The Temple of the Holy Spirit – You Are Not Your Own

But we got an important word that needs to be shared this morning.

I believe it's going to be life-changing.

Can you say amen?

Amen.

We're walking through a series centered around being the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We need to come to a deeper understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and how we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Turn to your neighbor and say, You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Without understanding who you are and who you carry, you are going to definitely miss out on the fullness of who God has created you to be.

When you gave your life to Jesus, a change was made inside of you.

You began a journey to becoming the best version of yourself.

And in that best version of yourself, you are destined for greater things.

You are created for greater things beyond you could ever think or imagine.

Imagine with all the things that the disciples experience while walking with Christ, Jesus says to them that there are even greater things that they will do.

Greater things that are being experienced by those who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and are on full commission by the Lord with the great commission.

You have been imparted with the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of peace.

We have spiritual gifts that are waiting to be opened inside of us.

Last time we spoke about the temple of the Holy Spirit, we talked about the fruit of the Spirit.

Love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

These are all reflections of the Holy Spirit working inside of you.

I pray, whether you were here last Sunday or got to watch it at home, I pray that you were being intentional on shaping those fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Because we prayed specifically at the end of last service.

God, I have a trouble, I'm having trouble with loving.

I'm having trouble with my self-control.

I need you to do a work on my life because I know this is what shows who you are through me.

And if I got bad fruit coming out of me, then there's something going on in my heart and it needs to be addressed.

How many troublemakers do we have in the house today?

Anybody?

Yeah, how many chaotic people do we have in the house today?

How many pot stirrers do we have in the house today?

Anyone?

Yeah.

I'm gonna tell you this.

It's time to trade all that in and allow the Holy Spirit to start making you into a peacemaker.

And look, I'm glad you owned up to it because that's honest.

And how can we be real unless we're honest?

It has to start there.

But God, I'm not gonna be a troublemaker any longer.

I'm not gonna be a pot store.

That's not who I am.

Why?

Because I am the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You're walking in a different anointing, a different ball game.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You need to remind yourself that.

Ask yourself, what of fruit of the Holy Spirit do I need to work on?

And let continue to grow in my life.

You might say, I'm kind, but I need to work on my patience.

I'm good at loving, but my self-control needs work.

It's a good exercise, a good spiritual checkup, knowing that we reflect the Holy Spirit who is at work in us.

And it should be our desire to allow the Holy Spirit to shine through every work.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19, this is what we've been talking about.

1 Corinthians 6:19

This is our key verse, and I want to circle something here this morning.

And I believe, like I said, it's going to be life-changing for you.

Read this with me.

It says, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought for a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body.

Realize this.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Firstly, realize we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, from God, the Holy Spirit has been placed in you.

That's what the Scripture says.

But thirdly, it says this.

The Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own.

Can you say you are not your own?

Say it again, you are not your own.

Some people have a difficult time receiving this message because they don't want to belong to somebody else.

Some people have a difficult time thinking that they belong to somebody else.

They want to belong to themselves and themselves alone.

You hear things like, I want to be the master of my own destiny.

I want to be the master of my own future.

I want to be the captain of my own ship.

The problem with that is everybody needs to belong to somebody.

It's just the way it is.

You cannot escape.

This scripture outlines two types of children that we can be.

Are you ready for it?

In 1 John chapter 3, it says this, but this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

There's two types of children.

There's children of who?

There's children of.

And there's children of.

You get to pick which one you're going to be, but you're going to belong to somebody.

That's what Scripture says.

Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God.

Nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.

If that's who you are, you're not of God.

It's not me, it's not me being judgmental or critical.

I'm saying what Scripture says.

When Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, he outlines the same truth that we belong to either one father or the other.

In John chapter 8, you are your father, you are of your father, the devil.

John 8 · chapter mention

And you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whenever he tells you a lie, he speaks from his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies.

Whether you like it or not, from the very beginning, you belonged to somebody.

And when man chooses to sin, and we see this in the garden, there was a separation from God, thus disobedience, thus a transfer of covering, a transfer of ownership through our very own choices, because God gives us a free will.

When man chose to sin, there was a transfer of covering, a transfer of ownership.

But when Jesus dies on the cross, all access is restored and cleared back to our Heavenly Father, and we have a decision to make.

Whose ownership are we going to be under?

Will we be under the ownership of the evil one?

Like it says about Cain in 1 John chapter 3, when it says Cain, he was under the evil one.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

Or we can go through Jesus Christ, give our lives to Jesus Christ, be born again, and then we step into the covering again of our Heavenly Father, being recognized as children of God once again.

If we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that God raised Christ from the dead, we will be saved.

What do we say here?

We have been saved from all of that.

