I Choose Peace - In Difficult Circumstances, Part 2

Are you or someone you love going through a difficult time? We all know how it feels when circumstances overwhelm us and peace just evaporates, right? Well, today I want to teach you about how to be at peace and stay at peace, regardless of your circumstances.

That's today. You don't want to miss it. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this daily discipleship program, motivating Christians to live like Christians. I'm Dave Pury, and we're in the middle of Chip's series, I Choose Peace, How to Quiet Your Heart in the Chaos of Life. In a minute, he'll pick up where he left off last time by sharing the last two principles that'll help us hang on to peace. If you're feeling overwhelmed by what's going on in your life, and I hope you'll stay with us for this program. Now, this message builds off several points Chip made last time. So let me encourage you to get the message notes before we get started. They're a quick download at livingontheedge.org.

Under the broadcasts tab, app listeners just tap fill in notes. Well, if you have a Bible, open to Philippians chapter four, and let's join Chip for part two of his message, In Difficult Circumstances. We've got a good friend, and we have some similarities. He's kind of an intense guy, and he has a lot of responsibility in his job, and he's stuck. Some of you are stuck in your marriage. Some are stuck in your job. Some are stuck with your parents.

Some are stuck at school. You know what it's like when you're trying, trying, trying, trying, trying, bam, and no matter what you do, you can't break through, and you're just like bummed out, and you say, unless this changes, unless this changes, that's where he's at. He's tried everything.

He's got a lot of wherewithal to make things, and he can't make it. And he sat down, and he said, you know something? God spoke to me, pulled out this pen, and we were meeting the other morning, having a little coffee. He said, you know what I did? He said, you know what, I just, God, I can't change that.

I've done all that I can. He took out a pen, and then he wrote, he said, okay, here's what I did. I wrote down God, family, me, and then he put lines through them like this. Then he put a line underneath. He said, now in my heart, what I say is that it's God first, family, then me.

And so I looked at that, and I did a little kind of P and L. You know, I kind of did a little inventory and said, is God really first in my life? In other words, I can't change. I'm stuck. I've hit this thing that I can't move. And so I'm saying, okay, God, and you can move it.

So if it's not moving, maybe you want to teach me something. What do you want to teach me about my relationship with you, about my family, and about me? And he said, I literally wrote down where I thought I was at. He said, I was saying God's first, but I looked at all my activities and my energy, a lot more me than God. I was saying, oh, honey, family, you're really what matters, but when I looked at my life. And then he just told me, and he said, you know, I reorganized, re-prioritized, and I moved some things to say, okay, I want to learn.

I want to learn. See the difference? God's number one agenda, his number one priority, this is going to be hard to take, it's not to make you happy. It's not so you'll be self-actualized at the top pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy. It's not so you'll be fulfilled and everything will go your way every day in every way. His primary agenda in your life is to make you like his son. To use the ups of his blessing and the struggles and the down of a fallen world to take the thread of a vital relationship with Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, rooted in his word, inauthentic community, to little by little by little make you more and more like Jesus. So there's a mom in the house that thinks and talks and serves like Jesus. So there's a dad who talks and thinks and lives. So there's kids in the house so that you go to work and people don't understand how this attitude that is amazing can be tied to the injustice you're getting at work.

How this attitude and response is tied to a very frustrating marriage. How this attitude that you have with regard to your life can happen when I know how much you got hurt by the market's last dip. See that's what God's about.

And you can be content in the ups and the downs when you say, Lord I'm going to choose to thank you for what I do have, not spend all my time focusing on what I don't. Then I'm going to step back and say, Lord, I don't know the agenda for the world, but I know your agenda for me. What do you want me to learn?

What do you want me to learn? Because I can't change her. I can't change him. I can't get inside this kid's head and re-screw things so that they'll respond in a way, you know what, my boss looks like he's going to be here for a while.

This economy's not going to change. You know, I can't, I'm stuck. So be teachable. The third principle that Paul gives us, the secret of contentment challenges our basic American value that more is better. And Paul says, first our contentment is not based on your circumstances. Second, it's an attitude you learn, not a thing you achieve. And now he says, prosperity does not have the power to give us contentment, nor poverty the power to take it away. Notice he illustrates that in verse 12. He said, I've had a lot, I've had nothing.

