"Glorify God In Your Body”

Paul states very clearly how it should be. Look at Phil 1:21. We read, “For to me to live is Christ...” That is so simple, it makes one wonder why some Christians can not comprehend it. There are at least two reasons why they can not. (1) There is some kind of mental problem. For example, we all have come across things in life that we could not comprehend. We tried, but just could not grasp the concept no matter how hard we tried. We call this a mental block.

Illus: This reminds us of the story of the Air Traffic Controller who was directing some pilots in to land. One of the pilots called this air traffic controller and asked, “What time is it?” The Air traffic controller answered, “What airline is this?” The pilot then asked, “What difference does that make?? The answer came from the control tower, “It makes a big difference. If this is TWA, it is 1800 hours. If you are a red neck the big hand is on 12 and the little hand is on 6.”

We often kid each other, and laugh at ourselves, about being slow mentally, but the fact is that all of us have things we have a difficult time comprehending. A Bible preacher can preach to some folks for years that after they are converted THEY ARE TO LIVE FOR CHRIST and some Christians just do not seem to get it! It seems to be too much for some to comprehend. The other reason some Christians are not living for Christ is not that they can not grasp it intellectually, but... (2) There is some kind of spiritual problem. They understand they should live for the Lord every day, but even though they say they have received Christ as their Savior, they simply REFUSE TO LIVE FOR HIM. Paul commanded, I Cor. 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” God’s Word not only commands us to GLORIFY GOD, but It also shows us HOW we are to do it. How? I. IN THE BODY. WHY DOES GOD WANT US TO GLORIFY GOD IN OUR BODIES? Because, it is a fact of life that we either are going to glorify God, or the devil, with our bodies. Listen, if Peter, James, John and the other disciples had lived as some Christians live, God could never have used them the way He did! We do not read anywhere in the New Testament where they were accused of being hypocrites.

They might not have liked what they stood for, and preached, but they said about them, Acts 17:6b, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also...” They used their bodies to glorify God. Our churches are full of professing Christians, but their lives are not bringing glory to God. That is, each week they:

- Laugh at the same filthy jokes sinners laugh at. - Tell lies as the lost world does. - Watch the same kind of movies the lost world watches. - Dress like the lost world. - Live like the lost world.

The only difference you can see when you compare their lives with the lost world is that they claim to be Christians and go to church on Sundays. Otherwise you can not find any evidence they know the Lord Jesus Christ. This kind of so-called professing Christian reminds me of a church that was filled with such so-called Christians.

Illus: One Sunday the preacher said, “I want every one of you to prepare your heart for next week’s sermon and read the book of Hezekiah.” The next week this ungodly bunch of professing Christians came to church as usual. Before the preacher started to preach he said, “Last week I told you I wanted you to prepare your hearts for my sermon by reading in advance the book of Hezekiah. How many of you have done this?” Nearly everyone in the whole congregation raised his hand. Then the preacher said, “Everyone who did not raise your hand may leave. But, everyone who raised your hand, I want you to stay and listen to this sermon. I asked how many of you read the book of Hezekiah this past week, and most of you raised your hands. If you looked in your Bible you would see there is no book of Hezekiah. My sermon today is on “Liars.”

Christians say and do so many things that do not glorify the Lord. They directly disobey God’s command to “...glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods.” It will only be when we people stand before the Lord that we will see how much damage some professing Christians have done because they refused to live for God.