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THE Cause: Expedition Possible

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Do you have a ‘Bucket List’?  You know, the record of places, events, etc. that you want to check off before your time on earth is done?  And if you do have a Bucket List, is blazing through the Sahara Desert on an unruly camel one of them?

Apparently that experience was on the lists of the competitors on ABC’s Expedition Impossible, or maybe the folks on the show just want the $50,000 prize money and the Ford Explorer.

If you haven’t seen any of the series, think shameless rip-off of The Amazing Race meets Jersey Shore.  Teams of three have all been granted subtle monikers like “California Girls’, ‘The Cops’, ‘Latin Persuasion,’ and (my personal favorite) ‘Grandpa’s Warriors’…which makes one wonder what a true grandpa warrior might fight with.  Guess it all Depends, right?

Anyway, the goal is to beat out the competition as they race across the “exotic, fabled Kingdom of Morocco” - which is just south of Spain for those of you geographically challenged.  Along the way you’ll see the teams snipe and bicker, and you may even catch some of the immensely intelligent dialogue like:

"We're in the Sahara Desert! There's sand everywhere, yo!"

All in all, though, it could be fun to Rock the Kasbah and see who can cross the finish line and score the cash and the Ford product placement Explorer (BTW - this last sentence was brought to you by Ford...maker of the Explorer.)

But...I am already in a race.  It’s not against men with moustaches and overtly giggling Valley Girls, rather it is with  the worst possible competition that I could ever come up against.  I know this because the opponent I face is the same face I face in the mirror every day.

In the words of cartoon character Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

My high calling in life is THE Cause of making disciples who make disciples, but there is a part of me that trips me up and holds me back.  The Bible calls this entity my “sin nature” - and here is how the spiritual expedition is described:

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 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.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,  idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:16-17; 19; 20).

Did you pick up on just how huge the battle is within the small confines of your soul?  And if you give up in the race, you will discover that your sin nature is not a kind master.  It seeks to destroy every shred of joy and purpose that God has granted you, and it will trap you in a scorching hot desert of loneliness and regret.

If you want to win this Christian Expedition, you need to have a strategy and a focus (not a Ford Focus, rather an unwavering vision that is as clear as a Ford product placement).

The strategy?  Simple:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives (Galatians 5:24-25).

You can’t toy with or tolerate your sin nature…you have to grab it by the throat and nail it to the cross of victory that Jesus provided for us when He sacrificed Himself.  Each and every day you must plan on your sin nature sneaking up on you with the desire to be immoral, jealous, angry, and quarrelsome.  It is in those moments that you must picture your old self being eliminated from the competition for control of your life!

And the focus?  Simple:

Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).

When we take our eyes off ourselves and our little world and fix them intently on our Savior, we find the strength and purpose for THE Cause, and our lives take on an air of victory that is unmatched by anything the world has to offer!

 

Even though we have the Holy Spirit living in us, we still have a sin nature that is at war with what God wants for our lives.  We must view the Christian life as a race  where we must crucify our sin nature each day so we can live out THE Cause for Jesus Christ.

Jesus, today I fix my eyes on you, knowing that Your death on the cross gives me the power to defeat my sin nature and live through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Help me to see the world through Your eyes and win the race that you’ve laid out for me. 

Galatians 6:8. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 

  Check out Greg Stier’s free podcast “How Do You Do the Christian Life.”