Unstuck - Overcoming Rejection, Part 2

Few things hurt like rejection. Whether it's as a little child not being picked for the game in the backyard, or whether it's a grown-up when your spouse walks out on you, rejection produces a level of pain that's often difficult to overcome.

But it's possible. You can overcome the pain of rejection, and today you'll learn how. ... So let's talk about what it looks like to be in Christ. God's solution for our rejection, no matter how rejected you have been. And as we go through this, I want to suggest that there are some lies that we believe, and I'm going to identify the lie. And then I want to show you in each section how Jesus is the answer to overcoming your rejection and mine. Lie number one is, I don't measure up because of what I've done in the past. And Jesus says, I will put your past behind you. I will put your past behind you. Notice, in Him, there's that phrase.

This is the wood connected to the bolt. Or this is Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and victory connected to you. In Him, we have redemption.

How? Through His blood. What exactly is redemption? The forgiveness of our trespasses. Where do you get it?

How do you get it? It's according to the riches of His grace, not your performance, which He lavished on you. Now, what you're going to understand is then, in each of these, this is all one sentence. And so, one of the assignments I had in seminary, which was a very good one, is when I studied this, is remember when you had the diagram sentence, and you had to put the subject, the verb, and the object, and then all those little lines that go off of them?

In bold, I put the subject, the verb, and the object, because this first one's not too bad, but the next one is, he's got a run-on sentence problem. Okay? And so you can sort of lose, okay, Paul, and what were you really talking about? The subject of this is us. We have redemption. How?

Through His blood. And the picture he gives us is, redemption is, he's taking this picture out of the, in the New Testament time, if you would go into a city that was called the Agora. There was a slave market in Agora, sort of a marketplace. And they would have a little platform, and you could buy a slave.

You could buy a man, a woman, buy a couple, buy a daughter, whatever you want. And so the people would be there in chains, and they would be here, and you could redeem them, the word that Paul uses, you could redeem them out of slavery and make them your own. And that's the word he uses here. He says, you and I were in the slave market of sin, and we were bound. And he says, Jesus came and he paid the purchase price for your sin that forgave you, and the word means literally to release you. It was a financial term that if someone owed a lot of money, a debt was canceled. And so he says, I'm going to put your past behind you. I'm going to forgive you.

It's the riches of His grace. The debt is canceled. And here's the deal.

You have value. Now let me, hypothetical situation. Remember, this may date me, but maybe it's still on, Let's Make a Deal.

Remember that show, Let's Make a Deal? So I want you to imagine that I have two boxes. These boxes are small, little white boxes.

They look exactly the same. On the front of one box, I have the number box number one. I have another box exactly identical on the outside, and on the outside of it, I have, are you ready? Box number two.

Box number one, we brought to you, and you can have whichever one you choose. It cost us $1,000. I can't tell you what's inside of it, but it costs $1,000. Box number two cost $1,000,000.

I cannot tell you what's inside of it. Now, you have the opportunity. Let's make a deal. Do you want box number one or box number two? Two? Do I have a two? How many twos do I have?

How many ones? Okay, why would you choose the box that cost $1,000,000? It's more valuable.

So you're telling me that you place value on that which cost the most. Can I tell you what you're worth? You're worth the blood of the Son of God. You say, oh, I don't feel like God loves me.

I don't know what you feel, but let me tell you this, you've been redeemed. You know how much it cost to get you and me out of the slave market of sin? It cost the fully man, fully God in space-time history, leaving the glory of heaven, living a perfect life, dying a death for doing nothing wrong but loving people. And when he died and stretched out his arms and no one killed him, he gave his life, it is finished. In the portal of time and history and eternity, he said you were worth that blood so he could have relationship with you.

And when he did that, he released your debt of sin. So I don't know where you've been, what you've been through, who's abused you, who's hurt you, what rejection, but I will tell you, the God of the universe says, I'll put your past behind you and you're valuable and you're free. You can let those messages sink into your head, you can be a victim of them the rest of your life, but you're free.

You can be like the little boy who went after he was adopted and keep thinking you have to sleep on the floor instead of the bed. You can believe those lies. You can believe that you're unworthy, you can believe you can't go to the refrigerator, you can believe you can't play with the toys, you can believe that life really isn't fair and there's no future for you, or you can believe the truth. And the truth is that you are free and you've been redeemed and that's the message. And see, you know what happens when you start renewing your mind and you start believing that you're free and that you're that valuable? You start living like you're loved. And when you start living like you're loved, this weird thing happens. You start loving other people.