All of the mess, all of the things that the world, the enemy tries to put in your hands, put in your minds.

I remind myself all the time, Stephen, you've been saved from all that.

That is not your mess.

Why did Jesus die on the cross so you didn't have to go through that depression?

You've been saved from all of that.

You didn't have to deal with that addiction.

You've been saved from all that.

You didn't have to cope with all of these toxins in your hands and in your mouths.

I've been saved from all of that.

That's why Jesus died on the cross for me.

Realize you've been saved from the misery of being under the ownership of the evil one.

You've been saved from sin and the consequences of it.

In being saved, we realize we are not our own because we have been bought with a price, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ.

And this is big this morning.

God saw you as valuable.

Look at your neighbor and say, God sees you as valuable.

And even though you were dead in your transgressions, even though you were dead in your sin, God saw you as valuable and said, I want that life revived back again.

I want that spirit that is dead, I want it revived back again, and I am willing to give Jesus Christ in the blood of Christ.

He sent his son Jesus and his death as the once and for all payment, not to automatically take ownership of all humanity, but to those who choose to believe in Jesus.

We acknowledge that there was a price paid.

We surrender our lives to no longer being somebody else.

I am not the world's.

We need to understand this.

We are not our own.

We have been bought for a price.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 says this.

Ephesians 2:1

And you were dead in your offenses and sins, it's which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

That's not you anymore.

Among them, we too all previously lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature, we were children of wrath, could you believe it just as the rest?

But God, being rich in mercy because of his love for you, in which he loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, what did he do?

No longer are we dead in our offenses and sins, but he made us alive together with Christ.

He made us alive together with Christ.

And I said this: stop walking around like a dead man walking, that's not who you are, with this understanding that you are not your own.

This morning I want you to understand the benefit of this truth, that you are not your own.

You've been bought with a price.

How does this relate to us?

When it comes to ownership of something, most of us will base the way that we treat something on how much we paid for it.

How many know what I'm talking about?

If you pay peanuts for it, you don't really care.

If you pay big bucks for it, you care.

It's just the way that we're built.

If you buy a set of eight bowls from home goods for$6.99, you'd say, what a steal.

Mima is washing the dishes.

That's grandma.

Claudia's mom.

She's staying with us.

She's been such a blessing.

Mima's washing the dishes, accidentally drops one of the glass bowls in the sink and it breaks.

She didn't do this.

This is hypothetical.

She's watching at home.

Hi, Mima.

Mima drops a bowl in the sink.

Who cares?

I paid$6.99 for it.

We paid peanuts.

But you buy a crystal bowl at Swarvorski for$150, and Fira pulls it off the entry room table and it and it falls and it has this big chip in it.

Didn't happen, hypothetical.

But you pick it up and you cry a little bit.

You think I paid big bucks for this?

And now it's chipped.

Some of you might not understand that.

When you buy a used car for$5,000 and you go to Walmart and you find yourself squeezing in this tiny little parking spot because it's closer to the entrance, you come out and somebody scraped the side or dented, you're like, who cares?

I spent$5,000 on the car.

I could get dents all day, it doesn't matter.

You spend$50,000 on a car, you go to Walmart, and you're packing, you're parking in the furthest parking spot away from the door where no cars ever park.

Amen.

You go in the Walmart, you come out, and a carriage was blown into your car, and there's a big dent into it.

And what do you do?

You cry a lot, right?

This happened to me, and I don't want to take up time, but I was literally sitting in a parking lot.

It was the one at Chick-fil-A over in Warwick, like in front of the Michaels, and I was eating my Chick-fil-A sandwich, and the wind was blowing that day, and I'm sitting in the car, and I'm telling you from across the parking lot, the carriage was just riding right towards me.

And I'm like, what the car wasn't started.

I didn't know what to do, and I'm like, this thing's gonna hit me.

This thing's gonna hit me.

And I jumped, I dropped the sandwich, got out of the car, ran in front of the car.

Why?

Because I own the car and I find it valuable and I don't want anything bad to happen.

When I've spent money on something, I don't want to see a chip, I don't want to see a dent, I don't want to because I own it, I find it valuable.

When something is ours and we find value in it, what do we do?

We take care of it.

We're thoughtful, we paid a big price, we do our best to keep it safe and away from harm.

Luke chapter 2, you know this, tap chapter 12, verse 24.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Consider the ravens that they neither sow nor reap, they have no storeroom nor barn.

And could you imagine these ravens?

God feeds them.

How much more valuable you are than the birds?

God sees us as so valuable.

He sees us so valuable.

Could you imagine this?

There's so much value in that person.

I want to place my spirit inside of them.

That's how valuable you are.

That he would place his spirit within us.

