God's Dream for Your Life, Part 1

Today on Living on the Edge with Chip and Grim, did you know that God has a dream for

your life?

A very specific, positive and wonderful plan?

You want to know what it is?

Stay with me.

We're going to impact that today.

Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip and Grim.

I'm your host Dave Druey, and today we're launching a powerful series called God's Dream

for Your Life.

Using Romans chapter 12 as the road map, 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.

If you've been trying hard but feeling stuck, if you know you're born again but lack

the vitality you thought Christianity promised, this message changes everything.

Well, here's Chip with today's teaching.

I want you to know that every parent has a dream for your child.

I want you to think back if you're a parent, if not just listen and think about this

is what your parents were thinking.

Every parent I want you to go back to that first born.

You didn't have any kids and your wife was pregnant or you were the wife and you were

pregnant and you thought about all the things that went through your mind about what this

little boy or what this little girl might be like and the dreams and the thoughts and

the hopes and the aspirations.

And what I want to tell you is that God has a dream for his children but what we do is

we get that sort of theological over there and somehow we think he's more like the transcendent

force out there someday, some way and there's rules and standard to live up to.

And so for you to capture the emotion of how God feels, I want to share a very brief

and personal story about when I understood how deeply God plants desires and dreams for

us for our kids.

It was our first born for Theresa and myself.

We were to banquet.

Middle of the banquet, Theresa says Chip, it is time.

I said, Theresa, let's go.

You know, you don't know what you're doing.

The contractions had been about three hours.

We go home, get things set up.

We go to Baylor Hospital.

For the next 27 hours, Theresa and I will be together.

It's a long labor.

There's complications.

For a number of reasons that can't take the baby, they find out something's wrong.

They put a monitor on this little boy inside of my wife and I sit next to her for 27

hours and that little monitor, if you know a baby's heartbeat goes like this.

Right, and then she would have a contraction and it would go, then doctors and nurses

would run in and we went through that.

About three times in 27 hours, about every eight hours, we just stopped and we prayed and

we cried and we gave that little boy back to God and I thought we may have him.

We may not.

Then I started thinking about Theresa and I may not have her.

What's going to happen?

And with 27 hours, had a lot of time to think about all the dreams I had for that little

boy that came to the surface that I thought I might lose.

And I want you to know that something deep, deep inside of me was so fearful and grieving

at what I might lose and then when that little boy was born, 27 hours later, that

nurse wiped him off, Theresa was wiped out.

I think she said hi and then they put that baby in my arms and it was one of those places

where they really thought the dad was important and I got a half hour with my son and I held

that little baby and I just, I held that baby with tears dreaming down my face, thinking

I didn't know if this was going to happen and I thought of all the dreams I might have

lost and I still remember it was a linoleum floor and I had such a sense of gratitude.

I remember getting on my knees on a linoleum floor and holding that little boy and just

crying and thanking God and I want you to know why, because I made an image of God and

embedded in the heart of a father and embedded in the heart of a mother is a dream and a

desire for your kids because God made you and that's how he feels about you and for

many of us when our kids are small, the dreams and we're sort of young immature parents,

we have dreams like I hope he's a baseball player or I hope she's musical or it'd be great

if she's athletic or artistic and then as you get a little bit older and they go through

some stages in life then you will hope they get a good job and hope they do well in school

and a lot of the dreams are about kind of what they do. Then the older you get and the

older they get, you get to where I don't care what they do. I just want a kid that loves

me, loves God, tells the truth, your dreams turn into what kind of person will this be?

And you'll notice on your notes, I want you to know this is that our Heavenly Father

has a dream for every one of his children and God's dream is to make you like his right

the word son. Be ye mature or fulfill your design Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 says, be

ye perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In Romans 829 he says God uses every

circumstance, every up, every down, every relationship, everything we ever go through

to conform us to the image of a son. He says in Ephesians 4 that the whole purpose of

the church is designed so that through the relationships that we have and the gifts

that God places in the body is that we would all grow up to the measure of the stature

of the fullness of Christ. You need to understand primarily your life with your Heavenly Father

is not about what you do, not about what you accomplish, not what kind of job you have,

not how many points you're scoring spiritually. His primary dream is the kind of person you

become, the kind of relationship you have with him. He wants you to be a loving, kind, gentle,

holy person who walks in integrity. I think it's the greatest need in the world today is for