And some of those issues you have of pleasing people and perfectionism, when you really feel loved, then you don't have to earn it and perform it. The second thing he says is not only is the lie that I don't measure up because what I've done, many people think I don't measure up because I don't have anything to offer. You know, I'm just, I'm a nobody.

You know, there's smart people. I was never first in my class. I was always told I was dumb. I was told I didn't measure up. I feel like I don't measure up. I don't feel like I'm a very good wife. I don't feel like I'm a very good husband. I wasn't all that good of a student. I'm not super gifted at. You know, I'm a Christian but, you know, I guess there's, you know, like C minus Christians.

That's what I think I am. I try hard but, and here's what he says. Jesus has a purpose for your life today. He has a purpose for your life today. He says, in all wisdom and insight.

The word wisdom here is knowledge that sees into the heart of how things really work and insight is the practical application of what to do. In all wisdom and insight, after redeeming you, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, literally the secret of his will. What is the secret of his will? Was it according to his kind intention which he purposed, again, what? In him, with a view to an administration.

Literally, it's just a household economy suitable to the fullness of times. That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things upon the earth. And you just want to say, Paul, could you just like simplify that for me just a little bit? I mean, there's so many, literally, when you diagram this one, here's very simply it is, we is the subject, have obtained is the verb, or we, he made known, his will, to us.

I put it in bold. And everything else is how he did it, why he did it, and what for. But what he wants you to know, he has a purpose for your life and he says that in God's divine wisdom, the classical definition of wisdom is God brings about the best possible results for the most possible people for the longest possible time for the greatest possible good.

That's God's wisdom. And he orchestrates everything in a fallen world, in your life and my life. He says, so in God's wisdom to bring about the best and in insight knowing who you are, what his purposes are in history and all eternity, here's what he did. He made known to you, and the word mystery here doesn't mean mysterious, it just means it was a secret before, it wasn't known before, and now it's known.

The secret of his will. He's made known his will to you, he's saying to these Ephesian Christians. And then he says, his will was made known according to the kind intention which he purposed in him. That's a nice way of saying, his will was made known through what Jesus came to do and what he accomplished. And then he says it's with a view of administration, it's this idea of a dispensation or an administration suitable to the fullness.

In other words, times were pregnant. In Galatians it talks about in the fullness of times, when the world was pregnant, when there were Roman roads and one language and there was this dispersion of all these Jews everywhere, Jesus came at just the right time in order to bring the truth of the gospel to the known world. And the truth is, that he's talking about, is this new thing called the church, this new thing of Jew and Gentile coming together in one body and this message of this glorious secret, the gospel of Jesus Christ, where people can be forgiven, where people will have a new covenant, where the Spirit of God will take up residence in our mortal body and I will teach my people and everyone will be taught of the Lord. And what he's talking about is the summing up of all things in Christ and all of time and eternity and history.

But the basic message, those were all the things that Paul gets excited about. As he says it, the basic message is he made known his will to you and his will has to do with this thing called the church of which Jesus is over and this program of what God's going to do in the church and here's the message. The message put simply is that you are needed.

You are needed. A lot of us feel like I don't have much of purpose. He's going to talk later in this book and throughout the New Testament about what? The body of Christ. You have certain gifts, you have a certain personality in a certain time of history and he's saying you're like a piece of the puzzle.

And you can say well I've blown it or I don't have much to offer. Why do you think Jesus chose the people that he chose? See I didn't grow up in the church and there's a huge deficit in not knowing the Bible growing up.

There was a huge deficit of a lot of things but there was one real benefit. When I read the Bible for the first time, because I'd never read it until I was 18 and I read the short part about three or four times before I even tackled the big part. But so I don't know this stuff. But when you read the Bible for the first time with fresh eyes and you feel like you don't measure up and you know forays aren't enough and you know if you go two for four you're a failure and no matter what you do it's not quite enough. And then you know Rahab prostitute, Moses murderer, David adulterer, James and John anger management issues, Peter big mouth, Matthew crook. I mean you talk, this is a great book. I mean it was like whoa these are my kind of people. Peter betrayer. And you know all of a sudden you realize these guys aren't, Jesus didn't choose guys in stained glass.

