Thank you, Lord. Let's just stand. I want to pray for the church right now. I want to, if you would just stand with me in prayer.
Lord, we thank you for waking up your bride with adoptive love. Lord, would you transition us as the American church out of being pro-life when we vote, but not pro-life after the baby's born? Lord, would you give us an adoptive heart of love for single parents, for parents that don't have the resources that many of us have? Lord, give us your heart in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated.
We are now in our series on identity. And what we've been doing is we've been tackling what does God say and what is God accomplished as it relates to who we are. And so through Jesus we have been talking about forgiveness, that we've been forgiven, that He's made a covenant with us, that we have all power, all authority, and heaven and earth, like we're talking about in worship because Jesus purchased that for us and gave it to us as a gift. And this covenant to God that's made a covenant with us, that He loves us, that He enjoys us, that He says we're worthy of His whole life being poured out so that we can pour our lives out.
He's made us the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. Because of anything we've done or our works of righteousness, but because of Him laying down His life for us. And so this is all really, really good news. And God doesn't just love the spiritual part of us.
Now it says in Corinthians that He considered us no longer according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit. So Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit see us according to what He's done and what He's accomplished in the Spirit, which is He's made us brand new. He's made us perfectly righteous in the Spirit. So He sees us according to the Spirit.
But what I want to do is tonight, I want to talk about the body. Everybody say, my body, I believe that God has a design for us to actually come into alignment with what His perspective is about our bodies. And a lot of times in the church, we talk about the spiritual things, but we don't talk about our physical frame, our body. And so you can turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 6.
We're talking about the body tonight. We're talking about our earth suit, your frame, your members, what you live in, the part of you that is seen. We're talking about the body. And one of the things that I want to talk about is what is my perspective towards my body.
In some sects of Christianity, what they do is they take very literal, the whole verse in 1 Corinthians 9 that says, beat your body into submission. And literally it's like self-mutilation that they'll do and they'll think that they're actually obeying the Scriptures. And or in some perspectives in the body of Christ, the body is demonized and seen as an enemy. And that we have to deal with the enemy of our body.
And so the question is how do we relate with our physical bodies? Because He sees us according to the Spirit. And we are a spirit. That's our primary identity is that we are spirits.
And we have souls and we live in a body. He's given us that earth suit, right? And so we are three parts. But our primary identity, I want to be clear on this, our primary identity is that we are spirits.
And so when I think about myself, especially before the Lord, I associate myself in my identity according to what He's accomplished in the spirit. And when I get born again, my spirit and the Holy Spirit become one. It's like a marriage that happens. They become one on the inside of me.
So we're going to pick up here in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18. And we're just coming out punching, coming out swinging, not punching, coming out swinging. Gosh, I always mess those things up, don't I? Okay, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, it says this.
Flea from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside of the body. But the sexual and moral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is what?
It's a temple of the Holy Spirit within you. Whom you have from God. You are not your own. For you are bought with a price.
So glorify God in your where? In your body. Paul is writing to a group of believers in Corinth that is in a very similar culture to the culture that we live in today. And it's a culture that says eat, drink, sleep with whoever you want to.
It's not a big deal. It's just a physical thing that's natural. Okay? I don't know if you've ever heard of that.
It's like eat because your body, your stomach is for food and food is for the stomach. Your body is for sex and your sex is for food. That's what it says earlier in the passage. If you look up in verse 12 and 13 and what that passage is saying, it's basically a slogan from the first century in Corinth.
That was something that they said in their culture was the stomach is for food and food is for the stomach. The body is for sex and sex is for the body. And so just do as you please indulge physically in whatever you would like because in the end it's all just going to get destroyed anyway because the physical doesn't really have any value. Only things that are spiritual has eternal significance.
So whatever happens in the physical doesn't really matter. So do whatever you feel like, whatever you think of, go ahead. Enjoy, enjoy any pleasure that you can think of. Just carry it out.
And so the apostle Paul is looking at this and he's hearing stories of people that just gave their life to Jesus that were living in pagan worship. And all of a sudden he starts seeing and hearing these stories that these people are actually going to the temple of Aphrodites and they're sleeping with temple prostitutes. Like followers of Jesus sleeping with temple prostitutes. And he's going, I think I need to address this.
Think I need to write a letter to the Church of Corinth because this isn't in line with my design, right? And the Lord's design. The first thing that he says is that your body is a temple. Now what's a temple?
