Teach Them to Work Unto the Lord, Part 1

Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. If there was one thing that you could teach, if you could pass on to your kids that would ensure their success in school, in their work, and any future job they ever had in life, would you want to know what it is?

Well, that's today on Living on the Edge. Stay with me. Today's younger generation faces a paralyzing dilemma to pursue their passion or chase a paycheck. get that college degree or learn a trade. Follow their heart or follow the money.

Well, the pressure to figure it all out has never been more intense or more confusing. Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram cuts through the cultural noise with a radically different approach. Forget the tired advice about just being happy or climbing the corporate ladder. God's design for work is far more revolutionary and fulfilling than any alternative.

So how do we help our kids to embrace this plan? After all, the majority of their waking hours can become a source of genuine joy rather than mere drudgery. And after Chip's message, we'll explain how you can participate in the groundbreaking Double Your Impact match that's active right now. More details later. Right now, the message from Chippingram is called, Teach them to Work Unto the Lord.

60 to 80 percent. of a person's waking hours on this planet. is consumed with an activity called work.

Now that work can be at home. But it's work.

Now think of that. If you're not sleeping or eating. 60 to 80 percent of your waking hours, your entire life. You're doing this thing called work. And so, I want to ask you to ponder three questions with me before we talk about what we want to pass on to those we love the most.

And whether that's who we're discipling or our men's group, our women's group, our kids, our grandkids. Three questions to really think about. when we begin to talk about this area of work. Question number one. is how can you help those you love the most.

Live above the daily grind. I mean, let's go back to our little analogy where we say, if you knew from this moment right now, 365 days you're going to die, and you had 365 days, and you knew people that you love, one of your kids, I mean, one of your grandkids, your best friend, someone you led to the Lord, you know, some guys that you're in a Bible study with, these gals that you love and care, and you know that 60 to 80% of their entire life is they're going to keep working after you die, how could you deliver them from the daily grind of get up? Go to work, grab a cup of coffee, come in, go to eat some supper, do a drive-through, watch a couple hours of TV, go to bed, get up, go to I mean. And then wait for the weekend. It's how most people are living their life.

Can you imagine the gift it would be? If you could Pass something on. Where that would not be their experience. Question number two is: why are the majority of Americans? Dissatisfied with their jobs.

And I would say, probably. maybe well beyond America. But all the research is they're bored. They're unfulfilled. It's basically almost a paycheck or a necessary evil.

Now, there's great exceptions. You meet people and they say, I'd do this if they didn't pay me. I love what I do. I was made to do this. But by and large, the research tells us.

Most people Go to their job. It's a paycheck. I need the money, but I'm not waking up. There's not a lot of people going, thank God it's Monday. It's Monday.

I love it. Monday. Right? Most people are saying, thank God it's Friday. Question number three.

How can the place where we spend the majority of our waking hours be transformed from drudgery? To delight. Can you imagine being able to pass that on to people?

Now, I'm not saying that every moment of every day as people are working, you know, it's just high-fiving each other in the halls or on the job site, but I mean where they would sense. A genuine, I can't believe I get to do this. I was made to do this. I love to do this.

Now there's pressures with any job, there's demands of any job, we feel overwhelmed at times, but we're. You could pass on some truth to those you love the most that they would. From this point to the day they die, Actually, do what God designed them to do, and it would produce a joy in them that's not reserved for the weekends, but would be. What they do 24-7, what they look forward to, and it would produce a fruit and an impact in the lives of other people that they would go, well, I can't believe you mean. You mean other people are positively impacted by me like this?

And here's sort of this second core value. The transferable concept is teach them to work unto the Lord. And so to do this, I'm going to jump in and I'm going to go over a theology of work. Because I don't think we think very clearly or biblically about work. And it might surprise you.

It is not a necessary evil. It's not bad. God instituted work before sin ever entered the world. And so, what I want to do is talk about a theology of work, and then I want to get real practical again and say, How could you pass on this truth? in a way to those that you love the most.

First of all then, work is a calling, not a job. That word calling is kind of interesting. You might hear someone say, Well, what's your vocation? The Latin word for vocation is calling. Year years ago.

100 years ago or more, when people talked about your vocation, it wasn't what you do to make money, it was what have you been called by God to do. It was Martin Luther who said, you know, a shoemaker making a shoe for the glory of God using his skill is just as holy. as a pastor preaching a sermon. And he used that illustration with many trade jobs. But his point was: we all have a calling.

