Our Bodies, Sexuality, and Glorifying God | Rev. Paul Lawler

What does it mean to glorify God with your body? In a world of distorted freedom and personal truth, this message from 1 Corinthians 6 offers a bold, beautiful vision of sex, identity, and the sacredness of our bodies.

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In 1 Corinthians 6:12–20, Paul confronts the Corinthian church's confusion about sexuality, freedom, and the human body. Surrounded by a culture steeped in immorality, these early believers needed a fresh understanding of what it meant to glorify God with their bodies. This sermon explores Paul’s warning against twisting Christian liberty, rationalizing sin, and misusing what God calls sacred. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and purchased at a high price. Believers are called to flee sexual immorality, not just avoid it, and live into their redeemed identity. Because in Christ, our freedom isn’t for self-indulgence, but for a sacred purpose.

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Chapters

• 0:21 Introduction to Body and Sexuality
• 21:58 The Gift and Danger of Sexuality
• 27:04 Fleeing Sexual Immorality
• 34:50 Lessons from Corinthian Culture
• 40:08 Closing Prayer and Reflection

Transcript

[0:18] We're in our next section of our series on the book of 1 Corinthians. Today, we're going to talk about our body, sexuality, and glorifying God. Now that I have your attention, let's read verses 12 through 20. You want to open your Bible journey there. That's just helpful. Study to show yourself approved before God, the scripture says. So hear the word of God. Paul writes this, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

[1:27] Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 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 in your body. So I know we just prayed, but I think on every Sunday we need God's help. But I would say on this one, we need God's help. Let's pray. Jesus.

[2:02] The scripture affirms we're weak vessels and we do not compare in any way to an infinite God. And we honor you as we pray that. So we pray that in our human weakness, that you would demonstrate your infinite power, your infinite love, your infinite and eternal truths. And we recognize that all of it is rooted, God, in your preference for all of us as we're developed into the image of Jesus. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

[2:39] Now, as we dive in this morning, I need to remind you of some things about the city of Corinth because they're highly relevant to obviously to what the apostle Paul teaches here. First of all, Corinth as a city was given over to the worship of sex. That's not unlike some of the dynamism of Western culture as well. Corinth was known for the temple called the Temple of Aphrodite, who happened to be the goddess of sex. So every evening, a thousand or more priestesses would come down from the Temple of Aphrodite that stood on a hill on the edge of Corinth and would move into the city streets. And these temple prostitutes would ply their trade. Corinth was also a port city, and sailors and tourists and citizens were known for sexual promiscuity in the city of Corinth.

[3:35] Modern historians also have found that we need to clarify some important matters around this. For starters, all of Aphrodite's prostitutes were not willing participants. Many were slaves that were purchased by wealthy Greek financiers, and they dedicated these persons to Aphrodite as a goddess. So what we recognize is that many of the prostitutes were victims of human trafficking. Regardless, sexual promiscuity was highly accepted in Corinth. It was even esteemed in Corinthian culture as it is in parts of Western culture today.

[4:20] When Paul writes this letter to Corinth, the church is relatively new. She's a few years old. And so the church coming out of Corinthian culture still had some of the old thought patterns that were conditioned by Corinthian culture, as well as some of the behaviors of human sexuality. And that's why Paul is addressing this in the address to the church at Corinth. We also recognize that as he devotes this section, I've said it a couple of times, I'm going to say it again.

[4:54] This is highly relevant for Western culture, highly relevant for the church of Jesus Christ in Western culture. And so what we're going to do for a few minutes is I'm going to lift up the four major themes that Paul addresses to the Corinthians that he wants them to understand about God's gift of human sexuality. So we're going to dive in right here on the front end with the first arena. Here it is. Paul first instructs them, don't twist the meaning of Christian liberty. Don't twist the meaning of Christian liberty. Now, let's look at verse 12 together. He says this, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Now, you may notice if you have your Bible open or you're looking at the text on the screen, that the phrase, all things are lawful for me are in quotes. Here's a question. Who's he quoting?

