Living on the Edge

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

Chip Ingram: Rarely in my life have I experienced such pain as when I make a commitment I know God wants me to make and then I blow it. I don't follow through. Today, three keys to keeping your commitments that matter most. Stay with us.

Dave Druey: Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram continues a series called You Were Made for More: How to Discover God's Purpose for Your Life. He's laying out three principles drawn straight from Nehemiah chapter 3 that answer the one question all of us quietly wrestle with: How do you make the kind of commitment that actually holds? Whether it's a commitment to God, to your marriage, to your kids, or to the purpose he's placed in your heart, today's message has real practical answers. Now here's Chip Ingram with his message titled Exercise Personal Commitment.

Chip Ingram: How do you make and sustain personal commitments? That's what we want to talk about. And the answer is going to be in Nehemiah chapter 3. We're going to see that he modeled it convincingly. Open your notes if you will, let me walk through with you a couple of observations. When I look at this, couldn't we all agree the gates are the central focus of this chapter? The paragraphs break and there's a line under them, they're real bold. Whatever this chapter is about, the central focus is the gates.

Second, there's a variety of people involved in this work. There are personal names, sometimes it's their father, their grandfather, or where they come from. I just listed some: there's merchants, there's priests, perfumers, goldsmiths, rulers, servants, temple servants, daughters, nobles, and officials.

Next observation is notice that the approach was very systematic and organized. They began on the sheep gate and they went counter-clockwise, ending on the sheep gate. Each group had a specific responsibility. As you scan and read this a bit on your own, you see this group built according to this wall, this group built in front of their house, this group did this over here. So each group had a very specific role and responsibility.

Next observation is each group worked near their homes, or at least whenever possible. In verse 10, verse 22, verse 26, 28, 29, and 30, they didn't have to travel. And the other is there was a godly vested interest. Can you imagine saying, "Okay, we're going to rebuild this part of the wall right here"? These were huge walls; you could drive a chariot on top of these walls. And then inside the walls, the housing would be built. My living room might be here, and then the external wall be here. I'm thinking I'm going to do a pretty good job on this part of the wall if the catapults and the stones start coming and the arrows and the spears. I think I'm going to make it pretty thick and pretty good. I'm not going to do one of those "this is good enough for government work."

He motivates them not only by the great intrinsic "we're doing this for God," but he puts them in a place that highly motivates them to work in a way that has their best interest in mind. We're going to learn in just a second that some people were going to repair and other people were going to build because our giftedness is different. Some people are really great at fixing stuff, and other people think, "I can't fix anything," but they're great with a clean sheet of paper and they can build stuff.

In the context, chapters 4, 5, and 6 will be about opposition. Anytime you take a step, whether you decide to start really reading your Bible or really praying or working on your marriage, or saying as a family, "We're going to do something radical, we're going to try and eat together two or three times a week," "I'm going to actually tuck my kids in and read them a story," "I'm going to get with a group of single people and we're going to make a covenant about making a difference in our workplaces and we're going to be sexually pure." Every time you take any kind of step of faith like that, it'll usually get worse before it gets better.

Chapter 4 you get external opposition, chapter 5 there's internal opposition, and then chapter 6 he gets personal attack. People who make these kinds of commitments change, they change people around them, and they change the world. But it usually starts with some very significant time of motivation and it gets clear this is what we've got to do. And then they start this process and usually it's followed by things that are very difficult. Notice who started the work: it's the high priest. Different people have responsibility. The high priest was the highest representative of God, and notice the very first line, he models that. The ragtag group finished it in 52 days, and I have a friend who's an engineer who said this is an absolute engineering miracle; it's an impossibility.

Notice they worked in affinity groups. If you could study a little bit longer, the priests worked together, the merchants, the goldsmiths worked together, they worked in families, servants. Then they worked in geographical areas so they knew each other. When you work, you're more motivated to work with people that you have some kinship with. It's true today. Some of you are real techie and you can talk in languages that I don't understand, some of you are more artistic, and some of you come from different parts of the country. There's just an affinity of culture and background that as we work together with people that we can understand, it helps us sustain motivation and helps us keep our commitments. We understand one another.

