God's Dream for Your Life, Part 2

Today on Living on the Edge, with Chippengrim, as parents, we all have a dream for our kids.

And yet there's times when they make decisions and they get on the wrong path and it breaks

our heart.

I want you to know that that happens to us as Christians as well and you have a heavenly

Father.

It wants to stop you, help you turn around and help you experience the life that's really

life.

Don't miss this message.

Authentic community.

Can it really exist?

Where someone knows the real you, the struggles, the doubts, the failures and doesn't condemn

but supports?

Well, I'm Dave Druey.

And today on Living on the Edge, Chippengrim discusses God's dream for your life.

Living Romans 12, Chippengrim shows us what normal Christianity looks like when lived

out in relationship with other believers and with those hostile to the gospel.

If you've ever wondered how to experience genuine community or overcome the raw deals

life throws at you, stay tuned.

Well, here's Chippengrim with today's message, God's dream for your life.

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.

God gives us a very clear picture of what His dream is for your life in Romans 12.

God's desire, God's will for every single follower is that they would become a Romans 12.

Christian.

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, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your spiritual act of worship.

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?

And you know what you're going to learn?

He wants you.

He wants you.

Well, observation is in most Christian's life there's a missing ingredient.

And the missing ingredient in most Christian's lives is power.

We're anemic.

If your life isn't surrendered, you don't experience His power.

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

to Him.

But notice beginning in verse 2, 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.

You know the question, the big question in life this verse answers, how do you get the

very best from God?

Verse 1 answers, how do you give God what He really wants?

Verse 2 says, if God really loves me and He died for me and He rose from the dead, He

has a plan for my life, how do you tap into that?

What 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 unsurundered life, but a lack of peace.

Beginning in verse 3 and through 8, we learned that in our relationship to ourselves, God

desires a sober self-assessment.

Notice a little phrase, 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 measure of faith.

In the sovereignty of God, He wants you to have an accurate, sober view of yourself.

God wants you to see yourself the way He sees you, dearly loved, forgiven.

And you know the big question this answers, how do you come to grips with the real you?

This section will teach you how to come to grips with the real you, and then it supplies

the missing ingredient.

Verse 1 supplies the power when you understand it, verse 2 supplies the peace.

And verse 3 supplies your purpose, because 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.

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.

Have a good friend over in Santa Cruz, and he was a fellow entrepreneur.

He ran half of the United States of one of those really, really giant companies, and

saw that he was kind of losing touch with his family and the travel, and so he decided

that he would start a business of his own, and so he developed these, about 26 of these

stores around that, you know, kind of like Joanne's or Michael's, but he called it by his

wife's name, which I thought was very nice.

And he became a mentor of mine.

I spent a lot of time, and he would help me, and I was teaching through sort of an infant

stages of my journey, about a sober self-assessment, and a part of that understanding what your

primary spiritual gift is, and he went through that.

And you know what, just people were people in his world, okay, he was a good business guy,

he became very successful, when you're very successful in business, he made a lot of

money, so there he was a good leader, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because you know

what his hold, like 25 years of church experience was sitting on committees in meetings where

everyone wanted to talk about money, and then counting money afterwards, and if there's

ever a capital campaign, Dick, you do it.

And he said, I hated it all.

And we went through a journey, and he discovered his spiritual gift, and he discovered what

he likes to do is launch things, and what he likes to do is equip people, and what he likes

to do is bring together networks.

And so he said, you know what, I just decided, I'm not going to be on any more boards.

This was a spiritual decision, he said, this is what I'm going to do, and he actually was

the one that launched living on the edge.

It was his idea, it's him, his guy got it going, and I could now tell you, 45678 different

ministries he's launched, and he just says, there's such joy when you figure out how

God made you, and you fulfill your purpose.

Do you know yours?

Do you realize how so much of Christendom is like people got like another job?

And often a job you don't like, and often a job you don't like, and you're actually not

doing very well at, that's not true spirituality.

True spirituality is relational, it's practical, it's measurable.

It's normal people like us that are surrendered to God on a day where we actually cross that

line, and then progressively we're separate from the world's values, and then we develop

a sober self-assessment, and we start to discover our purpose, and why we're here, and

it actually gets downright exciting.

The fourth thing you see is that it's relationship with believers is it's serving in love.

True spiritual maturity is love must be sincere, and the word literally is without a mask,

without apocrycy.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another and brotherly love.

And then the rest of that passage will unpack it, and it'll talk about honoring one another,

and giving preference to one another, and it's really about people that actually know

each other and like each other, and sacrifice for one another, and pray for one another,

and do whatever it takes to help one another, and it's like doing life in community.

But you serve in love, but it's real love.

It's not a meeting I go to, it's not okay, you know, we made it three out of four times

this month, I'm feeling really good about that check box.

I read the Bible four times this week, it's so different when it's a relationship with

this God who loves you so much, and you open his word with a sense of holy trembling

that he would so love and want to speak to you today, and he would love to hear what's

on your mind and on your heart, and actually his spirit lives inside of these other people

called other fellow Christians, and he's deposited gifts in them, and he wants to hug you

through them, and he wants to love you through them, and he wants to hold you accountable

through them, he wants to encourage you through them, and are you ready?

