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Those of us who weren't able to make it to the annual meeting this past week could get this into the subject that I wanted to talk about.

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We had the choice of either lengthening our service to an hour and 45 minutes or doing it in two weeks, and I took the latter option.

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I'm sure you'll appreciate that.

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First Corinthians chapter 6.

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I want to talk today about life's ultimate purpose.

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As one matures, there is one question which begins to weigh heavily upon the heart and the mind,

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and that is, what is my purpose in living?

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As one grows older, he begins to realize that he's not going to be able to accomplish all of those dreams that he once had.

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And he begins to realize that relatively soon he will be off the scene of this world

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and will be forgotten by the next generation just like we've forgotten the previous generation for the most part.

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That sounds rather pessimistic, doesn't it? But it's rather realistic.

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Life's day is brief, and as we begin to understand more and more the seriousness of that, we ask the question, what is my purpose in life?

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I think that's the reason that some people have a very difficult time once they begin to hit the late 30s, the 40s, early 50s.

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And some go off the deep end because they begin to wrestle with that question, what is the ultimate purpose of living anyway?

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Well, the question really is one more, not one of vocation rather, that is, what am I going to do to make a living?

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Nor is it one really of reputation, what are people going to think about me now and after I'm dead?

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The question really is one of purpose. What am I here in this life to achieve and to accomplish?

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The answer for the Christian is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's the purpose in living.

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We see that in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20.

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Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God and that you are not your own?

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

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Those are verses that I hope that you've memorized this past month, the key verses for this month of stewardship studies.

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Turn with me now please to 1 Peter chapter 2.

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This is the way that the Apostle Peter says it.

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But you are a chosen race, verse 9, 1 Peter 2. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.

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That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

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In other words, Peter is telling us we have been saved in order that we might glorify God.

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Do you see how that ties together with stewardship?

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The stewardship of life involves advancing the cause, the worth, the glory of our Master.

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A steward is one who has given something from his Master and who is expected in return to get gain on that something.

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I believe that Jesus Christ is the greatest example of stewardship that we could find.

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Would you turn to the Gospel of John with me for a minute and look at what Jesus says in chapter 12.

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He's getting right down to the very reason for His coming into the world.

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In John 12 we enter into the Passion Week.

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Just a few days before our Lord went to the cross, this is what He said, verse 27.

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Now my soul has become troubled.

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And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.

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But for this purpose I came to this hour.

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He was troubled in His humanity with that which was to take place in a few days.

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He knew His hour had come.

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And He said, what is my response to be? Shall I pray, Father, save me from this hour?

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He says, no. It's for this hour that I came into the world.

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He says, this is the purpose that I have come.

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And so His response is, Father, glorify Thy name.

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Our Lord Jesus said, Father, bring glory to Yourself in this hour, the purpose of my life.

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I believe that the purpose of your life, if you're a child of God,

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the purpose of my life as a child of God, is to glorify our Heavenly Father.

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We are to bring glory to Him in every dimension of life.

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I want to talk about three of them this morning.

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First let's talk about the dimension of our salvation.

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Dear people, there is more to salvation than keeping our unworthy souls out of hell

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and take them into heaven.

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The purpose of your salvation and mine is to glorify God.

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That is the ultimate purpose of it.

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You see, man was created to bring glory to God.

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Back in Genesis it says that God created man in his own image and in his likeness.

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There's a lot in that.

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It involves moral likeness in a sense because man was created without sin.

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He was innocent.

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That reflected God's sinlessness, His holiness.

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In His constitution, man reflects something of God

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because man is a tripartite being, body, soul, and spirit, and God is a triunity,

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Father, Son, Holy Spirit, as He's revealed Himself.

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But I think there's something more specifically intended in that passage

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because right after it says that, God tells man that He is to rule and to subdue the earth.

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In other words, God created man in his likeness so that man could be his representative

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in this creation to rule and to subdue it and to bring glory to God.

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That's why man was created in the beginning, in the likeness, in the image of God,

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that He might bring glory to His Creator.