He uses the word plenty and he talks about, it's literally what they would do with cattle or livestock that was fat, fattened. He said, I've lived in the lap of luxury, it can't deliver. And I've been where I didn't know if they were going to pull me out of the ocean. And proverbially, I've been on the other end of biopsy reports when either for me or someone I love desperately, it comes up with the big capital C called cancer.

And I don't know how I'm going to make it without this person or I don't know what my family or friends are going to do if I leave prematurely. Paul's saying, in both those things, prosperity is unable to deliver contentment and poverty doesn't have the power to take it away. And so notice his practice here is be flexible. Be flexible. See, it's one thing to be grateful, it's another thing to say, oh God, teach me, I want to learn. Well, once God shows you, knowing what you're to do and doing it is two different things, isn't it? Saying, oh God, I want to be teachable.

Oh, thanks for showing me that. Being flexible is change. Ask God not just what do you want me to learn, then go to the next step like my friend.

What do you want me to change? This guy sat down at the table, I mean, he took his priorities and he went. He told me, I got the biggest, I got one of the biggest presentations to these big corporations that I've got to make and I mean, there's a lot riding on it. And I said, my wife, you know, she wanted to go out and have some fun and it was like, oh, there's no. He said, oh, wait a second, okay. I said, she, God, her. He said, so I did it. Then I got up in the wee hours of the morning and I had this much work to do. And I had about two hours to do it. And I said, God, you got to show up. And they talked about how God did.

And how the presentation went better than if he had 10 or 12 hours. See, you got to be flexible. You got to say, God, I'm grateful. You got to say, God, I'm teachable. Then you say, God, how do you want to change me? What's the next step to whatever you want to do to make me more like your son?

But you got to push away from the lie that prosperity will deliver it. Had a young guy named Todd, worked in Santa Cruz and you know, I'm just one of those sort of weird people that you know, kind of how the world works, my body clock is just the opposite. So when you guys are just kind of getting fired up and thinking it's going to be a great night, I'm going to bed. And while you're sleeping, I'm working.

It's just kind of how God made me. And the problem is finding a good place to work in the wee hours of the morning. And in Santa Cruz, I found this little coffee shop because they cooked donuts and bagels all night.

So they opened by about four. And the little Cambodian lady became a good friend and she made the kind of coffee I like. And so I would go in there and then you know, by 4.35 a couple guys would come and they'd be doing some studying.

And you realize they're probably as weird as you are. And so maybe we could become friends. And so we did. And this one guy, you know, he was always doing some work.

And eventually we got to know one another. And Todd came out. He ended up coming to the church and got involved.

And he came out to work at a Christian camp as a volunteer at like basically minimum wage. And he was working on something. I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm finishing up a book. And then I later saw the book called True Riches. And I said, well, what's the book about? He said, well, here, you can have a copy.

And I just read the back. Todd Cinelli, a graduate MBA, Wharton Finance. I mean, he had like every business thing you could ever get. At 23 years old, don't suggest anyone do this, he had three credit cards. He got as much cash out of each one, got $1,000 out of them, had $3,000 stake. Went on the trading table at Chicago, became friends with who the big guru of trading was in Chicago at the time.

Went into the pit. At 23, he's dead broke, borrowing off his credit cards. At 24, he's a millionaire. At 25, he's a multi-multi-multi-millionaire, 25 years old.

He's taking the vacations to heat. He can do anything, anytime. And he's a believer. And everything the world has been at his lap. At 26, he's dead broke. At 27, he earns it all back again.

And now he has it all back again. And he says, God wanted to teach me something. Anything I wanted in this world, I could get. And he said, do you understand how scary and shocking it is to know Christ and Christ alone can only deliver.

But unconsciously, you do believe these other things. So I had anything that I wanted. And he said, I went into the deepest depression I've ever had. So I came here to serve people.

