How to Get God's Best for Your Life

This is the Chippengrim sermon podcast brought to you by Living on the Edge.

In this podcast, you'll hear chips teaching unedited and from beginning to end.

Now here's Chippengrim 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 placed your faith in Him and He takes you from the kingdom

of darkness, did 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 that it's a picture of this and it's interesting.

She said, thank you for your message this morning on Romans 121.

Then 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.

All the 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 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 121 said, therefore I urge you my brothers and 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.

The question is, how do you get the very best from God?

And it's interesting, that's verse two.

He's going to 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 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 act of 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, just 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, the 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, 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 a gladiators, there's idols everywhere, there's brothels everywhere.

You can have any kind of sex with any person, any time, 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 want to understand how to give God what he wants the most, we need to be surrendered to God.

But when you want to 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 it.

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 it's 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

won't just 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's system and 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 that pull at your flesh in mind

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've 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've got to have that. The boastful pride of life is the passion to be. It has to do with position.

I've got to 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's 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 you know, they get 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 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 times in the work, in the workout room. And so we're just told, I mean, we're just told,

your body, you got to 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

as somebody. And as you kind of get the yogurt and the bread and the milk across, and you know,

they've been to Cosmo and men's health. And now here you are, you're thinking, mine, 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's 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 you know, right?

And as you get a little older, some of you are going, oh, I forget that. And it's, well, there's

Forbes and there's Fortune. If you had that, man, right? And here's 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 community says, be transformed. Remember,

I think it's about ninth grade biology, metamorphosis, right? Meta, the Greek word,

weth. 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 cocoon and then this beautiful butterfly comes out.

What do we call that process? Ninth grade biology, metamorphosis. It's changed from the inside out.

This is what God's saying. Don't allow the world, the external 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. Well, what's that mean? It means, 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 to, here's a model in

a picture like Jesus. I'm going to try and be kind, try and be loving, try. 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 stickman

on a line and an arrow, this direction and 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 stickman or

stickwoman, and this is the world, which one is having the most influence? The world is saying,

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, and this is not like, oh, I want everyone to feel guilty for like 30 seconds.

I just want you to look at the little stickman 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 of 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 is 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,

then 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 sleep at night, she starts,

you know, drinking a little bit, and she wants to be a part of things, so she hangs with the crowd,

down deep inside of her soul, she has this lack of peace, and then finally she just realized,

as 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 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 the eyes in 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,

or 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, and you three

temptations, how's he tempted? Lust of the flesh, lust 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 says he answered, Satan 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 and ways that

you can understand. It is supernatural. In fact, the Apostle Paul would say it is not only supernatural,

but it is a process. There is not like you can just turn a switch and now I am like Jesus.

What is he saying? Second Corinthians 3, 18, I put the passage there, but we all,

speaking of the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant, between 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 tents of this verb are being transformed.

How? From glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the spirit. He is 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 him. 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

unveil face, beholdings in a mirror, it's not direct, but we get these reflections and snapshots

in 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 were 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. Mine renewal, I think,

has three key components. The first component of mine renewal is renewing your mind as a continual

refocus of the Romans 12 on perspective. Colossians 3 says, set your mind on the things that are

above, not on the things that are on earth. It's a world view. It's a mindset that has eternity in

mind. It 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

your 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. 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. And 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 wouldn't put in cocaine up my nose. I wasn't 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-at? Of course, I had to make effort. But for example, I thought,

am I going to be insecure my whole life, or am I going to 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, it's trying to please

everyone. And I am what I am by the grace of God. And as 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 going to like who God made me. Got a long way to go.

Transformation. My people, please. I mean, anybody here ever struggled with like,

everyone I ask you to do this and you either feel guilty if you don't. You're trying to do

everything you're multitasking and it's 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 in 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 work

of holism. 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 going to 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 that 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 party that's planned. Finally, as with my wife,

I realized I was insensitive. And so I wrote on this card, my desires to love Teresa

sacrifcially 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. And now believe me, from glory to glory and with

plenty of relapses. But are you seeing how it works? You're 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 second 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 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, some way, if I can work, work, work, do, do, do, do.

And then they wake up 20, 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 and he's got some money, can pay his way,

try and make it happen. And he's just stuffy. They're 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 going to go out at it again

and they don't have anything. And they both bottle 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. 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-loved relationship with him. Romantic says, the mindset on the flesh is death.

The mindset 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 do you

put 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 bursts 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 five in myself.

Way to go, Chip. I never did that before. Second is, use your time in the car wisely. Here God's

word. My seminary training hasn't stopped. Second, read God's word. Revelation 13 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. Second, 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, 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

organic, real good stuff. Or the picture that comes to my mind is 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 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 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-at method. And that's just an

acronym. And I'm not going to 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 pea, prey, God, please help me. The second pea, 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, 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. Process 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 onto 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 hidden 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 say

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 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 the number of areas, but not in one in

particular. My roommate is going to go to this Christian summer something where it's a

paratrooper organization that they go there for training and they get a job and share a

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'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 a week, and he had it planned out 30 weeks. 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 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, I'm going to 60 days, I'm going to be done,

and I'm just 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?

You know, once you go ahead and start, and list the verses, and I was just going to go, bang,

bang, bang, bang, bang, 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 the 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, it'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. And so, turn 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, made it the

living word, and changed my want-tudes and my attitudes, and I with my eyes looked at a sister

in Christ in the eye, and a new relationship with men 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, that's the answer,

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. 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, and the word meditate here, it's the idea of ruminating. It's a picture

of Cal has four stomachs. It's a Cal, choose on some truth, swallow it, regurgitate it, swallow

it, regurgitate it. This is reading, and God speaks through 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 do this? I mean, if you're

listening, you're thinking to yourself, you mean I'm going to limit my games, and limit my movies,

and limit this, and limit that, and limit that, and limit that, and say, notice some stuff that

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 when some

beautiful, attractive, richly satisfying well, 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 closed, 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 to lose your heart away from

God, and just say, first step, no, and what one thing of all the 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 Chipping Room. Friend, for over 30 years, Living on the Edge

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channel when you're there. While that wraps up today's episode, don't miss the next Bible

Teaching Message coming up here on the Chip and Grim Sermon Podcast.

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