"IT'S MY LIFE AND I'LL DO WHAT I WANT"
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (NLT)
for audio video of this sermon, www.thecreekmonroe.com
Intro: Let's play name that tune. (play just the musical intro to the song from the animals) Does anybody remember that tune from 1965? That was a song from the rock band named the Animals. The name of the song is the title of the sermon. It's my life and I'll do what I want.
. Listen to part of the lyrics of that song.
. It starts out with this:
It's a hard world to get a break in
All the good things have been taken
But girl there are ways to make certain things pay
Though I'm dressed in these rags
I'll wear sable some day
. Then the first part of the chorus is this:
But baby! (Baby!) Remember! (Remember!)
It's my life and I'll do what I want
It's my mind and I'll think what I want
. That is a philosophy that is prevalent in our world today.
.Quite often, we hear individuals espousing philosophies of unbridled personal freedom.
.The pro-abortionists cry out that a woman has a right to her own body and that no one should interfere with what she does to her body, with little regard to the rights of the unborn child and its body.
. The drug culture would try to expound the supposed harmlessness of marijuana claiming that to keep these drugs illegal is an infringement on personal freedom.
.We have seen in recent years the growth in what’s known as the Gay Culture - famous people "Coming Out." Their claim is that no one has the right to tell them that their sexual deviation is abnormal or wrong. It’s their life and they will do what they will.
. We hear of those who support or endorse sexual promiscuity as long as it’s between consenting individuals. The claim is it is my life and my body I can do whatever I want to do and nobody has the right to tell me what to do or what is right and wrong.
. What is disconcerting is that we often hear these views being touted by professing Christians. Many believe that this is a new philosophy that has crept into the church.
. Wrong
Look at what King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
9History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
10Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.
11We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
. Solomon is saying you may think you have a new philosophy but you don't. There is nothing new under the Sun. It has been done before.
. The philosophy of it's my life and I'll do what I want is not new either.
.This philosophy is no different than what existed within the Corinthian church of Paul's time
. Their motto was "all things are lawful to me"
. They had brought their Epicurean Philosophy into the church with them. Part of the philosophy was that pleasure was the gre4atest good. More than anything else, they sought pleasure.
. Paul had heard of what was going on and addressed the issue of Christian freedom in this letter.
.He uses sexual immorality to make his point but it can be used to describe anything that could get in the way of our relationship with God.
. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
12You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
13You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.
14And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!
16And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”
17But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
19Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
20for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
. Paul addresses the fact that:
. All Things Are Lawful
. Look at verse 12 again.
12You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
. Paul writes that yes you are allowed to do anything.
. God has redeemed the believer and has forgiven all of his or her sins, whatever they are.
. Look at Ephesians 1:6-7
. 6So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
7He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
. A believer has been forgiven all of their sin. Nothing can change that. Nothing. They are now part of the family of God. Once you are part of a family, you cannot be removed from that family. No matter what you do.
That is basic Baptist Theology and I believe basic biblical theology.
. The believer is also set free from the law. We are no longer saved through the keeping of the law and the shedding of sacrificial blood of animals.
. We now live under grace and not law.
. Look at what Paul wrote to the church in Rome in Romans 8:1,2
1So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
. So it is true that you can do whatever you want. God never forces man; He never sets a limit on mans freedom.
.Look at what Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 11:9
9Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.
. Solomon was addressing young people here but it applies to all of us.
. Do what you want but remember this.
. You will one day give an account to God for how you have lived.
.This leads us into Paul's next revelation.
While All Things Are Lawful, Not Everything Is Good For Me Or Wise To Do.
. Look at verse 12 with me again:
12You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
. While you can do anything you want to do, not everything is wise. Not everything is advisable or worthwhile or profitable.
. Just because you want to do it he writes, maybe it not the best thing you could do.
.A skydiver announces at 10,000 feet to the rest of the group, "I’m not using a parachute this time. I’m going to do my own thing. I want freedom!" You say that is absurd no one would do that, at least not in their right mind. Yet, that is exactly what we do when we choose to ignore God’s standards and choose to have it our way.
. It's the concept of reaping what you sow or realizing that there are consequences for your actions.
. In writing to the church in Galatia, Paul tells them in Galatians 6:7
. 7Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
"In 1982, ’ABC Evening News’ reported on an unusual work of modern art: a chair affixed to a shotgun. It was to be viewed by sitting in the chair and looking directly into the gun barrel. The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at a undetermined moment within the next hundred years.
The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to sit and stare into the shell’s path! They all knew that the gun could go off at point-blank range at any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during their minute in the chair.
Sounds pretty foolish and dumb doesn't it?
You know what though, many people who wouldn’t dream of sitting in that chair spend a lifetime gambling that they can get away with sin. Foolishly, they ignore the risk until the inevitable self-destruction."
. Not all things are wise or profitable.
. In the song we started with, the writer wrote in the second verse a challenge. The challenge was "show me I'm wrong"
. Using Paul's writing, we can do that.
. Next, Paul tells us this:
.While You Can Do What You Want, Realize That As a Believer, It's Not Your Life Or Your Body.
. You Now Belong To God.
. Look at verses 19& 20 with me.
19Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
20for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
. I know we don't necessarily like the concept of a person being bought but if you are a believer, you have been bought and paid for.
.You have been bought from your slavery to sin with a price. The price was the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Look at what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:18&19
”18For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver.
19It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
. The KJV calls the being Redeemed.
. Being redeemed literally means that you have been purchased, a price has been paid for your freedom from where you were enslaved.
. I remember watching movies that would show slaves being led up a set of stairs and they would be shown to buyers and they would be "sold off" as they say.
. Jesus stood up at that auction and said that He would set all of us free. That He would purchase our freedom from death that comes with sin.
. The price was the blood of Jesus Christ and now you belong to God.
. In this belonging, there is freedom but you live in this freedom knowing that you have given your life, your commitment, your promise to God to do your best to live for Him.
. We now belong to God.
. In the 12th chapter of Romans, Paul summed all of this up when he wrote this in verses 1&2:
1And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
. Yes we do have the freedom to do what we want but not everything is wise or profitable.
. We will all one day stand before God to give an account of ourselves.
. Believers need to remember that they belong to God. You have been redeemed, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
. You are not to be the person you used to be. You now belong to God.
. Have you been redeemed this morning?
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Jerry Flury, It's my life and my body, sermon central