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Of course, the sad facts are, as revealed to us in the Bible,

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that man fell from that exalted position.

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He chose to disobey God and sinned and then became incapable of bringing glory to God

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because of his sinfulness.

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But in God's sovereign purpose, He had even before that planned man's redemption.

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Before God ever said, let there be light, God had already, within the councils of the Godhead,

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planned a way for man who was even yet to be created to someday be redeemed from the sin

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which He had not even committed at that point as we would look at time.

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And then in the right time, in due time, God sent forth His Son.

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And His Son went to Calvary in our place and took our curse upon Himself.

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He became sin for us.

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He died there bearing your iniquity in mind.

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And then He rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven.

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In other words, Jesus Christ accomplished the saving work that God had before creation planned.

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Now why did Jesus Christ do all of that?

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That He might glorify God and that He might redeem you and me from our sin that we too might bring glory to God.

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Whenever a sinner repents of his sin and places his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation,

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he honors and glorifies God.

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He is confessing his sin, recognizing that it comes short of God's glory.

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He is receiving God's only provision for his sin.

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He is acknowledging God's just condemnation upon him as a sinner.

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And therefore he comes as a helpless one to God to receive the free gift of eternal life.

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At the very first part of our salvation experience,

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we are glorifying God by what we do and repenting and believing on Christ.

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We are obeying what God tells us we must do to be saved.

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But that isn't the only thing.

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Even someday when our salvation is consummated, that too will be for the glory of God.

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God is someday going to change our lowly bodies to be like the body of Christ.

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Why is He going to do that?

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Well, you say so we can go to heaven and live forever.

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Well, that's one of the results in it, but that's not the primary purpose of it.

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God's primary purpose of someday changing your body

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and catching you up in the rapture to be with Christ is that even then,

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through the ages to come, He might show His kindness toward you and thus glorify Himself.

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No matter which way you look at salvation, it's for the glory of God.

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Now we see that clearly in Ephesians chapter 1,

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a chapter some of you have studied in recent days in small church

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and others of you have read often.

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I just want to point out three verses in Ephesians 1 to underscore what I'm saying.

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The purpose of our salvation is to glorify God.

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Ephesians 1 verse 5,

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He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will,

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to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us.

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Notice, why did God predestine us to adoption as sons?

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The reason is that we might be to the praise of the glory of His grace.

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Verse 12, talking more about salvation, He says,

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to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

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And then in verse 14 talking about the Holy Spirit who has given us

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or given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession,

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you and me, to the praise of His glory.

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Now how much more clear can the Bible be than this in saying that your salvation, my friend,

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is not just to get you to heaven and to save you from the fires of hell,

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but your salvation is intended to bring glory and honor and praise to God.

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The ultimate purpose of life in every dimension is to bring glory to God.

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Let's think about a second dimension.

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I like to think about the physical dimension,

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and I'm thinking primarily of the body in which you live.

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Let's go back now to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 20.

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Excuse me, I'd like for us to look again at this critical verse.

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He says, for you have been bought with a price, therefore, what?

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Glorify God in your body.

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And some manuscripts go on to say, and in your spirit, which are God's.

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The oldest manuscripts that we have stop after body.

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But the main point is there either way.

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You've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God.

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And he says, do it in your body.

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There are two specific sins that are warned about in the context of this verse.

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You're going to have to basically trust me for that.

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We're going to have time to read the whole thing.

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But one sin is the sin of gluttony.

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In verse 12, the apostle quotes, or verse 13 rather,

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the apostle quotes a statement that was made frequently in that day.

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Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.

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They said, God gave us a stomach to eat with,

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and He's given us food to fill our stomachs with.

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Therefore, the two go together, let's eat.

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And they did.

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It was not uncommon in the feast in those days

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for a person to gorge himself, to stuff himself as full as he could,

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to walk out of the banquet, go behind the building,

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stick his finger down his throat, regurgitate,

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go back in and do it all over again.

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Because there was just glory in eating.

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That was the purpose of life, gluttony.

