I Choose Hope - Pursuing Hope, Part 2

What happens inside of you when you mess up? I mean a real personal failure. Does it ruin everything? Or do you just shrug it off and figure, ah, it's not that big a deal?

Do you confess it and move on? Or does it stay with you and wreck any possibility of joy or peace? Well, today we're going to talk about what it means to put our past behind us. Don't go away. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry motivating Christians to live like Christians. Today, Chip picks up where he left off last time in his series, I Choose Hope, by sharing three specific lessons we need to learn about spiritual maturity. Now, in case you missed the first half of his message or any part of his study in Philippians chapter 3, catch up through the Chip Ingram app.

It's a great way to listen to Living on the Edge anytime. Okay, here's Chip for the second part of his talk, Pursuing Hope. What the Apostle Paul is doing is he's addressing two extremes. There were two extremes about what it meant to be spiritually mature.

And in very subtle ways, he's addressed both of them. On the one hand, spiritual maturity is not compulsive perfectionism. When the Judaizers and legalistic people came in, you gotta live up, you gotta live up, you gotta live up, you gotta live up, you gotta live up. And by the way, there's some of us and there's some of you that maybe it's not even conscious, but you live with this, who you are and where you're at on your journey, it never measures up. You live with this low grade guilt that messes with your life all the time. And as a result, some of you parents, you are passing that on to your kids.

No matter what they do, however much progress they make, it's never enough. There's this perfectionism. And what he's saying is that that's not spiritual maturity. Reading your Bible every day, praying every day, having all your ducks in a row, it's about a relationship. The test of spiritual maturity is loving God and loving people and a transformed life. It's not this external perfectionism. But there's another extreme and he addressed that in the very last verse.

Spiritual maturity is not complacent passivity. On the one hand, these Judaizers were coming in and giving people a list of rules, you gotta do all this. But there was another group. The other group, it's a big word, antinomianist. You learned a big word today.

Anti against the law. And what they would say is, you know this stuff about Jesus, it's even better than we thought. This is what grace means. You pray and you receive Jesus into your heart. You are forgiven. God loves you unconditionally. There are no rules.

You can live however you want. There is no morality. It's just grace, grace, grace.

Some people have called it cheap grace. So you can keep living in sin, quote, because God understands. He's a gracious God. You're already forgiven. And this is where he says you need to live up to the standard. Okay, thank you Chip.

We have now learned a great deal about the Apostle Paul and what was going on in the life of the church. Help me a little bit on what's this really got to do with me. I want you to lean back. I want you to really think.

I want to summarize some things because God wants to give you hope. You need to find it. You need to experience it. But you need to pursue it. But you need to pursue it in such a way that no matter what you do, you never measure up is not an option.

And on the other hand, there's not just this laxity that I guess God just winks at everything. Genuine spiritual maturity is a passionate pursuit of knowing and becoming like Jesus. Will you get it in this life? Well I know. But it's a passionate pursuit. So let me give you again what I think are three really major takeaways. Number one, spiritual maturity does not mean that we are perfect.

Write that word in. What I mean by that is sinless. We never will be in this life. He says he wants to know Christ. He gave us the disclaimer.

But that's huge. It doesn't say that we're perfect but it does give us a direction. He says but I press on. But I hold on. And so what it does mean is that spiritual maturity is a lifelong process of knowing and becoming like Christ.

So what I want you to know, there is no quick fix. Becoming like Jesus, knowing God takes time progressively in his word. It takes you being honest with yourself and talking with God from your heart.

It requires, and this is a non-negotiable, that you're involved in relationships with people where there's honesty and love and support and understanding and accountability. And apart from God's word, people, prayer, and are you ready? Suffering and difficulty and pain. Those are the avenues by which God begins to conform us to himself. And as those things are happening, he calls us. Paul's ministering. He calls us to serve first wherever we live, with our roommate, our family. He calls us to serve that I'm an agent of light and love in my neighborhood and at the coffee shop and at the gym and where I go to work. And what he's saying is, it is going to be a journey. There's an already not yet, okay? You already are loved, you already are forgiven, but you're not yet perfect and there's a tension that you're going to live in. But there is a direction, not perfection, there's a direction, there's a focus, there's an intentionality.

So can I pause? How are you doing? Not legalism, not odds and shoulds, but I mean, how are you doing at pursuing intentionally and with intensity a deep, rich, growing relationship with the God who made you? And saved you and loved you. And if you're a follower of Christ, his spirit lives in you. His word has been given to you and in this room and all around the world, you're a part of a supernatural body called the church, that his spirit lives in them and they will minister to you and you will minister to them.

