Love Serves

This is the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. Brought to you by Living on the Edge. In this podcast, you'll hear Chip's teaching unedited and from beginning to end. Here's Chip Ingram with today's message titled, Love Serves. We tend to think about love as, you know, a romantic feeling or an emotion, and I'm all for those.

But the kind of love we're talking about requires a choice. And there's some things that work against us being loving people. And they're not necessarily bad, but they can distract us. And I'd like you to think, just right now, when was the first time, just as back far as you can go, when you really thought to yourself, I want to be great at something? I mean something clicked and you just said, you know, I want to be a great musician or I want to be great in ballet or I want to be a great student or I remember I was I think 11 or 12 years old sixth grade going into seventh grade and I went to a sports banquet and this coach was speaking and he kept talking about this one five foot nine guard in a small school that led the nation in scoring and he talked about his work ethic.

And all I can tell you is something got birthed inside. And I thought, I want to be a great basketball player. And I was so motivated because this guy's only five foot nine. And as I went into seventh grade, I was 4'11. And I went out for the team, and the coach said, why don't you go out for wrestling?

We need someone in the 85-pound class weight. And basically, you're too short, you'll never be a basketball player anyway.

Well, to my personality, that's like Yeah.

Okay. Pouring gasoline on the fire. And I remember just going absolute kind of nutso and starting, you know, I started doing a bunch of drills, and I started this ladder in my mind: first, I'm going to make the team, then I'll get some playing time, and then after I'll be a starter, and then I'll get prepared, and then I'll be a starter in the high school at Gahanna Lincoln Lion, and the whole town comes out, and then I'll get a scholarship to college. And I mean, I had this just blazing in my mind. I started playing seven, eight, nine hours a day.

No exaggeration. It just dominated my life. See, here's what I want you to know. Open your notes. The quest for greatness is universal.

Everybody wants to be great. Everyone wants to be successful, esteemed, valued, admired, significant, known. Appreciate it, accomplish, right? We want to look our best, do our best. We want to achieve.

And by the way, I don't think that's wrong. I think we want to be great because we're made in the image of God. When you look at the galaxies, they're great. When you look at the Earth, it's great. When you look at beauty, it's great.

We're the pinnacle of God's creation. But Desiring to be great is one thing. But then, sort of in our humanness, we start deciding: well, how are we going to measure greatness? How do you know if you're really great? And whether it's, you know, like basketball, climbing the ladder of success, business, music, relationships.

Historically, about five ways, I've put them on your notes, we tend to say. This is what Makes you great. First is power. Who And how many people Do you control? And I of course mean control in the best sense of the word.

But it's that idea that you have the final say, that you have either formal or influence that just. You're a somebody. The second way is possessions. Um Possessions provide freedom. Buy what you want, go where you want to.

Do what you want. And we just kind of tend to think the people with the most possessions are really great. In fact, Sometimes we buy things we don't even need so that other people understand how great we are. Third is position, our rank kind of in the pecking order. You know, your rights and your privileges.

And, you know, they say, okay, well, all the business class passengers, well, the VIPs, you know, there's just this, there's this pecking order. And, you know, you start out as an intern, and then you get a job, and then here, and then here. And we all have this little pattern of, you know. Power, possessions. Position.

And then prestige, how many people look up to you? You know that that inner security that these people admire me. I'm a somebody. I have this many followers on Instagram. I have this many likes on Facebook.

I'm a star. I have 3 million followers. I have a bazillion followers, right? You're great because of... What other people think of you?

And then finally, productivity. What do you produce? How good is it, and how much of it? And no matter how much, it can be better and it can be more. and new and innovative.

See, what productivity provides is a visible proof of your greatness. It's games won, buildings built, children raised, deals done, work accomplished, companies developed. Accolades and awards.

