Charles Metcalf’s Introduction
- Many of the things in our life feel bland – marriage, relationships, finances – and the way to keep things from being bland is a good sauce. We’re out here living our lives without the only thing that can bring flavor and change a situation – prayer.
- Prayer and fasting can change everything.
- Sauce changes everything; prayer changes everything.
- As a church we don’t do anything without prayer.
- God hears your prayers – no matter your tone of voice.
- The goal of prayer is not to change the situation – the ultimate goal is to change you – it’s not a wish list for God to give us everything – prayer changes you.
- Prayer changes everything because it changes you – the way you see a situation, the way you love your enemies – prayer changes you.
- It’s an opportunity to commune with the creator of the universe.
- You can be anywhere at anytime and call on the name of Jesus.
- Tomorrow, we’re going into 21 days of prayer and fasting. We’ve seen this change things in us – our characters and our families. This is a time of development. He wants to give us vision, wisdom, and clarity. You cannot bring your desserts into the desert. Leave all of the things that bring you pleasure while we go into a season of development – desert them.
Romans 7:14-23
New Living Translation
Struggling with Sin
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power[b] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
Message Title: Win the War Within
Anecdote:
Charles would pray for purity, power, and peace over his unborn child. He realized that these are actually his three children – purity, power, and peace.
Arlo is purity. The sweetest, purest child. Luna Rose is power. She is the power of God in an 18-month year old baby. Independent, grown, drives, and votes lol. Jay is peaceful.
Abby was carrying peace at the most unpeaceful time of their lives.
Arlo and Luna are old enough to have the most fun and the most intense fights. Purity and power.
One day, Luna took Arlo’s toy, and eventually he started roaring at Luna like a lion – “roarrr, I am so angry.” It was so out of character for Arlo, but he was done with the games. He wanted his airplane toy back. We all have that thing in us that will go against our natural character.
There’s something inside of you that can rise up on the inside of you that’s completely out of character – a lion that lives on the inside of us. The emotion of this lion is unpredictable.
Sometimes it makes sense when you’re upset, but other times it makes no sense – you’re mad for no reason. Sometimes you think to yourself, “where did that even come from? That’s not even me.”
We can be pushed to a certain point where we can’t even control what we do or say. You can’t believe you said it or slept with that person again. This is the war within all of us.
The bible is clear about there being two forces of war within us.
We all find ourselves trying to figure out how do we win the war within ourselves.
It’s not random. There’s a war within you – two natures – two beings at war within you.
We think of freedom as being able to do whatever we want, how we want, with who we want, whenever we want. This is a façade that the world sells but it doesn’t hold up. You’re free to do whatever you want, until you’re not.
For instance, you can become a slave to what you thought you were free to do. E.g., drinking, sleeping with people, how you talk to people, and how you see yourself. This is the freedom that the world, and the flesh, tries to sell. This freedom does not pan out. You’re so free that you’re a slave and you don’t have a choice anymore.
This is the war within all of us – for true freedom and the façade of freedom that the world tries to sell.
There’s a battle and you need to be prepared.
The first nature is your Sin Nature.
The Sin Nature wants to do evil. You’re not a good person.
Galatians 5:17
New Living Translation
17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
This is the war between your Sin Nature and your Spirit Nature.
You have been drafted into this war whether you like it or not.
Let’s delineate the two natures.
The status of your sin nature is separated from God. It just wants to do bad – it’s opposed to God. The natural default is separated from God.
Your spirit nature is submitted to God. It’s surrendered to Him. You willingly trust God.
Have you felt a battle between those two – being separated and wanting to trust God?
The have a different dependence. The sin nature is dependent on self, i.e., look at me and what I have. Your spirit nature is dependent on the savior. It realizes that outside of God, we are nothing. There’s nothing we have that’s our own, not talent, not treasure. It understands that we’re completely dependent on the savior.
This is the battle between self being able to bring peace and accomplish goals, versus trusting that there is someone that can accomplish more than you.
