Understanding You're New Owner: The Spiritual Transformation in Christ

Well, I hear a lot of special music where it sounds like the hoot

owl with post nasal drip, but that's not true today.

We've had some great singing and it's been a pleasure to be here.

And I'm just committing myself today to Brother Eric, that I'm going

to be a nuisance to you a little bit more, and hopefully you

and I can have some time together.

You need to get a break, away from some stuff.

So I'll buy you lunch next time we can get together.

Appreciate you very much.

Well, I'm like the guy that got.

Up and said, I have so much to say.

I don't know where to start.

Some kid in the back said, start.

Somewhere near the end.

So that's what I'm doing today with the schedule that I've been

put on.

And I'd like for you to turn.

In your Bible today to First Corinthians, chapter six.

We're just gonna look at two verses today.

That'll help a little bit.

First Corinthians, chapter six, verses 19 through 20.

I wanna preach a message this afternoon.

Entitled how to get right and Stay Right with God.

Do you need that?

I believe we need that.

And I hope today that God will use us to speak to this need.

You know, this book starts out First.

Corinthians, starts out by saying, it's to the saints of God.

Any saints here today.

You're either a saint or an ain't.

I know that you're either saved or you lost.

And God set you apart for a reason.

And he wrote to the church at Corinth.

The church which was at Corinth.

We got some church folks here today.

So if you're a saved person, you're a church person.

This message is just for you.

Look at the passage that we have in mind here.

First Corinthians, chapter 6 and verse 19.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

What know ye not that your body.

Is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you

have of God?

For you're bought with a price you're.

Not your own, for you bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and.

In your spirit, which are God's.

Paul starts this.

This is one of his methods of getting the readers to tune into

him.

He says, what know you not?

And the reply to that is, yes, we do know.

We've been there.

We're there when it happens.

And Paul is simply saying to them, I know back in Acts 18 when

God saved some of you folks, and.

It was out of a.

It was out of a stained past.

He says in this very sixth chapter that these fornicators and

idolaters and adulterers and effeminate and abusers, such were

some of you.

Isn't God good to save sinners?

We ought to recognize this fact that.

Sinners only know one thing to do and that's to sin until God changes

them and makes them new in Christ.

You see, over time, while they had been saved, they hadn't always

stayed right with God.

Matter of fact, if you go back.

To the first chapter, you see that they were a bunch of men, followers.

They had celebrities that they were following.

Peter and Apollos and Christ and Paul.

And he says, you're just a bunch of babies.

You never have got out of your spiritual diapers.

You're a babe in Christ.

And beyond that, he said, listen, it's not right.

You've been taking your brothers and sisters to court.

You've been suing your own brothers and sisters in Christ.

And then he lays this sixth chapter on us and says to him, listen,

you've got a fornication problem.

And we've got a fornication problem today.

And a lot of us in the church.

Come on now.

It happens in church.

And it's not just a bunch of young people.

Sometimes it's retired people as well.

And so Paul just takes off into that and gives us these two

verses.

And he says, know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy

Ghost, which he have of God, and you're not your own?

Borrowed the price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and.

Your spirit, which are God's.

Let's start out by looking kind of.

In the middle of this, the last verse, 19, the first of 20.

You're bought with a price.

But he says before that, what?

You're not your own.

You're bought with a price.

You know, I think that's one of our problems.

We think that we run our own life.

We can say, thank you, Lord, for saving us.

And then we can kind of get back to a life to where we think

we're managing our own life.

He said, listen, you've been bought with a price.

That's talking about the cross, that's talking about Christ

dying in our behalf, shedding his blood for us.

And he says.

You'Ve been bought with a price.

You're not your own.

What's that telling us?

It's telling us we have a new owner.

We've got a new owner in life.

We're owned, we've been paid for, and we need to Live our lives

in such a way that we deliver to Christ the fact that we understand

that we've got a new owner and Jesus Christ means everything to

us.

We've not only been saved by him, we've been surrendered to him

and we're serving the Lord for him.

We've got a new owner.

Are you happy about that?

Tell you, it was way on into my Christian life that I finally

understood.

What the lordship of Christ was.

