Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
Are you getting God's best? I mean, the God of
the universe who created all there is and loves
you wants the highest, the best for you in every
area of your life. Is that what you're experiencing?
Well, if not, stick around. Ever wonder why so
many Christians feel stuck? They genuinely love
Jesus, but their lives don't reflect it. Today
on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram exposes the
invisible battle happening in every believer's
mind. The world constantly pressures you to conform
through screens, relationships, and endless messages
about what makes you valuable. Meanwhile, God
invites transformation through renewing your
mind with His truth. This isn't about trying
harder or being a better person through willpower.
It's about allowing God's Word to reshape how
you think, which transforms how you live. Now
here's Chip Ingram with today's message, How
to Get God's Best for Your Life. Have you ever
wondered why there are so many decisions and
so few disciples? Here's what I mean by that.
What I know historically right now in the next
24 hours, tens of thousands of people all across
the world will make decisions to follow Christ.
They'll get it where you realize, I've sinned
before a holy God. Christ died in my place. He
rose from the dead. And you place your faith
in him and he takes you from the kingdom of darkness
to the kingdom of light. But I'm guessing that
we all have either a short or long list of friends.
And for many of us, I've certainly been there
myself where that's a reality. His spirit came
into your life. You begin to make some progress.
You started to grow. But then things kind of
got not so good. And the great majority, at least
statistically, of people that genuinely know
and love God, who are followers of Christ, their
life isn't quite matching up. I got an email
from a lady. It's a picture of this, and it's
interesting. She said, thank you for your message
this morning on Romans 12 .1. And then now listen
to her story and see how much you can identify
with. I came to Christ when I was 13, but I've
gone through a lot of hard times throughout my
college and my relationship with God has been
up and down ever since. Lately, I've been feeling
lethargic and distant from God. I woke up this
morning and I asked myself this question. If
I died today, would people say that I was a Christian,
that I was a messenger of God or? would they
even say or know that I followed God at all?
Well, I happened to turn on your program, and
as I, in my inner life, have struggled both with
alcoholism and immorality, I heard what it meant
to go all in. Bold letters. I decided to give
all myself to God and completely surrender to
Him. So thank you, and God bless. Sort of, there's
some really wonderful, neat parts. But isn't
it kind of sad that someone would come to a saving
knowledge at 13 and have the next plus or minus
20 years described by up and down, distant, lethargic,
looking for the satisfaction that only God can
give and for reasons maybe she didn't understand,
finds herself. relying on alcohol and then multiple
sexual relationships only to discover, oh, God
has a good plan. God wants to give me the best.
And for many people, they didn't know. It does
require a moment where you say to him, I'm going
to trust you. And here's what Romans 12 .1 said.
Therefore, I urge you, my brothers, in view of
God's mercy, remember 11 chapters of his love
for you, offer your body a living and holy sacrifice,
well -pleasing to God. This is your spiritual
service. In other words, that's what God really
wants. But here's the question. It's one thing
to give God what he really wants. Second question
is, how do you get the very best from God? And
it's interesting, that's verse two. He's going
to say, and do not be conformed any longer to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind that your life, in other words,
your lifestyle, what you actually experience
would be the good, well -pleasing, and perfect
will of God. So I'm going to ask you to open
your teaching handout. And what I want you to
do is know that we're going to ask and answer
the question that I think is one of the most
important for any Christian. How do you get the
very best from God? What you're going to see,
the structure of this passage, there's a negative
command. Stop literally allowing the world to
conform you to its mold. Then there's a positive
command. But be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. And then there's this purpose clause.
There's a reason. Why? So that you personally,
not someone out there, so you could experience
the good, well -pleasing, perfect will of God.
So you got your study out. Let me do a little
Bible study. It's a bit more technical than normal,
but I think it's worthwhile. The negative command
is do not be conformed to the pattern of this
world. And then in 1 John 2, 15 through 17, I've
put the text right in your notes. He will literally
define and explain what are the world's values
and how's it work. Follow along as I read. Do
not love the world or the things that are in
the world. If anyone loves the world, The love
of the Father is not in him. And now he's going
to define. So what's the world? For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is
not from the Father, but it's from the world.
And then notice this commentary. The world is
passing away in its lusts or passions. But the
one who does the will of God lives forever. And
so... In summary, the world system seeks to seduce
us from our love for Christ by pleasure, possessions,
and position. Here's what I want you to get.
