“Winning the Battle Inside Me” (The Invisible War, Part 2)- Romans 7:15-25
The Cost of the Battle
Rick explained that this battle is a huge drain on your life and a great source of stress, and Paul outlines six specific emotional costs: confusion, guilt/shame, compulsions/addictions, self-condemnation, frustration, and discouragement/despair. Using the verses in the passage as his outline, Rick went through these one by one:
Confusion
In the NLT, verse 15 reads, “I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to-- what I hate.” Rick highlighted the use of first person pronouns in this verse. In this verse alone, Paul uses the word “I” six times, and he uses first person pronouns 41 times in this passage. “Paul has an I problem,” Rick quipped. If I learned one thing about Rick Warren from listening to The Purpose Driven Life, it is that he is remarkably quotable, even if his quotes are often a little cheesy. Still I sort of liked the “I problem.” Rick explained that we are our own biggest problems, and that we can never get away from ourselves. “You ask yourself why you have relationship after relationship fail; perhaps it’s not the other people, but you. You are the one consistent variable in all of your relationships. Maybe you tell yourself that you need a vacation, but then you go, and you just take yourself with you!” We should be encouraged by Paul’s frustration though; if this great Christian got frustrated like this, then it’s okay for us to feel the same way sometimes.
Guilt/Shame
Verse 16 says, “I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking.” Rick highlighted the concept of a bad conscience. He explained that the word conscience comes from two Latin words: con (with) and scientia (knowledge, particularly the knowledge of right and wrong). A bad conscience would be having the knowledge of right and wrong but then being unable to apply that knowledge or stick to what you know to be right. Rick offered the example of Peter falling asleep as Jesus prayed. Peter simply cannot stay awake and gives the justification of, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is the sort of guilt that Paul is describing.
Compulsions/Addictions
Verse 17 says, “But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am, that makes me do these evil things.” This cost of the battle featured Rick’s most thorough analysis. He explained that there are things that often seem beyond our control, and when we give the excuse of “I just can’t help myself,” sin wins. It is in our basic human nature to resist doing the right thing. There is something in us that likes to sin. Rick quipped, “Sin is fun. . . . Of course, you can have your kicks, but then sin kicks back.” He explained that willpower simply isn’t enough to fight off our own sinful natures, and he used an example from the classic children’s story “Cookies” in the book Frog and Toad Together, which he read to us in the soothing voice of a father reading a bedtime story. I tried to find the full text online but was unable to do so, so here is my approximate retelling:
One day, Toad (marvelous chef that he is) bakes a batch of cookies and, upon discovering how excellent they are, takes them to Frog for him to sample. Frog agrees that the cookies are delicious, so the two amicable amphibians begin eating cookie after cookie after cookie. Finally, the more sensible Frog stops and suggests that they stop eating the cookies lest they get sick, so they decide to have one last cookie each . . . and then another last cookie . . . and then another. After half a dozen “last cookies,” Frog finally comes up with the idea to circumvent their weak wills by putting the cookies in a box-- out of sight, out of mind. “But we could simply open the box and get another,” Toad points out. Frog remedies the situation by tying the box closed with a piece of string. “But we could simply untie the string and open the box and get another.” Frog puts the box on a high shelf. “But we could get the ladder, pull down the cookies, untie the string, open the box, and get another.” Fed up with Toad’s foolishness, Frog comes up with a surefire solution: he opens the box and feeds the cookies to the birds outside. Toad remarks, “Now we have no cookies,” to which Frog replies, “Yes, but we have lots and lots of willpower.” To this, Toad hatches a new plan: He goes home to bake a cake.
