1 Corinthians 9:24-27 – Beating Self – Bible study

1Corinthians 9:24-27 Beating Self Notice some thoughts from these verses. 1. This is the Apostle Paul speaking, one of the most used Christians in all time. I suppose that means that he was one of the most holy men of all time. (That is a assumption but one that seems safe to assume.) 2. Yet, Paul speaks of himself as having to struggle WITH himself. a. \#1Cor 9:26\ Paul speaks of FIGHTING to keep himself in SUBJECTION. b. \#1Cor 9:27\ Paul must KEEP his body UNDER. c. These are terms that indicate a struggle is going on. Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 1. Another verse written by Paul. 2. This time, Paul is not speaking about himself, but he is instructing Christians. 3. He tells them to MORTIFY their physical MEMBERS WHICH ARE on EARTH. 4. MORTIFY means TO MAKE DEAD, TO PUT TO DEATH, TO KILL. 5. Paul is counseling the people to kill the members of their body, to put their flesh to death. 6. Of course this is not literal. a. It is a spiritual analogy. b. God is telling us that we must fight and even take drastic measures to make our bodies obey us. There are other verses which speak of the battle we have with ourselves. Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. All of these verses point out that we must do battle with our own selves. Bearing these verses in mind, let me share some thoughts with you about beating self. I. We need to understand some basics about beating self. A. Fighting self is a common battle; that is, it is something we all must do. 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1Peter 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 1. It is a common misconception among humans that the personal problems they face are just "their" problems. 2. Satan makes people think that they are the only ones battling their problem and that they must keep their problem a secret so that others will not know just how weak or wicked they really are. 3. The Bible says that you are not alone. a. God says that what you face is COMMON to mankind. b. Lots of others are facing it. c. In fact, youd be surprised how many! 4. I am amazed at how many people are living my testimony. a. There are people who have problems with their temper, struggles against sin, depression, feelings of inadequacy, and pride. b. The truth is that no matter what problem you have with yourself, probably one-third of the people in this room would say they either do or did face it too. 5. Why is that the case? Because we are all wearing the same flesh. a. The problem is not you. It is what you are made of. b. You and I are both made of weak, sinful, carnal flesh, so we must all fight similar battles. 6. The point I want you to get is that you are not alone and you are not unique. a. If you are struggling, get help before it gets worse. b. And rest assured, if you do not, it will get worse, B. Fighting self is a perpetual battle; that is, it never stopsat least not as long as you are still in this fleshy body. 1. I hate to have to tell you, but there are no "breaks" from this warfare in this life. a. You never out grow battling your flesh. What you are battling about may change but the battle goes on. b. There is no where you can go where you wont battle your flesh. (1) You battle your flesh at church. (2) The battle with the flesh intensifies when you pray. (3) Your flesh is after you even when you are asleep. c. There is nothing you can do so that you wont have to battle your flesh. (1) Even being saved does not end your battle with the flesh. (2) Having Christ on the inside will certainly help you, but salvation does not change the flesh. 2. Why? a. Because as long as you are alive, you will be in your the same flesh. b. It would be nice if you could just take it off every once in awhile, but you can not. C. Fighting self is your greatest battle. 1. If you have been listening, you have probably figured that out. 2. This flesh is capable of great evil. a. deceit, malice, envy, revenge, perversion, abomination, violence, and the like of which I will not speak of. b. King David is an example A great godly man, but he lusted after a woman, took her, and murdered her husband. c. Peter is an example. A Christian but he got scared. To stay warm he joined those who would crucify Christ, denied Jesus, and even cursed to save his own skin. d. I have said before that a saved person is capable of every sinful act a lost person is capable of committing. 3. Did you know that every other source of temptation will come after you through your flesh? James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. a. Sin always comes at us through a lust, a desire, a want. b. Those lusts are part of our flesh. c. That means that even Satan and the world can attack you through your flesh. II. How do you win the battle with the flesh? A. To win the battle with the flesh, you must be born again. 1. I said earlier that salvation will not stop your battles with flesh, and it wont. 2. However, it will give you power to fight against the flesh. 3. God gives all kinds of new resources when we are saved. a. He gives us His Holy Ghost. John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; b. He gives us a new heart and a new spirit. Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (1) That is, we get a new and holy way of looking at things and reacting to them. (2) God takes the cold, hard, unfeeling heart and spirit out and puts a tender, compassionate, considerate heart inside. c. He gives us a new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 4. All of these new things mean that while the flesh is the same, everything underneath the flesh is new! a. The flesh is to the Christian what the apple peal is to the apple. b. We have the same pealing with all of its weakness and faults, but everything beneath the pealing is new and different. c. The new insides does not change the flesh, but it gives us a greater power to beat it. 5. While you dont stand a chance of beating the flesh without the new birth, you can have the new birth and still not beat the flesh. a. Most everything I have said this morning has been directed to the saved and not the lost. b. Why? Because salvation, by itself, does not guarantee you will beat the flesh. (1) King David knew God and lost. (2) Peter knew God and lost. (3) All who are saved know God and all have lost some battles to the flesh. (4) What else does it take? B. To win the battle with the flesh, you must stay close to Christ. 