God made us and gifted us differently. And when you do that for the glory of God, it is just as holy as, quote, spiritual activity. In our culture today, there tends to be two motives for a job or for work. And I'll play this out. Let's say you have a nephew or a friend or someone that you're discipling or one of your kids or a grandchild that's ready to go to college and.

And they're trying to figure out what What should they major in? This is always big. What should I major in? I feel like I'm, or they're out of high school and they're, you know, what should I do? Should I go to college or should I get a trade job or should I go into business with a family?

What should I do? And here's sort of a parental response that we have learned from our culture.

Well, honey, I don't know, but we just want you to be happy. It doesn't really matter to me. I just want you to be happy in whatever you do. Because, see, life is really all about you. You see, we live in a narcissistic society, and we want you to know that you are the center of the universe.

And the only thing that really matters, no, how much money or you change your major seven times, or if you figure out how to squeeze that four-year education into six. We just want you to have fun in that dorm room to make lots of friends and grow up and be a wonderful, happy little because that's how life will be later. Everyone is just going to be coming at the doorstep of your life trying to make your life work out for you. I want to tell you that the answer to the question, though very sincere, and in earlier days I've said it myself, saying to our kids, when they say, what should I do with my life, the answer, I only want you to be happy, is not biblical, is not smart, is not wise, and will not get them in a good direction. How much does an 18 or 17 year old know?

or 19-year-old know about what's really, quote, going to make them happy or what's best. The other extreme We have. And Christians are more sophisticated in how we communicate this. But so on the one extreme, it's we want them to be happy. On the other extreme, it's like, you know, in in the real roll up your sleeves pagan world, it's, well, what pays, ba?

Someone, you got to make a living. You want to get ahead, get a good education. Or forget that, I'll tell you: here's where the job market is: here's where you can make. Money. The goal of a job is money.

Make lots of money. Why? Because you need lots of money.

Well, why do you need lots of money?

So you can be successful? Why do you need to be successful?

So you can have a big house. Why do you need a big house?

So people will know you're successful. And then you can have another house. And you can buy these kind of cars and have a purse that has this design and wear a watch that says certain things. And and you got well, you gotta have money.

Well, why?

So you can be fulfilled. And you can be powerful and you can have it together and then you can take vacations where? Whatever you want. Because money is the key to I mean You gotta make a lot of money.

Well, gosh, Dad, I see a lot of people and they have a lot of money. They don't seem like they're very happy. Hey, just don't give me all that. Quit talking back. You need to get a good job, a good education, make a lot of money.

Because you're a reflection of me. Don't you understand? I'm vicariously living my life in subtle ways through you. And your SAT scores are a reflection on me, and what college you go to is a reflection on me. And because it's not really all about you, it's all about me.

But I'm going to package this in a different way so you think it's really about you. And so we have communicated that work. is about either making a lot of money. or really being happy. And I'm going to suggest that God would say it's about a calling.

Those people that you love the most. Kids disciples Best friends. grandkids. Bible study partners. God has a call.

of what they should do. And when they do what he made them to do, They will have incredible internal joy. an incredible external impact. And with that, then we have to begin to teach again that all work is sacred. All work is sacred.

Jot down 1 Corinthians 10, 31. He says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. All work is sacred. Early when I was came to Christ just right after high school, I went to a college campus and there was a bricklayer with a high school education who was trained by the navigators and he had his own business and he would lay brick by day and he opened his home and had a discipleship ministry on this campus by night. And after two or three years he began to help me and I was sort of slow spiritually and took me a while to get going and once I started to grow then I spent a summer there once and I needed a job.

He said, why don't you work with me? And then later, he started in another campus. His work was a tent-making ministry. And so this campus grew from three of us in the living room to 250 students on that campus. Then he went to another campus and said, Chip, why don't you come with me and we'll see if God will do this again.

I said, okay, so I want to learn.

So I didn't have a job, so I'm a HOD carrier. And that means you mix the mud, and he liked to do it by hand for reasons I never did experience, because I'm the guy doing it by hand. And then you had 14 bricks or 12 bricks, and then we did a lot of foundations. And so it was really, really hard work. And he was asked, he had a line of people because he was so good.

People wanted him to do their work. And I remember we worked on a foundation and we'd worked for about a day and a half. And one day he said, Chip, grab that line. I grabbed the line and he took the line down and snapped it. And he looked this way and took the line down this way.

And we had it up about this high. three quarters of the way around on three walls and He looked and And he just with his foot, he just started kicking the walls down. I go, Dave, what are you doing, man? He said, um It's out, and I can't remember the exact, it was like out a half inch. I said, Dave.