He wants you to do that right back, and there's this amazing thing, and the early church

member, what Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you, to the early disciples, John

13, that you love one another how, just as I've loved you, by this, not by buildings,

not by external morality, by this, the world will know that the Father has sent me by how

you love one another, and this section of true spirituality from Romans 12 answers the

question that we all struggle with, is how do I experience authentic community, where

there's so many lonely people, I don't mean just being in a group, I don't mean just

being a member of something, I mean, how do I experience where there's someone or two

or three in my life that I can unzip my heart, and I can risk putting it out there, and I

can tell them things, and I won't be condemned, and they'll support me and love me, and when

I'm going through a horrendous time, they'll be there for me, and they know I'd be there

for them.

You ready?

Having some friends who would literally, not figuratively, not metaphorically, friends

who would die for you, that's authentic community, and I'll tell you what, when you get around

people that love each other like that, it's powerful.

You know what's missing in most Christian's lives?

It's not just power, it's not just purpose.

You know what's missing?

Most Christian's lives, experience in God's presence.

Somehow it's like we do these things, and we hope God will do this, and like He's out

there somewhere, somehow, some way.

Do you know God's primary plan apart from when you read His Word, or you're talking to

Him, or meditating?

Do you know His primary way to manifest His presence?

It's through other Christians.

I mean, if an angel comes at the middle of the night at the foot of your bed tonight,

go for it.

Tell me about it later, and if He hugs you and fixes you a meal and says, you know, tell

me what's really going on inside, because I really want to hear it, because I really

care.

God bless you.

But for 99.9% of all the rest of us, you know how Jesus is going to show up in your life?

He's going to show up in the body of another person, a man or a woman or a fellow student

where there's kind of this chemistry, and this safety, and this love, and you're devoted

to one another in brotherly love.

And you give preference to another in honor, and you do life together.

And you're listening to Living on the Edge with Chippengrim.

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.

Now let's rejoin Chippengrim with today's message.

The final portion of becoming a Romans 12 Christian isn't just your relationship with God or

your relationship with the world or yourself or believers, but the evil in the world.

Relationships with non-believers that are hostile to the gospel, and unfortunately sometimes

relationships with believers that are evil and hostile toward you.

But it's supernaturally responding to evil with good.

Under the Apostle Paul, you can hear him just reaching into the Sermon on the Mount by

the Spirit of God.

Bless those who persecute you, bless and curse not.

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.

Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

If your enemy's hungry, what do you do?

Feeding.

If your enemy's thirsty, what do you do?

Get in the drink.

Do not be overcome with evil.

See, we're humans.

Evil is going to come into all of our lives on your little journey on this earth.

Somebody who had more than others, you're going to get ripped off, you're going to get betrayed,

you're going to have mates walk out on you, you're going to kids say terrible things to

you, you're going to people who've loaned the money and they promised to pay it back and

guess what, they're not going to.

And there's evil that's sort of systemic.

You can love God with all your heart, guess what?

Christians that love God with all their heart get cancer.

They get hit by drunk drivers, they get swooped into down economies and lose their homes

and they've been faithful with their finances.

Evil is coming your way.

So what's true spirituality?

What I love about what God says, true spirituality is how the spirit of God lives the life of

Christ out in relationship with my Heavenly Father, with the world, with myself, with believers,

and then with unbelievers when the raw deals are coming my way.

The question it answers is how do you overcome the evil aimed at you?

And the thing that most Christians, listen carefully, most Christians have missing in

their life is perspective.

We all could probably take out a three by five card or get out your mobile device and

press a little app where it says notes and we could probably all list four or five people

that used to walk with God that don't walk with God now.

After their mate walked out on them, after the car wreck, after they got ripped off at work,

right?

See there's a reason that almost 25% of the book of Genesis is dedicated to the life of

Joseph because Joseph is a picture of true spirituality of how do you respond at the

evil aimed at you?

And it wasn't easy.

And I mean, he was betrayed, falsely accused, forgotten, sold.

But that little phrase, the Lord was with Joseph.

And you know what Joseph had, perspective.

Joseph kind of took, even though they didn't have him in those days, follow it.

Joseph took the helicopter of spiritual perspective.

And in those days in prison or falsely accused, he just kept taking the helicopter up really,

really, really high and looking at all of it and saying, you know something?

There's a sovereign God that either decreed or allowed this and he loves me and I don't

know how it's going to work out.

But if I don't bail out and trust him, he'll work it for my good and he'll do in me and

through me what could never happen.

And so I refuse to be bitter, I refuse to not forgive, I refuse to become a victim,

I refuse to let the world shape me, I will trust my God because I have perspective.

And he would say to his brothers at the very end of the book, you meant it for evil, but

God meant it for good.

If all those difficult things wouldn't have happened, he would have not been the second

most powerful person in all the world and he would have not saved the Jewish nation.

And God has a game plan and you have a Joseph story to live out.

It would be a big one for some, a smaller one for others.

Are you starting to catch what true spirituality is all about?

