3 John 1:2 is a greeting that wishes good health for body and soul and is a great summary verse for this sermon.

It is wrong to have too low a view of your body (1 Corinthians 6:13, 15, 19-20). … Having a low view for the body leads to us hurting our bodies and treating them with disrespect. Doing those things leads to sin such as sexual immorality. Paul tells us to have higher views and gives reasons why we should have a higher view of our bodies. One of these reasons is that our bodies are temples where the Holy Spirit resides.

It is wrong to have too high a view of your body (1 Timothy 4:8; Matthew 16:26). … Going to the other extreme is dangerous too. We like to look good and often put in time to make sure we do. We are told that physical training has some importance but that “godliness is important in all things.” Working hard to be in great shape might lead to you being the next great athlete and making millions of dollars, but that value is nothing compared to the value of your soul. Don’t forfeit your soul just for material; gains.

Materialists believe the body is all there is, but Christians believe every person has a spirit or soul (Psalm 42:1; Matthew 10:28). The Bible uses these two words interchangeably. … The Bible is clear that we have a body and soul. Jesus warns us that we should fear the One who can destroy both instead of only our body.

When you die, your soul leaves your body (John 19:30). If you have believed in Jesus, your soul goes to Heaven (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:6, 8). … Jesus “gave up His spirit” when He died on the cross. His soul left His body. The criminal who believed in Jesus also had his soul go to Paradise when he died. This tells us that the soul leaves the body upon death and does not wait for the second coming.

God will save our bodies as well as our souls (Romans 8:23; Luke 24:36-43; Philippians 3:20-21). … God will resurrect our bodies. Our bodies will be redeemed. These imperfect bodies that are prone to sickness, cancer, aging, injuries, and other troubles will be raised in a glorified form. This is what happened to Jesus and is what will happen to us upon His second coming. Jesus had a physical body; He had hands and feet and He ate and drank. One day He will return and our souls will return to our bodies, now in their glorified form.

Do you find yourself on either end of the spectrum? Do you neglect your body or treat it with disrespect? Or do you make it an idol and do everything you can to perfect it at the cost of your soul? Do you fear those who can only destroy your body or the One who can destroy both body and soul more? Do you know where you will go when you die?

Do you think people are basically good or basically bad? There was a man and woman who quit their jobs to travel the world for a year in order to prove that evil is a make-believe concept and that people are basically good. Sadly, they were killed in Isis territory.

The concept of sin is disappearing in our society and not just in secular society, but also in the church. Joel Olsteen, the most watched pastor right now, admittedly never talks about sin. The term ‘sin’ appears nearly a thousand times in the Bible. It is obviously a big deal. It is not something to be taken lightly or forgotten.

In Genesis 2:16-17 God gave a commandment, and ultimately a choice, to Adam. Adam could choose to obey God or disobey God.

What is the origin of our sin problem? Genesis 3:1-19) … A talking serpent---the fallen angel Satan--tempted Eve by questioning what God said. The devil likes to make us question what God has told us with His commands and promises. Eve gave in and Adam didn’t stop her, but also ate of the fruit. As a result, sin entered the world and broke the world. With sin came pain and suffering. With sin came evil.

What is the extent of our sin problem? (Romans 3:10-12, 23) …. Paul doesn’t mince words here. He tells us sin is a universal problem. We’re all sinners. It’s a universal problem. If this were an old western, we’d all be wearing black hats. If we were all hackers, we’d all be wearing black hats. None of us would even own a white hat.

What is the magnitude of our sin problem? (Jeremiah 7:19) … We can’t fix it. The elected officials won’t be able to put an end to sin. (But you should still vote.) We can’t even fix our own sin.

• Our sin is internal

• Our sin is incurable

• Our sin is irrational

What are the implications of our sin problem? 1 Corinthians 10:12) … A Biblical understanding of sin should lead to us putting up some boundaries in our lives. If we have appropriate boundaries set up and respect them even when we are at our best, it will be easier to avoid sin.

What is the solution to our sin problem? (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Acts 3:19; Ephesians 4:22-24) … The solution is a radical change. We must repent from our sins and look to God and align our desires with His. Once we do that, our old desires for sin are replaced by the desires that God has for us. … We are always going to struggle with sin, but as we grow as Christians, our old, sinful nature should continue to shrink as our new, righteous nature takes its place.

