When you look at life and circumstances, do you tend to look at the positive, the upside, or do you tend to look at the negative side? You may not think it makes much difference, but after today's broadcast, you might learn it makes all the difference in the world. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of this daily program is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Well, in just a minute, we'll begin his series, I Choose Joy, based in Philippians chapter 1. In the coming programs, Chip will explain how to develop a healthier perspective toward our circumstances and have supernatural joy no matter what. And if you've looked around our world recently, we could all use more joy, right?
So if you're ready, grab your Bible and settle in for Chip's message, Understanding the Power of Focus. You know, it's pretty easy to choose joy when things are going well, but it is pretty tough to choose joy when circumstances are very, very difficult. And what we're going to learn in this series is that it really is a choice, that God will give us everything that we need regardless of how devastating the circumstances. Tell you what, when it's really, really hard, it's just easy to look inward, to fall into self-pity, and just watch your life spiral down. And what we're going to learn, it doesn't have to be that way, but we're going to talk about the power of focus. I brought a little pitcher of water, and if we took a little contest, and if I said, is the pitcher half full or is the pitcher half empty?
The answer is yes, right? Some people will spend their entire life, no matter what's happening, focused on what they don't have, what's wrong, what they wish were better, on and on and on with what they don't have, what God hasn't provided, and what they think would bring joy and happiness. Other people have learned to focus on what they do have, and they recognize that everybody's life has some emptiness. Everybody has struggles. Everyone's going to suffer. Everyone has some problem relationships. Everyone eventually will have some health issues. Everyone has struggles at work.
They either define you or you learn how to focus and to think and to trust God in such a way in order to choose joy. Pull out your notes, if you will, and I've got to tell you a true story that at times I can hardly believe it's true. He was a neighbor. He was a friend.
We got pretty close, got to talk about a lot of things. In private conversation at this point, he wouldn't care that I shared this. He was a backslidden Christian. I mean, he knew God. He used to go to church regularly. He used to serve in a church, and he kind of had slid away from all of that, and poor guy got, you know, his new neighbor was a pastor, me, and so we get to know one another, and he's a great guy, very gregarious, and he just lived right across the street from Teresa and myself, and so he's out in the yard. We got to know each other well, and I'll never forget the day that he got a phone call, walked out in the yard, and he had found out that someone had, he was a cabinet maker, and I mean top of the line cabinet maker, and put in these, I mean, super expensive cabinets into these super luxury homes, and he had hundreds of thousands of dollars of his cabinets that he'd already made that he was going to be putting in these homes along with his material, and someone arsoned his warehouse. He lost everything and had no insurance, and I saw him out in his front yard, and he looked like someone literally had just died, and he went into clinical depression. He ended up having to go to the doctor. I remember I would take walks around the block, and he had a big bay window, and if you've ever seen someone like sit in a chair like this, I mean life was over. He had, I mean, it was everything he had was gone. Fast forward three and a half years, he's a pretty resilient guy, quite the entrepreneur, and so he built his business up again, and got another big contract, made a bunch of money again, and you know, there's people that kind of have this gift, and so he's got, you know, 12 or 14 master craftsmen, and he's got another big set of super luxury homes, and he has a big warehouse again.
Are you ready? You guys, anybody feeling what's coming here? So one of his employees, you know, they really love him. He's great to get along with, so he goes in to help out, and so he sweeps up all the the sawdust, and then there was one of those things that you torch, you know, whatever you call it, you know, when you weld things, and he was cleaning some stuff out, and so he lit that to empty something, and it sparked, it hit the sawdust, and within minutes, everything he had again was gone. His wife, I still remember the morning, I think it was a Sunday because it was pulling out, and she comes out, you know, and she, this is what's happened, and he had a tiny bit of insurance.
He didn't get clinically depressed this time. He said, I heard the news. I've been through this before.
My whole life was about things before, and I realized they couldn't satisfy, and he says, everything in me just wanted to break down, and I just decided, I told my wife, stay right here. I'm going to walk around the block. He said, I started to walk around the block, and I don't know why, but this came into my mind.
