This is the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, brought
to you by Living on the Edge. In this podcast,
you'll hear Chip's teaching unedited and from
beginning to end. Here's Chip Ingram with today's
message titled, Love Serves. We tend to think
about love as, you know, a romantic feeling or
an emotion, and I'm all for those. But the kind
of love we're talking about requires a choice.
And there's some things that work against us
being loving people. And they're not necessarily
bad, but they can distract us. And I'd like you
to think just right now, when was the first time,
just as back far as you can go, when you really
thought to yourself, I want to be great at something?
I mean, something clicked and you just said,
you know, I want to be a great musician or I
want to be great in ballet or I want to be a
great student. Or I remember I was... I think
11 or 12 years old, sixth grade going into seventh
grade. And I went to a sports banquet and this
coach was speaking and he kept talking about
this one five foot nine guard in a small school
that led the nation in scoring. And he talked
about his work ethic. And all I can tell you
is something got birthed inside. And I thought.
I want to be a great basketball player. And I
was so motivated because this guy's only 5 '9",
and as I went into seventh grade, I was 4 '11".
And I went out for the team, and the coach said,
why don't you go out for wrestling? We need someone
in the 85 -pound class weight. And basically,
you're too short, you'll never be a basketball
player anyway. Well, to my personality, that's
like, you know, pouring gasoline on the fire.
And I remember just going absolute kind of nutso
and starting, you know, I started doing a bunch
of drills. And I started this ladder in my mind
of first I'm going to make the team. Then I'll
get some playing time. And then after I'll be
a starter. And then I'll get prepared. And then
I'll be a starter in the high school at Gahanna
Lincoln Lion. And the whole town comes out. And
then I'll get a scholarship to college. And,
I mean, I had this just blazing in my mind. I
started playing seven, eight, nine hours a day.
No exaggeration. It just dominated my life. See,
here's what I want you to know. Open your notes.
The quest for greatness is universal. Everybody
wants to be great. Everyone wants to be successful,
esteemed, valued, admired, significant, known,
appreciated, accomplished, right? We want to
look our best, do our best. We want to achieve.
And by the way, I don't think that's wrong. I
think we want to be great because we're made
in the image of God. When you look at the galaxies,
they're great. When you look at the earth, it's
great. When you look at beauty, it's great. We're
the pinnacle of God's creation. But desiring
to be great is one thing, but then sort of in
our humanness, we start deciding, well, how are
we going to measure greatness? How do you know
if you're really great? And whether it's, you
know, like basketball, climbing the ladder of
success, business, music, relationships, Historically,
about five ways, I've put them on your notes,
we tend to say, this is what makes you great.
First is power. Who and how many people do you
control? And I, of course, mean control in the
best sense of the word. But it's that idea that
you have the final say, that you have either
formal or influence, that just you're a somebody.
The second way is possessions. Possessions provide
freedom. Buy what you want, go where you want
to, do what you want. And we just kind of tend
to think the people with the most possessions
are really great. In fact, sometimes we buy things
we don't even need so that other people understand
how great we are. Third is position. Our rank
kind of in the pecking order. You know, your
rights and your privileges. And, you know, they
say, okay, well, all the business class passengers,
well, the VIPs, you know, there's just this,
there's this pecking order. And, you know, you
start out as an intern and then you get a job
and then here and then here. And we all have
this little pattern of, you know, power, possessions,
position, and then prestige. How many people
look up to you? You know, that inner security
that these people admire me. I'm a somebody.
I have this many followers on Instagram. I have
this many likes on Facebook. I'm a star. I have
three million followers. I have a bazillion followers,
right? You're great because of what other people
think of you. And then finally, productivity.
What do you produce? How good is it and how much
of it? And no matter how much, it can be better
and it can be more. And new and innovative. See,
what productivity provides is a visible proof
of your greatness. It's games won, buildings
built, children raised, deals done, work accomplished,
companies developed, accolades and awards. Now,
just before you start feeling like... I'm gonna
give you the left -hand hook and smash you and
say, how terrible of you to measure your greatness
that way. I don't think any of those things,
any of those are bad. They're often perverted,
but if God would choose as you walk with him
to give you power, position, prestige, and you
saw it as a stewardship in order to honor him,
and use your position and your power and your
possessions and the people that look up to you
to fulfill the will of God, here's what I want.