Now, just before you start feeling like I'm going to give you the left-hand hook and smash you and say, how terrible of you to measure your greatness that way. I don't think any of those things, any of those are bad. They they're often perverted. But If God would choose, as you walk with Him, to give you power, position, prestige, And you saw it as a stewardship? In order to honor him and use your position and your power and your possessions, and the people that look up to you.

To fulfill the will of God, here's what I want: I want you to get more position, more possessions, more power, and more prestige than anybody in the world, and love God with it. But the problem is There's a way that we become great in God's eyes, and there's a way that we become great in the world's eyes. And what we're talking about is genuine love. And so, notice, how do you obtain greatness? I'm going to suggest there's two pathways, and they're very distinct.

Pathway number one is ascending, right? You climb the ladder of success. And no matter where you are, there's one more rung. That's the The world's mode. And you can love God with all your heart, and He can bless, and you can go up that ladder.

You just have to remember who got you there. I love the little picture of the The post, have you seen this? There's a fence post. And there's a turtle. on top of it.

And the byline is I didn't get here on my own. And you know Being great. and having some of all these things. that if you can really recognize you're that turtle on the fence post, More power to you. But we live in a world where there's a lot of pressure.

To ascend in the world's mode. The second way we become great is by descending. This is what we're going to see: is that the Apostle Paul is going to be speaking to a group of people. And when you want to be great, you tend to compare. And when you compare, you try and get better than other people.

And when you compare and want to get better with other people, you kind of put them down and put yourself up. And what we learned last week is the me-set mindset, the only way to really be great in God's eyes and to have unity in relationships, you have to declare war on selfishness and you have to attack image management. Because a lot of all this greatness, you know what? At the end of the day, it wasn't about a scholarship. It wasn't about how many points per game.

It wasn't being a great basketball player. It was about Chip's ego wanting to be a somebody. It was about, I'm going to prove I'm okay, probably mostly to me and maybe more to my dad. And Jesus is going to say true greatness comes with humility. And the way is you descend into greatness.

We're going to find that Jesus will be the supreme ruler of all creation and the Creator, and then He's going to take on human flesh, and then He's going to become a servant, and then He's going to sacrifice His life, and then He's actually going to die, and then He's going to have the death on a cross of absolute humiliation and shame. And because he descends into greatness, then God will highly exalt him. Mark it down. God blesses and rewards humility. And humility is the pathway.

to deep abiding relationships. True greatness is defined by: do not think only on your own things, but also on the things of others. Does that sound familiar? Do nothing from selfishness or pride or vainglory. But with humility of mind, Consider others more important than yourself.

Here's the acid test of greatness. Are you ready? It's how well do you love? The greatest people in the world are the people who love others the best. I have a unique part of my job.

I bury a lot of people.

Someone has to do it. And I've never sat around a gravesite or gone to a house afterwards and had any group of people talk about, wow. Man. Did that guy have a great house? Or man, her jewelry was off the charts.

Or, did you ever hear? You know, what do they talk about? They talk about relationship and they talk about, you know what, whether she had a lot or had a little, she was the kindest woman I ever knew. You know, he was the man that stayed after work even though he was busy when I was going through a big marital problem. And every Tuesday night he met with me and talked with me and kind of privately shared this new thing about faith I didn't know about.

And he was a vice president in the company. He was someone that when My husband walked out on me. He and his family had me over for Thanksgiving. They met me at church. They made me feel loved.

At the end of the day, the greatest people on earth, the greatest people you'll ever know, will not have anything to do with how famous they are, how much money they have, how much power they have, how many likes they have on Facebook. It will be. Love.

Now, open your notes because I want to walk with you through how God is going to teach us to achieve true greatness. How do you get there? How do you experience true greatness? One word. You got it, don't you?

Can you write it down? Humility. By the way, humility is not thinking too high of yourself. It's not thinking too low of yourself. It's kind of self-forgetfulness.

It's not thinking of yourself at all. There's a focus on God and there's a focus on others. The most humble people in the world actually don't think they're humble. Because they're not focused on themselves. Humility is the channel, underline the word channel, through which the supernatural power of God's love flows.

