SPEAKER_00: Hey, this is Andrew Demazio, lead pastor of Rose Church here in Portland, Oregon.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to our podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission here at Rose is building big people.
SPEAKER_00: Becoming like Jesus in community while growing in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever you are, wherever you are, I pray today's message challenges you and encourages you on your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy today's podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna jump into the word, and we've been on a series.
SPEAKER_00: This is week number three, um, called The Art of the Table.
SPEAKER_00: The Art of the Table.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna use my my big iPad and we're gonna draw, and um it'll be on this screen and up there, so you can see both, and then all the overflows wherever you'll be on your screens as well, so you can follow along.
SPEAKER_00: Um but uh we're on this series called The Art of the Table, and it's it's just that because most of our relationships, I would venture to say, all of them, a lot of the times happen around a table.
SPEAKER_00: Our marriages, our friendships, our dating, our our friends hanging out in the weekends and nights.
SPEAKER_00: It's around tables that we're that we're hanging out with people, and so there's an art to that.
SPEAKER_00: There's an art to the table.
SPEAKER_00: But more than that, there's an important word cultivating.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationships don't just show up one day, they are cultivated.
SPEAKER_00: Marriages don't just show up in a good way, they are cultivated.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship is very hard, especially in adulthood.
SPEAKER_00: Like having real good friends is really hard in adulthood, and that takes cultivation to dig and to grow into good friendships.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're talking about all types of things, relationships.
SPEAKER_00: The first week we talked about marriages with Pastor Craig and Moni.
SPEAKER_00: They talked about marriages that pray together.
SPEAKER_00: And then last week I talked about singlehood, about what does it mean to be single and fruitful, and the call for every one of us that are all single, which apparently is like 80% of our church, um, is either dating or single, just not married.
SPEAKER_00: And so large, a large portion are in that world.
SPEAKER_00: And so last we talked about singleness and the fruitfulness they're in.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna talk about sex, sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know for some of you that are all new today, uh this is not our thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I preach on sex all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And if your girlfriend brought you, she knew what was today, so she that's that's on her.
SPEAKER_00: And so um uh we're gonna talk about sex, and even more than that, we're gonna talk about the body today.
SPEAKER_00: But um uh we did work, we usually do worship after me, but we did a lot of worship up front today because I need I need a solid hour um to communicate what's in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna take you some time.
SPEAKER_00: So stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: Um and let me just say a few things up front as I deeply dive into God's word today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, number one, please stay till the end, even if it gets uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Let me land where we're gonna land.
SPEAKER_00: Because I might say some things in the beginning of this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, well, wait a minute, like what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me get through the word and so that you can uh stay till the end and hear me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh number two, um, I'm gonna share quite a bit, and so if your kid is in here, if you have like a young child that's in here, that's what we have kids' ministry for.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't know if this is the um the sermon we want them hearing about the birds and the bees for the first time, or uh, I'm gonna be pretty forthright today.
SPEAKER_00: I do not mean to be gross, I do not mean to be um uh crude or anything, but I'm gonna share um from from scripture today about sex and sexuality and what it means to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and lastly, um when topics like this happen, a lot of emotions start coming up from past life, past relationships, current one.
SPEAKER_00: Um a lot, a lot can start arising.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm gonna pray for that today that peace will reign in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Um shame has no place in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Um conviction has a place.
SPEAKER_00: Uh conviction has a place, um, but shame does not.
SPEAKER_00: And so as I share a lot, just it's gonna be a roller coaster of emotions happening.
SPEAKER_00: And so um let's read today out of 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 6 from the word of the Lord today.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we're in 1 Corinthians 7 when Paul addresses marriage and singleness and all of that fruitfulness that we did last week.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go just a few verses back today.
SPEAKER_00: And um really significant about 10 verses here.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: You guys ready?
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you notice throughout the text, there will be these these quotations.
SPEAKER_00: Um as I've referenced, if you missed it, I just want to let you know that um we we've already talked about this, but there is um multiple letters are going back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing to them, they're writing back, and so in this ten verses we're gonna read right now, he quotes them four times.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you've said this, and here's what I say back.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what's happened here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, They've said, I have the right to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the most Portland motto sentence.
SPEAKER_00: I have the right to do anything, you say, but not everything is beneficial.
SPEAKER_00: I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by anything.
SPEAKER_00: You say, food for the stomach and stomach for the food, and God will destroy both of them.
SPEAKER_00: The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
SPEAKER_00: By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will also, he'll raise us also.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself?
SPEAKER_00: Pretty harsh language here, I'll answer in a second.
SPEAKER_00: Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her body?
SPEAKER_00: For it is said, and he's quoting Genesis chapter 2, for the two will become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: 18.
SPEAKER_00: Flee from sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: All other sins a person commits are outside the body.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God.
SPEAKER_00: You are not your own, for you've been bought with a price, therefore honor God with your bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 7, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now about the matters you wrote about.
SPEAKER_00: They, again, quotations, they've said, It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.
SPEAKER_00: But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.
SPEAKER_00: The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop there.
SPEAKER_00: That will be enough for today.
SPEAKER_00: Just about another 20 verses, he goes on this other rant, but we'll we'll stay there for the day.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it'd be important that we pray as we jump into this text.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 4 says that the word is sharper than a two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: It cuts between soul and spirit, morrow and bone.
SPEAKER_00: It cuts.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that the sword of the spirit would cut today.
SPEAKER_00: Not for shame reasons, but for conviction reasons and helpful reasons.
SPEAKER_00: God, your word says that when scripture is preached, it's like seed to the soil.
SPEAKER_00: Seed to the soil.
SPEAKER_00: And if it lands on good soil, it shall bring back 30, 16, and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for the seed of your word to land on good soil today.
SPEAKER_00: Open our minds, open our ears, and more importantly, open our hearts today.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for those that are not Christian, not saved, um, they're just here with a friend or a neighbor or a girlfriend.
