1 Corinthians 6:19-20 How is Your Temple

I just wanted to direct your attention to a bulletin. You should be able to find the information in here that you need. There's a few announcements. And so I wanted to point that out. Also, there's a connection card.

I don't know if you've ever filled this out, but I just wanna encourage you to fill it out. If you're interested in prayer, there's a section on the back for prayer requests. And we do read those and pray for those every week.

So I would encourage you to do that. It's also a great way to ask about ministries or your involvement here at Recast. And lastly, there's a offering envelope in here. We do not pass a plate, but we want your giving to be between you and God.

And so if you feel led to give, and as God has blessed you, we'd encourage you to use this envelope. And there's a black box out in the entryway, and you can just drop it in that black box. So at this time, I would like to introduce Bill Smith.

He is an employee, he's a missionary with Youth for Christ. I'm just really excited to have Bill Smith coming up to share the word of God. So blessings on you as you bring the word.

How Is Your Temple? The Believer as God’s Temple

Well, good morning. I'm excited and blessed to be able to share the word with you this morning. Don asked me, I don't know, three, four weeks ago, if I could share this morning. And so I started praying about what I should speak on.

And God led me to, well, I'll just start with a question. And it's the title of the sermon. And that is, how is your temple? How is your temple? That's what I wanna talk to you about this morning. And so I'm just gonna give a brief introduction and then we'll have some time in prayer and worship.

And so let me show you what I mean by how is your temple. If you take your Bible and if you need one, Mike's got some in the back, just raise your hand. He would love to give you a copy of God's word.

And if you need a Bible, you're welcome to keep that, take it home with you. We want everybody to have a copy of God's word. Such a treasure is God's word. So let's go to 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. This will be some familiar scripture, I think for most of you.

But I hope that I can make you think about this in some new ways. And so again, my question is, how is your temple? Look at verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 3. But do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. Just comes straight out and says, child of God, follower of Jesus, you are the temple of God. So now just look over at chapter six of 1 Corinthians.

Verse 19, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have from God, you are not your own. So we're called the temple of God and we're called the temple of the Holy Spirit.

So my question is, again, how is your temple? Is it open? You'll see what I mean by that in just a moment. Is it open? Is it clean? Are there any false gods within your temple? Is it a sacred place? Is it a place of worship?

So we are called the temple of God as children of God. We are to be a holy place, a place of worship. And we're gonna look a little bit more of what that means as far as why does God compare us to the temple?

And so we're gonna look at both of the temples that existed in Jerusalem. So they built the first temple, Solomon did, in 959 BC. It was destroyed some 300 years later in 586 BC by the Babylonians. But it was created to be a place of worship to the true God.

It was to be a place of prayer. It was to be a place where God's glory was known. So it was to be a place of revelation. It was to be a holy place. It represented God's throne among his people. Sadly, that temple, that first temple fell into disrepair because of the people's disobedience and neglect.

And by the time Hezekiah became king in 715 BC, the temple was in really, really bad shape. So if you would turn with me, I want you to see what had happened to the temple by the time Hezekiah became king.

So let's go to 2 Chronicles 29. So when you read through Chronicles, you see this list of kings. Some were godly kings, some were not so good kings. Some kings just flat out and worshiped false gods and set up idols in the temple.

All kinds of awful things happened during this period of Israel. But along comes Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good king. Let's pick up the story in chapter 29, verse one. It says, Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Abijah and the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what's right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David, his father had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.

So the doors had been shut, sealed. The priests weren't going in there. Nothing was going on in there that was good. He brought in the priest and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, hear me, Levites, now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the holy place.

For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what is evil in the sight of the Lord, our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs.

They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore, the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror and astonishment of hissing as you see with your own eyes.

So Hezekiah, who worshiped the Lord, Yahweh, as he became king, he knew the temple was in bad shape and it was totally shut up. And did you notice what was inside of the temple? Filth, it said. This temple was closed.

It had been neglected. There was no worshiping happening there, no fellowship with God. Instead, it was filled with filth. So this is how God led me, okay? And I've been examining myself too. So I'm talking to myself as well.

And as I have meditated on this message and worked on it for the last few weeks, God has really spoken to me on this issue. As far as what I have allowed into my temple. And being aware of this truth that I am a temple of God has made a difference in the last two weeks in my life as I have meditated on this concept of being a temple of God.

Are there some things in your temple that you need to cleanse? Is your temple in disrepair through neglect?

Okay?

So that's the first temple. And sadly, you know, after Hezekiah and Israel, the nation of Judah began to go downhill and it just got worse and worse. And then it was destroyed. In the book of Azariah, Cyrus, King Cyrus, a pagan king, or I don't know if he was pagan.