To heal our deepest hurts and restore our most important relationships. Can you think of anything more important than your hurts or the hurts of someone else? I mean, we all have dysfunctions, we all have struggles, we've all been betrayed, we've all hurt, right? But someone, humility, is someone who cared enough to get off of thinking about themselves to invest in us and love us. And as they did that, the Spirit of God, His love came through them, and wholeness occurred so that what?

We could do the same. Humility is the channel by which grace flows downhill into our hearts. And it restores us and it restores relationships. Have you ever seen what happens in a group or in a marriage or in a family when people forgive one another? I mean it's pride that keeps relationships apart.

And it's the other person, they should apologize first. Do you know what happens in a marriage or in a family or in a small group or a business when there's someone that has genuine humility and lets go of their rights and their position, their prestige, and said, This relationship matters more than. That's what Jesus did. And he changed your world and my world and the whole world.

So, I want to take you on a journey. Following Jesus into greatness. And as we do, I have to tell you that all of Scripture is God-inspired. All of Scripture is very important. But there are some passages that I think rise up to the pinnacle.

of the truth, the majesty. We're going to go to a holy, holy place where... what we will see about the second person of the Trinity. Is so mind-boggling, so counterintuitive. And for those of you that have been Christians for a long time, my prayer is that you would see this with fresh eyes.

We're going to talk about one Who is in the pinnacle of glory, and myriads of angels are worshiping him. And he sits on the throne. God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. He owns everything, he controls everything. He has the utmost position.

Colossians 1, he spoke, and the galaxies came into existence. By the word of his power, he holds everything, and he will. Take on human flesh. And then I become a servant. And then he'll sacrifice his life.

And then he'll die. And then he'll actually die on a cross, which was the most shameful, humiliating way. A Roman citizen could never be crucified. Because it was so lonely. And it will be out of that humility.

that you and I and whosoever would believe could have life. And what he's going to say is, here's the path. Paul's going to say, there's bickering between you all, and there's persecution and pressure without. You have to, are you ready? You have to become humble.

So there's healing and there's life. I'll walk through the model rather briefly because then I want to get to the end. And apply it for all of us. Notice humility flows from a specific mindset. Hear the command.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Circle the word attitude, if you will. Literally, it's let this mind be among you. You know, I talk about reading the scriptures. I talk about meditating.

I talk about putting good things in your mind. We are the product of our thought life. This passage literally is your mindset, how you think, how you view yourself, how you view money and position and power and prestige, how you think, have this mindset in you all that was in Jesus. And now he's going to tell us what the mindset is. We achieve true greatness.

When we embrace Not just agree with. When we embrace Christ's mindset toward power. and possessions. How did Jesus view power? I mean, he had all the power.

He was the ruler. How did he view possessions? He owned everything. Notice what the text says. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Put a box around the word form. And then put a line under, did not regard equality with God. a thing to be grasped. Literally, that phrase is as something that must not slip out of his hands. The word form here is morphe.

We get the our English word morphed. The meaning of the word is the inner essential quality of a thing. or a person. In other words, when it says that Although, in the form of God, we think of form of something exterior. He's going to use a different word for exterior in a minute.

Form of God is the essential inner nature. In other words, although He and the Father and the Holy Spirit all have the same morphe. God, he didn't regard his equality with God something that he had to hang on to. In other words, he was going to take his power, he's going to take his rulership over positions, and he's going to let them go and start descending downwardly. Out of his love for you, and his love for me.

Notice next. We must become truly great. When we embrace Christ's mindset toward positions, and prestige. But he emptied himself.

So instead of holding on to this Position. He emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness. of a man underline the word emptied Put a box around formed. It's the same word. And then underline bond servant.

and a circle around likeness of men. And if you're here thinking, my gosh, I didn't even bring a pen, we'll bring one next time. What I want you to see, I want you, these words, the theology is so rich, it's so mind-boggling. In other words, He was equal with God. When it says he emptied himself for Bible students, the word is kenosis.

