Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Did you know there is something that can block your relationship with God? It is a barrier that will keep God from hearing your prayers. It's a barrier that will keep Him from blessing your life. It's a barrier that he wants to remove so he can bless you.
Wonder what that barrier is? Stay with me. Here on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram has been walking us through the conditions God looks for when choosing someone to really utilize for his kingdom. First, a dislocated heart. God-given concern for others that pulls you out of your comfort zone.
Today Chip turns to the second condition, a broken spirit. He's going to take us to Nehemiah chapter 1 and show us, from the inside of this ancient prayer, what it actually looks like when a person comes before God with nothing to hide and nothing to prove.
Well, here's Chip Ingram with his message titled, Experience a Broken Spirit. For the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth, that he might strongly support those whose hearts are fully his. What an invitation. given to a prophet, but an axiomatic principle all through Scripture. God is looking for a man.
God is looking for a woman. He's looking for a student whose heart is fully his. And some have a little, some have a lot, some have in between. But God is looking for regular, ordinary people. Who are all in, that he might strongly support you, give you whatever you need.
Wisdom, faith. People, staff, finances, whatever you need to fulfill the job. that he's made you to fulfill. The question is: What does it take to make a difference for God, and what kind of person? Does he promise to strongly support?
There's six prerequisites. You'll open your notes. I want to do a quick review. The first prerequisite. For the God of the universe with all wisdom, all knowledge, unlimited power, and a desire to support and help you is to look at your life and your heart and say, do you have a dislocated heart?
Do you really care? Is your life really open and available to say, I'll get beyond me and my world and my stuff and my thing to really extend, if you would want me to, to care about other people? Our model was Nehemiah. We read these words last week in the month of Kislev, November, December, in the 20th year, which was the King Artaxerxes of Persia. While I was in the citadel of Susa, Han and I, one of my brothers, came from Judah.
And some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, those who survived the exile are back in the province. They're in great trouble and in disgrace. It's bad. God's promises, God's people, God's plan.
For all practical purposes, downhill. The evidence The gates have been burned with fire. The walls are broken down. And then here's a dislocated heart. When I heard these things, I sat down, I stopped.
I wept, he deeply emoted. And he mourned for some days. And then he acted. He had no idea. He's a business guy.
He's the right-hand man of the king. He tastes the wine, he tastes the food, he's living in the lap of luxury, and he's thinking, what can one person do?
So he fasts and prays for three months. And he finds a small group of people that have that on their heart. 'Cause you'll find that He asked God early to listen to the prayer of your servant, and then later in the chapter, listen to the prayer of your servants, plural. And he says, God, what can I do? A dislocated heart is a God-given concern for others that propels us out of our comfort zone.
It's a passionate concern for God's agenda that supersedes our own personal desires for personal peace and prosperity. And I will tell you, that is counterintuitive, counter the flesh, and unfortunately, counter most churches. We said there were three great examples: Jesus in Philippians 2, Paul in Romans 9. And then you. We talked about individual stories.
It's something that you're passionate about that moves you out of your comfort zone. to love and care for other people. Uh How do you develop it? We talked about an honest evaluation of saying, do I have one or not? We talked about genuine repentance.
To the level that we don't, and I shared kind of my story, you say, you know something? I'm going to own that. I'm going to turn around. And then we talked about a careful consideration, not some knee-jerk, emotional something that goes up quickly, but what does God really want me to do? and then to ask him for it.
Now we're going to look at the second condition. When these six conditions, when God finds these in the human heart, I will tell you this: He'll strongly support you. The second is a broken spirit. And we need to do a little theology lesson before we talk about how to develop a broken spirit. Because in Scripture, you need some backdrop about what a broken spirit is.
In Scripture, there's one thing 100% of the time that God is 100% against. When He sees it in a man, when He sees it in a woman, when He sees it in a child, when it happens in the Old Testament, when it happens in the New Testament, He sees it in a corporation, He sees it in a nation, it's not like He's unhappy about it, it's not like He's mildly displeased, He's against it. He comes against it. He brings consequences. He hates it.
And that one thing would be Pride. Pride. Pride can be as strutting your stuff, I don't need God rebellion. Or pride can be self-reliance. and doing your own thing as though God doesn't exist.
But the good news is there is something. that whenever God sees it, If he sees it in a man or a woman or a nation or a country or a company, Old Testament or New Testament. When he sees this one thing in the human heart, You can have been to prison. You can have murdered people. You can have committed adultery.
