True Spirituality - How to Get God's Best for Your Life, Part 2

Do you want to do life differently, but you just can't seem to make it stick?

Well, here's what you need to know. There's a way to experience real and lasting life change, and it isn't about trying harder. It's about a completely new way of thinking. And today, we're going to talk about how this process can begin in your life.

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 motivating Christians to live like Christians. Well, we're in the middle of our insightful series, True Spirituality, based in the book of Romans Chapter 12. Last time, Chip challenged us to be separate from the world's values and warned us how culture tries to lure you and me away from our relationship with God. So today, he stresses the importance of renewing our minds and shares some simple practices for how we can do that every day. So if you have a Bible handy, go now to Romans Chapter 12, Verse 2, for the second half of Chip's message, How to Get God's Best for Your Life. You know, it's interesting.

You think, this isn't new. If you take the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and if we could take a video camera back to Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, and you study the passage very carefully, Adam and Eve are, how are they tempted? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

Take the video camera out of time. Go over to Jesus with Satan, Matthew Chapter 4, and he's being tempted. And you, three temptations, how's he tempted?

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. How did he win? They lost. He won.

Why? It is written. It is written.

It is written. Each time, from memory, he reached back into Deuteronomy, and the lie came, bam! He knocked it out with the truth.

And so in Matthew 4, 4, it says, He answered Satan and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You cannot experience God's best for your life without making this truth a part of your experience on a very regular basis. You don't have the power.

I don't have the power. You must take the raw material of God's written word and get it into your mind and share it with other people so the Spirit of God can take the written word and make it the living word and change you and change your desires in ways that you can't understand. It's supernatural. In fact, the Apostle Paul would say, It's not only supernatural, but it's a process. There's not like you can just turn a switch and now I'm like Jesus, you know?

What's he saying? 2 Corinthians 3, 18, I put the passage there, but we all, speaking of the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, between the law when it was given in Sinai and now with the Spirit living in us, but we all with unveiled faces beholding us in a mirror the glory of the Lord. Notice the tense of this verb, our being transformed.

How? From glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. He's saying Moses when he was up on the mountain with God, see you become like whoever you hang out with and after 40 days hanging out with God, he just glowed. He just radiated with the glory of God. And so when he came down, people couldn't take it, so he put a veil over his face so he could talk to him. And then in his hypocrisy when it started to fade, he kept the veil on because he wanted people to think he still had it. None of us ever do that, of course.

We don't do any image management or any of those sort of things, but Moses did. And Paul says, you know, we with an unveiled face beholdings in a mirror, it's not direct, but we get these reflections and snapshots and moments where Jesus reveals himself and a passage comes out of the word and you're in a Bible study and someone speaks a word or accepts you in a way that you've never been accepted and you were vulnerable or you're supported or someone in love actually rebukes you and calls you on the carpet for something that in your heart you've known and you realize that open rebuke is better than love concealed and you find a safe place and God changes you. But it's from glory to glory.

That's like four steps forward, two steps backward. We're all in process. And notice who brings about the change from the Lord, the Spirit.

And so here's the key, what I want you to get, review. Stop allowing the world to conform you. Start being transformed.

Here's what I want to camp on. How? What's your part? We said we can't change ourselves. Allow yourself to be transformed.

How? Here's our part. The renewing of our mind. Mind renewal I think has three key components. The first component of mind renewal is renewing your mind as a continual refocus of the Romans 12 one perspective. Colossians 3 says set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.

It's a world view, it's a mindset that has eternity in mind, that has Christ in mind, about what matters in mind. See when you come to that moment where you say God I'm all in, I will do whatever, it's authentic, it's real, it's sincere, you make great decisions in that moment. But then there's Monday morning, right? And that was two football games and an argument with your roommate or your wife or with your husband and a kid who treated you dirty and a boss who wasn't very nice ago.

And a different person shows up after that, right? And so you renew your mind to keep that focus and all of us have different issues that we face that keep us conformed to the world. Let me give you an example. As I grew up in my home, my family of origin, I have one, you have one, the enemy uses the world in some ways in my life different than yours. I mean there's people that can walk into a bar, love friends, have no problem, never think about this, this, that.

