Your Body Is a Temple by Doug Schmidt

Lesson 6 / July 6, 2014

Your Body Is a Temple By Doug Schmidt

Lesson 6 Lesson 6 Lesson 6 Focus: Bible Basis: Memory Verse: Honor God by keeping 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple your body pure. of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? —1 Corinthians 6:19

Students will discuss what it means to say that your body is God’s temple and how we can keep it pure.

OPENING ACTIVITY: Waiting

Describe the most annoying waiting experience you’ve ever had—at the bank, the checkout line, or in traffic. What made the experience so irritating? Why is waiting often so difficult?

This week’s article talks about another kind of waiting—remaining pure until marriage.

OPENING STORY: [read it aloud to your class, or make copies and pass it around]

IT’S WORTH THE WAIT

Meagan Good, popular actress from the TV show Deception and the movies Think Like a Man and Think Like A Man Too, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk about her future book on abstinence that she’s writing with her Hollywood producer and husband DeVon Franklin (who is also a pastor).

“We’re writing a book; it’s called The Wait,” she told talk Kimmel. “I had been in a couple relationships and I was like, ‘You know, this isn’t really working for me.’ I wanted to do something different.”

The 32-year-old Christian actress explained to Kimmel why she made the decision to remain abstinent prior to marriage: “Spiritually, I believe it’s what I should have done, and so, I was like, ‘You know, I’m going to try it this way.’ ”

Franklin and Good married in 2012 after a courtship that appeared in many of the celebrity news columns. She made it clear that celibacy while they were dating was a part of their commitment to one another. “It was very different and it’s been amazing,” Good told Kimmel. “My husband-to-be didn’t want to get up on the pulpit and do his thing and not be doing what he was saying.”

Although some may believe it would be simple to write a book about waiting before marriage to engage in sexual activity, Meagan insisted that was not the case. “You’d be surprised. Obviously, we all know that it’s tough, but there were tricks that we learned that actually helped,” she said. “One of them was parting ways, when it’s time to part ways. If you feel like it’s getting too hot and heavy, you just have to walk [away].”

Last year, Franklin also spoke up about the book and why it was important. “It’s that waiting period where we really get the most anxiety and the most frustration,” he said, “so we’re going to be writing a book that will address that, and we believe we’ll be very helpful.”

Franklin and Good are only two of a number of celebrities who have publicly stated they will remain pure until marriage. Another is Angela Zatopek, the star (and winner) of the NBC reality show Ready for Love, which featured professional matchmakers helping three bachelors choose from a pool of 36 bachelorettes. At the end of the show, each bachelor choose the bachelorette he liked best and was sent on a magical fantasy vacation with that woman. Zatopek said she was the only one of the 36 single women who was still chaste.

“A lot of young girls are pressured to be physical,” she said. “We should guard our hearts for the right person. I know God has somebody great out there for me and I still held on to my values. And that’s why you wait.”

Others who have announced they are “waiting” are Megan Alexander of Inside Edition, Chelsie Hightower of Dancing with the Stars, and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow.

[Now form small groups to answer these questions.]

Ø What is the importance of waiting until marriage to have sexual relations?

Ø What other things may we do that make our bodies impure?

Ø What leads people to do such things?

Ø What does keeping our bodies pure have to do with honoring God?

(When you are finished with the questions, go on to Step 2 in your Adult Teacher’s Guide.)

News Sources http://www.christianpost.com/news/meagan-good-talks-the-wait-abstinence-book-121515 http://waitingtillmarriage.org/

Lesson 6 / July 6, 2014

Your Body Is a Temple

Paul’s admonitions to the Corinthians focused on sex outside of marriage, but we also know that any time we abuse our bodies we are damaging others—especially those who know and love us. The resulting physical, mental, and spiritual damage is always more than we expected. We will live with—and die from—the bad decisions we make when we forget are bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit.

Besides sex outside of marriage, bad habits, impure thoughts, foul language, and a steady diet of coarse and off-color media will desecrate the place where God wants to live in us. Those sins keep us from honoring God with our bodies.

[Activity]

Ø How are you honoring God with your body? How are you not?

Ø Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you “clean up and throw out” whatever you are allowing to clutter up His temple.

Close the class in prayer. Thank God that the Holy Spirit will help steer us away from impure thoughts and actions and pray that everyone will honor God with their bodies this week and every week.

(We are not affiliated with and do not endorse any website or any other media listed on these pages. At the time of writing, we carefully review the referenced material and non-referenced web page content. However, due to the nature of the Internet, non-cited content on the website [including pop-ups, links, and ads] changes frequently and is beyond our control. Please review carefully before showing links in the classroom.)

THE BIBLE IN THE NEWS A professor at the Talbot School of Theology warns that biblical illiteracy in America is reaching a “crisis point”: http://www.christianpost.com/news/biblical-illiteracy-in-us-at-crisis-point-says-bible-expert- 121626/