Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Three Metrics for Your Fitness

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Three Metrics for Your Fitness · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, do you worry that your pursuit of physical fitness
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  Speaker 1: is feeding your pride instead of honoring God? Today on
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  Speaker 1: Askpestor John, Paster John gives us three metrics to use
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  Speaker 1: to untangle our motivations when it comes to body image
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  Speaker 1: and to ensure that our exercise exists to make God
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  Speaker 1: look strong in our lives. But before we get to
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  Speaker 1: today's episode, a quick programming note on where we're headed
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  Speaker 1: this year. We sat down and looked at Pastor John's
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  Speaker 1: full schedule for the year ahead and carved out space
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  Speaker 1: for eighty eight brand new episodes with him in the
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  Speaker 1: studio in twenty twenty six. Very grateful to get that
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  Speaker 1: precious time with him. Pastor John just turned eighty and
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  Speaker 1: still has wonderful life and energy from industry, as this
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  Speaker 1: full schedule testifies, and we pray that this is true
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  Speaker 1: for him for many years to come. So eighty eight
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  Speaker 1: episodes with him, and if we meet here twice a week,
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  Speaker 1: that leaves sixteen slots over the course of the year.
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  Speaker 1: And with those, my plan is to take your excellent
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  Speaker 1: new questions coming into the inbox and match them to
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  Speaker 1: fitting responses from our archive, curating some of our best
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  Speaker 1: episodes from the past, and to be frank, this is
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  Speaker 1: one of the hopes that we have for the trajectory
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  Speaker 1: of this podcast going forward, is collectively making good use
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  Speaker 1: of what we already have, mixing in those episodes along
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  Speaker 1: the way. In twenty twenty six, so on Monday, Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John was in the studio with us to talk about
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  Speaker 1: motives in religious contexts. And today we're talking about exercise,
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  Speaker 1: a fitting topic for the start of the year with
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  Speaker 1: its resolutions, weight goals and gym memberships and all that.
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  Speaker 1: And today we have a question in the inbox from
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  Speaker 1: a listener named Avery who lives in Austin, Texas. She
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  Speaker 1: writes this, Dear Pastor John, I'm feeling conflicted of late.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe convicted is the word. I spend a lot of
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  Speaker 1: time on fitness planning and meal prep, going to the
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  Speaker 1: gym five days a week. I follow several influencers on
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  Speaker 1: Instagram for motivation. On the surface, it feels like I'm
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  Speaker 1: just stewarding the body God gave me. And I know
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  Speaker 1: discipline is a good thing, but if I'm being honest,
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  Speaker 1: it starts to feel a little empty. Sometimes I worry
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  Speaker 1: that what started out as a healthy habit is feeding
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  Speaker 1: my pride, and that my desire to be healthy is
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  Speaker 1: tangled up with the world's intense pressure to look a
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  Speaker 1: certain way. I truly want to honor God in this,
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  Speaker 1: but it's hard to untangle my motivations. How can I
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  Speaker 1: tell when my pursuit of physical fitness stops being good
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  Speaker 1: stewardship and crosses over into sinful self glorification? Where is
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  Speaker 1: that line found in the Bible? Thank you Avery for
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  Speaker 1: that wonderful question. Here's ol Pastro John answered a very
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  Speaker 1: similar question in twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: I'll put my answer in a sentence, and then I'll
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  Speaker 2: try to unpack it for its implications. The discipline of
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  Speaker 2: the pursuit of physical fitness becomes sinful self glorification when
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  Speaker 2: it is no longer pursued as a means of one
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  Speaker 2: overcoming our own sin, two serving others, three glorifying Christ. Now,
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  Speaker 2: this is a hugehage issue both for men and women
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  Speaker 2: in our culture, because hour after hour, every day, through
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  Speaker 2: advertising and other media, we are being told that to
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  Speaker 2: be successful and happy, our bodies must have a certain appearance.