I think he actually believed in Yahweh, Jehovah. Because he authorized for the Jews to go back to Israel and to rebuild the temple. So in 538 BC, he gave the authorization for the Jews to go back and start rebuilding the temple.

23 years later, the temple was completed. And again, this temple was dedicated to be a place of worship, a place of prayer, a place where God's glory would dwell on earth. Well, by the time Jesus came on the scene, He finds the temple once again, as it should not be.

And so I wanna look briefly at Jesus coming to the temple. So if you turn with me to Mark 11, verse 15. Mark 11, verse 15. And they came to Jerusalem, that's Jesus and His disciples. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple.

And He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. As He was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.

Jesus came to the temple and there was some bad stuff going on in there. The money changers were there, you know, supposedly to exchange the foreign currency so that they could buy animals to sacrifice to God.

But they were ripping the people off and it shouldn't have never been happening in the temple courts. They were selling animals in the temple. It just, you know, there was animal dung, you know, in the temple courts, they had the animals.

It just was not good. Totally distracting from the true purpose of the temple, which was for the worship and glory of God. There was religious activity going on there. The priests were there, but there was stuff going on that was not right and Jesus had to cast it out.

So either you're kind of, you're in three places this morning, your temple is kind of shut and you've been kind of shutting God out or maybe you've never let Him in and you're not a temple of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Well, He's ready to come in and totally transform you and change your life. He is so awesome and incredible. But maybe you're a believer, but you've just been, the temple's kind of boarded up and it's in disrepair through neglect.

You haven't been worshiping, you haven't been praying and seeking God and filling the temple with His word. Or the second temple, yeah, there was worship going on in there, but there was so many distractions.

There were some things going on in that temple that were not good. Some things that should have never been allowed in there. And so maybe your temple is open and you do worship and you do pray and yet there's some things in your life that you know are not honoring to God.

What would Jesus cast out if there was anything in your temple that's not honoring and glorifying to Him? And the third condition your temple could be in is that it's cleansed and you're seeking God with your whole heart and you're spending time daily in His word and you're seeking to follow Him and shine as a light in this dark world.

I hope that's where we all wanna be, right? To have that cleansed temple. And that, God is an awesome temple repairer and an awesome temple cleanser. And you can go from this place of disrepair and this place of where the temple is not clean and you can be totally cleansed.

Totally cleansed and changed and transformed through His forgiveness and through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus called the temple, my house. That's what He called it. In Ezra chapter 10 or chapter six, just in that one chapter, the temple 10 times is called the house of God.

That's what it's referred to. Have you ever thought of yourself as a house of God? Like God living in you? And again, if you're a child of God,.

If you've been born again,.

His spirit dwells in the Holy of Holies within you, which is your spirit. And that's kind of that dark center of your core but He is there and what He wants to do is He wants to fill your entire being, your entire temple, your soul, your mind, your heart, okay?

Because sometimes that's not the case, right? We're not walking in the spirit. We're not filled with the spirit. We're walking according to our intellect or according to the flesh, which is not good. He wants to fill this temple with His beauty and glory.

So Jesus names two characteristics of the temple here. Number one, He calls it my house. It's to be the dwelling place of God filled with His presence. And number two, notice what He calls it. He calls it a house of prayer.

My house shall be called a house of prayer. We're to be characterized as believers by worship and prayer. We are temples of the living God. And so once again, I'll ask this question. How is your temple?

Is it closed and neglected? Is it open? Are there some things in there that aren't right? Is it characterized by the presence and worship of God? Perhaps today we need to be like King Hezekiah and take some action and do something about our temples.

So let's just kind of think on that. Think as we worship that you are a temple of worship. You're a temple of God. And let's give God some worship and some glory. And then we'll come back, take a little closer look at what it means to be a temple of the living God.

So will you pray with me this morning? Father, just thank you so much that we can call you Father. The awesome privilege of being your sons and daughters, of knowing you, of having you in our lives, having you in our hearts.

Thank you that you want to dwell within us, that you wanna be so close to us, that you compare our bodies to a temple. And Father, I pray that we could all, in this quietness right now, take an honest look at our lives.

Father, are we honoring you as a temple of God? Is our temple as it should be, Father? Are there some things that we're letting in this temple that are grieving you, that are dishonoring you? I pray you would show us that right now, that it would just come to our mind, Father, what we're allowing in that's not pleasing to you, and that by your grace, by your spirit, it could be cast out and cleansed today.

And Father, the beauty of it is, is that you just want us to know your beauty and your glory. You wanna shine in us with your joy and your hope and your peace. And what a difference with you in our lives.

