Resurrected: A New Natural

So one time I got in trouble for peeing in a dehumidifier.

That's a really good segue into the message.

Let me explain.

I want to start by saying I was seven years old.

So that's gotta count for something, right?

I was seven years old, and here's what happened.

The house that my family lived in had a basement, and it wasn't, it wasn't like a walkout basement.

It was an old house, old basement, just a bunch of rooms under the dirt, and it was really damp.

And so my dad bought this dehumidifier because you know you don't want a damp basement, you get mold and stuff like that.

And it just what dehumidifiers do if you don't know, it's a machine that pulls the moisture out of the air and somehow converts it into water, and then it leaves that water in a bucket at the back.

And so every day my dad would come downstairs and he would take the bucket, which had collected water, and he would take it out, dump it, and put it back.

Well, the thing about this basement was it didn't have a bathroom.

And it's where I played.

It's it's where all my toys were, it was my play area, it's where I watched cartoons, you know, and this is pre-Netflix when you couldn't just pause and go somewhere.

You know, you had to like wait for a commercial break.

I'd play played video games down there, and it was super inconvenient for me to have to stop what I was doing, go all the way upstairs, go down a hallway, use the restroom, come back down.

That just wasn't working.

And so one day I had to go real bad.

I was seven.

I do want to remind you guys I was seven.

And uh, and I look over at the dehumidifier at the bucket in the back, and I was like, well, that's pretty much a toilet.

You know, it's just a bucket of water.

And my dad dumps it every day, so it's not even like it's gonna sit there.

You know, it's basically sanitary.

So I just I just went ahead and and peed in the back of the dehumidifier.

And uh it was great, it was awesome, it was super convenient, it worked, and I did it for about three months, and my dad had no idea, no clue.

Every day he comes downstairs and he's just like doo-doo doo-doo doo.

Then one day, it all fell apart.

The the jig was up.

I'm downstairs peeing in the dehumidifier, you know, doing what I do, and and it must have been a really quiet day.

Like it must have been really quiet upstairs, and there was no TV on or anything like that, because all of a sudden I hear my mom scream my name, and she did that whole first, middle, and last name thing, which you know is is bad when you're a kid.

She yells it, and and her suspicions were confirmed because as soon as she yells it, the noise she heard stopped.

Right?

Because that's what happened.

She heard a noise, and there's some noises, there's some noises that you hear, and you're like, What is that?

I wonder what that noise is.

I should go investigate.

And then there's other noises that you hear, and you know exactly what that is.

There are some sounds that are very distinct, and there's only one thing in the world that makes that sound, and so she heard that sound downstairs as I was doing my thing, screams my name, sound stops, and I have to come up the stairs.

And that was a very long, shameful walk.

It's pouring right now.

Look at that.

That's the rain.

So I go up the stairs, and my mom just looks at me and asks me a very specific, very direct question.

She just looks at me and says, Were you peeing in the dehumidifier?

And I've got nothing.

I've got nothing.

I have no, there's no answer.

It's not even one of those situations where you're like, Well, hear me out, mom.

There's a good reason.

There's a really good explanation for this.

No, I just, yes.

And I, yes.

And I just looked at her and I nodded.

And she looked at me and she said, Why?

Why would you do that?

That's disgusting.

Why?

And I had nothing.

I just, I just sat there and proceeded to get in trouble.

Years later, many years later, one day I come home from work and Megan says, You would not believe what I caught your son doing.

You know?

Now we don't have a dehumidifier, so that's fine.

And she just said, I caught him peeing somewhere a human being should never pee.

What do you have any understanding of this?

Like, what would possess him to do it?

And I was like, I kind of know where that probably comes from.

You know?

That's called generational sin.

That's the phrase in scripture.

That for something, for some, like, for some reason, going to the bathroom where you're not supposed to, it just comes natural for men.

And ladies, if you're judging me, I just want you to know that if you're sitting next to a man right now or near a man, he has peed somewhere he is not supposed to pee.

There's a really good chance he has peed in the shower.

Like, look at him, and if he's like, oh no, no, no, he's a liar.

He's peed in the shower before.

That's what men do.

But like, like, nothing, nothing motivated me to do that when I was a kid.

