Coming to you now as a special sneak preview . . . TENSION [WEEK ONE] - a discussion for today's high school student. Showing pre-AXIS Groups this Sunday Night at Cross Pointe! Be there or be square!
Over the next 2 weeks, we are going to wrestle with a subject, that if we were all honest, is more a reality than we would like to admit. For most of us, including myself, we live in constant TENSION between two worlds. We find ourselves being torn in our decisions, in our thinking, in our actions. On one hand, we have the side that represents the �right� or the �good�. This side is highlighted and illustrated by God and his kind of life. And on the other hand, we have the side that represents the �wrong� or the �bad�. This side is the side that represents what we call sin.
For most of us in this room, we find ourselves torn between these two worlds. The place where this TENSION takes place is oftentimes most evident in our choices. And its not that we set out to choose wrong. Its not that we wake up and decide that today we are going to go out and see if we can�t go out and violate God and his way of life. Instead we just find ourselves doing things that contradict God�s heart, and even our own heart. We find ourselves doing the complete opposite of what we know to be true. We find ourselves making decision that contradict our own personal values, our beliefs, and what we really want to do.
Even those of you who may say, �Josh, you�re crazy. I don�t even think twice about it. There is no tension when I want to do something I know to be wrong. I just do it. I don�t wrestle with any decisions and I don�t feel guilty afterwards. But I think if we were all honest, I think all of us in this room, at least on some level, would say that their desire is to do what God wants them to do. Or at the very least to do what is �morally� right. Meaning that no one in here wants to be known as a liar, or an adulterer. Its not like we wake up in the morning and say, �Man, I can�t wait to lie to someone�s face today.� Or, �Yes! One day I get to cheat on my wife and its going to be awesome!� Honestly, no one thinks like that because at some level all of us have embraced some sort of an idea of right and wrong. And again, at some level, I think we all wrestle, either consciously or subconsciously with choosing what we know to be right. Yet so often, we find ourselves doing things that we know to be wrong.
For most of us, we live in this crazy paradox of SAINT and SINNER. This TENSION between choosing �right� and choosing �wrong�. Unfortunately, our lives live in one of these two extremes. On Sundays, we find ourselves in an environment that stirs within us the �good side�. Yet, for most of our lives we find ourselves immersed in a world on the �wrong side�. And so we live frustrated. Guilty with the fact that we can�t live out what we know we want to, or at the very least, what we know to be true.
At best, this feeling is frustrating to us. And in the worst case scenario, it drives us crazy and cripples us with guilt because of the realization that we are violating not only our moral conscious (which by the way God gave us), but we are stepping into a betrayal of the way that God wants us to live.
Again, if we�re all honest, I think we would have to admit, there is part of us that wants to live like God wants us too, but another part of us either doesn�t allow that to happen, or doesn�t want it to happen wholeheartedly. So the question for us, is how do we close that gap between who we want to be and who we find ourselves to be, in essence . . . who we are? How do we resolve this conflict? How do we ease this TENSION between these two polar opposite selfs? How do we bring peace to these two worlds within us that are constantly colliding and rubbing up against each other? How do we begin to close the gap between our heart and our actions?
Paul in his attempt to explain this TENSION gives us a snapshot into his own battle with these questions. In this passage in Romans, you can almost here Paul�s frustration as he battles with this TENSION.
Romans 7:15, 18-20
15What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. 18I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. 19I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. 20My decisions, such as they are [this means his predetermined decisions], don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
Ithink if we listen closely to the heart of what Paul is writing, we can almost imagine ourselves substituted in the same place that he found himself in. Frustrated beyond all measure. Because like us, he had a desire to please God. And like us, he found himself unable to translate what was in his desires into his actions. After describing the TENSION he deals with, he explains in the next statement what is at the root of the issue. And this is where we are going to go for the remainder of our time. And next week we are going to deal with how this statement ties into our easing or resolving the TENSION in our lives.
