Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Only God can change a life, but he never chooses to change it alone. There's a God part and there's a your part. The question is how do those fit together? What's your part? What's his part? That's today.

Dave Druey: What can you expect from God? And what does God expect from you? These aren't just theological questions; they powerfully shape how we live and love. I'm Dave Druey, and today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram tackles one of the most misunderstood tensions in Christianity: God's sovereignty versus human responsibility.

In our series Choosing Love, we're learning that love requires both God's grace and our obedience working together, and why being a grateful servant is the key to transformation. So if you've got your Bible handy, open to Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 12. Here's Chip Ingram with his message, Love Obeys.

Chip Ingram: I want to share a leadership lesson that I learned many, many years ago that really reshaped my life, and it's one that I have to keep on learning. On the very front of your notes, you'll notice I've written: our expectations powerfully shape our relationships and our responses. Circle the word "expectations." Our expectations, they're so subtle. We have them often and we don't even know what they are.

I grew up in a home where my mom was really into breakfast. At about 6:15 or 6:30, I could smell bacon and eggs every single morning, and our whole family ate breakfast together. It was really wonderful. Well, I got married, and I don't know why, but I just expected that we would have breakfast every morning. Early in our marriage, after our honeymoon, I came home and said, "Breakfast?" and she goes, "Well, the cereal's up there, I think there's milk in the refrigerator, and go to it."

It was like, what? You don't understand. It was just like... Now, we never talked about, "Now, when we get married, you've got to fix breakfast." Safe to say, we don't do breakfast in our house quite like my mom. By contrast, my wife had a father who was very handy. He could fix just about anything: the car, the gas, the motor.

So, she actually had this expectation that me being a man, and her father being a man, that the car would be filled with gas. If it didn't work, I could fix it. There's a carburetor in here somewhere. I knew nothing, and she was like... Now, I could give you a hundred other expectations that aren't trivial, that have caused really painful issues.

But here's what I want you to get. Notice in your notes: our personal history is paramount in forming our expectations. She thinks every husband can fix cars because her dad did; I thought every woman cooks breakfast because my mom did. Your personal history just loads you up with a set of expectations. Now, if we do that in our relationships with people, imagine how we do that in our relationships with God.

Two critical questions emerge when we think about God and expectations. The first is: what can we expect of God? And the second: what does God expect of us? Some people come from backgrounds that we can expect that God will make life happy and wonderful, we'll be healthy, wealthy, wise if we just believe, just love Jesus, and your life is going to be great and trouble-free. So when trouble comes, they really wonder where's God.

There's another group of people that are really super sober, and it's going to be hard, and it's all about suffering, and when God brings blessing into their life, it's like they feel guilty when good things happen. So the question I want to ask you is: what's your expectations of God? What do you expect of him?

And are you ready to flip it over? Have you ever thought seriously about what God expects of you? And just like our personal history shapes our expectations with one another, history itself shapes our expectations depending on our backgrounds of how we think God's going to respond. What does he want? What does he give? How do we receive it? How do you know when you're okay with God? What's God's part in this relationship and what's my part?

Notice on the bottom of your notes, I want you to write this word in: remember, our history always shapes our expectations, and historically, people have answered those two questions very, very differently. With that, open your notes if you would, and I'm going to give you a very brief history lesson that if you are strong in either one of these camps, you will be frustrated. I'm purposely going to sort of push or polarize to the extremes of two historical positions.

In the 16th century, John Calvin was a great, great theologian in Geneva. He began to teach, and there was a whole goal of what it would be like for a Christian city, and he had a very strong view of God and about his sovereignty, his power. But it was pushed to extremes by some of his followers. So about 80 or 90 years later, a fellow named Jacob Arminius came along and he said, "Boy, you know, we've strayed beyond the Bible."

So he began to teach some things, and so what you have is two basic camps. And I'm going to push the extreme, so if you are a Calvinist, you'll say he's not representing us well. I understand that. If you're more Arminian, you're going to say he's not representing us well either. Good, both will be unhappy with me. What I want to do is show you the extremes because you have been impacted historically.