And it's living under the control of Christ.

It's devoting our best, our all, our everything to him because

he's our new owner in life.

And I think it's time because it's been a long time since we've

just stood in awe of our Savior.

He bought us.

He gave his life for us.

He's claimed us.

We have a new owner.

Jesus paid it all.

All to him I owe.

We have a new owner.

Paul starts this by saying, what know ye not that your body is

the temple of the Holy Ghost which ye have of God?

What's that about?

That's about the presence of God's spirit, the Holy Ghost of God

who is in our lives.

You keep taking notes.

We got a new owner.

We got a new occupant.

When I was a boy, boy Christian back there at my 10 year

old age, I never figured out, I thought something was going on,

kind of weird in my life because those words that I'd picked

up off the street now became an offense to God.

And I began to process that, you know, that's not right to talk

like that.

And I began to think, well, that's not right to think like that.

And I began to think that's not right to do that.

Listen, that was inside information.

I had a new occupant in my life, Holy Ghost of God.

Why do we think the way we think as Christians?

Because God's alive in you.

Why do we finally draw back from certain people that are a negative

influence on our life?

It's because the occupant in our life is now finally revealing

to us the fact that he's alive in us.

And while we talk about the residency of the Spirit of God, the

real need for most Christians is that he is reigning in our life,

not just present, but powerfully demonstrating his presence

in our life.

Have a book on the table back there.

God's always there.

God's always there.

He's in your life whether you want him or not.

If you're not saved, he's still in your life because he's on

the outside.

Dealing with your life, about getting on the inside.

And once he gets on the inside of our life, he begins to take over

our life.

We have a new owner, Jesus.

We have a new occupant, the Holy Spirit of God.

You know, Jesus, death secures two gifts for us.

Peter mentions that on the day of Pentecost sermon when he said,

repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

When you got saved, you received the gift of eternal life

and you also received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Wake up to that.

See that?

We need to stand in awe of our Savior.

And then we need to wake up to the presence of God.

He's either happy about it or he's not.

He's either grieved or quenched or is controlling, filling

your life right now.

We have a new occupant.

You know, what if somebody came to.

Move and live in your house with you?

We've never had any outside person live.

With us that was not biologically ours.

I'm not saying it's wrong or right.

To do it or not, but think.

About somebody who came to live in your life, who lived in your

house, ate your food, watched the programs on your television,

listen to all your phone calls and all your commentary.

I got you on that one, didn't I?

You've got that occupant right now.

He's called the Holy Spirit.

He got up with you in the morning.

He sat at your breakfast table.

He sat in the passenger seat of your car as you drove to work.

He was there at the water fountain while you were talking to

your co laborers.

He was there when you was driving home.

Have you ever seen so many idiots out on the road?

I talk a lot to pastors.

It's better than going to therapy.

And I can't imagine people in this world driving like they do.

And I know we get criticized.

Old people get criticized for driving.

I've started just putting my blinker on.

And just leaving it on.

They don't know if I'm turning or not.

And I love it.

Matter of fact, you better not be.

Better not be threatening old people with.

Something because life, a death sentence, doesn't mean anything.

Does.

Not if you're a Christian.

It doesn't.

I need to encourage you to wake up to this marvelous reality.

You've got a new owner.

You've got a new occupant.

Christ dwells within you through the spirit of God.

Paul Said Christ lives in me and.

Christ in you is now the hope of glory.

I'm the temple of God and every.

Day is a holy day.

And every place is a holy place.

I need to wake up to that.

Wake up to it in the morning.

Say, welcome, Holy Spirit.

You're in my life.

Take my life.

Today you have a new owner died for you.

You have a new occupant.

He came to live into you, live into your life.

And then third, what know ye not that your body is the temple

of the Holy Ghost which you have of God and you're not your own?

You're bought with a price.

Therefore, what is it there for?

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are

God's.

You've got a new occupation.

You know what you'll be happy you've done when you stand before

him?

That you've lived your life to the glory of God.

That you lived your life day by day, decision by decision, relationship

by relationship.

For the glory of God.

It's really simple.

You're out of God's will when you don't live for his glory.

