Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
When life comes apart, when a dream dies, when
relationships are broken, how do you put it back
together? Simply stated, you have to die. Let
me say that again. If you want real life, hope
that never fades, and a deep abiding peace, you
gotta die. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, stay
with me for the next 20 minutes. You'll discover
God's amazing... counterintuitive plan of life.
Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
I'm your host, Dave Drewy, and today we continue
a powerful series called God's Dream for Your
Life as we gear up for the Easter weekend. Using
Romans chapter 12 as the roadmap, Chip shows
us what authentic Christianity looks like, not
religious striving, but relational transformation.
You'll discover three missing ingredients in
most Christians' lives. Power, peace, and purpose.
Well, here's Chip to explain how to get it, keep
it, and give it away. Well, as most of you know,
Easter is kind of the high day, the pinnacle
of Christianity. It's a message that you've heard,
you've sung. It's about life, it's about hope,
and it's about peace. And if there's ever a time,
I don't know about in your personal life, but
in the world that we need life and hope and peace,
I would say it's about now. I mean, it's easy
to kind of get focused in on your world and my
world and my email and, you know, my little kind
of relationships, but the world is a messed up
place right now. I mean, we're living in pretty
historic days. I mean, did you ever, ever dream
that there would be a group of people, a small
group, a minority who would think that, you know,
they get an A from the God that they worship
by killing people they've never met? That's the
world that we're currently living in. And we
gotta get our heads out of the sand to realize
if there is a message that's real about life
and hope and peace, the world needs it now. But
it can't just be some religious little experience.
It's gotta make sense. The flip side of that
is sometimes you don't even have to watch CNN
or Fox or the network news to see what's happening
in the world. All you have to do is kind of look
in your own home. I don't know a lot of you very
well, but if you and I could go get a cup of
coffee somewhere and say, hey, you know, tell
me how you're really doing. And I promise not
to tell anyone. Just what's really, what are
the biggest hurts in your life in the last nine
to 12 months? I will guarantee you I would hear
about the divorce or separation you recently
went through, the baby that you lost, or someone
who found out that your wife or husband is having
an affair. I wonder how many people here you'd
say, well, honestly, I haven't told anybody,
but I have an addiction. And whether it's prescription
drugs or whether it's porn or cocaine, I mean,
I can just tell you, oh no, that's not it. It's
my aging parents. No, no, no, no, no. It's my,
I lost my job. They foreclosed on my home. Our
business went under. I mean, that's the world
that we're living in. And here's what I wanted
to do in our time together, because it's really
important. I want to talk today about how do
you really find life and hope and peace in a
world that's really messed up. There was a man
many years ago named Frank. And Frank had everything
that we would think would bring life and hope
and peace. He lived a carefree life. He inherited
a great amount of wealth. House would be nestled
up into the hills. He would have a couple luxury
cars. His kids had high SAT scores. I mean, his
life would just be amazingly wonderful by all
our standards. And he lived that high life, but
he found there was an emptiness about what really
brings life and what really gives purpose. And
so he did something crazy. he heard the words
and the teachings of an itinerant preacher that
had lived roughly 1 ,200 years before he was
born, a man named Jesus. And as he read the words,
he thought, this is so radical, but I've got
money, I've got wealth, I've got it all, and
I'm empty inside, so I'm going to take this person,
and he follows these words of Christ in a very
literal way and left everything. And he found
a small little band of people who would say,
will you leave everything with me? Why don't
we try this out as an experiment? Let's radically
love people. Let's not worry about material stuff.
Let's just go after it. And they did. That was
almost a thousand years ago. And his little group
is still going on. And they live by a motto.
It's a prayer that he wrote. I think his name
was Frank when he started off. Later, when he
got to be more famous, people started calling
him Francis. And his prayer and his motto of
how to live for life and hope and peace was,
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. And
where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where
there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt,
faith. Where there is despair, hope. And where
there is sadness, joy. Oh, divine master, grant
that I may not so much, listen to the counterintuitive,
grant that I may not so much seek, To be consoled
as to console. To be understood as to understand.
To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that
we receive. That's counterintuitive. It is in
pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in
dying that we are born to eternal life. The Franciscans
almost a thousand years later are doing what?
Helping the poor. Living out his prayer. You
may not agree with all they're doing, but I will
tell you what, they have experienced a life that's
impacted millions upon millions upon millions
of people in the things that money can't buy.
And as I read that, I thought to myself, where
did he get those crazy ideas? Now, I know he
got them from Jesus, but how does it really work?
