Glorify God with your body

Good morning and welcome to CCC. What a wild and wonderful week this was in the Smith household. As of Friday 12/16 at 12:30 pm I officially survived my first semester as a principal. What a ride that has been and what a wonderful time of learning I have experienced. God has taught me so much these past 5 months. I have A LOT more to learn but am eager to sit at the learning tree of Jesus to learn what He wants for my life!

Let’s pray

START OBS

We touched on this last week but I felt lead to go into more detail this week.

Last week we looked at mindset when it comes to all sin including sexual sin. In vs 12-13 of I Corinthians 6 Paul really looks at how we are to think differently than the world.

That we are to take every thought captive to the Word and make it obey Christ.

We discussed 3 questions or areas to think about when wrestling with sin or worldly thoughts or beliefs

Is it spiritually beneficial?

Will it lead to being enslaved by sin?

Will it glorify God?

I pray you are using those to help guide your thoughts, beliefs, words and actions every day

I Corinthians 6:14-18

_________________________________________

“And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

Paul tells us why sexual sin is such a bad thing. He starts by reminding the Corinthians and us of the truth of the Gospel

Vs 14 God raised Christ from the dead

Jesus came to earth.

We celebrate His birth next week on Christmas. That was an amazing miracle....born to a virgin....in a barn....placed in a manager....a food trough.....worshipped by Kings and cows!!!

However if that was it, you and I would be bound to sin and death....physical beings.

But it wasn’t it.

Jesus mounted a cross

He took your sin

He took my sin

He took the sin of the whole world

past, present, and future

He died a perfect sacrifice for that sin

Then God raised Him from the dead and any who believe on Jesus are now free from sin and death and are spiritual beings with a new home

I want to look at two scriptural references here

Ephesians 1:19-20

________________________

“and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,”

Philippians 3:20-21

________________________

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

If God raised Jesus He will also raise us

You and I if we believe in Jesus

We will one day live with Jesus in heavenly places

How wonderful is that thought????

A new citizenship

When you and I accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior we are no longer citizens of the world.

In other words no longer bound by the physical bodies we are living in

No longer bound by sin

No longer bound by death

No we now are citizens of heaven

Aliens residing in human bodies.....citizens of one country living in another is how alien is defined

We are citizens of heaven living on earth.

If you or I would move to Mexico or Italy or somewhere outside of the USA and not become a citizen of that country we would be aliens....USA citizens living somewhere else

Christians are citizens of heaven!

Our allegiance and home are God and heaven. One day God will raise us from this broken, sinful, rotting human body and give us glorious bodies

We are new creatures in Christ…the outside has not changed but the inside sure has!

I Corinthians 6:15-16

________________________

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.””

We are reminded that in and through Christ we are members.

We belong to Christ

Joined with Christ

Christians are the body of Christ

You and I may not like our body but there is no denying our body is one unit....working together to survive

Same here

Christians are united together in Christ and must work together to survive and bring God glory!

That is the issue with sexual sin

It doesn’t involve just you

Paul quotes from the Old Testament in vs 16

Genesis 2:23-25

________________________

“Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

One flesh

As Christians we may have lost sight of why God even created sex

God created sex to be enjoyed in marriage

Not the worlds crazy, ever changing definition of marriage but God’s definition of marriage one man one woman

Ephesians 5:31-32

________________________

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

Pretty clear there one man one woman joined to become one flesh

We are also the bride of Christ and joined together with Him in salvation

Back to this morning.

God created sex as a way for these two to become one flesh.

It connects them.

It brings them closer together.