I mean my dad was an alcoholic, alcohol shaped our home. There's some people that you're not performance oriented at all, man you are just balanced and laid back and you go to work, you shut it off, no problem. You're not a people pleaser. You know you're just so healthy relationally and emotionally and I envy you. And so I realized that I was a workaholic, that I was insecure, that I was always trying to please people and then after I got married that I was very insensitive to my wife. Other than that as a Christian I was really doing well.

Now I'm dead serious. I mean I didn't have a porn addiction, I wasn't putting cocaine up my nose, I wasn't okay but I'm saying those were real and when I started reading the Bible some and I wanted to follow Jesus and I kept trying hard. I tried hard not to be a workaholic, I tried not to be insecure, I tried to be more sensitive to my wife. On my best days and I'm pretty disciplined willpower, I could only keep that up for about two weeks because I didn't understand.

Transformation isn't about just trying hard, it's renewing your mind. And so I wrote down on some cards the truth. And now I prayed, I asked God does it mean there's not self of course I had to make effort but for example I thought am I going to be insecure my whole life or am I going to get my mind renewed? And so I wrote down this on a card, I read it in the morning, in the night, put it in my pocket, read it multiple times a day. I'd like to be more authentic in every aspect of my life. You know I was trying to please everyone and I am what I am by the grace of God and His grace didn't prove vain toward me but I labored more than all of them yet not me but Christ in me.

You know when you keep reading over I'd like to be more authentic in every relationship. You know what happens that gets in your mind? You catch yourself when you're posing. You catch yourself image managing and God begins to birth where you say you know I think I'm just going to like who God made me.

Got a long way to go. Transformation. My people pleasing. I mean anybody here ever struggle with like everyone asks you to do this and you either feel guilty if you don't or you're trying to do everything, you're multitasking and you're up early and you're back late and you know I wrote this on a card, I want to stop caring what others think and apply myself and my schedule to what will make me the best I can be to honor God the most. I want to grow free of the invisible expectations that I allow to hinder my joy, my freedom, my schedule from pursuing the best.

These invisible, like I had this gun to my head. Still struggle some but if you live your life to please people it'll kill you but it's the world so you refocus. My next one was on my workaholism. I just thought working a lot, performing, getting stuff done, I got approval and so that was how I did everything.

I even did the ministry like that and so I wrote on this card, I read it over. I want to learn, this is almost sick to have to learn this, I'm going to learn to take time and schedule in enjoyable, fun, refreshing activities without feeling guilty about them or caring what other people think. Anybody here feel like you should have more margin, that you're not enjoying life enough, that it's work, work, work and yeah you're going to do that later but you're just so focused and so geared and you pick up your kids and you're on your phone and everybody's kind of in an interruption.

My final one, what I'm telling you, I just, I kept reading this over. What happened was I just found putting it in my schedule. Pretty soon I didn't feel guilty about having fun. Pretty soon I found out I had fun in enriching relationships and when I came to work it didn't take as much time and it was like wow this must be a part of God's plan.

Finally, as with my wife, I realized I was insensitive and so I wrote on this card, my desire is to love Teresa sacrificially and in a way that makes sense to her each and every day. And so I just kept reading that over and a weird thing happened. I started seeing little times on this day and on Sunday night and on this day where I could be more sacrificial. Now believe me, from glory to glory and with plenty of relapses but are you seeing how it works? Are you seeing how you refocus, your mind gets renewed? Second thing is I want to tell you it's a battle.

Renewing your mind always involves a battle. The spiritual life, the battle for your soul primarily is happening between your ears. The apostle Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 10, 4 and 5 the weapons of our warfare, listen to that language, he's in a battle for his soul. The weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful for the pulling down of strongholds and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. People pleasing, workaholism, having, possessing, working like crazy, accumulating, impressing, image management, addictions, the weapons of our warfare. He's talking about the power of the word of God, community, fasting, prayer.

I mean the world's powerful. There's a battle and it's for your soul. There's a reason why the second most optimal time for couples or divorce is about between 20 and 25 years because she buys the lie that it's me and the kids and all that I do for them and he buys the lie that someday, someway if I can work, work, work, do, do, do, do and then they wake up 20, 25 years they don't know each other. They've not shared anything. He feels middle aged and like he doesn't have it anymore and what makes him feel like he might have it is if some young good looking chick is interested and he's got some money, can pay his way, try and make it happen and he does stuff either online or actual in the office and she starts realizing you know I don't look the way I used to look and I don't feel very attractive and she signs up and gets a personal trainer and now she's going to go at it again and they don't have anything and they both bought a lie and they used to teach a Sunday school class and they've been married 30 years and their kids now are young adults who grew up in that home and mom and dad divorce and they're going what in the world? I guess this Jesus stuff isn't true. That's reality people. That's for some of you.