Christians to live like Christians. And here's what's exciting, it's not guess work, it's not

about trying hard, it's not about being religious. God gives us a very clear picture of what

his dream is for your life in Romans chapter 12. God's dream for every child is to become a

disciple or a follower and you can write it in a Romans 12 Christian. That's his will. Are you

ready? His will for every child of God on the face of the earth, regardless of background,

nationality, gender, denomination, God's desire, God's will for every single follower is that

they would become a Romans 12 Christian. Now I'm not saying that Romans 12 is all there is

to being a disciple, but here's what I'm saying. I'm saying it is the executive summary. It's the

snapshot. It's like this amazing mind that God gave the Apostle Paul. He takes all the teachings

of Jesus. And for 11 chapters, he writes about the work of Christ and the sin of mankind,

all that God has accomplished and how much he loves people. And then in chapter 12, he stops.

And he gives us a snapshot. And he gives us this very quick kind of cliff note snapshot.

What we're going to learn is we go through it. Number one, are you ready for this? It's relational.

If you have a pen, circle a few keywords just as we go through the passage. All we're going to

do is give an overview and we'll dig into each of these sections, but circle the word. It says

relationship with God, circle the word God. Verse 1 is going to talk about what's the snapshot

of spiritual maturity, of true spirituality with God? Then go down and says, look, it's the relationship

with the world, circle the phrase the world. There's a world system that we're going to learn about.

A world system that's anti-God that's energized by the enemy of your soul, seeking to seduce you

away from your love for Christ. And then it's going to talk about your relationship with yourself,

circle the word yourself. We're going to learn a little bit later that God wants you to have an

accurate, sober, self-assessment. Then notice that we talk about relationship on the second page

relationship with believers, circle the world believers. There's a way that spiritually mature

authentic followers relate with other Christians in a way that does amazing things in them

and amazing things in others. And then finally, circle the last one. It's a relationship with

non-believers. There's a way that people that love Jesus where his spirit lives inside of you

respond to the harshest, most difficult, painful evil that comes into your life.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We're halfway through today's message,

so don't go anywhere just yet. Today's insightful lesson comes from our series called God's Dream

for Your Life. Want to dig deeper into these truths? Well, the full series is ready for you online

at livingontheedge.org. You'll discover extra teaching content, downloadable materials,

and discussion guides to take you further. Find it all at livingontheedge.org.

Well, now let's rejoin Chip with today's message. The second thing you learn about a Romans 12

Christian is that it's practical and it's measurable. Okay, this isn't just a ooey gooey spiritual

feeling. Follow along if you will. Notice what it says in verse 1,

therefore I urge you, brothers and you, of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice

wholly and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. We'll look at this, but this

word for offer is at a point in time. And what he's going to say is that here's what you can know

practically and measurably. A spiritually mature authentic follower is surrendered to God.

On a certain day, at a certain time, on their spiritual journey, a man or a woman or a student

has realized how great and how powerful God is and that his will is good and you have bowed the

knee and bowed the heart and said to God, I'm all in. I will do whatever you want me to do. Your

word will be the God of my life. I want to arrange my life, my relationships, and my priorities

around whatever you say. And that answers one of the biggest questions that you'll ever face in

your life. And that question is this, how do you give God what he wants the most? Have you ever

thought about that? God is a person. He's not some invisible, transcendent, impersonal force.

He's a person. And if you have a good friend and they have a birthday, don't you ask questions

like, I wonder what he or she would want for their birthday? Or if you're married, you say, I wonder

what my mate would want the most. Or if you're a parent, I wonder how I could really help or

bless my kids the most. Have you ever asked yourself, I wonder what God wants the most from me? And

you know what you're going to learn? He wants you. He wants you. Well, observation is in most

Christians life, there's a missing ingredient. In Romans 12, not only is relational and practical,

it answers this big question and it also gives us the missing ingredient in every relationship.

And the missing ingredient in most Christians lives, and you just jot this on the side of your

notes, is power. We're anemic. So many Christians try really, really hard. We've had tens of

thousands of small groups in America and around the world go through this material. So I've got like

research. And there's still one email that I remember reading and thinking while.

