Big Idea: Embracing healthy tensions leads to spiritual wisdom and fulfillment.

Intro: Scripture frequently presents us with tensions. It offers truths that seem to push and pull on one another. Tension is often a negative word, but tension isn’t always an indicator that something’s wrong. Power lines utilize tension to stay safely above us. The strings of a tuned instrument produce beautiful music. Tom Brady preached that pliability gave him the long and successful career he had. Similarly, the more God stretches us, the more he can use us, and the more we will delight in Him.

1. Embrace and examine healthy tensions.

• a. Do what God clearly commands.
• b. Don’t do what God clearly forbids.

• c. Use scriptural wisdom for everything else.

  1. Psalm 119:125

     I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies! —Psalm 119:125

  2. James 3:17

     But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. —James 3:17

Examining healthy tensions in light of

2. Pursue to be self-aware of your limitations and needs.

• a. I don’t know everything

  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” —James 4:6

• b. I am prone to self-interests and reductionism

  But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. —Hebrews 5:14

Healthy tensions help us

• c. I need wisdom and discernment to be loving

  And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, —Philippians 1:9

• d. I lack wisdom

  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. —James 1:5

Healthy tensions serve as a reminder of how much we

3. Take delight in Christ’s work of mystery and unknown.

• a. In Christ is wisdom and discernment

  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, —1 Corinthians 1:30

• b. In Christ, we are washed and no longer condemned

  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. —Romans 8:1
  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. —1 Corinthians 6:11

• c. God treats us as if we never sinned

  For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” —Hebrews 8:12
  as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. —Psalm 103:12

Healthy tensions can

Small Group Questions

1. What did God teach you through this passage and message? Share the work of God in your heart with the group.

2. What questions did this passage and sermon raise in your mind?

3. Share a situation where embracing a healthy tension led you to make changes in your thoughts or actions. What was the outcome?

4. What is a question in life that you struggle with or that doesn’t make sense to you? How could biblical healthy tensions bring wisdom and fulfillment in those questions?

5. Take time as a small group to pray over areas in your life where you need to better trust God and allow for healthy tensions.