There were, there was no, there was no person that had done that that said, hey, let me show you a really cool life hack.

You know, it wasn't, it wasn't like I saw this behavior modeled, it just sort of occurred to me.

You know, it just kind of came natural.

The same thing happened for my son.

There's something about us as people that that causes us to do things that are ridiculous, oftentimes harmful, and even self-destructive, and we don't even really know why.

And if you looked at us and said, why do you do that?

We're just like, I don't, I don't know.

It just sort of happens.

It comes it comes natural.

And today we're gonna talk about our nature as people.

And specifically, we're gonna talk about how through our faith in Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can actually get a new natural in our lives, that we can live in a completely different way, that what comes natural to us can be can be the very things that God desires for our lives.

We're gonna talk about nature.

Now, for some context, we're in a series right now called Resurrected.

We're studying Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2:1–10

We love to study scripture here if you're new.

We like to go right through the Bible because we believe there's things that God reveals to us in Scripture we could never learn on our own.

We believe that when we look at Scripture, things get clear.

We get a clear look at ourselves, which we need, and we get a really clear look at God.

And when you see yourself clearly and you see God clearly, life has a way of making sense like it can never before.

So we love to dive into the word, and right now we're in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10 tells the story of a resurrection.

Ephesians 2:1–10

But it's not the resurrection of Jesus.

As you might think, it's connected to that resurrection, but it actually tells the story of our resurrection.

Which is kind of crazy because in order to be resurrected, first you have to be, you have to be what?

You gotta be dead.

And that's exactly how the author Paul begins, Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

I'm just gonna read the first five verses.

We'll get into the following five verses in the weeks to come.

He says, Once you were dead, because of your disobedience and your many sins.

Used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers and the unseen world.

He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.

By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else, but God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

It is only by God's grace that you've been saved.

So he starts bold.

He says, Hey, you used to be dead.

He's talking to people who have given their lives to Jesus, and he says, You used to be dead.

He's not talking about physical death, he's talking about spiritual death.

And when we first introduced this concept, we said, Hey, think about the way you talk about your phone.

When it's out of power, you say it's dead, right?

And you don't mean it's physically broken, you don't mean it it should be thrown away, buried in the backyard.

You just mean that it's lacking power.

It doesn't have any life in it, so it can't function the way it's meant to.

And Paul says that apart from Jesus, if we don't have a relationship with Jesus, if we're not connected to Jesus, we have no power.

Our spirit is powerless, that we don't have the ability to live and function as we should, as we could.

He says, once you were dead, and then he goes on later to describe this resurrection that's happened, and in the weeks to come, we're gonna talk about the the things that define this resurrected life.

But first, Paul takes some time and he goes into detail about the causes and the forces behind the deadness.

And it's really important for us to understand that.

It's really hard to appreciate a cure if you don't understand the disease, right?

It's really important for us to understand the things at work that desire to keep us from the life that God has for us if we're ever to conquer those things.

And so he says basically that we were dead because of our sins.

He says, your disobedience and your sins, and and in some translations we'll say your sins and your trespasses.

It's two words.

They sound very similar.

One word basically means willful disobedience.

Ping and dehumidifiers, right?

That's that category.

And the other side means accidental mistakes.

Like I thought I was doing the right thing, but it wasn't the right thing.

I thought I was doing something good, turns out it was bad.

I didn't just didn't know.

It was kind of out of ignorance.

He says, all that's sin, and sin is destructive.

The Bible always connects sin to death.

Sin is a killer.

It kills our conscience, it kills our will.

Sin is connected to death always in Scripture.

He says, it's because of your sin that you were dead.

And then he describes two forces behind our sin.

He says, number one, the devil.

And last week we spent 53 minutes talking about the devil.

Or better yet, I spent 53 minutes talking about the devil.

And if you were here for that, I'm sorry.

If you weren't, you can listen to it online and subject yourself to that.

But actually, it was a super interesting conversation.

Number one, the devil.

Number two, he says, the other force behind our sin is our sin nature.

That there's just something about us as people where sin comes naturally.

Sin being selfishness, disobedience, and rebellion to God.

It's like it's programmed in us.

