Food Fight

Kingdom Building  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  42:22
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Intro
Last week we saw in revelation 3 a caution to be watchful as we seek to advance the kingdom of God here in the Hudson valley lest we make the same mistake as the church in Sardis and drift from the gospel.
This week we’ll be in Paul’s letter to the Galatian church and we’ll see why we must be a church that fights if God’s kingdom is to advance through us. But our fight is not out there in politics or culture. Neither is it in the church amongst one another but the most critical fight is one that takes place in our very hearts.
PRAY
Galatians 5:16–26 ESV
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

The Old Fight

The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit (v.17)
What is the flesh?
The majority of the time Paul uses this term, the flesh, it’s not describing our physical bodies.
Instead, he uses this term to describe the default orientation of all humanity to live in rebellion against God.
So when you hear Paul use the word “FLESH” don’t think physical body — think evil desires.
Listen to how Paul describes the flesh in Romans 8...
Romans 8:7–8 ESV
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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The flesh his hostile to God
The flesh does not submit to God
The flesh cannot submit to God
Those in the flesh cannot please God
So the old fight is our pre-conversion, bent toward a life of rebellion against God.
Now look at vs. 19-21 for Paul’s list of the things we can expect when we live out of our flesh...
Galatians 5:19–21d ESV
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I’ve heard living in the flesh described as trying to pull a wagon without wheels. That wagon will go forward but not without suffering damage and eventually breaking apart.
In the same way life goes on in the flesh, but as it does you just become more and more broken.
The flesh is really an authority problem. We want to be our own gods.
The flesh says I don’t want to play by your rules. I will make up my own rules that I think will make me happier.
Imagine a director handing out scripts to his actors and the actors don’t like their scripts and decide to improvise and play their parts however they want.
What kind of play would this be? That would be a mess! Complete chaos!
This OLD FIGHT of the flesh is one that we must lose if we want a place in the kingdom of God.
The only way to truly win is to lose. You must give up the OLD FIGHT and surrender.
This is Christ’s call to all rebels. Stop rebelling and come to me and be forgiven and welcomed as sons and daughters.
He paid the price for your rebellion with by dying on the cross.
He rose again defeating our great enemy death.
And his victory can be your victory!
His life can be your life if you surrender to him and trust him to forgive your rebellion!
So, when you surrender to Jesus and trust him to forgive your sin the OLD FIGHT is over.
But the fighting doesn’t cease once you become a Christian.
The OLD FIGHT may be over but the GOOD FIGHT is just beginning.

The Good Fight

Paul instructs Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12 to fight the good fight.
And in Paul’s last letter to Timothy, knowing his death would be near, says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race (2 Tim. 4:7).
What is the GOOD FIGHT?
Look back at v. 17 - For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
One way to think of the GOOD FIGHT is that OLD FIGHT never ended, it just changed locations.
When we were only in our flesh, our rebellion was internal vs. God’s good external authority.
But now the fight has moved internal between the flesh and the Spirit.
Let me explain this. When we surrender the OLD FIGHT and become followers of Christ something changes in us.
Paul explains this change earlier in Galatians 2:20
Galatians 2:20 ESV
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
And in Galatians 4:6 Paul says...
Galatians 4:6 ESV
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
So, two things have happened to all Christians.
First, when you put your trust in Christ to forgive you, the power of sin that held you captive as slaves was broken. Paul says I have been crucified with Christ.
And secondly, Paul says that Christ now lives in us through the Holy Spirit!
So the GOOD FIGHT is an internal fight.
It’s the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit within us.
Because while the power of sin that held you captive as slaves is broken, the presence of sin is still a reality.
The GOOD FIGHT is like living in-between D-Day and VE-Day.
World War II was won on the beaches of Normandy at D-Day. But a defeated enemy continued to fight for 11 more months until Germany’s unconditional surrender on VE-Day.
The time between D-Day and VE-Day is like the GOOD FIGHT.
The Power of the flesh is broken and we are set free from slavery to sin.
But the presence of the flesh still remains in us and opposes the things of God.
Paul describes this struggle in his own life in Romans 7:21-23
Romans 7:21–23 ESV
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
And this is what Paul is saying to the Galatians in our passage today. Look again at Gal. 5.17
Galatians 5:17 ESV
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
So while the OLD FIGHT for a Christian may be over, we now engage in the GOOD FIGHT knowing that ultimate victory has already been won by Jesus.
Some have been under the allusion that Christian life should be one of ease and prosperity.
But this simply is not true!!
All you have to do is read the New Testament to know this.
Stephen was stoned to death in the book of Acts.
Paul was imprisoned multiple times, beaten with rods, stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked and more!
Jesus himself was mistreated, tortured, and crucified on a Roman cross.
The blood of the martyrs has been shed all throughout the history of the church. There’s a long line of brothers and sisters in Christ who’ve paid the ultimate price because Jesus was more precious to them than their own lives!
Maybe you’re a Christian and you don’t see much fight in your life. You’re kind of on cruise control.
Try this, try intentionally pressing in to knowing Christ more. Maybe commit to reading your bible and praying for 30 minutes a day for 30 days. If you do this, I promise you, you the fight will come to you.
Think about a neutral country in a war. As soon as that country swears allegiance to a particular side they gain an ally but they also gain a new enemy and it won’t be long before they get attacked.
Whenever I counsel a new Christian, I never promise them their lives will get any easier.
I usually tell them that there is a good chance they will experience more suffering as a Christian.
But while your life may not get easier it becomes infinitely better!
Jesus said in John 10:10
John 10:10 ESV
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The Battle Plan