I want you to get more position, more possessions,
more power and more prestige than anybody in
the world and love God with it. But the problem
is there's a way that we become great in God's
eyes and there's a way that we become great in
the world's eyes. And what we're talking about
is genuine love. And so notice, how do you obtain
greatness? I'm gonna suggest there's two pathways
and they're very distinct. Pathway number one
is ascending, right? You climb the ladder of
success. And no matter where you are, there's
one more rung. That's the world's mode. And you
can love God with all your heart and he can bless
and you can go up that ladder. You just have
to remember who got you there. I love the little
picture of the post. Have you seen this? There's
a fence post and there's a turtle on top of it.
And the byline is, I didn't get here on my own.
And you know, being great and having some of
all these things that if you can really recognize
you're that turtle on the fence post, more power
to you. But we live in a world where there's
a lot of pressure to ascend in the world's mode.
The second way we become great is by descending.
This is what we're going to see is that the Apostle
Paul is going to be speaking to a group of people.
And when you want to be great, you tend to compare.
And when you compare, you try and get better
than other people. And when you compare and want
to get better with other people, you kind of
put them down and put yourself up. And what we
learned last week is the me -set mindset, the
only way to really be great in God's eyes and
to have unity in relationships, you have to declare
war on selfishness and you have to attack image
management. Because a lot of all this greatness,
you know what? At the end of the day, it wasn't
about a scholarship. It wasn't about how many
points per game. It wasn't being a great basketball
player. It was about Chip's ego wanting to be
a somebody. It was about, I'm going to prove
I'm okay. Probably mostly to me and maybe more
to my dad. And Jesus is going to say true greatness
comes with humility. And the way as you descend
into greatness, we're gonna find that Jesus will
be the supreme ruler of all creation and the
creator and then he's gonna take on human flesh
and then he's gonna become a servant and then
he's gonna sacrifice his life and then he's actually
gonna die and then he's gonna have the death
on a cross of absolute humiliation and shame.
And because he descends into greatness, then
God will highly exalt him. Mark it down. God
blesses and rewards humility. And humility is
the pathway to deep abiding relationships. True
greatness is defined by do not think only on
your own things, but also on the things of others.
Does that sound familiar? Do nothing from selfishness
or pride or vain glory. But with humility of
mind, consider others more important than yourself.
Here's the acid test of greatness. Are you ready?
It's how well do you love? The greatest people
in the world are the people who love others the
best. I have a unique part of my job. I bury
a lot of people. Someone has to do it. And I've
never sat around a graveside or gone to a house
afterwards and had any group of people talk about,
wow, man, did that guy have a great house? Or
man, her jewelry was off the charts. Or did you
ever hear, what do they talk about? They talk
about relationship and they talk about, you know
what, whether she had a lot or had a little,
she was the kindest woman I ever knew. You know,
he was the man that stayed after work even though
he was busy when I was going through a big marital
problem. And every Tuesday night, he met with
me and talked with me and kind of privately shared
this new thing about faith I didn't know about.
And he was a vice president in the company. He
was someone that when my husband walked out on
me, He and his family had me over for Thanksgiving.
They met me at church. They made me feel loved.
At the end of the day, the greatest people on
earth, the greatest people you'll ever know will
not have anything to do with how famous they
are, how much money they have, how much power
they have, how many likes they have on Facebook.
It will be love. Now open your notes because
I want to walk with you through how God is going
to teach us to achieve true greatness. How do
you get there? How do you experience true greatness?
One word, you got it, don't you? Can you write
it down? Humility. By the way, humility is not
thinking too high of yourself. It's not thinking
too low of yourself. It's kind of self -forgetfulness.
It's not thinking of yourself at all. There's
a focus on God and there's a focus on others.
