Living on the Edge

Kyle Idleman: The Bible would teach and would prioritize, I believe, how we spend our morning hours, our time with God in the morning. I did just a quick survey of Scripture on this. Abraham, Genesis chapter 22:3 and 5, rose early in the morning to split wood for burnt offerings and to worship God. Moses rose early in the morning to worship God, to meet with God.

Dave Druey: Welcome to Living on the Edge. How you start your morning sets the trajectory for your entire day. Whatever you tune into first—the news, your phone, your fears—is what you'll be listening to for hours. But what if you could change the channel? Today, guest teacher Kyle Idleman shows you how. Before we get started, here's our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, to introduce today's special guest.

Chip Ingram: I've taught the Bible for a number of years, and over and over I've tried to help people, beginning with me. Life change doesn't happen simply by trying harder. The key, according to Romans chapter 12:2, is renewing our mind.

I have a special guest. His name is Kyle Idleman, pastor of Southeast Christian Church. He's written a book, but he has a series that he's going to share with us called "Every Thought Captive." It comes out of 2nd Corinthians chapter 10:5, where we're commanded to take every thought captive. You're going to learn the power of thoughts, not only from Scripture, but Kyle uses some great information from neuroscience. I am privileged today to introduce my friend, and then I'll be back at the end of the program to share a few final thoughts.

Dave Druey: Thank you, Chip. Now with his contribution to our teaching series called "God's Dream for Your Life," here's Kyle Idleman with a brand new message titled, "Win the Morning."

Kyle Idleman: Life is difficult. In fact, the Bible tells us that life is difficult. If anybody ever tries to preach a message that doesn't include the fact that life is difficult, then they're not preaching the message of Scripture. Jesus said in John 16, "In this world you will have trouble." Now, He goes on to say, "I have overcome the world," so there's hope, there's strength, and we have confidence in who Jesus is. But in this world you'll have trouble.

That word for trouble is the word tribulation, meaning that these are not small challenges. These aren't light difficulties. These are things that are significant. This is a darkness that is so deep it can feel like it's consuming all the light. That's the word here for trouble. It is the young Ukrainian girl stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte. It's the shooting at the Catholic school in Minneapolis. It's a 31-year-old husband and father being assassinated while speaking at a university in Utah.

So what it can feel like is that every morning we wake up and we don't know what the headlines are going to be, but we know that darkness is waiting. What that means is that we end up carrying some sadness and some grief with us that can at times just feel like it's sitting really heavy on our chest. What that means is that sometimes we have to fight back anger and certainly confusion. Things just don't make sense. Things don't unfold the way we think they should or that would make sense to us if we were sitting in God's seat, which we're not.

So we pray. We pray for the church. The church is called to be a light in the darkness. The way we see it, Church, is that the darker it is, the brighter the light shines, Ephesians says. So we pray, "Jesus, let us be a light. Somehow let us do what You tell us to do of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us." So it's a time to pray. It's a time to reflect on our own lives.

I often say at a funeral that this is a time when we gently close the eyes of the dead, but we open the eyes of the living. The Bible says in Psalm 90:12, "Teach us, God, to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom." God, teach us to live with an awareness that our days are numbered so that we live with an intentionality about our lives. James 4:14 says, "What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a while and then disappears."

We need to be reminded of the temporary nature of this life, that from our perspective, the years run together, but compared to eternity, none of us are here very long. That's not meant to scare us. The Scriptures aren't meant to scare us, but they're meant to wake us up. They're meant to help us pay attention to our one and only lives and understand that moments like these matter. They matter.

We need to look up long enough to recognize that one day we'll stand before God. On that day, it won't matter what anybody else thought of you. It won't matter what your boss thought about you or your critic said about you. It won't matter how many followers you had or what your bank account looked like or what car you drove or house you lived in. It won't matter who won the last election. It won't matter what grade you got on the exam this past week. What will matter is your relationship with Jesus.

So this is a good time to just pause and ask a question. If this is your last day, are you ready? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? Have you confessed that you're a sinner who needs a Savior? Have you believed that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that He rose again so that you could have eternal life? Is that where you have put your hope? Is that where you find your confidence? Jesus defeated death so you can live. That's the platform.

So we pray and we reflect on our lives, but we also, if we're honest, find ourselves in moments like these and weeks like these asking questions that have perhaps always been there below the surface. But when certain headlines hit the news, those questions get louder. How do we make sense of such evil? How do we respond when violence becomes the answer to disagreement? How do we find hope when darkness seems overwhelming? How do we even do that?

