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The Conflict Within

January 10, 2021 Preacher: Dan Wong Series: Galatians

Passage: Galatians 5:16–18

Click here for our sermon discussion questions or see them listed below. We highly encourage you to listen, think, and talk about the sermon. These are questions you can reflect on yourself, with your family, or with your small group. Discussion Questions 

  1. In what ways do you experience the battle that rages within you between the flesh and the Spirit?  In Romans 7:24, the Apostle Paul describes himself in this battle, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  How can you relate to Paul’s lament in Romans 7:24?
  2. Pastor Dan said that the only way to defeat the desires of the flesh is through walking by the Spirit and not by focusing on defeating the “traitor within”.  How is trying to live by the law similar to trying to defeat sin by focusing on controlling the flesh? 
  3. Why does the Apostle Paul exhort the Galatians (and us) to “walk by the Spirit” rather than “control your flesh”...in other words, why is it futile to simply try to control our flesh?  How does the imagery of walkingby the Spirit help you to understand how we are to defeat the desires of the flesh?  (Also recall that Alexander MaClaren said, “we walk in the Spirit, we shall thereby acquire new taste and desires of a higher kind, which will destroy the lower”) 
  4. Rather than try to control our flesh, we are to run to Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and recognize that our relationship with Him is everything and must be of a higher priority than our relationship with anyone else or anything else.  How is your relationship with Jesus Christ right now?  Is it the top priority in your life?  Can you see a correlation between your answer to this question and your current struggle with the flesh?
  5. The flesh and the Spirit within you are diametrically opposed to one another and are always in opposition.  The Christian should know very intimately the battle that rages within.  Do you feel this tension, this battle, this struggle within you?  Or, are you at peace with the flesh?  How do your actions reveal the true nature of what you say you believe?  Could it be that you are a Christian in theory only?  Why is it important to ask yourself these difficult questions and demand a true answer?

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