That's what I grew up with. Oh they're holier than thou and they're better than and their way are here and we're over here. You know what? You're needed. God's got a plan.

It's the eternal plan. You're a piece of his divine puzzle. Don't you believe that stuff that you're not needed. You don't have to be famous.

You don't have to have a public role. But you need to discover what God made you to do, where he wants you to do it, what gifts that you have and say you know what? According to Jesus, it's the working of each individual part that causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself and love. I don't know about you, but that gives me hope. That gives me direction, gives me purpose.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And before we continue today's program, let me ask you, do you know your purpose? Do you know why God created you and what you're supposed to do here on earth? Well, let me encourage you to join us after Chip's teaching to learn more about a tool we've created that will directly answer those questions. So be sure to keep listening.

Okay, let's get back to our series, Unstuck. But you can't listen to those lies anymore. You're needed.

When you don't do what God called you to do in his body, the church is not the church, therefore the church isn't doing what God wants it to do. The third thing that Jesus said, not only will he put your past behind you, not only does he have a purpose for your life today, Jesus promises you a positive future. Because some of us, you know what rejection is done? What's the use? My future's going to be like my past.

You know what, I was a loser as a kid, the first marriage didn't work, I tried this, I tried that, I've been through a couple jobs, I got to the pinnacle of my career and people I trusted betrayed me. What's the use? And so you know what, you play it safe, you play it passive, you don't take risk. There's like, you know, you're just kind of playing out your time and, you know, it's sort of the 26-year-old version of playing video games. You know, we've created a whole world where people actually think they're living when what we've done is created pseudo-realities where they do nothing. I want you to know that when you sit in front of a TV for four hours, nothing happens in those four hours. Now don't get me wrong, if you need to watch a good show, get refreshed, praise the Lord, enjoy it.

Watch a good ball game, watch a good movie, enjoy a great show. That's not how people are watching TV, that's not how they're surfing the net. I mean, we're living in a world where, let's see, let me get my phone out.

Hey, going into Starbucks for coffee, the whole world needs to know that. Post that on Facebook. Me and my homeboys are hanging out, we read a verse.

I'm thinking, what are we doing? You know what Facebook is? I'm the star of my own movie. I create the scripts, I'm my own producer, and I just want everyone to know, since I don't feel really wonderful about myself, I will make my own movie, and I am the star. Now don't get me wrong, isn't it wonderful that you can post something, and all your friends can know this, and you can invite people. Again, I'm not against the technology. But we've got a world of people who are, you know, hey, what's really cool is that I can play this game for hours and hours in the dark back bedroom, and now I can do it with other people worldwide, and we can waste our lives together, wow.

And it's mom, dad, I've got carpal tunnel in my thumbs. And we laugh as the world slides into oblivion. And a lot of that is nothing more than denial. For others, it's a trip to the refrigerator. For others, it's a little bit more drastic, and you click onto a site. For other people, you just keep buying stuff you don't need. You've got stuff hanging in your closets that still have tags on it.

But there's some kind of little rush that you get when you buy that something. For others that, oh, it's a short-term thing, when we can remodel that, then, you know, yeah, I've got news for you, when you finally get that kitchen and bathroom remodeled after your house is being a mess, having been there and done that, the whole world will be different. You will be cleaner than ever before. And you know what, we remodeled ours, we needed it. Please, don't hear, but you know something? What I'm trying to say is, there are so many substitutes that we live in these many worlds thinking, when that happens.

And I've got news for you, it happens. And about a year later, it feels like a bathroom. You get just about as clean. And, you know, praise God, thanking that it's nicer and it's cleaner and, you know, probably helped the value of your house. Those are good reasons to do all these things.

But if the reason is you're actually on the sidelines because you don't want to take any more risks, because you think, what's the use? That's not good. Jesus promises a positive future. Notice, we're back to, in Him, this is the piece of wood, Jesus, and the bolt that's you, and the rubber band of your new identity in Christ wrapping you. In Him, also, we have obtained an inheritance.

This is a real simple one. In Him, we as the subject have obtained as the verb, an inheritance. Well, how did we get that inheritance? Was it just sort of a last minute thought?

No. Having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end, or the purpose, that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. So this was God's plan. He wanted to give you an inheritance. He wanted you to know that there's a future. There's something that you receive now that is bought or purchased by someone else that has blessing and impact. And the message here is that you're worthy.