It's about relationships.

It's measurable.

You can measure.

Am I surrendered?

Am I separate from the world's values?

Do I have a sober self-assessment?

Am I serving in love?

Am I supernaturally responding to evil with good?

And then it helps you ask and answer those questions.

And little by little, as we walk through this together, you will begin to experience as

you trust and obey by faith, God's power, God's peace, God's purpose, God's presence and

God's perspective.

And that's why I'm so excited.

And you know what I love about this?

Guess who's book we got this out of?

This text, it's just the Bible, it's true.

What Jesus said to them, he said to us, if you abide in my word and that word just means

if you take it in for the purpose of apply it by faith, then you'll know the truth and

the truth will set you free.

As you turn over the notes, I want to close with this one very important perspective.

There is a danger on our journey, like every journey, there's dangers.

But there's a danger on our journey to begin to very subtly begin to think that sort

of the R 12 journey or the Romans 12 journey is like a moral code and a set of bars to

live up to, okay, I'm going to be surrendered, I'm going to be separate, self-assessment,

I think I got that down, I'm going to serve in love and let's see, I can't remember

the last one, supernaturally respond to something with something.

And you can turn it into the very thing we're trying to avoid.

And so I want to remind you, the true spirituality has nothing to do with living a good life so

that God will love you.

True spirituality has everything to do with beginning to grasp the height and depth and

length and breadth of how much God has already loved you, has demonstrated that love and

you living out of the freedom of that love.

And so I just put the little chart of the entire book of Romans, what did he do?

Chapters 1 through 3, all of us fall short of the glory of God.

We sugarcoat this, this isn't just being not a nice person.

We have sinned, we betrayed God, we're people that have committed treason and he's

holy and his just wrath is upon us for what we have done.

And that's the problem.

In Chapters 4 and 5 there's a solution.

The solution to sin is salvation, Jesus, fully man, fully God, lived a perfect life, died

upon the cross to pay for your sin and rose from the dead.

And offers a free gift to who so ever would believe and receive it.

Chapters 6 through 8 goes on to talk about how this new life has lived and he didn't leave

us alone.

It wasn't a moral code, try hard.

He said, the spirit of the living God and the new covenant will take up residence inside

your mortal body.

After he takes you out of the kingdom of darkness, he places you in the kingdom of light and

his spirit takes up residence and the living presence of Christ and the power of Christ

by the word of God and the community of God's people, births, literally Paul talks about

until Christ is formed in you.

That's called sanctification.

And it's a journey and often it's two steps forward and three back and then four steps

forward but you grow.

And then finally he reminded them that God always keeps his promises.

So Chapters 9 through 11, his promises to the Jews will be fulfilled but they've fumbled

the ball in terms of their responsibility as a bluster and an instrument of God.

And so he says, I'm going to take them out of the game and I will fulfill everything

I made promises to Abraham and to David.

But the church is going to be my age and blessing until I call time out and bring the very

final days of history to a close.

And after 11 chapters of regardless of where you've been, God loves you, died for you,

puts his spirit inside of you and will keep every promise.

Therefore I urge you brothers to what?

Offer your body as a living sacrifice.

Have you ever placed your faith in Christ personally to forgive your sin?

Because what I've seen over and over is people just unconsciously think I'm trying hard

to be this good person and it's interesting and they begin to experience some change.

But what sometimes they never realize is you need on a certain day at a certain time to

be born from above or to be born again.

And that's back in chapter 3, in the beginning of chapter 4, and where you come to God on

a day like today and you just honestly admit, God, I need your help.

I've violated a holy God today.

I believe your blood paid for my sin and your resurrection proved it's true.

And on this day I want to ask you to come into my life forever to forgive me and to be

my father.

And if you've never done that, that's the smartest, wisest, best thing you'll ever do.

This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, in a message from our series God's Dream for

Your Life.

Today, Chip showed us what Romans 12 Christianity looks like, experiencing God's presence through

authentic community and responding supernaturally to evil.

Chip will be back with one final word in just a moment.

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Well, now here's Chip.

What we've described this dream is really normal Christianity.

I mean, if you had a video camera and you could in the first 30 years of the church sort

of just walk around, you know, like Peter and then later the Apostle Paul and James and

John and the boys, what you would have seen as, you know, thousands of people came to

Christ in the midst of a very, very difficult culture and opposition and persecution, what

you would have seen as them by the power of God, living surrendered lives, combating the

idols of their world and being separate from the world and, you know, accurately discovering

who God made them to be, radically serving one another.

It's just amazing what happened in the early church.

And if we could take that camera through the centuries of church history, what we've

described in the last two days is simply what it means to be a genuine follower of Jesus.

And so can I ask you, where are you at?

Which of these five relationships do you need to say, Lord, I need your help here.

I want to be a follower of Jesus.

I want your dream to be a reality in my heart, my life, my relationships.

Let me ask you, will you ask God to give you clear direction and then join me in our

next broadcast as we continue this journey together.

I'm Dave Druey and we'll see you next time as we continue our series called God's Dream

for Your Life, Monday on Living on the Edge.

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