Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Spiritual Formation Needed

Researchers have discovered certain people are genetically destined to excel in athletics.

According to their studies, the A.C.E.

gene is longer in athletes than in those who are not agile, fast, or well-coordinated in their movements.

Researchers also observed that people who are born with a longer A.C.E.

must work out to take advantage of their hereditary advantage.

Similarly, those who receive Christ are capable of a life of spiritual victory.

When we become a Christian and receive the Holy Spirit, we have the power to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

But as with those genetically predisposed to athletic success, we must "work out."

Pulitzer Prize winning Poet and Author Carl Sandburg on Human Nature

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.

BIG IDEA: Are you going to live like a Hippo or sore like an Eagle?

Look back at 5:13-15

“Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.”

How do we use our Freedom as an opportunity for the flesh?

It would seem that our freedom can lull us into a false sense of security.

We then become lazy in how we see and deal with the flesh!!!!!!

In , Paul asks a rhetorical question about continuing to sin in order that grace might be multiplied.

He answers this question with another: “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

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This raises the question of why believers still struggle with sin.

Are some believers somehow defective?1

NOTE: Paul then warns in vr15 that you do not bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

(we are all in the battle against the flesh) this means kick each other when your down.

NOTE: The great lie happens when we say, “Come to Jesus and everything will be OK, all of your problems will fade away, and you will live in this spiritual utopia.”

THE GREATEST PROBLEM WE HAVE IS THAT WE ARE CHRISTIANS YET WE STILL SIN

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1.You must stop acting naturally before you can start living spiritually.

Paul’s answer to the abuses of the flesh is to be continually Spirit-controlled; then people will cease to act naturally’, and so they will cease to ‘fulfill or gratify their own desires.

*The Greek verb for walk refers to ones conduct.

The phrase is often translated “live by the Spirit.”

*No one was ever more conscious of the tension in human nature than that of Paul.

Spirituality Is the Christian Life

Spirituality is a slippery term but the phenomenon itself is not new.

Christian spirituality is nothing other than life in Christ by the presence and power of the Spirit: being conformed to the person of Chris, and being united in communion with God and with others.

Spirituality is not an aspect of Christian life, it is the Christian life.

Number #1 Question I get is How do I know God’s will for my life.

The #1 job we have is the act of Sanctification and Sanctification happens from the inside out.

We are being sanctified so that we will do what is right.

ILLUSTRATION

Being born with a sin nature is a little bit like inheriting a garden.

Let's say that you inherited an enchanting garden.

And for 10 years, you just let it thrive.

You let it do anything it wanted.

You never pruned back the weeds.

You never got rid of the pests.

You never worked with the roses.

You just let it quote-unquote "thrive."

Let's say that you inherited an enchanting garden.

And for 10 years, you just let it thrive.

You let it do anything it wanted.

You never pruned back the weeds.

You never got rid of the pests.

You never worked with the roses.

You just let it quote-unquote "thrive."

And after 10 years, what is it?

It's a disaster.

It might even be way past the point of no return.

And you go to a master gardener and you say, "Hey, this is not fair.

I want my money back.

I just did everything I could to let this garden thrive.

I let it do exactly what it wanted."

You know, the master gardener's going to laugh at you and say, "Buddy, gardens come with weeds!

It's part of its nature and by failing to deal with that, you destroyed it."

THE SPIRIT NEVER LEADS SOMEONE INTO SIN

In most religion, the motivation for morality is fear-based.

In gospel Christianity, the motivation is a dynamic of love.

5:14 “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

HOW DOES OUR BATTLE WITH THE FLESH MAKE US STRONGER?

| For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

NOTE: At the root of our passions and desires is to take something to please or gratify ourselves that is not ours to possess.

Charles Spurgeon-

The Holy Spirit when he comes into our lives becomes the author of all our desires.

THE STRUGGLE

We prefer ourselves

The worst enemy we have is the Flesh v. 17

“Make no provision for the flesh.”

There are two opposing natures at work in every Christian: the Spirit and the sinful nature.

Augustine used to pray, “Lord, deliver me from that evil man, myself.”

*Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.

The “sinful nature” translates the Greek word sarx, which in some Bible versions meaning “flesh”.

SARX (fesh)refers to the basic fallen corrupt nature of man, that is not exclusively limited to the body, but also the mind of the man that is infected by sin.

“Transformation of our minds.”

PNEUMA (spirit) represents the new man, the regenerated man.

The flesh in the New Testament, when opposed to the Spirit, is the sin-desiring aspect of our whole being as opposed to the God-desiring aspect.

*Basically it is the part of our hearts and lives that has not yet been renewed by the Spirit.

It is clear that this battle is being waged inside of us.

Our sinful nature was there, ruling unopposed, before we were Christians.

The Spirit, however, entered Super-Naturally when we first became Christians and has begun the renewal that is now our “new nature”.

Paul puts it this way in Ephesians:

“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through sinful deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

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2.You must Crucify your selfish heart before the Spirit can lead your selfless heart.

The Nature of the Struggle

The Holy Spirit: Missing

In many Christian circles the Holy Spirit is either neglected, forgotten, or misunderstood.