W2: The Lust of the Flesh (MS:Galatians 5:16-26/SS 1 John 2:15-17; Philippians 4:8)

Main Scripture: Galatians 5:16-26

Support Scripture:  1 John 2:15-17; Philippians 4:8

Bottom Line: Resist temptation in your flesh.

Capture: Grab their attention with an illustration.

• Illustration/Story: Share a story about having a craving for a specific type of food. Get

the crowd engaged by naming different kinds of amazing food and asking if anyone

is hungry after. For extra points — bring some delicious food like a steak or a burrito

and put it on stage, enticing any hungry students!

• We all have physical cravings at times, and most of the time, they’re harmless. It’s our

signal that we’re hungry or tired or what have you. However, the enemy can use our

“flesh” to lure us into temptation — to give into physical pleasure in a way that

causes us to sin.

Context

Paul is writing towards the church he started in his missionary journey in Galatia, which is where we get the book called Galatians. 

Paul was writing towards the people that were counter the claims of legalistic Judaizers who were telling the Galatian believers that they must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. 

Paul here is writing they are saved by the work of Jesus and He let the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them led to change in their hearts. Just following the law does not just save us, but when we get close to the Holy Spirit, it will lead us to do what is the Will of God and not the desire of our flesh. 

We see in chapter 5, God’s Spirit and the sinful nature (flesh) are opposed, following (walking by) the Spirit will ensure that one avoids sinful desire. 

This is parallel to Matthew 6:24 that you can’t serve two master. So that mean your lifestyle on how you live is just as important! 

So Walk by the Spirts is an imperative with a promise. If one walks by the Holy Spirt, then what logically follows from this is that one is not fulfilling the desires of the flesh. “Does who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Romans 8:24

So what is flesh? Flesh in 5:17-24 refers to a conglomeration of human traits that contribute to one’s disposition to sin, also known as “the old sin nature” traits that even a believer still has a result of one’s descent from Adam. 

So for an unbeliever, living according to the flesh is the only options. Both believers and unbelievers have the flesh and both can do other things, but Paul is encouraging His followers to be led by the Holy Spirit because it is a gift from Jesus when we accepted this gift from God. The gift of His Son Jesus.

So cause you can’t serve two masters, Paul tells them that we must walk in line with the Spirit! 

When we do aline with the Spirit, we do get rewards and that is the fruits of the spirit! 

So as believers, we are apart of the new convenant and are not under the enslaving, unhelpful law.

When you are a follower of Jesus, you walk in the Spirt, not walking under the law, as we know from the context of the book, they wanted people to live under the law of Moses. 

They walk under the Spirt because the flesh is at a disadvantage. When the Spirt leads, He takes the initiative in empowering and equipping the believer! 

The leading of the Spirt is an objective entailment of being converted, as is having one’s flesh crucified in verse 24 and being made alive by the Spirit in verse 25. 

The law cannot provide such power and motivation for godly living. 

Now we have a understanding of walking in the spirit vs the flesh, verse 19-21 is the works of the flesh. So this mean it is important to fulfill this command you need good theological, ethical, and objective input. You need to know the foundation of your faith and understand the Spirit by reading your Bible! 

So walking by the Spirit means avoiding certain things that characterize the flesh. 

Sexual morality, spirtuauality/magic/whichcraft, relationships that is divided, social sin (drunknesxsness) 

But verse 22-23 shows what it is by walking by the Spirit. The fruit image often refers to good works. 

So remember, Paul is not saying that your works get you salvation. That is the work salvation movement and this is not what Paul was teaching here. These fruits expressed by every believer who has the Spirit indwelling them and as such testify that the believer in question is destined for the Kingdom. 

So we do need the law, the law is needed to regulate the ungodly life, but the Spirit lead to transformation and a transformation heart. 

The flesh belongs to the believers past. The fruit belongs to the believers present and to eternity! 

So at the end of the day, to live by the Spirit is to have new life-the equivalent of salvation. This is a lifestyle. To live by the spirit is an lifestyle. To follow Him entails forsaking fleshly habits! 

1. Do Not Love What The World Offers.

• Tension Question: Do you resist physical temptation or give in easily? Some of us

don’t struggle with the “lust of the flesh,” for others, it’s debilitating! Regardless,

Scripture has hope for us to resist!

Scripture: 1 John 2:15-17 — 

John is writing toward Aria Minor here that they were focusing to much of the flesh instead on Jesus. 

When John is talking about “Do not love the world” He is not talking about the planet earth. He is talking about an organized system that is headed by Satan that draws us away from god’s love and will! 

There is 3 things that the world will offer you

1. The lust of the Flesh. It promises to satisfy legitimate desires in illegitimate ways(the lust of the flesh. Eating is legitimate; gluttony is worldly. Sex is legitimate; immorality is worldly. And the list goes on. 

2. The lust of the Eyes The world tempts your mind through what your eyes see. Which is desiring and pursuing that which is not legitimate for you to have. 

