Sermon – “The Temple of The Holy Spirit”

12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”[d] 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

11 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “Of all the land animals, these are the ones you may use for food. 3 You may eat any animal that has completely split hooves and chews the cud. 4 You may not, however, eat the following animals[a] that have split hooves or that chew the cud, but not both. The camel chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is ceremonially unclean for you. 5 The hyrax[b] chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is unclean. 6 The hare chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is unclean. 7 The pig has evenly split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean. 8 You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses. They are ceremonially unclean for you.

8 “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.

6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. 10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. 16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in[c] you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

This morning my message out titled The Temple of the Holy Spirit and you know if you asked some people what your vision of temple what the Temple looked like you might envision a big concrete building structure with great big colonnades in front reports as if you think of Solomon’s Temple in the porches in the polls and all these things you might envision those things when you say well that’s what a temple looks like or you might envision a church or something but the Temple of the Holy Spirit we’re going to be talking about the temple where the Holy Spirit dwells So where does the Holy Spirit live where is the temple of the Holy Spirit Friends put your hand out put your finger up like this if you’re watching and go like this right here in the temple of the Holy Spirit so much he’s got his use point before I said do that that’s where the Holy Spirit dwells in us we my friends brothers and sisters are the temple of the Holy Spirit amen that God loves us so much that he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within each and every one of us so this morning we’re going to be reading from First Corinthians Chapter six verses twelve through twenty hear the word of the Lord and this is Paul the Apostle Paul speaking he says All things are lawful for me but all things are not helpful. Let that sink in for a minute just because it’s lawful doesn’t mean that it’s helpful doesn’t mean that it is good OK So all things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any food for the stomach and the stomach for food but God will destroy both it and them now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot certainly not or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her for the two he says shall become one flesh but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him a ma’am for the sexual immorality every sin that a man does is outside the body but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own for you are bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which your gods may God at His blessing so that here in the reading of His Holy Word your body is not your own it belongs to God the Spirit dwells within each and every one of us let us pray Heavenly Father we do thank you and praise you for your presence in our lies we thank you father that we are the temple the Holy Spirt and May we live our lives accordingly nor May we live our lives in a way that would be faithful to you father may your present your spirit have control today of this service of our bodies over minds over all things may we hear what the Spirit says today or God And may we be faithful or God to to walk in it to give you the glory and the honor in Jesus name Amen now as I did some searching out and research on this passage one commentator feels that Paul was kind of mocking what some in the Corinthian church were saying some of these things have become had become slogans that were they were saying some were saying that all things are lawful for me all things are awful I can do all things and for them it was a way to cloak their immorality they were saying well that’s just the that’s is evil maybe because I’m born of the spirit I’m spirit I’m not flesh so I can do whatever the flesh desires some would say food for the stomach in the stomach for food so they were just saying that they had that they were popular and current then that day many felt that you know any food food was to be played food is pleasurable I enjoy food I like to eat as much as the next guy. And they thought well food displays will what’s necessary for life so if you get harder you eat whatever they gave no concern to what they ate Now I know in that day there was a lot of concern and you probably know if you’ve read your bible there was a lot of concern about things sacrificed to idols and first Corinthians ten verse twenty six you don’t have that one Paul again he’s talking to the current in church and he says eat whatever is sold in the meat market asking no questions for conscious sake now he’s going to get what I’m saying he’s you’re not supposed to go to the meat market say was this meat sacrificed to an idol because if they said yes well then your conscience should convict you and you shouldn’t buy that meat but if you didn’t ask you didn’t know as so really spiritually thinking thinking about this in a spiritual and a spiritual way there’s only one true God so all of these if they had meat that they sacrificed to an Idol it’s just an idol is something that man has made with his hands created with his own hand it really is nothing so that meat that was sacrificed on Idol it’s it’s not gonna do you any harm because it’s just meat it was nothing when as I was thinking about this and you know I work to serve in mind all week long and I thought of Elijah up on Mount Carmel with the showdown with the prophets of Bale and they’re the prophets of Bale you know he you know the story had told prophets baled you prepare an altar and you place your sacrifice on it and you call out the bale and see if Bale to come down come down and receive that sacrifice and I’ll prepare an altar and a sacrifice sacrifice on this altar so the prophets of Bale you know they danced around there all day and they prayed to bail and there’s out sacrifice laying on out altar your know what happen not often I mean you got to the place they cut themselves a dance around the leapt upon it and everything else but nothing happened because Bale is dead there Bale is not a God then the logic called out