It's our default setting.

It's our default setting.

You don't have to teach a child how to sin.

I've got four amazing kids.

And they are naturally selfish.

One of the most hysterical things for me to watch, and it's also kind of maddening, is watching them try to decide on a television show that they will all watch.

Because I've got my eight-year-old son, he does not want to watch what my four-year-old daughter wants to watch.

My two-year-old son does not want to watch what either of them want to watch.

Eli's, he's like a newborn.

He's not even old enough to jump into the equation yet.

When he gets in there, it's gonna get even more complicated.

And watching them try to decide on one show to watch for 30 minutes is like watching Democrats and Republicans try to pass a law.

Like it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous.

There's compromises being made left and right, there's earmarks, it's just horrible.

It's nuts.

And the funny thing is, the reason behind it is because they just don't care about one another that much.

They just don't.

They love each other, they will grow.

It's our job to teach them this, but naturally, they don't care.

And so, like my daughter might be home and she may have been watching TV for hours.

Not because we let our children watch TV for hours.

We're obviously better parents than that, you know.

But let's just say it was raining outside and you know, we were tired.

So um, she's been watching TV for hours, and then Liam comes home from school and he hasn't gotten to watch a thing yet.

He's been at school all day, he's worked hard, and and he'll want to watch a show, and Lily will say no, she'll protest.

And we'll even reason with her and say, Lily, you have watched shows plenty today.

Liam hasn't gotten to watch a show.

It's a very strong argument.

And Lily doesn't care.

She just doesn't care.

It doesn't move her at all.

She's like, I don't care.

She doesn't care because naturally we're selfish.

We're selfless to a degree, but but no one has to teach a child how to be selfish.

No one has to teach a child how to lie.

No one taught me how to pee in a dehumidifier.

It just sort of happened, right?

Our nature betrays us.

And there's just this truth that sin, or whatever word you want to put in its place, it comes naturally to us.

And the challenge and opportunity that we have today is how to how to learn how to change our nature.

Better yet, how to let God change our nature.

And it's completely possible, it is 100% possible for the things of God to become natural in your life.

Sometimes the message we get in church falls short.

That's something I have to pray about and examine in my heart all the time.

Am I actually preaching the full gospel?

Because we happen to live in a church culture right now that just sort of echoes the things that are taught to us by the world, by our culture, which which will say, hey, you're just a person, you're only human.

You're gonna make lots of mistakes.

And there's truth to that.

And sometimes we preach half the gospel and we say, hey, Jesus has forgiven you because of what he did on the cross.

You've been forgiven completely and totally forgiven, and that's true, but it doesn't stop at forgiveness.

Because yes, he forgives us, but he also empowers us.

He gives us the power to live differently.

And if there's any part of your life that you want to be different, if you have any desire inside of yourself to live differently, I want you to know that God has given you the power to live differently.

He's given you the power to actually live in such a way where your natural, your natural tendencies are to do the things that He would have you do.

And so we're gonna explore this concept of nature, and to do that, I want to draw like a little word chart.

And I'm left-handed, my handwriting's bad, so forgive me.

Okay, so here we go.

I want to give you three words to start with.

Born, nature, and flesh.

Let's go through these real quick.

We were all born.

Agree?

Anyone everyone agree?

You were all born?

Okay?

Anyone like, nope, not me.

I came differently.

Okay?

That's we'll talk later.

Um, your your parents need to have a conversation with you.

You're you're like a high school student, it's it's time.

So, parents, he needs to know some things.

Okay.

So you were born, okay?

That that that happened.

And when you were born, you received a a nature.

Now the Bible will call your nature a sin nature.

We just saw that, right?

He said our sinful nature in Ephesians 2.

And the Bible not only says that we're born with a sin nature, it even goes further and it says that we are slaves to our nature.

Slaves to our sin nature.

In Romans chapter 6, verse 20, Paul is talking to this group of Christians, and he's telling them, hey, live in light of what Jesus has done for you.

Romans 6:20

And he just kind of throws this out there very flippantly.

He says, Hey, when you were controlled by your sin nature, when you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

He's saying, hey, but something's changed.

You've been changed.

Now you got to do life differently.