I want to talk to you about some of those questions because this is true. This isn't just true globally; this is true personally. It's not just the darkness in the headlines; it's the darkness in our hearts and darkness in our homes. It's the darkness when we're in these quiet moments alone with our thoughts. Life is difficult. That is actually the first line of the book called *The Road Less Traveled*, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records, holds the record for the longest time on the New York Times bestseller list at 694 weeks. Bestseller for 13 years. It starts off, "Life is difficult."

But in the midst of the difficult circumstances that we have no control over, in the midst of the darkness that can seem overwhelming, in the midst of grief and fear, the Bible tells us God's will is for you to live with joy and gratitude. How do you do that? I know that's what you want. I want that. But it's not just what you want; it's what God wants for you. 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always. Be joyful always. Pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will."

You wonder what God's will is for your life and you lay awake at night and say, "God, what do You want for me? What's Your will for me?" "This is My will for you," God says, "is that you be joyful, that you pray continually, you give thanks in all circumstances." There's "always" and "continually" and "in all circumstances." Not just some of the time. Not just when things are going well and everything's unfolding the way we hoped that it would and things just make sense for us, and all of life is up and to the right. No, it's always, all the time, in all circumstances.

So how do we do that? How do we live with that kind of joy when life is difficult and we're hit with wave after wave of difficulties and everywhere we look we're reminded of how hard things can be? How do you find that kind of peace when maybe you're carrying a lot of shame and regret and you don't know what to do about it, but it feels like too much? You just can't go back and do things differently. You wish you could, but you can't. Now it's like every day you're just reminded of the reality of your decisions and what it's done to you and the people around you, and it just all feels like too much.

How do you find victory over temptation where it just seems to get the better of you? You don't want to keep doing what you've been doing, but you keep doing it. How do you find victory? How do you intentionally fill your mind with thoughts that are true and God-honoring? How do you overcome the voices in your head that tell you it's too late and things are too dark and evil is winning?

The answer, I believe, is connected to the series we're in called "Every Thought Captive," where the Bible would teach us that either you take your thoughts captive or they're taking you captive. The way we tear down these strongholds in our life is by being renewed in our minds, that we partner with the Holy Spirit in experiencing this mind transformation. We align our thoughts with what God says, and as we do, He gives us a new way of looking at things. He gives us a new way of thinking. He transforms our minds, and as He transforms our minds, our lives change.

What I want to do is focus this in a little bit as we are in this series and talk to you about taking your thoughts captive at a certain time of the day. Specifically, taking your thoughts captive first thing in the morning. Now, listen, I know some of you are not morning people. I get it. Some of you don't even believe in God until after lunch. That's how you feel about it. You wouldn't say that out loud, but the people around you might recognize it. Are you Christian yet? "Okay, I'll give you another hour and we'll see if it kicks in after you have the coffee" because you're just not a morning person.

I'm going to talk to you about the importance of taking your thoughts captive in the morning, but I want you to hear me. I'm not putting a time on what the morning is for you. It's just whenever you wake up. All right? So that might be five-something. That might be ten-something. If it's 11-something, okay. But really what we're saying is what you think about when you first wake up has a way of determining what you think about through the rest of the day. Your thoughts early in the morning have impact on who you are.

I don't remember where I first heard the phrase, "Win the morning." I think I heard it from my junior high soccer coach. He may have been the first person. He just took all of it too seriously. I don't know if you ever had a coach like this in junior high, where this is not professional soccer. That's not what we're doing here. But he coached as if it were. He insisted we have our practices before school instead of after. We'd show up half awake and he would blow his whistle and yell at us with this annoying William Wallace-like energy and say, "Win the morning! Win the morning, boys, and you win the day!" Then we'd have a sprint back and forth.

We were tolerating the morning, I feel like, and I thought we should have gotten credit for that, that we were there tolerating the morning. But he wanted us to win the morning. My question was always, "Why can't we win the afternoon?" I'm all for winning. Does it really matter when we win? My coach would say, "Yeah, it does. You gotta win the morning if you want to win the day." I think there's a lot of wisdom in that.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge, and today's teaching from guest teacher Kyle Idleman continues in just a minute. His message is available anytime at livingontheedge.org. Listen again, share it with a friend, or explore hundreds of additional programs, all free, all online. You can even search for specific topics like parenting, personal growth, and unchanging truths, plus find small group resources and practical tools to help you live the Christian life every day. It's all waiting for you at livingontheedge.org. Now let's get back to today's message.