Ladies said I was at the kitchen sink, doing the dishes, and that morning I woke up and I felt

come distant from God. I've been a Christian about 22 years. And for some reason I just thought about,

I wonder if any friend described me if they would even use the word good Christian or someone

who really loves God with my name. And she said, you know, I've tried failed, tried failed, tried failed.

I know that I'm born again. I've been a Christian 22 years. I have an alcohol problem that I

presently have right now. And I have an immorality problem and a porn problem.

And I don't like me. And those thoughts that guilt because of how I'm living, we're popping up,

and I'm doing the dishes, and the radio was on, and this message comes on about becoming a Romans 12

Christian, and it was the one on surrender. And she said, as I was doing the dishes, the tears

just started streaming down my face. And she said, I never heard that before. I never understood

that before. And she talked about drawing her hands, going to her bedroom, kneeling by her bed,

and telling God, I can't do this. I can't live this life. I surrender to you. And the rest of that

email was, that was four and a half months ago. And let me tell you what God did in my life since then.

Power! You know, if you've ever been in one of those water fights in the backyard,

and someone starts with a squirt gun, right? And if you're smart, what do you do? You get the hose.

And so they've got one of those guns, and you get the hose, but what does someone really,

really smart do if you get the hose? They go over here, and they grab the hose, and they

they kink it. And when they kink it, how much water comes out? None. What I want you to understand

is you can be a legitimate, sincere, born-again believer in Jesus. And if your hose is kinked,

if your life isn't surrendered, you don't experience his power. And so all it becomes is this

moralism and attempts to live a life that's absolutely impossible.

Becoming a Romans 12 Christian begins in your relationship with God by being surrendered to him,

but notice beginning in verse two, it says, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and improve what

God's will is. That which is good and pleasing and perfect. There's a negative and a positive

command, and we're going to develop this and talk about it. But in essence, what he says is,

with regard to this world system that tells you that money and stuff and sex and power and prestige

will deliver on security and significant and great relationships, he's saying you've got to live

separate from the world's values. You can't let it, but notice he doesn't say try hard to be a good

Christian. He says, let your mind be transformed. Then you'll test your experience. You know the

question, the big question in life, this first answer, how do you get the very best from God?

How do you get the very best from God? Verse one answers, how do you give God what he really wants?

Verse two says, if God really loves me and he died for me and he rose from the dead, he has a

plane for my life, how do you tap into that? We'll explain from this verse exactly how it works.

And the missing ingredient I find in the great majority of Christians that I talk to

is not just lack of power because of an unsurrendered life, but a lack of peace.

There's Christians that can't come in. You got to turn on the TV. You got to go to the refrigerator.

When you get in the car, you got to put sound and music on because absolute, dead,

deathly, quiet times make you very uncomfortable. There are a few positions I think in all the world

that are more miserable than a legitimate, born-again follower of Jesus in whom the Spirit of God

lives, who lives with one foot in walking with God and the other foot in the world's system.

I happen to be an expert on this. I've done extensive personal research. I know what it's

like to be at Bible study on Thursday night and hit every bar on Friday night. I have been over

here where I've Bible study and talking about sexual purity and lusted like crazy over here and

telling God, I'll never do this, this or that again. I know. And I will tell you, I was the most

miserable Christian in the world for the first three years. That is the place, the great

majority of believers live. And we forfeit God's peace. We're going to learn. You ready? We're

going to learn how to break that cycle, how God's spirit and God's power can help you live the

kind of life that you long to and that he wants for you. And we'll learn that's how you get his best.

Beginning in verse three and through eight, we learn that in our relationship to ourselves,

God desires a sober, self-assessment. Notice a little phrase for by the grace of God.

What I want you to hear in all where he sort of sets the bar of holiness and righteousness and

what it means to have true spirituality, I want you to hear behind it this compassionate heart of

love for by the grace of God. I say to every man among you, don't think more highly of yourself

than you ought to think, but think as to have sound or sober judgment as God has a lot of to each

you measure a faith. He talks about how you get that and how you're a part of a body and

we'll discover that he's deposited a supernatural gift if you look at verses six to eight, we'll cover

all those later. But he wants you in your relationship to yourself to look in the physical mirror

and to look in the spiritual and the relational mirror and say, I like that person.