Secular scholars say that the Apostle Paul was
probably the greatest mind of the first century.
He was from Tarsus. It was a nice town. He was
a Roman citizen, which was a big deal. He had
wealth. And his life wasn't making sense. And
he tried so hard, so hard, so hard, so hard to
be good. And then he encountered the living Christ.
And he realized that he had to die. He needed
to stop trying, stop working, stop attempting,
stop trying to prove, pose. And he met the living
Christ. And in the midst of a world, and here's
what you've got to understand. Sometimes we think
it's really, really bad now. You ought to study
church history. I majored in history in college.
You ought to study what Rome was like and what
it was like to grow up there. You ought to study
and look at the culture of what the Greeks taught.
And there was gods on every corner. And there
was an immorality that makes our triple X porn
look mild. The poor had unbelievable injustice.
Greed and power ruled. Women had nothing. And
in the midst of all that, this brilliant intellect
said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives inside of
me. And now this life that I live day by day
in this physical body, I live by faith in the
Son of God who gave himself for me. And what
he was saying was, listen to that word, I'm crucified
with Christ. He said, I had to die. I had to
die to my agenda, my selfishness, my greed, my
demands. I had to die. And Francis picked that
up and he put it in that prayer that he prayed
and that prayer that he lived. The gateway to
the deepest relationships, peace that won't go
away, and hope that you can have when you find
out someone you love has cancer or when you find
out someone you love has hooked up with someone
else. Death begins with a death, because when
there's no death, there can't be resurrection.
In one sentence, the Apostle Paul, it's out of
his letter to the Galatians, chapter 2, verse
20, says this is how it works. Now, here's what
I want to do. I want to step back and ask, how
does that really play out? And so, we're going
to ask four very basic questions. Question number
one, well, how did we get here? How did the world
get this messed up? There's chaos out there and
there's chaos in here. And what I want to tell
you is the world, this world that we live in
now is not the world God created. The world that
God created, the eternal creator of all that
it is, who spoke the world into existence, created
an absolutely perfect world. And he created human
beings that he placed in a perfect world. You're
listening to Living on the Edge, and today's
teaching from Chip Ingram continues in just a
minute. His message is available anytime at livingontheedge
.org. Listen again, share it with a friend, or
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life every day. It's all waiting for you at livingontheedge
.org. Well, now let's get back to today's message.
There was God and the human beings that he made
in perfect fellowship. But God, in this perfect
world that he made, wanted to have a very real
relationship with us. And there's a price for
freedom. See, you can make robots and have them
bow down to you or say words to you, but robots
don't have the freedom to say yes or no. They're
programmed. God wanted people that would have
a real, authentic relationship with him because
they had to be able to do what free moral agents
can, say yes to him or say no to him. And so
what we find is the great price of freedom was
that we, mankind, said, God, I don't want you.
I'm going to do my own thing. I think I know
what's best for me. And there was devastating
consequences. The theologians call it the fall
or when sin entered the world. And the impact
was it separated us from God. It separates us
from each other and it separates us even from
ourselves. And the scripture says that even the
globe, the actual earth, the fall impacted. That's
how we got here. And so there was a need. There's
a tremendous need. If God cares, what are you
going to do about this? See, if God made the
world the way as it is, he's not a very good
God. He's not a good God. He's not a kind God.
He's a cruel God. But the world that you live
in is messed up. God didn't mess it up. We did.
But he cares. And so the question number two
is where is God in the chaos? Not just in the
suffering that's happening in places around the
world, but where is God in your chaos? In the
relationship that isn't going well and the anger
and the bitterness and the people that have talked
about you and all the junk. Where is God in the
chaos? Here's the message of Easter. Get this
down. Easter is about a divine intervention.
Anybody here know what an intervention is? Anybody
had a friend or a relative? I have. It's either
a crack addict, a sex addict, an alcoholic, a
prescription drugger, cocaine addict. Well, I
have. I've been involved in intervention when
my mother did it with my dad, with us kids. You
know what interventions are? Interventions are
people are living in destructive ways that are
killing them and ruining everything and everyone
around them. And we watch the devastation, we
watch the pain. And then someone gets the courage
to say, I'm not playing in the system any longer.
And you get all the friends and you get all the
family and usually find a pro who's done this
before because you need to know what you're doing.
And you all create this place and then usually
have to trick them to get them there. And he
walks in and he goes, oh, what's going on? And
they say, we love you and you have a big problem.
