Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. When's the last time when you were talking to God personally and intimately, you thanked him for the great progress you're making in your faith? I find people that no matter how much progress you make, you never feel like you measure up. And behind that is the sense that God is down on you. How do we work out what God has already worked in and be thankful for it?
Stay with me. That's today. What does God really expect from you? Today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram tackles a question that haunts many believers. We've heard the verses about working out our salvation with fear and trembling.
But what does that actually mean? Is God standing over us with crossed arms, disappointed when we fail? Or is something deeper going on? Through Philippians chapter 2, Chip reveals the beautiful balance between God's sovereign work in us and our responsibility to respond. It's not about earning his favor, it's about cooperating with what he's already begun.
Well, here's Chip Ingram with today's message, love obeys.
So the question I want to ask you is, what's your expectations of God? What do you expect of him? And are you ready to flip it over? Have you ever thought seriously about what God expects of you? And just like our personal history shapes our expectations with one another, history itself shapes our expectations depending on our backgrounds.
In the 16th century, John Calvin was a great, great theologian. He had a very strong view of God and about his sovereignty and his power. But it was pushed to extremes by some of his followers. And so, about 80 or 90 years later, a fellow named Jacob Arminius came along and he said, Boy, you know, that's we've strayed beyond the Bible. And so he began to teach some things.
And so what you have is two basic camps. If you come from a, let me just call it a hyper-Calvinistic background, you believe God is sovereign and in control. You believe that he's predestined and predetermined just about everything in life. You focus on verse 13 of Philippians 2: it is God who is at work. Arminius, by contrast, said, no, no, no, no.
It's, yeah, God is sovereign, but we're responsible. We have a free will. We make choices. He emphasizes the verse 12, work out your salvation. Our choices have consequences.
Therefore, as a result of it, if you came from this side, Eternity is not certain. You know, you might be a good Christian for a while, but if you mess up, you're out. Notice in your notes, here's what I want to get. God's word rejects both extremes and holds God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in biblical terms. Tension and balance.
What I want you to know is the Apostle Paul, interestingly, he's already, he did this in chapter 1, remember? He said, I'm confident he's going to be executed. I'm confident of this. This is what's going to turn out for my deliverance. Your prayers.
Oh, man's responsibility. and the provision of the Spirit of God. God's sovereignty. He now, in verse 12, says, So then, my beloved, Just as you always obeyed, not just in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation. Would you circle that phrase with fear and trembling?
That's your responsibility. Notice verse 13. Why should you work this out? For God, who is at work in you. both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
History lesson is over. Yeah. But I do want you to know that it seeps in everywhere. Because what happens is is that I came up around a group. You came up around a group.
And these groups have Thoughts about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of men. And I will just say.
Some of you struggle with guilt. Because no matter how much you do, it's never enough. Because you live with this, you know, there's never enough, God's down on you. But now that's extreme. That's not what should be taught.
Some of you are like laid back to the point of you're not doing what you need to. And but you have this subtle of, yeah, God's in control. He really is in control, but that doesn't excuse you. And so what you want to do is you want to say, I don't want what Calvin taught and I don't want what Jacob Arminius taught. I want what Jesus taught.
I want what the New Testament says. I want what the Word of God says. And there's going to be certain times and certain passages, I've been doing this for quite a while, I don't fully understand. I don't think anyone fully understands, but I've got plenty of truth to know this. I will stand before God as a follower of Jesus and give an account.
For my time, my energy, my money, and my decisions. And I've been around long enough to know this: despite my mistakes, My difficulties, the times even that I've sinned, the times when I knew what was right and I didn't even do it, there's this patient, kind, loving, sovereign God that's working even those difficulties and things that people have done to me and circumstances I can't understand because He's such a, are you ready? Good, good father. And so becoming like Jesus and following him is a cooperative effort.
Well The question then becomes is How do you work out? What God worked in. I mean, it's nice to hear that. I kind of gave you the theory and the history.
Well, it practically, how do you do it?
Well, Paul, this is a really amazing thing. After chapter 2, verse 12 and after verse 13, guess what comes? Verse 14. And 15 and 16 and 17.
