a healthy life, having enjoying a healthy life and a long life. And that's what I'd like to do this morning, is to go over some of these basic keys. And that's the title I've given to this message, Keys to a Long, Healthy Life. That's the title of this chapter in our booklet, Making Life Work. Number one, the first basic key that I'd like for us to focus on is proper food and diet.

So very important. Proper food and diet is almost always the very first law that is referred to as far as good health, the first principle. And the scriptures have much to say about diet.

Why Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 instruct us about certain meats that are not going to be good for our bodies. Among those would be pork, fish, must have fins and scales, certain birds, the predator birds are not good. These animals have been shown, I have articles in my file at home, to do harm when they are eaten, to do harm. Pork just has certain qualities to it that is not really good for the human body. There are also scriptures that instruct us not to eat fat or blood, and it has been discovered more recently that fat is not good. It actually is a cause of heart problems and cardiovascular problems, the trans fatty acids contained in foods like margarine and partially hydrogenated oils. Your body doesn't know exactly how to deal with these substances once it gets done in your stomach, and it ends up quite often clogging up the cardiovascular system.

So these products are not good. It'd be much better just to eat butter or a virgin olive oil, oils like that, which the body can handle and digest. Also, another part of diet is eating too much sugar. Today, that's a major problem in our country. Sugar is hidden in so many products.

And by the way, that's one important thing to do as far as the food that you put in your stomach. Read the label. If you see a label about an inch or two of different things that are in the label, you know that food has been highly processed, and it has things that are not going to be good for you. So even the scriptures bring out that you have to be careful about sugar intake, even from a right source, a good source of sugar. Let's go to Proverbs 25 and read about that.

Today, we have a problem in our country with diabetes. You know, the cause of that is that people are eating far more sugar, and they're causing this problem of diabetes in their life. Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 16. Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit. So even honey, which is a good source of sweet, you have to be very careful that you don't eat too much of it. Verse 27 in this same chapter, it is not good to eat much honey. So to seek one's own glory is not glorious, not good either. So the intake of sugar has to be something that we really keep a close watch on. I have an article in my files, What's Worse Than Sugar? And that is high fructose corn syrup, and this is a product that is used in most soft drinks, and many other foods will have this in it. High fructose corn syrup. And we do have a diabetes problem in our country.

It is, there's a wealth of information that you can find on diet. We don't have time to get into to everything, but basically the type of diet that is the best for us is to eat natural and wholesome foods. Foods that have not been refined and depleted, such as white flour products, the whole grain products are really what we need. They have the minerals, the vitamins that we need. But there's a wealth of information that is available to us, TV, news programs. On the internet, there's a lot of information on natural wholesome foods. We should certainly avoid the highly processed foods, especially highly processed grains and sweeteners. Also, today you can go to some of these buffets and fill up your plate and down it, and then you can go back again and again. But that's not good either. It's good to only eat that level of food that you need. And let's go to Proverbs 23 and read a couple of scriptures about that. Proverbs 23 and verse 1. So let's skip this verse and go to verse 21. The drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. And to eat too much food, then, is certainly gluttony. It's the same thing as a drunkard is drinking too much alcohol, and so a glutton is taking in too much food more than he should.

So very important that we then in our diet strive to become educated on proper diet, especially those who buy and prepare food. The second of the keys to good health, a long and healthy life, is exercise. Having activity in our lives, it's awfully easy to just not have enough activity, just to sit around and not really do much physical activity. But the Bible does support exercise. Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8. 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8.

And here, bodily exercise profits a little, or for a little time. It helps you for today, gets your blood moving today. Maybe it will help you for tomorrow and the next day. It won't keep on helping you, though, for next week and the week after. You'll have to keep exercising.

