TENSION
[weel three]
The last two weeks we have discussed the issue of TENSION. We said that for many of us, including myself, we feel this constant TENSION between choosing right and choosing wrong. Between choosing God and choosing sin. For many of us, we find ourselves torn between these two extremes on almost every decision, every choice. We wrestle and we wrestle. We fight and we fight. And it seems like we can never achieve any type of sustaining, lasting, victory in our struggle.
We may choose God on one issue, but we may follow that with 5 choices that reflect the opposite. We may follow God on Sunday or Monday, but it gets harder for us to make decisions that reflect His way of life as the week progresses. And for some of you, if you were gut-level honest with yourself, it gets real hard to choose God on Friday nights and Saturday nights. When we�re at our friends or at your boyfriend�s or girlfriend�s house. Somehow choosing God gets more difficult in those situations.
Well, the first week we discussed this idea of TENSION and basically addressed what causes it. Namely, sin. And how we were once full of holes, and gaps, and spaces in our very nature. Last week, we took a step in the right direction by showing how God had fixed those holes. How God had restored us and �righted the ship� of a fallen world. This week, I�m going to show you how we finally move out of the theoretical and move into the reality of making Godly choices in our everyday lives.
But first, we need to revisit something thing that I didn�t really get a chance to clarify last week. When I talked about this idea of �restoration�. That God intervened in humanity to set things right. To restore us for the purpose of reconnecting us to our original created intent. I did you guys a disservice by not telling you the whole story. This is something that I didn�t realize until after I looked back over this week in preparation for tonight.
It is true that you�ve been restored. There is no doubt about it that you are no longer a slave to sin (that�s the terminology that Paul uses throughout Romans). You�ll see this in the passage of Scripture that we�re going to look at tonight. You are no longer under that �low-lying black cloud� that we talked about last week. But the reality is, that we still deal with sin. Despite the fact that we�ve been restored spiritually. Despite the fact that we are now in right relationship with God. We still sin. So why is that?
Well think of it like this. Think of sin as having a residual effect. And let me give you an illustration from my more mischievous days in high school to give you a picture of what the word residual means. Especially in connection to sin.
GAS BOMB ILLUSRATION
Long after we dropped our bombs, and the janitors came and cleaned up the mess, the smell still lingered. The smell was residual. The actual bomb got dropped an hour before, but the smell still lingered. That�s in a way, what sin is like. We�ve been restored, but sin was so powerful in our lives for so long, this �hang-over� effect is created. So we�re no longer slaves to sin. Our nature is no longer one that is tied to sin. But yet there is this kind of left-over residue that is left on us or in us after we�ve been restored. This is why we find ourselves still tempted to choose things other than God.
But again, despite this residual effect, there is Good News. Not only did God deal with the problem of our fallen nature by restoring us. He also gives us an outlet for escaping the residual effects of sin as well. And this is where everything comes to a point. Everything that we�ve been talking about for the last few weeks. The issue of resolving the TENSION in our lives between God and sin, between right and wrong, comes to a rest in a place that can either be simple or complex. Depending on what we want do to with it. Paul again, gives us the solution in Romans.
Here�s where the TENSION has the potential to be resolved if we allow it to. This is where, if we really want to ease the TENSION between God and sin, right and wrong, we have to make a choice. A choice to �simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.�
This is where it gets as simple or as complicated as we want to make it. Its really simply in theory, and has the ability to be really simple in practice. But I�m afraid that we�ve made it way to complicated in theory, and made it way to complicated in practice.
Basically, it comes down to choice. At this point, you may think I�ve wasted your time over the last couple of weeks. That I spent all this time setting up the root issue of our past condition versus our present condition. You may wonder why I spent all that time discussing the idea of a downward spiral versus a turn towards hope. A world turned upside down versus one that has been set right side up. Humanity with gaps, and spaces, and holes versus one that is whole again and restored right spiritually with God. Only to boil it all down to a CHOICE.
