Ryan Swanson: Hello and welcome again to the Satisfied program here on the Thee Generation podcast. My name is Ryan Swanson and today we’ll be diving into another segment of moral integrity with a look at our mind. Over the past few months we’ve been taking a close look at accountability and asking ourselves what are we doing wrong with accountability because most of us have tried it and it’s just not working. It’s not effective and we’ve decided that it’s far too subjective. And so we’ve come up with a system of accountability and the scale of one to 10 to make the questions more objective.

And this has been something that’s been very effective for myself and for many others. I’m also hearing from some of you how effective this has been. By the way, several of you reached out to me and asked for the frontline battle plan. I’ve sent that out to all who emailed me, I believe. If I missed you, then feel free to ask again.

But if that’s something you’re still looking for and would like, feel free to reach out to me, satisfied@theegeneration.org. Our last podcast specifically was focused on the scale that I mentioned of one to 10 in a podcast entitled No Tolerance. And I mentioned that I would get to, in this podcast, what a nine was on the scale. In other words, what the first step away from that 10, that total purity—what the first small compromise is away from that. What do you classify as a nine?

So I thought I could get all of this into one podcast, but I quickly realized in preparation that that is not going to be possible. So I will split that between at least two, it may be a few, but this one we will look at a couple of passages, three in particular actually, very briefly, that discuss what that first level of compromise is. First, turn over to Romans chapter eight and verse number six. It says, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”. For to be carnally minded, it doesn’t say it will become or it could become death or it could lead to, but it says to be carnally minded is, it’s equal to, it’s concurrent with death.

It’s like the action has already happened and the destruction has already begun. To be carnally minded—what begins in the mind is as good as done in your actions. So compare that with Proverbs 23:7: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”. What defines a man? His actions?

No, how he thinks in his heart. And then you have Psalm 66:18. David said—you know the verse—“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”. Now that word regard, I used to think that that meant if I hide. So in other words, if I have a hidden or secret sin in my life, then God’s not gonna hear me.

But I heard a message preached on that recently and actually a study done on that word regard. And the word actually has the implication of consider. So David’s saying, if I will even consider iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. What this means is that it’s not just lust that is a problem. We shouldn’t start working our way down the scale only when we actually begin to lust and have given in within a certain area.

It’s the consideration of lust, because if we begin to consider it—if we’re carnally minded—then it’s as good as done. So let’s put this into perspective and see what it looks like in real life. So let’s say a guy who struggles with pornography or has in the past and he’s fighting that now, but all of a sudden this guy finds himself at home alone and he realizes that there is a device that is not locked down in the house that he could access pornography on. Okay, so with just that understanding, he hasn’t lusted after it yet, but he is now faced with the possibility of falling. What inevitably happens is that he starts weighing the pros and cons.

This may or may not be a conscious thing that he would remember doing, but if you think about it, we really do this almost every time. The immediate draw toward it is the supposed benefit of falling into it. Though this might not be a conscious thing, you’re thinking, okay, this would feel really good. It would give me something to do right now. It would give some fulfillment It would really gratify me at this point.

I could really use that. I’m discouraged. I’m down. And those would be the positives, quote unquote. Obviously they’re not.

But to our flesh in that moment, those are the positives. Those things that are enticing us towards it. But then, in our best moment, what we try to do is to combat that with the negatives of falling to that temptation. So on the other side, we start listing things in our mind. We’re saying, no, I can’t do that because it will hurt my relationship with the Lord.

It will hurt my future marriage. It’s going to hurt my conscience and my relationship with my parents. So we start listing these pros and cons as to whether we are going to indulge in that temptation. Now let me ask you something: let’s say that took five to ten seconds. Regardless of whether you end up falling or not during those five seconds.

What are you doing? You’re considering the sin. You’re considering the temptation. You’re trying to decide if this is the thing that you’re going to do or not. To be carnally minded is death.

Why does it seem like no matter how many reasons you have that you should not do that temptation, in the moment that you’re considering it and trying to fight the pros and cons back and forth, why does it seem like those little enticements will almost always win the battle, even though it makes no logical sense at all? It’s because this is not a logical battle. You will and probably already have heard messages by well-meaning preachers who will tell you that the key to getting the victory in those moments is to think about all the destruction it’s doing. Think about the destruction to your future marriage. Think about the destruction to your body.

Think about how you’re taking advantage of those poor people who are being filmed in order to create those pornographic scenes. And you’re supposed to use all these things as tools to combat the temptation in the moment. But what you’re doing is you’re trying to use logic to combat an illogical battle. You will never win the battle of moral integrity with logic. Let’s just get that settled right now.

We’ve all tried it, but it will never work. This really explains another aspect of this addiction as well. I know most listening to this podcast are single, but bear with me for a moment and I think we’ll learn something about this. Many times a man who struggles with temptation in marriage has a real problem convincing his wife that he still loves her. And because he’s acting in a way that doesn’t display love—in fact, to her, the fact that he would go and find that fulfillment in anyone else is a clear, direct message of hate—how could he say that he loves her and yet act in a way that hates her?