Kyle Idleman: What I discovered is that there's a reflection of this in Scripture. The Bible would teach and would prioritize, I believe, how we spend our morning hours, our time with God in the morning. I did just a quick survey of Scripture on this. Abraham, Genesis chapter 22:3 and 5, rose early in the morning to split wood for burnt offerings and to worship God. Moses, Exodus 24, Exodus 34, rose early in the morning to worship God, to meet with God. Gideon rose early in the morning to find the Lord's favor, Judges 6 and 7.

Proverbs 31 describes a godly woman as one who rises early with intentionality. Hezekiah worshipped God first thing in the morning, 2nd Chronicles 29. Job made it his habit to rise early in the morning and to pray for his children. Isaiah spoke about waking up and meeting with God in the mornings, Isaiah chapter 50:4. You read through the Psalms, and David uses this almost as a refrain, "in the morning." Let's look at a few of these together.

Psalm 5:3, "In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before You." Then here's what happens: because he starts his day this way, then throughout the day, what does he do? He waits expectantly. Because he starts his day by praying and laying his requests before God, it changes the way that he lives out the rest of his day. Throughout the rest of his day, he's living with this anticipation of how God's going to show up because of how he started his day.

Psalm 143:8, "In the morning, God, bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life." God, in the morning just give me direction. Help me know the path I should take. Next verse, Psalm 59:16, "But I will sing of Your strength; in the morning I will sing of Your love, for You are my fortress and my refuge in times of trouble." Next one is Psalm 88:13, "But I cry to You for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before You."

In the morning, in the morning, in the morning, in the morning I worship. In the morning I seek Your direction. In the morning I'm reminded of Your love for me. In the morning I ask You for help. How you start your day, the thoughts you first think, have a way of setting the direction for the rest of your day. Then ultimately, your days become your life. Jesus modeled this for us.

In Mark chapter 1, it's this crazy busy time in the life of Jesus. Lots happening. Lots of crowds with expectations for Jesus about what he should do and what he shouldn't do with his time. In the middle of all the craziness, we read about Jesus in Mark chapter 1. It says of him very early in the morning—how early? Well, it was still dark. Jesus got up and he left the house and he went off to a solitary, to a quiet place where he prayed. If Jesus needs this, if he's prioritizing this, if he's intentional with his mornings, then how much more should we be with ours?

It was just really clear to me that this is biblically emphasized, this idea of connecting with God in the mornings, of meeting God in the morning, of taking my thoughts captive when I first wake up. Then I started to wonder if maybe science backed this up. In other words, if this is true in Scripture, maybe it's true biologically. Maybe this is how we're made neurologically, that God has wired us in such a way that our brains are especially moldable in the mornings. Turns out, they are.

When you wake up, your brain moves from delta waves to theta waves to alpha waves. In that time, important things are happening that determine whether you respond or you react to whatever happens to you throughout the day. Dr. Andrew Huberman and his research for Stanford University—he uses some language I find really helpful. He calls the morning hours your neuroplasticity window. You've got a couple of hours in the morning that are your neuroplasticity window because in those few hours, your thinking disproportionately shapes your brain.

It's your neuroplasticity window. The first hour or two of your day, what you think about has disproportionate weight. It has compounding effect on what you think about the rest of the day. Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky and her research on cortisol patterns talks about how our stress hormone levels are naturally highest in the morning. It's called the cortisol awakening response. The idea here is that our morning thoughts have amplified emotional impact through the rest of the day.

Our morning thoughts set us up for either having a resiliency throughout the rest of the day or having these negative thought patterns for the rest of the day. Psychology would call this a primacy effect. Your first thoughts about something, first thoughts about a person or your first thoughts about the day, disproportionately influence everything else that follows. So your thoughts early in the morning create neural pathways that are used to process whatever else happens to you throughout the course of the day.

Psychologists also refer to the morning hours as a time of priming. If you've ever put a coat of primer on a wall before painting it, you can't see the primer, but it's underneath what you can see. If you've ever done much painting and you've tried to skip the primer, you know it's a bad idea. You pay attention to what's underneath what you can see. Even though you can't see it, even though people can't see how you're spending your morning hours, what they can see is impacted by what they can't see.

Think of it like this. Imagine that somebody gives you a gift of an old-school radio that has a tuner on it that you tune into different radio stations. But the way this radio works is whatever you tune into before 7:00 AM is what it stays on the rest of the day. So whatever station you tune into first is what you gotta listen to all day long. You better be careful. You could tune into some country music and maybe that's nice to start your day, but around 5:00 in the evening you're like, "Why didn't I choose differently?" Whatever you start the day with is what you have to listen to all day.

In a sense, this is the way our brains work, that whatever you tune into to begin your day is what you listen to throughout the rest of your day. Play this out with me. You wake up. You immediately grab your phone. There's a news alert—another tragedy. A political post makes you all angsty to start your day. A couple of messages from work marked urgent that you missed during the night. You've not even gotten out of bed yet, and you're already dealing with anxiety and anger and feeling overwhelmed.

