Hello again,
(Boyd, I just remembered, a while after chatting with you earlier tonight, that I wanted to post what I wrote earlier today -- the following.)
After posting last night, I thought maybe you all might appreciate the sermon outline and my notes from the sermon I mentioned in my previous post. I attached it below. As you read it, I think you will see how it applies to our beliefs about how we "honor the Lord with our bodies." I just wish more Pastors took this teaching to the same conclusion we have come to (I wish our Pastor did, too).
If you are interested, and I do recommend it, you can download and/or listen to the sermon at:
http://www.wbcc.net/jimsermons.htm
Just look for "21 Aug 2005, Nourishing Your Body" under the section entitled, "A Healthy Body and Soul." All our Pastor's recent sermons are available there, too. Everyone I know who has heard our Pastor likes him because he is such a good speaker. You will probably enjoy hearing him as well. In fact, I recommend a couple of other sermons that apply well to out situations as well. If you are interested, listen to "It Doesn't Matter What You Believe," (June 26) under "Countering Counterfeit Beliefs," and "Overcoming Prejudices that Separate Neighbors," (March 6) under "Neighbors R Us." If you are interested, I can post the sermon outlines and my notes for these two, as well.
Enjoy,
Greg C
Healthy Body and Soul
Part 1 - Nourishing Your Body
Pastor Jim Wall
August 21, 2005
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
You can apply this (i.e. "honor God with your body") to many different things. He discusses eating specifically, but mentions drug use, exercising, etc. Ecclesiastes 9:7 says, "Enjoy eating..."
1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
The Old Testament had rules, but the New Testament has principles.
Romans 12:2 NLT "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think..."
Note: "by changing the way you think." Lifelong transformation takes place when we change what we believe.
1. My Body is NOT MY OWN.
1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own..."
When you first believed in Christ, you signed everything over to Him.
Matthew 21:12-13 NLT "Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants and their customers. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the stalls of those selling doves. He said, 'The Scriptures declare,' 'My Temple will be called a place of prayer,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves!'"
This was Jesus' most passionate act while on earth. He obviously loved God's temple. The truth is, when you disrespect God's house, you disrespect him (same as when you disrespect anyone's house).
Action Step #1:
I will view my body as GOD'S HOUSE.
2. My Body is VALUABLE.
I Corinthians 6:19 NIV "You were bought at a price..."
Psalm 139:13-17 NLT "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book! Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable!"
Note: "Innumerable" i.e. God thinks highly or well of you. How do you see yourself (or your body) -- as useless, worthless, etc.? (I ask, "...as a sex object, lewd, obscene, etc.? And how does how you see your body agree or disagree how the Lord sees it?") God made you on purpose for a purpose.
1 Peter 1:18-19 NCV "You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way, a way passed down from the people who lived before you. But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb."
If you do not value your body, you probably won't take care of it. (I add, you probably won't value others, especially their bodies, either, because we tend to project on to others how we feel about ourselves.)
Action Step # 2:
I will view my body as WORTH TAKING CARE OF.
3. My Body Has GOD HONORING PURPOSE.
1 Corinthians 6:19 "...Therefore, honor God with your body."
"Honor" means magnify, worship, etc. What you do, or do not do, with your body can be an act of worship (see Romans 12:1 below).
Romans 12:1 NIV "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship."
Again, how you see, treat, and use your body is "your...act of worship" toward God.
Daniel 1:8 NLT "But Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief official for permission to eat other things instead."
Daniel made a choice -- to do things as the Lord said or as their culture said. We all have the same choice. The question is, are you going to follow the culture or not?
Daniel 1:15 NLT "At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king."
Action Step #3:
I will make the way I TREAT MY BODY an ACT OF WORSHIP to God.
John 6:35 NIV "Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.'"
John 6:51 NLT "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; this bread is my flesh, offered so the world may live."