[6:00] Normally in the New Testament, when you see something in quotes, it's a quote from the Old Testament, but not this time. Who's he quoting? He's quoting them. That the Corinthian church has begun to say things like, hey, you know, we're no longer under the old covenant. We now, Jesus Christ has bled and died for our sins. So we really can, you know, we can live it up a little bit because we're not under law. And so what he's doing is he's quoting them because they're abusing and twisting scripture in order to live in a way that's not honoring to God. And so this is why he's talking about their need to understand the intent of what's in Scripture. And that's why he quotes, everything's permissible, we are free from the law. So they're saying that as they're declaring everything's permissible, we're free from the law, we can do whatever we want, do whatever we like. We recognize that this is old as the book of Genesis. This is exactly what the enemy of our souls did with Adam and Eve, is that the enemy of our souls, took a truth, and just twisted it a little bit. That's exactly what Jesus encountered when Satan tempted him in the wilderness. He would put a truth before Jesus.

[7:18] He would quote Scripture, but he would twist the Scripture just a little bit. Did God really say? Or take a Scripture and just not apply it in its right context? And so I'm going to say this a couple of times today, but is it not true that there's nothing new under the sun? This still happens. It was happening then and happening now. So the Corinthians would talk about the freedom that they had in Christ. They would say, hey, everything is permissible. We're free from the law. Do whatever you like, whatever's right in your own eyes. And Paul starts challenging them and affirming that Christian liberty is only liberty when it's balanced between two extremes. Now, what we mean by that is that the Corinthians were reasoning that the law is extreme. Now, let's get real for a moment.

[8:12] It is. It is. Now, before you accuse me of being heretical, let me explain that. The law is extreme. It makes a rigid demand on all of our lives, and nobody can live up into it. When you begin to understand the impact of the law of Moses as well as the Ten Commandments, we are aware that they're so easily and often broken, And we're also aware there has been no individual in all of history or present among us today that has lived a life where they did not break one or more or all of the commands of Scripture. And there's only one person who's lived it, and his name is Jesus Christ. And so we recognize there is a sense in which the law is extreme. You're right. But what Paul reasons with them is that license is also extreme, and we need to understand that because it is extreme that we're not called to live with just absolute license. And so feeling that the reaction to being under the law and is to be free from the law and doing whatever you think is right, Paul says, that too is extreme, and you've lost your liberty, Corinthian church, when you begin to think that way. And so that's why he's quoting them. All things are lawful, but he also says.

[9:38] All things are not helpful. And the moment your liberty begins to hurt you or hurt somebody else, you've fallen into license and you are now entangled and dominated by sin. And Paul notes this. Now, he's going to explain why, and we're going to get there. So, but he begins by don't twist the meaning of Christian liberty, which he then builds into this.

[10:05] Secondly, don't embrace a false rationalization that sets you up for deception. Don't embrace a false rationalization that sets you up for deception. Now, notice what he says in verse 13. Food is meant for the stomach and stomach for the food. Now, what? What? I mean, what is he talking about? Well, we'll get to that. Food is meant for the stomach, stomach for the food. God will destroy both and the other. that the body's not meant for sexual immorality before the Lord and the Lord for the body. And so when he says this, the Corinthians were rationalizing sexuality or sexual immorality by comparing it to the biological act of eating. And so that's why he says food's meant for the stomach, stomach for the food, is that he's pointing out that they have reduced human sexuality and its expression to simply like, well, my body has needs just like eating food. So, and they're rationalizing it in a way where this works for me. This is my truth. It works in this way. So they would say food for the stomach, stomach for the food. And in other words, they were saying that just as eating and digesting food have no bearing on our spirituality, neither does sex. It's just physical. So that was how they were rationalizing. Now, I want to say this once again, nothing new under the sun.

[11:33] Tenderly, there have been times in decades of ministry when I've had a couple sitting in my office or an individual sitting in my office, and they've crossed a boundary sexually. It's caused great harm. There's a ripple effect in their life or their family.

[11:54] And early on, before God begins to give the grace of a godly sorrow, what Paul described in 2 Corinthians, you will hear sometimes a person rationalize. It's just sex. It's just physical. And Paul is reasoning that that's not true. There's more to it than that. And we recognize, particularly in Western culture, and we see the relevancy of this passage because people justify all kinds of behavior by thinking in this way. This is just sex, or this works for me, or sometimes people reason, this is my truth, but you have a truth that you live by. I have a truth I live by, but this is my truth that I live by. In other words, it's like, in other words, trying to determine some type of ethic is like nailing jello to the wall works for one thing works for you. Another thing works for an individual. Listen to this quote from Leslie Newbigin. He said, the relativism, which is not willing to speak about truth, but only about what is true for me, is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is a mark of the tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture, and it's a preliminary symptom of death.

