This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day three of our look through 1 Corinthians chapter 6,
an awesome chapter about how you and I interact with this world and these bodies
that God has given to us. And we're looking at three specific things that Paul
has to say about how you and I can choose not to misuse these bodies, not to be
impure with these bodies, not to be gluttonous with these bodies, not to be
wasteful with these bodies that God has given to us. The first thing that Paul
reminds us of is that we need to make sure we're asking the right question and
not the wrong question.

We talked about that yesterday. The right question is, is it beneficial? The
wrong question is, is it permissible?

The second thing Paul reminds us of is if I want to use this body in the way
that God intends, if I want to make sure I don't misuse it, I need to realize
the second reason I misuse my body is when I ignore the Creator. When I ignore
the Creator, when I begin to think it's mine. In verse 13, Paul writes, "Food
for the stomach and the stomach for food.

But God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but
for the Lord and the Lord for the body. " Beginning in verse 13, "Food for the
stomach and stomach for food," that's a quote that Paul gave.

And then he said, "God's going to destroy them both. Realize that your body,"
he's going to tell us later, "is headed for a resurrection, for an eternity. So
don't look at it as just yours and don't look at your body as just for now.

" We misuse our bodies when we stop taking notice of who created us. When we
stop taking notice of what an awesome creation God has done in these bodies He's
given us, we totally miss how God wants us to use these bodies. And your body is
an awesome thing.

You may think my body's not so awesome. Your body, bones, are one of the most
ingenious lubrication systems, have one of the most ingenious lubrication
systems ever dreamed of. God made that in your body.

Relatively recent innovations in electrical and chemical engineering and linear
emotives and in fuel cells and muscles and fuel cells have been in muscles for
centuries. Computers cannot match the data processing capability of your brain.
No camera uses automation so successfully as your eye.

Bone is stronger weight for weight than steel. You can hear sounds that move
your eardrum a thousandth, millionth of a centimeter. That's considerably less
than the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

The human body is a masterpiece of engineering made from the most unlikely of
materials, grit and glue and jelly and soup essentially. No engineering project
ever devised can match the brilliance of what God has made in your body. If
you're an adult of average weight, here's what you accomplish in 24 hours even
if you don't do anything else.

Your heart beats 103,689 times. Your blood travels 168 million miles circulating
through your body. You breathe 23,040 times.

You inhale 438 cubic feet of air. You exercise 7 million brain cells. That all
adds up to this simple truth that Paul is talking about here.

The body is meant for the Lord. God made this body. And so if I see it as a
creation of God, then I won't misuse it.

You would never use a Picasso painting for a placemat, not if you knew it was a
Picasso. You would never turn the Sistine Chapel into a gymnasium. You would
never look at the Grand Canyon and say, "Well, that would make a great garbage
dump.

" You never look at the body when you realize how God has really made it and
that God created it and not realize it's meant for the Lord. You are meant for
the Lord and the scripture says your body is meant for the Lord. So the way to
make sure you don't misuse your body is to make sure you don't ignore who
created your body.

First, Paul says you don't ask the wrong questions, you ask the right questions.
Second, he says you don't ignore the Creator, you worship the Creator. And the
third thing that he tells us to do is don't forget the future.

You don't forget the future of your body, you remember the future of your body.
He tells us that in verse 14, "By his power, God raised the Lord Jesus from the
dead and he will raise us also. " If you look at your body, many people think of
their bodies like an empty soda can.

One day it's going to be discarded, one day it's going to be gone and I'm going
to be in heaven with God forever. But that is not what the scripture teaches.
That is not true and it leads to a great misuse of our bodies.

The truth is, these bodies one day will be resurrected, will be raised by the
Lord and out of that human body that you have now, we're going to see this in 1
Corinthians 15 when we get there, out of that very weak body, God's going to
raise a perfect body. Out of that very temporary body, God's going to raise an
eternal body. So what you are living in right now is in some sense looking
forward to eternity.

You're not going to cast that body off and God's going to give you a new one
like an android body or something like that. No, He resurrects that body.
Remember what happened to Jesus?

When Jesus was put into the tomb and He was resurrected, He's the only
resurrected one right now. He's the first one. When He was resurrected, they
went and they looked in the tomb and the body was not there.

Why? Because it was resurrected, it was changed. That body that you have now,
it's going to be resurrected and it's going to be changed.

The attitude that I'm living in some body that's going to be cast off some day
and I'm going to get a new and eternal one leads to great misuse of the body.
But the attitude that what I'm living in right now is going to be changed, is
going to be resurrected is in some way, even as it's getting older, for some of
you that are listening to this, in some way it's going to be changed still. So
you start treating your body in a different way.

You don't treat your body as a candidate for the garbage dump. You start
treating your body as a certain candidate for resurrection. When you look at
these three things we've talked about yesterday and today, these three things
that Paul says in our lives, really we've seen here a formula for immorality in
our lives and a formula for overcoming temptation in our lives.

A formula for immorality is do whatever you want so long as it's legal, is it
permissible? See yourself as randomly evolved rather than personally created,
forget the creator, and live for today, forget about tomorrow. If you look at
that formula, do whatever you want as long as it's legal, see yourself as
randomly evolved, live for today.

No wonder there's so much immorality in our world today. That's the way the
majority of people in the world see themselves. So who cares how I use this
body, but that's not the truth of the body that God gave you.

If you see your body in a brand new way, you're going to begin to treat that
body in a brand new way. And the formula for overcoming temptation, for
overcoming immorality in your life is you start asking the right questions. Is
it beneficial?

You begin praising God that you're fearfully and wonderfully made on a daily
basis. And you visualize in faith the coming resurrection. As you do that,
you're going to see yourself in a new way and you're going to begin to treat
your body in a new way.

That's the truth that you begin with. That's the truth that you build on. That's
the truth that you share with friends.

You can't do this alone. You need to do this with others, but that's the truth
that you share with friends in your small group. And then you live that way
together.

Now, as we pray today, I want to take some minutes to pray together about this.
And as you pray, just say, Lord Jesus, I pray that you'd help me to begin to see
myself in a new way, not to see things the way everybody in the world sees
things. I pray specifically that you'd start helping me to ask the right
questions.

Just bring it to mind, Lord. And anytime I begin thinking, is it permissible? Is
it legal?

Help me to think in place of that. Is it beneficial? Is it going to bring joy
into my life as I serve you?

Because anytime I serve you, it brings joy or bring that question to my mind.
And Lord, I also ask that you help me to begin praising you daily for the fact
that I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And Lord, some of you may need to
specifically pray this Lord, forgive me for denigrating my own body or saying
how ugly I am or how overweight I am or how small I am or how grotesque I am.

Father, you made this body and I realize it may not look like others. I realize
I may not have treated it always as I should have, but I pray that you would
help me to see that even now, this body you've given me, the heart is still
beating, the blood is still flowing. Even now, Lord, this body is fearfully and
wonderfully made.

Help me to see myself in a new way, not the way the world around me sees me.
Help me to see this body you've given me through your eyes. And as I do that, I
pray that I be able to do the third thing that Paul talks about, to visualize in
faith the coming resurrection.

I'm glad that this body I'm in now is not going to be the one I live in for
eternity. So help me to visualize even now that this body, somehow, someway, is
going to be resurrected to spend eternity with you. That's a mystery to me, but
that is also a great joy to me.

So help me to look forward to it even today. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Tomorrow Paul's going to continue to talk to us about a refreshing new way to
see our physical bodies because of who we are in Jesus Christ.

See you tomorrow.