Final thing here is that notice there were two special commendations. In verse 5, if you skip down there, you can see that he talks about the nobles; they didn't put their shoulder to the work. First imagine all these individual names. God doesn't accomplish his work by some big blanket thing. Think of all the individual names and imagine maybe the very next generation; these people are like your father or your grandfathers. God accomplishes things not by groups and movements and programs, he does it one person, one life at a time. And so that's how important individuals are. All these specific names. And he knows; he knows who's slacking off. And then if you skip down to verse 20, notice the stellar Baruch. It says he worked zealously. God sees people's motives, he sees people's hearts, he knows where you're at, he knows where I'm at. And in all this long list he says, "This fellow really didn't carry his weight, and this person over here..." So all those are observations.

Now before I go on, here's what I'd like you to think about. Where are you at in your personal commitment to Jesus Christ? Is it an emotional one, intellectual one? Is it "Yeah, I'd like to be more committed, but I'm kind of afraid to because I'm three steps forward, nine steps backward"? Where are you at, privately, no hands or anything? For those of you that are married, down deep in your heart, where are you at in your commitment to your mate?

As I shared, there were times that I just felt like, "God, this isn't working. I'm really frustrated." I went through the "I'm not very fulfilled right now, I'm not very happy. In fact, I'm not happy at all." And then the enemy comes in and tries to tempt you. So where are you there? Or how about how committed are you, some of you that are parents, to really saying, "I will own the moral responsibility of raising my kids that regardless of their SAT scores or how well they do in athletics, they're going to be godly kids"? That changes stuff.

I don't know where it is, I've got my journey when I'm thinking about "God, what do you want me to really refresh and renew my commitments," but I want you to think about that right now. For some of you maybe as a single person you're saying, "I'm sort of committed to sexual purity." You know where that lands you, don't you? "I'm sort of committed to only dating someone who really walks with God, unless he's very good-looking. Or unless she's really hot and I think there's real spiritual potential and I could help her." Been there and done that.

What I want to do now is I want to walk through these three principles and I want you to pray. I want you to pray and say, "God, would you help clarify in my mind and my heart where you want me to make or where you want me to further sustain personal commitments in my life." How to make and sustain personal commitments: number one is the principle of cooperation. We never get beyond how we're getting along. Everything that ever gets accomplished in life is done in the context of relationships. And so here's the key: recognize people are different. Nehemiah did that. Second, recognize the immense value of every person. Realize that whether it's at work or whether it's your family, you're human. Some of your kids frustrate you in some seasons and some make you very happy. Some are very easy and some are very hard. Some people in your small group you connect with, some make you nuts. But just recognize that it's not bad or good, it's they're different. And third, recognize that our common goal or common vision is greater than our individual differences.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and we'll have more in just a moment. Remember, the place to go for all of these daily messages is over on our website, livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library along with even more content like Chip's free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip Ingram app absolutely free through any app store on your smartphone. Now let's continue with today's message from Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: It's the principle of cooperation. You will never get beyond how you're getting along. And if you find yourself in your heart critical of people, even if it's only in your mind, if you find yourself always pointing out what's wrong with your mate or what's wrong with some of your kids or what's wrong with some people in this church or what's wrong with this or what's wrong with that, or if you find yourself in little coffee shops talking about other people that sort of have this little negative slant, I will tell you what: you won't make progress.

Personal commitments are fostered when we feel like we belong. I believe when those people started on that wall together, they felt like, "I belong. I'm a part of the team." Nehemiah, God's got his hand on Nehemiah, God brought him here, we know it's God's will to rebuild these walls, we know what God promised to do in the city, we know that we're God's people. And I belong. I'm going to be a part and I'm going to do my little section on the wall. And when you feel like you belong, it fosters commitment.

When you feel like you're visiting, when you feel like it's them working on the wall, when you feel like it's that church, when you find yourself in conversations talking about what they're doing—and it's not negative, it's a journey, it's a process—but there's not that sense that you belong. It's sort of an evaluative, "Well, I want this is what they're doing, here's what they're trying to do." That's a lot different than "this is what we're doing. This is where we're going. This is where we have challenges."

