What Controls Your Mind: The Spirit Or The Flesh? Series

1. Chapter of 8 is SO REFRESHING! – IN Christ…

• There is NO CONDEMNATION. NO BURDEN OF GUILT.

• There is freedom & power & strength in the Holy Spirit.

• These truths are where our minds dwell, where we love to hang out, we love to enjoy when we’re spiritually minded.

NOTE: Up to this point in Romans the Holy Spirit is mentioned really only once. But now in CH8 some 20 times! WHY?

• Because you and I can’t live the Christian life in the power of our own flesh… our own schemes… our own methods & habits.

• The life of the believer is lived by God in us & through us.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

It’s not schemes… not methods… not a 3- year plan… it’s Jesus!

NOTE: This is especially hard for those of you who like to figure things out. Jesus said…

John 3:8 (NKJV) 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

• I’m going to figure this Christian thing out. I want to know the system. Teach me the right vocabulary. Show me the lists.

• I can do it. NO YOU CAN’T.

• You, me, all of us need the power of God’s Spirit in our lives.

Proverbs 3:5-7 (NKJV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

The Spirit of God works wonderfully in & through our lives…

John 16:13 (NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

Acts 1:8 (NKJV) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

And where the SPIRIT OF THE LORD is, there is FREEDOM/LIBERTY!

• V2 – The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free…

• Free from condemnation… free from the Law of Moses, the Torah

• Free in Jesus to soar to spiritual heights still yet unknown.

• BUT… yes, there is concern… it’s our flesh!

Galatians 5:17 (NKJV) 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

REMEMBER, Jesus made it clear that that man’s basic problem is NOT with what is outside of him but what is within him.

Mark 7.20-23 And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 "All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

APP: That’s why simply changing a person’s environment, improving an economic situation as good as they may be…

• WILL NOT solve man’s basic problem.

• The deeds are coming from within and the key to change is a heart change internally.

• READ THROUGH Romans 8:5-8

1. (8:5-6) To be carnally minded is DEATH!

a. If you live according to your flesh your mind will follow.

b. If you live according to the Spirit your mind will follow.

By this time some begin to think that it’s ok to live for the flesh.

• After all, in CHRIST there is NO CONDEMNATION.

• We are free from rules & regulations in living for God.

• So I guess it’s OK to just continue on in my carnal tendencies and fleshly activities…

• I mean I prayed a prayer right there in my chair, up there at the altar and so I’m ok with God right?

• And if I’m OK, then why should I change the way I live?

• He tells us in v6… to be carnally minded is death.

Jesus has freed you from the FLESH-LIFE, the things of the world, the material, the physical… & lifted you to a higher way of living!

• The physical, the material, the FLESH seems to have a constant tug downward in your life and mine…