weekly sermon

     1-20-08

Price Check Please!

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6:13-17; 19-20. 1 Corinthians 6:13, "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body [is] not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. (14)And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. (15)Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make [them] the members of an harlot? God forbid. (16)What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. (17)But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (19)What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (20)For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

If you look we see it says that God has made food for appetite and appetite for food, yet He has not made the body for immoral acts, "but for the Lord". We see that God raised Jesus up and He will raise us up that we may live and serve Him forever. We find that our bodies are the members of Christ. It shows us that we are not to fall into the temptation of the flesh but we are to stand in the spirit. If we are in the flesh we are in sin and if we are in Christ then we are in one spirit.

If any of you have children or been around them, then you will understand this next story. I have a 3 year old son who, I would say, is like any other child his age. One night during supper he was sitting at the dining room table with his brother, his mother, and myself, having dinner. Earlier that evening he had a drink that had sweated and left a puddle of water next to where his mother set his plate. During dinner he kept playing with that puddle instead of eating. Well needless to say his mother and I had to keep reprimanding him to leave the puddle alone and finish eating his dinner. His older brother reached over with his napkin and wiped up the puddle, saying "here, this will keep you from being tempted".

I thought about that story for a bit and realized that, just like that, his brother had taken him out of the path of temptation so that he would not be in trouble. Just as his brother took temptation from him, our Father in Heaven leads us from temptation. If we fall into temptation then our minds are in the flesh and not in the spirit. If we are to truly know what it is like to be like Christ, that we may serve Him as we should, then we are to avoid temptation and keep our minds in the spirit.

His brother not only took temptation from him, he showed a soft heart to keep his brother from trouble, and he saved him from a spanking from either myself or his mother. God not only takes the temptation from us, He also shows us compassion and love, and saves us from eternal fire that we may live forever with Him.

We should have comfort in knowing that, just as it says in verse 20, we are bought with a price. We should check that price and know that we were bought with the price of the blood of our saviour Jesus Christ.

We look up at a clear night sky and see a vast darkness littered with a few billowing clouds engulfed with a field of stars. What are we in such a beautiful picture? We are children created by God and bought with the blood of Christ.

We belong to a loving God that created us to serve Him. The only way to serve God is to avoid temptation and stay in the graces of our saviour. We MUST know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are saved by grace of God and bought by the blood of Christ.

1 Peter 3:18, states, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit..." This shows that we were bought for a price, a price that can not be compared to anything. The death of a Son and the resurrection of a spirit, that we may live.

If you are not sure if you are saved and would like to know then please say a simple prayer with me.

Dear Lord, come into my life and forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.

If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.

 

With Love in Christ,

Pastor Stone