SPEAKER_00: Would you speak to them today?
SPEAKER_00: Would you reveal yourself to them today, God?
SPEAKER_00: Um, every married person, every single person, every those dating, engaged, whoever we're at in our marital seasons of life, God, would you speak to us through this deeply convicting text?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you give me the grace today to share boldly but also gently today what you put in my heart to share?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, be present.
SPEAKER_00: I know that I am the second preacher in the room, for you are the first preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Would you speak to every heart and mine today?
SPEAKER_00: In your mighty name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, This last week, um, literally this last week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was in LA for a pastor's gathering of pastors all over America and the world from Malaysia and Singapore and Australia, and these pastors were over at this gathering I got invited to, and so I was down in LA Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00: This literally happened Monday night.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're at a hotel getting ready to go to our dinner.
SPEAKER_00: And I was with a group of my friends that are all senior pastors, and and we're talking, we're sitting next to a table, and this um young girl, she's probably in her young 20s, maybe 22, 23, is with her dad.
SPEAKER_00: And they're having a lively conversation, um, argument.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's pretty loud, like the restaurant can hear them.
SPEAKER_00: We for sure can.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and those sitting next to her, and this is verbatim, word for it, this will happen.
SPEAKER_00: We're sitting there, she's with her dad, and her dad says to her, I don't like the men that you date.
SPEAKER_00: And every father said, Amen to all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't like any of the men that you date.
SPEAKER_00: He's the best.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's the worst.
SPEAKER_00: He's not optional, right?
SPEAKER_00: So he's like, the father's like, I don't like who you're dating.
SPEAKER_00: And she says back, and I quote, Dad, I'm a good Christian girl.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have sex on the first date.
SPEAKER_00: I at least wait till the fifth.
SPEAKER_00: That is much better than all of my friends.
SPEAKER_00: End quote.
SPEAKER_00: What a sentence.
SPEAKER_00: Dad, I'm a good Christian girl.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have sex on the first date.
SPEAKER_00: I at least wait till the fifth.
SPEAKER_00: This happened this week.
SPEAKER_00: Shocking that I was being also preparing for this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: It just was like a serendipitous moment.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, what is the Christian view of sex?
SPEAKER_00: She did not say, Dad, I'm a good girl.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't say, Dad, I'm an LA girl.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't say, Dad, I like, she said, Dad, I'm a good Christian girl.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have sex until the fifth date.
SPEAKER_00: What is, I mean, there's hundreds of people in this room and in other rooms, and if I handed the mic around and asked every one of you, define for me what Christian sexuality looks like, I think we get 400 different answers.
SPEAKER_00: Especially living in this city in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know we'd all land on the same sentence, like this is what the Bible teaches on sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: But, friends, I just want to talk about today.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be a good Christian girl, a good Christian boy, and view sexuality in such a way?
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually not going to talk about sexuality as a whole today.
SPEAKER_00: I actually want to elevate the conversation much high much higher than sexuality, and I want to talk about your body.
SPEAKER_00: Your body.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for you, if you are in the room today, a believer, what does it mean for you to serve the Lord with your body?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's what I want to tackle down today.
SPEAKER_00: Not even sex.
SPEAKER_00: That's such an easy conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I want to elevate it much higher than that.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for you to serve the Lord with your body?
SPEAKER_00: Because, friends, we live in a very sexualized world.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite obvious when you talk about OnlyFans and Fifty Shades of Grey and Game of Thrones and whatever all the other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like we live in a very sexual world.
SPEAKER_00: But we also lie to ourselves that we think we're the most sexual beings that have ever lived, and it's a lie.
SPEAKER_00: We have not even touched the surface to the Roman Empire yet.
SPEAKER_00: And you're in your free time, go take a history class on the Roman Empire, and you will find out real quick.
SPEAKER_00: They are Vegas, Portland, Amsterdam, times 50.
SPEAKER_00: We have not even touched how they viewed sex in the public square.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about public orgies.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about rape at a level that you cannot get.
SPEAKER_00: Like we uh we are not even close to how sexual these people were.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul has the audacity to write two chapters worth, chapters six and seven, to a church in the city called Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth was the original Vegas.
SPEAKER_00: And letters from Philo and Cicero and Plato, uh, actually a slight to call someone was a Corinthian.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a girl or a guy, you are wowing out in these streets to go, man, she's really being a good Corinthian.
SPEAKER_00: Like it was a slight.
SPEAKER_00: You'd read their letters, like it's to be a Corinthian is like a wildly sexually perverse, crazy person in these streets.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at even ancient Rome and ancient Corinth, they worship a god named Aphrodite.
SPEAKER_00: You all would know this, the god of sex and pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Little nerd moment for you.
SPEAKER_00: You know it's pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_00: There's a in Corinth, you can do some history on this if you like, there's a amongst the entire Roman Empire, the Corinth, the city of Corinth, had the biggest Aphrodite statue.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how people would, before they'd have sex or want a good orgasm or want if they're in infantility and they want to hit, before they would have sexual intercourse, they would go worship the statue, Aphrodite.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how they would worship the statue?
SPEAKER_00: On her feet, at the bottom of the statue, they would put frankincense and myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: And you think it was random that Mary received frankincense and myrrh for the life of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: The wise men offering frankincense and myrrh to King Baby Jesus was a statement of anti-worship.
SPEAKER_00: And they give Aphrodite frankincense and myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 and 7 writes this absurdly revolutionary, offensive letters to this church.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, not unsaved people, not the crazy neighbors, to a church that is not living right.
SPEAKER_00: Lair Hurtado, who is a major historian, he ran the historic department at the University of Ettenberg in the UK, died a number of decades ago, but he was a major early church historian.
SPEAKER_00: And he writes this about this text that we read.
SPEAKER_00: This is his commentary.
SPEAKER_00: He says this.
SPEAKER_00: In the Roman era, there was a double standard in sexual practice.
