Battling it Out with the Flesh Part 1
Spiritual Warfare • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction - Preparing for battle
Introduction - Preparing for battle
Include a photo of soldiers in basic training.
No one goes into a battle unprepared, unless you are attacked without warning. Every soldier goes through basic training to acquire foundational skills for battle. In addition, there is specialized training in weapons, hand-to-hand combat, explosives and how to use tanks, airplanes, etc. The goal of basic training is to learn the skills you need in battle well enough that they become automatic. When you are in the midst of battle, you don't want to stop and think, "What was it my drill instructor told me I need to do when this happens?"
We have demonstrated that every Christian is involved in the battle we call spiritual warfare. That battle is with three different enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil and his followers. It behooves us to be prepared for battle.
Last Sunday we established that as Christ followers we are in the position of having the power and authority of Christ to battle and defeat the flesh. This isn't an easy battle, but it’s a battle we can win. Today and next we are going to learn practical steps to use in our battle with the flesh. Are you ready for some basic training in spiritual warfare with the flesh?
If you are a mature Christian, it's likely that you already do many if not all the things we are about to discuss. You have learned these things through sermons, bible study and trial and error.
If you are younger in your faith, I suggest you follow these steps in order, and as you learn them, you will develop the skills to use when you need them. Even if you are a mature Christian, these steps will be a helpful reminder for you, too.
1. Where is my peace?
1. Where is my peace?
Photo of calm lake and choppy lake
The peace of God is a spiritual barometer. It tells us three things. First, it tells us when we are right with God. Second, it tells us when we are not right with God. Third, it tells us when we are under a spiritual attack.
Peace is one of the qualities produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives when we are in a right relationship with God and depending upon him. There are other qualities present as well, but peace is the one that is easiest to recognize when we have it or not.
We know we are right with God when feel and experience the Holy Spirit's peace/ The normal Christian life is characterized by having peace. When we don't have it, we are either carnal or we are in the midst of a battle.
A. We are not a Christ follower
A. We are not a Christ follower
John 14:27; Matthew 6:25-34; Romans 3:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 10:9-10; Philippians 4:7
We have peace because Jesus gives it to us. He wants everyone to experience his unique peace. Jesus told his disciples about this on the last night he spent with them. He said,
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you."
What is peace that Jesus offers? There is a positive aspect and a negative aspect to it. The positive aspect has the sense of calmness and tranquility. The negative aspect is the absence of conflict. Everyone wants peace. What a wonderful thought that Jesus offers us his peace.
Jesus didn't just say that he was giving his peace, he distinguished the peace of God from the world's peace. He said, "Not as the world gives do I give to you." Jesus acknowledged that there is peace in the world. The peace in the world comes when you are healthy, your needs are being met, you are in a place of security, and you don't have any significant worldly concerns. There is no question there are people in the world who have this kind of peace.
However, Jesus offers a different kind of peace. He doesn't explain it in this passage but we read about it through out the New Testament. In contrast to the world’s peace, Jesus offers peace that we can experience even if aren't healthy, if we have great needs, if we aren't secure, and if we have many concerns.
Jesus spoke about this in the Sermon on the Mount.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Anxiety is the enemy of peace. Jesus tells us not to be anxious, because he wants us to have his peace. Jesus gives us the key to having His peace. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God, to offer us away to know God.
Unfortunately sin is a barrier that prevents us from having God’s righteousness. Because of sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Our sin separates us from God.
Jesus’s entire life on earth was about providing us a way to have a relationship with God. Paul tells us,
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross, not for his sins but for ours, and offers the free gift of salvation to all who believe in him.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
When we trust in him as our Savior by faith, He gives us His peace. He gives us a lot more than that. Right now we’re focusing on peace. As Christ followers we always have access to the peace of God.
Have you trusted in Jesus today? If you have not, you will have peace or you can have peace like the world gives, but you can't have the peace Jesus gives. All Christ followers have the potential to have the peace of God in the midst of turmoil.
The apostle Paul tells us
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The peace that surpasses understanding comes in the midst of problems, poor heath and difficult times.
If you want this peace, you have to be believe in Jesus as your Savior. It is as simple as saying these words, "Lord Jesus thank you for dying on the cross for me, rising again and paying for my sins. I trust in you as my Savior."
If you are Christ follower, you have access to the peace of God but don't automatically have it. There are two scenarios where those who are Christ followers don't have God's peace. The first is,
B. We are carnal.
B. We are carnal.
1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 John 1:6; Romans 8:5-8; 1 John 1:9
The word carnal means the flesh. A carnal Christian is someone who lives according to the flesh. Our modern English translations have taken the word carnal out, because it isn't in common usage in our world today. I understand that, but was surprised to discover that the word carnal is not in the NIV translation or the ESV translation of the Bible. It is still in the New King James Version, so will read a couple of verses from the NKJV to help us better understand carnality.
All Christians are either spiritual or carnal according to Paul.