Well, what does this mean?

We need to come to an understanding that God, if he desires to be, us to be valuable, he desires for us to be alive together with Christ.

Just as Christ walked out of the grave, God desires that same spirit that is now living inside of us to revive us back to life.

Romans chapter 8, 11, and we've said this a few times during the series.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Read this with me because it's important to get it in your spirit.

But if if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

You need to speak this over your life.

Because when you come to an understanding, a revelation, you realize if you're valuable and God has placed his spirit in you, you know what that means?

That God is the one who is sustaining you.

Nobody else.

God is the one that is restoring you through his spirit inside of you.

It is his spirited, it is his spirit who is protecting you.

Watch this.

It is his spirit within you that is healing you.

Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16, it says, Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outward person is decaying, what happens?

2 Corinthians 4:16

Our inner person is being renewed day by day by day by day.

Our inner person is being renewed day by day because the Holy Spirit has united with our dead spirit and is now reviving us back to life, renewing us day by day.

Remember, you were once dead in your trespasses, but we have been made alive.

You are so valuable to God, he would put his presence, his very presence inside of you.

The presence of the Holy Spirit to renew, to revive you despite your outward man decaying.

Yes, we get sick.

Yes, we experience pain.

Yes, we get symptoms, yes, we get diagnoses.

I don't know if it's diagnosis, diagnoses.

I just threw that in.

But realize this we get sick, but you are not your own.

You get a diagnosis, but you are not your own.

You have been bought for for a price, and the Holy Spirit is within you, renewing you day by day.

So although our earthly bodies will eventually fall apart, and they will realize this.

You are not finished with your assignment until God says you are finished with your assignment.

Because before he got involved in your situation, you were already dead.

Before he got involved in your situation, you were already dead.

But the spirit brought back life.

The spirit brings peace, the spirit brings truth, the spirit brings joy.

Could you imagine this?

The spirit inside of you is bringing healing to your bodies, even when you don't even realize it.

I'm a big believer on that.

You know how many sicknesses I believe God has just has healed me from, and I didn't even know about it.

How many things that were probably stirring and out of line inside of me?

I mean, uh, there I was a miracle baby, and I'll tell you that story another time, but I was a miracle baby.

There's things that are going on inside of you that you don't even realize that God is healing you.

And why would he do such a thing?

Because you are valuable and his very presence is living inside of you.

He desires to restore, he desires to heal, he desires to revive you, and you're not going anywhere.

And how does he desire to do this?

Realize this through the word of God.

Because what does it say in Proverbs chapter 17?

Proverbs 17 · chapter mention

A joyful heart is what?

A good medicine.

But you want to be a broken spirit all the time.

Guess what?

Your bones are gonna dry up.

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Maybe some of us should have been knocked out a long time ago, but by the Holy Spirit within us, he has brought healing, he has brought sustaining, he has brought a strengthening, even when the body continued to fall apart.

I know Brother Craig is a walking miracle.

And there's other walking miracles here.

In being the temple of the Holy Spirit, realize this not only do you carry peace, not only do you carry joy, but you carry the healing power of Almighty God.

That's what's going on in here.

That's what's going on in here.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead, that healing, resurrecting power, that is what's going on inside of here.

That's it, that is what is at work within you.

Realize this.

Why would God put this in you?

Because you are precious, you are valuable, and He wants you to live.

He wants you to live.

In chapter 8 of Romans, so then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according with the flesh, you are going to die.

That's what it says in Romans.

If you live according to the flesh, you're going to die.

And I see it all the time.

People who are only living their lives to gratify the flesh, the flesh, the flesh, you're gonna die.

But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, what does it say?

You're gonna live.

You get to choose.

You get to choose whether you're a child of the Father, Heavenly Father, or a child of the devil.

You get to choose if you're gonna die or if you're gonna live.

And we know that because his spirit has united with ours.

Because his spirit has united with ours, life does not end even when we give our last breath on earth.

But in our physical death, our spirit goes to heaven and awaits our resurrected bodies, and we continue to live in all the glory that has been prepared for us.

God desires for us to live.

It is God's desire for us to be alive together with Christ.

It's God's desire for us to live.

Why are we preaching this this morning?

Why is God telling us this this morning?

Because we can get stuck in the deterioration of our bodies, we can get stuck in the deterioration of this world.

But realize God desires for you to live.

So you continue to live.

You continue to chase after the things of God.

Not the things of the flesh, because you're gonna die.

Chase after the things of the spirit.

Chase after the things of the spirit.

I think it's important that we're taking communion today because all of this stuff that we're talking about was only made possible after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because we should be dead.

But Jesus died in our place so that we could take his life and apply it to ours.

And now because he lives, we live.