Church in the Wild
Week 15: Sex and the Resurrection
Pastor Rick Henderson April 11-12, 2026
Note: This manuscript isn’t a transcript of the sermon, but a planning guide showing what the speaker intends to say.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
I’m the kind of dad who geeks out on unexpected, maybe unconventional ways to parent. That’s probably why this story grabbed me. At a family camp, each dad was supposed to lead his child through the woods while the kiddo was blindfolded. Before they started, every dad gave their child three truths to remember.
- You can always trust my voice.
- I will never leave you.
- You can ask me anything.
They repeated that to each other as they got ready for the challenge.
The walk through the woods began with the dad’s hands on the child’s shoulders. But then the leaders said, “Dads, take your hands off.” That’s when it got interesting. Maybe this story feels like an insurance claim waiting to happen.
Kids started to feel lost. Camp counselors came up and said, “I can lead you to your dad. Do you want to follow me?” And of course, the kids did—only to be led into a ditch or stuck behind a big tree. Eventually, one girl, realizing she’d been misled, just blurted out, “Dad, are you still there?” From close by, her dad called back, “I’m still here.” The dad who I heard tell this story said he was crying like a baby when she asked that. His daughter realized this: just because she stopped listening to his voice didn’t mean he left her. He was ready to lead her if she was ready to trust.
For some of you, a story about dads and trust stirs up pain. I get that; my relationship with my own dad was complicated and often hurtful. If you need to, imagine someone you do trust in that role. But don’t miss the point: real life is not that different. All of us can tell stories of trusting the wrong voices, thinking they had our best interests in mind, and ending up somewhere we never wanted to go.
I want to be upfront about the role I hope I get to play in your life. I’m not the dad in this illustration, but I would love to be a cheerleader for you—someone who keeps rooting for you and reminding you that you have a heavenly Father who says, “You can always trust my voice. I will never leave you. You can ask me anything.”
Today, we’re going to walk through a passage that presses on one of the most personal, sometimes painful and confusing areas of life—our sexuality. Buckle up. We’re talking about sex, but even more urgent than that, we’re talking about which voices we trust with our bodies and the kind of people we are becoming.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
Pay attention to what is in quotations. Paul is quoting back to them slogans they live by. These were the voices they trusted.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
This passage holds out a view of our bodies and sex that’s very different from the messaging we most often get. Maybe reading this passage felt like this:
SLIDE: (Picture of a cozy scene next to a picture of a boxer getting punched in the face)
Maybe it’s cozy and comforting, matching what you want or how you’re trying to live. Maybe it landed like this, and nothing about it feels comfortable. Whether you’re here [Pointing to screen] or here [Pointing to screen], or somewhere in between—we owe it to ourselves to acknowledge something.
How we’re INTRODUCED to sex often becomes how we DEFINE it.
Some of us desperately need to hear this truth. You didn’t choose how you were introduced to sex. Somebody else made that decision for you. Some of you had loving adults who carefully and intentionally introduced you to sex. They had your best interest in mind, and they prepared you for a sex life that would be healthy, shame-free, and life-giving.
Some of you didn’t have that. You were introduced in a way that wasn’t careful, that didn’t have your best interest in mind. It was unhealthy and left you holding the bag of shame and regret. Whatever you hear next from me today—it is not a message of shame. I’m a cheerleader for your health, thriving, and wisdom. And if we’re going to be healthy, happy, and wise—eventually we must have an honest conversation with ourselves about how we were introduced to sex. The healthier and happier your background, the easier that is. If you have regret, shame, or abuse in your background, it’s not as easy. You might even need the careful assistance of a good therapist as part of your spiritual formation, and if I’m talking to you, you should not feel shame, stigma, or insecurity about that.
We can’t go back and edit how we were introduced to sex, and we can’t unwind the ways that introduction has shaped how we see our bodies and our choices today. But in Jesus, we are not stuck with that script.
We don’t get to choose what algorithm we START in, but we get to choose if we STAY in.
We were born into a culture that bombards us with nonstop sexual imagery and messaging. That collective messaging functions like an algorithm that not only steers us in a certain direction—it shapes us. It shapes the stories we hear. Which means that the algorithm is also shaping the stories of the people in our relationship circles. Which results in a kind of echo chamber. And it saturates the environment we are in.