Yeah, I mean, you're the expert, but like a half inch is like, I mean, that is not making He said, that's not good enough for my work.

So Chip, you need to understand, I'm not building this house for these people. I built houses for an audience of one. And when I do my work, it's not about what other people think. I do my work because this is my offering today to Jesus Christ, and I will not give him less than my best. I'm not sure how I did it.

I've done a lot of foundations. I blew it on this one. And he kicked him over. He says, clean this stuff away. We're starting over.

That was worth 10,000 sermons. I learned all work is sacred. And for some of us, especially in that sort of Middle to upper class, we have bought a lie that if our kids don't go to college somehow, You know, they're not successful.

Some of the best, wealthiest And most successful people that are in my world right now, none of them went to college. They got bored with college, they didn't like school. And so they just figured out how to start their own businesses and do what God made them to do and have a lot of fun and be very successful at it. We have sort of this white collar, blue collar, mundane. Tell you what, everyone is made to do something different.

And the issue is not this little pecking order of status and money. The issue is helping those you love the most discover. What did God make him to do? And uh What we understand as we get older, we really care about what our kids do when we're like in our 30s and 40s. You get into your 60s and 70s, you don't care what vocation your kids or grandkids have.

You care that they love God, they have marriages they stay in, they really care for one another, and they still want to talk to you. It's all about character. But you know how character grows is we need to make sure they do and we help them and coach them not to fulfill our vicarious make me look good, but we want to help them fulfill what God made them to do. The third theology of work is that our work is to flow from God's unique design and purpose for our lives. Purpose is the key word there.

The work I'm called to do, that you're called to do, that those that you want to pass things on to are called to do, God has a unique Design. Jot in your notes. Ephesians 2.10. God has a unique design. What your job, we're going to learn a little bit later, and we'll talk about how, is to help them discover the unique design or purpose God has for their life.

Now, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, many of you have memorized, right? For by grace we're saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not a result of works, lest any man should boast. Can I highly suggest that you go to the next step and memorize verse 10.

For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, like from the foundations of the earth, that we should walk in them. We are not saved. from our sin by our good works. We are saved by grace as we put our faith in the work of Christ on the cross, but we're saved for good works.

And we are his workmanship. That word workmanship, we get our English word poem. It's the picture of craftsmanship, of a tapestry coming together. It's a picture of a cabinet maker doing his finest work or a sculptor. You are, if you will, And those you love, they're on this sort of little platform of God creating a beautiful work.

You are his workmanship, but now you're created in Christ Jesus unto a good work. There's a good work that you're made for. You're gifted for, you're prepared for, you came out of this family for, you have the right height for, you have the right personality for, you have the right. Spiritual gift deposit in you for. You have some baggage and hurts and pains that you've had to overcome that will fit you for this good work.

God is going to use all things working together. to fulfill you doing this good work he has prepared for you.

Well, guess what? That's what he has for those we love. That's what he has for that young guy coming over, that group on Monday nights where we did a Bible study of that 20-something people. God has that for my sons. God has that for my grandchildren.

God has that for a group of women that you're meeting with and maybe going through a Kay Arthur or a Beth Moore study. God has that for the people that you care about at work, that you find out they're a Christian, and they're starting to ask you questions. How do you pass on the things that matter most? We'll hear more from Chip Ingram's message in just a moment. First, we're inviting you to multiply your year-end donation through an exciting match that's active right now.

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Work is a calling, all work is sacred, and our work is to flow from our unique purpose. We are to co-labor with God in this vocation. And you know what? Jot down, if you would, under this. I love Paul's testimony.

It's 1 Corinthians 15:10. He he really had this one down. He says, I am what I am. By the grace of God. He wasn't trying to be anybody else.

I am what I am by the grace of God. And his grace did not prove vain toward me, but I labored more than all of them. There's responsibility, yet, not I. but the grace of God in me. In other words, Paul understood that all my training under Gamal All my baggage, even as a Pharisee, all my legalism, all the blindness I had, even my persecuting of the church.

You know what? God is lovingly redeeming, taking the worst of all my past, realigning it. And he had many, many secular scholars think he was the brightest, really the brightest brain. of his century. I am what I am by the grace of God.

That's my dream for those I care about most. I want my kids to look in the mirror and say, you know what?

Now, I've got a lot of struggles, but I am what I am by the grace of God. And his grace did not prove vain toward me. The Old Testament roots are Genesis 2.15. You have that in your notes. where you see this picture of God placing Adam in the garden, and there's no sin.

