SERMON KEY POINTS

• We all struggle with wanting to do right but often doing wrong. There is a “war of wants” going on deep inside our hearts. The key is understanding that our new, “true self “in Christ is at war with our old, self-centered “false self.”
• There's a very real, ongoing, internal struggle—“a war of wants” going on between our "true self" in Christ and our "false self" (the flesh). Paul talks about this struggle in Romans 7 and Galatians 5 by saying, “I” want to do the right things, but “I” don’t do them. There’s something in “me” that opposes the “me” who wants to do good. The question is: Who is the “me” that’s not me?
• The “flesh” is the patterned person you became growing up in a fallen, broken world. The “flesh” is a fabricated self—a self we created in the first 20 years of our lives in a self-centered world. This “false self” was and still is fed by three things: What I have to have, what I have to do, and what I need you to think of me in order for me to feel significant and secure. The flesh is the “me” that’s me apart from Christ.
• You are not defined by what you have, what you do, or what others think. Your true identity is found in Christ alone.
• The ”me” that’s not “me” is my true self in Christ that continues to struggle with the old “me” of my false self. (cf Eph 3:22-23; Col 3:5-14)
• The goal of the Christian life is not to become a better version of ourselves but to allow Christ to live His life through us.
• Spiritual formation is a lifelong process where the Spirit forms us into Christ's image.
• We can't defeat the flesh with more flesh—only Christ in us can transform us.

*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.