We care so much. We refuse to play the game.
We're intervening now. And we want you to know
there's hope and there's a path that you can
take, but we won't support this any longer. And
I'll never forget the day my mom did that with
our family after my dad was an alcoholic for
about 25 years. And she said, you can have this
bottle or you can have me and the kids, but you
can't have both. And you got 24 hours to figure
it out. 24 hours later, He said, I'd choose you
all. Now, I wish he would have got some counseling
and got some help, but I'll tell you what, radical
change in his life. He came to Christ after that.
But you know what Easter is? God looking down
from heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, of seeing all people of all times simultaneously
in all of our needs and seeing the chaos and
the destruction, both personally and globally.
And the Son saying, I'll go. Let's do an intervention.
Let's help them see that they are messed up and
they are selfish and they need to die and receive
life so they can be resurrected. And so Jesus
came and he did the intervention to rescue us.
His life mission, he said, was I came to seek
and to save those which were lost. And so the
first thing he offered was life because we're
on death patterns. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whoever,
underline the word, believe in him. should not
perish but have everlasting life. Circle the
word have. Have, present tense, the moment you
believe. And then the very next verse was probably
as life -changing for me as the first one. For
God did not send his son into the world to judge
the world, but he sent his son to save us. God's
not down on you. God's not down on me. He's not
this angry God whose arms are crossed with a
big club who has a lot of rules and just waiting
for you to mess up to bang over your head or
knock you on the knuckles. His invitation is
not get religious, get more moral, try harder,
pull up your bootstraps. That's not it. It's
an intervention where you say how you're living
your life doesn't work. It's bringing death to
you and death to others. I want to give you life.
There's a gift. And what we're going to learn
is he went to the cross and he died on the cross
for you. He intervened and said, what you can't
do for yourself, I'm going to do. And he literally
paid. That's what the word redemption means.
He paid for your sin and paid for mine. And then
he rose from the grave and says, look, free gift.
But he says, not just life, I'm going to give
you hope. The very last night, he looked into
his disciples' eyes, and he could see the fear
in their eyes. And they'd seen him feed the poor
and raise people from the dead, and they knew
he was the Messiah, but it was like, how is this
gonna work? Because you keep talking about you're
checking out. And he said, do not let your hearts
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling
places, and if it were not so, I would not have
told you. And then listen carefully. For I go
and prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and I will
receive you to myself that where I am, you may
be also. Do you get it? It's about relationship.
It's not about morality. When the relationship
is right, the morality always changes. But he
says, you need hope. You need hope when your
marriage is falling apart. You need hope when
you find out someone you love has cancer. You
need hope when your parents are totally messed
up. You need hope when your biggest dreams were
to get into that school and you didn't get in.
You need hope when you've based all your life
on that athletic career and then boom, it's ACL
and nobody wants you. You need hope when life
doesn't work. But guess what? There's going to
come a day and the research is in. 100 % of the
population at some point in time dies. It's true.
So you know when you need hope? You need hope
that there's someone who's personal and real
and who's the God of the universe who made you,
who is preparing a place and wants you with him.
Wants you with him because he loves you. And
then knowing that in a fallen world, you need
peace. I mean, you get anxious when you don't
have enough money. You get anxious when, you
know what, you used to have a house, you don't
have a house. You get anxious when you don't
have a job. You get anxious. And you know what
he says? Don't let your heart be troubled. And
then he goes on to say, look, I want to give
you peace. In the world, you will have tribulation,
but be courageous. I want you to know I've overcome
the world and the peace that I have. I'm in control.
Hey, it's awful at times. It's difficult at times.
I'm in control of the big tsunamis and the little
tsunamis. I'm sovereignly in control of all that
there is and I will take even all the evil and
all the people and all the bad stuff. And for
those who would turn from their sin and say,
I want a relationship with you, I will do an
intervention and we'll do life together. And
I want to love you. That's the message of Easter.
And the question you ought to be asking is, if
that's the message of Easter, what gives this
Jesus the right to make that outlandish offer?
Don't other religions have offers about peace
and life and hope? I mean, what makes you think
this one's real? Right? That was my question.
Jesus makes this offer based on four things.
First, his life. Sinless, revealing God's character.
If we... could have found, if his enemies could
have found one sin, the message of Jesus and
all of his claims go out the window. But instead,
Jesus said, look, here's the deal. I've come
to do an intervention, and you have death. Life,
you want to see what life looks like? See the
poor? I feed them. See the hungry? I feed them.
