Finding God When You Need Him Most - Experiencing God When You Feel Like a Nobody, Going Nowhere, Part 2

You may have read or heard that God created you as an individual, that you're custom-made, that you're one of a kind, and that He's got a great plan for your life.

But you may not know how to tap into it. If you want a sneak preview of what that plan is, then don't go away. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, we're in the middle of Chip's series, Finding God When You Need Him Most. In just a minute, we'll hear the second half of his message, Experiencing God When You Feel Like a Nobody Going Nowhere. Today, he'll highlight an encouraging truth.

Despite how we look at or think about ourselves, God loves and values us just as we are. So with that in mind, let's join Chip for the remainder of his talk from Psalm 139. Let me ask you a question. When's the last time you got up in the morning? I'll give you time to at least throw the comb through your hair, if you have hair. Brush your teeth, if you have teeth. Smile right in the mirror, hands on your hips. Look in the mirror and say, wow, what have you created, God?

That is awesome. Boy, do I like me. I'm the only one in the whole world. I'm unique.

I'm wonderful. Just this height, just this personality, just this eye color, just this bone structure. God, thank you for making me different than everyone else. When's the last time that remotely came to your mind?

If never is the thought coming through your mind, you're probably typical. You want to know the mirrors that we look at? You want to know how this really works?

In fact, this will make David so angry because it happened in his day too. Here's the mirrors that women look at because they do most of the shopping, hope not all. They're going through the supermarket and there in the library of great literature at the checkout counter is Globe, Star, Enquire, People Magazine and Cosmopolitan. What's on the front of those magazines?

Us and fitness are getting up there too. Pretty people. Less than 1% of the population. Rumors have it that 1% takes injections to look like the top 1% of that 1%. The women of our day walk by that, walk by the commercials, walk by a world inundated to tell them outward beauty makes you someone.

It's a lie. They buy it, we buy it. Do you realize the huge percentage of Christians that don't really like themselves that spend most of our energy wishing we were like someone else?

We figure out ways to do it. It's almost classic. You almost wish you could come from Mars and come down and look at the world. This group of people thinks you have to drive this kind of car, wear these kind of clothes, wear your hair this way and shop there. That's in. There's this other group and they think, oh no, that's preppy, uncool and materialistic. They buy real baggy stuff, shop here, shop here, shop here, call themselves rebels and all look alike. How do rebels all look alike? This group says you have to live over here and do that.

This group says no, you have to live over here and do that. The mirror that we look in is the world system. The cosmos, the Bible calls it. You know who's the ruler of the world system? The great liar. You know what his goal is?

His goal is to help you look in the mirror every day and not like what you see and try and be someone else because until you like you because you're made by God in his image and you bring something unique to the table, you'll spend all your life frittering, frittering, frittering it away trying to be something that you aren't and spending endless hours, endless money, endless time to be acceptable to them. I still haven't found them. Have you? Who are they? What they think, you know, they don't exist. And so we mindlessly buy what we don't need, dye, color, inject, reframe, work out, trying to be a somebody when you're already a somebody. The person that counts the most looks at you and I'm telling you from his word, you are precious in his sight. You are awesome.

Now, I don't mean to make light and I push that kind of to the extreme because I wanted you to see it. I understand that you can grow up in a home and people tell you you're a nobody forever. It's hard to shake that. You can be abused. You can go through rough relationships. You can be through difficult times and you can live in a world system where everyone's telling you if you don't look like that, if you don't have these kind of smarts, if you can't do this and if you can't do that, you are a nobody. And I understand there's a massive world system knocking on your door saying you are a nothing, you are a nothing, you are a nothing and ship it one hour a week saying, hey, you know, God's word says you really are someone.

