Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
Do you want to change? I mean, do you want to
do life differently, but you just can't seem
to make it stick? Well, here's what you need
to know. There's a way to experience real and
lasting life change, and it isn't about trying
harder. It's about a completely new way of thinking.
Today, we're going to talk about how this process
can begin in your life. Stay with me. How do
you actually change lifelong patterns? Workaholism?
People -pleasing? Insecurity? For years, you've
tried harder and mustered willpower, but nothing
sticks. Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram
reveals why trying harder never works and what
actually does. He'll share his own battle with
these issues and the specific tools that brought
real transformation. From hearing and reading
God's Word to memorizing and meditating on Scripture,
you'll discover practical methods for renewing
your mind. Now let's join Chip Ingram for a very
important message titled, How to Get God's Best
for Your Life. 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 gonna
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. 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.
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. 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 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 or 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. Finally, with my wife,
I realized I was insensitive, and so I wrote
on this card, my desire is to love Teresa sacrificially
and in a way that makes sense to her each and
every day. And so I just kept reading that over,
and a weird thing happened. I started seeing
little times on this day and on Sunday night
and on this day where I could be more sacrificial.
Now, believe me, from glory to glory and with
plenty of relapses. But are you seeing how it
works? You're seeing how you refocus, your mind
gets renewed. Second thing is I want to tell
you it's a battle. Renewing your mind always
involves a battle. The spiritual life, the battle
for your soul primarily is happening between
your ears. The Apostle Paul would say in 2 Corinthians
10, 4 and 5, the weapons of our warfare, listen
to that language. He's in a battle for his soul.
The weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful
for the pulling down of strongholds and every
lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of
God. People pleasing, workaholism, having, possessing,
working like crazy, accumulating, impressing,
image management, addictions. The weapons of
our warfare. He's talking about the power of
the word of God. Community, fasting, prayer.
I mean, the world's powerful. There's a battle.
And it's for your soul. There's a reason why
the second most optimal time for couples or divorce
is about between 20 and 25 years. Because she
buys the lie that it's me and the kids and all
that I do for them. And he buys the lie that
someday, someway, if I can work, work, work,
do, do, do, do. And then they wake up 20, 25
years, they don't know each other. They've not
shared anything. And they both bought a lie.
And they used to teach a Sunday school class.
And they've been married 30 years. And their
kids now are young adults who grew up in that
home. And mom and dad divorced. And they're going,
what in the world? I guess this Jesus stuff isn't
true. That's reality, people. That's for some
of you, that's your experience. The third thing
you need to remember is that renewing your mind
is supernatural. It's a work of the Spirit. You
know, reviewing cards, reading the Bible, doing
this, doing that. I got news for you. The Spirit
of God has to take the Word of God and do something
in you. All of these things are about a heart
-love relationship with Him. Romans 8 says the
mind set on the flesh is death. The mind set
on the Spirit is life. And peace. And so in summary.
Let me just tell you. For me. For you. For every
believer. You are what you eat. Period. You are
what you eat physically. And you are what you
eat spiritually and intellectually. You tell
me how much time on your phone. How much time
in video games. How many movies you watch. And
the messages in those movies. Time. What are
you putting into your mind? Over against. How
much truth. How much of God's word? How much
renewing relationships? And you know what? Plug,
plug, plug, plug. It's pretty easy. I can tell
you. Your lifestyle. Because you are what you
eat. So my question is, what's your diet? Are
you getting God's best? Now, let me walk through
now and give you some very practical, specific
ways to renew your mind. Because it's one thing.
Those are the principles. That's the truth. Here's
some practical methods for renewing your mind.
To say no to the world, say yes to God. First,
hearing God's word. Romans 10, 17 says, faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
You have to, on a regular basis, you must hear
God's word. It births faith. One way to do that
is, this is a novel idea for some of you, come
to church regularly. I mean, I'm not down on
you. I just, first three years I was a Christian,
if I made it twice a month, I'm high -fiving
myself. Way to go, Chip. I never did that before.
Second is, use your time in the car wisely. Hear
God's word. My seminary training hasn't stopped.
Second, read God's word. Revelation 1 .3 says,
blessed is he who reads and those who hear the
words of the prophecy and heed the things which
are written in it, for the time is near. And
in your notes, if you don't know much about the
Bible and need some structure and a plan, first
15 years, at least, I was a Christian. I read
the Daily Walk Bible. And I just tell you, it
was just like, okay, here's the structure. Here's
what it means. Here's an overview, but you dig
in for yourself. Or go on the internet. There's
enough reading plans. Just log on on the App
Store Bible. Believe me. 2 Timothy 2 .15 says,
be diligent to present yourself approved to God
as a workman that need not be ashamed, handling
accurately the word of truth. And you'll notice,
I had this a little bit later, but this is a
little tool to help you study. And take this
really well. God wants the best for you. Some
of us have been so trained, we eat all processed
food. Can you imagine if you ate just only processed
food instead of the kind of organic, real good
stuff? Or the picture that comes to my mind is
some of that, you know some of that processed
cheese? And you take it out of that plastic and
you think, hmm, I don't know where this has been.