So, that’s the GOOD FIGHT, but how can we have success over the flesh in our lives?
Look at v. 16 - Paul says, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
“Walk” has to do with the day to day pattern of your life. It’s all encompassing. So, in every area of your life you will have a choice to either walk in the Spirit or to gratify the desires of the flesh.
The trick is that it’s sometimes hard to tell. For example both the flesh and the Spirit both promise freedom.
Look at 2 Peter 2:19
2 Peter 2:19 ESV
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
But the promises of sin are always a mirage. We chase after them seeking to quench our thirst and end up drinking only sand!
Sin always over promises and under delivers!
Only Jesus promises and delivers freedom!
See Galatians 5.1
Galatians 5:1 ESV
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
One of the biggest mirages of the flesh is the promise of freedom through LEGALISM.
The occasion for Paul’s letter to the Galatian church was that some Jewish believers were teaching non-Jewish believers that for them to truly follow Christ they needed to first become Jewish by observing the Mosaic law - Most notably they were requiring them to be circumcised.
Now I don’t think anyone here has been pressured to get circumcised but I think we know pretty well what it’s like to earn favor through rule keeping.
Let’s be honest, as Christians we get caught in this mirage more often than we like to admit.
On one level it’s because it sounds so right. We can even quote a ton of bible verses that tell us to stop doing these certain things and to start doing these other things.
But if we’re not careful we can just become really busy doing religious stuff that is void of the Holy Spirit.
This is because our flesh loves seek approval through performance by latching onto laws (do this, don’t do this).
We even project this onto God thinking that if we do certain things that God owes us a certain blessing.
The problem with this is that our performance always sets the bar too low. Just when you think you’ve attained something the bar only goes up.
Here’s an example: Maybe you operate under the impression that there is a baseline of religious activity that will put you into good favor with God.
Maybe it’s reading your Bible for a few minutes every day.
But then someone in your Life Group shares about how they get up at 4am every day to pray for the salvation of everyone in their neighborhood!
Now your few minutes of daily Bible reading doesn’t seem like enough. The bar goes up. You say to yourself, God definitely loves that guy more than me! I need to up my game.
If you stay here long enough you’ll start to experience jealousy, rivalry, and envy.
Those aren’t the fruit of the Spirit!
Remember Rocky Balboa from the old Rocky movies? Sometimes we operate out of the flesh like Rocky. He had this one line that went something like,
“If I can just go 15 rounds with a champ, I’ll know I’m not a bum”
This is how some Christians try to follow Christ. They need to prove to themselves that they can do it. And only then will they feel acceptable. Only then will they know they’re not a bum.
Let’s apply this to those of you who are still in school.
Maybe you need to get good grades to know that you’re not a bum.
Or maybe it’s getting that part you really wanted in a musical or play.
Or maybe it’s making the team.
If you succeed you become puffed up with pride.
But what happens when...
You’re passed over for that part?
Or you don’t make the cut?
Or someone else gets a better grade?
Suddenly you may see fits of anger start to surface: That coach is such an idiot! Is he blind? Can’t he see my natural talent?!
Jealousy & Rivalries: That kid only made the cut because his parents are friends with the coach!
Is the director tone deaf? Can’t they hear how much better my voice is for that part?
That kid probably only got a better grade because they cheated!
But how do we fight this? How do we not gratify the desires of the flesh?
Paul tells us that we do this by walking by the Spirit.
But what does that mean and what does it look like?
Look back at Galatians 2:20 again...
Galatians 2:20 ESV
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Do you see it? To walk by the Spirit is to live by faith.
Faith in what? In the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me!
Walking by the Spirit means we stop chasing the mirages of the flesh and drinking its sand and we trust instead in the promises of the Gospel!