In Psalm 51 David acknowledges his sin before God and seeks mercy. He knows he was a sinner from birth just like the rest of us and needs God’s help to get out of sin.

God sovereignly gives the gift of gender to us (Genesis 1:27). … God created the first people male and female.

There are many people who identify as the opposite gender of what they were given by God. Some even identify as somewhere in between. This is something seems to be more relevant in big cities, but even in our smaller city, there are people struggling with this issue. It is something that we need to address as Christians.

What should you do if you are experiencing gender confusion? Submit your feelings to your body rather than trying to submit your body to your feelings. Jesus can help you (Galatians 2:20). … Feelings are imperfect and can often lead to misguided actions. They are not something you should use as a guiding force in your life.

We are called to love and respect everyone. Some advocates of the LGBTQ+ community will say that denying part of who people identify as is hate, not love or respect. They seem to fail to understand that we can still love and respect the individual person even though we do not approve of part of their personal identity.

Based on this gift of gender, God gave the blueprint for intimacy between the sexes (Genesis 2:4). God’s plan is for the good gift of sex to be expressed between one man and one woman in a committed relationship, exclusive relationship (Matthew 19:4-5). All other expressions of sexual intimacy are outside of God’s will.

Questions from our high school students:

1. Will gays and lesbians go to Heaven? (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 John 3:9) … Paul addresses this issue. He lists groups of people who will not “inherit the Kingdom of God” and the list includes gays. That’s not the end though. Pauls goes on to say that it is possible for people in these groups to be saved if they repent of their sin. What about those who claim to be Christians but continue to live their sinful life as before? 1 John 3:9 tells us one of the signs of a person being born again is change. Born again christians will show evidence of their faith by living a life in accordance with God’s will.

2. I’m still friends with gay people. Is that ok? (1 Corinthians 5:9-12) … Paul tells us that we shouldn’t associate with immoral people inside the church, immoral people who claim to be transformed christians. However, he says it’s ok to associate, to be friends, with non-believers who fall in these categories. Even Jesus associated with people who were different from Him and didn’t live in accordance with God’s will. Paul also tells us that we aren’t to judge those outside the church, but we should judge who claim to be Christians.

This starts a new series that will focus on the doctrine that covers what we believe about people. Throughout Christian history we have had to defend our beliefs. Different time periods have focused more on a specific doctrine to attack. Now it is the doctrine of man that seems to be under attack more than others.

To be created in the image of God means:

• We relate to God.

• We reflect God’s glory.

• We rule over God’s creation.

Genesis 1:26

This verse tells us that we are made in God’s image, all of us. Because of that, we can relate to God in a way no other beings can. We reflect His glory like a mirror reflecting an image. God put humans over all other creation, and one way we reflect God’s glory is to rule over the Earth.

Psalm 8:1-8

Psalm 139:13-14

All humans are valuable. … We are all created in the Image of God and are equal. We have intrinsic worth because we reflect God’s glory and are created in His image.

• All races are valuable. … Race does not matter. Color does not matter. “Red, brown, yellow, black, or white, they are precious in His sight!”

• Unborn children are valuable. … We can use scientific instruments to see that the fetus in the womb is not simply a clump of cells, but a very small human. The argument in support of allowing abortion used to be that they weren’t human, but now it has shifted to “they aren’t a person.” That’s a slippery slope to get on. At what point do we decide disabled or elderly people aren’t “persons” and take away their rights based on the same reasoning that a fetus isn’t a “person”?

• Disabled and elderly people are valuable. … Even people who might not be able to be productive are valuable.

Genesis 9:1-6

Some people advocate for animals to have equal rights to humans. Some even say that humans who have mental diffencisies should have some of their rights taken away, putting them below these animals. The Bible clearly tells us that Humans have been put over all other inhabitants of the Earth and this is not something to be changed. … Some say that because we value life so much that we should always be against war. However, the Bible makes it clear that life is so valuable, sometimes life must be taken to protect it.

James 3:9

We praise God with our mouths and sometimes we slip and curse humans who were made in God’s image. That’s something we can work on. We shouldn’t be cursing other humans. No matter what they’ve done, they are valuable and need to be respected because they were created in God’s image.

If we really want to know what it means to be made in the image of God, we must look at Jesus (Colossians 1:15).

• He perfectly relates to God.

• He perfectly reflects God’s glory.

• He will completely rule God’s creation.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Even though we were made in God’s image, it is still possible to grow and become more like Him.