You have certain expectations about what God is asking of you. If you come from a, let me just call it a hyper-Calvinistic background, you believe God is sovereign and in control. You believe that he's predestined and predetermined just about everything in life. You focus on verse 13 of Philippians 2: "It is God who is at work." In extreme Calvinism, God not only chooses people for heaven, he chooses people for hell, so it's called double predestination.

And so you actually had people in churches going, "I believe I've been chosen by God to honor his name to hell." It was crazy, but it was this idea that since we can have no part in our salvation, it is all of God with no sense of our responsibility. It was this extreme that turned into fatalism. You were eternally secure, and a hyper-hyper-Calvinist would say in terms of our responsibility, just let go and let God. In essence, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. The joke when you tease hyper-Calvinists is when they trip, they get up and say, "I'm glad that's over." Think about it, it'll come to you.

Arminius, by contrast, said, "No, no, no, God is sovereign, but we're responsible. We have a free will, we make choices." He emphasizes verse 12: "Work out your salvation." Our choices have consequences. Therefore, as a result of it, if you came from this side, eternity's not certain. You know, you might be a good Christian for a while, but if you mess up, you're out. Finally, the idea is let's go and let's get with it.

I jotted down a couple thoughts. If you're Presbyterian, Anglican, many Baptist, a lot of Bible churches are reformed in your tradition, strong Calvinistic roots. If you are Methodist, Wesleyan, Nazarene, Charismatic, Foursquare, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, strong Arminian roots.

Notice in your notes, here's what I want to get: God's word rejects both extremes and holds God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in biblical tension and balance. In other words, if you read through the scriptures, what you find is the Bible's really clear: God is sovereign, God is in control. The Bible's really clear: you are absolutely responsible and will be held accountable for your choices.

And you say, "Well, how can that be?" The answer is, I don't know. But what I'm going to go on record and say is no one else knows either. But what happens is people tend to go one direction or another. So if you're reading through the book of Acts, if you're a strong Calvinist, it says, "And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed," and you say, "See, they were appointed." Except if you read the next chapter, it says, "And Paul spoke so persuasively a great number believed." Which is true? Both.

Here's the tension I want you to get. You can develop systems that can remove one or the other, but both are true. Imagine if you will a telephone pole, and imagine guide wires, those cables, pulling on each end, and there's deep stakes. This is the sovereignty of God and this is the responsibility of man.

If there's slack or you remove one of those cords, you go to extremes. Pushed to its practical end, you become passive. Let go, let God, whatever is going to be is going to be. Or the other way, you get guilt-ridden and no matter how much you do, God's not in control. If I forgot one time to share my faith, that person may go to hell because I didn't do my part. The whole world is on me.

What I want you to know is the Apostle Paul, interestingly, he's already did this in chapter 1, remember? He said, "I'm confident. I'm going to be executed. I'm confident of this: this is what's going to turn out for my deliverance. Your prayers," man's responsibility, "and the provision of the Spirit of God," God's sovereignty. He now in verse 12 says, "So then, my beloved, just as you always," circle the word "obeyed."

The word "obeyed" in the New Testament, sometimes we feel like I think our English and our background obey is like ought, should, gotta, and it certainly has that thrust. But the word is "hupo," to be under, "akouo," to hear. Like you have an acoustic guitar, that's where we get our word. To obey is to be under the hearing of God. Lord, what would you have me to do? It's a relationship. I want to follow, and when you speak about any area, I want to listen in order not to just know, but to obey.

So he says to them, "My beloved, just as you always obeyed, not just in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation," would you circle that phrase, "with fear and trembling." "Work out" is a mining term. It's literally like if you owned a gold mine, it's work your claim, continue mining the riches of what God has done.

When the Spirit of God came into your life, when you turned from your sin and received Christ, all the spiritual blessings in heaven were deposited in you. You were sealed with the Spirit. You have an inheritance. He's saying, "Okay, now what I want you to do is I want you to work out what God has worked in." Notice it doesn't say work for your salvation. You can't earn it. Work out. In other words, I want you to cooperate, and just like if you owned a gold mine, that gold does nothing under the ground. And he says you cooperate with God, work out your salvation, and notice with a sense of reverential awe. This is a precious, amazing gift, your salvation. Don't let it sit there. Don't be passive.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment. If today's message is speaking to your heart, don't keep it to yourself. Share this teaching with someone who needs to hear it by visiting livingontheedge.org. And while you're there, be sure to check out all of the other faith-building resources we have available, including teaching videos, blogs, and devotionals from Chip. It's all waiting for you at livingontheedge.org. Let's continue with Chip's message.