Literally, it means he made himself nothing. What that means is about two or three things. Number one, he had pre-incarnate glory. If you would have met the pre-incarnate Christ, the light emanating from him, You'd be gone. And so he veils his glory.

by putting on human flesh. then he limits the independent use of his attributes. See, sometimes we think of Jesus like Superman. He had this toga on, but when it got really hard, he just ripped off the toga. There's a big, instead of an S, there's a G.

I am God. I've overcome this. He didn't do it that way. He limited the independent use of his attributes. And he took on a body.

Are you ready? Permanently. Have you thought about that? Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. He has a resurrected body.

When you see Jesus, you can see a bit later, those of you that are followers of Christ. You you want to see the holes in his hands? You want to I mean, it's a sacrifice that's unbelievable. And what he's doing is. He's saying, I was in the form, the very essence of God.

I make myself nothing, never ceasing. In any way, Relieving himself of any deity, he's fully God, fully man. And then notice what it says. Taking the form, not just the acting, the form, the essential nature, not just of a servant, but of a bondservant. A bondservant in Jewish and in Roman culture had no rights.

You might have a number of servants in the house. The bondservant is the guy that picks up the doo-doo. He's the guy that empties the trash. He's the guy that has zero rights, no anything anywhere at any time. Could you just pause for a moment?

Could you imagine? I mean, when you think of how we cling to our rights. How come they didn't do that for me? Don't they know who I am? Can you imagine?

the creator of the universe Picking the form of a bondservant, and it says he's made in the likeness of a man. The word likeness is our word schema. This is the word that means just the outward fashion of, the appearance of. And he was fully human, except. He wasn't like all other men.

There's no sin nature. Jesus, everything he did. He said, follow me, model this. I can do nothing apart from him. His entire life was, I'm dependent on the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit to live this life.

So you can follow behind me and you be dependent on the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. And he did that because he loves you. He did that to rescue mankind. He descended into greatness.

Okay. Um, you want to have a mindset? You want to embrace the mindset with regard to your position? Right? We we all have one, we do, and prestige, you know?

Like what makes me a somebody? Let me give you three characteristics of the mindset of a servant. You might jot these down. And then think about how they might play out in your home. In your driving Okay.

At work Characteristic number one, no job is too low. Why? Because you're a servant. There's trash on the ground, pick it up. Why?

You're a servant. No recognition is required. No one needs to know who you are. No one needs to say, oh, wow, you're No recognition. You don't have to casually, like I certainly do at times, tell people that you know so-and-so or you work so-and-so.

See, you don't have to bring recognition to yourself. No job too low, no recognition needed. No thanks required. You know, when a servant would do his job, no one said, oh, wow, thanks so much. He's a servant.

That's what he's supposed to do, serve all the rest of us. You see, it's a mindset. Can you imagine what it would be like to be married to someone who thought their job was to serve their mate? Can you imagine a mom or dad who thought that the whole goal of their life was to serve their children in a way to help them be responsible and to grow up? Can you imagine what it'd be like to have a boss or a supervisor who saw himself not as the head and the requirement and got mad when people didn't get their deliverables?

But I'm going to serve you and help you be successful. And maybe the best way to serve some of you is help you find another place. Because you struggle, this isn't what you were intended for. But the mindset isn't, you hack me off, get out of here. I want to serve you.

Well, those are the three characteristics of a servant's mindset. Can you can you take any more? Let me give you three characteristics of what makes great servants. Number one. They observe needs.

See, real servants realize I'm not here for people. To serve me, and so they observe needs. If you've ever been to a very good restaurant and the waiter or the waitress, do you ask for water? They're there. You ask for a second of this.

I mean, they're watching your table and they observe needs. When you stand up and when you're here, do you just go and talk to someone you know? Are you observing? I wonder what the needs are. I wonder how things are going here.