You're in God's will when you live for his glory.

Glorify God in your body, what you put in your body and what you

put on your body.

Now if you don't, if you don't figure out how you ought to dress,

be sure and don't go to Walmart.

I don't go there often, I told you this morning, I just don't have.

The makeup to tolerate that.

But the few times I've been there, been utterly shocked at how

some people.

Dress to go to Walmart.

And I don't mean that in any kind of judgmental way, I just mean.

That by a hilarious way.

It is absolutely crazy, you know, that the world can't see who

we are.

Unless they see us as we are.

And they see our body.

And so we ought to think about how we dress.

I'm not a legalistic, but I do think that you need to have some

kind of standards of morality and modesty.

But also what I put in my body.

You know, some people take the outward alright, they do the outward

stuff right.

They dress right, but they don't dye it right.

And I'm fixing this skinny old preacher.

Is fixing to get in trouble right here.

I get up every day, I have.

A breakfast diet of four powdered donuts and a Dr. Pepper.

Yeah, excited.

I mean, I'm a Texan, I'm a Dr. Pepper guy.

Now I know that's not healthy, but.

I'm happy and that makes a lot of difference to me.

And so far it hadn't spread out.

Very far and I've always been somewhat small.

I again, am surprised that you did not bring up today that you were

an all conference guard in basketball in high school and you

were on the state regional championship baseball team as a leadoff

batter and a right fielder and batted.290, hit two home runs.

I'm just really surprised about that.

That's, that's, that's news for the day.

But, you know, a lot of that stuff was just about me.

I led a couple of people to the Lord during my high school years.

One guy served for our country.

He was in the room with President Bush when the towers were

hit.

He was part of that Nebraska group, led him to Christ.

He didn't have a car.

I had a car.

He made straight A's.

I barely got by.

There was a connection there.

But I asked him, I said, rob, would you like to go to church sometime

with me?

Yeah, I would.

He got saved in our church.

John Calhoun was a young man that had polio when he was a boy,

and everybody made fun of him.

But I made him a friend and found his Bible in my library one

day and gave it back to him.

Sent it to him.

I wish I could go on and on about people that I influenced for

Christ, but I'm ashamed that I didn't have a better influence on

people.

We've got a young man now.

That young man, when he was young, he played ball with me.

And for the first time in his life, as far as I know, he came to

church three weeks ago because somebody invited him.

I didn't invite him.

I've been in his home, witness to him.

What I'm saying, folks, you've got a new occupation.

Live your life to the glory of God.

Glorify God in your body and in your spirit.

Spirit's about attitude.

And you know, some Christians, they say they are.

And I'm going to say they are if they say they are.

If you had.

If their attitude had an odor, you couldn't stay in the same room.

Got a bad attitude.

Listen, you can be doctrinally straight as you can be and have a

sorry.

Attitude, and you're not going to glorify God.

I'm a Baptist all the way through, just like the pastor said

this morning.

I'm a Baptist head to toe and intend to be as long as I'm alive.

And then when I'm dead, I hope that they'll have some good Baptist

preaching in the day.

I know that I'm old enough now that fried chicken and potato salad's

on speed dial.

I mean, I just know that that could happen at any moment.

But I'm so glad to know that I've got an occupation that's going

to take me right to the end.

I may not be able to preach.

All my life, but I'll sure want to.

But I'm going to tell you this.

I'm going to live my life to the glory of God if He'll let me.

In my body and in my spirit.

And wherever I go, my sense of humor just gets me in trouble.

I get people that just leave mad because I'm happy.

Listen, if that's the biggest problem you.

Got, you're the problem, not me.

Just leave happy.

And when you leave today, be sure.

And smile on your way out, even if you are mad.

Occupation is that we're to glorify God.

Let your light so shine before men they may see your good works

and.

Glorify your God which is in heaven.

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God.

Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, do.

All to the glory of God.

You have a new owner and a new occupant and a new occupation.

Now go to work and live for God.

Be available to God.

Be in awe of the spirit of God.

Be aware of the presence of God.

Be available to the God who brings us life and we get to bring

him glory.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the day.

Bless your word to our hearts in Christ's name.

Amen.