The most humble people in the world actually
don't think they're humble because they're not
focused on themselves. Humility is the channel,
underline the word channel, through which the
supernatural power of God's love flows to heal
our deepest hurts and restore our most important
relationships. Can you think of anything more
important? then your hurts are the hurts of someone
else. I mean, we all have dysfunctions. We all
have struggles. We've all been betrayed. We've
all hurt, right? But someone, humility is someone
who cared enough to get off of thinking about
themselves to invest in us and love us. And as
they did that, the spirit of God, his love came
through them and wholeness occurred so that what?
We could do the same. Humility is the channel
by which grace flows downhill into our hearts
and it restores us and it restores relationships.
Have you ever seen what happens in a group or
in a marriage or in a family when people forgive
one another? I mean, it's pride that keeps relationships
apart. And it's the other person, they should
apologize first. Do you know what happens in
a marriage or in a family or in a small group
or a business when there's someone that has genuine
humility and lets go of their rights and their
positions, their prestige and said, this relationship
matters more than. That's what Jesus did. And
he changed your world and my world and the whole
world. So I want to take you on a journey following
Jesus into greatness. And as we do, I have to
tell you that all of scripture is God inspired.
All of scripture is very important. But there
are some passages that I think rise up to the
pinnacle of the truth, the majesty. We're going
to go to a holy, holy place where what we will
see about the second person of the Trinity. It's
so mind -boggling, so counterintuitive. And for
those of you that have been Christians for a
long time, my prayer is that you would see this
with fresh eyes. We're going to talk about one...
Who is in the pinnacle of glory and myriads of
angels are worshiping him. And he sits on the
throne. God the Father. God the Holy Spirit.
He owns everything. He controls everything. He
has the utmost position. Colossians 1, he spoke
and the galaxies came into existence. By the
word of his power, he holds everything. And he
will take on human flesh. And then he'll become
a servant. And then he'll sacrifice his life.
And then he'll die. And then he'll actually die
on a cross, which was the most shameful, humiliating
way. A Roman citizen could never be crucified
because it was so lowly. And it will be out of
that humility that you and I and whosoever would
believe could have life. And what he's gonna
say is, here's the path. Paul's gonna say, there's
bickering between you all and there's persecution
and pressure without. You have to, are you ready?
You have to become humble so there's healing
and there's life. I'll walk through the model
rather briefly because then I wanna get to the
end and apply it for all of us. Notice, humility
flows from a specific mindset. Hear the command.
Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also
in Christ Jesus. Circle the word attitude, if
you will. Literally, it's let this mind be among
you. You know, I talk about reading the scriptures.
I talk about meditating. I talk about putting
good things in your mind. We are the product
of our thought life. This passage literally is
your mindset, how you think, how you view yourself,
how you view money and position and power and
prestige, how you think. Have this mindset in
you all that was in Jesus. And now he's going
to tell us what the mindset is. We achieve true
greatness. When we embrace, not just agree with,
when we embrace Christ's mindset toward power
and possessions. How did Jesus view power? I
mean, he had all the power. He was the ruler.
How did he view possessions? He owned everything.
Notice what the text says. Who, although he existed
in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God a thing to be grasped. Put a box around the
word form. And then put a line under, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.
Literally, that phrase is as something that must
not slip out of his hands. The word form here
is morphe. We get our English word morphed. The
meaning of the word is the inner essential quality
of a thing or a person. In other words, when
it says that... Although in the form of God,
we think a form of something exterior. He's going
to use a different word for exterior in a minute.
Form of God is the essential inner nature. In
other words, although he and the Father and the
Holy Spirit all have the same morphe, God, he
didn't regard his equality with God something
that he had to hang on to. In other words, he
was going to take his... he's gonna take his
rulership over positions and he's going to let
them go and start descending downwardly out of
his love for you and his love for me. Notice
next, we must become truly great when we embrace
Christ's mindset toward positions and prestige.
But he emptied himself. So instead of holding
on to this position, He emptied himself, taking
the form of a bond servant and being made in
the likeness of a man. Underline the word emptied.
Put a box around formed. It's the same word.