I wonder if they need help in the children's ministry. I wonder if they need help over here. Who might need servants have this mindset of, There might be some needs I can fulfill. Second is to take initiative. You don't have to ask them.

They just take initiative. Oh wow, there's a need, I'll sell it. I'll take care of that. I'll do that. And third, They don't draw attention to themselves.

Now That's pretty different, isn't it? That's what Jesus did. And he loved deeply and better. And that's why he's the greatest human being. whoever lived because he was a human being.

Fully got. But a human being. That's how he viewed position. and prestige. Finally, we become truly great when we embrace great.

Christ's mindset toward productivity. Ask yourself, what did he really accomplish? Quite a bit, huh? Being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

even death on a cross. Underline the word humbled himself. Put a box around becoming obedient. And then circle death. and circle on a cross.

Jesus descended from The supreme Creator and ruler. to taking on human flesh. to being a servant. to making his life a sacrifice. to dying for us and then to die in the most humiliating way known to mankind.

Now, here's what you need to get, especially those with a sensitive conscience, which I really appreciate. The way to eliminate your pride is not to focus on how arrogant you are. It's not to walk out of here and go, you know, I think of myself and I'm really into position, and yes, I think my possessions make me a someone, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, don't go there. When you try and get rid of pride out the window, it comes back in the door.

If you get it out the door, it'll come back into the attic. You know how you can become a humble person? It's really, really easy. Obey. You obey your way to humility.

Because humility isn't some feeling. Humility is considering others more important than yourself.

So, what do you do? You act on the truth that these people are actually more important than me. Therefore, my time will go toward helping others. My money is going to go toward helping others. And my talents will go toward helping others.

And more than some kind of feeling, you do what Jesus did, he acted on it. And by the way, just a little note, put a little star, he didn't feel like it. Do you remember the garden? Emotionally. Jesus didn't, you know, love is giving another person what they need the most when they deserve it.

The least at great personal cost. Jesus was not in the garden going, Father, from eternity past, we're going to save him. This is great. Holy Spirit, I'm going to high-five you. I'm going to go to the cross.

We're going to do this. Oh Father, oh Father, if there be any way, not my will, but yours be done, but if there's a plan B, a plan C, I don't want to do this. I don't want to be separated from you. I don't want the cost. I don't want the pain.

I don't want to do this, nevertheless. Can I tell you something? When you don't feel like reading the Bible and read it, when you don't feel like praying and pray, when you don't feel like giving and give, when you give time, when you care, when you're tired and say, I don't feel like it, I don't feel like it. I don't think you're being a hypocrite. I think you're probably more pleasing to God.

than almost any other time in your life. It takes a lot more faith to obey when you don't feel like doing it. You are living in such a feel-oriented culture. I'm kind of tired. I don't feel like reading.

I'm kind of tired. I don't know if I can make it to the small group. I'm kind of tired. I'm so worn out. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

How did Jesus feel? He was beat within an inch of his life. They crush thorns into his skull. Love serves I choose love. I choose to serve.

And something supernatural happens when that occurs. Humility. grows by Obedience. If someone came to you and said, I've got a proposition for you. I know everything that's going to happen today.

I know what the stock market's going to be at the end of the day. I know what's going to happen in your 11 o'clock meeting. I know the email that you're going to get 2.15 that's going to rock your world. I know the news at 4 o'clock. I know what's going to happen the moment you walk in the door with your family.

And I'd like to maybe get 15, at least 30 minutes, and have a really good talk to prepare you so you can respond in each one of those situations in exactly the way that you ought to for the best results to bring about the most good for you and them. C could you spare 30 minutes to do that? Who wouldn't do that, right? Isn't that the invitation of Jesus to you? Isn't the invitation the creator of the world died in your place, experience shame to give you a relationship?