I'm not talking about the temple of Aphrodites where there's temple prostitutes. He's trying to draw attention to the temple in Jerusalem, the temple of worship, right? And so he says your body is like a temple. And the temple was considered the overlap of heaven and earth where God dwells in heaven and where man dwells in earth.
And they actually come together and there's an overlap of heaven and earth and God starts connecting with his people in the temple. And the temple, what happens in the temple is that there's honor and praise and worship that goes up to God. What happens in the temple is that it's a set apart place. It's a holy place.
Can you imagine? I mean, this is a sacred place, right? If you look at this room, can you imagine inviting a bunch of friends over and having a drunken orgy in this room? Can you imagine that?
No, you can't imagine that because this is a sacred space. This is in our minds. Everybody looks at this room and goes, this is a place of worship. This is a place of encounter.
And the Apostle Paul is saying, that's what your body is like. Your body is a place of encounter. Your body is a place where I encounter you and it's not just a place where I encounter you. It's a place that I choose to dwell inside of it.
Like I come to actually be inside. I take up residence in your body. And it says earlier in the passage, look at this. It says in verse 14, no, verse 13, food is meant for the stomach.
I was quoting that earlier. The stomach for food and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but look at this. But for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
In other words, what he's saying is your body was actually fashioned and designed for God. And a lot of times we're just thinking the body, it just doesn't have very much value. And God's going, no, I designed that body for myself because I have intentions of dwelling inside of your body. When we think about the bodies that God has given us, we actually have to have the revelation.
This is a space of, it's like in time and in space. In my longitude and latitude that I live in is actually a place of encounter. I just want you to get that in your head. He has chosen to make this body a place of an overlap of heaven and earth.
Holy Spirit chose to dwell inside of your frame when you gave your life to Jesus. Imagine this with me. You go over to a friend's house Friday night, you're going to hang out and you arrive and you walk through the door and immediately you smell something. And it's not good.
It's bad. There's a stench when you walk in the room. And right as you walk in the room, you see a couple of rats just run across the entryway and you're like, oh, okay. And you walk in and it just gets worse and worse as you walk in, you start seeing trash all over the floor.
It's like a pile of trash and then there's laundry right next to the pile of trash in the living room and there's stains everywhere in the car and they're into cats. They got lots of cats, but there's just a smell, okay. And for all you cat people are so offended. Listen, they weren't taking care of their cats, okay.
They had some dogs in there too, okay. And they weren't taking their animals out when they need to go to the bathroom and then they weren't doing the dishes for how many months and you went to the bathroom and oh my goodness, they haven't cleaned the toilet and I don't know how long. And then there's a bunch of leftovers probably from months ago. It was a scene, okay.
And sometimes I wonder if we sin against our bodies and we treat our bodies like that house. Where we just go, it doesn't really matter. I'm just gonna do whatever I feel like doing because I don't understand the value of my body. And you start having a conversation with your friend and you just say, hey, we could help you clean these things up maybe.
Let's do a project of cleaning house a little bit. And he might say, you know what, it doesn't really matter because this house, it's actually I know it's gonna go into foreclosure, it's no big deal. And it was only, I only paid 50,000 for it. And so yeah, I know it's gonna get repossessed, but I have a father that he's gonna, he's gonna, actually he's gonna move into this new city in the new Jerusalem.
He's gonna, it's in the Middle East. And so I've got this body right now or I've got this house right now, but I'm gonna get something new in the future. It doesn't really matter what happens here. And then the Lord is going in verse 20, he's saying, you were bought at a price.
And do you know what that price was? That price was infinity. Can you imagine going up to your friend and saying, no, I looked at your Zillow report. Bro, this house is a $50 million house.
And they're going, no, no, it's $50 million. No, it's $50 million. Don't look it up. It's $50 million.
Do you know how you take care of a $50 million house? That toilet gets clogged and you unclog it, okay? That dishwasher needs, that dishwasher needs empty and you empty that dishwasher. There's rodents in the house and you call the exterminator.
You call the exterminator, okay? And you start caring for it. Why? Because it has value.
And the Lord is saying, your body has value to me. And it's not just small value. It's not just a little bit. You know, it has infinite value.
And we actually have to align ourselves with the Lord and go, my body has infinite value to him. I am body, soul, and spirit. And what's tied into the gospel is that you purchase my body. My body is yours.
My body is the Lord. And so what the Lord is inviting us into is a revelation about his opinion of the body. You know that he likes bodies. He delights in bodies so much so that he said, I am going to live in a body forever.