It's not working. I've watched my wife decide to take this passage as truth and memorize and think and ponder and read and begin to believe that she's precious in God's sight. I married a very shy person who did not like themselves very much at all. And I thought, how could, you know, the eyes of the holder, but I thought she was winsome, funny, beautiful, attractive, but that wasn't her mental picture. And I've watched her like a flower bloom with the hard work of renewing her mind with scripture and understanding that she is precious in God's sight. And ladies, it can happen to you and men it can happen to us. And you matter. This isn't the kind of thing that you change after hearing a 40-minute sermon. This is the kind of thing where you get some tools and you begin to think rightly and you begin a journey. And this year, this time next year, you won't see yourself the same.

And the year after that it'll be more different. Now I have a confession to make because she reviewed all those cards having the ridiculously good self-image that I've always had. No, I learned, I got more sophisticated and I learned to mask all my insecurities and I figured out which hoops people wanted you to jump through and so I just did them. And being a workaholic, setting goals, I did decent at jumping through the right hoops. It's a facade.

It's just a facade. So 20 years ago when she starts reviewing these verses about who she really is, you know, just to be a helpful husband, I'd sit on the couch in the morning at night and I'd review them with her. And I realized my defense mechanisms were a little more sophisticated so my insecurities and poor self-image didn't show up, but I had as many if not more problems than her. And so for 20 years I've been working on it. And I want you to know that the Word of God will transform your life and that Romans 12, 2 is true and it's real but it's not easy. Do not be conformed or molded to this world but be transformed, metamorphosized by the renewing of your mind that your life or your lifestyle could demonstrate, prove, or test that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. And so I've pounded on this one a little bit because ultimately you are not going to be precious in God's sight in your heart and your mind. You won't be awesome in His sight unless you believe what the Bible says is true instead of what the world says is true. And until you do, you're a slave and it breaks the heart of God. Fourth, you need to understand God has a plan just for you.

Is that exciting? Not only are you wanted, not only are you understood, not only are you awesome in His sight, but He's got a plan for you. It's a plan not for somebody else, it's not a generic plan, it's a specific plan just for you. When He created all the universe in His infinite wisdom, He has a plan. Now you don't have to follow the plan, you can stiff arm God. You can say, look, I know you know all things, I know you're orchestrating this for your divine purposes, I know that you love me, you died for me, you care for me, you have all power, and you can produce good things and if you're a good God all your plans must be good. But you can say, but I'd rather do my own plan, my own way, trust my limited knowledge, do my own thing, but at least I get to stay in control.

It's called pride. God has a plan that you don't have to cooperate with, but it's a lot better if you do. Notice what it says, verse 16, second half, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Is that wild? All the days, God knows the day you're going to be born, He knows the day you'll die. Is it fatalism?

Not at all. Do your choices matter inside that completely? You are a free choosing agent, but He knows what your choices will be. All the days ordained for you, before one of them came to be, He knows the beginning from the end. And yet in His sovereignty, every choice you make, every decision you make matters and has significance. How precious to me are your thoughts, He goes on to say, oh God.

How vast is the sum of them. He not only has a plan for you, but thousands of times each day, your name and picture and photo ID pops up on the divine mind of the eternal God. And because He is infinite, He loses no energy to have a thousand thoughts moment by moment about every person in this room and all over the globe simultaneously. See, He's not a bigger one of us, He's a totally other. And so the psalmist says, rightfully so, this is a rendering, it's mine, whoa.

I mean, that's what you get here, whoa. You mean you created all that there is and there's all these people? How precious to me are your thoughts? You mean you're thinking about me? Yeah. You're orchestrating my life, you're highly involved, you care, I'm wanted. Yeah. Isn't that amazing?

Were I to count them, in fact, they would outnumber the grains of sand. And now He says, the plan doesn't just involve the now. It's not just this life. Notice the next phrase, when I awake, I'm still with you. God's plan for you begins in this life, then you die, and when you awake, resurrection.

He says, I'm still with you. God has an eternal plan for your life that begins for some maybe today. You are, you can fill this in, indispensable to God. Now, theologically, that's not correct, okay? If God never made you, if you never existed, if human beings were never existed, if He never created anything in the Godhead, He is self-sufficient. He needs, by needs, like actual needs, nothing or no one. But He created you, made you and made the object of His affection, and so in His divine plan, you're indispensable.

