Ladies, how do you see yourself? Is it the message from Hollywood?
Do you compare yourself to those magazines as you walk out the grocery store? Today, my wife Teresa is going to help you see yourself the way God sees you. And fellas, don't go away.
If you ever wonder why you have a tough time communicating with that important woman in your life, you're going to learn today how they think. That's today. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouie, and in just a minute, Chip's wife Teresa will pick up in her series Precious in His Sight, with part two of her message, From Cinderella to a Princess. Today she'll provide some real insight into our thought life and how the insecurities and struggles both men and women deal with on a day-to-day basis, and how you can begin to see yourself the way God does.
Well, with that, here's Teresa with the rest of her talk. A couple years after Chip and I were married, he was able to adopt my two little boys. And I'll never forget receiving their new birth certificates in the mail. And their names were changed. It said Ingram on their birth certificate. The old birth certificate was no longer valid. It didn't mean anything anymore.
It was no longer legal. And where it said father's name, birth father's name, it said Chip Ingram. They were born now into a new family. They belonged to a new family.
They belonged to Chip. And they were heirs now of all that he owned. And the old was gone. The old life was gone. And they had a new and better life ahead of them.
And that's what happens to us. We're adopted as God's children into the family of God. And we become heirs of all that he has to give us and all that he is. And this old life is gone. It's gone forever. So we have a new identity.
We have a new name. And we belong to the family of God. Before Christ, I was unrighteous. I was unrighteous. I could try to make myself righteous by doing good things.
I could try to make myself a good person. But I could never make myself right with God. In Titus 3, 5, it says it's not by works of righteousness. It's not by the works that you've done. It says by his mercy he saved us, not by anything that we have done. Because it's only through Christ that we can be adopted into the family. It's not by anything that we can do. We can never earn our way.
We can never do anything good enough to earn our way to get into the family. After Christ, I have been declared righteous. I've been declared righteous.
God's stamp of approval is now on my life. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see, at that moment, at that moment that I accepted Christ into my life, all my sins were poured out on Christ. And he took them to the cross. And he paid the penalty for everything that I had ever done wrong, everything I ever will do wrong.
They're paid for. I'm clean. I'm a clean person. And because of what Christ has done out of his love for me, I'm now offered this gift of forgiveness and this gift of eternal life. And all I had to do was open up my heart and receive what God had done for me by faith alone, not by trying to do anything. And I didn't have to get my life altogether before I did that because he knew that I couldn't anyway.
He knew that my life was all messed up and he knew that I needed him and he knew what he could make out of me. By faith, I accepted that free gift and immediately I was declared righteous. See over here, I was unrighteous. Now I'm declared righteous. I'm a good person. God declares I'm a good person. Isaiah 61, 10 says, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will exalt in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. I love that verse.
I think about how he clothes us with his righteousness. We're different. We're different now. I'm given new clothes.
You see those Cinderella rags? They're gone forever. They're gone forever. And I have a righteous standing before God and it'll never change. It'll never change no matter what I do. I have a new position. I have a new identity, a new nature that I wouldn't have before and I have life. Now I want to take a little parenthesis here and just define something that's important for us as believers to understand just so that we don't get confused about the difference between positional righteousness and practical righteousness and there is a difference and I wanted to make sure that you understood that. Well when I was born again by faith I accepted Christ's payment on the cross for my sins and I asked him into my life. At that moment I was declared righteous. I was declared a righteous person. I became a member of the family of God and my place in the family will never change. It's secure.
It's secure for all eternity. Now when God looks at me, he looks at me through the robe of righteousness that he's given to me. He sees the life of Christ in me. Eric and Jason, my twin boys, became Chip's sons out of his love for them and they'll always be his sons. They'll always be sons. They belong to him and they have his name and they're in line to inherit all that Chip has and they didn't have to earn their place in the family.
It just is. They have that position and that's how it is with us in the family of God. When we are saved, we are declared righteous. We have that position. We're part of the family. We'll never lose it and that's called positional righteousness. Another word for it is justification. It's just as if we have never sinned.
We're declared righteous and I've given you a definition there in your notes of the difference between these two. Now, do children in a family disobey? Yes, they do. And do they make mistakes?