Both of these natures have fruit – they both produce in your life.
The sin natures fruit is poison – it’s perceived as pretty but the fruit of this nature is not good. It produces nothing good for your home, life, or future. The fruit of the spirit nature brings purpose to your life.
Without the fruit of the spirit you can’t have purpose.
Look at how clearly Galatians 5 outlines this.
Galatians 5:19-21
The Message
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
The sinful nature has clear fruit. It looks good on the outside but has no weight. The fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control, patience – this is it. This is what you’re searching for, that brings life, and what you want most.
It’s the war of what you desire in the moment versus what you desire most.
The fruit of the sinful nature is poison. It doesn’t work out.
Both of the natures have fuel. The sin nature is fueled by your flesh, the natural, human appetite and desire for pleasure. It’s a battle between your flesh and your spirit. Your flesh fuels pride. The spirit is fueled by the spirit of the living God, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. The same spirit that will guide us into all truth, the comforter, the paraclete, the spirit of God.
How do we win this war?
Matthew 4 demonstrates the ultimate war. Jesus is in the desert by himself fasting for 40 days, then Satan comes to attack him. This is the personification of love, and all things good, being attacked by all things evil.
Warfare can give you a picture of the outcome being undetermined yet. The Bible shows us that the battle has already been won though. It’s important that we understand who the victor is. It’s very clear in scripture. Wondering who’s going to win is not the position we should be in. You should be coming from a place of knowing that you win.
This war is not about a nation, this war is the enemy trying to challenge your participation. The outcome can be determined, and he knows he can’t defeat you, so he gets you to think that you shouldn’t fight. He tries to distract you enough to quit. He makes your flesh feel strong enough to distract you – “maybe I can’t raise these kids or maintain this marriage.”
This war wasn’t with tanks – it was a temptation to eat bread. Spiritual warfare when Jesus was attacked was literally a temptation of pleasure – ‘I know you’re hungry…here’s a little bread.” This has always been the war – between pleasure, power, and pride. Why don’t you get a little bread? Pleasure. Why not go to the top and show us what you got? Pride. Matter of fact, I’ll give you all of this. Power.
This is war. If you don’t understand the little things, then prayer and fasting don’t make sense to you. When Jesus was fighting the devil, he wasn’t yelling at him. It was temptation and he responded with scripture.
When thinking of the power of prayer, we have to look at what’s on the line here. It may just be a temptation to do what’s pleasurable, or pride, or power.
“Two natures beat within my breast
The one is foul, the one is blessed
The one I love, the one I hate.
The one I feed will dominate.
-Anonymous”
― Tara Leigh Cobble, Crowded Skies: Letters To Manhattan
The only way to win the war is to ask yourself which nature you’re feeding.
1. The Nature You Fill Determines Your Future
Today as we talk about the war within, all of us have a choice every day – what we will be led by – your flesh or your spirit. Which one will you drink from? Which one will fuel you?
When we’re born, we’re filled up, not empty, and our natural desire is to let flesh fuel us.
We already know the fruit of the flesh. It shouldn’t be surprising when the fruit of our life only looks like the flesh. “I don’t know why I can’t stop drinking, or can’t stop lying, or have been saved for 20 years but cuss everyone out when I get mad…”
When you drink from the spirit, you may have enough to get you through that day, but the cups empty now. You’re thirsty again, and you’re working with flesh again. The cup of flesh is still full and you’re only leaving yourself the option of flesh, what feels good when you’re tired or thirsty, then you’re confused when you don’t have vision for the year and don’t know how to live your life or raise your kids.
See what you’re filling. Whatever you do either only fills up your flesh or your spirit. When you listen to that song, or drink, you’re filling up that flesh cup. Then in church asking God to fill you up. You haven’t poured anything into your spirit cup.
Whatever you fill up, is what you drink from, and what you pour out on other people.
Evaluate what you’re filling because there’s no way you can go into the job, to go into the year, to steward the influence God’s given you, to not text the person back, if your flesh cup is your only source.
