Message 1 of 2

“Spin Cycle”
If you’ve been involved with a church for any length of time you’ve most likely heard a
message or done a Bible study on temptation. And most talks about temptation are followed
by a challenge for you to let go of some particular sin. And let’s assume for now that you’ve
had a moment where you leaned into that challenge and said, “Yes, the next time I
encounter that temptation, I’ll turn from it.”

But “temptation” is such a slippery word because different things can tempt different people
in different ways. And, unfortunately, many of the lessons we’ve heard about temptation
are just too simple. The lessons usually include a Bible verse (like 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee
from sexual immorality…”), and then a story of success.

In fact, it’s actually tempting to tell people, “It’s just that easy.”
And more often than not, that temptation wins the upper hand and we resort to saying that
very thing: “Avoid that, do this, and everything will be okay…it’s just that easy.”

But when we try to do it, we find it’s NOT that easy.

And I guess that would be fine if we were talking about the “take-it-or-leave-it” life lessons
in Aesop’s Fables, but that’s not what we’re doing here.
We’re talking about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit,
about the church, the Bible, and faith,
about the world, people, and sin,
about grace, hope, and human beings.

All these things converge and interact in all sorts of ways, and that should keep us from
ever thinking that temptation could be as simple or easy as our cute little sayings make it
out to be.

But the Scriptures do insist we should flee, or turn away from, the things that will trip us up
as we follow Jesus. For example:
In the verse I just read (1 Corinthians 6:18), we’re told to flee from sexual immorality –
turn away from using sex in ways that bring dishonor to God and shame on ourselves.
Again, in 1 Corinthians 10:14, we’re told to flee from idolatry – turn from pursuing aspects
of creation as if they were as worthy of worship as the Creator God.
And again, in 1 Timothy 6:11, we’re told to flee from the love of money – turn from desiring
money to pump up your status and security.

So the instruction you’ve always gotten, to “flee,” is certainly biblical. The reason it often
fails, though, is because it’s INCOMPLETE:
When we try to flee, to turn away, we find that we don’t know where to go!
When we don’t have anywhere to go, we turn back around and get consumed by the
temptation –
We give in to the sexual immorality.
We give in to the idolatry.
We give in to love of money and the status it can bring.
And then we hear a typical lesson on temptation, and commit again to flee from it. And then
when we sense the temptation creeping up, we try to flee again … and the whole cycle
repeats itself.

So today, and next week, I want to plunge beneath the surface to examine what’s going on
when we’re caught in the spin cycle of temptation, and suggest some ways to break the
cycle.
We have to acknowledge that part of the problem is our IMMATURITY in the Christian
faith. We’re given shortcuts to address surface-level issues with quick-fix solutions, and we
never engage with the long-term process of transformation – the deep-rooted, heart-
changing, character-altering growth toward Christlikeness.

We try to live with rules that give us clear-cut lines between good and bad, so we can toe
the line without crossing over too far. But how far is too far? And who can really say for
certain? And what if there’s a situation that isn’t addressed by the rules?

These are questions that defy easy answers because the answers are found in the territory
of wisdom and discernment. We won’t find wisdom and discernment by walking as close as
we can to a line we’ve been told not to cross. We discover wisdom and discernment as by-
products of aligning our lives with the ways of Jesus, participating within the community of
God’s people, following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and doing those for an extended
amount of time.

It takes time because as young people we see things in black and white, moral and
immoral, good and bad. All the distinctions are drawn with clean, straight lines. But then we
mature socially and we leave the high school bubble of prom kings/queens, Friday night
football, and curfews. We begin to see that the lines aren’t nearly so straight - there are
jagged edges all around us, and plenty of gray areas in between us.

We mature socially, but often stay immature in matters of Christian faith because we
neglect to grow in our understanding of who God is, what God desires for the world, and
how God is working to make it happen.

The simple, shrunk-down version of Christian faith we first believed doesn’t make sense of
the complexities of real life that we encounter – so we leave it behind.

So gaining Christian maturity is a lifelong journey, but the time to start is now, not 10 years
from now when the habits of spiritual immaturity have you defenseless against temptation
and on the brink of leaving the faith.

So how can we address the topic of temptation in a mature way that acknowledges the gray
areas of life?

Well, this week I want us to understand 3 things about temptation:

First, temptation seeks to use good creation in DISTORTED ways.

Temptation always starts by twisting something that is part of God’s good creation into
something for which it wasn’t intended. One sign of maturity in the Christian faith, then, is
the realization that things, in and of themselves, aren’t BAD, but the ways we use those
things can be.

Medicine is good, but people who are abusing over-the-counter drugs or prescription drugs
are using them in distorted ways.

Or, take sex for instance. It was part of God’s good design for human beings from the
beginning. It has a proper place in creation as the highest expression of unashamed
intimacy shared between a man and woman who have bound themselves together in the
covenant of marriage. And it’s also one way that the image of God is to spread throughout
the earth.
Genesis 1:27-28 tells us that God created man in his own image – male and female – and,
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number…”

How can human beings increase in number without sex? It can’t happen!
In the Bible, sex is good. But temptation distorts it toward sexual immorality, which is
certainly not good.

Another example could be the human emotions. Some people seem to think that being
upset and angry is automatically wrong. They try to get you to be ho-hum, happy-go-lucky,
boring, Mr. Nice Guy / Ms. Nice Girl. But emotions, like anger and discontentment, have a
proper place in life. When we get angry, upset, or discontent about the way things are, then
we seek ways to change things and make them better.

If we banished those God-given emotions from our lives, then nothing would ever get done!
We’d all sit around playing Monopoly saying, “It’s too bad that lady’s being robbed out there
on the sidewalk…I’d help but what’s there to get upset about…and besides, I’m about to
pass ‘Go’ and collect $200!”