You could have had two or three abortions. You could have lied. You could have embezzled. You could have stiff-armed God. You could have blasphemed God.
No matter what you've done, but if this one thing happens in your heart, heaven rushes to connect with you. It's called a broken spirit. Let me give you a little biblical evidence here. On pride, Proverbs 8:13 says, To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate, notice the strong word, I hate pride and arrogance and evil behavior and perverse speech.
In the New Testament, it's James 4:6. But he gives more grace. That is why the scripture says God opposes. And you know the little word ante, like against? That word for oppose in Greek, it starts with that, ante.
He's against. The proud, but it gives grace to the humble. But notice Psalm 51. It's David's confession. This is a man who really knew God well, loved God, wrote the Psalms, valiant warrior, musician.
But Like a lot of us. Was it the wrong? place at the wrong time. He let his success swell his head. And instead of doing what it's supposed to be doing, you ended up walking around while it's The nation was in battle and he looked down on a very beautiful woman.
who probably shouldn't have been bathing where she was. And he commits adultery with Bathsheba. and then commits murder with her husband. And Psalm 51 is him pouring his heart out. before God knowing that the consequence he deserves is death.
And he writes in Psalm 51, 16 and 17: You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You don't take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. See, we have this idea that, you know, I've done something terrible, God can never use me, or I did this, or I did that, so I'll try and be a good person, and I'll try and do more of this, and I'll be kinder to people. And you have this works mentality, it doesn't work.
When we are far from God, whether like this or like this, What allows God to come in and forgive and cleanse is when we understand we're spiritually bankrupt and we have a broken spirit, and we just say, God, I messed up. I don't have any excuses. I blew it. What I did was wrong. How I did it, how I said it.
Would you please forgive me and have mercy upon me? I'm desperate. I deserve nothing. Isaiah 57, 15. This word actually is only used in.
two or three places in all the Old Testament. But it says, For this is what the high and lofty one says: He who lives forever, whose name is holy, I live. Literally, the word is dwell. It's where his presence, it's where God can be God. There's only two places in the universe where the manifestation of all of God being God can be.
And here's the first one: I live or I dwell in a high and holy place, but also. With whom him who is contrite and lowly in spirit. to revive the spirit of the lowly. and to revive the heart. of the contract.
I'm always amazed when I read the Bible because I never read it growing up. I wasn't a Christian growing up. I thought all Christians were crazy. and I had some good evidence. But you know, I think of the great heroes of the faith, and you have Moses, who's a murderer.
You have David who's an adulterer and a murderer. You know, you have the Apostle Paul, who's a murderer. And somehow we get these little Bible stories and we act like they're just sort of stained glass people. They were very. Evil people in windows of times that did horrendous things that broke God's heart.
And then they repented. And they recognized the distance and how they violated a holy God. And they didn't try and cut a deal and then try to earn their way back into His grace. They just said, Oh God, forgive me, I don't deserve anything. And when God sees that in your heart, He'll rush to meet you.
And he'll start you on a journey of not just forgiveness, but restoration and healing and repair. And guess what? Later on this Psalm, he says, God, I want you not only to heal me, but I, and forgive me. I want the day to be that you would actually restore the joy of my salvation, and I would like to be an instrument yet again of teaching sinners your ways. Because he sure understands what it means to be a sinner.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Don't go anywhere yet. There's more coming up. We're in a brand new series this week called You Were Made for More: How to Discover God's Purpose for Your Life. If you ever have trouble catching one of these programs, or if you want to share any of these messages with a friend or family member, every lesson is available free at livingonthege.org.
You'll also find study resources and bonus content from Chip. That's livingontheedge.org.
Well now here's Chip.
So those are two timeless things concerning God. And the danger when we begin to think about developing a broken spirit is, I've watched this happen. In fact, I've read some books, even some very good devotional books. But there's this sort of, I call it worm theology. In other words, if I'm going to have a broken spirit, all of a sudden, I must be a terrible person.
I've got to feel really bad about myself. And that's right. I'm going to think of anything I've ever done and take sort of the spiritual wet noodle. Shame, shame, shame, shame. And sort of, I'll get myself worked up in some emotional, I'm a terrible, terrible person.
You know what that does? Guess where the focus is? It's on you. It's arrogant. You don't develop a broken spirit by beating yourself up.