Of course. And do they need to grow and do they need to learn? Well, yes, they need all of those things and it's the same in our spiritual lives. The process of learning to live out on a daily basis what we already have, what's already true about us, you see, is called practical righteousness. Another word for it that you may come across is called progressive sanctification. It's important that we understand this and this practical righteousness is that process of growing to maturity in Christ. It's that process where we're transformed in our lives in obedience to God and that we want to do His will instead of wanting to do what we want to do and what the world tells us to do. Now, that's not achieving perfectionism.
It's not being perfect. We'll never be perfect this side of heaven. Now, we're all God's children. We belong to Him but we still live in these earthly tents and they're weak, these natural bodies and we have a tendency to want to do things our old natural way because we've always done them that way and now we have to learn a new way to do them in the power of Christ and we live in a corrupted world and we have an enemy, Satan, who is always trying to tempt us and to get us to do wrong and then you put that all together with our natural flesh wanting to have things our way and then we think we don't need God and we do things outside of His will but you see, we're still in the family and our position is secure and as we grow in that relationship with God, you see, our thinking begins to change and our outward actions begin to reflect more who we really are, the children of the living God and I sin a lot in my life. I don't know about you but I still sin a lot but when I do, I know that I can run to 1 John 1, 9 which tells me that if I will confess my sin that He is faithful to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
That's all I have to do. I don't have to try to earn my way back to God because I'm already secure in my position with Him but I need to go and confess my sin to Him. Sin in a believer's life does break that sweet fellowship with our Lord.
It's like when a child disobeys and you have to send him to his room. The fellowship is broken for a while until it's restored with repentance and it's the same in our relationship with God. He hates sin. He hates sin and He cannot bless our lives when we're not obedient to Him and so it's important that as we go through each day that we continually confess those sins that come to our mind. Now today, I sin a whole lot less than I did ten years ago and as I continue to grow in Christ, as I continue to allow Him to have control in my life, I know that ten years from now I'll sin even less than I do today but I know that's a part of my life and I'll never be perfect but you know what? I'm forgiven and I'm secure in my position in the family of God and that will never change and I know that in heaven that I will be perfect and I will have a perfect body.
Well I want you to understand the difference between these two. Positional righteousness, we're declared righteous, the position that never changes and practical righteousness, living out who we already are on an everyday basis. Our truth, there in a little bracket or something says, I am now a righteous person in God's sight. Since I have trusted Christ, I am covered with the robe of His purity and His goodness. Since I have a new nature, I am a good person in my general practice of life as I continue to grow in Christ. Do you believe that? Do you believe that about yourself? That you're a good person, that you are righteous in the sight of God, that you're covered with His robe of righteousness? I'm going to share tonight the rest of my Cinderella story and we're going to learn some tools tonight of how to change our negative thought patterns, how to reprogram the way that we think so that we can live out our lives according to who God says we truly are.
But before we end this morning, we need to answer some questions. We need to know what does embracing this truth that I am a good person in God's sight since I have trusted Christ, that I am righteous, what about embracing this truth, what makes the difference anyway? What difference does it make if I believe this or not?
And so if I embrace this truth, it should affect my life, it should affect the way I live in two major areas. And the first one is, is I no longer have to try to earn God's approval and acceptance because I already have it. You see, I don't have to try to earn it anymore, I already have it. We have Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 there, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast. You see, we couldn't earn our way to heaven, we couldn't earn our way to salvation and now our position is secure as we live out our life, as we live out our Christian life.
It's the same, we are secure, we can't earn that position anymore. We can't earn what we already have and that's that we are righteous no matter what we do, no matter how we mess up. With this truth in mind that I no longer have to try to earn God's approval and acceptance, we need to expose three myths that sometimes Christians tend to have, either consciously or unconsciously about themselves. And the first myth is that God only loves and approves of me when I do certain spiritual activities. And God approves of me more. You see, He approves of me more when I read my Bible and when I pray and when I go to church and when I serve Him and when I fellowship with other believers.
You know, sometimes I think and I live like He approves of me more when I do that. But God says that you're righteous in His sight and He approves of you and He loves you no matter what you do. You see, because your position is secure, you are righteous in His sight. I can't do anything bad enough in my life right now to lose my position in Christ.
