You were Bought at a price
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A Prayer for Caregivers
10/9/22
Father In Heaven,
You are the maker of heaven and earth and the one who formed humanity from the dust
Thank you that you care so much for us that you send your son to take on sin and make us new,
Father today we pray for those among us who care for others,
Whether it be by circumstance, employment or calling they are imitating your great love for humanity by caring for those who cannot care for themselves,
Lord when we were week you cared for us,
Lord when we couldn’t save ourselves you saved us,
Lord when we were unwise, you are our wisdom.
Lord, today we ask for a great renewal for those who care for others, That you would breathe new life into them!
Lord that you would give them an energy that they didn’t know was possible
Lord, would they experience your happiness and joy and radiate that to those who are being cared for,
Lord, we ask that you would renew their resolve, when care giving gets difficult, would you be near to them and renew them
Lord, would you reveal your love to these caregivers so that they can love others in the same way.
On the long nights when the clock seems to tick in reverse,
We are reminded that you are closer than the air that we breathe
That you are right here among us.
We ask all these things,
In the name of the great physician,
Jesus Christ.
Intro
Intro
Have you ever heard someone say…You know the Bible says…XYZ and the bible doesn’t actually say that?
What is going on there? what is happening with that?
Let’s look at some of these phrases...
“God Helps those who help themselves”
This phrase is what I would say might be adjacent or next to true biblically but its not in the Bible...
Because its also true that God helps those who have no ability to help themselves
This is actually from Aesop’s Fables...
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness”
This is an ancient saying that was revived by a famous preacher, John Wesley in the 1700’s
“Hate the Sin love the sinner”
A popular church phrase but not in the Bible
“Money is the root of all evil”
The Bible doesn’t say that…It says that the Love of money is the root of all evil
“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”
Again, there is biblical truth in this sentence from the book of 1 Corinthians...
But this is not in the Bible
So why do I bring these phrases up? Because sometimes we take what is popular in culture and its catchy and it makes sense and we bring it into our minds as a biblical phrase...
The world around us, our culture…What people say, what people value…What other people do…What the TV shows are doing all work together to form ideas that we deeply hold
And some of these ideas can help us in our faith and some of them can sandbag our faith...
Its why knowing the Bible matters, because we need to be able to spot the lie.
The reason why I bring this all up is that as we get into the text this morning of 1 Corinthians 6, you are going to see Paul doing this with the church…like right away!
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
Paul is directly addressing Corinthian phrases
“I have the right to do anything...”
See the idea of the Corinthian church is that they are no longer bound by the Mosiac law…Because Jesus is the law…He is the fulfillment of all of that
But what Paul is saying is this is true, as believers you have this ultimate freedom, but its not always beneficial
I am with people all the time who are not christians and when they find out I am a pastor they say…Oh so you can’t go party…You cant get drunk, you can’t smoke…you can’t do any of that…And I like to have a little fun with them and I say, no I can do all of that stuff...
and they are like really? and I just say, yes, but the thing is that I just dont want to do any of it
The church is right…They have the right to do anything, but God so changes our desires that we realize that its not beneficial to do anything because we could be mastered by it!
Then look he says....”You say” more corinthian sayings that are not in the Bible....”Food for the stomach and the stomach for food” They are saying this as a way to justify their sexual devious lives.
They live in Corinth, the temple prostitution capital of the world....we will go more into this in a second
See Paul wants the church to really understand that they are no longer slaves to sin!
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
The world likes to tell us that hey be your true self! Have sex with whoever, its no big deal
Drink until your happy thats fine
find your purpose and joy in things, thats what they are there for
Build your identity on whatever you feel like…This is great
But the reality is that Paul is saying…Look this is the life of slavery…This is a yoke that you will have to bear! You have been free from that life with Jesus.
I mean, is it really freedom if your addicted to it
Right in the first pages of the Bible, God warns Cain, and he says…Hey “sin is crouching at your door…it desires to have you but you must rule over it!”
By allowing sin to rule in our lives we live disconnected from the Lord.
By allowing sin to rule in our lives we live disconnected from the Lord.
This is what happened to cain
This is what is happening in the corinthian church...
In Jesus, they have the means to live a holy life...
But the pressure of the culture is coming in on all sides
See what Paul is telling the church…dont be mastered by anything!
I’ve shared this quote by CS Lewis before but it is so true and worth sharing again
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. [1]
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. [1]
-CS Lewis
-CS Lewis
Its just a good picture of what it looks like to be mastered by sin...
The whole world is available to us but we like our slavery a little too much
And the corinthian church was justifying their sexually loose morals by saying
"Food for the stomach and stomach for food and God will destroy them both...”
