The Hope of Christmas - Wonderful Counselor, Part 2

Can you imagine having Jesus as your therapist?

I mean, as your personal Christian counselor? Well, today He counsels a woman who feels overwhelmed, resentful, and life isn't fair. Join me as Jesus helps her process this.

And I think what He says to her is really going to help you and me. Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry helping Christians live like Christians.

I'm Dave Drouy. We're in Chip's series called The Hope of Christmas, and in this program Chip reveals what he calls the four wisdom principles. If you're troubled in your personal life or if you're tired of the upset the world keeps dishing out, these wisdom principles are going to help you focus and enjoy this Christmas season in a way you never have before. Sound good? Now, Chip's going to be with us after the teaching to talk a little bit more about how each of these works, so be sure to stay tuned for that. Okay, let's join Chip now for part two of his message, Wonderful Counselor, from Luke chapter 10. Let's pick it up in Luke chapter 10 verse 38. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house, and she had a sister Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve all alone? Tell her to help me. Now I don't know about you, and certainly she knows Jesus is a great rabbi and a great teacher, but sort of calling him out seems to be a little bit strong, right? You know, like, hey, don't you care?

Look what's happening here. So you got Mary who, they're sisters, and Martha's realizing, wow, I mean, we need to prepare, we need to cook, we need to get it set up, we need to get the good dishes out. I mean, this is an important guest, so we can't have like two or three dishes, we need four or five.

I mean, everything's got to be just perfect. I mean, what really matters is all the stuff we do for God, right? So she's active, and she's busy, and we pick up the story. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and so afterward Jesus said, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. His words are really interesting. He uses a general word, you're distracted. It means an over preoccupation with a concern about future events. And then the word here, he says you are troubled.

It's a more specific word. It's kind of what happens to you emotionally when you get locked up inside. So she's preoccupied about, we've got to get this, we've got to get this, we've got to get this, we've got to get this, and everything's going to be terrible unless we get it all lined out. And then she's not only anxious, but she's troubled within. And then he uses an interesting word. He says what Mary has chosen won't be snatched away or taken away from her.

Isn't it interesting in both situations? Jesus' counsel, he says to the rich young ruler, he says you have one problem. And he says to Martha, only one thing is necessary. And so I kind of looked through my counseling profile and so the presenting problem is I have too much to do, I'm overwhelmed, and as we say to one another, I'm stressed out. The diagnostic evaluation was she believes that Jesus doesn't care and if other people would get with the program, her life would really work out well. Anybody ever feel overwhelmed like a victim and if God really cared, he would be helping you a lot more than he is right now. And some of these other people, if they would just pull their weight in your house or pull their weight at work or pull their weight here, then things would really be better.

Has anyone ever felt that? I mean, this is a lady who's frazzled. And she's frazzled because her belief system is that what really honors God is her activity, her serving, her doing.

And like most of us, when doing is the focus, you can never do enough. Mary sat down and she had time for Jesus himself. Martha was doing things for him. Mary said, I'm not sure when this opportunity is going to come, but I want to be with him. You find during the Christmas season that your time with Christ gets squeezed?

I mean, you got to shop, you got to eat, you got to cook, you got to go to these parties, you're out a little bit later, it's hard to get up. What will be your game plan this Christmas to say, wow, if I have a supernatural counselor that wants to give me wisdom, put his arm around me, coach me through this season, and help me for my good, what do I need to hear from him? So she believes Jesus is about how much she does. The real issue is she substitutes her relations ship with him for activity for him, and so he gives her a divine prescription and basically says your problem, busyness, root issue, you don't get it.

You don't understand its priorities. You have built in traditional expectations that when someone comes to your home, you have to do one, two, three, four, and five, and actually two would have been fine where you'd have time to be with me. So I would encourage you to ask yourself what are some things that you have always done that take time and put you under pressure and just ask this ridiculous question, should I even do that this year? I mean, would the world fall apart if you said to a couple of those parties, I would really love to come, but I'm just not able to make it.

I have another very important priority, and it's you're going to spend time with God. Or, you know, anymore now, everyone makes their Christmas cards and then you get something printed from someone that you hear from once a year, right? And on the printing it says, oh, I hope you have a blessed season, rejoice, la la la la la, maybe a verse if they're a Christian or you get a four-page letter about how well all the, you know, my one son's a superstar, the other one's in Oxford, my daughter just won a beauty contest, right? You get those letters like I do and it's just like, yeah, you know, I don't want to know that much about your life, right? And you get these, and then sort of at the very end, oh, by the way, please pray for us because we're a little overwhelmed because we're leading seven Bible studies and, you know, it's just like, help me.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think it's wrong to send out those letters, especially if they're well done. But I've met people that the weight of the whole season, what am I going to say in those letters? I've got to write out all those cards. What?

And I'm not saying, by the way, I'm not saying any of this is wrong. You may be led to do some things. I just remember about 15 years ago, I looked at everything and I thought, you know what, I'm just not doing Christmas cards.

I'm not doing them. They take a whole bunch of time. I'm trying to find all the addresses and I get a self, I can text people and call people and have a genuine connection with the top 25 or 30% than doing all those cards and all that stuff.