You can do life in a different way.

But he just throws that out there.

You used to be slaves to your sin.

And that is a that's a very offensive statement in our culture.

Like if you're to broadcast that out there, I believe human beings are slaves to a sinful nature.

That is, that is not going to play nice on the airwaves.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like, that's offensive.

And so our world, our culture will look at us and say, no, no, no, what a horrible view of people.

But what's funny is that our world completely agrees with that statement.

Like 100% agrees.

It just uses different words.

And so, yes, you will not hear our culture tell us that we are slaves to our sin nature, but you will hear our culture say things like, like, we're only human, right?

Just said that a few minutes ago.

I mean, I'm I'm only human.

What do you expect?

Like good behavior?

I'm just a person.

We'll say that all the time.

You'll hear people say, hey, I can't, I can't help the way I feel.

I can't change the way I feel.

I can't change who I'm attracted to.

I I'm I'm passionate about this.

That's always our go-to, but I really, really, really want to.

And what did Paul say in Ephesians 2.3?

The passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.

Wanting something really bad does not mean it's good.

And so, yes, our culture would not agree with the fact that we're slaves to our sin nature, but it says we're only human and we can't change the way we feel, and we can't help it.

There's agreement that there's some powerlessness that we seem to have to the desires within us.

And there's this word that the Bible uses to sum all of that up, and it's flesh.

All that's summed up in this word flesh.

As we see that, for example, in Galatians chapter 5, we're gonna look at verses 19 through 21.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfless ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

All of that is described as the works of the flesh.

That's the natural result of following our sin nature.

And what's so crazy about this list is even though it's 2,000 years old, Paul just nails, nails virtually every problem that the world deals with right now.

Like it doesn't even need updated.

He he finishes with and the like, and other than ping and dehumidifiers, I can't even think of a scenario where we even need to use that because he just nails it.

What's really crazy, and I don't have time to get into this because of of the fact that I respect you, and last week was 53 minutes.

Um, we're gonna we're gonna have to upload a follow-up podcast to this where we'll go into more detail, but but there's even things that are on that list that you don't even see unless you look at the original language.

For example, drug addiction is on there, pornography is on there.

It's just that the way it translates, we don't we don't see that, and we'll we'll talk about that in the follow-up podcast.

But he gives us this crazy accurate list of the issues of 2018.

2,000 years ago, he nailed it, and he calls these the works of the flesh.

In other words, if we live to satisfy our sinful nature, or as our culture would just say, our human nature, if we live to satisfy human nature, that's what happens.

Those are the works of the flesh, and they are destructive and they are harmful and they lead to shame and guilt and bondage, and it is not good.

I don't want to go back to this word chart because there's some other words that that come into play.

So we're born again, and then we get a nature, it's called spirit.

And these are like a contrast, right?

Because the thing about being born is that it only happens once.

In terms of your of your physical body.

I mean, I think so.

Like like Zoe, you do birth.

Has there ever been a double birth?

Like, well, the child was born, but it needed more time.

So we just know, okay, cool.

Um, so you're born once physically, but but Jesus actually says in John chapter 3, verse 3, I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:3

And the guy he's talking to is a Pharisee, a religious leader named Nicodemus, and Nicodemus comes back with this stupid question.

He's like, You mean I have to get back in my mother's womb?

And Jesus, like, I don't know how Jesus didn't just like slap him upside the head, like, clearly a metaphor.

Come on.

But he's like, No, no, you have to be born again.

In other words, he's saying, your first birth, not enough.

Something's off.

You need to be born again.

You need a spiritual birth.

And so when we give our lives to Jesus, we put our faith in Jesus, that's what being born again means.

It means we have we've submitted ourselves to God, and a new birth has happened.

And there's some promises that go along with this new birth.

2 Corinthians 5, 17.

Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new creation.

Behold, the old life is gone, a new life has begun.

When we give our lives to Jesus, we become new people.

It's new birth.

We're a new creation.

One of the frustrations that we feel is Jesus followers, and I know not all of us in the room are Jesus followers, but a lot of us are, and one of the frustrations we feel is sometimes the new life that we're promised doesn't seem that different than the old.

And we've got to navigate that.

