The Spirit Is Willing But The Body Is Weak

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us today!

We’ve got a great message for you, it’s going to be very inspirational, so thanks for taking the time. Please, we have a lot of verses today, take the time later to go through, read them, read a verse before, read a verse after, study them.

Because oftentimes the verses before and after, like if I give you one verse and I read it, I’m being like, “I want to keep reading,” because guess what? The next one relates to what we’re talking about, but I don’t have time to get into all of it. So I give you one, and I trust that you are going to take the time to continue and study the Word of God.

Don’t simply take in this message in the middle of your week as a pick me up to get you to Sunday, and then take Sunday to get you to Wednesday, and so on, and so forth of, “Well, I just do a couple sermons a week and I’d be able to get through my week.” No. Dive in, be intentional, take the time, study the Word of God, alright?

Because, guess what? Your spirit is willing, but your body is weak, and that’s what we’re talking about today. Your spirit is willing to study the Word of God. Your spirit is willing to know God more, your spirit is willing to be powerful, to walk in power and walk in authority, but your body is weak.

Your body says, “No, I don’t want to really take the time to go back. I already listened to the message. I don’t really want to go look up all those, those ten verses he referenced.”

Guess what? You don’t have to look them up. Go to our website, find the sermon, hover your little mouse over the verse, or if you’re on your phone, just touch it. Guess what happens? Boom! It opens up, and it’ll even take you to another website where you can read the verses before and after.

It’s called “Bible Gateway.” Great resource. So, we’re trying to make it easy for you. Do that, read those verses, because your body is weak. It’s going to say, “No, I don’t really want to take the time,” or, “You know what? I already watched it. I listened to it while I was driving. I don’t know. It’s not in my queue anymore.”

It’s there, alright? Or, your spirit is willing to spend more time with God. Your spirit is willing to do the will of God, but you say, “Oh man, I’m tired today. I was going to go out and do some outreach, but ah, man, I’m not really feeling too well.”

Get over it. Get out there and do. You are healed. Okay? You got me? “Oh, I was going to go to church, but now I’m feeling really tired,” or, “now my car isn’t working,” all of that is from the enemy. Get rid of it. Go do the will of God. Your body is weak. You’ve got to crucify the flesh. We’re going to talk more about that later.

But you need to because your spirit is willing. Your body is willing. Tame the flesh. Who is the master? Your body, or you? The mind, or the body? The spirit, or the body? You. You are the master. Be the master.

Submit to God. Control your body, and get out there and do it. Alright, let’s dive into this. A lot of verses today. Look them up. Remember, share this with your friends, please help us out. Hit the like button, bell icon, subscribe button, all of that, do that, because it helps us reach more people.

And you know what? We gotta pay to reach more people, but if you can help us do it organically, that saves money, then we can use more money in other areas like outreach, Bibles, orphans, buying food, rescuing children, all of this great stuff that we’re trying to do.

And we need your help. So do that, alright. Watch and pray. Let’s go to a verse, Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Your spirit is willing to do what is right, but you have a battle going on with your body. Your spirit is willing to do what is right, but your body might want this. Your spirit says, “Hey, it’s time to fast, so that we can read the Bible, and pray, and spend more time with God.”

And your body says, “Hey, I’m hungry, man. I’m hungry.” And then your mind starts rationalizing. Well, you’re probably tired because you haven’t eaten. You might have low blood sugar, and so, I should really eat something, because if I don’t eat, then I have further problems. So I’ll eat, then I’ll have more energy, then I’ll study and spend time with God.

So guess what? You cave and you give in and you go eat, and now you weren’t fasting, and now you’ve filled your belly, so now you’re going and doing something else, and the time with God goes away. Don’t do that. You are the master of your flesh.

There is nothing in this world that is better or different than the truth, alright? Let’s take fasting as a quick example. Alright, you’re fasting. Why are you fasting? Because you want to spend more time with God.

Not because you have to or anything, but you know what? It’s good. You do it once in a while. Oh, fasting for health benefits, all kinds of health benefits. We’re not even going to get into them.

But if you crucify the flesh by skipping a meal, skipping two meals, skipping three meals, going several days, whatever amount you want, start small and work your way up. When you do that, if you prioritize the time that you would be eating with God, you’re spending more time with God.

You’re also letting your flesh take a backseat, putting God, putting your spirit in the priority, and so you have a more intimate time. But if you listen to your body, the fact is your body is hungry. The truth is, this fills you up. Focus on this, focus on the truth. Alright, this is just an aside.

We could do a whole sermon on fasting, because really. When you fast, when you skip the meal, you ought to like, give away that food to someone else, or give away the money you would have spent on that food to someone else as well. That would be, like, true self-sacrifice.

You’re skipping the meal, and you’re giving away those means to that meal, in addition to that, and you’re seeking God. Now, of course, you could continue to pile up ands, but the point is, we’re not going to go down the road of fasting right now, because your spirit is willing to do what is right, your body is weak.