SPEAKER_00: Women were generally held to a standard of strict marital chastity.
SPEAKER_00: Men, however, were allowed to be considerably more free to have sex with many others, although sex with another man's wife was not approved.
SPEAKER_00: All other kinds of sexual activity were openly tolerated and actually encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: As Demostes says, letter in the third century, he says this, he's a from the fourth century, the crater.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We Romans, this is quoting Roman culture, we Romans have prostitutes for pleasure, slaves for our daily desires, and wives to give us legitimate children to guard our household.
SPEAKER_00: In this setting, Paul's exhortations to sexual integrity, given mostly to men, project a radically different standard among Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: He makes the unusual move of holding men to the same standards of holiness and honor expected of women, thereby challenging the dominant double standard of the time.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world, when a woman got married, if she had sex with anyone else outside her husband, they could kill her by law.
SPEAKER_00: But men were allowed to be as deviant and sexual as they wanted.
SPEAKER_00: With slaves, prostitutes, women at all times, it was encouraged that that's how men, that that's how men are men.
SPEAKER_00: We have notches in our belt.
SPEAKER_00: We stack our list of who we've slept with.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's letter in 1 Corinthians is a mind-boggling, deep challenge to this early church that has now been saved in the city of Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: And he challenges them not, you know the language, we'll go back here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he's not just challenging them about their sexual activity, he's talking about their body.
SPEAKER_00: Because imagine being the church of Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: You've lost homes, probably, you've lost friends.
SPEAKER_00: You've like you've this church has been deeply persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're being told that Jesus does not just want their mind, he wants their body.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we need to be reminded of today: that Jesus has to say with what you do with your body.
SPEAKER_00: And really quick, just as a way of introduction, Paul is addressing two polarizing views of the body within this church.
SPEAKER_00: He quotes them both.
SPEAKER_00: He quotes one sentence in chapter 6 and one in chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: He is challenging the Roman view and the Gnostic view.
SPEAKER_00: He challenges two polarizing statements.
SPEAKER_00: How this church in Corinth is viewing sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, so with the Roman view.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: So again, he's quoting them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You guys say to me, I have the right to do anything I want.
SPEAKER_00: You say, two things in the same.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a whole riddle.
SPEAKER_00: Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.
SPEAKER_00: And God's gonna destroy both of them, so who cares?
SPEAKER_00: The body, however, is not meant for sexual morality.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is Paul saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's he's had this little word.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, so what you guys are saying, this is the Roman way.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I have a stomach, and when I get hungry, I eat.
SPEAKER_00: I have genitals, when I get horny, I sleep.
SPEAKER_00: I have sex.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's playing with.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you guys keep telling me I can do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_00: It's just my body, and both are gonna be destroyed anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares?
SPEAKER_00: I have a stomach.
SPEAKER_00: When I get hungry, I eat.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a dude.
SPEAKER_00: When I get horny, I find someone to sleep with.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares?
SPEAKER_00: This is the Roman liberal, it doesn't matter what you do with your body, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: We're all adults.
SPEAKER_00: As long as you're in a monogamous, consensual, adult, mutual relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares what you do?
SPEAKER_00: It's just your body.
SPEAKER_00: Chill out.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like in the modern church that Christians are okay with Jesus being their truth but not their way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get it choose, is he your truth or your way?
SPEAKER_00: So it's almost like these Christians are like, Paul, we believe who Jesus is, resurrected from the dead, king forever, born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you.
SPEAKER_00: But like, why does it matter what I do with my body?
SPEAKER_00: This is the Roman way that he is challenging.
SPEAKER_00: And then he quotes in chapter 7, verse 1, he does the other way.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: These people are saying, the matters that you've wrote about, it's good for a man not to have sexual relations.
SPEAKER_00: They're going the other way, saying, okay, we were raised in this Roman culture.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, we shouldn't even touch each other.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like that's a like sex is kind of dirty.
SPEAKER_00: It's only for procreation.
SPEAKER_00: Have sex to have kids, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for recreation.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you dare have fun.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's they they go the other way.
SPEAKER_00: They go the Gnostic way that like the body's evil.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get away from it.
SPEAKER_00: We can't wait to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We can't wait to be more spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: Let's disengage from laughter and poetry and sex and food and games and comedy shows.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, no, no, all this earthly stuff is really evil.
SPEAKER_00: Let's disengage.
SPEAKER_00: Be more Gnostic.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul goes, uh, no, actually, since sexuality is occurring, each man should have sex with his wife and wives with husbands.
SPEAKER_00: Um, a little key words here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just say, actually, you're right.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is good.
SPEAKER_00: Go find somebody.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, married people, wives and husbands, he goes, go touch each other.
SPEAKER_00: It's good.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, bro, I can get behind this God.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can notice what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying have sex with ever you want, like the liberal way, or like the Roman way, but he's not doing the Gnostic way, saying, yeah, sex is kind of dirty.
SPEAKER_00: You probably should like abstain from it.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Married folk, fulfill each other.
SPEAKER_00: Wives, fulfill your husbands.
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, fulfill your wives.
SPEAKER_00: So he's challenging these two drastic polarizing views of sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, sex is either an appetite or appalling.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans are like, dude, it's an appetite, get over yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And the Gnostics are like, it's kind of gross.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of, Paul's like, it's neither an appetite nor appalling, it's holy.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we have a book in the Bible called The Song of Songs.
SPEAKER_00: Sigle people, you're not, you're not allowed to read it.
SPEAKER_00: Wait till you get married.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read that book?
SPEAKER_00: And if anyone tells you it's a love letter from Jesus to you, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you and Jesus should be doing any of that stuff in that book.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a love letter from Jesus to you.
SPEAKER_00: In that book, they're talking about I can't wait to blow in your garden.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to climb your hills.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to peruse, like, I mean, I mean, read the book, man.