But believe me, for years, it was like a gun. How can you not send cards? Or for some of you, we have to bake everything ourselves, right? My grandmother, my mother, me, and it's, you know, it's nine days of baking and then we take these pies and then we put them over here and then we're here and then they're a little, get out of the kitchen.

I'm trying to make these pies. Why? Because I really love God, that's why, you know. And there's just all this crazy stuff we do. I'm just saying, like, I'm just wondering whether Jesus would say, why don't you can some of that stuff?

I mean, really, that's kind of his words. He goes, Jesus, you're troubled about many things but only one thing is necessary. If we didn't do anything and our heart was to spend time with Him and to express His love to other people and we didn't do any of the traditional stuff, we might have this weird experience like, wow, there wasn't much stress, I had such joy, we got to help that family over here. What would happen if you just took off things that unconsciously that are expectations that you think to be a good person, a good mom, a good dad, a good single person, whatever, that you just, you haven't even thought about it, it's just the, it's December.

What if you just said, I'm not, are you ready? What if you said, okay, if the child is born to us and his name will be called supernatural counselor, what if you took your whole Christmas list and expectations and said, oh, wonderful counselor, which ones of these do you want me to do and which ones you don't, I really don't need to do and is there anything maybe that's not on this long list that this year might really express love to people that you want on the list and then just kind of relax and do whatever he shows you. Now, by the way, he might give you a rich young ruler moment, right?

See, the rich young ruler, he was restless and dissatisfied and he had a hole in his soul and Jesus gave him the answer. He says, I could hear him going, you know, hey, Lord, I wanted help. I just didn't want that much help. I mean, I want to be close to you, but I want to keep my idols. I want to be in control.

I want people to know I've got stuff. I want to, and Jesus, you know, good counselors, the best ones I've ever had, there's times where you just want to get up and knock them out and usually if you're that defensive, it's because you realize they're really right. You're arrogant, Chip. You're a workaholic, Chip. You think you have to earn God's favor, Chip. You have to feel like you've got to do, you're crazy and right and then you walk through a journey and a process with some friends and say, I want to learn to be humble.

I want to learn to be a servant. I want to learn to not care what other people think and you get some insight along the ways about your personality or where you picked up some of this stuff, but grace is saying, I am loved, not because of anything I do, not if I do something and not to impress anyone. I am loved because the living God came to the planet, born of a virgin that would be a full hundred percent man and a full hundred percent God.

The classical theology is true humanity and undiminished deity without confusion and he died upon a cross after living a perfect life and he's covered and paid for my sins and I can receive that by faith and he will take up residence in me and the Christian life is him living his life through me and I walk with him and I do good things and kind acts, not to earn his favor, I already have it, but to express his love to other people and to give thanks for what he's done and that just takes mountains of pressure off. That's why Jesus came. He didn't come so you could check off the box, okay, no adultery, no this, no this, no this, no this, no this, no this, but I'm God and I'm in control and he didn't come so you could say, okay, I'm going to do tons of things for God.

Some people do so much for God, they miss a relationship with God. So are you ready for the third counseling session? Counseling number one is a restless, rich, young, successful, moral person. Counseling number two is a harried, stressed out woman and counseling number three is you and me and I want to give you four little principles that I've drawn for this Christmas season for me and for you.

I call them wisdom principles to follow this Christmas. Number one, stuff will never satisfy. Giving stuff to other people won't satisfy.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying don't give Christmas gifts. I'm just saying ask what do you give and why and what are you going to do and are you giving what you can afford or given all these games we play like I hear people say stuff like well you know I really can't afford it and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but it's the Christmas season like oh that's licensed to be stupid.

It's the Christmas season. I think I'll be irresponsible. Stuff won't satisfy.

So how do you personally declare war on the stuff world? Second is being good is never good enough. Built into the drivenness is being good but demonstrating to other people you're good.

Being good teacher. Jesus said who you calling good? There's only one that's good that's God. It's about a grace relationship.

It's being forgiven. The performance orientation that you have and I have is thinking someday somehow I'll get good enough to earn God's favor or earn people's favor. I want you to know you've got God's favor because of what Christ did. Third, our activities for God and others can destroy our relationship with God and others.

So just I mean do an inventory check on your activities. Your good activities. What Martha was doing was good but her good activity for Jesus and the other guests actually ruined her relationship with Jesus and not just the other guests but her own sister. Fourth, if you're too busy to listen and pray, you're too busy.

Right? I mean if God, Emmanuel, what's it mean? God is with us. God came near. Jesus left heaven to be with you and then we celebrate it by not having time to be with him.

Does anybody see sort of something that doesn't make sense on that one? Maybe you're going to read the book of Luke. Maybe you're going to read the Christmas story. How are you going to be with him to listen and to pray? What's that look like either in the morning or what's that look like in the family or what's that look like?

I don't know. But let me encourage you. The Wonderful Counselor wants this to be an amazing Christmas of deep connection with him. Of great love toward other people and you being deeply satisfied. You've been listening to Chip's message Wonderful Counselor from one of his newest series The Hope of Christmas. 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote to God's people to give them hope. Chip used a little bit of that text for this series because the hope Isaiah wrote about is for us too.

