Growing Fruit: Flesh or Spirit

Welcome

Good Morning Church! How is everyone doing this morning? I am excited for our church field trip this morning!

Follow up on Challenge:

Does anyone remember the challenge from last week?

The challenge was to keep track of the decisions we made throughout the day and then reflect was this decision rooted in what I wanted or what God wanted?

Then I challenged you to review with a partner.

I found this challenge to be just that a challenge. I found myself so busy doing things that I did not write those things down.

Yesterday, what I did was sat down and write out some of the decisions I made this week that I was conscious of.

Share some of the decisions from your list.

Then Jess and I went through them and discussed what they were rooted in.

I do think it was important for me to do, its still important for us to do! so if you were like me and you struggled with this challenge, or maybe you ignored it completely, we have a another chance this week.

Transition: Would you join me in prayer to prepare our hearts for what God has for us this morning?

Prayer:

Scripture: if you have you please turn in your bibles to Romans Chapter 7:21 and follow along as I read.

Read 7:21-8:17.

Walking through the Text:

At the end of chapter 7, Paul closes with a statement that he is enslaved, enslaved to sin and the flesh. He closes with a call for rescue, Who will save me from this miserable corpse?

Chapter 8:1-4 is the answer to that question. Jesus who has set us free from the law of sin and death and done the impossible. He dealt with Sin in the Body of all humanity by taking on sin in his own body. 2 Cor 5:21- says, he became sin for us.

Paul then presents us with a picture of two people: one that lives based on selfishness and the other who lives based on the Spirit

The Person who lives by Selfishness:

Think about selfish things

the attitude of selfishness leads to death

Hostile to God

Does not submit to the Law

arent able to please God

God’s Spirit did not live in them.

Obligated to themselves

The Person who lives by the Spirit

Thinks about things of the Spirit

The attitude of the spirit leads to life

This person isnt hostile to God and submits to God

The Spirit of God lives in this person.

The body is dead but the Spirit is alive this is because of Christ in that person.

Christ’s is the one who lives in the follower

We are now brothers and sisters

Sons and Daughters

Not a person lead by fear, but adopted children

As followers we often think in black and white in bianaries, but what if this idea of being lead by the Spirit is not as cut and dry?

As we talked about last week, we have options to make choices based on what God says is good and what we say is good.

What if it is the same way with the Spirit of God and The Spirit of selfishness.

What if we are not either one person or another?

What if we are simply human and as humans we are vulnerable to both the incitement of God’s Spirit and that of Sin and flesh?

Id like to paint a third picture: We are human. We are vulnerable. We react and respond to powers and influences around us.

Christianity is not a location, its a movement, a process, a walk, and relationship.

We can be influenced by either sin or God’s Spirit every day, every moment, in every choice we make.

The question is are we just slaves to one or the either and have absolutely no control? NO! Let me illustrate with a story.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

We are human. We are vulnerable. We know all two well that we are vulnerable to sin and Evil. Look at the corruption, violence, and hatred in the world around us!

But and this is a big BUT, When Christ is in us, We are also vulnerable to God’s Spirit. The same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead. The same Spirit that made and is remaking all of creation. \

Imagine: if we truly believed that God lived in us and focused on that more than anything else? Imagine if we just lived out of the Spirit more than the flesh, Imagine how God could use you?

God can use you, Today! Even at the ball game.

Talk to someone new.

Strengthen a relationship

Heal a broken relationship

Reconcile where there is division.

Lets approach this not as simply a fun time for us to get together, but a time let God work in and Through us.

The Challenge for this Week:

Sit down at some point this week and make the same list. Actions and Decisions you made.

Reflect on each of them, was I vulnerable to God’s Spirit in this Moment or Was I vulnerable to selfishness?

Accountability:

Do this with your spouse do it with your friend.

Spend some time in prayer over it.

Follow up with the couple sitting next to you in the pew.

Church we have both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Selfishness in us, Which will you feed?

Would you pray with me?