SPEAKER_00: But think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Of all of the books that could have stayed in the canon that didn't, this one stayed.
SPEAKER_00: The early church was like, this one has to stay.
SPEAKER_00: Because sex is gross?
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, sex is so good.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible in the Song of Psalm, this is profound.
SPEAKER_00: It says that it's a Song of Psalm, if you don't know, it's it's a couple um getting ready for their honeymoon.
SPEAKER_00: So it's them talking to each other and saying they can't wait to do these things to each other and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says on their wedding night, they have sex.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Bible says in Song of Psalms that a voice from heaven says, have your fill.
SPEAKER_00: God wasn't like, ew.
SPEAKER_00: We're not doing this today, but Genesis, uh, mind you, uh, sex came before sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sexual desire is not a result of sin, it's a result of God.
SPEAKER_00: And God's like, good for you guys, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Have fun, kids.
SPEAKER_00: So today I really want to wrestle down this idea that Paul is challenging that we need to worship God with our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Because unfortunately, the church is no different than the world.
SPEAKER_00: There is no line of difference.
SPEAKER_00: There is no differentiation.
SPEAKER_00: It's like our sexual appetites are just as the world, and we're fulfilling them the same as the world.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul was telling this church in Corinth, you don't live in Corinth anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You're a citizen of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: How we treat our bodies is not how this city treats their bodies.
SPEAKER_00: You must change how you treat your body.
SPEAKER_00: About 150 years after Paul died, there was a man named Dagnesis, and he was a huge critic of the church, and uh he wrote a lot of letters to the church and making fun of them and challenging them about the virgin birth, about the Holy Spirit, about all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he says in one of his letters while watching the church.
SPEAKER_00: He says that Christians were people, oh I have to change this, my bad.
SPEAKER_00: Christians were people of common tables, not common beds.
SPEAKER_00: Because the church inverted the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Romans would not eat with certain people, they were very secluded who they ate with, but they'd sleep with anyone.
SPEAKER_00: The church reversed it.
SPEAKER_00: We would eat with everyone, but we won't sleep with who we're married to.
SPEAKER_00: This is his observation of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Man, they eat with everyone.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't have common beds.
SPEAKER_00: They only have sex with people they are married to.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, as a very long way of introduction, we need a new theology of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Call Portland.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I don't know if you know this or not, but you know that we are the number one strip uh strip club capital of America?
SPEAKER_00: There's an HBL series coming out here soon about Portland strip clubs.
SPEAKER_00: Where we've been number one for about 10 years now.
SPEAKER_00: We have the most strip clubs per capita of any major city in America.
SPEAKER_00: We do.
SPEAKER_00: People have for school a few months ago, I had to write a paper on how did Portland become one of the gay capitals of America.
SPEAKER_00: There's a fascinating study on how the sexual revolution post-the Stonewall riots made its way to little old Portland, and how we've become, and essentially I'll sum my paper up for you.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: It's because we live in a city that wants you to do whatever you want with your body.
SPEAKER_00: Do whatever you want with it.
SPEAKER_00: It's your body, your choice.
SPEAKER_00: You're an individual, your self-autonomy, a free moral agent.
SPEAKER_00: You do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody that wants to come be free moral agents with their body, move to Portland.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, we live in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that I know very well.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get a bunch of emails today and a bunch of fun DMs.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that you're like, I'm the I'm the old guy, I'm stuck in the mud, I'm so ancient, I'm so archaic.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that, but let me lay some things at your feet on what it means to serve God with your body, because I believe what Scott McKnight says, we need a renewal, a revival of the body.
SPEAKER_00: He says this there is a revival of the value of embodied spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: We worship God and we love God in our bodies and with our bodies, with physical, tangible, and palpable ways.
SPEAKER_00: Deep is the yearning of humans for the need to do spirituality with our body.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there's a new revival happening right now in the world that we actually want to have holistic spirituality again.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the West, we have disembodied ourselves, that we believe that we can worship God with our mind and worship the devil with our body.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that we can believe certain things, adhere to certain subscribe to certain doctrines, and then do whatever I want with this.
SPEAKER_00: No, we need embodied spirituality back.
SPEAKER_00: One of the uh great books of C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis um called The Screw Tape Letters.
SPEAKER_00: It's so funny.
SPEAKER_00: If you never read it, it's the wittiest satire book about a senior devil teaching a young devil how to persuade Christians not to be Christians anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this the senior devil is screw tape, and the little devil's name is Wormwood, but look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Woodwood, I know with great displeasure that one of your patients, which he calls Christians, has become a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, in your better moments, I trust that you would hardly even wish to do so.
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, we must make the best of the situation.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this, this is profound.
SPEAKER_00: There's no need to despair.
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of these adults, convert, uh adult converts, have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the enemy's camp, he calls God the enemy's camp.
SPEAKER_00: And they're now back with us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: All of the habits of the patient, both mentally and bodily, are still in our favor.
SPEAKER_00: That is profound.
SPEAKER_00: It's a senior devil telling a younger devil that his patient has become a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, ah, don't worry about it, he'll be back.
SPEAKER_00: Why will he be back?
SPEAKER_00: All of his habits are still with us.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we can close in prayer right now.
SPEAKER_00: That's profound.
SPEAKER_00: Because serving Jesus is not just a mental ascent, your habits are involved.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, maybe while you are so stuck in your journey with Jesus, it's not because you need to think about him more and love him more.
SPEAKER_00: It's because you need to surrender your habits.
SPEAKER_00: Your habits to him.
SPEAKER_00: And I would submit today your sexual habits with your body.
SPEAKER_00: We're entering our way.
SPEAKER_00: I told you I need a long time.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't dealt with the text yet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still just sharing some ideas.
SPEAKER_00: We alright?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is for some of us how we view scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is a gift as long as it benefits me without restricting me.
SPEAKER_00: We love the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms and Proverbs and the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount and oh Jesus, we love your word until the word starts telling us no.
