Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. What do you give the person that has everything? Every time that comes up on my Christmas list or birthday list, I get stumped. But here's a bigger one. How do you give God what he wants the most?
Have you ever thought of that? You're going to learn exactly what he wants and how to give it to him. That's today. What does the creator of the universe truly want from you? It's a question that haunts every honest seeker.
Well today on Living on the Edge, chipping romancers it head-on. Through gripping stories of treasure hunters and priceless discoveries, he reveals a pattern Jesus used to shake people awake to spiritual reality. You'll discover why God's invitation to total commitment isn't about losing your life, it's about finally finding it. This teaching challenges our deepest assumptions about what matters and exposes the plastic pearls we desperately clutch while missing the real treasure.
Well, here's Chip Ingram with today's message, How to Give God What He Wants the Most. If I ask you kind of over a cup of coffee, where did your spiritual journey really begin as an adult? What would you tell me? Where were you? What were the circumstances?
For me, it was the night I graduated from high school. After being with some friends at a party, I realized I was a workaholic. I had academic success. My dream of a basketball scholarship was in hand. I was all league in baseball.
I had a really pretty girlfriend. And I sat Alone. and empty and just wondering what in the world am I here for? My little formula of Success will make you happy didn't pan out. I remember that night sitting on my bed looking out my bedroom window.
It was a very starry night, I remember, and I started asking the real questions that adults ask. Why am I here? Is there a God? What's my purpose in life? Is there more to life than just setting goals and achieving them?
And that night, although I had a lot of childhood prayers of, you know, get me out of this jam and please help so-and-so. I prayed what I think was my first adult prayer. And I remember looking at the stars, and I said, God. If you exist. Reveal yourself to me in a way that I can understand.
And then I figure everybody wants something, and I remember praying, God. What do you want from me? If you exist, what do you really want from me? And that's going to be the question we're going to ask and answer today on our journey toward true spirituality. How do we give God What he wants the most.
We're going to walk through this journey, and this journey is going to take us to a point of a very, very important decision. And so I want to introduce you to A book that I read, it was by a Yale law professor called Risk, Reason, and the Decision-Making Process. And it's a series of true stories that are case studies, and they read the case study, then they get in small groups, and they talk about, okay, what were the risks involved in making this decision? What reasons did people make this decision? And what would you do?
And so they sort of peel it out, give a case study, let the groups talk a little bit, and then give them more information.
So let me actually. I've got a couple case studies here, because here's the deal. The goal was to teach them to make skillful, wise decisions. And we're going to be talking about a very, very important decision. And there was just some great insight about making great decisions.
So case study number one, they're brief, but they're kind of fun. A 32-year-old engineer named John loves to go to estate sales to look for antique furniture and other potentially valuable items. One weekend, he goes to an estate sale in the southern part of the United States. All the items in this particular house are being sold together for a single price. Visitors are welcome to make a bid, and John learns that the winning bid will be about $95,000.
The house is old and disrepair, probably built during the Civil War period. John, a self-confessed geek and history buff, recognizes a collection of rifles that seem to be from that time frame. He then goes downstairs to a damp basement using a small pocket flashlight. finds an old roller top desk. And going through the desk, he discovers a false drawer.
And in the false drawer is a small leather pouch. That contains twenty-two very rare pure gold coins. Minted by the Confederate Army during the Civil War. They could be worth millions of dollars, he believes. John has to make a decision.
What should he do? He has $10,000 in savings. If he can sell his car, his house, and everything he owns, he believes he can come up with the $95,000 and make the winning bid. What would you do? Students at Harvard's Business School and MIT and other universities discuss this.
So Face value, what would you do? Think about that. Case study number two. Sheila, a twenty-something college art teacher at a community college, was traveling in Europe over the summer. She had even started a small collection on her limited salary.