Really, it's good even to do it day by day. He goes on to say, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of life that now is and that which is to come. Certainly, this verse does support bodily exercise. Some of the activities that are especially good would be walking and swimming, cycling, certain sports activities, working in the yard in the garden, being active. Exercise stimulates the heart and cardiovascular system. The lungs gets the blood flowing and oxygen moving out to all parts of the body. You know, exercise has even helped people who are sick to return to good health and including those with heart problems, helping them to return to good health. I've read some articles that exercise is actually good for the joints. Even sometimes when it is sore and painful, exercise in the long run is helpful and reduces the pain level and strengthens that part of the body. But we have to be careful not to overdo it and to find the active lifestyle that fits your health and your age. And maybe some with a serious health problem may need a doctor's supervision when they exercise. So we do need to exercise proper caution. What about sleep and rest? That's key number three. Sleep and rest. Let's go to Psalm 127. The Bible supports that we get good sleep and rest. It's very important to our health that we do. Psalm 127 and verse 2. You see, God, as we're reading these scriptures, He wants us to be in good health. He's given us principles in the Bible that help us to enjoy good health. He doesn't want us to be sick. Psalm 127 and verse 2. It is vain for you to rise up early and set up late and eat the bread of sorrows. You know, to get up early, work and toil and keep on going late into the night and not get the sleep you need. So the last part of the verse says, For so He gives His Beloved sleep. So that's one of the blessings that God gives to us. You can read articles. It has been shown that Americans today do not get enough sleep. They're getting, in many cases, hours less sleep than they need. How much sleep does a person need? You know, some people can get by on just a few hours. I cannot. I need my eight hours. And usually the average seems to be around seven to nine hours that people need. But get the amount that you need. It's not time wasted. It's a blessing from God. God gives His Beloved sleep and ask Him that you'll be able to sleep. That God will put His angels about you and He will bless you. But adequate sleep is very important. Your body is a busy little repair workshop during sleep. And getting you charged up for another day. Isn't it amazing? You go to sleep. You're exhausted at night. I know around, it seems like it's earlier than it used to be, around nine o'clock, even sometimes earlier than that. I began to wear out. And yet the next morning after eight hours of sleep, isn't it amazing? You feel refreshed and you are ready to charge into another day. Your body has charged you up. Let's go to Proverbs 3.

Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 21.

Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 21. And here we read, My son, let them not depart from your eyes, keep sound judgment and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, when you lie down, and your sleep will be sweet. That's the kind of sleep that we want to have. So sleep and rest are very important. Number four, the fourth key, sanitation and hygiene.

There's an old saying, we've heard it, cleanliness is next to godliness. And it is very important to be clean. You will notice in God's instruction to ancient Israel, they were instructed to keep the camp of Israel clean. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 23 and read a few verses. Deuteronomy chapter 23 and beginning to read in verse 9, When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourselves from every wicked thing.

If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp. But it shall be that when evening comes, he shall wash himself with water.

When the sun sets, he can come back into camp again. Verse 12, you shall have a place outside the camp where you may go out, and you shall have an implement. You notice that, I know, this is for the bathroom needs here. They were to have a place outside the camp.

You shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. So they were to be clean. They were to be sanitary in the way they dealt with their bathroom needs. Verse 14, for the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over to you. Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you.

So God instructed ancient Israel to keep the camp of Israel clean. Brethren, sanitation is mentioned in the Bible, and I guess as far as sanitation hygiene, this may be a little bit of a different key even, but I'm going to bring it up at this time, and that is the principle of quarantine.

There was the principle of quarantine here in the scriptures. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 13. I want to at least point this scripture out as one that you can read and study later, chapters 13 and 14. But there are instructions here concerning leprosy, and just how leprosy was to be dealt with. What was leprosy? Most of us are not familiar with that, but it was an infectious disease that attacked the skin, the flesh, and the nerves, and it produced white scaly scabs on the body like an ulcer, and it was contagious by contact.

And notice what they were to do here in chapter 13. I don't have time to read all of this, but verse 2, when a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprosy sore, then they were to bring him to the priest. And the priest would look at the sore on the skin of the body, and if the hair of the sore has turned white and appeared to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprosy sore.

Then the priest shall look at him and pronounce him unclean. And if the bright spot had not turned white, then he could be pronounced not unclean. But what was to happen to the leperous man? In verse 44, he is a leperous man. He is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean.

His sore is on his head. The leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn, his head bare. He shall cover his mustache and cry unclean unclean. He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore, he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and notice he shall dwell alone. His habitation shall be outside the camp. So the Israelites then were to practice this principle of quarantine. That's the same thing we, of course, are recommending and have all along.

Any infectious disease that is contagious should, we should self-quarantine, flu, cold, fever, and certainly COVID. Brother, we do, we do need to practice this principle of quarantine today. I guess you can say maybe it's a part of sanitation and hygiene that you can read about. So read chapters 13 and 14 if you'd like.

We need to practice cleanliness, good hygiene, keeping our bodies and our clothing clean, our kitchen and food areas. What are they like? Do you keep it clean? My wife does a great job in keeping our kitchen and home clean. So what about our bathrooms? Are we keeping them clean? Our house and our yard? Washing our hands? Actually, now we do more bumping instead of shaking hands. That might be a better idea because many of these contagious communicable diseases can be spread by a handshake. So maybe a bump of the hand is even better anyway.

Certainly, sanitation and cleanliness, very important. Number five, the fifth key. I've got to move right along. Positive mental attitude, very important. A high percentage of sickness is caused or is emotionally induced, called psychosomatic illness. Psychosomatic illness. There is a link between our heads and our bodies. Our emotions automatically produce certain physical changes. Stress-related disease is very real. Stress triggers the adrenal glands, the heart rate, the muscular system breathing, and continued negative emotions cause the body to break down and become sick. Your mind then can make you ill. And there are many scriptures on it in the book of Proverbs. We can't even begin to read them all, but we might read one or two of them anyway. Proverbs 3 and verse 7. Proverbs chapter 3 and in verse 7.