And this process of transformation continues and continues and continues. The second major takeaway is that spiritual maturity does mean our lives are characterized by a passionate pursuit of knowing and becoming like Jesus. Verse 12, we're never going to be perfect. Verse 13 and 14, passionate pursuit.

How do you do that? You have to come before God. It's when we see him, when we get glimpses of him, when he reveals himself in his word and prayer and people and as we serve, we come before God. We come before God. We come before God regularly. Come together and worship.

It really matters. That's part of a passionate pursuit. And yes, there's prayer and all the things I mentioned, but he gives us two very specific things that I think a lot of people don't get. There's two things that need to happen for your passionate pursuit.

Number one, he says, forgetting what lies behind and reaching or straining forward to what's ahead. See, for some of you, you have to forget some of your past life and failure. I have shared a little bit of my wife's story, but part of her journey, she came to Christ after being abandoned. She had these two little boys. Her life was desperate. She came to know Christ after her husband left with this other woman. She became a believer. She began to grow. But even after we were married, even after I was most of the way through seminary, even after I was pastoring a church, my wife kind of had this part of her that she didn't want people to know because she was actually told, you're a second class citizen. I mean, a biblical divorce for adultery or being abandoned, that may be true, but you're a second class citizen.

And so, her freedom never took off because she lived under condemnation. She wasn't forgetting her past. And I'll never forget, I sat in a room with Bill Lawrence. And Bill Lawrence looked at my wife and said, your past has been completely forgiven. He's radically changed your life. And he said, Teresa, you're a trophy of God's grace. It's on his mantelpiece.

That's how God sees you. And it was a barrier. It was a barrier. How many of you, you won't forget your past, your baggage, your pain, the abortion, the divorce, the lying, the stealing, the one night affair. I don't know where you've been. What I know in a group this size, in a church this size, we've got everything under the sun. You have to forget what lies behind. But not only the difficulty in the past, but also, you've got to forget some of the success. We've got some people here that you feel like you've done your part. And you're living on old verses. And your passion, your drive, your life isn't characterized by pressing ahead and knowing him and serving him. It's kind of like, you know, I did my deal. You have to forget your success, whether it's in the secular world or whether it's your spiritual success.

That's, he says, required for a spiritual pursuit. And that's the negative. And the positive is straining forward. Literally, it's the picture of a runner who's not swerving.

It was used in the ancient games where when you were riding a chariot, there would be two wheels and it would be flat. And you had to lean forward and hold on in such a way with absolute focus in order to not fall off and to win the race. And that's the picture that most people think Paul's alluding to. Pursuing hope means pursuing a deep, rich relationship with Christ. Perfection, no. Complacency, no. Passionate pursuit, yes. Raises the question, doesn't it? How do you know? How would we know if we're making progress?

I mean, beyond the activities, right? The Pharisees read the Bible. The Pharisees prayed a lot. The Pharisees gave their money. The Pharisees went to their worship service. But they weren't close to God.

J.I. Packer has this moment in his book, Knowing God. He says, if you want to know how well you know God, there's a litmus test. There's four things that characterize people that genuinely know God.

It's not their external stuff. These are things you can actually measure. He writes in his book, those who know God deeply have great energy for God. So just, you know, privately, maybe on your notes, just write great energy, yes or no. Do you have great energy for God?

Or ask yourself, where do you have great energy for? Because that will tell you what you worship. Second, he says, those who know God deeply have great thoughts about God. Great thoughts about God. Do you find yourself thinking God is infinite and powerful? Do you find yourself looking at nature?

He must be so beautiful to create that. Do you have great high thoughts about God? Third, people who know God deeply have great boldness for God. Do you find yourself not caring what other people think? I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior of the world. Now, you don't have to put it on a big bumper sticker and you don't have to get a Bible this big and put it on your desk, but are you bold? Do you step out? Are you unashamed of the gospel, unashamed of Christ, not worried about fitting in and being, you know, corrected in the way that everyone sees things?

Yes. If you have great energy, great thoughts, and a boldness, those are evidences. You have a genuine, deep, and growing knowledge of God. And fourth, those who know God have great contentment in God.

There's a peace. Your life isn't about the next promotion. It's not about the next house. It's not the next remodel.

It's not the win-then strategy, right? You know, I'm single, when I have a maid, we're married, when we have a kid, we're in a small house, when we can buy a house that's bigger house, win-then, win-then. If you really know God, it's fine to get married, it's fine to have a house, all those things in and of themselves.

If you are growing, there's a contentment with who you are in this room, in your present state. And I don't mean to over-spiritualize, but Jesus really is enough. He's your hope. He's supplying grace. He gives you joy in the midst of suffering.

