Holy Ambition - Experience a Broken Spirit, Part 2

Did you know that God wants to speak to you?

It's true. In fact, he wants to go way beyond speaking to you. He wants to support you, empower you, direct you, and use you to do things beyond your wildest dreams. You want to know how? That's the topic today.

Stay with me. 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 have you ever heard the term angel investor? This is a wealthy, well-connected entrepreneur who invests his time, finances, and expertise into a startup business, often when other investors won't. As Chip continues in his series, Holy Ambition, he'll reveal how God is our angel investor. He stirs a dream in our hearts, wants to see it succeed, and is ready to help us make it a reality. So let's learn how he can make that happen in your life. Turn in your Bible to Nehemiah chapter one, as Chip continues talking about Nehemiah's unique calling and the next steps he took to act on it.

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, and 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 love what Tozer says. I've 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, 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 and 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 wider field. We've never had more TV, never more video, never more megachurches, 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 worshipper.

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 listen to Christian music and all those things are helpful but if you're 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 worshipping. That's when you sit quietly in a room and you sing to God. That's when you adore him and praise him and thank him and honor him and you're not trying to get anything done and you're not looking at your watch and you open your eyes and you look at things that are beautiful and you thank God for what he's made and who he is and you cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Heaven and earth is full of your glory and you begin to rapture in the presence of the power and the majesty and the love of God. Worshipers and in worship we get a high view of God and when that happens you'll notice as you read in that Isaiah passage, there's worship and there's angels and the train of the robe, it was about his majesty and his power, fills this temple and Isaiah, this prophet, has this amazing experience and when he sees God high and lifted up and holy then he says woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips and I would suggest that the average Christian thinks your lips are pretty clean, we're doing okay and God I just need a little help to get through the day so that you can help me fulfill my agenda for my world, my family, my singleness, my job and here's what I'd like you to do for me today and therefore you don't have deep experiences of repentance, you don't have times of realizing wow how have I drifted, how have I become so critical, where did, how did my motive slip into being so performance oriented, why am I so short with my kids, why is it that what I really care about and I'm so upset because the stock went from here to here, I thought I had an eternal perspective, why are certain things eating me up inside because I can't control them, those are evidences and God says and Isaiah responds woe is me, see when you get a high view of God, you'll get a recalibrated view of yourself, notice it's not just Isaiah, it's Nehemiah, it's every character I can find in the Old or New Testament so notice his response, he says I confess the sins, we Israelites, notice it's first person, you know if I was this guy, I mean I hope I would do better but if I was Nehemiah, I'd be looking at this bad situation and I'd pray for a while and say you know what, all those people messed up, why did they mess up, they're worshiping idols and they've done this and they've done that and if they would shape up and but he doesn't, he realizes he's a part of it, I, we, I, we, I confess the sins, we Israelites including myself and my father's house have committed against you, we've acted very wickedly towards you, we have not obeyed the commands decrees and laws that you gave your servant Moses, no excuses, no ducking, no blame shifting, no well you know Lord I came from a very difficult family, you know circumstances have been really rough on me, you just don't understand what I've been through, he just owns it and not only owns it for himself, he owns it for his father's house, he owns it for the nation and he repents. The mark of a high view of God are prayers that are God-centered and the mark of prayers that have genuine repentance and confession are gut-wrenchingly honest prayers, my personal struggle, we don't want to do therapy for me but I'll just give you a quick highlight, my personal struggle in prayer goes something like this, when I draw near to God, I see stuff about me I don't like, okay, so when I see stuff about me I don't like, I have to face that or I have to run and so the difficulty in praying for significant quiet in-depth times is the reality that if I really get honest, I'm going to see some things about my motives, I'm going to see some things about me that aren't that pleasant and what that does is everything in me then will all pray later, all pray deeper later and what I find is when I'm having my most intimate times with God, there's a practice of not only worship but a practice of asking him to search my heart and sitting quietly and letting him bring not general feelings like you're a terrible dad, you're a terrible pastor, you're selfish, no good, that's the enemy, that's called condemnation. No it's more like, you know what, what have you been thinking about for the first four hours today, when you were in that conversation, you know your voice got kind of this way and that way because you were just frustrated, you didn't really care about him and when that person came up afterwards when you were tired, you were kind of looking at him but you were just glazed over, you didn't, you didn't care, God I'm sorry or Ingram your priorities are out of whack, you're trying to do too much in too many different directions and you know what, this is what you need to do and you know the only avenue, it's not try harder, it's repent, it's ask forgiveness, it's quote get right, if you don't know how to do that, I've given you a passage to work and it's James 4, 7 to 10 and it's the clearest best repentance passage I know of in all of scripture and it gives you a very clear model, it says submit therefore to God, when you repent, the first thing you need to do is realize you quit trying to run everything, it's back to the all in, it's back to the surrender, submit therefore to God and then once you do that, you get a lot of opposition then it says resist the devil and he'll flee from you then you take a positive step, draw near to God, promise he'll draw near to you and as you draw near to God, maybe that's getting back in the Bible, maybe it's getting back connected to a small group, maybe it's having honest conversation, drawing near to God, maybe you go ask for forgiveness for someone, but you draw near to God, he'll draw near to you and as he does, then he'll show you stuff, cleanse your hands you sinners, purify your heart you double minded, see he'll tell you about some actions and about some attitudes and then he talks about mourning and turn your laughter and the idea it's not that we shouldn't be happy and laugh, the words in the New Testament have to do with this sort of self-sufficient living for my pleasure and not really owning at the level and the depth that you know, I'm really living a self-centered life, will you forgive me and you mourn and you grieve just like when you hurt someone's feelings and you really tell them you're sorry and you really mean it, that's what he's talking about. So an accurate view of a broken spirit happens with the restored view of God that leads to an accurate view of myself, a restored view of God requires me to become a worshipper on a regular basis, an accurate view of myself demands repentance and confession and then notice what happens, when you're really clean, when you're not, a lot of us pray like this, oh God please do this, oh God please do this, I wonder if he will, oh God please do this, maybe, maybe, maybe, I doubt it, I doubt it, I doubt it, please, please, yeah, yeah, yeah, if this would happen, this would happen, I promise and we're just, no, no, no, no, when you see God for who he is and you watch this all through scripture and when you're around people that God uses greatly, you'll find this in their life, they get an accurate view of themselves and when they repent and they know they're clean, they kind of come in the presence of God with boldness and clarity like the Hebrews passage, therefore come boldly before the throne of grace to find mercy in your time of need, for you have a great high priest who's blazed the trail and the pioneer and says you come in, what do you need? When you listen to this man pray, the broken spirit results in a renewed commitment to fulfill God's agenda and so he's now, he's a new man, he's cleansed, he knows he's blown it, he sees God's on the throne, there's a big problem and he can't solve it but he's gonna ask and he's gonna quote parts of Deuteronomy 30 and Exodus 32 and he's gonna say God, I'm gonna remind you of some promises you made, he says remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. Remember God, remember you said that? Well we were unfaithful and we're scattered, that one's been fulfilled but remember the second half of it but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are on the farthest horizons, I will gather them from there and I'll bring them to this place, Jerusalem, the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. See when you start having a broken spirit, you pray God-centered prayers, gut-wrenchingly honest prayers and then they're not hopeful prayers, they're promise-centered prayers. You begin to realize, you know, God has some promises about your finances, God has some promises about your marriage, God has some promises about when you're stuck and you're depressed, God has some promises and you take his word and you say I actually believe it's true, I don't feel it but I believe it's true and I'm gonna pray and claim the promises of God, that's faith. And so notice his prayer and notice the focus, he reminds God and it turns to intercession, he says he looks at this bad situation and it's not like well you know I'm pretty wealthy and I'm affluent and I've got a good position, I guess I'll really rev it up and make something happen, that's not what he prays. See he let God work in him before he worked through him. These are your servants and your people whom you redeem by your great strength and your mighty hand.