There is a system that comes on almost every
commercial, every billboard, in every magazine,
where you work, that tells you that if you could...
possess that, if you get this position, if your
kids get in this school, if you can have these
things that security and significance and meaning
and happiness and purpose, it's all for you.
In fact, every time you walk out of the checkout
stand, it screams the world system. Because here
you are, you got your little groceries and you're
at the local grocery store and, you know, they
got all the magazines and this magazine number
one is either Cosmo or Men's Health. And if you're
a guy, you look more at Cosmo than you do Men's
Health. And all the girls, literally, they're
all the same from the neck down when you look
at the cover of Cosmo. Some of you will get that
a little bit later. And it just says sex, man,
if you have that. Or part of this, look at men's
health and say, man, if I had abs, if I had abs
like that, man, the women would love me. And
so sex, power, position, and then we create worlds
so that our kids can get money. power, sex, and
position. So we work like crazy, don't see one
another, spend most of our time staring at screens,
have relationships that don't work, work hours
that are insane, be in the gym for long hours
to become and look like someone so someone will
love us. And all the while, the people that have
the most money, with the sexiest bodies, with
the largest houses, who've won the lotto or are
the celebrities, when we look carefully at their
life, we see the highest percentage of depression,
divorce, suicide, and emptiness. It's like this
crazy picture of everyone following the great
rainbow for the pot of gold with possessions
and power and position. And those that have it
would come out and say, it's empty. It's empty.
And I can tell you, whether it's in South Africa
or Korea or Hong Kong or Indonesia or the Silicon
Valley or Nebraska, the great majority of Christians
are not experiencing God's best. And they're
not experiencing God's best because their heart
has been seduced away from their Savior and we've
bought the lies that these things will fulfill
and they don't. And God brought you into this
room on this day to say to you, I want to give
you the best. So negative, stop allowing yourself
to be molded by the world. So get aware. But
that's not enough. Turn the page. Second, he's
going to say, start allowing yourself to be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Notice the positive
command. He says, don't allow the world, the
externals to squeeze you and their values into
this false belief and system of lies that lead
to death, but allow yourself by the transformation
of your mind to be changed from the inside out.
It's the spirit of God taking the word of God,
renewing your mind in the context of community
of real life relationships where the very personality.
of Jesus and his character where you're loving
and kind and peaceful and gentle and generous
and other -centered and have self -discipline.
And the fruit of the Spirit, which is really
the life of Christ, progressively becomes more
how you think and how you act. It's not trying
hard to be like Jesus. It's allowing the Jesus
living in you by the Holy Spirit to transform
you from the inside out. You're listening to
Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We're halfway
through today's message, so don't go anywhere
just yet. Today's insightful lesson comes from
our series called God's Dream for Your Life.
Want to dig deeper into these truths? Well, the
full series is ready for you online at livingontheedge
.org. You'll discover extra teaching content,
downloadable materials, and discussion guides
to take you further. Find it all at livingontheedge
.org. Well, now let's rejoin Chip with today's
message. And so the application is really, I
put it in the form of a question. Are you shaped
more by the world or by the word? The world is
saying, get, get, get, accumulate, accumulate,
impress, impress, impress. The word is saying,
give, give, give, be authentic, love, care. The
world is saying, it's how you look. The word
is saying it's who you are. The word comes to
you in the beauty of nature, primarily the Bible,
the word of God, and out of the relationships
of other believers where Jesus lives inside of
them. All those things wooing you and drawing
you to allow Christ be formed in you. And the
world comes at you in smartphones, computer,
TV, Netflix, billboards. romance novels, relationships
where people kind of look at you and say, unless
you have this, unless you look like that, unless
you can do this, unless you can form that, you
don't really measure up. And you're in the battle
of your life. External forces like this saying
to you, conform, conform, conform. And an internal
supernatural power saying, be transformed, be
transformed. Is the input of God's word and God's
people and those things influencing your time,
your priorities, and your focus? Or is it more
the world? Can you imagine in heaven how God
must feel about that lady and about us of a 13
-year -old girl that comes to know Jesus and
his love and he's got this amazing plan for her.
But she hears that unless you sleep with your
boyfriend, you don't measure up. And so she does.