So, guess what Paul's gonna do? He says, I want you to obey, to be the kind of follower of Jesus fully by his grace. Even if I come or I don't come, but the goal is I want you to be under the hearing, so I'm going to give you very specific things to obey so that you have unity and that God uses you in this perverse generation.
So are you ready? Get your pen out. Here's command number one. He says, do everything without complaining or arguing.
So the command is: be a grateful servant. Be a grateful Servant. If um Not to be overly technical, but if you had the Greek text in your hand, you would read it and you would go, oh wait, the word order. It's completely out of order. They took the word everything and do everything, and it belongs in the back of the sentence, and they put it all the way in the front of the sentence.
For what? Emphasis. Drive your car. Pay your bills. Respond to the government and pay your taxes.
How? Do everything without complaining. or arguing. Word for complaining here is basically grumbling. It's that infectious negative Attitude.
It's really about Be a grateful servant in your speech. And your attitude. Don't whine. Don't complain? Don't talk about your boss or your supervisor behind their back.
Don't be negative. Don't be critical. Don't be sarcastic. don't put people down. This is getting pretty convicting, just me t saying this to myself.
But not only don't complain, but don't argue, it's a legal term. It has to do with dissensions and disputing. and taking sides. Can you imagine what would happen? Just hypothetically, if every genuine follower of Jesus obeyed this, with regard to their social media.
No complaining. No arguing. No dissensions, no name-calling, no attacking other people. See, this was happening in the Philippian church, and Is this happening in anybody else's home? Is this happening at work?
Anybody else a small group? This is happening everywhere, isn't it? See what he's gonna say is Okay. You want to work out your salvation? You want to go into training and practice?
Begin with your speech because. Jesus said, The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good. The evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil. For the mouth speaks by that which fills the heart. The two most vivid ways to know where you're at in your journey with the Lord Jesus is ask: what does my money say about my values and what does my speech say about my heart?
And those two things are just pretty black and white. If it's negative, if it's complaining, if it's putting people down, see, if you change your speech, your heart has to change. Our uh Our kids, we've had some that were less negative and some more negative. I had one that was extraordinarily negative. She came out of the womb.
Oh, I said she, I guess we know who it is. I mean, she was. I mean, it just, I mean, the glass never got half full. And so we got a jar. And we wrote missions on it and Annie's speech, and all my kids memorized Ephesians 4.
Uh 29. Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it might give grace. to those who hear. And so we started out with every time a negative comment came out, she put a dime in the jar. Then we went to quarters.
Then we went to 50 cents apiece. She was a very generous commissions at the church. But here's the thing: she went into training. She went into training, and we talked about it. And then she began to memorize some verses.
Now, you know what? Part of that was a leadership gift that she has that when she looked at life, she saw what was wrong, and then when she thought it, it came out of her mouth at the same time. She did not get that from her mother.
So we went into training together. to get a hold of our speech. You might evaluate things and see something that, oh, that should be over here instead of like that, or that's not the right attitude, or we need to fix that at work. might be a real giftedness you have. But when it comes out of your mouth, In the wrong context and not in the right way, with the right tone of voice.
It's disunifying. Second, he says this is for a purpose. The purpose of being grateful is so that you can be a godly servant. God wants us to be godly. godly publicly God godly privately and godly personally.
Circle the word blameless, circle the word pure. Encircle the word without fault. The word blameless is relationship to the outside world. It means the people at work, your neighbors, people at the coffee shop, the dry cleaners. The team one of your kids plays on.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip will continue today's message in just a moment.
So stay with us. If today's teaching is resonating with you, there's more where this came from. The complete series, Choosing Love, is available right now at livingonthege.org. You'll also find study notes, discussion questions, and resources to help you go deeper. Everything is waiting for you online at livingonthege.org.
Well, now let's continue with Chip's message. He says be blameless. Be the kind of Christian that they're not going, oh my gosh, that person says they're a Christian, but listen to their language, listen to the put-downs, you know, look at their morality. He says, No, no, no, no, you got to be blameless, not perfect, blameless. When God shows you that your life is ungodly and it would reflect negatively on Jesus and his church, you say, I can't live that way.
Second, it's privately. It says blameless and pure. The word pure here means like undiluted wine, or it was used of metal that didn't have a mixture of both like iron and something else in it. It's pure. This is about your motives.