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
We become carnal when we sin which breaks our fellowship with God
6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Sin does not sever our relationship with God, it interferes with it because our mind is focused on the flesh and not on the Spirit Romans 8:6. We do not experience the spiritual qualities the Holy Spirit offers us when we are carnal, because our minds are so set on the flesh that we are actually hostile to God Romans 8:7. God is not going to fill us with spiritual qualities if we are acting like his enemy. We aren't his enemy, but at times we act like it. Paul describes it like this,
5 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.
If we are carnal, we need to confess our sins, which is simply agreeing with God that what we did is wrong, asking for forgiveness, and we will be restored to fellowship with him.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we do this, we get our peace back.
If you are carnal today, you can stop right now and confess your sin. It only takes a moment and God will restore you.
C. We are spiritual.
C. We are spiritual.
1 John 1:7
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
What if you are spiritual and don't have peace? There are two things to consider. First, your lack of peace may be because you may not be feeling well physically, mentally, or emotionally. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and our bodies affect our minds.I don’t feel peace when I’ve got a bad cold. I don’t feel peace when I have food poisoning. There are many physical and mental issues that prevent us from feeling peaceful.
Unfortunately there is a stigma about mental illness in many Christian circles that suggests Christians should never experience mental illness. That just isn't true. You can be spiritual, having no sin in your life, and not have peace because of what's going on in your body.
I have a good friend who has a problem with a valve in his heart that causes him to regularly experience anxiety. In his case, his anxiety is 100% physical and prevents him from experiencing peace. There are many physical and mental reasons like this that go beyond the scope of this message.
If you are right with God, meaning that you have no unconfessed sin in your life and are seeking God and his righteousness, and don’t have peace, then you need to seek out help to deal with your physical, mental, and other related issues.
The second thing to consider is that if you are spiritual, and do not have the peace of God, it is a good indicator that you are under a spiritual attack. Our three enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil are able to attack us in such a way that interferes with the peace of God. For the rest of this message and next week's message, we are going to focus on how to respond to the attacks by the flesh in order to get our peace back.
First, we need to
2. Identify the attack.
2. Identify the attack.
James 1:14
Photo of an attack
When I lose my peace, the first thing that I do is ask, "What happened?"
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Something is luring us away from the peace of God.
There was an event that either triggered the attack or was the first volley in the attack. There are many things that happen to us with such frequency that we have come to accept them as normal. For example worrying is a common emotion that many people accept as normal. However, you can't worry and have peace at the same time.
What is it that is making you worry? If you have allowed worrying to be a part of your life for a long time, then there may be a number of different issues that you have to sort through.
Let's assume things were fine and then something happened that made you start to worry. You got news that a loved one is sick. You got an unexpected bill in the mail. Someone got angry with you and insulted you. You forgot to do something and now there may be negative consequences. I could go on but I think you get the message. Begin by identifying what happened and then identify the desires and emotions and thoughts you are having as the attack.
This isn’t easy to do because we are so used to embracing negativity and evil desires that we assume we are generating them. In psychotherapy there is phenomena called inescapable shock.
Maier and Seligman had repeatedly administered painful electric shocks to dogs who were trapped in locked cages. They called this condition “inescapable shock.” Being a dog lover, I realized that I could never have done such research myself, but I was curious about how this cruelty would affect the animals. After administering several courses of electric shock, the researchers opened the doors of the cages and then shocked the dogs again. A group of control dogs who had never been shocked before immediately ran away, but the dogs who had earlier been subjected to inescapable shock made no attempt to flee, even when the door was wide open—they just lay there, whimpering and defecating. The mere opportunity to escape does not necessarily make traumatized animals, or people, take the road to freedom. Like Maier and Seligman’s dogs, many traumatized people simply give up. Rather than risk experimenting with new options they stay stuck in the fear they know.
van der Kolk, Bessel . The Body Keeps the Score (pp. 29-30). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Why do we suffer with anxiety, fear and emotional pain as Christians? We don’t need to. Christians who say worrying is normal are wrong! It is our flesh attacking us. It could also be the world or Satan but were talking about the flesh now.
If you recognize what is happening as an attack, you can do what is necessary to respond. You should because you have the power to defeat the attack. It is only after we identify the attack that we can respond to it with the appropriate defense. That means we need to
3. Put on armor.
3. Put on armor.
1 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Peter 5:6; Romans 13:14; Colossians 3:10; Romans 7:14-24
Photo of different armor
We would never for a moment think we could fight a forest fire without protective gear. We would be foolish to try to face a chemical attack without the right protection. A policeman wears a bulletproof vest because he knows someone may shoot at him. Would a firefighter be so arrogant to think he could fight a fire with no protection? No, that would be arrogant, foolish and fatal.
We must humble ourselves before God, ask for his help and believe he will give us the help to defeat our spiritual enemies. This is just as important with the flesh as it is with Satan, and as we will see with the world. If we do not do this, we are prideful and will fail.
