Walk by the Spirit - A WAY OUT - wk 2
Notes
Transcript
Walk by the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit
Today we are continuing a two part series called, “A Way Out,” where we are looking at temptation. The enemy uses temptation to hold us back and make us feel trapped. “I had to. I couldn’t resist! It’s just the way I am. I can’t change. I have tried something else, but it just didn’t work. The temptation was just too strong.”
But we know that our God is good, and our God is faithful. My God will NEVER let me be tempted beyond what I can bear. When I am tempted, my God will ALWAYS provide A WAY OUT.
You may remember our driving verse for this series in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10…
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Last week we started off by defining temptation and looking at some truths about temptation. We said…
TEMPTATION IS ANYTHING THAT PROMISES SATISFACTION AT THE COST OF OBEDIENCE TO GOD. Temptation in and of itself is not a sin. You aren’t sinning simply because you noticed the donuts when you walked into church. However, even though it's not a sin to be tempted, we shouldn’t take temptation lightly. Temptation is a powerful weapon that the enemy uses on us to try to pull us further away from God. He will use it to attack us at our strengths as well as our weaknesses, because we are NEVER above temptation.
Thankfully, our God loves us and will NEVER tempt us. He will test you to grow you and make you stronger, but God will never tempt you. In fact, our loving God knows that the Satan wants to pull us back with constant attacks of temptation, therefore He will always provide A WAY OUT!
No matter what temptation you face… A struggle with being critical or comparing; Trapped by fear and worry; Addicted to social media, gambling, gaming, sweets, alcohol, or sex, drugs and rock’n roll. There is always a way out.
Some of you might even be like me and you know you have it bad. I just went through a list, but you heard a word and started thinking about that thing so you didn’t even hear the rest of the list. I said sweets and you immediately started thinking about ice cream and cobbler. It’s like telling you not to think about a pink elephant, the harder you try to avoid thinking about the pink elephant, the more stuff it knocks over in your head as it walks around.
I don’t know about you ladies, but us guys are especially bad about this. It doesn’t take very much to completely derail our concentration. In the back of my mind I know that if I ever need to say something to just you ladies, all I have to do is say one word and there won’t be a single guy in here that hears anything I say for at least the next five minutes. “Baywatch!”
Maybe I shouldn’t have said the word. Now we are going to have to just sit here and wait on the guys to snap out of it. They are all thinking about girls in swimsuits on the beach. Keep in mind, this theory is untested. I don’t know how you ladies will react. For all I know, you could be tuned out and thinking about David Hasselhoff.
Temptation is powerful. Fighting against it is a very difficult battle. I find it a little bit comforting to know that I am not the only one who struggles with this fight. Even people who we consider to be some of the strongest Christ followers of all time struggled with this battle. Paul’s description of this inner conflict is probably the most well known.
He said, “I don’t understand myself, I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. There is another power within me that is at war with my mind.” I don’t want to think about the pink elephant, but I can’t get the stupid thing out of my head!
If it is such a difficult struggle, how on earth are we going to be successful in that battle? When writing to the Galatians, Paul tells them exactly how to fight this battle. You don’t want to give into the temptation? Here is what you have to do…
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
The flesh and the Spirit want two different things, it’s up to me to decide which one I live by, which one I gratify. In other words, the Spirit wants me to live a life that produces good fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I know that studying and growing closer to God produces these things, but the flesh doesn’t want me to read my bible. That new show on Netflix is way more interesting.
I could be far more generous if I was out of debt, but did you see that great sale online! I should exercise in the morning, but there is a chance of rain and I need my flesh needs some beauty sleep anyway. Last week we read a quote from Craig Groeschel that said, “Why resist a temptation tomorrow that we can eliminate today,” but then I left church and saw those cinnamon roles and subway cookies at the gas station. How was I supposed to avoid that!?
