God Is Glorified In Our Church Life When Our Service Is Spiritual1 Cor 2:10 – 3:4; Rom 12:1-2; Heb 6:1

I. How A Believer Operates In The Spirit – Result: Glory To God (2:9-15)

1. You@GodMail.com

The Holy Spirit’s Message Has No Earthly Origin

9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10a these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

The Trinity

The Father: CEO – He directs all things in the Universe

The Son: Venture Capitalist – He invested His life in advance for our salvation

The Spirit: Director of Communications – He transmits, translates and illuminates God’s Word to us

2. www.Godgle.com

The Holy Spirit’s Search Engine Is Firsthand And Fully Comprehendible

10b For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

3. www.WiseGodPedia.com

The Holy Spirit Educates Us With All Things Knowable About God

12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

4. Godgle Translator

The Holy Spirit Translates God’s Word Into A Believer’s Heart

13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

5. Log In

The Holy Spirit Works With Those Who Have A Free Account With God

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

6. iSpirit

To Be A Spiritual Person Is To Think And Discern Through The Holy Spirit

15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

II. How A Believer Flounders In The Flesh – Result: No Glory To God (3:1-4)

A. The Maturity Of A Fleshly Christian: Infancy

1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

The Natural Person

an unbeliever left in his/her natural state without transformation in the Spirit of God

2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The Spiritual Person

is a believer who operates in the mind and the power of the Holy Spirit

2:15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The Carnal Person

A “Fleshly Person” is a believer who operates in the mind and the power of the flesh

1 Corinthians 3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

B. The Meal For A Fleshly Christian: Milk

2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

Hebrews 5:12-14 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

C. The Motionlessness Of A Fleshly Christian: No Growth

3a for you are still of the flesh.

D.The Malice Of A Fleshly Christian: Jealousy & Strife

E. The Mischief Of A Fleshly Christian: Divisiveness

4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Conclusion: How To Have Victory Over The Flesh

1. Change Your Operating System: The Flesh O.S. Has Viruses, Bugs And Malware

Galatians 5:16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Galatians 5:25 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

2. Contribute To The War Effort By Following The Allied Power, The Spirit

Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh lusts 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.

3. Focus On A Relationship With The Spirit, Not Rules To Achieve Righteousness

Galatians 5:17-18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

4. Be Honest About Your Struggle With The Flesh

Romans 7:17-19 “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

5. Consider Your Flesh Crucified With Christ

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Romans 6:11-14

11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace

6. Learn To Hate Sin

Galatians 5:19-21 “19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”