I want you to think of someone right now that's
really, really discouraged that you care about.
What's the best thing you could give them? Would
it be money? Would it be a great vacation? Just
a little relief? I'm going to tell you there's
something far better and more important. Stay
with me. Welcome to this weekend edition of Living
on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of
this daily program is to intentionally disciple
Christians through the insightful Bible teaching
of Chip Ingram. In this past week, we continued
our study in the book of Philippians as we launched
our series, I Choose Hope. For the next handful
of days, we'll learn how to confidently face
any circumstance in life by holding tightly to
the hope only Christ can offer. Today, we're
highlighting the first program in this insightful
series. But before we get going, let me encourage
you to download our message notes to help you
get the most out of Chip's teaching. They contain
his outline, scripture references, and much more.
Get them by visiting the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge
.org, app listeners tab, fill in notes. Well,
if you have your Bible, go to Philippians chapter
3 as we join Chip for his message, Finding Hope.
A couple years ago, I had a chance to listen
to a speaker, and he is a very, very effective
leader. He's a guy that I've admired. I would
call him a friend. I don't know him real well,
but we've hung out a few times, and when I get
close to someone that I can tell is really real,
it's very exciting. And he was giving a message
and he said, there's actually something in our
day that you can measure, that you can actually
grow, that has a higher ability to predict the
future than either your IQ or even your EQ. He
said, there's something called an HQ that depending
on how full your HQ is, that will tell you a
lot more about the future of your marriage, your
future in school, your future with people, your
future in work. than even how smart you are or
your emotional intelligence. And I was leaning
forward like, I'd like to know what that is.
He says, HQ is your hope quotient. And then he
talked about a research project that had started
at the time seven years earlier, and it came
out of a conversation with his daughter who was
in school at the time and in a class on leadership.
In fact, I put the question that she asked him.
It was a homework assignment. And the homework
assignment was to find a leader and ask questions
so you could learn about leadership. So she thought,
my dad's a leader. I'll ask him. So they began
to talk for a couple hours. And he said her last
question was question number 20. And it was the
best one. She said, what's the single most important
thing you do as a leader? Now think of that.
The single most important. Is it strategy? Is
it planning? He happens to pastor one of the
largest churches in all of America. Is it prayer?
I mean, what is it? And he said, instinctively,
after all these years, I said, oh, that's easy.
I make sure I stay encouraged. And I remember
sitting there listening to him, because when
she asked that question, I wanted to know, what
is it? But that's not what I thought he would
say. And then I got to think about it, and he
went on to say, when I'm encouraged, I make good
decisions. When I'm encouraged and emotionally
whole, I relate to people well. But when I'm
discouraged, I make bad decisions. When I'm discouraged,
I tend to fall into temptation. When I'm discouraged,
I lose confidence. When I'm discouraged and live
in a discouraged manner, I start losing credibility
with the people around me. And then he went on
to say, he said, the greatest gift parents can
ever give their kids is hope. The greatest thing
you can give your marriage partner is hope. The
greatest thing you can give your employees or
your friends is hope. And I thought to myself,
I have never thought about it like that, but
it rings true. I found a quote by my mentor,
Howard Hendricks, speaking of the flip side of
hope. He says, discouragement, this is a great
line, is the anesthetic. that the devil uses
on a person just before he reaches in and carves
out their heart. That's graphic, isn't it? Well,
what is hope? I've done a lot of research, and
I could give you biblical words and dictionary
words, but as I put them all together, I think
the heart of hope is this. It's the mental and
emotional outlook that life is good, the future
is promising, Progress is certain even in the
midst of challenging circumstances or difficult
relationships. It's an emotional and intellectual
outlook. It's just you get up and there's something
about your emotions. There's something about
your thinking. And it's like life is good. Hey,
life is good. Of course, there's challenges.
But the future, the future is promising. The
future of my marriage is promising. The future
of my singleness is promising. My future at work
is promising. And progress is absolutely certain,
even in the midst of difficulty and challenges.
Why does it matter? People that think like that
the majority of the time have more satisfying
relationships. They're more productive. They're
affected less by stress. They're more successful,
more satisfied. They're more compassionate. They're
more willing to help people in need. Their physical
life, they're healthier. They hold a higher moral
and ethical standard. They're more likely to
assume leadership positions. And it's interesting,
they're more likely to see God as loving, caring,
and forgiving. So let me ask you, just before
we get going here, if, you know, just think,
you know, your hope meter, let's make it just
a one up to a 10. If you had to give yourself
a number of hope right now, what do you got?
What's going on inside? Discouraged? Encouraged?