So let me ask you: Do you feel like you belong? And maybe the second question is: What do you need to do to take that next step? Because otherwise we've created this culture, especially in America that many places around the world, where we actually think "church" is a building and that church is an event that happens sometime usually on Sunday morning and you go and sit and listen to someone talk and sing some songs, hopefully feel a little bit better about yourself because you've done it, and then live the other six days almost totally apart from that experience but feel like, "I went to church."

Therefore, what do you think, God? It's that subtle consumer mindset versus church is us people together, connected together to accomplish his purposes. And his purpose here in this church is to help us love one another and love people outside this room and help Christians live like Christians. That's God's call. And that's a 24/7, 365 event.

The second principle is the principle of coordination. The multiple efforts of a group are far greater than the sum of its parts. It's synergy. In other words, this group couldn't get anything going, they had a catalytic leader in Nehemiah, he cast a clear vision, people understood, "I want you to do this part, this part, this part, this part. You come from different places, you can work with people that you know, but from this section to this section, you do this, they do that." And the sum of the parts in 52 days did a miracle. That's how God has always worked. It's true in Acts chapter 2, it's true in the early church, it was true in the Reformation, it was true with Wesley and Whitefield, it was true in the early days of America, and it's true in different parts of the world now: it's the principle of coordination.

Well, how do you do that? Well, first we recognize we need each other. There are no lone rangers. You can't make it on your own, I can't make it on my own. Even the 12-step people know that. You can't make it on your own. Recognize there's a job that only you can do. Personal commitments grow when we know that we are needed.

Do you understand there's this amazing connection between commitment and love? Jesus said, "He that has my commands and keeps them, he it is that loves me, and he that loves me will be loved of my father." And then here's the promise: "And we will disclose ourselves to you." You get close and meet and touch and feel and experience and get transformed by God not by just soaking in information, it's by receiving truth and then I respond to the truth and I connect with other people and I discover my gifts and then together we do this thing and he creates something out of it.

Here's what I want you to hear: you're needed. You're needed. What happens in the church and the life is just the byproduct. What happens is the most fulfilled people, the people that had their names written in this chapter, were people who saw God could use an ordinary person like me. And what they did is they moved off of looking at the rubble and assuming that this is the way it's going to be, and they aligned around a vision. And the sum total of the parts did something beyond what they could ever dream.

Third principle is the principle of motivation. The value of the project to the worker will determine the value of the worker to the project. Might have to think that one over very carefully. But think about the value of the project to the worker. How important is it will determine how important that person is. Some people walked—when's the last time you walked 17 miles, anyone? I've gone up that Quicksilver trail. I've done four or five miles and uphill and downhill. You've got to be kidding me. These people in this text, they walked 26 miles. They didn't take the bus, they didn't take their bicycle, they didn't say, "Hey, let's take a little scooter." If they were rich they maybe had a donkey. But they walked 26 miles to get to work, to get to help, and they left the harvest behind.

You understand that you are sitting in a room that's been paved by the sacrifice and the commitment of people that have given their time, their energy, their money, and in many places all around the world their life so the Gospel could reach you and reach me. And our responsibility is to take that baton and move forward and do it for the next generation. The motivation must begin with leaders and influencers. It's just life, the way it is. And if you're the head of your home, Dad, you're an influencer. If you're the glue of the home, Mom, you're an influencer. If you're a student and people kind of look to you because of academics or athletics, you're an influencer. If you're a single person and you realize that when you move everyone says, "What are we going to do tonight?" and you say, "Let's do this," and people do that, you're an influencer. It always begins with leaders; there's a stewardship there. You're not better than anybody else. If you're a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a CEO, if you're a manager, you need to understand that where you move, networks move with you. So you need to really examine the stewardship and say, "What vision am I going to align my life, my time, and my energy around?" Because that's how that thing happened on the wall then, and that's how it's going to happen on the wall here.