It creates new life

It brings glory to God

He created us

He created sex

When we engage in sex within a marriage we bring glory to God

When we sin

Have sex outside of marriage doesn’t matter if it is adultery, sex with someone other than your spouse

Prostitution

Sex before marriage, yes even if you are engaged to be married you are not married so that sex is also sinful

Or just a one night stand

We not only sin against ourselves but with and against the other person

If you are a Christian struggling with sexual sin you also sin against Jesus because in salvation we are united in Christ one flesh with Christ

This also includes pornography and lusting after someone

Jesus clearly makes our thoughts sin

Matthew 5:27-28

________________________

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

As Christians....through the power of the Holy Spirit we are to be holy as God is holy. That includes our thoughts

I felt lead to discuss something this morning.

You have heard me say and will hear me say many times there are truly only two choices in life

Jesus

or

satan

There is no gray area

There is no middle ground

There is no well I like this from Jesus and this from the world which is satan by the way, quit hiding

It is all or nothing

Same with the Bible two choices

accept

or

reject

That is it

When we are faced with sin.

Temptation.

Right or wrong

There again are only two choices.

If I choose to make those thoughts obey Christ and the Word I choose Jesus.

I choose to be closer to God

I choose to mature in Christ through the Holy Spirit

I may even choose blessings that come with obedience if that is God’s will

I may choose persecution as well if that is God’s will but I will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God will use that persecution to bring people to Jesus!

If I choose to sin.

Remember sin is always a choice

It is not a product of your environment

It is not because you had terrible parents

It is not because you have had a hard life

It is because you chose it.

When we choose sin we choose the consequences and pain associated with that sin

We choose to willingly be enslaved by that sin

Addiction didn’t choose you, you choose addiction

That affair didn't choose you, you choose that affair

Alcohol didn’t choose you, you choose alcohol

Porn didn’t choose you, you choose porn

You also choose the consequences and pain that come with it

Sin twists your mind, sexual sin really twists your mind

It attacks you from the inside out before you know it you are cool with all kinds of sin

Your thinking becomes worldly and remember worldly means satan

As one who has been delivered from the sin and addiction of pornography I can tell you leaving the porn, ending the addiction is the easy part

Renewing the mind is the hard part.

When you are in the midst of the sin, you realize that you are changing, that your thinking is different but you justify that away

When the sin is gone, you realize just how sinful you have become,

Just how sinful your thinking has become

How you see the world differently

Through the Holy Spirit you truly do have to take every thought captive to the Word of God and make it obey Christ.

There are times I must battle against my old mind.

My old thinking

My old way of speaking, vulgar, course language

Finding ungodly jokes funny

Looking to gossip

There are times I have to battle my eyes

The thing is sin is natural to us as humans

All sin, including sexual sin is natural, it is our nature as humans to sin

I want to quickly look at two verses that describe this

Jeremiah 17:9

________________________

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Galatians 5:17

________________________

“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

You see you heart.....my heart.....are deceitful above all things.....desperately sick....the KJV says wicked there

The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit

Your desires and my desires as humans will always be against the Spirit if they are of the flesh

Your flesh and my flesh are both very wicked and evil and sin comes naturally.

This is why Paul spends so much time on mindset and thinking.

Renewing your mind

Renewing my mind

This only happens when you are in God’s Word

Not just reading it to check a box

Not just reading it because you feel guilty if you don’t so you read a little bit

No renewing of the mind happens when we read seeking life change not adding to our memory banks.

Hebrews 4:12

________________________

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

The Word of God is alive and active and sharper than any two edge sword

What does that mean?

It means as you read the word of God and the Holy Spirit begins to bring to remembrance sin

remembrance situations, circumstances, actions, words, thoughts that don’t match God’s Word you have two choices

Confess....bring it to God

Repent.....180 degree turn and run the other way

Be forgiven.....you must confess and repent to be forgiven…it is a free gift but it is not a get out of jail free card

You can’t just sin and sin and sin and ask God for forgiveness......you can but you miss the point

The Bible brings you to your knees and says look what you are doing is sin

what you are thinking is sin

how you are talking is sin

You either love Jesus and will therefore confess and repent of these things or you love the world and satan and will keep doing them

It is time we stand on God’s Word and quit making excuses for ourselves and others and realize the sin and the consequences and the pain from them are our own fault if we are Christians.