And it's all about this idea of nature that we're talking about.

But it's clear that we become new creations.

We get a new nature.

Ephesians 4, 24, Paul says, put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

In other words, this new nature that results from our new birth, it's gonna desire the things that God desires.

It's actually gonna want what God wants.

And if we follow that nature, the results are very different.

And the word that the Bible uses to sort of sum all that up is spirit.

Romans 8 16 says that when we believe in God, that his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we're his children.

And then Galatians 5, 22 and 23 contrast to those works of the flesh, and it says this, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

There's no law against these things.

So we've got the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit.

We've got our old nature that we got from birth, our human nature, our sin nature, whatever you want to call it.

Now we've got this new nature, this God nature that we were given when we were created again.

When we gave our lives to Jesus, when we were born again.

We've got flesh, and now we've got spirit.

But the problem is they're living under the same roof.

You ever not get along with someone you share a roof with?

A young child just said yes in the front row, very emphatically.

Yes.

Stop talking.

Um, you're don't don't dig.

You're good.

Galatians 5 17 says, the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants, and the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.

These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you're not free to carry out your good intentions.

So, in other words, the flesh and the spirit, they don't get along.

And here's where we find ourselves as believers the flesh, we're used to it.

It feels very natural.

It feels super, super natural.

I just I just changed my diet a few weeks ago.

I'm doing this thing called keto.

Has anyone done the keto diet?

Okay.

There's more carbs in an apple than I can eat in a week right now.

And I'm doing all kinds of weird stuff.

Like it doesn't feel normal.

I went through when you can have about as much meat, cheese, and fat as you want on keto.

It's probably not healthy, but whatever.

You know, and uh and I went through Wendy's yesterday, and I ordered three double stacks with cheese and no ketchup because there's too much sugar in that, but mustard.

And then the guy handed it to me, and I just proceeded to take all the bread off and just eat these burgers.

And I'm thinking, like, if someone walks like past me right now in my car, I'm I'm I look weird.

This does this does not feel natural.

You know what I mean?

Like I like the old way.

I'm used to the old way, and that's how we we find ourselves feeling very often is that we become a Christian, we become a new creation, but our old self, our old nature, it was it was set, it was mature.

And now we got this new nature, and sometimes the old stuff feels way more natural to us than the new.

And so it's very easy for us to continue living out of the old nature.

And then when you take teaching that sometimes infiltrates the church, like here's the reality, church should shape culture.

But we live in a time right now in America where culture is shaping the church very, very much.

And so you hear messages in church that stop short of that power we talked about, where it's just like, hey, we're all, we're all we're all imperfect people and we're just gonna, we're gonna struggle, you know, do your best, but hey, you're forgiven, but you know, we're only human.

That is not the story of the Bible.

If I hand you a New Testament and you read it, you're not gonna walk away with the conclusion of, well, I guess I'm just doomed to struggle with all my struggles.

That is not what you're gonna come away with.

There are promises of power, of new life, of a completely new way to live.

But it's not, it's not gonna happen just by itself.

Because the flesh doesn't go away.

When you when you get saved and you become a new creation, it's not like the the flesh just goes, well, I've had a good run.

I'm out, I'm gone.

No, no, no.

The flesh fights for its life, and those two are not going to get along.

You're not gonna make compromises.

Your your spirit man and your flesh man are not gonna say, okay, well, this is my half of the room, okay, well, this is my half.

You stay over there, I'll stay over here.

Cool, we're good.

It's not gonna work that way.

They hate each other, they're opposed to one another.

That's what Galatians 5.17 said.

They're opposed to one another, so one of them is going to become dominant and the other is going to wither and die.

That's the reality.

Either your flesh is going to dominate your spirit, and your spirit is gonna be minuscule in terms of its effect on your life.

I'm not talking about the love God has for you, I'm talking about the way you live, or your spirit is going to dominate your flesh, and you'll live in an entirely different way.

One is going to become dominant, the other is going to become weak.

And we get to decide which will become dominant.

And here's what decides it.

It's very simple.

Which which are you gonna feed the most?

Like, which one are you going to feed?

Are you gonna feed your flesh or are you gonna feed your spirit?