And then underline bond servant and a circle
around likeness of men. And if you're here thinking,
my gosh, I didn't even bring a pen. We'll bring
one next time. What I want you to see, I want
you, these words, the theology is so rich, it's
so mind -boggling. In other words, he was equal
with God. When it says he emptied himself for
Bible students, the word is kenosis. Literally,
it means he made himself nothing. What that means
is about two or three things. Number one, he
had pre -incarnate glory. If you would have met
the pre -incarnate Christ, the light emanating
from him, you'd be gone. And so he veils his
glory by putting on human flesh. Then he limits
the independent use of his attributes. See, sometimes
we think of Jesus like Superman. He had this
toga on, but when it got really hard, he just
ripped off the toga and there's a big, instead
of an S, there's a G. I am God. I'll overcome
this. He didn't do it that way. He limited the
independent use of his attributes. And he took
on a body, are you ready? Permanently. Have you
thought about that? Jesus is at the right hand
of the Father. He has a resurrected body. When
you see Jesus, you can see a bit later, those
of you that are followers of Christ, you want
to see the holes in his hands? You want to? I
mean, it's a sacrifice that's unbelievable. And
what he's doing is, he's saying, I was in the
form, the very essence of God. I make myself
nothing, never ceasing. In any way, relieving
himself of any deity, he's fully God, fully man.
And then notice what it says. Taking the form,
not just the acting, the form, the essential
nature, not just of a servant, but of a bondservant.
A bondservant in Jewish and in Roman culture
had no rights. You might have a number of servants
in the house. The bond servant is the guy that
picks up the doo -doo. He's the guy that empties
the trash. He's the guy that has zero rights,
no anything, anywhere, at any time. Could you
just pause for a moment? Could you imagine? I
mean, when you think of how we cling to our rights,
how come they didn't do that for me? Don't they
know who I am? Can you imagine? the creator of
the universe, taking the form of a bondservant.
And it says he's made in the likeness of a man.
The word likeness is our word schema. This is
the word that means just the outward fashion
of, the appearance of. And he was fully human,
except he wasn't like all other men. There's
no sin nature. Jesus, everything he did, he said,
follow me, model this. I can do nothing apart
from him. His entire life was I'm dependent on
the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit
to live this life so you can follow behind me
and you be dependent on the Father and the power
of the Holy Spirit. And he did that because he
loves you. He did that to rescue mankind. He
descended into greatness. You wanna have a mindset?
You wanna embrace the mindset with regard to
your position? Right? We all have one. We do.
And prestige, you know, like what makes me a
somebody. Let me give you three characteristics
of the mindset of a servant. You might jot these
down. And then think about how they might play
out in your home, in your driving, at work. Characteristic
number one, no job is too low. Why? Because you're
a servant. There's trash on the ground, pick
it up. Why? You're a servant. No recognition
is required. No one needs to know who you are.
No one needs to say, oh, wow, you're, no recognition.
You don't have to casually, like I certainly
do at times, tell people that you know so -and
-so or you work so -and -so. See, you don't have
to bring recognition to yourself. No job too
low, no recognition needed, no thanks required.
You know, when a servant would do his job, no
one said, oh, wow, thanks so much. It's he's
a servant. That's what he's supposed to do. Serve
all the rest of us. You see, it's a mindset.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be married
to someone who thought their job was to serve
their mate? Can you imagine a mom or dad who
thought that the whole goal of their life was
to serve their children in a way to help them
be responsible and to grow up? Can you imagine
what it'd be like to have a boss or a supervisor
who saw themselves not as the head and the requirement
and got mad when people didn't get their deliverables,
but I'm going to serve you and help you be successful.
And maybe the best way to serve some of you is
help you find another place. Because you struggle,
this isn't what you were intended for. But the
mindset isn't, you hack me off, get out of here.
I want to serve you. Well, those are the three
characteristics of a servant's mindset. Can you
take any more? Let me give you three characteristics
of what makes great servants. Number one, they
observe needs. See, real servants realize, I'm
not here for people to serve me. And so they
observe needs. If you've ever been to a very
good restaurant and the waiter or the waitress,
do you ask for water? They're there. You ask
for a second of this. I mean, they're watching
your table and they observe needs. When you stand
up and when you're here, do you just go and talk
to someone you know? Are you observing? I wonder
what the needs are. Wonder how things are going
here. I wonder if they need help in the children's
ministry. I wonder if they need help over here.