Jesus defeated sin

It has no power in your life

The only time you are enslaved to sin as a Christian is when you willingly became enslaved to it

I Corinthians 6:19-20

________________________

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Here is the other issue with sin, especially sexual sin

We need to remember or realize that when we accepted Jesus or when you accept Him for the first time if you have not yet

The Holy Spirit moves in.

He lives in each of us who are truly Christians

Why is that important?

II Corinthians 3:17

________________________

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

FREEDOM!!!!!!

Christ died to set you free.

When you accept Him you are truly free

The Holy Spirit keeps you free

How does He keep you free,

He teaches you the things of God

He applies the Word of God to your life

He is how you obey, love God

Everything God has in His Word points to Jesus and Jesus sets you free so God’s Word is truly about freedom

Leading you to things that are spiritually healthy and away from things that will kill, steal and destroy you spiritually

Romans 15:13

________________________

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

This world needs hope....God is hope.

It is the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you that allows you abound in hope.

When you are abounding in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit those who need hope will be drawn to you and you can tell them about Jesus and the fact that He is the reason you are abounding in hope!!!!!

If you lack hope you lack Jesus and the Holy Spirit

No so much lacking in the sense you are not saved, you may not be saved that is between you and God but if you are saved an you lack hope it is because you are choosing to lack hope because you are not choosing Jesus!

John 14:16

________________________

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,”

The Holy Spirit is the helper and will be with you forever as a Christian

John 14:26

________________________

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

The Holy Spirit teaches you all things and brings those things to remembrance when you need them

Ezekiel 36:27

________________________

“And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

The Holy Spirit is how a Christian is able to walk in God’s statutes....obedience

Why did I mention all of these scriptures?

Why does all this matter and how in the world does it relate to sexual sin?

First I wanted to give you a quick glimpse of the Holy Spirit from a scriptural perspective

I also wanted to give you these for your study and for you to put to memory for when they are needed

I also wanted you to understand what Paul understood

Your body is not yours

It has been bought by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross to pay your price and once you accept that payment by accepting Jesus your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit

That means when we sin, especially sexual sin

Not only do we sin against us but also Christ and the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:30

________________________

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

When you and I choose sin we grieve the Holy Spirit of God

We build a wall between us and God

We also block the Holy Spirit, He is grieved and all of those things we talked about with the Holy Spirit

Freedom

Helper

Teacher

Obedience

Hope

All of those things are provided by Him and since we are choosing sin and satan we are not choosing those things and the Holy Spirit

Church and Christians it matters how you and I live

It matters what we say

It matters how we think

It matters what we believe

It matters what we do

I want to ask you a rhetorical question

Does everything you do glorify God?

If not why do you do it?

I was reading a leadership book this week by John Maxwell and one thing that smacked me in the face was this

He said an easy way to determine what you are committed is to look at your calendar and your check book

Where you spend your time and money is what you are truly committed to

Is it Jesus and His ministry that you are committed to or satan and the world?

You have to pay the mortgage or rent and food etc

I am not talking about the “necessities” when it comes to physical life

How much time do you truly spend in studying, digging into God’s Word?

Truly seeking Him?

Truly seeking to renew your mind through the power of the Holy Spirit?

How much time do you truly spend in uninterrupted, totally surrendered, totally committed prayer?

Both speaking and listening in prayer?

How much time do you truly spend in ministry each week?

Not coming to church and sitting in the pew

But truly doing God’s Work

Volunteering at the soup kitchen

Helping your neighbor

Making sure there are enough adults to meet the needs of the Children God brings to us here at CCC to teach about Jesus

Inviting people to church to meet Jesus or to strengthen their walk with Jesus.

Look at your calendar and your check book....are you committed to glorifying God?

As this song plays get with God and if He is calling you to respond please do!