And I wanted to do it kind of at minimum wage. Because I want to be content. And you know how many of us who know Christ, whose spirit lives in our hearts and lives, who say we believe what this book says.

If the truth were known and the smoke were pulled back, we really, our lives reflected. So I got to get that SAT score and when I make that squad and when I'm first team and when I get the corporate ladder and when I get this house and when we get the other house and if we can position this this way. And you know what? You know what? That isn't a lousy watch compared to that one that I really want.

I got a picture on the refrigerator of that portion. Someday, someway I'm going to get that. And unconsciously had bought the lie that prosperity can deliver. And Paul says it can't. But you got to be a radical Christian to believe that, don't you?

But he says not only it can't, but he turns it around and says poverty, poverty doesn't have the power to take it away. I've been in need. I've been at times when I have nothing. And I'll never forget the time I was in the Philippines and it's the most classic picture. And I was involved in a basketball team that was sharing Christ and had a good friend who's a missionary. And he had a little Filipino guy that just, I mean our hearts bonded named Alex.

And Alex was married and he was probably early 30s at the time. And Manila, it's just, it's a crazy, crazy, no rules, no anything. So I get on the back of his motorcycle and he wants to show me his home. And he's just so proud. He says, Chip, you've got to come to my home. And you know, you got to see it. And I said, okay.

And so we're driving in and out of traffic and I'm praying, Lord Jesus, that I might see my wife and children again, you know. And so Tom says now, he lives in the slums. And you don't know what slums are until you go to these kind of countries.

And so we pull up and there's a hill. And as far as the eye can see, there's cardboard checks against one another. And then sort of the upper level middle class has a few wooden crates along with the cardboard.

And then the elite areas, they have a little corrugated tin roof on top that would help for the rain. And as far as the eye could see, I mean, there's no plumbing, there's no thousands and thousands of people. And Alex, because of Tom's connections, Tom figured out there was one light pole and he had a wire that went about 100 yards. And one person out of all these thousands of people had a little wire that went through the top of his and had one little light bulb. And Alex would open his home and read the scriptures at night because he's the only one that had light. And he came in and we walked through this maze of people and poverty and it's like watching one of those World Vision commercials on TV and my heart's going out and Alex's chest has kind of come in and went into about a 9x6 room and then he had dug out a little, it was a dirt floor and went into about a 3x6 area where he cooked and he looked at me and he said, this is my home, this is my wife, and she had number 3 kind of on the way and these are my little boys and Chip, I'm so glad you would come to my home. And you know what, I'm telling you, you'd think he owned the Taj Mahal.

See, poverty doesn't have the power. And then I said, well, Alex, where do you sleep? It was hot. It was about two and a half by about four and a half or five feet and he looked at me like, where do we sleep? I mean, we have a king-sized bed. Look at this. He says, Chip, you see, instead of being on the dirt, I curl my body this way, my wife curls her body this way and we put our two boys in the middle. That's where we cook.

In other words, we're a two-level house and we have a light bulb. Isn't God good? Paul says you can learn to be content and come to a point in your life where just like you can say, I know how to ride a bike. I know how to hit a golf ball.

Can I get better? Sure. But he says if you will practice being grateful, if you will be teachable and say, God, what do you want to teach me? And if you will be flexible and say, instead of changing that out there, show me anything in my life or relationships you want me to change. He said you'll be about 75% of being there 24-7, 365, 24 hours a day of having a soul and a heart that is content as though you had millions of dollars in the bank, every relationship was intact and life could be not more wonderful because those things can't deliver it. The final thing he says to you and me is the principle number four that only Christ has the power to give us contentment that transcends all life's variables.

Only Christ. Even among us as believers, the lie is that contentment can be found apart from God. Now that's what unbelievers think. I mean, I'm going to get this car, this house, this relationship, this jewelry, this fame, this success, and everyone has an unconscious or conscious little box and they drive toward it and the problem is it's kind of like this rainbow that we have and there's a golden pot at the end and we work and work and work and work and work and work and work and we finally get on top and we slide into the golden pot and maybe it's fame or maybe it's success or maybe it's that perfect little house or maybe it's the financial success or maybe we finally get to make our first CD or maybe we're an artist or maybe our family is warm and we go in, we're sitting around the table singing Kumbaya and I have this little picture but then when you get it, you realize it doesn't deliver.

