Such Were Some of You pt 2
Notes
Transcript
Today’s message is ultimately about Biblical freedom.
like the train that has freedom when it is on the track
Biblical Freedom is not the right to do what you want, but the power to do what you ought.
free to be a temple for the holy spirit
Flee Sexual Immorality
Flee Sexual Immorality
1 Cor 6:12-20.
v 12-14
Watch out for your mantra:
“All things are lawful for me…” phrase picked up from Paul’s first visit? Reference to fulfillment of the law, liberty from its dictates? It can go too far.
We tend to repeat what we believe and believe what we repeat. We need to park our minds on truth.
Sexuality is a facet of my identity, not the sum of it.
v 15-17
Sex is more than just bodies (physical intimacy) it is souls (personal intimacy)
To whom are you joined? You are one flesh with them.
God correlates “adultery” to the spiritual wandering of His people
intimacy= “into me, see” Prov 4:23
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
v 18-20 (reverse)
we are commanded to glorify God in our bodies
Just as Jesus Christ had to take on Himself a body in order to accomplish God’s will on earth, so we must yield our bodies to Christ that He might continue God’s work through us.
Warren Wiersbe
you have been purchased (body, mind, soul) by the blood of Jesus, and you no longer belong to yourself.
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
sexual sin is an offense against the temple of the Holy Spirit
Can I overcome my desires?
Can I overcome my desires?
C.S. Lewis from “The Weight of Glory”
Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Tactics
Tactics
These tactics are offered, not as a “one sermon fix”, but as evidence that hope exists, and that there is a battle plan.
Expulsive power of a new affection
Make War, not love (given over) Matt 5:27-30
“cut off your hand” hyperbole, take the fight against sin seriously
bounce the eyes (heart)
don't play in mine fields
feed the right dog
i will make a covenant with my eyes Job 31:1.
Proverbs 3:5–6 “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
how can a young man keep his way pure? only by living according to your word. Ps 119:9
work on being the one for someone else, think outwardly
have an eternal perspective.
Eternal Perspective
Eternal Perspective
C.S. Lewis from “Mere Christianity”
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. ... If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthy pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. ... I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and help others to do the same.
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Communion
Communion