That is fascinating to me. Lord, you like bodies so much that you decided you're going to live in one forever. And that you're not just going to choose to live in one forever. You're actually going to choose to surround yourself with bodies forever.
So you're not just going to live in a body, but you're deciding I want to be around people that have hair and eyes and fingers and hands and legs forever. He likes bodies a lot. He surrounds himself with bodies. And oftentimes we look at it like, yeah, I don't really like my body.
And there's insecurity. And we've looked at what culture says about our bodies or the color of our skin or whatever. And we've actually resented elements of our body. And the Lord is going, oh, I love your body.
When I see your body, I delight in your body. And I think it's beautiful. I think it's handsome. When I see your body, oh, it's a handsome body.
What is actually calling us into alignment to see ourselves the way that he sees us. There's something beautiful with God's creativity that he said, you're going to be one of one. There's not going to be anyone like you in all of history. How many of you own NFTs?
Just raise your hand high. Is there anyone in the house? Zach, okay. I only have two in the house and I was the one.
Okay. No, oh, yeah. I own an NFT. I've already lost money on it.
Okay. I lost money on it too because I got them into it. Okay. But you just wait, we're holding on.
We're holding on. Once that metaverse takes off. Okay. Now listen, the thing about NFTs is the whole idea is that there's one of one.
It's unique. Okay. And it's like the Mona Lisa is unique. There's only one Mona Lisa.
And you can make copies of the Mona Lisa. You can sell them in stores for $10. You can do all of that stuff. But we all know there's only one Mona Lisa, right?
And what I want us to acknowledge is that we all know that there's only one of you. Have you ever looked at your eye? I don't know if you've done this before. Where you look at your eye and I'm not saying when you're crying or something like that.
Some of you are like, yeah, sometimes one time I was crying and I looked at myself in the mirror. I don't know. It's don't. Okay.
That's a little interesting. Okay. But I'm saying when you're emotionally stable, look in the mirror. And I want you to look at your iris.
Okay. I want you to look at your eye and notice how intricate it is and know that there's no eye in all of history that is like your iris. It's a one of one eye. All right.
Your fingerprints. Maybe you're in school or maybe a police station. I don't know where you had to look at your fingerprints. Okay.
But they're the only fingerprints like them in all of history. Your voice has these total qualities. It's the only one. It's a one of one voice that you have.
And you know what I've discovered about rare things? Rare things are valuable. If there's a unique rare thing, it has so much value. It's expensive.
Rare things are expensive. You can get a run of a mill piece of artwork at Target or Marshals or wherever. But the Mona Lisa, it's rare. You are rare.
You are unique. And the Lord's looking at you and going, man, you don't understand how valuable you really are, how valuable even your frame is to me. Then he goes, you know what? I co-signed on your house.
So he's going, I thought your house was so valuable. You're talking to your friend and you're going, don't you realize that your dad co-signed on the house? He took the risk and put that on his credit because he knew the value of it. It wasn't going to be worth 50,000.
He's going, I'm taking a risk on this property because I know it's so valuable. It's 50 million. And so you're actually owned. You got purchased at a price.
And so you have a co-signing situation. You are both owners of your temple. It says that he purchased you at a price and he didn't just purchase you. But then he said, I'm going to take up residence in you and I'm going to be a tenant in your house.
And so you are hosting him on the inside of you. He's a tenant. Whoa. I don't even, I don't have a joke.
All right. Okay. So he's co-signed for your body. It has value.
I'm going to take up residence in your body and I want you to glorify me in your body. I want you to make much of me in your body. I want you to magnify me in your body because the body is for me. And I think there's a tendency for some of us where we've actually been sinning against our body.
Did you see that in the passage? It says that, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? And right before that says, some of us have been sinning against our own bodies in verse 18. There's actually ways where you can sin against God, you can sin against people, but you can actually sin against your own body.
And I believe the Lord is calling us out of sinning against our bodies. Whether it be with sexual immorality, like in the passage it says, or maybe you've been sinning against your body because you are struggling with self-hatred. Or maybe there's addiction and you've been feeding your body substances. Or maybe you're addicted to over exercising and you're beating your body and you actually need to stop because you're not being kind and loving your body well.
Some of us are just feeding our body whenever we want to deque you blizzard. We just go to deque. Okay? And I'm the Lord's correcting me.