And just hear my heart. I completely don't understand this. I cannot fathom a child of God. who loves God that doesn't have time to meet with his Creator. Whose only goal is to express his love, to draw you near, to renew your mind, to give you grace to go through what you're going to go through.

And you say, You don't have time for him, but you do Facebook. You don't have time for him, but you live on your phone. You don't have time for him, but you got lots of hobbies. You don't have time for him, but your kid's on the traveling team. You don't have time for him, but Have I made my point?

Have you got it? I want to really ask you. If you walk out these doors and go, I want to be more humble, I intend to be more humble, you will not be humble. You act your way into humility. Obedience is the pathway to humility.

Humility is about considering others people more important than yourself.

Okay. So let's do a quick test and then we're going to get to something very exciting like the really wonderful side of the rewards of humility. Here's the test. How other-centered are you? Get out your device or devices.

And just scroll through the last two or three weeks, and how many names and times. on your devices are about serving other people. And how many are about you? But that'll tell you. Second is go home.

Pull up your bank statement and a couple your credit cards. and look at where your money went. And ask yourself, how much of the money entrusted to you, because it's not yours and it's not mine. Went to expressing your love to God and to helping other people, and how of it went to you and to service your debt. See, the reason Jesus talks so much about money is because it's at the core.

It's the MRI. If you want to know where your heart's at, it's not how you sing a song, it's not how often you come to church. If you want to know where your heart's at, you know, it's like the old thing: just follow the money. And so the reason he says and taught to them: look, the first 10%, just so you know that I own it and you don't, you write that check to me. But if you live on a bit of a budget and you decide how much is enough, then over and above that, how much is enough, you begin to share and give and love.

And then what he says is, as you keep descending into greatness, all these people's lives change and people get loved and people come to Christ and they experience the life of Christ. See, my money tells me. whether I'm humble or whether I'm about me. And then I asked myself, what about my talent? Where's my talent going?

I mean, my energy. Did you know in Christendom 50% of all the people that go to Bible-believing churches do not give anything of their time or their money. And I would love to say our church is a big exception. It's not, it's exactly that same place. And by the way, if you look at our numbers, we don't need your money.

I mean, we could do a lot more. But here's my challenge is You want to be a servant. Then serve. Get your priorities in order. Get your time in order.

You can't do anything I'm talking about unless God speaks to you and strengthens you. Your priorities will never get right until your finances get right. And if you think there's any ulterior motive, give it somewhere else. But maturity. Joy.

Power. Love demands humility that requires obedience. Just before you think oh my lands I want to tell you something that makes all this worthwhile. Are you ready? The next and last point.

Is we experience the reward of true greatness when we follow Christ's example of servanthood.

Now, remember I said everyone wants to be great? Are you ready? Okay, how great do you really want to be?

Okay. How great do you really want to be? Because if you are willing to take Your position, your possessions, your prestige, your power, and say, I'm a steward of that, and I'm going to use that humbly as God directs to serve and to love God and to love others. Here's the promise: Christ will exalt you, He always exalts those who practice humility. In fact, notice, here's the example from Jesus.

For this reason, what reason? This descending into greatness. Also, God highly exalted him. Literally, it super-exalted him. And he bestowed on him the name which is above every name.

Why? So that at the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow. Where? Of those who are in heaven, of those who are in earth, and those who are under earth.

And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ and put a box around Lord. The word is Yahweh. He's referring back to Isaiah 45:23, where God Yahweh says, I am the one, and every knee will bow before me. If you want a passage, God the Father is Lord, Jesus is Lord, and notice the reason: for the glory of God. You know, Mother Teresa didn't own a whole lot.

And there's people that have built huge, huge things, but we remember Mother Teresa Y. She just loved people. And she loved people that no one cared about. And God exalted her. As you humble yourself, as we as a church, like never before, humble ourselves.

By being obedient. God will exalt you. What what would it be worth? What would it be worth to have a deep, loving, connected family? deep, loving, connected friendships.