What freedom you truly do bring. And so Father, I just pray, even now as we sing these songs, that we could sing with understanding, and we could sing in your spirit, and that you would move through this time of worship.

And just thank you for our worship band and all the hard work they've put into this, Lord. And just pray you would shine forth through them. And just be with Don and Linda and their family, Lord, as they're away, and just bless them, Lord, and just continue to shine into their lives and protect them from all harm and evil, and just draw them closer and closer to yourself.

And we just thank you for being blessed by Don and his family as our pastor. Lord, we love you. And thank you so much for loving us this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. So I learned a new lesson today, and I've been speaking for a long time, and it never happened to me before, but when you have a really cold water, and it's a hot, muggy day, your water bottle sweats, and if you're holding it in your lap, then it gets on your shorts, and then you could walk up front and kind of feel a little bit embarrassed, like, no, I didn't have an, it was my water bottle.

Well, let me pray,.

And then we'll dive into the rest of this. Father, just pray that you would speak to us, and we wanna open our hearts to your word, to your voice. Pray, Holy Spirit, you would be our teacher, and that you would make your words come alive to us, that your words would impact us in the way that you intend them to this morning, O Lord.

So may we lay aside all distractions and tune in to the voice of your word, that you would just clearly speak to each one of us today, and that we would walk out of this place, Father, wanting to know you in deeper ways, wanting to walk with you, wanting to worship and to pray and to seek your face.

And so I pray that you would speak to our hearts, seek my face. So just bless this time in your word now, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. If you were to compare your life to a building, what would it be, right?

So you have to pick something now, you're like, you know the spiritual answer, right? I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's true, yeah. Would you be a sports coliseum? Like, man, that's just like your whole life, man, is sports, you just love it.

You know, you don't wanna miss the game. You know, first thing every day, you wanna see who won what game, and you can name players by name, and you're a sports fanatic, you might be a sports coliseum.

Maybe a movie theater, you know, you just love entertainment, you know. You might be a TV studio, you know, you love television and it takes up lots and lots of your time. Maybe you would be a beauty salon, ladies, I don't know, a cosmetic store.

Uh-oh, I might be getting a little personal here. I hope you don't get too upset at me. How about a party store? At one time, that characterized my life. You know, I just wanted to party, I wanted to drink, I wanted to smoke weed and do drugs, and that was, that would be a good description.

Maybe a mall, love to shop. Maybe a bakery or a sweet shop, uh-oh. A library or school, you're really into learning and intellect. Concert hall, music studio. How about an adult store? I wrote down an adult bookstore, but I don't even think they call them that anymore,.

Do they?

Because now, you know, everything's on, I don't know. They're still in Kalamazoo, though, aren't they? Can't tell you how many times I've driven by that Velvet Touch on West Main and just say, Lord, curse that place.

Pray no one goes there. But the sad reality is that there are people that sit amongst us who are struggling, you know, with sexual issues and disobedience, pornography. Would you be a casino? I don't know, a prison?

Man, maybe, I feel trapped. I just, how about a fitness club? That's like, you're just so into working out, that's your whole life. How about an insane asylum, anybody? Feel like you're going crazy? Got a couple of hands on that one.

How about a holy temple? That's the one, that's the one I want. So really, I'm asking you, what really characterizes your life? And if you were to a building, what kind of building would you be? I want you to see how Jesus looked at himself.

So grab your Bible with me or open your phone or whatever you gotta do. And let's go to John chapter two, and we'll look at verses 19 and 20. So we'll pick it up in 18, just to get the context of it. This is right after Jesus cleansed the temple the first time.

He actually did it twice, the beginning of his ministry and then at the close of his ministry. So he came into that temple twice and he had to cast some stuff out. And so, you know, they're questioning him about his authority.

Verse 18, so the Jew said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple in three days and I will raise it up. The Jew said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple.

And will you raise it in three days? So Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And they immediately thought that he meant the structure that was in Jerusalem, because people did not refer to themselves as the temple of God.

This was new and revolutionary. In fact, no one would dare to do that. So when Jesus said it, they didn't get it at all. They thought he meant the building, the actual temple that was in Jerusalem. And he was obviously talking about his body.

He was talking about his being, that he was a temple of God. Again, you know, would you refer yourself to the temple of God? If we can get this concept and we can be aware of this and see ourselves as we are as children of God, that we are the temple of God, this will have an impact on us.

Just think for a moment with me about what is the purpose of the temple? Why was it even constructed? You know, Adam and Eve did not have a temple in the garden because God was dwelling with them in the garden and God was dwelling in them before the fall.

