Live Free with Josh Howerton - Choosing Spirit Over Fles • Pastor Levi Lusko | Ep. 311 | Monday, April 15, 2024

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Have you ever felt as if there was a battle being waged inside you? We start this week by talking about the two systems operating inside all believers: the Spirit and the flesh. Even though the flesh is not in charge of us anymore, it is still tempted. Thankfully, we are under new management and the Holy Spirit can help us choose to walk in the way God has for us. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.com. dot church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, Lake Point Church. My name is Levi Lascoe, and I am so excited to be joining you this week on the Daily Drive

with Lake Point Church podcast. I said it myself right there. I just did it. The whole sentence, it's kind of a tongue twister. Daily Drive with Lake Point Church podcast. But I got it out, and I'm really excited about this week that I get entrusted with some of your time. And whether you're driving or whether you got a cup of coffee,

I do here, it's delicious in your Bible, a notebook, or you're going a million miles an hour, and you're doing laundry, and the kids there are this, and you've got to get Billy to soccer, and everything's hectic right now. I just think it's so powerful and speaks so much that you're prioritizing the feeding of your soul to take some time to let this mind be in you. And I'm really excited today to talk to you about choosing spirit over flesh. Choosing spirit over flesh. When I was early in ministry. I had a Windows computer, and I was excited about it because the church gave it to me, but I also was like seeing all these commercials on TV like, hi, I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC, and it was like the PC guy was like this like, you know, stodgy guy with a brown suit, all lame,

and the Mac guy was like, you know, unkempt hair and like skinny jeans, and it was like, dang, they're really going for us for this identity thing here. And of course, a lot of us got real hyped up on this image of what it meant to be a Mac person. And so I saved up and bought a Mac. And I was really excited about having a Mac computer. And it just, you know, kind of was different. You were limited in what apps you had, but it didn't matter because it was a way of life to be an Apple person. But I was frustrated because my Bible software I used to write my sermons and to study scripture looking into original languages, et cetera, didn't exist as a Mac program. And so I had to basically ghetto rig a version of Windows that I would run inside the Mac. And so I had the Mac on the

outside, but if you came over at a coffee shop and looked at my computer, you would see, what the heck? It's like a Windows start bar. And I would have to run two operating systems in the same computer to be able to accomplish this. Fortunately, it made everything slow. So on the positive side, it was a terrible experience. But it got the job done. And I was able to stay firmly a Mac person but also be running PCs. But it's kind of confusing, exactly like it is for us following Jesus. In fact, Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, verse 16, this, I say then walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh, lust 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. But if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the work of the flesh are evident, and then he gives this list, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, self-as ambitions, dissensions, heresies, I mean, it just keeps going. Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in the past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longs, suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, don't miss this, let us also walk in the spirit. This explains so much of the tension and why it feels so often, if it does feel this way for you, then you're in good company like a battle. following Jesus. If you ever feel like, man, I love God. I want to walk with God,

but I at times feel like, am I crazy? Is there another nature of me? Is there two operating systems in this computer? The answer is yes. You don't have Mac and Windows operating inside under the hood. You have the Spirit of God that has quickened, your inner man, your spiritual man, brought new life inside of you to life.

Jesus called it being born again. in John 3, but you also have this old man, this fleshly nature that you died to, right? And that death, when you were buried with Christ and baptisms, brought out of the waters of baptism with Christ, it was as though you did come out of the grave when Jesus rose because you did. That ended your allegiance to the fallen side of your nature. That ended your allegiance to the devil. You're not of this world, of this kingdom anymore. but you still drag along and carry along that old man and you will until heaven.

Here's what's trippy. Your flesh is not in charge of you anymore. The devil's not in charge of you. This world is not in charge of you anymore, but the person inside of you is so conditioned, that old nature is so conditioned to doing whatever your fleshly impulses say to do, that it's almost like you're provoked by temptation, and the old nature is like, yep, I need to listen.

You're like so used to listening. you almost have to remind yourself every day, hey, we're under new management. It's like if your boss got fired but he still hung out in your workplace, and you heard his voice and you were so predisposed to, you know, jumping up to get him a coffee because you asked you to. It's like, wait a minute, I don't work for you anymore. You're not the boss. You have to be like Kevin McAllister and Home Alone.

I'm not afraid of you anymore, right? And that's what Paul's talking about. We're now opened up to following Jesus. But, I mean, I have a little nephew who's a newborn. When I hold him in my arms, he's like pathetic. He's so tiny. He can't do anything for himself. He's beautiful, but he can't do anything. That's you when you're born again in Christ. And your old fleshly nature is like Arnold Schwarzenegger on the inside because it's been, it's had so long with the run of the show. So how do we,

let's get down to Brastacks here, how do we choose to walk in the spirit and not do the lest of the flesh? And that's a really important language. How do we walk in the spirit to not perform the lust of the flesh? Because you don't ever have to wake up and go, you know, what I'm going to do today? I'm going to sin. I'm going to get around to some sweet sins that I never got around to, right? That's not a story of backsliding. You don't sin because you're now choosing to walk in the flesh. Walking in the flesh is the default. It is what inevitably and automatically happens when you're not busy walking with the spirit. When you walk with the spirit, the fruits just pop up. What the heck? That's because he's doing them, not you. So you walk with Jesus. He grows the

fruit, love, what does it look like, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, right? As you walk with Jesus. So we don't need more rules because our tendency is to look at this and that's right. I don't want any wrath in me. Nope. Who's down on drunkenness and reveries? And I don't want any sorceries this year. So let's put some rules in place. No, no, we don't need better rules. We need a closer relationship. So let's walk with Jesus. How do we functionally do that? Well, you're doing it right now. You're listening to Scripture. You do it when you walk in life with your siblings, that's the people of God, brothers and sisters in the faith. We do it when we sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs. I knew Lake Point has some tremendous

worship music. This will anchor our heart in the spirit. Someone said once that wherever the king is, there is singing. So when we sing to Jesus, he's there in the midst. And then lastly, we do so by keeping our eyes on the Savior. So may God bless you today as you walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m.

and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint. combe.com slash daily drive.