You're worthy. You get inheritance based on relationship. Very interesting, there's two words here He uses, two different words for where He says, after the counsel of His will, the word counsel is a word for intelligent, deliberate calculation. So you get inheritance because God is deliberately counsel thinking, and the word His will is the desire that springs forth from emotion. So God has an inheritance in Christ for you after the counsel of His will, for you fitting into His plan to fulfill all that He wants to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now I don't know about you, but I don't come from like a family, both my parents are school teachers. And so I was not expecting nor did I have any experience with inheritances, and my mom died very young at 63 and of a rare disease, and my dad remarried, and actually he's like, you joke, I said, Dad, you had two good marriages.

He actually was 18, 19 years with Evelyn. And I got something I never got. I got a form from some something attorney, attorney, and you are an heir. Dad and Evelyn put everything together, and she had three kids, and we had three kids, and after about ten years they decided, I think this is pretty permanent, why don't we just throw all of our stuff together and split it six ways, whatever it's going to be.

And obviously neither of them were wealthy in any big, big significant way, but it mattered, and there was a home, and they had some things. I get these papers that I'm supposed to fill out, and I send them back in, and then later on there's a check came in the mail, and it wasn't like I'm going to go buy new cars or this or that, but it's like, wow, I had no idea. And then I realized, so why did I get that check, and why did I get that inheritance? And then I just came back from visiting my sisters, and they had some pictures that they had, and apparently there was an artist in one of our families, and my sister said, these are two, and dad wanted you to have this, and by the way, this was part of yours.

This is his purple heart chip, and he wanted you to have this, and here's a letter where he talked about his life. And you know what? I didn't get that because of what I did as a son. I didn't get that because I was good. I didn't get that because I never failed. I got that for one reason.

My last name is Ingram, I-N-G-R-A-M. I got that because I was related to Ralph, who's my dad, and because Ralph and Evelyn became one new unity, it was this family connection that I received an inheritance totally, completely apart from anything I've ever done. I'm worthy because of my relationship. I'm not worthy because of my performance. You are worthy because of your relationship.

You are not worthy because of your performance. Now what I can tell you is when you understand that you are worthy, you may find yourself reading the Bible more, praying longer, enjoying it. You may also find the alarm doesn't go off and you don't have time to read your Bible, and you might find yourself saying, Oh, God, thank you that you love me. I missed a wonderful time with you, but I don't think I'm gonna have a flat tire. I don't think I'm gonna have a bad day.

I don't think that thing's gonna go bad because I didn't have my quiet time. I'm related to my Heavenly Father who loves me, who understands all, and I'm gonna walk with you in the power of your Spirit today. And I'm not gonna try and figure out, Okay, I guess I have to read four chapters tomorrow because I missed my two this morning.

That's legalism. In God's heart, more than anything else, when you read the Bible, He wants you to hear His voice. He wants you to hear His love. He wants you to hear His reproof. He would far more you read three verses and apply them because when you respond to the truth, you get more light. And if you don't respond to the truth, even the light you have gets taken away.

It's not a performance orientation, and boy, you are looking at one performance-oriented, driven, former workaholic. I know of what I speak, unfortunately. I'm making progress. One of the most glorious things that happens in your life is when you begin to believe that you're free, that you're needed, and you're worthy apart from your performance.

Do you know what it does? It frees you to receive love, but it frees you to love people. You know, my boys are a little older than my daughter. I worked a little harder to do a little bit better. But my boys would say, well, Dad, I'm really glad you're preaching this stuff really clearly now because we grew up in a home where probably the performance was pretty important. Now, not that you didn't say all these things and preach all these things, but, man, we watched you, and you were a pretty driven guy. I mean, you were home for dinner, and we had a good family, and there was always this underlying got to get with the program, and they would be right. And so now I've got adult children with three kids and saying, guys, you got to be disciplined, but your discipline's got to flow from grace. A lot of mine was flowing from fear. I was so afraid I wouldn't be a good dad.

I was so afraid I would blow it. I had those messages in the back of my mind thinking that you don't measure up unless, well, isn't it the picture what Jesus had of the two houses? And on the outside, they both look exactly the same.