The children’s story brought quite a few smiles and laughs to the congregation, and Rick brought it home by stating, “Frog and Toad are experiencing Romans 7!” His point had been reiterated by the example: Willpower alone cannot fix a sinful nature, and the human mind and body will develop all sorts of compulsions and addictions as it struggles with its dual natures-- drugs, sex, porn, the works. (Random observation: evangelical pastors talk about pornography more than any other group on the planet. It seems like it gets slipped into every other sermon at some of these places. What’s the deal with that? This is sort of like how every youth camp pastor always talks about David and Bathsheba as a vehicle for venting about his own past indiscretions. I guess porn is just the sin du jour lately.)
Self-Condemnation
The first portion of verse 18 reads, “I know I am rotten inside as far as my old sinful nature is concerned.” Here, Paul is talking about giving in but then confronting the knowledge that he is rotten through and through, and we all fall into this pattern of self-condemnation when we try to control our sinful natures ourselves.
Frustration
Verses 18b through 20 state, “No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t! When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway! Now if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.” Rick talked about the “law of sin” in regard to this passage. Basically, human beings have a hard time pulling themselves (or each other) up, and Rick used a physical example to demonstrate this. Walking to the edge of the stage and leaning over, he asked if it would be easier, gravitationally, for someone to pull him down or for him to pull someone else up. When the congregation responded that it would be easier to pull him down, Rick explained that it’s the same way with sin, and we need to be careful not to surround ourselves with people who will try to pull us down.
Discoragement/Despair
Verses 21 and 23 read, “It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. . . . In my mind, I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself enslaved to sin.” Here, Rick highlighted that this is a mental battle, but he must have been pressed for time because, at this point, he shifted fairly rapidly into the next part of his sermon: the cause for all this suffering and confusion and emotional turmoil.
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| Maybe not what the "two dogs" story meant. |
The Cause: “I have two natures.”
I think there’s some sort of misprint in the bulletin regarding the verse numbers, but according to the bulletin, verses 21 and 23 read, “I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.” Rick explained that the new nature comes from Christ, and that the lower nature is perpetually at war with the new. He offered a parable about a Native American man who had converted to Christianity and was trying to explain this concept to his son, “It is as if there are two hungry dogs barking at me at all times, one good and one sinful.” The son asked which dog would win, and the man replied, “Whichever one I feed the most.” Christians still have those same old natures with their same old desires, and Rick explained that all the willpower and knowledge in the world was useless against this. “If you did everything you knew to do, you’d be perfect,” Rick said. Rather than the battle being about willpower, it has a lot more to do with allowing God to take over. It’s not about adherence to any sort of law, since the law alone cannot bring about change in our hearts and minds. Rather, it is about God.
Verse 24a adds, “So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in!” Rick explained that the word translated “predicament” has the connotation of being weak from hard labor or battle, not unlike the word “agony.” In general, this is a fairly damning passage, but God has a three-part battle plan to get us through it all. I have to admit that, by this point in the sermon, I was fairly sick of lists, so the addition of three more points wasn’t exactly exciting news to me. I almost groaned audibly when Rick alluded to the “eight joys of Romans 8” that he would be preaching on next week. I realize that I’m still developing my own sermon style, but when I see someone turn an emotional plea like Romans 7 into a series of lists of emotions, my eyes kind of glaze over. Maybe that’s why my notes aren’t more thorough. At least Rick was entertaining and kept me engaged. A less dynamic speaker certainly wouldn’t have held my attention with a 10-point outline. The three points of God’s battle plan are as follows:
(1) Deepen my understanding of Christ (and what Christ did on the cross)
Rick elaborated that Jesus wants to be in charge of our hearts, and he remarked in a rhyme worthy of Johnnie Cochran, “Jesus doesn’t just want to be resident; He wants to be president! . . . He wants you to put a sign around your neck that says, ‘Under new management!’” Romans 7:24-25 tells us, “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is through Jesus Christ our Lord!” This passage reminds us that Christianity is not about self-help. Rick made it clear that your problems will not go away with psychology or psychiatry or therapy or pills--
WHOA! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! NO, RICK! NO! THAT IS WRONG! COMPLETELY WRONG! FLAT OUT WRONG! YOU’VE BEEN WRONG ABOUT THIS SUBJECT FOR YEARS, AND YOU’RE STILL WRONG ABOUT IT NOW! WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
In fact, you know what? I think Dr. Cox has something to add. Take it away, Perry.
