With a new year comes new opportunities, right? You get to get back into your own ruts and patterns and grooves. And I emphasize the word your own, right? Sometimes over the holidays we have to share time, space, kitchens, right? Now you can do your own thing. Individualism, though, was actually the problem in the Church of Corinth. We're gonna go back to the book of 1 Corinthians. It's been a number of weeks, but we're gonna come back to our sermon series entitled Focal Point, Turning Our Eyes to Jesus Christ. The Church of Corinth had struggled. Individualism had caused great problems in the church. Of course, it's always caused problems for people, right? In Judges 17, verse six, it says, in those days, there was no king in Israel. But every man did that which was right in," what? His own eyes. Yep, that's exactly right, chaos. Isaiah 53, 6, we're reminded, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to," what? His own way. The natural man goes after his own way. And the church at Corinth had gone their own way, and they had suffered for it. They were suffering for their individualism. I know that characteristic of initiative and individualism is so highly praised in our culture, in our country. We've always been a people of the individual. But in Jesus Christ, we understand we have relationships to one another and to him. No Christian is an island. Individualism will run us amok. And so, 1 Corinthians 1, in verse 11, Chloe, the house of Chloe, gave a warning to Paul, they said, that there were contentions among the church of Corinth. So Chloe, the house of Chloe's opinion was, individualism was bringing about conflict, right, in the church. That was Paul's appraisal, too. Chapter 3, verse 3, he said to the church at Corinth, ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? They were doing what was right in their own eyes. And I know you could make the point. They had paired themselves up according to different leaders in the church. And you say, see, they're not just individuals. Yeah, but who was choosing the clique? Who was choosing the group? They were. They were making themselves the authority of who was the right one to follow rather than trust God and his word. In fact, Paul knew that this church was going to have problems. from the very moment he first set foot in Corinth, back in Acts chapter 18. Turn there with me for a moment, would you? Acts chapter 18. You can keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 6. We're gonna head there in a minute. But Paul had a, you might say a premonition. He began his ministry in Corinth, and we find in 1 Corinthians, or excuse me, in Acts 18 and verse nine, it says, Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. Paul saw the opposition that would come. He understood the individualism of the people in Corinth. And as they came to faith in Christ, he had this dread that came over him. How am I supposed to minister to this kind of people? But God spoke, knowing Paul's heart, and gave him confidence, gave him his word of assurance. Don't be afraid of them. Speak, preach the truth, Paul. Hold not thy peace. And he says, I'm with you. No one's gonna hurt you. He says, I have much people in the city. God had a plan for the church at Corinth. Though they had their struggles, though they had their problems, God had a plan for them. And part of God's plan was Paul writing this letter, a love letter to a people with problems to help them to find out who they were in Christ and how they were to live for Christ, how to focus their attention on Jesus Christ. We have our own tendencies, we're gonna go back to 1 Corinthians 6, towards individualism, don't we? My wife is a second grade teacher, and one of the common questions she has asked children for years is, how many of you eat family dinner together? How many of you, once a day, eat a meal together with the family? And it's shocking to me. Many families don't, maybe yours never does. I mean, if you have a family with you in your home, do you gather once a day at a table and eat? together. Surprisingly, there are a number of people who don't do that anymore. Entertainment is so personalized, individualized, with devices. People can all be in the same room watching different movies and listening to different songs and communicating to different planets, whatever. All this is going on at the same time. We're in groups, but we're individualized. It even happens in church with the great blessing that came through the ability for us to live stream. COVID brought about a lot of this, but it is also, in a way, sometimes it's stretched out the church. You can catch up by Thursday and make sure you catch the Sunday morning sermon by Thursday and you're up to speed, right? But what is the church? It's a called out group of people together who gather to work and serve and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a face-to-face relationship that the New Testament describes for us, not a face-to-screen relationship. It's vital, and I understand not everybody could be here today. Many are homesick today. I understand that, and I have been going through it myself. It wasn't COVID, I promise you. They told me it wasn't. Said I had a month of walking pneumonia. But I sympathize. Many are home not feeling well. And greetings, we love you. Sorry you're not here today. But we all understand what the church is to be. Though the world makes everything individualized, we understand something. In Jesus Christ, we have a different relationship to one another and to Christ. It's important for us as we look today at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 to get an idea of what God has called us to be. Are we to be autonomous, to be anonymous, to be alone? Or are we to be