Malware Series

2/2 Malware 1 Corinthians 6:13-20

Our body and how we use it is to be glorifying to God!

The 2nd most beautiful gift God gave humanity is sex.”

Five types of malware that are harmful to us:

Malware #1: Cohabitation

biblical pattern: date-engage-marry

worldly pattern: date-cohabit-marry

Malware #2: Pre-marital sex

Malware #3: Adultery

Malware #4: Pornography

Malware #5: Homosexuality (previous messages)

Biblical principles:

*Each and every human being, gay or straight, is created in the image of God and therefore is an object of God’s love and worthy of our respect and love

*The church of Jesus Christ should be a place where all people from all lifestyles are welcome

*Regardless of cause (innate or learned), gay sexual relationships are sin, just as straight sexual relationships outside of marriage are

*Marriage is a loving, covenantal relationship between a man and a woman

What happened to Target over the holidays? (pic of Target logo). They had a colossal security breach. Someone was able to upload a some malware into their system so that they could download personal credit card and debit information on customers who used their cards from November 27-December 15th. Reuters reported last week that at least 70 million customers were affected.

You know what malware is, don’t you? Malware: short for malicious software, is software used to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems, even destroy operating systems of computers.

Last week we talked about God’s operating system for male/female relationships. If you want your dating life to be enjoyable, if you want your engagement to go well and prepare you for marriage, if you want your marriage to be exciting and fulfilling and life-long, then you’ve got to understand God’s design for male/female relationships.

God’s design, God’s operating system is found in the Bible. You can’t get it off Netflix, you can’t download it off the internet, you can’t discern it from the tv set. It’s imbedded in the Bible and you can download it as you spend time in God’s word and submit to its authority over your life.

But what happened in the garden of Eden, Satan got Adam and Eve to doubt God’s word. He got them to doubt God had their best interest at heart. And he’s been doing that ever since.

Here’s what God’s word says about the operating system and the malicious software, the malware, that can destroy intimacy with Him and between humans.

1 Corinthians 6:13-20 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will do away with both of them. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 15 Don’t you know that your bodies are a part of Christ’s body? So should I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh. 17 But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

18 Run from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body.” On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. 19 Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”

v.13 There are people out there who say that sex is just a biological function, like eating and drinking. So most of our society, and certainly the entertainment industry touts that sex doesn’t have a proper and healthy context, it just is…so be careful that you don’t get an unwanted pregnancy or an unwanted disease. But v.13 is clear that sexual activity with your body impacts your relationship with the Lord.

v.14 the point is that even though our bodies die, they have an eternal dimension, and therefore what we do with our body impacts our relationship with the Lord.

v.16 Where does the phrase, “For the 2 shall become one flesh” come from? Genesis 2 as God is establishing this thing called marriage. For believers then, we are prohibited from engaging in sexual behavior with anyone who is not our spouse.

v.18 says that sexual sin is different and more damaging than any other sin. Wow! We don’t get that from our society’s operating system, do we?

v.20 Bottom line: Our body and how we use it is to be glorifying to God!

God’s word says that sex, s-e-x, is a gift to be enjoyed in a covenant relationship called marriage. I’ve said many a time, “The most incredible gift God gave humanity is salvation by grace and through faith. But The 2nd most beautiful gift God gave humanity is sex.” The gift can be fantastic inside marriage, but outside of that covenant relationship, sex is destructive. Period. Paragraph. End of story. Sex outside of marriage always ends badly.