We have to stop, pray, and fast because it changes things.
Three things to win the war:
A. Starve Your Flesh with Fasting
Flesh: The Human Appetite for Pleasure
Starve this. When you fast, it starves your flesh and empties the cup you naturally drink from. Fasting empties the desire, gets you free from pornography, puts down the bottle. Fasting starves your flesh.
You can’t just do it at the beginning of the year and never do it again. Every single day, the world is built to fill up your flesh. The problem is that we have nothing built into our lives that empties this cup. This is the most powerless generation, with no practices to empty the flesh. If you don’t empty it, you’ll drink from it because you’re too human.
We have to starve our flesh with fasting. It empties, drains, and starves your flesh.
Some of you don’t even need to fight it, just don’t fill it up, don’t allow yourself to do things, don’t put yourself in a compromising position. Too many of us have too much belief in ourselves and think we won’t just drink it. “I’m going to the club and to the streets to represent.” You can’t be walking into industries with your spirit cup empty thinking you can represent. Be careful where you go when your cup is empty. People can pour into the thing that has power to kill you.
Have you ever seen those people that try to domesticate wild animals? It starts out nice, but becomes tragic at the end. The lions start out peaceful, but one day, they realize they’re lions and eat the person. Many of us have lust as a little lion cub. You’ll think it can come into marriage and not bite anyone. You think your character is a little off and it can come with you as a CEO. Lust, judgment, pride, drinking, perversion, pills to go to sleep – that’s still a lion and that thing can still kill you. Don’t be surprised in dark moments when your marriage isn’t going well, and that old person texts you, you may have not wanted to do it, but you were only drinking from the flesh.
Fasting starves your flesh.
Fasting will empty your flesh cup, but the reason we pray and we fast is because without prayer, you’re just doing a diet. Without prayer, you’re not filling your spirit cup.
Prayer fills your spirit. Prayer fills up the very thing that gives you life.
Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes.
We fast and pray for wisdom to raise our kids and to fill our spirit. You can’t step into fasting without praying. Decide that you will read your word every single day.
Then, when you walk out of your quiet time with God, the only thing you have left to pour onto your rude kids (or other people) is joy, love, peace, patience, long suffering – the fruit of the spirit.
B. Fill Your Spirit with Prayer
Pray, because by yourself you can’t raise your children, love your wife, or live your life. Praying and fasting can change everything. You’ll realize you have access to power.
Starve your flesh with fasting and fill your spirit with prayer.
Do not put yourself in a position to think that every day life is not filling up your flesh cup by default. You need to have regular practices and regular things in your life to fill your spirit. You may need to fast once a month for the whole year – it’s a regular practice of pouring your flesh out. When you do things like getting into community and reading your word, they fill your spirit.
C. Fight the Devil with The Word of God
In Matthew 4, Jesus fights the enemy with the word. This is integral to our prayer and fasting. At the end of the day, when the enemy comes to tempt you, demons do not bow to your name. Prayer and fasting doesn’t remove temptations. We have to fight the enemy with the word. We don’t fight with willpower, or trying more, or being stronger – we starve our flesh through fasting, fill our spirit with prayer, and we fight our enemy with the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12
English Standard Version
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Psalm 119:105
English Standard Version
Nun
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Isaiah 55:11
English Standard Version
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Psalm 107:20
English Standard Version
20 He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
Matthew 4:4
English Standard Version
4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
We starve our flesh, we fill our spirit, and we fight the enemy with the word of God.
Fasting is not an option, it’s a necessity that God says. God says, “when you fast.”
It was the power of food that ruined the garden of Eden. We downplay what we eat, but the thing that introduced sin into the world, was God saying don’t eat something, and man couldn’t do it. What you eat is more powerful than you think – it’s connecting to something deeper. The inability for man to deny his flesh introduced a curse into the world that would ravage humanity forever. Then we have the audacity to say things like fasting isn’t a big deal.
