Quit Team Flesh!

February 7, 2016 / By

On Super Bowl Sunday the talk is often about will the better offense win or will the better defense prevail?  In our study of creating a Cooperative Thinking Environment we realize there are two teams involved, Team Spirit and Team Flesh.  This message seeks to help us better understand the two teams and how to cooperate with Team Spirit and be uncooperative with Team Flesh.

Christians are on offense and defense at the same time.
Christians are on offense and defense at the same time.

A personal relationship with Jesus, in which we trust Him for salvation, fills us with His life.

Let’s call this Team Spirit (Life).  We have two options:  1. Be cooperative with the Spirit (life) or, 2.  Be uncooperative with the Spirit (life).

Let’s call the other Team Flesh (Death).  We have the same two options:  1.  Be cooperative with the flesh (death) or, 2. Be uncooperative the flesh (death).

The battlefield in creating a Christian Cooperative Thinking Environment is how we are cooperative and/or uncooperative with Team Spirit (life) and Team Flesh (death).

  • Team Spirit (Life) = The Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
  • Team Flesh (Death) = I am proud to say that I can do life my way without
Romans Team Spirit (Life) Team Flesh (Death)
7:5 Sinful Passion = death
8:13 Death to flesh – Live Live by flesh = death
8:5 Live by/set mind on Spirit Live by/set mind on flesh

 
8:6

 

 Set mind on Spirit = Life and peace Set mind on flesh – death
8:2 Law of the Spirit of life set free from the law of sin and death.
8:16 Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
8:11 The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead raises us from the dead too.
8:26 The Spirit helps us in our weakness.  The Spirit prays for us.

 

 

Lord, today I set my mind on the Spirit and put to death “I am proud that I can do life my way without God.”

LIFE GROUP Home Work

Listen – My Story

  1. Did your team win the Super Bowl? Do you think the better offense or better defense won the game?
  2. In your work or other life projects have you given something your best only to find out someone was working against you?

Learn – Digging Deeper

  1. The weekend message featured “setting our mind” on the Spirit. Read Psalm 19:14 and consider how the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart may be pleasing to God.

 

 

  1. Read Psalm 19:7-8. There are four benefits revealed to living within a Cooperative Thinking Environment that is totally immersed in the Bible (law of the Lord).  In your understanding, are these benefits literal?

 

  1. Psalm 19:10 speaks to desiring the law of the Lord. How does one develop an intense desire for God and his Word?

 

  1. Aware that God’s creation (vs. 1-6) and God’s word (vs. 7-11) reveal one’s sin, the Psalmist prays that God will help him with intentional, deliberate (presumptuous) sins and with hidden faults. In what ways does creation and the Bible reveal our sin?

 

  1. Setting one’s mind on the Spirit includes the Bible. What does verse 11 reveal the Bible does in our lives?  How do we learn to heed the warnings and highly value the rewards?

Life – Taking it Home

  1. What is God saying to you through this lesson?
  2. What could you do this week to cooperate with Team Spirit and to be uncooperative with Team Flesh?
  3. What is your next step in response to this teaching?

Lift – Prayer

  • Please pray for, and plan to attend, Burning Ice 2016. This bilingual conference is intended to further the unity between MCA Church and Hispanic congregations in Anchorage.  Additionally, we are praying that many people will trust Jesus for salvation. (March 11-13)
  • Please pray for MCA Marriage Ministries and their Financial Peace University, the Blessing class, and the life group for those married 5 years or less. The first two groups meet on Wednesday evenings and the life group meets on Saturday mornings.
  • Please pray for those in your life group who need God’s great strength in order to cooperate with Team Spirit this week