In other words, His plan factors in every single person in this room and His plan for the universe and for your life, and they're intermeshed. Let me give you a quick picture, because at this point, your body language is telling me, you know, Chip, I was tracking with you on that He knows me, and that felt pretty good. And on the part about being wanted, it was really hard, but okay, I'll by faith, He really wants me and He's pursuing me. And on the part that He made me, that was refreshing, but you threw my categories off and I'm still back there. To think that I'm really awesome in God's sight, you know, I can't stand my own sight right now, so I must have a little work to do. But now you're telling me that I'm really indispensable?

I mean, I don't feel indispensable in my little network, let alone to the God of the universe. Let me give you a quick picture that will help. I am not a handyman. It's well recorded. So I did this project, I was fixing something in our home, and I turned this half-hour project into a two-hour project, which is my gift. And I put all this stuff together and, you know, put it together and you sort of get it to work, and so I did it, did it, now I'm ready. And I got the whole thing back together, I got the part, I've got it completely done. And all I need is one small screw.

Now, not this long, this long. Not a different kind of thread, only this kind of thread. One small screw. I'm going to tell you one of the most frustrating days of my whole life, I lost the screw. I mean, I'm not a handyman, I'm doing this in some noble gesture to tell my wife that I love her and I don't understand why it means that anyway, but I'm one screw away, I'm going nuts! And I can't find it! And I've spent two hours!

And then I realized, that's how a lot of us are. We think, I must not matter. How much did that one small screw impact the entire appliance? It doesn't work without it. And you know what? God's infinite plan, His loving plan for this planet, for His church, for doing things in your family, for doing things where you work, to accomplish what He wants to accomplish, and those of you that have kids, for those of you that are single, you know what? Every single part matters. You matter. You must find your spiritual gift. You must find where and how to get connected in His body. You must put into play the you He created to be a vessel to love and to care for other people. If you don't, will God get it done? Of course He will. You're not going to shanghai the plans of the eternal God. But will He do it in the way He originally intended?

No. Because you're indispensable in that you are a part of His plan. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll get you back to our series Finding God When You Need Him Most in just a minute. But first, if this teaching has ministered to you, consider becoming a monthly partner. Your regular financial support goes a long way to help us encourage pastors, create resources, and share Jesus with today's youth.

Visit LivingOnTheEdge.org today to learn how to support us. Well, with that, here again is Chip. There's a couple problems there, and let me highlight them.

The first one is some of you haven't signed on. In other words, you haven't invited Christ to be the Savior of your life to say, I would like your plan to be accomplished in me. God is never pushy. He's a gentleman.

He's sensitive. He has high regard. He has so much regard for your will and your choices that you can say no to God, no to God, no to God, no to God, and he even created a plan where you can say no to him for eternity. You don't have to be with him. You don't have to follow his plan.

But that comes out of his respect for you. But to have him be a part of the plan where he orchestrates this knowing, being wanted, your design in a way that brings you incredible joy and fruitfulness in the life of others and brings glory to him, you start by asking Jesus to forgive you for your sin, to be your Savior, to come into your life. And he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone, regardless of background, wherever you've been, if anyone hears my voice and will open the door of their heart and their life, he says, I will come into them and fellowship with them and he with me.

Have you ever done that? See, all these things are true, but we have a responsibility. It's to respond by faith and ask Christ to be our Savior and then tell him, now I want you to be the CEO of my life. I want you to be the chairman of the board. I want you to be my master.

I want you to be my king. I want you to call the shots because I am a smart Christian. And what I've thought is I could either do it my way, but if you are all knowing, all powerful, good, loving, compassionate, and you already have a plan, I'd like to follow that plan because your plan would be a whole lot better than my plan because of who you are versus who I am.

Here's the catch. And so even when it doesn't feel like it's a good plan, by faith, I follow what your word says, prompted by the Holy Spirit in the unity of the fellowship of believers, and I'm going to do it your way. And I understand there's seasons of sowing and seasons of reaping and I understand that it may not feel good all the time, and I understand that my allegiance is to you and that I will look back and I will see.