And he says, look, I want you to cultivate. Ooh, I want you to rule. I want you to work. I want you to be a co-regent. I want you to be a co-creator.

I want you to partner with me. I am a creator. You know what? Didn't God do some work for six days and He got a lot done?

So work's not a dirty word. He says, I want you to get to experience, because you're made in my image, look, here's this perfect environment.

Now you work. I want you to name things. I want you to build things. I want you to create things. I want you to dream things.

That's how we need to see work. It's to express our creativity, to subdue, to rule, to develop. to make beautiful. And the two pictures, biblical profiles, are Adam that we've talked about. And and again, Paul and and if you don't mind, I l I love to read.

I love the way Paul says this. It's Acts 20, verse 24, and this is one of those modern translations, but I just love the way he says this. He says, But my life Is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus. Isn't that great? And then he understood his.

The work of telling others the good news about God's wonderful kindness and love.

Now Ultimately that If you're called to be a plumber, Yeah. or a software engineer or a stay-at-home mom? If you're called to be a professional athlete or an artist or musician, or a businessman or businesswoman. Then You will tell others about the love of God by actually how you do your work and by what you say. But that calling is different.

His was into full-time vocational, he was an apostle. The uh New Testament command is Colossians 3.23. Whatever you do.

Now let's see, what do you think that would cover? Let me ponder this. Whatever. Oh gosh, would that have to do with my hobbies? Yeah.

Okay, would that have to do when I eat? Yeah.

Would that have to do with just when I go to church? No.

Well that is this just spiritual stuff quote Whatever you do. Work at it with all your heart as working for The Lord Not for men. This is revolutionary. Can you imagine what would happen if you were the president of a company and everyone who showed up said, Hey, I really appreciate you. I know God's put you in this place.

I don't work for you, I work for God. Tell you what, I don't leave early because I work for God. I do my best because I work for God. I submit to authority that I don't agree with because I work for God. I want to keep improving.

I go home and read books about my job because I work for God. I want to develop my gifts because I work for God. Can you imagine the difference that would make? Do you see the impact that has? You know, we're all, we want to change the culture, and we've tried it in lots of different ways.

You want to change the culture? Show up for work and work for God and be an awesome boss, an awesome supervisor, an awesome employee who loves people and does excellent, excellent work. And I will tell you what. You'll change your world and change your culture. I have a good friend who we lived in Santa Cruz for many years, and it's right on, you know, that song, Down by the Boardwalk.

Come on with me. Down by the sea. Anyway, the boardwalk. That song comes from there. There's this huge boardwalk, and then the big roller coaster, and all this.

Well, I have a friend. who uh his family owns all the concessions.

So they've got a zillion jobs. And every summer, Campus Crusade would come to do ministry. I mean, you know, like. 150 students from all over America. And what he learned is, and what a testimony to Campus Crusade, these young college students were very committed Christians.

Their work ethic and commitment was of such, every summer he would, after about three summers, he said, send all of them to my place.

Okay, what do you like to do? Good, you can and he would hire them all all summer. And he said, Our prophets went up, the attitudes went up, they did ministry while we were there. He said, It was the greatest win-win in the world. Why?

Because Andrews said they were called by God to be there. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart as unto the Lord. Little application here, and I want to ask you, it says I, and then in my notes I have your name.

So, you know, do not write, I, Chip Ingram, commit to discover God's calling for my life so I can impact my world and beyond. That will not work for your notes. You would probably go with like your name. Because You track with me? Because if this isn't happening again, if it's not happening in you, you won't pass it on.

You can take these notes and these concepts, and you can get into Bible study, or you can go out for a Coke or a coffee with a son, or a disciple, a grandchild, and tell them this. And if it's not in you, you won't pass it on. And I don't care, you know what? Your work never ends. Don't say, well, I'm retired.

Okay, from some vocation for a season, but if you're breathing. You're working. You're doing things that are making, creating, modifying, developing. bringing beauty to life. And so you do that unto the Lord.

Now, let me give you four kind of specific ways that are real practical in general to develop this and those that you love to pass it on. And then, what I want to do is, I want to. Take this very specifically in the second half of our time about how do you help those you love. Discover God's calling for their life. But before we do, let me give you four quick things that, especially for those of you that might have kids that are still at home or you're in those earlier years.