Who might need, servants have this mindset of,
there might be some needs I can fulfill. Second,
is they take initiative. You don't have to ask
them. They just take initiative. Oh, wow, there's
a need, I'll fill it. I'll take care of that.
I'll do that. And third, they don't draw attention
to themselves. Now, that's pretty different,
isn't it? That's what Jesus did. And he loved
deeply and better. And that's why he's the greatest
human being who ever lived because he was a human
being. Fully God, but a human being. That's how
he viewed position and prestige. Finally, we
become truly great when we embrace Christ's mindset
toward productivity. Ask yourself, what did he
really accomplish? Quite a bit, huh? Being found
in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross. Underline the word humbled
himself. Put a box around becoming obedient and
then circle death. and circle on a cross. Jesus
descended from the supreme creator and ruler
to taking on human flesh, to being a servant,
to making his life a sacrifice, to dying for
us, and then to die in the most humiliating way
known to mankind. Now, here's what you need to
get, especially those with a sensitive conscience,
which I really appreciate. The way to eliminate
your pride is not to focus on how arrogant you
are. It's not to walk out of here and go, you
know, I think of myself and I'm really into position.
And yes, I think my possessions make me a someone,
blah, blah, blah, blah. No, don't go there. When
you try and get rid of pride out the window,
it comes back in the door. If you get it out
the door, it'll come back into the attic. You
know how you can become a humble person? It's
really, really easy. Obey. You obey your way
to humility. Because humility isn't some feeling.
Humility is considering others more important
than yourself. So what do you do? You act on
the truth that these people are actually more
important than me. Therefore, my time will go
toward helping others. My money is going to go
toward helping others. And my talents will go
toward helping others. And more than some kind
of feeling, you do what Jesus did. He acted on
it. And by the way, just a little note. put a
little star. He didn't feel like it. Do you remember
the garden? Emotionally. Jesus didn't, you know,
love is giving another person what they need
the most when they deserve it the least at great
personal cost. Jesus was not in the garden going,
Father, from eternity past, we're going to save
him. This is great. Holy Spirit, I want to high
five you. I'm going to go to the cross. We're
going to do this. Oh, Father, oh, Father, if
there be any way, not my will but yours be done,
but if there's a plan B, a plan C, I don't want
to do this. I don't want to be separated from
you. I don't want the cost. I don't want the
pain. I don't want to do this nevertheless. Can
I tell you something? When you don't feel like
reading the Bible and read it, when you don't
feel like praying and pray, when you don't feel
like giving and give, when you give time and
you care, when you're tired and say, I don't
feel like it, I don't feel like it, I don't think
you're being a hypocrite. I think you're probably
more pleasing to God than almost any other time
in your life. It takes a lot more faith to obey
when you don't feel like doing it. You are living
in such a feel -oriented culture. I'm kind of
tired. I don't feel like reading. I'm kind of
tired. I don't know if I can make it to the small
group. I'm kind of tired. I'm so worn out. Blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. How did Jesus feel? He
was beat within an inch of his life. They crushed
thorns into his skull. Love serves. I choose
love. I choose to serve. And something supernatural
happens when that occurs. Humility grows by obedience.
If someone came to you and said, I've got a proposition
for you. I know everything that's going to happen
today. I know what the stock market's gonna be
at the end of the day. I know what's gonna happen
in your 11 o 'clock meeting. I know the email
that you're gonna get 215 that's gonna rock your
world. I know the news at four o 'clock and I
know what's gonna happen the moment you walk
in the door with your family. And I'd like to
maybe get 15, at least 30 minutes and have a
really good talk to prepare you so you can respond
in each one of those situations in exactly the
way that you ought to for the best results to
bring about the most good for you and them. Could
you spare 30 minutes to do that? Who wouldn't
do that, right? Isn't that the invitation of
Jesus to you? Isn't the invitation the creator
of the world died in your place, experienced
shame to give you a relationship? And just hear
my heart. I completely don't understand this.