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And the apostle says here subtly, that is not purpose of life.

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Now, the Corinthians went another step.

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They concluded that if in fact the belly is for food,

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and the food is for the belly,

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which is what he says here literally,

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then the body is for sexual indulgence.

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I mean, we have these desires, these appetites, just like hunger.

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And therefore, just as food is for the body,

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so body is for sexual indulgence,

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and the two of them go together.

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And they lived that way.

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And they were guilty of gross immorality.

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And so the apostle goes on to say in the last part of the verse,

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yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord.

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And the Lord is for the body.

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Skip down to verse 16.

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Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her?

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For he says the two will become one flesh.

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But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him.

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Flee immorality.

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Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body,

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but the immoral man sins against his own body.

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And then he says in verse 20, glorify God in your body.

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We live in a day in which immorality is excused, but God does not excuse it.

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And let's be very, very clear about something.

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God tells us that any sexual relationship outside of marriage is sin.

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That's what fornication means here.

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It makes no difference if it's two consenting adults in private.

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It makes no difference if there's a deep commitment to one another.

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Or if you happen to be away from your partner for an extended period of time.

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Those are not reasons, as far as God is concerned, for a sexual relationship.

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There's only one, and that is within the bonds of marriage.

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Every other thing falls under this general word of fornication,

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illicit sexual relationships.

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And the apostle warns us here that those things destroy the body.

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They do not bring glory to God.

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We are to flee from immorality and by implication as well from gluttony.

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You see, these things destroy our spiritual effectiveness.

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In 1 Peter 2, 11, the apostle says,

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Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts,

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which war against the soul.

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In other words, he says,

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Abstain from fulfilling indulgently the appetites of your fleshly body,

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because that kind of indulgence is a warfare within you against your soul, your inner person.

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The apostle Paul was concerned about this himself.

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Just turn over a page or two to chapter 9.

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After talking about his motives and his plan of ministry,

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the apostle begins in verse 24 to use an athletic kind of metaphor.

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We're going to look at the last part of that, verse 26.

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Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim.

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Now, do you remember the 100-yard dash you used to run or you watched being run?

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Did you ever see a 100-yard dash of people all get together in a little group

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and they shoot the gun and the guys all take off in a different direction?

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Of course not.

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If you're going to have a race, they line up on a particular line.

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The course for the race is chalked out and up there somewhere,

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100 yards or a quarter of a mile or a mile, is a string.

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That's the goal line.

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If you're in a race, you better stay within your lane and cross the goal line,

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or you'll be disqualified.

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As the apostle says, I'm like in a race, a spiritual race.

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My aim is before me.

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And I think that without doing any injustice at all,

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we can say that Paul's aim was to bring glory to God.

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Over in Philippians 1, he says,

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whether it be by life or by death, I want Christ to be magnified in my body.

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It goes on to say, verse 26,

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I box in such a way as not beating the air.

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Now he uses the metaphor of boxing, and he says,

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I box, but I don't swing wildly and miss the mark.

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I make the blows count, he says.

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Now using that same picture of boxing,

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he again adjusts the metaphor to talk about himself personally,

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and he says in verse 27,

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I buffet my body and make it my slave.

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Literally he says, I beat my body black and blue.

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Now he's using a metaphor, remember.

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But what he's saying is, I keep my body disciplined,

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and I make it my slave.

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And the reason for that, he says, is,

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lest possibly after I have preached to others,

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I myself should be disqualified.

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My friend, it is possible for you to disciple people.

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It's possible for you to share your faith,

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to get up and give testimonies.

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It's possible for you to preach sermons,

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teach a Sunday school class, to be in usher,

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sing in the choir, serve the Lord,

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and then in a moment of foolishness,

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to disqualify yourself from serving God

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by not keeping your body in check,

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keeping it disciplined.

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That's what he's saying here.

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And the apostle was concerned about that regarding himself.

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How should we feel?

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The same way, the same way.

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We should be concerned about bringing glory to God in our bodies.

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And I think that involves the area of modesty too.