united? We're tempted to isolate ourselves from the church and from Christ. And for the Church of Corinth, the problem was carnality, fleshliness. And carnality needs to be corralled. Carnality needs to be conquered. In Jesus Christ, carnality needs to be killed. We see the church unites in Christ. Let's just do a little review here. The church at Corinth, there's three temples that we're gonna look at here this morning for a moment. There is the temple that was in the city of Corinth. It was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility. And while this was a trading city, They all wanted big business, to do well in business, and so part of their business was to ensure their business. And to do that, they would gather, they would worship, they would go to the goddess of fertility who would prosper business. But this temple, this temple of Aphrodite, was not just a place of commerce. I mean, it was also a place of vile immorality. There were temple prostitutes who made themselves available. And so a person would not desecrate their body in worshiping her. They believed you're consecrating your body by immoral activities with prostitutes at the temple. This was their community. This was the centerpiece of the city of Corinth. This was an immoral community, right? It was common. People knew of this. This was the sin city of its day. What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth. That's the kind of city this was. People would describe the kind of activities that happened there. They would use the term. That was to Corinthianize, to be immoral. The name Corinth was synonymous with immoral sexual activity. So there's that temple. There was another temple that Paul brought up in chapter three, verse 16. We had touched on it a month or two ago. And he's speaking about the believers collectively, the church as a temple. Know ye not that you are the temple of God? And that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. And both pronouns there are plural, speaking about not just individual Christians, but collectively as the church. Look at verse 17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. It was important for them to understand as a church, while there's this temple of Aphrodite, you who came to faith in Jesus Christ are actually now making up a temple to worship God together. And the Holy Spirit is indwelling you all collectively. That was important for them to understand. Look at verse 23. of chapter 3. Ye are Christ's and Christ is God's. That's who they were as this temple. And what was going to be the outgrowth of that? As you continue through chapter 3 and work through chapter 4 and 5, because they had a misunderstanding of who they were as a temple, they had a wrong view of church leaders. They had a wrong view of people who were sinning in the church in chapter five. And they had a wrong view of one another as we started chapter six a few weeks back. They were taking one another to law. They were taking believers before unbelievers to try civil cases. And so the first temple was the Temple of Aphrodite here in the carnal community. But then there was the carnal church body. And then lastly, as we come today, 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through 20, we're going to see they had carnal Christian bodies. The individual Christians had polluted the temple that God had made them to be, to bring him glory by their worship. Did you know this morning you are a sanctuary to glorify Christ? We used to sing this song when I was in Bible college. Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. What a wonderful song. What a wonderful thought. You and I are sanctuaries to glorify God. We sometimes call this auditorium a sanctuary. Now, the only thing holy in here is me and you and his word, right? It's a building. It's a tool. We wanna keep it nice. We wanna use it for God's glory. But we don't worship the building. We are the individual worshipers. That's what we're told in John chapter four. Jesus told the woman at the well there, he says, you shall worship him in spirit and in truth. That's we are the worshipers. We are the sanctuaries. We are the temples to worship the Lord. This people, they needed an understanding of what that carnal community, their worship was like. They need to understand what, as a carnal church, they need to understand who they are in Christ together as a temple. And they need to understand that individually, our bodies are temples to worship and glorify Christ. There's an expression used in verses nine through 24 times. He says, no ye not. I circled them in my Bible, you don't have to. No ye not, verse nine. He says in verse 15, no ye not. Verse 16, what? No ye not. Verse 19, what? No ye not. And so I'm gonna use that word no this morning and look at three things that the Corinthian church needed to know and we need to know. We need to know You need to know who you were. I'm going to kind of read through the passage and preach it as we go. Beginning at verse 9, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Paul wanted them to understand who they were. Do you understand who you were? Sinners. He says, he begins by putting this broad category of the unrighteous. Know ye not that the unrighteous, these are people who have not put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. They're unbelievers. They will not inherit, they'll not be in heaven. They're not forgiven because they've never repented. They've never received the grace of God provided through Jesus Christ. They've never received it. And he says, don't be deceived. Don't convince yourself that these things aren't wrong, because here's what, this is a list almost repeated identically from what's in chapter five, but he says, fornicators, those