Glorifying God with Our Bodies
9/27/15
Introduction: We are now living in a pagan nation. When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, he was writing to believers who were surrounded by pagan religious practices. The pagan temples practiced prostitution as part of their worship. (picture of fertility goddess temple)
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 6:13-20
1 Corinthians 6:13–20 (NASB95)
13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”
17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
I. The Importance of Our Bodies
A. Some misunderstandings about our bodies
1. The comparison between the body and the spirit
2. Some wrongly conclude that the body is not important
3. Some think the body is evil but the spirit is good
B. The Lord cares about our bodies
1. We are wonderfully created by God
2. Our bodies are to be used for God’s purposes, “For the Lord”
3. “The Lord is for the body”
The resurrection of our bodies (vs. 14)
II. Being Good Managers of Our Bodies
A. Who owns our bodies?
1. Self-ownership
2. Slavery
3. God’s ownership
B. We are not to misuse our bodies
1. Not for immorality (vs. 13)
2. We are to flee immorality (vs. 18)
(2 Corinthians 12:3, Ephesians 5:3, Colossians 3:5)
2 Corinthians 12:21 (NASB95)
21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.
Ephesians 5:3 (NASB95)
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
Colossians 3:5 (NASB95)
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
C. Reasons why we are not to use our bodies for immorality
1. There is a spiritual union in sex, union with a prostitute breaks union with Christ
2. The Physical destruction of immorality (Sue will share stats)
III. Glorify God With Our Bodies (vs. 19-20)
A. Our Bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit (vs. 19)
1. God’s presence on earth used to be manifested in the Temple
2. Now believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit
3. We are to take the best care of our bodies
B. Glorify God by using our bodies for God’s purposes
1. Believers are to surrender their bodies as a sacrifice of worship to God
Romans 12:1 (NASB95)
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2. To praise Him
3. To serve Him