They had a close, intimate relationship with God. After they sinned and cast out of the garden, things just went downhill from there. People became idol worshipers. God called the people through Abraham and Sarai and God brought the revelation of the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle, which represented his dwelling place among his people.

When they were in the wilderness for those 40 years, they lived in tents. And what did they set up to represent God's presence? They set up a tent and the tent had the Holy of Holies in it. David had the heart to build God a permanent structure.

And God said, hey, I've dwelled with you in tents all these years, you know, do I need a building? But he permitted it, but there was a purpose. It was to be a sacred place, a set apart place for the glory and revelation of God.

It represented God's throne on earth. It represented his presence among his people. It was to be a place to connect with God and it was considered the house of God. Now, God flat out told him, you know, that the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain me, but the temple did represent his presence among his people.

It was to be a holy place, a sacred place, a beautiful place of worship. Now, Jesus is our example. He was the perfect man. He's the perfect standard. He's the one that we should model our lives after.

We should be seeking to be like Jesus. And he called himself the temple of God. Jesus repeatedly said, it's the father in me, my father and I are one. And the father dwelt in him. And so he said, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.

It was to be a sacred place of worship. And Jesus specifically laid it out as my temple, my house shall be a house of prayer, right? Okay, my house shall be a house of prayer. Prayer is just simply communion with God.

It's speaking with God, it's listening to God. It should be a two-way conversation. That's one of the reasons why he gave us his word so he can talk to us through it and we can talk back to God as he speaks to us through his word.

In 1 Corinthians 3 .16, he had to say, do you not know? Like, hey, we've been teaching you guys this. Do you not know this yet? That you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

Chapter six, verse 19. Or do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

And so he had to remind them, Jesus was the temple of God. You believers are the temple of God. You are a sacred, holy being. His spirit, when you were born again, when you came to Christ, his spirit came into your spirit and that's why you started to change and transform and think differently and see differently and have an appetite for his word and wanna be with other believers because it was his spirit in your deepest core working from within and without.

We are the temple of God. Turn with me, if you will, to Ephesians chapter three, starting in verse 14. And I wanna challenge you this morning to memorize this prayer. God gives us prayers in the Bible and they can help your prayer life so much.

I read the Psalms every day and every day I find prayers in the Psalms that I pray to God and talk to him. The Lord's prayer, our father in heaven, that has helped me to connect with God in a much deeper way than I ever did before.

And God gives us prayers in the Bible for a purpose because the things that he tells us that we should pray for are the very things that he wants to do in our lives. The primary way that God works in us is through prayer.

He said, asking you will receive, seeking you will find, knocking the door will be opened to you. And so as we pray these beautiful prayers that we find in scripture, God is honored to answer these prayers.

And this is such a beautiful prayer. So if you did nothing else from this message, but you memorize this prayer, I would be so happy. I'd be like, that sermon was worth me coming up here and sharing. And it's just a really powerful prayer.

So chapter three of Ephesians verse 14, he says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

You pray this prayer, you memorize it, and then you make this a prayer. And father, just thank you that I'm part of your family. Thank you for your power. And I pray that you would strengthen me according to the riches of your glory in my inner being so that Christ, so that Jesus may dwell in my heart.

Please help me to be rooted and grounded in your love. Help me to have strength to comprehend with all the saints, your amazing love. Help me to be filled with all your fullness. This is a prayer that God is saying, come to me, ask this of me.

I will delight to do this in your life. He says, if you look in verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts. You look at the end of verse 19, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Christ dwelling in your heart, filled with the fullness of God. No wonder we're called temples of God, right? It's right here. This is what he longs for. This word dwell in the Greek, and I'm not even gonna try to say the word cause I would just butcher it, I'm sure.

But I did look it up and it said to house permanently, that is to reside. And it has the idea of being at home in. You could stay in a house with someone and never feel at home with that person, right?

You could feel unwelcome, could feel like, you know, I'm just a nuisance, I'm a pain or, you know, because they didn't welcome you into their home. I like the New Living Translation that says that Christ will make his home in your hearts.

Is Jesus at home in your heart? That's a serious question right there. I mean, what are you allowing into your heart? Into your mind, what does your heart focus on? Jesus says, I wanna be so close and intimate with you.

I want to be at home in your heart, but the reality is for many believers, he's not at home in their hearts. He's being grieved, his Holy Spirit is being grieved through what they're allowing in their hearts and minds.

Remember what Jesus said should characterize the temple? My house shall be called a house of prayer. That's what he says. He wants us to be in this constant communion with him. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter five.