This is actually a recurring gripe that I have with Rick Warren and with a lot of current megachurch pastors who double as motivational authors (e.g. Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes). I don’t care what Oprah and Dr. Phil say; you are not a licensed psychologist, Rev. Warren! In fact, your claim here is dangerous to the mental wellbeing of your readers and church members, and you have to cut it out RIGHT NOW! A few years ago, a friend loaned me a copy of Rick Warren’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions, and when I read it, I was dismayed by how Rick does not seem to acknowledge depression as a legitimate medical condition. Like Osteen and Jakes, he seems to think it can be cured with prayer and an ice cream sundae, and that is simply not how the human brain works. There are chemical imbalances that prevent the intake of serotonin, and it makes people depressed, and sometimes, the only thing that can fix this is an antidepressant. Yes, people need to be able to correct their circumstances, and I do believe that an active prayer life can help people recover from bad situations, but to discount the entire field of psychology is reckless, and I’m tired of seeing Rick do this. He just seems too smart for this kind of garbage. He did it in Life’s Difficult Questions; he did it again in Purpose Driven Life; and he did it in this sermon, and I’m sick of it! Look, I don’t like to think of psychology and therapy as permanent solutions to a bad situation, but they can certainly give people the tools to cope until they find the strength --whether in God or themselves-- to improve their situations. Rick Warren has said and done a lot of great things, and his books have helped a lot of people, but on this particular subject, he is out of his league and should be ignored. Taking his advice here is medically dangerous. If you find yourself feeling the same crippling depression day in and day out, don’t bother buying one of Rick Warren’s books. Go to a doctor, and then give your pastor a courtesy call just so that we’ll know you’re okay and can continue to pray for you. Being a pastor may give Rick a lot of insights into the human soul and its relationship to God, but the brain and its chemistry are not his field of expertise and never have been. He’s not a doctor or a psychologist, and even the greenest rookie pastor ought to be able to recognize that some problems are not just spiritual, but medical. I am once again disappointed in Rick Warren for not understanding this basic responsibility of a pastor. As much as we want to deny it, when there is a serious medical issue, prayers need to be accompanied by pills, and Rick MUST learn this lesson for the safety of his readers and parishioners.
Oof. That had been building up for a while. Believe it or not, I actually sort of like Rick Warren, but he touched a nerve on this issue. Rick had really hacked me off with this in his books, and then when I heard it preached, I had to resist the urge to stand up and say something. When it comes to medical issues, pastors have to know our limits, and Rick Warren clearly does not. His mindset is dangerous, and I’m thinking about copying and pasting this paragraph into an email to him. Now, where was I? Got to get back on track here . . .