What's the source of your hope? Now, I know the
Sunday school answer, right? Jesus, right? Jesus
is the source. Okay, we got that. That's the
right answer. Now, let's get to the honest one.
If you honestly would say, what's your hope?
What are you hoping for? What do you... intuitively
or unconsciously believe if this would happen
or if that would happen, my life would be good.
The future would be positive. I know I'd make
progress. Maybe a different way to come at it
is look at the negative. What is it that when
it happens, discourages you and gets you down
quickly? So that'll probably tell you where a
lot of your hope rests. You know, the really
big question, I'm asking you to think about it.
I've done a lot of thinking about it. And just,
we're not going to have all the right hope all
the time. But here's the big question that we
want to ask and answer in this season, but in
this series, is how do you find and keep hope
alive? Because, you know, I don't have a lot
of control over my IQ. I can study. I don't have
much control over my EQ. You kind of can learn
some things, but I'm going to tell you, you have
100 % control of your HQ. You can raise your
hope. You can build your hope. You can fill your
hope. The Apostle Paul is writing to a church
that he loves, the Philippians. We need to get
a little context because we've taken a break.
He's in difficult circumstances in chapter one.
He thinks he may die at any moment. And so he
chooses joy. His C plus P equals E. His circumstances
plus his perspective equals experience. And he
has an upward focus and an outward focus. And
he says, God, I know you're in control. In chapter
two, there's disunity in relationships. And we
learned that you can choose love. You develop
a I am second mentality. It's about humility.
Pride kills relationships. Humility always causes
grace to flow. And so you follow the example
of Jesus and you consider others as more important.
You choose to love others in ways that are meaningful.
In chapter 3, he's concerned about them because
culturally there's chaos and confusion. Some
false teachers kept following Paul. Paul would
plant a church, Galatia, Ephesus, here in Philippi,
and there'd be a group called Judaizers. They
were new Christians, but they were Jewish Christians,
and they said Jesus is great and grace is important,
plus. You need to be circumcised. You need to
keep the law. Here's 17 rules you need to do.
And so they would follow Paul and then they would
teach their false doctrine and take loads of
guilt and put it on people. Now you've got to
keep all the Jewish laws. Well, no one's ever
been able to do that. It's been fulfilled. It's
not Jesus plus anything. And so he writes chapter
3 because the hope is getting shifted from a
grace -loving relationship that God says, you're
his son, you're his daughter, I'm for you because
of what I have done. And the hope is getting
shifted to, this is what you've got to do. And
in order to measure up, you need to do this and
this and this and this. You're listening to Living
on the Edge, and Chip will be back in just a
minute to finish today's talk. But quickly, this
program is supported by the generosity of listeners
like you. And right now, during our mid -year
match, it's a great time to partner with us.
Between now and June 30th, every gift we receive
will be doubled dollar for dollar. You can give
today by going to livingontheedge .org or by
calling 888 -333 -6003. Well, with that, here
again is Chip to continue his message. Open your
Bibles, if you will. Philippians chapter 3, he
gives him a command. Verse 1, he says, finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the
same things again is no trouble to me, and it's
a safeguard for you. He says, find your joy in
your relationship. He says, it's not a big deal
for me to remind you of this. But then remember
the end of chapter one, he said, you're experiencing
the same difficulty which you saw to be in me.
And he's just bringing their focus back. Yeah,
you got to love other people, but you got to
find your joy in your relationship with God because
everything and everyone else sometime sooner
or later is going to let you down. And then he
gives them a warning in verse two. He says, beware
of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware
of the false circumcision. These are these Judaizers.
He gives them three labels. He calls them dogs
because don't think of Ranger. That's my dog.
Ranger is a golden retriever. The biggest problem
we have with Ranger is he walks up to you and
he just licks you. He's the most loving dog in
the world. These are scavenger dogs. These are
dogs that are running the city. These are dogs
that snarl. These are the kind of dogs that people
were afraid of and carried disease. And he's
talking to them in this negative language. And
it was a slang term also that Jewish people would
use for Gentiles. And he says, they'll gobble
you. They're diseased. They'll mess you up. And
then he says, not only that, but they're evil
workers. They have a works mentality. And there's
a play on this where he's saying, they're works.
are going to take you down a bad path, and they're
a false circumcision. If you were a good Jewish
little boy, the sign of the covenant at eight
days is the foreskin was to be cut, and you're
going to be circumcised. And even after people
came to Christ, regardless of their age, the
Judaizers said, you need to do that. Keep the
law. Keep the Sabbath. Keep the dietary laws.