Whichever you feed the most will be the strongest.

It's interesting.

Some sometimes when we think about how to live life right, you know, we're we're trying to be Jesus people, you know, we want to live life right.

And so what we think very often, and maybe not in these terms, is how can I deny my flesh?

How can I say no to the bad things?

And we work really hard at doing that.

We work really, really hard at doing that.

But the problem is just saying no to the bad stuff doesn't work.

It doesn't work at all.

I'll give you an example.

This is kind of a weird example, but go with me.

Right now.

Whatever you do, do not think about a purple elephant.

Don't do it.

Think about anything but a purple elephant.

You can think of something purple as long as it's not an elephant.

You can think of an eggplant, but not a purple elephant.

You can think of an elephant as long as it's not purple.

You can think of a green elephant, an orange elephant, a regular old gray elephant, but you cannot think at all of a purple elephant.

Don't do it.

This is a picture of what an elephant would look like if it was purple.

But don't, don't think about that, people.

Don't do it.

Now, just be honest, in the last 15 seconds, has anyone in the room pictured a purple elephant?

Okay.

I told you not to.

I was very clear, I was completely clear in my in my instructions.

I said over and over again, don't do it.

Don't, don't, don't.

And all of you are disobedient, horrible people, because I don't know how the I don't know how I could have been more clear.

And the junior high students in the front are like saying, hey, you showed us a picture.

Well, here's the reality.

We live our lives trying really, really hard not to do certain things or think about certain things, and we live in a world that shows us lots of pictures of the things that we're trying not to do.

And simply saying, don't do it, doesn't it doesn't work.

In fact, Paul, he talked about the fact that the law, which is the rules and regulations of the Old Testament, he said the law actually gave power to sin.

That if not for the law, sin would actually have less power.

And here's why sin nature.

Our sin nature is such that if you if you tell someone not to do it, they want to do it more.

They really do.

Like in our main hallway, we've got all these doors that go to like electrical rooms and just very uninteresting spaces.

Okay?

And if before the service started today, I had gone to one of those random electrical room storage doors and put a sign in big bright letters that said, no one under 18 allowed for any reason.

Guess how badly the people under 18 would have wanted to go in that room.

All of a sudden, a room that they've passed by hundreds of times and never given any care to, a door that they didn't even know was there, you put a sign on that says, do not come in this door if you were under 18.

And now all the 18-year-olds are like, I gotta figure out what's in that door.

Like, I gotta, I don't know why, but all of a sudden, this door, it is speaking to me, it is calling to me.

I have, I have to.

I just ah, I have to, right?

That's human nature.

And so just saying, don't do it, that doesn't, it doesn't cut it.

It's not enough.

Starve your flesh, yes, that's a good thing to do, but but in and of itself, that's not going to work.

What you gotta do is feed your spirit.

You've got to feed that that spirit man that's inside you.

You've got to feed your new nature.

And how do you do that?

It's it's pretty simple.

You you appeal to that nature anytime you make a decision.

Anytime you do something, especially something of consequence, something like how are you gonna spend your money, and how are you gonna spend your time, and what are you gonna set before your eyes when you're relaxing?

How are you gonna speak to the people around you?

How are you gonna speak to your children?

How are you gonna speak to your parents?

How are you gonna speak to your friends?

How are you gonna speak to your teachers?

How are you gonna go about doing your job?

How are you gonna go about doing school?

All those types of decisions that we make every single day, every time you make a decision, you're appealing to one of your natures.

And usually when we say something like, well, it just I this is what feels natural, we're almost always talking about our old nature, one we were born with.

But if you started to intentionally, intentionally appeal to your new nature, when you make those decisions, if if you stopped and you said, okay, I want to run this decision through my new nature, not my old nature, old nature, shut up.

You've had your time.

I'm gonna run this through through my new nature, I'm gonna appeal to that and see if this decision holds up.

If you do that with intentionality, you will find that that that's gonna become natural because that's how things become natural, right?

That's how they become natural.

First it's intentional, and then it's natural.

I don't know if I've ever talked to you guys about the fact that my eight-year-old son plays basketball, um, but he does.

