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. 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.
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.
Now, that email is, 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 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. 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 the main verb is do not be conformed. It's
grammatically in what's called the passive voice.
And I'll be technical just for a minute. The
passive voice means in Greek, it means that the
subject is being acted upon. The active voice
would be the subject is doing something. The
subject is being acted upon. The imperative simply
means that it's a command, and the present tense
means the subject that is being acted upon, it's
happening continuously. And so what I did is
I took that and gave you sort of the Chip Ingram
translation from that grammar to just fill it
out a bit. Literally, the Apostle Paul is saying,
stop allowing yourselves to be molded by the
influence and pressures of this present world
system. It's really what he's saying. Now, by
the way, when he says world system or the values
of this world, he's not talking about the world,
the geographical world. He's talking about a
system of values, a mindset, a worldview that's
energized by the enemy of your soul whose goal
is to kill and to steal and destroy. to mess
your life up, to ruin your relationships, to
separate you from God, to make you be emotionally
depressed, to cause you to physically go in areas
that will ruin your life. I mean, the whole goal
of the world system is to destroy you. And so
the Apostle Paul says, stop allowing this system,
this set of values. that's antithetical to everything
God wants for your life, stop allowing it to
squeeze you into its mold. So grammatically,
he's telling us this is currently happening in
the church at Rome. And we know it's happening
right in our lives. I mean, imagine a little
boy or a little girl or a young woman or an older
man. You hear about Jesus the Messiah. You come
to Christ. You live in Rome. There's an emperor.
There's the gladiators. There's idols everywhere.
There's brothels everywhere. You can have any
kind of sex with any person, anytime, anywhere.
It's a violent culture. 80 % of the entire people
group are slaves that are treated as less than
human beings. Women don't even make it. They're
just a piece of property. Babies are killed because
of gender with no thought. He says, stop allowing
the values of this present world in Rome and
now today in America or wherever you are in the
world to squeeze you into its mold. Now, sometimes,
this is really exciting for me, sometimes there'll
be a phrase in Scripture and someplace else in
Scripture, it'll define it very clearly. So the
application is very clearly is that we are to
be separate from the world's values. If you wanna
understand how to give God what he wants the
most, we need to be surrendered to God. But when
you wanna understand how to get God's best, we
need to be separate from the world's values.
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 and its lusts or passions. But the
one who does the will of God lives forever. Now,
if you have a pen, I'd like you to pull it out.
And every time you see the word love, why don't
you circle it? He who loves the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father. Because
what I want you to understand is sometimes, at
least historically in the church, when people
have talked about the world system or the world's
values or worldliness, it somehow gets translated
into here's a list of things you can't do or
here's another list you can't do or it's all
these external things. I want you to understand
the values that he describes and the powers,
pull at your flesh and mine are far deeper. It's
about relationship. It's about where is your
love? Where are your affections? And he says
the world system has three components. You notice
I put it in bold. There's the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
The lust of the flesh is merely the passion to
feel. It's this desire we have for pleasure.
And that pleasure can come out in sex. It can
come out in food. And by the way, all these desires
are legitimate. But what the enemy wants to do
is create a world system to deliver legitimate
needs and illegitimate ways to destroy your life.
The lust of the eyes is the passion to have or
to possess. I gotta have that. The boastful pride
of life is the passion to be. It has to do with
position. I gotta be a somebody. And so... In
summary, the world system seeks to seduce us
from our love for Christ by pleasure, possessions,
and position. Some people put it this way. The
world is really about sex, salary, and status.
Or I heard an older missionary, this is like,
you know, I was in another country, and it said
young men, we were all young men playing basketball
in South America. And he says, guys, it's all
about girls, gold, and glory. And he said, those
are the things, you know, girls, you can flip
that around and figure it out. 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 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 the girls don't know whether I should
look at Cosmo and I'm supposed to look like that.
And I wonder how many surgeries that would require
or how many time in the work, in the workout
room. And so we're just told, I mean, we're just
told, your body, you gotta be attractive and
sexual and beautiful. And there's whole industries,
multi -billion dollar industries. I mean, all
you're trying to do is buy some groceries. And
it says, you don't look like this. You ought
to look like this. And some of us look at all
that and realize, you know, I may never get there.