12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Instead of that, we are to
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Once we have humbled ourselves it’s time to put on the armor. What is the armor we use for our spiritual battle with the flesh? We normally think of the armor of God is for the battle with Satan, and it is. But there is armor for fighting the flesh, too. That armor is the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. Paul tells us
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
He states this in a different way in the book of Colossians.
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Jesus is our armor. Jesus is like a bullet-proof vest that stands between you and certain death. He can take every blow the flesh strikes at us and not even wince.
We cannot defeat the flesh by ourselves. Paul describes the Christian's struggle with the flesh in Romans 7:14-24. It is a tough battle that we can't win by ourselves. How do we “put on Christ”? It seems so conceptual, so intangible.
We put on Christ by humbling ourselves, asking for and trusting in Christ to strengthen us and to give us the specific spiritual qualities we need the counteract each attack of the enemy.
Once we have humbled ourselves and asked for help, we pause and
4. Reframe the attack.
4. Reframe the attack.
Colossians 3:1-3
Image: How frames change the picture
The goal in reframing an event is to see it differently from how we may be viewing it in the heat of the battle. It's easy for negative events and hardship to overwhelm us. It's easy to be so overcome with an emotional response that we do not tap into the power of God to help us. When we reframe an event, we are pausing and thinking clearly which can lead us to the best possible outcome. Reframing an event brings more things into the picture and changes the picture.
Paul doesn’t use the word “reframe” but this is exactly what he tells us to do in chapter 3 of Colossians.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
The word seek means to look for something. Set your mind means to concentrate and reflect on something. He isn’t telling us to just reflect on our problem. That wouldn’t be helpful. Let’s view our problem differently by reframing it.
Photo of frame with just our problem
There are six ways we reframe attacks.
A. See it as a spiritual attack.
A. See it as a spiritual attack.
It is very common for us to accept attacking thoughts as our own, and not realize that it is the thoughts and desires themselves that are the attack. Have you ever wondered, "This is such an evil desire, I can't believe I have been thinking this!"? Most of us have thought this. When we think this way, we already feel defeated. Many Christians punish themselves because they think they shouldn't ever have evil thoughts. That just isn't true. No Christian sits down and decide's to have evil thoughts. The thoughts themselves are the attack. In a sense, like we said the peace of God is a barometer for spirituality, evil thoughts are a barometer for the presence of our spiritual enemies. When you experience an evil thought or have an evil desire, recognize that you are under attack. When you do that, you have put yourself in the place to battle those evil desires and thoughts with the power of Christ.
Image: How frames change the picture
B. View it from our position in Christ.
B. View it from our position in Christ.
Our position changes our view of every attack. God views all of us who have trusted in Jesus as our Savior from our sins because of his death burial and resurrection for us, as his mature children. He views us as being free from the penalty and the power of the flesh. This means we don't have to give in to the evil desires of the flesh. We are free from them. We died with Christ, and we live in him. We must see ourselves as God does in this way in order to defeat the flesh. A way to do this is to acknowledge this by praying, "Father, thank you that I am dead to the flesh and alive to you. I rest in Jesus for all I need to defeat the flesh and walk by the spirit."
Image: How frames change the picture
C. Add the perspective of experience.
C. Add the perspective of experience.
Has this problem or hardship never happened before? If so, how did we respond? Do we know the person who caused us to feel this way? If we do, what do we know about his or her personality that will help us to understand why it happened.
Image: How frames change the picture
D. Include the Father’s perspective.
D. Include the Father’s perspective.
What do we know about God that can help us see this problem differently? We know he loves us, we know he is in control, we know that nothing surprises God. We know that he allows problems and difficulties in our lives to strengthen us and grow our faith. We also know that God always provides for us. It may not be as fast as we would like, but God always provides.
Image: How frames change the picture
E. Consider what the Bible says about it.
E. Consider what the Bible says about it.
What does the Bible specifically say about this problem? Do we need to forgive someone for something they have done wrong to us? Perhaps we need to forbear, that is to put up with this issue and not make a big deal of it. It may be that this is an opportunity for us to trust God, and that is what is needed most right now in our life. Are we facing and evil desire that the Bible clearly states is wrong? Use the Bible to get the right perspective on our thoughts and desires in our current situation.
Image: How frames change the picture
F. Factor in faith.
F. Factor in faith.
If you have to, imagine the worse case scenario.
Often, the problem or difficulty seems to be so bad that can't imagine a positive conclusion to it. That's okay, if we believe God loves us, cares for us, and is always with us. If nothing else helps, imagine the very worst that can happen. Usually that means we die, or someone we love dies. I don't mean to be morbid here, but unless we take the perspective that God is with us and in control, even in the worst possible scenario, we will be engulfed with fear and discouragement and anxiety. Purpose to trust God no matter what. It isn't just that things are going to be okay, the truth is things are okay right now.
Image: How frames change the picture