Living Outloud: Waging the war inside me

We notice how Romans 1 to 8 focuses less on a to-do list and more on who we are because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We talk honestly about why we keep doing what we hate and how God reshapes desires so obedience becomes the overflow of a new identity. 
• Paul writes to a mixed church and centers identity over rule keeping 
• Christianity as identity transformation rather than behavior modification 
• Romans 7 naming the inner war between flesh and Spirit 
• Obedience flowing from desire rather than guilt or sheer willpower 
• The flesh producing cravings like comfort, control, approval, escape, and self-protection 
• The Holy Spirit forming new desires like holiness, truth, peace, purity, generosity, and courage 
• Attention and environment shaping what we want most 
• Gratitude as a way to train attention toward God’s work 

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Transcript

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Welcome And The Missing To-Do List

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Hey, this is Mike with another episode of Living Out Loud, where once a week we take a look at what did we read earlier in the podcast this week and what do we do about it? Because we gotta not just be hearers of the word, we gotta do what it says, which is kind of interesting here based on our conversation today, because as we covered Romans chapters one through eight, I was kind of looking at it and realizing, you know what, there's not a whole lot to do here in Romans 8. There's not a lot that Paul says, all right, so now do this. Now there are other parts of other letters that Paul has written that that do focus on, all right, now do this. But there's not a whole lot to do. You can't make a very long or comprehensive to-do list from Romans 1 through 8, but that's kind of the point. Because remember, Paul is speaking to a church that he had not met yet, and it's mixed, as was very common in that area in the day, uh, a mix of having some Jewish believers now in believing Jesus is the Messiah and some Gentile believers who have come to be grafted into the family, so to speak. And there's just some disagreements because, and some confusions, because the Jewish believers are suggesting, well, we still have to do the things that the Jews have done to be right with God, right? Just because Jesus came didn't change that, did it? And that's that's the confusion. So because the question of like, well, what are we supposed to do right now is such a touchy question for Paul and the Roman church. Paul just spends a whole bunch of time here not focusing on what to do, but focusing on identity and focusing on what God has done,

Identity Transformation Over Behavior Fixes

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what the Holy Spirit has done, what Jesus has done. And as we watch this unfold, we recognize that you know what? Christianity isn't behavior modification, it's identity transformation. Sanctification is this God training and raising your heart to become more like Jesus. Does that affect your behaviors? Hopefully. That's clear in scripture. But we don't focus on behavior modification hoping that our heart catches up. No, we have to understand our identity. We need to understand that our identity has a before and after Jesus. Before it's an old, dead life, dead and enslaved to sin. And now, because of Jesus, we can experience a living, free, new life. And this new life should not desire to go back to the old life. However, it's that desire, it's that word there, that desire, that Paul focuses in on here, and especially Romans chapter 7. It's not about changing your behaviors, hoping that your heart will follow. It's about changing your desires so that your behaviors will follow. The deepest battle when it comes to obedience is not between your actions and your willpower. I just gotta will myself to do what's right. No. The biggest battle is between your flesh and the spirit inside you. Between your flesh that groans for a chance to do what it wants to do and not be held accountable to anybody or anything, and the spirit that says, no, no, we're under new management now. We don't get to do that. And we can't will ourself one way or the other. We have to recognize that we have desires that need to be trained toward what the spirit desires. Romans 7 and 8 here teach that the Spirit doesn't just help you do the right thing, he actually helps you want the right thing. That's the beautiful thing about getting a new heart. There's a prophecy in Ezekiel where God promises, through the coming of his Holy Spirit, which we now get to live in now, that he will give you a new heart, one that desires to be aligned with God's heart, one that desires to do the right thing, which is really great news because you may be like, frankly, you know what? I I know I need Jesus. I honestly, I don't know if I want him, though. Like, I just don't feel like I want Jesus, like other I see other people do. Okay, that's that's okay, that's very honest and good. So the good news is that Jesus is willing to give you such a new heart that he changes your desire to want him. He gives us a new heart that has a desire to want to do what's right, to want to live and think and act in line with him. Spirit doesn't just help you do the right thing, he helps you want the right thing. So, why do I keep doing what I don't want to do? That is that is Paul's tension here in Romans 7, and he just puts

