Living on the Edge

Dave Druey: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: 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 unpack that today.

Dave Druey: Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. 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 roadmap, 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.

Chip Ingram: I want you to know that every parent has a dream for their child. I want you to think back, if you're a parent—if not, just listen and think about this as what your parents were thinking. Every parent, I want you to go back to that firstborn.

You didn't have any kids and your wife was pregnant, or you were the wife and you are pregnant, and you thought about all the things that went through your mind about what this little boy or this little girl might be like, and the dreams and the thoughts and the hopes and the aspirations.

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 standards 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 firstborn for Theresa and myself. We were at a banquet.

Middle of the banquet, Theresa says, "Chip, it is time." I said, "Theresa, let's go." 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, they 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, it goes like this: beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep, right? And then she would have a contraction, and it would go: beep-beep-beep... beep... beep. Then doctors and nurses would run in. Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.

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, I 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. 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. Baylor is 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 little baby with tears streaming 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'm made in the 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 think, "Well, hope they get a good job," and "Hope they do well in school."

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: that our Heavenly Father has a dream for every one of His children. And God's dream is to make you like His—write 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 8:28, he says God uses every circumstance, every up, every down, every relationship, everything we ever go through, to conform us to the image of His 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, 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 guesswork. 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 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 CliffNotes snapshot. What we're going to learn as we go through it: number one, are you ready for this? It's relational. And 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 one is going to talk about what's the snapshot of spiritual maturity, of true spirituality with God? Then go down, it 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 word "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.

Dave Druey: 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. Now, let's rejoin Chip with today's message.

Chip Ingram: The second thing you learn about a Romans 12 Christian is that it's practical and it's measurable. Okay, this isn't just an ooey-gooey spiritual feeling. Follow along, if you will, notice what it says in verse one: "Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship."

We'll look at this, but this word for "offer" is 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 woman or a student has realized how great and how powerful God is and that His will is good.

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 guide 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.

My observation is in most Christians' lives, there's a missing ingredient. In Romans 12, not only is it 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 research. And there's still one email that I remember reading and thinking, "Wow."

Lady said, "I was at the kitchen sink doing the dishes, and that morning I woke up and I felt kind of 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—were 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." 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." She talked about drying 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—pssssh! But what does someone really, really smart do if you get the hose?

They go over here and they grab the hose and 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 approve 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 significance 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, you'll experience." You know the question, the big question in life this verse answers? 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 and He has a plan 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've got to turn on the TV. You've got to go to the refrigerator. When you get in the car, you've got to put sound and music on because absolute, dead, deathly quiet times make you very uncomfortable. There are 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 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've been over here where I've had Bible study and talking about sexual purity and lusted like crazy over here and telling God I'll never do this, 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—are 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 the 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 allotted to each a measure of 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 through 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 gift, that height, that eye color. Those struggles, that family background.

In 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?

I mean, 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. My son or my daughter, they got this on their SAT scores, and he hit two home runs. And I want you to know I went to an Ivy League school, and this purse, it's not a knock-off, it's really real. And this watch, it really is, and I got promoted and—nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, nyeh!"

And then you spiritualize it all and you get in a Bible study, "Well, according to so-and-so's commentary, when I was reading the Greek text a little bit earlier in preparation for this—ugh!" 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. 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.

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 or 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.

Dave Druey: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. 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.

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Chip Ingram: 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 of the Christian life and gives us a summary and boils it down to those five significant relationships.

And in our relationship to God, what did 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.

Dave Druey: Ready to discover the missing ingredient most Christians lack: power, peace, and purpose? I'm Dave Druey. Join us tomorrow as Chip Ingram continues "God's Dream for Your Life," right here on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.