And and I post videos of him on on you know Facebook from time to time, and and uh part of that's probably because I'm uh I'm I need gratification.

Um, but whatever.

So he he's really good.

And he's like he's really good.

And people will tell me all the time he's such a natural, and and he is, that's true, but there's been a lot of intentional work behind what looks really natural.

If you could see the hours and hours he spends doing very specific things, it makes it makes what he does look very natural, but it didn't start that way, it started intentional.

And so I want to give you kind of a tool this morning, and then we'll we'll wrap up.

I want to give you a tool for how to take your new nature and make it your natural.

Piece by piece, day by day.

Guys, bring up Galatians 5, 22 through 23 again.

This is the fruit of the spirit, right?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I know it says forbearance, but I've always learned it.

Oh, now it says patience.

See, I'm in a different translation.

We are way off.

But whatever.

I didn't even have to say anything.

You wouldn't have known.

Dang it.

Okay, so fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

If you would, if you would look at those as a filter, and I'm saying like this week, this week, just start this.

Pull this scripture up, put it on your phone, open up a Bible and highlight it, read it every single day.

Set a reminder on your phone to look at it multiple times a day.

If you have the mobile app, it's connected to the message this week, just look at it every day.

And when you're making your decisions, stop for a moment and run it through these filters.

Is what I'm doing motivated by love?

And I don't mean love for self.

Right?

If you want to know what love's all about, read 1 Corinthians 13.

It gives us a picture of what God's love is, it is not selfish.

You know that phrase that we hear in our culture?

That the the greatest love you can have is to love yourself.

That is so stupid.

Do you know how easy it is for me to love me?

It is so easy.

I love me so much.

Jesus said there is no greater love than to surrender your life for the people around you, for one's friends, right?

So that's a very different kind of love that Jesus is talking about.

So you're making a decision.

You're like, ah, I'm stuck.

Think about a decision maybe that you gotta make right now, that you gotta, it's a tough one, you gotta figure this out.

Is it motivated by love?

And if it's not, ooh, then I'm appealing to the old nature.

Is it motivated by joy?

Is this gonna bring joy to people?

Is it going to create peace in a situation, or is it just gonna like exacerbate a problem?

Like our old nature, it's vengeful.

Our old nature loves, loves, loves to get back at people and to return evil for evil.

But our new nature craves peace.

So is this decision, is it gonna bring peace?

Am I acting in patience?

Or am I am I living for instant gratification?

Like that's the worst for me when it comes to Amazon.

Like that stupid two-day delivery thing.

It's a killer because I like I have a budget every month, and I'm like, the budget's gonna reset in two weeks.

If I just wait two weeks, I'm good.

But it could be here in two days.

And I saw it, and now I want it.

And so, ah, I gotta fight that.

Well, is the decision I'm about to make, even with my finances?

Am I am I operating in patience?

Is this kind?

If I follow through with this, is it going to be kind?

Is it good?

Like, goodness is one of those things that you like, come on, is it good?

Sometimes we're like, well, it technically depends on what you mean by good.

Like, is it good?

You know a good thing when you see it.

Is it me being faithful?

Am I following through on the promises that I've made?

Am I keeping the commitments that I that I've made?

Is it gentle?

When you speak to someone, when you when you maybe you have a decision and it's the right decision to make.

And I've experienced this.

Sometimes we know the right thing to do, but the application can be less than gentle.

Am I doing the right thing in a way that's that's gentle?

Am I practicing self-control or am I living for self-gratification?

These are the filters of your new nature.

And this week, you got a decision to make, pull open Galatians 5, 22, and 23 and read through it and think, okay, this is what I'm thinking about doing, but I want to make sure that it's my new nature that I'm appealing to, not my old, because every time you make a decision, whichever nature you appeal to, it's like you're giving that nature a cookie.

You're feeding it.

So feed your new nature.

Feed your spirit.

And the more you feed your spirit, the stronger it's gonna become.

And the stronger it's gonna become, the easier it will be to subdue your flesh.

And what you will find is things right now that might take extreme intentionality will one day become natural.

That there will be a day that doing the things that God has for you to do, it will feel natural.

And worship team, you guys can make your way out.

We'll wrap this up.