I keep doing the bad things that I DON’T want to do and I don’t do the good things that I DO want to do. I don’t want to lose my temper, but in that last argument I still managed to throw a shoe! I’m not even sure how the shoe came off my foot and ended up in my hand! I don’t want to eat so much, but I keep eating every piece of food on the table.
Today we are wrapping up this two part series on temptation by focusing on the principle Paul declared to the Galatians. In order to get rid of temptation before it even becomes a problem, we are going to choose to let the Spirit guide our lives in order to overcome the appetites of the flesh. Other translations say, “Walk by the Spirit.” What does it mean to “Walk by the Spirit?” How are we supposed to walk by the Spirit?
For the remainder of our time this morning, let’s look at three ways that we overcome the appetites of the flesh by walking by the Spirit. If you are taking notes, the first thing we must do is learn to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit…
DEPEND ON THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
DEPEND ON THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
This is the critical first step in overcoming the appetites of the flesh and letting the Spirit guide you. We must learn to depend on the Spirit’s power. Our power will never overcome any appetite. We may avoid them for a while, but without the power of the Spirit, we haven’t overcome them and they come back with vengeance.
Jesus said that, after He went away, the Father would send the Holy Spirit, who would be our counselor, our advocate. The Spirit convicts, He shows us where we rely too much on the flesh and need God’s power in our lives. The Spirit has the power to comfort when we feel defeated and hopeless. The Spirit guides us as we navigate life. When we there is a need near that we can fill, the Spirit prompts us to meet that need. To reach out to someone who is hurting.
God’s Spirit brings us power from heaven to put the sinful nature to death before it kills us. In Romans chapter eight, Paul is blunt about this truth. He says that letting your flesh, your sinful nature, control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. I love this, starting in verse 12… (Read through 13a)
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
The sinful nature urges you, “Doesn’t this look great! Something this fun and enjoyable can’t be a bad thing!” It tempts and urges you, then it tears you apart. Someone said, “Sin thrills, then kills. It fascinates, then assassinates.”
It’s like a really good sneeze during church. You feel it coming. During the lead up to the sneeze you don’t really want to wet the hair of the person in front of you, but you know that it will feel so good to let it out. You decide to give in and let it go, but covering your mouth with your hands didn’t seem to matter. Your hands are covered in snot and you are pretty sure you watched some shoot through the side of your hand and hit your neighbor. It feels really good coming out, but then there’s snot everywhere.
Sin is destructive. It steals, kills, and destroys. It starts out as a little weakness to temptation to something seemingly insignificant, and then it grows and grows and grows. Killing and destroying everything in it’s path. I can’t help but think about people I sometimes hear about in the news who went to a party, and by the end of the night found themselves in a situation that ruined someone’s life. What started out as a night of fun, ended up as a trip to the hospital after a drunken accident, or jail time because one thing led to another and someone got hurt, or scholarships and football dreams crushed because of sultry accusations.
You are under no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. If you do, it will kill you. BUT! But through what? The power of the Spirit… “But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.”
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
Not my own power, the power of the Spirit. What is your sinful nature urging you to do? We need to recognize that we are powerless against it and that we need God’s power to fight it for us. Here is what we need to learn to say…
I admit that I’m powerless over ________. I believe that the power of the Spirit of God will heal me and make me whole.
I admit that we are powerless over donuts, alcohol, fear, the desires of my sinful nature, or whatever it may be, and I believe that the power of the Spirit of God will put it to death and heal me. I love looking at this through the lens of the verse we just read. If I use Paul’s words to target my sinful urges I might say, “I have no obligation to eat donuts, to worry, to get angry, because if I live like that I will die. BUT through the POWER OF THE SPIRIT I can put these deeds to death.” Give the urges of your sinful nature a name. Food, worry, anger, sex, drugs, drunkenness.
First, we must learn to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the appetites of the flesh because we are powerless against them. Second, we walk by the Spirit by following His prompts…
FOLLOW THE PROMPTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
FOLLOW THE PROMPTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
When the Holy Spirit prompts us to do something, one of three things typically happens. Either we follow His prompting, or sometimes we might start to debate the issue.