committing sexual activities outside of the bounds of marriage, idolaters, and again, many of these things probably relate to what was happening in the Temple of Aphrodite. Probably all of them you could point to and say, this is common in this community. Adulterers. Breaking the bonds of marriage for sexual activity. Affeminate, this and abusers of themselves are two terms referring to homosexual acts and pedophilia and vile sexual behavior including male prostitutes. He says, these people, he says understand this. These people are in that same category. Look what he says there in verse 10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners. None of these is watered down. What does he say? They shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It's a category of sin, so enslaving people that they are refusing to repent and to come to faith in Jesus Christ. And he says, Don't make the mistake of saying, well, this is just what our community is. This is what our community does. That's who our culture is today. You just have to understand. No, he says, these are people who will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they repent of their sins, come to faith in Jesus Christ, and are saved. So here's who you were. How do you know that they were? Look at verse 11. And such were some of you. He doesn't say all of you. But there were representatives of each of these categories in the Church of Corinth, and I dare say there are probably individuals in each of these categories represented in our congregation today. But praise God, were some of you. You were sinners and you were condemned, guilty before God, deserving of punishment forever in the lake of fire. There are consequences, there are wages for sin. The wages of sin is what? Yeah, and it's eternal. It's forever. But he that believeth, he that believeth not is condemned already, we're told in John 3. You're already guilty. Paul wanted them to understand who they were. You need to understand who you were. Past tense. But we also need to understand who We are, who are we? Verse 11, and such were some of you, but ye are washed. It's a beautiful word, it's the idea, the picture of to be bathed, even technically baptized. He's not saying that baptism saves us from our sin, but baptism is a picture of what takes place when we're plunged beneath the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. He says you are washed, you're sanctified, you are justified. And these are three pictures of sanctification. You could say it this way. The first is the wash is your positional sanctification. When you are given, when you are saved, when you are born again, when you receive Christ Jesus as Savior, His offer of salvation, when you receive that, positionally, once for all, you are forgiven. You are in the family of God. You have received eternal life. Positionally, you're as white as snow. The next word is you're sanctified. This is progressive. This is the work of the Spirit of God through the Word in your life today, in my life today. From the moment you get saved until the day you die, you're gonna continue to be sanctified by the work of the Spirit and the work of the Word. And as you cooperate with God's Word, cooperate with His Spirit, you become more and more like who? Jesus, right? You become more like Jesus. That's the sanctification process. And Paul's saying, this is who you were. You are people who were not gonna inherit the kingdom of God. Your lives were offensive to a holy God. But now guess what? Positionally, you're sanctified. Progressively, day by day, God is changing you. He's making you, he's shaping your mind into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God. And then there's permanent. Or you could say ultimate sanctification. He says, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. In other words, once and for all, we will reach heaven and there will be no more change needed. You'll be complete, you'll be perfect, you'll be 100% like the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, right? Ultimate sanctification. Permanent sanctification. This is what God does. So who was I? Well, I was a sinner and I was condemned. Who am I? I'm sanctified in Jesus Christ. In other words, he did an overhaul on me, a moral transformation. And if you've been saved, he did the same in you. You're not what you once were. He has totally transformed you. Hallelujah. And we're also, it tells us, united in Christ. Pick up with me at verse 12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought unto the power of any. Let me pause right here. He's speaking in a way about Christian liberty. It's a subject he'll pick up again in chapter eight. But he's saying here all good things. He's not talking about the categories that were mentioned above, okay? He's not saying those are okay for Christians. No, not at all. But he's saying, of the good things that I can do with my life, it's important for me to consider their consequences. There are good things, things that are not inherently wrong in and of themselves, that can cause problems down the road, right? Not every good thing is the best thing. You can take a brand new hammer and start punching a hole through a board, and it won't make the prettiest hole in all the world, right? And you can also take a jigsaw and use it to drive in a nail, but it's not gonna do a very good job. It's not its intention. And as a Christian, as a growing Christian, we need to not only consider the choices and how they influence us, but how they're gonna affect other people. And Paul's saying, I'm not gonna let, really, Two parentheses here, how do I make a decision about how I live my life? He's concerned about two things. He says, not every, is it gonna be