Here's what he said. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine and they will rejoice. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.

The government will be upon his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now that's hope that'll keep you going. This Christmas season, God wants you to know he has a plan, and it's a good one. You know, this would be a great series to listen to every now and then. With the Chip Ingram app, it's always handy. If you like CDs, take advantage of the current discounts online at LivingOnTheEdge.org.

And remember, the MP3s are always free. Before I come back and talk about some application to today's message, I do understand we have been talking a lot about the match and how your gift doubles and what the ministry is doing, but I just want to pause for a moment and tell you maybe a bit behind the scenes of why it's so important, why I bleed what God is doing at Living on the Edge. This is the part that many of you won't see, but this email that I'm going to read is the standard copy that we get. In fact, we pray every day as a staff for a half hour.

All around the country we come together, and we have Excel sheets of just literally scores and scores of people. And I'm telling you, it's painful what people are going through. Marriage is falling apart. No jobs.

People who have relatives have died of COVID-19. And this lady writes, Good morning. This message is for Chip Ingram. I wanted him to know what God has done in my life through the ministry. I'm a longtime believer who wandered far from God for many years. After a year and a half of crisis, divorce, and struggle to find my purpose and my place, I was searching for someone who would care for me, someone to whom I could belong. I reached the breaking point in August. I had suicidal thoughts for about nine months, and this day in August was the worst mental break I'd ever had. I scared myself, my family, and my friends, had absolutely no hope, no way forward. I could not see the love my family and my friends had for me. I felt alone, unloved, unwanted, and I despaired and was desperately crying out for help.

I lashed out at everyone around me. I was defeated, discouraged, and depressed, and I thought I couldn't go on anymore. She goes on to talk about something that came to her mind from years ago, about 106.9 The Light, and some guy named Chip. She got on the internet, found it, Googled it, and goes on to say, I've been listening every single day. Little by little, God began to speak to my heart, renew my mind, and fill my spirit.

She says, I was humbled and awed by what God has done in my heart, my mind, and my life. I wanted Chip to know that his ministry has been used by God to save my life. That's why I do what I do, and that's why we're asking you to join. Yes, there's ministry, there's impact, there's international, there's equipping, there's discipling.

I mean, I'm into all that, but I can't tell you how many letters and emails I get of people whose lives are falling apart, and God promised his word would go forth and not return void without doing what he says it'll do. Would you help us help so many who are hurting so deeply right now? Dave, would you give them kind of the information about how they can join us and why it's important here in December? Thanks so much.

Love to. Thanks, Chip. You know, if you've ever wondered how you can make a difference, what Chip just read should help you see that partnering with the Ministry of Living on the Edge would be a great place to make a difference in the lives of people you'll never meet on your own. And right now, your gift will go twice as far. Thanks to a small group of ministry partners, every gift we receive during the month of December will be doubled dollar for dollar. Now, to send a donation, just go to LivingOnTheEdge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003. You will make a difference. As we close today's program, I flew through those four wisdom principles really fast.

You know, Jesus is a wonderful counselor, and in the last couple broadcasts, we've talked about him counseling a rich young ruler and an overworked woman. And then I wanted to take some of those principles for you and me, so lean back for just a minute, and I want you to think about these and their application for you. Number one is stuff will never satisfy. Be thoughtful with gifts, but just refuse to overspend, okay? I mean, for some of you, that's going into your head, but let it sink in.

I mean, that'll be really a challenge. Spending more money on something doesn't mean you love people more. Second, being good is never good enough. Grace says you're good enough. You don't have to earn it. Boy, there is something about especially this time of year of wanting to earn people's approval, and I need to do this, and I need to do that, and all those expectations.

Being good is never good enough. You are loved and cherished by God just for who you are right where you're at. Number three, our activities for God and others can destroy our relationships with God and others.

I'm going to say that again more slowly. Our activity for God and others – hurry here, hurry there, do this, do that, got to get that done – can actually destroy our relationships with God and others. I want you to know that the perfect meal, the cleanest house, the greatest wrap present is never a substitute for looking into someone's eyes, listening from the heart, having words of life and affirmation if you could connect at the heart level with the people that you care about, and especially maybe those you have a little more trouble loving than others.

We all have that in our families, right? It'll make it a far better Christmas than the perfect presentation, the most amazing meal, and the gift that you just know is going to make a difference, and unfortunately never does. Fourth principle is if you're too busy to listen and pray, you're just too busy. God knows all the demands on your time, but He wants first place.

He would love to spend time with you, to enjoy time with you, to speak to you, to give you perspective and wisdom and peace. I'd love you to get these message notes, download them, maybe share with a few friends. Let's make this a Christmas season filled with relationship and love and hope, not just stuff and activity.

This can be a different Christmas. Let's do it. You'll find the message notes that Chip just mentioned in a couple of places online. Just go to livingontheedge.org and click the broadcasts tab.

App listeners will find them by tapping fill in notes. The wisdom principles, His scripture references, and much more are all there to help you get the most out of each message. Well, be sure to join us next time when Chip continues his series, The Hope of Christmas. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.