We might come up with all sorts of excuses, like Russ on Christmas Vacation. Clark, his dad, absolutely covered the house in lights and couldn’t get them to turn on. He decides that it must be because one of the lights is burnt out, causing all of them to not work.
He looks at Russ and says they need to start going through all of the Christmas lights on the house again to find the one that isn’t working. That’s when Russ says, “Look at the time. I gotta get to bed. I still gotta brush my teeth, feed the hog, still got some homework to do, still got those bills to pay, wash the car...”
“I know you want me to go do that, but I don’t really have time… I know you want me to give up something for you, but I kinda need that right now.”
Sometimes we debate, other times we don’t even hear it. God speaks, but we don’t even know what His voice sounds like. Like Elijah, we stand on a mountain waiting to hear God. We listen for His booming voice in the winds and earthquakes so we completely miss Him when He speaks in a gentle whisper.
When I was younger I really struggled with this. I was never confident that I knew what God was saying to me, so I worried about it. At different times in my life I have heard two different truths that have really helped me with this struggle. If you have ever wrestled with this, write these two things down, they will change your life.
First, if you don’t know what God’s voice sounds like, it’s time to open your bible and learn. How will I ever be familiar with God’s voice if I never open His word and get more familiar with it? So if I want to know how God speaks, I should look at the written record of His word.
The second thought has a little dependency on the first, so that first one is important. The second idea is that if you feel lead to do something, if it is a good thing, do it. Just do it. God is never going to ask you to do something evil. If a good thought just seems to pop into your head out of nowhere, there is a high likelihood that it was the Holy Spirit’s prompting.
For example, you might see someone that is down on their luck and all of the sudden this thought of generosity pops into your head. You might even already be planning to give, and as you dig through your wallet you remember the hundo you hid in it’s secret pocket and this absolutely crazy and insane thought pops into your head. “Yeah, do that one.”… “What? That one? No, really?!”
It can be anything good. You see someone drop their books, the spirit might prompt you to go help them out and say an encouraging word. Or the waitress is grouchy and everyone is saying, “She’s not earning a good tip!” Then this super crazy thought crosses your mind, “That’s okay, cause I’m leaving a huge tip with an encouraging word. Who knows, it might be exactly what she needs right now.” And maybe not. If I do something good, whether the Spirit prompted me to do it or not, the worst that happened is that I did something good.
Keep yourself open and available to God and you will hear the Spirit when He prompts you to do something good. If we keep reading in chapter 5 of Galatians, we see Paul urging listeners to do the same…
25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
Take not of every time you sense the Holy Spirit prompting you. He may prompt you to say something to someone. That word may never mean a thing to you, but it could be the word that person needed to hear as it completely changes their life. He may prompt you to pray for someone, or to listen to someone. Sometimes the Spirit will prompt you to stop, and at other times He will prompt you to walk away.
To walk by the Spirit, it’s important to depend on the Holy Spirit’s power and to follow the Holy Spirit’s prompting. Our first two thoughts involve our relationship with God’s Holy Spirit. Our last thought is about our spirit. If you are taking notes, overcoming the appetites of the flesh requires you to feed your spirit…
FEED YOUR SPIRIT.
FEED YOUR SPIRIT.
I know it’s not an easy thing to do, but it is a simple yet sound principle…
WHAT YOU FEED GROWS.
WHAT YOU STARVE DIES.
When you feed a plant, it grows. When you starve it, it dies. That’s why we have fake plants, but somehow even plastic plants manage to die at our house. If you feed yourself, you grow. If you starve yourself, you die. When you feed your sinful desires, they grow. When you starve them, they die.
Often, the reason we are weak is because we haven’t bonded with that which makes us strong. We are weak and vulnerable because we aren’t abiding in the one who gives us strength. Jesus said, John 15:4 “4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” We are often weak because we haven’t bonded with that which makes us strong.