SPEAKER_00: And then we feel like the Bible is no longer feeding us, now it's restricting us.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know why you feel that way?
SPEAKER_00: Next sentence.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture functions both as a well that refreshes the soul and a protective fence that establishes moral and spiritual boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to see this, friends.
SPEAKER_00: It is a well and a fence.
SPEAKER_00: When you start serving Jesus and reading his word, yes, his word is like a well.
SPEAKER_00: It gives you water, it's refreshing, it speaks to you, it lifts your head, it strengthens your spine, it encourages you when you're down.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, the word of God is a well.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but friends, it's also a fence.
SPEAKER_00: That starts establishing moral and spiritual boundaries in our life.
SPEAKER_00: See, some of you are thinking right about now, like, I don't know if I want to serve Jesus like that.
SPEAKER_00: I love church, I love Rose, but like, man, this is like for real serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ma'am, it is.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has to say over what you do with your body.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite authors of all time, I named my youngest son after him, Augustine of a hippo, an African, North African bishop, has changed my life a lot when it comes to doctrine and serving Jesus and how I view God.
SPEAKER_00: And um what most people don't know is Augustine before he got saved was a sexual deviant.
SPEAKER_00: Like his famous book, Confessions, there's like five chapters worth of him just talking about how much he loves sex.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's a deviant.
SPEAKER_00: He is kids out of wedlock, like he is a sexual, you know, prowess person, like he's out there.
SPEAKER_00: And he starts writing uh in one of his chapters called Early Childhood about faith.
SPEAKER_00: And he and he has this sentence, I'll put up in a second, and it's so funny because it's so real.
SPEAKER_00: This is his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, give me chastity.
SPEAKER_00: Just not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Man, what an honest prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I I really want to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: But like, not yet.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, it's funny, but that's kind of the prayer of your heart right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, Lord, I've I really want to be all in.
SPEAKER_00: But like next year.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, maybe like next relationship I do it right, but I'm having fun right now.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, like, I just got into college.
SPEAKER_00: Can I have like my fun for a little bit?
SPEAKER_00: Can I sow my wild oats and then I'll oh Lord, give me, give me purity.
SPEAKER_00: Just not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has a lot to say about your body.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Just three things.
SPEAKER_00: Three things I want to give you from this text about what Paul is teaching was of the theology of your body.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, your body is made for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Your body, all of it, inner organs and outer organs, all of your body is made for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see his argument?
SPEAKER_00: I love Paul's apologetic argument.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I have the right to do anything I want.
SPEAKER_00: Is like that's what you guys think?
SPEAKER_00: You think you can just do whatever you want?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have a right.
SPEAKER_00: I can do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_00: You think you can do everything as long as it's beneficial?
SPEAKER_00: You guys say that whatever, I have a food, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: The body, again, we're not just wanting sexuality, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Your whole body.
SPEAKER_00: The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: But it's meant for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And look at the Lord for the body.
SPEAKER_00: He's literally saying, your body was made for him, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He was made for you.
SPEAKER_00: Your body was not made for just food in your stomach.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's all your body was made for.
SPEAKER_00: Your body was made for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And notice this is so important, this connection here.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a double entangreat almost.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's a it's a reverse sentence.
SPEAKER_00: It's for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God gave you his body.
SPEAKER_00: Why won't you give him yours?
SPEAKER_00: He fully gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you holding half of you back for him?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't mentally forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't mentally love you.
SPEAKER_00: He physically loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't mentally forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his body for you.
SPEAKER_00: And look at look at what he wants back.
SPEAKER_00: Your body.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like he's viewing this as a healthy relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I fully gave you my body and I kind of expect yours back.
SPEAKER_00: So, first I want you to say that your body today, friends, is not made for sex, made for food, made for pleasure, made for laughter.
SPEAKER_00: All those things are so good.
SPEAKER_00: First and foremost, your body was made for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens when your body is made for the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Um, go down, I think to verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: I think all the way toward the end.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean my body was made for the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if my body is made for the Lord, look, look what he turns your body into.
SPEAKER_00: His temple.
SPEAKER_00: So this is when the sermon starts getting a bit dicey.
SPEAKER_00: Would you want Jesus doing with his body what you do with yours?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be comfortable serving a God that treats his body the same way you treat yours?
SPEAKER_00: If your answer is no, what do you think is happening when you're his temple?
SPEAKER_00: That means, friends, this is significant.
SPEAKER_00: That means wherever you go, he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine physical Jesus! Go ahead, bro.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta we got somewhere to go.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, where are we going?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to strip club.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: You would never take him there.
SPEAKER_00: Would you?
SPEAKER_00: But yet you have forgotten that you are his temple.
SPEAKER_00: And where you go, he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Who you have sex with, he is present.
SPEAKER_00: You are his temple.
SPEAKER_00: So first and foremost, I want you to see today, friends, very simply, but deeply profoundly, you were made for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You were just made for food in your stomach and laughter and all the fun things that we could do with our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: You were made for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Second, we're gonna enter our way into uncharted territory.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, your body was made for union.
SPEAKER_00: Not just communion, but union.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: This is profound, friends.
SPEAKER_00: And a bit uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, we'll stay here.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: You're his temple.
SPEAKER_00: So then, if that's true, why should I make a member of Christ be united?
SPEAKER_00: We'll do with that word in a little bit, with a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, bro, this is so outdated.
SPEAKER_00: I'm having sex with my girlfriend, not a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_00: Like, dude should not be sleeping with prostitutes.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm totally in.
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm having sex with my girlfriend.
SPEAKER_00: We're 35 years old.
SPEAKER_00: We've been dating for a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: You think this is wrong?
SPEAKER_00: She's not a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not crossing any sexual bounds.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we need to have a word conversation first, because this word prostitute in the ancient world in Greek literature, they didn't have prostitutes as you and I have them.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is in our city?