God made them, that personality, that gifts, that height, that eye color, those struggles,

that family background, and the sovereignty of God, he wants you to have an accurate,

sober view of yourself. In that one verse that word sober think, think, think,

four different times. God wants you to see yourself the way he sees you,

dearly loved, valuable, precious, forgiven. And you know the big question this answers,

how do you come to grips with the real you? Do you realize how much time and energy and money

and posing and image management we do just as normal human beings, even as Christians,

to try and project to all these different people that I'm like this and I'm like this and I'm

dressed like that and I'm cool like that and I know this and did you know I know so and so and

this is how many people report to me or my son and my daughter, they got this on their SAT

scores and he hit two home runs and I want you know I went to an Ivy League school and

this person's not a knockoff, it's really real and this watch it really is and I got promoted,

and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you spiritualize it all into getting a Bible study.

Well according to someone's own commentary, when I was reading the Greek text a little bit earlier

in preparation for this, we do it, we do it, we do it, we do it, we do it. This section will teach

you how to come to grips with the real you and then it supplies the missing ingredient. Verse one

supplies the power when you understand it. Verse two supplies the peace and verse three supplies

your purpose. You can see God made you specifically. You are his workmanship, you're created in

Christ Jesus unto a good work which before the foundations of the earth, so guess what? He's

gifted you to do something specific. In his sovereignty, he has you in relationships that have

been difficult in some ways and empowering in others, but God has a purpose for your life.

When you're always pretending to be someone else or comparing yourself with someone else and not

accepting these are my strengths, these are my weaknesses, these are my gifts, this is my background,

this produces some difficulty and dependency, this produces some great things. Until you get a

sober self assessment, you end up playing games your whole life. You try to fulfill your mom's

purpose, your dad's purpose or the culture's purpose or the company's purpose or what other people

think. Do you know how freeing it is to understand this is why I'm here. My purpose is this and this

is what I'm good at and this is what I'm not good at. This is where I need help and this is where I

need to step out and let God use me. It's revolutionary. It's absolutely revolutionary.

This is Living on the Edge with Chipping Room. Today we launched a foundational series called

God's Dream for Your Life and this teaching is what Living on the Edge is all about. Chip will

wrap up in just a moment. For over 30 years, Living on the Edge has existed for one purpose,

to help Christians understand what it really means to follow Jesus, not religious performance,

not endless striving, but authentic biblical Christianity that transforms how you relate to God,

yourself and others. Today's message from Romans chapter 12 is the heart of our mission.

We believe every believer needs a clear, practical roadmap for spiritual maturity. That's why we

create resources, develop small group materials, and produce daily teaching that comes alongside you,

helping you live out God's dream for your life. This ministry reaches millions because partners

like you believe in this mission. When you give to Living on the Edge, you're helping believers move

from confusion to clarity, from frustration to freedom, from merely knowing about God,

to genuinely walking with Him. Your support makes that possible. Will you join us in this mission?

Partner with Living on the Edge today by giving online at livingontheedge.org or call us at

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PO Box-3007 at Lanna, Georgia-30024. And don't miss the Chip and Grim Sermon podcast,

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Now here's Chip. As we close today's program, I want to remind you that the Christian life is

not complex. Jesus taught in a way where the common people heard Him gladly, and the Apostle

Paul takes all the Christian life and gives us a summary and boils it down to those five significant

relationships. And in our relationship to God, what do we learn? It's being surrendered to Him.

In relationship to the world, it's being separate from the world's values. In relationship to ourselves,

it's having a sober self-assessment. And in relationship to believers, it's learning to serve

one another in love. And then in those difficult, painful times when evil comes our way,

it's supernaturally responding to evil with good. As you learn by God's grace and the power of

the Holy Spirit to respond the way the Apostle Paul has outlined the Christian life, you will

experience something in you that's fresh and through you that changes all the world around you.

Stay with me on this series. This is going to be a great ride. I expect God to do great things in you

and then through you in the next couple weeks. Ready to discover the missing ingredients, most

Christians lack, power, peace and purpose? I'm Dave Drui. Join us tomorrow as Chipping Room

continues God's dream for your life right here on Living on the Edge with Chipping Room.

Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.