That's your experience. The third thing you need to remember is that renewing your mind is supernatural. It's a work of the spirit. You know reviewing cards, reading the Bible, doing this, doing that.

I got news for you. The spirit of God has to take the word of God and do something in you. All of these things are about a heart love relationship with Him. Romans 8 says the mind set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the spirit is life and peace and so in summary let me just tell you for me, for you, for every believer you are what you eat period. You are what you eat physically and you are what you eat spiritually and intellectually. You tell me how much time on your phone, how much time in video games, how many movies you watch and the messages in those movies, time, what are you putting into your mind over against, how much truth, how much of God's word, how much renewing relationships and you know what, plug, plug, plug, plug.

It's pretty easy. I can tell you your lifestyle because you are what you eat. So my question is what's your diet? Are you getting God's best? Now let me walk through now and give you some very practical, specific ways to renew your mind because it's one thing, those are the principles, that's the truth.

Here's some practical methods for renewing your mind. To say no to the world, say yes to God. First hearing God's word. Romans 10, 17 says faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. You have to, on a regular basis you must hear God's word. It bursts faith. One way to do that is, this is a novel idea for some of you, come to church regularly. I mean I'm not down on you. I just, first three years as a Christian if I made it twice a month I'm high-fiving myself.

Way to go Chip. I never did that before. Second is use your time in the car wisely. Hear God's word. My seminary training hasn't stopped. Second, read God's word.

Revelation 1, 3 says blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near. And in your notes if you don't know much about the Bible and need some structure and a plan, first 15 years at least I was a Christian I read the daily walk Bible. And I just tell you it was just like okay here's the structure, here's what it means, here's an overview but you dig in for yourself. Or go on the internet. There's enough reading plans.

You just log on on the app store Bible, believe me. It's study. Second Timothy 2, 15 says be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman that need not be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

And you'll notice I had this a little bit later but this is a little tool to help you study. And take this really well. God wants the best for you. Some of us have been so trained we eat all processed food. Can you imagine if you ate just only processed food instead of the kind of organic real good stuff? Or the picture that comes to my mind is you know some of that processed cheese and you take it out of that plastic anything I don't know where this has been.

Well it's a good start right? But processed spiritual food is like there's a little book and it's a good little book and it has two or three verses and then someone who studied a lot tells you a little inspiring story and tells you a little something about those two or three little verses and says and now here's what you might do and you read for like it takes almost three minutes to read these little things and then you go oh Jesus, Jesus help me, help me really follow you. I've really renewed my mind. Now I spent you know 40 minutes in the Wall Street Journal but now I've spent my four or five minutes what I know is what someone else thinks of that passage. The little card is how you can study God's word on your own. I learned this from a missionary about 30 years ago I think it was Brazil it's called the two pro app method and that's just an acronym and I'm not going to go through it all other than just to say if you would choose a New Testament book, the book of John, the book of Mark, one of the small ones and just read a paragraph or maybe two and the P pray God please help me. The second P preview it, read it quickly just to get a feel. It's all written on here and then the R is read it slowly methodically. Then the O is read it one more time and underline maybe words that are alike or thoughts that you have. The A then is that what application from this paragraph is God showing me then realizing since I don't have the power to do it you pray again God will you help me to it says be generous in this passage so will you help me be generous in some way specifically today and then the T is tell someone. It's just a very simple way to study.

Here's what I can tell you processed food is helpful and if you're just beginning that's fine. When you are tempted sexually when you want to break out of habit patterns when there's addictions when there's a crisis in your marriage when you got a kid who's going through a terrible time and you're trying to cling on to God you have to have him speak directly from his word to you because that's where convictions come from. It's great that those people who wrote those little devotionals that's what they believe. What do you believe and what do you believe under pressure? It's birthed in study.

The next is memorization. Notice it says Psalm 119 9 11 how can a young man a young woman keep your way pure? By guarding it or keeping it according to your word. Your word I've treasured or hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. I don't know if there's any greater return in the Christian life than memorizing scripture or one that's probably more neglected.