Be the person that changes the entire culture where you work or your neighborhood. See, God gave Jesus the greatest position. and the greatest name.

Now Here's the deal. We need to apply this very specifically, and I want to do it very soberly. For those of you who are here and you are a follower of Christ, you're absolutely certain that you are in God's family, you've trusted Christ. At a certain point in time, you were convicted of your sin and your lifestyle. You realized that you needed to be forgiven and saved by a holy God, and you extended the empty hands of faith and said, I turn from my past life and I asked Jesus to come into my life and forgive me for my sin.

I believe you died in my place and rose from the dead. If you're one of those people, here's the question. Your knee is going to bow. And you are going to confess him as Lord. My question is: is he Lord today?

If you have never said, I'm all in. And saying, whatever that means, my geography, my family, my money, my dreams. I may be a little scared. In fact, if you're not a little scared, you don't know what I'm talking about. But I'm going to trust God and I'm going to stand up.

And I'm going to publicly declare He is my Lord. He will call the shots from this moment on. And if you've never done that, I'll ask you to stand. And I will tell you, you experience power.

some difficulty and some joy and reward that you've never experienced. And you will find yourself having to get into God's word because he'll begin using your life. There's another group of you that you're here and you're exploring, and you wouldn't claim necessarily to be a Christian, or you're not really sure if you are in the family or out of the family. You're a good person, a moral person, you're visiting a church. But if you died today, you are not absolutely certain that you would spend eternity with Christ.

Every person is going to bow the knee and you will profess. Jesus is Lord. Option A is that if you haven't done that and you bow the knee and you humble your heart and you say, I need you, God, will you forgive me? I want to turn from sin. I ask you to come into my life and I want to follow you.

Option B. Is you say, well, no, not ready to do that. Maybe later. I don't want anyone telling me what to do. I'm not sure about this God stuff.

If that's good for you guys, fine. I'm going to do my own thing. The day will come when you will bow your knee. And instead of joy looking at your Savior, in absolute dismay and distress, you'll go, oh. I remember when I was in that church and I heard God's voice, and I may never hear it again like this.

I so wish I could go back. But you can't. And he brought you into this room on this day to forgive your sins and give you a new life. God wants you to be great. He wants you to be great.

He just wants you to descend into greatness. The acid test of greatness is It's love. This is about being loving people. The road to greatness, have you got this word down now? It's Humility.

The road to greatness is considering others more important than yourself. And finally, the opportunity for greatness. It's serving. It's serving in the church. It's serving at home.

It's saying, I'm a servant. No job is too low. I'm a servant. I'm available. I'm a servant.

I don't need recognition. I want to be a part of the change agent. I'm not someone who comes and sits and observes and intellectually believes the things that everyone intellectually believes. I'm a servant. God, just show me where to plug in.

This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we're in our series called Choosing Love. If you're ready to turn today's challenge into lasting change, Chip's newest book, I Choose Love, gives you the practical roadmap you need. It doesn't just tell you what to do, it shows you how to do it. You'll learn to recognize the subtle ways pride and selfishness sabotage your relationships. You'll discover practical exercises to develop genuine humility.

And you'll see how choosing agape love, the sacrificial others-focused love of God, transforms even your most difficult relationships. I choose love addresses the real issues we all face: the tendency to need the last word, the subtle belief that our perspective is the truth, the grandiosity that shows up in small ways like chronic lateness. Chip gets brutally honest about his own struggles, and he shows you the path forward. If you're tired of broken relationships and ready to experience love that actually works, get your copy of I Choose Love today. Visit livingonthege.org.

And friend, this Bible teaching program is reaching you and countless others because of the faithful giving of listeners just like you. When you give to Living on the Edge, you're multiplying this message of transformative love around the world. Would you join us? Visit livingontheedge.org to give or just call us at 888-333-6003.

Well, that wraps up today's episode. Don't miss the next Bible teaching message coming up here on the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Um