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The Bible doesn't give us a dress code,

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but it does give us the principle of modesty.

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And it warns us about dressing or acting in such a way

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that we create desires in others

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which cannot be righteously fulfilled.

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That's what the Bible calls defrauding.

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And over in 1 Thessalonians 4, he warns us,

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don't defraud your brother.

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Rather, maintain your vessel, your body,

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in holiness and honor.

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There's a lot here, folks,

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and we're just kind of touching the surface.

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I pray the Spirit of God will cause this to sink into your heart,

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that with your body you are to bring glory and honor to God.

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He's purchased it by the blood of Christ.

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He dwells in you in the Holy Spirit.

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It is His sanctuary.

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This building is not a sanctuary.

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Your body is God's sanctuary.

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Glorify God in His sanctuary.

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You do that by reckoning your body as His temple

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and by even offering it up as a sacrifice,

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a living sacrifice, Romans 12.1.

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What kind of a steward are you of your body?

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You know, this involves the area of other things

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that we do that can damage our bodies.

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I was over studying in high school this morning

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before the first service, our campus worship service,

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and in the room I was in, apparently it's a health room,

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because there are signs all over the place about smoking.

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One of them said, cut down on smoking, not your life.

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Do you know smoking destroys the body?

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That is proven.

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There's no doubt about that.

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You have some Christian smoke.

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Does that bring glory to God in the body?

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Someone has said if God wanted us to smoke,

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He'd have put a smokestack on top of our heads.

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Well, some people kind of do, and they smell like a smokestack.

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What about drugs?

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The abuse of drugs, that's a big one in our day.

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The social thing, to take cocaine or some of the other drugs,

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does that bring glory to God in the body

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when you destroy the body in that way?

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What about alcohol?

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Alcohol is proven to kill cells in the brain,

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as well as to make a person act like a fool.

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Does that bring glory to God when we drink?

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When we drink, one ounce of alcohol destroys a certain number of cells in the brain.

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Proven fact.

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Does that bring glory to God?

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What kind of a steward are you of God's temple anyway?

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God's concerned about that.

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Our ultimate purpose in life is to bring glory to God.

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That's true in the dimension of our salvation.

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It's true in the dimension of our physical bodies.

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I'd like to think about one more area before we close,

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and that is the area of our lifestyle.

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We're in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31.

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There's a whole lot of sin and selfishness that takes place these days

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under the label of lifestyle.

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Well, that's my lifestyle.

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Don't bug me.

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God accepts me just the way I am.

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My friend, He only accepts you just the way you are in Jesus Christ.

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You see, just the way we are is unacceptable to God.

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And having been once and for all accepted in Christ at the moment of salvation,

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God goes to work on our lifestyle.

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And He wants to clean up our lifestyle so that we live the way we ought to live.

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As the Apostle says in Ephesians 4, 1,

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that we walk worthy of the calling to which we've been called.

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And then in chapter 5, verse 1,

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be imitators of God as dear children.

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I'm talking about lifestyle.

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Our lifestyle should imitate the lifestyle of Jesus Christ.

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Now, what kind of a lifestyle was that?

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Well, it was a lifestyle that was known for good works.

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He went about doing good.

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It was a lifestyle that was free from deceit and trickery and dishonesty.

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He did no sin.

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Neither was deceit found in His mouth.

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It was a lifestyle that was centered upon doing the will of God.

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When He came into the world, He said,

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I come to do Thy will, O God.

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The garden, He said, not my will, but Thine be done.

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That was the lifestyle of Jesus Christ.

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Is that what your lifestyle is like?

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Are you an imitator of God, a mimicker of Jesus Christ?

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Now, the context of the verse we're looking at

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deals with a realm called doubtful things, disputed things.

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That is those activities or involvements

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which the Bible neither condones nor condemns,

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neither approves or disapproves,

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where God doesn't really say, Thou shalt not or Thou shalt.

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And there is a realm, a gray area in there, doubtful things.

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How do I know what I should do in my lifestyle

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when the Bible doesn't say, do this or don't do that?