Here’s a thought experiment. What would it take to be born in the age of social media and smartphones and make it to age 21 without ever once being exposed to pornography? Is that even possible? My goal as a dad wasn’t to keep my kids from being exposed to porn. That’s an unrealistic pipe dream. My goal was to delay their exposure for as long as possible and then to be their ally as they had to navigate a pornographic world.
This algorithm that we all started in, that none of us chose, it nurtures habits that lead people to engage in sex for all kinds of reasons.
In the sexual algorithm of American culture, your reasons for sex don’t matter much as long as you have one foundation: consent. In that script, what makes sex right or wrong isn’t your motives, and it isn’t love—it’s consent.
This is where I’m asking you to listen carefully. Consent is absolutely essential—sexual activity of any kind without consent is always wrong. It’s criminal. I’m not downgrading consent. I’m saying consent alone is not enough.
Consent protects the moment, but it doesn’t answer for the future. Consent can say yes to pleasure right now, but it can’t guarantee commitment, take responsibility for a child, or secure the other person’s long‑term good and dignity.
Consent tells me what I’m allowed to do. Love asks what is truly best for the other and for me, even if that puts limits on me. But in the way of Jesus, even love and consent sit on a deeper foundation. The vision Jesus gives for sex is built on one profound reality that includes consent, includes love, and pulls in all the good things our hearts are longing for.
In the way of Jesus, the foundation for all sexual activity is covenant.
We’re going to follow along with the Apostle Paul as he deconstructs the sexual algorithm of the Corinthain church. I think it will help us better understand our own. And believe it or not, he’s going to take us down a path that draws a straight line from our sex lives to the resurrection. Here we go.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
You’re a smart crowd. You know this.
CAN ≠ SHOULD
You can drink a bucket of paint. Probably not a good idea. There are two kinds of people who live only in the world of “What can I do?” The first are naïve people. That’s not an insult; it just means they don’t yet have enough life experience to be wise. That’s how we all start, and we must mature and develop from that toward wisdom.
The other kind are fools. They have enough life experience to be wise, but they laugh off wisdom—they shrug it away. This is the person who’s had time, instruction, and experience, but still isn’t motivated to be mature. They’re driven by the path of least resistance.
Those are the people who only ask, “What can I do?” People who want to be wise—people who want competence with the realities, responsibilities, and opportunities of life—also ask, “What should I do?”
Paul is talking to people who are very proud of what they can do, and he’s trying to grow them up into people who ask what they should do.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.”
Their algorithm treated sex as just another appetite and life as a vapor. So, you might as well indulge as much as you want while you can. That doesn’t sound very different from modern messaging, does it?
No appetite is ever FULLY or FINALLY satisfied.
Appetites, by nature, don’t have a built‑in “enough” setting. When you feed them, they grow, they expand, and they come back wanting more. How many times have you eaten till you felt sick, but a few hours later you’re back in the pantry? No experience or moment of gratification ever finally shuts an appetite down for good; it just quiets it for a time and often expands the desire. If you believe an appetite can be fully and finally satisfied out there—one more click, one more encounter, one more swipe, one more partner—you will keep making unwise, even self‑destructive decisions chasing a finish line that doesn’t exist.
Our sexual desires are good, God‑given realities that must be ordered, constrained, and sometimes starved, never obeyed. And that brings us to this.
If we’re more than just MATTER, what we do MATTERS.
If you’re just a collection of atoms, then your body is basically a rental car for your appetites—drive it however you want and drop it off when you’re done. But Paul won’t let the Corinthians, or us, believe that. You are more than just matter; you are a someone, not a something. And if you’re more than just matter, what you do with your body, with your sexuality, with your choices, really does matter—not because God is a killjoy, but because he is fiercely committed to your good, your joy, and who you are becoming.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:13-15 The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?
The resurrection compels not just our BELIEF, but our BODIES.
If Jesus walked out of a grave in a real, physical body, then God has already told you what he thinks about bodies—he’s not throwing them away. The resurrection means your body isn’t just a temporary container for your beliefs or your soul. So when Paul says, “The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body,” he’s saying your body has a tied to Jesus’ body. We could debate what that means and maybe it’s beyond my ability to explain.
If you are a follower of Jesus, you are in Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are part of his body, the church, and you are a physical ambassador of this reality, publicly and privately. Paul is leading them and us to see that if we follow Jesus, we are part of something bigger than ourselves, and we don’t get to compartmentalize which parts of us belong to that story and which parts don’t.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:15-17 Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
I want you to notice what this doesn’t say and what the thought line doesn’t do. It doesn’t demean the prostitute. Instead of saying this is wrong because you had sex with a person of lesser value—instead of that it raises the value of your body, and it raises the value of the other person’s body to bring us eye-to-eye with this truth.