You know, he's like, hey, I know that weakness, that vice of yours that you want that hot fudge, cocoa, blizzard with Oreo. And then he's going like, hey, let's reel it in, buddy. And let's not sin against your body and just give your body whatever it wants whenever it wants it. Sometimes what happens is we need to begin to relate with our bodies like a parent relates with a child.
Okay? We need to relate with our bodies the way a good parent would relate with a child. What would that look like? Sometimes in a bad parenting child relationship, there's a parent will give the child anything that they want whenever they complain.
So if you start complaining, I'll give you what you want, right? Sometimes we give our, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to just relate this to the body and you can connect the dots of how this happens in parenting. Sometimes we give our bodies whatever it wants when it complains. Sometimes we are inconsistently resting our bodies where it's like, hey, you're going to go to bed at 1 a.m.
that night and then you're not going to actually, you're going to work till late at night and you're not actually going to rest your body and your body's going, hey, I can't do this anymore. And you actually need to provide consistency. Do you know what the best way for children to feel love is through consistency? And some of us need to just get on a schedule, set an alarm clock, send an alarm clock for bedtime.
Sometimes some of us need to just like put our phones to sleep so that we can go to sleep, right? Put a screen in front of it when they're upset. Sometimes parents are just like, I don't know how to deal with these emotions. I'm just going to put a screen in front of the child.
Sometimes we're emotionally struggling and we're feeling overwhelmed and we can't deal with it so we just put a screen in front of our face. We just put a screen in front of our face just to medicate what we don't want to face. And the Lord is going, hey, I want to get invited into all of those little spaces. Your body is longing for something more.
Your body is longing for connection in that space. Some of us are not disciplining our bodies ever. Can you imagine a home where a child is never disciplined and the child just runs the home? That's a chaotic home.
That is a chaotic home and it's not a loving home. And I want to encourage you to know that disciplining your body is actually a thing of the Lord. To actually bring some discipline and boundaries around your body is actually wisdom according to the Lord. And so I'm going to say, I'm going to discipline my body so that my body can be under self control.
And so we get to actually follow in the footsteps of Paul and go, I'm going to discipline my body because that's a way that I can love my body. It's just like in Hebrews when the writer of Hebrews says, you are a child if you're disciplined by the Father in heaven. You're a son of God if you receive discipline. And what discipline is is training.
It's like leadership. We've got to lead our bodies. We've got to train our bodies and some of us have trained our bodies to just indulge all the time whenever we feel like and do whatever we feel like doing. And the Lord is going, there's a better way.
There's a better way. And then lastly, sometimes what happens is we shame our bodies. Can you imagine speaking identity phrases over children? Like you're not enough.
You're too big. You're too small. You're a brat. You always have a bad attitude and we just start shaming our bodies.
We stand in front of the mirror and internally we're shaming our bodies. And the Lord is going, would you agree with my opinion? Would you actually align yourself with my statements and my truths? Look at how valuable you are.
Look at the worth of that $50 million home called your body, your priceless dwelling place, the place of encounter, the place of the overlap, the place of worship and glory. It's your frame. Turn your Bibles to Romans 8. Romans 8 is very thick.
But what I want to do is I want to remind us that our bodies are not to be in charge, just like a child is not supposed to be in charge of a home. Our spirits are actually the ones that call the shots. And just as in a home, there's a parent that is the leader in our house, in our temples, spirit is the one that is the royalty and they're the ones that call the shots. So I want you to pick up in Romans 8 verse 5, it says this.
For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
And indeed it cannot. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. And then it continues in verse 12, so then brothers, we are not deaders, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.
For if we live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death, the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you do not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, father. And so what this passage is talking about is that there is a lifestyle and it is a kingdom lifestyle.
Okay? And how the kingdom lifestyle works is when there is a temptation. It is just like if a child is struggling and they feel like there is something that they need, you know, it is like I need screens, right? Some of us if you are a parent and your kid is like plays video games or watches TV or whatever and it is like I need to watch TV.
I need to play a video game. And in that moment you get to actually redirect that child and go that is what you want, but it might not be what you need. And sometimes our bodies, we have trained our bodies to think that they need things when they are actually not needs, their desires or wants. Okay?
And sometimes we have trained our bodies for a long time to react in certain ways. So when there is pain, then I go to some type of vice and that is what I need. But as parents in the spirit, we partner with the spirit and go, I am going to have my mind on things of the spirit and I am going to align myself with the Holy Spirit and go, Lord, what do you think? Because there is a partnership in parenting.