So then, when you walk by the Spirit you’re not crushed by
Someone els’ 4am prayer meeting...
Getting passed over for a part...
Not making the team…
Because you know you don’t need to earn God’s approval because you already have it!
It was given to you as a gift!
You don’t have to prove to yourself that you’re not a bum because you’re already an adopted child of the one true God of the universe!
Everything the flesh promises is already yours in Christ!
So walking by the Spirit is fighting to remember and trust the promises of the Gospel over the mirages of the flesh!
But if we walk by the flesh we are motivated by fear and pride.
We fear that we might be a bum.
Or we become prideful knowing we aren’t a bum.
But if we walk in the Spirit we are motivated by love because Christ first loved us.
We don’t obey to earn God’s approval.
We obey because we have it already because Jesus loved us enough to die for us even when we were unlovely.
Do you see that we can do almost anything externally by walking either by the Spirit or by the flesh?
We can do something motivated by love or in fear and pride.
The way we can tell the difference is by looking at the fruit.
There’s either the junk food of the flesh that leads to death.
Or there’s the fruit of the Spirit that leads to life!
In a way these lists two lists function as sort of a check engine light on the dashboards of our hearts.
Now notice that in isolation we are often blind to these check heart-motive lights.
This is because these good or bad fruits are more easily seen in others - in community.
It’s often other people that can point out when the junk food of the flesh is showing in our lives.
Look at vv. 14-15 to shed some more context on our passage.
Galatians 5:14–15 ESV
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Look at v. 26 in our passage. Paul says...
Galatians 5:26 ESV
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
This is why church is so much more than how you feel when you sing or how inspirational a sermon was.
You can get those things on a screen but you have to be around other Christians in community to help you walk by the Spirit!
Here’s my plug for getting involved in a Life Group or for seeking out discipleship relationships. Because it’s in community like this that we fight best to walk by the Spirit.
By the way this is part of what it means to be a member. That you commit yourself to helping others walk by the Spirit.
Fishkill Baptist Church advancing the Kingdom of God in our community will happen as the Kingdom of God advances in our own hearts.
We need to fight to walk by the Spirit and we need each other to fight well.
The biggest hindrance to the spread of the Gospel is not “out there”, it’s IN HERE!
And the greatest power for the spread of the Gospel is not “out there”, it’s Christ in you!
So we need to be watchful and fight well to ensure we walk by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Our community doesn’t need to see bright lights and fog machines.
Do you know what’s really attractive? The fruit of the Spirit produced in people who love Jesus because of the Gospel!
But how will a lost and dying world see that we are a people of...
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control????
Our lives need to come into contact with people who need Jesus if they’re going to observe these kinds of things.
We need to be intentional with our coworkers, our neighbors, classmates, and teammates.
I’ll end with one example...
I once heard Tim Keller talk about a conversation he had with someone who was visiting his church.
When asked about why he came he said that it was because of his boss.
He explained… you see I’ve had lots of bosses. And they 're always taking credit for my good ideas and when something goes wrong I get blamed. I’ve learned to expect this.
But my boss who attends your church was different from every other boss I’ve ever had. He gave me credit for his good ideas and he had my back and took the fall when something I did failed.
Then I just had to know what made him like this and he told me about his church.
Fishkill baptist church what kind of fruit to people see in your life?
This is how Kingdom Building is done well…the fruit of the Spirit on display in each of our lives by fighting to walk by the Spirit.
Pray
BENEDICTION
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. [[Romans 15:13]]
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