Chip Ingram: Sometimes when people talk about grace, they think of grace as the opposite of effort. The Bible says we make every effort to walk with God. The Bible talks about the grace of God teaching us to say no to all ungodliness and live sober, disciplined lives. It takes great effort. The opposite of grace is not effort. The opposite of grace is merit. Merit is earning something.

And Paul is saying to these people that are having some disunity issues, people that are being persecuted, he says, "You know, I don't know if I'm going to live or not. But whether I get to see you and live or I die, I want you to keep on obeying. I want you to love one another. I want you to choose to look up when circumstances are bad. I want you to care for one another. I want you to be generous. In persecution, I want you to be faithful." So, work out your salvation that God's worked in. That's your responsibility.

Notice verse 13. What's the little word "for"? It means the reason. Why should you work this out? For God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Would you circle the word "to work" and then underline "will" and "good pleasure." Word for "work" is a very interesting word. I did a word study on it. We get our word "energy." It's never used in the New Testament to describe human power. 100 percent of the time, it is the power of God.

It's a word that means effective action. It describes action that always achieves its desired end results or purpose. In ancient Greece, it was a demonstration of inner character that always led to an outward virtue. And in summary, he's saying, "For God who is at work, he is energizing by his power working in you in spirit, both to will, his purpose to create both the desire and the power."

So God's sovereign, I'm responsible. God has gifted me purely by his grace this new life in his Spirit. It is a riches that I now live out, and I mine my claim. And so to work out, grace has been given, and I could say all the truth of life is in this book, and I could hand you this book. And you could take this book and you could set it on your desk and you could never open it. And you could say, "I just don't know what to do. I don't have any truth. I don't know what to do about marriage, I don't know what to do about parenting, I don't know what to do about my money, I wonder what's going to happen to the end of the world," and all the while, all the riches and all the truth is on your desk. God will not read this for you, okay?

But you have it. And it's the same. In other words, work out. So the disciplines of being in God's word, the discipline of praying, the discipline of being in community and doing life and being honest and supportive and accountability, the disciplines of suffering, the disciplines of some things take time, and the disciplines of serving one another. When you, are you ready, when you practice those things, it's like imagine tubes coming from this great lake of heaven. You're accessing the grace of God, and as you practice those things, the Apostle Paul says Christ is being formed in you.

It's a metaphor of a baby growing to a toddler to a teenager to a mature adult. And he says our part is to utilize the truth: the word, prayer, the Lord's supper, relationships, to access the grace to mine this new life that's been a free gift. Does that make sense?

History lesson is over, but I do want you to know that it seeps in everywhere because what happens is that I came up around a group, you came up around a group, and these groups have thoughts about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And I will just say, you know, some of you struggle with guilt because no matter how much you do, it's never enough. Because you live with this, you know, there's never enough, God's down on you. Now that's an extreme, that's not what should be taught.

Some of you are like laid back to the point of you're not doing what you need to, and but you have this subtle of, well, God's in control. He really is in control, but that doesn't excuse you. And so what you want to do is you want to say, "I don't want what Calvin taught and I don't want what Jacob Arminius taught. I want what Jesus taught. I want what the New Testament said. I want what the word of God says."

And there's going to be certain times and certain passages—I've been doing this for quite a while—I don't fully understand. I don't think anyone fully understands, but I've got plenty of truth to know this. I will stand before God as a follower of Jesus and give an account for my time, my energy, my money, and my decisions. And I've been around long enough to know this is that despite my mistakes, my difficulties, the times even that I've sinned, the times when I knew what was right and I didn't even do it, there's this patient, kind, loving, sovereign God that's working even those difficulties and things that people have done to me and circumstances I can't understand because he's such a, are you ready, good, good father. And so becoming like Jesus and following him is a cooperative effort: your effort and discipline to mine, not earn, but to mine out the grace that God's given you.