I want to say this clearly. Remember that you become one spirit with the Holy Spirit. So now there is a co-parenting situation. There is a marriage that is happened.
So now there is a mom and a dad in the house and there is a mutual submission where you are submitting to the leadership of the Holy Spirit internally and you are going, Holy Spirit, what do you think about the scenario? Is that what I need or is it what I want and what do you have in mind? And then you redirect your body to something that is good for your body in partnership with the Holy Spirit. This isn't sin management.
It's not sin management. Your Christian life is not sin management. Your Christian life of following Jesus is not about not sinning. And when I talk about the body, it's not about don't sin and don't do bad things and stop with the sexual immorality even though you should stop it.
If you need to stop it from a parent, let me just encourage you to stop it. I'm just going to follow in the footsteps of Paul and just say, stop it now. You can stop if you want to. All right.
I'll move on. But what I'm trying to say is your life in God is not about not sinning. It's about connection with God. And so when your body is tempted by whatever it is, it's vice is or whatever impulses it has, it's an opportunity not to white knuckle your life, but to turn it into connection with God as your spouse in the spirit and you get to go, how do you want to approach this right now?
Okay. And what happens is we do need to listen to our bodies just as a parent. How many of you have ever had a baby and the baby is crying? Raise your hand if you've had a baby in your arms and the baby is crying.
Okay. And if you're an inexperienced parent, what you'll do is you'll kind of turn into a panic because the baby's crying. But when you're an experienced parent, you learn and you realize that's their only way of communicating. So they're actually crying because they're trying to communicate something.
And as we interact with our bodies, we actually have to listen to our bodies because oftentimes our bodies are communicating things to us. If you're having an anxiety attack, your body is actually communicating that there's trauma that's happened in the past and your body is actually getting triggered into acting or experiencing that trauma again physically. But it's this response of my body is either going into flight or it's going into fight. And that's what is happening in an anxiety attack is that body is experiencing the trauma in that moment.
And so as that trauma is happening, you're asking your body by the power of the Holy Spirit, what do you need right now? Holy Spirit is here, the Father is here, and what do you need right now? And if you're able to, you get to invite God into the moment and into a space of connection. Sometimes we actually have to listen to our bodies and then respond.
Okay. If you're tired, you can go to sleep. You can turn off the phone and you can go to sleep. Okay.
Sometimes our bodies are not feeling well because we've been feeding on things that are not good for it. And you can change how you're eating with the Holy Spirit. You can do that with him. And it doesn't have to be in anxiety and anxiousness and fear of man and fear of all the other stuff.
It can actually be in connection with the Lord and go, I'm going to welcome you into it. Holy Spirit, I know that it's not by my might or by my power, but it's by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I need your help to parent my body. Some of us have to just enter into a season of discipline or fleeing some of these issues that are waging war against us.
I just want you to know you have permission to throw the substances in the drugs away. If you're looking for permission, you have permission to do it. If you're looking for permission to throw the blades away, you have permission. If you're looking for permission to break up because of the dysfunctional relationship, you have permission to break up.
If you're looking for permission to un-download the app, you have permission. You're free to un-download the app that's causing destruction in your life. If you want to, you can be free from that. And the Holy Spirit is going, let's do it together.
Let's not have shame and guilt and condemnation, so you're all feeling all sorts of ways that you can just actually line up with me. Let's do it together. Okay? Man, I'm so glad we don't have to have shame and guilt and cover up the way Adam and Eve did in shame with him.
We get to be fully vulnerable and go, man, you get it all. You understand, right? Joe, you can come up or Stephen, I don't know if Joe's in the house. He's on alignment that we're stepping into.
What I want us to do is I want us to respond to this message about the body being something that the Lord values. And he thinks it's an instrument of worship. It's this tool, it's this building that we live in that gets to be a space that results in glory to him. And we get to invite him into a conversation right now about our bodies.
Are you guys ready to write down some questions? We believe that this is an introspective Christianity, so we don't just hear a good message and then go on and live our lives as if we were never here. Okay? We actually get to be like James one where we are here as of the word and then we get to be doers of the word.
Okay? And we get to actually apply it to our lives. Okay? So we're going to start a conversation with Holy Spirit.
You can write this question down in your phone or journal or whatever you want to write down on. Okay? There's a couple questions that we're going to engage with Holy Spirit on. First question is this.
How is my body doing? Holy Spirit, how is my body doing? This is not self-examination. It's a conversation with Holy Spirit where he's going to give commentary on how your body is doing.
