This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day four of 1st Corinthians chapter six. We're walking through these
verses, a detailed look at what the scripture has to say about how in the world
should we look at these bodies God has given to us. They interact with the world
every day.

And if you don't look at your body, treat your body in the right way, have the
right kind of faith towards your body, as much as you try to have faith in God
and do the things that God wants you to do, you're not going to be able to do
it. I know some people who try to super spiritualize their lives, and it's all
about the soul. It's about the mind, it's about the body, it's about the soul,
it's about all of those.

So Paul reminded us these last couple of days that one of the things I have to
do is to choose not to misuse my body, and he gave us some questions to go over,
we looked at. There is a second thing that we need to do if we're going to look
at this body in the right way, and that is I have to get the right perspective
on my body. This body that God's given right now, I know I'm going to have a
resurrected one someday.

How should I look at the body that I have right now? And Paul's very clear about
that. It is very easy for us to swing from wrong perspective to wrong
perspective when it comes to our physical bodies.

The New Testament was written in a day, for instance, when people looked down on
the body as a prison for the soul. They said literally the body is a tomb. To
them the body meant nothing, only the soul was important.

Today, many cultures have swung entirely the opposite way. The body is all
important. A strong and healthy body is seen as the secret to true happiness.

If somebody has a strong and healthy body, then they must be a strong and
healthy person. Yet we know how wrong that is. God's perspective is entirely
different.

His perspective on this is an entirely new perspective, and it involves two
basic truths about your body, the body of the believer. He says number one, your
body is a member of Christ, it's joined with Jesus, and number two, your body is
a temple of the Spirit. Listen to what he says in verse 15 to verse 18.

Now in these verses, verses 15 to 18, Paul does not pull any punches. He says
the way to see your body is as joined to Christ. Because we are now in Jesus
Christ, we are joined with him together.

So just like your hands and toes and fingers and arms are members of your
physical body, all of us are believers, are members of the body of Christ. You
are joined together with Christ. And because of that, Paul talks to these
Corinthians who are very tempted sexually in their society.

And he says what you're actually doing if you sin, if you go to a prostitute and
you join with that prostitute, it's like you're joining Christ to that
prostitute. What a shocking way to look at it. What a true way to look at it.

There's a lot of things that are said here. Many people think, well, the only
true sexual union is when two people are married to each other and they've
committed to each other for life. But Paul says here, one visit to a prostitute
joins you with that person in a physical and emotional and spiritual way that's
deeper than you might imagine.

Why does Paul say that? Well, psychologists say the same thing. The truth is sex
creates a permanent bond.

And that's why immorality is so hurtful. That's why sexual immorality tears
people's lives up. For a moment of pleasure or a moment upon moment upon moment,
they're tearing their soul apart.

Because when we permanent bond, we leave a permanent wound. It's like super
gluing two pieces of paper together. When you try to tear them apart, you might
get somewhat successful, but it's going to be a mess.

There's going to be consequences. And the same is true of us. Now, if you've
sinned sexually, God is a forgiving God.

And God is a restoring and healing God. If I sin emotionally, He can heal me. If
I sin relationally, He can heal me.

If I sin physically, He can heal me. When the scripture says, here again, the
two shall become one flesh, it comes from Genesis chapter 2. It's talking about
marriage.

It only makes sense to create a permanent bond like a sexual union in light of a
permanent relationship like marriage. Paul also says here, it only makes sense
to see yourself in everything that you do in life as joined to Jesus Christ.
Now, some of us, we don't want to do that.

We want to be joined to Jesus Christ when we're at church, when we're doing good
things, and then we want to like unjoin the club. I'm not in the club right now.
I'm taking my secret decoder ring off and putting it on the table.

I'm taking my badges off. I'm not going to be a Christian anymore for like the
next two days or the next half an hour. But the truth is, if you begin to see
yourself as a member of Christ in whatever you do, it begins to cause you to see
your body in a new way.

Now, the object here is not guilt. The object here is change, to change life.
The object here is joy, and instead of creating these bonds and having this
immorality in our lives that tears us apart, we have the power to begin to
change because we see ourselves in a new way.

Paul says, when you look at yourself, you are joined together with Christ.
You're a member of Christ just like your hands and feet are a member of your
body. That's how you see your body.

That's the right perspective. He brings in a second right perspective. He says,
not only is that true, but also your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 19, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who
is in you, whom you have received from God? " I'll never forget years ago being
on top of a hotel overlooking Jerusalem. We had just gone the day before to
visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where there is no Jewish temple any longer.

There's a mosque there, but the site is still there. You could see that site
from the top of the hotel where we were. I was there with a group of pastors,
and each day we were giving a message of devotion in the morning.

It was my turn that day, and I couldn't help but point to that Temple Mount and
remind myself and every one of us that was there, the temple is not there,
pointing to that mound of dirt. The temple is here, pointing to our hearts, our
own lives. You're a temple of God's Spirit.

Your body is not a mere biological machine. It is a temple of God's Spirit.
God's presence lives in your life.

When you really get a hold of that, it revolutionizes everything. If you only
get a hold of that on the factual basis, it makes you feel guilty about
everything because you begin to feel like, "Well, I don't want God seeing me
doing that. I don't want to take God into that.

" But when you really get a hold of what that means, you realize there is no
place you can go. There's no place you can be that God's presence is not with
you to strengthen you, and there's nothing that you can do that causes His
presence to no longer be with you. The temple of God used to be in Jerusalem.

It was a glorious structure. It was made of fine stone and wood and gold, but
God decided to move into a more glorious residence, you, your life, your heart.
I just want to remind you, and we're going to look at this in our last day, that
residence implies, signifies, in this case, ownership.

When you ask Christ to come into your heart, you're not just asking that He come
and visit for a while. You're asking that He come and be the permanent resident
of your life. That's what it means to be a temple of God's Spirit.

This is a brand new way for some of us to see ourselves. We don't walk through
the day thinking, "Well, I'm joined to Christ in everything that I do. I'm the
living, walking temple of Jesus everywhere that I walk.

" I think for some of us, it sounds super spiritual even to think that way,
because we look at ourselves and we look at our bodies and we look at the way
that we think, and we think, "Not me. I'm not joined to Jesus. Not me.

I'm no temple. " But God is saying, because of what God's Spirit has done in
your life, there is some new creation that has happened. And even though you're
caught up in this old world, even though you may be caught up right now in old
ways of thinking, change can happen.

Change can happen because of what God's done through His Spirit. And tomorrow,
we're going to focus together on how that change happens in our daily lives.
Let's end this day by praying together.

Lord Jesus, help me to see myself for who I really am as a follower of Christ.
I'm joined together with you. I'm a temple of your Spirit.

I thank you right now that joined with you, I can have strength that I would
never have on my own. That as a temple of your Spirit, I have your presence in
my life wherever I go. I thank you for what that means in my life.

But Lord, I have to admit, I don't understand all that it means. I want to
understand it more. I want to learn more every day of my life, what it means to
be joined to you, what it means to have your presence in my life.

So teach me a little bit more today about what that means, I pray. Teach me in
Jesus' name, amen.