1. More and more I see the necessity of relying upon an on-going friendship with Jesus not just our kinship with Him. a. Being born again establishes a kinship with Jesus. b. However, that kinship is not the end of the relationship that we have with Jesus. It is the beginning. c. The end is an intimate friendship with Jesus. John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 2. There is a big difference in maintaining a kinship and a friendship. a. All you have to do to keep a kinship going is stay alive, but you have to work at keeping a friendship going. (1) If a cousin walked in this morning, one whom I have never met, one many times removed on a remote aunts line of descendents, that cousin would be my kin. (2) However, if a childhood friend walked, one whom I have not seen in many years, we would have to visit for awhile to see if we still had enough in common to call ourselves friends. b. Too many people claim kinship with Jesus, but they have no friendship with Him. (1) Jesus plainly tells us what is required to maintain a friendship with Him. John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (2) To maintain a friendship with Jesus, you must be close enough to Him to know what He wants and to do it. c. I am often amazed at people who do not go to church faithfully, do not read their Bible consistently, and do not pray or maintain any other kind of friendship with Christ and then they are surprised that they have problems in the flesh! C. To win the battle with the flesh, you must muster the right attitude. 1. We have seen many verses where Paul emphasizes the battle we must fight with the flesh. Notice another. 2Tim 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2. Here, Paul calls Timothy a soldier. a. All Christians are soldiers. (1) We are all in the same army, (2) We all have the same enemies. (3) We all fight in the same battle. (4) And we all have the same Captain. Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. b. A soldier not only has to be wary of the enemy from without. He must be wary of the enemy within. (1) A common problem among soldiers who stay on the front line is battle fatigue. (2) It is difficult to determine how many soldiers suffer from battle fatigue, but it is estimated that one in every four casualties suffers from it. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19910217&id=fHkVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zesDA AAAIBAJ&pg=5431,4045604 (3) In truth, I would imagine that every soldier who stays in the battle for a prolonged length of time suffers from battle fatigue. 3. I believe a lot of Christians lose their battle to the flesh because they are suffering from battle fatigue. a. They are just plain tired of fighting against themselves all the time. b. Spiritual battle fatigue shows up in our behavior. 4. Here is a list of military battle fatigue symptoms. They are about the same for those suffering from spiritual battle fatigue. a. The slowing of reaction time b. Slowness of thought c. Difficulty prioritizing tasks c. Difficulty initiating routine tasks d. Preoccupation with minor issues and familiar tasks e. Indecision and lack of concentration f. Loss of initiative with fatigue g. Exhaustion 5. This can in turn display physical symptoms. Headaches, back pains, inability to relax, insomnia, restless sleep, excessive sleep, anxiety, irritability, depression, disruptive behavior, mistrust of others, confusion, feeling of losing control 6. We may not see all of these symptoms at church, but you the closer you are to someone, the more you will notice. 7. The standard treatment for military battle fatigue. a. Relieve the soldier of duty but keep them in the battle area. b. Provide dry clothing, shelter, and rest. c. Provide counseling. d. With these three, in the 1982 Lebanon War, 90% of the afflicted soldiers were able to return to duty, most within 72 hours. e. However, once a soldier was taken off the line, only 40% ever returned to their unit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction 8. Do you see the Christian comparison? a. Counseling (1) Counseling is talking to someone about what troubles you and getting some sound advice on how to deal with it. (2) God has commanded the church to look after each other, to exhort each other. (3) We are each others counselors. b. Rest is taking some time off. (1) I believe there is a reason God tells us to take one day in seven off to rest. (2) We need it. (3) Those who minister on Sundays must still find a way to have sufficient rest. c. Provide a safe, comfortable placestill on the frontwhere these helps can be utilized. (1) The Christian home should be the primary safe-haven for a Christian. (a) A Christian who does not have a godly, peaceful home is in a greater danger of losing the battle to their own flesh. (b) Christians mates should not be fighting between themselves but to keep their home the peaceful place that God intended it to be. (2) The church should be a secondary safe-haven. (3) Of course, these are just the places of safety to which we retreat. (a) They are not places for us to hide. (b) And if we run from them, the chances of returning to the fray are greatly reduced. This are just a few of the things for which we need to watch to beating self. The enemy that we need to deal with is not out there. It is us. We must fight everyday to keep ourselves right with Jesus and right in attitude. If not, we will lose the war of wars. Our old flesh will take control and all will be lost.