For Rick Warren, the answer is Jesus. It is not self-help programs or psychology or therapy that frees us, but only the love of Christ. In the KJV and NRSV, this passage actually gets rendered as, “Who will free me from this body of death?” Rick explained that the allusion is to a particularly morbid punishment for murderers in Paul’s day, in which the murderer would have the corpse of his victim tied to him until it rotted away. Every morning, the murderer would wake up to the stench and would constantly be dragging the body around, encumbered by its weight. Jesus frees us from the body of death though. Jesus frees us from the weight of our transgressions which drag behind us like a corpse. Rick also pointed to Romans 6:12-13, “Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires. . . . Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life,” and also to Romans 8:2, “For the new spiritual principle of life in Jesus Christ lifts me out of the old vicious cycle of sin.” Rick referenced the old hymn “Love Lifted Me” and mentioned another particularly morbid example. “Imagine I’m walking along Laguna Beach and happen to encounter a dead seagull. If I were to pick it up and toss it in the air, what would happen?” The momentarily grossed-out congregation hesitated a moment before saying that it would come back down. Rick’s point was that life had left the seagull’s body, meaning that it could no longer fly, and in order for us to soar as well, the life of Christ must be present in our bodies.(2) Detect and disarm the lie that I’m believing
Rick explained that Satan is the father of lies and lies to us all the time, but some of the most potent lies are the ones that Satan gets us to tell ourselves. Some of those lies have to do with desires, but God wants us to work against our desires, and Rick joked that, if you really wanted to do something, the best and most godly approach would probably be to do the exact opposite. Of course, the biggest lie that we like to tell ourselves is, “It’s not really problem.” Whatever we’re struggling with, we seek to deny it and suppress it until it manifests itself in reckless behavior. Rick noted that we like to tell ourselves, “Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s fine. My life is great. My job is great. Our sex life is great.” It’s only when we acknowledge problems that we can defeat them, but we lie to ourselves far too often and far too easily. 1 John 1:8 reads, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Rick asked us a question pointblank and allowed it to hang in the air for a bit: “What are you pretending isn’t a problem in your life?” Rick asked us to remember two critical points:
a- “Behind every self-defeating act is a lie that I have believed.” Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that we excel in lying to ourselves, and the heart is naturally deceitful and tries to rationalize our actions. We must acknowledge this and push back against it.
b- “To stop defeating myself, I must stop deceiving myself.” What are you justifying in your life? What must you admit? Rick commented, “Yep, the Bible tells us that the truth will set you free . . . but first it will make you miserable.”
(3) Declare my struggle to another
Rick cited James 5:16, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen.” Rick had the congregation repeat the verse together and implored us to commit it to memory. Rick added his own spin on the verse: “Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.” (Sayings like that make me roll my eyes, but at least they seem to stick with you.) Rick also referenced Galatians 5:16: “Live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t do what your sinful nature craves.” Rick explained that he would talk more about this concept of life in the Holy Spirit next week when the text would be from Romans 8. The word “spirit” never appears in Romans 7 though, and it would seem that Romans 7 is a chapter of personal defeat that must precede the victory of Romans 8. The Spirit does what we cannot. It fulfills us and sustains us and motivates us in a way that our own willpower cannot, and learning to rely on the Spirit rather than on ourselves is one of the first great lessons that new Christians must learn.
Rick closed with a prayer in which he asked us what the problems in our lives are. “The problem with having skeletons in your closet is that they don’t often stay there.” He used the great image of human beings as “walking civil wars” and explained that we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy since we all still fall into the traps laid out by the world and the devil and ourselves. Rick asked us to appeal to Christ today since we are in such need of His Spirit. Turning his attention upward, he asked God to help us through the battle plan and reminded us that we cannot do it alone. Rick gave his amen and encouraged us to ask Christ into our lives that He might save, change, and empower us, and Rick explained that we could fill out the response and request cards in the seats if we wanted to start a personal conversation-- Rick tries to read all of these cards himself.
The band and choir returned to the stage, and a female soloist sang to the smooth jazz offertory as wicker baskets made their way around the room.
I will bless the Lord forever
I will trust Him at all times
He has delivered me from all fear
He has set my feet upon a rock
I will not be moved
And I’ll say of the Lord
You are my shield, my strength
My portion, deliverer
My shelter, strong tower
My very present help in time of need
As the choir and the soloist sang, people began filtering out (perhaps to dodge the collection plate). Rick himself seemed to have snuck out a backdoor to make it to his speaking engagement, so I was unable to speak with him or try to grab a picture. Following the song, an older associate pastor thanked us for worshiping at Saddleback and mentioned that prayer and even baptism were available to all right outside if we desired them. He then encouraged us to shake 76 hands on our way out! No one attempted to shake mine. Sometimes even the most hospitable and accommodating megachurches can be pretty alienating if the people themselves aren’t interested in meeting you. The canned Christian contemporary music began playing again, and I made my way out of the worship center and headed to my next venue of choice: the Terrace Café.
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