Naked, I come into the world, and naked, I will return. The Lord gives. The Lord ticks away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, and he said, for 30 minutes, I kept walking, and I started, thank you.
I have a wife that's loyal that cares with me. Thank you for my son. Thank you for my grandson. He said, I just started choosing, and all I did was for 30 or 40 minutes, I just focused on what I actually did have.
Before his other workers, where everyone was discouraged, everyone was out of work, within 48 hours, he had found jobs with his competitors for all 12 of his craftsmen. I'll never forget out in the front yard, less than a week later, when before he was in a canatotic state of just depression, and he was out in the front yard playing with his little grandson, who was about three or four at the time, and I said, Gary, how are you doing? He goes, you know, it's hard, and then he looked at me, and he looked down at that little boy, and he said, but I got a lot.
I got a lot. What's the difference? Fire number one, his focus is inward. Fire number two, it's upward, and then it's outward. Question, where's your focus?
How do you deal with the tough circumstances in your life? Notice on the front, there's a little divine equation. The divine equation is C plus P equals E. I mean, I want you to get that.
Some of you might, you know, write that somewhere, put it on the card, put it in lipstick on a mirror. C plus P equals E. Circumstance plus perspective equals your experience. Living above my circumstances occurs when my perspective interprets my circumstances rather than my circumstances determining my perspective. It's true, isn't it? Either I look at life through the lens of this is my circumstances, when they're kind of good, I'm kind of happy.
When they're kind of bad, I'm kind of sad. Or I look at my circumstances through the perspective of the lens of God's promises, God's power, the lens of a sovereign God, a good God, who's going to take even the worst and most difficult things, and he's going to use them for my good. The fundamental question is, how can we develop the kind of perspective that transcends our circumstances?
How do you do that? I'm going to suggest it's going to be C plus P equals E, and we're going to learn from a man who models this for us like nobody's business. Key number one, jot the word in, jot the word in, focus. The question is, where is your focus? Now, I want you on the left side of your notes, I want you to put a little box, and I want you to imagine that's a whiteboard in your mind, and I want you to write one or two words, and if you're next to someone that happens to be the problem that goes into that box, I would maybe not do that right now, but what I want you to do is actually think of what's the most difficult, challenging circumstance or relationship that you have right now.
I mean, what is it that gets you down, that if you could say, God, either fix it or take it away, what would be in that box? Have you got it? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and he'll be right back to continue our series. But quickly, if you're eager to do a deeper study of Philippians chapter one, check out Chip's newest book, I Choose Joy, and right now we have a special deal exclusively for you, our faithful listeners, so stick around after the teaching to learn more. With that, here's Chip to finish this insightful message. Now, we're going to look at Philippians chapter one, but before we read it, I want you to get the circumstances of the author.
It's A.D. 62, 63. He's in a Roman prison. He's a little past midlife. He has already been beaten three times. He's been overnight in the sea.
He's been stoned and left for dead once. He got some revelation in Arabia. He is taking the gospel and his mission, his plan, his circumstances are, God has called me to take this message to the whole Gentile world, and instead of going to the whole Gentile world, he's stuck in a cell, which what we know is he ends up writing a lot of letters that reach the whole world, but he doesn't know that. All he knows is God told me to do this.
I wanted to do that. Every time I try and do it, people beat me up or they stick me in prison, and you would think Paul would be discouraged, and he would be if he looked through the lens of circumstance, but his perspective is not that. Follow along Paul's circumstance. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and the deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is a church that he has a real heart connection with, and they've heard you're in prison, and they're concerned about him, and so they sent a financial gift through one of their members, Epaphroditus, and this is really a thank you letter, and they want to know, well, how are you doing? And so Paul's going to explain his circumstances here. He says in verse 3, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all.
Well, why? In view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now, for I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. I'd like you to circle the word thank. I'd like you to circle the word remembrance. I'd like you to circle the word prayer with joy. I guess that's a phrase.