I can tell you a brief little story. I was you know in a school and I think I've shared it where there was like four girls to every guy and I've started to grow so now I've been a Christian like three years and so I'm reading the Bible you know like three or four mornings a week I'm starting to go to church which is really radical for me and I'm making progress in a number of areas but not in one in particular. My roommate is going to go to this Christian summer something where you know it's a parachurch organization that they go there for training and they get a job and share Christ and learn all good stuff and I didn't want any part of that but before he could go he had to memorize these 60 verses. It was called the topical memory system put out by a group called the Navigators and I'm just I've always been very competitive along with being insecure and so he left the room one day and I just thought because he was going to memorize one or two verses a week and he had it planned out 30 weeks and I just thought you chump. So my goal secretly he leaves I literally copied all the verses down on these little cards in fact I still these little cards I still have them and I got these 60 verses down and then I had an amazing gift I had a psychology professor that was about 99 years old who'd been tenured for like 40 years because he couldn't get a job anywhere and so he would drone on and on so I would put my psychology book up an hour every day I memorized one verse the first day so I decided I'm gonna 60 days I'm gonna be done and I'm just gonna have them perfect because here was the goal I was gonna say okay hey Bob how's it going with that thing that your training program is going to and yeah why don't you go ahead and start and list the verses and I was just gonna go bang bam bam bam bam 60 in a row you know is that sick or what I mean you know memorizing God's Word to impress someone out of your ego and your pride well okay to show that God can use anybody even in our nuttiness it's day 21 and I mean I'm I'm like getting into this I can still remember hearing my cleats when I was running to baseball practice like this you know putting it at the back day 21 I walk around the corner and there's a very beautiful young co-ed involved in the ministry and what men will tell you if they're honest is that we struggle deeply with lust and I was struggling very deeply the external things were changing but my eyes were going everywhere and my mind was going all kind of places and when you lust for a girl that's not a Christian you feel guilty when you lust for a very godly girl you feel really guilty and and so oh no this is her and so turn around the corner we started to talk and we had a little conversation we got done and I remember walking away I got about four steps I didn't last I I didn't know the correlation I have no idea I didn't know about mind renewal I didn't know how to change all I knew was following Jesus is really hard and a lot of it's not working very well for me some things undeniably are radically changing but some other things I just feel I was stuck forever day 21 I'd memorized 21 verses word perfect and what I didn't understand was the supernatural work God had taken the written word made it the living word and changed my want to's and my attitudes and I with my eyes looked at his sister in Christ in the eye and a new relationship with men completely changed my life when I got to 60 verses I was like a drug I couldn't stop then I started memorizing chapters and then I put my own topics together and for the next five years probably more than anything else I memorized God's word and I will tell you all I can tell you is how I looked at the world was completely different completely different and there was a level of peace and joy I remember I'd have a question I'd be praying and as I was praying God would bring a verse oh that's the answer or I'd be in a conversation and I wouldn't know what to say or what's going on and God would bring a verse and that and all of a sudden I realized we have the mind of Christ the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ but most of us don't know what his mind is but it's in his word the final thing he says is that you meditate see this isn't like you do all these little things become a little religious robot that drives other people crazy I mean there's some people like that this isn't about how many verses or how and the word meditate here it's the idea of ruminating it's a picture a cow has four stomachs it's a cow chews on some truth swallows it regurgitates it swallows it regurgitates it this is reading and God speaks you through a verse and you write it on a card and you stick it in your pocket and then as you're driving to work you try and see if you can remember it or so you're at a light and you're to you know you're at a doctor's office and you just bring it up and something happens this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth but you should meditate on it day and night in order that what so you can obey it for then you'll have you be prosperous and have good success and so on the back I put a few tools that I think would be very helpful to you can I just close with this why why why why do this I mean if you're listening you're thinking to yourself you mean I'm gonna limit my games and limit my movies and limit this and limit that and limit that and limit that and say no to some stuff that's just a part of my life and start saying yes to God's Word and do some things probably some of you have never ever done why would I do that so that you could get the best from God so that you could experience and taste what he wants normally for every person his good his good means winsome beautiful attractive richly satisfying well well pleasing well pleasing to him and well pleasing to you perfect there's a will that's according to a specific design just for you that when you fulfill it you explode with joy live with peace how does that happen no I won't be conformed to this world yes I'll be transformed by the renewing of my mind so that would you like that as I close here's two questions because you could feel overwhelmed I don't want that what one thing do you sense God is saying you need to say no to what's what's going into your mind or what relationship or what