to the one true god. Mediately fire came down out of heaven and consume the sacrifice the alternate up the water than the trench that they put around it so there is only one true God So for conscience sake guess don’t eat it because your neighbors might say well you’re eating that meat it was sacrificed to an idol but it’s not going to hurt you spiritually it’s not going to hurt you it’s not going to condemn you because that audio is actually nothing at all addresses in a number of chapters Chapter six chapter eight Chapter ten so many things but it’s a lot of times it’s about the conscience you may have the liberty to eat whatever you want to eat but don’t offend your brother by eating it don’t offend your neighbor that they their their faith might not allow them they might have a great conviction about eating food that was sacrificed to an idol so don’t you eat it before them don’t you place it before them because you don’t want to put a stumbling block before your brother or sister Amen it’s about livin in a way that is kind of them and respecting them we should respect one another but it’s more about more than just food sacrificed to idols if you want to look back to the Old Testament if you look at the Levitical law all it gives a lot of detail about what God gave the well commanded Israel to eat and not to eat so I want to look at a few of those just just a small sample livid it is Chapter eleven verses one through eight now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying to them speak to the children of Israel saying these are the animals which you may eat among the animals that are on the earth among animals whatever divides of of having cloven hooves and chew in a could that you may eat now I’m going to pause because there may be people here that are saying what in the world does it mean to be chewing the cud Now they may understand because some of these kids are pretty smart but you know what I grew up on a farm. So I’ve grown up on a farm I know what tuna code is now kids if you were to go to a form and you might see a cow standing there in the stall or out in the field and they’re standing there and they just they got their old Jolles are gone they’re chewing they’re chewing and you’re like and I’ve been watching that cow for twenty minutes it hasn’t knelt down to take a bite of grass What in the world is it to a known well which to in on the cud the could and now this is kind of disgusting so bear with me I’m sorry but the could is whenever something they previously had eaten they previously ate some hay or grand whatever it went into the first part of the stomach or the first stomach if you want to call it that well it kind of comes back up out of that stomach back into the mouth so they can reach to it chew it a second time to it again so they’ll stand there no chewing will chew until June and chew on no you’re saying is that’s a disgusting thing to be talking about but God says it’s OK to eat them because they too could they you know they ate some food it’s a different right you know sometimes I’ve eaten too much and it never mind we’ll get there OK verse four he says nevertheless these yourself you shall not eat among those that you to cut are those that have cloven hooves the camel because it chews the cut but does not have cloven hooves it is unclean to you the rock hair acts because it choose to cut but does not have cloven hooves is unclean to you now I had to look that up because what is a rock hyrax it is what is the those in Israel call the rock rabbit they still have those and a con of. Resemble a little bit of a ground and a kind of like a ground all little bit skinnier they’re not quite as fat but their faces a little skinnier narrower the nose as well but different but the coloring they look a lot like a groundhog and they say they have become a great nuisance in the communities over there in the middle east kind of like a groundhog over here is a great nuisance so they are a nuisance but they’re also unclean God told Israel not to eat them. Then verse six says The hair because it choose the cut but does not have cloven hooves is unclean to you and the swine though it divides the whole of having cloven hooves yet does not do the could is unclean to you there flush you shall not eat and there carcass You shall not touch they are unclean now I feel certain that there are many of the Nation of Israel that today still honor God in following his dot Terry laws that are found in the biggest little bit of the law. And I know that there are many denominations or many today even in this country that follow some of these Levitical laws things that are deemed done claim by God they turn away from they do not eat them but you know even those that are allowed to eat anything those that their conscious does not convict them again I go back to we shouldn’t put a stumbling block before brothers and sisters if you have a brother or sister did does not eat these things or unclean we’re going to we’re going to talk about pigs we’re going talk about swine if you have a family member or brother and sister or somebody that doesn’t eat these sayings and you invited them to dinner if you put a big old ham down on the table or a big old batch of crab legs you are offending a brother or sister we are not to offend our brothers and sisters were to do what’s right before God Paul said that all things may be lawful they may not be helpful as I said just because it’s lawful doesn’t mean it’s going to be good you know God said these foods run cling they’re still unclean they’re still unclean today there’s plenty of scientific evidence out there to prove what foods are clean and what foods are unclean what’s good for you what’s bad for you now know that some may you know conflict one another but allow faith to guide you allow your faith to guide you in what you should or should not eat but to know this if you eat those things that are on claim to God says or and claim there may be consequences to it I’m not going to say for sure there will be but there could be I did a little research on just a couple then rules that God declared as unclean as I said we’re going to pick on the pig first. But the Hebrew word before I get to that the Hebrew word for unclean as is used in the bit is means to be defiled or polluted so these animals that God says are unclean they are defiled and they are polluted animals so we’re going to look and see why God calls them on killing so we’ll start with the pig pork whatever you want to call it a pig will we anything in a week it will weed its own urine its own feces it will eat rotted or rotting vegetables it a week maggots it all we’ve eat the decayed rotting flesh of other animals and if