Sex is physical, but it’s never JUST physical.
In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul refuses to let us treat sex like it’s just two bodies doing something in private, like a recreational activity with no lasting impact. He says that in sex there is a “one flesh” union, and for people who are in Christ, that means you’re dragging Jesus into whatever you do with your body. Sex is absolutely physical—God made it that way—but it isn’t just physical. It forges a bond, it writes something on your soul, it shapes how you see yourself and other people.
That’s why casual sex is never casual. That’s why any sexual activity outside of the covenant of marriage is handled with such weight, and why God cares so deeply about how we express our sexuality. He’s not trying to ruin our fun; he’s trying to protect something far more profound than we usually realize.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
You are a physical INTERSECTION of the natural and the supernatural.
When Paul calls your body a “temple of the Holy Spirit,” he’s saying you are not just a walking meat suit with a Jesus‑shaped belief system. You are a living overlap of heaven and earth. In Christ, the Spirit of God has taken up residence in your very physicality—your hands, your eyes, your sexuality, your everyday life. This means you are a physical intersection of the natural and the supernatural.
You wake up in a natural body, drink natural coffee, and go to a natural job, but you do all of that as someone in whom the supernatural Spirit of God dwells. That’s why what you do with your body is never merely biological or psychological; it’s always spiritual, because wherever you go, the intersection goes with you.
I may owe you an apology for not teaching this in a way that’s clear. If it wasn’t me, allow me to apologize for the pastors in your past who weren’t able to make this clear. I want to be candid and talk honestly. Before I do, I want you to trust that I’m not mad. And yet, I do have a burdened and hopeful heart.
People think that the most difficult sex conversations I have as a pastor must be with people who are upset because we don’t affirm an LGBT lifestyle. That’s not the most difficult conversation—not even close. The most difficult conversations for me are with Christian couples who are engaged, and they’ve been living according to the sexual algorithm of our culture.
It breaks my heart when a couple is surprised to learn that we don’t marry couples who claim to be followers of Jesus and are living together and sexually active. And it’s not because we are condemning them. If I’m talking about you, I’m not condemning you. If you consider me your pastor, I owe it to you to hold up a vision of the way of Jesus that extends beyond a ceremony and into a covenant. Your first covenant is with Jesus. The covenant with your spouse is built on that covenant.
Stay with me. Of course, of course, we will partner with and celebrate with any couple who wants to break up with the old algorithm and move forward, following the authority and lordship of Jesus. But it breaks my heart that so many couples in the church are surprised by that.
And if that’s you, I need you to hear this: this is not the end of your story. It’s not a scarlet letter. In Jesus, the script can change.
We don’t get to choose what algorithm we START in, but we get to choose if we STAY in.
If you’re living together, if you’re sexually active outside of covenant, if you’re following other voices and not the voice of your heavenly Father who loves you, the invitation is not “go fix yourself and then maybe God will take you back.” The invitation is to turn to Jesus and trust him enough to lead you in this profoundly important area of your life.
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. That means you are worth more than the sexual algorithm of our culture is offering you. And as your church, we would count it an honor to walk with you—without shame, without gossip—as you break up with the old script and step into the freedom and joy of following Jesus with your whole body, not just your beliefs.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
I want to spend 20 seconds on practical advice and then remember Jesus.
You can’t OUTLAST temptation, but you can OUTRUN it.
Whatever it is that tempts you, remember this. It’s stronger, but you’re faster. So, lace up your kicks and run.
What I’ve shared today might sound crazy. Maybe it is. I’d ask you to look at two things with eyes wide open. Look at the end results of living according to the sexual algorithm of our culture. Here’s the second. Look at the resurrection. If Jesus rose from the dead—there’s far more to the story and he’s worth trusting.
When was the last time that you really looked at Jesus? If you read the Gospels, you’ll find that Jesus encountered plenty of people with a backstory of sexual sin and a backlog of shame. Sometimes he attended dinner parties where prostitutes were welcomed as guests. Sometimes he was face-to-face with someone who was being publicly condemned. And other other times it was a quiet conversation with someone trying to escape shame and scrutiny.
In none of those encounters, zero, did he ever condemn—shame—distance himself from anyone. Instead, he was honest and compassionate. He was 100% truth married to 100% grace. In every instance he invited the person to break up with the old way of life and step into something new.