[13:12] And that's true because there is one truth. And the scripture declares that the wages of missing the truth, the wages of living outside the truth, the wages of sin. That's what missing the truth is. The word sin is the Greek word amartia. It means to miss the mark.

[13:30] The wages of sin is death. And that's not an exaggeration by Leslie Newbigin at all. But Paul knew what these Corinthian believers were living by and what they were living by wasn't true. And he wanted desperately for them to also understand why. Not just to declare, hey, here's the standard in God because he's holy, because God said so. But he wanted them to understand why. So he agrees with them that food for the stomach is a temporary thing for our bodies, and it's important to God. But he also wants them to understand that they are sacred to God, sacred to their maker. And so this carries great meaning, which brings us to the third area Paul introduces into them so they have understanding. Here it is.

[14:21] Understand the sacredness of our bodies. Understand the sacredness of our bodies. Can I make it personal? Understand the sacredness of your body. And that is phraseology you don't hear very often, but look at the scripture with me. Verse 13, the body is not meant for sexual immorality. Now that root word for immorality is the Greek word porneia. It's where we get the word pornography. It's a reference to any expression of sexuality that's outside the boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman. And so it covers the whole gamut. And so the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And so let me ask you a question. This is random. I want to confess or not confess, but just validate that. This is a random question. Any of you ever seen the picture, you may have seen it in person, of Michelangelo's depiction of Adam? You've seen that. You've seen pictures of that. Let me ask you a question. Why did Michelangelo paint Adam naked? Why? Was it because he was depicting Adam before the fall? Was that the reason? Or is there something more?

[15:44] And I would submit to you, there actually is something more. There's a reason he did that. I'm always reminded when we look back in history, let's all be mindful, there are brilliant people in history. C.S. Lewis often reminds us that we're not to look back at the people who've gone before with chronological snobbery. We recognize that the people who've gone before, there are many brilliant people. Michelangelo, with the revelation from Scripture and input from theologians at the time, painted Adam naked because there is a correlation between spirituality and physicality.

[16:25] Spirituality and physicality are interrelated. You have a physical reality. God created you as an embodied person, and your physical capacity reflects the image of the one that created you. You are made in the image of God. You have a physical capacity that reflects the image of God. This is why your body is holy. You have a relational capacity that reflects the image of God. You have a moral capacity that reflects the image of God, that he's restoring in you through your relationship with Jesus Christ. And Paul teaches that the body that is made in the image of God is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Listen to this quote from Dr. Timothy Tennant, a theologian. As Christians, we understand that the human body is not merely a biological category, but the body is supremely a theological category designed for God's revelatory and saving purposes. Your body is sacred.

[17:32] Paul wanted the Corinthian church to understand this, to take on the understanding that your body carries eternal consequences, what you do with it, and God has designed you to live with intentional impact in the way that you steward your body. Your relationship with Jesus Christ is an embodied relationship. Your body is made in the image of God. God came to us through a body in the person of Jesus Christ, which is the very knot that ties the reality of earth with heaven. And it's your body that will one day be resurrected. Our bodies are interrelated with the fullness of who God has made us to be. Our spirit is embodied. Our heart is embodied. Our minds are embodied. Our emotions are embodied. And we are taught that our bodies are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit for the believer. And Paul wanted the Corinthian church and God through his word today wants us to view this reality with the understanding that we are to glorify God with our bodies. That should be our mindset as well. And so the question for us in light of the substance that we just covered is the following for you to consider. Here it is.

[18:53] When you are making a decision regarding how you steward your body, the question, the relevant question is this. Will this bring glory to God?

[19:05] In fact, this is exactly what the Apostle Paul teaches later in 1 Corinthians 10, which we will get to in a couple of years, when he says.

[19:16] So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. This is a thing that we see running from Genesis to Revelation so profoundly that Christ Methodist Church chose at the beginning of our mission statement to put this phrase in there. We exist as the body of Christ. We exist to first glorify God. And that's what we see emanating from these passages, to glorify God with our lives, to glorify God with our bodies. Now look with me in verses 15 and 16. Paul says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh. Now, note what Paul's doing here. Note what God is saying to us. Paul's argument is more than simply protecting marriage vows. It is that, and we should make much of that, but it's more than that. It's more than an admonition against adultery. It is that, but it's much more than that. Paul's question that he's asking the church at Corinth, and he's asking us.