Everyone will have their 1988 to 1990 times when you feel like a nobody going nowhere, but you can't bail out of the process. In fact, David in the final point will make a very drastic, drastic response. He's going to say that God has this for everyone and each person needs to respond, but what he's also going to say is that there is a cosmic conflict at war in the world and at war in your heart to keep you from experiencing a God who knows you and understands you, to keep you from experiencing how much he wants you and is pursuing you, to keep you from experiencing how precious and awesome. There's a cosmic conflict going on to keep you from that, to keep children from hearing about it, to keep relationships not what God wants them to be. And so people say if it feels good, do it, and they break all the boundaries, all the commands of God.

You know when people do that? It always ends in death and destruction because people don't want to do it God's way. He's got a great plan, but it's not always popular.

It's not always politically correct, but it's divine and it's good. And so when David begins to see these great truths that the Spirit of God has revealed, now in verses 19 to 24 he's going to respond with a prayer, but he's going to respond with a prayer that when you first read it you're going to say, whoa, man this guy's really going off. He's going to respond with a prayer that feels very angry. It's not piety, it's going to be a prayer of zeal. What he's going to step back and say is all these forces are working, I'm getting on God's side. I want to do it God's way. He's affirming his loyal covenant love to Yahweh, and he's doing it from a Jewish mindset in the time.

Follow along. He's going to tell us God's world is warped with wickedness, and so there's a battle. If only you would slay the wicked, oh God. He said all these things I've just talked about, they work except there's people working against them.

Away from me you bloodthirsty man. He was thinking the people that are evil, the people that just bring death and destruction, the people that pour chemicals into rivers and they don't care how many kids get cancer, they just care how much money they get. The people that orchestrate tribes, warring against tribes and take all the money that United Nations or relief groups give to those countries.

They go in there and butcher them. He's talking about those kind of people and he's mad about it. He says they speak of you with evil intent and your adversaries.

They misuse your name. Do not I hate those who hate you? That's loyalty. I'm on your team. Oh Lord and abhor those who rise up against you?

That's loyalty. I have nothing but hatred for them. I count them my enemies. Now we read that through our New Testament eyes and our kind of sugar coated Christianity. Oh how terrible. How terrible.

I got news for you. You ought to hate some things that are evil. And I know hate the evil but not the evil doer.

But you know all over the globe there are bloodthirsty people. People that are abusing kids. People that are killing tens of thousands as we speak.

People that rob the food out of mouths for money and children will die of starvation. I'll tell you what, God is against them. And you know what?

We need to be against them as well. Doesn't make good kind of nice lovey dovey Christianity teaching but it's biblical. But lest you get pious, lest you think this is a holier than thou, this is a loyalty to God's purposes in saying I'm willing to pay the price. Look at verse 23 and 24. David starts not with somebody else, he starts with himself. David says hey this is not I'm better than, this is God. We're in a battle and I want to be on your team.

But here's where the battle starts. Search me oh God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts, literally my misgiving thoughts, my failures.

And see if there be any offensive way, literally it's a way of pain in me and lead me in the everlasting way. Do you hear what he's praying? He's saying God I haven't arrived. God I know now that you know me and understand me. God I'm grasping that you really want me, that you're pursuing me.

I'm precious and awesome and you have a plan just for me. So God I want you to search my heart. I know that I can't experience this unless I'm following the everlasting way.

Did you notice the contrast? Instead of the other way, the way of pain. Let me ask you, which way are you following? You are a somebody. If you're a Christian you're going somewhere.

But you have a choice to make. Experiencing God when you feel like a nobody means you turn to him with all your heart. You ask the penetrating questions and you say God I surrender my agenda to you and I today choose to believe that I'm wanted, I choose to believe that I'm understood, I choose to believe that I'm precious in your sight and I choose to believe that you have a plan for my life. I'm indispensable now.

