We Wrestle week 3

We Wrestle

WWT Wrestling

Welcome to the building CHURCH!

Do you have your Bibles with you? (World History Books)

This is what we believe at FFM.

We believe that God’s words are the most powerful and creative force that have ever existed.

We believe the Bible is a collection of writings to us inspired by God.

In the Bible it says that we were created in the image and likeness of God.

In order to know who we are and what we should be like,

we have to know the Bible.

Here at FFM we believe in equipping God’s people in the spirit of love by any means necessary.

So let the equipping begin.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Proverbs 13:3 NIV

Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.

Loose lips sink ships.

Being careful about what we say helps keep us out of trouble. But speaking hastily and thoughtlessly; brings on trouble both to the one who spoke it and to others.

By our reckless words we make promises we can’t keep, we divulge people’s private information, we offend others, or misrepresent people.

People begin not to depend on what we say and do not want to be around us.

We may also suffer physically or financially behind loose lips.

Intro:

As we dive into week three of this series “We Wrestle,” I want you to think seriously about the major areas you have been wrestling with in your life. (Relationally, morally, Biblically or any ly)

As you think about the areas you’ve been wrestling with in your life, think about the potential consequences that may come if you give over to the wrong thoughts.

We know Adam and Eve gave in as we see in World History.

Genesis 3:1 NIV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Eve started out right telling the serpent that we could eat from any of the trees in the garden except for the trees in the middle of the Garden.

And then in verse 4 Satan called God a lie saying that you wouldn’t surely die. And the problem with Eve is that she continued to entertain the conversation after that.

This week’s message is titled:

Apostle Paul Wrestled

Let’s talk about the great Apostle Paul.

He was a tent maker by trade.

His momma called him Saul, but he would later come to be known by his Roman name Paul.

He was born in Tarsus which would be in Turkey today.

He was schooled/educated as a Pharisee which means he knew everything about the Mosaic law and followed it to the T.

He was strict in it that he punished those that didn’t follow the Mosaic law.

Saul was introduced to us in the scriptures during the stoning of Stephen. (Stephen preached that Israel was guilty, the Law was temporary, and the temple must be done away with.)

Acts 7:58 ESV

Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

When the scriptures say that the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young Saul, it means that he was giving his consent to the stoning of Stephen. (I’ll watch your stuff while you get him.)

This is backed up by scripture.

Acts 1:1 ESV

And Saul approved of his execution.

Paul also said it himself in chapter 22.

Acts 22:20 ESV

“And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.”

Saul was all about the stoning of Stephen

And now we see how that propelled him into the tyrant he became.

Acts 8:3 ESV

But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

The Bible is giving us a clue on the personality of Saul from Tarsus.

Acts 9:1 ESV

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

While Saul was persecuting Christians, the gospel message was still spreading and rapidly.

He went to get permission to go way outside of his jurisdiction to stop the spread of the gospel.

Acts 9:3-4 ESV

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

This was the big pivot or shift in Saul’s life.

Also this makes me think about how we often view people in the world and think that they don’t want anything to do with God, so we don’t witness to them.

Acts 9:8-9 ESV

Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

I’m sure after three days of being blind and not eating, he was open for anything to get his site back.

Acts 9:17-18 ESV

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened.

Saul switched teams and began to go hard in the paint for the Lord.

He would eventually write more of the New Testament Scriptures than all the other writers combined.

But there was even a time that the great Apostle Paul wrestled.

Let’s Get Ready To Wrestle!

Romans 7:15 ESV

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Can anybody relate to what Apostle Paul says here.

Romans 7:16-17 ESV

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

The law was good for letting me know that I can’t do good enough on my own.

Romans 7:18-19 ESV

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

I want to do what God wants me to do. But my flesh wants to do what it has always been used to doing. And so he wrestled.

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. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another lawwaging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

The Greek word for law there was the word nom’-os which also can mean a rule or principle.

There is this war going on between my flesh and my spirit. (Spiritual Warfare)

The question naturally arises, must a believer spend his whole life on earth losing the wrestling match to indwelling sin?

No!

Is there any power provided to achieve victory?

Yes!

The indwelling Holy Spirit of God who is the source of divine power for sanctification and the secret for spiritual victory in daily living.

Romans 8:2 ESV

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Victory lies in the Spirit. We win the war or the wrestling match by the power of Holy Spirit and a spirit led life.

Romans 8:3-5 ESV

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We need to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

How do we do that?

Whatever things we have been used to intaking that led us to walking in the flesh, we must now change and intake a different source of information that will lead us to a walk in the Spirit.

Romans 8:5-8 ESV

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.

A Christian who lives by the flesh is a Christian who lives like an unbeliever.

It is a Christian who has the ability to receive the power of God but won’t connect to the power source.

The provision of deliverance from the power of sin is through the death of Jesus Christ but experiencing it in one’s daily conduct comes through the controlling power of the Holy Spirit.

1 What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

Say goodbye to the viewing audience.

Turn the service over briefly to the M.C.

Move into Family Talk