Circle the phrase prayer for you all, and then circle the word confident. This is Paul's upward focus. He's in jail. His circumstances. Where's his heart? Where's his mind? He says, I pray. Did you notice how I pray with joy? I'm remembering what it was like with Lydia. I remember when the little church was birthed.
I remember that night when that jailer was ready to kill himself. Stop. Don't do it. Stop.
Don't do it. We're all here, and we went into his house, and he cleaned me up, and his whole house was baptized, and we don't know all about it. And we don't know all the story, but it's a church where God did a great thing, and he says, I pray with joy in all my remembrance of you, and it wasn't just what he did.
He says, in view of your participation in the gospel, we were in it together. We saw God work in that Roman colony in Philippi, and it just focuses. God, thank you for them, and then his focus is still about them.
I'm confident of this. You know, God's in control. Where's his concern? His concern isn't, well, it's really tough.
There's a lot of rats. I'm chained to this guy. It wasn't really fair. I'm completely innocent. There's no blaming. He doesn't blame God.
He doesn't blame people. His concern is, I'm confident of this very thing, that he, Jesus, who began a good work in you, he's going to perfect it until he comes back. Where's his focus?
It's upward, and it's outward. Notice his focus continues. Paul's outward focus. He says, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all.
Why? Because I have you in my heart. Since in both my imprisonment and the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
I'm going to ask you to do Bible study one more time here. Circle the word feel, then circle the word heart, circle the word partakers. It's a Greek word that means people are connected to one another. Circle the word lung, and then circle the word affection. And what I want you to get is, can you imagine someone, maybe in our day, in bondage, in a hellacious prison, maybe in another country, who's discovered they have cancer, and you write to ask how they're doing, and you get this letter back, get this letter back, oh, every time I think of you, I'm praying for you.
I remember when we spent this time together. And then to say, I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. I memorized this passage many, many, many years ago, and I remember praying, Lord, I don't know that I could ever say that to anyone, but I would love to be able to say that somehow someday.
To love someone, to long and care for someone in the same way that Christ cares for me. This guy is filled up with his love for other people, so much so he just seems to be almost unaware of the difficulty of his own circumstance. Finally, out of his outward focus and love, notice he prays for them. So he takes his concern and he goes, and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.
And then there's a result, so that, put a little box around the so that, it's very important. So he says, here's what I'm praying, I'm in prison, my focus isn't on me, it's on God, but it's on you, and when I'm praying for you, I want you to know this is what I'm praying, I'm praying that your love and your relationship would grow deeper and deeper in the, it's a really powerful word, in the epigonosco, in other words, in the experiential knowledge of God, and that you would have all discernment. In other words, that you would get so close to God in the midst of this corrupt Roman empire and all the junk coming at you, so that, why?
You could approve the things that are excellent. In other words, so when the world's coming at you, you would know this is right, this is wrong, this is true, this isn't true, so you would have discernment to know how to live your life. And then there's a purpose clause, in order of that, you can be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, underlined sincere and underlined blameless.
We'll come back to this just a little bit later. Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory of God. So all I want you to see, Paul's circumstances, I'm guessing, are as bad as anybody's in this room of any kind. In fact, what we're going to learn a little bit later is, he's sort of right on the crossroads of, am I going to be executed or not executed?
He doesn't know. And in the midst of imprisonment, facing execution, upward focus, God, I thank you. Outward focus, I'm confident of this, I remember you, God's for you, I'm praying for you, that you become the kind of followers of Christ that understand what's wise, what's unwise, and that your lives would be so transformed. Outward focus. Now what I want to do is kind of roll up our sleeves and ask ourselves two or three questions to help us get, hey, Paul, I'm glad you can look at it that way, it's pretty tough for me, right?
How do you develop an upward focus? And I'm going to suggest right from this passage, number one, it's a choice. It's a choice. And the choice is gratitude. And the way you do it is you choose to remember and you thank God for significant relationships. In the mornings, our whole staff comes down here and we have a prayer time.
And different pastors, actually different people on the staff lead it. And we all sit here and he goes, here's what we're going to do for the first 20 minutes. I want you to write on these three by five cards everything that you can possibly thank God for in 20 minutes. Just don't stop writing.