Where's the focus? Your, your, your, your, your. Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants, notice the small group, who delight in revering your name. And then over this three months of praying, Nehemiah went from someone who prayed and was asking God I don't know my part in your plan, I don't know my divine design, I don't know my gifts and I don't know in this time of history exactly what you want me to do but at the end of three months he realized God showed him that he had the gift of leadership and that God wanted him to take his leadership skills and go back and head up the rebuilding project and so he's going to go, he'll take a radical step of faith, he's going to get in front of this king and he's going to act like he's really sad and what he knew was in that culture if you act like you're sad in front of the king you have two options. Option one, hey what are you sad about, how can I help you out?

Option two, that's illegal, kill him, get rid of him. So he realized he was willing to put his life on the line and so he intercedes. James 5 16, God says very very very clearly, he says that the prayer of a righteous man and I have learned the prayer of a righteous woman will accomplish much, we'll have to get serious, I'm a little embarrassed to be honest that we gather as a people and we have as many needs and we sing and we hear and we teach, how little we actually stop, how little in our relationships with one another.

We go to each other's house, we talk, we have fun, we drink coffee, we do stuff. When's the last time you said, you know before you leave, let's stop right now, let's pray, let's ask God, let's believe, I believe that's God's agenda. Three summary principles that I think will give us some handles to move forward, one, we must let God work deeply in us before he will work significantly through us.

What if you ask him and really meant it? What if you said, oh God, what do you want to do in me? What do you want to correct?

What do you want to restore? What do you want to heal? Second, until we make prayer a priority, progress and power will never be a reality. Here's what I can tell you because I've been down this road before, not only my personal life but in church, Living on the Edge, here's what I'll tell you, two and a half months from now, we'll put check marks next to these that'll blow your mind because you know what God, his agenda is, it's not like big for him to answer these prayers, he wants to teach us that he actually listens. One of the things I do every year is I think of the biggest top 10 things that are most overwhelming or the things that I believe God wants to happen and I write them down, I have my top 10.