This is about when no one is around, who are you really? And then finally, he says, not only blameless and pure, but he goes on to say. without fault, and again here it doesn't mean in terms of perfect. But without fault is Relationship to those In the church, and especially your relationship to God, the word was used for like an animal without blemish. in your offering and your sacrifice.
And so in essence, what he's really saying is. I want you to obey. I want you to be the kind of Christians in a really tough world that you're positive, thankful people. Not positive thinking. You're genuinely thankful, and your speech and your actions reflect it.
Second, I want you to be godly. I want you to be godly toward the outside world. I want you to be godly and have personal integrity within. And I want you to be godly in terms of your relationship with God. I uh Love the next line where he says, so that you can.
do something in a very crooked and perverse generation. I mean, we all here we want to see the world change, right? We all believe the world is, I mean, it's crazy right now. And people ask me all the time, well, what can I do? This is what we can do.
Be grateful people. Be godly people. And notice the result is to be a bold servant in action and words. He says, when you're godly in the midst of a crooked and perverse, literally, it's a twisted generation. And I think it's even more twisted now than it was then.
But in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out or literally hold forth the word of God. And so he says to them, This is the kind of Christian I want you to be. And when you do that... You're demonstrating something. You're making a difference.
It's like there's this black backdrop and you're shining in this corrupt world like shining stars. And people take notice. I have a very good friend. Who, um Decided to leave. A very powerful, lucrative Job.
Had a great position. Extremely Well paid. And there came a time where the company And those in power were asking him to make Some decisions. that lacked integrity. And he had Worked with all the other people in the company and sort of set a standard that no matter what, we won't compromise.
And people knew he was a follower of Christ, and integrity really mattered. Came to the point where he Crossroads. And out of integrity, Let that go. And he told me a little bit about the last day with all the employees. And these are, you know, these are high-tech.
grown men and women in a fast-paced world. Um overwhelmed with emotion. Like a Bright, shining star in the midst of a cutthroat, make money, fudge the facts. How do we make it look faster and better that we can go public or whatever the goals are? And someone steps and says, There's something that matters more than money.
I'm a follower of Christ. It's the truth that sets you free. And I'm going to stand on my convictions regardless of the consequences. And there was an entire company that saw a star shining brightly. Notice you shine like stars and you're bold.
You hold forth God's word. You're not ashamed to be a Christian in your neighborhood. You're not ashamed of the Bible at work. Do I understand you're gonna get some flack? Of course.
Did the early disciples get some flack? Did Jesus get some flack? Did the reformers get some flack? At some point in time, we have to realize it's coming.
So let's respond in a loving way. Let's shine like stars. Let's be the church that, oh my lands, they remodeled another school. Oh my lands, they're taking in the refugees. We just had a team come back from India.
They did all that dental work and medical work. Oh my lands. Who says, oh my lands anyway? That must be from my mother or my childhood. You want to know how to work out what God worked in?
Be a grateful servant. Be a godly servant. Be a bold servant. And finally, his whole motive was: I'm not down on you, Philippians. This isn't a list to do all the stuff.
of some religion, be a joyful Christian. Here's my motive. My motive is that I can, I'm going to stand before God, and I don't know if I'm executed or not executed, but I'm going to stand before God and boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run in vain or labor in vain, but I poured out my life like a drink offering on the sacrifice and the service. Of your faith. And what he's picturing here is that that's a picture of getting executed.
He's taking this Old Testament picture of when you would offer a sacrifice and then they would take maybe wine and pour it on the altar as it's going up. It's a drink offering. He says, if my blood, if my life, if I'm a drink offering, here's the deal: I'm going to be glad and I'm going to rejoice in dying.
So you too be glad. And rejoice with me. Is that amazing? As you look at the back page, The first couple questions are ones you can just do by yourself, but Grab a cup of tea, coffee, Coke, Diet Coke, and Put your feet up somewhere in the next 24 or 48 hours and say, hmm. You know, what what expectations do I have?
In terms of what I think God's going to do for me and are they accurate and And down deep, what do I think God expects of me? For some of you, you need a big dose of grace. Here's what He expects that you receive His love. And for others, he expects you Get off here. Dairy Air.
and quit expecting that Bible to read itself. and to discipline yourself to godliness so he can let you experience what you already possess. Where do you see growth and progress in the working out of what God has worked in? You know, some of you, you just go so negative. Oh, I ought to be more of this.