SPEAKER_00: There's only three camps of adults in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: Only three.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, married, number two, virgin, number three, prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: All those that were at church last week, do you remember when we when we opened up with uh 1 Corinthians 7, uh, 15 and 25?
SPEAKER_00: He says, regarding all of the virgins you asked about.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: But we read a translation that says, remember all the unmarried, but he calls them virgins because in here, this, I know this is gonna be shocking to you.
SPEAKER_00: But in the ancient world, in the biblical narrative, if you had sex with someone, you were now married.
SPEAKER_00: And T.
SPEAKER_00: Wright and Scott McKnight both talk about the ancient civilization.
SPEAKER_00: There was no such thing as premarital sex.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is union.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're sleeping around and not married, we would call that a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul calls it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you when you have sex, it is so much more than just a physical thing.
SPEAKER_00: It is not just an orgasm, it is not just your bodies, it is not just a moment of pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: You are becoming united with them.
SPEAKER_00: We're reading a second.
SPEAKER_00: You will become one with them.
SPEAKER_00: Two flesh will become one.
SPEAKER_00: You know this, that something deeper happens when you have sex more than just your body.
SPEAKER_00: That's why all the married people in the room, when you get mad at your spouse, what is the first thing you take off the table?
SPEAKER_00: Your body.
SPEAKER_00: You can be in conversation with them, you can still love them, you can still do the dishes together, have dinner together, you can still sleep in the same bed.
SPEAKER_00: But when you are hurt deeply, what is the first thing you remove from the table?
SPEAKER_00: Your body.
SPEAKER_00: Not because it's just your body, because you know that's the deepest thing I can give you.
SPEAKER_00: It is not just genitalia, it is not just bodily things, it is not just an orifice called your skin, it is something so much deeper that happens when you unite with someone you are not married to.
SPEAKER_00: See, what's always funny is right about now, people that are like, you have such a low view of sex.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, I think you have a low view of sex.
SPEAKER_00: If you think it's only bodily, you have a low view of sex.
SPEAKER_00: I actually believe we have the Christian world has a high view.
SPEAKER_00: Because we think it has way more to do with just your body, it has to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: For you are united.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Eugene Peterson says in the message version, his translation of this.
SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
SPEAKER_00: He says, there's more to sex than mere skin to skin.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is as much a spiritual mystery as physical act.
SPEAKER_00: As written in scripture, the two become one.
SPEAKER_00: Since we want to become spiritually one with someone, with the master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of sex that can never become one.
SPEAKER_00: There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others.
SPEAKER_00: In sexual sin, we violate the sacredness of our own bodies.
SPEAKER_00: These bodies that were made for God-given, God-molded love for becoming one with another.
SPEAKER_00: Just think for me, with me for a second, friends.
SPEAKER_00: How much evil would be evaporated from this earth if people only had sex with who they're married to?
SPEAKER_00: Let's take God out of this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take scripture out of this.
SPEAKER_00: Take it all out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just talk about the literal communities we would live in if people only slept with who they're married to.
SPEAKER_00: Abortions would be gone, sexual assault would be gone, STDs would be gone, rape would be gone.
SPEAKER_00: Like, think about how much better our societies would be if we actually only slept with who we're married to.
SPEAKER_00: I think it'd be a little bit better.
SPEAKER_00: To all those in the room that are pushing back ones and going, dude, this is so archaic.
SPEAKER_00: Like, grow up.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're in our 40s.
SPEAKER_00: Like, do you really think this matters?
SPEAKER_00: Great question.
SPEAKER_00: I do think it matters, but good great question.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think the sexual revolution has been good for us?
SPEAKER_00: You think it's gone well?
SPEAKER_00: You think since the Stonewall riots in the last 50 years, post-Wodstock, post-stonewall, post-the sexual revolution, you think humans are in a better space because we're sexually free.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think any of us would go, yeah, we're doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: We're crushing down here.
SPEAKER_00: I think we'd all go, yeah, it's not really working.
SPEAKER_00: Something something's broken.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you were made for sexual union.
SPEAKER_00: Your body's made for union.
SPEAKER_00: And only to be union or unionized with the people you are married to.
SPEAKER_00: People you're married to.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is where we're gonna jump off the d-bed.
SPEAKER_00: Are we okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, bro, we had sex this morning before church.
SPEAKER_00: What a great Sunday, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um, dude, you're really ruining my weekend plans.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm trying to help you actually view your body so much higher than your professors told you to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually trying to help you to view your body so much higher than this world has trained you to think about your body.
SPEAKER_00: Your your body seriously matters to God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we're gonna park this car for a bit.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because, number three.
SPEAKER_00: Your body is not your own.
SPEAKER_00: So you're right about now.
SPEAKER_00: The the mental argument is this.
SPEAKER_00: Bro, it's my body.
SPEAKER_00: I can do whatever I want with it.
SPEAKER_00: 35, I'm 40, 28.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an adult, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is such an archaic old sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Grow up.
SPEAKER_00: We're adults.
SPEAKER_00: It's consensual, it's monogamous.
SPEAKER_00: We're just loving each other how humans want to love each other with their bodies.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sleeping around.
SPEAKER_00: I just, this is my body.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, then that's the first argument.
SPEAKER_00: Usually the second goes like this: Who am I hurting?
SPEAKER_00: You think who I have sex with hurts my neighbor, hurts the city, hurts the church, hurts you, hurts my connector.
SPEAKER_00: You think what I do with my body, what isn't hurting anyone else?
SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter to you?
SPEAKER_00: This is my body, I'm not hurting anyone.
SPEAKER_00: So kind of buzz off, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're not hurting anyone.
SPEAKER_00: It's great, great argument.
SPEAKER_00: I hear you, and this is my response to it.
SPEAKER_00: Um go to I think the third slide of verse sixteen, fifteen, and sixteen.
SPEAKER_00: Sir, I hear you, what a great argument.
SPEAKER_00: Only if your body was yours.