And Paul says, these people are going to take
you down a path that will rob your hope in your
relationship with Christ. And here's the reason.
He says, for we are the true circumcision. How?
We serve God by his spirit, we boast in Christ
Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh.
He gives three characteristics of the false teachers,
and he says, no, no, no, no, no. Hey, Philippians,
we're the true circumcision. Okay, it's of the
heart. Romans, you might jot down right above
that. Romans 2, verses 28 and 29. He says people
that are physically born of Abraham, just because
you're a physical Jew doesn't make you right
with God. He's going to say it's a circumcision
of the heart. It's a relationship that we have
with God through Christ. We're the true circumcision,
and here's the three characteristics. We worship
God by the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in
us, and we have relationship. Second, he says,
we boast in Christ. It's about a person. Anytime
religion takes you into the church, the leader,
you have to do these five things to be right.
If you ever do these two things, all that stuff,
he says, we boast in Christ and what he's done.
And third, notice what he says. We put no confidence
in the flesh. It's sarx is the word. It means
in what we do outside of what Christ has provided.
It's this idea that on bad days, all of us, right,
we've got this battle. We want to do what God
wants us to do, but we live in this flesh. And
it's a battle. It's those desires and habits,
time, form, that it's doing things out of our
own energy, out of our own effort, out of our
own motives. Now, notice then Paul is going to
shift gears here, and he's basically going to
say, let me prove this to you all. And then I
think there's three huge takeaways for us about
finding hope. Basically, he's going to say to
them, let me give you the sense of it. He's going
to say, these guys are saying you need to keep
all this stuff. Basically, he's going to say,
so if anyone wanted to go toe -to -toe on really
keeping the law, my argument is not going to
be that these guys do it and none of us can.
He goes, I'm going to tell you from my life,
I used to be in that group. In fact, I used to
be an all -star. I was the budding star. In fact,
Gamaliel was my teacher, and he was the most
famous teacher, and I was the rising star. And
he's going to sort of throw out his pedigree,
says, you know, kind of arguing like, I mean,
if anyone was going to get right with God in
that system, I was scoring 100 as far as you
could in that system. And then he's going to
contrast that and say, but all of that. He says,
I look at that, and he's going to use, in fact,
a little bit later, I'll have you circle the
word gain, loss, gain, loss, and the word consider,
because the word consider is an accounting term.
And he's going to actually look at his life in
Christ and his life before Christ and his life
with all of his good works, and he's going to
say in an accounting term, gain, gain, gain,
loss, loss, loss. Ready to follow along? Though
I myself have reasons for such confidence, if
someone thinks they have reasons to put confidence
in the flesh, I far more. Then he gives us seven
specific statements. Circumcised on the eighth
day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, with regard to
law, a Pharisee. That was the strictest sect.
As for zeal, I mean, someone was fired up, persecutor
of the church. As for righteousness, based on
the law, blameless or faultless. Paul's basically
saying, I was in the system. I was OCD spiritual
like you have never seen. I have all the pedigree.
I was born in the right place, born of the right
parents, born of a special tribe. My name even,
the first tribe came from Benjamin. He said,
I was circumcised on exactly the right day in
terms of religious or righteousness. I mean,
I fasted the two days a week like Pharisees.
I memorized probably all of the Torah and major
parts of the Old Testament. In terms of being
a religious person who fulfilled what you can
in your own effort and energy, I was the star
of Judaism. And as far as this whole, this sect,
this follower, this Jesus stuff, I tried to kill
him. And then notice the shift. True spirituality,
authentic relationship is going to be rooted
in the person of Christ. In the person of Jesus,
not religion. And then after this, notice what
he says. But, you might put a big underline because
this is the contrast. Whatever was to my gain,
circle that, or profit. I now consider loss for
the sake of Christ. Put a box around the word
consider. What's more, I consider, put a box
around consider, everything to be a loss because
it's surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whose sake I've lost all things
and consider them as garbage that I might gain
Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness
of my own that comes, But that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes
from God on the basis of faith. What he's going
to say is, like an accountant doing a forensic
audit, I've looked at all of the religion, and
I look at my relationship with Christ, and now
here's what it is. Here's the gains, the surpassing
value of knowing Christ. And the word for knowing
here is an intimate, deep, rich, personal relationship.
It's the opposite of knowing about God. We have,
I believe, millions of people in the church,
even an evangelical church, that know a lot about
God and have a very unconscious mindset of what
makes them right with God. I come to church very
regularly. I read my Bible some. I pray when
I can. I pray to prayer at one time. And what
they're really trusting in is what they're doing.