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  Speaker 2: So whether we're talking about the way we dress, or
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  Speaker 2: the way we do our hair, or the way we
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  Speaker 2: work out in order to be fit. The Christian needs
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  Speaker 2: to be clear about the way Jesus calls us to
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  Speaker 2: do this that makes us different from the world, and
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  Speaker 2: I think he does in what I'm suggesting. What I'm
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  Speaker 2: suggesting is that there are three ways to measure whether
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  Speaker 2: our pursuit of fitness is sinful or not. And those
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  Speaker 2: three ways are One is that person a genuine desire
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  Speaker 2: to defeat sin in my own life? Two is that
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  Speaker 2: pursuit of fitness a genuine desire to become more useful
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  Speaker 2: in serving the temporal and eternal good of others. Three
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  Speaker 2: is my pursuit of fitness owing to a genuine expressing
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  Speaker 2: a genuine desire to show that Christ is more valuable
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  Speaker 2: to me than my looks, or my health or my
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  Speaker 2: reputation as disciplined. So let's take a look at those
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  Speaker 2: one a time. First, is your working out at the
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  Speaker 2: gym a strategy, a strategy for overcoming sin in your life?
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  Speaker 2: I believe it can be. Paul said that he pummeled
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  Speaker 2: his body to keep it in subjection because he knew
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  Speaker 2: that there were powerful temptations that come from the flesh
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  Speaker 2: to undermine his ministry. Now, laziness is one of them.
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  Speaker 2: Over and over in the Book of Proverbs, we are
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  Speaker 2: warned against being a sluggard Proverbs twenty verse four. The
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  Speaker 2: sluggard does not plow in the autumn, he will seek
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  Speaker 2: at harvest and have nothing Proverbs twenty one to twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: The desire of the sluggard the lazybones, kills him, for
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  Speaker 2: his hands refused to labor. So it is a good
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  Speaker 2: thing to exercise, and eat and sleep in a healthy way,
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  Speaker 2: so as to subdue the enslaving impulses of the body,
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  Speaker 2: including laziness. Paul said in One Corinthian six twelve, all
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  Speaker 2: things are lawful for me, but I will not be
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  Speaker 2: enslaved by anything that's any good thing or any bad thing.
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  Speaker 2: It is good to exercise in order to defeat the
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  Speaker 2: sin of laziness and the love of ease. Now, as
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  Speaker 2: soon as I say that, every biblically mature saint realizes
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  Speaker 2: that Jesus also warned against boasting in that kind of
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  Speaker 2: self discipline. He warned against loving the reputation of being
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  Speaker 2: a disciplined person. Matthew six p. Sixteen. When you fast,
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  Speaker 2: do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure
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  Speaker 2: their faces that they're fasting, maybe seen by others to lee,
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  Speaker 2: I say to you, they have received their reward. But
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  Speaker 2: when you fast and fasting, here really is any kind
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  Speaker 2: of self denial? Right fasting from television and so you
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  Speaker 2: don't have a TV, John Piper, woe you so proud
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  Speaker 2: of that blah blah blah, or fasting from ease. You're
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  Speaker 2: gonna pomp iron until you're exhausted, or fasting from food
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  Speaker 2: or whatever it's fasting stands here for any kind of
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  Speaker 2: self discipline. When you fast, annoint your head with and
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  Speaker 2: wash your face, that you're fasting may not be seen
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  Speaker 2: by others, but by your father, who's in secret. In
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  Speaker 2: your father's season, secret.
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  Speaker 1: Will reward you.
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  Speaker 2: So yes, by all means, let's be disciplined and self
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  Speaker 2: denying in the pursuit of defeating sin in our own lives.
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  Speaker 2: And let us be ever alert to the deceitfulness of
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  Speaker 2: sin that causes us to boast in the very triumphs
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  Speaker 2: over sin, and thus turn triumph over sin into defeat
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  Speaker 2: by another sin. That's how deceitful we are in our
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  Speaker 2: own hearts, Which leads now to the second way that
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  Speaker 2: we measure whether our pursuit a fitness is sinful. Is
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  Speaker 2: our pursuit of fitness owing to a genuine desire to
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  Speaker 2: become more useful in serving the temporal and eternal good
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  Speaker 2: of others? Are you aiming to be fit in order
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  Speaker 2: to be faithful? Are you aiming to be healthy in
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  Speaker 2: order to be helpful? Is your concern with your looks
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  Speaker 2: a concern to love other people better? When the disciples
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  Speaker 2: argued about who was the greatest, Jesus said, if anyone
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  Speaker 2: would be first, he must be last of all and
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  Speaker 2: servant of all. In other words, instead of mirrors in
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  Speaker 2: the gym, there should be big signs on the wall.