I filled out five. God, thank you that you forgave me. God, thank you for your word. Thank you that your spirit lives within me. Thank you for Teresa. Thank you for Eric. Thank you for Jason. Thank you for Ryan. Thank you, right? God, thank you for this church. Thank you for the people I get to work with.
God, thank you that, you know, in the midst of a crazy world, this is where we live. I mean, it was easy. I had five of these filled front and back. And I had this weird experience afterwards. I had a great attitude that day. It's just a weird experience. You know, it's just like, you know, hey, you know, why?
Here's why. I spent 20 minutes focusing on what God has provided instead of my humanness like yours is to always focus on what is missing. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Understanding the Power of Focus, from our series, I Choose Joy. Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. It's safe to say we all want a little more joy in our lives, right?
But what does that look like? Is it just about finding happiness or pleasure in something? Will those feelings really sustain us through the hard knocks of life? In this eight-part series, Chip explains why joy that comes from God is more than just an emotion. Discover how it can change your perspective on life and profoundly strengthen your faith in challenging times. To learn more about this study in Philippians chapter 1, visit livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app. Well, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is with me now in studio to share a quick word with all of you.
Thanks, Dave. You know, we're living in very uncertain and at times volatile times, the stock market goes up crazy and then down. We've got social issues, political issues, a lot of division. And then you have an enemy who has darts of fear and uncertainty that he brings to people's mind. And there's an antidote to that. Regardless of where you are and what you've been through or what the people you love have been through, you can choose joy. You don't have to wait for it to happen. We're not a victim of our circumstances, but we're not a victim of our circumstances. But we need to understand, how do you really experience joy even when all the external things are challenging?
How do you combat anxiety and depression and you don't measure up and life's not worth living? Let me encourage you, I just wrote a brand new book called I Choose Joy. It's based on Philippians chapter 1. And if you know someone that's hurting, let me encourage you to get it. Well, we are really excited about this new book, Chip, which is why we're doing something special for our listeners this week. Absolutely, Dave. Because we believe so strongly in the life-changing power of choosing joy, we want you, the Living on Edge family, to get this new book before anyone else does at a discounted price. Dave, could you take a minute and tell our listeners a bit more of what we're doing for them and why this is so important? Be glad to. Well, like Chip said, we want you to truly experience the joy the apostle Paul talked about through every circumstance of life. So to help you do that, we're giving you our faithful Living on the Edge listeners early access to this new book at a special price. So visit livingonthedge.org or call 888-333-6003 to take advantage of this exclusive offer.
You'll be glad you did. Well, before we go, here's Chip to share a final word. As we wrap up today's program, let me just ask you, where is your focus today, right now?
I mean, just in general life right now. We talked about C plus P equals E. Circumstances plus your perspective equal your experience. And we talked about our focus can be one of three places.
It's either inward, right? I mean, you know, things are happening, so you get mad or you complain or you sink, you get discouraged, you get depressed, or it's either upward and outward. And we're going to talk about how to actually go into training to help our minds and our attitudes, even when things are difficult, even when people around us are being less than kind, less than fair, that our focus can be upward and outward in a way that we actually choose joy. And we're going to go through that journey and talk about how circumstances will change over and over and over. But what God can give us is the ability to look upward, to be grateful, to thank Him, to see what we, are you ready? The part of the glass that's half full, what we do have, instead of focusing on what we don't have. Hey, it will take some practice, but let me encourage you, stay with us for this whole series.
You actually can learn to experience joy regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in. Looking forward to it, Chip. Hey, before we close, I want to thank those who support us financially. Your generosity helps create programs like this one.
But if you haven't partnered with us, there's never been a better time. Between now and June 30th, every gift we receive will be matched dollar for dollar. And making a donation is easy. Just go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. Again, that's 888-333-6003 or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate. For Chip and everyone here, thank you in advance for your generosity. Well, join us next time as Chip continues his series, I Choose Joy. Until then, I'm Dave Druey. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