I cannot fathom a child of God who loves God
that doesn't have time to meet with his creator.
Whose only goal is to express his love, to draw
you near, to renew your mind, to give you grace,
to go through what you're gonna go through. And
you say, you don't have time for him, but you
do Facebook. You don't have time for him, but
you live on your phone. You don't have time for
him, but you got lots of hobbies. You don't have
time for him, but your kid's on the traveling
team. You don't have time for him, but have I
made my point? Have you got it? I wanna really
ask you. If you walk out these doors and go,
I wanna be more humble, I intend to be more humble,
you will not be humble. You act your way into
humility. Obedience is the pathway to humility.
Humility is about considering others, people
more important than yourself. So let's do a quick
test and then we're gonna get to something very
exciting like the really wonderful side of the
rewards of humility. Here's the test. How other
-centered are you? Get out your device or devices
and just scroll through the last two or three
weeks and how many names and times on your devices
are about serving other people and how many are
about you. That'll tell you. Second is go home,
pull up your bank statement and a couple of your
credit cards. and look at where your money went
and ask yourself how much of the money entrusted
to you, because it's not yours and it's not mine,
went to expressing your love to God and to helping
other people and how of it went to you and to
service your debt. See, the reason Jesus talks
so much about money is because it's at the core.
It's the MRI. If you want to know where your
heart's at, it's not how you sing a song. It's
not how often you come to church. If you want
to know where your heart's at, you know, it's
like the old thing, just follow the money. And
so the reason he says and taught to him, look,
the first 10%, just so you know that I own it
and you don't, you write that check to me. But
if you live on a bit of a budget and you decide
how much is enough, then over and above that,
how much is enough, you begin to share and give
and love. And then what he says is I keep descending
into greatness. All these people's lives change
and people get loved and people come to Christ
and they experience the life of Christ. See,
my money tells me whether I'm humble or whether
I'm about me. And then I ask myself, what about
my talent? Where's my talent going? I mean, my
energy. Did you know in Christendom, 50 % of
all the people that go to Bible -believing churches
do not give anything of their time or their money.
And I would love to say our church is a big exception.
It's not. It's exactly that same place. And by
the way, if you look at our numbers, we don't
need your money. I mean, we could do a lot more.
But here, my challenge is, you want to be a servant,
then serve. Get your priorities in order. Get
your time in order. You can't do anything I'm
talking about unless God speaks to you and strengthens
you. Your priorities will never get right until
your finances get right. And if you think there's
any ulterior motive, give it somewhere else.
But maturity, joy, power. Love demands humility
that requires obedience. Now, just before you
think, oh my lands, I wanna tell you something
that makes all this worthwhile. Are you ready?
The next and last point is we experience the
reward of true greatness when we follow Christ's
example of servanthood. Now, remember I said
everyone wants to be great? Are you ready? Okay,
how great do you really wanna be? Okay? How great
do you really want to be? Because if you are
willing to take your position, your possessions,
your prestige, your power, and say, I'm a steward
of that, and I'm going to use that humbly as
God directs to serve and to love God and to love
others, here's the promise. Christ will exalt
you. He always exalts those who practice humility.
In fact, notice, here's the example from Jesus.
For this reason. What reason? This descending
into greatness, also God highly exalted him.
Literally, it's super exalted him. And he bestowed
on him the name which is above every name. Why?
So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will
bow. Where? Of those who are in heaven, of those
who are in earth, and those who are under earth.
And that every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ and put a box around Lord. The word is
Yahweh. He's referring back to Isaiah 45, 23,
where God Yahweh says, I am the one and every
knee will bow before me. If you want a passage,
God the Father is Lord, Jesus is Lord. And notice
the reason, for the glory of God. You know, Mother
Teresa didn't own a whole lot. And there's people
that have built huge, huge things. But we remember
Mother Teresa, why? She just loved people. And
she loved people that no one cared about. And
God exalted her. As you humble yourself, as we
as a church, like never before, humble ourselves
by being obedient, God will exalt you. What would
it be worth? What would it be worth to have a
deep, loving, connected family? Deep, loving,
connected friendships? Be the person that changes
the entire culture where you work or your neighborhood.