[20:39] Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? And what he's pointing out is that the holiness and sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, which emanated out of the heart of God, is not only horizontal. It's not only relational. It's not just a guard against adultery. It's also vertical in nature. And that is, as he says in verse 17, whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. And so what we recognize is that the body is not merely for fulfilling appetites. What we recognize is that you are significant as an embodied person. Your body matters because your body is for the Lord, 1 Corinthians 6, 13. Your body is destined to be raised, 1 Corinthians 6, 14. Your body is a member of Christ, 1 Corinthians 6, 15-17. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6, 18-19. Your body was purchased at a price, 1 Corinthians 6, 20. And your body is made for the royal purposes of glorifying God. Again, in 1 Corinthians 6.20. Ha!

[21:58] I think all of us know, Fire is a gift when it's used properly. When fire is in the fireplace, it warms you, okay? It warms you. It's redemptive. Redemptive. It's a gift. But when fire burns outside the fireplace and burns a house down or burns a city down, fire is dangerous. Sex and sexuality is a gift from a loving God, a gift. But the biblical view of sex is that it's a union between one man and one woman in marriage. But great harm can take place when sex moves outside the gift of God's guardrails. And look, it's not complicated. We all know that. Just think.

[22:47] Think about the pain that adultery causes. Think about the wounded spouse. Think about what happens in broken marriages and the financial impact. Think about the impact on children. Think about it. We understand that. Outside the guardrails, brokenness, pain, diminishing of human flourishing. We know the research. Some of you have read Tim Keller's book, The Meaning of Marriage, and some of you have seen the research on couples that live together before they get married, that statistically they face challenges as they move forward in the years ahead because it diminishes by virtue of how they went about their relationship. It diminishes the capacity of their understanding of marriage as covenant, and it creates some challenges. And you can read that research. It's a simple Google search, I would say. But God honoring sex is far more personal and healthy and beautiful and uniting and far nobler because the research says that the persons who were most satisfied and most sexually fulfilled are persons who are in a covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. Would you like to Google that right now? I would ask, if you will, wait till after the service.

[24:10] Can I take a moment and I want, this is a little, this is sort of not in the notes. I'm just taking some liberty here. First of all, I want to say to those that are single in the room, that as we navigate these passages, we're not idolizing marriage and family because I want you to know if you're single, you're highly valued. You need to know that. You're highly valued in this church family. And I say that not only because you're loved, but based upon biblical revelation, let's remember Jesus was single. Singleness is valued. Let's remember the apostle Paul was single. We recognize singleness. We have pictures of that in scripture. And I just want to take a moment and just say, you know, we honor you. But at the same time, if I could take a moment and give some advice to married couples. And this is so simple. I know that. But here it is. The grass is greener where you water it.

[25:19] And when you face temptation in your life, and we're going to deal with that a little bit later in the message. I'm getting ahead of myself. But when you face temptation, one of the ways to battle temptation is to recognize that all other green grass is somebody else's brown grass. But water, water the grass. Does that make sense as a metaphor without Pastor Paul getting it? I don't need, you get it. You get it.

[25:49] Date once a week, escape once a year. Spend time with your spouse. And what's most important, the most important things in your life with your spouse, other than the Lord, is open communication. Men, let her into your world, okay? He may not feel like talking the moment he gets home from the office, and you may not either. But after you settle in, it's important that you open up and let each other into your world. Talk about your day. Communicate. Let her know what's going on. Let him. Communication. Core. Core. Date once a week. I don't have time to get into all that. Escape once a year. Just once a year. Get away. Just the two of you. Get a babysitter and get away. Just the two of you. Keep the home fires burning. Keep the grass. Keep attention. on the home field. That's what I say. So, but what Paul's getting at here is that sexuality is not merely physical, it's also spiritual. And it's not just temporal, it has enduring consequences for our souls, loved ones. That's in the text, and it was in last week's text. And then finally, Paul teaches this to the church at Corinth.

[27:05] Flee sexual immorality. Flee sexual immorality.