They're big and they're specific and then I pray over them and I just can't tell you how many December's it's like, wow, eight, I never dreamed and I just, it was like God, how could I not believe? The Lord, the God, the creator, the great and awesome God. Third, difference makers are not necessarily those with a lot to give.

You don't need to develop leaders at HP, you don't have to have a big house, you don't have to be rich, you don't have to be a super intellect. In fact, actually when you read this book, it's like God goes to great lengths to pick people that don't have much of any of that, the are nots of the world. Read 1 Corinthians and he lists all these sort of dysfunctional, difficult, sinful people that have been through all this terrible stuff and such were some of you. God uses the foolish, us regular people with our baggage and our hurts and our past and our sins to profound the wise. Every great movement of God starts with a little hand full of people who ridiculously and mostly at the ridicule of others actually believe God would do exactly what he says. Grace always flows downhill, it requires humility. Chip will be right back with his application for this message, Experience a Broken Spirit from his series, Holy Ambition, Turning God-Shaped Dreams into Reality.

Do you long for your life to make a difference? Is God stirring something in your soul but you don't know how to get started? Well through this series, Chip explains how those deep-seated convictions and promptings can become God-shaped realities. Stay with us as Chip lays out a six-step process for ordinary people like you and me to follow God's calling and impact our world in unbelievable ways. For more information about Holy Ambition or our series resources, go to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap special offers. Well I'm joined now by our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram. And Chip, you said something right at the end of today's message that really resonated with me. You said every great movement of God starts with a little hand full of people who believe God will do exactly what he says.

You know, those types of people are how we survive financially here at Living on the Edge. Anything you want to add to that for our listeners out there? I just want to remind you that you're listening to this because some very caring and loving individuals have sacrificially given to the ministry so that we can pay for the airtime, so we can create the programs, and so we can minister to you. And you know, in those early times as you listen to the program, we are delighted to just make it available, and we are thrilled of the team that God's put together. But I'd like to talk to some of you that have become regular listeners and you've never considered, I wonder how this gets paid for.

Would you consider making a gift today? The Bible is very clear that when we receive spiritual ministry to us, we have a responsibility to help financially fund those who teach and minister to us. And what I want you to know is we use all the resources to go right back into the ministry. We want to help Christians live like Christians. And so if you've been benefiting from the ministry, and you've never given, or you've given now and then and realized maybe God wants you to be a part of the team, would you consider today partnering with us? You can do it any way God leads you, but would you take that next step and be a part of getting Living on the Edge and what God's doing through it to the lives of many more people?

Thanks, Chip. Well, as you prayerfully consider your role with this ministry, I want to remind you that every gift is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in ways that only God can do. Now to send a gift, call us at 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org. That's 888-333-6003 or livingonttheedge.org. App listeners, tap donate. Well, as we wrap up, here's Chip to share some final thoughts from today's message. I don't know about you, but down deep in my heart and the inner recesses of my being, I really long for my life to make a difference.

And the temptation in my life has been to get active and to get busy and to get involved and to try and do a lot and stir up a lot of dust, and often I get very fatigued, very tired, and maybe like you, overextended. What God would teach us today is that making a real difference doesn't begin with external activity. It begins internally. We learned already that you have to care.

You have to have a dislocated heart. But step number two is a broken spirit. And I'd like to end today's program where I think God would have us go. I'd like to pray.

And I'd like you, even if you're driving in your car or you're listening at work, join me at least in spirit. Almighty God, we would tell you that you are high and lifted up, that you are great, that you are holy, that you are powerful, and yet you love us. And we ask that you'd please forgive us for a small and puny view of you, how in our worst days we actually try and use you and get you to fulfill our agenda, rather than being broken before you and say, oh God, we want to be a part of whatever level of your agenda. Lord, we repent today of our small views of you, and we ask you to give us an accurate, clear, high view of you. And we pray, too, for the courage today, as we've listened to your word, to be honest about who we are, our sin, our selfishness, our motives. Like Nehemiah, we want to own it, we want to confess it, we want to come broken. And then, Lord Jesus, we pray, by the still, small voice of the Spirit, by your word, and then through your people, that you will realign our life, our goals, our time, and our agenda with yours. You placed us, each one, in a neighborhood, in a relational network, in a church, in a job site, where you longed for us to make a difference.

We tell you of ourselves, we're bankrupt. If you would empower us, if you will show us what it looks like to walk with you, we'll follow. In Jesus' name, amen. As we close, I want you to know that as a staff, we ask the Lord to help you take whatever your next faith step is, and we'd love to hear how it's going. Would you take a minute and send us a note or give us a call?

Either one is easy. Email us at chip at livingontheedge.org, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. Well, we appreciate you joining us. Until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.