And on the outside, the activities look exactly the same. And one's built on sand, and the other's built on rock. One can be built on grace and the work of Christ and your union with Him, and one can be built on this fearful, rejection, self-oriented performance. And that one, when the adversity comes and the storms and the crisis, it doesn't hold up. Paul was enamored with God's grace.

He was overwhelmed. In fact, if you really want to be humble, you catch glimpses of the overwhelming, unconditional, unmerited grace and favor of God. What you say is, I am worthy, but I feel so unworthy, but you declare that I am.

Therefore, I receive it. His final word to us to overcome our rejection is a word to those who feel like, you know, I hear what you're saying, but here's the lie. I don't want to get hurt again. I don't want to risk again.

I don't want to step out like you're saying. And so Jesus makes this promise. I will never, ever reject you. Jesus makes a promise to you.

He says, I will never, ever reject you. Notice how this section opens. He's still in this one long sentence. Are you ready for it? In Him, you also, here's our part. There was a part. After listening to the message of truth, right? You heard the gospel taught. The gospel of your salvation, and then here's something you did. Having also believed, it's in the perfect tense.

That means that something happened in the past with ongoing implications into the future. So he's speaking to this group of Christians in Ephesus, and he says to them, in Him, after you heard the message, the gospel of salvation, having believed in the past, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. And then he describes in verse 14, well, what was this Holy Spirit of promise and why? Who is given as a pledge. Literally, we get our idea for a deposit or earnest money. Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.

The subject here is you. The verb is having believed. And then there's this phrase that you're sealed.

That's what was accomplished. The word sealed here in the Roman world meant to, it was to finish a transaction. It was a sign of ownership, a sign of security.

A document would be placed, and they would close the document, and then they would use some wax and then the seal, often in a ring, and it couldn't be opened by anyone else. It's the authority. It's finished.

It's done. And what God is saying is that I will never, ever reject you because you are secure. That's the message.

You are secure. The Spirit of God came into your mortal body, and you were sealed, and that's the down payment. That's the down payment, the earnest money that all the inheritance, all of heaven, all the promises, all the things that God's gonna do in all eternity for you. He says, I'm gonna give you a taste of it now. You're sealed. You're my child. With a view toward what?

What's it say? With a view toward redemption. You have been redeemed, but we will be fully redeemed, and the earth will be redeemed, and there'll be a new heaven and a new earth with Jesus and no sun and no moon. And there will be no need because He will be the light, and we will be with Him, and no sorrow and no tears and no rejection. And I will never, ever leave you or forsake you, and you have greater opportunity than Peter or John or James or any of those early disciples because when they wanted to talk to Jesus, they had to wait in line. And he's talking to Pete right now. I wish Pete would shut up.

Okay, okay, I'm waiting. He lives inside of you. He lives inside of you. You're a New Testament believer. The very person and presence and power of Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit who, like the Son and the Father, is fully God dwells in you.

You talk about precious. You are His temple. You matter. You are worthy. You are free. You are needed.

We talk about these, and this is truth that I don't know about you, but this is the kind of things I need to review, review, review, review. But we were in... It was a special anniversary a number of years ago, so maybe it was our 15th.

I'm not sure. And my wife and I got to go to Hawaii, which is really fun. And there was a thin little book, I put it in your notes, called Tired of Trying to Measure Up by Jeffrey Van Vonderen. And we read that book out loud together. You know, just sat down, and I read some, she read some.

We read it out loud together. Because here's what I want to tell you, and your body language and my sense of what God's doing in this room is so wonderful, is we are like, we're getting it, but isn't this the kind of thing you go, oh yeah, I'm worthy, I'm needed, this is so true, this is so wonderful, God, thank you so much. And in two hours it'll be like, I don't feel very worthy. You know? And like in two days it's like, yes, I get it, I get it, I get it. And then I get an email that says, you really are a jerk, you don't measure up. You know, right, right? And you know, we're just like hours away from this slipping through our fingers.

And that's been my experience. And so I remember reading that book out loud and we did it for like three or four or five days. All I can tell you, I don't know this guy, but I just had to buy a bunch of his books. And that book goes through what we're talking about like in little practical ways that was probably the turning point of going from I understand that I'm needed, that I'm worthy, that I'm free, that I'm secure into, oh, this is how it plays out. And so if that would be a help to you, that was part of where we got some of those ideas of how to renew our minds.