See the people that have lost? I raise them from
the dead. If you have seen me, you've seen the
Father. You want to know what God is like? You
see this prostitute? and the messed up life she's
had, and the four partners, go and sin no more.
You see this lady whose heart's broken, and this
guy that's just lost his daughter? I raise her
from the dead. You see people don't have purpose,
and these religious people and all their pious
stuff? I shoot it straight with them and say,
quit pretending. Quit posturing. Quit being a
hypocrite. His life. I mean, it marks A .D.,
B .C. All of life is around this single, solitary
life that's changed the world. You've been listening
to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll
hear more encouragement in just a moment. Chip
brought us face -to -face today with a truth
that's counterintuitive. but central to everything
the Christian life promises. The gateway to deep
relationships, to peace that holds when everything
falls apart, to hope that doesn't crumble under
the weight of real life, begins with a death.
As Paul wrote to the Galatians, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Francis understood
it, Paul lived it, and Chip laid it out plainly
today. When you stop striving, stop posturing,
stop trying to earn what can only be received,
that's when resurrection becomes possible. For
over 30 years, Living on the Edge has existed
to bring that message to people who need it.
Not religion, not performance, the real thing.
And it reaches them because of partners who believe
this mission matters. If you already give to
support this ministry, thank you. Every program,
every resource, every moment of teaching that
lands in someone's heart at just the right time
happens because you said yes. And if you've never
given before, today's a great day to start. To
donate right now, visit livingontheedge .org
or call us at 888 -333 -6003. You can also mail
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3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. And don't forget
to subscribe to the Living on the Edge podcast,
now featuring complete full -length teachings
from Chip Ingram. Subscribe to the Living on
the Edge podcast today. Well, now here's Chip.
As we wrap up today, first, I want to invite
you to join me for the rest of this message in
our next program. But just for today, I want
to ask you that question I ask in the teaching.
Where is God in your chaos? He's closer to you
than you could ever imagine, but he's a prayer
away. He's a leaning in away. He is a, I really
need your help, Lord, away. God wants to help
you. This is that time of year where it's so
easy, depending on your background, that, oh,
it's Easter, and we kind of go through the motions,
and you go to a service here or there, and, oh,
yeah, Jesus hung on the cross. He died. He rose
the third day, and there's five or six songs
you like. That's not what it's about. That's
the story. But it's about hope. It's about hope
for you. It's about hope in the things that you
struggle with, hope for your fears, your family,
the hope that you need to have because some people
that you love died in the last year. This is
a message where Jesus wants you to know it's
not lilies. It's not dressing up. It's me. It's
what he said to Martha. Martha, do you believe
I'm the resurrection and the life? He who believes
in me, though he dies, he will live. There's
hope for today and there's hope forever. And
he wants you to know, I want to give you peace.
He doesn't promise he's going to wave a little
wand and all your problems go away and everything's
going to be wonderful. But what he promises is
that I'll be with you. What he promised was,
I've prepared a place for you. What he promised
is that my spirit will dwell inside of you. If
you will turn from your sin, ask me to forgive
you and I will come into your life and I will
take you out of the kingdom of darkness and I
will place you in the kingdom of light and you
will become born from above or born again a child
of God. If you are already a child of God, then
just in your heart of hearts say, Lord, I need
you. And then get into his word. And if you're
not a child of God or don't know for sure how,
at this day, on this moment, cry out, Lord, I
need you. I fall short. I know I've done things
wrong, but I believe today you died in my place
on that cross. I believe today you rose from
the dead to prove it's true. And you promised,
if I believe in my heart and I confess with my
mouth, that you would save me, deliver me. Share
that with your Heavenly Father at this moment,
and He will forgive you, and He will give you
a spiritual birth right now in your life, and
His promise is eternal life beginning now, forever,
and ever. And if you have just prayed that with
me, make sure to contact us at Living on the
Edge. We have a resource that's helpful and is
free. And make sure you call or text the greatest
Christian you know and say, hey, I don't have
it all figured out, but I prayed to receive Christ
and I need help. And I know God will meet you.
Great to be with you today. To get in touch,
go to livingontheedge .org slash salvation. Well,
real change doesn't start with trying harder.
It starts with dying. I'm Dave Drewy, inviting
you to find out more about what that means and
why it's the best news you'll ever hear. Next
time on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
Today's program is produced and sponsored by
Living on the Edge.