best? Is this the best choice? Is it expedient? And then, does it enslave me? And he says, I will not be brought under the power of any. Again, there are things not inherently wrong and of themselves that can become addictive and can become ultimately destructive. So, in other words, Christian, guess what? You gotta put on your brain. You need to read the word for yourself. You need to listen to the spirit of God and talk to him about questionable things. That's a right thing for a Christian to do. You don't get to come to church, turn off your brain and say, I'll just do what the pastor tells me to do. That's not my job and that's not yours. It's our job to bring ourself before the mirror of the word of God, to listen to the spirit of God, and before God to walk in a clear conscience. Obeying His word. You and I are individually accountable. Yeah, there's, in a sense, a collective accountability, and certainly one that I have. Hebrews 13 tells me. But did you know, you are personally, individually accountable. Let every man be persuaded in what? His own mind, your mind. So you're accountable for that. Paul understood that. He picks up in verse 13. So he's addressing some common thoughts that were in the church at Corinth. Maybe things they picked up on the streets. Like, just do as you wish. And Paul's like, no, don't just do as you wish. Don't just do whatever floats your boat. Use your brain and weigh things before the Lord. So he's dealing with perhaps one saying in the community. Now he's gonna deal with another one in verse 13. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats. And again, probably a common expression in the streets of Corinth. They liken their illicit sexual relationships to food. You're like, hey. whatever, I eat a turkey drumstick, and my body accommodates that turkey drumstick, it makes it useful. And it's just as natural as, hey, I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat this food. People say, hey, I've got these desires, and so it means nothing. I have this desire, so I'm gonna meet this need. That's what the world that believes in evolution will teach you. Your animals, you just do what your base desires long for, and that's okay, there's no problem. That's what the world says, but my God calls it sin. God's word calls it sin. And so Paul takes the triviality out of it. Okay, this isn't up for grabs, this isn't negotiable. What does he say? Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. Now, look at the end of verse 13. The body is not for fornication. but for the Lord. And the Lord for the body. Something happened when you got saved. You've been bought with a price. You belong to him and he belongs to you. Not only are you sanctified in Christ, you are united in Christ. Look at verse 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will raise up us. raise us up by his own power. So we are united, a spiritual uniting with Jesus Christ. And so that's why my body matters. That's why my choices matter because it's not my body and it's not my choice. I'm united with Christ. It's not just a matter of adapting. Okay, the food adapts. Food adapts to meet the needs of the body. And they were trying to say, well, that's the same thing. Sexual promiscuity, you just adapt. Whatever your druthers is. That's what the world tells us today. They say you're defined by your glands, by your passions. But as a child of God, you and I are defined by God, who we are in Him, and who He is in us. He's gonna raise us and take us to be with Him because we belong to Him. Look at verse 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot? God forbid. I'm united in Christ. It's not just a matter of what you think is appropriate, what is adaptable. Hey, we're adhered to Christ. You're one with Christ. So who we were, sinners condemned. Who we are, sanctified, right? Permanently, progressively, positionally, We've been overhauled, we've been made new. And we're united, we are united in Jesus Christ. So there's a spiritual affinity we have with Christ that would be broken, that would be hindered by immorality. And look at verse 16 with me. So who are we to be? What, know ye not that that which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. It's a quote from Genesis here, talking about the marriage union. Two becoming one. But adultery doesn't make a marriage. Look at verse 17. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with God. And so he's saying to us here, there is a mystical, spiritual union we have with Christ. That is hindered when we join ourselves, when personalities are joined together in sexual activity. That does not define who we are to be. God didn't make you for that. He's not glorified in that. He says in verse 18, flee fornication. We need to be good fleers. There's been some football on lately. I mean, I played in PE, but I enjoy watching. I still probably don't understand all that's going on at times in football games, but I know I like watching quarterbacks, especially fast ones. And when they hike the ball and all the guys are charging towards them, I like the quarterback who can actually move, like they run away from them. That's fun to me, okay? I mean, they've got all these options, right? You can hand off, you can throw the short pass, you can throw the Hail Mary. Or, you know, it's awfully fun if it's a quarterback who's willing to risk it. And he doesn't run to the crowd, he runs around them and he takes off. You know, we need to be people who are good fleers. Like Joseph in Genesis. Potiphar's wife tempted him. He fled. We need to be good fleers. And this verse tells us, flee, run from, get yourself away from fornication. I mean, take drastic actions to make sure that you're not putting yourself in a place of