And while in a small village in southern France, well off the beaten path, Sheila went to an auction. where the locals had all donated family art to be sold to help finance the construction of a much-needed school. One painting topped the list and was said to be a rare but highly valued copy of Picasso's work. It was deemed as a non-original because the signature at the bottom was different from all of his other works. Sheila, however, wrote her master's thesis on Picasso and was aware that in the first year of his work he did not sign his name, but only put his initials there.
She looked and studied the painting carefully and came to the conclusion that she actually was in the presence of a priceless piece of art. It was believed there were only two or three of these paintings in existence anywhere in the world. If this were so, Sheila was standing before something worth a very great deal of money. The $25,000 asking price was a joke with regard to what it was worth, but it was a bigger joke with her income. What she would have to do would sell her Volkswagen Jetta.
Sell her entire art collection, and withdraw her entire savings of $600. What should Sheila do? What would you tell her?
Now, I want to give you three principles that flow out of these case studies. Here's where the meat is for you and me. In every big decision, and I mean big important... Life-altering decisions, especially. The number one thing you need is just write this word down: truth.
Truth. The issue here is the validity of the find. If the coins are legit, if they're true, if it's a Picasso, if it's true, and for you, When you're trying to figure out what you should do with your life and the relationships that you're in. You need to first and foremost say, what's true? And after truth and knowledge, the last thing, just write the word faith.
These are the three keys to making great decisions. What's true? Do you have the inside knowledge? And then faith is literally the courage to pull the trigger. There's a great deal of people that never have the faith or the courage to pull the trigger and act on what they absolutely believe is true.
And so They don't make good decisions. or they make no decisions, which is really a decision of itself. Turn the page, if you will, because these two remind me of a case study by Jesus that teaches us also about risk. Reason. in the decision-making process.
When Jesus is teaching this, it's out of Matthew chapter 13, verses 44 and 45. But he says, The kingdom of heaven, in other words, following me and how life works with me as the king of your life. It's like a treasure hidden in the field. which a man found Then he hit again. And from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has, and he buys that field.
So look at verse 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, of exquisite value, of over-the-top, priceless value, is the idea. He went and sold all the pearls that he had. And he bought it.
So if you have a pen, pull it out. Let's go up to verse 44. I want you to see something. Jesus isn't talking about money and treasure. He's making a very profound spiritual point and principle about decision-making.
And what he's saying is this. He's saying there's certain things that we can see and certain things we can't see. And the kingdom of God and following me is akin to, and this would be in their day, it would make sense because this actually could happen in their day. They didn't have 401ks. And so you would take your treasure and you would hide it, dig it someplace on your land.
And the goal is you would tell your relatives, your sons or daughters, where it is, but sometimes people, you know, they aren't ready quite to hear it. And they die before they tell anyone. And so the people realize that this story is really plausible. And so he says, Here's a man who is in a field, maybe he's walking with his stick, and he hears something, and he opens it up, and there's a little chest, and there's a fortune in it. And he covers it back up and he is just exhilarated with what he's just found.
So he recklessly, with abandon, sells everything he has that's not worth very much to get something that's worth a whole lot. Same picture with the pearl. Here's the thesis. Jesus is saying, when you understand who he is, and how life really works and what really, really matters now. and forever.
and you get the treasure of what it is to have relationship with him and the plan that he has for you on this earth. You would, with reckless abandon and joy, forsake all else to get that. Put another way, his thesis is Total commitment. is the channel through which God's biggest and best blessings flow. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
We're halfway through today's message, so don't go anywhere just yet. Today's insightful lesson comes from our series called God's Dream for Your Life. Want to dig deeper into these truths?
Well, the full series is ready for you online at livingonthege.org. You'll discover extra teaching content, downloadable materials, and discussion guides to take you further. Find it all at livingonthege.org.
Well now let's rejoin Chip with today's message. Did you realize that? I mean, total commitment. He sold all that he had. Motive joy.