Why We Keep Doing What We Hate

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to words what we all think and feel anyway. Verse 18, he's like, I I I know that nothing good lives in me, that you know, that it is in my sinful nature, and I want to do what's right, but I can't, and I want to do what's good, but I don't, and I don't want to do what's wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really doing wrong. It's the sin living in me that does it. It's just like, yep, Paul, same. I hear ya. I I I feel that war inside of me as well. I don't do what I want, I do the thing that I hate. Why do I do that? I don't want to do that, but apparently I want to. I, you know? And we can feel this when it comes to staying up later than we should, scrolling on our phone, doing something we shouldn't do at worst, or something that's completely neutral and adding no value at all at best. We find ourselves in conversations when we just feel our blood getting a little bit hot, and there's some conflict, and uh, just letting uh I'm pretty clever, I got something that would really destroy him or her, and just letting it rip. Envy when we see other people getting the sort of things that we wish we had, and we've been praying for even, but then it comes easily to them, and for us it feels like a struggle. I know, I know what I sh I I shouldn't envy, but here I am doing it, and I don't want to, but here I am. Going back to habits that you swore you'd you'd give up, but you know what? Here you are again. Because you're bored, because you're around the same people, because there's just an opportunity, because you were feeling desperate, whatever the reason may be, you're back in it. This is not a behavioral problem. This is not a oh, I just gotta, you know, dig deep and find the willpower to resist. It's not a behavior problem, it's not a will power problem, it's a desire problem. There's a desire that needs to be rewired. Forget rewired, just pulled out and burned, but we can't do that. So, what if obedience isn't about trying harder? But what if obedience is about wanting differently? Wanting something different? What can we learn here in Romans chapter 7 and 8 about our desires? Well, Paul kind of diagnoses the issue here in Romans 7, 15 through 25. He talks about the flesh, and that's just our our sin nature, that's what we're born with, that is just the result of being human in a cursed world right now, under the curse

The Flesh As A Desire Factory

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that came in in through sin in Genesis. And we're still living in a world, living in bodies that are just flawed and desire to run away from God. That won't always be the case, praise God. And even on this side of eternity, we can find the flesh getting weaker and weaker as we retrain our desires and God does his work in us. But we got to talk about the flesh, this the this flesh that just has this power to form desires that are that go against what we what we know we should in our new life, in our new spirit, and our new desire to follow Jesus. We also have these desires that go against that. And the flesh just is like a factory. It's like this this the factory of desire, a desire factory, where it generates just cravings for comfort, for control, for approval, for escape, for self-protection? Do one of those in particular feel like, ooh, yep, that that would be where I tend to run to what do you crave most? Comfort, control, approval, escape, self-protection? There's probably one, maybe two that really stick out. For me, it's it's comfort. You know, I I highly value my peace, and peace is good. That's a fruit of the spirit. That's a result of the spirit's work in my life, peace. But I tend to look for manufactured peace that I can control, I guess is another is another issue. Control. When I define what comfort looks like and how to get it, then that's no longer my desire of a good thing. That is my flesh craving something, comfort in this case, outside of what God has provided. That's mine. What's yours? These desires that they feel natural. They seem like, well, of course, comfort, control, approval, uh, self-protection. Like what's wrong with these? I'm nothing in and of themselves, but it's outside of God, then it becomes our flesh, who starts driving the boat here. I don't know why it has to be a boat. That's just what came to mind. But they're familiar, they feel natural to us. But the spirit forms new desires. Romans 5, 8, 5 says, those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Those who live according to the Spirit set their mind on the things of the Spirit. Or in the New Living Translation, I like to look at for just conversationality here, it says, Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the spirit. It's an issue of control. This isn't an intellectual thing. This isn't like, all right, well, let me set my mind on things of the spirit, and let me just think about those things, and and then I will live according to the spirit. Nope. That's backwards. It says those who live according to the spirit set their mind on those things. Well, how do we live according to the spirit? Because it's not an intellectual thing that we can just do. It's it's directional, it's desire shaping. We're talking about desires. And the spirit trains us to crave something else. We talked about what the flesh trains us to crave the comfort,