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a Christian in the room, I have good news for you.
SPEAKER_00: Your body is yours.
SPEAKER_00: Do what you want.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a believer in this room, that argument is concise.
SPEAKER_00: Do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: It is your body.
SPEAKER_00: But to every Christian in the room, it is not your body.
SPEAKER_00: It is his.
SPEAKER_00: And so much so, he paid a price for it.
SPEAKER_00: With his body.
SPEAKER_00: I remember this last year, maybe this early this summer, I can't remember.
SPEAKER_00: My son, he needs, you know, he's grown so much right now, he'll be 13 in a month and a half, which is insane to me.
SPEAKER_00: And so he wants some new shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And so I took him to the store and we had to get some new school shoes, and there's these like white Jordans, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And and we get home, and right when we got home, all the little neighbor boys, the scooter gang, was outside in these streets.
SPEAKER_00: All these little 12-year-olds are whooping around in their scooters, and so they pull up and they're like, Scooter, let's go, park! And he goes, Dad! And he and he runs out with his shoes on.
SPEAKER_00: Unbeknownst to me, my my son is gone for like five hours just living his life.
SPEAKER_00: And so a long story short, he comes home and he walks through the house, and his new shoes have mud, dirt, grass stains.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he just ruined these shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, bro, where were you?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, bro, we went to the park.
SPEAKER_00: We run our scooters, we played whiffle ball, I hit bombs today.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's like, not even thinking about he's like, oh, sorry, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I just bought those.
SPEAKER_00: Literally an hour, I just bought those.
SPEAKER_00: I want to lay my hands on you spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: Like here me.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: He was like, There's shoes, I played.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm 11, leave me alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm 12, leave me alone.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he didn't pay for it.
SPEAKER_00: Is it weird for me to care about something I paid for and how it's used?
SPEAKER_00: What a dumb illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Comparatively.
SPEAKER_00: That you were purchased at a high price.
SPEAKER_00: And the one that bought you kind of has a setting with what you do with the thing he purchased.
SPEAKER_00: So I hear you, my guy.
SPEAKER_00: It's your body, but not anymore.
SPEAKER_00: It is not your body, your choice, it is his.
SPEAKER_00: You are his now.
SPEAKER_00: He bought you and you're his.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, honor the Lord with the thing he bought.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that makes sense, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: God bought me.
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: But that's it.
SPEAKER_00: He even doubles down.
SPEAKER_00: This even gets worse.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are like, alright, that's Christianity 101.
SPEAKER_00: I'm God's, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you're actually not just gods, you're the temple.
SPEAKER_00: This is, man, I wish I could read Greek to you right now, but if you if you read the original Greek text, you can put the sentence back up.
SPEAKER_00: The you, the you and what Paul says is plural.
SPEAKER_00: So back, you all, like you rows.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about you, you, you, you, I'm talking about you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a plural you.
SPEAKER_00: But the word temple is singular.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning we make one temple.
SPEAKER_00: The three or four thousand people go to rows.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have four thousand rows churches.
unknown: Right, right.
SPEAKER_00: We have one church with a bunch of you's.
SPEAKER_00: Like, Andrew, why does that even matter?
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, what you do with your body affects the body.
SPEAKER_00: If if we are one.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's are we okay?
SPEAKER_00: So the next time you have sex with someone you should not be having sex with, you should probably think, this is gonna hurt Mike Necker.
SPEAKER_00: You know what, man?
SPEAKER_00: I've gotten really close with these girls I've been serving with, and if I take my body to a place that should not be, I'm not an individual, I'm a temple.
SPEAKER_00: And apparently, apparently, what I do with my body affects the the body.
SPEAKER_00: So apparently it's the most selfish thing a Christian does when they act like I'm not hurting anyone.
SPEAKER_00: If you were an individual, that would be true.
SPEAKER_00: But I hate to break it to you, you're not an individual.
SPEAKER_00: You're a brick in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And when a hand gets sick, it affects the foot.
SPEAKER_00: When an eye gets sick, it affects the jaw.
SPEAKER_00: When a stomach gets sick, it affects the brain.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you you you've bought into the American lie that you are you.
SPEAKER_00: You're an individual.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: No, you are not, friend.
SPEAKER_00: Not anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You are not your own.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, because scripture is a well and offense.
SPEAKER_00: So then the next argument is like, well, who cares if it's not physical?
SPEAKER_00: So, ma'am, you think you posting photos on OnlyFans is not hurting your body?
SPEAKER_00: Well, not sleeping with anyone, they're not even touching me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know them.
SPEAKER_00: They live across the world.
SPEAKER_00: You think just use all the DM photos you send is not hurting you?
SPEAKER_00: And your soul in the body?
SPEAKER_00: I go to strip clothes, I don't touch anyone.
SPEAKER_00: You think it's just a bodily thing?
SPEAKER_00: That it's actually not tearing apart the inner fabric of your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's be brighter than that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is when I split the church.
SPEAKER_00: Umrew, why why why does this this matter?
SPEAKER_00: Last week and this week are significantly important for a big group of people that go to our church.
SPEAKER_00: It's our gay community.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of gay people, gay lesbians that go to our church.
SPEAKER_00: This is not hidden.
SPEAKER_00: I've said this from stage many times.
SPEAKER_00: Myself, our staff, Rose as a body.
SPEAKER_00: We are historical, orthodox believers around sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is I believe two things.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is so archaic, I know.
SPEAKER_00: I believe sex is for marriage, and I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, biblically at all times, forever.
SPEAKER_00: That is our historic orthodox position on sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is for marriage, and marriage is between a man and a woman.
SPEAKER_00: So if the church has the audacity to ask a gay person pursuing Jesus to be celibate and not be in a relationship, but yet we make marriage and orgasms the height of pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: How unfair to hurt a community that's already laid down their life and then remind them marriage is fulfillment and sexuality is the highest form of pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we need a new view of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's so good, but so is singleness.