I want to read for you Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Most of it, actually, at least the first half of it, because this is really, really powerful.

And again, I just want to come at this from the context of the fact that we live in a world that tells us we're only human.

And sometimes the church kind of jumps in with that and we actually set a really low standard.

I'm not talking about setting a low standard in the sense that we're putting pressure on people.

Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he said, You lay a burden on people that they cannot possibly carry.

I'm not talking about that.

But sometimes we forget the fact that God actually tells us we can do far more than we think we can.

And we might think we're only human, and we might think that we are doomed to struggle with the same issues, the same battles, the same sins, the same mindsets, the same problems, but I'm telling you, that is not the story of Scripture.

And Romans chapter 8 makes it really clear.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Paul says, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

And that's a powerful statement in and of itself.

There is zero condemnation.

And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Sin does not have power over you anymore.

You might think that it does, but it doesn't.

The only power that it has over you is whatever power you believe it has.

But it's clear the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

So when you're making a decision and you're feeling tempted and your flesh man speaks up and says, Hey, you can look at your flesh man and say, Shut up.

You don't have a voice anymore.

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.

So God did what the law could not do.

He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have.

And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving us his son as a sacrifice for our sins.

He declared an end to sin's control over us.

Do we believe that this morning?

Do you believe that the control of sin is over in your life?

That it's been declared over.

Those who, sorry, he did this for us so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit.

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.

It never did obey God's laws, and it never will.

That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature.

I want you to hear that.

If you've given your life to Jesus, you are not controlled by your sinful nature.

You are not controlled by your flesh.

You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.

And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.

If you've given your life to Jesus, His Spirit has joined with your Spirit.

You have the Holy Spirit in you, and Christ lives in them.

So even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you've been made right with God.

The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, and just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

Come on, you've got no obligation to do what your sinful nature wants, it has no power over you.

You might be used to it, its voice might be very familiar, it might have some really good arguments, it might feel natural, but you are under no obligation, absolutely zero obligation, to do what it says.

It has no power over you anymore.

For if you live by its dictates, you will die.

But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

You can put you can put it to death.

You can put the deeds of your flesh to death.

Galatians 5 24 says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

Believe that.

It's dead.

Don't try to resuscitate it.

It's dead.

In the very next verse, verse 25, since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

The answer to grow your spirit, man, so that it dominates your flesh, is to live by the spirit.

It's not just to deny your flesh.

It's not just to try really, really hard, not to do the thing that your flesh wants you to do.

It's to feed your spirit, it's to live by the spirit, it's to make decisions based on what your new nature wants.

It's to appeal to that new nature, it's to run all your decisions, all your thoughts through those filters of Galatians 5, 22 through 23.

Run it through scripture.

Is this consistent with the desires of my new nature?

And when you do that, you are living by the spirit.

And when you live by the spirit, the flesh, it dies a little every day.

So live by the spirit.

And right now we're gonna worship with one more song.

And it's funny, worship is part of our spirit being fed.

There's something about worship that feeds our spirit.

There's something about us coming together as a church and singing out a declaration about who God is and how we will live for Him that feeds that spirit that does the very thing that we're talking about doing.

And so I'm gonna ask that you stand with me.

I'm gonna pray.

And if there's anyone here in the room right now that has never given your life to Jesus, I just want to let you know that he loves you, that he's crazy about you, that he has a whole new life for you, he has a whole new way of living for you, he has a power that he wants to give your life to give you that will change the way you live.

And all you have to do is accept him because he's already accepted you.

It can happen in an instant, in a moment, it's between you and him, it's just in your heart.

And so, those of you who've already given your lives to Jesus, you are no longer obligated to do what your flesh wants.

So live by the Spirit.

Live by the Spirit every day this week.

Live by the Spirit and experience life.

Pray with me, Lord.

We love you.

We thank you for all you've done for us.

We thank you for making us new creations, for making us new people with new natures, and we ask, Lord, that you empower us to live by our new nature, not our old.

And we ask, Lord, that you would give us the ability.

And even if right now, that means we have to be incredibly intentional and purposeful.

That you would give us the ability for our new nature to become so strong that it is what's more natural to us than the flesh.

And I pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.