And she feels guilty because when the spirit
lives in you, there's this battle. And she did
it to be loved. And well, then she feels bad
about it. And so to get it sleep at night, she
starts drinking a little bit. And she wants to
be a part of things. So she hangs with the crowd.
And down deep inside of her soul, she has this
lack of peace. And then finally, she just realizes,
I've spent 20 years with the Spirit of God living
inside me. And I've never gotten God's best.
I wonder how many Christians sitting in this
room today are living right there today. Because,
boy, I'll tell you, I've been there. So, application.
And the goal of application is there's movement.
God is going to nudge you about taking some steps
to what? Saying no to the world and beginning
maybe some baby steps to say yes to him changing
you. Notice Jesus, when he was facing this, Go
over to Jesus with Satan, Matthew chapter four,
and he's being tempted. And you, three temptations,
how's he tempted? Lust of the flesh, lust of
the eyes, pride of life. How did he win? They
lost, he won. Why? It is written, it is written,
it is written. Each time, from memory, he reached
back into Deuteronomy and the lie came, bam!
He knocked it out with the truth. And so in Matthew
4, 4, it says, he answered Satan and said, it
is written, man should not live by bread alone,
but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of God. You cannot experience God's best for
your life without making this truth a part of
your experience on a very regular basis. You
don't have the power. I don't have the power.
You must take the raw material of God's written
word and get it into your mind and share it with
other people so the Spirit of God can take the
written word and make it the living word and
change you and change your desires in ways that
you can understand. It's supernatural. In fact,
the Apostle Paul would say, it's not only supernatural,
but it's a process. There's not like you can
just turn a switch and now I'm like Jesus, you
know? What's he saying? 2 Corinthians 3 .18,
I put the passage there. But we all, speaking
of the difference between the old covenant and
the new covenant, between, you know, the law
when it was given in Sinai and now with the Spirit
living in us, but we all with unveiled faces
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.
Notice the tense of this verb. Our being transformed.
How? From glory to glory, just as from the Lord,
the Spirit. He's saying, Moses, When he was up
on the mountain with God, see, you become like
whoever you hang out with. And after 40 days
hanging out with God, he just glowed. He just
radiated with the glory of God. And so when he
came down, people couldn't take it, so he put
a veil over his face so he could talk to them.
And then in his hypocrisy, when it started to
fade, he kept the veil on because he wanted people
to think he still had it. None of us ever do
that, of course. We don't do any image management
or any of those sort of things, but Moses did.
And Paul says, you know, we, with an unveiled
face, beholdings in a mirror, it's not direct,
but we get these reflections and snapshots and
moments where Jesus reveals himself and a passage
comes out of the word and you're in a Bible study
and someone speaks a word or accepts you in a
way that you've never been accepted and you are
vulnerable or you're supported or someone in
love. actually rebukes you and calls you on the
carpet for something that in your heart you've
known and you realize that open rebuke is better
than love concealed and you find a safe place
and God changes you. But it's from glory to glory.
That's like four steps forward, two steps backward.
We're all in process. And notice, who brings
about the change? From the Lord, the Spirit.
And so here's the key, what I want you to get.
Review, stop allowing the world to conform you.
Start being transformed. Here's what I want to
camp on. How? What's your part? We said we can't
change ourselves. Allow yourself to be transformed.
How? Here's our part. The renewing of our mind.
Mind renewal, I think, has three key components.
The first component of mind renewal is renewing
your mind as a continual refocus of the Romans
12 .1 perspective. Colossians 3 says, set your
mind on the things that are above, not on the
things that are on earth. It's a worldview, it's
a mindset that has eternity in mind, that has
Christ in mind, about what matters in mind. See,
when you come to that moment where you say, God,
I'm all in, I will do whatever, it's authentic,
it's real, it's sincere. You make great decisions
in that moment. But then there's Monday morning,
right? And that was two football games and an
argument with your roommate or your wife or with
your husband and a kid who treated you dirty
and a boss who wasn't very nice ago. And a different
person shows up after that, right? And so you
renew your mind to keep that focus, and all of
us have different issues that we face that keep
us conformed to the world. Let me give you an
example. As I grew up in my home, my family of
origin, I have one, you have one, the enemy uses
the world in some ways in my life different than
yours. I mean, there's people that can walk into
a bar, love friends, have no problem, never think
about this, this, that. I mean, my dad was an
alcoholic. Alcohol shaped our home. There's some
people that you're not performance -oriented
at all. Man, you are just balanced and laid back,
and you go to work, you shut it off, no problem.