Above the word in your notes where it says total commitment, would you write the word surrender and put a box around it? Surrender, total commitment. I mean, it was all or nothing. in order to gain that land with the treasure inside.
Now Jesus told These two parables. Damn. to get into their world. in such a way that they would get a new set of glasses. Because when you talk to people that want to follow God about total commitment, it's like, well, I know pastors are supposed to be totally committed, and maybe missionaries, and there's always a 98-year-old lady who really prays like 37 hours a day, and there's only 24 hours, and we know she's totally committed.
But I mean, for most of us, like, we're just like regular Christians, and that sounds really scary. And, you know, I really want to love God. I'm glad I'm going to heaven. I'm glad Jesus forgave my sins. And, you know, I would like to be a good person.
In fact, I think I'm a little bit better person than most people. But total commitment sounds like scary. Like, I mean, lock, stock, barrel. I mean, God has the say on my time, my money, my future, my family. Ah!
And so what most of us do is we see the lens of total commitment. negatively. Here's what I want to tell you. When Jesus taught about surrender or total commitment, it is the channel. To get God's very best in your life.
But he said it's for joy. His motivation is. Positive, it's wise, it's logical, it's shrewd, it's not so much renouncing. as it is a reevaluation. And that was Jesus' point.
And that's his message to you. Remember, this is about how to give God. what he wants the most. And I told you it involves a decision. And before our time is over, Together.
We're going to have a very sober and holy moment. where I'm not only going to explain exactly how to give God, What he wants the most. But it will rock higher. A big step of faith. Total commitment.
and surrender. And what you have to start asking is, Is how I hang on to things and my view and what I want versus what he can provide. Which one of those am I going to trust? It reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. And it was a story of a little girl that went on vacation with her family.
And it was by the seashore, and they had one of those cottages, you know, that's right there. And you walk out the door, and the sand is there, and you could walk on the beach, and it had a little pier, and at the end of the pier was a fishing boat with a very old man. It was in a very small town in New England and The little girl, five or six years old, cute pigtails, the whole bit, you know how they are at that age. And she would walk down to the pier and walk down, and there was an old, old fisherman who was just known in the town as the mean one. He was just mean.
He was old, he was bitter, his friends had died, he'd had a hard life. And so he just shut everybody out. But there's something about a little five or six year old girl, you know. Hi. Hi.
Well, after day one, day two, day three, day four, his heart starts to melt. And no one's ever treated him nice. And every day she would get shells and give him shells, and she'd sit at the end of the pier with her feet dangling and. Pretty soon he's given her a little fishing line. And in their seven-day vacation, a bond occurred.
And he realized no one in the whole world cares about me, and I'm going to die very soon. He was in his late 80s. And this little girl does. And unbeknownst to others, he had a little pouch of over the years of fishing and He found a number of shells and and pearls. And the thing that he noticed about this little girl, she would dangle her feet over, but she would always clutch.
She had these little plastic beads that you get like at Walmart or Target or the CDS pharmacy. You're on vacation, kids always want something. $1.99, you're all set. Woo! And uh And so he noticed how much she liked him.
So he took his pearls and stayed up most of the night, drilled holes in them, took a piece of fishing line. and made a necklace. He thought, I'm going to give it to this little six-year-old girl. And so the next day she came to say goodbye, and the station wagon is all packed, and parents are, you know, 100 yards away. And okay, honey, get ready.
Yes, you can go say goodbye. She runs down to say goodbye, and he says, Come here, honey, I have a present for you. And she walks up to him, and they've been very close. And he says, Give me those plastic beads off your neck. And then he hung out, glistening in the sun, real pearls.
Now the problem with being five or six years old and you're very immature You don't know what's worth what. All you know is what you're comfortable with. All you know is what feels right. And so he took another step and he said, Here, I have these, these are real pearls.