Let me give you three keys to developing an authentic, genuine, broken spirit so that when the God who made and created all that there is looks inside your heart, will say, This person has a dislocated heart, and number two, they have a broken spirit. Number one, it begins with a restored view of God. We're going to learn key number one. Number two, that will lead. to an accurate assessment of yourself and later will learn It'll cause your agenda of your life to get aligned with God's agenda and His purposes.
You say, well, where do you get that? We get it from Nehemiah again.
Now imagine he's living in the lap of luxury Right? You know, he's got his... Nice chariot, his nice clothes, it's nice. Food But he's heard about this. He's got a dislocated heart.
And it says he prayed and fasted for three months, we'll learn. Wouldn't you like to be just like a little bird, you know? Like he's praying, like I wonder what he's praying. You know, like on the actual words, what did he actually say? What are the kind of prayers that really get through to God?
You got it right here. We have a sample. He says, When I heard these things, I sat down and I wept for some days and I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said, There's his actual prayer, O Lord. God of heaven.
The great An awesome God. who keeps his covenant of love. with those who love him and obey his commands. Here's the request. Let your ear be attentive.
And your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant is praying before you. Notice the intensity. This isn't some little oh I had a little liver quiver. This is night and day. For your servants, the people of Israel.
Will you put a box around the word, O Lord? It's his covenant name, it's O Yahweh. The I am that I am, the evexistent one, the all-powerful one, the personal one, the God of all the earth. Put a box around God of heaven, He's Creator. Put a box around the word great.
He's all powerful. Put a box around the word awesome. In the old King James, it has the idea of terrible or fearful or holy. He is in a totally different category. And then finally, put a box around the phrase: who keeps his covenant of loyal love.
A broken spirit begins with a restored view of God, not a beating up of yourself or your view of you. And notice the high view of God. Yahweh, Creator, powerful, fearful, holy, loyal, loving God. Here's what you need to understand. We all have issues and problems, right?
Some people need a job, some people are in a difficult relationship, some people have money issues. You know, some people have kids that are driving you crazy, and some people have parents that are driving them crazy.
Some people have a secret sin that you've never shared with anyone, and every time you come to church, you feel really guilty, and you want to draw near to God, and you have all this stuff going on inside. But whatever the problem is, the human tendency is to focus on the problem, focus on the problem, focus on the problem, focus on the problem, and then pretty soon you look at all of life and all relationships and all circumstances through the problem. And then life stinks. And so you drink stuff you shouldn't, take pills that don't help you, watch too much TV, and eat all the time, looking for pleasure and trying to put something in your mind or your heart or your body that'll keep you away from those bad feelings. See, you either have really big problems and a really small God, or you have a very big God and very small problems.
It's only two options. Nehemiah saw a huge problem. He had a dislocated heart. And he had God-centered prayers. God-centered prayers.
Are yours God-centered? Are mine God-centered? Or do we just whine and complain before the throne? Oh God, what about this? Oh God, what about this?
You haven't done this, you know this, if this keeps happening.
Sometimes we just worry out loud and call it prayer. And we don't even think about who you're talking to. When Nehemiah prayed, he said, I am speaking to the I am that I am. I'm speaking to the one who spoke and the galaxies came into existence. I'm speaking to the one that has all power and all resources.
I'm speaking to one who keeps his covenant of loyal love. And it starts by beginning to get a high view of God. A view of His majesty, His power, His wisdom, His love, His justice, and His holiness. I uh Love what Tozer says. Read probably a chapter of this book, the first 15.
Years I was a Christian probably every day, and then I kind of cut back to maybe a chapter once a week. Because it's just about this is it's a tiny book called The Knowledge of the Holy And it's just about God. What's God like? Tozer writes, modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appropriate appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words in Scripture, be still and know that I'm God, mean next to nothing.
to the self-confident, bustling worshipper, in the middle period. of this century. But the alarming thing is is that our gains are mostly external. and our losses are wholly internal. And since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, It may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wi wider field.
We've never had more TV, never more video, never more mega churches, never more presence. Christianity has never had, quote, the external affluence and influence. But all the while, the quality of the kind of Christians we've been producing over the last 50 to 70 years. are less and less and less like Jesus. They're less holy.
and they're less loving. and they have less faith. And in the name of Jesus, we've sought personal peace and prosperity. And the average gospel going out in many parts of the world is: Jesus is your self-help buddy, and life is really about you.