You're not a people pleaser. You know, you're
just so healthy, relationally and emotionally,
and I envy you. And so I realized that I was
a workaholic, that I was insecure, that I was
always trying to please people. And then after
I got married, that I was very insensitive to
my wife. Other than that, as a Christian, I was
really doing well. Now, I'm dead serious. I mean,
I didn't have a porn addiction. I wasn't putting
cocaine up my nose. Okay, but I'm saying those
were real. And when I started reading the Bible
some and I wanted to follow Jesus and I kept
trying hard. I tried hard not to be a workaholic.
I tried not to be insecure. I tried to be more
sensitive to my wife. On my best days, and I'm
pretty disciplined, willpower, I could only keep
that up for about two weeks because I didn't
understand. Transformation isn't about just trying
hard. It's renewing your mind. And so I wrote
down on some cards the truth. And now I prayed,
I asked God, does it mean there's not self? Of
course I had to make effort. But for example,
I thought, am I gonna be insecure my whole life
or am I gonna get my mind renewed? And so I wrote
down this on a card. I read it in the morning,
the night, put it in my pocket, read it multiple
times a day. I'd like to be more authentic in
every aspect of my life. You know, I was trying
to please everyone and I am what I am by the
grace of God. And his grace didn't prove vain
toward me, but I labored more than all of them,
yet not me, but Christ in me. You know, when
you keep reading over, I'd like to be more authentic
in every relationship. You know what happens
that gets in your mind? You catch yourself when
you're posing. You catch yourself image managing
and God begins to birth where you say, you know,
I think I'm just gonna like who God made me.
Got a long way to go. Transformation. My people
pleasing. I mean, anybody here ever struggle
with like, everyone asks you to do this and you
either feel guilty if you don't and you're trying
to do everything and you're multitasking and
you're up early and you're back late and you
know, I wrote this on a card. I want to stop
caring what others think and apply myself and
my schedule to what will make me the best I can
be to honor God the most. I want to grow free
of the invisible expectations that I allow to
hinder my joy, my freedom, my schedule from pursuing
the best. These invisible, like I had this gun
to my head. Still struggle some. But if you live
your life to please people, it'll kill you. But
it's the world. So you refocus. My next one was
on my workaholism. I just thought working a lot,
performing, getting stuff done, I got approval.
And so that was how I did everything. I even
did the ministry like that. And so I wrote on
this card, I read it over. I want to learn. This
is almost sick to have to learn this. I want
to learn to take time and schedule in enjoyable,
fun, refreshing activities without feeling guilty
about them or caring what other people think.
What happened was I just found putting it in
my schedule. Pretty soon I didn't feel guilty
about having fun. It was like, wow, this must
be a part of God's plan. You're hearing Living
on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip will be back
with final thoughts in just a moment. Before
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Well, now here's Chip with some final thoughts.
As you listen to today's message, what went through
your mind? I mean, it's a no -yes proposition,
and to get God's best, what we talked about is
you have to say no to the influences of the world
system that is taking you out of receiving God's
best. We're going to talk about how do you actually
renew your mind to receive God's best. But today
is kind of like inventory day. I mean, what came
to your mind? What people, what practices, you
know, what's going into your mind, your heart
that you realize as I was talking? In fact, you
realized it because the Spirit of God did that
thing. You know how he does where he just sort
of pokes and you go, ooh, it sort of hurts, but
I know it's true. Where did he poke you? I mean,
what movie, what Netflix, what relationships,
what websites, what books? What magazines do
you just say? And some of them, they aren't even
wrong. They're just not helpful. They're not
healthy. They're distracting. Did God just whisper
to your spirit and say, you can keep doing that,
but you'll never get my best. You need to make
room for me so I can do in you and through you
what I long to do so you get the very, very best.
And so what I want you to do is just identify
that and then make a commitment. to be with me
at our next broadcast. And we're going to talk
about how to be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. I'm Dave Drewy, and we'll see you
next time here on Living on the Edge. Today's
program is produced and sponsored by Living on
the Edge.