Now, take those off so I can put them on. And the little girl stepped back, grabbed her necklace, and ran 100 yards, jumped in the station wagon, said, I want to go. That man tried to take my pearls. And I want to tell you about eight Out of every nine Christians, that really do sincerely love God. Cling to plastic pearls.
and are not receiving anything close in their life experience. their relationships or their eternal impact. what God has chosen and destined for you to have. Because when he says, give me you, Put me first in your time. Put me first in your future.
Put me first in your decisions. Put me first in your family. Put me first in your work. Put me first in your money. I want you to trust me wholly because I have pearls.
Nut stuff. And if you don't believe he's good, If you don't know the heart, of the father. And you just stay around him long enough not to feel too guilty, and some I hope you go to heaven. You cling on to the plastic temporal Non-treasure. But when you meet the people that get more and more pearls, you realize it just weighs them down instead of gives them life.
Total commitment. Surrender. Is the conduit, it's the channel through which God's best and biggest blessings flow. And so what I want to do in the remainder of our time, I want to define very specifically what total commitment looks like. We are not leading up to some emotional moment.
We're leading up to a wise decision where you're going to weigh the risk and the logic of saying to God in a few minutes, I surrender all to you. I would sign a blank check. made out to you. I would say to you, From this day forward, I'm all in. I may be a little fearful, but I'm all in.
But in order to do that, you know, what's that look like? The answer is in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. And after 11 chapters of treasure, of what God has done, of how much He loves you, of His sovereignty, His goodness, His forgiveness. His power, his spirit living within you, his gifts, all the plans that he has for you. In chapter 12, Your response to that is, therefore, I urge you, brothers.
Sisters Fellow family members, the Apostle Paul writes, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This. is your spiritual act of worship. Notice the structure. There's a command.
There's a motivation. And there's a reason. I'd like you if you will put a box around the word offer. Put a box around living sacrifice and then put a little box around the word holy. And then I want you to put a squiggly line under spiritual act of worship.
The command is to offer your body to God. And this isn't metaphorical. This is like your physical body, your eyes, your head, your hands, all that you are. And the word offer here is in a tense in the Greek language that's punctiliar. And what that means is, on a certain day at a certain time, this passage is not explaining how to have your sins forgiven.
This passage is not explaining what it means to be in God's family. Salvation occurs at the end of chapter 3, 4, and right in chapter 5: the work of Christ by grace. You receive the free gift by faith. Chapter 12 is saying, How do normal Christians follow Jesus out of gratitude? And God says, are you ready?
This is what I want. I want you On a certain day At a certain time, to say to me All I am. All I have is yours. That's what it means to offer. I will tell you that Tens of thousands of people in America and around the world do not understand the channel through which God's best and biggest blessings flow.
The power for the Christian life. comes in this moment of offering.
Now, it requires faith. requires believing in an invisible treasure that you can't see. It's a historical Living God who's walked upon the earth and died in your place and rose and sits at the right hand of God and says to you, There's an unspeakable treasure. Pooh, for joy, says to you, let me give you the best. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and he'll return in just a moment.
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Well, now here's Chip. As we wrap up today's program, I've really introduced a very different paradigm about what God's like. I mean, surrender is not this great, huge sacrifice. It really is the channel. It's the opportunity.
It's the window through which God is going to do the biggest and best things in you.
Now, what I know is that's a lot easier said than to believe. And so, here's your assignment for today, and you can do it right now. I want you to ask this one question. How do you tend to view God? as kind Or is he demanding and hard to please?
That will tell you why it's hard to surrender. Here's your little action step: get a 3x5 card and write out. ROMANS 8.32 He that spared not his own Son for you, how will he not with him? freely give you all things. If he loves you enough to give you his son, How can we not trust him for the little stuff, like our future, our cars, our money, our homes, and our locations?
He wants to help you. Surrender today. I'm Dave Druy. Be sure to join us tomorrow as Chip explores what really happens when we stop holding back and finally trust God with everything. Don't miss it.
Next time on Living on the Edge. Uh Oh. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