that doesn’t turn your stomach they will also eat cancerous growths from other animals including other pigs I’ll give you a good visual there could be a possum that was ran over on the road it could be laying there for five days in a ninety degree heat you could throw it into a pig and it’s going to eat it that’s how unclean of it it will that’s just that’s evidence it’s there to make matters worse the fat of a pig absorbs all these poisons like a sponge is also known that the pig that the flesh of a pig can be up to thirty times more toxic than beef and has has twice as much fat as a beef does so weeding pork is far more likely to lead to high cholesterol levels greater risk of heart attack or cancer. And pigs have a very history history very high histamine levels and sulfur content that lead to high blood acidity and osteoporosis a pig a so poisonous that God gave them can now at their back their legs that run down her legs and they outlets are at the bottom of their hooves and out of these goes the toxins in the poisons they use out of there that’s how poisonous they are pigs do not perspire they do not sweat so all these toxins that many even the human body use what out toxins pigs do not sweat out any of these toxins they stay right in their absorbed into their fat they say that swine carry at least thirty diseases which can be easily passed to humans so now you know why God said don’t eat these to run clean then we’ll jump to a little sea creature called the shrimp they are called the bottom dwellers because they feed on parasites and skin that they pick off a dead animals that means every time you have a good old mouthful of shrimp scampi your digesting all kinds of parasites or dead disease or dead skin in his book bottom feeder how to eat ethically in a world event vanishing seafood terrorist Resco paints a repulsive picture of how shrimp are farmed in one region of India he says a strip pong preparation begins with your radio superphosphate and diesel as in diesel fuel then progress is to use pesticide to stay fish killing chemicals like chlorine and write the name is says that very few shrimp imported from India that arrive in the United States are inspected by the F.D.A. but upon examining some ready to eat shrimp they found one hundred sixty two separate species of bacteria so that tells you that shrimp are the pigs of the ocean you know you can do your own research I’m not going to I’m not stand up and try to tell you what you should or should not eat do your own research and decide what you want to eat if it’s lawful feuded heated lawfully it may be permissible but that does not mean it’s going to be good for you it doesn’t mean it’s going to be good for you you know I had a few An older gentleman on a friend but brothers in Christ that we went to church with years ago his name was Glen Gary will know who I’m talking about I don’t care will two he had a stroke actually work with going and also he worked at the railroad he had a stroke and it affected him pretty badly his whole right side used a cane and he had a hard time getting around. But one day we were talking he said you know he says I know I did this to myself he said because I would ever want to he said I had a steady diet of bacon and sausage and this and that and whatever all the things that God name done playing he says I had a steady diet of it he said I did this to myself so that nobody to blame so it may be lawful for us to eat whatever but does not mean that it is good for you keep in mind it Paul says that these bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and they are meant for the Lord so we need to do what is necessary to keep these bodies healthy to keep him as good as God wants them to be that we can serve him in a bit in a greater way we might do what he what we want will mind how to have the quality of life that we would have if we follow God’s laws on what is good and what not good the next topic that Paul addresses is not about food but one that we must look at and understand he tells us from his word that the true believer will refrain from sexual immorality Paul said that the body is not for sexual immorality but it’s for the Lord and the Lord for the body Paul’s teaching was sexual immorality was especially important to the Corinthian church because Corinth was home to the temple with a love goddess Aphrodite whom employed over a thousand prostitutes as priestesses because that was part of the act of worship to use these to employ these prostitutes Paul clearly states that Christians would have no part in such immorality now might not stand up and tell you what you should or should need but I will stand here today and tell you that a true believer will have no part in sexual immorality because that’s what God’s word says it declares you absolutely should have no part in that there’s no doubt that we are living in a time in an age when sexuality sexual immorality is viewed as the norm in our society today even by some within our churches. You know you look at T.V. social media whatever it’s flooded with all kinds of promiscuity Cal Thomas in his book The things that matter most recounts or cultures declining morality and inability to self censor by citing the motion picture censorship code of the one nine hundred thirty S. He said the nation’s most direct and forceful experience was center sip came out of the production code administration the stablished in one nine hundred thirty four not by the government but by the motion picture industry following public pressure to do something about the perception that movies were going beyond the acceptable boundaries they come up with the code and their code stated that no picture shop produce shall be produce which will allow which will lower the moral standards of those who see it will if we only had today hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime wrong during evil or sin the code specified the films were to avoid brutality or sexual promiscuity it forbade the criticism of any religious group required proper treatment of the American flag and outlined appropriate standards for costumes and dance movements Well you know what I’m old enough that I can remember as a kid if they had a commercial on T.V. that was advertising women’s undergarments they were on a mannequin they were not only a person they were on a mannequin and now my friend was just back in the sixty’s so they still had a little bit of refrain from flooding our airways with all kinds of promiscuity today if you see women’s Iman undergarments on T.V. on a commercial There’s doesn’t leave much to the imagination the third focus the temple God’s word says that these bodies. The bodies that we have these