See, God gave Jesus the greatest position and
the greatest name. Now, here's the deal. We need
to apply this very specifically and I want to
do it very soberly. For those of you who are
here and you are a follower of Christ, you're
absolutely certain that you are in God's family.
You've trusted Christ. At a certain point in
time, you were convicted of your sin and your
lifestyle. You realized that you needed to be
forgiven and saved by a holy God. And you extended
the empty hands of faith and said, I turn from
my past life and I ask Jesus to come into my
life and forgive me for my sin. I believe you
died in my place and rose from the dead. If you're
one of those people, here's the question. your
knee is going to bow and you are gonna confess
him as Lord. My question is, is he Lord today?
If you have never said, I'm all in, and saying
whatever that means, my geography, my family,
my money, my dreams, I may be a little scared.
In fact, if you're not a little scared, you don't
know what I'm talking about. But I'm gonna trust
God and I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna publicly
declare. He is my Lord. He will call the shots
from this moment on. And if you've never done
that, I'll ask you to stand. And I will tell
you, you will experience power, some difficulty,
and some joy and reward that you've never experienced.
And you will find yourself having to get into
God's word because he'll begin using your life.
There's another group of you that you're here
and you're exploring and you wouldn't claim necessarily
to be a Christian or you're not really sure if
you are in the family or out of the family, you're
a good person, a moral person, you're visiting
a church, but if you died today, you are not
absolutely certain that you would spend eternity
with Christ. Every person is going to bow the
knee and you will profess Jesus is Lord. Option
A is that if you haven't done that, you bow the
knee and you humble your heart and you say, I
need you, God. Will you forgive me? I want to
turn from sin. I ask you to come into my life
and I want to follow you. Option B is you say,
well, no, I'm not ready to do that. Maybe later.
I don't want anyone telling me what to do. I'm
not sure about this God stuff. If that's good
for you guys, fine. I'm going to do my own thing.
The day will come when you will bow your knee
and instead of joy looking at your savior in
absolute dismay and distress, you'll go, oh,
I remember when I was in that church and I heard
God's voice and I may never hear it again like
this. I so wish I could go back, but you can't.
And he brought you into this room on this day
to forgive your sins and give you a new life.
God wants you to be great. He wants you to be
great. He just wants you to descend into greatness.
The acid test of greatness is love. This is about
being loving people. The road to greatness, have
you got this word down now? It's humility. The
road to greatness is considering others more
important than yourself. And finally, the opportunity
for greatness. It's serving. It's serving in
the church. It's serving at home. It's saying,
I'm a servant. No job is too low. I'm a servant.
I'm available. I'm a servant. I don't need recognition.
I want to be a part of the change agent. I'm
not someone who comes and sits and observes and
intellectually believes the things that everyone
intellectually believes. I'm a servant. God,
just show me where to plug in. This is Living
on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we're in our
series called Choosing Love. If you're ready
to turn today's challenge into lasting change,
Chip's newest book, I Choose Love, gives you
the practical roadmap you need. It doesn't just
tell you what to do. It shows you how to do it.
You'll learn to recognize the subtle ways pride
and selfishness sabotage your relationships.
You'll discover practical exercises to develop
genuine humility. And you'll see how choosing
agape love, the sacrificial, others -focused
love of God, transforms even your most difficult
relationships. I Choose Love addresses the real
issues we all face. The tendency to need the
last word, the subtle belief that our perspective
is the truth, the grandiosity that shows up in
small ways like chronic lateness. Chip gets brutally
honest about his own struggles, and he shows
you the path forward. If you're tired of broken
relationships and ready to experience love that
actually works, get your copy of I Choose Love
today. Visit livingontheedge .org. And friend,
this Bible teaching program is reaching you and
countless others because of the faithful giving
of listeners just like you. When you give to
Living on the Edge, you're multiplying this message
of transformative love around the world. Would
you join us? Visit livingontheedge .org to give,
or just call us at 888 -333 -6003. Well, that
wraps up today's episode. Don't miss the next
Bible teaching message coming up here on the
Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. Today's program is
produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.