what's one thing that woos your heart away from God and just say first step no and what one thing of all the you know hearing reading studying memorizing meditating because we're all in different places what one thing do you sense God would want you to take a baby step and begin to renew your mind Lord I pray that you'd show every single person right now what they need to say no to that is drawing their heart away from your deep abiding amazing love and Lord what you want them to say yes to in order to enjoy and experience your grace your goodness will you please do that Lord and then will you birth faith and people right now would you even give them the idea of what one person could they share this with and and ask them in a couple days will you give me a call will you text me and I'll tell you how I'm doing Oh God what would happen if hundreds and then thousands of people started to experience your good well-pleasing perfect well that's our prayer in Jesus name amen you're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard how to get God's best for your life from our series true spirituality Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute does your relationship with God often feel like working for a perfect report card do you believe if you don't get straight A's in life God will be disappointed or even mad at you well in this 12 part study Chip challenges us to let go of that performance driven attitude and embrace the grace-based love-filled life God has for us as Chip teaches through Romans chapter 12 he'll reveal what a genuine follower of Jesus looks like and how we can get there and for a limited time we've discounted all the resources for the series so you can experience true spirituality like never before to learn more visit Living on the Edge dot org that's Living on the Edge dot o-r-g app listeners tap special offers well chips join me in studio now and chip you wrapped up your message today by reminding us to renew our minds and to avoid ideas that woo our hearts away from God you know that's really a tall task especially for today's young people I mean they're bombarded daily by harmful beliefs through social media or in their classrooms take a minute if you would and give some deeper insight into what our kids and grandkids are facing and how Living on the Edge is trying to help I'd be glad to Dave you know the world has changed a lot since I was a kid yeah things that were once just normal aren't even viewed as tolerable anymore and things that were once unheard of are becoming normal here's the thing relative truth is a lie the generation coming up is being taught that it's offensive to believe that evil is evil and good is good the Bible's being falsely represented as hateful and destructive and what is truly heartbreaking to me is that the truth of God's Word is where we find answers it's how to create reconciliation between divided parties and it's what provides help to hurting people in the world you know it Living on the Edge we're committed to biblical teaching and discipleship and how to live out the actual truth that's revealed in Scripture as a result we're on a mission for the next generation not just generation Z and gen alpha but the Millennials and the young Gen Xers who raising families of their own there are so many of these generations who have distanced themselves from the church and from the Word of God and we have to simply stand in the gap for these people that we care about and stop the cultural tidal wave that's washing away the faith of the next generation and here's my question will you join us and right now is a great time to partner with us because every gift that you give from now through July 7th will be doubled dollar for dollar thanks so much for praying thanks for your gifts and thank you for allowing us to spread the truth of God's Word all across the world well if you want to be part of our mission to teach the Bible everywhere pray about becoming a financial partner with Living on the Edge and now is a great time because all the way up to July 7th every gift we receive will be doubled your $25 gift becomes $50 $100 becomes $200 and $500 becomes a thousand so if you'd like to support us call 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org that's livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003 app listeners tap donate and thank you for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do well with that here again is Chip to share a few final thoughts for us to think about as we wrap up today's program I have three questions for you and I think you know what they are because we've sort of addressed them already but I want to get out of you kind of in the back of your mind thinking I was talking to someone else because I'm actually talking to you in fact it's not even me it's God and here's question number one what do you need to say no to what person what relationship what activity what are you viewing that you just need to say today no I can't go there anymore second what do you need to say yes to what needs to get into your mind your heart your life that you're not getting right now and maybe it's not time in God's Word or it's sort of a quick thing or maybe it's not time in a local church or maybe it's not time actually memorizing a couple specific passages that address the biggest struggle in your life because it's when the Word of God gets in your heart and life that the Spirit of God ignites it with power to give you victory over some of those things so what do you need to say no to what do you need to say yes to and here's the third question who today are you going to text or call or Facebook or email to say will you help me I'm saying no to this and yes to something else but I can't do it alone you ready you answer those and God will show up great word Chip and we want to help you tune out the noise of this chaotic world and better connect with God so let me encourage you to check out the Chip Ingram app and get plugged in with our helpful resources now you can listen to our most recent series sign up for daily discipleship and more we want you to grow in your walk with Jesus and the Chip Ingram app is a great way to immerse yourself in uplifting biblical content well until next time this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.