He gives you power in the midst of difficulty. That's what he's saying. The final takeaway is that spiritual maturity does mean our lives will exhibit significant spiritual progress within and without.

Perfection, no. Complacency, no. But progress. Progress within and progress without. I get that from his final verse two. Without is action.

He says live up to the truth that you've already obtained and within is to understand the tension of the already and the not yet. Okay? See, let me give you a picture of this. I've shared very openly about my marriage and our journey.

In fact, it is better now than it's ever been and we just celebrated 39 years. When I said I do to Teresa, I knew her. Okay? I know her already. We're married already. We're completely married. I'm committed to her. We have a relationship. Now. But it's not perfect.

Right? It's been growing for 39 years. Some of the growth were some really deep valleys and then some really nice high peaks. And it involved difficulty and pain and sometimes deep health issues and raising children. So we already had a relationship five minutes after we were married.

Already. But we were not yet as deep, as close, as rich as we are now. And I pray if I get to live long enough in another five or ten years, if the Lord doesn't return, it'll keep getting deeper and deeper and richer. And so what the Apostle Paul is saying to that church and to this church, he says maturity is the sense of, you know, every time you make a mistake you don't start condemning yourself and you're a terrible person. But on the other hand, you don't have issues in your life that you let keep going and saying well everyone struggles. I mean everyone's materialistic so I guess I can be too. Everyone has major debt issues or most men struggle with pornography. All these kind of things that we give each other a pass. You know, everyone I'm around, they kind of talk about other people and they gossip a little bit and so we just all give each other a pass on. He said no!

No! You understand the tension internally that you haven't arrived and you don't beat yourself up, but externally wherever God has spoken to you and you've made progress, you're living in that progress and you don't use the we haven't arrived yet as an excuse. Does that make sense? Now let me just take a moment because I'm concerned for two groups. One group is you have really high standards. You are very into getting everything right and you're passing that on to your kids. And can I graciously say you've got to lighten up.

There's another group and it's more and more and more and more in America. It's just that hey, Jesus loves us. I pray to prayer. I come to church when I can. You know, I live with my boyfriend.

I live with my girlfriend. I had an affair. I'm doing things that the Bible says aren't right, but I get to choose what I believe, what I don't believe and you're really an antinomian.

And I want you to know that there is very serious consequences to that. Here's my heart. Spiritual maturity and pursuing it is about experiencing hope. Hope is not about perfection.

It's about direction. Hope is not about duty. Hope is about devotion, your heart, your passion. And hope is not about complacency over here or being compulsive over here. It's about you saying I want to press on toward the hope of knowing and growing in my relationship with Jesus and allowing him to change me every moment of every day.

That's how you pursue hope. Father, I thank you that you love us, that your spirit is within us, that you care about us. And Lord, I pray right now for the people in this room and even in advance that people will log on and watch this that feel such condemnation and are so overwhelmed and so feel like no matter what they do, even with you, they never measure up. Will you free them? Would you help them to believe with all their heart?

It's an already, but it's a process and it's a journey. And Lord, I pray for those that somehow over time have justified clearly behavior and attitudes that are not only wrong and immoral but they're destructive. And it breaks your heart because it's hurting them and it's hurting others. Would you, like an arrow, pierce their heart, convict them in order to draw them to yourself, give them the grace to turn away and repent and then begin to grow? Lord, we want to be holy and blameless. We want to follow you. We want to anchor our hope in you, Lord Jesus. We thank you for how much you love us. And we come to you, Father, with great appreciation. In Jesus' name.

Amen. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, Pursuing Hope, is from our series, I Choose Hope. Chip will be back to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. In uncertain times, what do you put your hope in and how confident are you that that person or thing will actually deliver the peace and stability you're desperate for? As Chip teaches through Philippians chapter 3, he'll share what God has to say about our fears about the future and how it's possible to be confident in these anxious times. Stay with us as we learn to face tomorrow and each day that follows with complete certainty in a never-failing hope. To get more plugged in with this series, I Choose Hope, or any of our helpful resources, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. Chip's back with me. Chip, to be frank, people are very discouraged by what's happening in our world. Financial instability, family breakdown, and the general hurriedness of everyday life. Take a minute, if you would, and share some much-needed encouragement with us, will you? You know, Dave, most of us are going to have coffee or tea and sit around and talk about negative things that are happening. And I think one of the things that has helped me the most is remembering that now is not all there is.

If I take the lens of just sort of temporal, what's happening, and all those things you described, and you know, we could multiply a lot more to them. I mean, how many of us have lost someone that we loved in the last couple years? I have found remembering the anchor of heaven, that Jesus promised He's coming back. Jesus promised He's prepared a place. It doesn't mean we put our head in the sand.