He's got insight. Okay? So Holy Spirit, how is my body doing? Second question.
Are you guys ready for the second question? Give me a yes. Okay. The second question is Holy Spirit, is there a lie that I've been believing about my body?
Is there a lie that I've been believing about my body? And then that sub-question is what's the truth? Is there a lie that I've been believing about my body and what's the truth? Some of us are going to feel overwhelmed.
They maybe feel like there's so many lies and the Lord is just going to help you and he's just going to expose one lie so it can get uprooted with truth. Holy Spirit, is there a lie I'm believing and what's the truth to replace that lie? And then the last question is, is there a next step that you have for me? Is there a next step?
Is there an application? I don't know how you want to word that where it feels authentic, but how do we move forward? How do we move forward, Holy Spirit? So what we're going to do is let's all stand to our feet and we're going to take five minutes or so and we're just going to spread out.
If you want to get some space, you can spread out throughout the room and we're just going to dialogue with Holy Spirit. So if you want to spread out throughout the room, sit on the ground somewhere, sit in the aisles. If you don't want to just stay put, you can just stay seated where you're at. So stand up, sit down wherever you want to.
Jesus, we thank you that you were the one that designed our bodies. And Lord, we thank you that you put so much value on our body. Lord, we thank you that we are all one of one and unique and that you actually want to give us revelation around how we can interact with our bodies as we are Spirit that have souls that live in a body. Lord, give us revelation of how we're to interact with our bodies as they are temples, as they are earth suits, help us to actually have our earth suits and our bodies glorify you and magnify you.
Thank you, Lord. You can just dialogue with the Holy Spirit around those questions. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.
So glorify God and your body. Don't you know that your body is sacred in a space of encounter? Don't you know that your body is the overlap of heaven and earth as Holy Spirit has taken up residence and become a tenant? You're not your own.
There's someone that's purchased you at the highest price that could ever be paid. You have so much value, even your body has so much value. So glorify and magnify and make much of God in your body. God is inviting us into loving our body as well with the partnership of Holy Spirit.
We don't give our body whatever it wants, whatever it wants it, but we parent and guide and train and discipline our body in partnership with Holy Spirit. Our body needs to know that it isn't in charge and that the Holy Spirit and our spirit is the leader. Our body is the child and our body is neutral. Our body is neutral and it depends on how we parent and train and disciple and discipline our body on the trajectory of if it brings glory to God or if it doesn't.
We get to have compassion when our body is struggling and kindness leads to repentance. Kindness leads to changing the way that we think and we're stepping out of pointing our fingers and accusation at our body and guiding our body into healing in partnership with the Holy Spirit. When our bodies think that it needs something that's bad for it, we redirect our body into something that's good for it in partnership with the Holy Spirit. When we have an opportunity to fall into temptation, we are not led away by our desires, but we flee from temptation and we remove temptations because that is what is good and pleasing for our bodies and we keep our minds stayed on things that are above.
We get to honor Him with our bodies. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand.
When I commission us out, there's going to be people up front up at the altar after the service that would love to pray with you if you want to receive prayer for anything after the service. They'd love to pray with you. We've got men's prayer tomorrow morning just going to get after it as a group of men. I love that we had just a whole spectrum of men that showed up last week.
So you're welcome to join us at 7 AM and then we've got tomorrow night, Divo sets and then class on Wednesday night. It's going to be good. The redemption and reconciliation and restoration that Ellie's going to talk about and then prayer room and youth is just going to be awesome. Go and enjoy your community this week, your community.
So many of you are part of community. Our community is good. Our community is just awesome this season. So just make sure to be consistent, your community so you can pursue God together with your tribe.
Jesus, Lord, I thank you that you have brought freedom to us and that you have set us free from sin and death. And Jesus, we thank you that you purchased us at a high price. Lord, I thank you that you made me unique and thank you for my body. I'm so thankful that you designed my body.
You designed my body so that you could dwell inside of me as a temple of the Holy Spirit. And I'm so happy that my body gets to walk places and drive in a car, places and I get to walk into work with a temple that has God on the inside. Lord, I thank you that I get to glorify you with my body and I get to keep my mind focused on things of the Holy Spirit and not gratify the less of the flesh because I'm so yes to you, driven and so God and heavenly driven that I won't even have to think about sin management. Lord, I thank you for freedom that you've given me.
It's so good to be free in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. Have an awesome week. We just commission you out as messengers of the gospel in Minneapolis and St.
Paul.