The (personal) mortification of sin - "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us"

The (personal) mortification of sin

Galatians 5:16-26

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

John 4:13b-14

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

"We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us"



This quote came from a poster for earth day in 1970. Pogo comes and sees a trash filled swamp. The realization is that it was not some outside force that made this happen, but rather it was even them.

It is not some ethereal form out there that is causing our lives to be painful and disastrous, rather it is ourselves as we are carried away by our own lusts. We must make every effort to find the root of why we are doing such evil things, and treat this like a war. We must know who the enemy is, what his strategies are, and how we can defeat him. Today we focus on who and what he is.

Sun-Tzu said, "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always be victorious." also, Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), written by Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola said: "My father taught me many things here — he taught me in this room. He taught me — keep your friends close but your enemies closer."


Time: less than 30 minutes
Aim: to find the root of one of your major sin areas, for this is the beginning of knowing your enemy in order to defeat him

1.  Pray that God would help  you to see what is really behind one of your major areas of sin, and draw you into deeper, more real, personal relationship with Christ.
2. Read Galatians 5:16-26
3. In less than 30 minutes, pick one of the areas of sin in your life that you found out about yesterday. Use a concordance or some word searches in an electronic Bible, and try to find several verses that deal with the topic. On a piece of paper, or in a journal you will keep,  write down these verses, for example, for lust: Matthew 5:27-30, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Ephesians 5:1-16, Galatians 5:16-26, John 4:1-42.
4. Use these Scriptures and write down the root of this major sin area, and what the opposite grace is, for example, for lust: passion of lust and brotherly love, covetousness and thankfulness, idolatry and the worship of God alone.
5. In less write out why because of Jesus and his work you shouldn't be doing it, for example:
• Quite simply, Jesus tells me that lust is a violation of the seventh commandment. He tells me that instead of hungering and thirsting after my own lists, I should be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, personified in Jesus Christ, the revelation of God. Thus, I should be hungering and thirsting after him first, and not my own passions and lusts. It also seems that in Thessalonians Paul shows that lust is being consumed and using people for our own end, and not their good, so he says that I should put on love instead. Then Ephesians is clear that it is covetousness and idolatry, and that thankfulness and worship of God are what should be done instead. Thus, it seems to me that the motivation to mortify this sin is based in Jesus.
• First, Jesus is the only thing that can satisfy. Idolatry stems from putting anything before God, and when I do this, I dig for myself wells that won't hold water, and because of this I need more, and lust is a natural thing to fill it with. Jesus was clear to the woman of Samaria in John  4 that she was looking for water that filled the thirst of her soul, and she couldn't find it, so she filled it with men. Jesus was clear that he is the living water that alone can satisfy. Thus, lust is not necessary if Jesus is satisfying me.
• Second, Jesus is the supreme reason to be thankful and not be covetous. Lust appears to be related to covetousness, because I want something that I do not have: another person, another feeling, another look, etc. I may want perfection of body for myself, or may only want perfection in every area, not wanting the flaws of sin. Yet, I don't have it, so I look and desire to find it elsewhere. All the while missing the fact that in Christ Jesus, I have been given all things. I reign with Christ on his throne, and if the Father would give His Son up for me, would He not give me even all things. So my contentment should be wrapped up in the fact that I already have everything in Christ.
• Third and finally, Jesus Christ is the most loving and lovable of all. When I desire to have and lust after others, I am actually using them for my own ends in complete and utter selfishness. I don't care about them as a person, but rather, I care about them for what they can do for me, how they can make me feel and what they can do for me. This is sick and evil. Jesus loved others so much that he spent his life in obscurity and pain in order to give them all things. When he spoke to the woman at the well, he cared for her soul. He always troubled Himself to show people the way to himself, not use them for his own desires. Thus, the love of the cross should drive me to love others, not use them for my own desires.
6. Pray that God will help you see the evilness of this sin today so that you would be drawn closer to him and experience deeper joy as you walk with him.