Rev. David Holwick ZA (well-received)
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 24, 2003
Proverbs 28:2
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I. Are you keeping your plates in the air?
A. Old-timers among us may remember the Ed Sullivan show.
One act always fascinated me.
This man would come on with long poles and lots of plates.
He put a plate on top of a skinny pole, and spun the plate.
By putting some wrist action on the pole he could keep the
plate spinning so fast it would stay in the air.
Then he would start another plate, and another.
Eventually the older plates lost their momentum and began to
falter.
He had to race back to them and add some spin to the pole
to get the plate balanced again.
He ran all around trying to keep them all in the air.
A lot of people live their lives that way.
They go from this to that.
They work on this area of their life a little bit and then
they stop and work on that area of their life a little bit.
All the while, a sense of imminent collapse hangs over them.
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B. The importance of balance.
1) Nature (ecosystems) must be balanced or species die out.
2) Buildings fall if imbalanced. (Kobe, Japan, earthquake)
3) The electrolytes in our bodies make us sick if they get
imbalanced.
4) God wants our lives to be in kilter.
a) (No one knows what kilter means, but you want to be
in it and not out of it.)
C. You can be imbalanced in anything.
1) Sleeping, eating, work, play.
2) Everything.
D. Genuine balance takes effort.
1) Like the guy spinning the plates, we need to stay focused
on the big picture.
2) We must deliberately develop our balance.
Comment by Howard Henricks:
"A lot of people's lives are like poor photographs:
over-exposed and under-developed."
3) Sort of like the relationship of J Lo and Ben Afleck.
a) They are getting lots of attention but there isn't
much balance there.
II. What happens when we are not in balance.
A. Frustration.
1) Bringing back tons of stuff from grandpa's.
2) Our house is jam-packed as it is, so we are frustrated at
a lack of balance when didn't even have to begin with.
B. Fatigue.
1) Imbalanced tires get hot and blow out.
2) So can humans....
III. What the Bible says about being balanced.
A. The most perfect example of balance - Jesus Christ. Luke 2:52
1) He grew in wisdom - intellectually.
2) He grew in stature - physically.
3) He grew in favor with God - spiritually.
4) He grew in favor with people - socially.
a) Jesus was a perfectly balanced human.
B. We also need balance in these areas.
1) Mental balance.
a) Romans 12:2 - "Don't be conformed to this world..."
(Phillips - "Don't let the world squeeze you into
its mold."
b) Next line - "but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind."
1> The way you think has a tremendous impact on your
life.
2> A positive attitude DOES make a difference.
c) Discipline your mind with continued study.
d) Be careful what you focus on. "Garbage in, garbage out"
2) Physical balance.
a) Bible - "glorify God in your body."
b) The Hol
Our recent vacation - long days snacking in car, then
a heroic assault on mountain peaks in Wyoming.
It was not a pretty sight.
Open rebellion near the summit.
Peanuts Cartoon: Lucy is playing baseball.
She's running out into the outfield and saying,
"I've got it! I've got it!"
The ball flies over her head and plunks down right
behind her.
She's standing there with her hand open.
She throws the ball back to Charlie Brown who's standing
on the mound and says, "Sorry about that, manager.
My body just doesn't seem to want to do what my brain
tells it to."
Charlie Brown says, "I can understand that."
In the last sentence he says to us, "My body and my
brain haven't spoken to each other in years."
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c) Are you always tired? Dissatisfied with your physical
shape?
1> Do something about it.
2> Have a specific daily/weekly plan and follow it.
Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the man who invented aerobics, tells the story
of a lady who was 46-years-old.
She came to him because she had back pains that were so terrible
she could not walk further than 75 feet without having to sit.
She was stooped over and couldn't stand up.
As a result, it killed all of her social life, all of her outings.
She was in constant pain and disability.
When she came to Dr. Cooper, he advised that she have back surgery
but she said, no, she wanted to try something else.
She began to walk on a treadmill.
She found that when she put the treadmill at a certain angle she
could walk without being in pain for about 25 seconds.
So she began to walk on the treadmill several times a day.
Soon she found she could lower the treadmill more and more until
finally she was walking on a flat surface without any pain for
the first time in months.
Next she started to do some slow jogging with her walking routine.
Eventually she began jogging continuously from 3 miles to 5 miles
to 10 miles at each outing.
Today, this 46-year-old woman has run 9 marathons with her best
time being 3 hours and 3 minutes, a great time for any woman or
man of any age.
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You can change if you want to.
It doesn't matter that the summer is almost over.
September can be your month of physical transformation.
3) Spiritual balance.
a) 2 Peter 3:18 says, "Grow in grace and the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1> You do two things - you grow in grace and you grow
in knowledge.
2> The knowledge comes from studying the Bible.
3> The grace comes by applying your spiritual knowledge
to everyday situations and learning to enjoy God.
A lot of people grow in knowledge.
They know about God.
They know the books of the Bible.
They've memorized verses.
They know who Nebuchadnezzar is.
But they don't grow in grace.
You've got to have balance in your spiritual life.
b) Spiritual balance may not be a matter of being MORE
spiritual - more attendance, more giving - but being
spiritual in a more BALANCED way.
4) Social balance.
a) Romans 12:18 - "If it is possible, as far as it depends
on you, live at peace with everyone."
b) Relationship are important in our lives.
Readers' Digest carried an article called "Seven Secrets of
Peak Performance" by Dr. Charles Garfield.
He's the head of a research institute called Peak Performance
Center.
They studied 1,500 outstanding achievers in all walks of life -
business, athletics, education, every area of life.
They were looking for common denominators.
What is it that makes the difference between a person who's a
super-success and another person who tries their best but
they just get mediocre results?
Are there any characteristics, common denominators of peak
performance people?
Yes, there are seven of them.
The number one characteristic of the top achievers in the
world is that they lead a well-rounded life.
They're balanced.
High achievers, we often hear, are extremists.
They spend all their time on one thing.
Garfield says that's a misconception.
High performers, in contrast, are willing to work hard but
within strict limits.
For them, work is not everything.
When Garfield interviewed top executives in ten major
industries he found that they knew how to relax and they
could leave their work at the office.
They also prized close friends and family life, and they spent
a healthy amount of time with their children.
They were balanced.
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c) Your relationships are a better indicator of real
success in life than your salary or your stuff.
IV. How to become balanced.
A. Make an assessment of your life.
1) Socrates - "The unexamined life is not worth living."
B. Make a plan of action.
1) Workout schedule.
2) Devotional plan.
3) Social calendar.
C. Establish Christ at the center of your life.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
Most of the material in this sermon is from Rev. Rick Warren's sermon,
"Balancing Life's Demands." Some of the illustrations have been
adapted by me.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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