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  Speaker 2: He who would be great must be the servant of all.
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  Speaker 2: So you want to be strong, you want to be fit,
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  Speaker 2: you want to be buff. Are you going to use
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  Speaker 2: it to be a more faithful servant of people? Or
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  Speaker 2: are you out to be seen by others? If you are,
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  Speaker 2: that's a damnable attitude and you're in big trouble. That's
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  Speaker 2: what Jesus would say.
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  Speaker 1: He did say it.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the third. Here's the third criteria. Is the pursuit
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  Speaker 2: of fitness a genuine desire to show that Christ is
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  Speaker 2: more valuable to you than your looks, or your health,
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  Speaker 2: or your reputation for being disciplined. Are you seeking to
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  Speaker 2: make Christ look great or only yourself? So here's what
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  Speaker 2: Paul said Esian six ten. Finally, be strong in the
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  Speaker 2: Lord and in the strength of His might. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: true true strength. It's true strength when we are seeking
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  Speaker 2: to be strong in the strength of Christ. Not strength
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  Speaker 2: in ourselves, but strength in the Lord. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: our aim at the gym is to be strong in
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  Speaker 2: a way that makes Jesus look strong. We've got to
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  Speaker 2: figure that out or we're gonna be idolators. We're gonna
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  Speaker 2: be vain glorious. Here's the way Peter put it in
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  Speaker 2: on Peter one four. All flesh is like grass, and
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  Speaker 2: all that's glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers,
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  Speaker 2: the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.
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  Speaker 2: The point is in the gym, the glory that people
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  Speaker 2: are seeking is like grass. It withers, it falls. Believe me,
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  Speaker 2: Believe me, I have been jogged regularly since I was
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  Speaker 2: twenty two. It is not a fountain of youth, folks.
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  Speaker 2: You're going to sag, You're going to be wrinkled, you're
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  Speaker 2: going to be splotchy, you're going to be scaly. You're
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  Speaker 2: not going to be pretty or cool. And if you
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  Speaker 2: have invested your life in that, oh it will be
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  Speaker 2: you will look pathetic like all those older folks in
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  Speaker 2: Phoenix with their ridiculous tends and their sagging, wrinkled skin.
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  Speaker 2: It's just ridiculous. The word of the Lord remains forever,
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  Speaker 2: and that word says, work out faithfully. That is, work
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  Speaker 2: out of the gym to defeat sin in your own life.
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  Speaker 2: And work out of the gym to become more useful
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  Speaker 2: in serving the temporal and eternal good of others. And
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  Speaker 2: work out at the gym, Yes, you can, to show
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  Speaker 2: that Christ is more valuable, more precious to you than
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  Speaker 2: your looks, or your health, or your reputation for being
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  Speaker 2: so disciplined. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Physical fitness becomes sinful when it ceases to be a
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  Speaker 1: Christ's centered pursuit of self mastery, service to others, and
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  Speaker 1: glorifying God, and instead becomes an exercise in self exaltation.
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  Speaker 1: Those are prophetic cautions here for the gym. Be strong
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  Speaker 1: to make Christ look strong in the world. Yeah. For
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  Speaker 1: more on exercise, see David Mathis's new book, a little
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  Speaker 1: theology of exercise and edifying and short read. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for that, David, and for that book idea, Thank you Justin.
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  Speaker 1: And then of course see the digest of our many
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  Speaker 1: episodes in the section titled on Gem's Exercise and Body
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  Speaker 1: image in the Aspestra John book on pages two forty
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  Speaker 1: seven to two point fifty four for a digest of
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  Speaker 1: what we've covered here on the podcast. Well, why do
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  Speaker 1: we get our best and clearest thoughts when laying in
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  Speaker 1: bed at night, on our back in the dark, when
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  Speaker 1: the world is quiet? What makes that moment especially suited
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  Speaker 1: for mental clarity and for spiritual clarity? Next time, Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John explains how God speaks to us in those quiet
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  Speaker 1: moments through our internal dialogue. I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see
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  Speaker 1: you on Monday.