Now, make my life work out. And if I ever get cancer, or my marriage is in trouble, or my kids have a problem, or I have a financial dip, hey God, what's the deal? Who do you think you are? Don't you understand I'm the center of the universe? And then we get mad.
And we get mad and we get disillusioned with the God of the Bible because we don't understand who he is. Tozer goes on to say, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. If someone could register, bang, the word God comes to your mind, what's He like? Who do you really pray to? That, my friend, is the most important thing about your entire being.
A low view of God. will produce an anxious, striving, frustrating life. and a high view of God will produce a life that has issues and problems, but will see them in view of His wisdom and His power and His sovereignty and the responses to trust. I put a little passage there. It's Isaiah chapter 6 because the way you get a high view of God is becoming a worshiper.
I will tell you this, having done this. You can become a Bible student and read the Bible a lot, which is very important. You can go to a small group. You can say, you know, I didn't listen to Christian music. And all those things are helpful, but if you are not a person that takes the Word of God as your prayer book and begin to worship God for who He is, the connection of all this intellectual stuff you're putting in your brain will never go into your heart so that you can really trust Him when it's difficult.
That happens by worshiping. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and a message titled Experience a Broken Spirit. Part of our series, You Were Made for More. There's a line from A.W. Tozer that Chip referenced today that deserves a second hearing: What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
Because here's what Chip showed us today: a broken spirit doesn't start with you beating yourself up. It starts with getting a clear, high view of God and letting that view recalibrate everything else. That's actually at the heart of a free assessment we've created for you. It's called The Real You, and it's available at therealyou.org. When you understand how God has designed you, your God-given personality, your strengths, the passions He's placed inside you, it changes the way you relate to Him and to others.
It's a free tool built to help you discover the person God made you to be. Take it at therealyou.org.
Now, this kind of teaching and the resources that go with it only happen because people believe the mission of Living on the Edge is worth investing in. Every broadcast, every free resource, every message that moves someone from confusion to clarity is made possible by the generosity of listeners just like you. Partner with us today, won't you? Give online at livingonthege.org or call us at 888-333-6003. You can also mail your gift to LivingOnthege, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024.
Well, now here's Chip with some final thoughts. It's an amazing thing, isn't it, that the God of the universe wants to use a very ordinary and regular person like you and like me. And yet as we approach him we all have to admit that those two timeless axioms cut to the core of our being. To think that every moment of every day, God is against pride. I mean, He hates it.
And I realize in my life I get preoccupied with me. I get arrogant, I get proud, sometimes I don't even know what's happening, and God hates it. And yet the wonder of the cross has provided something that ushers us immediately into God's presence and intimacy with Him the moment we come with a broken spirit. the moment like David we own our stuff. The moment we realize we're spiritually bankrupt and we're willing to just lay it all before the Lord, He says He'll never ever despise us.
And today we started the journey of learning well How do you develop a broken spirit? Begins with a high view of God. We'll learn that that will lead to an accurate view of ourselves. And then finally, that will lead to a renewed commitment to God's agenda. But as you listen to today's program, I want to ask you a question.
But what is your view of God? If you would close your eyes and just write the word God on a whiteboard, what comes to your mind? Is he a genie in a bottle? or is He the high, holy God of the universe, that has created all that there is, who keeps his covenant of love, who is terrible and holy and awesome. and yet is eager to be your friend.
You know, a high view of God doesn't mean that you wear a robe or have to have an extra large black Bible or you have to light candles. But a high view of God involves thinking accurately and biblically about God. And what we're going to learn is that that comes when you get into the Bible on a regular basis and get your mind renewed.
So, that you have a biblical view instead of a cultural view of God. Secondly, it means that there must be periodic regular times of worship. Where more than just reading your Bible or asking God for things, you focus on His character and you worship Him. Isaiah heard the angels in the temple cry out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty and he got a right view of God, which led to an accurate view of himself, and it transformed his life and then the life of a nation. May I encourage you to worship today.
to behold your God. One of the boldest moments in all of Nehemiah's story is when this ordinary businessman walked into the throne room of the most powerful king in the world and staked everything on what God had called him to do. I'm Dave Druy, inviting you to hear the story next time here on Living on the Edge Chip Ingram Rock. Yeah. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.
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