It's an empty bucket. You've given your life, your time, your energy, your focus and among unbelievers, they get in the golden pot. Many people come to Christ after extraordinary success and realize it is empty. Others come to Christ out of extraordinary pain but both have come to the point of their need and my observation is what the world system really is is that's how unbelievers think and what happens to me and I think what happens to a lot of you is I know that's wrong and that's not really true and what I say is it's Jesus plus a great family, it's Jesus plus a great body, it's Jesus plus a good job, it's Jesus plus but it's that plus that always gets me in trouble and I say to Jesus, when you can deliver the plus, then I'll be satisfied, happy, fulfilled and so I've made a spiritual version of the win-then syndrome and the enemy has fed me a lie and I end up as empty almost as those without Christ and the energy and the skills and the money and the resources and the gifts that God gave me to do something great with my life very subtly got turned inward and I spent it all about chasing something that doesn't exist only to come up empty. The fastest growing profession in Christendom in the last 30 years is Christian counseling.

We have never had more Christians with more problems and by the way, I'm glad we have them. I've been there. I've done that and it helped and so the final practice is to understand only Christ can give what transcends all circumstances so be confident. The secret of the success, how is it that you can be grateful? How is it that you can be teachable? How is it that you can say, I'll change anything because you say to yourself, I've tried to change before and I can't.

Well Paul says, here's the key. I can do all things through him who gives me the strength moment by moment, relationship by relationship, decision by decision, painful disappointment through painful disappointment to fulfill everything he wants me to do. I can have confidence. But the confidence occurs not theoretically when I'm on the couch going someday, some way, I might try that. The confidence comes by faith when, thank you Lord for what I do have.

Oh God. Okay, I realize I'm teachable. I'm an arrogant person.

I'm not like sticking out my chest arrogant but I've somehow got my whole life revolved around me. You want me to change, put other people first. I'm going to put other people first but don't you understand that's going to impact my income. I might have to sell this or do that or yeah, you want me to become a servant to these relationships when I thought they were all to make me happy.

That's going to be, I can't do that. Be confident. Come to me with a humble heart in the ups, thank you, in the downs, thank you. What do you want me to learn? How do you want me to change? And then you take the power of my word energized by the Holy Spirit in the context of genuine, authentic, loving community relationships and I guarantee you I will give you whatever you need, not for tomorrow, not for next week, not to solve all the problems. I'll give you whatever you need to have a quiet heart that is completely at peace and the strength to allow my son through the power of the Spirit to give you the response, the reaction, the courage, the faith, whatever you need, I will give you because you're my child. I love you.

Trust me. I received a letter yesterday. I went into the office to clean some things up and I received this letter. A guy writes, hi, Chip, thanks so much for a couple things that I think were very helpful. And then out of the blue it says it seems like recently I keep running into people who follow the kind of thinking that if they can only perform at a high enough level, if they can only gain enough applause or admiration of men and women around me, that my life will then have meaning.

He says, in the past year it seems I've spoken to so many people in these situations and I've seen it in my own life, but that doesn't do it. People put everything onto being on the cheerleading squad or working their way up the top of the corporate ladder, making the dean's list or wearing a Super Bowl ring, you know, becoming a major player in the political realm. They spend every ounce of time and energy on these earthly goals convinced that they're gonna achieve them and they'll finally obtain self-esteem and the confidence and the peace they desperately want. But it seems to me when they reach the pinnacle of what they thought would be successful, the sense of self-worth and contentment they long for is conspicuously absent.

And the reason I think it is, is that their goals were centered on what other people think rather than on what God thinks. And he closes with this, he says, I remember a sports writer named Gary Smith once interviewed boxing legend Muhammad Ali and the interview was conducted at the Fighter's Farmhouse and during the time together, Ali took Smith on a tour of his estate. And then he was led into the barn and the writer saw all of Muhammad Ali's trophies, ribbons, and awards on the shelf collecting dust.