It doesn't mean we don't deal with things. But as I shared with someone who recently lost someone very subtly who died, the reality, the anchor that there is a heaven that is real, changes your perspective, and literally gives you hope when you feel like there is no hope. And the book that I wrote and the resource that's a small group on heaven, what the Bible actually says, has been something that we've seen God use in an amazing way. What heaven is really going to be like when you understand it is something that is hopeful, and that you look forward to, and gives purpose, and design, and life, and encouragement, and brings into perspective all the struggles we have today. So Dave, could you take a minute and share with our listeners how they can get a hold of that book and the small group resource? Be glad to, Chip.

Well, if you've been searching for some solid biblical answers about heaven, let me encourage you to get plugged into our resources for The Real Heaven. Whether it's Chip's popular book or the small group study, you're going to walk away with a more accurate and exciting view of the place God's preparing for us. For complete ordering details, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org, or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Now here's Chip with his application. As we close today's program, I said there are two things that need to happen for us to really experience hope through an intimate relationship with Jesus. First, forgetting what lies behind, and second, reaching for what lies ahead.

Now this first one is really hard for some people, forgetting what lies behind. In the context, the Apostle Paul is looking, he wants to forget all of his past failure, his baggage. In the vernacular today, some of us have made some really bad, poor decisions, both before we were Christians and some of us after we were Christians. And it plagues you. I've met people, counseled with people that, quite honestly, they're still living in the shadow of the divorce they had.

They literally moved to another town and no one knows about, or the abortion they had, or the sexual addiction that is five years in the rearview mirror, or the drug addiction, or you name it. We all have failures and difficulties in our lives. The Apostle Paul would say, when you understand the cross, when you understand the new life that you have, when you confess your sin, he is in fact faithful and just to forgive us for our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That God literally looks at us through the blood of the Lord Jesus as righteous and pure. Now what I want you to know is that if you don't forget what lies behind, then it will have you in your mind thinking you're a second-class Christian, God can never really use you, you have nagging guilt, and you'll live a life of duplicity trying to hide something of your past.

The fact of the matter is that deliverance is a trophy of God's grace. Now I can hear some of you because, believe it or not, I've done this for quite a few years. Here's what I hear, Chip, I know God has forgiven me, I just can't forgive myself. I mean I've sat in rooms and I've heard that, I don't know, 25, 50 times in the last 30 plus years, and it's sincere, it's really sincere, and I know God's forgiven me, but I just can't forgive myself. And this may sound really harsh, so lean back because I don't want to sound too harsh, but I listen very carefully, but after hearing this many, many times over many, many years, then I kind of in a very gentle voice look at them eye to eye and I say, well, so what you're telling me is your opinion of your sin is more righteous than God's and you completely disrespect what he's done and you don't believe what he said. And they look at me like, well, I never looked at it quite like that. I said, well, you need to start looking at it like that because you've become a prisoner of your own self-pity. You've become a prisoner of your belief system.

If the God of the universe has said, I had to give my son to pay for that sin and you are not receiving that gift, then you are disrespecting the God of the universe like no other person. And sometimes that jolts them, but here's the second half. Have you ever told someone not to think about something? I mean, don't think about a pink elephant with white tennis shoes. Don't think about that, don't think about that. You know I'm playing a game. The more you try not to think about it, the more you think about it. The Apostle Paul says, I'm forgetting my past success, I'm forgetting my past failures, but notice what he says, I'm reaching forward.

The word means I'm running without squirving. I'm full court pressing. I'm pressing forward. I am intense in pursuing. Think of something you've pursued.

Think maybe of that girl or that guy that you were in love with that you pursued or that career or that athletic achievement or that you wanted to be that kind of dancer or musician or artist. Think of the level of intensity and discipline in whatever it took, quote, to make that Olympic team. The Apostle Paul is saying, that's the kind of focus and passion and discipline I have brought to getting to know Jesus. When that is forefront, guess what, you forget what lies behind. And so here's what I want you to know. Spiritual maturity and experiencing God's hope is much more about direction than perfection.

It's much more about devotion than duty and it's fundamentally more about transformation than any tradition. God wants you to know, put the past behind you. If you seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's His promise and it's for you and it's for you today.

So seek Him. Great word, Chip. As we wrap up, I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support. Your gifts help us create programs, purchase airtime, and develop additional resources to help Christians live like Christians. Now if you've been blessed by the Ministry of Living on the Edge, would you consider sending a gift today? You can do that when you visit livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app and now you can text donate to 741-41. That's the word donate to 741-41. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support. We'll join us next time as Chip wraps up his series, I Choose Hope. Until then, I'm Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.