Our Greatest Foe: Our Flesh

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“One of the challenges that we have collectively as a society is that in this country, we do victory great, we do success great, we do power great. We do not do shame very well; we do not do guilt very well. We don’t own up to our mistakes. And the absence of shame is what makes us vulnerable to discrimination and bigotry and abuse of power…If you see two people who’ve loved each other for fifty years, if you ask them what the secret is; they’ve learned how to say I’m sorry to one another…”

~Bryan Stevenson (1959-present), lawyer, activist, and author of Just Mercy

“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

~John Owen (1616-1683), British theologian and church leader

“There is a mean streak to authentic self-control. Underneath what seems to be the placid demeanor of those who are not ruled by their desires is the heart of a warrior… Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin…The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war.”

~Ed Welch (1953-present), Counselor and Author in Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave

“See dawg I live by the Spirit so I don’t gratify

All them old sinful desires that never satisfy…

[Sin]: Man you know you miss them old days…

Yeah you right possibly

But after that I sober up and think of Jesus holding up

His skin up on the cross for all them drunken nights I’m throwing up

Every thought of blowin’ up is captured in his flowing blood

I start thinking Philippians 4:8 when you showing up.

[Sin]: You know I ain’t gone quit right?

Yeah I know but I’m dead to you

And one day I’ll be present with Jesus who died and bled from you

Colossians 1:15 that’s the God that I trust in

The Father crushed Him

In doing so he has crushed sin.”

~Lecrae Moore (1979-present), Grammy-winning hip-hop artist in song Indwelling Sin

SERMON PASSAGE

Galatians 5:13-26 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 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. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.