I think it's the easiest verse in the Bible to memorize. I have it memorized in the New King James, it's pray without ceasing. So chapter five, same in the ESV. Pray without ceasing, three words. Pretty easy, right?

How many of you had that verse memorized?

Can I see your hand?

Is this anybody? All right, here we go, let's do it, all right? Pray without ceasing, say it with me. Pray without ceasing, that was really, really weak.

Ready?

A little bit louder. Pray without ceasing. Isn't that easy? Pray without, see, if you like the NIV, it's pray continually, two words, make it even easier, all right? Pray continually, pray continually.

How often does God wanna hear from us? Continually, all right? How often does God want me to walk in communion with him? Continually, always, why? Because he's ever present. In verse 16, check out verse 16, rejoice always.

Why?

Because he is ever present, he is with us every moment. If you look in Matthew chapter 28 in the Great Commission, Jesus says, lo, I am with you always. It's the same word for always here. That's why he says rejoice always, I am ever present with you.

Keep your focus on me, keep your heart clean, keep your temple open. Let it be a place of worship, a place of communion. A little book that I would really recommend to anyone is The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

Anybody ever read that book?

Okay.

It was written by a lay brother who served in a monastery, he worked in the kitchen, and he worked in the sandal repair shop. And he had so learned to dwell in the presence of God that when people would speak with him, they would be so inspired by what he would share about the blessing of dwelling in God's presence that they recorded his conversations, and they found some of the letters that he had written to other believers about living in the presence of God.

And you can usually pick it up in the classic section at the Christian bookstore. And quite often, it's such a small little paperback, you can get it for about two bucks. And I would just, I know, Mary, when you read it, you were very blessed by it.

So here's all that to say you should get that book. And here's a quote by Brother Lawrence from back in the 1600s. It is not necessary to always be at church to be with God. We may make our heart a prayer chapel that we can retire with him and converse with him in meekness and humility and love.

Everyone is capable of such familiar communion with God. I liked that when I read that. We can make our heart a prayer chapel to God. Isn't that kind of cool to think of? Like, you know, this holy place to talk to God, that's our heart.

We can commune with him anywhere at any time. The Life Application Bible has this note when it talks about praying without ceasing. It says, how can anyone pray on all occasions? One way is to make a quick, brief prayer as your habitual response to every situation you meet throughout your day.

Another way is to order your life around God's desires and teachings so that your very life becomes a prayer. I like that, your very life becomes a prayer. You don't have to isolate yourself from other people and from daily work in order to pray constantly.

You can make prayer your life and your life a prayer while living in a world that needs God's powerful influence. You can make prayer your life and your life a prayer. Learning to walk and live in God's presence.

Jesus said that this temple is to be a house of prayer. Does that characterize your temple? Are you a house of prayer or a house of grumbling?

Uh-oh.

Are you a house of prayer or a house of greed? Are you a house of prayer or are you a house of lust? And I could go on and on with this. And it's not my intention to make anybody feel bad, but it is, I believe, God's intention for us to take an honest look at our temple, our heart.

And what are you allowing into that holy place? When Jesus came to the temple, things were not as they should be. There were some things hindering worship. The Gentiles, they had a court just for the Gentiles, and that's probably where all of this buying and selling was going on.

Just totally distracting people from worship and from prayer and from the revelation and the glory of God. What would Jesus, if he came to you today and into your temple right this very moment, are there things that he would need to cast out?

Is there some hate in there? Is there some bitterness in your heart that's like a poison that's eating away at you? Have you opened your life up to some dark things and you feel trapped and you feel ashamed?

And like Adam and Eve, you're hiding from God. He wants to come in and he wants to take that hate away. He wants to take that bitterness away. He wants to take that lust away. He wants to take that filth away.

And he wants to fill you with his spirit. He wants to fill you with his presence. Ephesians 5 .18, it says this, don't be drunk with wine for that leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And this word filled means to be continually filled. That's what it means, to be continually filled because we are leaky vessels. We are leaky vessels. We need constant renewal of the Holy Spirit. We need blunt honesty with God in our walk, confessing when we've blown it, when we've sinned.

And I love his promise. Wow, one of the first verses I memorized, 1 John 1 .9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I had to memorize that because I needed it so much and I still need it every day.

But I've learned to be totally blunt and honest with God because he sees it all. He knows my struggle and he's the only one that ultimately can help me through it, help me overcome it, help me be healed of it, help me be cleansed of it, help me to start looking at this in a new way through his spirit, through his transformation, through his holy word, he is able.

He is able.

Here's a silly little poem, okay? My wife would probably, I didn't read this to her, but it seems like one of her new words is corny. We'll be watching something, she'll go, that's corny. This is corny, I'll admit it, okay?