Sermon: Glorify God in Your Body

Here's a link to the sermon itself on YouTube. The full text is below.


This was a tough one, as the video title suggests. The preaching team at our church is four men. Joe suggested a series on purity: the definition of purity, purity of speech, sexual purity, and purity of heart. The scheduling of vacations and such dealt me the fun one.

I had almost a month to prepare for this, but it was a month busy with other things. I taught a three week class for my university in the middle of it, starting the day after Christmas, and my kids were on vacation. Those two things alone make for a busy month. For two days of my class, I brought Quinten to campus with me and had a former student take care of him for the two hours I was in class.

(Side note: I offered to pay her $15 per day, so about $7 per hour. She said it was more than enough. When I told me wife, she said I should have made it $30 for one day. I compromised with $20, and told her if she wanted to buy some snack or drink for him it was fine. I think that to my wife, the amount I'm willing to pay for a babysitter reflects how much I value my children. So she values them twice as much as I do, I guess.)

Aside from my schedule, I think that I also put off starting on this one because it's such a sensitive topic. I didn't want to just put out a list of rules, positive or negative, and I definitely wanted to emphasize the power and grace of God that can, and has, worked through so many problems for so many people.

My favorite compliment afterwards was along the lines of, "There was a lot of grace in that message." I can't think of any compliment I'd rather hear. I hope that these words are a blessing to you, and that God's grace is somewhat revealed to you through them.

Rob

Glorify God In Your Body    January 21^st, 2018

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Lord God, I thank you that your Word and your Spirit are all I need to bring to your people. I thank you that the Power of your Word and your Spirit do not come from me, but from you. I thank you that I do not need to craft my words to change your people, because your Word and your Spirit alone can break their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh. Amen.

True or False: The Bible talks about sex a lot.

Granted, “a lot” is a very subjective term, but I think it does. Probably more than you think, even if you agree with me that it is a lot. Sex in the Bible can be tricky to find, but that is a sermon for another day. For now, I will just say that when you look at the origin stories of the patriarchs, you find some very interesting situations.

Now, True or False: Christians talk about sex a lot.

I think the answer is False. Christians in general don’t talk about sex, Redeemer International Community Church doesn’t talk about sex much, and right now many of you are probably wishing that I would stop saying the word “sex” so much. It just doesn’t feel like it belongs in church!

I think this is a big mistake. When we limit ourselves to saying “Wait until you get married, and don’t commit adultery,” we are essentially handing the idea of sex over to pop culture.

Shortly before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prays with these words:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. John 17:14-16

Many Christians take this to mean that we should back away from the world: We are not of the world, so we don’t mess with this stuff. But they are ignoring the words in verse 15 “I do not ask that you take them out of the world…”

I refuse to give up this ground. The intersection of faith and sex has been on my heart and in my prayers for a few weeks now. It is becoming increasingly uncomfortable to talk about faith at work, and we can’t seem to talk about sex at church. So where can we talk about faith and sex at the same time? As usual, my Life Group has been an invaluable resource. It was a little uncomfortable to start the conversation, but once we got going, I was glad we did.

My other source of counsel and inspiration is my children: one of my jobs as a father is to prepare them to go out into the world, where they are bombarded by messages that are contrary to God’s will for our lives. These are a few that I am most worried about:

1. Your body only has value if it looks a certain way.
2. Your body is a commodity that you can trade for things, such as love, gifts, career opportunities.
3. Having sex with other people is natural, and fun, and it can be risk free.
4. But not too much, or you are a slut.
5. And not too little, or you are a prude.
6. Unless you’re a man. Then you are pressured to be the stud.
7. Or ashamed to admit to being a virgin. Though maybe that one pressures women as well.

Society is a heartless judgment machine, that quickly incorporates people to both judge and be judged. It is insidious, and it produces shame. It tells us that sex is not only natural, but an imperative. It says we won't be happy without it. It says, “Boys will be boys, and if they don’t have sex they might just go crazy!” It tells us that a woman who gets raped by her boyfriend was asking for it. It shows us pornography, and tells us that this is what sex is: often violent and degrading to women. People with unrealistic bodies doing unrealistic things in unrealistic places. And what’s worse, pornography is often the first way kids learn about sex. At least, when we don’t step in first.

In my home, we don’t watch much t.v., and my kids have basically zero internet access. But they have friends who are happy to share their lessons in judgment. Just this week, before she knew what I was preaching about, my 12-year-old daughter asked me, “Daddy, am I pretty?”

She showed me an older picture of her with her friends from church. I saw five elementary school kids with their teacher, smiling and happy together. But my girl saw herself sticking out, not looking like a Korean, not looking like an American. (I couldn’t convince her that Americans look like a lot of different things. Maybe on our next trip.)

Fortunately, I have a pretty decent poker face in surprising situations. It’s a good skill for teachers to have. It was fortunate because I felt my heart breaking for my little girl who is growing up immersed in this judgmental culture. The worst part is that she’s not even upset about something that someone else has said. She just doesn’t want to be different. She’s ashamed of her body. And that is a powerful force in all of us: the need to blend in.

That need to blend in is one of the Enemy’s favorite weapons.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12

We are not just up against social forces, or random chance. The Enemy wants to tear us down, make us feel that we are so unworthy that God can’t love us. Deception is another of his tools.

We read in today’s scripture:

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18.

I am sure that you know what Satan wants you to hear from this scripture, because you probably already hear it inside your head: Run Away! Flee! Escape while you can before you ruin yourself! Sex is scary, so don’t even think about it! Shame!

I will confess that fear was part of what kept me in what I thought of as a “pure” state through high school and past university. Fear of sexually transmitted diseases. Fear of pregnancy. Fear of disapproval. Fear that one mistake could bring my entire future crashing down around me. And it probably helped that I was overweight, nerdy, self-conscious, and not as God-centered as I could have been. I was ashamed.