But if you ask them, do you have a rich, deep,
intimate relationship? Do you have a passion
in your heart to get to know? Do you enjoy Jesus?
Is there a sense of growth and intimacy? Some
of them don't even know what you're talking about.
This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
And you've been listening to part one of Chip's
message, Finding Hope, from our series, I Choose
Hope. Chip will be back shortly to share some
helpful application for us to think about. In
times of uncertainty, where do you turn for hope?
And how confident are you in your source of comfort
to provide the stability you desire? As Chip
teaches through Philippians chapter 3, he'll
share what God has to say about our fears about
the future and how feeling secure is possible,
even when anxiety comes. Learn how to embrace
a more resilient hope that will help you face
each day with certainty and peace. Well, Chip's
back in studio with me now. And Chip, according
to the studies by Barna and Pugh, hypocrisy is
the top reason unbelievers criticize or reject
Christianity. So take a minute if you wouldn't
explain why this is such a prevalent issue and
how believers can respond well to it. Well, Dave,
I get that. I almost miss the Lord Jesus because
I grew up in a church that Christians didn't
live like Christians. And there was hypocrisy
everywhere. And so I decided to opt out. And
I think that's where a lot of people are. And
I'm thankful that I found people who lived out
their faith. And so what we need to understand
is that following Jesus is a radical choice and
it's a radical way of living. And what we at
Living on the Edge want to do is help people
connect that weekend experience of I went to
church to how do you live out Monday? And that
time of maybe reading the Bible when you felt
spiritual to how do I treat my wife or my husband?
Or what's it look like to be a single person
in a sex -saturated world? People need help and
guidance to navigate dilemmas, cultural pressures,
and know how to honor God. People need someone
in their corner who says, This is what Scripture
says. This is how much God loves you. Don't take
the easy route. The road is narrow, but the rewards
are so great in this life and in the life to
come. We long, God longs, in fact, I think unbelievers
long for Christians to live like Christians.
When you support Living on the Edge, you're joining
a movement of God to help break the cycle of
hypocrisy. Join us during this mid -year match.
Give as God leads you, and let's be those kind
of Christians, and let's help others do the same.
Good word, Chip. If you want to be part of our
mission to authentically disciple God's people
worldwide, partner with us during our mid -year
match. From now until June 30th, every gift we
receive will be doubled dollar for dollar. To
learn how you can support us, go to livingontheedge
.org or call 888 - As we wrap up today's program,
what I know for sure is many, many of you are
some of your closest friends or family members
need hope. I mean, they really need hope. I mean,
whether it's economic issues, marriage issues,
divorce, separation, drug addictions, loss of
a job. I mean, there's times in our life that
is so devastating and we can get discouraged
and we lose perspective. And the Lord Jesus wants
you to know and the people that you love, he
wants to give you hope. In fact, our hope quotient
might be the most important thing because if
you're discouraged, we don't trust. If you're
discouraged, you're not motivated. I love what
my friend Ray Johnson says in his book, The Hope
Quotient. He says, people, this is research,
people that have a high hope quotient, people
that have a sense that the future is bright,
that God is in control, that regardless of what
I go through, he's going to help me. They have
more satisfying relationships. They're more productive.
They're less affected by stress. They're more
successful. They're more satisfied. They're more
compassionate. They're more willing to help people.
They have higher ethical standards. And they're
more likely to see God as a loving, caring, and
forgiving God. And so what I want you to know
as we launch into this series and as we begin
to learn about hope. God wants to give it to
you. In fact, are you ready for this? He's already
given it to you. And so it's a matter of perspective.
It's a matter of beginning to lean into, and
it grows out of not circumstances being wonderful
and right and everything going your way. As we
learn from the Apostle Paul, it happens when
We're rooted deeply and intimately with the anchor
of our hope, the Lord Jesus Himself. That's my
prayer for you today. Lean in to the Lord Jesus.
Draw near to Him in the midst of your pain, your
suffering, and your discouragement. And here's
the promise, and He will draw near to you. Good
reminder, Chip. And as we close, I want you to
know that as a staff, we ask the Lord to help
you take whatever your next faith step is. Now,
if there's a way we can help, we'd love to do
that. Give us a call at 888 -333 -6003 or connect
with us at livingontheedge .org. And while you're
there, take a moment and look through our resources
on various topics, many of them absolutely free.
You've been listening to a selected program that
we wanted to share from this past week. To hear
more from Chip's series, I Choose Hope, go to
livingontheedge .org or the Chip Ingram app.
Until next time, I'm Dave Drewy saying thanks
for listening to this weekend edition of Living
on the Edge.