It wasn�t a bait and switch though. Everything that we�ve talked about runs right to and through a choice. And that choice is whether or not we are going to embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. Embrace what God is going to do in us. Embrace what God has done in us by restoring us. And how the fact that we�re restored is directly related to how we should now live. It now becomes a choice. A choice to move out of our old way of life where we constantly gave in to sin and were controlled by it. Or a choice to move into a new way of life.
DUMB AND DUMBER CLIP
You see, like good old Harry, we have a choice to make. Do we choose what we know to be right? Or do we choose what we know to be wrong? Its simple. Boil it all down to that. Bottom line, what are we going to choose? You may say, Josh if I could just choose God over sin, don�t you think I would do that?
Well can I submit this to you. Perhaps, the reason its so hard for you to choose God over sin is because you haven�t set yourself up to succeed.
BOSS ILLUSTRATION
I used to have this boss who used to say something to all of his employees. I thought it was weird at the time, but in hindsight was actually an important concept. He used to always say, �We have to set you up to succeed.� Meaning, that he wanted to do whatever it took to ensure that his employees were given all the resources and tools that they needed to be successful with the job that was entrusted to them. His rationale was that if his employees were struggling or failing with the job that he had given us, there was the possibility that it was because he had not set us up to succeed with the task that had been given to us.
Looking back on that now, that was huge idea. And its one that translates perfectly into what we�re discussing. And it is that we have to set ourselves up to succeed in this area of TENSION. In this arena of choosing between God and sin, right and wrong. Its real hard to choose God when we continually immerse ourselves in environments, language, thoughts, actions, that are anti-God. So it kind of becomes a cycle. Where perhaps, the only reason you might be choosing sin is because its what you�ve always done. Or what you�ve conditioned yourself to do so in a given situation. You see, the more we choose sin, the easier it becomes to sin. The more we choose wrong, the easier it becomes to do wrong.
The opposite is also true though. The more we choose God, the easier it is to live the God-life. If we immerse ourselves in language, thoughts, actions, that focus towards God, then that becomes a part of our lifestyle. A part of who we are. Thus, it makes it a whole lot easier to choose God. I�m not saying immerse yourselves in �church world�. That�s not where I�m going at all. But if you will set yourself up to succeed by having a steady intake of God, then your choices will reflect this.
And this �choosing God� is where this TENSION gets resolved. Plain and simple. It comes down to a choice. Do we believe that we�ve been restored? And if so, is our belief strong enough to determine our choices between God and sin, right and wrong? Listen to this last passage that Paul writes.
We have to embrace this idea of hope. This idea of grace. This idea of a new life that goes on and on, without end. That we are no longer under a dark kingdom or regime that is holding us down. But we have become residents in a new kingdom. One that runs under the radar of what most people see and experience it. This
It comes down to a choice though. You have to choose things everyday of your life. Choosing between God and sin, right and wrong, is no different. You have to make a choice. Either way, you�re going to make one. What will your choices be?
After the football game on Friday, at your friends house when everybody�s getting trashed, what are you going to choose? At school, when everybody is just running their mouth about one of your �former friends�, what are you going to choose? When everybody is making little jokes about the �gay� kid at your school, what are you going to choose? At your girlfriend or boyfriends house on Saturday night and things start getting heated, what are you going to choose? When your parents are nagging you and giving you a hard time, what are you going to choose? What are you going to choose?
It�s all a choice. That�s where the TENSION gets resolved.
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
1. Despite being restored, why do you think we still sin? Even though we�re no longer �slaves to sin�, why do you think we still end up doing the things we don�t want to do?
2. Do you believe that you�ve been restored spiritually? If so, do you believe it enough to center your life around it?
3. What is the difference between a story of a downward spiral and sin�s power versus a story of hope and grace progressing towards God? What story is more inspiring?
4. What story has the potential to filter your choices between God and sin? Why?
5. What would it look like in your life to embrace what God has done and is doing?
6. What would you have to do or change about your everyday life in order to �set yourself up to succeed� spiritually?
7. Do you agree or disagree that the more you do something the easier it becomes to do it?
8. After this series on TENSION, what changes do you need to make in your life?
