What's The Body Got To Do With It? Series

WHAT’S THE BODY GOT TO DO WITH IT?

I Corinthians 6:12-20

S: Holiness

C: Our bodies are to be used to honor God.

Th: Live the Difference

Pr: We are to please God.

?: How?

KW: Issues

TS: We will find in our study of I Corinthians 6:12-20, three issues that we must act on in order to please God with our bodies.

The _____ issue we must act on is…

I. WISDOM (12-14)

II. WHOLENESS (15-18)

III. WORSHIP (19-20)

PA:

· Recognize our bodies are not separate from our soul/spirit.

· Practice sexuality the way God has designed it.

· Fulfill our purpose is to please (satisfy, glorify) God.

Version: ESV

RMBC 16 May 04 AM

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever noticed that certain adults get nervous around kids?

Do you know one of the most common times it happens?

It happens when the topic of sex comes up!

For example…

ILL Notebook: Sex (parallelogram)

New to teaching, Craig Maginnis was finishing up his fourth-grade class’ unit on genetics when Robert raised his hand. “I understand how a mother gives the baby her genes,” he said, “but how does the father do it?”

Unprepared for the question, Mr. Maginnis told him to ask his parents.

“They won’t know,” he said.

“They’ll know,” Mr. Maginnis assured him.

“No, they won’t,” he persisted.

“How can you be so sure?”

The boy’s answer, “They don’t even know what a parallelogram is.”

Well, when it comes to this subject, we parents do get a bit tongue-tied.

But, at the same time, we recognize that it needs to be talked about.

There is something very precious and very sacred about sexuality that must be communicated to our children.

For frankly, they are not going to get it from our culture.

Instead, they are going to hear the opposite from the media, from friends, and even the educational system.

TRANSITION:

Our study today is about sexuality.

But we are considering it under the heading of our larger theme for the year.

1. Our theme this year is “Live the Difference.”

To “live the difference” means that we have the ability and the responsibility to live differently than we did before we received Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Before we were believers, we had no choice.

But now that the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are able to live differently.

We can, by God’s power, live a life that is holy and righteous.

Now…

2. During our last study in I Corinthians (which was way back in March), we discussed our rights as Christians.

The particular topic was lawsuits.

Apparently, there were members of the church that were taking each other to court, demanding that their rights be satisfied.

It was during this study, we identified the lies that we often believe.

For example…

Sometimes we believe that when a disagreement occurs, that we can’t settle it on our own.

It’s not true.

Sometimes we say, “I have my rights!”

It is a lie, for if we stopped to consider what we really deserve, we would show more consideration for others.

And sometimes we believe the lie that people should just take us the way we are.

But what is important, is not just who we are, but who we are called to become.

As we move into this next section…

3. Paul continues to challenge the church about its freedom.

Now that Paul has demonstrated to the Corinthians that they were not free to take each other to court, he also explains that their application of freedom in regard to sex is also askew.

You see, as believers…

4. WE ARE TO PLEASE GOD.

And more specifically, we are to please God with our bodies.

When it comes to sex, God has given us some fairly specific instruction.

We are instructed to be sexually pure.

This means that if we are not married, we abstain from sexual activity.

Sexual activity, though, does have one rightful place.

And as I like to tell my kids, you need to have a license for it.

It is in a heterosexual marriage.

This is God’s design.

God has designed a man and a woman to be fully committed to one another.

And when we do this according to His design, we discover something really great.

It works.

As he writes about these matters, we should note that…

5. Paul is speaking to a sex-saturated culture (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:9).

This may surprise you, but the “Sexual Revolution” was not invented in the 20th century.

You see, the testimony of Ecclesiastes rings true here:

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

So what we experience today is not new.

The Corinthian church existed in the midst of a permissive society, where the philosophy of “if it feels good, do it” was the norm.