Sermon Tone Analysis

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

A ton in 1 Cor we could talk about.

One of the things we all have in common this morning is that we all have bodies.

And I want to talk about what our bodies have to do with God.

But there is something else that we all have in common and I want to start there.

Even though we have slowed significantly with our reading this year…the depths of God’s Wisdom and how much he has revealed to us in His Word is breathtaking.

I hope and pray you are seeing that…and therefore desiring to know Him more and more.

But there are some verses that are so overarching and powerful…speak into so many parts of our lives…and today’s verses are that powerful.

So this morning I want to talk about some things we all have in common…and how that relates to the gospel…and then what that has to do with our bodies.

Our physical bodies.

So the first thing we need to know is what bought with a price means?

You are not your own…for you were bought with a price.

I want you to take a second to think about something before I go any further…think about the issues that plague our culture and dominate the news nowadays…and the ways of this world that are seem to every day become further and further from the ways of God.

And have infiltrated the American church…and have caused many to walk away from the truth of God’s Word and the true gospel.

For example…and there are more.

Political pride…division...identity issues…bullying…school shootings…sexual immorality and abuse…depression…anxiety...drug abuse…millennials feeling directionless and not knowing what to do with their lives…racial tensions.

This is why I love our commitment to God’s Word...

Let me ask a question…how many of those issues could be solved by these verses from the powerful and awesome word of God? How may of those issues could we powerfully show this world a better way on...if we as a people together lived out these verses as a church and in our daily lives?

This is why I love our commitment to God’s Word...

You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.

So there are things we all have in common.

So a few things we all have in common.

One of the things we all have in common this morning is that we all have bodies.

Look around…are we in agreement?

So with that and a few other things we all have in common..we can get some help in understanding what it means that we were bought with a price.

We all have a sense of the greatness and glory of creation.

We all have a sense of the greatness and glory of creation.

Walk in the woods, peak out of an airplane window, standing at the edge of the ocean, google search for pictures of the universe, or the first robin of spring…the first steps of a toddler…or the ultrasound of a baby in a mom’s belly…we all have a sense of awe…even reverence for creation.

Atheist, Buddhist, lukewarm American, or born again follower of Jesus…we all have some sense of how awesome the universe is or the bottom of the ocean…from a microscopic amoeba to grandness of the milky way galaxy…we all know there is something deep and even eternal…we know in our hearts that there is something…or someone...bigger than us and outside of us.

We also have this in common.

We also have a sense of justice.

We want fairness.

When we are wronged, or when someone we care about is wronged.

If someone intentionally or maliciously, lies about you or steals from you or pushes you or hits your wife or child or friend, there is something in you that immediately wants justice.

There are entire

And one of the ways we express that natural universal feeling is with the words, "You will pay for this!" or “They will pay for that.”

We also have a sense of justice when we are wronged, or when someone we care about is wronged.

If someone intentionally, maliciously, without any provocation, lies about you or steals from you or pushes you harshly or strikes your child, there is something in you that wants justice.

And one of the most common ways we express that feeling is with the words, "You will pay for this!"

In other words, our sense of justice automatically demands a payment of some sort from the person who wrongs us.

That is because of how we were created.

We were created in the image of God.

And God is Holy…so we are to be Holy…and we know it deep down…and it is also commanded of us.

The way we learn and teach the Gospel...

The first part is that God is the creator and is Holy.

Second part we are created in His image to live as images of His holiness for His glory.

That is why we were created.

The word Holy has so much depth to it.

He is good, righteous, God is love, and…He is just.

And we are very happy that He is just.

Not unpredictable…so we can study and trust His Word…don’t need to wander or wonder.

He is faithful…and part of His faithfulness is that He is just.

God’s justice or attributive righteousness is that essential perfection of his nature which leads him to render to every one his due (Ps.

89:14; 2 Tim.

4:8).

This justice in God requires the condemnation of every sinner, and were it not for the plan of redemption, in which justice is satisfied in the person of Christ, and is brought into harmony with mercy, the whole race of men would die in their sins

His justice is part of His perfection…it is who He is...which means that every one of us will get from God exactly what we deserve.

The Lord himself this way to moses.

The Lord himself saidit this way to moses.

NO SLIDE

So as we swim deeper in the ocean of God’s grace and grow in our grace and knowledge of who He is…we discover the goodness and glory of the cross…because of truth that God is just.

So as we swimm deeper in the ocean of God’s grace and grow in our grace and knowledge of who He is…we discover the goodness of His being just.

And we created in His image…therefore love Justice.

And we know justice better than the secular world…because we know what we deserve.

As followers of Jesus under the new Covenant.

Because Jesus taught his followers that we should love our enemy and that we should often turn the other cheek and that we should not return evil for evil, but bless those who persecute us.

So does that mean that Christianity denies this basic sense of justice that all of us have because we were created in God’s image?

Does Christianity teach that wrongs don't have to be repaid?

That justice is cheap and that there's no price that has to be paid for injustice or sin?

But Jesus taught his followers that we should love our enemy and that we should often turn the other cheek and that we should not return evil for evil, but bless those who persecute us.

So does that mean that Christianity denies this basic sense of justice that all of us seem to have?

Does Christianity teach that wrongs don't have to be repaid?

That justice is cheap and that there's no price that has to be paid for injustice?

No, that's not what Jesus means.

When Jesus tells us to return good for evil, he doesn't mean that no price is required for evil; he means that God will pay it so that we don't have to.

The Bible says,

God is a God of perfect justice.

He sees every wrong done.

His memory is infallible.

And he will repay with perfect justice.

So when Jesus says, "Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you" (), he does not mean that justice won't be done; he means God is faithful and He will do it.

Trust him.

Leave it to him.

And more than that...Show that you believe there is a just God in heaven by the way you can completely let go of all bitterness and unforgiveness and vengeance.

So how does this work practically...

Something bad…personally or a school shooting.

We don’t need to cry out for earthly justice or put our hope and faith in worldly rules or structures to change…because we know 3 things...

There is deep evil in the heart of all those who do not love Jesus…that is the ultimate problem.

This injustice that happened has a cause…those people don’t know Jesus so they are living for the devil.

And evil will be rightly punished.

And Vengence is mine…someone will pay says the lord.

And we also know how amazing it is that we are forgiven…we have Jesus…and He died for us and saved us while we were still sinners…so we can look at this world and say to our selves…justice belongs to God…and I have Jesus I have Jesus I have Jesus...

But there is something else we all Have in common…we all have a Guilty Conscience 

This may satisfy our sense of justice for a while.

It may even give us a sense of relief that the people that have wronged us will eventually be brought to justice.

And all the outrageous evils of the world (millions of murders through Stalinist purges in the 1930s and '40s, six million Jews eliminated in Nazi Germany, a million people executed by the Khmer Rouge, tens of thousands forcibly starved by tribal lords in Somalia, villages slaughtered by the Shining Path in Peru, and untold murders in our own country, like Tim White's, that never go to trial)—all these evils will be set right before the judgment seat of the universe.

We All Have a Guilty Conscience 

Just when we are feeling right about justice being done by God to those who wrong us, we awaken to the fact that we ourselves have done wrong.

But then something dawns on us—all of us.

Because there is something else we have in common, namely, a guilty conscience.