This story comes from Galations chapter 5, verse 17 "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that you cannot do the things that you would."
Once upon a time, many years ago your mama and your daddy were sitting around chatting, and mama said, "guess what?" And your daddy said, "tell me?" And your mommy said, "We are going to have a baby." Boy oh boy was your daddy excited. He got all nervous and didn't know what to say.
After a few months had gone by mama said to daddy, "you better take me to the hospital, we're about to have a little one. " Your daddy was so nervous that he could hardly drive the car. But he finally made it to the hospital, your mama went in, and you were born.
When you were born, you were born with a little guy living inside of you who we're going to call Mr. flesh. Flesh doesn't mean skin, but in the Bible flesh means your body in general. So Mr. flesh was alive and well, and wanted to take good care of your body. For instance, when you were hungry, he would tell you to cry. When your diapers were wet, he would also tell you to cry. When you were mad, he would always tell you to cry. Mr. flesh was the kind of guy who always wanted you to have your way. And you liked that.
Mr. flesh even made you selfish. He made you so selfish that you would even tell lies to get your way. He made you so selfish that you would get even with people by hurting them. Mr. flesh pretty much ran your life for you as you were growing up.
Then, one-day you came to church and heard that all those things that Mr. flesh had been making you do were called sin. You also heard that all those sins would someday send you to hell unless you got saved. Now you didn't want to go to hell, so you got saved. In fact, even your flesh told you that was a smart thing to do.
Now, your problems began. They began because Mr. spirit moved in when you got saved. Mr. spirit is the holy spirit of God who lives in everyone who trusts Jesus as their savior. Now instead of crying when you were hungry Mr. spirit would rather had you take the smallest part so that someone else could have something to eat also.
Now instead of crying when you were mad Mr. spirit would rather have you work things out so that the problem would never happened again.
Now instead of telling lies to satisfy your selfishness, Mr. spirit would have you tell the truth even if it meant getting punished.
Mr. spirit never wants you to get even with someone else. He would rather see them happy because of you. All of these things are the things that Jesus would have done when he was down here on earth. These are the kinds of things that he did as he hung on the cross when he died to pay for all the things that we have done that were wrong. That's how Mr. spirit looks at things.
Remember what I said, that Mr. flesh first thought that it would be okay for Mr. spirit to move in, so you could go to Heaven. But it wasn't long before Mr. spirit realized that he and Mr. flesh were on opposite teams. All of the things that Mr. spirit liked to do were just the opposite of all the things that Mr. flesh liked to do.
All the things that Mr. flesh liked to do were just the opposite from all the things that Mr. spirit liked to do. As time went by Mr. flesh found out that he wasn't the boss anymore and he didn't like that. He began to fight back.
Do you remember when you were first saved, and you were thinking that you would be good from then on and never do anything wrong. But remember how soon you found yourself going back and doing some of those old things that were bad? Well that's about the time that Mr. flesh began to fight back against Mr. spirit.
Now there's an argument going on inside of you which will continue until the day you die and God takes you out of the body that you now live in and puts you in heaven with him. That's the battle between Mr. spirit and Mr. flesh.
The good news is, when your body dies, Mr. flesh will die along with it. And Mr. spirit will go with you to Heaven. But for now you're going to have Mr. flesh bugging you all the time.
And this battle that's going on inside of you, when Mr. spirit is winning, you feel happy. But when Mr. flesh is winning, you don't have a lot of joy because he's a touble-maker.
For example, let's say you're a little girl and you go to school and all the other girls are wearing some special necklace that's for sale and real popular right now. Mr. flesh says, "You need one of those too." And so you get it and you take yours to school. And let's say that some other little girl looks at it and breaks it. Now Mr. flesh says, "Hate that little girl from now on." But Mr. Spirit says, "Forgive that little girl."
Another example: you're a little girl and they are choosing friends to pick who will play in some game at school. Mr. flesh says, "You should be the first chosen." But you don't even get picked. Now Mr. flesh says, "be real mean to the girls who didn't pick you." But Mr. spirit says, "You should love the other little girls who didn't get picked either."
The same things happen to little boys when they go to school. Mr. flesh tries to get them to be bad and selfish, while Mr. spirit tries to get them to love those around them.
Another example: Dad and Mom tell you to do some work around the house. Mr. flesh looks at the work and says, "That looks hard." He tells you to put it off as long as possible, and maybe even not do it at all. Mr. spirit says do the work to please your mom and dad because that's what it says to do in the Bible.
Have you ever been watching a television program which wasn't really good to watch? Did something inside of you tell you to sit there and watch it anyway? Guess who that was? That was Mr. flesh. While you were watching the program do you remember feeling uncomfortable? Do you remember thinking that you shouldn't be watching the program? Guess who was talking to you? That was Mr. spirit.
Now, did you know that if you continue to watch that program on television you are feeding Mr. flesh? He is having a banquet. He is having a great time. He thinks he is at Chucky-Cheese or McDonalds. But Mr. spirit is starving.
Did you know that when you read your Bible you are feeding Mr. spirit? Mr. spirit is having a banquet. He is having a great time. It's like he's at Chucky-Cheese or McDonalds. And Mr. flesh is starving.
Now if you have a pet at home and you feed that pet, that pet will grow and grow. But if you don't feed that pet, if you starve it, it will get weak and maybe die. The same thing is true of Mr. spirit and Mr. flesh. If you want Mr. spirit to be strong, you have to feed him and starve Mr. flesh. If you want Mr. flesh to be strong, you have to feed him and starve Mr. spirit. And you don't want Mr. flesh to be strong if you're Christian.
See, Mr. flesh is the one that causes mom and dad have all those big fights.
Mr. flesh is the one who causes Dad to leave home.
Mr. flesh is the one that causes big brother to hurt you.
Mr. flesh is the one that causes all the bad things to happen to all the people that live in the world. He's the one that causes people to go to hell when they die.
So next time you feel like doing something bad remember who's talking to you. Tell Mr. flesh, "Get lost." Pray to Mr. spirit and ask for his help because that's why he's there. He's there to help you when you need him. And he will never go away.