I have it. It's secure. Nor does doing certain spiritual activities earn me brownie points with God. You know, it's a great thing to read your Bible. It's one of the most important things we can do in our lives, but it does not earn me brownie points with God because I'm already secure.
I already have it. Now, I do those things. I spend time in God's Word and I pray and I serve Him because I love Him. I serve Him out of that relationship that we have. And I have a desire to grow and to know Him. And it pleases God when I do that.
And He blesses those things. But you see, those things do not give me brownie points and they're not earning me anything because I'm already secure in Him. The second myth is if I make a mistake or fail at something, then I must be a failure and I should be punished. Well, if we go back to our truth, if I'm already approved of and I'm already righteous, then that means I don't have to do everything perfectly, right? And it means that it's okay to fail. That when I make a mistake or I fail, that that does not make me a bad person. I'm going to fail sometimes. We all are going to fail sometimes.
But I am not a failure and you are not a failure. Last summer we were barcoding the books in the library and we took on this huge task of computerizing the library at the church. And so we got everything ready. I had everybody lined up and we worked and we worked for hours. And I don't know, a few weeks later we discovered that we had barcoded 700 books wrong. Now you talk about feeling like you really messed up.
And it was so wonderful. I was talking to my sister, Fredina, on the phone and I was telling her what happened and she read me a quote that she had just read out of a book and she said, you know, failure is the opportunity to start again more intelligently. And you don't know how much that helped me. I thought about that, right, yeah, we're going to, I'm learning. I know the computer a whole lot better than I did before.
I understand how to do it now. You know, God's in control, isn't He? And, you know, it's okay. And we got that work done a lot later than I thought we would. But in God's timing, in God's timing we got it done and we had fun doing it.
All the ladies that worked, we had so much fun being together and it was just great. And I'm going to fail sometimes and you're going to fail sometimes, but that does not make you a failure and we really need to remember that. And I can learn. I can learn from my failures and I can gain good experience.
It helps me to grow. It means that I don't have to wallow around in discouragement and getting down on myself because God's not down on me. In fact, God's on my team. He's for me. He's the coach and He's cheering you on. He's not down on you. And when you fall, He says that He immediately reaches down and holds us by the hand. He doesn't let us fall very far. We just need to grab hold and He never, never gives up on His children. He never gives up on you, so don't you ever give up on yourself because He never gives up on you. The third myth is that I need other people's approval in order to be happy.
And I want to tell you right now that that is a big fat lie. We don't need everyone's approval in order to be happy. I have God's approval and that's all that really matters.
That's all that really matters. I'm free to be who God made me to be. Now, there's always someone seems like comes along in our lives that has a good plan for your life, right? They know just exactly what God's will is for your life and what you're supposed to do. And they know, you know, you're supposed to be involved in this ministry and you're supposed to be doing that. And there's always people that will come into our lives like that. But we need to remember that we're never going to make everyone happy and pleased by the decisions that we make. It means that sometimes I'll disappoint people. It means that I don't have to say yes every time someone asks me or expects me to do something. It means that I have the freedom to say no. I have the freedom to say no and not feel guilty.
I remember times that I've told people that I couldn't do something and just condemned myself for a week and felt guilty about letting people down. And I finally realized, you know, I need to do what God wants me to do. It means that I have the freedom to determine what God's will is for me and then to do it, even if it means someone else is disappointed and even if it means that a need isn't met, especially by me. And it means that I have the freedom to set boundaries in my life that are reasonable and good for me that will help me become the kind of person that God wants me to be. You see, if I'm running around all the time doing everything everybody expects me to do, I'll never know what God wants me to do and what He wants me to be. You see, Jesus set boundaries in His life.
Think about that. He set boundaries. He said no. There were many, many needs that Jesus didn't meet, many, many people that He didn't talk to. Now, He loved those people and He cared for them, but He didn't stop and meet every need. He did the will of His Father. He did exactly what God wanted Him to do. And He knew God's plan for His life and He knew that that would mean saying no to some very good things. God respects your boundaries.
Have you ever thought about that? He respects your boundaries. In Revelation 3.20 it says, God says, I stand at the door and knock.
Think about that. He didn't just barge in. He stands at the door and He knocks on the door of your heart.