That would be pathetic! But that’s life without passion, that’s life without emotion.
Emotions can be powerful forces for good when they’re directed properly and used wisely.

The second thing to understand is that temptation appeals to “THE FLESH.”

If you’ve read any of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, like Galatians or Romans, you’re
sure to see a distinction drawn between the Spirit and “the flesh.”

Like Romans 8:6 (ESV), which says, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the
mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

“The flesh” doesn’t refer to your skin, as if all temptation would cease if you could just shed
your body. Satan and demons don’t have bodies, but that doesn’t keep them from sin. “The
flesh” is the identity and ways of life that were formed by allowing our thoughts and actions
to be molded into the shape of the PRESENT WORLD.

“The Spirit,” on the other hand, calls us to be renewed, to move in a different direction:
from death to life, from the old identity to the new identity, from the shape of the present
world to the shape of the world to come.

That’s why a little later in Romans, we’re told: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind…” (12:2a ESV).

Is it any wonder, then, that Paul writes, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and
the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other…”
(Galatians 5:17 ESV).

Temptation appeals to “the flesh” to take something which is good and use it in ways it was
never intended to be used. And “the flesh” is quite happy to act on temptation’s appeals.

BUT the Spirit pushes back, reminding us that we are most truly human, most faithfully
reflecting the image of God, and most fully alive when we are properly using our God-given
bodies, God-given emotions, and God-given minds in the ways for which they were
intended: to reflect the goodness of God throughout the world.
The third thing to understand about temptation is that it goes WHEREVER we go.
This is important to note because I hear so many people talking like we could honor God
more with our lives if we’d just retreat to a village in the woods where we could live
separated from the “bad things” and “bad influences” of the world.

That kind of life avoids the real problem, but it can never escape it.

Back in 2004, M. Night Shyamalan directed a movie called “The Village.” In the movie a
group of people have experienced crime, pain, and lies in the city, so they band together
and retreat to the woods, where they try to create a life without crime, without lies, and
without pain. They come up with elaborate strategies to make sure they keep out all things
evil, but by the end of the movie, the crime, the pain, and the lies they tried to leave
behind, had all shown up in the village.

Temptation goes wherever we go. Why is that?

James 1:14-15 (ESV) says, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his
own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully
grown brings forth death.”

Temptation is present wherever we are because temptation happens because of what’s

INSIDE us, not what’s OUTSIDE us. So whether you live in Las Vegas (aka “Sin City”) or
live in the woods by yourself, temptation is right there with you.

So temptation starts with something good and appeals to “the flesh” to take that good thing
and distort it by using it in ways it was never intended to be used. And you can never fully
escape temptation because it eventually catches up with you.

Next week we’ll talk about a short-term and a long-term strategy for breaking the cycle of
temptation and sin, but right now I want to go back to the time when we flee and find we
don’t know where to go.

And 2 Timothy 2:22 (ESV) meets us there:

“Flee youthful passions [lusts]…”

Okay, that’s where we were when we got stuck and turned back around.
But the verse continues:

“…and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord
from a pure heart.”

And THAT is the key to remember today:

When you’re tempted, you must flee AND pursue.

Pursue what?
Pursue the PURPOSE of God with the PEOPLE of God.
That’s my best summary of what 2 Timothy 2:22 tells us. The purpose of God is wrapped up
in righteousness, faith, love, and peace, but that isn’t done by heroically standing alone as if
it’s me against the world.

Faith isn’t a solo project. The church is the family of God’s people who are united in
pursuing the purpose of God. The church is made up of different people, young and old, who
are at different places on the same journey of faith, but come together to worship God and
help others on behalf of God.
So don’t just get stuck in the spin cycle of fleeing, and having nowhere to go.
Instead, flee the temptation and pursue God’s purpose in the company of God’s people.

When you’re tempted,

“Flee youthful passions, AND pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those
who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22 ESV, emphasis mine).
 TEMPTED
“Spin Cycle”

The reason the instruction to “flee” fails is because it’s _____________________.

Part of the problem is our _________________________ in the Christian faith.

3 Things about TEMPTATION:

1) Temptation seeks to use good creation in _____________________ ways.

Things, in and of themselves, aren’t ____, but the ways we use those things can be.

2) Temptation appeals to “_________________________.”

“The flesh” is the identity and ways of life that were formed by allowing our thoughts
and actions to be molded into the shape of the __________________________.

3) Temptation goes _____________________ we go.

Temptation is present because of what’s _________ us, not what’s _________ us.

The Verse:

2 Timothy 2:22
Flee youthful passions [lusts] and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with
those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

The key for today:

Flee ________ pursue

Pursue the ____________ of God with the ____________ of God.

 TEMPTED
“Spin Cycle”

The reason the instruction to “flee” fails is because it’s INCOMPLETE.

Part of the problem is our IMMATURITY in the Christian faith.

3 Things about TEMPTATION:

1) Temptation seeks to use good creation in DISTORTED ways.

Things, in and of themselves, aren’t BAD, but the ways we use those things can be.

2) Temptation appeals to “THE FLESH.”

“The flesh” is the identity and ways of life that were formed by allowing our thoughts
and actions to be molded into the shape of the PRESENT WORLD.

3) Temptation goes WHEREVER we go.

Temptation is present because of what’s INSIDE us, not what’s OUTSIDE us.

The Verse:

2 Timothy 2:22
Flee youthful passions [lusts] and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with
those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

The key for today:

Flee AND pursue

Pursue the PURPOSE of God with the PEOPLE of God.