flesh and blood and bone bodies that we have they are not our own they are not our own the last verse more passage said for you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your spirt which your gods look in the mirror when you go home and say this doesn’t belong to me this belongs to God they are gods they belong to Him They are gifts from God The Greek word for Temple is now OS which means a shrine which is a place regarded as holy because it’s a city because of its association with divinity we are holy because of our association with God and with the Holy Spirit when Israel came out of Egypt and during their time in the wilderness they had a temporary temple that was called the tabernacle we’ve all read some of the Old Testament I’m sure note that tabernacle was a tent God gave Moses the instructions and he built a tabernacle and they would put it up and they do well there until God said move again they take it down and they move it to another place but that tent that tabernacle was a place of dwelling that’s what it meant a sanctuary and during their forty years in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership God would calm and he would do well with them he would do well at the temple the tabernacle was erected one year for the first time one year after they left Egypt after they were freed from slavery you know they had all of the elements in there they had to alter they had to tables they had to share bread had all these sayings so the ten the tabernacle would be in the middle the camp and all the tribes of Israel around it but that sanctuary was where God Well Exodus twenty five eight says make a sanctuary from eight and I will dwell among them God wanted to dwell with his people. Brother sister he still wants to dwell with his people the Hebrew word for tabernacle is missed can miss can comes from the Hebrew were root word shake can which means to dwell to dwell mist can means dwelling the mist can was the tent of the tabernacle that would allow God to dwell with his people in the midst of his people it was the central place of prayer that’s where they would go to pray every day they’d go to temple they would pray but it’s more than just prayer it’s more than just a place of prayer they had the temple where they go to pray we go to pray but it’s more than just communicating with God It is meeting to gether God well there so when they go to the temple it was meeting to gether with God Think about that when we go to prayer and before we start spouting off all of our request it’s meeting with God to welling with God It’s not just communicating it is God dwelling with man and man to willing with God together that should be the deepest part of our prayer is being in God’s presence to welling with him continuing in him abiding in him remaining in him the tabernacle were temple whichever you want to call it was a sacred place the sacred place where God chose to meet his people and God wants to meet us today and a sacred place he wants to meet you today he does not choose to meet in the tent this is just a building he doesn’t choose just to meet us in this building he doesn’t choose to meet in a temple made with stones or cloth but he chooses to meet you in this temple in your bodies which is the temple of Holy Spirit the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit first Corinthians three sixteen seventeen says Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in U.. If anyone defiles the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy which temple you are if Asians to one thousand through twenty two says Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ Himself being the court Chief Cornerstone in the whole building being fit together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit you know every sin that man commits is outside the body except for sexual immorality because what did he say to two shall become one the two shall become one flesh so if we proclaim to know Christ and proclaim to have a spear How could we possibly think that we could walk and live in sexual immorality What did that word say would Christ be doing to a harlot no way certainly not the word sanctuaries is used extensively in the Bible it is first use in Exodus referring to the Tabernacle and later the temp the temple but the word sanctuary as it used means to be set apart specifically for God in the Old Testament the building became the sanctuary it became the Holy Place set apart for a holy God dedicated sacred how a holy brothers and sisters your the sanctuary these bodies set apart for God ought they not be holy ought they not to be dedicated to him solely dedicated to him for his work for his glory the last verse of our scripture reading said for you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body. And in your spirt which are gods I think that should probably be your closing thought you are not your own but you belong to God these bodies belong to God let’s glorify God in them may they be set apart soley for him to honor him there is a song is going to be our closing him Lord prepare me prepare me to be a sanctuary that should be our heartfelt prayer to God prepare me to be a sanctuary. The Earth. The food we eat. Eat. Eat the eat with the eating a. Week. With. The feet long as. The Eat long as. You know we were talking down south school about how those in the world will watch our actions more so see if they line up with what we speak the world’s watching how we live our lives so or prepare us help us to be sanctuary help us to live for you may we live lives that are holy and godly before him live lives that are pleasing to God not that we’re going to earn our salvation but we want to please The Father we want to please Him because He loves us because he is so kind so generous so grateful so gracious towards us he loves you he wants you to be soul surrendered to Him sold out to him body soul and mind I think a preacher in a while back but we love Him with our whole body soul and mind well today was about the body was but a sprite Fala God We praise you and thank you we thank you Father for your spirit does dwell within each of us your spirit it encourages us gives us peace when we are stressed nor do your spirit it gives us joy when we are sad your Spirit gives us strength when we are weak while we thank you that we are blessed and blessed to be in power with a spirit the same spirit there raised Jesus from the grave may your spirit be alive and well and active in our lives each and every day more God just bless us uses May we glorify you may we glorify you with our words may we glorify you with our actions may we glorify you with all that we are in jesus name bless and keep us a man.