[27:13] Now Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body. 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 in your body. What's important for us to all understand that Christ does not set us free so we can do whatever we want to do. Christ sets us free so that we can do what we're designed to do. That's where the great joy is and that's where human flourishing is. So let me give you some specific examples on how to flee. Can we do that as we follow the word here? First of all, I wanna encourage you as the body of Christ to memorize specific scriptures that deal with whatever specific temptation you may face. Memorize them and let them pop up in your heart and your mind when you're battling temptation. Secondly, pray and ask God for deliverance. You know, that's so biblical. In the Lord's Prayer, we're taught to pray regularly, Lord, deliver me from evil. Now, in the Greek, what's happening there is that the scripture actually says, Lord, deliver me from the evil one in the midst of periosmos. What is periosmos? Well, let me tell you.

[28:31] Periosmos is when the heat is on, when you're really feeling tempted and you're under pressure to cross a boundary. It's like, God, when the heat is on, Lord, deliver me. Deliver me. And so we're taught to pray this way, but that's pray and ask God for deliverance. Our God's a deliverer. Amen? So, thirdly, have a Christian brother or sister that you can confide in. I have witnessed through the years a brother or sister who's experiencing temptation at the office with a colleague or in some social situation. And what got them through it on the other side was that they found a close brother or sister in Christ that they could confide in. And in confiding in them, it helped just break the power of that stronghold or foothold that was rising up in their life. And so we understand this is not only comes out of the book of James, but those of you who have been or are a part of Alcoholics Anonymous, You know how much having a sponsor has been helpful to you in being able to confide in that person, how you're doing, and it helped get you free and to glorify God.

[29:53] And then fourth, get your mind on something else. Now, let me illustrate this in this way. I want to ask you not to think about a pink elephant. Can you do that for a minute?

[30:04] Don't think about a pink elephant. So obviously, by virtue of injecting a pink elephant into the conversation, you're thinking about it, even though you're trying not to. The way to begin to think about something else is get busy doing something else. And so if you're battling temptation, get busy doing something else. That your mind will follow. And so why is this so important, okay?

[30:33] Why is sexual immorality so dangerous? Why didn't Paul just say walk away? Why does he say flee? Why does he say flee, exclamation point? Well, verses 18 through 20 give us strong reasons. Number one, all sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. So while sexual sin is not necessarily the worst sin, are certainly not unforgivable. We're going to get to that in a moment. But Scripture does tell us that it's unique in its consequences. It has a way of destroying a person in a way that no other sin does. If you tell a lie, that can be confessed. You can forgive. You can work that out with a person. But sexual sin puts a person in a place where their integrity has been compromised. Their relationships are no longer the same. And the question is why? Because of all the sins, this is one sin that involves the spiritual union of two people, which is the point Paul's making. And when you engage in that kind of relationship, the scripture affirms a double-minded person becomes unstable in all their ways, and instability is brought. In fact, some of you who are on social media know this weekend that what circulated on parts of social media was there was a kissing cam.

[31:58] At a concert, and there was a gentleman standing with another woman. The gentleman was the CEO of a company. The woman was his HR director and not his wife. And when the kissing cam came up, he ducked and she turned. And the reason is they knew that they had violated appropriate boundaries and their company policy and moral boundaries.

[32:24] And sadly, he's lost his job, and I'm sure she will as well. Now, please, I say this with compassion, but it illustrates that sexual sin is different. This is why we're to flee. And we're aware that it can affect people at a very deep level, individually as well as families and more. Number two, as a follower of Christ, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. And as we talked about earlier, your life is united with Jesus Christ and you're joined with him. So it would be inappropriate to bring Jesus into that kind of sin. Number three, scripture says this, you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Now think about that. In other words, when I came to know Jesus, I belong to him. You belong to him. Listen to this verse from 1 Peter. It is not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. And the point is...

[33:31] God came and redeemed your life, your body, with his own body. That's how important you are to him. You and your body belong to Jesus. And so we don't want to imagine doing something like this when we belong to Jesus. So think about it. If you belong to Jesus, your eyes belong to Jesus. Are you allowing them to watch things that you know he would find inappropriate or repulsive or to read things? Your mind belongs to Jesus. Are you using it to think impure thoughts or lustful thoughts? Your hands and feet belong to Jesus. Are you allowing them to take hold of things or to take you to places that you know that you should not be going? Paul closes this with very clear instruction.