3. The Pride in One’s Possessions. Living to impress others. What we forget in the world is the world with its lust is passing away. Worldiness makes the :now” more important than eternity. But you are passing through and the world is passing by. 

So basically, the price tag for loving the world is the loss of personal intimacy with God. You love the world when it owns your affections and governs your choices by getting you to exclude God. This is not what God wants for His children. 

Jesus’s warning to the disciples is that temptation offers temporary cravings for the flesh, the eyes, and life. Today, we focus on the flesh.

2. Resist The Temptations of the Flesh

• Scripture: Galatians 5:16-24 — There is a big difference between the desires of the

flesh and the desires of the Spirit!

• Briefly summarize and highlight the differences between the fruit of the flesh and the

fruit of the Spirit. It couldn’t be more different! Verse 17 says that they are literally

opposed to each other.

• The key to resisting temptation in our flesh is to walk with the Spirit. Scripture is clear:

when you walk by the Spirit, you have no room to walk in your flesh!

Living by the pompons & power of the Spirit is the key to conquering sinful desire. The flesh & Spirit conflict each other. 

Be lead by the Spirit. Not under the bondage of trying to please God by minute observance of the law for salvation or sancitfaction. Mean not legalism, but by the spirit. 

The Greek word for leading by the Spirit is a verb that implies an active, personal involvement, which mean a relationship with the Lord. 

The Holy Spirit is guiding Christians and the present tense indicates the Spirit is ongoing. 

The Spirit’s active presence in believers lives in us and show us that they are no longer live the flesh like they did before. 

Without the transformation work of the Holy Spirit, sinful humans follow wicked desires & actions. 

When evil spirits come & reject the ways of God, it will destroy things in the world and relationships not just with God but people on earth as well! 

When you walk in the flesh, it will cost you. The consequences of the sin will come. These who act in the way of this life do not have the Holy Spirit and we can dive deep into this but we can know the consequences of it when we go outside of God’s view of the Bible. 

• If you want to walk by the Spirit, it will cost you. Verse 24 says that anyone who

belongs to Christ has crucified the flesh, including any passions and desires that are

not of God!

But the difference is this, you will produce fruit and good character and not only this for this world, but this is for eternity. 

In the world, it will only last until you die physically and that’s it. Cause you was never in line with the Father and not be with Him in eternally. 

Paul was trying to show the attitudes that are causing problems in the Galatians churches. They lived according to the flesh but Paul is speaking how we should live in the Spirit! 

• Resisting temptation in your flesh comes naturally when you crucify your life and

follow Jesus, walking by the Spirit in life!

Bottom Line: Resist temptation in your flesh.

3. Guard Your Mind!

Scripture: Philippians 4:8 — 

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 

There is a direct connection between what we think

about and how we live. If you think on godly things, you will walk in the Spirit. If you

think on worldly things, you will give into the flesh.

Paul is writing towards the Philippi, a Roman colony. Here Paul want the people to live joyfully in every circumstance. No matter the good, the bad, the ugly, we should always lives in joy for the Lord. 

God does gives us peace, but we must hold onto it. We don’t want to lose our peace in the next hour or the next day. 

One of the reason we don’t keep our peace is because we tend to dwell on the things that are set in opposition to the peace we’re asking for. 

We must ask ourselves if we are able to praise God for the things that we are dwelling on. If we can’t, the we’ll soon lose the peace God has given us. 

• We are called to guard our minds. When we protect it, we protect the way we live

and act. Colossians 3 says to set our minds on the things of heaven — not the things

of the earth!

• Galatians 5, Philippians 4, and Colossians 3 give great lists of what to think and focus

on. Use these passages and any others to illustrate what things to think on.

Bring it to the Cross

The flesh is like a defensive line set up in football to stop the offensive movement of the team with the ball. When you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, the enemy is trying to stop you moving the Kingdom of God through your life! Christ is handed you the ball and to score the touchdown, the flesh is a defensive line trying to stop your progress to score that touch down, to kill your drive, to stop you from scoring and to keep you stuck. Do we feel that in life? 

The flesh operates to keep you out of the red zone so you can’t even score the field goal. He want to keep you stuck and stuck in sin so you can’t progress as a Christain. But remember you are already a winner. We have the victory because of Christ who lvied the life we could not live and died the death we should of died! Then He rose on the third day to defeat death. When you accept Christ, obey the Scriptures, stay in His presence and dodge the temptation of the flesh in your life, you are going to see your life build fruit. Fruit of the spirit, and you will see how God will use you to move His Kingdom! That is why it is key for you to guard your mind and remember who you are in Christ and not love the things in the world! 

By guarding our minds in thinking on things from heaven, we practice resisting

temptation effectively. Guard your mind and see how it protects your flesh from

giving in to temptation!

• Application: Guard your mind.

Call: How do we respond to the message?

• Altar moment: Guard your mind by setting it on things that are above. When you

guard your mind, you will begin to walk in the Spirit and resist temptation in the flesh!