He says, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, He waits for you to open it, I will come in and be with him. So God respects your boundaries. And we should at least respect our own boundaries and others. Well, this leads us to our second, the truth, the second truth, the way that this should affect my life. And it is that I don't have to live with guilt, condemnation and defeat over past sins and failures because I am already forgiven.
You know, I'm over here now. I don't have to bring up all this garbage all the time. Isaiah 113 says, though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. We're clean. We're clean.
Psalm 103 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. They're completely removed. The slate is wiped clean. All the sins listed next to my name were erased. They were erased, never to be entered again. What about the slate in your mind?
What's on your slate? Do you keep writing up sins that you already asked God to forgive you for and you keep putting them back up there? If you compared your slate with God's slate, His is clean. And we must stop condemning ourselves because God is not condemning us.
Romans 8 12 says, therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, no condemnation. Now, there's some of us who have done terrible things in our past. And we've done things that we wish that we had never done. But if you have accepted Christ's payment for your sins, then you don't need to ever bring those things up again.
You see, the slate is wiped clean. And I have a couple of those things in my past, some things that I wish that I had never done, some things that I'm not really proud of. And every so often, in just the right circumstances, it seems Satan will bring those things. He likes to do a lot of digging in our lives. And he'll bring those things to my mind in a vivid way.
And I'll start mulling it over. And then those accusations come, the condemnation comes, and I start condemning myself of who I am. And then I begin to feel like a bad person and I feel like I'm defeated, like I'm unworthy and that God's not going to use my life.
You know, how would He use someone who did things like that? But I've come to really embrace that I have a righteous standing before God. That's who I am. And that those sins that I committed a long time ago were nailed to the cross.
They were paid for and remembered no more by God. And I'm free. I am free from the guilt and the punishment and the condemnation of those sins.
I'm free. And I don't have to listen to the lies. I don't have to listen to the lies that Satan brings to my mind. And I've learned that as soon as those condemning thoughts come, that I need to right then stop them. I need to refuse to dwell on them and remind myself that I'm forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.
See, we need to focus on what's true. And sometimes a picture of something in my past will come to my mind. And I've learned, I learned to use my own pictures in my mind.
And I just picture a stamp being placed right over that picture that's bad. And it says forgiven. And I've just, it's a little game that I've played in my mind, but I think it's a spiritual one. I think because I think it's the truth that when those thoughts come, just picture a stamp approved, forgiven, because that's who you are. So we're fully forgiven and now we need to live, live in the freedom that we possess. And as believers, you know, we know we're still going to sin because we live in these earthly bodies that are weak and we still try to do things our way instead of God's way. But we don't have to live with condemnation and defeat.
We don't have to live that way. We just need to run to God. We just need to run to Him with a sincere heart and confess our sins and our fellowship with Him will be immediately restored, immediately.
But this is a process, isn't it? It's a process that's lived out through our lives and it takes time. It takes time for God's truth to penetrate our minds and to replace those negative beliefs that we have with His truth and to realize that we're no longer a Cinderella, but that now we're God's princess and we belong to Him. And that's who we truly are. There's a little song that I used to sing a long time ago, early in my Christian life.
And it it goes like this. It said, little by little, every day, little by little, in every way, Jesus is changing me. Since I made that turn about face, I've been growing in His grace. Jesus is changing me. He's changing me. My blessed Savior.
I'm not the same person that I used to be. Oh, it's been slow going, but there is a knowing that one day perfect I'll be. That's what He's doing in our lives. And if you're here today and you know that you're over here, that you're still a Cinderella, that you've never opened your door of your heart, ask God to come in and to live inside your life, to forgive your sins and to make you clean and to give you His life, to give you His very life inside of you. Or if you're here today and you're not sure that you've ever done that, that you have a question in your mind, then I encourage you as we end our time this morning in prayer that you pray with me right now and you receive into your life the very life of Christ.
And all you have to do is ask Him and He'll transform your life from a Cinderella into that of a princess. And God delights to hear this prayer. He delights to hear a child reaching out to Him. And whether you're five, whether you're 25 like I was, 55 or older, He loves to hear that prayer. And so as we bow and pray right now, just repeat after me in the quietness of your heart or with a whisper on your lips because God hears and answers. He'll hear and answer your prayer. And He'll change your life. You have much spiritual transformation that will occur even today.