Number one, Give them a lot of jobs growing up. We have too many parents working too hard, too long, that are very tired with children in front of television sets and video games going, Mom, when's supper ready? Your kids need to learn to cook and help out at 11 and 12. Everyone needs to be able to make their own bed by age five or six. Everyone needs to be able to handle and do their own laundry, you know, by the early teen or preteen years.

I was like, Well, that's my job. Look, look, here's your job is to impart and impact and develop your child to be responsible and learn to do work with a good job. And the only way you do that is you got to give them jobs. And guess what? It's a fallen world and they have flesh.

They don't like to do it. They don't want to feed the dog, they don't want to take out the garbage, they don't want to clean up the room. You start from young, you give them jobs. And by the way, it takes more time and it is a hassle. That's why you're the mature one and they're the non-mature one.

Of course, it's easier to tuck them in bed and clean up the whole thing yourself. You want them to learn to work at an early age. Feed them responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. Maturity. has very little to do with age and everything to do with responsibility.

I can show you thirty five year old guys living in the back bedroom. paying $33 a month rent. Asking Monnie what's for supper. And I can show you 17, 18-year-olds, or a couple guys that. 23, 24 that were Stanford said, you want to try starting this little company?

I don't know. You think this Google thing will work? I don't know. So they're 29 in billionaires. Maturity is not about.

How old you are, maturity is the ability to handle more and more responsibility. And so you give your kids or your disciples, that's why, even when you do small groups and when you do Bible studies, don't fix everything, don't take care of everything. Ask people to bring stuff. Ask people to start leading. Ask people to share some things.

All the time, feed those people you love the most responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. By the way, they won't do it as well as you.

So, perfectionistic fellow saints in the kingdom. Lighten up. Be able to live with some messes because Can I go back to, like, how did you learn to do stuff? That bricklayer, you know the greatest gift he gave to me? You know, I came to Christ, and then, you know, I went mostly to school to play basketball and baseball, but I did get an education.

And I think God put me with that bricklayer, and we saw this ministry grow. And then I graduated from school, and before I could find a coaching job, I worked with him. And then I was there like three months. We're going to launch this new ministry. And he started working with some couples.

He went a year earlier than me. And I'll never forget the day I came up to his house because we'd have a little Bible study Saturday morning. And he goes, Chip, you know something? I'm getting too old for this student stuff. And I'm going to just focus on couples.

The whole campus ministry, I mean, we had like five people. The whole campus ministry is yours.

So what do you mean? He said it's yours. I thought, well, I mean what's that mean? It's yours. Lead it, direct it, come up with a strategy, make it happen.

I said, Dave, I moved here to learn all this stuff. I mean, I had a good teaching job and I came to learn from you and do all this stuff. And I'm living in this tiny little apartment with the box, and the campus is up there, and we do it in your living room. What do you mean? He said, look, just lead it.

And I said, Well, I don't know enough. He goes, Well, there's my file cabinet. Everything I've learned, all the messages, I've learned from other people, they're topical. You can just open them up, get whatever you need. And I remember because his house was up on this hill, and mine was down at the bottom, and I remember trudging down.

Yeah.

I said, man, I can't believe this guy. I can't believe this. I can't believe this. I can't believe this. Man, who's, I mean, are you can he just dumped this whole thing on me?

And by the time I got to the door, it was like, All right. Yeah.

Okay. I'm going to lead it. I'm going to do it my way then.

So I started these Gospel of John Bible studies in dorm rooms, and guys are smoking dope, and there's all these pictures on the wall, and it's crazy. And I'm getting in the Bible, and all of a sudden, they start coming to Christ. Here's what he understood. He could have me help him for yet another season. and I would be a little helper.

or he could dump the truck of responsibility on me. and I'd have to figure it out. You know how I learned how to lead? Leading. And you know how you learn how to lead when you don't know how to lead?

It's called overwhelmness. And then, guess what? I prayed a lot because I didn't know what I was doing.

Now, I'm sure he kind of was watching, and he was not going to let me go over a cliff. But he let me get right to the edge. That's what you want to do. Feed and responsibility. Give them jobs, feed them responsibility.

Number three, require, I almost said demand, because I really mean demand, demand excellence and develop a work ethic. We have just got into this, our little kids' psyche. We don't want them to feel bad. My kids will tell you, and maybe I was a little over the top, I had one son that had a struggle in school and he had the gift of sloppiness. And so he would do his homework and he would I mean I couldn't even read it and it was half baked and so every night I mean for like almost two years every night I'm not exaggerating, so maybe I missed tonight, you know, sorta.

