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Am I Abusing Caffeine? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Welcome back to the podcast on this Monday. We hope you're reading the Bible
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  with us this year and benefiting from the discipline. We're using the Navigator's Bible
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  Reading Plan, and if you are reading along with us, you may already
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  know that today's scheduled reading includes First Corinthian six verses twelve to twenty, a
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  key text on how we glorify God with our bodies? How do we steward
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  this body for God's glory? Specifically, we have a lot of questions about
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  caffeine and energy drinks, like this email today from a listener named Jose.
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  He writes in to ask this pastor John, hello, and thank you for
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  this podcast. Caffeine and specifically energy drinks are controversial in our youth group.
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  As someone who likes them, I was wondering if there are any negative effects
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  or reason to not drink them. They help me focus and have energy during
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  my work shift. I only drink one every two or three days, but
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  I would like to have some spiritual insight in order that I might run this
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  race without being slowed down. And then he ends his email with a smiley
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  emoticon patron, how should we think about energy drinks, and how would we
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  know if we are abusing our bodies with caffeine. Well, it might be
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  helpful to take our starting point from Paul's words in First Corinthians about how he
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  navigates the whole area of appetites, whether food or energy, drinks or sex,
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  and what foods mean to Paul, what he takes into his body.
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  So here's the pivotal text for me. It's First Corinthian six. All things
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  are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are
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  lawful for me, but I will not be dominated, i would say,
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  or mastered, or ruled or enslaved by anything. Food is meant for the
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  stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both the one and
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  the other. Now let me pause there and say, there's a lot of
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  controversy around what in Paul's chapter. Here are slogans from his adversaries in carinth
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  and what are his own words. So you know, it might be a
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  slogan food's meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and so they're
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  justifying all kinds of things. But whatever the case is on that point,
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  Paul's point becomes clear in what follows. Here's what follows. The body is
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  not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for
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  the body. And God raised the Lord and will raise us up by his
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  power. Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ? So clearly
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  the upshot of those last couple of lines are the Lord is for the body,
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  the body is for the Lord, the Lord will raise the body,
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  and we are members of Christ even in our bodies. In other words,
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  the body really matters, so that the body matters to God morally, and
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  in particular, foods matter, and sex matters. And so the guidelines he
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  gives matter. And what he says is all things are lawful for me,
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  but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but
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  I would want to be dominated by anything. And then he adds what on
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  corinstance ten, all things are lawful, but not all things build up?
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  So here's my paraphrase for Jose. Number one. Energy drinks are lawful for
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  me, but are they helpful to my real advantage? And I'll come back
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  to that. Second, energy drinks are lawful for me, but do they
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  dominate or master or enslave me. I'll come back to that one. Number
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  three, energy drinks are lawful for me, but does my drinking of them
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  build up does it build up my faith? And particularly does it build up
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  the faith of others? So let me just give a thought about each of
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  those questions that might help him navigate whether he uses them and how frequently he
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  uses them. Number one, all things are lawful, but are they helpful?
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  That is to my real deep advantage? That's the meaning of the Greek
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  word to my advantage. This is really part of a much bigger issue,
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  isn't it, of the proper use of not just caffeine, but other stimulants,
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  medications, riddling adderall antidepressants, and so on. So let me just
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  give one crucial guideline that I think is implied in Paul's wording. Are they
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  truly helpful? Do they help me go after my deepest advantage? And that
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  would be this, This is my guideline. Are energy drinks or whatever I'm
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  taking are they masking deeper problems that I'm not dealing with because I'm masking them?
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  Or are they helping me really address and be freed from the deeper problems
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  that I may have. I think that's the crucial question when it comes to
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  the kinds of medications or stimulants that we take. Are we hiding from our
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  hearts? Are we hiding from sins? Are we hiding things that are to
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  be dealt with? And this is just a superficial overlay. If Jose or
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  any of us is masking deeper problems with stimulants, then they're not being used
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  as a gift from God for our good. They're being used as a flight
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  from truth and from the good that God wants to do deeper down. So
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  that's my note on the first paraphrase. Here's the second one. Do they
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  master me? Do they enslave me? Why would that matter to Paul?
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  Why does he say? Why does he say that? Why should it matter
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  to us? Well, it should matter because we have one master who bought
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  us at the price of his blood. We do not belong to ourselves,
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  but to him. He calls us to live as free people, not enslaved
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  people. So it says in one krizten six p. Nineteen, do you
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  not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
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  whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were
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  bought with a price. So glorify God. In your body. So anyone
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  who uses coffee or soda, or energy drinks or other kinds of stimulants or
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  medication should ask, am I dominated by this? Am I mastered by this?