So let's pray. Lord Jesus, I just first of all thank you so much for changing my life, for giving me a new identity, for making me righteous, for allowing me to be a part of your family. And Father, now we come to you. And if there's anyone here who would like to ask Jesus to be your Savior today, to transform your life, just pray and repeat these words after me. Lord Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross to pay for my sin.
Please forgive me. Please come and live in my life as my Lord and Savior. Thank you that I now have a new identity, that I am at this moment declared righteous in your sight, and I have eternal life.
Help me to live like the princess that you've created me to be. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we go on, I want to ask you a question.
What is going through your mind right now? Let me encourage you to bow your heart right now wherever you are and ask God to forgive you. The greatest solution, the greatest gift that you could ever receive, the best step that you could ever take in your entire life that will change your eternity forever is right now in this moment.
I want you to know it's not just some invisible force. God loves you. He's for you. Jesus is real. He walked upon the earth.
He lived a perfect life. He died upon a cross, and He died on it to pay for your sin and mine. And He rose from the dead to prove that it's true, and He's already forgiven you. When He died on the cross, your sin, my sin, the sins of all the world were paid for by Jesus.
But you must receive that as a free gift. The scripture is absolutely clear. As many as receive Him, Jesus, to them He gives the right to become children of God, even to those that believe in His name. And the scripture is also clear that the wages of sin, what we get for our sins, for our lives, the things that we've done that we know are wrong, the wages of sin is death. But the free gift, let me repeat, the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so right now, bow your heart, close your eyes if you can, and just say, God, rescue me, forgive me, save me. He'll hear your prayer. Today I believe Christ died for me.
I believe He rose from the dead. Come into my life right now. Make me your son.
Make me your daughter. And as you repent of your sins and confess them, God will come into your life at this moment. Now, your next step is really important.
The Bible says you're born again or born a second time, and babies need help and milk and love and hugs and people in their life. And so I want you to text or call someone who's the greatest Christian you know and say, I was listening to this person on this broadcast, and I prayed to receive Christ. Now what do I do? Where's a good church?
How do I grow? If you need some help, go to our website. We have a place there that clearly will give you some understanding of the step that you've taken. And then find a New Testament, begin reading in the Gospel of John, and just talk to God from your heart like you would any other person. It's a brand new journey. God is going to change your life. He has forgiven your sins.
Welcome to the family. If you prayed with Chip, we'd love to put a resource in your hands. It's called Starting Out Right, and it's absolutely free. This resource will help you gain a clear biblical understanding of what it means to put your faith in Jesus. And that's our whole mission here at Living on the Edge, helping Christians really live like Christians. So let us help you get started in your faith journey. You can request this resource by calling us at 888-333-6003 or by visiting livingontheedge.org, then clicking on the New Believers button.
That's livingontheedge.org, or call us at 888-333-6003. Well before we go any further, here again is Chip to share a quick word. I just want to stop and pause with a very select group of people. You're people that pray for Living on the Edge. I know because you write and tell me.
And you're people who give financially to Living on the Edge. And as I have communicated the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the power of God to salvation. And we know that when we share the gospel like this on a broadcast, literally hundreds and hundreds of people come to Christ. And so you're a part of that.
And we have reaped, not because we're special, but because the gospel is the power of God to salvation. But I want to just celebrate that reward and thank every one of you who pray and thank every single person who gives to this ministry. People's lives will be different forever and ever and ever because of you. Thanks so much. What an encouragement, Chip.
Thanks. Well, if you're already a financial partner, thank you. With your help, Living on the Edge is ministering to countless people every day. But if you're benefiting from Chip's teaching and haven't yet taken that step, now would be a great time to join the team. To send a gift or become a monthly partner, go to LivingontheEdge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003.
That's 888-333-6003. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Well, just before we close, would you stop for a minute and pray for Living on the Edge today? We've never seen a greater need for God's truth to go out than right now. And by God's grace, Living on the Edge has been able to provide encouragement, teaching, and personal discipleship resources to more people than ever before. So thank you to those who support us with your prayers. God is doing amazing things. Well, until next time, and for all of us here, this is Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
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