Well, it's a good start, right? But processed
spiritual food is like, there's a little book,
and it's a good little book, and it has two or
three verses, and then someone who studied a
lot, tells you a little inspiring story and tells
you a little something about those two or three
little verses and says, and now here's what you
might do. And you read for like, it takes almost
three minutes to read these little things. And
then you go, oh, Jesus, Jesus, help me, help
me really follow you. I have really renewed my
mind. Now I spent, you know, 40 minutes in the
Wall Street Journal. But now I've spent my four
or five minutes. What I know is what someone
else thinks of that passage. The little card
is how you can study God's word on your own.
I learned this from a missionary about 30 years
ago. I think it was Brazil. It's called the two
pro app method. And that's just an acronym. And
I'm not gonna go through it all other than just
to say, if you would choose a New Testament book,
the book of John, the book of Mark, one of the
small ones, and just read a paragraph or maybe
two. And the P, pray, God, please help me. The
second P, preview it, read it quickly just to
get a feel. It's all written on here. And then
the R is read it slowly. Then the O is read it
one more time and underline maybe words that
are alike or thoughts that you have. The A then
is that what application from this paragraph
is God showing me? Then realizing since I don't
have the power to do it, you pray again. God,
will you help me to, it says be generous in this
passage, so will you help me be generous in some
way specifically today? And then the T is tell
someone. It's just a very simple way to study.
Here's what I can tell you. Processed food is
helpful, and if you're just beginning, that's
fine. When you are tempted sexually, when you
want to break out of habit patterns, when there's
addictions, when there's a crisis in your marriage,
when you've got a kid who's going through a terrible
time and you're trying to cling on to God, you
have to have him speak directly from his word
to you because that's where convictions come
from. It's great that those people who wrote
those little devotionals, that's what they believe.
What do you believe? And what do you believe
under pressure? It's birthed in study. 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 .com. 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. The next is
memorization. Notice it says Psalm 119, 9 -11.
How can a young man, a young woman, keep your
way pure? By guarding it or keeping it according
to your word. Your word I've treasured or hid
in my heart. that I might not sin against thee.
I don't know if there's any greater return in
the Christian life than memorizing scripture
or one that's probably more neglected. I can
tell you a brief little story. I was, you know,
in a school, and I think I've shared it, where
there was like four girls to every guy. And I
started to grow. So now I've been a Christian
like three years. And so I'm reading the Bible,
you know, like three or four mornings a week.
I'm starting to go to church, which is really
radical for me. And I'm making progress in a
number of areas, but not in one in particular.
My roommate is going to go to this Christian
summer something where, you know, it's a parachurch
organization that they go there for training
and they get a job and share Christ and learn
all good stuff. And I didn't want any part of
that. But before he could go, he had to memorize
these 60 verses. It was called the topical memory
system put out by a group called the Navigators.
And I'm just, I've always been very competitive.
along with being insecure. And so he left the
room one day, and I just thought, because he
was going to memorize one or two verses a week,
and he had it planned out 30 weeks, and I just
thought, you chump. So my goal, secretly, he
leaves. I literally copied all the verses down
on these little cards. In fact, I still, these
little cards, I still have them. and I got these
60 verses down, and then I had an amazing gift.
I had a psychology professor that was about 99
years old who'd been tenured for like 40 years
because he couldn't get a job anywhere. And so
he would drone on and on, so I would put my psychology
book up an hour every day. I memorized one verse
the first day, so I decided 60 days I'm going
to be done, and I'm going to have them perfect
because here was the goal. I was going to say,
okay, hey, Bob, how's it going with that thing
that your training program is going to do? Why
don't you go ahead and start and list the verses.
And I'm just going to go bam, bam, bam, bam,
bam, 60 in a row, you know. Is that sick or what?
I mean, you know, memorizing God's word to impress
someone out of your ego and your pride. Well,
okay. To show that God can use anybody, even
in our nuttiness. It's day 21, and I mean, I'm
like getting into this. I can still remember
hearing my cleats when I was running the baseball
practice like this, you know, putting it in the
back. Day 21, I walk around the corner, and there's
a very beautiful young co -ed involved in the
ministry. And what men will tell you, if they're
honest, is that we struggled deeply with lusts,
and I was struggling very deeply. The external
things were changing, but my eyes were going
everywhere, and my mind was going all kind of
places. And when you lust for lust, A girl that's
not a Christian, you feel guilty. When you lust
for a very godly girl, you feel really guilty.
And so, oh, no, this is her. And so we turned
around the corner. We started to talk, and we
had a little conversation. We got done, and I
remember walking away. I got about four steps.
I didn't lust. I didn't know the correlation.
I had no idea. I didn't know about mind renewal.