SPEAKER_00: And sex is awesome, but it's not everything.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is great.
SPEAKER_00: But if, again, back to my question last week, if we think being single is being unfulfilled and unproductive, being like, come on, dude, I just want to have pleasure, let me have sex, then how much pleasure did Jesus miss out on?
SPEAKER_00: We need a higher view of our bodies, of marriage, of singleness, of sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: If we are actually going to hold to Christian orthodoxy and ask an entire community that goes to our church to be single and celibate, it is so harmful to go, you're single, that's really unfortunate.
SPEAKER_00: Married is no, wait, wait, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We can be the most fulfilled, the most productive, the most aligned with God's will, and be single.
SPEAKER_00: Hence last week, and second, people that don't have sex.
SPEAKER_00: What I just said was a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, we are single, married, gay, straight.
SPEAKER_00: Kids, no kids.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone in this room.
SPEAKER_00: If we are seriously pursuing Jesus, what I do and what you do with your body matters to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Brandon O'Brien says in his significant book called Misreading Scripture from with East Western Eyes.
SPEAKER_00: We misread so much of the Bible because we read it with Western eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, all of you together are a singular temple for the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have billions of temples scattered around.
SPEAKER_00: Together, we make the dwelling of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of holiness that Paul is after here is not an individualized kind of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this sentence, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it is a holiness.
SPEAKER_00: This is so good.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sorry.
SPEAKER_00: My bad.
SPEAKER_00: You're not even reading it.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot to get rid of this.
SPEAKER_00: My bad.
SPEAKER_00: He's like staring at me like Brahman know what you are.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is sending all of you together a singular temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have billions of temples scattered around.
SPEAKER_00: Together we make the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of holiness, look at this, friends, the kind of holiness that he's after is not individualized.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, a holistic sense of an entire church together, walking in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm not gonna have a sexuality conversation today, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Elevated a bit more.
SPEAKER_00: We're having our a body conversation.
SPEAKER_00: So all the married folk in the room, are you honoring God with your body?
SPEAKER_00: All the single folk in the room, which is our whole church.
SPEAKER_00: All that means is a lot of opportunities to be holy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to be funny because this is so heavy.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Just imagine an entire church pursuing a collective holiness.
SPEAKER_00: What could we get done?
SPEAKER_00: You want to talk about a kingdom within a city?
SPEAKER_00: That when people get saved, we actually welcome them into another kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I know like what UP did to you and what PSU did.
SPEAKER_00: I know, but like, welcome to our kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: How does it work here?
SPEAKER_00: We collectively honor the Lord with our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're married, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: I have sex with my wife and only my wife.
SPEAKER_00: And where I go matters to my body and hers.
SPEAKER_00: What about those who are single?
SPEAKER_00: They honor the Lord with their body.
SPEAKER_00: Where they go and what they do.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we are one temple.
SPEAKER_00: Pursuing an entire church, walking in holiness together.
SPEAKER_00: This sounds like heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That we can know as a church family and pastoral team that every single person dating within the church is honoring their bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Every married couple is honoring their bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because, friends, God has a lot to say about your body.
SPEAKER_00: What you do with it, who you sleep with, what you smoke.
SPEAKER_00: Elevate this beyond sex, friends.
SPEAKER_00: I mean everything.
SPEAKER_00: What you do with your body matters.
SPEAKER_00: Where you take it, what you put in it, you engage with it, who you go in communion with.
SPEAKER_00: Your body matters, man.
SPEAKER_00: So much more than this world has told you.
SPEAKER_00: And I know there are people in the room right now that are deeply battling shame.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not of God.
SPEAKER_00: Conviction is shame is not.
SPEAKER_00: Because some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Because there have been other people that have used their body to harm yours.
SPEAKER_00: In this room, the five, six hundred people in this room, plus the overflows, plus all those sitting and standing, plus the deck, plus upstairs.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there might be a thousand adults in this building right now.
SPEAKER_00: Just by percentages.
SPEAKER_00: The amount of people in this room that have experienced sexual soul, harm done to your body.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, notice in Genesis chapter 3 the minute sin enters in, Adam and Eve cover their body.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that sin distorted was the view of their own body.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, I know that today is heavy, it's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Because truthfully, some of you need the image of your body renewed in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to be renewed and remained.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may be the first time that you're pretty active sexually.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, this makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there is a reason why I feel certain types of way after I leave one nightstand or another.
SPEAKER_00: What are the apps called?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: One of the apps you swipe left to right.
SPEAKER_00: What is good?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is how old I am, friends.
SPEAKER_00: I got married before Twitter started, so just you know.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, this makes sense because now he's putting words to how I feel after these encounters.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because your body's a temple.
SPEAKER_00: You ever had a sexual encounter where like you just feel like you afterward?
SPEAKER_00: And no matter how many showers you take, it won't wash it away.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like you brought something into a holy place that should have been there.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you're a temple.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the old dude that still believes in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And still believe that God's flourishing is the best flourishing this world has to offer.
SPEAKER_00: A big part of that flourishing is what you do with your body.
SPEAKER_00: So every married person, every single person, all those dating, all those engaged?
SPEAKER_00: What does it be a church that holistically serves the Lord with our bodies?
SPEAKER_00: I'll end here.
SPEAKER_00: Well then who cares though?
SPEAKER_00: I've already had sex a bunch of times before being Christian and after being a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: So why not just keep doing it?
SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't matter now.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it matters a significant amount.
SPEAKER_00: It matters what you're doing now with your body.
SPEAKER_00: As you move into the future relationships, marriage, it would affect you quite a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: If our ministry has been a blessing to you at all, whether through the podcast, online, or through socials, would you consider partnering with us financially to help us continue blessing people and reaching people with the gospel of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to do so, you can go online to rosechurch.orgslash give.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for partnering with us and helping us continue to do what God has put in our hearts here for you.