temptation to sexual sin. God takes it seriously and so should we. Flee it. He said, every sin that a man doeth without the body is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against the body. All kinds of sins that you can do and your body is the subject, not the instrument. Whether it's drugs or alcoholism, whatever the sin may be, there's things that you can make your body the subject of. But he's saying this, when you commit fornication, you not only are the subject, you're also the instrument. He said it's a sin, look at the end of verse 18, against his own body. God takes it very seriously. Because that's not who we're made to be. Who are we to be? Well, we're to be a sanctuary. Look at verse 19, what? Know ye not, there it is, there it is again. Know ye not that your body is the temple, it's the shrine, it's the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost which is in you. which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. Who are we to be? We're to be a shrine for God. Notice that phrase, not your own. Not individuals, right? We're united to the body of Christ in the church, but we're united with Jesus Christ himself, and united to be his temple, his sanctuary, a place of worship. My body is for his worship. Look at verse 20, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. We're a shrine for God and we're for his glory. How do I glorify him? I let his character radiate from my life. Only somebody who has received Christ can glorify Christ. But when you've received him and he is sanctifying, he's changing you, he's chipping away, and he's letting Christ be seen, his character, God's glory is when you and I manifest his character by our lives. And it's possible. It's possible for you and I to do that. But we're tempted, aren't we? We're tempted to not obey these verses. We're tempted to isolate ourselves from the church. We're tempted to isolate ourselves from Jesus Christ. But what do we need to do? We need to insulate ourselves, right? Because we're not called to be taken out of the world. Not yet, it's coming. We're called to be in the world, but not out of it. And so as we're in the world, how are we gonna make it in a wicked world, wicked community? How do we stand for Jesus? We insulate ourselves. Insulate ourselves from the sinful community. In other words, what they do is not what we do. We're not living for ourselves. We're not living for our flesh. We're not going after our own way. We've been bought with a price, right? We're here to glorify God. We must insulate ourselves from sexual impurity. It's common in our day. I don't know the percentages. I don't know how many people on average in our community are regularly practicing sexual relationships outside of marriage, but I can tell you it's a big number. It's a lot more than we probably could imagine. I mean, essentially, what is abortion? It's people trying to cover up their sexual impurity, right? Dishonoring what God had made their bodies to be, what a marriage is to be. So the Apostle Paul essentially, as he's talking to the Church of Corinth, he's gonna give them something to do and something to be. And the same is true for us. There's something that God has given us. How do we insulate ourselves? Well, there's something to do and there's something to be. It's really simple, actually. Do you know what the thing is to do? It's back in verse 18, flee. Don't put yourself in the place, don't expose yourself, don't saturate yourself with immorality in your thinking, in your watching, in your viewing, in your meditating, in your reading. I don't know, there are gajillions of ways that you can expose yourself to impurity in our world. And if we saturate ourselves in it, guess what? You're not gonna wanna flee it. You're gonna wanna participate in it. Flee from it. Put a barrier in your life. No, this is not an option. I'm not gonna put myself in a place when I'm tempted towards this. And then, there's something to be. Let's define my identity as Christ's sanctuary. We're the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own. The fact that you have the use of your faculties is a gift from God, but it doesn't mean that you're autonomous, that you operate on your own. You are for God, to please God. You're bought. What was the price that I was bought with? Precious blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We've been plunged beneath the crimson flow, right? It washes us white as snow. Glorify God in your body. Let your body be an instrument of worship to God. So it doesn't just happen on Sunday, and it doesn't just happen in church. We worship day by day as we live for God, love God, order our life in a way that pleases him, and obedience to his word, and the voice of his spirit, as we love one another and serve one another, as we share the gospel with the lost. Guess what, I'm bringing God glory through my body. You say, my body ain't what it used to be, Pastor. It's still God's temple. It's sacred to him. And he has designed your body for today to bring him glory. And however you're gonna bring him glory today, whatever you can do today with your body that God's given to you, hey, give it to him! Don't hold onto it. You say it hurts, it's his. Give the pain to him. God, your body's hurting. God, I have a little trouble today, but I want this body to bring you glory. I want these lips, I want these eyes, I want these ears, I want my life to let your character be seen through me. So what's needed? Unity with the church and relationship. The Church of Corinth struggled with that. And unity with Christ in worship. So who am I? Well, who are you? Forgiven. are condemned. If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, the God who made you loves you. He sent his son to