You are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is exactly that: it is holy. Let’s go to 1 Peter 1:15. We’re going to start moving quickly. 1 Peter 1:15 says, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”

The next verse, I just want to read it, I’m not going to. Be holy in all you do, alright? He who called you is holy, so you need to be holy in everything you do. The spirit is willing and ready to do what is right at all. Your spirit always wants to do the right thing. Not only is it willing, it is excited to do what is right.

It is excited to do the will of God. Why? Because the spirit is pure. If you have the Holy Spirit within you, that is a pure spirit. You say, “My spirit’s not pure,” then you have an impure spirit, and that is a demon, and we need to cast that thing out. Because the Holy Spirit within you always wants to do what is right.

It is willing, ready, able, and excited to do what is right. You just need to get your weak body in order to do what is right. Let’s go to Romans 8:26. Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

Now, here opens up a sermon on tongues. We’re not going to go there. The Spirit knows. The Spirit it helps us in our weakness. So when your body is weak, remember your spirit is strong. All you need to do is get your body in order. Start moving.

Say, “I command my body to do the will of God. Let’s go. I command if you’re feeling sad, I command this to leave in Jesus’ name,” and get to work. Do the will of God.

You want to read the Bible at night before bed? All of a sudden, you’re like, “I’m too tired. I’m going to bed. I command the ability to stay awake for another hour and read the Bible.”

Do it. Start reading it. You gotta take the initiative. You gotta take the priority. You need to be the boss. Control your body, control your flesh. Your body is made of earth. You’re telling me you can’t control the ground? Get a shovel. I’ll make a pile here, and make a hole here, and I can control this. You can control your body, alright? Genesis 2:7.

Genesis 2:7, the body is made of earth. We’re going to go there, and I’m going to prove it to you. Genesis 2:7, “Then the LORD God,” this is Yahweh, God, “formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a being.”

Dust, that’s all we are. “You want to rub me through the dirt? That’s okay. I was made from it.” You know who says that? NF, a rapper. Pretty cool stuff. Don’t worry about it, alright? So the body is made of the earth. Sin is of the earth, of this world, and so that’s why it is so easy for us to go keep on sinning. We’re gonna go to 1 John 2:16.

1 John 2:16 says, “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” So, you are made of earth, sin is of the earth, that’s why your body needs to be tamed, needs to be beaten and crucified into submission, to be obedient to Christ.

The spirit is willing, the body is weak. You have a constant conflict between the Heavenly, holy desires of the spirit and the Earthly, sinful desires of the body. Let’s go to Romans. This is one of my, man, I would say one of the top verses just because with Paul, it’s so deep and so. perplexing.

You could spend hours meditating on or reading, and talking about this passage. We’re just gonna read through it. We’re gonna go through it. We’ll probably touch on it later. I’ve probably talked about it before, but let’s go. Romans 7:14-20. Romans 7:14-20, are you ready? I’m gonna read through the whole thing, then I’m gonna break it up.

“We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is the sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”

“For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it.”

What in the world? Do and do not do, do do. Yes, that verse, that passage is kind of confusing. What I’m going to do is break it down very, very quickly. Alright, you want more in-depth? Study it, comment below. We can go on our Discord server, go to the Sermon Discussions. We can talk about this a lot more in detail.

Alright, so basically what Paul is saying is this: we know that the law is spiritual. What God has called us to follow, that’s of the Spirit, we are to be holy as the Spirit is holy. And so we know that God is good, and so those good things from God, of the Spirit, good is spiritual. So we know that what the Spirit wants is good.

So we need to follow what the Spirit says and what the Spirit wants. We need to do that. But our body is of the earth, and our body is of the sinful world. And so when we do these things that aren’t good, it is not the spirit in us that’s doing it. It’s our body, our carnal desires, our nature, our sin nature, sold as a slave to sin.

But when we let the Spirit in, and we choose to do what the Spirit wants, we are killing our flesh. We are no longer slaves to sin, but now to righteousness. Alright?

And so Paul is saying that when we know the good we want to do, and we want to do this and follow the Spirit, but we keep going this way, it’s not the Spirit that’s doing it. It’s the sin in us. And so we need to get that under control.

There is a constant battle, and this passage shows that. I mean, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out,” that’s a battle. You have a desire to do one thing, but you do something else. “I do not do the good I want to do but the evil I do not want to do, I do.”

So you want to do good, but you do evil. Like, it’s a battle, back and forth. You gotta get rid of all this evil and this sinful stuff, and let the Spirit lead and guide you. This is why Jesus told His disciples, pray so that they would not fall into temptation, because guess what? When you fall into temptation, that is when you are doing the things that you do not want to do.

And that is when it becomes very difficult. We’re going to go to another verse, in, let’s see, this one is James. James 1:14-15. James 1:14-15. Alright. It says, “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” The wage of sin is death.

Romans. Remember that. Okay, so when these evil desires start happening, they give birth to sin. Sin gives birth to death.

So, when you are led and dragged away by your own temptation, like Paul says, this is what I want to do, the Spirit, but what I do not want to do, I keep on doing. That’s temptation coming in.

And then when I do this evil, it gives birth to sin. And then if I keep on sinning and I keep on doing this evil, eventually it gives birth to death or separation from Christ.