Some of them even spattered with pigeon droppings, golden gloves, Olympic gold, world champion. As they surveyed all the boxing memorabilia getting ruined, Muhammad Ali said something very quietly to Smith. He spoke so softly, in fact, that the writer had to ask him to repeat what he had said.

With his lips barely moving, if you've seen Ali talk now because of some of the damage, the words seem to come from the very back of the champ's throat. And he said, I had the world. I had all the world. And it was nothing.

It was nothing. What do you have? What are you aiming for? What would it look like for you to be grateful, to be teachable, to be flexible, and to be confident that God could give you whatever you want and that months, years, after a period of time, circumstances would no longer have the power to touch you. Chip will be right back with his application for this message, In Difficult Circumstances, from his series, I Choose Peace. Chip's focusing his attention in these programs on the circumstances that rob us of our peace, whether that's troubled relationships, difficult circumstances, moments of anxiousness or financial insecurity. This series provides practical, biblical answers to these areas where we struggle to maintain peace. And the fact is, we all wrestle with finding contentment and harmony. So let me encourage you to reach out to a few friends and go through the series together and discover God's truly satisfying peace. For more information about this series or to order Chip's brand new book, I Choose Peace, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, Chip, I know you want to talk about today's teaching, but before you do that, could you take just a minute and talk about the increasing pressure Christians are facing? I mean, you're in contact with a lot of people. What do you see happening? I think as Christians, we see two responses, neither of which is going to bring about long-term positive change. And one is a combativeness, an anger, a sort of the culture is the enemy. And the other is what I call instead of being combatant, we capitulate. And so go with the flow.

You know, who am I to judge? Let's just all be loving. And so the one has truth with no grace, and the other has grace with no truth. And so at Living on the Edge, we've spent the last 20 years developing resources, whether it's audio or books or teaching or CDs or my favorite, small group material, to help people live out truth and grace. And we've had very generous people partner with us to create all those resources, to pay for airtime, to hire staff. We are living in a day where if Christians do not live like Christians and refuse to attack but are strong and winsome and loving and effectively treat people radically, lovingly the way Jesus did and yet not compromise the truth, we will see America go right down the tubes. And so there's never been a day when we need to do more and we can't do more without the prayers and the financial support of our Living on the Edge partners.

And so if you've never given to Living on the Edge, let me tell you, now is a wonderful, wonderful time. We will be true to scripture and we'll be true to equip people to live out both grace and truth and the power of the Holy Spirit. So thank you for those of you that support us. Please continue to do so. And for those of you that have not, I would highly encourage you, get on board today. We can make a difference together.

Well, Chip, let's get to that application we promised. You know, the older I get, the more I realize that life is lived in seasons. And did you know that God has a plan in every season of your life? And a part of that plan is to bring you unbelievable joy and great relationships, and part of the plan is to bring tests and challenges and difficulties so that He makes you more and more successful.

And difficulties so that He makes you more and more like Christ. And what I can tell you is so often I have had ideas about this is how this season ought to go, and this is what ought to happen, and when it doesn't, I get really frustrated. I was sitting in a meeting and I had a big transition in my life, and in my mind, I knew exactly what it ought to look like. Well, guess what?

It hasn't looked anything like I thought it should look like. And confession, part of it I got really frustrated inside. And how God did it looking back is 100x better than the plan that was in my mind. So here's what I want you to know. To choose peace, yes, be grateful, be teachable, what we learned today, be flexible. Be willing to accept God's path instead of what you have in your mind.

And then finally, be confident. You know, we often quote this verse with sporting activities, but as you learn today, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength is really not about doing well in sports. It's about trusting God to give you the strength, the endurance, the patience, and the wisdom to do life in the season He has you with a grateful attitude and with the peace that surpasses understanding. You know, a great way to soak in more of God's truth is with the Chip Ingram app. You'll find this series there and many more all free. Let God's Word pour into you in such a way that you get perspective and the freedom He longs for you to enjoy in Him. Well, until next time, this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.