But what really the cost of this is what happens the rest of the day because it's not just in that moment. Now you're setting yourself up where small inconveniences, you're reactive to them. They feel like a crisis. Traffic makes you furious. Your coworker's innocent comment feels like an attack. You're reactive. It's because you've primed your brain for chaos at 6:47 in the morning.

Or maybe instead of checking the news, you get on your phone and the first thing you do before you can get out of bed is you look at Instagram. Your friend's posted their stupid perfect vacation pictures. You look at the perfect date that somebody else went on the night before and that fitness influencer you follow has been up for like four hours already. Before you've even had your coffee, you're feeling inadequate and insecure.

So what that does for the rest of the day is it primes it. Now you're measuring yourself against others. Your accomplishments feel small. Your appearance is lacking. You spend the day feeling less than because that's what you primed your mind for. That's how you set the trajectory of your thinking to begin your day.

But you think of the flip side of that. What if you take your thoughts captive and you wake up and before you even reach for the phone, you say, "Okay God, before I get out of this bed, I'm going to think of three things today that I have to be grateful for"? You say it out loud. Maybe the first thing is, "I woke up." Maybe that's what you go with. "I woke up. I'm thankful that I woke up today." You pick a couple of other things and you say it out loud.

What happens? The rest of the day, you've primed yourself for some gratitude and you can notice things that maybe you would have missed otherwise. This time when the traffic is heavy, you find something to be grateful for—the podcast that you're listening to. Work is stressful, and you notice a coworker who's there for you that maybe you would have missed otherwise. You respond instead of react because you primed your brain to see some blessings. This is what it looks like to take your thoughts captive, is you recognize in the morning what you see, what you look for, is what you're going to see the rest of the day. The station you tune into is what you're going to listen to the rest of the day.

Dave Druey: You've been listening to Living on the Edge with special guest teacher Kyle Idleman. Chip Ingram has a few thoughts to share in just a moment. Kyle brought it home today with a simple but convicting challenge: win the morning. What you tune into when you first wake up, the station you set your mind on before your feet hit the floor, that's what plays for the rest of your day, and your days become your life.

Scripture has been saying this for centuries. David said it in the Psalms, Jesus modeled it in the Gospels, and now neuroscience is confirming what God's word established long ago—that the morning hours are your greatest window for transformation. For 30 years, Living on the Edge has existed for that moment, the moment a listener wakes up and chooses, maybe for the first time, to tune into God's voice before anything else.

That happens because of friends like you who believe this mission matters. If this broadcast has ever helped you start your day differently, remember that your gift today will do the same thing for someone you may never meet this side of heaven. To give right now, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Even easier, use our mobile app. Just click on the heart icon and follow the instructions. By the way, we also encourage you to subscribe to the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, where you can hear complete full-length messages anytime. Now, Chip, go right ahead.

Chip Ingram: You know, I've been a pastor for a lot of years, but I have to tell you, every time I hear Kyle speak, I feel like I learn something. Today's lesson boils down to such a simple, yet hard truth: life is difficult. I mean, I know this in my head. But remember, Jesus said in John 16, in this world He didn't say you might have trouble; in this world you will have trouble. And then here's the good news: "But I have overcome the world."

Scripture emphasizes meeting with God in the morning. If you could just read through the entire Bible like in 10 seconds miraculously, you would think, wow, Abraham, Moses, David, Job—they all prioritized meeting with God early. One of my favorite passages in Mark 1, it says a great while before dawn, Jesus arose to meet with His Heavenly Father. If you read the context, it's the busiest day recorded in His life. That means He went to bed late, He was really tired, but He just knew more than anything else He needed to meet with God. He needed to reprioritize and renew His mind.

Here's what's fascinating: neuroscience backs this up. Your first two hours of your day is what researchers call your neuroplasticity window. It's when your brain is most moldable. Your morning thoughts set the trajectory for your entire day. What you tune into first is what you're going to listen to all day. My time every day with God first has been the most powerful transformational thing that has ever happened in my life.

So here's what I want to encourage you to do: win the morning. Before you reach for your phone, look at the stock market, scroll anything, go on social media—start with gratitude. Meet with God first. It will change your thoughts, it'll change your brain, it'll change your life. Make a commitment, take a step, do it today.

Dave Druey: Life is difficult, but in the middle of grief, confusion, and darkness, there's a choice you can make about what you call to mind. I'm Dave Druey, inviting you to learn more next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.