It’s common to hear people say, “I’m fasting social media, fasting tv, etc.” That’s cool, but the word fast means to cover your mouth – it’s to not eat food. While it’s good to deny yourself IG all day, it’s powerful to deny your flesh the things it thinks it needs to live, i.e., food. It’s power to say every time I’m hungry, I’m going to pray. If God can get ahold of your flesh, you’ll be filled with the same power that got Christ out of the grave.
Make a decision to fill your spirit with the word of God and walk in the power of God. We will make decisions to fill our spirit with the word of God, to know we can say no, to stop addictions, and to be secure in singleness. We will not be a powerless church. We will starve our flesh and see the world transformed by a church that knows God is our source, our power, and all we have comes from Him.
We will make a decision to fill ourselves with the only answer – Jesus. You don’t have to fight by yourself or with willpower, you have access to a power that spoke stars into existence, that has power over death, hell, and the grave, and the same power that saved humanity.
Challenge:
Don’t stop pouring into your spirit cup.
Some of you got to a point that seemed good enough and you just stopped. You may have felt like you read the Bible enough, and just stopped pouring. There are other vessels around your life that need you to pour into them. Wen you stop pouring, it stops flowing to your family members and the people around you. They will see how you raise your children and run your business. They will see the pour of your life and the overflow will heal people, restore people, transformed lives, cancelled racism, restored marriage, restored the city, brought finances to places of poverty, and that the overflow made a difference. Pour out on your children and your family so that God can refill you. Believe that this will be the most powerful year of your life if you get access to the true power that you need. You need access to something greater than you. Your marriage won’t make it from you just trying harder, you need the spirit of the living God.
You should be transforming. It’s been 20 years and you’re only the same because something is still feeding your flesh.
We may be pouring into our spirit, but simultaneously, other things are still pouring into the flesh – other people around you, the movie you’re watching, etc. It’s bad when we’re in a situation where they both look full. That’s when you start to rely on your own strength for certain things. You think it’s a good business idea, it’ll make money, and might fund the kingdom. Then you think it’s the same thing – you think influence and purpose are the same, and that applauding and anointing are the same, and that cheering from people means you’re obeying. You think they look the same. You leave yourself options. You need to recognize that you can’t handle options. You cannot handle options. You’re not there yet, and you may never be there.
There’s a certain point in your life where God will do something new in you. The scripture says new wine, behold He’s doing a new thing. There’s an oil God wants to pour in your life.
When you understand the anointing that’s on your life, things God has asked you to do that only you can do, you stand securely in your calling, when you allow God to fill you up with His oil, when you allow His spirit to be the thing that fuels everything in you, when you allow yourself to submit yourself to counsel, and to submit yourself to counseling, when you say I’m sorry, when you allow God to fill up your spirit, and then flesh comes along, eventually, oil and water don’t mix.
Oil & Water Don’t Mix
It becomes obvious over time to separate God from good ideas. It becomes obvious to see the motive that was off and to know when something was not God. You need to ask God to expose anything outside of His plan. Declare that you won’t live a weak, baby Christian life – the fruit is not fulfilling. It’s not enough to lead your family or raise your kids.
Many of you have had life feel like this – you kept taking drinks and it didn’t really do it for you. The money and the sex couldn’t fill you, you tried everything, but find yourself in a place where you don’t know if you can win. There’s beautiful hope in the name of Jesus. You don’t have to fight by yourself. You don’t have to try to do good things or live up to an unreasonable standard. Religion tells you about praying loud or saying something a certain way, but prayer is not only talking to God. If so, how do you pray without ceasing and leading the meeting? Prayer includes talking to God, but prayer is simply communing with God – there’s a difference. What could happen if your maturity of Jesus had you know what was pleasing to Him? You will experience peace. Prayer is not a wish list – you talk to Him and He’ll give you peace, contentment, and will change something on the inside of you.
The prayer is that no longer will we drink from the flesh or settle for this façade of freedom that we can do or say whatever we want.
The brother of Jesus, James, describes himself as a slave to Jesus Christ. What happens when your life is positioned to say, “God I am completely surrendered to whatever you want to do.”?
