The Crucial Step: Choosing The Spirit Series

The Crucial Step: Choosing The Spirit

Jeffery Anselmi / General Adult

Keep in Step / Holy Spirit; Fruit of the Spirit / Galatians 5:16–25

The desires of the flesh are directly opposed to the desires of the Spirit.

INTRODUCTION

• There are so many things we struggle with on a daily basis.

• Some of them are obvious.

• Some of them are quiet.

• But the struggle is real—and at times, the battle can be fierce.

• BREATHE

• Not just the big, headline sins—but the everyday ones.

• The small choices.

• The repeated decisions.

• The things no one else sees.

HAVE COOKIES ON THE TABLE AND SOME CARROTS.

• Now, on the chairs, I’ve got two very ordinary things: cookies… and carrots.

• Neither one is imaginary.

• Neither one is illegal.

• Both are real choices, and most of us already know which one we want.

• The cookie promises immediate satisfaction.

• The carrot promises long-term health.

• And here’s the thing—we don’t usually wrestle over this once a year.

• We wrestle over it every single day.

• I KNOW I DO!

• In a very real way, this is what the Christian life feels like.

• As followers of Christ, we face an internal struggle between two opposing forces:

• The flesh

• And the Spirit, and they are not working together.

• Similar to these daily choices, Scripture tells us that the Christian life is not lived on autopilot.

• It requires intention.

• It requires discernment.

• And it requires a decision about which voice we will listen to.

• Paul concludes Galatians 5 with a simple yet demanding instruction, which has served as the foundation of this series and, more importantly, our lives.

• I pray that this verse sets the tone for your 2026 and the rest of your life.

Galatians 5:25 CSB

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

• Paul has been building toward an important truth throughout this chapter: keeping in step with the Spirit requires a choice and purpose on our part.

• That choice is not theoretical.

• It’s daily.

• It’s practical, and it takes place in the middle of a very real battle.

• And that brings us to our first truth this morning…

Galatians 5:16–18 NET 2nd ed.

16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

SERMON

MAIN POINT 1 SLIDE

I. The Battle

• So if you’ve ever found yourself wanting to do the right thing—but struggling to actually do it…

• If you’ve ever known what God was calling you to do, but felt pulled in another direction…

• If you’ve ever wondered, “Why does following Jesus still feel like a fight?”

• Then take heart—because the Bible doesn’t deny that struggle.

• It explains it.

• Paul tells us that what we experience isn’t random weakness or spiritual failure.

• It’s a battle.

• A real, ongoing conflict between two opposing desires that are constantly at war within us.

• Before Paul tells us how to walk by the Spirit, before he names the fruit of the Spirit, he wants us to understand what we’re up against.

• That’s why he begins by describing the battle.

• Paul does not begin by pretending the Christian life is easy.

• Verse 16 reminds us to live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

• The command assumes resistance.

• Verse 17 explains why the command is necessary.

Galatians 5:17 NET 2nd ed.

17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.

• The verb “are opposed” pictures a habitual, ongoing conflict, not a one-time crisis; this is the normal Christian experience, not an exception.

• This battle explains why we sometimes do not do the things we truly want to do for God, because the flesh and the renewed spirit continually interfere with each other.

• The flesh pulls one way, and the Spirit pulls the other.

• Every Christian lives at that intersection of that tension.

• The word "flesh" (sarx) refers to human nature and speaks of our literal flesh, which is neutral (in other words, our flesh is neither good nor evil).