Let's read verse 7. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Verse 8. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Proverbs 12 and 25. Let's just read two or three of these. We could read many more.

Proverbs 12 and verse 25. Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad. And I believe it's Proverbs 17 and verse 22. I'm going to skip on over. A merry heart, yes. Proverbs 17 and verse 22. A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. So, you know, we need to enjoy life. The positive, mental attitude is a very, very important key to good health. Laugh more, fret less, and it will be to your health. Number six. I'll just very quickly rush over these last keys here to good, healthy, long life. Number six is caution and avoiding body injury. And I say this is an important one. So many of us, including yours truly here, have tried to lift something and injured their back. And I don't have a lot of severe back problems, but now and then, my back does act up. And it's trying to lift more than my body was able to lift. One careless moment can mean pain and suffering the rest of our life. It could even mean, one careless moment could even mean death and lifetime injury. It could mean being confined to a wheelchair. Auto accidents happen in a brief moment of distraction, swatting a fly, accidents have happened, glancing at a map for directions, attending to a child. So be cautious at home and look ahead. Proverbs 22 and verse 3, we look ahead and we prevent body injury.

It will be to our health if we do. Proverbs 22 and verse 3, a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. We look ahead. We know that we have to be careful and cautious, but the simple pass on. They're not cautious and they are punished. So we need to look ahead then and avoid body injury. There are many other health principles that we could bring out. You know, one would be God's laws of morality. We know that sexual promiscuity is the source of many venereal diseases and prevention is simply by abstaining and waiting until marriage. And then in marriage, you won't have the venereal disease. Strict obedience to God's law would produce the end of venereal sexual type diseases. There are other health principles like regularity in body elimination. That is important. Moderation in stimulants like alcohol and beverages, coffee, and tea. You can drink too much of that. Special care of the teeth and the eyes. And that's so very important. Take care of your teeth. I wish I had done a better job myself when I was younger. Young people, take good care of your teeth. Brush. Don't eat all kinds of sugar. Because that will cause cavity. We were able with many of our children to have them go on through high school graduation without a cavity because we did not let them just have a sugar-laden diet. They were real careful. And so make that a goal to go through your life without a cavity, without having to have a filling. Another principle or key is get plenty of fresh air and sunshine Avoid chemicals that cause body harm. And we live in a chemical age, so you have to be really careful.

Okay, my time is running down, but brethren, there's a lot of information that you can get. Books and articles. You can find how to how to avoid and control diabetes. You can find information on exercise and physical fitness. You can find warnings about trans fatty acids, such as partially hydrogenated cooking oils. You can find articles about obesity and eating disorders, about coping with stress, emotional balance and health, controlling high blood pressure.

There's a book about reversing heart disease. People, this man shows that through exercise, diet, and a regulated program that heart disease where people have had heart attacks, they reverse it. They're turning around without surgery.

But I will say this one warning, and that is be careful that the information you get is correct. There are health fads, so you have to be careful that you're not getting information that is incorrect. Certainly, at times, a doctor is very helpful. Checkups can help identify existing problems, but become knowledgeable yourself.

In conclusion, whose responsibility is it for your health? You get right down to it. Is it your doctors? No. We each ourselves need to accept the responsibility upon ourselves. We have that responsibility to guard our health. Take charge of your health. Try to maintain what you have now.

Or what about even striving to improve what you have now? Some of us have been dealt a weak hand to start with. Well, take your weak hand and make the most of it, just like in cards. Make the most of whatever hand you have been dealt. And if possible, maintain it, or even better improve it. Remember, God wants us to enjoy good health. He wants us to feel good, to enjoy life. If we carefully follow God's laws and principles of good health, we will be certainly blessed by Him.

And we then should work hard to improve our physical health. We need good health. We need a measure of good health in order to glorify God and do His work and to grow and to overcome, and enjoy the abundant life and develop holy righteous character. In the near future, I would like to give a sermon on a topic that shows how much God wants us to enjoy good health, the topic of healing. You know, there's a lot in the Bible about healing. And does God still heal today? Yes, He does. I've seen many examples of it.

If and when you get sick, how do you ask God to heal you? When should you ask to be anointed by God's minister? Does God heal, though, in every case? The answer is He might not, in every case, like the Apostle Paul will read that scripture. But the Bible does say a lot about healing. Now, I'm not sure that we as God's people take advantage of that. The stripes of Christ, by which we are healed. You know, God does want us to enjoy good health to the point that He does perform supernatural miracles. I believe He has in my life, and I've seen it also in the life of others. So maybe in the near future we'll have a sermon on the topic of healing.