And that's just been a very valuable tool. And what you can learn from me is I think God gives us truth. And then all the commands have to do with us trusting and there's conduits of grace. And we don't earn his performance, but you got to be in his word and you got to talk to him honestly and you got to be around other people in the community because those are the conduits of his grace. When you take the Lord's Supper for the right reason and the right way, when you see someone baptized, when you're in a small group and people are really honest and someone really prays for one another and someone's vulnerable and gets accepted and you read the word and you've read it a million times and somehow it's like it pops off the page and just jumps into your heart and you think, I really am worthy. We can hear other people say it, but when God says it to us, that's how transformation occurs. We all with unveiled faces, beholding us in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed from glory to glory just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

And that's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And the message you just heard, Overcoming Rejection, is from our series Unstuck. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. Through this study in the book of Ephesians, Chip highlights the most painful experiences we'll encounter in life and explains how God's Word delivers healing and power to overcome them. Learn how to not just move past broken relationships, rejection, and shattered dreams, but have true joy and contentment that only comes from a relationship with Jesus. If you've missed any part of this series, catch up any time through the Chip Ingram app. Well, before we go any further, Chip's here in studio to share something that's been on his heart. I'll be back in just a minute with some real specific application to today's message.

But can I just share a secret? Everybody gets stuck, and everyone feels insecure in new relationships, in a new job, people that are prettier, people that are smarter, they're more athletic, people that dress better, people that are more successful. When we move into relationships and environments like that, we all feel overwhelmingly insecure. And what I love about this series is we learn that we're secure in Christ.

And when I say that, I know some of you are kind of rolling your eyes where you go, I get that in my head, but, you know, how do you live that out? How do you get where you sense that security so that in those kind of relationships and environments you can just be yourself? Well, this series led me to write a book called Discover Your True Self that's based on this series. And I have a whole chapter on You Are Secure. And there's this journey and process of not only understanding in your head that you're secure, but a way to renew your mind. I actually have the cards written out right in the book and what to review and a process with some questions that you can do with other people where over time you renew your mind and you actually begin to believe as the Spirit of God helps you discover and see you are secure, you are loved, you are valuable.

And those things become the basis for how you see yourself and it changes how you relate to other people. I really hope you'll get this book and maybe even get an extra copy to share with a friend. To order Chip's book, Discover Your True Self, go to specialoffersatlivingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app. This tool will help you combat the deceptive lies we believe about ourselves by revealing who God uniquely created us to be. So if you feel stuck, insecure, or guilty over your past, this book will encourage you. Again, to get your copy of Discover Your True Self, visit specialoffers on the Chip Ingram app or at livingontheedge.org.

Well Chip, let's get to your application we promised. As we closed today's program, we covered a lot of material and it is straight out of the Bible. It's Ephesians chapter 1, 7 through 14, and it's the truth, the truth, the truth about you and how God sees you. But there's four lies that we believe, and these lies cause rejection to keep going on and on and on. So let me briefly review these, and I want you to ponder them, and maybe these are the ones where they're all in the message notes.

You might want to go to the website and download these, think them over, maybe even memorize part of this passage. But just today, lean back and listen to the truth. Here's the lie. I don't measure up because of what I've done in the past. The truth, Jesus will put your past behind you.

Is that awesome? You are free. Lie number two, I don't measure up because I don't have anything to offer. The truth, Jesus has a purpose for your life. You are needed.

You matter. Lie number three, why keep going? Why continue? My future will be as bad as my past. The truth, Jesus promises a positive future. You are worthy in his sight. And lie number four, I don't want to get hurt again, so why try? The truth, Jesus will never, ever reject you.

You're secure. Can I tell you today, and if there's a gift I could give to take it from your head to your heart, if you could begin to believe that you are needed, that you are secure, that you are accepted, that you are worthy, and all of that is rooted in what Christ has already done for you. The Christian life isn't earning, getting, attaining, or trying to measure up. It's living out of what you already have. My prayer for you is that you would understand this fresh, amazing position in Christ.

It's what the Bible talks about when God says you are in Christ. Good word, Chip. And if you want to go back and study those points Chip just reviewed, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org and download his message notes.

This is a great tool available for every program. It has Chip's outline, all of the scripture he references, and a few key fill-ins to help you remember what you hear. Find them by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org under the broadcasts tab. App listeners tap fill-in notes. We'll listen in next time as Chip picks up in his series, Unstuck. Until then, this is Dave Drewley saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge. .