I didn't know how to change. All I knew was following
Jesus is really hard, and a lot of it's not working
very well for me. Some things undeniably are
radically changing. But some other things, I
just feel I was stuck forever. Day 21, I'd memorized
21 verses, word perfect. And what I didn't understand
was the supernatural work. God had taken the
written word and made it the living word and
changed my want -tos and my attitudes. And I,
with my eyes, looked at a sister in Christ in
the eye. And a new relationship with women completely
changed my life. When I got to 60 verses, I was
like a drug. I couldn't stop. Then I started
memorizing chapters. And then I put my own topics
together. And for the next five years, probably
more than anything else, I memorized God's word.
And I will tell you, all I can tell you is how
I looked at the world was completely different.
Completely different. And there was a level of
peace and joy. I remember I'd have a question.
I'd be praying. And as I was praying, God would
bring a verse. Oh, that's the answer. I'd be
in a conversation and I wouldn't know what to
say or what's going on. And God would bring a
verse. And all of a sudden I realized we have
the mind of Christ. The Bible says it. We have
the mind of Christ. But most of us don't know
what his mind is. But it's in his word. The final
thing he says is that you meditate. See, this
isn't like you do all these little things and
become a little religious robot that drives other
people crazy. I mean, there's some people like
that. This isn't about how many verses or how...
And the word meditate here, it's the idea of
ruminating. It's a picture a cow has four stomachs.
It's a cow chews on some truth, swallows it,
regurgitates it. Swallows it, regurgitates it.
This is reading and God speaks you through a
verse and you write it on a card and you stick
it in your pocket and then as you're driving
to work, you try and see if you can remember
it or so you're at a light and you're at a doctor's
office and you just bring it up and something
happens. This book of the law shall not depart
out of your mouth, but you should meditate on
it day and night in order that what? So you can
obey it. For then you'll have, you'll be prosperous
and have good success. And so on the back, I
put a few tools that I think would be very helpful
to you. Can I just close with this? Why, why,
why, why do this? I mean, if you're listening,
you're thinking to yourself, you mean I'm gonna
limit my games and limit my movies and limit
this and limit that and limit that and limit
that and say no to some stuff that's just a part
of my life and start saying yes to God's word
and do some things probably some of you have
never ever done. Why would I do that? So that
you could get the best from God. So that you
could experience and taste what he wants normally
for every person. His good. His good means winsome,
beautiful, attractive, richly satisfying, well.
Well -pleasing. Well -pleasing to him and well
-pleasing to you. Perfect. There's a will that's
according to a specific design just for you that
when you fulfill it, you explode with joy, live
with peace. How does that happen? No, I won't
be conformed to this world. Yes, I'll be transformed
by the renewing of my mind. So that. Would you
like that? As I close, here's two questions because
you could feel overwhelmed. I don't want that.
What? one thing do you sense God is saying you
need to say no to? What's going into your mind
or what relationship or what's one thing that
woos your heart away from God? And just say,
first step, no. And what one thing of all the,
you know, hearing, reading, studying, memorizing,
meditating, because we're all in different places,
what one thing do you sense God would want you
to take a baby step? and begin to renew your
mind. Lord, I pray that you'd show every single
person right now what they need to say no to
that is drawing their heart away from your deep,
abiding, amazing love. And Lord, what you want
them to say yes to in order to enjoy and experience
your grace, your goodness. Will you please do
that, Lord? And then will you birth faith in
people right now? Would you even give them the
idea of what one person could they share this
with and ask them in a couple days, will you
give me a call? Will you text me? And I'll tell
you how I'm doing. Oh God, what would happen
if hundreds and then thousands of people started
to experience your good, well -pleasing and perfect
will? That's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
If you want to revisit or share this lesson with
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our regular broadcasts on your podcast app. Well,
now here's Chip with some final thoughts. As
we wrap up today's program, I have three questions
for you. And I think you know what they are because
we've sort of addressed them already. But I want
to get out of you kind of in the back of your
mind thinking I was talking to someone else because
I'm actually talking to you. In fact, it's not
even me. It's God. And here's question number
one. What do you need to say no to? What person,
what relationship, what activity, what are you
viewing that you just need to say today, no?
I can't go there anymore. Second, what do you
need to say yes to? What needs to get into your
mind, your heart, your life that you're not getting
right now? And maybe it's not time in God's word,
or it's sort of a quick thing, or maybe it's
not time in a local church, or maybe it's not
time. actually memorizing a couple specific passages
that address the biggest struggle in your life.
Because it's when the Word of God gets in your
heart and life that the Spirit of God ignites
it with power to give you victory over some of
those things. So what do you need to say no to?
What do you need to say yes to? And here's the
third question. Who today are you going to text
or call or Facebook or email to say, will you
help me? I'm saying no to this and yes to something
else, but I can't do it alone. You ready? You
answer those and God will show up. Well, I'm
Dave Drewy signing off. Join us next time as
we continue this practical series on God's dream
for your life. That's coming up right here on
Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced
and sponsored by Living on the Edge.