How The Spirit Trains New Cravings

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control, approval, escape, self-protection, maybe something else that pops to mind. The Holy Spirit trains you to crave and and have other desires like holiness, truth, peace, true peace, purity, generosity, courage. And Paul's making the point: look, you're gonna obey what you desire. So if your desires don't change, your obedience won't stand a shot. We cannot obey consistently as a lifestyle if our desires are untrained. And and this is this is the whole point of our conversation here today. Because look, we want to obey Christ, right? We're we're we're believers here, hopefully, as we go through the Bible on this podcast, we're we're here for the most part because we have a desire to follow Jesus and obey God. But this obedience still often comes from maybe guilt or fear of consequences, uh, or just out of habit, just kind of like, yep, that's just what I do. That's kind of tradition of my family. We go to church, we do the things. But Paul's clear in the section of Romans that obedience is the overflow of what your mind is set on. What you desire, that's where you'll end up going. It's kind of like the steering wheel. We point it in this direction. Well, guess what? We're gonna go that direction. I desire to go that way. Well, then you know what? We're gonna go that way. If you're trying to obey without training your desires to desire the spirit, it's like we're gonna try to steer the car, not with a steering wheel, but by going around back and like pushing the bumper and and try to like muscle it to the left. Like that's not where that's not where the direction comes from. You're not directing it that way. So, obedience, it's a process. Look, we're it's we're not gonna get this all at once. We're certainly not gonna be able to like perform in such a way that gets the results we want. This obedience and this retraining of our desires is gonna be a process. How do we shape our desires? Well, we saw in 8.5, those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So, how do you get controlled by the Spirit? First of all, we we gotta give our attention. We gotta give our attention to the Spirit. How many times a day can you point to something and say, you know, that's the Holy Spirit? That's God working. Oh, that's what ge that's what Jesus has been working on in me. Thank you, God, for this gift. God, thank you for this beautiful weather today. God, thank you that I've got breath in my lungs. There's a lot of gratitude here. Because gratitude helps shape our attention on what God is doing and has done. How many times a day can you credit God for something? I'll tell you what, zero to three times a day is not gonna be enough to really start to see a change in your desires. Because it's just not a forefront of your attention. Your attention is predominantly on other things. What we give our attention to, that's going to shape our desires. That's kind of a scary thought. What gets the most of your attention? What gets your attention dozens of times a day? Can't we be honest to say whatever we give our attention to dozens of times each day is the thing that really kind of drives our desires in that direction? Desires are shaped by what we give our attention to, shaped by our attention. And on a related note, our desires are also shaped by our environment. Now, what we have in the environment around us is likely going to want to draw our attention so they are connected, but we do have

Attention And Environment Shape Desire

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some control over our environment. How close to you is your phone? I know mine's within reach pretty much all day. What about what is on TV or how often you're watching it? That will affect your desires? The friends, the family that you hang out with, where you spend your time, the people around you and their voices and their opinions and their ideologies are going to affect you and your desires. And look, it's not always a bad thing. Now, if it is a bad thing, then we gotta make some changes. But I mean, even Paul says when he's talking about his singleness, I think in 1 Corinthians, uh, he's he talks about how look, I I wish you would be like I am, single, because if you're if you're a husband married to a wife, then you are gonna have desires for your wife. And if you're a married woman, you're gonna have desires for your husband to to serve them and and to love them. And that there's nothing wrong with that. That should be what you do, desire to love and serve your spouse. But that means that's less time and attention that you're gonna have to be able to give to the work of Jesus and and giving giving your attention to Jesus. Just a fact, it's just the way it is, because we our desires can't be split always and give our all to every every place. So it's worth just taking stock of what is the environment around us and and what here isn't affecting our desires and affecting our attention. Hopefully, something in this conversation today has kind of triggered some idea of like uh a good next step. Uh, here's uh something I should probably do about that. That's that's good. I gotta I gotta work on that. And by all means, hey, pause this episode, go do it, or just wrap up and go do it. Like that's what we gotta do. That that's the Holy Spirit nudging you. If it's not motivated out of guilt or fear or I don't know, some sort of self-righteousness, then that's from the Holy Spirit saying, yeah, let's go do this, go, let's go make a change here. But if even if so, can I offer a couple ideas here? For one, why don't we go back to Romans 8? Just one chapter, it'll take a couple minutes to read. Read Romans chapter 8, and just meditate

A Simple Practice In Romans 8

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on that for five minutes. And by meditate, I just mean set your mind on it, as it says. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit. Set your mind on God's truth in Romans 8. Beautiful, powerful chapter. Spend more time in it. And just even for just five minutes, not trying to think too hard. It's again not trying to will ourself into coming up with some revelation, but just set your mind on it. See what God is speaking to you through Romans chapter 8. You might find some verses about uh or some concepts even about no condemnation in verse 1. Maybe something like in verse 6 about setting your mind on the spirit and not resulting in life and peace. Maybe something like in verse 13, putting to death the the deeds of the body by the power of the spirit. What does that mean? What are what what's some phrase here that you can just stew on? You don't have to think about the whole chapter, just something that jumps out at you. Something like, mm, that's interesting. Just that. That just chew on that for five minutes. For just a few days this week. And pray that God helps your repeated attention to the things of the Spirit reshape your desires. Maybe write down some of your desires as you can call them out and point them out right now. Do this for about a week. Pray that God helps reshape your desires to line up with His, what He desires for you. And then just take a stock in next week, the week after, and see how God gradually changes your desires. The Holy Spirit is going to be the one that forms your desires, but you can give the Holy Spirit space to work, and you can help put some fuel on that fire by changing where you give your attention and let that shape your desires. Thanks for joining me here in this conversation about the first part of the book of Romans. I hope you are walking away with something to take back to God and say, Hey, God, this is what I got. Can you help me with this?

Closing Encouragement And Next Steps

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That's what the Bible's here to do. And we can keep going back and keep going back and keep going back. He's loving, he's patient, he's kind, and he's wise to help transform you to be more and more like Jesus. He loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way. Thanks for joining me here on the Out Loud Bible Podcast. We'll see you next time.