There’s a simple biblical prescription for enjoying an abundant life. Join Pastor John Bradshaw and see how Scripture provides a roadmap for vitality and longevity.

<p>There’s a simple biblical prescription for enjoying an abundant life. Join Pastor John Bradshaw and see how Scripture provides a roadmap for vitality and longevity.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Abundant Life

We're about to open the Bible and get in the Word.

So we'll pray first and we'll anticipate the presence and the blessing of the Spirit of God and that God would lead us in the way that He would have us go.

Father in heaven, we're grateful for the opportunity to gather around the Bible.

We know that we are in the presence of heaven, in the presence of your Holy Spirit.

So lead, speak, bless, instruct, encourage, we pray and we thank you in Jesus' name.

I don't know if you would be as shocked as I was to read the research findings of a certain physician a Dr.

Jagger from Newcastle University in England Great Britain.

She said that within 20 years now I want you to see if you can get your head around this, 20 years from now, she postulated, today's middle-aged Britons will be suffering from an average of 4 significant diseases.

Now I'm not suggesting 1 of 4 or 2 of 4 or these 4 diseases will simply be prevalent.

Jagger said that today's middle-aged Britain, 20 years from now, will in her or his senior years be suffering from a total of 4 significant diseases.

She mentioned they would be cancer, heart disease, dementia.

She talked about people who would suffer from strokes.

And what she said was, speaking to a generation of people in Great Britain.

Within 20 years from now you will be suffering from 4 of those conditions.

If you were to pick 4 of those types of illnesses that you would like to suffer from, you would pick None, none, none, and not a single 1.

Now you might think this research was conducted in Great Britain.

You might be thinking it's on the other side of the Atlantic, if you're on the American side, or the other side of the world if you're in another part of the planet.

But you know that if you are in a Western country we're all pretty much in this together.

Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, many European countries, much the same.

How do you think God feels when he looks down upon this planet and he sees that his children are suffering under the weight of illness.

The Bible begins with these famous words, Genesis 1 and verse 1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And we read over in the New Testament where the Bible says, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Your body is the temple of the Spirit of God.

In the beginning, we were created to live how long?

The oldest man who ever lived, well, you might call him the oldest man who ever died, Methuselah, lived to be 969 years of age.

He lived for almost an entire millennium.

The last person you heard about who died was how old?

Might be 16 or 26 or 66, maybe 106, but maybe 6 or 6 months.

I wonder if you would look with me in your Bible in 1 Corinthians 9, and we'll pick it up in about verse 24.

1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, and here's what the Word of God says.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but 1 receives the prize?

So run in such a way that you may obtain it." Another translation might say, so run to win.

And they, everyone who competes for the prize, is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable.

Therefore I run, thus not with uncertainty.

Thus I fight not as 1 who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified or cast away." Isn't that fascinating?

The Bible calls us to live a temperate lifestyle.

Somebody once defined temperance as being moderation in that which is good and abstinence from that which is harmful.

When you start to talk about health, even from a biblical perspective, you'll find people who fold their arms, they get defensive, Don't meddle with what's on my plate.

Don't snoop around inside my pantry Get your hands off my refrigerator door.

I understand However, there are other people who perk up their ears kind of open wide that they get that the look of alertness and keenness on their face because they're looking for answers, they're looking for solutions.

We don't want to die unfortunate deaths, we don't want to die early, you don't want to get to your funeral any sooner than you need to.

And some people are saying, tell me more.

I know I need to experience something better.

And the truth of the matter is a vast amount of people have no idea that God is interested in their health.

Where possible, where possible from elevated blood pressure.

God also wants to save you from diabetes.

God also wants to save you from cancer and heart disease and from a stroke and dementia where possible.

Too many people live thinking, well, I'm just kind of going to get that, and my neighbor was unlucky and the guy on the other side of me got lucky and didn't get that.

No, it's not a matter of luck, even though you can be genetically predispositioned to better health.

Let me tell you something that I almost don't want to tell you.

In fact, it's something that I don't want to tell you, but maybe it fits here.

I don't mind telling you that, that's something she doesn't want me to tell you.

My mother would like to think that even God doesn't know her age.

So if you see my mother, don't tell her what I said.

I suggest that 1 of the secrets to her longevity is that she quit smoking.

In fact, I've stated categorically, 1 of the reasons, a primary reason that my mother lived to the age, or has lived so far to the age of 92, is that she stopped smoking.

The question you ought to ask me is, well, Pastor, when did she stop smoking?

The answer I give you, I have to tell you the truth, she stopped smoking at the age of 85.

If she had never smoked, she might live to be 185.

I said to a physician friend, how has my mother managed to live so long after having smoked so...

And she wasn't the I'll have a cigarette when I'm out with friends.

I said, no one's genes can be good enough to ward off about 50 years of constant smoking.

Her lungs had to have been like lumps of coal.

I put it down simply to the mercy and the providence of God and maybe good genes.

So what we know is there are exceptions to the rule.

And I tell you that not so the 14-year-old kid can say, ha, it worked for Mrs.

But what we have to keep in mind when we start talking about good health, even from a biblical perspective, is that 1 size does not fit all.

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Abundant Life

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