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Let me just give you five questions to ask

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whenever you are confronted with an activity

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or an involvement in your lifestyle

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and you wonder, what shall I do?

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I'm going to get all of these from 1 Corinthians.

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I'll give you the reference. We don't have time to read it.

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Question number one, is it profitable?

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Chapter 6, verse 12.

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It may not be outlawed, but is it profitable?

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Is there going to be benefit in it?

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Question number two, is this activity enslaving?

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Chapter 6, verse 12 again.

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It may be lawful, but will this bring me into bondage,

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into a habit that will cause me to be a slave

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to something else other than Jesus Christ?

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Is it enslaving?

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Question three, will this activity offend another Christian?

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Chapter 8, verse 13.

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In other words, I may not have any feelings

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about this activity, that it's wrong,

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but if I have a brother who will be made to stumble by it,

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it becomes sin.

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That's the point.

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I have brethren around me who are weaker than I.

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That is, their consciences perhaps are less mature.

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They may not be as deep into the Word as you.

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Consider them.

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The apostle says when we cause a brother to stumble,

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we are sinning against Christ.

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That's serious.

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Question four, does it edify?

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Will this activity build me up or build others up?

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Or will it tend to tear them down or tear me down?

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Chapter 10, verse 23.

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In the question number five, the text we've looked at,

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chapter 10, verse 31, can I glorify God through this?

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As I am involved in this, as I do this activity,

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can I recognize the presence of Jesus Christ with me

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and say, Lord, I'm sure glad you're here?

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Because when I do this kind of thing,

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I enjoy doing it with you, and I want to do it in such a way

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that you're glorified and honored.

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That's question number five.

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What kind of a steward are you in your lifestyle?

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Or are you involved in some things that disgrace God

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rather than glorify Him?

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Your ultimate purpose in life is to bring glory to God.

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You do that when you trust Jesus Christ.

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Some of you here today may need to make that decision,

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to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior,

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and thus to bring glory to God.

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Your lifestyle, the way you live, the morals you have,

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00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,000
all of that is meaningless until you come to the place

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00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,000
of seeing your need for Christ.

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00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,000
Have you trusted Christ?

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00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:12,000
Have you obeyed the gospel to believe on Him

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for the salvation of your soul?

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Or are you still clinging to your own good works?

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00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:19,000
Or your church membership?

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00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,000
Or your baptism?

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00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:27,000
Or your Christian parents?

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As a Christian, is your body bringing glory to God?

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Is your lifestyle honoring to God?

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You know, as I've read biographies,

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as I've studied the Word of God,

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I have uncovered a truth that is obvious and yet profound,

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00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,000
and it's this.

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00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:02,000
Every person who has made a significant impact

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00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,000
for Jesus Christ and His generation

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00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,000
had a single purpose in life,

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and that purpose was to glorify God.

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He didn't get involved in secondary issues.

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He didn't choose the better, He chose the best.

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And His single purpose in all of life

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was to bring honor and glory to God.

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Is that where you are today?

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I hope it is.

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Let's pray.

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Father, we thank You for the way the Holy Spirit

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00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,000
searches our hearts.

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00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:51,000
It's painful sometimes, but it's good for us.

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00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000
And wherein today there are some decisions

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00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:59,000
that need to be made by some of us,

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00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,000
I pray that You will give us courage and grace

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00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,000
to follow through and make the right decision.

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00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,000
Help us to understand that to do nothing

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00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:11,000
is to make the wrong decision.

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00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,000
If there are some of us, Father, who need to be saved here today,

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00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,000
I pray that those people will come in humility

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00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,000
and will trust Christ and bring glory to You

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00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,000
by confessing their sins.

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00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,000
I pray, Father, for those who have made that decision,

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00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:32,000
but whose lifestyle or whose stewardship of the body

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00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:39,000
has not been wise, has been foolish, and even sinful.

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If there are some things that some of us need to get

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00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,000
straightened out in those areas, God, I pray,

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in Jesus' name, that we will do it today,

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because life is short.

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And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.