Not many. And I would look at it and I said, well, Eric, I can't read this. He said, Well that is the best I can do. I said, Well, the best you can do, I guess, is not quite good enough because that's. And I would give him, you know, the little dad sermon, and I really love you, son.

Now do it again. Hey, Eric, that news. You can cry as long as you want, but when you start writing it again, it'll get quicker.

Okay?

So I'll be out here when you get it done and bring it out to me. And that's how you learn to clean out the garage. That's not bad.

Now try it again. You know, the reason the vacuum cleaner, you pick up the rug and you actually vacuum under the rug, okay?

Now, I'm not talking about being perfectionistic over-the-top wacko, although my kids at times would say I had small moments of that. It it it was If they don't learn to work well and work with excellence and work to an audience of one, Wha where do you think they're going to pick that up? One of the greatest gifts I think I saw my wife and I give our children is they know how to think and they know how to work. And they've all been very successful in jobs because right now, how many of you are like either a business owner, supervisor, employee, or manager in any way? What's your number one problem?

You can't find people who can work, right? You can't find people that can come on time, do what they're told, fulfill a job, and do it well. You give that to those you love. And they'll be successful in whatever they do. And so you have to demand that.

By the way, the reason for those of you that still have some small kids, or by the way, it gets harder when they're older.

Well, I'm 18 years old, I can do anything I want. That's right. And you can also pay your own rent, you can buy your own food, give them responsibility. Your goal is not to make them dependent and like you and have warm, fuzzy feelings all the time. You want to launch them.

They're an arrow of God out of your quiver, and you want to launch them into the world with a trajectory of impact.

So then you understand: I'm called to do this. God made me to do this. I do it for an audience of one. You know what? I can lay brick or be a nuclear physicist.

And you know what? They're equal in God's eyes. I just need to figure out what that is. And the final thing I would say is teach them, and I allude to this, to work for an audience of one. And when they're young, I mean, I just like I told them, I said, it's it's I understand no one can see behind here that's really dirty and all the cobwebs and you know the spiders that are coming out of the corner and stuff that's upsetting your mother.

But The reason you you clean here. is because we're not doing this for me or for your mom. You do your best because this is your work as an offering to God. Did you see it? This was really one of the core Reformation principles.

The priesthood of the believer was one. This other was living life. before the face of God, all that we do, all that we are, as an offering. These are the biblical principles to instill in our offspring. It's a legacy that will last forever.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Bible teacher Chip Ingram. Chip, although we've been on radio for thirty years, we're finding that young listeners don't tune in this way. Instead, they're using new platforms, and they're asking honest, vulnerable questions. It's our role as parents and grandparents to bolster their confidence in the credibility of the Bible. Young adults today are asking questions their parents never ask.

How do I know Christianity is true with so many other religions? You know, why does the Bible seem to contradict science? Or how can I trust a God who allows such suffering? These aren't rebellious questions, they're honest questions, and they deserve an honest answer, a thoughtful answer. Living on the Edge doesn't shy away from the hard stuff.

You might remember our series, Caring Enough to Confront, where we taught on. Abortion, politics, the environment, LGBTQ, porn, heterosexual sin. I mean, if they don't hear God's perspective that is winsome and loving and clear and truthful, how do we expect them to follow Him? We have to give answers. With a spirit of kindness and love, but we have to shoot it straight.

And by and large, that has not happened across America. This is where God is called Living on the Edge to step in and both be kind and winsome, but at the same time, tackle controversial issues in a way that's clear. that's biblical, that's relevant, and speaks to the heart of young people. When you give to this match, you're helping us get the word of God to a group of people that are in desperate need of truth. But truth that's packaged in a way that says, I get you, I'm for you.

Would you explore this with me? Each time you give to Living on the Edge until December 31st, your gift is doubled because there's a group of people that say, I believe that we have to reach the next generation. And if people will give, I will give extra money to double it and double the impact. This is a critical time in our nation. It's a critical time in this generation.

Will you stand with us? We've made it simple to respond to Chip Ingram by calling this number, 888 3336003. If you prefer to give online, just go to livingonthege.org. Many in our audience prefer to send a check in the mail. You can do that by addressing your envelope to Living on the Edge, PO Box three thousand seven, Atlanta, Georgia, three zero zero two four.

Here's our phone number again, 888-333-6003, or give online at livingonthege.org.

Well, I'm Dave Druy. Join us when Chip Ingram continues to describe how to leave a legacy that lasts forever, Friday, on Living on the Edge. Woo!