God I choose today by faith to follow you with all my heart. You show me what that looks like and you will never ever be a nobody going nowhere. You will experience being a somebody.

You will experience being a somebody. Will it be easy? Absolutely not. Will it be rewarding? Yes. Will it bring glory to God? Yes. Will it be probably involving some hard painful early decisions? Yes.

What's the alternative? Where are you going with your life? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, experiencing God when you feel like a nobody going nowhere, is from our series Finding God When You Need Him Most. 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 Psalms, Chip will help us develop a biblically grounded perspective toward our most difficult circumstances and experiences.

Hear what God wants us to know when things aren't going well and why we can absolutely trust his promise to be there for us again and again and again. To catch up on this entire series, listen through the Chip Ingram map or at livingontheedge.org. Before we go on, Chip's back in studio with me now. Chip, I can see you want to jump in here for a second and share something with our listeners.

Why don't you take a minute and do that? Thanks, Dave. I want to talk to those of you who partner with us financially. Your gifts help us not just stay on the air, but they provide the necessary funding to create curriculum and develop our website and provide resources at extraordinarily reasonable prices. Your giving is making an amazing impact, so thank you very, very much.

For those of you that are enjoying the benefits of Living on the Edge but you haven't yet become a financial partner, would you consider doing that today? Your gifts are going to get invested right back into the ministry to assist us to develop resources, stay on the air, and help Christians live like Christians. Is there ever a day when we need to make a difference?

Well, it's now. Will you help us? Thanks, Chip. As you prayerfully consider your role in this ministry, I want to remind you that every dollar is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in remarkable ways. To give a gift, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or go to livingontheedge.org.

App listeners tap donate. With that, let's get to Chip's application for this message. As we close today's program, I ended with a pretty strong challenge that said, you've got to take the bull by the horns, and you have to address this issue in your life. We all have seasons. Everybody has some times where you feel like a nobody going nowhere. Some people end up, little by little, creating a world where they're the victim. They talk about what happened in the past and where they've been and the raw deal they got and who walked out on them and the unfortunate circumstance and the job that they lost.

You know what? It's a fallen world and really bad, difficult, unfair things happen to everyone. The only issue you can control and I can control is our response to those. Now, how are you responding? When things go bad, when they're difficult, when we start inwardly focused, we get a victim mentality, and then I feel like a nobody going nowhere. Then I begin to isolate myself, and then my perspective gets narrow, and I begin to lose sight of how valuable I am to God and that He actually has a purpose for me and a purpose in what I've been through. I'm going to give you a little checklist here.

This is rubber meets the road. If you really want to turn from a victim to a victor, if you want to have some friends, if you want to be connected, if you want to have life and purpose, number one, own the responsibility for your own life. No one's going to change it.

God wants to help you, but you need to draw near to Him, and His promises He'll draw near to you. Number two, you can't do it alone. It's impossible.

Trying hard doesn't work. Trusting deeply does. Trust comes from truth. Truth comes from the Bible. You have to get in God's Word. You've got to read it. It'll give you hope.

David said, if your word had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. You need the truth, but you need the truth then in community. You need people in your life. Some of you are listening to me and you're thinking, I used to go to church, I used to go to a Bible study, or I'm kind of disconnected, or I go to a church, or maybe it's a big church, or I sit in the back. You have to move forward and take some initiative. Yes, you're going to risk rejection, but look at your life now. How's that working for you? You take some steps into the truth and into community.

In fact, try this one. Look around and ask yourself, is there someone in my relational network that really needs a friend? So go be a friend and see if God doesn't reveal His great love for you in the process.

Thanks Chip. And here at Living on the Edge, we believe community is essential to every Christian's faith. And a practical way to find and build those meaningful relationships is in a small group. So let me encourage you to visit livingontheedge.org and check out our library of study guides and resources. Whether you want to build a stronger marriage, better understand God's character, or biblically respond to our changing culture, we have something for you. Learn more by clicking the Store button at livingontheedge.org. Let us help you build some life-changing community today. Well thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drury and I hope you'll join us again next time.