But that’s not the message that God was sending to me! And it’s not the message God is sending to you now!

Do you know what “gospel” means? It means good news! Good news does not mean fear! We should rejoice!

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit! That is so amazing! When you read the Old Testament closely, the importance of the Temple cannot be overstated! Entire chapters are devoted to listing the measurements of the temple, the materials used to make the temple and where the materials came from, the furniture in the temple, the utensils, the curtains, the robes the priests wore to serve in the temple, the preparations the priests had to go through before they could enter the temple, the labor used to build the temple. The temple was the center of life for ancient Israel, for God’s people. They made regular trips to the temple to offer sacrifices so that they could be right with God. To ancient Israel, the temple wasn’t God, but the temple was where God could reliably be found.

And do not forget the Holy of Holies, the innermost room of the temple. A place so holy that only one priest was to enter once a year. The other priests tied a rope to his ankle in case something went wrong and God were to strike him dead. The pure presence of God.

That seat of God’s presence, the best Solomon had to offer as the ruler of a powerful nation. Jesus tore it down and rebuilt it in three days, just like he said he would. And he didn’t just rebuild it, he relocated it right here, in my heart. And in your heart. Jesus is ready to relocate to any heart that invites him in, and establish his temple there.

But Jesus isn’t bringing utensils and basins and all that clutter. Jesus is bringing Power and Grace. Grace and Power.

Grace sufficient to overcome your shame. Because Grace that could overcome torture, humiliation, and death on the cross is more than enough to overcome your shame. Paul doesn’t define sexual immorality in this passage because it doesn’t matter what your version of immorality was, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it. It doesn’t matter how many beds you have sought comfort in, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it. It doesn’t matter how many times you have quit giving yourself over to pornography, only to return to it like a drug, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it. It doesn’t matter that you see yourself as ugly, unloveable, and used, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it. It doesn’t matter if you are divorced, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it. It doesn’t matter that you committed adultery, or that your spouse did, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it. It doesn’t even matter that you feel destined to be alone forever, never to meet your “one true love” that the world has promised. Say it with me, the Grace of Jesus has overcome it.

The Grace of Jesus has overcome the worst you have to offer, but maybe you are worried about moving forward. Maybe you are worried that you will fall back into the same filth from which God has pulled you.

That’s where the Power of Jesus comes into play. Remember:

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

You. Are. Not. Your. Own. Who owns you? Let me hear you, who owns you?

What do you do with things you own? That’s right, you use them. If you give yourself to the world, the world will use you, and tell you that you are doing exactly what you want to do.

But when you have given yourself to God, the same voice that said, “Let there be light!” is using you. When you go to a sports museum, and see the baseball bat that was used to break a world record, nobody says, “Wow, that is a powerful bat!” They talk about the batter. If someone tells you that the ability to play basketball is in the shoes, they are probably trying to sell you those shoes.

Your body is the temple! The power of the temple doesn’t come from the temple. The power of the temple comes from the God who dwells in the temple!

So what exactly does the power of God look like?

It is dawn in the temple. She stands before the powerful men, downcast, defeated; one foot already in the grave. She knew the rules. She grew up surrounded by the rules, immersed in them.

It didn’t matter whether she felt alone in her home.

It didn’t matter whether the hands of another man gently caressed bruises that no one else ever saw.

It didn’t even matter that the man with whom she had been caught in the act was nowhere to be seen. Apparently adultery in this culture is the fault of one person.

The powerful men discuss her fate as though she were not there, because to them, she wasn’t. They decide to bring her to this new rabbi, to try to trap him.

There was shouting before, and mocking. Now there is silence. The powerful men are on their home turf in the temple, as they tell her story to the new rabbi. But under the silence there is still contempt for her.

“teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” John 8:4b-5

The rabbi says nothing. He bends down and writes in the dirt with his finger. When the powerful men demand an answer, the rabbi stands. His voice is calm as he talks to them, but his eyes are anything but calm.

“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7b

She braces herself. She knows that a stoning can take up to an hour, but she tells herself that she will not cry out. When she hears a stirring in the crowd she is sure that someone is reaching for a stone, but there is no impact. Then she hears footsteps, walking away. Others joining them. When she dares to look up, only the rabbi is left, writing with his finger in the dirt.

He stands.

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” John 8:10b

She looks around, the tension draining out of her.

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus answered. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:11

That is what God is like. Life. Forgiveness. Change. Power and Grace. Grace and Power.

You do not have to be pure to come to God. Jesus does not condemn you. Grace.

You do not have to glorify God with your body on your own. God is in the temple of your body, and God will be glorified by God’s Power!

Grace and Power. Which brings me back to my daughter. Her first name means power, and her middle name means grace. Her family name means a thing to hold other things, so… take what you want from that.

I told her that of course I think she is beautiful: she is kind and caring (though her brother might disagree). She is artistic and funny. We make each other laugh, and I make her roll her eyes and say, “Daddy!” I told her that those are the important things, and that she couldn’t trust what I say about her being pretty, because she’s my daughter.

I told her a toned down and much shorter version of the sermon I just shared with you.

She told me that a porcupine is beautiful in its father’s eyes. I told her she had a good point. Lots of good points. Like, “Ouch.” Cue eye roll and “Daddy!”

God is your perfect father, your perfect mother, the only one who loves you perfectly. You will always be beautiful to God.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord Jesus, you alone are pure, you alone can make us pure. Sin leaves a crimson stain but you wash it white as snow. Lord God, we cannot continue on our own. We can’t ignore the message of the enemy. Give us the faith to draw on your strength to glorify you in our bodies. Amen.