I ought to do more of this. I ought to be more doing this. How about writing down? You know, I've become more patient. I've become more generous.
You know what? I'm a better dad than I used to be. I clean up in my. You know, with my roommates, write down where God and it'll encourage you and then. Where do you need to focus effort and energy to allow Jesus' life to be manifested in you and through you.
And you know, these words, right, they come right out of the text. You know, and just and just don't check them all. You'll go nuts. If you already haven't. But just ask yourself, you know, Lord, whisper this prayer.
Lord, Holy Spirit, would you show me which one or at the most two? Is it my attitude speech? Boldness, authenticity, godliness, just And check one of those and then just say, Lord, I can't do this. I can't do this. But you Can.
So I'm telling you, I'm inadequate, and your power will be my adequacy.
So would you help me? Would you help me do that? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and a powerful teaching on cooperating with God's transforming work. Chip has more to share in just a moment. As you think about what it means to obey God out of love rather than duty, I want to tell you about Chip's newest book that goes hand in hand with this series.
It's called I Choose Love. Love isn't something that just happens to you, it's something you can choose. Chip shows us that the agape love God calls us to isn't built on feelings or romantic notions. It's a love that gives, serves, obeys, and cares. It's the kind of love that transforms every relationship in your life.
Get your copy of I Choose Love online at livingonthege.org. You know, every day, Living on the Edge reaches millions with biblical teaching that helps Christians actually live like Christians. Through broadcasts, podcasts, and resources, we're equipping believers to walk with God and Impact their communities. This happens because friends like you partner with us. When you give, you're transforming lives.
From listeners driving to work to pastors needing encouragement to families searching for answers. Would you join this mission? You can contribute online at livingonthege.org or mail your support to livingonthege PO Box 3007 Atlanta, Georgia 30024. You can also call us and give over the phone, just dial 888-333-6003. Looking for Chip's complete sermons?
The Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast is now available as a feature on the Living on the Edge podcast. Listen to full unedited messages right alongside our regular episodes.
Well, now here's Chip with some final thoughts. As we wrap up today's program, I would remind you that the title of this message is Love Obeys. In other words, when God is working out through His Spirit and we're responding by faith and obedience, it ends up we obey, we are obeying what He says in His Word. Jesus would say to His disciples on the very last night on the earth, He said, He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me will be loved of my Father.
And we will come and disclose ourselves to Him. Intimacy with Jesus at the heart of it is by faith we obey. In other words, we work out what God has worked in, the work of Christ in our place. And as I talk through this, and you heard a little bit earlier in the broadcast, we talked about being grateful and godly and bold and joyful. And, you know, we walk through this passage in Philippians chapter 2.
And then I ask you to do a little analysis, some reflection. And at the first part, what I want you to do honestly is say, where have I made progress? In fact, this is one of those where you really need to download the notes. It's livingontheedge.org and get the notes because all of these questions are here and then I listed. Attitude.
Authenticity, speech, boldness, godliness. And then in the notes I give a definition. But what I want you to do is say, where am I making progress in my attitudes? Where am I making progress in my boldness? Where am I making progress in my speech?
And then I want you to sit quietly before the Lord and maybe have the notes out in front of you and say, Lord, where do you want your spirit to take more control? Is it my speech? Is it my attitude? Is there ungratefulness in my heart? Is there unforgiveness in my heart?
Is it a lack of boldness? Is it that everyone knows I'm a great guy or a wonderful gal, but they don't know why? Lord, I pray right now for my brothers and sisters as we are together, saying, Lord, we want to obey. We know that love obeys. We long for you to show us where we're making progress that we might rejoice and thank you.
And we long for you to show us that one thing or that one or two things that are very specific that we could bring to you and ask that by your spirit and the power of your word through community, you could transform us more into the likeness of your son. Lord, that's our prayer. We know you'll answer it. And so we thank you in advance for what you're going to do. Amen.
What does genuine care for others really look like in action? I'm Dave Druy. Join us as we continue exploring what it means to choose love tomorrow on Living on the Edge. Wow. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.
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