Well, the question then becomes is how do you work out what God worked in? I mean, it's nice to hear that, I kind of gave you the theory and the history, but practically how do you do it? Well, Paul, this is a really amazing thing, after chapter 2 verse 12 and after verse 13, guess what comes? Verse 14 and 15 and 16 and 17.

So guess what Paul's going to do? He says, "I want you to obey to be the kind of follower of Jesus fully by his grace, even if I come or I don't come, but the goal is I want you to be under the hearing, so I'm going to give you very specific things to obey so that you have unity and that God uses you in this perverse generation." So, are you ready? Get your pen out, keep your Bible open. Here's command number one. He says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." So the command is: be a grateful servant. Be a grateful servant.

If, not to be overly technical, but if you had the Greek text in your hand, you would read it and you would go, oh wait, the word order, it's completely out of order. They took the word "everything" and "do everything" and it belongs in the back of the sentence, and they put it all the way in the front of the sentence for what? Emphasis. Drive your car, pay your bills, live with your mate, respond to the government and pay your taxes. How? Do everything without complaining or arguing. Word for "complaining" here is basically grumbling. It's that infectious negative attitude. It's really about be a grateful servant in your speech and in your attitude. Don't whine, don't complain, don't talk about your boss or your supervisor behind their back. Don't be negative, don't be critical, don't be sarcastic, don't put people down. This is getting pretty convicting just me saying this to myself.

Dave Druey: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today, Chip revealed the biblical balance between God's work and our work: how we cooperate with God's grace through obedience. If you want to hear more from Chip, stick around, he'll be right back.

And did you know Chip has written a powerful book that complements our series? It's called I Choose Love. In this special new resource, Chip shows you how to work out what God has worked in, accessing the riches of salvation through spiritual disciplines like reading God's Word, prayer, authentic community, and serving others. I Choose Love gives you practical tools to mine the grace God has deposited in you, showing you how Christ is formed in you through consistent obedience. If you're tired of the extremes of passivity or performance and want to experience the freedom of biblical obedience, get I Choose Love today by going to our website, livingontheedge.org.

And you know, these daily teachings exist because partners like you believe in this ministry. When you give to Living on the Edge, you're helping people discover how to walk in grace-filled obedience. Will you join us? Support this ministry at livingontheedge.org or mail your gift to Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30304. You can also call us at 888-333-6003. And we've added something new to the Living on the Edge podcast: the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. Now you can hear Chip's complete, unedited sermons as they were originally preached. Just subscribe to the Living on the Edge podcast on your favorite podcast app. Well, now here's Chip.

Chip Ingram: As we wrap up today's program, let me ask you: which of those historical experiences or perspectives would you honestly say has kind of influenced the way that you see God the most? I mean, what's impacted you? We've all grown up around people and a view of God and Christian groups, and what I find honestly is that there's great strengths in all these different camps and really good, godly people.

So here's the issue. If in fact God is sovereign and we are responsible, what does it look like to be a follower of Christ that's relational, that's grace-oriented, but where we're responding? And I would suggest that the Apostle Paul, who talked more about the sovereignty of God than anyone else, especially in Romans, he actually tells us this is who God is and this is all he's done. And then he flips the script because he's perfectly, divinely balanced and says, "Okay, chapter 12 through the end of the book is: this is what your life looks like when you're responding in faith and obedience."

In verse 1 of chapter 12, he says it means that you're fully, completely surrendered to God. In verse 2, he's going to tell you they're separate from the world's values. And then in verse 3 through 8, he'll talk about having an honest or sober self-assessment about who you are, your strengths, your weaknesses, and how God's made you to serve him in love. So the whole chapter is a snapshot or a picture of: what does it look like to be a mature believer?

What is God's part and what is our part? Can I encourage you to just as a matter of balance to today open Romans chapter 12, and in your heart of hearts say, "Lord, I know that I'm responsible and I know that you're absolutely sovereign, and as I read this chapter, would you help me become more and more the man or the woman that you want me to become? I want to reflect the very love and the character of Jesus." And I think you'll experience the special grace of God that allows you not to get too hung up on all that you do and not be too laid back about all he does.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey, and we'll continue today's lesson titled Love Obeys Monday on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.