How to be healthy without vitamins.

Steve Brown:
How to be healthy without vitamins. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase, and worship. This is Key Life, with practical Bible teaching to get you home with radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re studying, if you’re just joining us, the Book of Proverbs, and we’re doing it by subjects. And what I’m doing is just flipping through the Book of Proverbs, finding a bunch of different subjects and spending some time on those subjects as we go through the Book of Proverbs. In fact, that’s the only way you can teach Proverbs cause there is no outline that fits for Proverbs, it’s just a lot of things that are very important if you want to be a street-smart Christian. Alright let’s look at how to be healthy without vitamins. Proverbs 3:1 through 2.

My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands, for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.

Proverbs 4:10

Hear, my son, and receive my sayings. And the years of your life will be many.

Proverbs 9:11

For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of your life will be added to you.

Proverbs 10:27

The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

I try my best to do what I’m supposed to do, but I don’t always get it right. I have a wife who is very tuned in to healthy living, healthy cooking, and a significant dose of vitamins every day to make sure that you get what you’re supposed to do. When I don’t swim my laps, and I swim laps every day almost, it’s my wife who says, aren’t you going to swim? And so, I get into the pool and I swim laps. And I’m old and I’m still here so some of it may be working, but not all of it. I fear that some of us who are obsessed with vitamins and healthy living and eating the right things are going to be someday, like a ship that goes down with nothing to throw overboard because you already did. So, what Proverbs says is not negative about living healthy lives. But it says this, let me tell you something that is really important, and it’s this. Walking according to the institutes of God revealed in Scripture will probably do more for your health than anything else. Every so often, some sociologist will do a study on what makes people happy and healthy. And every time, and by the way, I’m not big into sociology. My friend Tony Campolo is a sociologist, and I’ve said it to him on numerous occasions that sociology is the equivalent of priests looking at entrails of chickens to tell you about the future. But sometimes, the studies are designed properly and you find out stuff you ought to know. And in every study that I know about that has been instituted, people of faith are always happier and healthier and better off than those who are not people of faith. And so, that’s what the writer of the Book of Proverbs is saying. God has given you an owner’s manual, and one of the things about an owner’s manual, it tells you how to do things properly. And insofar as you do, your life will be better. The Psalmist said, 119, that he loved the law. You know, I do too, because the law does what it’s supposed to do. It reminds me of my failure and my sin, and then the Holy Spirit sends me to Jesus, where I get hugged, and that’s what repentance is, and the law measures that. But the law also says, this is the best way to live. You want to be happier than you are. You want, I have said often to congregations, you want to be better off than you are, read the Bible and do what it says. Now, if you don’t, I don’t care, I’m not your mother, but I didn’t think you ought to be in church if you’re not a believer and not get some wisdom, and I just gave it to you, and I hope that you listened. I was just saying what Proverbs is saying, that’s the best way to live a long and happy life. Now, remember what I taught you before. Proverbs is not a book of laws. It’s a book of principles on the way life works almost all the time. And so, you can’t say, God, I studied your law and I got cancer and you lied to me because then you don’t use Proverbs in the way that it’s supposed to be used. But the Book of Proverbs says, walk in his ways, listen to his law, be the man or the woman that you are called to be. And in so far as you do that, you will have a better life, you will be happier, and you will live longer. That’s good advice, and it’s wise, and it’s something that every street-smart Christian ought to do. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t take your medications, or your vitamins. I had, years ago, I had a coronary. And my doctor, Greg Simano, whom I love, had given me a medication for my heart that would lower the bad cholesterol. And he said, you need to take one of these every day. And I said, okay, I’ll do it. And then I started going on the internet to some of those medical websites. Don’t do that. That’s not good. Better to ask somebody than to go on the internet. And they started talking about some downsides of the medication that Greg had given me. And I decided I’m not taking this stuff anymore. And the next week I had a coronary. And Greg said, he didn’t want to rub it in, but he said, the next time I tell you to take some medications, listen to me and take it. Now, the coronary wasn’t bad. I had it on Monday and I was speaking for a convention in Nashville on Saturday. So, you know, it was a mild heart attack, but it was a wake up call. Now, I take that medication daily, I take the vitamins daily, I swim daily, but I walk with Jesus all the time, well, most of the time, and I’m better off because of it. You know, we had healing services in a church I once served. We did them on Wednesday nights, and we did it once a month, and we always did it in the context of communion. And the elders would have oil, and as people came forward and received communion, if they wanted prayer for their issues, primarily health issues, they backed off and sat on the front row and a team of elders, two or three elders, would come by, anoint with oil and pray for them. And do you know, by the way, Presbyterians don’t do that. We do things decently and in order. And healing services are sometimes, well, you can’t control them. But I did it anyway, and God honored it. It was a good time. And we saw people who were healed of really bad stuff. We saw people who had surgery coming up, who didn’t have to have surgery. We had one woman who came to me and said, my husband has been in pain for the last 20 years and after the elders prayed for him, he’s had no pain. And she says, I’m usually the one who believes the best. But I keep touching him, and I keep saying to him, Honey, are you sure? Are you sure? I bring that up simply because, to say that doctors don’t know everything, and God does know everything. What’s that old joke? The question, what’s the difference between a doctor and God? God doesn’t call himself a doctor. I’m sorry. What I’m saying is simply what I’ve been teaching you, that the best way to live for everybody and certainly for God’s people is in his word, doing and being what he says. And if you do that, you’ll be better off than if you didn’t. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. Steve Brown there wrapping up another fantastic week of exploring Proverbs in our series called Street-Smart Christians. We’ll continue that series soon, but first, join us tomorrow for Friday Q&A when Steve and Pete will answer this question. Will God recognize my divorce in heaven? Tune in for that answer. Are you familiar with the word dechurching? Aside from being worth 23 points in Scrabble, the word refers to the trend of people leaving church for various reasons. In all, there are some 40 million people in that situation. But there’s also good news, and that good news is what we discussed with authors Jim Davis and Michael Graham on Steve Brown Etc. It was a challenging but ultimately hopeful conversation. We would love to send that entire episode on CD to you for free. So, call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. And if you’d like to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD called Dechurching. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you support that work through your giving? You could charge a gift on your credit card, or include a gift in your envelope. Or simply pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word, two words. It doesn’t matter, just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.