She may say something to him, even trying to help: well, if you love me so much, can’t you just think about how much you love me in the moment you’re tempted? Won’t that combat the temptation? Well, let’s think about what we know. If that husband takes that advice, and the next time he’s tempted he begins to list off, no, I’m not going to do that because I love my wife; sure, it would be fulfilling, but she’s more fulfilling—if he tries to combat this back and forth for five seconds, he’s spending five seconds in a battle of consideration of the sin. And what boggles his mind and boggles his wife’s mind even more is that somehow even in that he will end up falling almost every time.

No matter how many reasons he has stacked up and ready to give to fight that temptation. Why? Because he’s trying to fight an illogical battle with logic. He’s already become carnally minded by considering it. As a man thinketh in his heart, he’s already accepted the thought and the possibility and the consideration.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. The Lord has already had to turn his face away from that husband in the moment of temptation. Why? Because he is considering iniquity. And in that consideration, he has chosen the direction that he’s headed and he has turned away the power of God to help him through that temptation.

So what’s a nine on the scale? A nine on the scale is when you consider, even for a second, when you consider the possibility and wonder about falling in a certain area. That would be a nine on this scale. That’s where we hold ourselves to. That is the first step of compromise towards falling in the moral arena.

So then what would a 10 look like as opposed to a nine when the temptation comes? It’s a great question. You remember back from, it was one of our first podcasts when we talked about the principle of turn and cleave. It was an excellent principle given in one of the books I was reading. That principle simply means that, in the moment of temptation, instead of considering it, accepting it, wondering about it, or thinking on it, we turn and cleave to Jesus.

Remember the illustration of somebody telling you, do not think of a purple elephant, and how impossible it is not to think of a purple elephant in that moment if you don’t have something else to think on. So we have to actively think on something—or Someone—else, and that’s Jesus. So in that moment that you’re tempted, instead of saying, oh no, what do I do? I’ve got this temptation, it’s gonna be crazy, it’s gonna be so hard. No, instead of getting all worked up, you know what we do?

We just turn and we cleave to Jesus. It looks like this, you’re driving down the road, there’s the jogger on the side of the road. What normally would be a wrestle, blood, sweat and tears, white knuckle on the steering wheel moment to try not to look at her. Instead, you know what we’re doing? We have a smile on our face.

You’re saying, Jesus, I don’t need that anymore. I don’t do that anymore. I thank you, Jesus, that that is not me. That’s not even a possibility. Not even gonna consider it.

Not going there. Now this is actually an interesting thought that maybe you haven’t thought of before, but what do you picture as the face of victory? In other words, someone who is in the midst of the battle and yet is obtaining victory and confident in that victory. What does that look like? And we often think that it’s a struggle, it’s grimacing, and he’s trying to utilize every ounce of strength in his body.

And you can just see that in the scowl and the grimace of the face as he works his way through to victory. But do you know what the face of victory has always been? It’s a smile. It’s resting. It’s in those moments that I’m tempted and I can just smile and say, Jesus, I’m with you.

I don’t need that anymore. I’ll take you instead. Do you know what happens? This is almost ironic, but it’s a beautiful thing. When we do that, when we instead turn to Jesus, as we talked about before, we take every temptation, use it as an opportunity.

We turn the temptation right on its head and we’re able to grow closer to Jesus every time. So a nine is when we consider, when we say, oh, I could do it, but I shouldn’t because of this and that. We go back and forth even just for a split second, but a ten looks like, no, that’s not me anymore. Not even going to consider it. Not even an option.

Jesus, you’re all I need. Is a man’s love for his wife a good reason to run from temptation? Absolutely it is. How about relationship with the Lord or your relationship with your parents? Those are great motivations.

However, let them be motivations to run to Jesus, not to run from something else, because you’ll be thinking about what you’re running from the whole time you’re focusing on it. You try to list out all the reasons why you shouldn’t think of a purple elephant and you’ll be thinking of a purple elephant the entire time. So instead, let your love for your wife or your parents or the Lord motivate you to run to something and not just from something. Turn and cleave to Jesus. Now that may seem like a fine nuance and if you have questions on that, feel free to email me about it.

But I hope that’s helpful and clear enough for you to understand what the difference will be. If you will purposefully, when the next temptation comes, put a smile on your face and just talk to the Lord and say, Jesus, I’m not even gonna consider that. I’m with you and just rest. Just rest. I think you’ll notice the difference as well.

To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That peace is available with every single temptation if you will choose not to consider the temptation, but to be spiritually minded and to focus on Jesus instead. Now the next podcast is going to be entitled The Unconscious Brain. And this is going to be taken from a little different perspective. What we’re going to do in that podcast is describe why these things are true from the physiological side of our brain.

So why is it that when we consider it that we end up doing it so many times even though we don’t want to? Why is it that Paul says in Romans 7:19, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”? We’re going to dive into that dilemma. And I’ll tell you of even some studies that have been done at Ivy League schools and some books that have been written by secular psychotherapists that support the biblical principles that we just discussed. That’s all coming in next month’s podcast, The Unconscious Brain.

Again, if you have any questions, email me at satisfied@theegeneration.org. Otherwise, it’s been great speaking with you guys again. Remember this month: don’t consider the temptation, but rather turn and cleave to Jesus to be less gratified and more satisfied.