Sacred Temples: Honoring God with Our Bodies

Series Kickoff: Soul Restoration: Body, Mind, Spirit
Week 1 Title: "Sacred Temples: Honoring God with Our Bodies"
Date: January 5, 2025
Featured Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT) – "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."

1. Introduction

Illustration:
Three-legged Stool illustration: Pastor Harold holds up a three-legged stool and asks, "What happens when one leg is broken or missing?" Demonstrate how it wobbles or collapses. Explain that our lives are like this stool, with body, mind, and spirit as the legs. Neglect one, and everything becomes unbalanced.

Transition:
The world bombards us with distorted views of the body, often leading to shame, neglect, or idolization. But God offers a different perspective—our bodies are sacred, created with love and purpose to honor Him.

Main Point:
God values your body as His temple. He invites you to care for it, not as an object of perfection but as a vessel of worship and purpose.

2. God's View of the Body

Talking Point 1: God designed your body with care and purpose.

• Scripture Insight: Genesis 1:27 (NLT) – "So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
• Illustration: Show a photo of a newborn baby and discuss how parents marvel at the intricate design of their child. God sees us with the same awe, as His creation. (Show photo of baby)
• Quote: John Calvin said, "We are not our own: we are God's. Let us therefore live for Him and die for Him." This truth applies to how we view and use our bodies.

Talking Point 2: Our culture distorts God's perspective of the body.

• The world often ties worth to appearance, leading to shame, eating disorders, or self-harm.
• Example: Pastor Harold shares a statistic: "According to the National Eating Disorders Association, over 28 million Americans will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime."
• Illustration: Tell a story about someone struggling with body shame due to societal pressures but finding freedom by embracing God's view of them. (Rebecca Turner, read her interview at the bottom)
• Quote: Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted, "The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one's life toward a goal." This insight reminds us to align our physical lives with God's purpose.

Talking Point 3: God calls us to honor our bodies as temples.

• Scripture Insight: Romans 12:1 (NLT) – "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable."
• Illustration: Pastor Harold shares the story of Joni Eareckson Tada, who, despite being a quadriplegic, honors God with her life and encourages others to see their worth beyond physical limitations. (Review video of her testimony) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVXJ8GyLgt0 
• Quote: St. Augustine taught, "Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever, and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow."

3. Challenges with the Body

Examples of Struggles:

1. Diet and Nutrition: Poor eating habits lead to chronic illness. Quote Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
2. Illness and Disability: Chronic diseases and physical limitations can feel like barriers, but God works through weakness.
• Quote: Charles Spurgeon said, "Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God's love glitters all the more brightly."
3. Body Shame and Self-Harm: Cultural standards often distort our self-image. Remind the congregation of Psalm 139:14 (NLT): "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it."

Illustration:
Tell the story of someone who overcame struggles with body shame through faith, realizing their worth as a child of God. (Review video of Ms. J) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9GxKAm7RN4&t=

4. Summary and Conclusion

Key Takeaway:
Your body is sacred because God created it, dwells in it, and works through it. He calls you to honor it—not to chase perfection but to live with purpose and gratitude.

Hopeful Invitation:
Your appearance, abilities, or limitations do not define you. God sees you as His beloved creation. Surrender your struggles—whether shame, illness, or neglect—and embrace the freedom of seeing your body as God's temple.

Call to Action:
Invite the band to return for worship. Encourage anyone ready to surrender their struggles or recommit to living a Jesus-centered life to come forward for prayer.

5. Closing Jesus-Centered Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank You for the incredible gift of our bodies, fearfully and wonderfully made in Your image. Forgive us for the times we've neglected or shamed what You created. Help us to see our bodies as temples designed to glorify You. Teach us to honor You in how we care for ourselves, rejecting the world's lies and embracing Your truth. Heal those who feel broken or ashamed, and fill us with Your Spirit so we may live fully for Your glory. In Your precious name, we pray, Amen.

Message by Rebecca Turner

Using print, TV, and radio, Rebecca Turner translates the complex world of nutrition into understandable, achievable concepts. Her most recent book release, "Enjoy Good Health: A Faith-Based Approach to Personal Wellness," combines her food expertise with her Christian faith to help you live life healthy based on God's Word, not the world's standards. Purchase all her books on Amazon and connect with her online at RebeccaTurnerNutrition.com.

When asked, "What led you to the field of nutrition?" I always respond that I find it incredibly empowering that, to some extent, you can control your health by your food and beverage choices. But starting around my junior year of college, my curiosity to learn all I could about how food affects the body slowly morphed into an obsession to control every calorie to achieve outward perfection. I no longer chose foods based on good health but rather as leverage to gain external validation. While I looked healthy on the outside, I was held captive in body-image bondage, and it took Jesus to set me free. 

     When I got engaged to my now-husband of almost 14 years, I realized my pursuit of the perfect diet had morphed into disordered eating. I sobbed when I realized I'd need to eat cake in front of guests. It seems absurd, but to those who gain self-worth based on self-discipline with food, letting go of control can be crippling. There were other red flags, but that was the icing on the cake, and things needed to change. 

     I grew up in church. My grandfather was a pastor, and I spent Sunday nights and summers involved in youth activities. During a youth retreat in middle school, I made it official and asked Jesus into my heart. Sadly, my faith story reads like many who go off to college and leave Him behind. Looking back, I know the God-sized hole in my self-esteem was the open door Satan needed to suck me into the black hole of validating myself with diets and a scale. 

     The Bible tells us that Jesus never leaves or forsakes us, and as He pursued the lost sheep, God pursued me. During marathon training, I started reconnecting to sacred stillness while running alone. Running, and later weightlifting, became the catalyst I needed to respect my body for what it could do when adequately fueled and when late-night parties were avoided. But even though God was back in my life, He still wasn't first. My struggle for self-acceptance continued. 

     As with many couples, conceiving our first child wasn't a cakewalk. So when we found out we were expecting, I was determined to put the baby's needs before mine. I got baptized on Christmas Day 2011 and spent the rest of that pregnancy trying to fix my priorities. Without question, I am the kindest to myself and enjoy the healthiest relationship with food while pregnant. I've had the privilege of two healthy pregnancies, and both gestations were body and mind game-changers. But the world isn't kind to postpartum moms, and it's easy to get trapped in the idea that your body must bounce back or risk losing validation. I fell into that trap twice. 

     I understood Christians were to do everything, including eating and drinking, for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). But I was living a double life. I desired to worship Jesus wholeheartedly, but I used all my extra energy to chase the world's standard of wellness. For decades, I tried to serve both masters and failed. Finally, God opened my eyes to see that food wasn't my enemy and that perfecting my body wasn't His ultimate purpose for my life. Instantly, my relationship with Christ blossomed.

     I began to connect the dots that neither Satan nor Christ cared about my weight, but both cared because I cared. Like Paul, I had a thorn, a messenger from Satan; it was self-image for me. Today, I recognize that my struggles with food and self-acceptance have always been an invitation from Jesus to lean on Him. When I am weak, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). Even when I'm not physically pregnant, I am a carrier of the Holy Spirit, and caring for my body is a form of worship and respect to the One who resides there (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

     In my life today, daily prayer, paired with practicing self-compassion, has brought about inner peace and a feeling of actual well-being, which was missing when I was chronically dieting. As a nutritionist, I'm still in awe of the healing power of eating well and exercising, but it must be rooted in gratitude for the One who created it all. Godly wellness is a form of worship. And when old mindsets of body comparison or food anxieties arise, that's my signal to pray and praise more, not diet harder.