Verse 20
�Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.�
That�s such a huge statement that I think resonates within us all on some level. Simply put . . . something has gone wrong. I think we can all identify with this statement. We recognize that something has indeed gone wrong. Just look at our world today. The wars, the poverty, the crime, broken families, you name it. We all recognize that this isn�t �right�. And I think if we were all honest, we would have to recognize that we even feel this in our own individual lives. That something has gone wrong there too.
This idea that something has gone drastically wrong is central to our understanding our TENSION. Because it is the source of our condition and at the root of our TENSION. Something has gone wrong. That something is called sin. Most of you, I�m sure, are at least somewhat familiar with this word. But you may or may not be familiar with its beginning. You see . . . we weren�t born like this. The world didn�t start off in the crazy state that is in now. Our world was not created to be like this. And neither were we.
Basically, in the beginning, God created us to be perfect. When He created Adam & Eve, He did so by creating them in His own image. We were created WHOLE. There were no gaps. No spaces. Outside of divine attributes such as being ALL-POWERFUL and ALL-KNOWING, we lacked nothing. We were given every tool that we needed to be successful. But what happened was that a man named Adam introduced sin into the world. It�s a really long story of how this happened so I won�t get into it, but if you want to read it, just go back and check out the first few chapters of Genesis. But basically when he introduced �sin� into our world, everything went into chaos. Where God had created perfection and life, there was now decay and destruction. Our world went into a downward spiral. Creation began unraveling at its core.
We also lost part of ourselves, part of what we were created to be. All of a sudden all of these gaps began to flood into our lives.
JENGA ILLUSTRATION
Let me illustrate it like this. Use your imagination and think of this JENGA game as a picture of us. When sin was introduced into our world, it entered into and adversely effected what we were created to be. Because of sin, we went into a downward spiral as a human race. What was once perfect and complete and whole, was now incomplete and full of holes and gaps. Where we were once centered fully in God, we now became centered in on ourselves. Thus, the condition we find ourselves in today.
You may be asking where do we go from here? What�s next? Is there any hope or do we just have to be resigned to the fact that our world is spiraling out of control and we�re caught in the pull of it? Paul lands in this same spot. Listen to what he says when he picks back up from the last verses.
Romans 7:21-24
21It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. 22I truly delight in God's commands, 23but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. 24I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
That�s the question. Is there anyone who can do anything for me? Because honestly, some of you have been struggling with the same thing over and over and over and over again. And you feel like you�re at the end of your rope. Some of you, are so tired of this TENSION, tired of having to constantly fight, of having to constantly choose right or wrong. You just wish you could click a button and automatically choose �right� in every situation, in every choice. But before we can move forward to resolving the TENSION, we have to address the root of our TENSION.
So this week is a little different. I�m going to leave off right where we are right now. I�m not going to give you any answers or anything that you can apply this week. Instead I�m going to leave you to your small group time and to some questions that will hopefully allow us the opportunity to address the root of our TENSION. The root of our struggle to live like God wants us to live.
And next week, we are going to talk about how God stopped the downward spiral of our world, and created the possibility of ending it in our own lives, if we choose it. Then we�re going to tie all of this into how we can begin to move towards resolving the TENSION between choosing God�s way or choosing our way.
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
1. What is one word that you would use to describe your battle over choosing right and wrong, God and sin? For example, �Frustrating�, �Tension�, etc. Why did you choose that word?
2. Do you ever do something wrong and you know that its wrong, but you do it anyway? If so, why did you do it?
3. Why do we sin when we know it�s wrong?
4. What is one thing that you struggle with on a consistent basis but can�t seem to choose the alternative on?
5. In connection to that question, do you feel guilty afterwards when you�ve had time to clearly think about? Does it play back in your mind? How does that make you feel?
6. What do you think it must have felt like to be Adam and Eve before their �Fall�? What about afterwards when they realized the scope of their one action?
7. Do you agree with Paul�s statement that, �Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.� Why or why not? If not, what is your assessment or how would you describe the human condition?
8. In your own words, how would you describe the God-life? Meaning, how would you best describe what it looks like to live like God intended you to live like? What characteristics would this life have?
9. What are some characteristics of your life now that run opposite or contradict that life that God wants you to live?
