Today's focus in our Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll series is Drugs.  Come to worship and see that eliminating the use of legal and illegal drugs from our lives is only part of the solution to living fully in the power of Jesus.  The focus Scriptures for the week come from the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and Luke's Gospel.  For this morning let's look at 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:  ¹⁹Don’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, ²⁰for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 

What an amazing and important truth:  Our bodies are "temples" of the Holy Spirit AND we belong to God, since He paid such a high price for us--the life of His only Son, Jesus Christ!  As we live each day, we live as those who belong to someone else.  That's why the Apostle Paul called himself a SLAVE of Jesus Christ in the introduction to most of his letters to the churches.  Paul wanted to remind his readers, and I believe he wanted to remind himself that he truly was NOT his own.  He belonged to Jesus.  Jesus died and shed his innocent blood so we may live full, abundant and victorious lives.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 may be the single, best expression of whose we are as Jesus' followers.  We are HIS!  Before we engage in ANY activity in our lives, we must not only ask Pastor Brad's question:  Is it good for me? (Which is a great question!) We must also remember:  I belong to Jesus.  I am called to honor Him with my life.  My body is a TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit.  Wow!  When we remember that, what a different approach we'll have to every activity in our lives.  When it comes to drug use, whether the drugs are legal or illegal, we'll know that ingesting, injecting, drinking, or snorting them is not for us--because we want to keep our temple pure for Jesus.

Throughout the week, we'll be looking at not only what we ought not do as Jesus' followers, but what we must do in order to live fully and faithfully in Him!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, Thank You so much for Your faithfulness to us!  Thank You for the greatest gift of all--for Jesus purchasing our lives from death and making us temples of the Holy Spirit!  Fill us anew with Your Spirit right now, that we may not only avoid the negatives that come to us in live, but that we will live fully and faithfully for You.  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.