The corinthian church had this idea that sex is just a normal bodily function…Really its a-moral
Just like when I am hungry, I go to the kitchen and eat something…The corinthian church had this view of…when your in the mood sexually then you should just satisfy that need…no big deal Hey after all all of this will be destroyed at the end of all things anyhow...
The church in Corinth was trying to claim that what you did with your body was indifferent to your spiritual life...
so if you have the urge for sex then its the same as hunger…There are thousands of temple prostitutes just go meet that need
And Paul here has a massive correction to make on all of this
He says, “The body is not ment for sexual immorality but for the lord”
Why would Paul point out sexual immorality and not something else?
Lets look back at genesis for a minute:
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Because God designed sex to make two people into one person.
There are other things that we do with our bodies that are damaging…Over eating, under eating, self harm...
But sex was designed to make two people into one person
And this power of making the two one is so great that it can only be contained within the covenant relationship of marriage...
I always shock married people…When their marriage isn’t going well, I always ask about their sex life…Not because I am some sort of perv but because God designed unity in marriage to be part of the physical act of sex...
I remember one couple I was working with, years ago they had different schedules due to work and they were having a tough time saying they were growing apart. They couldn’t understand it because they both loved Jesus but their marriage was slipping...So I told them obviously try and change schedules so you can see each other…But I said....Your sex life has to be suffering…and they kind of sheepishly said yeah it is…They were not expecting me to ask that...
So I said ok your homework is to have sex…Your married…You love the Lord....Go work on becoming one flesh
and guess what! The husband came back to me and was like…That revolutionized our marriage...
Now this isn't every marriage…Some marriages have deep seated issues of trust and other things and I wouldn't always recommend this across the board...
Married people. That is the intention of sex and if you feel like you have been distant in marriage I would ask you how your sex life is going. The way that God designed your marriage to be is close and intimate and that goes all the way back to Genesis 2:25
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Being Naked and unashamed…is the way that God designed the marriage relationship
So the reason why Paul has to correct this dangerous thought of the corinthians is that its never just sex
Sex is deigned to unite! Sex makes one flesh!
God designed the sexual relationship for marriage to unite two people into one flesh.
God designed the sexual relationship for marriage to unite two people into one flesh.
See your body is sacred. God made it and this will start Paul off on talking about the importance of the human body and correcting their theology on it ....8 times in the next 8 verses Paul will talk to the church about their bodies and what they do with them!
Do you notice how Paul now starts in with talking about the body?
Lets look back again at verse 13
You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
The body is not meant for pornea....But for the Lord. and the lord the Body
See Paul will cover all of this in a robust way in chapter 15 but the point is the end result.
You might think…well the end result is that we die and go to heaven and that is only half true...
You die and go to heaven so that you can one day experience resurrection...
This is Paul’s point in chapter 15…See the body isnt just some throw away thing…God made the human body with purpose.
You might get cremated or buried one day but the bigger point in all of this is that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth and all of heaven will invade earth...
Your body maters!
What do I give my body over to other than the Lord?
What do I give my body over to other than the Lord?
Is it laziness
Video games
Mindless scrolling on your phone
over eating, under eating…It can all become a god
And the ultimate unity that your body should experience is the oneness with God!
This is what he was saying way back in 1 Corinthians 3:16
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
That God himself designed the human body to be a temple where he will dwell
So Paul is like…How can you take the temple of God…Your body…to a temple prostitute?
Look at 1 Corinthians 6:14
By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
This is one sentence that Paul is like…yeah this sentence deserves a whole chapter so see all of chapter 15
But your body actually will last into eternity…You are an eternal being
So look what Paul does next
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
This is exactly what we talked about a second ago...
The reason why sex is so powerful and sacred is that it physically unites the two to become one flesh.
So Paul is saying see when you treat sex just like a hamburger when your hungry you are diminishing its significance and you are uniting a body which is a temple for the Holy spirit with
I want you to get this because it is so key…In Corinth, the ancient Philosopher Starbo who was born in 63bc…that is 63 years before Jesus, claimed the city had one thousand temple prostitutes servicing the temple of Aphrodite. In addition to that there were other temples offering the services of prostitutes from all over the world
So what Paul is saying to the church is look
You are a temple…a dwelling for god...
so if you are a temple, a place where God dwells then how can you go to a false god and unite your temple with their temple!
Aren’t you one with that person?
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies.
Flee from Pornea: There are some old testament stories that Paul would have definitely taught them. There is the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife....
She wanted to have sex with Joseph and Joseph knew that this would not only dishonor God but that it would likely get him killed…He actually ran away…Men and women.