A professor of psychology in Vancouver, Bruce Alexander, once conducted an interesting study on addiction. In this study, he took rats and put them in a cage with two different water bottles. One bottle had regular water in it. In the other bottle, he added morphine to the water. He wanted to know which bottle the rats would drink. What happened was that the rats became addicted to the chemical laced water and almost 100% of the rats actually died from overdose.
He also built what he called “Rat Park.” His park was 200 times the size of a standard lab cage. In the park, he had food for them to eat, balls and wheels for them to play with, and about 20 rats of both sexes with plenty of romantic candle lit date opportunities. It was like heaven for rats. Even when moving the isolated rats who preferred the drugged water to rat park, they began to prefer the plain water.
What he found is that the right environment, the right influences matter. The most interesting observation to me is how the addicted rats who were moved to the better environment would even go through withdrawals as they stopped drinking the laced water, but they changed anyway.
Without the right influence we are weak! When we bond with the right things, we are less vulnerable to wrong things. If a rat can do it without being told they should, I know God will give you and me the strength to starve the flesh and feed the spirit. What you feed grows, what you starve dies.
How do we get spiritually stronger? How do we feed our spirit? I want to quickly give you three ideas that you can implement in your life to help feed your spirit. I would even encourage you to just pick one and consistently feed your spirit on a regular basis. Especially if you are having to go through withdrawals to do it!
After that, feel free to add to it or even come up with your own. Here are three ideas that you can do to feed your spirit. First…
FEED YOUR SPIRIT WITH PRAYER.
Just like exercise makes your body stronger, prayer makes your spirit stronger. Just like exercise is difficult sometimes and you don’t know what workout you should do, prayer can be difficult and you don’t know what to pray for. Just like nobody ever accidentally ends up with washboard abs, you will never accidentally wind up being a prayer warrior. We pray because we are weak. We pray so we don’t accidentally fall into temptation. Jesus said something similar to the disciples…
41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
We pray because we don’t fall into holiness, but we might fall into temptation. When teaching people how to pray, Jesus said when they pray they should say, “[God] don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” When Jesus faced the most difficult moment of His life, He prayed. He asked God to take away the cup of suffering, if it were possible. Then He continued, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Feed your spirit with prayer. Second…
FEED YOUR SPIRIT WITH GOD’S WORD.
We mentioned this one earlier, so I won’t spend too much time on it now. But God’s word is the bread of life. It is our daily bread. If we can’t physically survive without eating food, how could we expect to spiritually survive without our Father’s bread? In a well known verse, David shared how important God’s word was to him…
9 How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word. 10 I have tried hard to find you— don’t let me wander from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
It is by feeding on God’s word that I know that…
I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.
I am an overcomer by the blood of the lamb.
When I am weak, He is strong. His strength is made perfect in weakness.
God is faithful, He will not let me be tempted beyond what I can bear.
Feed your spirit with prayer, with God’s word, and finally…
FEED YOUR SPIRIT WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE.
Being with the wrong people never helps you do the right thing. You become who you hang out with. Dave Ramsey says, “If you want to be a millionaire, hang out with millionaires.” Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians…
1 Corinthians 15:33–34 (NIV)
33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning…
If we are going to walk by the Spirit, it is important to feed your spirit with the right people. Being a part of a Christ centered community matters. A community where others are investing in you and you can invest in others, continually building each other up and leading each other to Jesus.
There are so many places in my life that could have taken a different route if it weren’t for the Christ-centered friends and family that were in my life during those moments. People that God put in my life and I learned to lean on.
Anything good in my life is all thanks to God’s faithfulness. He will never let me be tempted beyond what I can bear. What you feed grows, and what you starve dies. Walk by the Spirit by feeding your spirit what it needs to grow. Follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Learn to depend on the Holy Spirit each and every day.
Galatians 5:16 “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” When you are tempted, God will always provide a way out.