Focus in on where you are. Look at the fruit of your life, look at where your dependence has been, look at where you’ve perceived your life to be from, or what you resonate with. Realize the areas where you’ve been operating out of the sin nature and what’s fueling you and filling you up. You may have the question, what happens if I don’t fill that up, or have sex anymore, or don’t smoke that anymore, will you ever find peace or security, it’s worked for you, you’ve found value in being the know it all, you’ve found value in the number of degrees you have, you’ve found value in being able to make everyone laugh, what if the think you’re connected to is not the real thing? Today, God is presenting you a choice – instead of you trying to fill yourself up, let Him fill you up.
There are so many different types of prayer, but there are some early church fathers and mothers, there was a monk that went out to the desert for 20 years and came out and the Holy Spirit trusted him with the revelation that God is a trinity. Monks saw Matthew 4 as a picture of their lives for the people. They would develop their motives for people based on what was done in the desert. They do things called breath prayers. When you breathe in, you think, “God is my source, my peace comes from Him.” Let’s mature past transactional religion. He’s not a cashier at Save A Lot. This is a relationship with God, and there are different ways to engage with Him. Commune with Him and allow Him to fill you up – whether you’re loud, quiet, or journaling.
Prayer: God, right now we’re praying, begging that you will fill us up. We’ve tried money, people, relationships, businesses, and there’s nothing that can fill us up but your spirit. Your spirit is the only thing that satisfies our souls. Our prayer is that you would fill us up Lord.
Altar Call: On the count of three, raise your hand to acknowledge on the outside, what God is doing on the inside. Legacies are changing today, generations are changing today. The good news is that we were separated from God, and because of Jesus, in one moment we can have relationship with Him. 1, 2, 3. God sees you and He’s proud of you.
Jesus is changing our directions. God says today, I’m turning you. He has a plan and purpose for your life to prosper you. He is changing and reordering steps. He’s making a way where there seems to be no way.
It is finished. That’s what’s in Charles’ spirit right now. The war was finished. The war you’re in right now, He declared over your life, it is finished. It’s done. Now, just don’t give up. That’s the encouragement. Don’t lose heart. The king is on the throne, the battle has already been won. Don’t give up.
Let’s Pray Together: Dear God, I love you. Thank you for laying down your life, to save mine. I admit, I’ve made mistakes. Jesus save me, change me, transform me, in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
God is so proud of you. As a church, we love to support you and give you the space to grow. It’s not about perfection, but progression.
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Don’t let a moment go by without an opportunity for God to fill you up.
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SUMMARY NOTES
- The Nature You Fill Determines Your Future
- How to win the war:
- Starve Your Flesh with Fasting
- Fill Your Spirit with Prayer
- Fight the Devil with The Word of God
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Abby Olurin Dames
I love Jesus, my husband, Will, my toddler daughter, Sola, and the beautiful friends and family in our lives. Me and Will are from the Bahamas, but we currently reside in Austin, Texas. We joined TC Nation as online members of Transformation Church in 2017 when we moved to Austin from Miami, Florida. In 2020, we also happily took on a more active role with the E-Fam of Elevation Church by fellowshipping with other married couples and were pleased to have the opportunity to join TC Beta Belong Groups. I believe that representing God doesn’t have to be done in “traditional spaces”. After listening to Pastor Mike's sermon, "Who's the Minister Here?", it became my mission to shed light on Christ in all arenas, including, but not limited to, corporate America, marketing, technology, and finance. I'm not perfect, but I'm progressing. I am a marketer, but first, I am a Christian, and the aim of this blog is to publicly share my sermon notes as a form of stewardship. I hope that these message notes can bring clarity to anything you may be seeking and help you to experience the peace and glory of Jesus Christ. I'm happy to pray for you as well if you ever wanted to shoot me an email. The effectual fervent prayers of many of you have helped countless circumstances in my life and in the lives of those around me. Thank you! Also, for any Amazon specific links that you see, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