Often times there is opportunity for sexual immorality and the picture you should have is someone running away from this…This is the picture that Paul wants to give to the church...
That sexual sin is particularly damaging…It breaks the oneness of husband and wife…You might be saying, but hey I am single I am not married…Yes but that person is not your spouse, in fact that could be someone else's future spouse
what feels like freedom is really bondage
Because sex within the context of a healthy God honoring marriage unites and fills people
But outside of marriage leaves you emptied out and vulnerable...
Our culture would have you believe it is empowering…Oh really if that is true in our overly sexualized culture why do we have the highest rates of anxiety and depression that we have ever seen?
run away…Good advice
Then Paul says “All other sins are outside your body, but who ever sins sexually sins against their body”
So even the commentators say that this verse is notoriously difficult to understand…Because what about drug abuse or suicide?
These are all sins against the body
Writers and people who have been thinking about this verse over the years have said various thing s about it…and there are a number of things that this can mean but I think the one that is most consistent with the text is this
Many people believe that this is actually a corinthian Phrase…That Paul is quoting…”That all ther sins are outside of your body” That the corinthian culture viewed that whatever you did with your body was simply morally irrelevant…It didn’t matter
The idea was that there was a dualism alive within the church
that you can come to church and worship on a Sunday but then go live however you wanted ever other days because what you did with the body didn’t really matter
As long as you just believed in God you are fine
But what Paul is making the case for is that it is all connected…You can not separate the physical from the spiritual and the spiritual from the physical
Your body matters
I want us to look at verse 19 closely
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
I know that some of you probably echo the mantra…”My body, my choice”
The Apostle Paul would say, this is absolutely not true...
Once you say yes to Jesus your body is now his....
You are not your own!
What the Bible is telling us is that we dont have authority over our own bodies that God does and we need to stop pretending like we do.
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Paul will over and over again in all of his letters tell the church to honor God with your body
Because he has to break this idea that is so in the culture that you can think one way and act another and that is totally fine
as long as you cognitively believe it
No your mind and your body are all connected…Honoring God is a physical task of forming self control and abstaining from Sin.
Paul says listen you were bought at a price
And it is the price of the cross.
What everyone would have understood in the ancient world where slavery was just a normal thing that permeated all aspects of society …is that often times your freedom has to be purchased
and Jesus paid the ultimate price
For your body’
Listen your body is sacred…Jesus paid for it!
This int the only place where Paul says this!
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
See Paul will continually develop this idea...
What we do with our bodies is an act of worship
What we do with our bodies is an act of worship
The reality of this text is that Paul will all over the place talk about the theology of the body
Your body matters
it is united with Christ
Your body will raise again with Christ
What you do with your body is worship
And why is this so central to everything? What does it even mean for Jesus to dwell in our bodies...
If time is low
If time is low
No Time: You were bought at a price
we have all been in church before when you surrender your thoughts
we have been in church where we have surrendered our hearts
But have you ever said…Lord this old bag of bones is yours...
My whole physical body is yours!
Take this body, and help me to live in a worshipful way with you in it
One of the great preachers of our modern time Louie Giglio talks about a time when he had a chance run in with a molecular biologist…Louie was about to preach a series on the Glory of God and the human body and the molecular biologist says…”oh man you have to tell them about Laminin”
And Louie looked at him like a deer in headlights…what’s Laminin
Laminin is a cell adhesion molecule its a protein
Cells organizes into proteins and there is between 10-60,000 proteins in the human body, we dont even know how many there are...
But one of them is a cell adhesion molecule and that tells the proteins what their jobs are in the body
The Biologist goes on to say....Laminin is like the rebar of the human body...
It is the steal the put in the ground before they lay the concrete…its that stuff
Its holding all of your membrane together
Its what makes your body all work together
And Louie Giglio is like ok…whats the point…And the guy says…Louie go home and google it…go look it up and when he does
Look at this picture of Laminin
Picture of LAMININ
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Then he tells the story of Grace...
That Jesus reconciles all things to himself...
That Jesus makes peace for us with God by shedding his blood on a cross
So why do I tell this story....
The overarching theology of Paul here is that your physical bodies dont belong to you...
If you have made the decision to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ then your body has been purchased by the most costly purchase in human history
The son of God stepped out of heaven and walked into Eternity and then died for you, not just your thought life but for your physical life....
And he has made the human body, even at the molecular level to reflect that reality!
You were bought at a price and it is written all over your body!
God designed your bodies for worship
To me Laminin gives new meaning to the biblical phrase, he set eternity in the hearts of men