Motivation is sustained by godly vested interest. We want to help people serve and volunteer, but we want to help them serve and volunteer in a way where they get refreshed. We want to help them serve and volunteer so they become better parents. We want to help them serve and volunteer where they get loved and encouraged. We want to help them serve and volunteer where they discover their gifts, where they learn about how to align their finances so that five years from now, instead of being debt up to here and feeling under pressure, they'll say, "You know what? I paid all that stuff off. I just applied biblical principles. There's people that really helped me." We want people to volunteer and serve in such a way where they say, "I didn't tell anyone about that kind of little private porn addiction or that drug addiction or that alcohol addiction or that people addiction or that workaholic addiction, but when I got involved and it got safe and I got that out there, and the Word of God and the grace of God and the people of God... I'm free." That's how it works.

Notice what happens: the completed wall would mean protection from their enemies, the completed wall would mean provision for a better life, and the completed wall would mean productivity and impact in their world. Personal commitments are sustained when the vision becomes our vision. So where are you at in your personal commitment with God? Are you a little fair weather like when there's a kid in ICU or you need a job? "I am very committed to God. Help me, help me, help me." Or have you signed up and said, "I get one little trip through this thing called time. And then I'm going to live forever. And I'm really glad my sins are forgiven, and I'm really glad I'm heaven bound, but I don't want to waste this. I want to do exactly what you want me to do and I want to pay whatever price because the rewards are astounding now and eternal later." The end of the day, whether it's in your marriage or your parenting, whether it's in your singleness, whether it's at work, it really boils down to having the heart of a servant that says, "Lord, use me."

Dave Druey: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and a message titled Exercise Personal Commitment. We're in a series called You Were Made for More, which you can always revisit online at livingontheedge.org, or download the Chip Ingram app and access all of this content right from your smartphone. Plus, you can find full-length sermons through the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

Chip closed today with a powerful truth: the value of the project to the worker determines the value of the worker to the project. Those men in Nehemiah 3 walked 26 miles, left the harvest behind, and built with everything they had because they knew what was at stake and who they were building with. When you know what you were made for and you're doing it alongside people who share that vision, commitment stops feeling like a discipline and starts feeling like a privilege. And if you haven't yet taken a step to find out what God specifically made you for, we have a great place for you to start. It's a free online assessment called The Real You, a short biblically grounded tool that helps you understand how God has wired you from the inside out. Take the assessment absolutely free at therealyou.org.

If Living on the Edge has been part of your walk with God, we'd love for you to be part of what makes it possible for others. Your gift keeps this gospel work going and reaches people who need to hear that they were made for more. Join us as a monthly partner or give a one-time gift today by going online to livingontheedge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. Now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: There are few things that can overwhelm us with guilt like knowing that we've made a commitment to God, to a mate, to a friend, and then just dropping the ball and knowing we've blown it. And so I want to pray for you right now. You may not be able to close your eyes, you may be on the highway, or you might be listening to this as you're doing something in the office, but could you pause mentally with me and let me pray for you?

Holy Father, we want to thank you that you are a good God and that you're a merciful God, that you are slow to anger and you're abounding in lovingkindness. And you are mindful that we are people of dust and people of flesh and that we make the best of intentions and we tell you we want to do what's right and then we find ourselves blowing it. We do exactly the thing we said we didn't want to do or we don't follow through on the very thing that we promised we would do. And we want to own that. We want to come to you and say that we're sorry. We ask you for your forgiveness. We would plead the blood of the Lord Jesus on our behalf as the forgiveness and the cleansing of our sin. And we want to be restored.

And Lord, we also want to draw near to you now. We want the grace and the strength to renew our commitment, to find people that we can team up with and get support and help so that we can be the men, be the women that you want us to be. Lord, I pray for those that have given up on their marriage and that is not your will, that you would give them the grace at this moment to be recommitted and do whatever's necessary to make it work. I pray for those that have made a commitment to you and have wandered and know that today's the day they need to return and know that you will forgive and restore. Lord, will you give them the grace to do that right now? I pray for those kids that have wandered away from their parents and their family and the faith, and they need to do a 180, do a U-turn even as they're hearing my voice. Will you give them the grace right now at this moment to decide, "I'm going to go back. I'm going to make it right with my folks, I'm going to do what I know is right." Almighty God, we pray for your grace to keep the commitments that we know are your will. In Jesus' name, amen.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey, and that brings us to the end of today's program. Join us here next time for more clear, insightful Bible teaching on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.