die for you. He shed his blood so you could be cleansed, sanctified, washed in the blood of Jesus. Are you forgiven or are you condemned? Who were you? Such were some of you. Just because that's who you once were doesn't mean that's who you are today. He says, that's who they were, but who are they now? Ye are washed, sanctified, purified. And who am I to be? I'm to be a sanctuary for God's glory. Romans 12, one and two is such a common verse, but in the light of this passage, it's so important for us to remember, how do I worship God with my body? I give it to him. What I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, And according to all that Jesus has done for us in salvation, he says, present your body. Present your body. A living sacrifice. So my body for worship. God, I give my body to worship you. He says, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world. You don't have to be conformed to this world. What do you have to do as a Christian to be conformed to the world? Nothing, just live your life. What do you have to do to not be conformed? It's gonna take some initiative on your part. It's gonna have to take some intentionality. I'm not gonna be conformed to the world today, Lord. I wanna be transformed. How do I do it? He says, by the renewing of your mind. That's where the word of God comes in. We allow the word of God day by day to flow into our lives and it cleanses us, it washes us, he changes us. And he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect worship will of God. It's an act of worship. My body's yours. Day by day we can give God our bodies in worship. Remember though, there is something that you and I do, right? We make the choice to flee. We make the choice to offer up our worship from our body to God. But understand something, it's Christ. It's Christ who sanctifies, it's Christ who unites us with himself. It's Christ who glorifies his father through us. It's the work of Christ, we trust him, we believe him, we rest in him. Isn't it a wonderful thing, a privilege that we have to worship God with our life, by our bodies? Are you worshiping God with your body today? What will need to be changed in 2025 for you to be actively worshiping God with your body? Have you been putting yourself in a place of temptation? Maybe you think, nobody knows. Nobody knows who I've been looking at. Nobody knows who I've been associating with. Nobody knows about this secret meeting place. Nobody knows about those text messages. Nobody knows. Hey, God knows! And you belong to Him! In every step of holiness that you'll take, it isn't just a matter of keeping you above the others. It's a matter of drawing you close to your Savior. Of walking with Him, knowing Him, and bringing Him great glory. That's why He saved you. Because He's gonna get glory out of you one way or the other. And so this morning, if you've put yourself in a place of danger, you've been flirting with disaster, you've not been choosing what is expedient. Maybe this morning you may be honest with the Lord and say, God, I confess my sin. I confess, I have put myself in a place of temptation. I'm putting myself in a place that will end in disaster. And I confess it as sin. Maybe you've had an inappropriate relationship. Maybe it's not a sexual relationship, but it's heading there. Maybe today you need to be honest before God. Maybe honest before your mate. Maybe you need to address it. God can change it. God can change you. And for too long, too many a good, godly, Bible-preaching, teaching church has swept these things under the rug, and we pretend that they don't happen in their church, but history tells us, the history of the last 20 years tells us these things have been happening in our churches weekly for generations. You say, homosexual behavior, Pastor? We know it's true. Because we see the fruits of it. The good news is such for some of you. You don't have to live in your past. You don't have to live in your sin. Hey, you're a temple. Re-up your commitment to God. I'm not saying get saved again. I'm saying, God, here's my body. Once again, I'm giving it to you. Lock, stock, and barrel, I give you everything. My mind, my thoughts, my words, my choices, my viewing habits, my patterns of life, everything about me, I give it all to you. It's yours, take it, use it. I can't be trusted, but you can. I give it to you, take it. Perhaps today there's someone who says, you know what? I know I'm saved. I know I'm forgiven, but I have been living riddled with guilt of what has already been confessed. Friend, I can assure you that conviction is not coming from God. It's a false guilt brought to you by Satan himself. My friend, if you've confessed it, you're forgiven. Such were some of you. And you can rejoice today. God, thank you. I am sanctified. You are sanctifying me. And one day forever I will be sanctified. You may not be able to erase those memories, but God can change the meaning of those memories. Maybe you once indulged your flesh, but now you can grab hold of the grace of God and thank him for his forgiveness. As much as it comes to mind, as it comes to memory, Satan loves to dangle those sins behind us, sins that we've confessed to God, he dangles those memories behind us. And what do you do? Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for forgiving me for that sin. Thank you that you have chosen me to be your sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true, with thanksgiving. I'll be a living sanctuary for you. Father, thank you for your word, and I thank you for what you do. Thank you for what you've called us to be, your temples that bring you worship and glory. May you receive the glory as we respond to your truth. Thank you for who we are in you. In Jesus' name, amen.