And so then it's People Magazine. That's the
next one on the rack. And if I could be famous
like them. I mean, it's just like, how in the
world did we go from actors and scripts and drama
and thinking and entertainment to 80 % of everything
reality shows? Everyone wants their own reality
shows. We've got people who do illegal things
to create false stories to try and create their
own reality school. Why? If people knew me, fame,
glory, then I'd be a somebody. And as you kind
of get the yogurt and the bread and the milk
across and, you know, you've been to Cosmo and
Men's Health and now here you are and you're
thinking, my lands, you know, I don't, People
Magazine, those sure are pretty people. And if
you check the pictures and she's with so -and
-so, she used to be so -and -so, now she's with
so -and -so and she's pregnant. Oh, she's got
the baby bump and the names and faces change
and right? And as you get a little older, some
of you are going, oh, they forget that. Well,
there's Forbes and there's Fortune. If you had
that, man, right? And so money, 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, be transformed. Remember, I
think it's about ninth grade biology, metamorphosis,
right? Meta, the Greek word, with. Morph is to
change. Remember, and I know there's a very technical
word because people always correct me, but I
call them green caterpillars and I know it's
technically not a caterpillar, but you know the
little caterpillar that puts it in its cocoon
and then this beautiful butterfly comes out?
What do we call that process? Ninth grade biology.
Metamorphosis. It's change from the inside out.
This is what God's saying. 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.
Then notice the grammar. It's exactly the same.
It's in the passive voice. What's that mean?
It means, so in other words, God has to, you
can't change yourself, but it's a command. So
God says, there's a part that you have. that
you cooperate with me, but I'm the one who does
the changing. And then notice it's in the present
tense. So notice the translation here of this
command is, but allow God to completely change
your inward thinking and outward behavior, how?
By cooperating wholeheartedly moment by moment
with the Spirit's renewing process. It's supernatural.
It's not self -effort and trying hard. Here's
a model and a picture like Jesus. I'm gonna try
and be kind, try and be loving. No, no, it's
internal. It's supernatural. 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. 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? I think I know
the answer for most of us, but I thought, why
don't we, let's let this one just rest for a
second. Ready? So before we just go on, let me
just ask you, okay? Ready? If I just put a little
stick man on a line and an arrow this direction,
an arrow this direction, and on this side would
be the words influence in my life, truth, God's
word, God's people. You're the little stick man
or stick woman, and this is the world. Which
one is having the most influence? 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 world is saying
you don't measure up unless you have. The word
is saying you already measure up and your value
isn't how you care. 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. And I don't say this, this is not
like, oh, I want everyone to feel guilty for
like 30 seconds. I just want you to look at the
little stick man in your mind and say, 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? Now
nationwide, it's pretty obvious. About eight
to nine out of ten Christians, it's more this.
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 to 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. You
know, it's interesting. You think this isn't
new. If you take the lust of the flesh, lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, and if we
could take a video camera back to Genesis 3,
Adam and Eve, and you study the passage very
carefully, Adam and Eve, how are they tempted?
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of
life. Take the video camera out of time. Go over
to Jesus with Satan, Matthew chapter 4, and he's
being tempted. 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 say? In 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 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'm going
to learn to take time and schedule in enjoyable,
fun, refreshing activities without feeling guilty
about them or caring what other people think.
Anybody here feel like you should have more margin,
that you're not enjoying life enough, that it's
work, work, work, and yeah, you're gonna do that
later, but you're just so focused and so geared,
and you pick up your kids, and you're on your
phone, and everybody's kind of an interruption.
My final one, what I'm telling you, I just, I
kept reading this over. What happened was, I
just found putting it in my schedule. Pretty
soon, I didn't feel guilty about having fun.
Pretty soon I found out I had fun and enriching
relationships. And when I came to work, it didn't
take as much time. And 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 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
divorces 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. He feels middle -aged and like
he doesn't have it anymore. And what makes him
feel like he might have it is some young, good
-looking chick is interested. He's got some money,
can pay his way, try and make it happen. And
he does stuff either online or actual in the
office. And she starts realizing, you know, I
don't look the way I used to look and I don't
feel very attractive and she signs up and gets
a personal trainer and now she's gonna go at
it again and they don't have 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, 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's 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, methodically.
Then the O is read it one more time and underline
maybe words that are alike, the 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 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. 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 in a school,
and I think I've shared it, where there was like
four girls to every guy. And I've started to
grow. So now I've been a Christian like three
years. And so I'm reading the Bible 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. 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
was 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, so I can still remember
hearing my cleats when I was running to 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 struggle deeply with lust.
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 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. 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. Or 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 that 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 to 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 will.
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.
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wraps up today's episode. Don't miss the next
Bible teaching message coming up here on the
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