Jesus told His disciples, “Pray so you do not fall into temptation.” Why? Because if you are continually feeding the Spirit and doing what the Spirit wants to do, there is no room for temptation. It cannot get into you.

This is why it says that when you submit to God and resist the devil, the devil flees, because all of a sudden, if you are with God so much and you are in the Spirit, there is no room for temptation.

When you are actively doing something that God wants you to do, you are engaged in delivering someone or in healing someone, or you are preaching to the poor, or you are helping others, or you are doing outreach, handing out Bibles, praying with people.

When you are engaged in that spiritual activity, when you are praying in the Spirit in your room, when you are reading the Bible, when you are doing those things, sin is nowhere to be found. It is literally fleeing with you. You are like a thousand X Deet to a mosquito. Okay? It just doesn’t even want anything to do with you.

But you rub some sugar water on, those mosquitoes are there, baby. Why? What’d you do? Well, when you’re attracting them, they’re coming.

So when you are doing something that repels sin, sin or temptation, demons will flee. Jesus told them to feed their spirit so that their body would not be overcome with temptations. They had to crucify the flesh. Let’s go to Galatians 5:24.

Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” You need to crucify that flesh. Get rid of those passions and desires and continually feed the Holy Spirit within you. You cannot grieve the Holy Spirit because when you grieve the Spirit, the Spirit pulls away.

Let’s go to Ephesians 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit is in you. That is like a seal on you, that is God’s seal, saying, “You belong to me. Now do what the Holy Spirit wants you to do.”

Do what God wants you to do. Do not grieve it. Crucify the flesh. Keep the Spirit strong. It will help you overcome the sinful natures of your Earthly body.

Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength,” or, “who strengthens me.” You can do it all. Yes, the spirit is willing. The body is weak.

When your body is weak, you can still do what the spirit wants. Because why? You can do all things through Christ, who gives you strength. Keep the spirit strong. Crucify the desires of the flesh. Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your minds on things above, not on Earthly things.”

If you focus on Heavenly things, on things above. We have a sermon on that. “Things Above,” check that out. Watch it. It’s excellent. You need to set your minds on those things. Crucify the flesh. There’s another verse in Corinthians 10:5, maybe, that you “Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.”

That is the definition of crucifying an Earthly sinful desire. You stand against everything that sets itself up against the will of God. And you work to take every thought and action captive, and make it obedient to Christ. So you live by the Spirit. That’s another verse. “Live by the spirit and walk by the spirit,” okay? You need to do that.

You start resisting temptation. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. But first, you must submit to God. That’s another sermon we have: “Submit to God, Resist the Devil.” He will flee from you. So, if you focus on that Heavenly Spirit within you and you work to feed the spirit, how do you do that?

Well, we gave you a lot of verses today. Read them again, study them a little bit. You’ll learn that through prayer, reading your Bible, meditating on the Word, talking to God, talking with others, those are great ways to feed that spirit within you. Also, tame your body, crucify your flesh, and start doing the Word of God.

Be a doer of the Word. Because when you do that, you say, “Well, I’m waiting for the leading of the Holy Spirit.” No, you’re not. You need to take action and take priority.

You need to get out there and do the Word of God. And guess what happens? The Spirit comes with you and starts making things happen. Signs and wonders follow those who do the work of God.

Get out there and start doing. Spirit will be there with you. Don’t wait for the Spirit to pull you. It’s not going to make you do something. You have to take the initiative. You have to take the action. So do that. Because in doing the will of God, the Spirit within you, yeah baby, it lights up. It is on fire, so focus on that.

Focus on the Heavenly Spirit. not on the Earthly temptations towards your body. You’ve got to crucify the flesh. Get rid of those things. Let’s go to Galatians 5:16. One more verse.

Galatians 5:16, “So I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If you walk by the Spirit, there is no room for those Earthly, carnal desires.”

Let’s pray.

Father, thank You so much for this powerful message today. The spirit is willing, and the body is weak.

I pray that you would help each and every person watching and listening to crucify those desires of the flesh. Give them desires in their heart to feed the spirit. Their heart’s desire, make their heart’s desire be you, Father.

Let their heart desire to be on fire for you. Fill them up more with the Holy Spirit. You see, they’re already full. They’re already full. When they became a Christian, they’re full.

Yes, they are full of the Holy Spirit, Lord. Stir it up in them. Turn that kettle on so that the water is boiling and bubbling over. Let it flow out to others.

Inspire them to go be rivers of living water, not simply a little diffuser misting. Let it be a gushing stream that they would go out and do your work, that they would do your will because the spirit is willing.

Father, help them feed the spirit. Give them the motivation to do so, give them the desire to do so, and show them that when they do that, their flesh, their Earthly nature, their sin nature, all of that is crucified and gone. Let them see great results and be even more motivated to do your will and to help others do the same.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I really hope that this has been inspirational for you, and please, if you have any questions or comments, put them on our YouTube channel, on the comments on this video, go to our Discord server, you can engage in sermon discussions there as well.

Have a great week, and God bless.