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  Am I controlled by this? Living consciously as Christ's freedomen, Am I
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  magnifying the price that He paid to set me free? For him? It
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  says in Second Corinthians five, he died for all that those who live might
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  no longer live for themselves, but for him, who, for their sakes
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  died and was raised. Are we magnifying his mastery over us? Or living
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  under another master? That's the second issue that I think he should take into
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  consideration. Here's the last one. Do energy drinks build up? All things
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  are lawful for me? But not all things build up? Why does Paul
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  shift our focus? This is a really profound ethical question in the news Testament.
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  Why does Paul shift our focus from what is lawful? So he says
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  all things are lawful to what builds up? Now, this is huge.
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  In Christ, we have died to the law law Roman sevento. You have
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  died to the law through the body of Christ, and we are released from
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  the law verse six, having died to that which held us captives, so
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  that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not the old way
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  of the written code. And the problem then with deciding what's right and wrong
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  about energy drinks is that you could obey a law without love without giving a
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  hoot about whether you're building anybody's faith, And so it sin. This is
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  not adequate to have an external rule solve this problem. Paul wants to go
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  deeper. The reason Christians are set free from the law is not that we
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  might become lawless, but that love would hold sway. First Corinthians nine to
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  twenty one to those outside the law, I became as one outside of the
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  law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of
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  Christ. So his freedom with regard to the law was being governed by another
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  law, which he called the law of Christ. And what's that Galatians six
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  y two. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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  Or Galatians five fourteen, For the whole law is fulfilled in one word,
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  you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So when Paul says to Jose or
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  me, or you or anybody else, energy drinks are lawful, But do
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  they build up. He means, be sure that your heart is set on
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  the good of others, and that your example to them and your choices are
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  aiming to build people up in faith. That's helping them trust Jesus and treasure
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  Jesus and honor Jesus above all things. So here's my summary. Three guidelines
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  for Jose and me. Are they truly helpful? Are energy drinks truly helpful?
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  That is, are they masking problems that I need to deal with or
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  helping me deal with them? Number two? Are they dominating me? Mastering
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  me and obscuring that Jesus is my real master? And? Number three?
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  Am I using them? In love? Am I building others up? Am
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  I seeking to build my own faith and the faith of others? Yeah?
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  Superful paradigms here Pastor John for life, Thank you for another application of First
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  Corinthians six twelve and thirteen. Before we go, I think we all want
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  to know. Do you do you yourself use energy drinks? I have.
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  I have a box of energy drinks. I do it in my office.
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  Probably don't use them quite as often as Jose. He said, what every
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  two or three days? And what I do is that is, if I've
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  got a pressing task and I cannot stay awake. Yes, I'll go there.
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  But that box that I buy at all these get them at all,
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  these real cheap lasts a long time. But I mean a question like this
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  helps me keep my finger on the pulse of whether I'm defaulting to an artificial
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  stimulant because I'm so proud I won't get enough sleep. Yeah. See,
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  in others, that's what I mean by masking. If my real problem is
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  that John Piper doesn't have the discipline to go to bed at night and therefore
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  gets six hours instead of eight hours of sleep, and therefore he's always falling
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  asleep at his tasks, and thus he resorts to an artificial stimulant. That's
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  masking, that's hiding, that's running away from God and pride. Yeah,
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  a warning sign of the masking we need to be on alert for in ourselves,
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  thinking pastor down for another application of one Corinthian six versus twelve to twenty
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  eight key texts and talking about food and fasting and feasting. As you'll see
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  in the digest that I wrote of APJA episodes on these topics and the new
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  ABJ book. If you have a copy on hand see pages two fifty five
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  to two sixty eight, and the same text factors into the section just before
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  it on Gym's Exercise and Body Image on pages two forty seven to two point
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  fifty four. If you have the APJ book, check out both of those
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  sections between pages two forty seven and two sixty eight. We are talking about
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  First Corinthian six today because it was in our Bible reading today, and we're
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  using the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan, and we are reading in month number four
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  and day number eight today, Month four, Day eight. You can join
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  a long download the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan online for free and join us tomorrow.
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  Among other things, we will be reading Psalms seventy nine to nine,
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  and Kimberly is going to ask Pastor John to help her pray the Psalm seventy
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  nine to nine. Way a great question applicable for all of us. Up
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  next, I'm Tony Ranky See Thursday