Week 5- Honoring God With Your Body
MONDAY — Read the passage with your team.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
Romans 12:1
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-6a
What does this passage have to say about honor?
Why is that important?
TUESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.
1) Romans 12:1 urges you to do what? For what reasons should you do this? The verse does not specifically mention the word “honor,” but what similar words are used? What is the purpose of your “spiritual act of worship”?
2) Discuss with your team what the command to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices” (v. 1) means. Does honoring God with your body require you to sacrifice anything? How, specifically, does an athlete honor God with his body?
WEDNESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.
3) 1 Corinthians 6:20 directly commands you to honor God in what way? passage you are specifically told to honor God in what way? Why is this instruction not optional? Why aren’t you permitted to treat and use your body however you want (v. 19)?
4) How should a recognition that the Holy Spirit dwells inside you affect your attitude toward the physical part of your self? What responsibility do you bear? Do you have any reason to be angry that God has claimed your body as His own? Does our culture generally believe that “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” and is “not your own”? What does our culture believe, and what actions and attitudes reflect that belief?
5) Does an athlete have a special calling to honor God with his body? How do you care for your body differently that you might if you weren’t seeking to honor God?
THURSDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.
6) In what specific way should you honor God with your body, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4? After what is a person who engages in sexual immorality lusting? After what is he not lusting (v. 5)? Do you only dishonor God if you engage in sexual immorality, or is anyone else affected, as well (v. 6)?
7) Scripture is very clear about sexual immorality, and many people today do not honor God in this way. Do you think prominent athletes are more vulnerable to this kind of dishonor, or do we just hear more stories about their immorality because they are “in the public eye”? Should you care what an athlete does in his own personal life? Should each person be able to live however he wants, as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else? (Remember what 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 teaches.)
FRIDAY — Discuss sport applications of honor, and pray together.
· Ask your athletes to briefly reflect on what they’ve learned about honor this week, and to repeat some of those things. (Remind them of some of the Biblical truths about honor you’ve discussed, if necessary.)
· Ask your team, “Based on what we learned about honor this week...What does an honorable athlete do?” Do not settle for vague answers; challenge your athletes to go beyond general qualities of an honorable athlete, and to determine what those qualities look like in action.
· Add the results to your team’s list of descriptions of the “honorable athlete”, and be sure the list is displayed somewhere that is constantly visible, as a reminder to the team.
· Pray together as a team. Encourage your athletes to pray for your team’s growth in regard to the discipline of honor — especially in relation to some of the issues and challenges that you discussed together this week. Challenge them to also ask for forgiveness, when applicable. Give time for athletes to request prayer (regarding honor or anything else), and pray together.
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