[34:27] Therefore, honor God with your body. And remember, again, what he says in 1 Corinthians 10, 31. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. This is to be the aim of our lives, church family, to glorify God.

[34:45] In all that we do, in all that we say, we exist for his glory. And so we want to practice it. We want to integrate these patterns into our lives to glorify God. So as we close, I mean it, we really are.

[35:03] As we close, what do we learn from this passage?

[35:09] I'm glad you asked. First, Corinthian culture illustrates that a culture cannot be too far gone in order for people to be reached for Christ. The reason I bring that up is because there are times when people look at our culture and they just go with cynicism, naive cynicism, oh, it's just too far gone. Loved ones, if Corinthian culture can be reached for Christ, Western culture can be reached for Christ. Amen?

[35:42] Secondly, because the Corinthian Christians have come out of all kinds of things, including sexual sin, we need to remind ourselves God forgives sin. God forgives sexual sin. And we need to make much of that because Paul is writing this letter to persons in which the culture has affected them more than the revelation of God. That's the problem at Corinth. And what we're reminded of is God loves the Corinthians. And what we're reminded of is God loves you. He loves you. And because he loves you, he lovingly corrects. And because he lovingly corrects, he invites persons to just receive his grace, to turn in a new direction to him and forsake sexual sin and turn to him. I'm always reminded of the picture of the prodigal son who had gotten deeply involved in sexual sin, and that picture of the father with his arms open, welcoming the son home as he repents and says he came to his senses and said, Father, I want to be reunited with you. That image of God. And just be mindful. This is what our God is like. And so he forgives sin and he forgives sexual sin. And then thirdly, I'm just reminded.

[37:11] Only Jesus Christ can fill the deepest longing of our hearts. When people cross boundaries sexually, what's going on underneath is that they're looking for some kind of thrill or fulfillment that's not going to be fulfilled by expressing sexual immorality. As Blaise Pascal said, there is a God-shaped hole in all of us that only God can fill. Think about the woman at the well and think about Jesus' compassion for her. She's been in a whole series. You could call it serial polygamy. She's on her sixth husband. Jesus reads her mail, and when he reads her mail, he says to her, as he's seeking to build a bridge into her heart, he says to her, if you knew who you were speaking with, you would ask him for water. Why? Because Jesus is saying, I can satisfy that deeper longing within your soul. This is why Jesus stood at a religious festival in John chapter 7, where people were busy doing religious things, not unlike the Corinthians.

[38:26] And Jesus stands in the middle of the religious festival and says, excuse me, excuse me, is anyone among you thirsty? If so, let him come to me and drink. And the scripture says he spoke this regarding the person of the Holy Spirit who would be poured out upon many. And the point is, is that only God can fulfill the longing, the deepest longing in our hearts, the deepest longing of who and what we're designed for. And so the answer, the ultimate answer is not only fleeing sexual immorality, the ultimate answer is coming to Jesus, coming and drinking of living water for his glory.

[39:17] In the name of the Father who loves you and who inspired the Apostle Paul to write these words because he loves you. In the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, who hung on a cross for you and made it possible for sin to be forgiven, including sexual sin. In the name of the Holy Spirit, who has been poured out like a river and can be known when you humble yourself before God, turn to him, confess one's sin, turn and forsake it. And in doing so, Jesus has promised that he would come. Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you, the Lord says. And in drawing near to you, he satisfies with living water. He quenches the deepest thirst for his glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

[40:09] Loved ones, let's pray for just a moment.

[40:16] So, Jesus, we pause for a moment with the hum of an air conditioner in the background. And as we're still before you, we thank you that you love us enough, more than enough, to examine our hearts and our minds, not in a way that you condemn us, but in a way that you offer life and light. And in the offer of light and life, we pray, Lord, for the gift of turning to you, the gift of receiving you.

[40:57] The gift of growing and being developed by you and shaped by you, the gift of knowing light and life in you. And we pray, cultivate, cultivate our lives. We recognize that the church at Corinth had allowed the world to disciple them more than the revelation of God and we pray that in these places where the word of God is challenging us we pray help us God help us to be shaped more by your revelation than the winds of culture we ask and we know that your motive again is love for us and we pray it in the name and power of Jesus. Amen.